She was a sharp-witted child, with plenty of brain-power, and a marvellous capacity for self-education. At the age of twelve her parents had sold her for a paltry sum to the proprietor of a travelling circus. This man had perceived at once that there was plenty of grit in the precocious child. He had got her very cheap. If he trained her carefully he might make a good deal of money out of her.
The precocious little Valerie left her parents without the slightest regret--her life had been one long torture with them. The circus-proprietor was a big, burly man, not dest.i.tute of a rough geniality. There was a hard look in his eyes, a dogged squareness of the jaw that suggested a latent brutality.
On the whole, however, he was a welcome relief from her former torturers, who had never thrown a kind word to her from the day of her birth. Sometimes he was generous, sometimes he was brutal, as the mood took him. Often he swore at her till she trembled in every limb.
Occasionally, in his cups, he beat her. But he was always sorry the next day, and did his best to make amends. In short, he was a ruffian with a certain amount of decent feeling, and an uncertain temperament.
She stayed with him till she was seventeen. She might have stayed with him for ever, had not a sudden severance been put to their relations, by the man"s sudden death, brought about prematurely by his constant indulgence in alcohol.
Valerie could never recall the years that succeeded without a shudder.
The circus was broken up, she was left helpless and friendless.
It was during those terrible years that the iron entered her soul, when she experienced the keen, cruel suffering of the really poor, when she went to bed night after night, cold and hungry, after tramping the streets in vain for work.
A weaker spirit would have succ.u.mbed to the temptation that was always at hand, for she was a very attractive girl. But she was resolved, with her indomitable grit, to keep herself pure. She turned away disdainfully from the leering old men, the callous young ones who accosted her as she paced the streets in her restless tramp for an honest living. Better the river than that!
After many vicissitudes, she came to anchor at last. She was then about twenty-two. She was very clever at educating herself. She had taught herself to sing, she had taught herself to play the piano, she had taught herself to dance.
She got an engagement at one of the minor halls in Paris to do a turn which combined singing and dancing. She was very pretty and attractive.
In a small way she made a name. At the end of three months the manager trebled her salary.
To this minor music hall came one night the rich financier, a somewhat shady one, if the truth must be told, Monsieur Varenne, a man of about fifty-five who had never married.
He was greatly attracted by this elegant young girl. Her voice was small, her dancing was nothing great. But there was an indefinable charm about her that appealed to his somewhat jaded senses.
He obtained an introduction through the manager, who was only too anxious to oblige such a well-known personage. He invited her to supper. She accepted the invitation graciously, but coldly. Her coldness inflamed him the more.
When they met, he was surprised at her cleverness, the correctness with which she expressed herself. This was certainly no ordinary girl of the music halls.
"Tell me something about yourself, my dear," he said, as they sat over their coffee. "I did not expect to find you such a charming companion."
Valerie smiled a little bitterly. "I have not very much to tell. I expect my lot has been like that of many thousands in this delightful world. I am a child of the gutter. My father and mother beat and starved me, and sold me for a paltry sum to the proprietor of a travelling circus. It wasn"t exactly a rosy life then, but it was paradise to where I had been. He died; I was thrown on my beam ends. I can"t tell you what I have been through for the last few years. I couldn"t bear to talk of it--I have suffered everything that the poor have to suffer in such profusion--cold, hunger, the most absolute misery. And, at last," she looked round at the luxurious appointments of the restaurant a little disdainfully, "I find myself in receipt of a decent salary, and the guest of a rich man who has pressed upon me every dainty. And I have so often wanted a meal!"
Varenne was a very kindly man, in spite of his somewhat sharp ways in business. Those last few pathetic words had gone straight to his heart.
She had often wanted a meal, and she was a most attractive girl! Many would have called her beautiful.
"It is a sad history, my poor child," he said sympathetically. He paused a moment before he put the delicate question. "And during those terrible years, when you suffered hunger and privation, you kept yourself straight? It would have been so easy to go wrong, so excusable under the circ.u.mstances."
"Of course," she answered, and there was a note of wounded pride, of indignation, in her voice. "I am not that sort of woman--better the river than that. I might give myself to a man out of love or grat.i.tude, but never merely for money."
It was a new experience for the wealthy financier. Here was a girl who had just stepped off the platform of a music hall, where she was, no doubt, earning a very modest salary, who had grit and backbone in her, and, moreover, a proper pride and self-respect.
He had, of course, with the easy confidence of a man of the world, imagined the usual termination to such an adventure. But he recognised at once that he could not make any proposition of the kind he meditated.
He pressed her hand tenderly at parting, and arranged a further meeting.
They met several times, and Varenne went through agonies of indecision.
