Haidee, waiting for Darlington in Paris, spent the time in a state of
perfect peace, amused herself easily and successfully, and at the same
time kept clear of such of her acquaintance as she knew to be in the
French capital at that moment. On the morrow Darlington would return,
and after that everything would be simple. She had arranged it all in
her own mind as she travelled from London, and she believed--having a
confident and sanguine disposition--that the way in which the affair
presented itself to her was the only way in which it could possibly
present itself to any one. It had been a mistake to marry Lucian. Well,
it wasn’t too late to rectify the mistake, and one was wise, of course,
in rectifying it. If you find out that you are on the wrong road--why,
what more politic and advisable than to take the shortest cut to the
right one? She was sorry for Lucian, but the path which he was following
just then was by no means to her own taste, and she must leave him to
tread it alone. She was indeed sorry for him. He had been an ardent and
a delightful lover--for a while--and it was a pity he was not a rich
man. Perhaps they might be friends yet. She, at any rate, would bear no
malice--why should she? She was fond enough of Lucian in one way, but
she had no fondness for a quiet life in Florence or Pisa or anywhere
else, and she had been brought up to believe that a woman must be good
to the man who can best afford to be good to her, and she felt as near
an approach to thankfulness as she had ever felt in her life when she
remembered that Eustace Darlington still cherished a benevolent
disposition towards her.
Darlington did not return to Paris until nearly noon of the following
day. When he reached his hotel he was informed by his valet, whom he had
left behind, that Mrs. Damerel had arrived, and had asked for him.
Darlington felt no surprise on hearing this news; nothing more serious
than a shopping expedition occurred to him. He sent his man to Haidee’s
rooms with a message, and after changing his clothes went to call upon
her himself. His manner showed her that he neither suspected nor
anticipated anything out of the common, but his first question paved the
way for her explanation. It was a question that might have been put had
they met in New York or Calcutta or anywhere, a question that needed no
definite answer.
‘What brings you here? Frills, or frocks, or something equally feminine,
I suppose?’ he said carelessly, as he shook hands with her. ‘Staying
long?’
The indifference of his tone sounded somewhat harshly in Haidee’s
hearing. It was evident that he suspected nothing and had no idea of the
real reason of her presence. She suddenly became aware that there might
be difficulties in the path that had seemed so easy.
‘Lucian here?’ asked Darlington, with equal carelessness.
‘No,’ she said. Then, in a lower tone, she added, ‘I have left Lucian.’
Darlington turned quickly from the window, whither he had strolled after
their greeting. He uttered a sharp, half-suppressed exclamation.
‘Left him?’ he said. ‘You don’t mean----’
His interrogative glance completed the sentence. There was something in
his eyes, something stern and businesslike, that made Haidee afraid. Her
own eyes turned elsewhere.
‘Yes,’ she said.
Darlington put his hands in his pockets and came and stood in front of
her. He looked down at her as if she had been a child out of whom he
wished to extract some information.
‘Quarrelling, eh?’ he said.
‘No, not quarrelling at all,’ she answered.
‘Then--what?’
‘He has spent all the money,’ she said, ‘and lots beside, and he is
going to sell everything in the house in order to pay you, and then he
wanted me to go and live cheaply--_cheaply_, you understand?--in Italy;
and--and he said I must sell my diamonds.’
‘Did he?’ said Darlington. ‘And he is going to sell everything in order
to pay me, is he? Well, that’s honest; I didn’t think he’d the pluck.
He’s evidently not quite such an utter fool as I’ve always thought him.
Well?’
‘And, of course, I left him.’
‘That “of course” is good. Of course, being you, you did, “of course.”
Yes, I understand that part, Haidee. But’--he looked around him with an
expressive glance at her surroundings, ‘why--here?’ he inquired sharply.
‘I came to you,’ she said in a low and not too confident voice.
Darlington laughed--a low, satirical, cynical laughter that frightened
her. She glanced at him timidly; she had never known him like that
before.
‘I see!’ he said. ‘You thought that I should prove a refuge for the
fugitive wife? But I’m afraid that I am not disposed to welcome refugees
of any description--it isn’t my _métier_, you know.’
Haidee looked at him in astonishment. Her eyes caught and held his: he
saw the growing terror in her face.
‘But----’ she said, and came to a stop. Then she repeated the word,
still staring at him with questioning eyes. Darlington tore himself away
with a snarl.
‘Look here!’ he said, ‘I’m not a sentimental man. If I ever had a scrap
of sentiment, _you_ knocked it out of me four years ago. I was fond of
you then. I’d have made you a kind husband, my girl, and you’d have got
on, fool as you are by nature. But you threw me over for that half-mad
boy, and it killed all the soft things I had inside me. I knew I should
have my revenge on both of you, and I’ve had it. He’s ruined; he hasn’t
a penny piece that isn’t due to me; and as for you--listen, my girl,
and I’ll tell you some plain truths. You’re a pretty animal, nice to
play with for half an hour now and then, but you’re no man’s mate for
life, unless the man’s morally blind. I once heard a scientific chap say
that the soul’s got to grow in human beings. Well, yours hasn’t sprouted
yet, Haidee. You’re a fool, though you are a very lovely woman. I
suppose--’--he came closer to her, and looking down at her astonished
face smiled more cynically than ever--‘I suppose you thought that I
would run away with you and eventually marry you?’
