The Traitor (Dixon, 1907)/Book 2/Chapter 7
STELLA had piled on the big oblong oak table in the library the letters and legal documents relating to her father's estate.
She had determined to treat John Graham's first visit as a purely business one, and make her approach to him by the more subtle way of child-like dependence on his help and advice.
She wore on purpose the same simple green dimity dress in which she had called at his office. Each step in her plans must be taken with the utmost care. He had masked his feelings with an iron will and she could as yet form no conception of the impression she had made.
Seated beside the table, idly turning the papers, she awaited his coming to-night with the keenest interest, every faculty of her being keyed to the highest pitch of power.
A letter from Ackerman had aroused anew her curiosity over every detail of the murder of her father and had given her a definite purpose toward which to work during John's visit. She studied carefully again the paragraph in which he said:
Stella had quietly ransacked the house from cellar to attic in vain searching for this secret way. She had questioned Aunt Julie Ann without results, and had made up her mind to gain from John first this important fact.
The brass knocker struck three sharp strokes on the front door. With a quick, cat-like movement she concealed Ackerman's letter in her bosom, smoothed her dress, and as the young lawyer entered, rose and greeted him with a gracious smile.
"I must thank you again for undertaking this work for me," she said, taking his hand. "It is such a relief to feel that it is now in the hands of one who understands—one I can trust implicitly."
"It will be a pleasure if I can serve you," he answered gravely.
"I have the papers all spread out here ready for you."
"Pardon me, if I look about the room a moment," John said with deep emotion. "You see I haven't been in this room before for years. I spent many happy hours in it, in the old days."
"I hope this will not be the last time you will enter, now that we are going to be friends. When we have time you must take me all through in every nook and corner—show me all the secret closets and dark passageways and tell me its history."
"Yes, of course"—he answered with an absent look.
"I don't believe you were listening to what I said at all," she exclaimed with mock anger. "A penny for your real thoughts!"
"May I be bold enough to tell you just what I was thinking?"
"Yes."
"I was thinking," he said with a sober smile, "what a beautiful picture you make in this old oak panelled room. The delicate lines of your face seem at home here as though the master workman who carved the figure in that mantel had seen you in a vision while he was at work."
"What a dreamer you are!" she laughed.
"And you are willing to trust me as a lawyer?"
"Absolutely."
"Then I must prove myself worthy, mustn't I?"
"The papers are ready"—she said, bustling about the table and mixing the bundles in greater confusion with an attempt at arranging them in business order.
John seated himself and began to examine them. She bent over his shoulder saying with a light laugh:
"I'll do my best to explain them—they are all Greek to me—but you'll understand."
"I'm sure there will be no great difficulty."
He ran rapidly over the bundles and in half an hour had made memorandums of each division of the work before him. He took up one of the packages and began its careful reading, but the writing faded. He could hear Stella softly breathing as she bent near him and see the beautiful little hand resting on the table. He was seized with a mad impulse to grasp it and clasp her in his arms. He smiled and placed his hand on his forehead a moment lest she might see his confusion. He could endure it no longer. He must leave and regain control of himself.
He tied the packages of papers together and rose.
"You are going so soon?" she asked.
"Yes, I'll take them down to my office. It will require several hours to go over them."
"You will come again to-morrow?" she said softly.
"I'll report to you again to-morrow evening."
"I shall expect you at eight," she said, extending her hand.
He held it unconsciously for an instant, and wondered if she could feel the pounding of his heart.
He came each evening for a week and spent two hours in the library with Stella until every letter and paper had been thoroughly examined. In a hundred little ways she had made him feel the power and charm of her personality; in no way so keenly, perhaps, as in the long silences during which she sat near with her great brown eyes watching him intently. He could feel their deep mysterious light in whatever direction he turned. In no other way could she have made so powerful an appeal to his imagination. To his poetic fancy, this capacity for silent comradeship in a girl so young revealed a depth of character which he had not suspected.
The real depth of its meaning he could not dream. The moments of exultant triumph, of breathless suspense, of merciless cruelty with which she watched him slowly entering the trap she had set, were safely concealed beneath the childlike expression of her beautiful face.
