Part 22 (1/2)
However, she greeted him with perfect composure and satisfaction.
”Do you join our party this afternoon, Colonel Mohun? I expect them to call for me every moment. We are going to the Croix de Berny, to see the ground for the race next week. Mr. Livingstone was to have lunched here; but I never reckon on his keeping an engagement.”
There was something in Ralph's manner which made her uncomfortable. She took up her whip, and began twisting its slender stock rather nervously; you would not have thought there was so much strength in the delicate fingers.
”You are right,” he replied, coolly, ”not to count too much on Guy's punctuality. He _is_ very uncertain in his movements. I fear he can not accompany you this afternoon. He would have charged me with his excuses, I am sure, if he had not been so hurried.”
Flora looked up quickly.
”It must have been something very sudden, then. Have you any idea where he is now?”
Ralph consulted his watch. ”About Mantes, I should imagine. He started for Havre by the last train. He will be at Southampton, to-morrow, and the same day he can reach--”
He stopped, gazing at his companion with a cold, cruel satisfaction. The blood was sinking in her cheeks, not with a sudden impulse, but gradually--as the sunset rose-tints fade from the brow of the Jungfrau, leaving a ghastly opaque whiteness behind them. During the silence that ensued, a sharp tinkle might be heard as the jeweled head of the riding-whip, snapped by a convulsive movement, fell at Flora's feet.
It _was_ weak in her to betray such loss of self-command, but, remember, the blow came unexpectedly. She saw the edifice she had plotted, and toiled, and risked so much to build, ruined and shattered to its foundation-stone. How many whispers, and smiles, and eloquent glances had been lavished, only to end in this Pavia, where not even honor was saved from the utter wreck!
Was not the perfect waxen mask of the first Napoleon s.h.i.+vered in that terrible abdication-night at Fontainebleau? Where was Cleopatra's queenly dignity when she heard that Antony had rejoined Octavia?
”Why has he gone? What called him back?”
Her voice had lost the clear ring of silver, and sounded dull and flat, like base metal.
”Constance Brandon wrote to tell him she was dying. Do you wonder that he went to her?”
A pa.s.sing cloud of horror swept across Flora's pale face; but after it broke forth a gleam of strange, ferocious exultation, which stifled the rising pity in her hearer's breast, and changed it into contempt.
”I don't believe it,” she cried, pa.s.sionately. ”It is a trick. She was quite well two months ago. At least, she said nothing--”
She checked herself, but too late. The practiced duelist laughed grimly in his mustache, as he might have done on discovering the weak point in his enemy's ward which laid him open to his rapier.
”You make my task easier,” he said; ”I came to inquire about a note which miscarried about the time you speak of. I _will_ know what became of it, Miss Bellasys, though I wish to spare you unnecessary exposure and shame.”
He had gained a momentary advantage, but it did not profit him much.
There are swordsmen who will not own that they are touched, though their life-blood is ebbing fast. Flora rose without a sign of yielding or weakness in her dry eyes, drawing up her magnificent figure proudly.
Ralph could not help thinking how like her father she was just then.
”I will answer, though I deny your right to question me. I have not the faintest idea of what you refer to. I have seen no note, except such as were addressed to myself; and you will hardly think that Miss Brandon would choose me as a _confidante_ or correspondent.”
Mohun saw that she would persist to the last, undaunted as Sapphira. So he rose to leave her, without another word.
”You do not doubt me?” Flora asked, as he turned away after saluting her. It was a rash question, all things considered, and scarcely worthy of the accomplished speaker. There is no more useful maxim in diplomacy than this: _Quieta non movere_.
Ralph faced her directly. ”Miss Bellasys, when a lady tells me what I can not believe, I question--not her word, but--her agent.” He was half way down stairs before she could answer or detain him.
He found out Willis's direction at Guy's hotel, but he had to wait some time before obtaining it; and other things delayed him _en route_, so that it was nearly two hours before he reached the modest lodgings, _au quatrieme_, where the discharged valet was hiding his greatness.
Willis had an extensive connection; this, and his well-known talents, made him tolerably sure of a situation whenever he chose to seek one. He had luxurious tastes, and thoroughly appreciated self-indulgence; so he determined to devote some time and a portion of his perquisites to relaxation before going into harness again.
On this particular evening he had in prospect a little dinner at Philippe's--not uncheered by the smiles of venal beauty--and had just completed a careful toilette. He was above the small peculations of his order; indeed, had he been inclined to plunder his late masters wardrobe, the absurd disproportion in their size would have saved him from that vulgar temptation. He was somewhat choice in his tailors, and his clothes fitted him and suited him well. He was reviewing the general effect in the gla.s.s with a complacent and rather _egrillarde_ expression in his little eyes, when between him and his _partie fine_ rose the apparition of the colonel, like that of the commander before a bolder profligate. He knew that the interview must come, and did not wish to avoid it, but just at this moment it was singularly ill timed. What a contrast between the stern, fixed gaze that seemed to nail him to the spot where he stood and the well-tutored glances of fair, frail Heloise!