"You may rest a.s.sured, my dear, that what you say to me will go no farther. "Tis my business to keep secrets."
"Two years ago," she began abruptly, plunging into her story, "after our--after you left home, an Englishman, a soldier returning from the East incapacitated by a fever, and travelling for his health, craved a night"s rest at my father"s house. As you know, in a country like ours, where decent inns are few and far between, travellers are always welcome. It was the hot season, we pressed him to stay for a day or two, he accepted, and a return of the fever made him our guest for months. He needed constant nursing--I--I was the only white woman on the plantation."
"I see," said Stanley. "You nursed him, he recovered, was grateful, paid you homage."
"Remember I was brought up in a convent. I was so alone and so unhappy.
He told me you had married. I believed him--trusted him.
"Quite so. His name was Darcy. He is a liar."
"He is--my husband."
"A gentleman--I suppose?"
"The world accords him that t.i.tle," she replied coldly.
"I understand-- He"s a man of means?"
"He has nothing but his pay."
"And you--but that question is unnecessary. Senor De Costa"s name and estates are well known--and you are his only child."
"Yes, you"re right," she burst out. "It"s my money, my cursed money! Why do men call it a blessing! Oh, if I could trust him, I"d give him every penny of it. But I cannot, it"s the one hold I have on him, and because I will not beggar myself to supply means for his extravagances he dares----"
"Not personal violence, surely?"
"To put me away somewhere--in a retreat, he calls it. That means a madhouse."
"My dear Madame Darcy!"
"Call me Inez De Costa, I will _not_ have that name of Darcy, I hate it."
"My dear Inez, then; your fears are groundless; they can"t put sane people in madhouses any longer in England, except in cheap fiction--it"s against the law."
"It"s very easy for you to sit there and talk of law. You, who are protected by your office, but for me, for a poor woman whose liberty is threatened!"
"I a.s.sure you that you"re in no such danger as you apprehend."
"But if I were put away, you would help me?"
"You shall suffer no injustice that we can prevent. You may return home and rest easy on that score."
"I shall never return to that man."
"Why not return to your father?"
"Would that I could!" she exclaimed, her eyes br.i.m.m.i.n.g with tears. "But how can I, with no money and no friends?"
"I thought you said----" began the Secretary, but his interruption was lost in the flow of her eloquence.
"I"ve not a penny. I can cash no cheque that"s not made to his order, and to come to you I must degrade myself by borrowing a sovereign from my maid. I"ve travelled third-cla.s.s!"
The Secretary smiled at the ante-climax, saying:
"Many people of large means travel third-cla.s.s habitually."
"But not a De Costa," she broke in, and then continued her narration with renewed ardour.
"I"ve no roof to shelter me to-night. No where to go. No clothes except what I wear. No money but those few shillings; but I would rather starve and die in the streets than go back to him. I"m rich. I"ve powerful friends. You can"t have the heart to turn away from me. Have you forgotten the old friendship? You must do something--something to save me----" and in the pa.s.sion, of her southern nature she threw herself at his feet, and burst into an agony of tears.
Stanley a.s.sisted her to rise, got her a gla.s.s of water, and had cause, for the second time in that interview, to thank his stars that love had already shot another shaft, because if it were not for Belle, his official position, and the fact that the Senora had one husband already--well--it was a relief to be forced to tell her that legations were not charitable inst.i.tutions, and that much as he might desire to aid her, neither he nor his colleagues could interfere in her private affairs.
"Then you refuse to a.s.sist me--you leave me to my fate!" she cried, starting up, a red flush of anger mantling her cheek.
"Not at all," he hastened to say. "On the contrary, I"m going to help you all I know how. I can"t interfere myself, but I can refer you to a friend of mine, whom you can thoroughly trust, and who"s in a position to aid you in the matter."
"And his name?"
"His name is Peter Sanks, the lawyer of the Legation, a gentleman, truly as well as technically. A countryman of yours who has practised both here and at home, and who always feels a keen interest in the affairs of his compatriots. He has chambers in the Middle Temple. I"ll give you his address on my card."
"You"re most kind-- I"ll throw myself without delay on the clemency of this Senor----"
"Sanks."
"_Madre de Dios!_ What a name!"
"I dare say he was Don Pedro Sanchez at home, but that would hardly go here. I"ve written him a line on my visiting card, requesting him to do everything he can for you, and, of course, I need hardly say to you, as a friend, not as an official, that my time and service are entirely devoted to your interests. There is nothing that I possess which you may not command."
"And for me, you do this?" she asked, looking up wistfully in his face.
He took her two little hands in his, and bending over, kissed the tips of their fingers.
"I cannot express the grat.i.tude," she began.
"Don"t," he said, cutting short her profuse thanks. "It"s nothing, I a.s.sure you. Here is my card to Sanks. Better go to him at once, or you may miss him. It"s nearly three o"clock." And feeling that it was unsafe to trust himself longer in her presence, he touched the bell, saying to the confidential clerk who answered it:--
"The door, John."
A moment later she was gone, leaving only the subtle perfume of her presence in the room. Stanley threw himself moodily into the nearest chair. It was too bad that this bewitching woman should be married to a brute. It was too bad that he couldn"t do more to help her, and it was--yes, it really was too bad, that she should have come again into his life just at the present moment. She was so exactly like what he had fancied the ideal woman he was to marry ought to be. But she wasn"t a bit like Belle, and the reflection was decidedly disturbing. And now, he supposed, she would get a divorce, and--oh, pshaw! it wasn"t his affair anyway, and he was late for his appointment with Kent-Lauriston.
He rang his office bell sharply, picking up his hat and gloves as he did so, and saying to the messenger who answered his summons:--
"Give this report to his Excellency, John, and let me have some visiting cards, will you---- No, no, not any official ones. Some with my private address on."
"Very sorry Sir, but they"re all out. I ordered some more day before yesterday, Sir. They should have come by now."
"Just my luck, why didn"t you attend to them earlier?"