DISCOVERY
"Miss Lady!" cried Eddring, yet again; and even as the hurrying
figure before him reached the gallery steps, she heard the entreaty
of his voice and turned. As she did so she tore from her face the
concealing mask and stood before him, Miss Lady indeed--tall,
straight, young and beautiful. Eddring moved forward impetuously,
feeling all the thrill of her presence; all the lambency of woman,
planet-like, far-off, mysterious. Eagerly he looked, and
questioningly, doubtingly, and then there came a quick content to his
heart. In spite of all, in spite of what might have been, this was
Miss Lady herself and none other! Sweet as of old, and ah, fit indeed
for worship! Ah, here, he cried out to himself, was that friend of
his soul, lost now for a time, but found, now found again!
But even as he pressed forward, holding out his hands, his emotion
shining in his eyes, there came a change upon Miss Lady's face.
"Ah, Mr. Eddring, it is you?" she said, and her voice had the upward
inflection, as though she carelessly addressed an inferior. "I
remember you very well, but I hardly thought to see you. Indeed, I
should hardly have expected to see any one in just this way."
All that Eddring could do was to falter and cry out, "Yes, I have
come! I have found you!"
"Indeed? But we do not receive callers. Our plan of life has been
arranged otherwise. You might be observed even now. It would cause
talk."
"Talk!" cried Eddring, now suddenly breaking into flame. "Why, let
them talk! It is time there was talk--time you talked to some of your
old friends--you, Miss Lady, who had so many friends."
"Friends!" said the girl, bitterly. "Friends!"
"Yes, friends!" cried Eddring. "Surely you know that Blount and I
have moved heaven and earth trying to find you. Why you should go,
why you should leave every one in ignorance and take up with mummery
like _this_--it is something no sane person can tell. You have not
done right, Miss Lady. You have not done right!"
The girl raised her head, a flame of anger upon her own cheek at this
presumption. Yet she reserved her speech, and by gesture led Eddring
to a spot concealed by the ivy-covered lattice. Her cheeks burned all
the more hotly as Eddring went on.
"What mockery!" he cried.
"Yes, what mockery!" repeated Miss Lady. "What mockery that you
should say these things to me! What had I up there? What was I? I was
a servant, a dependent. Besides all that, things came up which would
have driven any decent girl away. I could do nothing else but go. Oh,
you don't know all. You can't be just, for you don't know."
"But your mother?"
"You mean Mrs. Ellison? She was not my mother, Mr. Eddring. I thought
you knew that. That is one reason why I am here."
"She was not your mother? Then that was true?"
"She never was. She disappeared out of my life, and I know little
about her now, excepting that she was the only mother I ever knew.
There has been deception of some sort. There were so many sad and
troublesome things that I could no longer endure my life as it was. I
went away. I came here, I found a home."
"But Colonel Blount?"
"Sir, he was my friend. I can only say that in justice it was better
for me to go. He is a noble man. If ever I pained him I am sorry. But
as to friends--" she dangled the little domino on her finger, "this
has been my only friend. It has kept me from seeing even myself.
Without it I should have died." There were no tears in her eyes as
she spoke. Eddring felt that he had now to do with a woman grown,
sad, not light and unstable. There crowded to his tongue a thousand
things.
"_That!_" said he. "You, Louise Loisson--you have indeed been
masquerading. Tell me, how did you get that name?"
"It was an accident purely," said Miss Lady. "I found it in a book,
years ago. It was unusual, and I took it for that reason. I wanted to
get as far away from any possibility of detection by my friends as I
possibly could. See," she smiled bitterly, "I am Louise Loisson now,
the common dancer! I make my living in that way. But for that, and
for the kindness of Madame Delchasse here, I might have starved. I am
no longer any one you ever knew. Behind this mask sometimes I
forget."
Eddring looked at her with strange earnestness. "You don't know how
true is every word you speak," said he. "There is absolute fatality
under all this. On my honor, I believe you _are_ Louise Loisson,
born over again! But look how fate brings you and me together: I did
not know where Miss Lady Ellison had gone; I did not know who Louise
Loisson might be; by chance, by the merest chance, I wished to learn--
for other reasons only. Now, see! Why, it is fate, Miss Lady! I have
found you both. Miss Lady, my dear girl, see! I have found everything
else in the world at the same time." The pent-up yearning of his soul
was in his voice, his eyes. The girl caught swift warning.
"I shall go in," said she; but he stopped her. She tore loose the
hand which he would have taken. "Go!" said she, "and never must you
come through that gate again. You were unasked, and never will be
asked. You, to talk of friends! Why, you were the very last of any I
ever knew whom I should have cared to see again."
"What--what is that?" He stumbled under this sudden blow.
"Oh, I have enough of men," said the girl, bitterly, "enough of
humanity. But I will tell you this much, a friend of mine must first
of all be an honest man. You talk to me of masquerading; take off:
your own mask, and let me set my foot upon it, as I have set foot
upon all my past! Sincerity, truth--I wonder if there is such a
thing left in all of God's world. I did not ask you here, I do not
welcome you here. Good-by. You must go."
He stood dumb, simply gazing at her, not understanding; and his
absolute horror she took to be his mere confusion. Yet her eyes were
more sad than angry as she went on.
"You've prospered, Mr. Eddring, I know," said she. "What a difference
for you and me! A girl must walk so carefully, but a man may do as he
pleases. You talk about fate, and that sort of thing, but no man with
a life like yours can come into my life, mere dancer though I be.
Before you go I want to say to you that I know the story of your
discharge from the railroad. I know how you profited by your
knowledge of the company's affairs--know other things not public
regarding you. Since I do know these things, for you to dare to come
to me in this way seems to me the worst of effrontery."
Still Eddring stood uncomprehending, stunned. "I--I do that?" he
whispered, half to himself. "Did you think--could you believe--"
"I could believe nothing else."
"Who told you these things?" blazed he at length, as at last his
heart once more sent the blood back through his veins.
"If you wish to know, I will tell you. It was Henry Decherd. I
imagine he could furnish proof enough." She spoke defiantly, if
perhaps wearily.
"Henry Decherd!" exclaimed Eddring. "Henry Decherd! Miss Lady, is it
possible that you can stand alive under the sun of heaven and say
these things to me? Is he here? Tell me, what right--"
But now the anger of Miss Lady herself was blazing, and all the
cruelty of her sex was in her tone as she answered. "I need not tell
you," said she, "but I will. Mr. Decherd is the only friend of my
former life who cared enough for me to follow and find me. And so he
has the right--"
"For what? Tell me, is there any truth in this newspaper paragraph--
'There is talk about the marriage of the mysterious Louise Loisson'?
Don't tell me that he--that Decherd--" He gazed steadily into her
eyes, but saw there that which made him forget all his purposes,
forced him to remember nothing in the world but his sudden personal
misery. And so for an instant he stood and suffered--until the sheer
bigness of his soul began to reassert itself. All his love for her
came back, and he forgot even his deadly hurt in the great wave of
pity and tenderness which swept over him.
"Miss Lady," said he simply, after a time, "for myself it doesn't
make so much difference, after all, I am one of the unlucky. But for
you, as you say, it is at least your due that you should have honest
men for your friends, and an honest man for your husband. I wanted
you to trust me. I loved you. I wanted you to believe in me. I wanted
you to _marry_ me, Miss Lady--I _will_ say it--and I wanted to tell
you that long ago, before you left us. That is over now. You are
unjust and cruel beyond all toleration--beyond all belief. You could
by no possibility ever love me. But listen. You shall never marry
Henry Decherd."