THE LADY ON THE VERANDAH
No one was coming; Lady Gardiner dared to turn the key. The door opened,
and she looked into the room beyond.
It was a cabin, of the same size as the others, and fitted up as a
stateroom, but furnished and decorated differently. The five which Kate
had been shown yesterday were comfortable, but not particularly
luxurious, and she had wondered, since this was ostensibly a pleasure
trip, that beauty-loving Virginia had not thought it worth while to have
her own cabin, at least, made more dainty.
In the locked stateroom, whose secret Kate was violating, the berth was
hung with old brocaded silk of blue and silver, the curtains edged with
curious thick lace, yellowed by time. On the floor lay a beautiful
tiger-skin, covering it from end to end. A large fitted travelling-bag
stood open on a cushioned seat, showing silver-topped bottles; and the
wall on one side of the cabin was almost hidden with photographs and
sketches which had been tacked up, over a low book-shelf, filled with
volumes in uniform binding of blue and gold. The photographs were of
places as well as people, and Kate had just identified the Valley of the
Shadow, dominated by the Château de la Roche, when a sudden sound sent
her out of the cabin and into the saloon, with her heart pounding and her
nerves throbbing, in shamed fear of discovery.
She had just time to lock the door and pass on to that of her own
stateroom when Celestine appeared, carrying various small parcels. She
had been sent to the yacht by her mistress to finish a few preparations
for the voyage, and was surprised to see Lady Gardiner. Kate, however,
was prepared with her story of the lost ring, which no doubt Celestine
would repeat to Virginia, and produced the jewel, saying that fortunately
she had found it on the floor of her cabin.
The maid had no suspicion, probably did not dream that the _Bella Cuba_
had a secret to keep, and Lady Gardiner was rowed back to shore,
confident that she had come safely out of the morning's adventure. The
mystery, however, remained a mystery, except that Kate was certain now of
one thing which she had only suspected. There was to be a passenger on
board the _Bella Cuba_, whose expected presence had carefully been
concealed from her. For this passenger elaborate preparations had been
made. Everything behind that locked door was beautiful, but nothing was
new. In the fleeting glimpse Kate had obtained before the sound of
Celestine's descending steps had sent her flying from her stolen
inspection, she had been impressed with the feeling that the decorations
of the stateroom had all been taken from some other room, with the view
of surrounding its occupant with old associations.
Lady Gardiner hoped to see Loria before going back to the hotel, and an
appointment had been made, to be kept as nearly to the time as possible;
but he was not at Rumpelmayer's, the place of meeting, and, astonished at
his defection, she was obliged to return to the Cap Martin without the
expected talk. In her room she found a line from the Italian. Sir Roger
Broom had seen him at Rumpelmayer's, he explained, and had joined him
there. Fearing that Lady Gardiner might come in while they were together,
he pleaded an engagement and went out, still accompanied by Broom. Now,
Loria asked, was it possible that Miss Beverly's cousin suspected
anything? Had Lady Gardiner been imprudent and dropped the slightest hint
of their new allegiance?
Kate had begun a note in reply, when Virginia knocked at her door,
inquiring whether she were ready for luncheon. "Wait for me just a moment
in the sitting-room," said the elder woman, and, her ideas confused in
the necessity for haste, she merely scrawled: "Don't think Sir Roger or
any one suspects. Must have been an accident. Key worked well. I saw
cabin. It is ready for a passenger. I would wager that that passenger is
Madeleine Dalahaide. Probably we shall not have a word together in
private now before we go, but will write you from every port, or wire if
necessary and possible.--K. G."
This note she took down to the dining-room with her, and barely had a
chance to press it into Loria's palm as he bade her, with the others, a
rather formal farewell.
The Marchese was not one of those who went out to the yacht to see the
last of the beautiful American girl and her party. Virginia had
definitely refused him now, and the old, pleasant intimacy had been
brought to a sudden end. Nevertheless, he sent her flowers--a great
basket of roses big enough to fill up half of her stateroom on the _Bella
Cuba_--which she promptly gave to Kate, with various other elaborate
offerings, keeping for her own cabin only a small bunch of fragrant
violets sent by some one whose name she seemed to guess, although there
was no card.
So, at last, they were off; and no sad-faced girl in black had appeared.
Besides the original party of four, there was only a little dark,
keen-eyed English doctor, taken from his practice in Mentone. He looked
like a man who would know how to keep a secret, and Kate wondered whether
the mystery of the _Bella Cuba_ were a mystery to Dr. Grayle.
"Miss Dalahaide will come on board at Naples," Kate said to herself when
it became certain that they would stop there. "She is well known in
Mentone, no doubt, and didn't wish it to leak out that she was going on
this yachting trip."
