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FRANK LESLIE'S NEW YORK JOURNAL.
where she had resided for many years. But she
had bitter retaliation in store for her cruel and in-
famous husband. Unknown to her, another was
secretly entangling him in the net which his vices
had woven.
—_
CHAPTER | It.
THE LAST INTERVIEW,
Kare Herverr was rich—immensely rich. Known
in the metropolis as the Countess Pascala, she was
celebrated for the magnificent parties she gave. Her
last was a ball, ona scale of splendor rarely excelled
in a ducal mansion. To this Herbert contrived to
get himself invited—at least so he thought; but in
reality his wife had so managed it that he was led to
entertain that supposition.
he rooms’were dazzling. The silken curtains
that divided the picture-gallery from the reception-
rooms, were drawn back; thus a vista was formed,
down which the eye wandered till the, perspective
lost itself in the star-lighted masses of foliage ; and
on entering the first drawing-room, which was flood-
ed with gas-light, a scene was presented that no Eu-
ropean palace could rival, save in extent. Each of
the tall, stained windows had a ponding r
cess, filled with mirrors that multiplied and reflected
back every beautiful object within its range. Fresco
paintings gleamed from the ceiling, but so delicately
managed and inwrought in the light, golden scrolls,
that all over-gorgeousness was avoided. Each room
possessed distinct colors, and had its own style of or-
nament ; but natural contrasts were so strictly main-
tained, and harmonies so managed, that the rooms,
when all thrown open, presented one brilliant whole
that might have been studied like the work of a great
artist, and always found to present new beauties.
The guests rapidly arrived ; and Herbert, leaning
on the arm of a well-known exquisite, was patiently
listening to his praises of the beauty of their hostess.
“She is the most superb woman in town, anda
widow, too! What a chance for you, Herbert !””
“Point out this womanly phenomenon to me. I
have not seen her yet !”
“Oh, wait till the crowd leaves us an opening !|
There, the music strikes up—they are off for the
waltz! Now you have a good view; isn’t she
superb ?”
For one moment a cloud came over Herbert's eyes.
He swept his gloved hand over them, and now he
saw clearly.
“ Which—which is the countess?” he said, ina
sharp voice, that almost startled the young exquisite
out of his propriety.
“ Why, how dull you are! As if there’ ever ex-
isted another woman on earth tobe mistaken for her.”
‘Ts that the woman ?”’ questioned Herbert, almost
extending his arm towards a lady dressed as Ceres,
‘who stood near the door of an adjoining room.
“Of course it is! Come, let me present you,
while there is a chance—though how the deuce you
got here without a previous introduction I cannot
tell! Come—she is looking this way!’
“Not yet!” answered Herbert, drawing aside,
where he was less liable to observation
“Why, how strangely you look all at once. Caught
with the first glance, eh ?’’ persisted his tormentoz.
Herbert attempted to smile, but his lips refused to
move. He would have spoken, but for once speech
left him.
“ Come, come—I am engaged for the next polka y
“Excuse me!” answered Herbert, drawing his
proud figure to its full height; “ I was only jesting ;
the Countess Pascala and I are old acquaintances.”
And now, with a fiend at his heart’ and fire in his
eye, Francis Herbert stood regarding his wife.
Kate had given this ball fora purpose. It was
here, surrounded by all the pompand state secured
by position and immense wealth, that she intended
once more to meet her husband. What hidden mo-
tive lay in the depths of her mind could scarcely be
nown. Perhaps—for love like hers will descend to
strange humiliations—she expected to win back a
gleam of his old tenderness by the magnificence
which she knew he loved so well. Perhaps she
really intended to startle him by her queenly pre-
sence, load him with scornful reproaches, and s0 se-
parate for ever. .
The character of Ceres, in which she appeared,
was peculiarly adapted to the perfection of her beauty
and the natural grace of her person. In order to in-
crease the magnificence of this costume, she had
ordered all her jewels to‘ be re-set in wreaths, bo-| gay group that had gathered around her.
uets and clust. dapted to the character; andas/say you, d
Hebert wazed upon her from the distance, his eyes} mournful character: do I look like a woman who |r
were absolutely dazzled with flashes of: rainbow | ever weeps ?”
light that followed’ everv movement of her person.
