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diff --git a/30733.txt b/30733.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..40b5a42 --- /dev/null +++ b/30733.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7265 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Fate of Felix Brand, by Florence Finch Kelly + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Fate of Felix Brand + +Author: Florence Finch Kelly + +Illustrator: Edwin John Prittie + +Release Date: December 22, 2009 [EBook #30733] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FATE OF FELIX BRAND *** + + + + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + + + + + + + + + THE FATE OF + FELIX BRAND + + BY + + FLORENCE FINCH KELLY + + AUTHOR OF "WITH HOOPS OF STEEL," "THE DELAFIELD AFFAIR," "RHODA + OF THE UNDERGROUND," "EMERSON'S WIFE, + AND OTHER WESTERN STORIES," ETC. + + ILLUSTRATED BY + EDWIN JOHN PRITTIE + + PHILADELPHIA + THE JOHN C. WINSTON COMPANY + PUBLISHERS + + + + + Copyright, 1913, by + + THE JOHN C. WINSTON CO. + + + + +[Illustration: MILDRED ANNISTER MADE APPREHENSIVE INQUIRY ABOUT HIM] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER PAGE + + I. FELIX BRAND HAS A MYSTERIOUS EXPERIENCE 9 + II. "LIKE OTTAR OF ROSES OUT OF AN OTTER" 15 + III. THE MASK OF HIS COUNTENANCE 27 + IV. BILLIKINS IS FRIGHTENED 40 + V. MRS. BRAND'S DREAM SON 62 + VI. WHO IS HUGH GORDON? 82 + VII. FELIX BRAND READS A LETTER 96 + VIII. DAYS OF STRESS 113 + IX. BATTLING WITH THE INVISIBLE 128 + X. HUGH GORDON WINS HENRIETTA'S CONFIDENCE 140 + XI. PENELOPE HAS A VISITOR 158 + XII. DR. ANNISTER HAS DOUBTS 179 + XIII. MILDRED IS MILITANT 190 + XIV. "THERE IS NOT ROOM FOR US BOTH" 199 + XV. FELIX BRAND HAS A BAD QUARTER OF AN HOUR 215 + XVI. MRS. FENLOW IS ANGRY 230 + XVII. "WHICH SHOULD HAVE THE GIFT OF LIFE?" 249 + XVIII. ISABELLA TAKES ONE MORE RIDE 272 + XIX. "AND YOU COULD DO THIS, FELIX BRAND!" 285 + XX. "SAVE ME, DR. ANNISTER!" 295 + XXI. HUGH GORDON TELLS HIS STORY 317 + XXII. "A MOST INTERESTING CASE!" 335 + XXIII. WHITHER? 341 + + + + +ILLUSTRATIONS + + + MILDRED ANNISTER MADE APPREHENSIVE INQUIRY + CONCERNING HIM + _Frontispiece_ + + PAGE + + "HARRY, DEAR, HAVE YOU HEARD FROM HIM?" 84 + + HE SANK FACE DOWNWARD ON THE BED 139 + + "MILDRED!" HIS WHITE LIPS WHISPERED, THEN STIFFENED AND + WERE STILL 340 + + + + +THE FATE OF FELIX BRAND + + + + +CHAPTER I + +FELIX BRAND HAS A MYSTERIOUS EXPERIENCE + + +Felix Brand awoke with a start and looked about him with a puzzled +stare. And yet there was nothing unfamiliar in what met his gaze. The +bed wherein he lay and its luxurious appointments were of his own +recent buying. He had himself designed the decorations of the room +and selected its furnishings. As his eyes leaped from one object to +another his bewildered glance seemed to slide unnotingly over the +furniture, and the draperies, walls and pictures, indicative of a +fastidious taste, that made up the interior of his bedroom. + +But it was no more than a few seconds until his consciousness came +again into accord with his surroundings. His look of perplexity +quickly changed into one of satisfaction and amusement, and he +exclaimed aloud: + +"Good Lord, how vivid that was! Never before has it been so strong!" +He rubbed his eyes, slapped his arms and moved about in the bed as if +to be assured of his bodily intactness and smiled again as he thought: + +"No, I'm here, all right, and I'm I, as usual! But it seems as if I'd +only have to close my eyes to swing back into it again!" + +His eyelids dropped as if in response to his thought, but quickly +opened again, with a little frown, as he murmured, "No, I guess not. +This is better!" + +He rested his head upon his locked hands and stretched himself full +length upon his back, as his eyes roved about the beautiful interior. +They dwelt caressingly upon its details with the pride and pleasure of +the creator and the satisfaction of the owner for whom possession has +yet the bloom of newness. + +It was a handsome face, framed in dark, waving hair, that thus lay +back against the whiteness of the pillow; dark skinned, smooth +shaven, squarish in its general outline, with regular, pleasing +features; a mobile face, whose whole seeming would depend upon +the expression by which it should be lighted. Just now it looked +sensitive, amiable, satisfied, and, at the first glance, one would be +sure that it bespoke a mind and soul of fine fibre. But if one looked +a second time and more searchingly one would perceive some clouding +and coarsening of that refinement, signs not yet marked enough to tell +their story openly and not likely to be noted by the ordinary +observer, but able to make the keener student of the human countenance +doubt his first impressions. + +"It's queer how much more vivid and real those dreams are +nowadays--every time one comes it's stronger than ever it was before," +Felix Brand's thought was running as he made ready for the day. The +illusion that had possessed him as he awoke surged through him again +and again with such force that it seemed almost strong enough to sweep +his consciousness out of his actual surroundings. Razor in hand, ready +to begin the task of shaving, a fresh onset, still more insistent, +went whirling through his brain and sent a sudden numb sensation down +his arm. He shook himself irritatedly. + +"Confound it!" he muttered. "Can't I keep awake this morning? But I'm +not sleepy--I'm as wide awake as ever I was! It's queer!" + +He frowned at his reflection in the mirror, then suddenly his +countenance glowed with interest. "I wonder if I could--I believe I'll +try!" he exclaimed aloud. "Jove! What an experience it would be! It's +worth trying!" + +He turned to lay the razor down and felt his eyes fasten themselves in +a devouring stare upon its bright blade. An instant, and he was +startled by the sound of a strange voice which he caught just as it +was dying out of his ears, a strong, vigorous voice, speaking in tones +of authority. + +"Who's that?" he cried out, glancing about the room in surprise. What +he had heard had sounded like a name and his thought snatched at it as +it faded quickly away from him. "Hugh Gordon!" he repeated softly, and +said it over to himself as he gazed dazedly about the room. Well +might he turn the name over and over in his mind and wonder about it, +for it was destined to become to him the most hateful thing in the +world. + +"Nonsense! What's the matter with me this morning?" and he shrugged +impatiently. "I don't know anybody named 'Hugh Gordon' and there's +nobody in here anyway. The sound must have come from the hall, or, +maybe, from the street." + +His eyes fell upon the clock and he started with surprise. "Why, it +can't be that late! Only a moment ago I looked and it was--I couldn't +have seen straight or something's gone wrong with it. Anyway, I'd +better get a move on." + +He turned briskly to the mirror to resume the operation of shaving and +stared again as he put out his hand to pick up the razor. For it was +not where he had laid it down a moment before. His wondering glance +quickly discovered it on the other side of the dressing table, and +bewildered amazement overspread his countenance. It was laden with the +results of recent use. + +"The devil!" he gasped. "I hadn't shaved! I hadn't even lathered!" + +But the half fearful look of inquiry he darted into the mirror showed +his face to be freshly shaven, and in the usual manner, except the +upper lip, where had been left the faint, dark stubble of a mustache. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"LIKE OTTAR OF ROSES OUT OF AN OTTER" + + +"Breakfast is a little late, Harry. Delia is in one of her +introspective moods and it has made her slow. I hope you won't miss +your boat!" + +She turned an anxious face toward her sister, who was entering the +room, and Henrietta Marne smiled reassuringly, as she set down a +suitcase, laid her hat and coat upon a chair, and replied in a hearty, +cheerful tone: + +"No, indeed! I've plenty of time. And I was glad to have an extra five +minutes with mother. Do you think she's better than she was yesterday? +Bella, I'm afraid I ought not to go to Mr. Brand's theatre party +tonight!" And her countenance clouded with anxiety as they seated +themselves at the breakfast table. + +"Don't think of missing it, Harry! Mother will be all right. She +seems a lot better this morning." + +"Y-e-s, I thought so, but I'm afraid she'll miss me tonight. It always +seems to please her when I come home in the evening." + +"Of course, dear, we'll both miss you! You're the man of our +household, you know, and you go out and battle with the world every +day and bring us a fresh breath from it every night!" + +"And you always 'meet me with a smile,'" laughed Henrietta. + +"Of course! And we'll be twice as glad to see you tomorrow night, and +we'll smile twice as big a smile, because you'll have such a lot of +things to tell us." + +"Mr. Brand has a curious effect upon me that I don't quite like." +Henrietta frowned thoughtfully into her coffee cup while she +hesitated, as if choosing words for further speech. In shirtwaist, +linen collar and cloth skirt she looked trim, well groomed, alert. +Fair-haired and fresh-colored, her expression capable, composed and +sweet-natured, she was what a Scotchman would call "a bonny lass." +Her sister, also fair, was smaller of mold and daintier of look and +manner. She appeared a little older, but her features were finer and +more regular and a twinkle of humor barely hid itself in the corner of +her blue eye, as if ready to spring forth at the first encouragement. + +"This begins to sound romantic!" chaffed Isabella. "Let's hope he's at +least a pirate in disguise." + +"No, let's not. Because then he'd sail away and I'd have to hunt a new +job. And it is such a nice place, Bella! I don't believe another girl +in my whole class just fell into such good luck as I did. He seems +pleased with my work, too." + +"I know he is, Harry, because Mrs. Annister told me last week that Mr. +Brand thinks he has found a jewel of a secretary--the best he's ever +had. I was waiting"--and a gleam of mirth sparkled in her eyes as she +smiled fondly upon her sister--"to tell you until some day when you'd +be feeling blue. But I just couldn't wait any longer." + +Henrietta flushed with pleasure. "I'm so glad to know that! If he'll +just keep on being satisfied a few months longer, we'll have this +place paid for!" + +"Oh, we're going to pull through all right!" Isabella exclaimed, +hopeful conviction in her tones and smile. Then she puckered her brows +and did her best to look doubtful and alarmed as she went on in a +tragic half whisper, her blue eyes dancing: "If he doesn't turn pirate +and sail away in the meantime, or, maybe, make a villain out of you, +with this wicked influence you're getting alarmed about, so that +you'll maybe steal your own salary and run away with it and leave +mother and me to star-r-ve! To think that a famous architect should +be just oozing badness all around him like that--as Mark Twain said, +'like ottar of roses out of an otter'--at the same time that he's +evolving such beautiful things out of his brain! Ugh! It's awful!" + +Henrietta laughed, a short, chuckling laugh that suggested deeper +amusement than it expressed. "Is there anything you wouldn't make fun +of, Bella? Very likely it isn't he, after all, but just my own innate +wickedness coming to the surface. It's only that I feel a great desire +to amuse myself, and am more willing to be selfish about it than I +used to be. Three months ago I wouldn't have gone to this theatre +party, with mother ill and you alone with her. I know I'm a beast to +do it, but I do want to go dreadfully, and----" + +"And you're going, and you're not to coddle your conscience any more +about it. It's all right, and we're all right, and mother and I would +feel we were two beasts if you stayed away on our account. What makes +you think Mr. Brand responsible for this awful depravity? Because he +invited you to his house-warming?" + +"Oh, no! It was thoughtful and lovely of him to include poor little me +among his guests, and I'm as grateful as--Cinderella. But he sometimes +says some little thing, in connection with what we are doing, about +the pleasure there is in beautiful things and how it and the joy one +ought to get out of life enlarge and deepen one's existence. And then +I begin to feel, away down inside of me, a longing for pleasure, and +as if I could reach out and grasp all sorts of--of things, just for my +own enjoyment." + +"And that makes you feel dreadfully wicked!" Isabella's laugh tinkled +through the room, a lighter, merrier sound than her sister's. "Dear +me! As if we didn't all feel that way once in a while!" + +"You never do," Henrietta interrupted. + +"Don't inquire too deeply into my feelings, unless you want to be +shocked. Suppose we have some hot toast to cheer us up after this +awful confession. Delia," to the maid who entered in response to her +ring, "have you some fresh toast ready?" + +"The toast is awfully good this morning, Delia," said Henrietta +smiling at her. "It's always nice, but it's particularly good, exactly +right, this morning." + +"Thank you, Harry!" said Isabella as the maid disappeared. "I'm so +glad you said it. Maybe it will make her feel better. Did you see that +determined, dare-and-die look on her face? I'm sure something's going +to happen!" + +"And we've raised her wages twice already," the other exclaimed, as +her face took on the same anxious expression that had just clouded her +sister's. + +"Yes, and we can't pay her any more than we're giving her now. She +isn't worth it and we couldn't afford it if she were." + +"Just as we've begun to feel sure she was satisfied and would stay. +Oh, Bella! It's too bad! But maybe it's no worse than it was the last +time we got scared, when her cousin was married and she wanted a day +off. You remember, she had two days of the introspective mood then." + +"Thank you, Delia! It's done to a turn!" and Isabella smiled sweetly +at the returning maid, who retreated a step and stood still, fumbling +her tray, an embarrassed, determined look upon her face. + +"It's perfectly lovely," chimed in Henrietta with enthusiasm. + +The girl shuffled from one foot to the other but her expression did +not relax. Isabella cast an "I-told-you-so" look at her sister and +glanced expectantly at the maid. + +"What is it, Delia?" + +"I'm thinkin', Miss Marne, you'd better be lookin' for a new girl." + +"Why, what's the matter? You don't want to leave us, do you?" + +"No, miss, I don't want to, an' that's the truth. But I don't think +I'll be stayin' any longer than you can get another girl." + +"What's the trouble, Delia?" + +"It's lonesomeness, Miss Marne. It's that respectable out here that +there's niver a policeman comes along this street for days at a time. +An' the milkman comes around that early I niver see him, an' anyway +he's elderly an' the father of four. An' it's so high-toned, there +ain't a livery stable anywhere, an' so there's none of them boys to +pass a word with once in a while. An' there's only the postman, an' +him small and married." + +There was silence for a moment while the maid shuffled her feet and +turned her tray about and the sisters bit their lips. Then Isabella +exclaimed, in a tone of brisk sympathy: + +"Yes, Delia, I understand how you feel, and I don't blame you at all, +but----" + +"Don't make up your mind right away, Delia," Henrietta broke in. +"Think about it a little longer. Maybe something will happen." + +"And only think, Harry," Isabella groaned, as Delia left the room, +"what a wonderful bargain that real estate agent made us think we were +getting, just because there were so many restrictions there could +never be anything or anybody objectionable within a mile of us!" + +"I had an inspiration just in the nick of time," Henrietta replied. +"Mrs. Fenlow told me, when she was in the office the other day, +waiting for Mr. Brand, that she is going to move her garage to this +end of her property, which you know is just a block away, with an +entrance from this street--she hoped it wouldn't annoy us--and she +said she was going to have a new chauffeur. And we can hope, Bella, +that he'll be young and tall and handsome and inclined to be +flirtatious with good-looking maids who sometimes work in front +door-yards nearby. Why, here's Billikins! You naughty doggie, where +have you been?" + +A white fox terrier had bounded into the room and was giving her +exuberant greeting, having stopped first to drop at her feet a +rag-doll that he carried in his mouth. "There, that will do," she +laughed as he sprang to her lap, and thence to her shoulder and +testified his overflowing affection with voice and tongue. "Get down +now and take care of your babykins!" + +"I must go now," she declared, and, rising, began putting on hat and +coat. "I'll just run upstairs and kiss mother good-bye again. If +anything should happen, Bella, or should you want me to come home for +any reason, you can 'phone me at the office until five o'clock, and +after that at Dr. Annister's. Mrs. Annister, you know, is going to +chaperon Mildred and me. Wasn't it sweet of her to ask me to stay all +night with them!" + +Five minutes later she came hurrying downstairs again, and Isabella, +waiting for her at the front door, put the suitcase into her hand, +pressed an arm about her waist, and gave her a farewell greeting. + +"Have just as good a time as you can, Harry, dear," she said gaily, +"so you'll have all the more to tell mother and me tomorrow night!" + +The morning sun shone down through the golden autumn foliage of the +maple trees that lined the street, and now irradiated Henrietta's +figure and then dyed it somberly as she passed with rapid step through +open space and shadow. Isabella watched her progress down the quiet +road toward the avenue, half a dozen blocks away, whence came the +clang of street cars and the rattle of traffic. But the girl turned +now and then and cast an eager glance in the other direction. + +"I'm so glad she could go tonight," Isabella was thinking. "She works +so hard and she doesn't have many pleasures--neither do I! But I don't +mind--very much!" She cast another glance up the street and caught +sight of a smallish man's figure bending one-sidedly under a burden of +other people's joys and sorrows as he passed in and out of the +gateways in the next block. A pleased smile brightened her face and +she turned back to watch her sister's progress. + +"There! She was just in time to catch that car! She's just a brick, +Harry is! What a funny notion about Felix Brand! If it was little +Bella, now--" She threw up her head saucily and danced a step or two +as she faced about to see how near the postman had come. + +"'An' him small an' married!'" she repeated to herself and laughed +softly as she watched his slight, burdened figure on its slow +progress. "Poor Delia! If I was in her place I'm afraid I'd flirt with +him anyway!" + +She ran down the walk to the gate and greeted him with a merrily +smiling, "Good morning." + +"Only one this morning, Miss Marne," he said, smiling back at her, and +then added, as he saw her face brighten, "but it's the one you want, I +guess!" + +"Yes," she gaily replied, "you're always very welcome when you bring +me a letter like this!" + +She was keenly conscious of the caress in her hand as she held the +letter in close clasp. Once inside the door again, she pressed the +missive softly to her cheek as she whispered, "Dear Warren! You dear +boy! I just knew you were writing to me yesterday, and you didn't +disappoint me!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE MASK OF HIS COUNTENANCE + + +It was a curious mixture of people whom Felix Brand had bidden to the +theatre party and house-warming with which he celebrated the setting +up of his bachelor household gods in a studio apartment house. But the +varied contents of that mixture were not so much indicative of +catholic tastes in human nature as of an underlying trait of his own +character, a trait which led him to look first, in whatever he did, +for his own advantage. But whatever their differing attitudes toward +life there were few of his guests who did not follow his movements +with admiring eyes and think of him as one of Fortune's favorites. + +For in this artistically decorated and luxuriously furnished apartment +there was nothing to hint that until recent years he had lived as +yoke-fellow with severest economy. The son of a school-teacher in a +Pennsylvania town, the family purse had had all that it could do to +provide for him a course in college and the training for his +profession. But at the beginning of his career he had won a rich prize +in an architectural competition, and afterwards commissions and +rewards and honors had flowed in upon him in constantly increasing +measure. While he did not yet quite merit the adjective which Isabella +Marne had applied to him, there was every promise that he would soon +be, in truth, a "famous architect." + +Although he had barely entered his third decade, certain +characteristic features of his work had already won attention, and +these had been praised so much, and had begun to exercise so evident +an influence, that many looked upon him as destined to be and as, +indeed, already becoming, the leader of a new and fruitful movement in +American architecture. A Felix Brand design, whether for a dwelling, a +church, a business building, or a civic monument, was sure to be +marked by simplicity of conception, exquisite sense of proportion and +rhythmic harmony of line. + +"What a perfectly charming manner he has!" said Miss Ardeen Andrews to +Henrietta Marne, who knew of her as a rising young actress. "And such +wonderful eyes! Why, there is a caress in them if he only looks at +you!" + +"Yes," replied Henrietta in a matter-of-fact way, "it's a very +pleasant expression, isn't it? But it doesn't mean anything in +particular. It's just their natural expression." + +"And he's not only handsome," Miss Andrews went on with enthusiasm, +"but he's the most sensitive and refined-looking man I've met in a +long time." And she flashed a glance of covert admiration across the +room at their host, who was talking with two men of such different +type as to make his own courtly manner and intellectual features +noticeable by contrast. + +A little later Henrietta, passing the two men, heard them speculating, +in tones touched with an Irish brogue, as to whether or not the young +architect was already making money enough out of his profession to pay +for such surroundings as these in which he was settling himself. + +"There's money enough in it when you get to the top," one of them was +saying. Henrietta remembered him as a certain district political +leader, Flaherty by name, with whom her employer had lately held +several conferences. "Money enough to buy old masters to paper your +walls with and velvet chairs to sit in for a year, and never the same +one twice. But Brand's not up to the top yet. He must have some other +jug to go to, and I'd like to know just what it is and how big it is!" + +Henrietta could have told them what it was, and she was presently +reminded of it when two men were presented to her and she recognized +their names as that of the firm of brokers through which Felix Brand +had for some time been carrying on what she knew to be very profitable +operations in stocks. + +"The doctor won't forget us entirely, will he, Mrs. Annister?" the +host was saying to the tall and handsome woman with iron-gray hair and +warm-colored cheeks who sat beside him at the supper table. + +"I hope not; but you know I never vouch for him. Mildred impressed it +upon him that he must be here in time for supper," and she glanced at +the young replica of herself at Brand's other hand. + +"Yes," confirmed the girl, "he promised very faithfully that he'd come +as soon as he could. But he was to see a case tonight in which he's +very much interested, and if he gets to thinking and reading about +that, you know, Mr. Brand, that he is just as likely as not to forget +all about us." + +"Oh, yes, that case!" said her mother. "It's most curious and +interesting--one of the sort that makes you feel creepy." + +"Do tell us about it then," exclaimed Ardeen Andrews, farther down the +table. + +"It's a man possessed by the illusion that his dreams are the real +thing and his waking hours are imaginary. Just think what a +topsy-turvy state that must keep his family in!" + +Felix Brand looked up with sudden interest, but before he could speak +a man's voice called out from the other end of the table, "The doctor +doesn't consider faith in one's dreams evidence of a pathological +state, does he, Mrs. Annister?" It was Robert Moreton, a young author, +whose name was of frequent occurrence in magazine tables of contents. + +"If he does," Mrs. Moreton broke in, "how crazy he would think you, +Rob! You see, when he is writing a story," and she glanced up and down +the table, "Robert imagines it's being acted out around him, and I +have to be the heroine and the villainess and the parlor maid and the +cook and answer to all their names." + +"That must give some variety to existence, Mrs. Moreton," said Brand. +"And variety is the best spice for life that I know of." + +"Do you know that story of Colonel Higginson's," Moreton went on, +"called 'A Monarch of Dreams,' about a man who developed the power of +controlling his dreams and became so delighted and absorbed in them +that he gave himself up to the life he lived while asleep and allowed +his real existence to wither away until it was of no consequence at +all to him or any one else? It has always seemed to me a wonderful bit +of eerie imagination. And there are such alluring suggestions for +experiment in it!" + +Felix Brand's brown eyes were fixed in a speculative stare upon the +mass of roses that glowed at the center of the table. Miss Marne, +glancing at him, knew that, whether or not he was thinking of them, he +was conscious of their beauty in every fibre of his being. "I wonder," +he said slowly, and she saw Mildred Annister's gaze turn quickly upon +him as the girl bent forward with parted lips. "I wonder very, very +much," he repeated, "just how much one could do toward making one's +dream-people come alive. I mean, toward making the different kind of +person one