It was settled that Mrs. Fanning should remain at Blue Cliff Hall, in charge of the establishment, with Laura Lytton as her guest and companion.
Dr. Jones and Electra would, of course, return to Beresford Manors. They would be accompanied by Mr. Joseph Brent--Victor Hartman--who had grown to be a great favorite with the aged doctor, and in truth almost indispensable to his comfort and entertainment.
Mr. Lyle went back to the duties of his ministry at Wendover.
And finally, as there was now a vacation of the courts, and the young barrister was temporarily at liberty, Alden Lytton decided to take his young bride to Europe for their bridal tour.
On their way to New York they stopped for a day in Richmond, because Emma wished to see her old "friend," Mrs. Grey, before leaving for Europe.
Alden Lytton, though he felt persuaded in his own mind that Mrs. Grey would not receive them, yet promptly complied with his fair bride"s wish.
So, the morning after their arrival at the Henrico House, in Richmond, Alden took a carriage and they drove to the old Crane Manor House and inquired for Mrs. Grey.
But, as Alden had foreseen, they received for an answer that Mrs. Grey was not at home.
Upon further inquiry they were told that she had left the city on business and would not return for a week.
And Alden Lytton rightly conjectured that she had gone away, and was staying away, for the one purpose of avoiding Emma and himself.
So the young bride, with a sigh, reluctantly resigned all hope of seeing her unworthy "friend" before sailing for Europe.
Early the next morning the newly-married pair took the steamboat for Washington, where in due time they safely arrived, and whence they took the train for the North.
They reached New York on Thursday night, had one intervening day to see something of the city and to make some few last purchases for their voyage, and on Sat.u.r.day at noon they embarked on the magnificent ocean steamship "Pekin," bound from New York to Southampton.
We must leave them on board their ship, and return and look up Mary Grey.
CHAPTER XLI.
MARY GREY"S MYSTERY.
After Mrs. Grey"s last interview with Alden Lytton, during which, partly because she lost her self-command and partly because she did not care longer to conceal her feelings, she had thrown off her mask, she sat down to review the situation.
"Well, I have betrayed myself," she mused. "I have let him see how I really feel about this marriage engagement between him and Emma Cavendish. He knows now how I loved him; if he has eyes in his head he sees now how I hate him.
"All right. I have now no further reason to deceive him. He has served my utmost purpose for his own and her own destruction. I no longer need his unconscious co-operation. I have his honor and his liberty, and her reputation and peace, in my power and at my mercy.
"And I have done all this myself, without the voluntary help of any human being. I have used men as the mechanic uses tools, making them do his work, or as the potter uses clay, molding it to his purpose.
"Let him marry Emma Cavendish. I can part them at any moment afterward and throw them into a felon"s prison, and cast her down from her proud place into misery and degradation.
"I _could_ stop their marriage now, or at the altar. But I will not do that; for to do that would be only to disappoint or grieve them. But my vengeance must strike a deeper blow. It must degrade and ruin them. I will wait until they have been married some time. Then, in the hour of their fancied security, I will come down upon them like an avalanche of destruction."
In the feverish excitement of antic.i.p.ating this fiendish consummation of her revenge she almost forgot her heinous crime, and ceased to be haunted by the hideous specter of her murdered lover.
It was on the fifteenth of the month, when she happened to take up the morning paper.
She turned first--as she always did--to the column containing notices of marriages and deaths.
And her face grew wild and white as she read:
MARRIED.--On the morning of the 10th instant, at Blue Cliff Hall, Virginia, the seat of the bride, by the Rev. Dr. Beresford Jones, Mr. Alden Lytton, of Richmond, to Miss Emma Angela, only daughter of the late Charles Cavendish, Governor of Virginia.
She read no further that day. There were other marriages following this; but she felt no curiosity now about them. And there was a formidable row of death notices, headed by the obituary of Mrs. Cavendish, but she did not even see it.
The announcement of the marriage had taken her by surprise. She had not expected to see it for a month yet to come. And, as she did not observe the notice of Mrs. Cavendish"s death, she could not understand why the marriage had been hastened by so many weeks.
"So it is over," she said. "It is over, and it has been over for five days. They are in the midst of their happiness, enjoyed at the expense of my misery. Theirs is a fool"s paradise from which I could eject them at any moment; but I will not--not just yet. The longer I suspend the blow the heavier it will fall at last. They will carry out their programme, I presume; so far, at least, as to go upon their bridal trip to Europe. I could stop them on the eve of their voyage; but I will not.
I will let them go and return, and hold their wedding-reception, and then, in the midst of their joy and triumph, in the presence of their admiring friends--"
She paused to gloat with demoniac enjoyment over the picture her wicked imagination had conjured up.
--"Then I will turn all their joy to despair, all their triumph to humiliation, all their glory to shame! And I will do all this alone--alone, or use others only as my blind tools.
"Of course they will take this city on their way to New York to embark for Europe. And they will call on me to show me their happiness, and take a keener relish of it from seeing the contrast of my misery. But they shall be disappointed in that, at least. I will not be dragged at the wheels of their triumphal car. I will not stay here to receive them.
I will leave town, and stay out of it until I am sure that they have pa.s.sed through and left it."
She kept her word.
She went down to Forestville, ostensibly to relieve a poor family suffering under an acc.u.mulation of afflictions, but really to be out of the way of the bridal pair, and to get up evidence in the case she intended to bring against the husband of Emma Cavendish.
When she had been but a few days at Forestville she received a letter from Miss Romania Crane--who in her absence kept up a sentimental correspondence with her--informing her of the visit of Mr. and Mrs.
Alden Lytton, the bride and bridegroom from Blue Cliffs, who stopped for a day in the city on their way to New York.
Immediately on her receipt of this letter she returned to Richmond and to the house of the Misses Crane.
And she very much surprised and shocked these ladies by a.s.suming an air of grief and distraction as extreme in itself as it was unaccountable to them.
They could not even imagine what was the matter with her. She refused to give any explanation of her apparent mental anguish, and she repelled all sympathy.
The Misses Crane were afraid she was going to lose her reason.
They went to see the minister and the minister"s wife on the subject.
They found only the lady at home. And to her they stated the mysterious case.
"There is something very heavy on her mind, my dear. I am sure there is something awful on her mind."
"There has been this long time, I think," said the minister"s wife.
"Yes, I know; but it is a thousand times worse now. My dear, she keeps her room nearly all day. She never comes to the table. If I send her meals up to her they come back almost untasted. And I a.s.sure you she does not sleep any better than she eats. Her room is over mine, and so I can hear her walking the floor half the night," said Miss Romania Crane.
"What can be the cause of her distress?" inquired the rector"s lady.
"I don"t know. I can"t get her to tell me. She only says that "her life is wrecked forever, and that she wishes only to be left to herself until death shall relieve her." And all that sort of talk," said Miss Romania.