AN APPEAL TO THE WARDOUR HONOR.
During the night that saw Sybil Burrill's reason give way under the
long, horrible strain, that had borne upon it; the night that witnessed
the downfall of Frank Lamotte's cherished hopes, and closed the earthly
career of John Burrill; Mrs. Lamotte and Mrs. Aliston hovered over the
bed where lay Sybil, now tossing in delirium, now sinking into
insensibility. Early in the evening, Dr. Heath had been summoned, and he
had responded promptly to Mrs. Lamotte's eager call.
They could do little, just then, save to administer opiates; he told
them there was every symptom of brain fever; by to-morrow he would know
what course of treatment to pursue; until then, keep the patient quiet,
humor all her whims, so far as was possible; give her no stimulants,
and, if there was any marked change, send for him at once.
The two anxious women hung upon his words; afterward, they both
remembered how cheerful, how brave and strong he had seemed that night;
how gentle his voice was; how kindly his glance; how soothing and
reassuring his manner.
In the gray of the morning, Sybil dropped into one of her lethargies
after hours of uneasy mutterings, that would have been mad ravings, but
for the doctor's powerful opiate; and then, after a word combat with
Mrs. Lamotte, just such an argument as has occurred by hundreds of sick
beds, where two weary, anxious watchers vie with each other for the
place beside the bed, and the right to watch in weariness, while the
other rests; after such an argument, Mrs. Aliston yielded to the
solicitations of her hostess, and withdrew, to refresh herself with a
little sleep.
The vigil had been an unusual one, and Mrs. Aliston was very weary. No
sound disturbed the quiet of the elegant guest chamber where she lay;
and so it happened that a brisk rapping at her door; at ten o'clock in
the morning, awoke her from heavy, dreamless slumber, and set her
wandering wits to wondering vaguely what all this strangeness meant.
Then suddenly recalling the events of the previous night, she sat up in
bed and called out:
"Who is there?"
"It's ten o'clock, madam," replied the voice of Mrs. Lamotte's maid;
"and will you have breakfast in your room, or in the dining room?"
Slipping slowly out from the downy bed, Mrs. Aliston crossed to the
door, and peering out at the servant, said:
"I will breakfast here, Ellen. How is Sybil?"
"She is worse, I think, madam, and Mrs. Lamotte is very uneasy; I think
she wishes to speak with you, or she would not have had you wakened."
"Tell her I will come to her at once;" and Mrs. Aliston closed the door
and began a hurried toilet; before it was completed, Mrs. Lamotte
herself appeared; she was pale and heavy eyed, and seemed much agitated.
"Pardon my intrusion," she began, hurriedly; "I am uneasy about Sybil;
she is growing very restless, and for more than an hour has called
unceasingly for Constance. Do you think your niece would come to us this
morning? Her strong, cool nerves might have some influence upon poor
Sybil."
"I am sure she will come," replied Mrs. Aliston, warmly "and without a
moment's delay. I will drive home at once, Mrs. Lamotte, and send
Constance back."
"Not until you have had breakfast, Mrs. Aliston. And how can I thank you
for your goodness, and your help, during the past horrible night?"
"By saying nothing at all about it, my dear, and by ordering the
carriage the moment I have swallowed a cup of coffee," replied the
good-hearted soul, cheerily. "I hope and trust that Sybil will recover
very soon; but if she grows worse, you must let me help you all I can."
Half an hour later the Lamotte carriage rolled swiftly across the bridge
and towards Wardour; and so Mrs. Aliston, for the time at least, was
spared the shock that fell upon the house of Mapleton, scarce fifteen
minutes later, the news of John Burrill's murder, and the finding of the
body.
Little more than an hour later, Constance Wardour sprang from the
carriage at the door of Mapleton, and ran hurriedly up the broad steps.
The outer door stood wide open, and a group of servants were huddled
about the door of the drawing room, with pale, affrighted faces, and
panic-stricken manner.
