Mrs. Carew had arrived on Tuesday morning, and announced that a
previous engagement would limit her visit to Saturday, at which time
she had promised to become the guest of a friend on Murray Hill.
During Wednesday and Thursday the house was thronged with visitors.
There was company to dinner and to luncheon, and every imaginable
tribute paid to the taste and vanity of the beautiful woman, who
accepted the incense offered as flowers the dew of heaven, and stars
the light that constitutes their glory. Accustomed from her cradle to
adulation and indulgence, she had a pretty, yet imperious manner of
exacting it from all who ventured within her circle; and could not
forgive the cool indifference which generally characterized Olga's
behaviour.
Too well-bred to be guilty of rudeness, the latter contrived in a
very adroit way to defy every proposition advanced by the fair guest,
and while she never transcended the bounds of courtesy, she piqued
and harassed and puzzled not only Mrs. Carew, but Mr. Palma.
At ten o'clock on Thursday night, when the guests invited to dinner
had departed, and the family circle had collected in the sitting-room
to await the carriage which would convey the ladies to a Wedding
Reception, Mrs. Carew came downstairs magnificently attired in a
delicate green satin, covered with an over dress of exquisite white
lace, and adorned with a profusion of emeralds and pearls.
Her hair was arranged in a unique style (which Olga denominated "Isis
fashion"), and above her forehead rested a jewelled lotos, the petals
of large pearls, the leaves of emeralds.
As she stood before the grate, with the white lace shawl slipping
from her shoulders, and exposing the bare gleaming bust, Olga
exclaimed:
"O Queen of the Nile! What Antony awaits your smiles?"
As if aware that she were scrutinized, the grey eyes, sank to the
carpet, then met Olga's.
"Miss Neville is not the only person who has found in me a
resemblance to the Egyptian sorceress. When I return to Italy, Story
shall immortalize me in connection with his own impassioned poem. Let
me see, how does it begin:
'Here, Charmian, take my bracelets.'"
She passed her hand across her low wide brow, and, glancing furtively
at Mr. Palma, she daringly repeated the strongest passages of the
poem, while her flute-like tones seemed to gather additional
witchery.
Sitting in one corner, with an open book in her hand, Regina looked
at her and listened, fascinated by her singular beauty, but
astonished at the emphasis with which she recited imagery that tinged
the girl's cheek with red.
"If there be a 'cockatoo' in Gotham, doubtless you will own it
to-morrow. But forgive me, oh, Cleopatra! if I venture the heresy
that Story's poem--gorgeous, though I grant it--leaves a bad taste in
one's mouth, like richly spiced wine, hot and sweet and deliciously
intoxicating; but beware of to-morrow! 'Sometimes the poison of asps
is not confined to fig-baskets; and with your permission, I should
like to offer you an infallible antidote, Seraph of the Nile?"
Mrs. Carew smiled defiantly, and inclined her head, interpreting the
lurking challenge in Olga's fiery hazel eyes.
Leaning a little forward to note the effect, the latter began and
recited with much skill the entire words of "Maud Muller." Whenever
the name of the Judge was pronounced, she looked at Mr. Palma, and
there was peculiar emphasis in her rendition of the lines:
"But the lawyers smiled that afternoon,
When he hummed in court an old love tune.
* * * * *
He wedded a wife of richest dower,
Who lived for fashion, as he for power."
How had Olga discovered the secret which he believed so securely
locked in his own heart? Not a muscle moved in his cold guarded face,
but a faint flush stole across his cheek as he met her sparkling
gaze.
Mrs. Carew's rosy lip curled scornfully:
"My dear Miss Neville, should you ever be smitten by the blasts of
adversity, your charming recitative talent would prove wonderfully
remunerative upon the stage."
"Thanks! but my observation leads me to believe that at the present
day the profession of the Sycophants pays the heaviest dividends.
Does Cleopatra's fondness for figs enable her to appreciate my
worldly wisdom?"
Regina knew that Olga meant mischief to both host and guest, and
though she did not comprehend the drift of her laughing words, she
noticed the sudden smile that flashed over her guardian's
countenance, and the perplexed expression of Mrs. Carew's eyes.
"Miss Neville has as usual floundered into her favourite blue mire,
whose stale scraps of learning cannot tempt me to pursuit."
