A TERRIBLE SECRET.
Violet felt herself borne rapidly away in the strong arms which held
her; away, she knew not whither. It was melodramatic; it was like a
scene from a sensational novel; but this recollection did not lessen
the poor girl’s terror. In vain she struggled and tried to shriek aloud
for help; the heavy hand closed tighter down upon her month; her breath
grew shorter and fainter, and at last, in sheer self-defense, she
ceased to struggle or to try and raise an alarm. At length, after what
seemed an endless time, her abductor came to a halt, and she was placed
upon her feet.
“There, my lady,” said a harsh voice in her ear, “you are safe at
last--safe in my hands.”
That voice, that hated voice! She realized the truth at once; she was
in the power of Gilbert Warrington. A cold, sickening sensation crept
over her heart and chilled the blood within her veins. In the power of
this villain, what hope was left for her? Where was he taking her? Why
had he abducted her? And what was the meaning of the words to which she
had listened between old Betty Harwood and Warrington? She felt her
heart stand still with terror, then with a mad bound it throbbed on
once more. Panting in breathless silence, she extended her hands; they
came in contact with the trunk of a tree. The cloak was removed from
her eyes; she glanced wildly around her. She was in the woods somewhere
behind Yorke Towers, alone in the night with Gilbert Warrington.
He stood before her glaring down into her frightened face with wild
eyes full of triumph.
“So you know the situation at last, my lady,” he sneered. “You are in
my hands, and it will be many a long day before you get out again, I
can assure you, unless you will consent to my wishes. Violet, if you
will marry me at once, I will swear to leave you and never come near
you again. I want the Arleigh fortune, and if you will secure it to me
by marriage, I will never trouble you more. You shall be as free as the
bird of the air. What do you say, Violet?”
“I say that you are a villain, Gilbert Warrington, and that I would
sooner die than become your wife.”
“Humph! I fancy you will change that decision when you learn the full
extent of my power over you. Violet Arleigh, shall I tell you the
secret which I have held over your mother’s head for many a year, the
secret which I had threatened to expose the very night that she--she
died. It terrified her so that she attempted to take her own life.”
“I do not believe it! I do not believe that my mother would ever think
seriously of such a dreadful thing as suicide!” cried the girl,
excitedly. “I believe that you are speaking falsely. You are a bad
man--a false, bad man, and a villain, if ever there was one!”
Gilbert Warrington smiled. Even in the dense shadow of the trees,
through which the silvery moon-rays could scarcely penetrate, Violet
saw that smile, and a chill crept over her.
“This is all mere waste of time and breath, you know, my dear,” he
observed, harshly. “I am going to have my own way in this matter, and
you may as well yield peacefully as otherwise, for yield you _must_!
Now, Violet, I ask you once more, would you like to learn the nature of
the secret which blackened all your mother’s life and made her afraid
of her own shadow--a secret which I alone shared, and which I held over
her head until she longed to die to escape the knowledge--a secret for
which she paid dearly in more ways than one?”
“Yes, indeed,” panted the girl, desperately, “she paid _you_ well, you
blackmailer and extortioner! I knew that there was something hidden in
the past for which she was suffering and atoning with her very life. I
know nothing of the nature of that secret; but I do not believe that
it has anything to do with dishonor if it had any connection with my
mother!”
“Ah, indeed! What confidence, to be sure! It is truly touching. What a
blow it will be for you, my dear, when you learn the truth--that your
mother was base and vile and wanton----”
“Stop! So help me Heaven, you shall not breathe such words against my
pure mother, a saint in Heaven! Dare to open your lips to speak such
vile words again, Gilbert Warrington, and I will find some way to
punish you!”
“Oh, will you? It is something like the mouse and the lion, now, isn’t
it, my dear? Yet the truth remains the same. There is a black and
awful secret connected with your mother’s past which, if it were known
to Mrs. Yorke, for instance--and I can not say how much that lady
already suspects--would effectually cut off all tender passages between
yourself and her beloved son. Helen Yorke is far too proud to allow her
only son to ally himself with disgrace!”
“He would never do that by marriage with an Arleigh!” cried Violet,
proudly.
“No? There, now, you see just how little you know about it, my dear.
Disgrace is not a pleasant word, but it ofttimes blackens the fairest
escutcheons; and so it has done in this instance. Your mother, my dear
Violet, was an uncommonly fine woman--she must have been to have held
my heart captive for all these long years; but all the same, there was
a time in her life when she made a misstep as well as many another
woman. Many a proud lady of fashion and position carries a black secret
hidden away in her heart; and Rosamond Arleigh was thus burdened, for
she kept hidden away for years the knowledge that her marriage with
Harold Arleigh was a sham--a mere farce--and that you, her only child,
are illegitimate!”
“Oh, my God!”
The words fell from the girl’s white lips in a broken gasp, a bitter
cry of mortal anguish and wordless suffering. She fell upon her knees
upon the ground and wrung her small hands in bitter agony.
“Gilbert Warrington, beware!” she cried at length, a mad hope that
he was tricking her springing up within her heart; “beware how you
slander my mother, my poor dead mother! So help me Heaven!”--she arose
to her feet and stood gazing with eyes full of despair into the man’s
cruel face--“I will hold you accountable for this! I will go to the
authorities in the morning, and you shall prove what you assert, or
suffer as you deserve! It is beyond endurance! It is terrible that I
must stand here, helpless and alone, and listen to such fearful words
from the lips of a bad man like you! Monster! fiend! have you no heart,
no pity, no mercy, no feeling of humanity? Surely the world does not
need a devil while such men as you exist!”
Gilbert Warrington laughed softly, and his wicked eyes twinkled with
malicious satisfaction.
“Well done, well said, my dear little spitfire!” he sneered. “Storm
away, my little tempest in a teapot; I like to hear you. It is the most
amusing scene that I have witnessed in many a day. Reminds me of a tiny
toy terrier snapping at the huge heels of a great Newfoundland, and
has just about as much effect. All the same, Violet Arleigh, my words
are true. Do you think me silly enough to make such grave assertions
without being fully convinced of their truth? You must be mad! No, my
dear; I have known for several years that Rosamond and Harold Arleigh
were never legally married. What is more, Helen Yorke suspects the
truth. She was dead in love with Harold Arleigh, herself, and I was
dead in love with Rosamond, so we are fellow-sufferers, she and I. No,
Violet, I am not deceiving you nor slandering the dead from brutal
motives; I am telling you the plain, hard truth. It is time that you
knew it. And I am prepared to prove this grave charge, _if_ you wish
the secret exposed to the light of day, the secret which killed your
mother. But I offer you terms. Marry me, Violet, share the fortune with
me, and I promise to keep the secret to the end of time.”
The girl drew back, her eyes flashing fire.
“If I am not Harold Arleigh’s legitimate child, I am not his legal
heir,” she said, coldly; “therefore, the Arleigh fortune will not go
with my hand to anybody. Gilbert Warrington, you have overreached
yourself in this game. Even I, with my limited knowledge and
experience, know better than that.”
“But, Violet, you forget the fortune was bestowed upon your mother by
Harold Arleigh in the shape of a deed of gift. You are her legal heir,
and, at all events, the will which she left--oh, you know nothing of
it, I see!--leaves you sole heir. It is a comfortable fortune, and
that fortune I mean to have. But I must first make you my wife; so,
Violet, my dear, you had better listen to reason, for you can not
escape me again.”
[Illustration]