mrs. brinkley was amazed to see liane coming home in an elegant carriage, and when she entered she could not help exclaiming:
"really, my dear, i shall believe presently that you and mistress jenks must be rich folks in disguise! here was your granny receiving a visit from a grand young lady in a carriage this morning, and now you coming home in another one, just when i was expecting you and lizzie to come trudging home, afoot, from work. it's rather strange, i think, and, coupled with your gifts yesterday, it looks like you were fooling with some rich young man that means nothing but trifling, though i hope for your own sake it ain't so!"
there was a sharp note of suspicion in her voice, but liane, inured to harshness, dared not resent it, only shrank sensitively, as from a blow, and meekly explained the happenings of the day, giving the bare facts only, but withholding the promises mrs. clarke had made, too incredulous of good fortune coming to her to make any boast.
[pg 252]
mrs. brinkley flushed, and exclaimed:
"that was a brave thing you did, my dear, and i want you to excuse me if i hurt your feelings just now. i spoke for your own good, wishing to be as careful over your welfare as i am over my own sister lizzie's!"
"i understand, and i thank you!" the young girl answered sweetly, emboldening mrs. brinkley to ask curiously:
"did the rich lady whose life you saved give you any reward?"
"she asked me very particularly to return to the hotel to-morrow, and intimated that i should not have to work for my living any more!"
"then your fortune's made, my dear girl. let me congratulate you," cried mrs. brinkley. "i've news for you, too. i was lucky enough to secure two new boarders for my two empty rooms this morning."
liane feigned a polite interest, and she added:
"one was a man, a language teacher in a boarding school. i didn't like his looks much. he is dark and spanish looking, but he paid my price in advance, so that reconciled me to his scowling brow and black whiskers. the other is a seamstress, very neat and ladylike, and i believe i shall[pg 253] find her real pleasant. her name is sophie nutter, and his is carlos cisneros."
liane's eyes brightened as she exclaimed:
"there used to be a lady's maid at cliffdene named sophie nutter. i wonder if it can be the same?"
"you might make a little call on her and see. her room is next yours, and your granny has gone out to buy some baked beans for her supper."
liane was glad that granny had not seen her come home in the carriage, she hated having to explain everything to the ill-natured old crone, and she started to go upstairs, but looked back to ask:
"who was granny's caller?"
"i don't know. she was in such a bad temper when she went away, i didn't dare ask. the young lady was all in silk and fur, with a thick veil over her face, but some locks of hair peeped out at the back of her neck, and they were thick and red as copper. she stayed upstairs with granny as much as an hour, and when she left the old woman seemed to be perfectly devilish in her temper. seems to me i'd be afraid to live with her if i was you, liane!"
[pg 254]
"so i am, mrs. brinkley, but she is old and poor, and it would be wicked for me to desert her, you know!"
"i wonder what god leaves such as her in the world for to torment good people, while he takes away good, useful ones, that can ill be spared!" soliloquized the landlady; but liane sighed without replying, and, running upstairs, tapped lightly on the new boarder's door.
it opened quickly, and there were mutual exclamations of surprise and pleasure. it was, indeed, the sophie nutter of cliffdene.
"do come in my room and sit down, miss lester. i'm so proud to see you again!" cried the former maid.
liane accepted the invitation, and they spent half an hour exchanging confidences.
"i saw in a stonecliff paper that you got the prize for beauty, and no wonder! you are fairer than a flower, my dear young lady! but, my goodness, how mad miss roma must have been! by the way, i saw her getting out of a carriage here to-day, and she was closeted with your granny an hour in close conversation. does she visit you often?"
"she has never been here before. i cannot[pg 255] imagine why she came, but i dare not ask granny unless she volunteers some information," confessed liane, as she started up, exclaiming: "i hear her coming in now, so i will go and help her make the tea!"
"bless you, my sweet young lady, you deserve a better fate than living with that cross old hag!" exclaimed sophie nutter impulsively.
she was surprised when liane turned back to her and said with a sudden ripple of girlish laughter:
"sophie, suppose my lot should change? suppose mrs. clarke should do something grand for me in return for saving her life to-day? suppose i were rich and grand, which it isn't likely i shall ever be! could i employ you for my maid?"
"yes, indeed, my dear miss lester, and i should be proud, and grateful for the chance to serve such a sweet, kind mistress!" cried sophie earnestly.
"thank you, and please consider yourself engaged, if the improbable happens!" laughed liane, in girlish mockery, as she hurried out, meeting in the hall a dark-browed stranger, from whom she started back in dismay as he passed scowlingly to his room.
[pg 256]
it was no wonder liane recoiled in fear and dislike from carlos cisneros, the new boarder.
the sight of his somber, scowling face, with its dark beard, recalled to her that night upon the beach when devereaux had saved her from a ruffian's insults.
for it was the selfsame face that had scowled upon her in the moonlight that night. it had terrified her too much ever to be forgotten.
he had evidently recognized her, too, from his start of surprise, and the angry bow with which he passed her by.
trembling with the surprise of the unpleasant rencounter, liane hastened to seclude herself within her own rooms.
granny jenks had just entered, and she was still in the vilest of humors, glaring murderously at liane, without uttering a word, and giving vent to her temper by banging and slamming everything within her reach.
liane, gentle, sorrowful, patient, her young heart full of the happenings of the day, and tremulous hopes for the morrow, moved softly about, laying the cloth for tea on the small table, and helping as much as the snapping, snarling old woman would permit.
