The Law and the Lady

astonishment, she pointedly addressed her apologies for intruding on us to the Major alone. The creature evidently believed me to be the last new object of the old gen

e was looking charmingly. Then he led her, with his happy mixture of admiration and respect,

usiness. You will find your singing-master waiting for you upstairs. Begin your les

und eyes fixed distrustfully on me while she spoke. The door closed on her

a refreshment-room, poor innocent, rinsing wine-glasses, and singing over her work. Good Heavens, such singing! Her upper notes electrified me. I said to myself; 'Here is a born prima donna-I will bring her out!' She is the third I have brought out in my time.

oke. Of the loudness of the young lady's voice there could be no sort of doubt. Th

tion occurred. He beat time with his forefinger to the singing upstairs; he asked me about my voice, and whether I sang; he remarked that life would be intolerable to him without Love and Art. A man in my place would have lost all patience, and would have given up the struggle in disgust. Be

tune is known to his friends, and is religiously kept by his friends. It is the secret that he is keeping from You. He will never tell it to you as long as he lives. And he

alling me Mrs. Wo

her advice, and to tell you what his position really was. On my part I did all I could to support Mrs. Macallan in the course that she took. When Eustace wrote to tell me that he had engaged himself to marry a niece of my good friend Doctor Starkweather, and that he had mentioned me as his reference, I wrote back to warn him that I would have nothing to do with the affair unless he revealed the whole truth about himself to his future wife. He refused to listen to me, as he had refused to listen to his mother; and he held me at the same time to my promise to keep his secret. When Starkweather wrote to me, I had no choice but to involve myself in a deception of which I thoroughly disapproved, or to answer in a tone so guarded and so brief as to stop the correspondence at the outset. I chose the last alternative; and I fear I have offended my good old friend. You now see the painful position in which I am placed. To add to the difficulties of that situation, Eustace came here this very day to warn me to be on my guard, in case of your addressing to me the very request which you have just made! He told me that you had

ited-gravely waite

How terrible (I thought to myself) must this untold story be, if the mere act of referring to it makes light-hearted Major Fitz-David speak seriously and sadly, never smiling, never paying me a compliment, never even

re firmly rooted in my mind than it was at that moment! I cannot account for the extraordinary inconsis

d still waited impenetrably to hear what I ha

nosegay in his hand. "With Lady Clarinda's kind regards. To remind Major Fitz-David of his appointment." Another lady! This time a lady with a title. A great lady who sent her flowers and her messages without condescending to concealment. The Major-first apologizing to me-wrote a few lines of acknowledgment,

ughts, and had thus helped, in some degree, to restore me to myself. I was able at last to satisf

t ask you to forget, on my account, the promise which you have given to my husband

f, and patted me on the shoulder in h

ympathy; you see exactly how I am situated. Do you know, you remind me of my charming Lady Clarinda. She has the gift of sympathy, and sees exactly h

ll have discovered by this time) the most obstina

meet Lady Clarinda," I re

and I and Lady Clarinda. Our young prima donna shall come in the evening, and sing to

ted, "to return to what we

hand dropped the pen destined to immorta

to that?" he a

a moment

person of prodigious tenacity of purpose. Madame Mirliflore is a person of prodigious tenacity of purpose. She happens to be in London. Shall we hav

egan, "we were s

ajor Fitz-David. "Is t

is the oth

time, and regretfully dismissed from his m

ent bow and a submissive sm

to tell the secret which my husband is keeping from me. You have given n

arningly, and cast a sly look at me

your husband was here to-day he took occasion to remind me that I was as weak as water in the hands of a pretty woman. He is quite right. I am as weak as

s. The Major clasped his hands entreatingly, and look

de by a pistol bullet," he proceeded. "Not received in the service of my country-oh dear, no! Received in the service of a much-injured lady, at the hands of her scoundrel of a husband, in a duel abroad. Well, she was worth it." He kissed his hand affectionately to the memory of the dead or absent lady, and pointed to a water-color drawing of a pretty country-house hanging on the opposite wall. "That fine estate," he proceeded, "once belonged to me. It was sold years and years since. And who had the money? The women-God bless them all!-the women. I don't

ne side. I made another attempt to speak of the matter in dispute between us, from my own point o

spoken yet "I think you are very hardly used. It is monstrous to expect that a woman, placed in your situation, will consent to be left for the rest of her life in the dark. No! no! if I saw you, at this moment, on the point of finding out for yourself what Eusta

. I laid a stronger emphasis on them still by suddenly leaving my chair. The impulse to

t your own terms, Major. I will ask nothing of you bu

?" he inquired, look

which is not easy for you to grant. May I ask a bold q

ant old gentleman. "From the garret

know-everybody knows-that one of a woman's many weaknesses is curiosi

es

rched everything, and peeped in everywhere

f my question. He followed my example; he too s

my own way to my husband's secret in this house? One wo

yourself!" c

peated, more vehe

jor, after a momen

cit enough, now I had got it, to satisfy me. I felt th

stery?" I asked. "Something, for instance, which my eyes m

nteresting him in some way unknown to myself; and I

w (as you call it), might be seen and migh

house?"

d a step nearer t

his r

bove. The future prima donna had done practicing her scales, and was trying her voice now in selections from Italian operas. At the moment when I first heard her she was singing the beauti

himself by this time-was the

ray take the easy-chair. You are

into the chair. Major Fitz-David rang the bell,

ime," I said, faintly. "Te

is irresistible smile. "You forge

him a tiny bottle of champagne and a pla

rom Paris. As a favor to me, you must take some refreshment. And then-" He stopped and looked at me very a

one request which I now had it in my mind to make

I said. "When I am left here by myself, does your gener

e champagne and eat a biscu

e in perfect possession of yourself. Restore

the time when I drank it the delicious

umed, "that I should leave you he

press wish,"

iscovering the truth." Saying those words, he took two keys from his pocket. "You will naturally feel a suspicion," he went on, "of any locked doors that you may find here. The only locked places in

, he laid the keys be

be faithful to my promise, whatever may be the result of your examination of the room. I am bound in honor no

tain

on the clew, remember this-the discovery which follows will be a terrible one. If you have any doubt about your capacity to sustain

I must face the consequences of making

ositively

itiv

the man-servant. Ring twice if you wish the housemaid to wait on you. From time to time I shall just look in myself to see h

s lips, and fixed a las

f than to me. "The women have led me into many a rash action in my

ords he bowed gravely and