Part 2

Yet, in the midst of this torrential accusation of Lottie Prynne, Rachel suddenly remembered that she was not so fully and deeply acquainted with Charter's habit of mind as to be certain that the small and appealing figure of the widow was not, after all, his ideal of feminine beauty and goodness. A girl's ignorance of the masculine mind has its moments of fearful awakening, and Rachel had seen far too much of the world not to know that the exterior appeal is more likely to reach the average male creature than the higher mental attitude and the richer spiritual endowment. It was at this point that her pride began to assert itself and she revolted at the idea that a man whom she had loved could prefer Lottie Prynne.

Rachel was human, and she turned from the window again, with an impotent gesture of anger and despair, and began to walk to and fro, once in a while covering her face with her hands. She was hurt and angry and, most of all, ashamed. The wound was new and she did not yet know how deeply it might hurt, but she must hide it, get away from it; and she paced with restless feet, fighting her battle alone. That power within her, whether pride or something deeper and nobler, was beginning to assert itself, to show her new and hitherto unsuspected resources of strength and endurance. She had reeled before the shock, stood dizzy, as it were, on the edge of a moral precipice, but she had kept her foothold with an intuitive instinct of self-preservation, and now, slowly but surely, she would retreat from the dangerous vicinity, she would safeguard herself from betrayal. As the feeling of giddiness passed off, she put her hand to her forehead and, pushing back her soft dusky hair, stood a moment looking at her own image in the mirror. She had lighted only one candle on her dressing-table and the effect of the pallid flame was to cast such vivid shadows that Rachel suddenly felt that she was looking at the face of a stranger, for she experienced the common sensation of surprise that the sufferer feels at the sight of his own face after the calamity.

She drew back, almost with dismay, and was just lighting another taper when, suddenly, there was a soft, hurried tapping at the door. At first she thought she had been mistaken and had heard nothing; then she saw the handle turn. She went swiftly across the room and bent her ear to the door. It was half-past one o'clock in the morning and she had supposed every one else in the house to be asleep.

"What is it?"

"It's I, Eva," her sister's voice breathed on the other side, "let me in, Rachel; for God's sake, let me in!"

Thoroughly alarmed, Rachel opened the door. The hall was dark and out of the night her sister, lovely and disheveled, almost fell into the room. In fact Rachel caught her to keep her from falling, and Eva's golden hair, like floss and very abundant, fell across her shoulder.

"Shut the door and lock it!" she whispered, with shaking lips.

Rachel locked it and her sister slipped out of her arms and threw herself into an old-fashioned, chintz-covered, winged chair that had belonged to their grandmother and was Rachel's favorite resting-place in happier moods. Eva cowered there, hiding her face against the high back. Her white silk kimono was covered with little pink butterflies and her bare feet were thrust into gold embroidered sandals, while her wonderful hair completed an alluring picture. Rachel stood looking at her in some amazement, a strange dread tugging at her heart.

"What has happened, Eva?" she asked at last; "are you frightened, or are you really ill or in pain?"

"I dare not tell you!"

Eva's voice was quite changed; the usual caressing tone was gone; it was almost harsh.

"I can't imagine what you mean," said Rachel.

Eva suddenly sat up, shaking back her beautiful hair. "You could never imagine it," she cried passionately, "you could never dream it. I've told a horrible lie about you. Rachel, I've taken away your good name."

"You're mad, quite mad!"

"I'm not mad, I wasn't mad when I did it, but I think I'll go mad soon!" Then she rose and fell on her knees at Rachel's feet. "Rachel, save me--if you don't have mercy on me I'm disgraced. Johnstone has accused me of--of wrong-doing; he believes I'm an unfaithful wife, that I've committed the worst sins; he accuses me of everything horrible; he says I love Belhaven too well!"

Rachel's face quivered. "Do you?" she asked faintly.

Eva burst into tears, weeping passionately, her pretty head bowed so low that it wrung Rachel's heart to see her humiliation.

"Do you love him, Eva?" she asked again, very low. "I know he loves you."

