Part 17 (1/2)
”Surely you will not ruin all your future, and mine, for his sake,” he blurted forth at last.
”Your future!” she gasped, drawing away from him and regarding him with sudden surprise as the truth dawned upon her. ”I see it all now! With me as Princess d'Auzac, the wife of a wealthy man, you would never want.”
His teeth were set. He held her small, soft hand so tightly that it hurt her. He tried to speak, but his lips refused to utter sound. He was persuading his daughter to wreck her young life in order to secure his own safety. The thought was revolting, yet he was forced to act thus: to stand calmly by and witness her self-sacrifice, or bear the consequences of exposure.
He bowed his head in agony of mind. A lump rose in his throat, so that his words were again stifled.
”My marriage would, I know, relieve you of a serious responsibility,”
she went on, calmly, without any trace of reproach. ”I am not unmindful of the fact that if I married Zertho I should gain wealth and position; yet I do not love him. I--I hate him.”
”He has been kind to us, and I believe he is extremely fond of you,” he said, wincing beneath the lie that fear alone forced to his lips. ”Is it not but natural that I should seek for you an improved social position and such wealth as will place you beyond all anxiety in future?
Heaven knows that the past has been full enough of care and poverty.”
”Ah! I know that, poor dad,” Liane answered caressingly, in a tone of sympathy, her arms again about his neck. ”In the days gone by, because you played fairly, and was never an unscrupulous sharper like Zertho, luck forsook you. They laughed at you because you cared so much for me: because you held Nelly and I aloof from the dregs of society into which you had fallen. You were courageous always, and never when the days were darkest did you relinquish hope, or did your love for me wane.
Yet,” and she paused, ”yet if you still cared for me as once you did, I cannot but feel that you would hesitate ere you urged me to a hateful alliance with a man I can never love.”
”I am but endeavouring to secure your future happiness, Liane,” he answered, his voice sounding deep and hollow.
A silence fell, deep and impressive, broken only by the low, monotonous roar of the waves beating upon the sh.o.r.e outside, and the musical jingle of the bells on a pair of carriage-horses that were pa.s.sing. Liane started as she recognised the sound. They were Zertho's. Erle Brooker would have rather died by his own hand ere he had persuaded her to marry this man; yet for the hundredth time he proved to himself that by suicide he would merely leave her unprotected, while she would most probably afterwards learn from Zertho the terrible secret which he was determined should, at all hazards, remain locked within his own troubled heart.
”To persuade me to marry the Prince is but to urge me to a doom worse than death,” she exclaimed pa.s.sionately at last. ”No, dad, I am sure you would never wish me to do this when I am so contented to live as I am with you. If we are penniless--well, I shall never complain. It will not be the first time that I have wanted a meal, and gone early to bed because I've been hungry. I promise I'll not complain, only do not endeavour to force me to marry Zertho. Let me remain with you.”
”Alas! you cannot, my child!” he answered in a hard, dry, agonised tone, his hand trembling nervously.
”Why?”
”You must forget young Stratfield, and become Princess d'Auzac,” he said firmly, intense anxiety betrayed upon his haggard countenance.
”Never!”
”But you must,” he cried brokenly, with emphasis. ”It is imperative-- for my sake, Liane--you must marry him, for my sake.”
CHAPTER TEN.
MASK AND DOMINO.
The world-famous Battle of Flowers had been fought in brilliant, cloudless weather along the Promenade des Anglais, and Liane riding alone in a victoria covered with violets and stocks set off with rose bows and ribbons, had been awarded a prize-banner, while Zertho, his coach adorned by Marechal Niel roses and white lilac, entertained a party, and was a conspicuous figure in the picturesque procession. The crowd was enormous, the number of decorated carriages greater than ever before known, and as the contending parties, made up of people in carriages decorated with flowers and coloured ribbons, pa.s.sed slowly along on either side of the broad drive, they kept up a brisk fire of small bouquets. As they went by, the occupants of the tribunes poured broadsides into the carriages, and the battle raged everywhere hot and furious. Liane, sitting alone embowered in violets, flushed with the excitement of throwing handfuls of flowers at all and sundry, found herself more than once in the very thick of the fray and was pelted until her hair escaped from its pins and she felt herself horribly untidy.