"Not into the mud of the Nile, oh celestial Isis! but into the
classic lore of Hellas. Ask Mr. Palma why I am opposed to smuggling
figs, especially rose-coloured figs?"
Olga's light laugh was particularly irritating and disagreeable at
that moment, and her mother, who was a ubiquitous flag of truce on
such occasions, hastened to interpose.
"My daughter, what possible connection can Mrs. Carew or anybody else
find between the habit of sycophancy and baskets of figs?"
"Dear mamma, to explain it to you might be construed into an unfilial
and irreverent reflection upon the insufficiency of your education,
and of that admission nothing could induce me to be guilty. But
Regina yonder is still in the clutches of Dominie Sampson, and as she
is such an innocent stupid young dove, I will have mercy upon her
curiously questioning eyes. My dear rustic 'Maud,' Sycophants means
_fig-blabbers_; and when you are patient enough to study, and wise
enough to appreciate Plutarch, you will learn the derivation of the
title which justly belongs to multitudes of people."
Making as near an approach to a grimace as the lines of grace (which
she never violated) would permit, Mrs. Carew lifted one shoulder
almost out of its satin fetters, and turned to her host.
"Miss Neville should have reigned at the Hotel de Rambouillet when
_précieuse_ was more honoured than now. I fear if society suspected
the vastness of her learning, it would create a panic wherever she
goes."
Olga was leaving the room, had almost reached the door, but at the
last words turned, and her face sparkled mischievously.
"Beautiful Egypt is acquainted with sphinxes, and should be quick at
guessing riddles. Will Cleopatra or Antony answer my conundrum? When
my erudition creates a panic, why am I like those who dwelt about
Chemmis, when the tragical fate of Osiris was accomplished?"
Mr. Palma answered promptly:
"Because the Pans who inhabited that region were the first who
learned of the disaster, and as they spread the fatal news among the
people, all sudden public frights and shocks have been ever since
called panics. The carriage is ready. We shall be late at the
wedding. Olga, where is your shawl?"
As they quitted the room together, he added in an undertone:
"Your Parthian warfare would have justified me in returning your
arrow, but I was never an expert in the use of small arms."
With her hand upon the balustrade of the stairs, which she was
ascending, Olga looked down on him, and her eyes blazed with an
intensity of scorn and defiance.
"To your empty quiver, not your leniency, I am indebted for my
safety. Your arrows were all skilfully barbed, and even the venom of
asps distilled upon them; but you have done your worst, and failed.
Parthian tactics ill suit my temper, let me tell you, and just now I
should infinitely prefer the Scythian style. Were I only for one
brief hour Tomyris, I would carry your head, sir, where she held that
of Cyrus, in a bag."
He walked on to the front door, and those in the sitting-room heard
Olga run up the steps, singing with _gusto_ that strain from Far
Diavolo, ending, "Diavolo! Diavolo!"
The "Cantata of Undine" had been composed by a gifted and fashionable
_amateur_, and was performed by young people who belonged to _le beau
monde_, consequently at an early hour on Friday evening, the house
was crowded to witness the appearance of a constellation of
_amateurs_, among whom Regina shone resplendent. When after the
opening chorus, she came first upon the stage, and stood watching the
baton of the leader, a bum of admiration rose from the audience.
The costume was of some silvery gauze that hung like mist around her
slender figure, and was encrusted here and there with the fragile
white water-lilies that matched the spray which twined across her
head, and strayed down among the unbound hair now floating free, far
below her waist.
Very pale but calm, she began her solo, at first a little
tremulously, but by degrees the rich voice gained its strength,
asserted its spell, and nobly fulfilled the promise of Professor
Hurtzsel, that New York should hear that night its finest
_contralto_.
Startled by the burst of applause that succeeded her song, she looked
for the first time at the audience, and saw her guardian's tall
conspicuous figure leaning against a column near the spot where Mrs.
Carew sat.
Very grave, coolly critical, and quite preoccupied he certainly
looked, and none would have dreamed that the slight motion of his
lips meant "My Lily."
Twice she sang alone, and finally in a duo which admirably displayed
the compass and _timbre_ of her very peculiar voice, and the floral
hurricane that assailed her attested her complete triumph.
