"Henry!--what!--when I can not be your wife!"
"You can be my wife; my wife in reality, as you are his in name and nothing else. It is idle to talk as if we were in some ordinary situation. There are plenty of countries that would disown such a marriage as yours, a mere ceremony obtained by fraud, and canceled by a stroke with a dagger and instant separation. Oh, my darling, don"t sacrifice both our lives to a scruple that is out of place here. Don"t hesitate; don"t delay. I have a carriage waiting outside; end all our misery by one act of courage, and trust yourself to me; did I ever fail you?"
"For shame, Henry! for shame!"
"It is the only way to happiness. You were quite right; if I kill that wretch we shall be parted in another way, always parted; now we can be together for life. Remember, dearest, how I begged you in this very room to go to the United States with me: you refused: well, have you never been sorry you refused? Now I once more implore you to be wise and brave, and love me as I love you. What is the world to us? You are all the world to me."
"Answer him, Jael; oh, answer him!"
"Nay, these are things every woman must answer for herself."
"And I"ll take no answer but yours." Then he threw himself at her feet, and clasping her in his arms implored her, with all the sighs and tears and eloquence of pa.s.sion, to have pity on them both, and fly at once with him.
She writhed and struggled faintly, and turned away from him, and fell tenderly toward him, by turns, and still he held her tight, and grew stronger, more pa.s.sionate, more persuasive, as she got weaker and almost faint. Her body seemed on the point of sinking, and her mind of yielding.
But all of a sudden she made a desperate effort. "Let me go!" she cried.
"So this is your love! With all my faults and follies, I am truer than you. Shame on your love, that would dishonor the creature you love! Let me go, sir, I say, or I shall hate you worse than I do the wretch whose name I bear."
He let her go directly, and then her fiery glance turned to one long lingering look of deep but tender reproach, and she fled sobbing.
He sank into a chair, and buried his face in his hands.
After a while he raised his head, and saw Jael Dence looking gravely at him.
"Oh, speak your mind," said he, bitterly.
"You are like the world. You think only of yourself; that"s all I have to say."
"You are very unkind to say so. I think for us both: and she will think with me, in time. I shall come again to-morrow."
He said this with an iron resolution that promised a long and steady struggle, to which Grace, even in this first encounter, had shown herself hardly equal.
Jael went to her room, expecting to find her as much broken down as she was by Henry"s first visit; but, instead of that, the young lady was walking rapidly to and fro.
At sight of Jael, she caught her by the hand, and said, "Well!"
"He is coming again to-morrow."
"Is he sorry?"
"Not he."
"Who would have thought he was so wicked?"
This seemed rather exaggerated to Jael; for with all Mrs. Little"s teaching she was not quite a lady yet in all respects, though in many things she was always one by nature. "Let it pa.s.s," said she.
""It is a man"s part to try, And a woman"s to deny.""
"And how often shall I have to deny him I love so dearly?"
"As often as he asks you to be his mistress; for, call it what you like, that is all he has to offer you."
Grace hid her face in her hands.
Jael colored. "Excuse my blunt speaking; but sometimes the worst word is the best; fine words are just words with a veil on."
"Will he dare to tempt me again, after what I said?"
"Of course he will: don"t you know him? he never gives in. But, suppose he does, you have your answer ready."
"Jael," said Grace, "you are so strong, it blinds you to my weakness.
I resist him, day after day! I, who pity him so, and blame myself! Why, his very look, his touch, his voice, overpower me so that my whole frame seems dissolving: feel how I tremble at him, even now. No, no; let those resist who are sure of their strength. Virtue, weakened by love and pity, has but one resource--to fly. Jael Dence, if you are a woman, help me to save the one thing I have got left to save."
"I will," said Jael Dence.
In one hour from that time they had packed a box and a carpetbag, and were on their way to a railway station. They left Hillsborough.
In three days Jael returned, but Grace Coventry did not come back with her.
The day after that trying scene, Henry Little called, not to urge Grace again, as she presumed he would, but to ask pardon: at the same time we may be sure of this--that, after a day or two spent in obtaining pardon, the temptation would have been renewed, and so on forever. Of this, however, Little was not conscious: he came to ask pardon, and offer a pure and patient love, till such time as Heaven should have pity on them both. He was informed that Mrs. Coventry had quitted Hillsborough, and left a letter for him. It was offered him; he s.n.a.t.c.hed it and read it.
"MY OWN DEAR HENRY,--You have given me something to forgive, and I forgive you without asking, as I hope you will one day forgive me. I have left Hillsborough to avoid a situation that was intolerable and solicitations which I blushed to hear, and for which you would one day have blushed too. This parting is not forever, I hope; but that rests with yourself. Forego your idea of vengeance on that man, whose chastis.e.m.e.nt you would best alleviate by ending his miserable existence; and learn to love me honorably and patiently, as I love you. Should you obtain this great victory over yourself, you will see me again.
Meantime, think of her who loves you to distraction, and whose soul hovers about you unseen. Pray for me, dear one, at midnight, and at eight o"clock every morning; for those are two of the hours I shall pray for you. Do you remember the old church, and how you cried over me? I can write no more: my tears blind me so. Farewell. Your unhappy
"GRACE."
Little read this piteous letter, and it was a heavy blow to him; a blow that all the tenderness shown in it could not at first soften. She had fled from him; she shunned him. It was not from Coventry she fled; it was from him.
He went home cold and sick at heart, and gave himself up to grief and deep regrets for several days.
But soon his powerful and elastic mind, impatient of impotent sorrow, and burning for some kind of action, seized upon vengeance as the only thing left to do.
At this period he looked on Coventry as a beast in human shape, whom he had a moral right to extinguish; only, as he had not a legal right, it must be done with consummate art. He trusted n.o.body; spoke to n.o.body; but set himself quietly to find out where Coventry lived, and what were his habits. He did this with little difficulty. Coventry lodged in a princ.i.p.al street, but always dined at a club, and returned home late, walking through a retired street or two; one of these pa.s.sed by the mouth of a narrow court that was little used.
Little, disguised as a workman, made a complete reconnaissance of this locality, and soon saw that his enemy was at his mercy.
But, while he debated within himself what measure of vengeance he should take, and what noiseless weapon he should use, an unseen antagonist baffled him. That antagonist was Grace Carden. Still foreboding mischief, she wrote to Mr. Coventry, from a town two hundred miles distant:
"Whatever you are now, you were born a gentleman, and will, I think, respect a request from a lady you have wronged. Mr. Little has returned, and I have left Hillsborough; if he encounters you in his despair, he will do you some mortal injury. This will only make matters worse, and I dread the scandal that will follow, and to hear my sad story in a court of law as a justification for his violence. Oblige me, then, by leaving Hillsborough for a time, as I have done."
On receipt of this, Coventry packed up his portmanteau directly, and, leaving Lally behind to watch the town, and see whether this was a ruse, he went directly to the town whence Grace"s letter was dated, and to the very hotel.
This she had foreseen and intended.