Part 61 (1/2)
My aunt looked up from her plate with a little start--not interested, as I was prepared to hear, in the serious question of luncheon, but in the opinion which my medical adviser was likely to give of the state of my health.
”I am anxious to hear what Mr. Grosse says about you to-morrow,” the old lady began. ”I shall insist on his giving me a far more complete report of you than he gave last time. The recovery of your sight appears to me, my dear, to be quite complete.”
”Do you want me to be cured, aunt, because you want to get away?” I asked. ”Are you weary of Ramsgate?”
Miss Batchford's quick temper flashed at me out of Miss Batchford's bright old eyes.
”I am weary of keeping a letter of yours,” she answered, with a look of disgust.
”A letter of mine!” I exclaimed.
”Yes. A letter which is only to be given to you, when Mr. Grosse p.r.o.nounces that you are quite yourself again.”
Oscar--who had not taken the slightest interest in the conversation thus far--suddenly stopped, with his fork half way to his mouth; changed color; and looked eagerly at my aunt.
”What letter?” I asked. ”Who gave it to you? Why am I not to see it until I am quite myself again?”
Miss Batchford obstinately shook her head three times, in answer to those three questions.
”I hate secrets and mysteries,” she said impatiently. ”This is a secret and a mystery--and I long to have done with it. That is all. I have said too much already. I shall say no more.”
All my entreaties were of no avail. My aunt's quick temper had evidently led her into committing an imprudence of some sort. Having done that, she was now provokingly determined not to make bad worse. Nothing that I could say would induce her to open her lips on the subject of the mysterious letter. ”Wait till Mr. Grosse comes to-morrow.” That was the only reply I could get.
As for Oscar, this little incident appeared to have an effect on him which added immensely to the curiosity that my aunt had roused in me.
He listened with breathless attention while I was trying to induce Miss Batchford to answer my questions. When I gave it up, he pushed away his plate, and ate no more. On the other hand (though generally the most temperate of men) he drank a great deal of wine, both at dinner and after. In the evening, he made so many mistakes in playing cards with my aunt, that she dismissed him from the game in disgrace. He sat in a corner for the rest of the time, pretending to listen while I was playing the piano--really lost to me and my music; buried, fathoms deep, in some uneasy thoughts of his own.
When he took his leave, he whispered these words in my ear; anxiously pressing my hand while he spoke:
”I must see you alone to-morrow, before Grosse comes. Can you manage it?”
”Yes.”
”When?”
”At the stairs on the cliff, at eleven o'clock.”
On that, he left me. But one question has pursued me ever since. Does Oscar know the writer of the mysterious letter? I firmly believe he does.
To-morrow will prove whether I am right or wrong. How I long for to-morrow to come!
CHAPTER THE FORTY-FOURTH
Lucilla's Journal, continued
_September_ 4th.
I MARK this day as one of the saddest days of my life. Oscar has shown Madame Pratolungo to me, in her true colors. He has reasoned out this miserable matter with a plainness which it is impossible for me to resist. I have thrown away my love and my confidence on a false woman: there is no sense of honor, no feeling of grat.i.tude or of delicacy in her nature. And I once thought her--it sickens me to recall it! I will see her no more.
[Note.--Did it ever occur to you to be obliged to copy out, with your own hand, this sort of opinion of your own character? I can recommend the sensation produced as something quite new, and the temptation to add a line or two on your own account to be as nearly as possible beyond mortal resistance.--P.]