"Oh, yes; but it is not the prejudice _there_ that worries me. It is the prejudice _here_. It is the barrier my color brings between me and the only being whose regard I crave!"
The girl"s cheeks grew rosier than ever, but she affected not to understand, and once more reverted to the errand that had brought her thither.
"You promised me the doc.u.ments with which my poor father has been tortured," she said, reproachfully; "let us not talk of other things until you have given them to me."
The negro drew from a pocket of his coat a fair-sized package tied with a ribbon.
"They are all there," he said. "Every sc.r.a.p, every particle of proof, everything that could bring the breath of suspicion upon your father"s honesty. All there, in that little envelope."
She reached for it, but instead of giving it to her, Hannibal caught her hand, and before she dreamed what he intended, pressed a kiss upon it.
The next moment the girl, with a look of outraged womanhood, was rubbing the spot with her handkerchief, as if he had covered it with poison.
"You brute!" she exclaimed. "You--you--"
She could not find the word she wanted; nothing in the language she spoke seemed detestable enough to fill the measure of her wrong.
"You see!" he answered, bitterly. "Because I am black I cannot touch the hand of a woman that is white. You have claimed to be without the hatred of the African so ingrained among Americans; you have talked about the Almighty making of one blood all the nations of the earth; and yet you are like the rest! A viper"s bite could not have aroused deeper disgust in you than my lips. And all because the sun shone more vertically on my ancestors than it did on yours!"
Daisy was divided between her horror of the act he had committed and her anxiety to do something to free her father from his danger. She suppressed the hateful epithets that rose to her tongue and once more entreated the negro to give her the packet he held in his possession.
"You can do nothing with it but injure a man who has been kind to you,"
she pleaded. "And if you use the information you have, and afterwards repent, it will be too late to remedy your error. Give it to me, and return to France with the proud consciousness that you are worthy the position you wish to occupy."
Hannibal shook his head with decision.
"That would be very well if I ever could be considered a man by the one for whose opinion I care most. But while I am to her a creature something below the ape, a mere crawling viper whose touch is pollution, I will act like the thing she thinks me. To-day I possess the power to make a high-born gentleman dance whenever I pull the string. You ask me to give up this power, and in return you offer--nothing."
"One would suppose," remarked Daisy, struggling with herself in this dilemma, "that the ability to inflict pain was one a true nature would delight to surrender. My father has done no harm to you."
The negro bent toward her and spoke with vehemence.
"But his daughter has! She has made my life wretched. Whatever position I may attain will be worthless to me, without the love I had hoped might be mine."
"_Love!_" cried the girl, recoiling. "_Love!_"
"Love and marriage," he replied. "In France we could live without the hateful prejudices that prevail in America. I have natural ability enough, you have told me so a thousand times, and I could make myself worthy of you. As my wife--"
Daisy rose and interrupted him fiercely.
"Cease!" she exclaimed. "There is a limit to what I can endure. If you mean to make any promise of that kind a prelude to my father"s freedom from persecution, we may as well end this conversation now as later. He would rather rot in prison than have his child sacrifice herself in such a manner!"
She started toward the door, and he did not interrupt her pa.s.sage, as she half expected he would do; but he spoke again.
"All this because I am black," he said.
"Because you are a cruel, heartless wretch!" she answered, her eyes flashing. "Because you have abused the goodwill of a generous family; because you have tortured a kind old man and a loving daughter. If you were as white as any person on earth, I would not marry you. Worse than all outward semblance is a dark and vile mind. Do what you like! I defy you!"
The door opened and closed behind her. Hannibal heard her retreating footsteps grow fainter on the stairs, and then there was silence.
"I might have known it," he said, aloud. "I did know it, but I kept hoping against hope. She would wed a Newfoundland dog sooner than me.
Nothing is left but to make her repent her action. I will bring that father of hers to the dust, if only to revenge the long list of injuries his race has inflicted on mine!"
CHAPTER XIX.
"PLAY OUT YOUR FARCE."
