Mme. Lorraine wormed Una's story out of Mrs. Van Zandt with the
greatest ease, Sylvie's spite making it an actual labor of love to
place her sister-in-law in the worst possible light before the great
actress who had deigned to express admiration for her beauty.
In a little while the wicked woman knew that which thrilled her with
cruel joy--that beautiful Una, living in the same house with Eliot and
bearing his name, had never been aught to him but his wife in name only.
"He never loved her, and would be glad if he had never seen her,"
Sylvie said, lying unblushingly in her hatred of Una.
Mme. Lorraine condoled with her in politest phrases, hiding her
exultation under an appearance of calmness. She said to herself:
"His wife in name only! It is not so bad as I thought. It will be easy
to part them now."
Her opportunity soon came without an effort of her own, through Una's
eagerness to find out the secret of her origin.
Eliot had consented to Una's wish, and immediately after the elegant
supper, which had been provided by the best caterer in Boston at
Sylvie's expense, he sought an opportunity to speak to her alone.
"Will Madame Leonie permit me the pleasure of showing her through
our little conservatory? We have a rare plant in bloom there--a
night-blooming cereus," he said.
Madame protested she would be delighted; slipped her jeweled hand
through his arm, and glided from the drawing-room by his side.
The night-blooming cereus was not a feint. It was really there, but so
also was Una standing by its side, pale and agitated, yet withal so
lovely, that madame said to herself, with something like contempt for
her companion:
"He must be cold-hearted, indeed, to withhold love from one so
beautiful."
Eliot began abruptly:
"Madame Lorraine, of course you know we recognized you immediately
to-night?"
The beautiful actress bowed mockingly.
"Of course."
He continued gravely:
"Then, perhaps you can guess why I have brought you here?"
Glancing maliciously from the pale, grave face of Eliot to the agitated
one of his wife, madame said, scoffingly:
"To congratulate you and your bride on your happiness, no doubt,
monsieur!"
"No; nor to reproach you with your wickedness," Eliot answered,
sternly, his handsome face pale and set, his splendid eyes full of
scorn. "I brought you here, madame, to say that in return for my
leniency in not denouncing you to the law for your attempt upon my
life, I demand at your hands one simple act of justice."
"Justice!" she echoed, vaguely.
"Yes, to me," said Una, drawing nearer. "Oh, Madame Lorraine, the time
is come at last when you must tell me who and what I am. You have
denied to me even a name, but however poor and obscure my origin, I
surely have a right to some name, and I can no longer bear Mrs. Van
Zandt's sneers at the mystery that infolds me. Speak, madame, and
dissipate the cloud that veils the past."
"Speak!" Eliot echoed, sternly.
Then there was a moment of terrible suspense and silence.
Madame had drawn back hurriedly from the two with an expression of
alarm and trouble on her mobile white face. At last:
"Oh, you know not what you ask!" she faltered, with emotion.
Growing ashen pale, Una cried out hoarsely:
"I am ready to hear--even the worst."
Eliot came to her side and drew her cold hand gently through his arm.
"Do not look so frightened, Una, my love," he said, gently. "If
madame speaks the truth, she will say you are well-born and of noble
parentage."
Madame gave him a look of fierce wrath and scorn.
"Are you so sure?" she sneered. "Better let me go, then, with your
fatal question unanswered, and hug that vain delusion to your breast."
Eliot answered dauntlessly:
"Most willingly, only for Una's sake. She has some natural curiosity on
the subject, and I have promised her it shall be gratified."
The beautiful face of Mme. Lorraine grew positively fiendish with the
evil smile that flashed across it.
"A true daughter of Eve," she said; "but your Una, as you call her, if
she persists in her curiosity, may purchase her knowledge at as bitter
cost as did the adventurous lady of Eden."
"I am not afraid of the truth, if you will only speak it and have
done, madame," Una cried out, impatiently; and Eliot felt her tremble
violently as she leaned against him.
Then both looked at the clever actress in surprise.
Her face had changed its expression, as if by magic, from hate and
scorn to softness, gentleness, and poignant regret. Her splendid orbs
were dim as with a mist of tears. Clasping her jeweled hands together
in strong agitation, she faltered, pleadingly:
"Do not press me so hard, for--oh, how can I tell you what you ask?"