"With all my heart!" sobbed Eva, "and he loves me--Johnstone is cruel!"

"I don't think Johnstone cruel to want his wife to cease loving another man! Eva, what have you done?"

Eva, still clinging to her sister, averted her face.

"Why don't you answer me?"

"Rachel, it's all too dreadful--Johnstone must have set that wretch, Craggs, to watch me, I--I couldn't say a word to Belhaven, he followed us about so, I--Rachel, Johnstone believes some story Craggs has told him--"

Rachel seemed suddenly turned to stone. "You mean about you and Belhaven? Eva, what mad indiscretion has led to this? It's past forgiveness; how could you do it?"

"I--I never thought!" sobbed Eva, clinging closer, her blond head on Rachel's breast.

"You should think," sternly; "you're not a child, and you know what any evil-minded person would think. They don't know you as I know you; they won't believe in your innocence. And Johnstone? Eva, what did you tell him?"

Eva trembled. "He was dreadful, Rachel. I--I nearly died of fright. He--oh, I know he'll kill Belhaven!"

"He'll do nothing of the sort; it would make for scandal. Eva, you must prove your innocence to him. He has every right to judge you harshly; you've deeply wronged him in your heart, you've no right to expect much mercy. You've imperiled your good name. Eva, Eva, why will you be so foolish? Is mere admiration worth your reputation? How few husbands would ever forgive you! How, can you expect Johnstone to forgive you?"

"He won't, he h-hates me--I was afraid for my life! I never saw him like that before. Rachel, I--oh, God, Rachel, I've done something dreadful to you!"

She sank lower, clasping Rachel's knees, shaken with sobs, a picture at once lovely and pitiful. Her sister, watching her, felt her own heart sink lower; a shuddering premonition of evil shot through her and she trembled.

"Eva, what is it? Tell me--"

"Rachel, I--I told him it was you and Jim; t-that I was trying to save your reputation."

There was a silence. In that silence the thing grew monstrous.

At last it became intolerable. The only sound was Eva's weeping; her sister did not stir, she did not seem to breathe. Eva, stricken with a great fear, raised her head and met a look of such loathing that she cried out, clutching at Rachel's knees again. Rachel suddenly shook her off; she tore her skirt from Eva's detaining fingers, leaving a fragment of the lace behind, and stood free of her.

"Don't touch me," she said, in a choking voice, "don't dare to touch me!"

Eva cowered in a new and deeper terror. She had hardly realized the effect of her confession; she had not measured, until now, the enormity of her crime against her sister. Even now she did not think of Rachel, she was thinking of herself. If Rachel felt thus, if she cast her off and denounced her, so would Johnstone, and he would cast her off in open disgrace. The finger of scorn would be pointed at her, at Eva, who had always been so lovely, so courted, so beloved. She broke into horrible weeping; her beautiful body, so exquisite in its white and pink tints, its dimpled flesh, was shaken with agony; the soul was in travail but it was not yet born. It was significant that, at that moment, she did not remember Belhaven. Astry had threatened to kill him, he was capable of killing him; men have been killed before for such sins and misdemeanors. Later, Eva remembered Belhaven; now she was only torn with self-pity. Rachel had dared to judge her and she had only sought to hide herself behind Rachel, to use her for a cloak; she did not mean to injure her so deeply. It was dreadful, but she had never thought, she had never thought of any one but herself. Rachel was to have been the buffer.

"Rachel," she moaned, "it will kill me--I can't face it alone, you must help me; mother said you'd always help me in trouble!" That was Eva's strongest card; she knew it and played it.

Rachel heard her, but did not move.

"I'm innocent, I was terribly frightened, I didn't know what to say--I never thought--forgive me, Rachel!"

Rachel did not speak.

"I knew he'd kill Belhaven, I saw it in his face, I--" Eva's wild sobs grew fainter; she was terribly frightened now--"Rachel, if you don't save me, I'm lost! Johnstone hates me, he'll disgrace me, he'll say that I'm--I'm guilty, he'll tell the whole world. Rachel, Rachel, I'm not very well, I--I will die!"

