The Masked Bridal

by Mrs. Georgie Sheldon

  CHAPTER XXI.

  A MYSTERIOUS STRANGER PAYS EDITH AN UNEXPECTED VISIT.

  Edith listened until she heard madam descend the stairs, when shesprang to her feet in a fever of excitement.

  "Oh, how I hate myself for practicing even that much of deceit!" shebitterly exclaimed; "to allow her to think for a moment that I havebeen won over by those baubles. Although I told her no lie, I dointend to go down by and by if I can see an opportunity to get out ofthe house. But I did so long to stand boldly up and repudiate herproposals and all these costly bribes. Dress myself in those things!"she continued, with a scornful glance toward the bed; "make myselflook 'pretty and nice,' with the price of my self-respect, and then godown to flaunt before the man who has grossly insulted me by assumingthat he could bribe me to submission! I would rather be clothed inrags--the very sight of these things makes me sick at heart."

  She turned resolutely from them, and, drawing the stiffest and hardestchair in the room to a window, sat down with her back to theallurements around her and gazed out upon the street.

  She remained there until her lunch was sent up, when she ate enough tobarely satisfy her hunger, after which she went back to her post towatch for the departure of Mrs. Goddard.

  The house stood upon a corner, and thus faced upon two streets--theavenue in front, and at the side a cross-street that led through toBeacon street. Thus, Edith's room being upon the front of themansion, she had a wide outlook in two directions.

  Not long after stationing herself at the window, she saw Mrs. Goddardgo out, and then she began to wonder how she could manage to make herescape before her return.

  She knew that she was only a prisoner in the house, in spite of thefact that her door was not locked; that Emil Correlli had been leftbelow simply to act as her keeper; and, should she make the slightestattempt to escape, he would immediately intercept her.

  She could not get out of the house except by the front way, and to dothis she would have to pass down a long flight of stairs and by two orthree rooms, in any one of which Emil Correlli might be on the watchin anticipation of this very proceeding.

  There was a back stairway; but as this led directly up from the areahall, the door at the bottom was always carefully kept locked--the keyhanging on a concealed nail for fear of burglars; and Edith, knowingthis, did not once think of attempting to go out that way.

  While she sat by the window, trying to think of some way out of herdifficulties, her attention was attracted by the peculiar movements ofa woman on the opposite side of the street--it was the side streetleading through to Beacon.

  She was of medium height, richly clad in a long seal garment, butheavily veiled, and she was leading a little child, of two or threeyears, by the hand.

  But for her strange behavior, Edith would have simply thought her tobe some young mother, who was giving her little one an airing on thatpleasant winter afternoon. She appeared very anxious to shunobservation, dropping her head whenever any one passed her, andsometimes turning abruptly around to avoid the gaze of the curious.

  She never entirely passed the house, but walked back and forth againand again from the corner to a point opposite the area door near therear of the dwelling, while she eagerly scanned every window, as ifseeking for a glimpse of some one whom she knew. Moreover, from timeto time, her eyes appeared to rest curiously upon Edith, whom shecould plainly perceive at her post above.

  For nearly half an hour she kept this up; then, suddenly crossing thestreet, disappeared within the area entrance to the house, greatly tothe surprise of our fair heroine.

  "How very strange!" Edith remarked, in astonishment. "She is certainlytoo richly clad to be the friend of any of the servants, and if shedesires to see Mrs. Goddard, why did she not go to the front entranceand ring?"

  While she was pondering the singular incident, she saw the gas-manemerge from the same door, and pass down the street toward anotherhouse; then her mind reverted again to her own precarious situation,and she forgot about the intruder and her child below.

  The house was very still--there was not even a servant moving about todisturb the almost uncanny silence that reigned throughout it. It wasThursday, and Edith knew that the housemaid and cook's assistant wereto have that afternoon out, which, doubtless, accounted in a measurefor the unusual quiet.

  But this very fact she knew would only serve to make any movement onher part all the more noticeable, and while she was wondering how sheshould manage her escape before the return of Mrs. Goddard, a slightnoise behind her suddenly warned her of the presence of another in theroom.

  She turned quickly, and a low cry of surprise broke from her as shesaw standing, just inside the door, the very woman whom, a few momentsbefore she had seen disappear within the area door of the house.

  She was now holding her child in her arms and regarding Edith throughher veil with a look of fire and hatred that made the girl's fleshcreep with a sense of horror.

  Putting the little one down on the floor, she braced herself againstthe door and remarked, with a bitter sneer, but in a rich, musicalvoice, and with a foreign accent:

  "Without doubt I am in the presence of Madam Correlli."

