on that first day when we hadmet--even though through her instrumentality the mystery of mywell-beloved's self-effacement had actually been cleared up.
That she detested the lieutenant had been palpable from the firstmention I had made of him. Therefore I argued that she suspected him ofplaying her father false, even though she might be unaware of their realrelationship. Indeed it was not natural for a father of Miller's stampto allow his daughter to know of his shameful calling. She had told methat she remained at home with old Marietta--the grey-haired Tuscanwoman who had admitted me--while her father travelled hither and thitheracross Europe. Those unscrupulous "birds of prey," known to the policeas international thieves, migrate in flocks, travelling swiftly from onefrontier to another and ever eluding the vigilance of the agents insearch of them. The international thief is a veritable artist in crime,the cleverest and most audacious scoundrel of the whole criminalfraternity.
"I quite understand your feelings and all that you must suffer, MrLeaf," she said at last in a mechanical voice. "I know how deeply youlove Ella, and, after all that has passed, it is not in the leastsurprising that you will not stand by and see her married to such a manas Gordon-Wright. Yet is it really prudent to act without carefullyconsidering every point? That she is about to become that man's wifeshows that she is in his power--that he possesses some mysterious holdover her. And suppose you denounced him to the police, would he not, onhis part, revenge himself upon her?"
"Probably. But I will risk that."
"Personally I think that Ella will be the greater sufferer from such aninjudicious action."
Curious. Her words bore out exactly what Ella herself had said. Yetshe surely could know nothing of the secret between them. Until half anhour ago, when I had told her, she was not even aware that Gordon-Wrightwas acquainted with the woman who had been betrothed to me.
"But I do not intend that she shall fall the victim of this adventurer,"I said quickly, for I recognised in her words a fear that her father'ssecret might be exposed.
"If he really possesses a hold over her sufficient to compel her tomarry him, any attempt to rescue her may only cause her complete ruin,"she said. "Have you any idea of the nature of this extraordinaryinfluence he seems to have over her?"
"None. I am in entire ignorance."
"When we met that night at Studland I certainly was deceived," she wenton. "I believed that she was beside herself with delight at finding youagain, and still unmarried--I never dreamed that she was engaged toanother--and to Gordon-Wright of all men."
"Why do you say `of all men'?"
"Because--well, because he's the last man a girl of her stamp shouldmarry."
"Then you know more about him than you care to admit, Miss Miller?"
"We need not discuss him," was her brief answer. "It is Ella we have tothink of, not of him."
"Yes," I said, "we have to think of her--to extricate her from thehorrible fate that threatens her--marriage to a scoundrel." Thenturning again to my pretty companion I said, in a voice intended to bemore confidential: "Now, Miss Miller, your position and mine are, afterall, very curious. Though we have been acquainted so short a time, yetthe fact of your having been Ella's most intimate friend has cementedour own friendship to an extraordinary degree. We have exchangedconfidences as old friends, and I have told you the secrets of my heart.Yet you, on your part, have not been exactly open with me. You arestill concealing from me certain facts which, if you would but reveal,would, I know, assist me in releasing Ella from her bondage. Why do younot speak plainly? I have travelled here, across Europe, to beg of youto tell me the truth," I added, looking straight into her pale seriousface.
"How can I tell you the truth when I am ignorant of it myself?" sheprotested.
"What I have told you this evening concerning Ella's engagement to thatblackguard has surprised you, and it has also shown you that themysterious secret of your father's of which you have spoken may beimperilled, eh?"
She nodded. Then, after some hesitation, she said:--"Not only that, butsomething further. That Gordon-Wright should aspire to Ella's hand isutterly mystifying."
"Why?"
"Well--you recollect what I told you regarding--regarding that man whodied in the house where you were living in London," she said, in a low,faltering voice.
"You mean the ex-Minister of Justice, Nardini?"
She nodded an affirmative.
"I remember perfectly all that you told me. He refused to speak thetruth concerning you."
"He laughed in my face when I asked him to make a confession that wouldsave me," she said hoarsely, her dark eyes flashing with a dangerousfire. "He was a coward; he sacrificed me, a woman, because he feared tospeak the truth. Ah!" she cried, clenching her hands, "you see me herewearing a mask of calm and tranquillity, but within my heart is avolcano of bitterness, of scorn for that wretched embezzler who carriedhis secret to the grave."
"I can quite understand it, and fully sympathise with you," I said, in akindly tone, recollecting all that had passed between us after she haddiscovered the mysterious Italian dead in that upstairs room atShepherd's Bush. "But I hope you are not still disturbed over what may,after all, be merely an ungrounded fear?"
"Ungrounded!" she cried. "Ah! would to Heaven it were ungrounded. No.The knowledge that the blow must fall upon me sooner or later--to-day,to-morrow, in six months' time, or in six years--holds me everbreathless in terror. Each morning when I wake I know not whether Ishall again return to my bed, or whether my next sleep will be withinthe grave."
"No, no," I protested, "don't speak like this. It isn't natural." ButI saw how desperate she had now become.
"I intend to cheat them out of their revenge," she said, in a lowwhisper, the red glow of the sundown falling full upon her haggard face."They shall never triumph over me in life. With my corpse they may doas they think proper."
"They? Who are they?"
"Shall I tell you?" she cried, her starting eyes fixing themselves uponmine. "That man Gordon-Wright is one of them."
"He is your enemy?" I gasped.
"One of my bitterest. He believes I am in ignorance, but fortunately Idiscovered his intention. I told Nardini, and yet he refused to speak.He knew the peril in which I existed, and yet, coward that he was, heonly laughed in my face. He fled from Rome. I followed him to Englandonly to discover that, alas! he was dead--that he had preserved hissilence."
"It was a blackguardly thing," I declared. "And this fellow,Gordon-Wright, or whatever he calls himself, though your father'sfriend, is at the same time your worst enemy?"
"That is unfortunately so, even though it may appear strange. To me heis always most charming, indeed no man could be more gallant and polite,but I know what is lurking behind all that pleasant exterior."
"And yet you are opposed to me going to the police and exposing him?" Isaid in surprise.
"I am opposed to anything that must, of necessity, reflect upon bothElla and myself," was her answer. "Remember the lieutenant knows thatyou and I are acquainted. I introduced him to you. If you denouncedhim as a thief he would at once conclude that you and I had conspired toeffect his ruin and imprisonment."
"Well--and if he did?"
"If he did, my own ruin would only be hastened," she said. "Ah! MrLeaf, you have no idea of the strange circumstances which conspired toplace me in the critical position in which I to-day find myself. Thoughyoung in years and with an outward appearance of brightness, I havelived a veritable lifetime of woe and despair," she went on, in a voicebroken by emotion.
"In those happy days at Enghien I loved--in those sweetest days of allmy life I believed that happiness was to be mine always. Alas! it wasso short-lived that now, when I recall it, it only seems like somepleasant dream. My poor Manuel died and I was left alone with aheritage of woe that gradually became a greater burden as time went on,and I was drawn into the net that was so cleverly spread for me--becauseI was young, because I was, I suppose, good-looking, be
cause I wasinexperienced in the wickedness of the world. Ah! when I think of itall, when I think how one word from Giovanni Nardini would haveliberated me and showed the world that I was what I was, an honestwoman, I am seized by a frenzy of hatred against him, as against thatman Gordon-Wright--the man who knows the truth and intends to profit byit, even though I sacrifice my own life rather than face their lyingdenunciation without power to defend myself. Ah! you cannot understand.You can never understand!" and her eyes glowed with a thirst forrevenge upon the dead man who had so unscrupulously thrust her back intothat