第39章

"Colonel Marion seems to find plenty that he can bribe," she said roughly, "and I've yet to know who YOU are to sit in judgment on them.You've got your letter, take it and go! When he wants to send you another through me, somebody else must come for it, not you.That's all!"She drew back as if to let the intruder pass, but the lady, without moving a muscle, finished the reading of her letter, then stood up quietly and began carefully to draw her handsome cloak over her shoulders."Yo' want to know who I am, Mrs.Bunker," she said, arranging the velvet collar under her white oval chin."Well, I'm a So'th'n woman from Figinya, and I'm Figinyan first, last, and all the time." She shook out her sleeves and the folds of her cloak.

"I believe in State rights and slavery--if you know what that means.I hate the North, I hate the East, I hate the West.I hate this nigger Government, I'd kill that man Lincoln quicker than lightning!" She began to draw down the fingers of her gloves, holding her shapely hands upright before her."I'm hard and fast to the Cause.I gave up house and niggers for it." She began to button her gloves at the wrist with some difficulty, tightly setting together her beautiful lips as she did so."I gave up my husband for it, and I went to the man who loved it better and had risked more for it than ever he had.Cunnle Marion's my friend.

I'm Mrs.Fairfax, Josephine Hardee that was; HIS disciple and follower.Well, maybe those puritanical No'th'n folks might give it another name!"She moved slowly towards the door, but on the threshold paused, as Colonel Marion had, and came back to Mrs.Bunker with an outstretched hand."I don't see that yo' and me need quo'll.Ididn't come here for that.I came here to see yo'r husband, and seeing YO' I thought it was only right to talk squarely to yo', as yo' understand I WOULDN'T talk to yo'r husband.Mrs.Bunker, Iwant yo'r husband to take me away--I want him to take me to the cunnle.If I tried to go in any other way I'd be watched, spied upon and followed, and only lead those hounds on his track.Idon't expect yo' to ASK yo' husband for me, but only not to interfere when I do."There was a touch of unexpected weakness in her voice and a look of pain in her eyes which was not unlike what Mrs.Bunker had seen and pitied in Marion.But they were the eyes of a woman who had humbled her, and Mrs.Bunker would have been unworthy her sex if she had not felt a cruel enjoyment in it.Yet the dominance of the stranger was still so strong that she did not dare to refuse the proffered hand.She, however, slipped the ring from her finger and laid it in Mrs.Fairfax's palm.

"You can take that with you," she said, with a desperate attempt to imitate the other's previous indifference."I shouldn't like to deprive you and YOUR FRIEND of the opportunity of making use of it again.As for MY husband, I shall say nothing of you to him as long as you say nothing to him of me--which I suppose is what you mean."The insolent look came back to Mrs.Fairfax's face."I reckon yo'

're right," she said quietly, putting the ring in her pocket as she fixed her dark eyes on Mrs.Bunker, "and the ring may be of use again.Good-by, Mrs.Bunker."She waved her hand carelessly, and turning away passed out of the house.A moment later the boat and its two occupants pushed from the shore, and disappeared round the Point.

Then Mrs.Bunker looked round the room, and down upon her empty finger, and knew that it was the end of her dream.It was all over now--indeed, with the picture of that proud, insolent woman before her she wondered if it had ever begun.This was the woman she had allowed herself to think SHE might be.This was the woman HE was thinking of when he sat there; this was the Mrs.Fairfax the officers had spoken of, and who had made her--Mrs.Bunker--the go-between for their love-making! All the work that she had done for him, the deceit she had practiced on her husband, was to bring him and this woman together! And they both knew it, and had no doubt laughed at her and her pretensions!

It was with a burning cheek that she thought how she had intended to go to Marion, and imagined herself arriving perhaps to find that shameless woman already there.In her vague unformulated longings she had never before realized the degradation into which her foolish romance might lead her.She saw it now; that humiliating moral lesson we are all apt to experience in the accidental display of our own particular vices in the person we hate, she had just felt in Mrs.Fairfax's presence.With it came the paralyzing fear of her husband's discovery of her secret.Secure as she had been in her dull belief that he had in some way wronged her by marrying her, she for the first time began to doubt if this condoned the deceit she had practiced on him.The tribute Mrs.Fairfax had paid him--this appreciation of his integrity and honesty by an enemy and a woman like herself--troubled her, frightened her, and filled her with her first jealousy! What if this woman should tell him all;what if she should make use of him as Marion had of her! Zephas was a strong Northern partisan, but was he proof against the guileful charms of such a devil? She had never thought before of questioning his fidelity to her; she suddenly remembered now some rough pleasantries of Captain Simmons in regard to the inconstancy of his calling.No! there was but one thing for her to do: she would make a clean breast to him; she would tell him everything she had done except the fatal fancy that compelled her to it! She began to look for his coming now with alternate hope and fear--with unabated impatience! The night that he should have arrived passed slowly; morning came, but not Zephas.When the mist had lifted she ran impatiently to the rocks and gazed anxiously towards the lower bay.There were a few gray sails scarce distinguishable above the grayer water--but they were not his.She glanced half mechanically seaward, and her eyes became suddenly fixed.There was no mistake!

She knew the rig!--she could see the familiar white lap-streak as the vessel careened on the starboard tack--it was her husband's schooner slowly creeping out of the Golden Gate!