He would have taken her hand; but she waved him away.In another moment he heard the swift rustle of her dress in the hall, the sound of her feet upon the stair, the sharp closing of her bedroom door, and all was quiet.
And even thus quietly the day wore away; and the night rose slowly from the valley, and overshadowed the mountains with purple wings that fanned the still air into a breeze, until the moon followed it, and lulled every thing to rest as with the laying-on of white and benedictory hands.It was a lovely night; but Henry Rance, waiting impatiently beneath a sycamore at the foot of the garden, saw no beauty in earth or air or sky.A thousand suspicions common to a jealous nature, a vague superstition of the spot, filled his mind with distrust and doubt."If this should be a trick to keep my hands off that insolent pup!" he muttered.But, even as the thought passed his tongue, a white figure slid from the shrubbery near the house, glided along the line of picket-fence, and then stopped, midway, motionless in the moonlight.
It was she.But he scarcely recognized her in the white drapery that covered her head and shoulders and breast.He approached her with a hurried whisper."Let us withdraw from the moonlight.
Everybody can see us here."
"We have nothing to say that cannot be said in the moonlight, Henry Rance," she replied, coldly receding from his proffered hand.She trembled for a moment, as if with a chill, and then suddenly turned upon him."Hold up your head, and let me look at you! I've known only what men are: let me see what a traitor looks like!"He recoiled more from her wild face than her words.He saw from the first that her hollow cheeks and hollow eyes were blazing with fever.He was no coward; but he would have fled.
"You are ill, Jenny," he said: "you had best return to the house.
Another time"--
"Stop!" she cried hoarsely."Move from this spot, and I'll call for help! Attempt to leave me now, and I'll proclaim you the assassin that you are!""It was a fair fight," he said doggedly.
"Was it a fair fight to creep behind an unarmed and unsuspecting man? Was it a fair fight to try to throw suspicion on some one else? Was it a fair fight to deceive me? Liar and coward that you are!"He made a stealthy step toward her with evil eyes, and a wickeder hand that crept within his breast.She saw the motion; but it only stung her to newer fury.
"Strike!" she said with blazing eyes, throwing her hands open before him."Strike! Are you afraid of the woman who dares you?
Or do you keep your knife for the backs of unsuspecting men?
Strike, I tell you! No? Look, then!" With a sudden movement, she tore from her head and shoulders the thick lace shawl that had concealed her figure, and stood before him."Look!" she cried passionately, pointing to the bosom and shoulders of her white dress, darkly streaked with faded stains and ominous discoloration,--"look! This is the dress I wore that morning when I found him lying here,--HERE,--bleeding from your cowardly knife.Look! Do you see?
This is his blood,--my darling boy's blood!--one drop of which, dead and faded as it is, is more precious to me than the whole living pulse of any other man.Look! I come to you to-night, christened with his blood, and dare you to strike,--dare you to strike him again through me, and mingle my blood with his.Strike, I implore you! Strike! if you have any pity on me, for God's sake!
Strike! if you are a man! Look! Here lay his head on my shoulder;here I held him to my breast, where never--so help me my God!--another man--Ah!"--
She reeled against the fence, and something that had flashed in Rance's hand dropped at her feet; for another flash and report rolled him over in the dust; and across his writhing body two men strode, and caught her ere she fell.
"She has only fainted," said Mr.McClosky."Jinny dear, my girl, speak to me!""What is this on her dress?" said Ridgeway, kneeling beside her, and lifting his set and colorless face.At the sound of his voice, the color came faintly back to her cheek: she opened her eyes, and smiled.