MAXINE OPENS THE GATE FOR A MAN
"You are afraid that du Laurier may find out," he said. "But he knows
already."
"Knows what?"
"That I expected to have the privilege of going to your house with you."
All that I had gained seemed worthless. Those quiet, sneering words of
his almost crushed me. On the load I had struggled to bear without
falling they laid one feather too much.
My voice broke. "You--devil!" I cried at him. "You dared to tell Raoul
that?"
Opposite, on her narrow little seat, Marianne stirred uneasily. Till now
our tones had been quiet, and she could not understand one word we said.
She is the soul of discretion and a triumph of good training in her walk
of life; but she loves me more than she loves any other creature on
earth, and now she could see and hear that the man had driven me to the
brink of hysterics. She would have liked to tear his face with her
nails, or choke him, I think. If I had given her the word, I believe she
would have tried with all her strength--which is not small--and a very
good will, to kill him. I was dimly conscious of what her restlessness
meant, and vaguely comforted too, by the thought of her supreme loyalty.
But I forgot Marianne when Godensky answered my question.
"Yes, I told him. It was the truth. And I've always understood that you
made a great point of never doing anything which you considered in the
least risqué. So why should I suppose you would rather du Laurier didn't
know? You might already have mentioned it to him."
"He wouldn't believe you!" I exclaimed, desperately. And my only hope
was that I might be right.
"As a matter of fact, he didn't seem to at first, so I at once
understood that you hadn't spoken of our appointment. But it was too
late to atone for my carelessness, and I did the next best thing:
justified my veracity. I suggested that, if he didn't take my word for
it, he might stand where he could see us speaking together at the stage
door, and--"
"Ah, I am glad of that!" I cut in. "Then he saw that we didn't drive
away together."
"You jump at conclusions, just like less clever women. I hardly thought
you'd receive me into your carriage at the theatre, so I took the
precaution of warning du Laurier that he needn't expect to see that. You
would suggest a place for me to meet you, I said. When I knew it, I
would inform him if he chose to wait about somewhere for a few minutes."
"Raoul du Laurier would scorn to spy upon me!" I broke out.
"How hard you are on spies. And how little knowledge of human nature you
have, after all, if you don't understand that a man suddenly out of his
head with jealousy will do things of which he'd be incapable when he was
sane."
The argument silenced me. I knew--I had known for a long time--that
jealousy could rouse a demon in Raoul. And only to-night he had reminded
me that he was a "jealous brute." I remembered what answer he had made
when I asked him what he would do if I deceived him. He said that he
would kill me, and kill himself after. As he spoke, the blood had
streamed up to his forehead, and streamed back again, leaving him pale.
A flash like steel had shot out of his eyes--the dear eyes that are not
cold. It was true, as this cruel wretch reminded me, Raoul would do
things under the torture of jealousy that he would cut off his hand
sooner than do when his own, sweet, poet-nature was in ascendancy.
"As a proof of what I say," Godensky went on, "du Laurier did wait, did
hear from me the place where you were to stop and pick me up. And if it
wouldn't be the worst of form to bet, I'd bet that he found some way of
getting there in time to see that I had told the truth."
"You coward!" I stammered.
"On the contrary, a brave man. I've heard that du Laurier is a fine
shot, and that very few men in Paris can touch him with the foils. So
you see--"
"You want to frighten me!" I exclaimed.
"You misjudge me in every way."
My only answer was to tell Marianne to press the button which gives the
signal for my chauffeur to stop. Instantly the electric carriage slowed
down, then came to a standstill. My man opened the door and Count
Godensky submitted to my will. Nevertheless, he was far from being in a
submissive mood, as I did not need to be reminded by the tone of his
voice when he said "au revoir."
Nothing could have been more polite than the words or his way of
speaking them, as he stood in the street with his hat in his hand. But
to me they meant a threat, and as a threat they were intended.
My talk with Godensky at the stage door, my pause to pick him up, and my
second pause to set him down, had all taken time, of which I had had
little enough at the starting, if I were to meet Ivor Dundas when he
arrived. It was two or three minutes after midnight, or so my watch
said, when we drew up before the gate of my high-walled garden in the
quiet Rue d'Hollande.
