Kitabı oku: «Madeline Payne, the Detective's Daughter», sayfa 24
CHAPTER XLIX.
AS THE FOOL DIETH
Edward Percy is dying – was dying when they lifted him from the drawing-room carpet, and gently laid him on the couch hastily prepared by Hagar and the frightened servants. They have watched beside him through the night, and now, in the gray of the morning, Clarence Vaughan still keeps his vigil.
The wounded man moves feebly, and turns his fast dimming eyes toward the watcher. "I thought – I saw – some one," he says, brokenly, "when – I fell. Who – was – the lady?"
His voice dies away, as Clarence, bending over him, answers gently: "You mean the lady that stood near the door, whose face was turned away?"
"Yes," in a whisper; "was it – my – wife?"
Clarence turns toward the window where Mrs. Ralston sits, out of view of the sick man.
She moves forward a little. "Tell him," she says, in a low voice.
Edward Percy is a dying man, but his mind was never clearer. He perfectly comprehends the explanations made by Clarence. He had recognized the face of his wife when he lay bleeding at her feet. He closes his eyes and is silent for some moments. Then he asks, in that dying half-whisper, the only tone he ever will use: "You think – I – will – die?"
"You cannot live," replies Clarence, gravely.
Again the wounded man shuts his eyes and thinks; then: "How long – will I – last?" he questions.
"I can keep you alive twenty-four hours – not longer," says Clarence, after a pause.
"Then – I must talk now."
Clarence goes to a table, and pours something into a tiny glass. This he brings, and putting it to the lips of the patient, says: "Try and swallow this. It is a stimulant. Then lie quiet for a few moments; after that you may talk."
This is done, and for a time there is silence in the room. Then the wounded man whispers, with an appearance of more strength: "Tell her– to come here."
Mrs. Ralston moves forward, and he looks at her long and attentively. Then, with a turn of his olden coolness: "You grew tired of me," he said.
"Yes," she replies, in a low, sad voice, "I grew tired of you; very tired. But don't talk of those days now. You are too near the end; think of that!"
"I do," he said, slowly. "But I can't alter the past – and – I don't know – about the future. I want – to see a – notary."
"Don't you want to see a clergyman?"
"What for? If I am dying – it's of no use to play – hypocrite. I don't believe in – your clergyman. I admit that – I wronged – you," he continues, gazing at Mrs. Ralston, "and I deceived Miss Keith. If you two – can forgive me – I will take my chances – for the rest."
Mrs. Ralston bends above him with a face full of pity, but in which there is no love. "I forgive you, Edward; and so will Claire, fully. But you did her very little harm. She was not long deceived. Do you want to see her?"
"Yes; and – don't let Alice – Cora, you call her – come near me."
Truly, this dying sinner is not a meek one, not a very repentant one.
When they ask him if he will see Miss Arthur, his reply is characteristic. "Does she want – to see – me?"
No; she has not asked to see him, they say. But of course she would be glad to come to him.
"Let her alone," he says, "she don't want to see me. If she did, it would be to scratch out – my eyes – because she is – cheated out of – being married. She isn't hurt. She is too big a fool."
When Claire comes to his bedside, accompanied by Madeline, he says: "Miss Claire – I loved you better than any woman I ever knew – truly. If – you had been Mr. Keith's heiress – I would never have come to Oakley. I thought you were – his heiress when – I wooed you – in Baltimore. But you are the only woman – who ever beat me – and puzzled me. You did not care much, after all."
To Madeline he says, after he has swallowed a second stimulant: "But for you, I would not be here. You women have hunted me down. But you are as brave – as a lioness – a little Nemesis. I – won't – bear malice."
At noon, the notary comes, and Edward Percy makes an affidavit as to the truth of the testimony that will convict Lucian Davlin. It is the affidavit of a fast dying man.
All day Mrs. Ralston sits beside him. And Clarence Vaughan watches the slowly ebbing life tide. Once he seems struggling to say something, and his wife bends down to catch what may be some word of penitence.
