John Rex found the “George” disagreeably prepared for his august arrival. Obsequious1 waiters took his dressing-bag and overcoat, the landlord himself welcomed him at the door. Two naval2 gentlemen came out of the coffee-room to stare at him. “Have you any more luggage, Mr. Devine?” asked the landlord, as he flung open the door of the best drawing-room. It was awkwardly evident that his wife had no notion of suffering him to hide his borrowed light under a bushel.
A supper-table laid for two people gleamed bright from the cheeriest corner. A fire crackled beneath the marble mantelshelf. The latest evening paper lay upon a chair; and, brushing it carelessly with her costly3 dress, the woman he had so basely deserted4 came smiling to meet him.
“Well, Mr. Richard Devine,” said she, “you did not expect to see me again, did you?”
Although, on his journey down, he had composed an elaborate speech wherewith to greet her, this unnatural5 civility dumbfounded him. “Sarah! I never meant to —”
“Hush, my dear Richard — it must be Richard now, I suppose. This is not the time for explanations. Besides, the waiter might hear you. Let us have some supper; you must be hungry, I am sure.” He advanced to the table mechanically. “But how fat you are!” she continued. “Too good living, I suppose. You were not so fat at Port Ar —–Oh, I forgot, my dear! Come and sit down. That’s right. I have told them all that I am your wife, for whom you have sent. They regard me with some interest and respect in consequence. Don’t spoil their good opinion of me.”
He was about to utter an imprecation, but she stopped him by a glance. “No bad language, John, or I shall ring for a constable6. Let us understand one another, my dear. You may be a very great man to other people, but to me you are merely my runaway7 husband — an escaped convict. If you don’t eat your supper civilly, I shall send for the police.”
“Sarah!” he burst out, “I never meant to desert you. Upon my word. It is all a mistake. Let me explain.”
“There is no need for explanations yet, Jack8 — I mean Richard. Have your supper. Ah! I know what you want.”
She poured out half a tumbler of brandy, and gave it to him. He took the glass from her hand, drank the contents, and then, as though warmed by the spirit, laughed. “What a woman you are, Sarah. I have been a great brute9, I confess.”
“You have been an ungrateful villain10,” said she, with sudden passion, “a hardened, selfish villain.”
“But, Sarah —”
“Don’t touch me!” “’Pon my word, you are a fine creature, and I was a fool to leave you.” The compliment seemed to soothe11 her, for her tone changed somewhat. “It was a wicked, cruel act, Jack. You whom I saved from death — whom I nursed — whom I enriched. It was the act of a coward.”
“I admit it. It was.” “You admit it. Have you no shame then? Have you no pity for me for what I have suffered all these years?”
“I don’t suppose you cared much.”
“Don’t you? You never thought about me at all. I have cared this much, John Rex — bah! the door is shut close enough — that I have spent a fortune in hunting you down; and now I have found you, I will make you suffer in your turn.”
He laughed again, but uneasily. “How did you discover me?”
With a readiness which showed that she had already prepared an answer to the question, she unlocked a writing-case, which was on the side table, and took from it a newspaper. “By one of those strange accidents which are the ruin of men like you. Among the papers sent to the overseer from his English friends was this one.”
She held out an illustrated12 journal — a Sunday organ of sporting opinion — and pointed13 to a portrait engraved14 on the centre page. It represented a broad-shouldered, bearded man, dressed in the fashion affected15 by turfites and lovers of horse-flesh, standing16 beside a pedestal on which were piled a variety of racing17 cups and trophies18. John Rex read underneath19 this work of art the name,
Mr. Richard Devine,
The Leviathan of the Turf.
“And you recognized me?”
“The portrait was sufficiently20 like you to induce me to make inquiries21, and when I found that Mr. Richard Devine had suddenly returned from a mysterious absence of fourteen years, I set to work in earnest. I have spent a deal of money, Jack, but I’ve got you!”
