OLD MAID'5 VENGEANCE FRANCES POWELL BOOKS BY FRANCES POWELL PUBLISHED BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS An Old Maid's Vengeance net SI. 25 (Postage extra) Old Mr. Davenant's Money 91.50 The Prisoner of Ornith Farm $1.50 The By-Ways of Braithe $1.50 The House on the Hudson $1.50 AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE . OF CALIF. LIBRARY, LOS ANGELES BY FRANCES POWELL NEW YORK CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 1911 COPYRIGHT, 1911, BY CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS Published March, 1911 tlo EDITH OPDYCKE THIS ROMANCE IS AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF CONSTANT ENCOURAGEMENT, SYMPATHY, AND UNFAILING FRIENDSHIP. 2131910 AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE i "... Marriage-making for the earth, With gold so much, ..." "TT^ES, I believe in the French marriage system/' -L said Mrs. Bertram, delicately smoothing with a daintily gloved forefinger a package that lay upon her lap. " I believe that every girl should have her dowry, and that a match should be ar- ranged for her by her parents according to its size. A rich girl has a right to expect to marry better than a poor one, just as wealthy parents have a right to expect their son to add to, instead of diminishing, the credit of the family." As Mrs. Bertram finished speaking she glanced with covert sharpness at her listener, her daughter- in-law elect, Elinor Ladoon. The girl looked very weary, and she leaned back in the big, old- AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE fashioned arm-chair, her eyes downcast, as if she might not have paid strict attention to Mrs. Ber- tram's just formulated creed. "I feel sure that you will agree with me, my dear Nelly/' Mrs. Bertram continued. "I have always believed in your good judgment. I know that you would condemn the marriage of penni- less young people. To speak vulgarly, 'men are scarce and women are plenty,' and why should a young man rich, or in moderate circumstances burden himself with a poor wife ? " Again Mrs. Bertram shot a swift side glance at the girl. One never could tell, she reflected un- easily, of what Elinor was thinking, or what she might do or say next. But the girl did not speak. Mrs. Bertram once more smoothed with affection- ate care the package upon her knee, and resumed her subject. "Mr. Bertram feels as I do about marriage. Mr. Bertram has always been most indulgent to Maynard. I suppose it's natural to spoil an only child. You know how large Boy's allowance is! But if Maynard were to marry against his father's wishes, the allowance would instantly cease; yes, instantly" The girl in the arm-chair lifted her eyes and looked with wondering interest at her visitor. AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Her eyes were remarkably fine; very large, very deep blue in color, and shaded with intensely black lashes. Her eyebrows were as dark as the lashes, level, and beautifully marked. They looked the darker, perhaps, because of the purity of her complexion. She had little color save in her lips, but her clear paleness was of the healthy sort, the cool pallor that sometimes accompanies a perfect physique. Her dark hair made a dusky frame for her handsome face, handsome more through its expression of high intelligence than from any great beauty of feature; for her mouth, though not over large, was no cupid's-bow in out- line, and her nose refused to be classic, or class- ified. But if her face were not perfect, the most hy- percritical could have found no fault with her figure, or with the beauty of her hands and feet. She was of medium height, lithe, graceful, and with muscles of steel. Her uncle, James Ladoon, had brought her up, and had seen to it that her education in what is termed "sport," should be a finished one. Fortunately the girl possessed a pretty taste for book lore as well, and she had read and studied much, although in a random, unguided fashion; following her own bent, in- stead of asking cut-and-dried counsel. One great [3] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE gift was hers; she was a born musician, and al- though, unfortunately, the piano had been the instrument given her, she possessed the power of awakening a soul within it. Its voice became hu- man under the magic of her beautiful fingers, and it sang the great song of Life with its varying passions almost as though it were twin to the violin. To Mrs. Bertram, however, Elinor had never possessed any charm worthy of mention save one, she was to be her uncle's heiress. For this reason Maynard's mother had gladly welcomed the girl as her son's fiancee, and had been disap- pointed when Elinor insisted upon the engagement being kept secret for a time. But during the past three weeks Mrs. Bertram had been thankful for the secrecy observed, for disquieting rumors were abroad in regard to "Jim" Ladoon, and now the lightning had struck. Mr. Ladoon had been taken ill the morning before Mrs. Bertram's call, and he was not ex- pected to live. Every one, save his orphaned niece, knew what had caused the breakdown. She, alone, was ignorant that she was an heiress no longer. She wondered why Maynard, who had gone to New York on the morning of her uncle's illness, had not returned the same evening. She [4] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE thought that he was still ignorant of her trouble, but she had expected he would come rushing over to her in his auto the moment he reached home. Mrs. Bertram had suavely explained this absence. He had been detained on business, and she had thought it best to send no telegram. In answer to Mrs. Bertram's remarks about marriage, Elinor now asked a question which showed that the efforts made to prepare her mind had been thrown away. That she had failed to notice the drift of these remarks was evident. "Maynard will surely be home to-night, Mrs. Bertram?" Mrs. Bertram, looking down at the packet on her knee, colored slightly and counter-questioned. "Where is your cousin, Winifred Cryden, now, Nelly?'* And upon learning that Elinor did not know, she asked and obtained the address of Miss Cryden's bankers. "She must be about fifty- eight or sixty now," Mrs. Bertram mused, "and I suppose she's enormously rich. She never spent her income when she lived at home, and I don't suppose she does abroad. Forgive me for speak- ing so plainly of your cousin, Nelly." "She is not a very near cousin," Elinor said. "She is Uncle Jim's first cousin, and that makes her " [5] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "She's your first cousin once removed; quite near enough," said Mrs. Bertram quickly. She rose as she spoke, and placing the packet on the table turned to Elinor. "From Maynard, my dear Nelly. And if there is anything I can do, be sure to let me know," and she rustled away. Returning from placing Mrs. Bertram in her auto, Elinor took up the package and was about to untie the blue ribbon which bound it, when the maid entered. "Mr. Ferrars is wishing to see you, Miss Nelly," said the woman, and her eyes rested with wistful pity upon the young girl. "He's on the veranda with Mrs. Carme." "I will come directly," said Elinor, and she reded the parcel. That must wait, she thought, for Mr. Ferrars was her uncle's lawyer. [6] II "... not one flower of all he said and did Might seem to flit unnoticed, fade unknown." MRS. CARME sat upon the veranda knitting what she called a "cloud," a filmy mass of white wool to be worn about the shoulders. She was exceedingly pleasant to look upon because of her serene expression; and she possessed, also, a quantity of pretty light-brown hair, a pair of in- telligent hazel eyes, a fair skin, white teeth, and a well-rounded figure. She had come to look after Elinor Ladoon when Elinor was ten and she twenty-eight years old. Mr. Ladoon had feared that his niece was becoming too great a tomboy under his sole tuition, and had called in the widow of one of his distant cousins to teach little Nelly the womanly graces which she lacked. Unfor- tunately Alicia Carme had pleased Mr. Ladoon too well, and finding that she could not check his determined courtship, she had regretfully said good-by to Elinor when she felt that her pupil was able to assume control of her uncle's house- hold, and had found a new position for herself [7] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE elsewhere as companion to a lady of fragile health and uncertain temper. But her brief holidays were always passed with Elinor. Mrs. Carme disliked the Bertrams, so she had retreated to the veranda to escape Mrs. Bertram's call. Although she presented the appearance of a serene-faced lady happily engaged in fabricating a cloud, she was in reality far from being at ease. She, too, had heard the ugly rumors regarding Mr. Ladoon's loss of fortune, but she had had no chance to verify it. Should it prove true, then Eli- nor would have, instead of many thousands, just seven hundred a year. Mrs. Carme suppressed a sigh as she knit the last stitch off one long needle, then, rising suddenly, she crossed the broad veran- da with noiseless tread to meet a tall, spare young man, of upright carriage, who was walking quick- ly over the little lawn toward the house. It was Mr. Ferrars, Mr. Ladoon's lawyer. Mrs. Carme scanned his face closely as he ap- proached; she was frankly curious about him be- cause of his career, past, present, and to come. Edward Ferrars had worked his way through college and the law school, his father an unsuc- cessful literary man not having had enough money to give his son the education he desired. And now it was an open secret that it was owing [8] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE to young Ferrars's clever brain that the knotted affairs of a great corporation had been disen- tangled. He was thirty-three and he had ar- rived ! Every one prophesied that he would go far. Poor James Ladoon, hoping that Mr. Ferrars's skill might save him, too, from shipwreck, had consulted him six weeks before. It was too late. Mrs. Carme greeted Mr. Ferrars pleasantly but, as she looked into the keen eyes bent upon her, she asked a question in her slow, quiet way, that made the young man wonder at her unruffled composure of manner. "Please speak softly, Mr. Ferrars," she said, "when you tell me what I want to know, for I wish no one to overhear. (Miss Ladoon is in the parlor entertaining Mrs. Bertram.) Is it true that James Ladoon has lost all his money?" Mr. Ferrars bowed gravely. "All?" Mrs. Carme reiterated. "Wiped out," was the laconic answer. Mrs. Carme turned and, recrossing the veranda as noiselessly as before, seated herself and re- sumed her knitting. Mr. Ferrars followed, and stood looking down at her as though the serene- faced lady were a difficult law problem that he would very much like to solve. He was a typical American in appearance, clear-cut, keen-eyed, and [9] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE with a composure of manner that in some sub- tle way suggested an always ready and intense alertness. But either his readiness now failed him, or he preferred that Mrs. Carme should make the next move, for he did not speak. Mrs. Carme broke the silence. "Mrs. Bertram is now calling upon Elinor," she announced slowly. " Elinor has always known the Bertrams. And you, too, Mr. Ferrars, have always known them?" "Yes," was Mr. Ferrars's brief reply. "Nelly accepts Mrs. Bertram without criticism, just as she accepts the sand-dunes and the sea." Mrs. Carme gently motioned toward the blue dip between the dunes, an exquisite bit of sea- scape visible from the veranda. "I do not accept Mrs. Bertram. I dislike her very much. I am glad that Elinor is not engaged to Maynard Ber- tram, very glad indeed." And she knitted with an air of serene contentment agreeable to look upon. "Not engaged ? Are you sure ? Why I heard " Mr. Ferrars broke off abruptly, perhaps suddenly aware that he was speaking with unnecessary eagerness. Mrs. Carme did not glance up. She had, ap- parently, not observed the eagerness. She shook [10] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE her head slowly. "N-o," she drawled, "N-o, they are not engaged. If you should hear the re- port again you might contradict it on my au- thority, you know." "I will certainly do so," said the young man, with a careful steadiness of tone. " But Maynard is a handsome fellow and rich and " "Yes," Mrs. Carme acquiesced with gentle in- difference, "oh, yes. Handsome, rich, well- mannered, but " She glanced up suddenly into the eyes watching her with such interest, and shook her head. "It wouldn't do at all, Mr. Ferrars!" Then she asked another slow ques- tion. "How did Mr. Ladoon lose the money ?" "Gambling," was the reply. "Everybody will know in a day or two. Will you tell her ?" "Yes," said Mrs. Carme quietly. "Ah, I hear the front door closing." They were upon the sea- ward veranda. "I will send Nelly to you here," and she was moving away when Mr. Ferrars stopped her. " I should like, if possible, to see Mr. Ladoon," he said. Mrs. Carme paused and gazed meditatively at the young man before she replied. " Perhaps you might help us," she said at last. "I suppose you heard that Mr. Ladoon was struck down AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE with paralysis. Only his eyes show that he is alive; and their expression makes Elinor miserable, for in them is a question that we can neither of us understand. We have made every effort, but, so far, in vain." As she finished speaking Elinor herself appeared in the doorway and greeted Mr. Ferrars. Mrs. Carme repeated her suggestion, and the girl agree- ing gladly, the three went upstairs to the sick man's room, where, presently, Mr. Ferrars en- tered alone, Mrs. Carme and Elinor remaining in the hall. The nurse came out and stood a mo- ment beside the two in silence. Then she spoke. "I think I will telephone for the doctor," she said, looking at Mrs. Carme. "There is a change. I think I had better telephone. Will you stay here until I return?" "Is he worse?" Elinor asked anxiously. The nurse did not answer, but went swiftly downstairs. The door of the bedroom opened and Mr. Ferrars came out. He was very pale and he scrutinized the face of the young girl searchingly as, in low tones, he explained that he had discovered what Mr. Ladoon wished. "He is anxious about you, Miss Ladoon," said the lawyer, "and he wishes me to act as your guar- dian. Are you willing?" [12] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Yes, yes, indeed," cried the girl quickly, "if you will be so kind." Mr. Ferrars held out his hand. "Then put your hand in mine" he smiled faintly as he gave his strange order "and come with me to your uncle's bedside. Say to him that you have every confidence in me you have confidence, Miss Nelly?" "Yes," she said simply, "perfect confidence, Mr. Ferrars. Why, I have known you all my life!" The color swept across Mr. Ferrars's face. His grasp on her hand tightened. "Thank you," he murmured. "Please say to your uncle: 'I agree to everything, and I believe that all will come right.' " They entered the room together. Between Mrs. Carme's quiet eyebrows there came three deep, perpendicular lines. She rose, and, standing, awaited the nurse's return. "Is he dying?" she inquired when, presently, the nurse reappeared. "He cannot last through the afternoon, I think," was the reply. "The doctor will be here directly. Miss Ladoon is " She motioned tow- ard the closed door of the sick-room. "Yes, with Mr. Ferrars," was the answer. "[13] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "It's tht Mr. Ferrers?" questioned the nurse. Mrs. Carme bowed in reply. "They say he will toon be the leading lawyer in the State hush! What was that?** as a sharp cry came from the sick-room. The nurse entered precipitately; Mrs. Carme followed. Elinor was upon her knees at the bed- side, Mr. Ferrars close beside her. Her words had brought to her uncle the peace for which he had searched so vainly, even the peace that passeth all understanding; he lay back upon his pillows, dead. Mr. Ferrars attended to everything before he returned to town, even telling Elinor of the change in her fortunes. It was but his duty, he said to Mrs. Carme, as guardian to Miss Ladoon. "You have spared us both every disagreeable that you possibly could," Mrs. Carme said slowly, holding out her hand. "I have a retentive mem- ory, Mr. Ferrars, and I shall not forget. I am very grateful." She shook hands with him. " If there should ever be anything that I could do for you " "I should be very glad of your friendship, Mrs. Carme," Mr. Ferrars said earnestly. "If you will grant me that, I, in my turn, will be grateful." [HI AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "It is already yours," was the cordial answer. As the door closed behind the young man, the three lines reappeared between Mrs. Carme's placid eyebrows. "I wish," she murmured "I do wish that Elinor had never been engaged!" Ill "And the doves of Venus fled and the petrels came instead." AFTER Mr. Ferrars's departure Mrs. Carme JL \, went upstairs to join Elinor, whom she knew she should find in her room. The way in which the girl closed and relocked the door after admitting her told the poor lady that the new trouble she had foreseen was at hand, for this was done with a controlled gentleness that made the atmosphere seem tense with subdued passion. "Take that chair, Alicia," she said, pointing to one in a distant corner. " I have opened the win- dow; the night is frosty, you must not sit in a draught." Her voice was colorless and cold, so different in tone from its usual sweet, rich cadences, that Mrs. Carme scanned her face closely, alarmed by the change. The girl's expression was set and hard, her mouth so firmly closed that it was diffi- cult to realize that the drawn lips could curve in happy smiles. Her eyes were cast down, and Mrs. Carme, thus denied the reading of their blue [16] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE depths, looked keenly about the room, seeking for the proof of what she had already divined. Upon the table lay a little heap of letters and pho- tographs. Then she saw that one of Elinor's white hands was balled into a fist, and she guessed what it held. Wasting no words, Mrs. Carme pointed toward the letters on the table: "Maynard Bertram?" she asked. Elinor bowed gravely. It was as if she could not speak, but she lifted her large eyes and looked fully at her questioner. Then unclosing her firmly clinched hand she disclosed a crumpled note, and holding it toward Mrs. Carme found her voice. "The first stone," she said, and, so saying, began to smooth out the letter. "The ante-mortem statement of a weakling," was Mrs. Carme's quiet comment. "I may read it, Nelly?" "Then you guess the contents?" cried the girl quickly. She placed the letter in Mrs. Carme's hands. "I know the Bertram breed and their creed," was the composed answer. "The world is full of Bertrams. They are the Brazen Pots of the old fable, and you now belong, like me, to the Earth- [-7] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE enware variety. It is better that we should avoid their neighborhood, Nelly. We can't swim down the stream of life together." And she read the letter. "My dearest Girl for dearest you will always be to me this is to beg you to forgive me and to say good-by! But good-by only for the present, my darling Nelly yes, I swear to you, only for the present, dear. Dad and the mater have shut down on our engagement. They say it isn't fair to you, since I haven't a cent outside of my allow- ance, and besides that being hardly big enough for me, the governor swears he will stop it altogether if I marry before I am making an income of my own. I shall go into business directly I come home. Oh, I forgot you didn't know, Nelly, but I am sailing for France to-morrow morning. I am to motor through the chateau country with the Gillespies you remember they wired to in- vite me last week ? I wired back 'no* then, didn't want to leave home, but now oh, what's the use of talking about it! I simply can't stand hanging round home under these changed con- ditions. If your uncle hadn't gone broke this never would have happened. There, it's out now. They said I mustn't tell you, but you'd better [18] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE know the truth. Dad and the mater are as hard as nails. You know how they feel about money. It's rotten, and it makes me deadly ashamed of them yes, and of myself, too, but I swear this state of things sha'n't last long. Old Gillespie is as rich as a Jew, and he'll put me in the way of earning my living and yours, darling Nell. He's to join the party later, some time in the winter, and early next spring I'll be home and at work. "I've given my promise not to correspond with you, and I'm returning your photos, etc. Keep them for me, sweetheart, till I'm in a position to ask for them back again, and believe me always, "Your loving "MAYNARD." When Mrs. Carme had finished reading she did what seemed a cruel thing; she turned the knife in the wound. "There is a Miss Gillespie, Nelly ?" "Yes, oh yes," came the quick answer. "Not one, but two. There are two demoiselles Gilles- pie, Alicia." She laughed; a musical peal enough, but of a quality that hurt the heart of the listener. "He is not worth thinking of," said Mrs. Carme serenely. "A broken reed, giving way. in your hour of trouble. But you never knew the real AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Maynard Bertram, Nelly. You were engaged to an imaginary Maynard, and he is dead. Mourn him if you will, but as for this other, forget him, or remember him only as an agreeable playmate nen de plus!" "You do not seem to realize that I have been jilted," said Elinor, still speaking in cold, colorless tones "jilted, I, Elinor Ladoon!" She moved to a tall mirror and surveyed herself curiously. "A jilted woman," she continued as though speaking to herself. " I never saw a jilted woman before. I have read about them, women who wore the wil- low, but, to my knowledge, I have never met a jilted girl. You may think, because I speak in this way, Alicia, that it is only my vanity that is wounded, but you are wrong. I have a deep affection for Maynard, an affection that has grown with my growth." She turned from the mirror, seating herself beside Mrs. Carme. "Listen," she said; she spoke very quietly, "the affection I have for May- nard must be uprooted, that I know. I would not marry him now, never mind how often he might ask me. But the uprooting is going to hurt bitterly, Alicia. Already my heart aches miser- ably, miserably! I have lost both Uncle Jim and Maynard. You, and Uncle Jim, and Maynard, [20] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE were my only close friends. For you know I am not like other girls, Alicia, you know how Uncle Jim disapproved of my having intimate girl friends, and frowned such friendships down." Mrs. Carme took the girl's hand, stroking it gently. "I know, I know/' she said. "But no one else will ever know anything about your feel- ings, Nelly. I told Mr. Ferrars that no engage- ment existed between you and Maynard. I asked him to contradict the report on my authority. The Bertrams will hardly care to speak of the matter. It is ended." Elinor sprang to her feet. "Alicia, Alicia," she cried, "you are so good to me! I can never thank you enough for what you have done. But how did you know what what" she hesitated, then pointing toward the letters on the table "what he would do?" "You are poor," was the brief reply. "As I said before, I know the Bertram breed." Elinor moved slowly to the table and drawing off her engagement ring, a fine sapphire, chosen, her lover had said, to match her eyes, laid it gently down. As the big blue gem caught the light it flashed into splendid beauty and, as might the magical jewel of some great genie, illuminated with almost painful clearness one of memory's UM AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE pictures: A country road bordered by grand old cedars; two gypsy carts drawn up on the stretch of turf to one side; the horses tethered; the solitary guardian, an elderly gypsy woman, fast asleep. Two riders, a young girl and a handsome lad of nineteen, reining in their horses to look curiously at the encampment. The warm sun of noon in late October shining softly down upon the tall beauty of the trees, the weary face of the slumber- ing woman, and the laughing young man sweeping off his hat in mocking salutation, and calling to the woman to awake and salute her queen! Elinor saw by the sapphire's light her own effort to stop Maynard from carrying out his pur- pose. She seemed to hear, echoing from the past, his gay words of insistence. "You are the queen of the Gypsies, Nelly, in spite of your sapphire-blue eyes. Let's see how old sleepy-head will salute her sovereign lady! Come, Madame Zingane, wake up, wake up!" And the woman awoke; awoke strangely, for she did not start, or change her attitude, outstretched upon the bank beneath the dark trees, but merely opened wide a pair of great black eyes and stared fixedly at Maynard. There was no trace of re- cent sleep in the eyes, and the face remained as expressionless as a mask. Elinor remembered the [22] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE careless insolence in Maynard's demand that she should tell their fortunes. He had looked so handsome; tall, laughing, debonair, as he sat his horse with graceful ease. The gypsy rose and drew near, her eyes fixed in their unwavering stare upon his face. Then she spoke : "Weak mouth, weak chin, And nought within," she said coldly, "although you are so proud of your brown, curly hair, your blue eyes, and your handsome skin! But the little lady is my queen, you say, so give me your hand and I'll see if you'll win her." When Maynard held out his hand the woman had shown interest, but declared that there was no luck in telling bad fortunes; and he had vainly promised her much money to reveal what she had read. Elinor remembered the gypsy's firm touch upon her hand when the woman had herself asked to see her "queen's" palm, and her own whispered apology for having aroused her. "You look so very tired," she had said, "I am sorry we waked you." The woman turned to Maynard. "She is the sunshine and you must die in the shadow." AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Cheerful news!" was Maynard's laughing comment, as he tossed a piece of money at the gypsy's feet. " But I don't believe in your powers of divination. I don't believe you could even tell me the age of your queen here!" "Sixteen," said the woman quietly. "Right you are," cried Maynard in wonder. "Well, you've earned your money. Pick it up, and I'll double it if you'll tell me more." "Sunshine," was the curt response, "and shad- ow! The first for her, for you the other." Four years had passed. It was again late October. But it was not to Maynard, Elinor thought as she put away his ring, it was not to Maynard that the shadow had come. "I sha'n't stay here, nor shall I spend the winter in New York," she said to Mrs. Carme, beginning to move restlessly about the room. "I must try to get something to do. I can teach music, I think, but not here, or in New York. I realize too clearly what lies before me. The Bertrams have thrown the first stone, and I know what a heavy shower of pebbles will follow. I remem- ber" she mentioned the name of a young girl of her acquaintance who had suddenly been reduced to almost penury "I remember how people treated her. At first no one could do enough [24] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE for her but how patronizingly they did it! Most of them eager to show off their generosity to the gallery. Then, little by little, she was dropped out of everything; and when she was remembered, even when people, nice people, tried to show no difference between her and us other girls, they did so in spite of themselves. Even their voices changed, softening when they spoke, or with the nasty people hardening into indifference. They even forgot that she had ever been as they, that she had ever been well off, gay, insouciant* in short, their semblable. No," she stamped her foot with sudden passion, "no, I will never endure what she lived through. I am going away. I shall have what father left me, seven hundred dollars a year. I must learn to make that do un- til I can find employment." Mrs. Carme began to knit. "I have a little more than that now," she said. "We might take a small apartment somewhere, and live to- gether. I have been saving up for my old age, but " "You are to go on saving," Elinor interrupted. "I will not consent to be a burden upon you, Alicia." "There's no immediate hurry, I suppose," said Mrs. Carme placidly. "But we must talk over AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE your clothes, dear. I am glad you bought that handsome black astrakhan jacket last winter, it will go nicely with your mourning and save get- ting a new coat." [26] IV "We've sent our little Cupids all ashore They were frightened, they were tired, they were cold; Our sails of silk and purple go to store And we've cut away our mast of beaten gold. (Foul weather!)" TWO weeks dragged slowly by and Elinor was alone in the great house by the sea. It was hers no longer; it had been sold under the hammer to pay the mortgages. There would be a little, a very little money left after the estate was settled, and this together with the household effects, the portraits and the family silver, was all that would come to the heiress of James Ladoon. Mrs. Carme had had to return to her work, and Elinor was to follow her to town very soon. Before that time, however, Mrs. Carme received the following letter, enclosed in a little note begging for advice. "HOTEL DU JARDIN, " VrLLE-DE-PLAISra "(CoiE D'AZTJR), FRANCE. "My DEAR ELINOR: "I am very sorry to hear of cousin James's death and of his loss of fortune. You may be surprised that this ill news has reached me so soon, but not [27] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE more so than I was by the manner of its coming. I consider it excessively impertinent in that Ber- tram woman to have taken it upon herself to cable me such unwelcome intelligence, and in such a peculiarly impudent fashion, giving me to understand that she thought it my business