Upstairs, as Finette hurriedly flung the rich robes of her mistress
into the trunks, bitter recriminations passed between mistress and
servant.
“Do you think I’m going to follow the likes of you, bad as I am?”
snarled the maid.
“You are no better than I am. Remember that you ran away from Paris
because you poisoned your husband!” Camille sneered, and the woman grew
livid.
“How do you know?” she questioned, with a start of fear.
“I know many things more with which to refresh your memory, if you
persist in your insolence,” Camille retorted, angrily; and a sullen
silence ensued, at which the proud mistress began to be frightened.
What if Finette were to desert her now, when, by her wicked madness,
she had alienated every living soul from her? when she was alone in the
world but for this creature who had aided and abetted her in all of her
wicked schemes, helping her to make shipwreck of her soul for the sake
of the gold with which she could reward her confederate?
In abject terms she begged her servant not to forsake her, promising
that they should sail at once for France, or anywhere that the woman
wished, living together on equal terms, sharing alike in her wealth.
“No longer my servant, but my companion, my only friend!” she wailed,
abjectly, and Finette sullenly assented to her proposal.
Presently the trunks of finery were all packed and corded, ready to be
sent for, and the two women in their traveling-dresses moved cringingly
down the stairway, Camille carrying on her arm the hand-satchel in
which were deposited the wealth of splendid unset jewels that now
represented her fortune.
At the threshold of the door over which she had passed as a serpent,
leaving a trail of venom on all it touched, she paused and looked back
with a muttered curse toward the library whence came the murmur of
happy voices.
“Curse them! I hope I may find a chance to pay them back yet!” she
hissed, malevolently, as she followed Finette down the steps to the
broad, white-graveled path between the orange-trees. The rising moon
threw a broad white light over everything, and for a minute the maid
stopped short.
“How happy they are at getting rid of us!” she ejaculated. “Listen to
their happy laughter, miladi. You will never hear it again.”
Camille paused and turned her head toward the sound of the happy voices
that floated through the open library window, and then a most horrible
thing happened.
Finette Du Val, the treacherous maid, as if moved by some irresistible
impulse or meditated villainy, suddenly snatched a shining dagger from
her belt and plunged it to the hilt in Camille’s back. As she shrieked
and fell, the murderess tore the satchel of jewels from her grasp, and
fled wildly from the scene of her hideous crime.
The sound of Camille’s agonized shrieks floated into the window, where
they were all talking so happily after their deliverance from danger
and sorrow. Dr. Hinton ran out hastily, but the rest waited. They
thought Camille was only in hysterics again.
Dr. Hinton bent over her, and saw the great pool of blood on the white
gravel.
“My God!” he cried, in horror; and a weak voice moaned:
“Finette Du Val, the evil genius of my life, has robbed and murdered
me. She has taken my satchel of unset jewels, my whole fortune, and
fled!”
“Horrible!” cried the young man; and his shrill cry brought all the
others rushing out.
At his hasty explanation some ran in search of the murderess, some
remained to help him carry Camille into the house, but after a brief
examination Dr. Hinton decided that it could not be done.
“She has but a few minutes to live,” he said; and Thea, who was gazing,
half fainting, on the dreadful sight, suddenly fell down upon her
knees. It seemed to her too dreadful for Camille to die thus with her
proud head low in the dust which her dainty feet had spurned in happier
days. She slipped her fair arm gently under the fallen head, and while
she was trying to whisper a prayer for the dying, Camille’s soul went
away in one long, sighing groan to its judgment.
Her cruel murderess succeeded in getting away safely with her booty,
and for a few years led a life of dissolute splendor in her beloved
Paris, but at length she was seen and recognized by one who had known
her in former days, and she was immediately arrested for poisoning her
husband just before she had entered the service of Camille Acton, or
Lacy, as her real name was. The woman’s guilt was so clearly proven
that she suffered capital punishment for the murder of her husband, and
so Camille’s dreadful death was well avenged.
When Norman de Vere, at Verelands, read the story of her punishment,
his feet strayed to a nameless grave in the churchyard which his dear
old mother, in the kindness of her heart, often adorned with flowers,
and with his eyes on the low, green mound, he whispered:
“Poor Camille! your death is at least avenged. May Heaven rest your
soul!”