A little while ago I had been ready to seize upon almost any expedient
for keeping Raoul away from my house to-night, but now, after what I had
just heard from Godensky, I prayed to see him waiting for me.
Nobody (except Ivor, concerning whom I'd given orders) would be let in
so late at night, during my absence, not even Raoul himself; so if he
had come to reproach me, or break with me, he would have to stand
outside the locked gate till I appeared. I looked for him longingly, but
he was not there. There was, to be sure, a motor brougham in the street,
for a wonder (usually the Rue d'Hollande is as empty as a desert, after
eleven o'clock), but a girl's face peered out at me from the window--an
impish, curiously abnormal little face it was--extinguishing the spark
of hope that sprang to life as I caught sight of the carriage.
It was standing before the closed gate of a house almost opposite mine,
and the girl seemed somewhat interested in me; but I was not at all
interested in her, and I hate being stared at as if I were something in
a museum.
The gate is always kept locked at night, when I'm at the theatre; but
Marianne has the key, and we let ourselves in when we come, for only old
Henri sits up, and he is growing a little deaf. A moment, and we were
inside, the chauffeur spinning away to the garage.
Usually I am newly delighted every night with my quaint old house and
its small, but pretty garden, to which it seems delightful to come home
after hours of hard work at the theatre. But to-night, though a cheerful
light shone out from between the drawn curtains of the salon, the place
looked inexpressibly dreary, even forbidding, to me. I felt that I hated
the house, though I had chosen it after a long search for peacefulness
and privacy. How gloomy, how dead, was the street beyond the high wall,
with all its windows closed like the eyes of corpses. There was a moist,
depressing smell of earth after long-continued rains, in the garden. No
wonder the place had been to let at a bargain, for a long term! There
had been a murder in it once, and it had stood empty for twelve or
thirteen of the fifteen years since the almost forgotten tragedy. I had
been the tenant for two years now--before I became a "star," with a
theatre of my own in Paris. I had had no fear of the ghost said to haunt
the house. Indeed, I remembered thinking, and saying, that the story
only made the place more interesting. But now I said to myself that I
wished I had never spoken so lightly. Perhaps the ghost had brought me
bad luck. I felt as if the murder must have happened on just such a
still, brooding, damp night as this. Maybe it was the anniversary, if I
only knew.
I went indoors, Marianne following. Henri, very thin, very precise,
withered like a winter apple, had fallen into a doze in the hall, where
he had sat, hoping to hear the stopping of my carriage. He rose up,
bowing and blinking, just as he had done often before, and would often
again--if life were to go on for me in the old way. He regretted not
having heard Mademoiselle. Would Mademoiselle take supper?
No, Mademoiselle would not take supper. She wanted nothing, and Henri
might go to bed.
"I thank Mademoiselle. When I have closed the house."
"But I don't want the house closed," I said. "I shall sit up for awhile.
It's hot--close and stuffy. I may like to have the windows open."
"The visitor Mademoiselle expected did not arrive. Perhaps--"
"If he comes, Marianne or I will let him in. But he may not come, now it
is so late."
When Henri had gone, I told Marianne that she might go, too. I did not
want her to wait. If the person I had expected should call, it was a
very old friend; in fact, Mr. Ivor Dundas, whom Marianne must remember
in London. He was to call--if he did call--only on a matter of business,
which would take but a few minutes to get through, and possibly he would
not even come into the house. If the gate-bell rang, I would answer it
myself, and speak with Mr. Dundas, perhaps in the garden. Then I would
let him out and come straight upstairs. Marianne might go to bed if she
wished.
"I do not wish, unless Mademoiselle particularly desires me to do so,"
said she. "I do not rest well when I have not been allowed to undress
Mademoiselle."
"Sit up, then, in your own room, and wait there for me till I ring for
you," I replied. "I shan't be late, whether Mr. Dundas comes or doesn't
come."
"Supposing the gate-bell should ring, and Mademoiselle should go, yet it
should not be the Monsieur she expects, but another person whom she
would not care to admit?"
I knew of what she was thinking, and of whom.
"There's no fear of that. No fear of any kind," I answered.
