The widow in fact and the widow in heart stood face to face above a sleeping infant. They were both dressed for traveling and so was the babe. The dismantled rooms showed why. Young still, for the years of either"s romance had been few, each face, as the other contemplated it, told the story of sorrow which Time, for all its kindliness, would never efface. But the charm of either remained--perceptible at this hour as perhaps it would never be again to the same extent. Antoinette basked in the light of Ermentrude"s beauty enn.o.bled by renunciation, and Ermentrude in that wonderful look in her friend"s plain face which came at great crises and made her for the moment the equal of the best.
They had said little; and they said little now, as is the way of the strong amongst us when an act is to be performed which wrings the heart but satisfies the conscience.
The child was legitimate. It must not grow up under a shadow. To insure its welfare and raise no doubt in its own mind as it grew in knowledge and feeling, the two women must separate. No paltering with this duty, and no delay. A month of baby cries and baby touches might weaken the real mother. It should be now. It should be to-day.
But first, a final word--a parting question. It was uttered by Ermentrude.
"You will go back to France?"
"Yes. I can easily live there. And you, Ermentrude?"
"To New York. I shall never go far from him. But he and I will never meet. My world will not be his world. I shall make my own place."
"As Ermentrude Taylor?"
"As Mrs. Ermentrude Taylor. I am a wife. I shall never forget that fact."
"And the child? Will you never come to see it?"
Ermentrude"s head fell and she stood a long time without answering. Then with a steady look she calmly said: "I can think of but one contingency which might shake my resolution to leave her yours without the least interruption from me. If he--Antoinette, if he were left alone and childless, I might see my duty differently from now. You must be prepared for that."
"Ermentrude, when you send me this little shoe--See, I will leave one on and give you the other, I shall know that you are coming, or that you want the child. My life is yours as I once promised, and do you think I would hold back the child?"
And again their hands met as once before, in that strong clasp, which means: "Trust me to the death and beyond it."
With Antoinette it was to the death, as we have seen. Warned by Ermentrude of the appalling results of their plan to bring father and child together, and entreated to fly lest her story should imperil the secret upon the preservation of which his very life now hung, she answered to the call as she had promised, and thus acquitted her debt though she failed to save him.
Of her previous act in disfiguring his photograph in her temporary lodging-place, we shall never know the full story. The picture had been hers for years, given her by Ermentrude on their parting, so that the child should not be without some semblance of her father even if she should not know him as such, and it was to secure this clue to their now doubly dangerous secret that Madame Duclos ransacked her baggage previous to her flight from the New York hotel. But whether its destruction in the peculiar manner we know was the result of simple precaution, or of a feeling of antagonism so strong against this destroyer of her beloved"s peace, that it had to be expended in some way before she felt strong enough for that supreme sacrifice in his favor toward which events seemed hurrying her, may be known in Eternity but will never be told in Time.
And Ermentrude? What of her? Alone, robbed of husband and child and friend--where shall we look for her in this world of extreme tribulation? Search the hospitals of France where they press closest to the trenches. There will you find the woman who losing all has found much. Blessing and blest! the angel of the battlefield whom the bullets spare since her work on earth is not yet accomplished!