"Bury – me like a gentleman."
This is what he says, and Clarence Vaughan smiles bitterly as he thinks, "selfish and egotistical to the last."
Night comes on and the end is very near. Over the dying face flits a malignant shadow, and he makes a last effort to speak. Again the watchers bend nearer.
"I hope – they will – hang Davlin," he breathes, feebly.
The two listeners recoil with horror, at the sound of the vindictive wish from dying lips.
These are the last words of Edward Percy. Slowly go the minutes, and deeper grow the shadows. Again Clarence Vaughan bends above the couch, and then he says: "Your vigil is ended, Mrs. Ralston. He is dead."
That night, while the house is hushed to a quiet, one portion of the household asleep, the other keeping the death-watch, Cora again tries to escape from Oakley. But this time Strong is not to be caught napping, and the vanquished adventuress resigns herself to her fate.
Two days more, and then Edward Percy is buried, according to his request, "like a gentleman."
All that is known outside of Oakley concerning his death is that he was shot by Lucian Davlin, between whom, and himself, some feud had existed.
And John Arthur and Cora remain, and "keep up appearances" to the last.
Dr. Le Guise, or the Professor, has stayed too, for appearance sake. But the day after they have buried Edward Percy, he goes, and very gladly, back to the city. Madeline keeps her promise; he goes free, and none save the few ever know that Dr. Le Guise is an impostor.
At the same time John Arthur turns his back upon Oakley forever. "Appearances" are observed to the last. He goes, tenderly attended by the Professor, by Cora, and by his sister. Goes much muffled, and enacting the rôle of invalid.
They are taking the sick man South; this is what the villagers think.
But when the train reaches the city, this select party disbands. John Arthur becomes active once more and, with his sister, hurries away in the nearest cab, while the Professor and Cora separate by mutual consent.
And here we will leave them – all but Cora.
She has escaped Scylla only to fall upon Charybdis. As she hurries along through the familiar streets, her plans are laid. She will go to Lucian Davlin's rooms; nobody will be there to dispute her possession for a day or two to come, and she has possessed herself of the keys, left behind as useless by their outlawed owner.
When she ascends the steps, some one, who is lounging past the premises, looks at her narrowly. As she disappears behind the swinging outer door, this lounger becomes wonderfully alert, and hastens away as if he had just discovered his mission.
Two hours later, as Cora descends the stairs and emerges into the street, the vision of a monkey-faced old man appears before her. And while another lays a firm detaining hand upon her arm, the old man, fairly dancing with glee, cries out:
"Ah, ha! here you are, my pretty sharper! I didn't have these premises watched for nothing, did I? Now I have got you! Bring her along, officer, bring her along. She won't dodge us this time."
And Cora is hurried into a cab, closely followed by old Verage, who chatters his doubtful consolation, and laughs his eldritch laughter, and finally consigns her to prison to answer to a charge of swindling.
CHAPTER L.
"AND THEN COMES REST."
At last Oakley is rid of its intriguants, its plotters and impostors.
And Madeline and Claire sit alone in the chamber of the former, talking of the strange events that have so lately transpired – of Philip Girard's vindication, of Lucian Davlin's punishment, of Edward Percy's death.
It is the day following that of the burial, and Mrs. Ralston is lying asleep in her own room, with old Hagar in near attendance.
"Poor Mrs. Ralston," says Claire, after a long pause in their converse. "She is thoroughly worn out, and yet, weary as she was, she must have talked with you for hours, Madeline, after we came back from the grave."
Over Madeline's face flits an odd, half-sad smile, as she replies, dreamily:
"Yes, we talked a long time, dear; Mrs. Ralston was then in the mood for talking. Can't you understand how one may be nervously active, may be at just that stage of bodily weariness when the mind is intensely alive? The excitement of all she had lately undergone was still upon her, and the mind could not resign itself to rest while anything remained unsettled or under a cloud."
