CHAPTER VII
THE SHADOW'S FACE: BEING ALSO THE FULL STORY OF THE SHADOW'S FLIGHT
The whole of Allegra's document was never made public. Before it wasread even by those concerned they heard from Nancy how, when she had runfrom the window of the boathouse, it was Allegra who had reappearedthere, she whose red hair Gumama had glimpsed through the smoke and shewhom Alieni had found courage to shoot. Afterwards they got from Dennythe story of his venture: how he had guessed that, on leaving the Tombs,he would, in his own person, be kept a prisoner by his Italian hoststill he was got out of the country; and how he had therefore persuadedFilippi Alieni to change places with him--Filippi to be carried toAllegra and he to receive at the meeting of the Camorra a message thatwould take him to Nicola, to the hiding of the Arm of Justice and toNancy Cornish. What must forever sicken Denny to think of was that hourin the boathouse when Nancy might have yielded and taken the laudanumthat Mrs. Pascoe had finally secured, before he could get to her.Nancy's eyes were upon him, regarding him fixedly and strangely. Withthe vividness of his remembrance he broke off to question her. "How, atsuch a time, among such dangers, did you dare to throw it away?"
"Why, I had to! No matter what! I had to live till the last minute. Theletter was gone. I was your life. I was the only one who knew!"
He dropped his face into her lap with a strange laugh. By and by, theyturned to the story of Allegra.
That great donkey of a Ten Euyck wishes me to write this. He says it isfor his protection, but I know well enough what it is for. It is a netto catch a peacock--to whom he is welcome. He will never bray aboutme--this is two-edged; it would avenge me. It is a pity none will everread it, for it is a good story and I should like every one to knowabout me. Then, too, sometimes, I almost think that when I am far awayand sheltered with my friends, I will send word of it to high places for_his_ sake. For I shall be always in torment if they kill him. That is,if by then there shall be no Nancy Cornish. To send him, free, to thearms of another woman--no, that would be a little too much!
I am a remarkable girl. It has taken to crush me the same as to crushNapoleon--bad luck. My bad luck began when I was born, with the twocolors of my eyes. Thus a mark was put upon me, keeping me always inholes and corners unless I would be known, and making most men, who loveme by nature, growing in time to weary of my face. If it had not beenfor the blue eye and the brown, my mother would never have noticed,among the children in the park, the American baby with the fair downupon its head who, when she came to look at it, was made with a shapedface like mine, and who also had a brown eye and a blue. She would neverhave made friends with the nurse and learned how the child was namedAllegra Hope, and how the rich Americans had been married but fourmonths before it was born, and were to wait in Italy till it could bebrought home a year younger than it was. This the nurse had picked up,not being supposed to speak much English. And then came the telegram tocome home, somebody was dying. And at the same time the nurse was sick,and there was no one with whom to leave the child. And then the nursebrings forth her friend who has always showed so fond of the child, andthere is rejoicing because she is American, and the English doctor saysshe is healthy and the child is left with her. It is treated well; itgrows; it grows more and more like me, who am but one year the older, sothat all laugh to see us, and I am more like that other mother than myown, showing in what class it would have been just I should be born. Andthe old creature in America does not die, but hangs and hangs, and moneyis always sent for the baby, and by and by when it is three years old itcatches the fever and it dies. And the English doctor is to write to theparents, but he does not write--he does an injury to one of the greatclan of the Camorra and he writes no more. And I grow every day morebeautiful, more strong, more strange to have sprung out of the mud, andthe money keeps coming and coming; but that the dead one was fair in thehead, and I am red like the sun, there is no great difference from whatshe might have been, and that she is dead and buried and the money spentand spent on me, is never told. But they there in America, thinking tobe gone but a month at most, never said there was a daughter, so theyknow not how, now, one is to be produced.
So that when I am seven years old, comes the Hope man; he looks upon thechild with the blue eye and the brown, and sighs his great breath on myhair, and takes me to the English school. But I come every summer to myown people, so that I have all that is best of both kinds, and grow tobe so beautiful and have such fascination, that when there comessometimes a Hope father or Hope mother to take me on a trip and be sorryfor me, I laugh at their backs! The mother I do not like, and she doesnot like me. She is a fool, and she has, too, another child. It is agirl and it is said to be pretty; but the picture she carries with herresembles a pale, shapeless child with dull hair,--not like mine thatburns men's hearts like fire! Moreover this child has things that Ishould have, more money, more fuss, she is more shown. I am proud to bewhat I am; my mother, who is scarcely more than a common servant, hadthe great luck to marry into the Camorra, and my brother Nicola ateighteen takes the oath, so I am not come alone from dull peasants andthese cackling Yankees, but from free men, born to judge, born tostrike, born to live wild and to satisfy their blood. But all the same,as to this brat, Christina, I am the elder sister and I should have all,_all_! I make up my mind to be even with her and to spoil what thingsshe has. I hear how she is strange, and is a lonely child, and plays shehas a sister to talk to, a little girl who lives in the looking-glass;and how it is a game of hers that when she is in a gown of pink thesister is in blue, and when they buy her a doll there is another for thesister, and a place set at the dolls' teas, and Christina talks for thetwo. Then I know she is a fool, like her mother.
