A QUEEN OF HEARTS 
 
 mi" BY ttt* 
 
 ELIZABETH PHIPPS TRAIN
 
 A QUEEN OF HEARTS
 
 BY ELIZABETH PHIPPS TRAIN 
 
 A SOCIAL HIGHWAYMAN 
 
 THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A PROFESSIONAL 
 BEAUTY 
 
 A MARITAL LIABILITY 
 
 ISSUED IN THE LOTOS LIBRARY 
 
 Tall i6mo. Illustrated. Buckram, 75 cents per volume 
 
 
 
 A QUEEN OF HEARTS 
 I xamo. Goth, ornamental, $1.35
 
 A 
 
 QUEEN OF HEARTS 
 
 BY 
 ELIZABETH PHIPPS TRAIN 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY 
 PHILADELPHIA MDCCCXCVIII
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1897, 
 
 BY 
 ELIZABETH PHIFFS TRAIN.
 
 PUBLISHER'S NOTE 
 
 (SOME months ago a gentleman chanced to dis- 
 cover a quantity of loose manuscript in a secret 
 drawer of a desk which he had bought at auction. 
 This, out of mere idle curiosity, he sorted and 
 arranged, becoming so interested in its perusal 
 while placing it in order that he concluded to edit 
 it for publication. 
 
 It was claimed by the auctioneer who sold it 
 that the desk had been the property of a celebrated 
 actress, but he was unable to furnish the lady's 
 name; nor was it possible for the purchaser to 
 identify her by means of her manuscript, as 
 throughout her history she had made use of 
 initials only in referring both to persons and places. 
 
 Himself a man of wide acquaintance with the 
 stage as well as the social world, Mr. J. con- 
 sidered that where he was baffled in an attempt at 
 identification others were not likely to be more 
 successful. Therefore, having taken the additional 
 precaution to change the initials of the names 
 which he filled in, according to his fancy as they 
 occurred in the manuscript, he has thought it no 
 harm to offer these memoirs to the public.)
 
 A QUEEN OF HEARTS 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TO-DAY Lisa was married. A simple sentence 
 that, and how easily written ! My pen slipped as 
 smoothly over the paper as if I were writing 
 
 " How do you do ? It is a pleasant day " 
 
 My God, my God ! how have I been crucified this 
 day! How great agony can a woman's heart 
 endure and not break ! 
 
 Yet I bore it well, even to kissing my girl's 
 husband, and bidding him love and cherish her. 
 Ah, my training stood me in good stead. I 
 smiled, I chattered, I played my part: how, did 
 they say ? " Like a gracious sovereign bestowing 
 the hand of a princess royal upon a noble suitor." 
 Play-actress! cheat! impostor! Was it so was 
 it so I felt ? No ; no. Like a woman, rather ; a 
 miserable, hapless, hopeless woman, who had no 
 choice left her but to rend her soul with her own 
 fingers ; to tear, with determined, deliberate hands, 
 her heart from her breast and, ruthlessly, in the 
 very face and eyes of the public, trample it be- 
 neath her own feet ; to ache, and suffer, and sob 
 
 5
 
 6 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 internally, while she smiled at the crowd and 
 danced merrily to the pipes. 
 
 Oh, the comfort of my own presence and none 
 other. My whole being is en deshabille ; I can 
 loosen all the bonds that have constrained me 
 throughout the long day, and let my face assume 
 what look it will. If I might but talk to some one ; 
 give vent to all this agony that oppresses me. I 
 want to throw myself and all my troubles upon 
 some sympathizing breast and make moan, so 
 relieving my heart and securing that pity which 
 no one would ever dream of bestowing on a 
 queen of comedy. 
 
 Why should I not, for want of a better, make 
 blank paper my confidante ? I have always kept 
 a brief journal of events, this, which has to-day, 
 for the first time, assumed the character of a 
 transcript of emotions. What if I create a fresh 
 interest for myself by writing out the story of my 
 life, and, when I shall have brought it up to this 
 day, I will place it in the hands of a stern reviewer, 
 my own conscience, and let it pronounce a critical 
 estimate of the ethical value of the work. 
 
 What has made such utter shipwreck of my life ? 
 No woman has ever had greater success in the 
 special career she has chosen than I. No woman 
 in my position has ever received more respect and 
 appreciation. I have never even experienced that 
 temptation to sin which, it is said, so generally
 
 A Queen of Hearts 7 
 
 assails women of the stage. It is no credit to me 
 that my reputation is without stain or blemish. It 
 would simply be impossible for me, constituted as 
 I am, to have permitted immorality to attaint me. 
 I cannot imagine a woman allowing her conduct 
 to fall below the standard of her own self-respect. 
 
 I am rich ; I am virtuous, talented, beautiful, 
 there is no vanity in the remark ; my beauty has 
 long been a matter of public comment; besides 
 which, exquisitely lovely as my Lisa was to-day 
 in her wedding-robes, it was I, her mother, who 
 provoked the admiration of the crowd. She, my 
 blessed little altar of sacrifice, chided me laugh- 
 ingly for outshining the bride, and even the proud 
 and radiant husband scolded me roundly for 
 eclipsing his little wife upon her marriage-day. 
 
 What is this ? a tear, right in the middle of the 
 sheet ! Do not let me come to tears, O Heaven, 
 I beseech thee ! I have a pretty hatred of damp 
 women. And what cause for tears has a woman 
 endowed with all the advantages enumerated 
 above? That is my secret. Later, if I do not 
 abandon my present purpose, I intend to pour it 
 into one faithful breast, which, if I am then so 
 minded, I can forthwith do to death without fear 
 of criminal proceedings. 
 
 I think it was that one unlicensed action of mine 
 so long ago that has cast its shadow over my life. 
 Do I regret it? I cannot say. Given the same
 
 8 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 conditions, would I repeat it ? Perhaps. Should 
 I be a happier woman to-day if I had not com- 
 mitted it ? Who can tell. 
 
 To-day I am thirty-seven years old. Lisa chose 
 that her wedding should take place upon the anni- 
 versary of my birth. My feast-day, as they say 
 abroad. Humph ! A Barmecidal feast, in very 
 truth. Nearly every dish upon my table is empty. 
 But one holds savory and satisfying viands : that 
 containing the love which exists between my child 
 and me. 
 
 Let me look back across thirty-seven years, 
 then, to a day when Time first had significance for 
 me. An ungenerous moment that of my birth, 
 bestowing and depriving in the same instant. For 
 that brief space which gave me breath robbed my 
 mother of the feeble spark of life which had 
 burned but dimly within her since she had been 
 left a poor, unfortunate little wife ; an expectant 
 mother, scarcely out of her bridehood to do 
 battle with a world which held her fittingly pun- 
 ished for a supreme act of folly and weakness. 
 
 In the speech of that little hamlet which com- 
 posed her universe she had " made a fool of her- 
 self" by marrying a foreigner; a gay, unprincipled, 
 attractive young Frenchman ; a light-opera tenor, 
 who had been sent into temporary residence in 
 Sheraton in order that the dry, pure air of the 
 place might benefit and restore an overtaxed voice.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 9 
 
 Rumor has it that she was a village beauty. 
 Gossip (and, alas ! I fear this time the crone's voice 
 is that of truth as well) insists he was a rogue and 
 rascal. At all events, not many months succeeded 
 her honeymoon before the poor " fool" awoke to the 
 discovery that, to all intents and purposes, though 
 Death had no part in her bereavement, she was a 
 widow. Paul Carette, after a year's wearisome expa- 
 triation from that land of Bohemia which was so 
 congenial to his temperament ; after twelve months' 
 dreary stagnation in one of the world's kitchen- 
 gardens, in one of those dull villages where the 
 fairest blooms are but those of vegetables ; where 
 the atmosphere, mental, moral, and physical, is 
 adapted solely to the cultivation of useful crops ; 
 where brightness and sunshine are rather feared 
 than courted, lest they injure, by their too great po- 
 tency, springing plants and tender growths, after 
 an unsuccessful attempt to enliven this depressing 
 monotony by a legitimately sentimental episode, my 
 father, divesting himself of marital obligations as 
 easily as he had assumed them, took an essentially 
 Gallic leave of Sheraton and of the pretty korn- 
 blume which he had so carelessly torn from its 
 safely established roots. 
 
 If I speak flippantly of .my father's conduct, it is 
 not that I do not reprobate it heartily. I hold 
 him a coward, a scoundrel, a worse than thief and 
 brigand, to have deliberately and of set purpose
 
 io A Queen of Hearts 
 
 acquired a treasure of inestimable value, a thing 
 of immortal worth, only to drop it lightly from his 
 indifferent hold into the mire of unavailing regret 
 and woe when he had made an exhaustive exami- 
 nation of its exquisite and lovely intricacies. I 
 have no words harsh enough to condemn properly 
 the man who cheats and betrays a woman, be she 
 wife or mistress. And yet and yet, in treating 
 of my father's baseness, I, Pauline Mavis, must 
 need take heed of that divine command, so vitally 
 qualified : " Let him that is without sin among you 
 cast the first stone." 
 
 And so my hand falls powerless, impotent, for, 
 in sooth, I, who would make the assault, am far 
 from sinless ; am guilty, indeed, even in fashion like 
 unto that I would condemn. It is a fearful, a most 
 sad and miserable thing, for a child to discover in 
 itself those parental traits which it most abhors ; 
 to seek in its own character the reproduction of 
 the admirable features of the one parent, only to 
 behold the detestable lineaments of the other. I 
 would have moulded myself after my mother's 
 image; Nature fashioned me more largely after 
 that of my father. By temperament I am so akin 
 to him that, even while I pity and deprecate my 
 mother's wrong and anguish, I can in a measure 
 sympathize with and understand the motives that 
 directed the dastardly conduct which occasioned it. 
 
 For, have I not, likewise, been constrained,
 
 A Queen of Hearts 1 1 
 
 coerced, hampered, fretted beyond the limits of 
 my endurance by the narrow, dull, and dreary- 
 life of Sheraton village? Have I not sought, 
 conscientiously and with real ardor, to content 
 myself with the companionship of turnips, carrots, 
 and cabbages ? Have I not tried earnestly to cul- 
 tivate the belief that vegetable blooms were real 
 flowers, and that their ofttimes delicate beauty 
 indicated refinement and sensibility within the 
 plant, only to be disappointed as I have watched 
 the fair promise of higher things fade away, and the 
 fruit develop into a mere article of utility, fit alone 
 for the consumption of boors and clod-hoppers ? 
 
 Her husband's desertion left my mother stranded. 
 She had no money, no family, no resources, and 
 but one available friend. But he was a host in 
 himself. 
 
 James Mavis was the recently settled minister 
 of the Sheraton orthodox church. He was like- 
 wise my mother's cousin, and had hoped to marry 
 her. He lived in the parsonage with his mother, 
 a dear, tender old soul, to whom I owe the few 
 indulgencies of my childhood. The news of her 
 niece's misfortune no sooner became public prop- 
 erty than Aunt Caroline hastened to her, asserting 
 that she came as her son's ambassadress, to offer 
 the protection and shelter of his home to her for 
 so long a time as she should feel disposed to 
 accept them.
 
 12 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 The proposition afforded Hobson's choice to the 
 desolate woman. Fain was she, in her desperate 
 strait, to comply with so happy a suggestion ; and 
 so it was that I, danseuse, comedienne, queen of 
 opera bouffe, came to be born beneath the roof of 
 that direst of all respectabilities, an orthodox 
 parsonage. 
 
 There I existed, I grew up, I dwelt. I did not 
 live: I never lived until I got away from those 
 stunting, crippling, paralyzing principles and tra- 
 ditions. No one in that house indeed, no one in 
 the whole village understood me. There was too 
 much of the alien about me for the comprehension 
 of those excellent, but circumscribed, souls. My 
 moods, impulses, and instincts astonished, dis- 
 gusted, and shocked them. 
 
 They would have had me follow the village 
 pattern, become a stolid maiden of cut-and-dried 
 ideas and inclinations, bound my aspirations by the 
 most rustic limitations, and tread with listless, 
 dragging feet the same pathway of deadly monot- 
 ony their mothers had trod. They reckoned with- 
 out the foreign quicksilver in my veins. My 
 mother's cousin was a man possessed of abnormal 
 virtue and no imagination. However safe and 
 excellent a condition this for the person enjoying 
 it, heaven help those of more vivid temperament 
 whom Fate brings within its shadow ! God help 
 those of sanguine spirit who fall victims to its
 
 A Queen of Hearts 13 
 
 influence ! The atmosphere of the parsonage was 
 as chaste as snow and as cold. But for the oc- 
 casional outcroppings of Aunt Caroline's more 
 genial nature, even my warm, southern vivacity 
 must have become chilled and frozen in its very 
 infancy. 
 
 But these manifestations of a livelier humor in 
 the mother were never greatly encouraged by the 
 son, and therefore they were kept quite generally 
 duly repressed, much to my sorrow and regret, 
 who would have welcomed a constant exhibition 
 of gaiety. 
 
 James Mavis set no chamber of his mind free to 
 the intrusion of humor. He regarded life not only 
 seriously, but austerely ; wholly as an opportunity, 
 mercifully vouchsafed us, for the saving of our 
 souls. Any moment not devoted to that purpose 
 was a precious interval gone to waste. The act 
 of salvation was constantly before his eyes, draped 
 not in the beautiful mantle of charity and Divine 
 clemency, but in the forbidding habit of punish- 
 ment and rigor. Laughter was the handmaiden 
 of levity, levity that of sin, and sin was corrup- 
 tion; so he argued, and, so arguing, discouraged 
 all cause for merriment. But humor is a spring 
 and will not wholly be repressed, and those mo- 
 ments when it bubbled to the surface of Aunt 
 Caroline's spirit and found vent were thefestas of 
 my early childhood.
 
 14 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 The dear old soul never made the most trifling 
 jest without keeping an anxious eye to windward. 
 Not that squall or tempest ever disturbed the cold 
 severity of her son's face, which had but a single 
 expression for all the varied events of life, a look 
 of steadfast and impeccable virtue, not self-com- 
 placent nor self-righteous, but self-assured and 
 absolutely impregnable ; the look of one who has 
 founded his house upon a rock and rests secure 
 and satisfied as to the stability of his mansion. I 
 always felt that James Mavis's mansion was built 
 of the same stern and unelastic material as its 
 foundation. 
 
 How often have I mentally dashed my spirit 
 against that flint-like exterior! How have I 
 longed to make that immobile face show feeling 
 of some sort, even if it were but rage and anger ! 
 How have I, wickedly and of malice determined, 
 wrought against that marble self-possession only 
 to have my efforts recoil unsuccessfully upon my 
 own head ! 
 
 He was, by all odds, the best man, from a purely 
 moral stand-point, I have ever known. According 
 to such lights as were his was he just, upright, 
 conscientious, yes, even kind and charitable; 
 wholly unselfish, unsparing, and inconsiderate of 
 himself to the verge of martyrdom. But, if the 
 choice were offered me of placing in the hands of 
 a man of like excellence, for the purpose of rear-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 1 5 
 
 ing, a child of disposition and proclivities similar 
 to mine, or of seeing that child in infancy fall vic- 
 tim to a mortal disease, I think, having had per- 
 sonal and corroding experience of such narrow 
 and intolerant virtue, I should turn down my 
 thumbs. 
 
 If Aunt Caroline had but lived, things might 
 have gone better with me. She died, however, 
 before I reached the age of eight. Hers was so 
 sad a loss to me that I well-nigh exhausted Mr. 
 Mavis's patience by my inquiries concerning it, 
 and he did his best to explain the great mystery 
 in terms intelligible to my childish mind. But I 
 remember that my first feeling of active rebellion 
 against the Ruler of the universe arose out of his 
 well-intentioned, but abortive, attempts to reconcile 
 me to my loss by urging the fact of Divine inter- 
 position. In answer to my passionate demand as 
 to why Aunt Caroline died when I needed her so 
 much, he replied that God wanted her. 
 
 This undue covetousness on the part of One 
 who had so wide and unrestricted a choice of the 
 best things on earth, while I had so little, aroused 
 my ire and indignation. Fear of Mr. Mavis did 
 not allow me to show forth the resentment that 
 consumed me. But it continued to burn away in 
 my little breast, until one day, as I was walking 
 decorously along the street with my reverend 
 guardian, it found expression. A cart was passing
 
 1 6 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 heavily laden with calves on their way to market. 
 I pointed them out to my companion. "What 
 are those ?" I asked. " Calves," he replied. " How 
 funny they look!" I exclaimed. "What is the 
 matter with them?" "They are dead," he an- 
 swered. " Why did they die ?" I inquired, anx- 
 iously. " Did God want them, too ?" Mr. Mavis 
 paused a moment. Perhaps, feeling weary and 
 unequal to another long-winded debate upon the 
 subject, he contented himself with a simple assent 
 to my suggestion. "Yes," he said; "certainly 
 God wanted them." I remember well the thrill 
 of satisfaction that went through me at the dis- 
 comfiture of my enemy. " Well," I said, with a 
 toss of the head and a little laugh of malevolent 
 triumph, " He didn't get them, did He ?" 
 
 My childish irreverence gained me ill-propor- 
 tioned punishment. Horror-stricken by the flip- 
 pancy of my rejoinder, Mr. Mavis turned me face 
 about and marched me home, sending me to bed 
 with dry bread and cold water for my only sus- 
 tenance till morning. So were all my little un- 
 thinking and generally unintentional acts of folly 
 dealt with. A prejudice against God and heaven 
 took hold of me. I was not overtly rebellious, 
 but I secretly hated religion for all the privations 
 it entailed. 
 
 It seemed to me at times that I was the only 
 creature alive in the whole village. I was bursting
 
 A Queen of Hearts 17 
 
 with animal spirits and vivacity. I was consumed 
 with lively instincts and impulses quite natural 
 and harmless in themselves, but which, had I dis- 
 closed them to my guardian, would have awakened 
 in him the fear that I was the victim of an evil 
 possession. 
 
 The spirit of my actor-father was strong in me. 
 I loved all kinds of movement and excitement, but 
 above and beyond every other exercise I loved 
 that of dancing ; my fondness for it was a genuine 
 passion. As I grew to womanhood my limbs 
 became long, lithe, shapely, and supple, willing and 
 capable servants of the rhythmic impulses that 
 rioted in my brain. My body ever moved sway- 
 ingly and with charm. I think, even at the tran- 
 sition period, when girls are usually awkward and 
 gawky, I never fell from grace. Some surrep- 
 titious amusements I had; indeed, my only real 
 amusements were of that character. The dearest, 
 most beloved, that of which I never tired, was 
 that which I was most careful to conceal. For 
 dancing, if it were not regarded quite one of the 
 seven deadly sins, was yet held in strong disfavor 
 and reprobation at the parsonage, where my 
 guardian was, I think, ever on the alert for signs 
 in me of my father's mercurial and vicious tem- 
 perament. 
 
 There was an old man in Sheraton to whom I 
 became warmly attached. He was the village
 
 1 8 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 shoemaker/and about his hoary head the nimbus of 
 homely romance hung, a fact which alone would 
 have endeared him to me, as one who had at least 
 trodden the boundaries of Arcady. Up to the age 
 of fifty his life had been sufficiently prosaic, yet 
 somewhat distinguished from mere horticultural 
 development by the companionship of a lady of 
 high degree, no less a person, indeed, than a 
 heavenly maid that had descended from her lofty 
 estate to enthrone herself in the breast of an 
 humble, but fervent, worshipper. But Music had 
 been his only female companion throughout his 
 five decades. Then, alas ! one day Grove Pensy 
 was taken in hand and married by a buxom widow 
 of thirty-five. 
 
 Not long did he remain a Benedict, however. 
 The enterprising bride made it her immediate 
 business to induce her victim to settle upon her 
 what fortune he had. A month after the property 
 passed into her hands Grove was left again to the 
 sole comradeship of his muse. He had loved the 
 woman deeply; he had trusted implicitly in her 
 disinterestedness ; he bore his desertion as he did all 
 things, quietly, bravely, and in silence. But one 
 act of open resentment he manifested. This was 
 to take down the sign which hung outside his 
 lonely dwelling and append to its advertisement 
 one word declaring, as he believed, his purpose to 
 remain thencetorward a single man. Whereas the
 
 A Queen of Hearts 19 
 
 legend had formerly read " Grove Pensy" and 
 beneath " Boots and Shoes Made and Repaired," 
 now it ran, " Grove Pensy Forever, Boots and 
 Shoes," etc. 
 
 The old man had known my father, who had 
 happened upon him just after his wife absconded. 
 The love of the divine science, imperfectly devel- 
 oped though it was in both men, drew them 
 together. The only being in Sheraton who ever 
 mentioned Paul Carette with toleration or liking 
 was Pensy, and he loved him. The mantle of the 
 old man's affection for my father fell later upon my 
 shoulders. Grove and I became comrades, close 
 friends, and secret allies. It happened in this way. 
 
 I was kept under pretty strict watch as a usual 
 thing. My physical welfare was placed in the 
 hands of my guardian's housekeeper and general 
 factotum, Maria Wetherbee ; also a member of the 
 church in good and regular standing ; a stiff and 
 rigid disciplinarian of spinster condition, who was 
 eternally admonishing me "for my own good." 
 She harassed and goaded me in a thousand ways, 
 and I hated her. 
 
 The village school-mistress was made respon- 
 sible for my mental growth, and, as I was facile in 
 circumvention from regular practice upon difficult 
 subjects, I found little trouble in imposing upon 
 her simple credulity. There is small doubt but 
 that as a child I was a liar. Whether so congeni-
 
 2o A Queen of Hearts 
 
 tally or so perverted through the exigencies of 
 circumstance I cannot declare, but the fact remains. 
 Hour after hour I stole from school and devoted 
 to more congenial occupation, offering as excuse 
 for absence my guardian's need of my services. 
 
 And these stolen hours, after I found him, I 
 spent with Grove Pensy and his fiddle. Doing 
 what? Why, dancing, dancing, dancing, until 
 the blood rushed madly through my viens, my 
 head swam, my brain reeled with ecstasy, and I 
 was no longer a soulless chattel of dull earth, but 
 a winged spirit of the spheres, glorying in the 
 very freedom of my own limbs, revelling in a new 
 element; mad, yes, actually mad with the mere 
 joyousness of motion. 
 
 I became wondrously proficient under the tute- 
 lage of my own instinct and fancy. It has been 
 said of me, in praise of my dancing, that I am orig- 
 inal, that my methods are founded upon no model ; 
 that I am, as a dancer, sui generis. It is true. 
 Instruction I have never had. I follow no prece- 
 dent ; I have never practised a step in my life. But 
 I have danced as I have breathed, as a matter of 
 course and necessity. For one year only have I 
 been cut off from that natural outlet of the emo- 
 tions which arise within me ; and in that year I 
 was like to die. 
 
 Also, in those days I had music that inspired 
 me as music has seldom done since. It, too, was
 
 A Queen of Hearts 21 
 
 a thing of celestial realms, unlearned of earth. 
 Inspiration lodged in Grove Pensy's soul, and it 
 caught fire from my ardor. Never was there 
 question of what time the old riddle was to keep 
 or of what movement I wished it to mark. But 
 one condition constrained us each : that he should 
 play and I should dance. All else was a mere 
 matter of fortuity. Oh, those hours ! Oh, those 
 happy, those beatific hours ! I may well place 
 above your dear old head, Grove Pensy, a tablet 
 to the memory of one who was the sole encour- 
 ager of the single talent God has given me ! 
 
 From the age of fourteen to that of seventeen I 
 was a regular and secret visitor and companion of 
 the old shoemaker. I was deft in deceit, and, as 
 his little shop was in a somewhat isolated and un- 
 frequented part of the village, it was a matter easy 
 of management for me to journey thither unob- 
 served. When occasion demanded a falsehood to 
 account for my being seen upon the street during 
 school-hours, my tongue glibly furnished it forth, 
 so glibly, indeed, that my untruthfulness was 
 never detected. 
 
 But one day, after I had turned seventeen, Fate 
 had ill-proportioned and dreadful revenge upon 
 me. It was a wonderful day in early spring ; the 
 first real promise the season had given that 
 summer was advancing. I was a pupil in the 
 village academy, one of the class soon to graduate.
 
 22 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 As I sat in the ugly school-room that morning, 
 surrounded by bumpkins poring over their books, 
 breathing in the close and fetid air, the exhala- 
 tions of many laboring lungs, a quick and im- 
 petuous impatience got the better of my circum- 
 spection. From my seat I could look out of a 
 window upon the fresh landscape, tender and 
 tempting in its bourgeoning bloom. A thirst for 
 the outside world, for freedom, movement, action, 
 came upon me, was working like a fermenting 
 liquor within my brain, and, if I died for it, I must 
 make the effort to escape outside and give vent to 
 the energy that effervesced inside me. Boldly I 
 rose and approached the august tribunal where 
 Authority sat enthroned. 
 
 " I feel very ill," I said ; " I must go home. 
 Please allow me to do so." 
 
 Mistress, even then, of the art of dissimulation, 
 my feigned distress imposed upon the worthy 
 master. My leave was granted. I constrained 
 my steps to march decorously from the room, but, 
 once outside, I flew, I rushed, I tore out of the 
 building and whither my inclinations ever pointed. 
 I burst in on the old shoemaker like a tornado. 
 
 "Grove, Grove," I cried, "quick, your fiddle. 
 I am mad ; yes, I have really gone mad with the 
 spring ! Let me dance ! Here, I must be all free 
 to-day. Wait !" 
 
 And while the old man, accustomed to my
 
 A Queen of Hearts 23 
 
 frenzies, went slowly about putting his work away 
 and getting ready his instrument, I tore down my 
 chestnut hair and, running my fingers through it, 
 tossed it freely about me in wanton confusion 
 until, being curly of nature, it floated forth from 
 my person like a cloud. 
 
 How long ago that seems ! how long ! I look 
 back, and the years that have passed, the develop- 
 ing process that has intervened, the wide interpo- 
 sition of immeasurably altered conditions of life, 
 seem to throw upon the reflecting glass of retro- 
 spection not the well-remembered features of a 
 familiar face, but the half-forgotten characteristics 
 of a stranger. Am I, disappointed, dissatisfied, 
 disillusioned woman that I am, indeed, but the 
 blighted fruition of that springing seed of incarnate 
 expectancy which sought so ardently that day to 
 thrust aside the dull envelope of earth that cum- 
 bered its vigorous young desires ? 
 
 Oh, the immeasurable distance between the 
 germ and the tree ; between promise and fulfil- 
 ment ; between the limitless future of youth and 
 the painfully circumscribed past of maturity !
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 ON that spring morning, when. Nature's impe- 
 rious call echoed so loudly through my being, I 
 went lengths that I had never gone before. The 
 letting down of my hair was but a preliminary step 
 in the course of transformation I meditated. My 
 woollen gown, a coarse affair designed for utility 
 alone, offended my eye as it restricted my motions. 
 In a corner of the little attic-loft, which, as a the- 
 atre secure from intrusion, we habitually used for 
 our dual performance, I remembered to have seen 
 a heap of disused, white mosquito netting. I bade 
 the old man remain below until I should call him, 
 sped lightly up the stairs, dropped, with a sigh of 
 relief, my ugly and ill-fitting gown upon the floor, 
 and, with the aid of many pins, draped the dis- 
 colored netting about my slender figure in such 
 fashion that it left my limbs to perfect freedom of 
 movement, while it also exposed to view my full, 
 white neck and palpitating bosom. 
 
 Quickly then I thrust aside my heavy boots and 
 placed on my small, arched feet the white-silk 
 sandals it had been Grove's pleasure to make for 
 my wearing, and, thus habited I called impatiently 
 to the old man to come up. My vanity was much 
 24
 
 A Queen of Hearts 25 
 
 gratified by his loud expressions of admiration. 
 My unique attire was undoubtedly becoming, for 
 I know that even my own critical eyes were well 
 satisfied as I considered myself in the scrap of 
 mirror which Grove had set up in the attic. I was 
 at that time much interested in my looks, and 
 I fear I was rather given to speculating upon their 
 effect on others. 
 
 Our stage-setting was quite simple and unconven- 
 tional. The attic was really the unfinished upper 
 story of the little dwelling which Grove had built 
 for his own use, for which the first floor amply 
 sufficed. It was a room perhaps fifteen by twenty- 
 five feet, quite unfurnished, of course; its sides 
 were bordered with a miscellaneous accumulation 
 of ancient and useless articles, for Grove had a 
 mania for collecting all sorts of discarded rubbish, 
 and was, in a manner, the village scavenger. 
 Broken chairs, lame tables, rickety bureaus, old 
 lamps, worthless stoves, andirons, valueless pitch- 
 ers and teapots, china, indeed, of all sorts and 
 descriptions, hedged about the square of smooth 
 boarding where I danced. Three small and dusty 
 windows let in the daylight through their cob- 
 webby panes, and admitted the fresh air that Grove 
 and I loved in equal measure. The draught from 
 without was often strong enough to set in motion 
 the strings of dried fruits and vegetables with 
 which the old man hung his rafters.
 
 26 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 But one bit of color enlivened the gray and 
 homely mise-en-scene. Some years ago a wealthy 
 lady had spent a season in Sheraton, as had my 
 father, for her health's sake. On her departure 
 Grove had fallen heir to many of her bits of tem- 
 porary furnishing. Among these had been two 
 sets of Oriental portieres, the vivid coloring of 
 which was almost a matter of scandal in the quiet 
 village. They had appealed strongly, however, to 
 the latent aesthetic sensibility in their new owner, 
 and he had hung them across one end of the room 
 wherein he humored his musical instinct, that his 
 eye might receive gratification at the same moment 
 with his ear. 
 
 Against this background I danced. The old 
 man occupied a broken settle at the far end of the 
 attic. I would sit, or rather lie, upon a heap of 
 old woollens piled upon the floor and forming a 
 sort of rude couch. Here I lay and waited, allowing 
 the musician to get fairly into the spirit of his 
 exercise ; waiting to be filled with saltatory affla- 
 tus; holding back, until they mutinied against 
 further repression, my vibrating pulses. Then a 
 leap, a spring, a burst of exultant joy, and I was 
 on my feet. Scarcely to touch the floor, however ; 
 rather to sway in air, suspended above material 
 substance, a thing of mere aerial motion ; an 
 element not of body ; a zephyr ; an involuntary ex- 
 pression of music and motion ; a human feather to
 
 A Queen of Hearts 27 
 
 be blown hither and yon at the caprice of the 
 master who directed my movements. 
 
 I did not wait long that day. Old Grove had 
 drawn few notes from his poor fiddle before I 
 found my self-repression vanquished. I cannot 
 say what he played, and, perhaps, were I to hear 
 it now the music would scarce excite in me emo- 
 tion of any sort. That day, however, it was a 
 burning match applied to a ready mass of combus- 
 tion. From the dingy lair where I crouched ready 
 for a spring I bounded, my whole being responding 
 note by note to the strain from the violin. Never 
 had I known such an impulse of self-abandon- 
 ment as took possession of me. Never had I so 
 yielded to the irresistible appeal and promptings 
 of music; never had my untutored motions been so 
 wanton, my self-possession so invaded and at fault. 
 
 I went literally mad with excess of sensibility. 
 The unaccustomed freedom of my body, the rapt 
 admiration of my singular audience, the ecstasy 
 of the season and of my own dawning womanhood, 
 fanned the fire in my veins till it played havoc 
 with all maidenly restraint. Never was license 
 more boldly, innocently, and ingenuously sug- 
 gested than in my dancing that spring morning. 
 The coarse and common drapery that swathed me 
 becoming unloosed as I danced, I used its long 
 ends as a scarf. My flowing chestnut mane floated 
 like a sunny veil about my bared shoulders ; my
 
 28 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 eyes, of a greenish gray, must have glowed, as it 
 has been said they do at such times, like bits of 
 dark hematite ore ; my skin, the skin of Hebe, of 
 Hygeia, of fair and healthy youth, glowed and 
 burned, hot and flushed with the riotous circula- 
 tion of my eager blood. 
 
 Dishevelled, half-dressed, and wholly intoxicated, 
 I was assuredly more the type of a wild and beau- 
 tiful Bacchante than of a comely, decorous village 
 maiden, as I moved in harmony with the prompt- 
 ings of the old shoemaker's muse. 
 
 There were perhaps ten minutes of inexpressible 
 and perfect ecstasy. And then a thing happened, 
 unforeseen, unprecedented, and dreadful. Tragedy, 
 grim and dire, fell upon poor, seductive Comedy 
 and smote her hip and thigh. The attic-door 
 suddenly opened and my guardian stood upon the 
 threshold. 
 
 Few acts of self-indulgence bring such dire con- 
 sequences upon their perpetrators as mine brought 
 upon me. A woman indulges immoral tendencies 
 and is ostracized ; a man indulges a propensity for 
 unlawful acquisition and is imprisoned; another 
 indulges a violent temper by taking the life of a 
 fellow-being and is hanged. I set open the flood- 
 gates of an emotional temperament and let loose 
 the dammed-up waters that had for long years 
 seethed and boiled within, and for this I was 
 married.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 29 
 
 Ostracism, imprisonment, hanging, take these 
 forms of punishment and add thereto scourging 
 and the torture of rack and thumb-screw, and even 
 then you cannot approximate to so ingenious and 
 intolerable a penalty as that which, from the best 
 of motives, was exacted of me. 
 
 A worldling probably can in no degree under- 
 stand the absolute horror with which my guar- 
 dian's eyes took in my appearance and occupation 
 as the attic-door opened beneath his hand and 
 revealed me to his shocked and astonished gaze. 
 I was to him at that moment, without doubt, sin 
 incarnate, a human being in a state of complete 
 obsession ; one of the swine of the earth possessed 
 by the devils of intemperance and voluptuousness ; 
 a creature of corruption, immodest, unchaste, and 
 vicious to the last degree. 
 
 Never in my life have I been so affected by word 
 or action as I was in that instant by the glance he 
 cast upon me. It was that of a rigorous, accusing 
 angel, and it shamed my wantonness to the core. 
 I suddenly became a thing of horror to myself as 
 I stood confronting him in my half-nakedness and 
 disorder, with my hair streaming wildly over my 
 shoulders, and my arms crossed with an involun- 
 tary gesture of maidenly shame above my bare 
 and heaving bosom. 
 
 He said scarcely anything. He was always a 
 man of few words, and when especially moved his
 
 30 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 silence was so stern as to be more impressive than 
 the most eloquent speech. But he bade me clothe 
 myself while he waited below with Pensy ; and I 
 think that in the few moments which sufficed for 
 my toilet the old shoemaker was read a lesson and 
 administered a rebuke which were more than ade- 
 quate to the occasion. 
 
 Mr. Mavis and I went home together, both 
 dumb as mutes. On reaching the parsonage he 
 ordered me to my room for an hour, bidding me, 
 when that time should have passed, repair to his 
 study. I knew that that interval he would spend 
 in " wrestling with the Lord" in my behalf. 
 
 The period allowed me for self-communion in no 
 wise re-established my former recklessness. That 
 scandalized and withering glance from my guar- 
 dian's eyes had made me feel myself a thing ac- 
 cused and outcast. My shame and penitence were 
 out of all proportion to my guilt, but I did not feel 
 them so then ; rather it seemed, so deeply was I 
 moved by his horror, that I never could erase 
 from my soul the impure stain with which I had 
 smirched it. 
 
 At the expiration of the hour I went to his 
 study, a forlorn and wretched culprit ; a creature as 
 devoid of fire and energy as is the lamp after the 
 flame has been extinguished. But, listless and 
 inanimate as I was, I detected a very marked 
 change in the usually impassive face of my guar-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 3 1 
 
 dian. There was a look of real human emotion 
 upon it, very different from its ordinary expression 
 of mere abstract interest. In his eyes was a gleam 
 almost of inward fire; upon his thin, aesthetic 
 countenance feebly flickered a faint flush ; his 
 features were far less rigid than usual, and his 
 manner, though even and composed, had lost its 
 customary serenity. I was struck forcibly by his 
 unlikeness to himself, and the consciousness of 
 guilt grew yet greater within me as I was thus 
 reminded of the heinousness of a sin which could 
 so work upon a mere spectator. How vile, how 
 utterly corrupt must she be who could practise 
 such depravity ! 
 
 Mr. Mavis received me not angrily, but with a 
 sad disapprobation there was no mistaking. He 
 motioned me to a seat, which I, abashed and 
 shamefaced culprit, took with unfeigned meekness 
 and humility. Then began a preachment with the 
 Scarlet Woman and her retinue of vicious attri- 
 butes for its text. I was in an extremely sensitive 
 condition, depressed and wretched from the reac- 
 tion of my late high spirits, and the words I lis- 
 tened to had undue influence upon me. They 
 turned into morbid fears and reflections as they 
 struck ground within my breast, and when, the 
 homily concluded, my guardian and I, shepherd 
 and errant lamb, fell upon our knees to implore 
 protection from on high against this malignant
 
 32 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 arch-enemy, who was menacing with apparent 
 success my weak and easily-tempted soul, I was 
 wrought to such a pitch of agonized alarm and 
 repentance that my cry for aid and deliverance far 
 outvoiced his, and I rose from my petitions in a 
 state of that false religious fervor which is bred of 
 pure nervous excitability. 
 
 This continued many days. My guardian, to 
 whom it was a sign of the inflowing of Grace, fos- 
 tered and encouraged it. My name was withdrawn 
 from the academy books, and my mental yielded 
 to my spiritual cultivation. Mr. Mavis gave me 
 employment in his study and kept me largely in 
 his own society, and the novelty of my new con- 
 dition of spiritual exaltation for a time satisfied 
 my craving for excitement. I went to prayer- 
 meetings ; I began a course of district-visiting ; I 
 read my Bible for the first time with interest. In 
 fact, I "got religion" after the most approved 
 fashion. 
 
 And one day I had my reward. I was sitting 
 by my guardian's side in his study, in the late 
 twilight of a June afternoon. We were engaged 
 in covering new hymn-books for the Sunday- 
 school, and every now and again he would read 
 one of the hymns aloud, in the full, resonant, and 
 impressive voice to which was due much of his 
 power in revival. Since my conversion, as he 
 chose to call the artificial tension at which I had
 
 A Queen of Hearts 33 
 
 recently been living, his manner towards me had 
 greatly changed. Whereas he had formerly treated 
 me with mere distant consideration, he was now 
 almost genial in his bearing, as nearly tender and 
 affectionate, I think, as he was capable of being. 
 The windows were open ; the evening hour was 
 stealing on ; the atmosphere of the room was soft, 
 warm, and sensuous with the appealing fragrance 
 of the clustering roses which rioted over the house 
 at will. I was in a yielding, pliant, susceptible 
 mood. The high potency of religious enthusiasm 
 united with the insidious charm of the hour, and 
 the place made me an easy victim to a suggestion 
 which coupled the service of God with a sentimen- 
 tal self-surrender. 
 
 Mr. Mavis unfolded to me then a plan for my 
 future which, he told me, had had its conception 
 in that hour when he had contended with the Lord 
 that He should not abandon me to the devil. This 
 precious provision for my welfare consisted in 
 making me his wife. He dwelt little upon the 
 subject of love, affecting to regard that as a side 
 issue, although I honestly believe that what poor 
 makeshift for passion there was in his flinty nature 
 had sprung into life for me when his glance fell 
 upon my disordered beauty amid the dust and 
 debris of Grove's homely old attic. 
 
 His proposal, however, was calm, measured, 
 unimpassioned. He stated the many advantages 
 
 3
 
 34 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 which would accrue to my moral well-being by an 
 alliance with one who was by Divine ordinance a 
 shepherd of men, and, although I cannot now, in 
 rehearsing to myself the terms and manner of his 
 offer, recall any special eloquence or emphasis that 
 wrought upon me, yet I well remember that I was 
 profoundly moved and agitated by his words. 
 
 A more striking case of taking a tide at its flood 
 was never known. In a fervor of gratitude and 
 self-humiliation I sank upon my knees and pressed 
 my lips to his thin white hand. I professed my- 
 self unworthy of his consideration, glorified by his 
 choice, humbled by his goodness. I made sacrifice 
 upon the altar of holy zeal and purpose of all my 
 poor little vanities and youthful inclinations. I 
 pledged myself to keep lighted, upon all the pin- 
 nacles of my soul, the fire of sanctity which I 
 honestly believed had burned the chaff of worldli- 
 ness from the good seed of righteousness within 
 me. In a word, I accepted the honor done me 
 with such exaggeration and high-flown expressions 
 as should have aroused in him a suspicion as to 
 their genuineness and a foreboding of my posses- 
 sion ol histrionic gifts. 
 
 We were married some three months later, 
 during which my enthusiasm, kept alive by the 
 flattering regard and interest bestowed upon me 
 by the Sheraton folk, and fed by the unusual 
 excitement consequent upon the modest prepara-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 35 
 
 tions for my wedding, continued to burn. Scarcely 
 a month had passed after the marriage ceremony 
 was performed, when it was a handful of dust in 
 my grasp. 
 
 I have no intention of giving heed to the dreary 
 interval which dragged itself out between my cap- 
 ture and enfranchisement. It makes my heart sick 
 with pity, not for myself, I, gay butterfly of an 
 enchanted realm, am surely nothing akin to that 
 poor grub, but for that wretched, miserable, des- 
 olate little Methodist house-wife, eating her heart 
 out for want of palatable food, striking in impotent 
 effort the wings of her poor, little, aesthetic, artis- 
 tic longings against the blank walls of her envi- 
 ronment. 
 
 And when my baby came, it was no better. She 
 was a sickly, puny infant, whose birth awakened no 
 maternal instinct within me. Perhaps, had she 
 been beautiful and attractive, thus making appeal 
 to those sensibilities which so strongly lead my 
 nature, I might have held her in different esteem. 
 As it was, I neither nourished nor tended her. 
 Nature forbade the first, and my husband, who 
 had grown distrustful of me in all ways since I 
 had wearied in spiritual well-doing, prohibited the 
 last. 
 
 The child fretted if I took her, and her cries 
 were like physical pain to me. She was ever 
 ailing, and I, endowed with the vitality of a strong
 
 36 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 and healthy woman, had no personal knowledge of 
 suffering to awaken my sympathy for her pangs. 
 And so things went on drearily, monotonously, 
 hopelessly for me until I had been thirteen months 
 a wife and three months a mother. Then Fate 
 turned over a new leaf in my book of Life. 
 
 The Woman's Relief Corps of Sheraton did me 
 the honor of requesting me to go to New York to 
 select a new piano for their organization. I had 
 some local fame as a musician and occupied the 
 post of organist in my husband's church, and so 
 they chose me to represent them. Shall I ever 
 forget the length of that twenty-four hours which 
 Mr. Mavis required to consider the question of my 
 going ? I went nearly mad between hope and fear. 
 It seemed to me too improbable for realization, 
 the prospect of actually beholding that El Dorado 
 of my dreams. 
 
 And the hour when I learned that my husband 
 had yielded, that, in consideration of the fact that 
 I was to be personally conducted by Deacon 
 Rogers, who was journeying to the metropolis 
 on some business of his own, I was to be al- 
 lowed to accomplish my dearest wish, shall I 
 ever forget the joy, the elation of that moment ? 
 Until the instant of departure came I was in a 
 condition of constant apprehension. Something 
 would occur, I felt sure, to prevent the journey. 
 It would occupy about twelve hours. Leaving
 
 A Queen of Hearts 37 
 
 Sheraton at eight in the morning, we should reach 
 New York at about eleven. Returning, we should 
 arrive at Sheraton a little after seven in the 
 evening. 
 
 It was arranged the day before that I was to 
 meet the deacon at the station a little before the 
 hour for starting, and it was my husband's inten- 
 tion to accompany me thither and place me in 
 charge of my guide and protector. As it hap- 
 pened, however, Mr. Mavis was sent for at day- 
 break to attend a dying parishioner, and with 
 many final injunctions and adjurations to me he 
 left the parsonage, assuring me that he should 
 make every effort to return in time to see me off. 
 
