Partners Part 6

Instead of answering, Frida stretched her hand towards him, with an expression which would have excused any lover for pressing the little hand to his lips. But this one calmly held it in his own, nodded protectingly, and said--

"I was sure of it."

"I will do all in my power to relieve what is painful in your position," said Jessie, rea.s.suringly. "And now may I keep you with me?"

"We had better wait till to-morrow," said Gustave. "It would very much surprise my brother to find a complete stranger, of whose arrival he had not even been warned, established as a member of his household.

That might at once arouse his suspicions. It would be better for Frida to return to the hotel where I stopped with her and left her things. In the course of the evening some opportunity of speaking of her is sure to arise, and then the removal can be effected without any trouble."

Jessie was annoyed at the suggestion, in proportion as she recognized its justice.

"You are incredibly prudent, Mr. Sandow! I really admire all these precautions, and this clever calculation of all possible emergencies."

Gustave bowed as if he had really received a compliment.

"Yes, yes, Frida," said he, in reply to the look of surprise with which the girl listened to this perpetual bickering. "Miss Clifford and I have an excessive mutual admiration. You see already, what great respect we show each other. But now it is time to start, or my brother will surprise us here."

Frida rose obediently. Jessie felt a deep sympathy with the poor girl who resigned herself so completely to the selfish plans of her lover, and bade her a hearty farewell.

Gustave accompanied Miss Palm to the carriage, which waited to take her back to the hotel; but just as they were descending the steps a second carriage drove up, and Sandow, whose office hours were now over, stepped out.

"My brother," said Gustave in a low voice.

Miss Palm must have stood greatly in awe of this terrible brother, for she suddenly turned deadly pale, and made an involuntary movement as if to fly, while the arm which rested in her companion's trembled violently.

"Frida!" said the latter, in an earnest, reproachful tone.

Frida struggled for composure, but her timidity this time was not the cause of her agitation. It was not the look of a startled dove which met the new arrival, but one in which lay gloomy, almost wild resistance, and the energetic side of her nature was shown so distinctly in her features that it seemed as if she were rather beginning a struggle with a dreaded enemy than trying to conciliate him.

Sandow had meanwhile entered, and met the pair face to face in the vestibule. He bowed slightly, but seemed surprised to see his brother accompanied by a perfect stranger.

Frida returned the greeting, but instead of stopping hastened anxiously forwards, and thus prevented the possibility of an introduction.

Gustave saw that it would be useless to try to effect it, so placed her in the carriage, closed the door, and directed the coachman to the hotel.

"Who is that girl?" asked Sandow, who had waited for his brother.

"A certain Miss Palm," said he lightly, "an acquaintance of Miss Clifford's."

"And to whom you act as cavalier."

"Not at all; my service is paid to Miss Clifford. At her wish, I fetched the young lady, in whom she is much interested, from the station, and brought her here. You know I left the office earlier than usual."

"Ah, indeed! Are you already on such good terms with Jessie that she entrusts you with such commissions?" said Sandow, much gratified to find his brother had made such decided progress, while they re-ascended the stairs and walked along the corridor together.

As they entered the drawing-room, Gustave took the thing promptly in hand.

"My brother has already seen your protegee, Miss Clifford," he began.

"We met him in the hall."

"Who is this new acquaintance, Jessie?" asked Sandow, with an interest not usual to him. "I have heard nothing about her."

Jessie felt now, when the moment for the first equivocation had arrived, the whole weight of the responsibility she had undertaken; however, she had gone too far to be able to draw back. She returned hesitatingly,

"She is a young German, who has been strongly recommended to me from New York. She has come here to look for a situation as companion, and I thought--I wished"--

"Yes, you have gone pretty far," interrupted Gustave. "This Miss Palm seems to have taken your sympathies by storm; just think, Frank, Miss Clifford has offered her her own house, and seriously intends to give her to us for a companion."

Jessie cast an indignant glance at him, but was obliged to accept the proffered help.

