This was the last day on which Tom Courtland was ent.i.tled to put in a defence to his wife"s suit. He had made no sign. Harriet was the fiercer against him. His ruin was not enough; she desired herself to see it made visible and embodied in a trial whose every word and proceeding should aggravate his shame and satisfy her resentment. She had nursed the thought of that, making pictures of him and of the woman undergoing the ordeal and being branded with guilt while all the world looked on. Now Tom refused her this delight; there would be no trial, because he would not fight.
It was a fine moment for the letter to arrive. The mine was all laid, only the match was wanting. Harriet was dressing for dinner when it came; her maid Garrett was doing her hair before the gla.s.s. As she read, Garret saw a sudden change come over her face--one quick flush, then a tight setting of her lips. Garrett knew the signs by experience.
Something in that letter had upset her ladyship. Warily and gently Garrett handled her ladyship"s hair; if she blundered in her task now, woe to her, for her ladyship"s temper was upset.
"Dearest papa, do not make us stay here. Because we love you and want to come and live with you"----"Please do not make us stay here."
That was the truth of it, that was what they really thought, these little hypocrites who came and kissed her so obediently every morning and evening, those meek little creatures with their "Yes, mamma dear,"
"No, dear mamma," accepting all her commands so docilely, returning her kisses so affectionately. All that was a show, a sham, a device for deluding her, for keeping her quiet, while they laid their vile plots--none the less vile for being so idiotic--and sent their love to "dearest papa"--to that man, to Flora Bolton"s lover--while they gave Flora Bolton the means of mocking and of triumphing over her.
She sat very still for awhile, but Garrett was not rea.s.sured. Garrett knew that the worst fits of all took a little time in coming. They worked themselves up gradually.
"Is that to your ladyship"s satisfaction?" asked Garrett, as she put the last touches to her work.
"No, it isn"t," snarled Harriet. "No, don"t touch me again. Let it alone, you clumsy fool."
Garrett went and took up the evening dress. Harriet Courtland rose and stood for a moment with Sophy"s letter to Tom in her hand.
"I"m going to the schoolroom for a few minutes. Wait here," she said to Garrett, and walked out of the room slowly, taking the letter with her.
Another slip of paper she tore into shreds as she went; that was Mrs.
Bolton"s comment on the situation, as "spicy" and as vulgar as she and Miss Pattie Henderson could make it. Yet Harriet was not now thinking of Mrs. Bolton.
Garrett stood where she was for a moment, then stole cautiously after her mistress. She knew the signs, and a morbid curiosity possessed her.
She would have a sensational story to retail downstairs, if she could manage to see or hear what happened--for beyond a doubt something had put her ladyship in one of her tantrums. Pity for the children struggled with Garrett"s seductive antic.i.p.ations of a "scene."
Suzette Bligh was reading a story aloud in the schoolroom when Harriet marched in. She held the letter in her hand. The children could make, and had leisure to make, no conjecture how the catastrophe had come about, but in a flash all the little girls knew that it was upon them.
The letter and their mother"s face told them. They sat looking at her with terrified eyes.
"So you don"t want to stay here?" she said sneeringly. "You want to go to your dearest papa? And you dare to write that! Who wrote it? Was it you, Lucy?"
"I--I didn"t write it, mamma dear," said Lucy.
Suzette rose in distress.
"Dear Lady Harriet----" she began.
"Hold your tongue. So you wrote it, Sophy. Yes, I see now it"s your writing. Oh, but you were all in it, I suppose. So you love your papa?"
Garrett had stolen to within two or three yards of the door now, and it stood half open. She could hear all and see something of what happened.
"So you love your papa?"
Sophy had most courage. Desperate courage came to her now.
"Yes, we do."
"And you want to go to him?"
"Yes, mamma."
"And you don"t love me? You don"t want to stay with me?"
Sophy glanced for a moment at her sisters.
"Papa"s so kind to us," she said.
"And I"m not kind?" asked Harriet with a sneering laugh. "When you"re older, my dears, thank me for having been kind--really kind. It"s really kind to teach you not to play these tricks--these mean and disgraceful little tricks."
All the children rose slowly and shrank back. They tried to get behind Suzette Bligh. Harriet laughed again when she saw the manuvre.
"You needn"t stay, Suzette," she said. "I know how to manage my own children."
Suzette was very white, and was trembling all over; it seemed as if her legs would hardly support her.
"What are you going to do?"
"It"s no business of yours. They know very well. Leave me alone with them."
It was a terrible moment for timid Suzette. But love of the children had laid hold of her heart, and gave her strength.
"I can"t go, Lady Harriet," she said in a low voice. "I can"t leave you alone with them--not now."
"Not now?" cried Harriet fiercely.
"You"re--you"re not calm now. You"re not fit----"
"You"d stand between me and my own children?"
"Dear Lady Harriet, I--I can"t go away now." For she remembered so vividly all that the children"s reminiscences, their nods and nudges, had hinted to her; she realised all the things which they had not told her; and she would not leave them now.
Her resistance set the crown to Harriet Courtland"s rage. After an instant"s pause she gave a half-articulate cry of anger, and rushed forward. Suzette tried to gather the children behind her, and to thrust the angry woman away. But Harriet caught Sophy by the arm and lifted her midway in the air. Garrett came right up to the door and peeped through.
"So you love papa and not me?"
Sophy turned her pale, terrified little face up to her mother"s. The worst had happened, and the truth came out.
"No, we--we hate you. You"re cruel to us; we hate you, and we love papa."
Harriet"s grip tightened on the child"s arm. Sophy"s very audacity kept her still for a moment. But at the next she lifted her higher in the air. Suzette sprang forward with a cry, and Garrett dashed into the room, shrieking, "Don"t, don"t, my lady!"
They were too late. The child was flung violently down; her head struck the iron fender; she rolled over and lay quite still, bleeding from the forehead. Suzette and Garrett caught Harriet Courtland by the arms. A low, frightened weeping came from the other two little girls.
Harriet stood for a moment in the grasp of the two women who sought to restrain her and would have thrown themselves upon her had she tried to move. But restraint was no more necessary. Sophy had ransomed her sisters, and lay so quiet, bleeding from the head. In a loud voice Harriet Courtland cried, "Have I killed her? Oh, my G.o.d!" and herself broke into a tempest of hysterical sobbing. She fell back into Garrett"s arms, shuddering, weeping, now utterly collapsed. Suzette went and knelt by Sophy.
"No, she"s not dead, but it"s no fault of yours," she said.
Harriet wrenched free from Garrett and flung herself on her knees by the table, stretching her arms across it and beating her forehead on the wood. The two children looked at her, wondering and appalled.