THE CAB.
That evening Beatrice"s performance had been greeted with louder applause than usual, and, what was more gratifying to one like her, the effective pa.s.sages had been listened to with a stillness which spoke more loudly than the loudest applause of the deep interest of the audience.
Langhetti had almost always driven home with her, but on this occasion he had excused himself on account of some business in the theatre which required his attention.
On going out Beatrice could not find the cabman whom she had employed.
After looking around for him a long time she found that he had gone.
She was surprised and vexed. At the same time she could not account for this, but thought that perhaps he had been drinking and had forgotten all about her. On making this discovery she was on the point of going back and telling Langhetti, but a cabman followed her persistently, promising to take her wherever she wished, and she thought that it would be foolish to trouble Langhetti about so small a matter; so that at length she decided to employ the persevering cabman, thinking that he could take her to her lodgings as well as any body else.
The cabman started off at a rapid pace, and went on through street after street, while Beatrice sat thinking of the evening"s performance.
At last it seemed to her that she had been a much longer time than usual, and she began to fear that the cabman had lost his way. She looked out. They were going along the upper part of Oxford Street, a great distance from where she lived. She instantly tried to draw down the window so as to attract the cabman"s attention, but could not move it. She tried the other, but all were fast and would not stir. She rapped at the gla.s.s to make him hear, but he took no notice. Then she tried to open the door, but could not do so from the inside.
She sat down and thought. What could be the meaning of this? They were now going at a much faster rate than is common in the streets of London, but where she was going she could not conjecture.
She was not afraid. Her chief feeling was one of indignation. Either the cabman was drunk--or what? Could he have been hired to carry her off to her enemies? Was she betrayed?
This thought flashed like lightning through her mind.
She was not one who would sink down into inaction at the sudden onset of terror. Her chief feeling now was one of indignation at the audacity of such an attempt. Obeying the first impulse that seized her, she took the solid roll of music which she carried with her and dashed it against the front window so violently that she broke it in pieces. Then she caught the driver by the sleeve and ordered him to stop.
"All right," said the driver, and, turning a corner, he whipped up his horses, and they galloped on faster than ever.
"If you don"t stop I"ll call for help!" cried Beatrice.
The driver"s only answer was a fresh application of the whip.
The street up which they turned was narrow, and as it had only dwelling-houses it was not so brightly lighted as Oxford Street. There were but few foot-pa.s.sengers on the sidewalk. As it was now about midnight, most of the lights were out, and the gas-lamps were the chief means of illumination.
Yet there was a chance that the police might save her. With this hope she dashed her music scroll against the windows on each side of the cab and shivered them to atoms, calling at the top of her voice for help.
The swift rush of the cab and the sound of a woman"s voice shouting for aid aroused the police. They started forward. But the horses were rushing so swiftly that no one dared to touch them. The driver seemed to them to have lost control. They thought that the horses were running away, and that those within the cab were frightened.
Away they went through street after street, and Beatrice never ceased to call. The excitement which was created by the runaway horses did not abate, and at length when the driver stopped a policeman hurried up.
The house before which the cab stopped was a plain two-story one, in a quiet-looking street. A light shone from the front-parlor window. As the cab drew up the door opened and a man came out.
Beatrice saw the policeman.
"Help!" she cried; "I implore help. This wretch is carrying me away."
"What"s this?" growled the policeman.
At this the man that had come out of the house hurried forward.
"Have you found her?" exclaimed a well-known voice. "Oh, my child! How could you leave your father"s roof!"
It was John Potts.
Beatrice was silent for a moment in utter amazement. Yet she made a violent effort against her despair.
"You have no control over me," said she, bitterly. "I am of age. And you," said she to the policeman, "I demand your help. I put myself under your protection, and order you either to take that man in charge or to let me go to my home."
"Oh, my daughter!" cried Potts. "Will you still be relentless?"
"Help me!" cried Beatrice, and she opened the cab-door.
"The policeman can do nothing," said Potts. "You are not of age. He will not dare to take you from me."
"I implore you," cried Beatrice, "save me from this man. Take me to the police-station--any where rather than leave me here!"
"You can not," said Potts to the bewildered policeman. "Listen. She is my daughter and under age. She ran away with a strolling Italian vagabond, with whom she is leading an improper life. I have got her back."
"It"s false!" cried Beatrice, vehemently. "I fled from this man"s house because I feared his violence."
"That is an idle story," said Potts.
"Save me!" cried Beatrice.
"I don"t know what to do--I suppose I"ve got to take you to the station, at any rate," said the policeman, hesitatingly.
"Well," said Potts to Beatrice, "if you do go to the station-house you"ll have to be handed back to me. You are under age."
"It"s false!" cried Beatrice. "I am twenty."
"No, you are not more than seventeen."
"Langhetti can prove that I am twenty."
"How? I have doc.u.ments, and a father"s word will be believed before a paramour"s."
This taunt stung Beatrice to the soul.
"As to your charge about my cruelty I can prove to the world that you lived in splendor in Brandon Hall. Every one of the servants can testify to this. Your morose disposition made you keep by yourself. You always treated your father with indifference, and finally ran away with a man who unfortunately had won your affections in Hong Kong."
"You well know the reason why I left your roof," replied Beatrice, with calm and severe dignity. "Your foul aspersions upon my character are unworthy of notice."
"And what shall I say about your aspersions on my character?" cried Potts, in a loud, rude voice, hoping by a sort of vulgar self-a.s.sertion to brow-beat Beatrice. "Do you remember the names you called me and your threats against me? When all this is brought out in the police court, they will see what kind of a daughter you have been."
"You will be the last one who will dare to let it be brought into a police court."
"And why? Those absurd charges of yours are worthless. Have you any proof?" he continued, with a sneer, "or has your paramour any?"
"Take me away," said Beatrice to the policeman.
"Wait!" exclaimed Potts; "you are going, and I will go to reclaim you.
The law will give you back to me; for I will prove that you are under age, and I have never treated you with any thing except kindness. Now the law can do nothing since you are mine. But as you are so young and inexperienced I"ll tell you what will happen.
"The newspapers," he continued, after a pause, "will be full of your story. They will print what I shall prove to be true--that you had an intractable disposition--that you had formed a guilty attachment for a drum-major at Hong Kong--that you ran away with him, lived for a while at Holby, and then went with your paramour to London. If you had only married him you would have been out of my power; but you don"t pretend to be married. You don"t call yourself Langhetti, but have taken another name, which the sharp newspaper reporters will hint was given you by some other one of your numerous favorites. They will declare that you love every man but your own father; and you--you who played the G.o.ddess on the stage and sang about Truth and Religion will be known all over England and all over Europe too as the vilest of the vile."