The unaffected simplicity of her bearing, as contrasted with the
_aplomb_ and artificial manner of the other young ladies who were
performers,--the angelic purity and delicacy of the sweet girlish
face, with a lingering trace of sadness in the superb eyes, which
only deepened their velvet violet,--excited the earnest interest of
all present, and many curious inquiries ran through the audience.
At the close of the Cantata, Mrs. Palma drew Regina away from the
strangers who pressed forward to offer their congratulations, and,
throwing a fur cloak around her, kissed her cheek.
It was the first caress the stately woman had ever bestowed, and as
the girl looked up, gratified and astonished, the former said:
"You sang delightfully, my dear, and we are more than satisfied,
quite proud. Your voice was as even and smooth as a piece of
cream-coloured Persian satin. No, Mrs. Brompton, not to-night.
Pardon me, Professor, but I must hurry her away, for Mrs. Carew and I
have an engagement at Mrs. Quimbey's. I shall be obliged to take our
'Undine' home, and then return for my fair friend, who is as usual
surrounded, and inextricable just now."
While she spoke, Regina's eyes wandered across the mass of heads, and
rested on the commanding form of her guardian, standing among a group
of gentlemen collected around Mrs. Carew, who clad in white _moire
antique_, with a complete overdress of finest black lace, looped with
diamond sprays, seemed more than usually regal and brilliant.
Mrs. Palma hurried Regina through a side entrance, and down to the
carriage, and ere long, having seen her enter the hall at home, bade
her good-night, and drove back for Mrs. Carew and Mr. Palma.
It was only a little after ten o'clock, and Regina went up to the
library, her favourite haunt. She had converted the over-skirt of her
dress into an apron, now filled with bouquets from among the number
showered upon her; and selecting one composed of pelargoniums and
heliotropes, she placed it in the vase beneath her mother's picture,
and laid the remainder in a circle around it.
"Ah, mother! they praised your child; but your voice was missing.
Would you too have been proud of me? Oh! if I could feel your lips on
mine, and hear you whisper once more, as of old, 'My baby! my
precious baby!'"
Gazing at the portrait, she spoke with a passionate fervour very
unusual in her composed reserved nature, and unshed tears gathered
and glorified her eyes.
The house was silent and deserted, save by the servants, by Mrs.
Carew's child and nurse, and throwing off her cloak, Regina remained
standing in front of the portrait, while her thoughts wandered into
grey dreary wastes.
Since the day of Mrs. Carew's arrival she had not exchanged a
syllable with her guardian, nor had she for an instant seen him
alone, for the early breakfasts had been discontinued, and in honour
of his guest and client, Mr. Palma took his with the assembled
family.
There was in his deportment toward his ward nothing harsh, nothing
that could have indicated displeasure; but he seemed to have entirely
forgotten her from the moment when he presented her to Mr. Chesley.
He never even accidentally glanced at her, and patiently watching her
immobile cold face, sparkling only with intelligence, as he
endeavoured to entertain his exacting and imperious guest, Regina
began to realize the vast distance that divided her from him.
His haughty Brahmimc pride seemed to lift him into some lofty plane,
so far beyond the level of Peleg Peterson, that in contrasting them
the girl groaned and grew sick at heart. She felt that she stood upon
a mine already charged, and that at any moment that wretched man who
held the fatal fuse in his brutal hand, might hurl her and all her
hopes into irremediable chaos and ruin. If the fastidious and
aristocratic people who had kindly applauded her singing a little
while ago could have imagined the dense cloud of social humiliation
that threatened to burst upon her, would she have even been tolerated
in that assemblage? Ignorance of her parentage was her sole passport
into really good society, and the prestige of her guardian's noble
name an ermine mantle of protection, which might be rudely torn away.
During the last three days, left to the companionship of her own sad
thoughts, and unable to see Olga alone for even a moment, more than
one painful and unutterably bitter discovery had been made. She felt
that indeed her childhood had flown for ever, that the sacred
mysterious chrism of womanhood had been poured upon her young heart.
Until forced to observe the marked admiration which in his own house
Mr. Palma evinced when conversing with Mrs. Carew, Regina had been
conscious only of a profound respect for him, of a deeply grateful
appreciation of his protecting care; and even when he interrogated
her with reference to her affection for Mr. Lindsay, she had
truthfully averred her conviction that her heart was wholly
disengaged.