But the attraction was too strong, and at last he asked her to marry him. It was that or losing her altogether.
And did it matter much? His world would laugh at him as a matter of course, say he had got into his dotage. And a girl who was young enough to be his daughter! There is no fool like an old fool, he told himself rather ruefully.
But she had so subjugated him that he was quite a humble wooer in spite of the enormous advantages he was offering her.
"Of course I am an old man, I cannot expect you to have any real affection for me," he said.
She met his glance quite frankly. "I have never been in love with anybody; my life has been too hard to permit me to indulge in the softer emotions. But I like you very much. I have always hated rich men; they think they can buy anything with their gold. You are a rich man, I know, you have told me so yourself, but you have a kind nature and a good heart."
"And can you overlook the disparity of years?" he questioned, still very humble.
"I am twenty-two, but I don"t think I am very young; I am old in experience and bitterness. Well, if you care to risk the experiment, I will be your wife. I will do my best to make you happy."
They were married. And this marriage was the turning point in Valerie"s life. If everything had gone smoothly, she might have forgotten those bitter experiences, outlived her still more bitter rancour against the prosperous and well-to-do.
Unfortunately the friends of Monsieur Varenne would not forgive him for this false step, so unpardonable in a man of his intelligence and position. He was a fool, that was clear, but they were not going to abet him in his mad folly. Their doors were shut against his wife, this creature of the music halls, to whom he was going to leave his fortune.
After this bitter experience, the iron entered even deeper into her soul. Her husband was kindness and tenderness itself. In his devotion to his young wife, he paid no attention to the fact that he had cut himself off from his old friends, his old social life.
He was ready to comply with her slightest wish. He showered on her the most costly gifts, his purse was absolutely at her disposal. She had everything that wealth could give, except the one thing she craved, to mix on equal terms with these people who despised her.
When the kindly old man died, she mourned him sincerely. If she had never loved him, in the true sense of the word, she had felt for him a very warm and grateful affection. On his death-bed, she had faltered forth a few words of self-reproach, had blamed herself for taking advantage of his generosity, for not having sufficiently counted the cost to himself.
On this point he had rea.s.sured her. "I have been very happy, my dear, happier than I ever expected to be. I would not have anything changed."
She came into that considerable fortune which was of so little use to her. During her few years of married life she had educated herself into a woman of considerable accomplishments, for she had a very quick and acute intelligence.
Her socialist proclivities were now fully developed, after the scurvy treatment at the hands of her husband"s friends. The circles where these doctrines were preached readily opened their doors to an attractive and enthusiastic young woman, whose wealth would be very useful for propaganda. She was more than the equal of these purse-proud parvenus, who would not accept her acquaintance, in intellect and behaviour. She felt it bitterly.
Very soon she came under the influence of Contraras, who was possessed of great personal magnetism. His reasoned arguments, his fiery eloquence, quickly led her a step further--from socialism to anarchy.
In a very short s.p.a.ce she became one of the leading spirits of the brotherhood. As the old regime would not receive her, she would do her best to overthrow it, and a.s.sert the doctrine of absolute equality.
Contraras came frequently to the Grand Hotel de la Paix to visit his young colleague. He had very charming manners, this elderly enthusiast, and Valerie liked him very much, apart from his principles. He was one of the few rich men she had ever known, her late husband being another, whom she did not despise. He was no mere h.o.a.rder of wealth, using it as a means to enslave his less fortunate fellow-creatures.
Contraras came in one afternoon in a very cheerful mood. She looked at him eagerly. She could read his countenance pretty well by now.
"You have something to tell me, Contraras?"
The old man smiled. "Yes, my dear, I have got what we wanted. You can walk in boldly. There will be no smuggling through the back door, although we could have managed that, if the other had failed."
"Did you get it in the quarter you expected?"
"Yes; I had a little tussle with del Pineda, but I overcame his scruples. Besides, he is considerably in my debt. I a.s.sured him that he would never be accused of complicity, that I would take all the blame on my own shoulders."
He rubbed his hands and chuckled softly.
"What does Contraras, a man of means and position, with powerful connections in Spain, know of the secret sentiments of Mademoiselle Delmonte, a charming young lady of wealth, whom he has met abroad?
Mademoiselle Delmonte asks for his good offices in a certain matter of a most, apparently, innocent nature. He places himself at her disposal, and secures what she wants through the agency of a certain Duke who is equally ignorant of her real purposes."
A dreamy look stole into the young woman"s eyes. She spoke in a low voice, as if she were muttering to herself.
"A week to wait, only just one little week. And then, if all goes as we think and hope--the dawn of the new era! But I shall not live to see it."