"I"ll a.s.sume all risk, but I am not willing to leave her like this.
Perhaps I understand the situation better than you do. You stay where I can call you if necessary, and look after the search for whoever got Le Gaire. Bell and Miles are out on the roof trying for the attic. I won"t be gone long."
I have gone into battle with less trepidation than I approached that door, but never with greater determination to bear myself as became a man. Billie was going to know the truth just as clearly as I could tell it to her. I could not convince myself it was love for Le Gaire which had so affected her. I doubted if she had ever loved him. The fellow had played upon her sympathy, her pity, and circ.u.mstances had conspired to cause her to believe I was his murderer. This was amply sufficient to account for her feeling of horror, her evident desire to escape further contact with me. Hardy had been blind and blundering--had made things worse, rather than better; now I must see what I could do. I rapped at the panel, and thought I heard a faint response. A moment later I stood within, and had closed the door behind me. She was on a couch at the opposite side of the room, but arose to her feet instantly, her face white, one hand sweeping back the strands of ruffled hair.
"You!" she exclaimed incredulously. "Why have you come here? I supposed it would be my father."
"Major Hardy told me how you were feeling; that he could do nothing for you--"
"Did he understand I wished to confer with you?"
"No, but--"
"You decided to invade my room without permission. Do you not think you have persecuted me quite long enough?"
"Why do you say persecuted?"
"Because your acts have a.s.sumed that form, Lieutenant Galesworth. You persist in seeking me after I have requested to be left alone."
"Miss Hardy," and my eyes met hers, "has it ever occurred to you that you may be the one in the wrong, the one mistaken? I am simply here to explain, to tell you the truth, and compel you to do justice."
"Indeed! how compel? With the revolver in your belt?"
"No; merely by a statement of facts, to be proven, if necessary, by the evidence of your father and Captain Bell. I am not asking you to believe me, but surely they have no occasion for falsifying. Why have you not listened to them?"
"Listened!" startled by my words. "I would have listened, but they have said nothing. They have seemed to avoid all reference to what has occurred. I thought they were trying to spare me pain, humiliation. Is there something concealed, something I do not know?"
"If I may judge from your words and action the entire truth has been kept from you," and I advanced a step or two nearer. "I am not the one to come with an explanation, but your father has failed, and I am not willing to go away until this matter is made clear. Whether you believe, or not, you must listen."
She stared at me, still trembling from head to foot, and yet there was a different expression in her eyes--puzzled doubt.
"You--you will have much to explain," she said slowly. "If--if I were you I should hardly attempt it."
"Which must mean, Miss Hardy, that you are already so prejudiced a fair hearing is impossible. Yet I thought you, at least, a friend."
A deep flush swept into her cheeks, to vanish as quickly.
"You had reason to think so, and I was," earnestly. "I was deceived in your character, and trusted you implicitly. It seems as though I am destined to be the constant victim of deceit. I can keep faith in no one. It is hard to understand you, Lieutenant Galesworth. How do you dare to come here and face me, after all that has occurred?"
She was so serious, so absolutely truthful, that for the moment I could only stare at her.
"You mean after what you said to me last night? But I am not here to speak of love."
"No," bitterly. "That is all over with, forgotten. In the light of what has happened since, the very memory is an insult. Oh, you hurt me so!
Cannot you see how this interview pains me! Won"t you go--go now, and leave me in peace."
"But surely you will not drive me away unheard!--not refuse to learn the truth."
"The truth! It is the truth I already know, the truth which hurts."
"Nevertheless you are going to hear my story. If I have done a wrong to you, or any one, I want it pointed out, so it may be made right. I shall not leave this room, nor your presence, until I have uttered my last word of explanation. I should be a coward to turn away. Will you sit down and listen? You need not even speak until I am done."
She looked at me helplessly, her eyes full of questioning, yet, when I extended a hand, she drew back quickly.
"Yes--I--I suppose I must."
She sank back upon the couch, these words barely audible, and I drew a deep breath, hardly knowing where to begin.
"I am a Federal officer, Miss Hardy, and my uniform is no pa.s.sport to your favor, yet that is no reason you should be unjust. I do not think I have ever been guilty of but one ungentlemanly act toward you, and that was unavoidable--I mean listening to your conversation with Captain Le Gaire."
She shuddered, and gave utterance to a little cry.
"I loved you; with all my heart I loved you," I went on swiftly, driven by a sudden rush of pa.s.sion. "What you said then gave me a right to tell you so."
"And was it because I was unwilling to listen that--that you did what you did later?" she broke in hastily.
"Did later! You mean that I consented to meet Le Gaire?"
"Yes--that you compelled him to fight you; that you--Oh, G.o.d! Why bring this all up again?"
"Merely because nothing occurred of which I am ashamed. Without doubt it was my love for you which caused the trouble. But I was not the aggressor. Did you suppose otherwise? Le Gaire deliberately struck me across the face."
She rose again to her feet, her cheeks blazing.
"It was the answer of a gentleman to an insult given the woman he was to marry," proudly.
"The answer to an insult! What insult?"
"You know; I shall not demean myself to repeat the words."
So this was what she had been told! Well, I could block that lie with a sentence.
"Miss Hardy," I asked soberly, "are you aware that your father refused to act for Captain Le Gaire, but went to the field as my second?"
"No," her whole expression indicative of surprise. "Impossible!"
"But it was not impossible, for it was true. Captain Bell had to be send for to second Le Gaire, and he did it under protest. Do you imagine your father would have taken my part if I had uttered one word reflecting upon you?"
She attempted to speak, but failed, and I took advantage of the silence.
"Major Hardy is in the hall, and will corroborate all I say. Perhaps I ought not to attempt my own defence, but this misunderstanding is too grave to continue. There is too much at stake in your life and mine.
From what you have already said it is evident you have been deceived--probably that deception did not end merely with the commencement of the quarrel."
"Did--did Major Hardy truly second you?" she interrupted, apparently dazed. "I--I can hardly comprehend."
"He did; he even volunteered to do so. Le Gaire charged you with being unduly intimate with me, and your father resented his words. The man began threatening as soon as I entered the room, and finally struck me across the face, daring me to an encounter. I am no duellist; this was my first appearance in that role; but I could never have retained my self-respect and refused to meet him."
"You--you forced him to accept pistols?"
"In a way, yes. Your father convinced him I was an expert swordsman, and consequently he chose derringers, believing they would be to his advantage. The truth is, I am not particularly skilled in the use of either."