 Here was the first gratuity offered me by Fate 
 that lucky day. For I still and always shall main- 
 tain that the day I turned my back forever on 
 Sheraton, my cage and prison, was a beneficent 
 one for me. 
 
 If, as my husband stooped that I might imprint 
 a chaste salute upon his cheek, there had been one 
 to whisper in my ear, " This shall be the last time 
 you ever embrace him" ; if, as he departed from me 
 and I watched with careless eyes his retreating 
 figure, I had had assurance that never again should 
 I lay eyes upon him, would my kiss have gained 
 in warmth or fervor ? Would my eyes have grown 
 less indifferent and more tender for the knowledge ? 
 No, I think not.
 
 38 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 Good, admirable, conscientious man that he was, 
 there was nothing in James Mavis to arouse even 
 a shadow of love or personal devotion in a 
 woman's soul. He never called forth a spark of 
 affection from me ; nor do I believe that his passion 
 for me was more than a flash in the pan, a brief 
 sign that, improbable as it seemed, he was really 
 built after the fashion of less perfect humanity. 
 
 Scruples I have had, many and frequent, bitter 
 and remorseful, concerning the step I took that 
 day ; not one of these, however, was instigated by 
 the thought that my desertion personally afflicted 
 the husband I left behind me. Towards my child 
 my conduct was wholly culpable. Excuse for it, 
 I have none; it was wicked, abominable, and 
 altogether unbecoming a woman, even a girl (for 
 more I was not) with a heart in her breast. But I 
 have made my peace with her. I have sought 
 and obtained full pardon for my offence. I feel 
 satisfied that I have made full expiation of my 
 fault towards Lisa, God be thanked! she was 
 early saved the experience that warped my ideas 
 of right and wrong. Yet to her gentler, less 
 ardent nature the test would have been scarcely 
 so severe. The stagnation of Sheraton would not 
 have wrought her to open rebellion as it did me. 
 How little I thought as I kissed her good-by that 
 day, she struggling the while weakly against the 
 caress and fisticuffing me with her tiny hands,
 
 A Queen of Hearts 39 
 
 that I should one day feel her the crowning joy of 
 my life ! 
 
 My breakfast was finished by seven o'clock, and 
 by half-past I was on my way to the station, un- 
 quiet and fearful still lest accident mar my prog- 
 ress. Quarter of eight passed, five minutes more, 
 and it came to be three minutes of the hour and my 
 escort had not appeared. The train drew into the 
 station, and as it stopped I saw the deacon coming 
 down the hill as fast as his burly frame would 
 permit. He was waving aloft a huge red hand- 
 kerchief and shouting to the conductor to wait. 
 
 " Will you hold the train for him ?" I asked a 
 brakeman, my heart throbbing violently between 
 longing and despair. The man nodded and passed 
 on to speak to the station-master. 
 
 I glanced at the train, at the puffing, panting, 
 impatient engine, which seemed too mighty a 
 monster to be restrained for the convenience of a 
 mere mortal. I looked back at the heavy figure of 
 the deacon, whose feet seemed to me shod with lead. 
 
 " Will he never get here ?" I thought, and then 
 an idea came to me. I would save time by getting 
 aboard. And, with that intent, I placed my foot 
 on the steps and, unobserved, mounted the car. 
 
 I had scarcely reached the platform when I 
 heard the conductor's warning cry announcing 
 departure. I turned at once to wave to the 
 deacon. He was no longer visible. Secure in
 
 40 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 the assurance that he must have seen me, and 
 believing that he had taken the car nearest at 
 hand and would soon come through the train to 
 me, I opened the door and entered the car. 
 
 It was about two-thirds full, and I noticed, soon 
 after seating myself, that the passengers seemed 
 well acquainted with each other, and that the con- 
 versation was general and voluble. I had heard 
 of parties, and at once concluded that I had 
 chanced upon one of these. Feeling somewhat 
 constrained and embarrassed by the isolation of my 
 position among them, I sat stiff and awkward, wish- 
 ing the deacon would appear, and occupying myself 
 with furtive observation of my fellow-travellers. 
 
 They looked, to my inexperienced eyes, an un- 
 usual and somewhat motley set, conspicuous by a 
 certain latitude of costume and adornment that 
 almost bordered upon eccentricity. They bore a 
 general resemblance to each other; not that of 
 feature or lineament, but of manner, action, and 
 word. The likeness was a professional, not a 
 family one. 
 
 I found myself soon seduced from personal per- 
 plexities by the gayety and merriment that were 
 rife among them. The air of freedom and uncon- 
 straint, which seemed their native and accustomed 
 atmosphere, charmed and fascinated me. They 
 were a new order of beings in my universe, and I 
 forgot everything in the interest of watching them.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 41 
 
 So intense was my preoccupation that I failed 
 to note the fact that they were equally concerned 
 in me. It would have been impossible for me to 
 have imagined that I, dull little country-woman 
 that I felt myself to be, could possess any power 
 of attraction for these bright and brilliant butter- 
 flies. I had for the nonce forgotten only for the 
 nonce; usually my vanity keeps the fact largely 
 before my self-consciousness that I was endowed 
 with no niggardly supply of that powerful attribute 
 which arouses at least the attention of every mortal 
 who confronts it. 
 
 I know now, if I did not heed it then, that 
 among that more or less attractive group of men 
 and women, advantaged according to their taste 
 by all the extraneous accessories of art and 
 fashion, not one was there who could awaken as 
 great interest and admiration in the casual ob- 
 server as the ill-dressed, uncouthly adorned, shabby 
 girl of nineteen, who sat vicariously enjoying their 
 mirth and jollity. I recognize the fact now, and 
 understand why they noticed me ; but then I was 
 less cognizant of the power of beauty, and was 
 surprised at the effect it produced. For, presently, 
 as I regarded them with alert eyes, a stout, good- 
 natured-looking woman of middle age rose from 
 her seat and approached me. 
 
 " It seems a pity that you should be sitting here 
 by yourself, my dear," she remarked, with a
 
 42 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 pleasant smile. " I think you have probably 
 made a mistake in the car, but it is of no conse- 
 quence. This is Mr. Greeley's private car. You 
 know who he is, of course, the manager of the 
 Transcontinental Burlesque and Variety Com- 
 pany. That is he, the gentleman with the florid 
 complexion and glasses. He wishes me to tell 
 you that the car is quite at your service, and to 
 ask you if you would not find it pleasanter to join 
 us than to sit here all alone ?" 
 
 She had an agreeable, pleasant manner and a 
 winning smile. There was a homely geniality 
 about her that made her seem an old friend. And 
 her offer ! To introduce me to that class of beings 
 who had always seemed to me little lower than 
 gods and goddesses ! To let me make actual ac- 
 quaintance with those denizens of the happiest 
 sphere open to mortals ! Through accident I was 
 to be permitted a glimpse of that dazzling, brill- 
 iant world which had charmed my father back to 
 itself from his allegiance to wife and duty. The 
 Land of Beulah opened before me as she spoke ; I 
 had visions of the fair and long-coveted prospect 
 of incident and adventure. As she concluded, I 
 hastily decided that I could not afford to neglect 
 any opportunity offered me by this never-to-be- 
 repeated dozen of hours, and so shook hands with 
 Occasion and accepted her invitation.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE company and its manager received me 
 among them with a cordiality and ease which had 
 an immediate effect upon my diffidence. As I 
 look back upon them I believe the men and 
 women to have been a sorry lot, but then I was 
 less discriminating, and they seemed to me, one 
 and all, people of a " faery vision . . . gay crea- 
 tures of the element, that in the colors of the rain- 
 bow lived." 
 
 Individually, with the exception of the manager 
 and his wife, the woman who had accosted me and 
 to whom later on I became warmly attached, they 
 played no part of consequence in my life. It is 
 needless to describe them. But, collectively, they 
 won me wholly from my past and created for me 
 a new future of such glorious promise that I was 
 blinded to the path of duty, which clearly led in 
 an opposite direction. It was an easy matter for 
 them to draw from me the simple, petty details of 
 my short existence. They flattered me by their 
 interest and obvious admiration. They pitied and 
 commiserated me openly ; animadverted upon the 
 fact of my early marriage and blighted career; 
 blamed my husband for having taken advantage 
 
 43
 
 44 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 of my youth and inexperience; suggested what 
 possibilities of fame and fortune might have been 
 realized by my face and figure ; and when I spoke 
 of my native talent for dancing, their indignation 
 apparently knew no bounds. 
 
 I do not think they were guying me. I believe 
 that something in me really attracted and inter- 
 ested them. They were weary of travelling and 
 sated with each other's society ; I was a welcome 
 novelty to them, and it amused them to turn me 
 inside out like an old glove. 
 
 By the time we reached New York I was fairly 
 intoxicated. Never in my whole nineteen years 
 had I known three hours so ecstatic as those. 
 As we ran into the Grand Union, a terrible feeling 
 of homesickness swept over me. The thought of 
 Deacon Rogers appalled me ; the prospect of part- 
 ing forever with these warm-hearted and congenial 
 associates was unbearable. The idea of allowing 
 them to continue on their joyous course while I 
 went back to those awful hours of dulness which 
 must round out my life gripped my heart until I 
 thought it would burst. 
 
 The Greeleys had volunteered to discover my 
 delinquent escort for me and place me in his care. 
 I think both may have meant to do so ; I am sure 
 she did. But of the intention of the manager of 
 the Transcontinental Burlesque and Variety Com- 
 pany, I have always been somewhat suspicious.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 45 
 
 A theatrical manager, however honest, is never 
 quite to be relied upon when there is a question 
 of securing a fresh attraction. Greeley had been 
 told that I could dance ; he had seen that I was 
 beautiful. Whether he exerted his abilities to the 
 utmost to find my protector, I cannot say. At all 
 events, he was unsuccessful in his search. 
 
 It might well have been a matter of some diffi- 
 culty to discover the deacon. Very probably, 
 intent upon catching the train, he had forgotten 
 me at the time of departure, and, if he had not 
 seen me standing upon the car-platform, a fruitless 
 search through the rest of the train would have 
 convinced him that I had remained behind. The 
 result of my failure to find him was that my new- 
 made friends insisted upon taking me to their 
 hotel until I should decide what I had best do. I 
 had the money for the piano safely bestowed in 
 the bosom of my gown, and the Greeleys offered 
 their services to cicerone me about my business. 
 
 The noise, movement, animation of the city 
 delighted me. My whole being swam buoyantly 
 as in a congenial element. The hotel, a second- 
 rate one, even in its very confusion and bustle at- 
 tracted my fancy. We lunched, and the savory 
 and delicate dishes, so unlike my usual coarse 
 fare, appealed insidiously to my palate. While 
 we sat at luncheon the Greeleys were besieged by 
 friends, regular habitues of the cafe ; all gay, alert,
 
 46 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 debonnaire. There was a renewal of the laughter, 
 vivacity, and merriment which had so infected me 
 on the journey. I was presented casually to some 
 of these strangers, and the glances they bestowed 
 upon me flattered me much. 
 
 A theatrical manager is a busy man. The Trans- 
 continental Company was to open in New York 
 that night, and there was much detail requiring 
 Mr. Greeley's personal attention. After luncheon 
 he put his wife and me into a cab, suggesting that 
 we drive to the piano establishment, accomplish 
 our purpose there, and then meet him at the 
 theatre, where I might have a glimpse of the 
 rehearsal which would at that time be in progress. 
 
 I was to take the five o'clock train back to 
 Sheraton. That fact was never for a moment 
 absent from the distracting happiness I was enjoy- 
 ing. How could I go back? How could I 
 how could I ? 
 
 In the selection of a piano, Mrs. Greeley Kate, 
 as I came to call her later was of infinite value 
 to me. She was a natural musician with an 
 accurate ear, and the experience in weighing the 
 merits of an instrument which I wholly lacked. 
 Besides which she was used to business dealings 
 and to securing the full value of her money. But 
 it took longer to conclude the transaction than we 
 had anticipated. By the time the piano was paid 
 for, the address carefully written out, and we had
 
 A Queen of Hearts 47 
 
 fairly quitted the establishment, it was well on 
 towards four o'clock. And my train went at five ! 
 
 My companion, to whom I had already con- 
 ceived an attachment, turned doubtfully to me. 
 
 " Mr. Greeley is expecting us," she said ; " but 
 you can only have a few minutes at the theatre. 
 Is it worth while to go there ?" 
 
 My heart turned cold with disappointment. 
 What! lose this only chance of entering those 
 fairy realms of mimic life towards which my 
 mental gaze had strained so hungrily and long 1 
 Impossible ! Kate noted the look of chagrin on 
 my face. 
 
 " You really want to go ?" she continued. " Well, 
 we will, then." 
 
 And we went. But we were too late in arriving. 
 Rehearsal was just over, and the wings were full 
 of the people who had been my travelling com- 
 panions, chatting, laughing, guying each other, as 
 is their wont. Mr. Greeley came to meet us with 
 a cloud on his brow. Evidently something had 
 gone wrong. 
 
 " What is it ?" asked his wife. 
 
 " Nita Conquest turned her foot coming to the 
 theatre and has had to go home. She cannot do 
 her dance to-night, and nothing makes so bad an 
 impression on a first-night audience as an apology." 
 
 He paid no attention to me or to my chagrin. 
 His mind was wholly engrossed with managerial
 
 48 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 difficulties, in extricating himself from which, as I 
 afterwards discovered, it was his wont to enlist 
 the co-operation of his able and practical wife. 
 
 " Ts, ts, ts !" was this lady's sympathetic re- 
 joinder. "That is bad, indeed. A worse mis- 
 fortune could scarcely have happened. Let me 
 see " And she went off into a fit of rumina- 
 tive abstraction, so engrossing and divergent from 
 me and my needs that I had ample leisure to fully 
 digest my discomfiture at missing the performance 
 I had so eagerly anticipated, an occasion which 
 would probably never again be offered me. 
 
 Meanwhile the hurrying, precious moments sped 
 by. The groups in the wings dispersed and the 
 musicians prepared to depart. I stood irresolute 
 and uncertain amid the shadows of the scenes, 
 knowing that I ought to be on my way to the 
 station, but reluctant to intrude my affairs upon 
 the preoccupation of those whose interest in me 
 was so recent, and upon whom I had not the 
 shadow of a legitimate claim. 
 
 And all the time at the bottom of my soul 
 there lurked that deadly sickness created by the 
 thought of returning to my home and the color- 
 less routine of my existence ; and there was, also, 
 I must needs confess, slowly germinating the hope 
 that circumstances might conspire to cause me to 
 lose my train and remain overnight in Paradise. 
 Presently Kate broke the silence.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 49 
 
 " I can't see any way out of it," she said. " Of 
 course I could do a turn to fill in, but New York 
 audiences have had a good deal of me, while Nita 
 was a fresh attraction. Are you sure she isn't 
 playing off"? I might go and see if she is really 
 laid up. What time is it ? Why, good gracious !" 
 she broke off, " here's this child and her train ! I 
 had forgotten all about her. What time is it, 
 Geof, quick." 
 
 The stage was tolerably dark, but I could see a 
 sudden light fire Greeley's gloomy eyes as I was thus 
 unexpectedly recalled to his memory. He turned 
 quickly and surveyed me deliberately. His gaze 
 travelled appraisingly over me from head to foot, 
 increasing in eagerness and satisfaction as it pro- 
 gressed. The while he was slowly pulling a massive 
 gold watch from his vest-pocket. 
 
 " The train goes at five, doesn't it ?" asked he, 
 abstractedly. 
 
 " Yes, yes," replied his wife, hurriedly, and I 
 echoed the affirmative in a less impetuous fashion. 
 
 " Whew ! this is too bad !" he exclaimed. " She 
 has lost it. She never could get up to the station 
 in ten minutes. There is no use in trying it. 
 Why didn't you remember her, Kate ?" 
 
 And so Fate assisted by Geoffrey Greeley 
 turned over the leaf and opened Part Two in my 
 history. All the little apparently unimportant 
 accidents which together worked the wide separa-
 
 50 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 tion between Past and Present fell in so naturally 
 and harmoniously, one failed at the time to con- 
 sider their significance. 
 
 I had no thought of any ulterior motive in his 
 mind, no suspicion of the inspiration which had 
 suddenly awakened new hope in his breast, when, 
 after a few kind words of reassurance as to my 
 predicament, Mr. Greeley became all attention to 
 me and all alertness regarding my favorable im- 
 pression with my surroundings. When he called 
 his wife aside and held a short, eager colloquy 
 with her; when he ordered the gasmen to turn 
 on the lights, and summoned what musicians yet 
 remained back to their places ; when he insisted 
 that Kate and I should lay aside our wraps lest 
 we should catch cold on going out, I, ingenuous 
 little country-girl, never suspected that the trouble 
 he professed to be taking solely for my pleasure 
 was, in reality, undertaken purely in furtherance 
 of his new and wholly selfish design. 
 
 The leader of the orchestra had gone ; there 
 was but a handful of musicians left ; but Greeley 
 insisted that I should hear some portions of the 
 opera in which his company had attained such 
 success, and himself took the baton. Seats were 
 placed for his wife and myself on the stage, and as 
 I was somewhat disappointed in the appearance of 
 the theatre, bare and denuded as it looked without 
 the audience which is the proper furnishing of a
 
 A Queen of Hearts 5 1 
 
 place of entertainment, I closed my eyes and 
 leaned back, letting the delicious strains of the 
 first orchestra I had ever heard fill my soul with 
 ecstasy. 
 
 I think that susceptibility to music, to which I 
 have before alluded, is a temperamental idiosyn- 
 crasy peculiar to myself. It is a common thing to 
 love harmony; it is by no means a common 
 thing to become possessed of it as I did. It has 
 always been my Pied Piper, and I am sensitive to 
 its influence to a dangerous degree. I had dwelt 
 upon this singular sensibility when discoursing of 
 myself to my new acquaintances, and I do not 
 doubt that Greeley's professional instinct had kept 
 it before his mind and suggested his making use 
 of it to promote his scheme on the present occa- 
 sion. 
 
 He had selected the most sensuous portions of 
 the score for my edification, and directed them in 
 such a manner that their passion appealed to my 
 emotionalism irresistibly. By degrees the melody 
 entered into and seized me. I became restless, 
 uneasy, feverish; every pulse seemed to respond 
 to the delicious vibration of the instruments. All 
 sorts of sensations and impulses stirred and strove 
 within me. My nerves had been powerfully 
 wrought upon by the unaccustomed experiences 
 of the day.; my whole being was strung to a 
 tension it had never reached before. I could feel
 
 52 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 the old ecstasy possess and master me. I grew 
 unconscious of my surroundings; inconsiderate 
 of the fact that it behooved me among these 
 strangers to retain strong control of myself; indif- 
 ferent to all things save one, that Music was call- 
 ing to me with her divine voice and that after the 
 fashion of her summons must I respond. 
 
 That burly, fleshly, coarse, but undeniably sharp 
 and shrewd man, who sat before me in the conduc- 
 tor's chair, waved a wand of enchantment over my 
 senses and played upon my feelings as one of his 
 musicians played upon his instrument. I was in 
 a state of thrall to his will. I wept, I smiled, I 
 sighed, and when of a sudden he leaned a little 
 forward towards the stage and said to me, in a 
 low, imperative tone of command, " Dance," the 
 while leading his men through the seductive meas- 
 ures of the Copelia ballet-music, the old fervor 
 and madness, the passion and desire which found 
 satisfaction in movement alone incited me hotly 
 to expression. I sprang to my feet, and, before 
 astonished eyes which, whatever may have been 
 their anticipation, certainly expected nothing so 
 finished as my performance, I danced as I had 
 danced long months ago to the sound of a shoe- 
 maker's riddle in a dingy, dirty attic in a humdrum 
 country town. 
 
 I do not know how long I danced. Not long, 
 I think, however, for my prompter had thought of
 
 A Queen of Hearts 53 
 
 saving me for a more profitable occasion. In the 
 first moment of self-recollection that came to me 
 I saw Kate Greeley rise and move towards her 
 husband. 
 
 " Stop, Geof ; stop !" I heard her say, in a voice 
 that sounded distant and far away. "It is beautiful, 
 wonderful, divine; but it frightens me somehow. 
 And, besides, she will be quite exhausted after all 
 the excitement of to-day. I am afraid for her." 
 
 And then the spell broke and I came to myself. 
 I awoke from my trance to find myself solicitously 
 regarded by Mrs. Greeley, and curiously consid- 
 ered by the men in the orchestra. There was a 
 look of excitement on every face ; and Greeley, 
 who was climbing up over the foot-lights by the 
 aid of a stage-box, was in a state of wild delight. 
 
 " Good God !" he said to his wife, mopping his 
 brow as he approached us. " Think what it would 
 be properly dressed." 
 
 The good-natured woman had thrown her arm 
 about me and was leading me back to my chair. 
 
 " Divine !" she answered. " Enchanting, divine ! 
 Oh, it took my breath away! Where did you 
 learn it, child ?" 
 
 I shook my head. Reaction had set in and I 
 was dull, abashed, and speechless; mortified and 
 ashamed, yet secretly gratified by the praise of 
 these competent critics. Greeley turned upon his 
 wife contemptuously.
 
 54 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 " Learn it," he repeated, " learn it ! Do you think 
 such motion as that is ever acquired ? You struck 
 it when you said divine." 
 
 We went back to the hotel, and Greeley sent a 
 telegram to my husband informing him that I had 
 lost the train, but that I was with friends, whose 
 name, however, he did not give. A room was 
 secured for me, and I was bidden lie down and 
 rest till dinner-time, for Kate had promised that 
 she would take me in the evening to see the 
 Transcontinental Company in its professional ca- 
 pacity. 
 
 What a tumult my mind was in as I lay in the 
 strange chamber and sought to compose myself! 
 It seemed that I had lived a lifetime since morning. 
 Sheraton was a thousand miles away ; already its 
 inhabitants seemed ill-remembered phantoms of 
 the dead. My adaptability must have been very 
 considerable, for, while my initiation into these 
 new scenes was accompanied by unwonted exhila- 
 ration and excitement, I was in no degree confused 
 or confounded. It may have been that my viva- 
 cious nature had suddenly come into its own ; that 
 its rightful inheritance had been unexpectedly 
 bestowed upon it ; that all the straining ambitions 
 and aspirations within me which circumstances 
 had discouraged from their birth had found the 
 tension that had so long restrained them at last 
 relaxed and themselves congenially environed. A
 
 A Queen of Hearts 55 
 
 duck, even if during the major portion of its life 
 it has been confined in a coop, does not require 
 experience to accustom it to water. Suddenly 
 immersed, the creature finds the element so adapted 
 to its instincts that for the first time it feels that its 
 birthright has become realized. And so it was with 
 me. 
 
 It was Byron, I think, who went to bed one 
 night obscure and awoke to find himself famous. 
 Something of the sort befell me. I went to the 
 theatre that night absolutely unknown to the 
 world ; the next day all New York rang with my 
 praises. I left the hotel at half-past seven, a 
 green, countrified little Mme. la Cure ; I returned 
 to it four hours later the favorite danseuse of the 
 fickle public. Was ever transition more rapid or 
 more complete ? 
 
 I need not relate minutely the details of the 
 transformation. The main points are as follows : 
 
 The house was a brilliant one. The Transcon- 
 tinental Burlesque and Variety Company always 
 called forth a fashionable audience. Their methods 
 appealed to that class which constantly craves 
 novelty and excitement. We sat through the first 
 act in a box. The sight of the gay and (to my 
 unsophisticated eyes) gorgeous assemblage; the 
 charm and interest of the acting; the exquisite 
 melody from the full orchestra ; the entire atmos- 
 phere of my surroundings, got into my head and
 
 56 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 mounted to my brain. By degrees the dull habit 
 of my rural training fell away from me. I glowed, 
 thrilled, throbbed with excitement. Involuntarily 
 my feet kept time with the music, my eyes burned 
 in their sockets, and my heart actually ached with 
 a wild longing to be one of those tawdry beings 
 whose happiness it was to amuse the idle hour of 
 a jaded public. Oh, foolish moth ! that could not 
 see that the flame consumed what entered within 
 its lustre ! 
 
 At the conclusion of the act, and after several 
 recalls had been complied with, in the midst of a 
 fresh burst of applause, Greeley pushed aside the 
 curtain and stepped before it. As soon as quiet 
 fell upon the house he announced that, although 
 his patrons were unaware of the fact, they were 
 that evening to be the fortunate beneficiaries under 
 the old adage, " It is an ill wind," etc. He went 
 on to explain that Mme. Conquest had literally 
 fallen ill and was incapacitated from appearing, but 
 that he could not allow a first-night audience of 
 the great metropolis to be disappointed, and that, 
 therefore, he had concluded to sacrifice his own 
 projects and allow the appearance, for one night 
 only, of Mademoiselle Cleo, a danseuse of incom- 
 parable merit and talent, a girl who was yet in the 
 hands of a teacher, who had become so enthu- 
 siastic concerning her great promise as to have 
 thrown up all other pupils to devote herself ex-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 57 
 
 clusively to her instruction. It had been their 
 purpose to postpone her debut for another season, 
 but, under the circumstances, rather than fail in 
 his engagements to so distinguished, etc., etc. 
 
 I remember every word of the speech. For 
 some unknown reason, not because I dreamed for 
 an instant that I was concerned in it, it impressed 
 me. I think, perhaps, it was because I felt vague 
 envy of that Cleo, that extraordinarily fortunate 
 girl to whom so brilliant a career was thus sud- 
 denly opened. 
 
 After that Greeley came to the box. There was 
 an air of excitement about him and an anxious 
 look in his eyes. He smiled approvingly as he 
 looked at me. 
 
 " Are you enjoying it ?" he remarked, and cast 
 a significant glance at his wife. 
 
 " Oh, it is heaven !" I cried. " But this girl, Mr. 
 Greeley, this Cleo, when shall I see her ?" 
 
 " Now," he said, " if you wish to. Come behind 
 the scenes and I will introduce you to her." 
 
 He summoned his wife with a movement of the 
 head. We rose and passed out, leaving fairy-land 
 behind us. It was of the earth earthy as far as 
 dirt and dust and freedom from glamour were con- 
 cerned, the region into which we passed. But 
 naught of disillusionment did my soul permit that 
 night. They led me to a dressing-room, and I 
 looked expectantly about for the girl of happier
 
 58 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 fate than mine. She was not present, yet this was 
 her room, they told me ; and there, carefully be- 
 stowed upon two chairs, was an exquisite mass of 
 gold and white tissue, which, they said, was her 
 costume. I wondered that she did not appear, for 
 her place on the programme was after the present 
 act, and I took advantage of her absence to exam- 
 ine and reverently touch, with covetous fingers, the 
 shining, diaphanous web. 
 
 Meanwhile the Greeleys were consulting upon 
 some unknown topic apart. Presently my atten- 
 tion was aroused by a few words I heard Kate 
 utter. 
 
 " You go," she said. " I will manage it alone. 
 You will frighten, perhaps intimidate her. I can 
 win her to it, I am sure. I would rather you 
 should go. I am quite positive I can do it by 
 myself." 
 
 He muttered some reply; apparently he was 
 giving her some instructions. All I caught was 
 one phrase : " I shall lead myself." Then he smiled 
 and nodded to me and left the room. 
 
 I could hear the strains of the orchestra and the 
 voices of the singers in the distance. There was 
 much fitful applause, and frequent bursts of laugh- 
 ter were faintly audible. I roamed impatiently 
 about the room, wishing the dancer would come, 
 for I was eager to return to the dazzling audi- 
 torium. Presently Kate approached me. My
 
 A Queen of Hearts 59 
 
 back was to her, and as I turned I was struck by 
 the pallor of her face. 
 
 " What is it, Mrs. Greeley ?" I asked. 
 
 "A really terrible thing has happened to us," 
 she said, " and we are in a most dreadful predica- 
 ment. You saw that Mr. Greeley and I were dis- 
 cussing something just now, and doubtless you 
 noticed how nervous and upset he was. Well, 
 this is the trouble. Just after making his announce- 
 ment to the audience, Geof received a message 
 from Cleo's master saying the girl is already over- 
 come with stage-fright and absolutely refuses to 
 appear. Geof is awfully upset; he says it will 
 ruin our engagement here if he has to go out and 
 make another apology." 
 
 I looked at the billowy mass of tissue, and my 
 lip curled contemptuously. As if one so clad and 
 possessed of the true spirit of dancing need fear 
 mere humanity, however largely congregated. 
 
 " What a poor coward !" I exclaimed. 
 
 " You would not be afraid ?" There was a cer- 
 tain suppressed eagerness and emphasis in her 
 tone which gave the question significance. 
 
 " I ?" I started, looked searchingly at her, read 
 her wishes, forgot who and what I was, turned my 
 back on propriety, decorum, and self-restraint, and 
 delivered my soul over to the keeping of my 
 vanity. I began to tear asunder the fastenings of 
 my gown. Rapidly, Kate aiding me with the
 
 60 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 deftness of a lady's maid, I stripped off the cocoon 
 in which my real nature had so long lain dormant, 
 and with the falling away of my homely garments 
 there disappeared also the shackles which had 
 imprisoned my spirit. A few quick touches let 
 down the quantities of ruddy hair which were 
 allowed to fall as they would in rich profusion 
 about me, and then the airy, voluminous robes of 
 tissue were thrown over my head. The costume 
 was not that of a ballet-girl ; it swathed my body 
 from neck to ankles and fell about me like a white 
 drift of summer clouds shot through with sun- 
 beams. Only my full throat was exposed, but my 
 arms were also allowed to reveal themselves to the 
 shoulders, as the drapery fell back from them 
 when I danced. 
 
 I had no glimpse of myself until I was all appar- 
 elled, and so well had the arch-conspirators timed 
 the development of their plot that, simultaneously 
 with my .appearance before the cheval-glass, the 
 anxious, worried face of Geoffrey Greeley looked 
 in at the door-way. The act and entr'acte were 
 over. The audience were already anticipating 
 Cleo's appearance with their applause. But a 
 moment was available for the inspection of that 
 wonderful image the mirror gave forth to three 
 pairs of amazed and rapturous eyes. But that 
 moment embraced more satisfaction than I had 
 felt for nineteen years, while it amply sufficed for
 
 A Queen of Hearts 61 
 
 the quieting of the managerial scruples which had 
 been rife in the breasts of my companions. 
 
 This was the picture the mirror framed. I re- 
 member it well. It impressed me deeply and, in 
 a measure, impersonally, for it was as one regards 
 a long-dreamed-of but hitherto unencountered af- 
 finity that I contemplated the vision before me. A 
 shape of early womanhood, its gracious curves and 
 outlines artistically suggested by the fashion of its 
 draperies, seemed starting forth into the room from 
 concealment behind the glass. Above the filmy 
 mist of gossamer that shrouded its exquisite pro- 
 portions glowed rapturously an eager, ardent, ra- 
 diant face, as fair and lovely, as joyously expectant 
 and reckless of consequences as that of Eve with the 
 apple at her lips. Its contour was a perfect oval ; 
 its skin very fair and underlaid with the soft pink of 
 a Mermet rose, which, beneath the eyes, deepened 
 upon the round cheeks as excitement provoked it. 
 A pair of crimson lips, parting in ecstasy, revealed 
 a row of white and even teeth, and beneath the 
 straight, firm line of the delicately drawn brows 
 eyes of rare brilliancy burned so intensely that they 
 seemed almost to emit sparks from their luminous 
 depths. Parted above the low, broad forehead a 
 rare confusion of streaming tresses rippled luxuri- 
 antly away, of a color which honesty obliges me to 
 confess was dangerously ardent, but which, I was 
 soon to discover, the world held to be golden.
 
 62 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 L Allegro was the sobriquet bestowed upon me 
 that night by an enthusiastic journalist, and it 
 seems to me it was befitting. I think I may easily 
 have suggested to one familar with them Milton's 
 famous lines, 
 
 " Haste thee, Nymph, and bring with thee 
 Jest, and youthful jollity, 
 Quips, and cranks, and wanton wiles, 
 Nods, and becks, and wreathed smilesj 
 Sport, that wrinkled Care derides, 
 And Laughter holding both his sides. 
 Come, and trip it as you go 
 On the light, fantastic toe.** 
 
 I well recall the exultation of that moment and 
 the throb of gratified vanity with which I heard 
 Greeley ejaculate " Ye gods !" I noted the look 
 exchanged between husband and wife, and shared 
 proudly its confident content. I observed Kate 
 motion to Greeley, who thereupon hastily with- 
 drew, leaving the dressing-room door ajar. Trans- 
 fixed with delight in my own image, I stood yet an 
 instant longer quaffing long draughts of my own 
 fairness, revelling in my perfection of face and form 
 for the first time adequately set forth. 
 
 The strains from the orchestra came faintly to 
 my ear, rousing the spirit of movement within me. 
 The ecstasy of conscious power, bred from a sud- 
 denly acquired knowledge of the value of my own 
 beauty and talent, caused my pulses to beat yet
 
 A Queen of Hearts 63 
 
 faster and more furiously. Penetrated by the en- 
 ticing melody from without, I involuntarily raised 
 my arms, letting the angel-sleeves fall away and 
 expose their rounded beauty, and clasped my 
 hands behind my head ; my body began to sway 
 in harmony with the rhythmic beat, when Kate 
 laid swift hold of me and led me half-gliding, 
 half-dancing from the room. 
 
 I know she conducted me in a state of partial 
 consciousness to a position in the wings, whence I 
 could distinguish but a small section of the house. 
 Stationed here she bade me wait, and soon I felt 
 constrained by a glance, and, gazing whither I 
 was compelled, I found Greeley, who was leading 
 the orchestra, looking full at me with his bulging 
 eyes. 
 
 The air was sweet and sensuous with the same 
 delicious strains from Copelia to which I had 
 danced in the morning. Again, insensibly, they 
 took possession of me ; I felt them creep into my 
 heart, infest my pulses, subdue my memory, dom- 
 inate my being. The look in Greeley's eyes sud- 
 denly became an invitation, a summons. " Come," 
 it said, and I moved forward until I stood fairly 
 before a clamoring public, whom I scarcely noted. 
 " Dance," it commanded, and it is said I danced, 
 for of my performance I am wholly without 
 recollection. As it was involuntary, so was it 
 unknown of me. Not till the curtain fell and
 
 64 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 the music ceased did I recover myself, and then it 
 t was but again to lose sensibility. 
 
 For, at last, the events of the day conquering 
 my powers of resistance, while the auditorium was 
 yet ringing with plaudits and bravos for the debu- 
 tante whose dancing had excited the wild enthu- 
 siasm of the multitude, I, overstrained, spent, and 
 completely exhausted, dropped like a dead thing 
 in the midst of the congratulating company, and 
 was carried, cold and inert, to the green-room, 
 where kindly hands sought to relieve and restore 
 me. 
 
 Once I came to, I was hurried home by Kate, 
 who, tactful soul, left me to silence and my own 
 reflections. These were not wholly the delightful 
 ruminations of gratified vanity, however, for an 
 incident occurred just as we were getting into the 
 carriage that gave me pause in my exultation and 
 wrought frigidly upon my enthusiasm. The car- 
 riage stood well beneath a street-lamp. I was 
 about to enter it when I heard a voice pronounce 
 my name. Turning quickly I discovered standing 
 close beside me Deacon Rogers and his son, who 
 had left Sheraton to find employment in New 
 York. 
 
 "Well, Pauline," said the younger man, who 
 had been my school-companion, " in the name of 
 all that's mighty, how come you ever to do this ? 
 Father don't believe it's you, even now."
 
 A Queen of Hearts 65 
 
 I made no reply. I had nothing ready to say. 
 For one usually fertile in falsehood I was wonder- 
 fully at naught. My glance fell on the old man. 
 His face, unlike my husband's, was a genial and 
 gentle one. Its look of honest grief and distress 
 moved me more than the fact of my identification 
 had done. He was evidently seriously embarrassed 
 and shocked. 
 
 " When did you come up, Mrs. Mavis ?" he 
 asked. " And who be these folks ?" 
 
 Mr. Greeley forestalled my answer. He had 
 seen how startled I was by the meeting, and, 
 having succeeded in coaxing the fly into his parlor, 
 had no mind to allow her to escape through neg- 
 ligence in guarding its exits. He stepped boldly 
 forward now and accosted Joe Rogers. 
 
 "You have made some singular mistake," he 
 said. " The lady has no acquaintance with you. 
 She is under engagement to me, and I am the 
 manager of the company that is now playing at 
 this theatre." He turned to me. "Allow me, 
 Mademoiselle Cleo," he continued, and offered his 
 hand to assist me into the vehicle. 
 
 I had spoken no word during this brief inter- 
 view, nor did I contradict this false statement. 
 Bold as it was, however, it did not prevail with 
 either of the men who had known me from my 
 birth. Joe gave a scornful little laugh. 
 
 " Au revoir, Mademoiselle Cleo," he said, iron- 
 5
 
 66 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 ically. " If I won't be let speak to you, I can 
 see you all the same any time as I care to spend 
 the money. Wish I could realize on all the times 
 I seen you in my life." He turned scoffingly 
 away. But the dear old deacon, in whose genuine 
 solicitude self-consideration had no part, pressed 
 forward and thrust his hand into the carriage- 
 window. 
 
 " Mrs. Mavis, air you comin' home with me 
 to-morrer mornin' ?" he asked. " I hope yer be, 
 Polly, I hope yer be. Where'll I come to fetch 
 yer, hey, what say ?" 
 
 But the straining anxiety and urgency of his 
 quavering voice were rudely broken in upon by 
 the driver, who at the moment started up his 
 horses. I gave a little cry. I had suddenly awak- 
 ened from my long silence. 
 
 " Oh, wait !" I said, laying a restraining hand on 
 Greeley's arm. "Wait a moment. I am going 
 home with him to-morrow. Of course I am 
 going. Who dreams for a moment that I am not ?" 
 
 I glared defiantly from one to the other of my 
 companions as if I held them responsible as 
 would-be agents of my destiny. Kate placed a 
 gentle, coaxing arm about me. 
 
 " Of course, dear, of course you are going. But 
 there is no need to call back that good old soul. 
 Geof and I will see you to the train to-morrow. 
 You can meet him there."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 I HAVE been reading over what I have written, 
 and I feel that I have laid undue stress on the fact 
 of Greeley's influence upon me. There was noth- 
 ing in any degree mysterious or occult, hypnotic 
 or mesmeric in the power which he certainly 
 gained over my actions. He was simply a man 
 of tremendous will, well versed in the weaknesses 
 of human nature, selfish to the core, and unscru- 
 pulous in dealing with obstacles that barred the 
 progress of his own projects. He might have 
 secured a chair in Nature's great University as 
 professor of the delicate and abstruse science of 
 Femininity, so grounded was he in the subject of 
 Woman. He could analyze and classify the most 
 difficult characters, reveal the subtleties of complex 
 temperaments, and play upon feelings and suscep- 
 tibilities with the firm and assured touch of a 
 master. 
 
 He had read me at a glance; had discovered 
 how native vivacity and gayety warred against the 
 circumstances of my life; had noted my vanity, 
 the strong predisposition towards worldliness 
 which corresponded so ill with my position as a 
 minister's wife ; he had seen how impressionable I 
 
 67
 
 68 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 was, how dangerously sensitive to harmony, how 
 easily moved and excited. In a word, he had dis- 
 sected me thoroughly and had discovered that he 
 might direct me merely by an effort of his will. 
 He never, however, gained an ascendency over me 
 which involved the absolute exclusion of my own 
 volition. Weak, prone to self-indulgence, and 
 yielding though I was, I was ever mistress of my 
 own actions; save, indeed, when the frenzy of 
 dancing was upon me. 
 
 Even this temporary madness, however, I soon 
 learned to subdue. I had a will of my own, after 
 all, and I found before long that I might strengthen 
 it as a matter of self-protection, else I should be- 
 come the mere tool of Geoffrey Greeley's merce- 
 nary purposes. For, it is scarcely necessary to 
 state that I did not return to Sheraton the next 
 day, nor the next ; nor after that again, until, years 
 later, I was summoned to receive a holy charge 
 into my care. 
 
 It is singular how easily one falls into narration. 
 I had not thought it would be so simple a matter 
 to separate the salient features of my past from 
 the dreary detail that encumbered them. But, as 
 I reread my little history, I see how very few 
 events of prominence I had to select from during 
 that interval, and I wonder, as I sit here with my 
 chin in my hand and think back, how I ever bore 
 the monotony of that vegetation as long as I did.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 69 
 
 For a week I took the turn of Nita Conquest, 
 dancing every night and gaining fresh and shining 
 laurels. My fame spread abroad among all na- 
 tions, and my fittingly-bestowed title, " L Allegro" 
 clung and became a veritable nom de guerre. The 
 town went mad over me, and the theatre did such 
 a business as it had never done before. My cos- 
 tumes were varied each night, and, as I was with- 
 out method in my dancing, so it was never twice 
 the same. I was overwhelmed with letters, invita- 
 tions, offers from other managers. Originators of 
 proprietary articles, patent soaps, perfumes, etc., 
 named their wares for me and generously supplied 
 me with the same. I might have bathed in dif- 
 ferent varieties of malted extracts ; I might have 
 supplied a dermatologist's clientele with toilet 
 lotions ; I might have soothed the cuticle of a 
 community with face-powders gratis, had I so 
 minded. My room and those of the Greeleys 
 overflowed with flowers. The stage-door was 
 besieged by gilded youth. In short, I was the 
 supreme theatrical attraction of the hour in 
 America, which is a far call from the obscure 
 status of a country minister's wife. 
 
 Whatever else I may blame them for, I must 
 acknowledge a considerable indebtedness to the 
 Greeleys for their watchful care of me during that 
 bewildering week. So slight a negligence on 
 their part might have wrought such dread conse-
 
 70 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 quences to me. For I was, despite my carnal 
 inclinations, as ingenuous, as unsuspicious of the 
 wickedness and corruption that stalks nakedly and 
 unconcernedly abroad in city places as a child not 
 yet freed from leading-strings. But they guarded 
 me solicitously, even rigorously, from the approach 
 of strangers. I was permitted to meet only such 
 persons, and these were very few, as they chose to 
 present to me. I was kept well within the hotel, 
 and my sole outside diversion was a daily drive in 
 the park with Kate, of whom I had grown more 
 fond than I had ever been of any one in my life, 
 not excepting old Pensy. 
 
 And had I no regrets ; was I untroubled by re- 
 morse ; did my heart never turn lovingly back to the 
 home I had deserted, the duties I had abandoned, 
 the husband and child I had forsaken? I ask 
 myself this question, but memory furnishes me 
 with no satisfactory answer. Could the repentance 
 that often assailed me, so largely intermingled as 
 it was with joyous satisfaction in my present sur- 
 roundings, be properly called remorse? Could 
 the gentle wistfulness and temperate regard with 
 which I frequently dwelt upon the memories of 
 those I had deliberately turned my back on be 
 rightly denominated regret? Could a determi- 
 nation never to return, which, once formed, knew 
 no fluctuation, be held to indicate any very deep 
 contrition? It seems to me not. Must I then
 
 A Queen of Hearts 71 
 
 write myself down heartless ? It is such an awful 
 thing, one thinks who loves a child, for a mother 
 wilfully to desert her baby. It is as though such 
 an one could not have the natural organ of affection 
 within her! 
 
 But I have. Let who will deny me beauty, 
 grace, cleverness, charm, talent, I'll not say them 
 nay. But, an they protest I have no heart, by all 
 my gods I swear I have ; for who has so cringed 
 beneath its authority, has suffered under its tyr- 
 anny, has felt its oppression, as have I, its peasant 
 and slave ? 
 
