第30章 AN EMPTY ROOM.(2)

He spoke plainly.And yet,God forgive me,it was some time before I understood him:before I took in the meaning of his words,or could transfer my thoughts from the absent to my mother lying on the bed before me.When I did do so,and turned to her,and saw her still face and thin hair straggling over the coarse pillow,then,indeed,the sight overcame me.I thought no more of others--for I thought her dead;and with a great and bitter cry I fell on my knees beside her and hid my face.What,after all,was this headstrong girl to me?What were even kings and king's commissions to me beside her--beside the one human being who loved me still,the one being of my blood and name left,the one ever-patient,ever-constant heart which for years had beaten only for me?For a while,for a few moments,I was worthy of her;for I forgot all others.

Simon Fleix roused me at last from my stupor,making me understand that she was not dead,but in a deep swoon,the result of the shock she had undergone.A leech,for whom he had despatched a neighbour,came in as I rose,and taking my place,presently restored her to consciousness.But her extreme feebleness warned me not to hope for more than a temporary recovery;nor had I sat by her long before I discerned that this last blow,following on so many fears and privations,had reached a vital part,and that she was even now dying.

She lay for a while with her hand in mine and her eyes closed,but about noon,the student,contriving to give her some broth,she revived,and,recognising me,lay for more than an hour gazing at me with unspeakable content and satisfaction.At the end of that time,and when I thought she was past speaking,she signed to me to bend over her,and whispered something,which at first I could not catch.Presently I made it out to be,'She is gone--The girl you brought?'

Much troubled,I answered yes,begging her not to think about the matter.I need not have feared,however,for when she spoke again she did so without emotion,and rather as one seeing clearly something before her.

'When you find her,Gaston,'she murmured,'do not be angry with her.It was not her fault.She--he deceived her.See!'

I followed the direction rather of her eyes than her hand,and found beneath the pillow a length of gold chain.'She left that?'I murmured,a strange tumult of emotions in my breast.

'She laid it there,'my mother whispered.'And she would have stopped him saying what he did'--a shudder ran through my mother's frame at the remembrance of the man's words,though her eyes still gazed into mine with faith and confidence--'she would have stopped him,but she could not,Gaston.And then he hurried her away.'

'He showed her a token,madame,did he not?'I could not for my life repress the question,so much seemed to turn on the point.

'A bit of gold,'my mother whispered,smiling faintly.'Now let me sleep.'And,clinging always to my hand,she closed her eyes.

The student came back soon afterwards with some comforts for which I had despatched him,and we sat by her until the evening fell,and far into the night.It was a relief to me to learn from the leech that she had been ailing for some time,and that in any case the end must have come soon.She suffered no pain and felt no fears,but meeting my eyes whenever she opened her own,or came out of the drowsiness which possessed her,thanked God,I think,and was content.As for me,I remember that room became,for the time,the world.Its stillness swallowed up all the tumults which filled the cities of France,and its one interest the coming and going of a feeble breath--eclipsed the ambitions and hopes of a lifetime.

Before it grew light Simon Fleix stole out to attend to the horses.When he returned he came to me and whispered in my ear that he had something to tell me;and my mother lying in a quiet sleep at the time,I disengaged my hand,and,rising softly,went with him to the hearth.

Instead of speaking,he held his fist before me and suddenly unclosed the fingers.'Do you know it?'he said,glancing at me abruptly.

I took what he held,and looking at it,nodded.It was a knot of velvet of a peculiar dark red colour,and had formed,as I knew the moment I set eyes on it,part of the fastening of mademoiselle's mask.'Where did you find it?'I muttered,supposing that he had picked it up on the stairs.

'Look at it!'he answered impatiently.'You have not looked.'

I turned it over,and then saw something which had escaped me at first--that the wider part of the velvet was disfigured by a fantastic stitching,done very roughly and rudely with a thread of white silk.The stitches formed letters,the letters words.

With a start I read,'A MOI!'and saw in a corner,in smaller stitches,the initials 'C.d.l.V.'

I looked eagerly at the student.'Where did you find this?'Isaid.

'I picked it up in the street,'he answered quietly,'not three hundred paces from here.'

I thought a moment.'In the gutter,or near the wall?'I asked.

'Near the wall,to be sure.'

'Under a window?'

'Precisely,'he said.'You may be easy;I am not a fool.Imarked the place,M.de Marsac,and shall not forget it.'

Even the sorrow and solicitude I felt on my mother's behalf--feelings which had seemed a minute before to secure me against all other cares or anxieties whatever--were not proof against this discovery.For I found myself placed in a strait so cruel Imust suffer either way.On the one hand,I could not leave my mother;I were a heartless ingrate to do that.On the other,Icould not,without grievous pain,stand still and inactive while Mademoiselle de la Vire,whom I had sworn to protect,and who was now suffering through my laches and mischance,appealed to me for help.For I could not doubt that this was what the bow of velvet meant;still less that it was intended for me,since few save myself would be likely to recognise it,and she would naturally expect me to make some attempt at pursuit.