  Edith flushed crimson at her words.

  "I--I do not understand you," she faltered, filled with surprise anddismay at being thus addressed by the veiled stranger.

  "I wish to see Madam Correlli," the woman remarked, in an impatientand bitter tone. "I am sure I am not mistaken addressing you thus."

  "Yes, you are mistaken--there is no such person," Edith boldlyreplied, determined that she would never commit herself by respondingto that hated name.

  "Are you not the girl whose name was Edith Allen?" demanded hercompanion, sharply.

  "My name is Edith Allen--"

  She checked herself suddenly, for she had unwittingly come nearuttering the rest of it. She went a step or two nearer the woman,trying to distinguish her features, which were so shadowed by the veilshe wore that she could not tell how she looked.

  "Ah! so you will admit your identity, but you will not confess to thename by which I have addressed you. Why?" demanded the unknownvisitor, with a sneer.

  "Because I do not choose," said Edith, coldly. "Who are you, and whyhave you forced yourself upon me thus?"

  "And you will also deny this?" cried the stranger, in tones ofrepressed passion, but ignoring the girl's questions, as she pulled apaper from her pocket and thrust under her eyes a notice of themarriage at Wyoming.

  Edith grew pale at the sight of it, when the other, quick to observeit, laughed softly but derisively.

  "Ah, no; you cannot deny that you were married to Emil Correlli, onlythe night before last, in the presence of many, many people," shesaid, in a hoarse, passionate whisper. "Do you think you can deceiveme? Do you dare to lie to me?"

  "I have no wish to deceive you. I would not knowingly utter afalsehood to any one," Edith gravely returned. "I know, of course, towhat you refer; but"--throwing back her head with a defiant air--"Iwill never answer to the name by which you have called me!"

  "Ha! say you so! And why?" eagerly exclaimed her companion, regardingher curiously. "Can you deny that you went to the altar with EmilCorrelli?" she continued, excitedly. "That a clergyman read themarriage service over you?--that you were afterward introduced to manypeople as his wife?--and that you are now living under the same roofwith him, surrounded by all this luxury"--sweeping her eyes around theroom--"for which he has paid?"

  "No, I cannot deny it!" said Edith, with a weary sigh. "All that youhave read in that paper really happened; but--"

  "Aha! Well, but what?" interposed the woman, with a malicious sneerthat instantly aroused all Edith's spirit.

  "Pardon me," she said, drawing herself proudly erect and speaking withoffended dignity, "but I cannot understand what right you, an utterstranger to me, have to intrude upon me thus. Who are you, madam, andwhy have you forced yourself here to question me in such a dictatorialmanner?"

  "Ha! ha! ha!" The mirthl
ess laugh was scarcely audible, but it wasreplete with a bitterness that made Edith shiver with a namelesshorror. "Who am I, indeed? Let me assure you that I am one who wouldnever take the stand that you have just taken; who would never refuseto be known as the wife of Emil Correlli, or to be called by his nameif I could but have the right to such a position. Look at me!" shecommanded, tearing the veil from her face. "We have met before."

  Edith beheld her, and was amazed, for it needed but a glance to showher that she was the girl who had accosted Emil Correlli on the streetthat afternoon when he had overtaken and walked home with her afterthe singular accident and encounter with Mrs. Stewart.

  "Aha! and so you know me," the girl went on--for she could not havebeen a day older than Edith herself, Although there were lines of careand suffering upon her brilliant face--seeking the look of recognitionin her eyes; "you remember how I confronted him that day when he waswalking with you."

  "Yes, I remember; but--"

  "But that does not tell you who--or what I am, would perhaps be thebetter way of putting it," said the stranger, with bitter irony. "Lookhere; perhaps this will tell you better than any other form ofintroduction," she added, almost fiercely, as, with one hand, shesnatched the cap off her child's head and then turned his face towardEdith.

  The startled girl involuntarily uttered a cry of mingled surprise anddismay, for, in face and form and bearing, she beheld--a miniatureEmil Correlli!

  For a moment she was speechless, thrilled with greater loathing forthe man than she had ever before experienced, as a suspicion of thetruth flashed through her brain.

  Then she lifted her astonished eyes to the woman, to find herregarding her with a look of mingled curiosity, hatred, and triumph.

  "The boy is--his child?" Edith murmured at last, in an inquiring tone.

  A slow smile crept over the mother's face as she stood for a momentlooking at Edith--a smile of malice which betrayed that she gloried inseeing that the girl at last understood her purpose in bringing thelittle one there.

