To this day, I do not know how I escaped. I must have thrown up my arm instinctively to shield my face. See, there are no scars."
"I see," murmured Ralph; "and what of him?"
The dark eyes gleamed indescribably. "What of him?" she asked, with a.s.sumed lightness. "Why, he was not hurt at all. I saved him from disfigurement, if not from death. I bear the scars; he goes free."
"I know," said Ralph, "but why were you not married? All his life and love would be little enough to give in return for that."
Miss Evelina fixed her deep eyes upon Anthony Dexter"s son. In her voice there was no hint of faltering.
"I never saw him again," she said, "until twenty-five years afterward, and then I was veiled. He went away."
"Went away!" repeated Ralph, incredulously. "Miss Evelina, what do you mean?"
"What I said," she replied. "He went away. He came once to the hospital. As it happened, there was another girl there, named Evelyn Grey, burned by acid, and infinitely worse than I. The two names became confused. He was told that I would be disfigured for life--that every feature was destroyed except my sight. That was enough for him.
He asked no more questions, but simply went away."
"Coward!" cried Ralph, his face white. "Cur!"
Miss Evelina"s eyes gleamed with subtle triumph. "What would you?" she asked unemotionally. "He told me that day of the accident that it was my soul he loved, and not my body, but at the test, he failed. Men usually fail women, do they not, in anything that puts their love to the test? He went away. In a year, he was married, and he has a son."
"A son!" repeated Ralph. "What a heritage of disgrace for a son! Does the boy know?"
There was a significant silence. "I do not think his father has told him," said Evelina, with forced calmness.
"If he had," muttered Ralph, his hands clenched and his teeth set, "his son must have struck him dead where he stood. To accept that from a woman, and then to go away!"
"What would you?" asked Evelina again. A curious, tigerish impulse was taking definite shape in her. "Would you have him marry her?"
"Marry her? A thousand times, yes, if she would stoop so low! What man is worthy of a woman who saves his life at the risk of her own?"
"Disfigured? asked Evelina, in an odd voice.
"Yes," cried Ralph, "with the scars she bore for him!"
There was a tense, painful interval. Miss Evelina was grappling with a hideous temptation. One word from her, and she was revenged upon Anthony Dexter for all the years of suffering. One word from her, and sure payment would be made in the most subtle, terrible way. She guessed that he could not bear the condemnation of this idolised son.
The old pain gnawed at her heart. Anthony Dexter had come back, she had had her little hour of triumph, and still she had not been freed.
The Piper had told her that only forgiveness could loosen her chains.
And how could Anthony Dexter be forgiven, when even his son said that he was a coward and a cur?
"I--" Miss Evelina"s lips moved, then became still.
"And so," said Ralph, "you have gone veiled ever since, for the sake of that beast?"
"No, it was for my own sake. Do you wonder that I have done it? When I first realised what had happened, in an awful night that turned my brown hair white, I knew that Love and I were strangers forevermore.
"When I left the hospital, I was obliged, for a time, to wear it. The new skin was tender and bright red; it broke very easily."
"I know," nodded Ralph.
"There were oils to be kept upon it, too, and so I wore the veil. I became accustomed to the shelter of it. I could walk the streets and see, dimly, without being seen. In those days, I thought that, perhaps, I might meet--him."
"I don"t wonder you shrank from it," returned Ralph. His voice was almost inaudible.
"It became harder still to put it by. My heart was broken, and it shielded me as a long, black veil shields a widow. It protected me from curious questions. Never but once or twice in all the twenty-five years have I been asked about it, and then, I simply did not answer.
People, after all, are very kind."
"Were you never ill?"
"Never, though every night of my life I have prayed for death. At first, I clung to it without reason, except what I have told you, then, later on, I began to see a further protection. Veiled as I was, no man would ever love me again. I should never be tempted to trust, only to be betrayed. Not that I ever could trust, you understand, but still, sometimes," concluded Miss Evelina, piteously, "I think the heart of a woman is strangely hungry for love."
"I understand," said Ralph, "and, believe me, I do not blame you.
Perhaps it was the best thing you could do. Let me ask you of the man.
You said, I think, that he still lives?"
"Yes." Miss Evelina"s voice was very low.
"He is well and happy--prosperous?"
"Yes."
"Do you know where he lives?"
"Yes."
"Has he ever suffered at all from his cowardice, his shirking?"
"How should I know?"
"Then, Miss Evelina," said Ralph, his voice thick with pa.s.sion and his hands tightly clenched, "will you let me go to him? For the honour of men, I should like to punish this one brute. I think I could present an argument that even he might understand!"
The temptation became insistent. The sheathed dagger was in Evelina"s hands; she had only to draw forth the glittering steel. A vengeance more subtle than she had ever dared to dream of was hers to command.
"Tell me his name," breathed Ralph. "Only tell me his name!"
Miss Evelina threw back her beautiful head proudly. "No," she said, firmly, "I will not. Go," she cried, pointing uncertainly to the door.
"For the love of G.o.d, go!"
XXI
The Poppies Claim Their Own
It was dusk, and Anthony Dexter sat in the library. Through the day, he had wearied himself to the point of exhaustion, but his phantom pursuer had not tired. The veiled figure of Evelina had kept pace easily with his quick, nervous stride. At the point on the river road, where he had met her for the first time, she had, indeed, seemed to go ahead of him and wait for him there.
Night brought no relief. By a singular fatality, he could see her in darkness as plainly as in sunshine, and even when his eyes were closed, she hovered persistently before him. Throughout his drugged sleep she moved continuously; he never dreamed save of her.