The Project Gutenberg EBook of Madame X; a story of motherlove, by J. W. McConaughy and Alexandre Bisson This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you'll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. Title: Madame X; a story of motherlove Author: J. W. McConaughy Alexandre Bisson Illustrator: Edward C. Volkert Release Date: December 19, 2018 [EBook #58502] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MADAME X; A STORY OF MOTHERLOVE *** Produced by Marc D'Hooghe at Free Literature (Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.) MADAME X A STORY OF MOTHER-LOVE BY J. W. McCONAUGHY FROM THE PLAY OF THE SAME NAME BY ALEXANDRE BISSON ILLUSTRATIONS BY EDWARD C. VOLKERT NEW YORK GROSSET & DUNLAP PUBLISHERS 1910 Table I. Two Invalids II. The Return III. Magdalen IV. Opening for the Defense V. Continuing for the Prosecution VI. Closing for the Defense VII. The Wanderers VIII. "Confidential Missions" IX. The Hotel of the Three Crowns X. The Uses of Adversity XI. Concerning Dower Claims XII. "Who Saves Another——" XIII. From Out the Shadow XIV. Sic Itur ad Averno XV. The Swelling of Jordan XVI. A Woman of Mystery XVII. Two Lovers and a Lecture XVIII. A Ghost Rises XIX. Hope at Last XX. The Trial Begins XXI. Cherchez l'Homme XXII. Madame X Speaks XXIII. The Verdict XXIV. The Guttering Flame XXV. "While the Lamp Holds Out to Burn——" ELEGIE (From the French of Massenet) Oh, Spring of days long ago, blooming and bright, Far have you fluttered away! No more the skies azure light, caroling birds Waken and glisten for me! Bearing all joy from my heart—Loved one! How far from my life hast thou flown! Vainly to me does the springtime return! It brings thee never again—Dark is the sun! Dead are the days of delight! Cold is my heart and as dark as the grave! Life is in vain—evermore! MADAME X CHAPTER I TWO INVALIDS A night lamp—the chosen companion of illness, misery and murder—burned dimly on a little table in the midst of a grim array of bottles and boxes. In a big armchair between the table and the bed, and within easy reach of both, sat a young man. It was his fourteenth night in that chair and he leaned his head back against the cushions in an attitude of utter exhaustion. The hands rested on the arms with the palms turned up. But the strong, clean-cut face—that for two weeks had been a mask of fear and suffering—was transfigured with joy and thanksgiving when he reached over every few minutes and touched the forehead of the little boy in the bed. There was moisture under the dark curls and the fever flush had given way to the pallor of weakness. Louis Floriot was a man with steel nerves and an unbending will. Barely in his thirty-first year, he was Deputy Attorney of Paris, and in all the two weeks he had watched at the bedside of his boy he had not been ten seconds late at the opening of court in the morning. His work and his child were all that were left to him and he divided the day between them without a thought of himself. The woman that had made both dear to him was gone. He had loved the baby with almost more than a father's love because he was hers—theirs. He had slaved for fame and power to lay them at her feet as a proof of his love. Two short years ago it would have been impossible to find a happier man within the girth of the seven seas. Then one night he had returned from his office too early—returned to find his life in ruins and his home made desolate. And she had fled from him into the night and had gone out of his life—but not out of his memory. He had striven with all the strength of his will to forget her; but in his heart he knew that as long as he breathed her image would be there. He worked with feverish energy and poured his love out on Raymond. The child was with him every moment that he was not in court or in his office, but his dark curly hair and great dark eyes were his mother's and forgetfulness did not lie that way. In the two years that had passed since the whole scheme of his life had been shattered he had barely had time to piece together a make-shift plan that would give him an excuse for living. In this new plan Raymond was the one element of tenderness. But for his love for the boy he would have become as stem and inexorable as the laws in which he dealt. He could not tear Jacqueline out of his heart but he forced himself to remember only the bitterness of her perfidy. In the past two weeks the memory had come back more bitterly. How different, he had thought in the long nights, if she had been there! They would have watched hand in hand and whispered hope and comfort to each other. One would have slept calmly when wearied, knowing that the tender love of the other guarded their baby. And what happiness would have been theirs that hour when the fever broke and Raymond passed from stupor to natural sleep! But she had not loved him—she had not even loved her boy; for she had deserted both. Rose, the maid, who had been in their house since his marriage, softly opened the door and whispered that Madame Varenne was in the library waiting to see him. He rose with a sigh, and after a last look at the sleeping child, tiptoed out of the room and noiselessly shut the door behind him. Madame Varenne was a sprightly young widow, the sister of Dr. Chennel, who attended Raymond as if the boy were his own son. Madame Varenne, too, had almost a motherly affection for the child and something beyond admiration for the handsome, slightly grayed father. They supposed, as did everyone else in Passy, that Madame Floriot was dead. Floriot was living in Paris when she left him and he moved out to Passy shortly afterward. He shook hands with her cordially as he came in. "How kind of you to come, Madame Varenne!" he said, gratefully. The young woman looked up at him with a happy smile. "I am delighted with the news that Rose has just given me!" she exclaimed, pressing his hand. "Yes," he smiled wearily, "our nightmare is over and it was time it finished. I couldn't have held out much longer." "You have had a bad time of it," she murmured, sympathetically. "It hasn't been easy. And I shall never be able, to thank your brother enough for what he