Part 66 (2/2)
Lady Winsleigh raised her eyebrows in well-bred surprise.
”Dear me! It is a lie, then? Now, I should have thought from all accounts that it was so very likely to be true!”
Philip turned white with pa.s.sion. Her sarcastic smile,--her mocking glance,--irritated him almost beyond endurance.
”Permit me to ask you, Clara,” continued Lord Winsleigh calmly, ”if you,--as you say, know nothing about Violet Vere, why did you go to the Brilliant Theatre yesterday morning?”
She flashed an angry glance at him.
”Why? To secure a box for the new performance. Is there anything wonderful in that?”
Her husband remained unmoved. ”May I see the voucher for this box?” he inquired.
”I've sent it to some friends,” replied her ladys.h.i.+p haughtily. ”Since when have you decided to become an inquisitor, my lord?”
”Lady Winsleigh,” said Philip suddenly and eagerly, ”will you swear to me that you have said or done nothing to make my Thelma leave me?”
”Oh, she _has_ left you, has she?” and Lady Clara smiled maliciously. ”I thought she would! Why don't you ask your dear friend, George Lorimer, about her? He is madly in love with her, as everybody knows,--she is probably the same with him!”
”Clara, Clara!” exclaimed Lord Winsleigh in accents of deep reproach.
”Shame on you! Shame!”
Her ladys.h.i.+p laughed amusedly. ”Please don't be tragic!” she said; ”it's too ridiculous! Sir Philip has only himself to blame. Of course, Thelma knows about his frequent visits to the Brilliant Theatre. I told her all that Sir Francis said. Why should she be kept in the dark? I dare say she doesn't mind--she's very fond of Mr. Lorimer!”
Errington felt as though he must choke with fury. He forgot the presence of Lord Winsleigh--he forgot everything but his just indignation.
”My G.o.d!” he cried pa.s.sionately. ”You _dare_ to speak so!--_you_!”
”Yes I!” she returned coolly, measuring him with a glance. ”I dare! What have you to say against _me_?” She drew herself up imperiously.
Then turning to her husband, she said, ”Have the goodness to take your excited friend away, my lord! I am going out--I have a great many engagements this morning--and I really cannot stop to discuss this absurd affair any longer! It isn't my fault that Sir Philip's excessive admiration for Miss Vere has become the subject of gossip--_I_ don't blame him for it! He seems extremely ill-tempered about it; after all, _'ce n'est que la verite qui blesse!'_”
And she smiled maliciously.
CHAPTER XXVIII.
”For my mother's sake, For thine and hers, O Love! I pity take On all poor women. Jesu's will be done, Honor for all, and infamy for none, This side the borders of the burning lake.”
ERIC MACKAY'S _Love-Letters of a Violinist_.
Lord Winsleigh did not move. Sir Philip fixed his eyes upon her in silence. Some occult fascination forced her to meet his glance, and the utter scorn of it stung her proud heart to its centre. Not that she felt much compunction--her whole soul was up in arms against him, and had been so from the very day she was first told of his unexpected marriage.
His evident contempt now irritated her--she was angrier with him than ever, and yet--she had a sort of strange triumph in the petty vengeance she had designed--she had destroyed his happiness for a time, at least.
If she could but shake his belief in his wife! she thought, vindictively. To that end she had thrown out her evil hint respecting Thelma's affection for George Lorimer, but the shaft had been aimed uselessly. Errington knew too well the stainless purity of Thelma to wrong her by the smallest doubt, and he would have staked his life on the loyalty of his friend. Presently he controlled his anger sufficiently to be able to speak, and still eyeing her with that straight, keen look of immeasurable disdain, he said in cold, deliberate accents--
”Your ladys.h.i.+p is in error,--the actress in question is the wife of my secretary, Mr. Neville. For years they have been estranged--my visits to her were entirely on Neville's behalf--my letters to her were all on the same subject. Sir Francis Lennox must have known the truth all along,--Violet Vere has been his mistress for the past five years!”
<script>