As she moaned these words she was aware of a soft step at her side and a low voice murmuring:
"Marah Rocke, yes! the same beautiful Marah that, as a girl of fifteen--twenty years ago--turned my head, led me by her fatal charms into the very jaws of death--the same lovely Marah with her beauty only ripened by time and exalted by sorrow!"
With one surprised, indignant look, but without a word of reply, Mrs.
Rocke turned and walked composedly toward the door with the intention of quitting the room.
Colonel Le Noir saw and forestalled her purpose by springing forward, turning the key and standing before the door.
"Forgive, me, Marah, but I must have a word with you before we part," he said, in those soft, sweet, persuasive tones he knew so well how to a.s.sume.
Marah remembered that she was an honorable matron and an honored mother; that, as such, fears and tremors and self-distrust in the presence of a villain would not well become her; so calling up all the gentle dignity latent in her nature, she resumed her seat and, signing to the visitor to follow her example, she said composedly:
"Speak on, Colonel Le Noir--remembering, if you please, to whom you speak."
"I do remember, Marah; remember but too well."
"They call me Mrs. Rocke who converse with me, sir."
"Marah, why this resentment? Is it possible that you can still be angry?
Have I remained true to my attachment all these years and sought you throughout the world to find this reception at last?"
"Colonel Le Noir, if this is all you had to say, it was scarcely worth while to have detained me," said Mrs. Rocke calmly.
"But it is not all, my Marah! Yes, I call you mine by virtue of the strongest attachment man ever felt for woman! Marah Rocke, you are the only woman who ever inspired me with a feeling worthy to be called a pa.s.sion----"
"Colonel Le Noir, how dare you blaspheme this house of mourning by such sinful words? You forget where you stand and to whom you speak."
"I forget nothing, Marah Rocke; nor do I violate this sanctuary of sorrow"--here he sank his voice below his usual low tones--"when I speak of the pa.s.sion that maddened my youth and withered my manhood--a pa.s.sion whose intensity was its excuse for all extravagances and whose enduring constancy is its final, full justification!"
Before he had finished this sentence Marah Rocke had calmly arisen and pulled the bell rope.
"What mean you by that, Marah?" he inquired.
Before she replied a servant, in answer to the bell, came to the door and tried the latch, and, finding it locked, rapped.
With a blush that mounted to his forehead and with a half-suppressed imprecation, Colonel Le Noir went and unlocked the door and admitted the man.
"John," said Mrs. Rocke, quietly, "show Colonel Le Noir to the apartment prepared for him and wait his orders." And with a slight nod to the guest she went calmly from the room.
Colonel Le Noir, unmindful of the presence of the servant, stood gazing in angry mortification after her. The flush on his brow had given way to the fearful pallor of rage or hate as he muttered inaudibly:
"Insolent beggar! contradiction always confirms my half-formed resolutions. Years ago I swore to possess that woman, and I will do it, if it be only to keep my oath and humble her insolence. She is very handsome still; she shall be my slave!"
Then, perceiving the presence of John, he said:
"Lead the way to my room, sirrah, and then go and order my fellow to bring up my portmanteau."
John devoutly pulled his forelocks as he bowed low and then went on, followed by Colonel Le Noir.
Marah Rocke meanwhile had gained the privacy of her own chamber, where all her firmness deserted her.
Throwing herself into a chair, she clasped her hands and sat with blanched face and staring eyes, like a marble statue of despair.
"Oh, what shall I do? what shall I do while this miscreant remains here?--this villain whose very presence desecrates the roof and dishonors me? I would instantly leave the house but that I must not abandon poor Clara.
"I cannot claim the protection of Traverse, for I would not provoke him to wrath or run him into danger; nor, indeed, would I even permit my son to dream such a thing possible as that his mother could receive insult!
"Nor can I warn Clara of the unprincipled character of her guardian, for if she knew him as he is she would surely treat him in such a way as to get his enmity--his dangerous, fatal enmity!--doubly fatal since her person and property are legally at his disposal. Oh, my dove! my dove!
that you should be in the power of this vulture! What shall I do, oh, heaven?"
Marah dropped on her knees and finished her soliloquy with prayer. Then, feeling composed and strengthened, she went to Clara"s room.
She found the poor girl lying awake and quietly weeping.
"Your guardian has arrived, love," she said, sitting down beside the bed and taking Clara"s hand.
"Oh, must I get up and dress to see a stranger?" sighed Clara, wearily.
"No, love; you need not stir until it is time to dress for dinner; it will answer quite well if you meet your guardian at table," said Marah, who had particular reasons for wishing that Clara should first see Colonel Le Noir with other company, to have an opportunity of observing him well and possibly forming an estimate of his character (as a young girl of her fine instincts might well do) before she should be exposed in a tete-a-tete to those deceptive blandishments he knew so well how to bring into play.
"That is a respite. Oh, dear Mrs. Rocke, you don"t know how I dread to see any one!"
"My dear Clara, you must combat grief by prayer, which is the only thing that can overcome it," said Marah.
Mrs. Rocke remained with her young charge as long as she possibly could, and then she went down-stairs to oversee the preparation of the dinner.
And it was at the dinner-table that Marah, with the quiet and gentle dignity for which she was distinguished, introduced the younger members of the family to the guest, in these words:
"Your ward, Miss Day, Colonel Le Noir."
The colonel bowed deeply and raised the hand of Clara to his lips, murmuring some sweet, soft, silvery and deferentially inaudible words of condolence, sympathy and melancholy pleasure, from which Clara, with a gentle bend of her head, withdrew to take her seat.
"Colonel Le Noir, my son, Doctor Rocke," said Marah, presenting Traverse.
The colonel stared superciliously, bowed with ironical depth, said he was "much honored," and, turning his back on the young man, placed himself at the table.
During the dinner he exerted himself to be agreeable to Miss Day and Mrs. Rocke, but Traverse he affected to treat with supercilious neglect or ironical deference.
Our young physician had too much self-respect to permit himself to be in any degree affected by this rudeness. And Marah, on her part, was glad, so that it did not trouble Traverse, that Le Noir should behave in this manner, so that Clara should be enabled to form some correct idea of his disposition.
When dinner was over Clara excused herself and retired to her room, whither she was soon followed by Mrs. Rocke.
"Well, my dear, how do you like your guardian?" asked Marah, in a tone as indifferent as she could make it.
"I do not like him at all!" exclaimed Clara, her gentle blue eyes flashing with indignation through her tears; "I do not like him at all, the scornful, arrogant, supercilious--Oh! I do not wish to use such strong language, or to grow angry when I am in such deep grief; but my dear father could not have known this man, or he never would have chosen him for my guardian; do you think he would, Mrs. Rocke?"
"My dear, your excellent father must have thought well of him, or he never would have intrusted him with so precious a charge. Whether your father"s confidence in this man will be justified as far as you are concerned, time will show. Meanwhile, my love, as the guardian appointed by your father, you should treat him with respect; but, so far as reposing any trust in him goes, consult your own instincts."