has done for me," and Floriot's voice trembled. "He has thought of nothing else beside the boy for weeks and he was always talking about him," declared Madame Varenne, shaking her head. "The day before yesterday he went to see one of his old professors to consult him on the treatment, and he was hard at work that night experimenting and reading." Floriot nodded. "He tells me that it was then that he got the idea which has saved Raymond's life. I owe my boy's life to your brother, Madame Varenne," he added, his voice vibrant with gratitude, "and you may be sure that I will never forget it." "What he has done has been its own reward," she replied gently. "My brother is so fond of Raymond!" Floriot smiled tenderly. "And you?" "Oh, I love the child!" she exclaimed. "He loves you, too," Floriot assured her. "You were the first person he asked for when the fever left him. And now, that we are alone for a moment I want to take the opportunity of thanking you from the bottom of my heart!" "Thanking me! For what?" "For your friendship." "How absurd you are!" she laughed. "Then I ought to be making pretty speeches to you to thank you for yours as well!" "It is not quite the same thing," returned Floriot. "You are a charming, happy, amiable and altogether delightful woman while I—Well, I'm just a bear." "You don't mean to say so!" she exclaimed, with a look of mock alarm. "Oh, yes!" he nodded with a smile. "Bear is the only word that describes me—an ill-tempered bear, at that!" "You will never be as disagreeable as my husband was!" And Madame Varenne shook her head decidedly. Floriot laughed. "Really! Was he even gloomier than I?" "My husband! Good gracious me! You are a regular devil of a chap compared to him!" exclaimed the sprightly lady, earnestly. Again Floriot burst into a laugh. It was the first exercise of the kind he had had in some time. "You can't have amused yourself much," he suggested. "You can't have had a wildly merry time." "I didn't!" was the forcible response. "But now everything and everybody appear charming by contrast!" "Even I?" he smiled. "Yes, even you!" she admitted, with another smile. At that moment her brother entered and Floriot greeted him affectionately. His first questions were about Raymond and the replies were satisfactory. He rubbed his hands enthusiastically and busied himself with his bag, while Floriot attempted to continue his speech of thanks in the face of protests from both. "There, there, there!" broke in the doctor. "How do you know that we are not both of us sowing that we may reap? One never knows how useful it may be to be friends with a man in your profession," he chuckled. Madame Varenne made her adieux and left with a rather wistful look at Floriot as she pressed his hand. She promised to come back the first thing in the morning. "And now, friend Floriot," said the doctor, looking at him gravely, "as the boy is out of danger, you begin taking care of yourself." Floriot stared at him in surprise. "Why, there's nothing the matter with me!" he exclaimed. "Oh, yes, there is!" retorted the man of medicine. "And a great deal more than you think!" "Nonsense!" said Floriot, lightly. "I'm a little tired, but a few days' rest will——" "No, no, no!" interrupted the doctor, with an energetic shake of the head. "You are working too much and you are taking too little exercise. You brood and worry over things and you must take a cure!" "What sort of a cure?" inquired Floriot, with an uneasy glance. "Every morning, no matter what the weather is, you must take a smart two hours' walk." "But, my dear fellow——" "You must walk at a smart pace for two hours," insisted the doctor. "And you must feed heartily." "My dear fellow, I can hardly get through a cutlet for my lunch!" protested Floriot. "I will let you off to-day, but from to-morrow on you must eat two," he continued firmly, as if he had not heard the interruption. Considering that luncheon was some eight hours in the past, this was not much of a concession. "I shall never be able to do anything of the sort!" Floriot declared. "Oh, yes, you will!" the doctor assured him with exasperating confidence. "On your way home every evening you must look in at the fencing school and fence for half-hour, take a cold shower and walk home." "Walk! Out to Passy?" "Out to Passy." "My dear doctor," he smiled pityingly, "I can't possibly follow your prescription. I haven't the time." "Then you must get married," returned the doctor calmly. Floriot gazed at him for a few moments in dumb amazement and then laughed amusedly. "Distraction of some sort is absolutely necessary for your case," the doctor explained as gravely as a judge. "There is nothing to be startled at—you've been married before"—Floriot winced—"you can do so again. A lonely life is not the life for you. Look out for a happy-minded woman, who will keep you young and be a mother to your child, and marry her. I have an idea," he smiled knowingly, "that you won't have much difficulty in finding the very woman!" In a flash the young lawyer saw what was in his friend's mind. He saw, too, that he must make him a confidant—tell him a story that he had sworn should never be put into words. For almost a minute emotion held him tongue-tied. Then he said brokenly: "My friend, I see now that I ought to—I ought to have—told you before. I—am not a widower!" Dr. Chennel fell back against the table astounded. "Not a widower!" he gasped. "My wife is living," said Floriot in a low, unsteady voice. "After three years of married life—she left me—with a lover. I came home unexpectedly one day—and found them—together. They rushed out of the house in terror. I should have killed them both, I think, if they had not run." The doctor murmured something meant to be sympathetic. He was too much amazed for speech. "I have sometimes thought of telling you, but, somehow, I could not talk of it. Chennel, old man!" he cried, miserably, laying his hand on his friend's arm, "you can't guess how horribly unhappy I am!" "Then—you—you love her still?" asked the doctor, gently. Floriot bowed his head to conceal the agony written on his face and threw up a hand in a gesture of despair. "I can