Carmontelle stood for many minutes gazing like one dazed at the still
and lovely features of the nameless dead girl. He was stunned, as it
were, by the magnitude of this misfortune, and could only murmur over
and over in accents of pity and despair combined:
"Too late, too late, too late!"
At length he too flung himself down before the altar with bowed head,
although no prayers escaped his lips, for the stupor of despair was
upon him. She was dead, poor unfortunate Little Nobody, and there was
naught to pray for now.
There the detective found him, two hours later, when he came with
news--news at once good and bad.
"I found Remond," he said. "He was about leaving the city by the
steamer 'Ellen Bayne.' As he was about crossing the plank, I collared
him and demanded the antidote. He was startled at first, and glared at
me fiercely, then suddenly assumed a calmness that looked so much like
acquiescence that I was completely deceived. He put his hand into his
breast-pocket, and drew out a small vial of colorless liquid. I thought
he was going to give it to me, and, thrown off my guard by his apparent
coolness, released him and stretched out my hand. The cunning villain
took instant advantage of my belief; he sprung away from me across the
gang-plank, which was instantly drawn in, as the steamer was leaving
the wharf. Standing on the deck, he looked at me with the leer of a
fiend and immediately flung the vial into the river."
"The fiend!" Carmontelle said, hoarsely. "But it matters not. She is
already dead."
And he led the dismayed and disappointed detective to the chapel, and
showed him the silent sleeper there, with the cool white lilies on her
breast.
"How beautiful, how unfortunate!" murmured the kind-hearted detective,
in reverential awe. His profession had made him familiar with all
sorts of tragedies and sorrows, but this one seemed to him as sad and
pathetic as any he had ever encountered. He looked with deep sympathy
upon the man beside him to whom the girl's death was such a crushing
blow, but words failed him. He could only look his silent and sincere
sympathy.
Suddenly there recurred to Carmontelle the remembrance of Eliot Van
Zandt, whose fate was still wrapped in mystery.
"Come, we can do no good here now," he said, mournfully. "The fiends
have done their work too well. We must try to get at the bottom of the
mystery that enshrouds the fate of my poor friend."
After promising the mother superior to return and attend to the funeral
obsequies of the dead girl, he went away, taking the detective with him
to assist in the inquiry for the young journalist.
It did not seem possible that they could fail in this search, but
though the anxious quest was kept up for many days and nights, not a
single clew rewarded their efforts. Eliot Van Zandt had disappeared as
completely as though an earthquake had opened and swallowed him into
the bosom of old mother earth.
The detective could form but one conclusion, which he reluctantly
imparted to his employer.
"The young man was most probably murdered that night, and his corpse
flung into the river, but no proofs will ever be found implicating
Remond as the murderer. Nor is it likely that the Frenchman will
ever turn up again in New Orleans. Fearful of detection, he will go
abroad and plunge into new crimes befitting his evil nature, and the
disappearance of poor Van Zandt will most likely remain forever upon
the terrible list of unexplained disappearance of human beings."
Days came and went, and it seemed as if he had uttered a true prophecy.
In the meantime, a tomb in the convent cemetery had received to its
cold embrace the shrouded form of Mme. Lorraine's beautiful victim, and
the madame herself had been apprised of the fact by a brief and bitter
note from Pierre Carmontelle.
"The victim of your malice is dead and in her untimely grave," he
wrote. "Remond has fled the city, and the Jockey Club has been told the
secret of your guilt and his. They are wild with rage, but they spare
you yet until they can make sure of your guilt, and bring your crime
home to you. In the meantime, I tell you frankly that you are under
constant espionage, and the task of my life is to avenge the death of
poor little ma'amselle upon you and that cowardly Frenchman. Look well
to yourself, for enemies encompass you and punishment awaits you."
Madame grew pale beneath her rouge, and twisted the angry note
nervously in her jeweled fingers.
"A frank enemy!" she muttered. "He gives me fair warning. Like the
deadly serpent, he gives forth his venomous hiss before he stings. He
is very kind. Forewarned is forearmed, they say."
She reread it with a nervous contraction of her brows.
"So the little one is dead! I did not intend it, but--it is better so.
Fate has removed an incumbrance from my path. Now for a call upon my
guest, to electrify him with my news. Mima says he is fast recovering,
and that I may venture upon a visit."
She went to her dressing-room and donned a street costume of olive
cashmere and silk, with bonnet and gloves and all the paraphernalia
of walking costume. Then, with a choice bunch of flowers culled from
her garden, she let herself through the secret entrance to the cellar
chamber, and preceded by the frowning servant, was ushered into the
presence of Eliot Van Zandt.