But sternly honest in dealing with her own soul, subsequent events
had painfully shocked her into a realization of the feeling that
first manifested itself as she watched Mr. Palma and Mrs. Carew at
the dinner-table.
She knew now that the keen pang she suffered that day could mean
nothing less solemn and distressing than the mortifying fact that she
was beginning to love her guardian. Not merely as a grateful,
respectful ward, the august lawyer who represented her mother's
authority, but as a woman once, and once only in life, loves the man,
whom her pure tender heart humbly acknowledges as her king, her
high-priest, her one divinity in clay.
Although conscience acquitted her of any intentional weakness, her
womanly pride and delicacy bled at every pore, when she arraigned
herself for being guilty of this emotion toward one who regarded her
as a child, who merely pitied her forlorn isolation; and whose eye
would fill with fiery scorn, could he dream of her presumptuous, her
unfeminine folly.
Despite the chronic sneers with which Olga always referred to his
character and habitual conduct, Regina could not withhold a reverence
for his opinion, and an earnest admiration of his grave, dignified,
yet polished deportment in his household.
By degrees her early dread and repulsion had melted away, confidence
and respect usurped their place; and gradually he had grown and
heightened in her estimation, until suddenly opening her eyes wide
she saw that Erle Palma filled all the horizon of her hopes.
During three sleepless nights she had kept her eyes riveted upon this
unexpected and mournful fact, and while deeply humiliated by the
discovery, she proudly resolved to uproot and cast out of her heart
the alien growth, which she felt could prove only the upas of her
future. Allowing herself absolutely no hope, no pardon, no quarter,
she sternly laid the axe of indignant condemnation and destruction to
the daring off-shoot, desperately hewing at her very heart-strings.
Mrs. Carew's manner left little doubt that she was leaning like a
ripe peach within his reach, ready at a touch to fall into his hand;
and though Regina felt that this low-browed, sibyl-eyed woman was
vastly his inferior in all save beauty and wealth, she knew that even
his failure to marry the widow would furnish no justification for the
further indulgence of her own foolish and unsought preference.
The dread lest he might suspect it, and despise her, added intensity
to her desire to leave New York, and find safety in joining her
mother; for the thought of his cold contempt, his glittering black
eyes, and curling lips, was unendurable.
Weeks must elapse ere she could receive an answer to her letter,
praying for permission to sail for Europe, and during this trying
interval, she determined to guard every word and glance, to allow no
hint of her great folly to escape.
Peleg Peterson's daughter, or else "Nobody's Child," daring to lift
her eyes to the lordly form of Erle Palma!
As this bitter thought taunted and stung her, she uttered a low cry
of anguish and shame.
"What is the matter? Don't cry, it will spoil your pretty eyes."
Regina turned quickly, and saw little Llora Carew standing near, and
arrayed only in her long white night dress, and pink rosetted
slippers.
"Llora, how came you out of bed? You ought to have been asleep three
hours ago."
"So I was. But I waked up, and felt so lonesome. Mammie has gone off
and left me, and hunting for somebody I came here. Won't you please
let me stay awhile? I can't go to sleep."
"But you will catch cold."
"No, the room is warm, and I have my slippers. Oh! what a pretty
dress! And your arms and neck are like snow, whiter even than my
mamma's. Please do sing something for me. Your voice is sweeter than
my musical box, and then I am going away to-morrow."
She had curled herself like a pet kitten on the rug, and looking down
at her soft dusky eyes, and rosy cheeks, Regina sighed.
"I am so tired, dear. I have no voice left."
"If you could sing before all the people at the Cantata, you might
just one song for little me."
"Well, pet, I know I ought not to be selfish, and I will try. Come,
kiss me. My mother is so far away, and I have nobody to love me. Hug
me tight."
There was a door leading from Mr. Palma's sleeping-room, to the
curtained alcove behind the writing desk, and having quietly entered
by that passage soon after Regina came home, the master of the house
sat on a lounge veiled by damask and lace curtains, and holding the
drapery slightly aside, watched what passed in the library.
He was rising to declare his presence, when Llora came in, and
somewhat vexed at the _contretemps_ he awaited the result.