think of no other woman! God knows, I have tried hard to forget her! She was the whole joy of my life—my life itself! I cannot tell you how I suffered. I would have died if I had dared. But I thought of the child, and that saved me from suicide. I remembered my duty to the boy and the thought of it kept me alive. If I had lost him——" He choked and turned abruptly away. "He will be running about in a week," said the doctor's quiet voice. "Thanks to you, doctor, thanks to you!" he cried, his eyes shining with tears and gratitude as he turned to his friend with both hands outstretched. "You have saved both of our lives!" They were gripping each other's hands hard when Rose appeared at the door to announce that Master Raymond was awake. Arm in arm they hurried off to the sick-room. Rose was about to follow a little later when she heard the buzz of the muffled door bell. "It is Monsieur Noel," she thought as she hurried to the door. Noel Sauvrin, a life-long friend of Floriot's expected to reach the house in Passy from the south of France that night. She opened the door with a smile of welcome that changed to a stare of frightened astonishment. There was a quick swish of skirt, a half-sob of "Rose!" a half-smothered exclamation of "Madame!" and a young woman threw herself into the maid's arms. Jacqueline Floriot had returned. CHAPTER II THE RETURN Madame Floriot's face told its own story of remorse and suffering. The cheeks had lost their smooth, lovely contour and the dark clouds under the beautiful eyes spoke of nights spent in tears. The eyes themselves were now dilated as she gripped the maid's arms until she hurt her and gazed into her face with searching dread. "My boy! Raymond!" she gasped, brokenly. "Is it true—has he been ill?" The maid gently disengaged herself from the clinging arms and glanced uneasily at the library door. Madame Floriot followed the look and moved quickly forward as the maid answered: "For more than two weeks, madame." The woman timidly pushed the door open and stepped into the library. She gave a quick gasp of relief when she saw that the room was empty. "I only heard of—it—yesterday—by accident," she half-whispered, her hand at her throat. Then as the memory of the hours of grief and dread swept over her she cried: "Rose, I must see him!" The maid looked her alarm. "Monsieur Floriot is with him, madame!" "Ah—h!" she stifled a sob. "Poor little chap!" said Rose, tenderly. "We thought he could never get over it!" The tortured mother sank into a chair with a moan of anguish. "But the danger is over now," continued Rose, gently. "The doctor says he will soon be well again." Jacqueline's eyes fell on a photograph of the boy on the table beside her and she seized it with both hands and held it to her face. "My Raymond! My laddie!" she sobbed, softly. "How he has grown! How big—and strong—he looks!" "He does not look strong now, madame," and Rose shook her head. "To think—that he might have died! And I should never have seen him again! My darling, my little laddie!" The face of the picture was wet with tears and kisses. "I wonder if he will recognize me! Does he remember me at all?" she cried eagerly. The maid gave a start and an exclamation of alarm. "Here's Monsieur Floriot!" Jacqueline rose unsteadily with a smothered cry and all but reeled toward the door. In a moment Rose's arm was around her. "No, no!" she whispered, reassuringly. "I was mistaken! I thought I heard him coming." The woman stood with both hands pressed to her breast and Rose watched her pityingly. She had loved her young mistress dearly and had seen much in her short married life to which both husband and wife had been blind. It was several moments before Jacqueline had sufficiently recovered from the shock to speak. "How—my heart—beats!" she panted. And then after another pause: "What—will he say—to me? But I don't care—I don't care what he says if he will only pardon me enough to let me stay here with my boy. If he—if he refuses to see me —I don't know what will happen to me! Rose! Rose!" she cried, piteously, sobbing on the maid's shoulder, "I—I am afraid!" Rose patted her shoulder and murmured sympathy until the sobs became less violent. Then she suggested gently: "Wouldn't it be better to write to Monsieur Floriot, madame? He does—he doesn't expect you and—you know how quick-tempered he is." "I have written to him! I have written three letters in the last three weeks and he has not answered them." "He didn't open them," said Rose, very low. There was another convulsive sob and then Jacqueline straightened and threw back her head, her eyes shining with feverish resolve. "I must see him! I will see him!" she cried in a high, unnatural voice. "He cannot—he must not condemn me unheard! He loved me a little once—he must hear me now! Does he ever speak of me?" The maid sadly shook her head. "Never, madame." "Never!" she echoed faintly. "No, madame." Jacqueline turned away for a moment with a sob of despair. "What did he say—what did he do when I—left? Do you remember?" Rose shuddered at the recollection. "I shall never forget it! He was like a madman! He shut himself up in his room for days together and wouldn't see anyone. Once he went out and was gone for twenty-four hours. I used to listen outside his door and I heard him sobbing and crying. I was so frightened once that in spite of his orders I went into his room. It was in the evening and he was sitting by the fire burning your letters and photographs and the tears were rolling down his cheeks!" Jacqueline listened white-faced, and as Rose told the story of her husband's grief a sudden gleam of hope made her dizzy and faint. He had loved her deeply, after all! He must still love her a little! She had not lost everything! "The boy saved his brain, I think," Rose was saying, but she barely heard her. "He never would let him leave him, night or day. Then he began to calm down a little and seemed to settle to his work again. He has worked a little harder than before—that's all. Then we moved out here," she added. Jacqueline turned to her and she was more nearly calm than she had been at any moment since entering the house. "Rose, I must