CHAPTER IX.--PHANTOMS OF THE PAST.
It was a pleasant night and Mrs. Richard Ivey sat alone in the handsomelibrary of her elegant country house on the sea-shore, for it was thesummer time.
Her face had lost its look of haunting care, and her cheeks glowed withhealth, and she appeared to be happy once more.
Still there were phantoms of the past that would rise before her andthey would not go down at her bidding.
She recalled her first love, noble-hearted, honest Kent Lomax, from whomshe had fled to become the wife of a man who had proved himself awretch, a villain.
She recalled her happy home, her loving parents, and wondered if theyhad ever forgiven her, for she had not heard one word from them sinceher flight, and she knew not the scene that had followed, when KentLomax had met Schuyler Cluett upon the field of honour, and had fallenbefore the bullet of the man she had married.
She had told Colonel Ivey all before she had married him, and he had butloved her the more for her confession and the sorrows she had known.
He had told her, too, that in the pleasant fall of the year, they wouldall go down to Maryland on a visit, and see the old home and herparents, and ask that she might be forgiven.
As she sat alone in her home she was pondering over the past.
Her husband had gone off on a business trip to the far West, Will wasaway upon a yachting cruise, for he had become a skilful and devotedyachtsman, his step-father having presented him with a beautiful craft,and Pearl was spending the night with a little playmate who lived near.
Presently a footfall was heard in the hallway, and Mrs. Ivey supposed itwas the butler, about to close up the house for the night, so that itdid not disturb her, but she started when the words fell upon her ears:
"_Mrs. Ivey_, I believe?"
"_Oh, Mercy!_"
The cry came like a groan of anguish from the lips of the woman, as sheturned and beheld the form of a man standing before her.
He had entered the mansion unseen, had walked into the libraryunannounced, and was within a few paces of her.
His appearance was that of a gentleman, and yet one whose life was afast one.
He was well dressed, in fact almost flashily attired, wore a diamond inhis front shirt, another upon the little finger of his left hand, and aheavy watch chain crossed his vest front.
He appeared to be a man of forty, and his face was handsome, his eyespiercing, yet a certain cold look, added to recklessness and a cynicalsmile were not prepossessing.
"You did not expect to see me again, Ruby?" he said in a voice that wastinged with a sneer.
"I believed you dead," she whispered, for she seemed scarcely able toarticulate.
"Yes, for so I sent you word."
"_You_ sent me word," she said repeating his words.
"Yes, I got a pal of mine to come and see you, and tell you how I hadbeen smashed up in a railway accident.
"The smash-up was true, and I had my leg broken, and lay for weeks inagony; but I got well, and here I am."
"Oh why did you do me this cruel wrong?" she groaned.
"To accomplish just what you have done."
"And that is--"
"That, believing me dead you might marry, for I knew your beauty wouldturn the head of some old millionaire fool as it has done."
"And this was your plot?"
"Certainly," and he took a seat near her.
"What is your purpose?" she asked in a voice scarcely audible.
"Not to claim my wife, I assure you."
"I would die before I would again live with you; but it breaks my heartto feel that I have committed this crime against the noble man that mademe, as he supposed, his wife, for we both felt that you were dead."
"And wished me so?" he said with a sneer.
"Indeed I did, though Heaven forgive me for telling the truth."
"Well, you see I am by no means a dead man, and as I have no desire todie of starvation I have come to you."
"To me?"
"Yes."
"And why?"
"You are rich."
"I am worth nothing, only such as my husband gives me."
"Well, you'll have to strike him for a loan on my account."
"What do you mean?"
"I need money."
"I can't help you."
"You must."
"I will not."
"Listen to me, Ruby, and don't be silly.
"You have broken the laws of the land, in marrying Colonel Ivey when youhad a husband living."
"I believed you dead."
"That does not excuse you, and besides, I can bring up witnesses toswear that you knew me to be alive!"
"Oh, monster!"
"I can do it, and that will prove your guilt, so you see, you are whollyin my power."
"What do you wish of me?"
"I wish, as I said, some money, and I will give you a reasonable time toget it for me.
"If I get it I will go far away and never appear again to disturb you;but, if I do not receive it, I will simply make my presence known toyour husband and destroy you."
"It will but drive me again into poverty and wretchedness, for I willnot live a lie to that good man, and shall tell him all."
"You are a fool, Ruby."
"I was a fool when I became your wife.
"I did not love you, though I believed that I did, and I soon found outthat it was but a fascination, such as a serpent has over a bird.
"I fled from my happy home, I deserted a true, honourable man, andbecame your wife, not to be acknowledged as such, for you hid me away ina little village, while you led a life of dissipation in Philadelphia,still believed to be a bachelor by your friends.
"In that lonely life I lived, and my children were born, and, with nofriend near, mine was a wretched existence.
"Deserted by you, with my children, I went to New York to earn myliving, and thither you followed me, and I had to give you all that Ihad saved up, and you gambled it away.
"Again deserted by you, I sought to hide away where you could not findme, and I became prosperous, in a small way, by selling the work of myhands; but again you found me, took my little earnings and went West,and soon after I heard of your death.
"Believe me, Schuyler Cluett, wicked as it was, I rejoiced that I wasfree, for I believed that I was.
"And now you come again, when I felt that my life was not all shadow,and you demand that I rob my husband to help you."
"I am your husband, Ruby, and I need help, and will have it."
"Not from me, sir."
"Yes, from you."
"I say no!--for I will tell all, and defy you."
"I will first see him, tell him who I am, and he will pay me to keepquiet, for the man loves you.
"For the sake of yourself, and of your children, you had best decide togive me the money, I ask."
She was silent, and lost in deep thought for full a minute, while hewatched her face narrowly.
At last she said:
"Schuyler Cluett, you know that I would give much to have you nevercross my path again; but your coming has unnerved me, and I am notmyself.
"If I give you money, without telling my husband all, it would but berobbing him to pay you.
"If I tell him, I believe he would pay you as you demand; but yet, withyou alive, and he knowing it, I could not remain here as his wife.
"So go from me, and I will decide when I can collect my thoughts."
"I will give you just one week."
"It is long enough, for I will not need so much time; but do not comehere."
"No, I will give you an address in the city that will reach me, and youcan appoint a place of meeting when you can give me the money."
"If I decide to do so."
"Oh, no fear about that, for you will decide in my favour, and for yourchildren for it would be a big scandal, you know, to come out; that--butI'll not remind you, so here is my address, and I'll bid you goodnight,Mrs. Ivey," and he left the room a
s silently as he had entered it, andthe poor woman was again alone with the phantoms of the past.