to look after you! Quelle idee! "The cablegram was as long as a letter a most vulgar, ostentatious piece of swagger extrava- gance! I will show it to you later. I write now to ask you to spend the winter with me here. I will pay your passage over and back, pay all your travelling expenses, in short, and your board. I shall expect you to settle your own laundry bills, and to fee the femme de chambre. I will attend to the other feeing myself. "You will realize that I am making you a very liberal offer, and I don't doubt that you will cheerfully undertake to render me the slight service that I shall expect in return. Nothing laborious or menial, I assure you. I shall ex- pect you not to tell of your altered fortunes. You were, you are, the heiress of the so-called millionaire, James Ladoon. Foreigners like Americans adore money. It is none of their business, anyway, whether you are rich or poor is it ? [28] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "And one thing more. James sent me your latest photograph. If you have gone off since it was taken, or if your complexion is poor pho- tographs are so untrue in regard to complexion I might better tell you plainly to remain at home. You are to come as my rich and handsome cousin or not at all. "I have heard so much in favor of a Mr. Edward Ferrars that I have engaged him to look after my small estate. (My dear old Mr. Deff died three months ago.) Mr. Ferrars will secure your pas- sage for you, etc. Write to him if you decide to come. He will cable me, and attend to everything. I enclose his address. "Tout a vous, "WINIFRED CRYDEN." Mrs. Carme read the letter through three times. Then she telegraphed to Elinor: "Go, by all means," and then she put on her thinking cap. "What does that stingy, foolish creature want of my Nelly?" she asked herself over and over again, but the riddle was too difficult for her solv- ing. Sighing a little, the always outwardly placid lady sallied forth and bought a steamer rug and a long, diaphanous black scarf. Both were to protect her favorite from the cold the rug when [29] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE travelling, the scarf when flitting through the draughty corridors of a foreign hotel. When Elinor said good-by, Mrs. Carme's last words were words of advice: "Do not change, dear Nelly; do not grow bitter. Remain your own sweet, gracious self. Always be kind, my dear, always be kind." Smiling through her tears, Elinor asked this question: "Even to the turning of the other cheek, Alicia?" Mrs. Carme looked at her gravely for a mo- ment, then said: "Yes, always be gentle, always be kind." And as she drew back to allow Mr. Ferrars to make his farewells, for he was there on his double duty, as guardian to Elinor and man of affairs for Miss Cryden as Mrs. Carme quietly withdrew she thought to herself that her advice was good. For if Elinor would but remain as sweet and gracious as she had ever been, de- manding nothing, forgetful of self, she would at any rate have a pleasant atmosphere about her, and that was much. Mrs. Carme's eyes overflowed as the steamer disappeared down the bay. "My brave Nelly," she murmured, "may God bless and keep her!" "Amen! " said her fellow-watcher fervently. The two traversed the dock in silence, but [30] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE when Mr. Ferrars said good-by to Mrs. Carme he asked a favor that pleased her greatly. " If you will allow me I will come in, in a couple of weeks, for news of Miss Ladoon," he said, coloring hotly. "She has given me permission to write to her, but of course when she answers my letters she won't tell me just how it is with her and I want to know." "I shall receive few complaints, Mr. Ferrars, no matter how trying Nelly may find her position/.' said Mrs. Carme gently. "She is no grumbler, poor child!" "But you will know without being told," the young man insisted eagerly, "for you will be able to read between the lines." "You must come and see me, at any rate," Mrs. Carme said smiling, shaking hands cordially with Miss Ladoon's anxious guardian. "And you cannot come too often. It will be a real kiridness on your part, for there is no one else to whom I can speak freely of Elinor, and you know what that means to me." As Mrs. Carme drove home she sighed over the trying ways of the Fates. If the three sisters had but woven together the threads of these two lives instead of twisting Elinor's with Maynard Bertram's! [31] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Yes, let Mr. Ferrars come in often the oftener the better, as she had said to him. Much could be done by letters, and a word in season. "And I will back him for all I am worth," she murmured, lapsing into slang. Mrs. Carme had been leaning back restfully in the carriage, but a disagreeable thought now startled her into a stiff uprightness of position. Maynard had to be reckoned with, and this she had failed to remember. He had loved Elinor all his life; he had been accustomed to her com- panionship always. And he was in France, whither his life-long sweetheart and companion was now sailing. "He can never live up to his promises to his parents if he hears that Nelly is anywhere near him never, never, never!" the disturbed lady said to herself. "That silly letter of his was written when his weak head was half crazed with despair and excitement. He is now probably regretting bitterly that he had not courage to stand up against his mother. But what will he do? Of course he will hear that the child is to be with Winifred Cryden. Mrs. Bertram will be too proud of her successful meddling to be able to keep it to herself; and, anyway, Maynard will be sure to hear from some of his friends at home. He [32] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE will try to see Nelly. He will not be able to keep away from her. Oh, I do hope that those Gilles- pies will take it into their heads to motor through England or anywhere out of France!" And she fell to assuring herself that this would probably be the case, France being a small coun- try and people of the Gillespie stamp finding their chief pleasure, when travelling, in the rapid- ity of their touring car. Mr. Ferrars, too, was troubled by disturbing thoughts as he walked swiftly in the direction of his office. He was remembering his last interview with James Ladoon, remembering his confession to the dying man of his love for Elinor, his desire to win her for his wife and remembering the look of relief that had come into those poor anxious eyes! He could almost hear again Elinor's sweet voice repeating obediently and gravely the words that he himself had daringly given her, words that meant so much to her uncle, words the trend of which she might not even imagine. But had he played fair ? "Ah, well," he thought, his lips tightening into a line of iron determination, "all's fair in love and war! And if poor Ladoon went out of the world the happier in the belief that she was will- ing to give me a chance, it can do no one harm." [33] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Then, like Mrs. Carme, his mind was suddenly tormented by the recollection of Maynard Ber- tram's presence in France, and, also like Mrs. Carme, he felt sure that Maynard would try to see Elinor. "The beggar is head over ears in love with her," he said to himself ruefully, "and now's the time, naturally, for him to go in and win. She's in trouble and far away from home. He's an old friend, and that will mean much. And I chained here hand and foot!" And he fell to wondering if he were not in great need of rest and change of scene. Then smiled grimly at himself for this trumped up excuse; while his longing to get away grew like Jack's bean-stalk, obscuring for a time his legitimate business, the affairs of other folk. And had he known of the broken engagement, he would not have been a whit more at his ease. He would have felt with Mrs. Carme that, by hook or by crook, Maynard Bertram would make his way back to Elinor. [34] "O'er all there hung the shadow of a fear; A sense of mystery the spirit daunted." BOTH Mrs. Carme and Elinor had been to Europe several times, but it so happened that although they had journeyed southward through sunny France neither one of them had ever stopped at Ville-de-Plaisir. Elinor's first letter, written on the steamer, described the voyage as uninteresting and uneventful. Her second was as follows: "HOTEL DU JARDIN, "VILLA FENICE, ' 'V ILLE-DE-PLAISIR, FRANCE. "DEAR ALICIA: "I confess that I am rather sorry that I promised to write you all the disagreeables, for it seems to me a very foolish thing to do. What appear to be 'dunderbergs' sometimes turn out to be noth- ing but harmless vapor, and you may worry over a cloud that has a silver lining. "The train was behind time last night and I O arrived very late. You will be displeased to hear [35] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE that I travelled alone, Winifred not having sent any one to meet me at Cherbourg. I got on very nicely until I left the train here and discovered that I was not expected. The hotel omnibus had not come for me, and I own I felt a trifle disconcerted when a sleepy porter put me and my traps into a little open fiacre, and told me that the hotel was more than a mile distant. "A city at midnight is always dreary, and as our road led us under a railway bridge, past long rows of closed shops, and tall, newly built, cheap apart- ment houses, Ville-de-Plaisir belied its name. We mounted steadily an easy slope, our faces turned northward toward the hills. These showed dark against the starlit sky as we at last came out into the open, where small villas replaced the blocks of houses. The road still sloped up- ward. To our right a great building surmounted by a graceful tower loomed above us. The driver pointed with his whip. "'St. Joseph,' he said; 'a monastery, yes.' Then, in answer to my question: 'Four monks, only, are allowed to remain. They tend the graves in the cemetery,' again he pointed. ' Voi- la!' But in the faint light I could hardly distin- guish the row of tombs at one side. "Dominating the monastery, in the midst of the [36] ' AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE valley that we were following, rose a wooded knoll. Again the driver pointed upward. 'Hotel du Jardin!' he said, and, cracking his whip, turned sharply in at an entrance gate an Italian entrance, Alicia, although in France! Flat-sided pillars of masonry, supporting a narrow flat roof. (I can't think of another name. But you have seen many.) "We turned up a steep hill. To our left an olive orchard, to our right a high stone wall built against a steep bank which was surmounted by a seeming- ly endless row of magnificent cypress trees, their beautiful points showing clearly against the sky. I cried out in admiration, and asked if there were a walk beneath them. The driver did not answer but, glancing at me over his shoulder and then up toward the trees as though fearful that some one might be lurking there, whipped up his horse so sharply that we tore up the hill at a mad pace. Arrived at the top he pulled it up as sharply and, letting the poor beast walk, turned to me. "'Mademoiselle demands if there is a walk be- neath the cypresses?' He lowered his voice to almost a whisper. ' But yes, there is a walk the Monk's Walk some call it!' "'Do the monks from the monastery walk there ?' I inquired. [37] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "The man stared at me in a frightened way, then, shaking his head, he again whipped up the horse and we sped along the avenue toward the hotel. I called out another question, asking if the walk were thought to be haunted, but I received no reply. "I had time to see that we were upon a plateau, the land sloping down on every side, before we drew up at the entrance of the hotel. The long white facade showed ghostly in the starlight. Not a light was to be seen in any of its windows. The driver got down and I got out. My luggage was placed on the steps, the man rang the bell, and then we waited, and waited, and waited! Again and again he rang, but no one came. "The noise of our carriage had set all the dogs in the valley barking; the splendid trees of the avenue rustled softly in the faint night wind; save for these, not a sound. I began to grow very un- easy. The driver cursed the hotel, its owner, the servants, and the lateness of the hour; and he was suggesting that I should return to the town and seek a night's lodging there, when we heard the sound of a horse's trot on the hard road far below. The cabman, curious to know where this other night-bird might be flitting, stopped ringing. I listened, too. Presently I heard the carriage [38] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE coming up the hill beneath the cypresses, and in a few moments it became visible, approaching along the avenue. My driver fervently thanked Heaven; here was some one who would admit Mademoi- selle. "The carriage was a little fiacre like mine, and its occupant was a young man who was returning, so he told me, from the opera. He was very polite, and very good-looking; of middle height, with long dark eyes, an aquiline nose, and in- tensely black hair. When he smiled his teeth gleamed white under his small black mustache. His voice was pleasant, soft and persuasive. A very curious voice, Alicia, a truly foreign voice, so gentle, and yet, underneath, so cold ! I had the odd feeling that the courtesy shown me was merely an inheritance of manner, the result of genera- tions of trained forebears, and not the expression of a kindly desire to be of use. "But Monsieur de Noiraud did not have to look after me, for even as he stepped toward the door it opened, and a sleepy, half-dressed porter ap- peared. De Noiraud spoke to him, placing me in his charge, and the underlying coldness in his voice came to the surface as he did so. It was as though he could not shake me off rapidly enough and withdraw. Indeed, he backed, hat in hand, [39] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE into the hotel and disappeared, and I was left with cabman and porter on the steps. "But the porter was thoroughly satisfactory. He took possession of me and mine with a strong yet courteous hand, showing such firmness in regard to the cab-fare that the driver dared not charge too heavily. "'I am Hubert,' he said, bowing low as I en- tered, e a votre service, Mademoiselle!' and pick- ing up the candle that he had left flaring just inside the door, he bowed again, smiling ingra- tiatingly. "He looked strange enough! A broad, stocky man, with a large, bullet-shaped head, very bald, little twinkling black eyes, a little snub nose, and the most cheerful expression imaginable. His bare feet were thrust into slippers down at the heel, and his trousers had evidently been hurriedly pulled on over his night-shirt, which was open at the throat, disclosing his hairy chest. But there was such an air of kindliness and good-nature about him that I liked him at once. "The hall was large, very lofty, and very white, the ceiling supported by tall white pillars. There were palms in pots, busts on high pedestals, much rattan furniture. Hubert held his candle high, its flickering light barely illuminated the vast [40] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE place. It looked desolate enough in the pale glim- mer; the pillars showed like tall spectres, the busts of ugly, fat-faced men seemed to be mak- ing grimaces. I shivered involuntarily. "'Mademoiselle is cold ?' the porter asked anx- iously. 'Tis true, the night is chill, and Made- moiselle is fatigued.' He stood still, frowning as if perplexed, then turning to me with a beaming smile he informed me that he did not know just where to put me for the night, but, doubtless, he could find a room. "He bowed me to the staircase, which was at one side of the hall, or fumoir y as it is called, and we mounted two long flights, Hubert lament- ing that the ' ascenseur' was not running, the electricity being always turned off the hotel at twelve o'clock. Arrived at the top he led me along a broad corridor, and stopping before a door tried it cautiously. It was locked. Crossing the hall he tried a second door. This opened, dis- closing several trunks standing about as though just placed there. The porter wrinkled up his forehead despairingly. 'Where then?' I heard him mutter. He stood still for an instant plunged in thought, and I suggested that some room must have been engaged for me, as Mademoiselle Cryden expected me. But he shook his head. [41] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "'I know nothing/ he said, 'and I must not in- trude upon these sleepers, Mademoiselle,' he waved his candle toward the rows of closed doors. Again he meditated. After a moment he cried, 'Come, then,' and with many apologies asked me to descend the flights of stairs. "Arrived in the/wmo/r, he crossed it and opened a door that led into a very narrow corridor. 'The old villa, Villa Fenice,' he explained as we trav- ersed its length and came out into a small hall in which stood a billiard-table. We then turned into a second hall, or vestibule, and mounted a blind staircase leading up between walls painted strange- ly; here and there a huge bird, a peacock, then a cockatoo, while above, as frieze, were medal- lions, women's heads. "The porter paused at the top of the first flight before a double door, and saying timidly, 'I think you will be comfortable here, Mademoiselle,' ushered me into the room in which I am now writing, and in which I am determined that I will not spend another night. "At the first glance I exclaimed at the size of the room, so large, so stately, with vaulted ceiling, and windows in deep recesses. I looked admir- ingly about me. Hubert set his guttering candle down upon the centre-table and busied himself [42] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE lighting the two that had been placed near the two beds that were ranged side by side. Then he drew the curtains, turned down the covers of one of the beds, and, bowing low, prepared to depart. "'But I am so hungry, Hubert!' I cried, for I was famished, having eaten nothing for hours. 'Do you think you could get me something to eat ? A piece of bread would do anything!' "He rubbed his head, looking miserable. 'Please try,' I begged. "He caught up his candle. 'I will, Made- moiselle, he said, and disappeared. "I examined the room. There was another door which opened into a second room, half the size of that given me. I peeped in cautiously only to be frightened by the sight of my own pale, travel- stained face, staring at me from the depths of a mirror hanging opposite. I closed the door quickly; I could not lock it, there was no key. I felt scared, and uncomfortable, and very cold. There was no fire in the white stove that stood in the chimney-piece, and I knew that it was too late to ask for one. I walked briskly up and down the great room, hoping that I might feel warmer after I had had something to eat, and lis- tening eagerly for the sound of Hubert's returning footsteps. [43] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "It seemed hours before he came. When he did appear he brought a wretched meal. On a battered kitchen tray was a cracked cup overflow- ing with luke-warm tea, while two pieces of very stale bread had been tucked into its saucer. Poor Hubert looked so cast down over his ill success that I did my best to pretend that the food pleased me. As he set the tray down upon the centre- table the teaspoon fell off with a tinkling sound, and from the vaulted ceiling came an echo. The porter started and glanced nervously about the room, his little twinkling eyes scanning every cor- ner. Then he looked up at the ceiling as if it might be about to repeat the sound and it did! I think I must have leaned against the table and jogged the tray, for the same clear, tinkling echo came again. Hubert, smiling pallidly, backed toward the door, but I somehow had a desire that he should stay. "The ceiling is painted with cupids; the walls ornamented with a frieze of plaster wreaths and loopings, with the plaster head of a cowled monk on one side, and the cherubic face of a child on the other. "I began to converse about the room, and pointing to the ceiling and the frieze, I admired their artistic merits. In answer to my questions I [44] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE learned that the great apartment had been the salon of the villa; but with each reply Hubert drew nearer the door, and at the first oppor- tunity wished me 'bon repos' and gained his free- dom. "Left alone, I undressed as quickly as I could, munching the dry bread while I made my hasty preparations for the night. As I blew out my candle, and jumped into bed, I must have set the tray jarring, for once again the ceiling sent down that tinkling echo. I don't know why, but it terrified me, and I was guilty of drawing the bed- clothes over my head like a frightened child. I did not want to hear the sound again. "Despite my fears I fell asleep instantly. I was so tired, but, Alicia, I did not sleep long. I waked with a start from a most hateful nightmare. I dreamed that a cowled monk was fighting with a gentleman in old-time dress (blue coat with bright buttons, his neck enveloped in one of those old-fashioned silk ties that one sees in miniatures painted in the 1820*5 or '3o's); I could not see the face of the old gentleman, for his back was toward me, and the monk's face was hidden by his cowl, but I felt that they were fighting to the death. And suddenly there came in my dream a pistol shot; the old man fell, and the monk, [45] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE rushing to the door that leads into the next room, disappeared. " I dreamed I knew that the priest had shot his adversary, and I also knew that no one would ever believe this, that the old man would be thought a suicide. It seemed to me that after a horrid space of time that crumpled-up figure all the while lying on the floor there came a bat- tering upon the double doors leading into the hall, and that these presently gave way, admitting a crowd of men led by gendarmes. I tried to tell the true story of the death, but in vain. They would not listen. I made a great effort and woke, crying out I don't know what. "The room was pitchy dark. I thought I would strike a match and light my candle, that I might dispel the horror of my dream. But, Alicia, I dared not. I felt that I was not alone; the great spaces of the room seemed instinct with some unseen presence. It was in vain that I tried to imagine that some servant, out too late, had lost his way and stumbled in, his pass-key serving to unlock my door. Feebly, timidly, I asked, 'Who is there ?' and the silence that followed hurt, it was so intense. Then I tried to find comfort (!) in thinking that a thief had crawled in, some way or other, and was in hiding. For a thief would have [46] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE been a fellow-creature, a human being, a some- thing very different from that indescribable at- mosphere, an atmosphere which chilled my blood, sapped my courage, and held me down. "I could not sleep again, but lay there, listen- ing miserably to a silence that was an agony to the ear. " I do not know how else to describe what I en- dured, but I do know that I shall refuse to re- peat the experience. " The room looks attractive in the morning light, with its gayly painted ceiling (from which just now I strove in vain to call an echo!), its warm- hued carpet, curtains, and furniture covers. "From the deeply recessed windows one looks down upon a wonderful garden an Italian gar- den and across the garden to the distant, two miles distant, blue waters of the Mediterranean. The sun shines brightly. The orange and lemon trees are heavy with their golden fruit. Many flowers are abloom. Can it be early December ? " I am more than sorry to have begun with dis- agreeables. In my next letter I will tell you of Winifred, of the garden, of my new duties. (I wonder, I wonder what they are to be ?) "It is 7 A. M. I am dreadfully hungry, but I feel I must not ring for breakfast so early. [47] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Dear me, what an interminable letter! But what a comfort it has been to me to write it! You are always, you have been always, such a thorough-going comfort to "Your loving "NELLY." U8] VI "A lady, young, tall, beautiful, strange and sad. 'Is she not fair? 'Tis my new cousin.' ' MISS WINIFRED CRYDEN heard with regret the manner of her young cousin's arrival. She had, in her mind's eye, seen every- thing happening otherwise, and, being a very obsti- nate person, she determined that the Fates should not thus alter her plans. So she paid an early visit to her "new cousin," as she had dubbed Elinor, because they had never met before, and tapped at the girl's door at nine o'clock. The greeting between the two had that curious mingling of familiarity and stiffness that generally marks a meeting between relatives who, owing to circumstance, have remained strangers. Each surveyed the other with a deep interest which neither sought to conceal. They were to be close companions for some months. An unbiased out- sider might have felt doubt as to the wisdom of the arrangement. [49] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Miss Cryden had a great deal of manner. Al- though hard on sixty she affected the sprightly vivacity of a volatile girl, and she endeavored to ward off the advance of years by every means possible. Her hair was colored with a Titianesque dye, that the mixture of gray in the once brown locks might not be visible, while her eyebrows were heavily pencilled with black. The wrinkles on cheeks and brow were almost blotted out by nightly massage and the daily application of some unguent known to her well-instructed French maid. Miss Cryden had kept her figure; she was upright and slender graceful she had never been. Despite her age and "the adulteries of art," she was still a pretty woman. She would have been far prettier had she left herself as nature willed. The contrast between the two women was sharply defined in this hour of meeting. Elinor's late misfortunes had lent an air of sadness to her gentle dignity of bearing, which gave her, be- cause of her youth, a strangely pathetic charm. The girl looked wistfully into the eyes of the elder woman, seeking some expression of intelligent sym- pathy. But she saw only inquisitiveness, the hard interest of a buyer scanning a doubtful purchase; and the gratitude that she felt toward this cousin [50] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE was forced back into her heart. She obliged her- self to thank Miss Cryden, however, telling that lady how much the change of scene meant to her, and saying frankly how glad she was to learn by degrees to readjust herself to her changed circum- stances. Later she wrote to Mrs. Carme of this first in- terview; but although she kept her word in regard to telling the disagreeables that she encountered, she was careful to avoid writing of her own sadness of heart, of her sense of desolation, of her almost passionate homesickness. She was naturally un- selfish and brave, and Mrs. Carme had encouraged these virtues. "HOTEL DU JASDIN, "VILLA FENICE, " VILLE-DE-PLAISIR, FRANCE. "DEAR ALICIA: " I thank you for your letter. It came yesterday, and it was like a draught of refreshing water to a thirsty traveller. It is good of you to say you will write once a week. Thank you a thousand times ! "Winifred is just as you described her, both in appearance and manner. I do not know yet why she invited me here. Not because she needs my society, of that I am sure. You insist that she [51] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE will demand her pound of flesh, but I want to believe that she is away down at the bottom of her heart both charitable and kind. I hope this may be so. Unfortunately you are almost always so provokingly right, Alicia! "She came in to see me soon after I had finished writing to you, and said I must change my room at once. As she did not wish any one to know of my late arrival, * disreputable arrival/ she called it, she made me put on several veils, which she had brought for that purpose, and envelop my- self in a long cloak. Then, with many hidings, drawings back into corners, scuttlings when the coast was clear, and breathless darts and dashes, she led me up the second flight of the steep, old- fashioned, painted staircase, and through a long, narrow corridor, up several steps into the broad upper hall of the main hotel (whither I had mounted the previous night with Hubert), and to a corner room at the very end. "'This is a northeast room, Elinor/ she said, as she almost pushed me in and closed the door. 'I have told everybody that you are like the late Queen (Victoria, you know), and prefer a north room. Otherwise people might have thought it queer, you being such an heiress, you know/ She laughed very peculiarly. I remembered that [5*] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE south rooms were more expensive on the Riviera, but it was not of this, I am sure, that Winifred was thinking when she laughed. 'The room is heated, as you see,' she continued, pointing to the coil of pipes in one corner, 'and the view is rav- issante.' " It is ravishing. Directly under my north win- dow is the plateau, with its great trees, and be- yond, the crests of the near-by hills; while from the eastern window one looks away and away across the intervening valleys to the mountains of the coast line, where goes curving and climbing the old Corniche road. Below the window is a steeply terraced olive orchard. The trees are beautiful; their great trunks gnarled and old, their gray-green leaves shimmering like silver in the sunshine. Winifred pointed out, on a plateau across the valley, the hotel where Queen Victoria stayed during her spring-time visits here. That is now the fashionable suburb of Ville-de-Plaisir. "'I wish you to appear properly this evening, Elinor,' Winifred said, drawing me away from the window, 'so I shall beg you to stay in your room until then. You need a rest anyway. Are you always so pale?' I explained that I rarely had much color. 