 The heart was there. The princess asleep within 
 her slumbering castle. Was mine the blame if 
 neither the lips of duty nor nature possessed the 
 charm to awaken her from her long repose ? 
 
 At the end of the week I was withdrawn from 
 the stage. Nita Conquest recovered from her 
 accident and made her reappearance before an 
 audience which received her so coldly that she 
 has ever held me responsible for blighting her 
 career. 
 
 Greeley was too wise to trifle with the golden 
 goose he had so unexpectedly discovered, and, as 
 I showed unmistakable signs of nervous exhaus- 
 tion from the week of unprecedented excitement 
 which I had undergone, it was apparent to his 
 shrewd intelligence that not long could I continue 
 to enrich his coffers at such a rate. Therefore,
 
 72 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 having duly discussed the matter with his wife, he 
 made me the following proposition : I should al- 
 low myself to be sent abroad for a year at his 
 expense, and placed in the care of Kate's sister, 
 who had married a professor of dancing in Paris. 
 This man, Monsieur Latrobe, was a master of his 
 art, with a world-wide reputation. Better than any 
 other he would understand the proper develop- 
 ment of my talent, would retain and cultivate its 
 originality, and train it to consummate perfec- 
 tion. 
 
 At the end of the year, if M. Latrobe advised 
 it, I should return to America and place myself 
 under the management of Greeley, to whom I 
 should render my services gratuitously until such 
 time as the amount of my indebtedness to him 
 were discharged. The valuation of my abilities 
 was to be left to M. Latrobe. If, however, my 
 master considered that more time were necessary 
 to my complete artistic development, Greeley 
 agreed not to press the matter of my appearance 
 within two years from the current date. 
 
 I had sent a letter to Mr. Mavis announcing my 
 intention to study for the stage, and had received 
 in response a cold, stern acknowledgment of my 
 communication. He made me no reproaches ; he 
 indulged in no predictions of ultimate ruin; he 
 urged no advice as to the wisdom of reflection. 
 He simply wrote :
 
 A Queen of Hearts 73 
 
 " I have received your letter, Pauline, a letter 
 characteristic of your father's child. It has not 
 surprised me. If you ever have need of its pro- 
 tection, my roof stands ready to shelter you. 
 
 " Yours, 
 
 "JAMES MAVIS." 
 
 The letter was so like the writer that I shuddered 
 even as I read it. Oh, the severity of orthodox 
 Christianity ! Oh, the ungraciousness of perfunc- 
 tory charity ! I merited worse than I received ; I 
 make no attempt to blind myself to that fact ; but 
 those few phrases, penned with such evident for- 
 bearance and estimable self-restraint, chastised me 
 with scorpions. My father's child! The term 
 sank deep. 
 
 I signed my contract. I went abroad. I 
 finished a year of strict discipline both of mind 
 and body. Latrobe was furnished with the witch- 
 hazel wand of perspicacity. He discerned many 
 possibilities in me of which I was ignorant and 
 turned them to advantage. Among these dis- 
 coveries ranked first a strong, pure soprano voice. 
 This was at once put under cultivation, and twelve 
 months did so much for it that it was considered 
 imperative another year's instruction be granted it. 
 At the end of the second year Latrobe wrote 
 Greeley to come over to Paris and hear me, in 
 order that he should see for himself how unwise
 
 74 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 it would be to interrupt a training which promised 
 so brilliantly. I remained the third year, and in 
 the following October made my debut in Paris 
 under Greeley's management. 
 
 The opera in which I appeared had its first 
 performance that night. It was a daring, unique 
 thing, written especially for me by a young Span- 
 iard who was slowly dying of consumption in 
 Mme. Latrobe's pension. " Les Papillons de 
 1'Enfer," he had called it, and it was a master- 
 piece of infernal fire and beauty. The scenery, 
 costumes, music, the whole atmosphere of the 
 composition, suggested satanic realms. One shud- 
 dered even while yielding to the fascinations of 
 the music ; one recoiled even while gazing spell- 
 bound at the exquisite scenes. It was malignant, 
 diabolical, sinister; but it was also seductive, 
 beautiful, ravishing. 
 
 The night was one of double triumph. The 
 production created a profound impression and 
 called forth unstinted praise from the critics, to 
 whom the young composer was unknown, while I 
 captured the house from the start and received an 
 ovation which was more than flattering to a 
 stranger and alien. My success that evening was 
 of far greater worth than that former sensation I 
 had made in New York. The latter was merely 
 an unsustained effort of nature, which could have 
 no permanent artistic value; the former was the
 
 A Queen of Hearts 75 
 
 result of severe and systematic discipline and 
 culture, which should endure as long as my 
 powers lasted. I was now, indeed, artiste. 
 
 I went through the usual course of adulation. 
 I was showered with flowers; called before the 
 curtain until I could no longer see the audience 
 from sheer optic fatigue ; my dressing-room, even, 
 was invaded by persons of fashion and distinction, 
 desirous of felicitating the darling of the hour; 
 the horses were taken from my carriage and I was 
 haled through the streets, to my infinite terror, by 
 a yelling mob of enthusiastic students. 
 
 The next day my lodgings were besieged by 
 callers. Critics of eminence, men of letters, 
 musical geniuses, ladies of high degree, and jour- 
 nalists unnumbered flocked thither, either to leave 
 cards or to request an audience. I was new to it 
 all then, and conscientiously sought to fulfil the 
 duties as well as the pleasures incident to the 
 social side of my profession. I felt it to be incum- 
 bent upon me to receive such as asked for an inter- 
 view, and to give what assistance I might to those 
 who desired it. Among these was a man who at 
 first sight seemed familiar to me. Yet I knew I 
 had never seen him before, nor was my inclination 
 to repeat our interview a very strong one, for he 
 did not favorably impress me. 
 
 He was a Frenchman of middle age, extremely 
 shabby in appearance, but of a dandified and, if the
 
 j6 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 term may be allowed, exquisite shabbiness. There 
 was no sign of beard on his cheeks or chin, his 
 dark mustache was well waxed, his cravat tied 
 after the newest mode, and his linen clean and 
 well-laundered. But his black eyes were set close 
 together, and were sinister and furtive in expres- 
 sion ; his face suggested desperation, and the toupet 
 which he wore to disguise his baldness gave an air 
 of artificiality to his looks which was not redeemed 
 by the obvious genuineness of a constantly revealed 
 set of very white and handsome teeth. 
 
 Isadore Coello, the young composer, was in my 
 salon when this man presented himself. After the 
 interview, when the visitor had departed, Isadore 
 said, 
 
 " Pepita, attenta I the dying have premonitions 
 which come to pass. Do not assist that fellow ; 
 he'll bite the hand that feeds him. And yet, why 
 warn you ? What will be, will be." 
 
 And so it proved. The man he gave his name 
 as Leon Picot had come to beg me to use my 
 good offices with Greeley that the latter might 
 give him some employment which would permit 
 of his returning to America with the company, 
 thus saving him the necessity of paying his own 
 passage. He stated his case succinctly, but with 
 a forcefulness and an amount of repressed eager- 
 ness which made a strong impression upon me. It 
 was so necessary that he should find the means of
 
 A Queen of Hearts 77 
 
 reaching America. He was poor ; it was needless 
 to relate how poor. He had been artiste, not so 
 great as madame, of course, but still artiste. He 
 had had misfortunes. The good God avert such 
 from the beautiful head of madame ! (Here he 
 crossed himself.) In America a competence, if 
 not actual wealth, awaited him. If madame would 
 but use her influence, etc. 
 
 It so chanced that Greeley was in search of a 
 prompter. He was so jubilant at my success that 
 he was more than ready to heed any request 
 I might make of him. I brought the case of Picot 
 before his notice with the result of securing to the 
 latter the vacant situation, which he showed him- 
 self amply qualified to fill. 
 
 We played a month in Paris and then returned 
 to New York. Heralded by a brilliant trans- 
 atlantic reputation, my victory over the great 
 American cosmopolis was a foregone conclusion. 
 We opened, as in Paris, with " Les Papillons," and 
 Coello, who had accompanied us, shared the honors 
 of our premiere. Poor boy ! poor, eager, ardent, 
 aspiring young soul ! His genius was his enemy, 
 consuming his life with its greedy passion. And 
 how he loved me, dear lad ! I have had offer made 
 me of the love of many men ; he never tendered 
 me his, knowing well the obstacle which intervened 
 between us ; but no amount of protestation ever so 
 convinced me as that chivalrous, undeclared, and
 
 7 8 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 yet absolute devotion which was my protection, 
 my pride, my safeguard in those few short months 
 that were the niggardly allotment of existence yet 
 permitted to him by a too rigorous climate. The 
 memory of his knightly regard has ever shed its 
 gentle beams over my pathway since. He was a 
 noble youth, and full of extraordinary promise. I 
 loved him like a brother, and nursed him till he 
 died with my hand held fast in his. 
 
 He had conceived a singular distrust of Picot, 
 and would have had Greeley discharge him upon 
 reaching New York. But I considered his preju- 
 dice merely one of the groundless whims incident 
 to his malady, and would not permit such injustice 
 to be done the man who had proved himself inval- 
 uable in his position. 
 
 "You will regret, Pepita, you will regret," he 
 would expostulate, when the subject was under 
 discussion. " Separate yourself from him as widely 
 as you may. He has the evil eye for you. I can- 
 not bear to see his glance rest upon you." 
 
 " Do you think he loves me, then, Dorito ?" I 
 asked, laughing scornfully at the idea. Dorito 
 was my diminutive for Isadore. The young Span- 
 iard's face clouded. 
 
 " Do not even scoff at the passion of so mean a 
 worm as Picot," he admonished. " Disappointed 
 love in some men turns to a deadly venom which 
 may kill its object with a single breath."
 
 79 
 
 Again I laughed in proud disdain. 
 
 "Then you think I am adored by Monsieur 
 Toupet ?" 
 
 He shook his head gravely, in no degree catch- 
 ing the contagion of my lighter mood. And 
 through his thin frame went a long shiver, like those 
 of which we say, " Some one is walking over my 
 grave ;" the hectic color on his high cheek-bones 
 burned scarlet and his large dark eyes gloomed, 
 wistful and troubled, into my merry ones. 
 
 " I do not know whether it is his love or his 
 hate that menaces you, Pepita. My impressions 
 come not ' in battalions,' but ' single spies.' I only 
 feel that you will in some way suffer from him, 
 and, I pray you, make Greeley discharge him. If 
 only I were to be here to guard you, Paulina ; but 
 my days grow short." 
 
 So he would urge and argue day after day until 
 at last his poor young life wore itself away. An 
 ardent, glorious flame in a fragile and infirm socket. 
 Poor lad ! I loved him and I missed him sadly, 
 sorely. I reverenced him also as a master. My 
 grief at his loss was that of a sister and a disciple 
 combined. After his death, while his memory 
 was still present with me, I felt that imperative 
 desire to fulfil such wishes as I had ever heard him 
 express which so often assails those bereft. Promi- 
 nent among these was that hitherto disregarded 
 request of his that I should seek in every way to
 
 80 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 dissever my life completely from that of Picot. 
 The unreasonableness and injustice of the whim 
 were now lost sight of in the fact that it had ema- 
 nated from him. I knew that, living, my compliance 
 would have gratified him ; dead, it should at least 
 be a flower of late repentance and love laid upon 
 his grave. 
 
 So I went tc Greeley and told him that I wished 
 the man dismissed. I was ashamed to offer so 
 paltry a reason as a dead man's ungrounded 
 prejudice as the cause of my demand, therefore I 
 said that there was that about the prompter's per- 
 sonality which affected me to a degree that inter- 
 fered with my stage business. I offered to advance 
 him three months' salary, but go, I insisted, he 
 must and should. 
 
 I had reached an altitude now in my career from 
 which I was able to dictate to my manager with- 
 out fear of consequences. He knew me to be 
 impressionable and was accustomed to great eccen- 
 tricity among that class of high-strung humanity 
 of which I was a member. He regretted losing 
 an excellent employe, but was far more loath to 
 offend me. Therefore at the week's end Picot 
 found himself, quite unexpectedly, out of a posi- 
 tion. How he knew that I caused his dismissal I 
 never learned, but that he did discover it I was 
 soon made aware of. 
 
 One evening as I was alighting from my car-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 81 
 
 riage, on returning from the theatre, I saw a man 
 loitering in front of the hotel. I failed to recog- 
 nize him at first, and therefore did not dream of 
 connecting his presence there with myself. As I 
 was about entering the doorway, however, he 
 thrust himself forward, intercepting my progress, 
 and I perceived then that it was Picot. His eyes 
 glittered in the semi-darkness, and, even if I had 
 not observed the fumes of absinthe about him, I 
 should have known from his general appearance 
 that he had been drinking. He laid a small, deli- 
 cate hand on my arm to stay me. 
 
 " One moment, madame," he hissed, in a sharp, 
 sibilant half-tone. " Permit me say a single word 
 to you. You have exacted that M. Greeley gave 
 to me my conge. For no reason, fa. Alors, I 
 would say to you that Paul Carette forgets not 
 treason that is done him. He repays in his own 
 time and fashion. That is all, madame. Bon soir /" 
 
 His voice grew smooth and honeyed as the 
 night-porter threw open the door; but my heart 
 stood still. What was that he said ? " Paul 
 Carette forgets not treason done him." Who, then, 
 was Paul Carette? The name rang familiarly 
 enough upon my ears. I had cause to know it. 
 But no not he not this puny, meretricious, 
 sinister-looking waste-end of humanity whose 
 character was so feeble that its impulses could 
 never attain to the degree of strength which raises 
 
 6
 
 82 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 such to the dignity of passions he could have no 
 claim to the name he spoke so glibly. 
 
 The porter, seeing me accompanied, withdrew 
 within the hall. The night was solitary, but I had 
 no room in my mind for fear. My thoughts had 
 else to occupy them. I turned imperiously upon 
 my companion, speaking boldly from my excess 
 of apprehension as to his meaning. 
 
 " I am sorry you have lost your place, Monsieur 
 Picot," I said, coldly, with my head held haughtily 
 erect, " but I believe you only asked me to procure 
 you the means of reaching America. I have 
 never considered that the matter of your further 
 welfare was my charge. As for your friend, Mon- 
 sieur Carette, was it? I have no acquaintance 
 with him, and so his remarkable feats of memory 
 and his eccentricities of behavior arouse neither 
 my interest nor my curiosity." 
 
 My heart sank sadly as I spoke, and my fearful 
 spirit quailed within me, for, challenge the fact as 
 my pride prompted me to do, nevertheless it was 
 borne in upon me, even before he replied, that the 
 man confronting me was my father. There was 
 that within constrained my reluctant belief. He 
 drew his heels together, as Frenchmen do when 
 about to salute, and raised his hat. An ironical 
 smile, filled with malevolence, wrinkled his yellow 
 skin. 
 
 " Ah !" he cried, " you make a mistake, madame.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 83 
 
 Permit that I introduce you. In public life I, like 
 madame, though of less distinction, make use of a 
 pseudonyme. In affairs personal or of honor I 
 bear another name, as likewise, doubtless, does 
 madame. Allow me, then, to name myself, since 
 this is an affair quite of that nature. It is Mon- 
 sieur Paul Carette who has the honor to be in- 
 debted to madame to an extent he will not easily 
 forget." 
 
 His eyes glowed malignantly and his teeth glit- 
 tered white in the darkness. I shivered and drew 
 my fur-lined wrap closer about me. Had poor 
 Isadore been right, then, and had this man, indeed, 
 the evil eye for me? I gathered my forces to- 
 gether and suddenly threw out my arm with a 
 free, wide movement, as if I would sweep from my 
 path some noxious reptile. What though he were 
 my father ! He had deliberately severed the ties 
 between us. I had other occupation for my leisure 
 than that of knitting together the time-frayed ends 
 of rudely-disjoined natural affections. My identity 
 was wholly unknown to him, and there was little 
 likelihood of his discovering it. 
 
 " Then to Monsieur Paul Carette I would say 
 that it is quite a matter of indifference to me 
 whether he remembers or forgets to discharge his 
 obligations," I returned, incisively. " I have never 
 been one whom menace would much intimidate." 
 
 I fancy that the contemptuous curve of my lips
 
 84 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 was perceptible in the lamplight, and that it still 
 further angered him ; for as I turned to enter the 
 hotel he took a step after me. His dark, thin face 
 was quite close to mine as he whispered, sharply, 
 
 " You are assured in your conceit, but every life 
 has its vulnerable point, madame. A worm may 
 bore to the heart of the most flourishing vine and 
 destroy its glory. You think me coquin, madame. 
 What if I prove un ver-coquin (a vine-maggot) 
 also?" 
 
 " Porter !" I cried ; and the man, who little 
 dreamed that it was his daughter who thus drove 
 him from her door, melted away in the darkness. 
 
 And it seemed for some years that permanent 
 darkness had swallowed him and his threats. He 
 disappeared from New York, and from my life as 
 well. I heard nothing of or from him, and soon 
 well-nigh forgot him in the many and various in- 
 terests of an absorbing career. I was engrossed 
 with my profession, and with all the multitudinous 
 time- and thought-exacting demands it brought in 
 its train. It was an intoxicating period, until my 
 vanity became satiated and my neglected heart 
 began to revolt against the canonization of the 
 Ego at the expense of all richer and worthier 
 human hopes and aims. 
 
 I floated on a swelling tide of worldly approval 
 and bathed in a full sea of tumultuous admiration. 
 My tours of the country were royal progresses,
 
 A Queen of Hearts 85 
 
 and I was feted and applauded abroad as well as 
 at home. Six years I was under the management 
 of Greeley, who proved very faithful to my in- 
 terests, which were likewise, of course, his own. 
 He died suddenly at the end of the sixth season, 
 and Kate became my companion, although a well- 
 dowered widow. 
 
 I continued to study hard and conscientiously, 
 and my life outside the theatre was by no means a 
 dissipated one. Extravagant in tastes and habits 
 I certainly was and am, for I have a passion for 
 beauty and luxury and would always clothe my- 
 self in purple and fine linen. My coffers were ever 
 overflowing, so I might gratify my caprices as I 
 would without fear of depleting them, and it was 
 not one of the least of my pleasures to relieve as 
 far as I was able the many cases of distress and 
 need which no prosperous eyes are ever spared the 
 sight of. 
 
 I had acquaintances as numerous as the sands 
 of the sea-shore, and friends as steadfast as its 
 rocks. They say I am magnetic ; that I have that 
 indescribable, indefinable quality which constrains 
 love and liking out of all proportion to the merits 
 and deserts of one who possesses it, and it is true 
 that I gain affection, and hold it also, without con- 
 scious effort. Yet what behooves it all if I may 
 not profit by that supreme and precious passion 
 that I have aroused !
 
 86 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 But, in spite of my popularity, and notwith- 
 standing the large drafts I might make upon love 
 and friendship, I was essentially a lonely woman. 
 I had never obtained a divorce from my husband. 
 The wedding-tie, null and void as it had become 
 in spirit, yet held in letter, and I felt it a protection 
 against the unwelcome passions I inspired. The 
 fact that I was a married woman was one that I 
 kept prominently before the public, and although 
 it did not restrain would-be lovers from tacitly 
 manifesting their adoration by various methods, 
 yet it did spare me overt proffer of the same. I 
 had so scrupulously governed my conduct since 
 first adopting a public career that no man dared 
 hint to me of illicit love. 
 
 I had two stanch women friends who would 
 have gone through fire and water for me. One, 
 thank God ! yet remains to me ; for the other, poor 
 old Kate ! has gone to join (perhaps) her Geof, 
 whose death left her a sadly broken woman. This 
 other, Jean Wallace, is a young Scotch girl, who 
 was chambermaid in a Western hotel, where I once 
 stopped during an engagement. I found she had 
 a voice and placed her where it might be culti- 
 vated, having her with me during holidays. It was 
 reaching a rare degree of beauty when the poor 
 child caught cold. Pneumonia developed, and her 
 prospective career vanished in thin air. She is of 
 a deeply religious nature and bore her tragic be-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 87 
 
 reavement like a young martyr. She is a homely, 
 warm-hearted, tenacious little creature, and has 
 lived with me ever since. She overestimates what 
 trifling service I have done her, and would fight for 
 me to the death, I really believe. 
 
 Twelve years from the very day I left Sheraton 
 I was summoned back to it. It was one of the 
 many coincidences of my life that my husband's 
 death should have recalled me to his home on the 
 very anniversary of the day upon which I had 
 deserted it. 
 
 I was playing in Albany, and the telegram, 
 signed by my old friend, Deacon Rogers, was for- 
 warded me from a theatrical agency in New York, 
 where, in his perplexity, the deacon had directed 
 it. It besought me to be present upon the mor- 
 row, when the funeral would take place. I wired 
 him that I would comply with his wishes, and 
 went. 
 
 As I alighted from the train in the Sheraton 
 station my heart sank like a lump of lead in my 
 bosom. A deadly oppression weighed upon me ; 
 the past with its dismal chain of uneventful years 
 trooped miserably through my mind; I felt at 
 once shackled and fettered by the very calm and 
 repose that obtained throughout the village. I 
 arrived in scant time for the services, and walked 
 from the station to the little cottage. The streets 
 were deserted, not because a funeral was in prog-
 
 88 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 ress, but because it was their habit so to be. Out 
 of regard for propriety I had dressed myself from 
 crown to foot not in widow's weeds, which would 
 have been a mockery, but in plain black. 
 
 At first, expecting to see a play-actress arrayed 
 for all occasions in the scarlet-and-gold trappings 
 of her profession, the group of men in the door- 
 way of my former home failed to recognize me as 
 I approached them. Possibly they took me for 
 some relative of the dead man, come hither from a 
 distant city. But as they parted to allow me to 
 enter the little gateway, I heard an exclamation 
 and knew that it came from the lips of my old 
 school-mate, Joe Rogers. 
 
 " By g um it' s her," he said, elegantly voicing 
 his discovery to his companions. And the news 
 that I had arrived preceded me up the walk and 
 through the doorway, invading even the decent 
 hush of the mortuary chamber, and necks craned 
 forward, young eyes stared rudely and dim ones 
 peered anxiously to behold the curious spectacle 
 of one who had set herself upon the very throne 
 of Satan, climbing over the bodies of husband and 
 child to do so. 
 
 One old man alone respected my feelings and 
 sought to shield them. Deacon Rogers rose from 
 a seat beside the door of the tiny parlor, wherein 
 the dead minister lay, and came forward to greet 
 me. On his arm my hand rested, as with dim eyes
 
 A Queen of Hearts 89 
 
 and ill-assured step I entered the well-remembered 
 room that had once seemed of goodly proportions 
 and now looked a mere closet, and took the chair 
 set ready for me at the foot of the casket. 
 
 Accustomed to meeting the gaze of large au- 
 diences as I was, indifferent and inured to observa- 
 tion as, through great experience, I had come to be, 
 I found myself compelled to lower my lids in the 
 presence of that handful of old-time friends, now 
 my harsh critics and stern judges. Not until the 
 clergyman in his prayer alluded to the child, now 
 bereft indeed and worse than orphaned, did my 
 eyes spring open. 
 
 Where was she, this sadly afflicted child ? What 
 were these humdrum creatures of sloth and dul- 
 ness to me who had cast them off in a never-to-be- 
 regretted impulse ? A sudden, covetous yearning 
 went through me. I raised my lids and boldly 
 glanced over the little gathering. Not there, nor 
 there, nor there, none of those withered counte- 
 nances, nor those dull, inanimate, early reflections 
 of the staid sobriety of age, could be the face of my 
 child. However much she might resemble her 
 father, she was also of my bone, there was some 
 of my quicksilver blood in her veins. 
 
 Then I felt upon me the magic of a straining 
 gaze. I turned my glance whither I had avoided 
 looking, toward the spot where rested the head to 
 which I had vowed submission. A child sat there
 
 90 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 with meek hands folded on a sombre lap. A black 
 and ugly hat, which reminded me of the hideous 
 fabrications that cursed my childhood, sat upon 
 discreetly braided hair, the radiance of which made 
 sunshine in that shady place. The little face was 
 pale, wistful, and sad, and from the heavy, red- 
 rimmed lids looked forth a pair of full, dark eyes, 
 which, mine encountering, awoke to instant life 
 within me that heart which Nature had made so 
 strong and capable of suffering, as strong things 
 must and do.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LISA'S father had left no will, therefore there 
 was nothing to prevent my assuming guardianship 
 of the child. I found that she had been purposely 
 kept in ignorance of my profession, and when I 
 perceived how exceedingly simple and unworldly 
 she was it became a matter of moment to me to 
 guard against her enlightenment. 
 
 I had become suddenly covetous of her respect 
 as well as greedy of her affection. Therefore it 
 behooved me scrupulously to regard those preju- 
 dices in which she had been reared, and to permit 
 no shock of unwelcome revelation that might 
 trouble or alarm her gentle little soul. For it was 
 a tender, conscientious, easily disturbed spirit, this 
 that had so unexpectedly come into my keeping. 
 And perhaps I loved it the better in that it so 
 slightly resembled my own impetuous nature. 
 
 For a few days I left Lisa with the deacon and 
 his good wife, both of whom dearly loved her, 
 until I could decide where I had best bestow 
 her. For, setting aside my constantly increasing 
 resolution that she should not at present know 
 what was my status in life, it was obviously im- 
 
 91
 
 92 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 possible that a nomad such as I should drag a 
 child about the country with her. It was Kate 
 Greeley who solved the vexed question for me. 
 
 She was a Romanist and had implicit confidence 
 in the institutions of her Church. She could con- 
 ceive no better or safer harborage for a young girl 
 than a convent, and at once proposed such a refuge 
 for Lisa. I had no prepossession for or against 
 these training schools, and the idea was acceptable 
 to me. At her recommendation I made applica- 
 tion to a sisterhood in a remote and exceedingly 
 quiet little country town in West Virginia, where 
 they consented to receive my little one. I accom- 
 panied her thither and placed her in charge of the 
 mother-superior, whom I found a most distin- 
 guished and attractive woman, the member of an 
 old Southern family, which had been ruined by the 
 Civil War. 
 
 I shared with her the fact of my being an 
 actress, telling her frankly and without reserve the 
 main points in my history. I likewise informed 
 her that Lisa supposed that my separation from 
 her father had been merely the result of incom- 
 patibility, that she was quite ignorant of my public 
 career, and that it was my urgent desire that the 
 truth be concealed from her until such time as I 
 saw fit to disclose it with my own lips. To all of 
 which the mother, having been a woman of the 
 world before becoming a conventual recluse, lis-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 93 
 
 tened sympathetically and reassuringly. When I 
 concluded, 
 
 " Madame," she said, gently, but with plain sig- 
 nificance, " I quite understand your wishes and 
 promise you they shall be respected. Not within 
 these sacred walls, at least, shall your child learn 
 anything to distress her filial love and respect." 
 
 " Nor elsewhere, mother," I returned, lifting my 
 head somewhat proudly. " I have no fear that my 
 daughter's eyes shall find aught to offend them 
 when she shall be old enough to scan intelligently 
 the pages of her mother's history. It is simply 
 that I wish her young senses not to be strained 
 prematurely." 
 
 The holy woman bowed courteously, but yet 
 looked professionally disturbed. 
 
 " With your great charm and beauty you must 
 have been often severely tempted of the devil," 
 she hazarded. 
 
 " Not so often as you think, perhaps, mother," 
 I replied, smiling. " I have no heart, that is, for 
 men. My excessive vanity has preserved my 
 virtue. I feel myself of too great consequence to 
 be wasted on a single man. My conceit is enor- 
 mous, and conceit is the very armor of self-interest. 
 Therefore is my moral integrity well conserved." 
 
 " It is yet early in the day," she said. " You 
 are still a young woman. Temptation may assail 
 you when you least expect it. If you were but
 
 94 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 of our communion, now, and had the infallible 
 voice of the Church to direct you " 
 
 I rose and extended my hand to her, interrupt- 
 ing her attempt at proselytism, but so graciously 
 and pleasantly that she could not take offence 
 thereat. 
 
 " I warned you not a moment ago of my con- 
 ceit," I said. " It is so assured that it apprehends 
 no danger to my well-being that it cannot success- 
 fully contest I am now a free woman and abso- 
 lute mistress of my life. If temptation in the form 
 of love come to me, I shall succumb to it without 
 reserve. I have earned by long probation the 
 right to do so. But, mother, I am not so opti- 
 mistic as to expect anything so happy as that I 
 fear the indulgence of my vanity is the chiefest 
 good the gods have seen fit to decree me except, 
 possibly, God grant it ! the heart of my child." 
 
 And then, I remember, at mention of her my 
 voice trembled, and the tears came into my eyes. 
 Acting, as I always do, on the impulse of the 
 moment, I did an unusual, an unheard-of thing, 
 which quite shocked Kate when later I related it 
 to her. I leaned quickly forward and pressed my 
 lips to those of the woman who had forsworn all 
 mere human emotions, but who was to me at that 
 instant but the being who was to occupy towards 
 my little one the relation whose duties it was im- 
 possible for me to assume.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 95 
 
 " Be good to her," I implored, brokenly. " Oh, 
 mother, talk to her of me. I have done nothing 
 since I left her father which renders me unfit for 
 her entire love and respect. Tell her not that I 
 am an actress, a dancer, a toy with which to amuse 
 the public, but that I am a lonely woman who has 
 worked hard and steadfastly to win her living ; that 
 I am a repentant mother toiling now with a new 
 ambition, that of enriching and properly establish- 
 ing her child ; that I am good, that I am pure, 
 that, if I have erred in the past through deserting 
 those to whom I was bound, I will atone in the 
 future in such measure as to wipe out all memory 
 of former error. Tell her this ; tell her. I care 
 not half so much for her lessons as that she learns 
 to adore me. And if you but teach her that, 
 mother, let but me know what furnishings your 
 altar needs, what vestments your priests require, 
 what sums are needed for your poor, and my hand 
 shall not be niggardly in its gratitude." 
 
 The mother had started at my caress, and a 
 warm flush mantled her white cheeks. Her dignity 
 assumed to be somewhat touched by my impetuous 
 bribe, yet she was tender and considerate of my 
 emotion. 
 
 " Our duty needs not to be purchased, my 
 child," she rejoined, drawing herself a little aloof. 
 " All the natural inclinations of your child's heart 
 towards you shall be fostered, I promise you ; but,
 
 96 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 remember, the love of God comes even before that 
 of parents." 
 
 I set my teeth hard, but governed my tongue, 
 although with some difficulty. I was sorely 
 tempted to submit that the love of God had al- 
 ready once divorced my life from its natural objects 
 of affection. But I held my peace and allowed my 
 mind to dwell upon that far-distant day when Mr. 
 Mavis and I had our chance encounter with the 
 cart of calves. My exultation over the Lord's 
 fancied discomfiture recurred to me, and I fear I 
 irreverently paraphrased to myself my former 
 exclamation, applying it to the present possibility 
 that now threatened me. 
 
 " Well, He sha'n't get her," I vowed internally, 
 and made my adieux to the stately mother. 
 
 Having thus properly established my daughter, 
 I continued my life as before. Only now a new 
 direction and purpose seemed given my efforts, 
 and I devoted myself to my profession with far 
 more interest and ardor. Of course, by this time 
 I had no longer the advantage of novelty to recom- 
 mend me, but nevertheless my popularity had in 
 no degree diminished. I kept thoroughly abreast 
 of the times and made my yearly trips abroad in 
 search of new ideas and fresh productions. My 
 manager was most discreet, and never allowed me 
 to remain long enough in any stand to cause my 
 powers of attraction to pall. My hold upon the
 
 A Queen of Hearts 97 
 
 favor of the public seemed to grow instead of 
 wane, and I was equally at home in the chief cities 
 of three continents. 
 
 There were times when I wearied profoundly of 
 the life, when the clack of applause became an 
 intolerable din in my ears, and I craved the peace 
 and retirement of a private life. But I knew that 
 there must be something to take the place of the 
 excitement upon which I had so long depended, 
 and I would say to my impatient heart, " Wait a 
 little, and Lisa will be of an age to comprehend 
 your position accurately ; then there shall be no 
 more secrecy, and she shall come and supply that 
 interest whose place has been so long and un- 
 worthily filled by a fictitious substitute." 
 
 And so four years more passed unmarked by 
 events of importance, unless I except the occasions 
 upon which I visited the convent, where I had the 
 delightful satisfaction of watching the gradual 
 development of a sweet and exquisitely lovely girl- 
 hood. I had come to love the child with an ab- 
 sorbing affection, which she returned with a species 
 of adoration. She never questioned me as to the 
 occupation which prevented me from having her 
 constantly with me, for her attitude towards me, 
 worshipful as it was, yet was somewhat timid and 
 constrained, lacking that familiarity which permits 
 perfect freedom of intercourse. I believe that she 
 thought me engaged in some manual employment, 
 
 7
 
 98 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 for she would often kiss my hands tenderly, and 
 deprecate the necessity of their beauty being turned 
 to account 
 
 She was developing rapidly both in mind and 
 body, and promised to be fair of face, as she had 
 always been of spirit. Her expression was ador- 
 ably pure and innocent, and her big brown eyes 
 were so candid and trustful, so unsuspicious of evil 
 or malice, that their mere glances penetrated the 
 slime of corruption which had formed over stag- 
 nant depths of long-slumbering resolves, and 
 aroused in one inclination stanchly to range one's 
 self upon the side of virtue. I never felt so over- 
 whelmed with my own worldliness as when I was 
 with her, and her ignorance of life in its active as- 
 pect, her absolute unconsciousness of what was 
 going on without the walls of her convent, her 
 inexperience and the unsuspiciousness that antici- 
 pated and apprehended nothing of the powerful and 
 turbulent emotions which make up the strife called 
 existence, at times terrified me, filling me with fore- 
 bodings against that moment when full perception 
 of the true meaning of life should awaken within her. 
 And how, among other disclosures, would the rev- 
 elation of my true standing in the world affect 
 her ? I was cowardly concerning it, and but for 
 the crying demands of my love, that hungered to 
 have her with me, I would gladly have deferred 
 the exposition beyond that seventeenth year, when
 
 A Queen of Hearts 99 
 
 I had promised to allow myself her companion- 
 ship. 
 
 That was still a year off, however, and I would 
 borrow no trouble on its account. Especially as 
 just then I had ample occupation for my attention 
 in the opening up of new interests which threat- 
 ened to somewhat dangerously rival Lisa's claims 
 upon my exclusive regard. 
 
 That winter I was trying an experiment which 
 former pronounced successes in New York had 
 seemed to warrant testing. I had leased a theatre 
 for the whole season, giving a wide and constantly 
 varied repertoire, and enjoying beyond measure the 
 delight of a fixed establishment. I had taken a 
 charming suite of rooms in a new and splendidly 
 appointed apartment house, where I had all the 
 privacy and comfort of an individual home without 
 the annoying detail of housekeeping. Jean was 
 with me as companion, poor Kate having died the 
 previous winter. I was as happy as a child with a 
 new toy, and felt a premonition of greater joy and 
 content than I had yet known. I went to the 
 trouble of unpacking many of the rare and beau- 
 tiful things I had accumulated in my long wan- 
 derings, and with these adorning my rooms I had 
 reason to feel proud and satisfied with their ap- 
 pearance. 
 
 My carriages and horses were selected for me by 
 men who understood such things, and who saw
 
 ioo A Queen of Hearts 
 
 that all my stable appointments were what they 
 should be. My servants were as well trained and 
 imposing as those of a duchess could be; my 
 menage as well conducted as that of a model 
 English household, and my whole establishment 
 placed upon a footing of elegance and luxury that 
 entitled it to the notice and commendation of the 
 most indifferent or exacting individual. My gowns, 
 my whole wardrobe, in fact, had been fashioned by 
 French fingers and designed by French taste. It 
 was not strange that, with my beauty at its best 
 and my reputation at its height, I should have at 
 once become the fashion of the hour, the gossip 
 of the clubs, and the favorite subject of conversa- 
 tion at five-o'clock teas. 
 
 And, for some strange and unaccountable reason, 
 all the old-time vanity and love of excitement which 
 had so long lain half-dormant within me seemed 
 suddenly that winter kindled into new life. For 
 years I had not thrown myself into distraction and 
 diversion, had not sipped so eagerly and with such 
 satisfaction at the streams of adulation and ad- 
 miration which my charms provoked, as I was 
 prompted then to do. It was as though I had be- 
 come magically rejuvenated, with all the zest and 
 gayety of youth marvellously restored. 
 
 " I do not know you, madame," staid little Jean 
 would say. " You are not a woman any more, 
 but a girl, younger by years and years than I."
 
 A Queen of Hearts 101 
 
 " I am glad, then, Jeanie," I would laugh ; " for 
 then my Lisa shall be my twin-sister, and we will 
 be young together." 
 
 My rooms were not adorned thus artistically 
 and luxuriously for the edification of Jean and me 
 only. I entertained much, but men chiefly, for 
 with some few notable exceptions the women of 
 my acquaintance in New York were not then 
 such as I chose to make my friends. But I had 
 ever preferred the companionship of men, and did 
 not crave that of my own sex. Jean amply sufficed 
 my needs until such time as I might claim Lisa. 
 Before long, however, I had offer made me of the 
 wherewithal to furnish a large visiting-list were I 
 so minded, and the opportunity came about in this 
 fashion : 
 
 One day, late in the afternoon, as Jean and I 
 were returning from a drive in the park, my butler, 
 on opening the door, informed me that a lady 
 awaited me in the drawing-room. 
 
 " Where is her card ?" I asked, and he handed 
 me a thin bit of pasteboard, on which was en- 
 graved, " Mrs. Richard Eton Quintard." Below 
 it were an address and some intelligence as to home- 
 keeping intentions. I read the name aloud, but it 
 was strange to me, and conveyed no information 
 to my mind. But Jean, who is in some ways a 
 singularly inconsistent little creature, has a marked 
 taste, quite out of harmony with her other charac-
 
 IO2 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 teristics, for society gossip. She is an omnivorous 
 devourer of " chronique scandaleuse," and at once 
 relieved my perplexity. 
 
 " Why, madame," she ejaculated, " you know 
 who she is : Mrs. Dicky Quintard. An awful 
 swell, you know, but " 
 
 The name thus abbreviated had a wholly dif- 
 ferent and more familiar sound. 
 
 " Oh, yes," I returned. " I never 'should have 
 recognized it ; never. ' Mrs. Dicky !' How un- 
 like Mrs. Richard Eton Quintard it is! When 
 those swell society women are a bit fast, people 
 first corrupt and then add a Y to the Christian 
 names of their husbands. Queer fashion, isn't it ?" 
 
 " Oh, it's plain enough," Jeanie remarked, cyni- 
 cally. "It's the women themselves that do the 
 corrupting, and the Y is the modern scarlet letter 
 which is an indication of a questionable character. 
 It's perfectly simple when you come to look at 
 it. But you'll see her, won't you ?" she added, 
 more earnestly. 
 
 "Yes; my curiosity is alert. Take my wrap, 
 there's a good girl." 
 
 When I entered the drawing-room I found my 
 guest looking through a case of signed photo- 
 graphs of royalties which had been presented to 
 me by the originals. 
 
 She was an exceedingly well-preserved woman 
 of middle age, not handsome, but exceptionally
 
 A Queen of Hearts 103 
 
 distinguished in bearing and manner, groomed to 
 absolute perfection, and gowned as well as myself. 
 Her reception of me (for one could see that she 
 was never forgetful of the fact that she was the 
 great lady and I the actress) was affable, and as 
 cordial as the difference in our rank would permit. 
 Her face was hard, and one would have staked a 
 good deal on the inference drawn from its lines 
 and expression that she was a cold-hearted and 
 selfish woman. She at once apologized for her 
 intrusion and persistence in awaiting my re- 
 turn. 
 
 " But I had a cherished purpose in coming to 
 you, madame," she explained, " and I fear I am 
 somewhat tenacious of my own designs." 
 
 I noted her resolute chin and the self-willed 
 folding together of her full red lips, and felt that 
 she did not over-emphasize her own pertinacity. 
 I bowed and waved her to a seat, sinking upon a 
 heap of cushions as I did so. She threw a glance 
 about the room and complimented me upon its 
 beauty and arrangement, feeling, I suppose, that 
 flattery was the natural pabulum of an actress and 
 that it would be a valuable ally in promoting her 
 project. 
 
 " It is more charming even than I had imagined 
 it," she said, " and I had thought nothing could 
 quite fulfil the expectations conjured up by Town- 
 send Barroll's description of it. By the way, it
 
 104 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 was Mr. Barroll who inspired me with confidence 
 to come here." 
 
 This probably by way of introduction, but it was 
 a false step to my favor, for, although I had noth- 
 ing in the world against the man she mentioned 
 by way of suggesting a common ground of ac- 
 quaintanceship, yet, public dancer as I was, I would 
 have hesitated to offer to a stranger, as an " open 
 sesame" to her regard, the name of a man with 
 whom I was disgracefully and notoriously asso- 
 ciated in the public mind. And the intimacy of 
 Towny Barroll and Mrs. Dicky Quintard was a 
 matter of open scandal. 
 
 I merely bowed, and she unfolded her errand. 
 
 " I wish to give a function on the twenty-eighth 
 of this month," she explained, " which shall eclipse 
 anything that has yet been given this season. I 
 want to provide some unique feature which shall 
 give it a flavor and individuality of its own. The 
 Duke of Wilton will be one of my guests, and you 
 can understand that I wish to make the affair as 
 pronounced a success as possible. I know that 
 you have never been willing to dance in private 
 houses, but I have ventured to hope that I might 
 offer inducements that would overcome your reluc- 
 tance." 
 
 She certainly possessed a peculiar charm of 
 manner which rather prevailed over the forbidding 
 egotism of her personality when she chose to exer-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 105 
 
 cise it. My customary refusal was hovering on 
 my lips when she rose and came towards me, 
 stooping to address me with a smile of perfect 
 sympathy and a frank air of good-fellowship. 
 
 " Oh, I know what awful bores conventional 
 love-feasts must seem to you. I don't wonder 
 that you avoid them. I would, too, if I could. 
 But as I can't, I temper them as much as possible. 
 When I ask people to afternoon tea, they never 
 expect to find any cream on my table. They 
 know my tea is always served a la Russ. But they 
 do enjoy it, even those who pretend that rum 
 shocks their fastidious palate. Indeed, these are 
 the sort that always drain my cups to the dregs. 
 They get such flavor so seldom, you know." She 
 laughed and showed her handsome teeth. Then, 
 extending her hand as if with sudden impulse, 
 " Do come ; I promise you you shall be amused. 
 There will really be considerable fun going. Make 
 your terms what you will, or let me send you an 
 emerald and diamond star which I saw the other 
 day at Tiffany's, and which I have been placing 
 above the parting of your beautiful hair ever since 
 I have been here. Come, which shall it be ? A 
 thousand dollars or the star, madame ?" 
 
