Beatrix Randolph

A day or tvro afterward the architect -f the new opera house, discovering that aothing in the way of business required ïiis immediate attention in New York, carne to the conclusión that he would do well to go away from it for a while. Since he began to practice his profession he had never had a delibérate vacation. But a man who liad just designed and -built a new opera house - the best in the worid - could afïord to take a rest, even were there no other ground for doing so. BeUinghain, at all events, packed his trunk and took passage on the Arizona bound for the Old World, and betook tttmself to an ancient. abandoned, lovely ïittle town on the soutiiern coast of Iretacd. It was one of the loveliest, least known 1 nd most seclnded rotreats in Europe. The gray and ruinous hoases were i giown with soft green moss, the steep and narrow streets were made beautiful with tender rims of grass. The warm ! ■breezes brought thither by the Gulf treain gave to December and January the gentle geniality of an English spring. The sparse inhabitants were a far descended race of fishermen, still bearing in their dark complexions and vigorons ïorms the traces of their handsome Spanish ancestry. At the inn, in addiüon to a most engaging lacdlady and a conple of extremely daughters, Bellingham ncountered to his agreeable surprise an American artist, Helwise by name, vrhom he had known years ago in New York. This lonely man of genios was, ■it appeared, in the habit of spending the ■winter montas here, transferring to canvas the matehless wealth of color and character whieh met him at every turn. He was of a grave, kindly, meditativa nature, but brimming over in certain moods with wit and philosophy and the 'ïruits of years of penetrating and amused ■ïbservation of human character and üfe. Bellingham and he suited each -other well and were soon conversing ■with the frankness and cordiality of a friendship long in abeyance but never ïorgotten. Bellingham inquired whether there were any other countrymen of theirs in the town. "It is like the rsgion Irving tells of in ; 'The Adalantado of the Seven Cities,'" Í Helwise replied; "it has been lost for j ages, and nobody knows were it is -cept myself . That is, such was the case I intU about three weeks ago. But last nonth two ïnysterious strangers made their appearance, and have betrayed some symptoms of intending to stay. I should liave had them espelied, for I ■oonsider this place to be niy peculiar and inalienable property, liad I not found them entertaining as a study, and admirably disposed to keep themselves ;to themselres. I have never spoken to 4he lady at a!l." "Oh! Husband and wife, are they?" 'Apparently that is just wliat tney are not. íTo, I don't mean to insinúate -and I do;i't believe- that they ought to be. I shotüd suppose they might be terother and sister, only they are of different nationalities. The man is evi■dently an American, and the lady, though she speaks English perfectly vrell, evidently is not. She is probably i í?onr or five years older than he, and has j -& -oertain air of experience. She ia , 'ciáedly handsome, and has what they 'eau distingnished mausers; that is, she ! 'makes you perceive that they are ! ere, though ■very good ones. She has rented that large house on the top of the bill." "She or theyr "She. He has his room here, and tums ip every night at 10 o'clock. They epend the day together; he is undoubtedly ïn lave with her, and she seems to be auything but indifferent to him. You ee it isn't an ordinary affair. Here fchey are, buried from the world beyond discovery, and they might live as they liked; and yet they- or she at any rate - prefer to conduct thenaselves in this anomalous fashion. There is some mystery in it, my dear Geoffrey - some deep, dark, inscrutable mystery! They are known respectively as Mr. Edwardes and Mrs. Peters, but I have an idea they cali each other something else. One ■ theory of mine about them was that she i was a younger sister of his mother; his j father, you know, might have married a foreign wonian. In that case she ! would be his aunt and the mystery j would be solved; but, as I s;üd bef ore, ! they are plainly in love, and nephews and aunts neither fall in love nor marry, a far s my_expeiTence__gpes. Come, i you are fresh frota "TheStaTes; can yon guessr "I guess not," said Bellingham; and the conversatíon took another tura. Snddenly Ilelwise, who had been looking toward the southern approach to the terrace on which they were standing, said in a low voice: "There come the mysteries. Kow yon can j udge f or yonreelf." Bellingham turned his eyes in the direction indicated and saw a man and woman approachingslowly, side by side. They seenied to be conversing intermittenüy, and as they walked her shoulder occasionally brnshed his arm and their glances constantly met. The man seemed to be under 25 years of age; he was tall and active and of rather slender build, and as he approached Bellingham noticed that his features were of a bold and striking cast, with bright and soinewhat intolerant eyes. His expression at the present moment was troubled and ■ gloomy. He freqnently looked on the ground nnd struck the pebbles f roin his path with a stick. He wouM speak a few sentences a time, energetically ! and rapidly; theu relapsa into a inoody silence, responding by a shake of the heod or other brief gestnre to the discourse of his companion. The latter was a woman whose aspect (if the distinction be permissible) was younger than her looks. Her face and figure were youthful, but her bearing and gestares were mature. Her features were of a clear paleness, regular in outline and of remarkable beauty. Something