'Well, perhaps it is all the better/ she went on, 'it makes your fairness of skin more [53] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE noticeable. I am sorry your hair is so dark, but it can't be helped. Does it wave naturally, or do you make that?' I explained that it waved nat- urally. 'Have you a good neck and arms?' was her next question. 'Do you look well decollete, I mean ?' "'I am said to,' I made answer; and then, Alicia, ashamed of appearing conceited, I blushed furiously. "Winifred clapped her hands. 'Brava!' she cried. 'Do that as often as you can, it is vastly becoming. If only you know how to flirt, you will do famously. Can you flirt, ires chere ?' "I stared at her, Alicia, not knowing how to re- ply. "'Don't look so stupid, Elinor/ she said quite peevishly. 'You must know whether you can flirt or not. But perhaps you think I mean co- quet; I don't, I mean f, 1, i, r, t, flirt. Wait,' she tossed herself into an arm-chair, dangling one leg over the arm and displaying a length of black silk stocking clocked with blue, and a little blue kid slipper with a very high heel and a dashy silver buckle on its bow. She leaned her blonded head against the chair back, and, half closing her eyes, gave me this definition of flirting. 'To flirt, if you are a woman, Elinor, ma belle et jeune cousine, [54] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE means to do your possible to make the man in whom you happen for the moment to be interested, fall in love with you ?' "And if a man flirts?' I inquired. " She jumped up out of her chair, an angry color surging over her face (yes, Alicia, she is made up, just as you said she was, but she has a pretty pink in her cheeks that is all her own), well, up she jumped, and going to the bell, pressed the but- ton fiercely. 'A man who flirts,' she answered over her shoulder, 'is the kind of scoundrel who pretends to be in love when he isn't. I abhor such men, and I scorn them yes, I have a per- fect contempt for them!' And the chambermaid coming, she sent for her maid, and forgot to ask me again if I flirted or not. "This was lucky, for I should have had to con- fess that I don't flirt, and, what's more, won't even try to flirt after her fashion. "While waiting for her maid she pulled out a fancy gold cigarette case and began to smoke. "You are not to do it here,' she said (coolly taking it for granted that I smoke, Alicia!) 'and if any one asks if you smoke be sure to say that you don't. I shall expect you to be guided by me while you are my guest, Elinor. Aren't you sometimes called Nelly ? ' [55] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Upon my saying that I was she fell to repeat- ing the two names, 'Elinor, Nelly; Nelly, Elinor;' and so on, over and over again, watching me as she did so, her head on one side. It was so ridiculous that I could not help laughing, and she stopped. "Ah, now I understand,' she said. 'When you laugh you look like a Nelly, quite too awfully jolly, and all that. When you are grave, Elinor suits you down to the ground. Hum,' she medi- tated for an instant, 'Winifred and Elinor, Winnie and Nelly, yes, that sounds well. I tell you what, Nelly, we'll change about with our names, makes them more piquant. Oh, here's my maid,' as a trig little Frenchwoman came in, bowing and smiling. 'This is Mademoiselle my new cousin, Berthe, Mademoiselle Ladoon. She is hand- some, isn't she, Berthe ? And now to unpack her things and make her presentable for this evening.' And the porter was summoned to fetch my belongings. " My scanty allowance of frocks is a great trial to her, just as I feared. 'What,' she exclaimed, holding up her hands she wears quantities of rings, Alicia, beautiful rings 'only three gowns! juste del! Berthe, Berthe, what shall we do?' 'The evening robe is charming,' Berthe said soothingly, in her pretty Parisian French, 'and [56] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE as Mademoiselle is in mourning a great variety is not necessary.' "'But that is just nonsense, and you know it, Berthe,' Winifred said peevishly. 'You forget that Mademoiselle is an heiress,' again she laughed strangely. (I do not like this laugh, Alicia; it means something that I don't under- stand.) 'Eh bien,' she continued, sighing heavily, 'we must see that she has a proper outfit, that is all.' " I have no intention of accepting so much from her, Alicia, and this I told her as plainly. as civility permitted, speaking in English that Berthe might not understand. But I might as well have tried to 'shoot folly as it flies.' Not a particle of at- tention did she pay me, but flitted restlessly hither and thither among my things, like a discontented butterfly in a garden filled with uninteresting flowers. Her many bracelets tinkled as she plucked at my unsatisfactory toilets, the laces and ribbons of her blue silk matinee fluttered. Ah, well, I dare say she meant only to be kind. Poor cousin Winifred! " I am to sleep all day and make my first grand ( ?) appearance in public this evening at dinner. As you have asked for minute descriptions of every happening, you shall hear if this audience before which I am to make my bow welcomes me with [57] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE plaudits, with hisses, or simply with the usual in- difference bestowed in hotels upon unimportant arrivals. But I forget, I am important, Winifred says. '" Listen/ she said to me solemnly, 'you are eagerly looked for by every one, yes, everyone. For you are not only my new cousin, you are an enormously rich American girl/ "I protested, but in vain. "'Did I, or did I not, invite you here as the heiress of James Ladoon ?' "Of course she did, and I had to acknowledge it. "'Are you, or are you not, the heiress of James Ladoon ?' "Alas, poor Uncle Jim! But Winifred was in the right. I had accepted her invitation as she gave it. And, after all, it matters very little what these strangers think. "Do not dare to suggest again that you will pay the postage on my letters to you. Try to realize what a comfort it is to me to write to you; it is my one luxury, like an old poorhouse-man's to- bacco, or an old woman's pinch of tea. "Your loving "ELINOR, NELLY; NELLY, ELINOR. 'You pays your money and you takes your choice!"' [58] VII "A bloom as bright as opening morn. Suffused her clear white cheek; The music of her voice was mild;" ELINOR stood before the long mirror of her armoire, waiting patiently until Miss Cry- den and Miss Cryden's maid should have finished tweaking and smoothing out the train of her even- ing gown. The dress was sufficiently becoming to content even the hypercritical Miss Cryden, who was so nervously excited over her "new cousin's" appearance that both Elinor and Berthe secretly wondered. The gown was of dull black silk, trimmed with crepe, cut square at the neck, and with sleeves that barely reached the elbow beautiful elbows, showing fascinating dints and dimples. Around the girl's firm white throat was clasped a string of pearls. It was upon the pearls that her eyes were fixed as she regarded her reflection in the mirror. She had wished to sell them, but Mrs. Carme had vetoed the wish. Now Elinor was glad that she had listened to this advice. Pearls, it seemed, [59] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE were highly necessary for her role as- heiress. She was thankful that she had some of the acces- rories demanded. Elinor was what is called an evening beauty; she became brilliant in the evening, the clear, healthful paleness of the cheeks gaining a rosy tint that added lustre to her always splendid eyes. Miss Cryden noting keenly each good point pro- nounced herself satisfied, and, ranging herself be- side Elinor, studied the effect they produced to- gether. Miss Cryden wore what her dressmaker called " a creation in blue," a close-fitting trailing dinner- gown of blue satin, the sleeves and open throat ornamented with exquisite point-lace. A diamond and emerald dragon-fly sparkled in the fashion- ably arranged hair, and one diamond and emer- ald drop hung at her throat. "Pink would have flung up your gown better, Nelly," said Miss Cryden reflectively, gazing in turn from one image in the looking-glass to the other, as she might have gazed upon two dolls in a shop window, "but hair the color of mine doesn't admit of red or pink. How would a pink carnation do in her hair, Berthe ?" she turned to her maid. "Please not, Winifred," Elinor began hastily. "I would rather " [60] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "You don't want to wear even a flower ?" Miss Cryden interrupted. "That's ridiculous, Nelly. (I wish when I say 'Nelly,' you would say 'Winnie' I gave you your cue just now. I want to hear how it sounds.)" "A Roland for your Oliver, Winnie?" Elinor replied smiling. "Forgive my stupidity. I did not think." "Mademoiselle needs no flower to-night," Berthe said, her small dark eyes fixed upon her mistress. "Later perhaps. To-night Madame de Noiraud will again wear the red velvet I had it from her maid." "Now what do you mean by that, Berthe?" Miss Cryden asked sharply. "But nothing," Berthe cried deprecatingly "but nothing at all, Mademoiselle. I thought at the card-table perhaps (Madame de Noiraud plays at cards so often with Mademoiselle), the robe of black, of red, of blue " " Berthe, you are a fool," was her mistress's com- ment, as with Elinor beside her she left the room. It was twelve o'clock when Elinor re-entered, the hour when the electric light ceased to be avail- able at Hotel du Jardin, and it was by the light of one candle that she described her first evening to her friend. 1 61] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "HOTEL DU JARDIN, . "VILLA FENICE. DEAR ALICIA: "Exactly at seven o'clock did the Misses Cry- den and Ladoon descend 'the broad hall stair M How Winifred felt I cannot tell you, but that she felt much was almost painfully apparent. I saw her mouth twitch with excitement as, arriving upon the last landing of the lower staircase, we came in full view of the fumoir and its occupants. The place looked very different; brilliant with electric light, and filled with people in evening dress, it had lost its ghost-haunted appearance of the previous evening. I saw that the fat marble busts on high pedestals represented some of the Roman emperors, but in the full light their fea- tures showed pompous and solemn. It was the flickering glimmer of Hubert's candle that had made them play ugly tricks. "The staircase is broad. We descended these last few steps slowly. I had the curious sensa- tion of being on a stage in a play, a play in which, unfortunately, I did not know my part. (That something is expected of me is clear enough.) But I did not care very much. Do people ever care very much about anything, Alicia, after the lightning has struck ? Directly opposite us, on the far-away side of the hall, a group of people [62] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE were seated who watched our descent with an interest that might be described as intense, an interest that they did not make the slightest effort to conceal. It was toward this group that Winifred led me. "(Everybody seemed on the qui vive, Alicia, some showing their curiosity by the way in which they affected not to see us! It was absurd, but somehow, I had no disposition to laugh. There was something so strange in Winifred's atmosphere that the sadness which now holds me was deep- ened, I don't know why!) "As we approached our goal I saw that the group was composed of but three people a black-haired, black-eyed, high-aquiline-nosed, dark-complex- ioned, short lady, in a red velvet gown; a black- haired, black-eyed, dark-complexioned, snub- nosed, fat, short, elderly gentleman, in a skull cap; and, the young man of last night, Monsieur Ulaszlo de Noiraud. They were all upon their feet long before we reached them, and I was confronted by a fixed stare from three pairs of intensely black eyes. Handsome eyes, Alicia; those of the young man flashing like black dia- monds. He, like Winifred, was, I thought, ex- cited. Indeed, I think that I was the only non- excited person present. [63] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "When it came the turn of the young man to be presented they are all de Noirauds; Monsieur et Madame, aunt and uncle of Monsieur Ulaszlo, whom they call Laszlo when his turn came to be presented I gave every one an electric shock by smiling graciously (as you bade me, Alicia!) and recounting our meeting at midnight. The strange thing was that Monsieur Laszlo was as much startled as the rest, and seemed greatly worried, repeating over and over again: "'If I had but known! If I had but known!' "Winifred gave me a glance of mingled suspicion and reproach, murmuring in English under her breath (did you know a murmur could be sharp, Alicia ? It can!), 'Why didn't you tell me ? You have made me look like a fool!' " I was, and am, very sorry. I forgot all about him, so I forgot to tell her of the meeting; I for- got, also, that I was supposed to have just arrived. Altogether, I made a mess of my role whatever it was, and is. "The de Noirauds speak French, Ulaszlo, only, knowing a little, a very little, English. They are Hungarians; descendants of a French count who fled into Transylvania, I forget just when. They are here for the health of Uncle de Noiraud, who suffers from rheumatism. Laszlo is twenty-six; AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Laszlo has been educated in Paris; Laszlo is the youngest of three brothers, but he is the favorite of his uncle, for whom he is named, and who has no children; Laszlo is a crack shot, a good horse- man, and a beautiful dancer; Laszlo is of an affectionate nature and of a modesty extreme- does one ever hear him recounting his skill as a sportsman, as a rider, as a dancer, as do other jeunes messieurs? Ah, but never! "All this was told me by Madame de Noiraud while Monsieur Laszlo was being button-holed by a group of ladies who had made a dash at and surrounded him on his exit from the dining-room. "Winifred and I had a little table to ourselves in the dining-room; all the families had little tables to themselves; sometimes a family consisting of one lady had its little table to itself. I think the old long table-d'hote was much more entertaining. I remember when Uncle Jim first brought me to Europe there were some left that was ten years ago! What a crazily jolly little creature I was then, Alicia! I remember how nice every one was to me, how they petted me and chatted with me. Well, I have no cause to complain; they are doing the same thing now, but it is because of supposititious wealth, and I am no longer crazily, or any other kind of jolly. [65] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "The dining-rooms there are two, one opening out of the other are charmingly bright, with mirrors, gay red and white curtains, and flowers on every table. There is much talking done, peo- ple shouting remarks from one table to another, and this I think tiresome; it is so hard to hear, and when those behind Winifred speak to her, it seems always to happen when her mouth is full, for of course they cannot see that she has just taken a bite. "There is a quaint, old-fashioned salon, with a painted vaulted ceiling and formal furnishings. It is in the old Villa Fenice, and has two windows looking on the garden. We sat there in the even- ing and played bridge, Winifred and the fat old Comte de Noiraud, Monsieur Ulaszlo and I. Madame de Noiraud sat hard by, knitting, her unwavering gaze fixed most of the time upon me, for she knits as you do, Alicia, without looking on. The young man was bent upon pleasing me; this was so evident that had he not been so handsome, and well-mannered, and really cold, it would have been ridiculous. But his good looks, and his underlying coldness, saved the day. A young, fresh-hearted girl, in her teens, might have fan- cied that she had made a quick conquest, but not a disillusioned woman like me. [66] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "To use slang, he is evidently going in for me, and Winifred is flinging me at his head. Not openly; no, she is doing it very well. I think that the de Noirauds have no idea of it. She was unhappy and excited, concealing these feelings under the cloak of girlish vivacity that she affects. How do I know that she was unhappy and ex- cited ? You know I almost always know, Alicia ! I wish that I did not feel atmosphere so plainly. But such a strange idea has come into my head in regard to Winifred that, as yet, I dare not con- fide it to you. It is monstrous, incredible and yet ? "I will finish this to-morrow. Good-night; my dear, good-night!" Elinor rose from the table, blew out the candle, and going to the window looked out into the night. The line of mountains showed soft against the starlit sky velvety shapes, splendidly repose- ful, unconscious of the woes of mankind. Far below the window the leaves of the topmost branches of the olive-trees stirred softly; high overhead sparkled the stars. It was all so beau- tiful, so serene, but, to the girl in the window, so unutterably sad. She thought of her renegade lover, for whom she had had so true an affection, [67] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE and she wondered if one did not suffer more from a dying affection than from a crossed passion, for she realized that she had not been what is called in love. But without Maynard and her uncle it was to her as though the firm earth had been cut away from under her feet. She told herself that she had nothing to live for, she was but an added care to her much-loved friend, Mrs. Carme. She stared blankly across the dusky spaces of the night. "I wish," she whispered brokenly, "oh, I wish that I were dead!" [68] VIII ". . . I saw enter, stand, and seat herself A lady, young, tall, beautiful, strange, and sad. . . . she turned, Looked our way, smiled the beautiful, sad, strange smile. 'Is she not fair? 'Tis my new cousin,' said " WHILE Elinor was writing her letter, Mon- sieur Ulaszlo de Noiraud was employed in the same fashion. He wrote to his first cousin, a certain Comte Matyas de Folatre, the son of a sister of Comte de Noiraud, who had married a Frenchman and lived in France. Matyas was older by four years than Ulaszlo; he had, two years before, bettered his fortunes by marrying a rich English girl, whom he left in his lonely old chateau while he enjoyed her dowry in Paris. Of this Ulaszlo did not approve. He thought that the wife should have been allowed to accompany her husband and permitted to enjoy some of the gayeties of town. It was always sufficiently easy to keep one's own amusements in the background; the presence of a wife did not at all oblige one to [69] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE relinquish one's pleasures; one had to hide them, voila tout! Ulaszlo, also, was writing as was Elinor by candle-light. His face in its perfect repose was very handsome, clear-cut, immobile, strange. There was about it what the French describe as une froideur lumineuse, a luminous coldness. The Transylvanian held his pen idly, but with a careless firmness which denoted great strength, while he stared toward his window, through which, because of the lighted candle close before him, he could not see. But if he had been able to look from his writing-table out into the night, he would not have noted the beauty of the long row of cypresses whose exquisite tops pointed, like warning fingers, upward, toward heaven. The window was in a corner room of the Villa Fenice, the entire length of the house from that of the "new cousin," the American girl. From the window one might almost look down into the long aisle of the Monk's Walk; almost, but not quite, because the Monk's Walk lay the depth of a steep bank below the garden of the villa. Yet the cypresses, in their magnificent growth, had long since lifted their spires high above both the steep bank and the magnolias and orange-trees of the garden. [70] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Ulaszlo held his pen idly for a few moments, then wrote that the uncle and aunt were well, and that the American girl had arrived. Reach- ing this point the writer leaned back in his chair and meditated. Should he tell Matyas of the midnight meeting, the really first meeting ? He concluded that he would not. Matyas would fail to understand the ways of American girls; Mat- yas would probably think that so strange a pro- ceeding as travelling by herself through a foreign land, and arriving alone at a hotel at midnight, must mean laxity of morals. It was, indeed, Ulaszlo thought, a most peculiar proceeding. The girl had looked so quietly composed, and had appeared almost haughtily unconscious of there being anything compromising in the situa- tion, alone with him as though by arrangement, truly on his return from the opera! She had not been in the least abashed, but had asked his assistance without embarrassment. He fell to wishing that he had given it more warmly. What would an American gentleman have done in like circumstance ? But his imagination was unequal to this herculean task, and he took up his pen and recommenced writing. He described Elinor fully, dwelling particularly upon the beauty of her figure and regretting that [71] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE she was exactly his height. He would have pre- ferred, so he wrote, that Mademoiselle Ladoon should have been more petite, since a man looked better when appearing with a woman less tall than himself; and he expressed his belief that Elinor was older than Mademoiselle Cryden had said, adding that women were always terribly rusee where age was concerned. Upon the beauty of Elinor's eyes, the fairness of her skin, the sweetness of her voice and the graciousness of her manner he commented with satisfaction. "But I regret much, my cousin, that Made- moiselle Ladoon is not a blonde. I have desired always a blonde wife, but what will you ? One cannot secure everything!" He leaned back in his chair conjuring up Elinor's image as she had appeared when making her graceful way across the fumoir. Recalling her expression as she smiled in turn upon those presented to her, he fell to wondering at the sadness of that smile. Young, beautiful, rich, yet so strangely sad! Then why ? He determined that he would make it his business to discover. "Our uncle and aunt approve," he wrote, con- tinuing his letter, "and they will arrange every- thing. It is entirely decided that I shall marry her. AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "You ask why I did not continue with the cousin of Mademoiselle Ladoon, with the Made- moiselle Cryden, and if she had not sufficient money. She is enormously rich, Matyas, but stingy. Aunt Eugenie sounded her in regard to the dot, and discovered that she would relinquish but a third of her fortune! To confess myself wholly, I could not bring myself to go further with Mademoiselle Cryden. She is so old. At first I thought that the age did not matter, and our uncle urged me (the third of her fortune being much money), but I could not force myself and I withdrew. Mademoiselle Cryden is too old! " These Americans are a strange people. They cry out against our custom, that of the wife's Jot. If one asks who then is to care for the family, they make answer the husband! Let him work and provide for all. I am told that in the United States this is frequently done, the wife bringing nothing, rien du tout! Figure to yourself what a society! "But the fortune of Mademoiselle Ladoon so Mademoiselle Cryden assures Aunt Eugenie is to pass into the care of her husband upon her marriage, this being the will of the late uncle from whom she inherits her wealth. She has now a guardian, a Monsieur Ferrars, who will then re- [73] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE linquish his charge. I think we shall be very happy together. I will give her affection. Since parting with Melanie I have done with love and to love one's wife, a love-match, juste del! There is what was a love-match in this hotel. Now they hate bitterly, as is but natural/' Ulaszlo wiped his pen, closed his inkstand, and was about to seal his letter when a new idea flashed across his mind and caused him to write a long postscript. It had occurred to him that when he should have married Mademoiselle La- doon she might (with the strange openness which seemed part of her character) relate to Matyas her late arrival at the hotel, and tell of their first meeting. Ulaszlo thought that it would be dis- agreeable to give lessons in conduct as to what she should tell, and what not to a newly wedded, enormously rich wife. It would be better to re- count all to Matyas, and endeavor to make Mat- yas understand the curious ways of this, to him, unknown breed of women. Otherwise Matyas might misunderstand the future Madame Ulaszlo de Noiraud, and become venturesome. The postscript finished to his satisfaction, he sealed his letter and went to bed. But sleep re- fused to come for some hours, and he sighed as he realized that already the cares of a married [74] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE man were descending upon his shoulders. He would have much, very much, preferred to have remained single for certainly five years to come, but as fate had ordained that in this case he must spend his time dancing attendance upon his rich, childless uncle, he sought matrimony as the lesser evil. Should he make a good marriage, both his uncle and his father would settle money upon him; he would have a fixed income and his freedom. He longed for liberty. " [75] IX "As soon as they saw her well-fared face, They cast the glamour o'er her, O." VILLA FENICE was built years before Ville- de-Plaisir was ceded by Italy to France. Upon its roof, high above the door of entrance, a plaster phoenix rises proudly from its flames. The villa fronts upon the Italian garden; a won- derful garden, said by high authority to rank sec- ond to that of the Villa d'Este at Tivoli. And be- cause of the exquisite views from the terraces of Villa Fenice, views of the Mediterranean and of the mountains of the coast line, some prefer this garden to that other, larger one, near Rome. Villa Fenice and its garden owe their size to a promised visit from royalty; some say a king, others a princess. But if the sex of the guest is not known, it is believed to be true that the owner of the villa added largely to both house and gar- den for the entertainment of the promised guest, thus expending his entire fortune. Royalty broke its word, and the disappointed aspirant for royal favor was ruined. But villa and garden remain, [76] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE crumbling and defaced, it is true, but still rarely lovely to, delight the eyes of strangers with their beauty. "HOTEL DU JARDIN, "VILLA FENICE. "DEAR ALICIA: "I have discovered why I was asked here by Winifred. The reason is so unpleasantly foolish that it would be laughable if it did not verge on the tragic. Winifred is in love with Ulaszlo de Noiraud. Yes, you may cry out against the idea, Alicia, and cite her age; you may say that it is impossible, incredible. Nevertheless, it is true. And, after all, if men of that age sometimes fall in love, why not a silly, empty-headed woman ? And poor Winifred is very silly, and very empty- headed. "As far as I can make out, Monsieur de Noi- raud's uncle and aunt thought Winifred might do for their nephew I fancy that he has been rather wild might keep him out of scrapes and make him run straight. At any rate, it would seem that he was at one time devoted to her, and that suddenly he ceased to be. This from Berthe, whose naughty little tongue runs like a mill-stream and gives me information to which I have no right to listen; but how to stop her she is unstoppable, to coin a word. [77] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "They were together, the de Noirauds and Wini- fred, last winter and far on into the spring. 'And it was in the spring that Monsieur Laszlo became so cold to Mademoiselle' I quote Berthe 'ah, juste del, a coldness terrible! Yet ever of a civil- ity extreme, Mademoiselle Ladoon, oh yes, of a civility!' She arched her eyebrows and flung out her arms. 'A fierce anger would have been truly more agreeable than the cold politeness of Mon- sieur Laszlo to Mademoiselle Creedan!' Berthe's pronunciation of Cryden. 