"This is Miss Grace Sheraton," I said to Ellen, and stopped. Then I drew them both away from the door and from the gallery, walking to the shadows of the long row of elms which shaded the street, where we would be less observed.
For the first time in my life I saw the two together and might compare them. Without my will or wish I found my eyes resting upon Ellen.
Without my will or wish, fate, nature, love, I know not what, made selection.
Ellen had not as yet spoken. "Miss Sheraton," I repeated to her finally, "is the lady to whom I am engaged to be married."
The vicious Sheraton temper broke bounds. There was more than half a sneer on my fiancee"s face. "I should easily know who this lady is," she said.
Ellen, flushed, perturbed, would have returned to the gallery, but I raised my hand. Grace Sheraton went on. "An engagement is little. You and he, I am advised, lived as man and wife, forgetting that he and I were already pledged as man and wife."
"That is not true!" broke in Ellen, her voice low and even. She at least had herself in hand and would tolerate no vulgar scene.
"I could not blame either of you for denying it."
"It was Gordon Orme that told her," I said to Ellen.
She would not speak or commit herself, except to shake her head, and to beat her hands softly together as I had seen her do before when in distress.
"A gentleman must lie like a gentleman," went on Grace Sheraton, mercilessly. "I am here to congratulate you both."
I saw a drop of blood spring from Ellen"s bitten lip.
"What she says is true," I went on to Ellen. "It is just as Gordon Orme told your father, and as I admitted to you. I was engaged to be married to Miss Sheraton, and I am still so engaged."
Still her small hands beat together softly, but she would not cry out, she would not exclaim, protest, accuse. I went on with the accusation against myself.
"I did not tell you. I had and have no excuse except that I loved you. I am here now for my punishment. You two shall decide it."
At last Ellen spoke to my fiancee. "It is true," said she. "I thought myself engaged to Mr. Cowles. I did not know of you--did not know that he had deceived me, too. But fortunately, my father found us before it was too late."
"Let us spare ourselves details," rejoined Grace Sheraton. "He has wronged both of us."
"Yes, he has done wrong," I heard Ellen say. "Perhaps all men do--I do not want to know. Perhaps they are not always to blame--I do not want to know."
The measure of the two women was there in those words, and I felt it.
"Could you want such a man?" asked Grace Sheraton, bitterly. I saw Ellen shake her head slowly. I heard her lips answer slowly. "No," she said.
"Could you?"
I looked to Grace Sheraton for her answer, and as I looked I saw a strange and ghastly change come over her face. "My G.o.d!" she exclaimed, reaching out a hand against a tree trunk to steady herself, "Your leavings? No! But what is to become of me!"
"You wish him?" asked Ellen. "You are entirely free. But now, if you please, I see no reason why I should trouble you both. Please, now, I shall go."
But Grace Sheraton sprang to her side as she turned. I was amazed at her look. It was entreaty on her face, not anger! She held out her hands to Ellen, her face strangely distorted. And then I saw Ellen"s face also change. She put out her hand in turn.
"There," she said, "time mends very much. Let us hope--" Then I saw her throat work oddly, and her words stop.
No man may know the speech with which women exchange thought. I saw the two pa.s.s a few paces apart, saw Grace Sheraton stoop and whisper something.
It was her last desperate resource, a hazard handsomely taken. It won, as courage should, or at least as much as a lie may win at any time; for it was a bitter, daring, desperate shaming lie she whispered to Ellen.
As Ellen"s face turned toward me again I saw a slow, deep scorn invade it. "If I were free," she said to me, "if you were the last man on earth, I would not look at you again. You deceived me--but that was only a broken word, and not a broken life! This girl--indeed she may ask what will become of her!"
"I am tired of all these riddles," I broke out, my own anger now arising, and myself not caring to be made thus sport of petticoats.
"Your duty is clear," went on my new accuser, flashing out at me. "If you have a trace of manhood left, then let the marriage be at once--to-morrow. How dare you delay so long!" She choked in her own anger, humiliation, scorn--I know not what, blushed in her own shame.
Orme was right. I have always been a stupid a.s.s. It took me moments to grasp the amazing truth, to understand the daring stroke by which Grace Sheraton had won her game. It had cost her much. I saw her standing there trembling, tearful, suffering, her eyes wet. She turned to me, waiting for me to save her or leave her d.a.m.ned.
I would not do it. All the world will say that I was a fool, that I was in no way bound to any abhorrent compact, that last that any man could tolerate. Most will say that I should have turned and walked away from both. But I, who have always been simple and slow of wit, I fear, and perhaps foolish as to certain principles, now felt ice pa.s.s through all my veins as my resolution came to me.
I could not declare against the woman who had thus sworn against me.
With horror I saw what grotesque injustice was done to me. I broke out into a horrible laughter.
I had said that I had come for my punishment, and here it was for me to take. I had told Orme that one day I would pay him for my life. Here now was Orme"s price to be paid! If this girl had not sinned with me, she had done so by reason of me. It was my fault; and a gentleman pays for his fault in one way or another. There seemed to me, I say, but one way in which I could pay, I being ever simple and slow of wit. I, John Cowles, without thinking so far as the swift consequences, must now act as the shield of the girl who stood there trembling, the girl who had confessed to her rival her own bitter sin, but who had lied as to her accomplice in her sin!
"It is true," I said, turning to Ellen. "I am guilty. I told you I deserved no mercy, and I ask none. I have not asked Miss Sheraton to release me from my engagement. I shall feel honored if she will now accept my hand. I shall be glad if she will set the date early as may be."
Night was now coming swiftly from the hills.
Ellen turned to pa.s.s back toward the door. "Your pardon!" I exclaimed to Grace Sheraton, and sprang after Ellen.
"Good-by," I said, and held out my hand to her. "Let us end all these heroics, and do our best. Where is your husband? I want to congratulate him."
"My husband!" she said in wonder. "What do you mean?"
Night, I say, was dropping quickly, like a shroud spread by a mighty hand.
"Belknap--" I began.
"Ah," she said bitterly. "You rate me low--as low as I do you!"
"But your father told me himself you two were to be married," I broke out, surprise, wonder, dread, rebellion now in every fiber of my body and soul.
"My father loves me dearly," she replied slowly. "But he cannot marry me until I wish. No, I am not married, and I never will be. Good-by."
Again I heard my own horrible laughter.
Night had fallen thick and heavy from the mountains, like a dark, black shroud.
CHAPTER XLII
FACE TO FACE
I did not see Colonel Meriwether. He pa.s.sed on through to his seat in Albemarle without stopping in our valley longer than over night. Part of the next morning I spent in writing a letter to my agents at Huntington, with the request that they should inform Colonel Meriwether at once on the business situation, since now he was in touch by mail. The alternative was offered him of taking over my father"s interests through these creditors, accepting them as partners, or purchasing their rights; or of doing what my father had planned to do for him, which was to care individually for the joint account, and then to allot each partner a dividend interest, carrying a clear t.i.tle.