She took off my cloak, and went upstairs reluctantly, carrying my jewel
box.
I walked into the drawing-room, which was lighted and looked very bright
and charming, with its many flowers and framed photographs, and the
delightful Louis Quinze furniture, which I had so enjoyed picking up
here and there at antique shops or at private sales.
I flung myself on the sofa, but I could not rest. In a moment I was up
again, moving about, looking at the clock, comparing it with my watch,
wondering what could have happened to make Ivor fail in keeping his
promise to be prompt on the hour of twelve.
Of course, a hundred harmless things might have kept him, but I thought
only of the worst, and was working myself up to a frenzy when at last I
heard the gate-bell. I had been in the house no more than twelve or
fourteen minutes, but it seemed an hour, and I gave a sob of relief as I
rushed out, down the garden path, to let my visitor in.
Fumbling a little at the lock, always a little difficult if one were in
a hurry, I asked myself what if, as Marianne had suggested, it were not
Ivor Dundas, but someone else--Raoul, perhaps--or the man who had been
in her mind: Godensky.
But it was Ivor.
"What news?" I questioned him, my voice sounding queer and far away in
my own ears.
"I don't know whether you'll call it news or not, though plenty of
things have happened. I'm awfully sorry to be late--"
I wouldn't let him finish, standing there, but took him by the arm and
drew him into the garden, pushing the gate shut behind him as I did so.
Yet I forgot to lock it, and naturally it did not occur to Ivor that it
ought to be fastened.
Once inside, in the garden, I was going to make him begin again, as I
had told Marianne I would. But suddenly I bethought myself that he might
have been followed; that there might be watchers behind that high wall,
watchers who would try to be listeners too, and whose ears would be very
different from old Henri's. "Come into the house," I said, in a low
voice, "before you begin to tell anything." Then, when we were inside, I
could not even wait for him to go on of his own accord and in his own
way.
"The treaty?" I asked. "Have you got hold of it?"
"Unfortunately, no."
"But you've heard of it? Oh, _say_ you've heard something!"
"If I haven't, it isn't because I've sat down and waited for news to
come. I went back to the Gare du Nord after you left me, to try and get
on the track of the men who travelled with me in the train to Dover. But
I was sent off on the wrong scent, and wasted a lot of time, worse
luck--I'll tell you about it later, if you care to hear details. Then,
when that game was up, I did what I wish I'd done at first, found out
and consulted a private detective, said to be one of the best in
Paris--"
"You told your story--_my_ story--to a detective?" I gasped.
"No. Certainly not. I said I'd lost something of value, given me by a
lady whose name I couldn't bring into the affair. I was George Sandford,
too, not Mr. Dundas. I described my travelling companions, telling all
that happened on the way, and offered big pay if he could find them
quickly--especially the little fellow. He held out hopes of spotting
them to-night, so don't be desperate, my poor girl. The detective chap
seemed really to think he'd not have much difficulty in tracking down
our man; and even if he's parted with the treaty, we can find out what
he's done with it, no doubt. Girard says--"
"Girard!" I caught Ivor up. "Is your detective's name Anatole Girard,
and does he live in Rue du Capucin Blanc?"
"Yes. Do you know him?"
"I know too much of him," I answered bitterly.
"Isn't he clever, after all?"
"Far too clever. I'd rather you had gone to any other detective in
Paris--or to none."
"Why, what's wrong with him?" Ivor began to be distressed.
"Only that he's a personal friend of my worst enemy--the man I spoke of
to you this evening--Count Godensky. I've heard so from Godensky
himself, who mentioned the acquaintance once when Girard had just
succeeded in a case everybody was talking about."
"By Jove, what a beastly coincidence!" exclaimed Ivor, horribly
disappointed at having done exactly the wrong thing, when he had tried
so hard to do the right one. "Yet how could I have dreamed of it?"
"You couldn't," I admitted, hopelessly. "Nothing is your fault. All
that's happened would have happened just the same, no matter what
messenger the Foreign Secretary had sent to me. It's fate. And it's my
punishment."
"Still, even if Godensky and Girard are friends," Ivor tried to console
me, "it isn't likely that the Count has talked to the detective about
you and the affair of the treaty."