sometimes is in a dream the real person when one is awake. +You know how different you seem sometimes when you are asleep, not at +all the same kind of person you are when you are awake. Now, wouldn't +it be interesting if you could make yourself be that person sometimes +after you wake up? It seems to me it would be a delightful change from +being the same person all the time. This being tied fast to yourself +year in and year out gets very monotonous." + +Miss Annister gave a little gasp and leaned nearer to him, distress in +her eyes. + +"Don't say that!" she begged, hardly above a whisper. "Don't even +think such things! You are you, and I wouldn't have you different for +worlds and worlds!" + +Her disturbed little appeal was shielded from observation by a +vivacious feminine voice which called out simultaneously: "Please +finish my house before you turn yourself into anybody else, Mr. Brand! +You know we've only settled on the back porch and one dormer window, +so far, and I'll leave it to these good people if that's enough for a +family of six to live in!" + +Henrietta smiled discreetly at her plate, for she knew along what a +tortuous path of inchoate ideas and breezy caprices Mrs. Grahame +Fenlow, upon the sightliness of whose new chauffeur she and her sister +were basing their hopes of keeping their maid of all work, had led the +architect in his attempt to design a new house for her. + +"Aren't you afraid, mother," exclaimed Mark Fenlow, from his seat +beside Henrietta, "if you don't decide pretty soon whether you want +that dormer window in the cellar or the roof and whether the back +porch is to be before or behind the house, that Mr. Brand will be +driven to try a new personality, or incarnation, or--or drink, or +whatever you call it!" + +"Why, here's the doctor at last," cried Felix Brand as he rose to +greet the newcomer and lead him to his seat at the table. + +Dr. Philip Annister, smiling affably at the company, scarcely looked +the famous specialist in nerve diseases that he was. Short and slight +in physique, his head, when he stood beside his handsome wife, was +barely on a level with hers. Wherefore, his shoes, ever since his +wedding day, had been noticeably high of heel, and rarely was he +known to wear other head covering than a silk hat. He had cast aside +the look of abstraction which commonly possessed his thin, pale +countenance and his manner and speech of modest geniality soon won for +him the favor of all the heterogeneous company to whom he was not +already known. His wife noticed that his eyes rested frequently upon +their host and later she said to him: + +"Felix is looking handsomer than ever tonight, isn't he!" + +"Yes, I suppose so," he answered hesitatingly. "But, Margaret, +there's an expression growing on his face that I don't like. It's +creating a doubt about him in my mind." + +"What do you mean? His manner tonight toward all this queer mixture +of people has been perfect--cordial, unassuming, delicately courteous +and friendly toward every one. And, really, Philip, I don't know a +handsomer man! His face is so refined, and those brown, caressing eyes +of his are enough to turn any girl's head. I don't wonder in the least +that Mildred is so completely in love with him. What is it you don't +like about his looks, Philip?" + +"I don't quite know, and perhaps it isn't fair to him to put it into +words until I do know. It is less evident tonight, when he is all +animation and his thoughts are full of the entertainment of his +guests, than I have seen it sometimes lately. You know, Margaret, +Felix has an unusually expressive countenance. It's like a crystal +mask, and it's bound to reveal the very shape and color of his soul. I +think I begin to see signs in it of selfishness and grossness--" + +"Oh, Philip! How can you! Grossness! He's the most refined----" + +"You haven't announced Mildred's engagement yet, have you?" her +husband interrupted. "I'm glad of that," he went on in a relieved tone +as she shook her head, "and I hope you will not for some time." + +"Mildred is beginning to look forward rather eagerly to being +married," said Mrs. Annister, smiling soberly. "I'm almost afraid +she's more in love than he is." + +"I'm so glad I came tonight. It has been lovely!" Henrietta Marne at +that moment was saying to her host, at the other side of the room. + +"You have enjoyed it?" and he bent upon her his brown eyes with their +look of caressing indulgence. "I'm glad of that, for I'm afraid you +don't have as many enjoyments as a girl ought to have, by right of her +youth and beauty and charm." + +"I was afraid I ought not to come, because my mother is ill." + +"Ah, that Puritan conscience of yours, Miss Marne! Don't be so afraid +of it when the question is nothing more than getting some innocent +pleasure out of life." + +"But one isn't afraid of one's conscience. One just takes counsel of +it, or with it." + +"Of course! But if one--you, for instance--yielded to it more than its +due--and it really is insatiable, you know, if you let it get the +upper hand--what a wretched affair life would be! Simply unendurable!" + +"But there's always a satisfaction in doing what one ought to do, Mr. +Brand--don't you think so?--even if it is hard." + +"Oh, if you like your satisfaction to taste hard and bitter! I don't! +I think it's much better to hold ourselves free to take advantage of +all the possibilities of happiness, little and big, that come our way. +It's really a duty that we owe ourselves. And, of course, if we are +happy we make others about us happy too. You, I'm sure, need enjoyment +so much that it would be a great mistake for you to throw away any +opportunity. And I'm very glad you didn't neglect this little one!" + +Mrs. Fenlow and her son were at his elbow to say goodnight, and as he +shook hands with Mark, whose mother had already passed on to an +exchange of confidences concerning hairdressers with Miss Ardeen +Andrews, he laid his hand affectionately on the young man's shoulder +and said in a low tone: + +"You're coming tomorrow night, Mark, of course?" + +"Sure! D. V. and d. p.--God willing and the devil permitting!" + +"It will be very different from this," and Brand smiled slightly, a +winning, deprecating smile, as with the least perceptible motion of +his head he indicated the company that filled his spacious drawing +room. "But a man doesn't want his relaxations to be all alike, any +more than he wants all flowers to be of the same color." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +BILLIKINS IS FRIGHTENED + + +It was inevitable that the personality of Felix Brand should loom +large in the home of his secretary. Mrs. Marne was a semi-invalid and +suffered frequent relapses into more serious illness. The care of her +and the management of their little household were Isabella's part, +and to these two, much confined at home and by necessity cut off from +nearly all outside pleasures and interests, the chief daily event was +Henrietta's return from her busy hours and responsible tasks in the +architect's office. But, of still more importance, their worldly +welfare hung upon the salary which he paid to the younger sister. + +Mrs. Marne's husband had been a physician in one of the smaller cities +of Massachusetts; but, though a New Englander, he had not possessed +the characteristic thrift of the sons of that region, and consequently +his widow and his daughters found, after his death, that the +settlement of his affairs left them a very slender sum of money. It +was necessary that one of the young women should become an income +earner, and it was decided that Henrietta, since she had a better head +for affairs and more liking for business, should take this share of +their burden. There was enough money to give her a course in +secretarial training in a women's vocational college in Boston and to +support them all in economical comfort until she should be ready to +begin her work. As she was at once successful in finding a position in +New York, they invested the few hundred dollars still left in a first +payment upon a little home in Staten Island, and they were now +carefully husbanding Henrietta's salary and paying off the remaining +debt upon the instalment plan. + +It was through Dr. Annister that Henrietta found a good position so +quickly. He and Dr. Marne had been classmates and warm friends during +the years of their medical training, and afterward, although one had +gone to New York and become one of the famous specialists of his +generation and the other had sunk into the obscurity of general +practice in a small city, they had kept up their friendship in a +desultory way, with occasional meetings at medical conventions and now +and then a letter. When Dr. Marne died, a missive came from his friend +that seemed so simple and genuine in its feeling that it deeply +touched Henrietta, to whom fell the duty of answering it, because of +her mother's stricken condition. + +The memory of that letter and a warmly reverent feeling for the +friendship that had called it forth stayed long in her heart. And at +last, when she was ready to try conclusions with the world, and felt +sure, with the usual conviction of youth, that it would be much better +to go somewhere else to begin, she wrote to Dr. Annister, telling him +briefly her plans and hopes and what her training had been. And the +famous Dr. Philip Annister interested himself in the daughter of +his old friend, and at once found for her a well-paid position as +secretary for Felix Brand, his prospective son-in-law. Mrs. Annister +also showed much kindly feeling for the girl and often had her stay +overnight at their home for a visit to the theatre or the opera. + +Between Mildred Annister and Henrietta there existed a friendship +which made up in outward warmth what it lacked in depth. For Mildred, +with her woman's heart but lately awakened and filled to the brim with +absorbed and adoring first love, could not help some secret resentment +that any other woman should be anything to her beloved or give him +any service. Her good sense told her that this was unreasonable, while +her respect and kindly feeling for Henrietta made her ashamed of it. +So she did her best to conceal it and in the effort overdid her +expressions of affection. Henrietta would have responded to these with +girlish ardor, for she liked Mildred and greatly admired her tall and +stately beauty, had she not felt some barrier just below the surface +that kept her as reserved, in all the little confidences that usually +go on between young women, as was Mildred herself. She did not even +know of the semi-engagement, to which Dr. and Mrs. Annister had not +yet given their full assent, that existed between Mildred and Felix +Brand, although she felt sure that the girl was whole-heartedly in +love with him. + +As the weeks went on and autumn merged into winter, Henrietta +sometimes noticed a harried look upon her employer's countenance. She +wondered much about this, for he was winning success and honors in +ample measure. An international committee of artists and architects, +sitting in judgment upon the competitive designs submitted for a +memorial building to one of the country's heroes, had announced their +decision awarding the prize to Felix Brand. He had been made a member +of the municipal art advisory commission and a little later a national +society of architects had elected him to its presidency. There were +private commissions in plenty, enough to keep him and his assistants +busy. And, finally,--and Brand laughingly told his secretary that he +considered this the most signal success of his career--Mrs. Fenlow had +approved his last design for the country house she purposed to build +up the Hudson and had been moved to transports of enthusiasm over its +every detail. + +In addition to these honors and successes, Henrietta knew that he was +making much money outside of his profession; that his operations in +stocks were nearly always profitable, that once or twice they had been +richly so, and that he had bought a large number of shares in a marble +quarry for whose product his designs often called. + +So she marveled much within herself that he should so often look +careworn and show a furtive anxiety in his eyes and face when he had, +or was rapidly winning, almost every good thing that mortals count a +source of happiness and when even her intimacy with his affairs did +not reveal a solitary cause for distress or uneasiness of mind. + +She spoke of this sometimes at home. For her mother and sister were +always concerned to know what her day had been, and Felix Brand being +so important a person to their lives, they were deeply interested in +whatever he did or said and in everything Henrietta could tell them +about him. They were scrupulously careful not to ask or to speak about +anything that would approach too nearly her confidential relations +with her employer. But outside those lines there was a large and +interesting territory wherein they could and did have much converse +together about the architect, his success, and his personality. + +On a bright and mild Sunday morning in mid-winter, whose sunshine was +full of that guileful promise of spring with which the tricky weather +goddess of the Manhattan region loves to play pranks upon its +residents, the two Marne sisters, in their mother's room, were +chatting with her as she reclined in the sun beside a south window. + +"I've some good news," said Henrietta. "I didn't tell you last night, +because I knew we'd all be gossiping in here this morning and it would +be so cosy to talk it all over then. Mr. Brand has raised my salary, +to date from the first of this month!" + +Mrs. Marne's thin hand sought her daughter's where it lay upon the arm +of her chair and then hastened to wipe away a tear or two. For she was +nervously much broken and her tears, whether of joy or sorrow, came +easily. + +Isabella sprang up, exclaiming, "Harry! How splendid!" And the two +girls hugged each other delightedly and kissed first each other and +then their mother. Then they kissed each other again and whirled about +in a waltz measure. Billikins, the white fox terrier, quickly put a +stop to this exuberance by endeavoring to take part in it himself, +barking furiously and making ecstatic rushes between them. + +"The second time, dear!" exclaimed Isabella as they settled down +again, cheeks flushed and eyes shining. "Only think of it! At +Christmas, and now again so soon!" + +"It isn't so very much," said Henrietta, "only ten dollars a month +more, but it will be a lot for us, and it means a great big lot to me, +because it makes me feel that I'm succeeding. What is it, Billikins? +Do you want to come up? And you've brought babykins, haven't you? Come +on, then, both of you." The fox terrier was begging and wriggling +beside her, his inseparable companion and plaything, a dilapidated +rag-doll, in his mouth. She lifted them to her lap, where, after much +licking and nuzzling of the doll, he curled himself up to sleep. + +"Of course you're succeeding!" cried Isabella. "How could you help it +when you're the cleverest girl in New York and work the hardest +and--have such a nice home to stay in at night!" + +"It will soon be nicer," rejoined Henrietta with a laugh, "when we get +rid of its mortgage decoration. Now we can get that all paid off by +the end of the summer and then we'll be sure of a home, whatever +happens." + +Mrs. Marne pressed her hand in a closer clasp. "Dear child! You and +Bella are the best children a mother ever had. I've just been thinking +that I really have three children, a son as well as two daughters. For +you're just as good as a son, Harry, besides being a daughter too. +When you were born, dear, I was disappointed that you weren't a boy, +and sorry for you that you weren't." + +"Were you sorry about me, too?" demanded Isabella saucily. + +"You, dear! Why, when you came--you were the first, you know--I was +too proud and delighted to think of anything but just that I had you. +By the time Harry arrived I had learned more about what it means to be +a woman and I was sorry I had brought another into the world. But I +soon got over all that and was so glad to have you both. After all, +girls, it is a grand thing to be a wife and a mother!" + +"Yes, if you can only get your salary raised often enough," said +Isabella gaily. "And I guess," she went on as she saw a little wave of +amusement cross her mother's face, "I'd better have that settled right +away. I'll write to Warren that I shall expect an increase every time +Harry gets one. Tell us more about your raise, Harry. What did Mr. +Brand say?" + +"Oh, he was very nice--but he always is nice, just as kind and +courteous as can be. He said he was much pleased with the good +judgment and the care with which I had managed things while he was +away. Before this, when he's been gone for a day or two or three, he +has made some arrangements beforehand and has told me where he would +be so that I could telegraph or 'phone him on the long distance if +necessary. But lately he's been called away twice so suddenly that he +left me no directions and I didn't know his address, and so, although +he was gone only two or three days each time, I had a good deal of +responsibility. But he was very kind and praised everything I did and +yesterday he told me that he thought I deserved a reward and as he +might be called away again the same way, he didn't think it was fair +to put so much more upon me without paying me for it." + +"Isn't he lovely!" exclaimed Isabella. "As Delia says about Mrs. +Fenlow's chauffeur, 'he's sure very gentlemanly and strong!'" + +"Indeed, you've been most fortunate in getting so good a position, +Harry, dear!" said Mrs. Marne, her voice trembling with her depth +of feeling. "I fairly ached with anxiety over your going into this +secretarial work, but Mr. Brand has proved to be all that even his +secretary's mother could expect or wish." + +"And here he is, right now!" cried Isabella as she glanced from the +window at the sound of an automobile in the quiet street. "And if he +isn't going to honor our humble but happy home with a call from his +very handsome self!" she went on excitedly as the machine slowed down +and its occupant, glancing at the house numbers, stopped in front of +their cottage. + +He told Henrietta that he had just learned it might be necessary +for him to leave town that day and that he wanted to give her some +instructions for her guidance if he should be away more than a day or +two. His manner was disturbed and restless, although not lacking in +its usual suave and gentle courtesy, and she noted in his face, more +strongly marked than she had seen it before, that troubled, anxious +look concerning which she had already wondered much. And from the +whole man there seemed to her to emanate an unconscious appeal, as of +one in such sore and badgering straits that he knew not where to turn +for help. + +"I may be able," he said, "to--put off this trip, to make some +arrangement about--this matter, so that it will not be necessary for +me to go. I hope so--I don't want to leave the office just now. And, +by the way, if I do go, there's another thing. If there should be a +letter in my general mail--not marked 'personal,' you know--" he +hesitated, and Henrietta observed that he turned his eyes away and did +not meet her gaze as he went on, "but not of the regular business +sort, just glance at the signature first thing, won't you, please? And +if it should be signed 'Hugh Gordon,' don't read it, but lay it aside +for me to look at when I return." + +He straightened up and she could feel the effort of will with which he +conquered his perturbation and continued in a more offhand way: +"Gordon is apt to write confidential things about his own affairs and +he is the sort of man who would never think of marking a letter +'personal.'" + +Billikins trotted into the room, his doll in his mouth, and, laying +his burden down in mid-floor, as if to make easier the concentration +of his faculties upon the duty of investigating this stranger, +advanced with signs of ready friendship. Brand responded to his +overtures, but the dog, after a preliminary smell or two, broke into +a sudden howl and trembled as if with fear. Reproved by Henrietta, +he hastened back to his babykins, with which he rushed to a place +of safety beneath her chair. There she heard him giving vent to his +emotions in subdued whining and growling and in much worrying and +tearing of the rag-doll. + +Brand rose to go, but lingered beside his chair and made conversation, +as though loath to take his leave; and Henrietta, catching a glimpse +of Isabella passing through the hall, called her in. + +Whenever Isabella entered a room it was like the advent of a merry +little breeze. For all the look and manner of her suggested buoyant +spirits and gaiety of heart, from the lurking twinkle in her blue eye +to her light quick step. Daintiness and prettiness characterized her +attire, which she carried gracefully, to the accompaniment of a soft, +faint rustle. With pleasure Henrietta watched her employer's face +brighten and clear as he talked with her sister. The agitation faded +from his manner and presently she was aware that the impression she +had had of struggle and appeal, which had begun to tense her own +nerves, had disappeared. + +"I don't wonder," she thought. "Bella is so light-hearted and so +merry, and so pretty and sweet, too, that she could charm away +anybody's dumps. I wish I had some of her gift that way--I'm always +so serious." + +Brand suggested that they should take a spin with him in his +automobile. "The day is so fine," he pleaded, as they hesitated a +little before answering. "You don't know how splendid it is! And the +roads are good down through the island." He glanced from one to the +other and Henrietta saw in his brown eyes a look of eager wistfulness. + +"It would be lovely and a great treat for us," she said. "You've no +idea, Mr. Brand, what a temptation it is. But we don't like to leave +mother alone, for she's never very well." + +"Oh, is that all?" he exclaimed. "Then bring her along! It would do +her a lot of good. Wrap her up well and I'll carry her out to the +auto." + +He begged Isabella not to desert him while Henrietta went to prepare +their mother for the drive. + +"How well they get on together," said Mrs. Marne, smiling at the gay +laughter that now and then floated up the stairs. + +As they came slowly down, the elder woman leaning heavily upon the +other's shoulder, Felix Brand ran into the hall, exclaiming: + +"Why didn't you call me and let me bring her down!" And at once, +notwithstanding her assurance that she could walk, he picked her up +and carried her to the street in his arms, saying, "I can just as well +save you that fatigue," and carefully settled her in the automobile. + +"You'll sit in the front with me and help me drive, won't you?" he +said to Isabella as the two girls came out cloaked and furred. + +"Yes, do, Bella," said Henrietta cordially in response to a glance +from her sister, "and give me a chance to show what good care I can +take of mother." + +Although Isabella was the elder of the two by three years and formerly +had been accustomed to take the lead between them, since the younger +had become the support of the family she was beginning, quite +unconsciously, to lean upon and defer to her sister. During the drive +Henrietta and her mother exchanged many pleased glances as they +listened to the merry chatter and the frequent laughter that drifted +back from the front seat. It was a smiling Felix Brand, suave, serene, +and courtly of manner, who helped them from the machine on their +return and carried Mrs. Marne into the house. + +"Please don't," he said as they protested their enjoyment of the ride +and their sense of his kindness. "For I assure you it has meant a +great deal more pleasure and benefit to me than it possibly could to +you." + +"I think he really meant that," said Henrietta when the three women, +alone again, were talking over what Mrs. Marne called their "little +escapade," "because when he came he seemed so disturbed and depressed +and by the time we got back he was quite himself again. I think it was +mainly you, Isabella," she smiled at her sister, "for you seemed to +have a very stimulating effect on him." + +"Oh, I'm willing to be a cocktail for him whenever he wants to bring +his auto over here. Never mind, mother," and she kissed one finger at +Mrs. Marne in response to that lady's shocked "Isabella!" "That's just +modern symbolism, you know. And the ride has made you look as if you'd +had one yourself. I'm going to write to Warren that I've found a much +nicer and handsomer man than he is and if he doesn't get a stronger +grip on my heart right quick it's likely to get away from him." + +"Bella, dear! Don't say such things!" admonished her mother in a +grieved tone. + +Isabella flew to her side and patted her cheek and kissed her brow. +"There, there, mother! Don't you know I'm just funning? Warren is the +best man in the world, even if he hasn't got bee-youtiful, caressing +brown eyes, and I love him awfully, and we're going to be married and +live happily forever after. But, all the same, Felix Brand is +perfectly lovely, and you think so too, now, don't you, mother dear!" + +"We all think alike about Mr. Brand, I'm sure," she answered. + +"Except Billikins," amended Henrietta, and then told them of the fox +terrier's disgraceful behavior. "It seemed so queer for him to act +that way," she added, "when he's always so friendly toward visitors +and so effusive that he usually has to be put out of the room." + +"It was strange," said Mrs. Marne, "for with his pleasant voice and +gentle manner you would think Mr. Brand would be as attractive to +animals as he certainly is to people. And he must be as kind and +sweet-natured as he seems, for not one young man in a thousand would +have taken the trouble he did to give three forlorn women a little +pleasure." + +Henrietta made no reply as she laughed with her mother at the lively +scolding Isabella was giving to the dog, but her thoughts were busy +with the problem of why Felix Brand had seemed so anxious for them to +go with him. + +Her loyalty to her employer would not let her throw the least shade +upon their enthusiastic appreciation of his courtesy and kindness. But +her months of work at his side--she had been his secretary almost a +year--had given her an intimate knowledge of his character and of his +habits of thought and feeling. + +She had learned that his habitual mental attitude was, "What is there +in this for me?" He did not indeed use just those words or give such +crude expression to his self-centeredness; but she had come to know +that personal advantage was the usual mainspring of his actions. +Presently deciding that Isabella's enlivening effect upon his mood had +inspired his desire for their company, her mind went on to busy itself +with speculation over the cause for his despondency and uneasiness. + +"I believe it must have something to do with that Hugh Gordon he +mentioned, whoever he is," she thought. "For he seemed most disturbed +when speaking of him. Maybe it's some relative who is giving him +trouble--some black sheep of his family, very likely." + +She walked to the window and stood there silently, her thoughts +hovering around this unknown personality, and became conscious of the +upspringing in her breast of a feeling of disapproval and even of +enmity toward the man because of the trouble he seemed to be giving +to the employer she admired so much and for whose appreciation and +unvarying kindness she felt so much gratitude. + +Then there surged over her a wave of discontent, against whose +threatened onslaught she had half consciously been doing battle ever +since she had talked with Felix Brand in the morning. Now it was upon +her. How monotonous seemed her life, how destitute of the pleasures +that most girls had as their right! If she could only use for her own +enjoyment some of that money she worked so hard to earn! But that +everlasting mortgage on their home which had to be paid off--how the +thought of it irked and galled when she longed to travel, buy +beautiful clothes, go to the theatre and the opera, have young friends +and ride and drive and play golf and dance and sing with them. It was +the playtime of life and she was having to spend it in work, work, +work! + +"Oh, there isn't anybody who would enjoy all those things as I +should," she thought, "and I want them so!" + +She turned impatiently from the window and her glance fell upon her +mother, smiling gently and happily as she lay back in her easy chair, +and remorse entered her heart. + +"What an ungrateful little beast I am," she stormed at herself, "to +feel like that when I ought to be thankful I can earn money enough to +keep mother in comfort! Was it because Mr. Brand was here that I felt +that way? Harry Marne, be ashamed of yourself! Aren't you old enough +to be responsible for your own thoughts?" + +She sat down beside her mother and taking her hand pressed it tenderly +against her cheek. