A Woman's Burden Part 19

"Then I will confess--I do care for you, Gerald."

She dropped her eyes, the very essence of humility. Her acting was beyond praise, and calculated to deceive a man very much less simple than Gerald Arkel.

"Dearest!" He clasped her in his arms; "and you will be my wife?"

"Don't, Gerald; you mustn't--besides, someone might see!"

"Well, let them--I don't care!"

"But I do." She released herself and sat down on the stile--the same by which Gerald had met Miriam for the first time. "Now do sit down, and do be sensible. You really must not behave like this. If I engage myself to you it must be on certain conditions."

"Make any conditions you like, darling, so long as you say 'yes.'"

"Very well, then, I make two. The first is that you are to keep our engagement an absolute secret until I give you leave to announce it. And the second is--well, the second is, you must be just the same before people."

"Well, naturally--if I agree to the first I must agree to the second.

But I confess, dear, I don't like this sort of thing. Besides, I can't see the necessity for it. You aren't ashamed of me I hope?"

"Oh, Gerald, you dear goose--what nonsense! Haven't I told you that Uncle B. will make an awful fuss about it? That of itself should be enough for you. He is quite capable of altering his will."

"And in that case you wouldn't marry me, I suppose?"

"Indeed, yes; but I should hate to think that I had spoilt your chance--that I had been the cause of your losing five thousand a year.

You must allow that what I say is common-sense."

"I suppose it is; then I hate common-sense, and I detest this secret business. At least, dear, when we are alone you will----" and Gerald proceeded to demonstrate how it should be when they were alone. But Miss Hilda was not inclined for such endearments. They were, to her mind, a trifle premature. She had her own little game to play, and for the present, at all events, they did not form part of it.

"Hush!" she said, "someone is coming."

He listened; and a light step fell upon the frosty air. It was Miriam.

Her face was flushed, and her eyes seemed unusually bright. She was walking very quickly. She saw this Corydon and Daphne on the stile, and was quick to divine, from the expression on Corydon's face, what had been happening. She waved her hand and smiled, and pa.s.sed on hurriedly.

They watched her graceful figure dwindle in the distance, and returned to the discussion of themselves; with the result that Miss Marsh went home, as she had fully intended to do, under tacit engagement to the future Squire of Lesser Thorpe, and well content with her afternoon's work.

"They are engaged," she thought to herself; "I am sure of it: and I am dismissed! My life here is at an end, for I cannot--I will not lend myself any more to Mr. Barton's schemes. I must go back to Jabez, there is no help for it--back to the old life. Oh, how horrible it is!--and how hard! But he must swear to spare poor Jabez--he _shall_. If he refuses, I must force him to."

She walked on swiftly until she reached the house. The Squire was at home and in his library. She sent in her message, and was received at once. He looked more wrinkled, and if possible, more evil than ever, she thought, as he croaked out a welcome and placed a chair for her. Anxious to get it over, she came to the point at once.

"You are surprised to see me?" she said.

Barton's eyebrows went up at once.

"No, indeed; is it so very strange that you should visit an old man who has tried to show some interest in you? Perhaps you will allow me to say I am delighted!"

"Oh!" Miriam waved her hand. "I think you and I can dispense with compliments, Mr. Barton. I had better say at once that I have come here for a definite reason--to ask you a question."

"By all means; please don't hesitate."

"Well, then, is it true that you want to have Jabez arrested?"

"Let me answer you with another. Who told you I did?"

"The man you call the Shadow."

Barton frowned.

"Did he, indeed? I thought he was more discreet. I must speak to him.

Well, and suppose I do wish to have Jabez arrested, what then?"

"I forbid you to!"

He could scarcely believe his ears.

"_You_ forbid _me_--well, really," he sneered. "So far I cannot congratulate you on the object of your visit. And pray may I ask how do you intend to enforce this prohibition, for I take it you are prepared--or rather, think you are--to enforce it?"

"By exposing you to the parish--to the world. I know Mother Mandarin, sir; therefore I know you. You are an opium smoker--and worse!" she said.

Then she waited.

CHAPTER XI.

UNMASKED.

Miriam's accusation came on Barton like a bolt from the blue. For a moment he seemed utterly incapable of speech--while of emotion he showed not a trace. Casting a terrible look on the woman who at once defied and threatened him, he rapidly counted his chances against her. A very brief survey of the existing circ.u.mstances sufficed to a.s.sure him that the power to coerce her was his. Then an ironical smile broke over his withered face. He glanced at door and windows to a.s.sure himself that they were closed. The subject under discussion was too dangerous a one for him to run any risks in that direction. When he spoke it was with all calmness and some irrelevance.

"Won't you sit down, my dear?" he said. "We can talk as easily sitting as standing--more easily perhaps."

As composed as himself, Miriam took a chair, and prepared for the encounter.

"I won't have Jabez harmed," she repeated, "especially by you, who are every wit as bad, if not worse than he is. In a moment of weakness you extorted from me his real name, and thereby you learned more about him than I intended you should learn. But why you should desire to have arrested a man who, whatever his sins, has never harmed you, I do not know. But, understand, I shall stand between you and Jabez--I will protect him. I know too much about you, Mr. Barton, for you to treat me with impunity, and I think you know it."

"And this is grat.i.tude," said Barton, casting up his eyes. "I drag you from the gutter, feed you, clothe you, introduce you to respectable society, and you turn on me!"

"What you did, you did for your own ends," retorted Miriam coldly, "and you know well that I am not from the gutter. There can be no question of philanthropy on your part, or of grat.i.tude on mine."

"Do you think I counted on your grat.i.tude, you jade! If you did, you were wrong. I know that you, like the rest of your s.e.x, would turn on me the first time your uneasy virtue touched your conscience. However, enough of this. As you say, you gave me sufficient information to enable me to obtain more, and I did. So you may as well realise that I am in the position to talk of force, and not you!"

"Not if you harm Jabez, for it is only through him you have any hold over me."

Barton stroked his chin, and looked at her strangely. She was unpleasantly concise--for a woman. He changed his tone.

"Miriam, Miriam, you are but a child after all; you believe all that is told you. Why this man should have informed you that I meant to harm Jabez I cannot say, unless it was to make bad blood between us, and to thwart my scheme in which you are concerned. But I shall find out his reason, and make him pay--as I _can_ make him pay--for his interference.

But you may set your mind at rest, you silly child. I have no intention of molesting Jabez, if only because by doing so, as you say, I should lose my hold over you. So long as you do my bidding, Jabez is safe; of course, if you don't--well, we won't talk about that for the present. As to your threatening to disclose my secret vice--I am not afraid of that threat. To tell every one here about me would do you no good--and it certainly would not do me much harm. But if you were to do anything so spiteful, I may tell you that I should have Jabez under lock and key in a week."

"So long as you do not harm him I will be--as I have been hitherto,"