"He may have gone to him for help in finding out things he couldn't find
out himself."
"Hardly, I should say, until there'd been time for him to fear failure.
No, the chances are that Girard will have no inner knowledge of the
matter I've put into his hands; and if he's a man of honour, he's bound
to do the best he can for me, as his employer. Have you seen du
Laurier?"
"Yes. At the theatre. Nothing bad had happened to him yet; but that
brute Godensky has made dreadful mischief between us. If only I'd known
that you would be so late, I might have explained everything to him."
"I'm very sorry," said Ivor, so humbly and so sadly that I pitied him
(but not half as much as I pitied myself, even though I hadn't forgotten
that hint he had let drop about a great sacrifice--a girl he loved, whom
he had thrown over, somehow, to come to me). "I made every effort to be
in time. It seems a piece with the rest of my horrible luck to-day that
I was prevented. I hope, at least, that du Laurier knows about the
necklace?"
"He does, by this," I answered. "Yet I'm afraid he won't be in a mood to
take much comfort from it--thanks to that wretch. You know Raoul hasn't
a practical bone in his body. He will think I've deceived him, and
nothing else will matter. I must--" But I broke off, and laid my hand on
Ivor's arm. "What's that?" I whispered. "Did you hear anything then?"
Ivor shook his head. And we both listened.
"It's a step outside, on the gravel path," said I, my heart beginning to
knock against my side. "I forgot to lock the gate. Somebody has come
into the garden. What if it should be Raoul--what if he has seen our
shadows on the curtain?"
Mechanically we moved apart, Ivor making a gesture to reassure me, on
account of the position of the lights. He was right. Our shadows
couldn't have fallen on the curtain.
As we stood listening, there came a knock at the front door. It was
Raoul's knock. I was sure of that.
If only Ivor had arrived a quarter of an hour earlier, at the time
appointed, I should have hurried him away before this, so that I might
write to Raoul; but now I could not think what to do for the best--what
to do, that things might not be made far worse instead of better between
Raoul and me. I had suffered so much that my power of quick decision, on
which I'd so often prided myself vaingloriously, seemed gone.
"It is Raoul," I said. "What shall I do?"
"Let him in, of course, and introduce me. Don't act as if you were
afraid. Say that I came to see you on important business concerning a
friend of yours in England, and had to call after the theatre because
I'm leaving Paris by the first train in the morning."
"No use."
"Why not? When a man loves a woman, he trusts her."
"No man of Latin blood, I think. And Raoul's already angry. He has the
right to be--or would have, if Godensky had been telling him the truth.
And I refused to let him come here. I said I was going straight to bed,
I was so tired. He's knocking again. Hide yourself, and I'll let him in.
Oh, _why_ do you stand there, looking at me like that? Go into that
room," and I pointed, then pushed him towards the door. "You can get
through the window and out of the garden--softly--while Raoul and I are
talking."
"If you insist," said Ivor. "But you're wrong. The best thing--"
"Go--go, I tell you. Don't argue. I know best," I cut him short, in a
sharp whisper, pushing him again.
This time he made no more objections, but went into the adjoining room,
my boudoir. The key was in the door; I turned it in the lock, snatched
it out, and dropped it into a bowl of flowers on a table close by. That
done, I flew out of the drawing-room into the little entrance hall, and
opened the front door. There stood Raoul, his face dead white, and very
stern in the light of the hall lamp. I had never seen him like that
before.
"I know why you're here," I began quickly, before he could speak. "Count
Godensky told me what he said to you. I--hoped you would come."
"Is this why you wished to know what I would do if you deceived me?" he
asked, with the bitterest reproach in eyes and voice.
"No. For I hadn't deceived you," I answered. "I haven't deceived you
now. If you loved me, you'd believe me, Raoul."
I put out my hand and took his. He gave mine no pressure, but he let me
draw him into the house.
"For God's sake, give me back my faith in you, if you can," he said.
"It's death to lose it. I came here wanting to die."
"After you'd killed me, as you said?"
"Perhaps. I couldn't keep away. I had to come. If you have any
explanation, for the love of Heaven, tell me what it is."
