LITMIR.BIZ

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I listened or understood. Alicia heard me through and said nothing, save that it was a tale worthy of the Montressors. Whereat I bridled, for I too was a Montressor, and proud of it.

      But she took my hand soothingly in hers and said, “Little Beatrice, if tomorrow or the next day they should tell you, those cold, proud women, that Alicia was unworthy of your love, tell me, would you believe them?”

      And I, remembering what I had seen in the blue parlour, was silent — for I could not lie. So she flung my hand away with a bitter laugh, and picked lightly from the table anear a small dagger with a jewelled handle.

      It seemed to me a cruel-looking toy and I said so — whereat she smiled and drew her white fingers down the thin, shining blade in a fashion that made me cold.

      “Such a little blow with this,” she said, “such a little blow — and the heart beats no longer, the weary brain rests, the lips and eyes smile never again! ‘Twere a short path out of all difficulties, my Beatrice.”

      And I, understanding her not, yet shivering, begged her to cast it aside, which she did carelessly and, putting a hand under my chin, she turned up my face to hers.

      “Little, grave-eyed Beatrice, tell me truly, would it grieve you much if you were never again to sit here with Alicia in this same Red Room?”

      And I made answer earnestly that it would, glad that I could say so much truly. Then her face grew tender and she sighed deeply.

      Presently she opened a quaint, inlaid box and took from it a shining gold chain of rare workmanship and exquisite design, and this she hung around my neck, nor would suffer me to thank her but laid her hand gently on my lips.

      “Now go,” she said. “But ere you leave me, little Beatrice, grant me but the one favour — it may be that I shall never ask another of you. Your people, I know — those cold Montressors — care little for me, but with all my faults, I have ever been kind to you. So, when the morrow’s come, and they tell you that Alicia is as one worse than dead, think not of me with scorn only but grant me a little pity — for I was not always what I am now, and might never have become so had a little child like you been always anear me, to keep me pure and innocent. And I would have you but the once lay your arms about my neck and kiss me.”

      And I did so, wondering much at her manner — for it had in it a strange tenderness and some sort of hopeless longing. Then she gently put me from the room, and I sat musing by the hall window until night fell darkly — and a fearsome night it was, of storm and blackness. And I thought how well it was that my Uncle Hugh had not to return in such a tempest. Yet, ere the thought had grown cold, the door opened and he strode down the hall, his cloak drenched and wind-twisted, in one hand a whip, as though he had but then sprung from his horse, in the other what seemed like a crumpled letter.

      Nor was the night blacker than his face, and he took no heed of me as I ran after him, thinking selfishly of the sweetmeats he had promised to bring me — but I thought no more of them when I got to the door of the Red Room.

      Alicia stood by the table, hooded and cloaked as for a journey, but her hood had slipped back, and her face rose from it marble-white, save where her wrathful eyes burned out, with dread and guilt and hatred in their depths, while she had one arm raised as if to thrust him back.

      As for my uncle, he stood before her and I saw not his face, but his voice was low and terrible, speaking words I understood not then, though long afterwards I came to know their meaning.

      And he cast foul scorn at her that she should have thought to fly with her lover, and swore that naught should again thwart his vengeance, with other threats, wild and dreadful enough.

      Yet she said no word until he had done, and then she spoke, but what she said I know not, save that it was full of hatred and defiance and wild accusation, such as a mad woman might have uttered.

      And she defied him even then to stop her flight, though he told her to cross that threshold would mean her death; for he was a wronged and desperate man and thought of nothing save his own dishonour.

      Then she made as if to pass him, but he caught her by her white wrist; she turned on him with fury, and I saw her right hand reach stealthily out over the table behind her, where lay the dagger.

      “Let me go!” she hissed.

      And he said, “I will not.”

      Then she turned herself about and struck at him with the dagger — and never saw I such a face as was hers at the moment.

      He fell heavily, yet held her even in death, so that she had to wrench herself free, with a shriek that rings yet in my ears on a night when the wind wails over the rainy moors. She rushed past me unheeding, and fled down the hall like a hunted creature, and I heard the heavy door clang hollowly behind her.

      As for me, I stood there looking at the dead man, for I could neither move nor speak and was like to have died of horror. And presently I knew nothing, nor did I come to my recollection for many a day, when I lay abed, sick of a fever and more like to die than live.

      So that when at last I came out from the shadow of death, my Uncle Hugh had been long cold in his grave, and the hue and cry for his guilty wife was well nigh over, since naught had been seen or heard of her since she fled the country with her foreign lover.

      When I came rightly to my remembrance, they questioned me as to what I had seen and heard in the Red Room. And I told them as best I could, though much aggrieved that to my questions they would answer nothing save to bid me to stay still and think not of the matter.

      Then my mother, sorely vexed over my adventures — which in truth were but sorry ones for a child — took me home. Nor would she let me keep Alicia’s chain, but made away with it, how I knew not and little cared, for the sight of it was loathsome to me.

      It was many years ere I went again to Montressor Place, and I never saw the Red Room more, for Mrs. Montressor had the old wing torn down, deeming its sorrowful memories dark heritage enough for the next Montressor.

      So, Grandchild, the sad tale is ended, and you will not see the Red Room when you go next month to Montressor Place. The swallows still build under the eaves, though — I know not if you will understand their speech as I did.

      NEW YEAR’S STORIES

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      Uncle Richard’s New Year’s Dinner

       Table of Contents

      Prissy Baker was in Oscar Miller’s store New Year’s morning, buying matches — for New Year’s was not kept as a business holiday in Quincy — when her uncle, Richard Baker, came in. He did not look at Prissy, nor did she wish him a happy New Year; she would not have dared. Uncle Richard had not been on speaking terms with her or her father, his only brother, for eight years.

      He was a big, ruddy, prosperous-looking man — an uncle to be proud of, Prissy thought wistfully, if only he were like other people’s uncles, or, indeed, like what he used to be himself. He was the only uncle Prissy had, and when she had been a little girl they had been great friends; but that was before the quarrel, in which Prissy had had no share, to be sure, although Uncle Richard seemed to include her in his rancour.

      Richard Baker, so he informed Mr. Miller, was on his way to Navarre with a load of pork.

      “I didn’t intend going over until the afternoon,” he said, “but Joe Hemming sent word yesterday he wouldn’t be buying pork after twelve today. So I have to tote my hogs over at once. I don’t care about doing business New Year’s morning.”

      “Should think New Year’s would be pretty much the same as any other day to you,” said Mr. Miller, for Richard Baker was a bachelor, with only old Mrs. Janeway to keep house for him.

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