His tone was not unkind, his expression not without suavity. If I had not had imprinted on my memory the startling picture of his face as I had seen it an instant before in the mirror, I should have been tempted to believe in his goodness and integrity at this moment. As it was, I doubted him through and through, yet replied with frankness and showed him the ticket I had received from his father.
“And you are going to make it your business to guard the grounds tonight?” he asked, gloomily glancing at the card in my hand as if he would like to annihilate it.
“Yes,” said I.
He drew me into a small room half filled with plants.
“Now,” said he, “see here. Such a piece of interference is entirely uncalled for, and you have been alarming my father unnecessarily. There are no rowdies in this town, and if one or two of the villagers should get into the grounds, where is the harm? They cannot get into the house even if they wanted to, which they don’t. I do not wish this, our first show of hospitality, to assume a hostile aspect, and whatever my father’s expectations may be, I must request you to curtail your duties as much as possible and limit them to responding by your presence when called upon.”
“But your father has a right to expect the fullest obedience to his wishes,” I protested. “He would not be satisfied if I should do no more than you request, and I cannot afford to disappoint him.”
He looked at me with a calculating eye, and I expected to see him put his hand in his pocket; but Hartley Benson played his cards better than that. “Very well,” said he, “if you persist in regarding my father’s wishes as paramount, I have nothing to say. Fulfil your duties as you conceive them, but don’t look for my support if any foolish misadventure makes you ashamed of yourself.” And drawing back, he motioned me out of the room.
I felt I had received a check, and hurried out of the house. But scarcely had I entered upon the walk that led down to the gate, when I heard a light step behind me. Turning, I encountered the pretty daughter of the house, the youthful Miss Carrie.
“Wait,” she cried, allowing herself to display her emotion freely in face and bearing. “I have heard who you are from my brother,” she continued, approaching me with a soft grace that at once put me upon my guard. “Now, tell me who are the rowdies that threaten to invade our grounds?”
“I do not know their names, miss,” I responded; “but they are a rough-looking set you would not like to see among your guests.”
“There are no very rough-looking men in our village,” she declared; “you must be mistaken in regard to them. My father is nervous and easily alarmed. It was wrong to arouse his fears.”
I thought of that steady eye of his, of force sufficient to hold in awe a regiment of insurgents, and smiled at her opinion of my understanding.
“Then you do not wish the grounds guarded,” I said, in as indifferent a tone as I could assume.
“I do not consider it necessary.”
“But I have already pledged myself to fulfil your father’s commands.”
“I know,” she said, drawing a step nearer, with a most enchanting smile. “And that was right under the circumstances; but we, his children, who may be presumed to know more of social matters than a recluse—I, especially,” she added, with a certain emphasis, “tell you it is not necessary. We fear the scandal it may cause; besides, some of the guests may choose to linger about the grounds under the trees, and would be rather startled at being arrested as intruders.”
“What, then, do you wish me to do?” I asked, leaning toward her, with an appearance of yielding.
“To accept this money,” she murmured, blushing, “and confine yourself tonight to remaining in the background unless called upon.”
This was a seconding of her brother’s proposition with a vengeance. Taking the purse she handed me, I weighed it for a moment in my hand, and then slowly shook my head. “Impossible,” I cried; “but”—and I fixed my eyes intently upon her countenance—“if there is any one in particular whom you desire me to ignore, I am ready to listen to a description of his person. It has always been my pleasure to accommodate myself as much as possible to the whims of the ladies.”
It was a bold stroke that might have cost me the game. Indeed, I half expected she would raise her voice and order some of the men about her to eject me from the grounds. But instead of that she remained for a moment blushing painfully, but surveying me with an unfaltering gaze that reminded me of her father’s.
“There is a person,” said she, in a low, restrained voice, “whom I am especially anxious should remain unmolested, whatever he may or may not be seen to do. He is a guest,” she went on, a sudden pallor taking the place of her blushes, “and has a right to be here; but I doubt if he at once enters the house, and I even suspect he may choose to loiter awhile in the grounds before attempting to join the company. I ask you to allow him to do so.”
I bowed with an appearance of great respect. “Describe him,” said I.
For a moment she faltered, with a distressed look I found it difficult to understand. Then, with a sudden glance over my person, exclaimed: “Look in the glass when you get home and you will see the fac-simile of his form, though not of his face. He is fair, whereas you are dark.” And with a haughty lift of her head calculated to rob me of any satisfaction I might have taken in her words, she stepped slowly back.
I stopped her with a gesture. “Miss,” said I, “take your purse before you go. Payment of any service I may render your father will come in time. This affair is between you and me, and I hope I am too much of a gentleman to accept money for accommodating a lady in so small a matter as this.”
But she shook her head. “Take it,” said she, “and assure me that I may rely on you.”
“You may rely on me without the money,” I replied, forcing the purse back into her hand.
“Then I shall rest easy,” she returned, and retreated with a lightsome air toward the house.
The next moment I was on the highway with my thoughts. What did it all mean? Was it, then, a mere love affair across which I had foolishly stumbled, and was I busying myself unnecessarily about a rendezvous that might mean no more than an elopement from under a severe father’s eye? Taking out the note which had led to all these efforts on my part, I read it for the third time.
