VIII.
The servants knew very well what the count meant when he said, "Drivefast!" The coachman, on such occasions, made his horses literally go asfast as they could; and, but for his great skill, the foot-passengerswould have been in considerable danger. Nevertheless, on this eveningCount Ville-Handry twice lowered the window to call out,--
"Don't drive at a walk!"
The fact is, that, in spite of his efforts to assume the air of a gravestatesman, he was as impatient, and as vain of his love, as a youngcollegian hurrying to his first rendezvous with his beloved. Duringdinner he had been sullen and silent; now he became talkative, andchatted away, without troubling himself about the silence of hiscompanion.
To be sure, Daniel did not even listen. Half-buried in the corner of thewell-padded carriage, he tried his best to control his emotions; for hewas excited, more excited than ever in his life, by the thought that hewas to see, face to face, this formidable adventuress, Miss Brandon. Andlike the wrestler, who, before making a decisive assault, gathers up allhis strength, he summoned to his aid his composure and his energy.It took them not more than ten minutes to drive the whole distance toCircus Street.
"Here we are!" cried the count.
And, without waiting for the steps to be let down, he jumped on thesidewalk, and, running ahead of his servants, knocked at the door ofMiss Brandon's house. It was by no means one of those modern structureswhich attract the eye of the passer-by by a ridiculous and conspicuoussplendor. Looking at it from the street, you would have taken it for themodest house of a retired grocer, who was living in it upon his savingsat the rate of two or three thousand a year. It is true, that fromthe street, you could see neither the garden, nor the stables and thecarriage-houses.
In the meantime a servant had appeared, who took the count's andDaniel's coats, and showed them up stairs. When they reached the upperlanding, the count stopped, as if his breath had been giving out of asudden.
"There," he stammered, "there!"
"Where? What?" Daniel did not know what he meant. The count only wishedto say that "there" was the place where he had held Miss Brandon inhis arms the day she had fainted. But Daniel had no time to ask anyquestions. Another servant appeared, coming out of the rooms, and,bowing low before Count Ville-Handry, he said,--
"The ladies have but just risen from table, and are still dressing."
"Ah!"
"If the gentlemen will please sit down in the parlor, I will tell M.Elgin."
"Very well," said the count, speaking in a tone which showed that heconsidered himself perfectly at home in Miss Brandon's house. He enteredthe parlor, followed by Daniel. It was a magnificent room; but everything in it, from the carpet on the floor to the chandelier on theceiling, betrayed the Puritanic taste of Mrs. Brian. It was splendid;but the splendor was cold, stiff, and mournful. The furniture had sharpangles, and suggested any thing but comfort. The bronze figures on themantlepiece-clock were biblical personages; and the other bronzes weresimply hideous. Except these, there was no ornament visible, not apainting, nor a statuette.
Yes, one. Opposite the fireplace, in the place of honor, there staredat you a painting in a most costly gilt frame,--a horrible daub,representing a man of about fifty years, who wore a fancy uniform withenormous epaulets, a huge sword, a plumed hat, and a blue sash, intowhich two revolvers were thrust.
"Gen. Brandon, Miss Sarah's father," said Count Ville-Handry, in a toneof deep respect, which unnerved Daniel. "As a work of art, this portraitleaves, no doubt, much to be wished for; but they say the likeness isexcellent."
Certainly, though that might be so, there was no resemblance to bediscovered between the tanned face of this American general and theblooming features of Miss Brandon. But there was something more. AsDaniel examined this picture nearer by, and more closely, he thought hediscovered a studied and intentional coarseness of execution. It lookedto him like the work of an artist who had endeavored to imitate thosewretched painters who live upon the vanity of weak men and littlechildren. He thought he discovered by the side of gross inaccuraciesunmistakable traces of a master's hand; and especially one of the ears,half hid behind the hair, seemed to him admirably done.
But, before he could draw his conclusions from this strange discovery,M. Thomas Elgin appeared in the room. He was in evening costume, lookingtaller and stiffer than ever in his white cravat; and, as he cameforward, he halted a little on one foot, though leaning upon a big cane.
"What, my dear Sir Thorn!" exclaimed the count, "your leg still givesyou trouble?"
"Oh, a great deal!" replied the honorable gentleman, with a very markedEnglish accent,--"a great deal since this morning. The doctor thinksthere must be something the matter with the bone."
