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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/297-h.zip b/297-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dbd60b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/297-h.zip diff --git a/297-h/297-h.htm b/297-h/297-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1cef85a --- /dev/null +++ b/297-h/297-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,11387 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title>The Flirt, by Booth Tarkington</title> + <meta content="pg2html (binary v0.17)" /> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .75em; margin-bottom: .75em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 5%; text-align: justify; font-size: 80%; font-style: italic;} + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + .xx-small {font-size: 60%;} + .x-small {font-size: 75%;} + .small {font-size: 85%;} + .large {font-size: 115%;} + .x-large {font-size: 130%;} + .indent5 { margin-left: 5%;} + .indent10 { margin-left: 10%;} + .indent15 { margin-left: 15%;} + .indent20 { margin-left: 20%;} + .indent25 { margin-left: 25%;} + .indent30 { margin-left: 30%;} + .indent35 { margin-left: 35%;} + .indent40 { margin-left: 40%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; right: 1%; font-size: 0.6em; + font-variant: normal; font-style: normal; + text-align: right; background-color: #FFFACD; + border: 1px solid; padding: 0.3em;text-indent: 0em;} + .side { float: left; font-size: 75%; width: 15%; padding-left: 0.8em; + border-left: dashed thin; text-align: left; + text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; + font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;} + .head { float: left; font-size: 90%; width: 98%; padding-left: 0.8em; + border-left: dashed thin; text-align: center; + text-indent: 0; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; + font-weight: bold; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: solid 1px;} + p.pfirst, p.noindent {text-indent: 0} + span.dropcap { float: left; margin: 0 0.1em 0 0; line-height: 0.8 } + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Flirt, by Booth Tarkington + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Flirt + +Author: Booth Tarkington + +Release Date: July 3, 2004 [EBook #297] +Last Updated: August 3, 2018 + + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLIRT *** + + +Etext produced by and anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer + +HTML file produced by David Widger + + + + +</pre> + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE FLIRT + </h1> + <h2> + By Booth Tarkington + </h2> + <div style="height: 8em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h3> + TO + </h3> + <h3> + SUSANAH + </h3> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <p> + <b>CONTENTS</b> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> <b>THE FLIRT</b> </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER ONE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER TWO </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER THREE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER FOUR </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER FIVE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER SIX </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER SEVEN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0008"> CHAPTER EIGHT </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0009"> CHAPTER NINE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0010"> CHAPTER TEN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0011"> CHAPTER ELEVEN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0012"> CHAPTER TWELVE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0013"> CHAPTER THIRTEEN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0014"> CHAPTER FOURTEEN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0015"> CHAPTER FIFTEEN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0016"> CHAPTER SIXTEEN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0017"> CHAPTER SEVENTEEN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0018"> CHAPTER EIGHTEEN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0019"> CHAPTER NINETEEN </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0020"> CHAPTER TWENTY </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0021"> CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0022"> CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0023"> CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0024"> CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR </a> + </p> + <p class="toc"> + <a href="#link2HCH0025"> CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE </a> + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h1> + THE FLIRT + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER ONE + </h2> + <p> + Valentine Corliss walked up Corliss Street the hottest afternoon of that + hot August, a year ago, wearing a suit of white serge which attracted a + little attention from those observers who were able to observe anything + except the heat. The coat was shaped delicately; it outlined the wearer, + and, fitting him as women’s clothes fit women, suggested an + effeminacy not an attribute of the tall Corliss. The effeminacy belonged + all to the tailor, an artist plying far from Corliss Street, for the coat + would have encountered a hundred of its fellows at Trouville or Ostende + this very day. Corliss Street is the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, the Park + Lane, the Fifth Avenue, of Capitol City, that smoky illuminant of our + great central levels, but although it esteems itself an established + cosmopolitan thoroughfare, it is still provincial enough to be watchful; + and even in its torrid languor took some note of the alien garment. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Corliss, treading for the first time in seventeen years the pavements + of this namesake of his grandfather, mildly repaid its interest in + himself. The street, once the most peaceful in the world, he thought, had + changed. It was still long and straight, still shaded by trees so noble + that they were betrothed, here and there, high over the wide white + roadway, the shimmering tunnels thus contrived shot with gold and blue; + but its pristine complete restfulness was departed: gasoline had arrived, + and a pedestrian, even this August day of heat, must glance two ways + before crossing. + </p> + <p> + Architectural transformations, as vital, staggered the returned native. In + his boyhood that posthumously libelled sovereign lady, Anne, had terribly + prevailed among the dwellings on this highway; now, however, there was + little left of the jig-saw’s hare-brained ministrations; but the + growing pains of the adolescent city had wrought some madness here. There + had been a revolution which was a riot; and, plainly incited by a new + outbreak of the colonies, the Goth, the Tudor, and the Tuscan had harried + the upper reaches to a turmoil attaining its climax in a howl or two from + the Spanish Moor. + </p> + <p> + Yet it was a pleasant street in spite of its improvements; in spite, too, + of a long, gray smoke-plume crossing the summer sky and dropping an + occasional atomy of coal upon Mr. Corliss’s white coat. The green + continuous masses of tree-foliage, lawn, and shrubbery were splendidly + asserted; there was a faint wholesome odour from the fine block pavement + of the roadway, white, save where the snailish water-wagon laid its long + strips of steaming brown. Locusts, serenaders of the heat, invisible among + the branches, rasped their interminable cadences, competing bitterly with + the monotonous chattering of lawn-mowers propelled by glistening black men + over the level swards beneath. And though porch and terrace were left to + vacant wicker chairs and swinging-seats, and to flowers and plants in jars + and green boxes, and the people sat unseen—and, it might be guessed, + unclad for exhibition, in the dimmer recesses of their houses—nevertheless, + a summery girl under an alluring parasol now and then prettily trod the + sidewalks, and did not altogether suppress an ample consciousness of the + white pedestrian’s stalwart grace; nor was his quick glance too + distressingly modest to be aware of these faint but attractive + perturbations. + </p> + <p> + A few of the oldest houses remained as he remembered them, and there were + two or three relics of mansard and cupola days; but the herd of cast-iron + deer that once guarded these lawns, standing sentinel to all true gentry: + Whither were they fled? In his boyhood, one specimen betokened a family of + position and affluence; two, one on each side of the front walk, spoke of + a noble opulence; two and a fountain were overwhelming. He wondered in + what obscure thickets that once proud herd now grazed; and then he smiled, + as through a leafy opening of shrubbery he caught a glimpse of a last + survivor, still loyally alert, the haughty head thrown back in everlasting + challenge and one foreleg lifted, standing in a vast and shadowy backyard + with a clothesline fastened to its antlers. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Corliss remembered that backyard very well: it was an old battlefield + whereon he had conquered; and he wondered if “the Lindley boys” + still lived there, and if Richard Lindley would hate him now as implacably + as then. + </p> + <p> + A hundred yards farther on, he paused before a house more familiar to him + than any other, and gave it a moment’s whimsical attention, without + emotion. + </p> + <p> + It was a shabby old brick structure, and it stood among the gayest, the + most flamboyant dwellings of all Corliss Street like a bewildered tramp + surrounded by carnival maskers. It held place full in the course of the + fury for demolition and rebuilding, but remained unaltered—even + unrepaired, one might have thought—since the early seventies, when + it was built. There was a sagging cornice, and the nauseous brown which + the walls had years ago been painted was sooted to a repellent dinge, so + cracked and peeled that the haggard red bricks were exposed, like a beggar + through the holes in his coat. It was one of those houses which are large + without being commodious; its very tall, very narrow windows, with their + attenuated, rusty inside shutters, boasting to the passerby of high + ceilings but betraying the miserly floor spaces. At each side of the front + door was a high and cramped bay-window, one of them insanely culminating + in a little six-sided tower of slate, and both of them girdled above the + basement windows by a narrow porch, which ran across the front of the + house and gave access to the shallow vestibule. However, a pleasant + circumstance modified the gloom of this edifice and assured it a remnant + of reserve and dignity in its ill-considered old age: it stood back a fine + hundred feet from the highway, and was shielded in part by a friendly + group of maple trees and one glorious elm, hoary, robust, and majestic, a + veteran of the days when this was forest ground. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Corliss concluded his momentary pause by walking up the broken cement + path, which was hard beset by plantain-weed and the long grass of the + ill-kept lawn. Ascending the steps, he was assailed by an odour as of + vehement bananas, a diffusion from some painful little chairs standing in + the long, high, dim, rather sorrowful hall disclosed beyond the open + double doors. They were stiff little chairs of an inconsequent, mongrel + pattern; armless, with perforated wooden seats; legs tortured by the lathe + to a semblance of buttons strung on a rod; and they had that day received + a streaky coat of a gilding preparation which exhaled the olfactory + vehemence mentioned. Their present station was temporary, their purpose, + as obviously, to dry; and they were doing some incidental gilding on their + own account, leaving blots and splashes and sporadic little round + footprints on the hardwood floor. + </p> + <p> + The old-fashioned brass bell-handle upon the caller’s right drooped + from its socket in a dead fag, but after comprehensive manipulation on the + part of the young man, and equal complaint on its own, it was constrained + to permit a dim tinkle remotely. Somewhere in the interior a woman’s + voice, not young, sang a repeated fragment of “Lead, Kindly Light,” + to the accompaniment of a flapping dust-cloth, sounds which ceased upon a + second successful encounter with the bell. Ensued a silence, probably to + be interpreted as a period of whispered consultation out of range; a + younger voice called softly and urgently, “Laura!” and a + dark-eyed, dark-haired girl of something over twenty made her appearance + to Mr. Corliss. + </p> + <p> + At sight of her he instantly restored a thin gold card-case to the pocket + whence he was in the act of removing it. She looked at him with only + grave, impersonal inquiry; no appreciative invoice of him was to be + detected in her quiet eyes, which may have surprised him, possibly the + more because he was aware there was plenty of appreciation in his own + kindling glance. She was very white and black, this lady. Tall, trim, + clear, she looked cool in spite of the black winter skirt she wore, an + effect helped somewhat, perhaps, by the crisp freshness of her white + waist, with its masculine collar and slim black tie, and undoubtedly by + the even and lustreless light ivory of her skin, against which the strong + black eyebrows and undulated black hair were lined with attractive + precision; but, most of all, that coolness was the emanation of her + undisturbed and tranquil eyes. They were not phlegmatic: a continuing + spark glowed far within them, not ardently, but steadily and inscrutably, + like the fixed stars in winter. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Valentine Corliss, of Paris and Naples, removed his white-ribboned + straw hat and bowed as no one had ever bowed in that doorway. This most + vivid salutation—accomplished by adding something to a rather quick + inclination of the body from the hips, with the back and neck held + straight expressed deference without affecting or inviting cordiality. It + was an elaborate little formality of a kind fancifully called “foreign,” + and evidently habitual to the performer. + </p> + <p> + It produced no outward effect upon the recipient. Such self-control is + unusual. + </p> + <p> + “Is Mr. Madison at home? My name is Valentine Corliss.” + </p> + <p> + “He is at home.” She indicated an open doorway upon her right. + “Will you wait in there?” + </p> + <p> + “Thank you,” said Mr. Corliss, passing within. “I shall + be——” He left the sentence unfinished, for he was + already alone, and at liberty to reflect upon the extraordinary coolness + of this cool young woman. + </p> + <p> + The room, with its closed blinds, was soothingly dark after the riotous + sun without, a grateful obscurity which was one of two attractions + discovered in it by Mr. Corliss while he waited. It was a depressing + little chamber, disproportionately high, uncheered by seven chairs (each + of a different family, but all belonging to the same knobby species, and + all upholstered a repellent blue), a scratched “inlaid table,” + likewise knobby, and a dangerous looking small sofa—turbulent + furniture, warmly harmonious, however, in a common challenge to the + visitor to take comfort in any of it. A once-gilt gas chandelier hung from + the distant ceiling, with three globes of frosted glass, but undeniable + evidence that five were intended; and two of the three had been severely + bitten. There was a hostile little coal-grate, making a mouth under a + mantel of imitation black marble, behind an old blue-satin fire-screen + upon which red cat-tails and an owl over a pond had been roughly + embroidered in high relief, this owl motive being the inspiration of + innumerable other owls reflected in innumerable other ponds in the + formerly silver moonlight with which the walls were papered. Corliss + thought he remembered that in his boyhood, when it was known as “the + parlour” (though he guessed that the Madison family called it + “the reception room,” now) this was the place where his aunt + received callers who, she justifiably hoped, would not linger. Altogether, + it struck him that it might be a good test-room for an alienist: no + incipient lunacy would remain incipient here. + </p> + <p> + There was one incongruity which surprised him—a wicker waste-paper + basket, so nonsensically out of place in this arid cell, where not the + wildest hare-brain could picture any one coming to read or write, that he + bestowed upon it a particular, frowning attention, and so discovered the + second attractive possession of the room. A fresh and lovely pink rose, + just opening full from the bud, lay in the bottom of the basket. + </p> + <p> + There was a rustling somewhere in the house and a murmur, above which a + boy’s voice became audible in emphatic but undistinguishable + complaint. A whispering followed, and a woman exclaimed protestingly, + “Cora!” And then a startlingly pretty girl came carelessly + into the room through the open door. + </p> + <p> + She was humming “Quand I’ Amour Meurt” in a gay + preoccupation, and evidently sought something upon the table in the centre + of the room, for she continued her progress toward it several steps before + realizing the presence of a visitor. She was a year or so younger than the + girl who had admitted him, fairer and obviously more plastic, more + expressive, more perishable, a great deal more insistently feminine; + though it was to be seen that they were sisters. This one had eyes almost + as dark as the other’s, but these were not cool; they were sweet, + unrestful, and seeking; brilliant with a vivacious hunger: and not Diana + but huntresses more ardent have such eyes. Her hair was much lighter than + her sister’s; it was the colour of dry corn-silk in the sun; and she + was the shorter by a head, rounder everywhere and not so slender; but no + dumpling: she was exquisitely made. There was a softness about her: + something of velvet, nothing of mush. She diffused with her entrance a + radiance of gayety and of gentleness; sunlight ran with her. She seemed + the incarnation of a caressing smile. + </p> + <p> + She was point-device. Her close, white skirt hung from a plainly + embroidered white waist to a silken instep; and from the crown of her + charming head to the tall heels of her graceful white suede slippers, + heels of a sweeter curve than the waist of a violin, she was as modern and + lovely as this dingy old house was belated and hideous. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Valentine Corliss spared the fraction of a second for another glance + at the rose in the waste-basket. + </p> + <p> + The girl saw him before she reached the table, gave a little gasp of + surprise, and halted with one hand carried prettily to her breast. + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” she said impulsively; “I <i>beg</i> your pardon. I + didn’t know there was—— I was looking for a book I + thought I——” + </p> + <p> + She stopped, whelmed with a breath-taking shyness, her eyes, after one + quick but condensed encounter with those of Mr. Corliss, falling beneath + exquisite lashes. Her voice was one to stir all men: it needs not many + words for a supremely beautiful “speaking-voice” to be + recognized for what it is; and this girl’s was like herself, + hauntingly lovely. The intelligent young man immediately realized that no + one who heard it could ever forget it. + </p> + <p> + “I see,” she faltered, turning to leave the room; “it + isn’t here—the book.” + </p> + <p> + “There’s something else of yours here,” said Corliss. + </p> + <p> + “Is there?” She paused, hesitating at the door, looking at him + over her shoulder uncertainly. + </p> + <p> + “You dropped this rose.” He lifted the rose from the + waste-basket and repeated the bow he had made at the front door. This time + it was not altogether wasted. + </p> + <h3> + “I?” + </h3> + <p> + “Yes. You lost it. It belongs to you.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—it does. How curious!” she said slowly. “How + curious it happened to be <i>there</i>!” She stepped to take it from + him, her eyes upon his in charming astonishment. “And how odd that——” + She stopped; then said quickly: + </p> + <p> + “How did you know it was <i>my</i> rose?” + </p> + <p> + “Any one would know!” + </p> + <p> + Her expression of surprise was instantaneously merged in a flash of honest + pleasure and admiration, such as only an artist may feel in the presence + of a little masterpiece by a fellow-craftsman. + </p> + <p> + Happily, anticlimax was spared them by the arrival of the person for whom + the visitor had asked at the door, and the young man retained the rose in + his hand. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Madison, a shapeless hillock with a large, harassed, red face, + evidently suffered from the heat: his gray hair was rumpled back from a + damp forehead; the sleeves of his black alpaca coat were pulled up to the + elbow above his uncuffed white shirtsleeves; and he carried in one mottled + hand the ruins of a palm-leaf fan, in the other a balled wet handkerchief + which released an aroma of camphor upon the banana-burdened air. He bore + evidences of inadequate adjustment after a disturbed siesta, but, + exercising a mechanical cordiality, preceded himself into the room by a + genial half-cough and a hearty, “Well-well-well,” as if + wishing to indicate a spirit of polite, even excited, hospitality. + </p> + <p> + “I expected you might be turning up, after your letter,” he + said, shaking hands. “Well, well, well! I remember you as a boy. + Wouldn’t have known you, of course; but I expect you’ll find + the town about as much changed as you are.” + </p> + <p> + With a father’s blindness to all that is really vital, he concluded + his greeting inconsequently: “Oh, this is my little girl Cora.” + </p> + <p> + “Run along, little girl,” said the fat father. + </p> + <p> + His little girl’s radiant glance at the alert visitor imparted her + thorough comprehension of all the old man’s absurdities, which had + reached their climax in her dismissal. Her parting look, falling from + Corliss’s face to the waste-basket at his feet, just touched the + rose in his hand as she passed through the door. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWO + </h2> + <p> + Cora paused in the hall at a point about twenty feet from the door, a + girlish stratagem frequently of surprising advantage to the practitioner; + but the two men had begun to speak of the weather. Suffering a momentary + disappointment, she went on, stepping silently, and passed through a door + at the end of the hall into a large and barren looking dining-room, + stiffly and skimpily furnished, but well-lighted, owing to the fact that + one end of it had been transformed into a narrow “conservatory,” + a glass alcove now tenanted by two dried palms and a number of vacant jars + and earthen crocks. + </p> + <p> + Here her sister sat by an open window, repairing masculine underwear; and + a handsome, shabby, dirty boy of about thirteen sprawled on the floor of + the “conservatory” unloosing upon its innocent, cracked, old + black and white tiles a ghastly family of snakes, owls, and visaged + crescent moons, in orange, green, and other loathsome chalks. As Cora + entered from the hall, a woman of fifty came in at a door opposite, and, a + dust-cloth retained under her left arm, an unsheathed weapon ready for + emergency, leaned sociably against the door-casing and continued to polish + a tablespoon with a bit of powdered chamois-skin. She was tall and + slightly bent; and, like the flat, old, silver spoon in her hand, seemed + to have been worn thin by use; yet it was plain that the three young + people in the room “got their looks” from her. Her eyes, if + tired, were tolerant and fond; and her voice held its youth and something + of the music of Cora’s. + </p> + <p> + “What is he like?” She addressed the daughter by the window. + </p> + <p> + “Why don’t you ask Coralie?” suggested the sprawling + artist, relaxing his hideous labour. He pronounced his sister’s name + with intense bitterness. He called it “Cora-<i>lee</i>,” with + an implication far from subtle that his sister had at some time thus + Gallicized herself, presumably for masculine favour; and he was pleased to + receive tribute to his satire in a flash of dislike from her lovely eyes. + </p> + <p> + “I ask Laura because it was Laura who went to the door,” Mrs. + Madison answered. “I do not ask Cora because Cora hasn’t seen + him. Do I satisfy you, Hedrick?” + </p> + <p> + “`Cora hasn’t seen him!’” the boy hooted + mockingly. “She hasn’t? She was peeking out of the library + shutters when he came up the front walk, and she wouldn’t let me go + to the door; she told Laura to go, but first she took the library + waste-basket and laid one o’ them roses——” + </p> + <p> + “<i>Those</i> roses,” said Cora sharply. “He <i>will</i> + hang around the neighbours’ stables. I think you ought to do + something about it, mother.” + </p> + <p> + “<i>Them</i> roses!” repeated Hedrick fiercely. “One o’ + them roses Dick Lindley sent her this morning. Laid it in the waste-basket + and sneaked it into the reception room for an excuse to go galloping in + and——” + </p> + <p> + “`Galloping’?” said Mrs. Madison gravely. + </p> + <p> + “It was a pretty bum excuse,” continued the unaffected youth, + “but you bet your life you’ll never beat our Cora-<i>lee</i> + when there’s a person in pants on the premises! It’s + sickening.” He rose, and performed something like a toe-dance, a + supposed imitation of his sister’s mincing approach to the visitor. + “Oh, dear, I am such a little sweety! Here I am all alone just + reeking with Browning-and-Tennyson and thinking to myself about such + lovely things, and walking around looking for my nice, pretty rose. Where + can it be? Oh heavens, Mister, are <i>you</i> here? Oh my, I never, never + thought that there was a <i>man</i> here! How you frighten me! See what a + shy little thing I am? You <i>do see, don’t</i> you, old sweeticums? + Ta, ta, here’s papa. Remember me by that rose, ‘cause it’s + just like me. Me and it’s twins, you see, cutie-sugar!” The + diabolical boy then concluded with a reversion to the severity of his own + manner: “If she was <i>my</i> daughter I’d whip her!” + </p> + <p> + His indignation was left in the air, for the three ladies had + instinctively united against him, treacherously including his private feud + in the sex-war of the ages: Cora jumped lightly upon the table and sat + whistling and polishing the nails of one hand upon the palm of another; + Laura continued to sew without looking up, and Mrs. Madison, conquering a + tendency to laugh, preserved a serene countenance and said ruminatively: + </p> + <p> + “They were all rather queer, the Corlisses.” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick stared incredulously, baffled; but men must expect these things, + and this was no doubt a helpful item in his education. + </p> + <p> + “I wonder if he wants to sell the house,” said Mrs. Madison. + </p> + <p> + “I wish he would. Anything that would make father get out of it!” + Cora exclaimed. “I hope Mr. Corliss will burn it if he doesn’t + sell it.” + </p> + <p> + “He might want to live here himself.” + </p> + <p> + “He!” Cora emitted a derisive outcry. + </p> + <p> + Her mother gave her a quick, odd look, in which there was a real alarm. + “What is he like, Cora?” + </p> + <p> + “Awfully foreign and distinguished!” + </p> + <p> + This brought Hedrick to confront her with a leap as of some wild animal + under a lash. He landed close to her; his face awful. + </p> + <p> + “Princely, I should call him,” said Cora, her enthusiasm + undaunted. “Distinctly princely!” + </p> + <p> + “Princely,” moaned Hedrick. “Pe-rin-sley!” + </p> + <p> + “Hedrick!” Mrs. Madison reproved him automatically. “In + what way is he `foreign,’ Cora?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, every way.” Cora let her glance rest dreamily upon the + goaded boy. “He has a splendid head set upon a magnificent torso——” + </p> + <p> + “<i>Torso</i>!” Hedrick whispered hoarsely. + </p> + <p> + “Tall, a glorious figure—like a young guardsman’s.” + Madness was gathering in her brother’s eyes; and observing it with + quiet pleasure, she added: “One sees immediately he has the grand + manner, the bel air.” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick exploded. “`<i>Bel air</i>’!” he screamed, and + began to jump up and down, tossing his arms frantically, and gasping with + emotion. “Oh, bel air! Oh, blah! `Henry Esmond!’ Been readin’ + `Henry Esmond!’ Oh, you be-yoo-tiful Cora-Beatrix-a-<i>lee</i>! + Magganifisent torso! Gull<i>o</i>-rious figgi-your! Bel air! Oh, slush! + Oh, luv-a-ly slush!” He cast himself convulsively upon the floor, + full length. “Luv-a-ly, <i>luv</i>-a-ly slush!” + </p> + <p> + “He is thirty, I should say,” continued Cora, thoughtfully. + “Yes—about thirty. A strong, keen face, rather tanned. He’s + between fair and dark——” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick raised himself to the attitude of the “Dying Gaul.” + “And with `hair slightly silvered at the temples!’ <i>Ain</i>’t + his hair slightly silvered at the temples?” he cried imploringly. + “Oh, sister, in pity’s name let his hair be slightly silvered + at the temples? Only three grains of corn, your Grace; my children are + starving!” + </p> + <p> + He collapsed again, laid his face upon his extended arms, and writhed. + </p> + <p> + “He has rather wonderful eyes,” said Cora. “They seem to + look right through you.” + </p> + <p> + “Slush, slush, luv-a-ly slush,” came in muffled tones from the + floor. + </p> + <p> + “And he wears his clothes so well—so differently! You feel at + once that he’s not a person, but a personage.” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick sat up, his eyes closed, his features contorted as with agony, and + chanted, impromptu: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Slush, slush, luv-a-ly, slush! + Le’ss all go a-swimmin’ in a dollar’s worth o’ mush. + Slush in the morning, slush at night, + If I don’t get my slush I’m bound to get tight!” + </pre> + <p> + “Hedrick!” said his mother. + </p> + <p> + “Altogether I should say that Mr. Valentine Corliss looks as if he + lived up to his name,” Cora went on tranquilly. “Valentine + Corliss of Corliss Street—I think I rather like the sound of that + name.” She let her beautiful voice linger upon it, caressingly. + “Valentine Corliss.” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick opened his eyes, allowed his countenance to resume its ordinary + proportions, and spoke another name slowly and with honeyed + thoughtfulness: + </p> + <p> + “Ray Vilas.” + </p> + <p> + This was the shot that told. Cora sprang down from the table with an + exclamation. + </p> + <p> + Hedrick, subduing elation, added gently, in a mournful whisper: + </p> + <p> + “<i>Poor</i> old Dick Lindley!” + </p> + <p> + His efforts to sting his sister were completely successful at last: Cora + was visibly agitated, and appealed hotly to her mother. “Am I to + bear this kind of thing all my life? Aren’t you <i>ever</i> going to + punish his insolence?” + </p> + <p> + “Hedrick, Hedrick!” said Mrs. Madison sadly. + </p> + <p> + Cora turned to the girl by the window with a pathetic gesture. “Laura——” + she said, and hesitated. + </p> + <p> + Laura Madison looked up into her sister’s troubled eyes. + </p> + <p> + “I feel so morbid,” said Cora, flushing a little and glancing + away. “I wish——” She stopped. + </p> + <p> + The silent Laura set aside her work, rose and went out of the room. Her + cheeks, too, had reddened faintly, a circumstance sharply noted by the + terrible boy. He sat where he was, asprawl, propped by his arms behind + him, watching with acute concentration the injured departure of Cora, + following her sister. At the door, Cora, without pausing, threw him a look + over her shoulder: a full-eyed shot of frankest hatred. + </p> + <p> + A few moments later, magnificent chords sounded through the house. The + piano was old, but tuned to the middle of the note, and the keys were + swept by a master hand. The wires were not hammered; they were touched + knowingly as by the player’s own fingers, and so they sang—and + from out among the chords there stole an errant melody. This was not + “piano-playing” and not a pianist’s triumphant + nimbleness—it was music. Art is the language of a heart that knows + how to speak, and a heart that knew how was speaking here. What it told + was something immeasurably wistful, something that might have welled up in + the breast of a young girl standing at twilight in an April orchard. It + was the inexpressible made into sound, an improvisation by a master + player. + </p> + <p> + “You hear what she’s up to?” said Hedrick, turning his + head at last. But his mother had departed. + </p> + <p> + He again extended himself flat upon the floor, face downward, this time as + a necessary preliminary to rising after a manner of his own invention. + Mysteriously he became higher in the middle, his body slowly forming first + a round and then a pointed arch, with forehead, knees, and elbows touching + the floor. A brilliantly executed manoeuvre closed his Gothic period, set + him upright and upon his feet; then, without ostentation, he proceeded to + the kitchen, where he found his mother polishing a sugar-bowl. + </p> + <p> + He challenged her with a damnatory gesture in the direction of the music. + “You hear what Cora’s up to?” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Madison’s expression was disturbed; she gave her son a look + almost of appeal, and said, gently: + </p> + <p> + “I believe there’s nothing precisely criminal in her getting + Laura to play for her. Laura’s playing always soothes her when she + feels out of sorts—and—you weren’t very considerate of + her, Hedrick. You upset her.” + </p> + <p> + “Mentioning Ray Vilas, you mean?” he demanded. + </p> + <p> + “You weren’t kind.” + </p> + <p> + “She deserves it. Look at her! <i>You</i> know why she’s got + Laura at the piano now.” + </p> + <p> + “It’s—it’s because you worried her,” his + mother faltered evasively. “Besides, it is very hot, and Cora isn’t + as strong as she looks. She said she felt morbid and——” + </p> + <p> + “Morbid? Blah!” interrupted the direct boy. “She’s + started after this Corliss man just like she did for Vilas. If I was Dick + Lindley I wouldn’t stand for Cora’s——” + </p> + <p> + “Hedrick!” His mother checked his outburst pleadingly. “Cora + has so much harder time than the other girls; they’re all so much + better off. They seem to get everything they want, just by asking: nice + clothes and jewellery—and automobiles. That seems to make a great + difference nowadays; they all seem to have automobiles. We’re so + dreadfully poor, and Cora has to struggle so for what good times she——” + </p> + <p> + “Her?” the boy jibed bitterly. “I don’t see her + doing any particular struggling.” He waved his hand in a wide + gesture. “She takes it <i>all</i>!” + </p> + <p> + “There, there!” the mother said, and, as if feeling the need + of placating this harsh judge, continued gently: “Cora isn’t + strong, Hedrick, and she does have a hard time. Almost every one of the + other girls in her set is at the seashore or somewhere having a gay + summer. You don’t realize, but it’s mortifying to have to be + the only one to stay at home, with everybody knowing it’s because + your father can’t afford to send her. And this house is so hopeless,” + Mrs. Madison went on, extending her plea hopefully; “it’s + impossible to make it attractive, but Cora keeps trying and trying: she + was all morning on her knees gilding those chairs for the music-room, poor + child, and——” + </p> + <p> + “`Music-room’!” sneered the boy. “Gilt chairs! All + show-off! That’s all she ever thinks about. It’s all there is + to Cora, just show-off, so she’ll get a string o’ fellows + chasin’ after her. She’s started for this Corliss just exactly + the way she did for Ray Vilas!” + </p> + <p> + “Hedrick!” + </p> + <p> + “Just look at her!” he cried vehemently. “Don’t + you know she’s tryin’ to make this Corliss think it’s <i>her</i> + playin’ the piano right now?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no——” + </p> + <p> + “Didn’t she do that with Ray Vilas?” he demanded + quickly. “Wasn’t that exactly what she did the first time he + ever came here—got Laura to play and made him think it was <i>her</i>? + Didn’t she?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh—just in fun.” Mrs. Madison’s tone lacked + conviction; she turned, a little confusedly, from the glaring boy and + fumbled among the silver on the kitchen table. “Besides—she + told him afterward that it was Laura.” + </p> + <p> + “He walked in on her one day when she was battin’ away at the + piano herself with her back to the door. Then she pretended it had been a + joke, and he was so far gone by that time he didn’t care. He’s + crazy, anyway,” added the youth, casually. “Who is this + Corliss?” + </p> + <p> + “He owns this house. His family were early settlers and used to be + very prominent, but they’re all dead except this one. His mother was + a widow; she went abroad to live and took him with her when he was about + your age, and I don’t think he’s ever been back since.” + </p> + <p> + “Did he use to live in this house?” + </p> + <p> + “No; an aunt of his did. She left it to him when she died, two years + ago. Your father was agent for her.” + </p> + <p> + “You think this Corliss wants to sell it?” + </p> + <p> + “It’s been for sale all the time he’s owned it. That’s + why we moved here; it made the rent low.” + </p> + <p> + “Is he rich?” + </p> + <p> + “They used to have money, but maybe it’s all spent. It seemed + to me he might want to raise money on the house, because I don’t see + any other reason that could bring him back here. He’s already + mortgaged it pretty heavily, your father told me. I don’t——” + Mrs. Madison paused abruptly, her eyes widening at a dismaying thought. + “Oh, I do hope your father will know better than to ask him to stay + to dinner!” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick’s expression became cryptic. “Father won’t ask + him,” he said. “But I’ll bet you a thousand dollars he + stays!” + </p> + <p> + The mother followed her son’s thought and did not seek to elicit + verbal explanation of the certainty which justified so large a venture. + “Oh, I hope not,” she said. “Sarah’s threatening + to leave, anyway; and she gets so cross if there’s extra cooking on + wash-days.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, Sarah’ll have to get cross,” said the boy grimly; + “and <i>I</i>’ll have to plug out and go for a quart of brick + ice-cream and carry it home in all this heat; and Laura and you’ll + have to stand over the stove with Sarah; and father’ll have to + change his shirt; and we’ll all have to toil and moil and sweat and + suffer while Cora-lee sits out on the front porch and talks toodle-do-dums + to her new duke. And then she’ll have <i>you</i> go out and kid him + along while——” + </p> + <p> + “<i>Hedrick</i>!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, you will!—while she gets herself all dressed and + powdered up again. After that, she’ll do her share of the work: she’ll + strain her poor back carryin’ Dick Lindley’s flowers down the + back stairs and stickin’ ’em in a vase over a hole in the + tablecloth that Laura hasn’t had time to sew up. You wait and see!” + </p> + <p> + The gloomy realism of this prophecy was not without effect upon the seer’s + mother. “Oh, no!” she exclaimed, protestingly. “We + really can’t manage it. I’m sure Cora won’t want to ask + him——” + </p> + <p> + “You’ll see!” + </p> + <p> + “No; I’m sure she wouldn’t think of it, but if she does + I’ll tell her we can’t. We really can’t, to-day.” + </p> + <p> + Her son looked pityingly upon her. “She ought to be <i>my </i> + daughter,” he said, the sinister implication all too plain;—“just + about five minutes!” + </p> + <p> + With that, he effectively closed the interview and left her. + </p> + <p> + He returned to his abandoned art labours in the “conservatory,” + and meditatively perpetrated monstrosities upon the tiles for the next + half-hour, at the end of which he concealed his box of chalks, with an + anxiety possibly not unwarranted, beneath the sideboard; and made his way + toward the front door, first glancing, unseen, into the kitchen where his + mother still pursued the silver. He walked through the hall on tiptoe, + taking care to step upon the much stained and worn strip of “Turkish” + carpet, and not upon the more resonant wooden floor. The music had ceased + long since. + </p> + <p> + The open doorway was like a brilliantly painted picture hung upon the + darkness of the hall, though its human centre of interest was no startling + bit of work, consisting of Mr. Madison pottering aimlessly about the + sun-flooded, unkempt lawn, fanning himself, and now and then stooping to + pull up one of the thousands of plantain-weeds that beset the grass. With + him the little spy had no concern; but from a part of the porch out of + sight from the hall came Cora’s exquisite voice and the light and + pleasant baritone of the visitor. Hedrick flattened himself in a corner + just inside the door. + </p> + <p> + “I should break any engagement whatsoever if I had one,” Mr. + Corliss was saying with what the eavesdropper considered an offensively + “foreign” accent and an equally unjustifiable gallantry; + “but of course I haven’t: I am so utterly a stranger here. + Your mother is immensely hospitable to wish you to ask me, and I’ll + be only too glad to stay. Perhaps after dinner you’ll be very, very + kind and play again? Of course you know how remarkable such——” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, just improvising,” Cora tossed off, carelessly, with a + deprecatory ripple of laughter. “It’s purely with the mood, + you see. I can’t make myself do things. No; I fancy I shall not play + again today.” + </p> + <p> + There was a moment’s silence. + </p> + <p> + “Shan’t I fasten that in your buttonhole for you,” said + Cora. + </p> + <p> + “You see how patiently I’ve been awaiting the offer!” + </p> + <p> + There was another little silence; and the listener was able to construct a + picture (possibly in part from an active memory) of Cora’s delicate + hands uplifted to the gentleman’s lapel and Cora’s eyes for a + moment likewise uplifted. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, one has moods,” she said, dreamily. “I am <i>all</i> + moods. I think you are too, Mr. Corliss. You <i>look</i> moody. Aren’t + you?” + </p> + <p> + A horrible grin might have been seen to disfigure the shadow in the corner + just within the doorway. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER THREE + </h2> + <p> + It was cooler outdoors, after dinner, in the dusk of that evening; + nevertheless three members of the Madison family denied themselves the + breeze, and, as by a tacitly recognized and habitual house-rule, so + disposed themselves as to afford the most agreeable isolation for the + younger daughter and the guest, who occupied wicker chairs upon the porch. + The mother and father sat beneath a hot, gas droplight in the small + “library”; Mrs. Madison with an evening newspaper, her husband + with “King Solomon’s Mines”; and Laura, after crisply + declining an urgent request from Hedrick to play, had disappeared + upstairs. The inimical lad alone was inspired for the ungrateful role of + duenna. + </p> + <p> + He sat upon the topmost of the porch steps with the air of being + permanently implanted; leaning forward, elbows on knees, cheeks on palms, + in a treacherous affectation of profound reverie; and his back (all of him + that was plainly visible in the hall light) tauntingly close to a delicate + foot which would, God wot! willingly have launched him into the darkness + beyond. It was his dreadful pleasure to understand wholly the itching of + that shapely silk and satin foot. + </p> + <p> + The gas-light from the hall laid a broad orange path to the steps—Cora + and her companion sat just beyond it, his whiteness gray, and she a pale + ethereality in the shadow. She wore an evening gown that revealed a vague + lilac through white, and shimmered upon her like a vapour. She was very + quiet; and there was a wan sweetness about her, an exhalation of + wistfulness. Cora, in the evening, was more like a rose than ever. She was + fragrant in the dusk. The spell she cast was an Undine’s: it was not + to be thought so exquisite a thing as she could last. And who may know how + she managed to say what she did in the silence and darkness? For it was + said—without words, without touch, even without a look—as + plainly as if she had spoken or written the message: “If I am a + rose, I am one to be worn and borne away. Are you the man?” + </p> + <p> + With the fall of night, the street they faced had become still, save for + an infrequent squawk of irritation on the part of one of the passing + automobiles, gadding for the most part silently, like fireflies. But after + a time a strolling trio of negroes came singing along the sidewalk. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “In the evening, by the moonlight, you could hear + those banjos ringing; + In the evening, by the moonlight, you could hear + those darkies singing. + How the ole folks would injoy it; they would sit + all night an’ lis-sun, + As we sang I-I-N the evening BY-Y-Y the moonlight.’ +</pre> + <p> + “Ah, <i>that</i> takes me back!” exclaimed Corliss. “That’s + as it used to be. I might be a boy again.” + </p> + <p> + “And I suppose this old house has many memories for you?” said + Cora, softly. + </p> + <p> + “Not very many. My, old-maid aunt didn’t like me overmuch, I + believe; and I wasn’t here often. My mother and I lived far down the + street. A big apartment-house stands there now, I noticed as I was walking + out here this afternoon—the `Verema,’ it is called, absurdly + enough!” + </p> + <p> + “Ray Vilas lives there,” volunteered Hedrick, not altering his + position. + </p> + <p> + “Vilas?” said the visitor politely, with a casual recollection + that the name had been once or twice emphasized by the youth at dinner. + “I don’t remember Vilas among the old names here.” + </p> + <p> + “It wasn’t, I guess,” said Hedrick. “Ray Vilas has + only been here about two years. He came from Kentucky.” + </p> + <p> + “A great friend of yours, I suppose.” + </p> + <p> + “He ain’t a boy,” said Hedrick, and returned to silence + without further explanation. + </p> + <p> + “How cool and kind the stars are to-night,” said Cora, very + gently. + </p> + <p> + She leaned forward from her chair, extending a white arm along the iron + railing of the porch; bending toward Corliss, and speaking toward him and + away from Hedrick in as low a voice as possible, probably entertaining a + reasonable hope of not being overheard. + </p> + <p> + “I love things that are cool and kind,” she said. “I + love things that are cool and strong. I love iron.” She moved her + arm caressingly upon the railing. “I love its cool, smooth touch. + Any strong life must have iron in it. I like iron in men.” + </p> + <p> + She leaned a very little closer to him. + </p> + <p> + “Have you iron in you, Mr. Corliss?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + At these words the frayed edge of Hedrick’s broad white collar was + lifted perceptibly from his coat, as if by a shudder passing over the back + and shoulders beneath. + </p> + <p> + “If I have not,” answered Corliss in a low voice, “I + will have—now!” + </p> + <p> + “Tell me about yourself,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “Dear lady,” he began—and it was an effective beginning, + for a sigh of pleasure parted her lips as he spoke—“there is + nothing interesting to tell. I have spent a very commonplace life.” + </p> + <p> + “I think not. You shouldn’t call any life commonplace that has + escaped <i>this</i>!” The lovely voice was all the richer for the + pain that shook it now. “This monotony, this unending desert of + ashes, this death in life!” + </p> + <p> + “This town, you mean?” + </p> + <p> + “This prison, I mean! Everything. Tell me what lies outside of it. + You can.” + </p> + <p> + “What makes you think I can?” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t need to answer that. You understand perfectly.” + </p> + <p> + Valentine Corliss drew in his breath with a sound murmurous of delight, + and for a time they did not speak. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” he said, finally, “I think I do.” + </p> + <p> + “There are meetings in the desert,” he went on, slowly. + “A lonely traveller finds another at a spring, sometimes.” + </p> + <p> + “And sometimes they find that they speak the same language?” + </p> + <p> + His answer came, almost in a whisper: + </p> + <p> + “`Even as you and I.’” + </p> + <p> + “`Even as you and I,’” she echoed, even more faintly. + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + Cora breathed rapidly in the silence that followed; she had every + appearance of a woman deeply and mysteriously stirred. Her companion + watched her keenly in the dusk, and whatever the reciprocal symptoms of + emotion he may have exhibited, they were far from tumultuous, bearing more + likeness to the quiet satisfaction of a good card-player taking what may + prove to be a decisive trick. + </p> + <p> + After a time she leaned back in her chair again, and began to fan herself + slowly. + </p> + <p> + “You have lived in the Orient, haven’t you, Mr. Corliss?” + she said in an ordinary tone. + </p> + <p> + “Not lived. I’ve been East once or twice. I spend a greater + part of the year at Posilipo.” + </p> + <p> + “Where is that?” + </p> + <p> + “On the fringe of Naples.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you live in a hotel?” + </p> + <p> + “No.” A slight surprise sounded in his voice. “I have a + villa there.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you know what that seems to me?” Cora asked gravely, after + a pause; then answered herself, after another: “Like magic. Like a + strange, beautiful dream.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, it is beautiful,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “Then tell me: What do you do there?” + </p> + <p> + “I spend a lot of time on the water in a boat.” + </p> + <p> + “Sailing?” + </p> + <p> + “On sapphires and emeralds and turquoises and rubies, melted and + blown into waves.” + </p> + <p> + “And you go yachting over that glory?” + </p> + <p> + “Fishing with my crew—and loafing.” + </p> + <p> + “But your boat is really a yacht, isn’t it?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, it might be called anything,” he laughed. + </p> + <p> + “And your sailors are Italian fishermen?” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick slew a mosquito upon his temple, smiting himself hard. “No, + they’re Chinese!” he muttered hoarsely. + </p> + <p> + “They’re Neapolitans,” said Corliss. + </p> + <p> + “Do they wear red sashes and earrings?” asked Cora. + </p> + <p> + “One of them wears earrings and a derby hat!” + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” she protested, turning to him again. “You don’t + tell me. You let me cross-question you, but you don’t tell me + things! Don’t you see? I want to know what <i>life</i> is! I want to + know of strange seas, of strange people, of pain and of danger, of great + music, of curious thoughts! What are the Neapolitan women like?” + </p> + <p> + “They fade early.” + </p> + <p> + She leaned closer to him. “Before the fading have you—have you + loved—many?” + </p> + <p> + “All the pretty ones I ever saw,” he answered gayly, but with + something in his tone (as there was in hers) which implied that all the + time they were really talking of things other than those spoken. Yet here + this secret subject seemed to come near the surface. + </p> + <p> + She let him hear a genuine little snap of her teeth. “I <i>thought</i> + you were like that!” + </p> + <p> + He laughed. “Ah, but you were sure to see it!” + </p> + <p> + “You could ‘a’ seen a Neapolitan woman yesterday, Cora,” + said Hedrick, obligingly, “if you’d looked out the front + window. She was working a hurdy-gurdy up and down this neighbourhood all + afternoon.” He turned genially to face his sister, and added: + “Ray Vilas used to say there were lots of pretty girls in Lexington.” + </p> + <p> + Cora sprang to her feet. “You’re not smoking,” she said + to Corliss hurriedly, as upon a sudden discovery. “Let me get you + some matches.” + </p> + <p> + She had entered the house before he could protest, and Hedrick, looking + down the hall, was acutely aware that she dived desperately into the + library. But, however tragic the cry for justice she uttered there, it + certainly was not prolonged; and the almost instantaneous quickness of her + reappearance upon the porch, with matches in her hand, made this one of + the occasions when her brother had to admit that in her own line Cora was + a miracle. + </p> + <p> + “So thoughtless of me,” she said cheerfully, resuming her + seat. She dropped the matches into Mr. Corliss’s hand with a + fleeting touch of her finger-tips upon his palm. “Of course you + wanted to smoke. I can’t think why I didn’t realize it before. + I must have——” + </p> + <p> + A voice called from within, commanding in no, uncertain tones. + </p> + <p> + “Hedrick! I should like to see you!” Hedrick rose, and, + looking neither to the right nor, to the left, went stonily into the + house, and appeared before the powers. + </p> + <p> + “Call me?” he inquired with the air of cheerful readiness to + proceed upon any errand, no matter how difficult. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Madison countered diplomacy with gloom. + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know what to do with you. Why can’t you let + your sister alone?” + </p> + <p> + “Has Laura been complaining of me?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Hedrick!” said Mrs. Madison. + </p> + <p> + Hedrick himself felt the justice of her reproof: his reference to Laura + was poor work, he knew. He hung his head and began to scrape the carpet + with the side of his shoe. + </p> + <p> + “Well, what’d Cora say I been doing to her?” + </p> + <p> + “You know perfectly well what you’ve been doing,” said + Mr. Madison sharply. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing at all; just sitting on the steps. What’d she <i>say</i>?” + </p> + <p> + His father evidently considered it wiser not to repeat the text of + accusation. “You know what you did,” he said heavily. + </p> + <p> + “Oho!” Hedrick’s eyes became severe, and his sire’s + evasively shifted from them. + </p> + <p> + “You keep away from the porch,” said the father, uneasily. + </p> + <p> + “You mean what I said about Ray Vilas?” asked the boy. + </p> + <p> + Both parents looked uncomfortable, and Mr. Madison, turning a leaf in his + book, gave a mediocre imitation of an austere person resuming his reading + after an impertinent interruption. + </p> + <p> + “That’s what you mean,” said the boy accusingly. “Ray + Vilas!” + </p> + <p> + “Just you keep away from that porch.” + </p> + <p> + “Because I happened to mention Ray Vilas?” demanded Hedrick. + </p> + <p> + “You let your sister alone.” + </p> + <p> + “I got a right to know what she said, haven’t I?” + </p> + <p> + There was no response, which appeared to satisfy Hedrick perfectly. + Neither parent met his glance; the mother troubled and the father dogged, + while the boy rejoiced sternly in some occult triumph. He inflated his + scant chest in pomp and hurled at the defeated pair the well-known words: + </p> + <p> + “I wish she was <i>my</i> daughter—about five minutes!” + </p> + <p> + New sounds from without—men’s voices in greeting, and a ripple + of response from Cora somewhat lacking in enthusiasm—afforded Mr. + Madison unmistakable relief, and an errand upon which to send his deadly + offspring. + </p> + <p> + Hedrick, after a reconnaissance in the hall, obeyed at leisure. Closing + the library door nonchalantly behind him, he found himself at the foot of + a flight of unillumined back stairs, where his manner underwent a swift + alteration, for here was an adventure to be gone about with ceremony. + “Ventre St. Gris!” he muttered hoarsely, and loosened the long + rapier in the shabby sheath at his side. For, with the closing of the + door, he had become a Huguenot gentleman, over forty and a little grizzled + perhaps, but modest and unassuming; wiry, alert, lightning-quick, with a + wrist of steel and a heart of gold; and he was about to ascend the stairs + of an unknown house at Blois in total darkness. He went up, crouching, + ready for anything, without a footfall, not even causing a hideous creak; + and gained the top in safety. Here he turned into an obscure passage, and + at the end of it beheld, through an open door, a little room in which a + dark-eyed lady sat writing in a book by the light of an oil lamp. + </p> + <p> + The wary Huguenot remained in the shadow and observed her. + </p> + <p> + Laura was writing in an old ledger she had found in the attic, blank and + unused. She had rebound it herself in heavy gray leather; and fitted it + with a tiny padlock and key. She wore the key under her dress upon a very + thin silver chain round her neck. Upon the first page of the book was + written a date, now more than a year past, the month was June—and + beneath it: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Love came to me to-day.” + </pre> + <p> + Nothing more was written upon that page. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER FOUR + </h2> + <p> + Laura, at this writing, looked piquantly unfamiliar to her brother: her + eyes were moist and bright; her cheeks were flushed and as she bent low, + intently close to the book, a loosened wavy strand of her dark hair almost + touched the page. Hedrick had never before seen her wearing an expression + so “becoming” as the eager and tremulous warmth of this; + though sometimes, at the piano, she would play in a reverie which wrought + such glamour about her that even a brother was obliged to consider her + rather handsome. She looked more than handsome now, so strangely lovely, + in fact, that his eyes watered painfully with the protracted struggle to + read a little of the writing in her book before she discovered him. + </p> + <p> + He gave it up at last, and lounged forward blinking, with the air of + finding it sweet to do nothing. + </p> + <p> + “Whatch’ writin’?” he asked in simple + carelessness. + </p> + <p> + At the first sound of his movement she closed the book in a flash; then, + with a startled, protective gesture, extended her arms over it, covering + it. + </p> + <p> + “What is it, Hedrick?” she asked, breathlessly. + </p> + <p> + “What’s the padlock for?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing,” she panted. “What is it you want?” + </p> + <p> + “You writin’ poetry?” + </p> + <p> + Laura’s eyes dilated; she looked dangerous. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I don’t care about your old book,” said Hedrick, + with an amused nonchalance Talleyrand might have admired. “There’s + callers, and you have to come down.” + </p> + <p> + “Who sent you?” + </p> + <p> + “A man I’ve often noticed around the house,” he replied + blightingly. “You may have seen him—I think his name’s + Madison. His wife and he both sent for you.” + </p> + <p> + One of Laura’s hands instinctively began to arrange her hair, but + the other remained upon the book. “Who is it calling?” + </p> + <p> + “Richard Lindley and that Wade Trumble.” + </p> + <p> + Laura rose, standing between her brother and the table. “Tell mother + I will come down.” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick moved a little nearer, whereupon, observing his eye, she put her + right hand behind her upon the book. She was not deceived, and boys are + not only superb strategic actors sometimes, but calamitously quick. + Appearing to be unaware of her careful defence, he leaned against the wall + and crossed his feet in an original and interesting manner. + </p> + <p> + “Of course <i>you</i> understand,” he said cosily. “Cora + wants to keep this Corliss in a corner of the porch where she can coo at + him; so you and mother’ll have to raise a ballyhoo for Dick Lindley + and that Wade Trumble. It’d been funny if Dick hadn’t noticed + anybody was there and kissed her. What on earth does he want to stay + engaged to her for, anyway?” + </p> + <p> + “You don’t know that she is engaged to Mr. Lindley, Hedrick.” + </p> + <p> + “Get out!” he hooted. “What’s the use talking like + that to me? A blind mackerel could see she’s let poor old Lindley + think he’s High Man with her these last few months; but he’ll + have to hit the pike now, I reckon, ‘cause this Corliss is + altogether too pe-rin-sley for Dick’s class. Lee roy est mort. Vive + lee roy!” + </p> + <p> + “Hedrick, won’t you please run along? I want to change my + dress.” + </p> + <p> + “What for? There was company for dinner and you didn’t change + then.” + </p> + <p> + Laura’s flushed cheeks flushed deeper, and in her confusion she + answered too quickly. “I only have one evening gown. I—of + course I can’t wear it every night.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then,” he returned triumphantly, “what do you + want to put it on now for?” + </p> + <p> + “<i>Please</i> run along, Hedrick,” she pleaded. + </p> + <p> + “You didn’t for this Corliss,” he persisted sharply. + “You know Dick Lindley couldn’t see anybody but Cora to save + his life, and I don’t suppose there’s a girl on earth fool + enough to dress up for that Wade Trum——” + </p> + <p> + “Hedrick!” Laura’s voice rang with a warning which he + remembered to have heard upon a few previous occasions when she had easily + proved herself physically stronger than he. “Go and tell mother I’m + coming,” she said. + </p> + <p> + He began to whistle “Beulah Land” as he went, but, with the + swift closing of the door behind him, abandoned that pathetically + optimistic hymn prematurely, after the third bar. + </p> + <p> + Twenty minutes later, when Laura came out and went downstairs, a fine + straight figure in her black evening gown, the Sieur de Marsac—that + hard-bitten Huguenot, whose middle-aged shabbiness was but the outward and + deceptive seeming of the longest head and the best sword in France—emerged + cautiously from the passageway and stood listening until her footsteps + were heard descending the front stairs. Nevertheless, the most painstaking + search of her room, a search as systematic as it was feverish, failed to + reveal where she had hidden the book. + </p> + <p> + He returned wearily to the porch. + </p> + <p> + A prophet has always been supposed to take some pleasure, perhaps morbid, + in seeing his predictions fulfilled; and it may have been a consolation to + the gloomy heart of Hedrick, sorely injured by Laura’s offensive + care of her treasure, to find the grouping upon the porch as he had + foretold: Cora and Mr. Corliss sitting a little aloof from the others, far + enough to permit their holding an indistinct and murmurous conversation of + their own. Their sequestration, even by so short a distance, gave them an + appearance of intimacy which probably accounted for the rather absent + greeting bestowed by Mr. Lindley upon the son of the house, who met him + with some favour. + </p> + <p> + This Richard Lindley was a thin, friendly looking young man with a + pleasing, old-fashioned face which suggested that if he were minded to be + portrayed it should be by the daguerreotype, and that a high, black stock + would have been more suitable to him than his businesslike, modern + neck-gear. He had fine eyes, which seemed habitually concerned with + faraway things, though when he looked at Cora they sparkled; however, it + cannot be said that the sparkling continued at its brightest when his + glance wandered (as it not infrequently did this evening) from her lovely + head to the rose in Mr. Corliss’s white coat. + </p> + <p> + Hedrick, resuming a position upon the top step between the two groups, + found the conversation of the larger annoying because it prevented him + from hearing that of the smaller. It was carried on for the greater part + by his mother and Mr. Trumble; Laura sat silent between these two; and + Lindley’s mood was obviously contemplative. Mr. Wade Trumble, + twenty-six, small, earnest, and already beginning to lose his hair, was + talkative enough. + </p> + <p> + He was one of those people who are so continuously aggressive that they + are negligible. “What’s the matter here? Nobody pays any + attention to me. I’M important!” He might have had that legend + engraved on his card, it spoke from everything else that was his: face, + voice, gesture—even from his clothes, for they also clamoured for + attention without receiving it. Worn by another man, their extravagance of + shape and shade might have advertised a self-sacrificing effort for the + picturesque; but upon Mr. Trumble they paradoxically confirmed an + impression that he was well off and close. Certainly this was the + impression confirmed in the mind of the shrewdest and most experienced + observer on that veranda. The accomplished Valentine Corliss was quite + able to share Cora’s detachment satisfactorily, and be very actively + aware of other things at the same time. For instance: Richard Lindley’s + preoccupation had neither escaped him nor remained unconnected in his mind + with that gentleman’s somewhat attentive notice of the present + position of a certain rose. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Trumble took up Mrs. Madison’s placid weather talk as if it had + been a flaunting challenge; he made it a matter of conscience and for + argument; for he was a doughty champion, it appeared, when nothings were + in question, one of those stern men who will have accuracy in the banal, + insisting upon portent in talk meant to be slid over as mere courteous + sound. + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know about that, now,” he said with severe + emphasis. “I don’t know about that at all. I can’t say I + agree with you. In fact, I do not agree with you: it was hotter in the + early part of July, year before last, than it has been at any time this + summer. Several degrees hotter—several degrees.” + </p> + <p> + “I fear I must beg to differ with you,” he said, catching the + poor lady again, a moment later. “I beg to differ decidedly. Other + places get a great deal more heat. Look at Egypt.” + </p> + <p> + “Permit me to disagree,” he interrupted her at once, when she + pathetically squirmed to another subject. “There’s more than + one side to this matter. You are looking at this matter from a totally + wrong angle. . . . Let me inform you that statistics. . . .” Mrs. + Madison’s gentle voice was no more than just audible in the short + intervals he permitted; a blind listener would have thought Mr. Trumble at + the telephone. Hedrick was thankful when his mother finally gave up + altogether the display of her ignorance, inaccuracy, and general + misinformation, and Trumble talked alone. That must have been the young + man’s object; certainly he had struggled for it; and so it must have + pleased him. He talked on and on and on; he passed from one topic to + another with no pause; swinging over the gaps with a “Now you take,” + or, “And that reminds me,” filling many a vacancy with “So-and-so + and so-and-so,” and other stencils, while casting about for material + to continue. Everything was italicized, the significant and the trivial, + to the same monotone of emphasis. Death and shoe-laces were all the same + to him. + </p> + <p> + Anything was all the same to him so long as he talked. + </p> + <p> + Hedrick’s irritation was gradually dispelled; and, becoming used to + the sound, he found it lulling; relaxed his attitude and drowsed; Mr. + Lindley was obviously lost in a reverie; Mrs. Madison, her hand shading + her eyes, went over her market-list for the morrow and otherwise set her + house in order; Laura alone sat straight in her chair; and her face was + toward the vocalist, but as she was in deep shadow her expression could + not be guessed. However, one person in that group must have listened with + genuine pleasure—else why did he talk? + </p> + <p> + It was the returned native whose departure at last rang the curtain on the + monologue. The end of the long sheltered seclusion of Cora and her + companion was a whispered word. He spoke it first: + </p> + <p> + “To-morrow?” + </p> + <p> + “To-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + Cora gave a keen, quick, indrawn sigh—not of sorrow—and sank + back in her chair, as he touched her hand in farewell and rose to go. She + remained where she was, motionless and silent in the dark, while he + crossed to Mrs. Madison, and prefaced a leave-taking unusually formal for + these precincts with his mannered bow. He shook hands with Richard + Lindley, asking genially: + </p> + <p> + “Do you still live where you did—just below here?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “When I passed by there this afternoon,” said Corliss, “it + recalled a stupendous conflict we had, once upon a time; but I couldn’t + remember the cause.” + </p> + <p> + “I remember the cause,” said Mr. Lindley, but, stopping rather + short, omitted to state it. “At all events, it was settled.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said the other quietly. “You whipped me.” + </p> + <p> + “Did I so?” Corliss laughed gayly. “We mustn’t let + it happen again!” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Trumble joined the parting guest, making simultaneous adieus with + unmistakable elation. Mr. Trumble’s dreadful entertainment had made + it a happy evening for him. + </p> + <p> + As they went down the steps together, the top of his head just above the + level of his companion’s shoulder, he lifted to Corliss a searching + gaze like an actor’s hopeful scrutiny of a new acquaintance; and + before they reached the street his bark rang eagerly on the stilly night: + “Now <i>there</i> is a point on which I beg to differ with you. . . + .” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Madison gave Lindley her hand. “I think I’ll go in. + Good-night, Richard. Come, Hedrick!” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick rose, groaning, and batted his eyes painfully as he faced the hall + light. “What’d you and this Corliss fight about?” he + asked, sleepily. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing,” said Lindley. + </p> + <p> + “You said you remembered.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I remember a lot of useless things.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, what was it? I want to know what you fought about.” + </p> + <p> + “Come, Hedrick,” repeated his mother, setting a gently urgent + hand on his shoulder. + </p> + <p> + “I won’t,” said the boy impatiently, shaking her off and + growing suddenly very wideawake and determined. “I won’t move + a step till he tells me what they fought about. Not a step!” + </p> + <p> + “Well—it was about a `show.’ We were only boys, you know—younger + than you, perhaps.” + </p> + <p> + “A circus?” + </p> + <p> + “A boy-circus he and my brother got up in our yard. I wasn’t + in it.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, what did you fight about?” + </p> + <p> + “I thought Val Corliss wasn’t quite fair to my brother. That’s + all.” + </p> + <p> + “No, it isn’t! How wasn’t he fair?” + </p> + <p> + “They sold tickets to the other boys; and I thought my brother didn’t + get his share.” + </p> + <p> + “This Corliss kept it all?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, something like that,” said Lindley, laughing. + </p> + <p> + “Probably I was in the wrong.” + </p> + <p> + “And he licked you?” + </p> + <p> + “All over the place!” + </p> + <p> + “I wish I’d seen it,” said Hedrick, not + unsympathetically, but as a sportsman. And he consented to be led away. + </p> + <p> + Laura had been standing at the top of the steps looking down the street, + where Corliss and his brisk companion had emerged momentarily from deep + shadows under the trees into the illumination of a swinging arc-lamp at + the corner. They disappeared; and she turned, and, smiling, gave the + delaying guest her hand in good-night. + </p> + <p> + His expression, which was somewhat troubled, changed to one of surprise as + her face came into the light, for it was transfigured. Deeply flushed, her + eyes luminous, she wore that shining look Hedrick had seen as she wrote in + her secret book. + </p> + <p> + “Why, Laura!” said Lindley, wondering. + </p> + <p> + She said good-night again, and went in slowly. As she reached the foot of + the stairs, she heard him moving a chair upon the porch, and Cora speaking + sharply: + </p> + <p> + “Please don’t sit close to me!” There was a sudden + shrillness in the voice of honey, and the six words were run so rapidly + together they seemed to form but one. After a moment Cora added, with a + deprecatory ripple of laughter not quite free from the same shrillness: + </p> + <p> + “You see, Richard, it’s so—it’s so hot, to-night.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER FIVE + </h2> + <p> + Half an hour later, when Lindley had gone, Cora closed the front doors in + a manner which drew an immediate cry of agony from the room where her + father was trying to sleep. She stood on tiptoe to turn out the gas-light + in the hall; but for a time the key resisted the insufficient pressure of + her finger-tips: the little orange flame, with its black-green crescent + over the armature, so maliciously like the “eye” of a peacock + feather, limned the exquisite planes of the upturned face; modelled them + with soft and regular shadows; painted a sullen loveliness. The key turned + a little, but not enough; and she whispered to herself a monosyllable not + usually attributed to the vocabulary of a damsel of rank. Next moment, her + expression flashed in a brilliant change, like that of a pouting child + suddenly remembering that tomorrow is Christmas. The key surrendered + instantly, and she ran gayly up the familiar stairs in the darkness. + </p> + <p> + The transom of Laura’s door shone brightly; but the knob, turning + uselessly in Cora’s hand, proved the door itself not so hospitable. + There was a brief rustling within the room; the bolt snapped, and Laura + opened the door. + </p> + <p> + “Why, Laura,” said Cora, observing her sister with transient + curiosity, “you haven’t undressed. What have you been doing? + Something’s the matter with you. I know what it is,” she + added, laughing, as she seated herself on the edge of the old black-walnut + bed. “You’re in love with Wade Trumble!” + </p> + <p> + “He’s a strong man,” observed Laura. “A remarkable + throat.” + </p> + <p> + “Horrible little person!” said Cora, forgetting what she owed + the unfortunate Mr. Trumble for the vocal wall which had so effectively + sheltered her earlier in the evening. “He’s like one of those + booming June-bugs, batting against the walls, falling into lamp-chimneys——-” + </p> + <p> + “He doesn’t get very near the light he wants,” said + Laura. + </p> + <p> + “Me? Yes, he would like to, the rat! But he’s consoled when he + can get any one to listen to his awful chatter. He makes up to himself + among women for the way he gets sat on at the club. But he has his use: he + shows off the other men so, by contrast. Oh, Laura!” She lifted both + hands to her cheeks, which were beautiful with a quick suffusion of high + colour. “Isn’t he gorgeous!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Laura gently, “I’ve always thought so.” + </p> + <p> + “Now what’s the use of that?” asked Cora peevishly, + “with <i>me</i>? I didn’t mean Richard Lindley. You <i>know</i> + what I mean.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes—of course—I do,” Laura said. + </p> + <p> + Cora gave her a long look in which a childlike pleading mingled with a + faint, strange trouble; then this glance wandered moodily from the face of + her sister to her own slippers, which she elevated to meet her descending + line of vision. + </p> + <p> + “And you know I can’t help it,” she said, shifting + quickly to the role of accuser. “So what’s the use of behaving + like the Pest?” She let her feet drop to the floor again, and her + voice trembled a little as she went on: “Laura, you don’t know + what I had to endure from him to-night. I really don’t think I can + stand it to live in the same house any longer with that frightful little + devil. He’s been throwing Ray Vilas’s name at me until—oh, + it was ghastly to-night! And then—then——” Her + tremulousness increased. “I haven’t said anything about it all + day, but I <i>met</i> him on the street downtown, this morning——” + </p> + <p> + “You met Vilas?” Laura looked startled. “Did he speak to + you?” + </p> + <p> + “`Speak to me!’” Cora’s exclamation shook with a + half-laugh of hysteria. “He made an awful <i>scene</i>! He came out + of the Richfield Hotel barroom on Main Street just as I was going into the + jeweller’s next door, and he stopped and bowed like a monkey, square + in front of me, and—and he took off his hat and set it on the + pavement at my feet and told me to kick it into the gutter! Everybody + stopped and stared; and I couldn’t get by him. And he said—he + said I’d kicked his heart into the gutter and he didn’t want + it to catch cold without a hat! And wouldn’t I please be so kind as + to kick——” She choked with angry mortification. “It + was horrible! People were stopping and laughing, and a rowdy began to make + fun of Ray, and pushed him, and they got into a scuffle, and I ran into + the jeweller’s and almost fainted.” + </p> + <p> + “He is insane!” said Laura, aghast. + </p> + <p> + “He’s nothing of the kind; he’s just a brute. He does it + to make people say I’m the cause of his drinking; and everybody in + this gossipy old town <i>does</i> say it—just because I got bored to + death with his everlasting do-you-love-me-to-day-as-well-as-yesterday + style of torment, and couldn’t help liking Richard better. Yes, + every old cat in town says I ruined him, and that’s what he wants + them to say. It’s so unmanly! I wish he’d die! Yes, I <i>do</i> + wish he would! Why doesn’t he kill himself?” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, don’t say that,” protested Laura. + </p> + <p> + “Why not? He’s threatened to enough. And I’m afraid to + go out of the house because I can’t tell when I’ll meet him or + what he’ll do. I was almost sick in that jeweller’s shop, this + morning, and so upset I came away without getting my pendant. There’s + <i>another</i> thing I’ve got to go through, I suppose!” She + pounded the yielding pillow desperately. “Oh, oh, oh! Life isn’t + worth living—it seems to me sometimes as if everybody in the world + spent his time trying to think up ways to make it harder for me! I couldn’t + have worn the pendant, though, even if I’d got it,” she went + on, becoming thoughtful. “It’s Richard’s silly old + engagement ring, you know,” she explained, lightly. “I had it + made up into a pendant, and heaven knows how I’m going to get + Richard to see it the right way. He was so unreasonable tonight.” + </p> + <p> + “Was he cross about Mr. Corliss monopolizing you?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, you know how he is,” said Cora. “He didn’t + speak of it exactly. But after you’d gone, he asked me——” + She stopped with a little gulp, an expression of keen distaste about her + mouth. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, he wants me to wear my ring,” she continued, with sudden + rapidity: “and how the dickens <i>can</i> I when I can’t even + tell him it’s been made into a pendant! He wants to speak to father; + he wants to <i>announce</i> it. He’s sold out his business for what + he thinks is a good deal of money, and he wants me to marry him next month + and take some miserable little trip, I don’t know where, for a few + weeks, before he invests what he’s made in another business. Oh!” + she cried. “It’s a <i>horrible</i> thing to ask a girl to do: + to settle down—just housekeeping, housekeeping, housekeeping forever + in this stupid, stupid town! It’s so unfair! Men are just + possessive; they think it’s loving you to want to possess you + themselves. A beautiful `love’! It’s so mean! Men!” She + sprang up and threw out both arms in a vehement gesture of revolt. “Damn + 'em, I wish they’d let me <i>alone</i>!” + </p> + <p> + Laura’s eyes had lost their quiet; they showed a glint of tears, and + she was breathing quickly. In this crisis of emotion the two girls went to + each other silently; Cora turned, and Laura began to unfasten Cora’s + dress in the back. + </p> + <p> + “Poor Richard!” said Laura presently, putting into her mouth a + tiny pearl button which had detached itself at her touch. “This was + his first evening in the overflow. No wonder he was troubled!” + </p> + <p> + “Pooh!” said Cora. “As if you and mamma weren’t + good enough for him to talk to! He’s spoiled. He’s so used to + being called `the most popular man in town’ and knowing that every + girl on Corliss Street wanted to marry him——” She broke + off, and exclaimed sharply: “I wish they would!” + </p> + <p> + “Cora!” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I suppose you mean that’s the reason <i>I</i> went in for + him?” + </p> + <p> + “No, no,” explained Laura hurriedly. “I only meant, + stand still.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, it was!” And Cora’s abrupt laugh had the glad, + free ring fancy attaches to the merry confidences of a buccaneer in + trusted company. + </p> + <p> + Laura knelt to continue unfastening the dress; and when it was finished + she extended three of the tiny buttons in her hand. “They’re + always loose on a new dress,” she said. “I’ll sew them + all on tight, to-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + Cora smiled lovingly. “You good old thing,” she said. “You + looked pretty to-night.” + </p> + <p> + “That’s nice!” Laura laughed, as she dropped the buttons + into a little drawer of her bureau. It was an ugly, cheap, old bureau, its + veneer loosened and peeling, the mirror small and flawed—a piece of + furniture in keeping with the room, which was small, plain and hot, its + only ornamental adjunct being a silver-framed photograph of Mrs. Madison, + with Cora, as a child of seven or eight, upon her lap. + </p> + <p> + “You really do look ever so pretty,” asserted Cora. + </p> + <p> + “I wonder if I look as well as I did the last time I heard I was + pretty,” said the other. “That was at the Assembly in March. + Coming down the stairs, I heard a man from out of town say, `That + black-haired Miss Madison is a pretty girl.’ And some one with him + said, `Yes; you’ll think so until you meet her sister!’” + </p> + <p> + “You are an old dear!” Cora enfolded her delightedly; then, + drawing back, exclaimed: “You <i>know</i> he’s gorgeous!” + And with a feverish little ripple of laughter, caught her dress together + in the back and sped through the hall to her own room. + </p> + <p> + This was a very different affair from Laura’s, much cooler and + larger; occupying half the width of the house; and a rather expensive + struggle had made it pretty and even luxurious. The window curtains and + the wall-paper were fresh, and of a quiet blue; there was a large divan of + the same colour; a light desk, prettily equipped, occupied a corner; and + between two gilt gas-brackets, whose patent burners were shielded by + fringed silk shades, stood a cheval-glass six feet high. The door of a + very large clothes-pantry stood open, showing a fine company of dresses, + suspended from forms in an orderly manner; near by, a rosewood cabinet + exhibited a delicate collection of shoes and slippers upon its four + shelves. A dressing-table, charmingly littered with everything, took the + place of a bureau; and upon it, in a massive silver frame, was a large + photograph of Mr. Richard Lindley. The frame was handsome, but somewhat + battered: it had seen service. However, the photograph was quite new. + </p> + <p> + There were photographs everywhere—photographs framed and unframed; + photographs large and photographs small, the fresh and the faded; + tintypes, kodaks, “full lengths,” “cabinets,” + groups—every kind of photograph; and among them were several of Cora + herself, one of her mother, one of Laura, and two others of girls. All the + rest were sterner. Two or three were seamed across with cracks, hastily + recalled sentences to destruction; and here and there remained tokens of a + draughtsman’s over-generous struggle to confer upon some of the + smooth-shaven faces additional manliness in the shape of sweeping + moustaches, long beards, goatees, mutton-chops, and, in the case of one + gentleman of a blond, delicate and tenor-like beauty, neck-whiskers;—decorations + in many instances so deeply and damply pencilled that subsequent attempts + at erasure had failed of great success. Certainly, Hedrick had his own way + of relieving dull times. + </p> + <p> + Cora turned up the lights at the sides of the cheval-glass, looked at + herself earnestly, then absently, and began to loosen her hair. Her lifted + hands hesitated; she re-arranged the slight displacement of her hair + already effected; set two chairs before the mirror, seated herself in one; + pulled up her dress, where it was slipping from her shoulder, rested an + arm upon the back of the other chair as, earlier in the evening, she had + rested it upon the iron railing of the porch, and, leaning forward, + assumed as exactly as possible the attitude in which she had sat so long + beside Valentine Corliss. She leaned very slowly closer and yet closer to + the mirror; a rich colour spread over her; her eyes, gazing into + themselves, became dreamy, inexpressibly wistful, cloudily sweet; her + breath was tumultuous. “`Even as you and I’?” she + whispered. + </p> + <p> + Then, in the final moment of this after-the-fact rehearsal, as her face + almost touched the glass, she forgot how and what she had looked to + Corliss; she forgot him; she forgot him utterly: she leaped to her feet + and kissed the mirrored lips with a sort of passion. + </p> + <p> + “You <i>darling</i>!” she cried. Cora’s christening had + been unimaginative, for the name means only, “maiden.” She + should have been called Narcissa. + </p> + <p> + The rhapsody was over instantly, leaving an emotional vacuum like a + silence at the dentist’s. Cora yawned, and resumed the loosening of + her hair. + </p> + <p> + When she had put on her nightgown, she went from one window to another, + closing the shutters against the coming of the morning light to wake her. + As she reached the last window, a sudden high wind rushed among the trees + outside; a white flare leaped at her face, startling her; there was a boom + and rattle as of the brasses, cymbals, and kettle-drums of some fatal + orchestra; and almost at once it began to rain. + </p> + <p> + And with that, from the distance came a voice, singing; and at the first + sound of it, though it was far away and almost indistinguishable, Cora + started more violently than at the lightning; she sprang to the mirror + lights, put them out; threw herself upon the bed, and huddled there in the + darkness. + </p> + <p> + The wind passed; the heart of the storm was miles away; this was only its + fringe; but the rain pattered sharply upon the thick foliage outside her + windows; and the singing voice came slowly up the street. + </p> + <p> + It was a strange voice: high-pitched and hoarse—and not quite human, + so utter was the animal abandon of it. + </p> + <p> + “I love a lassie, a bonnie, bonnie lassie,” it wailed and + piped, coming nearer; and the gay little air—wrought to a grotesque + of itself by this wild, high voice in the rain—might have been a + banshee’s love-song. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “I love a lassie, a bonnie, bonnie lassie. + She’s as pure as the lily in the dell——” + </pre> + <p> + The voice grew louder; came in front of the house; came into the yard; + came and sang just under Cora’s window. There it fell silent a + moment; then was lifted in a long peal of imbecile laughter, and sang + again: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Then slowly, slowly rase she up + And slowly she came nigh him, + And when she drew the curtain by— + `Young man I think you’re dyin’.’” + </pre> + <p> + Cora’s door opened and closed softly, and Laura, barefooted, stole + to the bed and put an arm about the shaking form of her sister. + </p> + <p> + “The drunken beast!” sobbed Cora. “It’s to + disgrace me! That’s what he wants. He’d like nothing better + than headlines in the papers: `Ray Vilas arrested at the Madison residence’!” + She choked with anger and mortification. “The neighbours——” + </p> + <p> + “They’re nearly all away,” whispered Laura. “You + needn’t fear——” + </p> + <p> + “Hark!” + </p> + <p> + The voice stopped singing, and began to mumble incoherently; then it rose + again in a lamentable outcry: + </p> + <p> + “Oh, God of the fallen, be Thou merciful to me! Be Thou merciful—merciful—<i>merciful</i>” + . . . + </p> + <p> + “MERCIFUL, MERCIFUL, MERCIFUL!” it shrieked, over and over, + with increasing loudness, and to such nerve-racking effect that Cora, + gasping, beat the bedclothes frantically with her hands at each iteration. + </p> + <p> + The transom over the door became luminous; some one had lighted the gas in + the upper hall. Both girls jumped from the bed, ran to the door, and + opened it. Their mother, wearing a red wrapper, was standing at the head + of the stairs, which Mr. Madison, in his night-shirt and slippers, was + slowly and heavily descending. + </p> + <p> + Before he reached the front door, the voice outside ceased its dreadful + plaint with the abrupt anti-climax of a phonograph stopped in the middle + of a record. There was the sound of a struggle and wrestling, a turmoil in + the wet shrubberies, branches cracking. + </p> + <p> + “Let me go, da——” cried the voice, drowned again + at half a word, as by a powerful hand upon a screaming mouth. + </p> + <p> + The old man opened the front door, stepped out, closing it behind him; and + the three women looked at each other wanly during a hushed interval like + that in a sleeping-car at night when the train stops. Presently he came in + again, and started up the stairs, heavily and slowly, as he had gone down. + </p> + <p> + “Richard Lindley stopped him,” he said, sighing with the + ascent, and not looking up. “He heard him as he came along the + street, and dressed as quick as he could, and ran up and got him. Richard’s + taken him away.” + </p> + <p> + He went to his own room, panting, mopping his damp gray hair with his fat + wrist, and looking at no one. + </p> + <p> + Cora began to cry again. It was an hour before any of this family had + recovered sufficient poise to realize, with the shuddering gratitude of + adventurers spared from the abyss, that, under Providence, Hedrick had not + wakened! + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER SIX + </h2> + <p> + Much light shatters much loveliness; but a pretty girl who looks pretty + outdoors on a dazzling hot summer morning is prettier then than ever. Cora + knew it; of course she knew it; she knew exactly how she looked, as she + left the concrete bridge behind her at the upper end of Corliss Street and + turned into a shrub-bordered bypath of the river park. In imagination she + stood at the turn of the path just ahead, watching her own approach: she + saw herself as a picture—the white-domed parasol, with its cheerful + pale-green lining, a background for her white hat, her corn-silk hair, and + her delicately flushed face. She saw her pale, live arms through their + thin sleeves, and the light grasp of her gloved fingers upon the + glistening stick of the parasol; she saw the long, simple lines of her + close white dress and their graceful interchanging movements with the + alternate advance of her white shoes over the fine gravel path; she saw + the dazzling splashes of sunshine playing upon her through the changeful + branches overhead. Cora never lacked a gallery: she sat there herself. + </p> + <p> + She refreshed the eyes of a respectable burgess of sixty, a person so + colourless that no one, after passing him, could have remembered anything + about him except that he wore glasses and some sort of moustache; and to + Cora’s vision he was as near transparent as any man could be, yet + she did not miss the almost imperceptible signs of his approval, as they + met and continued on their opposite ways. She did not glance round, nor + did he pause in his slow walk; neither was she clairvoyant; none the less, + she knew that he turned his head and looked back at her. + </p> + <p> + The path led away from the drives and more public walks of the park, to a + low hill, thoughtfully untouched by the gardener and left to the shadowy + thickets and good-smelling underbrush of its rich native woodland. And + here, by a brown bench, waited a tall gentleman in white. + </p> + <p> + They touched hands and sat without speaking. For several moments they + continued the silence, then turned slowly and looked at each other; then + looked slowly and gravely away, as if to an audience in front of them. + They knew how to do it; but probably a critic in the first row would have + concluded that Cora felt it even more than Valentine Corliss enjoyed it. + </p> + <p> + “I suppose this is very clandestine,” she said, after a deep + breath. “I don’t think I care, though.” + </p> + <p> + “I hope you do,” he smiled, “so that I could think your + coming means more.” + </p> + <p> + “Then I’ll care,” she said, and looked at him again. + </p> + <p> + “You dear!” he exclaimed deliberately. + </p> + <p> + She bit her lip and looked down, but not before he had seen the quick + dilation of her ardent eyes. “I wanted to be out of doors,” + she said. “I’m afraid there’s one thing of yours I don’t + like, Mr. Corliss.” + </p> + <p> + “I’ll throw it away, then. Tell me.” + </p> + <p> + “Your house. I don’t like living in it, very much. I’m + sorry you <i>can’t</i> throw it away.” + </p> + <p> + “I’m thinking of doing that very thing,” he laughed. + “But I’m glad I found the rose in that queer old waste-basket + first.” + </p> + <p> + “Not too much like a rose, sometimes,” she said. “I + think this morning I’m a little like some of the old doors up on the + third floor: I feel rather unhinged, Mr. Corliss.” + </p> + <p> + “You don’t look it, Miss Madison!” + </p> + <p> + “I didn’t sleep very well.” She bestowed upon him a + glance which transmuted her actual explanation into, “I couldn’t + sleep for thinking of you.” It was perfectly definite; but the acute + gentleman laughed genially. + </p> + <p> + “Go on with you!” he said. + </p> + <p> + Her eyes sparkled, and she joined laughter with him. “But it’s + true: you did keep me awake. Besides, I had a serenade.” + </p> + <p> + “Serenade? I had an idea they didn’t do that any more over + here. I remember the young men going about at night with an orchestra + sometimes when I was a boy, but I supposed——” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, it wasn’t much like that,” she interrupted, + carelessly. “I don’t think that sort of thing has been done + for years and years. It wasn’t an orchestra—just a man singing + under my window.” + </p> + <p> + “With a guitar?” + </p> + <p> + “No.” She laughed a little. “Just singing.” + </p> + <p> + “But it rained last night,” said Corliss, puzzled. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, <i>he</i> wouldn’t mind that!” + </p> + <p> + “How stupid of me! Of course, he wouldn’t. Was it Richard + Lindley?” + </p> + <p> + “Never!” + </p> + <p> + “I see. Yes, that was a bad guess: I’m sure Lindley’s + just the same steady-going, sober, plodding old horse he was as a boy. His + picture doesn’t fit a romantic frame—singing under a lady’s + window in a thunderstorm! Your serenader must have been very young.” + </p> + <p> + “He is,” said Cora. “I suppose he’s about + twenty-three; just a boy—and a very annoying one, too!” + </p> + <p> + Her companion looked at her narrowly. “By any chance, is he the + person your little brother seemed so fond of mentioning—Mr. Vilas?” + </p> + <p> + Cora gave a genuine start. “Good heavens! What makes you think that?” + she cried, but she was sufficiently disconcerted to confirm his amused + suspicion. + </p> + <p> + “So it was Mr. Vilas,” he said. “He’s one of the + jilted, of course.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, `jilted’!” she exclaimed. “All the wild boys + that a girl can’t make herself like aren’t `jilted,’ are + they?” + </p> + <p> + “I believe I should say—yes,” he returned. “Yes, + in this instance, just about all of them.” + </p> + <p> + “Is every woman a target for you, Mr. Corliss? I suppose you know + that you have a most uncomfortable way of shooting up the landscape.” + She stirred uneasily, and moved away from him to the other end of the + bench. + </p> + <p> + “I didn’t miss that time,” he laughed. “Don’t + you ever miss?” + </p> + <p> + He leaned quickly toward her and answered in a low voice: “You can + be sure I’m not going to miss anything about <i>you</i>.” + </p> + <p> + It was as if his bending near her had been to rouge her. But it cannot be + said that she disliked his effect upon her; for the deep breath she drew + in audibly, through her shut teeth, was a signal of delight; and then + followed one of those fraught silences not uncharacteristic of dialogues + with Cora. + </p> + <p> + Presently, she gracefully and uselessly smoothed her hair from the left + temple with the backs of her fingers, of course finishing the gesture + prettily by tucking in a hairpin tighter above the nape of her neck. Then, + with recovered coolness, she asked: + </p> + <p> + “Did you come all the way from Italy just to sell our old house, Mr. + Corliss?” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps that was part of why I came,” he said, gayly. “I + need a great deal of money, Miss Cora Madison.” + </p> + <p> + “For your villa and your yacht?” + </p> + <p> + “No; I’m a magician, dear lady——” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she said, almost angrily. “Of course you know it!” + </p> + <p> + “You mock me! No; I’m going to make everybody rich who will + trust me. I have a secret, and it’s worth a mountain of gold. I’ve + put all I have into it, and will put in everything else I can get for + myself, but it’s going to take a great deal more than that. And + everybody who goes into it will come out on Monte Cristo’s island.” + </p> + <p> + “Then I’m sorry papa hasn’t anything to put in,” + she said. + </p> + <p> + “But he has: his experience in business and his integrity. I want + him to be secretary of my company. Will you help me to get him?” he + laughed. + </p> + <p> + “Do you want me to?” she asked with a quick, serious glance + straight in his eyes, one which he met admirably. + </p> + <p> + “I have an extremely definite impression,” he said lightly, + “that you can make anybody you know do just what you want him to.” + </p> + <p> + “And I have another that you have still another `extremely definite + impression’ that takes rank over that,” she said, but not with + his lightness, for her tone was faintly rueful. “It is that you can + make <i>me</i> do just what you want me to.” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Valentine Corliss threw himself back on the bench and laughed aloud. + “What a girl!” he cried. Then for a fraction of a second he + set his hand over hers, an evanescent touch at which her whole body + started and visibly thrilled. + </p> + <p> + She lifted her gloved hand and looked at it with an odd wonder; her alert + emotions, always too ready, flinging their banners to her cheeks again. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I don’t think it’s soiled,” he said, a speech + which she punished with a look of starry contempt. For an instant she made + him afraid that something had gone wrong with his measuring tape; but with + a slow movement she set her hand softly against her hot cheek; and he was + reassured: it was not his touching her that had offended her, but the + allusion to it. + </p> + <p> + “Thanks,” he said, very softly. + </p> + <p> + She dropped her hand to her parasol, and began, musingly, to dig little + holes in the gravel of the path. “Richard Lindley is looking for + investments,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “I’m glad to hear he’s been so successful,” + returned Corliss. + </p> + <p> + “He might like a share in your gold-mine.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank heaven it isn’t literally a gold-mine,” he + exclaimed. “There have been so many crooked ones exploited I don’t + believe you could get anybody nowadays to come in on a real one. But I + think you’d make an excellent partner for an adventurer who had + discovered hidden treasure; and I’m that particular kind of + adventurer. I think I’ll take you in.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you?” + </p> + <p> + “How would you like to save a man from being ruined?” + </p> + <p> + “Ruined? You don’t mean it literally?” + </p> + <p> + “Literally!” He laughed gayly. “If I don’t `land’ + this I’m gone, smashed, finished—quite ended! Don’t + bother, I’m going to `land’ it. And it’s rather a + serious compliment I’m paying you, thinking you can help me. I’d + like to see a woman—just once in the world—who could manage a + thing like this.” He became suddenly very grave. “Good God! + wouldn’t I be at her feet!” + </p> + <p> + Her eyes became even more eager. “You think I—I <i>might</i> + be a woman who could?” + </p> + <p> + “Who knows, Miss Madison? I believe——” He stopped + abruptly, then in a lowered, graver voice asked: “Doesn’t it + somehow seem a little queer to you when we call each other, `Miss Madison’ + and `Mr. Corliss’?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she answered slowly; “it does.” + </p> + <p> + “Doesn’t it seem to you,” he went on, in the same tone, + “that we only `Miss’ and `Mister’ each other in fun? + That though you never saw me until yesterday, we’ve gone pretty far + beyond mere surfaces? That we did in our talk, last night?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” she repeated; “it does.” + </p> + <p> + He let a pause follow, and then said huskily: + </p> + <p> + “How far are we going?” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know.” She was barely audible; but she turned + deliberately, and there took place an eager exchange of looks which + continued a long while. At last, and without ending this serious + encounter, she whispered: + </p> + <p> + “How far do <i>you</i> think?” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Corliss did not answer, and a peculiar phenomenon became vaguely + evident to the girl facing him: his eyes were still fixed full upon hers, + but he was not actually looking at her; nevertheless, and with an + extraordinarily acute attention, he was unquestionably looking at + something. The direct front of pupil and iris did not waver from her; but + for the time he was not aware of her; had not even heard her question. + Something in the outer field of his vision had suddenly and completely + engrossed him; something in that nebulous and hazy background which we + see, as we say, with the white of the eye. Cora instinctively turned and + looked behind her, down the path. + </p> + <p> + There was no one in sight except a little girl and the elderly burgess who + had glanced over his shoulder at Cora as she entered the park; and he was, + in face, mien, and attire, so thoroughly the unnoticeable, average + man-on-the-street that she did not even recall him as the looker-round of + a little while ago. He was strolling benevolently, the little girl + clinging to one of his hands, the other holding an apple; and a composite + photograph of a thousand grandfathers might have resulted in this man’s + picture. + </p> + <p> + As the man and little girl came slowly up the walk toward the couple on + the bench there was a faint tinkle at Cora’s feet: her companion’s + scarfpin, which had fallen from his tie. He was maladroit about picking it + up, trying with thumb and forefinger to seize the pin itself, instead of + the more readily grasped design of small pearls at the top, so that he + pushed it a little deeper into the gravel; and then occurred a tiny + coincidence: the elderly man, passing, let fall the apple from his hand, + and it rolled toward the pin just as Corliss managed to secure the latter. + For an instant, though the situation was so absolutely commonplace, so + casual, Cora had a wandering consciousness of some mysterious tensity; a + feeling like the premonition of a crisis very near at hand. This sensation + was the more curious because nothing whatever happened. The man got his + apple, joined in the child’s laughter, and went on. + </p> + <p> + “What was it you asked me?” said Corliss, lifting his head + again and restoring the pin to his tie. He gazed carelessly at the back of + the grandsire, disappearing beyond a bush at a bend in the path. + </p> + <p> + “Who was that man?” said Cora with some curiosity. + </p> + <p> + “That old fellow? I haven’t an idea. You see I’ve been + away from here so many years I remember almost no one. Why?” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know, unless it was because I had an idea you were + thinking of him instead of me. You didn’t listen to what I said.” + </p> + <p> + “That was because I was thinking so intensely of you,” he + began instantly. “A startlingly vivid thought of you came to me just + then. Didn’t I look like a man in a trance?” + </p> + <p> + “What was the thought?” + </p> + <p> + “It was a picture: I saw you standing under a great bulging sail, + and the water flying by in moonlight; oh, a moon and a night such as you + have never seen! and a big blue headland looming up against the moon, and + crowned with lemon groves and vineyards, all sparkling with fireflies—old + watch-towers and the roofs of white villas gleaming among olive orchards + on the slopes—the sound of mandolins——” + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” she sighed, the elderly man, his grandchild, and his + apple well-forgotten. + </p> + <p> + “Do you think it was a prophecy?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “What do <i>you</i> think?” she breathed. “That was + really what I asked you before.” + </p> + <p> + “I think,” he said slowly, “that I’m in danger of + forgetting that my `hidden treasure’ is the most important thing in + the world.” + </p> + <p> + “In great danger?” The words were not vocal. + </p> + <p> + He moved close to her; their eyes met again, with increased eagerness, and + held fast; she was trembling, visibly; and her lips—parted with her + tumultuous breathing—were not far from his. + </p> + <p> + “Isn’t any man in great danger,” he said, “if he + falls in love with you?” + </p> + <p> + “Well?” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER SEVEN + </h2> + <p> + Toward four o’clock that afternoon, a very thin, fair young man + shakily heaved himself into a hammock under the trees in that broad + backyard wherein, as Valentine Corliss had yesterday noticed, the last + iron monarch of the herd, with unabated arrogance, had entered domestic + service as a clothes-prop. The young man, who was of delicate appearance + and unhumanly pale, stretched himself at full length on his back, closed + his eyes, moaned feebly, cursed the heat in a stricken whisper. Then, as a + locust directly overhead violently shattered the silence, and seemed like + to continue the outrage forever, the shaken lounger stopped his ears with + his fingers and addressed the insect in old Saxon. + </p> + <p> + A white jacketed mulatto came from the house bearing something on a silver + tray. + </p> + <p> + “Julip, Mist’ Vilas?” he said sympathetically. + </p> + <p> + Ray Vilas rustily manoeuvred into a sitting position; and, with eyes still + closed, made shift to accept the julep in both hands, drained half of it, + opened his eyes, and thanked the cup-bearer feebly, in a voice and accent + reminiscent of the melodious South. + </p> + <p> + “And I wonder,” he added, “if you can tell me——” + </p> + <p> + “I’m Miz William Lindley’s house-man, Joe Vaxdens,” + said the mulatto, in the tone of an indulgent nurse. “You in Miz + Lindley’s backyard right now, sittin’ in a hammick.” + </p> + <p> + “I seem to gather almost that much for myself,” returned the + patient. “But I should like to know how I got here.” + </p> + <p> + “Jes’ come out the front door an’ walk’ aroun’ + the house an’ set down. Mist’ Richard had to go downtown; tole + me not to wake you; but I heerd you splashin’ in the bath an’ + you tole me you din’ want no breakfuss——” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Joe, I’m aware of what’s occurred since I woke,” + said Vilas, and, throwing away the straws, finished the julep at one + draught. “What I want to know is how I happened to be here at Mr. + Lindley’s.” + </p> + <p> + “Mist’ Richard brought you las’ night, suh. I don’ + know where he got you, but I heered a considerable thrashum aroun’, + up an’ down the house, an’ so I come help him git you to bed + in one vem spare-rooms.” Joe chuckled ingratiatingly. “Lord + name! You cert’n’y wasn’t askin’ fer no <i>bed</i>!” + </p> + <p> + He took the glass, and the young man reclined again in the hammock, a hot + blush vanquishing his pallor. “Was I—was I very bad, Joe?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, you was all <i>right</i>,” Joe hastened to reassure him. + “You was jes’ on’y a little bit tight.” + </p> + <p> + “Did it really seem only a little?” the other asked hopefully. + </p> + <p> + “Yessuh,” said Joe promptly. “Nothin’ at all. You + jes’ wanted to rare roun’ little bit. Mist’ Richard took + gun away from you——” + </p> + <p> + “What?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I tole him you wasn’ goin’ use it!” Joe + laughed. “But you so wile be din’ know what you do. You cert’n’y + was drunkes’ man <i>I</i> see in <i>long</i> while,” he said + admiringly. “You pert near had us bofe wore out ‘fore you give + up, an’ Mist’ Richard an’ me, we <i>use’’</i> + to han’lin’ drunkum man, too—use’ to have big + times week-in, week-out ‘ith Mist’ Will—at’s Mist’ + Richard’s brother, you know, suh, what died o’ whiskey.” + He laughed again in high good-humour. “You cert’n’y laid + it all over any vem ole times we had ‘ith Mist’ Will!” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Vilas shifted his position in the hammock uneasily; Joe’s honest + intentions to be of cheer to the sufferer were not wholly successful. + </p> + <p> + “I tole Mist’ Richard,” the kindly servitor continued, + “it was a mighty good thing his ma gone up Norf endurin’ the + hot spell. Sence Mist’ Will die she can’t hardly bear to see + drunkum man aroun’ the house. Mist’ Richard hardly ever tech + nothin’ himself no more. You goin’ feel better, suh, out in + the f’esh air,” he concluded, comfortingly as he moved away. + </p> + <p> + “Joe!” + </p> + <p> + “Yessuh.” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Vilas pulled himself upright for a moment. “What use in the + world do you reckon one julep is to me?” + </p> + <p> + “Mist’ Richard say to give you one drink ef you ask’ for + it, suh,” answered Joe, looking troubled. + </p> + <p> + “Well, you’ve told me enough now about last night to make any + man hang himself, and I’m beginning to remember enough more——” + </p> + <p> + “Pshaw, Mist’ Vilas,” the coloured man interrupted, + deprecatingly, “you din’ broke nothin’! You on’y + had couple glass’ wine too much. You din’ make no trouble at + all; jes’ went right off to bed. You ought seen some vem ole times + me an Mist’ Richard use to have ‘ith Mist’ Will——” + </p> + <p> + “Joe!” + </p> + <p> + “Yessuh.” + </p> + <p> + “I want three more juleps and I want them right away.” + </p> + <p> + The troubled expression upon the coloured man’s face deepened. + “Mist’ Richard say jes’ one, suh,” he said + reluctantly. “I’m afraid——” + </p> + <p> + “Joe.” + </p> + <p> + “Yessuh.” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know,” said Ray Vilas slowly, “whether or + not you ever heard that I was born and raised in Kentucky.” + </p> + <p> + “Yessuh,” returned Joe humbly. “I heerd so.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, then,” said the young man in a quiet voice, “you + go and get me three juleps. I’ll settle it with Mr. Richard.” + </p> + <p> + “Yessuh.” + </p> + <p> + But it was with a fifth of these renovators that Lindley found his guest + occupied, an hour later, while upon a small table nearby a sixth, + untouched, awaited disposal beside an emptied coffee-cup. Also, Mr. Vilas + was smoking a cigarette with unshadowed pleasure; his eye was bright, his + expression care-free; and he was sitting up in the hammock, swinging + cheerfully, and singing the “Marseillaise.” Richard approached + through the yard, coming from the street without entering the house; and + anxiety was manifest in the glance he threw at the green-topped glass upon + the table, and in his greeting. + </p> + <p> + “Hail, gloom!” returned Mr. Vilas, cordially, and, observing + the anxious glance, he swiftly removed the untouched goblet from the table + to his own immediate possession. “Two simultaneous juleps will + enhance the higher welfare,” he explained airily. “Sir, your + Mr. Varden was induced to place a somewhat larger order with us than he + protested to be your intention. Trusting you to exonerate him from all + so-and-so and that these few words, etcetera!” He depleted the elder + glass of its liquor, waved it in the air, cried, “Health, host!” + and set it upon the table. “I believe I do not err in assuming my + cup-bearer’s name to be Varden, although he himself, in his simple + Americo-Africanism, is pleased to pluralize it. Do I fret you, host?” + </p> + <p> + “Not in the least,” said Richard, dropping upon a rustic + bench, and beginning to fan himself with his straw hat. “What’s + the use of fretting about a boy who hasn’t sense enough to fret + about himself?” + </p> + <p> + “`Boy?’” Mr. Vilas affected puzzlement. “Do I hear + aright? Sir, do you boy me? Bethink you, I am now the shell of five + mint-juleps plus, and am pot-valiant. And is this mere capacity itself to + be lightly <i>boyed</i>? Again, do I not wear a man’s garment, a man’s + garnitures? Heed your answer; for this serge, these flannels, and these + silks are yours, and though I may not fill them to the utmost, I do to the + longmost, precisely. I am the stature of a man; had it not been for your + razor I should wear the beard of a man; therefore I’ll not be boyed. + What have you to say in defence?” + </p> + <p> + “Hadn’t you better let me get Joe to bring you something to + eat?” asked Richard. + </p> + <p> + “Eat?” Mr. Vilas disposed of the suggestion with mournful + hauteur. “There! For the once I forgive you. Let the subject never + be mentioned between us again. We will tactfully turn to a topic of + interest. My memories of last evening, at first hazy and somewhat + disconcerting, now merely amuse me. Following the pleasant Spanish custom, + I went a-serenading, but was kidnapped from beneath the precious casement + by—by a zealous arrival. Host, `zealous arrival’ is not the + julep in action: it is a triumph of paraphrase.” + </p> + <p> + “I wish you’d let Joe take you back to bed,” said + Richard. + </p> + <p> + “Always bent on thoughts of the flesh,” observed the other + sadly. “Beds are for bodies, and I am become a thing of spirit. My + soul is grateful a little for your care of its casing. You behold, I am + generous: I am able to thank my successor to Carmen!” + </p> + <p> + Lindley’s back stiffened. “Vilas!” + </p> + <p> + “Spare me your protests.” The younger man waved his hand + languidly. “You wish not to confer upon this subject——” + </p> + <p> + “It’s a subject we’ll omit,” said Richard. + </p> + <p> + His companion stopped swinging, allowed the hammock to come to rest; his + air of badinage fell from him; for the moment he seemed entirely sober; + and he spoke with gentleness. “Mr. Lindley, if you please, I am + still a gentleman—at times.” + </p> + <p> + “I beg your pardon,” said Richard quickly. + </p> + <p> + “No need of that!” The speaker’s former careless and + boisterous manner instantly resumed possession. “You must permit me + to speak of a wholly fictitious lady, a creature of my wanton fancy, sir, + whom I call Carmen. It will enable me to relieve my burdened soul of some + remarks I have long wished to address to your excellent self.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, all right,” muttered Richard, much annoyed. + </p> + <p> + “Let us imagine,” continued Mr. Vilas, beginning to swing + again, “that I thought I had won this Carmen——” + </p> + <p> + Lindley uttered an exclamation, shifted his position in his chair, and + fixed a bored attention upon the passing vehicles in the glimpse of the + street afforded between the house and the shrubberies along the side + fence. The other, without appearing to note his annoyance, went on, + cheerfully: + </p> + <p> + “She was a precocious huntress: early in youth she passed through + the accumulator stage, leaving it to the crude or village belle to rejoice + in numbers and the excitement of teasing cubs in the bear-pit. It is the + nature of this imagined Carmen to play fiercely with one imitation of love + after another: a man thinks he wins her, but it is merely that she has + chosen him—for a while. And Carmen can have what she chooses; if the + man exists who could show her that she cannot, she would follow him + through the devil’s dance; but neither you nor I would be that man, + my dear sir. We assume that Carmen’s eyes have been mine—her + heart is another matter—and that she has grown weary of my somewhat + Sicilian manner of looking into them, and, following her nature and the + law of periodicity which Carmens must bow to, she seeks a cooler gaze and + calls Mr. Richard Lindley to come and take a turn at looking. Now, Mr. + Richard Lindley is straight as a die: he will not even show that he hears + the call until he is sure that I have been dismissed: therefore, I have no + quarrel with him. Also, I cannot even hate him, for in my clearer julep + vision I see that he is but an interregnum. Let me not offend my friend: + chagrin is to be his as it is mine. I was a strong draught, he but the + quieting potion our Carmen took to settle it. We shall be brothers in woe + some day. Nothing in the universe lasts except Hell: Life is running + water; Love, a looking-glass; Death, an empty theatre! That reminds me: as + you are not listening I will sing.” + </p> + <p> + He finished his drink and lifted his voice hilariously: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “The heavenly stars far above her, + The wind of the infinite sea, + Who know all her perfidy, love her, + So why call it madness in me? + Ah, why call it madness——” + </pre> + <p> + He set his glass with a crash upon the table, staring over his companion’s + shoulder. + </p> + <p> + “<i>What</i>, if you please, is the royal exile who thus seeks + refuge in our hermitage?” + </p> + <p> + His host had already observed the approaching visitor with some surprise, + and none too graciously. It was Valentine Corliss: he had turned in from + the street and was crossing the lawn to join the two young men. Lindley + rose, and, greeting him with sufficient cordiality, introduced Mr. Vilas, + who bestowed upon the newcomer a very lively interest. + </p> + <p> + “You are as welcome, Mr. Corliss,” said this previous guest, + earnestly, “as if these sylvan shades were mine. I hail you, not + only for your own sake, but because your presence encourages a hope that + our host may offer refreshment to the entire company.” + </p> + <p> + Corliss smilingly declined to be a party to this diplomacy, and seated + himself beside Richard Lindley on the bench. + </p> + <p> + “Then I relapse!” exclaimed Mr. Vilas, throwing himself back + full-length in the hammock. “I am not replete, but content. I shall + meditate. Gentlemen, speak on!” + </p> + <p> + He waved his hand in a gracious gesture, indicating his intention to + remain silent, and lay quiet, his eyes fixed steadfastly upon Corliss. + </p> + <p> + “I was coming to call on you,” said the latter to Lindley, + “but I saw you from the street and thought you mightn’t mind + my being as informal as I used to be, so many years ago.” + </p> + <p> + “Of course,” said Richard. + </p> + <p> + “I have a sinister purpose in coming,” Mr. Corliss laughingly + went on. “I want to bore you a little first, and then make your + fortune. No doubt that’s an old story to you, but I happen to be one + of the adventurers whose argosies are laden with real cargoes. Nobody + knows who has or hasn’t money to invest nowadays, and of course I’ve + no means of knowing whether <i>you</i> have or not—you see what a + direct chap I am—but if you have, or can lay hold of some, I can + show you how to make it bring you an immense deal more.” + </p> + <p> + “Naturally,” said Richard pleasantly, “I shall be glad + if you can do that.” + </p> + <p> + “Then I’ll come to the point. It is exceedingly simple; that’s + certainly one attractive thing about it.” Corliss took some papers + and unmounted photographs from his pocket, and began to spread them open + on the bench between himself and Richard. “No doubt you know + Southern Italy as well as I do.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I don’t `know’ it. I’ve been to Naples; down + to Paestum; drove from Salerno to Sorrentoby Amalfi; but that was years + ago.” + </p> + <p> + “Here’s a large scale map that will refresh your memory.” + He unfolded it and laid it across their knees; it was frayed with wear + along the folds, and had been heavily marked and dotted with red and blue + pencillings. “My millions are in this large irregular section,” + he continued. “It’s the anklebone and instep of Italy’s + boot; this sizable province called Basilicata, east of Salerno, north of + Calabria. And I’ll not hang fire on the point, Lindley. What I’ve + got there is oil.” + </p> + <p> + “Olives?” asked Richard, puzzled. + </p> + <p> + “Hardly!” Corliss laughed. “Though of course one doesn’t + connect petroleum with the thought of Italy, and of all Italy, Southern + Italy. But in spite of the years I’ve lived there, I’ve + discovered myself to be so essentially American and commercial that I want + to drench the surface of that antique soil with the brown, bad-smelling + crude oil that lies so deep beneath it. Basilicata is the coming great + oil-field of the world—and that’s my secret. I dare to tell it + here, as I shouldn’t dare in Naples.” + </p> + <p> + “Shouldn’t `dare’?” Richard repeated, with growing + interest, and no doubt having some vague expectation of a tale of the + Camorra. To him Naples had always seemed of all cities the most elusive + and incomprehensible, a laughing, thieving, begging, mandolin-playing, + music-and-murder haunted metropolis, about which anything was plausible; + and this impression was not unique, as no inconsiderable proportion of Mr. + Lindley’s fellow-countrymen share it, a fact thoroughly comprehended + by the returned native. + </p> + <p> + “It isn’t a case of not daring on account of any bodily + danger,” explained Corliss. + </p> + <p> + “No,” Richard smiled reminiscently. “I don’t + believe that would have much weight with you if it were. You certainly + showed no symptoms of that sort in your extreme youth. I remember you had + the name of being about the most daring and foolhardy boy in town.” + </p> + <p> + “I grew up to be cautious enough in business, though,” said + the other, shaking his head gravely. “I haven’t been able to + afford not being careful.” He adjusted the map—a prefatory + gesture. “Now, I’ll make this whole affair perfectly clear to + you. It’s a simple matter, as are most big things. I’ll begin + by telling you of Moliterno—he’s been my most intimate friend + in that part of the continent for a great many years; since I went there + as a boy, in fact.” + </p> + <p> + He sketched a portrait of his friend, Prince Moliterno, bachelor chief of + a historic house, the soul of honour, “land-poor”; owning + leagues and leagues of land, hills and mountains, broken towers and ruins, + in central Basilicata, a province described as wild country and rough, off + the rails and not easy to reach. Moliterno and the narrator had gone there + to shoot; Corliss had seen “surface oil” upon the streams and + pools; he recalled the discovery of oil near his own boyhood home in + America; had talked of it to Moliterno, and both men had become more and + more interested, then excited. They decided to sink a well. + </p> + <p> + Corliss described picturesquely the difficulties of this enterprise, the + hardships and disappointments; how they dragged the big tools over the + mountains by mule power; how they had kept it all secret; how he and + Moliterno had done everything with the help of peasant labourers and one + experienced man, who had “seen service in the Persian oil-fields.” + </p> + <p> + He gave the business reality, colouring it with details relevant and + irrelevant, anecdotes and wayside incidents: he was fluent, elaborate, + explicit throughout. They sank five wells, he said, “at the angles + of this irregular pentagon you see here on the map, outlined in blue. + These red circles are the wells.” Four of the wells “came in + tremendous,” but they had managed to get them sealed after wasting—he + was “sorry to think how many thousand barrels of oil.” The + fifth well was so enormous that they had not been able to seal it at the + time of the speaker’s departure for America. + </p> + <p> + “But I had a cablegram this morning,” he added, “letting + me know they’ve managed to do it at last. Here is, the cablegram.” + He handed Richard a form signed “Antonio Moliterno.” + </p> + <p> + “Now, to go back to what I said about not `daring’ to speak of + this in Naples,” he continued, smiling. “The fear is + financial, not physical.” + </p> + <p> + The knowledge of the lucky strike, he explained, must be kept from the + “Neapolitan money-sharks.” A third of the land so rich in oil + already belonged to the Moliterno estates, but it was necessary to obtain + possession of the other two thirds “before the secret leaks into + Naples.” So far, it was safe, the peasants of Basilicata being + “as medieval a lot as one could wish.” He related that these + peasants thought that the devils hiding inside the mountains had been + stabbed by the drills, and that the oil was devils’ blood. + </p> + <p> + “You can see some of the country people hanging about, staring at a + well, in this kodak, though it’s not a very good one.” He put + into Richard’s hand a small, blurred photograph showing a spouting + well with an indistinct crowd standing in an irregular semicircle before + it. + </p> + <p> + “Is this the Basilicatan peasant costume?” asked Richard, + indicating a figure in the foreground, the only one revealed at all + definitely. “It looks more oriental. Isn’t the man wearing a + fez?” + </p> + <p> + “Let me see,” responded Mr. Corliss very quickly. “Perhaps + I gave you the wrong picture. Oh, no,” he laughed easily, holding + the kodak closer to his eyes; “that’s all right: it is a fez. + That’s old Salviati, our engineer, the man I spoke of who’d + worked in Persia, you know; he’s always worn a fez since then. Got + in the habit of it out there and says he’ll never give it up. + Moliterno’s always chaffing him about it. He’s a faithful old + chap, Salviati.” + </p> + <p> + “I see.” Lindley looked thoughtfully at the picture, which the + other carelessly returned to his hand. “There seems to be a lot of + oil there.” + </p> + <p> + “It’s one of the smaller wells at that. And you can see from + the kodak that it’s just `blowing’—not an eruption from + being `shot,’ or the people wouldn’t stand so near. Yes; there’s + an ocean of oil under that whole province; but we want a lot of money to + get at it. It’s mountain country; our wells will all have to go over + fifteen-hundred feet, and that’s expensive. We want to pipe the oil + to Salerno, where the Standard’s ships will take it from us, and it + will need a great deal for that. But most of all we want money to get hold + of the land; we must control the whole field, and it’s big!” + </p> + <p> + “How did you happen to come here to finance it?” + </p> + <p> + “I was getting to that. Moliterno himself is as honourable a man as + breathes God’s air. But my experience has been that Neapolitan + capitalists are about the cleverest and slipperiest financiers in the + world. We could have financed it twenty times over in Naples in a day, but + neither Moliterno nor I was willing to trust them. The thing is enormous, + you see—a really colossal fortune—and Italian law is full of + ins and outs, and the first man we talked to confidentially would have + given us his word to play straight, and, the instant we left him, would + have flown post-haste for Basilicata and grabbed for himself the two + thirds of the field not yet in our hands. Moliterno and I talked it over + many, many times; we thought of going to Rome for the money, to Paris, to + London, to New York; but I happened to remember the old house here that my + aunt had left me—I wanted to sell it, to add whatever it brought to + the money I’ve already put in—and then it struck me I might + raise the rest here as well as anywhere else.” + </p> + <p> + The other nodded. “I understand.” + </p> + <p> + “I suppose you’ll think me rather sentimental,” Corliss + went on, with a laugh which unexpectedly betrayed a little shyness. + “I’ve never forgotten that I was born here—was a boy + here. In all my wanderings I’ve always really thought of this as + home.” + </p> + <p> + His voice trembled slightly and his face flushed; he smiled deprecatingly + as though in apology for these symptoms of emotion; and at that both + listeners felt (perhaps with surprise) the man’s strong attraction. + There was something very engaging about him: in the frankness of his look + and in the slight tremor in his voice; there was something appealing and + yet manly in the confession, by this thoroughgoing cosmopolite, of his + real feeling for the home-town. + </p> + <p> + “Of course I know how very few people, even among the `old citizens,’ + would have any recollection whatever of me,” he went on; “but + that doesn’t make any difference in my sentiment for the place and + its people. That street out yonder was named for my grandfather: there’s + a statue of my great uncle in the State House yard; all my own blood: + belonged here, and though I have been a wanderer and may not be remembered—naturally + am <i>not</i> remembered—yet the name is honoured here, and I—I——” + He faltered again, then concluded with quiet earnestness: “I thought + that if my good luck was destined to bring fortunes to others, it might as + well be to my own kind—that at least I’d offer them the chance + before I offered it to any one else.” He turned and looked Richard + in the face. “That’s why I’m here, Mr. Lindley.” + </p> + <p> + The other impulsively put out his hand. “I understand,” he + said heartily. + </p> + <p> + “Thank you.” Corliss changed his tone for one less serious. + “You’ve listened very patiently and I hope you’ll be + rewarded for it. Certainly you will if you decide to come in with us. May + I leave the maps and descriptions with you?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, indeed. I’ll look them over carefully and have another + talk with you about it.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank heaven, <i>that’s</i> over!” exclaimed the + lounger in the hammock, who had not once removed his fascinated stare from + the expressive face of Valentine Corliss. “If you have now concluded + with dull care, allow me to put a vital question: Mr. Corliss, do you + sing?” + </p> + <p> + The gentleman addressed favoured him with a quizzical glance from between + half-closed lids, and probably checking an impulse to remark that he + happened to know that his questioner sometimes sang, replied merely, + “No.” + </p> + <p> + “It is a pity.” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing,” returned the other, inconsequently. “It just + struck me that you ought to sing the Toreador song.” + </p> + <p> + Richard Lindley, placing the notes and maps in his pocket, dropped them, + and, stooping, began to gather the scattered papers with a very red face. + Corliss, however, laughed good-naturedly. + </p> + <p> + “That’s most flattering,” he said; “though there + are other things in `Carmen’ I prefer—probably because one + doesn’t hear them so eternally.” + </p> + <p> + Vilas pulled himself up to a sitting position and began to swing again. + “Observe our host, Mr. Corliss,” he commanded gayly. “He + is a kind old Dobbin, much beloved, but cares damn little to hear you or + me speak of music. He’d even rather discuss your oil business than + listen to us talk of women, whereas nothing except women ever really + interests <i>you</i>, my dear sir. He’s not our kind of man,” + he concluded, mournfully; “not at all our kind of man!” + </p> + <p> + “I hope,” Corliss suggested, “he’s going to be my + kind of man in the development of these oil-fields.” + </p> + <p> + “How ridic”—Mr. Vilas triumphed over the word after a + slight struggle—“ulous! I shall review that: ridiculous of you + to pretend to be interested in oil-fields. You are not that sort of person + whatever. Nothing could be clearer than that you would never waste the + time demanded by fields of oil. Groundlings call this `the mechanical age’—a + vulgar error. My dear sir, you and I know that it is the age of Woman! + Even poets have begun to see that she is alive. Formerly we did not speak + of her at all, but of late years she has become such a scandal that she is + getting talked about. Even our dramas, which used to be all blood, have + become all flesh. I wish I were dead—but will continue my harangue + because the thought is pellucid. Women selecting men to mate with are of + only two kinds, just as there are but two kinds of children in a toy-shop. + One child sets its fancy on one partic”—the orator paused, + then continued—“on one certain toy and will make a distressing + scene if she doesn’t get it: she will have that one; she will go + straight to it, clasp it and keep it; she won’t have any other. The + other kind of woman is to be understood if you will make the experiment of + taking the other kind of child to a toy-shop and telling her you will buy + her any toy in the place, but that you will buy her only one. If you do + this in the morning, she will still be in the shop when it is closing for + the night, because, though she runs to each toy in turn with excitement + and delight, she sees another over her shoulder, and the one she has not + touched is always her choice—until she has touched it! Some get + broken in the handling. For my part, my wires are working rather rustily, + but I must obey the Stage-Manager. For my requiem I wish somebody would + ask them to play Gounod’s masterpiece.” + </p> + <p> + “What’s that?” asked Corliss, amused. + </p> + <p> + “`The Funeral March of a Marionette!’” + </p> + <p> + “I suppose you mean that for a cheerful way of announcing that you + are a fatalist.” + </p> + <p> + “Fatalism? That is only a word,” declared Mr. Vilas gravely. + “If I am not a puppet then I am a god. Somehow, I do not seem to be + a god. If a god is a god, one thinks he would know it himself. I now yield + the floor. Thanking you cordially, I believe there is a lady walking + yonder who commands salutation.” + </p> + <p> + He rose to his feet, bowing profoundly. Cora Madison was passing, + strolling rather briskly down the street, not in the direction of her + home. She waved her parasol with careless gayety to the trio under the + trees, and, going on, was lost to their sight. + </p> + <p> + “Hello!” exclaimed Corliss, looking at his watch with a start + of surprise. “I have two letters to write for the evening mail. I + must be off.” + </p> + <p> + At this, Ray Vilas’s eyes—still fixed upon him, as they had + been throughout the visit—opened to their fullest capacity, in a + gaze of only partially alcoholic wildness. + </p> + <p> + Entirely aware of this singular glare, but not in the least disconcerted + by it, the recipient proffered his easy farewells. “I had no idea it + was so late. Good afternoon. Mr. Vilas, I have been delighted with your + diagnosis. Lindley, I’m at your disposal when you’ve looked + over my data. My very warm thanks for your patience, and—addio!” + </p> + <p> + Lindley looked after him as he strode quickly away across the green lawn, + turning, at the street, in the direction Cora had taken; and the troubled + Richard felt his heart sink with vague but miserable apprehension. There + was a gasp of desperation beside him, and the sound of Ray Vilas’s + lips parting and closing with little noises of pain. + </p> + <p> + “So he knows her,” said the boy, his thin body shaking. + “Look at him, damn him! See his deep chest, that conqueror’s + walk, the easy, confident, male pride of him: a true-born, natural rake—the + Toreador all over!” + </p> + <p> + His agitation passed suddenly; he broke into a loud laugh, and flung a + reckless hand to his companion’s shoulder. + </p> + <p> + “You good old fool,” he cried. “<i>You’ll</i> + never play Don Jose!” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0008" id="link2HCH0008"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER EIGHT + </h2> + <p> + Hedrick Madison, like too many other people, had never thought seriously + about the moon; nor ever had he encouraged it to become his familiar; and + he underwent his first experience of its incomparable betrayals one + brilliant night during the last week of that hot month. The preface to + this romantic evening was substantial and prosaic: four times during + dinner was he copiously replenished with hash, which occasioned so rich a + surfeit within him that, upon the conclusion of the meal, he found himself + in no condition to retort appropriately to a solicitous warning from Cora + to keep away from the cat. Indeed, it was half an hour later, and he was + sitting—to his own consciousness too heavily—upon the back + fence, when belated inspiration arrived. But there is no sound where there + is no ear to hear, and no repartee, alas! when the wretch who said the + first part has gone, so that Cora remained unscathed as from his alley + solitude Hedrick hurled in the teeth of the rising moon these bitter + words: + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no; <i>our</i> cat only eats <i>soft</i> meat!” + </p> + <p> + He renewed a morbid silence, and the moon, with its customary + deliberation, swung clear of a sweeping branch of the big elm in the front + yard and shone full upon him. Nothing warned the fated youth not to sit + there; no shadow of imminent catastrophe tinted that brightness: no angel + whisper came to him, bidding him begone—and to go in a hurry and as + far as possible. No; he sat upon the fence an inoffensive lad, and—except + for still feeling his hash somewhat, and a gradually dispersing rancour + concerning the cat—at peace. It is for such lulled mortals that the + ever-lurking Furies save their most hideous surprises. + </p> + <p> + Chin on palms, he looked idly at the moon, and the moon inscrutably + returned his stare. Plausible, bright, bland, it gave no sign that it was + at its awful work. For the bride of night is like a card-dealer whose + fingers move so swiftly through the pack the trickery goes unseen. + </p> + <p> + This moon upon which he was placidly gazing, because he had nothing else + to do, betokened nought to Hedrick: to him it was the moon of any other + night, the old moon; certainly no moon of his delight. Withal, it may + never be gazed upon so fixedly and so protractedly—no matter how + languidly—with entire impunity. That light breeds a bug in the + brain. Who can deny how the moon wrought this thing under the hair of + unconscious Hedrick, or doubt its responsibility for the thing that + happened? + </p> + <p> + “<i>Little boy</i>!” + </p> + <p> + It was a very soft, small voice, silky and queer; and at first Hedrick had + little suspicion that it could be addressing him: the most rigid + self-analysis could have revealed to him no possibility of his fitting so + ignominious a description. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, little boy!” + </p> + <p> + He looked over his shoulder and saw, standing in the alley behind him, a + girl of about his own age. She was daintily dressed and had beautiful hair + which was all shining in pale gold. + </p> + <p> + “Little boy!” + </p> + <p> + She was smiling up at him, and once more she used that wantonly inaccurate + vocative: + </p> + <p> + “Little boy!” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick grunted unencouragingly. “Who you callin’ `little boy’?” + </p> + <p> + For reply she began to climb the fence. It was high, but the young lady + was astonishingly agile, and not even to be deterred by several faint + wails from tearing and ripping fabrics—casualties which appeared to + be entirely beneath her notice. Arriving at the top rather dishevelled, + and with irregular pennons here and there flung to the breeze from her + attire, she seated herself cosily beside the dumbfounded Hedrick. + </p> + <p> + She turned her face to him and smiled—and there was something about + her smile which Hedrick did not like. It discomforted him; nothing more. + In sunlight he would have had the better chance to comprehend; but, + unhappily, this was moonshine. + </p> + <p> + “Kiss me, little boy!” she said. + </p> + <p> + “I won’t!” exclaimed the shocked and indignant Hedrick, + edging uneasily away from her. + </p> + <p> + “Let’s play,” she said cheerfully. + </p> + <p> + “Play what?” + </p> + <p> + “I like chickens. Did you know I like chickens?” + </p> + <p> + The rather singular lack of connection in her remarks struck him as a + misplaced effort at humour. + </p> + <p> + “You’re having lots of fun with me, aren’t you?” + he growled. + </p> + <p> + She instantly moved close to him and lifted her face to his. + </p> + <p> + “Kiss me, darling little boy!” she said. + </p> + <p> + There was something more than uncommonly queer about this stranger, an + unearthliness of which he was confusedly perceptive, but she was not + without a curious kind of prettiness, and her pale gold hair was + beautiful. The doomed lad saw the moon shining through it. + </p> + <p> + “Kiss me, darling little boy!” she repeated. + </p> + <p> + His head whirled; for the moment she seemed divine. + </p> + <p> + George Washington used profanity at the Battle of Monmouth. Hedrick kissed + her. + </p> + <p> + He instantly pushed her away with strong distaste. “There!” he + said angrily. “I hope that’ll satisfy you!” He belonged + to his sex. + </p> + <p> + “Kiss me some more, darling little boy!” she cried, and flung + her arms about him. + </p> + <p> + With a smothered shout of dismay he tried to push her off, and they fell + from the fence together, into the yard, at the cost of further and almost + fatal injuries to the lady’s apparel. + </p> + <p> + Hedrick was first upon his feet. “Haven’t you got <i>any</i> + sense?” he demanded. + </p> + <p> + She smiled unwaveringly, rose (without assistance) and repeated: “Kiss + me some more, darling little boy!” + </p> + <p> + “No, I won’t! I wouldn’t for a thousand dollars!” + </p> + <p> + Apparently, she did not consider this discouraging. She began to advance + endearingly, while he retreated backward. “Kiss me some——” + </p> + <p> + “I won’t, I tell you!” Hedrick kept stepping away, + moving in a desperate circle. He resorted to a brutal formula: “You + make me sick!” + </p> + <p> + “Kiss me some more, darling lit——” + </p> + <p> + “I won’t!” he bellowed. “And if you say that again + I’ll——” + </p> + <p> + “Kiss me some more, darling little boy!” She flung herself at + him, and with a yell of terror he turned and ran at top-speed. + </p> + <p> + She pursued, laughing sweetly, and calling loudly as she ran, “Kiss + me some more, darling little boy! Kiss me some more, darling little boy!” + </p> + <p> + The stricken Hedrick knew not whither to direct his flight: he dared not + dash for the street with this imminent tattered incubus—she was + almost upon him—and he frantically made for the kitchen door, only + to swerve with a gasp of despair as his foot touched the step, for she was + at his heels, and he was sickeningly assured she would cheerfully follow + him through the house, shouting that damning refrain for all ears. A + strangling fear took him by the throat—if Cora should come to be a + spectator of this unspeakable flight, if Cora should hear that horrid plea + for love! Then farewell peace; indeed, farewell all joy in life forever! + </p> + <p> + Panting sobbingly, he ducked under the amorous vampire’s arm and + fled on. He zigzagged desperately to and fro across the broad, empty + backyard, a small hand ever and anon managing to clutch his shoulder, the + awful petition in his ears: + </p> + <p> + “Kiss me some more, darling little boy!” + </p> + <p> + “<i>Hedrick</i>!” + </p> + <p> + Emerging from the kitchen door, Laura stood and gazed in wonder as the two + eerie figures sped by her, circled, ducked, dodged, flew madly on. This + commonplace purlieu was become the scene of a witch-chase; the moonlight + fell upon the ghastly flitting face of the pursued, uplifted in agony, + white, wet, with fay eyes; also it illumined the unreal elf following + close, a breeze-blown fantasy in rags. + </p> + <p> + “Kiss me some more, darling little boy!” + </p> + <p> + Laura uttered a sharp exclamation. “Stand still, Hedrick!” she + called. “You must!” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick made a piteous effort to increase his speed. + </p> + <p> + “It’s Lolita Martin,” called Laura. “She must have + her way or nothing can be done with her. Stand <i>still</i>!” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick had never heard of Lolita Martin, but the added information + concerning her was not ineffective: it operated as a spur; and Laura + joined the hunt. + </p> + <p> + “Stand still!” she cried to the wretched quarry. “She’s + run away. She must be taken home. Stop, Hedrick! You <i>must</i> stop!” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick had no intention of stopping, but Laura was a runner, and, as he + dodged the other, caught and held him fast. The next instant, Lolita, + laughing happily, flung her arms round his neck from behind. + </p> + <p> + “Lemme go!” shuddered Hedrick. “Lemme go!” + </p> + <p> + “Kiss me again, darl——” + </p> + <p> + “I—woof!” He became inarticulate. + </p> + <p> + “She isn’t quite right,” his sister whispered hurriedly + in his ear. “She has spells when she’s weak mentally. You must + be kind to her. She only wants you to——” + </p> + <p> + “`<i>Only</i>’!” he echoed hoarsely. “I won’t + ki——” He was unable to finish the word. + </p> + <p> + “We must get her home,” said Laura anxiously. “Will you + come with me, Lolita, dear?” + </p> + <p> + Apparently Lolita had no consciousness whatever of Laura’s presence. + Instead of replying, she tightened her grasp upon Hedrick and warmly + reiterated her request. + </p> + <p> + “Shut up, you parrot!” hissed the goaded boy. + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps she’ll go if you let her walk with her arms round + your neck,” suggested Laura. + </p> + <p> + “If I <i>what</i>?” + </p> + <p> + “Let’s try it. We’ve got to get her home; her mother + must be frantic about her. Come, let’s see if she’ll go with + us that way.” + </p> + <p> + With convincing earnestness, Hedrick refused to make the experiment until + Laura suggested that he remain with Lolita while she summoned assistance; + then, as no alternative appeared, his spirit broke utterly, and he + consented to the trial, stipulating with a last burst of vehemence that + the progress of the unthinkable pageant should be through the alley. + </p> + <p> + “Come, Lolita,” said Laura coaxingly. “We’re going + for a nice walk.” At the adjective, Hedrick’s burdened + shoulders were racked with a brief spasm, which recurred as his sister + added: “Your darling little boy will let you keep hold of him.” + </p> + <p> + Lolita seemed content. Laughing gayly, she offered no opposition, but, + maintaining her embrace with both arms and walking somewhat sidewise, went + willingly enough; and the three slowly crossed the yard, passed through + the empty stable and out into the alley. When they reached the + cross-street at the alley’s upper end, Hedrick balked flatly. + </p> + <p> + Laura expostulated, then entreated. Hedrick refused with sincere loathing + to be seen upon the street occupying his present position in the group. + Laura assured him that there was no one to see; he replied that the moon + was bright and the evening early; he would die, and readily, but he would + not set foot in the street. Unfortunately, he had selected an unfavourable + spot for argument: they were already within a yard or two of the street; + and a strange boy, passing, stopped and observed, and whistled + discourteously. + </p> + <p> + “Ain’t he the spooner!” remarked this unknown with + hideous admiration. + </p> + <p> + “I’ll thank you,” returned Hedrick haughtily, “to + go on about your own business.” + </p> + <p> + “Kiss me some more, darling little boy!” said Lolita. + </p> + <p> + The strange boy squawked, wailed, screamed with laughter, howled the + loving petition in a dozen keys of mockery, while Hedrick writhed and + Lolita clung. Enriched by a new and great experience, the torturer trotted + on, leaving viperish cachinnations in his wake. + </p> + <p> + But the martyrdom was at an end. A woman, hurrying past, bareheaded, was + greeted by a cry of delight from Lolita, who released Hedrick and ran to + her with outstretched arms. + </p> + <p> + “We were bringing her home, Mrs. Martin,” said Laura, + reassuringly. “She’s all right; nothing’s the matter + except that her dress got torn. We found her playing in our yard.” + </p> + <p> + “I thank you a thousand times, Miss Madison,” cried Lolita’s + mother, and flutteringly plunged into a description of her anxiety, her + search for Lolita, and concluded with renewed expressions of gratitude for + the child’s safe return, an outpouring of thankfulness and joy + wholly incomprehensible to Hedrick. + </p> + <p> + “Not at all,” said Laura cheerfully. “Come, Hedrick. We’ll + go home by the street, I think.” She touched his shoulder, and he + went with her in stunned obedience. He was not able to face the incredible + thing that had happened to him: he walked in a trance of horror. + </p> + <p> + “Poor little girl!” said Laura gently, with what seemed to her + brother an indefensibly misplaced compassion. “Usually they have her + live in an institution for people afflicted as she is, but they brought + her home for a visit last week, I believe. Of course you didn’t + understand, but I think you should have been more thoughtful. Really, you + shouldn’t have flirted with her.” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick stopped short. + </p> + <p> + “`<i>Flirted</i>’!” His voice was beginning to show + symptoms of changing, this year; it rose to a falsetto wail, flickered and + went out. + </p> + <p> + With the departure of Lolita in safety, what had seemed bizarre and + piteous became obscured, and another aspect of the adventure was presented + to Laura. The sufferings of the arrogant are not wholly depressing to the + spectator; and of arrogance Hedrick had ever been a master. She began to + shake; a convulsion took her, and suddenly she sat upon the curbstone + without dignity, and laughed as he had never seen her. + </p> + <p> + A horrid distrust of her rose within him: he began to realize in what + plight he stood, what terrors o’erhung. + </p> + <p> + “Look here,” he said miserably, “are you—you aren’t—you + don’t have to go and—and <i>talk</i> about this, do you?” + </p> + <p> + “No, Hedrick,” she responded, rising and controlling herself + somewhat. “Not so long as you’re good.” + </p> + <p> + This was no reassuring answer. + </p> + <p> + “And politer to Cora,” she added. + </p> + <p> + Seemingly he heard the lash of a slave-whip crack in the air. The future + grew dark. + </p> + <p> + “I know you’ll try”—she said; and the unhappy lad + felt that her assurance was justified; but she had not concluded the + sentence—“darling little boy,” she capped it, choking + slightly. + </p> + <p> + “No other little girl ever fell in love with you, did there, + Hedrick?” she asked, and, receiving an incoherent but furious reply, + she was again overcome, so that she must lean against the fence to + recover. “It seems—so—so <i>curious</i>,” she + explained, gasping, “that the first one—the—the only one—should + be an—a—an——” She was unable to continue. + </p> + <p> + Hedrick’s distrust became painfully increased: he began to feel that + he disliked Laura. + </p> + <p> + She was still wiping her eyes and subject to recurrent outbursts when they + reached their own abode; and as he bitterly flung himself into a chair + upon the vacant front porch, he heard her stifling an attack as she + mounted the stairs to her own room. He swung the chair about, with its + back to the street, and sat facing the wall. He saw nothing. There are + profundities in the abyss which reveal no glimpse of the sky. + </p> + <p> + Presently he heard his father coughing near by; and the sound was hateful, + because it seemed secure and unshamed. It was a cough of moral + superiority; and just then the son would have liked to believe that his + parent’s boyhood had been one of degradation as complete as his own; + but no one with this comfortable cough could ever have plumbed such + depths: his imagination refused the picture he was bitterly certain that + Mr. Madison had never kissed an idiot. + </p> + <p> + Hedrick had a dread that his father might speak to him; he was in no + condition for light conversation. But Mr. Madison was unaware of his son’s + near presence, and continued upon his purposeless way. He was smoking his + one nightly cigar and enjoying the moonlight. He drifted out toward the + sidewalk and was accosted by a passing acquaintance, a comfortable burgess + of sixty, leading a child of six or seven, by the hand. + </p> + <p> + “Out taking the air, are you, Mr. Madison?” said the + pedestrian, pausing. + </p> + <p> + “Yes; just trying to cool off,” returned the other. “How + are you, Pryor, anyway? I haven’t seen you for a long time.” + </p> + <p> + “Not since last summer,” said Pryor. “I only get here + once or twice a year, to see my married daughter. I always try to spend + August with her if I can. She’s still living in that little house, + over on the next street, I bought for her through your real-estate + company. I suppose you’re still in the same business?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. Pretty slack, these days.” + </p> + <p> + “I suppose so, I suppose so,” responded Mr. Pryor, nodding. + “Summer, I suppose it usually is. Well, I don’t know when I’ll + be going out on the road again myself. Business is pretty slack all over + the country this year.” + </p> + <p> + “Let’s see—I’ve forgotten,” said Madison + ruminatively. “You travel, don’t you?” + </p> + <p> + “For a New York house,” affirmed Mr. Pryor. He did not, + however, mention his “line.” “Yes-sir,” he added, + merely as a decoration, and then said briskly: “I see you have a + fine family, Mr. Madison; yes-sir, a fine family; I’ve passed here + several times lately and I’ve noticed ’em: fine family. Let’s + see, you’ve got four, haven’t you?” + </p> + <p> + “Three,” said Madison. “Two girls and a boy.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, sir, that’s mighty nice,” observed Mr. Pryor; + “<i>mighty</i> nice! I only have my one daughter, and of course me + living in New York when I’m at home, and her here, why, I don’t + get to see much of her. You got both your daughters living with you, haven’t + you?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, right here at home.” + </p> + <p> + “Let’s see: neither of ’em’s married, I believe?” + </p> + <p> + “No; not yet.” + </p> + <p> + “Seems to me now,” said Pryor, taking off his glasses and + wiping them, “seems to me I did hear somebody say one of ’em + was going to be married engaged, maybe.” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Madison. “Not that I know of.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I suppose you’d be the first to know! Yes-sir.” + And both men laughed their appreciation of this folly. “They’re + mighty good-looking girls, <i>that’s</i> certain,” continued + Mr. Pryor. “And one of ’em’s as fine a dresser as you’ll + meet this side the Rue de la Paix.” + </p> + <p> + “You mean in Paris?” asked Madison, slightly surprised at this + allusion. “You’ve been over there, Pryor?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, sometimes,” was the response. “My business takes me + over, now and then. I <i>think</i> it’s one of your daughters I’ve + noticed dresses so well. Isn’t one of ’em a mighty pretty girl + about twenty-one or two, with a fine head of hair sort of lightish brown, + beautiful figure, and carries a white parasol with a green lining + sometimes?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, that’s Cora, I guess.” + </p> + <p> + “Pretty name, too,” said Pryor approvingly. “Yes-sir. I + saw her going into a florist’s, downtown, the other day, with a + fine-looking young fellow—I can’t think of his name. Let’s + see: my daughter was with me, and she’d heard his name—said + his family used to be big people in this town and——” + </p> + <p> + “Oh,” said Madison, “young Corliss.” + </p> + <p> + “Corliss!” exclaimed Mr. Pryor, with satisfaction. “That’s + it, Corliss. Well, sir,” he chuckled, “from the way he was + looking at your Miss Cora it struck me he seemed kind of anxious for her + name to be Corliss, too.