Verelands was never a very happy place to them after the white gravel
before the door had soaked up Camille’s life-blood. Even Norman’s
mother was glad to forsake it for some years after Camille was buried,
and to go abroad with the rest to Lord Stuart’s beautiful English
estate, where it seemed only right and proper that the De Veres should
spend half their time at least, since their eldest son, the noble
little Alan Arthur, must some day reign there in his uncle’s stead,
a noble lord, who inherited a noble soul from his father, as well as
beauty and high estate from his sweet mother our Little Sweetheart.
THE END.
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THE HART SERIES
Laura Jean Libbey Miss Caroline Hart Mrs. E. Burke Collins
Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller
Charlotte M. Braeme Barbara Howard Lucy Randall Comfort
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3--Lil, the Dancing Girl, Caroline Hart.
5--The Woman Who Came Between, Caroline Hart.
6--Aleta’s Terrible Secret, Laura Jean Libbey.
7--For Love or Honor, Caroline Hart.
8--The Romance of Enola, Laura Jean Libbey.
9--A Handsome Engineer’s Flirtation, Laura J. Libbey.
10--A Little Princess, Caroline Hart.
11--Was She Sweetheart or Wife, Laura Jean Libbey.
12--Nameless Bess, Caroline Hart.
13--Della’s Handsome Lover, Laura Jean Libbey.
14--That Awful Scar, Caroline Hart.
15--Flora Garland’s Courtship, Laura Jean Libbey.
16--Love’s Rugged Path, Caroline Hart.
17--My Sweetheart Idabell, Laura Jean Libbey.
18--Married at Sight, Caroline Hart.
19--Pretty Madcap Dorothy, Laura Jean Libbey.
20--Her Right to Love, Caroline Hart.
21--The Loan of a Lover, Laura Jean Libbey.
22--The Game of Love, Caroline Hart.
23--A Fatal Elopement, Laura Jean Libbey.
24--Vendetta, Marie Corelli.
25--The Girl He Forsook, Laura Jean Libbey.
26--Redeemed by Love, Caroline Hart.
28--A Wasted Love, Caroline Hart.
29--A Dangerous Flirtation, Laura Jean Libbey.
30--A Haunted Life, Caroline Hart.
31--Garnetta, the Silver King’s Daughter, L. J. Libbey.
32--A Romance of Two Worlds, Marie Corelli.
34--Her Ransom, Charles Garvice.
36--A Hidden Terror, Caroline Hart.
37--Flora Temple, Laura Jean Libbey.
38--Claribel’s Love Story, Charlotte M. Braeme.
39--Pretty Rose Hall, Laura Jean Libbey.
40--The Mystery of Suicide Place, Mrs. Alex. Miller.
41--Cora, the Pet of the Regiment, Laura Jean Libbey.
42--The Vengeance of Love, Caroline Hart.
43--Jolly Sally Pendleton, Laura Jean Libbey.
44--A Bitter Reckoning, Mrs. E. Burke Collins.
45--Kathleen’s Diamonds, Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller.
46--Angela’s Lover, Caroline Hart.
47--Lancaster’s Choice, Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller.
48--The Madness of Love, Caroline Hart.
49--Little Sweetheart, Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller.
50--A Working Girl’s Honor, Caroline Hart.
51--The Mystery of Colde Fell, Charlotte M. Braeme.
52--The Rival Heiresses, Caroline Hart.
53--Little Nobody, Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller.
54--Her Husband’s Ghost, Mary E. Bryan.
55--Sold for Gold, Mrs. E. Burke Collins.
56--Her Husband’s Secret, Lucy Randall Comfort.
57--A Passionate Love, Barbara Howard.
58--From Want to Wealth, Caroline Hart.
59--Loved You Better Than You Knew, Mrs. A. Miller.
60--Irene’s Vow, Charlotte M. Braeme.
61--She Loved Not Wisely, Caroline Hart.
62--Molly’s Treachery, Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller.
63--Was It Wrong? Barbara Howard.
64--The Midnight Marriage, Mrs. Sumner Hayden.
65--Ailsa, Wenona Gilman.
