Wives and Widows; or The Broken Life Part 69

"He looked at me a minute, and smiled with his eyes.

"'It is about six hours, I think,' he answered; 'any coachman will take you to the depot.'

"I was rather discouraged. If it took him six hours to run the distance, I should find it a long walk. So I concluded to hire a carriage and take my trunk along.

"After awhile my trunk came up with a heap of other baggage, and, as everybody else was starting off in carriages, I hired one too; and when the man asked where I wanted to go, I told him to the Louvre Hotel in Paris. He drove away at once, and after a few minutes stopped at a railroad depot, and opened the door for me to get out.

"'This is the right train,' he said, in the queerest English I ever heard. 'I will get you a ticket.'

"I felt myself blus.h.i.+ng, but said nothing. He didn't know that I had thought of walking. In less than ten minutes I was whizzing along like anything over the most beautiful country, and through the queerest old towns, and by the strangest houses with points and caps and corners like great table-casters cut in stone. Then the dark came on, and I fell sound asleep, till a great crash and jar awoke me in a depot right in the midst of a city larger than New York, all blazing with lights and crowded with folks.

"I had learned a thing or two by this time, and when a driver put himself in my way, told him that I wanted to go to Mr. Louvre's Hotel, and that he'd better get my trunk. He didn't seem to understand a word except the name of Mr. Louvre; but he caught that at once and nodded his head.

"'_We, we!_'

"'Yes,' I said, 'both of us. You couldn't very well drive me without going too, I should think.'

"So up he came with a little one-horse concern, and in I got. Oh! what streets, and lanes, and roads of lamps I went through! What crowds of people--what tall, tall houses! They made me more dizzy than I had been, and that was bad enough."

CHAPTER LXXV.

LOTTIE IN PARIS.

"At last we reached the hotel--a great, grand house, that frightens one by its size; it must cover acres and acres; you could not count the number of lights, and crowds of people going up and down the stairs.

"They took me into a room half-way up to the sky, and there I sat down with my head aching and clear tired out. You didn't know, I suppose, that I have learned a good many French words from the mistress: such as _du pain_, which means bread; and _le the_, for tea; and _sucre_, which a'n't much different from our sugar, only you mumble it up in your mouth before speaking, and let it all out at once.

"Well, I was dying with thirst, and my head throbbed terribly. The man called me _madmoiselle_, and looked polite and sorry; so I said:

"'_Donna moia_ a cup of _the_, if you please, _mousheu_.'

"He looked bewildered a minute, and then brightened up so pleasant:

"'_Ah! le the! We, we!_'

"'No,' said I, thinking how improper it would be for that strange man to sit down to tea with a young girl in her room that time of night; 'only for myself; one cup will do. Excuse me.'

"He did not stop to hear, but went off and came back with a china cup and saucer on a little silver tray, as if I had been a born lady. I stirred up the tea and tasted it.

"'_Donna moia un pet.i.te_ more _sucre_, if _vous_ please,' said I.

"'_We, madmoiselle, toot sweet,_' says he.

"The fellow p.r.o.nounced 'too' as if it had a _t_ in it; but then, how could he understand good English?

"'No, no--not too sweet' said I; 'the contrary way. I want more _la sucre_, sugar, you know.'

"The fellow really did not understand his own language, but stood there looking wild as a fish-hawk. All at once he brightened up and ran out of the room. Directly he came back with another man. The moment I saw his face I jumped up, ready to scream with joy, and--and--yes, Miss Hyde, don't blus.h.!.+ but I sprang right into his arms and gave him a kiss.

"Who was it? Why, James, Mr. Lee's own man--a person--well, Miss Hyde, we all have secrets; but if ever a girl had a right to kiss a friend in a strange place, I had--that's all.

"'Oh! James, James Grant! It's Providence that sent you here!'

"'No,' he said, holding me tight and stopping my mouth while choke-full of words, 'I rather think it was your bad French, Lottie.'

"I would have struck him; only he held me so near and so tight it was impossible.

"The waiter went out softly. What sensible people these Frenchmen are!

Then I forgot my headache and everything but the business in hand. James is a good scholar, you know, and understands French like a book. If ever Providence sent a friend at the right time, He did it that night. First I began asking questions.

"Mr. Lee had been away down East in Jerusalem, Palestine, across deserts, and over pyramids, for almost the whole time since he left home. Sorrowful as a man could be, but always going ahead, as if comfort lay in sharp work. Then he had come back into Italy, and so into France, which is Paris, you know.

"Mrs. Dennison was in the hotel when Mr. Lee got there; James thinks, unexpectedly to his master, but is not certain. He knows that she wrote letters to him, any way.

"'She is here, then--she has been setting her traps,' I said. 'Tell me everything, James, if you ever loved the sweet lady who is dead, or her child, who is pining herself to death at our own dear home. Tell me everything!'

"'Yes,' he said, 'it's no use going over the tracks; but she's got him, and to-morrow they will be married at the American Emba.s.sy.'

"'To-morrow! Married, to-morrow!' I almost screamed.

"'Yes,' he answered; 'nothing can stop it. I pa.s.sed a woman who brought home the wedding-dress as I came up-stairs.'

"I caught hold of James and held his arms down tight.

"'Nothing can stop it, James? Yes, sir, you and I can stop it; you and I _will_ stop it! I never promised right out before, James; but if you'll help me to expose this woman, I'll--I'll--yes, you and I'll take their place, and be married at the American Emba.s.sy right off ourselves.'

"He--well, Miss Hyde, I won't worry you by telling what he said or did just then; but my face burned like fire half an hour after.

"Now comes the hardest part of my story. Don't clasp your hands and pray for me, as the worst sinner that ever was; for I a'n't quite that!

Still, you think so much of a little fib, and listening, and breaking open seals, that I'd rather not write it if a great deep ocean of water wasn't rolling between you and me. Miss Hyde, I own it, lies a'n't my delight; but I can tell 'em. Peeping through keyholes and windows isn't my nature; but, anyhow, I did it. More than that: I never let one of Mrs. Dennison's letters leave our house without reading it. One or two letters I kept back altogether, because they were written in French, and I couldn't read that. They are with me here. It was to give them into Mr. Lee's hand that I came across the wide ocean. She suspected me--or her girl Cora did--and hired one of the men to mail them safely; but I knew a better way of bribing him to give them up. True, it made James jealous to see how thick I was with the man; but I couldn't help that.

"Babylon was cute, though; she wrote carefully. It was to some old friend--who was as bad as herself--to whom the letters were sent. I have some of her answers, too, as well as the journal; these were the papers that I laid before James Grant that night.

"I could only make out a word here and there in the French letters. If you hadn't been so crank about honor and all that, I would have brought them to you; I couldn't make up my mind to take the preaching. But I watched. You know, Miss Hyde, no dog ever kept watch as I did over that angel!

"She died. The worst came while I was wondering what to do. There was no use in telling what I had done. She was dead; and I thought then that the woman would go away and leave us to our mourning. If she came back again, I meant to give the journal up and have you read the French letters. You know how she left, and why it was Mr. Lee went off in that strange way; I could only guess. You wouldn't trust me; so I wouldn't trust you. But when I found that Babylon had gone chasing after Mr. Lee, just as his year of mourning was over, I followed her.

"I gave the journal and letters to James, and we read them over together. James reads French, and can turn it into English as easy as talking. So he gave me the English, which was a good deal like her journal, full of sin and iniquity."

CHAPTER LXXVI.