The Pagan's Cup

"I am not your mother," she said scornfully. "Didn't I say there was no blood of mine in your veins?"

"Your mother is dead, Leo," said Pratt in a low voice.

Mrs Gabriel laughed insultingly. "And I daresay she was some – "

"If you dare to say another word," growled Pratt, casting a bitter look at her, "I'll give your secret to the world."

"I don't care if you do," retorted Mrs Gabriel; but Leo saw that she quailed. What could she have done to give a man like Pratt – he could not call him father – a power over her?

"You do care," said Pratt, quietly; "but if you don't I'll begin by telling Leo. Here goes. Leo, my son – "

In a moment Mrs Gabriel's defiant attitude became one of supplication. She sprang forward and caught Pratt by the arm. "Don't! don't," she said faintly. "I'll do whatever you wish."

"Will you dare to speak again as you have done?"

"No, no; I know you are the stronger. I could kill you," she muttered, with a flash of her old temper. "But I have to give in – I have to!"

"Well," drawled Pratt, taking a pleasure in bringing her to her knees, a position to which she was quite unaccustomed. "You have persecuted my poor son so that I think he should have something to hold over your head. It would serve you right."

"I don't want to know your wicked secrets," said Leo, very pale, but otherwise calm. "It seems to me that you are an evil couple. And I – Heaven help me! – have a father who is a thief."

"What of that!" said Mrs Gabriel, getting angry again. "You are a thief as well, are you not? The cup – "

"I did not steal it," said Leo, proudly. "You know as well as I do that this – this" – he winced – "father of mine took it away from the chapel."

"That is just where you are wrong. He did not – "

"Mrs Gabriel!" Pratt's voice sounded dangerous. She was quiet at once, and looked at him in a frightened way. But Leo had heard enough to arouse his suspicions. He turned on Pratt and seized him by the arm.

"Have you been telling a lie?" muttered the unhappy young man.

His father shook him off. "It's no use telling another one," he said in a dogged way; "now you know so much you may as well know all. I know nothing about the cup; but, to clear you, I took the blame on myself. You see, Leo," he said calmly, "my character is already so bad that a robbery more or less does not matter. I did it for you, my boy, as I have done everything else. I wanted you to be a gentleman and marry the girl of your heart. Sybil loves you, and I thought when the vicar knew you were innocent that he would let you marry her."

"He might have done so," said Leo, sitting down in absolute despair; "but since Mrs Gabriel told him that I was illegitimate, he has never been the same. He is a proud man."

"Too proud to let the son of a thief marry his child!" taunted the woman.

"He doesn't know that Leo is my son," said Pratt, fiercely.

"I intend to tell him as soon as you are away," she said.

"You will do nothing of the sort," said Pratt in a slow, venomous way which made her shrink back. "By speaking to the vicar and telling a lie you have caused trouble enough. He must know no more."

"I did not tell a lie."

"You did. My son was born in lawful wedlock."

"Then why didn't you bring him up yourself?" said Mrs Gabriel, with a sneer. "You gave him to me in London, and made me adopt him. I had to say that he was my nephew. Oh, how you have used me!"

"And I have not done using you. Hold your tongue, or it will be the worse for you. You know the power I have. I will not scruple to use it if you dare to do anything against my orders. Now, you can go. I want to speak to my son alone."

Mrs Gabriel seemed inclined to dispute this order, but a look from her tyrant cowed her. With a defiant flinging up of the head she walked out of the room, and closed the door.

"She will tell the servants," said Leo.

"Oh, no, she won't," said Pratt coolly. "You don't know the power I have over her. She will not dare."

"I don't want to know anything," said Leo, looking down on the ground, with folded arms. "I know quite enough. Are you speaking truly?"

Pratt met his gaze in a perfectly composed manner. "I am speaking the truth," he said; "you are my son, and your mother died two years after you were born. I was then in some danger from a – Well, no matter. To make a long story short, I wanted to procure a home for you where you would be brought up like a gentleman. Having a certain power over Mrs Gabriel, I fixed upon her, and made her tell the story of your being her nephew. She did all I wished, but had I known how she treated you," he muttered, clenching his fist, "I should soon have brought her to her bearings."

