Part 34 (2/2)

”Yes, I will help you--I will do anything you wish,” said Giulia, heartily.

”Then come!” exclaimed Edith, excitedly, ”I want you to go down to him; he is in one of the rooms below--in the library, I think--a room under the one opposite this. He will be so astonished by your unexpected visit that he will be thrown off his guard, and you must manage to occupy his attention until you are sure I am well out of the house--which will be in less than ten minutes after you are in his presence--and then I shall have nothing more to fear from him.”

”I will do it,” said the Italian girl, rising, a look of resolve on her handsome but care-lined face.

”Thank you! thank you!” returned Edith, earnestly. ”I am going straight to New York, to friends; but of course, you will not betray my plans.”

”No, indeed; but do you think your friends can help you break with Emil--do you believe that ceremony can be canceled?” breathlessly inquired Giulia.

”I hope so,” Edith gravely answered; ”at all events, if I can but once put myself under the protection of my friends, I shall no longer fear him. I shall then try to have the marriage annulled. Perhaps, when he realizes how determined I am, he may even be willing to submit to it.”

”Oh, do you think so?--do you think so?” cried Giulia, tremulously, and with hopeful eagerness.

”I will hope so,” replied Edith, gravely, ”and I will also hope that I may be able to do something to make you and this dear child happy once more. What a sweet little fellow he is!” she concluded, as she leaned forward and kissed him softly on the cheek, an act which brought the quick tears to his mother's eyes.

Again she seized the girl's delicate hand and carried it to her lips.

”Ah, to think! An hour ago I hated you!--now I wors.h.i.+p you!” she cried, in an impa.s.sioned tone, a sob bursting from her trembling lips.

”You must go,” said Edith, advancing to the door, and softly opening it. ”I have no time to lose if I am to catch my train. Remember, the room under the one opposite this--you will easily find it. Now good-by, and Heaven bless you both.”

With a look of deepest grat.i.tude and veneration, Giulia Fiorini, her child clasped in her arms, pa.s.sed out of the room and moved swiftly toward the grand staircase leading to the lower part of the house; while Edith, closing and locking the door after her, stood listening until she should reach the library, where she was sure Emil Correlli sat reading.

She heard the sweep of the girl's robes upon the stairs; then, a moment later, a stifled exclamation of mingled surprise and anger fell upon her ears, after which the library door was hastily shut, and Edith began to breathe more freely.

She hastened to put on her jacket, preparatory to leaving the house.

But an instant afterward her heart leaped into her throat, as she caught the sound of the hurried opening and shutting of the library door again.

Then there came swift steps over the stairs.

Edith knew that Emil Correlli was coming to ascertain if she were safe within her room; that he feared if Giulia had succeeded in gaining an entrance there, without being discovered, she might possibly have escaped in the same way.

She moved noiselessly across the room toward the dressing-case and opened a drawer, just as there came a knock on her door.

”Is that you, Mrs. G.o.ddard?” Edith questioned, in her usual tone of voice, though her heart was beating with great, frightened throbs.

”No; it is I,” responded Emil Correlli. ”I wish to speak with you a moment, Edith.”

”You must excuse me just now, Mr. Correlli,” the girl replied, as she rattled the stopper to one of the perfumery bottles on the dressing-case; ”I am dressing, and cannot see any one just at present.”

”Oh!” returned the voice from without, in a modified tone, as if the man were intensely relieved by her reply. ”I beg your pardon; but when can I see you--how long will it take you to finish dressing?”

Edith glanced at the clock, and a little smile of triumph curled her lips, for she saw that the hands pointed to half-past two.

”Not more than fifteen or twenty minutes, perhaps,” she returned.

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