CHAPTER XV.
A COUNTERPLOT.
It is a half hour later. The light in the room is increased by asputtering additional candle, and Papa Francoise, sitting by the dealtable, is gazing toward the door, an eager expectant look upon his face.
"If that old woman were here!" he mutters, and then starts forward atthe sound of a low hesitating tap.
Hurrying to the door he unbars it with eager haste, and a smile ofblandest delight overspreads his yellow face as the new-comer enters.
It is a woman, slender and graceful; a _lady_, who holds up her trailingblack garments daintily as she steps across the threshold, repulsing theproffered hand-clasp with a haughty gesture, and gliding away from himwhile she says in a tone of distressful remonstrance:
"Man, _why_ have you sent for me? Don't you know that there is such athing as a last straw?"
"A last straw!" His voice is a doleful whine, his manner obsequious toservility. "Ah, my child, I wanted to see you so much; your poor motherwanted to see you so much!"
The woman throws back her veil with a gesture of fierce defiance,disclosing the face of Leslie Warburton pale and woe-stricken, but quiteas lovely as when it shone upon Stanhope, surrounded by the halo of"Sunlight."
"You hypocrite!" she exclaims scornfully. "Parents do not persecutetheir children as you and the woman you call my mother have persecutedme. You gave me to the Ulimans when I was but an infant,--that Iknow,--but the papers signed by you do not speak of me as _your child_.Besides, does human instinct go for nothing? If you were my father wouldI loathe these meetings? Would I shudder at your touch? Would my wholesoul rise in rebellion against your persecutions?"
Her eyes flash upon him and the red blood mounts to her cheeks. In theexcitement of the moment she has forgotten her fear. Her voice risesclear and ringing; and Papa Francoise, thinking of two possiblelisteners concealed not far away, utters a low "sh-h-h-h!"
"Not so loud, my child," he says in an undertone; "not so loud. Ah! youungrateful girl, we wanted to see you rich and happy, and this is howyou thank us," affecting profound grief. "These rich people have taughtyou to loathe your poor old father!"
He sinks upon the stool as if in utter dejection, wipes away animaginary tear, and then resumes, in the same guarded tone:
"My dear child, when we gave you to the Ulimans we were very poor, andthey were very rich,--a great deal richer than when they died, leavingyou only a few thousands."
"Which _you_ have already extorted from me! I have given you everydollar I possess and yet you live like beggars."
"And we _are_ beggars, my child. Some unfortunate speculations haveswept away all our little gains, and now--"
"And now you want more money,--the old story. Listen: you have called meto-night from my husband's home, forced me to steal away from my guestslike the veriest criminal, threatening to appear among them if I failedto come. At this moment you, who call yourself my father, stand theregloating and triumphant because of the power you hold over me. I knewyou were capable of keeping your word, and rather than have my husband'shome desecrated by such presence as yours, I am here. But I have comefor the last time--"
"No, my child, oh!--"
But she pays no heed to his expostulations.
"I have come _for the last time_!" she says with fierce decision. "Ihave come to tell you that from this moment I defy you!"
"Softly, my dear; sh-h-h!"
His face, in spite of his efforts to retain its benign expression, isgrowing vindictive and cruel. He comes toward her with slow cat-likemovements.
But she glides backward as he advances, and, putting the table betweenherself and him, she hurries on, never heeding that she has, by thismovement, increased the distance from the outer door--and safety.
"You have carried your game too far!" she says. "When you first appearedbefore me, so soon after the loss of my adopted parents that it wouldseem you were waiting for that event--"
"So we were, my child," he interrupts, "for we had promised not to comenear you during their lifetime."
"You had promised _never_ to approach me, _never_ to claim me, as thedocuments I found among my mother's--among Mrs. Uliman's papers prove.Oh," she cries, wringing her hands and lifting her fair face heavenward;"oh, my mother! my dear, sweet, gentle mother! Oh, my father! thetruest, the tenderest a wretched orphan ever had on earth! that Deathshould take _you_, and Life bring me such creatures to fill your places!But they cannot, they never shall!"
"Oh, good Lord!" mutters Papa under his breath, "those fools upstairswill hear too much!"
