Part 2 (1/2)

”Ah! if I could tell you all--if I only dared to tell you,” she sighed.

”But even then you wouldn't believe it--you couldn't.”

”But may I not know something of this peril of yours?” I urged. ”If you tell me, I shall then know how to deal with it.”

”You can only serve me at great risk to yourself,” was her quick reply.

”In any way I can serve you, Lolita, do not hesitate to command me,” I said, deeply in earnest and still holding her trembling hand in mine.

By that wild look in her beautiful eyes I saw that her heart was gripped by some nameless terror, and that she was in desperation. Then, in a moment of deep sympathy, recollecting the stranger's ominous words, I added: ”I love you now, Lolita, with the deepest devotion with which any man has loved.”

And before she was aware of it, I had raised those thin white fingers reverently to my lips and imprinted upon them a tender lingering kiss.

CHAPTER THREE.

WHICH IS A MYSTERY.

In my hot pa.s.sionate declaration I repeated my readiness to serve her, at the same time acknowledging the difference in our stations and the fear that my dream of happiness must be a vain one.

She smiled very sweetly upon me, and I saw her eyes were dimmed with tears. Her lips moved, but in the first moments no sound escaped them.

I had taken her by surprise, I think, for she had always regarded me as friend, and not as lover.

”I thank you for your kind promise to a.s.sist me in this hour of my need,” she answered at last in a voice that seemed to have strangely altered. ”I know now that I enjoy your regard, although I--well, I must confess that I had no idea that, good friends that we have been all these years, you would end by really falling in love with me. You have, however, told me the truth, and a woman always respects a man for that.

I know now that I have at least one firm and devoted friend.” And as she spoke her fingers closed upon my hand.

As I feared, I had presumed too far. I had no right to love her, I, a mere paid servant of the family, yet she had treated my confession with sweet dignity and womanly tact that so well became her, and cleverly turned my declaration of love into one of friends.h.i.+p.

”To serve me in this matter would be to imperil yourself,” she went on in deep seriousness after a moment's pause. ”My enemies hold my future in their hands. To me it is a matter of life or death.”

”I am prepared to undertake any risk for your sake,” I declared. ”Only suggest a course, and I will adopt it instantly.”

”Ah, you are very good!” she cried. ”How can I sufficiently thank you?

In all the world you are the only friend I can really trust. Well, what I want you to do is this. Take the first train to London to-morrow and go to 98, Britten Street, Chelsea, where you will find a certain Frenchwoman named Lejeune. Tell her that I have sent you to implore her to tell me the truth; that if she fears to approach me direct you will act as intermediary; that if she withholds the secret it must result in my death--my death--you understand.”

”In your death!” I gasped, puzzled.

”Yes. I cannot face exposure. I would prefer death!” was her hoa.r.s.e reply. ”Tell that woman that Richard Keene has returned! She will know.” I watched her face and recognised how desperate she was. I had never before seen such a look in any woman's eyes.

”And what else?” I asked mechanically.

”Nothing. All you have to do in order to save me is to get a written confession from that woman. If she refuses, as I fear she will, then my fate is sealed. The blow I have been dreading these past years will fall. I shall be crushed, and Lolita Sibberton will be but the memory of an unhappy woman who fell the victim of as foul and ingenious a plot as was ever conceived by the mind of man.” Her hands were clasped before her, and she s.h.i.+vered from head to foot. I saw that she was cold, and without a word wound about her bare neck my scarf that lay upon a chair.

”I will do my utmost in your interests,” I a.s.sured her. ”This woman--is she one of the conspirators?”

”Beware of her. She is treacherous, unscrupulous, and possessed of a cunning that is almost beyond comprehension. Act with discretion, and exercise every care of your own personal safety.”

”Why? I have no fear in London in broad daylight,” I smiled.

”Ah! You don't know,” she cried. ”In dealing with her, you are dealing with a person who would hesitate at nothing in order to attain her own ends. Until now, although a word from her could give me my freedom from this imminent danger that threatens to overtake me, she has kept silence and watched for my downfall.”