The Balance of Power.
Atkins had taken up his abode in B. for the winter; but Alison had left
a few days after Frederic's burial. He must have felt that his presence
was not comforting to Jane; so he resumed his original plan of travel.
He had passed the autumn and winter in a tour through Switzerland and
Italy, and now, in the spring, when he had visited the larger cities of
Germany, he was about to return to B. The doctor and his wife even now
knew nothing of his relations to their niece. Jane had never alluded to
the subject. They only knew that the year of her stay in Germany having
expired, and its purpose having been accomplished, she was soon to
return to America; that the first of the next month had been fixed upon
as the time of her departure. It was delegated to Atkins to inform the
relatives that Jane would return as Mrs. Alison, and that it was
thought best the marriage ceremony should be performed here in the
house of her uncle. The great respect and deference they had always
shown the young lady's wealth, now found its reward; they were treated
as if really inferiors, not being informed of this most intimate of
family relations, until their aid was needed in arranging the necessary
preliminaries for the marriage decided upon so long ago.
* * *
Alison had arrived at Atkins' hotel, and would remain there for the
present; but his manner today betrayed nothing of that passionately
concealed impatience, which, upon his former arrival in B., had driven
him at once to Jane, and subjected him to Atkins' ridicule. He now
stood nonchalanty at a window, and gazed indifferently down into the
street, as if in no haste at all for the approaching reunion.
Alison at this moment seemed quite another being than on that night
when unfettered passion had carried him beyond all bounds. In the last
six months he had found ample time to recover his equanimity, and he
had perfectly succeeded in the effort. He was again the calm, formal
man of business with the cold, calculating glance and the conventional
polish. That which lay dormant under all this, and had once so
dangerously come to the surface, had now sunken back into the depths.
His face looked as if it had never known an emotion, only one trait
remained; that expression of inimical hardness and cool determination
which had first appeared at that meeting in S.; it was yet in his face;
it stood firmly engraven there as if during those six months it had not
for an instant left his features.
"You come very late, Henry," said Atkins, who stood near him. "We
expected you sooner."
Alison turned and gazed at him. "We! Do you also speak in Miss Forest's
name?"
Atkins evaded the answer. "You ought to have come sooner," he repeated
gravely. "It was not considerate in you to leave Miss Jane here amid
all these rejoicings over the victory, which must have made her loss
only the more bitter. We might, all three of us, have been on our way
to America long ago."
Henry gave an indifferent shrug of the shoulders. "My travelling plans
admitted of no change," he said, "and besides, I had an idea you would
all be thankful for the delay. Doctor and Mrs. Stephen are not yet
informed, are they?"
"I have just told them."
"Well, after an interview with my betrothed, I wish to be introduced to
them as a future relative. The three weeks from now to the beginning of
next month will suffice for all necessary preparations, and we shall
leave immediately after the ceremony. You are aware of my arrangements
with Miss Forest?"
"She has told me that she leaves all to your decision, and that I have
simply to consult you in regard to the arrangements."
He turned again to the window. Atkins was for a while silent, but all
at once he laid on his hand Alison's arm.
"The regiment is expected back to-morrow, Henry!" he said.
"I know it!" returned Alison, not moving from his place. "And Professor
Fernow is coming in any event," continued Atkins, with marked emphasis.
Henry glanced at him calmly. "Do you know this so certainly?"
"He surely will not remain away from a reception that is especially
designed for him."
"He will not come!" said Alison coolly. "After what has passed between
us, he does not enter this house while my betrothed remains in it, or I
do not understand the German sentiment of honor."
Atkins looked at him doubtfully. "Well, I was not a witness of your
interview," he said. "You must know what is to be expected of him; but
if he really remains away are you just as sure of Miss Forest?"
Henry did not answer; he merely smiled in his ill-omened way.
"Supposing she should refuse to fulfil her promise to you?"
"She will not refuse."
Atkins did not seem to share his decided conviction. "You may find
yourself in error," he said. "Jane is no longer in that hollow stupor
that was upon her at our first arrival in B. She is silent as usual,
but I know that all her strength of mind is now directed towards one
conclusion; and this conclusion will hardly be blind submission to your
will. Look before you!"
Henry smiled again, and it was with almost a sympathetic glance he
looked down upon the man who warned him.
"And do you really believe I would have gone on my travels, and have
calmly remained half a year away, if I had not previously secured
myself on all sides?--I challenged Professor Fernow; he put me off
until the end of the war; his promise now binds him, and as the injured
man, the first shot is due me. Miss Foster knows this; she knows also
that I will shoot him down, if she does not unconditionally submit to
what I think best. The choice was given her at that time when the death
of her brother led her to ask from me a delay of the marriage until the
proper period of morning had expired. I allowed her ample time, for I
knew that I need fear no change of her mind. _His_ life was at stake!
Through that apprehension I hold her more firmly than by a tenfold
cord; she will not venture to resist my will, not even by a word; she
knows the price of his safety."
Atkins gazed at him almost in horror. "And will you really force her
consent in this way? Be on your guard, Henry! Jane is no woman to allow
herself patiently to be sacrificed; she will revenge her blighted
happiness upon you. You purchase that longed-for million with hell in
your house."
Alison's lips curled in scorn. "Give yourself no anxiety as to our
future married happiness, Mr. Atkins! I believe that I am in all
respects a match for my future wife.--But it must be time for us to go
to Doctor Stephen's. May I ask you to get ready?"
Atkins lingered a moment. "Henry," he said entreatingly, "whatever may
happen between you two, spare Jane; she has fearfully suffered in these
last months."
"Has she spared me?" asked Alison with an icy coldness. "The proud Miss
Forest would have cast me aside as a worthless burden, had not
another's life rested in my hands. Now I have the power and I will use
it; the obstinate woman shall yield to me at my price!"
Atkins sighed deeply as he went into the next room for his hat and
gloves. "What a marriage this will be! God pity us when these two are
man and wife!" he said.