‘You should go on the stage,’ Le Gautier replied sardonically. ‘Your talents are wasted here. Let me assure you, Genevieve, speaking as a man who has had a little experience, that if you can get up a scene like this upon the boards, there is money in it.’
‘You are cruel!’ the girl cried, dashing her tears away impetuously—‘you are cruel! What have I done to deserve this from you, Hector? You wish to leave me; that you will not come back again, my heart assures me.’
‘Your heart is a prophetic organ, then, caro mio. Now, do look at the thing in a rational light. I am under the orders of the League; to disobey is death to me; and to take you with me is impossible. We must forget all our little flirtations now, for I cannot tell when I may be in Italy again. Now, be a sensible girl; forget all about unfortunate me. No one possibly can know; and when the prince appears, marry him. Be assured that I shall tell no foolish tales.’
Gradually, surely, the blood crept into the girl’s face as she listened to these mocking words. She drew herself up inch by inch, her eyes bright and hard, her head thrown back. There was a look of infinite withering scorn upon her as she spoke, sparing not herself in the ordeal. ‘And that is the thing I loved!’ she said, each word cold and clear—‘that is the thing to which I gave all my poor heart! I understand your words only too well. I am abandoned. But you have not done with me yet. My turn will come, and then—beware!’
‘A truce to your histrionics,’ Le Gautier cried, all the tiger aroused in him now, and only too ready to take up the gage thrown down. ‘Do you think I have no occupation, nothing to dwell upon but romantic schoolgirls one kills pleasant hours with in roaming about the world! You knew well enough the thing could not last. I leave for London to-morrow; so, be sensible, and let us part friends.’
‘Friends!’ she echoed disdainfully. ‘You and I friends! You have made a woman of me. From this moment, I shall only think of you with loathing!’
‘Then why think of me at all? It is very hard a man cannot have a little amusement without such a display of hysterical affection as this. For goodness’ sake, Genevieve, do be sensible!’
Stung to madness by this cruel taunt, she took one step towards him and stopped, her whole frame thrilling with speechless, consuming rage. It would have gone hard with him then, could she have laid her hand upon a weapon. Then all at once she grew perfectly, rigidly calm. She stepped to the little sanctuary, and took down the wooden cross, holding it in her right hand. ‘Before you go, I have a word to say to you,’ she said between her clenched white teeth. ‘You are a man; I am a poor defenceless girl. You are endowed with all the falseness and deceit that flesh is heir to; I am ignorant of the great world that lies beyond the horizon. You fear no harm from me now; I shall evoke no arm in my defence; but my time will come. When you have nearly accomplished your most cherished schemes, when you have your foot upon the goal of your crowning ambition, when fortune smiles her brightest upon your endeavours—then I shall strike! Not till then shall you see or hear of me; but the hour will come. Beware of it!’
‘Perfection!’ Le Gautier cried. ‘You only want’——
‘Not another word!’ the girl commanded. ‘Now, go!—mean, crawling hound, base deceiver of innocent girls! Go! and never look upon my face again; it shall be the worse for you if you do! Go! and forget my passionate words; but the time will come when they shall come back to you. Go!’ With steady hand she pointed to the opening in the wood; and without another word he slunk away, feeling, in spite of his jaunty air, a miserable, pitiful coward indeed.