He lay, pale and handsome and restless, among the white pillows in the
luxurious room. The lamp that burned night and day shed a soft, roseate
glow over everything, and brightened somewhat the pallid cast of his
countenance.
"Ah, Monsieur Van Zandt, my poor, dear Yankee friend, the cruel doctors
and nurses have permitted me to call on you at last! And how do you
find yourself this evening, _mon ami_?" she cried, fluttering up to his
bedside, all smiles and sweet solicitude.
His dark-gray eyes opened wide with surprise and displeasure.
"Madame Lorraine!" he ejaculated, angrily, but she pretended not to
understand the surprise and anger.
"Yes, it is I," she said, sweetly. "Did you think you were deserted
by all your friends? But it was the cruel doctors in the hospital;
they would admit no one until you were out of danger. I came every day
and begged until they gave me leave to see you. Ah, _mon ami_, I have
suffered such anxiety for your sake!" with uplifted eyes and pensive
air. "But, thank the good God, you are restored to me."
The dark-gray eyes flashed with resentment, and a warm flush crept up
to the young man's pale brow. He waved her away indignantly.
"Madame Lorraine, your hypocrisy is intolerable!" he exclaimed, hotly.
"Leave me. Your call is in the worst of taste, and most undesirable."
With impetuous grace, she flung herself down on her knees beside him,
surprise, dismay, and wounded love expressed eloquently on her mobile
face.
"Ah, _mon ami_, what have I done to receive this repulse? I come to you
in friendship and regard, and you order me away! Good nurse"--turning
her head around for a moment to scornful Mima--"is it that your
patient is delirious yet, that he thus upbraids his truest friend?"
"Get up from your knees, Madame Lorraine; you can not deceive me
by your artful professions," Van Zandt cried, sternly; and looking
wondrously grand and handsome in his anger, although he could scarcely
lift his blonde head from the pillow. "I am not delirious; my mind is
perfectly clear, and, in proof of it, listen: I was in your garden
that night, and heard your nefarious plotting with Remond for the ruin
of that poor young girl. She heard, too, and, distracted with terror,
begged me to save her. It was I who brought Carmontelle to the rescue,
while I held at bay the villain Remond. Now you understand why I loathe
the sight of you--why I wish you to go out from my presence, never to
enter it again."
She wept and protested, as she had done with Carmontelle, that it was
all a cruel mistake. She had but made a match, French-fashion, for her
ward. Remond was pledged to marry her that night. She did not find him
credulous, as she had hoped. He smiled in scorn, and reiterated his
wish that she should leave the room.
"Very well," she said, bitterly, "I am going, but not before I tell the
news I brought; your officious intermeddling was fatal to the girl you
pretended to save--it was the cause of her death."
"Death!" he echoed; and the fair, stately head fell back among the
pillows, the lids drooped over his eyes. Mima believed he was about to
swoon, and hastily brought restoratives.
"You should have held your cursed tongue!" she muttered, in an audible
aside to her mistress; but Mme. Lorraine did not reply. She was
watching that deathly pale face that looked up at her so eagerly as Van
Zandt whispered, faintly:
"Dead! Oh, you do but jest! It can not be!"
"It is no jest. It is the truth. Do you want to hear how it came
about? Remond had two subtle Eastern drugs, the one to induce heavy
sleep, the other to awaken her at his will. Well, you and Carmontelle
interfered, and so Remond ran away with the second drug, and--she died
in her sleep."
"No, no!" he cried, almost imploringly.
"Ah, you regret your work when too late!" madame cried, triumphantly.
"It is sad, is it not? But it is true as Heaven. Barely an hour ago I
received a note from him, to say that she was dead and buried, the poor
little wretch!"
"It is your fiendish work!" he said, bitterly. "May Heaven punish you!
Ah, the poor innocent little ma'amselle, it was hard for her to go like
that. But--better death than dishonor!"
He put his white hand up before his face, and a long, deep, shuddering
sigh shook him from head to foot. Mima shook her mistress roughly by
the shoulder and pointed to the door that led up the stairs to the
hidden entrance.
"Go!" she whispered, harshly. "I don't know what prompted you to this
devil's work. You must have wanted to kill him. I don't know how this
will result now. Go, and take your hateful face out of his sight!"
Madame flung down her roses with a whimper, and trailed her rich robes
from the room in a passion of disappointed love and hope.
"He loved her--like the rest!" she muttered, fiercely. "I wish she had
died before he ever saw her. But I swear I will win him yet, or--he
shall never see the light of day again!"