"Oh, I can understand how that may be." Then, after a pause, "so something remained to be settled?"
"Yes."
"And, between you, you disposed of the difficulty?"
"Yes."
Another silence. Then Madeline turns to look at her companion.
"Why don't you ask me what the 'difficulty' was?"
No answer.
"But you want to know?"
Claire laughs nervously.
"And I want to tell you," pursues Madeline. "First, we talked of ourselves."
"Oh!" ejaculates Claire, looking immensely relieved.
"Yes, we talked of ourselves first; and we have become great friends."
"Of course!" cries Miss Enthusiasm; "I knew you would."
"We have decided to give our new friendship a severe test."
"How?" asks Claire, forgetting her caution.
"By visiting Europe in each other's society."
Claire springs up excitedly. "Madeline Payne, you don't mean it! You can't! You shall not; there! Europe, indeed. You are crazy! I won't hear of it!" stamping her foot emphatically.
Madeline leans back in her chair and laughs; then suddenly becomes grave.
"But I do mean it, Claire, my darling," she says, softly. "And I'll tell you what else I mean. Sit down here, close beside me and listen."
Instinctively Claire obeys.
"Now, then," continues Madeline, "you know what an odd, uncultivated sort of a life mine has been, and you know that this little world of mine has not been a very bright one. Well, ever since I could read and think, I have longed to see Italy, and France, and England, and Germany, and the Holy Land. My work is done here. There is nothing now to prevent my going – no duty to perform, no one to keep me here. I could not find a better friend and companion than Mrs. Ralston, and she is very anxious to go, and to take me with her. You are all very dear to me, but no one needs me now more than she, nor so much. And, Claire, don't make any mistakes about me. I am not going away sorrowfully, or with any heavy weight upon my spirits. I am going to enjoy and make the most and best of the life and youth God has given me. I am going for change, and recreation, and rest. I have been acting the part of an avenger here, a stern, unforgiving Nemesis, but I would do over again all that I have done, if need be. I am not half so good as you. I can not submit with meekness to injustice and wrong. I shall fight my enemies, if I have more to fight, until the end of the chapter. And now I have a confession to make."
Claire stirs uneasily. "Don't," she says, deprecatingly: "I don't want to hear a confession."
"But I want to make one, and you must listen. First, however, let me tell you that during my talk with Mrs. Ralston, I heard about a certain interview, wherein a ridiculous young lady discarded the man she loved, because she fancied she would wrong some one else if she admitted her love for him, and accepted his. Well – don't turn your face away – that was foolish. But my blunder was a downright wicked one. Yes, Claire, I will tell all the truth. When you and I stood together out under the trees, and talked of Clarence Vaughan; when you showed me the picture and told me the little pastoral about Edward Percy; I knew that Clarence Vaughan loved you – and I thought I loved, nay, I did love, him.
"When I came down here and found so soon that Edward Percy was – so utterly unworthy, we will say, because he is dead, I felt at once that you must be undeceived.
"Then a great temptation came to me, and I said to myself, 'When she becomes disenchanted, and ceases to love this man, she will learn to value the other and more noble lover; she will learn to love him!'
"All night long, before I came to undeceive you, and to warn Olive, I battled with a great temptation. And I yielded to it. Listen, Claire, while I tell you how base I was.
"When I set out for the city in the morning, I said to myself: 'Claire Keith is the soul of truth and honor. She is generous to a fault. If I let her see how much I care for Clarence Vaughan, I shall appeal to her pity and her honor, without the aid of words. She will never listen to his suit; she will try to advance my interest; she will become my ally.' See, dear, how truly I judged you.
"Well, I came. I told you of Percy's baseness, and when I saw how brave you were; how full of scorn for the dishonest man; how impossible it was for one so unworthy to drag you down, or darken your life because of his baseness; I was filled with shame and remorse. I knew then that I was unworthy your friendship, or of a good man's love.