"Do you mean that there is shame, disgrace, linked with--my birth--my
parentage?" Una demanded, almost wildly.
Mme. Lorraine gave her a cunning upward glance full of a sort of
contemptuous pity.
"Listen to me, both of you," she said; "I have wronged you both, but
Heaven knows how I repent of my evil deeds. I do not want to cause
any more sorrow to either of you, as I must do if I tell Una what she
asks. Therefore, let me go away, in silence, and be sure that in her
case ignorance is bliss."
"I will not believe you, Madame Lorraine, if you assert that aught of
shame belongs to the parentage of my wife," Eliot said, hotly, and she
uttered a long, long sigh.
"Whatever it is, I have a right to some name, however humble," Una
said; but Mme. Lorraine preserved a silence that was significant.
Eliot drew his arm tenderly about Una's waist, as he said:
"Dearest, you have a right to one of the proudest names in Boston. Why
trouble your little head about the past?"
But Una was obstinate. Sylvie's sneers had made her bitter and
determined.
She looked with dark, impatient eyes into the face of the woman who
hated her with relentless hate.
"Speak, madame," she said, icily. "Do you not see that you must reveal
the secret now, whatever it be, that has thrown its stigma over my
life?"
"I am in your power, monsieur; you can denounce me for my attempted
crime, if I refuse to answer you," madame said, looking at Eliot. "Do
you still insist?"
He looked at Una; she murmured "Yes" through pale, determined lips, but
she did not see the covert triumph in the eyes of her foe.
"Very well, then," said the actress, with a heavy sigh. She looked at
Eliot with grave eyes. "Monsieur Van Zandt, I must make at least one
condition," she exclaimed.
"Yes?" he said, inquiringly.
"It is this: you will leave me alone with your wife while I reveal to
her her name and true identity. It will be best thus. The secret will
then be her own, and it will be optional with her whether she should
reveal it to you or not."
He bowed affirmatively.
"I have no objection to your plan, madame, and small curiosity over
your secret. Whatever you may reveal to Una, it will in nowise lessen
my regard for my wife."
He went out and left them together.
Mme. Lorraine turned her vindictive eyes upon Una hissing fiercely:
"Do you not know that you are very foolish in this matter? Would I have
treated you as I did for fifteen years, if you had not been--"
"What?" asked Una, impatiently, as she paused significantly, and
regarded her with angry, scornful eyes.
Bending forward until her writhing lips almost touched the small,
pink ear of the girl, Mme. Lorraine finished her broken sentence in a
hissing voice like that of a serpent.
It was as if Mme. Lorraine had struck the girl upon the face. She
reeled backward with a low, gasping, terrified cry, and sunk to the
floor.
* * * * *
Eliot waited almost an hour in the drawing-room for madame to return,
and Mrs. Van Zandt grew angry and impatient at the detention of her
guest by that Little Nobody. Eliot made all the excuses he could. They
were talking about the flowers; Mme. Leonie loved them so dearly, etc.
At last he went in search of the two.
Madame was just emerging from the conservatory with a smile of triumph
on her handsome face.
As he would have passed her, she detained him with a hand laid heavily
on his arm.
"Do not go to her yet. She desired me to keep you away from her a
little while until she can collect her thoughts and decide whether it
is best to share her terrible secret with you or not."
"But surely she needs me now," he said, quailing at the words. "Her
terrible secret!"
"She prefers to be alone, she said," madame returned, so positively
that he decided, against his sense of duty, to humor Una's whim. He
guessed it was not a pleasant revelation madame had made among the
warm, sweet odors of the dim conservatory.
The actress returned to the drawing-room, made her adieus, and
departed. Then the rest of the party broke up, and the family retired
to their several apartments. Eliot went to the conservatory for Una.
"I can not leave her alone any longer in her trouble, poor child!" he
thought, with a heart full of tenderness.
To his surprise, the flowery retreat was quite deserted.
"She has stepped out unperceived in the confusion of the leave-takings,
and gone to her room," he decided, and a yearning impulse led him to
seek her there.
He knocked at first softly on the door, and receiving no reply, entered
quietly, feeling that she needed him in the distress she was enduring
over madame's revelation.
But the room, like the conservatory, was deserted.
Over the dressing-table the gas was burning brightly. Eliot's eyes
quickly detected an envelope lying just beneath the light that bore in
large characters his own name.