"It would be best to die!" said Rachel wildly, then she broke down, she stretched out her quivering hands. "Eva, Eva, it can't be true, you didn't do it--I'm dreaming--say that I'm dreaming!" she implored her.

"Oh, Rachel, can't you forgive me? I didn't know what I said!"

"Oh, how could you?" cried Rachel passionately; horror and humiliation swept over her, wave upon wave; she felt all the agony of Eva's treachery, she suffered as Eva could not suffer.

"I didn't mean to make him think you'd done wrong; I only meant that you and Belhaven had been foolish, thoughtless. It was Johnstone who thought the evil; he has a bad mind, he said at once that he'd make Belhaven marry you."

"But I won't marry Belhaven."

"Then he'll kill him!" Eva rose and stood, clutching at the chintz winged chair; she was very beautiful, very childlike. Such women often are; these shallow souls sometimes have only enough soil for weeds, and weeds grow mightily.

Rachel steadied herself; she began to realize at last that this honor must be true. "I'm not concerned for Belhaven, I'm concerned for my own good name. I never imagined that my own sister would slander me."

Eva turned and held out both her beautiful arms pleadingly. Her beauty had never failed of its appeal; would it fail now in its appeal to the sister who loved her?

"I was crazed with grief, I never thought, I hadn't time, I spoke in a moment of agony. Johnstone wouldn't believe what I said. I thought he was going to kill me--I was afraid for my life, I made wild excuses, I scarcely knew what I said and your name slipped out. In an instant he seized upon it--forgive me!" She went nearer and laid a hand upon Rachel's arm, then, as Rachel did not repulse her, she threw both arms around her neck. "I'll bear it all!" she sobbed, "I'll let him disgrace me; I'll see Belhaven die--I'll die myself, but I can't do it without your forgiveness!"

Rachel did not repulse her; all her life she had shielded Eva, watched over her; she could not quite shake off the fetters of a habit fixed as the seven hills of Rome. Eva clung closer.

"He'll kill Belhaven, he'll shoot him down and be tried for murder; and I--oh, God!" she laid her head on Rachel's shoulder and wept passionately, "I wish I could die!"

Rachel looked down at the prone, golden head with a shudder of anguish; she remembered her mother's last words to her, when she had extracted a promise from Rachel to take care of her younger sister. She said that Eva was tender and helpless and easily led; she must, therefore, be taken care of. It is strange, but the beautiful child in a family is always apparently more in need of care and sacrifice than are her commonplace brothers and sisters; there seems to be a brittle quality about her, she is like blown-glass, attractive but not substantial. Beauty is like the flame of a candle, in some eyes; it not only draws the moths but it is easily extinguished.

"It will be horrible," Eva sighed. "It will kill me--after I'm dead--will you forgive me, Rachel?"

"You've done a very terrible thing; you've sacrificed your sister's good name to save yourself from the consequences of your own folly."

"No one knows what I said but Johnstone, no one will ever know but Johnstone. I didn't mean it, I thought you'd help me, that you'd marry Belhaven to save us both. I believed in you, you're so good!"

"Why should I marry Belhaven? I don't even like him."

"Johnstone will kill him."

"Oh, I don't believe that!"

Eva let go her hold upon her and went to the window. "Look!" she said, and pointed.

Rachel followed her to the open window. There was a light on the lower veranda, which cast a soft radiance on the terrace, paved with flagstones and guarded by a marble balustrade. Below them a figure paced to and fro.

"It's Johnstone. Belhaven's in the library. If you refuse to marry him, Johnstone says he'll know my story is false, he'll not believe in our innocence, he'll shoot Belhaven."

"It would be murder," said Rachel, aghast, "cold-blooded murder; he'd die for it."

"He doesn't care."

The two sisters looked at each other, white-lipped. Rachel knew Astry, and she did not now doubt Eva's words, for he held life cheap, even his own.

"Is Belhaven such a coward as that?" she cried.

Eva's parched lips moved, and it was a moment before the words came. "He's shielding me; he loves me; he'd shield me with his life."

