Paul went back into the room where he had left his wife.
The two men in the dark room opposite listened intently.
"Be quiet," whispered Hugh Ritson. "I knew he must think better of it.
He is going. Keep still. Five minutes more, and you start away with the lady for Kentish Town. He shall walk to the station with me. The instant we leave the house, you go to the lady and say, "I have changed my mind, Greta. We must go together. Come." Not a word more; hurry her into the fly, and away."
"Easier said nor done, say I."
CHAPTER VIII.
Alone with Greta, Paul kissed her fervently, and his head fell on her shoulder. The strong man was as feeble as a child now. He was prostrate.
"The black lie is like poison in my veins!" he said.
"What is it?" said Greta, and she tried to soothe him.
"A lie more foul than man ever uttered before--more cruel, more monstrous."
"What is it, dearest?" said Greta again, with her piteous, imploring face close to his.
"I know it"s a lie. My heart tells me it is a lie. The very stones cry out that it is a lie!"
"Tell me what it is," said Greta, and she embraced him tenderly.
But even while he was struggling with the poison of one horrible word, it was mastering him. He put his wife from him with a strong shudder, as if her proximity stung him.
Her bosom heaved. She looked appealingly into his face.
"If it is false," she said, "whatever it is, why need it trouble you?"
"That is true, my darling," he said, gulping down his fear and taking Greta in his arms, and trying to laugh lightly. "Why, indeed? Why need it trouble me?"
"Can you not tell me?" she said, with an upward look of entreaty. She was thinking of what Hugh Ritson had said of an impediment to their marriage.
"Why should I tell you what is false?"
"Then let us dismiss the thought of it," she said, soothingly.
"Why, yes, of course, let us dismiss the thought of it, darling," and he laughed a loud, hollow laugh. His forehead was damp. She wiped away the cold sweat. His temples burned. She put her cool hand on them. He was the very wreck of his former self--the ruin of a man. "Would that I could!" he muttered to himself.
"Then tell me," she said. "It is my right to know it. I am your wife now--"
He drew himself away. She clung yet closer. "Paul, there can be no secrets between you and me--nothing can be kept back."
"Heavenly Father!" he cried, uplifting a face distorted with agony.
"If you can not dismiss it, let it not stand between us," said Greta.
Could it be true that there had been an impediment?
"My darling, it would do no good to tell you. When I took you to be my wife, I vowed to protect and cherish you. Shall I keep my vow if I burden you with a black lie that will drive the sunshine out of your life? Look at me--look at me!"
Greta"s breast heaved heavily, but she smiled with a piteous sweetness as she laid her head on his breast, and said, "No, while I have you, no lie can do that!"
Paul made no answer. An awful burden of speech was on his tongue. In the silence they heard the sound of weeping. It was as if some poor woman were sobbing her heart out in the room above.
"Dearest, when two hearts are made one in marriage they are made one indeed," said Greta, in a soft voice. "Henceforth the thought of the one is the thought of both; the happiness of one is the happiness of both, the sorrow of one is the sorrow of both. Nothing comes between. Joy is twofold when both share it, and only grief is less for being borne by two. Death itself, cruel, relentless death itself, even death knits that union closer. And in sunshine and storm, in this world and in the next, the bond is ever the same. The tie of the purest friendship is weak compared with this tie, and even the bond of blood is less strong!"
"Oh, G.o.d of heaven, this is too much!" said Paul.
"Paul, if this union of thought and deed, of joy and grief, begins with marriage and does not end even with death, shall we now, here, at the threshold of our marriage, do it wrong?"
A great sob choked Paul"s utterance. "I can not tell you," he cried; "I have sworn an oath."
"An oath! Then, surely, this present trouble was not that which Hugh Ritson has threatened?"
"Greta, if our union means anything, it means trust. Trust me, my darling. I am helpless. My tongue is sealed. I dare not speak. No, not even to you. Scarcely to G.o.d Himself!"
There was silence for a moment.
"That is enough," she said, very tenderly, and now the tears coursed down her own cheeks. "I will not ask again. I do not wish to know. You shall forget that I asked you. Come, dearest, kiss me. Think no more of this. Come, now." And she drew his head down to hers.
Paul threw himself into a chair. His prostration was abject.
"Come, dearest," said Greta, soothingly, "be a man."
"There is worse to come," he said.
"What matter," said Greta, and smiled. "I shall not fear if I have you beside me."
"I can bear it no more," said Paul. "The thing is past cure."
"No, dearest, it is not. Only death is that."
"Greta, you said death would bind us closer together, but this thing draws us apart."
"No, dearest, it does not. That it can not do."
"Could nothing part us?" said Paul, lifting his face.
"Nothing. Though the world divided us, yet we should be together."
Again the loud sobs came from overhead.
Paul rose to his feet, a shattered man no more. His abject mien fell from him like a garment. "Did I not say it was a lie?" he muttered, fiercely. "Greta, I am ashamed," he said; "your courage disgraces me.
See what a pitiful coward you have taken for your husband. You have witnessed a strange weakness. But it has been for the last time. Thank G.o.d, I am now the man of yesterday!"