Now, the thin end of the entering wedge, of which Joan had hinted, was
well in, and after this day events moved swiftly. The Comtesse de
Merival and Miss Ffrench were close friends. Violet opened her heart to
Joan and told her everything that was in it--not a long list. Joan
sympathised and advised. She did so want dear Violet to be happy, she
said, for happiness was the best thing in the world; and love was
happiness. She wanted her to have that.
The two girls were together constantly, and this meant that Joan soon
began to see a good deal of Sir Justin Wentworth. Quickly she diagnosed
that he cared nothing for Violet Ffrench, except in a kindly,
protective, affectionate way, but that he had a deep regard for her
father. He would never try to free himself of the tacit understanding
into which he had drifted as a boy; if any change were to come, the
initiative must be taken, and firmly taken, by Violet.
Meanwhile, two things were happening. If Violet was not precisely
falling in love with Villa Fora, she was in love with the idea of him
which was growing up in her mind; and Justin Wentworth had discovered
that he craved for something more in life than Violet Ffrench could ever
give him.
He had gone on contentedly enough for the several years during which he
had definitely thought of the marriage. There had been the Boer war,
and then the interest of coming home to England and his beautiful old
place in Devonshire, which he loved. But now, quite suddenly, he had
awakened to the fact that contentment is no better than desperate
resignation; and though he was hardly aware of it yet, the awakening had
come to him when looking into Joan's eyes.
He would not confess to himself that he loved her, but he thought that
she was the most vivid creature he had ever met, and he could not help
realising how curiously congenial they were in most of their thoughts.
Often he seemed to feel what she was feeling, without a word being
spoken on either side, and unconsciously he was jealous of the handsome
Spanish cousin with whom (General Ffrench innocently suggested) the
Comtesse would probably make a match.
Joan, on her part, cared too much by this time to be able to see
clearly, where her own affairs were concerned. She had begun the little
comedy she was playing not for the sake of Villa Fora, but for her own,
with the deliberate intention of separating Violet Ffrench from Justin
Wentworth, even though she might never come any nearer to him herself.
All the machinery which she had set going was running smoothly. Violet
was fascinated by Villa Fora, was meeting him secretly and receiving
notes from him; he was determined to bring matters to a climax soon, and
was sure of his success. General Ffrench played golf all day, bridge
half the night, and suspected nothing; nor, apparently, did any one
else. Still, Joan was more miserable than she had ever been in her
life--far more miserable than when Lady Thorndyke had died without
making a new will and left her penniless.
The girl saw herself at last as she was, unscrupulous, an adventuress,
living on her wits and the lack of wits in others. She hated herself,
and worshipped more and more each day the honourable soldier from whom
her own unworthiness (if there were no other barrier) must, she felt,
put her irrevocably apart.
Even as Joan talked to Violet of Wentworth and Villa Fora, outwardly
agreeing with the girl that the one was cold, that it was the other who
knew how to love, her whole soul was in rebellion against itself. "He
does not think of me at all," she would repeat over and over again,
despite the secret voice of instinct which whispered a contradiction.
"He doesn't think of me; and even if he did, he would only have to know
half the truth to despise me as the vilest of women."
Then, one day, there was a great scandal at the hotel. The Marchese
Villa Fora had run away with Miss Violet Ffrench, in the Comtesse de
Merival's motor-car, which lately he had been learning to drive. Even
Joan was taken by surprise, for she had not known that the thing was
going to happen so soon. She was actually able to tell the truth--or
something approaching the truth--when she assured the father and the
deserted _fiance_ that she was innocent of complicity. So candid were
her beautiful, wet eyes, so tremulous her sweet voice, and so pale the
delicate oval of her cheeks, that both men believed her, and one of them
was so happy in this sudden relief from the weight of a great burden
that he could have sung aloud.
General Ffrench was far from happy; but he determined that, rather than
give fuel to the scandal, he would make the best of things as they were.
To this course he was partly persuaded by the counsels of Justin
Wentworth. Villa Fora was undoubtedly what he pretended to be, a
Spanish marquis of very ancient and honourable lineage, though it would
take many golden bricks to rebuild the family castle in Spain. The girl
had gone with him, and gone too far before the truth came out to be
brought back with good grace, therefore it were well to let her become
the Marchesa Villa Fora quietly, without useless ragings.