When Daisy left the house where she had the interview with Hannibal, she walked for some minutes aimlessly along the street. Her mind was in a state of great excitement. She realized that she had defied a man who could inflict the deepest injury on the father she dearly loved. How she could have done otherwise was not at all clear, but the terror which hung over her was none the less keen. The proposal of the negro--to marry her--filled her with a nameless dread that made her teeth chatter, though it was a warm day. Rather would she have cast her body into the tides that wash the sh.o.r.es of Manhattan Island. Even to save her father from prison--if it came to that--she could not make this sacrifice. She now felt for Hannibal a horrible detestation, a feeling akin to that she might entertain for a rattlesnake. Whatever good she had seen in him in other days had vanished under the revelations of his true character.
What to do next was the absorbing question. A great danger hung over her father. A dim idea of seeking the mayor--or the chief of police--and imploring their mercy, entered her brain. Then she thought of Roseleaf, whose aid she might have secured, if he had not proved himself a double-dealer, capable of making love to herself and Millicent at the same time. And then came the resolve to seek out Mr. Weil, the one person in all this trouble that seemed clear of wrong. Her sister had told her that he loved her. Well, if necessary she would marry him. At least he was a man of honor, and white. Yes, she would go to him and throw herself upon his mercy.
Daisy knew that Archie made his headquarters at the Hoffman House, and summoning a cab she asked to be taken to that hotel. Ensconced in the ladies" parlor she awaited the coming of the man she wanted and yet dreaded so much to see. Luckily he was in the house, and in a few moments responded in person to her card.
"Why, Miss Daisy," he stammered. "What is the matter? Nothing wrong, I trust. You look quite pale. Is it anything--about--your father?"
The girl was pale indeed. Now that Mr. Weil was so close, the danger that he might not be willing to help her rose like a mountain in her path. She did not know exactly how grave a matter forgery was--whether it was something that the injured party would be able or likely to forgive. If she should tell him everything, and he should refuse to be placated--what could she do then?
There was no one else in the parlor, but seeing that she wanted as much seclusion as possible, Mr. Weil motioned the girl to follow him to a remote corner, where the curtains of a recessed window partially concealed them. He felt that she had come on a momentous errand. His suspicions concerning Mr. Fern were apparently about to be verified, and if so, he did not mean that other ears should hear the tale.
"Mr. Weil," began Daisy, tremblingly, "I don"t know what to say to you.
I am in great distress. Would you--will you--help me?"
He responded gently that he would do anything in his power. He bade her calm herself, and promised to be the most attentive of listeners.
Rea.s.sured by his kind words and manner, the girl began again; but she could not tell her story connectedly, and after making several attempts to do so, she broke out in a new direction.
"I want so very much of you, dear Mr. Weil. And I am nervous and afraid to ask what I would like. I will give you anything you please in return.
Yes, yes, anything."
He smiled down upon her face, on which the tears were making stains in spite of her.
"You are promising a great deal, little girl," he said.
"I know it; I realize it fully," she responded quickly. "But I mean all I say. I did not think I could, once, but I am quite resolved now.
Millie told me you were in love with me, and feared I would refuse you.
But I won"t. No, no, I will marry you--indeed I will--if you will only save my darling father!"
The concluding words were spoken in the midst of a torrent of sobs that shook the girlish frame and affected powerfully the strong man that witnessed them.
"Daisy, dear child, don"t speak like this," he answered. "If I can do anything for your father I will most gladly, and the price of your sweet little heart shall not be demanded in payment, either. Leave that matter entirely out of the question, and tell me at once what you desire."
She heard him with infinite delight, and wiping her eyes she began, in broken tones, to relate the history of Hannibal"s revelations. As she proceeded his brow darkened, and when she had finished he muttered something that sounded very much like a curse.
"And what do you wish of me?" he asked, when she had ended.
"To keep him from having my father put in prison; to give us time to escape, if there is no other way; and to forgive the harm to yourself. I know," she added earnestly, "it is a great deal to ask, but I have no one else to go to. He has paid every cent, and you will lose nothing.