see him!" she cried, determinedly. "Go and tell him that a lady wants to speak to him, but do not let him guess who it is!" "Ah, but——" "Rose, I beg of you!" The maid shook her head doubtfully and then with a sigh of resignation, went out to carry the message. Jacqueline, her knees trembling, dropped weakly into a chair and strove to compose herself for the terrible interview to come. In returning she had had no hope of forgiveness, for she had not believed that her husband had ever truly loved her. But now that she had gained hope from Rose's story of his grief her emotions were beyond control. There was no natural vice in her, and for that reason she had walked in the purgatory of the fallen who are still permitted to see themselves with the eyes of the virtuous. Vice breeds callousness. She had been gay, witty, laughter-loving and emotional. Without love, as she understood it, she felt herself to be incomplete. She had worshipped her husband, but at last had come to believe that she was giving far more than she received. She never knew the heart of the silent, serious, hard-working man. Her vanity was hurt, and through her vanity she fell—to be driven away from her husband and her boy. Her boy! For two years she had thought of little else, had dreamed of nothing else but the hour when she would be permitted to hold him to her breast. Surely, even the stem attorney who had loved her once would not deny her the mother's right to be with her child in his illness! He must permit her to live where she could see her boy sometimes and watch him grow to manhood! She picked up the photograph and kissed it passionately again and again. "Oh, my darling, my dear one! My laddie!" she half sobbed. "If it were not for you I——" A door facing her opened softly and her husband stepped into the room! CHAPTER III MAGDALEN Floriot did not recognize her as he entered. She was rising and her head was bowed. He turned slowly with hand still on the knob of the door and their eyes met! Every muscle in his body grew rigid and the pallor of his face, born of his long nights in the chair by his boy's bed, changed slowly to a pasty, sickly white. The woman gazed at him with heaving bosom and hope and dread in her eyes. "You——!" he choked. Jacqueline timidly took a half step toward him, and clasped her hands. "Yes—I. I——," she began fearfully, but the sound of her voice galvanized the statue at the door. "Leave this house!" he commanded sternly and he advanced firmly into the room. "Louis! I——" "Leave this house at once!" he interrupted, his voice rising with his anger. "Listen, Louis, please! I——" "Go! Do you hear me!" he cried furiously as he stalked past her, opened the door into the hall, and held it for her to pass out. Jacqueline crept toward him looking up with frightened, tear-stained face. "Yes, yes! I will go, I will go!" she panted hurriedly. "I—I promise I will go right away! But, please, Louis, listen—one moment, please!" He looked at the crouching, pleading figure and the anger in his face gave way to an expression as indescribable as unforgettable, and he sharply turned away. "Well, what is it then? Be quick! What do you want?" he demanded roughly. She sank to her knees and raised her hands to him in piteous appeal. "Louis, forgive me! For——" "What!" His voice startled her like a pistol shot. But she stammered on: "Forgive me, Louis, so——" He slammed the door and in two strides was standing over with clenched fists. She could not meet his furious eyes and her head bowed almost to his feet. "Forgive you! Forgive you!" and he laughed a short, bitter laugh that was more terrible and hope-destroying than curses would have been to the crouching woman. "For two years I have lived day and night with the thought of you in another man's arms and your kisses on his lips! And you ask me to forgive you! You——" "Louis! Louis!" she moaned. "In our child's name——" "Stop!" he broke in sternly. "Don't dare to mention him! He is nothing to you and you are nothing to him! He is mine— mine only! Did you think of him when you left us?" "Louis, for God's sake! I was mad! I was——" "Oh, of course!" his harsh laugh grated in again. "That is about what I expected." Then his face hardened and he lashed her with his scorn. "I was false to my husband. I deserted my child—I was mad! I stole out of my home like a thief and took all of its happiness with me—I was mad! I went away with my lover to what I believed would be a life of pleasure—I was mad!" I trampled on every "Louis! Louis!" she sobbed, and writhed at his feet. "It's the truth! I was mad! I——" "The truth! Hah! Would you like to hear the truth? You were tired of being an honorable woman—a pure mother! You were tired of me and loved—him! That's the truth! You loved him, didn't you? You loved him!" "He loved me! He said he would kill himself for me! And I——" "And you believed him! You never thought of me and I"—for a moment grief conquered anger and his voice broke—"I worshipped you! And ours was a love match," he went on bitterly, "for you told me once a thousand years ago that you loved me!" His face worked, in a spasm of anguish, and he tried to move away, but the woman clutched a leg of his trousers with both hands and lifted her head suddenly. "And it was—it is true, Louis!" she cried desperately. His look was more than answer enough. "It is! It is, Louis!" she pleaded feverishly. "We didn't understand each other, that's all! It was my fault, my fault! You loved me passionately but I did not know it! I could not see it! And you made me only part of your home—never part of your life! I was never your friend—you were gentle with me, but you never took me into your life—you never really knew my heart, and with you I always felt alone. I loved you but"—she fought for breath and coherence—"but I was always afraid of you—you were so serious and severe! I wanted to laugh and have a good time! You never noticed it —you had your work, your ambitions, your legal friends and I—had nothing! Nothing!" she sobbed. "And I was so young—twenty! Hardly twenty! Oh, Louis, forgive me! Forgive me!" Floriot half staggered to a chair and sank into it. The unexpectedness of the