第195章 ``IN THE MIDST OF LIFE''(1)

The Alcalde had stopped on the step with an exclamation at something in the darkness outside, and he backed, bowing, into the room again to make way for some one.

A lady, slim, gowned and veiled in black and followed by a negress, swept past him.The lady lifted her veil and stood before us.

``Antoinette!'' exclaimed the Vicomtesse, going to her.

The girl did not answer at once.Her suffering seemed to have brought upon her a certain acceptance of misfortune as inevitable.Her face, framed in the black veil, was never more beautiful than on that night.

``What is the Alcalde doing here?'' she said.

The officer himself answered the question.

``I am leaving, Mademoiselle,'' said he.He reached out his hands toward her, appealingly.``Do you not remember me, Mademoiselle? You brought the good sister to see my wife.''

``I remember you,'' said Antoinette.

``Do not stay here, Mademoiselle!'' he cried.``There is--there is yellow fever.''

``So that is it,'' said Antoinette, unheeding him and looking at her cousin.``She has yellow fever, then?''

``I beg you to come away, Mademoiselle!'' the man entreated.

``Please go,'' she said to him.He looked at her, and went out silently, closing the doors after him.``Why was he here?'' she asked again.

``He came to get Mr.Temple, my dear,'' said the Vicomtesse.The girl's lips framed his name, but did not speak it.

``Where is he?'' she asked slowly.

The Vicomtesse pointed towards the bedroom.

``In there,'' she answered, ``with his mother.''

``He came to her?'' Antoinette asked quite simply.

The Vicomtesse glanced at me, and drew the veil gently from the girl's shoulders.She led her, unresisting, to a chair.I looked at them.The difference in their ages was not so great.Both had suffered cruelly; one had seen the world, the other had not, and yet the contrast lay not here.Both had followed the gospel of helpfulness to others, but one as a religieuse, innocent of the sin around her, though poignant of the sorrow it caused.

The other, knowing evil with an insight that went far beyond intuition, fought with that, too.

``I will tell you, Antoinette,'' began the Vicomtesse;``it was as you said.Mr.Ritchie and I found him at Lamarque's.He had not taken your money; he did not even know that Auguste had gone to see you.He did not even know,'' she said, bending over the girl, ``that he was on your father's plantation.When we told him that, he would have left it at once.''

``Yes,'' she said.

``He did not know that his mother was still in New Orleans.And when we told him how ill she was he would have come to her then.It was as much as we could do to persuade him to wait until we had seen Monsieur de Carondelet.Mr.Ritchie and I came directly to town and saw his Excellency.''

It was characteristic of the Vicomtesse that she told this almost with a man's brevity, that she omitted the stress and trouble and pain of it all.These things were done;the tact and skill and character of her who had accomplished them were not spoken of.The girl listened immovable, her lips parted and her eyes far away.Suddenly, with an awakening, she turned to Helene.

``You did this!'' she cried.

``Mr.Ritchie and I together,'' said the Vicomtesse.

Her next exclamation was an odd one, showing how the mind works at such a time.

``But his Excellency was having his siesta!'' said Antoinette.

Again Helene glanced at me, but I cannot be sure that she smiled.

``We thought the matter of sufficient importance to awake his Excellency,'' said Helene.

``And his Excellency?'' asked Antoinette.In that moment all three of us seemed to have forgotten the tragedy behind the wall.

``His Excellency thought so, too, when we had explained it sufficiently,'' Helene answered.

The girl seemed suddenly to throw off the weight of her grief.She seized the hand of the Vicomtesse in both of her own.

``The Baron pardoned him?'' she cried.``Tell me what his Excellency said.Why are you keeping it from me?''

``Hush, my dear,'' said the Vicomtesse.``Yes, he pardoned him.Mr.Temple was to have come to the city to-night with an officer.Mr.Ritchie and I came to this house together, and we found--''

``Yes, yes,'' said Antoinette.

``Mr.Ritchie wrote to Mr.Temple that his Excellency was to send for him to-night, but Andre told him of the fever, and he came here in the face of danger to see her before she died.He galloped past the sentry at the gate, and the Alcalde followed him from there.''

``And came here to arrest him?'' cried Antoinette.

Before the Vicomtesse could prevent her she sprang from her chair, ran to the door, and was peering out into the darkness.``Is the Alcalde waiting?''

``No, no,'' said the Vicomtesse, gently bringing her back.``I wrote to his Excellency and we have his permission for Mr.Temple to remain here.''

Suddenly Antoinette stopped in the middle of the floor, facing the candle, her hands clasped, her eyes wide with fear.We started, Helene and I, as we looked at her.

``What is it, my dear?'' said the Vicomtesse, laying a hand on her arm.

``He will take it,'' she said, ``he will take the fever.''

A strange thing happened.Many, many times have Ithought of it since, and I did not know its meaning then.

I had looked to see the Vicomtesse comfort her.But Helene took a step towards me, my eyes met hers, and in them reflected was the terror I had seen in Antoinette's.

At that instant I, too, forgot the girl, and we turned to see that she had sunk down, weeping, in the chair.Then we both went to her, I through some instinct I did not fathom.

Helene's hand, resting on Antoinette's shoulder, trembled there.It may well have been my own weakness which made me think her body swayed, which made me reach out as if to catch her.However marvellous her strength and fortitude, these could not last forever.And--Heaven help me--my own were fast failing.Once the room had seemed to me all in darkness.Then I saw the Vicomtesse leaning tenderly over her cousin and whispering in her ear, and Antoinette rising, clinging to her.