Jane looked up. The strong light from the window threw her head into shadow; only the slight fluff of her hair glistened in the light. This made an aureole which framed the Madonna"s face.
"Well, Lucy, what is it?" she asked again simply.
"Max is going to be married."
"When?" rejoined Jane in the same quiet tone. Her mind was not on Max or on anything connected with him. It was on the shadow slowly settling upon all she loved.
"In December," replied Lucy, a note of triumph in her voice, her smile broadening.
"Who to?"
"Me."
With the single word a light ripple escaped from her lips.
Jane straightened herself in her chair. A sudden faintness pa.s.sed over her--as if she had received a blow in the chest, stopping her breath.
"You mean--you mean--that you have promised to marry Max Feilding!" she gasped.
"That"s exactly what I do mean."
The b.u.t.terfly smile about Lucy"s mouth had vanished. That straightening of the lips and slow contraction of the brow which Jane knew so well was taking its place. Then she added nervously, unclasping her hands and picking up her gloves:
"Aren"t you pleased?"
"I don"t know," answered Jane, gazing about the room with a dazed look, as if seeking for a succor she could not find. "I must think. And so you have promised to marry Max!" she repeated, as if to herself. "And in December." For a brief moment she paused, her eyes again downcast; then she raised her voice quickly and in a more positive tone asked, "And what do you mean to do with Ellen?"
"That"s what I want to talk to you about, you dear thing." Lucy had come prepared to ignore any unfavorable criticisms Jane might make and to give her only sisterly affection in return. "I want to give her to you for a few months more," she added blandly, "and then we will take her abroad with us and send her to school either in Paris or Geneva, where her grandmother can be near her. In a year or two she will come to us in Paris."
Jane made no answer.
Lucy moved uncomfortably in her chair. She had never, in all her life, seen her sister in any such mood. She was not so much astonished over her lack of enthusiasm regarding the engagement; that she had expected--at least for the first few days, until she could win her over to her own view. It was the deadly poise--the icy reserve that disturbed her. This was new.
"Lucy!" Again Jane stopped and looked out of the window. "You remember the letter I wrote you some years ago, in which I begged you to tell Ellen"s father about Archie and Barton Holt?"
Lucy"s eyes flashed.
"Yes, and you remember my answer, don"t you?" she answered sharply.
"What a fool I would have been, dear, to have followed your advice!"
Jane went straight on without heeding the interruption or noticing Lucy"s changed tone.
"Do you intend to tell Max?"
"I tell Max! My dear, good sister, are you crazy! What should I tell Max for? All that is dead and buried long ago! Why do you want to dig up all these graves? Tell Max--that aristocrat! He"s a dear, sweet fellow, but you don"t know him. He"d sooner cut his hand off than marry me if he knew!"
"I"m afraid you will have to--and this very day," rejoined Jane in a calm, measured tone.
Lucy moved uneasily in her chair; her anxiety had given way to a certain ill-defined terror. Jane"s voice frightened her.
"Why?" she asked in a trembling voice.
"Because Captain Holt or someone else will, if you don"t."
"What right has he or anybody else to meddle with my affairs?" Lucy retorted in an indignant tone.
"Because he cannot help it. I intended to keep the news from you for a time, but from what you have just told me you had best hear it now.
Barton Holt is alive. He has been in Brazil all these years, in the mines. He has written to his father that he is coming home."
All the color faded from Lucy"s cheeks.
"Bart! Alive! Coming home! When?"
"He will be here day after to-morrow; he is at Amboy, and will come by the weekly packet. What I can do I will. I have worked all my life to save you, and I may yet, but it seems now as if I had reached the end of my rope."
"Who said so? Where did you hear it? It CAN"T be true!"
Jane shook her head. "I wish it was not true--but it is--every word of it. I have read his letter."
Lucy sank back in her chair, her cheeks livid, a cold perspiration moistening her forehead. Little lines that Jane had never noticed began to gather about the corners of her mouth; her eyes were wide open, with a strained, staring expression. What she saw was Max"s eyes looking into her own, that same cold, cynical expression on his face she had sometimes seen when speaking of other women he had known.
"What"s he coming for?" Her voice was thick and barely audible.
"To claim his son."
"He--says--he"ll--claim--Archie--as--his--son!" she gasped. "I"d like to see any man living dare to--"
"But he can TRY, Lucy--no one can prevent that, and in the trying the world will know."
Lucy sprang from her seat and stood over her sister:
"I"ll deny it!" she cried in a shrill voice; "and face him down. He can"t prove it! No one about here can!"
"He may have proofs that you couldn"t deny, and that I would not if I could. Captain Holt knows everything, remember," Jane replied in her same calm voice.
"But n.o.body else does but you and Martha!" The thought gave her renewed hope--the only ray she saw.
"True; but the captain is enough. His heart is set on Archie"s name being cleared, and nothing that I can do or say will turn him from his purpose. Do you know what he means to do?"
"No," she replied faintly, more terror than curiosity in her voice.
"He means that you shall marry Barton, and that Archie shall be baptized as Archibald Holt. Barton will then take you both back to South America. A totally impossible plan, but--"
"I marry Barton Holt! Why, I wouldn"t marry him if he got down on his knees. Why, I don"t even remember what he looks like! Did you ever hear of such impudence! What is he to me?" The outburst carried with it a certain relief.
"What he is to you is not the question. It is what YOU are to Archie!
Your sin has been your refusal to acknowledge him. Now you are brought face to face with the consequences. The world will forgive a woman all the rest, but never for deserting her child, and that, my dear sister, IS PRECISELY WHAT YOU DID TO ARCHIE."
Jane"s gaze was riveted on Lucy. She had never dared to put this fact clearly before--not even to herself. Now that she was confronted with the calamity she had dreaded all these years, truth was the only thing that would win. Everything now must be laid bare.