Then I left that letter upon the doorstep, held in place by the weight of a stone, and very softly slipped out into the shadows of the twilight and down the mountain by the path up which that morning I had come with my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner, then my friend. I felt a certainty that as many as two hours would those men continue in a consulting with that wild Jim and in that time by going fleetingly I could gain the place where were tethered the horses, before a complete darkness had come. From my honored father I had learned the ways of woods in hunting and also I knew that the good Lightfoot would in darkness carry me in safety to his stall in the barn of Mr. Bud Bell, beside which stood my Cherry. From there I could gain the city of Hayesville in the dead hours of the night and in those same dead hours depart to France, after obtaining the money I had left in my desk and which I had earned by my labors and would not be in the act of stealing from the State of Harpeth. Only one night and day would I be alone in the forest and I did not care if a death should overtake me.
In my body my heart was dead and why should I desire the life of that body?
And as I had planned I then accomplished. I discovered that Lightfoot at pasture and I quickly had placed the saddle upon him and had turned him down the mountain to choose a safe path for both himself and me. I did not look upon those cradles of fragrant boughs in which the boy Robert had lain at rest beside his great friend, the Gouverneur Faulkner, from whom he had stolen faith and affection.
"Why did not you also steal his pocketbook as he lay asleep beside you, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye?" I questioned myself with scorn and torture, as good Lightfoot crashed down from that Camp Heaven into the dark night.
And on we rode, the large horse with the woman upon his back, for a long night, through fragrant thickets that caught at my riding breeches with rose tendril fingers and under thick forests of budding trees, through whose branches of tender leaves the wise old stars looked down upon my bitter weeping with nothing of comfort, perhaps because they had grown of a hardness of heart from having seen so many tears of women drop in the silence of a lonely night.
Then came a dawn and a noon and a twilight through which I pushed forward the large horse with great cruelty, only pausing beside streams to allow that he drink of the water and also to throw myself down on my face and lap the cool refreshment like do all humble things. And, when at last the stars were again there to look down upon me, we arrived behind the barn of that Bud Bell to find all in the little house at rest. I thought of that small child in sleep in the arms of that woman, and a great sobbing came from my heart as I threw myself into my Cherry, after giving a supper to good Lightfoot, and fled down the long road to the distant city of Hayesville that lay away in the valley like a great nest of glowworms in a glade of the leaves of darkness. And among those glowworms I knew that more than a hundred friends to me were beginning to go into sleep with deep affection in their hearts for that Robert Carruthers whom wicked Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, was about to steal from them. I wept as I turned my Cherry through the back street and into the garage of my Uncle, the General Robert. Then I paused. All was quiet in the house and no light burned in the apartments of my beloved protector and relative. From the watch at my wrist I ascertained the hour to be half after ten o"clock, and I knew that he was safely in cards at that Club of Old Hickory, whose lists now bore the added one of another Robert Carruthers, man of honor and descendant of its founders. Also there was no light in the rear of the house in the apartment of that kind Kizzie, in whose affections I had made a large place. A dim light burned in the hall and I knew that there I would find my faithful chocolate Bonbon sitting upon a chair by the great door in a deep sleep. And in a very few minutes I so found him.
"It is h.e.l.lo there, good Bonbon," I greeted him.
"Howdy, Mr. Robert," he answered me by a very large smile with very white teeth set in his face of extreme blackness. "The Gen"l said to call him on the "fome as soon as you come."
"That I will attend to from my apartment," I answered him and then ascended the wide dark stairway with feet which were as a weight to my ankles.
Very slowly I entered that apartment and turned on the bright light.
All was in readiness for me, and on the small table under the gla.s.s case that contained that beflowered robe of state of the dead Grandmamma Carruthers stood a vase of very fresh and innocent young roses.
"I would that I could remain and fulfill the destiny of a woman of your house, Madam Grandmamma," I whispered to her lovely and smiling portrait on the wall opposite. "I am the last of the ladies Carruthers but I have made a forfeit of that destiny and I must go out in the night again in man"s attire to a death that will tear asunder the tender flesh that you have borne. Good-bye!"
Then I made a commencement of a very rapid packing, in one of those bags which I had purchased from the kind gentleman in the City of New York, of what raiment I knew would be suitable for a man in very hurried traveling. I put into it the two suits of clothing for wear in the daytime, but I discarded all of my clothing for the pursuits of pleasure. The bag was at that moment full and I did not know that it could be closed. Then I bethought me of that brown coat that had upon it the blood which I had been allowed to shed for my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner who was now lost to me.
"That I will take and discard the night raiment, to sleep "as is" in the manner spoken of by my friend, that Mr. G. Slade of Detroit," I counseled myself as I laid aside the silken garments that I did so like and placed in their stead the b.l.o.o.d.y coat of many wrinkles.
After all of that was accomplished I went into a hot bath and again quickly began to a.s.sume my man"s clothing, while from my eyes dripped the slow tears that bleed from the heart of a woman.
"You must make a great hurry, thief Roberta, for it draws near midnight and that is the hour that the train departs to the North," I cautioned my weeping self. "At that hour you go forth into the world alone."
And then what ensued?
Very suddenly I heard the noise of a car being drawn to the curb in front of the house and the rapid steps of a man progress along the pavings of brick to the front door, at which he made a loud ringing.
In not a moment was the good Bonbon at my door with a knocking.
"The Governor is here to see you, Mr. Robert," he informed me.
"What shall you do, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye?" I asked of myself. "How is it that you can be able to support the cold reproaches he will give to you while requiring that you stay to bring dishonor to your Uncle, the General Robert? You are caught in a trap as is an animal."
And then as I cowered there in my agony, very suddenly that terrible daredevil rose within me and gave to me a very strange counsel. As it was speaking to me my gaze was fixed upon the robe of state of the beautiful Grandmamma.
