Part 68 (1/2)

”No, nothing, except that, like everyone else, he admired you very much.”

”Nothing more?” asked Leone.

”No, nothing more.”

”Then,” said Leone to herself, ”the secret that he has kept I will keep, and this fair, tender woman shall never know that I once believed myself his wife.”

Lady Marion wondered why she bent down and kissed her with all the fervor of self-sacrifice.

”I have been very unhappy,” continued Lady Marion. ”I loved and admired you. I never had the faintest suspicion in my mind against you, until some one came to tell me that you and my husband had spent a day on the river together. I know it was true, but he would not explain it.”

”Let me explain it,” said Leone, sadly. ”I trust you as you trust me. I have had a great sorrow in my love; greater--oh, Heaven!--than ever fell to the lot of woman. And one day, when I saw your husband, the bitterness of it was lying heavily on me. I said something to him that led him to understand how dull and unhappy I felt. Lady Chandos, he took me on the river that he might give me one happy day, nothing more. Do you grudge it to me, dear? Ah, if I could give you the happiness of those few fleeting hours I would.”

And again her warm, loving lips touched the white brow.

”I understand,” said Lady Marion. ”Why did my husband not speak as you have done? Does he care for you, madame? You will tell me the truth, I know.”

And the fair face looked wistfully in her own.

Leone was silent for a few minutes; she could not look in those clear eyes and speak falsely.

”Yes,” she answered, slowly; ”I think Lord Chandos cares very much for me; I know that he admires and likes me.”

Lady Marion looked very much relieved. There could surely be no harm in their friends.h.i.+p if she could speak of it so openly.

”And you, madame--oh, tell me truly--do you love him? Tell me truly; it seems that all my life hangs on your word.”

Again the beautiful face drooped silently before the fair one.

”It would be so easy for me to tell you a falsehood,” said Leone, while a great crimson flush burned her face, ”but I will not. Yes, I--I love him. Pity me, you who love him so well yourself; he belongs to you, while I--ah, pity me because I love him.”

And Lady Marion, whose heart was touched by the pitiful words, looked up and kissed her.

”I cannot hate you, since you love him,” she said. ”He is mine, but my heart aches for you. Now let me tell you what I have come to say. You are good and n.o.ble as I felt you were. I have come to ask a grace from you, and it is easier now that I know you love him. How strange it seems. I should have thought that hearing you say that you loved my husband would have filled my heart with hot anger, but it does not; in some strange way I love you for it.”

”If you love him, madame, his interests must be dear to you.”

”They are dear to me,” she whispered. ”How strange,” repeated Lady Marion, ”that while the world is full of men you and I should love the same man.”

”Ah, life is strange,” said Leone; ”peace only comes with death.”

CHAPTER LXI.

A SACRIFICE.

Lady Marion raised herself so that she could look into the face of her beautiful rival.

”Now I will tell you,” she said; ”you are going to Berlin; you have an engagement at the Royal Opera House there, and my husband wishes to go there, too. But we all oppose it; his parents for social reasons, and I--I tell you frankly, because I am jealous of you, and cannot bear that he should follow you there. I have asked him to give up the idea, but he refuses--he will not listen to me. I have said that if he goes there, I will never see him or speak to him again, and I must keep my word. So, madame, I have come to you; I appeal to you, do not let him go: you can prevent it if you will.”

Leone's dark eyes flashed fire.