Meanwhile, Dallas Bain—an equal victim with Daisie in the diabolical plot that had sundered two devoted hearts—had gone away, indeed, fooled by the cunning of an unscrupulous woman, who, angered by his scorn, had sworn to wreck his hopes by parting him from his beautiful young love forever.
She had succeeded but too well, and could laugh now at the success of her treacherous schemes.
Letty Green had, indeed, visited him at the hotel that night, but it was as the tool of her wicked mistress, bought over to evil by a tempting bribe.
She had carried to Dallas the first news of the attempted murder of Royall Sherwood, and also a note purporting to be from Daisie, in which she stated that she felt it her duty to remain with her husband, as the physician represented that his only chance of life lay in her forgiveness.
Mrs. Fleming was an adept at counterfeiting penmanship, and it was a very fair sample of Daisie’s in which she wrote:
All is over between us, Dallas, though I love you best, for duty binds me to my suffering husband. And this tie of duty I shall faithfully observe, for I pity him now; and as pity is akin to love, perhaps I may forget my infatuation for you, and learn to love him yet. This would be the best way out of my trouble, so I pray you not to urge me to see you again, but to pass out of my life as if you had never existed. It will help me to forget the sooner, and God knows I have need to forget.
Dallas Bain was almost stunned by the weight of his misfortunes, but all his cross-examination of smiling Letty did not trip the clever little maid, who had been well tutored by her mistress, and did not forget her part.
With a smile on her treacherous lips, Letty told glib stories of how the young bride had clung to her wounded husband, beseeching him to live for her sake, that she would never leave him again, et cetera, until the listener’s heart sank like a stone in his breast.
“And he will live?” Dallas asked presently, in a husky voice that she scarcely knew as his own, it was so changed by grief.
“Oh, yes, sir—or, at least, the doctor hopes so, and thinks it likely; but he told Mrs. Sherwood flatly that if she left him he was sure to die. She said she shouldn’t think of such a thing; so then Mr. Sherwood was delighted, and said he didn’t mean to die, in spite of the cruel rival who had meant to kill him.”