"I will be here," said Kitty, reproachfully.
"That will, of course, make a difference," answered Gaston, with a faint sneer; "but you know," shrugging his shoulders, "I do not cultivate the domestic virtues."
"What will you do when we are married?" said Kitty, with an uneasy laugh.
"Enough for the day is the evil thereof," replied M. Vandeloup, with a gay smile.
"What do you mean?" asked the girl, with a sudden start.
Vandeloup arose from his seat, and lighting another cigarette he lounged over to the fireplace, and leaned against the mantelpiece with his hands in his pockets.
"I mean that when we are married it will be time enough to talk about such things," he answered, looking at her through his eyelashes.
"Then we will talk about them very shortly," said Kitty, with an angry laugh, as her hands clenched the arms of the chair tightly; "for the year is nearly up, and you promised to marry me at the end of it."
"How many things do we intend to do that are never carried out?" said Gaston, gently. "Do you mean that you will break your promise?" she asked, with a scared face.
Vandeloup removed the cigarette from his mouth, and, leaning one elbow on the mantelpiece, looked at her with a smile.
"My dear," he said, quietly, "things are not going well with me at present, and I want money badly."
"Well?" asked Kitty in a whisper, her heart beating loudly.
"You are not rich," said her lover, "so why should we two paupers get married, only to plunge ourselves into misery?"
"Then you refuse to marry me?" she said, rising to her feet.
He bowed his head gently.
"At present, yes," he answered, and replaced the cigarette between his lips.
Kitty stood for a moment as if turned to stone, and then throwing up her hands with a gesture of despair, fell back into the chair, and burst into a flood of tears. Vandeloup shrugged his shoulders in a resigned sort of manner, and glanced at his watch to see when it would be time for him to go. Meanwhile he smoked quietly on, and Kitty, after sobbing for some time, dried her eyes, and sat up in the chair again.
"How long is this going to last?" she asked, in a hard voice.
"Till I get rich!"
"That may be a long time?"
"It may."
"Perhaps never?"
"Perhaps!"
"And then I will never be your wife?"
"Unfortunately, no."
"You coward!" burst forth Kitty, rising from her seat, and crossing over to him; "you made me leave my home with your false promises, and now you refuse to make me the only reparation that is in your power."
"Circ.u.mstances are against any virtuous intentions I may entertain,"
retorted Vandeloup, coolly.
Kitty looked at him for a moment, then ran over to a desk near the window, and took from thence a small bottle of white gla.s.s with two red bands round it. She let the lid of the desk fall with a bang, then crossed to Vandeloup, holding the bottle up before him.
"Do you know what this is?" she asked, in a harsh voice.
"The poison I made in Ballarat," he answered, coolly, blowing a wreath of smoke; "how did you get hold of it?"
"I found it in your private desk," she said, coldly.
"That was wrong, my dear," he answered, gently, "you should never betray confidences--I left the desk in your charge, and it should have been sacred to you."
"Out of your own mouth are you condemned," said the girl, quickly; "you have betrayed my confidence and ruined me, so if you do not fix a day for our marriage, I swear I will drink this and die at your feet."
"How melodramatic you are, Bebe," said Vandeloup, coolly; "you put me in mind of Croisette in "Le Sphinx"."
"You don"t believe I will do it."
"No! I do not."
"Then see." She took the stopper out of the bottle and held it to her lips. Vandeloup did not stir, but, still smoking, stood looking at her with a smile. His utter callousness was too much for her, and replacing the stopper again, she slipped the bottle into her pocket and let her hands fall idly by her side.
"I thought you would not do it," replied Gaston, smoothly, looking at his watch; "you must really excuse me, I hear the cab wheels outside."
Kitty, however, placed herself in front of him as he moved towards the door.
"Listen to me," she said, in a harsh voice, with white face and flaming eyes; "to-night I leave this house for ever."
He bowed his head.
"As it pleases you," he replied, simply.
"My G.o.d!" she cried, "have you no love for me now?"
"No," he answered, coldly and brutally, "I am tired of you."
She fell on her knees and clutched his hand.
"Dear Gaston! dear Gaston!" she cried, covering it with kisses, "think how young I am, how my life is ruined, and by you. I gave up everything for your sake--home, father, and friends--you will not cast me off like this after all I have sacrificed for you? Oh, for G.o.d"s sake, speak--speak!"
"My dear," said Vandeloup, gravely, looking down at the kneeling figure with the streaming eyes and clenched hands, "as long as you choose to stay here I will be your friend--I cannot afford to marry you, but while you are with me our lives will be as they have been; good-bye at present," touching her forehead coldly with his lips, "I will call to-morrow afternoon to see how you are, and I trust this will be the last of such scenes."
He drew his hand away from hers, and she sat on the floor dull and silent, with her eyes fixed on the ground and an aching in her heart.
Vandeloup went into the hall, put on his hat, then lighting another cigarette and taking his stick, walked gaily out of the house, humming an air from "La Belle Helene". The cab was waiting for him at the door, and telling the man to drive to the Bachelors" Club, he entered the cab and rattled away down the street without a thought for the broken-hearted woman he left behind.
Kitty sat on the floor with her folded hands lying carelessly on her lap and her eyes staring idly at the carpet. This, then, was the end of all her hopes and joys--she was cast aside carelessly by this man now that he wearied of her. Love"s young dream had been sweet indeed; but, ah!