CHAPTER LXVI.

Te Aroha News, Volume III, Issue 107, 20 June 1885, Page 4

CHAPTER LXVI.

" AS YOU MURDERED HIM !" "Hoavon has no rage like love to hatred Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned." William Conoreve. "I will not give you ancthor franc— I will not !" she protested, storinily. Up and down the long, glittering room she swept, her gown of bronze gold silk rustling noisily after her, her sloe- black eye3 snapping. . Mr Dennis Grimes, lying lazily back in a very French chair, all gilded wood and puffed pink satin, clasped his large white hands above his reddish head with a complacent smile. "My deaf Letitia," he urged, "don't make a sceno. Vituperation is at all times exceedingly vulgar, and you are contracting a most deplorable habit of the same. Write me a cheque, my love, and let me go." Unheeding him, she continued her rapid, nervous walk. The salon which they occupied was one ; of extravagant elegance, if questionable | taste. The lofty gold-corniced walls were ! covered with pictures, cabinets, quaint i bronze plaques, and curious carven brackets. On the ceiling plump little cupids played at hido-ar.d-seek in masses of milkweed. The floor— to descend abruptly — was of some light polished work, over which were scattered numerous showy ruge. The high windows were draped with Persian silks. The present diversity of taste was illustrated by the chairs, all unique and dissimilar. A very short time had Mr and Mrs Dennis Grimes been revelling in the delights of I Parisian life. A very short time, but brief as it was, already had it scorched the bright but unsubstantial fabric of their mature love. On her arrival in Paris where Dennis was to meet her, she had discharged her maid. Sho had paid her munificently. " I am going to visit a friend in Belgium, Hilaria," she had said. " I shall probably be absent several months. In the meanwhile you will doubtless find it easy to secure employment. Beforo sailing for America I shall meet you here. You will return with me." With lowered eyes and untranslatable face, Guila had heard hor through. Then she had submissively bowed and taken her departure. But not to seek other service. More than ever was her suspicious nature now on the aleit. She was watching and biding her time. She had kepfc herself informed as to the movements of her mistress. This very night had she followed her to secure a shawl purposely forgotten. The servant had shown her into a little waiting-room off the salon to await her leisure ; and here she now sat, a not unwilling listener to the conversation in the adjoining apartment. "Write you a cheque?" reiterated a decidedly ungentle voice. "Only last night I did so— for a good sum, too. Where is that gone to, I'd like to know ?" And still up and down the stiff silk crackled. " Look here, Let, you're my wife now, you know ; be a good one to a fellow," went on Grime?, in languid expostulation. His wife ! Hilaria caught her breath. Fad it come to that already ? Truly the funeral baked meats had not time to bo cold ere they furnished forth (his wedding table. The indecent haste was enough to make one shuider. "I am," she cried; "and Heaven pity me!" He laughed airily. "No heroics, my love. YouVoan unappreciafcive audience. You were but lately anxious enough to be what you now sorrow for being." | She stopped short beforo him, clenching her hands till tho nails cut sharply into the smooth palms. "I was a fool !" she hissed. He raised himself up in his chair to bow deeply and assentingly. " I never contradict a lady." About to reply, she suddenly compressed her lips— swept away from him. He resumed his former lounging atti- j tudo. I " But for me, my darling, where would you be now ? My clever will ruse saved you. And how delightfully I did draw the j wool over the eyes of tho little old maid !" He laughed amusedly at the recollection. Letitia turned to him. In her suddenly awakened curiosity, she forgot her recent anger. " I often wanted to ask you about that. How did you manage it?" " Why, of course, you know all my statements to that ancient maiden a3 to the colonel's anxiety to make a will were sheer rubbish. We were talking that day on quite a different matter — some stocks which he wished to sign away. I told him I had drawn up the document, and that it was ready for his signature. He signed it, as did also the servants I spoke of. I took the paper back with me, and locked myself into the office. There I worked all night. By dawn the job was done to my complete satisfaction. If there is anything I am, it is a capital copyist. I drew up the will to suit myself— and you. The signatures, copied from the other document, I defy the writers themselves to deny, That other I destroyed, as did I also all criminating evidence." " And the money to Dorothy V Mr Grimes shook his head sadly, " It went deucedly against the grain to give away a cent of it, but that bequest was necessary to divert suspicion. It was a very neat bit of business all through." " Very !" dryly. He rose, with a yawn. "Make haste, Letitia," he urged; "it's no use drawing the purse-strings so devilish tight." The fury, for a few minutes lulled, flamed up again in her black eyes. " I tell you I shall not !" she declared wrathfully. " We have not been in Paris a tortnight, and already you've spent a small fortune. I followed you last night. I know where it goes." He started. Then the peculiarly frank, innocent smile which she had learned to ' dread crept again over his florid face. " Oh, you do, eh ? Well I've no objection to your knowing, I'll break the bank there one of these nights. A fellow must have his fling, you know. Here hurry up like a good girl. I haven't a sou to bless myself vith." With the possession of wealth had come I to hor a keen love for it, delight in its possession, desire to guard it. She turned on him spitefully. "You have my answer. If you want money earn it I" His usual cool impudence asserts itself. "I'll give you a kiss for every hundred' francs," ne^aid. 1 ' ; j He was startled by tho change which came over her— a change not occasioned by hie

