CHAPTER X.
AT THE FOOT OF THE STAIRS.
"'You think I am playing with you,' she murmured. 'I am not. I havesickened of these nuptials and am going back. If you want to, you maykill me where I sit. You carry a dagger, I know; one more red blossomwill not show on my breast. Give it to me if you will, but turn thehorses.'
"She meant it, however much my lost heart might cry out for itshappiness and honor. Leaning forward, I told the pompous driver thatMiss Leighton had been taken very ill, and bade him drive back; and thenwith the calmness born of utter despair and loss, I said to her:
"'In pity for my pride drop your head upon my shoulder. I have said youwere sick, and sick you must be. It is the least you can do for me now.'
"She obeyed me. That head on which in fancy I had set the crowns ofempires, for whose every hair my heart had given a throb, sank coldlydown till it rested upon the heart she had broken; and while I steadiedmy nerves to meet the changed faces of the crowd, the carriage gave asudden turn, and amid murmurings that fell almost unheeded on mybenumbed senses, we wheeled about and faced again the gates throughwhich we had so lately issued.
"'She is ill,' I shouted to Miss Dudleigh, as we passed her carriage.But she gave me no reply. She was gazing over the heads of the crowd atsome distant object that enthralled her every look and sense; and movedby her expression as I thought never to be moved by anything again, Ifollowed her glance, and there, on the outskirts of the crowd, crouchingamid branches that yet refused to hide him, I saw Edwin Urquhart; andthe miserable truth smote home to my heart that it was he who hadstopped my marriage--he, whom I had thought far distant, but who had nowcome to hinder, by some secret gesture or glance, my bride on her pathto the altar.
"A dagger was hidden in my breast, and I still wonder that I did notleap from the carriage, burst through the crowd, and slay him where hecrouched in cowardly ambush. But I let the moment go by, perhaps becauseI dreaded to bring the shadow of another woe into Miss Dudleigh's whiteface, and almost immediately the throng had surged in thickly betweenus, and Miss Dudleigh's carriage had turned after ours, and there wasnothing further to do but to ride back, with the false face pressed inseeming insensibility to my breast, and that false heart beating out itscold throbs of triumph upon mine.
"I bore it, glancing down but once upon her. Had the ride before me beenone of miles I should have gone on in the same mechanical way, for myvery being was petrified. Rage, fear, sorrow and despair, all seemedlike dreams to me. I wondered that I had ever felt anything, and staredon and on at the blue sky before me, conscious of but one hauntingthought that repeated itself again and again in my brain--that her powerlay not in her eyes, as I had always been assured, but in those strangecurves about her mouth. For her eyes were closed now, and yet I wascoldly conscious of the fact that she had never looked more beautiful ormore fitted to move a man, if a man had any heart left to be moved.
"The stopping of the carriage before the great door of Miss Dudleigh'shouse roused me to the necessity for action.
"'I must carry you in,' I whispered. 'I beg your pardon for it, but itis necessary to the farce.' And following up my words by action, Ilifted her from the seat, cold and unresponsive as a stone, and carriedher into the house and set her down before the astonished eyes of suchservants as had remained to guard the house in our absence.
"'Miss Leighton has not been married,' I cried. 'She was taken ill onthe way to church, and I have brought her back. She needs noattendance.' And I waved them all back, for their startled, gapingcountenances infuriated me, and threatened to shatter the dreadfulcalmness which was my only strength.
"As they disappeared, murmuring and peering, Miss Dudleigh entered. Igave her one glance and dropped my eyes. She and I could not bear eachother's looks yet. Meantime Marah stood erect in the center of the hall,her face pale, her lips set, her eyes fixed upon vacancy. Not a wordpassed our three mouths. At last a petulant murmur broke the dreadfulsilence, and Marah, tossing her head in disdain, turned away before oureyes and began to mount the stairs.
"I felt my blood, which for many minutes had seemed at a standstill,pour with a rush through vein and artery, and darting to her side, Icaught her by the hand and held her to her place.
"'You shall not go up,' I cried, 'till you and I have understood eachother. You have refused to marry me to-day. Was it some caprice thatmoved you, or--' I paused and looked behind me; Miss Dudleigh had shrunkfrom sight into one of the rooms--'or because you saw Edwin Urquhart inthe crowd and followed his commanding gesture?'
"The hand which I held grew cold as ice. She drew it away and looked atme haughtily, but I saw that I had frightened her.
"'Edwin Urquhart is nothing to me,' came in low but emphatic tones fromher lips. 'I did not want to marry any one, and I said so. It would bebetter if more brides hesitated on the threshold of matrimony instead ofcrossing it to their ruin.'
"I could have killed her, but I subdued myself. I knew that I had losther; that in another moment she would be gone, never to enter mypresence again as my promised wife; but I uttered no word, honored herwith no glance; merely made her a low bow and stepped back, as Ithought, master of myself again.
"But in that final instant one last arrow entered my breast, and dartingback to her side, I whispered, in what must have been a terrible voice:
"'Go, falsest of the false! I have done with you! But if you have liedto me--if you think to trip up Edwin Urquhart in his duty, and breakHonora Dudleigh's noble heart, and shame my honor--I will kill you as Iwould a snake in the grass! You shall never approach the altar withanother as nearly as you have this day with me!'
"And with the last mockery of a look, in which every detail of herbeauty flashed with almost an unbearable insistence upon my eyes, Iturned my back upon her and strode toward the outer door."