soul-wracking scene coming on top of the strain of his two weeks' vigil in the sick-room was almost too much for even his iron nerve. Jacqueline, huddled on the floor, was sobbing convulsively. He buried his face in his hands and groaned. At the sound she struggled to her feet and took a step toward him, gasping to control her heaving bosom. He waved a hand toward the door without raising his head. "Louis!" she cried passionately, desperately, "you would not condemn the lowest criminal if there were any defense for him, and I am the mother of your boy! It is all my fault, but you could have helped me if you would! You swore to love, honor and protect me, and did you do it? You loved me but you never honored me! You did not think I was worthy to be the companion to you that a wife should be! You looked for companionship to your friends. I might as well have been your mistress! Did you protect me? You brought him to the house the first time? You said he was your friend and you encouraged me to be kind to him. You permitted him to be my escort wherever I wanted to go, because my pleasure would not then interfere with your work or your plans!" She choked. Floriot did not stir. "He grew to be everything to me that you should have been. He sympathized with me in everything! He anticipated every thought and desire! You would not even make an effort to please me if my request interfered with your work— always your work!" "Life of pleasure!" she quoted bitterly. "Louis, I never loved him! You angered me and hurt me because you would not let me come close to your real life. And I—I—Louis, I was mad! But you could have saved me! A little attention—if I could have felt that I was anything more than a plaything—something to amuse you in the few minutes that you ever took for amusement—Louis.. you will never know how I fought with myself—the torture of those days—and when I came to you for help——!" The words died away in a sob. There was no sound from the husband but the labor of his breathing. "Do you remember a few days before—before—I—the night I—left—I wanted you to go to Fontainebleau with me and you wouldn't? And I went with—him! That day in the park he—kissed my hands—and the lace of my dress—and said he would kill himself at my feet if I didn't love him——!" She stopped with a gasp and went on, bringing the words out in broken phrases. "I made him take me home—I was running from him—from myself—to you! I found you in your study and begged you —to go out with me! I wanted to—show myself—that I loved you only! Do you remember what you said? 'I'm too busy. Run along—and get Lescelles to take you!'" "Oh, Louis, Louis!" she cried, throwing herself at his feet, while the storm of weeping shook her again, "you could have saved me then!" Still the bowed figure in the chair did not stir. He was so numbed that his consciousness seemed to be that of another— watching, listening and judging. He was the type of man whom Duty, once embraced, grips with hug like the Iron Maiden's, and even gains a monstrous pleasure as life itself or all that makes life worth while is slowly crushed out. Had she come a month before this scene would have left him unshaken, but now——! His boy—their boy—lay up-stairs, saved from death by a miracle. Her clasped hands rested on one of his knees and her head touched his arms. His eyes were closed, but he nearly swooned when he breathed the perfume of her hair that brought back the picture of a dark head on the white pillow in the dim moonlight or the gray of dawn. Then came the terrible thought that for two years that picture had been the joy of another.... Fragments of his talk with Madame Varenne flashed through his mind. Was there a little fault on his side?... He need not speak a word. He had but to open his eyes and look forgiveness and her warm body would be pressed again to his breast, her soft arms would be around his neck and her soft lips would shower kisses on his face. ... He drew a sharp breath and rose slowly and uncertainly. "Jacqueline!" he said in an unsteady voice, not daring to let his wavering eyes look down. "Jacqueline, you must go!" A long, convulsive sob and: "Ah, why did I go at all? Why did I ever go?" she moaned. "You would have killed me and that would have been the end of it! Louis, forgive me! Forgive me!" And she clasped his limp hand in both of hers and looked up piteously. "No! No!" he cried, fighting desperately with an impulse to stoop and crush the slender body in his arms and kiss the tears from the upturned face. "Surely, you see that I——" "What will become of me?" she pleaded, as her instinct told her that he was weakening. "Go back to him! Go back to the man who would have killed himself for you!" he cried in a voice that he tried in vain to make as bitter as the words. And he made no effort to free his hand. The answer was a barely audible whisper: "He is dead!" Floriot jerked his hand away with an exclamation of horror and sprang back, his eyes flashing with anger. "So that is why you've come back!" he blazed furiously. "No! No!" she protested, frightened, struggling to her feet with arms outstretched. "I came to see our boy—our Raymond! To beg you—to——" "Leave the house" The flaming scorn in his eyes stopped her. "And I was on the point of yielding!" His laugh made the woman wince. "What a fool I was! I actually believed you! So he is dead, is he?" She bowed her head in utter despair. "I wrote—to tell you." "And now that he is dead you thought of me again—of me, of your idiot of a husband"—his voice rose with fury—"the simple-minded fool who would be only too glad to take you back again!" "Louis, I love you—I wanted to see you, to see our child again! Can't you see I've changed?" she pleaded. She threw open her arms and tears ran unheeded down her face. "Changed! Hah!—Leave the house!" and he pointed imperiously to the door. "Louis, it's true! Let me see our boy again!"