Part 26 (2/2)
”No, I know what you would do. You would kill yourself. It is what is in your mind now. I won't risk losing you. I have waited long enough already. Give me a ring of yours, and a written word from you to du Laurier, saying that you find you have made a mistake; and not only will I do nothing to injure him, but will guard against the discovery of--you know what. Besides, as a matter of course, I'll bring all my influence to bear in keeping your name out of this or any other scandal. I can do much, everything indeed, for I admit that it was through me the Commissary of Police trapped you with Dundas. I will say that I blundered. I know what to do to save you, and I will do it--for my future wife.”
”No power on earth could induce me to break with Raoul du Laurier in the way you wish,” I said. ”If--if I am to give him up, I must tell him with my own lips, and bid him good-bye. I will do this to-morrow, if you will hold your hand until then.”
We looked at each other for a long moment in silence. G.o.densky was trying to read my mind, and to make up his accordingly.
”You swear by everything you hold sacred to break with him to-morrow?”
”By the memory of my father and mother, martyred by bureaucrats like you, I pledge my word that--that--if I can't break with Raoul, to let you know the first thing in the morning, and dare you to do--what you will.”
”You will not 'dare' me, I think. And because I think so, I will wait--a little longer.”
”Until this time to-morrow?”
”No. For if you cheated me, it would be too late to act for another twelve hours. But I will give you till to-morrow noon. You agree to that?”
”I agree.” My lips formed the words. I hardly spoke them; but he understood, and with a flash in his eyes took a step towards me as if to s.n.a.t.c.h my hand. I drew away. He followed, but at this instant Marianne appeared at the door.
”There is a young lady to see Mademoiselle,” she announced, her good-natured, open face showing all her dislike of Count G.o.densky. ”A young lady who sends this note, begging that Mademoiselle will read it at once, and consent to see her.”
Thankful that the tete-a-tete had been interrupted, I held out my hand for the letter. Marianne gave it to me. I glanced at the name written below the lines which only half filled the first page of theatre paper, and found it strange to me. But, even if I had not been ready to s.n.a.t.c.h at the chance of ridding myself immediately of G.o.densky, the few words above the unfamiliar name would have made me say as I did say, ”Bring the young lady in at once.”
”I come to you from Mr. Dundas, on business which he told me was of the greatest and most pressing importance.
”DIANA FORREST.”
That was the whole contents of the note; but a dozen sheets closely filled with arguments could not have moved me more.
CHAPTER XVIII
MAXINE MEETS DIANA
G.o.densky was obliged to take his leave, which he did abruptly, but to all appearance with a good grace; and when he was gone Marianne ushered in a girl--a tall, beautiful girl in a grey tailor dress built by an artist.
For such time as it might have taken us to count twelve, we looked at each other; and as we looked, a little clock on the mantel softly chimed the quarter hour. In fifteen minutes I should be due upon the stage.
The girl was very lovely. Yes, lovely was the right word for her--lovely and lovable. She was like a fresh rose, with the morning dew of youth on its petals--a rose that had budded and was beginning to bloom in a fair garden, far out of reach of ugly weeds. I envied her, for I felt how different her sweet, girl's life had been from my stormy if sometimes brilliant career.
”Mr. Dundas sent you to me?” I asked. ”When did you see him? Surely not--since--”
”This afternoon,” she answered quietly, in a pretty, un-English sounding voice, with a soft little drawl of the South in it. ”I went to see him.
They gave us five minutes. A warder was there; but speaking quickly in Spanish, just a few words, he--Mr. Dundas--managed to tell me a thing he wished me to do. He said it meant more than his life, so I did it; for we have been friends, and just now he's helpless. The warder was angry, and stopped our conversation at once, though the five minutes weren't ended. But I understood. Mr. Dundas said there wasn't a moment to lose.”
”Yet that was in the afternoon, and you only come to me at this hour!” I exclaimed.
”I had something else to do first,” she said, in the same quiet voice.
She was looking down now, not at me, and her eyelashes were so long that they made a shadow on her cheeks. But the blood streamed over her face.
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