"Standing in your presence, humiliated by your pure nobility, I repented, and I resolved to give up all thought of Clarence Vaughan. I did give him up.
"But, Claire, although I did not know it, my very penitence must have committed me, and while I was renouncing my designs, you were resolving to further them. In some manner I must have betrayed myself."
There is a moment's pause. Claire Keith's face is buried in her hands, and Madeline, bending toward her, cries out, remorsefully:
"Claire! Claire! Look up and believe me. As God hears me, that is past and dead. See how I am humbling myself, and do not doubt me."
Claire's head rears itself suddenly. She flings herself forward impetuously, and clasps her arms about her friend.
"Madeline, stop!" she cries, brokenly; "I won't hear you slander yourself. Don't I know you too well to doubt you! But I won't have a lover; I won't love any one but you."
Again the laugh comes to Madeline's lips.
"Little Miss Impulse!" she says, tenderly. "But, sister Claire, I am not done yet. I am going to put you on the penitent's stool now. Just imagine yourself in my place for a little. Do you think I could have made this confession to you if my weakness were not a thing of the past? You know I never could. I am not ashamed to confess that I did love Clarence. But I should be more than ashamed, under all the circumstances, if I could not say with truth that that love is a thing of the past. As my dearest friend, my brother, if you will, I shall always love him; but no more than that. I am not sorry that I have loved him, for I am a better woman because of it. But, I repeat it, that love is a thing of the past. Claire, do you not believe?"
They gaze into each other's eyes for a moment. Then Claire says: "I believe, Madeline."
A smile brightens the brown eyes now, and their owner says: "Then don't you see that you have made a mistake – one that, for my sake, you must rectify?"
Claire begins to look rebellious. "No, I don't," she cries, blushing scarlet. "You wicked girl, you have been getting me into a trap!"
Madeline says, very gravely:
"Claire, I want you to trust me in this, as you all have in other things. I want you to let me feel that I have not made the friends I love best, unhappy. I shall leave you soon: if I have been your friend, let me have my way in this one thing. If you don't, all the rest will have been in vain. See, my drama is ended; my enemies are punished. Now let me make my dear ones happy. Do you know, John Arthur has put a new thought in my head. 'Confound you,' he growled; it was his parting benediction, 'I might have known your father's blood ruled you. I might have looked for cunning and intrigue from that confounded Expert's Daughter.' It is true, Claire; I am the daughter of an Expert, a detective, brave and shrewd. Hagar says that I am like my father, and that I have inherited his talents. When I recall the knot we have just unravelled, the war we have just waged, I can but think that my father's chosen calling may have become mine. If the world ever grows stale, if I pine for change or excitement or absorbing occupation, I can go to my father's chief and say, 'I am the daughter of Lionel Payne, the Expert, and I have inherited a measure of my father's talents.' Do you think he will trust his knotty cases to the Expert's Daughter?"
"I think he will, if he is wise. But, Madeline, all this is folly. You will never leave us. Olive wants you; we all want you."
"And you will all have enough of me. But, Claire, do not ask me to stay now. It is better for me, better for all, that I go away. I must let old memories die out. I want to forget old scenes. I want rest. I need to school my wayward nature, to teach my heart to beat calmly, my soul to possess itself in peace. Claire, I must go."
Just here, some one taps softly. It is a servant who holds in her hands a telegram from Olive to Madeline, which runs thus:
All is well. Philip and I start for home to-night. Meet us there without fail, all of you.
Olive.
They read it together, and then Claire burst into tears – tears of joy and thankfulness.
"Philip is free once more! Oh, Madeline, Madeline; and it was you who saved him; it was you!"
Madeline pushes the message into her hand, saying: "If I have done such wonderful things, why do you refuse to obey me? Go, now, and take this good news to Clarence Vaughan. And mind you, don't come back, for I am going to tell Mrs. Ralston."
Half laughing, half crying, Claire is compelled to go down to the library alone. Clarence Vaughan is there, pacing thoughtfully up and down.