As Regina knelt on the rug and opened her arms, the pretty child
sprang into them, kissed her cheeks, and assured her repeatedly that
she loved her very dearly, that she was the loveliest girl she ever
saw, especially in that gauze dress. Particularly fond of children,
Regina toyed with, and caressed her for some minutes, then rose, and
said:
"Now I will sing you a little song to put you to sleep. Sit here by
the hearth, but be sure not to nod and fall into the fire."
She opened the organ, and although partly beyond the range of Mr.
Palma's vision, he heard every syllable of the sweet mellow English
words of Kücken's "Schlummerlied," with its soothing refrain:
"Oh, hush thee now, in slumber mild,
While watch I keep, oh sleep, my child."
She sang it with strange pathos, thinking of her own far distant
mother, whom fate had denied the privilege of chanting lullabies over
her lonely blue-eyed child.
Ending, she came back to the hearth, and Llora clasped her tiny
hands, and chirped:
"Oh, so sweet! When you get to heaven, don't you reckon you will sit
in the choir? Once more, oh! do, please."
"What a hungry little beggar you are! Come, sit in my lap, and I will
hum you a dear little tune. Then you must positively scamper away to
bed, or your mamma will scold us both, and your mammie also."
A tall yellow woman with a white handkerchief wound turban-style
around her head, came stealthily forward, and said:
"Miss, give her to me. I went downstairs for a drink of water, and
when I got back I missed her. Come, baby, let me carry you to bed or
you will have the croup, and the doctors might cut your throat."
"Wait, mammie, till she sings that little tune she promised; then I
will go."
Regina sat down in a low cushioned chair, took the little girl on her
lap, and while the curly head nestled on her shoulder, and one arm
clasped her neck, she rested her chin upon the brown hair, and sang
in a very sweet, subdued tone that most soothing of all lullaby
strains, Wallace's "Cradle Song."
As she proceeded, the turbaned head of the nurse kept time, swaying
to and fro in the background, and a sweeter picture never adorned
canvas than that which Mr. Palma watched in front of his library
fire, and which photographed itself indelibly upon his memory.
Singer and child occupied very much the same position as the figures
in the _Madonna della Sedia_, and no more lovely woman and child ever
sat for its painter.
As Mr. Palma's fastidiously critical eyes rested on the sad perfect
face of Regina, with the long black lashes veiling her eyes, and the
bare arms and shoulders gleaming above the silver gauze of her
drapery, he silently admitted that her beauty seemed strangely
sanctified, and more spirituelle than ever before. Contrasting that
sweet white figure, over whose delicate lips floated the dreamy
rhythm of the cradle chant, with the hundreds of handsome,
accomplished, witty, and brilliant women who thronged the ball-room
he had just left, this man of the world confessed that his proud
ambitious heart was hopelessly in bondage to the fair young singer.
"Sleep, my little one, sleep,--
Sleep, my pretty one,--sleep."
At that moment he was powerfully tempted to delay no longer to take
her to his bosom for ever; and it cost him a struggle to sit
patiently, while every fibre of his strong frame was thrilling with a
depth and fervour of feeling that threatened to bear away all
dictates of discretion. Ah! what a divine melody seemed to ring
through all his future as he leaned eagerly forward, and listened to
the closing words, softly reiterated:
"Sleep, my little one, sleep,--
Sleep, my pretty one,--sleep."
When she was his wife, how often in the blessed evenings spent here,
in this hallowed room, he promised himself he would make her sing
that song. No shadow of doubt that whenever he chose, he could win
her for his own, clouded the brightness of the vision, for success in
other pursuits had fed his vanity, until he believed himself
invincible; and although he had studied her character closely, he
failed to comprehend fully the proud obstinacy latent in her quiet
nature.
Just then even the Chief Justiceship seemed an inferior prize, in
comparison with the possession of that white-browed girl, and her
pure clinging love; and certainly for a time Mr. Erle Palma's
towering pride and insatiable ambition were forgotten in his longing
to snatch the one beloved of all his arid life to the heart that was
throbbing almost beyond even his rigid control.
For the first time within his recollection he distrusted his power of
self-restraint, and rising passed quickly into his own room, and
thence after some moments out into the hall. Near the stairs he met
the mulatto nurse carrying Llora in her arms.