When I am fifteen, and of the right age for passion and to break men'shearts, my bad luck comes and breaks my own. It could not leave me withthe poor to be like the poor, it raised me up so that my nose sniffed atsight of them, and then it brought me together with Alonzo Pasquale, theson of a millionaire. He was mad for me, and well he might be, and Iliked him so well, being young and fanciful, that I gave himencouragement. I ran away from school with him and we would have beenhappy forever, he having so much to give me, but that he grew weary ofmy blue eye and my brown. He told me so, for he was a dog and a devil,and I took little Filippi Alieni, and married him! It was wise. It wasas well to be married, and he was a gentleman, with money. All was doneas a wise girl should do, and yet see how my luck pursued me!
His people cast him off, on my account, their own daughters being ugly;and Nicola, who has been the best of brothers to me, Nicola got himinto the Camorra, where his gentlemanly manners would make him able toget, first, confidence, and then money, from the best.
Yet when I had been but three months married and was not yet sixteen, hegets himself caught. And in prison he tells, he betrays his comrades, sothat he is released, and for this Nicola does not kill him. No, he keepsthe secret of that disgrace, and ships us to America, where I am tointroduce my husband to the Hopes. All so well planned, and yet suchluck!
One of those to whom he had confessed loses his place, and then, byblackmail, that he will give my husband's treachery to the Camorra, hegets from him all the money that he now has. So that I have to lose himquickly; to take the little, ah, so little! there is left, and slipaway! I do not wish a Camorra knife in my back!
I am afraid to go to the Hopes, for there he will follow me, and he is asnivelling, watering thing to make a fuss and spoil all. So I ask forwork to teach Italian, and I live for a little while as if I were quitecommonplace. And so I meet with the great Jim.
Hail and farewell, my poor Jim! You were only twenty-three and you caredtoo much! You did so many things for me, you thought such things aboutme, and were of such a considerate politeness and care, it made melaugh! But you were a beautiful lover, and I would have loved you, if Icould! I would have been glad to marry you, as you made me so wearybegging of me. I was very happy with you; you gave more to me and Ithink you loved me better than any one. But you
were very silly tobelieve me, and silly to leave me when you found me out! That littlewhimpering puppy came; and, since you left me, and he had a good hintfrom Nicola how to get money from an Italian family here, what was I todo? We did very well, for a while, besides the money the Hopes sentme--I told them I came here to escape impertinence and was teachingItalian--and then they lost their money and I wrote to them no more.
But Mrs. Hope, because of her sick conscience, was always trying, in slyways, to find where I was. And it seems when her brat was come tofourteen years old it chanced upon my last letter and learned all.Heavens, what a row it raised! And how I was written to and written to;and some letters being forwarded me that they had tried sending me toItaly, were all about how she cried for me, and pitied and loved me andrejoiced, and said, again and again: "Oh, mother, I have a sister! Ihave a sister!" "Bene!" I thought, "she sounds like a tiresome littleminx; but at least it is a thing to know!"
So that by and by--when Filippi is clumsy again and goes to jail forfour years, and they dare to put me there for two--when I come out I goto my sentimental miss, who is now more than sixteen and makes already alittle money. Not a dollar has she made since but I have had the half ofit. She has no frugality; she is all luxuries and caprices and always indebt; and for a while it seemed as if really she would be scarcely ofany use at all. But it is strange how pale she is, and yet attracts andshoots onward! Since then I have found a letter about those two yearswhen I was silent. She wrote it to Will Denny, who thought she did toomuch for me. Like this:
"As I grew up and understood, and saw what little girls can come to in a world like this, I thought here was I and where was she?--My elder sister, born in wedlock, born of my father and my mother, grown up among peasants, among hardships, and if she had come to harm, lost, thrown away, forsaken and denied--for what? For any fault of hers? For a convention, a cowardice, done in obedience to the chatter of fools and in order to stand well with those that have no hearts! What can I think of my poor mother but that her weakness forsook and denied her child to please the world? What can I think of any shame or sorrow that touches Allegra but that this is what the world and her own family have made of her? Oh, Will, it came to be my madness to find her and to ask her forgiveness for being in her place. All that I am and have and ever shall be I stole from her, and only give her back again to repay what can never in this world be repaid!"
You see, she was a crazy girl from the beginning. As soon as ever I seeher I know the thing to tell her is that I have been in prison forstealing--I do not tell her I am innocent; I tell her I was starving! Itwas funny to see her--I was like a saint to her! I think of all I canthat is piteous and wild and of a great pride, broken, like a sickeagle! I tell her about Ingham, but all wrong and round the other way,and how he cannot marry me because I am without money or place, andleaves me, when I am eighteen, without a dollar and without a name. Andhow when that had come to a young girl I could not write. All, allbecause society had kept me from my place in life and, having turned meout, had locked me into jail because I could not starve.
Eh me, you should have seen her! She used herself like a maid to me, anda mother and a little lover, all in one. And I might have done very wellwith her, and the world would have been all for me to walk,--or thislittle running colt, she would have known the reason!--but for my badluck. Nicola who would do better in this country with education wishesme to work with him. And how can I guess the growing brat will grow sofar and high? So I am glad enough to make a little butter to my bread.Try living once, three women, the Hope woman and Christina and me, offthe salary of a girl younger than eighteen and you will see. But whowould think that all the while this monkey girl was looking in the glassof my grace, to steal and steal and steal from me? And would steal oncetoo often, for the moving-picture show, and gets herself into a corner!That was, indeed, the justice of the gods.
