The Countess, unconscious of my presence, halted quickly, and turning
upon him with a start exclaimed--
"I--I really don't understand what you mean, Mr Smeeton!"
"Understand what I mean!" he echoed with a short dry laugh. "I suppose
you'll deny acquaintance with me next!"
"I certainly do not recollect having met you before," she answered with
admirable hauteur.
"What?" he exclaimed, in undisguised surprise at her bold attempt to
disclaim any previous acquaintance. "Do you actually affirm that we
have never previously known each other?"
"Never until this evening," was her response. "That is why I don't
understand what you mean in addressing me in this manner."
He burst out laughing, treating her bold denial with derision. Yet she
remained firm, and in indignation exclaimed--
"Let me pass. I think, Mr Smeeton, you have forgotten yourself this
evening."
"No," he said. "I never forget a debt that is owing me. I am here for
repayment."
"I really don't understand you. It's late, and one of the servants may
pass this way and overhear you. Let us resume this highly interesting
discussion in the morning," she suggested. "This must no doubt be a
case of mistaken identity. I can only suppose I resemble somebody you
know."
"There was but one Marigold Gordon," he replied, in a hard firm voice.
"There was but one Marigold who wrecked one man's happiness, and who
afterwards married another because of his wealth and position--
yourself."
"Oh! this is insupportable!" she cried indignantly. "I shall tell my
husband that I'm insulted by his guest--a man from nowhere. Let me
pass--I say!"
"Yes, a man from nowhere," he sneered. "Richard Keene is always from
nowhere, because he has no fixed home. He comes to-day from nowhere and
goes to nowhere. But before he goes he means that his account with you
shall be settled. Understand that!"
"Well, you've said so already," she laughed. "Is it the action of a
gentleman to utter all kinds of vague threats like this?"
"Vague threats! You'll find that they are more than vague. What I say
I mean. You think," he added, "to escape by denying all previous
acquaintance with me. But you'll discover your mistake when too late."
"I have no reason to escape," she declared with a nonchalant air that
amazed me, knowing how at heart she feared him. "I shall merely tell my
husband of this indignity, and leave him to act as he thinks best."
"Ah!" he remarked, "you are a clever woman, Marigold--you always were.
Is it really necessary to remind you of those ugly events of three years
ago in which you and Lolita were so intimately concerned, or that there
still exists a certain woman named Lejeune?"
"I desire no reminder of any matters which concern me," she replied
coldly. "This does not."
"But it concerns Lolita--and what concerns her concerns you. She fled
to the north the instant she heard that I had returned, for she feared
to meet me."
"Her affairs are not mine," declared the Countess unmoved. "You are
speaking of something of which I am in utter ignorance. Why don't you
explain your meaning?"
"Shall I speak openly?" he said. "Very well, if you prefer it, I will.
If you recollect nothing else, perhaps you will remember that a young
man named Hugh Wingfield was found dead in the park here quite
recently--murdered."
"I heard of it. I was at Aix-les-Bains," she replied.
"You saw his photograph--your husband showed it to you after your
return, and you recognised who the dead man was who had remained
unidentified."
"How could I recognise a person whom I had never seen before?"
"Then you also deny acquaintance with Hugh Wingfield, the poor young
fellow who fell into the trap so cunningly set for him?"
"Certainly. Why?"
"Well, because you are a more wonderful woman, Marigold, than even I
believed," he answered in his deep rather rough voice. "You're a
perfect marvel."
"Not at all," she answered quite calmly. "First, I do not see what
gives you permission to call me by my Christian name; and secondly, I
don't see the motive you have in endeavouring to fix upon me knowledge
of certain matters of which I am in entire ignorance. Perhaps you'll
explain why, being my husband's guest and only a few hours in this
house, you arrest me like this, and commence all these extraordinary
insinuations? You claim acquaintanceship with me, while I declare that
I didn't know you from Adam until my husband introduced us just before
dinner."
"Then what I have to reply is the reverse of complimentary. If you had
been a man I should have told you to your face that you were a liar."
"You may disbelieve me as you will," she responded still unruffled.
"But I merely tell you that I have no further desire to stand here and
be insulted," and although she tried to pass him he again clutched her
wrist fiercely and prevented her.
"You shall answer me!" he whispered angrily. "You are Marigold Gordon,
now Countess of Stanchester; you are the woman I am here to meet, to
speak with calmly, and to come to an amicable settlement--if possible.
You know, as well as I do, that Lolita's future in is your hands, just
as it is in mine. A word from either of us can ruin her. It would mean
for her arrest, disgrace, condemnation. Now, do you intend to speak and
to save her; or will you still deny previous acquaintance with me and
consequently all knowledge of the affair? Lolita is in peril. If you
will you can save her, although she is your enemy--although I know how
you hate her."
I stood aghast at this fresh development of the mystery. I had actually
urged this woman to disclaim all that the man Keene might allege, yet in
utter ignorance that, by so doing, she was bringing ruin upon my love!
My ears were open to catch every word. The Countess was Lolita's enemy!
Could that be the actual truth? Did this woman whose beauty was so
remarkable so mask her real feelings towards her husband's sister that,
while outwardly showing great affection for her, she had secretly
plotted her ruin and disgrace?
"I know nothing," was her persistent reply.
"Then you prefer that Lolita shall suffer," he said in a calm hard
voice. "Remember that her enemies are unscrupulous, relentless. The
word once spoken can never be recalled. Do you intend that her life
shall actually be sacrificed?"
"How?"
"She intends to take it by her own hand the instant the truth is known.
I have been up to Scotland."
