"WAR TO THE KNIFE."
Lucia, Countess of Lanswell, was in terrible trouble, and it was the
first real trouble of her life. Her son's marriage had been rather a
difficulty than a trouble--a difficulty that the law had helped her
over. Now no law could intervene, and no justice. Nothing could exceed
her surprise in finding Madame Vanira, the Queen of Song, the most
beautiful, the most gifted woman in England, positively the
"dairy-maid," "the tempestuous young person," the artful, designing girl
from whom by an appeal to the strong arm of the law she had saved her
son. She paused in wonder to think to herself what would have happened
if the marriage had not been declared null and void. In that case, she
said to herself, with a shrug of the shoulders, in all probability the
girl would not have taken to the stage at all. She wondered that she had
not sooner recognized her. She remembered the strong, dramatic passion
with which Leone had threatened her. "She was born an actress," said my
lady to herself, with a sneer. She determined within herself that the
secret should be kept, that to no one living would she reveal the fact
that the great actress was the girl whom the law had parted from her
son.
Lord Chandos, the Duke of Lester, the world in general, must never know
this. Lord Chandos must never tell it, neither would she. What was she
to do? A terrible incident had happened--terrible to her on whose life
no shadow rested. Madame Vanira had accepted an engagement at Berlin,
the fashionable journals had already announced the time of her
departure, and bemoaned the loss of so much beauty and genius. Lord
Chandos had announced his intention of spending a few months in Berlin,
and his wife would not agree to it.
"You know very well," she said, "that you have but one motive in going
to Berlin, and that is to be near Madame Vanira."
"You have no right to pry into my motives," he replied, angrily; and she
retorted that when a husband's motives lowered his wife, she had every
reason to inquire into them.
Hot, bitter, angry words passed between them. Lord Chandos declared that
if it pleased him to go to Berlin he should go; it mattered little
whether his wife went or not; and Lady Chandos, on her side, declared
that nothing should ever induce her to go to Berlin. The result was just
what one might have anticipated--a violent quarrel. Lady Chandos
threatened to appeal to the duke. Her husband laughed at the notion.
"The duke is a great statesman and a clever man," he replied; "but he
has no power over me. If he interfered with my arrangements, in all
probability we should not meet again."
"I will appeal to him," cried Lady Marion; "he is the only friend I have
in the world."
The ring of passionate pain in her voice startled him; a sense of pity
came over him. After all, this fair, angry woman was his wife, whom he
was bound to protect.
"Marion, be reasonable," he said. "You go the wrong way to work; even
supposing I did care for some one else, you do not go the way to make me
care for you; but you are mistaken. Cease all these disagreeable
recriminations, and I will be the kindest of husbands and the best of
friends to you. I have no wish, believe me, Marion, to be anything
else."
Even then she might have become reconciled to him, and the sad after
consequences have been averted, but she was too angry, too excited with
jealousy and despair.
"Will you give up Madame Vanira for me?" she said, and husband and wife
looked fixedly at each other. "You say you will be a loving husband and
a true friend: prove it by doing this--prove it by giving up Madame
Vanira."
Lord Chandos was silent for a few minutes; then he said:
"I cannot, for this reason: Madame Vanira, as I happen to know, has had
great troubles in her life, but she is thoroughly good. I repeat it,
Marion, thoroughly good. Now, if I, as you phrase it, 'give her up,' it
would be confessing that I had done wrong. My friendship is some little
comfort to her, and she likes me. What harm is there in it? Above all,
what wrong does it inflict on you? Answer me. Has my friendship for
Madame Vanira made me less kind, less thoughtful for you?"
No answer came from the white lips of the trembling wife.
He went on:
"Why should you be foolish or narrow-minded? Why seek to end a
friendship pure and innocent? Why not be your noble self, Marion--noble,
as I have always thought you? I will tell you frankly, Madame Vanira is
going to Berlin. You know how lonely it is to go to a fresh place. She
happened to say how desolate she should feel at first in Berlin. I
remarked that I knew the city well, and then she wished we were going. I
pledge you my honor that she said 'we.' Never dreaming that you would
make any opposition, I said that I should be very glad to spend the next
few weeks in Berlin. I cannot tell how it really was, but I found that
it was all settled and arranged almost before I knew it. Now, you would
not surely wish me to draw back? Come with me to Berlin, and I will show
you how happy I will make you."
