The Sign of the Stranger Part 22

"Then what I have to reply is the reverse of complimentary. If you had been a man I should have told you to your face that you were a liar."

"You may disbelieve me as you will," she responded still unruffled.

"But I merely tell you that I have no further desire to stand here and be insulted," and although she tried to pa.s.s him he again clutched her wrist fiercely and prevented her.

"You shall answer me!" he whispered angrily. "You are Marigold Gordon, now Countess of Stanchester; you are the woman I am here to meet, to speak with calmly, and to come to an amicable settlement--if possible.

You know, as well as I do, that Lolita's future in is your hands, just as it is in mine. A word from either of us can ruin her. It would mean for her arrest, disgrace, condemnation. Now, do you intend to speak and to save her; or will you still deny previous acquaintance with me and consequently all knowledge of the affair? Lolita is in peril. If you will you can save her, although she is your enemy--although I know how you hate her."

I stood aghast at this fresh development of the mystery. I had actually urged this woman to disclaim all that the man Keene might allege, yet in utter ignorance that, by so doing, she was bringing ruin upon my love!

My ears were open to catch every word. The Countess was Lolita's enemy!

Could that be the actual truth? Did this woman whose beauty was so remarkable so mask her real feelings towards her husband's sister that, while outwardly showing great affection for her, she had secretly plotted her ruin and disgrace?

"I know nothing," was her persistent reply.

"Then you prefer that Lolita shall suffer," he said in a calm hard voice. "Remember that her enemies are unscrupulous, relentless. The word once spoken can never be recalled. Do you intend that her life shall actually be sacrificed?"

"How?"

"She intends to take it by her own hand the instant the truth is known.

I have been up to Scotland."

"And you have, I suppose, threatened her, as you have me?" sneered her ladys.h.i.+p.

"I have no necessity to threaten her," was his answer. "She knows quite well enough the peril in which she is placed by those who have sought her downfall."

"Well, and what does her future concern me, pray?" asked the woman coldly.

"Only that you can save her," he argued. "Think if, in a moment of despair, she took her life, what a burden of remorse would be yours."

"There is no such word as remorse in my vocabulary," she laughed. "If there were I should have entered a convent long ago."

"Yes," he said. "You speak the truth, Marigold. You are one of those few women who are, perhaps fortunately, untroubled by conscience. The past is to you a closed book, would that it were also to me! Would that I could forget completely that affair at which you and I exercised such dastardly cunning and scandalous duplicity. But I cannot, and it is for that reason I am here to beg--to beseech of you to at least save poor Lolita, who is being driven to extremity by despair!"

Lolita! I thought of her, desperate and unprotected, the victim of a vile and yet mysterious conspiracy--the victim of this woman who was, after all, her secret enemy. Heaven formed me as I was, a creature of affection, and I bowed to its decree in living but for love of her.

Upon the tablet of my heart was graven Lolita, and death alone could efface it. I was no sensualist; thank heaven I had not brutalised my mind, nor contaminated the pure ray of my divinity. I loved with truth, with ardour, and with tenderest affection, from which had arisen all those ecstasies that const.i.tuted the heaven of loving. True, I was jealous--madly jealous. I was a tyrant in the pa.s.sion that consumed me, but none can truly love who would receive it when divided.

Poverty claimed wealth--ambition craved for honour--kings would have boundless sway--despots would be G.o.ds--and I merely asked for love.

Where was my crime in claiming a return for that already given? Or if it could never be mine, why should I dash at once to earth the air-drawn vision of felicity?

Fate was inscrutable; and sanctioned by its will, I determined to yield without a sign to my reward, be it love or be it misery.

Each pleasure has its pain, nor yet was ever mortal joy complete. In those days before the advent of Richard Keene in Sibberton I had been lulled by bliss so exquisite that reason should have told me it was but a dream. I had forgotten everything in the great vortex of love which had, till then, overwhelmed me. And as I stood there listening to every word that pa.s.sed, I felt that I alone had power to save the woman I adored.

There was a plot, some vile dastardly plot, the mystery of which was inscrutable. And she was to be the victim. Was it right that I should remain silent and make no effort to rescue her from the doom which this man Keene declared must be hers?

"How can I save her, when I am in ignorance?" asked the woman, still persistent in the disclaimer I had so foolishly urged upon her.

"Then you still deny all knowledge of the affair?" he said in his deep earnest voice. "You still dare to stand there and tell me that you are not the woman who a.s.sisted Marie Lejeune--the woman for whom the police still hold a warrant, but who do not seem to recognise a common criminal in the person of the Countess of Stanchester. Think for a moment what a word from me to the police might mean to you," he added in a threatening tone.