"I have certainly invited Miss Palm for a few weeks," she said. "At least, if you have no objection, Uncle Sandow."

"I," said the latter absently, while his eyes already sought the evening papers, which lay on the table on the garden terrace. "You know, I never interfere in your domestic concerns. No doubt you would like a companion for a time, and if this young girl has been well recommended, pray arrange the affair as you like."

With this he stepped on to the terrace and seized the newspaper.

"I saw that I must come to your help, Miss Clifford," said Gustave aside to Jessie. "You are evidently very inexperienced in deception."

"You seem to think it a reproach," said Jessie, in a voice equally low, but trembling with anger. "Certainly I have not yet brought the art to such perfection as you have."

"Oh! that will come in time," said Gustave encouragingly. "When you are in difficulties that way, only turn to me. I am quite at home there."

"Gustave, have you read the evening papers yet?" came from Sandow on the terrace. "The German Exchange is very lively; prices are rising considerably. Here is your own journal; you will find a notice of it."

"Ah! prices are rising? really?" asked Gustave, stepping on to the terrace and taking the German paper which his brother offered him.

Sandow immediately buried himself in another sheet, and so did not see the air of sovereign contempt with which Gustave turned over the page containing the money article, and bestowed his whole attention upon the leading article, which was upon the political situation.

Jessie followed him with her eyes, and, as she beheld him bending so eagerly over what she supposed to be the money article, she curled her lip contemptuously, and thought--

"That poor, poor child! What will be her lot at the side of such an egoist?"

CHAPTER V.

Gustave's scheme, which was imagined and carried out with equal skill, had now been realized. The entrance of the young stranger into the family took place the next day, but so easily and naturally was it managed, that Sandow had not the faintest suspicion of anything unusual. But Frida was, and remained, a stranger in the strange house, however hard and determined the struggle to appear at ease, and to show her grat.i.tude for the protection afforded her. Perhaps the unaccustomed splendour of her surroundings oppressed her, for unquestionably they stood out in sharpest contrast to her former life. She remained silent and self-contained, and all the kindness with which Jessie received her did not succeed in thawing her shy reserve.

Miss Clifford tried in vain to learn more of the family circ.u.mstances and former life of the girl; Frida seemed purposely to avoid any such conversations, and even the warm and freely displayed sympathy of the other failed to draw from her one word of confidence. That naturally tended to estrange Jessie, especially as she soon discovered that the stranger by no means belonged to those gentle natures which tremble away from all that is strange or painful. On the contrary, Frida often unconsciously betrayed a very energetic will, a repressed but profound pa.s.sion. And yet this slavish subjection and obedience to another's will; it was incomprehensible.

Gustave played his part far more successfully. He showed himself in his brother's presence polite, but with the politeness of a perfect stranger. Not a word, not the slightest sign, betrayed any mental understanding, or even suggested a closer acquaintance than appeared; never for one moment did he lose his self-control. He seemed still more agreeable and high-spirited than ever, and all Jessie's attempts to make him feel her contempt met with such a ready sarcasm that she invariably quitted the field.

Sandow himself took little notice of Frida. Generally he showed little attention or interest in household matters. The greater part of the day was pa.s.sed in town at the office, and the morning and evening hours, which were spent in the villa, instead of being dedicated to relaxation or amus.e.m.e.nt, were devoted to business occupations in his own rooms.

He saw Frida only at table, and treated her with careless civility, and on her side there was no approach to a closer acquaintance, though she was there precisely with that object. But either she possessed no skill in that direction, or her obedience failed just where it was needed to fulfil her task. At all events, she and the man in whose house she was living were as strange to each other at the end of a week as they had been on her first arrival.

The two gentlemen had just returned from town, and the whole party were seated at table. Gustave, who as usual bore the chief weight of the conversation, was amusing the ladies by describing in the most enjoyable manner, a scene which had taken place in the office during the afternoon. Sandow, who could not endure anything which concerned business to be turned into ridicule, put in a few contradictory remarks, but his brother continued to entertain his listeners with an account of the certainly comical misunderstanding.