“All goes well. The time has come; every thing is in train, and success is certain. Be in the shrubbery at the northeast corner of the grounds at 9 P.M. precisely; you will be given a mask and such other means as are necessary to insure you the accomplishment of the end you have in view. He cannot hold out against a surprise. The word by which you will know your friends is Counterfeit.”
A love-letter of course; and I had been a fool to suppose it any thing else. The young people are to surprise the old gentleman in the presence of their friends. They have been secretly married perhaps, who knows, and take this method of obtaining a public reconciliation. But that word “Counterfeit,” and the sinister tone of Hartley Benson as he said: “It shall not fail through lack of effort on my part!” Such a word and such a tone did not rightly tally with this theory. Few brothers take such interest in their sister’s love affairs as to grow saturnine over them. There was, beneath all this, something which I had not yet penetrated. Meantime my duty led me to remain true to the one person of whose integrity of purpose I was most thoroughly convinced.
Returning to the village, I hunted up Mr. White and acquainted him with what I had undertaken in his name; and then perceiving that the time was fast speeding by, strolled over to the tavern for my supper.
The stranger was still there, walking up and down the sitting-room. He joined us at the table, but I observed he scarcely tasted his food, and both then and afterward manifested the same anxious suspense that had characterized his movements from the time of our first encounter.
CHAPTER II
THE BLACK DOMINO
At half past eight I was at my post. The mysterious stranger, still under my direct surveillance
, had already entered the grounds and taken his stand in the southwest corner of the shrubbery, thereby leaving me free to exercise my zeal in keeping the fences and gates free of intruders. At nine the guests were nearly if not all assembled; and promptly at the hour mentioned in the note so often referred to, I stole away from my post and hid myself amid the bushes that obscured the real place of rendezvous.
It was a retired spot, eminently fitted for a secret meeting. The lamps, which had been hung in profusion through the grounds, had been studiously excluded from this quarter. Even the broad blaze of light that poured from the open doors and windows of the brilliantly illuminated mansion, sent no glimmer through the broad belt of evergreens that separated this retreat from the open lawn beyond. All was dark, all was mysterious, all was favorable to the daring plan I had undertaken. In silence I awaited the sound of approaching steps.
My suspense was of short duration. In a few moments I heard a low rustle in the bushes near me, then a form appeared before my eyes, and a man’s voice whispered:
“Is there any one here?”
My reply was to glide quietly into view.
Instantly he spoke again, this time with more assurance.
“Are you ready for a counterfeit?”
“I am ready for any thing,” I returned, in smothered tones, hoping by thus disguising my voice, to lure him into a revelation of the true purpose of this mysterious rendezvous.
But instead of the explanations I expected, the person before me made a quick movement, and I felt a domino thrown over my shoulders.
“Draw it about you well,” he murmured; “there are lynx eyes in the crowd tonight.” And while I mechanically obeyed, he bent down to my ear and earnestly continued: “Now listen, and be guided by my instructions. You will not be able to enter by the front door, as it is guarded, and you cannot pass without removing your mask. But the window on the left-hand balcony is at your service. It is open, and the man appointed to keep intruders away, has been bribed to let you pass. Once inside the house, join the company sans céremonie; and do not hesitate to converse with any one who addresses you by the countersign. Promptly at ten o’clock look around you for a domino in plain black. When you see him move, follow him, but with discretion, so that you may not seem to others to be following. Sooner or later he will pause and point to a closed door. Notice that door, and when your guide has disappeared, approach and enter it without fear or hesitation. You will find yourself in a small apartment connecting with the library.
“There is but one thing more to say. If the wineglass you will observe on the library table smells of wine, you may know your father has had his nightly potion and gone to bed. But if it contains nothing more than a small white powder, you may be certain he has yet to return to the library, and that by waiting, you will have the long-wished-for opportunity of seeing him.”
And pausing for no reply, my strange companion suddenly thrust a mask into my hand and darted from the circle of trees that surrounded us.
For a moment I stood dumbfounded at the position in which my recklessness had placed me. All the folly, the impertinence even, of the proceeding upon which I had entered, was revealed to me in its true colors, and I mentally inquired what could have induced me to thus hamper myself with the details of a mystery so entirely removed from the serious matter I had in charge. Resolved to abandon the affair, I made a hasty attempt to disengage myself from the domino in which I had been so unceremoniously enveloped. But invisible hands seemed to restrain me. A vivid remembrance of the tone in which these final instructions had been uttered returned to my mind, and while I recognized the voice as that of Hartley Benson, I also recognized the almost saturnine intensity of expression which had once before imbued his words with a significance both forcible and surprising. The secret, if a purely family one, was of no ordinary nature; and at the thought I felt my old interest revive. All the excuses with which I had hitherto silenced my conscience recurred to me with fresh force, and mechanically donning my mask, I prepared to follow out my guide’s instructions to the last detail.
The window to which I had been directed stood wide open. Through it came the murmur of music and the hum of gay voices. Visions of a motley crowd decked in grotesque costumes passed constantly before my eyes. Sight and sound combined to allure me. Hurrying to the window, I stepped carelessly in.
