The Pomp of Yesterday Part 55

'And does he think I'll do that?' she asked, a little angrily I thought.

'No, I don't think he does. But he's sensitive, and--and of course he heard what Springfield said. He remembers, too, what you told him--that is, just before Maurice St. Mabyn came.'

'Does he think I--I cared for--for that man?'

'I don't know. It would be no wonder if he did. I say, Lorna, I don't understand your relations to Springfield. Was there anything between you?'

'Yes,' she replied.

'He asked you to marry him; of course that's no secret. You'll forgive my speaking plainly, won't you?'

'What do you want to say?'

'What was his power over you? I am taking advantage of our friendship, even at the risk of being rude and impertinent.'

'He had no power over me,--in the way you think.'

'That sounds like an admission. Is it?'

'Yes, if you like.'

'Then what was his power?'

She looked at me for a few seconds without speaking.

'I can't tell you,' she replied presently.

For some time we walked on in silence; I thinking what her words might mean, she apparently deep in thought.

'According to the newspaper,' I said after we had gone some distance, 'Springfield left a sealed packet containing letters. Was one of them for you?'

'Yes.'

'You do not feel disposed to tell me what it contained?'

'I would if I could, but I--can't.'

'Then I'm going to see George St. Mabyn, and get it out of him.'

'George does not know.'

Again there was a painful silence between us, and again I tried to understand what was in her mind.

'Lorna,' I said, 'I want to tell you something. It has been in my mind a long time, but if there's one thing you and I both despise it's speaking ill of another. But I can't help myself. You must know the truth.'

Thereupon I told her the whole of Springfield's story as I knew it. I related to her the conversation I had heard between Springfield and George St. Mabyn. I described the attempts made to kill Jack Carbis.

I told her what Colonel McClure had said, both in our conversations and in the letter he wrote me after Springfield's death.

'Why have you told me all this?' she asked, and her voice was hard, almost bitter.

'Because I do not think you understand the kind of man Springfield was.'

'Excuse me, I understand perfectly.'

'You knew all the time! Knew what I have just told you?'

'No, I knew nothing of that; but I knew he was a bad man, knew it instinctively from the first. That's what makes everything impossible now.'

'I don't understand.'

'No, of course you don't. Oh, I wish I could tell you.'

'Then do. I wouldn't ask you, only my friend's happiness means a lot to me.'

She caught my arm convulsively. 'Do you think he cares for me still?'

she asked. 'Do you really?'

'I'm sure he does,' I replied.

'And you do not believe that the change in his life has made any difference to--to that?'

'Not a bit.'

'Oh, I have been mad--criminally mad!' she burst out pa.s.sionately. 'No one despises me more than I despise myself. You say he loves me, but he would hate me, scorn me if--if he knew.'

'Knew what?'

'I can't tell you. I simply can't.'

'But you _will_!' I said grimly; 'you will tell me now.'

'Major Lus...o...b..!'

'Yes, be as angry as you like, I am angry too. And I tell you plainly that I am not going to allow my friend's life to be ruined because of the vagaries of a silly child. For you _are_ a silly child. You have got hold of some hare-brained fancy, and you are magnifying it into a mountain. You've got to tell me all about it, because I'm sure it stands in the way of my friend's happiness.'

'But you don't understand. I've been--oh, I'm ashamed of myself!'

Some men perhaps would, on listening to this outburst, have imagined some guilty secret on her part. But knowing her as I did, it was impossible for me to do so.

'You are going to tell me about it,' I said. 'What is it?'

'But you'll not tell him; promise me that.'

'You must trust me,' I replied, 'and your trust must be complete. What power had Springfield over you? What did he say to you in that letter?'

She was silent for a few seconds, then she said, 'You remember what I said about him when I first saw him?'

'Yes, you said he made you think of snakes. You told me you disliked him.'