Each night he felt his resolution to allow no word of love to pass his lips harder and harder to keep. And each night she watched with increasing excitement his gradual approach to the brink of the precipice to which she silently beckoned.
On the night of his final report when the work was finished, she looked at him intently and said:
"Now, I'm going to hold you to your promise."
"And have I broken one?"
"Only forgotten it, I think—you must go over the old house with me—every nook and corner. But before we start, come, you are tired, I've some refreshments for you."
She led the way into the dining room where she had prepared a dainty supper. Aunt Julie Ann in spotless white cap and apron, stood smiling her welcome. The table was lighted with a dozen wax candles set in two old silver candelabra which had belonged to the Graham family more than a hundred years, until they had fallen with the house and its furnishings into the Judge's hands.
Stella seated herself at one end of the table which had been shortened to its smallest size and placed John at the other. Her position, the lights and the effects of the picture in his imagination, she had carefully planned and rehearsed before his arrival. She meant to win to-night.
Behind her stood the rich old mahogany sideboard of Colonial pattern, the Graham silver flashing in the quaint gold mirror which hung above it. In the mirror her own image was clearly reflected. The man opposite could look into her face and at the same time see in the shining silvery picture above the sideboard the black ringlets of curling hair at the back of her neck, as well as the exquisite lines of her figure.
John gazed at her in silent wonder. Never had he seen a picture so appealing in its beauty to every sense of his being. He felt that she was born to sit at that table amid such surroundings.
She lifted the teapot to fill his cup:
"This little feast is to celebrate the completion of our work."
"And seal our friendship, may I hope?" he broke in with a smile.
"Yes," she answered in a whisper.
These soft notes of her voice thrilled the man before her, and his whole being quivered in response to their call. He wondered if he could conceal the hunger with which he was looking into her eyes.
He had always thought her the most beautiful being he had ever seen, but to-night for the first time she had dressed specially to receive him, and his imagination had not dreamed the picture—Her beauty fairly stunned him.
Her dress was of filmy zephyr-like white chiffon, cut low to show the full lines of the neck and shoulders. Around the upper part of her beautiful bare arms, where they melted into the shoulders, was drawn a scarf of delicate lace. Where it crossed the waist line in V shape, was pinned an ivorytype miniature portrait of her proud mother, painted at her own age of twenty, which looked so strikingly like the living form above, it might have been taken for the image of a twin sister. A sash of pink ribbon encircled her figure. The skirt hung in full puffy lines draped over a number of under-skirts after the fashion of the period. The bottom of the skirt was finished with a border of lace on the top of which were set at intervals clusters of little pink roses wrought in silk.
Her curly crown of black hair was parted in the middle and drawn low on the side of the face in two great waves and tied behind with a pink ribbon. The long ends were curled into four strands and thrown carelessly around her neck in front and hung to the waist. Her head was circled with a tiny wreath of the living pink roses from which the silk ones had been modelled. To John's fancy this wreath against her black hair seemed the jewelled crown of a queen set in priceless rubies.
She poured the tea with her bare arm uplifted in a fascinating pose, the right arm curved just enough to tilt the teapot and yet preserve the dimple at her elbow. In all his life he could not remember an arm like these—so graceful, so seductive each little movement, they seemed to possess a conscious soul of their own. Her whole being spoke the charm of the boundless vitality of youth just budding into perfect womanhood. Her delicate skin flashed its tints in harmony with every mood of thought in her voice. She had as a divine gift a sensitiveness of expression, so acute that it could be controlled by the fierce will which hid beneath the velvet surface. She could blush at will because her imagination was so vivid that she could direct its powers by a subtle process of auto-suggestion.
John had not realised until he saw her eat how wonderful were the lines of her luscious lips. He felt that he could sit there forever and watch her dainty wrist and tapering fingers lift the cup. Her eyes were friendly to-night! They looked at him with dreamy tenderness, a childlike trust, and perfect faith.
