"If _I_ had written for information about you," I answered, "it would have been plain enough for me."
"Is it not plain enough for your uncle?"
"No."
"What does he say?"
"Why need you care to know, my darling?"
"I want to know, Valeria. There must be no secret between us in this matter. Did your uncle say anything when he showed you the major"s letter?"
"Yes."
"What was it?"
"My uncle told me that his letter of inquiry filled three pages, and he bade me observe that the major"s answer contained one sentence only. He said, "I volunteered to go to Major Fitz-David and talk the matter over.
You see he takes no notice of my proposal. I asked him for the address of Mr. Woodville"s mother. He pa.s.ses over my request, as he has pa.s.sed over my proposal--he studiously confines himself to the shortest possible statement of bare facts. Use your common-sense, Valeria. Isn"t this rudeness rather remarkable on the part of a man who is a gentleman by birth and breeding, and who is also a friend of mine?""
Eustace stopped me there.
"Did you answer your uncle"s question?" he asked.
"No," I replied. "I only said that I did not understand the major"s conduct."
"And what did your uncle say next? If you love me, Valeria, tell me the truth."
"He used very strong language, Eustace. He is an old man; you must not be offended with him."
"I am not offended. What did he say?"
"He said, "Mark my words! There is something under the surface in connection with Mr. Woodville, or with his family, to which Major Fitz-David is not at liberty to allude. Properly interpreted, Valeria, that letter is a warning. Show it to Mr. Woodville, and tell him (if you like) what I have just told you--""
Eustace stopped me again.
"You are sure your uncle said those words?" he asked, scanning my face attentively in the moonlight.
"Quite sure. But I don"t say what my uncle says. Pray don"t think that!"
He suddenly pressed me to his bosom, and fixed his eyes on mine. His look frightened me.
"Good-by, Valeria!" he said. "Try and think kindly of me, my darling, when you are married to some happier man."
He attempted to leave me. I clung to him in an agony of terror that shook me from head to foot.
"What do you mean?" I asked, as soon as I could speak. "I am yours and yours only. What have I said, what have I done, to deserve those dreadful words?"
"We must part, my angel," he answered, sadly. "The fault is none of yours; the misfortune is all mine. My Valeria! how can you marry a man who is an object of suspicion to your nearest and dearest friends?
I have led a dreary life. I have never found in any other woman the sympathy with me, the sweet comfort and companionship, that I find in you. Oh, it is hard to lose you! it is hard to go back again to my unfriended life! I must make the sacrifice, love, for your sake. I know no more why that letter is what it is than you do. Will your uncle believe me? will your friends believe me? One last kiss, Valeria!
Forgive me for having loved you--pa.s.sionately, devotedly loved you.
Forgive me--and let me go!"
I held him desperately, recklessly. His eyes, put me beside myself; his words filled me with a frenzy of despair.
"Go where you may," I said, "I go with you! Friends--reputation--I care nothing who I lose, or what I lose! Oh, Eustace, I am only a woman--don"t madden me! I can"t live without you. I must and will be your wife!"
Those wild words were all I could say before the misery and madness in me forced their way outward in a burst of sobs and tears.
He yielded. He soothed me with his charming voice; he brought me back to myself with his tender caresses. He called the bright heaven above us to witness that he devoted his whole life to me. He vowed--oh, in such solemn, such eloquent words!--that his one thought, night and day, should be to prove himself worthy of such love as mine. And had he not n.o.bly redeemed the pledge? Had not the betrothal of that memorable night been followed by the betrothal at the altar, by the vows before G.o.d! Ah, what a life was before me! What more than mortal happiness was mine!
Again I lifted my head from his bosom to taste the dear delight of seeing him by my side--my life, my love, my husband, my own!
Hardly awakened yet from the absorbing memories of the past to the sweet realities of the present, I let my cheek touch his cheek, I whispered to him softly, "Oh, how I love you! how I love you!"
