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diff --git a/old/flirt10.txt b/old/flirt10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..769b412 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/flirt10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7845 @@ +*The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Flirt, By Booth Tarkington* + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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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* + |