[pg 257]
the sight of her humility and patience ought to have melted the hardest heart, but granny jenks was implacable. she only saw in the lovely creature a rival to roma, and an impediment that must be swept from her path.
most exciting had been the interview that day between granny and her real granddaughter, and they had mutually agreed that liane's continued life was a menace not to be borne longer. the beautiful, injured girl must die to insure roma's continuance in her position.
when roma left the house a devilish plot had been laid, whose barest details almost had been worked out, and the beautiful schemer's heart throbbed with triumph as she swept out to her carriage.
she had not noticed, on entering the house, a dark, scowling face at the parlor window, neither did she guess that, while she was with granny, the new boarder went out and slipped into the carriage, unobserved by the driver, calmly remaining there and awaiting her return.
when she entered the carriage and seated herself, looking up the next moment to find herself opposite carlos cisneros, she opened her lips to[pg 258] shriek aloud, but his hand closed firmly over her lips, and his hoarse voice muttered in her ear:
"scream, and your wicked life shall end with a bullet in your heart, adventuress, false wife, murderess!"
the driver, unaware of his double fare, whipped up his horses and drove on, while the strange pair glared fiercely at each other, the man hissing savagely:
"i don't know how i keep my hands from your fair white throat, murderess, unless i am lenient because i remember burning kisses you once gave me before your false nature turned from me, and you fled from the school, where you had wedded the poor language teacher secretly while i lay ill of a fever. cruel heart, to desert me while i was supposed to be dying!"
"a pity you had not died!" she muttered viciously between her red lips, and he snarled:
"it is not your fault that i am living! when i found you, after long, weary search, at cliffdene, that night, and you toppled me so madly over the cliff, i am sure you meant to kill me!"
"yes, i cannot see how i failed!" she muttered.
"if you wish to know, the explanation is easy.[pg 259] i was picked up more dead than alive by a passing yacht, and carried to the nearest town, where i spent weary months in a hospital from the blow i had received on my head in falling over the bluff. i have but lately recovered, and came here and found a position to teach in a school."
"you had wisely concluded to give up your pursuit of me?" she sneered.
"yes, discouraged by the warm reception i got from you at cliffdene; but, fate having thrown you across my path again, i believe i ought to make capital of it. you are my wife secretly, and you tried to murder me. both are dangerous secrets. perhaps you would pay me well to keep them?"
"i suppose that i must do so?" roma answered, after a moment's hesitancy, with bitter chagrin.
"very well. i will take what money you have about you now, and i must know what terms you will make for my silence. a liberal allowance monthly would suit me best."
roma emptied her purse into his hands, saying:
"if we agree upon terms of silence, will you promise never to molest me again? not even if i marry another man!"
[pg 260]
"i promise! and i pity the fellow who gets you, if you treat him as you did me!"
"the less you say on that subject the better! do not forget that you persuaded an innocent schoolgirl into a secret marriage, that she was bound to repent when she came to her sober senses," she cried bitterly. "but there, it is too late now for recriminations. i hoped you were dead, but, since you are not, i wish only to be rid of you!"
"you can buy my silence!" replied carlos cisneros, so calmly that she congratulated herself, thinking:
"he is not going to be dangerous, after all."
aloud, she said:
"i will arrange to send you a monthly allowance of fifty dollars, the best i can do for you! will that satisfy your greed?"
"it is very little, but i will accept it," he replied sullenly.
"very well; now leave me, if you can do so without attracting the driver's attention. i shall be leaving the carriage at the next corner," she said, and he obeyed her, springing lightly to the ground, and disappearing.
"he was not very violent, thank goodness!"[pg 261] sighed roma, believing that as long as she paid him he would not betray her dangerous secrets; but bitterly chagrined that he was not dead, as she had believed so long.
"perhaps i can compass that later!" she thought darkly, as she gave the order to the driver for commonwealth avenue.
she had determined to call on lyde carrington, with whom she had a society acquaintance, in the hope of seeing jesse devereaux again.
mrs. carrington received her with graceful cordiality, and roma proceeded to make herself irresistible, in the hope of getting an invitation to remain a few days.
"i shall have to remain in boston several days to have my teeth treated by a dentist, but mamma is compelled to return to cliffdene to-night. i think of sending for my maid to cheer my loneliness," she said.
"come and stay with me," cried lyde, falling into the trap.
she knew that jesse had been engaged to the dashing heiress, and amiably thought that their near proximity to each other might effect a reconciliation.
she had a shrewd suspicion of roma's object[pg 262] in coming; but she did not disapprove of it; she was so anxious to see him married to the proper person, a rich girl in their own set. she knew he was romantic at heart, and secretly feared he might make a mésalliance.
but even while she was thinking these thoughts she remembered liane, and said to herself:
"if my pretty glove girl were rich and well-born, i should choose her above all others as a bride for my handsome brother!"