— "He has forgotten you!" "Let me kiss him—just once!" she begged. "He believes you to be dead!" he said, with cold cruelty. The mother rushed to him with half-stifled shriek and terror in her face. "Louis! No! No!" she screamed, "No! No! No!" "He does!" "Louis, no! Don't say that!" Horror was driving her to hysteria. "It can't be true! You wouldn't tell him that! Louis, you loved me once! You loved me! It's not possible! I am your wife—his mother! His mother!" Floriot eyed her, cold and unmoved. "You have gone out of his life and mine," he replied calmly. Jacqueline moaning, sank to the floor. "Oh, my God!" she prayed. "Help me! Help me! Louis, be kind to me! A life of repentance——" He pulled her roughly to her feet and half-carried her toward the door. "Don't take my child away from me!" she panted, struggling. "Go! Leave the house!" "Oh! Let me see him! I won't—speak! Let me kiss him! I won't—say a word!" she gasped as they reached the door and he pushed her violently through into the hall. "Louis! Pity—! Raymond! My child, my——" The slam of the door cut off the sound of the pleading voice from his ears. He held the knob to prevent her from reopening it. For a few moments there was silence. Then Floriot heard through the door something between a choke and a sob and the quickly receding rustle of skirts. The bang of the outside door echoed through the silent house. CHAPTER IV OPENING FOR THE DEFENSE For more than a minute Floriot stood motionless, but now he was leaning his weight on the hand that held the knob. He listened—half-hoping, half-fearing that he would hear her at the outside door—and then staggered across the room and collapsed into the chair where she had sat, lying with arms and head on the table above the photograph that Jacqueline had kissed. He had won—but to know that he would have found happiness in defeat. "God!" he groaned aloud. "She's gone! She's gone! And I love her! I love her! And I shall never see her again! She must never see Raymond! Her influence would be——No!" he cried, as if fighting something within himself. "She must never come back. God give me strength to forget!" he prayed in anguish. "Let me forget! Let me forget!" There was a sound of someone at the door leading to the stairway, and he barely had time to wipe the moisture from his forehead and half-compose himself before Dr. Chennel swung breezily into the room. "He's doing splendidly!" cried the doctor with a cheery smile. "And he's hungry—the best sign in the world! I have left my orders with the nurses." He began packing his little bag on a side table. "He's to have a little milk and three spoonfuls of soup before he goes to sleep and nothing else until I come again in——Why, what's the matter?" he cried in alarm, hurrying over to his friend as he caught a glimpse of his face. "Are you ill?" Floriot straightened up and put out his hand. His face was lined and livid and his eyes were wild with grief. "My dear—doctor!" he said, brokenly, "I have just gone through—the most awful fifteen minutes of my life. My—my wife—has been here!" "Your wife!" The doctor fell back a step and stared at him. Floriot buried his face in his handkerchief. "Yes, she has—just gone! You can imagine—how I felt No, you can't!" he cried, bitterly, springing up with clenched fists. "For a moment I was afraid of myself—afraid that I would kill her!" Dr. Chennel watched the writhing face in silence as Floriot paced wildly up and down the room. "Doctor, in these few minutes—I have lived five years over again! All the joy, all the miseries, all my love, all her——" The other stopped him with a gentle touch on the arm. "Floriot, my friend," he said quietly, "sit down a moment and try to get hold of yourself." The calm strong voice of the physician had the effect that he desired. Floriot's shoulders squared and his voice grew firm. "You're right, Doctor. I will forget all about it! Do you know why she came back?" he added bitterly. "Her lover is dead!" Rose opened the hall door. "Monsieur Noel has come, sir!" Floriot nodded. "Show him in here, Rose," he said quietly and turned to Dr. Chennel. "Noel is an old and very dear friend whom I thought dead until this morning," he explained. "Poor chap! He and I——" A well-set-up young man—apparently several years younger than Floriot, though his hair was more heavily grayed— entered the library with a springy step and cheery call of: "Well, here I am! And very much alive!" His blue eyes were smiling and his white teeth gleamed in the lamplight but his face bore the marks of storms that sweep the soul. And on his right temple was visible the end of a large scar that extended up under the hair. "My dear old Noel!" exclaimed Floriot, hurrying to meet him with both hands extended. The friends stood with their hands locked and looked each other over with the affection mixed with curiosity that may be marked when two who have been as brothers meet after a long separation. "This is my friend, Dr. Chennel," said Floriot, turning at last. "Shake hands with him, old man! He has just saved my boy's life!" "Then I'm more than glad to shake you by the hand, Doctor," said Noel, gracefully, as he took the doctor's fingers in his. "For anything that touches Floriot comes very near to me!" The doctor bowed his appreciation and Floriot, who had never taken his eyes off his friend, remarked with a smile: "You look in very good health for a dead man." Noel turned and asked with whimsical surprise: "Then you heard of my suicide?" "Yes," returned his friend gravely, "and the papers said you were dead." "In the words of a great American humorist," laughed Noel, 'The report was greatly exaggerated!'" "Two bullets, they said." "Yes, and they were right," nodded the "suicide," brightly. "But two bullets were not enough for me. I've always been a bit hardheaded, you know, though one of the doctors had another explanation." The other two looked at him inquiringly, particularly Dr. Chennel, who was prepared to combat any heretical theory. "When I was on the highway to recovery," resumed Noel, "one of the doctors told me that he didn't think that I would ever get to be marksman enough to hit my brain. Said I ought to practise trying to hit a pea in a wine barrel before I tried it again. Then I found out I could laugh," and he burst into one to prove it, "and decided that as long as I could take enough interest in life to laugh there was no occasion for my going