That same afternoon the bride sat alone in her room in a fashionable
hotel. A tap at her door--it is that stranger of the black eye and
mourning dress. Though amazed and not altogether pleased, Clara invited
her to a seat.
“I think, ma’am, you were married this morning in ---- church, to Mr.
Bernal Brentford?”
Clara assented, with a faint blush.
“I could not tell you, if I should try, how sorry I am to blast your
happiness; but perhaps you will be thankful to me sometime. I must tell
you that he, who has just wedded you, _is the husband of another_. Mr.
Brentford has been, for four years, a married man!”
Clara stared at the woman in blank amazement, as though she did not
comprehend what monstrous tale she was trying to make her believe.
At last, however, she seemed to understand, and with a sudden burst of
indignation, and flashing eyes, she exclaimed,
“Who are you, that _dare_ say such a thing? It is false! I know it is
false! Brentford is true--he is honorable. I say, how dare you come here
with that foul, despicable slander against him, my noble husband?”
She stood directly before her visitant, and clasped her cold hands
together very tightly, that she might not seem to tremble. The black
eyes looked mournfully and steadily on her, as the stranger replied,
“Poor girl! I dare come here and tell you this, because I know it is the
truth, and I would save an innocent young fellow-being from disgrace and
misery. I know one who, five years ago, was as light-hearted a creature
as ever trilled a song. Then she met Bernal Brentford. He flattered her.
He sang with her. He said he loved her. He took her away from her happy,
happy home in the sunny south, and carried her to the city. There he
squandered her fortune, and deserted her.
“Could I be human and suffer another poor heart to be murdered in this
same way?”
As she spoke she drew a paper from her pocket, and handed it to Clara,
who had sunk down into a chair, pale and speechless. She took it, and
opened it mechanically. It was a record of the marriage of Bernal
Brentford and Bertha Vale, signed and attested in due form. She read it,
again and again, then said, suddenly,
“How do I know that this is genuine?”
“There are witnesses, to whom you can refer, if you care to. The means
of proof are ample.”
Clara’s ear caught the sound of a well-known footfall on the stairs.
“_You_ are Bertha Vale?” said she.
“Yes.”
“Sit in that recess, and be silent.”
Summoning all the fortitude of her nature, Clara resumed the book which
she had dropped on the entrance of the stranger, and threw herself, in a
careless attitude, on the sofa. She was glad of its support--for it
seemed to her she should sink to the ground. Brentford entered, and
approached her with some playful speech. But as he crossed the floor,
his eye fell on the shadow of the figure in the recess. He looked at it
and stood aghast. Then in a voice tremulous with passion, he cried,
“How on earth came you here?”
She made no reply, and Clara said, very calmly,
“Why should the lady not be here? She called to see me.”
“You called to see her!” he exclaimed, advancing toward the intruder,
and glaring fiercely on her, “You shall not see her, you shall not speak
a word to her! Get you hence!”
She rose, saying simply, “I am ready to go.”
“I tell you, Bertha Vale,” hissed her husband in her ear, “if you ever
cross my path again, you shall _bitterly_ rue it!”
Her eye fixed itself unwaveringly on his as he spoke, while her small
hand freed her arm from the grasp he had taken on it. She did not speak,
and casting one pitying glance on Clara, glided out of the room.
Brentford stared after her as she went, then walked to the window, to
see, apparently, whether she went into the street. There he stood,
motionless, for several minutes, then, placing himself, with folded
arms, before the faded form upon the sofa, demanded,
“What did she say to you?”
She raised her pallid face from the hands in which it had been hidden,
and said sorrowfully,
“I cannot tell what she did say, but she made me know that I have been
deceived, and I want to go home.
“Yes, yes, I must go home,” she murmured to herself.
“No, no, she lied, I say. You shall not go--would you go and desert your
own Brentford, dearest?”
“You are not mine,” said she, putting away the arm with which he would
have encircled her, “you are another woman’s. I want to go home.”
She raised herself and strayed toward the table, where her bonnet lay.
Brentford sprang after her and seized her hand, pouring forth a torrent
of remonstrance, denial, invective, and command, in the utmost
confusion. But Clara’s inexorable will was, for once, her good angel;
and, whether he raved or implored, she was still firm. Although so weak
and trembling that she could hardly support herself, she suffered him to
see nothing but cold, strong resolve; but as she opened the door to go,
and saw his look of dark despair, she hesitated, and gave him her hand,
saying--
“I do forgive you, Brentford.”
But the gleam of hope that shot into his eyes admonished her, and she
quickly shut the door and ran down stairs, without stopping to think,
and was soon seated in a carriage and rattling rapidly away.