The husband turned round and fled with the greatest precipitation towards the house. Fear had taken possession, the most complete possession, of him, and from the sound of his footsteps it was quite clear that he was taking the nearest route that he could, quite heedless of flower beds or other obstacles, to his home.
The lady likewise turned and fled, for whatever might be the slight nature of her objections to a murder-lover, she certainly did not seem to think one from the infernal regions at all desirable.
'Stop!' I cried.
She only fled the quicker, but owing to the intense darkness in the garden, for it was in consequence of the numerous trees within it darker than the heath itself, she caught her foot in some flowering shrub and fell to the ground. In a moment I was up to her.
'Do not be at all alarmed,' I said in my natural voice. 'I am a gentleman, and thought it would be a good thing to punish your jealous husband by giving him a good fright.'
'Are you, indeed, a gentleman?'
'I assure you I am.'
'But the-the certain party is called the Old Gentleman, I have heard?'
'Yes. But if there were light sufficient you would soon see that I am certainly not the Old Gentleman.'
'Should I?'
'You would indeed. What do you think of me now?'
I raised her up and kissed her cheek.
'Well, I don't know what to think; but be you whom you may, you have certainly done me a service; but do you know that my arms are bound round by a cord that my husband put on me unawares?'
'That I will soon release you from if you will stand still for a few moments. I have a sharp knife in my pocket and I can feel the cords, I dare say, and so cut them without doing you any harm. Will you trust me?' Yes. Oh, yes.'
I found no great difficulty in cutting the cords that held the lady in bondage, and then said, 'It is a monstrous thing that your husband should let his jealousy of you go to such a length.'
'Alas! sir, it is; but what can I do?'
'Be revenged upon him in the only way that is in your power and in the way that all wrongfully jealous husbands should be served. Give him real cause.'
'Ah, now I am afraid that you are really the devil or you would not so advise me. No-no! No more kissing, if you please. One Satanic salute is quite enough.'
'Well, I ought to have a kiss as payment for cutting the rope that bound you.'
'You paid yourself beforehand. But as my husband really seems to think that you are the evil one himself, you will do me a signal service if you frighten him out of his jealousy.'
'I will do so with pleasure, but how would you have me proceed? Shall I follow him now into the house-or in what way shall I accomplish the object?'
The lady seemed to reflect for a moment or two, and then said, 'It is worth trying. I only wish I knew that you were a man of honour, sir, whom I might trust.'
'I have no means of convincing you. Of course, mere assertion is no proof. If you will trust me, well and good; if you will not-good night.'
It is very questionable, indeed, if I would have gone had the lady echoed my 'good night': but she did not put me to that trial, for she said, 'I will trust you-follow me. I will lead you into the house by a way that will enable you to reach my bed-room. Once there, I must leave it to your own ingenuity to frighten my husband; who, I think, will now abandon his attempt upon my life for tonight, but who, if he be not well terrified, may renew it on another occasion.'
'Take me where you will,' said I; 'I will obey your orders and you will find your confidence not at all misplaced.'
The lady took me by the hand and led me into the house and through several rooms until she came to one in which she left me for a moment or two, saying, 'Be not impatient; I will soon return to you.'
The room was profoundly dark; but in the course of a few moments I saw a dim light coming through a crevice of a door leading into some other apartment; but before I could make up my mind whether to go towards it or to stay where I was, it opened and the lady made her appearance.
'This way,' she said, 'this way.'
I sprang after her, and in a moment more found myself in a very handsome room fitted up as a sleeping chamber. The general appointments of the place were really superb; and it was quite evident that some more refined taste than that of the jealous husband-or probably than that of the lady, who may or who may not have given
him cause for such jealousy-had at one time presided over the appointments of that room.
'A handsome chamber,' said I.
'Hush!' cried the lady. 'Hide yourself in that wardrobe. He will be here shortly. Hide yourself at once; and remember that I leave all to your discretion.'
'You may, indeed, safely do so.'
'I hope I may.'
She pushed me into the wardrobe, and scarcely had the door been closed upon me before the husband entered the room. The tone of his voice was very much subdued as he said, 'Madam, you must know as well as I that the appearance in the garden was all a delusion. It was only some man who had chanced to overhear what was going on between us.'
'I should be very sorry,' said the lady, affecting to shudder, 'to think that he was really what he said he was; but you ought to know best.'
'I! How should I know?'
'Why, you must be probably aware that jealous people are generally waited upon by something from that place which it is as well not to mention; but as you stooped to the contemplation of actual murder it is not very hard for one to think that the evil spirit himself may have thought proper to appear to you.'
'Stuff-stuff!'
'Very well.'
'I have no sort of fear of the-the-'
'The what? Why do you hesitate to pronounce his name, if you have no fear of him.'
'Because I think it is just as well not to be too familiar with such names, madam, in ordinary discourse. That is the reason, however you may be inclined to attach some other to it. Therefore, I particularly desire that you drop the conversation and come to bed at once. I am willing, if your conduct for the future is what it ought to be, to forget the past.'
'You will?'
'Yes; I say I am willing to do so, only you must never again speak to Lord A., or the Major, or, or-in fact, I will give you a list of people you must not speak to on any account.'
'But will not that look very awkward in society?'
'Society be hanged, madam. Do you want to drive me mad with your woman's answers!'
The husband by this time had got into bed, and the lady having leisurely disrobed herself and having exhibited to my delighted eyes each single charm of a form as lovely as her face, proceeded to put on a very elegant nightgown trimmed with rich lace, and in the quietest manner in the world slipped into the bed likewise, saying, 'Shall I leave the light?'
'Yes, leave it, confound you. What a life you lead me with your dancing and your flirting and your-Hulloa! what's that! Why the light has gone out.'
I had found a pair of silk stockings in the wardrobe, nicely knotted together, and I had thrown them with so good an aim at the candle that they at once extinguished it.
'It's very extraordinary,' said the lady, 'for it was a whole candle as you yourself saw.'
'Yes-yes,' stammered the husband. 'I–I can't at all make it out, my love.'
'Don't my love me, sir. By your violence and your threats you have brought the devil on the premises, and now heaven only knows when we shall get rid of him again.'
'But, my dear-Good God, you don't really think, or really mean to say that-that-'
'Yes, I do; and shouldn't at all wonder if I was to be smothered with sulphur before the morning. Oh, you
