Roland Cashel Volume Ii Part 67

"I will not believe it, sir," said she, proudly, as she arose and walked the room with stately step. "I know but too well the influence you wield over him, although I cannot tell how it is acquired. I have seen your counsels sway and your wishes guide him, when my entreaties were unheard and unheeded. Tell me nothing, then, of his permission."

"Let me speak of that better reason, where my heart may plead, Maritana.

It was to offer you a share in my fortunes that I have come here,--to place at your feet whatever I possess in rank, in station, and in future hope; to place you where your beauty and your fascinations ent.i.tle you to shine,--a peeress of the Court of France; a d.u.c.h.ess, of a name only second to royalty itself."

The girl's dark eyes grew darker, and her flushed cheek grew crimson, as with heaving bosom she listened. "A d.u.c.h.ess!" murmured she, between her lips.

"La d.u.c.h.esse de Marlier," repeated Linton, slowly, while his keen eyes were riveted on her.

"And this real--not a pageant--not as that thing you made of me before?"

"La d.u.c.h.esse de Marlier," said Linton again, "knows of no rank above her own, save in the blood royal. Her chateau was the present of a king,--her grounds are worthy of such a donor."

"And the Duke de Marlier," said she, with a look of ineffable irony, "who is to play _him?_ Is that part reserved for Mr. Linton?"

"Could he not look the character?" said Linton, putting on a smile of seeming good-humor, while his lip trembled with pa.s.sion.

"Look it,--ay, that could he; and if looks would suffice, he could be all that his ambition aims at."

"You doubt my sincerity, Maritafia," said he, sorrowfully; "have I ever given you cause to do so?"

"Never," cried she, impetuously: "I read you from the first hour I saw you. You never deceived _me_. My training has not been like that of others of my s.e.x and age, amidst the good, the virtuous, and the pure.

It was the corrupt, the base-born, and the abandoned offered their examples to my eyes; the ruined gambler, the beggared adventurer,--_their_ lives were my daily study. How, then, should I not recognize one so worthy of them all?"

"This is less than fair, Maritafia; you bear me a grudge for having counselled that career wherein your triumphs were unbounded; and now you speak to me harshly for offering a station a princess might accept without a derogation."

"Tell me not of my triumphs," said she, pa.s.sionately: "they were my shame! You corrupted me, by trifling with my ignorance of the world. I did not know then, as now I know, what were the prizes of that ambition I cherished! But _you_ knew them; _you_ speculated on them, as now you speculate upon others. Ay, blush for it; let your cheek glow, and sear your cold heart for the infamy! The coroneted d.u.c.h.ess would have been a costlier merchandise than the wreathed dancer! Oh, shame upon you! shame upon you! Could you not be satisfied with your gambler's cruelty, and ruin those who have manhood's courage to sustain defeat, but that you should make your victim a poor, weak, motherless girl, whose unprotected life might have evoked even _your_ pity?"

"I will supplicate no longer; upon you be it if the alternative be heavy. Hear me, young lady; it is by your father's consent--nay, more, at his desire--that I make you the proffer of my name and rank. He is in my power,--not his fortune nor his future prospects, but his very life is in my hands. You shudder at having been a dancer; think of what you may be,--the daughter of a forcat, a galley-slave! If these be idle threats, ask himself; he will tell you if I speak truly. It is my ambition that you should share my t.i.tle and my fortune. I mean to make your position one that the proudest would envy; reject my offer if you will, but never reproach me with what your own blind folly has accomplished."

Maritana stood with clasped hands, and eyes wildly staring on vacancy, as Linton, in a voice broken with pa.s.sion, uttered these words,--

"I will not press you now, Maritana; you shall have to-night to think over all I have said; to-morrow you will give me your answer."

"To-morrow?" muttered she, after him.

"Who is there?" said Linton, as a low, faint knock was heard at the door. It was repeated, and Linton approached and opened the door.

A slight gesture of the hand was all that he could perceive in the half-light; but he understood it, and pa.s.sed out, closing the door noiselessly behind him.

"Well?" said Rica, as he grasped the other's arm; "well?"

