by Thomas Dixon
CHAPTER XI
THE UNBIDDEN GUEST
The night was a memorable one in Norton's life. The members of theLegislature and the leaders of his party from every quarter of the stategave a banquet in his honor in the Hall of the House of Representatives.Eight hundred guests, the flower and chivalry of the Commonwealth, sat downat the eighty tables improvised for the occasion.
Fifty leading men were guests of honor and vied with one another inacclaiming the brilliant young Speaker the coming statesman of the Nation.His name was linked with Hamilton, Jefferson, Webster, Clay and Calhoun. Hewas the youngest man who had ever been elected Speaker of a LegislativeAssembly in American history and a dazzling career was predicted.
Even the newly installed Chief Executive, a hold-over from the defeatedparty, asked to be given a seat and in a glowing tribute to Norton hailedhim as the next Governor of the state.
He had scarcely uttered the words when all the guests leaped to their feetby a common impulse, raised their glasses and shouted:
"To our next Governor, Daniel Norton!"
The cheers which followed were not arranged, they were the spontaneousoutburst of genuine admiration by men and women who knew the man andbelieved in his power and his worth.
Norton flushed and his eyes dropped. His daring mind had already leaped theyears. The Governor's chair meant the next step--a seat in the SenateChamber of the United States. A quarter of a century and the South wouldonce more come into her own. He would then be but forty-nine years old. Hewould have as good a chance for the Presidency as any other man. Hisfathers had been of the stock that created the Nation. Hisgreat-grandfather fought with Washington and Lafayette. His head wasswimming with its visions, while the great Hall rang with his name.
While the tumult was still at its highest, he lifted his eyes for a momentover the heads of the throng at the tables below the platform on which theguests of honor were seated, and his heart suddenly stood still.
Cleo was standing in the door of the Hall, a haunted look in her dilatedeyes, watching her chance to beckon to him unseen by the crowd.
He stared at her a moment in blank amazement and turned pale. Something hadhappened at his home, and by the expression on her face the message shebore was one he would never forget.
As he sat staring blankly, as at a sudden apparition, she disappeared inthe crowd at the door. He looked in vain for her reappearance and waswaiting an opportune moment to leave, when a waiter slipped through themass of palms and flowers banked behind his chair by his admirers andthrust a crumpled note into his hand.
"The girl said it was important, sir," he explained.
Norton opened the message and held it under the banquet table as hehurriedly read in Cleo's hand:
"It's found out--she's raving. The doctor is there. I must see you quick."
* * * * *
He whispered to the chairman that a message had just been receivedannouncing the illness of his wife, but he hoped to be able to return in afew minutes.
It was known that his wife was an invalid and had often been stricken withviolent attacks of hysteria, and so the banquet proceeded withoutinterruption. The band was asked to play a stirring piece and he slippedout as the opening strains burst over the chattering, gay crowd.
As his tall figure rose from the seat of honor he gazed for an instant overthe sparkling scene, and for the first time in his life knew the meaning ofthe word fear. A sickening horror swept his soul and the fire died fromeyes that had a moment before blazed with visions of ambition. He felt theearth crumbling beneath his feet. He hoped for a way out, but from themoment he saw Cleo beckoning him over the heads of his guests he knew thatDeath had called him in the hour of his triumph.
He felt his way blindly through the crowd and pushed roughly past a hundredhands extended to congratulate him. He walked by instinct. He couldn't see.The mists of eternity seemed suddenly to have swept him beyond the range oftime and sense.
In the hall he stumbled against Cleo and looked at her in a dazed way.
"Get your hat," she whispered.
He returned to the cloakroom, got his hat and hurried back in the same dullstupor.
"Come down stairs into the Square," she said quickly.
He followed her without a word, and when they reached the shadows of an oakbelow the windows of the Hall, he suddenly roused himself, turned on herfiercely and demanded:
"Well, what's happened?"
The girl was calm now, away from the crowd and guarded by the friendlynight. Her words were cool and touched with the least suggestion ofbravado. She looked at him steadily:
"I reckon you know----"
"You mean----" He felt for the tree trunk as if dizzy.
"Yes. She has found out----"
"What--how--when?" His words came in gasps of fear.