on with my suicide plans." Dr. Chennel and Floriot joined in the laugh with considerable restraint and the former felt that he was the "undesirable third." "Well, I must be going," he said, gathering up his hat and bag and shaking hands with both the friends. "You have a good deal to tell each other. I'll be back in the morning," he added to Floriot. Then with many injunctions about the medicine and food he departed. "And now," said Noel, putting a hand affectionately on each shoulder and holding his friend off at arm's length, "let me have a look at you, Louis, old man!" He paused and gravely scrutinized the smiling face. "Life has not been much kinder to you than to me, judging from your looks," he said at last. The hands fell and he turned away. "Find me looking old, do you?" "No, not old for your age," smiled Noel. "How old are you—forty?" "Thirty-five!" protested Floriot. "Well, nobody would say that you were a day more than forty-two!" his friend gravely assured him. "Thank you!" was the ironic response, and they smiled into each other's eyes. "Fancy! Five whole years since I saw you!" "And five weeks' separation, in the old days, seemed a century!" "You're going to stay here all night and take breakfast with me in the morning." "Most assuredly." "An early breakfast, though," Floriot smiled a warning. "I have to be in court at nine." "Ah, of course!" nodded his friend. "You're Deputy Attorney now." "Yes, I received my promotion more than a year ago." "I always knew you'd get on!" exclaimed Noel, patting his shoulder. Floriot turned away with a sigh. "I have not much to worry about there," he said, without enthusiasm. "But, I want to hear about you, old man! What happened to you? Why did you want to commit suicide. Who was she?" Noel threw him a quick, searching glance. "It was a woman," he nodded. "Of course it was! For some time before you went away I noticed a change in you." Again there was the sharp look. "Ah, you did, did you?" "Yes, you were not as jolly and lively as you had been before," Floriot continued gently. "And you used to be away for days at a time; so I knew it must be a woman. You loved her?" A long steady gaze answered him. "And she was false to you?" "She did not even know I loved her!" was the low response. "Didn't you tell her?" asked Floriot, surprised. "No!" "Why?" he persisted with freedom of a friend. "Was she free?" "She loved another man," replied Noel. There was not a tremor in his voice but he stood very still and did not meet his friend's questioning eyes. "When I heard of her marriage I felt that my life was of no particular use to me. So," with a shrug of the shoulders, "I tried to get rid of it—and failed. Ridiculous, eh?" Floriot laid his hand on his friend's arm. The grip of the fingers told his unspoken sympathy. "Oh, I am used to being a fool!" declared Noel, lightly, but with a sub-current of bitterness in his voice. "I was the fool of the family at home and one of the best jokes they ever had at school. I might have known that the woman I loved would have sense enough to pick out another man. I even made a fool of myself when I tried to take my life!" "But you were badly hurt?" "Pretty badly," replied Noel gravely; "but I was soon on my feet again. Then," the shrug again, "having nothing on earth to live for but an occasional laugh—which doesn't cost much—I made a ridiculous amount of money in the Canadian fur business." "But, why didn't you write to me?" demanded Floriot, reproachfully. Noel turned to him apologetically. "I wanted to forget and to be forgotten, old man," he said. "The papers reported me dead, and the fact that I didn't die didn't seem to interest them, so I seized the opportunity to stay dead until it suited my pleasure to come to life again." "Are you married?" "No!" was the emphatic reply. "I shall never marry!" "So you still love her?" Noel made an impatient movement "I don't want anyone else!" he answered, curtly. "Besides, I'm too old to think of marrying now Let's talk about you, Louis. Are you happy? How is Jacqueline? Little Jennie Wren, we used to call her," he went on with a tenderly reminiscent smile. "What a pretty, lively little thing she was! I suppose she's more quiet now after five years with a solemn old crank like you. Why, Louis! What's the matter?" Floriot had sunk into an armchair, his face white and drawn. In two strides his friend was beside him, bending over him in alarm. "Don't—don't worry! It's nothing—nothing!" said Floriot unsteadily. "My child has been at death's door—for the last few days and I thought —I—had lost him. My nerves are just a little—out of joint. That's all!" "My dear old chap!" cried Noel anxiously, "the boy is all right now?" "Yes, Raymond's out of danger now." There was a long pause and then in altered tones Noel asked. "And how old is this Monsieur Raymond?" "Four." "Quite a man. Is he your only child?" There was a curious strained quality in his voice. Floriot nodded. "I will see him, of course?" Floriot wiped his forehead with his handkerchief and returned it to his pocket. Then he replied more calmly. "Certainly! In the morning. He can't be disturbed to-night." There was another long pause broken by Noel. "Don't tell your wife I'm here," he said. "I want to see her face when she comes in and sees me!" He walked slowly across the room with his back to his friend. "You—won't see her," was the low reply. Noel turned quickly. "Oh, she's away?" Floriot leaned forward, his elbows on his knees and his face buried in his hands. "Yes, she's—gone!" "Gone!" echoed Noel in bewildered astonishment. Floriot rose and lurched a step or two away. Noel could see less than his profile and barely caught the words, but they were enough to leave him momentarily tongue-tied and paralyzed with amazement. "She left me—two years ago—with her lover!" Noel stared at him, dumb with amazement, and stammered something incoherently, of which Floriot could catch only the words, "little Jennie Wren!" in tones of pity. He wheeled on him. "You pity her!" Noel raised his eyebrows and looked calmly at his friend. "Is she not to be pitied most?" he asked gently. "Do you think so?" cried Floriot