The next instant I started back from him. My heart stood still. I put my hand up to my face. What did I feel on my cheek? (_I_ had not been weeping--I was too happy.) What did I feel on my cheek? A tear!
His face was still averted from me. I turned it toward me, with my own hands, by main force.
I looked at him--and saw my husband, on our wedding-day, with his eyes full of tears.
CHAPTER III. RAMSGATE SANDS.
EUSTACE succeeded in quieting my alarm. But I can hardly say that he succeeded in satisfying my mind as well.
He had been thinking, he told me, of the contrast between his past and his present life. Bitter remembrance of the years that had gone had risen in his memory, and had filled him with melancholy misgivings of his capacity to make my life with him a happy one. He had asked himself if he had not met me too late--if he were not already a man soured and broken by the disappointments and disenchantments of the past? Doubts such as these, weighing more and more heavily on his mind, had filled his eyes with the tears which I had discovered--tears which he now entreated me, by my love for him, to dismiss from my memory forever.
I forgave him, comforted him, revived him; but there were moments when the remembrance of what I had seen troubled me in secret, and when I asked myself if I really possessed my husband"s full confidence as he possessed mine.
We left the train at Ramsgate.
The favorite watering-place was empty; the season was just over. Our arrangements for the wedding tour included a cruise to the Mediterranean in a yacht lent to Eustace by a friend. We were both fond of the sea, and we were equally desirous, considering the circ.u.mstances under which we had married, of escaping the notice of friends and acquaintances.
With this object in view, having celebrated our marriage privately in London, we had decided on instructing the sailing-master of the yacht to join us at Ramsgate. At this port (when the season for visitors was at an end) we could embark far more privately than at the popular yachting stations situated in the Isle of Wight.
Three days pa.s.sed--days of delicious solitude, of exquisite happiness, never to be forgotten, never to be lived over again, to the end of our lives!
Early on the morning of the fourth day, just before sunrise, a trifling incident happened, which was noticeable, nevertheless, as being strange to me in my experience of myself.
I awoke, suddenly and unaccountably, from a deep and dreamless sleep with an all-pervading sensation of nervous uneasiness which I had never felt before. In the old days at the Vicarage my capacity as a sound sleeper had been the subject of many a little harmless joke. From the moment when my head was on the pillow I had never known what it was to awake until the maid knocked at my door. At all seasons and times the long and uninterrupted repose of a child was the repose that I enjoyed.
And now I had awakened, without any a.s.signable cause, hours before my usual time. I tried to compose myself to sleep again. The effort was useless. Such a restlessness possessed me that I was not even able to lie still in the bed. My husband was sleeping soundly by my side. In the fear of disturbing him I rose, and put on my dressing-gown and slippers.
I went to the window. The sun was just rising over the calm gray sea.
For a while the majestic spectacle before me exercised a tranquilizing influence on the irritable condition of my nerves. But ere long the old restlessness returned upon me. I walked slowly to and fro in the room, until I was weary of the monotony of the exercise. I took up a book, and laid it aside again. My attention wandered; the author was powerless to recall it. I got on my feet once more, and looked at Eustace, and admired him and loved him in his tranquil sleep. I went back to the window, and wearied of the beautiful morning. I sat down before the gla.s.s and looked at myself. How haggard and worn I was already, through awaking before my usual time! I rose again, not knowing what to do next.
The confinement to the four walls of the room began to be intolerable to me. I opened the door that led into my husband"s dressing-room, and entered it, to try if the change would relieve me.
The first object that I noticed was his dressing-case, open on the toilet-table.
I took out the bottles and pots and brushes and combs, the knives and scissors in one compartment, the writing materials in another. I smelled the perfumes and pomatums; I busily cleaned and dusted the bottles with my handkerchief as I took them out. Little by little I completely emptied the dressing-case. It was lined with blue velvet. In one corner I noticed a tiny slip of loose blue silk. Taking it between my finger and thumb, and drawing it upward, I discovered that there was a false bottom to the case, forming a secret compartment for letters and papers.