CHAPTER XXIV

THE GUTTERING FLAME

As the rear of the hysterical mob was driven from the hall and the doors locked, Jacqueline collapsed into her chair, unconscious. At the same moment the President hurried up, pulling on his street coat.

"Carry her into my room!" he commanded. The two muscular gendarmes picked her up, chair and all, and carried her into the little dressing-room. Then, with a sign, he dismissed them and immediately followed himself, leaving the little party alone.

Leaving Helene in her father's care, Rose followed the solemn little procession into the President's room. Dr. Chennel met her at the door and gave her a few hasty orders as to medicine, and she hurried away. Then he turned to the patient.

In a moment he had Noel administering smelling salts and Raymond moistening her temples with cologne, which he produced from his emergency tag. Floriot, with white, compressed lips and frightened eyes, stood watching as the doctor felt her pulse, listened with ear to her heart, and turned back the lids of the sightless eyes.

Floriot was the first to speak.

"Is she--in danger?" he whispered, brokenly. The doctor slowly shook his head.

"I can't tell yet," he replied, without taking his eyes off her face. "Her heart is undoubtedly badly affected. It is worn out--like the rest of her. My great fear is that she may die of utter exhaustion."

Floriot turned away with an inarticulate groan.

"Doctor! I think she moved just now!" exclaimed Noel. The doctor was watching her face keenly.

"Yes, she's coming around all right," he nodded. "This crisis is over, but----" He shrugged his shoulders.

The dark eyelids trembled and slowly opened. There was a long, fluttering sigh. Dr. Chennel bent over.

"How do you feel now?" he asked. She swallowed slowly once or twice, and looked listlessly at the circle of faces around her. Floriot was standing where he could not be seen.

"Not well," she murmured, feebly. "I'm all broken up. I--don't--seem to have--any strength. Where am I?"

"In the law courts--in the President's room," replied Chennel. She started, as if to rise.

"The President's!" she gasped. Her brain was still hazy, but she could think of only one President. Noel seemed to divine something of what was in her mind, for he threw Floriot in the background a look that said: "Leave this to me!" Floriot opened the door and stumbled out. At an imperative gesture from Noel, Raymond followed him.

When the door had closed behind them, Noel bent over until his lips all but touched the woman's ear.

"Jacqueline!" he murmured. She looked up at him with dull eyes.

"Who are you?" she asked, indifferently. "You seem to know my name--who are you?"

He looked steadily and tenderly into her eyes.

"Don't you remember me?"

She shook her head.

"But I'm sure you haven't altogether forgotten me!" he insisted, gently. She studied his face for several moments and then recognition slowly dawned in her eyes.

"Wait a minute! But--no, it's impossible! It can't be!" she cried, excitedly. Dr. Chennel tactfully stepped back to the opposite side of the little room.

"Little Jenny Wren!" whispered Noel.

"_Noel! Noel! You!_" she cried, clutching his arm and looking hungrily up into his face.

"Yes, it's Noel!" he smiled. She seized his hand and pressed it again and again to her cheek.

"Oh, thank God! Thank God!" she sobbed. "I'm no longer alone! Noel! Noel! Noel!"

"Are you really as glad as all that to see me again, Jennie Wren?" he whispered, tenderly. He sat on the arm of the chair and she clung to him as if she were afraid he might disappear as suddenly as he had come.

"Noel! Noel! Pity me! Pity me!" she sobbed.

He gently laid his fingers across her lips.

"Don't talk of pity!" he whispered. "Everything is forgotten!"

"Ah! As if I could ever forget!" she moaned.

"Of course, you can!" he cried, cuddling her up close to him. "It was all a nightmare, and you're awake now. Don't cry, Jacqueline, don't cry! We're all together again, and we'll all be happy together and your son----"

Jacqueline tore herself away from him with a frightened cry and tried to rise.

"Raymond!" she gasped. "Has any one told him? Does he know?"

"No! No! He doesn't know anything yet!" Noel assured her hastily. But the dread of meeting her son and having him know her was too strong. She still struggled to rise, but was too weak.

"Is he here?" she panted. "He mustn't see me! Oh, let me go away! Let me go away!"

She got half-way out of her chair, but fell back exhausted. Dr. Chennel stepped forward and laid a hand on her arm.

"You will be able to go presently, madame," he said, quietly. "Your strength will come back to you shortly."

