I did not know then that she had gone with her maid to Brighton--intending to return that evening. It was a sudden whim, she told me subsequently, and she had not even informed the other servants of her intention.
The pavements in the City were slimy with the dampness of the fog, and as an empty four-wheeler pa.s.sed through Cornhill I hailed it, a most unusual choice on my part. The cabman, I noticed, was fairly elevated, but as these fellows often drive better when drunk than sober, I simply told him to be careful, and jumped in. I reached Sloane Square all right, and detained the cab for my intended journey home in time for dinner.
At the door of Mrs. Hillmer"s flat I met the cook and housemaid, both going out to do some shopping, probably, in the spare hour before it was time to prepare dinner.
They knew me well, of course, and admitted me to the drawing-room, telling me that Mrs. Hillmer was out, but would surely return very soon.
I had not been in the room a minute before the sharp double knock of a telegraph messenger brought the coachman, whom the girls left in charge of the house, to the door, and I startled the man by appearing in the hall, as he did not know of my presence.
"What is it, Simmonds?" I said, as I correctly guessed the message to be from Mrs. Hillmer.
"The missus is in Brighton, sir," he answered. "She wants the carriage to meet her at Victoria at seven o"clock. It"s six now, and I ought to go around to the stables at once, but both these blessed girls have gone out. I"m in a fair fix."
"No fix at all," I said. "I want to see Mrs. Hillmer, so I will wait here until she arrives--or, at all events, till the servants come back."
The man scratched his head, but he could think of no better plan, so he, too, went off, and I was left alone, for the first time in my life, in Mrs. Hillmer"s abode. It is the small events that govern our lives, Claude, not those that stand out prominently. The shopping expedition of a couple of servant girls, intent on securing a new cap or a few yards of calico, brought about my wife"s death, caused misery to many people, and ends, I sincerely hope, in my own speedy leap into oblivion.
I picked up a novel, "Tess of the D"Urbervilles," hit upon the terrible episode that culminates on Salisbury Plain, and was soon deeply interested, when another knock--this time an imperative summons long drawn out--caused me to hasten to the door.
I opened it, and in the dim light of the staircase landing, for a second did not recognize the lady who stood outside. Heaven help me, I was soon enlightened. My wife"s voice was bitterly contemptuous as she said:
"You don"t keep a footman, it appears, in your new establishment, Charles."
Had I been suddenly struck blind, or paralyzed, I could not have been more dumfounded than by Alice"s unexpected appearance. A thorough scoundrel might, perhaps, have thought of the best thing to say. I blurted out the worst.
"What are you doing _here_?" I stammered when my tongue recovered its use.
"No doubt you resent my appearance," she cried, in a high, shrill tone I had never before heard from her, "but I shall not trouble you further. I merely came to confirm with my own eyes what my ears refused to entertain. Now, I am satisfied."
She half turned with the intention of reaching the street, but, rendered desperate by the absurdity of my position, I gripped her arm and pulled her forcibly into the entrance-hall, closing and bolting the door behind us.
"You have seen too much not to see more," I cried. "I will not allow you to ruin both our lives by a mere suspicion."
She was in a furious temper, but her sense of propriety--for she did not know that the servants" quarters were empty--restrained her until we had both entered the drawing-room.
Then she burst upon me with a torrent of words.
CHAPTER x.x.x
SIR CHARLES d.y.k.e ENDS HIS NARRATIVE
"A mere suspicion, indeed!" she said, and there was that in her voice which warned me that I had better try unarmed to control a tigress than a wife who deemed herself wronged; "these are pretty _suspicions_ that surround you. A house tenanted by another woman where you are evidently master! A mistress who left the ranks of the ballet, or something of the sort, living in luxury on means supplied by you! A married woman who casts off her husband with her poverty, to take up a paramour and riches! Do you think you can blind my eyes further? I have the most convincing proofs of your infamy. Do not imagine that on any specious pretext I will condone your conduct. I despise you from the depths of my heart. Henceforth I will strive to forget your very existence."
"Alice," I said, and if she had not been blinded by pa.s.sion she must have been affected by my earnestness, "will you listen to me?"
"Why should I? What respect have you shown to me that I should now seem even to accept your excuses?"
"I appeal to you not to do anything in anger. You have good reason to be enraged with me. I only ask you to suspend your final judgment. Hear what I have to say, take time for deliberation, for further inquiry, and then condemn me to any punishment you think fit."
