Part 41 (1/2)

Pauline made no reply.

Lady Darrell held the library door open while they entered, and then she closed it, and turned the key.

Captain Langton looked at her in wonder.

”Elinor,” he said, ”what does this mean? Are you going to play a tragedy or a farce?”

”That will depend upon you,” she answered; ”I am glad and thankful to have brought you and Miss Darrell face to face. Now I shall know the truth.”

The surprise on his face deepened into an angry scowl.

”What do you mean?” he demanded, sharply. ”I do not understand.”

It was a scene never to be forgotten. The library was dim with the shadows of the autumn evening, and in the gloom Lady Darrell's pale pink dress, golden hair, and white arms bare to the shoulder, seemed to attract all the light; her face was changed from its great agitation--the calm, fair beauty, the gentle, caressing manner were gone.

Near her stood Pauline, whose countenance was softened with compa.s.sion and pity unutterable, the dark eyes s.h.i.+ning as through a mist of tears.

Before them, as a criminal before his judges, stood Aubrey Langton, with an angry scowl on his handsome face, and yet something like fear in his eyes.

”What is it?” he cried, impatiently. ”I cannot understand this at all.”

Lady Darrell turned her pale face to him.

”Captain Langton,” she said, gravely, ”Miss Darrell brings a terrible accusation against you. She tells me that you stole the roll of notes that Sir Oswald missed, and that at the price of her life you extorted an oath from her not to betray you; is it true?”

She looked at him bravely, fearlessly.

”It is a lie!” he said.

Lady Darrell continued:

”Here, in this room, where we are standing now, she tells me that the scene took place, and that, finding she had discovered you in the very act of theft, you held a loaded pistol to her head until she took the oath you dictated. Is it true or false?”

”It is a lie!” he repeated; but his lips were growing white, and great drops stood upon his brow.

”She tells me,” resumed Lady Darrell, ”that you loved her, and that you care only for Darrell Court, not for me. Is it true?”

”It is all false,” he said, hoa.r.s.ely--”false from beginning to end! She hates you, she hates me, and this foul slander has only been invented to part us!”

Lady Darrell looked from one to the other.

”Now Heaven help me!” she cried. ”Which am I to believe?”

Grave and composed, with a certain majesty of truth that could never be mistaken, Pauline raised her right hand.

”Lady Darrell,” she said, ”I swear to you, in the presence of Heaven, that I have spoken nothing but the truth.”

”And I swear it is false!” cried Aubrey Langton.

But appearances were against him; Lady Darrell saw that he trembled, that his lips worked almost convulsively, and that great drops stood upon his brow.