Phyllis of Philistia Part 39

Phyllis undoubtedly colored before she said, with a laugh:

"Didn't you promise to talk solely about ourselves? I decline to talk on any other topic."

She arose from where she had been sitting before a cup of tea at a little table that also held cake, and threw herself back in a fanciful seat shaped like a sh.e.l.l.

"That being so, I should like very much to know how you learned that he meant to return," pursued Ella.

"You are becoming quite horrid, and I expected you to be so nice," said Phyllis, pouting very prettily.

"And I expected you to confide in me," said Ella reproachfully. "I have been watching you for some time--not merely during the past week, but long before; and I have seen--what I have seen. He could not have told you that he meant to return--you must have crossed each other in the trains. How did you know, my dear girl? Let me coax it out of you."

Phyllis made no answer for some time; she was examining, with a newly acquired, but very intense interest, the texture of the sheen of the blouse which she was wearing. At last she raised her eyes, and saw how Ella was looking at her. Then she said slowly:

"I saw him in the train that was leaving when our train arrived."

"Heavens! that is a confession!" cried Ella quite merrily.

"You forced it from me," said Phyllis. "But why should there be any mystery between us? I'm sure I may tell you all the secrets of my life.

Such as they are, you know them already."

"They are safe in my keeping. My dear Phyllis, don't you know that it has always been my dearest hope to see you and Herbert Courtland--well, interested in each other? I saw that he was interested in you long ago; but I wasn't sure of you. That is just why I was so anxious for you to come down here for the week we have just pa.s.sed. I wanted to bring you both together. I wanted to see you in love with each other; I wanted to see you both married."

"Ella--Ella!"

"I wanted it, I tell you, not because I loved you, though you know that I love you better than anyone in the world."

"Dearest Ella!"

"Not because I knew that you and he would be happy, but because I wished to s.n.a.t.c.h my own soul from perdition. I think it is safe now--but oh, my G.o.d! it is like the souls of many other mortals--saved in spite of myself! Phyllis, you have been my salvation. You are a girl; you cannot understand how near a woman may go to the bottomless pit through the love of a man. You fancy that love lifts one to the heaven of heavens; that it means purity--self-sacrifice. Well, there is a love that means purity; and there is a love that means self-sacrifice. Self-sacrifice: that is, that a woman is ready to sacrifice herself--her life--her soul--for the man whom she loves. I tell you--I, who know the truth--I, who have been at the brink. It is not that the pit is dear to us; it is that the man is dear to us, and we must go with him,--wherever he goes,--even down into h.e.l.l itself with him."

"Oh, Ella, Ella! this is the love of the satyr. It is not the love of the one who is made in the image of G.o.d."

"Let it be what it is; it is a power that has to be reckoned upon so long as we remain creatures of the earth, earthy."

"It is a thing that we should beat into the earth from which it came."

The girl had sprung to her feet, and was speaking with white face and clenched hands. "Down into the earth"--she stamped upon the floor--"even if we have to throw our bodies into the grave into which we trample it.

Woman, I tell you that the other love,--the love which is the truth,--is stronger than the love of the satyr."

"Is it? is it, Phyllis? Yes, sometimes. Yes; it was a word that you spoke in his hearing that saved him--him--Herbert--and that saved me that night when I came to you--when I waited for you--you did not know anything of why I came. I will tell you now--"

"No, no, no! Oh, Ella! for G.o.d's sake, tell me nothing! I think I know all that I want to know; and I know that you had strength given to you by G.o.d to come to me that night. I had not to go to you. But I have come to you to-night. We are together, you and I; and we are the same as when we were girls together--oh, just the same! Who shall come between us, Ella?"

"Who? Who? You came here to save me. I knew it. But you had saved me before you came. Phyllis, in this very room I was alone with him. I was mad--mad with jealousy at the thought of losing him--though I knew that I had lost him--I was mad! The pa.s.sion breathed from the roses--the twilight full of the memories of the spring we spent together in Italy--all took possession of my heart--my soul. I whispered to him to come to me--to come to me. And he came."

The cry the girl gave, as she covered her face with her hands and dropped back into her chair, was very pitiful.

"He came to me--but only one step--one little step, Phyllis; then there came before his eyes a vision of your face--he felt your hand--cool as a lily--upon his wrist--he heard your voice speaking into his ear; he turned and fled--fled through that window--fled from the demon that had taken possession of this room--I said so to you."

"Thank G.o.d--oh, Ella, thank G.o.d!"

"That is my cry--thank G.o.d--thank G.o.d; and yet--and yet--G.o.d help me!

I feel ready to throw myself at your feet and say 'Give him back to me!

Give him back to me!'"

She had stood with her hands clasped above her head at her first utterance of that imploration--"Give him back to me!" Then she threw herself on her knees and pa.s.sionately caught both the girl's hands in her own, crying, "Give him back to me!"

Phyllis flung her arms about her neck, and bowed her own head down to the shoulder of the woman whom she loved and pitied.

And then----

Then through the silence of the house--the hour was almost midnight--there sounded the loud and continuous ringing of a bell.

It was only the usual visitors' bell of the house; but its effect at that hour was startling--shocking!

The two women were on their feet, waiting in silence, but with wildly beating hearts, for what was coming--they felt that something terrible was coming. The bell had an ominous jangle. They heard the footsteps of the one servant who remained up to put out the lights, going to answer the summons of the bell--they heard a man's voice speaking in a low tone in the hall--they heard a man's steps approach the door of their room.

The door opened, and Mr. Ayrton appeared before them.

He closed the door slowly, and stood there staring not at his daughter, but at Ella Linton. On his face was an expression that Phyllis had never seen on it before. It frightened her. She could not speak.

He stood there, with his eyes fixed upon Ella Linton--rigid--silent as a figure that symbolizes Death.

The silence became appalling.

"For G.o.d's sake speak, if you are living!" cried Ella in a whisper tremulous with terror.

He did not speak--he stood there, staring at her.

"What does he mean? What does he mean?" said the woman, after another dreadful pause. "Why does he stand there, Phyllis, staring at me? Why----Oh, my G.o.d! I see it--I see it on his face--my husband--Stephen--dead--he is dead--you came to bring the news to me. Look, Phyllis, he cannot say 'No'--he would say 'No' unless I had guessed the truth--he would say it--he would have some pity. Is it the truth? Man--speak--say yes, or no--for G.o.d's sake! for G.o.d's sake!"

She had taken half a dozen rapid steps to him and grasped him by the arm, gazing into his face.

He bowed his head.

She flung his arm from her, and burst into a laugh.

"Ah, Phyllis! I see it all now. He was the man I loved--I know it now--he was the man I loved. It was for him I cried out just now--'Give him back to me--give him back to me!'"

The wild shriek with which she cried the words the second time rang through the house. She fell upon her knees, clutching at Phyllis' hand as before, and then, making a motion as if about to rise, she fell back and lay with her white face turned to the ceiling, her white arms stretched limply out on each side of her like the arms of a crucified woman.

Servants came with restoratives.

CHAPTER x.x.xV.

IF G.o.d WOULD ONLY GIVE ME ANOTHER CHANCE!

"Poor creature! Poor creature!" said Mr. Ayrton. He had just returned from the room to which they had carried Ella. Phyllis was lying on the sofa with her face down to the pillow. "Poor creature! No one could have had any idea that she was so attached to him! She will be one of the richest women in England. He fell down in the club between nine and ten.