She did not answer me. Her eyes were roving round the room and taking stock of every indication of poor Mrs. Hillmer"s artistic apt.i.tude. The place was eminently home-like, much more so than our elegant mansion in Portman Square, and my wife noted the fact with momentarily increasing bitterness. Yet I essayed my desperate task with failing nerve and terrible consciousness of a bad cause.
"Notwithstanding all that you have seen and heard," I said, "I am not guilty of the crime you accuse me of. Mrs. Hillmer is an old friend of mine, whom I have helped from a state of misery to one of comfort and comparative happiness. She is as pure-minded in thought, as spotless in character, as you are yourself. You are doing her a grievous injustice by doubting the relations between her and me. If you only knew her--"
My wife laughed scornfully.
"Pray spare yourself, Charles. I have never seen you so interested before, but you lie badly, nevertheless."
"I do not lie. Before heaven I am telling you the truth."
"You are even willing to perjure yourself, _Colonel Montgomery_?"
My poor armor was ill-fitted for this stroke. I suppose I must have flinched before it, for she went on:
"You see I am well posted. My detectives have done their work well. Oh, Heaven, that I should ever have learned to love a vile wretch like you.
I thought you respected me, at least. I tried hard to bend my own wishes to sympathy with yours, and I dreamt even of ultimate success. I knew you didn"t care much for me, but the devotion of a slave has at times been rewarded by the affection of her master. Fortunately, I am a slave by choice. It only required experience to break my bonds, and you have supplied the experience."
For the first time in my life did it dawn on me that my self-contained and haughty wife harbored other thoughts than a sentiment of respect for an indulgent and easily controlled husband. It was a shock to me, a deeper humiliation than she dreamed of. How could I expiate the past, wipe out this record of error and folly, but not of ill-doing, and live happily with her so long as Providence was pleased to spare us? While these things ran through my brain she suddenly turned on me.
"You fear exposure in the law courts! You dread your name figuring in a society scandal! How little you know me. You naturally compare me by your own contemptible standard. I left your house to-night determined never to return to it should I find you here, as in all probability, I was told, would be the case. I will go to my sister until I have determined upon my future life. You, at least, will never, by my desire, see or hear from me again. Thus far, I presume, I will fall in with your views."
She would have pa.s.sed me, but I held fast to the inside of the door. If once she got away from me I might never be able to set affairs even tolerably right. Better, I deemed, have one trying scene in the hope that she would calm down in the face of facts, than allow her to carry the quarrel to her relatives and strengthen her att.i.tude by their natural support.
"Alice," I said, "you shall not go."
"How can you dare to detain me?" she shrieked, and the glint in her eyes showed how thoroughly her pa.s.sions were aroused.
"You can separate from me if you will. I shall not venture to hinder you. But I swear you shall not do this rash act without knowledge. I tell you you must remain here. When you leave this house you do so in my company."
"And why am I to be kept a prisoner?"
"Mrs. Hillmer will return in less than an hour. You have sought this meeting yourself. Very well. You shall have it. When your charges have been thoroughly thrashed out in the presence of Mrs. Hillmer and myself I will then accompany you where you will, and leave you under the protection of your sister, or any one else you choose, should you still persist in leaving me."
Of course my action was unwise to the last degree. But remember, Claude, that during these last awful five minutes I had seen a side of my wife"s nature hidden from me six long years. And I was a man suddenly plunged into a raging sea, drifting helplessly I knew not whither. All that consumed me was a wild desire for such scant justice as I deserved. I had erred, but my faults were not those my wife alleged against me.
If she was angry before she was now absolutely uncontrollable.
"What?" she screamed. "Remain to meet your--your mistress? Never, while I have life!"
She flung herself upon me so suddenly that she tore me away from the door. She was a strong and athletic woman, and I suppose she expected some resistance, for she used such force as to drag me forward into the middle of the room, overturning a chair in the effort. I was so utterly taken by surprise that I yielded to her violence more completely than she expected.
She staggered, let go her hold, and fell heavily backwards, tripping over the fallen chair. I made a desperate attempt to save her, but only caught the end of a fur necklet, and it tore like a spider"s web.
Her body crashed against a Venetian fender, and her head came with awful force against a sort of support for the fire-irons that stood up a foot from the ground.
Then she rolled over, her eyes and face undergoing a ghastly change, and instantly became, as I thought, unconscious.