"We will take the afternoon train," suggested Rosamond.
The landlady made no objection to this, and the first act in the great tragedy was begun as the Boston express moved slowly out of the depot, bearing with it Rosamond Lee and her companion.
On their journey Rosamond talked incessantly of Jessie Bain, plying the girl beside her with every conceivable question concerning her, until at last Margaret grew quite restless under the ceaseless cross-examination.
All unconsciously, her manner grew haughty, and Rosamond noticed it.
At a way-station, some twenty miles this side of Boston, a tall, dark-bearded man boarded the train. The only seat vacant was the one across the aisle from the two girls. This he took, and was soon immersed in the columns of the paper which he had taken from his pocket.
"Are we almost there?" exclaimed Margaret.
The stranger across the aisle started violently and looked around.
"That voice!" he muttered.
There was but one being in this world with accents like it, and that was Gerelda Northrup, who lay in her watery grave somewhere in the St.
Lawrence River.
Captain Frazier--for it was he--gave another quick glance at the two girls opposite him, and bent forward in his seat, that he might catch a better view of the one nearest him, whose face was averted.
Again she spoke, and this time the accents were more startlingly familiar than ever. Frazier sprang to his feet, walked down to the end of the car, then turned and slowly retraced his steps, watching the girl intently the while.
"I could almost swear that I am getting the tremens again, or that my eyes deceive me," he muttered. "If ever I saw Gerelda Northrup in the flesh, that is she!"
He stopped short, and touched her on the shoulder, his eyes almost bulging from their sockets.
"Miss Northrup-- I-- I mean Mrs. Varrick--is this you? In the name of Heaven, speak to me!"
She looked at him, her great dark eyes studying his face with a troubled expression.
"Varrick!" she muttered below her breath. "Where have I heard that name before? And your face too! Where have I seen it? It recalls something out of my past life," she muttered.
With a low cry he bent forward.
"Then it _is_ you, Gerelda-- Mrs. Varrick?"
Rosamond Lee, whose face had grown from red to white, sprung excitedly to her feet.
"What mystery is this?" she cried. "What do you mean by calling this girl Mrs. Varrick? There is a friend of mine--a Mr. Hubert Varrick--who is soon to be married to a Jessie Bain. You haven"t the two mixed, have you, sir?"
Frazier turned impatiently to her.
"I have seen the announcement of Hubert Varrick"s marriage to Jessie Bain," he returned, his face darkening. "But the question is: how dare he attempt to marry another girl while he has a wife living. I do not know who you may be, madame," facing Rosamond impatiently. "You say that you know Hubert Varrick well, yet you do not appear conversant with his history. He married this young girl sitting beside you, who was then Miss Gerelda Northrup. On their wedding journey the steamer "St.
Lawrence" was lost, and she was supposed by all her friends to have perished in the frightful accident."
While he had been speaking, Gerelda--for it was indeed she--had been watching him intently.
As he proceeded with his story, a great tremor shook her frame.
With a low cry she sprung to her feet.
"Oh, I remember-- I remember _all_ now!" shrieked Gerelda. "I-- I was on the train with Hubert whom I had just married. Then we went on the steamer. We had a quarrel, and he told me that he did not love me, even though he had wedded me, and I-- Oh, the words drove me mad! There was a great rumbling of the boiler, a crashing of timbers, and I felt myself plunged in the water. But my head--it pains so terribly! I scarcely felt the chill of the water. The next I remember I was lying in a cottage, with a young girl bending over me. My G.o.d! it was Jessie Bain, my enemy.
I remember it all now. I wonder that memory did not come back to me when I heard the name Jessie Bain. She did not know that it was I who was Hubert Varrick"s wife, or she would have let me die."
The effect of Gerelda"s words was startling upon Rosamond.
"What are you going to do about it?" she asked, eagerly.
"Do?" echoed Gerelda. "I am going to claim my husband. He is mine, and all the powers on earth can never take him from me!"
"I suppose," said Rosamond, "now, from the way this amazing affair has culminated, you will not want me to go with you to Hubert-- Mr.
Varrick, I mean."
Gerelda turned haughtily on her.
"No," she said. "Why should you wish to go with me to my husband? What interest have you in him?"
Rosamond shrunk back abashed, though she stammered:
"I-- I should like to see how he takes it."
"I would like to accompany you for the same reason," interposed Captain Frazier. "He will be angry enough at you coming back to frustrate his marriage with the girl whom he idolizes so madly."
Gerelda"s face grew stormy as she listened. There was an expression in her eyes not good to see, and which Captain Frazier knew boded no good to the object of her wrath.
At this juncture the express rolled into the Boston depot. Bidding Rosamond Lee and Captain Frazier a hasty good-bye, and insisting that under no circ.u.mstances should they accompany her, Gerelda hailed a cab, and gave the order: "To the Varrick mansion."
Captain Frazier stepped suddenly forward and hailed a pa.s.sing cab, saying to himself that he must be present, at all hazards, at that meeting which was to take place between Gerelda and Hubert Varrick.
"Keep yonder carriage in sight," he said, pointing out the vehicle just ahead of them, and producing, as he spoke, a bank-note, which he thrust into the cab-man"s hand.
The man did his duty well.
Pausing suddenly, and bending low, he whispered to the occupant of his vehicle that the carriage ahead had stopped short.
"All right," said Captain Frazier, sharply. "Spring out--here is your fee, my good man."
The captain drew back into the shadow of the tall pines as his carriage drove away, lest the occupant of the vehicle ahead should discover his presence there. He saw Gerelda alight and pause involuntarily before the arched entrance gate that led around to the rear of the Varrick mansion.
Captain Frazier watched her keenly as she stood there for a moment, quite irresolute. His heart was all in a whirl, as he glanced up at the grand old mansion whose huge chimneys confronted him from over the tops of the trees.
"From the very beginning, Varrick has always had the best of me," he muttered. "I never loved but one thing in all my life," he cried, hoa.r.s.ely; "and that was Gerelda Northrup, and he won her from me. From that moment on I have cursed him with all the pa.s.sionate hatred of my nature. Since that time life has held but one aim for me--and that was, to crush him--and that opportunity will soon be mine--that hour is now at hand. He will shortly be wedded to another, if Gerelda does not interfere, and then--ah!--and then--"
His soliloquy was suddenly cut short, for the sound of approaching footsteps was heard on the snow.
He would have drawn back into the shadow of the interlacing pines, but that he saw he was observed by a minister who stepped eagerly forward.
"You are a stranger in our midst," he said, holding out his hand to him; "I do not recollect having seen your face before. I-- I have a favor to ask of you. Would you mind lending me your a.s.sistance as far as the house yonder--the Varrick mansion--which you can see over the trees? I-- I am not very well--have just recovered from a spell of sickness. I-- I wish to visit the inmates of the mansion to perfect some arrangements concerning a happy event that is to take place on the morrow, within those walls. I find myself overtaken by a sudden faintness. I repeat, would you object to giving me your arm as far as the entrance gate yonder?"
Captain Frazier complied, with a profound bow.