But they arrived at Naples, sent off telegrams and letters, coaled, and
left without taking on another passenger. Always it seemed to Kate that
Virginia's manner showed suppressed nervous excitement. She was restless,
capricious, took an interest in nothing for more than ten minutes
together. She had never been to Naples before, yet she appeared to grudge
the two or three hours they spent in driving about, and would not listen
to Kate's suggestion that they should stop long enough for a visit to
Pompeii.
"Next time," she said evasively. Altogether, she had not at all the air
of a young woman yachting for pleasure, as of course she must be, since
what other object could the trip have? "I am in a hurry to see Cairo,"
she replied, when Lady Gardiner inquired the reason of her impatience.
After all, they did not touch at Greece, but went straight on to
Alexandria, the sea being so calmly unruffled that even Kate had no
excuse for illness. She might have been very happy in these long, lazy,
blue-and-gold days, if George Trent had been his old self. But the frost
which had withered the flower of his fancy for her that day in the Valley
of the Shadow, had never thawed. He read and smoked a great deal, leaving
Roger Broom to amuse Virginia and Lady Gardiner.
Something went wrong with the engine the morning when they expected to
reach Alexandria and Kate heard talk of a "heated bearing on the
crankshaft," which might have to be taken off, thus delaying them a
couple of days. "But a couple of days!" she exclaimed in surprise.
"Surely you mean to stop longer than that!"
"We hadn't thought of it," answered Roger drily.
"Are you going up the Nile then?"
"No; the _Bella Cuba_ is rather big, you know."
"Not so big as the excursion boats that go, is she?"
"Virginia doesn't care about it, anyhow; she loves the sea for its own
sake, and hasn't come as much for sight-seeing as for a complete rest.
While the repairs are being done we shall run up to Cairo by rail, stop a
night at the Ghezireh Palace, and drive out for a look at the Sphinx and
the Pyramids."
"You really are the most extraordinary people!" ejaculated Kate. "I don't
know what to make of you."
Roger smiled, and was silent. He had the air of thinking it of small
importance whether or not Lady Gardiner, who had insisted upon coming on
this trip, knew what to make of her hosts and hostess. But, then, Sir
Roger Broom had never more than tolerated this most charming of
companions.
Kate had kept the master-key which Loria had given her, and had never
ceased to hope for another chance to investigate the locked stateroom,
which might, she told herself sometimes, have a hidden occupant. To be
sure, so far as she knew, no other passengers had come on board at
Naples; but, then, they had all been away from the yacht for several
hours, and some one might have been smuggled into the cabin. With this
fancy lurking in her mind, she would have given much for a second peep;
but she had never found a moment when it seemed safe to run the risk.
She could imagine no reason, if Madeleine Dalahaide had come on board at
Naples, beyond spying-distance of old acquaintances, why she should
remain hidden in the stateroom, unless, indeed, there were some truth in
Loria's suggestion that the yacht was bound for New Caledonia, to take
the girl out to her convict brother. In that case, perhaps, it might
conceivably be necessary to keep the captain and crew in ignorance of her
presence, lest they should gossip in port. Still, Virginia's
restlessness, her lack of interest in the beautiful places so easy to
visit, her desire to remain on board when the _Bella Cuba_ was in port,
seemed to point to some peculiar motive under her indifference to all
pleasures of the trip.
In Alexandria, the girl "did not see why they should pack up to stop a
night in Cairo." What if the crankshaft could be repaired sooner than
they supposed? Then they would be wasting time. But she was overruled,
and just before sunset they drove up to one of the most beautiful hotels
in the world.
The evening chill was beginning to fall, yet many people still lingered
on the huge terrace overlooking the Nile, where the "winging" sails of
the little boats were pink and golden as mother-o'-pearl, reflecting the
crimson glory of the sky. A woman sitting alone at a little table looked
up as they passed, and with a slight start. Virginia half stopped,
staring almost rudely at the face which was lifted for a moment. But it
was only for a moment.
The woman, who was exceedingly handsome, of the most luscious Spanish
type of beauty, flushed under the American girl's intent gaze, drew up a
sable cape which had partly fallen from the shoulders of her white cloth
dress, and turned a resentful back.
"What a handsome creature, but awfully made up!" whispered Kate, who had
no mercy on her own sex.
Virginia did not answer. She walked on, looking as if she had awakened
from a dream.