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +MRS. BRAND'S DREAM SON + + +It was half a week after that spring-like Sunday when Felix Brand +motored to his secretary's home on Staten Island, and a feathery pall, +white as forgiven sins, was sifting down from the heavens upon all the +eastern seaboard. In a town within the suburban radius of Philadelphia +its mantle of purity lay almost undisturbed upon lawns and streets and +vacant lots. Two women were looking out upon the snow-covered earth +and snow-filled sky from the side window of a cottage near the edge of +the town. One, small and gray-haired, perhaps looked older than she +was because of the pathetic droop of her shoulders and the worn, +patient expression of her face. But lined and sad though her +countenance was, it told of a sweet and gentle soul and it was lighted +now with a look of pleasure. + +"Just look at it, Penelope!" she exclaimed, a little thrill of +enthusiasm in her voice. "I never saw it snow harder, or look +prettier! Isn't it beautiful!" + +She turned a pair of soft brown eyes upon a younger woman sitting +beside her in a wheel chair, who put down the book she had been +reading, and sighed as she answered: "Yes, it is beautiful, mother, +very beautiful. But when I look at it I can't help thinking how long +it will be until spring comes again and I can be out in the yard under +the trees." + +The mother put out her hand, small and once of the shape that +chirognomists call "the artistic hand," but now wrinkled, bony and +toil-hardened, and rested it gently for a moment upon the mass of +dark, waving hair, already well-threaded with gray, that crowned the +other's head. Her face filled with sympathy but her voice broke +cheerfully upon the silence: + +"Oh, it won't be long now, Penelope, and not a bit longer because of +this beautiful storm!" + +The figure in the wheel chair bent forward again and looked out upon +the pearly whiteness of the earth. It was a sad travesty of the human +form, undersized, humped and crooked. But it bore a noble head with a +broad, full brow and a strong, intellectual face that had in it +something of the elder woman's sweetness of expression. But in her +brown eyes the other's softness and wistfulness gave place to a +keener, more flashing look that told of a high and soaring spirit. And +in the lines of her face was a hint of possible storminess, though it +was softened by an expression of self-mastery, eloquent of many an +inner battle waged and won. + +The window from which they looked commanded one side of their own wide +yard, a vacant block, and beyond that a cross-street. The snow was +feathering down so fast that it gave to the air a milky translucence +through which bulked dimly an occasional traveler on the other +thoroughfare. Penelope's eyes fixed themselves upon one of these vague +shapes. + +"Look, mother!" she exclaimed. "Do you see that man just turning the +corner to come this way? It looks like Felix!" + +"So it does!" the other cried. + +They were both silent for a moment as they gazed intently at the +dim figure, gaining definiteness now with each step toward them. +"It doesn't walk like him," Penelope commented, her face already +showing that she knew it was not he. But the mother hung a little +longer to her hope. "No, it isn't Felix," she presently acquiesced, +disappointment evident in her gentle tones. "I so hoped it was, at +first." + +With a firm, rapid stride the young man was coming eagerly up the +street, his eyes upon their house. "He doesn't walk at all like +Felix," Penelope repeated thoughtfully as his figure became more +plainly visible through the veiling snow, "but it's curious how much +like him he looks, after all." + +"See, Penelope!" the mother exclaimed, reaching out to grasp her +daughter's hand in sudden enthusiasm. "See how he comes out of the +snow mist! Isn't it just like a figure in a dream getting plainer and +clearer, and more like life!" + +Penelope pressed her mother's hand and smiled up at her fondly. "Just +like you, mother, to make something pretty out of a disappointment!" + +They gazed at the advancing figure with renewed interest and saw that +the man, with slightly slackened pace, seemed to be closely observing +their house and yard. What he saw was a one-story red cottage, needing +paint, its green window shutters looking old and somewhat dilapidated, +its yard, of ample size and dotted with trees and shrubbery, +surrounded by a wooden fence in whose palings were occasional breaks +and patches. It was a commonplace object in an ordinary winter scene, +but he seemed to feel in it the deepest interest. There was even a +frown on his brow as his alert glance rested on a broken pane in the +kitchen window. + +"It has been a long time since Felix was here--six months, hasn't it, +mother?" said Penelope, leaning back wearily again as the stranger +passed from her range of vision. + +"Hardly so long as that, dear. It was last fall. But, of course, he is +very busy. He hasn't the time to travel around now and go visiting, +even over here to see us, that he used to have, before he had begun +to be so successful. We mustn't expect too much." As she spoke, her +gentle tones as full of indulgence and excuse as her words, she moved +to the front window and sought the figure of the stranger, now +striding along the snow-covered sidewalk in front of her own yard. + +"Penelope! He's coming here!" she exclaimed, starting back and +dropping the muslin curtain she had pushed aside. "He's turning in at +our gate! He does look like Felix--a little. Who can it be!" + +Penelope bent forward to peer through the curtains and saw the man +mounting the steps to their little veranda and stamping the snow from +his feet. Instantly she wheeled her chair about and sped it into the +adjoining room as her mother opened the door to their visitor. + +"You are Mrs. Brand, I think? Felix Brand's mother?" he said. "I +am a friend of his--my name is Hugh Gordon--and as I was coming to +Philadelphia I promised him I would run out here and see you." + +As they entered the living room his keen, dark eyes swept it alertly, +as they had the exterior of the house. A shade of disappointment +crossed his face. + +"Your daughter?" he asked abruptly. "May I not see her, too?" + +Mrs. Brand hesitated. The shyness of her girlhood years still lingered +in her manner when in the presence of strangers, and she glanced at +her visitor, then at the floor, and her hands fluttered about her +lap. Gordon's face and eyes softened as he looked at her. There was +something very sweet and appealing in the gentle diffidence of this +little, plain, elderly woman. + +"Penelope doesn't often see people--anyone, and she is very unwilling +to meet strangers. Perhaps Felix told you--you know----" + +"Yes, I know. I understand how she feels, but I want very much to see +her. I know Felix well, and I know a good deal about her, enough to +make me honor and admire her very much. Won't you tell her, please, +that I came out here particularly to see you and her, and that I shall +be much disappointed if I have to go back without meeting both of +you?" + +Penelope soon returned with her mother and both had many questions +to ask concerning Felix. Was he well? Was he working harder than he +ought? Was his new apartment very beautiful? Had Mr. Gordon seen the +plans for the new monument with which he had won in the national +competition? + +He used to send them photographs, Penelope said, but lately they knew +little about his work unless they saw pictures of it in the +newspapers. + +But, indeed, they didn't expect so much attention from him now, her +mother quickly added, for as his work increased and became of so much +importance they understood how necessary it was for him to give it all +his time and thought. + +"It would really be selfish," she went on, "as I sometimes tell +Penelope, to want him to spend time on us, writing long letters, or +coming over here, when we know that his success depends upon his +devoting all his energies to his work." + +Penelope, silent and gazing out of the window, was conscious of +Gordon's quick glance at her, and was conscious too of the appeal in +her mother's wistful brown eyes, which she felt were turned upon her. +So many years these two had passed in intimate companionship and in +loving ministration on one side and utter dependence on the other, +that spoken word was scarcely needed between them to make known the +mood of each to the other. + +In immediate response she turned, with a smile that lighted up her +controlled, intellectual face, and said: + +"Of course, we quite understand how occupied Felix is all the time, +but that doesn't keep us from liking to know about him. So your visit, +Mr. Gordon, is quite a godsend, and you mustn't be surprised that we +ask you so many questions about Felix and want to know all about him +and what he is doing." + +Her voice was low, with rich notes in it, and her manner quite without +self-consciousness. Notwithstanding her deformity and her secluded +life, she betrayed neither shyness nor embarrassment. In both manner +and speech was the poise that is usually the result of much +association with the world. + +"Yes," Gordon was assenting, "Felix has many irons in the fire, and he +is planning to have more. But he thinks of you both, and you would be +surprised to learn how much I know of you--through him." He rose and +as he moved across the room to Penelope's chair he continued: "You, +I know, Miss Brand, love the sunshine and the out-of-doors." He +hesitated a moment and then went on, pouring out his words with a sort +of abrupt eagerness: + +"But I don't want to call you 'Miss Brand!' It doesn't seem as if I +were talking to you. I feel as if I had known you so long that I want +to call you 'Penelope,' as Felix does. Will you let me? You won't mind +if I do? Oh, thank you! You are very kind to me, for I realize what a +stranger I must seem to you, although I feel as if I had known you +both such a long time. Well, then, Penelope," and he smiled and nodded +at her, as he crossed the room to the front window and drew back the +curtain, "how would you like to have one end of this porch enclosed +with glass, so that you could sit out there with your wraps on, all +winter, even on days like this, and feel almost as if you were out of +doors? It wouldn't seem quite so shut in as the house, would it?" + +She leaned back with a sigh and then smiled. "Yes, it would be +pleasant. But it is now some years since I quit wishing for the +things I can't have." + +"Ah, but you're going to have this," he exclaimed, his face beaming. +"Felix is preparing a little surprise for you, but he gave me +permission to tell you about it." + +The expression upon the faces of both women and their little +exclamations told Gordon, as he glanced from one to the other, that +their surprise was as great as their pleasure. + +"Felix is going to have it done for you," he went on, "as soon as he +returns. I forgot to tell you, and perhaps, as he went away rather +unexpectedly, he didn't write you, that he was called out of the city +a few days ago on pressing business. I saw him when he was leaving and +I know you may expect to hear from him about the porch as soon as he +returns. I'll tell him how pleased you are about it." + +They gave him messages of gratitude and love and the three of them +discussed the little improvement with the intimacy of old friends. +Several books, one of them still open at the page where Penelope had +been reading, were on a table beside the window. Gordon took them up +one by one and ran over their titles. "Ah, poetry--and fiction--and +biography--how catholic your interests are, Penelope! But I knew that +already. Sociology, too. Yes, I knew that is your favorite study. It +is mine, too, but I haven't had as much time yet to read along that +line as I would like. What have you lately read on that subject?" + +She told him of some of the recent books that had interested her most +and mentioned the titles of others that she thought would be worth +while. + +"After you read them," he said, in his quick, decisive way, "I'd like +very much to know what you think of them." + +"I'd be glad to talk them over with you, but it's not likely I can +have the opportunity of reading them very soon. I take books from the +town library, and so many people always want the new ones that +sometimes my turn is a long time coming." + +He was making a note of their titles. "I'll tell Felix you're +interested in them," he rejoined casually, "and I'm sure he'll send +them to you." + +Wonderment filled the minds of both mother and daughter and showed in +their faces. + +"You and my brother must be great friends," Penelope hastened to say, +"although you seem to be so different from him. You resemble him a +little--yes, a good deal, physically, but in manner, expression and, I +should think, in mind and temperament and character, you must be very +different. But perhaps that only makes you the better friends. You +see," she went on, smiling frankly, "mother and I are already talking +with you as if we knew you as well as Felix does." + +"I hope that you will, and that very soon," he responded, and his +manner reminded her for a fleeting instant of the winning deference, +the slightly ceremonious politeness, of her brother's habitual +demeanor. + +"That was just a little like Felix," she thought. "Perhaps he has been +with Felix so much that he has unconsciously caught something of his +manner. Felix has a very pleasing manner, but--I like this man's +better." + +"I don't think Mr. Gordon so very unlike Felix," her mother was +saying, "that is, unlike Felix used to be. Naturally, he has changed a +good deal of late years. It's to be expected that a young man will +change as he grows up and enters upon his life's work. But Mr. Gordon +looks more as I used to think Felix would when he grew up, and +something as my husband did when we were married, but still more--" +she paused, searching his countenance with puzzled eyes. He started a +little, as if pulling himself together. + +"Now I know," she exclaimed. "Penelope, Mr. Gordon looks like your +Grandfather Brand! If you wore your hair longer, Mr. Gordon, and had +no mustache, you'd look very like an old picture I have of him when he +was young. He was such a good man and I admired and respected him so +much! I used to hope, when Felix was a little boy, that he would grow +up to be like his grandfather." + +"He has grown up to be a very able man," Gordon responded gravely. "He +has opened the way toward being a famous one, and he has the capacity +to go far in it. He has much more talent than I." + +"Are you an architect, too?" asked Mrs. Brand. + +"No, I have not done anything, yet. But it is only now becoming +possible for me to do anything of consequence." His manner and +expression grew suddenly even more earnest and serious. "And there is +so much that I want to do, that needs to be done, so much that urges +one to action, if he feels his responsibility toward others." + +Mrs. Brand was looking at him with startled, swimming eyes. "Oh, you +are so like Father Brand!" she exclaimed. "How often have I heard him +speak in just that way! He was rather a stern man, because he wanted +to hold people to a high standard. But he fairly burned to do good in +the world and make it better. I used to hope, when Felix was a little +boy, that he'd have the same kind of spirit when he became a man." + +She stopped and her worn face flushed at the thought that she +had almost spoken slightingly of her son, had at least hinted +disappointment in him. She fidgeted with embarrassment as silence fell +upon them and she felt Gordon's eyes upon her. She could not resist +his steady gaze, and as her eyes met his the look in them stirred her +mother-heart to its depths and set her to trembling. She saw in it +wistfulness and loneliness and felt behind it the persistent +heart-hunger of the grown man for the mother in woman, for maternal +understanding and solicitude and affection. + +"I knew right away," she said afterward to Penelope, "that he'd never +known a mother's love and that he was homesick for it and it made my +heart warm toward him more than ever. He looks so young, even younger +than Felix, and that minute he seemed as if he were just a boy." + +"I hope you will let me come again," said Gordon as he bade them +good-bye. He took Mrs. Brand's toil-worn hand in both of his and with +gravely earnest face looked down into hers as he went on: "And if you +should hear--if I should do anything that seems--well, not friendly, +toward Felix, I hope you will try to believe that I am not doing it +to injure him, but because it seems to me right and because I truly +think it for his good." + +Mrs. Brand was still trembling and she felt strangely moved. But her +usual shyness was all gone and she did not even notice that she was +finding it easy to talk with this stranger, easier, indeed, than it +had been, of late years, to talk with Felix. Her heart swelled and +throbbed with yearning over him. + +"I am quite sure," she said, "that you will not do anything unless you +are convinced that it is right and for the best. No matter how it may +seem to others, I shall know that you expect good to come of it." + +"Thank you!" His voice was low and it shook a little. He bent over her +hand and raised it to his lips. "If I had a mother I should want her +to be just like you! Will you try to think of me, sometimes, no matter +what I do, as being moved, perhaps, by the same spirit, at least the +same kind of spirit, as that of--of Felix's and Penelope's +grandfather?" + +Her patient face and her brown eyes glowed with the emotions that +thrilled and fluttered in her heart. Belief in him, the sudden, sweet +intimacy into which their brief acquaintance had flowered, his seeming +need of her, and her own ardent wish to respond with all her +mother-wealth, filled her breast with new, strange life and stirred +her imagination. + +"I shall think of you," she answered with sweet earnestness, "as if +you were the boy--a man--I don't know how to say just what I mean, but +perhaps you'll understand--as if you were the man who had grown up out +of the dreams I used to have about my boy. + +"Don't think," she added hastily, "that I'm displeased or dissatisfied +with Felix, because I'm not, though what I've said might give that +impression. He is a good son and I am proud and glad to be his mother. +But a mother has so many dreams about a son when he is little that no +boy could possibly fulfill all of them. He must follow his own bent, +and the other things she has dreamed for him must be left behind. So +I'll just feel as if, in some mysterious way, those dreams had come +alive in you. And--oh, Penelope! Do you remember what I said a little +while ago, when we saw Mr. Gordon coming toward us out of the storm, +that it was just like someone taking form and shape in a dream? I'll +think of you as my dream son, Mr. Gordon--Hugh!" + +Impulsively he seized her hand again and held it closely clasped in +both of his. "Will you do that? Will you think of me in that way?" + +Penelope, in her wheel chair beside them, fidgeted her weak, misshapen +body. Her nerves were tense with an excitement which she knew was not +all due merely to an unexpected call from a stranger. Unaccustomed +emotions, strong but undefined, were filling her breast and tugging +at her heart. To her sharpened perception it seemed almost as if +something uncanny were hovering in the room. She shivered and leaned +back wearily. What spell was coming over them? Were those two beside +her, strangers until an hour ago, about to sink sobbing into each +other's arms? And was she, Penelope, the calm and self-mastered, about +to shriek hysterically? + +"How ghostly you two are becoming," she exclaimed, with an effort at +vivacity, "with your dreams and your spirits! You make me afraid that +Mr. Gordon, substantial as he looks, will melt away into thin air +before our very eyes!" + +"We are getting wrought up, aren't we?" Gordon assented as he turned +to her. "And you are pale, Penelope! I hope I haven't tired you too +much. Seeing you both, and your being so kind, have meant a lot to me, +more than you can guess. And if your mother is going to be my dream +mother, Penelope, you'll be my dream sister, won't you?" + +He smiled as he said this, then all three laughed a little, more to +lessen the tension which all of them felt than because they were +amused, and presently the two women were alone again. Afterward, as +they talked over all the incidents of the afternoon, they recalled +that it was the only time during his long call that Gordon had +laughed, and they wondered that a young man who seemed so full of +vigor and life should have so serious a demeanor. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +WHO IS HUGH GORDON? + + +Felix Brand did not appear at his office the next day after his call +at the home of his secretary, and she inferred that he had gone on the +journey of which he had spoken. The week went by and he did not +return. It was longer than any previous absence had been, but +Henrietta, being prepared for it, was able to keep his affairs in +order. Nevertheless, as the days slipped by and no message came from +him, she began to feel solicitous. On Monday and Tuesday of the next +week, Mildred Annister made apprehensive inquiry concerning him over +the telephone. On Wednesday, big headlines in all the newspapers told +a city not yet so cynical but that it could read the news with +surprise, that Felix Brand, its successful and promising young +architect, was charged with having won his appointment upon the +municipal art commission by means of bribery. + +An investigating committee had been secretly feeling about in another +city department with no thought of uncovering corruption, or even of +looking for it, in a body of city servants whose character, +occupations and ideals lifted them so far above suspicion. + +Then they received an intimation that even there all was not as pure +as it might be and had called before them the man from whom the hint +had come. Guided by his information they had followed a devious trail, +apparently quite clean at first, but showing undoubted befoulment +as they neared its source. And finally they had traced it to its +beginnings in an unsavory local politician, Flaherty by name, who was +powerful in his own district and therefore had influence in his party +organization. And Flaherty, they had discovered, had been well +rewarded for efficient work in engineering the matter and inspiring +those above him to suggest and secure the appointment. + +Scarcely had Henrietta reached her office on the morning of this +publication when Mildred Annister rushed in, anxious, excited and +indignant. + +"Harry, dear, have you heard from him? Do you know where he is? I know +he would write to me, if he could write at all, before he would to any +one else, but, oh, do tell me if you know whether anything has +happened to him!" + +"No, Mildred, dear, I don't suppose I know much, if any, more than you +do. But certainly nothing serious could have happened or some message +would have been sent here." + +"You're not keeping anything from me?" the girl demanded, staring at +Henrietta with wild, suspicious eyes. "Oh, Harry, you don't know what +all this means to me! I've hardly slept for the last two nights! You +must tell me everything! Oh, I know you are his confidential secretary +and you must not betray his trust, but--you don't know--I've never +told you--I'm almost the same as his wife. We're engaged, and we'd +have been married before this but for some notion father has. So I've +the right to know, Harry--you must tell me all you can!" + +[Illustration: "HARRY, DEAR, HAVE YOU HEARD FROM HIM!"] + +Henrietta bent toward the girl sympathetically. "I don't think you +need to be so anxious," she said reassuringly, although her own heart +misgave her. "I'm so glad to know about your happiness," she went on, +stroking Mildred's clenched hand where it lay upon her desk, "and I'm +sure this will come out all right. He went away very suddenly. +Did--did you know that he was going?" + +Mildred nodded and wiped some hysterical tears from her eyes. It was +a moment before she could control her voice: "Yes. He had promised +to come to our house on Sunday evening. But instead he sent me a +note--the dearest little letter--" and her hand involuntarily moved to +her breast as she paused and smiled. Her listener marveled at the +light that played over her countenance for a moment. "He said he had +been suddenly called out of the city and might be away several days, +but would see me again as soon as he could get back, and in the +meantime I must not be anxious. But I can't help it, Harry! I'm wild +with anxiety! Oh, if anything should happen to him I couldn't bear +it--I couldn't live!" + +"There, there, dear, don't be so alarmed. Calm yourself and I'll tell +you all I know." Mildred was hysterically weeping and Henrietta moved +to her side and with an arm about her shoulders soothed her and went +on: + +"Sunday morning he motored over to my house to tell me that he might +have to be out of the city for a few days and to give me some +directions about matters here in case he should have to go. He said he +didn't know how long he would be gone but hoped he would be back +inside of a week." + +"Sunday--then you saw him after I did. Did he seem well? Was he all +right?" + +"Yes, except that he looked anxious and disturbed." + +"Oh, I knew there was something wrong! Why didn't he come to me and +tell me all about it! I would have comforted him! I'd have done +anything for him--I'd have gone at once and been married, whatever +father might say, if he had wanted me to!" + +"I don't think it could have been anything very serious, dear, nothing +more than just a temporary depression of spirits, because--well, you +know what a merry little piece my sister is and how she jokes and +laughs and says nonsensical things until you can't help being cheered +up and laughing, too. She seemed to amuse Mr. Brand and he was very +kind and took us all for a ride in his auto. And, oh, Mildred, you +should have seen how lovely he was with my poor, frail mother! He +insisted that she must go, that it would do her good, and he carried +her in his arms out to the auto and back, and was as tender and +careful with her as a son could have been!" + +"How like him!" the girl beamed. "He is so good and kind! Harry, there +isn't another man like him in this whole world! It would kill me to +lose him!" + +"We had a delightful ride and Mr. Brand seemed to enjoy Bella's merry +talk. She sat with him, and when we came back and he returned to the +city he was looking quite himself again." + +"Oh!" said Mildred, drawing back and looking at Henrietta with +narrowing eyes. She was too absorbed in her own intense emotions to +perceive the embarrassment which suddenly gripped her companion. +Henrietta, wildly groping about in her own mind for something to say +which would relieve the momentary strain, chanced upon what her +employer had said about Hugh Gordon and her own subsequent suspicions, +which had been made sharper by the charges in the morning newspapers. + +"Mildred, dear!" she exclaimed. "Has Mr. Brand ever said anything to +you about a man called Hugh Gordon?" + +"Hugh Gordon!" The girl straightened up, her color rising and her eyes +flashing with indignation. "Why, he's that dreadful creature who is +responsible for all that horrid mess in the papers this morning, isn't +he?" + +"The committee's report says that he gave them their first information +and told them how to get the rest of it." + +"Horrid creature! I know it's all a mess of lies! No, I never heard of +him before. Why do you ask? Do you know anything about him? Did Felix +ever speak of him to you?" + +"Only once--last Sunday," Henrietta hesitated. + +"What was it?" the other demanded. "What did he say? Oh, I knew you +were keeping something from me! Tell me, Harry!" + +"Truly, dear, it wasn't anything of any consequence. It wasn't about +himself, or his business, so I suppose it's all right for me to tell +you. He only asked me, if any letters should come signed 'Hugh +Gordon,' not to read them but to put them aside for him when he should +return, because this man was likely to write confidentially about his +own affairs. That's all Mr. Brand ever said to me about him--the only +time he's ever mentioned the man's name. But I thought maybe--it was +just my own conjecture, you know--that maybe this Gordon is some +dissipated relative, some black sheep of his family, whom Mr. Brand is +trying to help." + +"Oh, I see through it all! It's as plain as day!" cried Mildred +impetuously. "This Gordon is a blackmailer who is trying to force +money from Felix! I knew all the time there wasn't a word of truth in +that disgusting story! Felix has been helping him--perhaps he's a +cousin, or something, and he has demanded more and more money, and +Felix has refused, and now in revenge he has done this! And he's got +Felix shut up somewhere to make him give in! That's why I haven't +heard from him! Oh, it's perfectly plain! The thing to do now is to +find this horrible Hugh Gordon and make him tell where Felix is!" + +The office boy entered to say that some reporters wanted to see Mr. +Brand's secretary. Henrietta was about to send back the message that +as she knew nothing whatever of any consequence it was not worth while +for her to see them, when Miss Annister interposed. + +"No, Harry, let them come in," she said. "Perhaps they will know +something that we don't." + +While the reporters questioned Henrietta they stole many a covert +glance at Mildred Annister, who sat beside her, dignified and +beautiful, her cheeks glowing and eyes brilliant with excitement, +listening with intense interest. + +Henrietta soon told them the little that she knew about the matter. +Mildred waited until they had asked all the questions they could think +of and then, leaning forward in her absorption and gazing intently at +one of the group, she said: "Now tell us all that you know about this +Hugh Gordon. I want to know all you can tell me, because I have a +theory about him." + +Her intensity and eagerness roused the hope that perhaps here they +might find something with which to embellish a story in which, so far, +they had uncovered little to add to that of yesterday. But first they +must know who this lovely girl was. + +"You are a relative of Mr. Brand?" one of them hazarded. + +"I am Mildred Annister, Dr. Philip Annister's daughter, and I am Felix +Brand's promised wife." + +The instant ripple of interest among the reporters caused Mildred to +shrink back in sudden self-consciousness, her face scarlet. + +"But please don't put that in the papers," she went on. "It's of no +interest to anybody but us, and we don't want the engagement announced +yet. I told you so you would understand how much right I have to be +interested. I am perfectly sure this dreadful creature, Hugh Gordon, +is at the bottom of the whole business, that these charges in the +papers this morning are nothing but revenge for his failure to +blackmail Mr. Brand, and it is just as certain as can be that he has +got Mr. Brand imprisoned somewhere, maybe drugged, and the thing for +you to do now is to find this Gordon and make him tell where Felix is. +Oh, please do!" she ended, with a sudden drop in her manner, her voice +choking. + +Seasoned news gatherers though they were they could not repress all +sign of the gratification they felt at her words. They loosed a +battery of questions upon the two young women, but soon discovered +upon what a slender basis Miss Annister had based her theory. + +They could tell her nothing whatever about the mysterious Hugh Gordon. +But they promised to follow her clue and to hunt him down if he could +be found. They went away well pleased, for even if this suggestion +should not lead to anything of consequence they had enough already to +warrant "scare heads" over tomorrow's story and to furnish a narrative +of even more "human interest" than the one set forth that morning. + +Mildred Annister opened the paper the next morning with the greatest +eagerness and expectation. But she sank back in horrified dismay as +she saw the headlines. "I told them they mustn't say anything about me +or our engagement," she said to her father, "and now just look at +that!" + +"Well, well," he replied, as he glanced over the article, "they've +been fairly decent, at any rate, in the way they've written it up, +though it's not pleasant for you to be thrown into the limelight like +this. As for their making known your engagement, it can't be helped +now, so there's no use worrying about it. But you mustn't want to be +married too soon, daughter." + +Mildred welcomed this final grudging half-acquiescence and felt that +it was well worth the price. "Now it will be easy to persuade him to +let us be married soon, when Felix comes back," she thought. + +But the morning's news had not an atom more of information concerning +the architect's whereabouts than she had known the day before. +Hugh Gordon also had disappeared. Before the publication of the +investigating committee's report several newspaper men had seen him +and talked with him about it, but the next day they could not find him +anywhere, nor any one who had the least idea whither he had gone. One +member of the committee knew Brand very well and, in pursuit of Miss +Annister's idea that Gordon and the missing architect might be +relatives, the reporters had questioned him about Gordon's +disappearance. + +There was some resemblance, he said, although he had not thought about +it at the time. Gordon was a larger man, he thought, and a younger, +and his manner was very different. Brand was always affable, very +polite, and inclined to be somewhat ceremonious; but Gordon was +brusque, rather aggressive, and seemed to be much in earnest. His +evident sincerity and honesty had impressed the committee very much. +But, on the whole, he concluded, there was some resemblance between +the two men in feature and coloring; enough, perhaps, to indicate that +they might be relatives. + +Mildred was keenly disappointed to find so little of consequence +or of promise in the news of the morning, but the committeeman's +description of Brand's accuser confirmed her in her conviction. + +"If they can only find him," she thought, "it will solve the whole +mystery and set Felix right before the public again." + +She telephoned to the paper which had seemed most active in the hunt +for Gordon, begged that they would continue the search, and made the +city editor promise to call her up if they should find out anything +new about him or come upon any trace of his movements. For the rest of +the day she refused to leave the house and sat all the time in +high-strung expectation near the telephone, that she might not lose a +moment in responding to its ring. But no call came until late in the +evening, when the city editor rang her up to say that his men had +discovered absolutely nothing new, and that nobody had any more idea +what had become of either Brand or Gordon than they had had the day +before. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +FELIX BRAND READS A LETTER + + +When Henrietta Marne entered her office on the morning of the second +day after the publication of the charges against Felix Brand, she +found her employer already there, but sitting moodily at his desk, his +head in his hands. + +As she came forward, exclaiming joyfully and making anxious inquiries +about his welfare, he shrank back for a bare instant, with a slight +turning away, as of one who fears observation. But he quickly +recovered himself, rose with his usual deferential politeness and gave +her cordial greeting. She noted that he looked well, although his face +still bore a harrowed expression. A something out of the ordinary in +his appearance her eyes soon resolved into the fact that his dark, +waving hair, which previously he had always worn rather long and +parted in the middle, was so short that it curled closely over his +head. + +"I've seen the papers," he told her, "and I'm quite flattered to find +I'm of enough consequence to have such a fuss made over me just +because I left the city for a few days. If I had dreamed there would +be this sort of an ado I'd have told you where I was going. But my +idea was to keep my whereabouts quiet while I went down into West +Virginia, in the mountains, to look into the proposition of developing +a marble quarry. I expected when I left to return in three or four +days, but it was necessary to go so far on horseback that I couldn't +get back that soon and I was so far from the telegraph that I couldn't +communicate with you." + +"Every one was very anxious, and, down in my heart, I was, too, but I +told everybody that it was all right, that you were just away on +business and that I expected you back any minute." + +"Yes, I saw what a good face you put on it when the reporters insisted +on knowing everything you knew, or guessed, or could make up. I'm +grateful to you, Miss Marne, for the very sensible stand you took. +You showed sense and prudence and did all that you could to stop that +absurd fuss. If I should happen to go away again unexpectedly,--" he +hesitated, wincing ever so little, but quickly went on: "My deal fell +through this time, but I may have to go again, although I hope not, +for it's a beastly journey. But if I should, and there should be any +disturbance about it, you can say frankly that I've gone to look at +some land in the West Virginia mountains, away off the railroad, so +that it is impossible to get hold of me until I return to civilization +again." + +He stopped for a moment, as though turning something over in his mind. +"But I don't want to say just where it is," he proceeded cautiously, +"because I don't want certain parties to know that I am after this +property. And if I don't tell you where it is," and he turned toward +her with a pleasant smile and the caressing look in his soft brown +eyes that had so much power to stir feminine hearts, "you can +truthfully say, if you are asked, that you don't know where I am or +how I can be reached." + +"How considerate of me he always is," thought Henrietta as she thanked +him. + +It was not until she had gone through the accumulation of mail with +him and had explained to him all that she had done during his absence +that he mentioned Hugh Gordon. Then he merely asked, with some +hesitation at the name, as though he could with difficulty bring +himself to speak it, if no letter had come from him. + +"Yes," she replied, unlocking a drawer and taking out a bulky +envelope, "this came yesterday, but I guessed that it was from him and +so did not open it." + +Brand's dark, handsome face turned a trifle paler and his hand +trembled as he thrust the letter quickly into his breast pocket. + +When the newspapermen came to ask if there were yet any news of him +Brand saw them in his own room. He said nothing to Henrietta about the +charges made against him by the investigating committee, but in the +evening papers and again in those of the next morning she read his +defense. + +He knew Mr. Flaherty, knew him quite well, he told the reporters, and +had had business dealings with him. Mr. Flaherty had advised him +about several investments he had thought of making and had helped him +in getting some out-of-the-way information concerning them. He had +been impressed by the shrewdness of Mr. Flaherty's judgment in these +matters, had relied on him a good deal and, altogether, had felt under +so much obligation to him that when, after a while, he put a +considerable sum of money into Mr. Flaherty's hands for investment, he +had insisted upon the politician's taking a more liberal commission +than was customary. His idea had been to show his appreciation and +relieve himself from any entanglement or obligation. If Mr. Flaherty +had chosen to consider it a bribe, he, Felix Brand, could hardly be +held responsible for another's idiosyncrasies. + +Yes, he had talked with Mr. Flaherty about the municipal art +commission and quite possibly had said, in some such conversation, +that he would like to be a member of that body because of certain +desirable things which it could do, if it would make the effort, for +the city's benefit. + +He did not know, but he supposed that Mr. Flaherty, agreeing with him +about these things and perhaps moved by both public spirit and +friendly impulse, had persuaded some of his own friends higher up to +suggest his appointment to the commission. He had been, he declared to +the newspapermen, surprised and deeply gratified by that appointment +and keenly sensible of how great an honor it was, and he had hoped to +make his service upon the commission tell for the good of the city. + +But he did not wish to hold any position, and especially one so +peculiarly delicate in its relations to the public service, under +suspicion of any sort of evil practice. And therefore he was willing +to resign at once if the investigating committee and the mayor thought +they were warranted even in assuming his guilt, although he himself +would deeply feel the injustice of such a decision and would be +profoundly disappointed should he be unable to make trial of the plans +he had been formulating. + +The men from the papers were eager to know all that he could, or +would, tell them about Hugh Gordon. Had Gordon tried to blackmail +him? Was he a relative? What had become of him? Was there anything in +Miss Annister's suggestion that Gordon had made a prisoner of him and +tried to extract money in that way? + +The reporters all noticed that he answered their questions on this +subject slowly and with caution. Some of the queries he evaded, some +he adroitly ignored, only a few did he meet squarely and fully, and he +gave them the very distinct impression that he thought this phase of +the matter of no consequence whatever. The sum total of the +information they got from him was that he had a very slight +acquaintance with "this man Gordon," who, he admitted, was a sort of +connection; that he could not exactly say the fellow had tried to +blackmail him, although he had made some threats and also had, to +express it politely, borrowed money of him; that he had not been held +in durance vile during his absence, but had been freely chasing the +almighty dollar in a backwoods region of the South; and that he had +not the slightest idea whither Gordon had gone, or what had become of +him. + +And all the time that he talked, and, indeed, through every moment of +the day, the one thing of which he was supremely conscious was that +bulky envelope that seemed like a weight of lead in his breast pocket. +Many times, when he found himself alone, did his hand move quickly +toward it. But each time, with a little shudder of repulsion and a +furtive glance about the room, his arm fell back and the letter was +left untouched. It was not until late in the evening, when he had +returned to his apartment and had sat for many minutes alone in his +library, his expression telling of a dark and bitter mood, that at +last, with sudden resolution, he drew the packet from his breast. + +Even then he did not at once open it, but held it in a shaking hand, +and stared at it with an angry frown. Once he grasped it in both hands +and made as if he would tear it in two. But his fingers stopped with +their first movement and his arms dropped. + +Springing impatiently to his feet he moved toward the grate as if he +would fling the missive upon the coals. But again his will weakened +and with a resentful exclamation he walked back to his seat. As he +tore the envelope open, he looked up, startled, as if he had heard +some unusual sound, gazed about the room, moved the hangings at the +window, hurried to the door, which stood ajar, and, after a glance +into the next room, closed and locked it. Again he started and stared +about him apprehensively. Had he heard, he asked himself, or only +imagined, the sound of a scornful, arrogant laugh? + +At last, forcing himself to the task, he began to read the letter. It +was written in a large, open, round hand that was very legible, +notwithstanding the somewhat irregular formation of the letters. + + "I went last week to see your mother and sister," it began + abruptly, "and you must understand, right now, that you must + pay more attention to them. You must have the house repaired + and, in general, make them more comfortable--you can see, as + well as another, what needs to be done. They would like to + have some sign, now and then, that you remember and care + about them, and you must give it. I enclose the titles of + some books that Penelope would like to read and you must buy + them and send them to her at once. I told her you would. And + I told them, too, that you are planning to give Penelope a + surprise by enclosing one end of the porch with glass so + that she can sit there during the winter. You'd better make + them a visit over Sunday--next Sunday--and give the order + for the work while you are there. Oh, I know that your + beauty-loving soul shrinks from having to look at poor, + helpless, misshapen Penelope. I understand perfectly well + that you much prefer to look at young and pretty women, but + my mind is set on this matter. You must do as I--shall we + say, suggest?--and that without delay or--there will be + consequences. Her poor body is not half so ugly or repulsive + as your selfish soul, Felix Brand, and you know very well + who is responsible for them both." + +As Brand read these last words a quick flush darkened his face, his +lips twitched angrily and with a sudden access of wrath he was about +to tear the sheet into strips, when his eye caught the next sentence +and his countenance paled again as quickly as it had flushed. "And it +is my opinion," the letter went on, "that she also is not entirely +ignorant on that question." + +Brand half rose, crushing the letter in his hand. "Blackguard! I'll +read no more of his scurrilous stuff!" he exclaimed with angry +emphasis. But the next instant he hesitated, glanced about the room +with a sort of dazed uncertainty, then sank into the chair and resumed +the letter. + + "As you will, doubtless, have learned when you read this, I + have done what I told you I would about that municipal art + commission affair. You didn't believe I knew enough to carry + the thing through successfully. But you know better now. I + hope it will convince you that when I make--a suggestion, I + mean it and that you'd better follow my advice unless you + are willing to take the consequences. That bargaining you + did with Flaherty was so idiotic that I lost all patience + with you. If you had been willing to wait a while, a year or + so, you could have got the position in a perfectly + honorable way. But, no! you must have it right now, in order + to further your own selfish ends. And so you reach out and + snatch it, just as you try to grasp ruthlessly whatever you + need or desire for your own purposes. And, as usual, you + left the mark of your pitchy fingers. Your soul is so + blackly selfish, Felix Brand, that it oozes corruption out + of your very finger-ends and contaminates whatever you + touch. + + "I am much interested in your mother and sister, and I want + them to be happy. Unless you do for them more of what it is + in your power to do, as I told you before, there will be + consequences--I don't know what, just yet, but I can promise + you that you will find them unpleasant. I have an eye on + several other people also and if it is possible for you to + stop any of the mischief you have set going you must do it. + It would take too long to speak of all the people you have + started in evil ways with your insidious, damnable + philosophy, and would probably be useless, too. But there is + young Mark Fenlow, on the down grade already, though out of + college less than a year. And it was you who put him there. + + "Oh, I know how blameless you consider yourself! I know you + say it is the right of every one to taste every pleasure + within his reach; that it is necessary for one's all-round + development to know all sides of life; that it adds not only + to one's pleasure, but also to his knowledge of life and so + to his personal power to try for himself every possible new + experience. You are strong enough to dabble in every filthy + pool you encounter, and then to let it alone and go on to + another. You live your philosophy and, so far as others can + see, although you and I know better, you are none the worse + for it. You are a promising young architect, already winning + wealth and fame, a charming fellow, a handsome genius, whose + friendship is worth having and whose example it is surely + all right to follow! But what about those who do follow it + and have less will power and perhaps less of that + self-control that ambition gives? Are you so hide-bound in + your selfishness that you feel no responsibility for them? + + "But I know you are. And so I demand that you do something + to try to keep Mark Fenlow away from the gaming table and + make him understand what will be the outcome of the way he + is going now. There's Robert Moreton, too. He begins to look + like a dope fiend. I don't know whether he is or not, but he + looks it. If he is, it is all because you described to him + what a wonderful experience you had when you spent a night + in an opium joint and told him he'd better try it, just to + see what it was like. I want you to look him up, put him + into a sanitarium and, if he needs it, help him financially. + + "There are many others, but I can not stop to speak of them + all now. Your own conscience ought to tell you of them--if, + indeed, you have a conscience, except for me--and move you + to try to repair the damage you have done. I insist only + that you shall do something, and I'll leave the matter in + that shape for the present--until I come again. For I shall + come