 " I think the star, madam, if you are to receive 
 me as a semi-guest," I replied, rising and taking 
 her extended hand. I considered her curiously, 
 attentively, wondering why I had made an excep-
 
 106 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 tion in her favor, where heretofore I had so reso- 
 lutely stood firm. I was in no manner drawn to 
 her ; indeed, she rather repelled than attracted me, 
 although I could recognize in her that indefinable 
 quality which rendered her so alluring to men. It 
 was a meretricious and artificial charm; an ac- 
 quired and carefully perfected parasite which cov- 
 ered the rude bark of an essentially coarse nature 
 with an extraneous and surprisingly brilliant 
 growth of exotic bloom. It was, perhaps, the 
 very contrast between the trunk and the bloom 
 that fascinated and provoked to interest the be- 
 holder. She had come hither determined to gain 
 her own ends, and she had gained them. And I 
 felt, as, after she had departed with many gracious 
 words of farewell, I stood beside the chimney-piece 
 and reviewed our interview, that she was a woman 
 who might well boast of her tenacity of purpose, 
 for I did not believe that it often befell that Mrs. 
 Dicky Quintard failed to accomplish her aims. I 
 felt myself weak and infirm beside her ; I realized 
 how easily she had conquered my opposition; I 
 considered that I had been wax in her hands. 
 And I wondered how it would have been if some 
 greater point had been at issue between us. I 
 speculated upon the probability of my having 
 been able to summon strength to resist her bland- 
 ishments or her temper, had she seen fit to exer- 
 cise the latter, and the result of my reflections
 
 A Queen of Hearts 107 
 
 was a feeling of deep satisfaction that a mere 
 prejudice, and not a principle or a passion, had 
 challenged our wills to combat. 
 
 The night of the 28th of January, 189-, I am 
 not likely to forget. Only two years ago, is it ? I 
 had thought it twenty. Am I only two years 
 older by actual reckoning than that woman who, 
 " tricked out in all the bravery of latter-day purple 
 and fine linen," was that evening whirled, with the 
 light heart of a girl and the expectant and eager 
 pleasure of a child, from the scene of one triumph 
 to that of another ? How could I have cared for 
 it all so much ? It had never given me any satis- 
 faction worth calling such. Yet I loved it. I 
 coveted it. I was greedy for any amount of it. 
 
 Then, too, this evening my ambition was stirred 
 in a new direction. I had never before assisted in 
 any capacity at a social function worthy of being 
 called such. I had often been begged to appear 
 professionally at private entertainments, but had 
 always declined to do so, and, untarnished as my 
 reputation had ever been, my grade of work 
 scarcely entitled me to receive that entree into society 
 which is nowadays given to actresses of the highest 
 type. This was the first opportunity that had ever 
 been offered me to receive entertainment and hos- 
 pitality as well as emolument from persons of 
 fashion and consequence, and, having in view 
 Lisa's future, I hoped great things from it. For I
 
 io8 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 aspired to a far loftier social position for her than 
 that to which I had been able to attain. 
 
 It was about half-past eleven when I reached 
 Mrs. Dicky's magnificent mansion, which was 
 fairly ablaze from attic to cellar. I had brought 
 Jean with me, and the little lassie was even more 
 excited than I. Townsend Barroll, who was a 
 very good friend of mine, had promised to be on 
 the lookout for me, for I was actually nervous at 
 the prospect of seeing society at close range, and, 
 true to his word, there he stood to greet our ar- 
 rival close by the arm of the footman who admit- 
 ted us. He led us at once to the room set apart 
 for my use, and, as I dropped my long wrap into 
 Jean's hands, he broke into enthusiastic comment 
 upon my appearance. I did look well; I had 
 meant to let these women see that my beauty was 
 not dependent upon artificial means or stage acces- 
 sories, and I had succeeded beyond my anticipa- 
 tions. I had felt, even before Barroll corroborated 
 my conviction, that I had every reason to feel quite 
 satisfied with the result of my efforts. 
 
 I had not a grain of powder nor a touch of 
 rouge upon me. The cunning hand of Nature 
 alone had laid cosmetics upon my skin, and the 
 golden russet of my hair was due only to the pig- 
 ment which she had stored in the cell at every 
 root. I wore yards and yards of fleecy tissue of 
 a green tint, so lustrous of hue that it seemed as
 
 A Queen of Hearts 109 
 
 it floated about me to turn to gleaming silver. My 
 neck and arms were bare, but discreetly so, and 
 the airy drapery was simply held in place upon the 
 shoulders by diamond clasps. On my brow, con- 
 fining my hair and threading its ruddy mazes, 
 sparkled a diamond fillet, and this and the clasps 
 were all the jewels I wore. 
 
 " Well, madame, you'll arrive to-night, and no 
 mistake !" Barroll ejaculated. " How, in the name 
 of all that's wonderful, do you manage to keep so 
 young ? Why, you're not a day over twenty, I'll 
 swear. There's not a woman below there to-night 
 that can touch you in the matter of freshness, I 
 assure you." 
 
 At that moment, Mrs. Dicky, to whom my ar- 
 rival had been announced, came hurriedly into 
 the room and greeted me with effusion. She was 
 very splendid and gorgeous, but her superb and 
 costly toilette and the flash and sparkle of her 
 celebrated jewels lent no charm nor fairness to her 
 face. 
 
 " I never saw anything so altogether exquisite," 
 she said ; for, faulty as she was, Irene Quintard was 
 wholly without any petty vanity which prompts 
 one woman to withhold compliment from another. 
 " And you are in the mood ; I can tell by the way 
 your eyes shine. Oh, it will be a sensation, hey, 
 Towny ?" 
 
 She was in the best of high spirits, and chatted
 
 i j o A Queen of Hearts 
 
 volubly as we passed down a side-staircase and 
 entered the screened-off portion of the ball-room, 
 where a temporary stage had been erected for my 
 use. My already excited temperament caught the 
 contagion of her enthusiasm, and I knew there was 
 no fear of my disappointing her hopes. Nor did 
 I. But my success was crowned with sad disaster 
 to myself. 
 
 The stage had been apparently a hastily con- 
 structed affair, carelessly and indifferently joined 
 together. I had scarcely begun to dance when I 
 discovered that the flooring was weak and un- 
 stable, but the old fever was in my blood and I 
 could not stop to consider possible consequences. 
 The strain upon it would not be heavy, and it 
 would certainly last for the ten or fifteen minutes 
 that I should require it. Meanwhile I had noted 
 one quite insecure board and would take heed to 
 avoid it. But the precaution was forgotten almost 
 before the first burst of applause had died away. 
 With that brilliant assemblage of the pick and 
 choice of New York swelldom hanging in ecstasy 
 over my movements, was it likely that I should 
 long consider such a trifle as self-preservation ? 
 
 I had all but fulfilled the measure of my allotted 
 time ; hundreds of rapt and enchanted eyes were 
 gazing spell-bound upon me ; murmurs of aston- 
 ishment and admiration no longer to be repressed 
 were caressing with subtle flattery my willing ears,
 
 A Queen of Hearts 1 1 1 
 
 when a creak, the quick, sharp clap of a board 
 
 snapped out of position, and then Before I fell 
 
 I had presence of mind enough to shoot a tele- 
 graphic glance at the man who ran the curtain. 
 He had wit enough to comprehend and respond 
 instantaneously, and so but few in that wildly 
 enthusiastic gathering, whose high-bred composure 
 had for once wholly defaulted, dreamed that the 
 woman they were so strenuously seeking to re- 
 call was lying prone upon the curtained platform, 
 groaning over the hurt of an ankle that seemed to 
 have suddenly gathered unto itself all the pain in 
 Christendom. 
 
 But some there were who understood the event 
 exactly as it occurred. One of these persons was 
 Jean, who was standing back of the curtain, beside 
 the stage. Another was a young man whom I 
 had often seen about town, and whom I knew to 
 be Allan Quintard, Mrs. Dicky's son. A third was 
 a quiet, self-contained-looking man of middle age, 
 whom I did not at all recognize. And a fourth was 
 a servant in the livery of the house, whom I remem- 
 bered passing as I entered the apartment with my 
 hostess. In his strange garb it was not singular 
 that I did not know him. Later I discovered him 
 to be my father. Others there were who soon 
 came hastening in, but these four were the first to 
 reach me, and theirs were the faces I gazed into as 
 I regained consciousness. For, of course, I did
 
 H2 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 the correct thing and fainted. My emotional tem- 
 perament always responds in true feminine fashion 
 to all the demands made upon it 
 
 It was the somewhat stern-looking stranger who 
 first accosted me, addressing me and directing 
 those upon whom he laid his commands with an 
 air of authority. 
 
 " Will you allow me to lift you ?" he asked. " I 
 am very strong, and it will be much more com- 
 fortable for you than a litter would be." 
 
 He stooped as he spoke, obviously intending to 
 have his own way, and not caring a jot whether 
 or no I should dissent. As he raised me (by no 
 means a feather) in a pair of arms that never so 
 much as quivered beneath the weight, he bade 
 young Quintard go telephone for a doctor, sum- 
 moned Jean to accompany us, and ordered the 
 footman to precede us and open the doors through 
 which we must pass. 
 
 As we reached the completely embowered hall, 
 Mrs. Dicky came hastening towards us with Mr. 
 Barroll in tow. 
 
 " Oh, madame ! oh, Richard !" she exclaimed, 
 "how terrible this is! I have only just heard of 
 it! Is it very bad? Can you carry her alone, 
 Richard? Don't you want Mr. Barroll to help 
 you ?" 
 
 She really seemed much distressed and con- 
 cerned, but she felt that she was no nurse, and
 
 A Queen of Hearts 113 
 
 that it was a genuine relief to her when her hus- 
 band replied, curtly, 
 
 " No, I do not need Barroll, nor you either, 
 Irene. Madame has her companion here, and we 
 have sent for a surgeon. We have all the help 
 we require. You had better go back to your 
 guests." 
 
 And she went, after a few words of regret and 
 commiseration to me. And he and I went on to- 
 gether, I held carefully but indifferently in his 
 clasp, with my light robes trailing behind us, and 
 but one thought filling my mind, and that was a 
 mere stupid reflection upon the intolerable ache in 
 my ankle. Think of it, oh, my soul! In that 
 supreme moment your one consideration was that 
 of a poor and trifling physical infirmity !
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 MY injury, though painful, was not serious. It 
 was only a strain of certain ligaments, but the 
 surgeon insisted that I should not be moved even 
 from the library where I lay, as perfect rest he 
 held to be the essential element in the promotion 
 of a speedy recovery. 
 
 Therefore Jean was despatched homeward for 
 certain toilet requisites, a bed was improvised for 
 my accommodation, and I found myself most un- 
 expectedly installed beneath Mrs. Dicky Quin- 
 tard's roof as her uninvited guest. 
 
 For three days I remained there, during which 
 time the theatre was, of course, closed. Those 
 three days were, without doubt, the happiest I had 
 ever spent. My hostess, although most consid- 
 erate and solicitous of my comfort and well-being, 
 was far too busy a woman to find great leisure for 
 any individual claim, but others there were who 
 made it their special business to provide for my 
 amusement and to guard against my carrying 
 from their luxurious home the impression of its 
 being a mere wearisome place of detention. The 
 master of the house and his son saw to it that I 
 had entertainment as well as ease of body. 
 114
 
 A Queen of Hearts 115 
 
 The surgeon's orders had obliged me to appro- 
 priate Mr. Quintard's especial sanctum, and, per- 
 haps because habit had accustomed his feet to 
 turn naturally in that direction, or possibly.because 
 from the first moment of our acquaintance a mu- 
 tual attachment established itself between us, or it 
 may be that he felt himself in a measure respon- 
 sible for the restoration of the woman who had 
 suffered through the carelessness of his own hire- 
 lings, however it was I cannot say ; only this I 
 know, that during my invasion of his premises, 
 Richard Quintard devoted the major part of his 
 time to solacing and diverting my hours of impris- 
 onment. 
 
 I liked him from the start. There was that in 
 the expression of the thin, high-bred face, in the 
 look of the still gray eyes, in the composure of 
 the lips, the one really beautiful feature in an other- 
 wise irregular countenance, which indicated the 
 attainment of great self-control, a quality which I, 
 being void thereof to a miserable extent, do most 
 fervently admire. His personality was restful and 
 appealed to my sensibility. His presence was 
 agreeable to my nervous and high-strung nature 
 as a cool draught to a feverish patient. He seemed 
 a man whose heart and mind and body were ever 
 at leisure, but one felt that the leisure was not a 
 native quality, but that it had been earned by 
 strenuous labor in the cause of self-adjustment.
 
 1 1 6 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 There were marks of hard service upon the brow 
 and about the eyes and mouth. 
 
 A man less adapted to one's preconceived idea 
 of Mrs. Dicky's husband it is impossible to imag- 
 ine. Every one knew that the incumbent of the 
 post was socially a cipher, and, therefore, if one 
 ever considered him individually at all, it was to 
 draw him a wholly colorless and characterless 
 being, thoroughly subordinate to a stronger nature 
 in every way. Probably the scandalously long 
 tether accorded her and the unrestricted liberty 
 or perhaps license is the better word of which she 
 boldly availed herself gave natural rise to these 
 conclusions, and created the impression that Mrs. 
 Dicky was supreme dictator in her own house- 
 hold. 
 
 Such was not the case, however. When a ques- 
 tion arose directly affecting himself or his son 
 Allan, the master made his will known and his 
 authority felt in a manner there was no contro- 
 verting. But these occasions were few, and ordi- 
 narily Richard Quintard was content to cultivate 
 that leisure which had come to seem to him life's 
 best gift at the expense of some falling off in the 
 high regard of his fellows. But those who knew 
 him well valued him no less on account of this 
 passivity. Such knew that to live in harmony, if 
 not in sympathy, with the mother of his son for 
 that son's sake was a resolve to which the man
 
 A Queen of Hearts 1 1 7 
 
 had been sacrificing all through his married life, 
 and to which it was his purpose still to sacri- 
 fice until that son should leave home to set up 
 his own establishment elsewhere. For the woman 
 herself he cared not a jot, nor ever had except for 
 a brief season when she had fascinated his boyish 
 imagination through her originality and bold reck- 
 lessness. 
 
 She was his senior by five years, and had been a 
 scheming woman when he was only an ingenuous 
 lad, cursed with a great inheritance. Her poverty 
 had made her absolutely dependent on his good- 
 will, and so, dangerously near destruction as she 
 had guided her matrimonial bark, she had yet had 
 wit enough to keep it on the weather side of the 
 law. Besides which she was passionately attached 
 to her son. Of that there can be no doubt. I 
 consider Irene Quintard an absolutely selfish and 
 cold-hearted woman excepting as concerns her 
 son. But I believe that she is as sincerely attached 
 to him, as devoted to what she thinks his best 
 interests, as any woman can possibly be to her 
 child. Her love for him is a genuine passion, and 
 it alone modifies my dislike of her. 
 
 He simply lived in my room from the moment 
 I had finished breakfast till the late hour at night 
 at which I habitually retired. It was not strange 
 that I could entertain a lad of his age. My varied 
 experiences had furnished me with material for
 
 1 1 8 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 ample and amusing discourse, and he listened with 
 eager ears to all that fell from my lips. 
 
 He quite charmed me because he very greatly 
 resembled the young Spaniard Coello, but also I 
 liked him on his own account, he was so frank 
 and lovable. A strong tie existed between him 
 and his father, and it was plain that the elder had 
 powerfully disciplined and influenced the younger 
 mind. 
 
 I had no visitors save those two and occasion- 
 ally the perfunctory flitting in and out of my 
 hostess, for I had desired that all callers should be 
 excluded, having sufficient company in the two 
 men and my little Jean. It was a different sort of 
 existence from any I had ever led, more intimate 
 and of closer companionship, and I enjoyed it 
 beyond measure. 
 
 There was but one drawback. That was the 
 consciousness that in that same great and splendid 
 house where I was being petted as an honored 
 guest my father was serving as a menial. The 
 thought was ever present with me and troubled 
 me sadly. I could not put it from me, and, as ill 
 luck would have it, Picot, as he was called, was 
 the footman specially detailed to wait upon my 
 bell. Therefore, twenty times a day was I obliged 
 to suffer the unwelcome reminder of his presence. 
 
 I dwelt much upon the subject of relieving him 
 without his knowledge of the source which should
 
 A Queen of Hearts 119 
 
 supply him. Acknowledge him I never would. 
 Not that I was possessed of that mean vanity 
 which makes one ashamed to recognize a friend or 
 relative of fallen fortunes. But I knew that to 
 acknowledge his paternity was to open the flood- 
 gates to a stream of importunity and annoyance 
 with which I had no wish to submerge my life. 
 Nothing drew me to him, and I had but one in- 
 stinct in his regard, which was to avoid him as 
 much as possible. Nevertheless he was my father ; 
 I was a woman of fortune, and he sunk to the low 
 level of domestic service; how could I turn my 
 back upon the fact of my relationship when he so 
 needed the help that I was amply able to afford 
 him? 
 
 That he had not forgotten the old grudge 
 against me I could see by the malignant expres- 
 sion of his eyes as they fell upon me. But, filled 
 with the assurance bred of a fairly long career of 
 success and triumph, I scorned the possibility of 
 so poor a creature doing me a harm. 
 
 At the end of three days my ankle was suf- 
 ficiently recovered to permit of my returning home. 
 It was a home-sick moment to me when I stood 
 alone for a moment in the beautiful room and bade 
 good-by to surroundings which in so short a time 
 I had grown to love so dearly. I even think the 
 tears were in my foolish eyes, for I weep easily ; 
 and when presently I was joined by Richard
 
 1 20 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 Quintard, who had come to conduct me to my 
 carriage, I fear it was a sort of sorry April face 
 I turned upon him, a face in which conventional 
 smiles tried to rout sad regret. 
 
 " You have been very good to me," I said, ex- 
 tending an ungloved hand to him. " I do not 
 know how to express my gratitude for your hos- 
 pitality and for the pleasure I have received be- 
 neath your roof. I am one to whom the word 
 ' home' is a meaningless term. In the last three 
 days I have gained some insight into its real sig- 
 nificance." 
 
 His lip curled slightly as he took my hand. 
 
 " I would not try to realize the ideal value of 
 the word in my house," he returned. " I am sure 
 our meagre illustration would be quite unfair to 
 the possibilities the word of such exquisitely ten- 
 der potentialities contains. If you have been com- 
 fortable here, I am glad. You have brought sun- 
 shine into my dull den, and the pleasant memory 
 of your presence here will often cheer my soli- 
 tude." 
 
 He was so cool and indifferent, albeit courteous ; 
 his self-poise was so complete, while mine was so 
 defective, that I was prompted to stir him to some 
 show of feeling, to some expression of real regret 
 at my departure. I dropped my eyes and sighed ; 
 then raised them, still moist, to his. 
 
 " You cannot imagine how lonely a life, even in
 
 A Queen of Hearts 121 
 
 the full midst of worldly success, may be," I said, 
 softly. " You think it strange, doubtless, that my 
 eyes are wet at leaving a stranger's house wherein 
 I have sojourned so short a time. You cannot 
 understand emotion bred of such slight cause. 
 But I have grown to love it here even in these few 
 days, and I hate to return to the public glare and 
 excitement of my old life. I cannot expect that 
 you, with all your manifold interests, should feel 
 my absence ; but I am a lonely woman, notwith- 
 standing my profession, and I shall miss what I 
 have enjoyed here, oh, more than you can con- 
 ceive." 
 
 It was an unwarrantable attempt, this that I was 
 deliberately making upon his indifference. But 
 his absolute self-possession provoked my vanity, 
 and perhaps already the germ of a warmer feeling 
 was generating in my heart on his account. At 
 all events, a throb of real satisfaction thrilled me as 
 I saw the light that I had wished to kindle flash 
 into his eyes. He knit his brow, and I felt the 
 hand that held mine contract for an instant. 
 
 " If you are a lonely woman with your freedom 
 and opportunities," he rejoined, in a low, quick 
 tone, " it must be by your own inclinations. But 
 do not, I beg of you, make the mistake of believ- 
 ing that because a life is companioned it is the less 
 solitary. There may be worse cases of isolation 
 than those caused by mere solitude. I shall miss
 
 122 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 you ; I am sorry to have you go. It is long since 
 I have enjoyed anything so much as your stay in 
 my house. But I shall come to see you ; I may, 
 may I not ?" 
 
 I gave a hasty assent, for at that instant my 
 hostess entered the room to bid me farewell. She 
 was closely followed by a footman, Picot, who 
 came to announce the carriage. As Mrs. Dicky 
 had entered upon the discussion of some domestic 
 topic with her husband, I took advantage of their 
 preoccupation to approach the servant with the tip 
 which I had prepared for him. This, heedless of 
 the fact that its size would naturally arouse the 
 man's suspicion as to the disinterestedness of the 
 motive that prompted it, I had made large out of all 
 sort of proportion to the occasion. I had thought 
 it a good opportunity to supply my father with a 
 sum which, judiciously expended, would keep him 
 in comfort until I could decide upon some way of 
 portioning him without disclosing my identity. It 
 was five hundred dollars that I had the folly to 
 place in the hand which was ready for a compara- 
 tive pittance. As he felt the roll of bills he glanced 
 quickly down at them, and then, observing the 
 denominations of some, he shot a perplexed and 
 questioning look, that was overflowing with insin- 
 uation, at my face. 
 
 " I understand, of course, that this is hush- 
 money," it said as plainly as speech, " but what for ?"
 
 A Queen of Hearts 123 
 
 Before he could recover from his stupefaction 
 sufficiently to thank me, his master, having ob- 
 served the transaction, came forward. 
 
 " Pardon me, madame," he said, " but it is one 
 of the rules of my household that my servants are 
 not .to accept fees." He held out his hand to 
 Picot. " I will return your tip, Picot ; you know 
 the rules of the servants' hall, I suppose ?" 
 
 The man had no choice but to obey. But vails 
 of such magnitude are not sacrificed without dis- 
 inclination, and the sharp, sallow face looked omi- 
 nously ugly as the thin, covetous hand delivered 
 up its treasure to Quintard. 
 
 He looked surprised and shocked as he felt the 
 substantial thickness of the roll, and even his 
 good-breeding could not prevent his glancing 
 inquisitively at the amount he had received. 
 
 " Why, surely, madame, you have made a mis- 
 take!" he exclaimed, deliberately inspecting the 
 bills. " Excuse me, but in feeing my servants do 
 you mean to discharge at an excessive rate a 
 board-bill which has never been presented ? This 
 is five hundred dollars that Picot has returned to 
 me." He addressed me haughtily, in a tone of 
 great annoyance. 
 
 I flushed and wished the earth would swallow 
 me. I was fearfully embarrassed, for I realized 
 how wholly unwarrantable my action must appear 
 in their eyes. It must appear to my hosts either
 
 1 24 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 as if I were trying to acquit myself of every sug- 
 gestion of indebtedness to them, and that at an 
 exorbitant rate, or else as if I were trying to im- 
 press the household with a sense of my lavish 
 generosity and extravagant disregard of money. 
 My embarrassment was obvious to all, but Mrs. 
 Quintard tactfully came to my relief. 
 
 " Oh, Richard," she expostulated, carelessly, 
 "what an awful row you do make over trifles? 
 Why should you make a personal matter of the 
 fact that madame has discovered in Picot a fellow- 
 artist to whom fortune has been unkind, and that 
 she has sought to relieve him ? Don't be so tragic 
 over nothing." 
 
 Her husband's face cleared as she spoke, and I 
 could have hugged her for her ready wit. My 
 host turned to me, still holding out the money for 
 my acceptance, however. 
 
 " Oh, I beg your pardon for my scolding," he 
 said, in a more clement voice ; " I had not consid- 
 ered that there might be other motives. Still, sorry 
 as I am to dispossess a needy confrere of your 
 charity, I prefer that it should not be bestowed 
 under the present circumstances. Picot, you may 
 thank madame for her kindly intentions and go." 
 
 And there the matter rested for the present. 
 Jean and I returned to our temporary home, where 
 I did not miss my late surroundings as much as I 
 had anticipated doing, for my late companions be-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 125 
 
 came my frequent visitors. Indeed, Allan became 
 a veritable enfant gate de ma maison. He and 
 Jean grew to be warm friends and the best of com- 
 rades, and when I wished to be alone I would send 
 them off together, easy in the assurance that each 
 would entertain the other. The boy was going 
 through a species of calf-love for me which filled 
 him with exaltation and enthusiasm, and which im- 
 mensely amused me, for I knew that no harm would 
 come to him through it, and it made me feel young 
 again, exultant only to perceive that I was yet capa- 
 ble of inspiring so pure and ingenuous a passion. 
 
 He was the dearest sort of lad, winning, noble 
 in thought and impulse, generous and sincere. 
 About me, of course, there hung that atmosphere 
 of unreality and illusion which ever envelops the 
 actress from the stand-point of the layman. This 
 placed a fictitious value upon me in his eyes, and 
 caused him to regard me as a creature quite " too 
 bright and good for human nature's daily food." 
 His manner of addressing me was so different 
 from that which he used towards Jean that she 
 was wont to allude to herself and me when he 
 was about as the " seraph and mortal." 
 
 He and his father rarely met at my house. I 
 grew so greedy of the visits of Richard Quintard 
 before long that I hated to share them with any 
 one, and so, being accustomed to receiving hfm at 
 about a certain hour, I easily arranged matters so
 
 1 26 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 that I should be alone at that hour. He knew that 
 his son came frequently to see me, but I discovered 
 later that he was not aware how intimately asso- 
 ciated with my life he had become. 
 
 And so a couple of months passed with but one 
 drawback to my happiness. That was to the im- 
 portunities of my father, who, suspecting that I 
 had some motive for conciliating him, bled me 
 without mercy. It was only about a week after I 
 left the Quintards before he paid his initial visit, 
 humbly petitioning for the restoration of the sum 
 which he had been forced to return. My readiness 
 to give it to him again confirmed his former sus- 
 picions regarding my disinterestedness in so largely 
 enriching him, and an acquaintance which he had 
 recently made was the means of affording him what 
 he supposed to be the clue to my bribery. 
 
 One night as I was playing, my eyes, roaming 
 about the house, chanced to light upon two famil- 
 iar faces, peering down upon the stage from the 
 upper balcony. One of these was the face of my 
 father ; that of his companion was a countenance 
 which I had well-nigh forgotten, for it was years 
 since I had encountered it. But, though time may 
 obliterate from the memory the features of one's 
 erstwhile dearest friends, one rarely forgets the face 
 of an enemy, and so I immediately recognized the 
 woman before me, faded, old, and ugly as she had 
 become. It was none other than Nita Conquest
 
 A Queen of Hearts 127 
 
 The change in her was pitiable, and bespoke a 
 life of dissipation and disorder, resulting, as such 
 lives must, in the loss of all feminine charm and 
 beauty. She was gazing at me with an expression 
 of bitter hatred and envy, and as I finished the aria I 
 was singing I heard a loud, sharp hiss mingle with 
 the applause that greeted me. It was the first time 
 that sibilant sound had ever greeted an effort of 
 mine, and, though I knew from how low a source 
 it proceeded, it nevertheless disturbed me much, 
 for I had special cause that night to wish the per- 
 formance to pass off creditably. 
 
 For the first time Richard Quintard made one 
 of my audience. He was no theatre-goer, and had 
 little interest in any sort of social diversion, being 
 a lover of out-of-door sports, and an athlete of no 
 mean order. But he had expressed a desire to see 
 me in what I considered my best role, and I had 
 chosen that he should receive his first impression 
 from the opera given that night. It was called 
 " The Queen of Hearts," I, of course, being in the 
 title-role. 
 
 The music was charming, the libretto brilliant 
 and sparkling ; I was so en rapport with the motif of 
 the piece that my dancing-genius felt itself inspired 
 to its most exquisite achievement, and altogether 
 I was well content that a judgment of my abilities 
 should be formed from this medium of their por- 
 trayal.
 
 128 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 From the moment of my first appearance I 
 watched that thin, grave face in the orchestra- 
 stalls, hoping to see its immobility involuntarily 
 stirred to admiration and pleasure. But its look of 
 mere well-bred attention never altered a jot. When 
 that hiss wheezed through the house, glancing 
 swiftly at him, I saw him start as if he had been 
 struck from behind, and cast a sort of threatening 
 challenge of the eyes about the auditorium. When 
 I came on in the third act his seat was vacant. 
 
 The next day about noon I received another 
 visit from my father. This was the third since my 
 accident, and I perceived in an instant that he had 
 discovered something that gave him an assurance 
 in soliciting me which he had hitherto lacked. He 
 urged his needs quite masterfully in a manner very 
 different from that cringing, uncertain spirit he had 
 formerly displayed. He gave me to understand 
 that he fully comprehended my past complacency, 
 and should exact a continuance of it in the future. 
 Indeed, he made it plainly evident to me that he 
 had acquired the wherewithal to carry on a very 
 pretty business of blackmail, and that he proposed 
 pursuing such to his own considerable advantage. 
 I listened in silence to his demands with their 
 undercurrent of threatened exposure constantly 
 bubbling to the surface, and, when he finished, kept 
 him waiting a few minutes while I looked him 
 contemptuously over and considered my reply.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 1 29 
 
 I had no doubt that he had in some way hap- 
 pened upon the fact of his relation to me. His 
 own small and mean nature led him to believe, 
 doubtless, that I would pay much to prevent an 
 acknowledgment of his paternity, not because I 
 loathed the thought of intimate association with 
 such a despicable creature and feared his harassing 
 me, but because my pride shrank from allowing 
 the world to know that I had for father one 
 who had sunk to the low social level of domestic 
 service. That would be the motive to which he 
 would assuredly attribute my desire for secrecy. 
 
 Now, I am perhaps peculiarly constituted. 
 While I have many of the weaknesses of my sex 
 ill-proportionately developed, others I do not pos- 
 sess at all. For instance, I have almost mascu- 
 line courage when danger menaces me, and he 
 who thinks to intimidate me by means of threats 
 will fail by reason of his methods. So, while I 
 would have paid voluntarily a very considerable 
 amount to have escaped the necessity of openly 
 avowing my connection with him, now that he 
 threatened me with disclosure, I would withhold 
 from him even a penny of relief until he should be 
 convinced that what I gave I gave of my own free 
 will. After a few minutes I asked him a question. 
 
 " How did you find it out ?" 
 
 He gave a sneering laugh which made me hate 
 him more violently than ever. 
 
 9
 
 130 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 " Through an old friend of yours. She also 
 has a daughter there." 
 
 " What !" The word sped from my lips like a 
 shot from a catapult. 
 
 " You have not, I suppose, forgotten Nita Con- 
 quest? She has a daughter at the convent as 
 well as you." 
 
 So this was what had armed him with confidence 
 and audacity. He was still unconscious of the 
 other hold he had upon me. But he could well 
 afford to remain ignorant of that; this was a 
 thousandfold more menacing to my peace and 
 tranquillity. I am far too emotional to be logical. 
 So alarmed was I at the thought that my old 
 enemy had discovered the retreat of my child and 
 might revenge herself upon me by revealing pre- 
 maturely to Lisa the fact of my public career, that 
 I did not stop to ask myself why my father should 
 suppose me willing to pay hush-money to secure 
 silence concerning his recently-gained intelligence. 
 I had but one concern, one anxiety, to prevail 
 upon him to use his influence with Nita Conquest 
 to preserve my secret from my child. Yet still, 
 my antagonism was in arms against his vile 
 methods, and I was determined to settle finally 
 the matter of future extortion. Even were I to 
 sacrifice some portion of Lisa's full faith and 
 devotion, I must decline to permit myself to be- 
 come the victim of a blackmailer.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 131 
 
 " How much do you expect to make from your 
 discovery ?" I asked him directly. 
 
 He shrugged his shoulders, lifting his yellow 
 brow and turning up his eye-balls as if asking 
 Heaven to satisfy my question. 
 
 " It all depends upon what madame considers it 
 worth," he replied. " Some ladies feel a delicacy 
 greater than others about the indiscretions of 
 youth, and " 
 
 I sprang to my feet and stood wrathful and in- 
 dignant before him. 
 
 " You miserable scoundrel !" I cried, quivering 
 at the indignity he had cast upon me. " So this 
 is what you imagine I am willing to pay you to 
 conceal ! Do you suppose that I am ashamed to 
 acknowledge the one glory of my life ? the one 
 joy that Heaven has given me ? Do you believe 
 for an instant that I would conceal the fact of my 
 motherhood ? that I would hide and turn my back 
 upon the highest dignity that crowns a woman's 
 existence ? What else in life have I to be proud 
 of except that I have given to the world an im- 
 mortal soul ? Do you think the ephemeral noto- 
 riety I have gained in my profession can even be 
 placed for comparison beside the fact that I have 
 perpetuated myself in a purer, higher form ? But, 
 bah ! What use is it to try to make you under- 
 stand ! Let me come down to the mercantile level 
 of your intelligence. I have a secret concerning
 
 132 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 my daughter, it is true. But it is not what you 
 have conceived it to be. The world has no share 
 in it ; it is wholly between her and me. For this 
 reason, however, it is of vital consequence to me, 
 and I am willing to pay well for its preservation." 
 
 A mercenary glitter came into his black eyes 
 and he moved restlessly upon his chair, as if im- 
 patient of my delay in reaching the sole point that 
 was of interest to him. 
 
 "Alors" he interpolated, as I paused. It was 
 not easy for me to proceed. His eagerness to 
 learn the terms of my bargain, and the greedy, 
 unprincipled acquisitiveness his manner suggested, 
 indicating that if the price offered were high 
 enough his silence and connivance in even the 
 most dastardly business might be readily purchased, 
 sickened and revolted me. Who could tolerate 
 the idea of owning such a horror for a father? 
 Not I, certainly. 
 
 " My daughter does not know that I am an 
 actress," I went on rapidly, possessed of but one 
 desire, and that was to close my interview with 
 him as quickly as I could. " It is my wish that 
 she shall not learn the fact until I am ready to dis- 
 close it to her myself. I have said that I am 
 willing to pay a good price to maintain my secret 
 That does not mean, however, that I am willing 
 to buy your silence and that of your friend, Mile. 
 Conquest, on the instalment plan. I have no idea
 
 A Queen of Hearts 133 
 
 of becoming the prey of a couple of unscrupulous 
 blackmailers. I will make you an offer which will 
 be the last bribe I shall ever afford you. I tell 
 you that positively and you may credit it. I place, 
 as you will see, a considerable value upon the 
 privilege of enlightening my daughter as to my 
 public career, but it is not a shifting value, depend- 
 ent upon your financial straits. It is fixed once 
 and for all, and I am well aware that I have no 
 guarantee for the worth of my purchase ; that it 
 is simply dependent upon your good faith, and 
 that of a woman for whom I have little respect. 
 If either of you see fit to break your word to me 
 I shall have no redress, but neither will you gain 
 much. Do not make the mistake, however, of 
 believing that I shall ever again advance one penny 
 to hush your tongues, for I do not estimate my 
 whim at a greater price than this I now make 
 you." 
 
 The man could scarcely control his impatience. 
 It was obvious that he was mentally cursing the 
 volubility of women. Cupidity was written in 
 every line of his sallow countenance. 
 
 " Alors, madame," he responded, " the amount, 
 it is what ?" 
 
 But, however large his expectations had been, 
 when I named the sum, twenty-five thousand dol- 
 lars, that I was willing to pay that Lisa's gentle 
 sensibilities might receive no shock, he could
 
 134 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 scarcely gasp out a repetition of the amount for 
 surprise. 
 
 It is needless to say that his asseverations of the 
 integrity of himself and associate were ample and 
 emphatic. And he credited my assertion that I 
 would add nothing in future to the payment I 
 was now making. He fully understood from my 
 tone and manner that what I said I should adhere 
 to, and he went from me calling down upon my 
 head those blessings of the unprincipled which 
 are so closely akin to animadversions upon one's 
 wisdom. 
 
 Unfortunately, as I was handing him the check 
 which was destined to do me a greater mischief 
 than I dreamed of, the door opened and Mr. Quin- 
 tard was announced. 
 
 I could not prevent some embarrassment from 
 showing itself in my manner as I greeted my new 
 guest As for him a frown was on his brow and a 
 shadow in his eye as he passed his servant, who 
 stepped aside respectfully to allow him to do so. 
 But neither of us alluded to the visit of Picot 
 during our interview, and my annoyance at the 
 meeting between master and man soon gave way 
 to deeper emotions. 
 
 For, no sooner was Richard Quintard seated 
 than I perceived that something of greater moment 
 was troubling him, and that a cloud of constraint 
 had settled upon the fair and pleasant prospect of
 
 A Queen of Hearts 135 
 
 our intercourse. I could not attribute his visible 
 disquietude and expression to so trivial a cause as 
 a chance encounter with a person whose former 
 vocation gave him some claim upon my charity, 
 even if that encounter was upon my very thresh- 
 old, and that person his own servant No ; some 
 deeper reason was accountable for such consider- 
 able manifestations in one so generally self-con- 
 trolled. 
 
 He did not long remain in the comfortable chair 
 which I had grown to associate so closely with him 
 that I usually wheeled it into obscurity when he 
 was absent, that others should not occupy it. After 
 a few conventional remarks he rose and wandered 
 restlessly about the room, pretending to inspect 
 objects which he already knew by heart. I let him 
 roam at will, for I never forced his inclination in 
 any respect while he was in my house, which ac- 
 counted, perhaps, for his visiting it so often. But 
 my mind was fixed tenaciously upon one point on 
 which it craved assurance, and I waited impatiently 
 for him to satisfy it. I longed to know how my 
 talents had impressed him. But I held my peace, 
 and after a while he came back and resumed his 
 seat, which was near and directly facing my own. 
 He leaned forward with his elbow on his knee and 
 his hand supporting his chin, and regarded me 
 fixedly with a scrutinizing gaze which, had my 
 conscience been guilty of offence, it would have
 
 136 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 been difficult for me to meet, but, being innocent 
 of anything but a too high regard for him, I re- 
 turned it with a look as firm and steadfast and in- 
 finitely less troubled than his own. 
 
 " I have been trying to fathom it," presently he 
 said, " but it is beyond me. All night and all day 
 I have been seeking to unravel the complexities 
 of a woman's nature, but the clue to the strange 
 tangle eludes me. I have never boasted to myself 
 of a profound acquaintance with the feminine char- 
 acter, but, of late, I had fancied that I had gained 
 a fair knowledge of the mind and soul of one 
 woman. Now I give it up ; it is too deep a mys- 
 tery for my poor comprehension. I will not again 
 play fool to my conceit in its regard." 
 
 His face was full of gloom, disappointment, cha- 
 grin, and my heart quaked as my ears listened to 
 his words. What had he discovered of my past 
 that had disillusioned him so bitterly in respect to 
 me ? At once the fact of my desertion of Lisa 
 rose to confront me, for, of all the by-gone actions 
 of my life, this was the basest at which the finger 
 of scorn and judgment could be pointed. But 
 that was so long ago ! Surely the circumstances 
 of my age and temperament and uncongenial sur- 
 roundings might be accepted as extenuating con- 
 ditions even of so heinous an act of wickedness. 
 My lips trembled with their burden of self-justifi- 
 cation, and I pressed eagerly forward in my seat
 
 A Queen of Hearts 137 
 
 to humble and excuse myself in the sight of my 
 accuser, but he forestalled my speech, shaking his 
 head as if to discourage it. 
 
 " It isn't worth while to discuss the subject," he 
 said. " I daresay it's a case of ' To the pure,' etc. 
 Only nowadays there are so few really chaste of 
 soul in a mixed audience that it seems scarcely 
 worth while for virtue to assume a false appearance 
 for the sake of ministering to their unadulterated 
 pleasure. The garments of Virtue, oh, I am em- 
 ploying a ridiculously ill-adapted metaphor ; there 
 were no garments to speak of in this case, were 
 there ?" 
 
 I sprang to my feet. I saw his whole field of 
 complaint now in a flash, and his voice and change 
 of manner, even more than his words, were an 
 insult, a deliberate and intentional insult, to me. 
 I loved him ; I had never blinded myself to the 
 fact that from the first moment of our acquaintance 
 he had possessed an attraction for me which I had 
 never before discovered in any other man. But 
 there is nothing of the spaniel in me ; the hand 
 that purposely wounds me is scarce likely to be 
 mollified by my caress. I drew myself up haugh- 
 tily and confronted him in proud and angry dis- 
 dain. 
 
 " My door has ever stood open in welcome to 
 you, Mr. Quintard," I said, in cold, cutting accents, 
 my eyes blazing into his, " and you have availed
 
 138 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 yourself rather freely of its hospitable invitation. 
 But allow me to suggest that while it stands open 
 to admit my friends, it likewise invites the depart- 
 ure of such as abuse their privileges. You under- 
 stand ?" 
 
 I started to cross the room for the purpose of 
 ringing for Stone, the butler, but he stepped in 
 front of me, barring my progress. His underlip 
 was drawn in and held between his teeth, and no 
 one could now accuse his face of a too great im- 
 mobility. It looked savage, cruel, but also tortured 
 and unhappy beyond description. 
 
 "My God," he cried out, "don't! Wait! I 
 apologize for what I said. I spoke without think- 
 ing. No ; that is false. God knows I have thought 
 enough. I should rather say that I spoke aloud, 
 without considering who was my listener, thoughts 
 that have maddened me ever since I sat, a mere 
 unit among hundreds, and watched you last night." 
 
 He paused an instant to gain better control of 
 himself, and then proceeded so rapidly that the 
 words seemed almost to hiss upon the air, so hotly 
 they smote it. 
 
 " Do you know what it is for a man to go 
 through life having one ideal after another fail 
 him ? Do you realize what it is for a man to 
 reach middle age and find every plank upon which 
 he plants his foot rotten and worthless ? Can you 
 imagine how a man feels who, notwithstanding re-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 139 
 
 peated disappointment, still clutches desperately 
 an illusion, which, in an unexpected moment, 
 crumbles into mere dust and ashes in his fingers ? 
 If you can picture such a man's estate, then you 
 may forgive and make allowance for any re- 
 proaches I may make you. For it is you who 
 are to blame for the final abandonment of that one 
 ideal to which I have held in spite of all evidence 
 of its non-existence, you, madame, and no other. 
 It was upon your lovable and winning beauty and 
 charm of manner, upon your virtue, your stain- 
 less reputation in the midst of great temptation, 
 your gentle womanliness which had caught none 
 of the bold contagion of your professional sur- 
 roundings, upon these, but, above all, upon 
 your feminine modesty, that outward indication of 
 a pure heart and soul, that I had reared another 
 vain possibility of a flawless womanhood. You 
 may well have patience with me if my disappoint- 
 ment makes me forgetful of courtesy." 
 
 I had no choice but to stand and listen to him. 
 His passion made him resolute to hold me pris- 
 oner until he should have emptied upon me the 
 vials of his anger and resentment. And while he 
 spoke and I, cold and passive, hearkened to what 
 I thought an unjustifiable tirade, a vision slowly 
 grew up before me and filled that portion of the 
 room whereon I had fixed my eyes that they might 
 avoid the accusing wrath of his. It was a vision
 
 140 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 of myself as he had last night beheld me. A vision 
 of myself as I had appeared, not to my own accus- 
 tomed eyes, but to the eyes of a man who had 
 endowed me in his fancy with all the most chaste 
 and delicate characteristics of my sex. And as I 
 gazed thus through his eyes there arose for the 
 first time within me a consciousness of the vul- 
 garity of my calling, a sense of disgust at the ex- 
 posure I had permitted without consideration of 
 its coarsening effect upon my own womanhood, 
 and I would have given a sum far larger than that 
 with which I had recently enriched Picot to have 
 swept all memory of its last night's experience 
 from Quintard's mind. This is how I now saw 
 myself. 
 
 In the first act my part had called for a page's 
 costume, and this had been made of gray cloth 
 slashed with silver, fitting without crease or fold 
 snugly to a figure that, full and rounded though it 
 was, yet preserved the slenderness of shapely youth. 
 While clothing me fully, this still permitted the 
 disclosure of every curve and outline of my form, 
 and I had prided myself upon its general advan- 
 tage to my person. Now it suddenly seemed to 
 me such a garb as only an essentially coarse- 
 minded woman would be willing to assume. I 
 tingled with shame even while considering it at a 
 distance. 
 
