“It was an easy victory,” he repeated sarcastically, as Mrs. Howard had
done, and he waited impatiently for the hour of his probation to pass.
“Vain little beauty, she is making herself beautiful for her prince,”
he thought egotistically, adding moodily: “How I hate and love her in
the same breath, the mercenary little wretch!”
But they would not have felt so sanguine if they could have seen what
was transpiring in the room where the hapless Fair had been left alone
with her sympathizing maid.
As soon as Mrs. Howard left the room, Fair turned eagerly to Betty.
“Betty, you are my good friend,” she exclaimed eagerly. “Now, you must
help me to escape from here. I will not see that man! I will not live
with him! I would die first!”
“Lauk, ma’am, don’t you want to be a real live princess?” exclaimed the
maid.
“No! I hate that man as I hate a deadly serpent, and, since I have no
friends here to protect me against him, I shall run away. You must
help me, for I have no one else to turn to in my trouble. If Bayard
Lorraine were well, I believe that he would pity me and defend me. But
he is dying, I fear, and I will never consent to live with the man that
murdered him.”
And in low and rapid tones she confided her plans to the maid, who left
the room immediately after, to follow out her instructions.
Fair threw herself into a chair before her desk and wrote two hasty
notes:
PRINCE GONZAGA: I have fled from you again, and pursuit will be
utterly useless, for, should I ever find myself in your power
again, I would at once and most unhesitatingly take my own
life rather than endure your hated love. You carried a bullet
for my heart two years, you say, and I in turn have carried a
dagger that longs for my own breast in case all other means of
escape fail. Be generous, and let me live my poor life hereafter
unmolested by the man who murdered my mother and my lover, and to
whom I owe all the misfortunes of my life.
In despair and desperation.
FAIRFAX FIELDING.
On another sheet she wrote:
DARLING MRS. HOWARD: I have fled in despair from the man I hate
and fear, and throw myself on the mercy of Heaven. If my darling
ever recovers, do not let him hate my memory. Ask him to pity me
at least, for my love for him has been my fate. May Heaven bless
you for all that you have been to me in the past two years, my
noble benefactress. Yours in love and sorrow,
FAIRFAX FIELDING.
Betty returned as she finished sealing and addressing the two notes,
and then she said: