CHAPTER XXIX.

Otago Witness, Volume 14, Issue 2648, 14 December 1904, Page 63

CHAPTER XXIX.

Not a word would Sir Ellis Crofton say to her when he returned to the patient and she questioned him.

"But I can see for myself that he is better than he was this morning," said Claire. I'he great doctor shrugged his shoulders, as though to disclaim all responsibility for the eccentricity of a dying man. Then he looked toward the sleeping figure, and smiled benevolently, as though to assure her that her himself would; be quite indulgent in regard tc the little weaknesses of the man. Considering that the most prominent of his little weaknesses took the form of a rarnd increase of strength, Claire could* not say anything. "These sudden changes frequently rake place in cases of nervous prostration- -it would be unwise to accept them as significant," said Sir Ellis. "Still, lam bound to say — h'm — no, I think I had better not."

"There is no need for you to say anything more," said Claire. "I can see — and all my life has been passed in reading between the lines. lam going to sit up to-night and await — whatever may happen."

The night came on, and with it the second nurse, but Dr Culverwell did) not put in an appearance. Philip had slept for two hours at one time, and for three at another. He had not failed to ask for Claire each time he awoke, and when she had allowed him to press her haul. he put it very gently away from him. She had never misinterpreted the action. She knew that he remembered having gone to sleep holding her hand. He meant to be- careful to refrain from putting her to such an inconvenience again. It was close to the hour of midnight when she went to his side again. He had been asleep for an hour, and the nurse hadi gone into the dressing room to make tea.

As midnight drew nigh the last sounds of the closing of the bedroom doors of the three guests who had returned from dining at Newcastle Camp were heard by Claire, and then came silence. But before she had been sitting in the silence for more than a quarter of an hour she became aware, of a curious shuffling along the walls of the room — just as if two or three people were going round it, keeping as close as they could to the panelling." And now, as had been the case in the early evening, she had a feeling that she was not alone with Philip in the room. She heard that shuffling sound sometimes close to her, and sometimes at the farther endi of the room — but there was no sound of footsteps or of breathing. Again, too, she heard the sound as of the scratching of a bird's daw on the wall outside — tk&

wall of the corridor out of which tha rooms opened.

While *he was sitting listening in eagerness, she distinctly felt & breath A cold air upon her face — as if a hand had suddenly and quickly been flicked like a fan quite close to her cheek. And a moment afterwards she saw~a small stoppered medicine bottle lifted as if by invisible fißgers from the table where it had 1 besn placed and laid gently among the three bottles which the nurce had just put together on the small table at the bedside. She sprang to her feet. And then there was a quick shuffling in the space between the two tables, an? the bottle reappeared where it had ori£ - - ally been. She distinctly heard a laugh or a chuckle smothered on the corridor side of the wall.

Claire tried to compose herself; she telt at the point of being terror-stricken, but the thought of Philip's sleeping beside: where she was seated prevented hei from giving way to the dread that was ever close to her. Trembling all over, she slipped to her knees with hei hands clasped over the counterpane, and prayed the prayer which had come from hei heart the night before — that the man sleeping there might be saved from the powers of evil.

She did not rise at once on repeating her prayer; • It- seemed tc her that she was soothed by xmtinuing ox. hei knees by the bedside, her head resting at the base of the pillows. ?he kept her eyes fixed upon the face" upon those pillows. There were still traces of a haggard smile upon it.

Suddenly there was a twitching of the mouth, a quivering of the blue-veined lids that hid his eyes. It appeared) as if he were in pain or trouble. His hands began to move.

A fearful thought smote her : the end was at hand. This was the end.

She ;ras about to rise to summon the nurse from the other room ; but she could not move. She found herself unable t rt stir from her plac at the bedside. It was a nightmare horror that ■ was tipon her, and, like many nightmares, its horror was increased by. the fact of her having a distinct consciousness of being suddenly paralysed. "she knew that she could not cry out even i! she had the will to do so. She was bound hand and foot, and s nightmare sense of suffocation was on her. And the face among the pillows?

The eyes had opened — large — hollow — unnaturally bright ; and while she watched them the head rose slowly from the pillows, and he sat upright, staring with awful curiosity at the window, which wag opposite the foot of the bed — staring while* his hands clutched at the counterpane. His were the eyes of a man who saw more than the mouth of man dare speak of — th» eyes of a man that looks into something beyond the face of Death, when the face of Death has pressed forward close to his own face.

She turned from him to the window,, and; that movement meant the breaking of the nightmare. She gave a cry of horror — for she saw looking in on her out of thedarkness a vile negro face, malicious as a. monkey's, and with cars pointed like a. satyr's and white with the white of leprosy.

But the nightmare spell was broken. She had sprung to her feet with a shriek, and when the door between the rooms was flung open and D. Culverwell entered, followed by the nurse, she had her arms rounds the neck of Philip Trent, holding him tightly. She kept her eyes fixed upon the window while she cried :

"He is mme — he is mine ! I love him — him only — and he shall not be taken from me."

She Avas able to sit up in her own dressing room when Stephen Urquhart knocked at the dioor. _'he sleep into which she had passed on recovering from an hour of insensibility had continued for twelve hours, so that it was the afternoon of the next day ivhen she got the message that Mr Urquhart was anxious to see her, and she said that he was to be admitted.

