DYING IN SIN.
Captain Langton left Lady Darrell at the door of the porch, and went
round to the stables. He was a man as utterly devoid of principle as any
man could well be, yet the untruths he had told, the false testimony he
had given, the false oaths he had taken, had shaken his nerves.
"I should not care to go through such a scene as that again," he
said--"to stand before two women as before my judges."
He found his hands unsteady and his limbs trembling; the horse he had to
ride was a spirited one. The captain half staggered as he placed his
hand on the saddle.
"I am not very well," he said to one of the grooms; "go to the house and
tell Frampton, the butler, to bring some brandy here."
In a few minutes the butler appeared with a tray, on which stood bottle
and glass.
"This is some very old brandy, sir," he said, "and very strong."
But Captain Langton did not appear to heed him; he poured out half a
tumblerful and drank it, while the butler looked on in amazement.
"It is very strong, sir," he repeated.
"I know what I am doing," returned the captain, with an oath.
He was dizzy with fear and with his after-success; he shuddered again as
he mounted his horse, and the memory of Pauline's face and Pauline's
words came over him. Then he galloped off, and Frampton, turning to the
groom, with a scared face, said:
"If he gets home safely after taking so much of that brandy, and with
that horse, I will never venture to say what I think again."
* * * * *
Lady Darrell returned to the library, where she had left Pauline. They
looked at each other in silence, and then Lady Darrell said:
"I--I believe in him, Pauline; he cannot be what you say."
Miss Darrell rose and went up to her; she placed her in a chair, and
knelt at her feet.
"You do not believe what I have told you?" she questioned, gently.
"I cannot; my love and my faith are all his."
"I have done my best," said Pauline, sorrowfully, "and I can do no more.
While I live I shall never forgive myself that I did not speak sooner,
Lady Darrell. Elinor, I shall kneel here until you promise to forgive
me."
Then Lady Darrell looked at the beautiful face, with its expression of
humility.
"Pauline," she said, suddenly, "I hardly recognize you. What has come to
you? What has changed you?"
Her face crimson with hot blushes, Pauline answered her.
"It is to me," she said, "as though a vail had fallen from before my
eyes. I can see my sin in all its enormity. I can see to what my silence
has led, and, though you may not believe me, I shall never rest until
you say that you have forgiven me."
Lady Darrell was not a woman given to strong emotion of any kind; the
deepest passion of her life was her love for Aubrey Langton; but even
she could give some faint guess as to what it had cost the proud,
willful Pauline to undergo this humiliation.
"I do forgive you," she said. "No matter how deeply you have disliked
me, or in what way you have plotted against me, I cannot refuse you. I
forgive you, Pauline."
Miss Darrell held up her face.
"Will you kiss me?" she asked. "I have never made that request in all my
life before, but I make it now."
Lady Darrell bent down and kissed her, while the gloom of the evening
fell round them and deepened into night.
"If I only knew what to believe!" Lady Darrell remarked. "First my heart
turns to him, Pauline, and then it turns to you. Yet both cannot be
right--one must be most wicked and most false. You have truth in your
face--he had truth on his lips when he was talking to me. Oh, if I
knew--if I only knew!"
And when she had repeated this many times, Pauline said to her:
"Leave it to Heaven; he has agreed that Heaven shall judge between us,
and it will. Whoever has told the lie shall perish in it."
So some hours passed, and the change that had come over Lady Darrell was
almost pitiful to see. Her fair face was all drawn and haggard, the
brightness had all left it. It was as though years of most bitter sorrow
had passed over her. They had spoken to her of taking some refreshment,
but she had sent it away. She could do nothing but pace up and down with
wearied step, moaning that she only wanted to know which was right,
which to believe, while Pauline sat by her in unwearied patience.
Suddenly Lady Darrell turned to her.
"What is the matter with me?" she asked. "I cannot understand myself;
the air seems full of whispers and portents--it is as though I were here
awaiting some great event. What am I waiting for?"
They were terrible words, for the answer to them was a great commotion
in the hall--the sound of hurried footsteps--of many voices. Lady
Darrell stood still in dismay.
"What is it?" she cried. "Oh, Pauline, I am full of fear--I am sorely
full of fear!"
It was Frampton who opened the door suddenly, and stood before them with
a white, scared face.
"Oh, my lady--my lady!" he gasped.
"Tell her quickly," cried Pauline; "do you not see that suspense is
dangerous?"
"One of the Court servants," said the butler, at once, in response,
"returning from Audleigh Royal, has found the body of Captain Langton
lying in the high-road, where his horse had thrown him, dragged him, and
left him--dead!"
"Heaven be merciful to him!" cried Pauline Darrell. "He has died in his
sin."
But Lady Darrell spoke no words. Perhaps she thought to herself that
Heaven had indeed judged between them. She said nothing--she trembled--a
gasping cry came from her, and she fell face forward on the floor.
They raised her and carried her up stairs. Pauline never left her;
through the long night-watches and the long days she kept her place by
her side, while life and death fought fiercely for her. She would awake
from her stupor at times, only to ask about Aubrey--if it could be true
that he was dead--and then seemed thankful that she could understand no
more.
They did not think at first that she could recover. Afterward Doctor
Helmstone told her that she owed her life to Pauline Darrell's
unchanging love and care.