"You know me, and you know Godensky--yet you need an explanation of
anything evil said of me by him?" In this way I hoped to disarm Raoul;
but he had been half-mad, I think, and was scarcely sane now, such a
power had jealousy over his better self.
"Don't play with me!" he exclaimed. "I can't bear it. You sent me away.
Yet you had an appointment with Godensky. You took him into your
carriage; and now--"
"Marianne was in the carriage. If I could have had you with me, I should
have packed her off by herself, alone, that I--might be alone with you.
Oh, Raoul, it isn't _possible_ you believe that I could lie to you for
Godensky's sake--a man like that! If I'd cared for him, why shouldn't I
have accepted him instead of you? Could I have changed so quickly, do
you think?"
"I don't think; I'm not able to think. I can only feel," he answered.
"Then--feel sure that I love you--no man but you--now and always."
"Oh, Maxine!" he stammered. "Am I a fool, or wise, to let myself believe
you?"
"You are wise," I answered, as firmly as if I deserved the full faith I
was claiming from him as my right. "If you wouldn't believe, without my
insisting, without my explaining and defending myself, I'd tell you
nothing. But you _do_ believe, just because you love me--I see it in
your face, and thank God for it. So I'll tell you this. Count Godensky
hates me, because I couldn't and wouldn't love him, and he hates you
because he thinks I love you. He--" I paused for a second. A wild
thought had flashed like the light of a beacon in my brain. If I could
say something now which, when the blow fell--if it did fall--might come
back to Raoul's mind and convince him instantly that it was Godensky,
not I, who had stolen the treaty and broken him! If I could make him
believe the whole thing a monstrous plot of Godensky's to revenge
himself on a woman who'd refused him, by cleverly implicating her in her
lover's ruin, by throwing guilt upon her while she was, in reality,
innocent! If I could suggest that to Raoul now, while his ears were
open, I might hold his love against the world, no matter what happened
afterward.
It was a mad idea and a wicked one, perhaps; but I was at my wits' end
and desperate. Though not guilty of this one crime which I would shift
upon his shoulders if I could, as a means of escaping from the trap he'd
helped to set, Godensky was capable of it, and guilty of others, I was
sure, which had never been brought home to him. I believed that he, too,
was a spy, just as I was; and far worse, because if he were one he
betrayed his own country, while I never had done that, never would.
All these thoughts rushed through my head in a second; and I think that
Raoul could hardly have noticed the pause before I began to speak again.
"He--Godensky--would do anything to part you and me," I said. "There's
no plot too sly and vile for him to conceive and carry out against
me--and you. No lie too base for him to tell you--or others--about me.
He sent me a letter at the theatre--soon after you'd left me the first
time. In it, he said that I must give him a few minutes after the play,
unless I wanted some dreadful harm to come to _you_--something
concerning your career. That frightened me, though I might have guessed
it was only a trick. Indeed, I did guess, but I couldn't be sure, so I
saw him. I didn't want you to know--I tell you that frankly, Raoul.
Because I'd told you not to come home with me, I hoped you wouldn't find
out that I meant to let Count Godensky drive part of the way back with
me and Marianne. I ran the risk, and--the very thing happened which I
ought to have known would happen. As for what he had to tell me, it was
nothing; only vague hints of trouble from which he, as one of an inner
circle, might save you, if I--would be grateful enough."
"The scoundrel!" broke out Raoul, convinced now, his eyes blazing.
"I'll--"
He stopped suddenly. But I knew what had been on his lips to say. He
meant to send a challenge to Count Godensky. I must prevent him from
doing that.
"No, Raoul," I said, as if he had finished his sentence, "you musn't
fight. For my sake, you mustn't. Don't you see, it's just what he'd like
best? It would be a way of doing me the most dreadful injury. Think of
the scandal. Oh, you _will_ think of it, when you're cooler. For you, I
would not fear much, for I know what a swordsman you are, and what a
shot--far superior to Godensky, and with right on your side. But I would
fear for myself. Promise you won't bring this trouble upon me."
"I promise," he answered. "Oh, my darling, what wouldn't I promise you,
to atone for my brutal injustice to an angel? How thankful I am that I
came to you to-night! I meant not to come. I was afraid of myself, and
what I might do. But at last I couldn't hold out against the something
that seemed forcing me here in spite of all resistance. Do you forgive
me?"