“You have been clever in finding me out; I give you credit for that.”
“There is not a single act of your life, John Rex, that I do not know,” she continued, with heat. “I have traced you from the day you stole out of my house until now. I know your continental22 trips, your journeyings here and there in search of a lost clue. I pieced together the puzzle, as you have done, and I know that, by some foul23 fortune, you have stolen the secret of a dead man to ruin an innocent and virtuous24 family.”
“Hullo! hullo!” said John Rex. “Since when have you learnt to talk of virtue25?”
“It is well to taunt26, but you have got to the end of your tether now, Jack. I have communicated with the woman whose son’s fortune you have stolen. I expect to hear from Lady Devine in a day or so.”
“Well — and when you hear?”
“I shall give back the fortune at the price of her silence!”
“Ho! ho! Will you?”
“Yes; and if my husband does not come back and live with me quietly, I shall call the police.”
John Rex sprang up. “Who will believe you, idiot?” he cried. “I’ll have you sent to gaol27 as an impostor.”
“You forget, my dear,” she returned, playing coquettishly with her rings, and glancing sideways as she spoke28, “that you have already acknowledged me as your wife before the landlord and the servants. It is too late for that sort of thing. Oh, my dear Jack, you think you are very clever, but I am as clever as you.”
Smothering29 a curse, he sat down beside her. “Listen, Sarah. What is the use of fighting like a couple of children. I am rich —”
“So am I.” “Well, so much the better. We will join our riches together. I admit that I was a fool and a cur to leave you; but I played for a great stake. The name of Richard Devine was worth nearly half a million in money. It is mine. I won it. Share it with me! Sarah, you and I defied the world years ago. Don’t let us quarrel now. I was ungrateful. Forget it. We know by this time that we are not either of us angels. We started in life together — do you remember, Sally, when I met you first?— determined30 to make money. We have succeeded. Why then set to work to destroy each other? You are handsomer than ever, I have not lost my wits. Is there any need for you to tell the world that I am a runaway convict, and that you are — well, no, of course there is no need. Kiss and be friends, Sarah. I would have escaped you if I could, I admit. You have found me out. I accept the position. You claim me as your husband. You say you are Mrs. Richard Devine. Very well, I admit it. You have all your life wanted to be a great lady. Now is your chance!” Much as she had cause to hate him, well as she knew his treacherous31 and ungrateful character, little as she had reason to trust him, her strange and distempered affection for the scoundrel came upon her again with gathering32 strength. As she sat beside him, listening to the familiar tones of the voice she had learned to love, greedily drinking in the promise of a future fidelity33 which she was well aware was made but to be broken, her memory recalled the past days of trust and happiness, and her woman’s fancy once more invested the selfish villain she had reclaimed34 with those attributes which had enchained her wilful35 and wayward affections. The unselfish devotion which had marked her conduct to the swindler and convict was, indeed, her one redeeming36 virtue; and perhaps she felt dimly — poor woman — that it were better for her to cling to that, if she lost all the world beside. Her wish for vengeance37 melted under the influence of these thoughts. The bitterness of despised love, the shame and anger of desertion, ingratitude38, and betrayal, all vanished. The tears of a sweet forgiveness trembled in her eyes, the unreasoning love of her sex — faithful to nought39 but love, and faithful to love in death — shook in her voice. She took his coward hand and kissed it, pardoning all his baseness with the sole reproach, “Oh, John, John, you might have trusted me after all?”
John Rex had conquered, and he smiled as he embraced her. “I wish I had,” said he; “it would have saved me many regrets; but never mind. Sit down; now we will have supper.”
“Your preference has one drawback, Sarah,” he said, when the meal was concluded, and the two sat down to consider their immediate40 course of action, “it doubles the chance of detection.”
“How so?”
“People have accepted me without inquiry41, but I am afraid not without dislike. Mr. Francis Wade42, my uncle, never liked me; and I fear I have not played my cards well with Lady Devine. When they find I have a mysterious wife their dislike will become suspicion. Is it likely that I should have been married all these years and not have informed them?”