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, hardly I expect,” said the other. “They just + barely know each other: he’s only been here a few weeks; they haven’t + had time to get much acquainted, you see.” + </p> + <p> + “I suppose not,” agreed Mr. Pryor, with perfect readiness. + “I suppose not. I’ll bet <i>he</i> tries all he can to get + acquainted though; he looked pretty smart to me. Doesn’t he come + about as often as the law allows?” + </p> + <p> + “I shouldn’t be surprised,” said Madison indifferently. + “He doesn’t know many people about here any more, and it’s + lonesome for him at the hotel. But I guess he comes to see the whole + family; I left him in the library a little while ago, talking to my wife.” + </p> + <p> + “That’s the way! Get around the old folks first!” Mr. + Pryor chuckled cordially; then in a mildly inquisitive tone he said: + “Seems to be a fine, square young fellow, I expect?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I think so.” + </p> + <p> + “Pretty name, `Cora’,” said Pryor. + </p> + <p> + “What’s this little girl’s name?” Mr. Madison + indicated the child, who had stood with heroic patience throughout the + incomprehensible dialogue. + </p> + <p> + “Lottie, for her mother. She’s a good little girl.” + </p> + <p> + “She is <i>so</i>! I’ve got a young son she ought to know,” + remarked Mr. Madison serenely, with an elderly father’s total + unconsciousness of the bridgeless gap between seven and thirteen. “He’d + like to play with her. I’ll call him.” + </p> + <p> + “I expect we better be getting on,” said Pryor. “It’s + near Lottie’s bedtime; we just came out for our evening walk.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, he can come and shake hands with her anyway,” urged + Hedrick’s father. “Then they’ll know each other, and + they can play some other time.” He turned toward the house and + called loudly: + </p> + <p> + “Hedrick!” + </p> + <p> + There was no response. Behind the back of his chair Hedrick could not be + seen. He was still sitting immovable, his eyes torpidly fixed upon the + wall. + </p> + <p> + “Hed-<i>rick</i>!” + </p> + <p> + Silence. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, <i>Hed</i>-rick!” shouted his father. “Come out + here! I want you to meet a little girl! Come and see a nice little girl!” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Pryor’s grandchild was denied the pleasure. At the ghastly words + “<i>little girl</i>,” Hedrick dropped from his chair flat upon + the floor, crawled to the end of the porch, wriggled through the railing, + and immersed himself in deep shadow against the side of the house. + </p> + <p> + Here he removed his shoes, noiselessly mounted to the sill of one of the + library windows, then reconnoitred through a slit in the blinds before + entering. + </p> + <p> + The gas burned low in the “drop-light”—almost too dimly + to reveal the two people upon a sofa across the room. It was a faint + murmur from one of them that caused Hedrick to pause and peer more + sharply. They were Cora and Corliss; he was bending close to her; her face + was lifting to his. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, kiss me! Kiss me!” she whispered. + </p> + <p> + Hedrick dropped from the sill, climbed through a window of the kitchen, + hurried up the back-stairs, and reached his own apartment in time to be + violently ill in seclusion. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER NINE + </h2> + <p> + Villages are scattered plentifully over the unstable buttresses of + Vesuvius, and the inhabitants sleep o’ nights: Why not? Quite + unaware that he was much of their condition, Mr. Madison bade his + incidental gossip and the tiny Lottie good-night, and sought his early + bed. He maintained in good faith that Saturday night was “a great + night to sleep,” because of the later hour for rising; probably + having also some factitious conviction that there prevailed a hush + preparative of the Sabbath. As a matter of fact, in summer, the other + members of his family always looked uncommonly haggard at the Sunday + breakfast-table. Accepting without question his preposterous legend of + additional matutinal slumber, they postponed retiring to a late hour, and + were awakened—simultaneously with thousands of fellow-sufferers—at + about half-after five on Sunday morning, by a journalistic uprising. Over + the town, in these early hours, rampaged the small vendors of the manifold + sheets: local papers and papers from greater cities, hawker succeeding + hawker with yell upon yell and brain-piercing shrillings in unbearable + cadences. No good burgher ever complained: the people bore it, as in + winter they bore the smoke that injured their health, ruined their linen, + spoiled their complexions, forbade all hope of beauty and comfort in their + city, and destroyed the sweetness of their homes and of their wives. It is + an incredibly patient citizenry and exalts its persecutors. + </p> + <p> + Of the Madison family, Cora probably suffered most; and this was the time + when it was no advantage to have the front bedroom. She had not slept + until close upon dawn, and the hawkers woke her irreparably; she could but + rage upon her hot pillow. By and by, there came a token that another + anguish kept company with hers. She had left her door open for a better + circulation of the warm and languid air, and from Hedrick’s room + issued an “<i>oof</i>!” of agonized disgust. Cora little + suspected that the youth reeked not of newsboys: Hedrick’s miseries + were introspective. + </p> + <p> + The cries from the street were interminable; each howler in turn heard + faintly in the distance, then in crescendo until he had passed and another + succeeded him, and all the while Cora lay tossing and whispering between + clenched teeth. Having ample reason, that morning, to prefer sleep to + thinking, sleep was impossible. But she fought for it: she did not easily + surrender what she wanted; and she struggled on, with closed eyes, long + after she had heard the others go down to breakfast. + </p> + <p> + About a hundred yards from her windows, to the rear, were the open windows + of a church which fronted the next street, and stood dos-a-dos to the + dwelling of the Madisons. The Sunday-school hour had been advanced for the + hot weather, and, partly on this account, and partly because of the summer + absence of many families, the attendants were few. But the young voices + were conducted, rather than accompanied, in pious melody by a cornetist + who worthily thought to amend, in his single person, what lack of volume + this paucity occasioned. He was a slender young man in hot black clothes; + he wore the unfacaded collar fatally and unanimously adopted by all adam’s-apple + men of morals; he was washed, fair, flat-skulled, clean-minded, and + industrious; and the only noise of any kind he ever made in the world was + on Sunday. + </p> + <p> + “Prashus joowuls, sweet joowuls, <i>thee</i> jams off iz crowowun,” + sang the little voices feebly. They were almost unheard; but the young man + helped them out: figuratively, he put them out. And the cornet was heard: + it was heard for blocks and blocks; it was heard over all that part of the + town—in the vicinity of the church it was the only thing that could + be heard. In his daily walk this cornetist had no enemies: he was + kind-hearted; he would not have shot a mad dog; he gladly nursed the sick. + He sat upon the platform before the children; he swelled, perspired and + blew, and felt that it was a good blowing. If other thoughts vapoured upon + the borders of his mind, they were of the dinner he would eat, soon after + noon, at the house of one of the frilled, white-muslin teachers. He was + serene. His eyes were not blasted; his heart was not instantly withered; + his thin, bluish hair did not fall from his head; his limbs were not + detached from his torso—yet these misfortunes had been desired for + him, with comprehension and sincerity, at the first flat blat of his + brassy horn. + </p> + <p> + It is impossible to imagine the state of mind of this young cornetist, + could he have known that he had caused the prettiest girl in town to jump + violently out of bed with what petitions upon her lips regarding his + present whereabouts and future detention! It happened that during the + course of his Sunday walk on Corliss Street, that very afternoon, he saw + her—was hard-smitten by her beauty, and for weeks thereafter laid + unsuccessful plans to “meet” her. Her image was imprinted: he + talked about her to his boarding-house friends and office acquaintances, + his favourite description being, “the sweetest-looking lady I ever + laid eyes on.” + </p> + <p> + Cora, descending to the breakfast-table rather white herself, was not + unpleasantly shocked by the haggard aspect of Hedrick, who, with Laura and + Mrs. Madison, still lingered. + </p> + <p> + “Good-morning, Cora,” he said politely, and while she stared, + in suspicious surprise, he passed her a plate of toast with ostentatious + courtesy; but before she could take one of the slices, “Wait,” + he said; “it’s very nice toast, but I’m afraid it isn’t + hot. I’ll take it to the kitchen and have it warmed for you.” + And he took the plate and went out, walking softly. + </p> + <p> + Cora turned to her mother, appalled. “He’ll be sick!” + she said. + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Madison shook her head and smiled sadly. + </p> + <p> + “He helped to wait on all of us: he must have been doing something + awful.” + </p> + <p> + “More likely he wants permission to do something awful.” + </p> + <p> + Laura looked out of the window. + </p> + <p> + “There, Cora,” said Hedrick kindly, when he brought the toast; + “you’ll find that nice and hot.” + </p> + <p> + She regarded him steadfastly, but with modesty he avoided her eye. “You + wouldn’t make such a radical change in your nature, Hedrick,” + she said, with a puzzled frown, “just to get out of going to church, + would you?” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t want to get out of going to church,” he said. + He gulped slightly. “I like church.” + </p> + <p> + And church-time found him marching decorously beside his father, the three + ladies forming a rear rank; a small company in the very thin procession of + fanning women and mopping men whose destination was the gray stone church + at the foot of Corliss Street. The locusts railed overhead: Hedrick looked + neither to the right nor to the left. + </p> + <p> + They passed a club, of which a lower window was vacated simultaneously + with their coming into view; and a small but ornate figure in pale gray + crash hurried down the steps and attached itself to the second row of + Madisons. “Good-morning,” said Mr. Wade Trumble. “Thought + I’d take a look-in at church this morning myself.” + </p> + <p> + Care of this encumbrance was usually expected of Laura and Mrs. Madison, + but to their surprise Cora offered a sprightly rejoinder and presently + dropped behind them with Mr. Trumble. Mr. Trumble was also surprised and, + as naively, pleased. + </p> + <p> + “What’s happened?” he asked with cheerful frankness. + “You haven’t given me a chance to talk to you for a long + while.” + </p> + <p> + “Haven’t I?” she smiled enigmatically. “I don’t + think you’ve tried very hard.” + </p> + <p> + This was too careless; it did not quite serve, even for Trumble. “What’s + up?” he asked, not without shrewdness. “Is Richard Lindley out + of town?” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know.” + </p> + <p> + “I see. Perhaps it’s this new chap, Corliss? Has he left?” + </p> + <p> + “What nonsense! What have they got to do with my being nice to you?” + She gave him a dangerous smile, and it wrought upon him visibly. + </p> + <p> + “Don’t you ever be nice to me unless you mean it,” he + said feebly. + </p> + <p> + Cora looked grave and sweet; she seemed mysteriously moved. “I never + do anything I don’t mean,” she said in a low voice which + thrilled the little man. This was machine-work, easy and accurate. + </p> + <p> + “Cora——” he began, breathlessly. + </p> + <p> + “There!” she exclaimed, shifting on the instant to a lively + brusqueness. “That’s enough for you just <i>now</i>. We’re + on our way to church!” + </p> + <p> + Trumble felt almost that she had accepted him. + </p> + <p> + “Have you got your penny for the contribution box?” she + smiled. “I suppose you really give a great deal to the church. I + hear you’re richer and richer.” + </p> + <p> + “I do pretty well,” he returned, coolly. “You can know + just how well, if you like.” + </p> + <p> + “Not on Sunday,” she laughed; then went on, admiringly, + “I hear you’re very dashing in your speculations.” + </p> + <p> + “Then you’ve heard wrong, because I don’t speculate,” + he returned. “I’m not a gambler—except on certainties. I + guess I disappointed a friend of yours the other day because I wouldn’t + back him on a thousand-to-one shot.” + </p> + <p> + “Who was that?” she asked, with an expression entirely veiled. + </p> + <p> + “Corliss. He came to see me; wanted me to put real money into an oil + scheme. Too thin!” + </p> + <p> + “Why is it `too thin’?” she asked carelessly. + </p> + <p> + “Too far away, for one thing—somewhere in Italy. Anybody who + put up his cash would have to do it on Corliss’s bare word that he’s + struck oil.” + </p> + <p> + “Well?” She turned her face to him, and a faint perturbation + was manifest in her tone. “Isn’t Mr. Corliss’s `bare + word’ supposed to be perfectly good?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I suppose so, but I don’t know. He isn’t known + here: nobody really knows anything about him except that he was born here. + Besides, I wouldn’t make an investment on my own father’s bare + word, if he happened to be alive.” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps not!” Cora spoke impulsively, a sudden anger getting + the better of her, but she controlled it immediately. “Of course I + don’t mean that,” she laughed, sweetly. “But <i>I</i> + happen to think Mr. Corliss’s scheme a very handsome one, and I want + my friends to make their fortunes, of course. Richard Lindley and papa are + going into it.” + </p> + <p> + “I’ll bet they don’t,” said Trumble promptly. + “Lindley told me he’d looked it over and couldn’t see + his way to.” + </p> + <p> + “He did?” Cora stiffened perceptibly and bit her lip. + </p> + <p> + Trumble began to laugh. “This is funny: you trying to talk business! + So Corliss has been telling you about it?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, he has; and I understand it perfectly. I think there’s + an enormous fortune in it, and you’d better not laugh at me: a woman’s + instinct about such things is better than a man’s experience + sometimes.” + </p> + <p> + “You’ll find neither Lindley nor your father are going to + think so,” he returned skeptically. + </p> + <p> + She gave him a deep, sweet look. “But I mustn’t be + disappointed in you,” she said, with the suggestion of a tremor in + her voice, “whatever <i>they</i> do! You’ll take my advice, + won’t you—Wade?” + </p> + <p> + “I’ll take your advice in anything but business.” He + shook his head ominously. + </p> + <p> + “And wouldn’t you take my advice in business,”—she + asked very slowly and significantly—“under <i>any</i> + circumstances?” + </p> + <p> + “You mean,” he said huskily, “if you were my wife?” + </p> + <p> + She looked away, and slightly inclined her head. “No,” he + answered doggedly, “I wouldn’t. You know mighty well that’s + what I want you to be, and I’d give my soul for the tip of your + shoe, but business is an entirely different matter, and I——” + </p> + <p> + “<i>Wade</i>!” she said, with wonderful and thrilling + sweetness. They had reached the church; Hedrick and his father had + entered; Mrs. Madison and Laura were waiting on the steps. Cora and + Trumble came to a stop some yards away. “Wade, I—I <i>want</i> + you to go into this.” + </p> + <p> + “Can’t do it,” he said stubbornly. “If you ever + make up your mind to marry me, I’ll spend all the money you like on + <i>you</i>, but you’ll have to keep to the woman’s side of the + house.” + </p> + <p> + “You make it pretty hard for me to be nice to you,” she + returned, and the tremor now more evident in her voice was perfectly + genuine. “You positively refuse to do this—for me?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes I do. I wouldn’t buy sight-unseen to please God ‘lmighty, + Cora Madison.” He looked at her shrewdly, struck by a sudden + thought. “Did Corliss ask you to try and get me in?” + </p> + <p> + “He did not,” she responded, icily. “Your refusal is + final?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly!” He struck the pavement a smart rap with his + walking-stick. “By George, I believe he <i>did</i> ask you! That + spoils church for me this morning; I’ll not go in. When you quit + playing games, let me know. You needn’t try to work me any more, + because I won’t stand for it, but if you ever get tired of playing, + come and tell me so.” He uttered a bark of rueful laughter. “Ha! + I must say that gentleman has an interesting way of combining business + with pleasure!” + </p> + <p> + Under favourable circumstances the blow Cora dealt him might have been + physically more violent. “Good-morning,” she laughed, gayly. + “I’m not bothering much about Mr. Corliss’s oil in + Italy. I had a bet with Laura I could keep you from saying `I beg to + differ,’ or talking about the weather for five minutes. She’ll + have to pay me!” + </p> + <p> + Then, still laughing, she lowered her parasol, and with superb impudence, + brushed it smartly across his face; turned on her heel, and, red with + fury, joined her mother and sister, and went into the church. + </p> + <p> + The service failed to occupy her attention: she had much in her thoughts + to distract her. Nevertheless, she bestowed some wonderment upon the + devotion with which her brother observed each ceremonial rite. He joined + in prayer with real fervour; he sang earnestly and loudly; a great appeal + sounded in his changing voice; and during the sermon he sat with his eyes + upon the minister in a stricken fixity. All this was so remarkable that + Cora could not choose but ponder upon it, and, observing Hedrick + furtively, she caught, if not a clue itself, at least a glimpse of one. + She saw Laura’s clear profile becoming subtly agitated; then noticed + a shimmer of Laura’s dark eye as it wandered to Hedrick and so + swiftly away it seemed not to dare to remain. Cora was quick: she + perceived that Laura was repressing a constant desire to laugh and that + she feared to look at Hedrick lest it overwhelm her. So Laura knew what + had wrought the miracle. Cora made up her mind to explore this secret + passage. + </p> + <p> + When the service was over and the people were placidly buzzing their way + up the aisles, Cora felt herself drawn to look across the church, and + following the telepathic impulse, turned her head to encounter the gaze of + Ray Vilas. He was ascending the opposite aisle, walking beside Richard + Lindley. He looked less pale than usual, though his thinness was so + extreme it was like emaciation; but his eyes were clear and quiet, and the + look he gave her was strangely gentle. Cora frowned and turned away her + head with an air of annoyance. They came near each other in the + convergence at the doors; but he made no effort to address her, and, + moving away through the crowd as quickly as possible, disappeared. + </p> + <p> + Valentine Corliss was disclosed in the vestibule. He reached her an + instant in advance of Mr. Lindley, who had suffered himself to be impeded; + and Cora quickly handed the former her parasol, lightly taking his arm. + Thus the slow Richard found himself walking beside Laura in a scattered + group, its detached portion consisting of his near-betrothed and Corliss; + for although the dexterous pair were first to leave the church, they + contrived to be passed almost at once, and, assuming the position of + trailers, lagged far behind on the homeward way. + </p> + <p> + Laura and Richard walked in the unmitigated glare of the sun; he had taken + her black umbrella and conscientiously held it aloft, but over nobody. + They walked in silence: they were quiet people, both of them; and Richard, + not “talkative” under any circumstances, never had anything + whatever to say to Laura Madison. He had known her for many years, ever + since her childhood; seldom indeed formulating or expressing a definite + thought about her, though sometimes it was vaguely of his consciousness + that she played the piano nicely, and even then her music had taken its + place as but a colour of Cora’s background. For to him, as to every + one else (including Laura), Laura was in nothing her sister’s + competitor. She was a neutral-tinted figure, taken-for-granted, obscured, + and so near being nobody at all, that, as Richard Lindley walked beside + her this morning, he glanced back at the lagging couple and uttered a long + and almost sonorous sigh, which he would have been ashamed for anybody to + hear; and then actually proceeded on his way without the slightest + realization that anybody had heard it. + </p> + <p> + She understood. And she did not disturb the trance; she did nothing to + make him observe that she was there. She walked on with head, shoulders, + and back scorching in the fierce sun, and allowed him to continue shading + the pavement before them with her umbrella. When they reached the house + she gently took the umbrella from him and thanked him; and he mechanically + raised his hat. + </p> + <p> + They had walked more than a mile together; he had not spoken a word, and + he did not even know it. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0010" id="link2HCH0010"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TEN + </h2> + <p> + Dinner on Sunday, the most elaborate feast of the week for the Madisons, + was always set for one o’clock in the afternoon, and sometimes began + before two, but not to-day: the escorts of both daughters remained, and a + change of costume by Cora occasioned a long postponement. Justice demands + the admission that her reappearance in a glamour of lilac was reward for + the delay; nothing more ravishing was ever seen, she was warrantably + informed by the quicker of the two guests, in a moment’s whispered + tete-a-tete across the banisters as she descended. Another wait followed + while she prettily arranged upon the table some dozens of asters from a + small garden-bed, tilled, planted, and tended by Laura. Meanwhile, Mrs. + Madison constantly turned the other cheek to the cook. Laura assisted in + the pacification; Hedrick froze the ice-cream to an impenetrable solidity; + and the nominal head of the family sat upon the front porch with the two + young men, and wiped his wrists and rambled politically till they were + summoned to the dining-room. + </p> + <p> + Cora did the talking for the table. She was in high spirits; no trace + remained of a haggard night: there was a bloom upon her—she was + radiant. Her gayety may have had some inspiration in her daring, for round + her throat she wore a miraculously slender chain of gold and enamel, with + a pendant of minute pale sapphires scrolled about a rather large and very + white diamond. Laura started when she saw it, and involuntarily threw a + glance almost of terror at Richard Lindley. But that melancholy and + absent-minded gentleman observed neither the glance nor the jewel. He saw + Cora’s eyes, when they were vouchsafed to his vision, and when they + were not he apparently saw nothing at all. + </p> + <p> + With the general exodus from the table, Cora asked Laura to come to the + piano and play, a request which brought a snort from Hedrick, who was + taken off his guard. Catching Laura’s eye, he applied a handkerchief + with renewed presence of mind, affecting to have sneezed, and stared + searchingly over it at Corliss. He perceived that the man remained + unmoved, evidently already informed that it was Laura who was the + musician. Cora must be going it pretty fast this time: such was the form + of her brother’s deduction. + </p> + <p> + When Laura opened the piano, Richard had taken a seat beside Cora, and + Corliss stood leaning in the doorway. The player lost herself in a + wandering medley, echoes from “Boheme” and “Pagliacci”; + then drifted into improvisation and played her heart into it magnificently—a + heart released to happiness. The still air of the room filled with + wonderful, golden sound: a song like the song of a mother flying from + earth to a child in the stars, a torrential tenderness, unpent and + glorying in freedom. The flooding, triumphant chords rose, crashed—stopped + with a shattering abruptness. Laura’s hands fell to her sides, then + were raised to her glowing face and concealed it for a moment. She + shivered; a quick, deep sigh heaved her breast; and she came back to + herself like a prisoner leaving a window at the warden’s voice. + </p> + <p> + She turned. Cora and Corliss had left the room. Richard was sitting beside + a vacant chair, staring helplessly at the open door. + </p> + <p> + If he had been vaguely conscious of Laura’s playing, which is + possible, certainly he was unaware that it had ceased. + </p> + <p> + “The others have gone out to the porch,” she said composedly, + and rose. “Shan’t we join them?” + </p> + <p> + “What?” he returned, blankly. “I beg your pardon——” + </p> + <p> + “Let’s go out on the porch with the others.” + </p> + <p> + “No, I——” He got to his feet confusedly. “I + was thinking—— I believe I’d best be going home.” + </p> + <p> + “Not `best,’ I think,” she said. “Not even better!” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t see,” he said, his perplexity only increased. + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Corliss would,” she retorted quickly. “Come on: we’ll + go and sit with them.” And she compelled his obedience by preceding + him with such a confident assumption that he would follow that he did. + </p> + <p> + The fugitive pair were not upon the porch, however; they were discovered + in the shade of a tree behind the house, seated upon a rug, and occupied + in a conversation which would not have disturbed a sick-room. The pursuers + came upon them, boldly sat beside them; and Laura began to talk with + unwonted fluency to Corliss, but within five minutes found herself alone + with Richard Lindley upon the rug. Cora had promised to show Mr. Corliss + an “old print” in the library—so Cora said. + </p> + <p> + Lindley gave the remaining lady a desolate and faintly reproachful look. + He was kind, but he was a man; and Laura saw that this last abandonment + was being attributed in part to her. + </p> + <p> + She reddened, and, being not an angel, observed with crispness: “Certainly. + You’re quite right: it’s my fault!” + </p> + <p> + “What did you say?” he asked vacantly. + </p> + <p> + She looked at him rather fixedly; his own gaze had returned to the angle + of the house beyond which the other couple had just disappeared. “I + said,” she answered, slowly, “I thought it wouldn’t rain + this, afternoon.” + </p> + <p> + His wistful eyes absently swept the serene sky which had been cloudless + for several days. “No, I suppose not,” he murmured. + </p> + <p> + “Richard,” she said with a little sharpness, “will you + please listen to me for a moment?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh—what?” He was like a diver coming up out of deep + water. “What did you say?” He laughed apologetically. “Wasn’t + I listening? I beg your pardon. What is it, Laura?” + </p> + <p> + “Why do you let Mr. Corliss take Cora away from you like that?” + she asked gravely. + </p> + <p> + “He doesn’t,” the young man returned with a rueful shake + of the head. “Don’t you see? It’s Cora that goes.” + </p> + <p> + “Why do you let her, then?” + </p> + <p> + He sighed. “I don’t seem to be able to keep up with Cora, + especially when she’s punishing me. I couldn’t do something + she asked me to, last night——” + </p> + <p> + “Invest with Mr. Corliss?” asked Laura quickly. + </p> + <p> + “Yes. It seemed to trouble her that I couldn’t. She’s + convinced it’s a good thing: she thinks it would make a great + fortune for us——” + </p> + <p> + “`Us’?” repeated Laura gently. “You mean for you + and her? When you’re——” + </p> + <p> + “When we’re married. Yes,” he said thoughtfully, “that’s + the way she stated it. She wanted me to put in all I have——” + </p> + <p> + “Don’t do it!” said Laura decidedly. + </p> + <p> + He glanced at her with sharp inquiry. “Do you mean you would + distrust Mr. Corliss?” + </p> + <p> + “I wasn’t thinking of that: I don’t know whether I’d + trust him or not—I think I wouldn’t; there’s something + veiled about him, and I don’t believe he is an easy man to know. + What I meant was that I don’t believe it would really be a good + thing for you with Cora.” + </p> + <p> + “It would please her, of course—thinking I deferred so much to + her judgment.” + </p> + <p> + “Don’t do it!” she said again, impulsively. + </p> + <p> + “I don’t see how I can,” he returned sorrowfully. + </p> + <p> + “It’s my work for all the years since I got out of college, + and if I lost it I’d have to begin all over again. It would mean + postponing everything. Cora isn’t a girl you can ask to share a + little salary, and if it were a question of years, perhaps— perhaps + Cora might not feel she could wait for me, you see.” + </p> + <p> + He made this explanation with plaintive and boyish sincerity, + hesitatingly, and as if pleading a cause. And Laura, after a long look at + him, turned away, and in her eyes were actual tears of compassion for the + incredible simpleton. + </p> + <p> + “I see,” she said. “Perhaps she might not.” + </p> + <p> + “Of course,” he went on, “she’s fond of having + nice things, and she thinks this is a great chance for us to be + millionaires; and then, too, I think she may feel that it would please Mr. + Corliss and help to save him from disappointment. She seems to have taken + a great fancy to him.” + </p> + <p> + Laura glanced at him, but did not speak. + </p> + <p> + “He <i>is</i> attractive,” continued Richard feebly. “I + think he has a great deal of what people call `magnetism’: he’s + the kind of man who somehow makes you want to do what he wants you to. He + seems a manly, straightforward sort, too—so far as one can tell—and + when he came to me with his scheme I was strongly inclined to go into it. + But it is too big a gamble, and I can’t, though I was sorry to + disappoint him myself. He was perfectly cheerful about it and so pleasant + it made me feel small. I don’t wonder at all that Cora likes him so + much. Besides, he seems to understand her.” + </p> + <p> + Laura looked very grave. “I think he does,” she said slowly. + </p> + <p> + “And then he’s `different,’” said Richard. “He’s + more a `man of the world’ than most of us here: she never saw + anything just like him before, and she’s seen <i>us</i> all her + life. She likes change, of course. That’s natural,” he said + gently. “Poor Vilas says she wants a man to be different every day, + and if he isn’t, then she wants a different man every day.” + </p> + <p> + “You’ve rather taken Ray Vilas under your wing, haven’t + you?” asked Laura. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no,” he answered deprecatingly. “I only try to keep + him with me so he’ll stay away from downtown as much as possible.” + </p> + <p> + “Does he talk much of Cora?” + </p> + <p> + “All the time. There’s no stopping him. I suppose he can’t + help it, because he thinks of nothing else.” + </p> + <p> + “Isn’t that rather—rather queer for you?” + </p> + <p> + “`Queer’?” he repeated. + </p> + <p> + “No, I suppose not!” She laughed impatiently. “And + probably you don’t think it’s `queer’ of you to sit here + helplessly, and let another man take your place——” + </p> + <p> + “But I don’t `let’ him, Laura,” he protested. + </p> + <p> + “No, he just does it!” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” he smiled, “you must admit my efforts to + supplant him haven’t——” + </p> + <p> + “It won’t take any effort now,” she said, rising + quickly. Valentine Corliss came into their view upon the sidewalk in + front, taking his departure. Seeing that they observed him, he lifted his + hat to Laura and nodded a cordial good-day to Lindley. Then he went on. + </p> + <p> + Just before he reached the corner of the lot, he encountered upon the + pavement a citizen of elderly and plain appearance, strolling with a + grandchild. The two men met and passed, each upon his opposite way, + without pausing and without salutation, and neither Richard nor Laura, + whose eyes were upon the meeting, perceived that they had taken cognizance + of each other. But one had asked a question and the other had answered. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Pryor spoke in a low monotone, with a rapidity as singular as the + restrained but perceptible emphasis he put upon one word of his question. + </p> + <p> + “I got you in the park,” he said; and it is to be deduced that + “got” was argot. “You’re not <i>doing</i> anything + here, are you?” + </p> + <p> + “No!” answered Corliss with condensed venom, his back already + to the other. He fanned himself with his hat as he went on. Mr. Pryor + strolled up the street with imperturbable benevolence. + </p> + <p> + “Your coast is cleared,” said Laura, “since you wouldn’t + clear it yourself.” + </p> + <p> + “Wish me luck,” said Richard as he left her. + </p> + <p> + She nodded brightly. + </p> + <p> + Before he disappeared, he looked back to her again (which profoundly + surprised her) and smiled rather disconsolately, shaking his head as in + prophecy of no very encouraging reception indoors. The manner of this + glance recalled to Laura what his mother had once said of him. “Richard + is one of those sweet, helpless men that some women adore and others + despise. They fall in love with the ones that despise them.” + </p> + <p> + An ostentatious cough made her face about, being obviously designed to + that effect; and she beheld her brother in the act of walking slowly + across the yard with his back to her. He halted upon the border of her + small garden of asters, regarded it anxiously, then spread his + handkerchief upon the ground, knelt upon it, and with thoughtful care + uprooted a few weeds which were beginning to sprout, and also such vagrant + blades of grass as encroached upon the floral territory. He had the air of + a virtuous man performing a good action which would never become known. + Plainly, he thought himself in solitude and all unobserved. + </p> + <p> + It was a touching picture, pious and humble. Done into coloured glass, the + kneeling boy and the asters—submerged in ardent sunshine—would + have appropriately enriched a cathedral: Boyhood of Saint Florus the + Gardener. + </p> + <p> + Laura heartlessly turned her back, and, affecting an interest in her + sleeve, very soon experienced the sensation of being stared at with some + poignancy from behind. Unchanged in attitude, she unravelled an imaginary + thread, whereupon the cough reached her again, shrill and loud, its + insistence not lacking in pathos. + </p> + <p> + She approached him, driftingly. No sign that he was aware came from the + busied boy, though he coughed again, hollowly now—a proof that he + was an artist. “All right, Hedrick,” she said kindly. “I + heard you the first time.” + </p> + <p> + He looked up with utter incomprehension. “I’m afraid I’ve + caught cold,” he said, simply. “I got a good many weeds out + before breakfast, and the ground was damp.” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick was of the New School: everything direct, real, no striving for + effect, no pressure on the stroke. He did his work: you could take it or + leave it. + </p> + <p> + “You mustn’t strain so, dear,” returned his sister, + shaking her head. “It won’t last if you do. You see this is + only the first day.” + </p> + <p> + Struck to the heart by so brutal a misconception, he put all his wrongs + into one look, rose in manly dignity, picked up his handkerchief, and left + her. + </p> + <p> + Her eyes followed him, not without remorse: it was an exit which would + have moved the bass-violist of a theatre orchestra. Sighing, she went to + her own room by way of the kitchen and the back-stairs, and, having locked + her door, brought the padlocked book from its hiding-place. + </p> + <p> + “I think I should not have played as I did, an hour ago,” she + wrote. “It stirs me too greatly and I am afraid it makes me inclined + to self-pity afterward, and I must never let myself feel <i>that</i>! If I + once begin to feel sorry for myself. . . . But I <i>will</i> not! No. You + are here in the world. You exist. You <i>are</i>! That is the great thing + to know and it must be enough for me. It is. I played to You. I played <i>just + love</i> to you—all the yearning tenderness—all the supreme + kindness I want to give you. Isn’t love really just glorified + kindness? No, there is something more. . . . I feel it, though I do not + know how to say it. But it was in my playing—I played it and played + it. Suddenly I felt that in my playing I had shouted it from the + housetops, that I had told the secret to all the world and <i>everybody</i> + knew. I stopped, and for a moment it seemed to me that I was dying of + shame. But no one understood. No one had even listened. . . . Sometimes it + seems to me that I am like Cora, that I am very deeply her sister in some + things. My heart goes all to You—my revelation of it, my release of + it, my outlet of it is all here in these pages (except when I play as I + did to-day and as I shall not play again) and perhaps the writing keeps me + quiet. Cora scatters her own releasings: she is looking for the You she + may never find; and perhaps the penalty for scattering is never finding. + Sometimes I think the seeking has reacted and that now she seeks only what + will make her feel. I hope she has not found it: I am afraid of this new + man—not only for your sake, dear. I felt repelled by his glance at + me the first time I saw him. I did not like it—I cannot say just + why, unless that it seemed too intimate. I am afraid of him for her, which + is a queer sort of feeling because she has alw——” + </p> + <p> + Laura’s writing stopped there, for that day, interrupted by a + hurried rapping upon the door and her mother’s voice calling her + with stress and urgency. + </p> + <p> + The opening of the door revealed Mrs. Madison in a state of anxious + perturbation, and admitted the sound of loud weeping and agitated voices + from below. + </p> + <p> + “Please go down,” implored the mother. “You can do more + with her than I can. She and your father have been having a terrible scene + since Richard went home.” + </p> + <p> + Laura hurried down to the library. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0011" id="link2HCH0011"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER ELEVEN + </h2> + <p> + “Oh, <i>come</i> in, Laura!” cried her sister, as Laura + appeared in the doorway. “Don’t <i>stand</i> there! Come in if + you want to take part in a grand old family row!” With a furious and + tear-stained face, she was confronting her father who stood before her in + a resolute attitude and a profuse perspiration. “Shut the door!” + shouted Cora violently, adding, as Laura obeyed, “Do you want that + little Pest in here? Probably he’s eavesdropping anyway. But what + difference does it make? I don’t care. Let him hear! Let anybody + hear that wants to! They can hear how I’m tortured if they like. I + didn’t close my eyes last night, and now I’m being tortured. + Papa!” She stamped her foot. “Are you going to take back that + insult to me?” + </p> + <p> + “`Insult’?” repeated her father, in angry astonishment. + </p> + <p> + “Pshaw,” said Laura, laughing soothingly and coming to her. + “You know that’s nonsense, Cora. Kind old papa couldn’t + do that if he tried. Dear, you know he never insulted anybody in his——” + </p> + <p> + “Don’t touch me!” screamed Cora, repulsing her. “Listen, + if you’ve got to, but let me alone. He did too! He did! He <i>knows</i> + what he said!” + </p> + <p> + “I do not!” + </p> + <p> + “He does! He does!” cried Cora. “He said that I was—I + was too much `interested’ in Mr. Corliss.” + </p> + <p> + “Is that an `insult’?” the father demanded sharply. + </p> + <p> + “It was the way he said it,” Cora protested, sobbing. “He + meant something he didn’t <i>say</i>. He did! He did! He <i>meant</i> + to insult me!” + </p> + <p> + “I did nothing of the kind,” shouted the old man. + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I said I couldn’t + understand your getting so excited about the fellow’s affairs and + that you seemed to take a mighty sudden interest in him.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, what if I <i>do</i>?” she screamed. “Haven’t + I a right to be interested in what I choose? I’ve got to be + interested in <i>something</i>, haven’t I? <i>You</i> don’t + make life very interesting, do you? Do you think it’s interesting to + spend the summer in this horrible old house with the paper falling off the + walls and our rotten old furniture that I work my hands off trying to make + look decent and can’t, and every other girl I know at the seashore + with motor-cars and motor-boats, or getting a trip abroad and buying her + clothes in Paris? What do <i>you</i> offer to interest me?” + </p> + <p> + The unfortunate man hung his head. “I don’t see what all that + has to do with it——” + </p> + <p> + She seemed to leap at him. “You <i>don’t</i>? You <i>don’t</i>?” + </p> + <p> + “No, I don’t. And I don’t see why you’re so crazy + to please young Corliss about this business unless you’re infatuated + with him. I had an idea—and I was pleased with it, too, because + Richard’s a steady fellow—that you were just about engaged to + Richard Lindley, and——” + </p> + <p> + “Engaged!” she cried, repeating the word with bitter contempt. + “Engaged! You don’t suppose I’ll marry him unless I want + to, do you? I will if it suits me. I won’t if it suits me not to; + understand that! I don’t consider myself engaged to anybody, and you + needn’t either. What on earth has that got to do with your keeping + Richard Lindley from doing what Mr. Corliss wants him to?” + </p> + <p> + “I’m not keeping him from anything. He didn’t say——” + </p> + <p> + “He did!” stormed Cora. “He said he would if you went + into it. He told me this afternoon, an hour ago.” + </p> + <p> + “Now wait,” said Madison. “I talked this over with + Richard two days ago——” + </p> + <p> + Cora stamped her foot again in frantic exasperation. “I’m + talking about this afternoon!” + </p> + <p> + “Two days ago,” he repeated doggedly; “and we came to + the same conclusion: it won’t do. He said he couldn’t go into + it unless he went over there to Italy—and saw for himself just what + he was putting his money into, and Corliss had told him that it couldn’t + be done; that there wasn’t time, and showed him a cablegram from his + Italian partner saying the secret had leaked out and that they’d + have to form the company in Naples and sell the stock over there if it + couldn’t be done here within the next week. Corliss said he had to + ask for an immediate answer, and so Richard told him no, yesterday.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, my God!” groaned Cora. “What has that got to do + with <i>your</i> going into it? You’re not going to risk any money! + I don’t ask you to <i>spend</i> anything, do I? You haven’t + got it if I did. All Mr. Corliss wants is your name. Can’t you give + even <i>that</i>? What importance is it?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, if it isn’t important, what difference does it make + whether I give it or not?” + </p> + <p> + She flung up her arms as in despairing appeal for patience. “It <i>is</i> + important to him! Richard will do it if you will be secretary of the + company: he promised me. Mr. Corliss told me your name was worth + everything here: that men said downtown you could have been rich long ago + if you hadn’t been so square. Richard trusts you; he says you’re + the most trusted man in town——” + </p> + <p> + “That’s why I can’t do it,” he interrupted. + </p> + <p> + “No!” Her vehemence increased suddenly to its utmost. “No! + Don’t you say that, because it’s a lie. That isn’t the + reason you won’t do it. You won’t do it because you think it + would please <i>me</i>! You’re afraid it might make me <i>happy</i>! + Happy—happy—<i>happy</i>!” She beat her breast and cast + herself headlong upon the sofa, sobbing wildly. “Don’t come + near me!” she screamed at Laura, and sprang to her feet again, + dishevelled and frantic. “Oh, Christ in heaven! is there such a + thing as happiness in this beast of a world? I want to leave it. I want to + go away: I want <i>so</i> to die: Why can’t I? Why can’t I! + Why can’t I! Oh, God, why <i>can’t</i> I die? Why can’t——” + </p> + <p> + Her passion culminated in a shriek: she gasped, was convulsed from head to + foot for a dreadful moment, tore at the bosom of her dress with rigid bent + fingers, swayed; then collapsed all at once. Laura caught her, and got her + upon the sofa. In the hall, Mrs. Madison could be heard running and + screaming to Hedrick to go for the doctor. Next instant, she burst into + the room with brandy and camphor. + </p> + <p> + “I could only find these; the ammonia bottle’s empty,” + she panted; and the miserable father started hatless, for the drug-store, + a faint, choked wail from the stricken girl sounding in his ears: “It’s—it’s + my heart, mamma.” + </p> + <p> + It was four blocks to the nearest pharmacy; he made what haste he could in + the great heat, but to himself he seemed double his usual weight; and the + more he tried to hurry, the less speed appeared obtainable from his heavy + legs. When he reached the place at last, he found it crowded with noisy + customers about the “soda-fount”; and the clerks were stonily + slow: they seemed to know that they were “already in eternity.” + He got very short of breath on the way home; he ceased to perspire and + became unnaturally dry; the air was aflame and the sun shot fire upon his + bare head. His feet inclined to strange disobediences: he walked the last + block waveringly. A solemn Hedrick met him at the door. + </p> + <p> + “They’ve got her to bed,” announced the boy. “The + doctor’s up there.” + </p> + <p> + “Take this ammonia up,” said Madison huskily, and sat down + upon a lower step of the stairway with a jolt, closing his eyes. + </p> + <p> + “You sick, too?” asked Hedrick. + </p> + <p> + “No. Run along with that ammonia.” + </p> + <p> + It seemed to Madison a long time that he sat there alone, and he felt very + dizzy. Once he tried to rise, but had to give it up and remain sitting + with his eyes shut. At last he heard Cora’s door open and close; and + his wife and the doctor came slowly down the stairs, Mrs. Madison talking + in the anxious yet relieved voice of one who leaves a sick-room wherein + the physician pronounces progress encouraging. + </p> + <p> + “And you’re <i>sure</i> her heart trouble isn’t organic?” + she asked. + </p> + <p> + “Her heart is all right,” her companion assured her. “There’s + nothing serious; the trouble is nervous. I think you’ll find she’ll + be better after a good sleep. Just keep her quiet. Hadn’t she been + in a state of considerable excitement?” + </p> + <p> + “Ye-es—she——” + </p> + <p> + “Ah! A little upset on account of opposition to a plan she’d + formed, perhaps?” + </p> + <p> + “Well—partly,” assented the mother. + </p> + <p> + “I see,” he returned, adding with some dryness: “I + thought it just possible.” + </p> + <p> + Madison got to his feet, and stepped down from the stairs for them to pass + him. He leaned heavily against the wall. + </p> + <p> + “You think she’s going to be all right, Sloane?” he + asked with an effort. + </p> + <p> + “No cause to worry,” returned the physician. “You can + let her stay in bed to-day if she wants to but——” He + broke off, looking keenly at Madison’s face, which was the colour of + poppies. “Hello! what’s up with <i>you</i>?” + </p> + <p> + “I’m all—right.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, you are?” retorted Sloane with sarcasm. “Sit down,” + he commanded. “Sit right where you are—on the stairs, here,” + and, having enforced the order, took a stethoscope from his pocket. + “Get him a glass of water,” he said to Hedrick, who was at his + elbow. + </p> + <p> + “Doctor!” exclaimed Mrs. Madison. “<i>He</i> isn’t + going to be sick, is he? You don’t think he’s sick <i>now</i>?” + </p> + <p> + “I shouldn’t call him very well,” answered the physician + rather grimly, placing his stethoscope upon Madison’s breast. + “Get his room ready for him.” She gave him a piteous look, + struck with fear; then obeyed a gesture and ran flutteringly up the + stairs. + </p> + <p> + “I’m all right now,” panted Madison, drinking the water + Hedrick brought him. + </p> + <p> + “You’re not so darned all right,” said Sloane coolly, as + he pocketed his stethoscope. “Come, let me help you up. We’re + going to get you to bed.” + </p> + <p> + There was an effort at protest, but the physician had his way, and the two + ascended the stairs slowly, Sloane’s arm round his new patient. At + Cora’s door, the latter paused. + </p> + <p> + “What’s the matter?” + </p> + <p> + “I want,” said Madison thickly—“I want—to + speak to Cora.” + </p> + <p> + “We’ll pass that up just now,” returned the other + brusquely, and led him on. Madison was almost helpless: he murmured in a + husky, uncertain voice, and suffered himself to be put to bed. There, the + doctor “worked” with him; cold “applications” were + ordered; Laura was summoned from the other sick-bed; Hedrick sent flying + with prescriptions, then to telephone for a nurse. The two women attempted + questions at intervals, but Sloane replied with orders, and kept them + busy. + </p> + <p> + “Do you—think I’m a—-a pretty sick man, Sloane?” + asked Madison after a long silence, speaking with difficulty. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, you’re sick, all right,” the doctor conceded. + </p> + <p> + “I—I want to speak to Jennie.” + </p> + <p> + His wife rushed to the bed, and knelt beside it. + </p> + <p> + “Don’t you go to confessing your sins,” said Doctor + Sloane crossly. “You’re coming out of the woods all right, and + you’ll be sorry if you tell her too, much. I’ll begin a little + flirtation with you, Miss Laura, if you please.” And he motioned to + her to follow him into the hall. + </p> + <p> + “Your father <i>is</i> pretty sick,” he told her, “and + he may be sicker before we get him into shape again. But you needn’t + be worried right now; I think he’s not in immediate danger.” + He turned at the sound of Mrs. Madison’s step, behind him, and + repeated to her what he had just said to Laura. “I hope your husband + didn’t give himself away enough to be punished when we get him on + his feet again,” he concluded cheerfully. + </p> + <p> + She shook her head, tried to smile through tears, and, crossing the hall, + entered Cora’s room. She came back after a moment, and, rejoining + the other two at her husband’s bedside, found the sick man in a + stertorous sleep. Presently the nurse arrived, and upon the physician’s + pointed intimation that there were “too many people around,” + Laura went to Cora’s room. She halted on the threshold in surprise. + Cora was dressing. + </p> + <p> + “Mamma says the doctor says he’s all right,” said Cora + lightly, “and I’m feeling so much better myself I thought I’d + put on something loose and go downstairs. I think there’s more air + down there.” + </p> + <p> + “Papa isn’t all right, dear,” said Laura, staring + perplexedly at Cora’s idea of “something loose,” an + equipment inclusive of something particularly close. “The doctor + says he is very sick.” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t believe it,” returned Cora promptly. “Old + Sloane never did know anything. Besides, mamma told me he said papa isn’t + in any danger.” + </p> + <p> + “No `immediate’ danger,” corrected Laura. “And + besides, Doctor Sloane said you were to stay in bed until to-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + “I can’t help that.” Cora went on with her lacing + impatiently. “I’m not going to lie and stifle in this heat + when I feel perfectly well again—not for an old idiot like Sloane! + He didn’t even have sense enough to give me any medicine.” She + laughed. “Lucky thing he didn’t: I’d have thrown it out + of the window. Kick that slipper to me, will you, dear?” + </p> + <p> + Laura knelt and put the slipper on her sister’s foot. “Cora, + dear,” she said, “you’re just going to put on a negligee + and go down and sit in the library, aren’t you?” + </p> + <p> + “Laura!” The tone was more than impatient. “I wish I + could be let alone for five whole minutes some time in my life! Don’t + you think I’ve stood enough for one day? I can’t bear to be + questioned, questioned, questioned! What do you do it for? Don’t you + see I can’t stand anything more? If you can’t let me alone I + do wish you’d keep out of my room.” + </p> + <p> + Laura rose and went out; but as she left the door, Cora called after her + with a rueful laugh: “Laura, I know I’m a little devil!” + </p> + <p> + Half an hour later, Laura, suffering because she had made no reply to this + peace-offering, and wishing to atone, sought Cora downstairs and found no + one. She decided that Cora must still be in her own room; she would go to + her there. But as she passed the open front door, she saw Cora upon the + sidewalk in front of the house. She wore a new and elaborate motoring + costume, charmingly becoming, and was in the act of mounting to a seat + beside Valentine Corliss in a long, powerful-looking, white “roadster” + automobile. The engine burst into staccato thunder, sobered down; the + wheels began to move both Cora and Corliss were laughing and there was an + air of triumph about them—Cora’s veil streamed and fluttered: + and in a flash they were gone. + </p> + <p> + Laura stared at the suddenly vacated space where they had been. At a + thought she started. Then she rushed upstairs to her mother, who was + sitting in the hall near her husband’s door. + </p> + <p> + “Mamma,” whispered Laura, flinging herself upon her knees + beside her, “when papa wanted to speak to you, was it a message to + Cora?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, dear. He told me to tell her he was sorry he’d made her + sick, and that if he got well he’d try to do what she asked him to.” + </p> + <p> + Laura nodded cheerfully. “And he <i>will</i> get well, darling + mother,” she said, as she rose. “I’ll come back in a + minute and sit with you.” + </p> + <p> + Her return was not so quick as she promised, for she lay a long time + weeping upon her pillow, whispering over and over: + </p> + <p> + “Oh, poor, poor papa! Oh, poor, poor Richard!” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0012" id="link2HCH0012"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWELVE + </h2> + <p> + Within a week Mr. Madison’s illness was a settled institution in the + household; the presence of the nurse lost novelty, even to Hedrick, and + became a part of life; the day was measured by the three regular visits of + the doctor. To the younger members of the family it seemed already that + their father had always been sick, and that he always would be; indeed, to + Cora and Hedrick he had become only a weak and querulous voice beyond a + closed door. Doctor Sloane was serious but reassuring, his daily + announcement being that his patient was in “no immediate danger.” + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Madison did not share her children’s sanguine adaptability; + and, of the three, Cora was the greatest solace to the mother’s + troubled heart, though Mrs. Madison never recognized this without a sense + of injustice to Laura, for Laura now was housewife and housekeeper—that + is, she did all the work except the cooking, and on “wash-day” + she did that. But Cora’s help was to the very spirit itself, for she + was sprightly in these hours of trial: with indomitable gayety she cheered + her mother, inspiring in her a firmer confidence, and, most stimulating of + all, Cora steadfastly refused to consider her father’s condition as + serious, or its outcome as doubtful. + </p> + <p> + Old Sloane exaggerated, she said; and she made fun of his gravity, his + clothes and his walk, which she mimicked till she drew a reluctant and + protesting laugh from even her mother. Mrs. Madison was sure she “couldn’t + get through” this experience save for Cora, who was indeed the light + of the threatened house. + </p> + <p> + Strange perversities of this world: Cora’s gayety was almost + unbearable to her brother. Not because he thought it either unfeeling or + out of place under the circumstances (an aspect he failed to consider), + but because years of warfare had so frequently made him connect + cheerfulness on her part with some unworthily won triumph over himself + that habit prevailed, and he could not be a witness of her high spirits + without a strong sense of injury. Additionally, he was subject to a deeply + implanted suspicion of any appearance of unusual happiness in her as + having source, if not in his own defeat, then in something vaguely “soft” + and wholly distasteful. She grated upon him; he chafed, and his sufferings + reached the surface. Finally, in a reckless moment, one evening at dinner, + he broke out with a shout and hurled a newly devised couplet concerning + luv-a-ly slush at his, sister’s head. The nurse was present: Cora + left the table; and Hedrick later received a serious warning from Laura. + She suggested that it might become expedient to place him in Cora’s + power. + </p> + <p> + “Cora knows perfectly well that something peculiar happened to you,” + she advised him. “And she knows that I know what it was; and she + says it isn’t very sisterly of me not to tell her. Now, Hedrick, + there was no secret about it; you didn’t <i>confide</i> your—your + trouble to me, and it would be perfectly honourable of me to tell it. I + wont{sic} unless you make me, but if you can’t be polite and keep + peace with Cora—at least while papa is sick I think it may be + necessary. I believe,” she finished with imperfect gravity, “that + it—it would keep things quieter.” + </p> + <p> + The thoughts of a boy may be long, long thoughts, but he cannot + persistently remember to fear a threatened catastrophe. Youth is too + quickly intimate with peril. Hedrick had become familiar with his own, had + grown so accustomed to it he was in danger of forgetting it altogether; + therefore it was out of perspective. The episode of Lolita had begun to + appear as a thing of the distant and clouded past: time is so long at + thirteen. Added to this, his late immaculate deportment had been, as Laura + suggested, a severe strain; the machinery of his nature was out of + adjustment and demanded a violent reaction before it could get to running + again at average speed. Also, it is evident that his destruction had been + planned on high, for he was mad enough to answer flippantly: + </p> + <p> + “Tell her! Go on and tell her—<i>I</i> give you leaf! <i>that</i> + wasn’t anything anyway—just helped you get a little idiot girl + home. What is there to that? I never saw her before; never saw her again; + didn’t have half as much to do with her as you did yourself. She was + a lot more <i>your</i> friend than mine; I didn’t even know her. I + guess you’ll have to get something better on me than that, before + you try to boss <i>this</i> ranch, Laura Madison!” + </p> + <p> + That night, in bed, he wondered if he had not been perhaps a trifle rash; + but the day was bright when he awoke, and no apprehension shadowed his + morning face as he appeared at the breakfast table. On the contrary, a + great weight had lifted from him; clearly his defiance had been the proper + thing; he had shown Laura that her power over him was but imaginary. + Hypnotized by his own words to her, he believed them; and his previous + terrors became gossamer; nay, they were now merely laughable. His own + remorse and shame were wholly blotted from memory, and he could not + understand why in the world he had been so afraid, nor why he had felt it + so necessary to placate Laura. She looked very meek this morning. <i>That</i> + showed! The strong hand was the right policy in dealing with women. He was + tempted to insane daring: the rash, unfortunate child waltzed on the lip + of the crater. + </p> + <p> + “Told Cora yet?” he asked, with scornful laughter. + </p> + <p> + “Told me what?” Cora looked quickly up from her plate. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, nothing about this Corliss,” he returned scathingly. + “Don’t get excited.” + </p> + <p> + “Hedrick!” remonstrated his mother, out of habit. + </p> + <p> + “She never thinks of anything else these days,” he retorted. + “Rides with him every evening in his pe-rin-sley hired machine, + doesn’t she?” + </p> + <p> + “Really, you should be more careful about the way you handle a + spoon, Hedrick,” said Cora languidly, and with at least a foundation + of fact. “It is not the proper implement for decorating the cheeks. + We all need nourishment, but it is <i>so</i> difficult when one sees a + deposit of breakfast-food in the ear of one’s vis-a-vis.” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick too impulsively felt of his ears and was but the worse stung to + find them immaculate and the latter half of the indictment unjustified. + </p> + <p> + “Spoon!” he cried. “I wouldn’t talk about spoons + if I were you, Cora-lee! After what I saw in the library the other night, + believe <i>me</i>, you’re the one of this family that better be + careful how you `handle a spoon’!” + </p> + <p> + Cora had a moment of panic. She let the cup she was lifting drop noisily + upon its saucer, and gazed whitely at the boy, her mouth opening wide. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no!” he went on, with a dreadful laugh. “I didn’t + hear you asking this Corliss to kiss you! Oh, no!” + </p> + <p> + At this, though her mother and Laura both started, a faint, odd relief + showed itself in Cora’s expression. She recovered herself. + </p> + <p> + “You little liar!” she flashed, and, with a single quick look + at her mother, as of one too proud to appeal, left the room. + </p> + <p> + “Hedrick, Hedrick, Hedrick!” wailed Mrs. Madison. “And + she told me you drove her from the table last night too, right before Miss + Peirce!” Miss Peirce was the nurse, fortunately at this moment in + the sick-room. + </p> + <p> + “I <i>did</i> hear her ask him that,” he insisted, sullenly. + “Don’t you believe it?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly not!” + </p> + <p> + Burning with outrage, he also left his meal unfinished and departed in + high dignity. He passed through the kitchen, however, on his way out of + the house; but, finding an unusual politeness to the cook nothing except + its own reward, went on his way with a bitter perception of the emptiness + of the world and other places. + </p> + <p> + “Your father managed to talk more last night,” said Mrs. + Madison pathetically to Laura. “He made me understand that he was + fretting about how little we’d been able to give our children; so + few advantages; it’s always troubled him terribly. But sometimes I + wonder if we’ve done right: we’ve neither of us ever exercised + any discipline. We just couldn’t bear to. You see, not having any + money, or the things money could buy, to give, I think we’ve + instinctively tried to make up for it by indulgence in other ways, and + perhaps it’s been a bad thing. Not,” she added hastily, + “not that you aren’t all three the best children any mother + and father ever had! <i>He</i> said so. He said the only trouble was that + our children were too good for us.” She shook her head remorsefully + throughout Laura’s natural reply to this; was silent a while; then, + as she rose, she said timidly, not looking at her daughter: “Of + course Hedrick didn’t mean to tell an outright lie. They were just + talking, and perhaps he—perhaps he heard something that made him + think what he <i>did</i>. People are so often mistaken in what they hear, + even when they’re talking right to each other, and——” + </p> + <p> + “Isn’t it more likely,” said Laura, gravely, “that + Cora was telling some story or incident, and that Hedrick overheard that + part of it, and thought she was speaking directly to Mr. Corliss?” + </p> + <p> + “Of course!” cried the mother with instant and buoyant relief; + and when the three ladies convened, a little later, Cora (unquestioned) + not only confirmed this explanation, but repeated in detail the story she + had related to Mr. Corliss. Laura had been quick. + </p> + <p> + Hedrick passed a variegated morning among comrades. He obtained prestige + as having a father like-to-die, but another boy turned up who had learned + to chew tobacco. Then Hedrick was pronounced inferior to others in turning + “cartwheels,” but succeeded in a wrestling match for an apple, + which he needed. Later, he was chased empty-handed from the rear of an + ice-wagon, but greatly admired for his retorts to the vociferous chaser: + the other boys rightly considered that what he said to the ice-man was + much more horrible than what the ice-man said to him. The ice-man had a + fair vocabulary, but it lacked pliancy; seemed stiff and fastidious + compared with the flexible Saxon in which Hedrick sketched a family tree + lacking, perhaps, some plausibility as having produced even an ice-man, + but curiously interesting zoologically. + </p> + <p> + He came home at noon with the flush of this victory new upon his brow. He + felt equal to anything, and upon Cora’s appearing at lunch with a + blithe, bright air and a new arrangement of her hair, he opened a fresh + campaign with ill-omened bravado. + </p> + <p> + “Ear-muffs in style for September, are they?” he inquired in + allusion to a symmetrical and becoming undulation upon each side of her + head. “Too bad Ray Vilas can’t come any more; he’d like + those, I know he would.” + </p> + <p> + Cora, who was talking jauntily to her mother, went on without heeding. She + affected her enunciation at times with a slight lisp; spoke preciously and + over-exquisitely, purposely mincing the letter R, at the same time + assuming a manner of artificial distinction and conscious elegance which + never failed to produce in her brother the last stage of exasperation. She + did this now. Charming woman, that dear Mrs. Villard, she prattled. + “I met her downtown this morning. Dear mamma, you should but have + seen her delight when she saw <i>me</i>. She was but just returned from + Bar Harbor——” + </p> + <p> + “`Baw-hawbaw’!” Poor Hedrick was successfully infuriated + immediately. “What in thunder is `Baw-hawbaw’? Mrs. Villawd! + Baw-hawbaw! Oh, maw!” + </p> + <p> + “She had no idea she should find <i>me</i> in town, she said,” + Cora ran on, happily. “She came back early on account of the + children having to be sent to school. She has such adorable children—beautiful, + dimpled babes——” + </p> + <h3> + “SLUSH! SLUSH! LUV-A-LY SLUSH!” + </h3> + <p> + “—And her dear son, Egerton Villard, he’s grown to be + such a comely lad, and he has the most charming courtly manners: he helped + his mother out of her carriage with all the air of a man of the world, and + bowed to me as to a duchess. I think he might be a great influence for + good if the dear Villards would but sometimes let him associate a little + with our unfortunate Hedrick. Egerton Villard is really <i>distingue</i>; + he has a beautiful head; and if he could be induced but to let Hedrick + follow him about but a little——” + </p> + <p> + “I’ll beat his beautiful head off for him if he but butts in + on me but a little!” Hedrick promised earnestly. “Idiot!” + </p> + <p> + Cora turned toward him innocently. “What did you say, Hedrick?” + </p> + <p> + “I said `Idiot’!” + </p> + <p> + “You mean Egerton Villard?” + </p> + <p> + “Both of you!” + </p> + <p> + “You think I’m an idiot, Hedrick?” Her tone was calm, + merely inquisitive. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I do!” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no,” she said pleasantly. “Don’t you think if + I were <i>really</i> an idiot I’d be even fonder of you than I am?” + </p> + <p> + It took his breath. In a panic he sat waiting he knew not what; but Cora + blandly resumed her interrupted remarks to her mother, beginning a + description of Mrs. Villard’s dress; Laura was talking unconcernedly + to Miss Peirce; no one appeared to be aware that anything unusual had been + said. His breath came back, and, summoning his presence of mind, he found + himself able to consider his position with some degree of assurance. + Perhaps, after all, Cora’s retort had been merely a coincidence. He + went over and over it in his mind, making a pretence, meanwhile, to be + busy with his plate. “If I were <i>really</i> an idiot.” . . . + It was the “<i>really</i>” that troubled him. But for that one + word, he could have decided that her remark was a coincidence; but “<i>really</i>” + was ominous; had a sinister ring. “If I were <i>really</i> an idiot!” + Suddenly the pleasant clouds that had obscured his memory of the fatal + evening were swept away as by a monstrous Hand: it all came back to him + with sickening clearness. So is it always with the sinner with his sin and + its threatened discovery. Again, in his miserable mind, he sat beside + Lolita on the fence, with the moon shining through her hair; and he knew—for + he had often read it—that a man could be punished his whole life + through for a single moment’s weakness. A man might become rich, + great, honoured, and have a large family, but his one soft sin would + follow him, hunt him out and pull him down at last. “<i>Really</i> + an idiot!” Did that relentless Comanche, Cora, know this Thing? He + shuddered. Then he fell back upon his faith in Providence. It <i>could</i> + not be that she knew! Ah, no! Heaven would not let the world be so bad as + that! And yet it did sometimes become negligent—he remembered the + case of a baby-girl cousin who fell into the bath-tub and was drowned. + Providence had allowed that: What assurance had he that it would not go a + step farther? + </p> + <p> + “Why, Hedrick,” said Cora, turning toward him cheerfully, + “you’re not really eating anything; you’re only + pretending to.” His heart sank with apprehension. Was it coming? + “You really must eat,” she went on. “School begins so + soon, you must be strong, you know. How we shall miss you here at home + during your hours of work!” + </p> + <p> + With that, the burden fell from his shoulders, his increasing terrors took + wing. If Laura had told his ghastly secret to Cora, the latter would not + have had recourse to such weak satire as this. Cora was not the kind of + person to try a popgun on an enemy when she had a thirteen-inch gun at her + disposal; so he reasoned; and in the gush of his relief and happiness, + responded: + </p> + <p> + “You’re a little too cocky lately, Cora-lee: I wish you were + <i>my</i> daughter—just about five minutes!” + </p> + <p> + Cora looked upon him fondly. “What would you do to me,” she + inquired with a terrible sweetness—“darling little boy?” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick’s head swam. The blow was square in the face; it jarred + every bone; the world seemed to topple. His mother, rising from her chair, + choked slightly, and hurried to join the nurse, who was already on her way + upstairs. Cora sent an affectionate laugh across the table to her stunned + antagonist. + </p> + <p> + “You wouldn’t beat me, would you, dear?” she murmured. + “I’m almost sure you wouldn’t; not if I asked you to + kiss me some <i>more</i>.” + </p> + <p> + All doubt was gone, the last hope fled! The worst had arrived. A vision of + the awful future flamed across his staggered mind. The doors to the arena + were flung open: the wild beasts howled for hunger of him; the spectators + waited. + </p> + <p> + Cora began lightly to sing: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + . . . “Dear, + Would thou wert near + To hear me tell how fair thou art! + Since thou art gone I mourn all alone, + Oh, my Lolita——” + </pre> + <p> + She broke off to explain: “It’s one of those passionate little + Spanish serenades, Hedrick. I’ll sing it for your boy-friends next + time they come to play in the yard. I think they’d like it. When + they know why you like it so much, I’m sure they will. Of course you + <i>do</i> like it—you roguish little lover!” A spasm rewarded + this demoniacal phrase. “Darling little boy, the serenade goes on + like this: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + Oh, my Lolita, come to my heart: + Oh, come beloved, love let me press thee, + While I caress thee + In one long kiss, Lolita! + Lolita come! Let me——” + </pre> + <p> + Hedrick sprang to his feet with a yell of agony. “Laura Madison, you + tattle-tale,” he bellowed, “I’ll never forgive you as + long as I live! I’ll get even with you if it takes a thousand years!” + </p> + <p> + With that, and pausing merely to kick a rung out of a chair which happened + to be in his way, he rushed from the room. + </p> + <p> + His sisters had risen to go, and Cora flung her arms round Laura in + ecstacy. “You mean old viper!” she cried. “You could + have told me days ago! It’s almost too good to be true: it’s + the first time in my whole life I’ve felt safe from the Pest for a + moment!” + </p> + <p> + Laura shook her head. “My conscience troubles me; it did seem as if + I ought to tell you—and mamma thought so, too; and I gave him + warning, but now that I have done it, it seems rather mean and——” + </p> + <p> + “No!” exclaimed Cora. “You just gave me a chance to + protect myself for once, thank heaven!” And she picked up her skirts + and danced her way into the front hall. + </p> + <p> + “I’m afraid,” said Laura, following, “I shouldn’t + have done it.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Laura,” cried the younger girl, “I am having the + best time, these days! This just caps it.” She lowered her voice, + but her eyes grew even brighter. “I think I’ve shown a certain + gentleman a few things he didn’t understand!” + </p> + <p> + “Who, dear?” + </p> + <p> + “Val,” returned Cora lightly; “Valentine Corliss. I + think he knows a little more about women than he did when he first came + here.” + </p> + <p> + “You’ve had a difference with him?” asked Laura with + eager hopefulness. “You’ve broken with him?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Lord, no! Nothing like that.” Cora leaned to her + confidentially. “He told me, once, he’d be at the feet of any + woman that could help put through an affair like his oil scheme, and I + decided I’d just show him what I could do. He’d talk about it + to me; then he’d laugh at me. That very Sunday when I got papa to go + in——” + </p> + <p> + “But he didn’t,” said Laura helplessly. “He only + said he’d try to——when he gets well.” + </p> + <p> + “It’s all the same—and it’ll be a great thing for + him, too,” said Cora, gayly. “Well, that very afternoon before + Val left, he practically told me I was no good. Of course he didn’t + use just those words—that isn’t his way—but he laughed + at me. And haven’t I shown him! I sent Richard a note that very + night saying papa had consented to be secretary of the company, and + Richard had said he’d go in if papa did that, and he couldn’t + break his word——” + </p> + <p> + “I know,” said Laura, sighing. “I know.” + </p> + <p> + “Laura”—Cora spoke with sudden gravity—“did + you ever know anybody like me? I’m almost getting superstitious + about it, because it seems to me I <i>always</i> get just what I set out + to get. I believe I could have anything in the world if I tried for it.” + </p> + <p> + “I hope so, if you tried for something good for you,” said + Laura sadly. “Cora, dear, you will—you will be a little easy + on Hedrick, won’t you?” + </p> + <p> + Cora leaned against the newel and laughed till she was exhausted. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0013" id="link2HCH0013"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER THIRTEEN + </h2> + <p> + Mr. Trumble’s offices were heralded by a neat blazon upon the + principal door, “Wade J. Trumble, Mortgages and Loans”; and + the gentleman thus comfortably, proclaimed, emerging from that door upon a + September noontide, burlesqued a start of surprise at sight of a figure + unlocking an opposite door which exhibited the name, “Ray Vilas,” + and below it, the cryptic phrase, “Probate Law.” + </p> + <p> + “Water!” murmured Mr. Trumble, affecting to faint. “You + ain’t going in <i>there</i>, are you, Ray?” He followed the + other into the office, and stood leaning against a bookcase, with his + hands in his pockets, while Vilas raised the two windows, which were + obscured by a film of smoke-deposit: there was a thin coat of fine sifted + dust over everything. “Better not sit down, Ray,” continued + Trumble, warningly. “You’ll spoil your clothes and you might + get a client. That word `Probate’ on the door ain’t going to + keep ’em out forever. You recognize the old place, I s’pose? + You must have been here at least twice since you moved in. What’s + the matter? Dick Lindley hasn’t missionaried you into any idea of <i>working</i>, + has he? Oh, no, <i>I</i> see: the Richfield Hotel bar has closed—you’ve + managed to drink it all at last!” + </p> + <p> + “Have you heard how old man Madison is to-day?” asked Ray, + dusting his fingers with a handkerchief. + </p> + <p> + “Somebody told me yesterday he was about the same. He’s not + going to get well.” + </p> + <p> + “How do you know?” Ray spoke quickly. + </p> + <p> + “Stroke too severe. People never recover——” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes, they do, too.” + </p> + <p> + Trumble began hotly: “I beg to dif——” but checked + himself, manifesting a slight confusion. “That is, I know they don’t. + Old Madison may live a while, if you call that getting well; but he’ll + never be the same man he was. Doctor Sloane says it was a bad stroke. Says + it was `induced by heat prostration and excitement.’ `Excitement!’” + he repeated with a sour laugh. “Yep, I expect a man could get all + the excitement he wanted in <i>that</i> house, especially if he was her + daddy. Poor old man, I don’t believe he’s got five thousand + dollars in the world, and look how she dresses!” + </p> + <p> + Ray opened a compartment beneath one of the bookcases, and found a bottle + and some glasses. “Aha,” he muttered, “our janitor doesn’t + drink, I perceive. Join me?” Mr. Trumble accepted, and Ray + explained, cheerfully: “Richard Lindley’s got me so cowed I’m + afraid to go near any of my old joints. You see, he trails me; the + scoundrel has kept me sober for whole days at a time, and I’ve been + mortified, having old friends see me in that condition; so I have to sneak + up here to my own office to drink to Cora, now and then. You mustn’t + tell him. What’s she been doing to <i>you</i>, lately?” + </p> + <p> + The little man addressed grew red with the sharp, resentful memory. + “Oh, nothing! Just struck me in the face with her parasol on the + public street, that’s all!” He gave an account of his walk to + church with Cora. “I’m through with that girl!” he + exclaimed vindictively, in conclusion. “It was the damnedest thing + you ever saw in your life: right in broad daylight, in front of the + church. And she laughed when she did it; you’d have thought she was + knocking a puppy out of her way. She can’t do that to me twice, I + tell you. What the devil do you see to laugh at?” + </p> + <p> + “You’ll be around,” returned his companion, refilling + the glasses, “asking for more, the first chance she gives you. Here’s + her health!” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t drink it!” cried Mr. Trumble angrily. + </p> + <p> + “And I’m through with her for good, I tell you! I’m not + your kind: I don’t let a girl like that upset me till I can’t + think of anything else, and go making such an ass of myself that the whole + town gabbles about it. Cora Madison’s seen the last of me, I’ll + thank you to notice. She’s never been half-decent to me; cut dances + with me all last winter; kept me hanging round the outskirts of every + crowd she was in; stuck me with Laura and her mother every time she had a + chance; then has the nerve to try to use me, so’s she can make a + bigger hit with a new man! You can bet your head I’m through! She’ll + get paid though! Oh, she’ll get paid for it!” + </p> + <p> + “How?” laughed Ray. + </p> + <p> + It was a difficult question. “You wait and see,” responded the + threatener, feebly. “Just wait and see. She’s wild about this + Corliss, I tell you,” he continued, with renewed vehemence. “She’s + crazy about him; she’s lost her head at last——” + </p> + <p> + “You mean he’s going to avenge you?” + </p> + <p> + “No, I don’t, though he might, if she decided to marry him.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you know,” said Ray slowly, glancing over his glass at his + nervous companion, “it doesn’t strike me that Mr. Valentine + Corliss has much the air of a marrying man.” + </p> + <p> + “He has the air to <i>me</i>,” observed Mr. Trumble, “of + a darned bad lot! But I have to hand it to him: he’s a wizard. He’s + got something besides his good looks—a man that could get Cora + Madison interested in `business’! In <i>oil</i>! Cora Madison! How + do you suppose——” + </p> + <p> + His companion began to laugh again. “You don’t really suppose + he talked his oil business to her, do you, Trumble?” + </p> + <p> + “He must have. Else how could she——” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no, Cora herself never talks upon any subject but one; she + never listens to any other either.” + </p> + <p> + “Then how in thunder did he——” + </p> + <p> + “If Cora asks you if you think it will rain,” interrupted + Vilas, “doesn’t she really seem to be asking: `Do you love me? + How much?’ Suppose Mr. Corliss is an expert in the same line. Of + course he can talk about oil!” + </p> + <p> + “He strikes me,” said Trumble, “as just about the + slickest customer that ever hit this town. I like Richard Lindley, and I + hope he’ll see his fifty thousand dollars again. <i>I</i> wouldn’t + have given Corliss thirty cents.” + </p> + <p> + “Why do you think he’s a crook?” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t say that,” returned Trumble. “All <i>I</i> + know about him is that he’s done some of the finest work to get + fifty thousand dollars put in his hands that I ever heard of. And all + anybody knows about him is that he lived here seventeen years ago, and + comes back claiming to know where there’s oil in Italy. He shows + some maps and papers and gets cablegrams signed `Moliterno.’ Then he + talks about selling the old Corliss house here, where the Madisons live, + and putting the money into his oil company: he does that to sound + plausible, but I have good reason to know that house was mortgaged to its + full value within a month after his aunt left it to him. He’ll not + get a cent if it’s sold. That’s all. And he’s got Cora + Madison so crazy over him that she makes life a hell for poor old Lindley + until he puts all he’s saved into the bubble. The scheme may be all + right. How do <i>I</i> know? There’s no way to tell, without going + over there, and Corliss won’t let anybody do that—oh, he’s + got a plausible excuse for it! But I’m sorry for Lindley: he’s + so crazy about Cora, he’s soft. And she’s so crazy about + Corliss <i>she’s</i> soft! Well, I used to be crazy about her + myself, but I’m not soft—I’m not the Lindley kind of + loon, thank heaven!” + </p> + <p> + “What kind are you, Trumble?” asked Ray, mildly. + </p> + <p> + “Not your kind either,” retorted the other going to the door. + “She cut me on the street the other day; she’s quit speaking + to me. If you’ve got any money, why don’t you take it over to + the hotel and give it to Corliss? She might start speaking to <i>you</i> + again. I’m going to lunch!” He slammed the door behind him. + </p> + <p> + Ray Vilas, left alone, elevated his heels to the sill, and stared out of + the window a long time at a gravelled roof which presented little of + interest. He replenished his glass and his imagination frequently, the + latter being so stirred that when, about three o’clock, he noticed + the inroads he had made upon the bottle, tears of self-pity came to his + eyes. “Poor little drunkard!” he said aloud. “Go ahead + and do it. Isn’t anything <i>you</i> won’t do!” And, + having washed his face at a basin in a corner, he set his hat slightly + upon one side, picked up a walking stick and departed jauntily, and, to + the outward eye, presentably sober. + </p> + <p> + Mr. Valentine Corliss would be glad to see him, the clerk at the Richfield + Hotel reported, after sending up a card, and upon Ray’s following + the card, Mr. Valentine Corliss in person confirmed the message with + considerable amusement and a cordiality in which there was some mixture of + the quizzical. He was the taller; and the robust manliness of his + appearance, his splendid health and boxer’s figure offered a sharp + contrast to the superlatively lean tippler. Corliss was humorously aware + of his advantage: his greeting seemed really to say, “Hello, my + funny bug, here you are again!” though the words of his salutation + were entirely courteous; and he followed it with a hospitable offer. + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Vilas; “I won’t drink with you.” + He spoke so gently that the form of his refusal, usually interpreted as + truculent, escaped the other’s notice. He also declined a cigar, + apologetically asking permission to light one of his own cigarettes; then, + as he sank into a velour-covered chair, apologized again for the + particular attention he was bestowing upon the apartment, which he + recognized as one of the suites de luxe of the hotel. + </p> + <p> + “`Parlour, bedroom, and bath,’” he continued, with a + melancholy smile; “and `Lachrymae,’ and `A Reading from Homer.’ + Sometimes they have `The Music Lesson,’ or `Winter Scene’ or + `A Neapolitan Fisher Lad’ instead of `Lachrymae,’ but they + always have `A Reading from Homer.’ When you opened the door, a + moment ago, I had a very strong impression that something extraordinary + would some time happen to me in this room.” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” suggested Corliss, “you refused a drink in it.” + </p> + <p> + “Even more wonderful than that,” said Ray, glancing about the + place curiously. “It may be a sense of something painful that + already has happened here—perhaps long ago, before your occupancy. + It has a pathos.” + </p> + <p> + “Most hotel rooms have had something happen in them,” said + Corliss lightly. “I believe the managers usually change the door + numbers if what happens is especially unpleasant. Probably they change + some of the rugs, also.” + </p> + <p> + “I feel——” Ray paused, frowning. “I feel as + if some one had killed himself here.” + </p> + <p> + “Then no doubt some of the rugs <i>have</i> been changed.” + </p> + <p> + “No doubt.” The caller laughed and waved his hand in dismissal + of the topic. “Well, Mr. Corliss,” he went on, shifting to a + brisker tone, “I have come to make my fortune, too. You are Midas. + Am I of sufficient importance to be touched?” + </p> + <p> + Valentine Corliss gave him sidelong an almost imperceptibly brief glance + of sharpest scrutiny—it was like the wink of a camera shutter—but + laughed in the same instant. “Which way do you mean that?” + </p> + <p> + “You have been quick,” returned the visitor, repaying that + glance with equal swiftness, “to seize upon the American idiom. I + mean: How small a contribution would you be willing to receive toward your + support!” + </p> + <p> + Corliss did not glance again at Ray; instead, he looked interested in the + smoke of his cigar. “`Contribution,’” he repeated, with + no inflection whatever. “`Toward my support.’” + </p> + <p> + “I mean, of course, how small an investment in your oil company.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, anything, anything,” returned the promoter, with quick + amiability. “We need to sell all the stock we can.” + </p> + <p> + “All the money you can get?” + </p> + <p> + “Precisely. It’s really a colossal proposition, Mr. Vilas.” + Corliss spoke with brisk enthusiasm. “It’s a perfectly certain + enormous profit upon everything that goes in. Prince Moliterno cables me + later investigations show that the oil-field is more than twice as large + as we thought when I left Naples. He’s on the ground now, buying up + what he can, secretly.” + </p> + <p> + “I had an impression from Richard Lindley that the secret had been + discovered.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes; but only by a few, and those are trying to keep it quiet + from the others, of course.” + </p> + <p> + “I see. Does your partner know of your success in raising a large + investment?” + </p> + <p> + “You mean Lindley’s? Certainly.” Corliss waved his hand + in light deprecation. “Of course that’s something, but + Moliterno would hardly be apt to think of it as very large! You see he’s + putting in about five times that much, himself, and I’ve already + turned over to him double it for myself. Still, it counts—certainly; + and of course it will be a great thing for Lindley.” + </p> + <p> + “I fear,” Ray said hesitatingly, “you won’t be + much interested in my drop for your bucket. I have twelve hundred dollars + in the world; and it is in the bank—I stopped there on my way here. + To be exact, I have twelve hundred and forty-seven dollars and fifty-one + cents. My dear sir, will you allow me to purchase one thousand dollars’ + worth of stock? I will keep the two hundred and forty-seven dollars and + fifty-one cents to live on—I may need an egg while waiting for you + to make me rich. Will you accept so small an investment?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly,” said Corliss, laughing. “Why not? You may + as well profit by the chance as any one. I’ll send you the stock + certificates—we put them at par. I’m attending to that myself, + as our secretary, Mr. Madison, is unable to take up his duties.” + </p> + <p> + Vilas took a cheque-book and a fountain-pen from his pocket. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, any time, any time,” said Corliss cheerfully, observing + the new investor’s movement. + </p> + <p> + “Now, I think,” returned Vilas quietly. “How shall I + make it out?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, to me, I suppose,” answered Corliss indifferently. + “That will save a little trouble, and I can turn it over to + Moliterno, by cable, as I did Lindley’s. I’ll give you a + receipt——” + </p> + <p> + “You need not mind that,” said Ray. “Really it is of no + importance.” + </p> + <p> + “Of course the cheque itself is a receipt,” remarked Corliss, + tossing it carelessly upon a desk. “You’ll have some handsome + returns for that slip of paper, Mr. Vilas.” + </p> + <p> + “In that blithe hope I came,” said Ray airily. + </p> + <p> + “I am confident of it. I have my own ways of divination, Mr. + Corliss. I have gleams.” He rose as if to go, but stood looking + thoughtfully about the apartment again. “Singular impression,” + he murmured. “Not exactly as if I’d seen it in a dream; and + yet—and yet——” + </p> + <p> + “You have symptoms of clairvoyance at times, I take it.” The + conscious, smooth superiority of the dexterous man playing with an + inconsequent opponent resounded in this speech, clear as the humming of a + struck bell; and Vilas shot him a single open glance of fire from hectic + eyes. For that instant, the frailer buck trumpeted challenge. Corliss—broad-shouldered, + supple of waist, graceful and strong—smiled down negligently; yet + the very air between the two men seemed charged with an invisible + explosive. Ray laughed quickly, as in undisturbed good nature; then, + flourishing his stick, turned toward the door. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no, it isn’t clairvoyance—no more than when I told + you that your only real interest is women.” He paused, his hand upon + the door-knob. “I’m a quaint mixture, however: perhaps I + should be handled with care.” + </p> + <p> + “Very good of you,” laughed Corliss—“this warning. + The afternoon I had the pleasure of meeting you I think I remember your + implying that you were a mere marionette.” + </p> + <p> + “A haggard harlequin!” snapped Vilas, waving his hand to a + mirror across the room. “Don’t I look it?” And the + phrase fitted him with tragic accuracy. “You see? What a merry + wedding-guest I’ll be! I invite you to join me on the nuptial eve.” + </p> + <p> + “Thanks. Who’s getting married: when the nuptial eve?” + </p> + <p> + Ray opened the door, and, turning, rolled his eyes fantastically. “Haven’t + you heard?” he cried. “When Hecate marries John Barleycorn!” + He bowed low. “Mr. Midas, adieu.” + </p> + <p> + Corliss stood in the doorway and watched him walk down the long hall to + the elevator. There, Ray turned and waved his hand, the other responding + with gayety which was not assumed: Vilas might be insane, or drunk, or + both, but the signature upon his cheque was unassailable. + </p> + <p> + Corliss closed the door and began to pace his apartment thoughtfully. His + expression manifested a peculiar phenomenon. In company, or upon the + street, or when he talked with men, the open look and frank eyes of this + stalwart young man were disarming and his most winning assets. But now, as + he paced alone in his apartment, now that he was not upon exhibition, now + when there was no eye to behold him, and there was no reason to + dissimulate or veil a single thought or feeling, his look was anything but + open; the last trace of frankness disappeared; the muscles at mouth and + eyes shifted; lines and planes intermingled and altered subtly; there was + a moment of misty transformation—and the face of another man + emerged. It was the face of a man uninstructed in mercy; it was a shrewd + and planning face: alert, resourceful, elaborately perceptive, and + flawlessly hard. But, beyond all, it was the face of a man perpetually on + guard. + </p> + <p> + He had the air of debating a question, his hands in his pockets, his + handsome forehead lined with a temporary indecision. His sentry-go + extended the length of his two rooms, and each time he came back into his + bedroom his glance fell consideringly upon a steamer-trunk of the largest + size, at the foot of his bed. The trunk was partially packed as if for + departure. And, indeed, it was the question of departure which he was + debating. + </p> + <p> + He was a man of varied dexterities, and he had one faculty of high value, + which had often saved him, had never betrayed him; it was intuitive and + equal to a sixth sense: he always knew when it was time to go. An inner + voice warned him; he trusted to it and obeyed it. And it had spoken now, + and there was his trunk half-packed in answer. But he had stopped midway + in his packing, because he had never yet failed to make a clean sweep + where there was the slightest chance for one; he hated to leave a big job + before it was completely finished—and Mr. Wade Trumble had refused + to invest in the oil-fields of Basilicata. + </p> + <p> + Corliss paused beside the trunk, stood a moment immersed in thought; then + nodded once, decisively, and, turning to a dressing-table, began to place + some silver-mounted brushes and bottles in a leather travelling-case. + </p> + <p> + There was a knock at the outer door. He frowned, set down what he had in + his hands, went to the door and opened it to find Mr. Pryor, that plain + citizen, awaiting entrance. + </p> + <p> + Corliss remained motionless in an arrested attitude, his hand upon the + knob of the opened door. His position did not alter; he became almost + unnaturally still, a rigidity which seemed to increase. Then he looked + quickly behind him, over his shoulder, and back again, with a swift + movement of the head. + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Pryor, at that. “I don’t want you. I + just thought I’d have two minutes’ talk with you. All right?” + </p> + <p> + “All right,” said Corliss quietly. “Come in.” He + turned carelessly, and walked away from the door keeping between his guest + and the desk. When he reached the desk, he turned again and leaned against + it, his back to it, but in the action of turning his hand had swept a + sheet of note-paper over Ray Vilas’s cheque—a too conspicuous + oblong of pale blue. Pryor had come in and closed the door. + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know,” he began, regarding the other through + his glasses, with steady eyes, “that I’m going to interfere + with you at all, Corliss. I just happened to strike you—I wasn’t + looking for you. I’m on vacation, visiting my married daughter that + lives here, and I don’t want to mix in if I can help it.” + </p> + <p> + Corliss laughed, easily. “There’s nothing for you to mix in. + You couldn’t if you wanted to.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I hope that’s true,” said Pryor, with an air of + indulgence, curiously like that of a teacher for a pupil who promises + improvement. “I do indeed. There isn’t anybody I’d like + to see turn straight more than you. You’re educated and cultured, + and refined, and smarter than all hell. It would be a big thing. That’s + one reason I’m taking the trouble to talk to you.” + </p> + <p> + “I told you I wasn’t doing anything,” said Corliss with + a petulance as oddly like that of a pupil as the other’s indulgence + was like that of a tutor. “This is my own town; I own property here, + and I came here to sell it. I can prove it in half-a-minute’s + telephoning. Where do you come in?” + </p> + <p> + “Easy, easy,” said Pryor, soothingly. “I’ve just + told you I don’t want to come in at all.” + </p> + <p> + “Then what do you want?” + </p> + <p> + “I came to tell you just one thing: to go easy up there at Mr. + Madison’s house.” + </p> + <p> + Corliss laughed contemptuously. “It’s <i>my</i> house. I own + it. That’s the property I came here to sell.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, I know,” responded Pryor. “That part of it’s + all right. But I’ve seen you several times with that young lady, and + you looked pretty thick, to me. You know you haven’t got any + business doing such things, Corliss. I know your record from Buda Pesth to + Copenhagen and——” + </p> + <p> + “See here, my friend,” said the younger man, angrily, “you + may be a tiptop spotter for the government when it comes to running down + some poor old lady that’s bought a string of pearls in the Rue de la + Paix——” + </p> + <p> + “I’ve been in the service twenty-eight years,” remarked + Pryor, mildly. + </p> + <p> + “All right,” said the other with a gesture of impatience; + “and you got me once, all right. Well, that’s over, isn’t + it? Have I tried anything since?” + </p> + <p> + “Not in that line,” said Pryor. + </p> + <p> + “Well, what business have you with any other line?” demanded + Corliss angrily. “Who made you general supervisor of public morals? + I want to know——” + </p> + <p> + “Now, what’s the use your getting excited? I’m just here + to tell you that I’m going to keep an eye on you. I don’t know + many people here, and I haven’t taken any particular pains to look + you up. For all I know, you’re only here to sell your house, as you + say. But I know old man Madison a little, and I kind of took a fancy to + him; he’s a mighty nice old man, and he’s got a nice family. + He’s sick and it won’t do to trouble him; but—honest, + Corliss—if you don’t slack off in that neighbourhood a little, + I’ll have to have a talk with the young lady herself.” + </p> + <p> + A derisory light showed faintly in the younger man’s eyes as he + inquired, softly: “That all, Mr. Pryor?” + </p> + <p> + “No. Don’t try anything on out here. Not in <i>any</i> of your + lines.” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t mean to.” + </p> + <p> + “That’s right. Sell your house and clear out. You’ll + find it healthy.” He went to the door. “So far as I can see,” + he observed, ruminatively, “you haven’t brought any of that + Moliterno crowd you used to work with over to this side with you.” + </p> + <p> + “I haven’t seen Moliterno for two years,” said Corliss, + sharply. + </p> + <p> + “Well, I’ve said my say.” Pryor gave him a last word as + he went out. “You keep away from that little girl.” + </p> + <p> + “Ass!” exclaimed Corliss, as the door closed. He exhaled a + deep breath sharply, and broke into a laugh. Then he went quickly into his + bedroom and began to throw the things out of his trunk. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0014" id="link2HCH0014"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER FOURTEEN + </h2> + <p> + Hedrick Madison’s eyes were not of marble; his heart was not flint + nor his skin steel plate: he was flesh and tender; he was a vulnerable, + breathing boy, with highly developed capacities for pain which were now + being taxed to their utmost. Once he had loved to run, to leap, to disport + himself in the sun, to drink deep of the free air; he had loved life and + one or two of his fellowmen. He had borne himself buoyantly, with jaunty + self-confidence, even with some intolerance toward the weaknesses of + others, not infrequently displaying merriment over their mischances; but + his time had found him at last; the evil day had come. Indian Summer was + Indian for him, indeed: sweet death were welcome; no charity was left in + him. He leaped no more, but walked broodingly and sought the dark places. + And yet it could not be said that times were dull for him: the luckless + picket who finds himself in an open eighty-acre field, under the eye of a + sharpshooter up a tree, would not be apt to describe the experience as + dull. And Cora never missed a shot; she loved the work; her pleasure in it + was almost as agonizing for the target as was the accuracy of her fire. + </p> + <p> + She was ingenious: the horrible facts at her disposal were damaging enough + in all conscience: but they did not content her. She invented a + love-story, assuming that Hedrick was living it: he was supposed to be + pining for Lolita, to be fading, day-by-day, because of enforced + separation; and she contrived this to such an effect of reality, and with + such a diabolical affectation of delicacy in referring to it, that the + mere remark, with gentle sympathy, “I think poor Hedrick is looking + a little better to-day,” infallibly produced something closely + resembling a spasm. She formed the habit of never mentioning her brother + in his presence except as “poor Hedrick,” a too obvious + commiseration of his pretended attachment—which met with like + success. Most dreadful of all, she invented romantic phrases and + expressions assumed to have been spoken or written by Hedrick in reference + to his unhappiness; and she repeated them so persistently, yet always with + such apparent sincerity of belief that they were quotations from him, and + not her inventions, that the driven youth knew a fear, sometimes, that the + horrid things were actually of his own perpetration. + </p> + <p> + The most withering of these was, “Torn from her I love by the + ruthless hand of a parent. . . .” It was not completed; Cora never + got any further with it, nor was there need: a howl of fury invariably + assured her of an effect as satisfactory as could possibly have been + obtained by an effort less impressionistic. Life became a series of easy + victories for Cora, and she made them somehow the more deadly for Hedrick + by not seeming to look at him in his affliction, nor even to be aiming his + way: he never could tell when the next shot was coming. At the table, the + ladies of his family might be deep in dress, or discussing Mr. Madison’s + slowly improving condition, when Cora, with utter irrelevance, would sigh, + and, looking sadly into her coffee, murmur, “Ah, <i>fond</i> mem’ries!” + or, “<i>Why</i> am I haunted by the dead past?” or, the + dreadful, “Torn from her I love by the ruthless hand of a parent. . + . .” + </p> + <p> + There was compassion in Laura’s eyes and in his mother’s, but + Cora was irresistible, and they always ended by laughing in spite of + themselves; and though they pleaded for Hedrick in private, their + remonstrances proved strikingly ineffective. Hedrick was the only person + who had ever used the high hand with Cora: she found repayment too + congenial. In the daytime he could not go in the front yard, but Cora’s + window would open and a tenderly smiling Cora lean out to call + affectionately, “Don’t walk on the grass—darling little + boy!” Or, she would nod happily to him and begin to sing: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Oh come beloved, love let me press thee, + While I caress thee + In one long kiss, Lolita. . . . ” + </pre> + <p> + One terror still hung over him. If it fell—as it might at any fatal + moment—then the utmost were indeed done upon him; and this + apprehension bathed his soul in night. In his own circle of congenial age + and sex he was, by virtue of superior bitterness and precocity of speech, + a chief—a moral castigator, a satirist of manners, a creator of + stinging nicknames; and many nourished unhealed grievances which they had + little hope of satisfying against him; those who attempted it invariably + departing with more to avenge than they had brought with them. Let these + once know what Cora knew. . . . The vision was unthinkable! + </p> + <p> + It was Cora’s patent desire to release the hideous item, to spread + the scandal broadcast among his fellows—to ring it from the + school-bells, to send it winging on the hot winds of Hades! The boys had + always liked his yard and the empty stable to play in, and the devices he + now employed to divert their activities elsewhere were worthy of a great + strategist. His energy and an abnormal ingenuity accomplished incredible + things: school had been in session several weeks and only one boy had come + within conversational distance of Cora;—him Hedrick bore away + bodily, in simulation of resistless high spirits, a brilliant exhibition + of stagecraft. + </p> + <p> + And then Cora’s friend, Mrs. Villard, removed her son Egerton from + the private school he had hitherto attended, and he made his appearance in + Hedrick’s class, one morning at the public school. Hedrick’s + eye lighted with a savage gleam; timidly the first joy he had known for a + thousand years crept into his grim heart. After school, Egerton expiated a + part of Cora’s cruelty. It was a very small part, and the exploit no + more than infinitesimally soothing to the conqueror, but when Egerton + finally got home he was no sight for a mother. + </p> + <p> + Thus Hedrick wrought his own doom: Mrs. Villard telephoned to Cora, and + Cora went immediately to see her. + </p> + <p> + It happened to Hedrick that he was late leaving home the next morning. His + entrance into his classroom was an undeniable sensation, and within ten + minutes the teacher had lost all control of the school. It became + necessary to send for the principal. Recess was a frantic nightmare for + Hedrick, and his homeward progress at noon a procession of such uproarious + screamers as were his equals in speed. The nethermost depths were reached + when an ignoble pigtailed person he had always trodden upon flat-footed + screamed across the fence from next door, as he reached fancied sanctuary + in his own backyard: + </p> + <p> + “Kiss me some <i>more</i>, darling little boy!” + </p> + <p> + This worm, established upon the fence opposite the conservatory windows, + and in direct view from the table in the dining-room, shrieked the + accursed request at short intervals throughout the luncheon hour. The + humour of childhood is sometimes almost intrusive. + </p> + <p> + And now began a life for Hedrick which may be rather painfully but + truthfully likened to a prolongation of the experiences of a rat that + finds itself in the middle of a crowded street in daylight: there is + plenty of excitement but no pleasure. He was pursued, harried, hounded + from early morning till nightfall, and even in his bed would hear shrill + shouts go down the sidewalk from the throats of juvenile fly-by-nights: + “Oh dar-ling lit-oh darling lit-oh <i>lit</i>-le boy, <i>lit</i>-le + boy, kiss me some <i>more</i>!” And one day he overheard a remark + which strengthened his growing conviction that the cataclysm had affected + the whole United States: it was a teacher who spoke, explaining to another + a disturbance in the hall of the school. She said, behind her hand: + </p> + <p> + “<i>He kissed an idiot</i>.” + </p> + <p> + Laura had not even remotely foreseen the consequences of her revelation, + nor, indeed, did she now properly estimate their effect upon Hedrick. She + and her mother were both sorry for him, and did what they could to + alleviate his misfortunes, but there was an inevitable remnant of + amusement in their sympathy. Youth, at war, affects stoicism but not + resignation: in truth, resignation was not much in Hedrick’s line, + and it would be far from the fact to say that he was softened by his + sufferings. He brooded profoundly and his brightest thought was revenge. + It was not upon Cora that his chief bitterness turned. Cora had always + been the constant, open enemy: warfare between them was a regular + condition of life; and unconsciously, and without “thinking it out,” + he recognized the naturalness of her seizing upon the deadliest weapon + against him that came to her hand. There was nothing unexpected in that: + no, the treachery, to his mind, lay in the act of Laura, that + non-combatant, who had furnished the natural and habitual enemy with this + scourge. At all times, and with or without cause, he ever stood ready to + do anything possible for the reduction of Cora’s cockiness, but now + it was for the taking-down of Laura and the repayment of her uncalled-for + and overwhelming assistance to the opposite camp that he lay awake nights + and kept his imagination hot. Laura was a serene person, so neutral—outwardly, + at least—and so little concerned for herself in any matter he could + bring to mind, that for purposes of revenge she was a difficult + proposition. And then, in a desperate hour, he remembered her book. + </p> + <p> + Only once had he glimpsed it, but she had shown unmistakable agitation of + a mysterious sort as she wrote in it, and, upon observing his presence, a + prompt determination to prevent his reading a word of what she had + written. Therefore, it was something peculiarly sacred and intimate. This + deduction was proved by the care she exercised in keeping the book + concealed from all eyes. A slow satisfaction began to permeate him: he + made up his mind to find that padlocked ledger. + </p> + <p> + He determined with devoted ardour that when he found it he would make the + worst possible use of it: the worst, that is, for Laura. As for + consequences to himself, he was beyond them. There is an Irish play in + which an old woman finds that she no longer fears the sea when it has + drowned the last of her sons; it can do nothing more to her. Hedrick no + longer feared anything. + </p> + <p> + The book was somewhere in Laura’s room, he knew that; and there were + enough opportunities to search, though Laura had a way of coming in + unexpectedly which was embarrassing; and he suffered from a sense of + inadequacy when—on the occasion of his first new attempt—he + answered the casual inquiry as to his presence by saying that he “had + a headache.” He felt there was something indirect in the reply; but + Laura was unsuspicious and showed no disposition to be analytical. After + this, he took the precaution to bring a school-book with him and she often + found the boy seated quietly by her west window immersed in study: he said + he thought his headaches came from his eyes and that the west light + “sort of eased them a little.” + </p> + <p> + The ledger remained undiscovered, although probably there has never been a + room more thoroughly and painstakingly searched, without its floor being + taken up and its walls torn down. The most mysterious, and, at the same + time, the most maddening thing about it was the apparent simplicity of the + task. He was certain that the room contained the book: listening, + barefooted, outside the door at night, he had heard the pen scratching. + The room was as plain as a room can be, and small. There was a scantily + filled clothes-press; he had explored every cubic inch of it. There was + the small writing table with one drawer; it held only some note-paper and + a box of pen-points. There was a bureau; to his certain knowledge it + contained no secret whatever. There were a few giltless chairs, and a + white “wash-stand,” a mere basin and slab with exposed + plumbing. Lastly, there was the bed, a very large and ugly “Eastlake” + contrivance; he had acquired a close acquaintance with all of it except + the interior of the huge mattress itself, and here, he finally concluded, + must of necessity be the solution. The surface of the mattress he knew to + be unbroken; nevertheless the book was there. He had recently stimulated + his deductive powers with a narrative of French journalistic sagacity in a + similar case; and he applied French reasoning. The ledger existed. It was + somewhere in the room. He had searched everything except the interior of + the mattress. The ledger was in that interior. + </p> + <p> + The exploration thus become necessary presented some difficulties. + Detection in the act would involve explanations hard to invent; it would + not do to say he was looking for his knife; and he could not think of any + excuse altogether free from a flavour of insincerity. A lameness beset + them all and made them liable to suspicion; and Laura, once suspicious, + might be petty enough to destroy the book, and so put it out of his power + forever. He must await the right opportunity, and, after a racking + exercise of patience, at last he saw it coming. + </p> + <p> + Doctor Sloane had permitted his patient to come down stairs for an + increasing interval each day. Mr. Madison crept, rather than walked, + leaning upon his wife and closely attended by Miss Peirce. He spoke with + difficulty and not clearly; still, there was a perceptible improvement, + and his family were falling into the habit of speaking of him as almost + well. On that account, Mrs. Madison urged her daughters to accept an + invitation from the mother of the once courtly Egerton Villard. It was at + breakfast that the matter was discussed. + </p> + <p> + “Of course Cora must go,” Laura began, “but——” + </p> + <p> + “But nothing!” interrupted Cora. “How would it look if I + went and you didn’t? Everybody knows papa’s almost well, and + they’d think it silly for us to give up the first real dance since + last spring on that account; yet they’re just spiteful enough, if I + went and you stayed home, to call me a `girl of no heart.’ Besides,” + she added sweetly, “we ought to go to show Mrs. Villard we aren’t + hurt because Egerton takes so little notice of poor Hedrick.” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick’s lips moved silently, as in prayer. + </p> + <p> + “I’d rather not,” said Laura. “I doubt if I’d + have a very good time.” + </p> + <p> + “You would, too,” returned her sister, decidedly. “The + men like to dance with you; you dance every bit as well as I do, and that + black lace is the most becoming dress you ever had. Nobody ever remembers + a black dress, anyway, unless it’s cut very conspicuously, and yours + isn’t. I can’t go without you; they love to say nasty things + about me, and you’re too good a sister to give 'em this chance, you + old dear.” She laughed and nodded affectionately across the table at + Laura. “You’ve got to go!” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, it would be nicer,” said the mother. And so it was + settled. It was simultaneously settled in Hedrick’s mind that the + night of the dance should mark his discovery of the ledger. He would have + some industrious hours alone with the mysterious mattress, safe from + intrusion. + </p> + <p> + Meekly he lifted his eyes from his plate. “I’m glad you’re + going, sister Laura,” he said in a gentle voice. “I think a + change will do you good.” + </p> + <p> + “Isn’t it wonderful,” exclaimed Cora, appealing to the + others to observe him, “what an improvement a disappointment in love + can make in deportment?” + </p> + <p> + For once, Hedrick only smiled. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0015" id="link2HCH0015"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER FIFTEEN + </h2> + <p> + Laura had spent some thoughtful hours upon her black lace dress with + results that astonished her family: it became a ball-gown—and a + splendidly effective one. She arranged her dark hair in a more elaborate + fashion than ever before, in a close coronal of faintly lustrous braids; + she had no jewellery and obviously needed none. Her last action but one + before she left her room was to dispose of the slender chain and key she + always wore round her neck; then her final glance at the mirror—which + fairly revealed a lovely woman—ended in a deprecatory little “face” + she made at herself. It meant: “Yes, old lady, you fancy yourself + very passable in here all by yourself, don’t you? Just wait: you’ll + be standing beside Cora in a moment!” + </p> + <p> + And when she did stand beside Cora, in the latter’s room, a moment + later, her thought seemed warranted. Cora, radiant-eyed, in high bloom, + and exquisite from head to foot in a shimmering white dancing-dress, a + glittering crescent fastening the silver fillet that bound her vivid hair, + was a flame of enchantment. Mrs. Madison, almost weeping with delight, led + her daughters proudly, an arm round the waist of each, into her husband’s + room. Propped with pillows, he reclined in an armchair while Miss Peirce + prepared his bed, an occupation she gave over upon this dazzling entrance, + departing tactfully. + </p> + <p> + “Look at these,” cried the mother; “—from our + garden, Jim, dear! Don’t we feel rich, you and I?” + </p> + <p> + “And—and—Laura,” said the sick man, with the slow + and imperfect enunication caused by his disease; “Laura looks pretty—too.” + </p> + <p> + “Isn’t she adorable!” Cora exclaimed warmly. “She + decided to be the portrait of a young duchess, you see, all stately + splendour—made of snow and midnight!” + </p> + <p> + “Hear! hear!” laughed Laura; but she blushed with pleasure, + and taking Cora’s hand in hers lifted it to her lips. + </p> + <p> + “And do you see Cora’s crescent?” demanded Mrs. Madison. + “What do you think of <i>that</i> for magnificence? She went down + town this morning with seven dollars, and came back with that and her + party gloves and a dollar in change! Isn’t she a bargainer? Even for + rhinestones they are the cheapest things you ever heard of. They look + precisely like stones of the very finest water.” They did—so + precisely, indeed, that if the resemblance did not amount to actual + identity, then had a jeweller of the town been able to deceive the eye of + Valentine Corliss, which was an eye singularly learned in such matters. + </p> + <p> + “They’re—both smart girls,” said Madison, “both + of them. And they look—beautiful, to-night—both. Laura is—amazing!” + </p> + <p> + When they had gone, Mrs. Madison returned from the stairway, and, kneeling + beside her husband, put her arms round him gently: she had seen the tear + that was marking its irregular pathway down his flaccid, gray cheek, and + she understood. + </p> + <p> + “Don’t. Don’t worry, Jim,” she whispered. “Those + bright, beautiful things!—aren’t they treasures?” + </p> + <p> + “It’s—it’s Laura,” he said. “Cora will + be all right. She looks out for—herself. I’m—I’m + afraid for—Laura. Aren’t you?” + </p> + <p> + “No, no,” she protested. “I’m not afraid for + either of them.” But she was: the mother had always been afraid for + Cora. + </p> + <p> + . . . . At the dance, the two girls, attended up the stairway to the + ballroom by a chattering covey of black-coats, made a sensational entrance + to a gallant fanfare of music, an effect which may have been timed to the + premonitory tuning of instruments heard during the ascent; at all events, + it was a great success; and Cora, standing revealed under the wide gilt + archway, might have been a lithe and shining figure from the year + eighteen-hundred-and-one, about to dance at the Luxembourg. She placed her + hand upon the sleeve of Richard Lindley, and, glancing intelligently over + his shoulder into the eyes of Valentine Corliss, glided rhythmically away. + </p> + <p> + People looked at her; they always did. Not only the non-dancers watched + her; eyes everywhere were upon her, even though the owners gyrated, glided + and dipped on distant orbits. The other girls watched her, as a rule, with + a profound, an almost passionate curiosity; and they were prompt to speak + well of her to men, except in trustworthy intimacy, because they did not + enjoy being wrongfully thought jealous. Many of them kept somewhat aloof + from her; but none of them ever nowadays showed “superiority” + in her presence, or snubbed her: that had been tried and proved disastrous + in rebound. Cora never failed to pay her score—and with a terrifying + interest added, her native tendency being to take two eyes for an eye and + the whole jaw for a tooth. They let her alone, though they asked and asked + among themselves the never-monotonous question: “Why do men fall in + love with girls like that?” a riddle which, solved, makes wives + condescending to their husbands. + </p> + <p> + Most of the people at this dance had known one another as friends, or + antagonists, or indifferent acquaintances, for years, and in such an + assembly there are always two worlds, that of the women and that of the + men. Each has its own vision, radically different from that of the other; + but the greatest difference is that the men are unaware of the other + world, only a few of them—usually queer ones like Ray Vilas—vaguely + perceiving that there are two visions, while all the women understand both + perfectly. The men splash about on the surface; the women keep their eyes + open under water. Or, the life of the assembly is like a bright tapestry: + the men take it as a picture and are not troubled to know how it is + produced; but women are weavers. There was a Beauty of far-flung renown at + Mrs. Villard’s to-night: Mary Kane, a creature so made and coloured + that young men at sight of her became as water and older men were apt to + wonder regretfully why all women could not have been made like Mary. She + was a kindly soul, and never intentionally outshone her sisters; but the + perfect sumptuousness of her had sometimes tried the amiability of Cora + Madison, to whom such success without effort and without spark seemed + unfair, as well as bovine. Miss Kane was a central figure at the dance, + shining tranquilly in a new triumph: that day her engagement had been + announced to Mr. George Wattling, a young man of no special attainments, + but desirable in his possessions and suitable to his happiness. The pair + radiated the pardonable, gay importance of newly engaged people, and Cora, + who had never before bestowed any notice upon Mr. Wattling, now examined + him with thoughtful attention. + </p> + <p> + Finding him at her elbow in a group about a punch bowl, between dances, + she offered warm felicitations. “But I don’t suppose you care + whether <i>I</i> care for you to be happy or not,” she added, with a + little plaintive laugh;—“you’ve always hated me so!” + </p> + <p> + Mr. Wattling was startled: never before had he imagined that Cora Madison + had given him a thought; but there was not only thought, there was + feeling, in this speech. She seemed to be concealing with bravery an even + deeper feeling than the one inadvertently expressed. “Why, what on + earth makes you think that?” he exclaimed. + </p> + <p> + “Think it? I <i>know</i> it!” She gave him a strange look, + luminous yet mysterious, a curtain withdrawn only to show a shining mist + with something undefined but dazzling beyond. “I’ve always + known it!” And she turned away from him abruptly. + </p> + <p> + He sprang after her. “But you’re wrong. I’ve never——” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes, you have.” They began to discuss it, and for better + consideration of the theme it became necessary for Cora to “cut” + the next dance, promised to another, and to give it to Mr. Wattling. They + danced several times together, and Mr. Wattling’s expression was + serious. The weavers of the tapestry smiled and whispered things the men + would not have understood—nor believed. + </p> + <p> + Ray Vilas, seated alone in a recessed and softly lighted gallery, did not + once lose sight of the flitting sorceress. With his elbows on the railing, + he leaned out, his head swaying slowly and mechanically as she swept up + and down the tumultuously moving room, his passionate eyes gaunt and + brilliant with his hunger. And something very like a general thrill passed + over the assembly when, a little later, it was seen that he was dancing + with her. Laura, catching a glimpse of this couple, started and looked + profoundly disturbed. + </p> + <p> + The extravagance of Vilas’s passion and the depths he sounded, in + his absurd despair when discarded, had been matters of almost public + gossip; he was accounted a somewhat scandalous and unbalanced but + picturesque figure; and for the lady whose light hand had wrought such + havoc upon him to be seen dancing with him was sufficiently startling to + elicit the universal remark—evidently considered superlative—that + it was “just like Cora Madison!” Cora usually perceived, with + an admirably clear head, all that went on about her; and she was conscious + of increasing the sensation, when after a few turns round the room, she + allowed her partner to conduct her to a secluding grove of palms in the + gallery. She sank into the chair he offered, and, fixing her eyes upon a + small lamp of coloured glass which hung overhead, ostentatiously looked + bored. + </p> + <p> + “At your feet, Cora,” he said, seating himself upon a stool, + and leaning toward her. “Isn’t it appropriate that we should + talk to music—we two? It shouldn’t be that quick step though—not + dance-music—should it?” + </p> + <p> + “Don’t know ‘m sure,” murmured Cora. + </p> + <p> + “You were kind to dance with me,” he said huskily. “I + dared to speak to you——” + </p> + <p> + She did not change her attitude nor the direction of her glance. “I + couldn’t cut you very well with the whole town looking on. I’m + tired of being talked about. Besides, I don’t care much who I dance + with—so he doesn’t step on me.” + </p> + <p> + “Cora,” he said, “it is the prelude to `L’Arlesienne’ + that they should play for you and me. Yes, I think it should be that.” + </p> + <p> + “Never heard of it.” + </p> + <p> + “It’s just a rustic tragedy, the story of a boy in the south + of France who lets love become his whole life, and then—it kills + him.” + </p> + <p> + “Sounds very stupid,” she commented languidly. + </p> + <p> + “People do sometimes die of love, even nowadays,” he said, + tremulously—“in the South.” + </p> + <p> + She let her eyes drift indifferently to him and perceived that he was + trembling from head to foot; that his hands and knees shook piteously; + that his lips quivered and twitched; and, at sight of this agitation, an + expression of strong distaste came to her face. + </p> + <p> + “I see.” Her eyes returned to the lamp. “You’re + from the South, and of course it’s going to kill you.” + </p> + <p> + “You didn’t speak the exact words you had in your mind.’” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, what words did I have `in my mind’?” she asked + impatiently. + </p> + <p> + “What you really meant was: `If it does kill you, what of it?’” + </p> + <p> + She laughed, and sighed as for release. + </p> + <p> + “Cora,” he said huskily, “I understand you a little + because you possess me. I’ve never—literally never—had + another thought since the first time I saw you: nothing but you. I think + of you—actually every moment. Drunk or sober, asleep or—awake, + it’s nothing but you, you, <i>you</i>! It will never be different: I + don’t know why I can’t get over it—I only know I can’t. + You own me; you burn like a hot coal in my heart. You’re through + with me, I know. You drained me dry. You’re like a child who eats so + heartily of what he likes that he never touches it again. And I’m a + dish you’re sick of. Oh, it’s all plain enough, I can tell + you. I’m not exciting any more—no, just a nauseous slave!” + </p> + <p> + “Do you want people to hear you?” she inquired angrily, for + his voice had risen. + </p> + <p> + He tempered his tone. “Cora, when you liked me you went a pretty + clipping gait with me,” he said, trembling even more than before. + “But you’re infinitely more infatuated with this Toreador of a + Corliss than you were with me; you’re lost in him; you’re + slaving for him as I would for you. How far are you going with——” + </p> + <p> + “Do you want me to walk away and leave you?” she asked, + suddenly sitting up straight and looking at him with dilating eyes. + “If you want a `scene’——” + </p> + <p> + “It’s over,” he said, more calmly. “I know now how + dangerous the man is. Of course you will tell him I said that.” He + laughed quietly. “Well—between a dangerous chap and a + desperate one, we may look for some lively times! Do you know, I believe I + think about as continuously of him, lately, as I do of you. That’s + why I put almost my last cent into his oil company, and got what may be + almost my last dance with you!” + </p> + <p> + “I wouldn’t call it `almost’ your last dance with me!” + she returned icily. “Not after what you’ve said. I had a + foolish idea you could behave—well, at least decently.” + </p> + <p> + “Did Corliss tell you that I insulted him in his rooms at the hotel?” + </p> + <p> + “You!” She laughed, genuinely. “I see him letting you!” + </p> + <p> + “He did, however. By manner and in speech I purposely and + deliberately insulted him. You’ll tell him every word of this, of + course, and he’ll laugh at it, but I give myself the pleasure of + telling you. I put the proposition of an `investment’ to him in a + way nobody not a crook would have allowed to be smoothed over—and he + allowed it to be smoothed over. He ate it! I felt he was a swindler when + he was showing Richard Lindley his maps and papers, and now I’ve + proved it to myself, and it’s worth the price.” Often, when + they had danced, and often during this interview, his eyes lifted + curiously to the white flaming crescent in her hair; now they fixed + themselves upon it, and in a flash of divination he cried: “You wear + it for me!” + </p> + <p> + She did not understand. “Finished raving?” she inquired. + </p> + <p> + “I gave Corliss a thousand dollars,” he said, slowly. “Considering + the fact that it was my last, I flatter myself it was not unhandsomely + done—though I may never need it. It has struck me that the sum was + about what a man who had just cleaned up fifty thousand might regard as a + sort of `extra’—`for lagniappe’—and that he might + have thought it an appropriate amount to invest in a present some jewels + perhaps—to place in the hair of a pretty friend!” + </p> + <p> + She sprang to her feet, furious, but he stood in front of her and was able + to bar the way for a moment. + </p> + <p> + “Cora, I’ll have a last word with you if I have to hold you,” + he said with great rapidity and in a voice which shook with the intense + repression he was putting upon himself. “We do one thing in the + South, where I came from. We protect our women——” + </p> + <p> + “This looks like it! Keeping me when——” + </p> + <p> + “I love you,” he said, his face whiter than she had ever seen + it. “I love you! I’m your dog! You take care of yourself if + you want to take care of anybody else! As sure as——” + </p> + <p> + “My dance, Miss Madison.” A young gentleman on vacation from + the navy had approached, and, with perfect unconsciousness of what he was + interrupting, but with well-founded certainty that he was welcome to the + lady, urged his claim in a confident voice. “I thought it would + never come, you know; but it’s here at last and so am I.” He + laughed propitiatingly. + </p> + <p> + Ray yielded now at once. She moved him aside with her gloved forearm as if + he were merely an awkward stranger who unwittingly stood between her and + the claiming partner. Carrying the gesture farther, she took the latter’s + arm, and smilingly, and without a backward glance, passed onward and left + the gallery. The lieutenant, who had met her once or twice before, was her + partner for the succeeding dance as well, and, having noted the advantages + of the place where he had discovered her, persuaded her to return there to + sit through the second. Then without any fatiguing preamble, he proposed + marriage. Cora did not accept, but effected a compromise, which, for the + present, was to consist of an exchange of photographs (his to be in + uniform) and letters. + </p> + <p> + She was having an evening to her heart. Ray’s attack on Corliss had + no dimming effect; her thought of it being that she was “used to his + raving”; it meant nothing; and since Ray had prophesied she would + tell Corliss about it, she decided not to do so. + </p> + <p> + The naval young gentleman and Valentine Corliss were the greatest of all + the lions among ladies that night; she had easily annexed the lieutenant, + and Corliss was hers already; though, for a purpose, she had not yet been + seen in company with him. He was visibly “making an impression.” + His name, as he had said to Richard Lindley, was held in honour in the + town; and there was a flavour of fancied romance in his absence since + boyhood in unknown parts, and his return now with a `foreign air’ + and a bow that almost took the breath of some of the younger recipients. + He was, too, in his way, the handsomest man in the room; and the smiling, + open frankness of his look, the ready cordiality of his manner, were found + very winning. He caused plenty of flutter. + </p> + <p> + Cora waited till the evening was half over before she gave him any visible + attention. Then, during a silence of the music, between two dances, she + made him a negligent sign with her hand, the gesture of one indifferently + beckoning a creature who is certain to come, and went on talking casually + to the man who was with her. Corliss was the length of the room from her, + chatting gayly with a large group of girls and women; but he immediately + nodded to her, made his bow to individuals of the group, and crossed the + vacant, glistening floor to her. Cora gave him no greeting whatever; she + dismissed her former partner and carelessly turned away with Corliss to + some chairs in a corner. + </p> + <p> + “Do you see that?” asked Vilas, leaning over the balcony + railing with Richard Lindley. “Look! She’s showing the other + girls—don’t you see? He’s the New Man; she let ’em + hope she wasn’t going in for him; a lot of them probably didn’t + even know that she knew him. She sent him out on parade till they’re + all excited about him; now she shows ’em he’s entirely her + property—and does it so matter-of-factly that it’s rubbed in + twice as hard as if she seemed to take some pains about it. He doesn’t + dance: she’ll sit out with him now, till they all read the tag she’s + put on him. She says she hates being talked about. She lives on it!—so + long as it’s envious. And did you see her with that chap from the + navy? Neptune thinks he’s dallying with Venus perhaps, but he’ll + get——” + </p> + <p> + Lindley looked at him commiseratingly. “I think I never saw prettier + decorations. Have you noticed, Ray? Must have used a thousand + chrysanthemums.” + </p> + <p> + “Toreador!” whispered the other between his teeth, looking at + Corliss; then, turning to his companion, he asked: “Has it occurred + to you to get any information about Basilicata, or about the ancestral + domain of the Moliterni, from our consul-general at Naples?” + </p> + <p> + Richard hesitated. “Well—yes. Yes, I did think of that. Yes, I + thought of it.” + </p> + <p> + “But you didn’t do it.” + </p> + <p> + “No. That is, I haven’t yet. You see, Corliss explained to me + that——” + </p> + <p> + His friend interrupted him with a sour laugh. “Oh, certainly! He’s + one of the greatest explainers ever welcomed to our city!” + </p> + <p> + Richard said mildly: “And then, Ray, once I’ve gone into a + thing I—I don’t like to seem suspicious.” + </p> + <p> + “Poor old Dick!” returned Vilas compassionately. “You + kind, easy, sincere men are so conscientiously untruthful with yourselves. + You know in your heart that Cora would be furious with you if you seemed + suspicious, and she’s been so nice to you since you put in your + savings to please her, that you can’t bear to risk offending her. + She’s twisted you around her little finger, and the unnamed fear + that haunts you is that you won’t be allowed to stay there—even + twisted!” + </p> + <p> + “Pretty decorations, Ray,” said Richard; but he grew very red. + </p> + <p> + “Do you know what you’ll do,” asked Ray, regarding him + keenly, “if this Don Giovanni from Sunny It’ is shown up as a + plain get-rich-quick swindler?” + </p> + <p> + “I haven’t considered——” + </p> + <p> + “You would do precisely,” said Ray, “nothing! Cora’d + see to that. You’d sigh and go to work again, beginning at the + beginning where you were years ago, and doing it all over. Admirable + resignation, but not for me! I’m a stockholder in his company and in + shape to `take steps’! I don’t know if I’d be patient + enough to make them legal—perhaps I should. He may be safe on the + legal side. I’ll know more about that when I find out if there is a + Prince Moliterno in Naples who owns land in Basilicata.” + </p> + <p> + “You don’t doubt it?” + </p> + <p> + “I doubt everything! In this particular matter I’ll have less + to doubt when I get an answer from the consul-general. <i>I</i>’ve + written, you see.” + </p> + <p> + Lindley looked disturbed. “You have?” + </p> + <p> + Vilas read him at a glance. “You’re afraid to find out!” + he cried. Then he set his hand on the other’s shoulder. “If + there ever was a God’s fool, it’s you, Dick Lindley. Really, I + wonder the world hasn’t kicked you around more than it has; you’d + never kick back! You’re as easy as an old shoe. Cora makes you + unhappy,” he went on, and with the very mention of her name, his + voice shook with passion,—“but on my soul I don’t + believe you know what jealousy means: you don’t even understand + hate; you don’t eat your heart——” + </p> + <p> + “Let’s go and eat something better,” suggested Richard, + laughing. “There’s a continuous supper downstairs and I hear + it’s very good.” + </p> + <p> + Ray smiled, rescued for a second from himself. “There isn’t + anything better than your heart, you old window-pane, and I’m glad + you don’t eat it. And if I ever mix it up with Don Giovanni T. + Corliss—`T’ stands for Toreador—I do believe it’ll + be partly on your——” He paused, leaving the sentence + unfinished, as his attention was caught by the abysmal attitude of a + figure in another part of the gallery: Mr. Wade Trumble, alone in a + corner, sitting upon the small of his small back, munching at an unlighted + cigar and otherwise manifesting a biting gloom. Ray drew Lindley’s + attention to this tableau of pain. “Here’s a three of us!” + he said. He turned to look down into the rhythmic kaleidoscope of dancers. + “And there goes the girl we all <i>ought</i> to be morbid about.” + </p> + <p> + “Who is that?” + </p> + <p> + “Laura Madison. Why aren’t we? What a self-respecting creature + she is, with that cool, sweet steadiness of hers—she’s like a + mountain lake. She’s lovely and she plays like an angel, but so far + as anybody’s ever thinking about her is concerned she might almost + as well not exist. Yet she’s really beautiful to-night, if you can + manage to think of her except as a sort of retinue for Cora.” + </p> + <p> + “She <i>is</i> rather beautiful to-night. Laura’s always a + very nice-looking girl,” said Richard, and with the advent of an + idea, he added: “I think one reason she isn’t more conspicuous + and thought about is that she is so quiet,” and, upon his companion’s + greeting this inspiration with a burst of laughter, “Yes, that was a + brilliant deduction,” he said; “but I do think she’s + about the quietest person I ever knew. I’ve noticed there are times + when she’ll scarcely speak at all for half an hour, or even more.” + </p> + <p> + “You’re not precisely noisy yourself,” said Ray. “Have + you danced with her this evening?” + </p> + <p> + “Why, no,” returned the other, in a tone which showed this + omission to be a discovery; “not yet. I must, of course.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, she’s really `rather’ beautiful. Also, she dances + `rather’ better than any other girl in town. Go and perform your + painful duty.” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps I’d better,” said Richard thoughtfully, not + perceiving the satire. “At any rate, I’ll ask her for the + next.” + </p> + <p> + He found it unengaged. There came to Laura’s face an April change as + he approached, and she saw he meant to ask her to dance. And, as they swam + out into the maelstrom, he noticed it, and remarked that it <i>was</i> + rather warm, to which she replied by a cheerful nod. Presently there came + into Richard’s mind the thought that he was really an excellent + dancer; but he did not recall that he had always formed the same pleasing + estimate of himself when he danced with Laura, nor realize that other + young men enjoyed similar self-help when dancing with her. And yet he + repeated to her what Ray had said of her dancing, and when she laughed as + in appreciation of a thing intended humorously, he laughed, too, but + insisted that she did dance “very well indeed.” She laughed + again at that, and they danced on, not talking. He had no sense of “guiding” + her; there was no feeling of effort whatever; she seemed to move + spontaneously with his wish, not to his touch; indeed, he was not sensible + of touching her at all. + </p> + <p> + “Why, Laura,” he exclaimed suddenly, “you dance <i>beautifully</i>!” + </p> + <p> + She stumbled and almost fell; saved herself by clutching at his arm; he + caught her; and the pair stopped where they were, in the middle of the + floor. A flash of dazed incredulity from her dark eyes swept him; there + was something in it of the child dodging an unexpected blow. + </p> + <p> + “Did I trip you?” he asked anxiously. + </p> + <p> + “No,” she laughed, quickly, and her cheeks grew even redder. + “I tripped myself. Wasn’t that too bad—just when you + were thinking that I danced well! Let’s sit down. May we?” + </p> + <p> + They went to some chairs against a wall. There, as they sat, Cora swung by + them, dancing again with her lieutenant, and looking up trancedly into the + gallant eyes of the triumphant and intoxicated young man. Visibly, she was + a woman with a suitor’s embracing arm about her. Richard’s + eyes followed them. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, don’t!” said Laura in a low voice. + </p> + <p> + He turned to her. “Don’t what?” + </p> + <p> + “I didn’t mean to speak out loud,” she said tremulously. + “But I meant: don’t look so troubled. It doesn’t mean + anything at all—her coquetting with that bird of passage. He’s + going away in the morning.” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t think I was troubling about that.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, whatever it was”—she paused, and laughed with a + plaintive timidity—“why, just don’t trouble about it!” + </p> + <p> + “Do I look very much troubled?” he asked seriously. + </p> + <p> + “Yes. And you don’t look very gay when you’re not!” + She laughed with more assurance now. “I think you’re always + the wistfulest looking man I ever saw.” + </p> + <p> + “Everybody laughs at me, I believe,” he said, with continued + seriousness. “Even Ray Vilas thinks I’m an utter fool. Am I, + do <i>you</i> think?” + </p> + <p> + He turned as he spoke and glanced inquiringly into her eyes. What he saw + surprised and dismayed him. + </p> + <p> + “For heaven’s sake, don’t cry!” he whispered + hurriedly. + </p> + <p> + She bent her head, turning her face from him. + </p> + <p> + “I’ve been very hopeful lately,” he said. “Cora + has been so kind to me since I did what she wanted me to, that I——” + He gave a deep sigh. “But if you’re <i>that</i> sorry for me, + my chances with her must be pretty desperate.” + </p> + <p> + She did not alter her attitude, but with her down-bent face still away + from him, said huskily: “It isn’t you I’m sorry for. You + mustn’t ever give up; you must keep on trying and trying. If you + give up, I don’t know what will become of her!” + </p> + <p> + A moment later she rose suddenly to her feet. “Let’s finish + our dance,” she said, giving him her hand. “I’m sure I + won’t stumble again.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0016" id="link2HCH0016"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER SIXTEEN + </h2> + <p> + The two girls let themselves into the house noiselessly, and, turning out + the hall-light, left for them by their mother, crept upstairs on tiptoe; + and went through the upper hall directly to Laura’s room—Cora’s + being nearer the sick-room. At their age it is proper that a gayety be + used three times: in anticipation, and actually, and in after-rehearsal. + The last was of course now in order: they went to Laura’s room to + “talk it over.” There was no gas-fixture in this small + chamber; but they found Laura’s oil-lamp burning brightly upon her + writing-table. + </p> + <p> + “How queer!” said Laura with some surprise, as she closed the + door. “Mother never leaves the lamp lit for me; she’s always + so afraid of lamps exploding.” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps Miss Peirce came in here to read, and forgot to turn it + out,” suggested Cora, seating herself on the edge of the bed and + letting her silk wrap fall from her shoulders. “Oh, Laura, wasn’t + he gorgeous. . . .” + </p> + <p> + She referred to the gallant defender of our seas, it appeared, and while + Laura undressed and got into a wrapper, Cora recounted in detail the + history of the impetuous sailor’s enthrallment;—a resume + predicted three hours earlier by a gleeful whisper hissed across the + maritime shoulder as the sisters swung near each other during a waltz: + “<i>proposed</i>!” + </p> + <p> + “I’ve always heard they’re horribly inconstant,” + she said, regretfully. “But, oh, Laura, wasn’t he beautiful to + look at! Do you think he’s more beautiful than Val? No—don’t + tell me if you do. I don’t want to hear it! Val was so provoking: he + didn’t seem to mind it at all. He’s nothing but a big brute + sometimes: he wouldn’t even admit that he minded, when I asked him. + I was idiot enough to ask; I couldn’t help it; he was so tantalizing + and exasperating—laughing at me. I never knew anybody like him; he’s + so sure of himself and he can be so cold. Sometimes I wonder if he really + cares about anything, deep down in his heart—anything except + himself. He seems so selfish: there are times when he almost makes me hate + him; but just when I get to thinking I do, I find I don’t—he’s + so deliciously strong, and there’s such a <i>big</i> luxury in being + understood: I always feel he <i>knows</i> me clear to the bone, somehow! + But, oh,” she sighed regretfully, “doesn’t a uniform + become a man? They ought to all wear ’em. It would look silly on + such a little goat as that Wade Trumble, though: nothing could make him + look like a whole man. Did you see him glaring at me? Beast! I was going + to be so nice and kittenish and do all my prettiest tricks for him, to + help Val with his oil company. Val thinks Wade would come in yet, if I’D + only get him in the mood to have another talk with Val about it; but the + spiteful little rat wouldn’t come near me. I believe that was one of + the reasons Val laughed at me and pretended not to mind my getting + proposed to. He <i>must</i> have minded; he couldn’t have helped + minding it, really. That’s his way; he’s so <i>mean</i>—he + won’t show things. He knows <i>me</i>. I can’t keep anything + from him; he reads <i>me</i> like a signboard; and then about himself he + keeps me guessing, and I can’t tell when I’ve guessed right. + Ray Vilas behaved disgustingly, of course; he was horrid and awful. I + might have expected it. I suppose Richard was wailing <i>his</i> tiresome + sorrows on your poor shoulder——” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said Laura. “He was very cheerful. He seemed glad + you were having a good time.” + </p> + <p> + “He didn’t look particularly cheerful at me. I never saw so + slow a man: I wonder when he’s going to find out about that pendant. + Val would have seen it the instant I put it on. And, oh, Laura! isn’t + George Wattling funny? He’s just <i>soft</i>! He’s + good-looking though,” she continued pensively, adding, “I + promised to motor out to the Country Club with him to-morrow for tea.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Cora,” protested Laura, “no! Please don’t!” + </p> + <p> + “I’ve promised; so I’ll have to, now.” Cora + laughed. “It’ll do Mary Kane good. Oh, I’m not going to + bother much with <i>him</i>—he makes me tired. I never saw anything + so complacent as that girl when she came in to-night, as if her little + Georgie was the greatest capture the world had ever seen. . . .” + </p> + <p> + She chattered on. Laura, passive, listened with a thoughtful expression, + somewhat preoccupied. The talker yawned at last. + </p> + <p> + “It must be after three,” she said, listlessly, having gone + over her evening so often that the colours were beginning to fade. She + yawned again. “Laura,” she remarked absently, “I don’t + see how you can sleep in this bed; it sags so.” + </p> + <p> + “I’ve never noticed it,” said her sister. “It’s + a very comfortable old bed.” + </p> + <p> + Cora went to her to be unfastened, reverting to the lieutenant during the + operation, and kissing the tire-woman warmly at its conclusion. “You’re + always so sweet to me, Laura,” she said affectionately. “I don’t + know how you manage it. You’re so good”—she laughed—“sometimes + I wonder how you stand me. If I were you, I’m positive I couldn’t + stand me at all!” Another kiss and a hearty embrace, and she picked + up her wrap and skurried silently through the hall to her own room. + </p> + <p> + It was very late, but Laura wrote for almost an hour in her book (which + was undisturbed) before she felt drowsy. Then she extinguished the lamp, + put the book away and got into bed. + </p> + <p> + It was almost as if she had attempted to lie upon the empty air: the + mattress sagged under her weight as if it had been a hammock; and + something tore with a ripping sound. There was a crash, and a choked yell + from a muffled voice somewhere, as the bed gave way. For an instant, Laura + fought wildly in an entanglement of what she insufficiently perceived to + be springs, slats and bedclothes with something alive squirming + underneath. She cleared herself and sprang free, screaming, but even in + her fright she remembered her father and clapped her hand over her mouth + that she might keep from screaming again. She dove at the door, opened it, + and fled through the hall to Cora’s room, still holding her hand + over her mouth. + </p> + <p> + “Cora! Oh, Cora!” she panted, and flung herself upon her + sister’s bed. + </p> + <p> + Cora was up instantly; and had lit the gas in a trice. “There’s + a burglar!” Laura contrived to gasp. “In my room! Under the + bed!” + </p> + <p> + “What!” + </p> + <p> + “I fell on him! Something’s the matter with the bed. It broke. + I fell on him!” + </p> + <p> + Cora stared at her wide-eyed. “Why, it can’t be. Think how + long I was in there. Your bed broke, and you just thought there was some + one there. You imagined it.” + </p> + <p> + “No, no, no!” wailed Laura. “I <i>heard</i> him: he gave + a kind of dreadful grunt.” + </p> + <p> + “Are you sure?” + </p> + <p> + “<i>Sure</i>? He wriggled—oh! I could <i>feel</i> him!” + </p> + <p> + Cora seized a box of matches again. “I’m going to find out.” + “Oh, no, no!” protested Laura, cowering. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I am. If there’s a burglar in the house I’m going + to find him!” + </p> + <p> + “We mustn’t wake papa.” + </p> + <p> + “No, nor mamma either. You stay here if you want to——” + </p> + <p> + “Let’s call Hedrick,” suggested the pallid Laura; + “or put our heads out of the window and scream for——” + </p> + <p> + Cora laughed; she was not in the least frightened. “That wouldn’t + wake papa, of course! If we had a telephone I’d send for the police; + but we haven’t. I’m going to see if there’s any one + there. A burglar’s a man, I guess, and I can’t imagine myself + being afraid of any <i>man</i>!” + </p> + <p> + Laura clung to her, but Cora shook her off and went through the hall + undaunted, Laura faltering behind her. Cora lighted matches with a + perfectly steady hand; she hesitated on the threshold of Laura’s + room no more than a moment, then lit the lamp. + </p> + <p> + Laura stifled a shriek at sight of the bed. “Look, look!” she + gasped. + </p> + <p> + “There’s no one under it now, that’s certain,” + said Cora, and boldly lifted a corner of it. “Why, it’s been + cut all to pieces from underneath! You’re right; there was some one + here. It’s practically dismembered. Don’t you remember my + telling you how it sagged? And I was only sitting on the edge of it! The + slats have all been moved out of place, and as for the mattress, it’s + just a mess of springs and that stuffing stuff. He must have thought the + silver was hidden there.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, oh, oh!” moaned Laura. “He <i>wriggled</i>——ugh!” + </p> + <p> + Cora picked up the lamp. “Well, we’ve got to go over the house——” + </p> + <p> + “No, no!” + </p> + <p> + “Hush! I’ll go alone then.” + </p> + <p> + “You <i>can’t</i>.” + </p> + <p> + “I will, though!” + </p> + <p> + The two girls had changed places in this emergency. In her fright Laura + was dependent, clinging: actual contact with the intruder had unnerved + her. It took all her will to accompany her sister upon the tour of + inspection, and throughout she cowered behind the dauntless Cora. It was + the first time in their lives that their positions had been reversed. From + the days of Cora’s babyhood, Laura had formed the habit of petting + and shielding the little sister, but now that the possibility became + imminent of confronting an unknown and dangerous man, Laura was so shaken + that, overcome by fear, she let Cora go first. Cora had not boasted in + vain of her bravery; in truth, she was not afraid of any man. + </p> + <p> + They found the fastenings of the doors secure and likewise those of all + the windows, until they came to the kitchen. There, the cook had left a + window up, which plausibly explained the marauder’s mode of ingress. + Then, at Cora’s insistence, and to Laura’s shivering horror, + they searched both cellar and garret, and concluded that he had escaped by + the same means. Except Laura’s bed, nothing in the house had been + disturbed; but this eccentricity on the part of a burglar, though it + indeed struck the two girls as peculiar, was not so pointedly mysterious + to them as it might have been had they possessed a somewhat greater + familiarity with the habits of criminals whose crimes are professional. + </p> + <p> + They finally retired, Laura sleeping with her sister, and Cora had begun + to talk of the lieutenant again, instead of the burglar, before Laura fell + asleep. + </p> + <p> + In spite of the short hours for sleep, both girls appeared at the + breakfast-table before the meal was over, and were naturally pleased with + the staccato of excitement evoked by their news. Mrs. Madison and Miss + Peirce were warm in admiration of their bravery, but in the same breath + condemned it as foolhardy. + </p> + <p> + “I never knew such wonderful girls!” exclaimed the mother, + almost tearfully. “You crazy little lions! To think of your not even + waking Hedrick! And you didn’t have even a poker and were in your + bare feet—and went down in the <i>cellar</i>——” + </p> + <p> + “It was all Cora,” protested Laura. “I’m a + hopeless, disgusting coward. I never knew what a coward I was before. Cora + carried the lamp and went ahead like a drum-major. I just trailed along + behind her, ready to shriek and run—or faint!” + </p> + <p> + “Could you tell anything about him when you fell on him?” + inquired Miss Peirce. “What was his voice like when he shouted?” + </p> + <p> + “Choked. It was a horrible, jolted kind of cry. It hardly sounded + human.” + </p> + <p> + “Could you tell anything about whether he was a large man, or small, + or——” + </p> + <p> + “Only that he seemed very active. He seemed to be kicking. He <i>wriggled</i>——ugh!” + </p> + <p> + They evolved a plausible theory of the burglar’s motives and line of + reasoning. “You see,” said Miss Peirce, much stirred, in + summing up the adventure, “he either jimmies the window, or finds it + open already, and Sarah’s mistaken and she <i>did</i> leave it open! + Then he searched the downstairs first, and didn’t find anything. + Then he came upstairs, and was afraid to come into any of the rooms where + we were. He could tell which rooms had people in them by hearing us + breathing through the keyholes. He finds two rooms empty, and probably he + made a thorough search of Miss Cora’s first. But he isn’t + after silver toilet articles and pretty little things like that. He wants + really big booty or none, so he decides that an out-of-the-way, + unimportant room like Miss Laura’s is where the family would be most + apt to hide valuables, jewellery and silver, and he knows that mattresses + have often been selected as hiding-places; so he gets under the bed and + goes to work. Then Miss Cora and Miss Laura come in so quietly—not + wanting to wake anybody—that he doesn’t hear them, and he gets + caught there. That’s the way it must have been.” + </p> + <p> + “But why,” Mrs. Madison inquired of this authority, “why + do you suppose he lit the lamp?” + </p> + <p> + “To see by,” answered the ready Miss Peirce. It was accepted + as final. + </p> + <p> + Further discussion was temporarily interrupted by the discovery that + Hedrick had fallen asleep in his chair. + </p> + <p> + “Don’t bother him, Cora,” said his mother. “He’s + finished eating—let him sleep a few minutes, if he wants to, before + he goes to school. He’s not at all well. He played too hard, + yesterday afternoon, and hurt his knee, he said. He came down limping this + morning and looking very badly. He oughtn’t to run and climb about + the stable so much after school. See how utterly exhausted he looks!