words, for sho had not heard them, did not now seem conscious of Ma presence. She had grown' white as death. Her eyes were dilated. Her parted Hpa were' stiff and pale. Her wKole face wag full of fear, "What is it?" he oried. She strove to lift her arm, , to point, to speak. But no sound came from her mouth. Her hand fell to hor side. " What is the matter ?". he cried again. ;• But still she only stared blankly and in horror before her. He went up ,to her, caught her by the shoulder, forced her to look at him. "Letitia I What the deuce is the matter, woman? You look as though you eaw ghost." Her eyes met his. ' "I did!" she gasped. And then she broke out in wild, shrill, hysterical sobbing. AH her resentment forgotten, she flung her arms around his neck, clung to him. He soothed her, petted her, his arms about her. And as he did so, undetected by her, his soft fingers unclasped the ruby necklace which enoircled her throat. Like a shining red snake it slipped up hia sleeve. And now he was anxious to get out of sight before the subsidence of her agitation would make the discovery of her loss probable. " Well, I'll just run out and get a cigar, my dear. I'll be right back," he Eaid. " Do !' she entreated. She shrank back in the chair and covered her face with her hands. Hearing his words and approaching footsteps, and fearful of detection, Hilaria whisked toward a tall cardinal's chair and sank down behind it as Grimes pushed aside the dividing portiere. He passed through the anteroom and out. When assured that he had left the houso Hilaria rose and went forward into tho grand salon. As sho drew near her mistress tho latter looked up. - A flu.=h of displeasure and amazement blottod redly out the traces of the recent shock. "Hilaria !" sho exclaimed. How much did she know ? Anything of her marriage with Grimes? The less the better. Probably nothing. "I came back, madam, after a shawl I had forgotten. I was afraid porhapa you had loft for Belgium. "No. We—I go to-morrow. Why, what— where—" She had caught a glimpse of hersolf in a mirror opposite, and sprang up in excited haste. "My necklace !" She put hor hand to her throat. " It is gone ! I have lost it ! Help mo to look for it, Hilaria !" For several minutes they searched fruitlessly. "I had it en when I left my room this evening and — " Suddenly sho straightonod up — actually stiffened. Like a flash the truth came homo to her. It had been stolen ! "Stop, Hilaria !" to the maid, who, still on her knees, was peering under tablos and around chairs. " It is no use, you will not find it." Sho stood for a fow moments in meditation. All that was worst in hor, most vicious, revengeful, demoniac, v, as now fully aroused. Ho had never loved her, she told herself. What an idiot she had been to have ever imagined he had. He was so much youngor than she. It was not in nature that he should. But he had been a prime actor. That ho had honestly imagined ho once passionately adored her, she did not now dream. For money he had instigated hor fearful crime. For money he had married her. Now for money he neglected, robbed her. Of late such strange fancies, ideas, had taken possession of her, she had grown 'positively afraid of herself. And now tonight again— less than an hour ago — .'ho had seen— What if that which eho "was beginning vaguely to dread were roolly coming? Oh, she must go eomowhere, do something, to get away from herself, out of herself. But where— what ? Quite unheeding Hilaria, she took from a fancy suspended cellaret on tho wall a flask of Grimes's uncorked it, swallowed half the scorching brandy it contained. Now she could think better. Ah, yes, she knew what she would do ! Amuso hersolf as he did— gamble ! "Quick, Hilaria !" she cried, in hor old loud, imperious way, quite forgetting that she had discharged from her servico the woman she addressed. " Bring mo a wrap, that long otter one— yes, and a bonnet. And that iron box in my bedroom -quick !" And when all had been brought, she flung around her the long rich cloak, fastened the golden clasps with nerved and rapid fingers, put on the little bonnet, took a key from her bosom and with it unlocked tho iron box tho maid had brought her. From tho latter sho took a huge roll of bills and a purse bursting its soams with coin. "You had better remain. I may need yon," she said. Then sho went down and out. The Boulevards were ail alight, astir. In the gleaming winter weather Paris was at its gayest, most brilliant, Few noticed tho tall, gliding figure, none dreamed of the mad recklessness in the heart under the costly cloak of otter. Breathless, she reached at last the great, glittering salons of the Monte Carlo of Paris, It was crowded. There were men of all grades, types, nationalities. Women too. Some haggard, some fearfully flushed. Some in bright attire, somo in sombre raiment. All terribly alert, oppressively silent at times, tensely attentive, but every minute and second thrilling with nervousness, crushing back despair, burning with wild hopes. The place was known only to old and inveterate gamblers. Occasionally it was raided. Again for weeks it would jrun without Interference on the part of officials. She sat down and began to play. She won. Played on and won. Staked again, and still won. j She began to be observed. Several left their tables and drew nearer. Again she ventured. Again she drew toward her a glittering heap of gold. One man, also absorbed in play, aroused by the murmurs around him, glanced up. He started to his feat as his gaze fell upon her. She here ! and playing ! winning too. A sudden impulse conquered him. He hastily left the room. And still the woman played on, on, with constact and unyarrying success. Higher grew the pile of bank-notes and gold beside her. An hour passed. Still she was winning, The proprietors glanced at each other in dismay. If luck continued to run long in this channel she would break the bank. ' The angry flush which had' burned in her' cheek^n her entrance deepened. Her eyes 1 flowed and scintillated with a certain fiery rightnees. t , \ ' ' ; All hadno'w ceased playing and clustered round: s her. - -WhifoerB 'of astohishmeh't, envy; , passed f from lip to i lipi'Excit;eme / nt was 'at its highest pitch and the orowd about her dens© and silent, wt-en an

