Rosalind’s insolent face went red with wrath.
“I don’t know who ‘Thompson’ is or whether it’s a man or a woman,” she
said threateningly, “but it will be a bad night’s business for both of
you, if either he or she tries anything of that sort. I’ve some friends
within call, and if I can’t take care of myself without them, I’ve only
to call, to get all the help I need.”
Berry looked the unutterable disgust she felt, and she involuntarily
drew back a step from her unwelcome visitor. Fortunately for all
concerned, however, Thompson--who was one of the under footmen--was in
another part of the house at the time and did not, therefore, put in an
appearance in response to her ladyship’s request.
Rosalind waited for a moment in expectation of hostilities of a
more formidable character than the mere resentment of an indignant
gentlewoman, and, finding that none were likely to come, stuck her
cigarette between her lips again and blew out a long writhing plume of
smoke.
“I reckon that ‘Thompson’ knows when he’s well off, and has made
himself scarce,” she said with a laugh and a wave of one very much
bejeweled hand. “And as there’s no way for you to get into the house
unless I choose to step aside and let you, I also reckon you’ve got to
stand and face the music whether you like it or not. Turn about’s fair
play the world over. You tried to shut me out of Crumplesea, and now
I’m shutting you in--in your own veranda.”
“What do you want of me, that you have had the impudence to come here
and to play me such a trick as you have done?” asked Berry, with cool
scorn. “No! don’t come any nearer; keep your distance, please; you are
quite too close for comfort as it is.”
“Oh! you want to know what I’ve come for, do you? Well, you shall--and
in short order, too! Yes, and you’ll dance to a more expensive tune
than I first intended for treating me like this. Ten thousand would
have bought me off when first I came, but it’ll cost you fifty thousand
now, I promise you.”
“There’s a mistake on your part--it won’t cost me a penny. If you
have any idea of blackmailing me because you are--well, what you are,
get that idea out of your mind at once. That my stepbrother married a
creature who was--and apparently still is--scarcely a fit associate for
one of my scullery maids and that I disowned him for it, are matters
that are known to every one who knows me, and I should scarcely be
likely to pay you money to keep secret a thing that is public property.”
“Oh! that’s the ‘tack’ you’re going on, is it? Well, suppose I start
in telling something that everybody doesn’t know--not even you
yourself--what then? Look here, my Lady High and Mighty, you snuffed me
out as a wife and widow, but you can’t snuff me out as a mother--the
mother of your brother’s daughter, a child born in honorable wedlock
nearly eighteen years ago.”
Save that it grew perhaps the fraction of a shade paler, Berry’s face
changed not one whit.
She flung away her cigarette and fumbled for a moment among the folds
of her skirt, then her unsteady hand drew a packet of paper from her
pocket, loosened the bit of string that held it together, and flirted
off two documents from the top.
“There’s her baptismal certificate, for one, and my marriage lines,
for another,” she said, “and here’s one of Adrian’s letters to me
acknowledging that he knew there was going to be a child. Solid
evidence that, isn’t it?”
“Certainly; indisputable evidence. But again--quite unnecessary! Why
all this palaver? I really don’t see what you are driving at. Neither
I, nor my husband, nor any one else, ever doubted your announcement,
years ago. We simply had no interest in the matter. What is your
intention?”
“Now look here: here’s what is going to happen to-morrow night, if you
don’t buy me off at my own price, and take that girl off my hands.”
Speaking, she unfolded the last of the papers she held, filling the air
as she did so with the faint, sickly smell of fresh printer’s ink, and
shook out a still damp half-sheet poster.
Berry did not notice it for a moment; she had taken up the baptismal
certificate and the faded letter. But she turned at last and saw the
bill that was held up for her inspection. And for the first time her
face became really pale.
“Looks nice, doesn’t it?” said Rosalind, with a little babble of
splenetic mockery. “Your niece is going to lead the Amazon march,
and--in tights! She says she won’t, but she will, you know; she’ll
have to give in--people always have to do that where I’m concerned.
You’ll do it presently, like all the rest, and I shall leave this place
with your check for fifty thousand pounds in my pocket or else these
bills go up to-morrow morning, and what’s printed on them will happen
to-morrow night. It doesn’t do to run foul of me, does it, now?”
“I don’t know,” said Berry, in a low, level voice; “and I really don’t
think that I care, either. If you have set your mind upon doing this
thing, you must do it, of course. And now, if you have said all that
you have to say, be good enough to relieve me of your presence. You
cannot extort one copper out of me, madam, no matter what you propose
to do.”