Seeing them, Constance at once takes the alarm. Sybil must be worse;
must be very ill indeed. Instantly the question rises to her lips:
"Is Sybil--is Mrs. Burrill worse?" and then she hears the startling
truth.
"John Burrill is dead. John Burrill has been murdered." In bewilderment,
in amazement, she hears all there is to tell, all that the servants
know. A messenger came, telling only the bare facts. John Burrill's body
has been found in an old cellar; Frank has just gone, riding like a
madman, to see that the body is cared for, and to bring it home. Mrs.
Lamotte has been told the horrible news; has received it like an icicle;
has ordered them to prepare the drawing room for the reception of the
body, and has gone back to her daughter.
All this Constance hears, and then, strangely startled, and vaguely
thankful that Frank is not in the house, she goes up to the sick room.
Mrs. Lamotte rises to greet her, with a look upon her face that startles
Constance, even more than did the news she has just heard below stairs.
Intense feeling has been for so long frozen out of that high-bred,
haughty face, that the look of the eyes, the compression of the lips,
the fear and horror of the entire countenance, amount almost to a
transfiguration.
She draws Constance away from the bed, and into the dressing room
beyond. Then, in a voice husky with suppressed emotion, she addresses
her as follows:
"Constance Wardour, I am about to place my honor, my daughter's life,
the honor of all my family, in your hands. There is not another living
being in whom to trust, and I must trust some one. I must, for my
child's sake, have relief, or _my_ reason, too, will desert me.
Constance, that sick room holds a terrible secret--Sybil's secret. If
you can share it with me, for Sybil's sake, I will try to brave this
tempest, as I have braved others; if you refuse"--she paused a moment,
and then whispered fiercely:
"If you refuse, I will lock that chamber door, and Sybil Lamotte shall
die in her delirium before I will allow an ear that I can not trust,
within those walls, or the hand of a possible enemy to administer one
life-saving draught."
[Illustration: "Sybil Lamotte shall die in her delirium."]
Over the face of Constance Wardour crept a look of horror indescribable.
In an instant her mind is illuminated, and all the fearful meaning of
Mrs. Lamotte's strange words, is grasped and mastered. She reels as if
struck by a heavy hand, and a low moan breaks from her lips. So long she
stands thus, mute and awe-stricken, that Mrs. Lamotte can bear the
strain of suspense no longer.
"For God's sake, speak," she gasps; "there have been those of your race
who could not abandon a fallen friend."
Over the cheek, and neck, and brow, the hot, proud, loyal Wardour blood,
comes surging. The gray eyes lift themselves with a proud flash; low and
firm comes the answer:
"The Wardours were never Summer friends. Sybil has been as a sister, in
prosperity; I shall be no less than a sister now. You may trust me as
you would yourself; and--I am very glad you sent for me, and trusted no
other."
"God bless you, Constance! No one else _can_ be trusted. With your help
I must do this work alone."
Then comes a cry from the sick room; they go back, and Constance enters
at once upon her new, strange task. Her heart heavy; her hand firm; her
ears smitten by the babbling recitation of that awful secret; and her
lips sealed with the seal of the Wardour honor.
All that day she is at her post. Mrs. Lamotte, who is resolved to retain
her strength for Sybil's sake, lies down in the dressing room and sleeps
from sheer exhaustion.
As the day wears on there is movement and bustle down stairs, they are
bringing in the body of the murdered man. The undertaker goes about his
work with pompous air, and solemn visage; and when darkness falls, John
Burrill's lifeless form lies in state in the drawing room of Mapleton,
that room over the splendors of which his plebeian soul has gloated, his
covetous eyes feasted and his ambitious bosom swelled with a sense of
proprietorship. He is clothed in finest broadcloth, surrounded with
costly trappings; but not one tear falls over him; not one heart grieves
for him; not one tongue utters a word of sorrow or regret; he has
schemed and sinned, to become a member of the aristocracy, to ally
himself to the proud Lamottes; and to-night, one and all of the
Lamottes, breathe the freer, because his breathing has forever ceased.