—Not + even this excitement can keep him awake.” + </p> + <p> + “I think we must be careful not to let Mr. Madison suspect anything + about the burglar,” said Miss Peirce. “It would be bad for + him.” + </p> + <p> + Laura began: “But we ought to notify the police——” + </p> + <p> + “Police!” Hedrick woke so abruptly, and uttered the word with + such passionate and vehement protest, that everybody started. “I + suppose you want to <i>kill</i> your father, Laura Madison!” + </p> + <p> + “How?” + </p> + <p> + “Do you suppose he wouldn’t know something had happened with a + squad of big, heavy policemen tromping all over the house? The first thing + they’d do would be to search the whole place——” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no,” said Mrs. Madison quickly. “It wouldn’t + do at all.” + </p> + <p> + “I should think not! I’m glad,” continued Hedrick, + truthfully, “<i>that</i> idea’s out of your head! I believe + Laura imagined the whole thing anyway.” + </p> + <p> + “Have you looked at her mattress,” inquired Cora, “darling + little boy?” + </p> + <p> + He gave her a concentrated look, and rose to leave. “Nothin’ + on earth but imagina——” He stopped with a grunt as he + forgetfully put his weight on his left leg. He rubbed his knee, swallowed + painfully, and, leaving the word unfinished, limped haughtily from the + room. + </p> + <p> + He left the house, gloomily swinging his books from a spare length of + strap, and walking with care to ease his strains and bruises as much as + possible. He was very low in his mind, that boy. His fortunes had reached + the ebb-tide, but he had no hope of a rise. He had no hope of anything. It + was not even a consolation that, through his talent for surprise in + waylayings, it had lately been thought necessary, by the Villard family, + to have Egerton accompanied to and from school by a man-servant. Nor was + Hedrick more deeply depressed by the certainty that both public and + domestic scandal must soon arise from the inevitable revelation of his + discontinuing his attendance at school without mentioning this important + change of career at home. He had been truant a full fortnight, under + brighter circumstances a matter for a lawless pride—now he had + neither fear nor vainglory. There was no room in him for anything but + dejection. + </p> + <p> + He walked two blocks in the direction of his school; turned a corner; + walked half a block; turned north in the alley which ran parallel to + Corliss Street, and a few moments later had cautiously climbed into an + old, disused refuse box which stood against the rear wall of the empty + stable at his own home. He pried up some loose boards at the bottom of the + box, and entered a tunnel which had often and often served in happier days—when + he had friends—for the escape of Union officers from Libby Prison + and Andersonville. Emerging, wholly soiled, into a box-stall, he crossed + the musty carriage house and ascended some rickety steps to a long vacant + coachman’s-room, next to the hayloft. He closed the door, bolted it, + and sank moodily upon a broken, old horsehair sofa. + </p> + <p> + This apartment was his studio. In addition to the sofa, it contained an + ex-bureau, three chair-like shapes, a once marble-topped table, now + covered with a sheet of zinc, two empty bird cages, and a condemned + whatnot. The walls were rather over-decorated in coloured chalks, the + man-headed-snake motive predominating; they were also loopholed for firing + into the hayloft. Upon the table lay a battered spy-glass, minus lenses, + and, nearby, two boxes, one containing dried corn-silk, the other hayseed, + convenient for the making of amateur cigarettes; the smoker’s outfit + being completed by a neat pile of rectangular clippings from newspapers. + On the shelves of the whatnot were some fragments of a dead pie, the + relics of a “Fifteen-Puzzle,” a pink Easter-egg, four + seashells, a tambourine with part of a girl’s face still visible in + aged colours, about two thirds of a hot-water bag, a tintype of Hedrick, + and a number of books: several by Henty, “Twenty Thousand Leagues + Under the Sea,” “100 Practical Jokes, Easy to Perform,” + “The Jungle Book,” “My Lady Rotha,” a “Family + Atlas,” “Three Weeks,” “Pilgrim’s Progress,” + “A Boy’s Life in Camp,” and “The Mystery of the + Count’s Bedroom.” + </p> + <p> + The gloomy eye of Hedrick wandered to “The Mystery of the Count’s + Bedroom,” and remained fixed upon it moodily and contemptuously. His + own mystery made that one seem tame and easy: Laura’s bedroom laid + it all over the Count’s, in his conviction; and with a soul too + weary of pain to shudder, he reviewed the bafflements and final + catastrophe of the preceding night. + </p> + <p> + He had not essayed the attempt upon the mattress until assured that the + house was wrapped in slumber. Then, with hope in his heart, he had stolen + to Laura’s room, lit the lamp, feeling safe from intrusion, and set + to work. His implement at first was a long hatpin of Cora’s. Lying + on his back beneath the bed, and, moving the slats as it became necessary, + he sounded every cubic inch of the mysterious mattress without + encountering any obstruction which could reasonably be supposed to be the + ledger. This was not more puzzling than it was infuriating, since by all + processes of induction, deduction, and pure logic, the thing was + necessarily there. It was nowhere else. Therefore it was there. It <i>had</i> + to be there! With the great blade of his Boy Scout’s knife he began + to disembowel the mattress. + </p> + <p> + For a time he had worked furiously and effectively, but the position was + awkward, the search laborious, and he was obliged to rest frequently. + Besides, he had waited to a later hour than he knew, for his mother to go + to bed, and during one of his rests he incautiously permitted his eyes to + close. When he woke, his sisters were in the room, and he thought it + advisable to remain where he was, though he little realized how he had + weakened his shelter. When Cora left the room, he heard Laura open the + window, sigh, and presently a tiny clinking and a click set him a-tingle + from head to foot: she was opening the padlocked book. The scratching + sound of a pen followed. And yet she had not come near the bed. The + mattress, then, was a living lie. + </p> + <p> + With infinite caution he had moved so that he could see her, arriving at a + coign of vantage just as she closed the book. She locked it, wrapped it in + an oilskin cover which lay beside it on the table, hung the key-chain + round her neck, rose, yawned, and, to his violent chagrin, put out the + light. He heard her moving but could not tell where, except that it was + not in his part of the room. Then a faint shuffling warned him that she + was approaching the bed, and he withdrew his head to avoid being stepped + upon. The next moment the world seemed to cave in upon him. + </p> + <p> + Laura’s flight had given him opportunity to escape to his own room + unobserved; there to examine, bathe and bind his wounds, and to rectify + his first hasty impression that he had been fatally mangled. + </p> + <p> + Hedrick glared at “The Mystery of the Count’s Bedroom.” + </p> + <p> + By and by he got up, brought the book to the sofa and began to read it + over. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0017" id="link2HCH0017"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + </h2> + <p> + The influence of a familiar and sequestered place is not only soothing; + the bruised mind may often find it restorative. Thus Hedrick, in his + studio, surrounded by his own loved bric-a-brac, began to feel once more + the stir of impulse. Two hours’ reading inspired him. What a French + reporter (in the Count’s bedroom) could do, an American youth in + full possession of his powers—except for a strained knee and other + injuries—could do. Yes, and would! + </p> + <p> + He evolved a new chain of reasoning. The ledger had been seen in Laura’s + room; it had been heard in her room; it appeared to be kept in her room. + But it was in no single part of the room. All the parts make a whole. + Therefore, the book was not in the room. + </p> + <p> + On the other hand, Laura had not left the room when she took the book from + its hiding-place. This was confusing; therefore he determined to + concentrate logic solely upon what she had done with the ledger when she + finished writing in it. It was dangerous to assume that she had restored + it to the place whence she obtained it, because he had already proved that + place to be both in the room and out of the room. No; the question he must + keep in was: What did she do with it? + </p> + <p> + Laura had not left the room. But the book had left the room. + </p> + <p> + Arrived at this inevitable deduction, he sprang to his feet in a state of + repressed excitement and began to pace the floor—like a hound on the + trail. Laura had not left the room, but the book had left the room: he + must keep his mind upon this point. He uttered a loud exclamation and + struck the zinc table-top a smart blow with his clenched fist. + </p> + <p> + Laura had thrown the book out of the window! + </p> + <p> + In the exaltation of this triumph, he forgot that it was not yet the hour + for a scholar’s reappearance, and went forth in haste to search the + ground beneath the window—a disappointing quest, for nowhere in the + yard was there anything but withered grass, and the rubbish of other + frost-bitten vegetation. His mother, however, discovered something else, + and, opening the kitchen window, she asked, with surprise: + </p> + <p> + “Why, Hedrick, what on earth are you doing here?” + </p> + <p> + “Me?” inquired Hedrick. + </p> + <p> + “What are you doing here?” + </p> + <p> + “Here?” Evidently she puzzled him. + </p> + <p> + She became emphatic. “I want to know what you are doing.” + </p> + <p> + “Just standing here,” he explained in a meek, grieved way. + </p> + <p> + “But why aren’t you at school?” + </p> + <p> + This recalled what he had forgotten, and he realized the insecurity of his + position. “Oh, yes,” he said—“school. Did you ask + me——” + </p> + <p> + “Didn’t you go to school?” + </p> + <p> + He began to speak rapidly. “Didn’t I go to <i>school</i>? + Well, where else could I go? Just because I’m here now doesn’t + mean I didn’t <i>go</i>, does it? Because a person is in China right + now wouldn’t have to mean he’d never been in South America, + would it?” + </p> + <p> + “Then what’s the matter?” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I was going along, and you know I didn’t feel very well + and——” He paused, with the advent of a happier idea, + then continued briskly: “But that didn’t stop me, because I + thought I ought to go if I dropped, so I went ahead, but the teacher was + sick and they couldn’t get a substitute. She must have been pretty + sick, she looked so pale——” + </p> + <p> + “They dismissed the class?” + </p> + <p> + “And I don’t have to go to-morrow either.” + </p> + <p> + “I see,” said his mother. “But if you feel ill, Hedrick, + hadn’t you better come in and lie down?” + </p> + <p> + “I think it’s kind of passing off. The fresh air seems to be + doing me good.” + </p> + <p> + “Be careful of your sore knee, dear.” She closed the window, + and he was left to continue his operations in safety. + </p> + <p> + Laura had thrown the ledger out of the window; that was proved absolutely. + Obviously, she had come down before daylight and retrieved it. Or, she had + not. Proceeding on the assumption that she had not, he lifted his eyes and + searched the air. Was it possible that the book, though thrown from the + window, had never reached the ground? The branches of an old and stalwart + maple, now almost divested of leaves, extended in rough symmetry above + him, and one big limb, reaching out toward the house, came close to Laura’s + windows. Triumph shown again from the shrewd countenance of the sleuth: + Laura must have slid the ledger along a wire into a hollow branch. + However, no wire was to be seen—and the shrewd countenance of the + sleuth fell. But perhaps she had constructed a device of silk threads, + invisible from below, which carried the book into the tree. Action! + </p> + <p> + He climbed carefully but with many twinges, finally pausing in a parlous + situation not far from the mysterious window which Laura had opened the + night before. A comprehensive survey of the tree revealed only the very + patent fact that none of the branches was of sufficient diameter to + conceal the ledger. No silk threads came from the window. He looked and + looked and looked at that window; then his eye fell a little, halted less + than three feet below the window-ledge, and the search was ended. + </p> + <p> + The kitchen window which his mother had opened was directly beneath Laura’s, + and was a very long, narrow window, in the style of the house, and there + was a protecting stone ledge above it. Upon this ledge lay the book, + wrapped in its oil-skin covering and secured from falling by a piece of + broken iron hooping, stuck in the mortar of the bricks. It could be seen + from nowhere save an upper window of the house next door, or from the tree + itself, and in either case only when the leaves had fallen. + </p> + <p> + Laura had felt very safe. No one had ever seen the book except that night, + early in August, when, for a better circulation of air, she had left her + door open as she wrote, and Hedrick had come upon her. He had not spoken + of it again; she perceived that he had forgotten it; and she herself + forgot that the memory of a boy is never to be depended on; its + forgettings are too seldom permanent in the case of things that ought to + stay forgotten. + </p> + <p> + To get the book one had only to lean from the window. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * * * +</pre> + <p> + Hedrick seemed so ill during lunch that his mother spoke of asking Doctor + Sloane to look at him, if he did not improve before evening. Hedrick said + meekly that perhaps that would be best—if he did not improve. After + a futile attempt to eat, he courteously excused himself from the table—a + ceremony which made even Cora fear that his case might be serious—and, + going feebly to the library, stretched himself upon the sofa. His mother + put a rug over him; Hedrick, thanking her touchingly, closed his eyes; and + she went away, leaving him to slumber. + </p> + <p> + After a time, Laura came into the room on an errand, walking noiselessly, + and, noticing that his eyes were open, apologized for waking him. + </p> + <p> + “Never mind,” he returned, in the tone of an invalid. “I + didn’t sleep sound. I think there’s something the matter + inside my head: I have such terrible dreams. I guess maybe it’s + better for me to keep awake. I’m kind of afraid to go to sleep. + Would you mind staying here with me a little while?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly I’ll stay,” she said, and, observing that his + cheeks were flushed, and his eyes unusually bright, she laid a cool hand + on his forehead. “You haven’t any fever, dear; that’s + good. You’ll be all right to-morrow. Would you like me to read to + you?” + </p> + <p> + “I believe,” he answered, plaintively, “reading might + kind of disturb my mind: my brain feels so sort of restless and queer. I’d + rather play some kind of game.” + </p> + <p> + “Cards?” + </p> + <p> + “No, not cards exactly. Something’ I can do lying down. Oh, I + know! You remember the one where we drew pictures and the others had to + guess what they were? Well, I’ve invented a game like that. You sit + down at the desk over there and take some sheets of paper. I’ll tell + you the rest.” + </p> + <p> + She obeyed. “What next?” + </p> + <p> + “Now, I’ll describe some people and where they live and not + tell who they are, and you see if you can guess their names and addresses.” + </p> + <p> + “Addresses, too?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, because I’m going to describe the way their houses look. + Write each name on a separate sheet of paper, and the number of their + house below it if you know it, and if you don’t know it, just the + street. If it’s a woman: put `Miss’ or `Mrs.’ before + their name and if it’s a man write `Esquire’ after it.” + </p> + <p> + “Is all that necessary for the game?” + </p> + <p> + “It’s the way I invented it and I think you might——” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, all right,” she acquiesced, good-naturedly. “It + shall be according to your rules.” + </p> + <p> + “Then afterward, you give me the sheets of paper with the names and + addresses written on ’em, and we—we——” He + hesitated. + </p> + <p> + “Yes. What do we do then?” + </p> + <p> + “I’ll tell you when we come to it.” But when that stage + of his invention was reached, and Laura had placed the inscribed sheets in + his hand, his interest had waned, it appeared. Also, his condition had + improved. + </p> + <p> + “Let’s quit. I thought this game would be more exciting,” + he said, sitting up. “I guess,” he added with too much + modesty, “I’m not very good at inventing games. I b’lieve + I’ll go out to the barn; I think the fresh air——” + </p> + <p> + “Do you feel well enough to go out?” she asked. “You do + seem to be all right, though.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I’m a lot better, I think.” He limped to the door. + “The fresh air will be the best thing for me.” + </p> + <p> + She did not notice that he carelessly retained her contributions to the + game, and he reached his studio with them in his hand. Hedrick had entered + the ‘teens and he was a reader: things in his head might have + dismayed a Borgia. + </p> + <p> + No remotest glimpse entered that head of the enormity of what he did. To + put an end to his punishing of Cora, and, to render him powerless against + that habitual and natural enemy, Laura had revealed a horrible incident in + his career—it had become a public scandal; he was the sport of + fools; and it might be months before the thing was lived down. Now he had + the means, as he believed, to even the score with both sisters at a + stroke. To him it was turning a tremendous and properly scathing joke upon + them. He did not hesitate. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * * * +</pre> + <p> + That evening, as Richard Lindley sat at dinner with his mother, Joe Varden + temporarily abandoned his attendance at the table to answer the front + doorbell. Upon his return, he remarked: + </p> + <p> + “Messenger-boy mus’ been in big hurry. Wouldn’ wait till + I git to door.” + </p> + <p> + “What was it?” asked Richard. + </p> + <p> + “Boy with package. Least, I reckon it were a boy. Call’ back + from the front walk, say he couldn’ wait. Say he lef’ package + in vestibule.” + </p> + <p> + “What sort of a package?” + </p> + <p> + “Middle-size kind o’ big package.” + </p> + <p> + “Why don’t you see what it is, Richard?” Mrs. Lindley + asked of her son. “Bring it to the table, Joe.” + </p> + <p> + When it was brought, Richard looked at the superscription with surprise. + The wrapper was of heavy brown paper, and upon it a sheet of white + notepaper had been pasted, with the address: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Richard Lindley, Esq., + 1218 Corliss Street.” + </pre> + <p> + “It’s from Laura Madison,” he said, staring at this + writing. “What in the world would Laura be sending me?” + </p> + <p> + “You might possibly learn by opening it,” suggested his + mother. “I’ve seen men puzzle over the outside of things quite + as often as women. Laura Madison is a nice girl.” She never + volunteered similar praise of Laura Madison’s sister. Mrs. Lindley + had submitted to her son’s plans concerning Cora, lately confided; + but her submission lacked resignation. + </p> + <p> + “It’s a book,” said Richard, even more puzzled, as he + took the ledger from its wrappings. “Two little torn places at the + edge of the covers. Looks as if it had once had clasps——” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps it’s the Madison family album,” Mrs. Lindley + suggested. “Pictures of Cora since infancy. I imagine she’s + had plenty taken.” + </p> + <p> + “No.” He opened the book and glanced at the pages covered in + Laura’s clear, readable hand. “No, it’s about half full + of writing. Laura must have turned literary.” He read a line or two, + frowning mildly. “My soul! I believe it’s a novel! She must + think I’m a critic—to want me to read it.” Smiling at + the idea, he closed the ledger. “I’ll take it upstairs to my + hang-out after dinner, and see if Laura’s literary manner has my + august approval. Who in the world would ever have thought she’d + decide to set up for a writer?” + </p> + <p> + “I imagine she might have something to write worth reading,” + said his mother. “I’ve always thought she was an + interesting-looking girl.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, she is. She dances well, too.” + </p> + <p> + “Of course,” continued Mrs. Lindley, thoughtfully, “she + seldom <i>says</i> anything interesting, but that may be because she so + seldom has a chance to say anything at all.” + </p> + <p> + Richard refused to perceive this allusion. “Curious that Laura + should have sent it to me,” he said. “She’s never seemed + interested in my opinion about anything. I don’t recall her ever + speaking to me on any subject whatever—except one.” + </p> + <p> + He returned his attention to his plate, but his mother did not appear to + agree with him that the topic was exhausted. + </p> + <p> + “`Except one’?” she repeated, after waiting for some + time. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” he replied, in his habitual preoccupied and casual + tone. “Or perhaps two. Not more than two, I should say—and in + a way you’d call that only one, of course. Bread, Joe.” + </p> + <p> + “What two, Richard?” + </p> + <p> + “Cora,” he said, with gentle simplicity, “and me.” + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0018" id="link2HCH0018"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER EIGHTEEN + </h2> + <p> + Mrs. Lindley had arranged for her son a small apartment on the second + floor, and it was in his own library and smoking-room that Richard, + comfortable in a leather-chair by a reading-lamp, after dinner, opened + Laura’s ledger. + </p> + <p> + The first page displayed no more than a date now eighteen months past, and + the line: + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + “Love came to me to-day.” + </pre> + <p> + The next page was dated the next day, and, beneath, he read: + </p> + <p> + “That was all I <i>could</i> write, yesterday. I think I was too + excited to write. Something seemed to be singing in my breast. I couldn’t + think in sentences—not even in words. How queer it is that I had + decided to keep a diary, and bound this book for it, and now the first + thing I have written in it was <i>that</i>! It will not be a diary. It + shall be <i>your</i> book. I shall keep it sacred to You and write to You + in it. How strange it will be if the day ever comes when I shall show it + to You! If it should, you would not laugh at it, for of course the day + couldn’t come unless you understood. I cannot think it will ever + come—that day! But maybe—— No, I mustn’t let + myself hope too much that it will, because if I got to hoping too much, + and you didn’t like me, it would hurt too much. People who expect + nothing are never disappointed—I must keep that in mind. Yet <i>every</i> + girl has a <i>right</i> to hope for her own man to come for her some time, + hasn’t she? It’s not easy to discipline the wanting to hope—since + <i>yesterday</i>! + </p> + <p> + “I think I must always have thought a great deal about you without + knowing it. We really know so little what we think: our minds are going on + all the time and we hardly notice them. It is like a queer sort of factory—the + owner only looks in once in a while and most of the time hasn’t any + idea what sort of goods his spindles are turning out. + </p> + <p> + “I saw You yesterday! It seems to me the strangest thing in the + world. I’ve seen you by chance, probably two or three times a month + nearly all my life, though you so seldom come here to call. And this time + wasn’t different from dozens of other times—you were just + standing on the corner by the Richfield, waiting for a car. The only + possible difference is that you had been out of town for several months—Cora + said so this morning—and how ridiculous it seems now, didn’t + even know it! I hadn’t noticed it—not with the top part of my + mind, but perhaps the deep part that does the real thinking had noticed it + and had mourned your absence and was so glad to see you again that it made + the top part suddenly see the wonderful truth!” + </p> + <p> + Lindley set down the ledger to relight his cigar. It struck him that Laura + had been writing “very odd Stuff,” but interesting; and + certainly it was not a story. Vaguely he recalled Marie Bashkirtseff: hadn’t + she done something like this? He resumed the reading: + </p> + <p> + “You turned and spoke to me in that lovely, cordial, absent-minded + way of yours—though I’d never thought (with the top part) what + a lovely way it was; and for a moment I only noticed how nice you looked + in a light gray suit, because I’d only seen you in black for so + long, while you’d been in mourning for your brother.” + </p> + <p> + Richard, disturbed by an incredible idea, read these last words over and + then dismissed the notion as nonsense. + </p> + <p> + “. . . While you’d been in mourning for your brother—and + it struck me that light gray was becoming to you. Then such a queer thing + happened: I felt the great kindness of your eyes. I thought they were full + of—the only word that seems to express it at all is <i>charity</i>—and + they had a sweet, faraway look, too, and I’ve <i>always</i> thought + that a look of wistful kindness was the loveliest look in the world—and + you had it, and I saw it and then suddenly, as you held your hat in your + hand, the sunshine on your hair seemed brighter than any sunshine I had + ever seen—and I began to tremble all over. I didn’t understand + what was the matter with me or what had made me afraid with you not of you—all + at once, but I was so hopelessly rattled that instead of waiting for the + car, as I’d just told you I meant to, I said I’d decided to + walk, and got away—without any breath left to breathe with! I <i>couldn’t</i> + have gotten on the car with you—- and I couldn’t have spoken + another word. + </p> + <p> + “And as I walked home, trembling all the way, I saw that strange, + dazzling sunshine on your hair, and the wistful, kind look in your eyes—you + seemed not to have taken the car but to have come with me—and I was + uplifted and exalted oh, so strangely—oh, how the world was changing + for me! And when I got near home, I began to walk faster, and on the front + path I broke into a run and rushed in the house to the piano—and it + was as if my fingers were thirsty for the keys! Then I saw that I was + playing to you and knew that I loved you. + </p> + <p> + “I love you! + </p> + <p> + “How different everything is now from everything before. Music means + what it never did: Life has leaped into blossom for me. Everywhere there + is colour and radiance that I had never seen—the air is full of + perfume. Dear, the sunshine that fell upon your head has spread over the + world! + </p> + <p> + “I understand, as I never understood, that the world—so + dazzling to me now—was made for love and is meaningless without it. + The years until yesterday are gray—no, not gray, because that was + the colour You were wearing—not gray, because that is a beautiful + colour. The empty years until yesterday had no colour at all. Yes, the + world has meaning only through loving, and without meaning there is no + real life. We live only by loving, and now that this gift of life has come + to me I love <i>all</i> the world. I feel that I must be so kind, kind, <i>kind</i> + to <i>everybody</i>! Such an odd thing struck me as my greatest wish. When + I was little, I remember grandmother telling me how, when she was a child + in pioneer days, the women made the men’s clothes—homespun—and + how a handsome young Circuit Rider, who was a bachelor, seemed to her the + most beautifully dressed man she had ever seen. The women of the different + churches made his clothes, as they did their husbands’ and brothers.’ + you see—only better! It came into my head that that would be the + divinest happiness that I could know—to sew for you! If you and I + lived in those old, old times—you <i>look</i> as if you belonged to + them, you know, dear—and You were the young minister riding into the + settlement on a big bay horse—and all the girls at the window, of + course!—and I sewing away at the homespun for you!—I think all + the angels of heaven would be choiring in my heart—and what thick, + warm clothes I’d make you for winter! Perhaps in heaven they’ll + let some of the women sew for the men they love—I wonder! + </p> + <p> + “I hear Cora’s voice from downstairs as I write. She’s + often so angry with Ray, poor girl. It does not seem to me that she and + Ray really belong to each other, though they <i>say</i> so often that they + do.” + </p> + <p> + Richard having read thus far with a growing, vague uneasiness, looked up, + frowning. He hoped Laura had no Marie Bashkirtseff idea of publishing this + manuscript. It was too intimate, he thought, even if the names in it were + to be disguised. + </p> + <p> + . . . “Though they <i>say</i> so often that they do. I think Ray is + in love with <i>her</i>, but it can’t be like <i>this</i>. What he + feels must be something wholly different—there is violence and + wildness in it. And they are bitter with each other so often— always + `getting even’ for something. He does care—he is frantically `<i>in</i> + love’ with her, undoubtedly, but so insanely jealous. I suppose all + jealousy is insane. But love is the only sanity. How can what is insane be + part of it? I could not be jealous of You. I owe life to you—I have + never lived till now.” + </p> + <p> + The next writing was two days later: + </p> + <p> + . . . . “To-day as I passed your house with Cora, I kept looking at + the big front door at which you go in and out so often—<i>your</i> + door! I never knew that just a door could look so beautiful! And + unconsciously I kept my eyes on it, as we walked on, turning my head and + looking and looking back at it, till Cora suddenly burst out laughing, and + said: `Well, <i>Laura</i>!’ And I came to myself—and found her + looking at me. It was like getting back after a journey, and for a second + I was a little dazed, and Cora kept on laughing at me, and I felt myself + getting red. I made some silly excuse about thinking your house had been + repainted—and she laughed louder than ever. I was afraid then that + she understood—I wonder if she could have? I hope not, though I love + her so much I don’t know why I would rather she didn’t know, + unless it is just my <i>feeling</i> about it. It is a <i>guardian</i> + feeling—that I must keep for myself, the music of these angels + singing in my heart—singing of You. I hope she did not understand—and + I so fear she did. Why should I be so <i>afraid</i>?” . . . + </p> + <p> + . . . . “Two days since I have talked to You in your book after Cora + caught me staring at your door and laughed at me—and ten minutes ago + I was sitting beside the <i>actual</i> You on the porch! I am trembling + yet. It was the first time you’d come for months and months; and yet + you had the air of thinking it rather a pleasant thing to do as you came + up the steps! And a dizzy feeling came over me, because I wondered if it + was seeing me on the street <i>that</i> day that put it into your head to + come. It seemed too much happiness—and risking too much—to let + myself <i>believe</i> it, but I couldn’t help just wondering. I + began to tremble as I saw you coming up our side of the street in the + moonlight—and when you turned in here I was all panic—I nearly + ran into the house. I don’t know how I found voice to greet you. I + didn’t seem to have any breath left at all. I was so relieved when + Cora took a chair between us and began to talk to you, because I’m + sure I couldn’t have. She and poor Ray had been having one of their + quarrels and she was punishing him. Poor boy, he seemed so miserable—though + he tried to talk to me—about politics, I think, though I’m not + sure, because I couldn’t listen much better than either of us could + talk. I could only hear Your voice—such a rich, quiet voice, and it + has a sound like the look you have—friendly and faraway and wistful. + I have thought and thought about what it is that makes you look wistful. + You have less to wish for than anybody else in the world because you have + Yourself. So why are you wistful? I think it’s just because you <i>are</i>! + </p> + <p> + “I heard Cora asking you why you hadn’t come to see us for so + long, and then she said: `Is it because you dislike me? You look at me, + sometimes, as if you dislike me!’ And I wished she hadn’t said + it. I had a feeling you wouldn’t like that `personal’ way of + talking that she enjoys—and that—oh, it didn’t seem to + be in keeping with the dignity of You! And I love Cora so much I wanted + her to be finer—with You. I wanted her to understand you better than + to play those little charming tricks at you. You are so good, so <i>high</i>, + that if she could make a real friend of you I think it would be the best + thing for her that could happen. She’s never had a man-<i>friend</i>. + Perhaps she <i>was</i> trying to make one of you and hasn’t any + other way to go about it. She can be so <i>really</i> sweet, I wanted you + to see that side of her. + </p> + <p> + “Afterwhile, when Ray couldn’t bear it any longer to talk to + me, and in his desperation brazenly took Cora to the other end of the + porch almost by force, and I was left, in a way, alone with you what did + you think of me? I was tongue-tied! Oh, oh, oh! You were quiet—but + <i>I</i> was <i>dumb</i>! My heart wasn’t dumb—it hammered! + All the time I kept saying to myself such a jumble of things. And into the + jumble would come such a rapture that You were there—it was like a + paean of happiness—a chanting of the glory of having You near me—I + <i>was</i> mixed up! I could <i>play</i> all those confused things, but + writing them doesn’t tell it. Writing them would only be like this: + `He’s here, he’s <i>here</i>! Speak, you little fool! He’s + here, he’s here! He’s sitting beside you! <i>speak</i>, idiot, + or he’ll never come back! He’s here, he’s beside you you + could put out your hand and touch him! Are you dead, that you can’t + speak? He’s here, he’s here, he’s <i>here</i>!’ + </p> + <p> + “Ah, some day I shall be able to talk to you—but not till I + get more used to this inner song. It seems to <i>will</i> that nothing + else shall come from my lips till <i>it</i> does! + </p> + <p> + “In spite of my silence—my outward woodenness—you said, + as you went away, that you would come again! You said `soon’! I + could only nod but Cora called from the other end of the porch and asked: + `<i>How</i> soon?’ Oh, I bless her for it, because you said, `Day + after to-morrow.’ Day after tomorrow! Day after to-morrow! <i>Day + after tomorrow</i>! + </p> + <p> + . . . . “Twenty-one hours since I wrote—no, <i>sang</i>—`Day + after to-morrow!’ And now it is `To-morrow!’ Oh, the slow, + golden day that this has been! I could not stay in the house—I + walked—no, I <i>winged</i>! I was in the open country before I knew + it—with You! For You are in everything. I never knew the sky was + blue, before. Until now I just thought it was the sky. The whitest clouds + I ever saw sailed over that blue, and I stood upon the prow of each in + turn, then leaped in and swam to the next and sailed with <i>it</i>! Oh, + the beautiful sky, and kind, green woods and blessed, long, white, dusty + country road! Never in my life shall I forget that walk—this day in + the open with my love—You! To-morrow! To-morrow! To-morrow! <i>To-morrow</i>!” + </p> + <p> + The next writing in Laura’s book was dated more than two months + later: + </p> + <p> + . . . . “I have decided to write again in this book. I have thought + it all out carefully, and I have come to the conclusion that it can do no + harm and may help me to be steady and sensible. It is the thought, not its + expression, that is guilty, but I do not believe that my thoughts are + guilty: I believe that they are good. I know that I wish only good. I have + read that when people suffer very much the best thing is for them to cry. + And so I’ll let myself <i>write</i> out my feelings—and + perhaps get rid of some of the silly self-pity I’m foolish enough to + feel, instead of going about choked up with it. How queer it is that even + when we keep our thoughts respectable we can’t help having absurd <i>feelings</i> + like self-pity, even though we know how rotten stupid they are! Yes, I’ll + let it all out here, and then, some day, when I’ve cured myself all + whole again, I’ll burn this poor, silly old book. And if I’m + not cured before the wedding, I’ll burn it then, anyhow. + </p> + <p> + “How funny little girls are! From the time they’re little bits + of things they talk about marriage—whom they are going to marry, + what sort of person it will be. I think Cora and I began when she was + about five and I not seven. And as girls grow up, I don’t believe + there was ever one who genuinely expected to be an old maid. The most + unattractive young girls discuss and plan and expect marriage just as much + as the prettier and gayer ones. The only way we can find out that men don’t + want to marry us is by their not asking us. We don’t see ourselves + very well, and I honestly believe we all think—way deep down—that + we’re pretty attractive. At least, every girl has the idea, + sometimes, that if men only saw the whole truth they’d think her as + nice as any other girl, and really nicer than most others. But I don’t + believe I have any hallucinations of that sort about myself left. I can’t + imagine—now—<i>any</i> man seeing anything in me that would + make him care for me. I can’t see anything about me to care for, + myself. Sometimes I think maybe I could make a man get excited about me if + I could take a startlingly personal tone with him from the beginning, + making him wonder all sorts of you-and-I perhapses—but I couldn’t + do it very well probably—oh, I couldn’t make myself do it if I + could do it well! And I shouldn’t think it would have much effect + except upon very inexperienced men—yet it does! Now, I wonder if + this is a streak of sourness coming out; I don’t feel bitter—I’m + just thinking honestly, I’m sure. + </p> + <p> + “Well, here I am facing it: all through my later childhood, and all + through my girlhood, I believe what really occupied me most—with the + thought of it underlying all things else, though often buried very deep—was + the prospect of my marriage. I regarded it as a certainty: I would grow + up, fall in love, get engaged, and be married—of course! So I grew + up and fell in love with You—but it stops there, and I must learn + how to be an Old Maid and not let anybody see that I mind it. I know this + is the hardest part of it, the beginning: it will get easier by-and-by, of + course. If I can just manage this part of it, it’s bound not to hurt + so much later on. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I grew up and fell in love with You—for you will always + be You. I’ll never, never get over <i>that</i>, my dear! You’ll + never, never know it; but I shall love You always till I die, and if I’m + still Me after that, I shall keep right on loving you then, of course. You + see, I didn’t fall in love with you just to have you for myself. I + fell in love with You! And that can never bother you at all nor ever be a + shame to me that I love unsought, because you won’t know, and + because it’s just an ocean of good-will, and every beat of my heart + sends a new great wave of it toward you and Cora. I shall find happiness, + I believe, in service—I am sure there will be times when I can serve + you both. I love you both and I can serve her for You and you for her. + This isn’t a hysterical mood, or a fit of `exaltation’: I have + thought it all out and I know that I can live up to it. You are the best + thing that can ever come into her life, and everything I can do shall be + to keep you there. I must be very, very careful with her, for talk and + advice do not influence her much. You love her—she has accepted you, + and it is beautiful for you both. It must be kept beautiful. It has all + become so clear to me: You are just what she has always needed, and if by + any mischance she lost you I do not know what would become——” + </p> + <p> + “Good God!” cried Richard. He sprang to his feet, and the + heavy book fell with a muffled crash upon the floor, sprawling open upon + its face, its leaves in disorder. He moved away from it, staring at it in + incredulous dismay. But he knew. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0019" id="link2HCH0019"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER NINETEEN + </h2> + <p> + Memory, that drowsy custodian, had wakened slowly, during this hour, + beginning the process with fitful gleams of semi-consciousness, then, + irritated, searching its pockets for the keys and dazedly exploring blind + passages; but now it flung wide open the gallery doors, and there, in + clear light, were the rows of painted canvasses. + </p> + <p> + He remembered “that day” when he was waiting for a car, and + Laura Madison had stopped for a moment, and then had gone on, saying she + preferred to walk. He remembered that after he got into the car he + wondered why he had not walked home with her; had thought himself “slow” + for not thinking of it in time to do it. There had seemed something very + “taking” about her, as she stopped and spoke to him, something + enlivening and wholesome and sweet—it had struck him that Laura was + a “very nice girl.” He had never before noticed how really + charming she could look; in fact he had never thought much about either of + the Madison sisters, who had become “young ladies” during his + mourning for his brother. And this pleasant image of Laura remained with + him for several days, until he decided that it might be a delightful thing + to spend an evening with her. He had called, and he remembered, now, Cora’s + saying to him that he looked at her sometimes as if he did not like her; + he had been surprised and astonishingly pleased to detect a mysterious + feeling in her about it. + </p> + <p> + He remembered that almost at once he had fallen in love with Cora: she + captivated him, enraptured him, as she still did—as she always + would, he felt, no matter how she treated him or what she did to him. He + did not analyze the process of the captivation and enrapturement—for + love is a mystery and cannot be analyzed. This is so well known that even + Richard Lindley knew it, and did not try! + </p> + <p> + . . . Heartsick, he stared at the fallen book. He was a man, and here was + the proffered love of a woman he did not want. There was a pathos in the + ledger; it seemed to grovel, sprawling and dishevelled in the circle of + lamp-light on the floor: it was as if Laura herself lay pleading at his + feet, and he looked down upon her, compassionate but revolted. He realized + with astonishment from what a height she had fallen, how greatly he had + respected her, how warmly liked her. What she now destroyed had been more + important than he had guessed. + </p> + <p> + Simple masculine indignation rose within him: she was to have been his + sister. If she had been unable to stifle this misplaced love of hers, + could she not at least have kept it to herself? Laura, the + self-respecting! No; she offered it—offered it to her sister’s + betrothed. She had written that he should “never, never know it”; + that when she was “cured” she would burn the ledger. She had + not burned it! There were inconsistencies in plenty in the pitiful screed, + but these were the wildest—and the cheapest. In talk, she had urged + him to “keep trying,” for Cora, and now the sick-minded + creature sent him this record. She wanted him to know. Then what else was + it but a plea? “I love you. Let Cora go. Take me.” + </p> + <p> + He began to walk up and down, wondering what was to be done. After a time, + he picked up the book gingerly, set it upon a shelf in a dark corner, and + went for a walk outdoors. The night air seemed better than that of the + room that held the ledger. + </p> + <p> + At the corner a boy, running, passed him. It was Hedrick Madison, but + Hedrick did not recognize Richard, nor was his mind at that moment + concerned with Richard’s affairs; he was on an errand of haste to + Doctor Sloane. Mr. Madison had wakened from a heavy slumber unable to + speak, his condition obviously much worse. + </p> + <p> + Hedrick returned in the doctor’s car, and then hung uneasily about + the door of the sick-room until Laura came out and told him to go to bed. + In the morning, his mother did not appear at the breakfast table, Cora was + serious and quiet, and Laura said that he need not go to school that day, + though she added that the doctor thought their father would get “better.” + She looked wan and hollow-eyed: she had not been to bed, but declared that + she would rest after breakfast. Evidently she had not missed her ledger; + and Hedrick watched her closely, a pleasurable excitement stirring in his + breast. + </p> + <p> + She did not go to her room after the meal; the house was cold, possessing + no furnace, and, with Hedrick’s assistance, she carried out the + ashes from the library grate, and built a fire there. She had just lighted + it, and the kindling was beginning to crackle, glowing rosily over her + tired face, when the bell rang. + </p> + <p> + “Will you see who it is, please, Hedrick?” + </p> + <p> + He went with alacrity, and, returning, announced in an odd voice. “It’s + Dick Lindley. He wants to see you.” + </p> + <p> + “Me?” she murmured, wanly surprised. She was kneeling before + the fireplace, wearing an old dress which was dusted with ashes, and upon + her hands a pair of worn-out gloves of her father’s. Lindley + appeared in the hall behind Hedrick, carrying under his arm something + wrapped in brown paper. His expression led her to think that he had heard + of her father’s relapse, and came on that account. + </p> + <p> + “Don’t look at me, Richard,” she said, smiling faintly + as she rose, and stripping her hands of the clumsy gloves. “It’s + good of you to come, though. Doctor Sloane thinks he is going to be better + again.” + </p> + <p> + Richard inclined his head gravely, but did not speak. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said Hedrick with a slight emphasis, “I guess I’ll + go out in the yard a while.” And with shining eyes he left the room. + </p> + <p> + In the hall, out of range from the library door, he executed a triumphant + but noiseless caper, and doubled with mirth, clapping his hand over his + mouth to stifle the effervescings of his joy. He had recognized the ledger + in the same wrapping in which he had left it in Mrs. Lindley’s + vestibule. His moment had come: the climax of his enormous joke, the + repayment in some small measure for the anguish he had so long endured. He + crept silently back toward the door, flattened his back against the wall, + and listened. + </p> + <p> + “Richard,” he heard Laura say, a vague alarm in her voice, + “what is it? What is the matter?” + </p> + <p> + Then Lindley: “I did not know what to do about it. I couldn’t + think of any sensible thing. I suppose what I am doing is the stupidest of + all the things I thought of, but at least it’s honest—so I’ve + brought it back to you myself. Take it, please.” + </p> + <p> + There was a crackling of the stiff wrapping paper, a little pause, then a + strange sound from Laura. It was not vocal and no more than just audible: + it was a prolonged scream in a whisper. + </p> + <p> + Hedrick ventured an eye at the crack, between the partly open door and its + casing. Lindley stood with his back to him, but the boy had a clear view + of Laura. She was leaning against the wall, facing Richard, the book + clutched in both arms against her bosom, the wrapping paper on the floor + at her feet. + </p> + <p> + “I thought of sending it back and pretending to think it had been + left at my mother’s house by mistake,” said Richard sadly, + “and of trying to make it seem that I hadn’t read any of it. I + thought of a dozen ways to pretend I believed you hadn’t really + meant me to read it——” + </p> + <p> + Making a crucial effort, she managed to speak. + </p> + <p> + “You—think I—did mean——” + </p> + <p> + “Well,” he answered, with a helpless shrug, “you sent + it! But it’s what’s in it that really matters, isn’t it? + I could have pretended anything in a note, I suppose, if I had written + instead of coming. But I found that what I most dreaded was meeting you + again, and as we’ve got to meet, of course, it seemed to me the only + thing to do was to blunder through a talk with you, somehow or another, + and get that part of it over. I thought the longer I put off facing you, + the worse it would be for both of us—and—and the more + embarrassing. I’m no good at pretending, anyhow; and the thing has + happened. What use is there in not being honest? Well?” + </p> + <p> + She did not try again to speak. Her state was lamentable: it was all in + her eyes. + </p> + <p> + Richard hung his head wretchedly, turning partly away from her. “There’s + only one way—to look at it,” he said hesitatingly, and + stammering. “That is—there’s only one thing to do: to + forget that it’s happened. I’m—I—oh, well, I care + for Cora altogether. She’s got never to know about this. She hasn’t + any idea or—suspicion of it, has she?” + </p> + <p> + Laura managed to shake her head. + </p> + <p> + “She never must have,” he said. “Will you promise me to + burn that book now?” + </p> + <p> + She nodded slowly. + </p> + <p> + “I—I’m awfully sorry, Laura,” he said brokenly. + “I’m not idiot enough not to see that you’re suffering + horribly. I suppose I have done the most blundering thing possible.” + He stood a moment, irresolute, then turned to the door. “Good-bye.” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick had just time to dive into the hideous little room of the + multitudinous owls as Richard strode into the hall. Then, with the closing + of the front door, the boy was back at his post. + </p> + <p> + Laura stood leaning against the wall, the book clutched in her arms, as + Richard had left her. Slowly she began to sink, her eyes wide open, and, + with her back against the wall, she slid down until she was sitting upon + the floor. Her arms relaxed and hung limp at her sides, letting the book + topple over in her lap, and she sat motionless. + </p> + <p> + One of her feet protruded from her skirt, and the leaping firelight + illumined it ruddily. It was a graceful foot in an old shoe which had been + re-soled and patched. It seemed very still, that patched shoe, as if it + might stay still forever. Hedrick knew that Laura had not fainted, but he + wished she would move her foot. + </p> + <p> + He went away. He went into the owl-room again, and stood there silently a + long, long time. Then he stole back again toward the library door, but + caught a glimpse of that old, motionless shoe through the doorway as he + came near. Then he spied no more. He went out to the stable, and, + secluding himself in his studio, sat moodily to meditate. + </p> + <p> + Something was the matter. Something had gone wrong. He had thrown a bomb + which he had expected to go off with a stupendous bang, leaving him, as + the smoke cleared, looking down in merry triumph, stinging his fallen + enemies with his humour, withering them with satire, and inquiring of them + how it felt, now <i>they</i> were getting it. But he was decidedly + untriumphant: he wished Laura had moved her foot and that she hadn’t + that patch upon her shoe. He could not get his mind off that patch. He + began to feel very queer: it seemed to be somehow because of the patch. If + she had worn a pair of new shoes that morning. . . . Yes, it was that + patch. + </p> + <p> + Thirteen is a dangerous age: nothing is more subtle. The boy, inspired to + play the man, is beset by his own relapses into childhood, and Hedrick was + near a relapse. + </p> + <p> + By and by, he went into the house again, to the library. Laura was not + there, but he found the fire almost smothered under heaping ashes. She had + burned her book. + </p> + <p> + He went into the room where the piano was, and played “The Girl on + the Saskatchewan” with one finger; then went out to the porch and + walked up and down, whistling cheerily. + </p> + <p> + After that, he went upstairs and asked Miss Peirce how his father was + “feeling,” receiving a noncommital reply; looked in at Cora’s + room; saw that his mother was lying asleep on Cora’s bed and Cora + herself examining the contents of a dressing-table drawer; and withdrew. A + moment later, he stood in the passage outside Laura’s closed door + listening. There was no sound. + </p> + <p> + He retired to his own chamber, found it unbearable, and, fascinated by + Laura’s, returned thither; and, after standing a long time in the + passage, knocked softly on the door. + </p> + <p> + “Laura,” he called, in a rough and careless voice, “it’s + kind of a pretty day outdoors. If you’ve had your nap, if I was you + I’d go out for a walk.” There was no response. “I’ll + go with you,” he added, “if you want me to.” + </p> + <p> + He listened again and heard nothing. Then he turned the knob softly. The + door was unlocked; he opened it and went in. + </p> + <p> + Laura was sitting in a chair, with her back to a window, her hands in her + lap. She was staring straight in front of her. + </p> + <p> + He came near her hesitatingly, and at first she did not seem to see him or + even to know that she was not alone in the room. Then she looked at him + wonderingly, and, as he stood beside her, lifted her right hand and set it + gently upon his head. + </p> + <p> + “Hedrick,” she said, “was it you that took my book to——” + </p> + <p> + All at once he fell upon his knees, hid his face in her lap, and burst + into loud and passionate sobbing. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0020" id="link2HCH0020"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY + </h2> + <p> + Valentine Corliss, having breakfasted in bed at a late hour that morning, + dozed again, roused himself, and, making a toilet, addressed to the image + in his shaving-mirror a disgusted monosyllable. + </p> + <p> + “Ass!” + </p> + <p> + However, he had not the look of a man who had played cards all night to a + disastrous tune with an accompaniment in Scotch. His was a surface not + easily indented: he was hard and healthy, clear-skinned and clear-eyed. + When he had made himself point-device, he went into the “parlour” + of his apartment, frowning at the litter of malodorous, relics, stumps and + stubs and bottles and half-drained glasses, scattered chips and cards, + dregs of a night session. He had been making acquaintances. + </p> + <p> + He sat at the desk and wrote with a steady hand in Italian: + </p> + <h3> + MOST ILLUSTRIOUS MOLITERNO: + </h3> + <p> + We live but learn little. As to myself it appears that I learn nothing—nothing! + You will at once convey to me by <i>cable</i> five thousand lire. No; add + the difference in exchange so as to make it one thousand dollars which I + shall receive, taking that sum from the two-hundred and thirty thousand + lire which I entrusted to your safekeeping by cable as the result of my + enterprise in this place. I should have returned at once, content with + that success, but as you know I am a very stupid fellow, never pleased + with a moderate triumph, nor with a large one, when there is a possible + prospect of greater. I am compelled to believe that the greater I had in + mind in this case was an illusion: my gentle diplomacy avails nothing + against a small miser—for we have misers even in these States, + though you will not believe it. I abandon him to his riches! From the + success of my venture I reserved four thousand dollars to keep by me and + for my expenses, and it is humiliating to relate that all of this, except + a small banknote or two, was taken from me last night by amateurs. I + should keep away from cards—they hate me, and alone I can do nothing + with them. Some young gentlemen of the place, whose acquaintance I had + made at a ball, did me the honour of this lesson at the native game of + poker, at which I—though also native—am not even so expert as + yourself, and, as you will admit, Antonio, my friend, you are not a good + player—when observed. Unaided, I was a child in their hands. It was + also a painful rule that one paid for the counters upon delivery. This + made me ill, but I carried it off with an air of carelessness creditable + to an adopted Neapolitan. Upon receipt of the money you are to cable me, I + shall leave this town and sail immediately. Come to Paris, and meet me + there at the place on the Rue Auber within ten days from your reading this + letter. You will have, remaining, two hundred and twenty-five thousand + francs, which it will be safer to bring in cash, and I will deal well with + you, as is our custom with each other. You have done excellently + throughout; your cables and letters for exhibition concerning those famous + oil wells have been perfection; and I shall of course not deduct what was + taken by these thieves of poker players from the sum of profits upon which + we shall estimate your commission. I have several times had the feeling + that the hour for departure had arrived; now I shall delay not a moment + after receiving your cable, though I may occupy the interim with a last + attempt to interest my small miser. Various circumstances cause me some + uneasiness, though I do not believe I could be successfully assailed by + the law in the matter of oil. You do own an estate in Basilicata, at least + your brother does—these good people here would not be apt to + discover the difference—and the rest is a matter of plausibility. + The odious coincidence of encountering the old cow, Pryor, fretted me + somewhat (though he has not repeated his annoying call), and I have other + small apprehensions—for example, that it may not improve my credit + if my loss of last night becomes gossip, though the thieves professed + strong habits of discretion. My little affair of gallantry grows + embarrassing. Such affairs are so easy to inaugurate; extrication is more + difficult. However, without it I should have failed to interest my + investor and there is always the charm. Your last letter is too curious in + that matter. Licentious man, one does not write of these things while + under the banner of the illustrious Uncle Sam—I am assuming the + American attitude while here, or perhaps my early youth returns to me—a + thing very different from your own boyhood, Don Antonio. Nevertheless, I + promise you some laughter in the Rue Auber. Though you will not be able to + understand the half of what I shall tell you—particularly the + portraits I shall sketch of my defeated rivals—your spirit shall + roll with laughter. + </p> + <p> + To the bank, then, the instant you read. Cable me one thousand dollars, + and be at the Rue Auber not more than ten days later. To the bank! Thence + to the telegraph office. Speed! V. C. + </p> + <p> + He was in better spirits as he read over this letter, and he chuckled as + he addressed it. He pictured himself in the rear room of the bar in the + Rue Auber, relating, across the little marble-topped table, this American + adventure, to the delight of that blithe, ne’er-do-well outcast of + an exalted poor family, that gambler, blackmailer and merry rogue, Don + Antonio Moliterno, comrade and teacher of this ductile Valentine since the + later days of adolescence. They had been school-fellows in Rome, and later + roamed Europe together unleashed, discovering worlds of many kinds. + Valentine’s careless mother let her boy go as he liked, and was + often negligent in the matter of remittances: he and his friend learned + ways to raise the wind, becoming expert and making curious affiliations. + At her death there was a small inheritance; she had not been provident. + The little she left went rocketing, and there was the wind to be raised + again: young Corliss had wits and had found that they could supply him—most + of the time—with much more than the necessities of life. He had also + found that he possessed a strong attraction for various women; already—at + twenty-two—his experience was considerable, and, in his way, he + became a specialist. He had a talent; he improved it and his + opportunities. Altogether, he took to the work without malice and with a + light heart. . . . + </p> + <p> + He sealed the envelope, rang for a boy, gave him the letter to post, and + directed that the apartment should be set to rights. It was not that in + which he had received Ray Vilas. Corliss had moved to rooms on another + floor of the hotel, the day after that eccentric and somewhat ominous + person had called to make an “investment.” Ray’s shadowy + forebodings concerning that former apartment had encountered satire: + Corliss was a “materialist” and, at the mildest estimate, an + unusually practical man, but he would never sleep in a bed with its foot + toward the door; southern Italy had seeped into him. He changed his rooms, + a measure of which Don Antonio Moliterno would have wholly approved. + Besides, these were as comfortable as the others, and so like them as even + to confirm Ray’s statement concerning “A Reading from Homer”: + evidently this work had been purchased by the edition. + </p> + <p> + A boy came to announce that his “roadster” waited for him at + the hotel entrance, and Corliss put on a fur motoring coat and cap, and + went downstairs. A door leading from the hotel bar into the lobby was + open, and, as Corliss passed it, there issued a mocking shout: + </p> + <p> + “Tor’dor! Oh, look at the Tor’dor! Ain’t he the + handsome Spaniard!” + </p> + <p> + Ray Vilas stumbled out, tousled, haggard, waving his arms in absurd and + meaningless gestures; an amused gallery of tipplers filling the doorway + behind him. + </p> + <p> + “Goin’ take Carmen buggy ride in the country, ain’t he? + Good ole Tor’dor!” he quavered loudly, clutching Corliss’s + shoulder. “How much you s’pose he pays f’ that + buzz-buggy by the day, jeli’m’n? Naughty Tor’dor, stole + thousand dollars from me—makin’ presents—diamond + cresses. Tor’dor, I hear you been playing cards. Tha’s sn’t + nice. Tor’dor, you’re not a goo’ boy at all—<i>you</i> + know you oughtn’t waste Dick Lindley’s money like that!” + </p> + <p> + Corliss set his open hand upon the drunkard’s breast and sent him + gyrating and plunging backward. Some one caught the grotesque figure as it + fell. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, my God,” screamed Ray, “I haven’t got a gun + on me! He <i>knows</i> I haven’t got my gun with me! <i>Why</i> + haven’t I got my gun with me?” + </p> + <p> + They hustled him away, and Corliss, enraged and startled, passed on. As he + sped the car up Corliss Street, he decided to anticipate his letter to + Moliterno by a cable. He had stayed too long. + </p> + <p> + Cora looked charming in a new equipment for November motoring; yet it + cannot be said that either of them enjoyed the drive. They lunched a dozen + miles out from the city at an establishment somewhat in the nature of a + roadside inn; and, although its cuisine was quite unknown to Cora’s + friend, Mrs. Villard (an eager amateur of the table), they were served + with a meal of such unusual excellence that the waiter thought it a + thousand pities patrons so distinguished should possess such poor + appetites. + </p> + <p> + They returned at about three in the afternoon, and Cora descended from the + car wearing no very amiable expression. + </p> + <p> + “Why won’t you come in now?” she asked, looking at him + angrily. “We’ve got to talk things out. We’ve settled + nothing whatever. I want to know why you can’t stop.” + </p> + <p> + “I’ve got some matters to attend to, and——” + </p> + <p> + “What matters?” She shot him a glance of fierce skepticism. + </p> + <p> + “Are you packing to get out?” + </p> + <p> + “Cora!” he cried reproachfully, “how can you say things + like that to <i>me</i>!” + </p> + <p> + She shook her head. “Oh, it wouldn’t surprise me in the least! + How do <i>I</i> know what you’ll do? For all I know, you may be just + that kind of a man. You <i>said</i> you ought to be going——” + </p> + <p> + “Cora,” he explained, gently, “I didn’t say I + meant to go. I said only that I thought I ought to, because Moliterno will + be needing me in Basilicata. I ought to be there, since it appears that no + more money is to be raised here. I ought to be superintending operations + in the oil-field, so as to make the best use of the little I have raised.” + </p> + <p> + “You?” she laughed. “Of course <i>I</i> didn’t + have anything to do with it!” + </p> + <p> + He sighed deeply. “You know perfectly well that I appreciate all you + did. We don’t seem to get on very well to-day——” + </p> + <p> + “No!” She laughed again, bitterly. “So you think you’ll + be going, don’t you?” + </p> + <p> + “To my rooms to write some necessary letters.” + </p> + <p> + “Of course not to pack your trunk?” + </p> + <p> + “Cora,” he returned, goaded; “sometimes you’re + just impossible. I’ll come to-morrow forenoon.” + </p> + <p> + “Then don’t bring the car. I’m tired of motoring and + tired of lunching in that rotten hole. We can talk just as well in the + library. Papa’s better, and that little fiend will be in school + to-morrow. Come out about ten.” + </p> + <p> + He started the machine. “Don’t forget I love you,” he + called in a low voice. + </p> + <p> + She stood looking after him as the car dwindled down the street. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, you do!” she murmured. + </p> + <p> + She walked up the path to the house, her face thoughtful, as with a + tiresome perplexity. In her own room, divesting herself of her wraps, she + gave the mirror a long scrutiny. It offered the picture of a girl with a + hard and dreary air; but Cora saw something else, and presently, though + the dreariness remained, the hardness softened to a great compassion. She + suffered: a warm wave of sorrow submerged her, and she threw herself upon + the bed and wept long and silently for herself. + </p> + <p> + At last her eyes dried, and she lay staring at the ceiling. The doorbell + rang, and Sarah, the cook, came to inform her that Mr. Richard Lindley was + below. + </p> + <p> + “Tell him I’m out.” + </p> + <p> + “Can’t,” returned Sarah. “Done told him you was + home.” And she departed firmly. + </p> + <p> + Thus abandoned, the prostrate lady put into a few words what she felt + about Sarah, and, going to the door, whisperingly summoned in Laura, who + was leaving the sick-room, across the hall. + </p> + <p> + “Richard is downstairs. Will you go and tell him I’m sick in + bed—or dead? Anything to make him go.” And, assuming Laura’s + acquiescence, Cora went on, without pause: “Is father worse? What’s + the matter with you, Laura?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing. He’s a little better, Miss Peirce thinks.” + </p> + <p> + “You look ill.” + </p> + <p> + “I’m all right.” + </p> + <p> + “Then run along like a duck and get rid of that old bore for me.” + </p> + <p> + “Cora—please see him?” + </p> + <p> + “Not me! I’ve got too much to think about to bother with him.” + </p> + <p> + Laura walked to the window and stood with her back to her sister, + apparently interested in the view of Corliss Street there presented. + “Cora,” she said, “why don’t you marry him and + have done with all this?” + </p> + <p> + Cora hooted. + </p> + <p> + “Why not? Why not marry him as soon as you can get ready? Why don’t + you go down now and tell him you will? Why not, Cora?” + </p> + <p> + “I’d as soon marry a pail of milk—yes, tepid milk, + skimmed! I——” + </p> + <p> + “Don’t you realize how kind he’d be to you?” + </p> + <p> + “I don’t know about that,” said Cora moodily. “He + might object to some things—but it doesn’t matter, because I’m + not going to try him. I don’t mind a man’s being a fool, but I + can’t stand the absent-minded breed of idiot. I’ve worn his + diamond in the pendant right in his eyes for weeks; he’s never once + noticed it enough even to ask me about the pendant, but bores me to death + wanting to know why I won’t wear the ring! Anyhow, what’s the + use talking about him? He couldn’t marry me right now, even if I + wanted him to—not till he begins to get something on the investment + he made with Val. Outside of that, he’s got nothing except his rooms + at his mother’s; she hasn’t much either; and if Richard should + lose what he put in with Val, he couldn’t marry for years, probably. + That’s what made him so obstinate about it. No; if I ever marry + right off the reel it’s got to be somebody with——” + </p> + <p> + “Cora”—Laura still spoke from the window, not turning—“aren’t + you tired of it all, of this getting so upset about one man and then + another and——” + </p> + <p> + “<i>Tired</i>!” Cora uttered the word in a repressed fury of + emphasis. “I’m sick of <i>everything</i>! I don’t care + for anything or anybody on this earth—except—except you and + mamma. I thought I was going to love Val. I thought I <i>did</i>—but + oh, my Lord, I don’t! I don’t think I <i>can</i> care any + more. Or else there isn’t any such thing as love. How can anybody + tell whether there is or not? You get kind of crazy over a man and want to + go the limit—or marry him perhaps—or sometimes you just want + to make him crazy about you—and then you get over it—and what + is there left but hell!” She choked with a sour laugh. “Ugh! + For heaven’s sake, Laura, don’t make me talk. Everything’s + gone to the devil and I’ve got to think. The best thing you can do + is to go down and get rid of Richard for me. I <i>can’t</i> see him!” + </p> + <p> + “Very well,” said Laura, and went to the door. + </p> + <p> + “You’re a darling,” whispered Cora, kissing her quickly. + “Tell him I’m in a raging headache—make him think I + wanted to see him, but you wouldn’t let me, because I’m too + ill.” She laughed. “Give me a little time, old dear: I may + decide to take him yet!” + </p> + <p> + It was Mrs. Madison who informed the waiting Richard that Cora was unable + to see him, because she was “lying down”; and the young man, + after properly inquiring about Mr. Madison, went blankly forth. + </p> + <p> + Hedrick was stalking the front yard, mounted at a great height upon a pair + of stilts. He joined the departing visitor upon the sidewalk and honoured + him with his company, proceeding storkishly beside him. + </p> + <p> + “Been to see Cora?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Hedrick.” + </p> + <p> + “What’d you want to see her about?” asked the frank + youth seriously. + </p> + <p> + Richard was able to smile. “Nothing in particular, Hedrick.” + </p> + <p> + “You didn’t come to tell her about something?” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing whatever, my dear sir. I wished merely the honour of seeing + her and chatting with her upon indifferent subjects.” + </p> + <p> + “Why?” + </p> + <p> + “Did you see her?” + </p> + <p> + “No, I’m sorry to——” + </p> + <p> + “She’s home, all right,” Hedrick took pleasure in + informing him. + </p> + <p> + “Yes. She was lying down and I told your mother not to disturb her.” + </p> + <p> + “Worn out with too much automobile riding, I expect,” Hedrick + sniffed. “She goes out about every day with this Corliss in his + hired roadster.” + </p> + <p> + They walked on in silence. Not far from Mrs. Lindley’s, Hedrick + abruptly became vocal in an artificial laugh. Richard was obviously + intended to inquire into its cause, but, as he did not, Hedrick, after + laughing hollowly for some time, volunteered the explanation: + </p> + <p> + “I played a pretty good trick on you last night.” + </p> + <p> + “Odd I didn’t know it.” + </p> + <p> + “That’s why it was good. You’d never guess it in the + world.” + </p> + <p> + “No, I believe I shouldn’t. You see what makes it so hard, + Hedrick, is that I can’t even remember seeing you, last night.” + </p> + <p> + “Nobody saw me. Somebody heard me though, all right.” + </p> + <p> + “Who?” + </p> + <p> + “The nigger that works at your mother’s—Joe.” + </p> + <p> + “What about it? Were you teasing Joe?” + </p> + <p> + “No, it was you I was after.” + </p> + <p> + “Well? Did you get me?” + </p> + <p> + Hedrick made another somewhat ghastly pretence of mirth. “Well, I + guess I’ve had about all the fun out of it I’m going to. Might + as well tell you. It was that book of Laura’s you thought she sent + you.” + </p> + <p> + Richard stopped short; whereupon Hedrick turned clumsily, and began to + stalk back in the direction from which they had come. + </p> + <p> + “That book—I thought she—sent me?” Lindley + repeated, stammering. + </p> + <p> + “She never sent it,” called the boy, continuing to walk away. + “She kept it hid, and I found it. I faked her into writing your name + on a sheet of paper, and made you think she’d sent the old thing to + you. I just did it for a joke on you.” + </p> + <p> + With too retching an effort to simulate another burst of merriment, he + caught the stump of his right stilt in a pavement crack, wavered, cut in + the air a figure like a geometrical proposition gone mad, and came + whacking to earth in magnificent disaster. + </p> + <p> + Richard took him to Mrs. Lindley for repairs. She kept him until dark: + Hedrick was bandaged, led, lemonaded and blandished. + </p> + <p> + Never in his life had he known such a listener. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0021" id="link2HCH0021"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE + </h2> + <p> + That was a long night for Cora Madison, and the morning found her yellow. + She made a poor breakfast, and returned from the table to her own room, + but after a time descended restlessly and wandered from one room to + another, staring out of the windows. Laura had gone out; Mrs. Madison was + with her husband, whom she seldom left; Hedrick had departed ostensibly + for school; and the house was as still as a farm in winter—an + intolerable condition of things for an effervescent young woman whose diet + was excitement. Cora, drumming with her fingers upon a window in the + owl-haunted cell, made noises with her throat, her breath and her lips not + unsuggestive of a sputtering fuse. She was heavily charged. + </p> + <p> + “Now what in thunder do <i>you</i> want?” she inquired of an + elderly man who turned in from the sidewalk and with serious steps + approached the house. + </p> + <p> + Pryor, having rung, found himself confronted with the lady he had come to + seek. Ensued the moment of strangers meeting: invisible antennae extended + and touched;—at the contact, Cora’s drew in, and she looked + upon him without graciousness. + </p> + <p> + “I just called,” he said placatively, smiling as if some + humour lurked in his intention, “to ask how your father is. I heard + downtown he wasn’t getting along quite so well.” + </p> + <p> + “He’s better this morning, thanks,” said Cora, preparing + to close the door. + </p> + <p> + “I thought I’d just stop and ask about him. I heard he’d + had another bad spell—kind of a second stroke.” + </p> + <p> + “That was night before last. The doctor thinks he’s improved + very much since then.” + </p> + <p> + The door was closing; he coughed hastily, and detained it by speaking + again. “I’ve called several times to inquire about him, but I + believe it’s the first time I’ve had the pleasure of speaking + to you, Miss Madison. I’m Mr. Pryor.” She appeared to find no + comment necessary, and he continued: “Your father did a little + business for me, several years ago, and when I was here on my vacation, + this summer, I was mighty sorry to hear of his sickness. I’ve had a + nice bit of luck lately and got a second furlough, so I came out to spend + a couple of weeks and Thanksgiving with my married daughter.” + </p> + <p> + Cora supposed that it must be very pleasant. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” he returned. “But I was mighty sorry to hear your + father wasn’t much better than when I left. The truth is, I wanted + to have a talk with him, and I’ve been reproaching myself a good + deal that I didn’t go ahead with it last summer, when he was well, + only I thought then it mightn’t be necessary—might be + disturbing things without much reason.” + </p> + <p> + “I’m afraid you can’t have a talk with him now,” + she said. “The doctor says——” + </p> + <p> + “I know, I know,” said Pryor, “of course. I wonder”—he + hesitated, smiling faintly—“I wonder if I could have it with + you instead.” + </p> + <p> + “Me?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, it isn’t business,” he laughed, observing her + expression. “That is, not exactly.” His manner became very + serious. “It’s about a friend of mine—at least, a man I + know pretty well. Miss Madison, I saw you driving out through the park + with him, yesterday noon, in an automobile. Valentine Corliss.” + </p> + <p> + Cora stared at him. Honesty, friendliness, and grave concern were + disclosed to her scrutiny. There was no mistaking him: he was a good man. + Her mouth opened, and her eyelids flickered as from a too sudden invasion + of light—the look of one perceiving the close approach of a vital + crisis. But there was no surprise in her face. + </p> + <p> + “Come in,” she said. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + * * * +</pre> + <p> + . . . . When Corliss arrived, at about eleven o’clock that morning, + Sarah brought him to the library, where he found Cora waiting for him. He + had the air of a man determined to be cheerful under adverse conditions: + he came in briskly, and Cora closed the door behind him. + </p> + <p> + “Keep away from me,” she said, pushing him back sharply, the + next instant. “I’ve had enough of that for a while I believe.” + </p> + <p> + He sank into a chair, affecting desolation. “Caresses blighted in + the bud! Cora, one would think us really married.” + </p> + <p> + She walked across the floor to a window, turned there, with her back to + the light, and stood facing him, her arms folded. + </p> + <p> + “Good heavens!” he exclaimed, noting this attitude. “Is + it the trial scene from a faded melodrama?” She looked steadily at + him without replying. “What’s it all about to-day?” he + asked lightly. “I’ll try to give you the proper cues if you’ll + indicate the general nature of the scene, Cora mine.” + </p> + <p> + She continued to look at him in silence. + </p> + <p> + “It’s very effective,” he observed. “Brings out + the figure, too. Do forgive me if you’re serious, dear lady, but + never in my life was I able to take the folded-arms business seriously. It + was used on the stage of all countries so much that I believe most + new-school actors have dropped it. They think it lacks genuineness.” + </p> + <p> + Cora waited a moment longer, then spoke. “How much chance have I to + get Richard Lindley’s money back from you?” + </p> + <p> + He was astounded. “Oh, I say!” + </p> + <p> + “I had a caller, this morning,” she said, slowly. “He + talked about you—quite a lot! He’s told me several things + about you.” + </p> + <p> + “Mr. Vilas?” he asked, with a sting in his quick smile. + </p> + <p> + “No,” she answered coolly. “Much older.” + </p> + <p> + At that he jumped up, stepped quickly close to her, and swept her with an + intense and brilliant scrutiny. + </p> + <p> + “Pryor, by God!” he cried. + </p> + <p> + “He knows you pretty well,” she said. “So do I now!” + </p> + <p> + He swung away from her, back to his chair, dropped into it and began to + laugh. “Old Pryor! Doddering old Pryor! Doddering old ass of a + Pryor! So he did! Blood of an angel! what a stew, what a stew!” He + rose again, mirthless. “Well, what did he say?” + </p> + <p> + She had begun to tremble, not with fear. “He said a good deal.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, what was it? What did he tell you?” + </p> + <p> + “I think you’ll find it plenty!” + </p> + <p> + “Come on!” + </p> + <p> + “<i>You</i>!” She pointed at him. + </p> + <p> + “Let’s have it.” + </p> + <p> + “He told me”—she burst out furiously—“he + said you were a professional sharper!” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no. Old Pryor doesn’t talk like that.” + </p> + <p> + She came toward him. “He told me you were notorious over half of + Europe,” she cried vehemently. “He said he’d arrested + you himself, once, in Rotterdam, for smuggling jewels, and that you were + guilty, but managed to squirm out of it. He said the police had put you + out of Germany and you’d be arrested if you ever tried to go back. + He said there were other places you didn’t dare set foot in, and he + said he could have you arrested in this country any time he wanted to, and + that he was going to do it if he found you’d been doing anything + wrong. Oh, yes, he told me a few things!” + </p> + <p> + He caught her by the shoulder. “See here, Cora, do you believe all + this tommy-rot?” + </p> + <p> + She shook his hand off instantly. “Believe it? I know it! There isn’t + a straight line in your whole soul and mind: you’re crooked all + over. You’ve been crooked with <i>me</i> from the start. The moment + that man began to speak, I knew every word of it was true. He came to me + because he thought it was right: he hasn’t anything against you on + his own account; he said he <i>liked</i> you! I <i>knew</i> it was true, I + tell you.” + </p> + <p> + He tried to put his hand on her shoulder again, beginning to speak + remonstratingly, but she cried out in a rage, broke away from him, and ran + to the other end of the room. + </p> + <p> + “Keep away! Do you suppose I like you to touch me? He told me you + always had been a wonder with women! Said you were famous for `handling + them the right way’—using them! Ah, that was pleasant + information for <i>me</i>, wasn’t it! Yes, I could have confirmed + him on that point. He wanted to know if I thought you’d been doing + anything of that sort here. What he meant was: Had you been using me?” + </p> + <p> + “What did you tell him?” The question rang sharply on the + instant. + </p> + <p> + “Ha! That gets into you, does it?” she returned bitterly. + “You can’t overdo your fear of that man, I think, but <i>I</i> + didn’t tell him anything. I just listened and thanked him for the + warning, and said I’d have nothing more to do with you. How <i>could</i> + I tell him? Wasn’t it I that made papa lend you his name, and got + Richard to hand over his money? Where does that put <i>me</i>?” She + choked; sobs broke her voice. “Every—every soul in town would + point me out as a laughing-stock—the easiest fool out of the asylum! + Do you suppose <i>I</i> want you arrested and the whole thing in the + papers? What I want is Richard’s money back, and I’m going to + have it!” + </p> + <p> + “Can you be quiet for a moment and listen?” he asked gravely. + </p> + <p> + “If you’ll tell me what chance I have to get it back.” + </p> + <p> + “Cora,” he said, “you don’t want it back.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh? Don’t I?” + </p> + <p> + “No.” He smiled faintly, and went on. “Now, all this + nonsense of old Pryor’s isn’t worth denying. I have met him + abroad; that much is true—and I suppose I have rather a gay + reputation——” + </p> + <p> + She uttered a jeering shout. + </p> + <p> + “Wait!” he said. “I told you I’d cut quite a + swathe, when I first talked to you about myself. Let it go for the present + and come down to this question of Lindley’s investment——” + </p> + <p> + “Yes. That’s what I want you to come down to.” + </p> + <p> + “As soon as Lindley paid in his check I gave him his stock + certificates, and cabled the money to be used at once in the development + of the oil-fields——” + </p> + <p> + “What! That man told me you’d `promoted’ a South + American rubber company once, among people of the American colony in + Paris. The details he gave me sounded strangely familiar!” + </p> + <p> + “You’d as well be patient, Cora. Now, that money has probably + been partially spent, by this time, on tools and labour and——” + </p> + <p> + “What are you trying to——” + </p> + <p> + “I’ll show you. But first I’d like you to understand + that nothing can be done to me. There’s nothing `on’ me! I’ve + acted in good faith, and if the venture in oil is unsuccessful, and the + money lost, I can’t be held legally responsible, nor can any one + prove that I am. I could bring forty witnesses from Naples to swear they + have helped to bore the wells. I’m safe as your stubborn friend, Mr. + Trumble, himself. But now then, suppose that old Pryor is right—as + of course he isn’t—suppose it, merely for a moment, because it + will aid me to convey something to your mind. If I were the kind of man he + says I am, and, being such a man, had planted the money out of reach, for + my own use, what on earth would induce me to give it back?” + </p> + <p> + “I knew it!” she groaned. “I knew you wouldn’t!” + </p> + <p> + “You see,” he said quietly, “it would be impossible. We + must go on supposing for a moment: if I had put that money away, I might + be contemplating a departure——” + </p> + <p> + “You’d better!” she cried fiercely. “He’s + going to find out everything you’ve been doing. He said so. He’s + heard a rumour that you were trying to raise money here; he told me so, + and said he’d soon——” + </p> + <p> + “The better reason for not delaying, perhaps. Cora, see here!” + He moved nearer her. “Wouldn’t I need a lot of money if I + expected to have a beautiful lady to care for, and——” + </p> + <p> + “You idiot!” she screamed. “Do you think I’m going + with you?” + </p> + <p> + He flushed heavily. “Well, aren’t you?” He paused, to + stare at her, as she wrung her hands and sobbed with hysterical laughter. + “I thought,” he went on, slowly, “that you would + possibly even insist on that.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Lord, Lord, Lord!” She stamped her foot, and with both + hands threw the tears from her eyes in wide and furious gestures. “He + told me you were married——” + </p> + <p> + “Did you let him think you hadn’t known that?” demanded + Corliss. + </p> + <p> + “I tell you I didn’t let him think <i>anything</i>! He said + you would never be able to get a divorce: that your wife hates you too + much to get one from you, and that she’ll never——” + </p> + <p> + “See here, Cora,” he said harshly, “I told you I’d + been married; I told you before I ever kissed you. You understood + perfectly——” + </p> + <p> + “I did not! You said you <i>had</i> been. You laughed about it. You + made me think it was something that had happened a long time ago. I + thought of course you’d been divorced——” + </p> + <p> + “But I told you——” + </p> + <p> + “You told me after! And then you made me think you could easily get + one—that it was only a matter of form and——” + </p> + <p> + “Cora,” he interrupted, “you’re the most elaborate + little self-deceiver I ever knew. I don’t believe you’ve ever + faced yourself for an honest moment in——” + </p> + <p> + “Honest! <i>you</i> talk about `honest’! You use that word and + face <i>me</i>?” + </p> + <p> + He came closer, meeting her distraught eyes squarely. “You love to + fool yourself, Cora, but the role of betrayed virtue doesn’t suit + you very well. You’re young, but you’re a pretty experienced + woman for all that, and you haven’t done anything you didn’t + want to. You’ve had both eyes open every minute, and we both know + it. You are just as wise as——” + </p> + <p> + “You’re lying and <i>you</i> know it! What did <i>I</i> want + to make Richard go into your scheme for? You made a fool of me.” + </p> + <p> + “I’m not speaking of the money now,” he returned + quickly. “You’d better keep your mind on the subject. Are you + coming away with me?” + </p> + <p> + “What for?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “What <i>for</i>?” he echoed incredulously. “I want to + know if you’re coming. I promise you I’ll get a divorce as + soon as it’s possible——” + </p> + <p> + “Val,” she said, in a tone lower than she had used since he + entered the room; “Val, do you want me to come?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes.” + </p> + <p> + “Much?” She looked at him eagerly. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I do.” His answer sounded quite genuine. + </p> + <p> + “Will it hurt you if I don’t?” + </p> + <p> + “Of course it will.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank heaven for that,” she said quietly. + </p> + <p> + “You honestly mean you won’t?” + </p> + <p> + “It makes me sick with laughing just to imagine it! I’ve done + some hard little thinking, lately, my friend—particularly last + night, and still more particularly this morning since that man was here. I’d + cut my throat before I’d go with you. If you had your divorce I + wouldn’t marry you—not if you were the last man on earth!” + </p> + <p> + “Cora,” he cried, aghast, “what’s the matter with + you? You’re too many for me sometimes. I thought I understood a few + kinds of women! Now listen: I’ve offered to take you, and you can’t + say——” + </p> + <p> + “Offered!” It was she who came toward him now. She came + swiftly, shaking with rage, and struck him upon the breast. “`Offered’! + Do you think I want to go trailing around Europe with you while Dick + Lindley’s money lasts? What kind of a life are you `offering’ + me? Do you suppose I’m going to have everybody saying Cora Madison + ran away with a jail-bird? Do you think I’m going to dodge decent + people in hotels and steamers, and leave a name in this town that—Oh, + get out! I don’t want any help from you! I can take care of myself, + I tell you; and I don’t have to marry <i>you</i>! I’d kill you + if I could—you made a fool of me!” Her voice rose shrilly. + “You made a fool of me!” + </p> + <p> + “Cora——” he began, imploringly. + </p> + <p> + “You made a fool of me!” She struck him again. + </p> + <p> + “Strike me,” he said. “I love you!” + </p> + <p> + “Actor!” + </p> + <p> + “Cora, I want you. I want you more than I ever——” + </p> + <p> + She screamed with hysterical laughter. “Liar, liar, liar! The same + old guff. Don’t you even see it’s too late for the old rotten + tricks?” + </p> + <p> + “Cora, I want you to come.” + </p> + <p> + “You poor, conceited fool,” she cried, “do you think you’re + the only man I can marry?” + </p> + <p> + “Cora,” he gasped, “you wouldn’t do that!” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, get out! Get out <i>now</i>! I’m tired of you. I never + want to hear you speak again.” + </p> + <p> + “Cora,” he begged. “For the last time——” + </p> + <p> + “<i>No</i>! You made a fool of me!” She beat him upon the + breast, striking again and again, with all her strength. “Get out, I + tell you! I’m through with you!” + </p> + <p> + He tried to make her listen, to hold her wrists: he could do neither. + </p> + <p> + “Get out—get out!” she screamed. She pushed and dragged + him toward the door, and threw it open. Her voice thickened; she choked + and coughed, but kept on screaming: “Get out, I tell you! Get out, + get out, damn you! Damn you, <i>damn</i> you! get out!” + </p> + <p> + Still continuing to strike him with all her strength, she forced him out + of the door. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0022" id="link2HCH0022"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO + </h2> + <p> + Cora lost no time. Corliss had not closed the front door behind him before + she was running up the stairs. Mrs. Madison, emerging from her husband’s + room, did not see her daughter’s face; for Cora passed her quickly, + looking the other way. + </p> + <p> + “Was anything the matter?” asked the mother anxiously. “I + thought I heard——” + </p> + <p> + “Nothing in the world,” Cora flung back over her shoulder. + “Mr. Corliss said I couldn’t imitate Sara Bernhardt, and I + showed him I could.” She began to hum; left a fragment of “rag-time” + floating behind her as she entered her own room; and Mrs. Madison, + relieved, returned to the invalid. + </p> + <p> + Cora changed her clothes quickly. She put on a pale gray skirt and coat + for the street, high shoes and a black velvet hat, very simple. The + costume was almost startlingly becoming to her: never in her life had she + looked prettier. She opened her small jewel-case, slipped all her rings + upon her fingers; then put the diamond crescent, the pendant, her watch, + and three or four other things into the flat, envelope-shaped bag of soft + leather she carried when shopping. After that she brought from her + clothes-pantry a small travelling-bag and packed it hurriedly. + </p> + <p> + Laura, returning from errands downtown and glancing up at Cora’s + window, perceived an urgently beckoning, gray-gloved hand, and came at + once to her sister’s room. + </p> + <p> + The packed bag upon the bed first caught her eye; then Cora’s + attire, and the excited expression of Cora’s face, which was + high-flushed and moist, glowing with a great resolve. + </p> + <p> + “What’s happened?” asked Laura quickly. “You look + exactly like a going-away bride. What——” + </p> + <p> + Cora spoke rapidly: “Laura, I want you to take this bag and keep it + in your room till a messenger-boy comes for it. When the bell rings, go to + the door yourself, and hand it to him. Don’t give Hedrick a chance + to go to the door. Just give it to the boy;—and don’t say + anything to mamma about it. I’m going downtown and I may not be + back.” + </p> + <p> + Laura began to be frightened. + </p> + <p> + “What is it you want to do, Cora?” she asked, trembling. + </p> + <p> + Cora was swift and business-like. “See here, Laura, I’ve got + to keep my head about me. You can do a great deal for me, if you won’t + be emotional just now, and help me not to be. I can’t afford it, + because I’ve got to do things, and I’m going to do them just + as quickly as I can, and get it over. If I wait any longer I’ll go + insane. I <i>can</i>’T wait! You’ve been a wonderful sister to + me; I’ve always counted on you, and you’ve never once gone + back on me. Right now, I need you to help me more than I ever have in my + life. Will you——” + </p> + <p> + “But I must know——” + </p> + <p> + “No, you needn’t! I’ll tell you just this much: I’ve + got myself in a devil of a mess——” + </p> + <p> + Laura threw her arms round her: “Oh, my dear, dear little sister!” + she cried. + </p> + <p> + But Cora drew away. “Now that’s just what you mustn’t + do. I can’t stand it! You’ve got to be <i>quiet</i>. I can’t——” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, yes,” Laura said hurriedly. “I will. I’ll do + whatever you say.” + </p> + <p> + “It’s perfectly simple: all I want you to do is to take charge + of my travelling-bag, and, when a messenger-boy comes, give it to him + without letting anybody know anything about it.” + </p> + <p> + “But I’ve got to know where you’re going—I can’t + let you go and not——” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, you can! Besides, you’ve promised to. I’m not + going to do anything foolish ——” + </p> + <p> + “Then why not tell me?” Laura began. She went on, imploring + Cora to confide in her, entreating her to see their mother—to do a + dozen things altogether outside of Cora’s plans. + </p> + <p> + “You’re wasting your breath, Laura,” said the younger + sister, interrupting, “and wasting my time. You’re in the + dark: you think I’m going to run away with Val Corliss and you’re + wrong. I sent him out of the house for good, a while ago——” + </p> + <p> + “Thank heaven for that!” cried Laura. + </p> + <p> + “I’m going to take care of myself,” Cora went on + rapidly. “I’m going to get out of the mess I’m in, and + you’ve got to let me do it my own way. I’ll send you a note + from downtown. You see that the messenger——” + </p> + <p> + She was at the door, but Laura caught her by the sleeve, protesting and + beseeching. + </p> + <p> + Cora turned desperately. “See here. I’ll come back in two + hours and tell you all about it. If I promise that, will you promise to + send me the bag by the——” + </p> + <p> + “But if you’re coming back you won’t need——” + </p> + <p> + Cora spoke very quietly. “I’ll go to pieces in a moment. + Really, I do think I’d better jump out of the window and have it + over.” + </p> + <p> + “I’ll send the bag,” Laura quavered, “if you’ll + promise to come back in two hours.” + </p> + <p> + “I promise!” + </p> + <p> + Cora gave her a quick embrace, a quick kiss, and, dry-eyed, ran out of the + room, down the stairs, and out of the house. + </p> + <p> + She walked briskly down Corliss Street. It was a clear day, bright noon, + with an exhilarating tang in the air, and a sky so glorious that people + outdoors were continually conscious of the blue overhead, and looked up at + it often. An autumnal cheerfulness was abroad, and pedestrians showed it + in their quickened steps, in their enlivened eyes, and frequent smiles, + and in the colour of their faces. But none showed more colour or a gayer + look than Cora. She encountered many whom she knew, for it was indeed a + day to be stirring, and she nodded and smiled her way all down the long + street, thinking of what these greeted people would say to-morrow. “<i>I</i> + saw her yesterday, walking down Corliss Street, about noon, in a gray suit + and looking fairly radiant!” Some of those she met were enemies she + had chastened; she prophesied their remarks with accuracy. Some were old + suitors, men who had desired her; one or two had place upon her long list + of boy-sweethearts: she gave the same gay, friendly nod to each of them, + and foretold his morrow’s thoughts of her, in turn. Her greeting of + Mary Kane was graver, as was aesthetically appropriate, Mr. Wattling’s + engagement having been broken by that lady, immediately after his drive to + the Country Club for tea. Cora received from the beautiful jilt a + salutation even graver than her own, which did not confound her. + </p> + <p> + Halfway down the street was a drug-store. She went in, and obtained + appreciative permission to use the telephone. She came out well satisfied, + and went swiftly on her way. Ten minutes later, she opened the door of + Wade Trumble’s office. + </p> + <p> + He was alone; her telephone had caught him in the act of departing for + lunch. But he had been glad to wait—glad to the verge of agitation. + </p> + <p> + “By George, Cora!” he exclaimed, as she came quickly in and + closed the door, “but you <i>can</i> look stunning! Believe me, that’s + some get-up. But let me tell you right here and now, before you begin, it’s + no use your tackling me again on the oil proposition. If there was any + chance of my going into it which there wasn’t, not one on earth—why, + the very fact of your asking me would have stopped me. I’m no Dick + Lindley, I beg to inform you: I don’t spend my money helping a girl + that I want, myself, to make a hit with another man. You treated me like a + dog about that, right in the street, and you needn’t try it again, + because I won’t stand for it. You can’t play <i>me</i>, Cora!” + </p> + <p> + “Wade,” she said, coming closer, and looking at him + mysteriously, “didn’t you tell me to come to you when I got + through playing?” + </p> + <p> + “What?” He grew very red, took a step back from her, staring + at her distrustfully, incredulously. + </p> + <p> + “I’ve got through playing”, she said in a low voice. + “And I’ve come to you.” + </p> + <p> + He was staggered. “You’ve come——” he said, + huskily. + </p> + <p> + “Here I am, Wade.” + </p> + <p> + He had flushed, but now the colour left his small face, and he grew very + white. “I don’t believe you mean it.” + </p> + <p> + “Listen,” she said. “I was rotten to you about that oil + nonsense. It <i>was</i> nonsense, nothing on earth but nonsense. I tell + you frankly I was a fool. I didn’t care the snap of my finger for + Corliss, but—oh, what’s the use of pretending? You were always + such a great `business man,’ always so absorbed in business, and put + it before everything else in the world. You cared for me, but you cared + for business more than for me. Well, no woman likes <i>that</i>, Wade. I’ve + come to tell you the whole thing: I can’t stand it any longer. I + suffered horribly because—because——” She faltered. + “Wade, that was no way to <i>win</i> a girl.” + </p> + <p> + “Cora!” His incredulity was strong. + </p> + <p> + “I thought I hated you for it, Wade. Yes, I did think that; I’m + telling you everything, you see just blurting it out as it comes, Wade. + Well, Corliss asked me to help him, and it struck me I’d show that I + could understand a business deal, myself. Wade, this is pretty hard to + say, I was such a little fool, but you ought to know it. You’ve got + a right to know it, Wade: I thought if I put through a thing like that, it + would make a tremendous hit with you, and that then I could say: `So this + is the kind of thing you put ahead of <i>me</i>, is it? Simple little + things like this, that <i>I</i> can do, myself, by turning over my little + finger!’ So I got Richard to go in—that was easy; and then it + struck me that the crowning triumph of the whole thing would be to get you + to come in yourself. That <i>would</i> be showing you, I thought! But you + wouldn’t: you put me in my place—and I was angry—I never + was so angry in my life, and I showed it.” Tears came into her + voice. “Oh, Wade,” she said, softly, “it was the very + wildness of my anger that showed what I really felt.” + </p> + <p> + “About—about <i>me</i>?” His incredulity struggled with + his hope. He stepped close to her. + </p> + <p> + “What an awful fool I’ve been,” she sighed. + </p> + <p> + “Why, I thought I could show you I was your <i>equal</i>! And look + what it’s got me into, Wade!” + </p> + <p> + “What has it got you into, Cora?” + </p> + <p> + “One thing worth while: I can see what I really am when I try to + meet you on your own ground.” She bent her head, humbly, then lifted + it, and spoke rapidly. “All the rest is dreadful, Wade. I had a + distrust of Corliss from the first; I didn’t like him, but I took + him up because I thought he offered the chance to show <i>you</i> what I + could do. Well, it’s got me into a most horrible mess. He’s a + swindler, a rank——” + </p> + <p> + “By George!” Wade shouted. “Cora, you’re talking + out now like a real woman.” + </p> + <p> + “Listen. I got horribly tired of him after a week or so, but I’d + promised to help him and I didn’t break with him; but yesterday I + just couldn’t stand him any longer and I told him so, and sent him + away. Then, this morning, an old man came to the house, a man named Pryor, + who knew him and knew his record, and he told me all about him.” She + narrated the interview. + </p> + <p> + “But you had sent Corliss away first?” Wade asked, sharply. + </p> + <p> + “Yesterday, I tell you.” She set her hand on the little man’s + shoulder. “Wade, there’s bound to be a scandal over all this. + Even if Corliss gets away without being arrested and tried, the whole + thing’s bound to come <i>out</i>. I’ll be the laughing-stock + of the town—and I deserve to be: it’s all through having been + ridiculous idiot enough to try and impress you with my business + brilliancy. Well, I can’t stand it!” + </p> + <p> + “Cora, do you——” He faltered. + </p> + <p> + She leaned toward him, her hand still on his shoulder, her exquisite voice + lowered, and thrilling in its sweetness. “Wade, I’m through + playing. I’ve come to you at last because you’ve utterly + conquered me. If you’ll take me away to-day, I’ll <i>marry</i> + you to-day!” + </p> + <p> + He gave a shout that rang again from the walls. + </p> + <p> + “Do you want me?” she whispered; then smiled upon his rapture + indulgently. + </p> + <p> + Rapture it was. With the word “marry,” his incredulity sped + forever. But for a time he was incoherent: he leaped and hopped, spoke + broken bits of words, danced fragmentarily, ate her with his eyes, + partially embraced her, and finally kissed her timidly. + </p> + <p> + “Such a wedding we’ll have!” he shouted, after that. + </p> + <p> + “No!” she said sharply. “We’ll be married by a + Justice of the Peace and not a soul there but us, and it will be now, or + it never will be! If you don’t——” + </p> + <p> + He swore she should have her way. + </p> + <p> + “Then we’ll be out of this town on the three o’clock + train this afternoon,” she said. She went on with her plans, while + he, growing more accustomed to his privilege, caressed her as he would. + “You shall have your way,” she said, “in everything + except the wedding-journey. That’s got to be a long one—I won’t + come back here till people have forgotten all about this Corliss mix-up. I’ve + never been abroad, and I want you to take me. We can stay a long, long + time. I’ve brought nothing—we’ll get whatever we want in + New York before we sail.” + </p> + <p> + He agreed to everything. He had never really hoped to win her; paradise + had opened, dazing him with glory: he was astounded, mad with joy, and + abjectly his lady’s servant. + </p> + <p> + “Hadn’t you better run along and get the license?” she + laughed. “We’ll have to be married on the way to the train.” + “Cora!” he gasped. “You angel!” + </p> + <p> + “I’ll wait here for you,” she smiled. “There won’t + be too much time.” + </p> + <p> + He obtained a moderate control of his voice and feet. “Enfield—that’s + my cashier—he’ll be back from his lunch at one-thirty. Tell + him about us, if I’m not here by then. Tell him he’s got to + manage somehow. Good-bye till I come back Mrs. Trumble!” + </p> + <p> + At the door he turned. “Oh, have you—you——” + He paused uncertainly. “Have you sent Richard Lindley any word about——” + </p> + <p> + “Wade!” She gave his inquiry an indulgent amusement. “If + I’m not worrying about him, do you think you need to?” + </p> + <p> + “I meant about——” + </p> + <p> + “You funny thing,” she said. “I never had any idea of + really marrying him; it wasn’t anything but one of those silly + half-engagements, and——” + </p> + <p> + “I didn’t mean that,” he said, apologetically. “I + meant about letting him know what this Pryor told you about Corliss, so + that Richard might do something toward getting his money back. We ought to—” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, yes,” she said quickly. “Yes, that’s all + right.” + </p> + <p> + “You saw Richard?” + </p> + <p> + “No. I sent him a note. He knows all about it by this time, if he + has been home this morning. You’d better start, Wade. Send a + messenger to our house for my bag. Tell him to bring it here and then take + a note for me. You’d really better start—dear!” + </p> + <p> + “<i>Cora</i>!” he shouted, took her in his arms, and was gone. + His departing gait down the corridor to the elevator seemed, from the + sounds, to be a gallop. + </p> + <p> + Left alone, Cora wrote, sealed, and directed a note to Laura. In it she + recounted what Pryor had told her of Corliss; begged Laura and her parents + not to think her heartless in not preparing them for this abrupt marriage. + She was in such a state of nervousness, she wrote, that explanations would + have caused a breakdown. The marriage was a sensible one; she had long + contemplated it as a possibility; and, after thinking it over thoroughly, + she had decided it was the only thing to do. She sent her undying love. + </p> + <p> + She was sitting with this note in her hand when shuffling footsteps + sounded in the corridor; either Wade’s cashier or the messenger, she + supposed. The door-knob turned, a husky voice asking, “Want a drink?” + as the door opened. + </p> + <p> + Cora was not surprised—she knew Vilas’s office was across the + hall from that in which she waited—but she was frightened. + </p> + <p> + Ray stood blinking at her. + </p> + <p> + “What are you doing here?” he asked, at last. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0023" id="link2HCH0023"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE + </h2> + <p> + It is probable that he got the truth out of her, perhaps all of it. That + will remain a matter of doubt; Cora’s evidence, if she gave it, not + being wholly trustworthy in cases touching herself. But she felt no need + of mentioning to any one that she had seen her former lover that day. He + had gone before the return of Enfield, Mr. Trumble’s assistant, who + was a little later than usual, it happened; and the extreme nervousness + and preoccupation exhibited by Cora in telling Enfield of his employer’s + new plans were attributed by the cashier to the natural agitation of a + lady about to wed in a somewhat unusual (though sensible) manner. + </p> + <p> + It is the more probable that she told Ray the whole truth, because he + already knew something of Corliss’s record abroad. On the dusty desk + in Ray’s own office lay a letter, received that morning from the + American Consul at Naples, which was luminous upon that subject, and upon + the probabilities of financial returns for the investment of a thousand + dollars in the alleged oil-fields of Basilicata. + </p> + <p> + In addition, Cora had always found it very difficult to deceive Vilas: he + had an almost perfect understanding of a part of her nature; she could + never far mislead him about herself. With her, he was intuitive and jumped + to strange, inconsistent, true conclusions, as women do. He had the art of + reading her face, her gestures; he had learned to listen to the tone of + her voice more than to what she said. In his cups, too, he had fitful but + almost demoniac inspirations for hidden truth. + </p> + <p> + And, remembering that Cora always “got even,” it remains + finally to wonder if she might not have told him everything at the + instance of some shadowy impulse in that direction. There may have been a + luxury in whatever confession she made; perhaps it was not entirely forced + from her, and heaven knows how she may have coloured it. There was an + elusive, quiet satisfaction somewhere in her subsequent expression; it + lurked deep under the surface of the excitement with which she talked to + Enfield of her imminent marital abduction of his small boss. + </p> + <p> + Her agitation, a relic of the unknown interview just past, simmered down + soon, leaving her in a becoming glow of colour, with slender threads of + moisture brilliantly outlining her eyelids. Mr. Enfield, a young, + well-favoured and recent importation from another town, was deliciously + impressed by the charm of the waiting lady. They had not met; and Enfield + wondered how Trumble had compassed such an enormous success as this; and + he wished that he had seen her before matters had gone so far. He thought + he might have had a chance. She seemed pleasantly interested in him, even + as it was—and her eyes were wonderful, with their swift, warm, + direct little plunges into those of a chance comrade of the moment. She + went to the window, in her restlessness, looking down upon the swarming + street below, and the young man, standing beside her, felt her shoulder + most pleasantly though very lightly—in contact with his own, as they + leaned forward, the better to see some curiosity of advertising that + passed. She turned her face to his just then, and told him that he must + come to see her: the wedding journey would be long, she said, but it would + not be forever. + </p> + <p> + Trumble bounded in, shouting that everything was attended to, except + instructions to Enfield, whom he pounded wildly upon the back. He began + signing papers; a stenographer was called from another room of his + offices; and there was half an hour of rapid-fire. Cora’s bag came, + and she gave the bearer the note for Laura; another bag was brought for + Wade; and both bags were carried down to the automobile the bridegroom had + left waiting in the street. Last, came a splendid cluster of orchids for + the bride to wear, and then Wade, with his arm about her, swept her into + the corridor, and the stirred Enfield was left to his own beating heart, + and the fresh, radiant vision of this startling new acquaintance: the + sweet mystery of the look she had thrown back at him over his employer’s + shoulder at the very last. “Do not forget <i>me</i>!” it had + seemed to say. “We shall come back—some day.” + </p> + <p> + The closed car bore the pair to the little grim marriage-shop quickly + enough, though they were nearly run down by a furious police patrol + automobile, at a corner near the Richfield Hotel. Their escape was by a + very narrow margin of safety, and Cora closed her eyes. Then she was + cross, because she had been frightened, and commanded Wade cavalierly to + bid the driver be more careful. + </p> + <p> + Wade obeyed sympathetically. “Of course, though, it wasn’t + altogether his fault,” he said, settling back, his arm round his + lady’s waist. “It’s an outrage for the police to break + their own rules that way. I guess they don’t need to be in a hurry + any more than <i>we</i> do!” + </p> + <p> + The Justice made short work of it. + </p> + <p> + As they stood so briefly before him, there swept across her vision the + memory of what she had always prophesied as her wedding:—a crowded + church, “The Light That Breathed O’er Eden” from an + unseen singer; then the warm air trembling to the Lohengrin march; all + heads turning; the procession down the aisle; herself appearing—climax + of everything—a delicious and brilliant figure: graceful, rosy, shy, + an imperial prize for the groom, who in these foreshadowings had always + been very indistinct. The picture had always failed in outline there: the + bridegroom’s nearest approach to definition had never been clearer + than a composite photograph. The truth is, Cora never in her life wished + to be married. + </p> + <p> + But she was. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0024" id="link2HCH0024"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR + </h2> + <p> + Valentine Corliss had nothing to do but to wait for the money his friend + Antonio would send him by cable. His own cable, anticipating his letter, + had been sent yesterday, when he came back to the hotel, after lunching in + the country with Cora. + </p> + <p> + As he walked down Corliss Street, after his tumultuous interview with her, + he was surprised to find himself physically tremulous: he had not supposed + that an encounter, however violent, with an angry woman could so upset his + nerves. It was no fear of Pryor which shook him. He knew that Pryor did + not mean to cause his arrest—certainly not immediately. Of course, + Pryor knew that Cora would tell him. The old fellow’s move was a + final notification. It meant: “Get out of town within twenty-four + hours.” And Corliss intended to obey. He would have left that + evening, indeed, without the warning; his trunk was packed. + </p> + <p> + He would miss Cora. He had kept a cool head throughout their affair until + the last; but this morning she had fascinated him: and he found himself + passionately admiring the fury of her. She had confused him as he had + never been confused. He thought he had tamed her; thought he owned her; + and the discovery of this mistake was what made him regret that she would + not come away with him. Such a flight, until to-day, had been one of his + apprehensions: but now the thought that it was not to be, brought + something like pain. At least, he felt a vacancy; had a sense of something + lacking. She would have been a bright comrade for the voyage; and he + thought of gestures of hers, turns of the head, tricks of the lovely + voice; and sighed. + </p> + <p> + Of course it was best for him that he could return to his old trails alone + and free; he saw that. Cora would have been a complication and an + embarrassment without predictable end, but she would have been a rare + flame for a while. He wondered what she meant to do; of course she had a + plan. Should he try again, give her another chance? No; there was one + point upon which she had not mystified him: he knew she really hated him. + </p> + <p> + . . . The wind was against the smoke that day; and his spirits rose, as he + walked in the brisk air with the rich sky above him. After all, this + venture upon his native purlieus had been fax from fruitless: he could not + have expected to do much better. He had made his coup; he knew no other + who could have done it. It was a handsome bit of work, in fact, and + possible only to a talented native thoroughly sophisticated in certain + foreign subtleties. He knew himself for a rare combination. + </p> + <p> + He had a glimmer of Richard Lindley beginning at the beginning again to + build a modest fortune: it was the sort of thing the Richard Lindleys were + made for. Corliss was not troubled. Richard had disliked him as a boy; did + not like him now; but Corliss had not taken his money out of malice for + that. The adventurer was not revengeful; he was merely impervious. + </p> + <p> + At the hotel, he learned that Moliterno’s cable had not yet arrived; + but he went to an agency of one of the steamship lines and reserved his + passage, and to a railway ticket office and secured a compartment for + himself on an evening train. Then he returned to his room in the hotel. + </p> + <p> + The mirror over the mantelpiece, in the front room of his suite, showed + him a fine figure of a man: hale, deep-chested, handsome, straight and + cheerful. + </p> + <p> + He nodded to it. + </p> + <p> + “Well, old top,” he said, reviewing and summing up his whole + campaign, “not so bad. Not so bad, all in all; not so bad, old top. + Well played indeed!” + </p> + <p> + At a sound of footsteps approaching his door, he turned in casual + expectancy, thinking it might be a boy to notify him that Moliterno’s + cable had arrived. But there was no knock, and the door was flung wide + open. + </p> + <p> + It was Vilas, and he had his gun with him this time. He had two. + </p> + <p> + There was a shallow clothes-closet in the wall near the fireplace, and + Corliss ran in there; but Vilas began to shoot through the door. + </p> + <p> + Mutilated, already a dead man, and knowing it, Corliss came out, and tried + to run into the bedroom. It was no use. + </p> + <p> + Ray saved his last shot for himself. It did the work. + </p> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0025" id="link2HCH0025"> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE + </h2> + <p> + There is a song of parting, an intentionally pathetic song, which contains + the line, “All the tomorrows shall be as to-day,” meaning + equally gloomy. Young singers, loving this line, take care to pronounce + the words with unusual distinctness: the listener may feel that the + performer has the capacity for great and consistent suffering. It is not, + of course, that youth loves unhappiness, but the appearance of it, its + supposed picturesqueness. Youth runs from what is pathetic, but hangs + fondly upon pathos. It is the idea of sorrow, not sorrow, which charms: + and so the young singer dwells upon those lingering tomorrows, happy in + the conception of a permanent wretchedness incurred in the interest of + sentiment. For youth believes in permanence. + </p> + <p> + It is when we are young that we say, “I shall never,” and + “I shall always,” not knowing that we are only time’s + atoms in a crucible of incredible change. An old man scarce dares say, + “I have never,” for he knows that if he searches he will find, + probably, that he has. “All, all is change.” + </p> + <p> + It was an evening during the winter holidays when Mrs. Lindley, coming to + sit by the fire in her son’s smoking-room, where Richard sat + glooming, narrated her legend of the Devil of Lisieux. It must have been + her legend: the people of Lisieux know nothing of it; but this Richard the + Guileless took it for tradition, as she alleged it, and had no suspicion + that she had spent the afternoon inventing it. + </p> + <p> + She did not begin the recital immediately upon taking her chair, across + the hearth from her son; she led up to it. She was an ample, + fresh-coloured, lively woman; and like her son only in being a kind soul: + he got neither his mortal seriousness nor his dreaminess from her. She was + more than content with Cora’s abandonment of him, though, as + chivalrousness was not demanded of her, she would have preferred that he + should have been the jilt. She thought Richard well off in his release, + even at the price of all his savings. But there was something to hope, + even in that matter, Pryor wrote from Paris encouragingly: he believed + that Moliterno might be frightened or forced into at least a partial + restitution; though Richard would not count upon it, and had “begun + at the beginning” again, as a small-salaried clerk in a bank, + trudging patiently to work in the morning and home in the evening, a + long-faced, tired young man, more absent than ever, lifeless, and with no + interest in anything outside his own broodings. His mother, pleased with + his misfortune in love, was of course troubled that it should cause him to + suffer. She knew she could not heal him; but she also knew that everything + is healed in time, and that sometimes it is possible for people to help + time a little. + </p> + <p> + Her first remark to her son, this evening, was that to the best of her + memory she had never used the word “hellion.” And, upon his + saying gently, no, he thought it probable that she never had, but seeking + no farther and dropping his eyes to the burning wood, apparently under the + impression that the subject was closed, she informed him brusquely that it + was her intention to say it now. + </p> + <p> + “What is it you want to say, mother?” + </p> + <p> + “If I can bring myself to use the word `hellion’,” she + returned, “I’m going to say that of all the heaven-born, + whole-souled and consistent ones I ever knew Hedrick Madison is the King.” + </p> + <p> + “In what new way?” he inquired. + </p> + <p> + “Egerton Villard. Egerton used to be the neatest, best-mannered, + best-dressed boy in town; but he looks and behaves like a Digger Indian + since he’s taken to following Hedrick around. Mrs. Villard says it’s + the greatest sorrow of her life, but she’s quite powerless: the boy + is Hedrick’s slave. The other day she sent a servant after him, and + just bringing him home nearly ruined her limousine. He was solidly covered + with molasses, over his clothes and all, from head to foot, and then he’d + rolled in hay and chicken feathers to be a <i>gnu</i> for Hedrick to kodak + in the African Wilds of the Madisons’ stable. Egerton didn’t + know what a gnu was, but Hedrick told him that was the way to be one, he + said. Then, when they’d got him scraped and boiled, and most of his + hair pulled out, a policemen came to arrest him for stealing the jug of + molasses at a corner grocery.” + </p> + <p> + Richard nodded, and smiled faintly for comment. They sat in silence for a + while. + </p> + <p> + “I saw Mrs. Madison yesterday,” said his mother. “She + seemed very cheerful; her husband is able to talk almost perfectly again, + though he doesn’t get downstairs. Laura reads to him a great deal.” + </p> + <p> + He nodded again, his gaze not moving from the fire. + </p> + <p> + “Laura was with her mother,” said Mrs. Lindley. “She + looked very fetching in a black cloth suit and a fur hat—old ones + her sister left, I suspect, but very becoming, for all that. Laura’s + `going out’ more than usual this winter. She’s really the + belle of the holiday dances, I hear. Of course she would be”, she + added, thoughtfully—“now.” + </p> + <p> + “Why should she be `now’ more than before?” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Laura’s quite blossomed,” Mrs. Lindley answered. + “I think she’s had some great anxieties relieved. Of course + both she and her mother must have worried about Cora as much as they + waited on her. It must be a great burden lifted to have her comfortably + settled, or, at least, disposed of. I thought they both looked better. But + I have a special theory about Laura: I suppose you’ll laugh at me——” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no.” + </p> + <p> + “I wish you would sometimes,” she said wistfully, “so + only you laughed. My idea is that Laura was in love with that poor little + Trumble, too.” + </p> + <p> + “What?” He looked up at that. + </p> + <p> + “Yes; girls fall in love with anybody. I fancy she cared very deeply + for him; but I think she’s a strong, sane woman, now. She’s + about the steadiest, coolest person I know—and I know her better, + lately, than I used to. I think she made up her mind that she’d not + sit down and mope over her unhappiness, and that she’d get over what + caused it; and she took the very best remedy: she began going about, going + everywhere, and she went gayly, too! And I’m sure she’s cured; + I’m sure she doesn’t care the snap of her fingers for Wade + Trumble or any man alive. She’s having a pretty good time, I + imagine: she has everything in the world except money, and she’s + never cared at all about <i>that</i>. She’s young, and she dresses + well—these days—and she’s one of the handsomest girls in + town; she plays like a poet, and she dances well——” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said Richard;—reflectively, “she does dance + well.” + </p> + <p> + “And from what I hear from Mrs. Villard,” continued his + mother, “I guess she has enough young men in love with her to keep + any girl busy.” + </p> + <p> + He was interested enough to show some surprise. “In love with Laura?” + </p> + <p> + “Four, I hear.” The best of women are sometimes the readiest + with impromptu statistics. + </p> + <p> + “Well, well!” he said, mildly. + </p> + <p> + “You see, Laura has taken to smiling on the world, and the world + smiles back at her. It’s not a bad world about that, Richard.” + </p> + <p> + “No,” he sighed. “I suppose not.” + </p> + <p> + “But there’s more than that in this case, my dear son.” + </p> + <p> + “Is there?” + </p> + <p> + The intelligent and gentle matron laughed as though at some unexpected + turn of memory and said: + </p> + <p> + “Speaking of Hedrick, did you ever hear the story of the Devil of + Lisieux, Richard?” + </p> + <p> + “I think not; at least, I don’t remember it.” + </p> + <p> + “Lisieux is a little town in Normandy,” she said. “I was + there a few days with your father, one summer, long ago. It’s a + country full of old stories, folklore, and traditions; and the people + still believe in the Old Scratch pretty literally. This legend was of the + time when he came to Lisieux. The people knew he was coming because a wise + woman had said that he was on the way, and predicted that he would arrive + at the time of the great fair. Everybody was in great distress, because + they knew that whoever looked at him would become bewitched, but, of + course, they had to go to the fair. The wise woman was able to give them a + little comfort; she said some one was coming with the devil, and that the + people must not notice the devil, but keep their eyes fastened on this + other—then they would be free of the fiend’s influence. But, + when the devil arrived at the fair, nobody even looked to see who his + companion was, for the devil was so picturesque, so vivid, all in flaming + scarlet and orange, and he capered and danced and sang so that nobody + could help looking at him—and, after looking once, they couldn’t + look away until they were thoroughly under his spell. So they were all + bewitched, and began to scream and howl and roll on the ground, and turn + on each other and brawl, and `commit all manner of excesses.’ Then + the wise woman was able to exorcise the devil, and he sank into the + ground; but his companion stayed, and the people came to their senses, and + looked, and they saw that it was an angel. The angel had been there all + the time that the fiend was, of course. So they have a saying now, that + there may be angels with us, but we don’t notice them when the devil’s + about.” + </p> + <p> + She did not look at her son as she finished, and she had hurried through + the latter part of her “legend” with increasing timidity. The + parallel was more severe, now that she put it to him, than she intended; + it sounded savage; and she feared she had overshot her mark. Laura, of + course, was the other, the companion; she had been actually a companion + for the vivid sister, everywhere with her at the fair, and never + considered: now she emerged from her overshadowed obscurity, and people + were able to see her as an individual—heretofore she had been merely + the retinue of a flaming Cora. But the “legend” was not very + gallant to Cora! + </p> + <p> + Mrs. Lindley knew that it hurt her son; she felt it without looking at + him, and before he gave a sign. As it was, he did not speak, but, after a + few moments, rose and went quietly out of the room: then she heard the + front door open and close. She sat by his fire a long, long time and was + sorry—and wondered. + </p> + <p> + When Richard came home from his cold night-prowl in the snowy streets, he + found a sheet of note paper upon his pillow: + </p> + <p> + “Dearest Richard, I didn’t mean that anybody you ever cared + for was a d—-l. I only meant that often the world finds out that + there are lovely people it hasn’t noticed.” + </p> + <p> + . . . He reproached himself, then, for the reproach his leaving her had + been; he had a susceptible and annoying conscience, this unfortunate + Richard. He found it hard to get to sleep, that night; and was kept awake + long after he had planned how he would make up to his mother for having + received her “legend” so freezingly. What kept him awake, + after that, was a dim, rhythmic sound coming from the house next door, + where a holiday dance was in progress—music far away and slender: + fiddle, ‘cello, horn, bassoon, drums, all rollicking away almost the + night-long, seeping through the walls to his restless pillow. Finally, + when belated drowsiness came, the throbbing tunes mingled with his + half-dreams, and he heard the light shuffling of multitudinous feet over + the dancing-floor, and became certain that Laura’s were among them. + He saw her, gliding, swinging, laughing, and happy and the picture did not + please him: it seemed to him that she would have been much better employed + sitting in black to write of a hopeless love. Coquetting with four suitors + was not only inconsistent; it was unbecoming. It “suited Cora’s + style,” but in Laura it was outrageous. When he woke, in the + morning, he was dreaming of her: dressed as Parthenia, beautiful, and + throwing roses to an acclaiming crowd through which she was borne on a + shield upon the shoulders of four Antinouses. Richard thought it + scandalous. + </p> + <p> + His indignation with her had not worn off when he descended to breakfast, + but he made up to his mother for having troubled her. Then, to cap his + gallantry, he observed that several inches of snow must have fallen during + the night; it would be well packed upon the streets by noon; he would get + a sleigh, after lunch, and take her driving. It was a holiday. + </p> + <p> + She thanked him, but half-declined. “I’m afraid it’s too + cold for me, but there are lots of nice girls in town, Richard, who won’t + mind weather.” + </p> + <p> + “But I asked <i>you</i>!” It was finally left an open question + for the afternoon to settle; and, upon her urging, he went out for a walk. + She stood at the window to watch him, and, when she saw that he turned + northward, she sank into a chair, instead of going to give Joe Varden his + after-breakfast instructions, and fell into a deep reverie. + </p> + <p> + Outdoors, it was a biting cold morning, wind-swept and gray; and with air + so frosty-pure no one might breathe it and stay bilious: neither in body + nor bilious in spirit. It was a wind to sweep the yellow from jaundiced + cheeks and make them rosy; a wind to clear dulled eyes; it was a wind to + lift foolish hearts, to lift them so high they might touch heaven and go + winging down the sky, the wildest of wild-geese. + </p> + <p> + . . . When the bell rang, Laura was kneeling before the library fire, + which she had just kindled, and she had not risen when Sarah brought + Richard to the doorway. She was shabby enough, poor Cinderella! looking + up, so frightened, when her prince appeared. + </p> + <p> + She had not been to the dance. + </p> + <p> + She had not four suitors. She had none. + </p> + <p> + He came toward her. She rose and stepped back a little. Ashes had blown + upon her, and, oh, the old, old thought of the woman born to be a mother! + she was afraid his clothes might get dusty if he came too close. + </p> + <p> + But to Richard she looked very beautiful; and a strange thing happened: + trembling, he saw that the firelight upon her face was brighter than any + firelight he had ever seen. + </p> + <div style="height: 6em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Flirt, by Booth Tarkington + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLIRT *** + +***** This file should be named 297-h.htm or 297-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/297/ + +Etext produced by and anonymous Project Gutenberg volunteer. + +HTML file produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Flirt + +Author: Booth Tarkington + +Release Date: July 3, 2004 [EBook #297] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLIRT *** + + + + +This etext was prepared with the use of Calera WordScan Plus 2.0 + + + + + +THE FLIRT + +BY +BOOTH TARKINGTON + + + +To +SUSANAH + + +THE FLIRT + +CHAPTER ONE + +Valentine Corliss walked up Corliss Street the hottest afternoon +of that hot August, a year ago, wearing a suit of white serge +which attracted a little attention from those observers who were +able to observe anything except the heat. The coat was shaped +delicately; it outlined the wearer, and, fitting him as women's +clothes fit women, suggested an effeminacy not an attribute of the +tall Corliss. The effeminacy belonged all to the tailor, an artist +plying far from Corliss Street, for the coat would have +encountered a hundred of its fellows at Trouville or Ostende this +very day. Corliss Street is the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, the +Park Lane, the Fifth Avenue, of Capitol City, that smoky +illuminant of our great central levels, but although it esteems +itself an established cosmopolitan thoroughfare, it is still +provincial enough to be watchful; and even in its torrid languor +took some note of the alien garment. + +Mr. Corliss, treading for the first time in seventeen years the +pavements of this namesake of his grandfather, mildly repaid its +interest in himself. The street, once the most peaceful in the +world, he thought, had changed. It was still long and straight, +still shaded by trees so noble that they were betrothed, here and +there, high over the wide white roadway, the shimmering tunnels +thus contrived shot with gold and blue; but its pristine complete +restfulness was departed: gasoline had arrived, and a pedestrian, +even this August day of heat, must glance two ways before +crossing. + +Architectural transformations, as vital, staggered the returned +native. In his boyhood that posthumously libelled sovereign lady, +Anne, had terribly prevailed among the dwellings on this highway; +now, however, there was little left of the jig-saw's hare-brained +ministrations; but the growing pains of the adolescent city had +wrought some madness here. There had been a revolution which was a +riot; and, plainly incited by a new outbreak of the colonies, the +Goth, the Tudor, and the Tuscan had harried the upper reaches to a +turmoil attaining its climax in a howl or two from the Spanish +Moor. + +Yet it was a pleasant street in spite of its improvements; in +spite, too, of a long, gray smoke-plume crossing the summer sky +and dropping an occasional atomy of coal upon Mr. Corliss's white +coat. The green continuous masses of tree-foliage, lawn, and +shrubbery were splendidly asserted; there was a faint wholesome +odour from the fine block pavement of the roadway, white, save +where the snailish water-wagon laid its long strips of steaming +brown. Locusts, serenaders of the heat, invisible among the +branches, rasped their interminable cadences, competing bitterly +with the monotonous chattering of lawn-mowers propelled by +glistening black men over the level swards beneath. And though +porch and terrace were left to vacant wicker chairs and +swinging-seats, and to flowers and plants in jars and green boxes, +and the people sat unseen--and, it might be guessed, unclad for +exhibition, in the dimmer recesses of their houses--nevertheless, +a summery girl under an alluring parasol now and then prettily +trod the sidewalks, and did not altogether suppress an ample +consciousness of the white pedestrian's stalwart grace; nor was +his quick glance too distressingly modest to be aware of these +faint but attractive perturbations. + +A few of the oldest houses remained as he remembered them, and +there were two or three relics of mansard and cupola days; but the +herd of cast-iron deer that once guarded these lawns, standing +sentinel to all true gentry: Whither were they fled? In his +boyhood, one specimen betokened a family of position and +affluence; two, one on each side of the front walk, spoke of a +noble opulence; two and a fountain were overwhelming. He wondered +in what obscure thickets that once proud herd now grazed; and then +he smiled, as through a leafy opening of shrubbery he caught a +glimpse of a last survivor, still loyally alert, the haughty head +thrown back in everlasting challenge and one foreleg lifted, +standing in a vast and shadowy backyard with a clothesline +fastened to its antlers. + +Mr. Corliss remembered that backyard very well: it was an old +battlefield whereon he had conquered; and he wondered if "the +Lindley boys" still lived there, and if Richard Lindley would hate +him now as implacably as then. + +A hundred yards farther on, he paused before a house more familiar +to him than any other, and gave it a moment's whimsical attention, +without emotion. + +It was a shabby old brick structure, and it stood among the +gayest, the most flamboyant dwellings of all Corliss Street like a +bewildered tramp surrounded by carnival maskers. It held place +full in the course of the fury for demolition and rebuilding, but +remained unaltered--even unrepaired, one might have thought--since +the early seventies, when it was built. There was a sagging +cornice, and the nauseous brown which the walls had years ago been +painted was sooted to a repellent dinge, so cracked and peeled +that the haggard red bricks were exposed, like a beggar through +the holes in his coat. It was one of those houses which are large +without being commodious; its very tall, very narrow windows, with +their attenuated, rusty inside shutters, boasting to the passerby +of high ceilings but betraying the miserly floor spaces. At each +side of the front door was a high and cramped bay-window, one of +them insanely culminating in a little six-sided tower of slate, +and both of them girdled above the basement windows by a narrow +porch, which ran across the front of the house and gave access to +the shallow vestibule. However, a pleasant circumstance modified +the gloom of this edifice and assured it a remnant of reserve and +dignity in its ill-considered old age: it stood back a fine +hundred feet from the highway, and was shielded in part by a +friendly group of maple trees and one glorious elm, hoary, robust, +and majestic, a veteran of the days when this was forest ground. + +Mr. Corliss concluded his momentary pause by walking up the broken +cement path, which was hard beset by plantain-weed and the long +grass of the ill-kept lawn. Ascending the steps, he was assailed +by an odour as of vehement bananas, a diffusion from some painful +little chairs standing in the long, high, dim, rather sorrowful +hall disclosed beyond the open double doors. They were stiff +little chairs of an inconsequent, mongrel pattern; armless, with +perforated wooden seats; legs tortured by the lathe to a semblance +of buttons strung on a rod; and they had that day received a +streaky coat of a gilding preparation which exhaled the olfactory +vehemence mentioned. Their present station was temporary, their +purpose, as obviously, to dry; and they were doing some incidental +gilding on their own account, leaving blots and splashes and +sporadic little round footprints on the hardwood floor. + +The old-fashioned brass bell-handle upon the caller's right +drooped from its socket in a dead fag, but after comprehensive +manipulation on the part of the young man, and equal complaint +on its own, it was constrained to permit a dim tinkle remotely. +Somewhere in the interior a woman's voice, not young, sang a +repeated fragment of "Lead, Kindly Light," to the accompaniment +of a flapping dust-cloth, sounds which ceased upon a second +successful encounter with the bell. Ensued a silence, probably to +be interpreted as a period of whispered consultation out of range; +a younger voice called softly and urgently, "Laura!" and a +dark-eyed, dark-haired girl of something over twenty made her +appearance to Mr. Corliss. + +At sight of her he instantly restored a thin gold card-case to the +pocket whence he was in the act of removing it. She looked at him +with only grave, impersonal inquiry; no appreciative invoice of +him was to be detected in her quiet eyes, which may have surprised +him, possibly the more because he was aware there was plenty of +appreciation in his own kindling glance. She was very white and +black, this lady. Tall, trim, clear, she looked cool in spite of +the black winter skirt she wore, an effect helped somewhat, +perhaps, by the crisp freshness of her white waist, with its +masculine collar and slim black tie, and undoubtedly by the even +and lustreless light ivory of her skin, against which the strong +black eyebrows and undulated black hair were lined with attractive +precision; but, most of all, that coolness was the emanation of +her undisturbed and tranquil eyes. They were not phlegmatic: a +continuing spark glowed far within them, not ardently, but +steadily and inscrutably, like the fixed stars in winter. + +Mr. Valentine Corliss, of Paris and Naples, removed his +white-ribboned straw hat and bowed as no one had ever bowed in +that doorway. This most vivid salutation--accomplished by adding +something to a rather quick inclination of the body from the hips, +with the back and neck held straight expressed deference without +affecting or inviting cordiality. It was an elaborate little +formality of a kind fancifully called "foreign," and evidently +habitual to the performer. + +It produced no outward effect upon the recipient. Such +self-control is unusual. + +"Is Mr. Madison at home? My name is Valentine Corliss." + +"He is at home." She indicated an open doorway upon her right. +"Will you wait in there?" + +"Thank you," said Mr. Corliss, passing within. "I shall be----" +He left the sentence unfinished, for he was already alone, and at +liberty to reflect upon the extraordinary coolness of this cool +young woman. + +The room, with its closed blinds, was soothingly dark after the +riotous sun without, a grateful obscurity which was one of two +attractions discovered in it by Mr. Corliss while he waited. It +was a depressing little chamber, disproportionately high, +uncheered by seven chairs (each of a different family, but all +belonging to the same knobby species, and all upholstered a +repellent blue), a scratched "inlaid table," likewise knobby, and +a dangerous looking small sofa--turbulent furniture, warmly +harmonious, however, in a common challenge to the visitor to take +comfort in any of it. A once-gilt gas chandelier hung from the +distant ceiling, with three globes of frosted glass, but +undeniable evidence that five were intended; and two of the three +had been severely bitten. There was a hostile little coal-grate, +making a mouth under a mantel of imitation black marble, behind an +old blue-satin fire-screen upon which red cat-tails and an owl +over a pond had been roughly embroidered in high relief, this owl +motive being the inspiration of innumerable other owls reflected +in innumerable other ponds in the formerly silver moonlight with +which the walls were papered. Corliss thought he remembered that +in his boyhood, when it was known as "the parlour" (though he +guessed that the Madison family called it "the reception room," +now) this was the place where his aunt received callers who, she +justifiably hoped, would not linger. Altogether, it struck him +that it might be a good test-room for an alienist: no incipient +lunacy would remain incipient here. + +There was one incongruity which surprised him--a wicker +waste-paper basket, so nonsensically out of place in this arid +cell, where not the wildest hare-brain could picture any one +coming to read or write, that he bestowed upon it a particular, +frowning attention, and so discovered the second attractive +possession of the room. A fresh and lovely pink rose, just opening +full from the bud, lay in the bottom of the basket. + +There was a rustling somewhere in the house and a murmur, above +which a boy's voice became audible in emphatic but +undistinguishable complaint. A whispering followed, and a woman +exclaimed protestingly, "Cora!" And then a startlingly pretty girl +came carelessly into the room through the open door. + +She was humming "Quand I' Amour Meurt" in a gay preoccupation, and +evidently sought something upon the table in the centre of the +room, for she continued her progress toward it several steps +before realizing the presence of a visitor. She was a year or so +younger than the girl who had admitted him, fairer and obviously +more plastic, more expressive, more perishable, a great deal more +insistently feminine; though it was to be seen that they were +sisters. This one had eyes almost as dark as the other's, but +these were not cool; they were sweet, unrestful, and seeking; +brilliant with a vivacious hunger: and not Diana but huntresses +more ardent have such eyes. Her hair was much lighter than her +sister's; it was the colour of dry corn-silk in the sun; and she +was the shorter by a head, rounder everywhere and not so slender; +but no dumpling: she was exquisitely made. There was a softness +about her: something of velvet, nothing of mush. She diffused with +her entrance a radiance of gayety and of gentleness; sunlight ran +with her. She seemed the incarnation of a caressing smile. + +She was point-device. Her close, white skirt hung from a plainly +embroidered white waist to a silken instep; and from the crown of +her charming head to the tall heels of her graceful white suede +slippers, heels of a sweeter curve than the waist of a violin, she +was as modern and lovely as this dingy old house was belated and +hideous. + +Mr. Valentine Corliss spared the fraction of a second for another +glance at the rose in the waste-basket. + +The girl saw him before she reached the table, gave a little gasp +of surprise, and halted with one hand carried prettily to her +breast. + +"Oh!" she said impulsively; "I _beg_ your pardon. I didn't know +there was---- I was looking for a book I thought I----" + +She stopped, whelmed with a breath-taking shyness, her eyes, after +one quick but condensed encounter with those of Mr. Corliss, +falling beneath exquisite lashes. Her voice was one to stir all +men: it needs not many words for a supremely beautiful +"speaking-voice" to be recognized for what it is; and this girl's +was like herself, hauntingly lovely. The intelligent young man +immediately realized that no one who heard it could ever forget +it. + +"I see," she faltered, turning to leave the room; "it isn't +here--the book." + +"There's something else of yours here," said Corliss. + +"Is there?" She paused, hesitating at the door, looking at him +over her shoulder uncertainly. + +"You dropped this rose." He lifted the rose from the waste-basket +and repeated the bow he had made at the front door. This time it +was not altogether wasted. + +"I?" + +"Yes. You lost it. It belongs to you." + +"Yes--it does. How curious!" she said slowly. "How curious it +happened to be _there_!" She stepped to take it from him, her eyes +upon his in charming astonishment. "And how odd that----" She +stopped; then said quickly: + +"How did you know it was _my_ rose?" + +"Any one would know!" + +Her expression of surprise was instantaneously merged in a flash +of honest pleasure and admiration, such as only an artist may feel +in the presence of a little masterpiece by a fellow-craftsman. + +Happily, anticlimax was spared them by the arrival of the person +for whom the visitor had asked at the door, and the young man +retained the rose in his hand. + +Mr. Madison, a shapeless hillock with a large, harassed, red face, +evidently suffered from the heat: his gray hair was rumpled back +from a damp forehead; the sleeves of his black alpaca coat were +pulled up to the elbow above his uncuffed white shirtsleeves; and +he carried in one mottled hand the ruins of a palm-leaf fan, in +the other a balled wet handkerchief which released an aroma of +camphor upon the banana-burdened air. He bore evidences of +inadequate adjustment after a disturbed siesta, but, exercising a +mechanical cordiality, preceded himself into the room by a genial +half-cough and a hearty, "Well-well-well," as if wishing to +indicate a spirit of polite, even excited, hospitality. + +"I expected you might be turning up, after your letter," he said, +shaking hands. "Well, well, well! I remember you as a boy. +Wouldn't have known you, of course; but I expect you'll find the +town about as much changed as you are." + +With a father's blindness to all that is really vital, he +concluded his greeting inconsequently: "Oh, this is my little girl +Cora." + +"Run along, little girl," said the fat father. + +His little girl's radiant glance at the alert visitor imparted her +thorough comprehension of all the old man's absurdities, which had +reached their climax in her dismissal. Her parting look, falling +from Corliss's face to the waste-basket at his feet, just touched +the rose in his hand as she passed through the door. + + + +CHAPTER TWO + +Cora paused in the hall at a point about twenty feet from the +door, a girlish stratagem frequently of surprising advantage to +the practitioner; but the two men had begun to speak of the +weather. Suffering a momentary disappointment, she went on, +stepping silently, and passed through a door at the end of the +hall into a large and barren looking dining-room, stiffly and +skimpily furnished, but well-lighted, owing to the fact that one +end of it had been transformed into a narrow "conservatory," a +glass alcove now tenanted by two dried palms and a number of +vacant jars and earthen crocks. + +Here her sister sat by an open window, repairing masculine +underwear; and a handsome, shabby, dirty boy of about thirteen +sprawled on the floor of the "conservatory" unloosing upon its +innocent, cracked, old black and white tiles a ghastly family of +snakes, owls, and visaged crescent moons, in orange, green, and +other loathsome chalks. As Cora entered from the hall, a woman of +fifty came in at a door opposite, and, a dust-cloth retained under +her left arm, an unsheathed weapon ready for emergency, leaned +sociably against the door-casing and continued to polish a +tablespoon with a bit of powdered chamois-skin. She was tall and +slightly bent; and, like the flat, old, silver spoon in her hand, +seemed to have been worn thin by use; yet it was plain that the +three young people in the room "got their looks" from her. Her +eyes, if tired, were tolerant and fond; and her voice held its +youth and something of the music of Cora's. + +"What is he like?" She addressed the daughter by the window. + +"Why don't you ask Coralie?" suggested the sprawling artist, +relaxing his hideous labour. He pronounced his sister's name with +intense bitterness. He called it "Cora-_lee_," with an implication +far from subtle that his sister had at some time thus Gallicized +herself, presumably for masculine favour; and he was pleased to +receive tribute to his satire in a flash of dislike from her +lovely eyes. + +"I ask Laura because it was Laura who went to the door," Mrs. +Madison answered. "I do not ask Cora because Cora hasn't seen him. +Do I satisfy you, Hedrick?" + +"`Cora hasn't seen him!'" the boy hooted mockingly. "She hasn't? +She was peeking out of the library shutters when he came up the +front walk, and she wouldn't let me go to the door; she told Laura +to go, but first she took the library waste-basket and laid one o' +them roses----" + +"_Those_ roses," said Cora sharply. "He _will_ hang around the +neighbours' stables. I think you ought to do something about it, +mother." + +"_Them_ roses!" repeated Hedrick fiercely. "One o' them roses Dick +Lindley sent her this morning. Laid it in the waste-basket and +sneaked it into the reception room for an excuse to go galloping +in and----" + +"`Galloping'?" said Mrs. Madison gravely. + +"It was a pretty bum excuse," continued the unaffected youth, "but +you bet your life you'll never beat our Cora-_lee_ when there's a +person in pants on the premises! It's sickening." He rose, and +performed something like a toe-dance, a supposed imitation of his +sister's mincing approach to the visitor. "Oh, dear, I am such a +little sweety! Here I am all alone just reeking with +Browning-and-Tennyson and thinking to myself about such lovely +things, and walking around looking for my nice, pretty rose. Where +can it be? Oh heavens, Mister, are _you_ here? Oh my, I never, +never thought that there was a _man_ here! How you frighten me! +See what a shy little thing I am? You _do see, don't_ you, old +sweeticums? Ta, ta, here's papa. Remember me by that rose, 'cause +it's just like me. Me and it's twins, you see, cutie-sugar!" The +diabolical boy then concluded with a reversion to the severity of +his own manner: "If she was _my_ daughter I'd whip her!" + +His indignation was left in the air, for the three ladies had +instinctively united against him, treacherously including his +private feud in the sex-war of the ages: Cora jumped lightly upon +the table and sat whistling and polishing the nails of one hand +upon the palm of another; Laura continued to sew without looking +up, and Mrs. Madison, conquering a tendency to laugh, preserved a +serene countenance and said ruminatively: + +"They were all rather queer, the Corlisses." + +Hedrick stared incredulously, baffled; but men must expect these +things, and this was no doubt a helpful item in his education. + +"I wonder if he wants to sell the house," said Mrs. Madison. + +"I wish he would. Anything that would make father get out of it!" +Cora exclaimed. "I hope Mr. Corliss will burn it if he doesn't +sell it." + +"He might want to live here himself." + +"He!" Cora emitted a derisive outcry. + +Her mother gave her a quick, odd look, in which there was a real +alarm. "What is he like, Cora?" + +"Awfully foreign and distinguished!" + +This brought Hedrick to confront her with a leap as of some wild +animal under a lash. He landed close to her; his face awful. + +"Princely, I should call him," said Cora, her enthusiasm +undaunted. "Distinctly princely!" + +"Princely," moaned Hedrick. "Pe-rin-sley!" + +"Hedrick!" Mrs. Madison reproved him automatically. "In what way +is he `foreign,' Cora?" + +"Oh, every way." Cora let her glance rest dreamily upon the goaded +boy. "He has a splendid head set upon a magnificent torso----" + +"_Torso_!" Hedrick whispered hoarsely. + +"Tall, a glorious figure--like a young guardsman's." Madness was +gathering in her brother's eyes; and observing it with quiet +pleasure, she added: "One sees immediately he has the grand +manner, the bel air." + +Hedrick exploded. "`_Bel air_'!" he screamed, and began to jump up +and down, tossing his arms frantically, and gasping with emotion. +"Oh, bel air! Oh, blah! `Henry Esmond!' Been readin' `Henry +Esmond!' Oh, you be-yoo-tiful Cora-Beatrix-a-_lee_! Magganifisent +torso! Gull_o_-rious figgi-your! Bel air! Oh, slush! Oh, luv-a-ly +slush!" He cast himself convulsively upon the floor, full length. +"Luv-a-ly, _luv_-a-ly slush!" + +"He is thirty, I should say," continued Cora, thoughtfully. +"Yes--about thirty. A strong, keen face, rather tanned. He's +between fair and dark----" + +Hedrick raised himself to the attitude of the "Dying Gaul." "And +with `hair slightly silvered at the temples!' _Ain_'t his hair +slightly silvered at the temples?" he cried imploringly. "Oh, +sister, in pity's name let his hair be slightly silvered at the +temples? Only three grains of corn, your Grace; my children are +starving!" + +He collapsed again, laid his face upon his extended arms, and +writhed. + +"He has rather wonderful eyes," said Cora. "They seem to look +right through you." + +"Slush, slush, luv-a-ly slush," came in muffled tones from the +floor. + +"And he wears his clothes so well--so differently! You feel at +once that he's not a person, but a personage." + +Hedrick sat up, his eyes closed, his features contorted as with +agony, and chanted, impromptu: + + "Slush, slush, luv-a-ly, slush! + Le'ss all go a-swimmin' in a dollar's worth o' mush. + Slush in the morning, slush at night, + If I don't get my slush I'm bound to get tight!" + +"Hedrick!" said his mother. + +"Altogether I should say that Mr. Valentine Corliss looks as if he +lived up to his name," Cora went on tranquilly. "Valentine Corliss +of Corliss Street--I think I rather like the sound of that name." +She let her beautiful voice linger upon it, caressingly. +"Valentine Corliss." + +Hedrick opened his eyes, allowed his countenance to resume its +ordinary proportions, and spoke another name slowly and with +honeyed thoughtfulness: + +"Ray Vilas." + +This was the shot that told. Cora sprang down from the table with +an exclamation. + +Hedrick, subduing elation, added gently, in a mournful whisper: + +"_Poor_ old Dick Lindley!" + +His efforts to sting his sister were completely successful at +last: Cora was visibly agitated, and appealed hotly to her mother. +"Am I to bear this kind of thing all my life? Aren't you _ever_ +going to punish his insolence?" + +"Hedrick, Hedrick!" said Mrs. Madison sadly. + +Cora turned to the girl by the window with a pathetic gesture. +"Laura----" she said, and hesitated. + +Laura Madison looked up into her sister's troubled eyes. + +"I feel so morbid," said Cora, flushing a little and glancing +away. "I wish----" She stopped. + +The silent Laura set aside her work, rose and went out of the +room. Her cheeks, too, had reddened faintly, a circumstance +sharply noted by the terrible boy. He sat where he was, asprawl, +propped by his arms behind him, watching with acute concentration +the injured departure of Cora, following her sister. At the door, +Cora, without pausing, threw him a look over her shoulder: a +full-eyed shot of frankest hatred. + +A few moments later, magnificent chords sounded through the house. +The piano was old, but tuned to the middle of the note, and the +keys were swept by a master hand. The wires were not hammered; +they were touched knowingly as by the player's own fingers, and so +they sang--and from out among the chords there stole an errant +melody. This was not "piano-playing" and not a pianist's +triumphant nimbleness--it was music. Art is the language of a +heart that knows how to speak, and a heart that knew how was +speaking here. What it told was something immeasurably wistful, +something that might have welled up in the breast of a young girl +standing at twilight in an April orchard. It was the inexpressible +made into sound, an improvisation by a master player. + +"You hear what she's up to?" said Hedrick, turning his head at +last. But his mother had departed. + +He again extended himself flat upon the floor, face downward, this +time as a necessary preliminary to rising after a manner of his +own invention. Mysteriously he became higher in the middle, his +body slowly forming first a round and then a pointed arch, with +forehead, knees, and elbows touching the floor. A brilliantly +executed manoeuvre closed his Gothic period, set him upright and +upon his feet; then, without ostentation, he proceeded to the +kitchen, where he found his mother polishing a sugar-bowl. + +He challenged her with a damnatory gesture in the direction of the +music. "You hear what Cora's up to?" + +Mrs. Madison's expression was disturbed; she gave her son a look +almost of appeal, and said, gently: + +"I believe there's nothing precisely criminal in her getting Laura +to play for her. Laura's playing always soothes her when she feels +out of sorts--and--you weren't very considerate of her, Hedrick. +You upset her." + +"Mentioning Ray Vilas, you mean?" he demanded. + +"You weren't kind." + +"She deserves it. Look at her! _You_ know why she's got Laura at +the piano now." + +"It's--it's because you worried her," his mother faltered +evasively. "Besides, it is very hot, and Cora isn't as strong as +she looks. She said she felt morbid and----" + +"Morbid? Blah!" interrupted the direct boy. "She's started after +this Corliss man just like she did for Vilas. If I was Dick +Lindley I wouldn't stand for Cora's----" + +"Hedrick!" His mother checked his outburst pleadingly. "Cora has +so much harder time than the other girls; they're all so much +better off. They seem to get everything they want, just by asking: +nice clothes and jewellery--and automobiles. That seems to make a +great difference nowadays; they all seem to have automobiles. +We're so dreadfully poor, and Cora has to struggle so for what +good times she----" + +"Her?" the boy jibed bitterly. "I don't see her doing any +particular struggling." He waved his hand in a wide gesture. "She +takes it _all_!" + +"There, there!" the mother said, and, as if feeling the need of +placating this harsh judge, continued gently: "Cora isn't strong, +Hedrick, and she does have a hard time. Almost every one of the +other girls in her set is at the seashore or somewhere having a +gay summer. You don't realize, but it's mortifying to have to be +the only one to stay at home, with everybody knowing it's because +your father can't afford to send her. And this house is so +hopeless," Mrs. Madison went on, extending her plea hopefully; +"it's impossible to make it attractive, but Cora keeps trying and +trying: she was all morning on her knees gilding those chairs for +the music-room, poor child, and----" + +"`Music-room'!" sneered the boy. "Gilt chairs! All show-off! +That's all she ever thinks about. It's all there is to Cora, just +show-off, so she'll get a string o' fellows chasin' after her. +She's started for this Corliss just exactly the way she did for +Ray Vilas!" + +"Hedrick!" + +"Just look at her!" he cried vehemently. "Don't you know she's +tryin' to make this Corliss think it's _her_ playin' the piano +right now?" + +"Oh, no----" + +"Didn't she do that with Ray Vilas?" he demanded quickly. "Wasn't +that exactly what she did the first time he ever came here--got +Laura to play and made him think it was _her_? Didn't she?" + +"Oh--just in fun." Mrs. Madison's tone lacked conviction; she +turned, a little confusedly, from the glaring boy and fumbled +among the silver on the kitchen table. "Besides--she told him +afterward that it was Laura." + +"He walked in on her one day when she was battin' away at the +piano herself with her back to the door. Then she pretended it had +been a joke, and he was so far gone by that time he didn't care. +He's crazy, anyway," added the youth, casually. "Who is this +Corliss?" + +"He owns this house. His family were early settlers and used to be +very prominent, but they're all dead except this one. His mother +was a widow; she went abroad to live and took him with her when he +was about your age, and I don't think he's ever been back since." + +"Did he use to live in this house?" + +"No; an aunt of his did. She left it to him when she died, two +years ago. Your father was agent for her." + +"You think this Corliss wants to sell it?" + +"It's been for sale all the time he's owned it. That's why we +moved here; it made the rent low." + +"Is he rich?" + +"They used to have money, but maybe it's all spent. It seemed to +me he might want to raise money on the house, because I don't see +any other reason that could bring him back here. He's already +mortgaged it pretty heavily, your father told me. I don't----" +Mrs. Madison paused abruptly, her eyes widening at a dismaying +thought. "Oh, I do hope your father will know better than to ask +him to stay to dinner!" + +Hedrick's expression became cryptic. "Father won't ask him," he +said. "But I'll bet you a thousand dollars he stays!" + +The mother followed her son's thought and did not seek to elicit +verbal explanation of the certainty which justified so large a +venture. "Oh, I hope not," she said. "Sarah's threatening to +leave, anyway; and she gets so cross if there's extra cooking on +wash-days." + +"Well, Sarah'll have to get cross," said the boy grimly; "and +_I_'ll have to plug out and go for a quart of brick ice-cream and +carry it home in all this heat; and Laura and you'll have to stand +over the stove with Sarah; and father'll have to change his shirt; +and we'll all have to toil and moil and sweat and suffer while +Cora-lee sits out on the front porch and talks toodle-do-dums to +her new duke. And then she'll have _you_ go out and kid him along +while----" + +"_Hedrick_!" + +"Yes, you will!