"What's your game?" she hissed. "Are you playing with me and Adrien? Are
you setting him against me? I know your artful tricks; but don't you
play 'em on me, Jasper! What are you doing up at the Castle so often?
Making yourself pleasant to old Lord Barminster's niece there, I'll be
bound. P'raps she ain't fond of scent or a pork chop or two, and she can
have real statues if she likes. You don't remind him of that, do you?
Oh, no, of course not! But you mind your skin, Jasper, for you can't
play fast and loose with me. Shuffle him on to that Constance girl, and
I'll make you pay for it. I know something you wouldn't like my lord to
hear about; so, if you don't want me to open my mouth and split on your
little games, don't you play me any of your tricks, that's all, or I'll
go straight to Adrien and tell him all!"
She stopped, out of breath, and Jasper Vermont, springing to his feet,
glared down at her in impotent fury. But she only laughed at his angry
face.
"Oh, no, you wouldn't like Adrien to know how you fooled poor Julia,
though it is over twenty years ago. I haven't forgotten, if you have,
how you took her over to Paris while I was away on my first tour, and
went through some form of marriage with her. You wouldn't like him to
know how you told her what you'd done, when there was no longer need to
keep it dark from your father, and of the attack of brain fever it
brought on, poor dear! You were a nice brute to her, you were, Jasper
Vermont; and it's a lucky thing for you and her too that when she
recovered her memory had gone, and she forgot you as well as the child."
Jasper stirred uneasily.
"I didn't think she would have cared so much," he said. "Besides, she's
all right now; she only forgets those few years."
"Lucky thing for you," repeated Ada dryly.
"What have you done with the child?" he asked suddenly.
His companion's face lighted up with malicious triumph.
"I've put her where you can't find her, anyhow," she said. "You shan't
break her heart, as you did her mother's."
"Oh, nonsense, Ada!" said Vermont contemptuously. "Don't begin to
rant--you're not on the stage now. I kept all my promises to you, at any
rate. I got you on at the Rockingham and I introduced you to Leroy; and
if you had only played your cards properly you would have hooked him by
this time. As it is, he'll marry his cousin, if you're not careful."