again, Felix Brand, and you can not hinder me. I do not + know when, but it will not be long, I promise you. + + "I do not know yet just what I shall do. I have been hoping + there would be room enough in life for us both. But I begin + to doubt that a man so evil as you has the right to live, + and big plans are stirring within me. But it will all + depend, I think, upon you; upon whether or not you show a + desire to overcome your deliberately fostered selfishness + and a willingness to recognize your human + responsibilities,--upon whether you try to refrain from evil + paths yourself and to right the effects of your influence + upon others. Yes, I think I can say that the end of all this + will depend upon you. And I shall be square with you. I + shall do nothing without giving you fair warning and + affording you every chance. + + "With the money I borrowed of you--willy-nilly, it is true, + but still borrowed, for I shall repay it--I intend to go + into the real estate business. I have been looking about a + little in several cities--New York, Boston, + Philadelphia--that was why the reporters could not find me + these few days--and have decided where I shall make my + beginning and selected the man I shall take into + partnership. A week or two when I return, and then it will + be plain sailing. I shall repay that compulsory loan with my + earliest profits, for I do not choose to be in the least + indebted to you. + + "As I have what I profoundly feel to be your best interests + at heart, and am working for them, I can, with a clear + conscience, sign myself, + + "Faithfully yours, + "HUGH GORDON." + +As Brand read the last lines he sprang to his feet with a sharply +indrawn breath and a muttered oath. In his eyes, instead of their +habitual soft, affectionate look, was the glitter of a roused animal. + +"Impudent devil!" he exclaimed. "Scoundrel! Dictating to me as if he +had the right!" He crushed the letter in one fist and, striding across +the room, threw it upon the coals with an angry jerk of his arm. + +"The fellow used to be amusing," he said to himself, scowling with +anger as he watched the sheets blaze up, "but he's getting too +insolent to put up with any longer." + +His scowl deepened as he watched a word or phrase shine out in the +lapping flame, and remembered the context. "Damn you," he cried aloud, +whirling about and shaking his fist at the empty room. "I'll take no +orders from you! I'll force you back where you belong--and I'll do it +in my own way, too!" + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +DAYS OF STRESS + + +The little puff of popular interest in Felix Brand's disappearance and +in the charges against him soon disappeared, as some other sensation +of a day took its place in the newspaper headlines. People ceased +talking about the matter as suddenly as they had begun and Brand +congratulated himself that a bank failure, and then a mysterious +suicide, and after that an appalling dynamite explosion followed so +closely upon his return. He told himself that his own misadventure +would speedily be forgotten. + +As the weeks went by he became more and more secure in that +conclusion. Hugh Gordon did not reappear. And as time passed on and no +official action was taken upon the investigating committee's report +the architect felt assured that the whole matter had sunk into an +oblivion which held no menace for him, and his spirit rose in +exultation. + +Nor was this the only matter over whose outcome he had reason to be +satisfied. All his investments were doing well and his transactions in +stocks, during the weeks after his return, brought him money in one +good haul after another. And he secured the commission to design a new +capitol building for a western state for which there had been lively +competition among the most prominent architects of the country. + +In her complete loyalty to her employer Henrietta Marne rejoiced to +see the harried look leaving his face and his former ease of manner +and good spirits return. Knowing, as she did, that his material and +professional affairs were fulfilling their earlier promise, she +attributed the improvement in his spirits to the apparent sinking out +of sight of the man who, she was convinced, had been responsible for +all his trouble. + +A curious change in Brand's demeanor strengthened her in this +conjecture. Something of the spirit of triumph became manifest in his +air, his smile was self-confident and in his manner was the +assuredness of the man who has won some sort of victory. + +His secretary, noting all this with observant but discreet eyes, said +to herself that undoubtedly it was all on account of Hugh Gordon. +Brand had not mentioned the man's name to her again nor had she +learned anything more about his mysterious identity. But she felt sure +that he had been trying, from some evil motive, to injure her employer +both personally and professionally, and his sudden disappearance, +followed by the easing of Brand's anxiety and the betterment of his +spirits, convinced her that Gordon had been at the bottom of all the +trouble and made her hope that the architect had stopped his +machinations and would be annoyed by him no more. + +She felt that this Hugh Gordon must be a despicable creature, who +tried to do his malevolent work in mean, underhand ways, and when she +thought of him it was always with suspicion and enmity. + +The winter days sped on and Felix Brand, feeling confident that his +footing was once more entirely firm and safe, opened one morning with +no misgiving an envelope that bore the stamp of the mayor's office. +But even with its first lines his heart, lately so buoyant, turned to +lead. It began by saying that doubtless Mr. Brand's duties on the +municipal art commission would demand more time and attention than he +could bestow upon them in justice to his own exacting private affairs +and that therefore whenever he wished to tender his resignation it +would receive immediate consideration. + + "I shall be sorry," the mayor added, "to lose from that body + one who could contribute to the public service so much exact + knowledge and artistic feeling; but I have convinced myself + that the conclusions of my investigating committee were + correct, notwithstanding your denial and plausible + explanation. Consequently, I feel that the interests of good + government make this step necessary." + +Brand was a good deal disturbed by this letter. He had coveted the +position much and had been deeply gratified when he received the +appointment. For the carrying out of certain plans he had in mind +would have brought him prominently into the public eye and secured for +him much popular esteem and favor, greatly to the benefit, he +believed, of his professional reputation and his income. And now +suddenly all these hopes withered and died under the touch of this +veiled but peremptory demand for him to get down and out; and he +feared that if he did not give quick heed he would have to undergo +more publicity of the affair and much humiliation. So he sent at once +his letter of resignation. + +Soon after this episode Henrietta began to notice in his face again +the signs of apprehension and to wonder why he sometimes gave a little +nervous start and threw a furtive look about the room. + +"Aren't you working too hard, Mr. Brand?" she said to him one day. +"You seem to be under such a nervous strain since you began on that +capitol building. Don't you think you ought to take a rest before you +really give yourself up to it? I'm afraid you won't do yourself +justice if you go on with the work while you are in this condition." + +He looked at her with his winning, caressing smile of mouth and eyes. +"Thank you, Miss Marne. It's kind of you to be so thoughtful about me. +A rest would be pleasant, but I couldn't leave, just now, I'm afraid. +You know Stewart Macfarlane has asked me to design a country house +with big grounds on some property he has bought down toward the south +end of Staten Island, and I must go over there soon and study the lay +of the land and then begin work on that. And I've got to have the +design for that capitol building ready to submit by a certain date. +There are three or four unfinished orders on hand and I'm on the track +of another public building that I want to land. So I guess it isn't +rest I need just now, Miss Marne, so much as a straight course of +ten-hour working days. If--if I should have to go South again----" + +He straightened up with an impatient jerk, the smile faded from his +face and his mouth settled in determined lines. "But I'm not going to +take that journey again," he went on impatiently, and then added with +decision, "I've settled that." + +A few days after this conversation Brand received a letter from the +directors of the National Architectural Society suggesting that he +resign as president of that body. + + "We do not feel," they said, "that our society can afford to + continue in that office a man against whom such serious + charges of misconduct have been made and who has not asked + for an investigation. We do not wish to have the matter + exploited publicly any more than is absolutely necessary. To + call a general meeting of the society for its discussion + would be sure to result in newspaper notice that would + doubtless be as disagreeable to you as it would be offensive + to us and injurious to our organization. Accordingly, we + have decided that the better plan would be for you quietly + to resign. + + "If you prefer, a general meeting can be called to consider + the matter and the society can then decide whether or not to + ask for your resignation. The decision rests with you." + +Brand immediately replied to the letter, complying with its +suggestion in dignified phrases that assured the directors of his +loyalty to the best interests of the society, although he was keenly +sensitive to the injustice that they were doing him. + +"It ought to make them ashamed of themselves," thought Henrietta as +she typed the letter. "I never heard of such injustice! They ought to +beg his pardon and ask him to keep the office." + +No such missive of apology and reparation came, although Henrietta +more than half expected it. But Felix Brand cherished no such hope. +Instead, premonitions of disaster of which these two episodes would be +but the beginning, began to dog his thoughts. His heart was sore with +disappointment and mortification, and his breast swelled with bitter +resentment against the man whose deliberate action had started this +series of events. As he dwelt upon the blasting of his immediate +hopes, the smirching of his reputation and the sudden sharp check to +the sweeping course of his career, his eyes would burn with hate and +anger. + +The old look of worry returned to his face, but with it was combined +one of grim determination that set in hard lines his usually soft and +smiling mouth. Sometimes, Henrietta, coming suddenly into his private +office, surprised in his countenance signs of fear. But what she +oftenest saw there was the look of dogged resolution. She began to be +conscious, too, of some sort of struggle going on within him. She +could see it in these unaccustomed expressions of his countenance, +hear it in the petulant voice in which he sometimes addressed her, so +different from his usual suave tones, and feel it in the nervous +strain under which he was evidently laboring. + +As the days went by the very atmosphere in which they worked seemed to +her to grow tense with it, and on days when it was necessary for her +to be much in his room she would go home in the evening with her own +nerves quivering from its influence. + +On a day in early March, a bracing day of brilliant sky, clear air and +sharp west wind, Brand said to Henrietta when he left the office for +luncheon that probably he would not return in the afternoon. "I +think," he said, "that I shall go across to Staten Island and motor +down to Macfarlane's property and get a general idea of the site and +the surroundings." + +"A splendid idea," she assented with enthusiasm. "It's such a fine +day, the ride will do you good." + +"Do you think," he said with a smile, "that your sister would bear me +company?" + +"I'm sure she would be delighted," Henrietta smiled back, and not +until an hour later did she remember, with a little qualm of +doubtfulness, Mildred Annister's evident jealousy of their previous +motor ride. + +"Dear Mildred!" she thought. "She is so completely wrapped up in her +love. I wish Dr. Annister would consent for them to be married soon. +It would make Mildred so happy and I'm sure it would be a good thing +for Mr. Brand." + +When Henrietta reached home she found her sister only just returned, +and in high spirits. At dinner, her eyes sparkling and her cheeks +flushed with delicate pink, her droll little stories, and her merry +laughter kept them all in a gay humor. + +"We've had such a good time this evening," said Mrs. Marne when, at +her early bedtime, she bade Henrietta goodnight. "Wasn't Bella +charming! And so pretty she looked with her bright eyes and that +dainty color in her cheeks! It made me wish Warren was here to see +her. I suppose I'm dreadfully old-fashioned, Harry, but it always +seems to me that if a woman is looking especially beautiful or +charming it's somehow just wasted if the man who loves her isn't there +to see it. Wasn't it kind of Mr. Brand to take Bella out this +afternoon! And she did enjoy it so much! I can't be grateful enough +that you were so fortunate as to get a position under such a thorough +gentleman!" + +Billikins was Henrietta's dog and her particular care. When she went +to the kitchen to feed him after dinner she found him licking many +gaping wounds in the body and clothing of his cherished plaything, the +rag-doll. Delia had an excited story to tell her of his disreputable +conduct during the afternoon. + +"It was very queer and strange, Miss Harry, the way he acted when Mr. +Brand was here. An' him always such a mild and innocent little dog! +Of course he had to run into the hall when the bell rang, like he +always does, to see what's happening, with babykins in his mouth, and +as I went upstairs to call Miss Bella, he trotted into the parlor +where I'd shown the gentleman. An' when I come down you just ought +to've heard the wild an' awful noises he was making! He'd dropped his +doll and was whining an' howling an' growling, and he'd run toward Mr. +Brand an' bark an' growl, and then he'd run back and stand over +babykins as if he was afraid something would happen to her, an' growl +an' whine an' bark! I called him and he wouldn't pay no attention to +me and I had to go in and pick him up and carry him out, him an' +babykins together, and bring them out here. And he tried to go back +and I shut the door and then he crouched down beside it and worried +babykins an' tore holes in her an' whined an' growled an' trembled as +if he was most scared to death. Now, wasn't it queer and strange, Miss +Harry?" + +Billikins had stopped eating and was looking up into their faces as +if he understood what they were talking about. Henrietta bent over him +and he crept whining to her feet and looked up at her with dumb appeal +in his eyes, as though begging to be saved from some mysterious, +menacing, unseen thing. She took him up in her arms and felt his +little body trembling with fear and excitement. Vivid recollection +came to her of how her own nerves had quivered and jangled in the +office that day, as long as her employer was there, until it had taken +all her strength to keep them under control. + +"Poor little doggie," she said, stroking and cuddling him. "Come along +and we'll take babykins upstairs and sew her all up as good as new and +forget all about it." + +"So that was the man you work for, Miss Harry!" Delia exclaimed as +Henrietta turned to leave the room. "I was dusting in the parlor when +he come an' I watched him as he come up the walk, and he's got a firm +and manly tread. He's fine-legged and handsome, Miss Harry, but if I +was you I'd be afraid of a man that a dog's afraid of, Miss Harry." + +"We had such a jolly time," said Isabella to her sister as Henrietta +came to her room for a confidential chat during bedtime toilette +rites. "Felix Brand is just the loveliest ever. But you know I always +did think that, even before I met him. Mother was having her afternoon +nap when he came and I was doubtful about going. But he said, +nonsense, she'd sleep till I'd get back. + +"At first I couldn't help feeling a little uneasy about her and +perhaps I was a tiny bit glum and not as entertaining as he thought +I'd be. And he seemed sort of glum and grim, too, and, altogether, +Harry, on the first lap the ride didn't promise to be entirely +successful. + +"But after a while he was afraid I was cold and said we must find +something to warm us up. So we stopped at the Wayside Tavern--you +remember it, don't you? You know we went there on the trolley last +summer and took a long walk into the woods and had some lemonade on +the porch while we waited for the car on our way back. Well, we went +in there and this time it was champagne----" + +"Bella! You didn't, did you?" + +"Of course I did! Why not?" + +"It doesn't seem to me quite a--a nice thing for a girl to do, Bella." + +"Oh, nonsense, Harry! What's the matter with it? Anyway, there wasn't +anything the matter with the champagne; nor with the rest of our ride +either. We went to the Macfarlane place and circled round it and he +told me some of the things he is going to do there, and then we did +some speeding that was--oh, Harry, we fairly flew! It was just grand! +And I guess my tongue went, too, for he talked and laughed and was as +gay as could be. I forgot all about poor mother until we sighted home +again. But I never had such a good time in all my life." + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +BATTLING WITH THE INVISIBLE + + +It seemed to his secretary the next day that Felix Brand was in a +calmer mood. She had become accustomed to read with ease his tell-tale +countenance, through which shone so plainly his states of mind and +feeling, and the first anxious glance she cast upon him with her +morning greeting relieved her forebodings of another trying day. + +The signs of inward struggle were no longer manifest, though the same +dogged resolution still sharpened the lines of his face, and it was +evident that he was more able to concentrate himself upon his work +than he had been for many days. Whatever the trouble was that had +barked and snapped so incessantly about him that his combat with it +had distracted his attention and engrossed his energies, for the +present at least, it seemed to be cast aside. In the late afternoon +Henrietta heard him make an engagement over the telephone with +Mildred Annister. + +Before he left the office, as he was signing the letters she had +typed, he stopped over one, after writing his name, and considered it +for a moment. It was concerned with an effort he was making to get +control of the marble quarry in which he was interested. + +"No," he said, "I'll leave this matter until tomorrow. Please call my +attention to it in the morning, if I should happen not to think of it. +And there are some books, here is a list of them, which I should like +to have here, ready to consult, the first thing tomorrow. You may send +the boy for them now and leave them on my desk. These two he may buy, +but the others have him get from the library. If any of these +shouldn't be in have him buy those also, for I particularly want to +have them ready for use as soon as I get here. And I shall probably," +he added, looking at her with his pleasant smile as he picked up his +hat and gloves, "work you very hard tomorrow looking up references and +finding things for me that I remember to have seen somewhere inside +the covers of those books." + +Henrietta went home much pleased by the favorable turn affairs had +taken. The better prospect for her own personal comfort had its share +in her gratification. But it was small beside her relief that her +employer seemed to have won through his besetting harassments and, his +pleasant, winning self again, was once more earnestly devoting himself +to his affairs. For these had suffered during the last few weeks, +while his absorption in his hidden troubles not only had kept him from +devoting proper attention to them, but even had seemed to dull his +capacities. He himself had felt that his artistic perceptions, usually +so true and keen, were blunted and blurred. Upon the design for one of +his commissions, a country house in the Berkshires, he had made +beginning after beginning, only to throw each one aside in disgust and +discouragement. Nor had the various other orders in hand advanced much +better. He had not even begun the design for the capitol building, +although he was under contract to have it finished in three months. + +Henrietta knew that he was beginning to feel worried about the +unsatisfactory trend of his work and she had been watching the course +of affairs with secret anxiety. She knew, too, that recently he had +been disappointed and annoyed by several business matters. He prided +himself upon his acute business sense, but lately he had blundered +more than once in his orders to his stock brokers and had lost some +money. + +But, puzzled though she was by these developments in Felix Brand's +character and temperament and apprehensive of their results, if she +could have witnessed the scene that was taking place in his apartment +ten or twelve hours after he bade her that smiling farewell for the +day, far greater would have been her alarm and bewilderment. + +It was well toward morning, but every light in every room was shining +at its brightest. From one room to another, from end to end of the +suite and back again, its master was walking rapidly, constantly, as +if he feared to stop for an instant or even to check his pace. The +light, muffled sound of his hurried tread barely disturbed the +silence that hung, close and heavy, over the rooms; that brooding +silence of the late hours of the night which seems to have hushed all +the sounds that ever were, but out of which almost any sound might be +born. + +As he rushed through drawing room, chambers, dining room, library, +like another Wandering Jew urged pitilessly, incessantly, back and +forth in a contracted round, not another living eye did his own +encounter in the brilliantly lighted rooms. He was entirely alone. But +every now and then his voice rang sharply through the stillness in +angry, resentful, resolute tones. + +"You shall not! You shall not!" he shouted, shaking his fist at the +empty air and squaring his shoulders as though he expected some +ghostly enemy to materialize from behind a door or out of the folds of +a portiere. + +He threw off his coat and waistcoat and, wiping the sweat from his +face, hurried on again in his ceaseless round. + +In the dining room he halted at the sideboard and filled a glass with +brandy and soda. It was his custom to drink sparingly at all times +and when alone he rarely touched liquor of any sort. So now, when he +saw how much of the brandy bottle was empty, he gave a low whistle of +amazement. + +"What!" he exclaimed. "Have I drank all that tonight? And I wouldn't +know that I'd taken a drop!" + +He swallowed the mixture eagerly, as if it were some elixir from which +he expected to gain new strength, and turned back upon his tramp. As +he passed through his bedroom his gaze longingly sought the bed and +his steps wavered toward it. His eyelids yearned for sleep and his +strength was ebbing. With a stiffening of his muscles and a clenching +of his fists he held himself steadily on his course. + +"No, you don't," he muttered. "I won't give in! Do you hear me? I will +not give in!" + +He marched on, his head thrust forward, his mouth set hard in dogged +determination and his hands clenched in his pockets. As he passed +through the library he suddenly wavered and a spasm of apprehension +crossed his face. He paused uncertainly for a moment, then strode to +the entrance door of the apartment, made sure that it was locked, and +brought the key back with him. A gleam of triumph mingled with the +fear and anxiety in his face and eyes as he turned the combination +lock of a little safe set in the wall behind a screen. The door swung +open and with a smile of exultation he put the key inside and was +about to close the door again when he stopped short, and, as if with +the flashing of some new thought, his whole face and figure sagged. + +"What's the use?" he muttered disappointedly. "He probably knows this +combination, damn him, as well as I do!" + +Anger rose in a quick flood and with a wrathful oath he flung the key +on the floor. His face was grimmer and more resolute than before as he +whirled about and rushed from the room. Already pale and drawn, it +went a shade whiter with the effort of will that kept him on his feet +and still moving. At the door of the drawing room his hands flew +upward to the height of his shoulders and doubled into fists. His +eyes were fixed in a blank stare and his face was working in a mortal +agony. + +"Ah-h-h!" he gasped. + +And then: "There!" he cried in a triumphant tone, as with one foot he +sent spinning across the room the chair beside which he had halted. +His breast was heaving and his breath coming hard as he looked this +way and that with wild eyes. Throwing open a window he put out his +head and caught the cold air upon his streaming face. The sky was +brightening with the promise of dawn. + +"Good God!" he groaned as he turned back into the room. "Why did I try +to stick this out alone? Why didn't I do something, go somewhere, have +some of the fellows come here to an all-night game? Oh, I was +afraid--that's the truth, I was afraid--and you knew it, damn you, you +knew it!" he ended in angry tones. + +In the library he looked wistfully toward his favorite easy chair, for +his knees trembled with weariness. "No, no, I must not stop. If I sat +down I'd go to sleep, and then----" + +He wheeled about and started back. But he held his head higher and +walked with a more confident air. "I'm winning," he exclaimed, and +there was glad surety in his voice. "It was a close call, but I'm +winning! Get back to where you belong, you dog! Go back to where you +came from, damn you, and stay there! I've won, I tell you!" And he +stamped his foot and cried again, "I've won!" + +But confident though he was of having won this victory, whatever it +might be, over the invisible enemy whom he seemed both to hate and to +fear, he did not yet dare to cease from his tramp. Back and forth he +still went; and presently, pausing beside the open window, he saw that +the sky was flushed with sunrise and heard the roar and rattle of +another day rising from the streets. + +"A bath soon, and breakfast," he thought, "and then out for the day, +and I'll be fairly safe once more. And if things get hard, I'll motor +over to Staten Island and take Miss Marne's sister out again. That +experiment helped a lot yesterday." + +He went through the rooms, putting up shades and pushing back +curtains and switching off electric lights. His face was white and +haggard and in his eyes still lingered the look of wild anxiety which +had filled them for so many hours. With hands that trembled he poured +another glass of brandy and soda. As he passed the door of his chamber +his step lagged, he turned and looked in. + +"No! No!" he cried harshly, and tried to walk on. But his feet were +like lead and held him there. Once more his body stiffened for battle, +his teeth ground together and his lips shut in a straight, hard line. + +He staggered a little way toward the bed, trying to hold himself back, +as if he were wrestling, with all his remnant of strength and will, +against some immaterial, compelling force. Striking out with one fist, +as at some foe beside him, he shouted thickly, "Go! Go back, I say!" +And with a supreme effort he wheeled about and with uncertain, heavy +steps moved back toward the door. + +"I will not! I will not!" he muttered, his voice unsteady and +anguished. From his face had faded the determined look and his eyes, +glassy and staring, were turned upward in terrified appeal. + +Even as he spoke his feet once more refused to move. They seemed +rooted to the floor, but his body, though he tried his best still to +face toward the entrance, turned again toward the bed. He caught at +the door and braced himself against it for a moment. Then his grasp +weakened and his arms fell down. + +The clutching will that was battling with his moved him one step, and +then another, toward the end that he feared, though he strove so +fiercely against it that the sinews of his neck seemed about to burst +through their restraining skin. Stiffening his body, catching at +chairs and tables and putting all his strength into the effort to hold +his feet firm upon the floor, he fought with the intangible force that +gripped him. + +[Illustration: HE SANK FACE DOWNWARD UPON THE BED] + +"I will not! I will not!" he gasped; and with a mighty effort tore +himself from his bonds and rushed toward the door. But again viewless +hands seized him and turned him suddenly about. His haggard face +flushed to a dull red and beaded with sweat as he fought with the +unseen power that impelled him, step by step, across the room. + +With breath coming in gasps, he struggled on desperately, sometimes +gaining a little space and again losing more; and seeing himself, +despite his utmost efforts, forced nearer and nearer to the goal that +he knew meant his vanquishment. Inch by inch he fought the way with +his invisible enemy to the very bedside. Even there, with his last +ounce of strength, he made a final, futile effort to break away from +his intangible captor. Then he flung up his arms and covered his face +and with a long "oh-h-h," that was half a rageful, hysterical cry and +half a moan of despair, he sank face downward upon the bed. + +He had lost the battle in what he had thought to be the very hour of +victory. