Part 16 (1/2)

This time he made no more objections, but went into the adjoining room, my boudoir. The key was in the door; I turned it in the lock, s.n.a.t.c.hed it out, and dropped it into a bowl of flowers on a table close by. That done, I flew out of the drawing-room into the little entrance hall, and opened the front door. There stood Raoul, his face dead white, and very stern in the light of the hall lamp. I had never seen him like that before.

”I know why you're here,” I began quickly, before he could speak. ”Count G.o.densky told me what he said to you. I--hoped you would come.”

”Is this why you wished to know what I would do if you deceived me?” he asked, with the bitterest reproach in eyes and voice.

”No. For I hadn't deceived you,” I answered. ”I haven't deceived you now. If you loved me, you'd believe me, Raoul.”

I put out my hand and took his. He gave mine no pressure, but he let me draw him into the house.

”For G.o.d's sake, give me back my faith in you, if you can,” he said.

”It's death to lose it. I came here wanting to die.”

”After you'd killed me, as you said?”

”Perhaps. I couldn't keep away. I had to come. If you have any explanation, for the love of Heaven, tell me what it is.”

”You know me, and you know G.o.densky--yet you need an explanation of anything evil said of me by him?” In this way I hoped to disarm Raoul; but he had been half-mad, I think, and was scarcely sane now, such a power had jealousy over his better self.

”Don't play with me!” he exclaimed. ”I can't bear it. You sent me away.

Yet you had an appointment with G.o.densky. You took him into your carriage; and now--”

”Marianne was in the carriage. If I could have had you with me, I should have packed her off by herself, alone, that I--might be alone with you.

Oh, Raoul, it isn't _possible_ you believe that I could lie to you for G.o.densky's sake--a man like that! If I'd cared for him, why shouldn't I have accepted him instead of you? Could I have changed so quickly, do you think?”

”I don't think; I'm not able to think. I can only feel,” he answered.

”Then--feel sure that I love you--no man but you--now and always.”

”Oh, Maxine!” he stammered. ”Am I a fool, or wise, to let myself believe you?”

”You are wise,” I answered, as firmly as if I deserved the full faith I was claiming from him as my right. ”If you wouldn't believe, without my insisting, without my explaining and defending myself, I'd tell you nothing. But you _do_ believe, just because you love me--I see it in your face, and thank G.o.d for it. So I'll tell you this. Count G.o.densky hates me, because I couldn't and wouldn't love him, and he hates you because he thinks I love you. He--” I paused for a second. A wild thought had flashed like the light of a beacon in my brain. If I could say something now which, when the blow fell--if it did fall--might come back to Raoul's mind and convince him instantly that it was G.o.densky, not I, who had stolen the treaty and broken him! If I could make him believe the whole thing a monstrous plot of G.o.densky's to revenge himself on a woman who'd refused him, by cleverly implicating her in her lover's ruin, by throwing guilt upon her while she was, in reality, innocent! If I could suggest that to Raoul now, while his ears were open, I might hold his love against the world, no matter what happened afterward.

It was a mad idea and a wicked one, perhaps; but I was at my wits' end and desperate. Though not guilty of this one crime which I would s.h.i.+ft upon his shoulders if I could, as a means of escaping from the trap he'd helped to set, G.o.densky was capable of it, and guilty of others, I was sure, which had never been brought home to him. I believed that he, too, was a spy, just as I was; and far worse, because if he were one he betrayed his own country, while I never had done that, never would.

All these thoughts rushed through my head in a second; and I think that Raoul could hardly have noticed the pause before I began to speak again.

”He--G.o.densky--would do anything to part you and me,” I said. ”There's no plot too sly and vile for him to conceive and carry out against me--and you. No lie too base for him to tell you--or others--about me.

He sent me a letter at the theatre--soon after you'd left me the first time. In it, he said that I must give him a few minutes after the play, unless I wanted some dreadful harm to come to _you_--something concerning your career. That frightened me, though I might have guessed it was only a trick. Indeed, I did guess, but I couldn't be sure, so I saw him. I didn't want you to know--I tell you that frankly, Raoul.

Because I'd told you not to come home with me, I hoped you wouldn't find out that I meant to let Count G.o.densky drive part of the way back with me and Marianne. I ran the risk, and--the very thing happened which I ought to have known would happen. As for what he had to tell me, it was nothing; only vague hints of trouble from which he, as one of an inner circle, might save you, if I--would be grateful enough.”

”The scoundrel!” broke out Raoul, convinced now, his eyes blazing.

”I'll--”

He stopped suddenly. But I knew what had been on his lips to say. He meant to send a challenge to Count G.o.densky. I must prevent him from doing that.

”No, Raoul,” I said, as if he had finished his sentence, ”you musn't fight. For my sake, you mustn't. Don't you see, it's just what he'd like best? It would be a way of doing me the most dreadful injury. Think of the scandal. Oh, you _will_ think of it, when you're cooler. For you, I would not fear much, for I know what a swordsman you are, and what a shot--far superior to G.o.densky, and with right on your side. But I would fear for myself. Promise you won't bring this trouble upon me.”

”I promise,” he answered. ”Oh, my darling, what wouldn't I promise you, to atone for my brutal injustice to an angel? How thankful I am that I came to you to-night! I meant not to come. I was afraid of myself, and what I might do. But at last I couldn't hold out against the something that seemed forcing me here in spite of all resistance. Do you forgive me?”