 In the next act my dress had been, I thought,
 
 A Queen of Hearts 141 
 
 one of the most exquisite, as well as becoming, 
 costumes I had ever worn. It was of brilliant red, 
 gorgeous, flaming, stunning, and my appearance in 
 it always elicited a round of applause. That it 
 was fashioned to disclose more of the figure than 
 it concealed was a circumstance to which I had 
 honestly never accorded a thought. Now it was 
 the one point that stood prominently forth, pro- 
 voking my criticism. How had I formerly been 
 so blind to my own immodesty ? This reflection 
 haunted me while Quintard continued. 
 
 " I made a mess of my life early," he went on. 
 " There is no use in attempting to gloss over the 
 fact. The whole world knows that my marriage 
 has been an utter and irretrievable failure. But I 
 have always preserved a belief that I was a par- 
 ticularly unlucky devil, and that there were women 
 in the world somewhere such as a man might 
 honor and respect without lowering his own 
 standards. I had never come across them, but I 
 believed in them all the same. You came to my 
 house, and became its guest. I was drawn to you 
 by that power you have of winning men. I saw 
 you intimately and began to tell myself that, 
 although you were one of those that the world 
 usually holds in light esteem, a purveyor to the 
 amusement of mankind, yet you were an excep- 
 tion not only to your kind, but to your sex as 
 well, and that in you I had found the embodiment
 
 142 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 of those qualities which command the reverence 
 as well as the love of a man. I knew little of 
 your profession or of the rank you held in it, but I 
 felt that if you sang you sang to the improve- 
 ment as well as to the mere pleasure of the world ; 
 that if you danced you dignified dancing above 
 the common level of variety-show performance, 
 and raised it to that of a beautiful art. Then, 
 with my faith in you and your womanly perfection 
 at its height, I humored your wish and went to 
 see you in the play you selected. Good God! 
 I wish I had died first." 
 
 He broke off abruptly and began to walk back 
 and forth through the long room, while I, with my 
 heart lying like a block of ice in my breast, tried 
 to mutter something in my own behalf. 
 
 "You are hard," I said, "bitterly hard and 
 cruel. It is on slight evidence you change your 
 opinion of me, and impose upon me a worthless 
 character. What charge can you bring against 
 me, after all, of a really serious nature ? Look at 
 your society women. How do they costume them- 
 selves ? and only for pleasure ! If my business 
 calls for certain concessions of modesty, why, am 
 I not bound in necessity to grant them ? I am 
 no whit worse than other women." 
 
 Then he burst forth again. 
 
 " Worse ? Ah, but I had thought you so much 
 better, can't you see ?"
 
 A Queen of Hearts 143 
 
 He was at the farther end of the apartment. 
 Now, as he spoke, he came quickly, impetuously 
 forward, until he stood so close to me that I could 
 almost hear his heart beat. All his self-composure 
 was gone; there was not even a vestige of it 
 remaining. His eyes were aglow and in his 
 cheeks a dull flame smouldered. He leaned sud- 
 denly forward and took into his clasp the hands 
 which were hanging clasped before me. His voice 
 was very low, but clear and distinct. 
 
 " Pauline," he said, and my heart thrilled at the 
 tenderness of his tone, " I love you ; you know 
 it, I think. Until last night I never thought I 
 should have courage to tell you of it, but 
 now " 
 
 I snatched my hands from him, and cried out so 
 loudly that Jean was summoned by the noise from 
 her distant room. I looked at him as a child 
 might regard a mother that had struck it an un- 
 warrantable and unexpected blow. I threw out 
 my palms and warded him from me, and then I 
 found voice and strength sufficient to dismiss 
 him. 
 
 " Leave me," I commanded. " Go. If I have 
 disappointed your ideals, rest satisfied with the 
 reflection that you have had your revenge. You 
 love me, you say ! You do not know the mean- 
 ing of the word love. I could instruct you if I 
 would, for you have this day broken my heart.
 
 144 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 Go. Not a word further. Jean, Jean," I cried, as 
 the faithful little creature came running to see 
 what had happened, " I want you, my dear. I 
 
 am not well " And, as at all important crises 
 
 of my life, I lapsed into unconsciousness. 
 
 I have suffered since then, to-day I am in sore 
 distress, but never have I known such agony of 
 mind as followed upon that terrible visit of Rich- 
 ard Quintard. Whether anger or pain bore off 
 the victory in the wild conflict of feeling that well- 
 nigh unfitted me for my duties I cannot say, but 
 certainly my resentment of his estimate of me 
 was of great service in carrying me through my 
 work for a considerable interval. I clothed my- 
 self in the costumes which had aroused his dis- 
 approbation with a vindictive delight in the thought 
 that I was running counter to his prejudices, and I 
 allowed the festivities which took place at my ex- 
 pense to assume a greater degree of license than 
 I generally permitted. If he loved me it would 
 harass him to hear rumor of these riotous enter- 
 tainments, and if he were bent upon assigning a 
 special and unnatural character to me I would let 
 him see that it would not be a matter of difficulty 
 for me to live up to such an one. The thin line 
 between decorum and indecency in my manner of 
 living had never become so perilously endangered 
 as during that time. 
 
 I was absolutely reckless. My honor and self-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 145 
 
 respect had received a severe shock, and nothing 
 but the thought of Lisa withheld me from going 
 to the extremes of excess. I hated to be alone a 
 moment, and poor Jean had a hard time with me, 
 I fear, for I was capricious, exacting, and fretful. 
 I felt myself to have been most unwarrantably 
 accused and impugned, and all the tenderness I 
 had conceived for the man who had assailed me 
 seemed turned to bitterest gall. I felt like one 
 who, having administered a supposed innocuous 
 draught, suddenly finds himself accused of murder. 
 It is Heaven's own truth that the thought of im- 
 modesty in the costuming of my various parts had 
 never so much as occurred to me. My apparel 
 was as much a tool of my stagecraft as is the 
 surgeon's scalpel an implement necessary to his 
 profession. I had considered it simply in the 
 light of a valuable accessory, and had never 
 paused to reflect that the greater its efficiency in 
 operating upon the public favor, the more danger- 
 ous the wounds it was capable of inflicting upon 
 my fair fame. Now my eyes were opened to the 
 wantonness of my attire, and for the first time 
 since I had made my preliminary bow to the 
 public I shrank inwardly before the gaze of the 
 multitude. 
 
 Yet I would not alter my offending guise in any 
 particular. My antagonism had been aroused as 
 well as my spirit injured by the manner of Richard 
 
 10
 
 146 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 Quintard's attack, and I was far too proud to 
 permit him the satisfaction of feeling that his 
 reproaches had borne fruit. I carried my head 
 bravely aloft ; I availed myself as never before of 
 the latitude tacitly accorded the members of my 
 profession; I flaunted my success as a public 
 favorite boldly abroad ; I allowed notoriety to toss 
 my name hither and thither in its dirty fingers, 
 careless of any smirch it might receive ; I went as 
 far as a naturally pure-hearted woman can per- 
 suade herself to go, to prove to the man who had 
 so mercilessly upbraided me that he had just 
 grounds for his censure. And why ? Simply be- 
 cause I was filled with animosity and resentment 
 against that man, aye, and with love for him, too, 
 strenuously as I opposed the admission even to 
 myself. 
 
 Two days later I received a brief note from 
 him. I have it by heart : 
 
 " DEAR MADAME, My servant, Leon Picot, has 
 this day brought me a check to cash bearing your 
 signature. As it is for a very large amount 
 ($25,000), I do not feel justified in accommodating 
 him without notifying you that he is drawing upon 
 you to this extent. He has told me a cock-and- 
 bull story to account for his having the check in 
 his possession, but I have no faith in the man, nor 
 have I, of course, any concern in your motives for
 
 A Queen of Hearts 147 
 
 enriching him. My only aim in writing you is to 
 find out if the check is all right. 
 " Yours very truly, 
 
 " RICHARD QUINTARD." 
 
 Thus his note ran, and thus my reply : 
 
 " DEAR SIR, You may safely, if you choose to 
 do so, cash the check which I have given your 
 servant, Leon Picot. I daresay the story to which 
 you allude is that regarding which I sought to 
 secure his silence. I am quite prepared for a 
 breach of confidence upon his part, for he cher- 
 ishes a grudge of long-standing against me. How- 
 ever, if the truth does not reach my daughter's 
 ears, I shall be content with my bargain. As you 
 say, the matter does not concern you, and, there- 
 fore, I presume, you will do me the favor of pre- 
 serving my secret. 
 
 " Yours truly, 
 
 " PAULINE MAVIS." 
 
 And so for a time coldness settled between us. 
 Occasionally I saw him riding in the park or met 
 him on the street, but we passed each other even 
 without recognition. Allan's devotion to me in- 
 creased, and people began to gossip about the lad's 
 intimacy with me. It was true that he fancied 
 himself desperately in love with me ; that he well-
 
 148 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 nigh lived in my household ; that he was my escort 
 upon nearly all occasions ; that he dogged my foot- 
 steps, squandered large sums of money on me, 
 and, for the time being, had no object in life but the 
 gratification of my whims and caprices. But what 
 did it all amount to ? I was nearly old enough to 
 be his mother; he was never permitted even so 
 much as to kiss my hand, and he might have been 
 in far worse company than that he met through 
 my instrumentality. 
 
 I encouraged him, I admit. That is, I urged 
 his visits, I welcomed his companionship, I flat- 
 tered his boyish pride by singling him out from 
 men of more mature years and greater distinction 
 as my especial favorite. But when it came to 
 speech of love, I frowned upon him so heavily that 
 the poor boy grew timid and hastened to make 
 sport of his own sentimentality. 
 
 I was not without purpose in seeking so to at- 
 tach him to me. I was well aware of the strong 
 love that existed between his father and himself; 
 I knew how proud Richard Quintard was of his 
 son ; how ambitious he was for him ; how solici- 
 tous lest corrupting influences attainted him. I 
 had discovered early in my acquaintance with 
 them that Allan had been withheld as much as 
 possible from close association with the fast spirits 
 which his mother was fond of gathering around 
 her. There had been no endeavor made to molly-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 149 
 
 coddle him, but his father had tried to keep him 
 well outside that questionable orbit in which his 
 mother's sun revolved. Therefore I felt that, mis- 
 conceiving me as he had done, Richard Quintard 
 would be keenly touched by the fact of Allan's 
 intimacy with such a woman as he held me to be, 
 and I wickedly delighted in the thought that I 
 had it in my power so to trouble him. And the 
 more desperately I sought for revenge upon the 
 man I loved the sorer grew my foolish heart. 
 
 Jean scarcely recognized me in those days. She 
 would sit regarding me as I presided over my 
 luxurious table, entertaining such guests as I had 
 no love for, with a bolder laugh than that she was 
 familiar with upon my lips, and more flippant 
 speech than that it was accustomed to dropping 
 from my tongue, and her smooth brow would knit 
 itself into a frown of disapprobation, and her blue 
 eyes would grow large and wistful, and, after the 
 feast was done, she would come to me (faithful 
 little creature, who loved me beyond my deserts !) 
 and expostulate. 
 
 " Madame, you are wearing yourself out for 
 nothing. You do not care for those people. Why 
 exert yourself for them ? You are growing thin ; 
 truly there are lines coming." 
 
 But I would shake her off with a laugh. What 
 did she know of my need of diversion ! How 
 could she imagine that I craved any sort of excite-
 
 150 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 ment that should keep my mind from dwelling 
 upon one subject ! 
 
 On my next visit to the convent I encountered 
 Nita Conquest. She was entering as I left, and 
 she accosted me as if I had been an old friend in- 
 stead of the briefest acquaintance. At another 
 time I should have resented the memory of that 
 hiss and met her advances coldly, but I was in a 
 softened mood, due to Lisa's influence, and besides 
 the woman looked so pathetically old and fallen 
 that I had not the heart to repudiate her claims 
 upon my notice. 
 
 " We both have daughters here," she said, with 
 a smile that failed to beautify her coarse and 
 bloated features ; " odd, isn't it ? and they are good 
 friends, too. Oh, you needn't be afraid, my girl 
 isn't like her mother. She takes after the other 
 side of the house." Her laugh corresponded to 
 her whole personality. It was loud, bold, and 
 unrefined. It was mocking, too, for she had seen 
 me recoil at the idea of an intimacy forming itself 
 between my child and hers, and derided my fas- 
 tidiousness. She moved a little closer to me that 
 the sister in waiting upon the door should not 
 catch her words, and murmured, 
 
 " I have received your hush-money. You need 
 not be afraid. Your girl shall never find out your 
 profession from me." 
 
 " That is well," I replied. " It is but a little while
 
 A Queen of Hearts 151 
 
 now before I shall tell her myself. I hope to retire 
 after this season." 
 
 She looked at me with bitter envy in her faded 
 eyes. 
 
 " A rich woman, I suppose," she said. " Such 
 as I might have been if you had not spoiled my 
 chances." 
 
 There was such malevolence in her glance that 
 I did not care longer to encounter it. 
 
 " Good-by," I broke in, quickly. " It is scarcely 
 worth while to discuss that ridiculous charge. 
 Talent, like water, finds its own level." 
 
 And so I passed on, forgetting almost immedi- 
 ately the scowl which was her only farewell to me. 
 I had had a charming, a lovely day with my darling. 
 Every visit that I made her unfolded to my adoring 
 eyes new beauties in her nature. On each occa- 
 sion I would tell myself that I had discovered all 
 there was to learn about her, and yet before I left 
 some new charm would reveal itself to me. 
 
 On this day, although I had thought myself fa- 
 miliar with her personal loveliness, I sat actually 
 spellbound as she came to me down the long, 
 narrow, unadorned room which was the convent 
 parlor, she being the only thing of beauty upon 
 which my gaze could rest. But she was sufficient 
 to brighten even greater dulness than this. A slim, 
 tall slip of a girl with brown eyes and golden hair ; 
 a face that seemed to have gathered into itself the
 
 152 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 sweetness and innocence of a score of cherubim ; 
 a smile of confiding trust at whomsoever it might 
 chance to be directed; an expression that made 
 you remember that there were many children in 
 the world, and that its highways should be made 
 meet for their tender feet. I cannot describe her. 
 Only a great master of words could make you 
 comprehend that divine fairness which was not 
 alone a physical charm, but which also seemed a 
 sort of atmosphere about her. Instinctively, seeing 
 her, one felt the impulse to champion her against 
 even the shadow of evil. 
 
 The pure mind of her father had descended to 
 her by right of inheritance, and this had been 
 good ground for the development of the seeds of 
 righteousness scattered by the profuse hands of the 
 holy sisters. Yet there was nothing of the sad 
 recluse or grim saint about the child, else I, world- 
 ling and sinner, should have felt a barrier rising up 
 between us, shutting me out from pleasure in her 
 companionship. Her nature was all sunshine. 
 She was gay, joyous, amusement-loving, as ani- 
 mated and eager for happiness as I, but she had 
 no idea of what opportunities for diversion the 
 world afforded, and I feared she would not make 
 acquaintance with them without many a shock of 
 misgiving. 
 
 But she was growing impatient of longer seclu- 
 sion within the convent and of continued separa-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 153 
 
 tion from me. I presume that my tell-tale face, 
 which ever betrays the condition of my spirit, 
 showed forth something of the trouble that was 
 harassing me, for she pretended to discover a 
 change in me since my last visit, and insisted that 
 I needed her constant presence to watch over me 
 and guard me from too great exertion. And then, 
 for the first time, she alluded to the means by 
 which I gained my living and hers. 
 
 " You have never told me much about our cir- 
 cumstances, mother darling," she said, "but I 
 know, of course, that a country minister could not 
 have left much money. I cannot bear to think of 
 your working to support a daughter who is quite 
 old enough to do something for herself. The 
 strain is beginning to tell upon you, dear, and I 
 long to relieve you. May I not come and do my 
 share towards earning our living ?" 
 
 I drew her sweet, solicitous face down and 
 kissed it many times. I gazed into it with ques- 
 tioning and foreboding in my eyes. What if this 
 loving trust and gratitude that I read in all its 
 lines were to turn to shrinking and reproach when 
 she learned the nature of the employment by 
 which I had gained our livelihood ? Could I bear 
 to lose this wealth of confidence, this boundless faith 
 and adoration ? Without it, would not my life be 
 too poor and mean for the living ? I shuddered. 
 I could not contemplate so barren a prospect.
 
 154 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 Lisa's quick eyes noticed the sudden move- 
 ment. 
 
 "Are you cold, dear?" she asked. "Shall I 
 throw your wrap about your shoulders ?" 
 
 I declined the offer, and then an irresistible im- 
 pulse came over me to sound her prejudices in 
 regard to my profession, and discover, if possible, 
 whether or not she had conceived that horror and 
 distrust of the stage which is so often the result 
 of ignorance and non-association. 
 
 " There is a young girl in this convent, Lisa, I 
 hear, whose mother is an actress. Do you know 
 her ? Her name, I think, is Conquest. I do not 
 know her first name." 
 
 The child's face grew grave. 
 
 " You mean Nelly," she replied. " Oh, yes, I 
 know her. Isn't it dreadful, mother ? And she is 
 so refined and lovely! I never could have be- 
 lieved it if she had not told me of it herself. It is 
 very sad, for she is ashamed of her mother, and 
 yet she tries hard to conceal it. But the woman is 
 dreadful. Just what you would expect an actress 
 to be, coarse, bold, and vulgar. Oh ! I am glad 
 I am not poor Nelly." 
 
 She threw her fond young arm impetuously 
 about me, her proud glance expressing unmis- 
 takably the wide contrast she discovered between 
 me and the object of her friend's humiliation and 
 her own aversion. But I was constrained to avoid
 
 A Queen of Hearts 155 
 
 her caress. Under the circumstances it seemed 
 treachery on my part to enjoy it. 
 
 She looked at me with wide eyes of surprise. 
 Why should I, usually so covetous of her endear- 
 ments, seek to escape them? I smiled back at 
 her, but maintained my position. 
 
 " How do you know that I am not some- 
 thing worse than your friend's mother, Lisa?" I 
 asked. 
 
 She showed all her pretty teeth in a laugh of 
 derision. 
 
 " Worse than an actress, you !" she cried, as if 
 the joke were a capital one, only perhaps a trifle far- 
 fetched. " How do I know that the good God is 
 watching over me ; that you love me ; that the 
 saints protect us? Have I not a divine instinct 
 within me, mother? And does not that instinct 
 teach me that you are everything that is pure and 
 good, just as poor Nelly's tells her that her mother 
 is low and evil ?" She slid down upon the floor at 
 my feet and took my hands in hers. 
 
 " Listen," she said, softly. " In a corner of my 
 closet there is a rude little prie-dieu, and before it 
 upon the wall I have hung your picture. It is there 
 that I say my prayers, to you, mother. It is an act 
 of deceit, for the sisters don't know it ; but you are 
 my saint of saints, dear, and I am not afraid that 
 the Christ will feel the poorer for my worship of 
 you. Now, what have you to say, mother ? Couid
 
 156 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 I raise an altar to so unworthy a creature as an 
 actress, or a worse than actress ?" 
 
 And I had nothing to say. All I could do was 
 to throw my arms convulsively about her and 
 gather her to me, while in my heart I thanked 
 God that if, indeed, I was the thing her prejudices 
 condemned, yet was I none the less a pure woman, 
 not unfit morally to occupy the place she had ac- 
 corded me in her innocent .holy of holies. 
 
 And as, a little later, I parted from Nita Con- 
 quest, my resentment of her fling at me was tem- 
 pered by much the same reflection as that which 
 fell from the lips of the famous old ecclesiastic, 
 " There, but for the grace of God, goes Pauline 
 Mavis."
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 AND so some weeks passed miserably on, I 
 trying to substitute fictitious enjoyment for real 
 pleasure. The days lagged heavily with me, and 
 I wished that the demands of my profession might 
 have been tenfold more arduous and exacting than 
 they were, for in work alone I found real distrac- 
 tion from the thoughts that distressed me. Having 
 decided to close my public career with the current 
 season, I had an extra incentive for exerting my 
 abilities to their utmost, for I was desirous that my 
 sun should set not in a dull waning of light, but in 
 a glorious and brilliant exhibition of its still potent 
 powers. And yet there was too much leisure for 
 reflection. 
 
 One day I had a visit from Mrs. Quintard. I 
 had come in from rehearsal tired, cross, and wholly 
 out of sorts. The night before there had been a 
 celebration in honor of my birthday, and it had 
 lasted well into the morning hours. Barroll had 
 been one of my guests, and in the course of the 
 evening he had found an opportunity to introduce 
 the subject of Allan Quintard's devotion to me. 
 Oh, I remember what led up to it. Among my 
 gifts exhibited upon a large table was a very beau- 
 
 '57
 
 158 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 tiful and costly necklace of diamonds and tur- 
 quoises, Allan's present It so happened that I 
 had had a scene with the boy about it earlier in 
 the day when he had brought it to me, for it was 
 far more valuable than anything I had ever ac- 
 cepted from him, and I did not wish to take it. I 
 had finally yielded to his entreaties only upon the 
 understanding that I was to return it to his wife 
 upon her wedding-day. 
 
 When Barroll's eyes fell upon it and he read 
 the accompanying card his eyelids went up. 
 
 "Spoiling the Egyptians, hey?" he remarked. 
 " By the way, I don't suppose you feel inclined to 
 let up on that lad, do you, madame ? His mother's 
 in an awful way about him. She has some pet 
 scheme for marrying him to old Methuen's girl, 
 and you are playing havoc with her plans." 
 
 " No," I said, " I do not I like the lad about 
 me. Compared with that of you men of the world 
 his society is as refreshing as a draught of ice- 
 water after a champagne-supper." 
 
 I changed the subject and did not think of it 
 again until, as I wearily entered my drawing-room 
 the next afternoon, I encountered Mrs. Quintard 
 conversing with Jean. Stone had neglected telling 
 me there was a visitor, and I found myself unable 
 to avoid an interview. 
 
 The salutations we exchanged were stiff and 
 cold, and almost immediately upon my advent Jean
 
 A Queen of Hearts 159 
 
 excused herself and retired, leaving me alone with 
 Richard Quintard's wife and Allan' s mother. I 
 thought the consciousness of both her dignities 
 was more than ordinarily manifest in my guest, 
 upon whose face there rested an expression of 
 supercilious disdain which quite deprived her per- 
 sonality of the charm it had hitherto exercised 
 over me. Her manner was extremely unlike that 
 she had seen fit to adopt upon the occasion of her 
 former visit to me. Whereas it had been persuasive 
 and conciliatory, it was now aggressive, haughty, 
 almost insolent. She at once broached her errand 
 without employing the superfluity of an introduc- 
 tion. She made it plainly apparent from the first 
 moment that she placed me on the low level of a 
 mere scheming adventuress, and addressed me as 
 from an altitude of immeasurable superiority. Her 
 very look set my teeth on edge, it was so teeming 
 with insulting innuendo. 
 
 " I have come to speak to you about my son, 
 madame," she began, as I loosened my wrap and 
 sank into a low seat facing her. 
 
 I raised my arms and withdrew the jewelled 
 pins from my hat, which I removed very deliber- 
 ately and placed in my lap before replying. As I 
 ran my fingers carelessly through the hair that 
 encroached unduly upon my forehead, pushing it 
 back from my brow, I am sure that no one in the 
 world, certainly not this woman, who knew so
 
 160 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 little of me, would have dreamed that my apparent 
 indifference covered a very tempest of outraged 
 feeling. How dared she presume to condescend 
 to me ? Which of us twain was more worthy the 
 respect and honor of the world ? I, hireling of 
 the public, but careful custodian of my own woman- 
 hood, or she, social queen, but corrupt and faith- 
 less wife and mother ? 
 
 When I had taken what time I needed in reliev- 
 ing my physical discomfort, I responded to her 
 remark languidly, as if it had not much interest 
 or importance for me. 
 
 " Yes ?" I said, with raised brows of polite but 
 distant attention. 
 
 "Yes," repeated she, catching up the word 
 quickly and frowning, for it was obvious that my 
 manner nettled her. " You are aware, I suppose, 
 that his intimacy with you is becoming a matter 
 of public scandal ?" 
 
 I looked her calmly and steadfastly in the face 
 as no guilty woman could confront the mother of 
 a lad upon whom she had dishonorable designs. 
 She was a fool after meeting such a glance to press 
 the subject further. 
 
 " Is it ?" I returned, and began beating a faint 
 devil's tattoo with my fingers on the arm of my 
 chair. 
 
 " It is scarcely to be supposed that you are un- 
 aware of it," she went on. " Even your own ad-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 161 
 
 vertising agents make capital of it. It has already 
 furnished considerable material for the news- 
 papers." 
 
 She was baiting my nonchalance, which undoubt- 
 edly imposed upon her. Her face was growing 
 redder and her voice more strident at every word 
 she uttered. I leaned forward, resting my arms 
 upon my lap, with my hands clasped carelessly 
 upon my knees, and smiled unconcernedly up into 
 her flushed face. 
 
 " Oh, no matter," I replied, dispassionately ; " I 
 am not Caesar's wife, you know. The reputation 
 of an actress is a shining mark for calumny. 
 People expect scandal of us, our professional 
 contracts almost require that we furnish food for it. 
 With you great ladies, of course, it is different. 
 You have not only yourselves but your husbands 
 and children and the fair fame of ancient lineage 
 and a high position to consider. So slight a 
 breath of suspicion directed against you tarnishes 
 so wide a field of honor. I cannot wonder that 
 one who has so many excellent reasons for being 
 solicitous of her own good repute should take it 
 upon herself to intrude upon the privacy of a poor 
 actress's private affairs to warn her against giving 
 grounds for misrepresentation. I am well aware 
 that it is only the difference in our rank that has 
 made you feel at liberty to broach this subject to 
 me. Were I of your own social standing you 
 
 ii
 
 1 62 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 would doubtless have hesitated to visit me upon 
 such an errand as has brought you here to-day. 
 But, while I thank you for your condescension 
 and charitable interference in my concerns, I must 
 decline to profit by both, feeling myself as well 
 qualified to guard my as yet unstained name as 
 even ' Mrs. Dicky Quintard,' with all her manifold 
 reasons for being scrupulous, has shown herself 
 capable of defending that of her husband." 
 
 I went through the long speech to its very end 
 in a smooth, perfectly courteous, and gentle voice. 
 Any one hearing the intonation and not the words 
 would have believed me discoursing most amicably 
 upon the casual topics of an afternoon call. But 
 the woman upon whose ears my words dropped 
 like stinging-nettles did not so misconceive my 
 even manner. For an instant I think I really 
 shamed her bold assurance, for her black eyes 
 dropped abashed beneath my still smiling glance. 
 Then she rose and stood before me, fastening the 
 hooks of a magnificent outer garment, which gave 
 an air of splendid distinction to her figure, with 
 hands that trembled visibly with rage. 
 
 " You are insulting," she said, when she could 
 command her voice. " But I was prepared for 
 that. I scarcely hoped to meet with forbearance 
 and fine feeling in one who keeps a paid spy in the 
 houses of those whom she means to despoil of their 
 peace and honor."
 
 A Queen of Hearts 163 
 
 " That will do," I said, quietly but peremptorily, 
 rising in my turn. " If you are prepared for insult 
 I am not, and I therefore decline to take part in 
 a conflict of words in which you have so obvious 
 an advantage. Just what you hoped to effect in 
 coming here I do not know, Mrs. Quintard ; but, 
 although the object of your visit indicated by your 
 preliminary remarks was sufficiently offensive to 
 warrant my turning you with scant courtesy from 
 my doors, yet I am not willing that you should 
 depart without a certain assurance from me. That 
 much I owe to my own woman- and mother- 
 hood. For you as a wife and woman I have abso- 
 lutely no respect. (You see the reassurance you 
 desire is going to cost you something in the way 
 of listening to home-truths.) I know hundreds of 
 women in my profession who would blush (al- 
 though you imagine our emotions are but painted 
 things) to feel their names so attainted as is yours. 
 But for you as a mother, being such myself, I have 
 fellow-feeling and consideration. I believe that 
 you honestly love your son and are solicitous for 
 his welfare. Therefore I wish to ease your mind 
 regarding his devotion to me. It is true he is 
 much with me ; it is true he fancies he loves me ; 
 it is true I encourage his visiting me, and that I 
 accept such attentions as he chooses to pay. But 
 it is likewise true that I am as devoted to his best 
 interests as you can be ; that if I love him it is as
 
 164 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 a son or younger brother ; that my house, what- 
 ever may be falsely charged against it, is not a centre 
 of wickedness and sin, but a home whose hearth- 
 stone is as pure and unsullied as well, the nat- 
 ural comparison is not very apposite, so I will not 
 employ it, but will content myself with a mere 
 assertion of stainlessness. If your son chooses 
 to continue his visits to me, it is not I that shall 
 bid him cease them, I am too selfish for that ; but, 
 I promise you, Allan Quintard's mother, that your 
 son, the boy we both love, shall neither mentally 
 nor morally come to harm through propinquity 
 with me." 
 
 She bore with me heroically to the end of my 
 speech, perhaps hoping more satisfactory results 
 than those she gained. As I concluded with the 
 lofty air of one conscious of the integrity of her 
 professions, she threw back into my keeping the 
 pledges I had given her as one tosses aside a 
 valueless and disappointing gift. 
 
 " Mentally and morally !" she sneered. " Your 
 sacrifice is a cheap one ! It costs you little. How 
 far will you consider him socially and financially ? 
 That is far more to the point. You will ruin his 
 chances of making a brilliant marriage, and squeeze 
 his purse as you would a juicy orange, doubtless. 
 Can I make terms with you to spare him in these 
 two regards as well ? I am disposed to be liberal 
 in my offers."
 
 A Queen of Hearts 165 
 
 I returned her glance for one icy moment of 
 contempt. Then I swept across the room and laid 
 a finger on the bell. 
 
 " In those regards he shall go the length of his 
 tether," said I, with a cold little laugh of disdain, 
 and I turned to Stone, who appeared in answer to 
 my summons, and bade him show Mrs. Quintard 
 to her carriage. 
 
 And when she had gone and I was again alone 
 with that poor self of mine that has none to pro- 
 tect or comfort it in its isolation, I flung my body 
 on a lounge and my spirit into tumult, to battle 
 with all sorts of wretched and agonizing reflections 
 that harassed and beset it. 
 
 Never had I felt myself so alone as in that hour. 
 Never had I so appreciated the loss of caste suffered 
 by women who cater to the diversion of the world. 
 Never had I so realized the impotency of one who 
 stands before the sight of men in a false position. 
 For the first time in my life all the advantages 
 accruing to the successful actress were lost sight 
 of in the overwhelming injury sustained by the 
 suffering woman. My eyes were suddenly opened 
 to the fact that of my own free will I had unveiled 
 my personality to the world and had courted, at 
 least passively, the criticism and disparagement of 
 such as paused to consider me. 
 
 I am a proud woman, and the reflection that 
 Irene Quintard, of whom I knew so many evil
 
 1 66 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 things, felt privileged, through mere advantage of 
 position, to venture within the very precincts of 
 my home for the purpose of impeaching a moral 
 integrity vastly superior to her own, created within 
 me a fierce resentment. I knew her to be false as 
 a woman, faithless as a wife, scandalous as a repre- 
 sentative of high caste. The noblest prerogatives 
 of a great position and immense wealth were indif- 
 ferently scorned and flouted by her. She neither felt 
 nor assumed any of the weighty responsibilities 
 entailed upon the incumbent of a large fortune and 
 splendid estate. Her birthright and her command 
 of means she esteemed only as they secured to 
 her wider license of conduct and an easier latitude 
 of action than others enjoyed. With her it was 
 not Noblesse oblige, but Noblesse permets, and the 
 richer purple of her blood was of consequence only 
 as it enabled her to form laws or rather liberties 
 unto herself. 
 
 And such a woman as this Richard Quintard 
 allowed still to support his name, while I was re- 
 garded with contumely. And all because Report 
 for decades upon decades had looked upward in 
 smiling obsequiousness to those in her position, 
 while it had frowned heavily down upon my poor 
 sisterhood. 
 
 How unevenly were the things of this life dis- 
 tributed ! How unfair, how altogether out of pro- 
 portion was the division ! Here were opportuni-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 167 
 
 ties neglected, occasions gone to waste, honor and 
 respect ruthlessly contemned, and rare and precious 
 privileges which should have satisfied the ambition 
 of any human being all squandered by the capri- 
 cious humor of one whose soul was mere sense, 
 while I and hundreds of others who would have 
 turned those chances to royal account were forced 
 to hack for ourselves a way through an unknown 
 and dangerous wilderness, which offered no gratui- 
 tous emolument, and whose unsuspected pitfalls 
 often betrayed even those whose efforts were most 
 sincere. 
 
 It was a bitter half-hour that I spent there by 
 myself, reflecting upon the humiliation I had en- 
 dured at the hands of Richard Quintard and his 
 wife. In that interval I hated them both in equal 
 measure ; the one that he had permitted miscon- 
 ception to betray our friendship, and the other that 
 she had so deeply affronted my self-respect. And 
 then, for I was tired and worn out physically and 
 miserably sick at heart, I lost something of the 
 fierceness of my mood and fell aweeping over my 
 own solitariness and home-sickness for a home I 
 had never known save in imagination. It was true 
 I had Jean with me, and that the good little soul 
 was absolutely devoted to my service, but she did 
 not belong to me, she was not bone of my bone 
 and flesh of my flesh ; where she was my heart of 
 necessity was not, and I felt a sudden need of a
 
 -i 6 8 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 love whose atmosphere should be as indispensable 
 to me as the air I breathed, which should draw me 
 with cords of irresistible sympathy and compre- 
 hension to the place it inhabited, in whose bound- 
 less seas my bruised and sore spirit should bathe 
 and be refreshed. 
 
 And I had such a love at command. What folly 
 was that which made me defer the enjoyment of it 
 a moment longer ! I rose swiftly and approached 
 my buhl secretary. I had formed an exhilarating 
 resolution, and not an instant should be lost in 
 executing it. I would summon Lisa from her 
 convent now, at once, before I had time to recon- 
 sider my resolve, before prudence should again 
 play spoil-sport and counsel further postponement. 
 Jean should be at once despatched for her with a 
 note requesting the mother to deliver her charge to 
 the bearer immediately. The child's joy would be 
 extravagant. I pictured her lovely face alight with 
 that glorious radiance which was peculiar to it in 
 its moments of rejoicing. I felt her slender, loving 
 arms about my neck, her sweet lips pressed to 
 mine, her heart resting upon my breast I looked 
 about the room, and sought to discover her pres- 
 ence in it. Already a new beauty seemed to invest 
 it. I bethought me of the exquisite raiment she 
 should wear, and even, before beginning my note, 
 sat for an instant nib-trying the pen-point purpose- 
 lessly upon my thumb-nail, as I considered what
 
 A Queen of Hearts 169 
 
 flowers should be ordered in abundance to give 
 welcome to my daughter. 
 
 A has with the Quintards, father, mother, and 
 son ! What were they to me when I had such 
 precious and legitimate interests of my own within 
 call ! I smiled defiance at their united powers to 
 distress me further, and, drawing a sheet of paper 
 towards me, wrote as follows : 
 
 " DEAR AND HOLY MOTHER, I have exceeding 
 and urgent need of my child. Her presence has 
 become of vital necessity to me. You remember 
 counselling me once against temptation, and how 
 boastfully contemptuous I was of your warning. 
 The suffering you foreshadowed has come to me, 
 and I need my Lisa to help me support it. Let 
 her come at once, please. I have no patience with 
 delay. My professional engagements do not per- 
 mit of my leaving New York long enough to go 
 for Lisa, but I send this by one in whom I have 
 implicit confidence, and into whose care you may 
 safely deliver the child. I am harassed and 
 troubled to-day and cannot write you at greater 
 length, but you shall soon hear from me more 
 explicitly. 
 
 " Yours, with all reverence and esteem, 
 
 "PAULINE MAVIS." 
 
 I reread the note, having finished it, and it did 
 not seem half strong enough. I could not bear
 
 170 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 the thought, now that I had become resolved upon 
 having Lisa with me, that they might detain her 
 upon some pretext yet awhile longer, and send my 
 messenger back alone. So I added a more peremp- 
 tory postscript : 
 
 " Please let no scruples, nor reasons of any sort 
 whatever, stand in the way of her coming." 
 
 Just as I finished the last word, to my great vex- 
 ation, for I was in no condition either of mind or 
 countenance to receive any one, the door opened 
 and Stone announced, " Madame Conquest." The 
 next instant, and before I could refuse to see her, 
 the woman herself was in the room. 
 
 She saluted me in a far less aggressive fashion 
 than I was accustomed to from her, and I felt my 
 sympathies at first provoked by her general air of 
 shabbiness and adversity. But when, after a little 
 circumlocution, intended obviously from its flatter- 
 ing tone to propitiate me, she made known her 
 errand, I felt my pity and commiseration vanish 
 into thin air and leave nothing but substantial 
 scorn behind them. She had come to extort 
 money from me, by blandishments, if possible ; 
 by threats, if not. 
 
 But if ever I were in an implacable mood that 
 surely was the hour. I disliked the woman from 
 the bottom of my soul, and had always despised
 
 A Queen of Hearts 171 
 
 her. To-day I felt an especial animosity against 
 her, for it was she and such as she who had robbed 
 the stage of its good repute and subjected its chil- 
 dren to the opprobrium of the world. She began 
 by flattering me ; she expatiated upon my beauty, 
 my genius, the rank I had attained in the pro- 
 fession, the wide and enviable celebrity I had 
 gained. With my success she contrasted her own 
 failure, neglecting, however, to mention after what 
 different methods we had ordered our lives. Inci- 
 dentally, not resentfully, but as if it were an ac- 
 cepted and indisputable factor in her misfortunes, 
 she alluded to the eclipse into which she had al- 
 ways maintained I had thrown her career by tem- 
 porarily substituting for her, and then, by an easy 
 and seemingly natural transition, she passed into a 
 statement of her present financial straits, and ended 
 by asking me for a loan. 
 
 I at once refused her petition. No one, I think, 
 can accuse me truthfully of niggardliness, but all 
 cases of poverty do not present themselves to me 
 as worthy of charity. Ever since Lisa had spoken 
 to me of this woman's unhappily situated daughter 
 I had felt a strong inclination to do something for 
 the poor girl's relief. I pitied from the bottom 
 of my heart a child whose pure nature revolted at 
 the thought of being forced to accept such as Nita 
 Conquest for a mother. I had been maturing a 
 plan which I thought might be of advantage to the
 
 172 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 girl, and I now concluded to broach it to the 
 woman. Before I could speak, however, such a 
 change passed over her manner that all desire to 
 assist or relieve her in any way whatever was 
 driven from my mind. It was immediately ap- 
 parent that all her suavity and adulation were 
 mere sycophancy, assumed for a purpose. She 
 became in an instant as menacing and ugly as she 
 had heretofore been smooth and oily. 
 
 " I supposed you'd refuse me," she said. " But 
 you're a fool; you might just as well give when 
 you're asked as when you're threatened. Then 
 you could save your pride that you're so consid- 
 erate of." 
 
 I remembered then as she spoke what I had till 
 now forgotten : that I had commissioned my father 
 to secure her silence towards Lisa concerning my 
 profession. Now, with that exponent of my newly 
 formed resolution lying open on my desk, ready 
 for immediate transmission, fear of exposure no 
 longer troubled me, and therefore I could quite 
 easily return her glance of would-be intimidation 
 with a smile of calm confidence. 
 
 " In this case I shall give neither when I am 
 asked nor if I am threatened," I returned, quietly. 
 " You have delayed too long making capital of 
 your power to balk my wishes regarding my 
 daughter. As you entered I was just finishing a 
 letter to the mother-superior desiring her to send
 
 A Queen of Hearts 173 
 
 her to me by the bearer of my note. But, that 
 you may not blame yourself needlessly for not 
 putting your purpose into earlier execution, let me 
 tell you that, at no time nor under any circum- 
 stances, should I have been induced to pay one 
 penny more for the preservation of my secret 
 than the amount I had already assigned for that 
 purpose." 
 
 She flung her head into the air with a gesture 
 of inexpressible contempt. 
 
 " Oh, that 1" she cried. " You don't suppose I 
 thought you paid twenty-five thousand dollars to 
 keep your girl from finding out that you're an 
 actress, do you? We know, Picot and I, what 
 your little game is. We know our business, we 
 do. We had a good laugh, I can tell you, over 
 the way you put it. As if we didn't know that 
 you wanted these swells to be kept dark about 
 there being a girl of yours in hiding until you had 
 got that young chap to marry you ! And I guess, 
 although you try to brazen it out pretty well, that 
 my secret's worth about as much as it ever was, 
 isn't it?" 
 
 I was about rising to my feet to order her out 
 of my presence, for my sorely taxed spirit had 
 borne about all of insult it was capable of enduring 
 in one day, when the door opened and Stone ap- 
 peared, bearing a small card upon his tiny salver. 
 
 " Beg pardon, madame," he explained, " but Mr.
 
 174 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 Quintard would not allow me to announce him. 
 He thought it might be inconvenient for you to 
 receive him, but he would be very glad if you 
 would see him for a few minutes on an important 
 matter." 
 
 I had been stirred that day to the depths of my 
 being. I was still all atremble with fierce resent- 
 ment of the indignities which had been so merci- 
 lessly heaped upon me. Yet I could have sus- 
 tained a far greater burden of contumely with 
 more equanimity than I could summon to the 
 mere holding of that bit of pasteboard. For the 
 syllables upon it, " Richard Eton Quintard," had 
 magic power over me, and I could not withstand 
 their influence. 
 
 " Ask Mr. Quintard to wait a few moments in 
 the reception-room," I said. " I shall be almost 
 immediately disengaged." Then I turned to my 
 despised visitor. " I have no more words to waste 
 upon you," I said. " I cannot believe that you 
 really imagine that I would lower myself to at- 
 tempt to refute such an infamous charge as that 
 you have brought against me. There is my door. 
 It is my wish, which I shall be careful to repeat to 
 my servant, that you never enter it again. That is 
 all I have to say to you." 
 
 I turned my back deliberately upon her, and left 
 her standing there, with baffled hatred and angry 
 disappointment in her eyes. I think she did not
 
 A Queen of Hearts 175 
 
 believe but that it was my earnest desire to conceal 
 the fact of Lisa's existence from the world until I 
 should have matured the ambitious designs she 
 attributed to me, but she did feel assured that she 
 could not by any possibility extort fresh financial 
 concessions from me. Hence her rage. 
 
 I gave no further thought to her at the moment. 
 One all-important consideration occupied my mind 
 to the exclusion of taunts, threats, objurgations, 
 and insult. It was enough for me to reflect upon, 
 as I stood before my mirror and sought to restore 
 something of composure to my appearance, that 
 there waited in the other room the man for whom 
 I would gladly, even in the hour of my bitterest 
 resentment against him, have laid down my life. 
 What had he come for? What necessity could 
 force a man who had once been forbidden a 
 woman's house to expose himself again to her in- 
 hospitality ? Had he, perchance, come to bargain 
 with me for his son's liberty ? Had his wife, per- 
 haps, bidden him invade the absurd privacy in 
 which the actress attempted to shelter and offer 
 such terms for the surrender of her prey as would 
 tempt her natural and professional cupidity ? The 
 little laugh which the silent room gave back to me 
 was so hollow and mirthless that I shivered. 
 
 I took a lovely, fleecy wrap of white marabout 
 and soft blue silk and threw it over me, for I was, 
 in truth, cold from prolonged nervous strain. I
 
 176 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 glanced in the glass to see if it in any measure 
 dispersed the look of age and suffering that seemed 
 suddenly to have been graven on my countenance. 
 Alas, no ! My own face, the face that it was the 
 fashion to laud and commend for its youthful mo- 
 bility and vivacity as well as for its beauty, had 
 grown strange and unfamiliar to me by reason of 
 the haunting sadness of which I found it impos- 
 sible to relieve it. A sigh, almost a sob, came 
 welling up from a sea of troubled feeling which 
 seemed to have submerged my whole being, but 
 I set my teeth hard and promised my pride to 
 guard it from self-betrayal in the coming interview. 
 Then I returned to the drawing-room. 
 