But Leslie's indignation has swallowed up all thought of caution, andher words pour out torrent-like.
"Oh, if I had but denounced you at the first!" she cries; "or forced youto prove your claim! Oh, if you had shown yourselves _then_ in all yourgreed and heartlessness! But while I was Leslie Uliman, with only amoderate fortune, you were content to take what I could give, and notpress what you are pleased to term your _claim_ upon my affections.Affections! The word is mockery from your lips! In consideration of thelarge sums I paid you, you promised never to approach me in the future,and I, fool that I was, believing myself free from you, married DavidWarburton, only to find myself again your victim, to know you at last inall your baseness."
Papa Francoise, unable to stem the tide of her eloquence, shows signs ofanger, but she never heeds him.
"Since I became the wife of a rich man, you have been my constanttorment and terror. Threatening and wheedling by turns, black-mailingconstantly, you have drained my purse, you have made my life a burden.And I came here to-night to say, I will have no more of yourpersecution! All of _my_ money has been paid into your hands, but notone dollar of my _husband's_ wealth shall ever come to you from me. Iswear it!"
The old man again moves nearer.
"Ah, ungrateful girl!" he cries, feigning the utmost grief; "ah, unkindgirl!"
And his affectation of sorrow causes two unseen observers to grin withdelight, and brings to Leslie's countenance an expression of intensedisgust.
Moving back as he approaches, she throws up her head with an impatientgesture, and the veil which has covered it falls to her shoulders,revealing even by that dim light, the glisten of jewels in herears--great, gleaming diamonds, which she, in her haste and agitation,has forgotten to remove before setting out upon this unsafe errand.
It is a most unfortunate movement, for two pair of eyes are peering downfrom directly above her, and two pair of avaricious hands itch to clutchthe shining treasures.
Obeying Papa's instructions, Josef Siebel and the girl Nance, hadmounted the rickety stairway which they reached through a closet-likeante-room opening from the large one occupied by Papa and Leslie. Andhaving stationed themselves near the top of the stairs they awaitedthere the coming of the lady who, surprised by their presence, was toproffer them hush-money with a liberal hand; but--
"The best-laid plans of men and mice gang aft agleg."
And Papa Francoise has not anticipated the spirited outbreak with whichLeslie has astonished him. Startled by this, and fearful that; by afalse move, he should entirely lose his power over her, he has madefeeble efforts to stay the flow of her speech and neglected to give thesignal for which the concealed sneak thieves have waited, until it wastoo late.
Crouched on the floor near the stairway, the two thieves have heard theentrance of Leslie, heard the hum of conversation, low and indistinct atfirst, until the voice of Leslie, rising high and clear, startled Siebelinto a listening attitude. Touching Nance on the arm, he begins slowlyto drag himself along the floor to where a faint ray of light tells himthere is a place of observation.
The floor is exceedingly dilapidated, and the ceiling below warped andsieve-like; and, having reached the chink in the floor, Siebel findshimself able to look directly down upon Leslie as she stands near thetable.
In another moment Nance is beside him, and then the two faces are gluedto the floor, their eyes taking in the scene below, their ears listeninggr
eedily.
At first they listen with simple curiosity; then with astonishedinterest; then with intense satisfaction at Papa's evident discomfiture,for they hate him as the slave ever hates his tyrant.
When the veil falls from Leslie's head, Siebel's quick eye is the firstto catch the shine of the diamonds in her ears. He stifles anexclamation, looks again, and then grasps the arm of his confederate:
"Nance," he whispers eagerly, "Nance, look--in her ears."
The girl peers down, and fairly gasps.
"Shiners!" she whispers; "ah, they make my eyes water!"
"They make my fingers itch," he returns; "d'ye twig, gal?"
"Eh?"
Drawing her away from the aperture, he says, in a hoarse whisper:
"Gal, I've got a plan that'll lay over old Beelzebub's down there, if wekin only git the chance ter play it. See here, Nance, are ye willin' tomake a bold stroke fer them shiners?"
"How?"
"By surprisin' 'em. If I'll floor the old man, can't you tackle thegal?"
Nance takes a moment for consideration; they exchange a few morewhispered words and then begin to creep stealthily toward the stairway.