Queenie paused a moment, and Sydney saw that warm, passionate tears were
streaming down her cheeks. The sight awoke no pity in the heart of the
elder sister. It seemed to her that her hatred was simply measureless
for the beautiful young sister who, living or dead, held Lawrence
Ernscliffe's heart.
"Papa looked up and saw me," continued Queenie, brushing away the
crystal drops with her perfumed handkerchief. "He took me for a ghost, I
think. I ran away and met Mr. Vinton coming after me. He was very angry
with me, and I promised him I would not venture near the place again.
Poor papa! As I went away I heard him wandering in the garden, calling
my name. I longed to turn back and throw my arms about his neck. I often
begged Mr. Vinton to allow me to make known our marriage to papa and
trust to his kind heart to forgive us, but he always refused angrily. He
had a terrible temper--a sleeping devil coiled within his heart."
"You said that you had but two things to complain of," suggested Sydney.
"You have named but one."
"The other was Mr. Vinton's frequent absence from me. He spent more than
half his time in the city, and I passed more than half my time alone,
save for the company of his housekeeper, a wicked woman, whom I
cordially detested. When I complained of his long absence, he
represented that business detained him from my side, but when I ventured
to inquire into the nature of his business, he almost rudely informed me
that it was no part of my province to inquire into his affairs. I asked
him no more questions, and I do not know to this day what engaged his
time and attention, nor what was the source of his apparent wealth.
"We had been married almost a year," she continued, after a slight
pause, "when I began to notice that Mr. Vinton grew cold and careless to
me, and his mysterious absences became longer and more frequent. In my
loneliness and isolation I began to pine more and more for papa, whose
sad and troubled face, as I saw it last, when I looked into the window
that night, haunted me persistently. To my surprise, Mr. Vinton ceased
to chide me for indulging in my grief, and pretended to be willing to
reveal our marriage to papa and beg his forgiveness. In my joy at this
assurance, I threw my arms around his neck, and kissed him as fondly as
I had ever done in the first days of our union. That evening he ordered
out the phaeton to take me home to papa. You know how fond I was of
papa, Sydney--you can imagine my happiness."
Sydney only bowed coldly in reply.
"'I am going to take you home by a new route,' Mr. Vinton said to me,
turning the phaeton into a lonely, unfrequented road. In my joy at going
back to papa, I consented without a thought of the oddity of the words.
I only said to him: 'Do not make it a longer route, dear Leon. I am so
impatient to see papa again.'"
She was growing more excited now. She rose from her reclining position,
and sitting upright, looked at Sydney with scarlet cheeks and burning,
violet eyes. She was dazzlingly beautiful in this new phase.
Her fair, expressive face, and graceful, white throat rose from the rich
and somber setting of black velvet like some rare flower. Her voice
sounded like a wail of the saddest music.
"It was the cruelest lie a man ever told a woman, Sydney!" she went on,
clasping and unclasping her white hands together in passionate
excitement. "We never went near home. He never intended it. It began to
rain soon, and we had no cover to the phaeton. We were passing through a
thick wood, and he forced me to get out and stand under the trees under
pretense of seeking shelter. Then, oh, Sydney, Sydney, with the chilly
rain beating down upon us, and our feet half buried in the thick drifts
of autumn leaves, he told me--oh, Sydney, can you guess what horrible
thing that villain told me?"
The tears were falling down her cheeks like rain as she looked at her
sister, but she, conjecturing the truth at once, answered, promptly and
coldly:
"He told you that he had deceived you--that you were not his wife!"
"Yes, Sydney, that was what he told me," answered Queenie, with burning
cheeks. "He said that the minister who united us was no more a minister
than he was, and had only done it for a lark! He said he was tired of me
and did not intend to charge himself with my support any longer, and
that I might return to my father."
She stopped a moment and brushed away the tears that were coursing down
her cheeks.
"Oh! how can I go on?" she exclaimed.
"I am impatient," remarked Sydney.
"I was fairly maddened by that cruel revelation," continued Queenie.
"Oh, Sydney, may the dear Lord spare you from such suffering as was mine
in that terrible hour! I went mad! All the softness of womanhood died
out of me in the face of that cruel wrong! The instinct of the tigress
sprang into my heart. I thirsted for Leon Vinton's blood. I cursed him.
I rushed upon him and fastened my little, white fingers in his throat
and tried to kill the wretch who had betrayed me."
"A murderess!" exclaimed Sydney, recoiling.
"My hands were all too weak and frail to wreak justice upon the
villain," Queenie went on, heedless of her sister's ejaculation. "He
pushed me off, he swore at me, he strangled me with his strong, white
fingers, threw me down upon the earth and spurned me with his foot--aye,
trampled upon me! You saw the purple print of his boot-heel on my brow,
Sydney. It is here yet," she said, pushing back the fluffy waves of
golden hair from her brow and showing the livid scar.
"After that I remember nothing more for several hours," she went on,
seeing that Sydney made no answer, "and he must have thought that he
had killed me, for when I came to myself I was lying in a grave, a very
shallow grave. I was covered with fresh earth and dead leaves, which the
hard and steady rain had partly beaten aside, leaving my face exposed.
My murderer had not buried me deep enough. I sprang up out of the
shallow hole in which he had laid me, my heart beating wildly with
hatred and the thirst for revenge. All the hours of unconsciousness, all
the rain and cold that had chilled my body had not cooled the fire of
hate, the murderous instinct that possessed me. It seemed to me that
nothing could wipe out my wrongs except Leon Vinton's blood."
"And this is the innocent little child that used to be my father's pet!"
exclaimed the listener, with a shudder.
"Yes," said Queenie, mournfully. "It seems strange, does it not? I, who
only four years ago was the petted child of my father's heart--now I am
dead to all that once knew and loved me. I have gone wrong. I have
wandered into strange paths. I have buried peace and joy. I have broken
my father's heart--all for the sin of one man--_man_ did I say? Nay,
rather a devil in the guise of an angel of light!"