'Has Mademoiselle Ladoon ever observed the coldness of Monsieur Laszlo to Mademoiselle Creedan ? A coldness underneath, while on the surface all is of a grand politeness ? Monsieur is, of a truth, always cold, but to Mademoiselle Creedan ah ! ! !' "This is quite true, Alicia, and I have noticed it. " In regard to myself. I am here, it would seem, to encourage the de Noirauds in the idea that in me they have found a treasure for their nephew. Winifred does not care, apparently, how many fibs she tells. I am to hand over the huge fortune I have inherited to my husband on the day of our marriage. It is sufficiently easy to understand the Transylvanian's desire for matrimony, when one learns that his father and uncle will then join in settling a goodly sum upon him. So he is not [78] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE so black as Winifred has painted him. Marriage to him means independence, and he is not en- tirely a 'fortune hunter,' after all. His discom- fiture when he learns that he has wasted months in pursuing me is to be Winifred's revenge. A very idiotic one, truly. But I know you will believe that her scheme lies deeper. "Ulaszlo is an agreeable companion, so agree- able that I was not too unhappy when he joined me on the upper terrace this morning. In order to have some time to myself I get up early, and I was strolling up and down the terrace by nine o'clock. The air was glorious, the pure air of the hills, for, as I wrote you, the sea is two miles distant. The terrace must be two hundred feet long; it is paved with cement close to the hotel, then come flower-edged grass plots (where grow palms, orange, and lemon trees), separated by broad paths, and there is a balustrade to keep one from falling into the garden below. From one end one has a superb view of the mountains, while the other is partially shut in by the little old chapel with its roof of green and red tiles. It is all very foreign and fascinating. "When Monsieur Laszlo and I are alone together his air of suppressed excitement betrays a con- sciousness that we are without a chaperon. I [79] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE envy him this excitement, for it evidently is a pleasant one, and to me our interviews seem tame. But my own sensations I cannot account for; for I like to have him with me and he soothes me, and this I fail to understand. It does not matter how he feels; if he is excited or nervous or dull, he makes me comfortable just the same. I have had this feeling before with a dog, but never with a man. "I said that I intended to go down through the garden and to return by the Monk's Walk, and I invited him to accompany me. He was slightly terrified at this bold idea, and he glanced up toward the window of his aunt's room as if se- cretly wondering what she would think of such goings on. Then I fancy he remembered that I was almost his fiancee, for he came very close and murmured, in a voice that was a caress, that he would gladly go. "We walked down a broad alley (once paved in quaint patterns, but all is wearing, or worn, away), descending now long, now short flights of moss-grown, crumbling, statue-guarded steps, and on under magnolia trees, listening to the water gurgling down the little cement canals on either side, into cement basins old, old little canals, and old, old basins like a musical pair of brooks, [so] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE For the gardeners were irrigating the flower-beds. Now and again tiny lizards darted across our path. The sun was powerful. I was without a hat, and carried a sunshade. I forgot that it was December. And, somehow, I forgot, also, all past and present worries. It seemed to me that I would be content to ramble on forever in the sunshine, with my handsome, gentle, idle companion. "Yes, Alicia, that is the way the man affects me and I can't tell why! "At the end of the alley we saw the sea, blue, sparkling, glinting in the sunshine; and in the near distance, uplifted high in air against the blue background of sea and sky, rose the graceful tower of the old monastery; a tower that closely resembles that of the Palazzo Vecchio at Florence. But surmounting this tower is the stately figure of an angel holding a cross. A weather-cock, Alicia, but such a splendid, gracious one! "The alley we followed is the chief one of the garden. It ends, apparently, in a parapet; but to the right of this parapet a flight of unseen steps leads down to a succession of small terraces end- ing in a mass of forest trees where, turning and descending again, we reached the gate a stately gate, supported by cypress trees. It is as though one were in a room. The flagged square before [81] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE the gate is so large, the cypresses, the high walls, and the steep flight of steps leading down to it shutting one in. It was dark there, and cold, and gloomy. The gateway, a grand old pillared gateway, is boarded up, a narrow opening in the wall to one side serving as a means of egress now. "The place destroyed my comfort. There was something eerie about it. I shivered and Mon- sieur Laszlo observing this, hastened to wrap your scarf about my shoulders. But it was not the chill that I minded, it was the gloom, and I hurried out into the sunshine again. I told Laszlo that it was the very place for a murder, and he reproved me gently, but very gravely, for indulging in such terrible thoughts. Jeunes demoi- selles, he said, should think only of birds and flowers. He is not very clever! "As I was politely listening to this conservative prattle, I heard a child's clear treble piping a song, to the accompaniment of footsteps descend- ing the stone steps down which we had just come. The words of the song rang out distinctly in the still morning air, and I recognized an old friend. Do you remember the quaint doggerel Uncle Jim used to sing for my amusement when I was a child ? He knew so much nonsense, dear, kind Uncle Jim! [to] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "'A meetin' am a pleasure, And a partin' am a grief, But a false-hearted lovyer Am worser than a thief; For a thief he can but rob yer, And take away all you have, But a false-hearted lovyer Can tote yer to the grave.' "I stood still (feeling cut to the heart as I lis- tened, Alicia, for I thought of Maynard), and the dearest little girl came dancing out of the gloom behind us into the sunshine. She looked like a ray of sunshine herself as she paused on the low- est step and gazed wonderingly upon us out of a pair of large, clear, hazel eyes. Long golden curls hung over her shoulders. She was without a hat, and she wore a white frock with fluttering ribbons. She might have been a little fairy; she was so light, so gracefully ready to fly away, so fragile and fair. I lost my heart to her on the spot. "'Are you the star of the morning?' I asked, smiling. 'You look bright enough to be.' "She did not answer, but suddenly overcome with shyness timidly cast down her eyes, the long dark lashes making a charming fringe against her pink cheeks. At this moment her nurse loomed up behind her, and seeing that the child had found friends, beamed affably upon us. She is a [83] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE large, comfortable person, with a fine expanse of apron and a broad, good-natured Irish face. "* Speak to the young lady, Gwenny,' she said, with a feeble attempt at reproof in her fat voice, 'an* tell her your name/ Then, evidently accus- tomed to having her behests ignored, she told the child's name herself. 'Gwendolen Abercrombie Merryweather is her name. She's named for her father's mother (your grandma, ain't you, pet ?), and she's small for her age she's eight. We're here to learn French, she and me!' and she chuckled over the jest. "'Nize leetle chile!' said Monsieur de Noiraud, altering his voice after the comical fashion that some people have when speaking to children. "Gwendolen shot one swift side glance at him, and I knew that she had detected the false ring in his tone as clearly as I. Then she looked full at me, and coming forward offered one small hand and made me a quick courtesy. In her other hand she held two roses; these she gave me, but she said nothing. "'Me nozzing?' mourned de Noiraud in his assumed voice, holding out his hand. "The child surveyed him coldly, turned, and danced up the steps. Pausing at the top she looked back over her shoulder and kissed her [84] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE hand to me. Then crying, 'Come, Nanna!' to her nurse, she disappeared in the gloom of the gateway. "'You do not care for children,' I said to Laszlo. "'How did you discover?' he demanded in sur- prise. "'Your voice told me,' I said. "'You are very clever,' was his comment. 'I shall soon fear you.' "This was not true. "We strolled up the Monk's Walk slowly. It was not gloomy under its cypress trees, but altogether lovely. Far, far away at the end a bit of blue sky showed, like a great turquoise. When we had mounted to the plateau we came upon an artist sketching. A tall, loosely-put-together, blond man of thirty, with a kindly, humorous face and charming manners. He let me look at his sketch. It was excellent. The black tunnel of the Monk's Walk, with a glimpse of the sunshine-bathed ter- race at the end. " He was very pleasant and genial, and told me that he was on the Riviera for his health; and he confessed to being very homesick, as his wife has to remain in England with her mother, who is ill. He thinks of coming to stay in this hotel; he is in- fatuated with the garden, and Ville-de-Plaisir is AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE so big and dusty and noisy. (It is enormous! We look down upon it from here and its red roofs seem never ending.) I hope he may come, for I like him. His name is Delamere, Caxton Dela- mere. Such a romantic name! I like it. "Monsieur Laszlo does not like it; and he did not like my behavior. For I forgot that he did not speak English, and I and Mr. Delamere chatted in our own tongue. I was sorry to have been rude and I apologized. And last evening I offered to play for him. Winifred did not know that I could play and she feared that I might prove myself but a tyro and weary him. I had a little triumph, Alicia, a little triumph that would have delighted you, you are so vain of my playing. "Then came a surprise, and, strangely enough, a surprise to Winifred as well as to me. Mon- sieur Laszlo, after a few words aside with his aunt, went away and returned with a flute, offer- ing to play for us in his turn. My surprise was the way in which he played, and Winifred's that he played at all, for in all the time that she has known him she has never heard of this talent. A very strange and wonderful talent it is, Alicia, for he is one of those curious musicians that one meets occasionally, who seem to play by some in- stinctive inherited perception, without any feeling [86] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE for the music they create. (How can I describe this so that you may understand ?) "When / play I lose myself, I forget myself, swayed away from my own personality by the joy of interpreting the outpourings of the composer's heart and soul; yet with my own heart, my own soul, so penetrated with sympathy that I am part and parcel of it all. "Not so the Transylvanian. His handsome cold dark face it is strange to see a man of his type so cold; passion, not coldness, belonging as by right to the dark-eyed, black-haired, olive-skinned peo- ple! I keep wondering if he is really cold, or if there is not, well hidden away beneath that cold- ness, a sufficiently fierce fire ? But to return to his music. Listen, this is what happened. "Madame de Noiraud (in her eternal red velvet) played a curious accompaniment, a kind of rhythmic ding-dong of chords, amounting to almost nothing yet serving to support the flute's wild, enchanting song. Yes, enchanting, Alicia, for as I listened I seemed to see and hear wonderful things. I for- got where I was; I was as one bewitched, as be- witched as the poor children who listened to the magical pipe of the Pied Piper of Hamlin. "'And ere he blew three notes (such sweet soft notes as yet musician's cunning never gave the enraptured air)' [87] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Do you remember how I used to make you read the poem over and over again when I was a child ? And now I have met him, the Pied Piper; only, he is a handsome Hungarian in fashionable Paris clothes, and his pipe has turned into a flute! "The last melody he played had the most curious effect upon me. I closed my eyes and I had the feeling that I was in the woods following a ram- bling path, while brooklets rippled and birds trilled. It was so lovely that I hated to have the music stop, and it was difficult to come out of my dream and tell Laszlo how much pleasure he had given me. "'If you would but accompany me?' he sug- gested. Madame hopped up, evidently glad to be re- leased, and I took her place. You know what a passion I have for accompanying, and how quickly I catch a tune. The melody was simple. "'Play slowly,' I said, 'and I will follow/ "I did follow! " I followed until a scared feeling came over me, a feeling that I must stop following, following and I stopped. " It cost me an effort, a great effort. I wonder now how I could have been so silly as to want to stop. What do you suppose I did ? I crashed [88] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE out the 'Star-Spangled Banner.' The room fairly rang with it! I think that I was crazy. " I cried to Laszlo as I swung into its chords that I had spoiled Hungarian music long enough, and had better get back to the songs of my own peo- ple. The stars and stripes waved the mists from my silly brain. I ceased wool-gathering and behaved myself. Everybody applauded, and I managed to bow myself out of the room and slip upstairs to bed. "Your loving "ELINOR." [8 9 ] X "Not so long and wide the world is, Not so rude and rough the way is But my wrath shall overtake you, And my vengeance shall attain you!" IT was Christmas morning. Elinor stood at her eastern window staring with unseeing eyes at the exquisite landscape. She had begun to chafe at the life of deceit forced upon her by her ill- judged cousin. It had become painfully evident to the girl that her presence was an annoyance to Winifred, but as the latter showed no signs of wishing to send her away she had to feign uncon- sciousness of this. She was very weary of duplic- ity. She sighed, and the sigh did not belong to so bright a Christmas morning. There came a tap at the door and Berthe en- tered. "Mademoiselle Creedan desires that Made- moiselle will visit her now if it is possible." "So early, Berthe?" cried Elinor in dismay. She had hoped for her usual walk upon the ter- race. [90] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE The maid explained that Mademoiselle Cryden had had a bad night, that she was nervous oh, of a nervousness! and that she had something to say to Mademoiselle Ladoon immediately. "Very well, Berthe," said Elinor, "I will come. Here is a little Christmas gift for you." She put silver into the maid's hand, wishing her a happy day. The next instant the impulsive little French- woman had caught her hand and kissed it. Eli- nor saw that the bright black eyes were full of tears. "No, no, Mademoiselle," Berthe remonstrated. "Mademoiselle must not, shall not, waste her money on me. See," she ran to the table, "I put all back, keeping one franc for luck," and she laid the silver down. Elinor insisted that this should not be. "You have done so much for me, Berthe," she said, "and I am very rich, you know." She smiled sadly. "But nothing at all," cried Berthe "but noth- ing, and that nothing a pleasure! Mademoiselle is so sweet, so amiable ever! And as for the wealth of Mademoiselle, ah, may it return to her then, a thousandfold!" She ran out of the room. Elinor wrapped the rejected gift in paper; she would bestow it later, she thought. [91] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "So Berthe knows of the farce that is being played!" she said to herself as she went slowly to Winifred's room. "How many more have seen through the miserable pretence, I wonder?" She knocked and went in. Miss Cryden's room was a south one and over- looked the garden, and beyond the garden Ville- de-Plaisir and the sea. The sun streamed in through the closed window, the " chauffage" was turned on, the room was suffocatingly hot. But Miss Cryden complained of the cold. She was in bed, enveloped in an old blue satin opera cloak, her hair done up in a rough knot on the top of her head, and she held a hot-water bottle tightly against her cheek. She nodded slightly to Eli- nor, then closed her eyes as though in pain. "I am sorry that you are not feeling well, Wini- fred," said Elinor gently. "I wish I might say 'Merry Christmas!' but it would mean noth- ing." "Nothing" Miss Cryden spoke with what might be called a languid tartness "just nothing, so don't say it. You see what comes of my going to church and running round that nasty, dirty town, so I hope you won't go on nagging me to let you go with me." She removed the hot-water bag and shook it vindictively. "Neuralgia darting [92] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE everywhere oh! now its in my shoulder, no, the back of my neck!" She transferred the rubber bag, supporting her head against it on the pillow. "Tell Berthe to fill another bottle, yes, two. I have only three, I wish I had a dozen. As for go- ing to church, you'd be sure to meet people you know there, Ville-de-Plaisir is full of them, a nasty, gambling crowd. I hate Americans anyway. If I liked 'em I'd remain at home. And I do think, Elinor" she paused as if to take breath "I do think, considering that you are here as my guest, yes, your board paid, and a handsome new din- ner-gown given you for this evening, that you're not doing your duty by me, no, you're not." She glanced fiercely at Elinor as she finished speaking, then closed her eyes as if exhausted. Elinor colored deeply. "I don't understand," she faltered. She was shocked by the suddenness and rudeness of the attack. "In what way have I failed, Winifred ? Pray tell me" she lifted her head proudly "and pray believe me when I assure you that I wish, wish most earnestly, to earn my way." "Then why don't you do what you know I want you to ?" the woman in the bed whimpered, taking the extra hot-water bags now brought in by Berthe and thrusting them under the coverings [93] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE of the bed. "I've pains in both knees, and how I'm going to dance to-night oh, yes, they always dance after their tedious Christmas dinner, all crowded together at one long table, the national- ities sorted out and herded together like cattle of different breeds at a county fair and if you can flirt so with him, a married man, too, not that 7 object to that, who cares how their ridiculous im- pudent wives feel, anyway ? and if they want to keep their husbands straight, they'd better run after them, instead of staying at home to nurse mothers who probably wish they'd never given birth to such tedious creatures. " She paused to re- arrange the rubber bottles, which bulged up under the coverlet like two gigantic swollen knee-caps, then continued: "But all I have to say, Elinor, is that if you can flirt Delamere into coming to this hotel the way you have for of course he's here because of you, those Englishmen have no morals; and as for painting this rubbishy garden, he could just as well have walked to it, I'm sure his legs are long enough; and the place he was staying at before he saw you is probably worlds cheaper than this where was I ? Oh, well, Eli- nor, if you can flirt with him, you can with him, too, and I wish you would, and I hate him, and I wish he were dead and and " [94] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Her voice trailed away into sobs. She looked a very wretched, unhappy woman. Elinor comprehended who was meant by the emphasized "him." She was frightened by this sudden outburst of confidence and tears, for the undignified grief of their elders is always terrify- ing to the young. She did not know what to do or say. It was quite untrue that she had flirted with Mr. Delamere, and he would have been the first to deny that he was coming to Hotel du Jar- din for her sake. The girl bent over the hysterical woman, try- ing to soothe her into composure, a great pity surging into her young heart for the pettiness, the miserable futility of this very real passion. Without it how content Winifred might be! She had everything to make life pleasant sufficient health, sufficient money, and a sufficiency of friends. Had she married the Transylvanian then, Elinor said to herself, her cousin might really have been miserable, a man more than thirty years her junior! It was all so ridiculous, yet so supremely pitiful. "Yes, oh yes," Miss Cryden complained, in answer to Elinor's gentle words of sympathy, ''Yes, you say you are sorry, but you aren't a bit! If you really felt as you pretend you'd promise [95] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE what I want. Won't you try to make him care for you ? that's all I ask." "I don't know how," Elinor said, driven to plain speaking, "and I shouldn't succeed if I did try. I told you that I didn't know how to flirt, and I haven't flirted with Mr. Delamere." "I saw you do it," Miss Cryden retorted, sitting up so hastily that the hot-water bags fell off her knees and the coverlet flattened itself. "I saw you listening to him, and looking up at him, with a perfectly melting expression in your eyes. And I'm melting with the heat, yes, melting!" She tore off the evening wrap and cast it from her, then dragging out the hot-water bottles sent them to join it upon the floor. "And I wish you'd open that window and let in some of God's pure air! You and Berthe seem to think that because a person is slightly neuralgic yes, very slightly, for I'm not old enough yet, thank Heaven, to be all over aches and pains like that dirty old Uncle de Noiraud did you notice his hands last night ? Well, you'd better not; such nails, edged with black as usual! Where was I? Oh, I remem- ber, and you needn't open the window wide, Eli- nor, just because I say I want to breathe, a crack, a little crack, there, that will do. Now come here, close, for I don't want to speak loud; we Ladoons, [96] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE thank God, are reticent, and though I was born Cryden, I'm just like mother, a Ladoon out and out." She put out a feverish hand and grasped Eli- nor's cool firm one, then softening her voice strove to smile as she made this forlorn appeal to her young kinswoman: "You are a Ladoon, Nelly dear; I knew that the moment I saw your picture, the one poor Jim sent me last year. Yes, you're a Ladoon, with all the Ladoon beauty (of course, your nose isn't perfect, neither is your mouth, but you're better looking than most girls). Where was I ? Oh, yes; what I mean, Nelly, is that you and I are both Ladoons, and 'blood's thicker than water,' and we're bound to stand by each other and he's treated me shamefuly, shame- fully, and he deserves to be punished ! Of course, I never cared much about him" she made a poor pretence at a scornful smile "but I have pride, the Ladoon pride, and he's made it bite the dust." Winifred had touched a responsive chord. The color surged into Elinor's cheeks; her pride too had been humbled, the intense Ladoon pride. She saw her cousin with new eyes. How could she have failed to realize the similarity of their positions ? How self-absorbed she had been ! Yes, they were alike both jilted women, [97] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Elinor had never thought of revenging herself, hers was not a vengeful nature. Because of her childhood's friendship and affection for Maynard her heart had even made excuses for him; but her pride made none, its wounds still bled. She now asked herself how it would have fared with her, had she loved Maynard as passionately as this poor weak woman loved the Hungarian ? And with the impulsiveness of warm-hearted youth she espoused her cousin's cause. "Tell me just what you want, Winifred," she said. "I will do my best to please you." Miss Cryden's eyes gleamed with triumph, she caught both of Elinor's hands, and, drawing the girl down, kissed her. "Dear Elinor," she said softly, "dear little cousin Nell! Listen, this is what you are to do; you are to make him love you, love you intensely, love you heartachingly, love you despairingly! You say you don't know how, but I will tell you. Make him believe that you love him." Elinor laughed out, a ringing, musical laugh of girlish amusement. "Forgive me, Winnie," she said, "but that is really absurd! I shouldn't know how to begin, and he'd see through me in a minute." But Miss Cryden, while remaining tragically [98] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE serious herself, noted the laugh with approval. "Laugh that way when he says something he thinks clever," she said eagerly, "and look at him always as if you thought him perfect. His vanity is his strongest point, and to please him you must feed it eternally. Your eyes will say anything you wish them to, Elinor; make them speak 'La parlata d'amor.' My eyes," she sighed deeply "my eyes are handsome enough, but they speak no language." "They are very bright and pretty," said Elinor quickly. "Yes," the elder woman acquiesced, suppress- ing a sneer with difficulty, "but they are never 'pathetic/ or * wistful/ or 'laughing/ or 'melt- ing/ Elinor Ladoon, and I have heard all these flowery adjectives applied to yours. And if you will ring for Berthe I will get up and dress, and I wish you a merry Christmas, Nelly, my dear, and many of them!" When Elinor went to her room she found a letter from Mr. Ferrars. It appeared that a guar- dian was obliged to write very often. [99] XI VITTORIA " You shall hear all But first sit down and listen patiently While I confess myself." JULIA " What deadly sin Have you committed ? " VITTORIA " Not a sin; a folly." THE day after Christmas Elinor wrote of her curious interview with Miss Cryden, and then gave the following account of her Christmas afternoon and evening at Hotel du Jardin. "I strolled in the garden with Mr. Delamere yesterday afternoon. He is awfully nice, so kind and bright, and making the best of everything and everybody, always excepting the Hungarians! He doesn't like them. He says: 'Of course, their fixity of vision is sublime, Miss Ladoon, and I admire it immensely. I doubt if your American eagle ever stares at the sun for so long a time, and AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE so unwinkingly, as the Hungarian trio do at you. Last evening I had a morbid desire to jump at them with a sudden yell, just to see if I could startle them into staring like other people. But their rudeness is, as I said before, sublime, and it elicits my wondering admiration/ And he stood at attention and saluted. " It is true that they have an odd way of looking at people, a fixed stare, as Mr. Delamere says. "We found a curious thing in the garden. There is a grotto (in which a tiny fountain plays), built just below and against the wall of the first ter- race. To one side of this grotto a marble slab is fitted into the wall. On it are strange markings a triangle, the setting (or rising ?) sun, and these words: , , 7 , "bceau eternel "Mr. Delamere and I are very anxious to learn its history, but so far we have been unable to dis- cover anything. Mr. Delamere said that where there was one there were generally two, on the principle that dogs hunted in couples, and you rarely killed one snake without presently stumbling across its mate. So we walked through the grotto, and there, corresponding to the tablet on the other side, we found a low doorway opening into the wall. Mr. Delamere peeped in. [10!] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE 'Hum,' he said, 'tomb ready for the mate, now serving as a tool-house.' "He stepped back, and I stooped and went in. "Such a grewsome sensation, Alicia! It was evidently intended to be used just as Mr. Dela- mere said. He crouched low and thrust in his head and shoulders, pointing out to me where there had been an opening of communication be- tween the two tombs for tombs they are, most undoubtedly. The opening has been bricked up, and while Mr. Delamere had his ringers upon it, trying to discover, by the feeling of the bricks and mortar, if they were old to crumbling-awayness, I heard a low exclamation outside. He heard it, too, and drew back and out of the doorway, and there, gazing at us, were the three pairs of large black eyes of which we had just been talking! "In each pair, Alicia, there was an expression of pained surprise, and I realized that to people with their ideas Mr. Delamere and I were behav- ing with shocking impropriety. A young unmar- ried lady in a receptacle for tools, with the head and shoulders of a gentleman blocking up the door of egress! A most glaring breach of Euro- pean etiquette. "I knew that Mr. Delamere was with difficulty [102] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE suppressing a wicked grin as he hastily explained our position. 'Mademoiselle Ladoon does not understand French gardening,' he said, taking off his hat in salutation, 'but she has found a rake to rake with, and a spade to dig with; so she should be able to rake up, or dig out, whatever she desires.' He pointed at the tools lying on the floor. 