individual, cloaked and-capped,' pushed his way to the table where eat the'woman whose ■vyonderful luck was arousing such interest. "I challenge you I" he said, in a deep voice; ; * She looked wearily up< 1 So muffled was ho she could not discern his features. A handkerchief was tied across the lower part of his-face, , She bowed, assent. He sat down opposite her, and began to play. In a few minutes her jewelled hand was laid over his money. ,He staked once more — lost ! '* I have no more money," he said, in a low, hoarse voice, "but I have one poor trifle left— a pledge of love at that. Will you play for it ?" " What is it?" she demanded. He drew his hat to one side and touched a long, slim, shining nail which protruded from his oar. Shaking, ghastly in a second, she sprang erect. Then with a shriek, the like of which those about her had never heard, would never forget, she flung up her arms and crashed forward, scattering her ill-won gold as she fell. In the general movement and consternation which followed the man vanished. When sufficiently revived, Mrs Charu VernoU Grimes gave her address, and was driven home. There, as white and still trembling, she entered the salon , she behold a picture of domestic content. In his own favourite chair, his meerschaum between his teeth, slippers on feet, and feet on hassock, in smoking cap and jacket, sat Mr Dannie Grimes, reading a novel of Dandet'e. She came swiftly up and stood before him. "So you've come at last?" he took the pipo from his lips to lazily ejaculate. "I came straight back according to my promise, and have been waiting for you here a good three hours. J But her only response was to clasp her hands desporately, and look at him. '• Denni?,"she cried, "do you think I am going mad ?" He replaced his pipo before he replied, coolly : "ft looks that way !" "Don't be heartless !" ehs burst out passionately. I am not joJung /" Ilere'opencd Dandet. " Noithor am I." " Lately," she went on, unheeding him, " I have had such strange fancies. I have been seeing — seeing " And hero she broke off and covered her faco with her hands. If this awful evil fhe was dreading should come to her ? If he was going to haunt— oh, she could not bear it — she could not ! She would at least make restitution. Half wild with terror she flung herself on her knee? before Grimes. 41 I nust go back 1" sho moaned, " I must go back, Dennis !" He did not lift his eyes from the fascinating page before him, nor remove his pipe. "Go!" he said. The recent shock at the gaming-table had quite unnerved her. " I must give the money to those children — to his sister," she went on excitedly. " Perhaps if I do he will leavo me in peace. It is blood money /" Now Grimes was no longer passive. He leaped to his feet with a rattling oath. Wae this the result of his pleasant little bit oi masquerading ? " Go back and give up—are you mad already, woman?" ho thundered. A stubborn defiance came into her faco. " I have said I would, and I will !" " If you attempt it," his florid face flushing, " I'll put you where you should be, in a mad-house !" Sho shrank back. Ho looked quite capable of it. " I believe you would !" she said, slowly. The bare thought of losing the enormous Vernell fortune infuriated him, otherwise ho would nevor have made the speech he did. "It might prove a wise precaution in any case,' between hia tight-shut teeth. " Who knows when you would take it into you head to murder me, «i3 your murdered him ?"