Madeline Payne, the Detective's Daughter
Page 42
CHAPTER XLI.
THE DAYS PASS BY.
Several days passed and still Lucian Davlin had not found the muchwished for opportunity to converse with Madeline. Neither had he beenable to find Cora alone. Visit her room when he would, there was theburly waiting-maid. Finally Cora had warned him, with some asperity,that his "actions looked rather suspicious," and then he obeyed hergentle hint and remained aloof.
Two days after the bestowal of Strong, the maid, upon thenot-too-grateful Cora, an angular, grenadier-looking female presentedherself at the servants' entrance, announcing that she was "the newmaid;" and she was installed as high priestess of Madeline'sapartments without loss of time.
The servants below stairs made comments, as servants will. Even MissArthur, Percy, and Davlin agreed in calling the two maids,respectively, "Grenadier" and "Griffin."
But only Cora knew that the two were better learned in the art ofspying than in matters of the toilet. She knew herself to be undercontinual surveillance. Above stairs or below, Madeline or Hagar,Strong or Joliffe were not far away. And yet she had not abandoned herplan of escaping.
One morning, Cora, looking from the window of her dressing room, sawtwo men moving about in the grounds below. Upon commenting upon theirpresence there, Strong had answered, readily;
"Yes, madame, Joliffe tells me that they are here to sink a well. MissPayne has decided to have a fountain among those cedar trees, and theyare to go to work immediately."
"But a well in winter! They can't dig."
"They don't dig; they bore. It's to be a fountain, madame."
But in spite of the "fountain" explanation, Cora knew that the housewas guarded from without as well as from within.
"It's no use to warn Lucian, or anybody, now," she thought. "It wouldonly get us all into worse trouble."
But still she did not abandon the thoughts of her own escape.
And now began a time of trial for poor Ellen Arthur. Madeline Payne,after studiously ignoring the two men for some days, began to unbend.She commenced by conversing with Percy, listening to his slow andstately sentences, smiling her approval, and completely captivatingthat susceptible gentleman. Then, by degrees, she drew Lucian into theconversation, and smiled upon and listened to him.
All this Cora observed, wondering what the girl was trying to do;while the spinster looked on in untold agony, fearful lest this fairsorceress should avenge herself for some of her childish grievances byrobbing her of her lover.
Meanwhile Lucian Davlin interpreted all this in his own favor. "Sheis proud and still resentful," he thought. "And she is using Percy asa medium of approach to me."
At last Lucian, growing impatient, resorted to an old, old trick. Hewatched his opportunity, and one evening, as Madeline was followingCora from the drawing-room, the door of which he was holding open fortheir exit, he pushed into her hand a small scrap of paper.
She would have dropped it; her first impulse was to do so, but Coraturned as her hand was about to loosen its clasp upon the fragment. Soshe passed on, carrying it with her to her own room. There she openedit and read these pencilled words:
For God's sake do not torture me longer. You have condemned me without a hearing. Be as merciful as you are strong and lovely. At least let me see you alone, when I can plead for myself.
Half an hour later, Hagar tapped at his door. When he opened it, sheput in his hand a bit of paper, on which were these faintly-pencilledlines:
If you desire my friendship, you must date our acquaintance from this week. You never knew me in the past.
"And she is right," muttered he; "the Madeline Payne of last summer,and the Madeline Payne of now, are to each other as the chrysalis tothe butterfly, in beauty; as the kitten to the panther, in spirit; asthe babe to the woman, in mind. That Madeline pleased me; this one, Ilove."
So he accepted the position, and did not give up striving to draw fromher some special word, or look, or tone, that he need not feelbelonged as much to Percy as to himself.
Meantime Percy was revolving various things in his learned head.
He had been, as a matter of course, deeply impressed with her beauty,and he had been much puzzled as well.
Having witnessed her arrival, he had fully expected rebellion fromCora, for Cora was not the woman to be barred out from a prospectivefortune and make no sign. But there was no war, and no indications ofbattle. Cora and the heiress were wonderfully friendly. Mr. Percycould not understand it.
The manner of Davlin toward him had not changed in the least,remaining as studiously polite as when he was so cordially invited totake up his abode under the hospitable roof of Oakley.
That of Cora was decidedly different. While before she addressed himwith a sort of conciliating courtesy, and had seemed desirous offurthering his plans and hastening on his marriage with Miss Arthur,she now manifested an almost contemptuous indifference, not only tohimself, but to his _fiance_.
True to her nature, Cora was gathering up what gleams of satisfactionshe could. When she had become assured that it was not Percy who heldpossession of her stolen papers, and that the girl in whose hands theywere was more his enemy than hers, she rejoiced in his discomfiture tocome. Seeing that it was no longer necessary to propitiate her enemy,she indulged in the luxury of acting out her hatred, when she couldwithout betraying to Davlin this change, which might require anexplanation.
That some sort of understanding existed between Miss Payne and Cora,Percy instantly surmised, and every day confirmed the belief. ThatMiss Payne held the power, he also believed. So believing, he began towonder if it were not better to "be off with the old love," and seekto win the heiress, for the vanity of Mr. Percy inspired him tobelieve that it would not be a hopeless task. He had heard, however,of that person who, "between two stools," fell to the ground, and hewas careful not to reveal to Miss Arthur the laxity of his affections.
And so the days moved on.
Percy dividing his attention between his _fiance_ and Miss Payne;studying the latter, and closely watching Davlin and Cora.
That last named lady smiling and lounging below stairs, sulking andsmoking above, and always under surveillance.
Davlin, having assured Cora that he was acting from motives politic,paying open court to Madeline.
That young lady calmly acting her part, thoroughly understanding andheartily despising them all.
John Arthur alternately raging and sulking, obdurately refusing toaccede to his step-daughter's terms, and vowing to escape and wreakvengeance upon every one of them.
"Dr. Le Guise," calm as a Summer morning, and taking more real easeand comfort than all the others combined.
Hagar watchful and anxious.
The two new maids making themselves popular in the kitchen, and"sleeping with their eyes open."
* * * * *
And still no clue by which Madeline and her efficient _aides de camp_could unravel the web of doubt that still clung about, and kept aprisoner, the long-suffering Philip Girard.