‘I--yes--of course!’ she whispered.
‘Well,’ he said, ‘if I, too, had been a fool, I might have done that.
But I am not a fool, my dear Haidee. Perhaps I’m hard, brutal,
cynical--the world and its precious denizens have made me so. I’m not
going to run away with the woman who ran away with another man on the
very eve of her marriage to me; and as to marrying you, well--I’m plain
spoken enough to tell you that I made up my mind years ago that whatever
other silliness I might commit, I would never commit the crowning folly
of marrying a woman who had been my mistress.’
Haidee caught her breath with a sharp exclamation. If she had possessed
any spirit she would have risen to her feet, said things, done things:
having none, like most of her sort, she suddenly buried her face in her
hands and sobbed.
‘I dare say it doesn’t sound nice,’ said Darlington, ‘but Lord knows
it’s best to be plain spoken. Now, my girl, listen to me. Go home and
make the best of your bargain. I’ll let Lucian Damerel off easily,
though to tell you the truth I’ve always had cheerful notions of ruining
him hopelessly. If he wants to live cheaply in Italy, go with him--you
married him. You have your maid here?--tell her to pack up and be ready
to leave by the night train. I dare say Damerel thinks you have only run
over here to buy a new gown; he never need know anything to the
contrary.’
‘B-b-b-but I have t-t-_told_ him!’ she sobbed. ‘He _knows_!’
‘Damn you for a fool!’ said Darlington, between his teeth. He put his
hands in his pockets again and began rattling the loose money there. For
a moment he stood staring at Haidee, his face puckered into frowning
lines. He came up to her. ‘How did you tell him?’ he said. ‘You
didn’t--write it?’
‘Yes,’ she answered. ‘I did--I wrote him a letter.’
Darlington sighed.
‘Oh, well!’ he said, ‘it doesn’t matter, only he’ll be able to get heavy
damages, and I wanted to clear him out. It’s the fortune of war. Well,
I’m going. Good-day.’
He had walked across to the door and laid his hand upon the latch ere
Haidee comprehended the meaning of his words. Then she sprang up with a
scream.
‘And what of me?’ she cried. ‘Am I to be left here?’
‘You brought yourself here,’ he retorted, eyeing her evilly. ‘I did not
ask you to come.’
She stared at him open-mouthed as if he were some strange thing that had
come into her line of vision for the first time. Her breath began to
come and go in gasps. She was an elementary woman, but at this treatment
from the man she had known as her lover a natural indignation sprang up
in her and she began to find words.
‘But this!’ she said, with a nearer approach to honesty than she had
ever known, ‘this is--desertion!’
‘I am under no vow to you,’ he said.
‘You have implied it. I trusted you.’
‘As Lucian trusted you,’ he sneered.
She became speechless again. Something in her looks brought Darlington
back from the door to her side.
‘Look here, Haidee,’ he said, not unkindly, ‘don’t be a little fool. Go
home quickly and settle things with your husband. Tell him you wrote
that letter in a fit of temper; tell him--oh, tell him any of the lies
that women invent so easily on these occasions! It’s absolutely
hopeless to look to me for protection, absolutely impossible for me to
give it----’
He stopped. She was staring at him in a strange way--the way in which a
dumb animal might stare if the butcher who was about to kill it
condescended to try to explain to it why it was necessary that he should
presently cut its throat. Darlington hummed and ha’d when he caught that
look. He cast a furtive glance at the door and half turned away from
Haidee.
‘Yes, quite impossible,’ he repeated. ‘The fact is--well, you may as
well knew it now as hear it later on--I am going to be married.’
She nodded her head as if she quite understood his meaning, and he,
looking full at her again, noticed that she was trying to moisten her
lips with the tip of her tongue, and that her eyes were dilated to an
unusual degree.
‘You can’t say that I’ve treated you badly,’ he said. ‘After all, you
had the first chance, and it wasn’t my fault if you threw it away.
There, now, be sensible and go back to London and make it up with
Damerel. You can easily get round him--he’ll believe anything you tell
him. Say you were upset at the thought of going to Italy with him, and
lost your head. Things will come all right if you only manage your cards
properly. Well, I’m going--good-day.’
He turned slowly from her as if he were somewhat ashamed of his
desertion. They had been standing by the side of a table, littered about
on which were several odds and ends picked up by Haidee on the previous
day. Amongst them was an antique stiletto, sharp as a needle, which had
taken her fancy at a shop in the Palais Royal. She had thought of using
it as a hat-pin, and was charmed when the dealer suggested that it had
probably tasted the heart’s-blood of more than one victim. Its glitter
caught her eye now, and she picked it up and struck furiously at
Darlington’s back.
At that moment Lucian was being conducted to his wife’s room by a
courteous manager. At the threshold they paused, brought to a
simultaneous standstill by a wild scream. When they entered the room,
Darlington lay crumpled up and dead in the centre of the floor, and
Haidee, gazing spellbound at him from the furthest corner, was
laughing--a long, low ripple of laughter that seemed as if it would
never cease. The stiletto, thrown at her feet, flashed back a ray of
sunlight from the window.