 I shivered again as I entered the apartment. I 
 was growing to hate it as the scene of horrid expe- 
 riences. But I went resolutely to the bell, and 
 when Stone appeared bade him shown in Mr. 
 Quintard. When my guest presented himself he 
 might well have coveted my composure. 
 
 I stood by the mantel as my guest entered, for 
 I intended thus to convey my purpose of making 
 the interview a brief one. Long training in the 
 art of assuming fictitious emotions permitted me 
 to display a calm face and assured manner, but I 
 dare say my cheeks were very white, and that suf- 
 fering had somewhat altered my expression since 
 last Richard Quintard had seen me, for his first 
 words were a reflection upon my looks.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 177 
 
 He came into the room with a set, stern face, 
 which filled with troubled surprise as his eyes 
 lighted upon me. 
 
 "Good God!" he ejaculated, as I murmured 
 some conventional syllables of mere salutation. 
 Then, approaching me more hurriedly and appar- 
 ently forgetful of his errand in this new occasion 
 for solicitude which had suddenly dawned upon 
 him, " What has happened ? what have you been 
 doing to yourself?" he asked, roughly, in the 
 brusque, unceremonious tone one .uses in inquiring 
 concerning his own. 
 
 I was less strong than I had thought myself. 
 The day had been a hard one. I felt my limbs 
 becoming mere trembling traitors ; even the arm 
 that supported me against the mantel shook under 
 my weight. I had not prepared myself for his 
 sympathy or consideration. I should not have 
 blenched beneath his scorn or anger. I motioned 
 him to a chair and sank into one myself. 
 
 " Nothing," I replied, desperately strengthening 
 the voice that sounded so feeble. " Nothing ; I am 
 well, but very tired. Please tell me your errand at 
 once. I have had a hard day, and must have some 
 rest before night. You have come, of course, with 
 an object. I am sure you would not have disre- 
 garded my wishes else. It is what?" 
 
 But he paid no heed to my request that he 
 should make known the purpose of his visit, nor did
 
 178 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 he respond to my invitation to be seated. He still 
 stood looking at me with that shocked, startled 
 gaze, and I could not restrain my eyes from rising 
 to meet his searching glance. I had thought I 
 hated and was grown indifferent to him, but, ah, I 
 found it good to look upon him, even with re- 
 sentment. 
 
 " What is it ?" he asked again presently, with 
 stronger insistence. " Pauline, what has changed 
 you so ? Not I, surely not I ?" 
 
 I laughed a sore, heart-sick little laugh. 
 
 " You and some others," I answered, and 
 could say no more for a moment, as a miserable 
 little sob came rising into my throat, choking my 
 free utterance. After all, even with the hope of 
 Lisa's companionship, I was desperately wretched. 
 I was sad Bo-peep crying for the vanished illu- 
 sions that had strayed from the keeping of my 
 imagination. And, alas ! there was no voice to 
 reassure me as to their return within the fold. 
 They were gone forever, those pretty conceits of 
 mine, that I, the favorite of the public, was their 
 honored lady as well ; that the world-wide renown 
 my talents had gained was accompanied by equal 
 esteem for my virtue and character ; that the ac- 
 tress, whatever her rank in her profession, who 
 kept her life pure and unsullied, was capable of 
 holding her reputation above reproach in the eyes 
 of men. I had acquired the knowledge that, how-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 179 
 
 ever discreet and circumspect she may be, the 
 actress is the lawful property of Scandal. Calumny 
 possesses over her fame the right of eminent do- 
 main, and the custom of centuries is not to be 
 reversed by individuals. 
 
 Richard Quintard's face darkened. 
 
 " I and some others !" he repeated. " I under- 
 stand. It is to beg your forgiveness for her visit 
 that I come here now. And that villain of a Picot ! 
 Put him into my hands and he shall no longer prey 
 upon you. There is a law which concerns black- 
 mailers. Let me see that it reaches him." 
 
 I made a gesture of contempt as I leaned my 
 head wearily back upon the soft padded chair. 
 
 " He does not trouble me," I said. " He has no 
 power over me, nor ever had. That is another 
 of your unjust suspicions. The only hold he has 
 upon me he is himself unconscious of." 
 
 An expression of perplexity came into the glance 
 that was bent upon me. 
 
 " No power ! But pardon me the secret of 
 your daughter's existence, you, yourself, corrob- 
 orated it in your letter to me." 
 
 I started forward in my chair, my lassitude for- 
 gotten in this sudden recognition of how the cur I 
 had befriended had sought to bite my hand. 
 
 " Ah !" I cried, " so he imposed that story upon 
 you, out of revenge doubtless, for he does not love 
 me overmuch, I know. He told you that I have
 
 180 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 a daughter of whose existence I am ashamed ; that 
 I have her hidden safely away in a convent, and 
 that I pay well to maintain secrecy concerning her. 
 And you, naturally, as I am an actress, believed 
 him without confirmation or proof. You would 
 not have accepted such a tale without better au- 
 thority had the matter concerned a woman of your 
 wife's standing, but of a dancer, a public player, 
 one may credit anything." 
 
 I rose and clasped my hands together in quick 
 and hot impatience. 
 
 "Oh, I am sick of this injustice!" cried I, in 
 bitter protest. " I have ordered my life well and 
 decently. I have guarded my honor so that no 
 man living can point the finger of reproach at me ; 
 I have kept my dead husband's name bright and 
 untarnished. And what does it all avail me in 
 connection with the fact that I am an actress ? A 
 preconception of the professional character exists, 
 and for that I suffer. Verily and alas ! the sins of 
 the parents of the stage are visited upon the chil- 
 dren unduly." 
 
 I turned and walked from him away to the win- 
 dow that I might hide my distress. But he fol- 
 lowed close upon my steps and accosted me in 
 self-justification. 
 
 " You are harsh and severe," he said, gloomily 
 but half-apologetically. "You forget that I had 
 grounds for placing faith in what the man said.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 1 8 1 
 
 There was your letter, and there was also the ex- 
 cessive double-gift of money." 
 
 I faced him scornfully. 
 
 " And both of these you construed according to 
 the low estimate in which are held the motives and 
 actions of women of my calling. Had you come 
 to me for information I might have given you a 
 different explanation ; I might have told you, for 
 instance, that the man was deceiving you, and that 
 the secret I wished to guard had no concern for 
 the world, and did not relate to the fact of my 
 child's existence, but that it was a simple matter 
 between her and me, having for its object my desire 
 to keep her in ignorance of the nature of my pro- 
 fession until I should have retired from the stage 
 forever." 
 
 I could see in the face which I confronted incre- 
 dulity too guarded to express itself openly. 
 
 " You do not believe me !" I exclaimed. " Well, 
 it is a matter of no consequence to me. I am con- 
 tent to know myself that I have no more reason to 
 blush for my child's existence than have you for 
 Allan's. I care not whether or no others believe 
 it." 
 
 A very pained and distressed expression came 
 into the man's dark-gray eyes. He hesitated an 
 instant as if in uncertainty. Then said, 
 
 " You will think me a brute to insist, but I can't 
 help it. If you could know what I have been
 
 1 82 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 through, you would forgive me, I think, and have 
 compassion for me even if I offend. But that 
 money ! It was so large an amount to pay for so 
 paltry an end." 
 
 My heart stirred gladly even in the midst of its 
 inquisition. I rejoiced to feel that I alone had not 
 been the victim of his cruel injustice. My voice 
 had a lighter note in it as I replied, 
 
 " The end which you believe the money was 
 paid to secure was by no means a paltry one. It 
 has to do with the only happiness the world holds 
 in store for me, my daughter's love and good 
 opinion. But I had another reason, quite inde- 
 pendent of this, for enriching the man who was 
 your servant. Nature has given him a claim upon 
 me of which he is ignorant, and which I do not 
 highly esteem; however, I cannot shut my eyes 
 to it, and therefore I have sought to respond in 
 ways which perplex and relieve him, even while 
 they do not further his enlightenment." 
 
 I paused an instant, looking down upon the rug. 
 In truth, I was not proud of the fact I was about 
 to divulge. Aside from the low rank to which my 
 parent had fallen, there was a meanness and want 
 of respectability about him that made me loath to 
 call him mine. But I drew myself together and, 
 with my head held high, met his glance of puzzled 
 wonder proudly and with lofty disregard of conse- 
 quences.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 183 
 
 " The man is my father," I announced, simply. 
 
 If I had exploded a pistol in my companion's 
 face he could not have been more surprised. He 
 drew back and regarded me as if I had gone 
 mad. 
 
 " What !" was all he could find to say in reply. 
 
 I smiled derisively, holding myself a little more 
 haughtily. 
 
 " You are inconsistent in your amazement," I 
 said. " You attribute to me all sorts of low and 
 vicious motives and actions ; you hold me capable 
 of immodesty and lack of womanly delicacy ; you 
 perhaps encouraged and abetted your wife's appeal 
 to my cupidity, why should it surprise you to 
 find me sprung from such antecedents ? Am I not 
 the worthy child of a worthy father ? Do you not 
 recognize family traits and characteristics ? Look 
 closer at me. Perhaps you will find in my coun- 
 tenance the same features with which you have 
 become familiar in that of your servant. Do not 
 wonder hereafter at anything you may hear of me. 
 You can easily account for all lapses on the simple 
 ground that I am my father's child." 
 
 As I reached the end of my little speech the 
 irony within me suddenly gave way to a feeling of 
 shame and self-pity. My voice broke quite unex- 
 pectedly and I was constrained to cover my face 
 with my hands and retreat to a distance, where I 
 dropped helplessly into the nearest chair and sat,
 
 1 84 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 with pride all undone and dignity routed, weeping 
 like a very child. My humiliation was now com- 
 plete. I had uncovered the nakedness of my 
 chagrin and mortification to this man from whom 
 of all others I would fain have concealed them, and 
 nothing of comfort remained to me but the impo- 
 tent resource of tears. There is, as one may see, 
 nothing of the heroine in me. I am a disgrace to 
 the order of the New Woman. All my attributes 
 are purely feminine, and sentiment and emotion 
 govern me to a degree that would provoke the 
 contempt of my stronger sisterhood. Menaced by 
 threat or danger I can hold my own against the 
 world, but my gentler sensibilities yield easily to 
 assault. 
 
 After I finished my protest a silence fell upon 
 the room. In my distant corner I sat crouching 
 disconsolately above my abasement, and where I 
 had left him he remained, wrapped in such reflec- 
 tions as I might only guess at. 
 
 The daylight was growing dim, for it was late 
 afternoon now, and the flames upon the hearth 
 gave its chief illumination to the room. The snap- 
 ping of the logs assumed unusual importance in 
 the stillness, being the only sounds which echoed 
 through it. Without the closed doors which shut 
 off the dining-room I could hear the quiet footfall of 
 Stone as he moved about, laying the table for my 
 early dinner. In the midst of my distress I feared
 
 A Queen of Hearts 185 
 
 lest he should remember his duty and enter for the 
 purpose of lighting the lamps. 
 
 Certainly five minutes must have passed before 
 Richard moved. And five minutes is a very long 
 time when you are sitting wretched and forlorn, 
 with your head buried in your hands, uncertain as 
 to what you had better consistently do next. He 
 solved my difficulty by assuming the burden of 
 action, approaching me with a slow, deliberate step 
 that somehow conveyed the assurance that a crisis 
 as well as a person was advancing, and filled me 
 with a strange sense of awe and foreboding. When 
 he stood quite close to me, so that I could feel the 
 nearness of his presence, for my head was still 
 bowed between my palms, he paused, evidently 
 hesitating yet to break the quiet that prevailed. 
 The moment was strongly significant to me of some 
 weighty decision upon the man's part of which I 
 was ignorant. I quaked and trembled inwardly, 
 apprehending some conclusion that should add 
 anew to my distress. But I gave no sign even 
 that I had noted his proximity, but sat, motionless 
 and passive, awaiting I knew not what. 
 
 Before he spoke he leaned down and laid gentle 
 hold of my wrists, drawing my hands away from 
 my face and into his own clasp. Oh, the tender, 
 solicitous touch of the man we love ! What power 
 it has over us poor women ! I had no choice but 
 to look up into the face of him in whose palms my
 
 1 86 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 fingers lay imprisoned, and meeting the light in 
 the eyes that regarded me, all the resentment and 
 anger I had been cherishing against their owner 
 died like a poorly rooted plant before the bright 
 rays of the sun. 
 
 " Forgive me," he said, quietly; "but a man 
 cannot be eloquent in his own defence unless he 
 may watch the face of his judge. You have 
 pleaded well and strongly against me, and, to my 
 infinite regret, I must admit that many of your 
 charges are well founded. But, as God is my wit- 
 ness, I am guiltless of that outrage to which you 
 have to-day been subjected. I had no knowledge 
 or suspicion concerning it until an hour ago, when 
 it was flaunted before my eyes in the same spirit 
 that prompts the waving of a red flag before a 
 bull. It was intended to gall and madden me, and 
 it succeeded, but it also overleaped its aim, for it 
 has brought me to you again, Pauline, and that the 
 woman who baited me would have done much to 
 prevent. This time your doors shall not close 
 upon me as upon a stranger ; I swear they shall 
 not. It ill becomes a man to shelter his offences 
 behind the skirts of a woman, but I cannot clear 
 myself in your eyes in any degree unless I suggest 
 that you reflect what infinite resources for preju- 
 dice an unscrupulous and malicious woman may 
 avail herself of with which to poison a man's mind. 
 She found her ground well prepared, for I do not
 
 A Queen of Hearts 187 
 
 disguise the disillusionment of that night when I 
 saw you as I had never thought to see you. Into 
 that ground she has diligently sowed a crop of 
 poisonous lies and calumnies which throve against 
 my will until to-day, when she inadvertently cut 
 them down, all and every one, with the blade of 
 cruelty. The harvest remains to her. May it 
 prove profitable !" 
 
 He waited a moment and then dropped upon 
 one knee beside me, that he might not look down 
 upon me while begging my forgiveness. 
 
 " I have done you bitter injury in my thoughts," 
 he went on, and now his voice began to show the 
 strain of suppressed feeling ; " will you pardon it ? 
 I have offered you insult and would have done 
 you great wrong ; can you forget it ? I bring you 
 repentance, regret, my own suffering, and the de- 
 votion of all the remaining years of my life ; will 
 you have them ?" 
 
 I looked at him questioningly, my hands trem- 
 bling in his grasp. What did he mean ? The de- 
 votion of his life. What was that he offered me ? 
 Not fresh insult. Surely not ! Oh, no ; not with 
 that light in his eyes, that expression curving the 
 beautiful lines of his lips. But how could I reply, 
 not knowing what he meant ? 
 
 Yet I bethought me that I could grant him the 
 grace he craved, even while ignorant as to the val- 
 uation of the gift he offered. I could not hold out
 
 1 88 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 against his humility. I had condoned all his of- 
 fences in that instant when I felt the tenderness of 
 his touch. 
 
 " You have hurt me," I said, for I had no mind 
 that he should lightly estimate the great wrong he 
 had done me. " I do not suppose you, who are a 
 man, can imagine how I, a woman, have grieved 
 and suffered by your suspicions. But I forgive 
 you. Your repentance and suffering and regret 
 shall condone your fault. I am willing to accept 
 them as compensation." 
 
 " And my love and devotion ?" he urged, looking 
 at me steadfastly and serenely. " You say nothing 
 of them. There shall come a time, and that soon, 
 when I may offer them to you in all honor and 
 loyalty. Pauline, how shall it be then ? Will you 
 have them likewise ?" 
 
 My heart leaped in my bosom. There could be 
 but one meaning in his words. 
 
 " Do you mean that you are to divorce your 
 wife ?" I asked, very gravely. 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Is it because of me you are putting her from 
 you ?" I looked him searchingly in the eyes. 
 
 " No. I had determined to do so before I ever 
 laid eyes upon you," he replied. 
 
 " Why have you so long delayed, then ?" 
 
 He hesitated, and I saw that he would have 
 evaded the question if he could have done so.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 189 
 
 But he was not one to descend to subterfuge or 
 prevarication, and he gave me honestly the direct 
 answer I wanted. 
 
 " Because of Allan. I did not want his home 
 divided against him. I meant to wait until he had 
 left it for one of his own making." 
 
 " It was a good resolve," I responded. " Why 
 have you broken it ?" 
 
 His look fell before my gently judicial one. He 
 had not been prepared for such merciless probing. 
 Love me he might, and proudly I believe he did ; 
 but know me, ah, that he did not then, though 
 since he has come to rate me more justly. 
 
 " Because why, because " 
 
 My face had doubtless warned him that the 
 reason for his changed determination would not 
 be acceptable to me, and he was casting about for 
 the least objectionable phrasing for his reply when 
 I interrupted him. I rose to my feet as did he also, 
 and standing close by him, independent now in my 
 great happiness of all support, I said, with gentle 
 dignity but resolute firmness, 
 
 "Because you have since met me, is it not? 
 Yes, I know that is it You have made me a glad 
 and happy woman this day, Mr. Quintard. I feel 
 that I have recovered my lost place in your esteem. 
 But one grows to be very cautious concerning that 
 which has once escaped from the grasp. I dare 
 not trifle with your newly regained respect for me
 
 190 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 by permitting you to divorce your wife on my 
 account. Besides which, I have a conscience, ac- 
 tress though I am, and that conscience does not 
 allow me to come between husband and wife." 
 
 I had not been able, as I proceeded, to prevent 
 a tinge of bitterness from creeping into my voice, 
 but when I saw how deeply it wounded and moved 
 him I hastily sought to make amends for it. 
 
 " Oh I" I cried, " I did not mean to say that. I 
 am sorry. It was ungenerous in me. But the 
 wound still bleeds, you see. I will be frank and 
 sincere with you as you have been with me. I 
 
 love you " He started and would have come 
 
 nearer to me, but my words held no invitation in 
 them, and I raised a hand of warning that held 
 him where he stood. " You know it from a hun- 
 dred signs that I have been unable to conceal. 
 Then why should I hesitate to confess it openly ? 
 But your resolution stands as stoutly between 
 us as does the consideration which made you 
 form it. You love your son as well as you ever 
 did ; I love him, too. Could a marriage founded 
 upon his neglected claims have much warrant for 
 happiness, do you think ? I am sure not. There- 
 fore until Allan shall see fit to marry your duty 
 to your wife, his mother, keeps us apart. When 
 that time comes which you long ago determined 
 should release you from your obligations to a 
 woman who does not prize your devotion, you and
 
 A Queen of Hearts 191 
 
 I may speak of whether or no we shall join our 
 lives together. Our house, if we build one, must 
 be founded upon the rock of mutual respect, not 
 upon the sands of mere passionate regard." 
 
 I smiled proudly, and at the same time radiantly, 
 upon him. And my soul leaped exultingly within 
 me as for the first time I discovered a new quality 
 in the look he turned upon me. It was that 
 precious quality of reverence, lacking which no 
 man's love ever quite satisfies the heart of a true 
 woman, which came slowly creeping into the gaze 
 I encountered, to remain and increase, Heaven be 
 thanked, thenceforward and until this day. 
 
 He made no attempt to combat my resolution. 
 His nobler nature acquiesced in the propriety of 
 my decision. He raised my hand and pressed it 
 an instant to his lips. The action was more sug- 
 gestive of the sealing of a verdict and the homage 
 of a follower than of the passion of a lover. 
 
 " It shall be as you say," he said, in that quiet 
 way which I always associated with him. " I am 
 hereafter your servant to command." 
 
 As he dropped my hand I heard the door open, 
 and, turning, perceived Allan entering the room. I 
 had quite forgotten that the boy was to dine with 
 me, and his appearance warned me of the lateness 
 of the hour. It likewise admonished me that the 
 marked traces of recent emotion plainly visible in 
 my countenance and manner, taken in connection
 
 192 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 with his father's presence, might create strange 
 suspicions in the lad's breast. And that my sur- 
 mise was not wholly wrong the first words he 
 uttered proved. His own face suggested that he 
 had lately been harassed and disturbed. It had 
 lost its youthful look of brilliant insouciance, and 
 seemed to have gained of a sudden an expression 
 of experience and age. 
 
 As he came forward and recognized my com- 
 panion, noting also our mutual constraint and the 
 obvious indications of the crisis we had just passed 
 through, his face darkened and flushed, and a scowl 
 knit his black brows so forbiddingly that I never 
 should have recognized his countenance. 
 
 "So you have come to insult her," he burst 
 forth at once, accosting his father even before 
 saluting me. " My mother said you would do it, 
 but I did not believe her." 
 
 Richard looked at him a moment in troubled 
 silence. It was the first time in his life that the 
 lad had failed in respect and love to him, and I 
 knew that the unprecedented experience shocked 
 and hurt him. 
 
 "You did me no more than simple justice," 
 presently he said, somewhat coldly, for, however 
 much a man may love his son, he has no inclina- 
 tion to be taken to task by him. " It is not my 
 custom to insult women, whoever may assure you 
 to the contrary."
 
 A Queen of Hearts 193 
 
 They stood glaring angrily at each other, the son 
 still suspicious of the father, and the latter resent- 
 ing the former's charges. 
 
 " But you are here to meddle in my concerns," 
 Allan went rapidly on. " You have come to in- 
 fluence madame in some way against me, and I 
 telf you I will not have it. You and my mother 
 think me still a child to whom you may dictate, 
 feeling sure that I will obey blindly. But I tell 
 you I am a man, old enough to choose my own 
 friends and direct my own affairs. If I were en- 
 gaged in any dishonorable transaction I grant that 
 you would have every right to interfere. But this 
 is not the case. I have never met a woman in my 
 mother's house for whom I have felt a greater re- 
 spect than I do for madame. I have met many for 
 whom I felt far less. It is to my honor that she 
 allows me her friendship, and so long as she sees 
 fit to grant it to me, no one in this world shall 
 deprive me of it." 
 
 There was something so noble and ingenuous in 
 the lad, he was so in earnest and so sincere in his 
 own convictions, that his father's anger melted into 
 pride and admiration. Doubtless, also, it was no 
 mean pleasure to him to hear the woman he loved 
 so lauded and appraised. He went forward and 
 laid his hand affectionately on Allan's shoulder. 
 
 " My boy," he said, kindly, " you are wronging 
 me terribly. I have no wish but to encourage 
 
 13
 
 194 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 your friendship with madame, for whom I have an 
 esteem that rivals your own. You have been 
 wantonly misinformed as to the object of my visit 
 here to-day. I have come to atone for, not to 
 offer, an affront." 
 
 There was no mistaking the genuineness of his 
 explanation, and the clouds on the boy's brow dis- 
 persed as he listened. But a look of trouble yet 
 shadowed his clear brown eyes, and when his father 
 finished speaking he said in a low, shamed voice, 
 
 " Thank you, sir ; forgive me. I was made to 
 believe it." After an instant's pause he added, in 
 a still deeper tone, " It is not necessary for me to 
 ask for whose insult you came here to apologize, I 
 suppose ?" 
 
 Richard's hand fell away from his son's shoulder, 
 and his eyes avoided the troubled gaze of the lad. 
 
 "No," he replied, with grave brevity. "I do 
 not think it is." 
 
 He took his leave immediately after this, Allan 
 accompanying him to the outer door, where I dare 
 say a more ample amends for his filial disrespect 
 was made. And I hastened to my dressing-room 
 to change my gown and prepare for the theatre. 
 My mind was fully occupied during my simple 
 toilet operations, and in the midst of other re- 
 flections there occurred to me a recollection of my 
 intention concerning Lisa, which now, in the light 
 of recent occurrences, I had no mind to fulfil. It
 
 A Queen of Hearts 195 
 
 was far better, I thought, to allow her to remain 
 where she was until the end of my season and 
 consequent retirement. 
 
 I concluded, therefore, to destroy the letter, 
 which I had left lying open on my secretary, but 
 I was scarcely ready for dinner when it was an- 
 nounced, and in my haste afterwards to reach the 
 theatre in season it quite slipped my mind. Nor 
 did I remember it again until the next evening. 
 
 Allan was unusually quiet and thoughtful during 
 dinner and on the way to the theatre. Of late I 
 had allowed him to escort Jean and me thither, and 
 he had fallen into the habit of coming to my dress- 
 ing-room between the acts when I had no change 
 of costume to make. I could see that he was much 
 occupied and distressed by the new phase he had 
 discovered in his mother's character, and I inferred 
 from what he had said to his father, and from his 
 moodiness and general depression, that a hot and 
 violent scene had taken place in the Quintard 
 household prior to his coming to me. A thought 
 perplexed and worried me during the intervals 
 between my acting that night. How would it be 
 when the time of final rupture between husband 
 and wife took place ? Should I, in that position 
 from which his mother had been outcast, be able 
 to hold and preserve the affection and loyalty of 
 this lad of whom I had grown so fond ? For his 
 father's sake, I prayed so, and for my own.
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 RARELY in my life have I felt so light-hearted 
 and joyous as I did on waking the next morning. 
 A terrible weight of oppression had fallen from my 
 spirits, leaving me a different creature from the 
 sadly preoccupied and wretched woman who had 
 of late been dragging wearily through a round of 
 dreary duties and pleasureless dissipations. I called 
 little Jean into my chamber and bade her sit on the 
 foot of the bed while I related the history of the 
 events of the previous day, for I felt the need of 
 unbosoming myself to some one, and a more sym- 
 pathetic confidante than the enthusiastic and warm- 
 hearted Scotch lassie could not be desired. 
 
 She followed my recital with as much interest 
 as if my experiences directly concerned herself, 
 and her homely little face was a very panorama of 
 varied emotions. Her amazement when I informed 
 her of the fact of Picot's relationship to me was 
 quite as great as that of Richard Quintard. She 
 had seen my father on various occasions, and had 
 formed a prejudice against him which dated from 
 our brief residence in the Quintard household. She 
 had frequently expressed her dislike of him, and 
 196
 
 A Queen of Hearts 197 
 
 had besought me often, as Coello had done, not to 
 associate myself in any way with him. She had 
 known that he was the recipient of my charity and 
 had deprecated the fact, though until now she had 
 been ignorant of my reasons for relieving him. 
 
 Now she shook her wise head gravely and 
 wished, not that the man were dead, oh, no, she 
 was far too devout a Presbyterian to harbor such 
 wicked desire, but that an all-wise Providence 
 might see fit mercifully to remove him from our 
 midst. 
 
 " I have a feeling that he will do you an injury," 
 she said. " I wish he would go back to Paris." 
 Her expression was so anxious and foreboding 
 that I could not help laughing (I was easily pro- 
 voked to mirth that morning), although at the 
 same time I was forcibly reminded of the words of 
 that other well-wisher of mine concerning the same 
 person. " Have nothing to do with him, Pepita," 
 poor Coello had been wont to urge ; " I do not 
 trust him. He has the evil eye for you." 
 
 But no bird of ill-omen could affect me that day. 
 My whole soul was bright and buoyant with hope 
 and exultation, and no cloud of any sort could 
 darken in any degree the fair prospect the future 
 offered me. At noon came to me a huge box of 
 splendid Bride roses, and in their midst rested an 
 envelope containing a card. These words were 
 on it:
 
 198 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 " I cannot assure myself that you have quite 
 forgiven me, and that I hold your promise for the 
 future. I am going to-night to see you. I wish 
 to obliterate any impression that falsely asperses 
 you, and I shall go this evening remembering that 
 I am to look upon you as the artist, not as the 
 woman. If you are still disposed to regard me 
 with unmerited forbearance, will you wear some- 
 where about you a rose or two of my choosing ? 
 " Ever faithfully yours, 
 
 " RICHARD ETON QUINTARD." 
 
 I flushed like a nervous school-girl upon reading 
 this message. Had the warning come earlier I 
 would have changed the bill for that night, and 
 appeared before him in a role that should in no 
 manner challenge his criticism. And yet, on sec- 
 ond thoughts, I was glad that an opportunity to do 
 this was forbidden by the lateness of the hour, for 
 my pride bade me remain firm in the consciousness 
 of my own purity of intention, and to have pur- 
 posely assumed different apparel would have 
 looked like a tacit admission of culpability. Yet 
 the high value I placed on his good opinion, and 
 my craving to fulfil in every particular the measure 
 of his ideal, made me somewhat impatient with 
 Fate that we had not cast a different programme 
 for that night. "The Queen of Hearts" had 
 been a great popular hit, and it had been con-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 199 
 
 sidered unwise to withdraw it during its profitable 
 run. 
 
 My high spirits lasted well into the afternoon, 
 and gave me back that feeling of youthful elasticity 
 which of late I had sorely missed. Jean and I had 
 a delightful drive in the park, and the fresh air 
 poured new vigor into my veins. 
 
 As usual of late, Allan made a third at dinner, 
 and I noticed about him the same unwonted de- 
 pression that had characterized him upon the pre- 
 vious evening. After the meal was over, and while 
 Jean was getting our wraps together, I remained 
 with him as he smoked his cigarette, and coaxed 
 from him some details of the stormy interview that 
 had taken place between himself and his mother the 
 day before. I managed the conversation skilfully, 
 so that I think he is not even now aware how 
 much he disclosed regarding his mother's antip- 
 athy towards me. 
 
 It became evident to me from his bitterly ex- 
 pressed remarks that he and his father had long 
 suffered for their friendship with me. I had no 
 doubt from what he let fall that Mrs. Quintard 
 had done all in her power, without scruple or hesi- 
 tation, to poison the minds of both men against 
 me. That of the elder, being more worldly-wise 
 and so less invulnerable, had been somewhat af- 
 fected by her malicious calumnies, but the honest, 
 frank, unsuspicious nature of the lad had refused
 
 2oo A Queen of Hearts 
 
 to harbor an evil thought regarding the woman 
 whom in his boyish fancy he believed he loved. 
 I have never felt more honored in my life than 
 when I perceived, through his inadvertent admis- 
 sions, in what high and impervious esteem his 
 young soul held me. Thank God I merited it, 
 else I think I should have died from very shame. 
 
 I could see from his allusions to her, even in the 
 very way in which he spoke her name, that the 
 mother had done herself grievous harm in her 
 son's eyes. She had gone the wrong way to work 
 to accomplish her aims, and her slander of me had 
 been a sort of verbal boomerang which had re- 
 turned to injure the hand that had projected it 
 I did not blame her that, attributing to me the low 
 and mercenary principles which are supposed to 
 animate my sisterhood, she had felt strongly de- 
 sirous of withdrawing Allan from my influence. 
 But I did hold her in the utmost contempt, as ob- 
 viously did her son likewise, that she should have 
 employed such methods of attaining her ends. 
 
 I think it was a relief to the lad to make this 
 unconscious confession to me. He was much 
 brighter afterwards, and he and Jean carried on an 
 exchange of jest and nonsense as we rolled along 
 towards the theatre. As for me, I seemed to have 
 acquired the melancholy that he had shed. Even 
 as Jean was wrapping me in my outer garments 
 with that solicitous care with which she always
 
 A Queen of Hearts 201 
 
 serves me, I felt a sudden gloom and apprehension 
 steal over me. She, watchful of my every mood, 
 detected the change, and turned quickly to Allan. 
 
 " Go into the dining-room, there's a good lad," 
 she said, " and tell Stone to open a pint of cham- 
 pagne. Quick, there's no time to lose ; we're get- 
 ting late. Now, what is it, dear?" she inquired, 
 looking anxiously at me as Allan disappeared, 
 wondering but obedient. 
 
 "Nothing, oh, I don't know. What is it, 
 Jeanie ?" 
 
 An hysterical fit of fright had laid hold of me. 
 It was quite unreasonable and inexplicable, but its 
 influence was none the less potent. I placed two 
 trembling hands on Jean's shoulders and gazed 
 appealingly at her. Small thing that she was com- 
 pared to me, she seemed so strong, so stolid, so 
 rational, that I clung to her, with confidence in her 
 power to dispel this vague shadow that threatened 
 me. She was accustomed to my variableness, and 
 had often coped with my groundless impressions, 
 so now she laughed outright, with so hearty and 
 scornful a laugh that its very commonplaceness 
 reassured me for a moment. 
 
 " Oh, bosh !" she said, giving me a little shake 
 of expostulation. " Reaction, that's all. Oh, what 
 unnecessary horrors you do conjure up ! I wonder 
 what shape this one has taken !" 
 
 " I don't know. But, Jeanie, it is something
 
 2O2 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 dreadful. I know that something terrible is going 
 to happen to me, I know it." 
 
 " Nonsense !" she exclaimed. " Where is that 
 boy ? Are they making that wine, I wonder !" 
 
 " Why nonsense ?" I asked, looking at her with 
 timid eyes. " You, yourself, only this morning pre- 
 dicted some danger to me from my father. Perhaps 
 you and Isidore are right, after all, and he has the 
 evil eye for me. Who knows but to-night " 
 
 "Oh, what folly, what sensational folly!" she 
 cried. " I was an idiot to have said such a thing 
 even in joke. I might have known you would 
 
 dwell upon it. Here " And she turned 
 
 quickly upon Allan, who appeared at that moment 
 with the wine, almost snatching the glass from the 
 tray he carried, and forcing it into my reluctant 
 fingers. She was unusually exuberant in her scof- 
 fing, and she has since confessed to me that her 
 scorn of my sudden weakness was wholly and with 
 some difficulty assumed, as she, herself, was labor- 
 ing under a strong presentiment of coming evil. 
 She was ever, like many of her nation, full of super- 
 stition and omens, which on ordinary occasions she 
 made no attempt to conceal, but should I chance to 
 show a disposition towards similar infirmity it was 
 her custom to rally me without mercy. 
 
 The champagne somewhat dispersed the low 
 mood into which I had fallen, and the sight of the 
 Bride roses, when I unpacked them from their box
 
 A Queen of Hearts 203 
 
 on reaching my dressing-room, cheered me for a 
 while with their tender suggestiveness. But while 
 my maid was dressing me in my page's suit of gray 
 and silver, the black dog again perched upon my 
 shoulder, and I found it impossible, as did Jean 
 also, in spite of every effort, to dislodge the dreary 
 monster from his perch. 
 
 It was years since I had studied my appearance 
 as I did that night. My poor maid was at her 
 wit's ends to satisfy my exactions. In vain she and 
 Jean insisted that I had never looked better ; that 
 my costume, clinging snugly to my figure, set off 
 its outlines to the greatest possible advantage ; that 
 its delicate tints harmonized perfectly with my col- 
 oring ; that no manner of garb could more exquis- 
 itely become a shape that they were pleased to 
 pronounce unusually comely. Alas ! their assever- 
 ations sounded but dully and unconvincingly in 
 my ears, attuned as they were to other criticisms 
 of a more fastidious taste. I gazed at myself, not 
 through the medium of professional eyes focussed 
 at a catch-penny level, but with the discriminating 
 perception of a private individual, who holds femi- 
 nine delicacy a pearl of great price. And beneath 
 this sensitive glance my vanity shrivelled into dis- 
 comfiture. 
 
 Almost every one knows how distorting a pro- 
 longed inspection of one's own reflection is. As I 
 stood before the long cheval-glass, awaiting my
 
 204 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 cue with nervous dread, and staring myself out of 
 countenance with that harrowing judicial scrutiny, 
 my own face and form grew absolutely hateful to 
 me. All those points which had seemed formerly 
 most worthy of admiration appeared now to be 
 pointing the finger of reproach at me. My hands 
 burned to tear off the dainty embroidered coat and 
 waistcoat, to drape the breeches and hose, to cast 
 aside the saucy cocked hat, to transform myself 
 again into a woman instead of a mere vulgar mime, 
 and I had much difficulty to constrain myself to 
 obey the warning cry of the call-boy, being 
 strongly urged to send for my manager and cry 
 off from appearing. 
 
 Nothing of my nervousness was visible, how- 
 ever, as I stood in the wings waiting to go on. So 
 long a stage-training as mine does not go for 
 naught, and the sound of the orchestra and sight 
 of the stage were to me as the scent of battle to 
 the war-horse. My professional business had al- 
 ways retained its fascination for me. I loved my 
 calling, if at times I grew impatient with it, as 
 dearly as ever. The excitement of the moment, 
 the applause of an audience, the sight of a crowded 
 house, were all as exhilarating to me as they had 
 ever been. I had an enthusiasm for my art, paltry 
 and mean as some might consider that art to be f 
 and that enthusiasm rarely failed me when before 
 the public.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 205 
 
 It came to my aid now as I looked across the 
 stage and saw how large a house had gathered in 
 my honor. I was accustomed to play to the ca- 
 pacity of the theatre, but it seemed to me that to- 
 night the house was absolutely packed. I was 
 glad of this, for it rendered me less likely to dis- 
 tinguish any one individual. The greater the 
 multitude the more difficult it is to single out any 
 special countenance. 
 
 When my cue came I was ready for it. Ner- 
 vousness, apprehension, that new sense of shame 
 and embarrassment, had all vanished. I was no 
 longer the timid mistress shrinking at thought of 
 her lover's eye, but the inspired artist, whose own 
 personality had become merged in that of her 
 assumption. They who separate the artist from 
 the woman in their critical judgments do well. 
 There is nothing of the private individual in the 
 actress who presents a rdle conscientiously. The 
 demands of her impersonation should be her one 
 consideration, else is she a dishonest and insincere 
 disciple, a Judas to her art. 
 
 The outburst that greeted my appearance was 
 the incense I loved. My first note quelled it as 
 the tone of the master quiets the demonstrative 
 welcome of his hound. I looked out over that 
 sea of faces, perceiving no one, but gathering in- 
 spiration from all. I knew that somewhere in that 
 vast audience there sat a man for whose single
 
 206 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 opinion I would sacrifice all the renown my past 
 successes had gained me, yet he scarcely entered 
 into my consideration once I had become that gay 
 and wanton Queen of Hearts. But the fact that 
 he was there was undoubtedly present to my con- 
 sciousness, little as I heeded it, for some reason 
 impelled me to make great and unusual effort, and 
 I did not need the stormy applause of the audience 
 or the encomiums of those about me when the 
 curtain fell upon the first act to assure me that that 
 night I had surpassed myself. 
 
 Between the first and second acts I allowed no 
 one in my dressing-room besides Jean and my 
 maid, for my second costume, the flaring, brilliant, 
 gorgeous scarlet gown, with its numerous acces- 
 sories, required much time in adjustment, and I 
 occupied the stage at the rising of the curtain. 
 After the second act I had no change, and I was in 
 the habit of receiving such visitors as I chose to 
 welcome during that entr'acte. Allan was always 
 there, and certain men to whom I accorded the 
 privilege would occasionally bring thither friends 
 who desired to meet me. It was not unusual for 
 the little room to receive so many visitors upon 
 these occasions that it quite took on the aspect of 
 an audience-chamber of diminutive proportions. 
 
 Jean was holding a tiny note between her fingers 
 when I returned to the room after complying 
 with as many recalls as I thought it necessary
 
 A Queen of Hearts 207 
 
 to acknowledge. I guessed from whom it came 
 before I read the signature. " Will you see me a 
 minute ?" it ran ; " or do you prefer not to do so ?" 
 I smiled, amused by the question. What curious 
 freak would that be which would make me prefer 
 on any occasion not to see Richard Quintard. 
 
 I hastily scratched a reply and sent it back by 
 the usher who still waited. 
 
 " After this act," I wrote. " Pray Heaven you 
 are thinking better of me." 
 
 My second toilet completed, I had another inter- 
 val of despondency. It was not because I had 
 qualms as to the fact of my beauty it had never 
 been more in evidence but as to its nature I felt 
 serious misgivings. The splendid, gaudy robe, 
 with its low corsage and gleaming jewels, so stri- 
 kingly accentuated the merely carnal character 
 of my personal charms that I felt it even more 
 unbecoming a modest nature than the other had 
 been, besides which I could not but reflect that the 
 ample draperies, which in the mirror's reflection 
 fell full and long about me, were otherwise dis- 
 posed in the mazes of the dance, and my heart 
 sank as I considered how bold snd brazen must be 
 the full effect 
 
 I dare say that I should not be believed were 
 I to state that, until Richard Quintard presented 
 them to my reflection these considerations had 
 never occurred to me. Yet such is the fact. Now
 
 208 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 that I had discovered what importance others 
 attached to them, they filled me with dread signifi- 
 cance and remorse. I was neither wanton nor im- 
 pure of heart, and I shrank from the newly-dis- 
 closed possibility that I might so appear to the 
 world at large. 
 
 Filled thus with troubled fancies, I stood while 
 my tire-women completed their work, which, when 
 it had to do with this costume, was always accom- 
 panied with a running commentary of flattering 
 remark, for both claimed that it outrivalled any 
 other I had ever assumed. When they were quite 
 done with me I took a handful of the fair Bride 
 roses and laid them on the flaming corsage just 
 above my heart, hoping that one in that great 
 audience might look at their immaculate beauty 
 and be led to fancy them symbolical of the heart 
 they covered. And then, for the last time in my 
 life, I obeyed the summons of the call-boy and 
 returned to the stage. 
 
 The second act began and progressed with the 
 same unusual degree of fire and spirit that had 
 marked the first. The contagion of my example 
 had spread among the company and each member 
 seemed inspired to excel himself. Every point 
 scored a success, and encores were a matter of 
 course for all. 
 
 In the middle of the act I noticed a slight stir 
 in the left of the orchestra. The house had
 
 A Queen of Hearts 209 
 
 been so rapt and attentive that what otherwise 
 might have passed unobserved now became con- 
 spicuous. The auditorium was so dark that I 
 could not discover what had occurred, but through 
 the dusk I caught sight of three or four figures 
 passing swiftly up the aisle. 
 
 The disturbance was too trifling to discompose 
 or perplex me, and I soon dismissed all recollec- 
 tion of it, supposing that some woman had found 
 the crowded place too close and had perhaps 
 fainted ; or possibly that some one had lapsed in 
 sobriety and had been made a victim of by an 
 usher. It was Richard Quintard who later told 
 me what had actually happened. And this was 
 his story. 
 
 He said that on taking his seat in the orchestra 
 he had noticed sitting directly in front of him a 
 woman and two unusually beautiful girls. He was 
 especially interested in the group by reason of the 
 strange incongruity that existed between the older 
 woman and her companions. The latter were 
 charming young creatures, with an air of unsophis- 
 ticated innocence about them which caused him to 
 marvel at seeing them associated with so vulgar and 
 coarse a creature as the loud and flashy person who 
 accompanied them; besides this, it was apparent 
 that the relations between the three were not close 
 or intimate, for a formality and constraint marked 
 their mutual attitudes and their conversation. He 
 
 14
 
 2io A Queen of Hearts 
 
 watched them closely until the curtain rose, specu- 
 lating upon their places in society and being enter- 
 tained by their obviously intense absorption in 
 their surroundings. 
 
 This they were evidently too ingenuous to try 
 to disguise, and their glowing faces and sparkling 
 eyes, as well as the snatches of excited and won- 
 dering commentary he caught, convinced him that 
 if either had ever before seen the inside of a the- 
 atre, her experience had been limited to very few 
 occasions. In spite of the uncongeniality of dis- 
 position and habit that plainly separated the girls 
 from her, the woman was the only present source 
 from which they could draw information concern- 
 ing the novel and alluring surroundings in which 
 she had placed them, and their curiosity doubtless 
 conquered any natural shrinking they might have 
 felt from her society, and made them willing and 
 eager to enlighten their ignorance at her hands. 
 
