A WOMAN'S LOGIC.
The first check experienced by Count Mellikoff in the fulfilment of his
well-laid plans, was one of which he took but slight account.
In calling into action the machinery of the law, and thereby obtaining
the warrant for Miss Hildreth's arrest, he overlooked one point. He had
designedly delayed this summary action until such a moment, when knowing
the Newbolds and Mr. Tremain to be well out of his way, he could proceed
without apprehension of interference on their part.
He was quite well aware that to act against their combined forces would
be a far more serious undertaking than to attack Miss Hildreth alone
and unbefriended. But could he once accomplish her arrest, he believed
that here in America, as in Russia, he had only to demand an official
inquiry, as a matter of form, and it would at once be granted; at which
inquiry, trusting to the strength of his evidence, he foresaw her
immediate committal for trial, and expected by the time the _beau monde_
were returning to New York, and before a cabal could be raised in Miss
Hildreth's behalf, to be already on his way to Petersburg with his
prisoner, about whose subsequent fate, when once she was handed over to
the Imperial Chancellerie, he had no need to concern himself.
Then he would be free to seek Olga, and, laying his love and his life at
her feet, demand that reward for the sake of which she had persuaded him
to undertake this mission. Patouchki also would be convinced of his
loyalty by this last signal service in the Emperor's behalf; and even
the Tsar himself might bestow a further distinction upon him; one
ribbon more, perhaps, to swell the number of those upon which his
beautiful Olga set such store.
And, indeed, so far fortune had favoured him and his plans; up to a
certain time events marched according as he directed. The warrant was
obtained; Miss Hildreth was arrested; and, save John Mainwaring, none of
her special friends were in town to stand by her or act in her defence.
On Mainwaring, Count Mellikoff bestowed not a thought; he had not even
seen him in the crowd of transient guests at the Folly, and his name was
suggestive of nothing.
The matter of an immediate official inquiry, however, was not so easily
managed. Count Mellikoff found countless obstacles to overcome, raised
by that very organ, the law, which so far he had played upon to his own
purpose. Innumerable technicalities and difficulties were for ever
cropping up, resulting in unheard-of delays. Even Mellikoff's patience
gave way at last, and he anathematised the entire Western continent, its
institutions and customs, in language more forcible than polite. Despite
of his choler, however, Vladimir Mellikoff was obliged to swallow his
wrath, and bear with what patience he could muster, that most difficult
of all trials--enforced inaction.
Meantime he heard again from Patouchki, and the tone of his letter was
such as to create a fever of anxiety and unrest, that threatened to
prostrate him mentally and physically. From Olga Naundorff he received
neither word nor sign.
And so the long, hot days came and went, and by none of the waiting
actors in that life-drama were they ever forgotten in the years that
followed.
To Patricia, Philip, Esther, Dick Darling, Vladimir Mellikoff, and
Rosalie James, each sunrise brought but an increasing weight of
torturing anxiety; each nightfall was fraught with an additional burden
of suspense.
Within the week after his return, Mr. Tremain had another interview with
Miss Hildreth. He found her in the same half flippant, half rebellious
mood that had so angered him at their last meeting. He stayed with her
for more than an hour, during which she remained as adamant to all his
arguments, entreaties, prayers. He left her at last in anger, and with
hot words of passion as his farewell.
"You force me to draw my own conclusions," he said. "It would be more
reasonable if you would give me ever so foolish a motive as your reason
for denying the truth of the assertion contained in this letter." He
struck John Mainwaring's offending epistle as he spoke. "Once more,
Patricia, will you, or will you not, acknowledge this affirmation as
true?"
She had grown very pale under the lash of his ill-concealed anger; but
she gave no other sign either of embarrassment or yielding, and when she
answered she looked him straight in the eyes, and spoke without a
falter in her clear musical voice:
"I have nothing to say, Philip. Mr. Mainwaring is the best person for
you to apply to for confirmation, since he has made the statement."
"And that is all you have to tell me--all you will tell me?" he asked,
his voice reflecting the doubt and pain of his mind. "At least,
Patricia, since I know on what grounds Count Mellikoff will seek to
justify your arrest, you might confide the truth to me. Are you, or are
you not----"
"My dear Philip," she broke in hastily, the colour rushing to her face
in a sudden overwhelming torrent, "cannot you see what I am?--is not
that enough? Why should you try to solve Vladimir Mellikoff's motives?
It is he who has brought this charge against me, let him prove its
validity."