1 'Ah, indeed!' chorused the trio, staring and evidently wondering what on earth he meant. " He did not trouble to explain further, but, say- ing that he would not spoil a parti carre, went away through the garden, while I returned to the house with the de Noirauds. "Mindful of the part I had promised to play, I thought that I had better start in at once, and, do you know, I felt excited ! I am so ignorant of the science of flirting, for, of course, it must have its science, just like every game. And since I must flirt I should like to do it well. I only wish there were some book on the subject! It is hateful to have to begin with only Winifred's hints. But I mean to put my mind to it and learn by expe- rience, since there are no given rules. I shall com- mence by trying my hand on every one, the wom- en as well as the men. Unfortunately, Winifred obliges me to avoid most of the people here, as AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE she doesn't want to see much of any one save the de Noirauds. But I shall do what I can. "Well, I started straight in with the trio. "First I tried Uncle de Noiraud. I managed to walk up to the house with him, and I gave him the kind of glances Winifred advised. I looked at him as though he were perfect he is a very tiresome, dumpy, little old man. Then remem- bering that Laszlo was the really important one, I flashed back glances over my shoulder at him, with the same expression, only intensified. When we reached the house I turned to Madame and told her, what was quite true, that the lace scarf she wore over her head was very becoming, and I presented her with the self-same optical delusion. "Then I was made extremely uncomfortable, for with one accord they treated me as though I were the fiancee of Monsieur Ulaszlo! "Oh, yes, Alicia, he too. He evidently thought I was quite ready. A tyro, I had gone too far. I made up for it later, as you shall hear. I shall learn, never fear! "There is a billiard-table in the pretty hall of the old villa, and we played a game of billiards, uncle, Laszlo, and I. Madame got her intermi- nable knitting and looked on. I am rather good [ 104] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE at billiards, as you know, and, to speak slangily, I wiped the de Noirauds off the face of the earth. Then they all shook hands with me (foreigners shake hands every other minute), and I went up- stairs to dress for the grand Christmas dinner. "My new gown is handsome but odd. It is made entirely of crepe. The sleeves are short, the bodice cut low. Berthe arranged my hair and ornamented it with a white carnation. During the evening three separate men informed me that it looked like a star in the night! "The dinner was served in the larger of the dining-rooms. We all sat at one table, and the different nationalities had been sorted out and put in groups. Mr. Delamere pretended not to understand and sat down between Winifred and me, and the niaitre d' hotel finding it impossible to dislodge him, had to let him stay. Winifred was delighted, and he cheered her up wonderfully. "The room was charmingly dressed with flow- ers and with orange-tree boughs heavy with their golden fruit. At dessert all the lights suddenly went out, and the waiters entered in procession carrying the ice-cream, which was in Swiss cha- lets, their windows illuminated. Everybody ap- plauded. "After dinner there was a dance. The dining- AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE room was cleared for action; musicians in bright red coats took their places at one end, and all the world went mad I, too, Alicia, along with the rest! It was wrong for me to dance so soon after dear Uncle Jim's death, but Winifred insisted that it was in the bond. "I pursued my new study all the evening. "There was the jolliest German officer with whom I danced a great deal. (He left for home this morning as his leave is up.) But I danced with every one a great deal, and I did my best to please. Before the end of the evening the de Noirauds were not quite so sure of their success with the American heiress. Laszlo became ex- cited, and lost a little of his cold composure. "He dances divinely, and, I will tell you the truth, Alicia, I preferred dancing with him. For when I did so I had that same odd sensation of ease, of carelessness, that I have spoken of be- fore. I forgot the other people, I forgot what I was to do to please Winifred; I just danced, and danced, and was content. I wonder why ? "Poor Winifred! She was very unhappy. While she wants me to please de Noiraud it hurts her heart to see me seem to do so. I write seem, because I feel that he cares nothing for me. He pretends cleverly, but I am pretending, too! [106] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "I confess that the game begins to absorb me. Alicia, Alicia, am I doing wrong ? I am an Amer- ican, and I am playing to win. "Your loving "ELINOR. "P. S. I taught Mr. Delamere to reverse. He learned quickly; he is so clever." XII "... Oh sir, she smiled, no doubt Whene'er I passed her; but who passed without Much the same smile ? . . . ' THERE was dissension in the de Noiraud camp. The two gentlemen were anxious to ask at once for the hand of the American heiress. It took long always, they argued, to arrange such matters when a large fortune was in question; and in this case, with the guardian in far distant New York, much time would be required. But Ma- dame de Noiraud opposed such haste undue haste she called it. It would be far better to wait, she insisted, until Mademoiselle Ladoon showed a decided preference for Laszlo. At present, who might say if she wished to marry him or not ? It was in vain that Monsieur de Noiraud pointed out the favor that Mademoiselle Ladoon showed Laszlo, in always smiling upon him with an extreme gentleness, and always receiving his homage graciously. And even when Ulaszlo him- self modestly confirmed the old gentleman's state- [108] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE ment, assuring his aunt that Mademoiselle had ever been most amiable, even then Madame de Noiraud had held to her opinion. "Upon whom then does she not smile?" the lady had demanded of her husband. "She has smiled upon thee, mon pauvre ami, until she has caused thee to lose thy clearness of perception! Mademoiselle Ladoon is a coquette, a 'fleurt* as these English call it. See then, she fleurts with every one with me even!" The two men did not answer, neither did they exchange glances, thus confiding their mutual wonder. They were silent. Both apparently ac- cepted in good faith Madame's sharply voiced sen- timents, while neither believed for a moment that she had given her true reasons for wishing to postpone matters. The husband, gazing with apparent placidity into nothingness, was in reality searching for Madame's real motives. Ulaszlo, his eyes cast down, his face quite without expres- sion, was mentally cursing his aunt for selfishly interfering with his projects. He said to himself that she was loath to part with him, her handsome nephew, as she realized perfectly that the ladies would pay her but little attention were he gone. "She would deprive me of my liberty forever," he thought bitterly. "I [ 109] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE hate my life, spent eternally with these two tire- some old people! She knows too well that with- out me she would be left alone in a corner, with my uncle and her knitting. I hate her, I hate her! I wish that she might die!" He rose, and smiling gently upon his aunt, assured her that he had every confidence in her good judgment. "Mademoiselle Cryden invites us to drink tea with her this afternoon in her bou- doir. There are to be sweet cakes; and tar- tines, with English jam; they call them 'san- wiges.' You will come, dear aunt ? Perhaps you will put on first the red velvet, it is marvellously becoming, the robe of red velvet!" Madame de Noiraud beamed upon her nephew. She was not sufficiently astute to detect his du- plicity. "It is the first day of their new year," she said, "a day of festival. I will not wear the red velvet, cher enfant, but the black-and-white striped satin. I will make my toilette at once. You may await me here." She rolled up her knitting and hastened away, much pleased that both husband and nephew had acquiesced so promptly in regard to putting off what was to her the evil day, and quite uncon- scious that Ulaszlo had read her secret reasons correctly. [IIO] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Miss Cryden had adorned both her young cousin and her little salon in honor of her expected guests, but Berthe had been her sole confidante. Com- plaining to Elinor that she was beginning the new year miserably, feeling both dull and unhappy, she had begged the young girl to amuse her by donning one of her, Miss Cryden's, gowns, a pale- green satin richly trimmed with point-lace. Not wishing to be unkind, Elinor had unwillingly yielded. The satin was very becoming. A pale pink rose was fastened with a half-moon of diamonds in Elinor's dark hair and Miss Cryden herself pinned a diamond sunburst on the square-cut corsage. The elder lady then arrayed herself in a trailing black tea-gown, sparkling with jets, and pronouncing herself satisfied, sat down with Elinor to a game of cards. "A ball in honor of the day," Elinor said smil- ing. "How pretty you have made your parlor, Winifred ! The flowers are lovely." As Elinor spoke a card with something written upon it was brought by Hubert. Miss Cryden, reading it, told Hubert to say she would be de- lighted. "The ladies are ravishing!" Hubert exclaimed, holding up his hands in admiration, his bright [HI] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE black eyes riveted upon Elinor. "Madame and the messieurs will be " , "Enough," interrupted Winifred sharply, "Have the kindness to attend to my message," and jump- ing up she almost pushed the bewildered man from the room, slamming the door to after him. "I detest him!" she cried angrily as she reseated herself. "Hotel servants are always detestable. Spoiled, greedy creatures, perpetually after fees!" She appeared flustered, excited. Elinor won- dered what the message was, but was not en- lightened. At five o'clock there came a tap at the door. " Entrez!" Miss Cryden cried with hospitable clearness; then, under her breath, "Sit still, Eli- nor." The door opened and the de Noirauds entered accompanied by a stranger, a dark-haired, dark- eyed man of thirty. Madame de Noiraud was magnificent, in the black-and-white striped satin and a long string of pearls. The stripes of the satin were broad, but not so broad as the smile of the wearer; Madame loved to be asked to eat sweets of an afternoon. Elinor, remembering her borrowed plumes, had risen as the others entered, and gaining the door leading into the adjoining room for Miss Cry- [112] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE den's parlor and bedroom communicated thought to make her escape. To her chagrin she found that the door was locked. Understanding in- stantly that Berthe must have been told to lock it, and that Miss Cryden wished her to be caught thus, she turned back, crimsoning with annoy- ance, but determined to make the best of her dis- agreeable position. "Isn't green becoming to her?" said Miss Cry- den, laughing with affected gayety. And catch- ing Elinor's hand she drew her forward to the middle of the room. "I didn't want her to start the new year in black so unlucky, I think and I felt that quite among friends it would do no harm. I did not expect this additional pleasure" she smiled archly at the new comer "but I am sure we can count upon his not telling. Elinor, this is Monsieur de Folatre, another nephew of Monsieur and Madame de Noiraud." Monsieur de Folatre, his dark eyes expressing bold admiration, bowed low, while old Monsieur de Noiraud paid Elinor an old-time compliment upon her flower-like appearance. Ulaszlo now pushed himself forward he had been hemmed in behind his family group saying that he had something to relate that would interest Made- moiselle Ladoon greatly. Then, recollecting him- AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE self, he added hastily, a something that would interest both Mademoiselle Cryden and Madem- oiselle Ladoon greatly; but Winifred's angry eyes showed that she had noted the slip, and that his second thought had come too late. His news turned out to be no news; it was merely that there was to be music at dinner, and after dinner the room would be cleared for dancing, as upon Christ- mas night. "When I hope I may have the honor of a dance with Mademoiselle Ladoon," said Monsieur de Folatre quickly. "Such a pity that Sophie could not have come with you, Matyas," Ulaszlo remarked smoothly to his cousin, "she would have enjoyed the dance. I speak of Madame de Folatre, the wife of my cousin." Ulaszlo turned to Elinor. "She is Eng- lish, and she is young and very charming." Matyas shot a swift glance of displeasure at his indiscreet relative. Of what use to mention So- phie to the beautiful American girl ? American girls, so Laszlo had informed him, preferred un- married men. He, Matyas, was to remain but one night at Hotel du Jardin; Laszlo might surely have allowed him to appear as a bachelor for that short time. But Laszlo was ever vain, weak, and passionately jealous, he said to himself; ah, t"4] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE well, he, Maytas, would revenge himself a little, a very little, upon his selfish cousin! Thus thinking, Monsieur de Folatre took up a plate of fancy cakes from the tea-table and busied himself passing them to Miss Cryden and her guests. Stopping before Elinor he begged her to choose one of the little cakes for him. "Sophie does it for me when I am at home," he said in excellent English, speaking with very little accent, "and I never know which cake to take when I am thrown on my own resources. I lack decision, Miss Ladoon." "Cakes standing for every kind of pleasure, I suppose?" said Elinor, selecting her cake with an affectation of deep thought. "Madame de Folatre decides each morning if the game of the day shall be golf, tennis, or or diavolo?" "Yes, that is it," said Matyas, delighted with Elinor's responsiveness, and he brought his chair and his cup of tea and placed himself beside her. He regretted that his stay was so limited, and he also regretted that he was married. There would have been a delicious excitement in paying court to an heiress of Miss Ladoon's intelligence and beauty, and a rare joy in cutting out Laszlo. He glanced furtively toward his cousin to see how he might be enduring the situation, and was annoyed AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE to find that Laszlo's handsome face betrayed noth- ing. Ulaszlo munched a sandwich and drank his tea as though unconscious of the presence of a rival. "He thinks I will be gone to-morrow, and he is content to wait," de Folatre said to himself, and he was so provoked at his non-success in pro- voking that he sighed. "You sigh! You do not like the little cake that I have chosen for you?'* said Elinor, her eyes brimful of sympathy. "I am so sorry. Let me choose again." Rising, she made her graceful way to the tea- table and took up the plate of cakes. Matyas rose, also, but he did not follow; he was too much in- terested in watching this, to him, new kind of demoiselle, to wish to interfere with anything she might do. Ulaszlo watched, also. As Elinor, returning with the cakes, came near him he got up. "I am to have nothing?" he said in low tones. Elinor paused, regarding him. His eyes were very different from his cousin's she thought, al- though the cousin's eyes, too, were dark and ex- tremely handsome. But somehow the expression in Laszlo's eyes made one wish to please him and why ? As she wondered, her eyes on his, she almost forgot the waiting Matyas. [u6] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "You, too, desire a little cake?" she asked dreamily. "I desire one greatly," said the young man. Smiling faintly, he held out his hand. His atti- tude expressed the deepest devotion. Was he holding out his hand for a little cake only ? Matyas, looking on in disgust at the turn affairs were taking, felt helpless to interfere. He could not do so before his uncle and aunt. "May I come in?" said a pleasant voice from the doorway. "Oh, pardon me, I didn't know you were not alone! I only came to beg a cup of tea for sweet charity's sake." It was Mr. Delamere. Miss Cryden rustled forward to meet him, delighted not only with this evidence of her popularity with the opposite sex, but happy to have the scene with the cakes broken up. For the poor woman, with a very natural in- consistency, could not endure seeing her quondam soupirant making love to another, although that other had been brought by her own volition into his life for that very purpose. It was to Elinor as if the air had been suddenly cleared; the cheery tones of the Anglo-Saxon voice gave her the odd sensation of waking from a dream. "A little cake?" she said gayly to Ulaszlo. AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Of course, and not one but two; for I have known you nearly a month!" She placed two in the outstretched hand. "Only one for you, Mon- sieur de Folatre" she smiled as she selected a macaroon "because you have just arrived. Re- main a month and my generosity, will grow. And for you, Mr. Delamere" she paused as she ap- proached the Englishman "how many cakes do you demand ?" Mr. Delamere smiled down upon her admir- ingly. "Cake me no cakes," he said. "Give me a chance to paint you in that costume, and I'll willingly go on bread and water for a month." Ulaszlo drew near his cousin. "What does he say?" he whispered. "He is making love to her," was the low-voiced reply, "and Mademoiselle is pleased." " Impossible," murmured Ulaszlo coldly. "The Englishman is married. He is her friend, voila tout!" "Her friend?" sneered Matyas, giving the French interpretation to the word. "Son ami! vraiment?" "It is not as you think," Ulaszlo explained hurriedly. "A friend American, meaning an ac- quaintance, only. It is their custom. There is no harm. It is quite innocent." [118] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "And quite childish," was the scornful com- ment. "But are you sure?" "Entirely so. Childish, and tiresome, if you will, but believe me, innocent. I can say no more. The aunt regards us." He moved to the tea-table and gently begged another cup of tea from Miss Cryden. "It is so delicious," he said softly. In reality he detested the beverage, but there were many detestable necessities, he had found, in the making of one's self agreeable. Mr. Delamere, meanwhile, was speaking ear- nestly to Elinor. "No one has the room now, the chambermaid tells me. How would you like to make the ex- periment with the echo to-night ? Surely it ought to come on the first night of the new year. If I were a ghost I'd be particularly restless when a new year was just beginning. I'd hate to go on ghosting for another twelvemonth; and I think I'd be thankful to any one who'd happen in to be scared. I'll get Miss Cryden to come, too, ' after the ball is over.' Are you willing?" Elinor agreed. XIII "Yet no portentous shape the sight ama/ed; Each object plain, and tangible, and valid:" THE dance was not so successful as that of Christmas night; there were but few men, and those few were not in dancing humor. Mon- sieur de Folatre showed no disposition to make himself agreeable to any save Miss Cryden and Elinor; and Ulaszlo, generally amiably willing to invite each wall-flower to dance in turn, seemed unable to distract his attention from his cousin's manoeuvres. By twelve o'clock the ballroom was deserted. Elinor, mindful of her promise to Mr. Delamere to meet him in the room of the echo after the ball, went first to fetch the scarf that Alicia had gi\en her, since the great room would be fireless and chill, and then to Winifred's parlor expecting to find her cousin awaiting her. Learning from Berthe that Miss Cryden had already been up- stairs and had gone down again, Elinor flitted hastily along the corridor of Villa Fenice, and down the steep old staircase to the second story [120] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE landing. The door stood ajar, but the room was dark. Elinor hesitated an instant, then entered. After a moment she was able to see objects quite plainly, because of the light in the hall; then she heard a quick step on the stairs and Mr. Delamere came in. " I am here," said Elinor very softly, " but where is Winifred ?" Mr. Delamere closed the door carefully, then struck a match and lighted a candle, placing it upon the centre table. "Your cousin will be here directly," he said, smiling upon Elinor. "Madame de Noiraud button-holed her as she was on her way. She motioned to me to come along. I dare say she thought you might be frightened all by yourself. Lets start in on the echo now, or the 'witching hour* will be gone before we've experimented." "The 'witching hour' lasted all night long when I was here," said Elinor. "There is no hurry; and we mustn't disappoint Winifred." Mr. Delamere scrutinized her carefully through half-closed lids, artist fashion. "Do you know," he said meditatively, "I'm not sure that I shouldn't prefer painting you as you are now, in that black frock, instead of the green! Would you mind lifting that thin thing ' [121] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "A scarf," Elinor interpolated demurely. "I stand corrected," said the artist smiling. "Well, if you'd just throw that scarf lightly over your head no, no, not that way, you're hiding the white flower in your hair, not so far forward here, but let me do it, please, I understand." Coming close, he fell to arranging the filmy scarf to his liking, forgetting the echo in his eagerness, and so evidently thinking of her but as a model that Elinor good-naturedly gave him his way. She stood rigid while with deft, accustomed fingers he made her ready for the future portrait. The two had become friends. Mr. Delamere was in love with his art and with his wife, and Elinor, having discovered this, had given him her sincere liking. The artist, in his turn, admired the girl's perfect self-poise and gentle dignity, her sunshiny temperament, and willingness to please and to be pleased. In her frank companionship he found the best antidote for his constant home- sickness. "I'm not sure that you oughtn't to have a bit of blue about you," he said, retreating and study- ing his subject from a distance. "Perhaps blue drapery behind you, a blue to match and bring out the color of your eyes. You have wonderful eyes, Miss Ladoon." [ 122] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Elinor smiled. "Thank you," she said, and as she spoke she nodded to him in friendly fashion. "O-o-h!" sighed the artist. "You're my joy and my despair. I thought I wanted you grave, and now I want you smiling. For Heaven's sake don't laugh, or I shall want to paint you laughing! Do you know what would happen if I did ?" "I think you are very amusing," said Elinor, and she laughed in spite of herself. Mr. Delamere laughed, too. "There," he ex- claimed, "if I painted you laughing, every one who saw the portrait would laugh from sympathy! It's infectious, your laughter. But your smile is sad, Miss Ladoon; very lovely, but strangely sad." "Why strangely ?" Elinor asked, looking down. "Don't move, don't move, please!" Mr. Dela- mere begged. "Just keep as you are for a mo- ment." He pulled out a bit of paper and a pencil. "I must have that pose. Eyes downcast, pensive expression. Why is it strange that your smile is sad, Miss Ladoon ? Why ? You are young, beautiful, and so report has it enormously rich. A sad smile is a curio in your case. A riotously arrogant grin would be more in keeping, to speak vulgarly." He tore up the half-begun sketch in sudden impatience. "I can do nothing here. Let's try the echo." AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Elinor stopped him. "I have the disagreeable sensation that there is some one in the room listening," she said. "There can't possibly be," Mr. Delamere as- sured her. " But the place is as cold as a vault. I'd no business to keep you standing so quiet while I studied your poses. I'm a selfish beast. Wrap that scarf tight around your shoulders while I run and get your cloak from Miss Cryden's maid.- I'll hurry up Miss Cryden, too; it's high time she was here." Elinor did not like to confess her dread of be- ing left alone, as, unconscious of her fears, Mr. Delamere hastened away. She stepped forward to leave the room, thinking she would wait out- side in the hall. As she neared the door Mr. Delamere re-entered. "The lights are out," he said. "I forgot the rule of the house. Luckily I have a candle in my pocket!" He drew out a candle and lighted it at the one flickering upon the table. "It's as well I came back, for I find that the key is on the out- side of the door. Will you lock yourself in while I'm gone, or shall I do the locking and take the key in my pocket ? Some wandering porter may chance along, and seeing the light under the door feel like investigating." AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Give the key to me," said Elinor quickly, "and please beg Winifred to hurry." The girl was ashamed of her fears. How ab- surd to have imagined that she heard some one breathing! The hateful room always got upon her nerves. She would herself try the echo while Mr. Delamere was gone. She locked the door with a firm hand, and re- turned to the centre-table. As she did so a man came from behind the screen that hid the door communicating with the next room. It was Mon- sieur de Folatre. "Ah," exclaimed Elinor, as her eyes met his, "then I did hear some one!" Her haughty composure surprised de Folatre. He had expected blushing confusion certainly, terror perhaps; he had anticipated an anxious effort to hide this guilty and clandestine midnight assignation with the Englishman, by a pretence that she had strayed by mistake (and alone) into this unused room fancying it to be a hall leading somewhither faltering out some such feeble excuse. He had looked forward with pleas- ure to her endeavor to win his secrecy. It would be very agreeable to be coaxed by the sweet-voiced, handsome American heiress. Instead, he found himself treated as an interloper, and he stood non- plussed, too much astonished to speak. AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Elinor moved toward the door. " I will let you out," she said with cold politeness. " I have locked the door. I wish you had spoken at once, Mon- sieur de Folatre; you would have been so much more comfortable. It must have been tedious hiding behind that screen." The veiled contempt in her voice dispelled de Folatre's embarrassment, and stung him into ac- tion and speech. He crossed the room quickly and laid his hand upon hers as she was turning the key in the lock. "One moment," he said hotly. "You have misunderstood. You suspect me of being an eavesdropper. I claim the right to explain my- self. I claim fair play." Elinor drew back a step. "I am listening," she said. "I am at Hotel du Jardin for one night only, Miss Ladoon," he said earnestly, "and I was given that inner room." He nodded toward the door behind the screen. "I heard voices in here and, very naturally 7 think, came out to discover to whom the voices belonged. I confess" he spoke slowly "I confess that I was surprised to find that Miss Ladoon was chatting at this hour with a friend." He smiled a little (he had recovered himself), and the meaning expression in his bold dark eyes [u6] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE was more than unpleasant. But Elinor met the look fully. It seemed to the man that she could not have understood; there was certainly only an innocent wonder that was almost childish in the blue depths of her frank glance. "Yes," she answered gently, "it was quite natural, as you say, that you should have been curious, under the circumstances." She, too, smiled faintly as she spoke, her pretty, sad smile. " I suppose you know why we came in ? You heard what we said ?" "No, I did not," Matyas replied, with an affec- tation of bluff frankness. "You spoke in whis- pers almost. I saw the Englishman helping you with your scarf," he added, watching her closely as he ventured this. "A crack in the screen," Elinor murmured, and again she smiled slightly. There was silence for a moment. Matyas was meditating upon his next move. Elinor noted that he had managed to slip in between her and the door. She turned to him, her manner sud- denly gracious. "Have you a candle in your room, Monsieur?" she asked. "Yes, two," was the quick reply. He won- dered what was coming next. AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Won'tyou light me one, please?" The request was accompanied by a flashing glance of coquetry and a brilliant smile that no one could have called sad. "She is coming to heel," thought Matyas; and delighted with himself and his knowledge of wom- en, he asked in almost lover-like tones why she wanted two. "It's light enough for me now," he murmured. Elinor pouted. "But when I beg you to get another?" she whispered. "Please, Monsieur de Folatre!" She clasped her handsome hands and held them toward him pleadingly. He could not fathom the expression in her eyes, but she charmed him. She was worth while, this fast American girl. As- suring her that he was her willing slave and that she had but to command, he hastened into the ad- joining room to do her bidding. The moment he vanished behind the screen Elinor softly unlocked the door, transferring the key to the outside. Then crossing swiftly to the table she drew the lighted candle from its holder, and returning to the door went into the hall. She heard de Folatre strike a match and saw the light of his candle illuminate the distant darkness. Crying clearly and recklessly, "Since you have a AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE light, good-night!" she closed the door, locked it, and darted swiftly up the staircase. She had left the key in the lock; the prisoner would be freed when he rang for breakfast, if Mr. Dela- mere did not unlock the door before. Fortu- nately she met the artist when she was half-way upstairs. He told her that Miss Cryden thought it too late for their experiment. " I am to bid you good-night immediately," he said smiling. "Good-night, Miss Ladoon! We must have a try for the echo another time." Walking carefully because of the candle, which had dropped hot grease upon her fingers as she had fled upstairs, Elinor was wishing she had not gone to the echo room without Winifred when, on turning a corner, she almost collided with Ulaszlo. It seemed to her that this encounter filled her cup of discomfort to overflowing. Wini- fred would be indignant with her for having been caught, by a de Noiraud, running about the old villa after midnight, far from chaperonage and from her own room, although it was because of Winifred's failure to keep her appointment that this contretemps had occurred. Bowing slightly to the young man, Elinor would have passed on, but he stopped her, stepping directly in her path. His face was pale and AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE set, and his eyes expressed cold disapproval and suspicion. "Where are you going, Mademoiselle?" he demanded in low tones. "And where have you been?" Elinor thought a moment before answering, a very fleeting moment. It seeemd to Ulaszlo that she replied immediately. "If you were Anglo-Saxon I would tell you," she said gently. "As you are not, I must not tell you, for you would not understand." "You would tell your friend, Delamere," he said with a sudden controlled fierceness that startled her; "Delamere, but not me!" "Yes, I would tell him," she said, still speaking very gently, "and he would understand. He is my friend; my friend as we Anglo-Saxons term friend. An Anglo-Saxon friend, Monsieur de Noiraud, not a friend in your unpleasant meaning of the word." As she finished, the consciousness of the ex- ceeding plainness of her explanation brought the hot color into her face. But she looked him full in the eyes despite her painful blush, saying to herself that it was time that he understood and that he must be obliged to; she would endure insolent suspicion no longer. AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Ulaszlo scrutinized her closely as though he would read her very soul, and his expression changed. The cold anger died away, replaced by a look of affectionate admiration. He took her hand in his and held it gently. "I love you," he said quietly; "I love you very much. I have faith in you. I, too, would be- come an American, and I would learn your Amer- ican thoughts and ways." Elinor stood as in a dream. His touch upon her hand dominated her. The desire to hasten to the safety of her room was gone. She looked into the young man's long, dark eyes, forgetful of the lateness of the hour, of Winifred's displeasure, forgetful, in short, of everything save a sensation of well-being and serenity. But the foreigner re- membered. "Good-night, Mademoiselle Nellee," he said softly, using her nickname for the first time, "good-night! I wish you sweet repose." He bowed himself away and Elinor, still dreamy, went slowly to her room. To her surprise she found Winifred awaiting her. "Yes, I'm here," said Miss Cryden impatiently, " and, of course, you are astonished to see me, and wondering why I didn't join you as I promised. That dreadful old de Noiraud woman pounced 1 131 1 AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE upon me as I was passing the door of her room, and I was just shaking her off when he began to play. Elinor," she advanced close to the young girl and caught her hand "Elinor, you may be- lieve me or not as you choose, but I simply couldn't bear to come away! And the queer part of it is that I hate the flute; a silly, gurgling, sloppily sentimental instrument; the last thing a manly man should play upon. But there, what's the use of talking about it! I stayed on and on, just as if I were bewitched. And I believe I am yes, I certainly am. For although I know how per- fectly unworthy he is, not in the least intelligent, and I've met lots of men far handsomer, yet for all t hat " She broke off abruptly and began to pace up and down the room, coming to a stand at last directly before Elinor. "Nelly," she said wistfully, "tell me, do you feel his strange fascination ? You never look as though you did, you're always so composed and at your ease when you're with him. Nelly, do you understand my feelings at all ? Tell me." "Perfectly," said Elinor quietly. "Just now he held my hand I met him in the corridor and told me that he loved me, and " "What!" exclaimed Winifred sharply. "He [ '32 1 AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE told you that he he told you " She sank into a chair as though her limbs refused to support her. "He didn't mean it," said Elinor hastily. "He doesn't care a button for me, Winifred. He was only afraid Monsieur de Folatre was cutting him out." "Are you sure?" Miss Cryden gasped. " Perfectly sure" was the reply. " I only wished you to know that although I care nothing for Monsieur Laszlo I feel the fascination you speak of. What is more," she said firmly, "if I don't stop feeling it I shall soon detest him. I hate the sensation after it is over. And as for his playing, to tell you the truth, Winifred, I under- stand and believe in the charm possessed by the Pied Piper. I wish, with all my heart, that you would give up your plan. Please, please do, my dear cousin!" She spoke gently, persuasively. " It is really don't be angry, Winifred a foolish little plan. Why do you care about these for- eigners ? They are nothing to you and me." But Miss Cryden hardly listened. "He is like the Pied Piper in coming from Transylvania," she said. "I had a letter about the de Noiraud family this morning. You mustn't tell, Elinor, but I've sent some one to learn their past history. I [133] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE know it must be peculiar at any rate, I want to know all about them. It is necessary," she laughed disagreeably, "since they evidently wish my near kin to enter their family." "Whom have you sent, Winifred ?" Elinor asked. She was extremely uncomfortable over this new eccentricity. "They have people in Paris who attend to such things," Miss Cryden said shortly. "And I don't hesitate to say that I hope my envoy will find out something disgraceful. Who are they, forsooth, to pick and choose among us well-born Americans ? I should like to teach them a lesson. If Laszlo has spoken so plainly to you, I suppose the old people will speak to me to-morrow. I shall ask for time to think it over, and you must do the same; or, better still, Nelly," she hesitated, "do not let him say such things to you again, keep him at arm's-length, do you hear ? No, no, I don't mean that exactly, of course you must go on, but I wish, I wish oh, what's the use of wish- ing! Good-night!" She left the room abruptly. XIV "Guido. 