Jacqueline glanced at him eagerly.

"You are a doctor, aren't you?" she panted.

"Yes," he replied, with a nod. "Don't excite yourself and I'll cure you in a few minutes, for can have perfect confidence in me. I am a friend of your son--a friend of Raymond!"

"Oh! Then--you know----"

"Yes, I know everything," he interrupted, gravely.

"But he will never know, doctor, will he?" she asked, feverishly, gripping his hand.

"No, he shall know nothing at all," he assured.

"Promise me! Promise me!" she cried.

"I promise!" he repeated. She released his hand and sank back with a piteous sob.

"I have nothing left--to me now--but my memories of him," she wept, "and his thoughts of what he believes me to have been. I want him to love me always! Always!--Ah--h--h!"

She closed her eyes and hid her face as the door opened; but it was only Rose with the medicine, on a little tray with a tumbler of water and a teaspoon.

"Quick, Rose, here!" ordered the doctor, sharply. He quickly mixed some of the stimulant with the water and held the tumbler to her lips. She drank a little and presently revived.

"Doctor," she said, faintly. "I believe I'm going to die!"

"Nonsense! Don't be foolish!" laughed the doctor. Rose broke into sobs and Jacqueline recognized her, and the next moment mistress and maid were in each other's arms. They kissed and wept over each other for a minute or two and then Noel cried lightly:

"There you are! Now let's not have any more nonsense about dying!" While Noel kept up a running fire of pleasant chat in an effort to revive Jacqueline's spirits, Dr. Chennel drew Rose off to one side of the room.

"Where is M. Floriot?" he asked, in a low undertone.

"Just outside--with M. Raymond," replied Rose.

"Tell him not to go away!"

Rose looked up at him quickly and her cheeks paled.

"Do you--think that----" she stopped short.

The expression of his eyes gave her the answer.

"Hush!" he whispered. "It is only a question of time--and a short time!"

Rose slipped out and he returned to his patient in time to hear Noel reorganizing her wardrobe, with much laughter, and making plans for a trip to the country. She was smiling faintly, but the smile faded when he made her take some more of the bitter medicine.

"Tastes rather horrible, eh?" he said with a smile, "but you feel better, don't you?"

"Yes, thank you," answered Jacqueline, weakly. "I don't suffer at all. It's my strength--I feel so--weak!"

"Your strength will come back fast enough!" he assured her heartily. "I'll tell you what we'll do! I shall take you to my house in Biarritz! There I can look after you comfortably and easily, and you'll be around in no time!"

"Oh, doctor!" she cried, a grateful catch in her voice. "You are too kind! But it's impossible. I should be in the way."

"Not the least bit in the world!" he replied briskly. "The house is a big comfortable sort of a barn. I live there all alone, excepting an elderly sister, and she will be only too happy to have you. You'll be with friends there; for, although you don't know it, my sister and I have been your friends for a long time."

"My friends?" she repeated, with a little questioning smile.

"He saved Raymond's life, you know," explained Noel, quickly. The expression of Jacqueline's face altered in a moment to one of unutterable gratitude. She seized his hand and kissed it passionately.

"Doctor, I--I--cannot thank you!" she murmured brokenly.

The doctor gently disengaged his hand and stepped back, turning his face away. The pity of the scene had all but overcome the well-schooled emotions of the man of medicine.

"He and his sister did all they could to console Floriot," whispered Noel; "the poor chap was broken-hearted."

Noel felt the limp figure stiffen at the mention of the hated name.

"Not as broken-hearted as I was!" she exclaimed, bitterly.

"How do you know, Jacqueline? 'Judge not, lest ye be judged,'" he quoted softly.

"I have been judged!" she replied in the same hard undertone. "He drove me out of his house like a dog!"

Noel was silent for a moment; and when he spoke his voice was vibrant with the emotion that the memory of that terrible night awoke.

"I was there that day, Jacqueline, after you had gone," he said. "I saw his grief--and his repentance. I heard him curse his anger and his pride. And since then he--we have searched the world for you. For twenty years he has not had a thought that was not of you, and in those twenty years he has never known peace or happiness. Ah! Jacqueline, dearest, I believe he has suffered even more than you have!"

"He had his son and I had nobody!" was the bitter reply.

And as if her words had been a call to him, the door was thrown violently open and Raymond dashed headlong into the room.