Nell, of Shorne Mills Part 96

"Your engagement! Your----Drake! What do you mean? Your engagement!

To--to whom?"

"Sit down, Luce," he said gravely, tenderly, and he went to lead her to a chair; but she shook her hand free and stood, still staring at him blankly, her face growing paler.

"I wrote and told you all about it. I am engaged to Miss Lorton. You do not know her; but she is the young lady I met at Shorne Mills, the place in Devons.h.i.+re----I was engaged to her then, but it was broken off, and we were separated for a time; but we met again----I am sorry, very sorry, that you did not get my letter."

Her face was perfectly white by this time, her lips set tightly. He feared she was going to faint; but, with a great effort she fought against the deadly weakness which a.s.sailed her.

"So that was what you wrote!" she breathed, every word leaving her lips as if it caused her pain to utter. "You--you--have deceived me."

"No, Luce," he said quickly.

"Yes, yes! When I left here you----Is it not true that you intended asking me to be your wife, to renew our engagement? Answer!"

She glanced up at him, her teeth showing between her parted lips.

He inclined his head.

"Yes, it is true; but I had not met--I had not heard----Oh, what is the use of all this recrimination, Luce? I am engaged to the girl I love."

She raised her hand as if to strike him. He caught it gently, and as gently released it.

"I will go," she panted. "I will go at once. Be good enough to order my carriage----"

She put her hand to her head as if she did not know what she was saying; and Drake's heart ached with pity for her--at that moment, at any rate.

"Don't think too hardly of me, Luce," he said, in a low voice. "And you have not lost much, remember."

She clasped her hands and swayed to and fro for a moment.

"I see! It is your revenge. I once jilted you, and now----"

"For G.o.d's sake, don't say--don't think----No man could be so base, so vile!" he said sternly.

She laughed.

"It is your revenge; I see it. Yes, you have scored. I will go--at once.

Open the door, please!"

There was nothing else to be done. He opened the door for her, and she swept past him. Outside, she paused for a moment, as if she did not know where she was, or in which direction her room lay; then she went slowly--almost staggered--down the corridor, and, bursting into her room, fell into a chair.

So sudden was her entrance, so tragic her collapse, that the nervous Burden uttered a faint shriek.

"Oh, my lady! what is the matter?" she cried, her hand against her heart.

Lady Luce sat with her chin in her hands, her eyes gleaming from her white face, in silence for a moment; then she laughed, the laugh which borders on hysteria.

"Congratulate me, Burden!" she said bitterly; "congratulate me! Lord Angleford is engaged!"

Burden stared at her.

"To--to your ladys.h.i.+p?" she said, but doubtfully. "I do congratulate you."

"You fool!" cried Luce savagely. "He is engaged to another woman. He has jilted me! Oh, I think I shall go mad! Jilted me! Yes, it is that, and no less. Oh, my head! my head!"

Burden hurried to her with the eau de Cologne, but Lady Luce pushed it away.

"Keep out of my sight! I can't bear the sight of any human being!

Engaged! 'I am engaged to Miss Lorton!'"--she mimicked Drake's voice in bitter mockery.

Burden started, and let the eau de Cologne bottle fall with a soft thud to the floor.

"What--what name did your ladys.h.i.+p say?" she gasped, her face as white as her mistress's, her eyes starting.

Lady Luce glared at her.

"You fool! Are you deaf? Lorton! Lorton!" she almost snarled at the woman.

Burden stooped to pick up the bottle, but staggered and clutched a chair, and Lady Luce watched her with half-distraught gaze.

"What is the matter with you? Why do you behave like a lunatic?" she demanded. "Do you know this girl? Answer!"

Burden moistened her lips.

"Is it the young lady--who helped catch Ted--I mean the burglar, my lady?" she asked hoa.r.s.ely.

"I suppose so. Yes. Well? Speak out--don't keep me waiting. I'm in no humor to be trifled with. You know her--something about her?"

Burden tried to control her shaking voice.

"If--if it is the same young lady who was at Lady Wolfer's----I was her maid, you remember----"

"I remember, you fool! Quick!"

"Then--then I know something. She's very pretty--and young, with dark hair----"

Lady Luce sprang to her feet.

"You idiot! You drive me mad. I've not seen her. But if it be the same----Well--well?"

"Then--then Lord Angleford is to be pitied. He has been deceived--deceived cruelly," said Burden, in gasps.

Lady Luce caught her by the shoulders and glared into her quailing eyes.

"Listen to me, Burden: pull yourself together. Tell me what you know--tell me this instant! Well? Sit there in that chair. Now!" She pressed the shoulders she still held with the gesture of an Arab slave driver. "Now, quick! Who is she? What do you know against her?"

In faltering accents, and yet with a kind of savage pleasure, Burden spoke for some minutes; and as Lady Luce listened, the pallor of her face gave place to a flush of fierce, malicious joy.

"Are you sure? You say you saw, you listened? Are you sure?" she said--hissed, rather--at the end of Burden's story.