--while she gets herself all dressed and powdered +up again. After that, she'll do her share of the work: she'll +strain her poor back carryin' Dick Lindley's flowers down the back +stairs and stickin' 'em in a vase over a hole in the tablecloth +that Laura hasn't had time to sew up. You wait and see!" + +The gloomy realism of this prophecy was not without effect upon +the seer's mother. "Oh, no!" she exclaimed, protestingly. "We +really can't manage it. I'm sure Cora won't want to ask him----" + +"You'll see!" + +"No; I'm sure she wouldn't think of it, but if she does I'll tell +her we can't. We really can't, to-day." + +Her son looked pityingly upon her. "She ought to be _my _ +daughter," he said, the sinister implication all too plain;--"just +about five minutes!" + +With that, he effectively closed the interview and left her. + +He returned to his abandoned art labours in the "conservatory," +and meditatively perpetrated monstrosities upon the tiles for the +next half-hour, at the end of which he concealed his box of +chalks, with an anxiety possibly not unwarranted, beneath the +sideboard; and made his way toward the front door, first glancing, +unseen, into the kitchen where his mother still pursued the +silver. He walked through the hall on tiptoe, taking care to step +upon the much stained and worn strip of "Turkish" carpet, and not +upon the more resonant wooden floor. The music had ceased long +since. + +The open doorway was like a brilliantly painted picture hung upon +the darkness of the hall, though its human centre of interest was +no startling bit of work, consisting of Mr. Madison pottering +aimlessly about the sun-flooded, unkempt lawn, fanning himself, +and now and then stooping to pull up one of the thousands of +plantain-weeds that beset the grass. With him the little spy had +no concern; but from a part of the porch out of sight from the +hall came Cora's exquisite voice and the light and pleasant +baritone of the visitor. Hedrick flattened himself in a corner +just inside the door. + +"I should break any engagement whatsoever if I had one," Mr. +Corliss was saying with what the eavesdropper considered an +offensively "foreign" accent and an equally unjustifiable +gallantry; "but of course I haven't: I am so utterly a stranger +here. Your mother is immensely hospitable to wish you to ask me, +and I'll be only too glad to stay. Perhaps after dinner you'll be +very, very kind and play again? Of course you know how remarkable +such----" + +"Oh, just improvising," Cora tossed off, carelessly, with a +deprecatory ripple of laughter. "It's purely with the mood, you +see. I can't make myself do things. No; I fancy I shall not play +again today." + +There was a moment's silence. + +"Shan't I fasten that in your buttonhole for you," said Cora. + +"You see how patiently I've been awaiting the offer!" + +There was another little silence; and the listener was able to +construct a picture (possibly in part from an active memory) of +Cora's delicate hands uplifted to the gentleman's lapel and Cora's +eyes for a moment likewise uplifted. + +"Yes, one has moods," she said, dreamily. "I am _all_ moods. I +think you are too, Mr. Corliss. You _look_ moody. Aren't you?" + +A horrible grin might have been seen to disfigure the shadow in +the corner just within the doorway. + + + +CHAPTER THREE + +It was cooler outdoors, after dinner, in the dusk of that evening; +nevertheless three members of the Madison family denied themselves +the breeze, and, as by a tacitly recognized and habitual +house-rule, so disposed themselves as to afford the most agreeable +isolation for the younger daughter and the guest, who occupied +wicker chairs upon the porch. The mother and father sat beneath a +hot, gas droplight in the small "library"; Mrs. Madison with an +evening newspaper, her husband with "King Solomon's Mines"; and +Laura, after crisply declining an urgent request from Hedrick to +play, had disappeared upstairs. The inimical lad alone was +inspired for the ungrateful role of duenna. + +He sat upon the topmost of the porch steps with the air of being +permanently implanted; leaning forward, elbows on knees, cheeks on +palms, in a treacherous affectation of profound reverie; and his +back (all of him that was plainly visible in the hall light) +tauntingly close to a delicate foot which would, God wot! +willingly have launched him into the darkness beyond. It was his +dreadful pleasure to understand wholly the itching of that shapely +silk and satin foot. + +The gas-light from the hall laid a broad orange path to the +steps--Cora and her companion sat just beyond it, his whiteness +gray, and she a pale ethereality in the shadow. She wore an +evening gown that revealed a vague lilac through white, and +shimmered upon her like a vapour. She was very quiet; and there +was a wan sweetness about her, an exhalation of wistfulness. Cora, +in the evening, was more like a rose than ever. She was fragrant +in the dusk. The spell she cast was an Undine's: it was not to be +thought so exquisite a thing as she could last. And who may know +how she managed to say what she did in the silence and darkness? +For it was said--without words, without touch, even without a +look--as plainly as if she had spoken or written the message: "If +I am a rose, I am one to be worn and borne away. Are you the man?" + +With the fall of night, the street they faced had become still, +save for an infrequent squawk of irritation on the part of one of +the passing automobiles, gadding for the most part silently, like +fireflies. But after a time a strolling trio of negroes came +singing along the sidewalk. + + "In the evening, by the moonlight, you could hear + those banjos ringing; + In the evening, by the moonlight, you could hear + those darkies singing. + How the ole folks would injoy it; they would sit + all night an' lis-sun, + As we sang I-I-N the evening BY-Y-Y the moonlight.' + +"Ah, _that_ takes me back!" exclaimed Corliss. "That's as it used +to be. I might be a boy again." + +"And I suppose this old house has many memories for you?" said +Cora, softly. + +"Not very many. My, old-maid aunt didn't like me overmuch, I +believe; and I wasn't here often. My mother and I lived far down +the street. A big apartment-house stands there now, I noticed as I +was walking out here this afternoon--the `Verema,' it is called, +absurdly enough!" + +"Ray Vilas lives there," volunteered Hedrick, not altering his +position. + +"Vilas?" said the visitor politely, with a casual recollection +that the name had been once or twice emphasized by the youth at +dinner. "I don't remember Vilas among the old names here." + +"It wasn't, I guess," said Hedrick. "Ray Vilas has only been here +about two years. He came from Kentucky." + +"A great friend of yours, I suppose." + +"He ain't a boy," said Hedrick, and returned to silence without +further explanation. + +"How cool and kind the stars are to-night," said Cora, very +gently. + +She leaned forward from her chair, extending a white arm along the +iron railing of the porch; bending toward Corliss, and speaking +toward him and away from Hedrick in as low a voice as possible, +probably entertaining a reasonable hope of not being overheard. + +"I love things that are cool and kind," she said. "I love things +that are cool and strong. I love iron." She moved her arm +caressingly upon the railing. "I love its cool, smooth touch. Any +strong life must have iron in it. I like iron in men." + +She leaned a very little closer to him. + +"Have you iron in you, Mr. Corliss?" she asked. + +At these words the frayed edge of Hedrick's broad white collar was +lifted perceptibly from his coat, as if by a shudder passing over +the back and shoulders beneath. + +"If I have not," answered Corliss in a low voice, "I will +have--now!" + +"Tell me about yourself," she said. + +"Dear lady," he began--and it was an effective beginning, for a +sigh of pleasure parted her lips as he spoke--"there is nothing +interesting to tell. I have spent a very commonplace life." + +"I think not. You shouldn't call any life commonplace that has +escaped _this_!" The lovely voice was all the richer for the pain +that shook it now. "This monotony, this unending desert of ashes, +this death in life!" + +"This town, you mean?" + +"This prison, I mean! Everything. Tell me what lies outside of it. +You can." + +"What makes you think I can?" + +"I don't need to answer that. You understand perfectly." + +Valentine Corliss drew in his breath with a sound murmurous of +delight, and for a time they did not speak. + +"Yes," he said, finally, "I think I do." + +"There are meetings in the desert," he went on, slowly. "A lonely +traveller finds another at a spring, sometimes." + +"And sometimes they find that they speak the same language?" + +His answer came, almost in a whisper: + +"`Even as you and I.'" + +"`Even as you and I,'" she echoed, even more faintly. + +"Yes." + +Cora breathed rapidly in the silence that followed; she had every +appearance of a woman deeply and mysteriously stirred. Her +companion watched her keenly in the dusk, and whatever the +reciprocal symptoms of emotion he may have exhibited, they were +far from tumultuous, bearing more likeness to the quiet +satisfaction of a good card-player taking what may prove to be a +decisive trick. + +After a time she leaned back in her chair again, and began to fan +herself slowly. + +"You have lived in the Orient, haven't you, Mr. Corliss?" she said +in an ordinary tone. + +"Not lived. I've been East once or twice. I spend a greater part +of the year at Posilipo." + +"Where is that?" + +"On the fringe of Naples." + +"Do you live in a hotel?" + +"No." A slight surprise sounded in his voice. "I have a villa +there." + +"Do you know what that seems to me?" Cora asked gravely, after a +pause; then answered herself, after another: "Like magic. Like a +strange, beautiful dream." + +"Yes, it is beautiful," he said. + +"Then tell me: What do you do there?" + +"I spend a lot of time on the water in a boat." + +"Sailing?" + +"On sapphires and emeralds and turquoises and rubies, melted and +blown into waves." + +"And you go yachting over that glory?" + +"Fishing with my crew--and loafing." + +"But your boat is really a yacht, isn't it?" + +"Oh, it might be called anything," he laughed. + +"And your sailors are Italian fishermen?" + +Hedrick slew a mosquito upon his temple, smiting himself hard. +"No, they're Chinese!" he muttered hoarsely. + +"They're Neapolitans," said Corliss. + +"Do they wear red sashes and earrings?" asked Cora. + +"One of them wears earrings and a derby hat!" + +"Ah!" she protested, turning to him again. "You don't tell me. You +let me cross-question you, but you don't tell me things! Don't you +see? I want to know what _life_ is! I want to know of strange +seas, of strange people, of pain and of danger, of great music, of +curious thoughts! What are the Neapolitan women like?" + +"They fade early." + +She leaned closer to him. "Before the fading have you--have you +loved--many?" + +"All the pretty ones I ever saw," he answered gayly, but with +something in his tone (as there was in hers) which implied that +all the time they were really talking of things other than those +spoken. Yet here this secret subject seemed to come near the +surface. + +She let him hear a genuine little snap of her teeth. "I _thought_ +you were like that!" + +He laughed. "Ah, but you were sure to see it!" + +"You could 'a' seen a Neapolitan woman yesterday, Cora," said +Hedrick, obligingly, "if you'd looked out the front window. She +was working a hurdy-gurdy up and down this neighbourhood all +afternoon." He turned genially to face his sister, and added: "Ray +Vilas used to say there were lots of pretty girls in Lexington." + +Cora sprang to her feet. "You're not smoking," she said to Corliss +hurriedly, as upon a sudden discovery. "Let me get you some +matches." + +She had entered the house before he could protest, and Hedrick, +looking down the hall, was acutely aware that she dived +desperately into the library. But, however tragic the cry for +justice she uttered there, it certainly was not prolonged; and the +almost instantaneous quickness of her reappearance upon the porch, +with matches in her hand, made this one of the occasions when her +brother had to admit that in her own line Cora was a miracle. + +"So thoughtless of me," she said cheerfully, resuming her seat. +She dropped the matches into Mr. Corliss's hand with a fleeting +touch of her finger-tips upon his palm. "Of course you wanted to +smoke. I can't think why I didn't realize it before. I must +have----" + +A voice called from within, commanding in no, uncertain tones. + +"Hedrick! I should like to see you!" Hedrick rose, and, looking +neither to the right nor, to the left, went stonily into the +house, and appeared before the powers. + +"Call me?" he inquired with the air of cheerful readiness to +proceed upon any errand, no matter how difficult. + +Mr. Madison countered diplomacy with gloom. + +"I don't know what to do with you. Why can't you let your sister +alone?" + +"Has Laura been complaining of me?" + +"Oh, Hedrick!" said Mrs. Madison. + +Hedrick himself felt the justice of her reproof: his reference to +Laura was poor work, he knew. He hung his head and began to scrape +the carpet with the side of his shoe. + +"Well, what'd Cora say I been doing to her?" + +"You know perfectly well what you've been doing," said Mr. Madison +sharply. + +"Nothing at all; just sitting on the steps. What'd she _say_?" + +His father evidently considered it wiser not to repeat the text of +accusation. "You know what you did," he said heavily. + +"Oho!" Hedrick's eyes became severe, and his sire's evasively +shifted from them. + +"You keep away from the porch," said the father, uneasily. + +"You mean what I said about Ray Vilas?" asked the boy. + +Both parents looked uncomfortable, and Mr. Madison, turning a leaf +in his book, gave a mediocre imitation of an austere person +resuming his reading after an impertinent interruption. + +"That's what you mean," said the boy accusingly. "Ray Vilas!" + +"Just you keep away from that porch." + +"Because I happened to mention Ray Vilas?" demanded Hedrick. + +"You let your sister alone." + +"I got a right to know what she said, haven't I?" + +There was no response, which appeared to satisfy Hedrick +perfectly. Neither parent met his glance; the mother troubled and +the father dogged, while the boy rejoiced sternly in some occult +triumph. He inflated his scant chest in pomp and hurled at the +defeated pair the well-known words: + +"I wish she was _my_ daughter--about five minutes!" + +New sounds from without--men's voices in greeting, and a ripple of +response from Cora somewhat lacking in enthusiasm--afforded Mr. +Madison unmistakable relief, and an errand upon which to send his +deadly offspring. + +Hedrick, after a reconnaissance in the hall, obeyed at leisure. +Closing the library door nonchalantly behind him, he found himself +at the foot of a flight of unillumined back stairs, where his +manner underwent a swift alteration, for here was an adventure to +be gone about with ceremony. "Ventre St. Gris!" he muttered +hoarsely, and loosened the long rapier in the shabby sheath at his +side. For, with the closing of the door, he had become a Huguenot +gentleman, over forty and a little grizzled perhaps, but modest +and unassuming; wiry, alert, lightning-quick, with a wrist of +steel and a heart of gold; and he was about to ascend the stairs +of an unknown house at Blois in total darkness. He went up, +crouching, ready for anything, without a footfall, not even +causing a hideous creak; and gained the top in safety. Here he +turned into an obscure passage, and at the end of it beheld, +through an open door, a little room in which a dark-eyed lady sat +writing in a book by the light of an oil lamp. + +The wary Huguenot remained in the shadow and observed her. + +Laura was writing in an old ledger she had found in the attic, +blank and unused. She had rebound it herself in heavy gray +leather; and fitted it with a tiny padlock and key. She wore the +key under her dress upon a very thin silver chain round her neck. +Upon the first page of the book was written a date, now more than +a year past, the month was June--and beneath it: + + "Love came to me to-day." + +Nothing more was written upon that page. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + +Laura, at this writing, looked piquantly unfamiliar to her +brother: her eyes were moist and bright; her cheeks were flushed +and as she bent low, intently close to the book, a loosened wavy +strand of her dark hair almost touched the page. Hedrick had never +before seen her wearing an expression so "becoming" as the eager +and tremulous warmth of this; though sometimes, at the piano, she +would play in a reverie which wrought such glamour about her that +even a brother was obliged to consider her rather handsome. She +looked more than handsome now, so strangely lovely, in fact, that +his eyes watered painfully with the protracted struggle to read a +little of the writing in her book before she discovered him. + +He gave it up at last, and lounged forward blinking, with the air +of finding it sweet to do nothing. + +"Whatch' writin'?" he asked in simple carelessness. + +At the first sound of his movement she closed the book in a flash; +then, with a startled, protective gesture, extended her arms over +it, covering it. + +"What is it, Hedrick?" she asked, breathlessly. + +"What's the padlock for?" + +"Nothing," she panted. "What is it you want?" + +"You writin' poetry?" + +Laura's eyes dilated; she looked dangerous. + +"Oh, I don't care about your old book," said Hedrick, with an +amused nonchalance Talleyrand might have admired. "There's +callers, and you have to come down." + +"Who sent you?" + +"A man I've often noticed around the house," he replied +blightingly. "You may have seen him--I think his name's Madison. +His wife and he both sent for you." + +One of Laura's hands instinctively began to arrange her hair, but +the other remained upon the book. "Who is it calling?" + +"Richard Lindley and that Wade Trumble." + +Laura rose, standing between her brother and the table. "Tell +mother I will come down." + +Hedrick moved a little nearer, whereupon, observing his eye, she +put her right hand behind her upon the book. She was not deceived, +and boys are not only superb strategic actors sometimes, but +calamitously quick. Appearing to be unaware of her careful +defence, he leaned against the wall and crossed his feet in an +original and interesting manner. + +"Of course _you_ understand," he said cosily. "Cora wants to keep +this Corliss in a corner of the porch where she can coo at him; so +you and mother'll have to raise a ballyhoo for Dick Lindley and +that Wade Trumble. It'd been funny if Dick hadn't noticed anybody +was there and kissed her. What on earth does he want to stay +engaged to her for, anyway?" + +"You don't know that she is engaged to Mr. Lindley, Hedrick." + +"Get out!" he hooted. "What's the use talking like that to me? A +blind mackerel could see she's let poor old Lindley think he's +High Man with her these last few months; but he'll have to hit the +pike now, I reckon, 'cause this Corliss is altogether too +pe-rin-sley for Dick's class. Lee roy est mort. Vive lee roy!" + +"Hedrick, won't you please run along? I want to change my dress." + +"What for? There was company for dinner and you didn't change +then." + +Laura's flushed cheeks flushed deeper, and in her confusion she +answered too quickly. "I only have one evening gown. I--of course +I can't wear it every night." + +"Well, then," he returned triumphantly, "what do you want to put +it on now for?" + +"_Please_ run along, Hedrick," she pleaded. + +"You didn't for this Corliss," he persisted sharply. "You know +Dick Lindley couldn't see anybody but Cora to save his life, and I +don't suppose there's a girl on earth fool enough to dress up for +that Wade Trum----" + +"Hedrick!" Laura's voice rang with a warning which he remembered +to have heard upon a few previous occasions when she had easily +proved herself physically stronger than he. "Go and tell mother +I'm coming," she said. + +He began to whistle "Beulah Land" as he went, but, with the swift +closing of the door behind him, abandoned that pathetically +optimistic hymn prematurely, after the third bar. + +Twenty minutes later, when Laura came out and went downstairs, a +fine straight figure in her black evening gown, the Sieur de +Marsac--that hard-bitten Huguenot, whose middle-aged shabbiness +was but the outward and deceptive seeming of the longest head and +the best sword in France--emerged cautiously from the passageway +and stood listening until her footsteps were heard descending the +front stairs. Nevertheless, the most painstaking search of her +room, a search as systematic as it was feverish, failed to reveal +where she had hidden the book. + +He returned wearily to the porch. + +A prophet has always been supposed to take some pleasure, perhaps +morbid, in seeing his predictions fulfilled; and it may have been +a consolation to the gloomy heart of Hedrick, sorely injured by +Laura's offensive care of her treasure, to find the grouping upon +the porch as he had foretold: Cora and Mr. Corliss sitting a +little aloof from the others, far enough to permit their holding +an indistinct and murmurous conversation of their own. Their +sequestration, even by so short a distance, gave them an +appearance of intimacy which probably accounted for the rather +absent greeting bestowed by Mr. Lindley upon the son of the house, +who met him with some favour. + +This Richard Lindley was a thin, friendly looking young man with a +pleasing, old-fashioned face which suggested that if he were +minded to be portrayed it should be by the daguerreotype, and that +a high, black stock would have been more suitable to him than his +businesslike, modern neck-gear. He had fine eyes, which seemed +habitually concerned with faraway things, though when he looked at +Cora they sparkled; however, it cannot be said that the sparkling +continued at its brightest when his glance wandered (as it not +infrequently did this evening) from her lovely head to the rose in +Mr. Corliss's white coat. + +Hedrick, resuming a position upon the top step between the two +groups, found the conversation of the larger annoying because it +prevented him from hearing that of the smaller. It was carried on +for the greater part by his mother and Mr. Trumble; Laura sat +silent between these two; and Lindley's mood was obviously +contemplative. Mr. Wade Trumble, twenty-six, small, earnest, and +already beginning to lose his hair, was talkative enough. + +He was one of those people who are so continuously aggressive that +they are negligible. "What's the matter here? Nobody pays any +attention to me. I'M important!" He might have had that legend +engraved on his card, it spoke from everything else that was his: +face, voice, gesture--even from his clothes, for they also +clamoured for attention without receiving it. Worn by another man, +their extravagance of shape and shade might have advertised a +self-sacrificing effort for the picturesque; but upon Mr. Trumble +they paradoxically confirmed an impression that he was well off +and close. Certainly this was the impression confirmed in the mind +of the shrewdest and most experienced observer on that veranda. +The accomplished Valentine Corliss was quite able to share Cora's +detachment satisfactorily, and be very actively aware of other +things at the same time. For instance: Richard Lindley's +preoccupation had neither escaped him nor remained unconnected in +his mind with that gentleman's somewhat attentive notice of the +present position of a certain rose. + +Mr. Trumble took up Mrs. Madison's placid weather talk as if it +had been a flaunting challenge; he made it a matter of conscience +and for argument; for he was a doughty champion, it appeared, when +nothings were in question, one of those stern men who will have +accuracy in the banal, insisting upon portent in talk meant to be +slid over as mere courteous sound. + +"I don't know about that, now," he said with severe emphasis. "I +don't know about that at all. I can't say I agree with you. In +fact, I do not agree with you: it was hotter in the early part of +July, year before last, than it has been at any time this summer. +Several degrees hotter--several degrees." + +"I fear I must beg to differ with you," he said, catching the poor +lady again, a moment later. "I beg to differ decidedly. Other +places get a great deal more heat. Look at Egypt." + +"Permit me to disagree," he interrupted her at once, when she +pathetically squirmed to another subject. "There's more than one +side to this matter. You are looking at this matter from a totally +wrong angle. . . . Let me inform you that statistics. . . ." Mrs. +Madison's gentle voice was no more than just audible in the short +intervals he permitted; a blind listener would have thought Mr. +Trumble at the telephone. Hedrick was thankful when his mother +finally gave up altogether the display of her ignorance, +inaccuracy, and general misinformation, and Trumble talked alone. +That must have been the young man's object; certainly he had +struggled for it; and so it must have pleased him. He talked on +and on and on; he passed from one topic to another with no pause; +swinging over the gaps with a "Now you take," or, "And that +reminds me," filling many a vacancy with "So-and-so and +so-and-so," and other stencils, while casting about for material +to continue. Everything was italicized, the significant and the +trivial, to the same monotone of emphasis. Death and shoe-laces +were all the same to him. + +Anything was all the same to him so long as he talked. + +Hedrick's irritation was gradually dispelled; and, becoming used +to the sound, he found it lulling; relaxed his attitude and +drowsed; Mr. Lindley was obviously lost in a reverie; Mrs. +Madison, her hand shading her eyes, went over her market-list for +the morrow and otherwise set her house in order; Laura alone sat +straight in her chair; and her face was toward the vocalist, but +as she was in deep shadow her expression could not be guessed. +However, one person in that group must have listened with genuine +pleasure--else why did he talk? + +It was the returned native whose departure at last rang the +curtain on the monologue. The end of the long sheltered seclusion +of Cora and her companion was a whispered word. He spoke it first: + +"To-morrow?" + +"To-morrow." + +Cora gave a keen, quick, indrawn sigh--not of sorrow--and sank +back in her chair, as he touched her hand in farewell and rose to +go. She remained where she was, motionless and silent in the dark, +while he crossed to Mrs. Madison, and prefaced a leave-taking +unusually formal for these precincts with his mannered bow. He +shook hands with Richard Lindley, asking genially: + +"Do you still live where you did--just below here?" + +"Yes." + +"When I passed by there this afternoon," said Corliss, "it +recalled a stupendous conflict we had, once upon a time; but I +couldn't remember the cause." + +"I remember the cause," said Mr. Lindley, but, stopping rather +short, omitted to state it. "At all events, it was settled." + +"Yes," said the other quietly. "You whipped me." + +"Did I so?" Corliss laughed gayly. "We mustn't let it happen +again!" + +Mr. Trumble joined the parting guest, making simultaneous adieus +with unmistakable elation. Mr. Trumble's dreadful entertainment +had made it a happy evening for him. + +As they went down the steps together, the top of his head just +above the level of his companion's shoulder, he lifted to Corliss +a searching gaze like an actor's hopeful scrutiny of a new +acquaintance; and before they reached the street his bark rang +eagerly on the stilly night: "Now _there_ is a point on which I +beg to differ with you. . . ." + +Mrs. Madison gave Lindley her hand. "I think I'll go in. +Good-night, Richard. Come, Hedrick!" + +Hedrick rose, groaning, and batted his eyes painfully as he faced +the hall light. "What'd you and this Corliss fight about?" he +asked, sleepily. + +"Nothing," said Lindley. + +"You said you remembered." + +"Oh, I remember a lot of useless things." + +"Well, what was it? I want to know what you fought about." + +"Come, Hedrick," repeated his mother, setting a gently urgent hand +on his shoulder. + +"I won't," said the boy impatiently, shaking her off and growing +suddenly very wideawake and determined. "I won't move a step till +he tells me what they fought about. Not a step!" + +"Well--it was about a `show.' We were only boys, you know--younger +than you, perhaps." + +"A circus?" + +"A boy-circus he and my brother got up in our yard. I wasn't in +it." + +"Well, what did you fight about?" + +"I thought Val Corliss wasn't quite fair to my brother. That's +all." + +"No, it isn't! How wasn't he fair?" + +"They sold tickets to the other boys; and I thought my brother +didn't get his share." + +"This Corliss kept it all?" + +"Oh, something like that," said Lindley, laughing. + +"Probably I was in the wrong." + +"And he licked you?" + +"All over the place!" + +"I wish I'd seen it," said Hedrick, not unsympathetically, but as +a sportsman. And he consented to be led away. + +Laura had been standing at the top of the steps looking down the +street, where Corliss and his brisk companion had emerged +momentarily from deep shadows under the trees into the +illumination of a swinging arc-lamp at the corner. They +disappeared; and she turned, and, smiling, gave the delaying guest +her hand in good-night. + +His expression, which was somewhat troubled, changed to one of +surprise as her face came into the light, for it was transfigured. +Deeply flushed, her eyes luminous, she wore that shining look +Hedrick had seen as she wrote in her secret book. + +"Why, Laura!" said Lindley, wondering. + +She said good-night again, and went in slowly. As she reached the +foot of the stairs, she heard him moving a chair upon the porch, +and Cora speaking sharply: + +"Please don't sit close to me!" There was a sudden shrillness in +the voice of honey, and the six words were run so rapidly together +they seemed to form but one. After a moment Cora added, with a +deprecatory ripple of laughter not quite free from the same +shrillness: + +"You see, Richard, it's so--it's so hot, to-night." + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + +Half an hour later, when Lindley had gone, Cora closed the front +doors in a manner which drew an immediate cry of agony from the +room where her father was trying to sleep. She stood on tiptoe to +turn out the gas-light in the hall; but for a time the key +resisted the insufficient pressure of her finger-tips: the little +orange flame, with its black-green crescent over the armature, so +maliciously like the "eye" of a peacock feather, limned the +exquisite planes of the upturned face; modelled them with soft and +regular shadows; painted a sullen loveliness. The key turned a +little, but not enough; and she whispered to herself a +monosyllable not usually attributed to the vocabulary of a damsel +of rank. Next moment, her expression flashed in a brilliant +change, like that of a pouting child suddenly remembering that +tomorrow is Christmas. The key surrendered instantly, and she ran +gayly up the familiar stairs in the darkness. + +The transom of Laura's door shone brightly; but the knob, turning +uselessly in Cora's hand, proved the door itself not so +hospitable. There was a brief rustling within the room; the bolt +snapped, and Laura opened the door. + +"Why, Laura," said Cora, observing her sister with transient +curiosity, "you haven't undressed. What have you been doing? +Something's the matter with you. I know what it is," she added, +laughing, as she seated herself on the edge of the old +black-walnut bed. "You're in love with Wade Trumble!" + +"He's a strong man," observed Laura. "A remarkable throat." + +"Horrible little person!" said Cora, forgetting what she owed the +unfortunate Mr. Trumble for the vocal wall which had so +effectively sheltered her earlier in the evening. "He's like one +of those booming June-bugs, batting against the walls, falling +into lamp-chimneys-----" + +"He doesn't get very near the light he wants," said Laura. + +"Me? Yes, he would like to, the rat! But he's consoled when he can +get any one to listen to his awful chatter. He makes up to himself +among women for the way he gets sat on at the club. But he has his +use: he shows off the other men so, by contrast. Oh, Laura!" She +lifted both hands to her cheeks, which were beautiful with a quick +suffusion of high colour. "Isn't he gorgeous!" + +"Yes," said Laura gently, "I've always thought so." + +"Now what's the use of that?" asked Cora peevishly, "with _me_? I +didn't mean Richard Lindley. You _know_ what I mean." + +"Yes--of course--I do," Laura said. + +Cora gave her a long look in which a childlike pleading mingled +with a faint, strange trouble; then this glance wandered moodily +from the face of her sister to her own slippers, which she +elevated to meet her descending line of vision. + +"And you know I can't help it," she said, shifting quickly to the +role of accuser. "So what's the use of behaving like the Pest?" +She let her feet drop to the floor again, and her voice trembled a +little as she went on: "Laura, you don't know what I had to endure +from him to-night. I really don't think I can stand it to live in +the same house any longer with that frightful little devil. He's +been throwing Ray Vilas's name at me until--oh, it was ghastly +to-night! And then--then----" Her tremulousness increased. "I +haven't said anything about it all day, but I _met_ him on the +street downtown, this morning----" + +"You met Vilas?" Laura looked startled. "Did he speak to you?" + +"`Speak to me!'" Cora's exclamation shook with a half-laugh of +hysteria. "He made an awful _scene_! He came out of the Richfield +Hotel barroom on Main Street just as I was going into the +jeweller's next door, and he stopped and bowed like a monkey, +square in front of me, and--and he took off his hat and set it on +the pavement at my feet and told me to kick it into the gutter! +Everybody stopped and stared; and I couldn't get by him. And he +said--he said I'd kicked his heart into the gutter and he didn't +want it to catch cold without a hat! And wouldn't I please be so +kind as to kick----" She choked with angry mortification. "It was +horrible! People were stopping and laughing, and a rowdy began to +make fun of Ray, and pushed him, and they got into a scuffle, and +I ran into the jeweller's and almost fainted." + +"He is insane!" said Laura, aghast. + +"He's nothing of the kind; he's just a brute. He does it to make +people say I'm the cause of his drinking; and everybody in this +gossipy old town _does_ say it--just because I got bored to death +with his everlasting do-you-love-me-to-day-as-well-as-yesterday +style of torment, and couldn't help liking Richard better. Yes, +every old cat in town says I ruined him, and that's what he wants +them to say. It's so unmanly! I wish he'd die! Yes, I _do_ wish he +would! Why doesn't he kill himself?" + +"Ah, don't say that," protested Laura. + +"Why not? He's threatened to enough. And I'm afraid to go out of +the house because I can't tell when I'll meet him or what he'll +do. I was almost sick in that jeweller's shop, this morning, and +so upset I came away without getting my pendant. There's _another_ +thing I've got to go through, I suppose!" She pounded the yielding +pillow desperately. "Oh, oh, oh! Life isn't worth living--it seems +to me sometimes as if everybody in the world spent his time trying +to think up ways to make it harder for me! I couldn't have worn +the pendant, though, even if I'd got it," she went on, becoming +thoughtful. "It's Richard's silly old engagement ring, you know," +she explained, lightly. "I had it made up into a pendant, and +heaven knows how I'm going to get Richard to see it the right way. +He was so unreasonable tonight." + +"Was he cross about Mr. Corliss monopolizing you?" + +"Oh, you know how he is," said Cora. "He didn't speak of it +exactly. But after you'd gone, he asked me----" She stopped with a +little gulp, an expression of keen distaste about her mouth. + +"Oh, he wants me to wear my ring," she continued, with sudden +rapidity: "and how the dickens _can_ I when I can't even tell him +it's been made into a pendant! He wants to speak to father; he +wants to _announce_ it. He's sold out his business for what he +thinks is a good deal of money, and he wants me to marry him next +month and take some miserable little trip, I don't know where, for +a few weeks, before he invests what he's made in another business. +Oh!" she cried. "It's a _horrible_ thing to ask a girl to do: to +settle down--just housekeeping, housekeeping, housekeeping +forever in this stupid, stupid town! It's so unfair! Men are just +possessive; they think it's loving you to want to possess you +themselves. A beautiful `love'! It's so mean! Men!" She sprang up +and threw out both arms in a vehement gesture of revolt. "Damn +'em, I wish they'd let me _alone_!" + +Laura's eyes had lost their quiet; they showed a glint of tears, +and she was breathing quickly. In this crisis of emotion the two +girls went to each other silently; Cora turned, and Laura began to +unfasten Cora's dress in the back. + +"Poor Richard!" said Laura presently, putting into her mouth a +tiny pearl button which had detached itself at her touch. "This +was his first evening in the overflow. No wonder he was troubled!" + +"Pooh!" said Cora. "As if you and mamma weren't good enough for +him to talk to! He's spoiled. He's so used to being called `the +most popular man in town' and knowing that every girl on Corliss +Street wanted to marry him----" She broke off, and exclaimed +sharply: "I wish they would!" + +"Cora!" + +"Oh, I suppose you mean that's the reason _I_ went in for him?" + +"No, no," explained Laura hurriedly. "I only meant, stand still." + +"Well, it was!" And Cora's abrupt laugh had the glad, free ring +fancy attaches to the merry confidences of a buccaneer in trusted +company. + +Laura knelt to continue unfastening the dress; and when it was +finished she extended three of the tiny buttons in her hand. +"They're always loose on a new dress," she said. "I'll sew them +all on tight, to-morrow." + +Cora smiled lovingly. "You good old thing," she said. "You looked +pretty to-night." + +"That's nice!" Laura laughed, as she dropped the buttons into a +little drawer of her bureau. It was an ugly, cheap, old bureau, +its veneer loosened and peeling, the mirror small and flawed--a +piece of furniture in keeping with the room, which was small, +plain and hot, its only ornamental adjunct being a silver-framed +photograph of Mrs. Madison, with Cora, as a child of seven or +eight, upon her lap. + +"You really do look ever so pretty," asserted Cora. + +"I wonder if I look as well as I did the last time I heard I was +pretty," said the other. "That was at the Assembly in March. +Coming down the stairs, I heard a man from out of town say, `That +black-haired Miss Madison is a pretty girl.' And some one with him +said, `Yes; you'll think so until you meet her sister!'" + +"You are an old dear!" Cora enfolded her delightedly; then, +drawing back, exclaimed: "You _know_ he's gorgeous!" And with a +feverish little ripple of laughter, caught her dress together in +the back and sped through the hall to her own room. + +This was a very different affair from Laura's, much cooler and +larger; occupying half the width of the house; and a rather +expensive struggle had made it pretty and even luxurious. The +window curtains and the wall-paper were fresh, and of a quiet +blue; there was a large divan of the same colour; a light desk, +prettily equipped, occupied a corner; and between two gilt +gas-brackets, whose patent burners were shielded by fringed silk +shades, stood a cheval-glass six feet high. The door of a very +large clothes-pantry stood open, showing a fine company of +dresses, suspended from forms in an orderly manner; near by, a +rosewood cabinet exhibited a delicate collection of shoes and +slippers upon its four shelves. A dressing-table, charmingly +littered with everything, took the place of a bureau; and upon it, +in a massive silver frame, was a large photograph of Mr. Richard +Lindley. The frame was handsome, but somewhat battered: it had +seen service. However, the photograph was quite new. + +There were photographs everywhere--photographs framed and +unframed; photographs large and photographs small, the fresh and +the faded; tintypes, kodaks, "full lengths," "cabinets," +groups--every kind of photograph; and among them were several of +Cora herself, one of her mother, one of Laura, and two others of +girls. All the rest were sterner. Two or three were seamed across +with cracks, hastily recalled sentences to destruction; and here +and there remained tokens of a draughtsman's over-generous +struggle to confer upon some of the smooth-shaven faces additional +manliness in the shape of sweeping moustaches, long beards, +goatees, mutton-chops, and, in the case of one gentleman of a +blond, delicate and tenor-like beauty, neck-whiskers;--decorations +in many instances so deeply and damply pencilled that subsequent +attempts at erasure had failed of great success. Certainly, +Hedrick had his own way of relieving dull times. + +Cora turned up the lights at the sides of the cheval-glass, looked +at herself earnestly, then absently, and began to loosen her hair. +Her lifted hands hesitated; she re-arranged the slight +displacement of her hair already effected; set two chairs before +the mirror, seated herself in one; pulled up her dress, where it +was slipping from her shoulder, rested an arm upon the back of the +other chair as, earlier in the evening, she had rested it upon the +iron railing of the porch, and, leaning forward, assumed as +exactly as possible the attitude in which she had sat so long +beside Valentine Corliss. She leaned very slowly closer and yet +closer to the mirror; a rich colour spread over her; her eyes, +gazing into themselves, became dreamy, inexpressibly wistful, +cloudily sweet; her breath was tumultuous. "`Even as you and I'?" +she whispered. + +Then, in the final moment of this after-the-fact rehearsal, as her +face almost touched the glass, she forgot how and what she had +looked to Corliss; she forgot him; she forgot him utterly: she +leaped to her feet and kissed the mirrored lips with a sort of +passion. + +"You _darling_!" she cried. Cora's christening had been +unimaginative, for the name means only, "maiden." She should +have been called Narcissa. + +The rhapsody was over instantly, leaving an emotional vacuum like +a silence at the dentist's. Cora yawned, and resumed the loosening +of her hair. + +When she had put on her nightgown, she went from one window to +another, closing the shutters against the coming of the morning +light to wake her. As she reached the last window, a sudden high +wind rushed among the trees outside; a white flare leaped at her +face, startling her; there was a boom and rattle as of the +brasses, cymbals, and kettle-drums of some fatal orchestra; and +almost at once it began to rain. + +And with that, from the distance came a voice, singing; and at the +first sound of it, though it was far away and almost +indistinguishable, Cora started more violently than at the +lightning; she sprang to the mirror lights, put them out; threw +herself upon the bed, and huddled there in the darkness. + +The wind passed; the heart of the storm was miles away; this was +only its fringe; but the rain pattered sharply upon the thick +foliage outside her windows; and the singing voice came slowly up +the street. + +It was a strange voice: high-pitched and hoarse--and not quite +human, so utter was the animal abandon of it. + +"I love a lassie, a bonnie, bonnie lassie," it wailed and piped, +coming nearer; and the gay little air--wrought to a grotesque of +itself by this wild, high voice in the rain--might have been a +banshee's love-song. + + "I love a lassie, a bonnie, bonnie lassie. + She's as pure as the lily in the dell----" + +The voice grew louder; came in front of the house; came into the +yard; came and sang just under Cora's window. There it fell silent +a moment; then was lifted in a long peal of imbecile laughter, and +sang again: + + "Then slowly, slowly rase she up + And slowly she came nigh him, + And when she drew the curtain by-- + `Young man I think you're dyin'.'" + +Cora's door opened and closed softly, and Laura, barefooted, stole +to the bed and put an arm about the shaking form of her sister. + +"The drunken beast!" sobbed Cora. "It's to disgrace me! That's +what he wants. He'd like nothing better than headlines in the +papers: `Ray Vilas arrested at the Madison residence'!" She choked +with anger and mortification. "The neighbours----" + +"They're nearly all away," whispered Laura. "You needn't fear----" + +"Hark!" + +The voice stopped singing, and began to mumble incoherently; then +it rose again in a lamentable outcry: + +"Oh, God of the fallen, be Thou merciful to me! Be Thou +merciful--merciful--_merciful_" . . . + +"MERCIFUL, MERCIFUL, MERCIFUL!" it shrieked, over and over, with +increasing loudness, and to such nerve-racking effect that Cora, +gasping, beat the bedclothes frantically with her hands at each +iteration. + +The transom over the door became luminous; some one had lighted +the gas in the upper hall. Both girls jumped from the bed, ran to +the door, and opened it. Their mother, wearing a red wrapper, was +standing at the head of the stairs, which Mr. Madison, in his +night-shirt and slippers, was slowly and heavily descending. + +Before he reached the front door, the voice outside ceased its +dreadful plaint with the abrupt anti-climax of a phonograph +stopped in the middle of a record. There was the sound of a +struggle and wrestling, a turmoil in the wet shrubberies, branches +cracking. + +"Let me go, da----" cried the voice, drowned again at half a word, +as by a powerful hand upon a screaming mouth. + +The old man opened the front door, stepped out, closing it behind +him; and the three women looked at each other wanly during a +hushed interval like that in a sleeping-car at night when the +train stops. Presently he came in again, and started up the +stairs, heavily and slowly, as he had gone down. + +"Richard Lindley stopped him," he said, sighing with the ascent, +and not looking up. "He heard him as he came along the street, and +dressed as quick as he could, and ran up and got him. Richard's +taken him away." + +He went to his own room, panting, mopping his damp gray hair with +his fat wrist, and looking at no one. + +Cora began to cry again. It was an hour before any of this family +had recovered sufficient poise to realize, with the shuddering +gratitude of adventurers spared from the abyss, that, under +Providence, Hedrick had not wakened! + + + +CHAPTER SIX + +Much light shatters much loveliness; but a pretty girl who looks +pretty outdoors on a dazzling hot summer morning is prettier then +than ever. Cora knew it; of course she knew it; she knew exactly +how she looked, as she left the concrete bridge behind her at the +upper end of Corliss Street and turned into a shrub-bordered +bypath of the river park. In imagination she stood at the turn of +the path just ahead, watching her own approach: she saw herself as +a picture--the white-domed parasol, with its cheerful pale-green +lining, a background for her white hat, her corn-silk hair, and +her delicately flushed face. She saw her pale, live arms through +their thin sleeves, and the light grasp of her gloved fingers upon +the glistening stick of the parasol; she saw the long, simple +lines of her close white dress and their graceful interchanging +movements with the alternate advance of her white shoes over the +fine gravel path; she saw the dazzling splashes of sunshine +playing upon her through the changeful branches overhead. Cora +never lacked a gallery: she sat there herself. + +She refreshed the eyes of a respectable burgess of sixty, a person +so colourless that no one, after passing him, could have +remembered anything about him except that he wore glasses and some +sort of moustache; and to Cora's vision he was as near transparent +as any man could be, yet she did not miss the almost imperceptible +signs of his approval, as they met and continued on their opposite +ways. She did not glance round, nor did he pause in his slow walk; +neither was she clairvoyant; none the less, she knew that he +turned his head and looked back at her. + +The path led away from the drives and more public walks of the +park, to a low hill, thoughtfully untouched by the gardener and +left to the shadowy thickets and good-smelling underbrush of its +rich native woodland. And here, by a brown bench, waited a tall +gentleman in white. + +They touched hands and sat without speaking. For several moments +they continued the silence, then turned slowly and looked at each +other; then looked slowly and gravely away, as if to an audience +in front of them. They knew how to do it; but probably a critic in +the first row would have concluded that Cora felt it even more +than Valentine Corliss enjoyed it. + +"I suppose this is very clandestine," she said, after a deep +breath. "I don't think I care, though." + +"I hope you do," he smiled, "so that I could think your coming +means more." + +"Then I'll care," she said, and looked at him again. + +"You dear!" he exclaimed deliberately. + +She bit her lip and looked down, but not before he had seen the +quick dilation of her ardent eyes. "I wanted to be out of doors," +she said. "I'm afraid there's one thing of yours I don't like, Mr. +Corliss." + +"I'll throw it away, then. Tell me." + +"Your house. I don't like living in it, very much. I'm sorry you +_can't_ throw it away." + +"I'm thinking of doing that very thing," he laughed. "But I'm glad +I found the rose in that queer old waste-basket first." + +"Not too much like a rose, sometimes," she said. "I think this +morning I'm a little like some of the old doors up on the third +floor: I feel rather unhinged, Mr. Corliss." + +"You don't look it, Miss Madison!" + +"I didn't sleep very well." She bestowed upon him a glance which +transmuted her actual explanation into, "I couldn't sleep for +thinking of you." It was perfectly definite; but the acute +gentleman laughed genially. + +"Go on with you!" he said. + +Her eyes sparkled, and she joined laughter with him. "But it's +true: you did keep me awake. Besides, I had a serenade." + +"Serenade? I had an idea they didn't do that any more over here. I +remember the young men going about at night with an orchestra +sometimes when I was a boy, but I supposed----" + +"Oh, it wasn't much like that," she interrupted, carelessly. "I +don't think that sort of thing has been done for years and years. +It wasn't an orchestra--just a man singing under my window." + +"With a guitar?" + +"No." She laughed a little. "Just singing." + +"But it rained last night," said Corliss, puzzled. + +"Oh, _he_ wouldn't mind that!" + +"How stupid of me! Of course, he wouldn't. Was it Richard +Lindley?" + +"Never!" + +"I see. Yes, that was a bad guess: I'm sure Lindley's just the +same steady-going, sober, plodding old horse he was as a boy. His +picture doesn't fit a romantic frame--singing under a lady's +window in a thunderstorm! Your serenader must have been very +young." + +"He is," said Cora. "I suppose he's about twenty-three; just a +boy--and a very annoying one, too!" + +Her companion looked at her narrowly. "By any chance, is he the +person your little brother seemed so fond of mentioning--Mr. +Vilas?" + +Cora gave a genuine start. "Good heavens! What makes you think +that?" she cried, but she was sufficiently disconcerted to confirm +his amused suspicion. + +"So it was Mr. Vilas," he said. "He's one of the jilted, of +course." + +"Oh, `jilted'!" she exclaimed. "All the wild boys that a girl +can't make herself like aren't `jilted,' are they?" + +"I believe I should say--yes," he returned. "Yes, in this +instance, just about all of them." + +"Is every woman a target for you, Mr. Corliss? I suppose you know +that you have a most uncomfortable way of shooting up the +landscape." She stirred uneasily, and moved away from him to the +other end of the bench. + +"I didn't miss that time," he laughed. "Don't you ever miss?" + +He leaned quickly toward her and answered in a low voice: "You can +be sure I'm not going to miss anything about _you_." + +It was as if his bending near her had been to rouge her. But it +cannot be said that she disliked his effect upon her; for the deep +breath she drew in audibly, through her shut teeth, was a signal +of delight; and then followed one of those fraught silences not +uncharacteristic of dialogues with Cora. + +Presently, she gracefully and uselessly smoothed her hair from the +left temple with the backs of her fingers, of course finishing the +gesture prettily by tucking in a hairpin tighter above the nape of +her neck. Then, with recovered coolness, she asked: + +"Did you come all the way from Italy just to sell our old house, +Mr. Corliss?" + +"Perhaps that was part of why I came," he said, gayly. "I need a +great deal of money, Miss Cora Madison." + +"For your villa and your yacht?" + +"No; I'm a magician, dear lady----" + +"Yes," she said, almost angrily. "Of course you know it!" + +"You mock me! No; I'm going to make everybody rich who will trust +me. I have a secret, and it's worth a mountain of gold. I've put +all I have into it, and will put in everything else I can get for +myself, but it's going to take a great deal more than that. And +everybody who goes into it will come out on Monte Cristo's +island." + +"Then I'm sorry papa hasn't anything to put in," she said. + +"But he has: his experience in business and his integrity. I want +him to be secretary of my company. Will you help me to get him?" +he laughed. + +"Do you want me to?" she asked with a quick, serious glance +straight in his eyes, one which he met admirably. + +"I have an extremely definite impression," he said lightly, "that +you can make anybody you know do just what you want him to." + +"And I have another that you have still another `extremely +definite impression' that takes rank over that," she said, but not +with his lightness, for her tone was faintly rueful. "It is that +you can make _me_ do just what you want me to." + +Mr. Valentine Corliss threw himself back on the bench and laughed +aloud. "What a girl!" he cried. Then for a fraction of a second he +set his hand over hers, an evanescent touch at which her whole +body started and visibly thrilled. + +She lifted her gloved hand and looked at it with an odd wonder; +her alert emotions, always too ready, flinging their banners to +her cheeks again. + +"Oh, I don't think it's soiled," he said, a speech which she +punished with a look of starry contempt. For an instant she made +him afraid that something had gone wrong with his measuring tape; +but with a slow movement she set her hand softly against her hot +cheek; and he was reassured: it was not his touching her that had +offended her, but the allusion to it. + +"Thanks," he said, very softly. + +She dropped her hand to her parasol, and began, musingly, to dig +little holes in the gravel of the path. "Richard Lindley is +looking for investments," she said. + +"I'm glad to hear he's been so successful," returned Corliss. + +"He might like a share in your gold-mine." + +"Thank heaven it isn't literally a gold-mine," he exclaimed. +"There have been so many crooked ones exploited I don't believe +you could get anybody nowadays to come in on a real one. But I +think you'd make an excellent partner for an adventurer who had +discovered hidden treasure; and I'm that particular kind of +adventurer. I think I'll take you in." + +"Do you?" + +"How would you like to save a man from being ruined?" + +"Ruined? You don't mean it literally?" + +"Literally!" He laughed gayly. "If I don't `land' this I'm gone, +smashed, finished--quite ended! Don't bother, I'm going to `land' +it. And it's rather a serious compliment I'm paying you, thinking +you can help me. I'd like to see a woman--just once in the +world--who could manage a thing like this." He became suddenly +very grave. "Good God! wouldn't I be at her feet!" + +Her eyes became even more eager. "You think I--I _might_ be a +woman who could?" + +"Who knows, Miss Madison? I believe----" He stopped abruptly, then +in a lowered, graver voice asked: "Doesn't it somehow seem a +little queer to you when we call each other, `Miss Madison' and +`Mr. Corliss'?" + +"Yes," she answered slowly; "it does." + +"Doesn't it seem to you," he went on, in the same tone, "that we +only `Miss' and `Mister' each other in fun? That though you never +saw me until yesterday, we've gone pretty far beyond mere +surfaces? That we did in our talk, last night?" + +"Yes," she repeated; "it does." + +He let a pause follow, and then said huskily: + +"How far are we going?" + +"I don't know." She was barely audible; but she turned +deliberately, and there took place an eager exchange of looks +which continued a long while. At last, and without ending this +serious encounter, she whispered: + +"How far do _you_ think?" + +Mr. Corliss did not answer, and a peculiar phenomenon became +vaguely evident to the girl facing him: his eyes were still fixed +full upon hers, but he was not actually looking at her; +nevertheless, and with an extraordinarily acute attention, he was +unquestionably looking at something. The direct front of pupil and +iris did not waver from her; but for the time he was not aware of +her; had not even heard her question. Something in the outer field +of his vision had suddenly and completely engrossed him; something +in that nebulous and hazy background which we see, as we say, with +the white of the eye. Cora instinctively turned and looked behind +her, down the path. + +There was no one in sight except a little girl and the elderly +burgess who had glanced over his shoulder at Cora as she entered +the park; and he was, in face, mien, and attire, so thoroughly the +unnoticeable, average man-on-the-street that she did not even +recall him as the looker-round of a little while ago. He was +strolling benevolently, the little girl clinging to one of his +hands, the other holding an apple; and a composite photograph of a +thousand grandfathers might have resulted in this man's picture. + +As the man and little girl came slowly up the walk toward the +couple on the bench there was a faint tinkle at Cora's feet: her +companion's scarfpin, which had fallen from his tie. He was +maladroit about picking it up, trying with thumb and forefinger to +seize the pin itself, instead of the more readily grasped design +of small pearls at the top, so that he pushed it a little deeper +into the gravel; and then occurred a tiny coincidence: the elderly +man, passing, let fall the apple from his hand, and it rolled +toward the pin just as Corliss managed to secure the latter. For +an instant, though the situation was so absolutely commonplace, so +casual, Cora had a wandering consciousness of some mysterious +tensity; a feeling like the premonition of a crisis very near at +hand. This sensation was the more curious because nothing whatever +happened. The man got his apple, joined in the child's laughter, +and went on. + +"What was it you asked me?" said Corliss, lifting his head again +and restoring the pin to his tie. He gazed carelessly at the back +of the grandsire, disappearing beyond a bush at a bend in the +path. + +"Who was that man?" said Cora with some curiosity. + +"That old fellow? I haven't an idea. You see I've been away from +here so many years I remember almost no one. Why?" + +"I don't know, unless it was because I had an idea you were +thinking of him instead of me. You didn't listen to what I said." + +"That was because I was thinking so intensely of you," he began +instantly. "A startlingly vivid thought of you came to me just +then. Didn't I look like a man in a trance?" + +"What was the thought?" + +"It was a picture: I saw you standing under a great bulging sail, +and the water flying by in moonlight; oh, a moon and a night such +as you have never seen! and a big blue headland looming up against +the moon, and crowned with lemon groves and vineyards, all +sparkling with fireflies--old watch-towers and the roofs of white +villas gleaming among olive orchards on the slopes--the sound of +mandolins----" + +"Ah!" she sighed, the elderly man, his grandchild, and his apple +well-forgotten. + +"Do you think it was a prophecy?" he asked. + +"What do _you_ think?" she breathed. "That was really what I asked +you before." + +"I think," he said slowly, "that I'm in danger of forgetting that +my `hidden treasure' is the most important thing in the world." + +"In great danger?" The words were not vocal. + +He moved close to her; their eyes met again, with increased +eagerness, and held fast; she was trembling, visibly; and her +lips--parted with her tumultuous breathing--were not far from his. + +"Isn't any man in great danger," he said, "if he falls in love +with you?" + +"Well?" + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + +Toward four o'clock that afternoon, a very thin, fair young man +shakily heaved himself into a hammock under the trees in that +broad backyard wherein, as Valentine Corliss had yesterday +noticed, the last iron monarch of the herd, with unabated +arrogance, had entered domestic service as a clothes-prop. The +young man, who was of delicate appearance and unhumanly pale, +stretched himself at full length on his back, closed his eyes, +moaned feebly, cursed the heat in a stricken whisper. Then, as a +locust directly overhead violently shattered the silence, and +seemed like to continue the outrage forever, the shaken lounger +stopped his ears with his fingers and addressed the insect in old +Saxon. + +A white jacketed mulatto came from the house bearing something on +a silver tray. + +"Julip, Mist' Vilas?" he said sympathetically. + +Ray Vilas rustily manoeuvred into a sitting position; and, with +eyes still closed, made shift to accept the julep in both hands, +drained half of it, opened his eyes, and thanked the cup-bearer +feebly, in a voice and accent reminiscent of the melodious South. + +"And I wonder," he added, "if you can tell me----" + +"I'm Miz William Lindley's house-man, Joe Vaxdens," said the +mulatto, in the tone of an indulgent nurse. "You in Miz Lindley's +backyard right now, sittin' in a hammick." + +"I seem to gather almost that much for myself," returned the +patient. "But I should like to know how I got here." + +"Jes' come out the front door an' walk' aroun' the house an' set +down. Mist' Richard had to go downtown; tole me not to wake you; +but I heerd you splashin' in the bath an' you tole me you din' +want no breakfuss----" + +"Yes, Joe, I'm aware of what's occurred since I woke," said Vilas, +and, throwing away the straws, finished the julep at one draught. +"What I want to know is how I happened to be here at Mr. +Lindley's." + +"Mist' Richard brought you las' night, suh. I don' know where he +got you, but I heered a considerable thrashum aroun', up an' down +the house, an' so I come help him git you to bed in one vem +spare-rooms." Joe chuckled ingratiatingly. "Lord name! You +cert'n'y wasn't askin' fer no _bed_!" + +He took the glass, and the young man reclined again in the +hammock, a hot blush vanquishing his pallor. "Was I--was I very +bad, Joe?" + +"Oh, you was all _right_," Joe hastened to reassure him. "You was +jes' on'y a little bit tight." + +"Did it really seem only a little?" the other asked hopefully. + +"Yessuh," said Joe promptly. "Nothin' at all. You jes' wanted to +rare roun' little bit. Mist' Richard took gun away from you----" + +"What?" + +"Oh, I tole him you wasn' goin' use it!" Joe laughed. "But you so +wile be din' know what you do. You cert'n'y was drunkes' man _I_ +see in _long_ while," he said admiringly. "You pert near had us +bofe wore out 'fore you give up, an' Mist' Richard an' me, we +_use'_ to han'lin' drunkum man, too--use' to have big times +week-in, week-out 'ith Mist' Will--at's Mist' Richard's brother, +you know, suh, what died o' whiskey." He laughed again in high +good-humour. "You cert'n'y laid it all over any vem ole times we +had 'ith Mist' Will!" + +Mr. Vilas shifted his position in the hammock uneasily; Joe's +honest intentions to be of cheer to the sufferer were not wholly +successful. + +"I tole Mist' Richard," the kindly servitor continued, "it was a +mighty good thing his ma gone up Norf endurin' the hot spell. +Sence Mist' Will die she can't hardly bear to see drunkum man +aroun' the house. Mist' Richard hardly ever tech nothin' himself +no more. You goin' feel better, suh, out in the f'esh air," he +concluded, comfortingly as he moved away. + +"Joe!" + +"Yessuh." + +Mr. Vilas pulled himself upright for a moment. "What use in the +world do you reckon one julep is to me?" + +"Mist' Richard say to give you one drink ef you ask' for it, suh," +answered Joe, looking troubled. + +"Well, you've told me enough now about last night to make any man +hang himself, and I'm beginning to remember enough more----" + +"Pshaw, Mist' Vilas," the coloured man interrupted, deprecatingly, +"you din' broke nothin'! You on'y had couple glass' wine too much. +You din' make no trouble at all; jes' went right off to bed. You +ought seen some vem ole times me an Mist' Richard use to have 'ith +Mist' Will----" + +"Joe!" + +"Yessuh." + +"I want three more juleps and I want them right away." + +The troubled expression upon the coloured man's face deepened. +"Mist' Richard say jes' one, suh," he said reluctantly. "I'm +afraid----" + +"Joe." + +"Yessuh." + +"I don't know," said Ray Vilas slowly, "whether or not you ever +heard that I was born and raised in Kentucky." + +"Yessuh," returned Joe humbly. "I heerd so." + +"Well, then," said the young man in a quiet voice, "you go and get +me three juleps. I'll settle it with Mr. Richard." + +"Yessuh." + +But it was with a fifth of these renovators that Lindley found his +guest occupied, an hour later, while upon a small table nearby a +sixth, untouched, awaited disposal beside an emptied coffee-cup. +Also, Mr. Vilas was smoking a cigarette with unshadowed pleasure; +his eye was bright, his expression care-free; and he was sitting +up in the hammock, swinging cheerfully, and singing the +"Marseillaise." Richard approached through the yard, coming from +the street without entering the house; and anxiety was manifest in +the glance he threw at the green-topped glass upon the table, and +in his greeting. + +"Hail, gloom!" returned Mr. Vilas, cordially, and, observing the +anxious glance, he swiftly removed the untouched goblet from the +table to his own immediate possession. "Two simultaneous juleps +will enhance the higher welfare," he explained airily. "Sir, your +Mr. Varden was induced to place a somewhat larger order with us +than he protested to be your intention. Trusting you to exonerate +him from all so-and-so and that these few words, etcetera!" He +depleted the elder glass of its liquor, waved it in the air, +cried, "Health, host!" and set it upon the table. "I believe I do +not err in assuming my cup-bearer's name to be Varden, although he +himself, in his simple Americo-Africanism, is pleased to pluralize +it. Do I fret you, host?" + +"Not in the least," said Richard, dropping upon a rustic bench, +and beginning to fan himself with his straw hat. "What's the use +of fretting about a boy who hasn't sense enough to fret about +himself?" + +"`Boy?'" Mr. Vilas affected puzzlement. "Do I hear aright? Sir, do +you boy me? Bethink you, I am now the shell of five mint-juleps +plus, and am pot-valiant. And is this mere capacity itself to be +lightly _boyed_? Again, do I not wear a man's garment, a man's +garnitures? Heed your answer; for this serge, these flannels, and +these silks are yours, and though I may not fill them to the +utmost, I do to the longmost, precisely. I am the stature of a +man; had it not been for your razor I should wear the beard of a +man; therefore I'll not be boyed. What have you to say in +defence?" + +"Hadn't you better let me get Joe to bring you something to eat?" +asked Richard. + +"Eat?" Mr. Vilas disposed of the suggestion with mournful hauteur. +"There! For the once I forgive you. Let the subject never be +mentioned between us again. We will tactfully turn to a topic of +interest. My memories of last evening, at first hazy and somewhat +disconcerting, now merely amuse me. Following the pleasant Spanish +custom, I went a-serenading, but was kidnapped from beneath the +precious casement by--by a zealous arrival. Host, `zealous +arrival' is not the julep in action: it is a triumph of +paraphrase." + +"I wish you'd let Joe take you back to bed," said Richard. + +"Always bent on thoughts of the flesh," observed the other sadly. +"Beds are for bodies, and I am become a thing of spirit. My soul +is grateful a little for your care of its casing. You behold, I am +generous: I am able to thank my successor to Carmen!" + +Lindley's back stiffened. "Vilas!" + +"Spare me your protests." The younger man waved his hand +languidly. "You wish not to confer upon this subject----" + +"It's a subject we'll omit," said Richard. + +His companion stopped swinging, allowed the hammock to come to +rest; his air of badinage fell from him; for the moment he seemed +entirely sober; and he spoke with gentleness. "Mr. Lindley, if you +please, I am still a gentleman--at times." + +"I beg your pardon," said Richard quickly. + +"No need of that!" The speaker's former careless and boisterous +manner instantly resumed possession. "You must permit me to speak +of a wholly fictitious lady, a creature of my wanton fancy, sir, +whom I call Carmen. It will enable me to relieve my burdened soul +of some remarks I have long wished to address to your excellent +self." + +"Oh, all right," muttered Richard, much annoyed. + +"Let us imagine," continued Mr. Vilas, beginning to swing again, +"that I thought I had won this Carmen----" + +Lindley uttered an exclamation, shifted his position in his chair, +and fixed a bored attention upon the passing vehicles in the +glimpse of the street afforded between the house and the +shrubberies along the side fence. The other, without appearing to +note his annoyance, went on, cheerfully: + +"She was a precocious huntress: early in youth she passed through +the accumulator stage, leaving it to the crude or village belle to +rejoice in numbers and the excitement of teasing cubs in the +bear-pit. It is the nature of this imagined Carmen to play +fiercely with one imitation of love after another: a man thinks he +wins her, but it is merely that she has chosen him--for a while. +And Carmen can have what she chooses; if the man exists who could +show her that she cannot, she would follow him through the devil's +dance; but neither you nor I would be that man, my dear sir. We +assume that Carmen's eyes have been mine--her heart is another +matter--and that she has grown weary of my somewhat Sicilian +manner of looking into them, and, following her nature and the law +of periodicity which Carmens must bow to, she seeks a cooler gaze +and calls Mr. Richard Lindley to come and take a turn at looking. +Now, Mr. Richard Lindley is straight as a die: he will not even +show that he hears the call until he is sure that I have been +dismissed: therefore, I have no quarrel with him. Also, I cannot +even hate him, for in my clearer julep vision I see that he is but +an interregnum. Let me not offend my friend: chagrin is to be his +as it is mine. I was a strong draught, he but the quieting potion +our Carmen took to settle it. We shall be brothers in woe some +day. Nothing in the universe lasts except Hell: Life is running +water; Love, a looking-glass; Death, an empty theatre! That +reminds me: as you are not listening I will sing." + +He finished his drink and lifted his voice hilariously: + + "The heavenly stars far above her, + The wind of the infinite sea, + Who know all her perfidy, love her, + So why call it madness in me? + Ah, why call it madness----" + +He set his glass with a crash upon the table, staring over his +companion's shoulder. + +"_What_, if you please, is the royal exile who thus seeks refuge +in our hermitage?" + +His host had already observed the approaching visitor with some +surprise, and none too graciously. It was Valentine Corliss: he +had turned in from the street and was crossing the lawn to join +the two young men. Lindley rose, and, greeting him with sufficient +cordiality, introduced Mr. Vilas, who bestowed upon the newcomer a +very lively interest. + +"You are as welcome, Mr. Corliss," said this previous guest, +earnestly, "as if these sylvan shades were mine. I hail you, not +only for your own sake, but because your presence encourages a +hope that our host may offer refreshment to the entire company." + +Corliss smilingly declined to be a party to this diplomacy, and +seated himself beside Richard Lindley on the bench. + +"Then I relapse!" exclaimed Mr. Vilas, throwing himself back +full-length in the hammock. "I am not replete, but content. I +shall meditate. Gentlemen, speak on!" + +He waved his hand in a gracious gesture, indicating his intention +to remain silent, and lay quiet, his eyes fixed steadfastly upon +Corliss. + +"I was coming to call on you," said the latter to Lindley, "but I +saw you from the street and thought you mightn't mind my being as +informal as I used to be, so many years ago." + +"Of course," said Richard. + +"I have a sinister purpose in coming," Mr. Corliss laughingly went +on. "I want to bore you a little first, and then make your +fortune. No doubt that's an old story to you, but I happen to be +one of the adventurers whose argosies are laden with real cargoes. +Nobody knows who has or hasn't money to invest nowadays, and of +course I've no means of knowing whether _you_ have or not--you see +what a direct chap I am--but if you have, or can lay hold of some, +I can show you how to make it bring you an immense deal more." + +"Naturally," said Richard pleasantly, "I shall be glad if you can +do that." + +"Then I'll come to the point. It is exceedingly simple; that's +certainly one attractive thing about it." Corliss took some papers +and unmounted photographs from his pocket, and began to spread +them open on the bench between himself and Richard. "No doubt you +know Southern Italy as well as I do." + +"Oh, I don't `know' it. I've been to Naples; down to Paestum; +drove from Salerno to Sorrentoby Amalfi; but that was years ago." + +"Here's a large scale map that will refresh your memory." He +unfolded it and laid it across their knees; it was frayed with +wear along the folds, and had been heavily marked and dotted with +red and blue pencillings. "My millions are in this large irregular +section," he continued. "It's the anklebone and instep of Italy's +boot; this sizable province called Basilicata, east of Salerno, +north of Calabria. And I'll not hang fire on the point, Lindley. +What I've got there is oil." + +"Olives?" asked Richard, puzzled. + +"Hardly!" Corliss laughed. "Though of course one doesn't connect +petroleum with the thought of Italy, and of all Italy, Southern +Italy. But in spite of the years I've lived there, I've discovered +myself to be so essentially American and commercial that I want to +drench the surface of that antique soil with the brown, +bad-smelling crude oil that lies so deep beneath it. Basilicata is +the coming great oil-field of the world--and that's my secret. I +dare to tell it here, as I shouldn't dare in Naples." + +"Shouldn't `dare'?" Richard repeated, with growing interest, and +no doubt having some vague expectation of a tale of the Camorra. +To him Naples had always seemed of all cities the most elusive and +incomprehensible, a laughing, thieving, begging, mandolin-playing, +music-and-murder haunted metropolis, about which anything was +plausible; and this impression was not unique, as no +inconsiderable proportion of Mr. Lindley's fellow-countrymen share +it, a fact thoroughly comprehended by the returned native. + +"It isn't a case of not daring on account of any bodily danger," +explained Corliss. + +"No," Richard smiled reminiscently. "I don't believe that would +have much weight with you if it were. You certainly showed no +symptoms of that sort in your extreme youth. I remember you had +the name of being about the most daring and foolhardy boy in +town." + +"I grew up to be cautious enough in business, though," said the +other, shaking his head gravely. "I haven't been able to afford +not being careful." He adjusted the map--a prefatory gesture. +"Now, I'll make this whole affair perfectly clear to you. It's a +simple matter, as are most big things. I'll begin by telling you +of Moliterno--he's been my most intimate friend in that part of +the continent for a great many years; since I went there as a boy, +in fact." + +He sketched a portrait of his friend, Prince Moliterno, bachelor +chief of a historic house, the soul of honour, "land-poor"; owning +leagues and leagues of land, hills and mountains, broken towers +and ruins, in central Basilicata, a province described as wild +country and rough, off the rails and not easy to reach. Moliterno +and the narrator had gone there to shoot; Corliss had seen +"surface oil" upon the streams and pools; he recalled the +discovery of oil near his own boyhood home in America; had talked +of it to Moliterno, and both men had become more and more +interested, then excited. They decided to sink a well. + +Corliss described picturesquely the difficulties of this +enterprise, the hardships and disappointments; how they dragged +the big tools over the mountains by mule power; how they had kept +it all secret; how he and Moliterno had done everything with the +help of peasant labourers and one experienced man, who had "seen +service in the Persian oil-fields." + +He gave the business reality, colouring it with details relevant +and irrelevant, anecdotes and wayside incidents: he was fluent, +elaborate, explicit throughout. They sank five wells, he said, "at +the angles of this irregular pentagon you see here on the map, +outlined in blue. These red circles are the wells." Four of the +wells "came in tremendous," but they had managed to get them +sealed after wasting--he was "sorry to think how many thousand +barrels of oil." The fifth well was so enormous that they had not +been able to seal it at the time of the speaker's departure for +America. + +"But I had a cablegram this morning," he added, "letting me know +they've managed to do it at last. Here is, the cablegram." He +handed Richard a form signed "Antonio Moliterno." + +"Now, to go back to what I said about not `daring' to speak of +this in Naples," he continued, smiling. "The fear is financial, +not physical." + +The knowledge of the lucky strike, he explained, must be kept from +the "Neapolitan money-sharks." A third of the land so rich in oil +already belonged to the Moliterno estates, but it was necessary to +obtain possession of the other two thirds "before the secret leaks +into Naples." So far, it was safe, the peasants of Basilicata +being "as medieval a lot as one could wish." He related that these +peasants thought that the devils hiding inside the mountains had +been stabbed by the drills, and that the oil was devils' blood. + +"You can see some of the country people hanging about, staring at +a well, in this kodak, though it's not a very good one." He put +into Richard's hand a small, blurred photograph showing a spouting +well with an indistinct crowd standing in an irregular semicircle +before it. + +"Is this the Basilicatan peasant costume?" asked Richard, +indicating a figure in the foreground, the only one revealed at +all definitely. "It looks more oriental. Isn't the man wearing a +fez?" + +"Let me see," responded Mr. Corliss very quickly. "Perhaps I gave +you the wrong picture. Oh, no," he laughed easily, holding the +kodak closer to his eyes; "that's all right: it is a fez. That's +old Salviati, our engineer, the man I spoke of who'd worked in +Persia, you know; he's always worn a fez since then. Got in the +habit of it out there and says he'll never give it up. Moliterno's +always chaffing him about it. He's a faithful old chap, Salviati." + +"I see." Lindley looked thoughtfully at the picture, which the +other carelessly returned to his hand. "There seems to be a lot of +oil there." + +"It's one of the smaller wells at that. And you can see from the +kodak that it's just `blowing'--not an eruption from being `shot,' +or the people wouldn't stand so near. Yes; there's an ocean of oil +under that whole province; but we want a lot of money to get at +it. It's mountain country; our wells will all have to go over +fifteen-hundred feet, and that's expensive. We want to pipe the +oil to Salerno, where the Standard's ships will take it from us, +and it will need a great deal for that. But most of all we want +money to get hold of the land; we must control the whole field, +and it's big!" + +"How did you happen to come here to finance it?" + +"I was getting to that. Moliterno himself is as honourable a man +as breathes God's air. But my experience has been that Neapolitan +capitalists are about the cleverest and slipperiest financiers in +the world. We could have financed it twenty times over in Naples +in a day, but neither Moliterno nor I was willing to trust them. +The thing is enormous, you see--a really colossal fortune--and +Italian law is full of ins and outs, and the first man we talked +to confidentially would have given us his word to play straight, +and, the instant we left him, would have flown post-haste for +Basilicata and grabbed for himself the two thirds of the field not +yet in our hands. Moliterno and I talked it over many, many times; +we thought of going to Rome for the money, to Paris, to London, to +New York; but I happened to remember the old house here that my +aunt had left me--I wanted to sell it, to add whatever it brought +to the money I've already put in--and then it struck me I might +raise the rest here as well as anywhere else." + +The other nodded. "I understand." + +"I suppose you'll think me rather sentimental," Corliss went on, +with a laugh which unexpectedly betrayed a little shyness. "I've +never forgotten that I was born here--was a boy here. In all my +wanderings I've always really thought of this as home." + +His voice trembled slightly and his face flushed; he smiled +deprecatingly as though in apology for these symptoms of emotion; +and at that both listeners felt (perhaps with surprise) the man's +strong attraction. There was something very engaging about him: in +the frankness of his look and in the slight tremor in his voice; +there was something appealing and yet manly in the confession, by +this thoroughgoing cosmopolite, of his real feeling for the +home-town. + +"Of course I know how very few people, even among the `old +citizens,' would have any recollection whatever of me," he went +on; "but that doesn't make any difference in my sentiment for the +place and its people. That street out yonder was named for my +grandfather: there's a statue of my great uncle in the State House +yard; all my own blood: belonged here, and though I have been a +wanderer and may not be remembered--naturally am _not_ +remembered--yet the name is honoured here, and I--I----" He +faltered again, then concluded with quiet earnestness: "I thought +that if my good luck was destined to bring fortunes to others, it +might as well be to my own kind--that at least I'd offer them the +chance before I offered it to any one else." He turned and looked +Richard in the face. "That's why I'm here, Mr. Lindley." + +The other impulsively put out his hand. "I understand," he said +heartily. + +"Thank you." Corliss changed his tone for one less serious. +"You've listened very patiently and I hope you'll be rewarded for +it. Certainly you will if you decide to come in with us. May I +leave the maps and descriptions with you?" + +"Yes, indeed. I'll look them over carefully and have another talk +with you about it." + +"Thank heaven, _that's_ over!" exclaimed the lounger in the +hammock, who had not once removed his fascinated stare from the +expressive face of Valentine Corliss. "If you have now concluded +with dull care, allow me to put a vital question: Mr. Corliss, do +you sing?" + +The gentleman addressed favoured him with a quizzical glance from +between half-closed lids, and probably checking an impulse to +remark that he happened to know that his questioner sometimes +sang, replied merely, "No." + +"It is a pity." + +"Why?" + +"Nothing," returned the other, inconsequently. "It just struck me +that you ought to sing the Toreador song." + +Richard Lindley, placing the notes and maps in his pocket, dropped +them, and, stooping, began to gather the scattered papers with a +very red face. Corliss, however, laughed good-naturedly. + +"That's most flattering," he said; "though there are other things +in `Carmen' I prefer--probably because one doesn't hear them so +eternally." + +Vilas pulled himself up to a sitting position and began to swing +again. "Observe our host, Mr. Corliss," he commanded gayly. "He is +a kind old Dobbin, much beloved, but cares damn little to hear you +or me speak of music. He'd even rather discuss your oil business +than listen to us talk of women, whereas nothing except women ever +really interests _you_, my dear sir. He's not our kind of man," he +concluded, mournfully; "not at all our kind of man!" + +"I hope," Corliss suggested, "he's going to be my kind of man in +the development of these oil-fields." + +"How ridic"--Mr. Vilas triumphed over the word after a slight +struggle--"ulous! I shall review that: ridiculous of you to +pretend to be interested in oil-fields. You are not that sort of +person whatever. Nothing could be clearer than that you would +never waste the time demanded by fields of oil. Groundlings call +this `the mechanical age'--a vulgar error. My dear sir, you and I +know that it is the age of Woman! Even poets have begun to see +that she is alive. Formerly we did not speak of her at all, but of +late years she has become such a scandal that she is getting +talked about. Even our dramas, which used to be all blood, have +become all flesh. I wish I were dead--but will continue my +harangue because the thought is pellucid. Women selecting men to +mate with are of only two kinds, just as there are but two kinds +of children in a toy-shop. One child sets its fancy on one +partic"--the orator paused, then continued--"on one certain toy +and will make a distressing scene if she doesn't get it: she will +have that one; she will go straight to it, clasp it and keep it; +she won't have any other. The other kind of woman is to be +understood if you will make the experiment of taking the other +kind of child to a toy-shop and telling her you will buy her any +toy in the place, but that you will buy her only one. If you do +this in the morning, she will still be in the shop when it is +closing for the night, because, though she runs to each toy in +turn with excitement and delight, she sees another over her +shoulder, and the one she has not touched is always her +choice--until she has touched it! Some get broken in the handling. +For my part, my wires are working rather rustily, but I must obey +the Stage-Manager. For my requiem I wish somebody would ask them +to play Gounod's masterpiece." + +"What's that?" asked Corliss, amused. + +"`The Funeral March of a Marionette!'" + +"I suppose you mean that for a cheerful way of announcing that you +are a fatalist." + +"Fatalism? That is only a word," declared Mr. Vilas gravely. "If I +am not a puppet then I am a god. Somehow, I do not seem to be a +god. If a god is a god, one thinks he would know it himself. I now +yield the floor. Thanking you cordially, I believe there is a lady +walking yonder who commands salutation." + +He rose to his feet, bowing profoundly. Cora Madison was passing, +strolling rather briskly down the street, not in the direction of +her home. She waved her parasol with careless gayety to the trio +under the trees, and, going on, was lost to their sight. + +"Hello!" exclaimed Corliss, looking at his watch with a start of +surprise. "I have two letters to write for the evening mail. I +must be off." + +At this, Ray Vilas's eyes--still fixed upon him, as they had been +throughout the visit--opened to their fullest capacity, in a gaze +of only partially alcoholic wildness. + +Entirely aware of this singular glare, but not in the least +disconcerted by it, the recipient proffered his easy farewells. "I +had no idea it was so late. Good afternoon. Mr. Vilas, I have been +delighted with your diagnosis. Lindley, I'm at your disposal when +you've looked over my data. My very warm thanks for your patience, +and--addio!" + +Lindley looked after him as he strode quickly away across the +green lawn, turning, at the street, in the direction Cora had +taken; and the troubled Richard felt his heart sink with vague but +miserable apprehension. There was a gasp of desperation beside +him, and the sound of Ray Vilas's lips parting and closing with +little noises of pain. + +"So he knows her," said the boy, his thin body shaking. "Look at +him, damn him! See his deep chest, that conqueror's walk, the +easy, confident, male pride of him: a true-born, natural rake--the +Toreador all over!" + +His agitation passed suddenly; he broke into a loud laugh, and +flung a reckless hand to his companion's shoulder. + +"You good old fool," he cried. "_You'll_ never play Don Jose!" + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + +Hedrick Madison, like too many other people, had never thought +seriously about the moon; nor ever had he encouraged it to become +his familiar; and he underwent his first experience of its +incomparable betrayals one brilliant night during the last week of +that hot month. The preface to this romantic evening was +substantial and prosaic: four times during dinner was he copiously +replenished with hash, which occasioned so rich a surfeit within +him that, upon the conclusion of the meal, he found himself in no +condition to retort appropriately to a solicitous warning from +Cora to keep away from the cat. Indeed, it was half an hour later, +and he was sitting--to his own consciousness too heavily--upon the +back fence, when belated inspiration arrived. But there is no +sound where there is no ear to hear, and no repartee, alas! when +the wretch who said the first part has gone, so that Cora remained +unscathed as from his alley solitude Hedrick hurled in the teeth +of the rising moon these bitter words: + +"Oh, no; _our_ cat only eats _soft_ meat!" + +He renewed a morbid silence, and the moon, with its customary +deliberation, swung clear of a sweeping branch of the big elm in +the front yard and shone full upon him. Nothing warned the fated +youth not to sit there; no shadow of imminent catastrophe tinted +that brightness: no angel whisper came to him, bidding him +begone--and to go in a hurry and as far as possible. No; he sat +upon the fence an inoffensive lad, and--except for still feeling +his hash somewhat, and a gradually dispersing rancour concerning +the cat--at peace. It is for such lulled mortals that the +ever-lurking Furies save their most hideous surprises. + +Chin on palms, he looked idly at the moon, and the moon +inscrutably returned his stare. Plausible, bright, bland, it gave +no sign that it was at its awful work. For the bride of night is +like a card-dealer whose fingers move so swiftly through the pack +the trickery goes unseen. + +This moon upon which he was placidly gazing, because he had +nothing else to do, betokened nought to Hedrick: to him it was the +moon of any other night, the old moon; certainly no moon of his +delight. Withal, it may never be gazed upon so fixedly and so +protractedly--no matter how languidly--with entire impunity. That +light breeds a bug in the brain. Who can deny how the moon wrought +this thing under the hair of unconscious Hedrick, or doubt its +responsibility for the thing that happened? + +"_Little boy_!" + +It was a very soft, small voice, silky and queer; and at first +Hedrick had little suspicion that it could be addressing him: the +most rigid self-analysis could have revealed to him no possibility +of his fitting so ignominious a description. + +"Oh, little boy!" + +He looked over his shoulder and saw, standing in the alley behind +him, a girl of about his own age. She was daintily dressed and had +beautiful hair which was all shining in pale gold. + +"Little boy!" + +She was smiling up at him, and once more she used that wantonly +inaccurate vocative: + +"Little boy!" + +Hedrick grunted unencouragingly. "Who you callin' `little boy'?" + +For reply she began to climb the fence. It was high, but the young +lady was astonishingly agile, and not even to be deterred by +several faint wails from tearing and ripping fabrics--casualties +which appeared to be entirely beneath her notice. Arriving at the +top rather dishevelled, and with irregular pennons here and there +flung to the breeze from her attire, she seated herself cosily +beside the dumbfounded Hedrick. + +She turned her face to him and smiled--and there was something +about her smile which Hedrick did not like. It discomforted him; +nothing more. In sunlight he would have had the better chance to +comprehend; but, unhappily, this was moonshine. + +"Kiss me, little boy!" she said. + +"I won't!" exclaimed the shocked and indignant Hedrick, edging +uneasily away from her. + +"Let's play," she said cheerfully. + +"Play what?" + +"I like chickens. Did you know I like chickens?" + +The rather singular lack of connection in her remarks struck him +as a misplaced effort at humour. + +"You're having lots of fun with me, aren't you?" he growled. + +She instantly moved close to him and lifted her face to his. + +"Kiss me, darling little boy!" she said. + +There was something more than uncommonly queer about this +stranger, an unearthliness of which he was confusedly perceptive, +but she was not without a curious kind of prettiness, and her pale +gold hair was beautiful. The doomed lad saw the moon shining +through it. + +"Kiss me, darling little boy!" she repeated. + +His head whirled; for the moment she seemed divine. + +George Washington used profanity at the Battle of Monmouth. +Hedrick kissed her. + +He instantly pushed her away with strong distaste. "There!" he +said angrily. "I hope that'll satisfy you!" He belonged to his +sex. + +"Kiss me some more, darling little boy!" she cried, and flung her +arms about him. + +With a smothered shout of dismay he tried to push her off, and +they fell from the fence together, into the yard, at the cost of +further and almost fatal injuries to the lady's apparel. + +Hedrick was first upon his feet. "Haven't you got _any_ sense?" +he demanded. + +She smiled unwaveringly, rose (without assistance) and repeated: +"Kiss me some more, darling little boy!" + +"No, I won't! I wouldn't for a thousand dollars!" + +Apparently, she did not consider this discouraging. She began to +advance endearingly, while he retreated backward. "Kiss me +some----" + +"I won't, I tell you!" Hedrick kept stepping away, moving in a +desperate circle. He resorted to a brutal formula: "You make me +sick!" + +"Kiss me some more, darling lit----" + +"I won't!" he bellowed. "And if you say that again I'll----" + +"Kiss me some more, darling little boy!" She flung herself at him, +and with a yell of terror he turned and ran at top-speed. + +She pursued, laughing sweetly, and calling loudly as she ran, +"Kiss me some more, darling little boy! Kiss me some more, darling +little boy!" + +The stricken Hedrick knew not whither to direct his flight: he +dared not dash for the street with this imminent tattered +incubus--she was almost upon him--and he frantically made for the +kitchen door, only to swerve with a gasp of despair as his foot +touched the step, for she was at his heels, and he was sickeningly +assured she would cheerfully follow him through the house, +shouting that damning refrain for all ears. A strangling fear took +him by the throat--if Cora should come to be a spectator of this +unspeakable flight, if Cora should hear that horrid plea for love! +Then farewell peace; indeed, farewell all joy in life forever! + +Panting sobbingly, he ducked under the amorous vampire's arm and +fled on. He zigzagged desperately to and fro across the broad, +empty backyard, a small hand ever and anon managing to clutch his +shoulder, the awful petition in his ears: + +"Kiss me some more, darling little boy!" + +"_Hedrick_!" + +Emerging from the kitchen door, Laura stood and gazed in wonder as +the two eerie figures sped by her, circled, ducked, dodged, flew +madly on. This commonplace purlieu was become the scene of a +witch-chase; the moonlight fell upon the ghastly flitting face of +the pursued, uplifted in agony, white, wet, with fay eyes; also it +illumined the unreal elf following close, a breeze-blown fantasy +in rags. + +"Kiss me some more, darling little boy!" + +Laura uttered a sharp exclamation. "Stand still, Hedrick!" she +called. "You must!" + +Hedrick made a piteous effort to increase his speed. + +"It's Lolita Martin," called Laura. "She must have her way or +nothing can be done with her. Stand _still_!" + +Hedrick had never heard of Lolita Martin, but the added +information concerning her was not ineffective: it operated as a +spur; and Laura joined the hunt. + +"Stand still!" she cried to the wretched quarry. "She's run away. +She must be taken home. Stop, Hedrick! You _must_ stop!" + +Hedrick had no intention of stopping, but Laura was a runner, and, +as he dodged the other, caught and held him fast. The next +instant, Lolita, laughing happily, flung her arms round his neck +from behind. + +"Lemme go!" shuddered Hedrick. "Lemme go!" + +"Kiss me again, darl----" + +"I--woof!" He became inarticulate. + +"She isn't quite right," his sister whispered hurriedly in his +ear. "She has spells when she's weak mentally. You must be kind to +her. She only wants you to----" + +"`_Only_'!" he echoed hoarsely. "I won't ki----" He was unable to +finish the word. + +"We must get her home," said Laura anxiously. "Will you come with +me, Lolita, dear?" + +Apparently Lolita had no consciousness whatever of Laura's +presence. Instead of replying, she tightened her grasp upon +Hedrick and warmly reiterated her request. + +"Shut up, you parrot!" hissed the goaded boy. + +"Perhaps she'll go if you let her walk with her arms round your +neck," suggested Laura. + +"If I _what_?" + +"Let's try it. We've got to get her home; her mother must be +frantic about her. Come, let's see if she'll go with us that way." + +With convincing earnestness, Hedrick refused to make the +experiment until Laura suggested that he remain with Lolita while +she summoned assistance; then, as no alternative appeared, his +spirit broke utterly, and he consented to the trial, stipulating +with a last burst of vehemence that the progress of the +unthinkable pageant should be through the alley. + +"Come, Lolita," said Laura coaxingly. "We're going for a nice +walk." At the adjective, Hedrick's burdened shoulders were racked +with a brief spasm, which recurred as his sister added: "Your +darling little boy will let you keep hold of him." + +Lolita seemed content. Laughing gayly, she offered no opposition, +but, maintaining her embrace with both arms and walking somewhat +sidewise, went willingly enough; and the three slowly crossed the +yard, passed through the empty stable and out into the alley. When +they reached the cross-street at the alley's upper end, Hedrick +balked flatly. + +Laura expostulated, then entreated. Hedrick refused with sincere +loathing to be seen upon the street occupying his present position +in the group. Laura assured him that there was no one to see; he +replied that the moon was bright and the evening early; he would +die, and readily, but he would not set foot in the street. +Unfortunately, he had selected an unfavourable spot for argument: +they were already within a yard or two of the street; and a +strange boy, passing, stopped and observed, and whistled +discourteously. + +"Ain't he the spooner!" remarked this unknown with hideous +admiration. + +"I'll thank you," returned Hedrick haughtily, "to go on about your +own business." + +"Kiss me some more, darling little boy!" said Lolita. + +The strange boy squawked, wailed, screamed with laughter, howled +the loving petition in a dozen keys of mockery, while Hedrick +writhed and Lolita clung. Enriched by a new and great experience, +the torturer trotted on, leaving viperish cachinnations in his +wake. + +But the martyrdom was at an end. A woman, hurrying past, +bareheaded, was greeted by a cry of delight from Lolita, who +released Hedrick and ran to her with outstretched arms. + +"We were bringing her home, Mrs. Martin," said Laura, +reassuringly. "She's all right; nothing's the matter except that +her dress got torn. We found her playing in our yard." + +"I thank you a thousand times, Miss Madison," cried Lolita's +mother, and flutteringly plunged into a description of her +anxiety, her search for Lolita, and concluded with renewed +expressions of gratitude for the child's safe return, an +outpouring of thankfulness and joy wholly incomprehensible to +Hedrick. + +"Not at all," said Laura cheerfully. "Come, Hedrick. We'll go home +by the street, I think." She touched his shoulder, and he went +with her in stunned obedience. He was not able to face the +incredible thing that had happened to him: he walked in a trance +of horror. + +"Poor little girl!" said Laura gently, with what seemed to her +brother an indefensibly misplaced compassion. "Usually they have +her live in an institution for people afflicted as she is, but +they brought her home for a visit last week, I believe. Of course +you didn't understand, but I think you should have been more +thoughtful. Really, you shouldn't have flirted with her." + +Hedrick stopped short. + +"`_Flirted_'!" His voice was beginning to show symptoms of +changing, this year; it rose to a falsetto wail, flickered and +went out. + +With the departure of Lolita in safety, what had seemed bizarre +and piteous became obscured, and another aspect of the adventure +was presented to Laura. The sufferings of the arrogant are not +wholly depressing to the spectator; and of arrogance Hedrick had +ever been a master. She began to shake; a convulsion took her, and +suddenly she sat upon the curbstone without dignity, and laughed +as he had never seen her. + +A horrid distrust of her rose within him: he began to realize in +what plight he stood, what terrors o'erhung. + +"Look here," he said miserably, "are you--you aren't--you don't +have to go and--and _talk_ about this, do you?" + +"No, Hedrick," she responded, rising and controlling herself +somewhat. "Not so long as you're good." + +This was no reassuring answer. + +"And politer to Cora," she added. + +Seemingly he heard the lash of a slave-whip crack in the air. The +future grew dark. + +"I know you'll try"--she said; and the unhappy lad felt that her +assurance was justified; but she had not concluded the +sentence--"darling little boy," she capped it, choking slightly. + +"No other little girl ever fell in love with you, did there, +Hedrick?" she asked, and, receiving an incoherent but furious +reply, she was again overcome, so that she must lean against the +fence to recover. "It seems--so--so _curious_," she explained, +gasping, "that the first one--the--the only one--should be +an--a--an----" She was unable to continue. + +Hedrick's distrust became painfully increased: he began to feel +that he disliked Laura. + +She was still wiping her eyes and subject to recurrent outbursts +when they reached their own abode; and as he bitterly flung +himself into a chair upon the vacant front porch, he heard her +stifling an attack as she mounted the stairs to her own room. He +swung the chair about, with its back to the street, and sat facing +the wall. He saw nothing. There are profundities in the abyss +which reveal no glimpse of the sky. + +Presently he heard his father coughing near by; and the sound was +hateful, because it seemed secure and unshamed. It was a cough of +moral superiority; and just then the son would have liked to +believe that his parent's boyhood had been one of degradation as +complete as his own; but no one with this comfortable cough could +ever have plumbed such depths: his imagination refused the picture +he was bitterly certain that Mr. Madison had never kissed an +idiot. + +Hedrick had a dread that his father might speak to him; he was in +no condition for light conversation. But Mr. Madison was unaware +of his son's near presence, and continued upon his purposeless +way. He was smoking his one nightly cigar and enjoying the +moonlight. He drifted out toward the sidewalk and was accosted by +a passing acquaintance, a comfortable burgess of sixty, leading a +child of six or seven, by the hand. + +"Out taking the air, are you, Mr. Madison?" said the pedestrian, +pausing. + +"Yes; just trying to cool off," returned the other. "How are you, +Pryor, anyway? I haven't seen you for a long time." + +"Not since last summer," said Pryor. "I only get here once or +twice a year, to see my married daughter. I always try to spend +August with her if I can. She's still living in that little house, +over on the next street, I bought for her through your real-estate +company. I suppose you're still in the same business?" + +"Yes. Pretty slack, these days." + +"I suppose so, I suppose so," responded Mr. Pryor, nodding. +"Summer, I suppose it usually is. Well, I don't know when I'll be +going out on the road again myself. Business is pretty slack all +over the country this year." + +"Let's see--I've forgotten," said Madison ruminatively. "You +travel, don't you?" + +"For a New York house," affirmed Mr. Pryor. He did not, however, +mention his "line." "Yes-sir," he added, merely as a decoration, +and then said briskly: "I see you have a fine family, Mr. Madison; +yes-sir, a fine family; I've passed here several times lately and +I've noticed 'em: fine family. Let's see, you've got four, haven't +you?" + +"Three," said Madison. "Two girls and a boy." + +"Well, sir, that's mighty nice," observed Mr. Pryor; "_mighty_ +nice! I only have my one daughter, and of course me living in New +York when I'm at home, and her here, why, I don't get to see much +of her. You got both your daughters living with you, haven't you?" + +"Yes, right here at home." + +"Let's see: neither of 'em's married, I believe?" + +"No; not yet." + +"Seems to me now," said Pryor, taking off his glasses and wiping +them, "seems to me I did hear somebody say one of 'em was going to +be married engaged, maybe." + +"No," said Madison. "Not that I know of." + +"Well, I suppose you'd be the first to know! Yes-sir." And both +men laughed their appreciation of this folly. "They're mighty +good-looking girls, _that's_ certain," continued Mr. Pryor. "And +one of 'em's as fine a dresser as you'll meet this side the Rue de +la Paix." + +"You mean in Paris?" asked Madison, slightly surprised at this +allusion. "You've been over there, Pryor?" + +"Oh, sometimes," was the response. "My business takes me over, now +and then. I _think_ it's one of your daughters I've noticed +dresses so well. Isn't one of 'em a mighty pretty girl about +twenty-one or two, with a fine head of hair sort of lightish +brown, beautiful figure, and carries a white parasol with a green +lining sometimes?" + +"Yes, that's Cora, I guess." + +"Pretty name, too," said Pryor approvingly. "Yes-sir. I saw her +going into a florist's, downtown, the other day, with a +fine-looking young fellow--I can't think of his name. Let's see: +my daughter was with me, and she'd heard his name--said his family +used to be big people in this town and----" + +"Oh," said Madison, "young Corliss." + +"Corliss!" exclaimed Mr. Pryor, with satisfaction. "That's it, +Corliss. Well, sir," he chuckled, "from the way he was looking at +your Miss Cora it struck me he seemed kind of anxious for her name +to be Corliss, too." + +"Well, hardly I expect," said the other. "They just barely know +each other: he's only been here a few weeks; they haven't had time +to get much acquainted, you see." + +"I suppose not," agreed Mr. Pryor, with perfect readiness. "I +suppose not. I'll bet _he_ tries all he can to get acquainted +though; he looked pretty smart to me. Doesn't he come about as +often as the law allows?" + +"I shouldn't be surprised," said Madison indifferently. "He +doesn't know many people about here any more, and it's lonesome +for him at the hotel. But I guess he comes to see the whole +family; I left him in the library a little while ago, talking to +my wife." + +"That's the way! Get around the old folks first!" Mr. Pryor +chuckled cordially; then in a mildly inquisitive tone he said: +"Seems to be a fine, square young fellow, I expect?" + +"Yes, I think so." + +"Pretty name, `Cora'," said Pryor. + +"What's this little girl's name?" Mr. Madison indicated the child, +who had stood with heroic patience throughout the incomprehensible +dialogue. + +"Lottie, for her mother. She's a good little girl." + +"She is _so_! I've got a young son she ought to know," remarked +Mr. Madison serenely, with an elderly father's total +unconsciousness of the bridgeless gap between seven and thirteen. +"He'd like to play with her. I'll call him." + +"I expect we better be getting on," said Pryor. "It's near +Lottie's bedtime; we just came out for our evening walk." + +"Well, he can come and shake hands with her anyway," urged +Hedrick's father. "Then they'll know each other, and they can play +some other time." He turned toward the house and called loudly: + +"Hedrick!" + +There was no response. Behind the back of his chair Hedrick could +not be seen. He was still sitting immovable, his eyes torpidly +fixed upon the wall. + +"Hed-_rick_!" + +Silence. + +"Oh, _Hed_-rick!" shouted his father. "Come out here! I want you +to meet a little girl! Come and see a nice little girl!" + +Mr. Pryor's grandchild was denied the pleasure. At the ghastly +words "_little girl_," Hedrick dropped from his chair flat upon +the floor, crawled to the end of the porch, wriggled through the +railing, and immersed himself in deep shadow against the side of +the house. + +Here he removed his shoes, noiselessly mounted to the sill of one +of the library windows, then reconnoitred through a slit in the +blinds before entering. + +The gas burned low in the "drop-light"--almost too dimly to reveal +the two people upon a sofa across the room. It was a faint murmur +from one of them that caused Hedrick to pause and peer more +sharply. They were Cora and Corliss; he was bending close to her; +her face was lifting to his. + +"Ah, kiss me! Kiss me!" she whispered. + +Hedrick dropped from the sill, climbed through a window of the +kitchen, hurried up the back-stairs, and reached his own apartment +in time to be violently ill in seclusion. + + + +CHAPTER NINE + +Villages are scattered plentifully over the unstable buttresses of +Vesuvius, and the inhabitants sleep o' nights: Why not? Quite +unaware that he was much of their condition, Mr. Madison bade his +incidental gossip and the tiny Lottie good-night, and sought his +early bed. He maintained in good faith that Saturday night was "a +great night to sleep," because of the later hour for rising; +probably having also some factitious conviction that there +prevailed a hush preparative of the Sabbath. As a matter of fact, +in summer, the other members of his family always looked +uncommonly haggard at the Sunday breakfast-table. Accepting +without question his preposterous legend of additional matutinal +slumber, they postponed retiring to a late hour, and were +awakened--simultaneously with thousands of fellow-sufferers--at +about half-after five on Sunday morning, by a journalistic +uprising. Over the town, in these early hours, rampaged the small +vendors of the manifold sheets: local papers and papers from +greater cities, hawker succeeding hawker with yell upon yell and +brain-piercing shrillings in unbearable cadences. No good burgher +ever complained: the people bore it, as in winter they bore the +smoke that injured their health, ruined their linen, spoiled their +complexions, forbade all hope of beauty and comfort in their city, +and destroyed the sweetness of their homes and of their wives. It +is an incredibly patient citizenry and exalts its persecutors. + +Of the Madison family, Cora probably suffered most; and this was +the time when it was no advantage to have the front bedroom. She +had not slept until close upon dawn, and the hawkers woke her +irreparably; she could but rage upon her hot pillow. By and by, +there came a token that another anguish kept company with hers. +She had left her door open for a better circulation of the warm +and languid air, and from Hedrick's room issued an "_oof_!" of +agonized disgust. Cora little suspected that the youth reeked not +of newsboys: Hedrick's miseries were introspective. + +The cries from the street were interminable; each howler in turn +heard faintly in the distance, then in crescendo until he had +passed and another succeeded him, and all the while Cora lay +tossing and whispering between clenched teeth. Having ample +reason, that morning, to prefer sleep to thinking, sleep was +impossible. But she fought for it: she did not easily surrender +what she wanted; and she struggled on, with closed eyes, long +after she had heard the others go down to breakfast. + +About a hundred yards from her windows, to the rear, were the open +windows of a church which fronted the next street, and stood +dos-a-dos to the dwelling of the Madisons. The Sunday-school hour +had been advanced for the hot weather, and, partly on this +account, and partly because of the summer absence of many +families, the attendants were few. But the young voices were +conducted, rather than accompanied, in pious melody by a cornetist +who worthily thought to amend, in his single person, what lack of +volume this paucity occasioned. He was a slender young man in hot +black clothes; he wore the unfacaded collar fatally and +unanimously adopted by all adam's-apple men of morals; he was +washed, fair, flat-skulled, clean-minded, and industrious; and the +only noise of any kind he ever made in the world was on Sunday. + +"Prashus joowuls, sweet joowuls, _thee_ jams off iz crowowun," +sang the little voices feebly. They were almost unheard; but the +young man helped them out: figuratively, he put them out. And the +cornet was heard: it was heard for blocks and blocks; it was heard +over all that part of the town--in the vicinity of the church it +was the only thing that could be heard. In his daily walk this +cornetist had no enemies: he was kind-hearted; he would not have +shot a mad dog; he gladly nursed the sick. He sat upon the +platform before the children; he swelled, perspired and blew, and +felt that it was a good blowing. If other thoughts vapoured upon +the borders of his mind, they were of the dinner he would eat, +soon after noon, at the house of one of the frilled, white-muslin +teachers. He was serene. His eyes were not blasted; his heart was +not instantly withered; his thin, bluish hair did not fall from +his head; his limbs were not detached from his torso--yet these +misfortunes had been desired for him, with comprehension and +sincerity, at the first flat blat of his brassy horn. + +It is impossible to imagine the state of mind of this young +cornetist, could he have known that he had caused the prettiest +girl in town to jump violently out of bed with what petitions upon +her lips regarding his present whereabouts and future detention! +It happened that during the course of his Sunday walk on Corliss +Street, that very afternoon, he saw her--was hard-smitten by her +beauty, and for weeks thereafter laid unsuccessful plans to "meet" +her. Her image was imprinted: he talked about her to his +boarding-house friends and office acquaintances, his favourite +description being, "the sweetest-looking lady I ever laid eyes +on." + +Cora, descending to the breakfast-table rather white herself, was +not unpleasantly shocked by the haggard aspect of Hedrick, who, +with Laura and Mrs. Madison, still lingered. + +"Good-morning, Cora," he said politely, and while she stared, in +suspicious surprise, he passed her a plate of toast with +ostentatious courtesy; but before she could take one of the +slices, "Wait," he said; "it's very nice toast, but I'm afraid it +isn't hot. I'll take it to the kitchen and have it warmed for +you." And he took the plate and went out, walking softly. + +Cora turned to her mother, appalled. "He'll be sick!" she said. + +Mrs. Madison shook her head and smiled sadly. + +"He helped to wait on all of us: he must have been doing something +awful." + +"More likely he wants permission to do something awful." + +Laura looked out of the window. + +"There, Cora," said Hedrick kindly, when he brought the toast; +"you'll find that nice and hot." + +She regarded him steadfastly, but with modesty he avoided her eye. +"You wouldn't make such a radical change in your nature, Hedrick," +she said, with a puzzled frown, "just to get out of going to +church, would you?" + +"I don't want to get out of going to church," he said. He gulped +slightly. "I like church." + +And church-time found him marching decorously beside his father, +the three ladies forming a rear rank; a small company in the very +thin procession of fanning women and mopping men whose destination +was the gray stone church at the foot of Corliss Street. The +locusts railed overhead: Hedrick looked neither to the right nor +to the left. + +They passed a club, of which a lower window was vacated +simultaneously with their coming into view; and a small but ornate +figure in pale gray crash hurried down the steps and attached +itself to the second row of Madisons. "Good-morning," said Mr. +Wade Trumble. "Thought I'd take a look-in at church this morning +myself." + +Care of this encumbrance was usually expected of Laura and Mrs. +Madison, but to their surprise Cora offered a sprightly rejoinder +and presently dropped behind them with Mr. Trumble. Mr. Trumble +was also surprised and, as naively, pleased. + +"What's happened?" he asked with cheerful frankness. "You haven't +given me a chance to talk to you for a long while." + +"Haven't I?" she smiled enigmatically. "I don't think you've tried +very hard." + +This was too careless; it did not quite serve, even for Trumble. +"What's up?" he asked, not without shrewdness. "Is Richard Lindley +out of town?" + +"I don't know." + +"I see. Perhaps it's this new chap, Corliss? Has he left?" + +"What nonsense! What have they got to do with my being nice to +you?" She gave him a dangerous smile, and it wrought upon him +visibly. + +"Don't you ever be nice to me unless you mean it," he said feebly. + +Cora looked grave and sweet; she seemed mysteriously moved. "I +never do anything I don't mean," she said in a low voice which +thrilled the little man. This was machine-work, easy and accurate. + +"Cora----" he began, breathlessly. + +"There!" she exclaimed, shifting on the instant to a lively +brusqueness. "That's enough for you just _now_. We're on our way +to church!" + +Trumble felt almost that she had accepted him. + +"Have you got your penny for the contribution box?" she smiled. "I +suppose you really give a great deal to the church. I hear you're +richer and richer." + +"I do pretty well," he returned, coolly. "You can know just how +well, if you like." + +"Not on Sunday," she laughed; then went on, admiringly, "I hear +you're very dashing in your speculations." + +"Then you've heard wrong, because I don't speculate," he returned. +"I'm not a gambler--except on certainties. I guess I disappointed +a friend of yours the other day because I wouldn't back him on a +thousand-to-one shot." + +"Who was that?" she asked, with an expression entirely veiled. + +"Corliss. He came to see me; wanted me to put real money into an +oil scheme. Too thin!" + +"Why is it `too thin'?" she asked carelessly. + +"Too far away, for one thing--somewhere in Italy. Anybody who put +up his cash would have to do it on Corliss's bare word that he's +struck oil." + +"Well?" She turned her face to him, and a faint perturbation was +manifest in her tone. "Isn't Mr. Corliss's `bare word' supposed to +be perfectly good?" + +"Oh, I suppose so, but I don't know. He isn't known here: nobody +really knows anything about him except that he was born here. +Besides, I wouldn't make an investment on my own father's bare +word, if he happened to be alive." + +"Perhaps not!" Cora spoke impulsively, a sudden anger getting the +better of her, but she controlled it immediately. "Of course I +don't mean that," she laughed, sweetly. "But _I_ happen to think +Mr. Corliss's scheme a very handsome one, and I want my friends to +make their fortunes, of course. Richard Lindley and papa are going +into it." + +"I'll bet they don't," said Trumble promptly. "Lindley told me +he'd looked it over and couldn't see his way to." + +"He did?" Cora stiffened perceptibly and bit her lip. + +Trumble began to laugh. "This is funny: you trying to talk +business! So Corliss has been telling you about it?" + +"Yes, he has; and I understand it perfectly. I think there's an +enormous fortune in it, and you'd better not laugh at me: a +woman's instinct about such things is better than a man's +experience sometimes." + +"You'll find neither Lindley nor your father are going to think +so," he returned skeptically. + +She gave him a deep, sweet look. "But I mustn't be disappointed in +you," she said, with the suggestion of a tremor in her voice, +"whatever _they_ do! You'll take my advice, won't you--Wade?" + +"I'll take your advice in anything but business." He shook his +head ominously. + +"And wouldn't you take my advice in business,"--she asked very +slowly and significantly--"under _any_ circumstances?" + +"You mean," he said huskily, "if you were my wife?" + +She looked away, and slightly inclined her head. "No," he answered +doggedly, "I wouldn't. You know mighty well that's what I want you +to be, and I'd give my soul for the tip of your shoe, but business +is an entirely different matter, and I----" + +"_Wade_!" she said, with wonderful and thrilling sweetness. They +had reached the church; Hedrick and his father had entered; Mrs. +Madison and Laura were waiting on the steps. Cora and Trumble came +to a stop some yards away. "Wade, I--I _want_ you to go into +this." + +"Can't do it," he said stubbornly. "If you ever make up your mind +to marry me, I'll spend all the money you like on _you_, but +you'll have to keep to the woman's side of the house." + +"You make it pretty hard for me to be nice to you," she returned, +and the tremor now more evident in her voice was perfectly +genuine. "You positively refuse to do this--for me?" + +"Yes I do. I wouldn't buy sight-unseen to please God 'lmighty, +Cora Madison." He looked at her shrewdly, struck by a sudden +thought. "Did Corliss ask you to try and get me in?" + +"He did not," she responded, icily. "Your refusal is final?" + +"Certainly!" He struck the pavement a smart rap with his +walking-stick. "By George, I believe he _did_ ask you! That spoils +church for me this morning; I'll not go in. When you quit playing +games, let me know. You needn't try to work me any more, because I +won't stand for it, but if you ever get tired of playing, come and +tell me so." He uttered a bark of rueful laughter. "Ha! I must say +that gentleman has an interesting way of combining business with +pleasure!" + +Under favourable circumstances the blow Cora dealt him might have +been physically more violent. "Good-morning," she laughed, gayly. +"I'm not bothering much about Mr. Corliss's oil in Italy. I had a +bet with Laura I could keep you from saying `I beg to differ,' or +talking about the weather for five minutes. She'll have to pay +me!" + +Then, still laughing, she lowered her parasol, and with superb +impudence, brushed it smartly across his face; turned on her heel, +and, red with fury, joined her mother and sister, and went into +the church. + +The service failed to occupy her attention: she had much in her +thoughts to distract her. Nevertheless, she bestowed some +wonderment upon the devotion with which her brother observed each +ceremonial rite. He joined in prayer with real fervour; he sang +earnestly and loudly; a great appeal sounded in his changing +voice; and during the sermon he sat with his eyes upon the +minister in a stricken fixity. All this was so remarkable that +Cora could not choose but ponder upon it, and, observing Hedrick +furtively, she caught, if not a clue itself, at least a glimpse of +one. She saw Laura's clear profile becoming subtly agitated; then +noticed a shimmer of Laura's dark eye as it wandered to Hedrick +and so swiftly away it seemed not to dare to remain. Cora was +quick: she perceived that Laura was repressing a constant desire +to laugh and that she feared to look at Hedrick lest it overwhelm +her. So Laura knew what had wrought the miracle. Cora made up her +mind to explore this secret passage. + +When the service was over and the people were placidly buzzing +their way up the aisles, Cora felt herself drawn to look across +the church, and following the telepathic impulse, turned her head +to encounter the gaze of Ray Vilas. He was ascending the opposite +aisle, walking beside Richard Lindley. He looked less pale than +usual, though his thinness was so extreme it was like emaciation; +but his eyes were clear and quiet, and the look he gave her was +strangely gentle. Cora frowned and turned away her head with an +air of annoyance. They came near each other in the convergence at +the doors; but he made no effort to address her, and, moving away +through the crowd as quickly as possible, disappeared. + +Valentine Corliss was disclosed in the vestibule. He reached her +an instant in advance of Mr. Lindley, who had suffered himself to +be impeded; and Cora quickly handed the former her parasol, +lightly taking his arm. Thus the slow Richard found himself +walking beside Laura in a scattered group, its detached portion +consisting of his near-betrothed and Corliss; for although the +dexterous pair were first to leave the church, they contrived to +be passed almost at once, and, assuming the position of trailers, +lagged far behind on the homeward way. + +Laura and Richard walked in the unmitigated glare of the sun; he +had taken her black umbrella and conscientiously held it aloft, +but over nobody. They walked in silence: they were quiet people, +both of them; and Richard, not "talkative" under any +circumstances, never had anything whatever to say to Laura +Madison. He had known her for many years, ever since her +childhood; seldom indeed formulating or expressing a definite +thought about her, though sometimes it was vaguely of his +consciousness that she played the piano nicely, and even then her +music had taken its place as but a colour of Cora's background. +For to him, as to every one else (including Laura), Laura was in +nothing her sister's competitor. She was a neutral-tinted figure, +taken-for-granted, obscured, and so near being nobody at all, +that, as Richard Lindley walked beside her this morning, he +glanced back at the lagging couple and uttered a long and almost +sonorous sigh, which he would have been ashamed for anybody to +hear; and then actually proceeded on his way without the slightest +realization that anybody had heard it. + +She understood. And she did not disturb the trance; she did +nothing to make him observe that she was there. She walked on with +head, shoulders, and back scorching in the fierce sun, and allowed +him to continue shading the pavement before them with her +umbrella. When they reached the house she gently took the umbrella +from him and thanked him; and he mechanically raised his hat. + +They had walked more than a mile together; he had not spoken a +word, and he did not even know it. + + + +CHAPTER TEN + +Dinner on Sunday, the most elaborate feast of the week for the +Madisons, was always set for one o'clock in the afternoon, and +sometimes began before two, but not to-day: the escorts of both +daughters remained, and a change of costume by Cora occasioned a +long postponement. Justice demands the admission that her +reappearance in a glamour of lilac was reward for the delay; +nothing more ravishing was ever seen, she was warrantably informed +by the quicker of the two guests, in a moment's whispered +tete-a-tete across the banisters as she descended. Another wait +followed while she prettily arranged upon the table some dozens of +asters from a small garden-bed, tilled, planted, and tended by +Laura. Meanwhile, Mrs. Madison constantly turned the other cheek +to the cook. Laura assisted in the pacification; Hedrick froze the +ice-cream to an impenetrable solidity; and the nominal head of the +family sat upon the front porch with the two young men, and wiped +his wrists and rambled politically till they were summoned to the +dining-room. + +Cora did the talking for the table. She was in high spirits; no +trace remained of a haggard night: there was a bloom upon her--she +was radiant. Her gayety may have had some inspiration in her +daring, for round her throat she wore a miraculously slender chain +of gold and enamel, with a pendant of minute pale sapphires +scrolled about a rather large and very white diamond. Laura +started when she saw it, and involuntarily threw a glance almost +of terror at Richard Lindley. But that melancholy and +absent-minded gentleman observed neither the glance nor the jewel. +He saw Cora's eyes, when they were vouchsafed to his vision, and +when they were not he apparently saw nothing at all. + +With the general exodus from the table, Cora asked Laura to come +to the piano and play, a request which brought a snort from +Hedrick, who was taken off his guard. Catching Laura's eye, he +applied a handkerchief with renewed presence of mind, affecting to +have sneezed, and stared searchingly over it at Corliss. He +perceived that the man remained unmoved, evidently already +informed that it was Laura who was the musician. Cora must be +going it pretty fast this time: such was the form of her brother's +deduction. + +When Laura opened the piano, Richard had taken a seat beside Cora, +and Corliss stood leaning in the doorway. The player lost herself +in a wandering medley, echoes from "Boheme" and "Pagliacci"; then +drifted into improvisation and played her heart into it +magnificently--a heart released to happiness. The still air of the +room filled with wonderful, golden sound: a song like the song of +a mother flying from earth to a child in the stars, a torrential +tenderness, unpent and glorying in freedom. The flooding, +triumphant chords rose, crashed--stopped with a shattering +abruptness. Laura's hands fell to her sides, then were raised to +her glowing face and concealed it for a moment. She shivered; a +quick, deep sigh heaved her breast; and she came back to herself +like a prisoner leaving a window at the warden's voice. + +She turned. Cora and Corliss had left the room. Richard was +sitting beside a vacant chair, staring helplessly at the open +door. + +If he had been vaguely conscious of Laura's playing, which is +possible, certainly he was unaware that it had ceased. + +"The others have gone out to the porch," she said composedly, and +rose. "Shan't we join them?" + +"What?" he returned, blankly. "I beg your pardon----" + +"Let's go out on the porch with the others." + +"No, I----" He got to his feet confusedly. "I was thinking---- I +believe I'd best be going home." + +"Not `best,' I think," she said. "Not even better!" + +"I don't see," he said, his perplexity only increased. + +"Mr. Corliss would," she retorted quickly. "Come on: we'll go and +sit with them." And she compelled his obedience by preceding him +with such a confident assumption that he would follow that he did. + +The fugitive pair were not upon the porch, however; they were +discovered in the shade of a tree behind the house, seated upon a +rug, and occupied in a conversation which would not have disturbed +a sick-room. The pursuers came upon them, boldly sat beside them; +and Laura began to talk with unwonted fluency to Corliss, but +within five minutes found herself alone with Richard Lindley upon +the rug. Cora had promised to show Mr. Corliss an "old print" in +the library--so Cora said. + +Lindley gave the remaining lady a desolate and faintly reproachful +look. He was kind, but he was a man; and Laura saw that this last +abandonment was being attributed in part to her. + +She reddened, and, being not an angel, observed with crispness: +"Certainly. You're quite right: it's my fault!" + +"What did you say?" he asked vacantly. + +She looked at him rather fixedly; his own gaze had returned to the +angle of the house beyond which the other couple had just +disappeared. "I said," she answered, slowly, "I thought it +wouldn't rain this, afternoon." + +His wistful eyes absently swept the serene sky which had been +cloudless for several days. "No, I suppose not," he murmured. + +"Richard," she said with a little sharpness, "will you please +listen to me for a moment?" + +"Oh--what?" He was like a diver coming up out of deep water. "What +did you say?" He laughed apologetically. "Wasn't I listening? I +beg your pardon. What is it, Laura?" + +"Why do you let Mr. Corliss take Cora away from you like that?" +she asked gravely. + +"He doesn't," the young man returned with a rueful shake of the +head. "Don't you see? It's Cora that goes." + +"Why do you let her, then?" + +He sighed. "I don't seem to be able to keep up with Cora, +especially when she's punishing me. I couldn't do something she +asked me to, last night----" + +"Invest with Mr. Corliss?" asked Laura quickly. + +"Yes. It seemed to trouble her that I couldn't. She's convinced +it's a good thing: she thinks it would make a great fortune for +us----" + +"`Us'?" repeated Laura gently. "You mean for you and her? When +you're----" + +"When we're married. Yes," he said thoughtfully, "that's the way +she stated it. She wanted me to put in all I have----" + +"Don't do it!" said Laura decidedly. + +He glanced at her with sharp inquiry. "Do you mean you would +distrust Mr. Corliss?" + +"I wasn't thinking of that: I don't know whether I'd trust him or +not--I think I wouldn't; there's something veiled about him, and I +don't believe he is an easy man to know. What I meant was that I +don't believe it would really be a good thing for you with Cora." + +"It would please her, of course--thinking I deferred so much to +her judgment." + +"Don't do it!" she said again, impulsively. + +"I don't see how I can," he returned sorrowfully. + +"It's my work for all the years since I got out of college, and if +I lost it I'd have to begin all over again. It would mean +postponing everything. Cora isn't a girl you can ask to share a +little salary, and if it were a question of years, perhaps-- +perhaps Cora might not feel she could wait for me, you see." + +He made this explanation with plaintive and boyish sincerity, +hesitatingly, and as if pleading a cause. And Laura, after a long +look at him, turned away, and in her eyes were actual tears of +compassion for the incredible simpleton. + +"I see," she said. "Perhaps she might not." + +"Of course," he went on, "she's fond of having nice things, and +she thinks this is a great chance for us to be millionaires; and +then, too, I think she may feel that it would please Mr. Corliss +and help to save him from disappointment. She seems to have taken +a great fancy to him." + +Laura glanced at him, but did not speak. + +"He _is_ attractive," continued Richard feebly. "I think he has a +great deal of what people call `magnetism': he's the kind of man +who somehow makes you want to do what he wants you to. He seems a +manly, straightforward sort, too--so far as one can tell--and when +he came to me with his scheme I was strongly inclined to go into +it. But it is too big a gamble, and I can't, though I was sorry to +disappoint him myself. He was perfectly cheerful about it and so +pleasant it made me feel small. I don't wonder at all that Cora +likes him so much. Besides, he seems to understand her." + +Laura looked very grave. "I think he does," she said slowly. + +"And then he's `different,'" said Richard. "He's more a `man of +the world' than most of us here: she never saw anything just like +him before, and she's seen _us_ all her life. She likes change, of +course. That's natural," he said gently. "Poor Vilas says she +wants a man to be different every day, and if he isn't, then she +wants a different man every day." + +"You've rather taken Ray Vilas under your wing, haven't you?" +asked Laura. + +"Oh, no," he answered deprecatingly. "I only try to keep him with +me so he'll stay away from downtown as much as possible." + +"Does he talk much of Cora?" + +"All the time. There's no stopping him. I suppose he can't help +it, because he thinks of nothing else." + +"Isn't that rather--rather queer for you?" + +"`Queer'?" he repeated. + +"No, I suppose not!" She laughed impatiently. "And probably you +don't think it's `queer' of you to sit here helplessly, and let +another man take your place----" + +"But I don't `let' him, Laura," he protested. + +"No, he just does it!" + +"Well," he smiled, "you must admit my efforts to supplant him +haven't----" + +"It won't take any effort now," she said, rising quickly. +Valentine Corliss came into their view upon the sidewalk in front, +taking his departure. Seeing that they observed him, he lifted his +hat to Laura and nodded a cordial good-day to Lindley. Then he +went on. + +Just before he reached the corner of the lot, he encountered upon +the pavement a citizen of elderly and plain appearance, strolling +with a grandchild. The two men met and passed, each upon his +opposite way, without pausing and without salutation, and neither +Richard nor Laura, whose eyes were upon the meeting, perceived +that they had taken cognizance of each other. But one had asked a +question and the other had answered. + +Mr. Pryor spoke in a low monotone, with a rapidity as singular as +the restrained but perceptible emphasis he put upon one word of +his question. + +"I got you in the park," he said; and it is to be deduced that +"got" was argot. "You're not _doing_ anything here, are you?" + +"No!" answered Corliss with condensed venom, his back already to +the other. He fanned himself with his hat as he went on. Mr. Pryor +strolled up the street with imperturbable benevolence. + +"Your coast is cleared," said Laura, "since you wouldn't clear it +yourself." + +"Wish me luck," said Richard as he left her. + +She nodded brightly. + +Before he disappeared, he looked back to her again (which +profoundly surprised her) and smiled rather disconsolately, +shaking his head as in prophecy of no very encouraging reception +indoors. The manner of this glance recalled to Laura what his +mother had once said of him. "Richard is one of those sweet, +helpless men that some women adore and others despise. They fall +in love with the ones that despise them." + +An ostentatious cough made her face about, being obviously +designed to that effect; and she beheld her brother in the act of +walking slowly across the yard with his back to her. He halted +upon the border of her small garden of asters, regarded it +anxiously, then spread his handkerchief upon the ground, knelt +upon it, and with thoughtful care uprooted a few weeds which were +beginning to sprout, and also such vagrant blades of grass as +encroached upon the floral territory. He had the air of a virtuous +man performing a good action which would never become known. +Plainly, he thought himself in solitude and all unobserved. + +It was a touching picture, pious and humble. Done into coloured +glass, the kneeling boy and the asters--submerged in ardent +sunshine--would have appropriately enriched a cathedral: Boyhood +of Saint Florus the Gardener. + +Laura heartlessly turned her back, and, affecting an interest in +her sleeve, very soon experienced the sensation of being stared at +with some poignancy from behind. Unchanged in attitude, she +unravelled an imaginary thread, whereupon the cough reached her +again, shrill and loud, its insistence not lacking in pathos. + +She approached him, driftingly. No sign that he was aware came +from the busied boy, though he coughed again, hollowly now--a +proof that he was an artist. "All right, Hedrick," she said +kindly. "I heard you the first time." + +He looked up with utter incomprehension. "I'm afraid I've caught +cold," he said, simply. "I got a good many weeds out before +breakfast, and the ground was damp." + +Hedrick was of the New School: everything direct, real, no +striving for effect, no pressure on the stroke. He did his work: +you could take it or leave it. + +"You mustn't strain so, dear," returned his sister, shaking her +head. "It won't last if you do. You see this is only the first +day." + +Struck to the heart by so brutal a misconception, he put all his +wrongs into one look, rose in manly dignity, picked up his +handkerchief, and left her. + +Her eyes followed him, not without remorse: it was an exit which +would have moved the bass-violist of a theatre orchestra. Sighing, +she went to her own room by way of the kitchen and the +back-stairs, and, having locked her door, brought the padlocked +book from its hiding-place. + +"I think I should not have played as I did, an hour ago," she +wrote. "It stirs me too greatly and I am afraid it makes me +inclined to self-pity afterward, and I must never let myself feel +_that_! If I once begin to feel sorry for myself. . . . But I +_will_ not! No. You are here in the world. You exist. You _are_! +That is the great thing to know and it must be enough for me. It +is. I played to You. I played _just love_ to you--all the yearning +tenderness--all the supreme kindness I want to give you. Isn't +love really just glorified kindness? No, there is something more. +. . . I feel it, though I do not know how to say it. But it was in +my playing--I played it and played it. Suddenly I felt that in my +playing I had shouted it from the housetops, that I had told the +secret to all the world and _everybody_ knew. I stopped, and for a +moment it seemed to me that I was dying of shame. But no one +understood. No one had even listened. . . . Sometimes it seems to +me that I am like Cora, that I am very deeply her sister in some +things. My heart goes all to You--my revelation of it, my release +of it, my outlet of it is all here in these pages (except when I +play as I did to-day and as I shall not play again) and perhaps +the writing keeps me quiet. Cora scatters her own releasings: she +is looking for the You she may never find; and perhaps the penalty +for scattering is never finding. Sometimes I think the seeking has +reacted and that now she seeks only what will make her feel. I +hope she has not found it: I am afraid of this new man--not only +for your sake, dear. I felt repelled by his glance at me the first +time I saw him. I did not like it--I cannot say just why, unless +that it seemed too intimate. I am afraid of him for her, which is +a queer sort of feeling because she has alw----" + +Laura's writing stopped there, for that day, interrupted by a +hurried rapping upon the door and her mother's voice calling her +with stress and urgency. + +The opening of the door revealed Mrs. Madison in a state of +anxious perturbation, and admitted the sound of loud weeping and +agitated voices from below. + +"Please go down," implored the mother. "You can do more with her +than I can. She and your father have been having a terrible scene +since Richard went home." + +Laura hurried down to the library. