Part 28 (1/2)
”Who and what are you,” he cried, ”who talk to me in this way? You act more like a vengeful spirit than a woman unconcerned in my affairs. Who and what are you, anyhow?”
”I tell you only what I see,” was the muttered response.
”See where?” demanded Kendal in agitation.
”That is not for you to know.”
”But I shall--I will know!” he cried, furiously. ”There is something underneath all this trumpery. I am not a man to be trifled with in this fas.h.i.+on, I can tell you, with your fortune-telling nonsense--humb.u.g.g.e.ry!”
”Then, pray, what brings you here? what is your object in coming?” asked the other, with a covert sneer.
”To hear what lies you could trump up,” replied Kendal boldly.
”Our interview is ended,” said the veiled figure, rising and pointing her long arm toward the door.
He knew that he must temporize with her if he would find out Dorothy's whereabouts, which he was beginning to believe she might find out for him.
”Will you pardon me?” he asked, humbling himself. ”I--I must know more.”
”You have heard all that I have to say, Harry Kendal!” she cried.
Who was this creature who knew him--aye, knew his name, his most secret affairs? He must--he would know.
With a quick bound he cleared the s.p.a.ce which divided them, and in a trice he had grasped her wrists firmly and torn the veil from her face.
This was followed by a mighty cry.
CHAPTER XXV.
The instant Harry Kendal sprang toward the veiled woman she sprang backward, as though antic.i.p.ating the movement, and quick as a flash she overturned the candle, just as he tore the veil from her face.
A low, taunting laugh broke from her lips through the inky darkness of the room. In a trice she had torn herself free from his grasp, and like a flash she had sped from the room and down the narrow hall and stairway, like a storm-driven swallow, leaving her companion stumbling about the place, and giving vent to curses loud and deep as he fumbled about his vest pocket for matches.
The veiled woman never stopped until she reached the street, then paused for a moment and looked back as she reached the nearest gas lamp.
As the flickering rays of the street lamp fell athwart her face, the features of Nadine Holt were clearly revealed, her black eyes blazing, and her jet black hair streaming wildly about her face.
”How strange!” she panted, ”that this idea of fortune telling should have come to me as a means of gaining my living! I was driven to do something. And that he should have been the very first patron to come to me--he, of all others! He is tracking me down because I maimed the girl whom he is so soon to wed--yes, tracking me down to throw me into prison--and yet he was once my lover! It is always the way. When a man's heart grows cold to one love, and another's face has charmed him, it seems to me as though men have a cruel, feverish desire to thrust the first love from them at whatever cost. But I will be revenged upon him!
I will live to make his very life a torture; but I shall do it through Dorothy Glenn. I will go to Dorothy Glenn at once, and we shall see what will happen then.”
Meanwhile, after much fumbling and imprecations loud and deep, Kendal succeeded in striking a match and finding the overturned bit of wax taper, which he hastily lighted, peering cautiously into the inky darkness which surrounded him.
He was tired and exhausted, and he told himself that he would turn in at the nearest hotel, take a good night's rest, and mature his plans on the morrow for finding Dorothy.
Meanwhile, let us go back, dear reader, to the hour in which our heroine, little Dorothy, decided to leave Gray Gables.
For some moments after Harry Kendal had left her in anger in the corridor she stood quite still--stood there long after the sound of his footsteps had died away, trying to realize the full purport of his words--that their engagement was at an end, and that they had parted forever.
The whole world seemed to stand still about her. Then, like one suddenly dazed, she turned and crept into her own room. Katy was there awaiting her.