  "Yes, you see--you understand," she said, at last; "any one would knowthat Correlli is his father."

  "And you--" Edith breathed, in a scarcely audible voice, while shebegan to tremble with a secret hope.

  "I am the child's mother--yes," the girl returned, with a look ofdespair in her dusky orbs.

  But she was not prepared for the light of eager joy that leaped intoEdith's eyes at this confession--the new life and hope that sweptover her face and animated her manner until she seemed almosttransformed, from the weary, spiritless appearing girl she had seemedon her entrance, into a new creature.

  "Then, of course, you are Emil Correlli's wife," she cried, in a gladtone; "you have come to tell me this--to tell me that I am free fromthe hateful tie which I supposed bound me to him? Oh, I thank you! Ithank you!"

  "You thank me?"

  "Yes, a thousand times."

  "Ha! and you say the tie that binds you to him is hateful?" whisperedthe strange woman, while she studied Edith's face with mingled wonderand curiosity.

  "More hateful than I can express," said Edith, with incisivebitterness.

  "And you do not--love him?"

  "Love him? Oh, no!"

  The tone was too replete with aversion to be doubted.

  "Ah, it is I who do not understand now!" exclaimed Edith's visitor,with a look of perplexity.

  "Let me tell you," said the young girl, drawing nearer and speakingrapidly. "I was Mrs. Goddard's companion, and quite happy and contentwith my work until he--her villainous brother--came. Ah, perhaps Ishall wound you if I say more," she interposed, and breaking offsuddenly, as she saw her companion wince.

  "No, no; go on," commanded her guest, imperatively.

  "Well, Monsieur Correlli began to make love to me and to persecute mewith his attentions soon after he came here. He proposed marriage tome some weeks ago, and I refused to listen to him--"

  "You refused him!"

  "Why, yes, certainly; I did not love him; I would not marry any onewhom I could not love," Edith replied, with a little scornful curl ofher lips at the astonished interruption, which had betrayed that herguest thought no girl could be indifferent to the charms of the manwhom she so adored.

  "He was offended," Edith resumed, "and insisted that he would not takemy refusal as final. When I finally convinced him that I meant what Ihad said, he and his sister plotted together to accomplish theirobject, and make me his wife by strategy. Madam planned a winterfrolic at her country residence; she wrote the play of which you havean account in that paper; she chose her characters, and it wasrehearsed to perfection. At the last moment, on the evening of itspresentation before her friends, she removed the two principalcharacters--telling me that they had been called home by atelegram--and substituted her brother and me in their places. She didnot even tell me who was to take the gentleman's place--she simplysaid a friend; it was all done so hurriedly there was no time,apparently, for explanations. And then--oh! it is too horrible tothink of!" interposed Edith, bringing her hands together with adespairing gesture, "she had that ordained minister come on the stageand legally marry us. From beginning to end it was all a fraud!"

  "Stop, girl! and swear that you are telling me the truth!" cried herstrange companion, as she stepped close to Edith's side, laid aviolent hand upon her arm, and searched her face with a look that musthave made her shrink and cower if she had been trying to deceive.

  "Oh, I would give the world if it were not true!" Edith exclaimed,with an earnestness that could not be doubted--"if the last scene inthat drama had never been enacted, or if I could have been warned intime of the treachery of which I was being made the victim!"

  "Suppose you had been warned!" demanded her guest, still clutching herarm with painful force, "would you have dared refuse to do theirbidding?"

  "Would I have dared refuse?" exclaimed Edith, drawing herselfhaughtily erect. "No power on earth could have made me marry thatman."

  "I don't know! I don't know! He is rich, handsome, talented," mutteredthe other, regarding her suspiciously. "Will you swear that it wasfraud--that you did not know you were being married to him? Do nottry to lie to me," she went on, warningly. "I came here this afternoonwith a heart full of bitter hatred toward you; in my soul I believe Iwas almost a murderess. But--if you also are the victim of a bad man'sperfidy, then we have a common cause."

  "I have told you only the truth," responded Edith, gravely. "MonsieurCorrelli was utterly repulsive to me, and I never could have consentedto marry him, under any circumstances. I know he is consideredhandsome--I know he is rich and talented; but all that would be notemptation to me--I could never sell myself for fortune or position. Iam very sorry if you have been made unhappy because of me," she wenton gently; "but I have not willfully wronged you in any way. And ifyou have come here to tell me that you are Monsieur Correlli's wife,you have saved me from a fate I abhorred--and I shall be--I am free!and I shall bless you as long as I live!"