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + +"Oh, _come_ in, Laura!" cried her sister, as Laura appeared in the +doorway. "Don't _stand_ there! Come in if you want to take part in +a grand old family row!" With a furious and tear-stained face, she +was confronting her father who stood before her in a resolute +attitude and a profuse perspiration. "Shut the door!" shouted Cora +violently, adding, as Laura obeyed, "Do you want that little Pest +in here? Probably he's eavesdropping anyway. But what difference +does it make? I don't care. Let him hear! Let anybody hear that +wants to! They can hear how I'm tortured if they like. I didn't +close my eyes last night, and now I'm being tortured. Papa!" She +stamped her foot. "Are you going to take back that insult to me?" + +"`Insult'?" repeated her father, in angry astonishment. + +"Pshaw," said Laura, laughing soothingly and coming to her. "You +know that's nonsense, Cora. Kind old papa couldn't do that if he +tried. Dear, you know he never insulted anybody in his----" + +"Don't touch me!" screamed Cora, repulsing her. "Listen, if you've +got to, but let me alone. He did too! He did! He _knows_ what he +said!" + +"I do not!" + +"He does! He does!" cried Cora. "He said that I was--I was too +much `interested' in Mr. Corliss." + +"Is that an `insult'?" the father demanded sharply. + +"It was the way he said it," Cora protested, sobbing. "He meant +something he didn't _say_. He did! He did! He _meant_ to insult +me!" + +"I did nothing of the kind," shouted the old man. + +"I don't know what you're talking about. I said I couldn't +understand your getting so excited about the fellow's affairs and +that you seemed to take a mighty sudden interest in him." + +"Well, what if I _do_?" she screamed. "Haven't I a right to be +interested in what I choose? I've got to be interested in +_something_, haven't I? _You_ don't make life very interesting, do +you? Do you think it's interesting to spend the summer in this +horrible old house with the paper falling off the walls and our +rotten old furniture that I work my hands off trying to make look +decent and can't, and every other girl I know at the seashore with +motor-cars and motor-boats, or getting a trip abroad and buying +her clothes in Paris? What do _you_ offer to interest me?" + +The unfortunate man hung his head. "I don't see what all that has +to do with it----" + +She seemed to leap at him. "You _don't_? You _don't_?" + +"No, I don't. And I don't see why you're so crazy to please young +Corliss about this business unless you're infatuated with him. I +had an idea--and I was pleased with it, too, because Richard's a +steady fellow--that you were just about engaged to Richard +Lindley, and----" + +"Engaged!" she cried, repeating the word with bitter contempt. +"Engaged! You don't suppose I'll marry him unless I want to, do +you? I will if it suits me. I won't if it suits me not to; +understand that! I don't consider myself engaged to anybody, and +you needn't either. What on earth has that got to do with your +keeping Richard Lindley from doing what Mr. Corliss wants him to?" + +"I'm not keeping him from anything. He didn't say----" + +"He did!" stormed Cora. "He said he would if you went into it. He +told me this afternoon, an hour ago." + +"Now wait," said Madison. "I talked this over with Richard two +days ago----" + +Cora stamped her foot again in frantic exasperation. "I'm talking +about this afternoon!" + +"Two days ago," he repeated doggedly; "and we came to the same +conclusion: it won't do. He said he couldn't go into it unless he +went over there to Italy--and saw for himself just what he was +putting his money into, and Corliss had told him that it couldn't +be done; that there wasn't time, and showed him a cablegram from +his Italian partner saying the secret had leaked out and that +they'd have to form the company in Naples and sell the stock over +there if it couldn't be done here within the next week. Corliss +said he had to ask for an immediate answer, and so Richard told +him no, yesterday." + +"Oh, my God!" groaned Cora. "What has that got to do with _your_ +going into it? You're not going to risk any money! I don't ask you +to _spend_ anything, do I? You haven't got it if I did. All Mr. +Corliss wants is your name. Can't you give even _that_? What +importance is it?" + +"Well, if it isn't important, what difference does it make whether +I give it or not?" + +She flung up her arms as in despairing appeal for patience. "It +_is_ important to him! Richard will do it if you will be secretary +of the company: he promised me. Mr. Corliss told me your name was +worth everything here: that men said downtown you could have been +rich long ago if you hadn't been so square. Richard trusts you; he +says you're the most trusted man in town----" + +"That's why I can't do it," he interrupted. + +"No!" Her vehemence increased suddenly to its utmost. "No! Don't +you say that, because it's a lie. That isn't the reason you won't +do it. You won't do it because you think it would please _me_! +You're afraid it might make me _happy_! Happy--happy--_happy_!" +She beat her breast and cast herself headlong upon the sofa, +sobbing wildly. "Don't come near me!" she screamed at Laura, and +sprang to her feet again, dishevelled and frantic. "Oh, Christ in +heaven! is there such a thing as happiness in this beast of a +world? I want to leave it. I want to go away: I want _so_ to die: +Why can't I? Why can't I! Why can't I! Oh, God, why _can't_ I die? +Why can't----" + +Her passion culminated in a shriek: she gasped, was convulsed from +head to foot for a dreadful moment, tore at the bosom of her dress +with rigid bent fingers, swayed; then collapsed all at once. Laura +caught her, and got her upon the sofa. In the hall, Mrs. Madison +could be heard running and screaming to Hedrick to go for the +doctor. Next instant, she burst into the room with brandy and +camphor. + +"I could only find these; the ammonia bottle's empty," she panted; +and the miserable father started hatless, for the drug-store, a +faint, choked wail from the stricken girl sounding in his ears: +"It's--it's my heart, mamma." + +It was four blocks to the nearest pharmacy; he made what haste he +could in the great heat, but to himself he seemed double his usual +weight; and the more he tried to hurry, the less speed appeared +obtainable from his heavy legs. When he reached the place at last, +he found it crowded with noisy customers about the "soda-fount"; +and the clerks were stonily slow: they seemed to know that they +were "already in eternity." He got very short of breath on the way +home; he ceased to perspire and became unnaturally dry; the air +was aflame and the sun shot fire upon his bare head. His feet +inclined to strange disobediences: he walked the last block +waveringly. A solemn Hedrick met him at the door. + +"They've got her to bed," announced the boy. "The doctor's up +there." + +"Take this ammonia up," said Madison huskily, and sat down upon a +lower step of the stairway with a jolt, closing his eyes. + +"You sick, too?" asked Hedrick. + +"No. Run along with that ammonia." + +It seemed to Madison a long time that he sat there alone, and he +felt very dizzy. Once he tried to rise, but had to give it up and +remain sitting with his eyes shut. At last he heard Cora's door +open and close; and his wife and the doctor came slowly down the +stairs, Mrs. Madison talking in the anxious yet relieved voice of +one who leaves a sick-room wherein the physician pronounces +progress encouraging. + +"And you're _sure_ her heart trouble isn't organic?" she asked. + +"Her heart is all right," her companion assured her. "There's +nothing serious; the trouble is nervous. I think you'll find +she'll be better after a good sleep. Just keep her quiet. Hadn't +she been in a state of considerable excitement?" + +"Ye-es--she----" + +"Ah! A little upset on account of opposition to a plan she'd +formed, perhaps?" + +"Well--partly," assented the mother. + +"I see," he returned, adding with some dryness: "I thought it just +possible." + +Madison got to his feet, and stepped down from the stairs for them +to pass him. He leaned heavily against the wall. + +"You think she's going to be all right, Sloane?" he asked with an +effort. + +"No cause to worry," returned the physician. "You can let her stay +in bed to-day if she wants to but----" He broke off, looking +keenly at Madison's face, which was the colour of poppies. "Hello! +what's up with _you_?" + +"I'm all--right." + +"Oh, you are?" retorted Sloane with sarcasm. "Sit down," he +commanded. "Sit right where you are--on the stairs, here," and, +having enforced the order, took a stethoscope from his pocket. +"Get him a glass of water," he said to Hedrick, who was at his +elbow. + +"Doctor!" exclaimed Mrs. Madison. "_He_ isn't going to be sick, is +he? You don't think he's sick _now_?" + +"I shouldn't call him very well," answered the physician rather +grimly, placing his stethoscope upon Madison's breast. "Get his +room ready for him." She gave him a piteous look, struck with +fear; then obeyed a gesture and ran flutteringly up the stairs. + +"I'm all right now," panted Madison, drinking the water Hedrick +brought him. + +"You're not so darned all right," said Sloane coolly, as he +pocketed his stethoscope. "Come, let me help you up. We're going +to get you to bed." + +There was an effort at protest, but the physician had his way, and +the two ascended the stairs slowly, Sloane's arm round his new +patient. At Cora's door, the latter paused. + +"What's the matter?" + +"I want," said Madison thickly--"I want--to speak to Cora." + +"We'll pass that up just now," returned the other brusquely, and +led him on. Madison was almost helpless: he murmured in a husky, +uncertain voice, and suffered himself to be put to bed. There, the +doctor "worked" with him; cold "applications" were ordered; Laura +was summoned from the other sick-bed; Hedrick sent flying with +prescriptions, then to telephone for a nurse. The two women +attempted questions at intervals, but Sloane replied with orders, +and kept them busy. + +"Do you--think I'm a---a pretty sick man, Sloane?" asked Madison +after a long silence, speaking with difficulty. + +"Oh, you're sick, all right," the doctor conceded. + +"I--I want to speak to Jennie." + +His wife rushed to the bed, and knelt beside it. + +"Don't you go to confessing your sins," said Doctor Sloane +crossly. "You're coming out of the woods all right, and you'll be +sorry if you tell her too, much. I'll begin a little flirtation +with you, Miss Laura, if you please." And he motioned to her to +follow him into the hall. + +"Your father _is_ pretty sick," he told her, "and he may be sicker +before we get him into shape again. But you needn't be worried +right now; I think he's not in immediate danger." He turned at the +sound of Mrs. Madison's step, behind him, and repeated to her what +he had just said to Laura. "I hope your husband didn't give +himself away enough to be punished when we get him on his feet +again," he concluded cheerfully. + +She shook her head, tried to smile through tears, and, crossing +the hall, entered Cora's room. She came back after a moment, and, +rejoining the other two at her husband's bedside, found the sick +man in a stertorous sleep. Presently the nurse arrived, and upon +the physician's pointed intimation that there were "too many +people around," Laura went to Cora's room. She halted on the +threshold in surprise. Cora was dressing. + +"Mamma says the doctor says he's all right," said Cora lightly, +"and I'm feeling so much better myself I thought I'd put on +something loose and go downstairs. I think there's more air down +there." + +"Papa isn't all right, dear," said Laura, staring perplexedly at +Cora's idea of "something loose," an equipment inclusive of +something particularly close. "The doctor says he is very sick." + +"I don't believe it," returned Cora promptly. "Old Sloane never +did know anything. Besides, mamma told me he said papa isn't in +any danger." + +"No `immediate' danger," corrected Laura. "And besides, Doctor +Sloane said you were to stay in bed until to-morrow." + +"I can't help that." Cora went on with her lacing impatiently. +"I'm not going to lie and stifle in this heat when I feel +perfectly well again--not for an old idiot like Sloane! He didn't +even have sense enough to give me any medicine." She laughed. +"Lucky thing he didn't: I'd have thrown it out of the window. Kick +that slipper to me, will you, dear?" + +Laura knelt and put the slipper on her sister's foot. "Cora, +dear," she said, "you're just going to put on a negligee and go +down and sit in the library, aren't you?" + +"Laura!" The tone was more than impatient. "I wish I could be let +alone for five whole minutes some time in my life! Don't you think +I've stood enough for one day? I can't bear to be questioned, +questioned, questioned! What do you do it for? Don't you see I +can't stand anything more? If you can't let me alone I do wish +you'd keep out of my room." + +Laura rose and went out; but as she left the door, Cora called +after her with a rueful laugh: "Laura, I know I'm a little devil!" + +Half an hour later, Laura, suffering because she had made no reply +to this peace-offering, and wishing to atone, sought Cora +downstairs and found no one. She decided that Cora must still be +in her own room; she would go to her there. But as she passed the +open front door, she saw Cora upon the sidewalk in front of the +house. She wore a new and elaborate motoring costume, charmingly +becoming, and was in the act of mounting to a seat beside +Valentine Corliss in a long, powerful-looking, white "roadster" +automobile. The engine burst into staccato thunder, sobered down; +the wheels began to move both Cora and Corliss were laughing and +there was an air of triumph about them--Cora's veil streamed and +fluttered: and in a flash they were gone. + +Laura stared at the suddenly vacated space where they had been. At +a thought she started. Then she rushed upstairs to her mother, who +was sitting in the hall near her husband's door. + +"Mamma," whispered Laura, flinging herself upon her knees beside +her, "when papa wanted to speak to you, was it a message to Cora?" + +"Yes, dear. He told me to tell her he was sorry he'd made her +sick, and that if he got well he'd try to do what she asked him +to." + +Laura nodded cheerfully. "And he _will_ get well, darling mother," +she said, as she rose. "I'll come back in a minute and sit with +you." + +Her return was not so quick as she promised, for she lay a long +time weeping upon her pillow, whispering over and over: + +"Oh, poor, poor papa! Oh, poor, poor Richard!" + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + +Within a week Mr. Madison's illness was a settled institution in +the household; the presence of the nurse lost novelty, even to +Hedrick, and became a part of life; the day was measured by the +three regular visits of the doctor. To the younger members of the +family it seemed already that their father had always been sick, +and that he always would be; indeed, to Cora and Hedrick he had +become only a weak and querulous voice beyond a closed door. +Doctor Sloane was serious but reassuring, his daily announcement +being that his patient was in "no immediate danger." + +Mrs. Madison did not share her children's sanguine adaptability; +and, of the three, Cora was the greatest solace to the mother's +troubled heart, though Mrs. Madison never recognized this without +a sense of injustice to Laura, for Laura now was housewife and +housekeeper--that is, she did all the work except the cooking, and +on "wash-day" she did that. But Cora's help was to the very spirit +itself, for she was sprightly in these hours of trial: with +indomitable gayety she cheered her mother, inspiring in her a +firmer confidence, and, most stimulating of all, Cora steadfastly +refused to consider her father's condition as serious, or its +outcome as doubtful. + +Old Sloane exaggerated, she said; and she made fun of his gravity, +his clothes and his walk, which she mimicked till she drew a +reluctant and protesting laugh from even her mother. Mrs. Madison +was sure she "couldn't get through" this experience save for Cora, +who was indeed the light of the threatened house. + +Strange perversities of this world: Cora's gayety was almost +unbearable to her brother. Not because he thought it either +unfeeling or out of place under the circumstances (an aspect he +failed to consider), but because years of warfare had so +frequently made him connect cheerfulness on her part with some +unworthily won triumph over himself that habit prevailed, and he +could not be a witness of her high spirits without a strong sense +of injury. Additionally, he was subject to a deeply implanted +suspicion of any appearance of unusual happiness in her as having +source, if not in his own defeat, then in something vaguely "soft" +and wholly distasteful. She grated upon him; he chafed, and his +sufferings reached the surface. Finally, in a reckless moment, one +evening at dinner, he broke out with a shout and hurled a newly +devised couplet concerning luv-a-ly slush at his, sister's head. +The nurse was present: Cora left the table; and Hedrick later +received a serious warning from Laura. She suggested that it might +become expedient to place him in Cora's power. + +"Cora knows perfectly well that something peculiar happened to +you," she advised him. "And she knows that I know what it was; and +she says it isn't very sisterly of me not to tell her. Now, +Hedrick, there was no secret about it; you didn't _confide_ +your--your trouble to me, and it would be perfectly honourable of +me to tell it. I wont{sic} unless you make me, but if you can't be +polite and keep peace with Cora--at least while papa is sick I +think it may be necessary. I believe," she finished with imperfect +gravity, "that it--it would keep things quieter." + +The thoughts of a boy may be long, long thoughts, but he cannot +persistently remember to fear a threatened catastrophe. Youth is +too quickly intimate with peril. Hedrick had become familiar with +his own, had grown so accustomed to it he was in danger of +forgetting it altogether; therefore it was out of perspective. The +episode of Lolita had begun to appear as a thing of the distant +and clouded past: time is so long at thirteen. Added to this, his +late immaculate deportment had been, as Laura suggested, a severe +strain; the machinery of his nature was out of adjustment and +demanded a violent reaction before it could get to running again +at average speed. Also, it is evident that his destruction had +been planned on high, for he was mad enough to answer flippantly: + +"Tell her! Go on and tell her--_I_ give you leaf! _that_ wasn't +anything anyway--just helped you get a little idiot girl home. +What is there to that? I never saw her before; never saw her +again; didn't have half as much to do with her as you did +yourself. She was a lot more _your_ friend than mine; I didn't +even know her. I guess you'll have to get something better on me +than that, before you try to boss _this_ ranch, Laura Madison!" + +That night, in bed, he wondered if he had not been perhaps a +trifle rash; but the day was bright when he awoke, and no +apprehension shadowed his morning face as he appeared at the +breakfast table. On the contrary, a great weight had lifted from +him; clearly his defiance had been the proper thing; he had shown +Laura that her power over him was but imaginary. Hypnotized by his +own words to her, he believed them; and his previous terrors +became gossamer; nay, they were now merely laughable. His own +remorse and shame were wholly blotted from memory, and he could +not understand why in the world he had been so afraid, nor why he +had felt it so necessary to placate Laura. She looked very meek +this morning. _That_ showed! The strong hand was the right policy +in dealing with women. He was tempted to insane daring: the rash, +unfortunate child waltzed on the lip of the crater. + +"Told Cora yet?" he asked, with scornful laughter. + +"Told me what?" Cora looked quickly up from her plate. + +"Oh, nothing about this Corliss," he returned scathingly. "Don't +get excited." + +"Hedrick!" remonstrated his mother, out of habit. + +"She never thinks of anything else these days," he retorted. +"Rides with him every evening in his pe-rin-sley hired machine, +doesn't she?" + +"Really, you should be more careful about the way you handle a +spoon, Hedrick," said Cora languidly, and with at least a +foundation of fact. "It is not the proper implement for decorating +the cheeks. We all need nourishment, but it is _so_ difficult +when one sees a deposit of breakfast-food in the ear of one's +vis-a-vis." + +Hedrick too impulsively felt of his ears and was but the worse +stung to find them immaculate and the latter half of the +indictment unjustified. + +"Spoon!" he cried. "I wouldn't talk about spoons if I were you, +Cora-lee! After what I saw in the library the other night, believe +_me_, you're the one of this family that better be careful how you +`handle a spoon'!" + +Cora had a moment of panic. She let the cup she was lifting drop +noisily upon its saucer, and gazed whitely at the boy, her mouth +opening wide. + +"Oh, no!" he went on, with a dreadful laugh. "I didn't hear you +asking this Corliss to kiss you! Oh, no!" + +At this, though her mother and Laura both started, a faint, odd +relief showed itself in Cora's expression. She recovered herself. + +"You little liar!" she flashed, and, with a single quick look at +her mother, as of one too proud to appeal, left the room. + +"Hedrick, Hedrick, Hedrick!" wailed Mrs. Madison. "And she told me +you drove her from the table last night too, right before Miss +Peirce!" Miss Peirce was the nurse, fortunately at this moment in +the sick-room. + +"I _did_ hear her ask him that," he insisted, sullenly. "Don't you +believe it?" + +"Certainly not!" + +Burning with outrage, he also left his meal unfinished and +departed in high dignity. He passed through the kitchen, however, +on his way out of the house; but, finding an unusual politeness to +the cook nothing except its own reward, went on his way with a +bitter perception of the emptiness of the world and other places. + +"Your father managed to talk more last night," said Mrs. Madison +pathetically to Laura. "He made me understand that he was fretting +about how little we'd been able to give our children; so few +advantages; it's always troubled him terribly. But sometimes I +wonder if we've done right: we've neither of us ever exercised any +discipline. We just couldn't bear to. You see, not having any +money, or the things money could buy, to give, I think we've +instinctively tried to make up for it by indulgence in other ways, +and perhaps it's been a bad thing. Not," she added hastily, "not +that you aren't all three the best children any mother and father +ever had! _He_ said so. He said the only trouble was that our +children were too good for us." She shook her head remorsefully +throughout Laura's natural reply to this; was silent a while; +then, as she rose, she said timidly, not looking at her daughter: +"Of course Hedrick didn't mean to tell an outright lie. They were +just talking, and perhaps he--perhaps he heard something that made +him think what he _did_. People are so often mistaken in what they +hear, even when they're talking right to each other, and----" + +"Isn't it more likely," said Laura, gravely, "that Cora was +telling some story or incident, and that Hedrick overheard that +part of it, and thought she was speaking directly to Mr. Corliss?" + +"Of course!" cried the mother with instant and buoyant relief; and +when the three ladies convened, a little later, Cora +(unquestioned) not only confirmed this explanation, but repeated +in detail the story she had related to Mr. Corliss. Laura had been +quick. + +Hedrick passed a variegated morning among comrades. He obtained +prestige as having a father like-to-die, but another boy turned up +who had learned to chew tobacco. Then Hedrick was pronounced +inferior to others in turning "cartwheels," but succeeded in a +wrestling match for an apple, which he needed. Later, he was +chased empty-handed from the rear of an ice-wagon, but greatly +admired for his retorts to the vociferous chaser: the other boys +rightly considered that what he said to the ice-man was much more +horrible than what the ice-man said to him. The ice-man had a fair +vocabulary, but it lacked pliancy; seemed stiff and fastidious +compared with the flexible Saxon in which Hedrick sketched a +family tree lacking, perhaps, some plausibility as having produced +even an ice-man, but curiously interesting zoologically. + +He came home at noon with the flush of this victory new upon his +brow. He felt equal to anything, and upon Cora's appearing at +lunch with a blithe, bright air and a new arrangement of her hair, +he opened a fresh campaign with ill-omened bravado. + +"Ear-muffs in style for September, are they?" he inquired in +allusion to a symmetrical and becoming undulation upon each side +of her head. "Too bad Ray Vilas can't come any more; he'd like +those, I know he would." + +Cora, who was talking jauntily to her mother, went on without +heeding. She affected her enunciation at times with a slight lisp; +spoke preciously and over-exquisitely, purposely mincing the +letter R, at the same time assuming a manner of artificial +distinction and conscious elegance which never failed to produce +in her brother the last stage of exasperation. She did this now. +Charming woman, that dear Mrs. Villard, she prattled. "I met her +downtown this morning. Dear mamma, you should but have seen her +delight when she saw _me_. She was but just returned from Bar +Harbor----" + +"`Baw-hawbaw'!" Poor Hedrick was successfully infuriated +immediately. "What in thunder is `Baw-hawbaw'? Mrs. Villawd! +Baw-hawbaw! Oh, maw!" + +"She had no idea she should find _me_ in town, she said," Cora ran +on, happily. "She came back early on account of the children +having to be sent to school. She has such adorable +children--beautiful, dimpled babes----" + +"SLUSH! SLUSH! LUV-A-LY SLUSH!" + +"--And her dear son, Egerton Villard, he's grown to be such a +comely lad, and he has the most charming courtly manners: he +helped his mother out of her carriage with all the air of a man of +the world, and bowed to me as to a duchess. I think he might be a +great influence for good if the dear Villards would but sometimes +let him associate a little with our unfortunate Hedrick. Egerton +Villard is really _distingue_; he has a beautiful head; and if he +could be induced but to let Hedrick follow him about but a +little----" + +"I'll beat his beautiful head off for him if he but butts in on me +but a little!" Hedrick promised earnestly. "Idiot!" + +Cora turned toward him innocently. "What did you say, Hedrick?" + +"I said `Idiot'!" + +"You mean Egerton Villard?" + +"Both of you!" + +"You think I'm an idiot, Hedrick?" Her tone was calm, merely +inquisitive. + +"Yes, I do!" + +"Oh, no," she said pleasantly. "Don't you think if I were _really_ +an idiot I'd be even fonder of you than I am?" + +It took his breath. In a panic he sat waiting he knew not what; +but Cora blandly resumed her interrupted remarks to her mother, +beginning a description of Mrs. Villard's dress; Laura was talking +unconcernedly to Miss Peirce; no one appeared to be aware that +anything unusual had been said. His breath came back, and, +summoning his presence of mind, he found himself able to consider +his position with some degree of assurance. Perhaps, after all, +Cora's retort had been merely a coincidence. He went over and over +it in his mind, making a pretence, meanwhile, to be busy with his +plate. "If I were _really_ an idiot." . . . It was the "_really_" +that troubled him. But for that one word, he could have decided +that her remark was a coincidence; but "_really_" was ominous; had +a sinister ring. "If I were _really_ an idiot!" Suddenly the +pleasant clouds that had obscured his memory of the fatal evening +were swept away as by a monstrous Hand: it all came back to him +with sickening clearness. So is it always with the sinner with his +sin and its threatened discovery. Again, in his miserable mind, he +sat beside Lolita on the fence, with the moon shining through her +hair; and he knew--for he had often read it--that a man could be +punished his whole life through for a single moment's weakness. A +man might become rich, great, honoured, and have a large family, +but his one soft sin would follow him, hunt him out and pull him +down at last. "_Really_ an idiot!" Did that relentless Comanche, +Cora, know this Thing? He shuddered. Then he fell back upon his +faith in Providence. It _could_ not be that she knew! Ah, no! +Heaven would not let the world be so bad as that! And yet it did +sometimes become negligent--he remembered the case of a baby-girl +cousin who fell into the bath-tub and was drowned. Providence had +allowed that: What assurance had he that it would not go a step +farther? + +"Why, Hedrick," said Cora, turning toward him cheerfully, "you're +not really eating anything; you're only pretending to." His heart +sank with apprehension. Was it coming? "You really must eat," she +went on. "School begins so soon, you must be strong, you know. How +we shall miss you here at home during your hours of work!" + +With that, the burden fell from his shoulders, his increasing +terrors took wing. If Laura had told his ghastly secret to Cora, +the latter would not have had recourse to such weak satire as +this. Cora was not the kind of person to try a popgun on an enemy +when she had a thirteen-inch gun at her disposal; so he reasoned; +and in the gush of his relief and happiness, responded: + +"You're a little too cocky lately, Cora-lee: I wish you were _my_ +daughter--just about five minutes!" + +Cora looked upon him fondly. "What would you do to me," she +inquired with a terrible sweetness--"darling little boy?" + +Hedrick's head swam. The blow was square in the face; it jarred +every bone; the world seemed to topple. His mother, rising from +her chair, choked slightly, and hurried to join the nurse, who was +already on her way upstairs. Cora sent an affectionate laugh +across the table to her stunned antagonist. + +"You wouldn't beat me, would you, dear?" she murmured. "I'm almost +sure you wouldn't; not if I asked you to kiss me some _more_." + +All doubt was gone, the last hope fled! The worst had arrived. A +vision of the awful future flamed across his staggered mind. The +doors to the arena were flung open: the wild beasts howled for +hunger of him; the spectators waited. + +Cora began lightly to sing: + + . . . "Dear, + Would thou wert near + To hear me tell how fair thou art! + Since thou art gone I mourn all alone, + Oh, my Lolita----" + +She broke off to explain: "It's one of those passionate little +Spanish serenades, Hedrick. I'll sing it for your boy-friends next +time they come to play in the yard. I think they'd like it. When +they know why you like it so much, I'm sure they will. Of course +you _do_ like it--you roguish little lover!" A spasm rewarded this +demoniacal phrase. "Darling little boy, the serenade goes on like +this: + + Oh, my Lolita, come to my heart: + Oh, come beloved, love let me press thee, + While I caress thee + In one long kiss, Lolita! + Lolita come! Let me----" + +Hedrick sprang to his feet with a yell of agony. "Laura Madison, +you tattle-tale," he bellowed, "I'll never forgive you as long as +I live! I'll get even with you if it takes a thousand years!" + +With that, and pausing merely to kick a rung out of a chair which +happened to be in his way, he rushed from the room. + +His sisters had risen to go, and Cora flung her arms round Laura +in ecstacy. "You mean old viper!" she cried. "You could have told +me days ago! It's almost too good to be true: it's the first time +in my whole life I've felt safe from the Pest for a moment!" + +Laura shook her head. "My conscience troubles me; it did seem as +if I ought to tell you--and mamma thought so, too; and I gave him +warning, but now that I have done it, it seems rather mean +and----" + +"No!" exclaimed Cora. "You just gave me a chance to protect myself +for once, thank heaven!" And she picked up her skirts and danced +her way into the front hall. + +"I'm afraid," said Laura, following, "I shouldn't have done it." + +"Oh, Laura," cried the younger girl, "I am having the best time, +these days! This just caps it." She lowered her voice, but her +eyes grew even brighter. "I think I've shown a certain gentleman a +few things he didn't understand!" + +"Who, dear?" + +"Val," returned Cora lightly; "Valentine Corliss. I think he knows +a little more about women than he did when he first came here." + +"You've had a difference with him?" asked Laura with eager +hopefulness. "You've broken with him?" + +"Oh, Lord, no! Nothing like that." Cora leaned to her +confidentially. "He told me, once, he'd be at the feet of any +woman that could help put through an affair like his oil scheme, +and I decided I'd just show him what I could do. He'd talk about +it to me; then he'd laugh at me. That very Sunday when I got papa +to go in----" + +"But he didn't," said Laura helplessly. "He only said he'd try +to----when he gets well." + +"It's all the same--and it'll be a great thing for him, too," said +Cora, gayly. "Well, that very afternoon before Val left, he +practically told me I was no good. Of course he didn't use just +those words--that isn't his way--but he laughed at me. And haven't +I shown him! I sent Richard a note that very night saying papa had +consented to be secretary of the company, and Richard had said +he'd go in if papa did that, and he couldn't break his word----" + +"I know," said Laura, sighing. "I know." + +"Laura"--Cora spoke with sudden gravity--"did you ever know +anybody like me? I'm almost getting superstitious about it, +because it seems to me I _always_ get just what I set out to get. +I believe I could have anything in the world if I tried for it." + +"I hope so, if you tried for something good for you," said Laura +sadly. "Cora, dear, you will--you will be a little easy on +Hedrick, won't you?" + +Cora leaned against the newel and laughed till she was exhausted. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + +Mr. Trumble's offices were heralded by a neat blazon upon the +principal door, "Wade J. Trumble, Mortgages and Loans"; and the +gentleman thus comfortably, proclaimed, emerging from that door +upon a September noontide, burlesqued a start of surprise at sight +of a figure unlocking an opposite door which exhibited the name, +"Ray Vilas," and below it, the cryptic phrase, "Probate Law." + +"Water!" murmured Mr. Trumble, affecting to faint. "You ain't +going in _there_, are you, Ray?" He followed the other into the +office, and stood leaning against a bookcase, with his hands in +his pockets, while Vilas raised the two windows, which were +obscured by a film of smoke-deposit: there was a thin coat of fine +sifted dust over everything. "Better not sit down, Ray," continued +Trumble, warningly. "You'll spoil your clothes and you might get a +client. That word `Probate' on the door ain't going to keep 'em +out forever. You recognize the old place, I s'pose? You must have +been here at least twice since you moved in. What's the matter? +Dick Lindley hasn't missionaried you into any idea of _working_, +has he? Oh, no, _I_ see: the Richfield Hotel bar has +closed--you've managed to drink it all at last!" + +"Have you heard how old man Madison is to-day?" asked Ray, dusting +his fingers with a handkerchief. + +"Somebody told me yesterday he was about the same. He's not going +to get well." + +"How do you know?" Ray spoke quickly. + +"Stroke too severe. People never recover----" + +"Oh, yes, they do, too." + +Trumble began hotly: "I beg to dif----" but checked himself, +manifesting a slight confusion. "That is, I know they don't. Old +Madison may live a while, if you call that getting well; but he'll +never be the same man he was. Doctor Sloane says it was a bad +stroke. Says it was `induced by heat prostration and excitement.' +`Excitement!'" he repeated with a sour laugh. "Yep, I expect a man +could get all the excitement he wanted in _that_ house, especially +if he was her daddy. Poor old man, I don't believe he's got five +thousand dollars in the world, and look how she dresses!" + +Ray opened a compartment beneath one of the bookcases, and found a +bottle and some glasses. "Aha," he muttered, "our janitor doesn't +drink, I perceive. Join me?" Mr. Trumble accepted, and Ray +explained, cheerfully: "Richard Lindley's got me so cowed I'm +afraid to go near any of my old joints. You see, he trails me; the +scoundrel has kept me sober for whole days at a time, and I've +been mortified, having old friends see me in that condition; so I +have to sneak up here to my own office to drink to Cora, now and +then. You mustn't tell him. What's she been doing to _you_, +lately?" + +The little man addressed grew red with the sharp, resentful +memory. "Oh, nothing! Just struck me in the face with her parasol +on the public street, that's all!" He gave an account of his walk +to church with Cora. "I'm through with that girl!" he exclaimed +vindictively, in conclusion. "It was the damnedest thing you ever +saw in your life: right in broad daylight, in front of the church. +And she laughed when she did it; you'd have thought she was +knocking a puppy out of her way. She can't do that to me twice, I +tell you. What the devil do you see to laugh at?" + +"You'll be around," returned his companion, refilling the glasses, +"asking for more, the first chance she gives you. Here's her +health!" + +"I don't drink it!" cried Mr. Trumble angrily. + +"And I'm through with her for good, I tell you! I'm not your kind: +I don't let a girl like that upset me till I can't think of +anything else, and go making such an ass of myself that the whole +town gabbles about it. Cora Madison's seen the last of me, I'll +thank you to notice. She's never been half-decent to me; cut +dances with me all last winter; kept me hanging round the +outskirts of every crowd she was in; stuck me with Laura and her +mother every time she had a chance; then has the nerve to try to +use me, so's she can make a bigger hit with a new man! You can bet +your head I'm through! She'll get paid though! Oh, she'll get paid +for it!" + +"How?" laughed Ray. + +It was a difficult question. "You wait and see," responded the +threatener, feebly. "Just wait and see. She's wild about this +Corliss, I tell you," he continued, with renewed vehemence. "She's +crazy about him; she's lost her head at last----" + +"You mean he's going to avenge you?" + +"No, I don't, though he might, if she decided to marry him." + +"Do you know," said Ray slowly, glancing over his glass at his +nervous companion, "it doesn't strike me that Mr. Valentine +Corliss has much the air of a marrying man." + +"He has the air to _me_," observed Mr. Trumble, "of a darned bad +lot! But I have to hand it to him: he's a wizard. He's got +something besides his good looks--a man that could get Cora +Madison interested in `business'! In _oil_! Cora Madison! How do +you suppose----" + +His companion began to laugh again. "You don't really suppose he +talked his oil business to her, do you, Trumble?" + +"He must have. Else how could she----" + +"Oh, no, Cora herself never talks upon any subject but one; she +never listens to any other either." + +"Then how in thunder did he----" + +"If Cora asks you if you think it will rain," interrupted Vilas, +"doesn't she really seem to be asking: `Do you love me? How much?' +Suppose Mr. Corliss is an expert in the same line. Of course he +can talk about oil!" + +"He strikes me," said Trumble, "as just about the slickest +customer that ever hit this town. I like Richard Lindley, and I +hope he'll see his fifty thousand dollars again. _I_ wouldn't have +given Corliss thirty cents." + +"Why do you think he's a crook?" + +"I don't say that," returned Trumble. "All _I_ know about him is +that he's done some of the finest work to get fifty thousand +dollars put in his hands that I ever heard of. And all anybody +knows about him is that he lived here seventeen years ago, and +comes back claiming to know where there's oil in Italy. He shows +some maps and papers and gets cablegrams signed `Moliterno.' Then +he talks about selling the old Corliss house here, where the +Madisons live, and putting the money into his oil company: he does +that to sound plausible, but I have good reason to know that house +was mortgaged to its full value within a month after his aunt left +it to him. He'll not get a cent if it's sold. That's all. And he's +got Cora Madison so crazy over him that she makes life a hell for +poor old Lindley until he puts all he's saved into the bubble. The +scheme may be all right. How do _I_ know? There's no way to tell, +without going over there, and Corliss won't let anybody do +that--oh, he's got a plausible excuse for it! But I'm sorry for +Lindley: he's so crazy about Cora, he's soft. And she's so crazy +about Corliss _she's_ soft! Well, I used to be crazy about her +myself, but I'm not soft--I'm not the Lindley kind of loon, thank +heaven!" + +"What kind are you, Trumble?" asked Ray, mildly. + +"Not your kind either," retorted the other going to the door. "She +cut me on the street the other day; she's quit speaking to me. If +you've got any money, why don't you take it over to the hotel and +give it to Corliss? She might start speaking to _you_ again. I'm +going to lunch!" He slammed the door behind him. + +Ray Vilas, left alone, elevated his heels to the sill, and stared +out of the window a long time at a gravelled roof which presented +little of interest. He replenished his glass and his imagination +frequently, the latter being so stirred that when, about three +o'clock, he noticed the inroads he had made upon the bottle, tears +of self-pity came to his eyes. "Poor little drunkard!" he said +aloud. "Go ahead and do it. Isn't anything _you_ won't do!" And, +having washed his face at a basin in a corner, he set his hat +slightly upon one side, picked up a walking stick and departed +jauntily, and, to the outward eye, presentably sober. + +Mr. Valentine Corliss would be glad to see him, the clerk at the +Richfield Hotel reported, after sending up a card, and upon Ray's +following the card, Mr. Valentine Corliss in person confirmed the +message with considerable amusement and a cordiality in which +there was some mixture of the quizzical. He was the taller; and +the robust manliness of his appearance, his splendid health and +boxer's figure offered a sharp contrast to the superlatively lean +tippler. Corliss was humorously aware of his advantage: his +greeting seemed really to say, "Hello, my funny bug, here you are +again!" though the words of his salutation were entirely +courteous; and he followed it with a hospitable offer. + +"No," said Vilas; "I won't drink with you." He spoke so gently +that the form of his refusal, usually interpreted as truculent, +escaped the other's notice. He also declined a cigar, +apologetically asking permission to light one of his own +cigarettes; then, as he sank into a velour-covered chair, +apologized again for the particular attention he was bestowing +upon the apartment, which he recognized as one of the suites de +luxe of the hotel. + +"`Parlour, bedroom, and bath,'" he continued, with a melancholy +smile; "and `Lachrymae,' and `A Reading from Homer.' Sometimes +they have `The Music Lesson,' or `Winter Scene' or `A Neapolitan +Fisher Lad' instead of `Lachrymae,' but they always have `A +Reading from Homer.' When you opened the door, a moment ago, I had +a very strong impression that something extraordinary would some +time happen to me in this room." + +"Well," suggested Corliss, "you refused a drink in it." + +"Even more wonderful than that," said Ray, glancing about the +place curiously. "It may be a sense of something painful that +already has happened here--perhaps long ago, before your +occupancy. It has a pathos." + +"Most hotel rooms have had something happen in them," said Corliss +lightly. "I believe the managers usually change the door numbers +if what happens is especially unpleasant. Probably they change +some of the rugs, also." + +"I feel----" Ray paused, frowning. "I feel as if some one had +killed himself here." + +"Then no doubt some of the rugs _have_ been changed." + +"No doubt." The caller laughed and waved his hand in dismissal of +the topic. "Well, Mr. Corliss," he went on, shifting to a brisker +tone, "I have come to make my fortune, too. You are Midas. Am I of +sufficient importance to be touched?" + +Valentine Corliss gave him sidelong an almost imperceptibly brief +glance of sharpest scrutiny--it was like the wink of a camera +shutter--but laughed in the same instant. "Which way do you mean +that?" + +"You have been quick," returned the visitor, repaying that glance +with equal swiftness, "to seize upon the American idiom. I mean: +How small a contribution would you be willing to receive toward +your support!" + +Corliss did not glance again at Ray; instead, he looked interested +in the smoke of his cigar. "`Contribution,'" he repeated, with no +inflection whatever. "`Toward my support.'" + +"I mean, of course, how small an investment in your oil company." + +"Oh, anything, anything," returned the promoter, with quick +amiability. "We need to sell all the stock we can." + +"All the money you can get?" + +"Precisely. It's really a colossal proposition, Mr. Vilas." +Corliss spoke with brisk enthusiasm. "It's a perfectly certain +enormous profit upon everything that goes in. Prince Moliterno +cables me later investigations show that the oil-field is more +than twice as large as we thought when I left Naples. He's on the +ground now, buying up what he can, secretly." + +"I had an impression from Richard Lindley that the secret had been +discovered." + +"Oh, yes; but only by a few, and those are trying to keep it quiet +from the others, of course." + +"I see. Does your partner know of your success in raising a large +investment?" + +"You mean Lindley's? Certainly." Corliss waved his hand in light +deprecation. "Of course that's something, but Moliterno would +hardly be apt to think of it as very large! You see he's putting +in about five times that much, himself, and I've already turned +over to him double it for myself. Still, it counts--certainly; and +of course it will be a great thing for Lindley." + +"I fear," Ray said hesitatingly, "you won't be much interested in +my drop for your bucket. I have twelve hundred dollars in the +world; and it is in the bank--I stopped there on my way here. To +be exact, I have twelve hundred and forty-seven dollars and +fifty-one cents. My dear sir, will you allow me to purchase one +thousand dollars' worth of stock? I will keep the two hundred and +forty-seven dollars and fifty-one cents to live on--I may need an +egg while waiting for you to make me rich. Will you accept so +small an investment?" + +"Certainly," said Corliss, laughing. "Why not? You may as well +profit by the chance as any one. I'll send you the stock +certificates--we put them at par. I'm attending to that myself, as +our secretary, Mr. Madison, is unable to take up his duties." + +Vilas took a cheque-book and a fountain-pen from his pocket. + +"Oh, any time, any time," said Corliss cheerfully, observing the +new investor's movement. + +"Now, I think," returned Vilas quietly. "How shall I make it out?" + +"Oh, to me, I suppose," answered Corliss indifferently. "That will +save a little trouble, and I can turn it over to Moliterno, by +cable, as I did Lindley's. I'll give you a receipt----" + +"You need not mind that," said Ray. "Really it is of no +importance." + +"Of course the cheque itself is a receipt," remarked Corliss, +tossing it carelessly upon a desk. "You'll have some handsome +returns for that slip of paper, Mr. Vilas." + +"In that blithe hope I came," said Ray airily. + +"I am confident of it. I have my own ways of divination, Mr. +Corliss. I have gleams." He rose as if to go, but stood looking +thoughtfully about the apartment again. "Singular impression," he +murmured. "Not exactly as if I'd seen it in a dream; and yet--and +yet----" + +"You have symptoms of clairvoyance at times, I take it." The +conscious, smooth superiority of the dexterous man playing with an +inconsequent opponent resounded in this speech, clear as the +humming of a struck bell; and Vilas shot him a single open glance +of fire from hectic eyes. For that instant, the frailer buck +trumpeted challenge. Corliss--broad-shouldered, supple of waist, +graceful and strong--smiled down negligently; yet the very air +between the two men seemed charged with an invisible explosive. +Ray laughed quickly, as in undisturbed good nature; then, +flourishing his stick, turned toward the door. + +"Oh, no, it isn't clairvoyance--no more than when I told you that +your only real interest is women." He paused, his hand upon the +door-knob. "I'm a quaint mixture, however: perhaps I should be +handled with care." + +"Very good of you," laughed Corliss--"this warning. The afternoon +I had the pleasure of meeting you I think I remember your implying +that you were a mere marionette." + +"A haggard harlequin!" snapped Vilas, waving his hand to a mirror +across the room. "Don't I look it?" And the phrase fitted him with +tragic accuracy. "You see? What a merry wedding-guest I'll be! I +invite you to join me on the nuptial eve." + +"Thanks. Who's getting married: when the nuptial eve?" + +Ray opened the door, and, turning, rolled his eyes fantastically. +"Haven't you heard?" he cried. "When Hecate marries John +Barleycorn!" He bowed low. "Mr. Midas, adieu." + +Corliss stood in the doorway and watched him walk down the long +hall to the elevator. There, Ray turned and waved his hand, the +other responding with gayety which was not assumed: Vilas might be +insane, or drunk, or both, but the signature upon his cheque was +unassailable. + +Corliss closed the door and began to pace his apartment +thoughtfully. His expression manifested a peculiar phenomenon. In +company, or upon the street, or when he talked with men, the open +look and frank eyes of this stalwart young man were disarming and +his most winning assets. But now, as he paced alone in his +apartment, now that he was not upon exhibition, now when there was +no eye to behold him, and there was no reason to dissimulate or +veil a single thought or feeling, his look was anything but open; +the last trace of frankness disappeared; the muscles at mouth and +eyes shifted; lines and planes intermingled and altered subtly; +there was a moment of misty transformation--and the face of +another man emerged. It was the face of a man uninstructed in +mercy; it was a shrewd and planning face: alert, resourceful, +elaborately perceptive, and flawlessly hard. But, beyond all, it +was the face of a man perpetually on guard. + +He had the air of debating a question, his hands in his pockets, +his handsome forehead lined with a temporary indecision. His +sentry-go extended the length of his two rooms, and each time he +came back into his bedroom his glance fell consideringly upon a +steamer-trunk of the largest size, at the foot of his bed. The +trunk was partially packed as if for departure. And, indeed, it +was the question of departure which he was debating. + +He was a man of varied dexterities, and he had one faculty of high +value, which had often saved him, had never betrayed him; it was +intuitive and equal to a sixth sense: he always knew when it was +time to go. An inner voice warned him; he trusted to it and obeyed +it. And it had spoken now, and there was his trunk half-packed in +answer. But he had stopped midway in his packing, because he had +never yet failed to make a clean sweep where there was the +slightest chance for one; he hated to leave a big job before it +was completely finished--and Mr. Wade Trumble had refused to +invest in the oil-fields of Basilicata. + +Corliss paused beside the trunk, stood a moment immersed in +thought; then nodded once, decisively, and, turning to a +dressing-table, began to place some silver-mounted brushes and +bottles in a leather travelling-case. + +There was a knock at the outer door. He frowned, set down what he +had in his hands, went to the door and opened it to find Mr. +Pryor, that plain citizen, awaiting entrance. + +Corliss remained motionless in an arrested attitude, his hand upon +the knob of the opened door. His position did not alter; he became +almost unnaturally still, a rigidity which seemed to increase. +Then he looked quickly behind him, over his shoulder, and back +again, with a swift movement of the head. + +"No," said Pryor, at that. "I don't want you. I just thought I'd +have two minutes' talk with you. All right?" + +"All right," said Corliss quietly. "Come in." He turned +carelessly, and walked away from the door keeping between his +guest and the desk. When he reached the desk, he turned again and +leaned against it, his back to it, but in the action of turning +his hand had swept a sheet of note-paper over Ray Vilas's +cheque--a too conspicuous oblong of pale blue. Pryor had come in +and closed the door. + +"I don't know," he began, regarding the other through his glasses, +with steady eyes, "that I'm going to interfere with you at all, +Corliss. I just happened to strike you--I wasn't looking for you. +I'm on vacation, visiting my married daughter that lives here, and +I don't want to mix in if I can help it." + +Corliss laughed, easily. "There's nothing for you to mix in. You +couldn't if you wanted to." + +"Well, I hope that's true," said Pryor, with an air of indulgence, +curiously like that of a teacher for a pupil who promises +improvement. "I do indeed. There isn't anybody I'd like to see +turn straight more than you. You're educated and cultured, and +refined, and smarter than all hell. It would be a big thing. +That's one reason I'm taking the trouble to talk to you." + +"I told you I wasn't doing anything," said Corliss with a +petulance as oddly like that of a pupil as the other's indulgence +was like that of a tutor. "This is my own town; I own property +here, and I came here to sell it. I can prove it in +half-a-minute's telephoning. Where do you come in?" + +"Easy, easy," said Pryor, soothingly. "I've just told you I don't +want to come in at all." + +"Then what do you want?" + +"I came to tell you just one thing: to go easy up there at Mr. +Madison's house." + +Corliss laughed contemptuously. "It's _my_ house. I own it. That's +the property I came here to sell." + +"Oh, I know," responded Pryor. "That part of it's all right. But +I've seen you several times with that young lady, and you looked +pretty thick, to me. You know you haven't got any business doing +such things, Corliss. I know your record from Buda Pesth to +Copenhagen and----" + +"See here, my friend," said the younger man, angrily, "you may be +a tiptop spotter for the government when it comes to running down +some poor old lady that's bought a string of pearls in the Rue de +la Paix----" + +"I've been in the service twenty-eight years," remarked Pryor, +mildly. + +"All right," said the other with a gesture of impatience; "and you +got me once, all right. Well, that's over, isn't it? Have I tried +anything since?" + +"Not in that line," said Pryor. + +"Well, what business have you with any other line?" demanded +Corliss angrily. "Who made you general supervisor of public +morals? I want to know----" + +"Now, what's the use your getting excited? I'm just here to tell +you that I'm going to keep an eye on you. I don't know many people +here, and I haven't taken any particular pains to look you up. For +all I know, you're only here to sell your house, as you say. But I +know old man Madison a little, and I kind of took a fancy to him; +he's a mighty nice old man, and he's got a nice family. He's sick +and it won't do to trouble him; but--honest, Corliss--if you don't +slack off in that neighbourhood a little, I'll have to have a talk +with the young lady herself." + +A derisory light showed faintly in the younger man's eyes as he +inquired, softly: "That all, Mr. Pryor?" + +"No. Don't try anything on out here. Not in _any_ of your lines." + +"I don't mean to." + +"That's right. Sell your house and clear out. You'll find it +healthy." He went to the door. "So far as I can see," he observed, +ruminatively, "you haven't brought any of that Moliterno crowd you +used to work with over to this side with you." + +"I haven't seen Moliterno for two years," said Corliss, sharply. + +"Well, I've said my say." Pryor gave him a last word as he went +out. "You keep away from that little girl." + +"Ass!" exclaimed Corliss, as the door closed. He exhaled a deep +breath sharply, and broke into a laugh. Then he went quickly into +his bedroom and began to throw the things out of his trunk. + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + +Hedrick Madison's eyes were not of marble; his heart was not flint +nor his skin steel plate: he was flesh and tender; he was a +vulnerable, breathing boy, with highly developed capacities for +pain which were now being taxed to their utmost. Once he had loved +to run, to leap, to disport himself in the sun, to drink deep of +the free air; he had loved life and one or two of his fellowmen. +He had borne himself buoyantly, with jaunty self-confidence, even +with some intolerance toward the weaknesses of others, not +infrequently displaying merriment over their mischances; but his +time had found him at last; the evil day had come. Indian Summer +was Indian for him, indeed: sweet death were welcome; no charity +was left in him. He leaped no more, but walked broodingly and +sought the dark places. And yet it could not be said that times +were dull for him: the luckless picket who finds himself in an +open eighty-acre field, under the eye of a sharpshooter up a tree, +would not be apt to describe the experience as dull. And Cora +never missed a shot; she loved the work; her pleasure in it was +almost as agonizing for the target as was the accuracy of her +fire. + +She was ingenious: the horrible facts at her disposal were +damaging enough in all conscience: but they did not content her. +She invented a love-story, assuming that Hedrick was living it: he +was supposed to be pining for Lolita, to be fading, day-by-day, +because of enforced separation; and she contrived this to such an +effect of reality, and with such a diabolical affectation of +delicacy in referring to it, that the mere remark, with gentle +sympathy, "I think poor Hedrick is looking a little better +to-day," infallibly produced something closely resembling a spasm. +She formed the habit of never mentioning her brother in his +presence except as "poor Hedrick," a too obvious commiseration of +his pretended attachment--which met with like success. Most +dreadful of all, she invented romantic phrases and expressions +assumed to have been spoken or written by Hedrick in reference to +his unhappiness; and she repeated them so persistently, yet always +with such apparent sincerity of belief that they were quotations +from him, and not her inventions, that the driven youth knew a +fear, sometimes, that the horrid things were actually of his own +perpetration. + +The most withering of these was, "Torn from her I love by the +ruthless hand of a parent. . . ." It was not completed; Cora never +got any further with it, nor was there need: a howl of fury +invariably assured her of an effect as satisfactory as could +possibly have been obtained by an effort less impressionistic. +Life became a series of easy victories for Cora, and she made them +somehow the more deadly for Hedrick by not seeming to look at him +in his affliction, nor even to be aiming his way: he never could +tell when the next shot was coming. At the table, the ladies of +his family might be deep in dress, or discussing Mr. Madison's +slowly improving condition, when Cora, with utter irrelevance, +would sigh, and, looking sadly into her coffee, murmur, "Ah, +_fond_ mem'ries!" or, "_Why_ am I haunted by the dead past?" or, +the dreadful, "Torn from her I love by the ruthless hand of a +parent. . . ." + +There was compassion in Laura's eyes and in his mother's, but Cora +was irresistible, and they always ended by laughing in spite of +themselves; and though they pleaded for Hedrick in private, their +remonstrances proved strikingly ineffective. Hedrick was the only +person who had ever used the high hand with Cora: she found +repayment too congenial. In the daytime he could not go in the +front yard, but Cora's window would open and a tenderly smiling +Cora lean out to call affectionately, "Don't walk on the +grass--darling little boy!" Or, she would nod happily to him and +begin to sing: + + "Oh come beloved, love let me press thee, + While I caress thee + In one long kiss, Lolita. . . . " + +One terror still hung over him. If it fell--as it might at any +fatal moment--then the utmost were indeed done upon him; and this +apprehension bathed his soul in night. In his own circle of +congenial age and sex he was, by virtue of superior bitterness and +precocity of speech, a chief--a moral castigator, a satirist of +manners, a creator of stinging nicknames; and many nourished +unhealed grievances which they had little hope of satisfying +against him; those who attempted it invariably departing with more +to avenge than they had brought with them. Let these once know +what Cora knew. . . . The vision was unthinkable! + +It was Cora's patent desire to release the hideous item, to spread +the scandal broadcast among his fellows--to ring it from the +school-bells, to send it winging on the hot winds of Hades! The +boys had always liked his yard and the empty stable to play in, +and the devices he now employed to divert their activities +elsewhere were worthy of a great strategist. His energy and an +abnormal ingenuity accomplished incredible things: school had been +in session several weeks and only one boy had come within +conversational distance of Cora;--him Hedrick bore away bodily, in +simulation of resistless high spirits, a brilliant exhibition of +stagecraft. + +And then Cora's friend, Mrs. Villard, removed her son Egerton from +the private school he had hitherto attended, and he made his +appearance in Hedrick's class, one morning at the public school. +Hedrick's eye lighted with a savage gleam; timidly the first joy +he had known for a thousand years crept into his grim heart. After +school, Egerton expiated a part of Cora's cruelty. It was a very +small part, and the exploit no more than infinitesimally soothing +to the conqueror, but when Egerton finally got home he was no +sight for a mother. + +Thus Hedrick wrought his own doom: Mrs. Villard telephoned to +Cora, and Cora went immediately to see her. + +It happened to Hedrick that he was late leaving home the next +morning. His entrance into his classroom was an undeniable +sensation, and within ten minutes the teacher had lost all control +of the school. It became necessary to send for the principal. +Recess was a frantic nightmare for Hedrick, and his homeward +progress at noon a procession of such uproarious screamers as were +his equals in speed. The nethermost depths were reached when an +ignoble pigtailed person he had always trodden upon flat-footed +screamed across the fence from next door, as he reached fancied +sanctuary in his own backyard: + +"Kiss me some _more_, darling little boy!" + +This worm, established upon the fence opposite the conservatory +windows, and in direct view from the table in the dining-room, +shrieked the accursed request at short intervals throughout the +luncheon hour. The humour of childhood is sometimes almost +intrusive. + +And now began a life for Hedrick which may be rather painfully but +truthfully likened to a prolongation of the experiences of a rat +that finds itself in the middle of a crowded street in daylight: +there is plenty of excitement but no pleasure. He was pursued, +harried, hounded from early morning till nightfall, and even in +his bed would hear shrill shouts go down the sidewalk from the +throats of juvenile fly-by-nights: "Oh dar-ling lit-oh darling +lit-oh _lit_-le boy, _lit_-le boy, kiss me some _more_!" And one +day he overheard a remark which strengthened his growing +conviction that the cataclysm had affected the whole United +States: it was a teacher who spoke, explaining to another a +disturbance in the hall of the school. She said, behind her hand: + +"_He kissed an idiot_." + +Laura had not even remotely foreseen the consequences of her +revelation, nor, indeed, did she now properly estimate their +effect upon Hedrick. She and her mother were both sorry for him, +and did what they could to alleviate his misfortunes, but there +was an inevitable remnant of amusement in their sympathy. Youth, +at war, affects stoicism but not resignation: in truth, +resignation was not much in Hedrick's line, and it would be far +from the fact to say that he was softened by his sufferings. He +brooded profoundly and his brightest thought was revenge. It was +not upon Cora that his chief bitterness turned. Cora had always +been the constant, open enemy: warfare between them was a regular +condition of life; and unconsciously, and without "thinking it +out," he recognized the naturalness of her seizing upon the +deadliest weapon against him that came to her hand. There was +nothing unexpected in that: no, the treachery, to his mind, lay in +the act of Laura, that non-combatant, who had furnished the +natural and habitual enemy with this scourge. At all times, and +with or without cause, he ever stood ready to do anything possible +for the reduction of Cora's cockiness, but now it was for the +taking-down of Laura and the repayment of her uncalled-for and +overwhelming assistance to the opposite camp that he lay awake +nights and kept his imagination hot. Laura was a serene person, so +neutral--outwardly, at least--and so little concerned for herself +in any matter he could bring to mind, that for purposes of revenge +she was a difficult proposition. And then, in a desperate hour, he +remembered her book. + +Only once had he glimpsed it, but she had shown unmistakable +agitation of a mysterious sort as she wrote in it, and, upon +observing his presence, a prompt determination to prevent his +reading a word of what she had written. Therefore, it was +something peculiarly sacred and intimate. This deduction was +proved by the care she exercised in keeping the book concealed +from all eyes. A slow satisfaction began to permeate him: he made +up his mind to find that padlocked ledger. + +He determined with devoted ardour that when he found it he would +make the worst possible use of it: the worst, that is, for Laura. +As for consequences to himself, he was beyond them. There is an +Irish play in which an old woman finds that she no longer fears +the sea when it has drowned the last of her sons; it can do +nothing more to her. Hedrick no longer feared anything. + +The book was somewhere in Laura's room, he knew that; and there +were enough opportunities to search, though Laura had a way of +coming in unexpectedly which was embarrassing; and he suffered +from a sense of inadequacy when--on the occasion of his first new +attempt--he answered the casual inquiry as to his presence by +saying that he "had a headache." He felt there was something +indirect in the reply; but Laura was unsuspicious and showed no +disposition to be analytical. After this, he took the precaution +to bring a school-book with him and she often found the boy seated +quietly by her west window immersed in study: he said he thought +his headaches came from his eyes and that the west light "sort of +eased them a little." + +The ledger remained undiscovered, although probably there has +never been a room more thoroughly and painstakingly searched, +without its floor being taken up and its walls torn down. The most +mysterious, and, at the same time, the most maddening thing about +it was the apparent simplicity of the task. He was certain that +the room contained the book: listening, barefooted, outside the +door at night, he had heard the pen scratching. The room was as +plain as a room can be, and small. There was a scantily filled +clothes-press; he had explored every cubic inch of it. There was +the small writing table with one drawer; it held only some +note-paper and a box of pen-points. There was a bureau; to his +certain knowledge it contained no secret whatever. There were a +few giltless chairs, and a white "wash-stand," a mere basin and +slab with exposed plumbing. Lastly, there was the bed, a very +large and ugly "Eastlake" contrivance; he had acquired a close +acquaintance with all of it except the interior of the huge +mattress itself, and here, he finally concluded, must of necessity +be the solution. The surface of the mattress he knew to be +unbroken; nevertheless the book was there. He had recently +stimulated his deductive powers with a narrative of French +journalistic sagacity in a similar case; and he applied French +reasoning. The ledger existed. It was somewhere in the room. He +had searched everything except the interior of the mattress. The +ledger was in that interior. + +The exploration thus become necessary presented some difficulties. +Detection in the act would involve explanations hard to invent; it +would not do to say he was looking for his knife; and he could not +think of any excuse altogether free from a flavour of insincerity. +A lameness beset them all and made them liable to suspicion; and +Laura, once suspicious, might be petty enough to destroy the book, +and so put it out of his power forever. He must await the right +opportunity, and, after a racking exercise of patience, at last he +saw it coming. + +Doctor Sloane had permitted his patient to come down stairs for an +increasing interval each day. Mr. Madison crept, rather than +walked, leaning upon his wife and closely attended by Miss Peirce. +He spoke with difficulty and not clearly; still, there was a +perceptible improvement, and his family were falling into the +habit of speaking of him as almost well. On that account, Mrs. +Madison urged her daughters to accept an invitation from the +mother of the once courtly Egerton Villard. It was at breakfast +that the matter was discussed. + +"Of course Cora must go," Laura began, "but----" + +"But nothing!" interrupted Cora. "How would it look if I went and +you didn't? Everybody knows papa's almost well, and they'd think +it silly for us to give up the first real dance since last spring +on that account; yet they're just spiteful enough, if I went and +you stayed home, to call me a `girl of no heart.' Besides," she +added sweetly, "we ought to go to show Mrs. Villard we aren't hurt +because Egerton takes so little notice of poor Hedrick." + +Hedrick's lips moved silently, as in prayer. + +"I'd rather not," said Laura. "I doubt if I'd have a very good +time." + +"You would, too," returned her sister, decidedly. "The men like to +dance with you; you dance every bit as well as I do, and that +black lace is the most becoming dress you ever had. Nobody ever +remembers a black dress, anyway, unless it's cut very +conspicuously, and yours isn't. I can't go without you; they love +to say nasty things about me, and you're too good a sister to give +'em this chance, you old dear." She laughed and nodded +affectionately across the table at Laura. "You've got to go!" + +"Yes, it would be nicer," said the mother. And so it was settled. +It was simultaneously settled in Hedrick's mind that the night of +the dance should mark his discovery of the ledger. He would have +some industrious hours alone with the mysterious mattress, safe +from intrusion. + +Meekly he lifted his eyes from his plate. "I'm glad you're going, +sister Laura," he said in a gentle voice. "I think a change will +do you good." + +"Isn't it wonderful," exclaimed Cora, appealing to the others to +observe him, "what an improvement a disappointment in love can +make in deportment?" + +For once, Hedrick only smiled. + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + +Laura had spent some thoughtful hours upon her black lace dress +with results that astonished her family: it became a +ball-gown--and a splendidly effective one. She arranged her dark +hair in a more elaborate fashion than ever before, in a close +coronal of faintly lustrous braids; she had no jewellery and +obviously needed none. Her last action but one before she left her +room was to dispose of the slender chain and key she always wore +round her neck; then her final glance at the mirror--which fairly +revealed a lovely woman--ended in a deprecatory little "face" she +made at herself. It meant: "Yes, old lady, you fancy yourself very +passable in here all by yourself, don't you? Just wait: you'll be +standing beside Cora in a moment!" + +And when she did stand beside Cora, in the latter's room, a moment +later, her thought seemed warranted. Cora, radiant-eyed, in high +bloom, and exquisite from head to foot in a shimmering white +dancing-dress, a glittering crescent fastening the silver fillet +that bound her vivid hair, was a flame of enchantment. Mrs. +Madison, almost weeping with delight, led her daughters proudly, +an arm round the waist of each, into her husband's room. Propped +with pillows, he reclined in an armchair while Miss Peirce +prepared his bed, an occupation she gave over upon this dazzling +entrance, departing tactfully. + +"Look at these," cried the mother; "--from our garden, Jim, dear! +Don't we feel rich, you and I?" + +"And--and--Laura," said the sick man, with the slow and imperfect +enunication caused by his disease; "Laura looks pretty--too." + +"Isn't she adorable!" Cora exclaimed warmly. "She decided to be +the portrait of a young duchess, you see, all stately +splendour--made of snow and midnight!" + +"Hear! hear!" laughed Laura; but she blushed with pleasure, and +taking Cora's hand in hers lifted it to her lips. + +"And do you see Cora's crescent?" demanded Mrs. Madison. "What do +you think of _that_ for magnificence? She went down town this +morning with seven dollars, and came back with that and her party +gloves and a dollar in change! Isn't she a bargainer? Even for +rhinestones they are the cheapest things you ever heard of. They +look precisely like stones of the very finest water." They did--so +precisely, indeed, that if the resemblance did not amount to +actual identity, then had a jeweller of the town been able to +deceive the eye of Valentine Corliss, which was an eye singularly +learned in such matters. + +"They're--both smart girls," said Madison, "both of them. And they +look--beautiful, to-night--both. Laura is--amazing!" + +When they had gone, Mrs. Madison returned from the stairway, and, +kneeling beside her husband, put her arms round him gently: she +had seen the tear that was marking its irregular pathway down his +flaccid, gray cheek, and she understood. + +"Don't. Don't worry, Jim," she whispered. "Those bright, beautiful +things!--aren't they treasures?" + +"It's--it's Laura," he said. "Cora will be all right. She looks +out for--herself. I'm--I'm afraid for--Laura. Aren't you?" + +"No, no," she protested. "I'm not afraid for either of them." But +she was: the mother had always been afraid for Cora. + +. . . . At the dance, the two girls, attended up the stairway to +the ballroom by a chattering covey of black-coats, made a +sensational entrance to a gallant fanfare of music, an effect +which may have been timed to the premonitory tuning of instruments +heard during the ascent; at all events, it was a great success; +and Cora, standing revealed under the wide gilt archway, might +have been a lithe and shining figure from the year +eighteen-hundred-and-one, about to dance at the Luxembourg. She +placed her hand upon the sleeve of Richard Lindley, and, glancing +intelligently over his shoulder into the eyes of Valentine +Corliss, glided rhythmically away. + +People looked at her; they always did. Not only the non-dancers +watched her; eyes everywhere were upon her, even though the owners +gyrated, glided and dipped on distant orbits. The other girls +watched her, as a rule, with a profound, an almost passionate +curiosity; and they were prompt to speak well of her to men, +except in trustworthy intimacy, because they did not enjoy being +wrongfully thought jealous. Many of them kept somewhat aloof from +her; but none of them ever nowadays showed "superiority" in her +presence, or snubbed her: that had been tried and proved +disastrous in rebound. Cora never failed to pay her score--and +with a terrifying interest added, her native tendency being to +take two eyes for an eye and the whole jaw for a tooth. They let +her alone, though they asked and asked among themselves the +never-monotonous question: "Why do men fall in love with girls +like that?" a riddle which, solved, makes wives condescending to +their husbands. + +Most of the people at this dance had known one another as friends, +or antagonists, or indifferent acquaintances, for years, and in +such an assembly there are always two worlds, that of the women +and that of the men. Each has its own vision, radically different +from that of the other; but the greatest difference is that the +men are unaware of the other world, only a few of them--usually +queer ones like Ray Vilas--vaguely perceiving that there are two +visions, while all the women understand both perfectly. The men +splash about on the surface; the women keep their eyes open under +water. Or, the life of the assembly is like a bright tapestry: the +men take it as a picture and are not troubled to know how it is +produced; but women are weavers. There was a Beauty of far-flung +renown at Mrs. Villard's to-night: Mary Kane, a creature so made +and coloured that young men at sight of her became as water and +older men were apt to wonder regretfully why all women could not +have been made like Mary. She was a kindly soul, and never +intentionally outshone her sisters; but the perfect sumptuousness +of her had sometimes tried the amiability of Cora Madison, to whom +such success without effort and without spark seemed unfair, as +well as bovine. Miss Kane was a central figure at the dance, +shining tranquilly in a new triumph: that day her engagement had +been announced to Mr. George Wattling, a young man of no special +attainments, but desirable in his possessions and suitable to his +happiness. The pair radiated the pardonable, gay importance of +newly engaged people, and Cora, who had never before bestowed any +notice upon Mr. Wattling, now examined him with thoughtful +attention. + +Finding him at her elbow in a group about a punch bowl, between +dances, she offered warm felicitations. "But I don't suppose you +care whether _I_ care for you to be happy or not," she added, with +a little plaintive laugh;--"you've always hated me so!" + +Mr. Wattling was startled: never before had he imagined that Cora +Madison had given him a thought; but there was not only thought, +there was feeling, in this speech. She seemed to be concealing +with bravery an even deeper feeling than the one inadvertently +expressed. "Why, what on earth makes you think that?" he +exclaimed. + +"Think it? I _know_ it!" She gave him a strange look, luminous yet +mysterious, a curtain withdrawn only to show a shining mist with +something undefined but dazzling beyond. "I've always known it!" +And she turned away from him abruptly. + +He sprang after her. "But you're wrong. I've never----" + +"Oh, yes, you have." They began to discuss it, and for better +consideration of the theme it became necessary for Cora to "cut" +the next dance, promised to another, and to give it to Mr. +Wattling. They danced several times together, and Mr. Wattling's +expression was serious. The weavers of the tapestry smiled and +whispered things the men would not have understood--nor believed. + +Ray Vilas, seated alone in a recessed and softly lighted gallery, +did not once lose sight of the flitting sorceress. With his elbows +on the railing, he leaned out, his head swaying slowly and +mechanically as she swept up and down the tumultuously moving +room, his passionate eyes gaunt and brilliant with his hunger. And +something very like a general thrill passed over the assembly +when, a little later, it was seen that he was dancing with her. +Laura, catching a glimpse of this couple, started and looked +profoundly disturbed. + +The extravagance of Vilas's passion and the depths he sounded, in +his absurd despair when discarded, had been matters of almost +public gossip; he was accounted a somewhat scandalous and +unbalanced but picturesque figure; and for the lady whose light +hand had wrought such havoc upon him to be seen dancing with him +was sufficiently startling to elicit the universal +remark--evidently considered superlative--that it was "just like +Cora Madison!" Cora usually perceived, with an admirably clear +head, all that went on about her; and she was conscious of +increasing the sensation, when after a few turns round the room, +she allowed her partner to conduct her to a secluding grove of +palms in the gallery. She sank into the chair he offered, and, +fixing her eyes upon a small lamp of coloured glass which hung +overhead, ostentatiously looked bored. + +"At your feet, Cora," he said, seating himself upon a stool, and +leaning toward her. "Isn't it appropriate that we should talk to +music--we two? It shouldn't be that quick step though--not +dance-music--should it?" + +"Don't know 'm sure," murmured Cora. + +"You were kind to dance with me," he said huskily. "I dared to +speak to you----" + +She did not change her attitude nor the direction of her glance. +"I couldn't cut you very well with the whole town looking on. I'm +tired of being talked about. Besides, I don't care much who I +dance with--so he doesn't step on me." + +"Cora," he said, "it is the prelude to `L'Arlesienne' that they +should play for you and me. Yes, I think it should be that." + +"Never heard of it." + +"It's just a rustic tragedy, the story of a boy in the south of +France who lets love become his whole life, and then--it kills +him." + +"Sounds very stupid," she commented languidly. + +"People do sometimes die of love, even nowadays," he said, +tremulously--"in the South." + +She let her eyes drift indifferently to him and perceived that he +was trembling from head to foot; that his hands and knees shook +piteously; that his lips quivered and twitched; and, at sight of +this agitation, an expression of strong distaste came to her face. + +"I see." Her eyes returned to the lamp. "You're from the South, +and of course it's going to kill you." + +"You didn't speak the exact words you had in your mind.'" + +"Oh, what words did I have `in my mind'?" she asked impatiently. + +"What you really meant was: `If it does kill you, what of it?'" + +She laughed, and sighed as for release. + +"Cora," he said huskily, "I understand you a little because you +possess me. I've never--literally never--had another thought since +the first time I saw you: nothing but you. I think of +you--actually every moment. Drunk or sober, asleep or--awake, it's +nothing but you, you, _you_! It will never be different: I don't +know why I can't get over it--I only know I can't. You own me; you +burn like a hot coal in my heart. You're through with me, I know. +You drained me dry. You're like a child who eats so heartily of +what he likes that he never touches it again. And I'm a dish +you're sick of. Oh, it's all plain enough, I can tell you. I'm not +exciting any more--no, just a nauseous slave!" + +"Do you want people to hear you?" she inquired angrily, for his +voice had risen. + +He tempered his tone. "Cora, when you liked me you went a pretty +clipping gait with me," he said, trembling even more than before. +"But you're infinitely more infatuated with this Toreador of a +Corliss than you were with me; you're lost in him; you're slaving +for him as I would for you. How far are you going with----" + +"Do you want me to walk away and leave you?" she asked, suddenly +sitting up straight and looking at him with dilating eyes. "If you +want a `scene'----" + +"It's over," he said, more calmly. "I know now how dangerous the +man is. Of course you will tell him I said that." He laughed +quietly. "Well--between a dangerous chap and a desperate one, we +may look for some lively times! Do you know, I believe I think +about as continuously of him, lately, as I do of you. That's why I +put almost my last cent into his oil company, and got what may be +almost my last dance with you!" + +"I wouldn't call it `almost' your last dance with me!" she +returned icily. "Not after what you've said. I had a foolish idea +you could behave--well, at least decently." + +"Did Corliss tell you that I insulted him in his rooms at the +hotel?" + +"You!" She laughed, genuinely. "I see him letting you!" + +"He did, however. By manner and in speech I purposely and +deliberately insulted him. You'll tell him every word of this, of +course, and he'll laugh at it, but I give myself the pleasure of +telling you. I put the proposition of an `investment' to him in a +way nobody not a crook would have allowed to be smoothed over--and +he allowed it to be smoothed over. He ate it! I felt he was a +swindler when he was showing Richard Lindley his maps and papers, +and now I've proved it to myself, and it's worth the price." +Often, when they had danced, and often during this interview, his +eyes lifted curiously to the white flaming crescent in her hair; +now they fixed themselves upon it, and in a flash of divination he +cried: "You wear it for me!" + +She did not understand. "Finished raving?" she inquired. + +"I gave Corliss a thousand dollars," he said, slowly. "Considering +the fact that it was my last, I flatter myself it was not +unhandsomely done--though I may never need it. It has struck me +that the sum was about what a man who had just cleaned up fifty +thousand might regard as a sort of `extra'--`for lagniappe'--and +that he might have thought it an appropriate amount to invest in a +present some jewels perhaps--to place in the hair of a pretty +friend!" + +She sprang to her feet, furious, but he stood in front of her and +was able to bar the way for a moment. + +"Cora, I'll have a last word with you if I have to hold you," he +said with great rapidity and in a voice which shook with the +intense repression he was putting upon himself. "We do one thing +in the South, where I came from. We protect our women----" + +"This looks like it! Keeping me when----" + +"I love you," he said, his face whiter than she had ever seen it. +"I love you! I'm your dog! You take care of yourself if you want +to take care of anybody else! As sure as----" + +"My dance, Miss Madison." A young gentleman on vacation from the +navy had approached, and, with perfect unconsciousness of what he +was interrupting, but with well-founded certainty that he was +welcome to the lady, urged his claim in a confident voice. "I +thought it would never come, you know; but it's here at last and +so am I." He laughed propitiatingly. + +Ray yielded now at once. She moved him aside with her gloved +forearm as if he were merely an awkward stranger who unwittingly +stood between her and the claiming partner. Carrying the gesture +farther, she took the latter's arm, and smilingly, and without a +backward glance, passed onward and left the gallery. The +lieutenant, who had met her once or twice before, was her partner +for the succeeding dance as well, and, having noted the advantages +of the place where he had discovered her, persuaded her to return +there to sit through the second. Then without any fatiguing +preamble, he proposed marriage. Cora did not accept, but effected +a compromise, which, for the present, was to consist of an +exchange of photographs (his to be in uniform) and letters. + +She was having an evening to her heart. Ray's attack on Corliss +had no dimming effect; her thought of it being that she was "used +to his raving"; it meant nothing; and since Ray had prophesied she +would tell Corliss about it, she decided not to do so. + +The naval young gentleman and Valentine Corliss were the greatest +of all the lions among ladies that night; she had easily annexed +the lieutenant, and Corliss was hers already; though, for a +purpose, she had not yet been seen in company with him. He was +visibly "making an impression." His name, as he had said to +Richard Lindley, was held in honour in the town; and there was a +flavour of fancied romance in his absence since boyhood in unknown +parts, and his return now with a `foreign air' and a bow that +almost took the breath of some of the younger recipients. He was, +too, in his way, the handsomest man in the room; and the smiling, +open frankness of his look, the ready cordiality of his manner, +were found very winning. He caused plenty of flutter. + +Cora waited till the evening was half over before she gave him any +visible attention. Then, during a silence of the music, between +two dances, she made him a negligent sign with her hand, the +gesture of one indifferently beckoning a creature who is certain +to come, and went on talking casually to the man who was with her. +Corliss was the length of the room from her, chatting gayly with a +large group of girls and women; but he immediately nodded to her, +made his bow to individuals of the group, and crossed the vacant, +glistening floor to her. Cora gave him no greeting whatever; she +dismissed her former partner and carelessly turned away with +Corliss to some chairs in a corner. + +"Do you see that?" asked Vilas, leaning over the balcony railing +with Richard Lindley. "Look! She's showing the other girls--don't +you see? He's the New Man; she let 'em hope she wasn't going in +for him; a lot of them probably didn't even know that she knew +him. She sent him out on parade till they're all excited about +him; now she shows 'em he's entirely her property--and does it so +matter-of-factly that it's rubbed in twice as hard as if she +seemed to take some pains about it. He doesn't dance: she'll sit +out with him now, till they all read the tag she's put on him. She +says she hates being talked about. She lives on it!--so long as +it's envious. And did you see her with that chap from the navy? +Neptune thinks he's dallying with Venus perhaps, but he'll +get----" + +Lindley looked at him commiseratingly. "I think I never saw +prettier decorations. Have you noticed, Ray? Must have used a +thousand chrysanthemums." + +"Toreador!" whispered the other between his teeth, looking at +Corliss; then, turning to his companion, he asked: "Has it +occurred to you to get any information about Basilicata, or about +the ancestral domain of the Moliterni, from our consul-general at +Naples?" + +Richard hesitated. "Well--yes. Yes, I did think of that. Yes, I +thought of it." + +"But you didn't do it." + +"No. That is, I haven't yet. You see, Corliss explained to me +that----" + +His friend interrupted him with a sour laugh. "Oh, certainly! He's +one of the greatest explainers ever welcomed to our city!" + +Richard said mildly: "And then, Ray, once I've gone into a thing +I--I don't like to seem suspicious." + +"Poor old Dick!" returned Vilas compassionately. "You kind, easy, +sincere men are so conscientiously untruthful with yourselves. You +know in your heart that Cora would be furious with you if you +seemed suspicious, and she's been so nice to you since you put in +your savings to please her, that you can't bear to risk offending +her. She's twisted you around her little finger, and the unnamed +fear that haunts you is that you won't be allowed to stay +there--even twisted!" + +"Pretty decorations, Ray," said Richard; but he grew very red. + +"Do you know what you'll do," asked Ray, regarding him keenly, "if +this Don Giovanni from Sunny It' is shown up as a plain +get-rich-quick swindler?" + +"I haven't considered----" + +"You would do precisely," said Ray, "nothing! Cora'd see to that. +You'd sigh and go to work again, beginning at the beginning where +you were years ago, and doing it all over. Admirable resignation, +but not for me! I'm a stockholder in his company and in shape to +`take steps'! I don't know if I'd be patient enough to make them +legal--perhaps I should. He may be safe on the legal side. I'll +know more about that when I find out if there is a Prince +Moliterno in Naples who owns land in Basilicata." + +"You don't doubt it?" + +"I doubt everything! In this particular matter I'll have less to +doubt when I get an answer from the consul-general. _I_'ve +written, you see." + +Lindley looked disturbed. "You have?" + +Vilas read him at a glance. "You're afraid to find out!" he cried. +Then he set his hand on the other's shoulder. "If there ever was a +God's fool, it's you, Dick Lindley. Really, I wonder the world +hasn't kicked you around more than it has; you'd never kick back! +You're as easy as an old shoe. Cora makes you unhappy," he went +on, and with the very mention of her name, his voice shook with +passion,--"but on my soul I don't believe you know what jealousy +means: you don't even understand hate; you don't eat your +heart----" + +"Let's go and eat something better," suggested Richard, laughing. +"There's a continuous supper downstairs and I hear it's very +good." + +Ray smiled, rescued for a second from himself. "There isn't +anything better than your heart, you old window-pane, and I'm glad +you don't eat it. And if I ever mix it up with Don Giovanni T. +Corliss--`T' stands for Toreador--I do believe it'll be partly on +your----" He paused, leaving the sentence unfinished, as his +attention was caught by the abysmal attitude of a figure in +another part of the gallery: Mr. Wade Trumble, alone in a corner, +sitting upon the small of his small back, munching at an unlighted +cigar and otherwise manifesting a biting gloom. Ray drew Lindley's +attention to this tableau of pain. "Here's a three of us!" he +said. He turned to look down into the rhythmic kaleidoscope of +dancers. "And there goes the girl we all _ought_ to be morbid +about." + +"Who is that?" + +"Laura Madison. Why aren't we? What a self-respecting creature she +is, with that cool, sweet steadiness of hers--she's like a +mountain lake. She's lovely and she plays like an angel, but so +far as anybody's ever thinking about her is concerned she might +almost as well not exist. Yet she's really beautiful to-night, if +you can manage to think of her except as a sort of retinue for +Cora." + +"She _is_ rather beautiful to-night. Laura's always a very +nice-looking girl," said Richard, and with the advent of an idea, +he added: "I think one reason she isn't more conspicuous and +thought about is that she is so quiet," and, upon his companion's +greeting this inspiration with a burst of laughter, "Yes, that was +a brilliant deduction," he said; "but I do think she's about the +quietest person I ever knew. I've noticed there are times when +she'll scarcely speak at all for half an hour, or even more." + +"You're not precisely noisy yourself," said Ray. "Have you danced +with her this evening?" + +"Why, no," returned the other, in a tone which showed this +omission to be a discovery; "not yet. I must, of course." + +"Yes, she's really `rather' beautiful. Also, she dances `rather' +better than any other girl in town. Go and perform your painful +duty." + +"Perhaps I'd better," said Richard thoughtfully, not perceiving +the satire. "At any rate, I'll ask her for the next." + +He found it unengaged. There came to Laura's face an April change +as he approached, and she saw he meant to ask her to dance. And, +as they swam out into the maelstrom, he noticed it, and remarked +that it _was_ rather warm, to which she replied by a cheerful nod. +Presently there came into Richard's mind the thought that he was +really an excellent dancer; but he did not recall that he had +always formed the same pleasing estimate of himself when he danced +with Laura, nor realize that other young men enjoyed similar +self-help when dancing with her. And yet he repeated to her what +Ray had said of her dancing, and when she laughed as in +appreciation of a thing intended humorously, he laughed, too, but +insisted that she did dance "very well indeed." She laughed again +at that, and they danced on, not talking. He had no sense of +"guiding" her; there was no feeling of effort whatever; she seemed +to move spontaneously with his wish, not to his touch; indeed, he +was not sensible of touching her at all. + +"Why, Laura," he exclaimed suddenly, "you dance _beautifully_!" + +She stumbled and almost fell; saved herself by clutching at his +arm; he caught her; and the pair stopped where they were, in the +middle of the floor. A flash of dazed incredulity from her dark +eyes swept him; there was something in it of the child dodging an +unexpected blow. + +"Did I trip you?" he asked anxiously. + +"No," she laughed, quickly, and her cheeks grew even redder. "I +tripped myself. Wasn't that too bad--just when you were thinking +that I danced well! Let's sit down. May we?" + +They went to some chairs against a wall. There, as they sat, Cora +swung by them, dancing again with her lieutenant, and looking up +trancedly into the gallant eyes of the triumphant and intoxicated +young man. Visibly, she was a woman with a suitor's embracing arm +about her. Richard's eyes followed them. + +"Ah, don't!" said Laura in a low voice. + +He turned to her. "Don't what?" + +"I didn't mean to speak out loud," she said tremulously. "But I +meant: don't look so troubled. It doesn't mean anything at +all--her coquetting with that bird of passage. He's going away in +the morning." + +"I don't think I was troubling about that." + +"Well, whatever it was"--she paused, and laughed with a plaintive +timidity--"why, just don't trouble about it!" + +"Do I look very much troubled?" he asked seriously. + +"Yes. And you don't look very gay when you're not!" She laughed +with more assurance now. "I think you're always the wistfulest +looking man I ever saw." + +"Everybody laughs at me, I believe," he said, with continued +seriousness. "Even Ray Vilas thinks I'm an utter fool. Am I, do +_you_ think?" + +He turned as he spoke and glanced inquiringly into her eyes. What +he saw surprised and dismayed him. + +"For heaven's sake, don't cry!" he whispered hurriedly. + +She bent her head, turning her face from him. + +"I've been very hopeful lately," he said. "Cora has been so kind +to me since I did what she wanted me to, that I----" He gave a +deep sigh. "But if you're _that_ sorry for me, my chances with her +must be pretty desperate." + +She did not alter her attitude, but with her down-bent face still +away from him, said huskily: "It isn't you I'm sorry for. You +mustn't ever give up; you must keep on trying and trying. If you +give up, I don't know what will become of her!" + +A moment later she rose suddenly to her feet. "Let's finish our +dance," she said, giving him her hand. "I'm sure I won't stumble +again." + + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + +The two girls let themselves into the house noiselessly, and, +turning out the hall-light, left for them by their mother, crept +upstairs on tiptoe; and went through the upper hall directly to +Laura's room--Cora's being nearer the sick-room. At their age it +is proper that a gayety be used three times: in anticipation, and +actually, and in after-rehearsal. The last was of course now in +order: they went to Laura's room to "talk it over." There was no +gas-fixture in this small chamber; but they found Laura's oil-lamp +burning brightly upon her writing-table. + +"How queer!" said Laura with some surprise, as she closed the +door. "Mother never leaves the lamp lit for me; she's always so +afraid of lamps exploding." + +"Perhaps Miss Peirce came in here to read, and forgot to turn it +out," suggested Cora, seating herself on the edge of the bed and +letting her silk wrap fall from her shoulders. "Oh, Laura, wasn't +he gorgeous. . . ." + +She referred to the gallant defender of our seas, it appeared, and +while Laura undressed and got into a wrapper, Cora recounted in +detail the history of the impetuous sailor's enthrallment;--a +resume predicted three hours earlier by a gleeful whisper hissed +across the maritime shoulder as the sisters swung near each other +during a waltz: "_proposed_!" + +"I've always heard they're horribly inconstant," she said, +regretfully. "But, oh, Laura, wasn't he beautiful to look at! Do +you think he's more beautiful than Val? No--don't tell me if you +do. I don't want to hear it! Val was so provoking: he didn't seem +to mind it at all. He's nothing but a big brute sometimes: he +wouldn't even admit that he minded, when I asked him. I was idiot +enough to ask; I couldn't help it; he was so tantalizing and +exasperating--laughing at me. I never knew anybody like him; he's +so sure of himself and he can be so cold. Sometimes I wonder if he +really cares about anything, deep down in his heart--anything +except himself. He seems so selfish: there are times when he +almost makes me hate him; but just when I get to thinking I do, I +find I don't--he's so deliciously strong, and there's such a _big_ +luxury in being understood: I always feel he _knows_ me clear to +the bone, somehow! But, oh," she sighed regretfully, "doesn't a +uniform become a man? They ought to all wear 'em. It would look +silly on such a little goat as that Wade Trumble, though: nothing +could make him look like a whole man. Did you see him glaring at +me? Beast! I was going to be so nice and kittenish and do all my +prettiest tricks for him, to help Val with his oil company. Val +thinks Wade would come in yet, if I'D only get him in the mood to +have another talk with Val about it; but the spiteful little rat +wouldn't come near me. I believe that was one of the reasons Val +laughed at me and pretended not to mind my getting proposed to. He +_must_ have minded; he couldn't have helped minding it, really. +That's his way; he's so _mean_--he won't show things. He knows +_me_. I can't keep anything from him; he reads _me_ like a +signboard; and then about himself he keeps me guessing, and I +can't tell when I've guessed right. Ray Vilas behaved +disgustingly, of course; he was horrid and awful. I might have +expected it. I suppose Richard was wailing _his_ tiresome sorrows +on your poor shoulder----" + +"No," said Laura. "He was very cheerful. He seemed glad you were +having a good time." + +"He didn't look particularly cheerful at me. I never saw so slow a +man: I wonder when he's going to find out about that pendant. Val +would have seen it the instant I put it on. And, oh, Laura! isn't +George Wattling funny? He's just _soft_! He's good-looking +though," she continued pensively, adding, "I promised to motor out +to the Country Club with him to-morrow for tea." + +"Oh, Cora," protested Laura, "no! Please don't!" + +"I've promised; so I'll have to, now." Cora laughed. "It'll do +Mary Kane good. Oh, I'm not going to bother much with _him_--he +makes me tired. I never saw anything so complacent as that girl +when she came in to-night, as if her little Georgie was the +greatest capture the world had ever seen. . . ." + +She chattered on. Laura, passive, listened with a thoughtful +expression, somewhat preoccupied. The talker yawned at last. + +"It must be after three," she said, listlessly, having gone over +her evening so often that the colours were beginning to fade. She +yawned again. "Laura," she remarked absently, "I don't see how you +can sleep in this bed; it sags so." + +"I've never noticed it," said her sister. "It's a very comfortable +old bed." + +Cora went to her to be unfastened, reverting to the lieutenant +during the operation, and kissing the tire-woman warmly at its +conclusion. "You're always so sweet to me, Laura," she said +affectionately. "I don't know how you manage it. You're so +good"--she laughed--"sometimes I wonder how you stand me. If I +were you, I'm positive I couldn't stand me at all!" Another kiss +and a hearty embrace, and she picked up her wrap and skurried +silently through the hall to her own room. + +It was very late, but Laura wrote for almost an hour in her book +(which was undisturbed) before she felt drowsy. Then she +extinguished the lamp, put the book away and got into bed. + +It was almost as if she had attempted to lie upon the empty air: +the mattress sagged under her weight as if it had been a hammock; +and something tore with a ripping sound. There was a crash, and a +choked yell from a muffled voice somewhere, as the bed gave way. +For an instant, Laura fought wildly in an entanglement of what she +insufficiently perceived to be springs, slats and bedclothes with +something alive squirming underneath. She cleared herself and +sprang free, screaming, but even in her fright she remembered her +father and clapped her hand over her mouth that she might keep +from screaming again. She dove at the door, opened it, and fled +through the hall to Cora's room, still holding her hand over her +mouth. + +"Cora! Oh, Cora!" she panted, and flung herself upon her sister's +bed. + +Cora was up instantly; and had lit the gas in a trice. "There's a +burglar!" Laura contrived to gasp. "In my room! Under the bed!" + +"What!" + +"I fell on him! Something's the matter with the bed. It broke. I +fell on him!" + +Cora stared at her wide-eyed. "Why, it can't be. Think how long I +was in there. Your bed broke, and you just thought there was some +one there. You imagined it." + +"No, no, no!" wailed Laura. "I _heard_ him: he gave a kind of +dreadful grunt." + +"Are you sure?" + +"_Sure_? He wriggled--oh! I could _feel_ him!" + +Cora seized a box of matches again. "I'm going to find out." "Oh, +no, no!" protested Laura, cowering. + +"Yes, I am. If there's a burglar in the house I'm going to find +him!" + +"We mustn't wake papa." + +"No, nor mamma either. You stay here if you want to----" + +"Let's call Hedrick," suggested the pallid Laura; "or put our +heads out of the window and scream for----" + +Cora laughed; she was not in the least frightened. "That wouldn't +wake papa, of course! If we had a telephone I'd send for the +police; but we haven't. I'm going to see if there's any one there. +A burglar's a man, I guess, and I can't imagine myself being +afraid of any _man_!" + +Laura clung to her, but Cora shook her off and went through the +hall undaunted, Laura faltering behind her. Cora lighted matches +with a perfectly steady hand; she hesitated on the threshold of +Laura's room no more than a moment, then lit the lamp. + +Laura stifled a shriek at sight of the bed. "Look, look!" she +gasped. + +"There's no one under it now, that's certain," said Cora, and +boldly lifted a corner of it. "Why, it's been cut all to pieces +from underneath! You're right; there was some one here. It's +practically dismembered. Don't you remember my telling you how it +sagged? And I was only sitting on the edge of it! The slats have +all been moved out of place, and as for the mattress, it's just a +mess of springs and that stuffing stuff. He must have thought the +silver was hidden there." + +"Oh, oh, oh!" moaned Laura. "He _wriggled_----ugh!" + +Cora picked up the lamp. "Well, we've got to go over the +house----" + +"No, no!" + +"Hush! I'll go alone then." + +"You _can't_." + +"I will, though!" + +The two girls had changed places in this emergency. In her fright +Laura was dependent, clinging: actual contact with the intruder +had unnerved her. It took all her will to accompany her sister +upon the tour of inspection, and throughout she cowered behind the +dauntless Cora. It was the first time in their lives that their +positions had been reversed. From the days of Cora's babyhood, +Laura had formed the habit of petting and shielding the little +sister, but now that the possibility became imminent of +confronting an unknown and dangerous man, Laura was so shaken +that, overcome by fear, she let Cora go first. Cora had not +boasted in vain of her bravery; in truth, she was not afraid of +any man. + +They found the fastenings of the doors secure and likewise those +of all the windows, until they came to the kitchen. There, the +cook had left a window up, which plausibly explained the +marauder's mode of ingress. Then, at Cora's insistence, and to +Laura's shivering horror, they searched both cellar and garret, +and concluded that he had escaped by the same means. Except +Laura's bed, nothing in the house had been disturbed; but this +eccentricity on the part of a burglar, though it indeed struck the +two girls as peculiar, was not so pointedly mysterious to them as +it might have been had they possessed a somewhat greater +familiarity with the habits of criminals whose crimes are +professional. + +They finally retired, Laura sleeping with her sister, and Cora had +begun to talk of the lieutenant again, instead of the burglar, +before Laura fell asleep. + +In spite of the short hours for sleep, both girls appeared at the +breakfast-table before the meal was over, and were naturally +pleased with the staccato of excitement evoked by their news. Mrs. +Madison and Miss Peirce were warm in admiration of their bravery, +but in the same breath condemned it as foolhardy. + +"I never knew such wonderful girls!" exclaimed the mother, almost +tearfully. "You crazy little lions! To think of your not even +waking Hedrick! And you didn't have even a poker and were in your +bare feet--and went down in the _cellar_----" + +"It was all Cora," protested Laura. "I'm a hopeless, disgusting +coward. I never knew what a coward I was before. Cora carried the +lamp and went ahead like a drum-major. I just trailed along behind +her, ready to shriek and run--or faint!" + +"Could you tell anything about him when you fell on him?" inquired +Miss Peirce. "What was his voice like when he shouted?" + +"Choked. It was a horrible, jolted kind of cry. It hardly sounded +human." + +"Could you tell anything about whether he was a large man, or +small, or----" + +"Only that he seemed very active. He seemed to be kicking. He +_wriggled_----ugh!" + +They evolved a plausible theory of the burglar's motives and line +of reasoning. "You see," said Miss Peirce, much stirred, in +summing up the adventure, "he either jimmies the window, or finds +it open already, and Sarah's mistaken and she _did_ leave it open! +Then he searched the downstairs first, and didn't find anything. +Then he came upstairs, and was afraid to come into any of the +rooms where we were. He could tell which rooms had people in them +by hearing us breathing through the keyholes. He finds two rooms +empty, and probably he made a thorough search of Miss Cora's +first. But he isn't after silver toilet articles and pretty little +things like that. He wants really big booty or none, so he decides +that an out-of-the-way, unimportant room like Miss Laura's is +where the family would be most apt to hide valuables, jewellery +and silver, and he knows that mattresses have often been selected +as hiding-places; so he gets under the bed and goes to work. Then +Miss Cora and Miss Laura come in so quietly--not wanting to wake +anybody--that he doesn't hear them, and he gets caught there. +That's the way it must have been." + +"But why," Mrs. Madison inquired of this authority, "why do you +suppose he lit the lamp?" + +"To see by," answered the ready Miss Peirce. It was accepted as +final. + +Further discussion was temporarily interrupted by the discovery +that Hedrick had fallen asleep in his chair. + +"Don't bother him, Cora," said his mother. "He's finished +eating--let him sleep a few minutes, if he wants to, before he +goes to school. He's not at all well. He played too hard, +yesterday afternoon, and hurt his knee, he said. He came down +limping this morning and looking very badly. He oughtn't to run +and climb about the stable so much after school. See how utterly +exhausted he looks!--Not even this excitement can keep him awake." + +"I think we must be careful not to let Mr. Madison suspect +anything about the burglar," said Miss Peirce. "It would be bad +for him." + +Laura began: "But we ought to notify the police----" + +"Police!" Hedrick woke so abruptly, and uttered the word with such +passionate and vehement protest, that everybody started. "I +suppose you want to _kill_ your father, Laura Madison!" + +"How?" + +"Do you suppose he wouldn't know something had happened with a +squad of big, heavy policemen tromping all over the house? The +first thing they'd do would be to search the whole place----" + +"Oh, no," said Mrs. Madison quickly. "It wouldn't do at all." + +"I should think not! I'm glad," continued Hedrick, truthfully, +"_that_ idea's out of your head! I believe Laura imagined the +whole thing anyway." + +"Have you looked at her mattress," inquired Cora, "darling little +boy?" + +He gave her a concentrated look, and rose to leave. "Nothin' on +earth but imagina----" He stopped with a grunt as he forgetfully +put his weight on his left leg. He rubbed his knee, swallowed +painfully, and, leaving the word unfinished, limped haughtily from +the room. + +He left the house, gloomily swinging his books from a spare length +of strap, and walking with care to ease his strains and bruises as +much as possible. He was very low in his mind, that boy. His +fortunes had reached the ebb-tide, but he had no hope of a rise. +He had no hope of anything. It was not even a consolation that, +through his talent for surprise in waylayings, it had lately been +thought necessary, by the Villard family, to have Egerton +accompanied to and from school by a man-servant. Nor was Hedrick +more deeply depressed by the certainty that both public and +domestic scandal must soon arise from the inevitable revelation of +his discontinuing his attendance at school without mentioning this +important change of career at home. He had been truant a full +fortnight, under brighter circumstances a matter for a lawless +pride--now he had neither fear nor vainglory. There was no room in +him for anything but dejection. + +He walked two blocks in the direction of his school; turned a +corner; walked half a block; turned north in the alley which ran +parallel to Corliss Street, and a few moments later had cautiously +climbed into an old, disused refuse box which stood against the +rear wall of the empty stable at his own home. He pried up some +loose boards at the bottom of the box, and entered a tunnel which +had often and often served in happier days--when he had +friends--for the escape of Union officers from Libby Prison and +Andersonville. Emerging, wholly soiled, into a box-stall, he +crossed the musty carriage house and ascended some rickety steps +to a long vacant coachman's-room, next to the hayloft. He closed +the door, bolted it, and sank moodily upon a broken, old horsehair +sofa. + +This apartment was his studio. In addition to the sofa, it +contained an ex-bureau, three chair-like shapes, a once +marble-topped table, now covered with a sheet of zinc, two empty +bird cages, and a condemned whatnot. The walls were rather +over-decorated in coloured chalks, the man-headed-snake motive +predominating; they were also loopholed for firing into the +hayloft. Upon the table lay a battered spy-glass, minus lenses, +and, nearby, two boxes, one containing dried corn-silk, the other +hayseed, convenient for the making of amateur cigarettes; the +smoker's outfit being completed by a neat pile of rectangular +clippings from newspapers. On the shelves of the whatnot were some +fragments of a dead pie, the relics of a "Fifteen-Puzzle," a pink +Easter-egg, four seashells, a tambourine with part of a girl's +face still visible in aged colours, about two thirds of a +hot-water bag, a tintype of Hedrick, and a number of books: +several by Henty, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," "100 +Practical Jokes, Easy to Perform," "The Jungle Book," "My Lady +Rotha," a "Family Atlas," "Three Weeks," "Pilgrim's Progress," "A +Boy's Life in Camp," and "The Mystery of the Count's Bedroom." + +The gloomy eye of Hedrick wandered to "The Mystery of the Count's +Bedroom," and remained fixed upon it moodily and contemptuously. +His own mystery made that one seem tame and easy: Laura's bedroom +laid it all over the Count's, in his conviction; and with a soul +too weary of pain to shudder, he reviewed the bafflements and +final catastrophe of the preceding night. + +He had not essayed the attempt upon the mattress until assured +that the house was wrapped in slumber. Then, with hope in his +heart, he had stolen to Laura's room, lit the lamp, feeling safe +from intrusion, and set to work. His implement at first was a long +hatpin of Cora's. Lying on his back beneath the bed, and, moving +the slats as it became necessary, he sounded every cubic inch of +the mysterious mattress without encountering any obstruction which +could reasonably be supposed to be the ledger. This was not more +puzzling than it was infuriating, since by all processes of +induction, deduction, and pure logic, the thing was necessarily +there. It was nowhere else. Therefore it was there. It _had_ to be +there! With the great blade of his Boy Scout's knife he began to +disembowel the mattress. + +For a time he had worked furiously and effectively, but the +position was awkward, the search laborious, and he was obliged to +rest frequently. Besides, he had waited to a later hour than he +knew, for his mother to go to bed, and during one of his rests he +incautiously permitted his eyes to close. When he woke, his +sisters were in the room, and he thought it advisable to remain +where he was, though he little realized how he had weakened his +shelter. When Cora left the room, he heard Laura open the window, +sigh, and presently a tiny clinking and a click set him a-tingle +from head to foot: she was opening the padlocked book. The +scratching sound of a pen followed. And yet she had not come near +the bed. The mattress, then, was a living lie. + +With infinite caution he had moved so that he could see her, +arriving at a coign of vantage just as she closed the book. She +locked it, wrapped it in an oilskin cover which lay beside it on +the table, hung the key-chain round her neck, rose, yawned, and, +to his violent chagrin, put out the light. He heard her moving but +could not tell where, except that it was not in his part of the +room. Then a faint shuffling warned him that she was approaching +the bed, and he withdrew his head to avoid being stepped upon. The +next moment the world seemed to cave in upon him. + +Laura's flight had given him opportunity to escape to his own room +unobserved; there to examine, bathe and bind his wounds, and to +rectify his first hasty impression that he had been fatally +mangled. + +Hedrick glared at "The Mystery of the Count's Bedroom." + +By and by he got up, brought the book to the sofa and began to +read it over. + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + +The influence of a familiar and sequestered place is not only +soothing; the bruised mind may often find it restorative. Thus +Hedrick, in his studio, surrounded by his own loved bric-a-brac, +began to feel once more the stir of impulse. Two hours' reading +inspired him. What a French reporter (in the Count's bedroom) +could do, an American youth in full possession of his +powers--except for a strained knee and other injuries--could do. +Yes, and would! + +He evolved a new chain of reasoning. The ledger had been seen in +Laura's room; it had been heard in her room; it appeared to be +kept in her room. But it was in no single part of the room. All +the parts make a whole. Therefore, the book was not in the room. + +On the other hand, Laura had not left the room when she took the +book from its hiding-place. This was confusing; therefore he +determined to concentrate logic solely upon what she had done with +the ledger when she finished writing in it. It was dangerous to +assume that she had restored it to the place whence she obtained +it, because he had already proved that place to be both in the +room and out of the room. No; the question he must keep in was: +What did she do with it? + +Laura had not left the room. But the book had left the room. + +Arrived at this inevitable deduction, he sprang to his feet in a +state of repressed excitement and began to pace the floor--like a +hound on the trail. Laura had not left the room, but the book had +left the room: he must keep his mind upon this point. He uttered a +loud exclamation and struck the zinc table-top a smart blow with +his clenched fist. + +Laura had thrown the book out of the window! + +In the exaltation of this triumph, he forgot that it was not yet +the hour for a scholar's reappearance, and went forth in haste to +search the ground beneath the window--a disappointing quest, for +nowhere in the yard was there anything but withered grass, and the +rubbish of other frost-bitten vegetation. His mother, however, +discovered something else, and, opening the kitchen window, she +asked, with surprise: + +"Why, Hedrick, what on earth are you doing here?" + +"Me?" inquired Hedrick. + +"What are you doing here?" + +"Here?" Evidently she puzzled him. + +She became emphatic. "I want to know what you are doing." + +"Just standing here," he explained in a meek, grieved way. + +"But why aren't you at school?" + +This recalled what he had forgotten, and he realized the +insecurity of his position. "Oh, yes," he said--"school. Did you +ask me----" + +"Didn't you go to school?" + +He began to speak rapidly. "Didn't I go to _school_? Well, where +else could I go? Just because I'm here now doesn't mean I didn't +_go_, does it? Because a person is in China right now wouldn't +have to mean he'd never been in South America, would it?" + +"Then what's the matter?" + +"Well, I was going along, and you know I didn't feel very well +and----" He paused, with the advent of a happier idea, then +continued briskly: "But that didn't stop me, because I thought I +ought to go if I dropped, so I went ahead, but the teacher was +sick and they couldn't get a substitute. She must have been pretty +sick, she looked so pale----" + +"They dismissed the class?" + +"And I don't have to go to-morrow either." + +"I see," said his mother. "But if you feel ill, Hedrick, hadn't +you better come in and lie down?" + +"I think it's kind of passing off. The fresh air seems to be doing +me good." + +"Be careful of your sore knee, dear." She closed the window, and +he was left to continue his operations in safety. + +Laura had thrown the ledger out of the window; that was proved +absolutely. Obviously, she had come down before daylight and +retrieved it. Or, she had not. Proceeding on the assumption that +she had not, he lifted his eyes and searched the air. Was it +possible that the book, though thrown from the window, had never +reached the ground? The branches of an old and stalwart maple, now +almost divested of leaves, extended in rough symmetry above him, +and one big limb, reaching out toward the house, came close to +Laura's windows. Triumph shown again from the shrewd countenance +of the sleuth: Laura must have slid the ledger along a wire into a +hollow branch. However, no wire was to be seen--and the shrewd +countenance of the sleuth fell. But perhaps she had constructed a +device of silk threads, invisible from below, which carried the +book into the tree. Action! + +He climbed carefully but with many twinges, finally pausing in a +parlous situation not far from the mysterious window which Laura +had opened the night before. A comprehensive survey of the tree +revealed only the very patent fact that none of the branches was +of sufficient diameter to conceal the ledger. No silk threads came +from the window. He looked and looked and looked at that window; +then his eye fell a little, halted less than three feet below the +window-ledge, and the search was ended. + +The kitchen window which his mother had opened was directly +beneath Laura's, and was a very long, narrow window, in the style +of the house, and there was a protecting stone ledge above it. +Upon this ledge lay the book, wrapped in its oil-skin covering and +secured from falling by a piece of broken iron hooping, stuck in +the mortar of the bricks. It could be seen from nowhere save an +upper window of the house next door, or from the tree itself, and +in either case only when the leaves had fallen. + +Laura had felt very safe. No one had ever seen the book except +that night, early in August, when, for a better circulation of +air, she had left her door open as she wrote, and Hedrick had come +upon her. He had not spoken of it again; she perceived that he had +forgotten it; and she herself forgot that the memory of a boy is +never to be depended on; its forgettings are too seldom permanent +in the case of things that ought to stay forgotten. + +To get the book one had only to lean from the window. + + * * * + +Hedrick seemed so ill during lunch that his mother spoke of asking +Doctor Sloane to look at him, if he did not improve before +evening. Hedrick said meekly that perhaps that would be best--if +he did not improve. After a futile attempt to eat, he courteously +excused himself from the table--a ceremony which made even Cora +fear that his case might be serious--and, going feebly to the +library, stretched himself upon the sofa. His mother put a rug +over him; Hedrick, thanking her touchingly, closed his eyes; and +she went away, leaving him to slumber. + +After a time, Laura came into the room on an errand, walking +noiselessly, and, noticing that his eyes were open, apologized for +waking him. + +"Never mind," he returned, in the tone of an invalid. "I didn't +sleep sound. I think there's something the matter inside my head: +I have such terrible dreams. I guess maybe it's better for me to +keep awake. I'm kind of afraid to go to sleep. Would you mind +staying here with me a little while?" + +"Certainly I'll stay," she said, and, observing that his cheeks +were flushed, and his eyes unusually bright, she laid a cool hand +on his forehead. "You haven't any fever, dear; that's good. You'll +be all right to-morrow. Would you like me to read to you?" + +"I believe," he answered, plaintively, "reading might kind of +disturb my mind: my brain feels so sort of restless and queer. I'd +rather play some kind of game." + +"Cards?" + +"No, not cards exactly. Something' I can do lying down. Oh, I +know! You remember the one where we drew pictures and the others +had to guess what they were? Well, I've invented a game like that. +You sit down at the desk over there and take some sheets of paper. +I'll tell you the rest." + +She obeyed. "What next?" + +"Now, I'll describe some people and where they live and not tell +who they are, and you see if you can guess their names and +addresses." + +"Addresses, too?" + +"Yes, because I'm going to describe the way their houses look. +Write each name on a separate sheet of paper, and the number of +their house below it if you know it, and if you don't know it, +just the street. If it's a woman: put `Miss' or `Mrs.' before +their name and if it's a man write `Esquire' after it." + +"Is all that necessary for the game?" + +"It's the way I invented it and I think you might----" + +"Oh, all right," she acquiesced, good-naturedly. "It shall be +according to your rules." + +"Then afterward, you give me the sheets of paper with the names +and addresses written on 'em, and we--we----" He hesitated. + +"Yes. What do we do then?" + +"I'll tell you when we come to it." But when that stage of his +invention was reached, and Laura had placed the inscribed sheets +in his hand, his interest had waned, it appeared. Also, his +condition had improved. + +"Let's quit. I thought this game would be more exciting," he said, +sitting up. "I guess," he added with too much modesty, "I'm not +very good at inventing games. I b'lieve I'll go out to the barn; I +think the fresh air----" + +"Do you feel well enough to go out?" she asked. "You do seem to be +all right, though." + +"Yes, I'm a lot better, I think." He limped to the door. "The +fresh air will be the best thing for me." + +She did not notice that he carelessly retained her contributions +to the game, and he reached his studio with them in his hand. +Hedrick had entered the 'teens and he was a reader: things in his +head might have dismayed a Borgia. + +No remotest glimpse entered that head of the enormity of what he +did. To put an end to his punishing of Cora, and, to render him +powerless against that habitual and natural enemy, Laura had +revealed a horrible incident in his career--it had become a public +scandal; he was the sport of fools; and it might be months before +the thing was lived down. Now he had the means, as he believed, to +even the score with both sisters at a stroke. To him it was +turning a tremendous and properly scathing joke upon them. He did +not hesitate. + + * * * + +That evening, as Richard Lindley sat at dinner with his mother, +Joe Varden temporarily abandoned his attendance at the table to +answer the front doorbell. Upon his return, he remarked: + +"Messenger-boy mus' been in big hurry. Wouldn' wait till I git to +door." + +"What was it?" asked Richard. + +"Boy with package. Least, I reckon it were a boy. Call' back from +the front walk, say he couldn' wait. Say he lef' package in +vestibule." + +"What sort of a package?" + +"Middle-size kind o' big package." + +"Why don't you see what it is, Richard?" Mrs. Lindley asked of her +son. "Bring it to the table, Joe." + +When it was brought, Richard looked at the superscription with +surprise. The wrapper was of heavy brown paper, and upon it a +sheet of white notepaper had been pasted, with the address: + + "Richard Lindley, Esq., + 1218 Corliss Street." + +"It's from Laura Madison," he said, staring at this writing. +"What in the world would Laura be sending me?" + +"You might possibly learn by opening it," suggested his mother. +"I've seen men puzzle over the outside of things quite as often as +women. Laura Madison is a nice girl." She never volunteered +similar praise of Laura Madison's sister. Mrs. Lindley had +submitted to her son's plans concerning Cora, lately confided; but +her submission lacked resignation. + +"It's a book," said Richard, even more puzzled, as he took the +ledger from its wrappings. "Two little torn places at the edge of +the covers. Looks as if it had once had clasps----" + +"Perhaps it's the Madison family album," Mrs. Lindley suggested. +"Pictures of Cora since infancy. I imagine she's had plenty +taken." + +"No." He opened the book and glanced at the pages covered in +Laura's clear, readable hand. "No, it's about half full of +writing. Laura must have turned literary." He read a line or two, +frowning mildly. "My soul! I believe it's a novel! She must think +I'm a critic--to want me to read it." Smiling at the idea, he +closed the ledger. "I'll take it upstairs to my hang-out after +dinner, and see if Laura's literary manner has my august approval. +Who in the world would ever have thought she'd decide to set up +for a writer?" + +"I imagine she might have something to write worth reading," said +his mother. "I've always thought she was an interesting-looking +girl." + +"Yes, she is. She dances well, too." + +"Of course," continued Mrs. Lindley, thoughtfully, "she seldom +_says_ anything interesting, but that may be because she so seldom +has a chance to say anything at all." + +Richard refused to perceive this allusion. "Curious that Laura +should have sent it to me," he said. "She's never seemed +interested in my opinion about anything. I don't recall her ever +speaking to me on any subject whatever--except one." + +He returned his attention to his plate, but his mother did not +appear to agree with him that the topic was exhausted. + +"`Except one'?" she repeated, after waiting for some time. + +"Yes," he replied, in his habitual preoccupied and casual tone. +"Or perhaps two. Not more than two, I should say--and in a way +you'd call that only one, of course. Bread, Joe." + +"What two, Richard?" + +"Cora," he said, with gentle simplicity, "and me." + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN + +Mrs. Lindley had arranged for her son a small apartment on the +second floor, and it was in his own library and smoking-room that +Richard, comfortable in a leather-chair by a reading-lamp, after +dinner, opened Laura's ledger. + +The first page displayed no more than a date now eighteen months +past, and the line: + + "Love came to me to-day." + +The next page was dated the next day, and, beneath, he read: + + +"That was all I _could_ write, yesterday. I think I was too +excited to write. Something seemed to be singing in my breast. I +couldn't think in sentences--not even in words. How queer it is +that I had decided to keep a diary, and bound this book for it, +and now the first thing I have written in it was _that_! It will +not be a diary. It shall be _your_ book. I shall keep it sacred to +You and write to You in it. How strange it will be if the day ever +comes when I shall show it to You! If it should, you would not +laugh at it, for of course the day couldn't come unless you +understood. I cannot think it will ever come--that day! But +maybe---- No, I mustn't let myself hope too much that it will, +because if I got to hoping too much, and you didn't like me, it +would hurt too much. People who expect nothing are never +disappointed--I must keep that in mind. Yet _every_ girl has a +_right_ to hope for her own man to come for her some time, hasn't +she? It's not easy to discipline the wanting to hope--since +_yesterday_! + +"I think I must always have thought a great deal about you without +knowing it. We really know so little what we think: our minds are +going on all the time and we hardly notice them. It is like a +queer sort of factory--the owner only looks in once in a while and +most of the time hasn't any idea what sort of goods his spindles +are turning out. + +"I saw You yesterday! It seems to me the strangest thing in the +world. I've seen you by chance, probably two or three times a +month nearly all my life, though you so seldom come here to call. +And this time wasn't different from dozens of other times--you +were just standing on the corner by the Richfield, waiting for a +car. The only possible difference is that you had been out of town +for several months--Cora said so this morning--and how ridiculous +it seems now, didn't even know it! I hadn't noticed it--not with +the top part of my mind, but perhaps the deep part that does the +real thinking had noticed it and had mourned your absence and was +so glad to see you again that it made the top part suddenly see +the wonderful truth!" + + +Lindley set down the ledger to relight his cigar. It struck him +that Laura had been writing "very odd Stuff," but interesting; and +certainly it was not a story. Vaguely he recalled Marie +Bashkirtseff: hadn't she done something like this? He resumed the +reading: + + +"You turned and spoke to me in that lovely, cordial, absent-minded +way of yours--though I'd never thought (with the top part) what a +lovely way it was; and for a moment I only noticed how nice you +looked in a light gray suit, because I'd only seen you in black +for so long, while you'd been in mourning for your brother." + + +Richard, disturbed by an incredible idea, read these last +words over and then dismissed the notion as nonsense. + + +". . . While you'd been in mourning for your brother--and it +struck me that light gray was becoming to you. Then such a queer +thing happened: I felt the great kindness of your eyes. I thought +they were full of--the only word that seems to express it at all +is _charity_--and they had a sweet, faraway look, too, and I've +_always_ thought that a look of wistful kindness was the loveliest +look in the world--and you had it, and I saw it and then suddenly, +as you held your hat in your hand, the sunshine on your hair +seemed brighter than any sunshine I had ever seen--and I began to +tremble all over. I didn't understand what was the matter with me +or what had made me afraid with you not of you--all at once, but I +was so hopelessly rattled that instead of waiting for the car, as +I'd just told you I meant to, I said I'd decided to walk, and got +away--without any breath left to breathe with! I _couldn't_ have +gotten on the car with you--- and I couldn't have spoken another +word. + +"And as I walked home, trembling all the way, I saw that strange, +dazzling sunshine on your hair, and the wistful, kind look in your +eyes--you seemed not to have taken the car but to have come with +me--and I was uplifted and exalted oh, so strangely--oh, how the +world was changing for me! And when I got near home, I began to +walk faster, and on the front path I broke into a run and rushed +in the house to the piano--and it was as if my fingers were +thirsty for the keys! Then I saw that I was playing to you and +knew that I loved you. + +"I love you! + +"How different everything is now from everything before. Music +means what it never did: Life has leaped into blossom for me. +Everywhere there is colour and radiance that I had never seen--the +air is full of perfume. Dear, the sunshine that fell upon your +head has spread over the world! + +"I understand, as I never understood, that the world--so dazzling +to me now--was made for love and is meaningless without it. The +years until yesterday are gray--no, not gray, because that was the +colour You were wearing--not gray, because that is a beautiful +colour. The empty years until yesterday had no colour at all. Yes, +the world has meaning only through loving, and without meaning +there is no real life. We live only by loving, and now that this +gift of life has come to me I love _all_ the world. I feel that I +must be so kind, kind, _kind_ to _everybody_! Such an odd thing +struck me as my greatest wish. When I was little, I remember +grandmother telling me how, when she was a child in pioneer days, +the women made the men's clothes--homespun--and how a handsome +young Circuit Rider, who was a bachelor, seemed to her the most +beautifully dressed man she had ever seen. The women of the +different churches made his clothes, as they did their husbands' +and brothers.' you see--only better! It came into my head that +that would be the divinest happiness that I could know--to sew for +you! If you and I lived in those old, old times--you _look_ as if +you belonged to them, you know, dear--and You were the young +minister riding into the settlement on a big bay horse--and all +the girls at the window, of course!--and I sewing away at the +homespun for you!--I think all the angels of heaven would be +choiring in my heart--and what thick, warm clothes I'd make you +for winter! Perhaps in heaven they'll let some of the women sew +for the men they love--I wonder! + +"I hear Cora's voice from downstairs as I write. She's often so +angry with Ray, poor girl. It does not seem to me that she and Ray +really belong to each other, though they _say_ so often that they +do." + + +Richard having read thus far with a growing, vague uneasiness, +looked up, frowning. He hoped Laura had no Marie Bashkirtseff idea +of publishing this manuscript. It was too intimate, he thought, +even if the names in it were to be disguised. + +. . . "Though they _say_ so often that they do. I think Ray is in +love with _her_, but it can't be like _this_. What he feels must +be something wholly different--there is violence and wildness in +it. And they are bitter with each other so often-- always `getting +even' for something. He does care--he is frantically `_in_ love' +with her, undoubtedly, but so insanely jealous. I suppose all +jealousy is insane. But love is the only sanity. How can what is +insane be part of it? I could not be jealous of You. I owe life to +you--I have never lived till now." + + +The next writing was two days later: + + +. . . . "To-day as I passed your house with Cora, I kept looking +at the big front door at which you go in and out so often--_your_ +door! I never knew that just a door could look so beautiful! And +unconsciously I kept my eyes on it, as we walked on, turning my +head and looking and looking back at it, till Cora suddenly burst +out laughing, and said: `Well, _Laura_!' And I came to myself--and +found her looking at me. It was like getting back after a journey, +and for a second I was a little dazed, and Cora kept on laughing +at me, and I felt myself getting red. I made some silly excuse +about thinking your house had been repainted--and she laughed +louder than ever. I was afraid then that she understood--I wonder +if she could have? I hope not, though I love her so much I don't +know why I would rather she didn't know, unless it is just my +_feeling_ about it. It is a _guardian_ feeling--that I must keep +for myself, the music of these angels singing in my heart--singing +of You. I hope she did not understand--and I so fear she did. Why +should I be so _afraid_?" . . . + +. . . . "Two days since I have talked to You in your book after +Cora caught me staring at your door and laughed at me--and ten +minutes ago I was sitting beside the _actual_ You on the porch! I +am trembling yet. It was the first time you'd come for months and +months; and yet you had the air of thinking it rather a pleasant +thing to do as you came up the steps! And a dizzy feeling came +over me, because I wondered if it was seeing me on the street +_that_ day that put it into your head to come. It seemed too much +happiness--and risking too much--to let myself _believe_ it, but I +couldn't help just wondering. I began to tremble as I saw you +coming up our side of the street in the moonlight--and when you +turned in here I was all panic--I nearly ran into the house. I +don't know how I found voice to greet you. I didn't seem to have +any breath left at all. I was so relieved when Cora took a chair +between us and began to talk to you, because I'm sure I couldn't +have. She and poor Ray had been having one of their quarrels and +she was punishing him. Poor boy, he seemed so miserable--though he +tried to talk to me--about politics, I think, though I'm not sure, +because I couldn't listen much better than either of us could +talk. I could only hear Your voice--such a rich, quiet voice, and +it has a sound like the look you have--friendly and faraway and +wistful. I have thought and thought about what it is that makes +you look wistful. You have less to wish for than anybody else in +the world because you have Yourself. So why are you wistful? I +think it's just because you _are_! + +"I heard Cora asking you why you hadn't come to see us for so +long, and then she said: `Is it because you dislike me? You look +at me, sometimes, as if you dislike me!' And I wished she hadn't +said it. I had a feeling you wouldn't like that `personal' way of +talking that she enjoys--and that--oh, it didn't seem to be in +keeping with the dignity of You! And I love Cora so much I wanted +her to be finer--with You. I wanted her to understand you better +than to play those little charming tricks at you. You are so good, +so _high_, that if she could make a real friend of you I think it +would be the best thing for her that could happen. She's never had +a man-_friend_. Perhaps she _was_ trying to make one of you and +hasn't any other way to go about it. She can be so _really_ sweet, +I wanted you to see that side of her. + +"Afterwhile, when Ray couldn't bear it any longer to talk to me, +and in his desperation brazenly took Cora to the other end of the +porch almost by force, and I was left, in a way, alone with you +what did you think of me? I was tongue-tied! Oh, oh, oh! You were +quiet--but _I_ was _dumb_! My heart wasn't dumb--it hammered! All +the time I kept saying to myself such a jumble of things. And into +the jumble would come such a rapture that You were there--it was +like a paean of happiness--a chanting of the glory of having You +near me--I _was_ mixed up! I could _play_ all those confused +things, but writing them doesn't tell it. Writing them would only +be like this: `He's here, he's _here_! Speak, you little fool! +He's here, he's here! He's sitting beside you! _speak_, idiot, or +he'll never come back! He's here, he's beside you you could put +out your hand and touch him! Are you dead, that you can't speak? +He's here, he's here, he's _here_!' + +"Ah, some day I shall be able to talk to you--but not till I get +more used to this inner song. It seems to _will_ that nothing else +shall come from my lips till _it_ does! + +"In spite of my silence--my outward woodenness--you said, as you +went away, that you would come again! You said `soon'! I could +only nod but Cora called from the other end of the porch and +asked: `_How_ soon?' Oh, I bless her for it, because you said, +`Day after to-morrow.' Day after tomorrow! Day after to-morrow! +_Day after tomorrow_! + +. . . . "Twenty-one hours since I wrote--no, _sang_--`Day after +to-morrow!' And now it is `To-morrow!' Oh, the slow, golden day +that this has been! I could not stay in the house--I walked--no, I +_winged_! I was in the open country before I knew it--with You! +For You are in everything. I never knew the sky was blue, before. +Until now I just thought it was the sky. The whitest clouds I ever +saw sailed over that blue, and I stood upon the prow of each in +turn, then leaped in and swam to the next and sailed with _it_! +Oh, the beautiful sky, and kind, green woods and blessed, long, +white, dusty country road! Never in my life shall I forget that +walk--this day in the open with my love--You! To-morrow! +To-morrow! To-morrow! _To-morrow_!" + + +The next writing in Laura's book was dated more than two months +later: + + +. . . . "I have decided to write again in this book. I have +thought it all out carefully, and I have come to the conclusion +that it can do no harm and may help me to be steady and sensible. +It is the thought, not its expression, that is guilty, but I do +not believe that my thoughts are guilty: I believe that they are +good. I know that I wish only good. I have read that when people +suffer very much the best thing is for them to cry. And so I'll +let myself _write_ out my feelings--and perhaps get rid of some of +the silly self-pity I'm foolish enough to feel, instead of going +about choked up with it. How queer it is that even when we keep +our thoughts respectable we can't help having absurd _feelings_ +like self-pity, even though we know how rotten stupid they are! +Yes, I'll let it all out here, and then, some day, when I've cured +myself all whole again, I'll burn this poor, silly old book. And +if I'm not cured before the wedding, I'll burn it then, anyhow. + +"How funny little girls are! From the time they're little bits of +things they talk about marriage--whom they are going to marry, +what sort of person it will be. I think Cora and I began when she +was about five and I not seven. And as girls grow up, I don't +believe there was ever one who genuinely expected to be an old +maid. The most unattractive young girls discuss and plan and +expect marriage just as much as the prettier and gayer ones. The +only way we can find out that men don't want to marry us is by +their not asking us. We don't see ourselves very well, and I +honestly believe we all think--way deep down--that we're pretty +attractive. At least, every girl has the idea, sometimes, that if +men only saw the whole truth they'd think her as nice as any other +girl, and really nicer than most others. But I don't believe I +have any hallucinations of that sort about myself left. I can't +imagine--now--_any_ man seeing anything in me that would make him +care for me. I can't see anything about me to care for, myself. +Sometimes I think maybe I could make a man get excited about me if +I could take a startlingly personal tone with him from the +beginning, making him wonder all sorts of you-and-I perhapses--but +I couldn't do it very well probably--oh, I couldn't make myself do +it if I could do it well! And I shouldn't think it would have much +effect except upon very inexperienced men--yet it does! Now, I +wonder if this is a streak of sourness coming out; I don't feel +bitter--I'm just thinking honestly, I'm sure. + +"Well, here I am facing it: all through my later childhood, and +all through my girlhood, I believe what really occupied me +most--with the thought of it underlying all things else, though +often buried very deep--was the prospect of my marriage. I +regarded it as a certainty: I would grow up, fall in love, get +engaged, and be married--of course! So I grew up and fell in love +with You--but it stops there, and I must learn how to be an Old +Maid and not let anybody see that I mind it. I know this is the +hardest part of it, the beginning: it will get easier by-and-by, +of course. If I can just manage this part of it, it's bound not to +hurt so much later on. + +"Yes, I grew up and fell in love with You--for you will always be +You. I'll never, never get over _that_, my dear! You'll never, +never know it; but I shall love You always till I die, and if I'm +still Me after that, I shall keep right on loving you then, of +course. You see, I didn't fall in love with you just to have you +for myself. I fell in love with You! And that can never bother you +at all nor ever be a shame to me that I love unsought, because you +won't know, and because it's just an ocean of good-will, and every +beat of my heart sends a new great wave of it toward you and Cora. +I shall find happiness, I believe, in service--I am sure there +will be times when I can serve you both. I love you both and I can +serve her for You and you for her. This isn't a hysterical mood, +or a fit of `exaltation': I have thought it all out and I know +that I can live up to it. You are the best thing that can ever +come into her life, and everything I can do shall be to keep you +there. I must be very, very careful with her, for talk and advice +do not influence her much. You love her--she has accepted you, and +it is beautiful for you both. It must be kept beautiful. It has +all become so clear to me: You are just what she has always +needed, and if by any mischance she lost you I do not know what +would become----" + + +"Good God!" cried Richard. He sprang to his feet, and the heavy +book fell with a muffled crash upon the floor, sprawling open upon +its face, its leaves in disorder. He moved away from it, staring +at it in incredulous dismay. But he knew. + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN + +Memory, that drowsy custodian, had wakened slowly, during this +hour, beginning the process with fitful gleams of +semi-consciousness, then, irritated, searching its pockets for the +keys and dazedly exploring blind passages; but now it flung wide +open the gallery doors, and there, in clear light, were the rows +of painted canvasses. + +He remembered "that day" when he was waiting for a car, and Laura +Madison had stopped for a moment, and then had gone on, saying she +preferred to walk. He remembered that after he got into the car he +wondered why he had not walked home with her; had thought himself +"slow" for not thinking of it in time to do it. There had seemed +something very "taking" about her, as she stopped and spoke to +him, something enlivening and wholesome and sweet--it had struck +him that Laura was a "very nice girl." He had never before noticed +how really charming she could look; in fact he had never thought +much about either of the Madison sisters, who had become "young +ladies" during his mourning for his brother. And this pleasant +image of Laura remained with him for several days, until he +decided that it might be a delightful thing to spend an evening +with her. He had called, and he remembered, now, Cora's saying to +him that he looked at her sometimes as if he did not like her; he +had been surprised and astonishingly pleased to detect a +mysterious feeling in her about it. + +He remembered that almost at once he had fallen in love with Cora: +she captivated him, enraptured him, as she still did--as she +always would, he felt, no matter how she treated him or what she +did to him. He did not analyze the process of the captivation and +enrapturement--for love is a mystery and cannot be analyzed. This +is so well known that even Richard Lindley knew it, and did not +try! + +. . . Heartsick, he stared at the fallen book. He was a man, and +here was the proffered love of a woman he did not want. There was +a pathos in the ledger; it seemed to grovel, sprawling and +dishevelled in the circle of lamp-light on the floor: it was as if +Laura herself lay pleading at his feet, and he looked down upon +her, compassionate but revolted. He realized with astonishment +from what a height she had fallen, how greatly he had respected +her, how warmly liked her. What she now destroyed had been more +important than he had guessed. + +Simple masculine indignation rose within him: she was to have been +his sister. If she had been unable to stifle this misplaced love +of hers, could she not at least have kept it to herself? Laura, +the self-respecting! No; she offered it--offered it to her +sister's betrothed. She had written that he should "never, never +know it"; that when she was "cured" she would burn the ledger. She +had not burned it! There were inconsistencies in plenty in the +pitiful screed, but these were the wildest--and the cheapest. In +talk, she had urged him to "keep trying," for Cora, and now the +sick-minded creature sent him this record. She wanted him to know. +Then what else was it but a plea? "I love you. Let Cora go. Take +me." + +He began to walk up and down, wondering what was to be done. After +a time, he picked up the book gingerly, set it upon a shelf in a +dark corner, and went for a walk outdoors. The night air seemed +better than that of the room that held the ledger. + +At the corner a boy, running, passed him. It was Hedrick Madison, +but Hedrick did not recognize Richard, nor was his mind at that +moment concerned with Richard's affairs; he was on an errand of +haste to Doctor Sloane. Mr. Madison had wakened from a heavy +slumber unable to speak, his condition obviously much worse. + +Hedrick returned in the doctor's car, and then hung uneasily about +the door of the sick-room until Laura came out and told him to go +to bed. In the morning, his mother did not appear at the breakfast +table, Cora was serious and quiet, and Laura said that he need not +go to school that day, though she added that the doctor thought +their father would get "better." She looked wan and hollow-eyed: +she had not been to bed, but declared that she would rest after +breakfast. Evidently she had not missed her ledger; and Hedrick +watched her closely, a pleasurable excitement stirring in his +breast. + +She did not go to her room after the meal; the house was cold, +possessing no furnace, and, with Hedrick's assistance, she carried +out the ashes from the library grate, and built a fire there. She +had just lighted it, and the kindling was beginning to crackle, +glowing rosily over her tired face, when the bell rang. + +"Will you see who it is, please, Hedrick?" + +He went with alacrity, and, returning, announced in an odd voice. +"It's Dick Lindley. He wants to see you." + +"Me?" she murmured, wanly surprised. She was kneeling before the +fireplace, wearing an old dress which was dusted with ashes, and +upon her hands a pair of worn-out gloves of her father's. Lindley +appeared in the hall behind Hedrick, carrying under his arm +something wrapped in brown paper. His expression led her to think +that he had heard of her father's relapse, and came on that +account. + +"Don't look at me, Richard," she said, smiling faintly as she +rose, and stripping her hands of the clumsy gloves. "It's good of +you to come, though. Doctor Sloane thinks he is going to be better +again." + +Richard inclined his head gravely, but did not speak. + +"Well," said Hedrick with a slight emphasis, "I guess I'll go out +in the yard a while." And with shining eyes he left the room. + +In the hall, out of range from the library door, he executed a +triumphant but noiseless caper, and doubled with mirth, clapping +his hand over his mouth to stifle the effervescings of his joy. He +had recognized the ledger in the same wrapping in which he had +left it in Mrs. Lindley's vestibule. His moment had come: the +climax of his enormous joke, the repayment in some small measure +for the anguish he had so long endured. He crept silently back +toward the door, flattened his back against the wall, and +listened. + +"Richard," he heard Laura say, a vague alarm in her voice, "what +is it? What is the matter?" + +Then Lindley: "I did not know what to do about it. I couldn't +think of any sensible thing. I suppose what I am doing is the +stupidest of all the things I thought of, but at least it's +honest--so I've brought it back to you myself. Take it, please." + +There was a crackling of the stiff wrapping paper, a little pause, +then a strange sound from Laura. It was not vocal and no more than +just audible: it was a prolonged scream in a whisper. + +Hedrick ventured an eye at the crack, between the partly open door +and its casing. Lindley stood with his back to him, but the boy +had a clear view of Laura. She was leaning against the wall, +facing Richard, the book clutched in both arms against her bosom, +the wrapping paper on the floor at her feet. + +"I thought of sending it back and pretending to think it had been +left at my mother's house by mistake," said Richard sadly, "and of +trying to make it seem that I hadn't read any of it. I thought of +a dozen ways to pretend I believed you hadn't really meant me to +read it----" + +Making a crucial effort, she managed to speak. + +"You--think I--did mean----" + +"Well," he answered, with a helpless shrug, "you sent it! But it's +what's in it that really matters, isn't it? I could have pretended +anything in a note, I suppose, if I had written instead of coming. +But I found that what I most dreaded was meeting you again, and as +we've got to meet, of course, it seemed to me the only thing to do +was to blunder through a talk with you, somehow or another, and +get that part of it over. I thought the longer I put off facing +you, the worse it would be for both of us--and--and the more +embarrassing. I'm no good at pretending, anyhow; and the thing has +happened. What use is there in not being honest? Well?" + +She did not try again to speak. Her state was lamentable: it was +all in her eyes. + +Richard hung his head wretchedly, turning partly away from her. +"There's only one way--to look at it," he said hesitatingly, and +stammering. "That is--there's only one thing to do: to forget that +it's happened. I'm--I--oh, well, I care for Cora altogether. She's +got never to know about this. She hasn't any idea or--suspicion of +it, has she?" + +Laura managed to shake her head. + +"She never must have," he said. "Will you promise me to burn that +book now?" + +She nodded slowly. + +"I--I'm awfully sorry, Laura," he said brokenly. "I'm not idiot +enough not to see that you're suffering horribly. I suppose I have +done the most blundering thing possible." He stood a moment, +irresolute, then turned to the door. "Good-bye." + +Hedrick had just time to dive into the hideous little room of the +multitudinous owls as Richard strode into the hall. Then, with the +closing of the front door, the boy was back at his post. + +Laura stood leaning against the wall, the book clutched in her +arms, as Richard had left her. Slowly she began to sink, her eyes +wide open, and, with her back against the wall, she slid down +until she was sitting upon the floor. Her arms relaxed and hung +limp at her sides, letting the book topple over in her lap, and +she sat motionless. + +One of her feet protruded from her skirt, and the leaping +firelight illumined it ruddily. It was a graceful foot in an old +shoe which had been re-soled and patched. It seemed very still, +that patched shoe, as if it might stay still forever. Hedrick knew +that Laura had not fainted, but he wished she would move her foot. + +He went away. He went into the owl-room again, and stood there +silently a long, long time. Then he stole back again toward the +library door, but caught a glimpse of that old, motionless shoe +through the doorway as he came near. Then he spied no more. He +went out to the stable, and, secluding himself in his studio, sat +moodily to meditate. + +Something was the matter. Something had gone wrong. He had thrown +a bomb which he had expected to go off with a stupendous bang, +leaving him, as the smoke cleared, looking down in merry triumph, +stinging his fallen enemies with his humour, withering them with +satire, and inquiring of them how it felt, now _they_ were getting +it. But he was decidedly untriumphant: he wished Laura had moved +her foot and that she hadn't that patch upon her shoe. He could +not get his mind off that patch. He began to feel very queer: it +seemed to be somehow because of the patch. If she had worn a pair +of new shoes that morning. . . . Yes, it was that patch. + +Thirteen is a dangerous age: nothing is more subtle. The boy, +inspired to play the man, is beset by his own relapses into +childhood, and Hedrick was near a relapse. + +By and by, he went into the house again, to the library. Laura was +not there, but he found the fire almost smothered under heaping +ashes. She had burned her book. + +He went into the room where the piano was, and played "The Girl on +the Saskatchewan" with one finger; then went out to the porch and +walked up and down, whistling cheerily. + +After that, he went upstairs and asked Miss Peirce how his father +was "feeling," receiving a noncommital reply; looked in at Cora's +room; saw that his mother was lying asleep on Cora's bed and Cora +herself examining the contents of a dressing-table drawer; and +withdrew. A moment later, he stood in the passage outside Laura's +closed door listening. There was no sound. + +He retired to his own chamber, found it unbearable, and, +fascinated by Laura's, returned thither; and, after standing a +long time in the passage, knocked softly on the door. + +"Laura," he called, in a rough and careless voice, "it's kind of a +pretty day outdoors. If you've had your nap, if I was you I'd go +out for a walk." There was no response. "I'll go with you," he +added, "if you want me to." + +He listened again and heard nothing. Then he turned the knob +softly. The door was unlocked; he opened it and went in. + +Laura was sitting in a chair, with her back to a window, her hands +in her lap. She was staring straight in front of her. + +He came near her hesitatingly, and at first she did not seem to +see him or even to know that she was not alone in the room. Then +she looked at him wonderingly, and, as he stood beside her, lifted +her right hand and set it gently upon his head. + +"Hedrick," she said, "was it you that took my book to----" + +All at once he fell upon his knees, hid his face in her lap, and +burst into loud and passionate sobbing. