The House of the White Shadows

CHAPTER VII

HUSBAND AND WIFE

"Remain with me, Denise,' said my lady, as we walked back to the house. 'I am weak, and may need you."

"Then, for the first time, I noticed what gave me hope. She took her baby boy in her arms, and pressed him passionately to her bosom, murmuring:

"'I have only you-I have only you!'

"It was not that hitherto she had been wanting in tenderness, but that in my presence she had never so yearningly displayed it. It gladdened me also to think that her child was a comfort to her in this grave crisis.

"But the hope I indulged in was doomed to disappointment. In the evening my lady bade me ascertain whether her husband was in the villa.

"I went to him, and made the inquiry.

"'Tell my wife,' he said, in a gentle tone, 'that I am ready to wait upon her whenever she desires it.'

"It was late in the night when my lady called me to assist her to dress. I did so, wondering at the strange proceeding. She chose her prettiest dress, one which she had worn in her maiden days. She wore no ornaments, or flowers or ribbons of any colour. Simply a white dress, with white lace for her head and shoulders.

"'Now go to your master,' she said, 'and say I desire to see him.'

"I gave him the message, and he accompanied me to this room, where my lady was waiting to receive him, with as much ceremony as if he had been a stranger guest.

"I am here at your bidding,' he said, and turning to me, 'You can go, Denise.'

"'You will stay, Denise,' said my lady.

"The manner of both was stern, but there was more decision in my lady's voice than in his. I hesitated, not knowing which of them to obey.

"'Stay, then, Denise,' said my master, 'as your mistress desires it.'

"I retreated to a corner of the room, as far away from them as I could get. I was really afraid of what was coming. Within the hearts of husband and wife a storm was raging, all the more terrible because of the outward calm with which they confronted each other.

"'You know,' said my lady, 'for what reason I desired to see you.'

"'I know,' he replied,' that I expected you would send for me. If you had not, I should not have presented myself.'

"'You have in your mind,' she said, 'matters which concern us both, of which it is necessary you should speak.'

"'It is more than necessary-it is imperative that I should speak of the matters you refer to.'

"'The opportunity is yours. I also have something to say when you have finished. The sooner our minds are unburdened the better it will be-for you and me.'

"'It were preferable,' he added, 'that what we say to each other should be said without witnesses. Consider whether it will not be best that Denise should retire.'

"'There is no best or worst for me,' she rejoined; 'my course is decided, and no arguments of yours can alter it. Denise will remain, as I bade her, and what you have to say must be spoken in her presence.'

"'Be it so. Denise is the most trusted servant of my house; I have every confidence in her. Otherwise, I should insist upon her leaving the room.'

"'It is right,' said my lady, 'that you should be made acquainted with a resolution I have come to within the last few hours. After this night I will never open my lips to you, nor, willingly, will I ever listen to your voice. I swear most solemnly that I am in earnest-as truly in earnest as if I were on my death-bed!'

"I shuddered; her voice and manner carried conviction with them. My master turned to me, and said:

"'What you hear must never pass your lips while your mistress and I are alive.'

"'It never shall,' I said, shaking like a leaf.

"'When we are dead, Denise, you can please yourself.' He stood again face to face with his wife. 'Madame, it is necessary that I should recall the past. When I spoke to your lady mother on the subject of my love for you-being encouraged and in a measure urged to do so by herself-I was frank and open with her. There was nothing in my life which I concealed, which I had occasion to conceal. I had grave doubts as to the suitability of a marriage with you, doubts which did not place you at a disadvantage. I had not the grace of youth to recommend me; there was a serious difference in our ages; my habits of life were staid and serious. You were fit to be the wife of a prince; your youth, your beauty, your accomplishments, entitled you to more than I could offer-which was simply a life of ease and the homage of a faithful heart. Only in one respect were we equal-in respect of birth. Had I not been encouraged by your mother, I should not have had the temerity to give expression to my feelings; but I spoke, and for me there was no retreating. I begged your lady mother not to encourage me with false hopes, but to be as frank with me as I was with her. Of the doubts which disturbed me, one was paramount. You had moved in the world-you had been idolised in society-and it scarcely seemed possible that your heart could be disengaged. In that case, I informed your lady mother that no earthly consideration could induce me to step between you and your affections; nay, with all the force which earnestness could convey, I offered to do all in my power-if it were possible that my services could avail- to aid in bringing your life to its happiest pass. At such a moment as this, a solemn one, madame, which shall never be forgotten by you or by me, I may throw aside false delicacy, and may explain the meaning of these last words to your mother. Having had in my hands the settlement of your father's affairs, I knew that you were poor, and my meaning was, that if any money of mine could assist in bringing about a union between you and the object of your affections-did any such exist-it was ready, cheerfully offered and cheerfully given for such a purpose. I made but one stipulation in the matter-that it should never, directly or indirectly, be brought to your knowledge.'