At the same time, obeying the tendency which we all have to display ourailments, he slightly drew up his trousers, so that the bandages becamevisible which he wore around his leg. Count Ville-Handry looked at itwith pity; then, forgetting that he had introduced Daniel already thenight before at the opera, he presented him once more; and, when theceremony was over, he said to Sir Thorn,--
"Upon my word, I am almost ashamed to appear so early; but I knew youexpected company to-night."
"Oh, only a few persons!"
"And I desired to see you for a few moments alone."
A strange grimace represented the only smile of which the honorablegentleman was capable. He made it twice, and then said, caressing hisprimly-cut whiskers,--
"They have told Miss Sarah that you are here, my dear count; and I heardher tell Mrs. Brian that she was nearly ready. I cannot imagine how shecan spend so much time at her toilet."
They were thus chatting away before the fireplace, Sir Thorn stretchedout in an easy-chair, and the count leaning against the mantlepiece,while Daniel had withdrawn into the embrasure of a window which lookedupon the court-yard and the garden behind the house. There, his browpressed against the cool window-panes, he was meditating. He could notunderstand this wound of M. Elgin's.
"Is it possible that his fall was an intentional fall?" he thought, "ordid he really break his leg? If he did so, that fainting-fit might havebeen natural, and not prearranged; but"--
He was just plunging into these doubts and speculations, when the noiseof a carriage entering the court-yard, aroused him from his thoughts.
He looked out. A _coupe_ had driven up to the back porch of the house. Alady stepped out; and he was on the point of uttering a cry of surprise,for he thought he recognized Miss Sarah in that woman. But could that beso? He was unwilling to believe it, when she suddenly raised her head inorder to speak to the coachman, and the light from the lamps fell fullupon her face.
There was no doubt now on his mind. It was Miss Brandon.
She flew up the steps, and entered the house. He heard distinctly theheavy door close behind her.
At the opera, the night before, a single word uttered by Miss Brandonhad sufficed to enlighten Daniel. But now this was a very differentmatter. It was a potent fact, unmistakable and tangible, which came tohim in support of his suspicions.
In order to increase the passionate impatience of the count, they hadtold him that Miss Brandon was still dressing, but that she was makingall haste to come down to him. Not a word had been said of her beingout, and of her return at that very moment. Where had she been? What newintrigues had compelled her to leave the house just then? It must haveevidently been something of great importance to have kept her out tillso late an hour, and when she knew, moreover, that the count was waitingfor her.
This incident threw a flood of light on the cunning policy pursued inthis house, and on the clever and active complicity of M. Thomas Elginand Mrs. Brian. What their game really was, and how Count Ville-Handryhad been caught in the trap, he now understood well enough; he wouldhave been caught in it himself.
How clever these actors were! how perfect all the arrangements! and howscientifically the smallest details were prepared! How marvellously welleven the parlor was arranged to serve the
purposes of the owners! Thissimple elegance could not but banish all doubts; and this horribleportrait of the so-called Gen. Brandon--what a stroke of genius!
As to the lame leg of Sir Thorn, Daniel no longer believed in it.
"His leg is no more broken than mine," he thought.
But at the same time he marvelled at the self-denial of this gentleman,who, in order to prove a falsehood, consented to wear his leg bandagedup for months, as if it really had been severely injured.
"And to-night," said Daniel to himself, "the performance, no doubt, isto be specially artistic, as they expected me."
Still, like a duellist, who tries to regain all his strength after asleepless night, Daniel was now fully prepared for the battle. He evenreturned to the fireplace, for fear that his standing alone, and hispreoccupation, might betray his thoughts.
The conversation between Count Ville-Handry and M. Elgin had in themeantime become very familiar; and the count was just detailing all hisarrangements for the approaching wedding. He would live, he said, withhis wife in the second story of his palace. The first story was to bedivided into two suites of apartments,--one for M. Thomas Elgin, and theother for Mrs. Brian; for he knew very well that his adored Sarah wouldnever consent to part with her dear relatives, who had been father andmother to her.
The last words remained in his throat; he stood as if he were petrified,his eyes starting from their sockets, his mouth wide open.