All this time I have made Christina keep me secret. I have still thebrown and the blue eye, to be noticed everywhere, and I do not wantFilippi on my hands, nor yet Jim Ingham. And for all she begs me to knowthis Denny, whom she persists to tell about me, I think he has a lookthat is not simple--the look of a man who has been about, and may guesstoo much--and so I will not--I am too sensitive and proud, and cannotface a person in the world except my little sister, whom I love so muchand who is all I have! Except, I want the poor, devoted, kind, good folkwho brought me up! So when she is eighteen she begins to buy for me thisfarm and here she welcomes my mother and Nicola. Nicola has found outfriends of ours and kinsfolk who have long run, among people of ournation in New York, a business called the Arm of Justice, and we workfor that; I having the best ideas, but, alas, ever doomed to hide. Andon the farm we live in innocence and peace, and conduct our businessexcellently, out of the way of those from whom we make a little money,and here comes at last the sick puppy, Filippi, not to be kept off, whocan but sit quiet and lick his paws in the background, that Christinashall not know of him.
And then, it is the first year of Ten Euyck being coroner, and a man whohas been paying us, unfortunately, dies, and Ten Euyck, nosing, nosing,he comes upon our trail. And he sees how we have had nothing to do withthe death, only the man had no more to pay and so he killed himself. AndTen Euyck sends for me, and tells me he is sorry for me and he will notinform against me. He tells me of a young girl he knows in the highestof society, for whom a friend of his had so great a fancy he was readyto marry her, and I knew he was that friend. And the girl dare not butlead him on, but all the time she prefers some one else and is introuble; and he tells me all he has found out and he says, "I would nottell this to you, if I did not think you grateful to me and too discreetto use it otherwise than as I wish, when you know liberty is in myhand!" So I know what I am to do, and the girl goes mad. And he pays meby and by, but not enough. But what can I do?
We are going mad, too, for money, for our bad luck is always there! Thatman who made Filippi pay has found us out, and exacts of us more andmore. We are in terror of the law from Ten Euyck, who has let none seehim but me, and not one strand to hold him by, and of the Camorra fromthis brute. We work hard, we run great danger, and we remain poor, sothat if we lose Christina we have nothing but what we must make and payaway--and Christina engages herself to Ingham! Was it not enough tobreak the heart! What use is it to work, to struggle, to be beautiful,and to have nothing? And here is this silly girl, not worth my littlefinger, who has all!
Three times more I work for Ten Euyck, and that man Kane gets after us.It is all the fault of Ten Euyck, who has made us conspicuous, and heknows Kane thinks there is something strange, and he loses his nerve. Hecomes always to the farm like a caller, when I have sent all away butme, for he will put nothing in writing, and he drives his own machine.And one day he is raging against Ingham and Christina, and what he wouldgive to know against them, any more than Ingham's dissipation, and Ithink "Maybe I can make something out of this!"
By and by I rejoice to hear that there is trouble with Jim Ingham. He isnot the boy I found him. He has let himself go wild so long he cannottame himself, all at once, and then he is exacting, like a fiend, andjealous and suspicious, not believing in himself, nor anything, noranybody; and I laugh to myself, if she should know why! For were therenothing else at all, it would annoy me that chit should marry him! But Iam pleased, and in that moment I let her bring out to me her Will Dennyand her Nancy Cornish. And so I spoil my life and break my heart, and donot know myself with love.
I have come to be twenty-eight years old and nothing has counted. Then Imeet him, and nothing else can count. I say to myself that I will havehim, and I know it is not possible but I shall get him. But still he isall eyes and ears for a rag of a girl, who is so sick with love sheknows not even how to charm. She knows nothing at all but to love him;and to love him nicely--so that she would not make him unhappy, even tohold him forever! It makes me ill to look at her, and still I cannot gethim to look at me. But I can make him
seem to look at me. I can make himever with me, and amused by me, and of a manner a little sweet andtender to me--the poor sister of Christina, whom he can see to be dyingon her feet for love of him. And the little rag of a girl sees howbeautiful I am and full of life and far above her every way and fit forhim, and knows no better than to grow pale and to keep out of the way,and to be silent and cold with him. And he begins to be hurt and not tofollow her so hard, and then she finds me crying, crying. And at first Iwill not tell, but then I say how I must go away, because I love him. Byand by I say that I would not have to go but I am afraid if I stay Iwill steal him from her. And at last, very reluctant, I show her aletter--for Nicola, who has done something in that line, too, was ever agood brother to me and taught and helped me well, so that it was inWill's hand. It said how he would never forsake Nancy, who loved him,for she could not live without him, but I was brave and strong and hemust be so, too. It said how we were each other's mates, he and I, butmet too late, and his heart would be mine forever, but he could neverforsake nor pain his poor Nancy. Crack, she broke her engagement, thelittle fool! Who never had scarcely been able to understand how heshould love her, as no more could I--and she shuts herself away fromhim, and will not answer and will tell him nothing! Only, she's changedher mind. And he says to Christina, "I am too old for her, and not sogay!" And I see him tear up the photographs she has sent back, and sneerat them, and say how God knows she could never have taken him for abeauty! And oh, I am so kind to him! I am so gentle and so sad, and Iget new clothes and dress my hair, and always he can see me die of love.And so there comes a day when he asks me if I would be afraid to takethe pieces of our lives and see what we could make of them together.--Ahme! and to think it all had to be kept secret because I was still soproud and sad! For bethink you, there was Filippi!
