Part 55 (1/2)
”I'll not stay here to be insulted in my own house,” cried Valerie fiercely.
”We shall compel you,” remarked her husband abruptly.
”This is some infamous plot against me,” she said, boldly facing him.
”You are unworthy the name of husband if you do not protect me from this pair of criminals.”
”We've had enough of heroic talk,” interrupted Gabrielle impatiently.
”It will be as well to get to the business of our visit at once.”
”If your business is only to insult me, I'll ring for the servants and have you turned out.”
”In that case we should embrace the opportunity of relating to your guests a story which would no doubt interest them,” answered Gabrielle calmly.
”Bah! you are cowards,” she said, with face blanched by rage. ”Three of you against one defenceless woman!”
”Ah; do not malign us,” urged the other, in a tone of banter. ”I know that the sight of your husband is somewhat embarra.s.sing, especially when you and your adored Pierre very ingeniously proved his demise.” With a smile she added: ”I should feel a trifle disconcerted myself under such distressing circ.u.mstances. Indeed, it is a most awkward _contretemps_, is it not?”
”_Sacre_! keep your sympathies to yourself,” screamed Valerie, with a sudden outburst of terrible pa.s.sion.
Then, panting with excitement, she stood supporting herself by a chair, and facing her traducers. She saw plainly that the result of the conflict must be either complete annihilation, or a triumphant vindication of the character which Hugh had hitherto considered immaculate.
Drawing a deep breath, she braced herself up for the ordeal, and stood ready to hurl back the accusation into the teeth of her enemies.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
DREGS OF LIFE.
”If you two men would understand how you both have been ensnared and betrayed, listen to the facts I will relate,” said Gabrielle, leaning on the table before her.
”Lies,” observed Valerie, as if speaking to herself.
”A few years ago in Paris,” continued Mademoiselle Debriege, turning to her companions, ”there lived, as you know, three artists, named Holt, Glanville, and Egerton. At that time I, too, lived in the Quartier Latin and became acquainted with them by meeting them frequently at the Chat Noir, whither I sometimes went in company with the man who had promised me marriage. The latter, however, forsook me--bah! it was the usual story--a woman's foolish trust in a man who cast her off like a frayed glove. You understand?”
She paused, and the colour mounted to her cheeks.
”Ruin came,” she went on; ”my father, a small tradesman, turned me from his door, and I found myself wandering friendless, forsaken, and homeless in the great city. Eventually I obtained an engagement as a _figurante_ at the Opera, and while there I first met the woman before you, Valerie Duvauchel. Although a gay coquette, she confided in me the fact that she was living under the protection of Victor Berard, a convicted thief. I was poor, earning scarcely enough to keep body and soul together, when she asked me to a.s.sist her and her lover in their various schemes of robbery. This temptation proved too great, for I was to receive a fair share of the plunder. The first occasion on which I partic.i.p.ated in the crusade against riches was at a burglary at Auteuil.
We were successful, and I received a thousand francs for my services.
During the nine months I was connected with them I a.s.sisted at a number of robberies of jewellery and plate, sometimes as a decoy, at others pilfering myself.”
”I never knew you allied yourself in that manner with them,” remarked the artist in surprise, ”although I often thought the dresses you wore cost you more than you obtained at the Opera.”
”In order to carry out our plans, I was compelled to dress well,” she replied. ”But that has little to do with the events that followed.
While a.s.sisting Berard, I frequently spent days about the _ateliers_, and Glanville, the student of the Quai Montabello, and I became enamoured of one another. He had more money at his command than the average denizen of the Ile de la Cite, therefore I was not averse to accompanying him to cafes, b.a.l.l.s, and theatres, especially as I had given up my engagement of the Opera, and was dependent entirely upon the proceeds of Victor's depredations. After a few months at this life I discovered, by mere accident, that my English lover was not so devoted as I believed, and--that he knew Valerie. The affection between this woman and Egerton was a matter of comment among the students living on the Quai, but no one suspected that she favoured Glanville, whom everybody believed idolised me.”
”I didn't encourage him. I couldn't help your lover admiring me, could I?” protested Valerie scornfully.
”My awakening was a cruel one,” Gabrielle continued, speaking slowly and distinctly. ”I taxed him with faithlessness, but he denied it so earnestly that at length I became convinced of his firm affection for me alone. A few days later a calamity befell us. I had stored in my rooms a quant.i.ty of stolen property previous to disposing of it. One evening, while I was out, Glanville called, and, entering with his key, sat down to await me. Hardly a quarter of an hour elapsed before two detectives and half a dozen policemen entered the place, armed with a warrant.
They searched and quickly found several valuable articles, descriptions of which had been circulated. Then they arrested and charged him with perpetrating the robberies.”
”Were you arrested also?” asked Hugh, greatly interested in the narrative.