"Does Mrs. Carew permit that child to sit up so late?"
"Oh no, sir! She has been asleep once; but Miss Regina pets her a
good deal, and had her in the library singing to her."
"Mr. Palma, shall I kiss you good-night?" asked the pretty creole,
lifting her curly head from her "mammie's" shoulder.
"Good-night, Llora. Such tender birds should have been in their nests
long before this. I shall go and scold Miss Orme for keeping you
awake so late."
He merely patted her rosy round cheek, and went to the library.
Hearing his unmistakable step, Regina conjectured that he had
escorted the ladies home much earlier than they were accustomed to
return, and longing to avoid the possibility of a _tête-à-tête_ with
him, she would gladly have escaped before his entrance had been
practicable.
He closed the door, and came forward, and, leaning back in the chair
where she still sat, her hands closed tightly over each other.
"I fear my ward is learning to keep late hours. It is after eleven
o'clock, and you should be dreaming of the cool, beryl, aquatic
abodes you have been frequenting as Undine; for indeed you look a
very weary naïad."
Was he pleased with her success, and would he deem to give her a
morsel of commendation?
A moment after, she knew that he entertained no such purpose, and
felt that she ought to rejoice; that it was far best he should not,
for praise from his lips would be dangerously sweet.
Glancing at the floral tribute laid before her mother's portrait, he
said:
"You certainly are a faithful devotee at your mother's shrine, and no
wonder poor Roscoe is so desperately savage at his failure to engage
a portion of your regard. Did you have a satisfactory interview with
him on Tuesday last? I invited him for that purpose, as he avowed
himself dissatisfied with my efforts as proxy, and demanded the
privilege of pleading his own cause. Permit me to hope that he
successfully improved the opportunity which I provided by requesting
him to escort you to dinner."
Standing upon the rug, and immediately in front of her, he spoke with
cool indifference, and though the words seemed to her a cruel mockery
they proved a powerful tonic, bringing the grim comfort that at least
her presumptuous madness was not suspected.
"I had very little conversation with Mr. Roscoe, as I declined to
renew the discussion of a topic which was painful and embarrassing to
me, and I fear I have entirely forfeited his friendship."
"Then after mature deliberation you still peremptorily refuse to
become more closely related to me? Once there appeared a rosy
possibility that you might one day call me cousin."
With a sudden resolution she looked straight at him for the first
time since his entrance, and answered quietly:
"You will be my kind faithful guardian a little while longer, until I
can hear from mother; but we shall never be any more closely
related."
The reply was not exactly what he expected and desired; but with his
chill, out-door conventional smile he added:
"Poor Roscoe! his heart frequently outstrips his reason."
Looking at him, she felt assured that no one could ever justly make
that charge against him; and unwilling to prolong the interview, she
rose.
"Pardon me, if, notwithstanding the lateness of the hour, I detain
you a few minutes from your Undine dreams. Be so good as to resume
your seat."
There was an ominous pause, and reluctantly she was forced to look
up.
He was regarding her very sternly, and as his eyes caught and held
hers he put his fingers in his vest pocket, drawing therefrom a
narrow strip of paper, folded carefully. Holding it out, he asked:
"Did you ever see this?"
Before she opened it she knew it contained the address she had given
to Peleg Peterson on Tuesday, and a shiver crept over her.
Mechanically glancing at it, she sighed; a sigh that was almost a
moan.
"Regina, have the courtesy to answer my question."
"Of course I have seen it before. You know it is my handwriting."
"Did you furnish that address with the expectation of conducting a
clandestine correspondence?"
An increasing pallor overspread her features, but in a very firm
decided voice, she replied:
"Yes sir."
"Knowing that your legal guardian would forbid such an interchange of
letters, you directed them enclosed under cover to Mrs. Mason?"
"I did."
The slip of paper fluttered to the floor, and her fingers locked each
other.
"A gentleman picked up that scrap of paper, in one of the squares
located far up town, and recognizing the name of my ward, very
discreetly placed it in the possession of her guardian."
"Mr. Palma, were you not in a carriage at that square on Tuesday?"
"I was not. My time is rather too valuable to be wasted in a
rendezvous at out-of-the-way squares while a snowstorm is in full
blast. What possible attraction do you imagine such folly could offer
me?"