I think at last what a fool I am not to have divorced Filippi long ago!Here I am, betrothed to marry and it is all to do yet! Long ago, had Inot been so soft-hearted, or had I thought of it, I might have been ridof fearing the spy who threatens him with the Camorra, in being rid ofhim. I wonder how much Filippi will take to set me free, and he makes ahorrible fuss and will take nothing at all! But his spy is begun allfresh, killing him by inches with demands for five thousand dollars. Andhe asks also five thousand, now, not to report Nicola who has remainedsilent and a friend to us! It is all like a mad spider's web which butentangles more and more. And I think I will get that ten thousand fromIngham because I do not publish the story I have told Christina. Or elsefrom Ten Euyck, because I do.
I send the Arm of Justice letter to Ingham's office that it may beforwarded to Europe. And then I hear from Christina that she cares forhim no longer and has written him, and already he is coming back toargue with her. Oh, my luck, my bad luck! If he has lost her already, hewill fight my lies! He will get my letter, too; he will connect thatwith her broken promise, he will ask her if she knows a girl with abrown eye and a blue, and what may he not guess and put into her headabout my business? I am in despair, I have a fit of crazy rage, and Ithink, too, I will get ahead of him, so she will not listen to him. Isay to her, "That man who ruined my life years ago, that was JamesIngham!" I say to her, "I could not let it go on, dear sister. But don'tlet him know where I am." He comes straight to her, before he has myletter, and all she says to him is, "You have never known all theseyears that I had a sister." And then she tells him her sister's name,and he goes away.
But Nicola ever hopes that perhaps he will pay and at four o'clockwatches his window for my ribbon. Then he sees go in Nancy Cornish, andhe thinks that very queer and comes to tell me, who am round the cornerin the car. We watch and see her come out, and turn east, and we followher, and I see her going into the Park; a thing to drive me wild, for Iknow well she used to meet Will Denny in the Park. She came much, muchtoo soon this time, but did not care. Till she saw me.
If she had not come so soon, if she had kept her mouth shut, howdifferent all would be to-day! No! Out she came with it--Filippi hastold her! He has told her we are married! She has telephoned to mybetrothed, she is to tell him here! Filippi has done worse. He has saidto her, "This I would not tell to every one. But if she should seek toinjure you and get him back, say to her--What do you know of the Arm ofJustice? She will let you alone, then!" With those words did she notseal her own fate? He must have got drunk on talk, Filippi,--not beingused to be listened to--for he tells her that Nicola and I wrote thatletter from Will I gave her to read. He gives this girl the address ofmy cousin, and says if Will comes there, directly, he will show him thepapers of our marriage. Thus do these two little jealous, peeping foolsspoil everything!
In the meanwhile Ingham has got my letter, and has guessed I wrote it.And he calls up this girl, whom he knows to be Christina's dearestfriend, and asks her, does she know Christina's sister? He tells herthat though all is broken between Christina and him, there are thingsChristina must not believe, and perhaps there is something she mustknow. He asks when he can see this Cornish girl, and she tells him afterrehearsal, but before five. She is very much excited, and she says howalways in her own room girls run out and in and so she will come tohim--She, mind you, the baby-girl! And there she tells him her tale andhe tells her his, my letter for the money and all, and she gives him theaddress of my cousin, and there he has gone to find Filippi,--for she isnot so crazy Will shall go!--while she is telling me what she thinks ofme, softly, in a low voice, in the Park. I think how Will Denny iscoming, and I make a little sign. And Nicola hits her once, and picksher up limp; I following with her hat, like a sister, in case we meet apoliceman. And we lift her in the automobile and put up the hood, goingfast as we dare. At my cousin's they have denied to know of Filippi. ForFilippi, out of the window, saw it was not Will, but Ingham. And we takeher in there. She comes to, before long, and all we can do with her isto take her out of town. Only I must leave her at my cousin's now, for Iam to dine with Will before his rehearsal.
It seems to me that any person of a pitiful heart, who also admirescourage and address, must be sorry for me, now. Here am I, born forlove and to command and charm, tied to Filippi and to lowly life; havingplanned so wisely and dared so well, now with this rag of a girl on myhands, not knowing what to do with her; with the Camorra itself, allunconscious, closing ever in and in, by its offer to absorb our Arm ofJustice; with the spite of Ingham on my heels and tattlers and spies onall sides, just when I need all my wit to win my love. For he has nothad time to learn to love me as he would love me before long. He isvery, very sweet to me, but he does not care. Just when he first turnedto me there was one flash. I hope and I pray to all the saints, I planand watch and make myself fair and think of all that can please him; Ispend my days and nights to feed the fire; but it burns out. He is kind,he thinks he is to marry me, he is fond of me, because I am sad and sois he. But he is sick for that Cornish girl who is not worth one hair ofmy head, and I have no time to wait till his love grows. I think how Iam to defend myself with him if Ingham talks; and when I get to therestaurant where we have a private room--I am so shy and so sensitive,lest people laugh at my queer eyes!--there I find he has met Christinaon the street and carried her along to ask her does she know why Nancydid not come in the Park.
