"I am quite sure you would."
"Dear me, you seem to have made up your mind about me very definitely--it hasn"t taken you long either."
"I judge by your face. As I read it, it is a page of devil-print!"
Barton rubbed his hands. He seemed more tickled than anything else.
Certainly he was in no wise offended.
"I believe I have found a real pearl in the gutter," he chuckled. Then he turned to her,
"Tell me now, why did you save me from your Jabez?"
"I did not know you then--perhaps if I had, your body would now be lying in the river."
"And my soul--what about that?"
"You should know--if you are a man and not an animal."
"You are mistaken, young lady--you think me a libertine, no doubt----"
"Oh, nothing of the kind--you are too hard even for that. If I had any doubt about it, I should not be here with you now."
"Well, well, let us hope that after a little longer acquaintance your opinion of me will improve. For the present I wish to befriend you all I can--that at least should be a point in my favour."
"But why--why, I ask, should you wish to befriend me? What is your object?"
"That you shall know when the times comes. Let us resume your very interesting story."
"You have heard it. I told you I met Jabez, and that he loves me. I suspected when he went out to-night that he was desperate--that he might steal, murder even, if by so doing he could obtain food for me--that is why I followed him, to save him, and, as it happened, I did save him, and you too."
"And the boy who acted a jackal to your lion--who is he?"
"Shorty--oh, he is a wicked little creature, who ought by rights to be in a reformatory."
"Indeed. Now please attend to me, Miss Crane. I am no philanthropist, nor am I a fool, and you yourself seem willing to acquit me of any amatory intentions. You will easily believe then that it is from no feeling of sentiment that I have brought you here to-night. One strong dose of that kind of thing has lasted me through life. I suffered badly at the hands of your s.e.x once, but once only. I am never likely to suffer again. Nevertheless, I confess that if it had not been for your beauty, I should have left you there on the bridge."
"I am not beautiful," contradicted Miriam.
"No?--well, you must allow me to be judge of that. I repeat, my intentions are perfectly prosaic. I am no Don Juan of gutter-girls. I see in you exactly such a person as I need for the carrying through of a scheme I have in hand."
Miriam rose.
"I refuse to have anything to do with it," she said emphatically.
"Had you not better learn what it is first?"
"No. I am sure it is vile."
She made towards the door.
But his eyes caught hers, and she had to yield. What power had this man over her? It was horrible. She could make no effort of body or will against him. And he stood there grinning, as she thought the devil himself might grin at the capture of a spotless soul. She sank back weakly in a chair.
"You seem exhausted," said he. "I"ll ring for Mrs. Perks. You must go to bed at once. We"ll finish our little talk to-morrow. For the moment I will ask you only one more question. Who is Jabez?"
"I refuse to tell you."
"Tell me, who is Jabez, I say," he repeated, keeping his eyes upon her steadily.
And she told him. But when Mrs. Perks came in, she was lying in a dead faint.
PART I.
A WOMAN"S BURDEN.
CHAPTER I.
MRS. DACRE DARROW.
Mrs. Dacre Darrow was a much misunderstood woman--at least she said so frequently. Her husband, dead now some five years, had never been able to comprehend her sentimental nature; her uncle, Richard Barton, hard old cynic that he was, did not appreciate her tender heart; and the world at large could not, or would not, understand her. And so Mrs.
Darrow posed as a martyr in her day and generation. The late Mr. Dacre Darrow had been a barrister and a failure. He had left her with no income and one child to rear. In this dilemma she had sought the Manor House at Lesser Thorpe, and had proposed to keep house for her Uncle Barton in return for her maintenance. Uncle Barton considered her proposition, and ended by installing both mother and son with three hundred a year in a small and quaint cottage on the outskirts of the park. This was too much altogether for Mrs. Darrow. Could a woman bear such brutal treatment silently? She thought not; nor, in fact, did she.
On the contrary she abused Uncle Barton daily and hourly. When not thus occupied, she was as a rule busy in endeavouring to get money out of him, though this latter was, as she expressed it, heartbreaking work. It was rarely possible to extract from him anything beyond her stated income. Small wonder, then, that Mrs. Darrow regarded Uncle Barton as a brute and herself as a martyr.
"Just think, dear," she wailed to her friend, Hilda Marsh, "he has five thousand a year and that large empty house, yet he lets me live in this pokey cottage. Three hundred a year! It is hardly enough to buy one"s clothes."
Hilda, occupying her favourite position before a mirror, made no reply.
As the daughter of a poor doctor, and one of a large family, she considered Mrs. Darrow very well off. She could not sympathise with her in her constant grumbling. But she was wise in her generation, was Hilda, and did not argue with the widow, firstly because Mrs. Darrow never argued fairly, but dogmatised and invariably lost her temper; and secondly, because Hilda had more to lose than to gain from quarrelling with her. She was a pretty, vain, selfish girl, and calculating to boot.
Mrs. Darrow"s social influence in the parish was useful to her, so she trimmed her sails accordingly. At the present moment she was in the little drawing-room for afternoon tea. She patted a rebellious little curl into shape as in some sort of excuse for not replying to Mrs.
Darrow"s latest complaint against Uncle Barton. The widow continued to protest against the way in which she was being treated; and Hilda continued, so far as was possible, to avoid contention, to admire her own pretty face in the gla.s.s, until tea was brought in. Then, and then only, did Mrs. Darrow, ever fond of her comforts and blest with the best of good appet.i.tes, brisk up. But true to her indolent disposition, she asked Hilda to make the tea.
"You do it so well, dear," she said coaxingly; "I taught you, didn"t I?"
"Yes, Julia, of course you taught me, that is why I can make it to your satisfaction," said Hilda, sitting down to the bamboo table.
She called Mrs. Darrow Julia at the widow"s express request, for--in Mrs. Darrow"s opinion--such familiarity tended to diminish the difference in their ages. How she arrived at this conclusion was known only to Mrs. Darrow, who never condescended to explain her reasons for either speech or action. It was so, because it was so, and there was an end of it. And invariably the adoption of so uncompromising an att.i.tude was successful. By its means she managed to emerge triumphant from her fiercest altercations. By alternately shifting her ground and refusing to give any reasons, she always reduced her opponent to a moral pulp. In effect, her tactics were undeniable.
Hilda"s attractions were of that order which suited her present occupation. She looked well at a tea-table. She wore white, touched here and there with the palest of blue, and her hands moved ever so deftly among the egg-sh.e.l.l china cups and saucers, with their sprawling dragons of green and red. She was essentially the Dresden china type herself. A dainty figure, a transparent complexion, dark blue eyes, and hair the colour of ripe corn: such were the outward and visible attributes of Hilda Marsh. She looked like an angel, and was frequently taken for one--more especially by men. Her beauty was that of a peach, and, like a peach, she possessed a very hard kernel. Not even Mr. Barton had a more obdurate heart. However, she succeeded in hiding this from all save her own family, and they, being anxious for Hilda to make a good match, were so kind as to remain silent on the subject. Moreover, Hilda--her angelic qualities being reserved wholly for the public, and not at all discernible by the domestic hearth--was, in the eyes of her family, a personage to be got rid of. That seemed clear, since she was a great grief at home. Hers was a case in which the face is most certainly not a correct index to the mind.
"Ah!" sighed Mrs. Darrow, soothed somewhat now with a strong cup of tea and a particularly indigestible m.u.f.fin, "if I wasn"t the best-tempered woman in the world how I should complain of my hard lot!"
"What is the matter now, Julia?"