 When the curtain rose their enchantment was 
 redoubled. Others besides himself watched them 
 in amusement, Richard said, and their open-eyed 
 and frankly-confessed amazement and delight drew 
 much attention from the play to centre itself upon 
 the lovely, artless faces. He watched them closely 
 and admiringly until the moment came for my 
 appearance, and then a more engrossing interest 
 diverted his notice from them and turned it wholly 
 upon the stage.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 21 1 
 
 A sudden and slight ejaculation from one of the 
 trio before him presently drew his eyes again upon 
 them. It had come from the lips of the fairer and 
 gentler of the two girls, and was strangely com- 
 pounded of pain, horror, amazement, and incredu- 
 lity. She had turned from her contemplation of 
 the stage, the centre of which I, in my page's suit 
 of silver and gray, was holding with a gay and 
 graceful song and dance, and was gazing with wide, 
 questioning eyes at the woman by whose side she 
 sat. Meeting no answering look from the hard, 
 bold face that was directed uncompromisingly 
 straightforward, she dropped her glance upon the 
 programme, and, with bent head and agonized 
 scrutiny, studied the lines which set forth the cast 
 of characters. For a moment or two she kept her 
 head lowered, probably searching, in desperate fear 
 and foreboding, for a name familiar to and beloved 
 of herself, and when she again lifted it the eaves- 
 dropper behind heard her heave a little sigh of 
 relief, though it was impossible for him to discover 
 whether that anguished look she had cast upon her 
 heedless companion had died out of the sweet 
 blue eyes, or if it still scorched the heavily fringed 
 lids. 
 
 As the play went on she sat quite still, gazing 
 straight before her, occasionally starting almost 
 convulsively when it fell to me to speak an infre- 
 quent line. Now and then, after these thrills of
 
 212 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 apprehension, she would turn again that searching, 
 interrogative look upon the woman, gaining noth- 
 ing, however, from her inattentive preoccupation. 
 All pleasure had vanished from her countenance ; 
 it suggested, in the profile glimpses he caught 
 of it, pain, mortification, uneasiness, and shocked 
 modesty. 
 
 Without suspecting why she was thus affected, 
 Richard Quintard understood and sympathized 
 with the shock her unworldliness had evidently 
 sustained, and his interest in so unusual a specimen 
 of modern maidenhood became doubled. At the 
 end of the act he deliberately leaned forward to 
 catch such words as she might utter, feeling 
 strongly desirous of learning more about her and 
 the cause of her singular little outcry. The woman 
 first addressed her, turning to contemplate her with 
 a look on her brazen face that made the man who 
 watched her long to respond to her in the girl's 
 stead. It was malignant and vicious, and Richard 
 told me that he could feel his fist clinching as he 
 saw it. 
 
 " Well," she said, in a voice full of provocation, 
 "howd'youlikeit?" 
 
 There was an instant's pause; then the poor 
 little victim said, 
 
 " Who is that person in man's clothes ?" 
 
 " How should I know ?" the other answered. 
 " Look at your programme. Let's see, oh, Ma-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 213 
 
 dame Cleo, of course, the great dancer. Do you 
 know her ?" 
 
 The girl shook her head. 
 
 " No," she returned, in a low tone which Rich- 
 ard could scarcely catch. The woman smiled 
 with sinister enjoyment, which still further angered 
 the listener, it gave such evidence of malicious 
 intent. 
 
 " Fine, isn't she ? Wonderful shape and a great 
 actress, don't you think so ?" 
 
 Richard could not see the girl's face, he said, 
 though he almost made himself conspicuous in his 
 endeavor to do so, but he heard her reply : 
 
 " No ; I thought her dreadful, horrible. I had 
 not believed that any woman could so lower her- 
 self." 
 
 Here the other girl broke in. She apparently 
 was likewise shocked by the freedom and license 
 of the latter-day stage, but there had been no per- 
 sonal fear and foreboding to give emphasis to her 
 denunciation. Her criticism was wholly general 
 and abstract. 
 
 " It is awful," she agreed. " It is strange that 
 so refined-looking a woman could bring herself to 
 wear such a costume. But, Lisa, it is fascinating, 
 don't you think so ? And, after all, her dancing is 
 wonderful, and, from an artistic point, very beauti- 
 ful. She reminds me of some one, I can't think 
 who."
 
 214 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 She knit her pretty brows, and her friend came 
 to her assistance in a tone that was almost a 
 whisper. 
 
 " She is like my mother," she said ; " you saw 
 her once, don't you remember ?" 
 
 " Oh, yes ! I believe it is she. If one could 
 imagine your mother, your lovely, dignified 
 mother, in such a position." 
 
 She laughed, but the other remained grave and 
 thoughtful, and then Richard forgot them in re- 
 membering me. He spent the rest of the entr'acte 
 in the foyer, despatching his message to my dress- 
 ing-room, and awaiting an answer. 
 
 He returned to his place just as the curtain was 
 rising upon the next act, and perceived that a 
 seat which had hitherto been unoccupied beside 
 the two girls was now filled. Imagine his surprise 
 upon discovering that the' new-comer, who was 
 plainly a member of the party he had been watch- 
 ing with so much interest, was no less a person 
 than his former servant and my father, the man 
 who styled himself Leon Picot. 
 
 He had scant time for reflection upon this 
 strange coincidence, for, scarcely had the curtain 
 risen upon me posed effectively in my crimson 
 robes beneath a strong lime-light, which threw me 
 into strong relief against a dark background, than 
 his attention was again drawn from the stage to 
 rest upon the girl before him. Now there was no
 
 A Queen of Hearts 215 
 
 further attempt made to conceal her agitation. The 
 instant her eyes fell upon me she turned upon the 
 woman beside her, whose bold eyes made no fur- 
 ther pretence of evading her challenge, and a 
 pained cry burst from her trembling lips, which 
 must have been noted by the rest of her near 
 neighbors but for the noisy applause which was 
 being bestowed upon me. 
 
 " It is my mother !" she cried. " It is, it is !" 
 
 Nita Conquest smiled relentlessly back at her 
 and nodded. 
 
 "Well, and what then?" she asked, cruelly. 
 " Are you not proud of her ? See how they admire 
 her ! Hear what applause she gains ! Is she not 
 beautiful, captivating, entrancing ?" 
 
 Poor little Lisa shuddered. Richard declared 
 he could have strangled her tormentor with his 
 own fingers for the misery she had brought upon 
 so tender a creature. Nita Conquest leaned across 
 her and across her own daughter until she could 
 gain my miserable father's ear. 
 
 "Our kindly intentions have miscarried," she 
 said, still with that vicious leer. " Miss Mavis does 
 not enjoy her mother's acting as we had expected 
 she would." 
 
 Then the silence which fell upon the house as 
 my singing began permitted no further opportunity 
 for baiting their innocent prey, and stillness fell 
 upon the group, until, of a sudden, just as I was
 
 2i 6 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 finishing my most celebrated dance, a hasty and 
 ungovernable impulse appeared to seize hold of 
 my poor little child. Richard saw her start from 
 her seat as if she had formed a quick resolve. 
 
 " Let me pass," he heard her whisper impe- 
 riously to the woman. 
 
 " Sit down, you little fool," she whispered back. 
 " Do you want to make a scene ? Where are you 
 going ?" 
 
 " To find my mother. Let me pass ; I will go." 
 
 Nita Conquest paused a moment before com- 
 plying. Then she nodded significantly and imper- 
 atively to Picot. 
 
 " Come," she said, " we will all go. Perhaps it 
 will be as well, after all." 
 
 They rose and passed out, and Richard, sud- 
 denly realizing what had happened, followed them 
 up the aisle. It was then that I perceived the stir 
 in the audience.
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 I THINK it somewhat strange that that night 
 should have been one of special ovation to me. Cer- 
 tainly no one present in that great audience, my- 
 self least of all, dreamed that, without heraldry or 
 announcement, I was taking a final leave of the 
 stage. No last appearance of a public favorite 
 was ever so little advertised nor so unconsciously 
 undertaken. Yet rarely had I achieved such a 
 triumph as I did that evening. My concluding 
 song, upon which the curtain fell in the second act, 
 gained me recall after recall, and my enthusiastic 
 admirers would not be content until I had gone 
 before the curtain and made them an impromptu 
 speech of thanks. A singular coincidence I con- 
 sider it that in the middle of a prolonged engage- 
 ment an opportunity should have been thus unex- 
 pectedly afforded me, upon this occasion of all 
 others, to make my acknowledgments to that public 
 which had so long supported me for the favor and 
 esteem they had always shown me. 
 
 Few women, however free from vanity, could 
 have been indifferent to such a spontaneous and 
 genuine tribute as that which caused the theatre 
 to ring and vibrate with shouts and plaudits. I 
 
 217
 
 2i 8 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 make no pretence of having remained unmoved 
 through it. Rather it stirred me deeply, perhaps 
 because my emotions had been much troubled of 
 late, and tears mingled with smiles as I courtesied 
 low before the footlights and bowed in grateful 
 recognition before that multitude whose warm 
 appreciation of my efforts made them seem to me 
 old friends. 
 
 When I finally returned to my dressing-room 
 laden with baskets and clusters of rare and costly 
 flowers, my heart beat high and joyously with 
 gratified pride in this last proof I had received 
 that my early ambitions had been abundantly ful- 
 filled. All harassing memories of criticisms that 
 might detract, or of opinions that might injure, were 
 swept from my mind by a feeling of infinite delight 
 in this fresh and fragrant laurel wreath that had 
 been laid upon my brow. I was no longer the 
 meek and humble woman trembling before the 
 breath of calumny, but the proud and successful 
 artist, flushed and glowing, enraptured and intoxi- 
 cated, with the ecstasy of conquest. 
 
 Scarcely did the thought of Richard Quintard 
 obtrude itself upon that moment. The regard of 
 one man, even though in calmer minutes he was 
 all-sufficient to fill my universe, could scarce at 
 such a time count for much when compared to the 
 adulation and homage of a concourse. I had risen 
 above earth and its troublous consequences ; I was
 
 A Queen of Hearts 219 
 
 in the empyrean, floating far aloft above slander, 
 premonitions, fears, and apprehensions of every 
 sort, in the delicious ether of enchantment. 
 
 Never was woman less prepared to encounter 
 disaster and misadventure than I in that hour. 
 Laughter was on my lips, exultation in my heart, 
 triumph on my brow. Anticipating Richard's 
 visit, I had given orders that no one else should be 
 admitted to my dressing-room, and I was therefore 
 obliged to pause at the wings a few moments to 
 receive the congratulations and praises of those 
 who were wont to pay their respects to me at this 
 time, and who now felt themselves ill-treated by 
 their unwonted exclusion. 
 
 As soon as possible I dismissed them, for now I 
 was growing impatient for the approval of a single 
 individual. And then I passed on, still elate and 
 joyous, and gained the door of my own apartment. 
 It was as usual ajar, and Jeanie stood, grasping its 
 handle, awaiting, as she always did, my return. 
 As she saw me advancing she came forward to 
 meet me, and tried to delay my progress by 
 making an announcement in a low, significant 
 tone. 
 
 " Madame, wait a moment ; there is some one in 
 there whom you do not expect to see." 
 
 I raised my flowers that she might behold their 
 beauty and abundance. 
 
 " There are more still," I said, boastingly. " Are
 
 22O A Queen of Hearts 
 
 they not lovely ? Oh, Jeanie, it has been such an 
 evening !" 
 
 I was too engrossed with my own self-satisfac- 
 tion to note that her face failed to display the 
 unselfish gratification with which she usually hailed 
 my triumphs. I had not complied with her at- 
 tempts to detain me, and we had reached the very 
 threshold before she again said, 
 
 " Wait a moment, madame ; I have something 
 to tell you. I wish to warn you who it is that is 
 waiting for you within." 
 
 I gave a gay, derisive little laugh and shook off 
 her hold. She wanted to tell me who was waiting 
 within, did she? I glanced at her anxious face 
 and made a moue of amused disdain. I fancied I 
 knew even better than she did, for had not I given 
 the right of entree to the visitor ? 
 
 " Thanks," I retorted. " I am already well in- 
 formed, " and, lifting my satin-shod foot, with my 
 toe I gave the unresisting door a push, my hands 
 being otherwise occupied, and, flower-laden, ra- 
 diant, sparkling with animation, gorgeous in my 
 magnificence, I passed through and entered the 
 chamber, expecting to find a solitary guest await- 
 ing me. 
 
 Instead of one I found three. Ah, God ! that 
 weak humanity can suffer such extremes as that I 
 underwent in that single glance and not die of the 
 experience.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 221 
 
 I got no farther than one step across the thresh- 
 old before the revelation burst upon me. Then I 
 halted and my arms dropped nervelessly at my 
 side, letting fall unheeded upon the floor their rich 
 and perfumed burden. I stood a second so, staring, 
 stricken with horror, before me, and then there 
 came to me an impulse similar to that which had 
 constrained me long years since, when I, a child, 
 had been discovered dancing in wanton disorder in 
 an attic. With scarcely conscious volition I raised 
 my drooping arms and crossed them over my naked 
 shoulders. And thus I stood, abashed and silent, 
 evincing in my look and attitude all the signs of 
 detected guilt, a miserable culprit before my child. 
 
 She remained at a little distance, flanked on 
 either side by Richard Quintard and his son, the 
 two men who were my best friends in the world. 
 The eyes of both were bent, not upon me, but 
 upon her, whose divine and rudely provoked in- 
 nocence had aroused the deep compassion and 
 solicitude of their masculine souls. For me, the 
 world-hardened woman, there was no need for fear 
 or apprehension ; but for her, the tender child of 
 inexperience, their sympathies were painfully alert. 
 
 As her eyes fell upon me a bitter cry burst from 
 her pale lips. Closer proximity but confirmed and 
 intensified the horror she had conceived of my 
 unfamiliar appearance. I suppose that, profoundly 
 as we might pity her visible emotion, not one of
 
 222 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 us could adequately interpret the severity of the 
 shock her convent-bred delicacy had sustained. 
 The sound of her sweet voice for the first time 
 ringing on my ears unmusically, like " bells, jan- 
 gled out of tune," awoke me from the affrighted 
 trance into which I had fallen. I forgot myself; 
 that overwhelming sense of abasement and humil- 
 iation, that agony of wounded self-consciousness 
 to which I had immediately succumbed, passed 
 from my mind to be swallowed up in one overmas- 
 tering sentiment, consideration for my child. 
 Never had the true spirit of motherhood been so 
 active within me. Maternity, with its endless chain 
 of obligations and sacrifices, dominated my whole 
 being and banished every personal and selfish 
 reflection from my soul. My child suffered, and 
 through me! That was the text discoursed by 
 her cry. 
 
 I started forward, trampling with ruthless feet 
 upon the masses of fragrant bloom that lay at my 
 feet. I reached her side and grasped her hands in 
 mine. I tried to draw her to me, and would have 
 wound my arms about her, but she held aloof and 
 gazed at me with wide and miserably averse eyes, 
 as one looks reluctantly upon a monstrous and 
 forbidding object which he is constrained, against 
 his will, to behold. 
 
 So chastising was her look that some anger 
 might have been kindled in my heart by her per-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 223 
 
 versity but that her pain and suffering were so 
 apparent. Her glance held firmly and unwaver- 
 ingly to me, scanning my person and its showy 
 attire as if a loathsome but compelling duty had 
 been laid upon her. 
 
 " Lisa !" I cried ; " Lisa ! Turn your eyes away 
 from me. Do not look at me so ! Dearest, spare 
 yourself. I cannot see you suffer so. Oh, who has 
 done this thing ?" I cried fiercely, turning first to 
 one and then to the other of the men. " Not you, 
 Richard Quintard, nor you, Allan. Then who 
 could have done my innocent child such harm as 
 this ? Who else is here ?" 
 
 I searched the room with aching eyes. No one 
 was there besides but Jean, who remained by the 
 door with streaming eyes. A sudden thought 
 struck me, and I embraced father and son in a 
 passionately resentful glare. 
 
 " Ah !" I exclaimed ; " I see. It is a woman's 
 attempt to be revenged upon me. Ah, would to 
 Heaven I had never seen either of you, that my 
 child might have been spared this moment !" 
 
 I turned away and wrung my hands together in 
 impotent despair. I could see no way of recovering 
 the ground I had lost in Lisa's esteem, and I no 
 longer felt capable of meeting those eyes which 
 were so unlike the gentle, loving blue ones I was 
 accustomed to. These were black with anguish, 
 and not a gleam of affection shone in them.
 
 224 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 Richard followed and drew me aside. 
 
 " You are wrong," he said, in his quiet, meas- 
 ured accents, which fell like balm upon my hot 
 spirit. " Thank God, you are wrong. She had no 
 part in this foul business." 
 
 I raised my glance to his, and the passionate 
 tenderness with which he was regarding me for a 
 moment soothed and comforted me. Only for a 
 moment though. This was Lisa's hour ; even the 
 man I loved could not long share her possession 
 of it. 
 
 " Oh," I cried, " it is horrible treachery on some 
 one's part ! How can I remedy it ?" 
 
 At that instant there came echoing from with- 
 out the voice of the call-boy, crying in warning 
 tones, " The Queen of Hearts ! Queen of Hearts is 
 called !" And from the distance was borne upon 
 the air the sound of the orchestra playing the in- 
 terlude which ushered in the third act of the piece. 
 
 I started like a baited rat caught in a trap, and 
 looked wildly around. How was I to go on again 
 with this storm raging at my heart and choking 
 my very utterance ? Command myself to mimic 
 mirth and gayety with the thought of that young, 
 distraught face lying like a stone in my breast ! 
 Certainly that I could not. Coerce my voice to 
 soar in merry and joyous trills and roulades, with 
 misery bridging my throat ! I had no power for 
 the effort.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 225 
 
 The call had not fallen upon my ears alone. It 
 had had its effect upon my companions as well. It 
 roused Jeanie to a recollection of her duties, and 
 she started forward to repair certain ravages in my 
 toilet. She had scarcely gained my side, however, 
 when there came sweeping across the room a slen- 
 der figure which threw itself before Jeanie and upon 
 the floor at my feet, clutching my hands and strain- 
 ing them in a rigorous grasp, while a fervent face 
 of pleading upturned itself in strong appeal to me. 
 
 "You will not go on again not so? Oh, 
 mother !" 
 
 Richard and Jean were alive to the requirements 
 laid upon me by my professional engagements; 
 both showed a disposition to interfere and remon- 
 strate with the child, but I turned a look upon 
 them that made them pause. Then I dropped my 
 eyes upon Lisa, considering how dear she was to 
 me, what claims she had to prefer such a request, 
 and weighing against these considerations the 
 ponderous realization of what this was she was 
 demanding of me. 
 
 She could not know in her ignorance and sim- 
 plicity how momentous an issue in my life she was 
 forcing by her impulsive entreaty. How could 
 she, with no experience to teach her of what value 
 to the artist is her career ? How could she dream 
 that I loved my profession dearly, enthusiastically, 
 worthily, and that in following my calling, even 
 
 15
 
 226 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 after the fashion she despised, I had been led by 
 higher aspirations than those dictated by mere 
 wanton vanity and lightness of temperament ? To 
 yield to the entreaties which she was urging with 
 look and touch and attitude was to sever myself 
 with one rude stroke from the life which had be- 
 come identified with my very nature. How should 
 I bear my existence shorn of this strong interest ? 
 It was true that I had long contemplated retire- 
 ment from the stage, but I had regarded the close 
 of my career and the loss of a congenial occupa- 
 tion through the medium of a distant and hazy 
 perspective, and it was a far different matter to 
 observe it staring me directly in the face. 
 
 While I hesitated again came the summons of 
 the call-boy. They were holding the stage for 
 me. Richard came resolutely forward. 
 
 " My dear young lady," he said, gently, to Lisa, 
 " you must allow your mother to fulfil her engage- 
 ment. She has no choice in the matter. You 
 are distressing her beyond measure. Let her go, 
 I beg you." 
 
 He extended his hand and laid it upon our 
 joined ones, thinking to induce her to loosen her 
 grasp. But she paid no heed to him, keeping her 
 eyes still fixed entreatingly upon my face. 
 
 Then Allan advanced and accosted his father in 
 a tone of strong remonstrance. 
 
 " Let her alone, father," he exclaimed, respect-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 227 
 
 fully but firmly. " She is right. Who can blame 
 her? I should hate to see my mother in the play, 
 I am sure." 
 
 " Ettu, Brute /" The quotation shot through my 
 brain as lightning flashes through a gloomy sky. 
 One upbraiding glance I cast at the lad who had 
 ever been my firm adherent. Alas ! his gaze was 
 resting upon a maid younger and lovelier than the 
 woman whose knight he had hitherto been, and 
 his recreant attention was occupied with a tenderer 
 concern. 
 
 The last straw, a feather-weight, it is true, but 
 still a potency, had fallen upon my indecision. 
 
 " Jean," I cried with trembling lips and working 
 features, "come here. Go; tell them I am ill, 
 indisposed, unable to finish out the evening. Bid 
 them send on Miss Caryll (my understudy.)" 
 Then, as the girl obeyed my command, I addressed 
 the two men. " Please go," I said. " I wish to be 
 alone with my daughter." 
 
 When they were gone I led Lisa to a sofa and 
 drew her down beside me upon it. The worst had 
 befallen me ; the crisis had passed, and the time 
 for explanation and rehabilitation was come. Al- 
 most before I had begun to speak my manager 
 appeared with expostulation and entreaty on his 
 lips, but I held no parley with him, and dismissed 
 him with scant consideration. He had little sus- 
 picion that my indisposition of the moment was to
 
 228 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 stretch out over the remainder of a lifetime, and 
 went off, probably cursing the whims and caprices 
 of stars, to make my apologies to a disappointed 
 audience. 
 
 I need not go into the particulars of that inter- 
 view with Lisa. That it was most distressing to us 
 both may be easily imagined. I found it difficult, 
 indeed impossible, to reconcile her to my appren- 
 ticeship to an art which required such concessions 
 from womanly delicacy and reserve. She said 
 little ; I could see that she made desperate efforts 
 to conceal from me her complete revulsion of feel- 
 ing towards one of whom she had been wont to 
 make an ideal. But the efforts were too obvious, 
 and pained me far more than her first frank be- 
 trayal of abhorrence. I would much rather have 
 dealt with her candid repugnance than with her 
 attempted reserve. This built up a wall of ice 
 between us, and I grew disheartened in my struggle 
 to undermine it with the warmth of my affection. 
 
 Finally, having said all in extenuation of my 
 offence that occurred to me, without apparent effect 
 upon the stern young judge who sat stiffly and un- 
 compromisingly, with downcast eyes, by my side, 
 I grew discouraged, and decided to hold my peace. 
 Eloquence could not avail, I felt, in the recovery 
 of the respect and love which I had lost. Time 
 and observance of that virtue which had become 
 compromised in her eyes, familiarity and propin-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 229 
 
 quity, must restore that confidence which had re- 
 ceived so severe a shock. 
 
 I rose from her side and stood a moment facing 
 her with dignity. She was very pale, the poor 
 little one, and my heart ached for her, but I told 
 myself that it would scarcely aid my cause to 
 remain longer in the self-accusing attitude of a 
 suppliant. I spoke to her very gently, but no 
 longer with the humility of one who confesses a 
 fault ; rather with the assurance and self-posses- 
 sion of one strong in the support of her own con- 
 science. 
 
 " Lisa," I said, " my dear little girl, I have been 
 trying to excuse to you certain actions of mine 
 which seem offences in your eyes, not because I 
 acknowledge them to be such, but because I am 
 responsible for the point of view from which you 
 behold them. The standard of right and wrong in 
 this world is not immutable, as you may suppose ; 
 it varies according to the circumstances which 
 have developed the consciences of different indi- 
 viduals. What to you, reared in the seclusion of 
 a convent life, appears shocking impropriety and 
 gross indelicacy, seems to me, developed in the 
 glare and publicity of a professional career, only 
 the natural and ordinary methods employed by 
 those who share my calling. 
 
 " I would not have you different, dear. I re- 
 joice in the purity and innocence that make you
 
 230 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 so implacable a judge, even while I suffer from 
 them. It was for the very purpose of having these 
 qualities cultivated in you that I placed you under 
 the care of those holy and unworldly women. But 
 I had hoped to prepare your mind myself for the 
 knowledge which has so rudely come upon you. 
 I wished that I, who love you best in the world, 
 should be the one to inform you of facts that 
 might distress you. Some one has robbed me of 
 this privilege, and it is too late for me to recover 
 it. My only hope now lies in the possibility that, 
 in sharing this life which has formed my views, 
 you may come in time to share them, and so 
 learn to do me better justice. You shall not re- 
 turn to the convent ; henceforward my home shall 
 be yours." 
 
 It was the privilege she had so long craved 
 which I now granted her, but I sought in vain for 
 a gleam of pleasure in her weary little face. She 
 murmured some syllables, but in c. tone too low 
 for me to catch the words. I suppose she said 
 " Thank you," but the reply, whatever it was, was 
 merely perfunctory and so valueless. 
 
 Then, all of a sudden, it seemed to me I should 
 die. A fierce realization of what this meant to me. 
 this awful separation of sympathy between us,[came 
 over me, and I sank low upon my knees, and threw 
 my arms about the child. 
 
 " Lisa, Lisa/' I cried, " don't you love me any
 
 A Queen of Hearts 231 
 
 more ? I am your mother still ; and my heart is 
 breaking." 
 
 And then I saw her lips tremble, and slowly 
 great tears rose in her eyes and rolled heavily 
 down her cheeks. She made no demonstration to 
 return my embrace, but dropped her face in her 
 hands. 
 
 " Yes, I love you, oh, I love you !" she said ; 
 " but there are other things than love in the world, 
 and I cannot forget them." 
 
 Then I gave it up in earnest. She and I were 
 both the victims of her rigid training, and only 
 wider experience could come to the rescue of 
 our mutual affection. I relinquished all further 
 attempts to placate her, and contented myself with 
 the business of probing this dastardly piece of 
 treachery to its depths. 
 
 Of course, it was an easy matter for me to con- 
 jecture, after Lisa mentioned Nita Conquest, how 
 she had obtained the letter which induced the 
 mother-superior to confide my daughter to her 
 care. My own carelessness had furnished my 
 enemy with the implement of her cruel revenge. 
 She had stolen it, as it lay open on my desk, 
 after I had left her in sole possession of my draw- 
 ing-room. 
 
 A pretty bit of vengeance she and my precious 
 father had hatched between them. No wonder 
 the germs of such low and heartless villainy should
 
 232 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 attaint the atmosphere and develop foreboding in 
 a sensitive breast. Truly had poor Isidore spoken 
 when he asserted that my wretched father had the 
 " evil eye" for me. Through whose instrumentality 
 but that of him to whom I owed my existence, was 
 I indebted for this stroke that had afflicted me ? 
 He had secured what golden eggs he could and 
 then had satisfied a mean vindictiveness by aiming 
 a cunning stroke at the very heart of the foolish 
 goose that had supplied him. 
 
 A knock at the door, and I rose to open it 
 Allan stood without, his face full of anxiety. My 
 heart warmed at sight of the lad; his devotion 
 cheered me, and I smiled, not mirthfully but grate- 
 fully, as I met his worried glance. 
 
 " How is she ?" he asked, and my spirits sank 
 again. It was for Lisa he had been solicitous ; of 
 her he had come to inquire. Truly my value must 
 be pretty generally depreciating when even he, the 
 lad who never before had failed me, placed a 
 stranger before me. 
 
 " Come in," I said, wearily, forcing a smite. " She 
 shall answer for herself." 
 
 He entered, and I laid my hand upon his arm 
 and led him forward to where Lisa still sat upon 
 the sofa. 
 
 " Lisa," I said, " I wish to introduce you to a 
 dear friend of mine. However much I may have 
 disappointed you, my dear, here is one in whom
 
 A Queen of Hearts 233 
 
 you will never find cause for criticism. Of all 
 those whom I might present to you, I would rec- 
 ommend chiefly Allan Quintard." 
 
 The boy raised my hand to his lips, even before 
 he saluted Lisa ; and for an instant I think he was 
 filled with shame at his own defection. But I 
 smiled brightly and reassuringly back at him, and 
 I think the words with which he repaid my release 
 did me yeoman's service with Lisa. 
 
 " If I were to choose the lips from which I was 
 to receive such a guarantee," he returned, looking 
 me affectionately in the eyes with his bright young 
 glance, " I could not select any purer, or lovelier, 
 or more generous ones than those which have 
 done me such unmerited honor, madame." 
 
 And then he turned to Lisa. Oh, the wondrous 
 power of Prince Charming! Who would have 
 dreamed that where I, beloved of years, had failed, 
 a lad of an hour's acquaintance could succeed? 
 And yet Allan uttered but a few words before the 
 child's color had returned to her pale cheeks and 
 her sad eyes brightened. The expression of shock 
 and pain disappeared from her features, and, though 
 she said but little, she smiled at intervals, and even 
 warmed somewhat in her manner towards me. 
 When I saw how well they got on together, I ex- 
 cused myself a moment and left the room. I knew 
 I should find Jean hovering about the corridor, 
 and, sure enough, there she stood in a corner,
 
 2 34 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 awaiting my need of her. I called her name and 
 she came hastening towards me. 
 
 " Jean," I said, " do you know who has done me 
 this evil ?" 
 
 She nodded with set lips. 
 
 " Yes," she replied ; " I saw them." 
 
 " Nita Conquest and Picot ?" 
 
 I never had called him father, and never would. 
 
 " Yes ; they brought her here and left her. Mr. 
 Quintard came immediately after them, and I think 
 had got some inkling of their deviltry, for he told 
 me who the young lady was, and bade me be very 
 tender with her, as she had had a great shock." 
 
 "Ah!" I said; "and Allan?" 
 
 " Allan was waiting for you here in the corridor. 
 He gave me no opportunity to do anything for 
 Miss Mavis. He took all the care of her at once." 
 
 She was on the point of smiling significantly 
 when apparently a recollection of the scene she 
 had witnessed in my dressing-room revived in her 
 a memory of what I had suffered. She clinched 
 her small fists, and a gleam of savage hatred and 
 resentment darkened her gray eyes. I had never 
 dreamed she could look so dangerous. 
 
 " Oh," she cried, " what consummate fiends they 
 must be ! I wish that I might come across them, 
 either or both." 
 
 Scarcely had she uttered this when a small, 
 slight figure advanced towards us through the
 
 A Queen of Hearts 235 
 
 shadows which lurked about the half-lighted place. 
 And a voice, but too familiar to my ears, accosted 
 me. 
 
 " I have come to congratulate madame upon her 
 reunion with her charming daughter, and to receive 
 a reward for my services in effecting the same. I 
 wish also to assure madame of my perfect discreet- 
 ness. I have refrained from mentioning to the 
 young lady the fact that her mother has a distin- 
 guished lover as yet." 
 
 I had no time to restrain Jean. Like a cat, 
 with the very bound of the feline animal, she had 
 sprung upon the man. I cried out, and the sharp 
 sound reached the ears of Allan in the dressing- 
 room. In an incredibly brief time he had re- 
 sponded to it and was between the two small 
 figures engaged in their desperate struggle. They 
 were pinned against the wall, and he had not time 
 to discover what the trouble was. All he could 
 tell was that a man and woman were engaged in a 
 fierce conflict, and in such encounters it is the part 
 of an outsider to espouse the side of the weaker 
 adversary. 
 
 In the very act of thrusting his brave young 
 body between the two a horrid accident befell him. 
 Picot had snatched from some place of concealment 
 about his person a small revolver. It behooves the 
 treacherous and criminal to go armed. It was at 
 the woman who clung like a wildcat about him that
 
 236 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 he had meant to point it, but the sudden onslaught 
 of Allan made him miss aim, and the weapon dis- 
 charged into the young fellow's shoulder. There 
 was a chorus of cries from us women ; from Jean, 
 who held yet more tenaciously to her victim and 
 hindered with her stout limbs his efforts to escape ; 
 from me, who nearly dropped where I stood from 
 sheer fright and horror ; and from Lisa, who, like 
 a tall, pale lily, leaned against the door-way, for an 
 instant paralyzed by amazement and fear. 
 
 But when she met the look that Allan straight- 
 way turned upon her, she no longer remained a 
 mere passive observer of the scene. With a fleet step 
 she pressed forward and threw her young weight 
 also upon the struggling man, gazing the while, 
 however, at the injured lad, who had fallen back 
 against the wall, trying to stanch with weak fingers 
 the blood that flowed copiously from his wound. 
 
 It was but a moment before a crowd had gath- 
 ered, drawn from wings and corridors by the report 
 of the shot. Masculine hands relieved Jean of her 
 charge, and hurried questions required explana- 
 tions of what had passed. All looked to me, 
 whose authority in the theatre had so long been 
 supreme. 
 
 What was I to do ? Could I impeach my own 
 father ? Could I consign him to jail, and send him 
 yet another step along that downward course to 
 which he had so long inclined ?
 
 A Queen of Hearts 237 
 
 I looked at him ; at the mean, contemptible, ill- 
 favored face; at the puny, weak, and trembling 
 frame ; at the quivering limbs and hands, shaking 
 as if palsied with fear of the consequences of his 
 evil deed and hesitated. Could I claim such a 
 paltry being as that a creature stamped so plainly 
 with all the features of low cunning and sordid 
 spirit as a parent ? It seemed to me impossible to 
 own him before all these people, in whose esteem 
 I stood high. To do so would not only humble 
 my pride to a low degree, but it would also bring 
 a chain of endless and harassing consequences in 
 its train, by enlightening the man as to his rela- 
 tionship to me. I should furnish him deliberately 
 with pretensions which it would be difficult for me 
 hereafter to ignore. 
 
 I formed a conclusion and was about to speak, 
 denouncing him as he apparently expected me to 
 do, for there was little hope or eagerness in the 
 gaze he had fixed on me. But, as I opened my 
 lips for the purpose of accusing him, a thought, so 
 vivid as to seem almost like an injunction from an 
 unseen monitor, admonished me to consider that 
 this man, low as he had sunk, pitiful and unworthy 
 of esteem as he appeared, was yet the husband of 
 my mother; the man whom she had died loving. 
 
 I took a step forward and raised my hand in 
 mute expostulation. 
 
 "Wait," I said to the men who had relieved
 
 238 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 Jeanie of her charge ; " release that gentleman, if 
 you please. It is all a mistake. My companion 
 came upon us as he was in the act of handing me 
 a pistol which I had asked him to procure for me. 
 She thought that he was threatening me and 
 sprang upon him so suddenly that the pistol ex- 
 ploded in his hand and hit Mr. Allan Quintard, 
 who had been drawn from my dressing-room by 
 the sound of the struggle. Let some one see at 
 once, please, if a surgeon or physician can be 
 found in the audience. And you will let that gen- 
 tleman go at once." 
 
 My words did not seem to carry strong convic- 
 tion to the breasts of those who held the amazed 
 man. I found that I could not evade the duty laid 
 upon me. Therefore I summoned a haughty smile 
 to my lips, and moved yet closer to Picot. 
 
 " You do not seem willing to release your pris- 
 oner," I remarked, somewhat imperiously. " Per- 
 haps you think there is some flaw or weakness in 
 my statement. Well, then, let me convince you 
 that I am speaking the simple truth. This gentle- 
 man, whom you are seeking to detain, is my father. 
 Do you now think that the pistol was brought 
 here with any ulterior motive ?"
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 I MIGHT have spared myself all uneasiness on 
 the score of future annoyance from Picot. As I 
 calmly and deliberately made the astounding reve- 
 lation, which surprised him no less than his captors, 
 I cast one look at him and saw the mean expres- 
 sion of physical fear on his countenance give way 
 to one of incredulous amazement. But I had no 
 wish for explanation or interview of any sort with 
 him that night, and so, as I finished speaking, I 
 drew Allan hurriedly into my dressing-room, reso- 
 lutely closing the door upon all others, with the 
 exception of Jean and Lisa. 
 
 The wound was by no means a dangerous one, 
 and the surgeon, who soon appeared, preferred 
 removing his patient to his own office before ex- 
 tracting the tiny bullet. It had been no difficult 
 matter to find the lad's father, who was loitering 
 about the stage-entrance of the theatre, probably 
 intending to say good-night to me as I went home. 
 He accompanied Allan, who made light of the affair 
 after his own bright, brave way ; and another, but 
 for her exceeding shyness and maidenly modesty, 
 would fain, I think, have gone with him also, to try 
 her simple skill upon his wounded body. There 
 
 239
 
 240 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 was sore anxiety and distress in the sweet blue 
 eyes that watched his departure wistfully, and an 
 answering tenderness in the dark ones that grate- 
 fully reassured her solicitude. Ah, me ! It was a 
 foregone conclusion from the moment they met 
 that those children should love each other. 
 
 It is true that the next day, when Stone came to 
 me with the intelligence that Monsieur Picot was 
 waiting in the drawing-room to see me, I fully be- 
 lieved that I was about to reap the first result of 
 my act of filial duty, and, bracing my firmness up 
 to the point of implacability beyond a certain point 
 (for I had decided that, now I had owned him, I 
 would grant him a fixed allowance) I went in to meet 
 him, prepared for any degree of impudent extortion. 
 
 What was my surprise to discover in his manner 
 and demeanor a quality that separated them widely 
 from his former attitude towards me. All self- 
 assurance had dropped from him, and all temerity f 
 too. A timidity seemed to possess him, and a 
 newly-acquired consciousness of merit sat upon 
 his sallow brow. He rose, with downcast eyes, as 
 I entered, and addressed me with a deference that 
 bordered on servility. It was a curious and marked 
 change that had come over him, quite remarkable 
 considering how short an interval had produced it. 
 It was as if a cloak of boldness had dropped from 
 him, and a crown of honor, to which he was 
 endeavoring to grow accustomed, had been placed
 
 A Queen of Hearts 241 
 
 upon his head. It was evident that he needed the 
 protection of the cloak to enable him to appear at 
 ease beneath the strange and oppressive weight of 
 the crown. As I came into the room he was 
 gazing at a full-length picture of me which stood 
 in a rococo frame on a centre-table. He raised his 
 eyes from it and glanced at me, as if comparing my 
 actual appearance with its counterfeit presentment, 
 and then they fell as if abashed to the floor, and 
 he failed to look at me while he spoke. 
 
 " Madame," he said, in a low, hesitating tone, 
 which did not resemble his ordinary aggressive 
 and self-important accents, " what did that mean 
 which you said last night ?" 
 
 "It meant just what it conveyed," I replied, 
 shortly, for I liked him no better under this new 
 phase than under the old. 
 
 " That I am your father ?" he asked, still with 
 down-bent glance, and with hands that nervously 
 fingered his hat. 
 
 " Exactly that." 
 
 He waited a moment. Then he faltered, 
 
 " You are the daughter of Lena Mavis ?" 
 
 " Yes," I replied ; " and the widow of her cousin 
 James." 
 
 He gave a little gasp of shocked incredulity at 
 that, and raised his eyes to me. 
 
 " Of James Mavis, you the widow of James 
 Mavis !" he ejaculated, as if bewildered. 
 
 16
 
 242 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 I bowed. " Yes. He was the father of that child 
 of whose existence you thought me ashamed." 
 
 The man seemed to cower together at that, as if 
 regretful and ashamed of his conduct towards me. 
 
 " I have wronged you much. Why did you 
 own me before all those people last night ?" 
 
 Notwithstanding all his humility there was a 
 ring of exultation in his voice as he asked me this 
 last question that at once furnished me with the 
 key to the pitiful nature I was dealing with. It 
 was not remorse, nor repentance, nor latent affec- 
 tion that had wrought this swift alteration in the 
 man, but a suddenly propitiated vanity which be- 
 held me as its chief ministrant. I suspected it 
 then to be what I later proved it, the very pivot 
 upon which my father's whole nature swung, the 
 keystone of the arch of his character, this con- 
 temptible and miserable vanity. 
 
 " Because it was my duty," I answered, with fine 
 disdain of any sentiment in the matter. 
 
 He seemed to reflect a moment after I said this. 
 
 " Was that the reason that you gave me money 
 at different times ?" he asked, presently. 
 
 " It was. I did not care to feel that my own 
 father was in absolute poverty while I was in af- 
 fluence. But I had no wish to acknowledge you, 
 all the same." 
 
 He nodded, quite as if in sympathy with my re- 
 luctance.
 
 A Queen of Hearts 243 
 
 " I don't blame you," he said. " No one could 
 expect a great lady like you to call another woman's 
 servant her father. You must be very rich ?" 
 
 The last phrase was half-exclamation, half- ques- 
 tion, and I scented extortion in it. It was soon 
 proved, however, that this time my intuition was 
 
 at fault. For, when I began, " As to money " 
 
 he interrupted hastily, 
 
 " I have no need of any, myself, if you think I 
 meant that. You need not fear that henceforth I 
 shall bleed you. It is enough that the world knows 
 that I, Leon Picot, am the father of the great, the 
 celebrated, the beautiful and talented danseuse, 
 Madame Cleo. It was a proud moment, that of 
 last night. I shall not soon forget its pleasurable 
 emotions. And I shall not cease to remember, 
 either, that it was to the good heart of one to 
 whom I had done many injuries that I was in- 
 debted for so profound a pleasure. Leon Picot 
 has his moments of revenge, but he has his mo- 
 ments of gratitude also. He will find occasion to 
 repay his just debts as well as his wrongs." 
 
 I could not but shiver, for I remembered how 
 many hours of anguish this man had caused me. 
 He had very quick perceptions, and at once dis- 
 covered that it would be a relief to me to be rid 
 of him. Immediately his fingers tightened their 
 grasp of his hat, and he advanced a step towards 
 me.
 
 244 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 "I go," he said. "Do not fear that I shall 
 trouble you henceforth. I am content that the 
 world is informed of the honor that has been con- 
 ferred upon me. I may hold up my head now 
 among the proudest. But, before we part, one 
 
 favor " I felt that his protestations had been 
 
 but fine speaking, and the muscles of my face har- 
 dened into an expression of positive denial. " You 
 have a duplicate of this portrait yes, is it not ? 
 Permit me to possess a copy of it. It will be a 
 gratification to the fatherly feeling that I already 
 discover to be growing within me." 
 
 I suppressed an ironical smile, for I felt that his 
 vanity was too supreme a passion to be treated 
 lightly, and I had proved that this ver-coquin, as he 
 had styled himself, could, indeed, bore to the root 
 of the vine. If he really meant to hold to his 
 word and something of special earnestness in his 
 manner made me believe that in this instance his 
 integrity was to be relied on a photograph was 
 cheap payment for riddance from his society. I 
 went over to the table and drew the picture out 
 of its frame. 
 
 " Here," I said. " You may have this, if you 
 want it" 
 
 I held it out for him to take, and as he stretched 
 out his hand for it a sentimental crisis seemed to 
 take place within him. He dropped on his knees 
 and seized my fingers in a convulsive grasp, carry-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 245 
 
 ing them to his lips in a sort of frenzy of joy and 
 homage. 
 
 " Mon Dieu !" he cried, relapsing into his native 
 tongue in his excitement, " but it is a distinction 
 of the rarest, a glory of the most coveted, to be 
 the father of one so beautiful and so distin- 
 guished." 
 
 I sickened as I felt the touch of his lips upon 
 my hand, and hastily withdrew my fingers from 
 his clasp. Not a throb of filial affection assisted 
 me during the interview. It seemed as if each 
 moment spent in his company developed new and 
 more ignoble traits of his character. The much- 
 vaunted instinct of consanguinity failed me in my 
 hour of need, and never appeared thenceforward 
 to reconcile me to the distasteful necessity of play- 
 ing a daughter's part towards a father from whom 
 all my impulses shrank. 
 