bitterly. "Then, what of me who adored her—and whose life she wrecked? I am an old man at thirty-five You told me so, yourself! Now, you know why!" The other half raised his hand and murmured something sympathetic. "You can never imagine what these last two years have been to me!" Floriot's voice was hoarse with anguish. "I have been tom with jealousy and dreams of vengeance and tortured almost beyond endurance by the memory of the happiness I have lost!" He dropped, shuddering, into a chair, his handkerchief pressed to his face. Noel gazed at him in pitying silence for several minutes. Then he spoke as gently as before. "And yet, she was not wicked," he said, and Floriot writhed. "She was only frivolous and wanted luxury and pleasure. Life was too serious a problem for her. And you never suspected anything?" "No!" groaned the figure in the chair. "I loved her and believed in her." Noel walked over and put his arm affectionately across his friend's bowed shoulders. "My dear old man, brace up!" he said, with not quite enough cheerfulness to grate. "Remember you have your boy still and—who knows? One of these days, perhaps, she'll be bitterly sorry for the misery she has caused, and you'll see her here again, asking——" "I have seen her again!" "She came back then?" asked Noel, dropping back, startled, as Floriot sprang up, his face blazing with anger again. "This very day she had the impudence——" "She came back?" repeated Noel's quiet voice, insistently. "And for what?" "Oh, not for much!" replied Floriot with bitter irony. "Merely to ask my pardon, and to ask me to take her back into my house—in her old place, between my son and myself!" "And what did you say?" The gentle voice and mild blue eyes were turning hard and metallic. "I told her to go!" "You turned her out?" "Turned her out! Of course, I did!" And he stared in astonishment at his friend's set face and narrowed eyes. "Floriot!" said Noel, sternly, "you have made a mistake! You turned her out in the street without knowing where she was going! My friend, unless, I'm badly mistaken myself, you'll be sorry for this in the morning!" Floriot stood dumbly for a moment, twice began to speak, and then with a gesture of despair turned away. Noel watched him in silence. Presently he wheeled again, his face calm with some sudden resolve. The pain was in his eyes. "Will you sit down, old man?" he said, quietly. "I want to tell you something." CHAPTER V CONTINUING FOR THE PROSECUTION When Floriot swore that the story of the wreck of his life should never be told until Judgment Day he did not know that the only man to whom he could possibly have poured out his grief was alive, and he could not foresee that one day he would be so near to collapse that he would be forced to seek the relief of confession. It is rarely that high-strung, sensitive men can put into words such a story as that which Floriot was about to confide to his friend. That is why they call upon the gunsmith instead of the divorce court for aid in "cleansing their honor." But now the need of counsel and comfort was strong upon him. Noel's refusal to agree with him, coming with the recollection of his owns wavering before his pleading wife, shook his faith in himself. He was willing to live again the terrible drama of his wrongs, and his grief to harden his bitter resolution and make a sure ally of Noel. The latter, when he was invited to sit down and listen, looked uncertainly at his friend's drawn face for a moment and then slowly settled back in the big chair, shading his eyes with his hands, until the other could barely tell whether they were open or closed. Floriot did not sit. He paced slowly up and down the room in silence as if preparing himself for the ordeal; and then he began. "Noel, my friend," he said, in low steady tones, "there is no man—or woman—alive excepting you, to whom I could talk as I'm going to do. I have no one left in the world but you and my boy and, God knows, I need both of you—if there is a God," he added bitterly. "You were about to defend her just now without question. You said that she was most to be pitied. I know why—you knew her before she was married. That was five years ago. Marriage develops people"—there was the bitter note again —"and she developed into a woman that you never knew and never dreamed could live in the same body with her. She had the happiness of a home and the life's happiness of two—and possibly three—persons in her hands. For the sake of a vicious intrigue which she now sees could never bring her anything but misery, she sacrificed her boy and me. And there is no consolation for me in the thought that she was caught in the ruins of the home that she pulled down!" Noel stirred in his chair but did not speak. In spite of his breezy humor and love of light conversation he had been blessed with the divine power of silence. "Her misery is no consolation to me," Floriot went on, his voice trembling slightly, "because I—I—old man, I still love her! And she loved me—for a year! Oh, Noel, that is the worst of the hell that I have lived in for two years! She loved me—for a year!" He paused in his walk and wiped his forehead with his handkerchief. Noel watched him silently. "But I am not weak enough nor cowardly enough to let that weigh with me. The boy must be protected. He must never know that she is alive—never know what she did." He seemed to be talking more to himself than to his friend. "If she came back there is no knowing how long she would stay!" He clenched his fists end cried bitterly: "The man who said that a woman who was untrue to one man would be untrue to two or a dozen knew her and her kind!" Noel was motionless; and, after a few more turns up and down the room, Floriot went on: "I know that she must have loved me, or why should she have married me? If she wanted position she could have married men farther up in the world than I was—than I am now. If she wanted money she could have married a bigger bank account than mine. No! She loved me—for a year. You said she was not naturally wicked. She was nothing else. Her love is a passion that bums itself out in a year and she will probably have a dozen lovers bef...