in her aspect enchained BeUingham's regard; she did not resemble any woman he had seen, and yet she reminded him in some intangible, elusivo way of a woman whom he wishéd to forget She was different - different af every point; and yet if he turned away and glanced at her from the corner of his eye there was an indescribable likeness. Was it the way she had of slowly lif ting her chin? Was it the slope of her shoulders? Was it in the way the soft hair grew on the nape of her white neck? Was it in the smile that lighted her eyes before it touched her lips? It was all of these things - it was none of them! Af ter a minute Bellingham forcibly dismissed the question from his mind. Of what earthly consequence was it? Here were a good looking woman and an enamored young man, a common sight enough. They seemed to be in love with e&ch other, as Helwise had said; but while the gentleman had evidently lost his head the lady was entirely self possessed. She seemed to be amused superficially at some extravagance or perversity in her companion, but there was an underlying sadnesa or anxiety perceptible when her face was at rest. She had the air of trying to make him take some step or comprehend something which he refnsed to do or underetand. Aa they passed the young man glanced for a moment toward Helwise and nodded recognition. The lady did not turn, nor evince consoiousness of the presence of any third party. They slowly traversed the length of the terrace and disappeared throngh the gateway at the farther end. "She knows how to dress," reraarkeid Bellingham. "And how to walk," added Helwise. "She must have learned that on the stage." "An actress, then, you think?" "Yes; or an opera singer, perhaps. Well, what do you think is the matter?" "Ho hasn't money enough, maybe," said Bellingham; "or perhaps she likes him too well to marry him. A woman like that knows that an ounce of imagination is worth a pound of reality- both to her and to him!" "You have studied women since I knew you last," remarked Helwise with a Fmile. "If I have," replied Geoffrey, "they have only taught me to disbelieve the little I ever thought I knew. Come, let us be moving. " That night Bellingham dreamt vividly of Mlle. Maraña, and his dream awakened him before dawn in great distress of mind. He imagined that he was walking across the Brooklyn bridge, which on this occasion extended from the roof of the opera house in New York to the parapet of the terrace where he had sat with Helwise that afteruoon. The bridge was unfinished, and he was obliged to make the transit on a series of precarious planks irregularly disposed. When midway across the Atlantic, whose angry roar reached his earo from the immeasurable depth beneath, he saw walkine before him the flerure of a woman, in whom he at once recognized Mlle. Maraña. He hastened to overtake her, for Khe seemed in imminent danger of falling. Just as he was on the point of reaching her, however, the plank on which he stocd gave way, and at the same moment she whom he had meant to save tottered and feil. He closed his eyes for an instant; then he feit his arm seized by some one from behind, and, looking round, he found himself standing on the stage of the opera house, with Maraña herself before him in the costume of Marguerite, with a bunch of daisies in her girdle. He heard the applause of the audience, like the roar of the sea, and perceived that the performance was going forward, and that he. instead of being properly attired, was in his every day dress. It came across his mind also that the figure he had mistaken for Maraña was Mephistophelee, disgoised to mislead hun. He looked at Marguerite; her face was deathly pale. She said below her breath, "You did not believe in me; do you know who"- Her voice died away, the lighta were suddenly guished, ana ín the silence ana darkness Bellinghain awoke. Too much disturbed to sleep again - for the drearn, grotesquely extravagant though it was. had Beemed absolutely real to him - he got up, lit a pie, and Bat smoking at liis window watching the dawn slowly illuminate the eastern Bky. He took an early breakfast and went fcr a solitary walk along the coast, and froni the summit of a lofty headland saw a great ocean steamer pass westward through the gray sea. She was bound for New York. As he watched her diminish and vanish in the distance, till only a faint plume of smoke remained on the f ar horizon, for the first time since his journey began he was conscions of an urgent longing to return- to return at once. The unfinished question in his dream kept ringing in hifi ears, it assumed a momentous importance; he must know what it meant. He laughed at his own absurdity, but the longing remained. At last he returned to the inn. He found Helwise painting in the room he nsed as a studio; he was in his shirt sleeves, slippers down at the heel were on his feet, and he wore an old straw nat to shade his eyes from the light. He was whistling softly to himself , nnd wonld turn his head on onO side after putting a touch on the canvas. "Did you hear any noise last night?' he asked aftcr they had chatted for a while. "I had a bad dream. What was it?" "That young fellow who calis kinisolí Edwardes. His room is next to inine. He carne in a little later than usual last night, and by and by I fancied I lieard him oryiu.i. 1 was debating whether I önght to go in and see what was the matter, when lie knocked at my door. He looked badly cut up. I made him sit down and gave him soine whisky and a cigarette. He seenis to be ia a scrape. " "Did he explain the mystery?" "Well, he tnlked somewhat. He feil in love with this woman in Moscow. Froni what he said I judge she is an actresa or