His face was haggard. He had aged by ten years within twenty-four hours — since she had seen him last.

He went toward her with both hands outstretched. v ''It- is terrible — terrible !" he said in a low earnest voice. "It is terrible. He will recover. Crofton says so. It is • miracle, but the fact remains, — he is on the way to recovery. Oh, Claire!" "Yes ; I saw Sir Ellis half an hour ago ; ' he talks about miracles, too," said Claire.

"You blame me — you cannot but blame me, Claire," he said. "But do not de spair — you may yet be saved." iShe started up in her chair. "What do you mean — saved? — yet b< saved?" she said.

"I shall find out some flaw in the marriage—trust to me. He will sanction* jt —I know that he will. He is generous : he will not seek to bind you to a contract that was made in such circumstances. The circumstances in which it was made have changed. Great heavens! think of it ! Think of being bound to him ! . . . But do not blame me. I thought of all that we might accomplish together — you and I ... that was why I ... There was nothing that we might not have done. . . . Why do you sit there smiling when you see that I am going mad? . . . Oh, you cannot have rea^ Used what J have told you. I tell you that he will recover — Philip Tieut will recover." She continued looking at him, smiling gently. At last she said: ° "I am wondering who it was that you were walking in the moonlight the night before last." He diid not start— he was too much sur. prised to start. He only stared. "During the past few days I have had a good deal to occupy my mind," she said I have been wondering from what source you derived your power over women— at least two women — I only know of two. •I.

have been wondering by what power you deprived me of the best of those gifts which Christianity and civilisation have given to_ woman, and left me with nly those traits which, as Mr Marvin said, belonged to the Original Woman." He still stared at her ; his lips moved,

but certainly no word came. "I daresay that all the original traits of primeval' woman were in my nature — jealousy — a desire to be pursued by a man — craft — an ambition to get the bet3er of other women — unscrupulous — doubledealing — I don't know what. At anyrate, I know that by the influence of some power akin to what used to be called witchcraft — I used to laugh at such supersti,tions — you succeeded in — no, I don't suppose it was changing my nature, but certainly in blinding my eyes so that the things which once seemed, horrid to me appeared to be actually praiseworthy. I , knew that you were bound by your promise j to Lady Evelyn when you told me that j voii loved me. But I led you on ; I was , led to lead you on. I gloated over mycheating of her — worse than that, I persuaded myself that I was cheating her for her own good — and that was true, though I,diid not know it at the time Oh, what is the good of giving the whole j miserable ' story in detail. You know it all far better than I do. . . . But ■ my eyes were .suddenly opened — it was that night when you went ashore at.Martinique — Dr Culverwell this morning told me .a good deal about Martinique. He has- studied that horrible science — is it a science or a worship? — and he was able, thank .heaven, to counteract your skill and the :kill of your allies. He knew the jxact limitations of the" power which helped) you — up to a certain pomt — and 'which would have removed Philip Trent and placed you in command! of Philip Trent's wealth. But the moment you came to me with Philip Trent's suggestion that I ' should marry him I saw what it was that you hoped to accomplish. There is white magic as well as black. There is God as ~ well as devil. I prayed to God to be protected from the^ power of evil, and " God showed me that I had never loved any i man save Philip Trent, and I knew that j whether he lived or died' I -should defeat •' you. O*h ! Mr Urquhart, it was a strong j pull, with God) on ' one side and you on > - the other, lut I think that_God has got ' the best of the contest so far." He had become' whiter still. "'You- never were more the Original ' Woman than you are now," he said. "The Original Woman clung to the strong man. The modern- Original Woman clings to the man of millions." She laughed — without a suggestion of j scorn or ill temper. " j The . door opened, and Mrs La Roache ' entered. " - " "He has awakened. He is asking for you," she whispered. "And for you, Mr Urquhart — he wishes you to be present^" "I at least shall go to my husband," laid Claire. She went out- to the corridor. He fol- . lowed her with her mother. Philip was sitting up among his pillows. Life was in his face — life, but no joy. She--tras kneeling at the bedside in an inltant — for the third time — but never before hadi she bathed the counterpane with her tears. He laid a hand upon her head. "Dear one," he said, "you- must- not 'weep. It will all be made right — this dread- " ful mishap shall be repaired. I &now it ,an be done. Urquhart, you -know that it an be done. You shall be free, my Claire. There is no law of heaven or earth that can bind you to me in these circumstances. "

"There is— ah, Philip, there is," she _tried.

"None — none, 1 promise you. Oh, I know what can be done. I know that, by coDsent, a flaw can be found— an irregularity — why, the whole ceremony was a gross irregularity — a scandal!" "There is one law that bindts us together, Philip," she cried, rising and bowing down her head to his. "Hear me, my husband. You told me that you loved me. Hear me, dear, while. I tell you that I love you— that you have all — all my lloyale — all — all .my devotion. I have come to know the truth, Philip ; and it is the trufch of God— for -God is Love. Do not send me away from you/ my husband." No one 'heard him speak, but everyone saw that .the Ligh.t . of Life ' was in his face, and her hand was fast within his Dwn.