Part 20 (2/2)
Did she love me? I wondered. Had jealousy alone prompted that speech?
Or was she really aware of the truth concerning the blue-eyed woman whom I had adored for those few fleeting days, and whom I was now seeking to hunt down as a criminal?
CHAPTER TWELVE.
”YOU! OF ALL MEN!”
”No,” I admitted, ”I was not aware who Aline Cloud was, nor did I know that you were acquainted with her.”
She started. She had unwittingly betrayed herself.
”I--acquainted with her!” she cried in a voice of indignation. ”You are mistaken.”
”But you know her by repute,” I said. ”Tell me the truth about her.”
She laughed, a light, nervous laugh, her eyes still fixed upon the water.
”You love her!” she exclaimed. ”It is useless for me to say anything.”
”No, no, Muriel,” I cried. ”I do not love her. How could I love her when I know nothing whatsoever of her? Why, I only saw her twice.”
”But you were with her a sufficient length of time to declare your love.”
How could she know? I wondered. Aline herself must have told her. She uttered a falsehood when she declared that she did not know the mysterious fair-faced woman whose power was so mysterious and unnatural.
I was puzzled.
”Well,” I said at length, ”I admit it. I admit that in a moment of mad ecstasy I made a foolish declaration of affection--an avowal which I have ever since regretted.”
She gave me a pitying, scornful look, a glance which proved to me how fierce was her hatred of Aline.
”If you had told me of your fascination I might have been able to have explained the truth concerning her. But as you have thought fit to preserve your secret, no end can now be gained by the exposure of anything I know,” she said, quite calmly.
”What do you know about her, Muriel?” I inquired, laying my hand upon her arm in all seriousness. ”Tell me.”
But she shook her head, rather sadly perhaps. The bright expression of happiness which had illuminated her countenance until that moment had died away and been replaced by a look of dull despair. The sun shone down upon her brightly, the birds were singing in the trees and all around was gladness, but she seemed troubled and oppressed as one heartbroken.
”No!” she answered in a low tone, her breast slowly heaving and falling.
”If you have really escaped the enthralment it is enough. You may congratulate yourself.”
”Why?”
”Merely because you have avoided the pitfall set in your path,” she answered. ”She was beautiful. It was because of her loveliness that you became entranced, was it not?”
”There is no necessity to conceal anything,” I said.
”You speak the truth.”
”And you had some ill.u.s.trations of the evil influence which lay within her?” Muriel asked.
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