Part 31 (1/2)

”No, it contains an insult to your wife. If you get it into your hands, you will read it again, and then you will do some foolish thing, for you have lost grip of yourself. Here is the only place for such stuff--an outburst of sensuality!”

He threw the letter suddenly into the fire. Rudyard sprang to his feet as though to reclaim it, but stood still bewildered, as he saw Stafford push it farther into the coals.

Silent, they watched shrivel such evidence as brings ruin upon men and women in courts of law.

”Leave the whole thing--leave Fellowes to me,” Stafford said, after a slight pause. ”I will deal with him. He shall leave the country to-night. I will see to that. He shall go for three years at least. Do not see him. You will not contain yourself, and for your own chance of happiness with the woman you love, you must do nothing, nothing at all now.”

”He has keys, papers--”

”I will see to that; I will see to everything. Now go, at once. There is enough for you to do. The war, Oom Paul's war, will be on us to day.

Do you hear, Byng--to-day! And you have work to do for this your native country and for South Africa, your adopted country. England and the Transvaal will be at each other's throat before night. You have work to do. Do it. You are needed. Go, and leave this wretched business in my hands. I will deal with Fellowes--adequately.”

The rage had faded from Byng's fevered eyes, and now there was a moisture in them, a look of incalculable relief. To believe in Jasmine, that was everything to him. He had not seen her yet, not since he left the white rose on her pillow last night--Adrian Fellowes' tribute; and after he had read the letter, he had had no wish to see her till he had had his will and done away with Fellowes forever. Then he would see her--for the last time: and she should die, too,--with himself. That had been his purpose. Now all was changed. He would not see her now, not till Fellowes was gone forever. Then he would come again, and say no word which would let her think he knew what Fellowes had written.

Yes, Stafford was right. She must not know, and they must start again, begin life again together, a new understanding in his heart, new purposes in their existence. In these few minutes Stafford had taught him much, had showed him where he had been wrong, had revealed to him Jasmine's nature as he never really understood it.

At the door, as Stafford helped him on with a light overcoat, he took a revolver from his pocket.

”That's the proof of what I meant to do,” he said; ”and this is proof of what I mean to do,” he added, as he handed over the revolver and Stafford's fingers grasped it with a nervous force which he misinterpreted.

”Ah yes,” he exclaimed, sadly, ”you don't quite trust me yet--not quite, Stafford; and I don't wonder; but it's all right.... You've been a good, good friend to us both,” he added. ”I wish Jasmine might know how good a friend you've been. But never mind. We'll pay the debt sometime, somehow, she and I. When shall I see you again?”

At that moment a clear voice rang out cheerily in the distance.

”Rudyard--where are you, Ruddy?” it called.

A light broke over Byng's haggard face. ”Not yet?” he asked Stafford.

”No, not yet,” was the reply, and Byng was pushed through the open door into the street.

”Ruddy--where are you, Ruddy?” sang the voice like a morning song.

Then there was silence, save for the music in the room beyond the little room where the two men had sat a few moments ago.

The music was still poured forth, but the tune was changed. Now it was ”Pagliacci”--that wonderful pa.s.sage where the injured husband pours out his soul in agony.

Stafford closed the doors of the little room where he and Byng had sat, and stood an instant listening to the music. He shuddered as the pa.s.sionate notes swept over his senses. In this music was the note of the character of the man who played--sensuous emotion, sensual delight.

There are men who by nature are as the daughters of the night, primary prost.i.tutes, with no minds, no moral sense; only a sensuous organization which has a gift of shallow beauty, while the life is never deep enough for tears nor high enough for real joy.

In Stafford's pocket was the revolver which Byng had given him. He took it out, and as he did so, a flush swept over his face, and every nerve of his body tingled.

”That way out?” he thought. ”How easy--and how selfish.... If one's life only concerned oneself.... But it's only partly one's own from first to last.” ... Then his thoughts turned again to the man who was playing ”Pagliacci.” ”I have a greater right to do it than Byng, and I'd have a greater joy in doing it; but whatever he is, it is not all his fault.” Again he shuddered. ”No man makes love like that to a woman unless she lets him, ... until she lets him.” Then he looked at the fire where the cruel testimony had shrivelled into smoke. ”If it had been read to a jury ... Ah, my G.o.d! How many he must have written her like that ... How often....”

With an effort he pulled himself together. ”What does it matter now!

All things have come to an end for me. There is only one way. My letter to her showed it. But this must be settled first. Then to see her for the last time, to make her understand....”

He went to the beaded curtain, raised it, and stepped into the flood of warm sunlight. The voluptuous, agonizing music came in a wave over him.

Tragedy, poignant misery, rang through every note, swelled in a stream which drowned the senses. This man-devil could play, Stafford remarked, cynically, to himself.