'It is no tree, Marina, but a shape the awful shape, . . . Seest thou not his shade Darken before his steps ?'..." "HOTEL DU JARDIN, " VILLA-DE-PLAISIR, FRANCE, "January 19, . "DEAREST ALICIA: "TN my last letter I wrote last Sunday (as JL usual) I think I told you of Monsieur and Madame de Noiraud's formal proposal for my heart, and hand, and vast dowry. Winifred has asked for time, and she has, I am sure, told them hundreds of tarradiddles that she has not di- vulged to me. But I know they believe that she has written to consult Mr. Ferrars. As they con- sider this the proper course, they are, all three, apparently quite willing to await his decision. The aunt is more than willing I suspect. Indeed, / believe that she would prefer to keep her hand- some nephew tied firmly to her apron-strings for- ever. "Ulaszlo seems really amiable, but I can't quite like him because of the influence he has over me. [135] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Something away down within me the American spirit of independence, perhaps makes me re- sent this curious domination. The strange thing is that this domination increases. I have begun to think of him all the time. He has, 'cast the glamour o'er me, O.' "This line keeps running through my head. I wish I knew where it comes from. It is from some old ballad, but I forget what ballad, and who 'cast the glamour,' and why it was cast, and over whom. Perhaps you can help me, Alicia ? "Poor little Berthe had a severe fright last Sunday night. Winifred gave her permission to go down to Ville-de-Plaisir for the afternoon and evening you know Sunday is their gala day. She went with some of the other servants but re- turned alone, they wishing to stay later than she could as she had to get back in time to make Wini- fred's toilet for the night. "(I did Winifred's hair for dinner, and hooked up her bodice, but she would not let me play maid longer. I would gladly have done it, little Berthe has been so devoted to me, but I fancy Winifred did not wish me further initiated into the mys- teries of eyebrows and complexion! I am sorry I wrote that. It sounds spiteful and catty. Please play that I did not, Alicia miaf) AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "To go on about little Berthe. "The tram was overcrowded, so she walked home and took the shortest cut, which is through a high-walled lane (past the door of the old con- vent) which leads to the boarded-up gate at the bottom of the garden. She expected to enter there by the side entrance of which I have written you, steps leading up to an opening in the wall but she saw two men lurking inside under the cypresses, so she went on into the Monk's Walk. " Berthe says that it was like entering a cavern, it was so pitchy black, and she had walked a quarter the length of the allee before her eyes be- came accustomed to the darkness. Then she thought she saw some one coming toward her, down the allee, and when she became certain that this was the case she slipped in between the cypress trunks, hoping to remain unnoticed until the person had passed by. The shape advanced slowly, very slowly, and when it was close upon her she became aware that it was the figure of a cowled monk. Poor Berthe declares that it must have been the ghost, since it made no sound. Not a pebble stirred beneath its tread, not a rustle of the black robe was to be heard. Noiseless, terrible, it glided past her and disappeared. AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Berthe ran home completely upset. Unfor- tunately she met some of the old servants on en- tering the house, and they confirmed her in her foolish belief that she had seen the monk of the Monk's Walk. He is said to be the herald of misfortune. During the year in which he ap- pears something terrible will happen at Villa Fenice. "This is the story told, sub rosa, and in whispers: "Years ago, when the villa belonged to the Fenice family the reigning marchese, having no son to inherit, adopted his sister's son to be his heir and his son-in-law for there was one daughter. This poor girl was not only plain looking and older than her cousin, but was lacking in intelli- gence as well. The young man accepted the sit- uation cheerfully, however, until a certain fatal morning in January when, his uncle and his be- trothed having gone to Rome for a month's visit, he was left alone at the villa. "He was strolling down through the garden on his way to the then small village, Ville-de-Plaisir, when as he neared the now-boarded-up gate it opened, and a beautiful girl, accompanied by an old man-servant, entered. She was an English girl and rarely lovely, with golden hair and soft blue eyes. Young di Fenice received her with AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE great courtesy (she had come to see the far- famed garden), acting the part of host with so much charm that she lingered long. When she left she had her arms full of flowers, and among them so runs the tale was the young man's heart. "He fell madly in love, and she, in her gentle way, returned his passion. She was a fragile creature. Her father had taken a villa on the hillside across the valley, that this only and adored daughter might escape the rigors of an English winter. Poor child, she might better have re- mained at home! The month's absence of the marchese and his daughter proved a fatal month to her. "For the young Italian did not tell of his be- trothal to his cousin, but pushed his suit with the English girl, even writing to her father, who was in England, to ask for her hand. When the marchese returned the young man told him all, begging to be released from his engagement. He begged in vain. " Indignant, furious, the marchese not only for- bade his nephew to think again of the English girl, but he himself visited her and denounced her as an adventuress, striving to ally herself with a noble family. The young di Fenice, going to [ '39] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE see her to confess his wrong-doing and to beg her to wait for him (for he still believed that he might free himself), found her too ill to receive him. The furious upbraiding of the marchese had proved too great a shock for so sensitive, so fragile a creature. Her father had been summoned from England; the worst was feared. "This the old man-servant who had served as chaperon to the lovers told the agonized di Fenice, who went home crazed with anger and grief. The marchese was out, and returning late found his nephew awaiting him in the old salon. What passed between them was never known, but the nephew left the house that night and did not re- visit it for a long time. "The English girl died shortly after, and it was rumored in the country-side that young di Fenice had taken the vows and become a monk. "The middle of the following January a ser- vant, coming home late from junketing in the town, was overtaken and passed by a black-robed monk in the cypress allee. An hour later a pis- tol shot rang out from the salon where the mar- chese had been sitting over the fire all alone. The servants hurrying thither found the door locked and, so stern a master was the Italian, they dared not knock and ask leave to enter. In the morning [ AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE when the door was still fastened they ventured to knock loudly, loudly, and to call out to him to answer. Then they broke the door down, to find him dead, with a bullet in his heart. "He was buried in the tomb in the garden yes, Alicia, it was a tomb but his ghost was said to walk and no servants would stay in the villa. So, later, the body was laid in consecrated ground. "It is thought that the nephew, seeking ven- geance upon the man whom he considered the murderer of his beloved, visited and shot his uncle; and that, as a cowled monk, his shape still comes again to Villa Fenice on the first month of a year that is bringing misfortune. Until the misfortune arrives he haunts the place, his old desire for vengeance calling him from his unknown grave. "I do not wonder poor little Berthe was terri- fied, do you ? Mr. Delamere thinks of painting another picture of the Monk's Walk. He wants it in the early gloaming, with the monk lurking in the shadows of the old cypress trees. "Laszlo, in his odd, foreign way, is 'paying court' to me, and I find it pleasant. Nay, more. I understand how American girls fall in love with foreigners and marry them; they are so soft- voiced, so gentle, so charmingly devoted. But I, perhaps because of untoward experience, have [HI] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE grown suspicious. Ulaszlo seems y as I said before, really amiable but is he ? "Mr. Ferrars is so kind. I think he was very good to be willing to become my guardian. I am keeping his letters for you to read. They are so entertaining, so really witty, that I know you will enjoy them. "Your loving "NELLY. "P. S. Have you heard anything of Maynard lately ? I wonder if he is still in France. Poor Maynard!" [ 142] XV ' 'One should master one's passions (love is chief)* And be loyal to one's friends!' ' MATYAS DE FOLATRE was not in the habit of denying himself any pleasure that he thought attainable; and a pleasure that had to be struggled for was a double pleasure to him, for he delighted in a certain kind of battle. "All's fair in love and war," might have served him as motto. He had plenty of courage of the wrong kind, for he feared neither man nor devil. (And, surely it is as well to stand in awe of Satanas and to be on one's guard lest he do one an ill turn!) Elinor interested Matyas the more that he had misunderstood her frank ways. Her meeting with Mr. Delamere had convinced him that she was no innocent girl, but a woman of many expe- riences. He had not believed for a moment that Miss Cryden was expected to join the two upon whom he had played the spy in the room of the echo (the old salon); and it had become the de- sire of his heart to return to Hotel du Jardin and pit himself against the Englishman. AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Young Madame de Folatre was summoned to England. Her great aunt, a lady of vast wealth, was ill and wished much to see her. Monsieur de Folatre dutifully accompanied his wife to Eng- land, then, complaining of a weak chest, betook himself to the south of France, ostensibly in search of sunshine. He was not received cordially by his relatives. Monsieur de Noiraud growled out his disapproval of his nephew's return in the deep tones of an en- raged bear, his fat, round face heavy with anger. Madame's high aquiline nose grew hooky in out- line as she pecked questions at the intermeddler. Why had he returned ? Was it for gambling ? The carnival ? But the carnival was over two weeks distant! Ulaszlo, receiving his cousin with his usual quiet gentleness of manner, began at once to hate him with all the intensity of a weak nature. Divorce was now the fashion, he said to himself. Perhaps Matyas desired to oblige his wife to divorce him that he might marry the agreeable American heir- ess. Matyas wearied of everything. His lovely young wife doubtless ennuied him. An American would be a piquant change. Monsieur de Folatre pretended not to observe the unfriendly reception accorded him. He took AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE the disapproval of his uncle and aunt laughingly, as a jest, thereby, of course, irritating them the more; but this did not trouble him. If Uncle Ulaszlo chose to leave him money he would do so, Matyas assured himself, despite a little ruffling of the temper; if, again, he were disposed to leave all to Laszlo, he would carry out his plan even were he, Matyas, subservient to the uncle's every whim. Better take present pleasure, instead of thinking of future gain. "Will you show me the garden, Miss Ladoon ?" Matyas asked, on the afternoon following his ar- rival. "My visit before was so hasty I did not see it thoroughly." Elinor had come downstairs to mail some let- ters for Winifred. It was four o'clock, and the sun was already sinking behind the western hill across the valley. "I must ask my chaperon," she said demurely. "I will take you up in the lift," said Matyas, "and wait to see if I am to be made happy or the reverse." "I like the way you talk," Elinor said as she entered the elevator. "The mixture of perfect English and foreign flattery is very charming, Monsieur de Folatre." "It is no flattery," Matyas replied as he stepped [145] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE in after her. "I do not flatter when I say that to be with you is a happiness, and to be without you the reverse." "That sounds very nice," Elinor said serenely. " I love bonbons of speech as well as of chocolate, Monsieur. How well you manage the elevator! If you were the 'boy' in charge the thing would be overcrowded, all the ladies in the hotel going up and down incessantly because of your beaux yeux. You have such very handsome eyes, Monsieur de Folatre." Matyas smiled. "You are very clever, Miss Ladoon," he said, "I must be careful how I pay compliments in future, I see. I can't have you making too much fun of me. But I do like to be with you very much." "Naturally," Elinor acquiesced composedly. "It is always interesting to meet a perfectly new kind of bird, or beast, or human being. I am the first American thrown in your way. Take out your microscope, Monsieur. May I prove worthy of study!" And the elevator coming to a stand- still she went to Winifred's parlor to ask what she should do. Miss Cryden was seated in an easy-chair with her feet on top of the coil of hot-water pipes. She was groaning as Elinor entered. AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Thank Heaven it's you, Nelly," she ejaculated. "Do come and lift my feet down. My legs have stiffened and gone to sleep, I've sat here so long thinking, thinking! Oh, be careful, it's ag ony!" This she shrieked as Elinor obeyed, lifting down a pair of slender legs encased in red silk stockings clocked in gold, terminated by two small feet shod with red, high-heeled slippers ornamented with gold buckles. While she slowly rubbed her slumbering members Elinor told her of Monsieur de Folatre's invitation. "He is waiting for me in the elevator," she said. "Let him wait," snapped Miss Cryden crossly. "How long?" demanded Elinor indifferently. Miss Cryden smiled, her ill-humor fled. "You do me good, Nelly," she said, beaming upon the girl, "you really care so little about any of them!" "I care to do what you wish, Winnie," was the polite reply, "and it occurs to me that Monsieur Laszlo would dislike any favor shown his cousin. Which one am I to please Matyas or Ulaszlo?" As she finished speaking Berthe tapped and entered. "What do you want, Berthe?" her mistress demanded. "We are busy. Go away!" "The two messieurs quarrel by the ascenseur" Berthe announced, ignoring Miss Cryden's out- [147] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE burst, "and those waiting below to ascend ring and ring in vain!" She giggled delightedly. "And it is against the rules for any save the employees of the house to make to mount the ascenseur, but none heed the ringing, the preparations for after- noon tea preventing the garcons are so careless!" and again she giggled. "They quarrel quietly, yet fiercely, very, ces deux messieurs!" "Enough, Berthe" Miss Cryden spoke with great dignity "pray leave us. You know I dis- approve of tale-bearing." Then, as the door closed behind the rebuked maid her manner changed. "She means Laszlo and Matyas, Eli- nor! Accept the invitation to walk, by all means, and stay out over tea time and bring him up here at half-past five for tea with me." "Very well," said Elinor obediently. "But what shall I do if Laszlo tags on ?" "Let him tag," was the sharp answer. "And be sure you speak English with de Folatre that will drive Laszlo wild. Wait, 1 want you to wear my black velvet cloak, it is so becoming with all its lace trimmings; you won't need a hat, will you ? No ? I thought not. Berthe, Berthe, my black velvet cloak for Mademoiselle!" "Am I to treat them alike," Elinor inquired, "equally civil to each ?" AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Miss Cryden pondered a moment. "Save for speaking English, yes," she said. "And pretend that you drop into that from forgetfulness. Does does Laszlo begin to care for you, Elinor, do you think ?" "He is a riddle," said Elinor truthfully; "a riddle that I cannot read." With the cloak over her arm she left the room. She found the two cousins in the hall awaiting her. If they had been quarrelling they showed no traces of it in their manner; each man looked smiling and sufficiently content, as each stepped for- ward to relieve her from the burden of her cloak. She looked at Ulaszlo with a charming smile of greeting, and she yielded the cloak to Matyas. "I will walk down," she said, and descended the staircase with a cousin on either side. The girl was amused; her spirits rose; a pretty color appeared in her cheeks. When they stepped out upon the terrace Matyas turned to his cousin saying: " Au revoir, mon cher!" "I am not to come ?" Ulaszlo asked sorrowful- ly, his long, bright eyes fixed upon Elinor's. " You do not desire my company, Mademoiselle La- doon ? I shall not take my conge from him, I assure you." AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE The feeling she dreaded came over Elinor. She found herself wishing to have Ulaszlo with her. Remembering Winifred's orders she won- dered how she might, at this juncture, obey them. How to be equally civil to each man was a prob- lem and Ulaszlo's influence was already upon her. "And cast the glamour o'er her, O," she caught herself murmuring. Matyas suddenly thrust himself in front of his cousin. "Stop staring at Mademoiselle, Laszlo," he laughingly commanded. "That is a bad habit of which you should break yourself. Come, Miss Ladoon," he said in English, "tell this rude fel- low that it is with me you have promised to walk." "I, too, spik Eenglis," cried Ulaszlo, gaining Elinor's side. "Mees, dear mees, spik, I beg, je vous en prle! Say I come weez you. Ah, spik I hang suspended to your lips!" Matyas burst into wild and frantic laughter. "Pardon, pardon," he ejaculated, while in reality he made no effort to check his mirth. "I cannot help laughing, Laszlo, your English is so horrible." "Do not believe him, Monsieur de Noiraud," said Elinor kindly, her blue eyes brimming with tears from her endeavor to suppress her own AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE laughter. "You speak English quite as well, indeed, far better than I speak French." She was greatly pleased to discover that his broken English had dispelled his charm. It did not matter to her now whether he came with them or not. She had recovered her self-poise. But without a word of thanks for her tactful sympathy the angry young man turned and walked rapidly into the house. "A dear fellow," was de Folatre's suave com- ment as they entered the nearest alley, "but with the temper of the devil. He loses his head, as the English say, when he is in a passion. Fortu- nately he's rarely in a temper. I should be very sorry for any woman who married Ulaszlo, much as I love him. He's not fit to be intrusted with a woman's happiness." "Few men are," said Elinor quietly. "That is painfully true," was the quick, grave answer. "And our marriage system is wrong, Miss Ladoon, radically wrong. A man is ex- pected to marry the girl chosen for him by his parents. This unknown quantity is to be his companion through life. It is equally hard, nay, harder, I grant, on the woman than on the man. The chains gall her sensitive nature more heavily, of course. But still the man has something to en- AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE dure. I hope that should you ever hear of fric- tion between man and wife in our world you will accord a little of your sweet sympathy to us men." He paused, hesitating, then said with a glance of deep meaning: "We are not all so black as we are painted, Miss Ladoon. Some among us relieve our wives of our tedious selves whenever we can; that, at least, should stand to our credit." Elinor, while wondering why she was being favored with this disquisition on the foreign mar- riage system, thought with a certain bitter amuse- ment of her own experience with the Bertrams. Maynard was, very likely, at that very moment paying court to the well-dowered Miss Gillespie selected for him by his parents. Some Ameri- cans were very like their foreign acquaintances in regard to marriage making. But this she did not tell her companion. If there were faults among her compatriots she would be the last to point them out. She felt contempt for Monsieur de Folatre's effort to blacken his cousin in her eyes. It was underhand and mean. "It is foolish to marry for money," she said coldly. "Should the gold vanish what is there left ? I love this statue of Mother Ceres" (chang- ing the subject and pausing to look up at the gray, moss-grown goddess, guarding the steps they were AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE descending), "she has such a grandly beneficent air! If you come this way you shall see an arbor made entirely of ivy the trunk of the vine is gigantic and from its round windows you can look down into the Monk's Walk." It was as she said. The vine in its luxuriance had hidden the trellis completely, and from the round windows one looked sharply down into the Monk's Walk. As the young people peeped out a man strolled past below. "Mr. Delamere!" exclaimed Elinor. "He must be going to paint in the gloaming. The shad- ows already fall heavily, and how chilly it is! Come, let us go down through the garden and meet him." "I think he was not alone," said Matyas. "I think that there was some one walking beside him, close to the bank. Do not let us go. I do not wish to see Mr. Delamere. I am not here be- cause of him, Miss Ladoon." But Elinor hardly noticed the meaning look that accompanied his last words, and what he hinted so broadly fell upon deaf ears. "Let us go," she said dreamily, and turned into the alley edging the bank. This walk was very broad, and unpaved. On one side was the sharp slope of the high bank [153] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE above the Monk's Walk, but from the alley one could not look down, as from the ivy arbor, into the walk. Those below were concealed from view; and the bank was too high and too pre- cipitous to be descended with safety. Along its edge grew splendid forest trees, and it ended in a terrace from which was a glorious view of the sea. "I have a morbid desire to climb down this bank," said Elinor, drawing near the edge. "An absurdly intense desire!" "Be careful!" cried de Folatre catching her arm. "The grass is slippery. I wonder who is with Delamere." He eyed the young girl sharply as he spoke. "I am sure he was not alone." "We shall know presently," said Elinor, hasten- ing her steps, and following the terrace to the paved alley, the only one that led down to the closed gate with the side egress from the garden. "There is no hurry please don't hurry. Why do you hurry?" de Folatre remonstrated, still eying her curiously. He laid his hand upon her arm and stopped her outright. "Explain your haste, I beg, Miss Ladoon. You came to walk with me; you came to show me the garden. And now is it to meet the Englishman ? you hurry me past all its beauties. The picture and the painter will not run away!" [54] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Two German ladies walking homeward up the neighboring alley glanced with sharp disfavor at the loiterers, commenting contemptuously upon the free manners of American girls. Elinor did not even see them. She looked at de Folatre dreamily. "I was forgetting Mr. Delamere," she said. "Then of whom, or of what, are you thinking, if I may ask?" Matyas demanded irritably. Elinor, visibly pulling herself together, stood still, reflecting. A brilliant color swept over her face staining it from brow to chin. She had dis- covered her secret thought, it seemed, and it had failed to please her. Her dreamy manner van- ished; she glanced brightly, smilingly, at her irritated companion. "I am thinking of you, Monsieur de Folatre," she said gayly, "and hoping, as cicerone, to find favor in your sight. A votre service, Monsieur!" She courtesied low. " If Monsieur will follow this way to the grand gateway, now boarded up, alas ! I will have the honor of relating to Monsieur the sad story of the lovely young English lady." Smiling back over her shoulder she lightly de- scended the steps, and passed on down through the terraced orange groves to the mass of forest trees where the garden ended. At the top of the steep flight of steps that here leads down to the [155] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE gateway Matyas caught up with his laughing guide. He looked at her strangely. "You carry out your purpose," he said. "I am not being shown the garden. I understand now why all diplomats are as children in the hands of the statesmen of your country. You enchain us and," he gave her a swift, daring glance, "we hug our chains." "This place is always cold," said Elinor, paus- ing in the flagged square before the gateway, "cold, and gloomy, and and threatening. I sup- pose because of these cypresses." She glanced up at their towering black spires as she spoke. "You are cold ?" cried de Folatre. "But your cloak is warm! The chill is from within. You are sensitive to atmosphere, and here there is something vaguely oppressive. Let us return to the open spaces of the garden. On the terraces there is still light." But Elinor was already descending the steps that led to the lowest terrace. "We can return through the cypress allee" she said, waiting for Matyas to rejoin her. "It is lovely here upon this terrace. Part of the avenue once, I fancy. I think they must have driven past the convent, along this ter- race, up through the Monk's Walk to the Villa Fenice. What do you think, Monsieur de Folatre ? " AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE " I think that two men, not one only, passed be- low us when we were in the ivy arbor, Miss La- doon," was the curious answer. "What do you say?" "I don't know," Elinor said slowly. "I am sure that I do not know, Monsieur de Folatre. If you come but three steps forward you can look up the Monk's Walk and make sure." "One moment!" cried Matyas, stopping her as she would have walked on. "I will make a wager with you. I wager a louis that there are two men in the Monk's Walk, and that one of the men is my cousin, Ulaszlo de Noiraud. Will you bet against this supposition, Miss Ladoon ?" Elinor stood silent. Again the tell-tale color surged across her face, then faded slowly, leaving her very pale. A strange expression came into her beautiful eyes; one might have called it a hunted look. "The wager is off," said Matyas suddenly. He spoke gravely and with marked courtesy. " I had no right to talk so foolishly. I have the empty de Folatre head, Miss Ladoon. My mother was born de Noiraud, but I am all de Folatre. I have inherited none of the de Noiraud " He hesitated. "To be sure I could not have, since my mother" again he hesitated. "I have none of what are [157] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE called the de Noiraud peculiarities, they come from another strain of blood. It is a pity, per- haps. Ulaszlo, par example, can do much that I cannot do; he has many shall we say qualities? yes, qualities, that I do not possess. You are ready to go on now, up the Monk's Walk ? The slope is tiresome because the allee is so long, not that it is really very steep. Ah, Mr. Delamere, ah, Laszlo, here you both are! I felt sure we should meet you here, my dear cousin, and I am duly pleased." "It is Mademoiselle Cryden's kind wish that we should all drink tea with her upon our re- turn," said Ulaszlo, coming close to Elinor. "I hope you are not sorry to see me so soon again, Mademoiselle ?" There was an anxious depreca- tory expression in his fine eyes. He evidently feared that he had offended her. Elinor included the three men in her gracious smile as she expressed polite hopes that they might accept her cousin's invitation. But all three felt a certain aloofness in her atmosphere, and each interpreted it after his own fashion. "I have set her thinking," was de Folatre's thought. "I have displeased her," Ulaszlo said to him- self. AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "These beastly foreigners have bored her to death," thought Mr. Delamere. "What a rotten lot they are!" And he managed to be her special escort on their walk back to the hotel. [159] D XVI 'My heart belies such lines of destiny. There is no other true interpreter!" "HOTEL DTJ JARDIN, " VILLE-DE-PLAISIR, FRANCE. EAR ALICIA: c We have been assisting to entertain Mon- sieur de Folatre! We have been to the Casino to drink tea and gamble. No, I did not gamble for myself! I put down de Folatre's money for him and he won, won, won. His cheeks grew red with excitement and the lust of gain. They have the ' petits chevaux' both at the Casino and the Jetee. This last is a huge pavilion built out over the water. Music (classical music most excel- lently played), tea, and gambling, are to be had there. Adjoining the Casino is a theatre where the opera and French plays are given. "As I wrote you, I am rarely allowed to indulge in the gayeties of the town. I might meet ac- quaintances who would divulge the secret of my broken fortunes. I am here for a purpose alas, such a foolish purpose! and I must pursue it to [160] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE the bitter end. I am more sorry for poor Winifred each day. She is eating her heart out. Such a bitter, time-worn, old, old, heart! But her pas- sion burns none the less fiercely for that; age has brought no gentle resignation, no softening of temper. She has never grown up. "Yesterday morning Laszlo was playing his flute and I accompanying him as usual, when Matyas came in. I had forgotten myself, stray- ing on and on into the strange dreamland whither the Transylvanian's magical music leads me. I did not notice de Folatre's entrance until he laid one hand upon my shoulder and with the other took hold of the flute. 