"Very well, then, that great Gouverneur Faulkner can give his chastis.e.m.e.nt and lay his commands upon the beautiful and wicked Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, in proper person, and not have the privilege of again addressing his faithful and devoted comrade Robert, who is dead. I, the Marquise Roberta of Grez and Bye, will accord to him an interview and in the language of this United States it will be "some" interview!" With which resolve I turned to make an answer to the faithful Bonbon at the door.
"Where awaits His Excellency, the Gouverneur Faulkner?" I questioned to him.
"In the hall at the bottom of the steps," he made reply to me.
"Attend him into the large drawing room for a waiting and make all of the lights to burn. Say to him that I will descend in a very small s.p.a.ce of time," I commanded.
"Yes, sir," he made reply and departed.
CHAPTER XX
"YOU ARE--MYSELF!"
And then in my wickedness I began to commit a desecration on the memory of my beautiful and honored Grandmamma Carruthers. I walked to that gla.s.s case in which reposed that gown of the beautiful flowered silk and took it therefrom and laid it upon a chair above the soiled riding breeches of corduroy I had so lately discarded. I opened the carved wooden box on the table underneath and took from it the silver slippers and the stockings of silk, also the lace fan and the silver band for the hair. Thereupon I walked to my mirror and commenced to make a toilet of great care but of a great rapidity.
My first action was to take down that lovelock and with the oil of roses to lay it in its accustomed place upon my cheek, which burned with a beautiful rose of shame and at the same moment with some other emotion that I did not understand; which emotion also made my eyes as bright as the night stars out in that Camp Heaven. The silver band held closely the rest of my mop and gave it the appearance of the very close coiffure which is the fashion of this day, and one very sweet young rose I put into it just above the curl with an effect of great and wicked beauty.
The coiffure having been accomplished, the rest of the toilet, from the slippers of the cloth of silver to the edge of fine old lace, now the color of rich cream, that rested upon the arch of my bare white breast was only a matter of a few moments, and then I stood away from my mirror and beheld myself therein.
"You are as beautiful as you are wicked, Roberta, Marquise of Grez and Bye, but you go to your death in a manner befitting a _grande dame_ of your ancient house of France, whose daughters once showed the rabble how to approach a guillotine, costumed in magnificence.
Descend for that cold knife to your heart!" And so speaking, I picked up my fan and made my way through the hall to the halfway of the wide steps. At that point a commotion occurred.
"Lordee! It"s the old lady come to ha"nt!" exclaimed my good Bonbon and with a groan he fled into the darkness in the back regions of the house.
And it happened that his loud cry brought a response which came to me before I was quite in readiness for it. As I reached the last step of the wide staircase, under the bright light I raised my eyes, and behold, the Gouverneur Faulkner to whom I had descended for the purpose of mortal combat, stood before me!
And was it that cruel and wicked and cold Gouverneur Faulkner who was to scourge me and keep me in the house of my Uncle, the General Robert, for a dishonor? It was not. Before me stood a tall man who was of a great paleness and a terrible fatigue also, covered with the dust of a long, hard ride, with eyes that were full of a fear, who stood and looked at me with not one word of any kind.
Suddenly I bowed my head and stretched out my bare arms, the one of which bore the red scar from the wound suffered for him, and thus suppliant I waited to receive the reproaches that were due to me.
And for a long minute I waited and then again for another long period of time and no word came to me. Then I raised my head!
For all women now in the world who have the love of a man in their hearts, and for those unborn who will come into that possession, I pray that they may be given the opportunity to plant in the hearts of those men of their desire the seed of a fine loyalty and service and comradeship, and that they may some day look into his eyes and see that seed slowly expand into a great white flower of mate love, as I beheld bloom for me in the eyes of my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner.
Long we stood there and looked into the soul of each other and let the flower grow, drinking from our hearts and the veins of our bodies until at last it was fully open; and then I went with a love cry into his arms held out to me, and pressed the heart of my soft woman"s body close against his own.
"I think my heart has always known, though my mind"s eyes were blind.
G.o.d, if I had lost you into that h.e.l.l of war, you daredevil!" he whispered and I tasted the salt of his tears on my lips.
"I am a lie," I whispered back to him.
"You are--myself," he laughed through a sob, and then, while with his large warm hand he held my throat as a person does the stem of a flower, he pressed his lips into mine until they reached to the heart within me. In a moment with my hands I held him back from me.
"I must go, my beloved, even as I have said," I cried to him. "I cannot stay to my dishonor and to the rage and unhappiness my Uncle, the General Robert, will experience when he discovers that a girl has cheated him in his great affection and generosity to her.
"It _is_ going to be hard on the General to have his grandmother come to life on his hands like this," laughed my Gouverneur Faulkner, bending and placing upon the creamy lace of my Grandmamma a kiss which was warm to my heart through the beflowered silk.
"Let me die in those trenches so that he will never know," I pleaded.
"No, sweetheart, that would be too easy. You are going to stay right here and face the old Forty-Two Centimeter," he made a reply to my pleading request as he bent and laid his cheek upon the lovelock.
"That curl ought to have opened my eyes when I sat and watched you open yours day before yesterday morning," was the remark he added to his cruel command that I stay and face my very dreadful and so very much beloved Uncle, the General Robert.
"I am afraid," I answered as I clung to him with a trembling.
"Yes, I know you are afraid of him--or anything," laughed my beloved Gouverneur Faulkner with a shake of my bare shoulders under his strong hands. "But perhaps these papers I have in my pocket from Captain La.s.selles, who is at the Mansion getting rid of dust, will help you out after the first explosion, which you will have to stand in a very few minutes from now, if that hall clock is correct and I know the General"s habits as I think I do."