Do you mean to
insinuate that Bobby’s death has anything to do with me?”

“It is _you_ ’oo ’ave killed ’im,” screamed the Baroness, shaking her
stick, “it’s your poisonous breath that ’as sapped ’is! I should ’ave
seen it from the beginning. Do you suppose I don’t know your ’istory? Do you think I ’aven’t ’eard all about your parents and their vile
doings--that I don’t know that you’re a common bastard, and that your
mother was a devilish negress, and your father a murderer? Why didn’t I
listen to my friends and forbid you the ’ouse?”

“Miss Wynward!” said Harriet, who had turned deadly white at this
unexpected attack, “what can I say? What can I do?”

“Leave the room, my dear, leave the room! Her ladyship is not herself! She does not know what she is saying!”

“Don’t I?” screamed Madame Gobelli, barring the way to the door, “I
am telling ’er nothing but the truth, and she doesn’t go till she ’as
’eard it! She has the vampire’s blood in ’er and she poisons everybody
with whom she comes in contact. Wasn’t Mrs. Pullen and Mademoiselle
Brimont both taken ill from being too intimate with ’er, and didn’t the
baby die because she carried it about and breathed upon it? And now she
’as killed my Bobby in the same way--curse ’er!”

Even when reiterating the terrible truth in which she evidently
believed, Madame Gobelli showed no signs of breaking down, but stood
firm, leaning heavily on her stick and trembling in every limb. Harriet Brandt’s features had assumed a scared expression. “Miss Wynward!” she stammered piteously, “Oh! Miss Wynward! this cannot
be true!”

“Of course not! Of course not!” replied the other, soothingly, “her
ladyship will regret that she has spoken so hastily to you to-morrow.”

“I shan’t regret it!” said the Baroness sturdily, “for it is the truth! Her father and her mother were murderers who were killed by their own
servants in revenge for their atrocities, and they left their curse
upon this girl--the curse of black blood and of the vampire’s blood
which kills everything which it caresses. Look back over your past
life,” she continued to Harriet, “and you’ll see that it’s the case! And if you don’t believe me, go and ask your friend Dr. Phillips, for
’e knew your infamous parents and the curse that lies upon you!”

“Madame! Madame!” cried Miss Wynward, “is this a moment for such
recrimination? If all this were true, it is no fault of Miss Brandt’s! Think of what lies here, and that he loved her, and the thought will
soften your feelings!”

“But it don’t!” exclaimed the Baroness, “when I look at my dead son, I
could kill ’er, because she has killed ’im.”

And in effect, she advanced upon Harriet with so vengeful a look that
the girl with a slight cry, darted from the room, and rushed into her
own. “For shame!” said Miss Wynward, whose previous fear of the Baroness
seemed to have entirely evaporated, “how dare you intimidate an
innocent woman in the very presence of Death?”

“Don’t you try to browbeat me!” replied the Baroness. “I will tell you what I think,” said Miss Wynward boldly, “and that
is, that you should blush to give way to your evil temper in the face
of God’s warning to yourself! You accuse that poor girl of unholy
dealings--what can you say of your own? You, who for years past
have made money by deceiving your fellow creatures in the grossest
manner--who have professed to hold communication with the spiritual
world for their satisfaction when, if any spirits have come to you,
they must have been those of devils akin to your own! And because I
refused to help you to deceive--to take the place of that miserable
cur Milliken and play cheating tricks with cards, and dress up stuffed
figures to further your money-getting ends, you threatened me with loss
of home and character and friends, until, God forgive me, I consented
to further the fraud, from fear of starving. But now, thank Heaven, I
have no more fear of you! Yes! you may shake your stick at me, and
threaten to take my life, but it is useless! _This_,” pointing to the
dead boy upon the bed, “was the only tie I had to the Red House, and as
soon as he is dressed for his grave, I shall leave you for ever!”

“And where would you go?” enquired the Baroness. The voice did not
sound like her own; it was the cracked dry voice of a very old woman. “That is no concern of yours, my lady,” replied Miss Wynward, as
she prepared to quit the room. “Be good enough to let me pass! The
inexcusable manner in which you have insulted that poor young lady,
Miss Brandt, makes me feel that my first duty is to her!”

“I forbid you--” commenced Madame Gobelli in her old tone, but the
ex-governess simply looked her in the face and passed on. She made the
woman feel that her power was gone. Miss Wynward found Harriet in her own room, tossing all her possessions
into her travelling trunks. There was no doubt of her intention. She
was going to leave the Red House. “Not at this time of night, my dear,” said Miss Wynward, kindly, “it is
nearly nine o’clock.”

“I would go if I had to walk the street all night!” replied Harriet,
feverishly. Her eyes were inflamed with crying, and she shook like an aspen leaf. “Oh! Miss Wynward, such awful things to say! What could she mean? What
have I done to be so cruelly insulted? And when I am so sorry for poor
Bobby too!”

She began to cry afresh as she threw dresses, mantles, stockings, and
shoes one on the top of the other, in her endeavour to pack as quickly
as possible. “Let me help you, dear Miss Brandt! It is cruel that you should be
driven from the house in this way! But I am going too, as soon as the
doctor has been and dear Bobby’s body may be prepared for burial. It is
a great grief to me, Miss Brandt; I have had the care of him since he
was five years old, and I loved him like my own. But I am glad he is
dead! I am glad he has escaped from it all, for this is a wicked house,
a godless, deceiving and slanderous house, and this trouble has fallen
on it as a Nemesis. I will not stay here a moment longer now he has
gone! I shall join my friends to-morrow.”

“I am glad you have friends,” said Harriet, “for I can see you are not
happy here! Do they live far off? Have you sufficient money for your
journey? Forgive my asking!”

Miss Wynward stooped down and kissed the girl’s brow. “Thank you so much for your kind thought, but it is unnecessary. You
will be surprised perhaps,” continued Miss Wynward, blushing, “but I am
going to be married.”

“And so am I,” was on Harriet’s lips, when she laid her head down on
the lid of her trunk and began to cry anew. “Oh! Miss Wynward, what did
she mean? Can there be any truth in it? Is there something poisonous in
my nature that harms those with whom I come in contact? How can it be? _How_ can it be?”

“No! no! of course not!” replied her friend, “Cannot you see that it
was the Baroness’s temper that made her speak so cruelly to you? But
you are right to go! Only, where are you going?”

“I do not know! I am so ignorant of London.