The Countess" seriousness suddenly vanished, and she laughed lightly as she answered:
"I really believe that after all, dear old boy, you are in love with Dora yourself. I know you used to be rather fond of her in the old days, and am inclined to think that in reality you are Jack"s rival."
"No, not at all," I said. "Bethune is my friend; so is Dora. I merely desire to see them happy, and if I can save your sister from a life of wretchedness with Wansford, I shall feel that at least I have acted as her friend."
"Rubbish!" the Countess exclaimed impatiently. "Marriage nowadays is a mere commercial transaction; very few people marry for love. An affectionate husband is apt to be jealous, and jealousy is decidedly bourgeois. Besides, Jack hasn"t the means to keep Dora as she should be kept. It would mean a red-brick villa in a remote suburb with a couple of servants, I suppose. Why, she would leave him in six months."
"No," I said. "Surely love and sufficient to provide comfort is better than loathing and thirty thousand a year! Scarcely a man in England or America is better known than Jack Beaune."
"I was only aggravating you," she said with a tantalising smile a moment later. "I quite admit the force of your argument, but to argue is useless. Mother has set her mind upon Lord Wansford, and, although I should like to see Dora marry Jack, I"m afraid there"s but little chance of the match--unless, of course, they throw over the maternal authority altogether and--"
The words froze upon her lips. With her eyes fixed beyond me, she started suddenly and turned deathly pale, as if she had seen an apparition. Alarmed at her sudden change of manner, and fearing that she was about to faint, I turned in my chair, and was just in time to come face to face with a tall military-looking man who was sauntering by with a fair, insipid-looking girl in pink upon his arm.
For an instant our eyes met. It was a startling encounter. We glared at each other for one brief second, both open-mouthed in amazement.
Then, smiling cynically at Mabel, he hurried away, being lost next second in the laughing, chattering crowd.
I had recognised the face instantly. It was the mysterious individual who had met me at Richmond and conducted me to Sybil! My first impulse was to spring up and dash after him, but, noticing the Countess was on the point of fainting, I rushed across to Dora and borrowed her smelling-salts. These revived my companion, who fortunately had not created a scene by losing consciousness, but the unexpected encounter had evidently completely unnerved her, for she was trembling violently, and in her eyes was a wild, haggard look, such as I had never before witnessed.
"That man recognised you," I said a few moments later. "Who is he?"
"What man?" she gasped with well-feigned surprise. "I was not aware that any man had noticed me."
"The fellow who pa.s.sed with a fair girl in pink."
"I saw no girl in pink," she replied. "The heat of this crowded room upset me--it caused my faintness." Then, noticing my expression of doubt, she added, "You don"t appear to believe me."
"I watched him smile at you," I answered calmly.
"He smiled! Yes, he smiled at me!" she said hoa.r.s.ely, as if to herself.
"He is the victor and I the vanquished. He laughs because he wins, but--" She stopped short without finishing the sentence, as if suddenly recollecting my presence, and annoyed that she should have involuntarily uttered these words.
"Tell me, Mabel, who he is," I inquired. "I have met him before, and to me he is a mystery."
"To me also he is a mystery," she said, with knit brows. "If he is your friend, take my advice and end your friendship speedily."
"But is he not your friend?" I asked.
"I knew him--once," she answered in a low voice; adding quickly: "If I remain here I shall faint. Do take me to my carriage at once."
She rose unsteadily, bade good-night to her sister and Jack, then taking my arm accompanied me downstairs to the great hall.
It was an entirely new phase of the mystery that the Countess of Fyneshade should be acquainted with my strange, sinister-faced conductor. That she feared him was evident, for while there had been an unmistakable look of taunting triumph in his face, she had flinched beneath his gaze and nearly fainted. Her declaration that she had recognised no man at that moment, her strenuous efforts to remain calm, and her subsequent admission that he was her enemy, all pointed to the fact that she was well acquainted with him; and although, as we stood while her carriage was being found, I asked her fully a dozen times to disclose his name or something about him, she steadily refused. It was a secret that she seemed determined to preserve at all hazards.
When she grasped my hand in farewell she whispered, "Regard what I have told you as a secret between friends. I have been foolish, but I will try to make amends. Adieu!" Then she stepped into her carriage, and I went up into the drawing-room in search of the mysterious dark-visaged guest, whose appearance had produced such a sudden, almost electric effect upon her. Through several rooms, the great conservatory, and the corridors I searched, but could neither discover my strange companion on that eventful night, nor the pale-faced girl in pink. For fully half an hour I wandered about, my eager eyes on the alert, but apparently they had both disappeared on being recognised.
Did this strange individual fear to meet me face to face?