The thing Joan had set herself to accomplish was done; she had separated
Justin Wentworth and Violet Ffrench for ever, and now the end had come.
She was hurt and sore, and could hardly bear to see her own face in the
glass, for she imagined that it had grown hard and cruel--that Justin
Wentworth must find it so.
General Ffrench openly announced his daughter's marriage to the Marchese
Villa Fora, and told all inquirers that he was going to join her in
Madrid; but Justin Wentworth would not, of course, accompany his old
friend on such a mission. He would set his face towards England, and
with this intention he said "Good-bye" to the Comtesse de Merival.
"This has hurt and shocked you, too," he said. "There is one thing I
must say to you, and it is this: it is only for her father that I care.
I want her to be happy in her own way. We did not suit each other."
"I used sometimes to think not," Joan answered in a voice genuinely
broken. "I used to be afraid that--if you should ever marry--you would
not have been happy. Perhaps she--wasn't the right one for you."
Her eyes were downcast, but the compelling power of love in the man's
caught them up to his and held them.
"I have known that she wasn't the right one for a long time," he said.
"I have known the right one, and it is you. I love you with all my
heart. I want you. You are the one woman on earth for me. I hadn't
meant to say this now, but--I can't let you go out of my life. I must
do all I can to keep you always."
"Don't!" gasped Joan. "Don't! it will kill me. Oh, if you only knew,
how you would hate me!"
"Nothing could make me hate you."
"Yes. Wait!" And then Joan poured out the whole story--not only of
this last fraud, but of all the frauds; the story of her "career."
He listened to the end, without interrupting her once. Then, at last,
when the strange tale was finished, and the pale girl was silent from
sheer exhaustion of the hopeless spirit tasting its punishment in
purgatory, he held out his arms.
"Poor, little, lonely girl!" he said. "How sorry I am for you! How I
want to comfort and take care of you all the rest of your life, so that
it may be clear and white, as your true self would have it be! And--how
glad I am that you're not a widowed Comtesse!"
----
She was in his arms still when a knock at the door roused them both from
the first dream of real happiness the girl had ever known.
A servant brought a card. She took it from the tray and read it out
mechanically: "Mr. George Gallon."
"Tell the gentleman----" she had begun; but before she could go further
with her instructions George Gallon himself had entered the room.
"Well, Miss Carthew," he said, "I heard from an unexpected source that
you were here, swaggering about as the widow of a French Comte. I
needed a little holiday, and so I ran out to see whether you were a
greater success as a Comtesse than you were as a typewriter in my
office. Oh! I beg your pardon. You're not alone. I'm afraid I may
have surprised your friend with some disagreeable news."
"Not at all," said Justin Wentworth calmly. "Miss Carthew has not only
told me of that episode in her life, but how it became necessary for her
to take up the position of a typewriter. Your treatment of her seemed
almost incredible--until I saw you. No wonder it was necessary for Miss
Carthew to adopt an _alias_, if this is the sort of persecution she is
subject to under her own name. But in future it will be different. As
Lady Wentworth she will be safe even from cads like you; and though she
is not yet my wife, I'm thankful to say I have even now the right to
protect her. When do you intend to leave Biarritz, Mr. Gallon?"
[Illustration: "'When do you intend to leave Biarritz?'"]
George opened his lips furiously, but snapped them shut again. Then,
having paused to reflect, he said: "I am here only for an hour. I'm
going on to Spain."
"Pray watch over your tongue in that hour," returned Wentworth.
Then George Gallon was gone.
"I'll worship you all my life on my knees," said Joan. "I'm not worthy
to touch your hand. But I will be. I will be a new self."
"Only the best of the old one, that is all I want," answered her lover.
"The past is like a garment which you wore for protection against the
storm. But there will be no more storms after this."
"Because you have forgiven me, because you believe in me," cried Joan,
"you will make of me the woman you would have me!"
"The woman you really are, or I would not have loved you," he said.
And so it was that Joan Carthew's career ended and her life began.
Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.