At dinner that night, next to the party from the yacht, was a small table
laid for one. It was unoccupied until they had half finished dinner; then
heads began suddenly to turn toward the door; people whispered, there was
a perceptible, though scarcely definable thrill of interest, and a tall
woman in sequined black tulle, glittering with diamonds, came slowly up
the room. She must have known that all eyes were upon her, yet she
appeared unconscious. Her lashes were cast down as she moved toward a
chair held obsequiously ready by a waiter at the little empty table, and
their dusky length was not second even to Virginia's. As the newcomer sat
down, she faced Roger Broom.
"That woman's face looks somehow familiar to me," he said, "yet I can't
think where, if ever, I have seen it. I suppose it can only be a chance
resemblance to somebody or other."
Virginia opened her lips to speak, but closed them again hastily. Kate
then threw a questioning glance her way, and saw that she had suddenly
grown pale. "I wish you or George would find out who she is," the girl
said presently. "She is one of the handsomest women I ever saw. If
possible, I should like to know her."
"I can promise that you shall at least know her name," replied Roger,
smiling. "It wouldn't be safe to say more." And, true to his word, an
hour after dinner he came to the private drawing-room where Virginia and
Lady Gardiner sat, with the required information.
"The strange beauty is a Portuguese countess," he announced. "Her name is
De Mattos, and she is a widow, spending the winter here alone, except for
her maid. She is much admired, especially by men, but apparently does not
care to make acquaintances; otherwise, as she seems to be a person whose
name the gossips respect, your wish might perhaps have been gratified."
"Have you remembered yet where you saw her before?"
"I've remembered where I saw some one like her. But it is not the same
woman."
"You're sure?"
"Absolutely. The other was a blonde with Titian hair. And she has been
dead for years."
Virginia said no more, and appeared to forget the Portuguese countess.
But when Lady Gardiner complained of being tired, and went off to bed,
that she might be fresh for sight-seeing next morning, also to write a
puzzled letter to the Marchese Loria, Virginia remained. George Trent had
gone to a Cairene theatre, and she and Roger were alone together.
Scarcely had the door closed upon Kate Gardiner, when the girl sprang up
from her chair, and before Roger knew what she meant to do, was sitting
on a divan beside him, her hand on his sleeve.
"Roger," she exclaimed, "I thank you a thousand, thousand times for
insisting that I should come here."
"You haven't seen anything yet," he returned. "Thank me after to-morrow."
"It's the most wonderful thing in the world that we should have come,"
she went on. "If we had employed the cleverest detectives in Paris and
London they might never have discovered what chance, merest chance--if
there is such a thing as chance--has put into our hands to-night."
"What are you talking about, dear child?" asked Roger.
"I'm talking about Liane Devereux, the actress that Maxime Dalahaide is
supposed to have murdered. You've been very good, Roger. I've appreciated
it, for you never believed in his innocence. Now you must believe, in
spite of yourself, since she is here, calling herself the Countess de
Mattos."
Roger stared at her in amazement. "But this is madness, dear," he said.
"Liane Devereux was murdered; whether Maxime Dalahaide or another was her
murderer, there is no possible doubt that she is dead. You can't know the
story as well as I thought you did, if you don't put that beyond
questioning."
"I tell you, Liane Devereux is in this house, and Providence sent me here
to see her. It's that which is beyond question."
"Did Madeleine Dalahaide show you the woman's picture?"
"Yes, two pictures; a photograph and an ivory miniature. She kept them
because they were her brother's, just as she kept everything of his. I
looked at them again and again, until I knew the features line by line. I
can't be mistaken. This is the same woman. There was an even deeper
mystery about that murder than Maxime Dalahaide's best friends guessed."
Roger Broom shrugged his shoulders with a despairing laugh. "For
light-hearted trampling on established facts, give me an American girl!"
he exclaimed. "A woman is murdered, her body found, identified, buried.
Four or five years afterward another woman appears, a brunette, while
Number One was blonde. Number One, a Frenchwoman, was murdered in Paris;
Number Two, a Portuguese, is spending the winter in Cairo. There is
absolutely nothing to link these women together except a resemblance of
feature, which, though strong, is not convincing even to a man who saw
Number One on the stage many times. Yet here comes a maiden from the
States, who was in the schoolroom in her own country when Number One was
murdered, and insists, because she has seen a portrait or two, that Liane
Devereux, the dead actress, and the Countess de Mattos are one and the
same."
"I know it sounds childish," admitted Virginia, with unwonted meekness;
"nevertheless, I'm absolutely sure. I'd stake my life on it, if it were
necessary."
"How do you proceed to explain the identification and burial of Liane
Devereux's body if she is now alive in Cairo?"
"I don't pretend to explain--yet. There was a mistake--that's all I can
say."