Well, I tell him. I tell him Ingham's name, as I have told it toChristina. And he does not like Ingham, whom he has seen fascinateChristina against her will, and whom he has heard of as a brute towomen. And always Ingham has wished Christina to be less friends withhim, and has done many little things in hate of him. So that he is allready to believe what I say; how his Nancy was afraid to face him thislong while, and meant to try this afternoon and failed; and how it isIngham who has given her money to go away. I think it will make him hateher. I think it will make him not listen to Ingham. I do not know itwill make him perfectly cold and perfectly still, not speaking aword--not even when Christina, for the first time in her whole life, isangry with me and tells me I deceive myself, I misunderstood Nancy, hedoes not speak.
He talks nicely about
other things at dinner, but he does not go towardthe theater afterwards. And when Christina asks him why not, he says heforgot something which he has at home. And she says to him, "You cannotgo to Ingham now, you have a dress-rehearsal." And he says, "I have notforgotten that." So she takes me with her to Nancy's boarding-house, andthere they who are busy and notice no better, say she has gone out todinner, before the theater, with a Miss Grayce. And Christina goes hometo see if she can get word to Ingham to keep out of Will's way and I goback to my cousin's table d'hote.
Now we have never said to Christina that we have a car. She cannotafford us one, however she tries, and we do not want her to know we haveever a dollar but from her. We sell a little from the farm, and sheknows we send this in to market by a man with a truck, and she iswilling to spend so much on her own fancies that she even arranges withhim to bring her my flowers. But for us she buys a little wagon with twoseats and a plug of a horse. She needs not to know everything and watchall our movements. So mostly we keep the car at the other place; andhalf the time I am there myself. If she comes visiting to the farm I cantake the Cornish girl out there.
But I must first see Ingham and beg him to be merciful to me. And,indeed, he has loved me so much, I think he cannot resist to be a littlekind. And I leave Nancy in the car with Nicola and the boys and with hermouth stopped, across the street from Ingham's house under the windowsof that Herrick. So, without thought of fear, I enter. Afterward, when Iread about the elevator boy, I remember I have on a favorite ofChristina's dresses. For, naturally, of hers, I take what I choose.
Well, there is nothing to be done with Ingham--he is mean, meanthrough. He will give me up to the police. He has heard before of theArm of Justice; he says that he will break it. And then I tell him hewould better clear out, for I know Christina thinks that Will will killhim. And it is then Will rings and when he, grinning, welcomes Will in,he sees, and any one may see, that Will has his revolver in his hand.But when Will finds me there he is stricken dumb. And Ingham laughs andsays, "You wonder what this injured lady is doing here? Ask NancyCornish!"
And Will cries out at him, not so very loud, but as a sword goes throughthe air, "Ask Nancy Cornish!" and then, very low, "Do not imagine butthat I shall ask Nancy Cornish! And you shall tell me where she is!"
Then Ingham says, "Well, if you didn't wish her to have done with you,my dear fellow, why did you throw her over for this married lady?"
Will never gets any further than to stand by that panel of wall, betweenthe portieres and the door. He looks to me and not to Ingham, and it isthe one time in my life when I can think of nothing to say. I talk onand on, but I say nothing. It is the fault of that Ingham who continuesto laugh, and to play like an angel who is a devil, too.
I tell him that Filippi married me when I was an ignorant child, withpoor people, for the sake of the Hopes' money; how he brought me to thiscountry and deserted me and came back after I had thought I was free,and had made friends with Ingham because I was destitute and alone. Andhe does not speak. But he does not believe me. I fall down on my kneesand tell him, before Ingham's face, how I love him, and only him; howthere never was any other man who had my heart! How when I saw him Iknew he was my life, and I was born anew in knowing him. I tell him howI fear to let him know I am married. But how I am trying all the time toget free, and how I would have been free before I married him; how notfor years have I been a wife to Filippi who hangs upon us and will notwork and does not care for me! And I take his hand and cover it withkisses and with tears, and I implore him not to leave me, I shall die ifhe leaves me! And I ask him if he himself has never in his life donewrong! And I swear if I lied to him it was for love for him! He knowsthat is true; he cannot look at me, and not know! And I throw myselfdown, before his feet.
He lifts me up by one shoulder, and he looks at me long and long; stillkind but very cold and still, and what he says is, "Then was it a lieyou told me about her--and this man?" He has not one thought of me, atall.
It throws me into a great rage. I spring up and round the table, andJim, who has not ceased to play, laughs loud, and gives one crash ofchords. It is his triumph and I could kill him for it. I am all one fireof hate that tosses in the wind, and I lift my arm and Herrick sees myshadow on the blind. But quick I put my hand over my mouth, petrified.For at that moment there is a soft, quick knocking on the door andChristina's voice saying, "Let me in, both of you! Let me in!"
By good luck, she has come while I am silent. And I leap forward andcatch my hat up off the table and fly behind the curtains. For I know Ihave lost Will. And if I lose her, too, I have nothing. And Inghambreaks into the march from "Faust," triumphing, and just then I seethrough the curtain crack on the little chair at Will's side his pistolthat he has dropped. And I hear Ingham say, now all in fury, "Shall Ilet her come in? Shall I tell at last what you are, through andthrough?--" And the door opens. She had her key, Christina, that she hadforgot to give him back. And she calls out, sharp, to Will. But sheturns to Ingham and says, "I implore you, leave me with him a moment!"And he swirls round to see where I have run. I snatch up Will's pistoland fire past him from behind the curtain into Ingham's heart. Willreaches back to catch my hand and shakes the pistol out of it. It hasnot taken one breath and his first thought is for Christina, yes, andfor me, and he snaps off the light. There she stands in the doorway; thelight in the hall on Ingham fallen back dead. And when she turns hereyes again, there is still no one there but Will. Will stoops for thepistol that still smokes and drops it loose in his pocket.