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +HUGH GORDON WINS HENRIETTA'S CONFIDENCE + + +Henrietta reached the office early that morning, lest her employer, in +his eagerness to push his work, now that he could devote himself to it +with undivided energies, should get there first. She looked forward to +the day with pleasant anticipations, for she had assisted him in this +way before and she liked it the best of all her duties. The books were +ready upon his desk, but he had not yet arrived. She waited for him +all the forenoon, employing herself as best she could, and still he +did not come. + +In the afternoon she tried to get his apartment on the telephone, but +there was no answer. Surely, he would not have left the city, after +such preparations for a busy day, without sending her some message. +She called up Dr. Annister and asked if he had seen Mr. Brand that +day, or knew whether or not he had unexpectedly gone out of the city. +No, the doctor replied, he had not seen Mr. Brand since the evening +before, when he and Mildred and Mrs. Annister had gone to the theatre +together. As Mildred had been looking quite happy all day he did not +think Felix could have said anything about going out of town. And he +had promised to dine with them tomorrow night. Doubtless if he had +gone anywhere it was only for the day and Dr. Annister was cheerfully +confident Henrietta might expect to see him again on the morrow. + +She lingered at the office an hour later than usual, hoping for some +word from the architect. But none came. The next morning she hurried +back, eagerly anticipating a letter or a telegram, but found neither. +All day she waited, her nerves on edge with expectation and anxiety, +but Brand did not come nor did he send her any message. + +"This is worse than it was before," thought Henrietta, "for then +he told me beforehand that he might have to go. And he said so +positively, only a little while ago, that he did not intend to take +that trip south again. Perhaps he found he had to go after all. +Anyway, I guess it's what I'd better tell people." + +Remembering his dinner engagement at Dr. Annister's, she made that +explanation over the telephone. Both to Dr. Annister and afterward to +Mildred she said that she did not know positively that he had gone to +West Virginia, but that he had told her, when he returned from his +former absence, that that was where he had been and that he might have +to go again, although he had not told her the exact place because, for +business reasons, he did not want it to be known. + +Yes, Mildred assented, he had said the same thing to her and she +understood just how it was. But all the same, it was cruel of Felix, +and not at all like him, for he was always so sweetly considerate, to +go off in this sudden, secret way and leave them all in such suspense. + +"When we're married," and a happy little laugh came rippling over the +telephone to Henrietta's ear, "it shan't be like this, for then he'll +have to take me with him on all such jaunts and I'll see to it that +you know where we are." + +As the days went by, Henrietta, pondering with ever increasing anxiety +the mystery of this second disappearance, began to doubt the +explanation she gave to others. This time there came up no reason for +public interest and so even the knowledge that he was away was +confined to a few of his friends and to those who wished to see him +upon business. With all inquirers his secretary treated his absence as +an ordinary matter, saying merely that she thought he was somewhere in +the mountains of West Virginia, she did not know exactly where, nor +could she say positively when he would be back. + +Nevertheless, looking back over what he said to her on his return +after his previous long absence, Henrietta recognized in it a touch of +insincerity. At the time she had accepted it as a matter of course, +but now, scrutinizing her memory of his words and his manner, in the +light of all that had happened since, she finally said to herself, "I +don't believe he was telling me the truth." + +But if that southern business trip was a deliberate fabrication, what, +then, could be the reason for a prolonged absence, so injurious to all +his interests, whose real nature and purpose he had been at such pains +to conceal? She had heard of men who sometimes slipped out of sight +that they might plunge unhampered into debauchery, and she began to +wonder if such were the case with him, or if, perhaps, he had fallen a +victim to some secret vice. But against either of these suppositions +both her feminine instincts and her personal liking for her employer +rebelled. + +"I don't see how that could be," she thought, "for he is always so +nice and refined. There is no suggestion about him of anything gross +or so--unclean. No, it can't be anything of that sort. And yet, he +seemed so nervous, and just as if he were fighting against something +with all his might--and I suppose it would be like that if he were +fighting the desire to drink or take some kind of dope. But I can't +believe it. I wonder if that Hugh Gordon could have anything to do +with it. Well, whatever the explanation, it's evident he doesn't want +people to know about his being away, and he doesn't like it to be +talked about, so the thing for me to do is to keep as still as a mouse +and not to let anybody else do any more talking than I can help." + +Even at home, in her loyalty to her sense of duty, Henrietta said no +more than to make a mere mention of her employer's absence and to +reply, when her mother or sister made occasional inquiry, that he had +not yet returned. + +Brand had been away almost a week when the office boy brought her a +card one morning and said the gentleman was particularly anxious to +see her. As she looked at it and read "Hugh Gordon" her heart began to +beat faster and her face flushed a sudden red. + +Had he come, she wondered, to bring her news of Brand's whereabouts, +or, perhaps, tidings of some serious misfortune? The apprehensive +thought flashed through her mind that perhaps he would try, under +threat of evil to herself or her employer, to force from her some +personal or business information that he could afterward use as a +lever against the architect, and she told herself that she must be +very careful what she said to him. + +She felt assured that he was there for no good purpose, and during the +moment that she waited for the boy to bring him into her room her mind +formed a swift picture of an elderly fellow, slouching and shabby, +red-nosed and unshaven, bearing all the marks of a parasitic and +dissipated life. + +When she saw instead a well-groomed young man, wearing an English +looking gray suit, advancing toward her with a quick, firm step and a +self-confident air, the reversal of her preconceived ideas was so +complete that for an instant she thought it must be some one else. The +suggestion of a smile crossed his serious face as he met her +disconcerted look and, halting beside her desk, he repeated his name. + +"I have come to see you, Miss Marne, to relieve your mind of any +apprehension you may feel concerning Mr. Felix Brand." + +"Oh," she exclaimed, the reassurance his words gave her evident at +once in her voice. "Then you have seen him? You know that he is quite +well?" + +His keen, dark eyes swept the room with an alert glance. On her desk +glowed a vase of sunshine-colored daffodils. She remembered afterward +that, while his one swift glance had seemed to take in everything in +the room, it had passed over the flowers as coolly as it had over the +chairs and the typewriter, and she compared it with the way Felix +Brand's eyes would have lingered and feasted upon them. + +"I have not seen him for several days," he replied, his gaze again +straight into her eyes. He spoke rapidly, in a direct, almost blunt +manner. "But I can assure you that you need to feel no anxiety about +him. He is quite safe and will be back here as soon as circumstances +permit." + +Henrietta hesitated for an instant, in quick debate with herself as to +the most prudent course to pursue. Should she try to find out all that +this man knew, or, refusing to admit how much she was in the dark +herself, thank him for his kindness in such a way as to make him +believe she did not need his information? She was aware that already +she was not so suspicious of him as she had been a few moments before. +The friendly sincerity of his look and the blunt frankness of his +manner compelled her into a less wary, less hostile feeling. Reminding +herself again that she must be on her guard she motioned him to a +chair beside her desk. + +"You must know, Mr. Gordon," she said, looking at him with a gaze as +direct as his own, "that your attitude toward Mr. Brand some weeks ago +was not such as to make me feel, now, much confidence in your good +intentions. Frankly, I find it difficult to believe that you have come +here with his good in view." + +Gordon's serious countenance relaxed a little and Henrietta felt +herself impelled to a responsive smile, which she quickly checked. + +"No," he agreed, "I can't expect you, not knowing all the +circumstances, to understand that what I did then was intended for +Felix Brand's good. I believed, or at least I hoped, that it would +have a salutary effect upon him and induce him to turn back from a +course of conduct that I foresaw would be disastrous." + +He straightened up and his dark eyes, that would have been somber but +for their keenness, ran quickly down over her face and figure and then +rested again with a softened expression upon hers. + +"I would like you to believe that, whatever was the result of what I +did, I had no evil or selfish motive in doing it. Can you feel that +much confidence in me, Miss Marne?" + +She bent her eyes upon the desk for the moment of silence that +followed his question and made effort to voice her reply in a cool, +disinterested tone. + +"I can understand that you might have been moved by a sense of duty +toward the public welfare--if you believed in your own assertions. I +gather from what you said just now that you wish to be considered Mr. +Brand's friend; but that sort of thing does not agree with my idea of +the loyalty there should be between friends." + +His black brows drew together in a slight frown as he looked intently +at her averted face. "Well," he said, more slowly than he had +previously spoken, "I shall not try to justify myself. I shall only +repeat that my motive was neither selfish nor malicious. I had not +thought particularly, in fact, I had not thought at all then, about +the public side of it. I did it solely in the hope that it would have +a good effect upon Felix." He paused again for a moment and as she +noted his familiar use of her employer's name she thought that, after +all, the relations between them must be intimate. + +"But I hope," he went on, his manner again brusque, "that you will +free your mind from all suspicion as to my reasons for coming here +today." + +She flushed and turned a little more away, and he smiled behind his +hand as he stroked his short, thick, black mustache. + +"I know already more about Felix Brand and his affairs than pleases me +and I am just now much more interested in my own." + +She faced him with a sudden movement and asked sharply: "Do you know +where he is?" + +Her eyes caught an inscrutable change in his. Something almost like +awe came into them and into his countenance as his gaze turned to the +window and sought the blue and distant sky. + +"No," he said, his voice sounding a solemn note, and repeated: "No, I +do not. I do not know where he is now." + +His eyes returned to her face and as he met her startled expression he +exclaimed in a kindly way, leaning forward as if to reassure her: +"There! I've frightened you! Please don't be alarmed. I assure you, +there's nothing to be anxious about. Although I don't know positively +where Felix is, just now, I do know he has suffered no harm, no real +harm, and I believe, I am quite sure, he will be back here again as +well as ever, before very long. I came here to tell you this." + +She studied his face for a moment and somehow, against her will, the +conviction came upon her that this man was moved, as he declared, by +good motives. + +"It was kind of you," she replied at last with a gracious smile, "and +I thank you very much. I was quite anxious, but I believe what you +have told me and I am greatly relieved." + +He looked pleased and exclaimed impulsively: "And I thank you for your +confidence in me!" + +As he rose to go, his glance once more traveled quickly down over her +face and figure and returned to her eyes with a look in his own that +her woman's instinct knew to mean appreciation, interest, liking. + +"By the way," he said, turning impulsively toward her and speaking in +a quick, brusque way, "there is another matter I must not forget. It +was part of my reason for coming here. There was a letter--you +remember--that Felix had you write the last day he was here and then +asked you not to send just then. You haven't mailed it yet, have you?" + +She stared at him in astonishment and said "No," before she could take +counsel of her caution. + +"I didn't suppose you had. However, I happen to know, he told me, that +he would like you to send it at once, just as it stands now." + +Henrietta was so astounded by this revelation of the intimacy that +must exist between the two men that for a moment she could not reply. +For the letter was concerned with an effort Brand was making to get +control of the marble quarry company in which he had invested some +months before, and she knew that he was keeping the matter very secret +and considered it of great importance. It had worried her more than +anything else in his arrested affairs, for she hesitated to mail it +without farther instructions from him and yet had feared that if she +did not his plans might fall through. + +Gordon went on without appearing to notice her surprise, although she +felt sure that he saw it and was amused by it. "As you know, he wanted +to wait a day or two for certain developments at the other end." + +Henrietta nodded. "Yes, and I have not been able to find out just what +happened." + +"It's all right--just as Felix hoped it would be," he assured her and +went on to tell her briefly what had occurred. + +After his departure Henrietta found herself comparing her visitor with +her employer. All her previous thought of Gordon had been in +connection with Brand as the cause of his troubles, as his enemy and +even his persecutor. So now, when Gordon appeared in person, it was +against a contrasting background of the appearance and character of +the man to whom she felt so grateful for the opportunity of livelihood +amid congenial surroundings. + +Gordon was much in her mind during the rest of the day; and as she +traveled homeward in the afternoon, in the subway, across the ferry in +the glowing sunset light, and in the clattering trolley car, her +thought was busy with speculation about him, with comparison of him +with Felix Brand, with recollections of what he had said and how he +had looked, with conjecture as to the meaning of his expression when +she asked him if he knew where Brand was. + +At dinner she spoke of her caller to her mother and sister. At once +they were interested and were eager to know what he was like and what +Henrietta thought of him. As she answered their questions she felt her +cheeks flushing when she saw their surprise that she should praise or +seem to admire the man who was Felix Brand's enemy. + +"I know you are surprised," she said, trying to overcome a sudden +access of self-consciousness, "that he isn't at all the sort of man we +thought him, or at least that I was sure he must be. But it was +certainly considerate of him to come, and there was nothing at all in +anything he said or did that suggested a different motive. I never was +more surprised in my life than I was by his appearance. You know Mr. +Brand told the reporters that he is a relative and I had supposed he +must be some dissipated, disreputable sort of creature. And then in +came this good-looking young man--for he is good-looking, though not +so handsome as Mr. Brand--his face hasn't that look of refinement and +affability. He was well-dressed and looked like a prosperous young +business man, and he has such a straightforward, independent air." + +"Does he look like Mr. Brand?" queried Isabella, so interested that +she was forgetting her dinner. + +"A little--yes. In some ways a good deal, and then again he seems so +different. He is dark and his features have a family resemblance. But +otherwise the two men are not alike. You know that dear expression Mr. +Brand's eyes always have, so winning and affectionate, and as if he +thought the world of you. Well, Mr. Gordon's eyes are large and +brown, too, but they are keen and they look right through you and he +flashes one glance around the room and you feel that he knows +everything in it. He isn't so polished in his manners----" + +"Mr. Brand has the loveliest manners of any man I ever met," Isabella +interrupted. "His mission in life ought to be to travel round and show +them off as a pattern for all other young men. I wish Warren could +have the advantage of a few lessons." + +"Bella!" exclaimed her mother reprovingly. "You ought not to speak +that way of the man who is almost your husband. And Warren is such a +good man, too!" + +"So is Mr. Brand," Isabella replied saucily, "awfully good, just too +good to be true. Tell us more about Mr. Gordon, Harry." + +"Why, as I was saying, his manner isn't so polished as Mr. Brand's. In +fact, he is so direct and positive that he seems a little curt, though +I'm sure he doesn't mean to be. He makes you feel that he's very +sincere, too. Mr. Brand seems to draw people to him without making any +effort, but Mr. Gordon is more compelling and something about him +makes you take an interest in him and believe in him." + +"He impressed you a good deal, didn't he, Harry?" said Isabella, +looking at her sister thoughtfully. + +Henrietta felt her cheeks warming again and was annoyed at herself +that she should blush in this way when, as she scolded herself, "there +was no reason for it." + +"I don't know that he did, particularly," she said defensively. "His +coming was rather curious and you and mother seemed interested and +wanted to know all about him." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +PENELOPE HAS A VISITOR + + +Penelope Brand lay back in her wheel-chair in the glass-enclosed porch +and gave herself up to luxurious enjoyment of its sun-filled warmth. +The table beside her with its books and its sewing, but just now +finished and neatly folded, gave evidence that she had spent a busy +morning. Outside there was bright sunshine, too, but there was also a +raw March wind that filled the air with dust and stimulated the +tear-ducts of the eyes that faced it. The little glass porch had +brought a very great pleasure into her life, giving her, during the +shut-in winter season, always hard for her to endure, wider views of +earth and sky, a flood of the sunshine in which she loved to bask and, +on days when it was possible to keep the entrance open, much more +fresh air. + +She sat there alone, loving the sunny warmth and thinking of the +brother who had made her pleasure possible. Her secret mental +attitude toward him was marked by a certain aloofness and a quietly +judicial estimate which she did her best to conceal from her mother. +It had cost her not a little effort, too, to keep this attitude from +developing into stern censorious judgment. Just now it added to her +pleasure that her feeling toward him, at least for the time being, +could be mainly that of gratitude, though gratitude tempered by +curiosity. + +"Perhaps he'd have done it long ago if I had asked him," she told +herself. "And I've longed for something of the sort so much. I do +wonder what made him finally think of it himself. It wasn't like him. +He might have thought of it and wanted to do it ten or twelve years +ago, before he had plenty of money. But it's not like him now." + +The click of the gate attracted her attention and she saw a man coming +up the walk. "Why, that can't be Felix," she thought in doubting +surprise. Then, as she looked at him more attentively, "Oh, no! It's +that Mr. Gordon who was here last winter. Felix didn't seem to like +very well his calling on us. And mother isn't at home. Well, I'll +have to see him. And perhaps it's just as well, for I don't care +particularly whether Felix likes it or not." + +He held her thin, talon-like hand affectionately as he asked how she +was and if she enjoyed her glass cage. + +"Enjoy it! Oh, Mr. Gordon! You can't imagine how I delight in it! I +sit here most of the time every day in all kinds of weather. It has +given me the greatest pleasure, and I think I am better and stronger, +too, because of it. I was just thinking how grateful I am to Felix." + +His face and eyes, which had been glowing with responsive pleasure, +darkened at her last sentence. + +"I don't like that word 'grateful' in connection with such a matter," +he exclaimed quickly. "It was a little thing for Felix to do, only one +out of all the many things that he could do for you if he would, and +one that he ought to have done long ago. And it doesn't seem to me, +Penelope, that _you_ would have any reason to be 'grateful' to Felix +Brand, no matter how much he might do for you." + +The significant tone in which he spoke the last words brought surprise +into her face. She turned toward him with astonished inquiry in her +dark eyes, but, as she met his assured gaze, that expression quickly +changed into one of understanding. It was evident that she knew what +he meant. She looked at him steadily for a moment, a moment of inner +effort in which she brought her own impulse of responsive feeling +under firmer control, before she replied: + +"Wouldn't that be a barbarian sort of philosophy to live by?" + +"Perhaps it would," he admitted, paused an instant, and then went on +with some heat: + +"But when I think of all that you have suffered because of him, and +how little he has tried to make amends, I am so indignant that merely +refraining to be 'grateful' for such a crumb as this seems nothing to +what he deserves." + +A faint color crept into her thin, pale cheeks as again she stared at +him wide-eyed. + +"I know all about it," he continued, nodding at her gravely. "I know +that you would have been as straight and strong as any girl, and a +noble, capable, active woman, if he hadn't pushed you off the limb of +that apple-tree in your back yard twenty years ago, because he was +determined to have your place." + +"Did he tell