Kate"s heart gave a sudden bound as, on entering the reception-hall, she saw again the woman whose coming was to be a warning of danger. She was, as usual, dressed in black and heavily veiled. Kate was conscious of no fear; rather a joy that the suspense was over, that there was at last something definite and tangible to face.
"Senorita, may I see you in private?" The voice was sweet, but somewhat m.u.f.fled by the veil, while the words had just enough of the Spanish accent to render them liquid and musical.
Kate bowed in a.s.sent, and silently led the way to a small reception-room of her own. She motioned her caller to a seat, but the latter remained standing and turned swiftly, facing Kate, still veiled.
"Senorita, you do not know me?" The words had the rising inflection of a question.
"No," Kate replied, slowly; "I do not know you; but I know that this is not your first call at The Pines."
"I called some ten days since to see you."
"You called," Kate spoke deliberately, "more than a year since to see Mr. Walcott."
The woman started and drew back slightly. "How could you know?" she exclaimed; "surely he did not tell you!"
"I saw you."
There was a moment"s silence; when next she spoke her voice was lower and more musical.
"Senorita, I come as your friend; do you believe me?"
"I want to believe you," Kate answered, frankly, "but I can tell better whether I do or not when I know more of you and of your errands here."
For answer the woman, with a sudden swift movement, threw back her veil, revealing a face of unusual beauty,--oval in contour, of a rich olive tint, with waving ma.s.ses of jet-black hair, framing a low, broad forehead. But her eyes were what drew Kate"s attention: large, l.u.s.trous, but dark and unfathomable as night, yet with a look in them of dumb, agonizing appeal. The two women formed a striking contrast as they stood face to face; they seemed to impersonate Hope and Despair.
"Senorita," she said, in a low, pa.s.sionless voice, "I am Senor Walcott"s wife."
Kate"s very soul seemed to recoil at the words, but she did not start or shrink.
"I have the certificate of our marriage here," she continued, producing a paper, "signed by the holy father who united us."
Kate waved it back. "I do not wish to see it, nor do I doubt your word,"
she replied, gently; "I understand now why you first came to this house.
What brings you here to-night?"
"I come to warn you that your father is in danger."
"My father!" Kate exclaimed, quickly, her whole manner changed. "Where?
How?"
"Senor Walcott has an engagement with him at eight o"clock at their offices, and he means to do him harm, I know not just what; but he is angry with him, I know not why, and he is a dangerous man when he is angry."
Kate touched a bell to summon a servant. "I will go to him at once; but," she added, looking keenly into the woman"s face, "how do you know of this? How did you learn it? Did he tell you?"
The other shook her head with a significant gesture. "He tells me nothing; he tells no one but Tony, and Tony tells me nothing; but I saw them talking together to-night, and he was very angry. I overheard some words. I heard him say he would see your father to-night and make him sorry he had not done as he agreed, and he showed Tony a little stiletto which he carries with him, and then he laughed."
Kate shuddered slightly. "Who is Tony?" she asked.
The woman smiled with another gesture. "Tony is--Tony; that is all I know. He and my husband know each other."
A servant appeared; Kate ordered her own carriage brought to the door at once. Then, turning on a sudden impulse to the stranger, she said,--
"Will you come with me? Or are you afraid of him--afraid to have him know you warned me?"
The woman laughed bitterly. "I feared him once," she said; "but I fear him no longer; he fears me now. Yes, I will go with you."
"Then wait here; I will be ready in a moment."
At twenty minutes of eight Kate and the stranger pa.s.sed down the hall together--the woman veiled, Kate attired in a trim walking suit. The latter stopped to look in at the sitting-room door.
"Aunt Marcia, Mr. Britton said he would be out but a few minutes. When he comes in please tell him I want to see him at papa"s office; my carriage will be waiting for him here."
Her aunt looked her surprise, but she knew Kate to be enough like her father that it was useless to ask an explanation where she herself made none.
Once seated in the carriage and driving rapidly down the street Kate laid her hand on the arm of her strange companion.
"Senora," she said, "you say you are my friend; were you my friend the first time you came to the house? If not then, why are you now?"
"No, I was not your friend;" for the first time there was a ring of pa.s.sion in her voice; "I hated you, for I thought he loved you--that you had stolen his heart and made him forget me. I travelled many miles. I vowed to kill you both before you should marry him. Then I found he could not marry you while I was his wife; he had told me our marriage was void here because performed in another country. I found he had told me wrong, and I told him unless he came with me I would go to the church and tell them there I was his wife."
"And he went away with you?" Kate questioned.
"Yes, and he gave me money, and then he told me----" The woman hesitated.
"Go on," said Kate.
"He told me that he did not love you; that he only wanted to marry you that he might get money from your father, and then he would leave you.
So when I found he wanted to make you suffer as he had me I began to pity you. I came back to Ophir to see what you were like. He does not know that I am here. I found he was angry because you would not marry him. Then I was glad. I saw you many times that you did not know. Your face was kind and good, as though you would pity me if you knew all, and I loved you. I heard something about a lover you had a few years ago who died, and I knew your heart must have been sad for him, and I vowed he should never harm you or any one you loved."
They had reached the offices; the carriage stopped, but not before Kate"s hand had sought and found the stranger"s in silent token that she understood.
_Chapter x.x.xV_
A FIEND AT BAY
Kate, on leaving her carriage, directed the driver to go back to The Pines to await Mr. Britton"s return and bring him immediately to the office. She then unlocked the door to the room which had been Darrell"s office and which opened directly upon the street, and she and her companion entered and seated themselves in the darkness. The room next adjoining was Walcott"s private office, and beyond that was Mr.
Underwood"s private office, the two latter rooms being separated by a small entrance. They had waited but a few moments when Mr. Underwood"s carriage stopped before this entrance, and an instant later Kate heard her father"s voice directing the coachman to call for him in about an hour. As the key turned in the lock she heard Walcott"s voice also. The two men entered and went at once into Mr. Underwood"s private office.
Mr. Underwood immediately proceeded to business in his usual abrupt fashion:
"Mr. Walcott, there is no use dallying or beating about the bush; I want this partnership terminated at once. There"s no use in an honest man and a thief trying to do business together, and this interview to-night is to find the shortest way of dissolving the partnership."
"I think that can be very easily and quickly done, Mr. Underwood,"
Walcott replied.