Claire enters softly, the paper ostentatiously displayed in her hand. But he looks straight at the blushing, bashful, tear-stained face. Her eyes, half glad, half shy, wholly tell-tale, fall before his own. And the lover who has waited in patience for his opportunity, seizes it now and makes it a moment of victory.
"I have brought you good news, Dr. Vaughan."
He comes straight toward her, and imprisons both little hands, together with the "news" they contain.
"You have brought me yourself, then, and I have been lying in wait for this opportunity. Claire, shall you ever run away from me again?"
It is useless to rebel. His voice tells her that he knows too much, and that he will not be evaded any more.
She gives him one glimpse of her face, and then she is clasped in his strong, loving arms, and from this safe haven, after a time, she tells her good news, struggling prettily to free herself from the loving imprisonment.
"Philip is free, and is coming home."
"Of course; why not, darling? There is no accusation against him now."
"Madeline is going away with Mrs. Ralston. Don't you think she is too bad? Can't we make her stay?"
A look of regretful sadness rests for a moment upon his countenance. Then he says, very tenderly:
"My little darling, Madeline has earned the right to her own perfect liberty. After the fierce schooling through which she has passed, believe me, there is nothing left for us to teach her. She has grown beyond us. Let her have her will, for she knows best what will give her the rest, the forgetfulness, the absorbing interest in other things, that her strong nature needs. Madeline has much to unlearn, much to forget; and she knows this. She is growing to understand her strong, brave self, to value her strength. She will never be an idler, never sink into the ranks of the commonplace. If, after a time, she finds for herself a worthy love, she will be the tenderest, the truest of wives. But she is sufficient unto herself. She has beauty, genius, force, a strong will, a splendid intellect. We shall watch her course from afar, and I am much mistaken if we do not, some day, hear great things of our Madeline."
Claire draws herself gently from the restraining arm, and turns her blue eyes upon him.
"Madeline will never marry," she says softly, sadly. "You are right; she is above us, beyond us. God has made her sufficient unto herself."
It is dawn, gray dawn.
Madeline Payne rises from a long untroubled sleep, and flings wide her shutters.
What is this that she sees?
All below her an unbroken mantle of white; all about and above, the waving of snowy plumes, and floating, misty-white loveliness.
The world is clothed in a new garment; the foot-prints of her enemies are hidden, are blotted from the face of the earth. The pathway to the cemetery where they lately bore Edward Percy, is obliterated, too. The grave of the erring man is covered with heaven's whitest, purest mantle of charity and forgetfulness.
Above, below, all about her, is silence and whiteness and peace.
She sinks to her knees, and leaning out, absorbs into herself the restfulness, the peace, the white, pure glory, of the dawn.
"It is a token," she murmurs, softly. "It is God's benediction on my new day, on my new life. It is the beginning of rest. There is nothing old in this fresh, white world. Let the snow mantle rest thus upon my past life. Ah, how rich I am! How rich in friends; how strong in that I have been able to do some good, to make my beloved happy. Never let me repine at my fate. I am rich, and strong, and free. This new, white, beautiful world is mine, when I wish to wander. My friends are mine, when I wish to rest, and find a home."
Ah, 'tis good to know —
"God's greatness shines around our incompleteness;
Round our restlessness, His rest."
Up from the east shoots an arrow of gold, and a bar of roseate light. Higher yet, and the world is aglow with mystic, glittering loveliness. Diamonds sparkling everywhere; snow plumes waving; the earth's white unbroken mantle gleaming and sparkling, and stretching away to meet the golden glow at the horizon's edge.
Kneeling there, with her white hands clasped upon the window ledge, the glory of the morning falls over her like a benediction; lighting up the golden hair; pouring its radiance into the solemn brown eyes; kissing the pure pale cheeks; breathing peace, and rest, and hope into the long-tried, but conquering heart of The Expert's Daughter.