“Very unlikely,” returned Sarah calmly, “and that is just the reason why you have not been married all these years. Really,” she added, with a laugh, “the male intellect is very dull. You have already told ten thousand lies about this affair, and yet you don’t see your way to tell one more.”
“What do you mean?”
“Why, my dear Richard, you surely cannot have forgotten that you married me last year on the Continent? By the way, it was last year that you were there, was it not? I am the daughter of a poor clergyman of the Church of England; name — anything you please– and you met me — where shall we say? Baden, Aix, Brussels? Cross the Alps, if you like, dear, and say Rome.” John Rex put his hand to his head. “Of course — I am stupid,” said he. “I have not been well lately. Too much brandy, I suppose.”
“Well, we will alter all that,” she returned with a laugh, which her anxious glance at him belied43. “You are going to be domestic now, Jack — I mean Dick.”
“Go on,” said he impatiently. “What then?”
“Then, having settled these little preliminaries, you take me up to London and introduce me to your relatives and friends.”
He started. “A bold game.”
“Bold! Nonsense! The only safe one. People don’t, as a rule, suspect unless one is mysterious. You must do it; I have arranged for your doing it. The waiters here all know me as your wife. There is not the least danger — unless, indeed, you are married already?” she added, with a quick and angry suspicion.
“You need not be alarmed. I was not such a fool as to marry another woman while you were alive — had I even seen one I would have cared to marry. But what of Lady Devine? You say you have told her.”
“I have told her to communicate with Mrs. Carr, Post Office, Torquay, in order to hear something to her advantage. If you had been rebellious44, John, the ‘something’ would have been a letter from me telling her who you really are. Now you have proved obedient, the ‘something’ will be a begging letter of a sort which she has already received hundreds, and which in all probability she will not even answer. What do you think of that, Mr. Richard Devine?”
“You deserve success, Sarah,” said the old schemer, in genuine admiration45. “By Jove, this is something like the old days, when we were Mr. and Mrs. Crofton.”
“Or Mr. and Mrs. Skinner, eh, John?” she said, with as much tenderness in her voice as though she had been a virtuous matron recalling her honeymoon46. “That was an unlucky name, wasn’t it, dear? You should have taken my advice there.” And immersed in recollection of their past rogueries, the worthy47 pair pensively48 smiled. Rex was the first to awake from that pleasant reverie.
“I will be guided by you, then,” he said. “What next?”
“Next — for, as you say, my presence doubles the danger — we will contrive49 to withdraw quietly from England. The introduction to your mother over, and Mr. Francis disposed of, we will go to Hampstead, and live there for a while. During that time you must turn into cash as much property as you dare. We will then go abroad for the ‘season’— and stop there. After a year or so on the Continent you can write to our agent to sell more property; and, finally, when we are regarded as permanent absentees — and three or four years will bring that about — we will get rid of everything, and slip over to America. Then you can endow a charity if you like, or build a church to the memory of the man you have displaced.”
John Rex burst into a laugh. “An excellent plan. I like the idea of the charity — the Devine Hospital, eh?”
“By the way, how did you find out the particulars of this man’s life. He was burned in the Hydaspes, wasn’t he?”
“No,” said Rex, with an air of pride. “He was transported in the Malabar under the name of Rufus Dawes. You remember him. It is a long story. The particulars weren’t numerous, and if the old lady had been half sharp she would have bowled me out. But the fact was she wanted to find the fellow alive, and was willing to take a good deal on trust. I’ll tell you all about it another time. I think I’ll go to bed now; I’m tired, and my head aches as though it would split.”
“Then it is decided50 that you follow my directions?”
“Yes.”
She rose and placed her hand on the bell. “What are you going to do?” he said uneasily.
“I am going to do nothing. You are going to telegraph to your servants to have the house in London prepared for your wife, who will return with you the day after to-morrow.”
