Part 65 (1/2)
”Aubrey!” cried Sylvie. ”Oh, Aubrey!”
He caught her as she sprang to him, and held her fast,--and with perfect self-possession he eyed the priest disdainfully up and down.
”So this,” he said coldly, ”is the way the followers of Saint Peter fulfil the commands of Christ! Or shall we say this is the way in which they go on denying their Master? It is a strange way of retaining disciples,--a still stranger way of making converts! A brave way too, to intimidate a woman!”
Gherardi, recovering from the shock of Aubrey's blow, drew himself up haughtily.
”I serve the Church, Mr. Leigh!” he said proudly. ”And in that high service all means are permitted to us for a righteous end!”
”Ah!--the old Jesuitical hypocrisy!” And Aubrey smiled bitterly. ”Lies are permitted in the Cause of Truth! One word, Monsignor! I have no wish to play at any game of double-dealing with you. I have heard the whole of your interview with this lady. It is the first time I have ever played the eavesdropper--but my duty was to protect my promised wife, if she needed protection--and I thought it was possible she might need it--from YOU!”
Gherardi turned a livid paleness, and drew a quick breath.
”I know your moves,” went on Aubrey quietly, ”and it will be my business as well as my pleasure to frustrate them. Moreover, I shall give your plot into the care of the public press--”
”You will not dare!” cried Gherardi fiercely. ”But--after all, what matter if you do!--no one will believe you!”
”Not in Rome, perhaps,” returned Aubrey coolly. ”But in England,--in America,--things are different. There are many honest men who dislike to contemplate even a distant vision of the talons of Rome hovering over us--we look upon such mischief as a sign of decay,--for only where the carca.s.ses of nations lie, does the vulture hover! We are not dead yet! And now, Monsignor,--as your interview with the Countess is ended--an interview to which I have been a witness--may I suggest the removal of your presence? You have made a proposition--she has rejected it--the matter is ended!”
Civilly calm and cold he stood, holding Sylvie close to him with one embracing arm, and Gherardi, looking at the two together thus, impotently wished that the heavy sculptured and painted ceiling above them might fall and crush them into a pulp before him. No shame, no sense of compunction moved him,--if anything, he raised his head more haughtily than before.
”Aubrey Leigh,” he said, ”Socialist, reformer, revolutionist--whatever you choose to call yourself!--you have all the insolence of your race and cla.s.s,--and it is beneath my dignity to argue with you. But you will rue the day you ever crossed my path! Not one thing have I threatened, that shall not be performed! This unhappy lady whose mind has been perverted from Holy Church by your heretical teachings, shall be excommunicated. Henceforth we look upon her as a child of sin, and we shall publicly declare her marriage with you illegal. The rest can be left with confidence, to--Society!”
And with a dark smile which made his face look like that of some malignant demon, he turned, and preserving his proud inflexibility of demeanour, without another look or gesture, left the apartment.
Then Aubrey, alone with his love, drew her closer, and lifted her fair face to his own, looking at it with pa.s.sionate tenderness and admiration.
”You brave soul!” he said. ”You true woman! You angel of the covenant of love! How shall I ever tell you how I wors.h.i.+p you--how I revere you--for your truth and courage!”
She trembled under the ardour of his utterance, and her eyes filled with tears.
”I was not afraid!” she said. ”I should have called Katrine,--only I knew that if I once did so, she also would be involved, and he would be unscrupulous enough to ruin my name with a few words in order to defend himself from all suspicion. But you, Aubrey?--how did it happen that you were here?”
”I was here from the first!” he replied triumphantly. ”I followed on Gherardi's very heels. Your Arab boy admitted me--he was in my secret.
He showed me into the anteroom just outside, where by leaving a corner of the door ajar I could see and hear everything. And I listened to your every word! I saw every bright flash of the strong soul in your brave eyes! And now those eyes question me, sweetheart,--almost reproachfully they seem to ask me why I did not interfere between you and Gherardi before? Ah, but you must forgive me for the delay! I wanted to drink all my cup of nectar to the dregs--I could not lose one drop of such sweetness! To see you, slight fragile blossom of a woman, matching your truth and courage against the treachery and malice of the most unscrupulous priestly tool ever employed by the Vatican, was a sight to make me strong for all my days!” He kissed her pa.s.sionately.
”My love! My wife! How can I ever thank you!”
She raised her sweet eyes wonderingly.
”Did you doubt me, Aubrey?” ”No! I never doubted you. But I wondered whether your force would hold out, whether you might not be intimidated, whether you might not temporize, which would have been natural enough--whether you might not have used some little social art or grace to cover up and disguise the absoluteness of your resolve--but no! You were a heroine in the fight, and you gave your blows straight from the hilt, without flinching. You have made me twice a man, Sylvie!
With you beside me I shall win all I might otherwise have lost, and I thank G.o.d for you, dear!--I thank G.o.d for you!”
He drew her close again into his arms, pressing her to his heart which beat tumultously with its deep rejoicing,--no fear now that they two would ever cease to be one! No danger now of those miserable so-called ”religious” disputes between husband and wife, which are so eminently anti-Christian, and which make many a home a h.e.l.l upon earth,--disputes which young children sometimes have to witness from their earliest years, when the mother talks ”at” the father for not going to Church, or the father sneers at the mother for being ”a rank Papist”! Nothing now, but absolute union in spirit and thought, in soul and intention--the rarest union that can be consummated between man and woman, and yet the only one that can engender perfect peace and unchanging happiness.
And presently the lovers' trance of joy gave way to thought for others; to a realization of the dangers hovering over the good Cardinal, and the already ill-fated Angela Sovrani, and Aubrey, raising the golden head that nestled against his breast, kissed the sweet lips once more and said--
”Now, my Sylvie, we must take the law into our own hands! We must do all we can to save our friends. The Cardinal must be thought of first.
If we are not quick to the rescue he will be sent 'into retreat,' which can be translated as forced detention, otherwise imprisonment. He must leave Rome to-night. Now listen!”