66--Her Dark Inheritance, Mrs. E. Burke Collins.
67--Viola’s Vanity, Mrs. Alex. McVeigh Miller.
68--The Ghost of the Hurricane Hills, Mary E. Bryan.
69--A Woman Wronged, Caroline Hart.
70--Was She His Lawful Wife? Barbara Howard.
71--Val, the Tomboy, Wenona Gilman.
72--The Richmond Secret, Mrs. E. Burke Collins.
73--Edna’s Vow, Charlotte M. Stanley.
74--Hearts of Fire, Caroline Hart.
75--St. Elmo, Augusta J. Evans.
76--Nobody’s Wife, Caroline Hart.
77--Ishmael, Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.
78--Self-Raised, Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.
79--Pretty Little Rosebud, Barbara Howard.
80--Inez, Augusta J. Evans.
81--The Girl Wife, Mrs. Sumner Hayden.
82--Dora Thorne, Charlotte M. Braeme.
83--Followed by Fate, Lucy Randall Comfort.
84--India, or the Pearl of Pearl River, Southworth.
85--Mad Kingsley’s Heir, Mrs. E. Burke Collins.
86--The Missing Bride, Mrs. E. D. E. N. Southworth.
87--Wicked Sir Dare, Charles Garvice.
88--Daintie’s Cruel Rivals, Mrs. Alex. McV. Miller.
89--Lillian’s Vow, Caroline Hart.
90--Miss Estcourt, Charles Garvice.
91--Beulah, Augusta J. Evans.
92--Daphane’s Fate, Mrs. E. Burke Collins.
93--Wormwood, Marie Corelli.
94--Nellie, Charles Garvice.
95--His Legal Wife, Mary E. Bryan.
96--Macaria, Augusta J. Evans.
97--Lost and Found, Charlotte M. Stanley.
98--The Curse of Clifton, Mrs. Southworth.
99--That Strange Girl, Charles Garvice.
100--The Lovers at Storm Castle, Mrs. M. A. Collins.
101--Margerie’s Mistake, Lucy Randall Comfort.
102--The Curse of Pocahontas, Wenona Gilman.
103--My Love Kitty, Charles Garvice.
104--His Fairy Queen, Elizabeth Stiles.
105--From Worse than Death, Caroline Hart.
106--Audrey Fane’s Love, Mrs. E. Burke Collins.
107--Thorns and Orange Blossoms, Charlotte Braeme.
108--Ethel Dreeme, Frank Corey.
109--Three Girls, Mary E. Bryan.
110--A Strange Marriage, Caroline Hart.
111--Violet, Charles Garvice.
112--The Ghost of the Power, Mrs. Sumner Hayden.
113--Baptised with a Curse, Edith Stewart Drewry.
114--A Tragic Blunder, Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron.
115--The Secret of Her Life, Edward Jenkins.
116--My Guardian, Ada Cambridge.
117--A Last Love, Georges Ohnet.
118--His Angel, Henry Herman.
119--Pretty Miss Bellew, Theo. Gift.
120--Blind Love, Wilkie Collins.
121--A Life’s Mistake, Mrs. H. Lovett Cameron.
122--Won By Waiting, Edna Lyall.
123--Passion’s Slave, King.
124--Under Currents, Duchess.
125--False Vow, Braeme.
126--The Belle of Lynne, Braeme.
127--Lord Lynne’s Choice, Braeme.
128--Blossom and Fruit, Braeme.
129--Weaker Than a Woman, Braeme.
130--Tempest and Sunshine, Mary J. Holmes.
131--Lady Muriel’s Secret, Braeme.
132--A Mad Love, Braeme.
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Transcriber’s Notes
Obvious typographical errors have been silently corrected. Variations
in hyphenation and accents have been standardised but all other
spelling and punctuation remains unchanged.
The following corrections have been made:
page 18 - corrected “wickeness” to “wickedness”
page 42 - corrected “she” to “he” (he asked, reproachfully)
page 48 - corrected "fondling" to "foundling"
page 58 - corrected “ressuringly” to “reassuringly”
page 98 - corrected “coverted” to “coveted”
page 156 - corrected “CHAPTER LIII” to “CHAPTER LII”
Italics are represented thus _italic_.