At this Caffyn judged it advisable to appear.

"I don"t exactly know _why_ I should be afraid," he said, with a rather awkward ease. "Are you going to publish our little quarrel, Mrs. Ashburn? Is it worth while, do you think?"

"It was no quarrel," retorted Mabel. "Will you tell Mrs. Featherstone what you dared to say to me, or must I?"

Mrs. Featherstone looked from one to the other with growing uneasiness. It would be very awkward to have any unpleasantness in her little company when the play was so far advanced. On the other hand, she was not disposed to soften matters for a man she disliked so heartily as Harold Caffyn.

"Mabel, dearest, tell me what it is all about," she said. "If he has insulted you, he shall answer to me for it!"

"He insulted my husband," said Mabel. "I _will_ speak, Harold, I am not afraid, though I know you have every reason to wish your words forgotten. He said----"

Here Caffyn interrupted her: he had made up his mind the only thing he could do with his secret now was to use it to spike the enemy"s guns.

Mabel was rash enough to insist on an explanation: she should have it.

"One moment," he said. "If you still insist on it, I will repeat what I said presently. I was trying to prepare Mrs. Ashburn for a very painful disclosure," he explained to Mrs. Featherstone--"a disclosure which, considering my position in the family, I felt it would be my duty to make before long. I could not possibly foresee that she would take it like this. If you think a little, Mrs. Ashburn, I am sure you will see that this is not the time or place for a very delicate and unpleasant business."

"He pretends that Mark is an impostor--that he knows some secret of his!" Mabel broke in vehemently. "He did not speak of it as he tries to make you believe ... he threatened me!"

"Dear Mr. Ashburn, whom we all know so well, an impostor--with a secret! You said that to Mabel?" cried Mrs. Featherstone. "Why, you must be mad to talk in that dreadful way--quite mad!"

"My dear Mrs. Featherstone, I a.s.sure you I"m perfectly sane," he replied. "The real truth is that the world has been grossly deceived all this time--no one more so than yourself; but I do beg you not to force me to speak here, where we might be interrupted at any moment, and besides, in ordinary consideration to Mrs. Ashburn----"

"You did not consider me very much just now," she broke in. "I have told you that I am not afraid to hear--you cannot get out of it in that way!"

Mabel was well enough aware that Mark was not flawless, but the idea that he could be capable of a dishonourable action was grotesque and monstrous to her, and the only way she could find to punish the man who could conceive such a charge was to force him to declare it openly.

Mrs. Featherstone"s curiosity and alarm had been strongly roused. She had taken up this young novelist, her name was publicly connected with his--if there was anything wrong about him, ought she not to know it?

"My love," she said to Mabel, taking her hands, "you know I don"t believe a word of all this--it is some strange mistake, I am sure of it, but it ought, perhaps, to be cleared up. If I were to speak to Mr.

Caffyn alone now!"

"I shall be very willing," said Caffyn.

"No!" said Mabel, eagerly, "if he has anything to say, let him say it here--Mark must not be stabbed in the dark!"

"It"s simply impossible to speak here," said Caffyn. "People may come in at any moment through those doors as soon as this waltz is over.

Mrs. Featherstone will not thank either of us for making a scene."

"The doors can be locked," cried Mabel. "There need be no scene. _May_ they be locked, dear Mrs. Featherstone? He has said too much to be silent any longer: he _must_ speak now!"

Caffyn stepped lightly to the doors which opened into the music-room; the key was on his side, and he turned it. The last notes of "My Queen" were sounding as he did so, they could hear the sweep and rustle of dresses as the couples pa.s.sed.

"We shall not be disturbed now," he said, unable to quite conceal his own inclinations: "they are not likely to come in from the staircase.

If Mrs. Featherstone really insists on my speaking, I can"t refuse."

"Must I, Mabel?" asked the elderly lady, nervously; but Mabel had turned towards the door leading to the staircase, which had just opened.

"Here is Mark to answer for himself!" she cried, as she went to meet him. "Now, Harold, whatever you have to say against Mark, say it to his face!"

Mark"s entrance was not so opportune as it seemed; he had been standing unnoticed at the door for some time, waiting until he could wait no longer. He faced Caffyn now, unflinchingly enough to outward appearance; but the hand Mabel held in a soft close clasp was strangely cold and unresponsive.

Caffyn could not have wished for a better opportunity. "I a.s.sure you this is very painful to me," he said, "but you see I cannot help myself. I must ask Mr. Ashburn first if it is not true that this book "Illusion," which has rendered him so famous, is not his book at all--that from beginning to end it was written by another. Is he bold enough to deny it?"

Mark made no answer. Mabel had almost laughed to hear so preposterous a question--it was not wonderful that he should scorn to reply.

Suddenly she looked at his face, and her heart sickened. Many incidents that she had attached no importance to at the time came back to her now laden with vague but terrible significance ... she would not doubt him, only--why did he look as if it was true?

"Dear Mr. Ashburn," said Mrs. Featherstone, "we know what your answer will be, but I think--I"m afraid--you ought to say something."

He turned his ghastly face and haggard eyes to her and at the same instant withdrew his hand from Mabel"s. "What would you have me say?"

he asked hoa.r.s.ely. "I can"t deny it ... it is not my book ... from beginning to end it was written by another."

