Part 24 (1/2)
”Lettice! My Lettice!”
A harsh laugh grated on his ears. It came from the other side of the tree, and Alan sprang in the direction of the sound. He need not have hastened, for his wife had no desire to conceal her presence. She was coming forward to meet him; and there, in the middle of the Green, shrouded in almost complete darkness, the two stood face to face.
”Tiens, mon ami; te voila!”
She was in her mocking mood--certain to be quiet for a few minutes, as Alan told himself the moment he recognized her. What was she doing here?
He had thought that she did not know where Lettice lived; how had she discovered the place? It did not occur to him that his own folly had betrayed the secret; on the contrary, he blessed the instinct which had brought him to the spot just when he was wanted. ”A spirit in my feet hath led me to thy chamber window, sweet!” All this pa.s.sed through his mind in a couple of seconds.
”Yes, I am here. And you! How came you here?”
”Nothing more simple. I came on my feet. But you walked quick, my dear; I could hardly keep up with you at times.”
”You followed me!”
”Yes, I followed you--all the way from Alfred Place. I wanted so much to know where she lived, and I said, 'He shall show me. He, who would not for worlds that I should know--he will be my sign-post.' Pouf! you men are stupid creatures. I must be cunning with you, my good husband who would leave me to starve--who would divorce me, and marry this woman, and cut the hated Cora out of your life. But no, my poor child, it shall not be. So long as we live, we two, Cora will never desert you. It is my only consolation, that I shall be able to follow every step of your existence as I followed you to-night, without your knowing where I am, or at what moment I may stand before you.”
”Let us walk,” said Alan, ”and talk things over. Why stand here?”
”You are afraid that I shall make another scandal, and rouse the virtuous Lettice from her pillow, with the sound of her name screamed out in the night? Ha, ha! How the poor coward trembles! Have no fear!
Twice in a week your brutal police have seized me, and I do not love their kind attentions. Now and then I may defy them, when I need an excitement of that kind; but not to-night. To-night I mean to be clever, and show you how I can twist a cold-blooded Englishman round my finger.
If you go, then I will scream--it is a woman's bludgeon, my child, as her tongue is her dagger. Bah! be quiet and listen to me. You shall not divorce me, for if you try I will accuse you of all sorts of things--basenesses that will blast your name for ever.”
”I am not afraid of you,” said Alan. ”For anything I know, you have a pistol under your cloak--shoot me. I took you to love and cherish, and you have made my life a h.e.l.l. What good is it? Shoot!”
”No; that makes a noise. In Paris I would shoot you, for it is you who have destroyed my life. But in London you do not understand these things, so that I must act differently. Listen! If you try to divorce me, and do not pay me my money, I have one or two little pistol-shots a l'anglaise which will suit you perfectly. Shall I tell you what I would say, to anyone who would listen to me--in court, in the street, anywhere?”
”As you please.”
”First, that you fired at me at Culoz, and that I can bring forward witnesses of the attempted a.s.sa.s.sination.”
”That is pure nonsense; I am not to be frightened by such child's play.”
”Second, so far as the divorce is concerned, that whatever my offence may have been, you have condoned it. Do you not understand, my friend?
Did I not find shelter in your rooms in Montagu Place? I would have a good lawyer, who would know how to make the most of that.”
”Have you nothing stronger to rely on?”
”Listen; you shall tell me. My third pistol-shot is this--that you were wont to make private a.s.signations with Miss Lettice Campion, and that you had been seen dropping from her window, here in Brook Green, at midnight. What do you think of that, for example?”
”Vile wretch!” said Alan. ”Your malice has robbed you of your senses.
Who would believe you?”
”Do not be a child. Are you English, and do you ask who would believe a woman telling these tales of a man? Do you not know that men are ruined every day in England by the lies of women? The better the man, the more abandoned the woman, the more incredible her lies, so much the more certain is his condemnation. Bah, you know it! I should not hesitate about the lies, and, if I made them sufficiently repulsive, your n.o.ble countrymen would not hesitate to believe them. Do you doubt it? What think you of my plan?”
He made no answer; he was trying to command himself.
”Now, tell me! Shall I have my money as usual?”