"And it was this power that made her introduce you into Colester society?"

"Yes. I can do what I like with the woman. I know it is a terrible thing for you to find out what I am. But I took to bad courses early, Leo, and I went from bad to worse. It is a second nature for me to steal – "

"Oh!" Leo rose with a sickening sensation of disgust. "Don't tell me any of your evil doings. I know that you are my father; that you are a thief; I want to know no more. You have ruined my life."

"I have not," said Pratt. "How can you say such a thing! What you have heard to-night need go no further. I shall say nothing, and Mrs Gabriel will be forced to hold her tongue. Your name is cleared of this theft."

"Did you not steal the cup?" broke in Leo, looking at his father.

"No; I did not. If I had stolen it I should say so. But I do not know who took it. I am going to London to find out. Old Penny, the pawnbroker, is a friend of mine. I know enough to get him into trouble as a receiver of stolen goods, so he will have to tell me who it was impersonated you."

"You said in your letter that Adam – "

Pratt interrupted impatiently. "Adam had nothing to do with it," he said. "I invented all that to throw dust in Marton's eyes. I suspect that Hale has something to do with the stealing of the cup. He may have taken it himself, for all I know. But Old Penny will tell me. I'll get to the bottom of this, you may be sure. As to you, Leo, hold your tongue about being my son and come back to Mrs Gabriel. She will be quite willing to receive you, and I can force her to make you her heir. Then you can marry Sybil. When you are rich and have an assured position, the vicar will overlook the stain on your birth. It is a lie, certainly," added Pratt, with a shrug, "but to tell the truth would be to make matters worse, so we must leave things as they are. For once Mrs Gabriel has got the better of me. But it won't occur again. You stay with her, and I promise you she will be as polite as possible to you. You will be master here."

Leo listened to this long speech with his aching head between his hands. When Pratt had finished, he looked up quietly. "It is good of you to take all this trouble," he said, "but I cannot come back to Mrs Gabriel. Even if she loved, instead of hating me, I could not come back on those terms. I can never marry Sybil either. Do you think that I would let her become my wife, knowing who I am? Your sins must be visited on me, Pratt – I can't call you father. You say you are my father, and you declare that you can prove it. When you are in London I expect you to do so. Let me know your address, and I'll come up. But for the moment I assume that you are speaking the truth. In that case there is nothing for me to do but to go to South Africa and seek a soldier's death. I would rather die than marry Sybil now."

"Don't talk like that, Leo," said Pratt, much moved, and wincing at the contempt of the young man. "I am not so bad as you think. I have done many a kind action. I can – "

"Oh, don't defend yourself," said Leo, rising to go. "I must get away by the same way I came. I shall say nothing, but I hope you will be out of Colester by to-morrow night. Marton leaves in the morning, so the coast will be clear. I'm going now, and I hope to hear from you, so that you may give me proof of the truth of this story."

"You don't believe me?"

"I do – in a way. It seems to be true. You say so, and Mrs Gabriel also. I suppose I am your son. But I am hoping against hope that you may not be able to prove the truth."

"Leo," said Pratt, following him to the window, "I am your father, and if you intend to leave Sybil you may as well come with me. I can go with you to South America, and there I can lead a new life. I am rich in spite of losing The Nun's House. I have a belt of jewels! – thousands of pounds of the most valuable – "

"And all stolen," cried Leo, thrusting him back in disgust. "For God's sake don't speak to me any more, or I shall forget that you are my father! If you only knew how I loathe myself for being your son! I never thought it would come to this. Let me go – let me go!" and Leo, pulling his arm from the grasp of Pratt, rushed out on to the terrace.

In another ten minutes Mrs Gabriel re-entered. She found Pratt with his head buried in his arms, sobbing like a child. At the sight she burst out laughing. Then she locked the window Leo had left open.

"Get to bed, Pratt," she said, contemptuously, "and pleasant dreams to you!"

CHAPTER XVI

SYBIL'S VISITOR