Rachel drew a deep breath. What a beautiful thing it was to be so loved! Sudden tears blinded her eyes, while Eva sank gently down at her feet again and clasped her knees.

"Rachel, you can save your own sister from disgrace, you can save our parents' memory from dishonor; only say you'll marry Belhaven. We'll find a way out, surely we'll find a way out; you won't really have to marry him! Oh, Rachel, it's killing me, I can't stand public disgrace. Johnstone has no pity, he'll take it all into the divorce court, he'll drag me on to the witness-stand, he'll blazon it all out, he--" She fell forward, burying her face against Rachel's knees, weeping horribly.

Her sister shuddered. The picture was appalling and she knew that Eva did not exaggerate. She stood there, the culprit clinging to her knees, and looked out across the distant city to the beautiful dome of the Capitol, outlined now against the eastern sky. A strange, ghostly light was slowly emerging from the night; the rim of the world was white, day was breaking; like the fragile lips of a morning-glory, it deepened to violet as it opened, but the heart of the dawn was translucently white.

"If I marry Belhaven, I admit the truth of your words, and your words are false."

"No one knows what I said but Johnstone!" Eva replied, with a low sob.

"Oh, I can't do it!" gasped Rachel, with a shudder of repulsion.

Eva gave a little cry of despair and slipped to the floor; she lay there white and still and she scarcely seemed to breathe.

Her sister knelt, raised her head, and she pushed back the fair hair. Eva's face was soft and childlike and it bore no line of thought, or passion, or even remorse,--only childish grief. Tears filled Rachel's eyes; she had been cruel, her sister's case was desperate, the family honor was involved, the hope of any future happiness for Eva, even for Eva's soul. Rachel gathered her into her arms and her sister, feeling her embrace, sighed and opened her eyes.

"You're like God, Rachel; you always forgive!"

"Hush!" Rachel looked solemnly into the violet eyes. "Eva, as you'll answer at the last day, answer me now. Are you innocent? Have you done wrong?"

Eva trembled; she was afraid of those inexorable eyes. She was not afraid of wrong-doing, she was not afraid of untruth, she was not even afraid of God, but she was afraid of Rachel.

"I'm innocent," she said, but her heart quaked.

Rachel, still kneeling, with her arms around the culprit, closed her eyes. She tried to shut out the world, to see her way. "If I marry Belhaven, will you swear to me now, as a condition, that you will, from this hour, break with him and never again permit him to make love to you? That you'll try to be a true and loyal wife to Astry, to remember that he's given you his name?"

The color came back to Eva's cheeks, the light to her eyes; she saw hope, escape from the disgrace, and she snatched at it.

"I promise! Rachel--you will?"

Rachel raised her gently to her feet and put away her clinging hands, then she went to the window and looked out at the light which grew and grew across the city. God's day was wonderful; it was coming to her at last and she must meet it. Love was lost, happiness was lost, but truth was not lost. Her sister was innocent, it was a duty to save her; she had promised to always take care of her, she was called upon now to fulfil that promise. Was she ready? She stood there for a moment longer, a moment that seemed to Eva's anxiety interminable, before she turned and covered her face with her hands. She wanted to shut it all out, to hide this horror from her own eyes, and again the unreality of it possessed her. She let her hands fall at her sides and Eva saw that her face was colorless and worn.

"I suppose there's nothing else to be done," she said, with a shudder, "and if it's to save you--"

"Oh, Rachel, you'll do it?"

"I must."

III

Rachel's engagement to Belhaven was announced by Astry, before twelve o'clock the following day, in the library.

Matrimonial engagements do not, as a rule, occur during week-end parties without some preliminary symptoms. The entire family might be taken by measles unawares much more easily than to be wholly surprised by an engagement. This absence of preliminary symptoms, in fact of any symptoms at all, had the effect of making Astry's announcement as violently abrupt as an explosion of nitroglycerine.