Brooker had excused himself from forming one of Zertho's party and had gone for a long walk into the country; but that night he reluctantly accompanied them to the great Veglione at the Opera, where all were in grotesque costume, both Zertho and himself wearing hideous masks with enormous red noses, while Liane was attired in the beautiful costume of an odalisque, which, at Zertho's desire, had been specially made for her in Paris. Folly reigned supreme in that whirlwind of light and colour, and although dancing was almost impossible in consequence of the crowded state of the beautifully decorated theatre, yet the fun was always fast and furious, and the first saffron streak had already showed over the grey misty sea before they entered their carriage to drive homeward.
Variety had now become Liane's very life, excitement the source and sustenance of her existence. Within the few days which had elapsed since the evening when her father had urged her to marry Zertho a complete change had come upon her. No longer was she dull, dreamy, and apathetic, but eager to embrace any opportunity whereby her thoughts might be turned from the one subject which preyed upon her mind. She entered thoroughly into the Carnival fun and frolic, and Zertho, believing that her gaiety arose from contentment, felt flattered, congratulating himself that after all she was not so averse to his companions.h.i.+p as he had once believed. Knowing nothing of love or sentiment he had no suspicion that her bright amused smile masked a weary bitterness, or that, after dancing half the night radiant and happy, and charming the hearts of men with her light coquetry, she would return to the silence of her own room before the wave-beaten sh.o.r.e, and there lie weeping for hours, murmuring the name of the man she loved.
So skilfully did she conceal the poignant sorrow wearing out her heart that none but her father detected it, and he, sighing within himself, made no remark.
Through the warm sunny reign of King Carnival Zertho and his handsome companion were prominent figures everywhere, although the Captain, who had grown as dull and dispirited as his daughter had become gay and reckless, seldom accompanied them. Since that night when beside the sea Zertho had told her of his love, he had not again mentioned the subject, although they were often alone together. Sometimes he would accuse her of furious flirtation, but always with a good-humoured amused air, without any sign of jealousy in his manner. Truth to tell, he felt satisfaction that she should be the most universally admired girl in Nice. He remembered that her success was due to him, for had he not paid for the costly costumes and milliner's marvels which suited her beauty so well?
The bright cloudless days pa.s.sed, full of frivolity. The King of Folly's reign was short, therefore the excitement while it lasted was kept up at fever-heat, the grand climax of the many festivities being reached by the Corso Carnavalesque and Battle of Confetti which took place on Sunday, ten days after the gigantic effigy of the Monarch of Mirth had been enthroned on the Place Ma.s.sena in his Moorish pavilion of rose and gold.
All the paper confetti conflicts, pretty and vigorous as they had been, were but preliminary scrimmages to the genuine battle fought with pellets of grey chalk, veritable bullets. So hard are these that it is unsafe to venture out without a wire mask, therefore Zertho and Liane, in a.s.suming their costumes that afternoon, did not neglect the precaution. Zertho wore the white dress of a pierrot; with large velvet b.u.t.tons of pale rose; while Liane, in a domino of pale rose satin trimmed with red--the colours of that season--wore a clown's hat of rose. Both carried, strapped across their shoulders, capacious bags containing confetti, and a small tin scoop with which to throw their missiles. The mask of fine wire, like those used in fencing schools, having been a.s.sumed, they both entered the victoria and were driven down to the Jardin Public through which the Carnival procession, headed by the King himself, pipe in mouth, astride the turkey-c.o.c.k, was at that moment wending its way.
The gun from the old Chateau had a few minutes before boomed forth the signal for the opening of hostilities, and the thousands of revellers on foot and in carriages, all wearing masks and dominoes, were carrying on a fierce and relentless combat. Alighting, Liane and her companion plunged into the rollicking riot, pelting the onlookers who were unmasked or who wore no dominoes, covering dark coats and dresses with great white dust-spots, and compelling the unfortunate ones to cry for quarter. On this, the maddest day of Folly's reign, Nice, from two o'clock until five, presented the appearance of a town run mad with fun.