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY + +Valentine Corliss, having breakfasted in bed at a late hour that +morning, dozed again, roused himself, and, making a toilet, +addressed to the image in his shaving-mirror a disgusted +monosyllable. + +"Ass!" + +However, he had not the look of a man who had played cards all +night to a disastrous tune with an accompaniment in Scotch. His +was a surface not easily indented: he was hard and healthy, +clear-skinned and clear-eyed. When he had made himself +point-device, he went into the "parlour" of his apartment, +frowning at the litter of malodorous, relics, stumps and stubs and +bottles and half-drained glasses, scattered chips and cards, dregs +of a night session. He had been making acquaintances. + +He sat at the desk and wrote with a steady hand in Italian: + + +MOST ILLUSTRIOUS MOLITERNO: + +We live but learn little. As to myself it appears that I learn +nothing--nothing! You will at once convey to me by _cable_ five +thousand lire. No; add the difference in exchange so as to make it +one thousand dollars which I shall receive, taking that sum from +the two-hundred and thirty thousand lire which I entrusted to your +safekeeping by cable as the result of my enterprise in this place. +I should have returned at once, content with that success, but as +you know I am a very stupid fellow, never pleased with a moderate +triumph, nor with a large one, when there is a possible prospect +of greater. I am compelled to believe that the greater I had in +mind in this case was an illusion: my gentle diplomacy avails +nothing against a small miser--for we have misers even in these +States, though you will not believe it. I abandon him to his +riches! From the success of my venture I reserved four thousand +dollars to keep by me and for my expenses, and it is humiliating +to relate that all of this, except a small banknote or two, was +taken from me last night by amateurs. I should keep away from +cards--they hate me, and alone I can do nothing with them. Some +young gentlemen of the place, whose acquaintance I had made at a +ball, did me the honour of this lesson at the native game of +poker, at which I--though also native--am not even so expert as +yourself, and, as you will admit, Antonio, my friend, you are not +a good player--when observed. Unaided, I was a child in their +hands. It was also a painful rule that one paid for the counters +upon delivery. This made me ill, but I carried it off with an air +of carelessness creditable to an adopted Neapolitan. Upon receipt +of the money you are to cable me, I shall leave this town and sail +immediately. Come to Paris, and meet me there at the place on the +Rue Auber within ten days from your reading this letter. You will +have, remaining, two hundred and twenty-five thousand francs, +which it will be safer to bring in cash, and I will deal well with +you, as is our custom with each other. You have done excellently +throughout; your cables and letters for exhibition concerning +those famous oil wells have been perfection; and I shall of course +not deduct what was taken by these thieves of poker players from +the sum of profits upon which we shall estimate your commission. I +have several times had the feeling that the hour for departure had +arrived; now I shall delay not a moment after receiving your +cable, though I may occupy the interim with a last attempt to +interest my small miser. Various circumstances cause me some +uneasiness, though I do not believe I could be successfully +assailed by the law in the matter of oil. You do own an estate in +Basilicata, at least your brother does--these good people here +would not be apt to discover the difference--and the rest is a +matter of plausibility. The odious coincidence of encountering the +old cow, Pryor, fretted me somewhat (though he has not repeated +his annoying call), and I have other small apprehensions--for +example, that it may not improve my credit if my loss of last +night becomes gossip, though the thieves professed strong habits +of discretion. My little affair of gallantry grows embarrassing. +Such affairs are so easy to inaugurate; extrication is more +difficult. However, without it I should have failed to interest my +investor and there is always the charm. Your last letter is too +curious in that matter. Licentious man, one does not write of +these things while under the banner of the illustrious Uncle +Sam--I am assuming the American attitude while here, or perhaps my +early youth returns to me--a thing very different from your own +boyhood, Don Antonio. Nevertheless, I promise you some laughter in +the Rue Auber. Though you will not be able to understand the half +of what I shall tell you--particularly the portraits I shall +sketch of my defeated rivals--your spirit shall roll with +laughter. + +To the bank, then, the instant you read. Cable me one thousand +dollars, and be at the Rue Auber not more than ten days later. To +the bank! Thence to the telegraph office. Speed! V. C. + + +He was in better spirits as he read over this letter, and he +chuckled as he addressed it. He pictured himself in the rear room +of the bar in the Rue Auber, relating, across the little +marble-topped table, this American adventure, to the delight of +that blithe, ne'er-do-well outcast of an exalted poor family, that +gambler, blackmailer and merry rogue, Don Antonio Moliterno, +comrade and teacher of this ductile Valentine since the later days +of adolescence. They had been school-fellows in Rome, and later +roamed Europe together unleashed, discovering worlds of many +kinds. Valentine's careless mother let her boy go as he liked, and +was often negligent in the matter of remittances: he and his +friend learned ways to raise the wind, becoming expert and making +curious affiliations. At her death there was a small inheritance; +she had not been provident. The little she left went rocketing, +and there was the wind to be raised again: young Corliss had wits +and had found that they could supply him--most of the time--with +much more than the necessities of life. He had also found that he +possessed a strong attraction for various women; already--at +twenty-two--his experience was considerable, and, in his way, he +became a specialist. He had a talent; he improved it and his +opportunities. Altogether, he took to the work without malice and +with a light heart. . . . + +He sealed the envelope, rang for a boy, gave him the letter to +post, and directed that the apartment should be set to rights. It +was not that in which he had received Ray Vilas. Corliss had moved +to rooms on another floor of the hotel, the day after that +eccentric and somewhat ominous person had called to make an +"investment." Ray's shadowy forebodings concerning that former +apartment had encountered satire: Corliss was a "materialist" and, +at the mildest estimate, an unusually practical man, but he would +never sleep in a bed with its foot toward the door; southern Italy +had seeped into him. He changed his rooms, a measure of which Don +Antonio Moliterno would have wholly approved. Besides, these were +as comfortable as the others, and so like them as even to confirm +Ray's statement concerning "A Reading from Homer": evidently this +work had been purchased by the edition. + +A boy came to announce that his "roadster" waited for him at the +hotel entrance, and Corliss put on a fur motoring coat and cap, +and went downstairs. A door leading from the hotel bar into the +lobby was open, and, as Corliss passed it, there issued a mocking +shout: + +"Tor'dor! Oh, look at the Tor'dor! Ain't he the handsome +Spaniard!" + +Ray Vilas stumbled out, tousled, haggard, waving his arms in +absurd and meaningless gestures; an amused gallery of tipplers +filling the doorway behind him. + +"Goin' take Carmen buggy ride in the country, ain't he? Good ole +Tor'dor!" he quavered loudly, clutching Corliss's shoulder. "How +much you s'pose he pays f' that buzz-buggy by the day, jeli'm'n? +Naughty Tor'dor, stole thousand dollars from me--makin' +presents--diamond cresses. Tor'dor, I hear you been playing cards. +Tha's sn't nice. Tor'dor, you're not a goo' boy at all--_you_ know +you oughtn't waste Dick Lindley's money like that!" + +Corliss set his open hand upon the drunkard's breast and sent him +gyrating and plunging backward. Some one caught the grotesque +figure as it fell. + +"Oh, my God," screamed Ray, "I haven't got a gun on me! He _knows_ +I haven't got my gun with me! _Why_ haven't I got my gun with me?" + +They hustled him away, and Corliss, enraged and startled, passed +on. As he sped the car up Corliss Street, he decided to anticipate +his letter to Moliterno by a cable. He had stayed too long. + +Cora looked charming in a new equipment for November motoring; yet +it cannot be said that either of them enjoyed the drive. They +lunched a dozen miles out from the city at an establishment +somewhat in the nature of a roadside inn; and, although its +cuisine was quite unknown to Cora's friend, Mrs. Villard (an eager +amateur of the table), they were served with a meal of such +unusual excellence that the waiter thought it a thousand pities +patrons so distinguished should possess such poor appetites. + +They returned at about three in the afternoon, and Cora descended +from the car wearing no very amiable expression. + +"Why won't you come in now?" she asked, looking at him angrily. +"We've got to talk things out. We've settled nothing whatever. I +want to know why you can't stop." + +"I've got some matters to attend to, and----" + +"What matters?" She shot him a glance of fierce skepticism. + +"Are you packing to get out?" + +"Cora!" he cried reproachfully, "how can you say things like that +to _me_!" + +She shook her head. "Oh, it wouldn't surprise me in the least! How +do _I_ know what you'll do? For all I know, you may be just that +kind of a man. You _said_ you ought to be going----" + +"Cora," he explained, gently, "I didn't say I meant to go. I said +only that I thought I ought to, because Moliterno will be needing +me in Basilicata. I ought to be there, since it appears that no +more money is to be raised here. I ought to be superintending +operations in the oil-field, so as to make the best use of the +little I have raised." + +"You?" she laughed. "Of course _I_ didn't have anything to do with +it!" + +He sighed deeply. "You know perfectly well that I appreciate all +you did. We don't seem to get on very well to-day----" + +"No!" She laughed again, bitterly. "So you think you'll be going, +don't you?" + +"To my rooms to write some necessary letters." + +"Of course not to pack your trunk?" + +"Cora," he returned, goaded; "sometimes you're just impossible. +I'll come to-morrow forenoon." + +"Then don't bring the car. I'm tired of motoring and tired of +lunching in that rotten hole. We can talk just as well in the +library. Papa's better, and that little fiend will be in school +to-morrow. Come out about ten." + +He started the machine. "Don't forget I love you," he called in a +low voice. + +She stood looking after him as the car dwindled down the street. + +"Yes, you do!" she murmured. + +She walked up the path to the house, her face thoughtful, as with +a tiresome perplexity. In her own room, divesting herself of her +wraps, she gave the mirror a long scrutiny. It offered the picture +of a girl with a hard and dreary air; but Cora saw something else, +and presently, though the dreariness remained, the hardness +softened to a great compassion. She suffered: a warm wave of +sorrow submerged her, and she threw herself upon the bed and wept +long and silently for herself. + +At last her eyes dried, and she lay staring at the ceiling. The +doorbell rang, and Sarah, the cook, came to inform her that Mr. +Richard Lindley was below. + +"Tell him I'm out." + +"Can't," returned Sarah. "Done told him you was home." And she +departed firmly. + +Thus abandoned, the prostrate lady put into a few words what she +felt about Sarah, and, going to the door, whisperingly summoned in +Laura, who was leaving the sick-room, across the hall. + +"Richard is downstairs. Will you go and tell him I'm sick in +bed--or dead? Anything to make him go." And, assuming Laura's +acquiescence, Cora went on, without pause: "Is father worse? +What's the matter with you, Laura?" + +"Nothing. He's a little better, Miss Peirce thinks." + +"You look ill." + +"I'm all right." + +"Then run along like a duck and get rid of that old bore for me." + +"Cora--please see him?" + +"Not me! I've got too much to think about to bother with him." + +Laura walked to the window and stood with her back to her sister, +apparently interested in the view of Corliss Street there +presented. "Cora," she said, "why don't you marry him and have +done with all this?" + +Cora hooted. + +"Why not? Why not marry him as soon as you can get ready? Why +don't you go down now and tell him you will? Why not, Cora?" + +"I'd as soon marry a pail of milk--yes, tepid milk, skimmed! +I----" + +"Don't you realize how kind he'd be to you?" + +"I don't know about that," said Cora moodily. "He might object to +some things--but it doesn't matter, because I'm not going to try +him. I don't mind a man's being a fool, but I can't stand the +absent-minded breed of idiot. I've worn his diamond in the pendant +right in his eyes for weeks; he's never once noticed it enough +even to ask me about the pendant, but bores me to death wanting to +know why I won't wear the ring! Anyhow, what's the use talking +about him? He couldn't marry me right now, even if I wanted him +to--not till he begins to get something on the investment he made +with Val. Outside of that, he's got nothing except his rooms at +his mother's; she hasn't much either; and if Richard should lose +what he put in with Val, he couldn't marry for years, probably. +That's what made him so obstinate about it. No; if I ever marry +right off the reel it's got to be somebody with----" + +"Cora"--Laura still spoke from the window, not turning--"aren't +you tired of it all, of this getting so upset about one man and +then another and----" + +"_Tired_!" Cora uttered the word in a repressed fury of emphasis. +"I'm sick of _everything_! I don't care for anything or anybody on +this earth--except--except you and mamma. I thought I was going to +love Val. I thought I _did_--but oh, my Lord, I don't! I don't +think I _can_ care any more. Or else there isn't any such thing as +love. How can anybody tell whether there is or not? You get kind +of crazy over a man and want to go the limit--or marry him +perhaps--or sometimes you just want to make him crazy about +you--and then you get over it--and what is there left but hell!" +She choked with a sour laugh. "Ugh! For heaven's sake, Laura, +don't make me talk. Everything's gone to the devil and I've got to +think. The best thing you can do is to go down and get rid of +Richard for me. I _can't_ see him!" + +"Very well," said Laura, and went to the door. + +"You're a darling," whispered Cora, kissing her quickly. "Tell him +I'm in a raging headache--make him think I wanted to see him, but +you wouldn't let me, because I'm too ill." She laughed. "Give me a +little time, old dear: I may decide to take him yet!" + +It was Mrs. Madison who informed the waiting Richard that Cora was +unable to see him, because she was "lying down"; and the young +man, after properly inquiring about Mr. Madison, went blankly +forth. + +Hedrick was stalking the front yard, mounted at a great height +upon a pair of stilts. He joined the departing visitor upon the +sidewalk and honoured him with his company, proceeding storkishly +beside him. + +"Been to see Cora?" + +"Yes, Hedrick." + +"What'd you want to see her about?" asked the frank youth +seriously. + +Richard was able to smile. "Nothing in particular, Hedrick." + +"You didn't come to tell her about something?" + +"Nothing whatever, my dear sir. I wished merely the honour of +seeing her and chatting with her upon indifferent subjects." + +"Why?" + +"Did you see her?" + +"No, I'm sorry to----" + +"She's home, all right," Hedrick took pleasure in informing him. + +"Yes. She was lying down and I told your mother not to disturb +her." + +"Worn out with too much automobile riding, I expect," Hedrick +sniffed. "She goes out about every day with this Corliss in his +hired roadster." + +They walked on in silence. Not far from Mrs. Lindley's, Hedrick +abruptly became vocal in an artificial laugh. Richard was +obviously intended to inquire into its cause, but, as he did not, +Hedrick, after laughing hollowly for some time, volunteered the +explanation: + +"I played a pretty good trick on you last night." + +"Odd I didn't know it." + +"That's why it was good. You'd never guess it in the world." + +"No, I believe I shouldn't. You see what makes it so hard, +Hedrick, is that I can't even remember seeing you, last night." + +"Nobody saw me. Somebody heard me though, all right." + +"Who?" + +"The nigger that works at your mother's--Joe." + +"What about it? Were you teasing Joe?" + +"No, it was you I was after." + +"Well? Did you get me?" + +Hedrick made another somewhat ghastly pretence of mirth. "Well, I +guess I've had about all the fun out of it I'm going to. Might as +well tell you. It was that book of Laura's you thought she sent +you." + +Richard stopped short; whereupon Hedrick turned clumsily, and +began to stalk back in the direction from which they had come. + +"That book--I thought she--sent me?" Lindley repeated, stammering. + +"She never sent it," called the boy, continuing to walk away. "She +kept it hid, and I found it. I faked her into writing your name on +a sheet of paper, and made you think she'd sent the old thing to +you. I just did it for a joke on you." + +With too retching an effort to simulate another burst of +merriment, he caught the stump of his right stilt in a pavement +crack, wavered, cut in the air a figure like a geometrical +proposition gone mad, and came whacking to earth in magnificent +disaster. + +Richard took him to Mrs. Lindley for repairs. She kept him until +dark: Hedrick was bandaged, led, lemonaded and blandished. + +Never in his life had he known such a listener. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE + +That was a long night for Cora Madison, and the morning found her +yellow. She made a poor breakfast, and returned from the table to +her own room, but after a time descended restlessly and wandered +from one room to another, staring out of the windows. Laura had +gone out; Mrs. Madison was with her husband, whom she seldom left; +Hedrick had departed ostensibly for school; and the house was as +still as a farm in winter--an intolerable condition of things for +an effervescent young woman whose diet was excitement. Cora, +drumming with her fingers upon a window in the owl-haunted cell, +made noises with her throat, her breath and her lips not +unsuggestive of a sputtering fuse. She was heavily charged. + +"Now what in thunder do _you_ want?" she inquired of an elderly +man who turned in from the sidewalk and with serious steps +approached the house. + +Pryor, having rung, found himself confronted with the lady he had +come to seek. Ensued the moment of strangers meeting: invisible +antennae extended and touched;--at the contact, Cora's drew in, +and she looked upon him without graciousness. + +"I just called," he said placatively, smiling as if some humour +lurked in his intention, "to ask how your father is. I heard +downtown he wasn't getting along quite so well." + +"He's better this morning, thanks," said Cora, preparing to close +the door. + +"I thought I'd just stop and ask about him. I heard he'd had +another bad spell--kind of a second stroke." + +"That was night before last. The doctor thinks he's improved very +much since then." + +The door was closing; he coughed hastily, and detained it by +speaking again. "I've called several times to inquire about him, +but I believe it's the first time I've had the pleasure of +speaking to you, Miss Madison. I'm Mr. Pryor." She appeared to +find no comment necessary, and he continued: "Your father did a +little business for me, several years ago, and when I was here on +my vacation, this summer, I was mighty sorry to hear of his +sickness. I've had a nice bit of luck lately and got a second +furlough, so I came out to spend a couple of weeks and +Thanksgiving with my married daughter." + +Cora supposed that it must be very pleasant. + +"Yes," he returned. "But I was mighty sorry to hear your father +wasn't much better than when I left. The truth is, I wanted to +have a talk with him, and I've been reproaching myself a good deal +that I didn't go ahead with it last summer, when he was well, only +I thought then it mightn't be necessary--might be disturbing +things without much reason." + +"I'm afraid you can't have a talk with him now," she said. "The +doctor says----" + +"I know, I know," said Pryor, "of course. I wonder"--he hesitated, +smiling faintly--"I wonder if I could have it with you instead." + +"Me?" + +"Oh, it isn't business," he laughed, observing her expression. +"That is, not exactly." His manner became very serious. "It's +about a friend of mine--at least, a man I know pretty well. Miss +Madison, I saw you driving out through the park with him, +yesterday noon, in an automobile. Valentine Corliss." + +Cora stared at him. Honesty, friendliness, and grave concern were +disclosed to her scrutiny. There was no mistaking him: he was a +good man. Her mouth opened, and her eyelids flickered as from a +too sudden invasion of light--the look of one perceiving the close +approach of a vital crisis. But there was no surprise in her face. + +"Come in," she said. + + * * * + +. . . . When Corliss arrived, at about eleven o'clock that +morning, Sarah brought him to the library, where he found Cora +waiting for him. He had the air of a man determined to be cheerful +under adverse conditions: he came in briskly, and Cora closed the +door behind him. + +"Keep away from me," she said, pushing him back sharply, the next +instant. "I've had enough of that for a while I believe." + +He sank into a chair, affecting desolation. "Caresses blighted in +the bud! Cora, one would think us really married." + +She walked across the floor to a window, turned there, with her +back to the light, and stood facing him, her arms folded. + +"Good heavens!" he exclaimed, noting this attitude. "Is it the +trial scene from a faded melodrama?" She looked steadily at him +without replying. "What's it all about to-day?" he asked lightly. +"I'll try to give you the proper cues if you'll indicate the +general nature of the scene, Cora mine." + +She continued to look at him in silence. + +"It's very effective," he observed. "Brings out the figure, too. +Do forgive me if you're serious, dear lady, but never in my life +was I able to take the folded-arms business seriously. It was used +on the stage of all countries so much that I believe most +new-school actors have dropped it. They think it lacks +genuineness." + +Cora waited a moment longer, then spoke. "How much chance have I +to get Richard Lindley's money back from you?" + +He was astounded. "Oh, I say!" + +"I had a caller, this morning," she said, slowly. "He talked about +you--quite a lot! He's told me several things about you." + +"Mr. Vilas?" he asked, with a sting in his quick smile. + +"No," she answered coolly. "Much older." + +At that he jumped up, stepped quickly close to her, and swept her +with an intense and brilliant scrutiny. + +"Pryor, by God!" he cried. + +"He knows you pretty well," she said. "So do I now!" + +He swung away from her, back to his chair, dropped into it and +began to laugh. "Old Pryor! Doddering old Pryor! Doddering old ass +of a Pryor! So he did! Blood of an angel! what a stew, what a +stew!" He rose again, mirthless. "Well, what did he say?" + +She had begun to tremble, not with fear. "He said a good deal." + +"Well, what was it? What did he tell you?" + +"I think you'll find it plenty!" + +"Come on!" + +"_You_!" She pointed at him. + +"Let's have it." + +"He told me"--she burst out furiously--"he said you were a +professional sharper!" + +"Oh, no. Old Pryor doesn't talk like that." + +She came toward him. "He told me you were notorious over half of +Europe," she cried vehemently. "He said he'd arrested you himself, +once, in Rotterdam, for smuggling jewels, and that you were +guilty, but managed to squirm out of it. He said the police had +put you out of Germany and you'd be arrested if you ever tried to +go back. He said there were other places you didn't dare set foot +in, and he said he could have you arrested in this country any +time he wanted to, and that he was going to do it if he found +you'd been doing anything wrong. Oh, yes, he told me a few +things!" + +He caught her by the shoulder. "See here, Cora, do you believe all +this tommy-rot?" + +She shook his hand off instantly. "Believe it? I know it! There +isn't a straight line in your whole soul and mind: you're crooked +all over. You've been crooked with _me_ from the start. The moment +that man began to speak, I knew every word of it was true. He came +to me because he thought it was right: he hasn't anything against +you on his own account; he said he _liked_ you! I _knew_ it was +true, I tell you." + +He tried to put his hand on her shoulder again, beginning to speak +remonstratingly, but she cried out in a rage, broke away from him, +and ran to the other end of the room. + +"Keep away! Do you suppose I like you to touch me? He told me you +always had been a wonder with women! Said you were famous for +`handling them the right way'--using them! Ah, that was pleasant +information for _me_, wasn't it! Yes, I could have confirmed him +on that point. He wanted to know if I thought you'd been doing +anything of that sort here. What he meant was: Had you been using +me?" + +"What did you tell him?" The question rang sharply on the instant. + +"Ha! That gets into you, does it?" she returned bitterly. "You +can't overdo your fear of that man, I think, but _I_ didn't tell +him anything. I just listened and thanked him for the warning, and +said I'd have nothing more to do with you. How _could_ I tell him? +Wasn't it I that made papa lend you his name, and got Richard to +hand over his money? Where does that put _me_?" She choked; sobs +broke her voice. "Every--every soul in town would point me out as +a laughing-stock--the easiest fool out of the asylum! Do you +suppose _I_ want you arrested and the whole thing in the papers? +What I want is Richard's money back, and I'm going to have it!" + +"Can you be quiet for a moment and listen?" he asked gravely. + +"If you'll tell me what chance I have to get it back." + +"Cora," he said, "you don't want it back." + +"Oh? Don't I?" + +"No." He smiled faintly, and went on. "Now, all this nonsense of +old Pryor's isn't worth denying. I have met him abroad; that much +is true--and I suppose I have rather a gay reputation----" + +She uttered a jeering shout. + +"Wait!" he said. "I told you I'd cut quite a swathe, when I first +talked to you about myself. Let it go for the present and come +down to this question of Lindley's investment----" + +"Yes. That's what I want you to come down to." + +"As soon as Lindley paid in his check I gave him his stock +certificates, and cabled the money to be used at once in the +development of the oil-fields----" + +"What! That man told me you'd `promoted' a South American rubber +company once, among people of the American colony in Paris. The +details he gave me sounded strangely familiar!" + +"You'd as well be patient, Cora. Now, that money has probably been +partially spent, by this time, on tools and labour and----" + +"What are you trying to----" + +"I'll show you. But first I'd like you to understand that nothing +can be done to me. There's nothing `on' me! I've acted in good +faith, and if the venture in oil is unsuccessful, and the money +lost, I can't be held legally responsible, nor can any one prove +that I am. I could bring forty witnesses from Naples to swear they +have helped to bore the wells. I'm safe as your stubborn friend, +Mr. Trumble, himself. But now then, suppose that old Pryor is +right--as of course he isn't--suppose it, merely for a moment, +because it will aid me to convey something to your mind. If I were +the kind of man he says I am, and, being such a man, had planted +the money out of reach, for my own use, what on earth would induce +me to give it back?" + +"I knew it!" she groaned. "I knew you wouldn't!" + +"You see," he said quietly, "it would be impossible. We must go on +supposing for a moment: if I had put that money away, I might be +contemplating a departure----" + +"You'd better!" she cried fiercely. "He's going to find out +everything you've been doing. He said so. He's heard a rumour that +you were trying to raise money here; he told me so, and said he'd +soon----" + +"The better reason for not delaying, perhaps. Cora, see here!" He +moved nearer her. "Wouldn't I need a lot of money if I expected to +have a beautiful lady to care for, and----" + +"You idiot!" she screamed. "Do you think I'm going with you?" + +He flushed heavily. "Well, aren't you?" He paused, to stare at +her, as she wrung her hands and sobbed with hysterical laughter. +"I thought," he went on, slowly, "that you would possibly even +insist on that." + +"Oh, Lord, Lord, Lord!" She stamped her foot, and with both hands +threw the tears from her eyes in wide and furious gestures. "He +told me you were married----" + +"Did you let him think you hadn't known that?" demanded Corliss. + +"I tell you I didn't let him think _anything_! He said you would +never be able to get a divorce: that your wife hates you too much +to get one from you, and that she'll never----" + +"See here, Cora," he said harshly, "I told you I'd been married; I +told you before I ever kissed you. You understood perfectly----" + +"I did not! You said you _had_ been. You laughed about it. You +made me think it was something that had happened a long time ago. +I thought of course you'd been divorced----" + +"But I told you----" + +"You told me after! And then you made me think you could easily +get one--that it was only a matter of form and----" + +"Cora," he interrupted, "you're the most elaborate little +self-deceiver I ever knew. I don't believe you've ever faced +yourself for an honest moment in----" + +"Honest! _you_ talk about `honest'! You use that word and face +_me_?" + +He came closer, meeting her distraught eyes squarely. "You love to +fool yourself, Cora, but the role of betrayed virtue doesn't suit +you very well. You're young, but you're a pretty experienced woman +for all that, and you haven't done anything you didn't want to. +You've had both eyes open every minute, and we both know it. You +are just as wise as----" + +"You're lying and _you_ know it! What did _I_ want to make Richard +go into your scheme for? You made a fool of me." + +"I'm not speaking of the money now," he returned quickly. "You'd +better keep your mind on the subject. Are you coming away with +me?" + +"What for?" she asked. + +"What _for_?" he echoed incredulously. "I want to know if you're +coming. I promise you I'll get a divorce as soon as it's +possible----" + +"Val," she said, in a tone lower than she had used since he +entered the room; "Val, do you want me to come?" + +"Yes." + +"Much?" She looked at him eagerly. + +"Yes, I do." His answer sounded quite genuine. + +"Will it hurt you if I don't?" + +"Of course it will." + +"Thank heaven for that," she said quietly. + +"You honestly mean you won't?" + +"It makes me sick with laughing just to imagine it! I've done some +hard little thinking, lately, my friend--particularly last night, +and still more particularly this morning since that man was here. +I'd cut my throat before I'd go with you. If you had your divorce +I wouldn't marry you--not if you were the last man on earth!" + +"Cora," he cried, aghast, "what's the matter with you? You're too +many for me sometimes. I thought I understood a few kinds of +women! Now listen: I've offered to take you, and you can't +say----" + +"Offered!" It was she who came toward him now. She came swiftly, +shaking with rage, and struck him upon the breast. "`Offered'! Do +you think I want to go trailing around Europe with you while Dick +Lindley's money lasts? What kind of a life are you `offering' me? +Do you suppose I'm going to have everybody saying Cora Madison ran +away with a jail-bird? Do you think I'm going to dodge decent +people in hotels and steamers, and leave a name in this town +that--Oh, get out! I don't want any help from you! I can take care +of myself, I tell you; and I don't have to marry _you_! I'd kill +you if I could--you made a fool of me!" Her voice rose shrilly. +"You made a fool of me!" + +"Cora----" he began, imploringly. + +"You made a fool of me!" She struck him again. + +"Strike me," he said. "I love you!" + +"Actor!" + +"Cora, I want you. I want you more than I ever----" + +She screamed with hysterical laughter. "Liar, liar, liar! The same +old guff. Don't you even see it's too late for the old rotten +tricks?" + +"Cora, I want you to come." + +"You poor, conceited fool," she cried, "do you think you're the +only man I can marry?" + +"Cora," he gasped, "you wouldn't do that!" + +"Oh, get out! Get out _now_! I'm tired of you. I never want to +hear you speak again." + +"Cora," he begged. "For the last time----" + +"_No_! You made a fool of me!" She beat him upon the breast, +striking again and again, with all her strength. "Get out, I +tell you! I'm through with you!" + +He tried to make her listen, to hold her wrists: he could do +neither. + +"Get out--get out!" she screamed. She pushed and dragged him +toward the door, and threw it open. Her voice thickened; she +choked and coughed, but kept on screaming: "Get out, I tell you! +Get out, get out, damn you! Damn you, _damn_ you! get out!" + +Still continuing to strike him with all her strength, she forced +him out of the door. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO + +Cora lost no time. Corliss had not closed the front door behind +him before she was running up the stairs. Mrs. Madison, emerging +from her husband's room, did not see her daughter's face; for Cora +passed her quickly, looking the other way. + +"Was anything the matter?" asked the mother anxiously. "I thought +I heard----" + +"Nothing in the world," Cora flung back over her shoulder. "Mr. +Corliss said I couldn't imitate Sara Bernhardt, and I showed him I +could." She began to hum; left a fragment of "rag-time" floating +behind her as she entered her own room; and Mrs. Madison, +relieved, returned to the invalid. + +Cora changed her clothes quickly. She put on a pale gray skirt and +coat for the street, high shoes and a black velvet hat, very +simple. The costume was almost startlingly becoming to her: never +in her life had she looked prettier. She opened her small +jewel-case, slipped all her rings upon her fingers; then put the +diamond crescent, the pendant, her watch, and three or four other +things into the flat, envelope-shaped bag of soft leather she +carried when shopping. After that she brought from her +clothes-pantry a small travelling-bag and packed it hurriedly. + +Laura, returning from errands downtown and glancing up at Cora's +window, perceived an urgently beckoning, gray-gloved hand, and +came at once to her sister's room. + +The packed bag upon the bed first caught her eye; then Cora's +attire, and the excited expression of Cora's face, which was +high-flushed and moist, glowing with a great resolve. + +"What's happened?" asked Laura quickly. "You look exactly like a +going-away bride. What----" + +Cora spoke rapidly: "Laura, I want you to take this bag and keep +it in your room till a messenger-boy comes for it. When the bell +rings, go to the door yourself, and hand it to him. Don't give +Hedrick a chance to go to the door. Just give it to the boy;--and +don't say anything to mamma about it. I'm going downtown and I may +not be back." + +Laura began to be frightened. + +"What is it you want to do, Cora?" she asked, trembling. + +Cora was swift and business-like. "See here, Laura, I've got to +keep my head about me. You can do a great deal for me, if you +won't be emotional just now, and help me not to be. I can't afford +it, because I've got to do things, and I'm going to do them just +as quickly as I can, and get it over. If I wait any longer I'll go +insane. I _can_'T wait! You've been a wonderful sister to me; I've +always counted on you, and you've never once gone back on me. +Right now, I need you to help me more than I ever have in my life. +Will you----" + +"But I must know----" + +"No, you needn't! I'll tell you just this much: I've got myself in +a devil of a mess----" + +Laura threw her arms round her: "Oh, my dear, dear little sister!" +she cried. + +But Cora drew away. "Now that's just what you mustn't do. I can't +stand it! You've got to be _quiet_. I can't----" + +"Yes, yes," Laura said hurriedly. "I will. I'll do whatever you +say." + +"It's perfectly simple: all I want you to do is to take charge of +my travelling-bag, and, when a messenger-boy comes, give it to him +without letting anybody know anything about it." + +"But I've got to know where you're going--I can't let you go and +not----" + +"Yes, you can! Besides, you've promised to. I'm not going to do +anything foolish ----" + +"Then why not tell me?" Laura began. She went on, imploring Cora +to confide in her, entreating her to see their mother--to do a +dozen things altogether outside of Cora's plans. + +"You're wasting your breath, Laura," said the younger sister, +interrupting, "and wasting my time. You're in the dark: you think +I'm going to run away with Val Corliss and you're wrong. I sent +him out of the house for good, a while ago----" + +"Thank heaven for that!" cried Laura. + +"I'm going to take care of myself," Cora went on rapidly. "I'm +going to get out of the mess I'm in, and you've got to let me do +it my own way. I'll send you a note from downtown. You see that +the messenger----" + +She was at the door, but Laura caught her by the sleeve, +protesting and beseeching. + +Cora turned desperately. "See here. I'll come back in two hours +and tell you all about it. If I promise that, will you promise to +send me the bag by the----" + +"But if you're coming back you won't need----" + +Cora spoke very quietly. "I'll go to pieces in a moment. Really, I +do think I'd better jump out of the window and have it over." + +"I'll send the bag," Laura quavered, "if you'll promise to come +back in two hours." + +"I promise!" + +Cora gave her a quick embrace, a quick kiss, and, dry-eyed, ran +out of the room, down the stairs, and out of the house. + +She walked briskly down Corliss Street. It was a clear day, bright +noon, with an exhilarating tang in the air, and a sky so glorious +that people outdoors were continually conscious of the blue +overhead, and looked up at it often. An autumnal cheerfulness was +abroad, and pedestrians showed it in their quickened steps, in +their enlivened eyes, and frequent smiles, and in the colour of +their faces. But none showed more colour or a gayer look than +Cora. She encountered many whom she knew, for it was indeed a day +to be stirring, and she nodded and smiled her way all down the +long street, thinking of what these greeted people would say +to-morrow. "_I_ saw her yesterday, walking down Corliss Street, +about noon, in a gray suit and looking fairly radiant!" Some of +those she met were enemies she had chastened; she prophesied their +remarks with accuracy. Some were old suitors, men who had desired +her; one or two had place upon her long list of boy-sweethearts: +she gave the same gay, friendly nod to each of them, and foretold +his morrow's thoughts of her, in turn. Her greeting of Mary Kane +was graver, as was aesthetically appropriate, Mr. Wattling's +engagement having been broken by that lady, immediately after his +drive to the Country Club for tea. Cora received from the +beautiful jilt a salutation even graver than her own, which did +not confound her. + +Halfway down the street was a drug-store. She went in, and +obtained appreciative permission to use the telephone. She came +out well satisfied, and went swiftly on her way. Ten minutes +later, she opened the door of Wade Trumble's office. + +He was alone; her telephone had caught him in the act of departing +for lunch. But he had been glad to wait--glad to the verge of +agitation. + +"By George, Cora!" he exclaimed, as she came quickly in and closed +the door, "but you _can_ look stunning! Believe me, that's some +get-up. But let me tell you right here and now, before you begin, +it's no use your tackling me again on the oil proposition. If +there was any chance of my going into it which there wasn't, not +one on earth--why, the very fact of your asking me would have +stopped me. I'm no Dick Lindley, I beg to inform you: I don't +spend my money helping a girl that I want, myself, to make a hit +with another man. You treated me like a dog about that, right in +the street, and you needn't try it again, because I won't stand +for it. You can't play _me_, Cora!" + +"Wade," she said, coming closer, and looking at him mysteriously, +"didn't you tell me to come to you when I got through playing?" + +"What?" He grew very red, took a step back from her, staring at +her distrustfully, incredulously. + +"I've got through playing", she said in a low voice. "And I've +come to you." + +He was staggered. "You've come----" he said, huskily. + +"Here I am, Wade." + +He had flushed, but now the colour left his small face, and he +grew very white. "I don't believe you mean it." + +"Listen," she said. "I was rotten to you about that oil nonsense. +It _was_ nonsense, nothing on earth but nonsense. I tell you +frankly I was a fool. I didn't care the snap of my finger for +Corliss, but--oh, what's the use of pretending? You were always +such a great `business man,' always so absorbed in business, and +put it before everything else in the world. You cared for me, but +you cared for business more than for me. Well, no woman likes +_that_, Wade. I've come to tell you the whole thing: I can't stand +it any longer. I suffered horribly because--because----" She +faltered. "Wade, that was no way to _win_ a girl." + +"Cora!" His incredulity was strong. + +"I thought I hated you for it, Wade. Yes, I did think that; I'm +telling you everything, you see just blurting it out as it comes, +Wade. Well, Corliss asked me to help him, and it struck me I'd +show that I could understand a business deal, myself. Wade, this +is pretty hard to say, I was such a little fool, but you ought to +know it. You've got a right to know it, Wade: I thought if I put +through a thing like that, it would make a tremendous hit with +you, and that then I could say: `So this is the kind of thing you +put ahead of _me_, is it? Simple little things like this, that _I_ +can do, myself, by turning over my little finger!' So I got +Richard to go in--that was easy; and then it struck me that the +crowning triumph of the whole thing would be to get you to come in +yourself. That _would_ be showing you, I thought! But you +wouldn't: you put me in my place--and I was angry--I never was so +angry in my life, and I showed it." Tears came into her voice. +"Oh, Wade," she said, softly, "it was the very wildness of my +anger that showed what I really felt." + +"About--about _me_?" His incredulity struggled with his hope. He +stepped close to her. + +"What an awful fool I've been," she sighed. + +"Why, I thought I could show you I was your _equal_! And look what +it's got me into, Wade!" + +"What has it got you into, Cora?" + +"One thing worth while: I can see what I really am when I try to +meet you on your own ground." She bent her head, humbly, then +lifted it, and spoke rapidly. "All the rest is dreadful, Wade. I +had a distrust of Corliss from the first; I didn't like him, but I +took him up because I thought he offered the chance to show _you_ +what I could do. Well, it's got me into a most horrible mess. He's +a swindler, a rank----" + +"By George!" Wade shouted. "Cora, you're talking out now like a +real woman." + +"Listen. I got horribly tired of him after a week or so, but I'd +promised to help him and I didn't break with him; but yesterday I +just couldn't stand him any longer and I told him so, and sent him +away. Then, this morning, an old man came to the house, a man +named Pryor, who knew him and knew his record, and he told me all +about him." She narrated the interview. + +"But you had sent Corliss away first?" Wade asked, sharply. + +"Yesterday, I tell you." She set her hand on the little man's +shoulder. "Wade, there's bound to be a scandal over all this. Even +if Corliss gets away without being arrested and tried, the whole +thing's bound to come _out_. I'll be the laughing-stock of the +town--and I deserve to be: it's all through having been ridiculous +idiot enough to try and impress you with my business brilliancy. +Well, I can't stand it!" + +"Cora, do you----" He faltered. + +She leaned toward him, her hand still on his shoulder, her +exquisite voice lowered, and thrilling in its sweetness. "Wade, +I'm through playing. I've come to you at last because you've +utterly conquered me. If you'll take me away to-day, I'll _marry_ +you to-day!" + +He gave a shout that rang again from the walls. + +"Do you want me?" she whispered; then smiled upon his rapture +indulgently. + +Rapture it was. With the word "marry," his incredulity sped +forever. But for a time he was incoherent: he leaped and hopped, +spoke broken bits of words, danced fragmentarily, ate her with his +eyes, partially embraced her, and finally kissed her timidly. + +"Such a wedding we'll have!" he shouted, after that. + +"No!" she said sharply. "We'll be married by a Justice of the +Peace and not a soul there but us, and it will be now, or it never +will be! If you don't----" + +He swore she should have her way. + +"Then we'll be out of this town on the three o'clock train this +afternoon," she said. She went on with her plans, while he, +growing more accustomed to his privilege, caressed her as he +would. "You shall have your way," she said, "in everything except +the wedding-journey. That's got to be a long one--I won't come +back here till people have forgotten all about this Corliss +mix-up. I've never been abroad, and I want you to take me. We can +stay a long, long time. I've brought nothing--we'll get whatever +we want in New York before we sail." + +He agreed to everything. He had never really hoped to win her; +paradise had opened, dazing him with glory: he was astounded, mad +with joy, and abjectly his lady's servant. + +"Hadn't you better run along and get the license?" she laughed. +"We'll have to be married on the way to the train." "Cora!" he +gasped. "You angel!" + +"I'll wait here for you," she smiled. "There won't be too much +time." + +He obtained a moderate control of his voice and feet. +"Enfield--that's my cashier--he'll be back from his lunch at +one-thirty. Tell him about us, if I'm not here by then. Tell him +he's got to manage somehow. Good-bye till I come back Mrs. +Trumble!" + +At the door he turned. "Oh, have you--you----" He paused +uncertainly. "Have you sent Richard Lindley any word about----" + +"Wade!" She gave his inquiry an indulgent amusement. "If I'm not +worrying about him, do you think you need to?" + +"I meant about----" + +"You funny thing," she said. "I never had any idea of really +marrying him; it wasn't anything but one of those silly +half-engagements, and----" + +"I didn't mean that," he said, apologetically. "I meant about +letting him know what this Pryor told you about Corliss, so that +Richard might do something toward getting his money back. We ought +to--" + +"Oh, yes," she said quickly. "Yes, that's all right." + +"You saw Richard?" + +"No. I sent him a note. He knows all about it by this time, if he +has been home this morning. You'd better start, Wade. Send a +messenger to our house for my bag. Tell him to bring it here and +then take a note for me. You'd really better start--dear!" + +"_Cora_!" he shouted, took her in his arms, and was gone. His +departing gait down the corridor to the elevator seemed, from the +sounds, to be a gallop. + +Left alone, Cora wrote, sealed, and directed a note to Laura. In +it she recounted what Pryor had told her of Corliss; begged Laura +and her parents not to think her heartless in not preparing them +for this abrupt marriage. She was in such a state of nervousness, +she wrote, that explanations would have caused a breakdown. The +marriage was a sensible one; she had long contemplated it as a +possibility; and, after thinking it over thoroughly, she had +decided it was the only thing to do. She sent her undying love. + +She was sitting with this note in her hand when shuffling +footsteps sounded in the corridor; either Wade's cashier or the +messenger, she supposed. The door-knob turned, a husky voice +asking, "Want a drink?" as the door opened. + +Cora was not surprised--she knew Vilas's office was across the +hall from that in which she waited--but she was frightened. + +Ray stood blinking at her. + +"What are you doing here?" he asked, at last. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE + +It is probable that he got the truth out of her, perhaps all of +it. That will remain a matter of doubt; Cora's evidence, if she +gave it, not being wholly trustworthy in cases touching herself. +But she felt no need of mentioning to any one that she had seen +her former lover that day. He had gone before the return of +Enfield, Mr. Trumble's assistant, who was a little later than +usual, it happened; and the extreme nervousness and preoccupation +exhibited by Cora in telling Enfield of his employer's new plans +were attributed by the cashier to the natural agitation of a lady +about to wed in a somewhat unusual (though sensible) manner. + +It is the more probable that she told Ray the whole truth, because +he already knew something of Corliss's record abroad. On the dusty +desk in Ray's own office lay a letter, received that morning from +the American Consul at Naples, which was luminous upon that +subject, and upon the probabilities of financial returns for the +investment of a thousand dollars in the alleged oil-fields of +Basilicata. + +In addition, Cora had always found it very difficult to deceive +Vilas: he had an almost perfect understanding of a part of her +nature; she could never far mislead him about herself. With her, +he was intuitive and jumped to strange, inconsistent, true +conclusions, as women do. He had the art of reading her face, her +gestures; he had learned to listen to the tone of her voice more +than to what she said. In his cups, too, he had fitful but almost +demoniac inspirations for hidden truth. + +And, remembering that Cora always "got even," it remains finally +to wonder if she might not have told him everything at the +instance of some shadowy impulse in that direction. There may have +been a luxury in whatever confession she made; perhaps it was not +entirely forced from her, and heaven knows how she may have +coloured it. There was an elusive, quiet satisfaction somewhere in +her subsequent expression; it lurked deep under the surface of the +excitement with which she talked to Enfield of her imminent +marital abduction of his small boss. + +Her agitation, a relic of the unknown interview just past, +simmered down soon, leaving her in a becoming glow of colour, with +slender threads of moisture brilliantly outlining her eyelids. Mr. +Enfield, a young, well-favoured and recent importation from +another town, was deliciously impressed by the charm of the +waiting lady. They had not met; and Enfield wondered how Trumble +had compassed such an enormous success as this; and he wished that +he had seen her before matters had gone so far. He thought he +might have had a chance. She seemed pleasantly interested in him, +even as it was--and her eyes were wonderful, with their swift, +warm, direct little plunges into those of a chance comrade of the +moment. She went to the window, in her restlessness, looking down +upon the swarming street below, and the young man, standing beside +her, felt her shoulder most pleasantly though very lightly--in +contact with his own, as they leaned forward, the better to see +some curiosity of advertising that passed. She turned her face to +his just then, and told him that he must come to see her: the +wedding journey would be long, she said, but it would not be +forever. + +Trumble bounded in, shouting that everything was attended to, +except instructions to Enfield, whom he pounded wildly upon the +back. He began signing papers; a stenographer was called from +another room of his offices; and there was half an hour of +rapid-fire. Cora's bag came, and she gave the bearer the note for +Laura; another bag was brought for Wade; and both bags were +carried down to the automobile the bridegroom had left waiting in +the street. Last, came a splendid cluster of orchids for the bride +to wear, and then Wade, with his arm about her, swept her into the +corridor, and the stirred Enfield was left to his own beating +heart, and the fresh, radiant vision of this startling new +acquaintance: the sweet mystery of the look she had thrown back at +him over his employer's shoulder at the very last. "Do not forget +_me_!" it had seemed to say. "We shall come back--some day." + +The closed car bore the pair to the little grim marriage-shop +quickly enough, though they were nearly run down by a furious +police patrol automobile, at a corner near the Richfield Hotel. +Their escape was by a very narrow margin of safety, and Cora +closed her eyes. Then she was cross, because she had been +frightened, and commanded Wade cavalierly to bid the driver be +more careful. + +Wade obeyed sympathetically. "Of course, though, it wasn't +altogether his fault," he said, settling back, his arm round his +lady's waist. "It's an outrage for the police to break their own +rules that way. I guess they don't need to be in a hurry any more +than _we_ do!" + +The Justice made short work of it. + +As they stood so briefly before him, there swept across her vision +the memory of what she had always prophesied as her wedding:--a +crowded church, "The Light That Breathed O'er Eden" from an unseen +singer; then the warm air trembling to the Lohengrin march; all +heads turning; the procession down the aisle; herself +appearing--climax of everything--a delicious and brilliant figure: +graceful, rosy, shy, an imperial prize for the groom, who in these +foreshadowings had always been very indistinct. The picture had +always failed in outline there: the bridegroom's nearest approach +to definition had never been clearer than a composite photograph. +The truth is, Cora never in her life wished to be married. + +But she was. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR + +Valentine Corliss had nothing to do but to wait for the money +his friend Antonio would send him by cable. His own cable, +anticipating his letter, had been sent yesterday, when he came +back to the hotel, after lunching in the country with Cora. + +As he walked down Corliss Street, after his tumultuous interview +with her, he was surprised to find himself physically tremulous: +he had not supposed that an encounter, however violent, with an +angry woman could so upset his nerves. It was no fear of Pryor +which shook him. He knew that Pryor did not mean to cause his +arrest--certainly not immediately. Of course, Pryor knew that Cora +would tell him. The old fellow's move was a final notification. It +meant: "Get out of town within twenty-four hours." And Corliss +intended to obey. He would have left that evening, indeed, without +the warning; his trunk was packed. + +He would miss Cora. He had kept a cool head throughout their +affair until the last; but this morning she had fascinated him: +and he found himself passionately admiring the fury of her. She +had confused him as he had never been confused. He thought he had +tamed her; thought he owned her; and the discovery of this mistake +was what made him regret that she would not come away with him. +Such a flight, until to-day, had been one of his apprehensions: +but now the thought that it was not to be, brought something like +pain. At least, he felt a vacancy; had a sense of something +lacking. She would have been a bright comrade for the voyage; and +he thought of gestures of hers, turns of the head, tricks of the +lovely voice; and sighed. + +Of course it was best for him that he could return to his old +trails alone and free; he saw that. Cora would have been a +complication and an embarrassment without predictable end, but she +would have been a rare flame for a while. He wondered what she +meant to do; of course she had a plan. Should he try again, give +her another chance? No; there was one point upon which she had not +mystified him: he knew she really hated him. + +. . . The wind was against the smoke that day; and his spirits +rose, as he walked in the brisk air with the rich sky above him. +After all, this venture upon his native purlieus had been fax from +fruitless: he could not have expected to do much better. He had +made his coup; he knew no other who could have done it. It was a +handsome bit of work, in fact, and possible only to a talented +native thoroughly sophisticated in certain foreign subtleties. He +knew himself for a rare combination. + +He had a glimmer of Richard Lindley beginning at the beginning +again to build a modest fortune: it was the sort of thing the +Richard Lindleys were made for. Corliss was not troubled. Richard +had disliked him as a boy; did not like him now; but Corliss had +not taken his money out of malice for that. The adventurer was not +revengeful; he was merely impervious. + +At the hotel, he learned that Moliterno's cable had not yet +arrived; but he went to an agency of one of the steamship lines +and reserved his passage, and to a railway ticket office and +secured a compartment for himself on an evening train. Then he +returned to his room in the hotel. + +The mirror over the mantelpiece, in the front room of his suite, +showed him a fine figure of a man: hale, deep-chested, handsome, +straight and cheerful. + +He nodded to it. + +"Well, old top," he said, reviewing and summing up his whole +campaign, "not so bad. Not so bad, all in all; not so bad, old +top. Well played indeed!" + +At a sound of footsteps approaching his door, he turned in casual +expectancy, thinking it might be a boy to notify him that +Moliterno's cable had arrived. But there was no knock, and the +door was flung wide open. + +It was Vilas, and he had his gun with him this time. He had two. + +There was a shallow clothes-closet in the wall near the fireplace, +and Corliss ran in there; but Vilas began to shoot through the +door. + +Mutilated, already a dead man, and knowing it, Corliss came out, +and tried to run into the bedroom. It was no use. + +Ray saved his last shot for himself. It did the work. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE + +There is a song of parting, an intentionally pathetic song, which +contains the line, "All the tomorrows shall be as to-day," meaning +equally gloomy. Young singers, loving this line, take care to +pronounce the words with unusual distinctness: the listener may +feel that the performer has the capacity for great and consistent +suffering. It is not, of course, that youth loves unhappiness, but +the appearance of it, its supposed picturesqueness. Youth runs +from what is pathetic, but hangs fondly upon pathos. It is the +idea of sorrow, not sorrow, which charms: and so the young singer +dwells upon those lingering tomorrows, happy in the conception of +a permanent wretchedness incurred in the interest of sentiment. +For youth believes in permanence. + +It is when we are young that we say, "I shall never," and "I shall +always," not knowing that we are only time's atoms in a crucible +of incredible change. An old man scarce dares say, "I have never," +for he knows that if he searches he will find, probably, that he +has. "All, all is change." + +It was an evening during the winter holidays when Mrs. Lindley, +coming to sit by the fire in her son's smoking-room, where Richard +sat glooming, narrated her legend of the Devil of Lisieux. It must +have been her legend: the people of Lisieux know nothing of it; +but this Richard the Guileless took it for tradition, as she +alleged it, and had no suspicion that she had spent the afternoon +inventing it. + +She did not begin the recital immediately upon taking her chair, +across the hearth from her son; she led up to it. She was an +ample, fresh-coloured, lively woman; and like her son only in +being a kind soul: he got neither his mortal seriousness nor his +dreaminess from her. She was more than content with Cora's +abandonment of him, though, as chivalrousness was not demanded of +her, she would have preferred that he should have been the jilt. +She thought Richard well off in his release, even at the price of +all his savings. But there was something to hope, even in that +matter, Pryor wrote from Paris encouragingly: he believed that +Moliterno might be frightened or forced into at least a partial +restitution; though Richard would not count upon it, and had +"begun at the beginning" again, as a small-salaried clerk in a +bank, trudging patiently to work in the morning and home in the +evening, a long-faced, tired young man, more absent than ever, +lifeless, and with no interest in anything outside his own +broodings. His mother, pleased with his misfortune in love, was of +course troubled that it should cause him to suffer. She knew she +could not heal him; but she also knew that everything is healed in +time, and that sometimes it is possible for people to help time a +little. + +Her first remark to her son, this evening, was that to the best of +her memory she had never used the word "hellion." And, upon his +saying gently, no, he thought it probable that she never had, but +seeking no farther and dropping his eyes to the burning wood, +apparently under the impression that the subject was closed, she +informed him brusquely that it was her intention to say it now. + +"What is it you want to say, mother?" + +"If I can bring myself to use the word `hellion'," she returned, +"I'm going to say that of all the heaven-born, whole-souled and +consistent ones I ever knew Hedrick Madison is the King." + +"In what new way?" he inquired. + +"Egerton Villard. Egerton used to be the neatest, best-mannered, +best-dressed boy in town; but he looks and behaves like a Digger +Indian since he's taken to following Hedrick around. Mrs. Villard +says it's the greatest sorrow of her life, but she's quite +powerless: the boy is Hedrick's slave. The other day she sent a +servant after him, and just bringing him home nearly ruined her +limousine. He was solidly covered with molasses, over his clothes +and all, from head to foot, and then he'd rolled in hay and +chicken feathers to be a _gnu_ for Hedrick to kodak in the African +Wilds of the Madisons' stable. Egerton didn't know what a gnu was, +but Hedrick told him that was the way to be one, he said. Then, +when they'd got him scraped and boiled, and most of his hair +pulled out, a policemen came to arrest him for stealing the jug of +molasses at a corner grocery." + +Richard nodded, and smiled faintly for comment. They sat in +silence for a while. + +"I saw Mrs. Madison yesterday," said his mother. "She seemed very +cheerful; her husband is able to talk almost perfectly again, +though he doesn't get downstairs. Laura reads to him a great +deal." + +He nodded again, his gaze not moving from the fire. + +"Laura was with her mother," said Mrs. Lindley. "She looked very +fetching in a black cloth suit and a fur hat--old ones her sister +left, I suspect, but very becoming, for all that. Laura's `going +out' more than usual this winter. She's really the belle of the +holiday dances, I hear. Of course she would be", she added, +thoughtfully--"now." + +"Why should she be `now' more than before?" + +"Oh, Laura's quite blossomed," Mrs. Lindley answered. "I think +she's had some great anxieties relieved. Of course both she and +her mother must have worried about Cora as much as they waited on +her. It must be a great burden lifted to have her comfortably +settled, or, at least, disposed of. I thought they both looked +better. But I have a special theory about Laura: I suppose you'll +laugh at me----" + +"Oh, no." + +"I wish you would sometimes," she said wistfully, "so only you +laughed. My idea is that Laura was in love with that poor little +Trumble, too." + +"What?" He looked up at that. + +"Yes; girls fall in love with anybody. I fancy she cared very +deeply for him; but I think she's a strong, sane woman, now. She's +about the steadiest, coolest person I know--and I know her better, +lately, than I used to. I think she made up her mind that she'd +not sit down and mope over her unhappiness, and that she'd get +over what caused it; and she took the very best remedy: she began +going about, going everywhere, and she went gayly, too! And I'm +sure she's cured; I'm sure she doesn't care the snap of her +fingers for Wade Trumble or any man alive. She's having a pretty +good time, I imagine: she has everything in the world except +money, and she's never cared at all about _that_. She's young, and +she dresses well--these days--and she's one of the handsomest +girls in town; she plays like a poet, and she dances well----" + +"Yes," said Richard;--reflectively, "she does dance well." + +"And from what I hear from Mrs. Villard," continued his mother, "I +guess she has enough young men in love with her to keep any girl +busy." + +He was interested enough to show some surprise. "In love with +Laura?" + +"Four, I hear." The best of women are sometimes the readiest with +impromptu statistics. + +"Well, well!" he said, mildly. + +"You see, Laura has taken to smiling on the world, and the world +smiles back at her. It's not a bad world about that, Richard." + +"No," he sighed. "I suppose not." + +"But there's more than that in this case, my dear son." + +"Is there?" + +The intelligent and gentle matron laughed as though at some +unexpected turn of memory and said: + +"Speaking of Hedrick, did you ever hear the story of the Devil of +Lisieux, Richard?" + +"I think not; at least, I don't remember it." + +"Lisieux is a little town in Normandy," she said. "I was there a +few days with your father, one summer, long ago. It's a country +full of old stories, folklore, and traditions; and the people +still believe in the Old Scratch pretty literally. This legend was +of the time when he came to Lisieux. The people knew he was coming +because a wise woman had said that he was on the way, and +predicted that he would arrive at the time of the great fair. +Everybody was in great distress, because they knew that whoever +looked at him would become bewitched, but, of course, they had to +go to the fair. The wise woman was able to give them a little +comfort; she said some one was coming with the devil, and that the +people must not notice the devil, but keep their eyes fastened on +this other--then they would be free of the fiend's influence. But, +when the devil arrived at the fair, nobody even looked to see who +his companion was, for the devil was so picturesque, so vivid, all +in flaming scarlet and orange, and he capered and danced and sang +so that nobody could help looking at him--and, after looking once, +they couldn't look away until they were thoroughly under his +spell. So they were all bewitched, and began to scream and howl +and roll on the ground, and turn on each other and brawl, and +`commit all manner of excesses.' Then the wise woman was able to +exorcise the devil, and he sank into the ground; but his companion +stayed, and the people came to their senses, and looked, and they +saw that it was an angel. The angel had been there all the time +that the fiend was, of course. So they have a saying now, that +there may be angels with us, but we don't notice them when the +devil's about." + +She did not look at her son as she finished, and she had hurried +through the latter part of her "legend" with increasing timidity. +The parallel was more severe, now that she put it to him, than she +intended; it sounded savage; and she feared she had overshot her +mark. Laura, of course, was the other, the companion; she had been +actually a companion for the vivid sister, everywhere with her at +the fair, and never considered: now she emerged from her +overshadowed obscurity, and people were able to see her as an +individual--heretofore she had been merely the retinue of a +flaming Cora. But the "legend" was not very gallant to Cora! + +Mrs. Lindley knew that it hurt her son; she felt it without +looking at him, and before he gave a sign. As it was, he did not +speak, but, after a few moments, rose and went quietly out of the +room: then she heard the front door open and close. She sat by his +fire a long, long time and was sorry--and wondered. + +When Richard came home from his cold night-prowl in the snowy +streets, he found a sheet of note paper upon his pillow: + + +"Dearest Richard, I didn't mean that anybody you ever cared for +was a d---l. I only meant that often the world finds out that +there are lovely people it hasn't noticed." + + +. . . He reproached himself, then, for the reproach his leaving +her had been; he had a susceptible and annoying conscience, this +unfortunate Richard. He found it hard to get to sleep, that night; +and was kept awake long after he had planned how he would make up +to his mother for having received her "legend" so freezingly. What +kept him awake, after that, was a dim, rhythmic sound coming from +the house next door, where a holiday dance was in progress--music +far away and slender: fiddle, 'cello, horn, bassoon, drums, all +rollicking away almost the night-long, seeping through the walls +to his restless pillow. Finally, when belated drowsiness came, the +throbbing tunes mingled with his half-dreams, and he heard the +light shuffling of multitudinous feet over the dancing-floor, and +became certain that Laura's were among them. He saw her, gliding, +swinging, laughing, and happy and the picture did not please him: +it seemed to him that she would have been much better employed +sitting in black to write of a hopeless love. Coquetting with four +suitors was not only inconsistent; it was unbecoming. It "suited +Cora's style," but in Laura it was outrageous. When he woke, in +the morning, he was dreaming of her: dressed as Parthenia, +beautiful, and throwing roses to an acclaiming crowd through which +she was borne on a shield upon the shoulders of four Antinouses. +Richard thought it scandalous. + +His indignation with her had not worn off when he descended to +breakfast, but he made up to his mother for having troubled her. +Then, to cap his gallantry, he observed that several inches of +snow must have fallen during the night; it would be well packed +upon the streets by noon; he would get a sleigh, after lunch, and +take her driving. It was a holiday. + +She thanked him, but half-declined. "I'm afraid it's too cold for +me, but there are lots of nice girls in town, Richard, who won't +mind weather." + +"But I asked _you_!" It was finally left an open question for the +afternoon to settle; and, upon her urging, he went out for a walk. +She stood at the window to watch him, and, when she saw that he +turned northward, she sank into a chair, instead of going to give +Joe Varden his after-breakfast instructions, and fell into a deep +reverie. + +Outdoors, it was a biting cold morning, wind-swept and gray; and +with air so frosty-pure no one might breathe it and stay bilious: +neither in body nor bilious in spirit. It was a wind to sweep the +yellow from jaundiced cheeks and make them rosy; a wind to clear +dulled eyes; it was a wind to lift foolish hearts, to lift them so +high they might touch heaven and go winging down the sky, the +wildest of wild-geese. + +. . . When the bell rang, Laura was kneeling before the library +fire, which she had just kindled, and she had not risen when Sarah +brought Richard to the doorway. She was shabby enough, poor +Cinderella! looking up, so frightened, when her prince appeared. + +She had not been to the dance. + +She had not four suitors. She had none. + +He came toward her. She rose and stepped back a little. Ashes had +blown upon her, and, oh, the old, old thought of the woman born to +be a mother! she was afraid his clothes might get dusty if he came +too close. + +But to Richard she looked very beautiful; and a strange thing +happened: trembling, he saw that the firelight upon her face was +brighter than any firelight he had ever seen. + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Flirt, by Booth Tarkington + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FLIRT *** + +***** This file should be named 297.txt or 297.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/9/297/ + +This etext was prepared with the use of Calera WordScan Plus 2.0 + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + +This etext was prepared with the use of Calera WordScan Plus 2.0 + + +THE FLIRT + +BY +BOOTH TARKINGTON + + + +To +SUSANAH + + +THE FLIRT + +CHAPTER ONE + +Valentine Corliss walked up Corliss Street the hottest afternoon +of that hot August, a year ago, wearing a suit of white serge +which attracted a little attention from those observers who were +able to observe anything except the heat. The coat was shaped +delicately; it outlined the wearer, and, fitting him as women's +clothes fit women, suggested an effeminacy not an attribute of +the tall Corliss. The effeminacy belonged all to the tailor, an +artist plying far from Corliss Street, for the coat would have +encountered a hundred of its fellows at Trouville or Ostende this +very day. Corliss Street is the Avenue du Bois de Boulogne, the +Park Lane, the Fifth Avenue, of Capitol City, that smoky +illuminant of our great central levels, but although it esteems +itself an established cosmopolitan thoroughfare, it is still +provincial enough to be watchful; and even in its torrid languor +took some note of the alien garment. + Mr. Corliss, treading for the first time in seventeen years +the pavements of this namesake of his grandfather, mildly repaid +its interest in himself. The street, once the most peaceful in +the world, he thought, had changed. It was still long and +straight, still shaded by trees so noble that they were be- +trothed, here and there, high over the wide white roadway, the +shimmering tunnels thus contrived shot with gold and blue; but +its pristine complete restfulness was departed: gasoline had +arrived, and a pedestrian, even this August day of heat, must +glance two ways before crossing. + Architectural transformations, as vital, staggered the +returned native. In his boyhood that posthumously libelled +sovereign lady, Anne, had terribly prevailed among the dwellings +on this highway; now, however, there was little left of the +jig-saw's hare-brained ministrations; but the growing pains of +the adolescent city had wrought some madness here. There had +been a revolution which was a riot; and, plainly incited by a new +outbreak of the colonies, the Goth, the Tudor, and the Tuscan had +harried the upper reaches to a turmoil attaining its climax in a +howl or two from the Spanish Moor. + Yet it was a pleasant street in spite of its improvements; +in spite, too, of a long, gray smoke-plume crossing the summer +sky and dropping an occasional atomy of coal upon Mr. Corliss's +white coat. The green continuous masses of tree-foliage, lawn, +and shrubbery were splendidly asserted; there was a faint +wholesome odour from the fine block pavement of the roadway, +white, save where the snailish water-wagon laid its long strips +of steaming brown. Locusts, serenaders of the heat, invisible +among the branches, rasped their interminable cadences, competing +bitterly with the monotonous chattering of lawn-mowers propelled +by glistening black men over the level swards beneath. And +though porch and terrace were left to vacant wicker chairs and +swinging-seats, and to flowers and plants in jars and green +boxes, and the people sat unseen--and, it might be guessed, +unclad for exhibition, in the dimmer recesses of their +houses--nevertheless, a summery girl under an alluring parasol +now and then prettily trod the sidewalks, and did not altogether +suppress an ample consciousness of the white pedestrian's stal- +wart grace; nor was his quick glance too distressingly modest to +be aware of these faint but attractive perturbations. + A few of the oldest houses remained as he remembered them, +and there were two or three relics of mansard and cupola days; +but the herd of cast-iron deer that once guarded these lawns, +standing sentinel to all true gentry: Whither were they fled? +In his boyhood, one specimen betokened a family of position and +affluence; two, one on each side of the front walk, spoke of a +noble opulence; two and a fountain were overwhelming. He +wondered in what obscure thickets that once proud herd now +grazed; and then he smiled, as through a leafy opening of +shrubbery he caught a glimpse of a last survivor, still loyally +alert, the haughty head thrown back in everlasting challenge and +one foreleg lifted, standing in a vast and shadowy backyard with +a clothesline fastened to its antlers. + Mr. Corliss remembered that backyard very well: it was an old +battlefield whereon he had conquered; and he wondered if "the +Lindley boys" still lived there, and if Richard Lindley would +hate him now as implacably as then. + A hundred yards farther on, he paused before a house more +familiar to him than any other, and gave it a moment's whimsical +attention, without emotion. + It was a shabby old brick structure, and it stood among the +gayest, the most flamboyant dwellings of all Corliss Street +like a bewildered tramp surrounded by carnival maskers. It held +place full in the course of the fury for demolition and +rebuilding, but remained unaltered--even unrepaired, one might +have thought--since the early seventies, when it was built. +There was a sagging cornice, and the nauseous brown which the +walls had years ago been painted was sooted to a repellent dinge, +so cracked and peeled that the haggard red bricks were exposed, +like a beggar through the holes in his coat. It was one of those +houses which are large without being commodious; its very tall, +very narrow windows, with their attenuated, rusty inside +shutters, boasting to the passerby of high ceilings but betraying +the miserly floor spaces. At each side of the front door was a +high and cramped bay-window, one of them insanely culminating in +a little six-sided tower of slate, and both of them girdled above +the basement windows by a narrow porch, which ran across the +front of the house and gave access to the shallow vestibule. +However, a pleasant circumstance modified the gloom of this +edifice and assured it a remnant of reserve and dignity in its +ill-considered old age: it stood back a fine hundred feet from +the highway, and was shielded in part by a friendly group of +maple trees and one glorious elm, hoary, robust, and majestic, a +veteran of the days when this was forest ground. + Mr. Corliss concluded his momentary pause by walking up the +broken cement path, which was hard beset by plantain-weed and the +long grass of the ill-kept lawn. Ascending the steps, he was +assailed by an odour as of vehement bananas, a diffusion from +some painful little chairs standing in the long, high, dim, +rather sorrowful hall disclosed beyond the open double doors. +They were stiff little chairs of an inconsequent, mongrel +pattern; armless, with perforated wooden seats; legs tortured by +the lathe to a semblance of buttons strung on a rod; and they had +that day received a streaky coat of a gilding preparation which +exhaled the olfactory vehemence mentioned. Their present station +was temporary, their purpose, as obviously, to dry; and they were +doing some incidental gilding on their own account, leaving blots +and splashes and sporadic little round footprints on the hardwood +floor. + The old-fashioned brass bell-handle upon the caller's right +drooped from its socket in a dead fag, but after comprehensive +manipulation on the part of the young man, and equal complaint on +its own, it was constrained to permit a dim tinkle remotely. +Somewhere in the interior a woman's voice, not young, sang a +repeated fragment of "Lead, Kindly Light," to the accompaniment +of a flapping dust-cloth, sounds which ceased upon a second +successful encounter with the bell. Ensued a silence, probably +to be interpreted as a period of whispered consultation out of +range; a younger voice called softly and urgently, "Laura!" and a +dark-eyed, dark-haired girl of something over twenty made her +appearance to Mr. Corliss. + At sight of her he instantly restored a thin gold card-case +to the pocket whence he was in the act of removing it. She +looked at him with only grave, impersonal inquiry; no +appreciative invoice of him was to be detected in her quiet eyes, +which may have surprised him, possibly the more because he was +aware there was plenty of appreciation in his own kindling +glance. She was very white and black, this lady. Tall, trim, +clear, she looked cool in spite of the black winter skirt she +wore, an effect helped somewhat, perhaps, by the crisp freshness +of her white waist, with its masculine collar and slim black tie, +and undoubtedly by the even and lustreless light ivory of her +skin, against which the strong black eyebrows and undulated +black hair were lined with attractive precision; but, most of +all, that coolness was the emanation of her undisturbed and +tranquil eyes. They were not phlegmatic: a continuing spark +glowed far within them, not ardently, but steadily and +inscrutably, like the fixed stars in winter. + Mr. Valentine Corliss, of Paris and Naples, removed his +white-ribboned straw hat and bowed as no one had ever bowed in +that doorway. This most vivid salutation--accomplished by adding +something to a rather quick inclination of the body from the +hips, with the back and neck held straight expressed deference +without affecting or inviting cordiality. It was an elaborate +little formality of a kind fancifully called "foreign," and +evidently habitual to the performer. + It produced no outward effect upon the recipient. Such +self-control is unusual. + "Is Mr. Madison at home? My name is Valentine Corliss." + "He is at home." She indicated an open doorway upon her +right. "Will you wait in there?" + "Thank you," said Mr. Corliss, passing within. "I shall +be----" He left the sentence unfinished, for he was already +alone, and at liberty to reflect upon the extraordinary +coolness of this cool young woman. + The room, with its closed blinds, was soothingly dark after +the riotous sun without, a grateful obscurity which was one of +two attractions discovered in it by Mr. Corliss while he waited. +It was a depressing little chamber, disproportionately high, +uncheered by seven chairs (each of a different family, but all +belonging to the same knobby species, and all upholstered a +repellent blue), a scratched "inlaid table," likewise knobby, and +a dangerous looking small sofa--turbulent furniture, warmly +harmonious, however, in a common challenge to the visitor to take +comfort in any of it. A once-gilt gas chandelier hung from the +distant ceiling, with three globes of frosted glass, but +undeniable evidence that five were intended; and two of the three +had been severely bitten. There was a hostile little coal-grate, +making a mouth under a mantel of imitation black marble, behind +an old blue-satin fire-screen upon which red cat-tails and an owl +over a pond had been roughly embroidered in high relief, this owl +motive being the inspiration of innumerable other owls reflected +in innumerable other ponds in the formerly silver moonlight with +which the walls were papered. Corliss thought he remembered +that in his boyhood, when it was known as "the parlour" (though +he guessed that the Madison family called it "the reception +room," now) this was the place where his aunt received callers +who, she justifiably hoped, would not linger. Altogether, it +struck him that it might be a good test-room for an alienist: no +incipient lunacy would remain incipient here. + There was one incongruity which surprised him--a wicker +waste-paper basket, so nonsensically out of place in this arid +cell, where not the wildest hare-brain could picture any one +coming to read or write, that he bestowed upon it a particular, +frowning attention, and so discovered the second attractive +possession of the room. A fresh and lovely pink rose, just +opening full from the bud, lay in the bottom of the basket. + There was a rustling somewhere in the house and a murmur, +above which a boy's voice became audible in emphatic but +undistinguishable complaint. A whispering followed, and a woman +exclaimed protestingly, "Cora!" And then a startlingly pretty +girl came carelessly into the room through the open door. + She was humming "Quand I' Amour Meurt" in a gay +preoccupation, and evidently sought something upon the table in +the centre of the room, for she continued her progress toward it +several steps before realizing the presence of a visitor. She +was a year or so younger than the girl who had admitted him, +fairer and obviously more plastic, more expressive, more +perishable, a great deal more insistently feminine; though it was +to be seen that they were sisters. This one had eyes almost as +dark as the other's, but these were not cool; they were sweet, +unrestful, and seeking; brilliant with a vivacious hunger: and +not Diana but huntresses more ardent have such eyes. Her hair +was much lighter than her sister's; it was the colour of dry +corn-silk in the sun; and she was the shorter by a head, rounder +everywhere and not so slender; but no dumpling: she was +exquisitely made. There was a softness about her: something of +velvet, nothing of mush. She diffused with her entrance a +radiance of gayety and of gentleness; sunlight ran with her. She +seemed the incarnation of a caressing smile. + She was point-device. Her close, white skirt hung from a +plainly embroidered white waist to a silken instep; and from the +crown of her charming head to the tall heels of her graceful +white suede slippers, heels of a sweeter curve than the waist +of a violin, she was as modern and lovely as this dingy old house +was belated and hideous. + Mr. Valentine Corliss spared the fraction of a second for +another glance at the rose in the waste-basket. + The girl saw him before she reached the table, gave a little +gasp of surprise, and halted with one hand carried prettily to +her breast. + "Oh!" she said impulsively; "I BEG your pardon. I didn't +know there was---- I was looking for a book I thought I----" + She stopped, whelmed with a breath-taking shyness, her eyes, +after one quick but condensed encounter with those of Mr. +Corliss, falling beneath exquisite lashes. Her voice was one to +stir all men: it needs not many words for a supremely beautiful +"speaking-voice" to be recognized for what it is; and this girl's +was like herself, hauntingly lovely. The intelligent young man +immediately realized that no one who heard it could ever forget +it. + "I see," she faltered, turning to leave the room; "it isn't +here--the book." + "There's something else of yours here," said Corliss. + "Is there?" She paused, hesitating at the door, looking at +him over her shoulder uncertainly. + "You dropped this rose." He lifted the rose from the +waste-basket and repeated the bow he had made at the front door. +This time it was not altogether wasted. + "I?" + "Yes. You lost it. It belongs to you." + "Yes--it does. How curious!" she said slowly. "How curious +it happened to be THERE!" She stepped to take it from him, +her eyes upon his in charming astonishment. "And how odd +that----" She stopped; then said quickly: + "How did you know it was MY rose?" + "Any one would know!" + Her expression of surprise was instantaneously merged in a +flash of honest pleasure and admiration, such as only an artist +may feel in the presence of a little masterpiece by a +fellow-craftsman. + Happily, anticlimax was spared them by the arrival of the +person for whom the visitor had asked at the door, and the young +man retained the rose in his hand. + Mr. Madison, a shapeless hillock with a large, harassed, red +face, evidently suffered from the heat: his gray hair was rumpled +back from a damp forehead; the sleeves of his black alpaca coat +were pulled up to the elbow above his uncuffed white +shirtsleeves; and he carried in one mottled hand the ruins of a +palm-leaf fan, in the other a balled wet handkerchief which +released an aroma of camphor upon the banana-burdened air. He +bore evidences of inadequate adjustment after a disturbed siesta, +but, exercising a mechanical cordiality, preceded himself into +the room by a genial half-cough and a hearty, "Well-well-well," +as if wishing to indicate a spirit of polite, even excited, +hospitality. + "I expected you might be turning up, after your letter," he +said, shaking hands. "Well, well, well! I remember you as a +boy. Wouldn't have known you, of course; but I expect you'll +find the town about as much changed as you are." + With a father's blindness to all that is really vital, he +concluded his greeting inconsequently: "Oh, this is my little +girl Cora." + "Run along, little girl," said the fat father. + His little girl's radiant glance at the alert visitor +imparted her thorough comprehension of all the old man's +absurdities, which had reached their climax in her dismissal. +Her parting look, falling from Corliss's face to the waste-basket +at his feet, just touched the rose in his hand as she passed +through the door. + + + +CHAPTER TWO + +Cora paused in the hall at a point about twenty feet from the +door, a girlish stratagem frequently of surprising advantage to +the practitioner; but the two men had begun to speak of the +weather. Suffering a momentary disappointment, she went on, +stepping silently, and passed through a door at the end of the +hall into a large and barren looking dining-room, stiffly and +skimpily furnished, but well-lighted, owing to the fact that one +end of it had been transformed into a narrow "conservatory," a +glass alcove now tenanted by two dried palms and a number of +vacant jars and earthen crocks. + Here her sister sat by an open window, repairing masculine +underwear; and a handsome, shabby, dirty boy of about thirteen +sprawled on the floor of the "conservatory" unloosing upon its +innocent, cracked, old black and white tiles a ghastly family of +snakes, owls, and visaged crescent moons, in orange, green, and +other loathsome chalks. As Cora entered from the hall, a +woman of fifty came in at a door opposite, and, a dust-cloth +retained under her left arm, an unsheathed weapon ready for +emergency, leaned sociably against the door-casing and continued +to polish a tablespoon with a bit of powdered chamois-skin. She +was tall and slightly bent; and, like the flat, old, silver spoon +in her hand, seemed to have been worn thin by use; yet it was +plain that the three young people in the room "got their looks" +from her. Her eyes, if tired, were tolerant and fond; and her +voice held its youth and something of the music of Cora's. + "What is he like?" She addressed the daughter by the window. + "Why don't you ask Coralie?" suggested the sprawling artist, +relaxing his hideous labour. He pronounced his sister's name +with intense bitterness. He called it "Cora-LEE," with an +implication far from subtle that his sister had at some time thus +Gallicized herself, presumably for masculine favour; and he was +pleased to receive tribute to his satire in a flash of dislike +from her lovely eyes. + "I ask Laura because it was Laura who went to the door, "Mrs. +Madison answered. "I do not ask Cora because Cora hasn't +seen him. Do I satisfy you, Hedrick?" + "`Cora hasn't seen him!'" the boy hooted mockingly. "She +hasn't? She was peeking out of the library shutters when he came +up the front walk, and she wouldn't let me go to the door; she +told Laura to go, but first she took the library waste-basket and +laid one o' them roses----" + "THOSE roses," said Cora sharply. "He WILL hang +around the neighbours' stables. I think you ought to do +something about it, mother." + "THEM roses!" repeated Hedrick fiercely. "One o' them +roses Dick Lindley sent her this morning. Laid it in the +waste-basket and sneaked it into the reception room for an excuse +to go galloping in and----" + "`Galloping'?" said Mrs. Madison gravely. + "It was a pretty bum excuse," continued the unaffected youth, +"but you bet your life you'll never beat our Cora-LEE when +there's a person in pants on the premises! It's sickening." He +rose, and performed something like a toe-dance, a supposed +imitation of his sister's mincing approach to the visitor. "Oh, +dear, I am such a little sweety! Here I am all alone just +reeking with Browning-and-Tennyson and thinking to myself about +such lovely things, and +walking around looking for my nice, pretty rose. Where can it +be? Oh heavens, Mister, are YOU here? Oh my, I never, never +thought that there was a MAN here! How you frighten me! See +what a shy little thing I am? You DO SEE, DON'T you, old +sweeticums? Ta, ta, here's papa. Remember me by that rose, +'cause it's just like me. Me and it's twins, you see, +cutie-sugar!" The diabolical boy then concluded with a reversion +to the severity of his own manner: "If she was MY daughter +I'd whip her!" + His indignation was left in the air, for the three ladies had +instinctively united against him, treacherously including his +private feud in the sex-war of the ages: Cora jumped lightly +upon the table and sat whistling and polishing the nails of one +hand upon the palm of another; Laura continued to sew without +looking up, and Mrs. Madison, conquering a tendency to laugh, +preserved a serene countenance and said ruminatively: + "They were all rather queer, the Corlisses." + Hedrick stared incredulously, baffled; but men must expect +these things, and this was no doubt a helpful item in his +education. + "I wonder if he wants to sell the house, said Mrs. Madison. + "I wish he would. Anything that would make father get out of +it!" Cora exclaimed. "I hope Mr. Corliss will burn it if he +doesn't sell it." + "He might want to live here himself." + "He!" Cora emitted a derisive outcry. + Her mother gave her a quick, odd look, in which there was a +real alarm. "What is he like, Cora?" + "Awfully foreign and distinguished!" + This brought Hedrick to confront her with a leap as of some +wild animal under a lash. He landed close to her; his face +awful. + "Princely, I should call him," said Cora, her enthusiasm +undaunted. "Distinctly princely!" + "Princely," moaned Hedrick. "Pe-rin-sley!" + "Hedrick!" Mrs. Madison reproved him automatically. "In what +way is he `foreign,' Cora?" + "Oh, every way." Cora let her glance rest dreamily upon the +goaded boy. "He has a splendid head set upon a magnificent +torso----" + "TORSO!" Hedrick whispered hoarsely. + "Tall, a glorious figure--like a young guardsman's." Madness +was gathering in her brother's eyes; and observing it with +quiet pleasure, she added: "One sees immediately he has the +grand manner, the bel air." + Hedrick exploded. "`BEL AIR'!" he screamed, and began to +jump up and down, tossing his arms frantically, and gasping with +emotion. "Oh, bel air! Oh, blah! `Henry Esmond!' Been readin' +`Henry Esmond!' Oh, you be-yoo-tiful Cora-Beatrix-a-LEE! +Magganifisent torso! GullO-rious figgi-your! Bel air! Oh, +slush! Oh, luv-a-ly slush!" He cast himself convulsively upon +the floor, full length. "Luv-a-ly, LUV-a-ly slush!" + "He is thirty, I should say," continued Cora, thoughtfully. +"Yes--about thirty. A strong, keen face, rather tanned. He's +between fair and dark----" + Hedrick raised himself to the attitude of the "Dying Gaul." +"And with `hair slightly silvered at the temples!' AIN'T his +hair slightly silvered at the temples?" he cried imploringly. +"Oh, sister, in pity's name let his hair be slightly silvered at +the temples? Only three grains of corn, your Grace; my children +are starving!" + He collapsed again, laid his face upon his extended arms, and +writhed. + "He has rather wonderful eyes," said Cora. "They seem to +look right through you." + "Slush, slush, luv-a-ly slush," came in muffled tones from +the floor. + "And he wears his clothes so well--so differently! You feel +at once that he's not a person, but a personage." + Hedrick sat up, his eyes closed, his features contorted as +with agony, and chanted, impromptu: + + "Slush, slush, luv-a-ly, slush! + Le'ss all go a-swimmin' in a dollar's worth o' mush. + Slush in the morning, slush at night, + If I don't get my slush I'm bound to get tight!" + + "Hedrick!" said his mother. + "Altogether I should say that Mr. Valentine Corliss looks as +if he lived up to his name," Cora went on tranquilly. "Valentine +Corliss of Corliss Street--I think I rather like the sound of +that name." She let her beautiful voice linger upon it, +caressingly. "Valentine Corliss." + Hedrick opened his eyes, allowed his countenance to resume +its ordinary proportions, and spoke another name slowly and with +honeyed thoughtfulness: + "Ray Vilas." + This was the shot that told. Cora sprang down from the table +with an exclamation. + Hedrick, subduing elation, added gently, in a mournful +whisper: + "POOR old Dick Lindley!" + His efforts to sting his sister were completely successful at +last: Cora was visibly agitated, and appealed hotly to her +mother. "Am I to bear this kind of thing all my life? Aren't +you EVER going to punish his insolence?" + "Hedrick, Hedrick!" said Mrs. Madison sadly. + Cora turned to the girl by the window with a pathetic +gesture. "Laura----" she said, and hesitated. + Laura Madison looked up into her sister's troubled eyes. + "I feel so morbid," said Cora, flushing a little and glancing +away. "I wish----" She stopped. + The silent Laura set aside her work, rose and went out of the +room. Her cheeks, too, had reddened faintly, a circumstance +sharply noted by the terrible boy. He sat where he was, asprawl, +propped by his arms behind him, watching with acute concentration +the injured departure of Cora, following her sister. At the +door, Cora, without pausing, threw him a look over her +shoulder: a full-eyed shot of frankest hatred. + A few moments later, magnificent chords sounded through the +house. The piano was old, but tuned to the middle of the note, +and the keys were swept by a master hand. The wires were not +hammered; they were touched knowingly as by the player's own +fingers, and so they sang--and from out among the chords there +stole an errant melody. This was not "piano-playing" and not a +pianist's triumphant nimbleness--it was music. Art is the +language of a heart that knows how to speak, and a heart that +knew how was speaking here. What it told was something +immeasurably wistful, something that might have welled up in the +breast of a young girl standing at twilight in an April orchard. +It was the inexpressible made into sound, an improvisation by a +master player. + "You hear what she's up to?" said Hedrick, turning his head +at last. But his mother had departed. + He again extended himself flat upon the floor, face downward, +this time as a necessary preliminary to rising after a manner of +his own invention. Mysteriously he became higher in the middle, +his body slowly forming first a round and then a pointed +arch, with forehead, knees, and elbows touching the floor. A +brilliantly executed manoeuvre closed his Gothic period, set him +upright and upon his feet; then, without ostentation, he pro- +ceeded to the kitchen, where he found his mother polishing a +sugar-bowl. + He challenged her with a damnatory gesture in the direction +of the music. "You hear what Cora's up to? " + Mrs. Madison's expression was disturbed; she gave her son a +look almost of appeal, and said, gently: + "I believe there's nothing precisely criminal in her getting +Laura to play for her. Laura's playing always soothes her when +she feels out of sorts--and--you weren't very considerate of her, +Hedrick. You upset her." + "Mentioning Ray Vilas, you mean?" he demanded. + "You weren't kind." + "She deserves it. Look at her! YOU know why she's got +Laura at the piano now." + "It's--it's because you worried her," his mother faltered +evasively. "Besides, it is very hot, and Cora isn't as strong as +she looks. She said she felt morbid and----" + "Morbid? Blah!" interrupted the direct boy. "She's started +after this Corliss man just like she did for Vilas. If I was +Dick Lindley I wouldn't stand for Cora's----" + "Hedrick!" His mother checked his outburst pleadingly. +"Cora has so much harder time than the other girls; they're all +so much better off. They seem to get everything they want, just +by asking: nice clothes and jewellery--and automobiles. That +seems to make a great difference nowadays; they all seem to have +automobiles. We're so dreadfully poor, and Cora has to struggle +so for what good times she----" + "Her?" the boy jibed bitterly. "I don't see her doing any +particular struggling." He waved his hand in a wide gesture. +"She takes it ALL!" + "There, there!" the mother said, and, as if feeling the need +of placating this harsh judge, continued gently: "Cora isn't +strong, Hedrick, and she does have a hard time. Almost every one +of the other girls in her set is at the seashore or somewhere +having a gay summer. You don't realize, but it's mortifying to +have to be the only one to stay at home, with everybody knowing +it's because your father can't afford to send her. And this +house is so hopeless," Mrs. Madison went on, extending her +plea hopefully; "it's impossible to make it attractive, but Cora +keeps trying and trying: she was all morning on her knees gilding +those chairs for the music-room, poor child, and----" + "`Music-room'!" sneered the boy. "Gilt chairs! All +show-off! That's all she ever thinks about. It's all there is +to Cora, just show-off, so she'll get a string o' fellows chasin' +after her. She's started for this Corliss just exactly the way +she did for Ray Vilas!" + "Hedrick!" + "Just look at her!" he cried vehemently. "Don't you know +she's tryin' to make this Corliss think it's HER playin' the +piano right now?" + "Oh, no----" + "Didn't she do that with Ray Vilas?" he demanded quickly. +"Wasn't that exactly what she did the first time he ever came +here--got Laura to play and made him think it was HER? +Didn't she?" + "Oh--just in fun." Mrs. Madison's tone lacked conviction; +she turned, a little confusedly, from the glaring boy and fumbled +among the silver on the kitchen table. "Besides--she told him +afterward that it was Laura." + "He walked in on her one day when she was battin' away at the +piano herself with her back to the door. Then she pretended it +had been a joke, and he was so far gone by that time he didn't +care. He's crazy, anyway," added the youth, casually. "Who is +this Corliss?" + "He owns this house. His family were early settlers and used +to be very prominent, but they're all dead except this one. His +mother was a widow; she went abroad to live and took him with her +when he was about your age, and I don't think he's ever been back +since." + "Did he use to live in this house?" + "No; an aunt of his did. She left it to him when she died, +two years ago. Your father was agent for her." + "You think this Corliss wants to sell it?" + "It's been for sale all the time he's owned it. That's why +we moved here; it made the rent low." + "Is he rich?" + "They used to have money, but maybe it's all spent. It +seemed to me he might want to raise money on the house, because I +don't see any other reason that could bring him back here. He's +already mortgaged it pretty heavily, your father told me. I +don't----" Mrs. Madison paused abruptly, her eyes widening at a +dismaying thought. "Oh, I do hope your father will know better +than to ask him to stay to dinner!" + Hedrick's expression became cryptic. "Father won't ask him," +he said. "But I'll bet you a thousand dollars he stays!" + The mother followed her son's thought and did not seek to +elicit verbal explanation of the certainty which justified so +large a venture. "Oh, I hope not," she said. "Sarah's +threatening to leave, anyway; and she gets so cross if there's +extra cooking on wash-days." + "Well, Sarah'll have to get cross," said the boy grimly; "and +_I_'ll have to plug out and go for a quart of brick ice-cream +and carry it home in all this heat; and Laura and you'll have to +stand over the stove with Sarah; and father'll have to change his +shirt; and we'll all have to toil and moil and sweat and suffer +while Cora-lee sits out on the front porch and talks +toodle-do-dums to her new duke. And then she'll have YOU go +out and kid him along while----" + "HEDRICK!" + "Yes, you will!--while she gets herself all dressed and +powdered up again. After that, she'll do her share of the work: +she'll strain her poor back carryin' Dick Lindley's flowers down +the back stairs and stickin' 'em in a vase over a hole in the +tablecloth that Laura hasn't had time to sew up. You wait and +see!" + The gloomy realism of this prophecy was not without effect +upon the seer's mother. "Oh, no!" she exclaimed, protestingly. +"We really can't manage it. I'm sure Cora won't want to ask +him----" + "You'll see!" + "No; I'm sure she wouldn't think of it, but if she does I'll +tell her we can't. We really can't, to-day." + Her son looked pityingly upon her. "She ought to be MY +daughter," he said, the sinister implication all too +plain;--"just about five minutes!" + With that, he effectively closed the interview and left her. + He returned to his abandoned art labours in the +"conservatory," and meditatively perpetrated monstrosities upon +the tiles for the next half-hour, at the end of which he +concealed his box of chalks, with an anxiety possibly not +unwarranted, beneath the sideboard; and made his way toward the +front door, first glancing, unseen, into the kitchen where +his mother still pursued the silver. He walked through the hall +on tiptoe, taking care to step upon the much stained and worn +strip of "Turkish" carpet, and not upon the more resonant wooden +floor. The music had ceased long since. + The open doorway was like a brilliantly painted picture hung +upon the darkness of the hall, though its human centre of +interest was no startling bit of work, consisting of Mr. Madison +pottering aimlessly about the sun-flooded, unkempt lawn, fanning +himself, and now and then stooping to pull up one of the +thousands of plantain-weeds that beset the grass. With him the +little spy had no concern; but from a part of the porch out of +sight from the hall came Cora's exquisite voice and the light and +pleasant baritone of the visitor. Hedrick flattened himself in a +corner just inside the door. + "I should break any engagement whatsoever if I had one," Mr. +Corliss was saying with what the eavesdropper considered an +offensively "foreign" accent and an equally unjustifiable +gallantry; "but of course I haven't: I am so utterly a stranger +here. Your mother is immensely hospitable to wish you to ask me, +and I'll be only too glad to stay. Perhaps after dinner +you'll be very, very kind and play again? Of course you know how +remarkable such----" + "Oh, just improvising," Cora tossed off, carelessly, with a +deprecatory ripple of laughter. "It's purely with the mood, you +see. I can't make myself do things. No; I fancy I shall not +play again today." + There was a moment's silence. + "Shan't I fasten that in your buttonhole for you," said Cora. + "You see how patiently I've been awaiting the offer!" + There was another little silence; and the listener was able +to construct a picture (possibly in part from an active memory) +of Cora's delicate hands uplifted to the gentleman's lapel and +Cora's eyes for a moment likewise uplifted. + "Yes, one has moods," she said, dreamily. "I am ALL +moods. I think you are too, Mr. Corliss. You LOOK moody. +Aren't you?" + A horrible grin might have been seen to disfigure the shadow +in the corner just within the doorway. + + + +CHAPTER THREE + +It was cooler outdoors, after dinner, in the dusk of that +evening; nevertheless three members of the Madison family denied +themselves the breeze, and, as by a tacitly recognized and +habitual house-rule, so disposed themselves as to afford the most +agreeable isolation for the younger daughter and the guest, who +occupied wicker chairs upon the porch. The mother and father sat +beneath a hot, gas droplight in the small "library"; Mrs. Madison +with an evening newspaper, her husband with "King Solomon's +Mines"; and Laura, after crisply declining an urgent request from +Hedrick to play, had disappeared upstairs. The inimical lad +alone was inspired for the ungrateful role of duenna. + He sat upon the topmost of the porch steps with the air of +being permanently implanted; leaning forward, elbows on knees, +cheeks on palms, in a treacherous affectation of profound +reverie; and his back (all of him that was plainly visible in +the hall light) tauntingly close to a delicate foot which +would, God wot! willingly have launched him into the darkness +beyond. It was his dreadful pleasure to understand wholly the +itching of that shapely silk and satin foot. + The gas-light from the hall laid a broad orange path to the +steps--Cora and her companion sat just beyond it, his whiteness +gray, and she a pale ethereality in the shadow. She wore an +evening gown that revealed a vague lilac through white, and +shimmered upon her like a vapour. She was very quiet; and there +was a wan sweetness about her, an exhalation of wistfulness. +Cora, in the evening, was more like a rose than ever. She was +fragrant in the dusk. The spell she cast was an Undine's: it was +not to be thought so exquisite a thing as she could last. And +who may know how she managed to say what she did in the silence +and darkness? For it was said--without words, without touch, +even without a look--as plainly as if she had spoken or written +the message: "If I am a rose, I am one to be worn and borne +away. Are you the man?" + With the fall of night, the street they faced had become +still, save for an infrequent squawk of irritation on the +part of one of the passing automobiles, gadding for the most part +silently, like fireflies. But after a time a strolling trio of +negroes came singing along the sidewalk. + + "In the evening, by the moonlight, you could hear + those banjos ringing; + In the evening, by the moonlight, you could hear + those darkies singing. + How the ole folks would injoy it; they would sit + all night an' lis-sun, + As we sang I-I-N the evening BY-Y-Y the +moonlight.' + + "Ah, THAT takes me back!" exclaimed Corliss. "That's as +it used to be. I might be a boy again." + "And I suppose this old house has many memories for you?" +said Cora, softly. + "Not very many. My, old-maid aunt didn't like me overmuch, I +believe; and I wasn't here often. My mother and I lived far down +the street. A big apartment-house stands there now, I noticed as +I was walking out here this afternoon--the `Verema,' it is +called, absurdly enough!" + "Ray Vilas lives there," volunteered Hedrick, not altering +his position. + "Vilas?" said the visitor politely, with a casual +recollection that the name had been once or twice emphasized +by the youth at dinner. "I don't remember Vilas among the old +names here." + "It wasn't, I guess," said Hedrick. "Ray Vilas has only been +here about two years. He came from Kentucky." + "A great friend of yours, I suppose." + "He ain't a boy," said Hedrick, and returned to silence +without further explanation. + "How cool and kind the stars are to-night," said Cora, very +gently. + She leaned forward from her chair, extending a white arm +along the iron railing of the porch; bending toward Corliss, and +speaking toward him and away from Hedrick in as low a voice as +possible, probably entertaining a reasonable hope of not being +overheard. + "I love things that are cool and kind," she said. I love +things that are cool and strong. I love iron." She moved her +arm caressingly upon the railing. "I love its cool, smooth +touch. Any strong life must have iron in it. I like iron in +men." + She leaned a very little closer to him. + "Have you iron in you, Mr. Corliss?" she asked. + At these words the frayed edge of Hedrick's broad white +collar was lifted perceptibly from his coat, as if by a +shudder passing over the back and shoulders beneath. + "If I have not," answered Corliss in a low voice, I will +have--now!" + "Tell me about yourself," she said. + "Dear lady," he began--and it was an effective beginning, for +a sigh of pleasure parted her lips as he spoke--"there is nothing +interesting to tell. I have spent a very commonplace life." + "I think not. You shouldn't call any life commonplace that +has escaped THIS!" The lovely voice was all the richer for +the pain that shook it now. "This monotony, this unending desert +of ashes, this death in life!" + "This town, you mean?" + "This prison, I mean! Everything. Tell me what lies outside +of it. You can." + "What makes you think I can?" + "I don't need to answer that. You understand perfectly." + Valentine Corliss drew in his breath with a sound murmurous +of delight, and for a time they did not speak. + "Yes," he said, finally, "I think I do." + "There are meetings in the desert," he went on, slowly. +"A lonely traveller finds another at a spring, sometimes." + "And sometimes they find that they speak the same language?" + His answer came, almost in a whisper: + "`Even as you and I.'" + "`Even as you and I,'" she echoed, even more faintly. + "Yes." + Cora breathed rapidly in the silence that followed; she had +every appearance of a woman deeply and mysteriously stirred. Her +companion watched her keenly in the dusk, and whatever the +reciprocal symptoms of emotion he may have exhibited, they were +far from tumultuous, bearing more likeness to the quiet +satisfaction of a good card-player taking what may prove to be a +decisive trick. + After a time she leaned back in her chair again, and began to +fan herself slowly. + "You have lived in the Orient, haven't you, Mr. Corliss?" she +said in an ordinary tone. + "Not lived. I've been East once or twice. I spend a greater +part of the year at Posilipo." + "Where is that?" + "On the fringe of Naples." + "Do you live in a hotel?" + "No." A slight surprise sounded in his voice. "I have a +villa there." + "Do you know what that seems to me?" Cora asked gravely, +after a pause; then answered herself, after another: "Like +magic. Like a strange, beautiful dream." + "Yes, it is beautiful," he said. + "Then tell me: What do you do there?" + "I spend a lot of time on the water in a boat." + "Sailing?" + "On sapphires and emeralds and turquoises and rubies, melted +and blown into waves." + "And you go yachting over that glory?" + "Fishing with my crew--and loafing." + "But your boat is really a yacht, isn't it?" + "Oh, it might be called anything," he laughed. + "And your sailors are Italian fishermen?" + Hedrick slew a mosquito upon his temple, smiting himself +hard. "No, they're Chinese!" he muttered hoarsely. + "They're Neapolitans," said Corliss. + "Do they wear red sashes and earrings?" asked Cora. + "One of them wears earrings and a derby hat!" + "Ah!" she protested, turning to him again. "You don't tell +me. You let me cross-question you, but you don't tell me things! +Don't you see? I want to know what LIFE is! I want to know +of strange seas, of strange people, of pain and of danger, of +great music, of curious thoughts! What are the Neapolitan women +like?" + "They fade early." + She leaned closer to him. "Before the fading have you--have +you loved--many?" + "All the pretty ones I ever saw, he answered gayly, but with +something in his tone (as there was in hers) which implied that +all the time they were really talking of things other than those +spoken. Yet here this secret subject seemed to come near the +surface. + She let him hear a genuine little snap of her teeth. I +THOUGHT you were like that!" + He laughed. "Ah, but you were sure to see it!" + "You could 'a' seen a Neapolitan woman yesterday, Cora," said +Hedrick, obligingly, "if you'd looked out the front window. She +was working a hurdy-gurdy up and down this neighbourhood all +afternoon." He turned genially to face his sister, and +added: "Ray Vilas used to say there were lots of pretty girls in +Lexington." + Cora sprang to her feet. "You're not smoking," she said to +Corliss hurriedly, as upon a sudden discovery. "Let me get you +some matches." + She had entered the house before he could protest, and +Hedrick, looking down the hall, was acutely aware that she dived +desperately into the library. But, however tragic the cry for +justice she uttered there, it certainly was not prolonged; and +the almost instantaneous quickness of her reappearance upon the +porch, with matches in her hand, made this one of the occasions +when her brother had to admit that in her own line Cora was a +miracle. + "So thoughtless of me," she said cheerfully, resuming her +seat. She dropped the matches into Mr. Corliss's hand with a +fleeting touch of her finger-tips upon his palm. "Of course you +wanted to smoke. I can't think why I didn't realize it before. +I must have----" + A voice called from within, commanding in no, uncertain +tones. + "Hedrick! I should like to see you! Hedrick rose, and, +looking neither to the right nor, to the left, went stonily +into the house, and appeared before the powers. + "Call me?" he inquired with the air of cheerful readiness to +proceed upon any errand, no matter how difficult. + Mr. Madison countered diplomacy with gloom. + "I don't know what to do with you. Why can't you let your +sister alone?" + "Has Laura been complaining of me?" + "Oh, Hedrick!" said Mrs. Madison. + Hedrick himself felt the justice of her reproof: his +reference to Laura was poor work, he knew. He hung his head and +began to scrape the carpet with the side of his shoe. + "Well, what'd Cora say I been doing to her?" + "You know perfectly well what you've been doing," said Mr. +Madison sharply. + "Nothing at all; just sitting on the steps. What'd she +SAY?" + His father evidently considered it wiser not to repeat the +text of accusation. "You know what you did," he said heavily. + "Oho!" Hedrick's eyes became severe, and his sire's evasively +shifted from them. + "You keep away from the porch," said the, father, uneasily. + "You mean what I said about Ray Vilas?" asked the boy. + Both parents looked uncomfortable, and Mr. Madison, turning a +leaf in his book, gave a mediocre imitation of an austere person +resuming his reading after an impertinent interruption. + "That's what you mean," said the boy accusingly. "Ray +Vilas!" + "Just you keep away from that porch." + "Because I happened to mention Ray Vilas?" demanded Hedrick. + "You let your sister alone." + "I got a right to know what she said, haven't I?" + There was no response, which appeared to satisfy Hedrick +perfectly. Neither parent met his glance; the mother troubled +and the father dogged, while the boy rejoiced sternly in some +occult triumph. He inflated his scant chest in pomp and hurled +at the defeated pair the well-known words: + "I wish she was MY daughter--about five minutes!" + New sounds from without--men's voices in greeting, and a +ripple of response from Cora somewhat lacking in +enthusiasm--afforded Mr. Madison unmistakable relief, and an +errand upon which to send his deadly offspring. + Hedrick, after a reconnaissance in the hall, obeyed at +leisure. Closing the library door nonchalantly behind him, he +found himself at the foot of a flight of unillumined back stairs, +where his manner underwent a swift alteration, for here was an +adventure to be gone about with ceremony. "Ventre St. Gris!" he +muttered hoarsely, and loosened the long rapier in the shabby +sheath at his side. For, with the closing of the door, he had +become a Huguenot gentleman, over forty and a little grizzled +perhaps, but modest and unassuming; wiry, alert, lightning-quick, +with a wrist of steel and a heart of gold; and he was about to +ascend the stairs of an unknown house at Blois in total darkness. +He went up, crouching, ready for anything, without a footfall, +not even causing a hideous creak; and gained the top in safety. +Here he turned into an obscure passage, and at the end of it +beheld, through an open door, a little room in which a dark-eyed +lady sat writing in a book by the light of an oil lamp. + The wary Huguenot remained in the shadow and observed her. + Laura was writing in an old ledger she had found in the +attic, blank and unused. She had rebound it herself in heavy +gray leather; and fitted it with a tiny padlock and key. She +wore the key under her dress upon a very thin silver chain round +her neck. Upon the first page of the book was written a date, +now more than a year past, the month was June--and beneath it: + + "Love came to me to-day." + + Nothing more was written upon that page. + + + +CHAPTER FOUR + +Laura, at this writing, looked piquantly unfamiliar to her +brother: her eyes were moist and bright; her cheeks were flushed +and as she bent low, intently close to the book, a loosened wavy +strand of her dark hair almost touched the page. Hedrick had +never before seen her wearing an expression so "becoming" as the +eager and tremulous warmth of this; though sometimes, at the +piano, she would play in a reverie which wrought such glamour +about her that even a brother was obliged to consider her rather +handsome. She looked more than handsome now, so strangely +lovely, in fact, that his eyes watered painfully with the +protracted struggle to read a little of the writing in her book +before she discovered him. + He gave it up at last, and lounged forward blinking, with the +air of finding it sweet to do nothing. + "Whatch' writin'?" he asked in simple carelessness. + At the first sound of his movement she closed the book in a +flash; then, with a startled, protective gesture, +extended her arms over it, covering it. + "What is it, Hedrick?" she asked, breathlessly. + "What's the padlock for?" + "Nothing," she panted. "What is it you want?" + "You writin' poetry?" + Laura's eyes dilated; she looked dangerous. + "Oh, I don't care about your old book," said Hedrick, with an +amused nonchalance Talleyrand might have admired. "There's +callers, and you have to come down." + "Who sent you?" + "A man I've often noticed around the house," he replied +blightingly. "You may have seen him--I think his name's Madison. +His wife and he both sent for you." + One of Laura's hands instinctively began to arrange her hair, +but the other remained upon the book. "Who is it calling?" + "Richard Lindley and that Wade Trumble." + Laura rose, standing between her brother and the table. +"Tell mother I will come down." + Hedrick moved a little nearer, whereupon, observing his eye, +she put her right hand behind her upon the book. She was not +deceived, and boys are not only superb strategic actors +sometimes, but calamitously quick. Appearing to be unaware of +her careful defence, he leaned against the wall and crossed his +feet in an original and interesting manner. + "Of course YOU understand," he said cosily. "Cora wants +to keep this Corliss in a corner of the porch where she can coo +at him; so you and mother'll have to raise a ballyhoo for Dick +Lindley and that Wade Trumble. It'd been funny if Dick hadn't +noticed anybody was there and kissed her. What on earth does he +want to stay engaged to her for, anyway?" + "You don't know that she is engaged to Mr. Lindley, Hedrick." + "Get out!" he hooted. "What's the use talking like that to +me? A blind mackerel could see she's let poor old Lindley think +he's High Man with her these last few months; but he'll have to +hit the pike now, I reckon, 'cause this Corliss is altogether too +pe-rin-sley for Dick's class. Lee roy est mort. Vive lee roy!" + "Hedrick, won't you please run along? I want to change my +dress." + "What for? There was company for dinner and you didn't +change then." + Laura's flushed cheeks flushed deeper, and in her confusion +she answered too quickly. "I only have one evening gown. I--of +course I can't wear it every night." + "Well, then," he returned triumphantly, "what do you want to +put it on now for?" + "PLEASE run along, Hedrick," she pleaded. + "You didn't for this Corliss," he persisted sharply. You +know Dick Lindley couldn't see anybody but Cora to save his life, +and I don't suppose there's a girl on earth fool enough to dress +up for that Wade Trum----" + "Hedrick!" Laura's voice rang with a warning which he +remembered to have heard upon a few previous occasions when she +had easily proved herself physically stronger than he. "Go and +tell mother I'm coming," she said. + He began to whistle "Beulah Land" as he went, but, with the +swift closing of the door behind him, abandoned that pathetically +optimistic hymn prematurely, after the third bar. + Twenty minutes later, when Laura came out and went +downstairs, a fine straight figure in her black evening gown, the +Sieur de Marsac--that hard-bitten Huguenot, whose middle-aged +shabbiness was but the outward and deceptive seeming of the +longest head and the best sword in France--emerged cautiously +from the passageway and stood listening until her footsteps were +heard descending the front stairs. Nevertheless, the most +painstaking search of her room, a search as systematic as it was +feverish, failed to reveal where she had hidden the book. + He returned wearily to the porch. + A prophet has always been supposed to take some pleasure, +perhaps morbid, in seeing his predictions fulfilled; and it may +have been a consolation to the gloomy heart of Hedrick, sorely +injured by Laura's offensive care of her treasure, to find the +grouping upon the porch as he had foretold: Cora and Mr. Corliss +sitting a little aloof from the others, far enough to permit +their holding an indistinct and murmurous conversation of their +own. Their sequestration, even by so short a distance, gave them +an appearance of intimacy which probably accounted for the rather +absent greeting bestowed by Mr. Lindley upon the son of the +house, who met him with some favour. + This Richard Lindley was a thin, friendly looking young man +with a pleasing, old-fashioned face which suggested that if +he were minded to be portrayed it should be by the daguerreotype, +and that a high, black stock would have been more suitable to him +than his businesslike, modern neck-gear. He had fine eyes, which +seemed habitually concerned with faraway things, though when he +looked at Cora they sparkled; however, it cannot be said that the +sparkling continued at its brightest when his glance wandered (as +it not infrequently did this evening) from her lovely head to the +rose in Mr. Corliss's white coat. + Hedrick, resuming a position upon the top step between the +two groups, found the conversation of the larger annoying because +it prevented him from hearing that of the smaller. It was +carried on for the greater part by his mother and Mr. Trumble; +Laura sat silent between these two; and Lindley's mood was +obviously contemplative. Mr. Wade Trumble, twenty-six, small, +earnest, and already beginning to lose his hair, was talkative +enough. + He was one of those people who are so continuously aggressive +that they are negligible. "What's the matter here? Nobody pays +any attention to me. I'M important!" He might have had that +legend engraved on his card, it spoke from everything else +that was his: face, voice, gesture--even from his clothes, +for they also clamoured for attention without receiving it. Worn +by another man, their extravagance of shape and shade might have +advertised a self-sacrificing effort for the picturesque; but +upon Mr. Trumble they paradoxically confirmed an impression that +he was well off and close. Certainly this was the impression +confirmed in the mind of the shrewdest and most experienced +observer on that veranda. The accomplished Valentine Corliss was +quite able to share Cora's detachment satisfactorily, and be very +actively aware of other things at the same time. For instance: +Richard Lindley's preoccupation had neither escaped him nor +remained unconnected in his mind with that gentleman's somewhat +attentive notice of the present position of a certain rose. + Mr. Trumble took up Mrs. Madison's placid weather talk as if +it had been a flaunting challenge; he made it a matter of +conscience and for argument; for he was a doughty champion, it +appeared, when nothings were in question, one of those stern men +who will have accuracy in the banal, insisting upon portent in +talk meant to be slid over as mere courteous sound. + "I don't know about that, now," he said with severe emphasis. +"I don't know about that at all. I can't say I agree with you. +In fact, I do not agree with you: it was hotter in the early part +of July, year before last, than it has been at any time this +summer. Several degrees hotter--several degrees." + "I fear I must beg to differ with you," he said, catching the +poor lady again, a moment later. "I beg to differ decidedly. +Other places get a great deal more heat. Look at Egypt." + "Permit me to disagree, he interrupted her at once, when she +pathetically squirmed to another subject. "There's more than +one side to this matter. You are looking at this matter from a +totally wrong angle. . . . Let me inform you that +statistics. . . ." Mrs. Madison's gentle voice was no more than +just audible in the short intervals he permitted; a blind +listener would have thought Mr. Trumble at the telephone. +Hedrick was thankful when his mother finally gave up altogether +the display of her ignorance, inaccuracy, and general +misinformation, and Trumble talked alone. That must have been +the young man's object; certainly he had struggled for it; and so +it must have pleased him. He talked on and on and on; he +passed from one topic to another with no pause; swinging over the +gaps with a "Now you take," or, "And that reminds me," filling +many a vacancy with "So-and-so and so-and-so," and other +stencils, while casting about for material to continue. +Everything was italicized, the significant and the trivial, to +the same monotone of emphasis. Death and shoe-laces were all the +same to him. + Anything was all the same to him so long as he talked. + Hedrick's irritation was gradually dispelled; and, becoming +used to the sound, he found it lulling; relaxed his attitude and +drowsed; Mr. Lindley was obviously lost in a reverie; Mrs. +Madison, her hand shading her eyes, went over her market-list for +the morrow and otherwise set her house in order; Laura alone sat +straight in her chair; and her face was toward the vocalist, but +as she was in deep shadow her expression could not be guessed. +However, one person in that group must have listened with genuine +pleasure--else why did he talk? + It was the returned native whose departure at last rang the +curtain on the monologue. The end of the long sheltered +seclusion of Cora and her companion was a whispered word. He +spoke it first: + "To-morrow?" + "To-morrow." + Cora gave a keen, quick, indrawn sigh--not of sorrow--and +sank back in her chair, as he touched her hand in farewell and +rose to go. She remained where she was, motionless and silent in +the dark, while he crossed to Mrs. Madison, and prefaced a +leave-taking unusually formal for these precincts with his +mannered bow. He shook hands with Richard Lindley, asking +genially: + "Do you still live where you did--just below here?" + "Yes." + "When I passed by there this afternoon, said Corliss, "it +recalled a stupendous conflict we had, once upon a time; but I +couldn't remember the cause." + "I remember the cause," said Mr. Lindley, but, stopping +rather short, omitted to state it. "At all events, it was +settled." + "Yes," said the other quietly. "You whipped me." + "Did I so?" Corliss laughed gayly. "We mustn't let it happen +again!" + Mr. Trumble joined the parting guest, making simultaneous +adieus with unmistakable elation. Mr. Trumble's dreadful +entertainment had made it a happy evening for him. + As they went down the steps together, the top of his head +just above the level of his companion's shoulder, he lifted to +Corliss a searching gaze like an actor's hopeful scrutiny of a +new acquaintance; and before they reached the street his bark +rang eagerly on the stilly night: "Now THERE is a point on +which I beg to differ with you. . . ." + Mrs. Madison gave Lindley her hand. "I think I'll go in. +Good-night, Richard. Come, Hedrick!" + Hedrick rose, groaning, and batted his eyes painfully as he +faced the hall light. "What'd you and this Corliss fight about?" +he asked, sleepily. + "Nothing," said Lindley. + "You said you remembered." + "Oh, I remember a lot of useless things." + "Well, what was it? I want to know what you fought about." + "Come, Hedrick," repeated his mother, setting a gently urgent +hand on his shoulder." + "I won't," said the boy impatiently, shaking her off and +growing suddenly very wideawake and determined. "I won't +move a step till he tells me what they fought about. Not a +step!" + "Well--it was about a `show.' We were only boys, you +know--younger than you, perhaps." + "A circus?" + "A boy-circus he and my brother got up in our yard. I wasn't +in it." + "Well, what did you fight about?" + "I thought Val Corliss wasn't quite fair to my brother. +That's all." + "No, it isn't! How wasn't he fair?" + "They sold tickets to the other boys; and I thought my +brother didn't get his share." + "This Corliss kept it all?" + "Oh, something like that," said Lindley, laughing. + "Probably I was in the wrong." + "And he licked you?" + "All over the place!" + "I wish I'd seen it," said Hedrick, not unsympathetically, +but as a sportsman. And he consented to be led away. + Laura had been standing at the top of the steps looking down +the street, where Corliss and his brisk companion had emerged +momentarily from deep shadows under the trees into the +illumination of a swinging arc-lamp at the corner. They dis- +appeared; and she turned, and, smiling, gave the delaying guest +her hand in good-night. + His expression, which was somewhat troubled, changed to one +of surprise as her face came into the light, for it was +transfigured. Deeply flushed, her eyes luminous, she wore that +shining look Hedrick had seen as she wrote in her secret book. + "Why, Laura!" said Lindley, wondering. + She said good-night again, and went in slowly. As she +reached the foot of the stairs, she heard him moving a chair upon +the porch, and Cora speaking sharply: + "Please don't sit close to me!" There was a sudden +shrillness in the voice of honey, and the six words were run so +rapidly together they seemed to form but one. After a moment +Cora added, with a deprecatory ripple of laughter not quite free +from the same shrillness: + "You see, Richard, it's so--it's so hot, to-night. + + + + +CHAPTER FIVE + +Half an hour later, when Lindley had gone, Cora closed the front +doors in a manner which drew an immediate cry of agony from the +room where her father was trying to sleep. She stood on tiptoe +to turn out the gas-light in the hall; but for a time the key +resisted the insufficient pressure of her finger-tips: the little +orange flame, with its black-green crescent over the armature, so +maliciously like the "eye" of a peacock feather, limned the +exquisite planes of the upturned face; modelled them with soft +and regular shadows; painted a sullen loveliness. The key turned +a little, but not enough; and she whispered to herself a +monosyllable not usually attributed to the vocabulary of a damsel +of rank. Next moment, her expression flashed in a brilliant +change, like that of a pouting child suddenly remembering that +tomorrow is Christmas. The key surrendered instantly, and she +ran gayly up the familiar stairs in the darkness. + The transom of Laura's door shone brightly; but the knob, +turning uselessly in Cora's hand, proved the door itself not so +hospitable. There was a brief rustling within the room; the bolt +snapped, and Laura opened the door. + "Why, Laura," said Cora, observing her sister with transient +curiosity, "you haven't undressed. What have you been doing? +Something's the matter with you. I know what it is," she added, +laughing, as she seated herself on the edge of the old +black-walnut bed. "You're in love with Wade Trumble!" + "He's a strong man," observed Laura. "A remarkable throat." + "Horrible little person!" said Cora, forgetting what she owed +the unfortunate Mr. Trumble for the vocal wall which had so +effectively sheltered her earlier in the evening. "He's like one +of those booming June-bugs, batting against the walls, falling +into lamp-chimneys-----' + "He doesn't get very near the light he wants," said Laura. + "Me? Yes, he would like to, the rat! But he's consoled when +he can get any one to listen to his awful chatter. He makes up +to himself among women for the way he gets sat on at the +club. But he has his use: he shows off the other men so, by +contrast. Oh, Laura!" She lifted both hands to her cheeks, +which were beautiful with a quick suffusion of high colour. +"Isn't he gorgeous!" + "Yes," said Laura gently, "I've always thought so. + "Now what's the use of that?" asked Cora peevishly, "with +ME? I didn't mean Richard Lindley. You KNOW what I +mean." + "Yes--of course--I do," Laura said. + Cora gave her a long look in which a childlike pleading +mingled with a faint, strange trouble; then this glance wandered +moodily from the face of her sister to her own slippers, which +she elevated to meet her descending line of vision. + "And you know I can't help it," she said, shifting quickly to +the role of accuser. "So what's the use of behaving like the +Pest?" She let her feet drop to the floor again, and her voice +trembled a little as she went on: "Laura, you don't know what I +had to endure from him to-night. I really don't think I can +stand it to live in the same house any longer with that frightful +little devil. He's been throwing Ray Vilas's name at me +until--oh, it was ghastly to-night! And then--then----" Her +tremulousness increased. "I haven't said anything about it all +day, but I MET him on the street downtown, this morning----" + "You met Vilas?" Laura looked startled. "Did he speak to +you?" + "`Speak to me!'" Cora's exclamation shook with a half-laugh +of hysteria. "He made an awful SCENE! He came out of the +Richfield Hotel barroom on Main Street just as I was going into +the jeweller's next door, and he stopped and bowed like a monkey, +square in front of me, and--and he took off his hat and set it on +the pavement at my feet and told me to kick it into the gutter! +Everybody stopped and stared; and I couldn't get by him. And he +said--he said I'd kicked his heart into the gutter and he didn't +want it to catch cold without a hat! And wouldn't I please be so +kind as to kick----" She choked with angry mortification. "It +was horrible! People were stopping and laughing, and a rowdy +began to make fun of Ray, and pushed him, and they got into a +scuffle, and I ran into the jeweller's and almost fainted." + "He is insane!" said Laura, aghast. + "He's nothing of the kind; he's just a brute. He does it to +make people say I'm the cause of his drinking; and everybody in +this gossipy old town DOES say it--just because I got bored +to death with his everlasting +do-you-love-me-to-day-as-well-as-yesterday style of torment, and +couldn't help liking Richard better. Yes, every old cat in town +says I ruined him, and that's what he wants them to say. It's so +unmanly! I wish he'd die! Yes, I DO wish he would! Why +doesn't he kill himself?" + "Ah, don't say that," protested Laura. + "Why not? He's threatened to enough. And I'm afraid to go +out of the house because I can't tell when I'll meet him or what +he'll do. I was almost sick in that jeweller's shop, this +morning, and so upset I came away without getting my pendant. +There's ANOTHER thing I've got to go through, I suppose!" +She pounded the yielding pillow desperately. "Oh, oh, oh! Life +isn't worth living--it seems to me sometimes as if everybody in +the world spent his time trying to think up ways to make it +harder for me! I couldn't have worn the pendant, though, even if +I'd got it," she went on, becoming thoughtful. "It's Richard's +silly old engagement ring, you know," she explained, lightly. +"I had it made up into a pendant, and heaven knows how I'm going +to get Richard to see it the right way. He was so unreasonable +tonight." + "Was he cross about Mr. Corliss monopolizing you?" + "Oh, you know how he is," said Cora. "He didn't speak of it +exactly. But after you'd gone, he asked me----" She stopped +with a little gulp, an expression of keen distaste about her +mouth. + "Oh, he wants me to wear my ring," she continued, with sudden +rapidity: "and how the dickens CAN I when I can't even tell +him it's been made into a pendant! He wants to speak to father; +he wants to ANNOUNCE it. He's sold out his business for what +he thinks is a good deal of money, and he wants me to marry him +next month and take some miserable little trip, I don't know +where, for a few weeks, before he invests what he's made in +another business. Oh!" she cried. "It's a HORRIBLE thing to +ask a girl to do: to settle down--just housekeeping, house- +keeping, housekeeping forever in this stupid, stupid town! It's +so unfair! Men are just possessive; they think it's loving +you to want to possess you themselves. A beautiful `love'! It's +so mean! Men!" She sprang up and threw out both arms in a +vehement gesture of revolt. "Damn 'em, I wish they'd let me +ALONE!" + Laura's eyes had lost their quiet; they showed a glint of +tears, and she was breathing quickly. In this crisis of emotion +the two girls went to each other silently; Cora turned, and Laura +began to unfasten Cora's dress in the back. + "Poor Richard!" said Laura presently, putting into her mouth +a tiny pearl button which had detached itself at her touch. +"This was his first evening in the overflow. No wonder he was +troubled!" + "Pooh!" said Cora. "As if you and mamma weren't good enough +for him to talk to! He's spoiled. He's so used to being called +`the most popular man in town' and knowing that every girl on +Corliss Street wanted to marry him----" She broke off, and +exclaimed sharply: "I wish they would! + "Cora!" + "Oh, I suppose you mean that's the reason _I_ went in for +him?" + "No, no," explained Laura hurriedly. "I only meant, stand +still." + "Well, it was!" And Cora's abrupt laugh had the glad, free +ring fancy attaches to the merry confidences of a buccaneer in +trusted company. + Laura knelt to continue unfastening the dress; and when it +was finished she extended three of the tiny buttons in her hand. +"They're always loose on a new dress," she said. "I'll sew them +all on tight, to-morrow." + Cora smiled lovingly. "You good old thing," she said. "You +looked pretty to-night." + "That's nice!" Laura laughed, as she dropped the buttons +into a little drawer of her bureau. It was an ugly, cheap, old +bureau, its veneer loosened and peeling, the mirror small and +flawed--a piece of furniture in keeping with the room, which was +small, plain and hot, its only ornamental adjunct being a +silver-framed photograph of Mrs. Madison, with Cora, as a child +of seven or eight, upon her lap. + "You really do look ever so pretty," asserted Cora. + "I wonder if I look as well as I did the last time I heard I +was pretty," said the other. "That was at the Assembly in March. +Coming down the stairs, I heard a man from out of town say, +`That black-haired Miss Madison is a pretty girl.' And some one +with him said, `Yes; you'll think so until you meet her sister!'" + "You are an old dear!" Cora enfolded her delightedly; then, +drawing back, exclaimed: "You KNOW he's gorgeous!" And with +a feverish little ripple of laughter, caught her dress together +in the back and sped through the hall to her own room. + This was a very different affair from Laura's, much cooler +and larger; occupying half the width of the house; and a rather +expensive struggle had made it pretty and even luxurious. The +window curtains and the wall-paper were fresh, and of a quiet +blue; there was a large divan of the same colour; a light desk, +prettily equipped, occupied a corner; and between two gilt +gas-brackets, whose patent burners were shielded by fringed silk +shades, stood a cheval-glass six feet high. The door of a very +large clothes-pantry stood open, showing a fine company of +dresses, suspended from forms in an orderly manner; near by, a +rosewood cabinet exhibited a delicate collection of shoes and +slippers upon its four shelves. A dressing-table, charmingly +littered with everything, took the place of a bureau; and +upon it, in a massive silver frame, was a large photograph of Mr. +Richard Lindley. The frame was handsome, but somewhat battered: +it had seen service. However, the photograph was quite new. + There were photographs everywhere photographs framed and +unframed; photographs large and photographs small, the fresh and +the faded; tintypes, kodaks, "full lengths," "cabinets," +groups--every kind of photograph; and among them were several of +Cora herself, one of her mother, one of Laura, and two others of +girls. All the rest were sterner. Two or three were seamed +across with cracks, hastily recalled sentences to destruction; +and here and there remained tokens of a draughtsman's +over-generous struggle to confer upon some of the smooth-shaven +faces additional manliness in the shape of sweeping moustaches, +long beards, goatees, mutton-chops, and, in the case of one gen- +tleman of a blond, delicate and tenor-like beauty, +neck-whiskers;--decorations in many instances so deeply and +damply pencilled that subsequent attempts at erasure had failed +of great success. Certainly, Hedrick had his own way of +relieving dull times. + Cora turned up the lights at the sides of the +cheval-glass, looked at herself earnestly, then absently, and +began to loosen her hair. Her lifted hands hesitated; she +re-arranged the slight displacement of her hair already effected; +set two chairs before the mirror, seated herself in one; pulled +up her dress, where it was slipping from her shoulder, rested an +arm upon the back of the other chair as, earlier in the evening, +she had rested it upon the iron railing of the porch, and, +leaning forward, assumed as exactly as possible the attitude in +which she had sat so long beside Valentine Corliss. She leaned +very slowly closer and yet closer to the mirror; a rich colour +spread over her; her eyes, gazing into themselves, became dreamy, +inexpressibly wistful, cloudily sweet; her breath was tumultuous. +"`Even as you and I'?" she whispered. + Then, in the final moment of this after-the-fact rehearsal, +as her face almost touched the glass, she forgot how and what she +had looked to Corliss; she forgot him; she forgot him utterly: +she leaped to her feet and kissed the mirrored lips with a sort +of passion. + "You DARLING!" she cried. Cora's christening had been +unimaginative, for the name means only, "maiden." She should +have been called Narcissa. + The rhapsody was over instantly, leaving an emotional vacuum +like a silence at the dentist's. Cora yawned, and resumed the +loosening of her hair. + When she had put on her nightgown, she went from one window +to another, closing the shutters against the coming of the +morning light to wake her. As she reached the last window, a +sudden high wind rushed among the trees outside; a white flare +leaped at her face, startling her; there was a boom and rattle as +of the brasses, cymbals, and kettle-drums of some fatal +orchestra; and almost at once it began to rain. + And with that, from the distance came a voice, singing; and +at the first sound of it, though it was far away and almost +indistinguishable, Cora started more violently than at the +lightning; she sprang to the mirror lights, put them out; threw +herself upon the bed, and huddled there in the darkness. + The wind passed; the heart of the storm was miles away; this +was only its fringe; but the rain pattered sharply upon the thick +foliage outside her windows; and the singing voice came +slowly up the street. + It was a strange voice: high-pitched and hoarse--and not +quite human, so utter was the animal abandon of it. + "I love a lassie, a bonnie, bonnie lassie," it wailed and +piped, coming nearer; and the gay little air--wrought to a +grotesque of itself by this wild, high voice in the rain--might +have been a banshee's love-song. + + "I love a lassie, a bonnie, bonnie lassie. + She's as pure as the lily in the dell----" + + The voice grew louder; came in front of the house; came into +the yard; came and sang just under Cora's window. There it fell +silent a moment; then was lifted in a long peal of imbecile +laughter, and sang again: + + "Then slowly, slowly rase she up + And slowly she came nigh him, + And when she drew the curtain by-- + `Young man I think you're dyin'.'" + + Cora's door opened and closed softly, and Laura, barefooted, +stole to the bed and put an arm about the shaking form of her +sister. + "The drunken beast!" sobbed Cora. "It's to disgrace me! +That's what he wants. He'd like nothing better than headlines in +the papers: `Ray Vilas arrested at the Madison residence'!" She +choked with anger and mortification. "The neighbours----" + "They're nearly all away," whispered Laura. "You needn't +fear----" + "Hark!" + The voice stopped singing, and began to mumble incoherently; +then it rose again in a lamentable outcry: + "Oh, God of the fallen, be Thou merciful to me! Be Thou +merciful--merciful--MERCIFUL" . . . + "MERCIFUL, MERCIFUL, MERCIFUL!" it shrieked, over and +over, with increasing loudness, and to such nerve-racking effect +that Cora, gasping, beat the bedclothes frantically with her +hands at each iteration. + The transom over the door became luminous; some one had +lighted the gas in the upper hall. Both girls jumped from the +bed, ran to the door, and opened it. Their mother, wearing a red +wrapper, was standing at the head of the stairs, which Mr. +Madison, in his night-shirt and slippers, was slowly and heavily +descending. + Before he reached the front door, the voice outside ceased +its dreadful plaint with the abrupt anti-climax of a phonograph +stopped in the middle of a record. There was the sound of a +struggle and wrestling, a turmoil in the wet shrubberies, +branches cracking. + "Let me go, da----" cried the voice, drowned again at half a +word, as by a powerful hand upon a screaming mouth. + The old man opened the front door, stepped out, closing it +behind him; and the three women looked at each other wanly during +a hushed interval like that in a sleeping-car at night when the +train stops. Presently he came in again, and started up the +stairs, heavily and slowly, as he had gone down. + "Richard Lindley stopped him," he said, sighing with the +ascent, and not looking up. "He heard him as he came along the +street, and dressed as quick as he could, and ran up and got him. +Richard's taken him away." + He went to his own room, panting, mopping his damp gray hair +with his fat wrist, and looking at no one. + Cora began to cry again. It was an hour before any of this +family had recovered sufficient poise to realize, with the +shuddering gratitude of adventurers spared from the abyss, that, +under Providence, Hedrick had not wakened! + + + +CHAPTER SIX + +Much light shatters much loveliness; but a pretty girl who looks +pretty outdoors on a dazzling hot summer morning is prettier then +than ever. Cora knew it; of course she knew it; she knew exactly +how she looked, as she left the concrete bridge behind her at the +upper end of Corliss Street and turned into a shrub-bordered +bypath of the river park. In imagination she stood at the turn +of the path just ahead, watching her own approach: she saw +herself as a picture--the white-domed parasol, with its cheerful +pale-green lining, a background for her white hat, her corn-silk +hair, and her delicately flushed face. She saw her pale, live +arms through their thin sleeves, and the light grasp of her +gloved fingers upon the glistening stick of the parasol; she saw +the long, simple lines of her close white dress and their +graceful interchanging movements with the alternate advance of +her white shoes over the fine gravel path; she saw the dazzling +splashes of sunshine playing upon her through the +changeful branches overhead. Cora never lacked a gallery: she +sat there herself. + She refreshed the eyes of a respectable burgess of sixty, a +person so colourless that no one, after passing him, could have +remembered anything about him except that he wore glasses and +some sort of moustache; and to Cora's vision he was as near +transparent as any man could be, yet she did not miss the almost +imperceptible signs of his approval, as they met and continued on +their opposite ways. She did not glance round, nor did he pause +in his slow walk; neither was she clairvoyant; none the less, she +knew that he turned his head and looked back at her. + The path led away from the drives and more public walks of +the park, to a low hill, thoughtfully untouched by the gardener +and left to the shadowy thickets and good-smelling underbrush of +its rich native woodland. And here, by a brown bench, waited a +tall gentleman in white. + They touched hands and sat without speaking. For several +moments they continued the silence, then turned slowly and looked +at each other; then looked slowly and gravely away, as if to an +audience in front of them. They knew how to do it; but +probably a critic in the first row would have concluded that +Cora felt it even more than Valentine Corliss enjoyed it. + "I suppose this is very clandestine," she said, after a deep +breath. "I don't think I care, though." + "I hope you do," he smiled, "so that I could think your +coming means more." + "Then I'll care," she said, and looked at him again. + "You dear!" he exclaimed deliberately. + She bit her lip and looked down, but not before he had seen +the quick dilation of her ardent eyes. "I wanted to be out of +doors," she said. "I'm afraid there's one thing of yours I don't +like, Mr. Corliss." + "I'll throw it away, then. Tell me." + "Your house. I don't like living in it, very much. I'm +sorry you CAN'T throw it away." + "I'm thinking of doing that very thing," he laughed. "But +I'm glad I found the rose in that queer old waste-basket first." + "Not too much like a rose, sometimes," she said. "I think +this morning I'm a little like some of the old doors up on the +third floor: I feel rather unhinged, Mr. Corliss." + "You don't look it, Miss Madison!" + "I didn't sleep very well." She bestowed upon him a glance +which transmuted her actual explanation into, "I couldn't sleep +for thinking of you." It was perfectly definite; but the acute +gentleman laughed genially. + "Go on with you!" he said. + Her eyes sparkled, and she joined laughter with him. "But +it's true: you did keep me awake. Besides, I had a serenade." + "Serenade? I had an idea they didn't do that any more over +here. I remember the young men going about at night with an +orchestra sometimes when I was a boy, but I supposed----" + "Oh, it wasn't much like that," she interrupted, carelessly. +"I don't think that sort of thing has been done for years and +years. It wasn't an orchestra--just a man singing under my +window." + "With a guitar?" + "No." She laughed a little. "Just singing." + "But it rained last night," said Corliss, puzzled. + "Oh, HE wouldn't mind that!" + "How stupid of me! Of course, he wouldn't. + Was it Richard Lindley?" + "Never!" + "I see. Yes, that was a bad guess: I'm sure Lindley's just +the same steady-going, sober, plodding old horse he was as a boy. +His picture doesn't fit a romantic frame--singing under a lady's +window in a thunderstorm! Your serenader must have been very +young.' + "He is," said Cora. "I suppose he's about twenty-three; just +a boy--and a very annoying one, too!" + Her companion looked at her narrowly. "By any chance, is he +the person your little brother seemed so fond of mentioning--Mr. +Vilas?" + Cora gave a genuine start. "Good heavens! What makes you +think that?" she cried, but she was sufficiently disconcerted to +confirm his amused suspicion. + "So it was Mr. Vilas," he said. "He's one of the jilted, of +course." + "Oh, `jilted'!" she exclaimed. "All the wild boys that a +girl can't make herself like aren't `jilted,' are they?" + "I believe I should say--yes," he returned. "Yes, in this +instance, just about all of them." + "Is every woman a target for you, Mr. Corliss? I suppose you +know that you have a most uncomfortable way of shooting up +the landscape." She stirred uneasily, and moved away from him to +the other end of the bench. + "I didn't miss that time," he laughed. "Don't you ever +miss?" + He leaned quickly toward her and answered in a low voice: +"You can be sure I'm not going to miss anything about YOU." + It was as if his bending near her had been to rouge her. But +it cannot be said that she disliked his effect upon her; for the +deep breath she drew in audibly, through her shut teeth, was a +signal of delight; and then followed one of those fraught +silences not uncharacteristic of dialogues with Cora. + Presently, she gracefully and uselessly smoothed her hair +from the left temple with the backs of her fingers, of course +finishing the gesture prettily by tucking in a hairpin tighter +above the nape of her neck. Then, with recovered coolness, she +asked: + "Did you come all the way from Italy just to sell our old +house, Mr. Corliss?" + "Perhaps that was part of why I came," he said, gayly. "I +need a great deal of money, Miss Cora Madison." + "For your villa and your yacht?" + "No; I'm a magician, dear lady----" + "Yes," she said, almost angrily. "Of course you know it!" + "You mock me! No; I'm going to make everybody rich who will +trust me. I have a secret, and it's worth a mountain of gold. +I've put all I have into it, and will put in everything else I +can get for myself, but it's going to take a great deal more than +that. And everybody who goes into it will come out on Monte +Cristo's island." + "Then I'm sorry papa hasn't anything to put in," she said. + "But he has: his experience in business and his integrity. I +want him to be secretary of my company. Will you help me to get +him?" he laughed. + "Do you want me to?" she asked with a quick, serious glance +straight in his eyes, one which he met admirably. + "I have an extremely definite impression," he said lightly, +"that you can make anybody you know do just what you want him +to." + "And I have another that you have still another `extremely +definite impression' that takes rank over that," she said, but +not with his lightness, for her tone was faintly rueful. "It +is that you can make ME do just what you want me to." + Mr. Valentine Corliss threw himself back on the bench and +laughed aloud. "What a girl!" he cried. Then for a fraction of +a second he set his hand over hers, an evanescent touch at which +her whole body started and visibly thrilled. + She lifted her gloved hand and looked at it with an odd +wonder; her alert emotions, always too ready, flinging their +banners to her cheeks again. + "Oh, I don't think it's soiled," he said, a speech which she +punished with a look of starry contempt. For an instant she made +him afraid that something had gone wrong with his measuring tape; +but with a slow movement she set her hand softly against her hot +cheek; and he was reassured: it was not his touching her that had +offended her, but the allusion to it. + "Thanks," he said, very softly. + She dropped her hand to her parasol, and began, musingly, to +dig little holes in the gravel of the path. "Richard Lindley is +looking for investments," she said. + "I'm glad to hear he's been so successful," returned Corliss. + "He might like a share in your gold-mine." + "Thank heaven it isn't literally a gold-mine," he exclaimed. +"There have been so many crooked ones exploited I don't believe +you could get anybody nowadays to come in on a real one. But I +think you'd make an excellent partner for an adventurer who had +discovered hidden treasure; and I'm that particular kind of +adventurer. I think I'll take you in." + "Do you?" + "How would you like to save a man from being ruined?" + "Ruined? You don't mean it literally?" + "Literally!" He laughed gayly. "If I don't `land' this I'm +gone, smashed, finished--quite ended! Don't bother, I'm going to +`land' it. And it's rather a serious compliment I'm paying you, +thinking you can help me. I'd like to see a woman--just once in +the world--who could manage a thing like this." He became +suddenly very grave. "Good God! wouldn't I be at her feet!" + Her eyes became even more eager. "You think I--I MIGHT +be a woman who could?" + "Who knows, Miss Madison? I believe----" He stopped +abruptly, then in a lowered, graver voice asked: "Doesn't it +somehow seem a little queer to you when we call each other, `Miss +Madison' and `Mr. Corliss'?" + "Yes," she answered slowly; "it does." + "Doesn't it seem to you," he went on, in the same tone, "that +we only `Miss' and `Mister' each other in fun? That though you +never saw me until yesterday, we've gone pretty far beyond mere +surfaces? That we did in our talk, last night?" + "Yes," she repeated; "it does." + He let a pause follow, and then said huskily: + "How far are we going?" + "I don't know." She was barely audible; but she turned +deliberately, and there took place an eager exchange of looks +which continued a long while. At last, and without ending this +serious encounter, she whispered: + "How far do YOU think?" + Mr. Corliss did not answer, and a peculiar phenomenon became +vaguely evident to the girl facing him: his eyes were still fixed +full upon hers, but he was not actually looking at her; +nevertheless, and with an extraordinarily acute attention, he +was unquestionably looking at something. The direct front of +pupil and iris did not waver from her; but for the time he was +not aware of her; had not even heard her question. Something in +the outer field of his vision had suddenly and completely +engrossed him; something in that nebulous and hazy background +which we see, as we say, with the white of the eye. Cora +instinctively turned and looked behind her, down the path. + There was no one in sight except a little girl and the +elderly burgess who had glanced over his shoulder at Cora as she +entered the park; and he was, in face, mien, and attire, so +thoroughly the unnoticeable, average man-on-the-street that she +did not even recall him as the looker-round of a little while +ago. He was strolling benevolently, the little girl clinging to +one of his hands, the other holding an apple; and a composite +photograph of a thousand grandfathers might have resulted in this +man's picture. + As the man and little girl came slowly up the walk toward the +couple on the bench there was a faint tinkle at Cora's feet: her +companion's scarfpin, which had fallen from his tie. He was +maladroit about picking it up, trying with thumb and forefinger +to seize the pin itself, instead of the more readily grasped +design of small pearls at the top, so that he pushed it a little +deeper into the gravel; and then occurred a tiny coincidence: the +elderly man, passing, let fall the apple from his hand, and it +rolled toward the pin just as Corliss managed to secure the +latter. For an instant, though the situation was so absolutely +commonplace, so casual, Cora had a wandering consciousness of +some mysterious tensity; a feeling like the premonition of a +crisis very near at hand. This sensation was the more curious +because