"And you have, I suppose, threatened her, as you have me?" sneered her
ladyship.
"I have no necessity to threaten her," was his answer. "She knows quite
well enough the peril in which she is placed by those who have sought
her downfall."
"Well, and what does her future concern me, pray?" asked the woman
coldly.
"Only that you can save her," he argued. "Think if, in a moment of
despair, she took her life, what a burden of remorse would be yours."
"There is no such word as remorse in my vocabulary," she laughed. "If
there were I should have entered a convent long ago."
"Yes," he said. "You speak the truth, Marigold. You are one of those
few women who are, perhaps fortunately, untroubled by conscience. The
past is to you a closed book, would that it were also to me! Would that
I could forget completely that affair at which you and I exercised such
dastardly cunning and scandalous duplicity. But I cannot, and it is for
that reason I am here to beg--to beseech of you to at least save poor
Lolita, who is being driven to extremity by despair!"
Lolita! I thought of her, desperate and unprotected, the victim of a
vile and yet mysterious conspiracy--the victim of this woman who was,
after all, her secret enemy. Heaven formed me as I was, a creature of
affection, and I bowed to its decree in living but for love of her.
Upon the tablet of my heart was graven Lolita, and death alone could
efface it. I was no sensualist; thank heaven I had not brutalised my
mind, nor contaminated the pure ray of my divinity. I loved with truth,
with ardour, and with tenderest affection, from which had arisen all
those ecstasies that constituted the heaven of loving. True, I was
jealous--madly jealous. I was a tyrant in the passion that consumed me,
but none can truly love who would receive it when divided.
Poverty claimed wealth--ambition craved for honour--kings would have
boundless sway--despots would be gods--and I merely asked for love.
Where was my crime in claiming a return for that already given? Or if
it could never be mine, why should I dash at once to earth the air-drawn
vision of felicity?
Fate was inscrutable; and sanctioned by its will, I determined to yield
without a sign to my reward, be it love or be it misery.
Each pleasure has its pain, nor yet was ever mortal joy complete. In
those days before the advent of Richard Keene in Sibberton I had been
lulled by bliss so exquisite that reason should have told me it was but
a dream. I had forgotten everything in the great vortex of love which
had, till then, overwhelmed me. And as I stood there listening to every
word that passed, I felt that I alone had power to save the woman I
adored.
There was a plot, some vile dastardly plot, the mystery of which was
inscrutable. And she was to be the victim. Was it right that I should
remain silent and make no effort to rescue her from the doom which this
man Keene declared must be hers?
"How can I save her, when I am in ignorance?" asked the woman, still
persistent in the disclaimer I had so foolishly urged upon her.
"Then you still deny all knowledge of the affair?" he said in his deep
earnest voice. "You still dare to stand there and tell me that you are
not the woman who assisted Marie Lejeune--the woman for whom the police
still hold a warrant, but who do not seem to recognise a common criminal
in the person of the Countess of Stanchester. Think for a moment what a
word from me to the police might mean to you," he added in a threatening
tone.
"And think also, Mr Smeeton--or whatever you choose to call yourself--
that I also possess knowledge of a fact which, if known to Scotland
Yard, would prevent you in future from pushing your unwelcome presence
into a house where you were not wanted. Do you understand?"
"No, I don't."
"Well, as you've spoken so plainly," she said in an angry tone, "I will
also tell you what I mean to do. You are here bent upon mischief; you
intend to carry out the threat you made long ago. Good! From the very
start I openly defy you," and she snapped her slim white fingers in his
face. "Tell my husband any lie you like! Do your worst to injure my
reputation, but recollect that from to-night, instead of being friends,
we are enemies, and I shall tell the police something which will be to
them of enormous interest. You wish to quarrel with me, therefore let
it be so. My husband shall know of your insults at once, and that will
allow you an opening to denounce me as one of the worst women in
England. The result will be interesting--as you will see. One of us
will suffer--but depend upon it it will not be myself," she laughed
defiantly.
"I have no wish to quarrel," he assured her quickly. "I said I had come
here to make terms with you and to save Lolita."
"What do you wish? That I should incriminate myself?" she asked.
"Lolita does not concern me in the least, neither do you, for the matter
of that. I've given you the ultimatum," she added. "If you wish to
pick a quarrel, then my own safety will be assured."
"You misunderstand me," he said in a tone more conciliatory than before.
"Yes, I certainly misunderstand your desire to bring upon yourself what
must be a very serious disaster by coming here and trying to wring from
me certain things which I am determined, for my own good name and
reputation, to keep secret. My own opinion of you is that you are a
fool, and that if you are wise you'll make an excuse, and to-morrow
morning leave Sibberton."
"I shall do nothing of the kind," he responded in quick indignation. "I
intend to act as I have told you."
"Very well, then, that is sufficient. I wish you a very good-night,"
she said passing on before the doorway where I stood hidden. "My
husband shall know at once how you, a stranger to me, have dared to
insult me with your outrageous insinuations and threats."
"No, I did not mean--" he commenced, as though to modify his actions.
"Enough, Mr Smeeton. I have decided upon my course of action, and you
had better leave this house while there is yet time. Otherwise perhaps
you will have unwelcome inquiries made after you."
The man upon whom she had so cleverly turned the tables gave vent to a
muttered imprecation, while the swish of her silken flounces receded
down the long dark corridor, and I stood there breathless and
motionless, not daring to betray my presence.
The result of such an open quarrel as it had become I dreaded to
contemplate, for I knew, alas! too well that whatever it be my love must
suffer, and that she was bent upon taking her life rather than face
exposure of the mysterious scandal.