you about it?" she demanded, her voice trembling with +excitement. "But he must have, because nobody else, not even father or +mother, ever knew. They thought I fell." + +"Yes, I know that was the version he gave of the affair, and everybody +accepted it. And you kept the truth to yourself." + +"What good would it have done to blame him after it was all over? And +he didn't intend to do it." + +"Yes, he did! He meant to push you off and get your place and show you +that he was boss." + +"Perhaps, but he had no intention of hurting me--he didn't think that +it would." + +"Oh, I know he had no murderous purpose. He just gave up to a selfish, +brutal impulse, and afterwards he was too cowardly and too selfish to +confess the truth." + +She turned upon him a steady, wondering gaze and he shrank back a +little and went on more humbly: + +"I suppose I ought not to speak in that way to you about your brother, +and I hope you will pardon me. But when I compare your life with his +it makes me too indignant to keep a bridle on my tongue. And, besides, +Penelope," and he leaned toward her with his manner again forceful +with the strength of his convictions, "you know as well as I do how +truthful is every word I have said." + +"And even if I do," she rejoined with dignity, "it is possible that I +would not choose to admit all that my secret heart might think." + +She stopped with a little start and a drawing together of her brows, +and then, with alarm dawning in her eyes, she leaned forward eagerly +and put a pleading hand upon his arm: + +"You won't say anything about this to mother, will you?" + +Gordon hesitated, but his eyes, flashing with the intensity of his +feeling, softened as they fell upon her anxious face. + +"It's hardly fair," he said doggedly, "it certainly isn't just, for +her to glorify Felix as she does when he is--what he is. In justice to +you she ought to know this." + +"That's of no consequence at all beside the pain it would give her to +know the truth. You don't know mother--nobody does but me--and you +can't appreciate in the least what Felix, or, rather, her ideal of +Felix, means to her. Mother is, and always has been, a romantic sort +of woman, as you might guess"--and she smiled faintly at him--"by +the names she gave her children. Her own life has been hard and +monotonous, with little pleasure, little beauty--and she has such a +beauty-loving nature--little opportunity. And she is so shy, too, she +has so little self-confidence. So, don't you see, all the romance and +imagination that have been starved in her have been born over again +for her in Felix. Felix is handsome, magnetic--he attracts people and +makes everybody his friends, as she would have liked to do--he is a +genius, he creates beautiful things, he lives in lovely surroundings, +he is winning fame and wealth--life for him is a Grand Adventure, more +beautiful and wonderful than anything she ever dared to dream. She +knows Felix is selfish, but she can always see so many reasons why it +is impossible for him to do any particular generous thing. Oh, Mr. +Gordon, it would grieve her so to know how that accident really +happened and how he concealed the truth and--and----" + +"Ah, you don't like to say it," he broke in as she hesitated and +ceased speaking. "But I know what you mean--how he profited by it. For +the money that would have been divided upon the education of both of +you if you had been well and strong was all spent upon him. And he +took it and kept silent." + +Again she stared at him in surprise. "How frankly Felix must have +talked with you!" she exclaimed. "He never would have confessed all +this if he hadn't felt remorseful and repentant!" + +"But he isn't!" Gordon blurted out with an irritated start. "He's come +to think it a part of his good fortune. If he had been, or, even, if +he were now--well, things might have turned out differently--that's +all I can say." + +"But we're getting away from mother. Don't you see, Mr. Gordon, that +it would be cruel? And what good would it do? Felix is what he is, and +he'll stay so to the end of the chapter. You can't change him and you +would only spoil mother's happiness in him. Promise me, Mr. Gordon, +that you won't tell her anything about it, that you won't say anything +to her about Felix that would make her unhappy!" + +Gordon rose abruptly and walked across the little enclosure and back +again, his black brows drawn together, before he replied. + +"It is hard to refuse you anything, Penelope," he said finally, +standing in front of her chair. "You have had so little, and you +deserve so much. I know you are right about this, and I shrink from +hurting her as much as you do. But when I think of Felix and the +course he has deliberately followed, it angers me so that I forget +everything except the retribution he so richly deserves. But you are +right and I give you your promise." + +He smiled upon her and gently patted the hand that lay, thin and +feeble-looking, on the arm of her chair. But the smile quickly faded +from his face as he met the mingled wonder and displeasure of her +look. + +"I thank you for your promise," she said, "but I am surprised to hear +you speak so bitterly of my brother, when you seem to be so friendly +with him and he has given you such intimate confidence." + +Again Gordon walked up and down in the narrow space, his countenance +somber with the intentness of his thought. + +"The relations between us are peculiar," he said at last, speaking +more slowly and deliberately than was usual with him. "I wonder if I +could tell you what they are. I wonder if you would believe me, or +think me sane, if I should tell you. Sometime I shall tell you, +Penelope, for you are a broad-minded, strong-souled woman and you will +be able to see that what I am doing has been for the best good of +everybody concerned. But I think not now. No, not yet, not till after +I have worked out my plan. But I want you to know, Penelope, and I +shall never be content until you do understand. For I honor and +admire you more than anyone else I know. If I didn't, perhaps my +feeling about Felix wouldn't be quite so strong. And I'll try to curb +my tongue when I speak about him to you." + +Penelope had begun to feel much wearied by the interview, with +its demands upon her emotional strength and the strange, tingling +excitement with which Gordon's presence wrought upon her nerves, just +as it had done at their previous meeting. + +His compelling personality, that had burst so unexpectedly and so +intimately into her life, inspired in her the wish to believe in +him. But his bitterness toward her brother, notwithstanding their +evident intimacy, made her hesitate. He seemed so sincere and so +straightforward that her impulse was to meet him with equal frankness. +But she was still a little doubtful, a little fearful. + +She felt that she must know more about the mysterious relation, with +its apparent contradictions, between him and Felix before she could +give him the confidence he seemed to desire. + +"It is all very strange," she said, "and after you are gone I shall +wonder whether I have been dreaming or whether some one named 'Hugh +Gordon' has really been here saying such bitter things about my +brother. Does he know that you have such a poor opinion of him?" + +"Does he know it?" Gordon exclaimed, facing her impulsively and +speaking with emphasis. "Indeed he does! He knows just how much I--but +there! I promised to bridle my tongue. Well, he has had a great deal +more information upon that head than you have!" + +"Well, then, I'll have to forgive you the hard things you've said +about him to me, since you've been just as frank with him first!" + +"Thank you! But you know they are all true, Penelope!" + +She drew back, a little offended that he should insist a second time +upon this point, and there was a touch of scornfulness in her tones as +she rejoined with dignity: + +"I do not deny that my brother has faults, but is that any reason why +I should discuss them with a stranger?" + +"Don't say that, Penelope!" + +His cry came so straightly and so simply from his heart that its +honest feeling and the look of pain upon his face moved her to quick +contrition and to warmer confidence. Surely, she told herself, there +could be no doubting his ardent friendliness toward her mother and +herself, whatever might be his attitude toward Felix. + +"I have known about you such a long time," he was hurrying on in +pleading speech, "that you are like an old friend--no, more than that, +like a sister in my thought of you, and I want you to feel that way +toward me. It may seem strange to you, Penelope, but it is true, that +you and your mother are nearer and dearer to me than any one else in +the world. That's why it hurts when you call me a stranger, although I +know I can hardly seem more than that to you, as yet." + +He sat down beside her and took one of her hands for a moment in both +of his. "But we are going to change that, if you'll let me," he said, +a smile lighting his serious face. "If you'll let me I'm going to be a +genuine sort of brother to you. I haven't the genius that Felix has, +I'll never create anything beautiful or wonderful, but I have got a +knack for business and I can make money. I don't care anything about +money for itself, but I do care a lot for all the things one can do +with it. + +"My head is full of ideas and plans for using the money I shall make +as a lever for helping the world along. I know such things interest +you, Penelope. You like to read and think about them and I'm sure +you'd have done great work in that line if--if Felix--if there had +been no accident. And if you will give me the benefit of your reading +and thinking, it will help me in the working out of my plans." + +"I? Could I be of any use? When I am such a prisoner and have so +little strength? I've only read and thought a little--I don't know +anything as people do who come face to face with actual conditions. +But you don't know," and a sharp, indrawn breath and the wistfulness +of her eyes told him how much she was moved by his proposal, "you +don't know what it would mean to me!" + +"I can guess, Penelope--sister--you don't mind if I call you that? I +know a little, and your face tells me a good deal more, about how your +spirit has rebelled and how you have battled with it and won the +victory. You haven't found it easy to be a prisoner in a wheel-chair!" + +"Indeed, I have not!" + +She bent her thin, humped and crooked body forward with fresh energy +and a spark of the spirit she had conquered flashed out again in her +dark eyes and tired face. + +"My soul has longed so to do something, to be something, to be able to +use my abilities and my energies as other people do! I have longed so +fiercely to go about and see the beautiful and wonderful things in the +world, to achieve something myself and to meet as an equal other +people who have done things worth while! If there is hell anywhere it +used to be in my heart! I fought it--it was the only thing there was +to do--by myself, for I couldn't add to mother's troubles such a +burden as that would have been. Father knew, a little, of how I felt, +before he died. But afterwards I fought it out myself--it took years +to do it--and at last forced myself into a sort of content, or +resignation. + +"I know I am some comfort to mother, although I have cost her so much +care. But for a long time her chief pleasure, after her delight in +Felix, has been in our companionship. So that is something, and I read +a good deal and think all I can, and I try to do through others the +little good in the outside world that is possible to me." + +She leaned back again feebly and closed her eyes for a moment in +physical weariness. "And so at last," she went on, meeting his +compassionate look with a faint smile, "I come to be--not unhappy." + +"And now the opportunity is coming," he assured her impulsively, "for +you to make some use of your sweet, strong spirit and your capable +brain. But I don't know--Felix--I don't know--" he hesitated, casting +at her a keen, inquiring glance, but continued in a confident tone: +"But you'll understand, you'll see it's for the best! Oh, I know +you'll agree that I'm doing the right thing!" + +He saw the fatigue in her countenance and rose to go. "I'm afraid I've +tired you, Penelope, but I hope you'll forgive me when I tell you what +pleasure our talk has given me. Before I go I want to ask you one more +thing--about your mother. Did she--was she much grieved by what I did +about--Felix and that bribery business?" + +A look of gratification crossed Penelope's face. "I hoped you wouldn't +go away without saying something about that," she said frankly. "Of +course, it grieved her. She was deeply hurt." + +"I knew she would be," he interrupted sorrowfully. "But it was the +best way I could see. I thought it would be a warning to Felix." + +"Of course she didn't believe it was true. She thought you were acting +under a conviction of public duty and that you were mistaken in your +understanding of what had happened. You impressed her very much when +you were here and she thought so much about you afterwards that it was +hard for her to reconcile your action with your friendship for Felix. +But she did and finally came to think it really noble in you to hold +what you thought to be the public good above your personal feelings." + +"But it was Felix I was thinking of chiefly," he protested. "Still, it +was very sweet of her, and very like her, too, to look at it in that +way. Would she--do you think she would be glad to see me if she were +at home?" + +"I am sure she would," replied Penelope cordially. "She was so pleased +with her fancy of your being her dream son and of your coming toward +us out of the snow-storm like some one in a dream--dear mother! It all +pleased her so much! And she talked much and tenderly about you +afterwards. But there was something that disturbed her, and I must +tell you about it, for she will want to know if I explained it to +you." + +She stopped a moment and threw an observant glance upon her listener. +Absorbed in what she was saying, he was looking at her with his keen +eyes and serious face all soft and tender with emotion. + +Penelope felt her heart yearn toward him with entire trust. "Felix has +never cared for us as much as this man does already," she thought. + +"Mother was afraid," she continued, "that you might think, from what +she said about her hopes when Felix was a little boy, that she is +dissatisfied with him now. Of course, you know that isn't true. I've +told you enough for you to see how she delights and glories in him. +She would have liked, I think, to see him become a great preacher or a +great reformer. But his bent wasn't that way, and I don't believe that +if he had been either she could have been prouder of him than she is +now." + +"Well, I can never be a great preacher, or a great reformer either, +or, indeed, a great anything. But I hope I shall be able to do some +good in the world, in little spots here and there, and I want very +much to bring more happiness into her life and yours. I would like to +be to her a son. But--I don't know----" + +He hesitated again and Penelope saw doubt come into his face and his +eyes grow wistful. + +"No, I don't know how it will be. I can do it--" Again he stopped for +a moment and, gazing into the distance as he went on, he seemed to +Penelope to be speaking more to himself than to her. "I can do it only +by giving to you and to her, to her especially, very great sorrow +first. Sometimes, I'm not quite sure----" + +Then sudden resolution seemed to seize him. His lips shut and his +figure stiffened with determination. "But it has to be--it has to be," +he declared abruptly. His air was forceful to the verge of +aggressiveness as he turned to her again. + +"Good-bye, Penelope. Give my love to your mother and tell her I was +sorry not to see her. It has been good to see you once more and to +have this talk with you. I shall come again some time if you will let +me. But I shall not believe you unwilling to see me unless you +yourself tell me so." + +"You are a strange man," she replied, looking at him with frank +curiosity but entire friendliness, "and you interest me very much. +Whenever you wish to come again you may be sure that no matter what +you may have been doing, I at least shall be glad to see you." + +His abrupt, aggressive manner softened, and a pleading note sounded in +his voice as he replied: + +"Anyway, you'll try to think, won't you, that I believe, from the +bottom of my heart, that what I am doing and shall do concerning Felix +is for the good of everybody, even for his good, too, extraordinary as +that may seem. That's the most I can say, until the time comes for me +to tell you the whole story. But you shall know it sometime, Penelope. +Good-bye." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +DR. ANNISTER HAS DOUBTS + + +Early in the second week of Brand's absence his secretary had another +call from Hugh Gordon. Henrietta was aware of a little thrill of +pleasure when the office boy brought her his card, and quickly +accounted for it to herself by thinking that perhaps he would have +some news of her employer. But he had nothing to tell her and he made +excuse for coming by asking if Brand had returned or if she had heard +from him. + +Henrietta was puzzled by his manner as he made this inquiry. For he +showed no anxiety, and when she replied he received her answer with as +little interest as if he had known beforehand what she would say. + +"I hoped you would be able to tell me something about him," she added. + +"I do not know where he is," he replied, "but I am positive that you +have no occasion to feel anxious about him. I am quite sure he will +return, perhaps before long. I assure you, if anything should happen +to him, I should know it before any one else." + +He spoke with such sincerity that her lingering distrust faded away, +while his abundant physical vigor, manifest alike in his appearance +and his manner, made a strong appeal to her feminine nature. He seemed +so full of energetic purpose, and he looked at her with such a +self-assured, straightforward gaze that she could no longer withhold +the confidence she felt him to be demanding. Nor did the fact that her +woman's instinct, quickly discovering the scarcely concealed +admiration in his eyes and countenance, told her the reason for his +visit lessen her inclination to give him the trust he desired. + +"Do you think," she anxiously asked, "that I ought to report Mr. +Brand's disappearance to the police?" + +"No," he said with abrupt positiveness, "I do not." + +Then he seemed to take second thought and purposely to soften his +manner as he proceeded: "When he returns do you think he would be +pleased to learn that another hullaballoo had been made over his +absence, doubtless on necessary business?" + +"Oh, no, I am sure he would not! He didn't like it at all the other +time. It was only--I feel so much responsibility--and I am so +uncertain as to what I ought to do. I am not letting anybody +know"--she hesitated and blushed--"except you, that I don't really +know where he is. I thought it was what he would wish if--if he is on +a business trip--in West Virginia--or anywhere. But if anything has +happened--should happen--to him----" + +"Don't feel anxious on that score. I shall be the first one to know if +any harm comes to him, and I give you my word that you shall be +informed as soon as possible. I came in to give you this assurance, as +I feared you would be worried by his long absence." + +Henrietta was surprised when her visitor left to find that their +conversation had lasted for half an hour. "It didn't seem so long," +she thought, smiling in the pleasant glow that still enveloped her +consciousness. + +"I hope I didn't say anything I ought not," her thought ran on, with +just a tinge of anxiety. "He is such a compelling sort of man, you +have to trust him, and he's so blunt and direct himself that before +you know it you are being just as frank as he is." + +She reviewed their talk and reassured herself, with much +gratification, that nowhere had it touched what the most sensitive +loyalty to her employer could have thought forbidden ground. + +"It's very curious," she marvelled, "how he knows about Mr. Brand's +affairs. They must be the very closest friends or he could never know +so much about Mr. Brand's ambitions and how he feels about his art. +And yet there was a flash in his eyes every time Mr. Brand's name was +mentioned, and he looked just as if he were trying to control an angry +feeling. Still, they are surely friends.... His mustache is very +handsome. I wonder why he doesn't let it grow longer." + +Toward the end of the week he came again and renewed his assurances +of Brand's safety, and again they talked happily together for a length +of time that startled Henrietta when she looked at her watch after he +left. Her confidence in him increased with each interview and so also +did her puzzlement as to his relations with Felix Brand. For several +days she debated with herself as to what she ought to do and at last, +in her anxiety and doubt, she sought the counsel of Dr. Annister. + +She told him the whole story, admitting that she did not herself +believe the architect had taken the southern trip, giving her reasons +for that suspicion, describing the three visits of Hugh Gordon and +recounting the assurances he had made her of Brand's safety and early +return. + +"I haven't come to you before, Dr. Annister," she said, "because I +didn't like to worry you about it. I know what a nervous condition +Mildred is in, anyway, because she doesn't hear from him and I thought +that if she guessed the real state of affairs it would be ten times +harder for her." + +"I fear Mildred will have a nervous collapse if he does not return +soon," said Dr. Annister gravely, "or we do not get some assurance +that all is well with him. You say that this Hugh Gordon declares he +doesn't know where Felix is?" + +"Yes, that is what he says, but at the same time he seems so confident +there can be nothing wrong that when I talk with him I feel it will be +all right. And then afterwards I wonder if I am doing the right thing +in keeping it all so quiet. Do you think, Dr. Annister, that we ought +to put the case into the hands of the detectives? You know, if we did +that and then he should come back in a few days, as he did before, he +would be dreadfully annoyed." + +Dr. Annister, in a shabby leather arm-chair, in whose roomy depths his +undersized figure seemed smaller than ever, leaned forward with his +elbows on its arms and thoughtfully struck together the ends of his +fingers. + +They were in his private office, where this chair had been for twenty +years his favorite seat. It was his attitude and gesture of deepest +abstraction. Many a time, sitting thus, and gazing with intent eyes +on nothing at all, had he found light on difficult cases. And many a +nervous wreck among his patients had marched back to health and vigor +to the rhythmic tapping of those finger-ends. + +Just now he was considering the possibility that Felix Brand, the +famous young architect, his son-in-law to be, might have sunk out of +sight intentionally in order to indulge in deeply hidden debauch. +Although it had but recently become manifest, that suggestion of +sensuality in the young man's refined and handsome countenance, the +physician's only ground of objection to the early marriage for which +his daughter and her lover had pleaded, had grown stronger of late. +But if Brand should be found in some low dive it might get out and the +carrion-loving sensational newspapers would make an ill-smelling +scandal into which Mildred's name would be dragged. No, if that were +the explanation, it would be better to let him return in his own good +time and then have a serious talk with him and try to get at the +truth. + +"No," he said at last, taking down his arms and leaning back into the +chair's capacious embrace, "I don't think we'd better take that +extreme measure; at least, not yet. In my judgment you've acted +prudently, my dear, in not letting anybody know his absence is other +than an ordinary business matter. It is now about two weeks since +he--went away?" + +"Two weeks and a half." + +"Well, I think we'd better wait at least another week before we do +anything. And, meantime, all that you've told me will be a secret +between you and me." + +"Thank you, Dr. Annister. You've relieved my anxiety very much, +indeed. And I'm so glad you think as you do, for I dreaded doing +anything about it for fear it might get into the papers and there'd be +all that horrid publicity and the reporters coming and catechizing me +every day." + +"Wait a bit," he said as she rose to go. "I want to ask you more about +this Gordon. He seems to you an honest, straightforward sort of man?" + +"Oh, entirely, Dr. Annister! He is so frank and sincere and direct +that you can't help believing in him. He seems to know Mr. Brand +very, very intimately, too. And yet such an angry look crosses his +face sometimes when we speak about Mr. Brand that I am very much +puzzled. It doesn't seem as if they could be such good friends as they +would have to be for Mr. Gordon to know all he does." + +"I wish I could see him and talk with him myself. Do you know his +address?" + +"No, sir. And he's not in either the telephone or the city directory." + +"Well, if he comes to your office again ask him to come up here with +you. Explain how anxious we are--doubtless he knows that Felix and +Mildred are engaged--and say that it would be a great relief to us if +we could hear from his own lips that he is still sure of Mr. Brand's +safety. I'll see him first and if he inspires my confidence as he does +yours I'll have Mildred come in and talk with him, too. Won't you go +up and see Mildred and Mrs. Annister?" + +"I'd love to, Dr. Annister, but--Mildred will be so anxious for news, +and I can't tell her anything more than I have a dozen times already, +and----" + +"I understand," he interrupted. "I know, it's hard not to be able to +tell her what she longs to hear. Ah, Henrietta," and he shook his head +sadly, "there isn't a man on the face of this earth that is worthy of +such a wealth of love! But how are the mother and sister? And how is +the mortgage getting on?" + +He was standing in front of her, and, although she was not a tall +woman, their eyes were on a level. His deeply lined, thin face was so +pale, that, with its white mustache, heavy, gray-white eyebrows and +crown of silver-white hair, it was like an artist's study of white +against white. + +As Henrietta looked into it a sudden vision came to her of the long +procession of men and women who had passed through that office, +stricken and fearful, their desperate eyes pleading with that one pale +face for help, and a lump came in her throat. She coughed before she +could speak. + +"We begin to think mother is getting better," she said, "now that she +is feeling so much at ease about money matters. And the mortgage is +slowly dwindling. If I have no bad luck I expect to clear it all off +by the end of the summer." + +"Good! You are a splendid, plucky girl, my dear, and I'm as proud of +you as your father would have been!