For a moment there is complete silence, while the wicked and vindictive
woman glares with all the bitterness of baffled hate and vengeance upon
her beautiful foe who had so nearly been her victim.
The Lady Vera speaks in a tone of cold and withering contempt:
"Could you not have been satisfied with the wrongs you have inflicted
on me and mine, Marcia Cleveland, without attempting my life?"
"You should have known better than to think I could remain quiescent
under your malicious vengeance! Did you think I could stand idly by and
see you ruin my daughter's whole life without striking back at you?"
the woman answers, sullenly.
"No, for I knew that there was too much of the venomous serpent in your
nature," Lady Vera answers, with stinging scorn. "But I believe that
even malevolence like yours would have shrunk abashed before such a
terrible crime as this which you have attempted. Do you not tremble at
the consequences of what you have done?"
"I have done nothing. I have only failed in what would have been a
source of pride and joy to me if I had succeeded," Mrs. Cleveland
answers, with sullen bravado.
"Infamous wretch!" Sir Harry Clive mutters audibly, while Colonel
Lockhart, with a deathly-pale face and blazing eyes, appears to
restrain himself with difficulty from springing upon her and tossing
her out of the window.
"Should you indeed have been so glad to see me dead?" Lady Vera
inquires, with a slight tone of mournfulness.
It seems incredible to her pure mind that this woman, in whose
veins runs some slight strains of her own blood, being her mother's
half-sister, could so coldly and heartlessly wish her dead--could even
attempt to kill her.
"Yes, I should be glad to see you dead," Mrs. Cleveland answers,
viciously. "I have hated Vera Campbell and wished her dead ever since
she was born. I hated her mother before her. She robbed me of the only
man I ever loved, and earned my eternal hate! And if you are really
Edith Campbell's child, as you assert, be assured that I hate you, too,
and wish you dead with all my heart!"
"Lady Vera, do not bandy words with the heartless creature! She can
only wound you more and more," exclaims the baronet, indignantly. "Let
us take her away. She contaminates the air we breathe."
For the first time a look of fear whitens the woman's reckless, daring
face.
"Take me away--where?" she mutters, under her breath.
"To prison," Sir Harry answers, sternly, "to answer for your crime."
"Crime? I have committed no crime. I have not harmed a single hair of
my lady's head," the woman answers, with sarcastic insolence.
"That is not your fault, woman," he answers, coldly and rebukingly.
"You failed in the endeavor, but you shall pay dearly for the attempt.
Have you done with her, Lady Vera? We are waiting on your pleasure."
Lady Vera stands silent a moment, regarding the wretched creature
groveling on the floor in the cords with which they have securely
bound her. In spite of her air of reckless bravado, Vera sees that her
face is ghastly pale, and the dew of fear beads her brow. The angry
eyes fall for the first time before the young girl's gaze of steady
contempt. For a moment the silence continues, then Vera asks, clearly
and calmly:
"Can I do anything for you, Mrs. Cleveland?"
"No," she answers, in an enraged snarl, like an angry canine.
Lady Vera continues, calmly:
"Pray understand me. I have no wish to wage further warfare upon you.
With the fulfillment of my oath of vengeance my feud against you ended.
I despise your hatred and your attempt to injure me, and I have no
desire to punish you more than I have already done in obedience to my
oath of vengeance. If there is anything I can do for you, speak."
Mrs. Cleveland looks wonderingly at the beautiful, calm, white face of
the girl as she stands waiting for her answer.
"Do you mean that you will not prosecute me for this attempt on your
life? That you will suffer me to go free?" she inquires in a doubtful
tone, in which hope faintly struggles.
"Yes, I mean that, if you wish it--do you?" Vera asks, still quietly.
"Yes, but I hate to take a favor from you," the woman answers, sullenly.
"Do not take it as a favor. Consider that I am heaping coals of fire
upon your head," Lady Vera answers, with a slight, cold laugh. "I
choose to take my revenge that way. Sir Harry, will you please loose
her bonds?"
The baronet looks his disapproval.
"Lady Vera, pray do not give way to such a Quixotic impulse," he urges.
"If you do, this woman will live to make you regret it. You owe her
no forbearance. I say let her suffer the penalty of the law for her
attempted crime."
Lady Clive and Elsie echo his words, but the countess shakes her golden
head.
"It is my wish that she shall go free," she answers, with resolution.
"Colonel Lockhart, will you not loose her bonds?"
It is the first time she has seemed to be conscious of his presence.
The deep color mantles her cheek as she speaks his name, and lifts a
timid, appealing glance to him that makes his heart beat fast in his
breast.
"Since _you_ wish it, Lady Vera, yes," he answers, with a low bow, and
hastens to execute her will, while the baronet, a little chagrined at
her willfulness, looks silently on.
A moment and the strong cords that bind her enemy fall to the floor.
Mrs. Cleveland rises erect and tall, and faces Vera.
"Do not expect me to thank you for this release," she says, bitterly.
"Although I am glad to go free, I hate you if possible even more that
you have had it in your power to do me a kindness."
"I expect no thanks," the countess answers icily. "I only desire
to be rid of your presence." She lifts her white hand, and points
commandingly at the door.
"Now go."
"One moment," exclaims the baronet. "How did you gain admittance to
Lady Vera's bedchamber, and conceal yourself there?"
"By my woman's wit," she answers, curtly and decisively.
"Then, perhaps, you can find your way out in the same manner," the
baronet rejoins, sarcastically.
"Perhaps so, but I think, on the whole, I should prefer a guide," she
answers, with cool insolence.
"I am at your service, madam," Colonel Lockhart says, obeying a
pleading look from Lady Vera, and preceding her to the door, followed
by Sir Harry.
In a moment more, without word or backward glance, the wicked woman
sweeps from the room.
Then Vera, broken down by the fierce strain upon her feelings, breaks
down utterly, and weeps on Lady Clive's breast until she is thoroughly
exhausted.
"You see it is all for the best to go away to-morrow," she has said to
her friend. "Even my life is not safe here against the machinations of
my relentless enemies."