"He paused, in the expectation that his wife would speak, and she said coldly:

"'You are doubtless stating the truth.'

"'The simple truth, madame, neither more nor less; and believe it or not, as you will, it was your welfare, not mine, that was uppermost in my mind. Your lady mother assured me that before you came to the villa your heart was entirely free, but that since you honoured me by becoming my guest, you had fixed your affections upon myself. My astonishment was great; I could scarcely believe the evidence of my senses. I entreated your lady mother not to mislead me, and she proved to me-to me, to whom the workings of a woman's heart were as a sealed book-in a hundred different ways, which she said I might have discovered for myself if I had had the wit-that you most truly loved me. She professed to be honoured by my proposal, which she accepted for you, and which she said you would joyfully accept for yourself. But she warned me not to be disappointed in the manner in which you would receive me; that your pride and shame might impel you to appear reluctant instead of joyful, and that it behoved me, as a wise man-Heaven help me! – to put a right and sensible construction on the natural maidenly reserve of a young girl. The rest you know. The wise man, madame, has been sadly at fault; it has been fatally proved to him that he knows little of the workings of the human heart.'

"She held up her hand as a sign that she wished to speak, and he paused. A little thing struck me at the time, which has never passed out of my mind. She held up her hand in front of the lamp, and the light shone through the thin, delicate fingers. Seldom do I think of my lady without seeing that slight, beautiful hand, with the pink light shining through it.

"'My mother,' she said, 'did not speak the truth. M. Gabriel and I were affianced before I became your guest.'

"'Your information comes too late,' said my master; 'you should have told me so much when I offered you my name. It would have been sufficient. I should not have forced myself upon you, and shame and sin would have been avoided.'

"'There has been no sin,' said my lady, 'and who links me with shame brings shame upon himself. I have been wronged beyond the hope of reparation in this life. Before you spoke to me of marriage I wrote to M. Gabriel frequently from this villa. My letters were intercepted-'

"He interrupted her. 'To my knowledge no letters were intercepted; I had no suspicion of such a proceeding.'

"I do not say you had; I am making you acquainted with a fact. Hurt and vexed at receiving no reply to my letters, and being able to account for it only on the supposition that they had not come into his possession, I wrote one and gave it to Denise to post for me. That also, as I learnt after my mother's death, was intercepted, and never reached its destination. In the meantime, false information was given to me respecting M. Gabriel; shameful stories were related to me, in which he was the principal actor. He was vile and false, as I was led to believe; and you were held up to me as his very opposite, as noble, chivalrous, generous, disinterested-'

"'In all of which you will bear in mind, I was in no way inculpated, being entirely ignorant of what was going on under my roof.'

"'And I was, besides, led to believe by my mother that you had laid us under such obligations that there was but one repayment of them-'

"'Plainly speaking,' he interposed, 'that, in any kindness I had shown, I was deliberately making a purchase, that in every friendly office I performed, I had but one cowardly end in view. It needed this to complete the story.'

"'My heart was almost broken,' she continued, making no comment on his bitter interruption; 'but it was pointed out to me that I could at least answer the call of gratitude and duty. Doubly did my mother deceive me.'

"'And doubly,' said my master, 'did you deceive me.'

