"Nothing of what?" demanded Irene.
"Of that weak, silly nonsense. We have graver matters in hand for consideration now."
"Ah?" She threw up her eyebrows, then contracted them again with an angry severity.
"Irene," said Mr. Emerson, his voice falling into a calm but severe tone, "all this is but weakness and folly. I have heard things touching your good name--"
"And believe them," broke in Irene, with angry impatience.
"I have said nothing as to belief or disbelief. The fact is grave enough."
"And you have ill.u.s.trated your faith in the slander--beautifully, becomingly, generously!"
"Irene!"
"Generously, as a man who knew his wife. Ah, well!" This last e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n was made almost lightly, but it involved great bitterness of spirit.
"Do not speak any longer after this fashion," said Hartley, with considerable irritation of manner; "it doesn"t suit my present temper. I want something in a very different spirit. The matter is of too serious import. So pray lay aside your trifling. I came to you as I had a right to come, and made inquiries touching your a.s.sociations when not in my company. Your answers are not satisfactory, but tend rather to con--"
"Sir!" Irene interrupted him in a stern, deep voice, which came so suddenly that the word remained unspoken. Then, raising her finger in a warning manner, she said with menace,
"Beware!"
For some moments they stood looking at each other, more like two animals at bay than husband and wife.
"Touching my a.s.sociations when not in your company?" said Irene at length, repeating his language slowly.
"Yes," answered the husband.
"Touching, my a.s.sociations? Well, Mr. Emerson--so far, I say well."
She was collected in manner and her voice steady. "But what touching your a.s.sociations when not in _my_ company?"
The very novelty of this interrogation caused Emerson to start and change color.
"Ha!" The blood leaped to the forehead of Irene, and her eyes, dilating suddenly, almost glared upon the face of her husband.
"_Well, sir?_" Irene drew her slender form to its utmost height.
There was an impatient, demanding tone in her voice. "Speak!" she added, without change of manner. "What touching _your_ a.s.sociations when not in _my_ company? As a wife, I have some interest in this matter. Away from home often until the brief hours, have I no right to put the question--where and with whom? It would seem so if we are equal. But if I am the slave and dependant--the creature of your will and pleasure--why, that alters the case!"
"Have you done?"
Emerson was recovering from his surprise, but not gaining clear sight or prudent self-possession.
"You have not answered," said Irene, looking coldly, but with glittering eyes, into his face. "Come! If there is to be a mutual relation of acts and a.s.sociations outside of this our home, let us begin. Sit down, Hartley, and compose yourself. You are the man, and claim precedence. I yield the prerogative. So let me have your confession. After you have ended I will give as faithful a narrative as if on my death-bed. What more can you ask? There now, lead the way!"
This coolness, which but thinly veiled a contemptuous air, irritated Hartley almost beyond the bounds of decent self-control.
"Bravely carried off! Well acted!" he retorted with a sneer.
"You do not accept the proposal," said Irene, growing a little sterner of aspect. "Very well. I scarcely hoped that you would meet me on this even ground. Why should I have hoped it? Were the antecedents encouraging? No! But I am sorry. Ah, well! Husbands are free to go and come at their own sweet will--to a.s.sociate with anybody and everybody. But wives--oh dear!"
She tossed her head in a wild, scornful way, as if on the verge of being swept from her feet by some whirlwind of pa.s.sion.
"And so," said her husband, after a long silence, "you do not choose to answer my questions as to Major Willard?"
That was unwisely pressed. In her heart of hearts Irene loathed this man. His name was an offence to her. Never, since the night he had forced himself into her carriage, had she even looked into his face.
If he appeared in the room where she happened to be, she did not permit her eyes to rest upon his detested countenance. If he drew near to her, she did not seem to notice his presence. If he spoke to her, as he had ventured several times to do, she paid no regard to him whatever. So far as any response or manifestation of feeling on her part was concerned, it was as if his voice had not reached her ears. The very thought of this man was a foul thing in her mind. No wonder that the repeated reference by her husband was felt as a stinging insult.
"If you dare to mention that name again in connection with mine,"
she said, turning almost fiercely upon him, "I will--"
She caught the words and held them back in the silence of her wildly reeling thoughts.
"Say on!"
Emerson was cool, but not sane. It was madness to press his excited young wife now. Had he lost sense and discrimination? Could he not see, in her strong, womanly indignation, the signs of innocence?
Fool! fool! to thrust sharply at her now!
"My father!" came in a sudden gush of strong feeling from the lips of Irene, as the thought of him whose name was thus e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed came into her mind. She struck her hands together, and stood like one in wild bewilderment. "My father!" she added, almost mournfully; "oh, that I had never left you!"
"It would have been better for you and better for me." No, he was not sane, else would no such words have fallen from his lips.
Irene, with a slight start and a slight change in the expression of her countenance, looked up at her husband:
"You think so?" Emerson was a little surprised at the way in which Irene put this interrogation. He looked for a different reply.
"I have said it," was his cold answer.
"Well." She said no more, but looked down and sat thinking for the s.p.a.ce of more than a minute.
"I will go back to Ivy Cliff." She looked up, with something strange in the expression of her face. It was a blank, unfeeling, almost unmeaning expression.
"Well." It was Emerson"s only response.
"Well; and that is all?" Her tones were so chilling that they came over the spirit of her husband like the low waves of an icy wind.
"No, that is not all." What evil spirit was blinding his perceptions? What evil influence pressing him on to the brink of ruin?
"Say on." How strangely cold and calm she remained! "Say on," she repeated. Was there none to warn him of danger?
"If you go a third time to your father--" He paused.
"Well?" There was not a quiver in her low, clear, icy tone.
"You must do it with your eyes open, and in full view of the consequences."
"What are the consequences?"