Her over-skirt of fine Brussels point #8 gathered the group.
up in soft clouds from the amber satin dress, by
hued, from the Oriental topaz; stems of ruby cure
rants ; crab-apples, cut from the red coral of Naples ;
with wheat-ears barbed with gold, and set thick
with diamond
bending grass,
among the gossamer lace, whence the light came
darting forth with a thousand sunset glories.
a mist across her bosom, was gathered up with c'us-
the fashion of a
h
through all the golden tresses.
e- Yéllow q d The grape-l
had taken her hand while speaking,.and pressed it
pride of her nature.
Was she a school-girl to be won back by pressure
of the hand and frothy compliments to her dwelling?
The crafty man had mistaken her for once.
withdrew her hand with a laugh.
reigned here?”
an instant Herbert's audacious eyes fell beneath
the glance of her’s ; but he recovered himself with
a breath.
selected a better?’
she asked with breathless haste.
lips, as if he had been uttering a’ compliment,
whispered :
words, stung her. le
site her. :
the light like sunbeams from her jewelled garland. | her bosom: it was fringed deep with the gorgeous
In that we are alike!” she said in a suppressed
voice, that trembled with feeling.
same under-tone, but she drew back with a low,
defiant laugh.
since done with tears!" she answered, turning to a
grain all mingled with leaves and
ighted with emeralds, were grouped
er fair, round arms were exposed almost to the
shoulder, when a quantity of soft lace, that fell like
ters of fruit-like jewels. Her hair, arranged after
reek statue, flowed back from the
ead in waves and ringlets, and was crowned by a
garland of jewels that shot rays of tinted light
The choicest jewels
she possessed had been reserved for this garland,
wreathed in both fruit and flowers. Here diamond
fuchsias, veined with rubies, and forget-me-nots of
turquoise, each with a yellow pearl at the heart, were
grouped with diamond wheat-ears and stems of cur-
rants, some heavy with ruby fruit, others beset with
i g that fell around
er temples were green with emeralds, and a single
cluster of cherries, formed from carbuncles, that
seemed to havea drop of wine floating at the heart,
drooped over her white forehead. Great diamond
rops were scattered like dew over these dazzling
clusters, and fell away down the ringlets of her hair.
Herbert's resolution was taken. Self-possessed
and, but for a wild brilliancy of the eyes and a
slight paleness about the mouth, tranquil as if they
had parted but yesterday, he moved down the room.
Kate had just made some laughing reply to a
gentleman who stood near her, when she saw Her-
bert approach. She gave a faint start; her eye
flashed, and, drawing her form to its full height,
she stood with curved lips and burning cheeks,
ready to receive her husband. He came down the
room, slowly moving forward with his usual noise-
less grace. He paused now and then as the crowd
pressed upon him, and it was a full minute after she
first saw him before he approached her near enough
to speak.
“« My dear lady, I shall never forgive myself for
coming so late !”’ he said, reaching forth his hand.
“Why did not your invitations say at once that we
were invited to paradise ?”
For one moment Kate turned pale and lost her
self-possession. The audacious coolness of the man
astonished her. - She had expected to take him by
surprise, and promised herself the enjoyment of his
confusion; but before his speech was finished the
blood rushed to her cheek, her lips. grew red again,
and her eyes seemed showering fire intohis: He
gently, but with a meaning that roused all the
Did he hope to practise his old arts upon her?
She
“So you are ignorant that the goddess of plenty
here was a meaning in the light words, and for
“The character is badly chosen! I could have
,
“What, pray—what would you have selected ?”
He stooped forward, and, with a smile upon his
‘A Niobe!” os
The tone in which this was uttered, more than the
She drew back with a suddenness that scattered
—defy our own souls.
she could not have met him thus, with scorn on her
brow, rebellion in her heart. A few hours after
she might repent in tears ; but now she waited his
approach without a thrill of pleasure or of fear.
The very memory of former tenderness filled her
with self-contempt.