'Wake up!' he said to me. 'Stop dreaming. The sun is shining and invites you out.' "I stared, still befogged but amazed by his rudeness. He then addressed his cousin. ; ' I wonder at you, Laszlo, keeping Madem- oiselle indoors this lovely morning! I think I will break your flute. Play me something, Madem- oiselle, I beg, without Laszlo's wretched gurglings. Play me ' he scrutinized me closely 'play "Yan- kee Doodle"!' 'Do not play,' commanded Laszlo in a low voice. "I folded my hands in my lap. I obeyed with- [161] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE out even knowing that I did so. Matyas seized one of my hands. " 'I will tell your fortune/ he said. " 'You cannot and shall not, Matyas!' Las- zlo cried, and he caught my hand and de Fola- tre's in both his own. 'You shall not read her lines!' "Matyas, with a quick side movement, jerked his elbow into Laszlo's chest; Laszlo, unprepared, started back, bringing me up on my feet, for he did not release our hands. The piano stool fell over with a crash and the noise served to bring back my wandering wits. " 'You both hurt me!' I cried (I was careful not to meet Laszlo's eyes). 'Do you wish to crush my hand ?' "At this they both let go and I went to the win- dow and flung it wide, saying that it was lovely and I would go out. But the two men were too angry to hear me. " 'You reading hands!* Laszlo said scornfully. 'Since when, I wonder? But anything to bring yourself forward! I understand you well, my cousin.' ' 'Of course, I cannot presume to read them as you can,' Matyas retorted with biting civility. 'You, of course, have inherited ' AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE ' 'Enough, enough,' Laszlo interrupted quick- ly. * Let us say no more on the subject. Madem- oiselle Ladoon wishes to walk. Mademoiselle will permit me to attend her?' He came close beside me. ' I shall be happy to have you,' I said smiling. 'And perhaps you will kindly go to Miss Cryden's little salon and ask her to accompany us ? I know she will allow Berthe to bring me a light wrap and a sunshade.' "He had to go, Alicia, and de Folatre looked triumphant until I sent him upstairs to fetch his new cane to show me. This is really a weapon. He bought it to carry when returning late from Ville-de-Plaisir. You draw out its silver handle, to which is attached a piece of flexible braided steel or some kind of gray metal ending in a solid lump of the same metal. If you struck a cutthroat with this it would kill him, I think. "Ulaszlo returned while Matyas was explaining its management to me and I asked: 'What do you carry, Monsieur de Noiraud?' " ' He carries nothing,' de Folatre answered for him, ' and I confess to thinking Laszlo extreme- ly foolish. Show Mademoiselle your only weapon; show your ridiculous knife, mon cousin. 1 " ' It is a very little one,' said Laszlo gently, AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE 'but I am so strong I need nothing. I have my great fists,' and he smiled. He looked very sweet and kind; his temper had evidently van- ished. "'Why do you dislike showing your knife?' Matyas persisted. 'I do not dislike,' said Laszlo composedly, but still he did not show it. : 'It is as long as my arm, Mademoiselle,' de Folatre said sneeringly; 'it is a carving knife.' "At this juncture Winifred entered, and had to see the cane and hear about the knife and how Laszlo refused to exhibit it. " ' I think Nelly really wishes to see your play- thing, Monsieur Laszlo,' she said insistently. 'As a favor to my little cousin I beg you to draw your dagger!' "His face became as expressionless as a hand- some mask as he obeyed, and placed the most ab- surd little toy penknife in my hand. It was a ridiculous knife, as de Folatre had said (for a man to carry), but I did not make any remark save to thank Laszlo, as I had no wish to give Matyas pleasure. As Ulaszlo held his hand out to take it back I glanced at his palm, and as his hand closed slowly over the knife his motions are gen- erally slow when they are not so quick that they AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE take your breath away I saw that he had no marriage line. This I said to him as we walked toward the tennis court, and he was not pleased. 'It is all foolish superstition,' he said, 'and I do not believe in it. And if I have no marriage line, it soon, I hope, will be given the chance to grow, dear Mademoiselle. Ah, but you treat me unkindly! I love you dearly, so very dearly. And you know it, Mademoiselle Nellee, and you know my hopes, also. You believe in my affec- tion, nest-ce pas?' "I pretended to hold a daisy. 'A little?' I questioned, pulling off an imaginary leaf. 'Much ? Passionately ? ' ' 'A la folie!' he interrupted almost fiercely. "And, Alicia, I fear, I fear "But if he does, if he should, if "I am sorry I came, although it has enabled me to find myself, to readjust myself. Yes, you did right, with your views, to advise me to come, Alicia. To you 7 stood paramount. To you my destiny was, and is, the all-important one. This visit has taught me much, enabled me to forget much. 7 am benefited by it, but are others hurt ? I am coming home to teach music, with all my heart, with all my strength. Work, that is what I need, what I long for. AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Poor Winifred! Will it help her if others suffer ? "His vanity is engaged if not his heart. And vanity, when wounded, suffers cruelly "Your loving "NELLY." [166] XVII ' . . . God's own profound Was above me, and round me the mountains, And under, the sea," ELINOR was unfortunate in not being allowed to see more of the other people in the hotel. They were, many of them, entertaining people, their differing nationalities rendering them par- ticularly so to the girl. She would have enjoyed mingling with them and learning their various thoughts and ways. The close study of Tran- sylvanians, who were not really Magyars, but merely a nondescript French graft, would have begun to weary her even had she not been pecul- iarly situated toward these particular foreigners. As it was, she was heartsick and homesick. And without any wholesome work, or variety of inter- course, to divert her mind from dwelling upon the selfishness of those with whom she was brought into close contact, she was in danger of becoming morbid and bitter. It was early in the morning on the first of February. Elinor stood by her eastern window eagerly scanning the weather signs. Miss Cryden AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE had said that if the day promised to be fine she would drive over the Corniche to Menton, and return by the lower road, stopping at Monte Carlo on the way home. The party would consist of Miss Cryden, Elinor, and the two cousins, Ulaszlo and Matyas. The excursion was to be given ostensibly in honor of de Folatre. In reality Miss Cryden had arranged it in order to discover how matters stood with Ulaszlo in regard to Elinor. She hoped that the time had come for her to inflict the blow she had so foolishly planned, yet feared to find that the young man really cared for her cousin. Her mind was in a turmoil between these conflicting hopes and fears, and her temper was much the worse because of her suffering. For she did suffer, and suffer so keenly that Berthe, who had discovered her mistress's foolish secret, found her more pitiable than laughable. Hubert meeting the pretty maid on her way to Miss Cryden's room exclaimed over her being so mat male. "But Mademoiselle Berthe is like the morning," he said smiling and rolling his eyes admiringly as he gazed upon saucy Berthe, "clouds as well as sunshine! You look uncertain. Is it that you fear Mademoiselle Cryden?" [168] Berthe shut her mouth tight, put her finger upon her lips, and nodded violently. Hubert's eyebrows ran up to where his hair once had been, while he drew his lips down and flung out his arms with every appearance of sympathy. "It is this," whispered Berthe approaching close: "Does she wish to go for the drive to Menton this morning or not ? It depends upon the weather. And I, who am to arouse and pre- pare her, do I understand, then, the weather? But not at all! If I mistake, and wake her when rain is coming, I shall lose " "Your place?" interrupted Hubert, absently striving to encircle her trig waist with his shirt- sleeved arm. "No, but my head," Berthe replied, dexterously avoiding his arm and shaking the saucy head at him gayly. "It is a pretty head," said the admiring porter; "far too pretty a head to be taken off by that sour old maid, although it may be" this in revenge for the avoided embrace "it may be an empty, foolish one!" "Too many wise thoughts remove the hair per- haps?" was the careless retort, accompanied by a sly side glance at Hubert's bare poll. "I will remain foolish if Monsieur permits. But what of AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE the weather, Hubert. There is none like thee, I am told, at reading the signs." She smiled at him coaxingly. "I have not time to run downstairs," Hubert said good-naturedly, "and here there is no win- dow from which to look eastward. If I could but peep from the window of Mademoiselle Ladoon! What dost thou think, Berthe, man enfant, would Mademoiselle permit ? I would gladly save thee a scolding, wicked as thou art." He passed his hand over his bald head. "If she would permit!" exclaimed Berthe, lift- ing her eyes to the ceiling. "But you know her not! She is an angel, Mademoiselle Ladoon, ever gracious, smiling, charming yet here" she laid her hand upon her heart "ah, I feel sure, here, always sad!" Hubert shook his head doubtingly. "I do not know," he said gravely. "She is not as our jeunes demoiselles. First I thought it was the Englishman who had her favor " "Stop!" said Berthe in a fierce whisper, frown- ing angrily. "It is not possible that you suppose my Mademoiselle is that kind of demoiselle! Ah, you must not, you shall not! She is of a goodness, of a purity an angel, I tell thee, Hubert, yes truly. Not an evil thought in her heart." [ 170] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "But Monsieur de Folatre, then ?" Hubert per- sisted, still unconvinced. "He pursues her, and she permits him. Monsieur de Folatre is not the kind of monsieur to waste his time and it is not marriage that he desires, Berthe." Berthe smiled radiantly. "I look forward with pleasure, yes, with delight, to his fast approaching misery! He loves her, yes, and with passion even, but Mademoiselle is a jeune demoiselle Americaine, and she understands him not. Listen, Hubert;" she laid a confidential finger upon the porter's arm; "I, yes, I myself, heard her complain to Mademoiselle Creedan of Monsieur de Folatre. * He is always placing his foot upon mine, Weenee- freet,' says my very dear Mademoiselle Ladoon with her large eyes eyes so blue, Hubert filled with innocence. 'Never can he keep his feet from touching mine when we are at the card-table. Now I place mine under my chair the moment I sit down to play. They went to sleep to-night, I kept them quiet so long. I think his mother should have taught him to keep still.' Mademoiselle Creedan she smiled with amusement; she under- stood, did Mademoiselle Creedan. And I think she regretted that she had insisted upon Madem- oiselle Ladoon speaking French always. I think, Hubert, that she wished 7 had not understood." AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Didst thou say aught?" Hubert demanded. "But no, foolish Hubert! It is for me to be deaf often and for thee not to be blind. Say that you have faith in my dear Mademoiselle La- doon, say it quickly, Hubert." Hubert only nodded, but his face showed so plainly that he was convinced of his error that little Berthe was satisfied. At this moment Eli- nor's door opened softly and she looked out. When she saw Berthe and her companion she smiled, in her charming, friendly way, in greeting, and came to where they were standing. Berthe rushed into speech. "It is of the weather that Mademoiselle is thinking ? If Mademoiselle would then but per- mit Hubert to look from her window?" "I was just about to beg him to do so," said Elinor. "It would be a pity to wake Mademoi- selle Cryden for nothing." The three tiptoed into the room. It was a solemn moment. Berthe, who was excitable, held her breath as Hubert opened the window and silently inspected the clouds drifting across the pale blue sky. The mountain tops were mist hung, the vapor rolling now up now down, as though a saucy giant child were playing at lifting and dropping a gigantic curtain. AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Hubert noiselessly closed the window and gave his verdict. " If the wind were from the other quarter there would be rain before night. As it is, Madem- oiselle Cryden may be aroused with safety; by eleven o'clock the sky will be perfectly clear." He spread out his hands and bowed low. It was as though he, as clerk of the weather, took pleasure in thus arranging a fine day for the charming Mademoiselle Ladoon. "There will be four?" he asked Elinor, as he slowly backed from the room from which Berthe had already flitted. " Un parti carre, nest-ce pas, Mademoiselle ?" Elinor smiled. "Yes, Hubert," she said, "Mad- emoiselle Cryden and the Messieurs de Noiraud and de Folatre; I too, of course." "Madame de Folatre will soon join monsieur, nest-ce pas, Mademoiselle ?" Hubert's little round eyes were fixed upon Eli- nor as he made this innocent inquiry, but they were as expressionless as two shining buttons. "Is she coming? I had not heard so," Elinor said, much interested. "When, Hubert?" " I do not know, Mademoiselle," was the vague response. "I thought perhaps Mademoiselle might inform me. Madame de Folatre is, so I under- [173] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE stand, an English lady. Beautiful " he spoke slowly "gentle, and very rich." "I hope that she may come soon," Elinor said with grave earnestness, "it would give me great pleasure to meet her. I wish that she were here to-day for this drive. Mademoiselle Cryden has arranged the party in honor of Monsieur de Fol- atre." She stood pondering, wondering if it were too late to put off the excursion. Hubert watched her keenly and decided that Berthe might be right. At all events, de Folatre was not in the running at present; Mademoiselle Ladoon evidently cared not a snap of her white finger for him. Hubert felt relieved, and wondered why. What was it to him, then, he asked himself, if Mademoiselle was or was not sans reproche ? There was, as Berthe had said, something very true and beauti- ful in the expression of Mademoiselle Ladoon's large blue eyes. He found himself suddenly hop- ing that she might not marry de Noiraud, and the next moment he surprised himself by ventur- ing to hint this to the American lady. "Madame de Folatre would have done better to have married in her own country," he said, looking down, and beginning to polish the door knob with his green baize apron. AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "You do not admire Monsieur de Folatre, Hubert?" Elinor inquired. "He is nothing to me," was the careless reply. "I know not what he is. It is the principle, Mad- emoiselle. A lady, look you, is accustomed to the ways of the messieurs of her own country; if she marries one of another land there are new cus- toms, and manners, and and morals, Mademoi- selle (if what I hear is true), to be learned. And as one lives on from year to year one loves more and more the customs and ways of one's own land. The English had best marry English, the Americans, Americans, and and " he broke off, looking into the hall. "I am wanted, if Mad- emoiselle will excuse ?" He bowed low and made his exit, noiselessly closing the door behind him. Elinor smiled, and finished his speech for him. "And the Transylvanians, Transylvanians," she said to herself, and she felt grateful to the porter for his kindly interest. "The carriage is ordered for half-past nine o'clock," said Berthe, knocking, opening the door, and delivering her message in one excited breath. "If Mademoiselle will be ready, yes?" and she was gone. Miss Cryden was fortunate. The landau that [175] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE she had hired was a new one, drawn by a pair of swift, powerful horses. The two men, de Noiraud and de Folatre, surveyed the turnout with satis- faction, but not one another. Each wished that the other might have remained at home, and each struggled, quietly and decorously, to assume the position of the most intimate friend in assisting in the preparations for departure. Elinor was looking particularly well. Excite- ment had brought a bright color into the cool, healthy pallor of her cheeks, and a smile of pleas- ure played about her mouth and lighted up her eyes. Upon Miss Cryden the excitement had a different effect. She had not slept well; she felt nervous and irritable, and she knew that she showed her age in the early morning. Dressed in bronze velvet trimmed with sable, her face but imperfectly seen through a veil of lace and one of chiffon, she strove to comfort herself with the thought that at least she looked very elegant and stately, ensconced in her corner of the roomy car- riage. Her thoughts were very painful; for al- though both men paid her compliments upon the beauty of her toilet, and showed her the attention that was her due as hostess, neither one of them could keep his eyes from straying toward Elinor, and this Miss Cryden saw but too plainly for her AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE happiness. She felt that she hated everybody: de Folatre because he was Ulaszlo's cousin; Ulas- zlo because he had bewitched and then scorned her; Elinor because she had succeeded but too well in the task assigned her. And she hated herself because of her unhappiness. "Why do I care so much for him ?" she asked herself over and over again as she studied the handsome face opposite her. Such a strangely cold face " une froideur lummeuse." But his eyes were not cold when he looked at Elinor. Ah, no, there was in them a tenderness that she had never before seen! Her heart contracted with a spasm of pain. A sudden terror seized her lest, despite her veils, her misery might be revealed to her companions. But no, they were comment- ing cheerfully upon the splendor of the morning for the clouds were already rolling away and pointing out with equal cheerfulness the tablets in the rock at the foot of the hill where the road leads up to the observatory, commemorating the sad death of the two who had been killed at that spot in an auto race. "Nobody thinks of me, nobody cares for me,'* Miss Cryden said to herself bitterly, "I wish I were dead!" But this she did not really wish. And she [177] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE joined in the conversation, and said how sad was the fate of the two who had died in the accident, and how much she preferred carriages to autos; and, further up the hillside, when a child ran out with flowers, and de Noiraud presented her with one of the bouquets, she accepted the gift with her accustomed airs and graces, and no one suspected her secret wretchedness. The landau was open, the top thrown back, and the keen mountain air thrilled past, inspiriting Elinor more and more. The views were glorious; first inland views, where the mountains loomed up peak after peak into far distances; and, after, wide stretches of the blue Mediterranean, seen from the steep hillsides along which the wonderful road winds in broad, easy curves upward, upward, until, near Turbie, it swings as easily downward, reminding one ever of its remarkable builder, Napoleon. To Elinor all was the keenest pleasure. The loneliness of the great road charmed her; and when this loneliness was occasionally broken, now by peasants driving their donkeys; again by groups of soldiers; or rosy little children running out from the scattered homesteads to meet the carriage, their hands filled with flowers for the travellers; and the brake drawn by three horses AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE with a party of Cook's tourists; whatever there was of life or solitude upon this wondrous high- way proved an enjoyment. The girl's heart swelled with delight over the exquisite beauty of earth and sea and sky. She looked down with awe upon the deserted village of Eze, perched upon its isolated rock, and viewed with interest the French men-of-war so far below that they looked no bigger than row-boats. Her unaffected pleasure was an enjoyment to the two men. They watched her with open ad- miration, delighted with her girlish enthusiasm. It was with difficulty that they remembered her chaperon, poor Miss Cryden, who felt as each half-hour passed that she might pay too dearly for her vengeance. Menton was bathed in the brilliant sunshine of midday when they drove along the road that edges the sea. Great, pale-green waves were rolling shoreward, now and again mounting so high that their foaming surges, as they broke upon the peb- bly beach, dashed over the asphalt pavement of the promenade. Few people were abroad. It was the hour of luncheon and the place. looked de- serted. As none of Miss Cryden's party knew Menton, the coachman chose the hotel where they might lunch. It was close upon the promenade, [179] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE commanding an exquisite view of the sea at which no one looked save Elinor. The others were too much interested in their own affairs to think of scenery. Miss Cryden demanded to be shown at once to a room where she hoped to repair the ravages made by the keen air and glowing sunshine upon her complexion. But when she had, with Elinor's help, removed the two veils, she was in despair. "What shall I do?" she exclaimed, as she sur- veyed her once pretty face. "My nose is fright- fully red and my cheeks look yellow yes, the color of gamboge!" She sought eagerly in her hand-bag for powder and puff, but the box was not there. Berthe had forgotten to put it in. "I sha'n't go down. I'll eat my luncheon here. Oh, if only I could eat through a veil!" the poor lady wailed. "And you" she turned fiercely upon Elinor "you look handsomer than ever! Oh, what shall I do?" Elinor suggested borrowing powder from one of the ladies in the hotel. "And use a nasty, perhaps infected, puff ? Never!" was the indignant refusal. "As for scrubbing it on with a handkerchief but you are perfectly unsympathetic, Elinor Ladoon, perfectly! [180] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE You only think of your own pleasure! Here you have been flirting madly with both those fools all the way " "Shall I stop?" Elinor demanded, interrupt- ing her. " I should be only too glad to, Winifred." "There you go," whimpered Miss Cryden. "I never can say half a word but you catch me up. If you are quite through prinking, quite through, Elinor" this very severely "I wouldn't hurry you, of course, still it does seem odd that any one who pretends to care so little for her personal ap- pearance should prink forever if you are, as I just said, quite ready, we will join our friends," and she swept from the room. In the mean time the other two cousins had been conversing, and not conversing affectionately. Ulaszlo had asked, very mildly, if Matyas thought it quite fair to interfere in his affairs. "When you were about to become engaged to Sophie, Matyas," he said gently, "we all wished to help you. I remember that I did all I could." "Indeed?" was the sarcastic rejoinder. "I am charmed to be reminded of your great kind- ness. Perhaps you are remembering the day I came upon you suddenly in the garden when you were offering Sophie a flower ? Yes, it is that moment that you are recalling. You kissed the [.81] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE flower, which Sophie had the good sense to de- cline. Ah, yes, I remember your devotion; but it was to Sophie, not to my interest!" "You lie!" said Ulaszlo. He smiled faintly as he spoke, that the by- standers, the gold-buttoned employees of the hotel, might not suspect his feelings. He had grown very pale. Matyas laughed with affected good-humor and laid his hand gently upon his cousin's shoulder. "Do not let us quarrel, Laszlo, mon cher" he said pleasantly, "only fools do that. What harm does it do if I flirt a little with your charming fiancee that is to be ? She thinks nothing of it. I am to her but one among many. 7 am not the one to be feared, my cousin." He smiled signifi- cantly. "Who then?" demanded Ulaszlo eagerly. "The Englishman," was the low-voiced answer. "Absurd!" said de Noiraud. "But you will not understand." "They walked in the garden late last evening," said de Folatre coldly. "You are mistaken," came the quick reply. "Ask, then." Ulaszlo shook his head. "You will not you dare not? Then 7 will." "Hush! here are the ladies," said Laszlo. [182] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Did I see you in the garden last evening, Mademoiselle Ladoon?" de Folatre inquired, as the four took their seats at the lunch-table. "I thought I saw you, but I may have been mistaken. It was very late. I dare say I was mistaken in- deed, I am sure I was." "No, you were not," said Miss Cryden tartly. "Elinor was in the garden. Why do you imagine that you were mistaken, Monsieur de Folatre ? Surely the garden is free to all. Elinor has as good a right to walk there as anybody, I hope, especially as I sent her to pick up something I had dropped over my balcony." Miss Cryden spoke with exceeding acrimony. She felt extremely cross, so cross that although she wished to appear amiable and desirable in the eyes of both men, the joy of venting her irri- tation upon somebody outweighed all consider- ations of vanity. And this giving rein to ill tem- per proved so keen a pleasure that she prolonged the sensation. What did this impudent foreigner mean, she asked herself angrily, poking and pry- ing into her affairs ? If she had, in a moment of carelessness, running out upon the balcony to see who it was walking below so late upon the ter- race if she had carelessly let fall the false puffs that she had been looking at when she heard the AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE steps, was it any of this de Folatre's business, pray ? "I dropped my lace scarf, yes, my scarf of Spanish lace, last night, Monsieur de Folatre," she continued severely, "and my cousin was kind enough to go downstairs and pick it up for me. If you have any more questions to ask I shall be charmed to answer them." She smiled sourly upon the astonished de Folatre, astonished but not alarmed. "Was she alone since I may ask questions?" he inquired coolly. His audacity restored Miss Cryden's good-hu- mor. Anything so amazing was amusing. She laughed outright. "You are surely the most impertinent man alive, Monsieur de Folatre," she said, "so imperti- nent that you win forgiveness. Yes, Nelly was alone. Any more questions?" "I thought Mr. Delamere was with her, Miss Cryden," he said slowly. "I could have sworn that I saw a tall dark figure following her along the terrace, pausing before she came below your balcony." "Then there was some one!" cried Elinor. "I was sure there was some one behind me. Oh, Winifred, who could it have been?" AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Delamere," said de Folatre sardonically. "Why do you ask?" "No such thing," said Miss Cryden. "I wish it had been," said Elinor. They spoke simultaneously. "You wish it had been?" questioned de Fola- tre scrutinizing the girl closely. "Yes," she said simply, "for then I should not have been afraid. As it was, to hear no footsteps and, looking back, suddenly to see a dark shadow looming up close behind me ah," she shivered, "I was frightened! When I strove to see who it was it had slipped away. I spoke Mr. Delamere's name" de Folatre glanced swiftly at Ulaszlo "and yours, and Monsieur de Noiraud's" Ulaszlo returned the glance with one of triumph "but there was no answer, and I hurried back into the hotel as fast as I could." "It may have been the monk," Ulaszlo sug- gested. "I fear him much myself." Everybody laughed, and Mr. Delamere was ap- parently forgotten. XVIII "Some sprite, malignant and elfish, Seems present, whispering close, 'All motives of life are selfish, All instincts of life are gross;' ' IT was about three o'clock when the party dashed into brilliant, sparkling Monte Carlo, gay with flowers, with the flutter of doves' wings, and with the ever-changing crowd of pleasure seekers. As Miss Cryden's carriage rolled past the long line of autos and coaches awaiting those who were paying court to fickle Fortune inside the gambling rooms, de Folatre called attention to a man who had just started to cross the street. A tall, broad-shouldered man, in a shabby over- coat, who walked as though dazed, unconscious of those about him. Upon each cheek was a deep red spot as if he were burning with fever, and his eyes shone with unnatural brilliancy. "One of the victims, I imagine," said de Folatre coolly. "He's evidently got his quietus. I dare say he'll put an end to himself before daybreak to- morrow. But we'll never hear anything about it. [186] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE They know how to hush up such little matters here." Elinor cried out in horror. "Oh, the pity of it the pity of it all!" "Like poor James," whispered Miss Cryden with indiscreet sympathy, leaning close to the girl. "Dropped over a hundred thousand in one night, I'm told." Then, in open comment, she expressed her dis- approval of gambling, adding that since they were there they had better go in and take a peep at the tables. "I never put down more than ten francs," she said virtuously, "and you mustn't play at all, Nelly. For an old lady like me" she simpered archly, ogling the two men, "a little wickedness more or less does not matter." She descended lightly from the carriage, show- ing a goodly stretch of well-turned leg and ankle incased in brown silk stockings clocked with gold, and a pair of shapely little feet shod with high- heeled, bronze slippers. Appropriating the un- willing de Noiraud as escort she went briskly up the steps into the rooms, leaving Elinor to follow with de Folatre. Had it not been for Miss Cryden's allusion to Mr. Ladoon's love of play with its unfortunate [187] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE consequences, and the sight of the man whom de Folatre had pointed out as one of the victims to that passion, Elinor might have visited the gam- bling rooms in as carelessly thoughtless a spirit of mere sight-seeing as do most girls; for youth is thoughtless and, fortunately, forgetful. But the two sharp reminders of the fate that overtakes some among its votaries sent her in a subdued and saddened spirit into this great temple of so-called pleasure. The rooms were full. There were many on- lookers like themselves, but the greater number of these were trying their fortunes with small stakes at the lesser tables, showing the same light hearted amusement whether they lost or won. De Fola- tre, anxious to be a satisfactory guide, soon led Elinor to the table around which were grouped the most interesting habitues of the place, those who were playing as if for life or death, where fortunes were sometimes made but oftener lost. Crowded about this table were people unlike in every way save one, each face was stamped with the same expression, greed. The croupiers, whose eyes only seemed alive, raked in the gold and bank-notes like automatons. What was it to them who won or lost ? Elinor felt that she would be forever haunted by the memory of one [188] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE among these gamblers. This was an old, old lady, precisely dressed in old-time, old-lady garb, a rich black silk gown, and a plain black bonnet tied with black ribbon beneath the chin. She was attended by a companion who stood behind her chair, an apparently uninterested spectator of her em- ployer's gains or losses. The old lady's wrinkled face was very thin and white, dead-looking; her sunken eyes were colorless, but alight with fierce desire. Greed was written in every line of the corpse-like face. Elinor turned away, heartsick. "Come," she said to Matyas, hardly knowing to whom she was speaking, "come quickly! I must get out under God's sky, into God's sunshine!" Alarmed, fearing that she was in danger of fainting from the suffocating atmosphere of the place, he hurried her out into the fresh air. It was a few moments before she could recover herself sufficiently to reassure her anxious companion. Accepting his interpretation of her desire to leave the rooms, and unwilling that he should discover her real feelings, she forced herself to speak ad- miringly of the beautiful spot ("The Plague Spot of Europe," as it is called) and pretended to feel happy and at ease. But she was more than glad when he told her that the others were coming. AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "They are not alone," he said; "two ladies are with them. Do you know them ? No ? The big auto approaching is theirs, I suppose. Shall we join your cousin ?" "Elinor," said Miss Cryden, hastily drawing the girl aside without introducing her to the new- comers, "Laszlo and I are going home with the Lines in their car. They wouldn't take no, I had to accept. I know you won't mind driving back with de Folatre, he's nothing but an old married man, for all his airs and graces. If he is silly, just don't notice, there's a dear girl! The coachman is elderly, he can chaperon you." She giggled girl- ishly if a trifle spitefully. "Whatever you do, please be polite and nice to de Folatre. I'm par- ticularly anxious that he shouldn't feel snubbed by my breaking up the party. Do you under- stand, Nelly ? If he's too flirtatious I know he's an impudent fool just don't catch on. You're clever enough" she narrowed her eyes and shot an unfriendly glance at the girl "you're clever enough to drive a team. I've seen that to-day. You can easily manage " she broke off, laughing uneasily. "There, I was only joking, Nelly dear. You don't mirid driving back alone with the tire- some man, do you ?" Elinor did mind, but she accepted the situation [ 190] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE politely and promised to treat Matyas with due consideration as her cousin's guest. Miss Cryden went with her to the carriage, placing her in de Folatre's care. "We shall dash past you in a moment," Miss Cryden said complacently, "but as we expect to stop for tea somewhere en route we sha'n't reach home much before you do. Take good care of my dear Nelly, Monsieur! Bon voyage!" and she waved them a gay farewell. Monsieur de Folatre, who had civilly concealed his delight over the arrangement from Miss Cry- den, gave it full rein as he leaned from the carriage and called out to his cousin: " Au revoir, Laszlo! Bon voyage, mon cherf" The ring of triumph in his voice, the smile of insolent success upon his lips and in his bold dark eyes, caused his less fortunate rival to pale with anger and inwardly to curse fate. Fate, at that moment, being personated by Miss Cryden. Mat- yas sank back against the cushions and allowed himself the luxury of gazing adoringly at Elinor, saying to himself that since the old woman was out of the way, and Laszlo disposed of, he might let himself go, and indulge his feeling tow- ard Mademoiselle Ladoon to the fullest extent. He was seated on the seaward side of the carriage AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE and Elinor, looking past him at the yachts anch- ored in the little harbor below, failed, apparent- ly, to notice the lover-like expression in her com- panion's dark face. As the carriage rolled down the hill leading to Monaco cannon boomed from the fortress above and bands clashed out gay music. It was a fete day in the little city. Flags were flying, the street through which they passed was alive with throngs of merrymakers. Monsieur de Folatre sighed with pleasure. "I am so happy that I can enjoy seeing others so, without the customary twinge of envy," he said. "I wish that this drive might last forever." Elinor did not answer. She felt oddly, unlike herself. It seemed to her that life was all ignoble, mean. Every one appeared actuated solely by selfish motives, to be greedy for selfish pleasures, forgetful of all save the fierce desire to minister to their own base appetites. The few good people, the people like Alicia and Mr. Ferrars, were but the exceptions that proved the general rule. The little leaven of their unselfish goodness might never hope to leaven that lump of vicious human- ity called the world. The old lady spending the evening of her life at the gaming table; Winifred, who was wasting her energies in an unworthy [ 192] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE pursuit of vengeance; the fortune-hunting young Transylvanian against whom the foolish vengeance was planned; and the man who was even at that moment insulting her with his dishonorable admi- ration, all, all were alike, all tarred with the same blackening brush. She felt that she hated them all and she despised herself. In yielding to Win- ifred's wishes had she not become as black as they ? But, after all, what did it matter ? was she responsible, pray, for the ways of the world ? The bold promontory upon which little Monaco is perched had been left behind them, they were passing handsome villas with flower-draped garden walls. Monsieur de Folatre, not understanding the expression in the girl's blue eyes, respected her mood for silence, fearing, should he speak out of season, to mar the heaven-sent opportunities of the long tete-a-tete drive. Elinor, becoming herself conscious of her silence, and remembering her promise to Miss Cryden to be civil, felt the necessity for conversation and was indignant because of it. Her usual sweetness of temper failed her. She was conscious of a new self, a bitter, resentful self. She had not asked to be born into the world; she would not have come, she felt, had she been consulted. And now that she was in it through no fault of her own AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE she was expected to endure cheerfully its storm and stress; to be grateful for her cousin's false hospitality; to behave as vilely, as shamefully as the crowd as Maynard, in short. And why not ? she asked herself with a bitter smile of self scorn. Who was she, forsooth, to set herself up on a pin- nacle above her mates, to strive for high ideals, to hitch her buggy to a star ? Let her henceforth live like her neighbors. But she must never for- get Alicia's advice (just now, curiously enough, backed by Winifred's) to be always kind. Oh, yes, she would be very nice and kind, and so do no harm! She turned to her companion. " Forgive me for not thanking you before, Mon- sieur de Folatre, for so gratefully accepting the tiresome role of chaperon. Alas, matrimony brings cares! Were you still a bachelor you would have been considered an unfit guardian, married ' "I am quite safe ?" de Folatre interrupted. "It is true, unfortunately but too true! For while I am judged a safe, uninteresting, old laid-on-the- shelf companion for a beautiful girl, my safety is not thought of. I am allowed to run all risks of unhappiness. Nobody cares whether I am in dan- ger of suffering from lack of safeguarding or not." He looked at her reproachfully, his eyes taxing [ '94] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE her with having been unkind. "A moment ago," he continued gravely, "I envied no man. Now I feel that I have gained little in getting rid of Miss Cryden and my cousin. Luck is not with me as I had dared hope but against me, as usual." "Dear me, dear me," Elinor exclaimed," I am so sorry I said what I did! I did not mean to be rude, Monsieur. Pray forgive me! Do not look so cast down. I fancy that luck is generally with you and" she lowered her voice, assuming an air of playful gravity "to keep it you have but to safeguard yourself against one thing." "What is that?" Matyas demanded eagerly. "Meeting the monk in the Monk's Walk," came the solemn answer. "Really!" exclaimed de Folatre. "Is that the belief here ? I had not heard it. I wonder if there is any truth in it. Are you superstitious, Miss Nelly?" He spoke her nickname lingering- ly, as if he loved it. "Superstitious?" Elinor repeated dreamily, "Superstitious? I don't know; whiles I am, and whiles I'm not. I confess I have no desire to meet the monk either in or out of the Monk's Walk. The herald of misfortune, so they say, to some one dwelling beneath the roof of Villa Fenice." [195] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "Laszlo met him last night," said de Folatre briefly. "When?" The question was asked almost sharply. The girl's dreamy manner had disap- peared. "When?" Matyas repeated in surprise. "At what hour, you mean ? About a half-hour after you had returned to the house, after" he hesi- tated significantly "after you had picked up Miss Cryden's scarf." Elinor paid no attention to the innuendo. She had a curious sensation of faintness. Was it the monk who had been behind her on the ter- race, slipping so stealthily into the shadow when she had turned to look back, conscious that she was being followed, albeit she had heard no sound of footsteps ? Could misfortune still be dogging her ? Ah, no ! Ah, no ! The fresh air against her face seemed insuffi- cient. She drew off her gloves, turning her hands palms upward on her lap to let the cool breeze play upon her wrists, in each of which a feverish pulse was beating too madly. The longing to escape from her present surroundings came over her with an intensity that was a pain. Miss Cry- den's remark about Mr. Ladoon, and the ex- perience that had preceded and followed it, had AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE overstrung her nerves. She longed passionately for Alicia's steadying presence, for Alicia who loved her and who was always kind. Ah, always kind, the poor girl said to herself, with swift re- membrance of her duty toward her cousin and her cousin's guest. And again she was forgetting this guest! The carriage was passing beneath a great hill clothed to its summit with pines. It seemed to Elinor that their dark shadows gloomed over her, symbolizing the misfortunes that were darkening her life. But it was her duty to talk to her com- panion; she strove to summon a smile as she turned to voice a commonplace remark. The ef- fort affected her strangely. To her intense dis- comfort she felt the tears welling up into her eyes. A deep blush of shame over her weakness dyed her lovely face from brow to chin, and she looked at de Folatre through her tears with the expression of a frightened child. What might he think of her ? The appealing glance in the great, tear-dimmed blue eyes was too much for the man beside her. In an instant he had caught her hands within his own and, stooping, he covered them with hot, passionate kisses. "Ma bien-aimee! My darling!" he murmured [ AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE between his kisses. "God, how I love you! Dieu de Dieu, comme je t'aime!" For an instant Elinor did not seek to release her hands or to repulse him. His kisses, his words, shocked her back into calmness, the calm- ness of dull resentment, of cold disgust. Her bitter mood returned with redoubled force; her tears dried, her moment of weakness fled. "Let me have one hand, please," she pleaded gently, "just one, Monsieur!" De Folatre lifted his face, a face white with passion, and looked long into her eyes. His own eyes glowed, the excitement sent the blood cours- ing fiercely through his veins, he believed that he had won. "I may keep the other," he whispered, "yes?" Elinor smiled, the strange sad smile that seemed so ill-suited to her youth and splendid health. Matyas, interpreting the smile as a favorable an- swer, released one shapely hand, the right hand, and again bending his dark head pressed his hot lips almost fiercely against the smooth cool palm left in his grasp. Elinor made use of her par- tial release oddly, for with her free hand she took her companion's hat and tossed it into the road. "Arretez!" she cried to the coachman, as de AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Folatre started up in surprise. "Monsieur has lost his hat. He must alight and seek it." The carriage stopped, Matyas jumped out and pursued his head-covering which was rolling nimbly down the gutter. As he recovered it a red auto swept past. Those within it were heard oh-ing! and ah-ing! as they rushed by, in surprise over his small accident. There was a waving of hands, a nodding of heads, the fluttering of veils, and the car had passed out of sight. Elinor was conscious of the fixed stare of a pair of handsome dark eyes set in a melancholy dark face. Ulaszlo was not enjoying his drive more than she hers, apparently. Matyas now showed that he had misunder- stood her action. "The breeze is too strong," he said to the coachman. "As you see, it blew off my hat. We should like to have the carriage closed. I will hold the horses while you arrange the cover." Elinor was unpleasantly taken aback, but only for the moment. "I am so sorry," she said in French, and she spoke very sweetly, "a closed carriage always makes me faint. But, of course," she looked at the coachman and smiled, "Monsieur must not take too much air" she patted her chest mean-* [ 199] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE ingly, as if de Folatre were a sufferer from pul- monary complaint "so if you will close the car- riage I will sit on the box with you, that is, if you kindly permit?" Again she smiled up at the man in friendly fashion. "Perhaps you will consent to give me a lesson in driving ? in French driving. I already understand how to hold the reins in American and in English fashion. It is agreed I may come?" "Charmed, charmed, Madame," cried the coach- man, an elderly Frenchman with the fine manners of the old-time French servant, "a votre service !" He was delighted, and intensely amused. Im- agining that de Folatre and Elinor were a newly married couple for, coming from a livery-stable he knew nothing of the people he was driving he fancied that they were having their first tiff. The moment of disillusion while always sad for those concerned is sometimes entertaining to the onlooker. "You need not get down," said Matyas dryly, inwardly furious but outwardly composed, "since Madame has changed her mind!" He got into the carriage and gave the order to drive on. For a few moments he was too angry to speak, then, controlling himself, he said with a forced smile: [ 200 ] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "That was a childish jest! But I forgive you, for you are little more than a child." Had Elinor known how she had been misinter- preted, what de Folatre had imagined when she threw his hat from the carriage, it would have been impossible for her to have treated him as though nothing had happened, when he reseated himself beside her. What she felt that she must ignore and this was sufficiently difficult was the un- pleasant episode that had preceded the throwing of the hat. Had she even suspected that he thought she was deliberately giving him the chance of having the carriage closed, with its sub- sequent opportunities, she would have walked the dusty miles that lay between her and Ville-de- Plaisir sooner than to have been again in his com- pany. As it was, she sat in safe ignorance of the man, his morals, and his view-point of herself. "I wonder where the autoists will stop for tea," she said lightly, ignoring his forgiveness. "At the Casino, I fancy. Your cousin's face was the only one I saw plainly, they rushed past so swiftly. You do not resemble your cousin, Monsieur, neither do you look like your uncle or your aunt. You must be, as you say, entirely de Folatre." "Step-uncle, step-aunt, step-cousin," Matyas explained crossly. "They are not near relatives. [201] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE Grandfather de Noiraud married twice. I am descended from the only child of his second union. My step-relatives," he hesitated, giving a swift side glance at the girl beside him, "have many traits that I perhaps unfortunately, perhaps fortunate- ly, qui salt? that I do not possess. Curious traits that, when a child, a very little child, Miss Ladoon, I used to admire and envy. For example, I used to long to be able to stare unwinkingly at any object for hours at a stretch like Laszlo. And I used to regret bitterly that I couldn't do the things Laszlo could make whistles that blew more shrilly than any I could fashion; mend any broken toy so that it was better than before; in short, I wished for his magical powers along every line. Later" again he hesitated, as if he wished to say something that prudence forbade "later" he sighed as though denying himself that pleasure "well, later I changed my mind." "Magical powers," Elinor repeated under her breath. And again she was haunted by the line from the verse of the old ballad that she could not recall: " They cast the glamour o'er her, O." She glanced hastily at her companion. Had she spoken it aloud ? But Matyas had fallen into [ 202 ] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE a reverie. He was staring straight ahead, absorbed in thought. In truth, he was weighing his chances. If he burned his ships and told this American girl what he thought might ruin Ulaszlo's suit, would he, Matyas, benefit by so doing? He still be- lieved evil of Elinor, and he still hoped to win her favor despite the Englishman, her present lover. But he was a trifle alarmed to find that he was beginning to care too much for success. A game being agreeable, so he thought, only so long as you remember it is but a game and not the serious business of life. Should you become so inthralled as to be willing to stake all to win, you are play- ing the part of fool, and deserve the scorn of all men of the world, your peers. Was he, he asked himself seriously, beginning to care too much for this beautiful young woman ? When she spoke, the musical cadences of her voice charmed him; when she looked at him so innocently out of her great blue eyes yet she was not innocent, he said to himself almost fiercely. He turned and scrutinized her closely. She had a very weary air; there was a wistful, pathetic expression in the soft eyes. His feelings toward her underwent a sudden change. How lovely she was, how gentle, how entirely womanly! He for- got to calculate chances, to wonder if he cared [203] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE too much for her or not in short, for a few brief moments he forgot himself. "Elinor, my darling," he murmured, coming closer to her, " I love you so! No, no," as she drew away still farther into the corner of the carriage, "do not fear me! I swear I will not offend again. I will deny myself everything if only you will throw over Delamere, and promise not to marry Laszlo. Neither one of them cares for you as I do. What is Delamere's easy liking; what is Laszlo's tame affection, in comparison with my passion ? / love you, they do not." Elinor sighed. How disagreeable, how tire- some the man was! In her present curious mood she felt no indignation at the insult of his avowal. He was to her but a part, a small part, of the miseries existence entailed upon one. He was repugnant to her, but no more so than everybody in the whole world save, always, Alicia and Mr. Ferrars. She had a great longing for solitude. If only she might be alone for a few hours, quite alone in her own room ! She realized vaguely that if she had not given her promise to Winifred to be civil, she would then and there explain her sentiments so fully that even this conceited favorite of Fortune could not fail to understand. But she knew that should she remind him of his wife it [ 204 ] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE would be of no avail, unless she could further set him right as to her own ethics. "I am so tired," she said plaintively, "so absurd- ly, so ridiculously tired, Monsieur de Folatre! My head aches, aches, aches I I am ashamed to say how dull, how stupid I feel. It is too bad that you should be condemned to such a silent companion, but really, I cannot talk." The road had here been tunnelled through the rocks for a short distance, and the horses' hoofs reverberated from the roof and walls like thunder. "And this infernal noise!" exclaimed Matyas, eying the unconscious walls angrily. "There," he strove to put his arm around her, "lean your beautiful head upon my shoulder. Perhaps you may sleep." "And all these autos passing and the trams ?" said Elinor, forcing a smile. "Come, Monsieur, do not oblige me to take your nonsense seriously. I grow crosser each moment, less able to enjoy flowers of speech. Please remain in your own corner, and let me become a whole-souled tourist.. We shall be at Beaulieu presently. I read about it in Baedeker yesterday. It is situated 'amid plantations' of figs, olives, oranges, and lemons. 'Amid plantations' pleases my fancy. But per- [205] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE haps my imagination has run away with me. That sometimes happens, nest-ce pas ?" "Mine has certainly run away with me!" was the curt reply, and Matyas relapsed into his own corner and into gloom. "Then comes Villefranche, a naval station, an uninteresting town though beautifully situated. (I still quote Baedeker)," Elinor continued, ig- noring her companion's sulkiness, "and dear me, there must have been an accident! See that auto at a stand-still in the gutter." The next instant she was calling to the coach- man to stop; she had recognized acquaintances in the two standing near the tram track looking wist- fully for a car. A stout woman, plainly dressed, and a fairy-like little girl with long, golden curls; Gwendolen Abercrombie Merryweather and her nurse, Nanna. The carriage drew up beside them and contra- dictory explanations ensued. Nurse Nanna com- plained bitterly of the chauffeur's reckless driving: "That fast, Miss Ladoon, that never a wink of anything could we see goin' or comin'; and a hat can be holt fast to and so kep' on, but losin' the breath's serious, an' who can keep holt to it forever ? And at last somethin' snapped and into the gutter we went and stopped short, and that we [206] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE b'ain't none of us killed is God's own providence and not his fault!" She nodded severely toward the chauffeur. "And so I've told him over and over, but he makes b'lieve not to understand, just like all these tiresome furriners! He knows well enough, never fear, but he won't let on or give in an' thank you kindly for offerin' Gwenny and me, poor child, a seat in your carriage that frightened but that brave!" She gladly put her charge and herself into this haven of refuge. The chauffeur found in Monsieur de Folatre his sole sympathizer. The coachman turned a deaf ear; being almost distracted with the difficulty of driving his spirited horses along a road now overcrowded with tram cars and autos, he had no sympathy for any not in his line of business. But Matyas had his own reasons for regretting the accident. When he returned to the carriage to find the small Gwendolen occupying his place and the fat Nanna seated vis-a-vis to Elinor, he felt that his pipe was out beyond relighting. "There is room for three," said Elinor, draw- ing the child close to her side. "You and Gwen- dolen and I can sit, 'Tit tat toe, Three in a row!' can't we, Gwendolen ?" [207] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE "No, no," was de Folatre's civil answer, as he took the vacant place beside the nurse. "I will sit where I can look at you both " (the pause made the personal pronoun significant), "I love to look at beautiful things." "Yes, sir; yes, sir," Nanna agreed deferentially, "but some beautiful things is awful wicked. Them gamin' rooms, for instance. Oh dear!" She clasped her fat hands over her ample lap, and rolled up her eyes in real horror. "I just hate to go to Monty, but I have to, every two weeks, sometimes every." Elinor wondered why. Her eyes asked the question. "To see Miss Gwenny's other grandma, the grandma for whom she's named, old Madam Merryweather, her Grand Merry, as she calls her (you've got two grandmas, ain't you, pet ?). Grand Amy and Grand Merry she calls 'em to keep 'em separate. We couldn't see her Grand Merry to-day, she was" a pause, a heavy sigh "she wasn't, ahem, she wasn't very well, she couldn't see me and the child." "She was gambling," piped Gwendolen in her clear treble. "She was 'at the rooms/ Mathilde said, and I asked Mathilde (you couldn't under- stand, Nanna, because it was in French) what she [208] AN OLD MAID'S VENGEANCE was doing there and Mathilde said, 'Mais elle /o