"As a reward for your promise," I said, smiling at him through tears
that would come because I was worn out, and because I knew that it was I
who needed his forgiveness, not he mine. "Now are you happy again?" I
asked.
"Yes, I'm happy," he said. "Though on the way to this house I didn't
dream that it would be possible for me to know happiness any more in
this world. And even at your gate--" He stopped suddenly, and his face
changed. I waited an instant, but seeing that he didn't mean to go on, I
could not resist questioning him. I had to know what had happened at my
gate.
"Even at the gate--what?" I asked.
"Nothing. I'm sorry I spoke. I want to show you how completely I trust
you now, by not speaking of that."
But this reticence of his only made me more anxious to hear what he had
been going to say. I was afraid that I could guess. But I must have it
from his lips, and be able to explain away the mystery which, when it
recurred to him in the future, might make him doubt me, even though in
this moment of exaltation he did not doubt.
"Yes, speak of it," I said. "All the more because it is nothing. For it
_can_ be nothing."
"I want to punish myself for asking an explanation about Godensky, by
not allowing you to explain this other thing," insisted poor, loyal,
repentant Raoul. "Then--at the time--it made all the rest seem worse, a
thousand times worse. But I saw through black spectacles. Now I see
through rose-coloured ones."
"I'd rather you saw through your own dear eyes, without any spectacles.
You must tell me what you're thinking of, dear. For my own sake, if not
yours."
"Well--if you will know. But, remember, darling, I'm going to put it out
of my mind. I'll ask you no questions, I'll only--tell you the thing
itself. As I said, I didn't come here directly after seeing Godensky get
into your carriage. I wandered about like a madman--and I thought of the
Seine."
"Oh--you must indeed have been mad!"
"I was. But that something saved me--the something that drove me to find
you. I walked here, by roundabout ways, but always coming nearer and
nearer, as if being drawn into a whirlpool. At last, I was in this
street, on the side opposite your house. I hadn't made up my mind yet,
that I would try to see you. I didn't know what I would do. I stood
still, and tried to think. It was very black, in the angle between two
garden walls where the big plane tree sprouts up, you know. Nobody who
didn't expect to find a man would have noticed me in the darkness. I
hadn't been there for two minutes when a man turned the corner, walking
very fast. As he passed the street lamp just before reaching the garden
wall, I saw him plainly--not his face, but his figure, and he was young
and well dressed, in travelling clothes. I thought he looked like an
Englishman. He went straight to your gate and rang. A moment later
someone, I couldn't see who, opened the gate and let him in.
Involuntarily I took a step forward, with the idea of following--of
pushing my way in to see who he was and who had opened the gate. But I
wasn't quite mad enough to act like a cad. The gate shut. Oh, Maxine,
there were evil and cruel thoughts in my mind, I confess it to you--but
how they made me suffer! I stood as if I were turned to stone, and I
only wished that I might be, for a stone knows no pain. Just then a
motor cab going slowly along the street stopped in front of your gate.
There were two women in it. I could see them by the light of the street
lamp, though not as plainly as I'd seen the man, and they appeared to be
arguing very excitedly about something. Whatever it was, it must have
been in some way concerned with you, or your affairs, because they were
tremendously interested in the house. They both looked out, and one
pointed several times. Even if I'd intended to go in, I wouldn't have
gone while they were there. But the very fact that they _were_ there
roused me out of the kind of lethargy of misery I'd fallen into. I
wondered who they were, and if they meant you harm or good. When they
had driven away I made up my mind that I would see you if I could. I
tried the gate, and found it unlocked. I walked in, and--there were
lights in these windows. I knew you couldn't have gone to bed yet,
though you'd said you were so tired. There was death in my heart then,
for you and for me, Maxine, for--the gate hadn't opened again, and--"
"I know what you thought!" I broke in, my heart beating so now that my
voice shook a little, though I struggled to seem calm. "You said to
yourself, 'It was Maxine who let the man in. He is with her now. I shall
find them together.'"
"Yes," Raoul admitted. "But I didn't try the handle of the door, as I
had of the gate. I rang. I couldn't bring myself to take you unawares."