"And Mainwaring?" he asked, slowly, looking at her keenly.
"Mr. Mainwaring shall answer to me for his officiousness," she replied,
quietly.
"And this is all you have to say, Patricia? This is all you will tell
me?"
"Yes, that is all I have to say," she answered.
And at her reply he turned from her abruptly and left her; nor did he
again seek an interview with her during the few days that remained
before her quasi-trial.
Philip could not but contrast the emotions with which he had sought this
meeting, with those which overwhelmed him at its close. John
Mainwaring's letter had apparently opened the way to a satisfactory
unravelling of the tangled skein, and it was with a full belief in the
solution thus presented, that he had gone to Patricia, and begged for a
more explicit explanation than that suggested in Mainwaring's statement.
He believed also, that at last he had fathomed Mdlle. Lamien's part in
the transaction, and the secret of her power over him; he had already
accused her of being Count Mellikoff's accomplice, and now he thought he
saw how it was that all unconsciously she played advantageously into
his hands.
It needed but a word from Patricia to reduce his theory to reality; but
this word Miss Hildreth declined to pronounce, nor could he force from
her any admission upon which he could establish his hypothesis. The only
outcome of his interview with her was a return to the old uncertainty
and doubt that had made his life a torture for so many days.
To the great surprise of every one, Mr. Tremain did not appear as Miss
Hildreth's solicitor, nor, indeed, take any active part in her behalf.
It was John Mainwaring who was selected by Patricia as her adviser, and
to John Mainwaring she opened her whole heart; holding nothing back, and
in no way excusing or exonerating herself for the part she had played in
the plot, that bid fair to develop all the characteristics of tragedy
before its termination. She bound the young lawyer by the most solemn of
promises not to reveal certain portions of her confession, although the
consequences of his secrecy might be the worst possible for her. And
Mainwaring, being a man of quick sympathies and ardent chivalry, had,
under the spell of her beauty and her emotion, passed his word of honour
to use only such particulars of her statement, in her support, as she
should designate.
"I think you are mistaken," he had said, after urging a greater latitude
upon her, "I cannot say how far your reticence may not tell against you.
I wish you would be quite frank with me, Miss Hildreth, or rather let me
be on your behalf. I don't believe you half realise the gravity of your
position, or how terrible the result may be for you should I fail to
overthrow the validity of the warrant. You see a certain amount of
complicity we must acknowledge, since we cannot set up an _alibi_, and
that will go just so much against you if I may not show the context.
Won't you reconsider, Miss Hildreth, or let me take another opinion upon
the matter?"
"No," she answered with decision, "I cannot reconsider. It is
impossible. Only think in what a position it would place him were I to
allow you to proclaim my miserable attitude. No, be the consequences
what they may, I have brought sorrow and shame enough upon Philip
Tremain through my influence, I will not disgrace him publicly by having
my weakness dragged out to the light of day. You have given me your
word, Mr. Mainwaring. I have no fear of your breaking it, and I do not
care for any second opinion. I must stand or fall by the line of
argument we have marked out between us."
And from this decision he could not move her.
After he left her, Miss Hildreth sat for a long time quite still and
motionless. The slow heavy tears gathered in her eyes and fell down her
cheeks unnoticed and unchecked; the sobs, deep weary sobs, burst now and
then from her brave heart; and at last, as the evening shadows
lengthened into night, and all about her became wrapt in soft
impalpable darkness, she fell upon her knees, bowing her proud head to
the ground, and praying as she had never prayed before; entreating
forgiveness for her wilful pride, her cruel selfishness, her obdurate
egotism, through which, not she only had been brought to so terrible an
alternative, but he whom she loved bid fair to be dragged down with her
in her fall.
"No, no, no," she cried aloud, clasping her hands together and throwing
them outward in a passionate gesture of entreaty, "I will never give in.
I will never confess the shameful part I have taken in this deception. I
will never, my poor Philip, by word or sign permit one slight or sneer
to fall on you through me. If I have failed in everything else, I will
not fail in this. At least, I have courage and endurance left, I am not
afraid but that they will stand me in good stead; and should the very
worst consequences fall upon me, I deserve them all. Yes, every
individual item, in that horrible possibility of which he spoke, is not
too much for me to bear in punishment. Oh, Philip, Philip, to think I
should be the one to bring the disgrace upon you of biting scorn, and
evil laughter, and venomous tongues! I, who love you, and yet whose love
can point to no higher achievement than this!"