Even Constance Wardour has no pitying thought for the dead man; she
keeps aloof from the drawing room, shuddering when compelled to pass its
closed doors; living, John Burrill was odious to her; dead, he is
loathsome.
The day passes, and Doctor Heath does not visit his patient. At
intervals during the long afternoon, they have discussed the question,
"What shall we do to keep the patient quiet when the doctor comes?"
It is Constance who solves the problem.
"We must send for Doctor Benoit, Mrs. Lamotte; Doctor Heath's tardiness
will furnish sufficient excuse, and Doctor Benoit's partial deafness
will render him our safest physician."
It is a happy thought; Doctor Benoit is old, and partially deaf, but he
is a thoroughly good and reliable physician.
Late that night, Jasper Lamotte applies for admittance at the door of
his daughter's sick room. Constance opens the door softly, and as his
eyes fall upon her, she fancies that a look of fierce hatred gleams at
her for a moment from those sunken orbs and darkens his haggard
countenance. Of course it is only a fancy. In another moment he is
asking after his daughter, with grave solicitude.
"She is quiet; she must not be disturbed;" so Constance tells him. And
he glides away softly, murmuring his gratitude to his daughter's friend,
as he goes.
It is midnight at Mapleton; in Sybil Lamotte's room the lights burn
dimly, and Mrs. Lamotte and Constance sit near the bed, listening, with
sad, set faces, to the ravings of the delirious girl.
"Ha! ha!" she cries, tossing her bare arms aloft. "How well you planned
that, Constance! the Wardour diamonds; ah, they are worth keeping, they
are worth plotting to keep--and it's often done--it's easy to do. Hush!
Mr. Belknap, I need your help--meet me, meet me to-night, at the boat
house. If a man were to disappear, never to come back, mind--what would
I give? One thousand dollars! two! three! It shall be done! I shall be
free! free! _free!_ Ha! ha! Constance, your diamonds are safer than
mine--but what are diamonds--I shall live a lie--let me adorn myself
with lies. Why not? Why care? I will be free. You have been the tool of
others, Mr. Belknap, why hesitate to serve me--you want money--here it
is, half of it--when it is done, when I _know_ it is done, I will come
here again--at night--and the rest is yours."
With a stifled moan, Mrs. Lamotte leans forward, and lays a hand upon
her companion's arm.
"Constance--do you know what she means?"
Slowly and shudderingly, the girl answers:
"I fear--that I know too well."
"And--that boat-house appointment?"
"Must be kept, Mrs. Lamotte; for Sybil's sake, it must be kept, _by you
or me_."
It is midnight. In Evan Lamotte's room lamps are burning brightly, and
the fumes of strong liquor fill the air. On the bed lies Evan, with
flushed face, and mud bespattered clothing; he is in a sleep that is
broken and feverish, that borders in fact, upon delirium; beside him,
pale as a corpse, with nerves unstrung, and trembling, sits Frank
Lamotte, fearing to leave him, and loath to stay. At intervals, the
sleeper grows more restless, and then starts up with wild ejaculations,
or bursts of demonaic laughter. At such times, Frank Lamotte pours, from
a bottle at his side, a powerful draught of burning brandy, and holds it
to the frenzied lips. They drain off the liquor, and presently relapse
into quiet.
It is midnight. In the library of Mapleton, Jasper Lamotte sits at his
desk, poring over a pile of papers. The curtains are closely drawn, the
door securely locked. Now and then he rises, and paces nervously up and
down the room, gesticulating fiercely, and wearing such a look as has
never been seen upon the countenance of the Jasper Lamotte of society.
It is midnight. In the Mapleton drawing room, all that remains of John
Burrill, lies in solemn solitary state; and, down in his cell, face
downward upon his pallet, lies Clifford Heath, broad awake, and bitterly
reviewing the wrongs heaped upon him by fate; realizing, to the full,
his own helplessness, and the peril before him, and doggedly resolving
to die, and make no sign.