Paul Van Citters remarked afterwards, in private, that it had quite bowled him over, but Mrs. Van Citters, though a dutiful wife, made no response; she had impressions of her own, having just heard from her husband the report of that other engagement between Charter and Mrs. Prynne. Charter was Pamela Van Citters' first cousin and she did not relish the Prynne idea, though she withheld her reasons from Paul. Being a wise woman, Pamela had never criticized Mrs. Prynne, but she was really stunned by Rachel's engagement to Belhaven. So were the others.

Sidney Billop nearly swallowed his collar-button, which he had in his mouth when his mother burst into his room to inform him. She had been one of the group in the library; Sidney had not, having sat up uncommonly late the night before trying to discover why Astry kept Belhaven so long in tête-à-tête. The engagement offered a solution, but not a satisfactory one. It was scarcely necessary for Belhaven to ask Astry's consent to his sister-in-law's marriage, and everybody knew that the Leven money, what there was of it, was in charge of a trust company and tied up in real estate, so there could have been no question of a settlement. Sidney recovered the collar-button but not his peace of mind; it was all certainly very curious.

Colonel Sedley, with an elephantine effort at playfulness, congratulated Rachel with the remark that he had hoped, at one time, that she would join the army, but she met this shaft with composure and even smiled gently at the colonel's impossible pleasantry.

The subtle charm of her personality had never been more apparent and, although she was very pale, her face had the delicate loveliness of a Greuze. The low arch of the brow, framed by dusky hair, and the thick-set, dark lashes that shadowed her dark gray eyes, seemed perfect enough, in the subdued light of the library, to establish an actual claim to beauty almost as great as Eva Astry's. She had suddenly become the central figure of the drama and her friends were surprised and even impressed by the unexpected resources she showed, for no matter how awkward and incongruous it seemed, she remained the mistress of the situation. That the situation was incongruous could not be denied; it had the appearance, at first sight, of a nine days' wonder.

"Surprised?" Pamela Van Citters exclaimed, replying to Dr. Macclesfield. "Don't ask me; I've been figuratively snatching at things to keep on my feet. I'm like Paul; it's bowled me over."

"Yet we were wondering the other day how Rachel had escaped the infection so long."

"It isn't that. Rachel's lovely and she must have refused dozens of offers already, but--it's the man!"

Dr. Macclesfield cocked an erratic eyebrow. "Why the man? Belhaven's good looking, you know, and reasonably rich, and I rather thought you women liked him."

"Oh, did you?"

The old man laughed. "Out with it, Pamela; I'm safe as the confessional."

Pamela considered; of course the doctor was safe enough, but ought she to speak the truth? She edged around the idea, fascinated with it; she was possessed with a wild desire to talk it over; she was loyal enough to Rachel, but that very loyalty made her indignant; from her point of view the engagement was an injury to Rachel.

"I suppose you know what people say?" she ventured.

"Oh, that's sometimes wide of the mark!"

"Well, it's true, I think, don't you? At least he's in love with Eva."

"My dear Pamela, how do you know that?"

"Know it?" She gave a quick glance back at the long room--they were standing in the door of the hall--to assure herself that she was unheard. "Why, it's as plain as the nose on your face!"

Macclesfield laughed. "You can't expect me to be accomplished in these details; besides, Belhaven has probably only been telling Eva how much he loved her sister."

Mrs. Van Citters met this suggestion with scorn. "Is that all you know?"

"Isn't it enough for a mere man?"

"Perhaps I shouldn't expect any more, but the idea of deliberately choosing a man who's in love with your sister! It's hard enough to keep a husband devoted anyway, and I'd want him to begin by being in love with me."

"Wouldn't it be just as well if he ended there?"

"You mean that you think he can't help falling in love with Rachel in the end?"

"Something like that, only I think he's in love with her already."

"Pff! Nothing of the sort; look at his face."

"You couldn't expect a mere man to keep his _sang-froid_ at such a moment as this?" the doctor retorted, adjusting his eye-glasses to look at the bridegroom elect.

"At least he needn't look as if he expected to be hung!"

"Oh, that's natural enough, my dear," Macclesfield retorted, with a chuckle. "Mrs. Billop's got him in tow."