Part 13 (2/2)

The tears! The disappointments! You know nothing of them. You can't realize how I've struggled and schemed and had my hopes raised and dashed to the ground ... time after time. To see the person that you love best in the world, a part of your own body, living without a soul: a thief, a liar--that's the plain truth--inhuman and cruel ... But you know as well as I do what he was.”

”I do know what he was.”

”And now, thanks to your husband--G.o.d knows I'm grateful!--he's better.

He's what I knew he ought to have been all these awful years. And then you come on the scene--you, who've borne nothing of all the years before--and begin to drag him down again. You must be mad to think I could risk it!”

”But don't I know all this? Do you think I'm less anxious than you are that he should stay as he is? Only trust me ... trust me! His future ... think of that....”

Mrs. Payne laughed bitterly, but Gabrielle persisted.

”His future ... My husband says that he can make a success of him. He can take a high place in a Government examination; he can get into the diplomatic service. Just believe that I love him too much to stand in his way. Why, I can even help him. If he does this I know that he'll want influence. _You_ haven't influence to help him. I don't want to belittle you, but I know you've nothing but your money, while I _can_ help him. My cousin is Lord Halberton. He's been a Cabinet minister.

There's no knowing what he mightn't do with his help. If you love anyone as I do him, why shouldn't you give your life to his interests? That's what I'd do. I'd think of nothing else. I'd give all my thoughts to him. And I promise ... oh, I promise faithfully, that I won't let him love me ... if only you'll let me love him.”

Mrs. Payne stiffened. ”You're trying to bribe me,” she said, ”and I'm not the kind of person who can be bribed. I don't care that much about his future! Until the last month I never so much as dreamed that any future of that kind was possible. It's quite enough for me that he should settle down here into the sort of life that his father would have lived if he'd been spared. I don't want to share his successes with you....”

”Ah, you're jealous!”

”Of course I'm jealous. I've reason to be. He's mine. But even if I could trust you ... and I believe I could ... Arthur's future wouldn't tempt me to risk his present. No ... it's too dangerous.”

”Dangerous...” Gabrielle clutched at the word. ”Dangerous!” She became suddenly quiet and intense. ”I don't believe you know where the danger lies,” she said.

”I can see the most obvious danger, and that's a love affair with a married woman.”

”You can't see any other? You said just now that Arthur had changed thanks to my husband. Perhaps my husband took the credit for it and you believed it. But it isn't true. I've seen the change coming hour by hour, day by day. Every moment of it I've watched and treasured. He did not change because he worked with my husband. He changed because I loved him and he loved me. I know it ... I've known it all the time. What did your love do for him in all those years? Nothing ... nothing at all.

For heaven's sake don't think I'm boasting! Your love never changed him a hair's breadth, and you know it!”

Mrs. Payne gasped. ”You don't realize what you're saying.”

”But I do ... I do. You say his body's part of you--belongs to you.

I'll give you that. But this soul ... his new soul ... is mine. That's part of our love. Ours and n.o.body else's....”

Mrs. Payne choked back her emotion. ”I don't grudge it you,” she said, ”I only thank G.o.d for it gratefully ... gratefully.”

”But you don't see what I mean,” said Gabrielle slowly. ”Arthur has changed because he loves me. He's ceased to be cruel because he knows that for him to be cruel pains me. He's learned to see things just as I see them. And now you want to separate us ... even after what I have promised you. Can't you see what I'm afraid of?”

She paused, and Mrs. Payne was silent. Gabrielle quickly pressed her advantage.

”If you separate us, if you try to destroy our love, you'll be taking away from him the thing that's saved him. How do you know that he won't slip back again? You can take his body from me ... I know that ... but you may lose more than you get.”

Mrs. Payne stood staring straight in front of her.

”Then you will know what you are worth to him.” Gabrielle's tone was almost scornful. ”You see how it stands,” she continued. ”We both of us want him for ourselves, we want him as he is to-day ... and we can't either of us have him without the other's consent. You hold his body, and I hold his soul. Let's be reasonable. Let's compromise. I'm ready to do my part. Oh, I beg you to be reasonable!”

”You're a devil, not a woman,” said Mrs. Payne.

”But you see that I'm right?” Gabrielle persisted.

Mrs. Payne summoned all her strength. ”No, I don't. I don't believe it.”

”Ah, you pretend that you don't! But you're bluffing me. I know it.

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