"Shall I let her come in? Shall I tell at last what youare, through and through?--"]
You are to remember it is what she has come there to prevent. And beforeshe has time scarcely to breathe, he forces her back across thethreshold. Up he swoops her in his arms for he is strong like wire, andlight and swift as a hound is, and flies with her for the back stairs. Iwait, for if she sees me I do not know, any more than he does, which wayshe will turn. She has stood by him, and perhaps she would have stood byme; but not if she had known the truth. And at the back stairway he asksher, "Can we trust the Deutches?" And she replies, "For me, yes. But Iwill not trust your life with any one." And then, poor fellow, he musthave seen what she thought, and made up his mind to let her think it. Iwas her sister; and he had gone into that room the man who was to marryme. He could still feel my kisses and my arms about him; and he neverdreamed that Ingham was to denounce me for a criminal--he thought Ifired not from mingled frenzies, but from only the desperate love ofhim. Besides, it was only accident he had not fired himself. He wouldnot have given me up if he had died.
For me, almost in a moment, it is too late to run. I stumble onChristina's cloak and scarf, that she has had on her arm and dropped inthe dark. I am terribly afraid! I am in panic to think they are allcoming, and I bolt the door! I wish only to hide and yet I know I cannothide! I am wild! I try the closet. It is locked. I run behind theportieres, knocking over the little chair in the dark. I have no plan,nothing but fear! Till, with the feeling of the curtains close about me,I remember how I once slipped out of the rooms of a man I had been tosee on business, for the Arm of Justice. He had called the people out ofthe front room into the other, the room where I was, and as they all gotin, I had slipped out. How to get them in here? Then I drag in Ingham'sbody. I stand close in my cloak colored like the curtains, and once Ihear Deutch's voice I remember that it is Christina's cloak. He makes itall easy. To come out while those men were working, there at the closet,is terrible, but there are the trolley-car and my automobile making goodnoises. I have pinned my hat under the cloak, and my slippers I put inits inside pocket. It is when the police have cleared the halls. I havescarcely got to the back-stairs when the people begin peeping out again.I have in my hand Christina's key. I turn to the door of the apartmentnearest the back stairs, to pretend I am unlocking it. And the knobturns in my hand. The decorators have left it open and I walk in andslip the catch. There I wait till all the hunt is done. But I wish to berid of the little pi
stol, shaped for the impunitura of the Camorra,which, in early days, Filippi had made for me and on which once, beforeNicola forbade me, I had tried to scratch "Camorrist." Were I taken withthat, I should have every foe on my heels! I wish that I might slip itinto the coat-pocket of that great boy with the figure of gods--he wholed the chase and deafened me with his hammering. Then I remember himtelling the police where he lives. It makes me laugh; there are scrapsof wall-paper about. On one of these I write a message and in this Iwrap my impunitura. Then, long after, when all my cackling geese havecackled into bed again, I go up to the roof and across into the nexthouse. There is an opening of some feet between the two apartmenthouses, and it may be that Will jumped it, but I think not. I think hemust have gone up to the front, where the cornices join, and crept andbalanced along the little ledge behind them, as I do. And I walk boldlydown those stairs where all is still, and choose a moment when thenight-boy takes some one up in the elevator, and then I cross theoffice, and Nicola is still waiting with the car. I stuff the impuniturain the letter-box and I am away, away!--But the little rag of a girl,she knows when I went in and when I came out!
So now you see how hard my problem is, my problem that is double: whatto do with her, and how to save my love! Three weeks and more go by, andfor him I am beginning to breathe. And he tells Christina nothing,nothing at all. Only he asks her did she meet me as she came up, for Ihave only just run out as he and Ingham quarrel. And she says no, Deutchbrought her up in the freight-elevator. Thus she is not surprised tohear about my shadow on the blind; she thinks I came there like her toget Jim away. But she fears I will be implicated and my poor story told.This she thinks of a great deal, and keeps me very quiet in the country.While she, if you please, is no sooner saved from Ingham but she takesup that boy with the figure of gods, who saw my shadow. The fool did notfeel such a kindness for that which moved with splendid grace! Nor didhe keep my pistol. But perhaps he wants her money. I tell Nicola and theboys he is the spy who drains us of ours, and who is carrying news toher from little Stanley of my letters. They will rid her of him! And noone knows who fired that shot but Will and me, no one. And MotherPascoe-Ansello watches all the time what we do with Nancy Cornish. I amvery good to Nancy Cornish. In case she should, by any chance, get awayand tell Will and Christina. For there are some things they would notforgive. I am frightened, now, and I would let her go, if I could.
And, then, Ten Euyck will not pay me! He is furious I have shot Ingham,which he finds out at the inquest, and yet he must give me hisprotection. And he says what I said in the Ingham letter was a lie, andhe will not pay for lies; they are wrong in all ways, for they neverwork. And money I must have, or that spy of Filippi's will settle us. Wehave just been received by the Camorra and all must be careful. Then Ithink Christina can some way get it. But not to know it is for me. So atlast I threaten the little Nancy, and she is glad to write as I say. Andshe cut off the lock of her hair at my own dressing-table with my ownscissors, when mine was all down my back to show her that I had morethan she.
