"My darling, I do not know what to think," Colonel Lockhart exclaims,
anxiously. "A moment ago you were so bright and happy--now you look
pale and startled, and your words are strange and wild. Has anything
frightened you, my darling?"
She lifts her heavy, dark eyes almost beseechingly to his own.
"Philip, please do not talk to me, now," she says. "Do not ask me any
questions. Only find me a quiet place away from the crowd, where I may
rest awhile. I am ill."
"I do not know where to find such a place, unless I take you into the
conservatory. I expect it is quite deserted now," he answers.
"We will go there, then," she replies.
Troubled at heart, and very anxious over his darling, Colonel Lockhart
leads her down through the long vistas of fragrant bloom to a quiet
seat under a slender young palm tree. There are very few flowers
here--only cool, green thickets of lovely, lace-like ferns, watered by
the sparkling fountain poured from the lifted urn of a marble Naiad.
"Will this spot suit you, Vera?" he inquires, anxiously.
She bows, and looks at him with her grave, sad gaze.
"Philip, you must leave me here alone for half an hour," she says, "I
wish to rest awhile. Then you may come to me."
"You look so ill and pale I am almost afraid to leave you alone," he
answers. "May I not remain near you, Vera? I will not talk to you, nor
weary you in any way. I will sit silently and wait your pleasure."
"I would rather be alone," she answers, wearily.
"Then I will go, my darling, but I shall be very anxious over you. It
will be the longest half hour of my life."
He stoops over her, and taking the sweet white face in his hands,
kisses the pale, drawn lips. A stifled sob breaks from her at the
thought that in a little while these kisses will be hers no longer.
"You are nervous, dear. Let me send my sister to you," he urges.
"I had rather be alone," she answers.
"Forgive me, dear. I will go, then," he answers, turning away.
The tall form disappears in the green, flowery shrubbery. The echo
of the firm, elastic footstep dies away. Lady Vera is alone at last,
sitting with folded hands and dark, terrified eyes, face to face with
the awful reality of her life's despair.
"Leslie Noble, my unloved and unloving husband, is alive and married
to his old love, Ivy Cleveland--how passing strange," she murmurs,
hollowly, to herself. "What strange mystery is here? Did he believe
me dead, as I did him? Or has he, in the madness of his love for Ivy,
recklessly plunged into sin? But if so, why did he bring her here where
they must meet me? There is some strange, unfathomable mystery here
which I cannot penetrate."
Alas, poor Vera! the gloom of a subtle mystery wraps thee round,
indeed, and the hand that held the key to the secret is cold in death.
Low moans gurgle over her lips, and blend with the murmur of the
fountain as it splashes musically into the marble basin. She is
thinking of her handsome, noble lover between whose heart and hers a
barrier has risen, wide and deep as the eternal Heaven.
"I must part from him, my Philip, my love!" she moans, "for in the
sight of God I am Leslie Noble's wife, even though before men he is Ivy
Cleveland's husband."
She bows her face in her hands, and bitter, burning tears stream
through her fingers. In all the hours when she has brooded over that
oath of vengeance made by her father's death-bed, no slightest thought
has come to her in what terrible way she must keep her vow, and at what
fearful cost to her life's happiness.
"What strange prescience came to my father in dying?" she asks herself,
in wonder. "How strangely his words were shaped to fit the awful
reality. I must punish Marcia Cleveland through her dearest affections,
he said. All her heart is centered on Ivy, and when I claim Leslie
Noble from her and cover her head with that awful shame, my father's
wishes will be fulfilled. And lest I should falter in my dreadful task,
he added that last clause, no matter at what cost to myself. Oh, God!
what will Philip say when he learns the truth? The way is plain before
me how to keep my vow. I, who loathe and despise Leslie Noble, must
claim him before God and man as my husband, and humiliate Ivy Cleveland
to the dust. In no other way can I punish Marcia Cleveland and avenge
my mother's wrongs."
"In no other way," the fountain seems to echo, as it splashes musically
down, and Lady Vera, turning coward now in the face of the terrible
future, prays in bitterest agony: "Oh, God! if I could die--die here
and now, with Philip's last fond kiss still warm upon my lips, before I
have to speak the dreadful words that will doom us to a living death in
life."
With an effort she shakes off, presently, the horror and dread and
shrinking repugnance with which she looks forward to the fulfillment of
her oath.
"Mother, forgive me," she weeps. "Do I not remember all your bitter
wrongs and mine, and how often my young heart burned to avenge them?
And shall I shrink back now when the flaming sword is in my hand, and
I am able to crush your enemy into the dust? No, no! What matter if it
breaks my heart? My gentle mother, yours was broken, too. And though I
tread on burning plow-shares, I will keep my oath of vengeance."
No faltering; no looking back now. Something of her father's haughty
spirit is infused into Lady Vera's soul. Her dark eyes light with the
strange fire that burns on the altar of her heart, and when her lover
comes anxiously to seek her, she has recovered all her usual calmness,
and greets him with a smile.
"You are better, dear?" he exclaims.
"Yes, and we will return to the ball-room now," she answers, resting
her icy fingers lightly against his arm.
Passing from the subdued light of the conservatory into the glare of
the ball-room, they come face to face with Leslie, with Ivy hanging on
his arm, flushed and heated from the dance. Lady Vera lifts her head
with stag-like grace, and looks steadily into their eyes, but beyond an
insolent stare from Ivy, and a glance of warm admiration from the man,
they give no sign of recognition. Lady Vera passes on, and Lady Clive
comes up to her, laughing.
"My dear, you have seen our country people--the rich Americans," she
says. "How do you like them?"
"I will tell you some day," she answers, in a strange tone, yet with a
careless smile.
Still later in the evening Lady Spencer seeks out the countess.
"Dear Lady Fairvale, will you allow me to introduce to you our American
guests?" she asks. "They are most anxious to know the beauty of the
season."
Lady Vera, growing pale as her white robe, draws her slight form
proudly erect.
"Pray, pardon my rudeness, Lady Spencer," she answers, coldly. "But I
must decline. I do not wish to know them."