A low guttural “Hugh!” at once greeted me. It was from a mask in full Indian costume, whom I saw leaning with a warrior’s well-known dignity against the embrasure of the window by which I had entered. Giving him a scrutinizing glance, I came to the conclusion he was a young and not inelegant man; and impelled by a reasonable curiosity as to how I looked myself, I cast my eyes down upon my own person. I found my appearance sufficiently striking. The domino, in which I was wrapped was of a brilliant yellow hue, covered here and there with black figures representing all sorts of fantastic creatures, from hobgoblins of a terrible type, to merry Kate Greenaway silhouettes. “Humph!” thought I, “it seems I am not destined to glide unnoticed amid the crowd.”
The first person who approached me was a gay little shepherdess.
“Ah, ha!” was the sportive exclamation with which she greeted me. “Here is one of my wandering sheep!” And with a laugh, she endeavored to hook me to her side by means of her silver crook.
But this blithesome puppet possessed no interest for me. So with a growl and a bound I assured her I was nothing more than a wolf in sheep’s clothing, and would eat her up if she did not run away; at which she gayly laughed and vanished, and for a moment I was left alone. But only for a moment. A masked lady, whom I had previously observed standing upright and solitary in a distant corner of the room, now approached, and taking me by the arm, led me eagerly to one side.
“Oh, Joe!” she whispered, “is it you? How glad I am to have you here, and how I hope we are going to be happy at last!”
Fearing to address a person seemingly so well acquainted with the young man whose place I had usurped, I merely pressed, with most perfidious duplicity, the little hand that was so confidingly clasped in mine. It seemed to satisfy her, for she launched at once into ardent speech.
“Oh, Joe, I have been so anxious to have you with us once again! Hartley is a good brother, but he is not my old playmate. Then father will be so much happier if you only succeed in making him forget the past.”
Seeing by this that it was Miss Carrie Benson with whom I had to deal, I pressed the little hand again, and tenderly drew her closer to my side. That I felt all the time like a villain of the blackest dye, it is quite unnecessary for me to state.
“Has Hartley told you just what you are to do?” was her next remark. “Father is very determined not to relent and has kept himself locked in his library all day, for fear you should force yourself upon his presence. I could never have gained his consent to give this ball if I had not first persuaded him it would serve as a means to keep you at a distance; that if you saw the house thronged with guests, natural modesty would restrain you from pushing yourself forward. I think he begins to distrust his own firmness. He fears he will melt at the sight of you. He has been failing this last year and—” A sudden choke stopped her voice.
I was at once both touched and alarmed; touched at the grief which showed her motives to be pure and good, and alarmed at the position in which I had thrust myself to the apparent detriment of these same laudable motives. Moved by a desire to right matters, I ventured to speak:
“And do you think,” I whispered, in purposely smothered accents, “that if he sees me he will relent?”
“I am sure of it. He yearns over you, Joe; and if he had not sworn never to speak to you again, he would have sent for you long ago. Hartley believes as well as I that the time for reconciliation has come.”
“And is Hartley,” I ventured again, not without a secret fear of the consequences, “really anxious for reconciliation?”
“Oh, Joe! can you doubt it? Has he not striven from the first to make father fo
rget? Would he encourage you to come here tonight, furnish you with a disguise, and consent to act both as your champion and adviser, if he did not want to see you and father friends again? You don’t understand Hartley; you never have. You would not have repelled his advances so long, if you had realized how truly he had forgiven every thing and forgotten it. Hartley has the pride of a person who has never done wrong himself. But even pride gives way before brotherly affection; and you have suffered so much and so long, poor Joe!”
“So, so,” thought I, “Joe is then the aggressor!” And for a moment, I longed to be the man I represented, if only to clasp this dear little sister in my arms and thank her for her goodness. “You are a darling,” I faintly articulated, inwardly determined to rush forthwith into the garden, hand over my domino to the person for whom it was intended, and make my escape from a scene which I had so little right to enjoy. But at this instant an interruption occurred which robbed me of my companion, but kept me effectually in my place. A black domino swept by us, dragging Miss Benson from my side, while at the same time a harsh voice whispered in my ear:
“To counterfeit wrong when one is right, necessarily opens one to misunderstanding.”
I started, recognizing in this mode of speech a friend, and therefore one from whom I could not escape without running the risk of awakening suspicion.
“That is true,” I returned, hoping by my abrupt replies to cut short this fresh colloquy and win a speedy release.
But something in my answer roused the interest of the person at my side, and caused a display of emotion that led to quite an opposite result from what I desired.
“You awaken a thousand conjectures in my mind by that reply,” exclaimed my friend, edging me a little farther back from the crowd. “I have always had my doubts about—about—” he paused, hunting for the proper phrase—“about your having done what they said,” he somewhat lamely concluded. “It was so unlike you. But now I begin to see the presence of a possibility that might perhaps explain much we never understood. Joe, my boy, you never said you were innocent, but—”
The Anna Katharine Green Mystery Megapack Page 77