How could he live through the evening without telling her of his love! Yet he must keep silent. He felt with deep foreboding an approaching catastrophe which must soon overwhelm the men who had created an Empire whose power they could not control. That Empire had left a stain of blood on the floor of this house—a stain that must forever darken his own life and hers—and yet—how could he give her up?
He rose from the table at her suggestion and followed her in a spell as she lifted a silver candlestick above her head and started to explore the house.
He found his tongue at last and told her with boyish enthusiasm the legends of the old mansion, the associations of each room, and sketched with good-humoured criticism the peculiarities of his people. In the gallery of the observatory he showed her the spots from which the slightest sounds were echoed to the hall below, and explained the origin of many of the ghost stories which the Negroes believed with such implicit faith.
Stella leaned over the railing and looked down into the hall at the chair in which her father had fallen the night of the dance, and a curious smile played about her lips.
"And what are you smiling at?" he asked softly.
Without the quiver of an eyelid, either in surprise or recognition of the fact that he had caught her in a moment off her guard, she replied:
"I was just wondering if you ever believed in ghosts?"
"Of course," he laughed.
"Really?"
"Yes. When Aunt Julie Ann used to tell them to me at night in the nursery they were vivid and terrible realities."
"And you've laughed away all the romances of childhood now?"
"No," he answered firmly. "I halfway believe in ghosts still, and the old dreams of beauty and love, of honour and truth, seem to me more and more the only things in human life that have any value."
They had returned to the hall. Stella placed the candle on the table and sat down on the davenport. John followed her instinctively and seated himself by her side.
Suddenly she placed her soft hand on his, exclaiming:
"Oh! There's one thing we've forgotten!" She felt him tremble at her touch.
"What?"
"The legend of the secret way—tell me about it—how it originated and all—of course, I know it is only a legend. Such things are only found in stories."
John looked at her, with a smile playing about the corners of his mouth.
"You have ceased to believe in romance, ghosts and fairies?"
"I'll believe it if you tell me," she said softly.
John took her hand and lifted her from the lounge.
"Have you faith enough to follow me through the dark secret way to-night if I can find it for you?"
"Yes!" she whispered, leaning toward him trustingly.
"Then I'm going to do what was never done before—show this secret way to one who does not answer to the name of Graham."
Stella's bosom rose and fell with deep emotion as she turned her brown eyes on John.
"But why not?" he continued. "The house is yours. And I'm haunted with the strange fancy that your spirit has lived here before."
"I have grown to love it," she said hesitatingly, "in spite of the tragedy. It's strange. I wonder at myself for it."
John turned toward the panel in the wainscoting whose location he knew so well, paused and said:
"I'd better wait and let you change your dress. You'll soil it against the damp narrow walls."
Stella's eyes were sparkling now with excitement.
"No matter. I can't wait a minute. The mystery and romance will be worth a dress. Show me the way. I'll follow."
"All right," John answered, as he extended his hand and pressed the moulding behind which lay the spring. The panel flew open and a rush of cool air took Stella's breath.
"Heavens!" she exclaimed, clinging suddenly to John's arm, "why, I had no idea it could open here just behind us in the hall!"
He could feel her tremble.
"There's not the slightest danger—you need not be afraid," he said, tenderly. "Wait, I'll get the candle and go before you."
He took the candle from the centre table and entered the passage-way, closing the panel.
"Wait, you must hold my hand," Stella cried timidly.
He took the soft little hand in his with a throb of joy and carefully led her down the tiny stairs into the basement, where the passage turned between two walls and again descended a half dozen steps to another door which led out of the house into the long straight way to the vault.
Trembling with excitement, she clung in silence to his hand as they entered the long damp passage. He closed the door suddenly, the sound crashing through the narrow walls in a thousand startling echoes.
Stella sprang into his arms, nestling close and whispered:
"Mercy! what was that?"
"Only the door," he laughed.
"It scared me nearly to death," she faltered, slowly withdrawing from his sheltering protection while she skilfully managed to press her soft bare arm against his hand. She felt him tremble, his breath deepen and quicken at the touch of her flesh.
"You're sure there's no danger?" she asked.