nothing whatever happened. The man got his apple, joined +in the child's laughter, and went on. + "What was it you asked me?" said Corliss, lifting his head +again and restoring the pin to his tie. He gazed carelessly at +the back of the grandsire, disappearing beyond a bush at a bend +in the path. + "Who was that man?" said Cora with some curiosity. + "That old fellow? I haven't an idea. You see I've been away +from here so many years I remember almost no one. Why?" + "I don't know, unless it was because I had an idea you +were thinking of him instead of me. You didn't listen to what I +said." + "That was because I was thinking so intensely of you," he +began instantly. "A startlingly vivid thought of you came to me +just then. Didn't I look like a man in a trance?" + "What was the thought?" + "It was a picture: I saw you standing under a great bulging +sail, and the water flying by in moonlight; oh, a moon and a +night such as you have never seen! and a big blue headland +looming up against the moon, and crowned with lemon groves and +vineyards, all sparkling with fireflies--old watch-towers and the +roofs of white villas gleaming among olive orchards on the +slopes--the sound of mandolins----" + "Ah!" she sighed, the elderly man, his grandchild, and his +apple well-forgotten. + "Do you think it was a prophecy?" he asked. + "What do YOU think?" she breathed. "That was really what +I asked you before." + "I think," he said slowly, "that I'm in danger of forgetting +that my `hidden treasure' is the most important thing in the +world." + "In great danger?" The words were not vocal. + He moved close to her; their eyes met again, with increased +eagerness, and held fast; she was trembling, visibly; and her +lips--parted with her tumultuous breathing--were not far from +his. + "Isn't any man in great danger," he said, "if he falls in +love with you?" + "Well?" + + + +CHAPTER SEVEN + +Toward four o'clock that afternoon, a very thin, fair young man +shakily heaved himself into a hammock under the trees in that +broad backyard wherein, as Valentine Corliss had yesterday +noticed, the last iron monarch of the herd, with unabated +arrogance, had entered domestic service as a clothes-prop. The +young man, who was of delicate appearance and unhumanly pale, +stretched himself at full length on his back, closed his eyes, +moaned feebly, cursed the heat in a stricken whisper. Then, as a +locust directly overhead violently shattered the silence, and +seemed like to continue the outrage forever, the shaken lounger +stopped his ears with his fingers and addressed the insect in old +Saxon. + A white jacketed mulatto came from the house bearing +something on a silver tray. + "Julip, Mist' Vilas?" he said sympathetically. + Ray Vilas rustily manoeuvred into a sitting position; and, +with eyes still closed, made shift to accept the julep in +both hands, drained half of it, opened his eyes, and thanked the +cup-bearer feebly, in a voice and accent reminiscent of the +melodious South. + "And I wonder," he added, "if you can tell me----" + "I'm Miz William Lindley's house-man, Joe Vaxdens," said the +mulatto, in the tone of an indulgent nurse. "You in Miz +Lindley's backyard right now, sittin' in a hammick." + "I seem to gather almost that much for myself," returned the +patient. "But I should like to know how I got here." + "Jes' come out the front door an' walk' aroun' the house an' +set down. Mist' Richard had to go downtown; tole me not to wake +you; but I heerd you splashin' in the bath an' you tole me you +din' want no breakfuss----" + "Yes, Joe, I'm aware of what's occurred since I woke," said +Vilas, and, throwing away the straws, finished the julep at one +draught. "What I want to know is how I happened to be here at +Mr. Lindley's." + "Mist' Richard brought you las' night, suh. I don' know +where he got you, but I heered a considerable thrashum +aroun', up an' down the house, an' so I come help him git you to +bed in one vem spare-rooms." Joe chuckled ingratiatingly. "Lord +name! You cert'n'y wasn't askin' fer no BED!" + He took the glass, and the young man reclined again in the +hammock, a hot blush vanquishing his pallor. "Was I--was I very +bad, Joe?" + "Oh, you was all RIGHT," Joe hastened to reassure him. +"You was jes' on'y a little bit tight." + "Did it really seem only a little?" the other asked +hopefully. + "Yessuh," said Joe promptly. "Nothin' at all. You jes' +wanted to rare roun' little bit. Mist' Richard took gun away +from you----" + "What?" + "Oh, I tole him you wasn' goin' use it!" Joe laughed. "But +you so wile be din' know what you do. You cert'n'y was drunkes' +man _I_ see in LONG while," he said admiringly. "You pert +near had us bofe wore out 'fore you give up, an' Mist' Richard +an' me, we USE' to han'lin' drunkum man, too--use' to have +big times week-in, week-out 'ith Mist' Will--at's Mist' Richard's +brother, you know, suh, what died o' whiskey." He laughed again +in high good-humour. "You cert'n'y laid it all over any vem +ole times we had 'ith Mist' Will!" + Mr. Vilas shifted his position in the hammock uneasily; Joe's +honest intentions to be of cheer to the sufferer were not wholly +successful. + "I tole Mist' Richard," the kindly servitor continued, "it +was a mighty good thing his ma gone up Norf endurin' the hot +spell. Sence Mist' Will die she can't hardly bear to see drunkum +man aroun' the house. Mist' Richard hardly ever tech nothin' +himself no more. You goin' feel better, suh, out in the f'esh +air," he concluded, comfortingly as he moved away. + "Joe!" + "Yessuh." + Mr. Vilas pulled himself upright for a moment. "What use in +the world do you reckon one julep is to me? " + "Mist' Richard say to give you one drink ef you ask' for it, +suh," answered Joe, looking troubled. + "Well, you've told me enough now about last night to make any +man hang himself, and I'm beginning to remember enough more----" + "Pshaw, Mist' Vilas," the coloured man interrupted, +deprecatingly, "you din' broke nothin'! You on'y had couple +glass' wine too much. You din' make no trouble at all; jes' went +right off to bed. You ought seen some vem ole times me an Mist' +Richard use to have 'ith Mist' Will----" + "Joe!" + "Yessuh." + "I want three more juleps and I want them right away." + The troubled expression upon the coloured man's face +deepened. "Mist' Richard say jes' one, suh," he said +reluctantly. "I'm afraid----" + "Joe." + " Yessuh." + "I don't know," said Ray Vilas slowly, "whether or not you +ever heard that I was born and raised in Kentucky." + "Yessuh," returned Joe humbly. "I heerd so." + "Well, then," said the young man in a quiet voice, "you go +and get me three juleps. I'll settle it with Mr. Richard." + "Yessuh." + But it was with a fifth of these renovators that Lindley +found his guest occupied, an hour later, while upon a small table +nearby a sixth, untouched, awaited disposal beside an emptied +coffee-cup. Also, Mr. Vilas was smoking a cigarette with +unshadowed pleasure; his eye was bright, his expression +care-free; and he was sitting up in the hammock, swinging +cheerfully, and singing the "Marseillaise." Richard approached +through the yard, coming from the street without entering the +house; and anxiety was manifest in the glance he threw at the +green-topped glass upon the table, and in his greeting. + "Hail, gloom!" returned Mr. Vilas, cordially, and, observing +the anxious glance, he swiftly removed the untouched goblet from +the table to his own immediate possession. "Two simultaneous +juleps will enhance the higher welfare, he explained airily. +"Sir, your Mr. Varden was induced to place a somewhat larger +order with us than he protested to be your intention. Trusting +you to exonerate him from all so-and-so and that these few words, +etcetera!" He depleted the elder glass of its liquor, waved it +in the air, cried, "Health, host!" and set it upon the table. "I +believe I do not err in assuming my cup-bearer's name to be +Varden, although he himself, in his simple Americo-Africanism, is +pleased to pluralize it. Do I fret you, host?" + "Not in the least," said Richard, dropping upon a rustic +bench, and beginning to fan himself with his straw hat. "What's +the use of fretting about a boy who hasn't sense enough to fret +about himself?" + "`Boy?'" Mr. Vilas affected puzzlement. "Do I hear aright? +Sir, do you boy me? Bethink you, I am now the shell of five +mint-juleps plus, and am pot-valiant. And is this mere capacity +itself to be lightly BOYED? Again, do I not wear a man's +garment, a man's garnitures? Heed your answer; for this serge, +these flannels, and these silks are yours, and though I may not +fill them to the utmost, I do to the longmost, precisely. I am +the stature of a man; had it not been for your razor I should +wear the beard of a man; therefore I'll not be boyed. What have +you to say in defence?" + "Hadn't you better let me get Joe to bring you something to +eat?" asked Richard. + "Eat?" Mr. Vilas disposed of the suggestion with mournful +hauteur. "There! For the once I forgive you. Let the subject +never be mentioned between us again. We will tactfully turn to a +topic of interest. My memories of last evening, at first hazy +and somewhat disconcerting, now merely amuse me. Following the +pleasant Spanish custom, I went a-serenading, but was +kidnapped from beneath the precious casement by--by a zealous +arrival. Host, `zealous arrival' is not the julep in action: it +is a triumph of paraphrase." + "I wish you'd let Joe take you back to bed," said Richard. + "Always bent on thoughts of the flesh," observed the other +sadly. "Beds are for bodies, and I am become a thing of spirit. +My soul is grateful a little for your care of its casing. You +behold, I am generous: I am able to thank my successor to +Carmen!" + Lindley's back stiffened. "Vilas!" + "Spare me your protests." The younger man waved his hand +languidly. You wish not to confer upon this subject----" + "It's a subject we'll omit," said Richard. + His companion stopped swinging, allowed the hammock to come +to rest; his air of badinage fell from him; for the moment he +seemed entirely sober; and he spoke with gentleness. "Mr. +Lindley, if you please, I am still a gentleman--at times." + "I beg your pardon," said Richard quickly. + "No need of that!" The speaker's former careless and +boisterous manner instantly resumed possession. "You must +permit me to speak of a wholly fictitious lady, a creature of my +wanton fancy, sir, whom I call Carmen. It will enable me to +relieve my burdened soul of some remarks I have long wished to +address to your excellent self." + "Oh, all right," muttered Richard, much annoyed. + "Let us imagine," continued Mr. Vilas, beginning to swing +again, "that I thought I had won this Carmen----" + Lindley uttered an exclamation, shifted his position in his +chair, and fixed a bored attention upon the passing vehicles in +the glimpse of the street afforded between the house and the +shrubberies along the side fence. The other, without appearing +to note his annoyance, went on, cheerfully: + "She was a precocious huntress: early in youth she passed +through the accumulator stage, leaving it to the crude or village +belle to rejoice in numbers and the excitement of teasing cubs in +the bear-pit. It is the nature of this imagined Carmen to play +fiercely with one imitation of love after another: a man thinks +he wins her, but it is merely that she has chosen him--for a +while. And Carmen can have what she chooses; if the man +exists who could show her that she cannot, she would follow him +through the devil's dance; but neither you nor I would be that +man, my dear sir. We assume that Carmen's eyes have been +mine--her heart is another matter--and that she has grown weary +of my somewhat Sicilian manner of looking into them, and, +following her nature and the law of periodicity which Carmens +must bow to, she seeks a cooler gaze and calls Mr. Richard +Lindley to come and take a turn at looking. Now, Mr. Richard +Lindley is straight as a die: he will not even show that he hears +the call until he is sure that I have been dismissed: therefore, +I have no quarrel with him. Also, I cannot even hate him, for in +my clearer julep vision I see that he is but an interregnum. Let +me not offend my friend: chagrin is to be his as it is mine. I +was a strong draught, he but the quieting potion our Carmen took +to settle it. We shall be brothers in woe some day. Nothing in +the universe lasts except Hell: Life is running water; Love, a +looking-glass; Death, an empty theatre! That reminds me: as you +are not listening I will sing." + He finished his drink and lifted his voice hilariously: + + "The heavenly stars far above her, + The wind of the infinite sea, + Who know all her perfidy, love her, + So why call it madness in me? + Ah, why call it madness----" + + He set his glass with a crash upon the table, staring over +his companion's shoulder. + "WHAT, if you please, is the royal exile who thus seeks +refuge in our hermitage? + His host had already observed the approaching visitor with +some surprise, and none too graciously. It was Valentine +Corliss: he had turned in from the street and was crossing the +lawn to join the two young men. Lindley rose, and, greeting him +with sufficient cordiality, introduced Mr. Vilas, who bestowed +upon the newcomer a very lively interest. + "You are as welcome, Mr. Corliss," said this previous guest, +earnestly, "as if these sylvan shades were mine. I hail you, not +only for your own sake, but because your presence encourages a +hope that our host may offer refreshment to the entire company." + Corliss smilingly declined to be a party to this diplomacy, +and seated himself beside Richard Lindley on the bench. + "Then I relapse!" exclaimed Mr. Vilas, throwing himself +back full-length in the hammock. "I am not replete, but content. +I shall meditate. Gentlemen, speak on!" + He waved his hand in a gracious gesture, indicating his +intention to remain silent, and lay quiet, his eyes fixed +steadfastly upon Corliss. + "I was coming to call on you," said the latter to Lindley, +"but I saw you from the street and thought you mightn't mind my +being as informal as I used to be, so many years ago." + "Of course," said Richard. + "I have a sinister purpose in coming," Mr. Corliss laughingly +went on. "I want to bore you a little first, and then make your +fortune. No doubt that's an old story to you, but I happen to be +one of the adventurers whose argosies are laden with real +cargoes. Nobody knows who has or hasn't money to invest +nowadays, and of course I've no means of knowing whether YOU +have or not--you see what a direct chap I am--but if you have, or +can lay hold of some, I can show you how to make it bring you an +immense deal more." + "Naturally," said Richard pleasantly, "I shall be glad if you +can do that." + "Then I'll come to the point. It is exceedingly simple; +that's certainly one attractive thing about it." Corliss took +some papers and unmounted photographs from his pocket, and began +to spread them open on the bench between himself and Richard. +"No doubt you know Southern Italy as well as I do." + "Oh, I don't `know' it. I've been to Naples; down to +Paestum; drove from Salerno to Sorrentoby Amalfi; but that was +years ago." + "Here's a large scale map that will refresh your memory." He +unfolded it and laid it across their knees; it was frayed with +wear along the folds, and had been heavily marked and dotted with +red and blue pencillings. "My millions are in this large +irregular section," he continued. "It's the anklebone and instep +of Italy's boot; this sizable province called Basilicata, east of +Salerno, north of Calabria. And I'll not hang fire on the point, +Lindley. What I've got there is oil." + "Olives?" asked Richard, puzzled. + "Hardly!" Corliss laughed. "Though of course one doesn't +connect petroleum with the thought of Italy, and of all Italy, +Southern Italy. But in spite of the years I've lived there, I've +discovered myself to be so essentially American and commercial +that I want to drench the surface of that antique soil with +the brown, bad-smelling crude oil that lies so deep beneath it. +Basilicata is the coming great oil-field of the world--and that's +my secret. I dare to tell it here, as I shouldn't dare in +Naples." + "Shouldn't `dare'?" Richard repeated, with growing interest, +and no doubt having some vague expectation of a tale of the +Camorra. To him Naples had always seemed of all cities the most +elusive and incomprehensible, a laughing, thieving, begging, +mandolin-playing, music-and-murder haunted metropolis, about +which anything was plausible; and this impression was not unique, +as no inconsiderable proportion of Mr. Lindley's +fellow-countrymen share it, a fact thoroughly comprehended by the +returned native. + "It isn't a case of not daring on account of any bodily +danger," explained Corliss. + "No," Richard smiled reminiscently. "I don't believe that +would have much weight with you if it were. You certainly showed +no symptoms of that sort in your extreme youth. I remember you +had the name of being about the most daring and foolhardy boy in +town." + "I grew up to be cautious enough in business, though," +said the other, shaking his head gravely. "I haven't been able +to afford not being careful." He adjusted the map--a prefatory +gesture. "Now, I'll make this whole affair perfectly clear to +you. It's a simple matter, as are most big things. I'll begin +by telling you of Moliterno--he's been my most intimate friend in +that part of the continent for a great many years; since I went +there as a boy, in fact." + He sketched a portrait of his friend, Prince Moliterno, +bachelor chief of a historic house, the soul of honour, +"land-poor"; owning leagues and leagues of land, hills and +mountains, broken towers and ruins, in central Basilicata, a +province described as wild country and rough, off the rails and +not easy to reach. Moliterno and the narrator had gone there to +shoot; Corliss had seen "surface oil" upon the streams and pools; +he recalled the discovery of oil near his own boyhood home in +America; had talked of it to Moliterno, and both men had become +more and more interested, then excited. They decided to sink a +well. + Corliss described picturesquely the difficulties of this +enterprise, the hardships and disappointments; how they dragged +the big tools over the mountains by mule power; how they had +kept it all secret; how he and Moliterno had done everything with +the help of peasant labourers and one experienced man, who had +"seen service in the Persian oil-fields." + He gave the business reality, colouring it with details +relevant and irrelevant, anecdotes and wayside incidents: he was +fluent, elaborate, explicit throughout. They sank five wells, he +said, "at the angles of this irregular pentagon you see here on +the map, outlined in blue. These red circles are the wells." +Four of the wells "came in tremendous," but they had managed to +get them sealed after wasting--he was "sorry to think how many +thousand barrels of oil." The fifth well was so enormous that +they had not been able to seal it at the time of the speaker's +departure for America. + "But I had a cablegram this morning," he added, "letting me +know they've managed to do it at last. Here is, the cablegram." +He handed Richard a form signed "Antonio Moliterno." + "Now, to go back to what I said about not `daring' to speak +of this in Naples," he continued, smiling. "The fear is +financial, not physical." + The knowledge of the lucky strike, he explained, must be kept +from the "Neapolitan money-sharks." A third of the land so +rich in oil already belonged to the Moliterno estates, but it was +necessary to obtain possession of the other two thirds "before +the secret leaks into Naples." So far, it was safe, the peasants +of Basilicata being "as medieval a lot as one could wish." He +related that these peasants thought that the devils hiding inside +the mountains had been stabbed by the drills, and that the oil +was devils' blood. + "You can see some of the country people hanging about, +staring at a well, in this kodak, though it's not a very good +one." He put into Richard's hand a small, blurred photograph +showing a spouting well with an indistinct crowd standing in an +irregular semicircle before it. + "Is this the Basilicatan peasant costume? asked Richard, +indicating a figure in the foreground, the only one revealed at +all definitely. "It looks more oriental. Isn't the man wearing +a fez?" + "Let me see," responded Mr. Corliss very quickly. "Perhaps I +gave you the wrong picture. Oh, no," he laughed easily, holding +the kodak closer to his eyes; "that's all right: it is a fez. +That's old Salviati, our engineer, the man I spoke of who'd +worked in Persia, you know; he's always worn a fez since +then. Got in the habit of it out there and says he'll never +give it up. Moliterno's always chaffing him about it. He's a +faithful old chap, Salviati." + "I see." Lindley looked thoughtfully at the picture, which +the other carelessly returned to his hand. "There seems to be a +lot of oil there." + "It's one of the smaller wells at that. And you can see from +the kodak that it's just `blowing'--not an eruption from being +`shot,' or the people wouldn't stand so near. Yes; there's an +ocean of oil under that whole province; but we want a lot of +money to get at it. It's mountain country; our wells will all +have to go over fifteen-hundred feet, and that's expensive. We +want to pipe the oil to Salerno, where the Standard's ships will +take it from us, and it will need a great deal for that. But +most of all we want money to get hold of the land; we must +control the whole field, and it's big!" + "How did you happen to come here to finance it?" + "I was getting to that. Moliterno himself is as honourable a +man as breathes God's air. But my experience has been that +Neapolitan capitalists are about the cleverest and slipperiest +financiers in the world. We could have financed it twenty +times over in Naples in a day, but neither Moliterno nor I +was willing to trust them. The thing is enormous, you see--a +really colossal fortune--and Italian law is full of ins and outs, +and the first man we talked to confidentially would have given us +his word to play straight, and, the instant we left him, would +have flown post-haste for Basilicata and grabbed for himself the +two thirds of the field not yet in our hands. Moliterno and I +talked it over many, many times; we thought of going to Rome for +the money, to Paris, to London, to New York; but I happened to +remember the old house here that my aunt had left me--I wanted to +sell it, to add whatever it brought to the money I've already put +in--and then it struck me I might raise the rest here as well as +anywhere else." + The other nodded. "I understand." + "I suppose you'll think me rather sentimental," Corliss went +on, with a laugh which unexpectedly betrayed a little shyness. +"I've never forgotten that I was born here--was a boy here. In +all my wanderings I've always really thought of this as home." + His voice trembled slightly and his face flushed; he smiled +deprecatingly as though in apology for these symptoms of +emotion; and at that both listeners felt (perhaps with surprise) +the man's strong attraction. There was something very engaging +about him: in the frankness of his look and in the slight tremor +in his voice; there was something appealing and yet manly in the +confession, by this thoroughgoing cosmopolite, of his real +feeling for the home-town. + "Of course I know how very few people, even among the `old +citizens,' would have any recollection whatever of me," he went +on; "but that doesn't make any difference in my sentiment for the +place and its people. That street out yonder was named for my +grandfather: there's a statue of my great uncle in the State +House yard; all my own blood: belonged here, and though I have +been a wanderer and may not be remembered--naturally am NOT +remembered--yet the name is honoured here, and I--I----" He +faltered again, then concluded with quiet earnestness: "I +thought that if my good luck was destined to bring fortunes to +others, it might as well be to my own kind--that at least I'd +offer them the chance before I offered it to any one else." He +turned and looked Richard in the face. "That's why I'm here, Mr. +Lindley." + The other impulsively put out his hand. "I understand," he +said heartily. + "Thank you." Corliss changed his tone for one less serious. +"You've listened very patiently and I hope you'll be rewarded for +it. Certainly you will if you decide to come in with us. May I +leave the maps and descriptions with you?" + "Yes, indeed. I'll look them over carefully and have another +talk with you about it." + "Thank heaven, THAT'S over!" exclaimed the lounger in the +hammock, who had not once removed his fascinated stare from the +expressive face of Valentine Corliss. "If you have now concluded +with dull care, allow me to put a vital question: Mr. Corliss, +do you sing?" + The gentleman addressed favoured him with a quizzical glance +from between half-closed lids, and probably checking an impulse +to remark that he happened to know that his questioner sometimes +sang, replied merely, "No." + "It is a pity." + "Why?" + "Nothing," returned the other, inconsequently. It just +struck me that you ought to sing the Toreador song." + Richard Lindley, placing the notes and maps in his pocket, +dropped them, and, stooping, began to gather the scattered papers +with a very red face. Corliss, however, laughed good-naturedly. + "That's most flattering," he said; "though there are other +things in `Carmen' I prefer--probably because one doesn't hear +them so eternally." + Vilas pulled himself up to a sitting position and began to +swing again. "Observe our host, Mr. Corliss," he commanded +gayly. "He is a kind old Dobbin, much beloved, but cares damn +little to hear you or me speak of music. He'd even rather +discuss your oil business than listen to us talk of women, +whereas nothing except women ever really interests YOU, my +dear sir. He's not our kind of man," he concluded, mournfully; +"not at all our kind of man!" + "I hope," Corliss suggested, "he's going to be my kind of man +in the development of these oil-fields." + "How ridic"--Mr. Vilas triumphed over the word after a slight +struggle--"ulous! I shall review that: ridiculous of you to +pretend to be interested in oil-fields. You are not that sort of +person whatever. Nothing could be clearer than that you +would never waste the time demanded by fields of oil. +Groundlings call this `the mechanical age'--a vulgar error. My +dear sir, you and I know that it is the age of Woman! Even poets +have begun to see that she is alive. Formerly we did not speak +of her at all, but of late years she has become such a scandal +that she is getting talked about. Even our dramas, which used to +be all blood, have become all flesh. I wish I were dead--but +will continue my harangue because the thought is pellucid. Women +selecting men to mate with are of only two kinds, just as there +are but two kinds of children in a toy-shop. One child sets its +fancy on one partic"--the orator paused, then continued--"on one +certain toy and will make a distressing scene if she doesn't get +it: she will have that one; she will go straight to it, clasp it +and keep it; she won't have any other. The other kind of woman +is to be understood if you will make the experiment of taking the +other kind of child to a toy-shop and telling her you will buy +her any toy in the place, but that you will buy her only one. If +you do this in the morning, she will still be in the shop when it +is closing for the night, because, though she runs to each toy in +turn with excitement and delight, she sees another over her +shoulder, and the one she has not touched is always her +choice--until she has touched it! Some get broken in the +handling. For my part, my wires are working rather rustily, but +I must obey the Stage-Manager. For my requiem I wish somebody +would ask them to play Gounod's masterpiece." + "What's that?" asked Corliss, amused. + "`The Funeral March of a Marionette!'" + "I suppose you mean that for a cheerful way of announcing +that you are a fatalist." + "Fatalism? That is only a word, declared Mr. Vilas gravely. +"If I am not a puppet then I am a god. Somehow, I do not seem to +be a god. If a god is a god, one thinks he would know it +himself. I now yield the floor. Thanking you cordially, I +believe there is a lady walking yonder who commands salutation." + He rose to his feet, bowing profoundly. Cora Madison was +passing, strolling rather briskly down the street, not in the +direction of her home. She waved her parasol with careless +gayety to the trio under the trees, and, going on, was lost to +their sight. + "Hello!" exclaimed Corliss, looking at his watch with a +start of surprise. "I have two letters to write for the evening +mail. I must be off." + At this, Ray Vilas's eyes--still fixed upon him, as they had +been throughout the visit--opened to their fullest capacity, in a +gaze of only partially alcoholic wildness. + Entirely aware of this singular glare, but not in the least +disconcerted by it, the recipient proffered his easy farewells. +"I had no idea it was so late. Good afternoon. Mr. Vilas, I +have been delighted with your diagnosis. Lindley, I'm at your +disposal when you've looked over my data. My very warm thanks +for your patience, and--addio!" + Lindley looked after him as he strode quickly away across the +green lawn, turning, at the street, in the direction Cora had +taken; and the troubled Richard felt his heart sink with vague +but miserable apprehension. There was a gasp of desperation +beside him, and the sound of Ray Vilas's lips parting and closing +with little noises of pain. + "So he knows her," said the boy, his thin body shaking. +"Look at him, damn him! See his deep chest, that conqueror's +walk, the easy, confident, male pride of him: a true-born, +natural rake--the Toreador all over!" + His agitation passed suddenly; he broke into a loud laugh, +and flung a reckless hand to his companion's shoulder. + "You good old fool," he cried. "YOU'LL never play Don +Jose!" + + + +CHAPTER EIGHT + +Hedrick Madison, like too many other people, had never thought +seriously about the moon; nor ever had he encouraged it to become +his familiar; and he underwent his first experience of its +incomparable betrayals one brilliant night during the last week +of that hot month. The preface to this romantic evening was +substantial and prosaic: four times during dinner was he +copiously replenished with hash, which occasioned so rich a +surfeit within him that, upon the conclusion of the meal, he +found himself in no condition to retort appropriately to a +solicitous warning from Cora to keep away from the cat. Indeed, +it was half an hour later, and he was sitting--to his own +consciousness too heavily--upon the back fence, when belated +inspiration arrived. But there is no sound where there is no ear +to hear, and no repartee, alas! when the wretch who said the +first part has gone, so that Cora remained unscathed as from his +alley solitude Hedrick hurled in the teeth of the +rising moon these bitter words: + "Oh, no; OUR cat only eats SOFT meat!" + He renewed a morbid silence, and the moon, with its customary +deliberation, swung clear of a sweeping branch of the big elm in +the front yard and shone full upon him. Nothing warned the fated +youth not to sit there; no shadow of imminent catastrophe tinted +that brightness: no angel whisper came to him, bidding him +begone--and to go in a hurry and as far as possible. No; he sat +upon the fence an inoffensive lad, and--except for still feeling +his hash somewhat, and a gradually dispersing rancour concerning +the cat--at peace. It is for such lulled mortals that the +ever-lurking Furies save their most hideous surprises. + Chin on palms, he looked idly at the moon, and the moon +inscrutably returned his stare. Plausible, bright, bland, it +gave no sign that it was at its awful work. For the bride of +night is like a card-dealer whose fingers move so swiftly through +the pack the trickery goes unseen. + This moon upon which he was placidly gazing, because he had +nothing else to do, betokened nought to Hedrick: to him it was +the moon of any other night, the old moon; certainly no moon +of his delight. Withal, it may never be gazed upon so fixedly +and so protractedly--no matter how languidly--with entire +impunity. That light breeds a bug in the brain. Who can deny +how the moon wrought this thing under the hair of unconscious +Hedrick, or doubt its responsibility for the thing that happened? + "LITTLE BOY!" + It was a very soft, small voice, silky and queer; and at +first Hedrick had little suspicion that it could be addressing +him: the most rigid self-analysis could have revealed to him no +possibility of his fitting so ignominious a description. + "Oh, little boy!" + He looked over his shoulder and saw, standing in the alley +behind him, a girl of about his own age. She was daintily +dressed and had beautiful hair which was all shining in pale +gold. + "Little boy!" + She was smiling up at him, and once more she used that +wantonly inaccurate vocative: + "Little boy!" + Hedrick grunted unencouragingly. "Who you callin' `little +boy'?" + For reply she began to climb the fence. It was high, +but the young lady was astonishingly agile, and not even to be +deterred by several faint wails from tearing and ripping +fabrics--casualties which appeared to be entirely beneath her +notice. Arriving at the top rather dishevelled, and with +irregular pennons here and there flung to the breeze from her +attire, she seated herself cosily beside the dumbfounded Hedrick. + She turned her face to him and smiled--and there was +something about her smile which Hedrick did not like. It +discomforted him; nothing more. In sunlight he would have had +the better chance to comprehend; but, unhappily, this was +moonshine. + "Kiss me, little boy!" she said. + "I won't!" exclaimed the shocked and indignant Hedrick, +edging uneasily away from her. + "Let's play," she said cheerfully. + "Play what?" + "I like chickens. Did you know I like chickens?" + The rather singular lack of connection in her remarks struck +him as a misplaced effort at humour. + "You're having lots of fun with me, aren't you?" he +growled. + She instantly moved close to him and lifted her face to his. + "Kiss me, darling little boy!" she said. + There was something more than uncommonly queer about this +stranger, an unearthliness of which he was confusedly perceptive, +but she was not without a curious kind of prettiness, and her +pale gold hair was beautiful. The doomed lad saw the moon +shining through it. + "Kiss me, darling little boy!" she repeated. + His head whirled; for the moment she seemed divine. + George Washington used profanity at the Battle of Monmouth. +Hedrick kissed her. + He instantly pushed her away with strong distaste. "There!" +he said angrily. "I hope that'll satisfy you!" He belonged to +his sex. + "Kiss me some more, darling little boy!" she cried, and flung +her arms about him. + With a smothered shout of dismay he tried to push her off, +and they fell from the fence together, into the yard, at the cost +of further and almost fatal injuries to the lady's apparel. + Hedrick was first upon his feet. "Haven't you got ANY +sense?" he demanded. + She smiled unwaveringly, rose (without assistance) and +repeated: "Kiss me some more, darling little boy!" + "No, I won't! I wouldn't for a thousand dollars!" + Apparently, she did not consider this discouraging. She +began to advance endearingly, while he retreated backward. "Kiss +me some----" + "I won't, I tell you!" Hedrick kept stepping away, moving in +a desperate circle. He resorted to a brutal formula: "You make +me sick!" + "Kiss me some more, darling lit----" + "I won't!" he bellowed. "And if you say that again I'll----" + "Kiss me some more, darling little boy!" She flung herself +at him, and with a yell of terror he turned and ran at top-speed. + She pursued, laughing sweetly, and calling loudly as she ran, +"Kiss me some more, darling little boy! Kiss me some more, +darling little boy!" + The stricken Hedrick knew not whither to direct his flight: +he dared not dash for the street with this imminent tattered +incubus--she was almost upon him--and he frantically made for the +kitchen door, only to swerve with a gasp of despair as his +foot touched the step, for she was at his heels, and he was +sickeningly assured she would cheerfully follow him through the +house, shouting that damning refrain for all ears. A strangling +fear took him by the throat--if Cora should come to be a +spectator of this unspeakable flight, if Cora should hear that +horrid plea for love! Then farewell peace; indeed, farewell all +joy in life forever! + Panting sobbingly, he ducked under the amorous vampire's arm +and fled on. He zigzagged desperately to and fro across the +broad, empty backyard, a small hand ever and anon managing to +clutch his shoulder, the awful petition in his ears: + "Kiss me some more, darling little boy!" + "HEDRICK!" + Emerging from the kitchen door, Laura stood and gazed in +wonder as the two eerie figures sped by her, circled, ducked, +dodged, flew madly on. This commonplace purlieu was become the +scene of a witch-chase; the moonlight fell upon the ghastly +flitting face of the pursued, uplifted in agony, white, wet, with +fay eyes; also it illumined the unreal elf following close, a +breeze-blown fantasy in rags. + "Kiss me some more, darling little boy!" + Laura uttered a sharp exclamation. "Stand still, Hedrick!" +she called. "You must!" + Hedrick made a piteous effort to increase his speed. + "It's Lolita Martin," called Laura. "She must have her way +or nothing can be done with her. Stand STILL!" + Hedrick had never heard of Lolita Martin, but the added +information concerning her was not ineffective: it operated as a +spur; and Laura joined the hunt. + "Stand still!" she cried to the wretched quarry. She's run +away. She must be taken home. Stop, Hedrick! You MUST +stop!" + Hedrick had no intention of stopping, but Laura was a runner, +and, as he dodged the other, caught and held him fast. The next +instant, Lolita, laughing happily, flung her arms round his neck +from behind. + "Lemme go!" shuddered Hedrick. "Lemme go!" + "Kiss me again, darl----" + "I--woof!" He became inarticulate. + "She isn't quite right," his sister whispered hurriedly in +his ear. "She has spells when she's weak mentally. You must be +kind to her. She only wants you to----" + "`ONLY'!" he echoed hoarsely. "I won't ki----" He was +unable to finish the word. + "We must get her home," said Laura anxiously. "Will you come +with me, Lolita, dear?" + Apparently Lolita had no consciousness whatever of Laura's +presence. Instead of replying, she tightened her grasp upon +Hedrick and warmly reiterated her request. + "Shut up, you parrot!" hissed the goaded boy. + "Perhaps she'll go if you let her walk with her arms round +your neck," suggested Laura. + "If I WHAT?" + "Let's try it. We've got to get her home; her mother must be +frantic about her. Come, let's see if she'll go with us that +way." + With convincing earnestness, Hedrick refused to make the +experiment until Laura suggested that he remain with Lolita while +she summoned assistance; then, as no alternative appeared, his +spirit broke utterly, and he consented to the trial, stipulating +with a last burst of vehemence that the progress of the +unthinkable pageant should be through the alley. + "Come, Lolita," said Laura coaxingly. "We're going for a +nice walk." At the adjective, Hedrick's burdened shoulders +were racked with a brief spasm, which recurred as his sister +added: "Your darling little boy will let you keep hold of him." + Lolita seemed content. Laughing gayly, she offered no +opposition, but, maintaining her embrace with both arms and +walking somewhat sidewise, went willingly enough; and the three +slowly crossed the yard, passed through the empty stable and out +into the alley. When they reached the cross-street at the +alley's upper end, Hedrick balked flatly. + Laura expostulated, then entreated. Hedrick refused with +sincere loathing to be seen upon the street occupying his present +position in the group. Laura assured him that there was no one +to see; he replied that the moon was bright and the evening +early; he would die, and readily, but he would not set foot in +the street. Unfortunately, he had selected an unfavourable spot +for argument: they were already within a yard or two of the +street; and a strange boy, passing, stopped and observed, and +whistled discourteously. + "Ain't he the spooner!" remarked this unknown with hideous +admiration. + "I'll thank you," returned Hedrick haughtily, "to go on about +your own business." + "Kiss me some more, darling little boy!" said Lolita. + The strange boy squawked, wailed, screamed with laughter, +howled the loving petition in a dozen keys of mockery, while +Hedrick writhed and Lolita clung. Enriched by a new and great +experience, the torturer trotted on, leaving viperish cachinna- +tions in his wake. + But the martyrdom was at an end. A woman, hurrying past, +bareheaded, was greeted by a cry of delight from Lolita, who +released Hedrick and ran to her with outstretched arms. + "We were bringing her home, Mrs. Martin," said Laura, +reassuringly. "She's all right; nothing's the matter except that +her dress got torn. We found her playing in our yard." + "I thank you a thousand times, Miss Madison," cried Lolita's +mother, and flutteringly plunged into a description of her +anxiety, her search for Lolita, and concluded with renewed +expressions of gratitude for the child's safe return, an +outpouring of thankfulness and joy wholly incomprehensible to +Hedrick. + "Not at all," said Laura cheerfully. "Come, Hedrick. We'll +go home by the street, I think." She touched his shoulder, and +he went with her in stunned obedience. He was not able to +face the incredible thing that had happened to him: he walked in +a trance of horror. + "Poor little girl!" said Laura gently, with what seemed to +her brother an indefensibly misplaced compassion. "Usually they +have her live in an institution for people afflicted as she is, +but they brought her home for a visit last week, I believe. Of +course you didn't understand, but I think you should have been +more thoughtful. Really, you shouldn't have flirted with her." + Hedrick stopped short. + "`FLIRTED'!" His voice was beginning to show symptoms of +changing, this year; it rose to a falsetto wail, flickered and +went out. + With the departure of Lolita in safety, what had seemed +bizarre and piteous became obscured, and another aspect of the +adventure was presented to Laura. The sufferings of the arrogant +are not wholly depressing to the spectator; and of arrogance +Hedrick had ever been a master. She began to shake; a convulsion +took her, and suddenly she sat upon the curbstone without +dignity, and laughed as he had never seen her. + A horrid distrust of her rose within him: he began to +realize in what plight he stood, what terrors o'erhung. + "Look here," he said miserably, "are you--you aren't--you +don't have to go and--and TALK about this, do you?" + "No, Hedrick," she responded, rising and controlling herself +somewhat. "Not so long as you're good." + This was no reassuring answer. + "And politer to Cora," she added. + Seemingly he heard the lash of a slave-whip crack in the air. +The future grew dark. + "I know you'll try"--she said; and the unhappy lad felt that +her assurance was justified; but she had not concluded the +sentence--"darling little boy," she capped it, choking slightly. + "No other little girl ever fell in love with you, did there, +Hedrick?" she asked, and, receiving an incoherent but furious +reply, she was again overcome, so that she must lean against the +fence to recover. "It seems--so--so CURIOUS," she explained, +gasping, "that the first one--the--the only one--should be +an--a--an----" She was unable to continue. + Hedrick's distrust became painfully increased: he began to +feel that he disliked Laura. + She was still wiping her eyes and subject to recurrent +outbursts when they reached their own abode; and as he bitterly +flung himself into a chair upon the vacant front porch, he heard +her stifling an attack as she mounted the stairs to her own room. +He swung the chair about, with its back to the street, and sat +facing the wall. He saw nothing. There are profundities in the +abyss which reveal no glimpse of the sky. + Presently he heard his father coughing near by; and the sound +was hateful, because it seemed secure and unshamed. It was a +cough of moral superiority; and just then the son would have +liked to believe that his parent's boyhood had been one of +degradation as complete as his own; but no one with this +comfortable cough could ever have plumbed such depths: his +imagination refused the picture he was bitterly certain that Mr. +Madison had never kissed an idiot. + Hedrick had a dread that his father might speak to him; he +was in no condition for light conversation. But Mr. Madison was +unaware of his son's near presence, and continued upon his +purposeless way. He was smoking his one nightly cigar and en- +joying the moonlight. He drifted out toward the sidewalk +and was accosted by a passing acquaintance, a comfortable burgess +of sixty, leading a child of six or seven, by the hand. + "Out taking the air, are you, Mr. Madison? said the +pedestrian, pausing. + "Yes; just trying to cool off," returned the other. "How are +you, Pryor, anyway? I haven't seen you for a long time." + "Not since last summer," said Pryor. "I only get here once +or twice a year, to see my married daughter. I always try to +spend August with her if I can. She's still living in that +little house, over on the next street, I bought for her through +your real-estate company. I suppose you're still in the same +business?" + "Yes. Pretty slack, these days." + "I suppose so, I suppose so," responded Mr. Pryor, nodding. +"Summer, I suppose it usually is. Well, I don't know when I'll +be going out on the road again myself. Business is pretty slack +all over the country this year." + "Let's see--I've forgotten," said Madison ruminatively. "You +travel, don't you?" + "For a New York house," affirmed Mr. Pryor. He did not, +however, mention his "line." "Yes-sir," he added, merely as +a decoration, and then said briskly: "I see you have a fine +family, Mr. Madison; yes-sir, a fine family; I've passed here +several times lately and I've noticed 'em: fine family. Let's +see, you've got four, haven't you?" + "Three," said Madison. "Two girls and a boy." + "Well, sir, that's mighty nice," observed Mr. Pryor; +MIGHTY nice! I only have my one daughter, and of course me +living in New York when I'm at home, and her here, why, I don't +get to see much of her. You got both your daughters living with +you, haven't you?" + "Yes, right here at home." + "Let's see: neither of 'em's married, I believe?" + "No; not yet." + "Seems to me now," said Pryor, taking off his glasses and +wiping them, "seems to me I did hear somebody say one of 'em was +going to be married engaged, maybe." + "No," said Madison. "Not that I know of." + "Well, I suppose you'd be the first to know! Yes-sir." And +both men laughed their appreciation of this folly. "They're +mighty good-looking girls, THAT'S certain," continued Mr. +Pryor. "And one of 'em's as fine a dresser as you'll meet +this side the Rue de la Paix. + "You mean in Paris?" asked Madison, slightly surprised at +this allusion. "You've been over there, Pryor?" + "Oh, sometimes," was the response. "My business takes me +over, now and then. "I THINK it's one of your daughters I've +noticed dresses so well. Isn't one of 'em a mighty pretty girl +about twenty-one or two, with a fine head of hair sort of +lightish brown, beautiful figure, and carries a white parasol +with a green lining sometimes?" + "Yes, that's Cora, I guess." + "Pretty name, too," said Pryor approvingly. "Yes-sir. I saw +her going into a florist's, downtown, the other day, with a +fine-looking young fellow--I can't think of his name. Let's see: +my daughter was with me, and she'd heard his name--said his +family used to be big people in this town and----" + "Oh," said Madison, "young Corliss." + "Corliss!" exclaimed Mr. Pryor, with satisfaction. "That's +it, Corliss. Well, sir," he chuckled, "from the way he was +looking at your Miss Cora it struck me he seemed kind of anxious +for her name to be Corliss, too." + "Well, hardly I expect," said the other. "They just barely +know each other: he's only been here a few weeks; they haven't +had time to get much acquainted, you see." + "I suppose not," agreed Mr. Pryor, with perfect readiness. +"I suppose not. "I'll bet HE tries all he can to get +acquainted though; he looked pretty smart to me. Doesn't he come +about as often as the law allows?" + "I shouldn't be surprised," said Madison indifferently. "He +doesn't know many people about here any more, and it's lonesome +for him at the hotel. But I guess he comes to see the whole +family; I left him in the library a little while ago, talking to +my wife." + "That's the way! Get around the old folks first!" Mr. Pryor +chuckled cordially; then in a mildly inquisitive tone he said: +"Seems to be a fine, square young fellow, I expect?" + "Yes, I think so." + "Pretty name, `Cora'," said Pryor. + "What's this little girl's name?" Mr. Madison indicated the +child, who had stood with heroic patience throughout the +incomprehensible dialogue. + "Lottie, for her mother. She's a good little girl." + "She is SO! I've got a young son she ought to know," +remarked Mr. Madison serenely, with an elderly father's total +unconsciousness of the bridgeless gap between seven and thirteen. +"He'd like to play with her. I'll call him." + "I expect we better be getting on," said Pryor. "It's near +Lottie's bedtime; we just came out for our evening walk." + "Well, he can come and shake hands with her anyway," urged +Hedrick's father. "Then they'll know each other, and they can +play some other time." He turned toward the house and called +loudly: + "Hedrick!" + There was no response. Behind the back of his chair Hedrick +could not be seen. He was still sitting immovable, his eyes +torpidly fixed upon the wall. + "Hed-RICK!" + Silence. + "Oh, HED-rick!" shouted his father. "Come out here! I +want you to meet a little girl! Come and see a nice little +girl!" + Mr. Pryor's grandchild was denied the pleasure. At the +ghastly words "LITTLE GIRL," Hedrick dropped from his +chair flat upon the floor, crawled to the end of the porch, +wriggled through the railing, and immersed himself in deep shadow +against the side of the house. + Here he removed his shoes, noiselessly mounted to the sill of +one of the library windows, then reconnoitred through a slit in +the blinds before entering. + The gas burned low in the "drop-light"--almost too dimly to +reveal the two people upon a sofa across the room. It was a +faint murmur from one of them that caused Hedrick to pause and +peer more sharply. They were Cora and Corliss; he was bending +close to her; her face was lifting to his. + "Ah, kiss me! Kiss me!" she whispered. + Hedrick dropped from the sill, climbed through a window of +the kitchen, hurried up the back-stairs, and reached his own +apartment in time to be violently ill in seclusion. + + + +CHAPTER NINE + +Villages are scattered plentifully over the unstable buttresses +of Vesuvius, and the inhabitants sleep o' nights: Why not? +Quite unaware that he was much of their condition, Mr. Madison +bade his incidental gossip and the tiny Lottie good-night, and +sought his early bed. He maintained in good faith that Saturday +night was "a great night to sleep," because of the later hour for +rising; probably having also some factitious conviction that +there prevailed a hush preparative of the Sabbath. As a matter +of fact, in summer, the other members of his family always looked +uncommonly haggard at the Sunday breakfast-table. Accepting +without question his preposterous legend of additional matutinal +slumber, they postponed retiring to a late hour, and were +awakened--simultaneously with thousands of fellow-sufferers--at +about half-after five on Sunday morning, by a journalistic +uprising. Over the town, in these early hours, rampaged the +small vendors of the manifold sheets: local papers and +papers from greater cities, hawker succeeding hawker with yell +upon yell and brain-piercing shrillings in unbearable cadences. +No good burgher ever complained: the people bore it, as in winter +they bore the smoke that injured their health, ruined their +linen, spoiled their complexions, forbade all hope of beauty and +comfort in their city, and destroyed the sweetness of their homes +and of their wives. It is an incredibly patient citizenry and +exalts its persecutors. + Of the Madison family, Cora probably suffered most; and this +was the time when it was no advantage to have the front bedroom. +She had not slept until close upon dawn, and the hawkers woke her +irreparably; she could but rage upon her hot pillow. By and by, +there came a token that another anguish kept company with hers. +She had left her door open for a better circulation of the warm +and languid air, and from Hedrick's room issued an "OOF!" of +agonized disgust. Cora little suspected that the youth reeked +not of newsboys: Hedrick's miseries were introspective. + The cries from the street were interminable; each howler in +turn heard faintly in the distance, then in crescendo until he +had passed and another succeeded him, and all the while Cora +lay tossing and whispering between clenched teeth. Having ample +reason, that morning, to prefer sleep to thinking, sleep was +impossible. But she fought for it: she did not easily surrender +what she wanted; and she struggled on, with closed eyes, long +after she had heard the others go down to breakfast. + About a hundred yards from her windows, to the rear, were the +open windows of a church which fronted the next street, and stood +dos-a-dos to the dwelling of the Madisons. The Sunday-school +hour had been advanced for the hot weather, and, partly on this +account, and partly because of the summer absence of many +families, the attendants were few. But the young voices were +conducted, rather than accompanied, in pious melody by a +cornetist who worthily thought to amend, in his single person, +what lack of volume this paucity occasioned. He was a slender +young man in hot black clothes; he wore the unfacaded collar +fatally and unanimously adopted by all adam's-apple men of +morals; he was washed, fair, flat-skulled, clean-minded, and +industrious; and the only noise of any kind he ever made in the +world was on Sunday. + "Prashus joowuls, sweet joowuls, THEE jams off iz +crowowun," sang the little voices feebly. They were almost +unheard; but the young man helped them out: figuratively, he put +them out. And the cornet was heard: it was heard for blocks and +blocks; it was heard over all that part of the town--in the +vicinity of the church it was the only thing that could be heard. +In his daily walk this cornetist had no enemies: he was +kind-hearted; he would not have shot a mad dog; he gladly nursed +the sick. He sat upon the platform before the children; he +swelled, perspired and blew, and felt that it was a good blowing. +If other thoughts vapoured upon the borders of his mind, they +were of the dinner he would eat, soon after noon, at the house of +one of the frilled, white-muslin teachers. He was serene. His +eyes were not blasted; his heart was not instantly withered; his +thin, bluish hair did not fall from his head; his limbs were not +detached from his torso--yet these misfortunes had been desired +for him, with comprehension and sincerity, at the first flat blat +of his brassy horn. + It is impossible to imagine the state of mind of this young +cornetist, could he have known that he had caused the prettiest +girl in town to jump violently out of bed with what +petitions upon her lips regarding his present whereabouts and +future detention! It happened that during the course of his +Sunday walk on Corliss Street, that very afternoon, he saw +her--was hard-smitten by her beauty, and for weeks thereafter +laid unsuccessful plans to "meet" her. Her image was imprinted: +he talked about her to his boarding-house friends and office +acquaintances, his favourite description being, "the +sweetest-looking lady I ever laid eyes on." + Cora, descending to the breakfast-table rather white herself, +was not unpleasantly shocked by the haggard aspect of Hedrick, +who, with Laura and Mrs. Madison, still lingered. + "Good-morning, Cora," he said politely, and while she stared, +in suspicious surprise, he passed her a plate of toast with +ostentatious courtesy; but before she could take one of the +slices, "Wait," he said; "it's very nice toast, but I'm afraid it +isn't hot. I'll take it to the kitchen and have it warmed for +you." And he took the plate and went out, walking softly. + Cora turned to her mother, appalled. "He'll be sick!" she +said. + Mrs. Madison shook her head and smiled sadly. + "He helped to wait on all of us: he must have been doing +something awful." + "More likely he wants permission to do something awful." + Laura looked out of the window. + "There, Cora," said Hedrick kindly, when he brought the +toast; "you'll find that nice and hot." + She regarded him steadfastly, but with modesty he avoided her +eye. "You wouldn't make such a radical change in your nature, +Hedrick," she said, with a puzzled frown, "just to get out of +going to church, would you?" + "I don't want to get out of going to church," he said. He +gulped slightly. "I like church." + And church-time found him marching decorously beside his +father, the three ladies forming a rear rank; a small company in +the very thin procession of fanning women and mopping men whose +destination was the gray stone church at the foot of Corliss +Street. The locusts railed overhead: Hedrick looked neither to +the right nor to the left. + They passed a club, of which a lower window was vacated +simultaneously with their coming into view; and a small but +ornate figure in pale gray crash hurried down the steps and +attached itself to the second row of Madisons. +"Good-morning," said Mr. Wade Trumble. "Thought I'd take a +look-in at church this morning myself." + Care of this encumbrance was usually expected of Laura and +Mrs. Madison, but to their surprise Cora offered a sprightly +rejoinder and presently dropped behind them with Mr. Trumble. +Mr. Trumble was also surprised and, as naively, pleased. + "What's happened?" he asked with cheerful frankness. "You +haven't given me a chance to talk to you for a long while." + "Haven't I?" she smiled enigmatically. "I don't think you've +tried very hard." + This was too careless; it did not quite serve, even for +Trumble. "What's up?" he asked, not without shrewdness. "Is +Richard Lindley out of town?" + "I don't know." + "I see. Perhaps it's this new chap, Corliss? Has he left?" + "What nonsense! What have they got to do with my being nice +to you?" She gave him a dangerous smile, and it wrought upon him +visibly. + "Don't you ever be nice to me unless you mean it," he said +feebly. + Cora looked grave and sweet; she seemed mysteriously +moved. "I never do anything I don't mean," she said in a low +voice which thrilled the little man. This was machine-work, easy +and accurate. + "Cora----" he began, breathlessly. + "There!" she exclaimed, shifting on the instant to a lively +brusqueness. "That's enough for you just NOW. We're on our +way to church!" + Trumble felt almost that she had accepted him. + "Have you got your penny for the contribution box?" she +smiled. "I suppose you really give a great deal to the church. +I hear you're richer and richer." + "I do pretty well," he returned, coolly. "You can know just +how well, if you like." + "Not on Sunday," she laughed; then went on, admiringly, "I +hear you're very dashing in your speculations." + "Then you've heard wrong, because I don't speculate," he +returned. "I'm not a gambler--except on certainties. I guess I +disappointed a friend of yours the other day because I wouldn't +back him on a thousand-to-one shot." + "Who was that?" she asked, with an expression entirely +veiled. + "Corliss. He came to see me; wanted me to put real money +into an oil scheme. Too thin!" + "Why is it `too thin'?" she asked carelessly. + "Too far away, for one thing--somewhere in Italy. Anybody +who put up his cash would have to do it on Corliss's bare word +that he's struck oil." + "Well?" She turned her face to him, and a faint perturbation +was manifest in her tone. "Isn't Mr. Corliss's `bare word' +supposed to be perfectly good?" + "Oh, I suppose so, but I don't know. He isn't known here: +nobody really knows anything about him except that he was born +here. Besides, I wouldn't make an investment on my own father's +bare word, if he happened to be alive." + "Perhaps not!" Cora spoke impulsively, a sudden anger getting +the better of her, but she controlled it immediately. "Of course +I don't mean that," she laughed, sweetly. "But _I_ happen to +think Mr. Corliss's scheme a very handsome one, and I want my +friends to make their fortunes, of course. Richard Lindley and +papa are going into it." + "I'll bet they don't," said Trumble promptly. "Lindley told +me he'd looked it over and couldn't see his way to." + "He did?" Cora stiffened perceptibly and bit her lip. + Trumble began to laugh. "This is funny: you trying to talk +business! So Corliss has been telling you about it?" + "Yes, he has; and I understand it perfectly. I think there's +an enormous fortune in it, and you'd better not laugh at me: a +woman's instinct about such things is better than a man's +experience sometimes." + "You'll find neither Lindley nor your father are going to +think so," he returned skeptically. + She gave him a deep, sweet look. "But I mustn't be +disappointed in you," she said, with the suggestion of a tremor +in her voice, whatever THEY do! You'll take my advice, won't +you--Wade?" + "I'll take your advice in anything but business." He shook +his head ominously. + "And wouldn't you take my advice in business,--she asked very +slowly and significantly--"under ANY circumstances?" + "You mean," he said huskily, "if you were my wife?" + She looked away, and slightly inclined her head. "No," he +answered doggedly, "I wouldn't. You know mighty well that's +what I want you to be, and I'd give my soul for the tip of your +shoe, but business is an entirely different matter, and I----" + "WADE! she said, with wonderful and thrilling sweetness. +They had reached the church; Hedrick and his father had entered; +Mrs. Madison and Laura were waiting on the steps. Cora and +Trumble came to a stop some yards away. "Wade, I--I WANT you +to go into this." + "Can't do it," he said stubbornly. "If you ever make up your +mind to marry me, I'll spend all the money you like on YOU, +but you'll have to keep to the woman's side of the house." + "You make it pretty hard for me to be nice to you," she +returned, and the tremor now more evident in her voice was +perfectly genuine. "You positively refuse to do this--for me?" + "Yes I do. I wouldn't buy sight-unseen to please God +'lmighty, Cora Madison." He looked at her shrewdly, struck by a +sudden thought. "Did Corliss ask you to try and get me in?" + "He did not," she responded, icily. "Your refusal is final?" + "Certainly!" He struck the pavement a smart rap with his +walking-stick. "By George, I believe he DID ask you! +That spoils church for me this morning; I'll not go in. When you +quit playing games, let me know. You needn't try to work me any +more, because I won't stand for it, but if you ever get tired of +playing, come and tell me so." He uttered a bark of rueful +laughter. "Ha! I must say that gentleman has an interesting way +of combining business with pleasure!" + Under favourable circumstances the blow Cora dealt him might +have been physically more violent. "Good-morning," she laughed, +gayly. "I'm not bothering much about Mr. Corliss's oil in Italy. +I had a bet with Laura I could keep you from saying `I beg to +differ,' or talking about the weather for five minutes. She'll +have to pay me!" + Then, still laughing, she lowered her parasol, and with +superb impudence, brushed it smartly across his face; turned on +her heel, and, red with fury, joined her mother and sister, and +went into the church. + The service failed to occupy her attention: she had much in +her thoughts to distract her. Nevertheless, she bestowed some +wonderment upon the devotion with which her brother observed each +ceremonial rite. He joined in prayer with real fervour; he sang +earnestly and loudly; a great appeal sounded in his changing +voice; and during the sermon he sat with his eyes upon the +minister in a stricken fixity. All this was so remarkable that +Cora could not choose but ponder upon it, and, observing Hedrick +furtively, she caught, if not a clue itself, at least a glimpse +of one. She saw Laura's clear profile becoming subtly agitated; +then noticed a shimmer of Laura's dark eye as it wandered to +Hedrick and so swiftly away it seemed not to dare to remain. +Cora was quick: she perceived that Laura was repressing a +constant desire to laugh and that she feared to look at Hedrick +lest it overwhelm her. So Laura knew what had wrought the +miracle. Cora made up her mind to explore this secret passage. + When the service was over and the people were placidly +buzzing their way up the aisles, Cora felt herself drawn to look +across the church, and following the telepathic impulse, turned +her head to encounter the gaze of Ray Vilas. He was ascending +the opposite aisle, walking beside Richard Lindley. He looked +less pale than usual, though his thinness was so extreme it was +like emaciation; but his eyes were clear and quiet, and the look +he gave her was strangely gentle. Cora frowned and turned away +her head with an air of annoyance. They came near each +other in the convergence at the doors; but he made no effort to +address her, and, moving away through the crowd as quickly as +possible, disappeared. + Valentine Corliss was disclosed in the vestibule. He reached +her an instant in advance of Mr. Lindley, who had suffered +himself to be impeded; and Cora quickly handed the former her +parasol, lightly taking his arm. Thus the slow Richard found +himself walking beside Laura in a scattered group, its detached +portion consisting of his near-betrothed and Corliss; for +although the dexterous pair were first to leave the church, they +contrived to be passed almost at once, and, assuming the position +of trailers, lagged far behind on the homeward way. + Laura and Richard walked in the unmitigated glare of the sun; +he had taken her black umbrella and conscientiously held it +aloft, but over nobody. They walked in silence: they were quiet +people, both of them; and Richard, not "talkative" under any +circumstances, never had anything whatever to say to Laura +Madison. He had known her for many years, ever since her +childhood; seldom indeed formulating or expressing a definite +thought about her, though sometimes it was vaguely of his +consciousness that she played the piano nicely, and even +then her music had taken its place as but a colour of Cora's +background. For to him, as to every one else (including Laura), +Laura was in nothing her sister's competitor. She was a +neutral-tinted figure, taken-for-granted, obscured, and so near +being nobody at all, that, as Richard Lindley walked beside her +this morning, he glanced back at the lagging couple and uttered a +long and almost sonorous sigh, which he would have been ashamed +for anybody to hear; and then actually proceeded on his way +without the slightest realization that anybody had heard it. + She understood. And she did not disturb the trance; she did +nothing to make him observe that she was there. She walked on +with head, shoulders, and back scorching in the fierce sun, and +allowed him to continue shading the pavement before them with her +umbrella. When they reached the house she gently took the +umbrella from him and thanked him; and he mechanically raised his +hat. + They had walked more than a mile together; he had not spoken +a word, and he did not even know it. + + + +CHAPTER TEN + +Dinner on Sunday, the most elaborate feast of the week for the +Madisons, was always set for one o'clock in the afternoon, and +sometimes began before two, but not to-day: the escorts of both +daughters remained, and a change of costume by Cora occasioned a +long postponement. Justice demands the admission that her +reappearance in a glamour of lilac was reward for the delay; +nothing more ravishing was ever seen, she was warrantably +informed by the quicker of the two guests, in a moment's +whispered tete-a-tete across the banisters as she descended. +Another wait followed while she prettily arranged upon the table +some dozens of asters from a small garden-bed, tilled, planted, +and tended by Laura. Meanwhile, Mrs. Madison constantly turned +the other cheek to the cook. Laura assisted in the pacification; +Hedrick froze the ice-cream to an impenetrable solidity; and the +nominal head of the family sat upon the front porch with the two +young men, and wiped his wrists and rambled politically +till they were summoned to the dining-room. + Cora did the talking for the table. She was in high spirits; +no trace remained of a haggard night: there was a bloom upon +her--she was radiant. Her gayety may have had some inspiration +in her daring, for round her throat she wore a miraculously +slender chain of gold and enamel, with a pendant of minute pale +sapphires scrolled about a rather large and very white diamond. +Laura started when she saw it, and involuntarily threw a glance +almost of terror at Richard Lindley. But that melancholy and +absent-minded gentleman observed neither the glance nor the +jewel. He saw Cora's eyes, when they were vouchsafed to his +vision, and when they were not he apparently saw nothing at all. + With the general exodus from the table, Cora asked Laura to +come to the piano and play, a request which brought a snort from +Hedrick, who was taken off his guard. Catching Laura's eye, he +applied a handkerchief with renewed presence of mind, affecting +to have sneezed, and stared searchingly over it at Corliss. He +perceived that the man remained unmoved, evidently already in- +formed that it was Laura who was the musician. Cora must be +going it pretty fast this time: such was the form of her +brother's deduction. + When Laura opened the piano, Richard had taken a seat beside +Cora, and Corliss stood leaning in the doorway. The player lost +herself in a wandering medley, echoes from "Boheme" and +"Pagliacci"; then drifted into improvisation and played her heart +into it magnificently--a heart released to happiness. The still +air of the room filled with wonderful, golden sound: a song like +the song of a mother flying from earth to a child in the stars, a +torrential tenderness, unpent and glorying in freedom. The +flooding, triumphant chords rose, crashed--stopped with a +shattering abruptness. Laura's hands fell to her sides, then +were raised to her glowing face and concealed it for a moment. +She shivered; a quick, deep sigh heaved her breast; and she came +back to herself like a prisoner leaving a window at the warden's +voice. + She turned. Cora and Corliss had left the room. Richard was +sitting beside a vacant chair, staring helplessly at the open +door. + If he had been vaguely conscious of Laura's playing, which is +possible, certainly he was unaware that it had ceased. + "The others have gone out to the porch," she said composedly, +and rose. "Shan't we join them?" + "What?" he returned, blankly. "I beg your pardon----" + "Let's go out on the porch with the others." + "No, I----" He got to his feet confusedly. "I was +thinking---- I believe I'd best be going home." + "Not `best,' I think," she said. "Not even better!" + "I don't see," he said, his perplexity only increased. + "Mr. Corliss would," she retorted quickly. "Come on: we'll +go and sit with them." And she compelled his obedience by +preceding him with such a confident assumption that he would +follow that he did. + The fugitive pair were not upon the porch, however; they were +discovered in the shade of a tree behind the house, seated upon a +rug, and occupied in a conversation which would not have +disturbed a sick-room. The pursuers came upon them, boldly sat +beside them; and Laura began to talk with unwonted fluency to +Corliss, but within five minutes found herself alone with +Richard Lindley upon the rug. Cora had promised to show Mr. +Corliss an "old print" in the library--so Cora said. + Lindley gave the remaining lady a desolate and faintly +reproachful look. He was kind, but he was a man; and Laura saw +that this last abandonment was being attributed in part to her. + She reddened, and, being not an angel, observed with +crispness: "Certainly. You're quite right: it's my fault!" + "What did you say?" he asked vacantly. + She looked at him rather fixedly; his own gaze had returned +to the angle of the house beyond which the other couple had just +disappeared. "I said," she answered, slowly, "I thought it +wouldn't rain this, afternoon." + His wistful eyes absently swept the serene sky which had been +cloudless for several days. "No, I suppose not," he murmured. + "Richard," she said with a little sharpness, "will you please +listen to me for a moment?" + "Oh--what?" He was like a diver coming up out of deep water. +"What did you say?" He laughed apologetically. "Wasn't I +listening? I beg your pardon. What is it, Laura?" + "Why do you let Mr. Corliss take Cora away from you like +that?" she asked gravely. + "He doesn't," the young man returned with a rueful shake of +the head. "Don't you see? It's Cora that goes." + "Why do you let her, then?" + He sighed. "I don't seem to be able to keep up with Cora, +especially when she's punishing me. I couldn't do something she +asked me to, last night----" + "Invest with Mr. Corliss?" asked Laura quickly. + "Yes. It seemed to trouble her that I couldn't. She's +convinced it's a good thing: she thinks it would make a great +fortune for us----" + "`Us'?" repeated Laura gently. "You mean for you and her? +When you're----" + "When we're married. Yes," he said thoughtfully, "that's the +way she stated it. She wanted me to put in all I have----" + "Don't do it!" said Laura decidedly. + He glanced at her with sharp inquiry. "Do you mean you would +distrust Mr. Corliss?' + "I wasn't thinking of that: I don't know whether I'd trust +him or not--I think I wouldn't; there's something veiled about +him, and I don't believe he is an easy man to know. What I +meant was that I don't believe it would really be a good thing +for you with Cora." + "It would please her, of course--thinking I deferred so much +to her judgment." + "Don't do it!" she said again, impulsively. + "I don't see how I can," he returned sorrowfully. + "It's my work for all the years since I got out of college, +and if I lost it I'd have to begin all over again. It would mean +postponing everything. Cora isn't a girl you can ask to share a +little salary, and if it were a question of years, perhaps-- +perhaps Cora might not feel she could wait for me, you see." + He made this explanation with plaintive and boyish sincerity, +hesitatingly, and as if pleading a cause. And Laura, after a +long look at him, turned away, and in her eyes were actual tears +of compassion for the incredible simpleton. + "I see," she said. "Perhaps she might not." + "Of course," he went on, "she's fond of having nice things, +and she thinks this is a great chance for us to be millionaires; +and then, too, I think she may feel that it would please Mr. +Corliss and help to save him from disappointment. She seems to +have taken a great fancy to him." + Laura glanced at him, but did not speak. + "He IS attractive," continued Richard feebly. "I think +he has a great deal of what people call `magnetism': he's the +kind of man who somehow makes you want to do what he wants you +to. He seems a manly, straightforward sort, too--so far as one +can tell--and when he came to me with his scheme I was strongly +inclined to go into it. But it is too big a gamble, and I can't, +though I was sorry to disappoint him myself. He was perfectly +cheerful about it and so pleasant it made me feel small. I don't +wonder at all that Cora likes him so much. Besides, he seems to +understand her." + Laura looked very grave. "I think he does," she said slowly. + "And then he's `different,'" said Richard. "He's more a `man +of the world' than most of us here: she never saw anything just +like him before, and she's seen US all her life. She likes +change, of course. That's natural," he said gently. "Poor Vilas +says she wants a man to be different every day, and if he isn't, +then she wants a different man every day." + "You've rather taken Ray Vilas under your wing, haven't you?" +asked Laura. + "Oh, no," he answered deprecatingly. "I only try to +keep him with me so he'll stay away from downtown as much as +possible." + "Does he talk much of Cora?" + "All the time. There's no stopping him. I suppose he can't +help it, because he thinks of nothing else." + "Isn't that rather--rather queer for you?" + "`Queer'?" he repeated. + "No, I suppose not!" She laughed impatiently. "And probably +you don't think it's `queer' of you to sit here helplessly, and +let another man take your place----" + "But I don't `let' him, Laura," he protested. + "No, he just does it!" + "Well," he smiled, "you must admit my efforts to supplant him +haven't----" + "It won't take any effort now," she said, rising quickly. +Valentine Corliss came into their view upon the sidewalk in +front, taking his departure. Seeing that they observed him, he +lifted his hat to Laura and nodded a cordial good-day to Lindley. +Then he went on. + Just before he reached the corner of the lot, he encountered +upon the pavement a citizen of elderly and plain appearance, +strolling with a grandchild. The two men met and passed, +each upon his opposite way, without pausing and without +salutation, and neither Richard nor Laura, whose eyes were upon +the meeting, perceived that they had taken cognizance of each +other. But one had asked a question and the other had answered. + Mr. Pryor spoke in a low monotone, with a rapidity as +singular as the restrained but perceptible emphasis he put upon +one word of his question. + "I got you in the park," he said; and it is to be deduced +that "got" was argot. "You're not DOING anything here, are +you?" + "No!" answered Corliss with condensed venom, his back already +to the other. He fanned himself with his hat as he went on. Mr. +Pryor strolled up the street with imperturbable benevolence. + "Your coast is cleared," said Laura, "since you wouldn't +clear it yourself." + "Wish me luck," said Richard as he left her. + She nodded brightly. + Before he disappeared, he looked back to her again (which +profoundly surprised her) and smiled rather disconsolately, +shaking his head as in prophecy of no very encouraging reception +indoors. The manner of this glance recalled to Laura what +his mother had once said of him. "Richard is one of those sweet, +helpless men that some women adore and others despise. They fall +in love with the ones that despise them." + An ostentatious cough made her face about, being obviously +designed to that effect; and she beheld her brother in the act of +walking slowly across the yard with his back to her. He halted +upon the border of her small garden of asters, regarded it +anxiously, then spread his handkerchief upon the ground, knelt +upon it, and with thoughtful care uprooted a few weeds which were +beginning to sprout, and also such vagrant blades of grass as +encroached upon the floral territory. He had the air of a +virtuous man performing a good action which would never become +known. Plainly, he thought himself in solitude and all +unobserved. + It was a touching picture, pious and humble. Done into +coloured glass, the kneeling boy and the asters--submerged in +ardent sunshine--would have appropriately enriched a cathedral: +Boyhood of Saint Florus the Gardener. + Laura heartlessly turned her back, and, affecting an interest +in her sleeve, very soon experienced the sensation of being +stared at with some poignancy from behind. Unchanged in +attitude, she unravelled an imaginary thread, whereupon the cough +reached her again, shrill and loud, its insistence not lacking in +pathos. + She approached him, driftingly. No sign that he was aware +came from the busied boy, though he coughed again, hollowly +now--a proof that he was an artist. "All right, Hedrick," she +said kindly. "I heard you the first time." + He looked up with utter incomprehension. "I'm afraid I've +caught cold," he said, simply. "I got a good many weeds out +before breakfast, and the ground was damp." + Hedrick was of the New School: everything direct, real, no +striving for effect, no pressure on the stroke. He did his work: +you could take it or leave it. + "You mustn't strain so, dear," returned his sister, shaking +her head. "It won't last if you do. You see this is only the +first day." + Struck to the heart by so brutal a misconception, he put all +his wrongs into one look, rose in manly dignity, picked up his +handkerchief, and left her. + Her eyes followed him, not without remorse: it was an exit +which would have moved the bass-violist of a theatre +orchestra. Sighing, she went to her own room by way of the +kitchen and the back-stairs, and, having locked her door, brought +the padlocked book from its hiding-place. + "I think I should not have played as I did, an hour ago," she +wrote. "It stirs me too greatly and I am afraid it makes me +inclined to self-pity afterward, and I must never let myself feel +THAT! If I once begin to feel sorry for myself. . . . But I +WILL not! No. You are here in the world. You exist. You +ARE! That is the great thing to know and it must be enough +for me. It is. I played to You. I played JUST LOVE to +you--all the yearning tenderness--all the supreme kindness I want +to give you. Isn't love really just glorified kindness? No, +there is something more. . . . I feel it, though I do not know +how to say it. But it was in my playing--I played it and played +it. Suddenly I felt that in my playing I had shouted it from the +housetops, that I had told the secret to all the world and +EVERYBODY knew. I stopped, and for a moment it seemed to me +that I was dying of shame. But no one understood. No one had +even listened. . . . Sometimes it seems to me that I am +like Cora, that I am very deeply her sister in some things. My +heart goes all to You--my revelation of it, my release of it, my +outlet of it is all here in these pages (except when I play as I +did to-day and as I shall not play again) and perhaps the writing +keeps me quiet. Cora scatters her own releasings: she is looking +for the You she may never find; and perhaps the penalty for scat- +tering is never finding. Sometimes I think the seeking has +reacted and that now she seeks only what will make her feel. I +hope she has not found it: I am afraid of this new man--not only +for your sake, dear. I felt repelled by his glance at me the +first time I saw him. I did not like it--I cannot say just why, +unless that it seemed too intimate. I am afraid of him for her, +which is a queer sort of feeling because she has alw----" + Laura's writing stopped there, for that day, interrupted by a +hurried rapping upon the door and her mother's voice calling her +with stress and urgency. + The opening of the door revealed Mrs. Madison in a state of +anxious perturbation, and admitted the sound of loud weeping and +agitated voices from below. + "Please go down," implored the mother. "You can do more with +her than I can. She and your father have been having a terrible +scene since Richard went home." + Laura hurried down to the library. + + + +CHAPTER ELEVEN + +Oh, COME in, Laura!" cried her sister, as Laura appeared in +the doorway. "Don't STAND there! Come in if you want to +take part in a grand old family row!" With a furious and +tear-stained face, she was confronting her father who stood +before her in a resolute attitude and a profuse perspiration. +"Shut the door!" shouted Cora violently, adding, as Laura obeyed, +"Do you want that little Pest in here? Probably he's +eavesdropping anyway. But what difference does it make? I don't +care. Let him hear! Let anybody hear that wants to! They can +hear how I'm tortured if they like. I didn't close my eyes last +night, and now I'm being tortured. Papa!" She stamped her foot. +"Are you going to take back that insult to me?" + "`Insult'?" repeated her father, in angry astonishment. + "Pshaw," said Laura, laughing soothingly and coming to her. +"You know that's nonsense, Cora. Kind old papa +couldn't do that if he tried. Dear, you know he never insulted +anybody in his----" + "Don't touch me!" screamed Cora, repulsing her. "Listen, if +you've got to, but let me alone. He did too! He did! He +KNOWS what he said!" + "I do not!" + "He does! He does!" cried Cora. "He said that I was--I was +too much `interested' in Mr. Corliss." + "Is that an `insult'?" the father demanded sharply. + "It was the way he said it," Cora protested, sobbing. "He +meant something he didn't SAY. He did! He did! He MEANT +to insult me!" + "I did nothing of the kind," shouted the old man. + I don't know what you're talking about. I said I couldn't +understand your getting so excited about the fellow's affairs and +that you seemed to take a mighty sudden interest in him." + "Well, what if I DO?" she screamed. Haven't I a right to +be interested in what I choose? I've got to be interested in +SOMETHING, haven't I? YOU don't make life very +interesting, do you? Do you think it's interesting to spend the +summer in this horrible old house with the paper falling off the +walls and our rotten old furniture that I work my hands off +trying to make look decent and can't, and every other girl I know +at the seashore with motor-cars and motor-boats, or getting a +trip abroad and buying her clothes in Paris? What do YOU offer to +interest me?" + The unfortunate man hung his head. "I don't see what all +that has to do with it----" + She seemed to leap at him. "You DON'T? You DON'T?" + "No, I don't. And I don't see why you're so crazy to please +young Corliss about this business unless you're infatuated with +him. I had an idea--and I was pleased with it, too, because +Richard's a steady fellow--that you were just about engaged to +Richard Lindley, and----" + "Engaged!" she cried, repeating the word with bitter +contempt. "Engaged! You don't suppose I'll marry him unless I +want to, do you? I will if it suits me. I won't if it suits me +not to; understand that! I don't consider myself engaged to +anybody, and you needn't either. What on earth has that got to +do with your keeping Richard Lindley from doing what Mr. Corliss +wants him to?" + "I'm not keeping him from anything. He didn't say----" + "He did!" stormed Cora. "He said he would if you went into +it. He told me this afternoon, an hour ago." + "Now wait," said Madison. "I talked this over with Richard +two days ago----" + Cora stamped her foot again in frantic exasperation. "I'm +talking about this afternoon!" + "Two days ago," he repeated doggedly; "and we came to the +same conclusion: it won't do. He said he couldn't go into it +unless he went over there to Italy--and saw for himself just what +he was putting his money into, and Corliss had told him that it +couldn't be done; that there wasn't time, and showed him a +cablegram from his Italian partner saying the secret had leaked +out and that they'd have to form the company in Naples and sell +the stock over there if it couldn't be done here within the next +week. Corliss said he had to ask for an immediate answer, and so +Richard told him no, yesterday." + "Oh, my God!" groaned Cora. "What has that got to do with +YOUR going into it? You're not going to risk any money! I +don't ask you to SPEND anything, do I? You haven't got +it if I did. All Mr. Corliss wants is your name. Can't you give +even THAT? What importance is it?" + Well, if it isn't important, what difference does it make +whether I give it or not?" + She flung up her arms as in despairing appeal for patience. +"It IS important to him! Richard will do it if you will be +secretary of the company: he promised me. Mr. Corliss told me +your name was worth everything here: that men said downtown you +could have been rich long ago if you hadn't been so square. +Richard trusts you; he says you're the most trusted man in +town----" + "That's why I can't do it," he interrupted. + "No!" Her vehemence increased suddenly to its utmost. "No! +Don't you say that, because it's a lie. That isn't the reason +you won't do it. You won't do it because you think it would +please ME! You're afraid it might make me HAPPY! +Happy--happy--HAPPY!" She beat her breast and cast herself +headlong upon the sofa, sobbing wildly. "Don't come near me!" +she screamed at Laura, and sprang to her feet again, dishevelled +and frantic. "Oh, Christ in heaven! is there such a thing as +happiness in this beast of a world? I want to leave it. I +want to go away: I want SO to die: Why can't I? Why can't +I! Why can't I! Oh, God, why CAN'T I die? Why can't----" + Her passion culminated in a shriek: she gasped, was convulsed +from head to foot for a dreadful moment, tore at the bosom of her +dress with rigid bent fingers, swayed; then collapsed all at +once. Laura caught her, and got her upon the sofa. In the hall, +Mrs. Madison could be heard running and screaming to Hedrick to +go for the doctor. Next instant, she burst into the room with +brandy and camphor. + "I could only find these; the ammonia bottle's empty," she +panted; and the miserable father started hatless, for the +drug-store, a faint, choked wail from the stricken girl sounding +in his ears: "It's--it's my heart, mamma." + It was four blocks to the nearest pharmacy; he made what +haste he could in the great heat, but to himself he seemed double +his usual weight; and the more he tried to hurry, the less speed +appeared obtainable from his heavy legs. When he reached the +place at last, he found it crowded with noisy customers about the +"soda-fount"; and the clerks were stonily slow: they seemed to +know that they were "already in eternity." He got very +short of breath on the way home; he ceased to perspire and became +unnaturally dry; the air was aflame and the sun shot fire upon +his bare head. His feet inclined to strange disobediences: he +walked the last block waveringly. A solemn Hedrick met him at +the door. + "They've got her to bed," announced the boy. "The doctor's +up there." + "Take this ammonia up," said Madison huskily, and sat down +upon a lower step of the stairway with a jolt, closing his eyes. + "You sick, too?" asked Hedrick. + "No. Run along with that ammonia." + It seemed to Madison a long time that he sat there alone, and +he felt very dizzy. Once he tried to rise, but had to give it up +and remain sitting with his eyes shut. At last he heard Cora's +door open and close; and his wife and the doctor came slowly down +the stairs, Mrs. Madison talking in the anxious yet relieved +voice of one who leaves a sick-room wherein the physician +pronounces progress encouraging. + "And you're SURE her heart trouble isn't organic?" she +asked. + Her heart is all right," her companion assured her. "There's +nothing serious; the trouble is nervous. I think you'll find +she'll be better after a good sleep. Just keep her quiet. +Hadn't she been in a state of considerable excitement?" + "Ye-es--she----" + "Ah! A little upset on account of opposition to a plan she'd +formed, perhaps?" + "Well--partly," assented the mother. + "I see," he returned, adding with some dryness: "I thought +it just possible." + Madison got to his feet, and stepped down from the stairs for +them to pass him. He leaned heavily against the wall. + "You think she's going to be all right, Sloane? he asked with +an effort. + "No cause to worry," returned the physician. "You can let +her stay in bed to-day if she wants to but----" He broke off, +looking keenly at Madison's face, which was the colour of +poppies. "Hello! what's up with YOU?" + "I'm all--right." + "Oh, you are?" retorted Sloane with sarcasm. "Sit down," he +commanded. "Sit right where you are--on the stairs, here," and, +having enforced the order, took a stethoscope from his +pocket. "Get him a glass of water," he said to Hedrick, who was +at his elbow. + "Doctor!" exclaimed Mrs. Madison. "HE isn't going to be +sick, is he? You don't think he's sick NOW?" + "I shouldn't call him very well," answered the physician +rather grimly, placing his stethoscope upon Madison's breast. +"Get his room ready for him." She gave him a piteous look, +struck with fear; then obeyed a gesture and ran flutteringly up +the stairs. + "I'm all right now," panted Madison, drinking the water +Hedrick brought him. + "You're not so darned all right," said Sloane coolly, as he +pocketed his stethoscope. "Come, let me help you up. We're +going to get you to bed." + There was an effort at protest, but the physician had his +way, and the two ascended the stairs slowly, Sloane's arm round +his new patient. At Cora's door, the latter paused. + "What's the matter?" + "I want," said Madison thickly--"I want--to speak to Cora." + "We'll pass that up just now," returned the other +brusquely, and led him on. Madison was almost helpless: he +murmured in a husky, uncertain voice, and suffered himself to be +put to bed. There, the doctor "worked" with him; cold +"applications" were ordered; Laura was summoned from the other +sick-bed; Hedrick sent flying with prescriptions, then to +telephone for a nurse. The two women attempted questions at +intervals, but Sloane replied with orders, and kept them busy. + "Do you--think I'm a---a pretty sick man, Sloane?" asked +Madison after a long silence, speaking with difficulty. + "Oh, you're sick, all right," the doctor conceded. + "I--I want to speak to Jennie." + His wife rushed to the bed, and knelt beside it. + "Don't you go to confessing your sins," said Doctor Sloane +crossly. "You're coming out of the woods all right, and you'll +be sorry if you tell her too, much. I'll begin a little +flirtation with you, Miss Laura, if you please." And he motioned +to her to follow him into the hall. + "Your father IS pretty sick, he told her, "and he may be +sicker before we get him into shape again. But you needn't be +worried right now; I think he's not in immediate danger." He +turned at the sound of Mrs. Madison's step, behind him, and +repeated to her what he had just said to Laura. "I hope your +husband didn't give himself away enough to be punished when we +get him on his feet again," he concluded cheerfully. + She shook her head, tried to smile through tears, and, +crossing the hall, entered Cora's room. She came back after a +moment, and, rejoining the other two at her husband's bedside, +found the sick man in a stertorous sleep. Presently the nurse +arrived, and upon the physician's pointed intimation that there +were "too many people around," Laura went to Cora's room. She +halted on the threshold in surprise. Cora was dressing. + "Mamma says the doctor says he's all right," said Cora +lightly, "and I'm feeling so much better myself I thought I'd put +on something loose and go downstairs. I think there's more air +down there." + "Papa isn't all right, dear," said Laura, staring perplexedly +at Cora's idea of "something loose," an equipment inclusive of +something particularly close. "The doctor says he is very sick." + "I don't believe it," returned Cora promptly. "Old Sloane +never did know anything. Besides, mamma told me he said +papa isn't in any danger." + "No `immediate' danger," corrected Laura. "And besides, +Doctor Sloane said you were to stay in bed until to-morrow." + "I can't help that." Cora went on with her lacing +impatiently. "I'm not going to lie and stifle in this heat when +I feel perfectly well again--not for an old idiot like Sloane! +He didn't even have sense enough to give me any medicine." She +laughed. "Lucky thing he didn't: I'd have thrown it out of the +window. Kick that slipper to me, will you, dear?" + Laura knelt and put the slipper on her sister's foot. "Cora, +dear," she said, "you're just going to put on a negligee and go +down and sit in the library, aren't you?" + "Laura!" The tone was more than impatient. "I wish I could +be let alone for five whole minutes some time in my life! Don't +you think I've stood enough for one day? I can't bear to be +questioned, questioned, questioned! What do you do it for? +Don't you see I can't stand anything more? If you can't let me +alone I do wish you'd keep out of my room. + Laura rose and went out; but as she left the door, Cora +called after her with a rueful laugh: "Laura, I know I'm a +little devil!" + Half an hour later, Laura, suffering because she had made no +reply to this peace-offering, and wishing to atone, sought Cora +downstairs and found no one. She decided that Cora must still be +in her own room; she would go to her there. But as she passed +the open front door, she saw Cora upon the sidewalk in front of +the house. She wore a new and elaborate motoring costume, +charmingly becoming, and was in the act of mounting to a seat +beside Valentine Corliss in a long, powerful-looking, white +"roadster" automobile. The engine burst into staccato thunder, +sobered down; the wheels began to move both Cora and Corliss were +laughing and there was an air of triumph about them--Cora's veil +streamed and fluttered: and in a flash they were gone. + Laura stared at the suddenly vacated space where they had +been. At a thought she started. Then she rushed upstairs to her +mother, who was sitting in the hall near her husband's door. + "Mamma," whispered Laura, flinging herself upon her knees +beside her, "when papa wanted to speak to you, was it a message +to Cora?" + "Yes, dear. He told me to tell her he was sorry he'd +made her sick, and that if he got well he'd try to do what she +asked him to." + Laura nodded cheerfully. "And he WILL get well, darling +mother," she said, as she rose. "I'll come back in a minute and +sit with you." + Her return was not so quick as she promised, for she lay a +long time weeping upon her pillow, whispering over and over: + "Oh, poor, poor papa! Oh, poor, poor Richard!" + + + +CHAPTER TWELVE + +Within a week Mr. Madison's illness was a settled institution in +the household; the presence of the nurse lost novelty, even to +Hedrick, and became a part of life; the day was measured by the +three regular visits of the doctor. To the younger members of +the family it seemed already that their father had always been +sick, and that he always would be; indeed, to Cora and Hedrick he +had become only a weak and querulous voice beyond a closed door. +Doctor Sloane was serious but reassuring, his daily announcement +being that his patient was in "no immediate danger." + Mrs. Madison did not share her children's sanguine +adaptability; and, of the three, Cora was the greatest solace to +the mother's troubled heart, though Mrs. Madison never recognized +this without a sense of injustice to Laura, for Laura now was +housewife and housekeeper--that is, she did all the work except +the cooking, and on "wash-day" she did that. But Cora's help was +to the very spirit itself, for she was sprightly in +these hours of trial: with indomitable gayety she cheered her +mother, inspiring in her a firmer confidence, and, most +stimulating of all, Cora steadfastly refused to consider her +father's condition as serious, or its outcome as doubtful. + Old Sloane exaggerated, she said; and she made fun of his +gravity, his clothes and his walk, which she mimicked till she +drew a reluctant and protesting laugh from even her mother. Mrs. +Madison was sure she "couldn't get through" this experience save +for Cora, who was indeed the light of the threatened house. + Strange perversities of this world: Cora's gayety was almost +unbearable to her brother. Not because he thought it either +unfeeling or out of place under the circumstances (an aspect he +failed to consider), but because years of warfare had so +frequently made him connect cheerfulness on her part with some +unworthily won triumph over himself that habit prevailed, and he +could not be a witness of her high spirits without a strong sense +of injury. Additionally, he was subject to a deeply implanted +suspicion of any appearance of unusual happiness in her as having +source, if not in his own defeat, then in something vaguely +"soft" and wholly distasteful. She grated upon him; he +chafed, and his sufferings reached the surface. Finally, in a +reckless moment, one evening at dinner, he broke out with a shout +and hurled a newly devised couplet concerning luv-a-ly slush at +his, sister's head. The nurse was present: Cora left the table; +and Hedrick later received a serious warning from Laura. She +suggested that it might become expedient to place him in Cora's +power. + "Cora knows perfectly well that something peculiar happened +to you," she advised him. "And she knows that I know what it +was; and she says it isn't very sisterly of me not to tell her. +Now, Hedrick, there was no secret about it; you didn't CONFIDE +your--your trouble to me, and it would be perfectly +honourable of me to tell it. I wont{sic} unless you make me, but +if you can't be polite and keep peace with Cora--at least while +papa is sick I think it may be necessary. I believe," she +finished with imperfect gravity, "that it--it would keep things +quieter." + The thoughts of a boy may be long, long thoughts, but he +cannot persistently remember to fear a threatened catastrophe. +Youth is too quickly intimate with peril. Hedrick had become +familiar with his own, had grown so accustomed to it he was +in danger of forgetting it altogether; therefore it was out of +perspective. The episode of Lolita had begun to appear as a +thing of the distant and clouded past: time is so long at +thirteen. Added to this, his late immaculate deportment had +been, as Laura suggested, a severe strain; the machinery of his +nature was out of adjustment and demanded a violent reaction +before it could get to running again at average speed. Also, it +is evident that his destruction had been planned on high, for he +was mad enough to answer flippantly: + "Tell her! Go on and tell her--_I_ give you leaf! +THAT wasn't anything anyway--just helped you get a little +idiot girl home. What is there to that? I never saw her before; +never saw her again; didn't have half as much to do with her as +you did yourself. She was a lot more YOUR friend than mine; +I didn't even know her. I guess you'll have to get something +better on me than that, before you try to boss THIS ranch, +Laura Madison!" + That night, in bed, he wondered if he had not been perhaps a +trifle rash; but the day was bright when he awoke, and no +apprehension shadowed his morning face as he appeared at the +breakfast table. On the contrary, a great weight had lifted +from him; clearly his defiance had been the proper thing; he had +shown Laura that her power over him was but imaginary. +Hypnotized by his own words to her, he believed them; and his +previous terrors became gossamer; nay, they were now merely +laughable. His own remorse and shame were wholly blotted from +memory, and he could not understand why in the world he had been +so afraid, nor why he had felt it so necessary to placate Laura. +She looked very meek this morning. THAT showed! The strong +hand was the right policy in dealing with women. He was tempted +to insane daring: the rash, unfortunate child waltzed on the lip +of the crater. + "Told Cora yet?" he asked, with scornful laughter. + "Told me what?" Cora looked quickly up from her plate. + "Oh, nothing about this Corliss," he returned scathingly. +"Don't get excited." + "Hedrick!" remonstrated his mother, out of habit. + "She never thinks of anything else these days, he retorted. +"Rides with him every evening in his pe-rin-sley hired machine, +doesn't she?' + "Really, you should be more careful about the way you handle +a spoon, Hedrick," said Cora languidly, and with at least a +foundation of fact. "It is not the proper implement for +decorating the cheeks. We all need nourishment, but it is SO +difficult when one sees a deposit of breakfast-food in the ear of +one's vis-a-vis." + Hedrick too impulsively felt of his ears and was but the +worse stung to find them immaculate and the latter half of the +indictment unjustified. + "Spoon!" he cried. "I wouldn't talk about spoons if I were +you, Cora-lee! After what I saw in the library the other night, +believe ME, you're the one of this family that better be +careful how you `handle a spoon'!" + Cora had a moment of panic. She let the cup she was lifting +drop noisily upon its saucer, and gazed whitely at the boy, her +mouth opening wide. + "Oh, no!" he went on, with a dreadful laugh. "I didn't hear +you asking this Corliss to kiss you! Oh, no!" + At this, though her mother and Laura both started, a faint, +odd relief showed itself in Cora's expression. She recovered +herself. + "You little liar!" she flashed, and, with a single quick look +at her mother, as of one too proud to appeal, left the room. + "Hedrick, Hedrick, Hedrick!" wailed Mrs. Madison. "And she +told me you drove her from the table last night too, right before +Miss Peirce!" Miss Peirce was the nurse, fortunately at this +moment in the sick-room. + "I DID hear her ask him that," he insisted, sullenly. +"Don't you believe it?" + "Certainly not!" + Burning with outrage, he also left his meal unfinished and +departed in high dignity. He passed through the kitchen, +however, on his way out of the house; but, finding an unusual +politeness to the cook nothing except its own reward, went on his +way with a bitter perception of the emptiness of the world and +other places. + "Your father managed to talk more last night," said Mrs. +Madison pathetically to Laura. "He made me understand that he +was fretting about how little we'd been able to give our +children; so few advantages; it's always troubled him terribly. +But sometimes I wonder if we've done right: we've neither of us +ever exercised any discipline. We just couldn't bear to. You +see, not having any money, or the things money could buy, to +give, I think we've instinctively tried to make up for it by +indulgence in other ways, and perhaps it's been a bad thing. +Not," she added hastily, "not that you aren't all three the best +children any mother and father ever had! HE said so. He +said the only trouble was that our children were too good for +us." She shook her head remorsefully throughout Laura's natural +reply to this; was silent a while; then, as she rose, she said +timidly, not looking at her daughter: "Of course Hedrick didn't +mean to tell an outright lie. They were just talking, and +perhaps he--perhaps he heard something that made him think what +he DID. People are so often mistaken in what they hear, even +when they're talking right to each other, and----" + "Isn't it more likely," said Laura, gravely, "that Cora was +telling some story or incident, and that Hedrick overheard that +part of it, and thought she was speaking directly to Mr. +Corliss?" + "Of course!" cried the mother with instant and buoyant +relief; and when the three ladies convened, a little later, Cora +(unquestioned) not only confirmed this explanation, but repeated +in detail the story she had related to Mr. Corliss. Laura had +been quick. + Hedrick passed a variegated morning among comrades. He +obtained prestige as having a father like-to-die, but another boy +turned up who had learned to chew tobacco. Then Hedrick was +pronounced inferior to others in turning "cartwheels," but +succeeded in a wrestling match for an apple, which he needed. +Later, he was chased empty-handed from the rear of an ice-wagon, +but greatly admired for his retorts to the vociferous chaser: the +other boys rightly considered that what he said to the ice-man +was much more horrible than what the ice-man said to him. The +ice-man had a fair vocabulary, but it lacked pliancy; seemed +stiff and fastidious compared with the flexible Saxon in which +Hedrick sketched a family tree lacking, perhaps, some +plausibility as having produced even an ice-man, but curiously +interesting zoologically. + He came home at noon with the flush of this victory new upon +his brow. He felt equal to anything, and upon Cora's appearing +at lunch with a blithe, bright air and a new arrangement of her +hair, he opened a fresh campaign with ill-omened bravado. + "Ear-muffs in style for September, are they? he inquired in +allusion to a symmetrical and becoming undulation upon each side +of her head. "Too bad Ray Vilas can't come any more; he'd +like those, I know he would." + Cora, who was talking jauntily to her mother, went on without +heeding. She affected her enunciation at times with a slight +lisp; spoke preciously and over-exquisitely, purposely mincing +the letter R, at the same time assuming a manner of artificial +distinction and conscious elegance which never failed to produce +in her brother the last stage of exasperation. She did this now. +Charming woman, that dear Mrs. Villard, she prattled. "I met her +downtown this morning. Dear mamma, you should but have seen her +delight when she saw ME. She was but just returned from Bar +Harbor----" + "`Baw-hawbaw'!" Poor Hedrick was successfully infuriated +immediately. "What in thunder is `Baw-hawbaw'? Mrs. Villawd! +Baw-hawbaw! Oh, maw!" + "She had no idea she should find ME in town, she said," +Cora ran on, happily. "She came back early on account of the +children having to be sent to school. She has such adorable +children--beautiful, dimpled babes----" + "SLUSH! SLUSH! LUV-A-LY SLUSH!" + "--And her dear son, Egerton Villard, he's grown to be such a +comely lad, and he has the most charming courtly manners: he +helped his mother out of her carriage with all the air of a man +of the world, and bowed to me as to a duchess. I think he might +be a great influence for good if the dear Villards would but +sometimes let him associate a little with our unfortunate +Hedrick. Egerton Villard is really distingue; he has a beautiful +head; and if he could be induced but to let Hedrick follow him +about but a little----" + "I'll beat his beautiful head off for him if he but butts in +on me but a little!" Hedrick promised earnestly. "Idiot!" + Cora turned toward him innocently. "What did you say, +Hedrick?" + "I said `Idiot'!" + "You mean Egerton Villard?" + "Both of you!" + "You think I'm an idiot, Hedrick?" Her tone was calm, merely +inquisitive. + "Yes, I do!" + "Oh, no," she said pleasantly. "Don't you think if I were +REALLY an idiot I'd be even fonder of you than I am?" + It took his breath. In a panic he sat waiting he knew not +what; but Cora blandly resumed her interrupted remarks to her +mother, beginning a description of Mrs. Villard's dress; Laura +was talking unconcernedly to Miss Peirce; no one appeared to be +aware that anything unusual had been said. His breath came back, +and, summoning his presence of mind, he found himself able to +consider his position with some degree of assurance. Perhaps, +after all, Cora's retort had been merely a coincidence. He went +over and over it in his mind, making a pretence, meanwhile, to be +busy with his plate. "If I were REALLY an idiot." . . . It +was the "REALLY" that troubled him. But for that one word, +he could have decided that her remark was a coincidence; but +"REALLY" was ominous; had a sinister ring. "If I were +REALLY an idiot!" Suddenly the pleasant clouds that had +obscured his memory of the fatal evening were swept away as by a +monstrous Hand: it all came back to him with sickening clearness. +So is it always with the sinner with his sin and its threatened +discovery. Again, in his miserable mind, he sat beside Lolita on +the fence, with the moon shining through her hair; and he +knew--for he had often read it--that a man could be punished +his whole life through for a single moment's weakness. A man +might become rich, great, honoured, and have a large family, but +his one soft sin would follow him, hunt him out and pull him down +at last. "REALLY an idiot!" Did that relentless Comanche, +Cora, know this Thing? He shuddered. Then he fell back upon his +faith in Providence. It COOULD not be that she knew! Ah, no! +Heaven would not let the world be so bad as that! And yet it did +sometimes become negligent--he remembered the case of a baby-girl +cousin who fell into the bath-tub and was drowned. Providence +had allowed that: What assurance had he that it would not go a +step farther? + "Why, Hedrick," said Cora, turning toward him cheerfully, +"you're not really eating anything; you're only pretending to." +His heart sank with apprehension. Was it coming? "You really +must eat," she went on. "School begins so soon, you must be +strong, you know. How we shall miss you here at home during your +hours of work!" + With that, the burden fell from his shoulders, his increasing +terrors took wing. If Laura had told his ghastly secret to Cora, +the latter would not have had recourse to such weak satire as +this. Cora was not the kind of person to try a popgun on an +enemy when she had a thirteen-inch gun at her disposal; so he +reasoned; and in the gush of his relief and happiness, responded: + "You're a little too cocky lately, Cora-lee: I wish you were +MY daughter--just about five minutes!" + Cora looked upon him fondly. "What would you do to me," she +inquired with a terrible sweetness--"darling little boy?" + Hedrick's head swam. The blow was square in the face; it +jarred every bone; the world seemed to topple. His mother, +rising from her chair, choked slightly, and hurried to join the +nurse, who was already on her way upstairs. Cora sent an +affectionate laugh across the table to her stunned antagonist. + "You wouldn't beat me, would you, dear? she murmured. "I'm +almost sure you wouldn't; not if I asked you to kiss me some +MORE" + All doubt was gone, the last hope fled! The worst had +arrived. A vision of the awful future flamed across his +staggered mind. The doors to the arena were flung open: the wild +beasts howled for hunger of him; the spectators waited. + Cora began lightly to sing: + + . . . "Dear, + Would thou wert near + To hear me tell how fair thou art! + Since thou art gone I mourn all alone, + Oh, my Lolita----" + +She broke off to explain: "It's one of those passionate little +Spanish serenades, Hedrick. I'll sing it for your boy-friends +next time they come to play in the yard. I think they'd like it. +When they know why you like it so much, I'm sure they will. Of +course you DO like it--you roguish little lover!" A spasm +rewarded this demoniacal phrase. "Darling little boy, the +serenade goes on like this: + + Oh, my Lolita, come to my heart: + Oh, come beloved, love let me press thee, + While I caress thee + In one long kiss, Lolita! + Lolita come! Let me----" + + Hedrick sprang to his feet with a yell of agony. "Laura +Madison, you tattle-tale," he bellowed, "I'll never forgive you +as long as I live! I'll get even with you if it takes a thousand +years!" + With that, and pausing merely to kick a rung out of a chair +which happened to be in his way, he rushed from the room. + His sisters had risen to go, and Cora flung her arms round +Laura in ecstacy. "You mean old viper!" she cried. "You could +have told me days ago! It's almost too good to be true: it's the +first time in my whole life I've felt safe from the Pest for a +moment!" + Laura shook her head. "My conscience troubles me; it did +seem as if I ought to tell you--and mamma thought so, too; and I +gave him warning, but now that I have done it, it seems rather +mean and----" + "No!" exclaimed Cora. "You just gave me a chance to protect +myself for once, thank heaven!" And she picked up her skirts and +danced her way into the front hall. + "I'm afraid," said Laura, following, "I shouldn't have done +it." + "Oh, Laura," cried the younger girl, "I am having the best +time, these days! This just caps it." She lowered her voice, +but her eyes grew even brighter. "I think I've shown a certain +gentleman a few things he didn't understand!" + "Who, dear?" + "Val," returned Cora lightly; "Valentine Corliss. I think he +knows a little more about women than he did when he first came +here." + "You've had a difference with him?" asked Laura with eager +hopefulness. "You've broken with him?" + "Oh, Lord, no! Nothing like that." Cora leaned to her +confidentially. "He told me, once, he'd be at the feet of any +woman that could help put through an affair like his oil scheme, +and I decided I'd just show him what I could do. He'd talk about +it to me; then he'd laugh at me. That very Sunday when I got +papa to go in----" + "But he didn't," said Laura helplessly. "He only said he'd +try to----when he gets well." + "It's all the same--and it'll be a great thing for him, too," +said Cora, gayly. "Well, that very afternoon before Val left, he +practically told me I was no good. Of course he didn't use just +those words--that isn't his way--but he laughed at me. And +haven't I shown him! I sent Richard a note that very night +saying papa had consented to be secretary of the company, and +Richard had said he'd go in if papa did that, and he couldn't +break his word----" + "I know," said Laura, sighing. "I know." + "Laura"--Cora spoke with sudden gravity--"did you ever know +anybody like me? I'm almost getting superstitious about it, +because it seems to me I ALWAYS get just what I set out to +get. I believe I could have anything in the world if I tried for +it." + "I hope so, if you tried for something good for you," said +Laura sadly. "Cora, dear, you will--you will be a little easy on +Hedrick, won't you?" + Cora leaned against the newel and laughed till she was +exhausted. + + + +CHAPTER THIRTEEN + +Mr. Trumble's offices were heralded by a neat blazon upon the +principal door, "Wade J. Trumble, Mortgages and Loans"; and the +gentleman thus comfortably, proclaimed, emerging from that door +upon a September noontide, burlesqued a start of surprise at +sight of a figure unlocking an opposite door which exhibited the +name, "Ray Vilas," and below it, the cryptic phrase, "Probate +Law." + "Water!" murmured Mr. Trumble, affecting to faint. "You +ain't going in THERE, are you, Ray?" He followed the other +into the office, and stood leaning against a bookcase, with his +hands in his pockets, while Vilas raised the two windows, which +were obscured by a film of smoke-deposit: there was a thin coat +of fine sifted dust over everything. "Better not sit down, Ray," +continued Trumble, warningly. "You'll spoil your clothes and you +might get a client. That word `Probate' on the door ain't going +to keep 'em out forever. You recognize the old place, +I s'pose? You must have been here at least twice since you moved +in. What's the matter? Dick Lindley hasn't missionaried you +into any idea of WORKING, has he? Oh, no, _I_ see: the +Richfield Hotel bar has closed--you've managed to drink it all at +last!" + "Have you heard how old man Madison is to-day? asked Ray, +dusting his fingers with a handkerchief. + "Somebody told me yesterday he was about the same. He's not +going to get well." + "How do you know?" Ray spoke quickly. + "Stroke too severe. People never recover----" + "Oh, yes, they do, too." + Trumble began hotly: "I beg to dif----" but checked himself, +manifesting a slight confusion. "That is, I know they don't. +Old Madison may live a while, if you call that getting well; but +he'll never be the same man he was. Doctor Sloane says it was a +bad stroke. Says it was `induced by heat prostration and +excitement.' `Excitement!'" he repeated with a sour laugh. +"Yep, I expect a man could get all the excitement he wanted in +THAT house, especially if he was her daddy. Poor old man, I +don't believe he's got five thousand dollars in the world, and +look how she dresses!" + Ray opened a compartment beneath one of the bookcases, and +found a bottle and some glasses. "Aha," he muttered, "our +janitor doesn't drink, I perceive. Join me?" Mr. Trumble +accepted, and Ray explained, cheerfully: "Richard Lindley's got +me so cowed I'm afraid to go near any of my old joints. You see, +he trails me; the scoundrel has kept me sober for whole days at a +time, and I've been mortified, having old friends see me in that +condition; so I have to sneak up here to my own office to drink +to Cora, now and then. You mustn't tell him. What's she been +doing to YOU, lately?" + The little man addressed grew red with the sharp, resentful +memory. "Oh, nothing! Just struck me in the face with her +parasol on the public street, that's all!" He gave an account of +his walk to church with Cora. "I'm through with that girl!" he +exclaimed vindictively, in conclusion. "It was the damnedest +thing you ever saw in your life: right in broad daylight, in +front of the church. And she laughed when she did it; you'd have +thought she was knocking a puppy out of her way. She can't do +that to me twice, I tell you. What the devil do you see to laugh +at? + "You'll be around," returned his companion, refilling the +glasses, "asking for more, the first chance she gives you. +Here's her health!" + "I don't drink it!" cried Mr. Trumble angrily. + "And I'm through with her for good, I tell you! I'm not your +kind: I don't let a girl like that upset me till I can't think of +anything else, and go making such an ass of myself that the whole +town gabbles about it. Cora Madison's seen the last of me, I'll +thank you to notice. She's never been half-decent to me; cut +dances with me all last winter; kept me hanging round the +outskirts of every crowd she was in; stuck me with Laura and her +mother every time she had a chance; then has the nerve to try to +use me, so's she can make a bigger hit with a new man! You can +bet your head I'm through! She'll get paid though! Oh, she'll +get paid for it!" + "How?" laughed Ray. + It was a difficult question. "You wait and see," responded +the threatener, feebly. "Just wait and see. She's wild about +this Corliss, I tell you," he continued, with renewed vehemence. +"She's crazy about him; she's lost her head at last----" + "You mean he's going to avenge you?" + "No, I don't, though he might, if she decided to marry him." + "Do you know," said Ray slowly, glancing over his glass at +his nervous companion, "it doesn't strike me that Mr. Valentine +Corliss has much the air of a marrying man." + "He has the air to ME," observed Mr. Trumble, "of a darned +bad lot! But I have to hand it to him: he's a wizard. He's got +something besides his good looks--a man that could get Cora +Madison interested in `business'! In OIL! Cora Madison! +How do you suppose----" + His companion began to laugh again. "You don't really +suppose he talked his oil business to her, do you, Trumble?" + "He must have. Else how could she----" + "Oh, no, Cora herself never talks upon any subject but one; +she never listens to any other either." + "Then how in thunder did he----" + "If Cora asks you if you think it will rain," interrupted +Vilas, "doesn't she really seem to be asking: `Do you love me? +How much?' Suppose Mr. Corliss is an expert in the same line. +Of course he can talk about oil!" + "He strikes me," said Trumble, as just about the +slickest customer that ever hit this town. I like Richard +Lindley, and I hope he'll see his fifty thousand dollars again. +_I_ wouldn't have given Corliss thirty cents." + "Why do you think he's a crook?" + "I don't say that," returned Trumble. "All _I_ know about +him is that he's done some of the finest work to get fifty +thousand dollars put in his hands that I ever heard of. And all +anybody knows about him is that he lived here seventeen years +ago, and comes back claiming to know where there's oil in Italy. +He shows some maps and papers and gets cablegrams signed +`Moliterno.' Then he talks about selling the old Corliss house +here, where the Madisons live, and putting the money into his oil +company: he does that to sound plausible, but I have good reason +to know that house was mortgaged to its full value within a month +after his aunt left it to him. He'll not get a cent if it's +sold. That's all. And he's got Cora Madison so crazy over him +that she makes life a hell for poor old Lindley until he puts all +he's saved into the bubble. The scheme may be all right. How do + _I_ know? There's no way to tell, without going over there, +and Corliss won't let anybody do that--oh, he's got a +plausible excuse for it! But I'm sorry for Lindley: he's so +crazy about Cora, he's soft. And she's so crazy about Corliss +SHE'S soft! Well, I used to be crazy about her myself, but +I'm not soft--I'm not the Lindley kind of loon, thank heaven!" + "What kind are you, Trumble?" asked Ray, mildly. + "Not your kind either," retorted the other going to the door. +"She cut me on the street the other day; she's quit speaking to +me. If you've got any money, why don't you take it over to the +hotel and give it to Corliss? She might start speaking to +YOU again. I'm going to lunch!" He slammed the door behind +him. + Ray Vilas, left alone, elevated his heels to the sill, and +stared out of the window a long time at a gravelled roof which +presented little of interest. He replenished his glass and his +imagination frequently, the latter being so stirred that when, +about three o'clock, he noticed the inroads he had made upon the +bottle, tears of self-pity came to his eyes. "Poor little +drunkard!" he said aloud. "Go ahead and do it. Isn't anything +YOU won't do!" And, having washed his face at a basin in a +corner, he set his hat slightly upon one side, picked up a +walking stick and departed jauntily, and, to the outward eye, +presentably sober. + Mr. Valentine Corliss would be glad to see him, the clerk at +the Richfield Hotel reported, after sending up a card, and upon +Ray's following the card, Mr. Valentine Corliss in person +confirmed the message with considerable amusement and a +cordiality in which there was some mixture of the quizzical. He +was the taller; and the robust manliness of his appearance, his +splendid health and boxer's figure offered a sharp contrast to +the superlatively lean tippler. Corliss was humorously aware of +his advantage: his greeting seemed really to say, "Hello, my +funny bug, here you are again!" though the words of his +salutation were entirely courteous; and he followed it with a +hospitable offer. + "No," said Vilas; "I won't drink with you." He spoke so +gently that the form of his refusal, usually interpreted as +truculent, escaped the other's notice. He also declined a cigar, +apologetically asking permission to light one of his own +cigarettes; then, as he sank into a velour-covered chair, apolo- +gized again for the particular attention he was bestowing upon +the apartment, which he recognized as one of the suites de +luxe of the hotel. + "`Parlour, bedroom, and bath,'" he continued, with a +melancholy smile; "and `Lachrymae,' and `A Reading from Homer.' +Sometimes they have `The Music Lesson,' or `Winter Scene' or `A +Neapolitan Fisher Lad' instead of `Lachrymae,' but they always +have `A Reading from Homer.' When you opened the door, a moment +ago, I had a very strong impression that something extraordinary +would some time happen to me in this room." + "Well," suggested Corliss, "you refused a drink in it." + "Even more wonderful than that," said Ray, glancing about the +place curiously. "It may be a sense of something painful that +already has happened here--perhaps long ago, before your occu- +pancy. It has a pathos." + "Most hotel rooms have had something happen in them," said +Corliss lightly. "I believe the managers usually change the door +numbers if what happens is especially unpleasant. Probably they +change some of the rugs, also." + "I feel----" Ray paused, frowning. "I feel as if some one +had killed himself here." + "Then no doubt some of the rugs HAVE been changed." + "No doubt." The caller laughed and waved his hand in +dismissal of the topic. "Well, Mr. Corliss," he went on, +shifting to a brisker tone, "I have come to make my fortune, too. +You are Midas. Am I of sufficient importance to be touched?" + Valentine Corliss gave him sidelong an almost imperceptibly +brief glance of sharpest scrutiny--it was like the wink of a +camera shutter--but laughed in the same instant. "Which way do +you mean that?" + "You have been quick," returned the visitor, repaying that +glance with equal swiftness, "to seize upon the American idiom. +I mean: How small a contribution would you be willing to receive +toward your support!" + Corliss did not glance again at Ray; instead, he looked +interested in the smoke of his cigar. "`Contribution,'" he +repeated, with no inflection whatever. "`Toward my support.'" + "I mean, of course, how small an investment in your oil +company." + "Oh, anything, anything," returned the promoter, with quick +amiability. "We need to sell all the stock we can." + "All the money you can get?" + "Precisely. It's really a colossal proposition, Mr. Vilas." +Corliss spoke with brisk enthusiasm. "It's a perfectly certain +enormous profit upon everything that goes in. Prince Moliterno +cables me later investigations show that the oil-field is more +than twice as large as we thought when I left Naples. He's on +the ground now, buying up what he can, secretly." + "I had an impression from Richard Lindley that the secret had +been discovered." + "Oh, yes; but only by a few, and those are trying to keep it +quiet from the others, of course." + "I see. Does your partner know of your success in raising a +large investment?" + "You mean Lindley's? Certainly." Corliss waved his hand in +light deprecation. "Of course that's something, but Moliterno +would hardly be apt to think of it as very large! You see he's +putting in about five times that much, himself, and I've already +turned over to him double it for myself. Still, it +counts--certainly; and of course it will be a great thing for +Lindley." + "I fear," Ray said hesitatingly, "you won't be much +interested in my drop for your bucket. I have twelve hundred +dollars in the world; and it is in the bank--I stopped there +on my way here. To be exact, I have twelve hundred and +forty-seven dollars and fifty-one cents. My dear sir, will you +allow me to purchase one thousand dollars' worth of stock? I +will keep the two hundred and forty-seven dollars and fifty-one +cents to live on--I may need an egg while waiting for you to make +me rich. Will you accept so small an investment?" + "Certainly," said Corliss, laughing. "Why not? You may as +well profit by the chance as any one. I'll send you the stock +certificates--we put them at par. I'm attending to that myself, +as our secretary, Mr. Madison, is unable to take up his duties." + Vilas took a cheque-book and a fountain-pen from his pocket. + "Oh, any time, any time," said Corliss cheerfully, observing +the new investor's movement. + "Now, I think," returned Vilas quietly. "How shall I make it +out?" + "Oh, to me, I suppose," answered Corliss indifferently. +"That will save a little trouble, and I can turn it over to +Moliterno, by cable, as I did Lindley's. I'll give you a +receipt----" + "You need not mind that," said Ray. "Really it is of no +importance." + "Of course the cheque itself is a receipt," remarked Corliss, +tossing it carelessly upon a desk. "You'll have some handsome +returns for that slip of paper, Mr. Vilas." + "In that blithe hope I came," said Ray airily. + "I am confident of it. I have my own ways of divination, Mr. +Corliss. I have gleams." He rose as if to go, but stood looking +thoughtfully about the apartment again. "Singular impression," +he murmured. "Not exactly as if I'd seen it in a dream; and +yet--and yet----" + "You have symptoms of clairvoyance at times, I take it." The +conscious, smooth superiority of the dexterous man playing with +an inconsequent opponent resounded in this speech, clear as the +humming of a struck bell; and Vilas shot him a single open glance +of fire from hectic eyes. For that instant, the frailer buck +trumpeted challenge. Corliss--broad-shouldered, supple of waist, +graceful and strong--smiled down negligently; yet the very air +between the two men seemed charged with an invisible explosive. +Ray laughed quickly, as in undisturbed good nature; then, +flourishing his stick, turned toward the door. + "Oh, no, it isn't clairvoyance--no more than when I told +you that your only real interest is women. He paused, his hand +upon the door-knob. "I'm a quaint mixture, however: perhaps I +should be handled with care." + "Very good of you," laughed Corliss--"this warning. The +afternoon I had the pleasure of meeting you I think I remember +your implying that you were a mere marionette." + "A haggard harlequin!" snapped Vilas, waving his hand to a +mirror across the room. "Don't I look it?" And the phrase +fitted him with tragic accuracy. "You see? What a merry +wedding-guest I'll be! I invite you to join me on the nuptial +eve." + "Thanks. Who's getting married: when the nuptial eve?" + Ray opened the door, and, turning, rolled his eyes +fantastically. "Haven't you heard?" he cried. "When Hecate +marries John Barleycorn!" He bowed low. "Mr. Midas, adieu." + Corliss stood in the doorway and watched him walk down the +long hall to the elevator. There, Ray turned and waved his hand, +the other responding with gayety which was not assumed: Vilas +might be insane, or drunk, or both, but the signature upon his +cheque was unassailable. + Corliss closed the door and began to pace his apartment +thoughtfully. His expression manifested a peculiar phenomenon. +In company, or upon the street, or when he talked with men, the +open look and frank eyes of this stalwart young man were +disarming and his most winning assets. But now, as he paced +alone in his apartment, now that he was not upon exhibition, now +when there was no eye to behold him, and there was no reason to +dissimulate or veil a single thought or feeling, his look was +anything but open; the last trace of frankness disappeared; the +muscles at mouth and eyes shifted; lines and planes intermingled +and altered subtly; there was a moment of misty +transformation--and the face of another man emerged. It was the +face of a man uninstructed in mercy; it was a shrewd and planning +face: alert, resourceful, elaborately perceptive, and flawlessly +hard. But, beyond all, it was the face of a man perpetually on +guard. + He had the air of debating a question, his hands in his +pockets, his handsome forehead lined with a temporary indecision. +His sentry-go extended the length of his two rooms, and each time +he came back into his bedroom his glance fell consideringly upon +a steamer-trunk of the largest size, at the foot of his bed. +The trunk was partially packed as if for departure. And, indeed, +it was the question of departure which he was debating. + He was a man of varied dexterities, and he had one faculty of +high value, which had often saved him, had never betrayed him; it +was intuitive and equal to a sixth sense: he always knew when it +was time to go. An inner voice warned him; he trusted to it and +obeyed it. And it had spoken now, and there was his trunk +half-packed in answer. But he had stopped midway in his packing, +because he had never yet failed to make a clean sweep where there +was the slightest chance for one; he hated to leave a big job +before it was completely finished--and Mr. Wade Trumble had +refused to invest in the oil-fields of Basilicata. + Corliss paused beside the trunk, stood a moment immersed in +thought; then nodded once, decisively, and, turning to a +dressing-table, began to place some silver-mounted brushes and +bottles in a leather travelling-case. + There was a knock at the outer door. He frowned, set down +what he had in his hands, went to the door and opened it to find +Mr. Pryor, that plain citizen, awaiting entrance. + Corliss remained motionless in an arrested attitude, his hand +upon the knob of the opened door. His position did not alter; he +became almost unnaturally still, a rigidity which seemed to +increase. Then he looked quickly behind him, over his shoulder, +and back again, with a swift movement of the head. + "No," said Pryor, at that. "I don't want you. I just +thought I'd have two minutes' talk with you. All right?" + "All right," said Corliss quietly. "Come in." He turned +carelessly, and walked away from the door keeping between his +guest and the desk. When he reached the desk, he turned again +and leaned against it, his back to it, but in the action of +turning his hand had swept a sheet of note-paper over Ray Vilas's +cheque--a too conspicuous oblong of pale blue. Pryor had come in +and closed the door. + "I don't know," he began, regarding the other through his +glasses, with steady eyes, "that I'm going to interfere with you +at all, Corliss. I just happened to strike you--I wasn't looking +for you. I'm on vacation, visiting my married daughter that +lives here, and I don't want to mix in if I can help it." + Corliss laughed, easily. "There's nothing for you to mix in. +You couldn't if you wanted to." + "Well, I hope that's true," said Pryor, with an air of +indulgence, curiously like that of a teacher for a pupil who +promises improvement. "I do indeed. There isn't anybody I'd +like to see turn straight more than you. You're educated and +cultured, and refined, and smarter than all hell. It would be a +big thing. That's one reason I'm taking the trouble to talk to +you." + "I told you I wasn't doing anything," said Corliss with a +petulance as oddly like that of a pupil as the other's indulgence +was like that of a tutor. "This is my own town; I own property +here, and I came here to sell it. I can prove it in +half-a-minute's telephoning. Where do you come in?" + "Easy, easy," said Pryor, soothingly. "I've just told you I +don't want to come in at all." + "Then what do you want?" + "I came to tell you just one thing: to go easy up there at +Mr. Madison's house." + Corliss laughed contemptuously. "It's MY house. I own +it. That's the property I came here to sell." + "Oh, I know," responded Pryor. "That part of it's all right. +But I've seen you several times with that young lady, and +you looked pretty thick, to me. You know you haven't got any +business doing such things, Corliss. I know your record from +Buda Pesth to Copenhagen and----" + "See here, my friend," said the younger man, angrily, "you +may be a tiptop spotter for the government when it comes to +running down some poor old lady that's bought a string of pearls +in the Rue de la Paix----" + "I've been in the service twenty-eight years," remarked Pryor, +mildly. + "All right," said the other with a gesture of impatience; +"and you got me once, all right. Well, that's over, isn't it? +Have I tried anything since?" + "Not in that line," said Pryor. + "Well, what business have you with any other line?" demanded +Corliss angrily. "Who made you general supervisor of public +morals? I want to know----" + "Now, what's the use your getting excited? I'm just here to +tell you that I'm going to keep an eye on you. I don't know many +people here, and I haven't taken any particular pains to look you +up. For all I know, you're only here to sell your house, as you +say. But I know old man Madison a little, and I kind of +took a fancy to him; he's a mighty nice old man, and he's got a +nice family. He's sick and it won't do to trouble him; +but--honest, Corliss--if you don't slack off in that neighbour- +hood a little, I'll have to have a talk with the young lady +herself." + A derisory light showed faintly in the younger man's eyes as +he inquired, softly: "That all, Mr. Pryor?" + "No. Don't try anything on out here. Not in ANY of your +lines." + "I don't mean to." + "That's right. Sell your house and clear out. You'll find +it healthy." He went to the door. "So far as I can see," he +observed, ruminatively, "you haven't brought any of that +Moliterno crowd you used to work with over to this side with +you." + "I haven't seen Moliterno for two years," said Corliss, +sharply. + "Well, I've said my say." Pryor gave him a last word as he +went out. "You keep away from that little girl." + "Ass!" exclaimed Corliss, as the door closed. He exhaled a +deep breath sharply, and broke into a laugh. Then he went +quickly into his bedroom and began to throw the things out of his +trunk. + + + +CHAPTER FOURTEEN + +Hedrick Madison's eyes were not of marble; his heart was not +flint nor his skin steel plate: he was flesh and tender; he was a +vulnerable, breathing boy, with highly developed capacities for +pain which were now being taxed to their utmost. Once he had +loved to run, to leap, to disport himself in the sun, to drink +deep of the free air; he had loved life and one or two of his +fellowmen. He had borne himself buoyantly, with jaunty +self-confidence, even with some intolerance toward the weaknesses +of others, not infrequently displaying merriment over their +mischances; but his time had found him at last; the evil day had +come. Indian Summer was Indian for him, indeed: sweet death were +welcome; no charity was left in him. He leaped no more, but +walked broodingly and sought the dark places. And yet it could +not be said that times were dull for him: the luckless picket who +finds himself in an open eighty-acre field, under the eye of a +sharpshooter up a tree, would not be apt to describe the experience +as dull. And Cora never missed a shot; she +loved the work; her pleasure in it was almost as agonizing for +the target as was the accuracy of her fire. + She was ingenious: the horrible facts at her disposal were +damaging enough in all conscience: but they did not content her. +She invented a love-story, assuming that Hedrick was living it: +he was supposed to be pining for Lolita, to be fading, +day-by-day, because of enforced separation; and she contrived +this to such an effect of reality, and with such a diabolical +affectation of delicacy in referring to it, that the mere remark, +with gentle sympathy, "I think poor Hedrick is looking a little +better to-day," infallibly produced something closely resembling +a spasm. She formed the habit of never mentioning her brother in +his presence except as "poor Hedrick," a too obvious +commiseration of his pretended attachment--which met with like +success. Most dreadful of all, she invented romantic phrases and +expressions assumed to have been spoken or written by Hedrick in +reference to his unhappiness; and she repeated them so +persistently, yet always with such apparent sincerity of belief +that they were quotations from him, and not her inventions, that +the driven youth knew a fear, sometimes, that the horrid +things were actually of his own perpetration. + The most withering of these was, "Torn from her I love by the +ruthless hand of a parent. . . ." It was not completed; Cora +never got any further with it, nor was there need: a howl of fury +invariably assured her of an effect as satisfactory as could +possibly have been obtained by an effort less impressionistic. +Life became a series of easy victories for Cora, and she made +them somehow the more deadly for Hedrick by not seeming to look +at him in his affliction, nor even to be aiming his way: he never +could tell when the next shot was coming. At the table, the +ladies of his family might be deep in dress, or discussing Mr. +Madison's slowly improving condition, when Cora, with utter +irrelevance, would sigh, and, looking sadly into her coffee, +murmur, "Ah, FOND mem'ries!" or, "WHY am I haunted by the +dead past?" or, the dreadful, "Torn from her I love by the +ruthless hand of a parent. . . ." + There was compassion in Laura's eyes and in his mother's, but +Cora was irresistible, and they always ended by laughing in spite +of themselves; and though they pleaded for Hedrick in private, +their remonstrances proved strikingly ineffective. Hedrick was +the only person who had ever used the high hand with Cora: +she found repayment too congenial. In the daytime he could not +go in the front yard, but Cora's window would open and a tenderly +smiling Cora lean out to call affectionately, "Don't walk on the +grass--darling little boy!" Or, she would nod happily to him and +begin to sing: + + "Oh come beloved, love let me press thee, + While I caress thee + In one long kiss, Lolita. . . . " + + One terror still hung over him. If it fell--as it might at +any fatal moment--then the utmost were indeed done upon him; and +this apprehension bathed his soul in night. In his own circle of +congenial age and sex he was, by virtue of superior bitterness +and precocity of speech, a chief--a moral castigator, a satirist +of manners, a creator of stinging nicknames; and many nourished +unhealed grievances which they had little hope of satisfying +against him; those who attempted it invariably departing with +more to avenge than they had brought with them. Let these once +know what Cora knew. . . . The vision was unthinkable! + It was Cora's patent desire to release the hideous item, to +spread the scandal broadcast among his fellows--to ring it +from the school-bells, to send it winging on the hot winds of +Hades! The boys had always liked his yard and the empty stable +to play in, and the devices he now employed to divert their +activities elsewhere were worthy of a great strategist. His +energy and an abnormal ingenuity accomplished incredible things: +school had been in session several weeks and only one boy had +come within conversational distance of Cora;--him Hedrick bore +away bodily, in simulation of resistless high spirits, a +brilliant exhibition of stagecraft. + And then Cora's friend, Mrs. Villard, removed her son Egerton +from the private school he had hitherto attended, and he made his +appearance in Hedrick's class, one morning at the public school. +Hedrick's eye lighted with a savage gleam; timidly the first joy +he had known for a thousand years crept into his grim heart. +After school, Egerton expiated a part of Cora's cruelty. It was +a very small part, and the exploit no more than infinitesimally +soothing to the conqueror, but when Egerton finally got home he +was no sight for a mother. + Thus Hedrick wrought his own doom: Mrs. Villard telephoned +to Cora, and Cora went immediately to see her. + It happened to Hedrick that he was late leaving home the next +morning. His entrance into his classroom was an undeniable +sensation, and within ten minutes the teacher had lost all +control of the school. It became necessary to send for the prin- +cipal. Recess was a frantic nightmare for Hedrick, and his +homeward progress at noon a procession of such uproarious +screamers as were his equals in speed. The nethermost depths +were reached when an ignoble pigtailed person he had always +trodden upon flat-footed screamed across the fence from next +door, as he reached fancied sanctuary in his own backyard: + "Kiss me some MORE, darling little boy!" + This worm, established upon the fence opposite the +conservatory windows, and in direct view from the table in the +dining-room, shrieked the accursed request at short intervals +throughout the luncheon hour. The humour of childhood is +sometimes almost intrusive. + And now began a life for Hedrick which may be rather +painfully but truthfully likened to a prolongation of the +experiences of a rat that finds itself in the middle of a crowded +street in daylight: there is plenty of excitement but no +pleasure. He was pursued, harried, hounded from early +morning till nightfall, and even in his bed would hear shrill +shouts go down the sidewalk from the throats of juvenile +fly-by-nights: "Oh dar-ling lit-oh darling lit-oh LIT-le +boy, LIT-le boy, kiss me some MORE!" And one day he +overheard a remark which strengthened his growing conviction that +the cataclysm had affected the whole United States: it was a +teacher who spoke, explaining to another a disturbance in the +hall of the school. She said, behind her hand: + "HE KISSED AN IDIOT." + Laura had not even remotely foreseen the consequences of her +revelation, nor, indeed, did she now properly estimate their +effect upon Hedrick. She and her mother were both sorry for him, +and did what they could to alleviate his misfortunes, but there +was an inevitable remnant of amusement in their sympathy. Youth, +at war, affects stoicism but not resignation: in truth, +resignation was not much in Hedrick's line, and it would be far +from the fact to say that he was softened by his sufferings. He +brooded profoundly and his brightest thought was revenge. It was +not upon Cora that his chief bitterness turned. Cora had always +been the constant, open enemy: warfare between them was a +regular condition of life; and unconsciously, and without +"thinking it out," he recognized the naturalness of her seizing +upon the deadliest weapon against him that came to her hand. +There was nothing unexpected in that: no, the treachery, to his +mind, lay in the act of Laura, that non-combatant, who had +furnished the natural and habitual enemy with this scourge. At +all times, and with or without cause, he ever stood ready to do +anything possible for the reduction of Cora's cockiness, but now +it was for the taking-down of Laura and the repayment of her +uncalled-for and overwhelming assistance to the opposite camp +that he lay awake nights and kept his imagination hot. Laura was +a serene person, so neutral--outwardly, at least--and so little +concerned for herself in any matter he could bring to mind, that +for purposes of revenge she was a difficult proposition. And +then, in a desperate hour, he remembered her book. + Only once had he glimpsed it, but she had shown unmistakable +agitation of a mysterious sort as she wrote in it, and, upon +observing his presence, a prompt determination to prevent his +reading a word of what she had written. Therefore, it was some- +thing peculiarly sacred and intimate. This deduction was +proved by the care she exercised in keeping the book concealed +from all eyes. A slow satisfaction began to permeate him: he +made up his mind to find that padlocked ledger. + He determined with devoted ardour that when he found it he +would make the worst possible use of it: the worst, that is, for +Laura. As for consequences to himself, he was beyond them. +There is an Irish play in which an old woman finds that she no +longer fears the sea when it has drowned the last of her sons; it +can do nothing more to her. Hedrick no longer feared anything. + The book was somewhere in Laura's room, he knew that; and +there were enough opportunities to search, though Laura had a way +of coming in unexpectedly which was embarrassing; and he suffered +from a sense of inadequacy when--on the occasion of his first new +attempt--he answered the casual inquiry as to his presence by +saying that he "had a headache." He felt there was something +indirect in the reply; but Laura was unsuspicious and showed no +disposition to be analytical. After this, he took the precaution +to bring a school-book with him and she often found the boy +seated quietly by her west window immersed in study: he said he +thought his headaches came from his eyes and that the west +light "sort of eased them a little." + The ledger remained undiscovered, although probably there has +never been a room more thoroughly and painstakingly searched, +without its floor being taken up and its walls torn down. The +most mysterious, and, at the same time, the most maddening thing +about it was the apparent simplicity of the task. He was certain +that the room contained the book: listening, barefooted, outside +the door at night, he had heard the pen scratching. The room was +as plain as a room can be, and small. There was a scantily +filled clothes-press; he had explored every cubic inch of it. +There was the small writing table with one drawer; it held only +some note-paper and a box of pen-points. There was a bureau; to +his certain knowledge it contained no secret whatever. There +were a few giltless chairs, and a white "wash-stand," a mere +basin and slab with exposed plumbing. Lastly, there was the bed, +a very large and ugly "Eastlake" contrivance; he had acquired a +close acquaintance with all of it except the interior of the huge +mattress itself, and here, he finally concluded, must of +necessity be the solution. The surface of the mattress he knew +to be unbroken; nevertheless the book was there. He had +recently stimulated his deductive powers with a narrative of +French journalistic sagacity in a similar case; and he applied +French reasoning. The ledger existed. It was somewhere in the +room. He had searched everything except the interior of the +mattress. The ledger was in that interior. + The exploration thus become necessary presented some +difficulties. Detection in the act would involve explanations +hard to invent; it would not do to say he was looking for his +knife; and he could not think of any excuse altogether free from +a flavour of insincerity. A lameness beset them all and made +them liable to suspicion; and Laura, once suspicious, might be +petty enough to destroy the book, and so put it out of his power +forever. He must await the right opportunity, and, after a +racking exercise of patience, at last he saw it coming. + Doctor Sloane had permitted his patient to come down stairs +for an increasing interval each day. Mr. Madison crept, rather +than walked, leaning upon his wife and closely attended by Miss +Peirce. He spoke with difficulty and not clearly; still, there +was a perceptible improvement, and his family were falling into +the habit of speaking of him as almost well." On that +account, Mrs. Madison urged her daughters to accept an invitation +from the mother of the once courtly Egerton Villard. It was at +breakfast that the matter was discussed. + "Of course Cora must go," Laura began, but----" + "But nothing!" interrupted Cora. "How would it look if I +went and you didn't? Everybody knows papa's almost well, and +they'd think it silly for us to give up the first real dance +since last spring on that account; yet they're just spiteful +enough, if I went and you stayed home, to call me a `girl of no +heart.' Besides, she added sweetly, "we ought to go to show Mrs. +Villard we aren't hurt because Egerton takes so little notice of +poor Hedrick." + Hedrick's lips moved silently, as in prayer. + "I'd rather not," said Laura. "I doubt if I'd have a very +good time." + "You would, too," returned her sister, decidedly. "The men +like to dance with you; you dance every bit as well as I do, and +that black lace is the most becoming dress you ever had. Nobody +ever remembers a black dress, anyway, unless it's cut very +conspicuously, and yours isn't. I can't go without you; they +love to say nasty things about me, and you're too good a +sister to give 'em this chance, you old dear." She laughed and +nodded affectionately across the table at Laura. "You've got to +go!" + "Yes, it would be nicer," said the mother. And so it was +settled. It was simultaneously settled in Hedrick's mind that +the night of the dance should mark his discovery of the ledger. +He would have some industrious hours alone with the mysterious +mattress, safe from intrusion. + Meekly he lifted his eyes from his plate. "I'm glad you're +going, sister Laura," he said in a gentle voice. "I think a +change will do you good." + "Isn't it wonderful, exclaimed Cora, appealing to the others +to observe him, "what an improvement a disappointment in love can +make in deportment?" + For once, Hedrick only smiled. + + + +CHAPTER FIFTEEN + +Laura had spent some thoughtful hours upon her black lace dress +with results that astonished her family: it became a +ball-gown--and a splendidly effective one. She arranged her dark +hair in a more elaborate fashion than ever before, in a close +coronal of faintly lustrous braids; she had no jewellery and +obviously needed none. Her last action but one before she left +her room was to dispose of the slender chain and key she always +wore round her neck; then her final glance at the mirror--which +fairly revealed a lovely woman--ended in a deprecatory little +"face" she made at herself. It meant: "Yes, old lady, you fancy +yourself very passable in here all by yourself, don't you? Just +wait: you'll be standing beside Cora in a moment!" + And when she did stand beside Cora, in the latter's room, a +moment later, her thought seemed warranted. Cora, radiant-eyed, +in high bloom, and exquisite from head to foot in a shimmering +white dancing-dress, a glittering crescent fastening +the silver fillet that bound her vivid hair, was a flame of +enchantment. Mrs. Madison, almost weeping with delight, led her +daughters proudly, an arm round the waist of each, into her +husband's room. Propped with pillows, he reclined in an armchair +while Miss Peirce prepared his bed, an occupation she gave over +upon this dazzling entrance, departing tactfully. + "Look at these," cried the mother; "--from our garden, Jim, +dear! Don't we feel rich, you and I?" + "And--and--Laura," said the sick man, with the slow and +imperfect enunication caused by his disease; "Laura looks +pretty--too." + "Isn't she adorable!" Cora exclaimed warmly. "She decided to +be the portrait of a young duchess, you see, all stately +splendour--made of snow and midnight!" + "Hear! hear!" laughed Laura; but she blushed with pleasure, +and taking Cora's hand in hers lifted it to her lips. + "And do you see Cora's crescent?" demanded Mrs. Madison. +"What do you think of THAT for magnificence? She went down +town this morning with seven dollars, and came back with that and +her party gloves and a dollar in change! Isn't she a +bargainer? Even for rhinestones they are the cheapest things you +ever heard of. They look precisely like stones of the very +finest water." They did--so precisely, indeed, that if the +resemblance did not amount to actual identity, then had a +jeweller of the town been able to deceive the eye of Valentine +Corliss, which was an eye singularly learned in such matters. + "They're--both smart girls," said Madison, "both of them. +And they look--beautiful, to-night--both. Laura is--amazing!" + When they had gone, Mrs. Madison returned from the stairway, +and, kneeling beside her husband, put her arms round him gently: +she had seen the tear that was marking its irregular pathway down +his flaccid, gray cheek, and she understood. + "Don't. Don't worry, Jim," she whispered. "Those bright, +beautiful things!