"'When, some time after our unhappy marriage, you introduced M. Gabriel into this house, I was both angry and humiliated. It looked as though you intended to insult me, and Denise was a witness of my agitation. It was not unnatural that, remaining here, your guest-bidden by you, not by me-for so long a time explanations should pass between M. Gabriel and myself. Then it was that my eyes were really opened to the pit into which I had been deliberately dragged.'

"'Not by me were you dragged into this pit.'

"'Let it pass for a moment,' she said, in a disdainful voice. 'When my eyes were opened to the truth, how was I to know that you had not shared in the plot against me? How am I to know it now?'

"'By my denial. Doubt me if you will, and believe that I tricked to obtain you. I shall not attempt to undeceive you. No good purpose would be served by a successful endeavour to soften your feelings towards me; I do not, indeed, desire that they should be softened, for no link of love can ever unite us. It never did, and never can, and I am not a man to live upon shams. If I tricked to obtain you, you will not deny that I have my reward-a rich reward, the rank fruit of which will cling to me and abide with me till the last moment of my life.'

"'I went into the summer-house this afternoon,' she said.

"'I know it.'

"'It was your intention that I should visit it.'

"'It was not exactly my intention; I left it to chance.'

"'You have made it a memorial of shame, of a cruel declaration against me!'

"'I have made it a memorial of my own deep unhappiness. That studio will never again be opened during your life and mine. Madame, in all that you have said-and I have followed you attentively-you have not succeeded in making me believe that I have anything to reproach myself for. My blindness was deplorable, but it is not a reproach. My actions were distinguished at least by absolute candour and frankness. Can you assert the same? You loved M. Gabriel before you met me-was I to blame for that? You were made to believe he was false to you-was I to blame for that? You revenged yourself upon him by accepting my hand, and I, unversed in woman's ways, believed that no pure-minded woman would marry a man unless she loved him. I still believe so. When we stood before the altar, I was happy in the belief that your heart was mine; and certainly from that moment, your faith, your honour, were pledged to me, as mine was pledged to you. M. Gabriel was my friend. I was a man when he was a boy, and I became interested in him, and assisted him in his career. We had not met for years: he knew that I had married-'

"'But he did not know,' interrupted my lady, 'that you had married me!'

"'Granted. Was I to blame for that? After our marriage you fell into melancholy moods, which I at first ascribed to the tragic fate of your parents. Most sincerely did I sympathise with you. Day after day, night after night, did I ponder and consider how I could bring the smile to your lips, how I could gladden your young heart. Reflect upon this, madame, in the days that are before you, and reflect upon the manner in which you received my attentions. At one time, when I had invited to the villa a number of joyous spirits in the hope that their liveliness and gaiety would have a beneficial effect upon you, I received a letter from M. Gabriel with reference to a picture he was painting. I invited him here, and he came. What was his duty, what was yours, when you and he met in my presence, when I introduced you to each other, for the first time as I thought? Madame, if not before him, at least before you, there was but one honest course. Did you pursue it? No; you received M. Gabriel as a stranger, and you permitted me to rest in the belief that until that day you had been unconscious of his existence. Without referring to my previous sufferings-which, madame, were very great-in what position did I, the husband, stand in relation to my wife and friend, who, in that moment of introduction, tacitly conspired against my honour, and who, after explanations had passed between them, met and conversed as lovers? Their guilt was the more heinous because of its secrecy-and utterly, utterly unpardonable because of their treachery towards him who trusted in them both. A double betrayal! But at length the husband's suspicions were aroused. In a conversation which he accidentally overheard between two ladies who were visiting him-the name of his wife-your name, madame-was mentioned in connection with that of M. Gabriel; and from their conversation he learnt that their too friendly intimacy had become a subject for common talk. Jealous of his honour, and of his name, upon which there had hitherto been no blot, he silenced the scandal-mongers; but from that day he more carefully observed his wife and his friend, until the truth was revealed. Then came retribution, and a black chapter in the lives of three human beings was closed-though the book itself is not yet completed.'

"He paused, a long time as it seemed to me, before he spoke again. The silence was awful, and in the faces of the husband and the wife there were no signs of relenting. They bore themselves as two persons might have done who had inflicted upon each other a mortal wrong for which there was no earthly forgiveness. From my heart I pitied them both."