When Lady Vera comes to herself at last with many sighs, and painful
moans, she finds Lady Clive and the maid Elsie hovering around her like
ministering angels, the latter, indeed, sobbing piteously in the belief
that her young mistress is dead. But when the faint breath flutters
over the parted lips, and the dark eyes unclose and stare around her
with a blank, terrified look, Elsie sobs for joy, and even Lady Clive's
bright blue eyes fill with glad tears.
"She is alive, my lady," the maid exclaims, joyfully. "That dreadful
woman has not killed her with her vile chloroform."
Lady Vera shivers and puts her hand to her breast, withdrawing it, and
gazing at it as though she expected to find it stained with blood.
"I thought she had killed me with that terrible dagger. I saw it gleam
in the air above me. And, oh, those terrible eyes! They seemed to burn
through me with their intense hate. Did you save me, Lady Clive?" she
moans, feebly.
"No, dear, you owe your life to this brave Elsie," Lady Clive replies,
turning an appreciative glance on the neat and pretty girl who was
still busy over her mistress.
"Tell me how it was, Elsie," commands Lady Vera.
"You see, my lady," Elsie begins, "I had just finished packing your
trunks, and thought I would go and see if you were asleep, or if you
needed me before I went to bed. I had been packing very softly so as
not to disturb you, and I crept softly in my stocking feet to the
archway, and just parted the hangings to peep in at you. Then I saw you
lying white as death, and a strange, sickening smell was in the room.
I gazed around, and saw a head peeping around a curtain in the corner.
The face was masked, and two blazing eyes shone through the eye-holes."
"You may well say blazing eyes," Lady Vera groans. "They seemed to burn
through me when they looked down at me. And then, Elsie?"
"Oh, my lady, I was almost frightened to death! I knew that I was too
light and small to cope with the robber, as I then thought him, but
I had just enough sense left not to cry out, or make a noise. I ran
swiftly and silently away out into the corridor where I met a gentleman
going up into his room. I begged him to follow me at once, and he did
so without a word. And, oh, my lady, we were not an instant too soon!"
Elsie covers her face with her hands and shivers at the thought.
"She was about to murder me. I saw and knew all, though I could not
move nor speak," exclaimed Countess Vera.
"She was, indeed, about to murder you," returns the maid. "She had
crept from her corner and was standing over your bed with a shining
dagger raised over you. Your night-dress had become unfastened at the
throat, and your breast was bare. She was about to strike when your
rescuer ran swiftly in and whirled her away from the bed, and the
dagger fell on the floor. Oh, my dear lady, it is horrible how near you
came to being killed," cries the faithful maid, bursting into floods of
tears at the dreadful thought.
"But for you, my faithful girl, I should now be dead," the countess
answers, deeply moved. "You shall be generously rewarded. But now tell
me who was the gentleman that so opportunely came to your assistance?"
Elsie looks embarrassed, but Lady Clive comes to the rescue.
"We did not mean that you should know, dear," she says, "but I might
have guessed that you would never rest until you knew. So I will tell
you. It was Philip."
Lady Vera turns from deathly white to rosy red at that magic name.
"But he went away," she says, wonderingly.
"I know--he was down in the country visiting a friend. Last night he
came in after you had retired, and he expected to go in the morning
before you came down."
"Next to Elsie, I owe him my life," Lady Vera says, softly, as if
there were a subtle pleasure in the thought, "and that dreadful
woman--is she gone?"
"Marcia Cleveland? No, indeed. She is in the dressing-room, securely
bound, and guarded by Philip and Sir Harry."
"I should like to see her," Lady Vera observes, after a moment's
thought. "But first, Elsie, I should like my dressing-gown and
slippers."
And wrapped in the soft, blue robe, with her splendid, golden hair
floating loosely over her shoulders, like a shining veil, Lady Vera
enters the presence of her enemy, closely followed by Lady Clive and
Elsie, who guard her with nervous care on either side.
Marcia Cleveland, crouching like a baffled tigress, in the bonds they
have cast around her, lifts her eyes and glowers with deadly rage and
hate at the beautiful young girl.