"YOU infernal scoundrel!" roared Vizard, and took a stride toward Severne.
"No violence," said Ina Klosking, sternly: "it will be an insult to this lady and me.""Very well, then," said Vizard, grimly, "I must wait till I catch him alone.""Meantime, permit me to speak, sir," said Ina. "Believe me, I have a better right than even you.""Then pray ask my sister why I find her on that villain's arm.""I should not answer her," said Zoe, haughtily. "But my brother I will.
Harrington, all this vulgar abuse confirms me in my choice: I take his arm because I have accepted his hand. I am going into Bagley with him to become his wife."This announcement took away Vizard's breath for a moment, and Ina Klosking put in her word. "You cannot do that: pray he warned. He is leading you to infamy.""Infamy! What, because he cannot give me a suit of sables? Infamy!
because we prefer virtuous poverty to vice and wealth?""No, young lady," said Ina, coloring faintly at the taunt; "but because you could only be his paramour; not his wife. He is married already."At these words, spoken with that power Ina Klosking could always command, Zoe Vizard turned ashy pale. But she fought on bravely.
"Married? It is false! To whom?"
"To me."
"I thought so. Now I know it is not true. He left you months before we ever knew him.""Look at him. He does not say it is false."Zoe turned on Severne, and at his face her own heart quaked. "Are you married to this lady?" she asked; and her eyes, dilated to their full size, searched his every feature.
"Not that I know of," said he, impudently.
"Is that the serious answer you expected, Miss Vizard?" said Ina, keenly:
then to Severne, "You are unwise to insult the woman on whom, from this day, you must depend for bread. Miss Vizard, to you I speak, and not to this shameless man. For your mother's sake, do me justice. I have loved him dearly; but now I abhor him. Would I could break the tie that binds us and give him to you, or to any lady who would have him! But I cannot.
And shall I hold my tongue, and let you be ruined and dishonored? I am an older woman than you, and bound by gratitude to all your house. Dear lady, I have taxed my strength to save you. I feel that strength waning.
Pray read this paper, and consent to save _yourself."_"I will read it," said Rhoda Gale, interfering. "I know German. It is an authorized duplicate certifying the marriage of Edward Severne, of Willingham, in Huntingdonshire, England, to Ina Ferris, daughter of Walter Ferris and Eva Klosking, of Zutzig, in Denmark. The marriage was solemnized at Berlin, and here are the signatures of several witnesses:
Eva Klosking; Fraulein Graafe; Zug, the Capellmeister; Vicomte Meurice, French _attache';_ Count Hompesch, Bavarian plenipotentiary; Herr Formes."Ina explained, in a voice that was now feeble, "I was a public character;my marriage was public: not like the clandestine union which is all he dared offer to this well-born lady.""The Bavarian and French ministers are both in London," said Vizard, eagerly. "We can easily learn if these signatures are forged, like _your_acceptances."
But, if one shadow of doubt remained, Severne now removed it; he uttered a scream of agony, and fled as if the demons of remorse and despair were spurring him with red-hot rowels.
"There, you little idiot!" roared Vizard; "does that open you eyes?""Oh, Mr. Vizard," said Ina, reproachfully, "for pity's sake, think only of her youth, and what she has to suffer. I can do no more for her: Ifeel--so--faint."
Ashmead and Rhoda supported her into the carriage. Vizard, touched to the heart by Ina's appeal, held out his eloquent arms to his stricken sister, and she tottered to him, and clung to him, all limp and broken, and wishing she could sink out of the sight of all mankind. He put his strong arm round her, and, though his own heart was desolate and broken, he supported that broken flower of womanhood, and half led, half lifted her on, until he laid her on a sofa in Somerville Villa. Then, for the first time, he spoke to her. "We are both desolate, now, my child. Let us love one another. I will be ten times tenderer to you than I ever have been."She gave a great sob, but she was past speaking.
Ina Klosking, Miss Gale, and Ashmead returned in the carriage to Bagley.
Half a mile out of the town they found a man lying on the pathway, with his hat off, and white as a sheet. It was Edward Severne. He had run till he dropped.
Ashmead got down and examined him. He came back to the carriage door, looking white enough himself. "It is all over," said he; "the man is dead."Miss Gale was out in a moment and examined him. "No," said she. "The heart does not beat perceptibly; but he breathes. It is another of those seizures. Help me get him into the carriage."This was done, and the driver ordered to go a foot's pace.
The stimulants Miss Gale had brought for Ina Klosking were now applied to revive this malefactor; and both ladies actually ministered to him with compassionate faces. He was a villain; but he was superlatively handsome, and a feather might turn the scale of life or death.