And when we do not have the answer that we hope for, she begins to fretterribly. She is always listening and watching; she is so helpless and Iam lonely and perhaps I talk too much! Then, oh, my God, he is arrested!I cannot keep it to myself, I run screaming through the house! I think Ishall die, and I think almost that that rag of a girl will kill me! Sherecognized his voice up there cry, "Ask Nancy Cornish!" and she has notsaid one word so that I think she thinks he did it. But when they catchhim and she jumps at me that it was I, she can see it in my face. Andshe makes a terrible scene--begs me and prays me to denounce myself, tosave him. And then I know that she must die.
But I have a mind to Mother Pascoe-Ansello, and I make a bargain withthis girl. I ask her what she will promise, and she says _anything_. AndI ask her if I write a full confession to the District-Attorney and mailit when things go hard with Will, will that content her? Oh, very fine!So I tell her it is what I would do, who would die for him to-morrow,but that it would give him to her arms. And she says she will go away,she will never see him. I reply, "He will find you, he will make you."And she says to me eager, with open mouth, "What can I do?" I answer,"You are not very well. You grow every day more feverish. Nothing shallever happen to you under my roof. But if it should, how it would solveall." She says, "Will you let me keep the letter myself and mail itmyself?" and I say, "Yes." So then she says, "You gave me laudanum so Icould sleep. When I have mailed that letter, give me some more." Oh, Ifeel such a relief! If she is found, even, with laudanum it is suicide."Will you ask for it every night, aloud, before them all, and after youhave mailed the letter will you take--enough? Will you swear?" "Oh," shesays, "upon his freedom, I do swear."
* * * * *
So! Thus far has she read. And now she falls ill. And any hour, now, mayTen Euyck come for this. And I must warn him I will not have him dropanother word before Nicola, as though Will would drag us all in bytelling I was there with him. Nicola's hand might reach into his prison.When Nancy wakes, she has still this envelope--stuffed with blanks. Butif I cannot fool her, Nicola has planned a better way. A fine way! For,after that, she will be silent--she, who thought to be bride to the manI choose.--Oh, my love, you love her. If you, too, must die, it is forthat you die, my darling! For no little rag of a girl can frustrate thewill of
ALLEGRA ANSELLO ALIENI.
CHAPTER VIII
IN WHICH CHRISTINA HOPE DOES POSITIVELY REAPPEAR
"Oh, then, I'll marry Sally! For she is the darling of my heart--"
"But _is_ she?" queried Christina, swinging round from the piano, "Isshe?" And she looked wistfully at Herrick as he took her outstretchedhand. "Oh, if she's a very troublesome person, tell me at least shebrought the author luck! Was it any wonder, eh, that the pulse of yourlife changed when you saw a shadow on the blind? Since at that verymoment my hand was on the door? Oh, I can perhaps rouse luck with thebest 'when I come knocking!'"
It was Sunday evening, a month from that September Twentieth when, to apublic that perhaps had never given quite such a welcome, Christina Hopehad positively reappeared. This occasion was of a very homely gathering,an hour when Christina had simply confessed to the need of seeing allthe people of one episode "alive together." She had spent the month inwatching Nancy grow strong, here, in her house, and to-morrow was theday of Nancy's wedding. "Once I have packed off my daughter," Christinahad been saying, "I shall marry myself out of hand--quite simply, byjust stepping round the corner--to the patientest fellow living. Thepublic and I meet often enough--it shall not stick its head in at mymarriage!"
But Herrick's sister was to arrive to-morrow and this seemed to havemade Christina restive. "You know very well that you are marrying anactress. But there has been too much glare--to her you must be marrying,as some play says, 'The Queen of the Gipsies!' Ah, but Bryce--it's easyenough to be fond of me, now! After all, I behaved admirably, like agood girl. I was as grand as Evadne and as energetic as Sal! I had avery hard time and, really, I was quite a heroine. But my hard times aredone and God send I may never be a heroine again! Well, what price theQueen of the Gipsies, dear, as a nice young lady? And through what rentin my admirable behavior will next--to try your patience--the realChristina Hope too positively reappear? I wonder!" Thus she spoke, alittle sadly. And, then, at the ringing of the door-bell called out forher mother and Mrs. Deutch. "For heaven forbid," added Christina, "thatever I should be seen without a chaperone!"
It was the simplest of supper-parties, at a table that jumbled JoePatrick with the District-Attorney; but the great kindness of good-willstill showed, inevitably, against a somber background. Before thatcompany there continued to rise in vivid silences, sharp as though edgedwith acid, a wild space of death and hiding, of prison and darkness,when suddenly Christina's perverse lip twitched with a small, softlaugh. "And to think that, all the time, we were just as respectable aswe could be!"
"I don't know how respectable you can be," said Denny. "I
think I coulddo better."
"_I_ think it's a pretty good thing for you," said Wheeler, "that she isas she is. You appear to have what I don't mind calling--in a lean,black party of no particular stature--an almost inexplicable charm forthe ladies!"
"In that case," said Christina, "you can see what a waste it is for himto play villains. Give him to me for the hero of Bryce's play, when Istar next year."
"Thank you for waiting a year. You must have arranged your productionwith Ten Euyck so quickly that it makes a manager's hair raise!"
"As fast as I could learn my lines!" Christina cried. "But sometimes hedid throw me out. Ah, if I could only have spoken his speeches too!"