"Well?" echoed Linton, peevishly. "She is in her most insolent of moods, and affects to think that all the splendor I have offered her is but the twin of the mock magnificence of the stage. She is a fool, but she'll think better of it, or she must be taught to do so."

Rica sighed heavily, but made no answer; at last he said,--

"It is over with the Duke, and he bears it well."

"Good blood always does," said Linton. "Your men of birth have a lively sense of how little they have done for their estates, and therefore part with them with a proportionate degree of indifference. Where is he?"

"Writing letters in the boudoir off the drawing-room. You must see him, and ask when the necessary papers can be signed and exchanged."

Linton walked on, and pa.s.sing through the play-room, around which in every att.i.tude of slumber the gamblers lay, entered the boudoir, before a table in which the Duke de Marsac was busy writing.

"Fortune has still been obdurate, my Lord Duke, I hear," said he, entering softly.

The Duke looked up, and his pale features were totally devoid of all emotion as he said,--

"I have lost heavily, sir."

"I am sincerely grieved to hear it; as an old sufferer in the same field, I can feel for others." A very slight movement of impatience on the Duke's part showed that he regarded the sympathy as obtrusive.

Linton saw this, and went on: "I would not have invaded your privacy to say as much, my Lord Duke, but I thought it might be satisfactory to you to learn that your ancient dukedom--the chateau of your proud ancestors--is not destined to fall into plebeian hands, nor suffer the indignity of their profanation. I mean to purchase the property from Rica myself."

"Indeed!" said the Duke, carelessly, as though the announcement had no interest for him.

"I had fancied, my Lord, this information would have given you pleasure," said Linton, with evident irritation of manner.

"No, sir," said the other, languidly, "I am ashamed to say I cannot appreciate the value of these tidings."

"Can the contract and transfer be speedily made out?" said Linton, abruptly.

"Of course; there shall be no delay in the matter. I will give orders to my 'notaire' at once."

"And where shall you be found to-morrow, my Lord Duke, in case we desire to confer with you?"

The Duke grew lividly pale, and he arose slowly from his chair, and, taking Linton's arm, drew him towards a window in silence. Linton saw well that some new train of thought had suddenly sprung up, and wondered what could so instantaneously have wrought this change in his manner.

"You ask me, sir," said the Duke, with a slow emphasis on every word, "where am I to be found to-morrow? Is not Mr. Linton's knowledge of Paris sufficient to suggest the answer to that question?" There was a fierce boldness in the way these words were uttered Linton could not comprehend, any more than he understood what they might mean.

"I must plead ignorance, my Lord Duke. I really discredit the eulogium you have p.r.o.nounced upon my information."

"Then I will tell you, sir," said the Duke, speaking in a low thick whisper, while his dark eyes glared with the fire of intense excitement.

"You will find me in the Seine!"

Linton staggered back as if he had been struck, and a pallor spread over his features, making the very lips bloodless. "How do you mean, sir?

Why do you dare to say this to _me?_" said he, in a voice broken and guttural.

"Since none should better know how to appreciate the news," was the cold answer.

Linton trembled from head to foot, and, casting a wary look around on every side to see that they were alone, he said, "These words may mean much, or they may mean nothing,--at least nothing that has concern for me. Now, sir, be explicit; in what sense am I to read them?"

The Duke looked astonished at the emotion which all the other's self-command could not repress; he saw, too, that he had touched a secret spring of conscience, and with a calm reserve he said, "Take what I have said in the sense your own heart now suggests, and I venture to affirm it will be the least pleasing interpretation you can put upon it!"

"You shall give me satisfaction for this, sir," said Linton, whose pa.s.sion now boiled over. "I will not endure the tyranny of insinuations from any man. Here, before you quit the house,--if ever you quit it,--I will have full satisfaction for your insolence."

"Insolence!" cried the Duke.

"Yes, insolence. I repeat the word, and these gentlemen shall hear a still stronger word addressed to you, if that will not suffice to arouse your courage."

This speech was now directed to the crowd of gamblers, who, suddenly awakened by the loud talking, rushed in a body into the room.