Alone with Greta, Paul kissed her fervently, and his head fell on her
shoulder. The strong man was as feeble as a child now. He was prostrate.
"The black lie is like poison in my veins!" he said.
"What is it?" said Greta, and she tried to soothe him.
"A lie more foul than man ever uttered before--more cruel, more
monstrous."
"What is it, dearest?" said Greta again, with her piteous, imploring
face close to his.
"I know it's a lie. My heart tells me it is a lie. The very stones cry
out that it is a lie!"
"Tell me what it is," said Greta, and she embraced him tenderly.
But even while he was struggling with the poison of one horrible word,
it was mastering him. He put his wife from him with a strong shudder, as
if her proximity stung him.
Her bosom heaved. She looked appealingly into his face.
"If it is false," she said, "whatever it is, why need it trouble you?"
"That is true, my darling," he said, gulping down his fear and taking
Greta in his arms, and trying to laugh lightly. "Why, indeed? Why need
it trouble me?"
"Can you not tell me?" she said, with an upward look of entreaty. She
was thinking of what Hugh Ritson had said of an impediment to their
marriage.
"Why should I tell you what is false?"
"Then let us dismiss the thought of it," she said, soothingly.
"Why, yes, of course, let us dismiss the thought of it, darling," and he
laughed a loud, hollow laugh. His forehead was damp. She wiped away the
cold sweat. His temples burned. She put her cool hand on them. He was
the very wreck of his former self--the ruin of a man. "Would that I
could!" he muttered to himself.
"Then tell me," she said. "It is my right to know it. I am your wife
now--"
He drew himself away. She clung yet closer. "Paul, there can be no
secrets between you and me--nothing can be kept back."
"Heavenly Father!" he cried, uplifting a face distorted with agony.
"If you can not dismiss it, let it not stand between us," said Greta.
Could it be true that there had been an impediment?
"My darling, it would do no good to tell you. When I took you to be my
wife, I vowed to protect and cherish you. Shall I keep my vow if I
burden you with a black lie that will drive the sunshine out of your
life? Look at me--look at me!"
Greta's breast heaved heavily, but she smiled with a piteous sweetness
as she laid her head on his breast, and said, "No, while I have you, no
lie can do that!"
Paul made no answer. An awful burden of speech was on his tongue. In the
silence they heard the sound of weeping. It was as if some poor woman
were sobbing her heart out in the room above.
"Dearest, when two hearts are made one in marriage they are made one
indeed," said Greta, in a soft voice. "Henceforth the thought of the one
is the thought of both; the happiness of one is the happiness of both,
the sorrow of one is the sorrow of both. Nothing comes between. Joy is
twofold when both share it, and only grief is less for being borne by
two. Death itself, cruel, relentless death itself, even death knits that
union closer. And in sunshine and storm, in this world and in the next,
the bond is ever the same. The tie of the purest friendship is weak
compared with this tie, and even the bond of blood is less strong!"
"Oh, God of heaven, this is too much!" said Paul.
"Paul, if this union of thought and deed, of joy and grief, begins with
marriage and does not end even with death, shall we now, here, at the
threshold of our marriage, do it wrong?"
A great sob choked Paul's utterance. "I can not tell you," he cried; "I
have sworn an oath."
"An oath! Then, surely, this present trouble was not that which Hugh
Ritson has threatened?"
"Greta, if our union means anything, it means trust. Trust me, my
darling. I am helpless. My tongue is sealed. I dare not speak. No, not
even to you. Scarcely to God Himself!"
There was silence for a moment.
"That is enough," she said, very tenderly, and now the tears coursed
down her own cheeks. "I will not ask again. I do not wish to know. You
shall forget that I asked you. Come, dearest, kiss me. Think no more of
this. Come, now." And she drew his head down to hers.
Paul threw himself into a chair. His prostration was abject.
"Come, dearest," said Greta, soothingly, "be a man."
"There is worse to come," he said.
"What matter," said Greta, and smiled. "I shall not fear if I have you
beside me."
"I can bear it no more," said Paul. "The thing is past cure."
"No, dearest, it is not. Only death is that."
"Greta, you said death would bind us closer together, but this thing
draws us apart."
"No, dearest, it does not. That it can not do."
"Could nothing part us?" said Paul, lifting his face.
"Nothing. Though the world divided us, yet we should be together."
Again the loud sobs came from overhead.
Paul rose to his feet, a shattered man no more. His abject mien fell
from him like a garment. "Did I not say it was a lie?" he muttered,
fiercely. "Greta, I am ashamed," he said; "your courage disgraces me.
See what a pitiful coward you have taken for your husband. You have
witnessed a strange weakness. But it has been for the last time. Thank
God, I am now the man of yesterday!"
Her tears were rolling down her cheeks, but her eyes were very bright.
"What do you wish me to do?" she whispered. "Is it not something for me
to do?"
"It is, darling. You said rightly that the thought of one is the thought
of both."
"What is it?"
"A terrible thing!"
"No matter. I am here to do it. What?"
"It is to part from me to-night--only for to-night--only until
to-morrow."
Greta's face broke into a perfect sunshine of beauty. "Is that all?" she
asked.
"My darling!" said Paul, and embraced her fervently and kissed the
quivering lips, "I am leading you through dark vaults, where you can see
no single step before you."
"But I am holding your hand, my husband," Greta whispered.
Speech was too weak for that great moment. Again the heart-breaking sobs
fell on the silence. Then Paul drew a cloak over Greta's shoulders and
buttoned up his ulster. "It is a little after midnight," he said with
composure. "There is a fly at the door. We may catch the last train up
to London. I have a nest for you there, my darling."
Then he went out into the bar. "Landlady," he said, "I will come back
to-morrow for our luggage. Meantime, let it lie here, if it won't be in
your way. We've kept you up late, old lady. Here, take this--and thank
you."
"Thankee! and the boxes are quite safe, sir--thankee!"
He threw open the door to the road, and hailed the driver of the fly,
cheerily. "Cold, sleety night, my good fellow. You'll have a sharp
drive."
"Yes, sir; it air cold waiting, very, specially inside, sir, just for
want of summat short."
"Well, come in quick and get it, my lad."
"Right, sir."
When Paul returned to the room to call Greta, he found her examining
papers. She had picked them up off the table. They were the copies of
certificates which Hugh Ritson had left there. Paul had forgotten them
during the painful interview. He tried to recover them unread, but he
was too late.
"This," she said, holding out one of them, "is not the certificate of
your birth. This person, Paul Lowther, is no doubt my father's lost
son."
"No doubt," said Paul, dropping his head.
"But he is thirty years of age--see! You are no more than twenty-eight."
"If I could but prove that, it would be enough," he said.
"I can prove it, and I will!" she said.
"You! How?"
"Wait until to-morrow, and see," she said.
He had put one arm about her waist, and was taking her to the door.
She stopped. "I can guess what the black lie has been," she whispered.
"Now, driver, up and away."
"Right, sir. Kentish Town Junction?"
"The station, to catch the 12:30."
The carriage door was opened and closed. Then the bitter weeping from
the upper room came out to them in the night.
"Poor girl! whatever ails her? I seem to remember her voice," said
Greta.
"We can't wait," Paul answered.