"I met you not very far from that square, and I thought----"
"Pray take time, and conclude your sentence."
She shook her head.
"Some important business connected with my profession, and involving
a case long ago placed in my hands, called me, despite the
unfavourable weather, to that section of the city. Having
particularly desired and instructed you to come home as soon as the
rehearsal at Mrs. Brompton's ended, I certainly had no right to
suppose you intended to disobey me."
He paused, but she remained a pale image of silent sorrow.
"A few evenings since you asked me to trust you, and in defiance of
my judgment I reluctantly promised to do so. Have you not forfeited
your guardian's confidence?"
"Perhaps so; but it was unavoidable."
"Unavoidable that you should systematically deceive me?" he demanded
very sternly.
"I have not deceived you."
"My duty as your guardian forces me to deal plainly with you. With
whom have you arranged this disgraceful clandestine correspondence?"
Her gaze swept quite past him, ascended to the pitying brown eyes in
her mother's portrait; and though she grew white as her Undine
vesture, and he saw her shudder, her voice was unshaken.
"I cannot tell you."
"Representing your mother's authority, I demand an answer."
After an instant, she said:
"Though you were twenty times my guardian, I shall not tell you,
sir."
She seemed like some marble statue, which one might hack and hew in
twain, without extorting a confession.
"Then you force me to a very shocking and shameful conclusion."
Was there, she wondered, any conclusion so shameful as the truth,
which at all hazard she was resolved for her mother's sake to hide?
"You are secretly meeting and arranging to correspond with some
vagrant lover whom you blush so acknowledge."
"Lover! Oh, merciful God! When I need a father, and a father's
protecting name--when I am heart-sick for my mother, and her
shielding healing love--how can you cruelly talk to me of a lover?
What right has a nameless, homeless waif to think of love? God grant
me a father and a mother, a stainless name, and I shall never need,
never wish, never tolerate a lover! Do not insult my misery."
She lifted her clenched hands almost menacingly, and her passionate
vehemence startled her companion, who could scarcely recognize in the
glittering defiant gaze that met his the velvet violet eyes over
which the silken fringes had hung with such tender Madonna grace but
a half-hour before.
"Regina, how could you deceive me so shamefully?"
"I did not intend to do so. I am innocent of the disgraceful motives
you impute to me; but I cannot explain what you condemn so severely.
In all that I have done I have been impelled by a stern, painful
sense of duty, and my conscience acquits me; but I shall not give you
any explanation. To no human being, except my mother, will I confess
the whole matter. Oh, send me at once to her! I asked you to trust
me, and you believe me utterly unworthy, think I have forfeited your
confidence, even your respect. It is hard, very hard, for I hoped to
possess always your good opinion. But it must be borne, and now at
least, holding me so low in your esteem, you will not keep me under
your roof; you will gladly send me to mother. Let me go. Oh! do let
me go--at once; to-morrow."
She seemed inexplicably transformed into a woeful desperate woman,
and the man's heart yearned to fold her closely in his arms,
sheltering her for ever.
Drawing nearer, he spoke in a wholly altered voice.
"When you asked me to trust you, I did so. Now will you grant me a
similar boon? Lily, trust me."
His tone had never sounded so low, almost pleading before; and it
thrilled her with an overmastering grief, that when he who was wont
to command, condescended to sue for her confidence, she was forced
to withhold it.
"Oh, Mr. Palma, do not ask me! I cannot."
He took her hands, unwinding the cold fingers, and in his peculiar
magnetic way softly folding them in his warm palms; but she struggled
to withdraw them, and he saw the purple shadows deepening under her
large eyes.
"Little girl, I would not betray your secret Give it to my
safekeeping. Show me your heart."
As if fearful he might read it, she involuntarily closed her
eyes, and her answer was almost a sob.
"It is not my secret, it involves others, and I would rather die
to-morrow, to-night, than have it known. Oh! let me go away at once,
and for ever!"
Accustomed to compel compliance with his wishes, it was difficult for
him to patiently endure defiance and defeat from that fair young
creature, whom he began to perceive he could neither overawe nor
persuade.
For several minutes he seemed lost in thought, still holding her
hands firmly; then he suddenly laughed, and stooped toward her.