"Do you think still that I let a man in, and hid him when I heard you
ring?" I asked. (For an instant I was inclined to tell the story Ivor
had advised me to tell; but I saw how excited Raoul was; I saw how, in
painting the picture for me, he lived through the scene again, and, in
spite of himself, suffered almost as keenly as he had suffered in the
experience. I saw how his suspicions of me came crawling into his heart,
though he strove to lash them back. I dared not bring Ivor out from the
other room, if he were still there. He was too handsome, too young, too
attractive in every way. If Raoul had been jealous of Count Godensky,
whom he knew I had refused, what would he feel towards Ivor Dundas, a
stranger whose name I had never mentioned, though he was received at my
house after midnight? I was thankful I hadn't taken Ivor's advice and
introduced the two men at first, for in his then mood Raoul would have
listened to no explanations. He and I would never have arrived at the
understanding we had reached now. And not having been frank at first, I
must be secret to the end.)
The very asking of such a bold question--"Do you think I let a man in,
and hid him?" helped my cause with Raoul.
"No," he said, "I can't think it. I won't, and don't think it. And you
need tell me nothing. I love you. And so help me God, I won't distrust
you again!"
Just as it entered my mind to risk everything on the chance that Ivor
had by this time found his way out, I heard, or fancied I heard, a faint
sound in the next room. He was there still.
Instead of throwing open the door, as it had occurred to me to do,
saying, "Let us look for the man, and make sure no one else let him in,"
I laughed out abruptly, as if on a sudden thought, but really to cover
the sound if it should come again.
"Oh, Raoul!" I exclaimed, in the midst of the laughter with which I
surprised him. "You're taking this too seriously. A thousand times I
thank you for trusting me in spite of appearances, but--after all,
_were_ they so much against me? You seem to think I am the only young
woman in this house. Marianne, poor dear, is old enough, it's true. But
I have a _femme de chambre_ and a _cuisinière_, both under twenty-five,
both pretty, and both engaged to be married." (This was true. Ah, what a
comfort to speak the truth to him!) "Doesn't it occur to you that, at
this very moment, a couple of lovers may be sitting hand in hand on the
seat under the old yew arbour? Can't you imagine how they started and
tried to hold their breath lest you should hear, as you opened the gate
and came up the path?"
"Forgive me!" murmured Raoul, in the depths of remorse again.
"Shall we go and look, or shall we leave them in peace?"
"Leave them in peace, by all means."
"The man will be slipping away soon, no doubt. Both Thérèse and Annette
are good little girls."
"Don't let's bother about them. You will be sending me away soon, too,
and I shall deserve it. Brute that I am. You were so tired, and I--"
"Oh, I'm better now," I said. "Of course I must send you away by and by,
but not quite yet. First, I want to ask if you weren't glad when you saw
the jewels?"
"Jewels?" echoed Raoul. "What jewels?"
"You don't mean to say you haven't yet opened the little bag I gave you
at the theatre?" I exclaimed.
Raoul looked half ashamed. "Dearest, don't think me ungrateful," he
said, "but before I had a chance to open it I met Godensky, and he told
me--that lie. It lit a fire in my brain. I forgot all about the bag, and
haven't thought of it again till this minute."
At last I laughed with sincerity. "Oh, Raoul, Raoul, you're not fit for
this work-a-day world! Well, I'm glad, after all, that I shall be with
you, when you see what that little insignificant bag which you've
forgotten all this tune has in it. Take it out of your pocket, and let's
open it together."
For the moment I was almost happy; and that Raoul would be happy, I
knew.
His hand went to the inner pocket of his coat, into which I had seen him
put the brocade bag. But it did not come out again. It groped; and his
face flushed. "Good heavens, Maxine," he said, "I hope you weren't in
earnest when you told me that bag held something very valuable to us
both, for I've lost it. You know, I've been almost mad. I had my
handkerchief in that pocket. I must have pulled it out, and--"
My knees seemed to give way under me. I half fell onto a sofa.
"Raoul," I said, in a queer stifled voice, "the bag had in it the
Duchess de Montpellier's diamonds."
IVOR DUNDAS' PART