Mrs. Brian had entered the room, followed by Miss Brandon. Daniel waseven more struck by her strange beauty to-day than at the opera; itwas literally dazzling. She wore on that night a dress of tea-colorembroidered with tiny bouquets in Chinese silk, and trimmed below withan immense flounce of plaited muslin. In her hair, which looked evenmore carelessly put up than usually, she had nothing but a branch offuschia, the crimson bells falling gracefully down upon her neck, wherethey mingled with her golden curls.
She came smilingly up to Count Ville-Handry, and, offering him her browto kiss, she said,--
"Do I look well, dear count?"
He trembled from head to foot; and all he could do was to stretch outhis lips, and to stammer in an almost ecstatic tone of voice,--
"Oh, beautiful! too beautiful!"
"It has taken you long enough, I am sure," said Sir Thornseverely,--"too long!"
He might have known that Miss Brandon had accomplished a miracle ofexpeditiousness; for it was not a quarter of an hour since she returnedto the house.
"You are an impertinent villain, Thorn," she said, laughing in the freshand hearty manner of a child; "and I am very happy that the presence ofthe count relieves _me_ from your eternal sermons."
"Sarah!" exclaimed Mrs. Brian reprovingly.
But she had already turned round, with her hand outstretched towardsDaniel,--
"I am so glad you have come, sir!" she said. "I am sure we shallunderstand each other admirably."
She told him this with the softest possible voice; but, if he had knownher better, he would have read in the way in which she looked at him,that her disposition towards him had entirely changed since yesterday;then she wished him well; now she hated him savagely.
"Understand each other?" he repeated as he bowed; "in what?"
She made no answer.
The servant announced some of the usual visitors; and she went toreceive them. Ten o'clock struck; and from that moment the invitedguests did not cease to arrive. At eleven o'clock there were perhaps ahundred persons in the room; and in the two adjoining rooms card-tableshad been arranged.
It appeared that the gentlemen who showed themselves there--oldmen mostly, amply decorated with foreign orders, and young men inextravagantly fashionable costumes--were not free from suspicion; butthey all belonged to Paris high-life, to that society, which, under adazzlingly brilliant outside, conceals hideous crimes, and allows nowand then traces of real misery to be seen through the rents in thesplendid livery worn by its members.
Some of these men stood, by the name they bore or the position theyfilled, high above the rest of the company; they were easily recognizedby their haughty manner, and the intense deference with which theirslightest remarks were received. And to this crowd Count Ville-Handrydisplayed his good-fortune. He assumed all the airs of the master of thehouse; as if he had been in his own house, gave orders to the servants,and then, with mock modesty, went from group to group, eagerly pickingup all the compliments he could gather on Miss Brandon's beauty, and hisown good luck.
Gracefully reclining in an easy-chair near the fireplace, Miss Sarahlooked a young queen surrounded by her court. But in spite of themultitude of her admirers, and the number of compliments she received atevery moment, she never for a moment lost sight of Daniel, watching himall the time stealthily, to read his thoughts in his features.
Once she even shocked the crowd of her worshippers by suddenly leavingher place in order to ask him why he held himself so aloof, and whetherhe felt indisposed. Then, seeing that he was a perfect stranger here,she was good enough to point out to him some of the most remarkable menin the crowd. In doing this, she was so anxious to make him aware of herdistinguished friends, that Daniel began to think she must have divinedhis intentions, and thus indirectly defied him, as if she had said in somany words,--
"You see what friends I have, and how they would defend me if you shoulddare to attack me."
Nevertheless, he was not discouraged, being fully aware of all thedifficulties of his undertaking, and having long since counted up allthe obstacles in his way. While the conversation was going on aroundhim, he arranged in his head a plan, which, he hoped, would enable himto find out the antecedents of this dangerous adventuress.
These thoughts preoccupied him to such a degree, that he did not becomeaware how the rooms became gradually empty. It was so, nevertheless; andthere were finally only a few intimate friends left, and four players ata card-table.
Then Miss Brandon arose, and, coming up to Daniel, said to him,--
"Will you grant me ten minutes' conversation, sir?"
He prepared to follow her, when Mrs. Brian interposed, saying a fewwords in a tone of reproach to her niece. Daniel knew enough English tounderstand that she said,--
"What you are doing is highly improper, Sarah."
"Shocking!" added M. Thomas Elgin.
But she shrugged her shoulders slightly, and replied in English,--
"My dear count alone would have a right to judge my conduct; and he hasauthorized me to do what I am doing."
Then turning to Daniel, she said to him in French,--
"Come with me, sir."