"Brave, true little heart! I wonder if some day you will be as
steadfast and faithful in your devotion to your husband, as you have
been in your loving defence of your mother? You need not tell me your
secret, I know everything; and, Lily, I can scarcely forgive you for
venturing within the reach and power of that wretched vagabond."
He felt her start and shiver, and pitying the terrified expression
that drifted into her countenance, he continued:
"Unconsciously, you were giving alms to your own and to your mother's
worst enemy. Peleg Peterson has for years stood between you and your
lawful name."
She reeled, and her fingers closed spasmodically over his, as white
and faint, she gasped:
"Then he is not--my----"
The words died on her quivering lips.
"He is the man who has slandered and traduced your mother, even to
her own husband."
"Oh! then, he is not, he cannot be my--father!"
"No more your father than I am! At last I have succeeded in
obtaining----"
She was beyond the reach even of his voice, and as she drooped he
caught her in his arms.
Since Monday the terrible strain had known no relaxation, and the
sudden release from the horrible incubus of Peleg Peterson was
overpowering.
Mr. Palma held her for some seconds clasped to his heart, and placing
the head on his bosom, turned the white face to his. How hungrily the
haughty man hung over those wan features, and what a wealth of
passionate tenderness thrilled in the low trembling voice that
whispered:
"My Lily. My darling; my own."
He kissed her softly, as if the cold lips were too sacred even for
his loving touch, and gently placed her on the sofa, holding her with
his encircling arm.
Since his boyhood no woman's lips had ever pressed his, and the last
kiss he had bestowed was upon his mother's brow, as she lay in her
coffin.
To-night the freshness of youth came back, and the cold, politic,
non-committal lawyer found himself for the first time an ardent
trembling lover.
He watched the faint quiver of her blue-veined lids, and heard the
shuddering sigh that assured him consciousness was returning. Softly
stroking her hand, he saw the eyes at last unclose.
"You certainly have been down among your uncanny Undine caves; for
you quite resemble a drenched lily. Now sit up."
He lifted her back into the easy chair, as if she had been an infant,
and stood before her.
As her mind cleared, she recalled what had passed, and said almost in
a whisper:
"Did I dream, or did you tell me that horrible man is not my father?"
"I told you so. He is a black-hearted, vindictive miscreant, who
successfully blackmailed you, by practising a vile imposture."
"Oh! are you quite sure?"
"Perfectly sure. I have been hunting him for years, and at last have
obtained in black and white his own confession, which nobly
exonerates your mother from his infamous aspirations."
"Thank God! Thank God!"
Tears were stealing down her cheeks, and he saw from the twitching of
her face that she was fast losing control of her overtaxed nerves.
"You must go to your room and rest, or you will be ill."
"Oh! not if I am sure he will never dare to claim me as his child.
Oh, Mr. Palma! that possibility has almost driven me wild."
"Dismiss it as you would some hideous nightmare. Go to sleep and
dream of your mother, and of----"
He bit his lip to check the rash words, and too much agitated to
observe his changed manner, she asked:
"Where is he now?"
"No matter where. He is so completely in my power, that he can
trouble us no more."
She clasped her hands joyfully, but the tears fell faster, and
looking at her mother's picture, she exclaimed:
"Have mercy upon me, Mr. Palma! Tell me--do you know--whom I am? Do
you really know beyond doubt who was--or is--my father?"
"This much I can tell you, I know your father's name; but just now I
am forbidden by your mother to disclose it, even to you. Come to your
room."
He raised her from the chair, and as she stood before him, it was
pitiable to witness the agonized entreaty in her pallid but beautiful
face.
"Please tell me only one thing, and I can bear all else patiently.
Was he--was my father--a gentleman? Oh! my mother could never have
loved any--but a gentleman."
"His treatment of her and of you would scarcely entitle him to that
honourable epithet; yet in the eyes of the world your father
assuredly is in every respect a gentleman, is considered even an
aristocrat."
She sobbed aloud, and the violence of her emotion, which she seemed
unable to control, alarmed him. Leading her to the library door he
said, retaining her hand.
"Compose yourself, or you will be really sick. Now that your poor
tortured heart is easy, can you not go to sleep?"
"Oh, thank you! Yes, I will try."
"Lily, next time trust me. Trust your guardian in everything.
Good-night. God bless you."