"And think also, Mr Smeeton--or whatever you choose to call yourself-- that I also possess knowledge of a fact which, if known to Scotland Yard, would prevent you in future from pus.h.i.+ng your unwelcome presence into a house where you were not wanted. Do you understand?"

"No, I don't."

"Well, as you've spoken so plainly," she said in an angry tone, "I will also tell you what I mean to do. You are here bent upon mischief; you intend to carry out the threat you made long ago. Good! From the very start I openly defy you," and she snapped her slim white fingers in his face. "Tell my husband any lie you like! Do your worst to injure my reputation, but recollect that from to-night, instead of being friends, we are enemies, and I shall tell the police something which will be to them of enormous interest. You wish to quarrel with me, therefore let it be so. My husband shall know of your insults at once, and that will allow you an opening to denounce me as one of the worst women in England. The result will be interesting--as you will see. One of us will suffer--but depend upon it it will not be myself," she laughed defiantly.

"I have no wish to quarrel," he a.s.sured her quickly. "I said I had come here to make terms with you and to save Lolita."

"What do you wish? That I should incriminate myself?" she asked.

"Lolita does not concern me in the least, neither do you, for the matter of that. I've given you the ultimatum," she added. "If you wish to pick a quarrel, then my own safety will be a.s.sured."

"You misunderstand me," he said in a tone more conciliatory than before.

"Yes, I certainly misunderstand your desire to bring upon yourself what must be a very serious disaster by coming here and trying to wring from me certain things which I am determined, for my own good name and reputation, to keep secret. My own opinion of you is that you are a fool, and that if you are wise you'll make an excuse, and to-morrow morning leave Sibberton."

"I shall do nothing of the kind," he responded in quick indignation. "I intend to act as I have told you."

"Very well, then, that is sufficient. I wish you a very good-night,"

she said pa.s.sing on before the doorway where I stood hidden. "My husband shall know at once how you, a stranger to me, have dared to insult me with your outrageous insinuations and threats."

"No, I did not mean--" he commenced, as though to modify his actions.

"Enough, Mr Smeeton. I have decided upon my course of action, and you had better leave this house while there is yet time. Otherwise perhaps you will have unwelcome inquiries made after you."

The man upon whom she had so cleverly turned the tables gave vent to a muttered imprecation, while the swish of her silken flounces receded down the long dark corridor, and I stood there breathless and motionless, not daring to betray my presence.

The result of such an open quarrel as it had become I dreaded to contemplate, for I knew, alas! too well that whatever it be my love must suffer, and that she was bent upon taking her life rather than face exposure of the mysterious scandal.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

THE SAINTS' GARDEN.

After breakfast on the following morning I contrived to make an appointment with the Countess to meet her at a short distance from the house in what was known as the Saints' Garden.

Her ladys.h.i.+p's habit was to walk in the garden for half an hour after breakfast, and I deemed that the Saints' Garden, being at a secluded spot down near the lake, and little frequented either by the gardeners or visitors, was a good place of meeting. The gardens at Sibberton were noted for their beauty. There was an old lavender garden; one for bulbs; another for roses, and--most charming of all, Lolita's pride--the Saints' Garden, the flowers of which were supposed to blossom on the days set apart for certain saints. In it were veronicas, lilies, Christmas roses, and a wild tangle of old-world flowers.

I waited in patience in this little "garden of the good," encompa.s.sed by its dark thick box hedges. The morning was bright, the dew glistened everywhere in the sunlight, and the flowers filled the air with their fragrance. It was a peaceful spot where Lolita loved to linger, and where we had often walked and talked in secret.

She came at last--the reckless, handsome woman who held my love's life in her hands.

Her fair face was smiling as she came along in her neat short skirt and fresh morning blouse, and greeted me saying--

"Really, Mr Woodhouse, I hardly think it was wise of you to meet me here. One of the gardeners or some one may see us and gossip," and she turned her eyes upon me with that look which had made many a man's head reel.

"We are safer from observation here, Lady Stanchester, than in my room,"

I answered in a rather hard tone, I fear. She glanced at me quickly, apparently in wonder that I was in no mood for trifling. She was, of course, unaware that I had overheard all that had pa.s.sed between her and the man Richard Keene. Nevertheless she said--

"As I antic.i.p.ated, he claimed acquaintances.h.i.+p with me last night-- stopped me in the Panelled Corridor and addressed me by my Christian name."

"Well."