John Rex stayed her hand with a sudden angry gesture. “This is all devilish fine,” he said, “but suppose it fails?”
“That is your affair, John. You need not go on with this business at all, unless you like. I had rather you didn’t.”
“What the deuce am I to do, then?”
“I am not as rich as you are, but, with my station and so on, I am worth seven thousand a year. Come back to Australia with me, and let these poor people enjoy their own again. Ah, John, it is the best thing to do, believe me. We can afford to be honest now.”
“A fine scheme!” cried he. “Give up half a million of money, and go back to Australia! You must be mad!”
“Then telegraph.”
“But, my dear —”
“Hush, here’s the waiter.”
As he wrote, John Rex felt gloomily that, though he had succeeded in recalling her affection, that affection was as imperious as of yore.
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obsequious
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| adj.谄媚的，奉承的，顺从的 | |
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naval
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| adj.海军的，军舰的，船的 | |
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costly
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| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
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deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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unnatural
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| adj.不自然的；反常的 | |
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constable
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| n.(英国)警察，警官 | |
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runaway
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| n.逃走的人，逃亡，亡命者；adj.逃亡的，逃走的 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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brute
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| n.野兽，兽性 | |
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villain
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| n.反派演员，反面人物；恶棍；问题的起因 | |
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soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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illustrated
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| adj. 有插图的，列举的 动词illustrate的过去式和过去分词 | |
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pointed
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| adj.尖的，直截了当的 | |
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engraved
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| v.在（硬物）上雕刻（字，画等）( engrave的过去式和过去分词 )；将某事物深深印在（记忆或头脑中） | |
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affected
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| adj.不自然的，假装的 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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racing
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| n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的 | |
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trophies
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| n.（为竞赛获胜者颁发的）奖品( trophy的名词复数 )；奖杯；（尤指狩猎或战争中获得的）纪念品；（用于比赛或赛跑名称）奖 | |
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underneath
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| adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面 | |
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sufficiently
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| adv.足够地，充分地 | |
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inquiries
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| n.调查( inquiry的名词复数 )；疑问；探究；打听 | |
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continental
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| adj.大陆的，大陆性的，欧洲大陆的 | |
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foul
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| adj.污秽的；邪恶的；v.弄脏；妨害；犯规；n.犯规 | |
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virtuous
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| adj.有品德的，善良的，贞洁的，有效力的 | |
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virtue
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| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
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taunt
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| n.辱骂，嘲弄；v.嘲弄 | |
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gaol
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| n.(jail)监狱；(不加冠词)监禁；vt.使…坐牢 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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smothering
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| （使）窒息， （使）透不过气( smother的现在分词 )； 覆盖； 忍住； 抑制 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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treacherous
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| adj.不可靠的，有暗藏的危险的；adj.背叛的，背信弃义的 | |
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gathering
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| n.集会，聚会，聚集 | |
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fidelity
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| n.忠诚，忠实；精确 | |
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reclaimed
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| adj.再生的；翻造的；收复的；回收的v.开拓( reclaim的过去式和过去分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救 | |
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wilful
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| adj.任性的，故意的 | |
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redeeming
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| 补偿的，弥补的 | |
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vengeance
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| n.报复，报仇，复仇 | |
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ingratitude
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| n.忘恩负义 | |
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nought
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| n.／adj.无，零 | |
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immediate
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| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
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inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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wade
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| v.跋涉，涉水；n.跋涉 | |
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belied
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| v.掩饰( belie的过去式和过去分词 )；证明（或显示）…为虚假；辜负；就…扯谎 | |
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rebellious
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| adj.造反的，反抗的，难控制的 | |
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admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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46
honeymoon
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| n.蜜月（假期）；vi.度蜜月 | |
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worthy
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| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
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pensively
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| adv.沉思地，焦虑地 | |
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contrive
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| vt.谋划，策划；设法做到；设计，想出 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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