"Liane Devereux was too well known for that to be possible. Besides, if
there had been such a mistake, another woman, murdered and buried in her
place, must have been missing. As a matter of fact, no other woman was
missing."
"You mean no other woman's disappearance was discovered."
"You're incorrigible! I know you're wrong; but, admitting for the sake of
argument that you might be right, what use could you make of this
marvellous private information, supplied to your brain only? If the
Countess de Mattos is really Liane Devereux, come to life, one might be
sure that a woman clever enough to plan from the beginning so astounding
an affair would be too clever to leave any tracks behind her."
"Yes, that is one of the difficulties," said Virginia. "Only somehow we
must get over it."
"I hope, my dear free-lance detective, that you aren't plotting to accuse
the Countess to her face, and have a dramatic scene in the hall of the
Ghezireh Palace?"
"I don't know yet what to do," the girl answered slowly. "But I don't
want to leave Cairo until after we've done something."
"Believe me, there's nothing to do. We are on a wild-goose chase as it
is; don't let's complicate things by a suit for slander just as it's
begun. My advice is, dear, put this mad idea out of your head, and let's
get on about our business as quickly as we can--as quickly as you
yourself wanted to do a few hours ago."
"Then I'm sorry I can't take your advice," said Virginia. "I'm growing
superstitious. I believe that I was brought here for a particular
purpose, and I don't mean to go until, in some way, I've accomplished
that purpose."
Roger sighed, and said no more. He had exhausted his stock of arguments;
he knew Virginia almost as well as he loved her. He had promised
coöperation; and though there had been no bargaining, she had voluntarily
led him to hope for a reward which, to him, was beyond any other
happiness the world might hold. Therefore he could do nothing but bow to
the inevitable, and await developments, which meant, with a girl like
Virginia Beverly, expecting the unexpected.
* * * * *
Suddenly in the night Virginia sat up in bed and exclaimed aloud: "Oh, if
I could!" Kate Gardiner, in a room adjoining, heard her, and supposed
that she was talking in her sleep. But the truth was that a plan had at
that instant sprung fully armed from her brain, like Minerva from the
head of Jove; a plan so daring that the bare thought was an electric
shock.
She could not sleep after its conception, but lay tossing and tingling
until it was time to get up. Every moment would be long now until the
machinery could be set in motion, and she bathed and dressed hastily,
having long ago ceased actively to miss Celestine's lost ministrations.
There was no sound in the next room. Kate was not yet awake, evidently;
and so, as she took quite two hours for dressing and beautifying, it
would be foolish to wait for her. Virginia went downstairs, looking about
in vain for Roger or George, and stepped out on to the wide verandah, for
a look at the Nile by morning light. To her joy the beautiful Portuguese
countess was there, breakfasting alone, with a yellow-covered French
novel open on the little table before her. Virginia instantly decided
that she would also breakfast on the verandah, and as near to the
Countess as possible.
As the American girl's pale blue serge rustled its silk lining along the
floor, the Portuguese woman raised her eyes from the novel she was
reading as she sipped her coffee. The eyes had appeared almost black in
the evening; now Virginia saw that they were a curious, greenish gray,
and her heart gave a leap, for the eyes of Liane Devereux, in the painted
ivory miniature, had been gray.
Now or never, Virginia said to herself, was the time to begin the
campaign. She seized the tide of fortune at its flood, and spoke in
English, making the most of the pretty, drawling Southern accent of the
State after which she had been named, because American girls were
privileged to be eccentric.
"Good morning," she said. "Oh, I do hope you understand my language,
because I want to tell you something."
The green-gray eyes of the Countess shone keenly between their heavy
black fringes during a silent moment of inspection, which must have shown
her Virginia divinely young, and childishly innocent of guile. At the end
of the moment she smiled.
"Yes, I understand English, and speak it a little," she responded, with a
charming accent, and in a voice musical but unexpectedly deep. "You are
American, is it not? What have you to tell me--that we have met before,
somewhere?"
At this--or Virginia imagined it--there came again a steely flash from
the black lashes. "Oh, no," said the girl hurriedly. "I never saw you
until yesterday. What I want to tell you is, that I hope you will forgive
me for staring at you as I did then. I was afraid you'd think me rude.
But I just couldn't help it, you are so beautiful. I adore beauty. You
can be sure now I'm American, can't you? for nobody but an American girl
would say such things to a perfect stranger. I'm glad I _am_ American,
for if I didn't speak I don't see exactly how I should get to know you.
And I want to know you very much. I made my cousin, Sir Roger Broom--he's
English, though I'm American--ask who you were, so I heard your name.
Mine is Virginia Beverly. Now we're introduced, aren't we?"