"About us----"
"How?"
"It was mammy. She was wild with jealousy that I had taken her place andwas allowed to sleep in the house. She got to slipping to the nursery atnight and watching me. She must have seen me one night at your room doorand told her to get rid of me."
The man suddenly gripped the girl's shoulders, swung her face toward himand gazed into her shifting eyes, while his breath came in labored gasps:
"You little yellow devil! Mammy never told that to my wife and you know it;she would have told me and I would have sent you away. She knows that storywould kill my baby's mother and she'd have cut the tongue out of her ownhead sooner than betray me. She has always loved me as her own child--she'dfight for me and die for me and stand for me against every man, woman andchild on earth!"
"Well, she told her," the girl sullenly repeated.
"Told her what?" he asked.
"That I was hanging around your room." She paused.
"Well, go on----"
"Miss Jean asked me if it was true. I saw that we were caught and I justconfessed the whole thing----"
The man sprang at her throat, paused, and his hands fell limp by his side.He gazed at her a moment, and grasped her wrists with cruel force:
"Yes, that's it, you little fiend--you confessed! You were so afraid youmight not be forced to confess that you went out of your way to tell it.Two months ago I came to my senses and put you out of my life. Youdeliberately tried to commit murder to bring me back. You knew thatconfession would kill my wife as surely as if you had plunged a knife intoher heart. You know that she has the mind of an innocent child--that shecan think no evil of any one. You've tried to kill her on purpose,willfully, maliciously, deliberately--and if she dies----"
Norton's voice choked into an inarticulate groan and the girl smiledcalmly.
The band in the Hall over their heads ended the music in a triumphant crashand he listened mechanically to the chairman while he announced thetemporary absence of the guest of honor:
"And while he is out of the Hall for a few minutes, ladies and gentlemen,"he added facetiously, "we can say a lot of fine things behind his back wewould have blushed to tell him to his face----"
Another burst of applause and the hum and chatter and laughter came throughthe open window.
With a cry of anguish, the man turned again on the girl:
"Why do you stand there grinning at me? Why did you do this fiendish thing?What have you to say?"
"Nothing"--there was a ring of exultation in her voice--"I did it because Ihad to."
Norton leaned against the oak, placed his hands on his temples and groaned:
"Oh, my God! It's a nightmare----"
Suddenly he asked:
"What did she do when you told her?"
The girl answered with indifference:
"Screamed, called me a liar, jumped on me like a wild-cat, dug her nails inmy neck and went into hysterics."
"And you?"
"I picked her up, carried her to bed and sent for the doctor. As quick ashe came I ran here to tell you."
The speaker upstairs was again announcing his name as the next G
overnor andSenator and the crowd were cheering. He felt the waves of Death roll overand engulf him. His knees grew weak and in spite of all effort he sank to astone that lay against the gnarled trunk of the tree.
"She may be dead now," he said to himself in a dazed whisper.
"I don't think so!" the soft voice purred with the slightest suggestion ofa sneer. She bit her lips and actually laughed. It was more than he couldbear. With a sudden leap his hands closed on her throat and forced hertrembling form back into the shadows.
"May--God--hurl--you--into--everlasting--hell--for--this!" he cried inanguish and his grip suddenly relaxed.
The girl had not struggled. Her own hand had simply been raisedinstinctively and grasped his.
"What shall I do?" she asked.
"Get out of my sight before I kill you!"
"I'm not afraid."
The calm accents maddened him to uncontrollable fury:
"And if you ever put your foot into my house again or cross my path, I'llnot be responsible for what happens!"
His face was livid and his fists closed with an unconscious strength thatcut the blood from the palms of his hands.
"I'm not afraid!" she repeated, her voice rising with clear assurance, astrange smile playing about her full lips.
"Go!" he said fiercely.
The girl turned without a word and walked into the bright light thatstreamed from the windows of the banquet hall, paused and looked at him,the white rows of teeth shining with a smile:
"But I'll see you again!"
And then, with shouts of triumph mocking his soul, his shoulders drooped,drunk with the stupor and pain of shame, he walked blindly through thenight to the Judgment Bar of Life--a home where a sobbing wife waited forhis coming.