"Many stars in your profession have made that complaint! But I forgiveyou everything, Christina, since you notified me for an advance sale!"
"She broke her word to me," said Kane, "to do that! I was so anxious nota breath should get out--it might have ruined everything. I caught hersecond message--to you, Herrick--and stopped it."
Herrick asked, "Will it always be the first which goes to Wheeler?"
She responded with surprised earnestness, "Why, but, dearest, that was_business_!"
He laughed; and there was no bitterness in his laugh. He was glad of herquick, earnest interest. A month and three days had softened the tragicbrooding of Christina's face and drawn them all far from pain and fear,deep waters and dark night. But this first attempt to mention that timewith any ease showed him how they all still winced at scars; even thisripple of mirth, glowing and vibrating like the air of all that housewith love and joy, had glowed and vibrated too sharply. He wanted somehappening that should clear the air, and he did not know what. Work wasthe safest thing he knew. And even his work, now they had begun, was agood thing to talk of.
"How about that realistic tone?" Wheeler was asking. "Our experiencedoesn't leave much of Herrick's idea about the commonplaceness ofcrime--"
"Oh, yes, it does!" Christina interrupted. "They were commonplaceenough, to themselves. It was only where we rushed in that it turnedinto melodrama. That's the way with amateurs! They have to," she flungat Denny, "be more like Dago organ-grinders than any Dago organ-grinderever was!"
"I thank you," returned that unabashed young man. "It was quiterealistic enough for me. If all my foreign traitors had done as well byme as this one!" His eyes sought Nancy's. For an instant neither of themcould speak. But the girl could not resist putting out her hand. And noone minded when he took it. "But I thanked the gods," he could then saywith a laugh, "for my Italian accent! I knew two or three phrases fromthe Garibaldi play--and then I knew the sound and some of the sensefrom--Chris's farm. But I could have wished, none the less, to be betterequipped."
"Rotten to have to make out so much funk!" contributed Stanley. "So's toseem like that scared-to-death fellow."
"On the whole, that was the best thing I did. It came quite easy!"
"But the choice?" inquired Mrs. Deutch. "How did you make that choice,dear sir, amidst the goblets?"
"Only luck--I just chanced it. Gold, silver, and lead--can't you guess?"
He looked at Christina, and Christina blushed. Deutch glanced uptwinkling.
"Ah, tante," said the girl, "you will never understand--you have not theartistic temperament! 'What find I here? Fair Portia's counterfeit!'That was it, Will? Ah, my dear, and to think you've never played thescene!"
Her pensiveness turned sterner. She looked at him with reproving eyes."You took it out of a part!" she said. "Heaven help us, of what are wemade? That shot I fired--that last shot--I took that out of a part, too!'A Princess Imprisoned,' the end of the third act. And you with your'Merchant of Venice' and your casket scene! It's true what they say ofus--we're stuffed with sawdust!"
"We'd be fools not to use it, then," Denny comfortably retorted. "Thoughyou might certainly have chosen a better play."
"No, you don't understand me. It's too bad, it's wrong--all wrong! Itcheapens life. It dulls the value of what we feel. To think of writtenthings at such a moment and throw oneself on them--it's like aninsincerity of the heart. It's like acting a lie. And with all myfaults, that one fault I never had," Christina said. "I was never aliar!" And she turned on them the ineffable starry candor of her wide,cool eyes.
A smile traversed the board. Christina looked puzzled.
"Never mind, old girl," Wheeler came to her assistance. "Some lies aremade in heaven. How about your pretending, at the inquest, not to knowwho Nancy was?"
"Ah, that card of Nancy's! There, surely, was a dreadful moment! It wasa shock. I didn't know what to say. Why, it was like seeing thathorrible story fastened round her neck--it was like seeing Will pointedout! Oh, and I'd tried to keep away even the thought of them!"
"I don't wonder that knocked you out all right. But, Miss Christina,"pondered Deutch, "before that--a thing starts the trouble for you atthat inquest always gives me a puzzle. Miss Christina, why did youholler when you saw the scarf? That wasn't a surprise, anyhow. You knewhe had it!"
"Yes," said Christina, "but it was _such_ a thrilling point! I'd workedso much further up into an accused murderess than I'd ever gone before,and I did so long to know how it would feel--"
An aghast laugh silenced her. It rang about the room, it swept with gayand topsy-turvy cleansing through every heart and blew the cobwebs faraway. The air was cleared for good and all. No more shudders skulked inemotional underbrush. Christina Hope had quite too positivelyreappeared.
"Christina, you she-devil!" Denny cried. But he bent his black head withthe words and kissed her hand. There were tears that were like worshipin the teasing, jeering smile that lit his eyes.
Christina caught his hand and stood up, flushing. Her eyes traveledround the table and came back to Herrick's face. He had never seen herthus bathed in rosy color before she sobered again to that meek gravity,like a good child's.
"Very well, then, very well--there I am! Well, take me as I am! Iwill--myself! I will say, let's get down to it, then: the dearest ormost terrible experience I ever had is none too terrible or too dear forBryce's play! Is yours, Will? Is your own, Bryce? Ah, and then, wezealous ones, when we want to know the hardest, hardest, passive part,the loneliest suffering, the simplest courage, the deepest depths, weneedn't experiment, we can humbly inquire--we can ask Nancy Cornish!"
THE END
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