Though my mind was filled with memories of that fateful night when I had been joined in matrimony to my divinity, I nevertheless chatted with several women I knew, and at last found myself again with Dora, "Jack, lad," being carried off by our energetic old host to be introduced to the buxom daughter of some Lancashire worthy.
Dora pulled a wry face and smiled, but we talked gayly together until the soldier-novelist returned. Soon afterwards, however, old Lady Stretton came up to us and carried off her daughter, while Jack shared my cab as far as his chambers, where we parted.
CHAPTER SEVEN.
ON LIFE"S QUICKSANDS.
At home I cast myself in my chair and threw myself into an ocean of memories. I did not switch on the light, but mused on, gazing into the darkness, now and then lit up by the ruddy flames as they shot forth from the grate and cast great quivering shadows, like dancing spectres, on the walls and ceiling. Ever and anon a momentary flash would hover about the antique silver ewer or glint along the old oak sideboard, which, like a vague dark ma.s.s, filled up an angle in the room, or play about the set of old china or the pair of antique vases on the mantelshelf. This prevailing gloom, penetrated by fitful gleams, was soothing after the glare and glitter of what had irreverently been termed the cotton-palace, and as the fickle light fell in spectral relief about the gloom-hidden furniture, I mused on in coldest pessimism.
As I sat thinking what I had lived through, scenes in many climes and pictures of various cities rose before my mind, but one face alone stood out boldly before me, the sweet countenance of the woman I had loved.
I recollected the strange events of that fateful night of grief and terror, and reflected upon the recognition between the Countess and the unknown man whom she had admitted was her enemy. How suddenly and completely he had disappeared! Yet it was apparent that he held some strange influence over Fyneshade"s wife, for she feared to tell me his name or disclose her secret. Even though he had brushed past me and his cold, glittering eyes had gazed into my face, he had again eluded me.
The expression of triumph upon his dark countenance was still plainly before me, a look full of of portent and evil.
I met Dora several times, once riding in the Park, once at the theatre with Lady Stretton, and once in Park Lane with her lover. From her I learnt that the Countess had been very unwell ever since that evening at Thackwell"s, and had not been out. Her doctor had recommended complete rest for a week, and suggested that she should afterwards go to the Riviera for a change.
Was this extreme nervousness from which she was suffering the result of the unexpected encounter with the man she held in dread? I felt inclined to call at Eaton Square, but doubted whether, if she were ill, she would receive me.
One bright dry morning, about ten days later, I was strolling aimlessly along Regent Street with Jack Bethune, who, knowing that Dora would be out shopping, had come out to look for her. About half-way along the thoroughfare some unknown influence prompted me to halt before a photographer"s window and inspect a series of new pictures of celebrities, when suddenly my eye fell upon an object which, placed in the most prominent position in the centre of the window, caused me to utter a cry of surprise.
Enclosed in a heavy frame of oxidised silver was a beautifully-finished cabinet portrait of Sybil!
The frame, a double one, also contained the portrait of a young pleasant-faced man of about twenty-five, who wore his moustache carefully curled, and about whose features was a rather foreign expression. The picture of my dead love riveted my attention, and as I stood gazing at it with my face glued to the gla.s.s, Jack chaffed me, saying:
"What"s the matter, old chap? Who"s the beauty?" His flippant words annoyed me.
"A friend," I snapped. "Wait for me. I"m going in to buy it."
"On the stage, I suppose?" he hazarded. "Awfully good-looking, whoever she is."
"No, she"s not on the stage," I answered brusquely, leaving him and entering the shop.
At my request the frame was brought out of the window, and in response to my inquiries regarding it the manager referred to his books, an operation which occupied considerable time. Meanwhile Jack, who had found Dora, had rushed in, announced his intention of calling on me in the evening, and left.
At last the photographer"s manager came to me, ledger in hand, saying: "Both photographs were taken at the same time. I remember quite distinctly that the young lady accompanied the gentleman, and it was at her expense and special request that they were framed together and exhibited in our window. The prints were taken hurriedly because the gentleman was going abroad and wanted to take one with him."
"What name did they give?"
"Henniker."
"And the address?" I demanded breathlessly.
The photographer consulted his book closely, and replied: "The prints appear to have been sent to Miss Henniker, 79 Gloucester Square, Hyde Park."
Upon my shirt cuff I scribbled the address, and having paid for both the portraits, was about to leave, congratulating myself that at last I had probably obtained a clue to the house to which I had been conducted, when it suddenly occurred to me to ask the date when the photographs were taken.
"They were taken on January 12th last," he replied. "Last year, you mean," I said.
"No, the present year. This ledger was only commenced in January."
"What?" I cried amazed. "Were these portraits actually taken only six weeks ago? Impossible! The lady has been dead fully three months."