The Countess laughed and looked pleased. "I have seen your name in the
journals," she said--"the journals of society all over the world, that
one reads in hotels when one has nothing better to do, is it not? They
told the truth in one thing, for they said that you were _très belle_.
And you have bought the yacht of a Spanish gentleman, whom I have known a
little. Yes, I remember it was a Miss Virginia Beverly, for it is not a
name to forget; and I love yachting."
By this time, Virginia had ordered her breakfast and received it, but she
was far too excited to make more than a pretense at eating. It was almost
as if the Countess de Mattos were playing into her hands. It seemed too
good to be true. She was afraid that something would happen to ruin all;
that she would lose her head, and by her precipitancy put the other on
her guard; yet the opportunity was too admirable to be entirely
neglected.
"If you like yachting, it would be nice if you could come and have a
day's run with us," said the girl. "The _Bella Cuba_ is at Alexandria,
and we should all love taking you. My cousin and my half-brother, George
Trent, couldn't talk of anything but you last night. Perhaps, later, we
might arrange it, if the railway journey both ways wouldn't bore you."
"On the contrary, I should be charmed," replied the Countess. She
flushed, and her eyes brightened. Virginia looked at her admiringly, yet
sharply, and said to herself: "If that rich, dark complexion of yours is
make-up--as it must be to prove my theory right--then it's the cleverest
make-up that any woman ever had as a disguise."
At this moment Sir Roger Broom and George Trent came out on to the
verandah together, both looking very much surprised to see Virginia in
conversation with the Countess de Mattos.
"Can she have said anything?" Roger thought quickly. But the calm
expression of the beautiful, dark face was in itself an answer to his
silent question.
The two men strolled up to Virginia, who asked and received permission
from the Countess to introduce her brother and cousin; and soon they were
talking as if they had known each other for days instead of moments.
The Portuguese beauty was distinctly ingratiating in her manner to all
three, so much so that Roger became thoughtful. He was more certain than
ever, if that were possible, that this woman was not Liane Devereux, for
the voice was many tones deeper, and the Countess spoke English with an
accent that was not at all French.
It seemed to him that no woman could disguise herself so
completely--face, voice, mannerisms, accent--no matter how clever she
might be; besides, Virginia's idea was ridiculous. But he began to wonder
whether the lovely Portuguese had a right to her title, or, if she had,
whether it were as well gilded as her charming frocks and her residence
at this expensive hotel would suggest at first sight.
It seemed to him that she caught too readily at new acquaintances for a
rich and haughty daughter of Portuguese aristocracy, and though he
believed that he understood, only too well, Virginia's motive for
cultivating a friendship, he was inclined to fear that the girl might be
victimized by an adventuress.
The Countess de Mattos was too handsome and too striking not to have been
remarked in Cairo, no matter how quietly she might live at the Ghezireh
Palace Hotel, and he determined to make inquiries of some officers whom
he knew there.
At all events, plans for the present were changed. Instead of a day or
two in Cairo they were to stay on indefinitely. George, as well as Roger,
was taken into the secret, but Lady Gardiner was told only the fact. She
was pleased at first, for she was fond of Cairo, and had never had a
chance to stop there in luxury before. She did not, however, like the
Countess de Mattos, who was much too handsome to be acceptable to her;
and before the slower and more prudent Roger had learnt anything, she was
primed with all the gossip of the hotel regarding the Portuguese beauty.
There was a certain Mrs. Maitland-Fox at the Ghezireh Palace, whom Lady
Gardiner had met before, and from her she gathered the crumbs of gossip
with which she immediately afterward regaled Virginia.
"They" said that the Countess de Mattos, although she might really be a
countess (and there were those who pretended to vouch for this), had
scarcely a penny. She traded on her beauty and the lovely clothes with
which some trusting milliner must have supplied her, to pick up rich or
influential friends, from whom she was certain to extort money in some
way or another. And it was Mrs. Maitland-Fox's advice that Miss Beverly
should be warned to beware of the beautiful lady.
Among his friends, Roger heard something of the same sort, and though he
was bound to admit that it was all very vague, he begged Virginia to
abandon a forlorn hope, and let the Portuguese woman alone.
"If she were really a Portuguese woman she might vanish from before my
eyes, for all I should care," obstinately returned the girl. "But she is
Liane Devereux, and if she breathed poison I wouldn't let her go till I
had torn out her secret."
"How do you mean to set about doing that?" demanded Roger.
"That is _my_ secret," said Virginia. "Only let me alone and don't thwart
me, or you'll spoil everything."
Roger waited, expectant and apprehensive. He had not to wait long.