And, as he spoke the words, Vincent Holroyd entered the room.

His recent attack of faintness had left him so weak that for some time he was obliged to remain in a little alcove on the staircase and rest himself on one of the divans there.

His head was perfectly clear, however, and he had already perfected a plan by which Mabel would be spared the worst of that which threatened her. It was simple, and, as far as he could see, quite impossible to disprove--he would let it be understood that Mark and he had written the book in collaboration, and that he had desired his own share of the work to be kept secret.

Mark could not refuse, for Mabel"s sake, to second him in this statement--it was actually true even, for--as Vincent thought with a grim kind of humour--there was a good deal of Mark"s work in the book as it stood now. He grew feverishly impatient to see Mark and put his plan into action--there must be time yet, Caffyn could not have been such a villain as to open Mabel"s eyes to the real case! He felt strong again now; he would go and a.s.sure himself this was so. He rose and, following the direction he had seen Mark take, entered the Gold Room--only to hear an admission after which no defence seemed possible.

He stood there just behind Mark, trying to take in what had happened.

There was Mrs. Featherstone struggling to conceal her chagrin and dismay at the sudden downfall of her dramatic ambition; Mark standing apart with bent head and hands behind him like a man facing a firing party; Mabel struck speechless and motionless by the shock; and Caffyn with the air of one who has fulfilled an unpalatable duty. Vincent knew it all now--he had come too late!

Mrs. Featherstone made a movement towards him. "Oh, Mr. Holroyd," she said, with a very strained smile, "you mustn"t come in, please: we"re--we"re talking over our little play--state secrets, you know!"

Caffyn"s smile meant mischief as he said: "Mr. Holroyd has every right to be here, my dear Mrs. Featherstone, as you"ll allow when I tell you who he is. He has too much diffidence to a.s.sert himself. Mr. Ashburn has admitted that he did not write "Illusion:" he might have added that he stole the book in a very treacherous and disgraceful way. I am sorry to use words of this sort, but when you know all, you will understand that I have some excuse. Mr. Holroyd can tell you the story better than I can: he is the man who has been wronged, the real author of "Illusion"!"

"I"ve done him a good turn there," he thought; "he can"t very well turn against me after that!"

A terrible silence followed his words; Vincent"s brain whirled, he could think of nothing. Mabel was the first to move or speak: she went to Mark"s side as he stood silent and alone before his accuser, and touched his arm. "Mark," she said in an agonised whisper, "do you hear? ... tell them ... it is not true--oh, I can"t believe it--I won"t--only speak!"

Vincent"s heart swelled with a pa.s.sionate devotion for her as she raised her fair face, blanched and stricken with an agony of doubt and hope, to her husband"s averted eyes. How she loved him. What would _he_ not have given for love like that? His own feelings were too true and loyal, however, to wish even for a moment to see the love and faith die out of her face, slain for ever by some shameful confession.

Was it too late to save her even now? His brain cleared suddenly--a way of escape had opened to him.

In the meantime two newcomers had entered. Mr. Featherstone, hearing voices, had brought up Mr. Langton, who had "looked in" on his way from the House, and for some time remained under the impression that they had interrupted some kind of informal rehearsal. "Still at the theatricals, eh?" he observed, as he came in. "Go on, don"t let us disturb you. Capital, capital!" "Langton," whispered the other, pulling him back, "they"re--they"re _not acting_--I"m afraid something"s the matter!" and the two waited to gather some idea of what was happening.

Before Mark could reply, if he meant to reply, to Mabel"s appeal, Vincent had antic.i.p.ated him. "Mrs. Ashburn--Mabel," he said, "you are right to trust in his honour--it is _not_ true. I can explain everything."

The instant joy and relief in her face as she clung fondly to Mark"s arm repaid him and gave him strength and courage to go on. Mark looked round with a stunned wonder. What could be said or done to save him _now_? he thought. Vincent was mad to try. But the latter put his hand, as if affectionately, on his shoulder with a warning pressure, and he said nothing.

"Do you mean," said Caffyn to Holroyd, with an angry sneer, "that I told a lie--that you did _not_ write "Illusion"?"

"That was not the lie," returned Vincent. "I did write "Illusion." It is untrue that Mr. Ashburn"s conduct in the matter does him anything but credit. May I tell my story here, Mrs. Featherstone?"

"Oh, by all means," said that lady, not too graciously: "we can"t know the facts too soon."

"I wrote the book," said Vincent, "before I went out to Ceylon. I was at the Bar then, and had thoughts of practising again at some future time. I had a fancy (which was foolish, I dare say) to keep the fact that I had written a novel a close secret. So I entrusted the ma.n.u.script to my good friend, Mr. Ashburn, leaving him to arrange, if he could, for its publication, and I charged him to keep my secret by every means in his power. In fact, I was so much in earnest about it that I made him give me his solemn promise that, if he could not shield me in any other way, he would do so with his own name. I did not really believe then that that would be necessary, or even that the book would be accepted, but I knew Mr. Ashburn wrote novels himself, and I hoped the arrangement would not do him any actual harm."

Till then he had gone on fluently enough; it was merely a modification of his original idea, with a considerable blending of the actual facts, but he felt that there were difficulties to come which it would require all his skill to avoid.