 He left almost immediately after that, and I must 
 say that he has fulfilled his promise not to trouble 
 me to the letter. Although he did not desire it, I 
 insisted upon making him a regular allowance, for I 
 can enjoy my own luxury more comfortably feeling 
 that he is provided for. He brings his receipt in 
 person, and occasionally I am at home when he 
 comes and I receive him for a little while. But he 
 never takes advantage of these visits. He is still 
 humble and meek to the verge of sycophancy, and 
 it is evident that his admiration of me, in whose
 
 246 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 reflected glory he is enabled to shine, has become 
 a species of cult, absorbing all the strength of his 
 feeble intellect. There is no doubt that his vanity 
 is, in proportion to his stature, colossal. It domi- 
 nates and directs all his actions and emotions. It 
 is his fetish, and he is continually making sacrifice 
 to it. I have become the high-priestess that feeds 
 the flames upon his altar, and his old feeling of 
 revenge towards me has turned into the passionate 
 enthusiasm of a votary for his saint. 
 
 For me, the woman, he has no warmer senti- 
 ment than he ever had, nor gratitude for my open 
 avowal of our relationship. The nobler sentiments 
 of humanity are, I believe, wholly lacking to him. 
 But for me, the celebrated actress, the successful 
 artist, who has attained eminence in a career in 
 which he has himself signally failed, he has a pro- 
 found veneration established upon the fact, which 
 was a glorious oblation to his vanity, that in the 
 proudest moment of my triumph I stooped from 
 my lofty estate to clasp hands in the most familiar 
 of relationships with one in dire disgrace. 
 
 Pah ! it is this pitiful and petty self-esteem of his 
 that most repels me in him. Were he even more 
 perverted and corrupt and less vain, I might find it 
 less difficult to tolerate him. One may come to 
 forgive a man his crimes, but it is hard to bear 
 patiently with his weaknesses. 
 
 The terms of the sacrifice which Lisa had re-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 247 
 
 quired of me were not easy of fulfilment. It is no 
 simple thing for a star in the full swing of a bril- 
 liant season to break faith abruptly with her man- 
 ager and the public and withdraw permanently 
 from the stage. My financial loss was, of course, 
 very large, but, notwithstanding my liberal indul- 
 gence of luxurious and expensive tastes, I had 
 been discreet in the investment of the large gains 
 I had made in the past, and my future, as well as 
 that of my child, was amply provided for. 
 
 Had it not been for Allan, the relations between 
 Lisa and me, strained by the rude shock to which 
 they had been subjected, might have widened into 
 a considerable breach. But his almost constant 
 presence in our midst dispelled the shadow of 
 aloofness that had threatened to settle between us, 
 and his ready tact by degrees blended into new 
 harmony the sad discord that had made wretched 
 our hearts. 
 
 I had another talk with Lisa the day after the 
 denouement. What I said to her was little more 
 than a repetition of what I had urged the previous 
 night, but she was in a far calmer mood, and I 
 felt that what I said would gain a better and more 
 reasonable hearing now than it had then. She was 
 still very non-committal, however, and I felt that her 
 prejudices had suffered no abatement. I finished 
 by beseeching her to suspend judgment until she 
 had had better opportunity to form an unbiassed
 
 248 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 opinion of those things she deprecated and con- 
 demned in a woman of my position than those that 
 had been afforded her in the seclusion and con- 
 tracted limits of a convent-school. 
 
 And there we left the matter, and there, Heaven 
 be thanked, it has remained, safely buried under an 
 accumulating heap of sacred tokens of mutual love 
 and esteem, which has formed a sort of Druid's 
 cairn above the vault where all hideous disaffec- 
 tions lie interred. We are one now in love and 
 comprehension and sympathy. I have but one 
 secret from my child, and that is my own. I have 
 a miser's greed concerning it. Have I not pur- 
 chased the right to keep it at such a price as war- 
 rants one in the desire to hoard it ? 
 
 I watched the development of that wonderful 
 germ of love at first sight, which had been gener- 
 ated by a single glance in my dressing-room that 
 night, with a satisfaction and pleasure that, assur- 
 edly at first, were quite impersonal. It was not 
 until it had become full-grown that the idea of a 
 resulting benefit to myself occurred to me. And, 
 was it strange, that when it did present itself to me, 
 the thought that the consummation of Lisa's hap- 
 piness would be the key to unlock the door to my 
 union with Richard, should seem a good omen for 
 the prosperity of my love for him ? 
 
 He came, not over-frequently, but occasionally, 
 to see me. I had not thought it necessary to quite
 
 A Queen of Hearts 249 
 
 forbid his visits, and his own good taste kept him, 
 at present, without the bounds of intimacy. I no 
 longer saw him alone, although we managed to 
 hold many a tete-a-tete in the full presence of Lisa, 
 Allan, and Jeanie. We both felt that we were 
 undergoing a term of probation, and, feeling sure 
 of each other's love, we bided the issue with ad- 
 mirable patience. 
 
 And so matters went on for a time with the 
 uneventfulness which marks prosperity. Lisa and 
 I gradually drew closer together again, and I found 
 compensation for the occupation I was denied in 
 the novel pleasure of her dear companionship, and 
 in the promise of a yet nearer .and more intimate 
 union, the realization of which hung contingent 
 upon her marriage. It seemed, as the days passed, 
 as if the child grew repentant of her harsh judg- 
 ment of me, and, though she made no open and 
 pronounced manifestation of her regret, she tes- 
 tified to it in a thousand tender and endearing 
 little acts and ways. 
 
 One day I spoke to Richard of the attachment 
 which was springing up between his son and my 
 daughter. 
 
 " You have noticed it, yourself, have you not ?" 
 I asked, after alluding to it. 
 
 " From the first," he replied. 
 
 " It has your sanction ?" 
 
 " I could ask no more desirable wife for him/'
 
 250 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 he returned, with unmistakable approval in his 
 voice. 
 
 " Than the daughter of the ' Queen of Hearts' ?" 
 I asked, half-mischievously, half-bitterly, for the 
 thorn of his disapprobation still rankled in my 
 breast. 
 
 " Than the daughter of the woman I hope some 
 day to make my wife," he answered, gravely, and 
 the light and fire in his eyes flooded my spirit and 
 held me wrapped in ecstasy and silent. 
 
 We were standing apart from the young people, 
 pretending to be engaged with some rare old china 
 which I had recently bought at auction. After a 
 short pause, which was rendered almost solemn by 
 reason of the reflection that engrossed it, he said, 
 softly and gently, yet with passionate intensity 
 and the strong emphasis of long-repressed emo- 
 tion, 
 
 " Pauline, that day must not be needlessly de- 
 ferred." 
 
 Of late the air had been more than usually 
 tainted with sinister reports concerning her whom 
 gossip called " Mrs. Dicky." Barroll had been 
 superseded in her favor by a man of scandalous 
 character, but of such social prestige that many 
 women of the world contended for the dishonor 
 of his notice. Irene Quintard had flaunted her 
 conquest of this notorious blackguard, Belmont 
 Cooper, boldly and triumphantly before the world,
 
 A Queen of Hearts 251 
 
 and it had fallen to my lot to hear many of her 
 husband's acquaintances comment upon his pas- 
 sivity in a matter where the honor of his own name 
 was so perilously endangered. 
 
 I looked searchingly at him now, and, as I had 
 not trusted myself to study his face much since 
 our reconciliation, I was surprised and pained to 
 see how sadly it had changed in the interim. 
 There were now many creases on the brow ; that 
 expression of determined laisser-aller or philo- 
 sophic resignation, which in the past had been its 
 most salient characteristic, had given place to a 
 frowning moroseness ; the always thin cheeks had 
 grown absolutely hollow, and upon the lips I loved 
 there sat a grim spirit of harsh resolve. 
 
 My heart went out to him in uncontrollable 
 yearning. No words of his were necessary to 
 assure me at what cost of suffering to himself 
 his wife's reckless emancipation had been granted. 
 I could read the amount of payment which had 
 been exacted from his pride and honor in plain 
 signs written upon his features. My heart swelled 
 within me, and, with an uncontrollable impulse, I 
 stretched out my hand and laid it for one brief 
 second upon his. Few would have called so slight a 
 touch a caress, but it was such to us, who, through 
 adverse circumstance, were forced to appear misers 
 of our love and hoard its tokens closely within the 
 vaults of our own breasts.
 
 252 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 " You shall, yourself, set the time after Allan is 
 married," I whispered, and granted him no more. 
 Nay, I resolutely turned from his side and wan- 
 dered back to where the children sat, pretending 
 to hold formal converse, but betraying their inti- 
 macy of heart and soul by every mutual glance 
 and smile. 
 
 Seeing me approach, Lisa drew aside her dainty 
 skirts. She was a delicious dream of youth and 
 beauty, in a misty robe of embroidered India mus- 
 lin, with a great bunch of blue forget-me-nots, 
 which matched her eyes, thrust into the bosom 
 of "her gown, and her golden hair falling in two 
 heavy braids to her waist. Ever since she first 
 came into his life her lover her husband now 
 has made a daily appeal to her memory through a 
 cluster of the blossoms which, he says, most re- 
 semble her. Indeed, he has fallen into the habit 
 of calling her Myosotis, instead of Lisa, in accord- 
 ance with that common impulse among lovers 
 which moves each to appropriate to his exclusive 
 use some special designation of his mistress. 
 
 As I sank back upon the lounge beside her, Lisa 
 took my hand affectionately in hers. I observed that 
 the smooth ivory of her brow was fretted, and that 
 a look of perplexity troubled her glance. Allan, 
 sitting opposite, with his dark eyes fixed adoringly 
 upon her, had yet an expression of amused antag- 
 onism on his face, and it was apparent that I had
 
 A Queen of Hearts 253 
 
 interrupted an argument before either had begun 
 to yield to the force of the other's reasoning. 
 
 " What is it ?" I asked, rather to rivet their at- 
 tention upon themselves in order that I might 
 recover my self-control unobserved of them than 
 because I felt any special interest in their youthful 
 contentions. " What weighty and momentous 
 questions are you two youngsters debating? 
 Whether it is a frivolous act of self-indulgence to 
 play with dolls, Lisa, you little convent-mouse, or 
 whether a great fellow like you, Allan, should have 
 done with kites and tops ?" 
 
 They both laughed and I joined them. Richard 
 came forward and stood near us, leaning against 
 the mantel. I embraced the little group in a 
 greedy sigh. I wished that I might throw a per- 
 manent snare about the four of us, to hold these 
 three I loved in close and constant proximity to 
 myself. They made my world ; in them centred 
 all my hopes, interests, aspirations. My calling 
 had fallen from me like a worn-out garment, and 
 in its folds there lingered few tender associations 
 to make me reluctant to relinquish it. 
 
 "Give me these three dear ones, Fortune," I 
 cried, inwardly, " and I will ask no more of you." 
 And I rejoiced in my heart, for it seemed that my 
 desire was to be granted me. Let who will be- 
 lieve in premonitions and impressions ; henceforth 
 I abjure all faith in them. As I drew Richard
 
 254 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 Quintard and his son and my Lisa into the fulness 
 of my love through my yearning eyes, I was, in 
 that moment, firmly and absolutely convinced that 
 my destiny lay plain and straight and smooth be- 
 fore me, that the crown of my life was well-nigh 
 prepared, and that but a slight interval would yet 
 elapse before it should be placed by the hands of 
 the man I loved upon my waiting brow. And yet 
 there stood, even then, upon the very threshold 
 of this assurance the grim spectre of ruin and 
 disappointment. 
 
 It is my nature, as I have before observed, to 
 give way to my feelings, whether joyous or the 
 reverse, and now, happier than I had ever been in 
 my life before, I could not restrain a little chuckle 
 of contentment. It was the bubbling to the sur- 
 face of that spring of assured joy that had its 
 source in the fairest anticipations I had ever formed. 
 Lisa, observing its significance, smiled at me in 
 sympathy. 
 
 "What is it, mother dear?" she questioned, 
 patting the hand that lay in hers. 
 
 "Nothing," I returned, laughing at my own 
 childishness. " I am so happy, that's all." 
 
 All three smiled at my words. Graver they 
 all were than I. Indeed, none among them had 
 ever been in his life so youthful as I was at that 
 instant, for those of a gay and volatile nature, like 
 myself, possess even in extreme old age a juve-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 255 
 
 nescence which less spontaneous temperaments 
 never experience. I shall carry the spirit of my 
 childhood to my grave; it died in them almost 
 before they recognized it. They were accustomed 
 to my impulsiveness, and were constantly, as now, 
 making amused and indulgent concessions to it. 
 
 I pretended to take offence at their treatment of 
 my mood, and, pouting, drew my brows together 
 in a frown of assumed annoyance. 
 
 " Hold !" I cried. " Is content a fit subject for 
 derision ? Have any of you such an excess of it 
 that you can afford to make light of my apprecia- 
 tion of it ? Why, but an instant ago, you children 
 both looked as serious as if joy had no place in 
 the world, and now you jeer at me for boasting a 
 share thereof. Is it because you have no ability to 
 comprehend my mood that you despise it ? or does 
 the grave nature of your debate cast a temporary 
 shadow over all your reflections? Let me hear 
 what you were discussing, and I will decide as to 
 whether it should be suffered to eclipse the sun- 
 shine of this hour. Pray what was the profound 
 problem with which you baby philosophers were 
 engaged ?" 
 
 We were all smiling when I put the question. 
 When Allan made his response not a face that was 
 not grave remained in the group. His very voice 
 sounded strangely altered as he said, a little hesi- 
 tatingly,
 
 256 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 " We were discussing divorce." 
 
 I drew sharply away from Lisa, and gathered 
 my forces together that I might read her face. Not 
 that I needed to do so in order to inform myself 
 what side had been hers in the debate. Child of the 
 Romish Church that she was, one could scarcely 
 be in doubt as to what her attitude would be to- 
 wards that great point in social ethics upon which 
 depended all my hopes of future happiness. But I 
 felt constrained to look at her with much the same 
 vain and morbid curiosity which prompts the con- 
 demned to seek to discover beneath his mask the 
 features of the executioner. And so I turned my 
 miserably inquisitive eyes upon her, wondering 
 that a doomsman could look so fair and gentle, 
 while, with the trick of stagecraft that long prac- 
 tice has taught me so readily and efficiently to 
 employ, I made feint to smile lightly and to re- 
 spond to his information with admirable com- 
 posure. 
 
 " And who was pro, and who con ?" I asked, as 
 
 smoothly as I could; "you, Lisa, were ?" I 
 
 paused, for I would have her express her own sen- 
 timents without aid or suggestion from any one 
 else. It was time, indeed, that I learned her views. 
 How could I have gone on building my castle 
 without reference to her approval of the architec- 
 ture? How, in the very endeavor to overcome 
 one strong conventual prejudice, could I have re-
 
 A Queen of Hearts 257 
 
 mained indifferent to the probable existence of a 
 far more vital one ? 
 
 Her sweet face grew grave and womanly. One 
 could see that there were stern and strong prin- 
 ciples supporting that lovely temple of youth and 
 innocence. She hesitated a second before reply- 
 ing, but when her answer came there was no sign 
 of indecision or uncertainty in it. 
 
 " Naturally I was against that most unrighteous 
 and iniquitous institution," she said, simply. " How 
 could it be otherwise, mother ?" 
 
 How, indeed? Cuckoo-like, I had placed an 
 embryo, the embryo of a woman's mind, in an alien 
 nest, and now saw with horror and chagrin that its 
 development had been in harmony with the char- 
 acteristics of the foster-parents. 
 
 I raised my eyes to the face of Richard Quin- 
 tard when she finished speaking. If I had had 
 pity at command for any one then, he should have 
 had it all. But I had none ; despair only. The 
 thing was as plain to him as to me, and our eyes 
 meeting confessed our mutual comprehension of 
 the one wretched unalterable fact. Our cause had 
 been tried and lost in an unexpected moment. The 
 verdict of a child, uttered not lightly, but with no 
 slightest suspicion of the consequences it entailed, 
 condemned us to pay to the uttermost farthing 
 the costs of our suit against happiness. Ah, the 
 costs !" 
 
 17
 
 258 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 I withdrew my glance from that haggard one 
 of protest, and struggled with the awful sinking 
 of my heart sufficiently to compel my attention 
 to take in what Allan was saying in reply to 
 Lisa. 
 
 " You will see things differently some day, Miss 
 Mavis," he was saying. " No man or woman 
 should be obliged to remain yoked to another who 
 is morally corrupt. The idea is hideous, intoler- 
 erable, and you will come to accept the idea of the 
 new dispensation, I am sure." 
 
 " A man may separate from his wife or a woman 
 from her husband without the interference of the 
 law," Lisa replied, and the color deepened in her 
 cheeks. She looked rarely lovely, for the delicate 
 nature of the subject she was handling, together 
 with her eagerness to show herself a firm adherent 
 of church ordinances, had unusually excited and 
 roused her, and her sensitive face was the mirror 
 of her feelings. Was it in order longer to indulge 
 himself with the enjoyment of the extraordinary 
 lustre excitement had given her beauty, or because 
 he really hoped to change her views, that Allan 
 continued to offer fresh arguments against her 
 scruples ? I cannot say, but, at all events, he pur- 
 sued, 
 
 " That is true, certainly. But, without the inter- 
 vention of the law, neither party could marry 
 again."
 
 A Queen of Hearts 259 
 
 At that Lisa rose impetuously and confronted 
 him. 
 
 " Marry again !" exclaimed she, hotly. " Marry 
 again ! How should they in any event ? A man 
 takes a wife for better or worse ! A woman takes 
 a husband until death do them part ! Let either 
 marry again during the lifetime of the other and 
 no law made by man can sanctify the union in the 
 sight of Christ." 
 
 There was an instant's silence while at the name 
 of the Lord she crossed herself. The stillness in 
 the room was like the reverent hush of a cathedral 
 at the elevation of the Host. Then Richard came 
 forward, passed the child, and took my hand. I 
 rose mechanically and allowed him to draw me 
 aside. There was a look of protesting apprehen- 
 sion in his gray eyes, and his face was drawn and 
 white. 
 
 " Good God ! you won't let this make any dif- 
 ference, Pauline ? Mere childish babble and non- 
 sense," he added, fiercely. 
 
 And yet he knew all the time that the difference 
 was already made, and that it was irreparable and 
 final. 
 
 For the space of a heart-beat I glanced up at 
 him, and my breast heaved and my lips trembled. 
 This was the end, then ! I must not see him again, 
 since it was forbidden us ever to marry. My eyes 
 clung to his face as the eyes of a wife hold to the
 
 260 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 features of her husband before the casket-lid hides 
 them forever from her sight. Oh, I cannot write 
 of that moment ! It was no interval, but the be- 
 ginning of a term whose anguish has never dimin- 
 ished. 
 
 I gripped his hand hard and laid my other upon 
 it. Then, dropping it, or almost throwing it from 
 me, I motioned him imperiously to go. 
 
 " Do not come again," I cried, " ever !" 
 
 " Pauline !" 
 
 "No." My tone was firm and permitted no 
 contradiction. " We have tried living in a cast'le 
 in Spain. Its foundations have given way under 
 us. Go."
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 LISA has never known to what extent I have 
 sacrificed myself to her rigidly inculcated views. 
 She has never suspected that those clearly enun- 
 ciated opinions of hers laid any special stress upon 
 my life. She never dreamed that in upholding her 
 side of the argument against Allan she was clip- 
 ping all the fair buds of promise from my tree of 
 happiness. I might have sought to combat her 
 scruples ; I might have antagonized her principles ; 
 I might have held my peace until she and Allan 
 were safely married, and then, when her protest 
 could have availed nothing, I might have carried 
 out my plans and so have secured my own satis- 
 faction. 
 
 Yes, I might have done any of these things, it 
 is true; or, no, not I, some other woman and 
 mother, less guilty of past misconduct towards her 
 child, might have given her own peace of mind 
 pre-eminence over that of her daughter, perhaps. 
 As for me, I was burdened with a weight of offence 
 against Lisa, the child I had in infancy deserted, 
 and I could not afford in honor to indulge myself 
 further at her expense. Rather would I gladly 
 
 261
 
 262 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 seize upon any opportunity of self-sacrifice which 
 should tend to offset my obligation. 
 
 And so I gave no hint of what I suffered. Jeanie 
 knew. No efforts of mine, however great, could 
 mislead her intuitions where I am concerned. The 
 instinct of the ferret for his prey is no surer or 
 keener than are her perceptions of my inmost feel- 
 ings. And she has that rare faculty of disinte- 
 grating the mysterious or perplexing and reducing 
 it to a simple fact which amounts almost to divi- 
 nation. 
 
 Her tenderness to me in those first dreary days 
 when I was trying to grow accustomed to the 
 changed aspect of my life, and endeavoring to 
 overcome the hideousness of a blank future by 
 painting upon its naked surface bright and glowing 
 prospects from another's experience, her consider- 
 ation of me in those dark days was surpassing. 
 She divined, I am sure, the instant her practised 
 eye fell upon me after that ordeal, that trouble had 
 afflicted me, and though it was her custom to guard 
 my physical welfare as if I had been an infant and 
 she my nurse, yet, when I sat throughout that 
 whole night before the fire on my hearth, watching 
 with my dead hopes, she urged no remonstrance, 
 nor troubled me with word of any kind. Only, 
 from time to time, as the hours wore on, a little, 
 flannel-draped form would steal like a gray shadow 
 through the door-way and quietly and in silence
 
 A Queen of Hearts 263 
 
 replenish the waning fire. Once she threw a soft 
 shawl about my knees, and I felt as if the mother 
 I had never known had mutely comforted me. 
 
 She spared me all attempt to probe my misery, 
 but received those occasional hints of sore distress, 
 which before her alone I felt free to give way to, 
 without question or remark. As the days passed 
 and Richard came no more, she made no comment 
 upon his absence, nor speculated upon the cause 
 of his defection. She took all things for granted, 
 calmly, considerately, and impersonally. She was 
 of such priceless value to me that, had I rendered 
 her twenty times the benefits for which she held 
 herself bound to me, in those black hours of my 
 despair she would have amply requited me by her 
 loving ministrations. 
 
 It was Lisa who, in her utter unconsciousness, 
 kept adding fresh thorns to my chaplet. She had 
 conceived a deep attachment and warm admiration 
 for Allan's father, and resented and bitterly de- 
 plored the fact that his visits to us had ceased. 
 
 " Why do you think he doesn't come any more, 
 mother dear ?" she would say. " He used to seem 
 so happy with us all. Why don't you write and 
 tell him how much we miss him ?" 
 
 Or again, 
 
 " Mother, Allan asked his father yesterday why 
 he doesn't come to see us any more." 
 
 To which, some sign of interest on my part
 
 264 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 being obviously expected, I managed to say, com- 
 posedly enough, " Ah ! and he replied ? " 
 
 " He asked if we spoke of his absence, and if 
 you had expressed a wish to see him again. Why 
 don't you send him a message ? It used to be so 
 pleasant having the four of us together." 
 
 And I would make shift to put her off with some 
 reasonable subterfuge which would satisfy her with- 
 out awaking her suspicions. For I knew that if 
 ever she should discover the fact that love existed 
 between me and a man whose wife yet lived, that 
 slowly convalescing filial regard and affection of 
 hers would perish in an instant. Deeply and pas- 
 sionately as I loved her, there were in the child 
 many of those traits which, in the father, had so 
 repelled me. While we adored each other, and 
 still continue to do so, we can never be wholly 
 sympathetic and congenial. She is principle ; I am 
 temperament. While we might supplement each 
 other's natures, we could never make an harmo- 
 nious interchange of characteristics. Emotion 
 comes after intellect with her ; it well-nigh rules 
 me. 
 
 I think that Allan had an idea of how matters 
 stood between Richard and me, and that he was 
 grateful for the cessation of his father's visits. The 
 gulf between himself and his mother had grown 
 very wide, too wide, I think, ever again to be 
 abridged, and I was aware that he had left home
 
 A Queen of Hearts 265 
 
 and had established himself in bachelors' apart- 
 ments. Sometimes I imagined that this step on 
 his part had driven his mother to throw off that 
 thin veil of decency in which she had hitherto 
 sufficiently shrouded her conduct to permit of its 
 passing muster among a not very exacting set, 
 and that now, acknowledging no reason for further 
 clothing her tendencies and actions, she allowed 
 them to stand forth in all their revolting naked- 
 ness for what they were, the libertinage of a 
 natural courtesan. 
 
 That she had loved the lad as dearly as she was 
 capable of loving anything I was certain. I am 
 equally convinced that a mother's love, once kin- 
 dled, never dies. I felt that the boy's voluntary 
 withdrawal from her would hurt her keenly, and I 
 could understand that the loss of his respect and 
 affection would sweep away the last shred of her 
 self-restraint. 
 
 I missed my vocation now terribly. For a 
 considerable time after Lisa first came to me, I was 
 too joyously engrossed to feel the loss of that 
 occupation to which I had so long been appren- 
 ticed. Now I coveted its absorbing demands, and 
 craved the diversion and distraction it furnished. 
 
 The selfishness of lovers, even of the most con- 
 siderate of the species, is proverbial. Absorbed 
 in each other, Lisa and Allan had little thought or 
 time to devote to consideration of me. And I was
 
 266 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 devoutly thankful that it was so. The role of far- 
 feuse I was bent upon maintaining was thus ren- 
 dered far less difficult than it would otherwise have 
 been. I could sit for long hours in their society, 
 with my back considerately turned upon them, 
 ruminating upon my own affairs, and they would 
 pay no heed to my silence, nor protest against my 
 abstraction. 
 
 It was a strange experience for me to play goose- 
 berry in a trio, to form an unobserved and unim- 
 portant member of a group. My solitude was 
 purely a result of my own inclinations. My popu- 
 larity, notwithstanding the fact of my retirement, 
 was in no degree on the wane. I was still a salient 
 feature of the life of the metropolis ; my renown 
 had by no means grown stale ; my name was still 
 a word to conjure with. Had I so listed I might 
 have thrown my doors wide to have my entrance 
 crowded by an eager throng. Nor did I lack 
 opportunity to change my estate. Admirers had 
 never been wanting to me, and I could long ago 
 have secured an honorable and even distinguished 
 position among New York matrons had my am- 
 bition run in such a channel. 
 
 But men as men had never greatly influenced 
 me. I liked them as comrades, as an amusing 
 element in life, as their homage catered to my 
 vanity. Otherwise they had little affected me. 
 While I had been in a sense dependent upon them,
 
 A Queen of Hearts 267 
 
 for they entertained and diverted me far more than 
 women did, yet, until I met Richard Quintard, my 
 liking for them had been purely impersonal and 
 general. 
 
 Often the question had been put to me, " Ma- 
 dame, why do you not marry ?" To which I had 
 ever one response, a sincere if laughing one, " Be- 
 cause I have yet to see the one man for whom I 
 would exchange the companionship of the many." 
 
 No longer could I truthfully return this answer. 
 I had seen the one man, but, alas ! he was denied 
 me, and the society of the multitude had lost the 
 power to charm. Ah, me ! is not my case a hard 
 one, ye white and silent sharers of my sorrows ? 
 
 It was towards the latter part of May that Allan 
 came to me with his important errand discovering 
 itself in every line and feature of his glowing face. 
 I had taken a place for the summer at Southamp- 
 ton, and we were in the midst of preparations for 
 our flitting. Everything was more or less in con- 
 fusion, but Allan was now a member of the family, 
 and came and went at his own discretion. 
 
 The trying spring weather and the crisis through 
 which I was passing had told largely upon my 
 physical strength, and for the first time in my life 
 I felt what it was to have the blood trickle feebly 
 through my veins, instead of rushing turbulently 
 and invigoratingly from my heart to my throbbing 
 pulses. I was content to do nothing, which in one
 
 268 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 of my active temperament was significant of the 
 paralysis of my will. All my usual restlessness, 
 vivacity, zest for pleasure, seemed to have been 
 drained from me; the native instinct for amuse- 
 ment and excitement had died in my breast. That 
 solitude which had ever been most irksome and 
 distasteful to my social nature appeared now the 
 most welcome boon the world could grant me. I 
 was impatient of its interruption, and, as I sat that 
 warm spring morning reclining in a low chair, 
 which had been drawn into the embrasure of a bay- 
 window, whose casements stood wide to admit the 
 mild summer breeze, I inwardly resented Allan's 
 intrusion upon my brooding melancholy. 
 
 I welcomed him hospitably, however, and, as he 
 gazed down upon me, actually beholding me, per- 
 haps, for the first time in many weeks, for the eyes 
 of a lover, unless purposely constrained, see but 
 one object distinctly upon their field of vision, he 
 started, and looked shocked and troubled. 
 
 I stretched out a hand to him, a hand on which 
 the rings hang loose nowadays, and he held it in 
 silence a minute, still with that expression of con- 
 cern deepening in his dark eyes. Then he drew 
 forward a chair close to mine, and, seating himself 
 on it, addressed me in the grave, hushed, almost 
 appalled tone we use towards the sick or dying. 
 
 " What is this, dear madame ?" he asked ; " what 
 has happened to change you so ?"
 
 A Queen of Hearts 269 
 
 I forced a smile and tried to assume my former 
 gay and light-hearted manner. But, now that the 
 lad's perceptions were awakened, I could no longer 
 impose upon them with false appearances. He 
 discovered the effort and repudiated it. 
 
 " Ah," I replied to his question, " this comes of 
 having a foil in one's own household. Until Lisa 
 came you never thought to notice that I was 
 growing old, fading, as the term is. But compari- 
 sons are naturally instituted between youth and 
 age, between spring and autumn, and naturally to 
 the disadvantage of the maturer seasons." 
 
 His face never lightened. It was plain my words 
 had made no impression upon his solicitude. He 
 continued to regard me with deep anxiety. 
 
 " How could this have been going on and I not 
 have observed it ?" he ejaculated, as if thinking 
 aloud, and his unmistakable concern warmed my 
 heart. But I would not accept it. 
 
 " Foolish boy !" I cried, laughing aloud in pre- 
 tended derision of his sympathy ; " there is nothing 
 the matter but this intolerable weather. The sea- 
 breezes " 
 
 " Sea-breezes !" he reiterated contemptuously ; 
 " it is a fresh wind of Destiny, not of Nature, that 
 you need to bring you back to your bearings." 
 He rose quickly and pushed back his chair. " I 
 am not blind, madame," he continued, rapidly and 
 as if fired by a sudden resolve. " I am not blind*
 
 270 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 though ever since I outgrew my boyhood it has 
 been my policy to shut my eyes to many things. 
 But I have seen enough, Heaven knows, between 
 my closed lids. I am not a brilliant fellow, it is 
 true, yet neither am I a wholly dull one, especially 
 concerning those whom I love. My father's do- 
 mestic discomfort, for instance, has never escaped 
 my notice ; it was scarcely likely to, indeed, since 
 I shared it, until it became unbearable." He broke 
 off, and, plunging his hands in his pockets, took a 
 few hasty turns up and down the room, as if feeling 
 the necessity of conquering the emotion which was 
 almost mastering him. I had never seen him so 
 agitated before, not even when he had had that 
 short, angry scene with his father in this very room. 
 Then his temper had been roused ; now his most 
 sacred feelings were touched. 
 
 Presently he again approached me and sat down. 
 
 " Madame," he said, speaking slowly and shame- 
 facedly, as if confessing some culpability of his 
 own, " I have, during the last five years, been 
 gradually realizing the worst disillusionment which 
 can come to a fellow. You know, any one in New 
 York would know, what I mean. I don't want to 
 enlarge on the subject ; it is bad enough, Heaven 
 knows, to be obliged to hint at it. But had it not 
 been for you and your daughter I should have been 
 a pretty miserable fellow to-day. What your home 
 has been to me, even before Lisa came to it, I can
 
 A Queen of Hearts 271 
 
 never describe to you." Again he paused slightly, 
 and dropped his eyes from my face to the ground. 
 When he raised them again I could read embar- 
 rassment and some confusion in their clear depths. 
 But he went resolutely on. 
 
 " I am going to be quite frank with you, dear 
 madame," he went on, " and therefore I confess that 
 I made your acquaintance in a desperate moment, 
 when I had grown sick and disgusted with the 
 dishonesty of the so-called respectable society to 
 which my mother had introduced me, and hailed 
 with satisfaction an opportunity to enter that which 
 was confessedly Bohemian. I was wholly unpre- 
 pared, I acknowledge, for the pure atmosphere that 
 I found in your home. That it was congenial to 
 me I need hardly say. But I was not alone in my 
 appreciation of it, madame. There was another 
 who found comfort and happiness here. It is not 
 necessary for me to name him. You are well 
 aware who it was that likewise found your society 
 a solace, your home an ark of refuge." 
 
 My heart beat violently, my throat throbbed, 
 and there were tears in my eyes, though I would 
 not let them fall. The moment was too solemn, 
 even for weeping. I bowed and clasped my hands 
 together to still their nervous trembling. 
 
 "You have been kinder to me than to him," 
 Allan proceeded, gently. "You have ever held 
 your door wide open to me, and have encouraged
 
 272 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 me to ask for the dearest gift in your possession, 
 but you have forbidden him even the privileges of 
 acquaintanceship. Madame, why is it ?" 
 
 Did he not know, or was he trying to force me 
 to confess my resolve in order to combat it ? It 
 was impossible for me to make open avowal of my 
 love for the father to the son, and besides I be- 
 lieved it quite unnecessary that I should do so. I 
 cast a swift glance at him, and then turned aside 
 my eyes. The hot color flooded my cheeks as I 
 replied to him. 
 
 " It is a needless question, Allan," I whispered. 
 "You know why I can no longer receive your 
 father as I do you." 
 
 " I do," he. returned, leaning forward and taking 
 one of my hands in his. " But that reason can be 
 set aside, and it shall be. Who can be a more 
 impartial judge between parents than a child that 
 grows up with equal love for each in his heart ? I 
 tell you, madame, though God knows I hate to say 
 it, that my father has every right to break his 
 marriage-tie; that his wife has, herself, annulled 
 their union ; that in the sight of God and man he 
 stands justified in setting aside a woman who has 
 forfeited her claim upon him and in putting in her 
 place one whom he can honor and respect as well 
 as love. Madame, if I, my mother's son, bid my 
 father divorce her and marry you, who else has a 
 right to interfere ?"
 
 A Queen of Hearts 273 
 
 There was some one besides ourselves in the 
 room. Had we not been so vitally occupied 
 with one supreme consideration we might have 
 heard her enter. Now, attracted by the sound 
 of a quickly indrawn breath, we turned simulta- 
 neously to discover Lisa advancing swiftly towards 
 us. 
 
 " I have not been listening," she cried, violently 
 for her. " I had no thought of eavesdropping, but 
 I have heard your words, Allan, your sinful words 
 and wicked advice. You ask who has a right to 
 interfere in the abominable project you counsel, to 
 stand between my mother and a horrible union that 
 could never be a true marriage. Let me tell you, 
 then, that I have this right. If you are your 
 father's son, I am likewise my mother's daughter, 
 and equally concerned with you in a matter which 
 has to do with her marriage with a man who is 
 not even yet divorced. It is hideous, monstrous, 
 this discussion of yours," she continued, excitedly, 
 " and I do not believe it has any framework what- 
 ever. My mother in love with a married man, con- 
 templating a project for setting aside that man's 
 wife ! Oh, no ; such a thing could never be ; you 
 are crazy, Allan." 
 
 She was exceedingly beautiful in her passionate 
 excitement, but very stern and rigidly uncompro- 
 mising, as she stood facing us in her righteous 
 
 indignation. It was upon him that she concen- 
 
 18
 
 274 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 trated her whole attention, as if wishing to force 
 him to contradict his own proposition. But he 
 remained mute. 
 
 " Tell me it is a concoction of your own, this 
 idea, Allan," she urged; "that my mother has 
 nothing to do with it" 
 
 Still he held his peace. 
 
 Then, after a slight interval, she remarked, slowly 
 and very deliberately, 
 
 " You know, of course, that I would never marry 
 you if such an evil thing were to take place." 
 
 At that the lad cried out her name, entreatingly, 
 protestingly, but without avail, and I knew, being 
 aware of the adamant of which her principles, the 
 principles of James Mavis's daughter, were formed, 
 that he might have fallen dead before her without 
 affecting her resolution. 
 
 I rose from my seat and collected all my energy 
 for the fabrication and utterance of the falsehood 
 I was about to speak. Ah, what it is to be an 
 actress by profession ! The long tutelage of feature 
 and faculty stood me in good stead now. Even 
 Allan gaped in astonishment at my performance, 
 so perfect and finished it was, while with Lisa, her- 
 self the most open and candid of creatures, it wholly 
 prevailed over doubt and suspicion. 
 
 As I drew myself erect I stretched my arms 
 languidly above my head and yawned, deliberately 
 and lazily. Then, while Lisa stood gazing at me
 
 A Queen of Hearts- 275 
 
 as if I had gone mad, I looked mischievously at 
 Allan and burst out laughing. 
 
 " It is really too funny !" I exclaimed, " but it's 
 rather too bad, too. However, if we've teased her, 
 Allan, she seems to have frightened you out of 
 your wits. You didn't think that anything in the 
 world could be allowed to come between you two, 
 I suppose. Well, you have heard that there might 
 be obstacles even in the pathway of your love, my 
 dear boy." 
 
 And I shook my head forebodingly at him, while 
 Lisa came close to me with interrogation written 
 on every line of her face, and gravity weighing 
 heavily upon her perplexed spirit. 
 
 "What did it mean, mother," she asked, in a 
 low, constrained tone, "that which Allan was 
 saying to you as I came in? What did it 
 mean ?" 
 
 Again I laughed outright and heartily. 
 
 " It meant," I said, " that you are a suspicious 
 little goose, and conjure up all sorts of ridiculous 
 notions out of nothing. It meant that poor Allan 
 was trying to entertain me with a description of a 
 play he saw the other night in Philadelphia, and I 
 was really quite carried away with it and forgot 
 how hungry I was, and that it must be luncheon- 
 time. Ring the bell, there's a good boy, Allan, 
 and find out if Stone means to give us anything to 
 eat to-day. I am actually starved."
 
 276 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 As her lover left us to do my bidding, Lisa 
 brought her lips close to my ear. 
 
 " Mother," she whispered, " do you love any man 
 better than you do me ?" 
 
 I placed my hands firmly on her shoulders and 
 looked her full in the eyes. 
 
 " My darling," I replied, " I love no one in the 
 world, either man or woman, better than I love 
 you." Which was, indeed, God's truth. 
 
 " And you have really no thought of marrying ?" 
 she pursued. 
 
 " I have, indeed, sober and earnest thoughts," I 
 answered. 
 
 Her face grew troubled again. 
 
 " Oh, I cannot tell whether you are joking or 
 not," she complained. 
 
 " No joke about it," I said. " I have every in- 
 tention of marrying, and that before long." 
 
 She drew a little away from me, recovering her 
 somewhat stiff attitude. 
 
 " May I know whom it is your purpose to 
 marry ?" she asked. 
 
 I smiled. 
 
 " Who has a better right to know, my dear ?" 
 
 She waited a moment. " Who is it ?" she then 
 inquired. 
 
 I drew her forcibly into my arms. 
 
 " Why, you and Allan, you silly child," said I. 
 " Have he and I not spent the morning exhausting
 
 A Queen of Hearts 277 
 
 the subject of your marriage, until even Allan grew 
 a little weary of the endless discussion, and wan- 
 dered to another topic. By the way, Allan, I 
 must see that play some day. Who, did you say, 
 plays the heroine?" 
 
 The boy was regarding me very gravely, as if 
 he were watching some one lift a weight that was 
 too heavy for him. 
 
 " A woman whose name I have forgotten," he 
 replied ; " but I have never seen her equal upon 
 any stage." 
 
 " Be careful of my professional vanity," I cau- 
 tioned him lightly. 
 
 " You know how I have always admired you, 
 madame," he returned. " But the demands of this 
 role were fearfully exacting, and I shall carry to 
 my grave a memory of how nobly that woman 
 fulfilled them." 
 
 (EDITOR'S POSTSCRIPT.) 
 
 Here end the memoirs. The manuscript failed 
 at this point, leaving no conclusion to the narrative 
 excepting that furnished by the contents of a news- 
 paper clipping which I discovered thrust in among 
 the loose sheets. It bore a date three months later 
 than that which appeared upon the first page of the 
 journal, and I regard the accident or intention 
 which preserved the printed slip among the leaves 
 of the unfinished romance as most fortunate, for it
 
 278 A Queen of Hearts 
 
 assures those who have followed the brilliant but 
 unsatisfying career of our Queen of Burlesque, 
 but Beggar of Content, that the domestic happi- 
 ness which was denied her youth was assured her 
 age. 
 
 THE CLIPPING. 
 
 Last night Vaubin's French restaurant on 
 
 Place was the scene of a tragic occurrence which 
 had a fatal and most unhappy ending. This Bohe- 
 mian place of entertainment has of late been much 
 frequented by certain of the ultra-fashionable set 
 who are not above seeking diversion in even the 
 hedges and byways of metropolitan life. On this 
 occasion one of the tables was tenanted by a party 
 composed of no less distinguished persons than 
 Mrs. Richard Owen, more familiarly called " Mrs. 
 Dicky," Quintard, Mrs. Jerry Van Saltine, Belmont 
 Cooper, and Converse Appleton. Near them sat 
 a solitary diner, apparently a foreigner, who sud- 
 denly made a violent and most unexpected assault 
 upon Mrs. Quintard. 
 
 It appears that the lady had been expressing 
 herself in audible tones and unmeasured terms 
 concerning a celebrated actress, now retired from 
 the stage, who not long since succeeded in marry- 
 ing her daughter to the sole heir of the Quintard 
 millions. As she was in the full tide of her denun- 
 ciation of this lady, the man at the next table 
 sprang from his seat and, coming close to her,
 
 A Queen of Hearts 279 
 
 threatened her with word and gesture. He was 
 immediately collared by one of the gentlemen of 
 the party, and upon Mrs. Quintard remarking that 
 she recognized him as a former servant of her own 
 he grew even yet more violent, repudiating her 
 statement, and claiming to be the father of the 
 actress in question, whose picture he drew from his 
 pocket in substantiation of his relationship. 
 
 It then became apparent that he belonged to 
 that class of harmless cranks whose feeble wits go 
 mad over the charms of professional stars, and 
 without more ado he was ejected from the place. 
 It was doubtless owing to the desire of the pro- 
 prietor to shield his restaurant from notoriety that 
 the fellow was not delivered over to the police, ob- 
 viously the proper method of dealing with him. 
 Had the gentlemen who formed Mrs. Quintard's 
 escort but insisted upon this, a sad and dreadful 
 catastrophe might have been averted. Not long 
 after, the party emerged from the restaurant, and, 
 as they were about entering their cabs, they were 
 again accosted by their late assailant, who began 
 again to revile Mrs. Quintard in low and ribald 
 language. Her escort, Mr. Cooper, ordered him 
 off and banged the carriage-door in his face. It is 
 supposed that that so exasperated the frenzied man 
 that he lost all self-control, for, as the driver was 
 gathering up his reins to start, he saw a figure 
 dash into the street before him, throw himself in
 
 28 o A Queen of Hearts 
 
 front of the horses, clutching at their bridles. The 
 sudden onslaught frightened the animals. They 
 reared for an instant, came heavily down upon the 
 poor, mad creature, and then tore wildly up town. 
 
 At the corner of th Street and Sixth Avenue 
 
 they overset the swaying carriage upon the side- 
 walk. The occupants, Mrs. Quintard and Mr. 
 Cooper, were thrown out upon the ground, the 
 lady striking her head heavily upon the curbstone 
 and sustaining mortal injuries, from which she died 
 a few hours later. Mr. Cooper escaped with trifling 
 bruises. The unfortunate Frenchman, who was 
 found with his brains dashed out by a blow from 
 the horses' hoofs, was this morning identified as 
 an unfortunate musician who had formerly been a 
 member of some of our theatre-orchestras, and who, 
 later, did, indeed, serve in a menial capacity in the 
 Quintard household. 
 
 THE END.
 
 By Marie Corelli. 
 
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