--aren't they treasures?" + "It's--it's Laura," he said. "Cora will be all right. She +looks out for--herself. I'm--I'm afraid for--Laura. Aren't +you?" + "No, no," she protested. "I'm not afraid for either of +them." But she was: the mother had always been afraid for Cora. + . . . . At the dance, the two girls, attended up the +stairway to the ballroom by a chattering covey of black-coats, +made a sensational entrance to a gallant fanfare of music, an +effect which may have been timed to the premonitory tuning of +instruments heard during the ascent; at all events, it was a +great success; and Cora, standing revealed under the wide gilt +archway, might have been a lithe and shining figure from the year +eighteen-hundred-and-one, about to dance at the Luxembourg. She +placed her hand upon the sleeve of Richard Lindley, and, glancing +intelligently over his shoulder into the eyes of Valentine +Corliss, glided rhythmically away. + People looked at her; they always did. Not only the +non-dancers watched her; eyes everywhere were upon her, even +though the owners gyrated, glided and dipped on distant orbits. +The other girls watched her, as a rule, with a profound, an +almost passionate curiosity; and they were prompt to speak well +of her to men, except in trustworthy intimacy, because they did +not enjoy being wrongfully thought jealous. Many of them kept +somewhat aloof from her; but none of them ever nowadays showed +"superiority" in her presence, or snubbed her: that had been +tried and proved disastrous in rebound. Cora never failed +to pay her score--and with a terrifying interest added, her +native tendency being to take two eyes for an eye and the whole +jaw for a tooth. They let her alone, though they asked and asked +among themselves the never-monotonous question: "Why do men fall +in love with girls like that?" a riddle which, solved, makes +wives condescending to their husbands. + Most of the people at this dance had known one another as +friends, or antagonists, or indifferent acquaintances, for years, +and in such an assembly there are always two worlds, that of the +women and that of the men. Each has its own vision, radically +different from that of the other; but the greatest difference is +that the men are unaware of the other world, only a few of +them--usually queer ones like Ray Vilas--vaguely perceiving that +there are two visions, while all the women understand both per- +fectly. The men splash about on the surface; the women keep +their eyes open under water. Or, the life of the assembly is +like a bright tapestry: the men take it as a picture and are not +troubled to know how it is produced; but women are weavers. +There was a Beauty of far-flung renown at Mrs. Villard's +to-night: Mary Kane, a creature so made and coloured that +young men at sight of her became as water and older men were apt +to wonder regretfully why all women could not have been made like +Mary. She was a kindly soul, and never intentionally outshone +her sisters; but the perfect sumptuousness of her had sometimes +tried the amiability of Cora Madison, to whom such success +without effort and without spark seemed unfair, as well as +bovine. Miss Kane was a central figure at the dance, shining +tranquilly in a new triumph: that day her engagement had been +announced to Mr. George Wattling, a young man of no special +attainments, but desirable in his possessions and suitable to his +happiness. The pair radiated the pardonable, gay importance of +newly engaged people, and Cora, who had never before bestowed any +notice upon Mr. Wattling, now examined him with thoughtful +attention. + Finding him at her elbow in a group about a punch bowl, +between dances, she offered warm felicitations. "But I don't +suppose you care whether _I_ care for you to be happy or not," +she added, with a little plaintive laugh;--"you've always hated +me so!" + Mr. Wattling was startled: never before had he imagined that +Cora Madison had given him a thought; but there was not only +thought, there was feeling, in this speech. She seemed to be +concealing with bravery an even deeper feeling than the one +inadvertently expressed. "Why, what on earth makes you think +that?" he exclaimed. + "Think it? I KNOW it!" She gave him a strange look, +luminous yet mysterious, a curtain withdrawn only to show a +shining mist with something undefined but dazzling beyond. "I've +always known it!" And she turned away from him abruptly. + He sprang after her. "But you're wrong. I've never----" + "Oh, yes, you have." They began to discuss it, and for +better consideration of the theme it became necessary for Cora to +"cut" the next dance, promised to another, and to give it to Mr. +Wattling. They danced several times together, and Mr. Wattling's +expression was serious. The weavers of the tapestry smiled and +whispered things the men would not have understood--nor believed. + Ray Vilas, seated alone in a recessed and softly lighted +gallery, did not once lose sight of the flitting sorceress. With +his elbows on the railing, he leaned out, his head swaying slowly +and mechanically as she swept up and down the tumultuously moving +room, his passionate eyes gaunt and brilliant with his +hunger. And something very like a general thrill passed over the +assembly when, a little later, it was seen that he was dancing +with her. Laura, catching a glimpse of this couple, started and +looked profoundly disturbed. + The extravagance of Vilas's passion and the depths he +sounded, in his absurd despair when discarded, had been matters +of almost public gossip; he was accounted a somewhat scandalous +and unbalanced but picturesque figure; and for the lady whose +light hand had wrought such havoc upon him to be seen dancing +with him was sufficiently startling to elicit the universal +remark--evidently considered superlative--that it was "just like +Cora Madison!" Cora usually perceived, with an admirably clear +head, all that went on about her; and she was conscious of +increasing the sensation, when after a few turns round the room, +she allowed her partner to conduct her to a secluding grove of +palms in the gallery. She sank into the chair he offered, and, +fixing her eyes upon a small lamp of coloured glass which hung +overhead, ostentatiously looked bored. + "At your feet, Cora," he said, seating himself upon a stool, +and leaning toward her. "Isn't it appropriate that we +should talk to music--we two? It shouldn't be that quick step +though--not dance-music--should it?" + "Don't know 'm sure," murmured Cora. + "You were kind to dance with me," he said huskily. "I dared +to speak to you----" + She did not change her attitude nor the direction of her +glance. "I couldn't cut you very well with the whole town +looking on. I'm tired of being talked about. Besides, I don't +care much who I dance with--so he doesn't step on me." + "Cora," he said, "it is the prelude to `L'Arlesienne' that +they should play for you and me. Yes, I think it should be +that." + "Never heard of it." + "It's just a rustic tragedy, the story of a boy in the south +of France who lets love become his whole life, and then--it kills +him." + "Sounds very stupid," she commented languidly. + "People do sometimes die of love, even nowadays," he said, +tremulously--"in the South." + She let her eyes drift indifferently to him and perceived +that he was trembling from head to foot; that his hands and knees +shook piteously; that his lips quivered and twitched; and, at +sight of this agitation, an expression of strong distaste +came to her face. + "I see." Her eyes returned to the lamp. "You're from the +South, and of course it's going to kill you." + "You didn't speak the exact words you had in your mind.'" + "Oh, what words did I have `in my mind'?" she asked +impatiently. + "What you really meant was: `If it does kill you, what of +it?'" + She laughed, and sighed as for release. + "Cora," he said huskily, "I understand you a little because +you possess me. I've never--literally never--had another thought +since the first time I saw you: nothing but you. I think of +you--actually every moment. Drunk or sober, asleep or--awake, +it's nothing but you, you, YOU! It will never be different: +I don't know why I can't get over it--I only know I can't. You +own me; you burn like a hot coal in my heart. You're through +with me, I know. You drained me dry. You're like a child who +eats so heartily of what he likes that he never touches it again. +And I'm a dish you're sick of. Oh, it's all plain enough, I can +tell you. I'm not exciting any more--no, just a nauseous slave! + "Do you want people to hear you?" she inquired angrily, for +his voice had risen. + He tempered his tone. "Cora, when you liked me you went a +pretty clipping gait with me," he said, trembling even more than +before. "But you're infinitely more infatuated with this +Toreador of a Corliss than you were with me; you're lost in him; +you're slaving for him as I would for you. How far are you going +with----" + "Do you want me to walk away and leave you?" she asked, +suddenly sitting up straight and looking at him with dilating +eyes. "If you want a `scene'----" + "It's over," he said, more calmly. "I know now how dangerous +the man is. Of course you will tell him I said that." He +laughed quietly. "Well--between a dangerous chap and a desperate +one, we may look for some lively times! Do you know, I believe I +think about as continuously of him, lately, as I do of you. +That's why I put almost my last cent into his oil company, and +got what may be almost my last dance with you!" + "I wouldn't call it `almost' your last dance with me!" she +returned icily. "Not after what you've said. I had a foolish +idea you could behave--well, at least decently." + "Did Corliss tell you that I insulted him in his rooms at the +hotel?" + "You!" She laughed, genuinely. "I see him letting you!" + "He did, however. By manner and in speech I purposely and +deliberately insulted him. You'll tell him every word of this, +of course, and he'll laugh at it, but I give myself the pleasure +of telling you. I put the proposition of an `investment' to him +in a way nobody not a crook would have allowed to be smoothed +over--and he allowed it to be smoothed over. He ate it! I felt +he was a swindler when he was showing Richard Lindley his maps +and papers, and now I've proved it to myself, and it's worth the +price." Often, when they had danced, and often during this +interview, his eyes lifted curiously to the white flaming +crescent in her hair; now they fixed themselves upon it, and in a +flash of divination he cried: "You wear it for me!" + She did not understand. "Finished raving?" she inquired. + "I gave Corliss a thousand dollars," he said, slowly. +"Considering the fact that it was my last, I flatter myself it +was not unhandsomely done--though I may never need it. It has +struck me that the sum was about what a man who had just +cleaned up fifty thousand might regard as a sort of `extra'--`for +lagniappe'--and that he might have thought it an appropriate +amount to invest in a present some jewels perhaps--to place in +the hair of a pretty friend!" + She sprang to her feet, furious, but he stood in front of her +and was able to bar the way for a moment. + "Cora, I'll have a last word with you if I have to hold you," +he said with great rapidity and in a voice which shook with the +intense repression he was putting upon himself. "We do one thing +in the South, where I came from. We protect our women----" + "This looks like it! Keeping me when----" + "I love you," he said, his face whiter than she had ever seen +it. "I love you! I'm your dog! You take care of yourself if +you want to take care of anybody else! As sure as----" + "My dance, Miss Madison." A young gentleman on vacation from +the navy had approached, and, with perfect unconsciousness of +what he was interrupting, but with well-founded certainty that he +was welcome to the lady, urged his claim in a confident voice. +"I thought it would never come, you know; but it's here at +last and so am I." He laughed propitiatingly. + Ray yielded now at once. She moved him aside with her gloved +forearm as if he were merely an awkward stranger who unwittingly +stood between her and the claiming partner. Carrying the gesture +farther, she took the latter's arm, and smilingly, and without a +backward glance, passed onward and left the gallery. The +lieutenant, who had met her once or twice before, was her partner +for the succeeding dance as well, and, having noted the +advantages of the place where he had discovered her, persuaded +her to return there to sit through the second. Then without any +fatiguing preamble, he proposed marriage. Cora did not accept, +but effected a compromise, which, for the present, was to consist +of an exchange of photographs (his to be in uniform) and letters. + She was having an evening to her heart. Ray's attack on +Corliss had no dimming effect; her thought of it being that she +was "used to his raving"; it meant nothing; and since Ray had +prophesied she would tell Corliss about it, she decided not to do +so. + The naval young gentleman and Valentine Corliss were the +greatest of all the lions among ladies that night; she had easily +annexed the lieutenant, and Corliss was hers already; though, for +a purpose, she had not yet been seen in company with him. He was +visibly "making an impression." His name, as he had said to +Richard Lindley, was held in honour in the town; and there was a +flavour of fancied romance in his absence since boyhood in +unknown parts, and his return now with a `foreign air' and a bow +that almost took the breath of some of the younger recipients. +He was, too, in his way, the handsomest man in the room; and the +smiling, open frankness of his look, the ready cordiality of his +manner, were found very winning. He caused plenty of flutter. + Cora waited till the evening was half over before she gave +him any visible attention. Then, during a silence of the music, +between two dances, she made him a negligent sign with her hand, +the gesture of one indifferently beckoning a creature who is +certain to come, and went on talking casually to the man who was +with her. Corliss was the length of the room from her, chatting +gayly with a large group of girls and women; but he immediately +nodded to her, made his bow to individuals of the group, and +crossed the vacant, glistening floor to her. Cora gave him +no greeting whatever; she dismissed her former partner and +carelessly turned away with Corliss to some chairs in a corner. + "Do you see that?" asked Vilas, leaning over the balcony +railing with Richard Lindley. "Look! She's showing the other +girls--don't you see? He's the New Man; she let 'em hope she +wasn't going in for him; a lot of them probably didn't even know +that she knew him. She sent him out on parade till they're all +excited about him; now she shows 'em he's entirely her +property--and does it so matter-of-factly that it's rubbed in +twice as hard as if she seemed to take some pains about it. He +doesn't dance: she'll sit out with him now, till they all read +the tag she's put on him. She says she hates being talked about. +She lives on it!--so long as it's envious. And did you see her +with that chap from the navy? Neptune thinks he's dallying with +Venus perhaps, but he'll get----" + Lindley looked at him commiseratingly. "I think I never saw +prettier decorations. Have you noticed, Ray? Must have used a +thousand chrysanthemums." + "Toreador!" whispered the other between his teeth, looking at +Corliss; then, turning to his companion, he asked: "Has it +occurred to you to get any information about Basilicata, or about +the ancestral domain of the Moliterni, from our consul-general at +Naples?" + Richard hesitated. "Well--yes. Yes, I did think of that. +Yes, I thought of it." + "But you didn't do it." + "No. That is, I haven't yet. You see, Corliss explained to +me that----" + His friend interrupted him with a sour laugh. "Oh, +certainly! He's one of the greatest explainers ever welcomed to +our city!" + Richard said mildly: "And then, Ray, once I've gone into a +thing I--I don't like to seem suspicious." + "Poor old Dick!" returned Vilas compassionately. "You kind, +easy, sincere men are so conscientiously untruthful with +yourselves. You know in your heart that Cora would be furious +with you if you seemed suspicious, and she's been so nice to you +since you put in your savings to please her, that you can't bear +to risk offending her. She's twisted you around her little +finger, and the unnamed fear that haunts you is that you won't be +allowed to stay there--even twisted!" + "Pretty decorations, Ray," said Richard; but he grew very +red. + "Do you know what you'll do," asked Ray, regarding him +keenly, "if this Don Giovanni from Sunny It' is shown up as a +plain get-rich-quick swindler?" + "I haven't considered----" + "You would do precisely, said Ray, "nothing! Cora'd see to +that. You'd sigh and go to work again, beginning at the +beginning where you were years ago, and doing it all over. +Admirable resignation, but not for me! I'm a stockholder in his +company and in shape to `take steps'! I don't know if I'd be +patient enough to make them legal--perhaps I should. He may be +safe on the legal side. I'll know more about that when I find +out if there is a Prince Moliterno in Naples who owns land in +Basilicata." + "You don't doubt it?" + "I doubt everything! In this particular matter I'll have +less to doubt when I get an answer from the consul-general. +_I_'ve written, you see. + Lindley looked disturbed. "You have?" + Vilas read him at a glance. "You're afraid to find out!" he +cried. Then he set his hand on the other's shoulder. "If +there ever was a God's fool, it's you, Dick Lindley. Really, I +wonder the world hasn't kicked you around more than it has; you'd +never kick back! You're as easy as an old shoe. Cora makes you +unhappy," he went on, and with the very mention of her name, his +voice shook with passion,--"but on my soul I don't believe you +know what jealousy means: you don't even understand hate; you +don't eat your heart----" + "Let's go and eat something better," suggested Richard, +laughing. "There's a continuous supper downstairs and I hear +it's very good." + Ray smiled, rescued for a second from himself. "There isn't +anything better than your heart, you old window-pane, and I'm +glad you don't eat it. And if I ever mix it up with Don Giovanni +T. Corliss--`T' stands for Toreador--I do believe it'll be partly +on your----" He paused, leaving the sentence unfinished, as his +attention was caught by the abysmal attitude of a figure in +another part of the gallery: Mr. Wade Trumble, alone in a +corner, sitting upon the small of his small back, munching at an +unlighted cigar and otherwise manifesting a biting gloom. Ray +drew Lindley's attention to this tableau of pain. "Here's a +three of us!" he said. He turned to look down into the +rhythmic kaleidoscope of dancers. "And there goes the girl we +all OUGHT to be morbid about." + "Who is that?" + "Laura Madison. Why aren't we? What a self-respecting +creature she is, with that cool, sweet steadiness of hers--she's +like a mountain lake. She's lovely and she plays like an angel, +but so far as anybody's ever thinking about her is concerned she +might almost as well not exist. Yet she's really beautiful +to-night, if you can manage to think of her except as a sort of +retinue for Cora." + "She IS rather beautiful to-night. Laura's always a very +nice-looking girl," said Richard, and with the advent of an idea, +he added: "I think one reason she isn't more conspicuous and +thought about is that she is so quiet," and, upon his companion's +greeting this inspiration with a burst of laughter, "Yes, that +was a brilliant deduction," he said; "but I do think she's about +the quietest person I ever knew. I've noticed there are times +when she'll scarcely speak at all for half an hour, or even +more." + "You're not precisely noisy yourself," said Ray. Have you +danced with her this evening?" + "Why, no," returned the other, in a tone which showed +this omission to be a discovery; "not yet. I must, of course." + "Yes, she's really `rather' beautiful. Also, she dances +`rather' better than any other girl in town. Go and perform your +painful duty." + "Perhaps I'd better," said Richard thoughtfully, not +perceiving the satire. "At any rate, I'll ask her for the next." + He found it unengaged. There came to Laura's face an April +change as he approached, and she saw he meant to ask her to +dance. And, as they swam out into the maelstrom, he noticed it, +and remarked that it WAS rather warm, to which she replied by +a cheerful nod. Presently there came into Richard's mind the +thought that he was really an excellent dancer; but he did not +recall that he had always formed the same pleasing estimate of +himself when he danced with Laura, nor realize that other young +men enjoyed similar self-help when dancing with her. And yet he +repeated to her what Ray had said of her dancing, and when she +laughed as in appreciation of a thing intended humorously, he +laughed, too, but insisted that she did dance "very well indeed." +She laughed again at that, and they danced on, not talking. He +had no sense of "guiding" her; there was no feeling of +effort whatever; she seemed to move spontaneously with his wish, +not to his touch; indeed, he was not sensible of touching her at +all. + "Why, Laura," he exclaimed suddenly, "you dance +BEAUTIFULLY!" + She stumbled and almost fell; saved herself by clutching at +his arm; he caught her; and the pair stopped where they were, in +the middle of the floor. A flash of dazed incredulity from her +dark eyes swept him; there was something in it of the child +dodging an unexpected blow. + "Did I trip you?" he asked anxiously. + "No," she laughed, quickly, and her cheeks grew even redder. +"I tripped myself. Wasn't that too bad--just when you were +thinking that I danced well! Let's sit down. May we?" + They went to some chairs against a wall. There, as they sat, +Cora swung by them, dancing again with her lieutenant, and +looking up trancedly into the gallant eyes of the triumphant and +intoxicated young man. Visibly, she was a woman with a suitor's +embracing arm about her. Richard's eyes followed them. + "Ah, don't!" said Laura in a low voice. + He turned to her. "Don't what?" + "I didn't mean to speak out loud," she said tremulously. +"But I meant: don't look so troubled. It doesn't mean anything +at all--her coquetting with that bird of passage. He's going +away in the morning." + "I don't think I was troubling about that." + "Well, whatever it was"--she paused, and laughed with a +plaintive timidity--"why, just don't trouble about it!" + "Do I look very much troubled?" he asked seriously. + "Yes. And you don't look very gay when you're not!" She +laughed with more assurance now. "I think you're always the +wistfulest looking man I ever saw." + "Everybody laughs at me, I believe," he said, with continued +seriousness. "Even Ray Vilas thinks I'm an utter fool. Am I, do +YOU think?" + He turned as he spoke and glanced inquiringly into her eyes. +What he saw surprised and dismayed him. + "For heaven's sake, don't cry!" he whispered hurriedly. + She bent her head, turning her face from him. + "I've been very hopeful lately," he said. "Cora has +been so kind to me since I did what she wanted me to, that I----" +He gave a deep sigh. "But if you're THAT sorry for me, my +chances with her must be pretty desperate." + She did not alter her attitude, but with her down-bent face +still away from him, said huskily: "It isn't you I'm sorry for. +You mustn't ever give up; you must keep on trying and trying. If +you give up, I don't know what will become of her!" + A moment later she rose suddenly to her feet. "Let's finish +our dance," she said, giving him her hand. "I'm sure I won't +stumble again." + + + + +CHAPTER SIXTEEN + +The two girls let themselves into the house noiselessly, and, +turning out the hall-light, left for them by their mother, crept +upstairs on tiptoe; and went through the upper hall directly to +Laura's room--Cora's being nearer the sick-room. At their age it +is proper that a gayety be used three times: in anticipation, and +actually, and in after-rehearsal. The last was of course now in +order: they went to Laura's room to "talk it over." There was no +gas-fixture in this small chamber; but they found Laura's +oil-lamp burning brightly upon her writing-table + "How queer!" said Laura with some surprise, as she closed the +door. "Mother never leaves the lamp lit for me; she's always so +afraid of lamps exploding." + "Perhaps Miss Peirce came in here to read, and forgot to turn +it out," suggested Cora, seating herself on the edge of the bed +and letting her silk wrap fall from her shoulders. "Oh, Laura, +wasn't he gorgeous. . . ." + She referred to the gallant defender of our seas, it +appeared, and while Laura undressed and got into a wrapper, Cora +recounted in detail the history of the impetuous sailor's +enthrallment;--a resume predicted three hours earlier by a +gleeful whisper hissed across the maritime shoulder as the +sisters swung near each other during a waltz: "PROPOSED!" + "I've always heard they're horribly inconstant," she said, +regretfully. "But, oh, Laura, wasn't he beautiful to look at! +Do you think he's more beautiful than Val? No--don't tell me if +you do. I don't want to hear it! Val was so provoking: he +didn't seem to mind it at all. He's nothing but a big brute +sometimes: he wouldn't even admit that he minded, when I asked +him. I was idiot enough to ask; I couldn't help it; he was so +tantalizing" and exasperating--laughing at me. I never knew +anybody like him; he's so sure of himself and he can be so cold. +Sometimes I wonder if he really cares about anything, deep down +in his heart--anything except himself. He seems so selfish: +there are times when he almost makes me hate him; but just when I +get to thinking I do, I find I don't--he's so deliciously strong, +and there's such a BIG luxury in being understood: I +always feel he KNOWS me clear to the bone, somehow! But, +oh," she sighed regretfully," doesn't a uniform become a man? +They ought to all wear 'em. It would look silly on such a little +goat as that Wade Trumble, though: nothing could make him look +like a whole man. Did you see him glaring at me? Beast! I was +going to be so nice and kittenish and do all my prettiest tricks +for him, to help Val with his oil company. Val thinks Wade would +come in yet, if I'D only get him in the mood to have another +talk with Val about it; but the spiteful little rat wouldn't come +near me. I believe that was one of the reasons Val laughed at me +and pretended not to mind my getting proposed to. He MUST +have minded; he couldn't have helped minding it, really. That's +his way; he's so MEAN--he won't show things. He knows +ME. I can't keep anything from him; he reads ME like a +signboard; and then about himself he keeps me guessing, and I +can't tell when I've guessed right. Ray Vilas behaved +disgustingly, of course; he was horrid and awful. I might have +expected it. I suppose Richard was wailing HIS tiresome +sorrows on your poor shoulder----" + "No," said Laura. "He was very cheerful. He seemed glad you +were having a good time." + "He didn't look particularly cheerful at me. I never saw so +slow a man: I wonder when he's going to find out about that +pendant. Val would have seen it the instant I put it on. And, +oh, Laura! isn't George Wattling funny? He's just SOFT! +He's good-looking though," she continued pensively, adding, "I +promised to motor out to the Country Club with him to-morrow for +tea." + "Oh, Cora,"protested Laura, "no! Please don't!" + "I've promised; so I'll have to, now." Cora laughed. "It'll +do Mary Kane good. Oh, I'm not going to bother much with +HIM--he makes me tired. I never saw anything so complacent +as that girl when she came in to-night, as if her little Georgie +was the greatest capture the world had ever seen. . . ." + She chattered on. Laura, passive, listened with a thoughtful +expression, somewhat preoccupied. The talker yawned at last. + "It must be after three," she said, listlessly, having gone +over her evening so often that the colours were beginning to +fade. She yawned again. "Laura," she remarked absently, "I +don't see how you can sleep in this bed; it sags so." + "I've never noticed it," said her sister. "It's a very +comfortable old bed." + Cora went to her to be unfastened, reverting to the +lieutenant during the operation, and kissing the tire-woman +warmly at its conclusion. "You're always so sweet to me, Laura," +she said affectionately. "I don't know how you manage it. +You're so good"--she laughed--"sometimes I wonder how you stand +me. If I were you, I'm positive I couldn't stand me at all!" +Another kiss and a hearty embrace, and she picked up her wrap and +skurried silently through the hall to her own room. + It was very late, but Laura wrote for almost an hour in her +book (which was undisturbed) before she felt drowsy. Then she +extinguished the lamp, put the book away and got into bed. + It was almost as if she had attempted to lie upon the empty +air: the mattress sagged under her weight as if it had been a +hammock; and something tore with a ripping sound. There was a +crash, and a choked yell from a muffled voice somewhere, as the +bed gave way. For an instant, Laura fought wildly in an +entanglement of what she insufficiently perceived to be springs, +slats and bedclothes with something alive squirming underneath. +She cleared herself and sprang free, screaming, but even in her +fright she remembered her father and clapped her hand over +her mouth that she might keep from screaming again. She dove at +the door, opened it, and fled through the hall to Cora's room, +still holding her hand over her mouth. + "Cora! Oh, Cora!" she panted, and flung herself upon her +sister's bed. + Cora was up instantly; and had lit the gas in a trice. +"There's a burglar!" Laura contrived to gasp. "In my room! +Under the bed!" + "What! " + "I fell on him! Something's the matter with the bed. It +broke. I fell on him!" + Cora stared at her wide-eyed. "Why, it can't be. Think how +long I was in there. Your bed broke, and you just thought there +was some one there. You imagined it." + "No, no, no!" wailed Laura. I HEARD him: he gave a kind +of dreadful grunt." + "Are you sure?" + "SURE? He wriggled--oh! I could FEEL him!" + Cora seized a box of matches again. "I'm going to find out." +"Oh, no, no!" protested Laura, cowering." + "Yes, I am. If there's a burglar in the house I'm going to +find him!" + "We mustn't wake papa." + "No, nor mamma either. You stay here if you want to----" + "Let's call Hedrick," suggested the pallid Laura; "or put our +heads out of the window and scream for----" + Cora laughed; she was not in the least frightened. "That +wouldn't wake papa, of course! If we had a telephone I'd send +for the police; but we haven't. I'm going to see if there's any +one there. A burglar's a man, I guess, and I can't imagine +myself being afraid of any MAN!" + Laura clung to her, but Cora shook her off and went through +the hall undaunted, Laura faltering behind her. Cora lighted +matches with a perfectly steady hand; she hesitated on the +threshold of Laura's room no more than a moment, then lit the +lamp. + Laura stifled a shriek at sight of the bed. "Look, look!" +she gasped. + "There's no one under it now, that's certain," said Cora, and +boldly lifted a corner of it. "Why, it's been cut all to pieces +from underneath! You're right; there was some one here. It's +practically dismembered. Don't you remember my telling you +how it sagged? And I was only sitting on the edge of it! The +slats have all been moved out of place, and as for the mattress, +it's just a mess of springs and that stuffing stuff. He must +have thought the silver was hidden there." + "Oh, oh, oh!" moaned Laura. "He WRIGGLED----ugh!" + Cora picked up the lamp. "Well, we've got to go over the +house----" + "No, no!" + "Hush! I'll go alone then." + "You CAN'T." + "I will, though!" + The two girls had changed places in this emergency. In her +fright Laura was dependent, clinging: actual contact with the +intruder had unnerved her. It took all her will to accompany her +sister upon the tour of inspection, and throughout she cowered +behind the dauntless Cora. It was the first time in their lives +that their positions had been reversed. From the days of Cora's +babyhood, Laura had formed the habit of petting and shielding the +little sister, but now that the possibility became imminent of +confronting an unknown and dangerous man, Laura was so shaken +that, overcome by fear, she let Cora go first. Cora had not +boasted in vain of her bravery; in truth, she was not afraid of any +man. + They found the fastenings of the doors secure and likewise +those of all the windows, until they came to the kitchen. There, +the cook had left a window up, which plausibly explained the +marauder's mode of ingress. Then, at Cora's insistence, and to +Laura's shivering horror, they searched both cellar and garret, +and concluded that he had escaped by the same means. Except +Laura's bed, nothing in the house had been disturbed; but this +eccentricity on the part of a burglar, though it indeed struck +the two girls as peculiar, was not so pointedly mysterious to +them as it might have been had they possessed a somewhat greater +familiarity with the habits of criminals whose crimes are +professional. + They finally retired, Laura sleeping with her sister, and +Cora had begun to talk of the lieutenant again, instead of the +burglar, before Laura fell asleep. + In spite of the short hours for sleep, both girls appeared at +the breakfast-table before the meal was over, and were naturally +pleased with the staccato of excitement evoked by their news. +Mrs. Madison and Miss Peirce were warm in admiration of their +bravery, but in the same breath condemned it as foolhardy. + "I never knew such wonderful girls!" exclaimed the mother, +almost tearfully. "You crazy little lions! To think of your not +even waking Hedrick! And you didn't have even a poker and were +in your bare feet--and went down in the CELLAR----" + "It was all Cora," protested Laura. "I'm a hopeless, +disgusting coward. I never knew what a coward I was before. +Cora carried the lamp and went ahead like a drum-major. I just +trailed along behind her, ready to shriek and run--or faint!" + "Could you tell anything about him when you fell on him?" +inquired Miss Peirce. "What was his voice like when he shouted?" + "Choked. It was a horrible, jolted kind of cry. It hardly +sounded human." + "Could you tell anything about whether he was a large man, or +small, or----" + "Only that he seemed very active. He seemed to be kicking. +He WRIGGLED----ugh!" + They evolved a plausible theory of the burglar's motives and +line of reasoning. "You see," said Miss Peirce, much stirred, in +summing up the adventure, "he either jimmies the window, or finds +it open already, and Sarah's mistaken and she DID leave +it open! Then he searched the downstairs first, and didn't find +anything. Then he came upstairs, and was afraid to come into any +of the rooms where we were. He could tell which rooms had people +in them by hearing us breathing through the keyholes. He finds +two rooms empty, and probably he made a thorough search of Miss +Cora's first. But he isn't after silver toilet articles and +pretty little things like that. He wants really big booty or +none, so he decides that an out-of-the-way, unimportant room like +Miss Laura's is where the family would be most apt to hide +valuables, jewellery and silver, and he knows that mattresses +have often been selected as hiding-places; so he gets under the +bed and goes to work. Then Miss Cora and Miss Laura come in so +quietly--not wanting to wake anybody--that he doesn't hear them, +and he gets caught there. That's the way it must have been." + "But why," Mrs. Madison inquired of this authority, "why do +you suppose he lit the lamp?" + "To see by," answered the ready Miss Peirce. It was accepted +as final. + Further discussion was temporarily interrupted by the +discovery that Hedrick had fallen asleep in his chair. + "Don't bother him, Cora," said his mother. "He's finished +eating--let him sleep a few minutes, if he wants to, before he +goes to school. He's not at all well. He played too hard, +yesterday afternoon, and hurt his knee, he said. He came down +limping this morning and looking very badly. He oughtn't to run +and climb about the stable so much after school. See how utterly +exhausted he looks!--Not even this excitement can keep him +awake." + "I think we must be careful not to let Mr. Madison suspect +anything about the burglar," said Miss Peirce. "It would be bad +for him." + Laura began: "But we ought to notify the police----" + "Police!" Hedrick woke so abruptly, and uttered the word with +such passionate and vehement protest, that everybody started. "I +suppose you want to KILL your father, Laura Madison!" + "How?" + "Do you suppose he wouldn't know something had happened with +a squad of big, heavy policemen tromping all over the house? The +first thing they'd do would be to search the whole place----" + "Oh, no," said Mrs. Madison quickly. "It wouldn't do at +all." + "I should think not! I'm glad," continued Hedrick, +truthfully, "THAT idea's out of your head! I believe Laura +imagined the whole thing anyway." + "Have you looked at her mattress," inquired Cora, "darling +little boy?" + He gave her a concentrated look, and rose to leave. "Nothin' +on earth but imagina----" He stopped with a grunt as he +forgetfully put his weight on his left leg. He rubbed his knee, +swallowed painfully, and, leaving the word unfinished, limped +haughtily from the room. + He left the house, gloomily swinging his books from a spare +length of strap, and walking with care to ease his strains and +bruises as much as possible. He was very low in his mind, that +boy. His fortunes had reached the ebb-tide, but he had no hope +of a rise. He had no hope of anything. It was not even a +consolation that, through his talent for surprise in waylayings, +it had lately been thought necessary, by the Villard family, to +have Egerton accompanied to and from school by a man-servant. +Nor was Hedrick more deeply depressed by the certainty that both +public and domestic scandal must soon arise from the +inevitable revelation of his discontinuing his attendance at +school without mentioning this important change of career at +home. He had been truant a full fortnight, under brighter +circumstances a matter for a lawless pride--now he had neither +fear nor vainglory. There was no room in him for anything but +dejection. + He walked two blocks in the direction of his school; turned a +corner; walked half a block; turned north in the alley which ran +parallel to Corliss Street, and a few moments later had +cautiously climbed into an old, disused refuse box which stood +against the rear wall of the empty stable at his own home. He +pried up some loose boards at the bottom of the box, and entered +a tunnel which had often and often served in happier days--when +he had friends--for the escape of Union officers from Libby +Prison and Andersonville. Emerging, wholly soiled, into a +box-stall, he crossed the musty carriage house and ascended some +rickety steps to a long vacant coachman's-room, next to the +hayloft. He closed the door, bolted it, and sank moodily upon a +broken, old horsehair sofa. + This apartment was his studio. In addition to the sofa, it +contained an ex-bureau, three chair-like shapes, a once +marble-topped table, now covered with a sheet of zinc, two empty +bird cages, and a condemned whatnot. The walls were rather +over-decorated in coloured chalks, the man-headed-snake motive +predominating; they were also loopholed for firing into the +hayloft. Upon the table lay a battered spy-glass, minus lenses, +and, nearby, two boxes, one containing dried corn-silk, the other +hayseed, convenient for the making of amateur cigarettes; the +smoker's outfit being completed by a neat pile of rectangular +clippings from newspapers. On the shelves of the whatnot were +some fragments of a dead pie, the relics of a "Fifteen-Puzzle," a +pink Easter-egg, four seashells, a tambourine with part of a +girl's face still visible in aged colours, about two thirds of a +hot-water bag, a tintype of Hedrick, and a number of books: +several by Henty, "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea," "100 +Practical Jokes, Easy to Perform," "The Jungle Book," "My Lady +Rotha," a "Family Atlas," "Three Weeks," "Pilgrim's Progress," +"A Boy's Life in Camp," and "The Mystery of the Count's Bedroom." + The gloomy eye of Hedrick wandered to "The Mystery of the +Count's Bedroom," and remained fixed upon it moodily and +contemptuously. His own mystery made that one seem tame and +easy: Laura's bedroom laid it all over the Count's, in his +conviction; and with a soul too weary of pain to shudder, he +reviewed the bafflements and final catastrophe of the preceding +night. + He had not essayed the attempt upon the mattress until +assured that the house was wrapped in slumber. Then, with hope +in his heart, he had stolen to Laura's room, lit the lamp, +feeling safe from intrusion, and set to work. His implement at +first was a long hatpin of Cora's. Lying on his back beneath the +bed, and, moving the slats as it became necessary, he sounded +every cubic inch of the mysterious mattress without encountering +any obstruction which could reasonably be supposed to be the +ledger. This was not more puzzling than it was infuriating, +since by all processes of induction, deduction, and pure logic, +the thing was necessarily there. It was nowhere else. Therefore +it was there. It HAD to be there! With the great blade of +his Boy Scout's knife he began to disembowel the mattress + For a time he had worked furiously and effectively, but the +position was awkward, the search laborious, and he was obliged to +rest frequently. Besides, he had waited to a later hour +than he knew, for his mother to go to bed, and during one of his +rests he incautiously permitted his eyes to close. When he woke, +his sisters were in the room, and he thought it advisable to +remain where he was, though he little realized how he had +weakened his shelter. When Cora left the room, he heard Laura +open the window, sigh, and presently a tiny clinking and a click +set him a-tingle from head to foot: she was opening the padlocked +book. The scratching sound of a pen followed. And yet she had +not come near the bed. The mattress, then, was a living lie. + With infinite caution he had moved so that he could see her, +arriving at a coign of vantage just as she closed the book. She +locked it, wrapped it in an oilskin cover which lay beside it on +the table, hung the key-chain round her neck, rose, yawned, and, +to his violent chagrin, put out the light. He heard her moving +but could not tell where, except that it was not in his part of +the room. Then a faint shuffling warned him that she was +approaching the bed, and he withdrew his head to avoid being +stepped upon. The next moment the world seemed to cave in upon +him. + Laura's flight had given him opportunity to escape to +his own room unobserved; there to examine, bathe and bind his +wounds, and to rectify his first hasty impression that he had +been fatally mangled. + Hedrick glared at "The Mystery of the Count's Bedroom." + By and by he got up, brought the book to the sofa and began +to read it over. + + + +CHAPTER SEVENTEEN + +The influence of a familiar and sequestered place is not only +soothing; the bruised mind may often find it restorative. Thus +Hedrick, in his studio, surrounded by his own loved bric-a-brac, +began to feel once more the stir of impulse. Two hours' reading +inspired him. What a French reporter (in the Count's bedroom) +could do, an American youth in full possession of his +powers--except for a strained knee and other injuries--could do. +Yes, and would! + He evolved a new chain of reasoning. The ledger had been +seen in Laura's room; it had been heard in her room; it appeared +to be kept in her room. But it was in no single part of the +room. All the parts make a whole. Therefore, the book was not +in the room. + On the other hand, Laura had not left the room when she took +the book from its hiding-place. This was confusing; therefore he +determined to concentrate logic solely upon what she had done +with the ledger when she finished writing in it. It +was dangerous to assume that she had restored it to the place +whence she obtained it, because he had already proved that place +to be both in the room and out of the room. No; the question he +must keep in was: What did she do with it? + Laura had not left the room. But the book had left the room. + Arrived at this inevitable deduction, he sprang to his feet +in a state of repressed excitement and began to pace the +floor--like a hound on the trail. Laura had not left the room, +but the book had left the room: he must keep his mind upon this +point. He uttered a loud exclamation and struck the zinc +table-top a smart blow with his clenched fist. + Laura had thrown the book out of the window! + In the exaltation of this triumph, he forgot that it was not +yet the hour for a scholar's reappearance, and went forth in +haste to search the ground beneath the window--a disappointing +quest, for nowhere in the yard was there anything but withered +grass, and the rubbish of other frost-bitten vegetation. His +mother, however, discovered something else, and, opening the +kitchen window, she asked, with surprise: + "Why, Hedrick, what on earth are you doing here?" + "Me?" inquired Hedrick. + "What are you doing here?" + "Here?" Evidently she puzzled him. + She became emphatic. "I want to know what you are doing." + "Just standing here," he explained in a meek, grieved way. + "But why aren't you at school?" + This recalled what he had forgotten, and he realized the +insecurity of his position. "Oh, yes," he said--"school. Did +you ask me----" + "Didn't you go to school?" + He began to speak rapidly. "Didn't I go to SCHOOL? +Well, where else could I go? Just because I'm here now doesn't +mean I didn't GO, does it? Because a person is in China +right now wouldn't have to mean he'd never been in South America, +would it?" + "Then what's the matter?" + "Well, I was going along, and you know I didn't feel very +well and----" He paused, with the advent of a happier idea, then +continued briskly: "But that didn't stop me, because I thought I +ought to go if I dropped, so I went ahead, but the teacher +was sick and they couldn't get a substitute. She must have been +pretty sick, she looked so pale----" + "They dismissed the class?" + "And I don't have to go to-morrow either." + "I see," said his mother. "But if you feel ill, Hedrick, +hadn't you better come in and lie down?" + "I think it's kind of passing off. The fresh air seems to be +doing me good." + "Be careful of your sore knee, dear." She closed the window, +and he was left to continue his operations in safety. + Laura had thrown the ledger out of the window; that was +proved absolutely. Obviously, she had come down before daylight +and retrieved it. Or, she had not. Proceeding on the assumption +that she had not, he lifted his eyes and searched the air. Was +it possible that the book, though thrown from the window, had +never reached the ground? The branches of an old and stalwart +maple, now almost divested of leaves, extended in rough symmetry +above him, and one big limb, reaching out toward the house, came +close to Laura's windows. Triumph shown again from the shrewd +countenance of the sleuth: Laura must have slid the ledger along +a wire into a hollow branch. However, no wire was to be +seen--and the shrewd countenance of the sleuth fell. But perhaps +she had constructed a device of silk threads, invisible from +below, which carried the book into the tree. Action! + He climbed carefully but with many twinges, finally pausing +in a parlous situation not far from the mysterious window which +Laura had opened the night before. A comprehensive survey of the +tree revealed only the very patent fact that none of the branches +was of sufficient diameter to conceal the ledger. No silk +threads came from the window. He looked and looked and looked at +that window; then his eye fell a little, halted less than three +feet below the window-ledge, and the search was ended. + The kitchen window which his mother had opened was directly +beneath Laura's, and was a very long, narrow window, in the style +of the house, and there was a protecting stone ledge above it. +Upon this ledge lay the book, wrapped in its oil-skin covering +and secured from falling by a piece of broken iron hooping, stuck +in the mortar of the bricks. It could be seen from nowhere save +an upper window of the house next door, or from the tree itself, +and in either case only when the leaves had fallen. + Laura had felt very safe. No one had ever seen the book +except that night, early in August, when, for a better +circulation of air, she had left her door open as she wrote, and +Hedrick had come upon her. He had not spoken of it again; she +perceived that he had forgotten it; and she herself forgot that +the memory of a boy is never to be depended on; its forgettings +are too seldom permanent in the case of things that ought to stay +forgotten. + To get the book one had only to lean from the window. + + Hedrick seemed so ill during lunch that his mother spoke of +asking Doctor Sloane to look at him, if he did not improve before +evening. Hedrick said meekly that perhaps that would be best--if +he did not improve. After a futile attempt to eat, he cour- +teously excused himself from the table--a ceremony which made +even Cora fear that his case might be serious--and, going feebly +to the library, stretched himself upon the sofa. His mother put +a rug over him; Hedrick, thanking her touchingly, closed his +eyes; and she went away, leaving him to slumber. + After a time, Laura came into the room on an errand, +walking noiselessly, and, noticing that his eyes were open, +apologized for waking him. + "Never mind," he returned, in the tone of an invalid. "I +didn't sleep sound. I think there's something the matter inside +my head: I have such terrible dreams. I guess maybe it's better +for me to keep awake. I'm kind of afraid to go to sleep. Would +you mind staying here with me a little while?" + "Certainly I'll stay," she said, and, observing that his +cheeks were flushed, and his eyes unusually bright, she laid a +cool hand on his forehead. "You haven't any fever, dear; that's +good. You'll be all right to-morrow. Would you like me to read +to you?" + "I believe," he answered, plaintively, "reading might kind of +disturb my mind: my brain feels so sort of restless and queer. +I'd rather play some kind of game." + "Cards?" + "No, not cards exactly. Something' I can do lying down. Oh, +I know! You remember the one where we drew pictures and the +others had to guess what they were? Well, I've invented a game +like that. You sit down at the desk over there and take some +sheets of paper. I'll tell you the rest." + She obeyed. "What next?" + "Now, I'll describe some people and where they live and not +tell who they are, and you see if you can guess their names and +addresses." + "Addresses, too?" + "Yes, because I'm going to describe the way their houses +look. Write each name on a separate sheet of paper, and the +number of their house below it if you know it, and if you don't +know it, just the street. If it's a woman: put `Miss' or `Mrs.' +before their name and if it's a man write `Esquire' after it." + "Is all that necessary for the game?" + "It's the way I invented it and I think you might----" + "Oh, all right," she acquiesced, good-naturedly. "It shall +be according to your rules." + "Then afterward, you give me the sheets of paper with the +names and addresses written on 'em, and we--we----" He hesitated. + "Yes. What do we do then?" + "I'll tell you when we come to it." But when that stage of +his invention was reached, and Laura had placed the inscribed +sheets in his hand, his interest had waned, it appeared. Also, +his condition had improved. + "Let's quit. I thought this game would be more exciting," he +said, sitting up. "I guess," he added with too much modesty, +"I'm not very good at inventing games. I b'lieve I'll go out to +the barn; I think the fresh air----" + "Do you feel well enough to go out?" she asked. "You do seem +to be all right, though." + "Yes, I'm a lot better, I think." He limped to the door." +The fresh air will be the best thing for me." + She did not notice that he carelessly retained her +contributions to the game, and he reached his studio with them in +his hand. Hedrick had entered the 'teens and he was a reader: +things in his head might have dismayed a Borgia. + + No remotest glimpse entered that head of the enormity of what +he did. To put an end to his punishing of Cora, and, to render +him powerless against that habitual and natural enemy, Laura had +revealed a horrible incident in his career--it had become a +public scandal; he was the sport of fools; and it might be months +before the thing was lived down. Now he had the means, as he +believed, to even the score with both sisters at a stroke. To +him it was turning a tremendous and properly scathing joke +upon them. He did not hesitate. + + That evening, as Richard Lindley sat at dinner with his +mother, Joe Varden temporarily abandoned his attendance at the +table to answer the front doorbell. Upon his return, he +remarked: + "Messenger-boy mus' been in big hurry. Wouldn' wait till I +git to door." + "What was it?" asked Richard. + "Boy with package. Least, I reckon it were a boy. Call' +back from the front walk, say he couldn' wait. Say he lef' +package in vestibule." + "What sort of a package?" + "Middle-size kind o' big package." + "Why don't you see what it is, Richard?" Mrs. Lindley asked +of her son. "Bring it to the table, Joe." + When it was brought, Richard looked at the superscription +with surprise. The wrapper was of heavy brown paper, and upon it +a sheet of white notepaper had been pasted, with the address: + + "Richard Lindley, Esq., + 1218 Corliss Street." + + "It's from Laura Madison," he said, staring at this writing. +"What in the world would Laura be sending me?" + "You might possibly learn by opening it," suggested his +mother. "I've seen men puzzle over the outside of things quite +as often as women. Laura Madison is a nice girl." She never +volunteered similar praise of Laura Madison's sister. Mrs. +Lindley had submitted to her son's plans concerning Cora, lately +confided; but her submission lacked resignation. + "It's a book," said Richard, even more puzzled, as he took +the ledger from its wrappings. "Two little torn places at the +edge of the covers. Looks as if it had once had clasps----" + "Perhaps it's the Madison family album," Mrs. Lindley +suggested. "Pictures of Cora since infancy. I imagine she's had +plenty taken." + "No." He opened the book and glanced at the pages covered in +Laura's clear, readable hand. "No, it's about half full of +writing. Laura must have turned literary." He read a line or +two, frowning mildly. "My soul! I believe it's a novel! She +must think I'm a critic--to want me to read it." Smiling at the +idea, he closed the ledger. "I'll take it upstairs to my +hang-out after dinner, and see if Laura's literary manner has my +august approval. Who in the world would ever have thought she'd +decide to set up for a writer?" + "I imagine she might have something to write worth reading," +said his mother. "I've always thought she was an +interesting-looking girl." + "Yes, she is. She dances well, too." + "Of course," continued Mrs. Lindley, thoughtfully, "she +seldom SAYS anything interesting, but that may be because she +so seldom has a chance to say anything at all." + Richard refused to perceive this allusion. "Curious that +Laura should have sent it to me," he said. "She's never seemed +interested in my opinion about anything. I don't recall her ever +speaking to me on any subject whatever--except one." + He returned his attention to his plate, but his mother did +not appear to agree with him that the topic was exhausted. + "`Except one'?" she repeated, after waiting for some time. + "Yes," he replied, in his habitual preoccupied and +casual tone. "Or perhaps two. Not more than two, I should +say--and in a way you'd call that only one, of course. Bread, +Joe." + "What two, Richard?" + "Cora," he said, with gentle simplicity, "and me." + + + +CHAPTER EIGHTEEN + +Mrs. Lindley had arranged for her son a small apartment on the +second floor, and it was in his own library and smoking-room that +Richard, comfortable in a leather-chair by a reading-lamp, after +dinner, opened Laura's ledger. + The first page displayed no more than a date now eighteen +months past, and the line: + + "Love came to me to-day." + + The next page was dated the next day, and, beneath, he read: + + "That was all I COULD write, yesterday. I think I was +too excited to write. Something seemed to be singing in my +breast. I couldn't think in sentences--not even in words. How +queer it is that I had decided to keep a diary, and bound this +book for it, and now the first thing I have written in it +was THAT! It will not be a diary. It shall be YOUR +book. I shall keep it sacred to You and write to You in it. How +strange it will be if the day ever comes when I shall show it to +You! If it should, you would not laugh at it, for of course the +day couldn't come unless you understood. I cannot think it will +ever come--that day! But maybe---- No, I mustn't let myself +hope too much that it will, because if I got to hoping too much, +and you didn't like me, it would hurt too much. People who +expect nothing are never disappointed--I must keep that in mind. +Yet EVERY girl has a RIGHT to hope for her own man to +come for her some time, hasn't she? It's not easy to discipline +the wanting to hope--since YESTERDAY! + "I think I must always have thought a great deal about you +without knowing it. We really know so little what we think: our +minds are going on all the time and we hardly notice them. It is +like a queer sort of factory--the owner only looks in once in a +while and most of the time hasn't any idea what sort of goods his +spindles are turning out. + "I saw You yesterday! It seems to me the strangest thing in +the world. I've seen you by chance, probably two or three times +a month nearly all my life, though you so seldom come here +to call. And this time wasn't different from dozens of other +times--you were just standing on the corner by the Richfield, +waiting for a car. The only possible difference is that you had +been out of town for several months--Cora said so this +morning--and how ridiculous it seems now, didn't even know it! I +hadn't noticed it--not with the top part of my mind, but perhaps +the deep part that does the real thinking had noticed it and had +mourned your absence and was so glad to see you again that it +made the top part suddenly see the wonderful truth!" + + Lindley set down the ledger to relight his cigar. It struck +him that Laura had been writing "very odd Stuff," but +interesting; and certainly it was not a story. Vaguely he +recalled Marie Bashkirtseff: hadn't she done something like this? +He resumed the reading: + + "You turned and spoke to me in that lovely, cordial, +absent-minded way of yours--though I'd never thought (with the +top part) what a lovely way it was; and for a moment I only +noticed how nice you looked in a light gray suit, because +I'd only seen you in black for so long, while you'd been in +mourning for your brother." + + Richard, disturbed by an incredible idea, read these last +words over and then dismissed the notion as nonsense. + + ". . . While you'd been in mourning for your brother--and it +struck me that light gray was becoming to you. Then such a queer +thing happened: I felt the great kindness of your eyes. I +thought they were full of--the only word that seems to express it +at all is CHARITY--and they had a sweet, faraway look, too, +and I've ALWAYS thought that a look of wistful kindness was +the loveliest look in the world--and you had it, and I saw it and +then suddenly, as you held your hat in your hand, the sunshine on +your hair seemed brighter than any sunshine I had ever seen--and +I began to tremble all over. I didn't understand what was the +matter with me or what had made me afraid with you not of +you--all at once, but I was so hopelessly rattled that instead of +waiting for the car, as I'd just told you I meant to, I said I'd +decided to walk, and got away--without any breath left to +breathe with! I COULDN'T have gotten on the car with you--- +and I couldn't have spoken another word. + "And as I walked home, trembling all the way, I saw that +strange, dazzling sunshine on your hair, and the wistful, kind +look in your eyes--you seemed not to have taken the car but to +have come with me--and I was uplifted and exalted oh, so +strangely--oh, how the world was changing for me! And when I got +near home, I began to walk faster, and on the front path I broke +into a run and rushed in the house to the piano--and it was as if +my fingers were thirsty for the keys! Then I saw that I was +playing to you and knew that I loved you. + "I love you! + "How different everything is now from everything before. +Music means what it never did: Life has leaped into blossom for +me. Everywhere there is colour and radiance that I had never +seen--the air is full of perfume. Dear, the sunshine that fell +upon your head has spread over the world! + "I understand, as I never understood, that the world--so +dazzling to me now--was made for love and is meaningless without +it. The years until yesterday are gray--no, not gray, because +that was the colour You were wearing--not gray, because +that is a beautiful colour. The empty years until yesterday had +no colour at all. Yes, the world has meaning only through +loving, and without meaning there is no real life. We live only +by loving, and now that this gift of life has come to me I love +ALL the world. I feel that I must be so kind, kind, KIND +to EVERYBODY! Such an odd thing struck me as my greatest +wish. When I was little, I remember grandmother telling me how, +when she was a child in pioneer days, the women made the men's +clothes--homespun--and how a handsome young Circuit Rider, who +was a bachelor, seemed to her the most beautifully dressed man +she had ever seen. The women of the different churches made his +clothes, as they did their husbands' and brothers.' you see--only +better! It came into my head that that would be the divinest +happiness that I could know--to sew for you! If you and I lived +in those old, old times--you LOOK as if you belonged to them, +you know, dear--and You were the young minister riding into the +settlement on a big bay horse--and all the girls at the window, +of course!--and I sewing away at the homespun for you!--I think +all the angels of heaven would be choiring in my heart--and +what thick, warm clothes I'd make you for winter! Perhaps in +heaven they'll let some of the women sew for the men they love--I +wonder! + "I hear Cora's voice from downstairs as I write. She's often +so angry with Ray, poor girl. It does not seem to me that she +and Ray really belong to each other, though they SAY so often +that they do." + + Richard having read thus far with a growing, vague +uneasiness, looked up, frowning. He hoped Laura had no Marie +Bashkirtseff idea of publishing this manuscript. It was too +intimate, he thought, even if the names in it were to be +disguised. + +. . . "Though they SAY so often that they do. I think Ray +is in love with HER, but it can't be like THIS. What he +feels must be something wholly different--there is violence and +wildness in it. And they are bitter with each other so often - +always `getting even' for something. He does care--he is +frantically "IN love" with her, undoubtedly, but so insanely +jealous. I suppose all jealousy is insane. But love is the only +sanity. How can what is insane be part of it? I could not be +jealous of You. I owe life to you--I have never lived till +now." + + The next writing was two days later: + + . . . . "To-day as I passed your house with Cora, I kept +looking at the big front door at which you go in and out so +often--YOUR door! I never knew that just a door could look +so beautiful! And unconsciously I kept my eyes on it, as we +walked on, turning my head and looking and looking back at it, +till Cora suddenly burst out laughing, and said: `Well, +LAURA!' And I came to myself--and found her looking at me. +It was like getting back after a journey, and for a second I was +a little dazed, and Cora kept on laughing at me, and I felt +myself getting red. I made some silly excuse about thinking your +house had been repainted--and she laughed louder than ever. I +was afraid then that she understood--I wonder if she could have? +I hope not, though I love her so much I don't know why I would +rather she didn't know, unless it is just my FEELING about +it. It is a GUARDIAN feeling--that I must keep for myself, +the music of these angels singing in my heart--singing of You. I +hope she did not understand--and I so fear she did. Why +should I be so AFRAID?" . . . + . . . . "Two days since I have talked to You in your book +after Cora caught me staring at your door and laughed at me--and +ten minutes ago I was sitting beside the ACTUAL You on the +porch! I am trembling yet. It was the first time you'd come for +months and months; and yet you had the air of thinking it rather +a pleasant thing to do as you came up the steps! And a dizzy +feeling came over me, because I wondered if it was seeing me on +the street THAT day that put it into your head to come. It +seemed too much happiness--and risking too much--to let myself +BELIEVE it, but I couldn't help just wondering. I began to +tremble as I saw you coming up our side of the street in the +moonlight--and when you turned in here I was all panic--I nearly +ran into the house. I don't know how I found voice to greet you. +I didn't seem to have any breath left at all. I was so relieved +when Cora took a chair between us and began to talk to you, +because I'm sure I couldn't have. She and poor Ray had been +having one of their quarrels and she was punishing him. Poor +boy, he seemed so miserable--though he tried to talk to me--about +politics, I think, though I'm not sure, because I couldn't +listen much better than either of us could talk. I could only +hear Your voice--such a rich, quiet voice, and it has a sound +like the look you have--friendly and faraway and wistful. I have +thought and thought about what it is that makes you look wistful. +You have less to wish for than anybody else in the world because +you have Yourself. So why are you wistful? I think it's just +because you ARE! + "I heard Cora asking you why you hadn't come to see us for so +long, and then she said: `Is it because you dislike me? You +look at me, sometimes, as if you dislike me!' And I wished she +hadn't said it. I had a feeling you wouldn't like that +`personal' way of talking that she enjoys--and that--oh, it +didn't seem to be in keeping with the dignity of You! And I love +Cora so much I wanted her to be finer--with You. I wanted her to +understand you better than to play those little charming tricks +at you. You are so good, so HIGH, that if she could make a +real friend of you I think it would be the best thing for her +that could happen. She's never had a man-FRIEND. Perhaps +she WAS trying to make one of you and hasn't any other +way to go about it. She can be so REALLY sweet, I wanted you +to see that side of her. + "Afterwhile, when Ray couldn't bear it any longer to talk to +me, and in his desperation brazenly took Cora to the other end of +the porch almost by force, and I was left, in a way, alone with +you what did you think of me? I was tongue-tied! Oh, oh, oh! +You were quiet--but I_ was DUMB! My heart wasn't dumb--it +hammered! All the time I kept saying to myself such a jumble of +things. And into the jumble would come such a rapture that You +were there--it was like a paean of happiness--a chanting of the +glory of having You near me--I WAS mixed up! I could +PLAY all those confused things, but writing them doesn't tell +it. Writing them would only be like this: `He's here, he's +HERE! Speak, you little fool! He's here, he's here! He's +sitting beside you! SPEAK, idiot, or he'll never come back! +He's here, he's beside you you could put out your hand and touch +him! Are you dead, that you can't speak? He's here, he's here, +he's HERE!' + "Ah, some day I shall be able to talk to you--but not till I +get more used to this inner song. It seems to WILL that +nothing else shall come from my lips till IT does! + "In spite of my silence--my outward woodenness--you said, as +you went away, that you would come again! You said `soon'! I +could only nod but Cora called from the other end of the porch +and asked: `HOW soon?' Oh, I bless her for it, because you +said, `Day after to-morrow.' Day after tomorrow! Day after +to-morrow! DAY AFTER TOMORROW! + . . . . "Twenty-one hours since I wrote--no, SANG--`Day +after to-morrow!' And now it is `To-morrow!' Oh, the slow, +golden day that this has been! I could not stay in the house--I +walked--no, I WINGED! I was in the open country before I +knew it--with You! For You are in everything. I never knew the +sky was blue, before. Until now I just thought it was the sky. +The whitest clouds I ever saw sailed over that blue, and I stood +upon the prow of each in turn, then leaped in and swam to the +next and sailed with IT! Oh, the beautiful sky, and kind, +green woods and blessed, long, white, dusty country road! Never +in my life shall I forget that walk--this day in the open with my +love--You! To-morrow! To-morrow! To-morrow! TOMORROW!" + + The next writing in Laura's book was dated more than two +months later: + + . . . . "I have decided to write again in this book. I have +thought it all out carefully, and I have come to the conclusion +that it can do no harm and may help me to be steady and sensible. +It is the thought, not its expression, that is guilty, but I do +not believe that my thoughts are guilty: I believe that they are +good. I know that I wish only good. I have read that when +people suffer very much the best thing is for them to cry. And +so I'll let myself WRITE out my feelings--and perhaps get rid +of some of the silly self-pity I'm foolish enough to feel, +instead of going about choked up with it. How queer it is that +even when we keep our thoughts respectable we can't help having +absurd FEELINGS like self-pity, even though we know how +rotten stupid they are! Yes, I'll let it all out here, and then, +some day, when I've cured myself all whole again, I'll burn this +poor, silly old book. And if I'm not cured before the wedding, +I'll burn it then, anyhow. + "How funny little girls are! From the time they're little +bits of things they talk about marriage--whom they are going to +marry, what sort of person it will be. I think Cora and I +began when she was about five and I not seven. And as girls grow +up, I don't believe there was ever one who genuinely expected to +be an old maid. The most unattractive young girls discuss and +plan and expect marriage just as much as the prettier and gayer +ones. The only way we can find out that men don't want to marry +us is by their not asking us. We don't see ourselves very well, +and I honestly believe we all think--way deep down--that we're +pretty attractive. At least, every girl has the idea, sometimes, +that if men only saw the whole truth they'd think her as nice as +any other girl, and really nicer than most others. But I don't +believe I have any hallucinations of that sort about myself left. +I can't imagine--now--ANY man seeing anything in me that +would make him care for me. I can't see anything about me to +care for, myself. Sometimes I think maybe I could make a man get +excited about me if I could take a startlingly personal tone with +him from the beginning, making him wonder all sorts of you-and-I +perhapses--but I couldn't do it very well probably--oh, I +couldn't make myself do it if I could do it well! And I +shouldn't think it would have much effect except upon very +inexperienced men--yet it does! Now, I wonder if this is a +streak of sourness coming out; I don't feel bitter--I'm just +thinking honestly, I'm sure. + "Well, here I am facing it: all through my later childhood, +and all through my girlhood, I believe what really occupied me +most--with the thought of it underlying all things else, though +often buried very deep--was the prospect of my marriage. I +regarded it as a certainty: I would grow up, fall in love, get +engaged, and be married--of course! So I grew up and fell in +love with You--but it stops there, and I must learn how to be an +Old Maid and not let anybody see that I mind it. I know this is +the hardest part of it, the beginning: it will get easier +by-and-by, of course. If I can just manage this part of it, it's +bound not to hurt so much later on. + "Yes, I grew up and fell in love with You--for you will +always be You. I'll never, never get over THAT, my dear! +You'll never, never know it; but I shall love You always till I +die, and if I'm still Me after that, I shall keep right on loving +you then, of course. You see, I didn't fall in love with you +just to have you for myself. I fell in love with You! And that +can never bother you at all nor ever be a shame to me that I +love unsought, because you won't know, and because it's just an +ocean of good-will, and every beat of my heart sends a new great +wave of it toward you and Cora. I shall find happiness, I +believe, in service--I am sure there will be times when I can +serve you both. I love you both and I can serve her for You and +you for her. This isn't a hysterical mood, or a fit of +`exaltation': I have thought it all out and I know that I can +live up to it. You are the best thing that can ever come into +her life, and everything I can do shall be to keep you there. I +must be very, very careful with her, for talk and advice do not +influence her much. You love her--she has accepted you, and it +is beautiful for you both. It must be kept beautiful. It has +all become so clear to me: You are just what she has always +needed, and if by any mischance she lost you I do not know what +would become----" + + "Good God!" cried Richard. He sprang to his feet, and the +heavy book fell with a muffled crash upon the floor, sprawling +open upon its face, its leaves in disorder. He moved away from +it, staring at it in incredulous dismay. But he knew. + + + +CHAPTER NINETEEN + +Memory, that drowsy custodian, had wakened slowly, during this +hour, beginning the process with fitful gleams of +semi-consciousness, then, irritated, searching its pockets for +the keys and dazedly exploring blind passages; but now it flung +wide open the gallery doors, and there, in clear light, were the +rows of painted canvasses. + He remembered "that day" when he was waiting for a car, and +Laura Madison had stopped for a moment, and then had gone on, +saying she preferred to walk. He remembered that after he got +into the car he wondered why he had not walked home with her; had +thought himself "slow" for not thinking of it in time to do it. +There had seemed something very "taking" about her, as she +stopped and spoke to him, something enlivening and wholesome and +sweet--it had struck him that Laura was a "very nice girl." He +had never before noticed how really charming she could look; in +fact he had never thought much about either of the +Madison sisters, who had become "young ladies" during his +mourning for his brother. And this pleasant image of Laura +remained with him for several days, until he decided that it +might be a delightful thing to spend an evening with her. He had +called, and he remembered, now, Cora's saying to him that he +looked at her sometimes as if he did not like her; he had been +surprised and astonishingly pleased to detect a mysterious +feeling in her about it. + He remembered that almost at once he had fallen in love with +Cora: she captivated him, enraptured him, as she still did--as +she always would, he felt, no matter how she treated him or what +she did to him. He did not analyze the process of the capti- +vation and enrapturement--for love is a mystery and cannot be +analyzed. This is so well known that even Richard Lindley knew +it, and did not try! + . . . Heartsick, he stared at the fallen book. He was a +man, and here was the proffered love of a woman he did not want. +There was a pathos in the ledger; it seemed to grovel, sprawling +and dishevelled in the circle of lamp-light on the floor: it was +as if Laura herself lay pleading at his feet, and he looked +down upon her, compassionate but revolted. He realized with +astonishment from what a height she had fallen, how greatly he +had respected her, how warmly liked her. What she now destroyed +had been more important than he had guessed. + Simple masculine indignation rose within him: she was to have +been his sister. If she had been unable to stifle this misplaced +love of hers, could she not at least have kept it to herself? +Laura, the self-respecting! No; she offered it--offered it to +her sister's betrothed. She had written that he should "never, +never know it"; that when she was "cured" she would burn the +ledger. She had not burned it! There were inconsistencies in +plenty in the pitiful screed, but these were the wildest--and the +cheapest. In talk, she had urged him to "keep trying," for Cora, +and now the sick-minded creature sent him this record. She +wanted him to know. Then what else was it but a plea? "I love +you. Let Cora go. Take me." + He began to walk up and down, wondering what was to be done. +After a time, he picked up the book gingerly, set it upon a shelf +in a dark corner, and went for a walk outdoors. The night air +seemed better than that of the room that held the ledger. + At the corner a boy, running, passed him. It was Hedrick +Madison, but Hedrick did not recognize Richard, nor was his mind +at that moment concerned with Richard's affairs; he was on an +errand of haste to Doctor Sloane. Mr. Madison had wakened from a +heavy slumber unable to speak, his condition obviously much +worse. + Hedrick returned in the doctor's car, and then hung uneasily +about the door of the sick-room until Laura came out and told him +to go to bed. In the morning, his mother did not appear at the +breakfast table, Cora was serious and quiet, and Laura said that +he need not go to school that day, though she added that the +doctor thought their father would get "better." She looked wan +and hollow-eyed: she had not been to bed, but declared that she +would rest after breakfast. Evidently she had not missed her +ledger; and Hedrick watched her closely, a pleasurable excitement +stirring in his breast. + She did not go to her room after the meal; the house was +cold, possessing no furnace, and, with Hedrick's assistance, she +carried out the ashes from the library grate, and built a fire +there. She had just lighted it, and the kindling was beginning +to crackle, glowing rosily over her tired face, when the bell +rang. + "Will you see who it is, please, Hedrick?" + He went with alacrity, and, returning, announced in an odd +voice. "It's Dick Lindley. He wants to see you." + "Me?" she murmured, wanly surprised. She was kneeling before +the fireplace, wearing an old dress which was dusted with ashes, +and upon her hands a pair of worn-out gloves of her father's. +Lindley appeared in the hall behind Hedrick, carrying under his +arm something wrapped in brown paper. His expression led her to +think that he had heard of her father's relapse, and came on that +account. + "Don't look at me, Richard," she said, smiling faintly as she +rose, and stripping her hands of the clumsy gloves. "It's good +of you to come, though. Doctor Sloane thinks he is going to be +better again." + Richard inclined his head gravely, but did not speak. + "Well," said Hedrick with a slight emphasis, I guess I'll go +out in the yard a while." And with shining eyes he left the +room. + In the hall, out of range from the library door, he executed +a triumphant but noiseless caper, and doubled with mirth, +clapping his hand over his mouth to stifle the effervescings of +his joy. He had recognized the ledger in the same wrapping +in which he had left it in Mrs. Lindley's vestibule. His moment +had come: the climax of his enormous joke, the repayment in some +small measure for the anguish he had so long endured. He crept +silently back toward the door, flattened his back against the +wall, and listened. + "Richard," he heard Laura say, a vague alarm in her voice, +"what is it? What is the matter?" + Then Lindley: "I did not know what to do about it. I +couldn't think of any sensible thing. I suppose what I am doing +is the stupidest of all the things I thought of, but at least +it's honest--so I've brought it back to you myself. Take it, +please." + There was a crackling of the stiff wrapping paper, a little +pause, then a strange sound from Laura. It was not vocal and no +more than just audible: it was a prolonged scream in a whisper. + Hedrick ventured an eye at the crack, between the partly open +door and its casing. Lindley stood with his back to him, but the +boy had a clear view of Laura. She was leaning against the wall, +facing Richard, the book clutched in both arms against her bosom, +the wrapping paper on the floor at her feet. + "I thought of sending it back and pretending to think it had +been left at my mother's house by mistake," said Richard sadly, +"and of trying to make it seem that I hadn't read any of it. I +thought of a dozen ways to pretend I believed you hadn't really +meant me to read it----" + Making a crucial effort, she managed to speak. + You--think I--did mean----" + "Well," he answered, with a helpless shrug, "you sent it! +But it's what's in it that really matters, isn't it? I could +have pretended anything in a note, I suppose, if I had written +instead of coming. But I found that what I most dreaded was +meeting you again, and as we've got to meet, of course, it seemed +to me the only thing to do was to blunder through a talk with +you, somehow or another, and get that part of it over. I thought +the longer I put off facing you, the worse it would be for both +of us--and--and the more embarrassing. I'm no good at +pretending, anyhow; and the thing has happened. What use is +there in not being honest? Well?" + She did not try again to speak. Her state was lamentable: it +was all in her eyes. + Richard hung his head wretchedly, turning partly away +from her. "There's only one way--to look at it," he said +hesitatingly, and stammering. "That is--there's only one thing +to do: to forget that it's happened. I'm--I--oh, well, I care +for Cora altogether. She's got never to know about this. She +hasn't any idea or--suspicion of it, has she?" + Laura managed to shake her head. + "She never must have," he said. "Will you promise me to burn +that book now?" + She nodded slowly. + "I--I'm awfully sorry, Laura," he said brokenly. "I'm not +idiot enough not to see that you're suffering horribly. I +suppose I have done the most blundering thing possible." He +stood a moment, irresolute, then turned to the door. "Good-bye." + Hedrick had just time to dive into the hideous little room of +the multitudinous owls as Richard strode into the hall. Then, +with the closing of the front door, the boy was back at his post. + Laura stood leaning against the wall, the book clutched in +her arms, as Richard had left her. Slowly she began to sink, her +eyes wide open, and, with her back against the wall, she slid +down until she was sitting upon the floor. Her arms relaxed +and hung limp at her sides, letting the book topple over in +her lap, and she sat motionless. + One of her feet protruded from her skirt, and the leaping +firelight illumined it ruddily. It was a graceful foot in an old +shoe which had been re-soled and patched. It seemed very still, +that patched shoe, as if it might stay still forever. Hedrick +knew that Laura had not fainted, but he wished she would move her +foot. + He went away. He went into the owl-room again, and stood +there silently a long, long time. Then he stole back again +toward the library door, but caught a glimpse of that old, +motionless shoe through the doorway as he came near. Then he +spied no more. He went out to the stable, and, secluding himself +in his studio, sat moodily to meditate. + Something was the matter. Something had gone wrong. He had +thrown a bomb which he had expected to go off with a stupendous +bang, leaving him, as the smoke cleared, looking down in merry +triumph, stinging his fallen enemies with his humour, withering +them with satire, and inquiring of them how it felt, now THEY +were getting it. But he was decidedly untriumphant: he wished +Laura had moved her foot and that she hadn't that patch upon +her shoe. He could not get his mind off that patch. He began to +feel very queer: it seemed to be somehow because of the patch. +If she had worn a pair of new shoes that morning. . . . Yes, it +was that patch. + Thirteen is a dangerous age: nothing is more subtle. The +boy, inspired to play the man, is beset by his own relapses into +childhood, and Hedrick was near a relapse. + By and by, he went into the house again, to the library. +Laura was not there, but he found the fire almost smothered under +heaping ashes. She had burned her book. + He went into the room where the piano was, and played "The +Girl on the Saskatchewan" with one finger; then went out to the +porch and walked up and down, whistling cheerily. + After that, he went upstairs and asked Miss Peirce how his +father was "feeling," receiving a noncommital reply; looked in at +Cora's room; saw that his mother was lying asleep on Cora's bed +and Cora herself examining the contents of a dressing-table +drawer; and withdrew. A moment later, he stood in the passage +outside Laura's closed door listening. There was no sound. + He retired to his own chamber, found it unbearable, and, +fascinated by Laura's, returned thither; and, after standing a +long time in the passage, knocked softly on the door. + "Laura," he called, in a rough and careless voice, "it's kind +of a pretty day outdoors. If you've had your nap, if I was you +I'd go out for a walk." There was no response. "I'll go with +you," he added, "if you want me to." + He listened again and heard nothing. Then he turned the knob +softly. The door was unlocked; he opened it and went in. + Laura was sitting in a chair, with her back to a window, her +hands in her lap. She was staring straight in front of her. + He came near her hesitatingly, and at first she did not seem +to see him or even to know that she was not alone in the room. +Then she looked at him wonderingly, and, as he stood beside her, +lifted her right hand and set it gently upon his head. + "Hedrick," she said, "was it you that took my book to----" + All at once he fell upon his knees, hid his face in her lap, +and burst into loud and passionate sobbing. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY + +Valentine Corliss, having breakfasted in bed at a late hour that +morning, dozed again, roused himself, and, making a toilet, +addressed to the image in his shaving-mirror a disgusted +monosyllable. + "Ass!" + However, he had not the look of a man who had played cards +all night to a disastrous tune with an accompaniment in Scotch. +His was a surface not easily indented: he was hard and healthy, +clear-skinned and clear-eyed. When he had made himself +point-device, he went into the "parlour" of his apartment, +frowning at the litter of malodorous, relics, stumps and stubs +and bottles and half-drained glasses, scattered chips and cards, +dregs of a night, session. He had been making acquaintances. + He sat at the desk and wrote with a steady hand in Italian: + + +MOST ILLUSTRIOUS MOLITERNO: + We live but learn little. As to myself it appears that I learn +nothing--nothing! You will at once convey to +me by CABLE five thousand lire. No; add the difference in +exchange so as to make it one thousand dollars which I shall +receive, taking that sum from the two-hundred and thirty thousand +lire which I entrusted to your safekeeping by cable as the result +of my enterprise in this place. I should have returned at once, +content with that success, but as you know I am a very stupid +fellow, never pleased with a moderate triumph, nor with a large +one, when there is a possible prospect of greater. I am +compelled to believe that the greater I had in mind in this case +was an illusion: my gentle diplomacy avails nothing against a +small miser--for we have misers even in these States, though you +will not believe it. I abandon him to his riches! From the +success of my venture I reserved four thousand dollars to keep by +me and for my expenses, and it is humiliating to relate that all +of this, except a small banknote or two, was taken from me last +night by amateurs. I should keep away from cards--they hate me, +and alone I can do nothing with them. Some young gentlemen of +the place, whose acquaintance I had made at a ball, did me the +honour of this lesson at the native game of poker, at which +I--though also native--am not even so expert as yourself, and, as +you will admit, Antonio, my friend, you are not a good +player--when observed. Unaided, I was a child in their +hands. It was also a painful rule that one paid for the counters +upon delivery. This made me ill, but I carried it off with an +air of carelessness creditable to an adopted Neapolitan. Upon +receipt of the money you are to cable me, I shall leave this town +and sail immediately. Come to Paris, and meet me there at the +place on the Rue Auber within ten days from your reading this +letter. You will have, remaining, two hundred and twenty-five +thousand francs, which it will be safer to bring in cash, and I +will deal well with you, as is our custom with each other. You +have done excellently throughout; your cables and letters for +exhibition concerning those famous oil wells have been +perfection; and I shall of course not deduct what was taken by +these thieves of poker players from the sum of profits upon which +we shall estimate your commission. I have several times had the +feeling that the hour for departure had arrived; now I shall +delay not a moment after receiving your cable, though I may +occupy the interim with a last attempt to interest my small +miser. Various circumstances cause me some uneasiness, though I +do not believe I could be successfully assailed by the law in the +matter of oil. You do own an estate in Basilicata, at least your +brother does--these good people here would not be apt to discover +the difference--and the rest is a matter of plausibility. The +odious coincidence of encountering the old cow, Pryor, +fretted me somewhat (though he has not repeated his annoying +call), and I have other small apprehensions--for example, that it +may not improve my credit if my loss of last night becomes +gossip, though the thieves professed strong habits of discretion. +My little affair of gallantry grows embarrassing. Such affairs +are so easy to inaugurate; extrication is more difficult. +However, without it I should have failed to interest my investor +and there is always the charm. Your last letter is too curious +in that matter. Licentious man, one does not write of these +things while under the banner of the illustrious Uncle Sam--I am +assuming the American attitude while here, or perhaps my early +youth returns to me--a thing very different from your own +boyhood, Don Antonio. Nevertheless, I promise you some laughter +in the Rue Auber. Though you will not be able to understand the +half of what I shall tell you--particularly the portraits I shall +sketch of my defeated rivals--your spirit shall roll with +laughter. + To the bank, then, the instant you read. Cable me one +thousand dollars, and be at the Rue Auber not more than ten days +later. To the bank! Thence to the telegraph office. Speed! + V. C. + + He was in better spirits as he read over this letter, and he +chuckled as he addressed it. He pictured himself in the rear +room of the bar in the Rue Auber, relating, across the +little marble-topped table, this American adventure, to the +delight of that blithe, ne'er-do-well outcast of an exalted poor +family, that gambler, blackmailer and merry rogue, Don Antonio +Moliterno, comrade and teacher of this ductile Valentine since +the later days of adolescence. They had been school-fellows in +Rome, and later roamed Europe together unleashed, discovering +worlds of many kinds. Valentine's careless mother let her boy go +as he liked, and was often negligent in the matter of +remittances: he and his friend learned ways to raise the wind, +becoming expert and making curious affiliations. At her death +there was a small inheritance; she had not been provident. The +little she left went rocketing, and there was the wind to be +raised again: young Corliss had wits and had found that they +could supply him--most of the time--with much more than the +necessities of life. He had also found that he possessed a +strong attraction for various women; already--at twenty-two--his +experience was considerable, and, in his way, he became a +specialist. He had a talent; he improved it and his opportuni- +ties. Altogether, he took to the work without malice and with a +light heart. . . . + He sealed the envelope, rang for a boy, gave him the letter +to post, and directed that the apartment should be set to rights. +It was not that in which he had received Ray Vilas. Corliss had +moved to rooms on another floor of the hotel, the day after that +eccentric and somewhat ominous person had called to make an +"investment." Ray's shadowy forebodings concerning that former +apartment had encountered satire: Corliss was a "materialist" +and, at the mildest estimate, an unusually practical man, but he +would never sleep in a bed with its foot toward the door; +southern Italy had seeped into him. He changed his rooms, a +measure of which Don Antonio Moliterno would have wholly +approved. Besides, these were as comfortable as the others, and +so like them as even to confirm Ray's statement concerning "A +Reading from Homer": evidently this work had been purchased by +the edition. + A boy came to announce that his "roadster" waited for him at +the hotel entrance, and Corliss put on a fur motoring coat and +cap, and went downstairs. A door leading from the hotel bar into +the lobby was open, and, as Corliss passed it, there issued a +mocking shout: + "Tor'dor! Oh, look at the Tor'dor! Ain't he the handsome +Spaniard!" + Ray Vilas stumbled out, tousled, haggard, waving his arms in +absurd and meaningless gestures; an amused gallery of tipplers +filling the doorway behind him. + "Goin' take Carmen buggy ride in the country, ain't he? Good +ole Tor'dor!" he quavered loudly, clutching Corliss's shoulder. +"How much you s'pose he pays f' that buzz-buggy by the day, +jeli'm'n? Naughty Tor'dor, stole thousand dollars from +me--makin' presents--diamond cresses. Tor'dor, I hear you been +playing cards. Tha's sn't nice. Tor'dor, you're not a goo' boy +at all--YOU know you oughtn't waste Dick Lindley's money like +that!" + Corliss set his open hand upon the drunkard's breast and sent +him gyrating and plunging backward. Some one caught the +grotesque figure as it fell. + "Oh, my God," screamed Ray, "I haven't got a gun on me! He +KNOWS I haven't got my gun with me! WHY haven't I got my +gun with me?" + They hustled him away, and Corliss, enraged and startled, +passed on. As he sped the car up Corliss Street, he decided +to anticipate his letter to Moliterno by a cable. He had stayed +too long. + Cora looked charming in a new equipment for November +motoring; yet it cannot be said that either of them enjoyed the +drive. They lunched a dozen miles out from the city at an +establishment somewhat in the nature of a roadside inn; and, +although its cuisine was quite unknown to Cora's friend, Mrs. +Villard (an eager amateur of the table), they were served with a +meal of such unusual excellence that the waiter thought it a +thousand pities patrons so distinguished should possess such poor +appetites. + They returned at about three in the afternoon, and Cora +descended from the car wearing no very amiable expression. + "Why won't you come in now?" she asked, looking at him +angrily. "We've got to talk things out. We've settled nothing +whatever. I want to know why you can't stop." + "I've got some matters to attend to, and----" + "What matters?" She shot him a glance of fierce skepticism. + "Are you packing to get out?" + "Cora!" he cried reproachfully, "how can you say things like +that to ME!" + She shook her head. "Oh, it wouldn't surprise me in the +least! How do _I_ know what you'll do? For all I know, you +may be just that kind of a man. You SAID you ought to be +going----" + "Cora," he explained, gently, "I didn't say I meant to go. I +said only that I thought I ought to, because Moliterno will be +needing me in Basilicata. I ought to be there, since it appears +that no more money is to be raised here. I ought to be +superintending operations in the oil-field, so as to make the +best use of the little I have raised." + "You?" she laughed. "Of course _I_ didn't have anything to +do with it!" + He sighed deeply. "You know perfectly well that I appreciate +all you did. We don't seem to get on very well to-day----" + "No!" She laughed again, bitterly. "So you think you'll be +going, don't you?" + "To my rooms to write some necessary letters." + "Of course not to pack your trunk?" + "Cora," he returned, goaded; "sometimes you're just +impossible. I'll come to-morrow forenoon." + "Then don't bring the car. I'm tired of motoring and tired +of lunching in that rotten hole. We can talk just as well in the +library. Papa's better, and that little fiend will be in +school to-morrow. Come out about ten." + He started the machine. "Don't forget I love you," he called +in a low voice. + She stood looking after him as the car dwindled down the +street. + "Yes, you do!" she murmured. + She walked up the path to the house, her face thoughtful, as +with a tiresome perplexity. In her own room, divesting herself +of her wraps, she gave the mirror a long scrutiny. It offered +the picture of a girl with a hard and dreary air; but Cora saw +something else, and presently, though the dreariness remained, +the hardness softened to a great compassion. She suffered: a +warm wave of sorrow submerged her, and she threw herself upon the +bed and wept long and silently for herself. + At last her eyes dried, and she lay staring at the ceiling. +The doorbell rang, and Sarah, the cook, came to inform her that +Mr. Richard Lindley was below. + "Tell him I'm out." + "Can't," returned Sarah. "Done told him you was home." And +she departed firmly. + Thus abandoned, the prostrate lady put into a few words what +she felt about Sarah, and, going to the door, whisperingly +summoned in Laura, who was leaving the sick-room, across the +hall. + "Richard is downstairs. Will you go and tell him I'm sick in +bed--or dead? Anything to make him go." And, assuming Laura's +acquiescence, Cora went on, without pause: "Is father worse? +What's the matter with you, Laura?" + "Nothing. He's a little better, Miss Peirce thinks." + "You look ill." + "I'm all right." + "Then run along like a duck and get rid of that old bore for +me." + "Cora--please see him?" + "Not me! I've got too much to think about to bother with +him." + Laura walked to the window and stood with her back to her +sister, apparently interested in the view of Corliss Street there +presented. "Cora," she said, "why don't you marry him and have +done with all this?" + Cora hooted. + "Why not? Why not marry him as soon as you can get ready? +Why don't you go down now and tell him you will? Why not, Cora?" + "I'd as soon marry a pail of milk--yes, tepid milk, skimmed! +I----" + "Don't you realize how kind he'd be to you?" + "I don't know about that," said Cora moodily. "He might +object to some things--but it doesn't matter, because I'm not +going to try him. I don't mind a man's being a fool, but I can't +stand the absent-minded breed of idiot. I've worn his diamond in +the pendant right in his eyes for weeks; he's never once noticed +it enough even to ask me about the pendant, but bores me to death +wanting to know why I won't wear the ring! Anyhow, what's the +use talking about him? He couldn't marry me right now, even if I +wanted him to--not till he begins to get something on the +investment he made with Val. Outside of that, he's got nothing +except his rooms at his mother's; she hasn't much either; and if +Richard should lose what he put in with Val, he couldn't marry +for years, probably. That's what made him so obstinate about it. +No; if I ever marry right off the reel it's got to be somebody +with----" + "Cora"--Laura still spoke from the window, not +turning--"aren't you tired of it all, of this getting so +upset about one man and then another and----" + "TIRED!" Cora uttered the word in a repressed fury of +emphasis. "I'm sick of EVERYTHING! I don't care for +anything or anybody on this earth--except--except you and mamma. +I thought I was going to love Val. I thought I DID--but oh, +my Lord, I don't! I don't think I CAN care any more. Or +else there isn't any such thing as love. How can anybody tell +whether there is or not? You get kind of crazy over a man and +want to go the limit--or marry him perhaps--or sometimes you just +want to make him crazy about you--and then you get over it--and +what is there left but hell!" She choked with a sour laugh. +"Ugh! For heaven's sake, Laura, don't make me talk. +Everything's gone to the devil and I've got to think. The best +thing you can do is to go down and get rid of Richard for me. I +CAN'T see him!" + "Very well," said Laura, and went to the door. + "You're a darling," whispered Cora, kissing her quickly. +"Tell him I'm in a raging headache--make him think I wanted to +see him, but you wouldn't let me, because I'm too ill." She +laughed. "Give me a little time, old dear: I may decide to +take him yet!" + It was Mrs. Madison who informed the waiting Richard that +Cora was unable to see him, because she was "lying down"; and the +young man, after properly inquiring about Mr. Madison, went +blankly forth. + Hedrick was stalking the front yard, mounted at a great +height upon a pair of stilts. He joined the departing visitor +upon the sidewalk and honoured him with his company, proceeding +storkishly beside him. + "Been to see Cora?" + "Yes, Hedrick." + "What'd you want to see her about?" asked the frank youth +seriously. + Richard was able to smile. "Nothing in particular, Hedrick." + "You didn't come to tell her about something?" + "Nothing whatever, my dear sir. I wished merely the honour +of seeing her and chatting with her upon indifferent subjects. + "Why?" + "Did you see her?" + "No, I'm sorry to----" + "She's home, all right," Hedrick took pleasure in informing +him. + "Yes. She was lying down and I told your mother not to +disturb her." + "Worn out with too much automobile riding, I expect," Hedrick +sniffed. "She goes out about every day with this Corliss in his +hired roadster." + They walked on in silence. Not far from Mrs. Lindley's, +Hedrick abruptly became vocal in an artificial laugh. Richard +was obviously intended to inquire into its cause, but, as he did +not, Hedrick, after laughing hollowly for some time, volunteered +the explanation: + "I played a pretty good trick on you last night." + "Odd I didn't know it." + "That's why it was good. You'd never guess it in the world." + "No, I believe I shouldn't. You see what makes it so hard, +Hedrick, is that I can't even remember seeing you, last night." + "Nobody saw me. Somebody heard me though, all right." + "Who?" + "The nigger that works at your mother's--Joe." + "What about it? Were you teasing Joe?" + "No, it was you I was after." + "Well? Did you get me?" + Hedrick made another somewhat ghastly pretence of mirth. +"Well, I guess I've had about all the fun out of it I'm going to. +Might as well tell you. It was that book of Laura's you thought +she sent you." + Richard stopped short; whereupon Hedrick turned clumsily, and +began to stalk back in the direction from which they had come. + "That book--I thought she--sent me?" Lindley repeated, +stammering. + "She never sent it," called the boy, continuing to walk away. +"She kept it hid, and I found it. I faked her into writing your +name on a sheet of paper, and made you think she'd sent the old +thing to you. I just did it for a joke on you." + With too retching an effort to simulate another burst of +merriment, he caught the stump of his right stilt in a pavement +crack, wavered, cut in the air a figure like a geometrical +proposition gone mad, and came whacking to earth in magnificent +disaster. + Richard took him to Mrs. Lindley for repairs. She kept him +until dark: Hedrick was bandaged, led, lemonaded and blandished. + Never in his life had he known such a listener. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE + +That was a long night for Cora Madison, and the morning found her +yellow. She made a poor breakfast, and returned from the table +to her own room, but after a time descended restlessly and +wandered from one room to another, staring out of the windows. +Laura had gone out; Mrs. Madison was with her husband, whom she +seldom left; Hedrick had departed ostensibly for school; and the +house was as still as a farm in winter--an intolerable condition +of things for an effervescent young woman whose diet was +excitement. Cora, drumming with her fingers upon a window in the +owl-haunted cell, made noises with her throat, her breath and her +lips not unsuggestive of a sputtering fuse. She was heavily +charged. + "Now what in thunder do YOU want?" she inquired of an +elderly man who turned in from the sidewalk and with serious +steps approached the house. + Pryor, having rung, found himself confronted with the lady he +had come to seek. Ensued the moment of strangers +meeting: invisible antennae extended and touched;--at the +contact, Cora's drew in, and she looked upon him without +graciousness. + "I just called," he said placatively, smiling as if some +humour lurked in his intention, "to ask how your father is. I +heard downtown he wasn't getting along quite so well." + "He's better this morning, thanks," said Cora, preparing to +close the door. + "I thought I'd just stop and ask about him. I heard he'd had +another bad spell--kind of a second stroke." + "That was night before last. The doctor thinks he's improved +very much since then." + The door was closing; he coughed hastily, and detained it by +speaking again. "I've called several times to inquire about him, +but I believe it's the first time I've had the pleasure of +speaking to you, Miss Madison. I'm Mr. Pryor." She appeared to +find no comment necessary, and he continued: "Your father did a +little business for me, several years ago, and when I was here on +my vacation, this summer, I was mighty sorry to hear of his +sickness. I've had a nice bit of luck lately and got a second +furlough, so I came out to spend a couple of weeks and +Thanksgiving with my married daughter." + Cora supposed that it must be very pleasant. + "Yes," he returned. "But I was mighty sorry to hear your +father wasn't much better than when I left. The truth is, I +wanted to have a talk with him, and I've been reproaching myself +a good deal that I didn't go ahead with it last summer, when he +was well, only I thought then it mightn't be necessary--might be +disturbing things without much reason." + "I'm afraid you can't have a talk with him now," she said. +"The doctor says----" + "I know, I know," said Pryor, "of course. I wonder"--he +hesitated, smiling faintly--"I wonder if I could have it with you +instead." + "Me?" + "Oh, it isn't business," he laughed, observing her +expression. "That is, not exactly." His manner became very +serious. "It's about a friend of mine--at least, a man I know +pretty well. Miss Madison, I saw you driving out through the +park with him, yesterday noon, in an automobile. Valentine +Corliss." + Cora stared at him. Honesty, friendliness, and grave concern +were disclosed to her scrutiny. There was no mistaking him: +he was a good man. Her mouth opened, and her eyelids flickered +as from a too sudden invasion of light--the look of one +perceiving the close approach of a vital crisis. But there was +no surprise in her face. + "Come in," she said. + + . . . . When Corliss arrived, at about eleven o'clock that +morning, Sarah brought him to the library, where he found Cora +waiting for him. He had the air of a man determined to be +cheerful under adverse conditions: he came in briskly, and Cora +closed the door behind him. + "Keep away from me," she said, pushing him back sharply, the +next instant. "I've had enough of that for a while I believe." + He sank into a chair, affecting desolation. "Caresses +blighted in the bud! Cora, one would think us really married." + She walked across the floor to a window, turned there, with +her back to the light, and stood facing him, her arms folded. + "Good heavens!" he exclaimed, noting this attitude. "Is it +the trial scene from a faded melodrama?" She looked steadily at +him without replying. "What's it all about to-day?" he +asked lightly. "I'll try to give you the proper cues if you'll +indicate the general nature of the scene, Cora mine." + She continued to look at him in silence. + "It's very effective," he observed. "Brings out the figure, +too. Do forgive me if you're serious, dear lady, but never in my +life was I able to take the folded-arms business seriously. It +was used on the stage of all countries so much that I believe +most new-school actors have dropped it. They think it lacks +genuineness." + Cora waited a moment longer, then spoke. "How much chance +have I to get Richard Lindley's money back from you?" + He was astounded. "Oh, I say!" + "I had a caller, this morning," she said, slowly. "He talked +about you--quite a lot! He's told me several things about you." + "Mr. Vilas?" he asked, with a sting in his quick smile. + "No," she answered coolly. "Much older." + At that he jumped up, stepped quickly close to her, and swept +her with an intense and brilliant scrutiny. + "Pryor, by God!" he cried. + "He knows you pretty well," she said. "So do now!" + He swung away from her, back to his chair, dropped into it +and began to laugh. "Old Pryor! Doddering old Pryor! Doddering +old ass of a Pryor! So he did! Blood of an angel! what a stew, +what a stew!" He rose again, mirthless. "Well, what did he +say?" + She had begun to tremble, not with fear. "He said a good +deal." + "Well, what was it? What did he tell you?" + "I think you'll find it plenty!" + "Come on!" + "YOU!" She pointed at him. + "Let's have it." + "He told me"--she burst out furiously--"he said you were a +professional sharper!" + "Oh, no. Old Pryor doesn't talk like that." + She came toward him. "He told me you were notorious over +half of Europe," she cried vehemently. "He said he'd arrested +you himself, once, in Rotterdam, for smuggling jewels, and that +you were guilty, but managed to squirm out of it. He said the +police had put you out of Germany and you'd be arrested if you +ever tried to go back. He said there were other places you +didn't dare set foot in, and he said he could have you arrested +in this country any time he wanted to, and that he was going to +do it if he found you'd been doing anything wrong. Oh, yes, he +told me a few things!" + He caught her by the shoulder. "See here, Cora, do you +believe all this tommy-rot?" + She shook his hand off instantly. "Believe it? I know it! +There isn't a straight line in your whole soul and mind: you're +crooked all over. You've been crooked with ME from the +start. The moment that man began to speak, I knew every word of +it was true. He came to me because he thought it was right: he +hasn't anything against you on his own account; he said he +LIKED you! I KNEW it was true, I tell you." + He tried to put his hand on her shoulder again, beginning to +speak remonstratingly, but she cried out in a rage, broke away +from him, and ran to the other end of the room. + "Keep away! Do you suppose I like you to touch me? He told +me you always had been a wonder with women! Said you were famous +for `handling them the right way'--using them! Ah, that was +pleasant information for ME, wasn't it! Yes, I could +have confirmed him on that point. He wanted to know if I thought +you'd been doing anything of that sort here. What he meant was: +Had you been using me?" + "What did you tell him?" The question rang sharply on the +instant. + "Ha! That gets into you, does it?" she returned bitterly. +"You can't overdo your fear of that man, I think, but _I_ +didn't tell him anything. I just listened and thanked him for +the warning, and said I'd have nothing more to do with you. How +COULD I tell him? Wasn't it I that made papa lend you his +name, and got Richard to hand over his money? Where does that +put ME?" She choked; sobs broke her voice. "Every--every +soul in town would point me out as a laughing-stock--the easiest +fool out of the asylum! Do you suppose _I_ want you arrested +and the whole thing in the papers? What I want is Richard's +money back, and I'm going to have it!" + "Can you be quiet for a moment and listen?" he asked gravely. + If you'll tell me what chance I have to get it back." + "Cora," he said, "you don't want it back." + "Oh? Don't I?" + "No." He smiled faintly, and went on. "Now, all this +nonsense of old Pryor's isn't worth denying. I have met him +abroad; that much is true--and I suppose I have rather a gay +reputation----" + She uttered a jeering shout. + "Wait!" he said. "I told you I'd cut quite a swathe, when I +first talked to you about myself. Let it go for the present and +come down to this question of Lindley's investment----" + "Yes. That's what I want you to come down to." + "As soon as Lindley paid in his check I gave him his stock +certificates, and cabled the money to be used at once in the +development of the oil-fields----" + "What! That man told me you'd `promoted' a South American +rubber company once, among people of the American colony in +Paris. The details he gave me sounded strangely familiar!" + "You'd as well be patient, Cora. Now, that money has +probably been partially spent, by this time, on tools and labour +and----" + "What are you trying to----" + "I'll show you. But first I'd like you to understand +that nothing can be done to me. There's nothing `on' me! I've +acted in good faith, and if the venture in oil is unsuccessful, +and the money lost, I can't be held legally responsible, nor can +any one prove that I am. I could bring forty witnesses from +Naples to swear they have helped to bore the wells. I'm safe as +your stubborn friend, Mr. Trumble, himself. But now then, +suppose that old Pryor is right--as of course he isn't--suppose +it, merely for a moment, because it will aid me to convey +something to your mind. If I were the kind of man he says I am, +and, being such a man, had planted the money out of reach, for my +own use, what on earth would induce me to give it back?" + "I knew it!" she groaned. "I knew you wouldn't!" + "You see," he said quietly, "it would be impossible. We must +go on supposing for a moment: if I had put that money away, I +might be contemplating a departure----" + "You'd better!" she cried fiercely. "He's going to find out +everything you've been doing. He said so. He's heard a rumour +that you were trying to raise money here; he told me so, and said +he'd soon----" + "The better reason for not delaying, perhaps. Cora, see +here!" He moved nearer her. "Wouldn't I need a lot of money if +I expected to have a beautiful lady to care for, and----" + "You idiot!" she screamed. "Do you think I'm going with +you?" + He flushed heavily. "Well, aren't you?" He paused, to stare +at her, as she wrung her hands and sobbed with hysterical +laughter. "I thought," he went on, slowly, "that you would +possibly even insist on that." + "Oh, Lord, Lord, Lord!" She stamped her foot, and with both +hands threw the tears from her eyes in wide and furious gestures. +"He told me you were married----" + "Did you let him think you hadn't known that?" demanded +Corliss. + "I tell you I didn't let him think ANYTHING! He said you +would never be able to get a divorce: that your wife hates you +too much to get one from you, and that she'll never----" + "See here, Cora," he said harshly, "I told you I'd been +married; I told you before I ever kissed you. You understood +perfectly----" + "I did not! You said you HAD been. You laughed +about it. You made me think it was something that had +happened a long time ago. I thought of course you'd been +divorced----" + "But I told you----" + "You told me after! And then you made me think you could +easily get one--that it was only a matter of form and----" + "Cora," he interrupted, "you're the most elaborate little +self-deceiver I ever knew. I don't believe you've ever faced +yourself for an honest moment in----" + "Honest! YOU talk about `honest'! You use that word and +face ME?" + He came closer, meeting her distraught eyes squarely. "You +love to fool yourself, Cora, but the role of betrayed virtue +doesn't suit you very well. You're young, but you're a pretty +experienced woman for all that, and you haven't done anything you +didn't want to. You've had both eyes open every minute, and we +both know it. You are just as wise as----" + "You're lying and YOU know it! What did _I_ want to +make Richard go into your scheme for? You made a fool of me." + "I'm not speaking of the money now," he returned +quickly. "You'd better keep your mind on the subject. Are +you coming away with me?" + "What for?" she asked. + "What FOR?" he echoed incredulously. "I want to know if +you're coming. I promise you I'll get a divorce as soon as it's +possible----" + "Val," she said, in a tone lower than she had used since he +entered the room; "Val, do you want me to come?" + "Yes." + "Much?" She looked at him eagerly. + "Yes, I do." His answer sounded quite genuine. + "Will it hurt you if I don't?" + "Of course it will." + "Thank heaven for that," she said quietly. + "You honestly mean you won't?" + "It makes me sick with laughing just to imagine it! I've +done some hard little thinking, lately, my friend--particularly +last night, and still more particularly this morning since that +man was here. I'd cut my throat before I'd go with you. If you +had your divorce I wouldn't marry you--not if you were the last +man on earth!" + "Cora," he cried, aghast, "what's the matter with you? +You're too many for me sometimes. I thought I understood a +few kinds of women! Now listen: I've offered to take you, and +you can't say----" + "Offered!" It was she who came toward him now. She came +swiftly, shaking with rage, and struck him upon the breast. +"`Offered'! Do you think I want to go trailing around Europe +with you while Dick Lindley's money lasts? What kind of a life +are you `offering' me? Do you suppose I'm going to have +everybody saying Cora Madison ran away with a jail-bird? Do you +think I'm going to dodge decent people in hotels and steamers, +and leave a name in this town that--Oh, get out! I don't want +any help from you! I can take care of myself, I tell you; and I +don't have to marry YOU! I'd kill you if I could--you made a +fool of me!" Her voice rose shrilly. "You made a fool of me!" + "Cora----" he began, imploringly. + "You made a fool of me!" She struck him again. + "Strike me," he said. "I love you + "Actor!" + "Cora, I want you. I want you more than I ever----" + She screamed with hysterical laughter. "Liar, liar, +liar! The same old guff. Don't you even see it's too late for +the old rotten tricks?" + "Cora, I want you to come." + "You poor, conceited fool," she cried, "do you think you're +the only man I can marry?" + "Cora," he gasped, "you wouldn't do that!" + "Oh, get out! Get out NOW! I'm tired of you. I never +want to hear you speak again." + "Cora,"he begged. "For the last time----" + "NO! You made a fool of me!" She beat him upon the +breast, striking again and again, with all her strength. "Get +out, I tell you! I'm through with you!" + He tried to make her listen, to hold her wrists: he could do +neither. + "Get out--get out!" she screamed. She pushed and dragged him +toward the door, and threw it open. Her voice thickened; she +choked and coughed, but kept on screaming: "Get out, I tell you! +Get out, get out, damn you! Damn you, DAMN you! get out!" + Still continuing to strike him with all her strength, she +forced him out of the door. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO + +Cora lost no time. Corliss had not closed the front door behind +him before she was running up the stairs. Mrs. Madison, emerging +from her husband's room, did not see her daughter's face; for +Cora passed her quickly, looking the other way. + "Was anything the matter?" asked the mother anxiously. "I +thought I heard----" + "Nothing in the world," Cora flung back over her shoulder. +"Mr. Corliss said I couldn't imitate Sara Bernhardt, and I showed +him I could." She began to hum; left a fragment of "rag-time" +floating behind her as she entered her own room; and Mrs. +Madison, relieved, returned to the invalid. + Cora changed her clothes quickly. She put on a pale gray +skirt and coat for the street, high shoes and a black velvet hat, +very simple. The costume was almost startlingly becoming to her: +never in her life had she looked prettier. She opened her small +jewel-case, slipped all her rings upon her fingers; +then put the diamond crescent, the pendant, her watch, and three +or four other things into the flat, envelope-shaped bag of soft +leather she carried when shopping. After that she brought from +her clothes-pantry a small travelling-bag and packed it +hurriedly. + Laura, returning from errands downtown and glancing up at +Cora's window, perceived an urgently beckoning, gray-gloved hand, +and came at once to her sister's room. + The packed bag upon the bed first caught her eye; then Cora's +attire, and the excited expression of Cora's face, which was +high-flushed and moist, glowing with a great resolve. + "What's happened?" asked Laura quickly. "You look exactly +like a going-away bride. What----" + Cora spoke rapidly: "Laura, I want you to take this bag and +keep it in your room till a messenger-boy comes for it. When the +bell rings, go to the door yourself, and hand it to him. Don't +give Hedrick a chance to go to the door. Just give it to the +boy;--and don't say anything to mamma about it. I'm going +downtown and I may not be back." + Laura began to be frightened. + "What is it you want to do, Cora?" she asked, trembling. + Cora was swift and business-like. "See here, Laura, I've got +to keep my head about me. You can do a great deal for me, if you +won't be emotional just now, and help me not to be. I can't +afford it, because I've got to do things, and I'm going to do +them just as quickly as I can, and get it over. If I wait any +longer I'll go insane. I CAN'T wait! You've been a +wonderful sister to me; I've always counted on you, and you've +never once gone back on me. Right now, I need you to help me +more than I ever have in my life. Will you----" + "But I must know----" + "No, you needn't! I'll tell you just this much: I've got +myself in a devil of a mess----" + Laura threw her arms round her: "Oh, my dear, dear little +sister!" she cried. + But Cora drew away. "Now that's just what you mustn't do. I +can't stand it! You've got to be QUIET. I can't----" + "Yes, yes," Laura said hurriedly. "I will. I'll do whatever +you say." + "It's perfectly simple: all I want you to do is to take +charge of my travelling-bag, and, when a messenger-boy +comes, give it to him without letting anybody know anything about +it." + "But I've got to know where you're going--I can't let you go +and not----" + "Yes, you can! Besides, you've promised to. I'm not going +to do anything foolish ----" + "Then why not tell me?" Laura began. She went on, imploring +Cora to confide in her, entreating her to see their mother--to do +a dozen things altogether outside of Cora's plans. + "You're wasting your breath, Laura," said the younger sister, +interrupting, "and wasting my time. You're in the dark: you +think I'm going to run away with Val Corliss and you're wrong. I +sent him out of the house for good, a while ago----" + "Thank heaven for that!" cried Laura. + "I'm going to take care of myself," Cora went on rapidly. +"I'm going to get out of the mess I'm in, and you've got to let +me do it my own way. I'll send you a note from downtown. +You see that the messenger----" + She was at the door, but Laura caught her by the sleeve, +protesting and beseeching. + Cora turned desperately. "See here. I'll come back in two +hours and tell you all about it. If I promise that, will +you promise to send me the bag by the----" + "But if you're coming back you won't need----" + Cora spoke very quietly. "I'll go to pieces in a moment. +Really, I do think I'd better jump out of the window and have it +over." + "I'll send the bag," Laura quavered, "if you'll promise to +come back in two hours." + "I promise!" + Cora gave her a quick embrace, a quick kiss, and, dry-eyed, +ran out of the room, down the stairs, and out of the house. + She walked briskly down Corliss Street. It was a clear day, +bright noon, with an exhilarating tang in the air, and a sky so +glorious that people outdoors were continually conscious of the +blue overhead, and looked up at it often. An autumnal +cheerfulness was abroad, and pedestrians showed it in their +quickened steps, in their enlivened eyes, and frequent smiles, +and in the colour of their faces. But none showed more colour or +a gayer look than Cora. She encountered many whom she knew, for +it was indeed a day to be stirring, and she nodded and smiled her +way all down the long street, thinking of what these greeted +people would say to-morrow. "_I_ saw her yesterday, +walking down Corliss Street, about noon, in a gray suit and +looking fairly radiant!" Some of those she met were enemies she +had chastened; she prophesied their remarks with accuracy. Some +were old suitors, men who had desired her; one or two had place +upon her long list of boy-sweethearts: she gave the same gay, +friendly nod to each of them, and foretold his morrow's thoughts +of her, in turn. Her greeting of Mary Kane was graver, as was +aesthetically appropriate, Mr. Wattling's engagement having been +broken by that lady, immediately after his drive to the Country +Club for tea. Cora received from the beautiful jilt a salutation +even graver than her own, which did not confound her. + Halfway down the street was a drug-store. She went in, and +obtained appreciative permission to use the telephone. She came +out well satisfied, and went swiftly on her way. Ten minutes +later, she opened the door of Wade Trumble's office. + He was alone; her telephone had caught him in the act of +departing for lunch. But he had been glad to wait--glad to the +verge of agitation. + "By George, Cora!" he exclaimed, as she came quickly in and +closed the door, "but you CAN look stunning! Believe +me, that's some get-up. But let me tell you right here and now, +before you begin, it's no use your tackling me again on the oil +proposition. If there was any chance of my going into it which +there wasn't, not one on earth--why, the very fact of your asking +me would have stopped me. I'm no Dick Lindley, I beg to inform +you: I don't spend my money helping a girl that I want, myself, +to make a hit with another man. You treated me like a dog about +that, right in the street, and you needn't try it again, because +I won't stand for it. You can't play ME, Cora!" + "Wade," she said, coming closer, and looking at him +mysteriously, "didn't you tell me to come to you when I got +through playing?" + "What?" He grew very red, took a step back from her, staring +at her distrustfully, incredulously. + "I've got through playing", she said in a low voice. "And +I've come to you." + He was staggered. "You've come----" he said, huskily. + "Here I am, Wade." + He had flushed, but now the colour left his small face, and +he grew very white. "I don't believe you mean it." + "Listen," she said. "I was rotten to you about that oil +nonsense. It WAS nonsense, nothing on earth but nonsense. I +tell you frankly I was a fool. I didn't care the snap of my +finger for Corliss, but--oh, what's the use of pretending? You +were always such a great `business man,' always so absorbed in +business, and put it before everything else in the world. You +cared for me, but you cared for business more than for me. Well, +no woman likes THAT, Wade. I've come to tell you the whole +thing: I can't stand it any longer. I suffered horribly be- +cause--because----" She faltered. "Wade, that was no way to +WIN a girl." + "Cora!" His incredulity was strong. + "I thought I hated you for it, Wade. Yes, I did think that; +I'm telling you everything, you see just blurting it out as it +comes, Wade. Well, Corliss asked me to help him, and it struck +me I'd show that I could understand a business deal, myself. +Wade, this is pretty hard to say, I was such a little fool, but +you ought to know it. You've got a right to know it, Wade: I +thought if I put through a thing like that, it would make a +tremendous hit with you, and that then I could say: `So this is +the kind of thing you put ahead of ME, is it? Simple little +things like this, that _I_ can do, myself, by turning over +my little finger!' So I got Richard to go in--that was easy; and +then it struck me that the crowning triumph of the whole thing +would be to get you to come in yourself. That WOULD be +showing you, I thought! But you wouldn't: you put me in my +place--and I was angry--I never was so angry in my life, and I +showed it." Tears came into her voice. "Oh, Wade," she said, +softly, "it was the very wildness of my anger that showed what I +really felt." + "About--about ME?" His incredulity struggled with his +hope. He stepped close to her. + "What an awful fool I've been, she sighed. + "Why, I thought I could show you I was your EQUAL! And +look what it's got me into, Wade!" + "What has it got you into, Cora?" + "One thing worth while: I can see what I really am when I +try to meet you on your own ground." She bent her head, humbly, +then lifted it, and spoke rapidly. "All the rest is dreadful, +Wade. I had a distrust of Corliss from the first; I didn't like +him, but I took him up because I thought he offered the chance to +show YOU what I could do. Well, it's got me into a most +horrible mess. He's a swindler, a rank----" + "By George!" Wade shouted. "Cora, you're talking out now +like a real woman." + "Listen. I got horribly tired of him after a week or so, but +I'd promised to help him and I didn't break with him; but +yesterday I just couldn't stand him any longer and I told him so, +and sent him away. Then, this morning, an old man came to the +house, a man named Pryor, who knew him and knew his record, and +he told me all about him." She narrated the interview. + "But you had sent Corliss away first?" Wade asked, sharply. + "Yesterday, I tell you." She set her hand on the little +man's shoulder. "Wade, there's bound to be a scandal over all +this. Even if Corliss gets away without being arrested and +tried, the whole thing's bound to come OUT. I'll be the +laughing-stock of the town--and I deserve to be: it's all through +having been ridiculous idiot enough to try and impress you with +my business brilliancy. Well, I can't stand it!" + "Cora, do you----" He faltered. + She leaned toward him, her hand still on his shoulder, her +exquisite voice lowered, and thrilling in its sweetness. "Wade, +I'm through playing. I've come to you at last because you've +utterly conquered me. If you'll take me away to-day, I'll +MARRY you to-day!" + He gave a shout that rang again from the walls. + "Do you want me?" she whispered; then smiled upon his rapture +indulgently. + Rapture it was. With the word "marry," his incredulity sped +forever. But for a time he was incoherent: he leaped and hopped, +spoke broken bits of words, danced fragmentarily, ate her with +his eyes, partially embraced her, and finally kissed her timidly. + "Such a wedding we'll have!" he shouted, after that. + "No!" she said sharply. "We'll be married by a Justice of +the Peace and not a soul there but us, and it will be now, or it +never will be! If you don't----" + He swore she should have her way. + "Then we'll be out of this town on the three o'clock train +this afternoon," she said. She went on with her plans, while he, +growing more accustomed to his privilege, caressed her as he +would. "You shall have your way," she said, "in everything +except the wedding-journey. That's got to be a long one--I won't +come back here till people have forgotten all about this Corliss +mix-up. I've never been abroad, and I want you to take me. +We can stay a long, long time. I've brought nothing--we'll get +whatever we want in New York before we sail." + He agreed to everything. He had never really hoped to win +her; paradise had opened, dazing him with glory: he was +astounded, mad with joy, and abjectly his lady's servant. + "Hadn't you better run along and get the license?" she +laughed. "We'll have to be married on the way to the train." +"Cora!" he gasped. "You angel!" + "I'll wait here for you," she smiled. "There won't be too +much time." + He obtained a moderate control of his voice and feet. +"Enfield--that's my cashier--he'll be back from his lunch at +one-thirty. Tell him about us, if I'm not here by then. Tell +him he's got to manage somehow. Good-bye till I come back Mrs. +Trumble!" + At the door he turned. "Oh, have you--you----" He paused +uncertainly. "Have you sent Richard Lindley any word about----" + "Wade!" She gave his inquiry an indulgent amusement. "If +I'm not worrying about him, do you think you need to?" + "I meant about----" + "You funny thing," she said. "I never had any idea of really +marrying him; it wasn't anything but one of those silly +half-engagements, and----" + "I didn't mean that, "he said, apologetically. "I meant +about letting him know what this Pryor told you about Corliss, so +that Richard might do something toward getting his money back. +We ought to{} + "Oh, yes," she said quickly. "Yes, that's all right." + "You saw Richard?" + "No. I sent him a note. He knows all about it by this time, +if he has been home this morning. You'd better start, Wade. +Send a messenger to our house for my bag. Tell him to bring it +here and then take a note for me. You'd really better +start--dear!" + "CORA!" he shouted, took her in his arms, and was gone. +His departing gait down the corridor to the elevator seemed, from +the sounds, to be a gallop. + Left alone, Cora wrote, sealed, and directed a note to Laura. +In it she recounted what Pryor had told her of Corliss; begged +Laura and her parents not to think her heartless in not preparing +them for this abrupt marriage. She was in such a state of +nervousness, she wrote, that explanations would have caused a +breakdown. The marriage was a sensible one; she had long +contemplated it as a possibility; and, after thinking it over +thoroughly, she had decided it was the only thing to do. She +sent her undying love. + She was sitting with this note in her hand when shuffling +footsteps sounded in the corridor; either Wade's cashier or the +messenger, she supposed. The door-knob turned, a husky voice +asking, "Want a drink?" as the door opened. + Cora was not surprised--she knew Vilas's office was across +the hall from that in which she waited--but she was frightened. + Ray stood blinking at her. + "What are you doing here?" he asked, at last. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE + +It is probable that he got the truth out of her, perhaps all of +it. That will remain a matter of doubt; Cora's evidence, if she +gave it, not being wholly trustworthy in cases touching herself. +But she felt no need of mentioning to any one that she had seen +her former lover that day. He had gone before the return of +Enfield, Mr. Trumble's assistant, who was a little later than +usual, it happened; and the extreme nervousness and preoccupation +exhibited by Cora in telling Enfield of his employer's new plans +were attributed by the cashier to the natural agitation of a lady +about to wed in a somewhat unusual (though sensible) manner. + It is the more probable that she told Ray the whole truth, +because he already knew something of Corliss's record abroad. On +the dusty desk in Ray's own office lay a letter, received that +morning from the American Consul at Naples, which was luminous +upon that subject, and upon the probabilities of financial returns +for the investment of a thousand dollars +in the alleged oil-fields of Basilicata. + In addition, Cora had always found it very difficult to +deceive Vilas: he had an almost perfect understanding of a part +of her nature; she could never far mislead him about herself. +With her, he was intuitive and jumped to strange, inconsistent, +true conclusions, as women do. He had the art of reading her +face, her gestures; he had learned to listen to the tone of her +voice more than to what she said. In his cups, too, he had +fitful but almost demoniac inspirations for hidden truth. + And, remembering that Cora always "got even," it remains +finally to wonder if she might not have told him everything at +the instance of some shadowy impulse in that direction. There +may have been a luxury in whatever confession she made; perhaps +it was not entirely forced from her, and heaven knows how she may +have coloured it. There was an elusive, quiet satisfaction +somewhere in her subsequent expression; it lurked deep under the +surface of the excitement with which she talked to Enfield of her +imminent marital abduction of his small boss. + Her agitation, a relic of the unknown interview just past, +simmered down soon, leaving her in a becoming glow of +colour, with slender threads of moisture brilliantly outlining +her eyelids. Mr. Enfield, a young, well-favoured and recent +importation from another town, was deliciously impressed by the +charm of the waiting lady. They had not met; and Enfield +wondered how Trumble had compassed such an enormous success as +this; and he wished that he had seen her before matters had gone +so far. He thought he might have had a chance. She seemed +pleasantly interested in him, even as it was--and her eyes were +wonderful, with their swift, warm, direct little plunges into +those of a chance comrade of the moment. She went to the window, +in her restlessness, looking down upon the swarming street below, +and the young man, standing beside her, felt her shoulder most +pleasantly though very lightly--in contact with his own, as they +leaned forward, the better to see some curiosity of advertising +that passed. She turned her face to his just then, and told him +that he must come to see her: the wedding journey would be long, +she said, but it would not be forever. + Trumble bounded in, shouting that everything was attended to, +except instructions to Enfield, whom he pounded wildly upon the +back. He began signing papers; a stenographer was called +from another room of his offices; and there was half an hour of +rapid-fire. Cora's bag came, and she gave the bearer the note +for Laura; another bag was brought for Wade; and both bags were +carried down to the automobile the bridegroom had left waiting in +the street. Last, came a splendid cluster of orchids for the +bride to wear, and then Wade, with his arm about her, swept her +into the corridor, and the stirred Enfield was left to his own +beating heart, and the fresh, radiant vision of this startling +new acquaintance: the sweet mystery of the look she had thrown +back at him over his employer's shoulder at the very last. "Do +not forget ME!" it had seemed to say. "We shall come +back--some day." + The closed car bore the pair to the little grim marriage-shop +quickly enough, though they were nearly run down by a furious +police patrol automobile, at a corner near the Richfield Hotel. +Their escape was by a very narrow margin of safety, and Cora +closed her eyes. Then she was cross, because she had been +frightened, and commanded Wade cavalierly to bid the driver be +more careful. + Wade obeyed sympathetically. "Of course, though, it wasn't +altogether his fault," he said, settling back, his arm round +his lady's waist. "It's an outrage for the police to break their +own rules that way. I guess they don't need to be in a hurry any +more than WE do!" + The Justice made short work of it. + As they stood so briefly before him, there swept across her +vision the memory of what she had always prophesied as her +wedding:--a crowded church, "The Light That Breathed O'er Eden" +from an unseen singer; then the warm air trembling to the Lohen- +grin march; all heads turning; the procession down the aisle; +herself appearing--climax of everything--a delicious and +brilliant figure: graceful, rosy, shy, an imperial prize for the +groom, who in these foreshadowings had always been very +indistinct. The picture had always failed in outline there: the +bridegroom's nearest approach to definition had never been +clearer than a composite photograph. The truth is, Cora never in +her life wished to be married. + But she was. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR + +Valentine Corliss had nothing to do but to wait for the money his +friend Antonio would send him by cable. His own cable, +anticipating his letter, had been sent yesterday, when he came +back to the hotel, after lunching in the country with Cora. + As he walked down Corliss Street, after his tumultuous +interview with her, he was surprised to find himself physically +tremulous: he had not supposed that an encounter, however +violent, with an angry woman could so upset his nerves. It was +no fear of Pryor which shook him. He knew that Pryor did not +mean to cause his arrest--certainly not immediately. Of course, +Pryor knew that Cora would tell him. The old fellow's move was a +final notification. It meant: "Get out of town within +twenty-four hours." And Corliss intended to obey. He would have +left that evening, indeed, without the warning; his trunk was +packed. + He would miss Cora. He had kept a cool head +throughout their affair until the last; but this morning she +had fascinated him: and he found himself passionately admiring +the fury of her. She had confused him as he had never been +confused. He thought he had tamed her; thought he owned her; and +the discovery of this mistake was what made him regret that she +would not come away with him. Such a flight, until to-day, had +been one of his apprehensions: but now the thought that it was +not to be, brought something like pain. At least, he felt a +vacancy; had a sense of something lacking. She would have been a +bright comrade for the voyage; and he thought of gestures of +hers, turns of the head, tricks of the lovely voice; and sighed. + Of course it was best for him that he could return to his old +trails alone and free; he saw that. Cora would have been a +complication and an embarrassment without predictable end, but +she would have been a rare flame for a while. He wondered what +she meant to do; of course she had a plan. Should he try again, +give her another chance? No; there was one point upon which she +had not mystified him: he knew she really hated him. + . . . The wind was against the smoke that day; and his +spirits rose, as he walked in the brisk air with the rich +sky above him. After all, this venture upon his native purlieus +had been fax from fruitless: he could not have expected to do +much better. He had made his coup; he knew no other who +could have done it. It was a handsome bit of work, in fact, and +possible only to a talented native thoroughly sophisticated in +certain foreign subtleties. He knew himself for a rare +combination. + He had a glimmer of Richard Lindley beginning at the +beginning again to build a modest fortune: it was the sort of +thing the Richard Lindleys were made for. Corliss was not +troubled. Richard had disliked him as a boy; did not like him +now; but Corliss had not taken his money out of malice for that. +The adventurer was not revengeful; he was merely impervious. + At the hotel, he learned that Moliterno's cable had not yet +arrived; but he went to an agency of one of the steamship lines +and reserved his passage, and to a railway ticket office and +secured a compartment for himself on an evening train. Then he +returned to his room in the hotel. + The mirror over the mantelpiece, in the front room of his +suite, showed him a fine figure of a man: hale, deep-chested, +handsome, straight and cheerful. + He nodded to it. + "Well, old top," he said, reviewing and summing up his whole +campaign, "not so bad. Not so bad, all in all; not so bad, old +top. Well played indeed!" + At a sound of footsteps approaching his door, he turned in +casual expectancy, thinking it might be a boy to notify him that +Moliterno's cable had arrived. But there was no knock, and the +door was flung wide open. + It was Vilas, and he had his gun with him this time. He had +two. + There was a shallow clothes-closet in the wall near the +fireplace, and Corliss ran in there; but Vilas began to shoot +through the door. + Mutilated, already a dead man, and knowing it, Corliss came +out, and tried to run into the bedroom. It was no use. + Ray saved his last shot for himself. It did the work. + + + +CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE + +There is a song of parting, an intentionally pathetic song, which +contains the line, "All the tomorrows shall be as to-day, " mean- +ing equally gloomy. Young singers, loving this line, take care +to pronounce the words with unusual distinctness: the listener +may feel that the performer has the capacity for great and +consistent suffering. It is not, of course, that youth loves +unhappiness, but the appearance of it, its supposed picturesque- +ness. Youth runs from what is pathetic, but hangs fondly upon +pathos. It is the idea of sorrow, not sorrow, which charms: and +so the young singer dwells upon those lingering tomorrows, happy +in the conception of a permanent wretchedness incurred in the +interest of sentiment. For youth believes in permanence. + It is when we are young that we say, "I shall never," and "I +shall always," not knowing that we are only time's atoms in a +crucible of incredible change. An old man scarce dares say, "I +have never," for he knows that if he searches he will +find, probably, that he has. "All, all is change." + It was an evening during the winter holidays when Mrs. +Lindley, coming to sit by the fire in her son's smoking-room, +where Richard sat glooming, narrated her legend of the Devil of +Lisieux. It must have been her legend: the people of Lisieux +know nothing of it; but this Richard the Guileless took it for +tradition, as she alleged it, and had no suspicion that she had +spent the afternoon inventing it. + She did not begin the recital immediately upon taking her +chair, across the hearth from her son; she led up to it. She was +an ample, fresh-coloured, lively woman; and like her son only in +being a kind soul: he got neither his mortal seriousness nor his +dreaminess from her. She was more than content with Cora's +abandonment of him, though, as chivalrousness was not demanded of +her, she would have preferred that he should have been the jilt. +She thought Richard well off in his release, even at the price of +all his savings. But there was something to hope, even in that +matter, Pryor wrote from Paris encouragingly: he believed that +Moliterno might be frightened or forced into at least a partial +restitution; though Richard would not count upon it, and had +"begun at the beginning" again, as a small-salaried clerk in a +bank, trudging patiently to work in the morning and home in the +evening, a long-faced, tired young man, more absent than ever, +lifeless, and with no interest in anything outside his own +broodings. His mother, pleased with his misfortune in love, was +of course troubled that it should cause him to suffer. She knew +she could not heal him; but she also knew that everything is +healed in time, and that sometimes it is possible for people to +help time a little. + Her first remark to her son, this evening, was that to the +best of her memory she had never used the word "hellion." And, +upon his saying gently, no, he thought it probable that she never +had, but seeking no farther and dropping his eyes to the burning +wood, apparently under the impression that the subject was +closed, she informed him brusquely that it was her intention to +say it now. + "What is it you want to say, mother?" + "If I can bring myself to use the word `hellion'," she +returned, "I'm going to say that of all the heaven-born, +whole-souled and consistent ones I ever knew Hedrick Madison is +the King." + "In what new way?" he inquired. + "Egerton Villard. Egerton used to be the neatest, +best-mannered, best-dressed boy in town; but he looks and behaves +like a Digger Indian since he's taken to following Hedrick +around. Mrs. Villard says it's the greatest sorrow of her life, +but she's quite powerless: the boy is Hedrick's slave. The other +day she sent a servant after him, and just bringing him home +nearly ruined her limousine. He was solidly covered with +molasses, over his clothes and all, from head to foot, and then +he'd rolled in hay and chicken feathers to be a GNU for +Hedrick to kodak in the African Wilds of the Madisons' stable. +Egerton didn't know what a gnu was, but Hedrick told him that was +the way to be one, he said. Then, when they'd got him scraped +and boiled, and most of his hair pulled out, a policemen came to +arrest him for stealing the jug of molasses at a corner grocery." + Richard nodded, and smiled faintly for comment. They sat in +silence for a while. + "I saw Mrs. Madison yesterday," said his mother. "She seemed +very cheerful; her husband is able to talk almost perfectly +again, though he doesn't get downstairs. Laura reads to him a +great deal." + He nodded again, his gaze not moving from the fire. + "Laura was with her mother," said Mrs. Lindley. "She looked +very fetching in a black cloth suit and a fur hat--old ones her +sister left, I suspect, but very becoming, for all that. Laura's +`going out' more than usual this winter. She's really the belle +of the holiday dances, I hear. Of course she would be", she +added, thoughtfully--"now." + "Why should she be `now' more than before?" + "Oh, Laura's quite blossomed," Mrs. Lindley answered. "I +think she's had some great anxieties relieved. Of course both +she and her mother must have worried about Cora as much as they +waited on her. It must be a great burden lifted to have her +comfortably settled, or, at least, disposed of. I thought they +both looked better. But I have a special theory about Laura: I +suppose you'll laugh at me----" + "Oh, no." + "I wish you would sometimes," she said wistfully, "so only +you laughed. My idea is that Laura was in love with that poor +little Trumble, too." + "What?" He looked up at that. + "Yes; girls fall in love with anybody. I fancy she +cared very deeply for him; but I think she's a strong, sane +woman, now. She's about the steadiest, coolest person I +know--and I know her better, lately, than I used to. I think she +made up her mind that she'd not sit down and mope over her +unhappiness, and that she'd get over what caused it; and she took +the very best remedy: she began going about, going everywhere, +and she went gayly, too! And I'm sure she's cured; I'm sure she +doesn't care the snap of her fingers for Wade Trumble or any man +alive. She's having a pretty good time, I imagine: she has +everything in the world except money, and she's never cared at +all about THAT. She's young, and she dresses well--these +days--and she's one of the handsomest girls in town; she plays +like a poet, and she dances well----" + "Yes," said Richard;--reflectively, "she does dance well." + "And from what I hear from Mrs. Villard," continued his +mother, "I guess she has enough young men in love with her to +keep any girl busy." + He was interested enough to show some surprise. "In love +with Laura?" + "Four, I hear." The best of women are sometimes the readiest +with impromptu statistics. + "Well, well!" he said, mildly. + "You see, Laura has taken to smiling on the world, and the +world smiles back at her. It's not a bad world about that, +Richard." + "No," he sighed. "I suppose not." + "But there's more than that in this case, my dear son." + "Is there?" + + The intelligent and gentle matron laughed as though at some +unexpected turn of memory and said: + "Speaking of Hedrick, did you ever hear the story of the +Devil of Lisieux, Richard?" + "I think not; at least, I don't remember it." + "Lisieux is a little town in Normandy," she said. "I was +there a few days with your father, one summer, long ago. It's a +country full of old stories, folklore, and traditions; and the +people still believe in the Old Scratch pretty literally. This +legend was of the time when he came to Lisieux. The people knew +he was coming because a wise woman had said that he was on the +way, and predicted that he would arrive at the time of the great +fair. Everybody was in great distress, because they knew that +whoever looked at him would become bewitched, but, of +course, they had to go to the fair. The wise woman was able to +give them a little comfort; she said some one was coming with the +devil, and that the people must not notice the devil, but keep +their eyes fastened on this other--then they would be free of the +fiend's influence. But, when the devil arrived at the fair, +nobody even looked to see who his companion was, for the devil +was so picturesque, so vivid, all in flaming scarlet and orange, +and he capered and danced and sang so that nobody could help +looking at him--and, after looking once, they couldn't look away +until they were thoroughly under his spell. So they were all +bewitched, and began to scream and howl and roll on the ground, +and turn on each other and brawl, and `commit all manner of +excesses.' Then the wise woman was able to exorcise the devil, +and he sank into the ground; but his companion stayed, and the +people came to their senses, and looked, and they saw that it was +an angel. The angel had been there all the time that the fiend +was, of course. So they have a saying now, that there may be +angels with us, but we don't notice them when the devil's about." + She did not look at her son as she finished, and she had +hurried through the latter part of her +"legend" with increasing timidity. The parallel was more severe, +now that she put it to him, than she intended; it sounded savage; +and she feared she had overshot her mark. Laura, of course, was +the other, the companion; she had been actually a companion for +the vivid sister, everywhere with her at the fair, and never +considered: now she emerged from her overshadowed obscurity, and +people were able to see her as an individual--heretofore she had +been merely the retinue of a flaming Cora. But the "legend" was +not very gallant to Cora! + Mrs. Lindley knew that it hurt her son; she felt it without +looking at him, and before he gave a sign. As it was, he did not +speak, but, after a few moments, rose and went quietly out of the +room: then she heard the front door open and close. She sat by +his fire a long, long time and was sorry--and wondered. + When Richard came home from his cold night-prowl in the snowy +streets, he found a sheet of note paper upon his pillow: + + "Dearest Richard, I didn't mean that anybody you ever cared +for was a d--l. I only meant that often the world finds out that +there are lovely people it hasn't noticed." + + . . . He reproached himself, then, for the reproach his +leaving her had been; he had a susceptible and annoying +conscience, this unfortunate Richard. He found it hard to get to +sleep, that night; and was kept awake long after he had planned +how he would make up to his mother for having received her +"legend" so freezingly. What kept him awake, after that, was a +dim, rhythmic sound coming from the house next door, where a +holiday dance was in progress--music far away and slender: +fiddle, 'cello, horn, bassoon, drums, all rollicking away almost +the night-long, seeping through the walls to his restless pillow. +Finally, when belated drowsiness came, the throbbing tunes +mingled with his half-dreams, and he heard the light shuffling of +multitudinous feet over the dancing-floor, and became certain +that Laura's were among them. He saw her, gliding, swinging, +laughing, and happy and the picture did not please him: it seemed +to him that she would have been much better employed sitting in +black to write of a hopeless love. Coquetting with four suitors +was not only inconsistent; it was unbecoming. It "suited Cora's +style," but in Laura it was outrageous. When he woke, in the +morning, he was dreaming of her: dressed as Parthenia, +beautiful, and throwing roses to an acclaiming crowd through +which she was borne on a shield upon the shoulders of four +Antinouses. Richard thought it scandalous. + His indignation with her had not worn off when he descended +to breakfast, but he made up to his mother for having troubled +her. Then, to cap his gallantry, he observed that several inches +of snow must have fallen during the night; it would be well +packed upon the streets by noon; he would get a sleigh, after +lunch, and take her driving. It was a holiday. + She thanked him, but half-declined. "I'm afraid it's too +cold for me, but there are lots of nice girls in town, Richard, +who won't mind weather." + "But I asked YOU!" It was finally left an open question +for the afternoon to settle; and, upon her urging, he went out +for a walk. She stood at the window to watch him, and, when she +saw that he turned northward, she sank into a chair, instead of +going to give Joe Varden his after-breakfast instructions, and +fell into a deep reverie. + Outdoors, it was a biting cold morning, wind-swept and gray; +and with air so frosty-pure no one might breathe it and stay +bilious: neither in body nor bilious in spirit. It was a +wind to sweep the yellow from jaundiced cheeks and make them +rosy; a wind to clear dulled eyes; it was a wind to lift foolish +hearts, to lift them so high they might touch heaven and go +winging down the sky, the wildest of wild-geese. + . . . When the bell rang, Laura was kneeling before the +library fire, which she had just kindled, and she had not risen +when Sarah brought Richard to the doorway. She was shabby +enough, poor Cinderella! looking up, so frightened, when her +prince appeared. + She had not been to the dance. + She had not four suitors. She had none. + He came toward her. She rose and stepped back a little. +Ashes had blown upon her, and, oh, the old, old thought of the +woman born to be a mother! she was afraid his clothes might get +dusty if he came too close. + But to Richard she looked very beautiful; and a strange thing +happened: trembling, he saw that the firelight upon her face was +brighter than any firelight he had ever seen. + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg's The Flirt By Booth Tarkington* + diff --git a/old/flirt10.zip b/old/flirt10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a27a27f --- /dev/null +++ b/old/flirt10.zip |