"Not the slightest," he replied cheerily. "Just one more little surprise and we are out in the moonlight on the lawn."
He led her clinging to his hand along the dark way, holding the flickering candle above her head, a hundred mad impulses of love surging through his brain.
They stopped at the stoneset door leading into the tomb, and he handed her the candle, gently disengaging his other hand. He drew the heavy door back, Stella stepped through and he followed close behind her.
She raised the candle high and looked about the vault. With a sudden cry, she staggered into his arms gasping:
Why,—we're—in—the—vault!"
The candle dropped from her hand and she threw her arm around John's neck clinging to him frantically. Her hold relaxed and her head drooped against his breast. He clasped her tenderly for a moment and his lips instinctively touched the curling mass of her hair, as he cried in agony:
"God help me—I'm lost!"
She revived as quickly as she had collapsed and murmured:
"I was about to faint—quick, let's get out!"
He led her through the iron grilled door into the moonlit shadows of the lawn.
"Oh!" she cried with a gasp of relief. "What a wild experience! I hope I didn't do anything very silly—did I?" she asked dreamily.
"You did just what any little girl of your age might do under such conditions," he replied, gazing at her with deep seriousness. "Come, let us find a seat on the lawn and I'll tell you the story of the vault and the secret way."
He led her to the seat on which he had sunk in despair the night he came half-mad with pain to watch the masqueraders whirl past her lighted windows.
The full moon wrapped the earth in the white mantle of Southern midsummer glory, and the night wind stirred, its breath laden with the rich perfume of every flower in full bloom. A katydid was singing a plaintive song in the tree above, and in the rose bushes near the porch a mocking-bird rehearsed in a burst of mad joy every love song of the feathered world.
In low, rapid tones John told her the story of Robert Graham's great love for his Huguenot grandmother and why he built the vault and secret way.
She listened and furtively watched him struggling with his emotions.
Suddenly he turned, looked tenderly into her eyes and took her hand.
"After all, Miss Stella, what else matters on earth, when life has once been made glorious by a great, deathless love—such a love as that which has grown in my own heart for you."
Stella turned away to hide the flash of triumph with which her face was flushed.
"Ah! don't answer me now," he rushed on. "I don't ask it. I only beg the privilege of telling you—telling you how you have lifted my soul from the shadows of self and hate, and made life radiant and beautiful. I dare not hope that you love me yet—that you only hear me is enough. That I sit by your side and tell you is all I ask. My love is so deep, so full, so rich, so great, it is glory and life and strength within itself. I could die to-night and count my life a triumph, because I've seen you and loved you, and you have heard me. May I tell you all that is in my heart?"
He leaned closer and pressed her hand gently.
"Yes," she whispered. "Why not?"
"I dare not tell you why I pause to ask the question. I've sometimes thought that an impassable gulf yawned between us. To-night I've thrown such rubbish to the winds. There's no gulf so wide, so deep and dark the heart of love may not leap it. Nothing matters save that I love you, that you smile and hear me!"
"I am honoured in your love," she answered gently.
"Ah! you can never know how sweet it is to hear that from your dear lips. I cannot tell you the madness of the joy that fills me, when I realise that I have found in you all I've ever dreamed of beauty, tenderness and purity. All the songs of life that poets dream and find no words in which to sing, I feel within. If you should send me from your presence now, I'd laugh at Death for I have tasted Life! To win your love is all I ask of this world or the next—You will let me try?"
"Yes," said the low voice, as she placed her hand again in his.
"Then I must go," he said, rising and lifting her from the seat—"I've said enough to-night. I must go before I dare say too much and break the spell of joy that holds me."
At the door he asked.
"I may come again to-morrow?"
"Yes, at eight."
He bowed and kissed the tips of her fingers.
"I may have something to say to you to-morrow," she said seriously.
"I shall count the minutes of every hour that separates us."
She watched the tall figure pass swiftly and joyously along the white gravelled moonlit walk, while a pzan of fierce joy welled within her heart.
"I've won—I've won, beyond the shadow of a doubt!" she cried, exultantly.