a singer, as we were saying yesterday. She is a public character of some kind, and has had adventures before this. Sha took a great fancy to him, so he sa-ys, and I believe him. But it seems to have been somewhat as you suggested: she liked him too well to let him have his way. She wonldn't risk a disillusionment; perhaps her heart had never been touched before. She would not marry him, either; for that matter, I suppose the one thing is about the same to her as the other. But she did an odd thing - she ofïered to suspend her career, whatever it is, and be with him as long as he wished. And she appears to have given up some important pecuniary advantage to do so. He accepted her offer, thinking no doubt that she would capitúlate in due time, in the meanwhile taking care that she should lose nothing in the way of money. He represented himself to her as inexhaustibly wealthy, and she took him at his word. But the fact is, after he had spent ahundred thousand or so, and ruined his father and sister, as he tella me, there was no more lef t. He was ashamed to confess this to her, and it is only within the last few days, when he had got down to his last fifty pound note, that she found it out." "And now she means to shake him - is that it?" said Bellingham. "Well, apparently not. She seeins to have plenty of money herself, and she has made him a proposition which does her credit. She has proposed to marry him and pay back the money that he has spent on her. I have begun to fall in love with her myself ! And I may do it if she'll have me; for Mr. Edwardes' pride, as he calis it, would not allow him to accept her proposal, and henee his misery, which at one time last night assumed quite a suicidal complexion, but I remonstrated with him, and he feit a little better this morning." While they were sitting there the door was suddenly opened, and in came young Mr. Edwardes himself in a state of great excitement. He had a newspaper in his hand. "Did you know what was in this paper?" demanded he, striding up to Helwise. "What one generally finds in a New York Sunday paper two weeks old," returned Helwise, tipping back his hat and looking up at him. "This is Mr. Bellingham, Mr. Edwardes." The latter looked at the architect, and seemed to hesitate whether or not to proceed, but the emotion by which he was possessed was too much for him ; he went on. "It says here," he exclaimed, holding the paper toward Helwise, with his finger on the paragraph, "that - here, read it yourself !" Helwise took the paper and read: "Mlle. Maraña, the great Eussian prima donna, who has endeared herself to all New Yorkers during the past season by her charming behavior as well as by her unrivaled musical powers, will next month bring to a close the most successful engagement ever known in this city. Mlle. Maraña has lately been in delicate health. To those of thousands of her friend-s and admirers we add our own cordial hopea that she may return to us next spring with renewed strength and energy. Meanwhile we shall not look upon her like again." "Is that the paragraph you mean?" asked Helwise, looking up. "What's the trouble with it?' "Only that there's no such person as Mlle. Maraña in New York, nor ever was - that's all!" cried out the young gentleman in a violent tone. "You're mistaken, sir," put in Bellingham. "I'm personally acquainted with Mlle. Maraña, and have heard her sing in New York this season a scoro of times." "You heard an impostor, fchen!" returned the other angrily. "I know what I'm talking about. Good God! don't I know who the Maraña is?" "Keep your coat on, young man," said Helwise with a quiet laugh. "Possibly you are mistaken instead of Mr. Bellingham." "Well, I begyour pardon, gentlemen," said Edwardes, putting a restraiat on himself and speaking in an agitated voice. "If you only knew you would ii me. But look here., sir -.Mr. Bellingham - nitéTl you. I met Mlle. Maraña in Moscow last summer, She - well, the tnith is, she's the lady who is here with me now. She had an engagement with a fellow named lnigo to sing this season is New York for tour thousand dollars a night, and - she gave it up because I asked her. I guess there isn't moro than one Maraña in this world! There's only one woman alive who could sing anywhere near her, and that's my own sister - whom I ruined and disgraced, by George!" Here, in Bpite of his sti-uggles to prevent them, tears forced themselves into the yonng gentleman'g eyes, and he sat down and hid his face in his hands. "And now, to think," he cried out, etarting up again and walking to and fro in the room, "to think, after all she's done for me, that scoundrel lnigo should trump up an im! postor to take her placel By George, I'll bring him to book if I live another fortnight!" "Yon are making a singular acensation, Mr. Edwardes," said Beilingham sternly. "Will you vouch for ita aecuracy?" "Yes, I will vouch for it, Mr. Beilingham," returned the other, facing him; "and my name is not Edwardes. I' ve had enough of this humbug. There's my card, sir." Beilingham took the card. "Edward Randolph," he read and paused. He looked at the young man cnriously. "May I ask your father's name?" he said at length. "Alexander Raaáolph," Edward replied. 'A tall man, about íifty-five, with gray mustaehe and imperial;1" "Thafs the man. Do you know him?" "I liavc met him. You had better go borne and look after liiiu," ëaid Beilingham gravely, "and get your Mlle. Marana to go with you." Bellinidiam left for Liverpool thosame evening, and took passage fur New York two days later. Edward Bandolph and Mlle, Maraña sailed the same day on another steamer, and they all arrived at their destination within ten days afterward.