"No," she replied; "I will share your heart with no one. Unless I have
all I will have none. I will not go to Berlin, and you must give up
Madame Vanira," she continued; "Lance, you cannot hesitate, you must see
your duty; a married man wants no woman friend but his wife. Why should
you spend long hours and whole days _tete-a-tete_ with a stranger? Of
what can you find to speak? You know in your heart that you are wrong.
You say no. Now in the name of common sense and fairness, let me ask,
would you like me to make of any man you know such a friend as you have
made of Madame Vanira?"
"That is quite another thing," he replied.
Lady Chandos laughed, sadly.
"The usual refuge of a man when he is brought to bay," she said. "No
words, no arguments will be of any use to me; I shall never be really
friends with you until you give up Madame Vanira."
"Then we will remain enemies," he replied. "I will never give up a true
friend for the caprice of any woman," he replied, "even though that
woman be my wife."
"Neither will I consent to go to Berlin," she answered, gravely.
"Then I must go alone," he said; "I will not be governed by caprices
that have in them neither reason nor sense."
"Then," cried Lady Marion, "it is war to the knife between us!"
"War, if you will," said Lord Chandos; "but always remember you can put
an end to the warfare when you will!"
"I shall appeal to Lady Lanswell and to the Duke of Lester," said Lady
Marion, and her husband merely answered with a bow.
With them it was indeed "war to the knife." Such was the Gordian knot
that Lady Lanswell had to untie, and it was the most difficult task of
her life.
On the same evening when that conversation took place, Lord Chandos went
to the opera, where Leone was playing "Anne Boleyn." He waited until she
came out and was seated in her carriage; then he stood for a few moments
leaning over the carriage door and talking to her.
"How you tremble, Leone," he said. "Your face is white and your eyes all
fire!"
"The spell is still on me," she answered. "When I have thrown my whole
soul into anything, I lose my own identity for many hours. I wish," she
continued, "that I did not so thoroughly enter into those characters. I
hardly realize this moment whether I am Anne Boleyn, the unhappy wife of
bluff King Hal, or whether I am Leone, the singer."
"I know which you are," he said, his eyes seeking hers with a wistful
look. "All King Hal's wives put together are not worth your little
finger, Leone. See how the stars are shining. I have something to say to
you. May I drive with you as far as Highgate Hill?"
The beautiful face, all pale with passion, looked into his.
"It is against our compact," she said; "but you may if you wish."
The silent stars looked down in pity as he took his place by her side.
"Leone," he said, "I want to ask you something. A crisis is come in our
lives; my wife, who was told about that day on the river, has asked me
to give up your acquaintance."
A low cry came from the beautiful lips, and the face of the fairest
woman in England grew deadly pale.
"To give me up," she murmured; "and you, Lord Chandos, what have you
said?"
"I said 'No,' a thousand times over, Leone; our friendship is a good and
pure one; I would not give it up for any caprice in the world."
A great, tearless sob came from her pale lips.
"God bless you a thousand times!" she said. "So you would not give me
up, and you told them so?"
"Yes; I refused to do anything of the kind," he replied; "why should I,
Leone? They parted us once by stratagem, by intrigue, by working on all
that was weakest in my character; now we are but friends, simply honest
friends; who shall part us?"
She clasped his hand for an instant in her own.
"So you will not give me up again, Lance?" she said.
"No, I will die first, Leone. There is one thing more I have to say. I
said that I would go to Berlin, and I have asked my wife to go with me;
she has refused, and I have said that I would go alone. Tell me what you
think?"
"I cannot--I think nothing; perhaps--oh, Heaven help me!--perhaps as
your wife has told you she will not go with you, your duty is to stay
with her."
"My duty," he repeated; "who shall say what a man's duty is? Do you
think I have no duty toward you?"
"Your first thought should be--must be--your wife. If she would have
countenanced our friendship, it would have been our greatest pride and
pleasure; if she opposes it, we must yield. She has the first right to
your time. After all, Lance, what can it matter? We shall have to part;
what can it matter whether it is now or in three months to come? The
more we see of each other the harder it will be."
A flush as of fire came over his face.
"Why must we part?" he cried. "Oh, Heaven, what a price I pay for my
folly!"
"Here is Highgate Hill," said Leone; "you go no further, Lord Chandos."
Only the silent stars were looking on; he stood for a few minutes at the
carriage door.
"Shall I go to Berlin?" he whispered, as he left her, and her answer was
a low, sad:
"Yes."