The room was dark; only the moon shone in, but it would soon go down behind the gable of the tall church of St. Andrew.
Athalie reviewed the horrid dream called life. There were wealth, pride, and happiness in it: flatterers had called her the prettiest girl in Komorn, the queen, and pretended to adore her; then came a child by chance into the house--a ridiculous creature, a lifeless shadow, a cold doll, made to be an object of ridicule, to pa.s.s the time away by pushing it about. And only two years later, this vagrant, this white phantom, this reptile, was mistress of the house, and conquered hearts, turning a shipping-clerk, by the magic of her marble face, into his master"s powerful enemy, into a millionaire, and causing the betrothed bridegroom to be false to his troth.
What a wedding-day was that! The bride, recovering from her swoon, found herself lying alone on the ground. And when splendor and homage were at an end, she longed still to be loved--loved in secret and in concealment. This too was denied her.
What a memory was that!--the path she had trodden to the house of her former lover and back again, twice in the darkness! her vain expectation next day! how she had counted the strokes of the clock, amidst the noise of the auction! And he never came! Then long years of painful dissimulation, of disguised humiliation! There was only one person who understood her--who knew that the balm of her heart was to see her rival share her pa.s.sion, and fade away under it.
And the one man who knew to his cost what Athalie really was--the only hinderance to Timea"s happiness, the finder of the philosopher"s stone which exercises everywhere a malevolent spell--that one man finds his death by a single false step on the ice!
And then happiness comes back to the house, and no one is miserable but herself. In many a sleepless night the bitter cup had filled drop by drop up to the brim; only one was wanting to make it overflow; and that last drop was the insulting word, "You stupid creature!" To be scolded like a maid, humbled in his presence! Athalie"s limbs shook with fever.
What was now going on in the house? They were preparing for the morrow"s wedding. In the boudoir whispered the betrothed couple; from the kitchen, even through all the doors, came the noise of the merry-making servants.
But Athalie never heard the cheerful din: she heard only the whisper.
. . . She had something to do during the night. . . . There was no light in the room; but the moon shone in, and gave light enough to open a box and read the names of the poisons inside it--the unfailing drugs of an Eastern poisoner. Athalie chose among them, and smiled to herself. What a good jest it would be if to-morrow, at the moment of drinking some toast, the words should die on the lips of the feasting guests! if each saw the face of his neighbor turn yellow and green; if they all sprung up crying for help, and began a demoniac dance, fit to make the devil laugh; if the bride"s lovely face petrified into real marble, and the proud bridegroom made grimaces like a skull!
Ping! . . . A string gone in the piano! Athalie started so that she dropped what she held, and her hands twitched convulsively. It was only a string, coward! Are you so weak? She put back the poisons in her box, leaving out only one, and that not a deadly poison, only a sleeping-draught. The first idea had not satisfied her; that triumph would not suffice: it would not be sufficient revenge for "You stupid creature!" The tiger cares not for a corpse, he must have warm blood.
Some one will have to take poison, but that is only herself--a poison not to be bought at the chemist"s: it lies in the eye of St. George"s dragon. She slipped noiselessly out to go to the hiding-place whence a view of Timea"s room could be obtained. The sweet murmurs and the caressing looks of the lovers will be the poison she must absorb in order to be fully prepared.
The major was about to take leave, and held Timea"s hand in his. Her cheeks were so rosy! Was any more deadly poison needed? They did not speak of love, and yet no third person had a right to listen. The bridegroom asked questions allowed to no one else. "Do you sleep alone here?" he asked, with tender curiosity, lifting the silken hangings of the bed.
"Yes, since I became a widow."
"(And before too," whispered Athalie, behind the dragon.)
The bridegroom, availing himself of his privileges, pursued his researches in the bride"s room.
"Where does this door lead to?"
"Into an anteroom where my lady visitors take off their cloaks; you came that way when you visited me the first time."
"And the other little door?"
"Oh, never mind that--it only leads to my dressing-room."
"Has it no exit?"
"None; the water comes by a pipe from the kitchen, and flows away by a tap to the bas.e.m.e.nt."
"And this third door?"
"You know that is the corridor by which you reach the princ.i.p.al entrance."
"And where are the servants at night?"
"The females sleep near the kitchen, and the men in the bas.e.m.e.nt. Over my bed hang two bell-ropes, of which one goes to the women"s room and the other to the men"s."
"There is no one in the adjoining room?"
"There Sister Athalie and Mamma Sophie sleep."
"Frau Sophie too?"
"Yes, to be sure. You want to know everything. To-morrow it will all be differently arranged."
("To-morrow?")
"And do you lock the door when you go to bed?"
"Never. Why should I? All my servants love me, and are trustworthy; the front door is barred, and I am safe here."
"Is there nowhere a secret entrance to this room?"
"Ha! ha! You seem to take my house for a mysterious Venetian palace!"
("Is it your house? Did you build it?")
"Do, to please me, lock all your doors before you go to bed."
("He seems to guess what we shall all be dreaming of to-night.")
Timea smiled, and smoothed away the frown from the bridegroom"s grave face.
"Well, then, for your sake I will lock all my doors to-night."
("See that they are secure," whispered the dragon.)
Then followed a tender embrace and a long, long kiss.
"Do you pray, my beloved?"
"No; for the good G.o.d in whom I believe watches ever."
("How if He slept to-day?")
"Forgive me, dearest Timea; skepticism does not become a woman. Her adornment is piety; leave the rest to men. Pray to-night."
"You know I was a Moslem, and was never taught to pray."
"But now you are a Christian, and our prayers are beautiful. Take your prayer-book to-night."
"Yes, for your sake I will learn to pray."
The major found in the book of devotion Timar had once given his wife, the "prayer for brides."
"I will learn it by heart to-night."
"Yes, do so--do so!"
Timea read it aloud. Athalie felt a diabolical rage in her heart. The man will be discovering the secret in the wall; he will keep Timea up praying all night. Curses, curses on the prayer-book!