Chapter XXXVII

“What an old hag! Her hands were coarse like a man’s and her voice too!” cried vivacious Max. “It was no kind of a fortune, either. She did not say anything about your marrying. But I hope you never will; it was bad enough to lose Effie. I hope no one will ever persuade you away, Allie. No one is good enough for you!”

“I am flattered by your extravagant opinion of my perfections. I think you need give yourself no uneasiness as to losing me,” Aline replied, making him a demure little courtesy.

He laughed, and nodded.

“I am glad of that. But come now, let me fasten your skates. You must come on the ice with me. You promised, you know, and I shall not let you go back on your word.”

“I would rather go home, Max,” Aline answered.

“No, dear, you need not be put down so easily. You may go on the ice with your brother a little while, then we will go home,” said Mrs. Rodney. Her pride and resentment had both been roused by the cavalier treatment Aline had received. She knew that her daughter was the most beautiful girl on the spot. No one there could at all compare with her. She was an accomplished skater too. Something like defiance rose in her mind. She would not let them drive Aline away with their scorn. She had as much right here as her severe judges. “Go on the ice with your brother a little while,” she repeated; “then we will go home.”

She stood silently on the shore watching them as hand in hand they skimmed blithely across the icy surface of the beautiful river. Her thoughts were busy while her eyes followed the form of her beautiful girl in the bright costume that accorded so well with the gay scene.

The strange words of the old lace-vender filled her with wonder.

“How did she chance upon the truth so cleverly?” she asked herself. “What did she know of Aline’s troubles and her fatal secret? What did she mean by the dark man who influenced Aline’s life? Was it true--or why did Aline blush at her words? I have a mind to follow the woman and find out what she knows.”

She looked around her, but the old woman had already disappeared from sight.

“As well, perhaps,” Mrs. Rodney, muttered to herself: “she could tell me nothing. I dare say it was all guess-work. It is so easy to prate of dark clouds and secrets and dark men--it is the stock in trade of fortune-tellers.”

But she was very uneasy in her mind. There was a great pain in her heart as she watched Aline.

The girl had forgotten her trouble for a little while in the exhilarating excitement and exercise. Her eyes sparkled, her cheeks glowed with pleasure. She and Max were the best skaters on the river, and the girl thoroughly enjoyed her triumph. She looked like some bright winged bird in her scarlet costume, and many eyes followed her course in unwilling admiration.

“Aline, I will tell you something,” said Max, as they skated sociably along, side by side. “I believe that old woman was a man dressed in woman’s clothes!”

Aline’s heart gave a quick throb.

“Why do you think so, Max?” she said.

“Well, because she had boots on, and her feet were large, and her hands, too, and her voice was coarse and squeaky, as if she tried to alter it to a woman’s. Didn’t you notice it yourself, Aline?”

“She was rather masculine-looking, certainly; but, then, many women are so. I have no doubt she was what she appeared to be,” said Aline, after giving the matter a moment’s grave consideration.

Max was silenced but not convinced, and presently he looked round at her again.

“I will tell you something else,” he said. “There is a man watching you. Perhaps it is the dark man the fortune-teller talked about.”

“Where?” asked Aline, with a start.

“Do you see that great tree down the bank at some distance from the crowd? There is a man round one side of it. He is looking at you. He is tall and dark, and has on a great fur overcoat. I believe--that is, he looks like him--that it is Mr. De--Ah! ah! help! help!”

The revelation of what Max believed was never finished, for, all unknowingly, and in her interest in his words, Aline had gone upon a dangerous place, where the ice was cracked and thin. A little in advance of her brother, although clinging to his hand, she felt the treacherous ice giving way beneath her, and, like a flash, tore her hand from his and threw it far from her. All in an instant there was a loud crash, the treacherous element gave way, and Aline sunk down into the cold waves. Max was left alone upon the ragged edge, screaming aloud for help in the frenzy of his despair.

* * * * *

All in a moment there arose a great hubbub of excitement. All eyes turned upon the spot where Aline had broken through the thin crust of ice and gone down into the cold, dark waves. With the thoughtlessness born of excitement, the crowd made a rush for the spot. Some slipped and fell, and were heedlessly trampled, and deserted in the terrible rush. A panic was imminent. It seemed as if all were bent upon satiating a wild curiosity, and the solid ice, beginning to tremble beneath the burden upon it, might have broken through, and precipitated the crowd, pell-mell, into the same dark waves that had ingulfed Aline; but, at that moment, a loud, stern, authoritative voice rang out clearly and sharply:

“Stand back, all of you! Do you not see that you are liable to cause her death as well as your own? Go back before the ice breaks through with your weight!”

The stern voice seemed to put reason into their bewildered minds. There was a moment of flurry and indecision, and then the excited crowd began to veer toward the shore. No one was left in the vicinity of the dangerous ice except little Max, screaming piteously on the brink of the abyss into which his sister had disappeared.

But, an instant more, and the form of a tall, handsome man was seen crossing the ice, carefully yet fearlessly. As he neared the thin ice, he threw himself carefully down upon it, and crept slowly along to the edge of the precipice. He had thrown off his coat, and was in his shirt sleeves, so that every one knew what was in his mind, and no one was surprised to see him drop cautiously over the ragged edge of the ice, and so down into the deep, running water.