163
“ Angels do weep when they leave the homes
clusters of fruit, grass, and leaves, all of precious |assigned to them!” whispered Herbert, | avain
stones. Cherries the size of life, cut from glowing | bending towards her; “and it is fitting that they
carbuncles; grapes in amethyst clusters, or amber- | should !” ‘
She did not recoil that time. His words rather
stung her in to strength, and strange to say, Herbert
seemed leas hateful. to her while’ uttering these
covert reproaches, than his first adroit compliment
had rendered him.: A’ retort was on her lip, but
that instant a group came in from the dancing saloon,
laughing and full of excitement.
uring the remainder of the evening he had no
other opportunity of addressing her, and for hours
he was a prey to the most intense anxiety. . He had
that day deluded a young heiress into marriage, and
had committed forgery for a large amount on Coutts.
With this money and his young wife, he had deter-
mined on passing the remainder of his days in France
or Italy ; but the appearance of his wife and her
evident immense wealth embarrassed him.
He
guessed correctly the scource from which it had
come, but he wished to grasp it and reduce her to
beggary.
t was over at last. The saloon, the banquet-hall,
the conservatory, sleeping in the moonlight, shed
from many a sculptured vase—all were deserted.
Wax candles flared and went out in their silver
sockets ; garlands grew dim and shadowy in the
diminished light; half a dozen. yawning. footmen
glided about, extinguishing wax-lights and turning
off gas ; but they seemed ghost-like and dreary,
wandering through the vast mansion.
But Kate Herbert felt no fatigute; she saw
nothing of the gloom that was so rapidly spreading
over the splendor of her mansion.
was still lighted by those two pearl-like lamps. It
was a dim, luxurious twilight, that seemed hazy
with the perfume, stealing up from a dozen snowy
vases scattered through the dressing-room, the bed-
chamber, and the boudoir. The doors connecting
these apartments were ajar, but closed enough to
conceal one room from the other.
Her boudoir
Kate entered the boudoir. Her step was imperious
—her cheek burning. Pride, anger, and haughty
scorn swelled in her bosom, as she seated herself to
wait.
ing that are so frequent to a passionate and ill-dis-
ciplined nature had swept over her heart.
first time in her life, she felt disposed to sting the
foot that had trampled so ruthless upon her. - In
that moment all the strong love of a life-time seemed
kindling into fiery hate.
One of those mysterious revulsions of feel-
For the
It was one of those hours when we defy destiny
A few hours earlier, and
The marble Flora stood over
er: crimson roses and heliotrope had been mingled
with the sculptured lilies in its hand. A few hours
before she had stolen away from her guests, to place
these blossoms among the marble counterfeits—tor
they breathed his favorite perfume; now she sick-
ened as the fragrance floated over her, and tearing
them from the statue, tossed them amid a bed of
coals still burning in the silver grate,
She did not go back to the couch, but remained
upon the ermine rug, with one arm resting upon the
jetty marble of the mantel piece.
be heard in that sumptuously-carpeted house, but
the proud spirit within her seemed to know when
No footstep could
he stole softly. forth from the conservatory, and ap-
proached the room where she was waiting.
Herbert was self-possessed: he had a game to
play more intricate, more difficult than his experi-
ence had yet coped with—but this only excited his
intellect.
But she also was self-possessed—and this took him
by surprise. He. moved towards the grate, and
leaned his elbow on the mantel-piece directly oppo-
She had a superb fan, half open, against
eart stirred a feather. She held it there, as she
“ Everything that Niobe loved turned to ‘stone! plumage of some tropical bird, but no tumult of the
h
He bent his head, and was about to answer in the
““No—no! ° It is a sad character, and I have long
What
entlemen—our’ friend: here prefers: a
“Not unless the angels weep!” answered one of | 0
ad often done that evening, when homage floated
around ‘her, gracefully and quietly waiting to be
addressed. €
ed: it deranged all his premeditated plan of attack.
Instead of. reproaching him with that passionate
anger which pants for reconciliation, she was silent.
This mood was one he had not expect-
“Kate!” The name was uttered in a voice that
no heart that had loved the speaker could entire]
esist. A faint shiver and an irregular breat
were preceptibly rufling, as it were, the plumage
f her fan; but the proud woman only bent her
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