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +MILDRED IS MILITANT + + +The next afternoon Henrietta left her office early, in order to +discharge some commissions for her sister in the shopping district. +Stopping to look at a window display of spring costumes, her eye was +caught by a dress that suited her taste exactly. She inspected it from +both sides and went into the doorway that she might get the back view. + +"What a lovely suit and how becoming it would be for me!" she thought. +"I wonder if I could afford to buy it. Oh dear, no! I mustn't even +think of such a thing! It would be just that much off the mortgage +payments." + +She turned away with a sigh and found herself face to face with Hugh +Gordon, who glanced with a quizzical smile from her to the window. + +"Did you hear one of the commandments cracking?" she laughed. "I've +just been coveting one of those suits as hard as I could." + +"Are you going in to buy it now?" he asked with a suggestion of +disappointment in his air, as if, having come upon her so +unexpectedly, he disliked to lose her again at once. + +"Oh, dear, no! I'm not going to buy it at all. I can't afford it." + +"Well, then, you are wise not to buy it, and the best way is not even +to think about it any more," he said in that abrupt manner to which, +although it had sometimes startled her at their first meetings, she +had already grown accustomed. She had told herself more than once, +indeed, that she liked it in him, it seemed so expressive of his +masculine forcefulness and decision of character. + +"How different you are from Mr. Brand," she answered smiling. "He +would say in such case, 'If you want it why don't you buy it at once? +There's no time like the present for doing the things you want to +do.'" + +His brows came together in a quick frown and his eyes flashed as he +said: "Yes, I know that is his philosophy of life. But it's not mine +by a long ways. I think it despicable." + +His voice sounded harsh and angry and Henrietta looked up in surprise +at the intensity of feeling it betrayed. + +Then she remembered Dr. Annister's suggestion and exclaimed, "Oh, by +the way, I've a message for you!" + +He listened with interest as she told him of Dr. Annister's desire to +see him and asked if he could either go there with her now or make an +appointment for another day. + +"It would be kind of you to go," she added. "You have relieved my mind +so much about Mr. Brand that I am hoping you can make them feel a +little less anxious, too--especially Miss Annister. I suppose you know +she and Mr. Brand are engaged!" + +"Yes, I know it," he answered curtly as he looked at his watch. "I +have some leisure time now, a couple of hours, and I can go at once as +well as not. I don't know," he went on doubtfully, "whether or not +Miss Annister will want to see me. She is much prejudiced against me." + +Henrietta's mind flew back to the decided opinions Mildred had +advanced to the reporters, which, however, she was glad to remember, +they had modified in their accounts. + +"She was, some weeks ago," Henrietta began reassuringly. + +"And is yet," he declared. "I happen to know that her feeling toward +me is very hostile. And Felix has encouraged her in it." + +"She is so very much in love with Mr. Brand and so wildly anxious it +would be a great kindness to give her even a little comfort," +Henrietta gently urged. + +"I'll do what I can," he replied after a moment's hesitation. He spoke +slowly and his companion, looking up, wondered at the extremely +serious expression that had come into his face. + +As they entered the Annister home, Mildred and her mother were +descending the stairs, dressed for the street. Henrietta looked up +from the doorway and saw Mildred's countenance transfigured with +sudden joy. + +The girl sprang down the steps with a cry of "Oh, Felix, Felix!" +Gordon stepped in from the vestibule where his features had been +blurred by the brilliant sunlight behind him, and Mildred, stricken +with disappointment, threw up her hands to cover the tears she could +not control, and sobbing, rushed back up the stairs. Gordon looked +grimly on, his face set and scowling, as if he were gripping deep into +his very soul with an iron determination. + +"Come up to the drawing-room," said Mrs. Annister, when Henrietta had +presented her companion and explained their errand, "and I'll send for +Dr. Annister." + +Thither also she presently brought Mildred. But the stately air with +which the girl entered the room and the haughty inclination of her +head with which she acknowledged Gordon's greeting told how little +trust she expected to feel in anything he might say. + +In answer to Dr. Annister's inquiries Gordon told them, in substance, +what he had already said to Henrietta and gave them, in brief, curt +sentences, that seemed to spring spontaneously out of the force and +simplicity of his character, the same assurances that Brand was in no +danger and that he would return, safe and well, in his own good time. + +"That," he added, "is all that I can tell you, because it is all I +know. But I do know that." + +"Father!" cried Mildred, springing from her chair, her slender figure +militantly erect, her eyes flashing and her voice thrilling with +indignation. "How can you sit there and listen to this man's talk! Why +don't you throttle him and make him tell all he knows? It's plain +enough that if he knows this much he must know where Felix is and why +he doesn't write to me. But I see through it all! He's got Felix +locked up somewhere, perhaps in some mountain cabin in West Virginia, +or perhaps he's killed him. He ought to be arrested! If you don't care +enough for Felix to have it done I'll telephone for the police at once +and he shall not leave this house until they come!" + +Her words poured forth in an angry torrent, and then, with a sobbing +cry, she swept from the room. Dr. Annister leaped to his feet as if to +follow her, then turned with a hand outstretched to his wife. + +"You'd better go to her," he said anxiously. "She's hysterical and +must be put to bed. I'll be there presently. I hope you will pardon my +daughter's outburst," he added, turning to Gordon with a little bow. +"She is overwrought from having brooded over this matter much more +than it deserves. I don't share her suspicion of you and you seem to +me to show every mark of a man speaking honestly what he believes to +be the truth. But you will pardon me if I say I do not quite +understand how it can all be true." + +They had all risen and Gordon was looking straight down into the +little physician's eyes with an expression so serious and solemn that +Henrietta caught her breath, intently listening for what he was about +to say. + +"No," he replied, slowly, gravely, "I do not wonder that you do not +understand. Neither do I." + +Professional inquiry was in the keen glance with which Dr. Annister +searched for an instant his visitor's face and eyes. Henrietta, +watching him, guessed that he was probing for some sign of mental +aberration. But apparently he was satisfied on that score, for as he +followed them out he gave her a reassuring pat upon the arm. + +"Well," he said more cheerfully, "since this is all you can tell us, +we shall have to wait with what patience we can for Mr. Brand's +return. But I will tell you frankly, Mr. Gordon, that I, at least, +have confidence in you and accept your assurances." + +He did not tell them, however, by what course of reasoning he had +quickly come to this conclusion. That was something to be kept closely +locked in his own breast until he should see Felix Brand again. For he +had decided that the most probable key to the mystery was that his +daughter's betrothed was indulging in some secret form of debauchery, +perhaps solitary drunkenness, perhaps indulgence in some drug, perhaps +mere beastliness, and that this fact was known to his intimate friend, +Hugh Gordon, who, in single-minded loyalty, was trying to protect him. +A normal man's disgust at such a course of conduct, thought the +doctor, would explain the antipathy which he was often unable to +conceal when Brand's name was mentioned. + +Henrietta thought her companion somewhat abstracted on their way down +town, and unusually serious, even for him, who was accustomed to take, +as she had already learned, a serious view of himself and the world. +He crossed the ferry with her, and not until they had ensconced +themselves in a quiet corner of the boat's upper deck did he seem to +settle the question which had been disturbing his mind. But settled +she decided it must be, for he now gave himself up to enjoyment of her +society. + +When they landed he walked with her to her trolley car, where they +stood, still talking, until the motorman began making preparations to +start. + +"Good-bye," he said unsmilingly, as he held out his hand. "I shall see +you again sometime, but I fear it will not be soon." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +"THERE IS NOT ROOM FOR US BOTH" + + +"What shall I do?" Henrietta Marne exclaimed aloud as she looked +despairingly at the papers that littered her desk. "Here are half a +dozen letters, this morning, that ought to have his immediate +attention, to say nothing of all the others that I've got stacked away +in this drawer. Well, I'll just have to keep on as I've done before +and answer them in my own name, saying that Mr. Brand is temporarily +out of the city and as soon as he returns, etc. If he doesn't come +back soon," she grumbled on as she seated herself at the typewriter, +"I'll be as hysterical as Mildred is, though I'm not in love with +him." + +She did what she could with the morning's mail, looking at one +envelope as she carefully put it away unopened, with more than a +little interest and curiosity, as she saw on its upper corner the firm +name of "Gordon and Rotherley." After she had finished the letter +writing she busied herself for an hour with such duties as it was +possible for her to take up. + +The architect's suite of offices was on an upper floor of a high +building and from its windows one's vision soared far over the city +southward and westward. Henrietta paused now and then in the course of +her work to forget her anxieties in the sights and thoughts that +greeted her in that wide view. Down below, at the bottom of the street +canyons, people and vehicles were rushing back and forth. + +But her eyes never rested long upon them. Rather, they traveled slowly +out over the mighty plain of roofs, broken by chimneys and spires, by +great, square buttes of buildings, by domes, turrets and towers, +across the bay, gleaming silver-white or glowing copper-red in the +sun, on to where the swelling hills of Staten Island loomed dimly +against the horizon. + +In the brilliant sunshine a thousand plumes of cloud-white steam waved +gaily above the castellated plain of roofs and shook out their +tendrils in the breeze. "Peace pipes" Henrietta sometimes called them +to herself, as she thought of all that their fragile beauty, forever +dissolving and forever being renewed, meant to the city beneath them. +She liked to think of them, as she watched them curling and waving +upward toward the blue, as a sign and compact of earth's peace and +good-will. + +Her bent of mind was much more practical than imaginative, but she +could never look out over this scene without feeling her nerves thrill +with vague consciousness of the titanic energies ceaselessly grinding, +striving, achieving, beneath that surface of roofs and towers. And +now, as always when she stopped to gaze from her window for a few +moments, she felt her own pulses quicken in response and her own +inward being stir, as if those waving white plumes were trumpet calls +to activity. + +She turned from the window, more restless than before, impatient with +the necessity of merely sitting there and waiting. In Brand's private +room the books she had got for him three weeks before still lay ranged +upon his desk, in readiness for his return at any moment. In her spare +hours she had been reading some of them herself and now she went to +get one as the best way in which to put in her time. As she brought it +back to her own room her thoughts, as they did a hundred times a day, +hovered over and around her various speculations concerning the +mystery of her employer's absence. + +"I wonder," they presently ran, "if it could be possible that he is +hiding somewhere in the city just to indulge in some sort of orgy." +And this time denial of such a possibility did not, as formerly, +spring up spontaneously in her mind. "I don't like to think he could +be that sort of a man," she temporized with her budding doubt, "for he +always seems so refined and thoroughly nice, and he's always been such +a perfect gentleman to me. But it's evident that Mr. Gordon, who knows +him so well, hasn't a very high opinion of him, except in his art." + +The telephone broke in upon her musing, and as she put the receiver to +her ear and said "hello" she was almost as much astonished as +delighted to hear in reply the voice of Felix Brand himself. He told +her that he had just got home, after another beastly trip into the +back woods of West Virginia, where he had had an accident. He had +slipped and sprained his ankle--no, it was nothing serious, and was +all right now, but it had kept him a prisoner for nearly two weeks in +a mountain cabin a thousand miles from anywhere, and he would be at +the office as soon as he had had his luncheon. + +Glad as she was that he was there once more to take up the matters +that needed his attention so badly, Henrietta was almost afraid to +face him, when she heard his voice in the outer room, lest there might +be that in his appearance which would give form and force to the +doubts that were stirring in her mind. + +But he seemed no different from his usual, affable and well-dressed +self. He wore, in all seasons, very dark or black clothing, which was +always in perfect condition, and fitted his well-proportioned figure +trimly and closely rather than with the looser English cut. His dark +eyes looked down upon her with their usual caressing smile and his +clean-shaven face, with its finely modeled, regular features, was as +handsome, as refined, as ever. + +But, no,--his secretary was conscious of something in its expression +she had never noticed there before. What with the rejoicing that +filled her heart and the work that kept her hands and brain busy all +the rest of the day, she had not time to think what it was, or to give +it any definite form in her thoughts, until her homeward trip by +subway, ferry and trolley gave her leisure to scan closely the +happenings of the afternoon. + +Even then she merely said to herself that there was something in his +face and eyes that did not seem quite like him, something that was not +so "nice" as he had always seemed to be. She did not know enough about +the evil undercurrents of life to give the thing more specific +definition. But she did know that, whatever it was, it stirred, deep +within her, a faint sense of repulsion. + +"Did you get my letter?" was one of the first things he said to her. + +"No, Mr. Brand, I've heard nothing at all from you since you left." + +"You didn't? That's queer. I gave it to the porter to mail and he +probably forgot all about it. I went away so hurriedly I didn't have +time to write until after I got aboard the train. There were some +directions in it about the work here. Well, we'll have to go back and +take things up where we left off. And the first thing is that letter I +wrote and asked you not to send. Where is it?" + +"Oh, I ventured to mail that--I knew how important it was, and I found +out enough about the business to feel sure you would want me to." + +"You did! How fortunate!" + +"Then it was all right? I am so glad! But I don't deserve all the +credit. Your friend, Mr. Hugh Gordon, was here----" + +"What! That fellow? Did he dare to come here?" + +The start, the sudden turn, the sharp exclamation with which Brand +broke into her sentence were so different from his habitual manner of +deliberate movement and courteous speech that Henrietta gazed at him +in amazement. Surprise and indignation sat upon his countenance. + +"Why, yes," she faltered. "He was here several times. The first time, +a few days after you left, he told me he knew you wanted that letter +sent." + +She went on to repeat what Gordon had told her and ended with: "Of +course, I didn't take his word for it entirely, but after what he told +me I was able to find out enough to make me feel sure it was the right +thing to do." + +"You did quite right," he told her cordially. "But I am surprised to +learn of his doing, for me, a friendly act like that. You said he was +here afterwards?" + +"Yes, several times. He came to tell me that you were quite safe and +well and would return before long. I was very glad to have the +assurance, for, of course, I couldn't help being anxious." + +He opened his mouth as if to speak, closed it again suddenly, then, as +he busied his hands with some papers on his desk, took sudden +resolution and, though his face paled, said in a casual way: + +"Did he tell you where I was?" + +"He said he didn't know where you were, but that he did know +positively that if anything should happen to you he would be the +first person to know anything about it. I felt so much less anxious +after that." + +"Yes, it was quite true, what he said," Brand assented slowly. He +hesitated again, as if on the verge of farther speech, and Henrietta +waited. After a moment he turned to her a face out of which he seemed +purposely to have forced all expression and asked: + +"How did he impress you? Do you think he looks like me? Some people +say he does." + +"Oh, he impressed me very favorably, indeed. He seemed so sincere +and so kind and so much in earnest. No, I didn't think he looked +like you, except in a general way. His features, perhaps, are +something like yours, but he himself is so different, his manner, +his expression--everything." + +She spoke interestedly, the color rising in her cheeks, and Brand +watched her narrowly. "Oh, that reminds me," she exclaimed, "there's a +letter for you from him. It's in my desk." + +She went to get it and as her employer's gaze followed her his eyes +widened and his face grew ashen. "My God!" he muttered, and there was +consternation in his whispered tone. Then sudden anger flashed over +him. Henrietta felt it quivering in his tones as he said, when she +gave him the envelope: + +"Thank you, Miss Marne. You did just right about mailing that letter, +and I am much pleased that you did. But hereafter don't trust that +fellow Gordon in any way. For all his pretense of friendship, he is +the worst enemy I have and would stop at nothing to injure me. +Hereafter he must not be allowed to enter these rooms. Will you please +tell the boy that these are my orders--that Hugh Gordon must be put +out at once if he attempts to come inside my door again." + +Henrietta noticed that the architect took the letter she gave him with +a hand that trembled slightly, cast at it a single frowning, hostile +glance and hastily but carefully put it away in his breast pocket. She +remembered that just so had he looked at the previous letter from +Gordon, and with just the same angry care had put it away unopened. + +In that inner pocket it remained untouched, just as had the former +one, by turns searing his very heart with impotent anger and chilling +it with fear, until a late hour of the night, when he sat alone before +his library fire. Then, at last, with the look and manner of a man +forced to touch a loathed object, he took it out and opened it. + + "Felix Brand, I have come to a decision," the letter + abruptly began. "It must be either you or I. Until lately I + thought there might be room for us both. But there isn't. If + you had paid any attention to what I told you before, had + shown any remorse for the evil you have done, or any + intention of reforming your conduct, I might have come to a + different conclusion. I will say more than that. If you had + felt in your soul the desire to get yourself together and be + a real man instead of a source of pollution, and had shown + in your thoughts and actions the willingness and the ability + to try to make yourself over, I would have recognized your + right to live. + + "In that case, I would have gone, perhaps not willingly, but + feeling it right to go, back to where I came from, and I + would have let you alone. At least, I would have tried to do + that, because I give you full credit for your genius, of + which I have none, and know its value to the world. But I + might not have succeeded. For I have tasted life and found + it good and the desire to live, the will to live, is so + strong within me that it might have been stronger than the + sense of my duty, of your right, or anything else. + + "But it is useless to speculate about that, because you grow + worse instead of better. You are like one of those people + who, apparently unharmed themselves, carry about with them + the germs of typhoid and scatter destruction wherever they + go. The sooner the world is rid of you the better for it, + and the better for you, too. + + "You will be surprised, and probably angry, to hear from + your secretary that I have visited your office. I went, + primarily, because I wanted to meet Miss Marne, but also + because I knew she ought to mail that letter and, finally, + because I wanted to reassure her about your absence and + prevent any measures being taken to search for you. The + first reason is none of your affair and on the other two + counts you ought to be grateful to me, though I don't + suppose you will be. I took some trouble to find out about + the matters on which that letter bore, because I knew how + important you considered them. You may find it difficult to + believe, but it is true that, although I despise and loathe + you, I did not wish to be responsible for such smash-up of + your plans as longer delay in the sending of your letter + would have caused. The bond between us is too close, Felix + Brand, for me not to feel compassion for you sometimes. + + "I could have kept you away longer this time if I had not + felt sorry for Miss Annister. It was on her account that I + let you return when I did. Don't make her suffer that way + again. If you don't give her beforehand some sort of + plausible preparation for your next absence--for there will + be another, and that before long--I shall enable her father + to find out some plain truths about you that may complicate + matters for you in that quarter. + + "My mind is made up, Felix Brand. There is not room in the + world for both you and me. I shall try not to hurt you + publicly again, because it does no good. And efficient + measures are the only ones that appeal to me. But I am going + to do my best to push you off the edge for good and all. I + have doubted and hesitated and argued the matter over and + over with myself and tried to see some way of compromise. + But you will not come my way and I loathe yours. And you + know quite well that you yourself are responsible for the + whole business, even for the fate that awaits you. You will + merely suffer the consequences of your own actions. For I + believe I shall win. I know that you will put up a good + fight, for we have fought before, and, so far, you have won + oftener than I have. But in the end, I shall win. I dare say + you will think it impertinent in me to add that I am + convinced it will be for your good, as well as for the + world's benefit, that I should win. Nevertheless, I do think + that very thing and so I can still declare myself, + + "Yours sincerely, + "HUGH GORDON." + +Felix Brand read this letter with an interest that made him, in spite +of his abhorrence, go through it a second time before he lifted his +eyes from its pages. For him its mysterious threats needed no +explanation and as he sensed the full meaning of the fate it +predicted, angry horror swept over him. + +He shuddered as he glanced apprehensively about him, as though fearing +to see take shape out of the air the intangible force with which, on +that other night three weeks before, he had fought to the utmost of +his strength, only to be overcome at last. The memory of that fierce +struggle was upon him now, chilling his veins and clutching his heart +with terror. And he would have to fight that invisible, relentless +power over and over again to save himself from the black-magic destiny +that threatened. Then, suddenly, fear and horror were swept away by a +frenzy of rage that ramped through him all the more fiercely because +there was nothing upon which it could wreak itself. + +"You thief!" he cried, glaring about him with bloodshot eyes. "You +hypocrite, to set yourself up as better than I am! Do you hear me? +You hypocrite, thief, murderer!" + +The exaltation of his anger gave him fresh strength and new confidence +in himself and he tore the letter into bits and ground them beneath +his heel as he shouted: + +"This is what will happen to you! It's what you deserve and what +you'll get, you damned thief!" + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +FELIX BRAND HAS A BAD QUARTER OF AN HOUR + + +It was evident to Dr. Annister that Felix Brand was having a bad +quarter of an hour. But the little physician, sitting upright in his +capacious chair, his elbows on its arms and his finger-tips resting +against one another, could not find it in his heart to abate in the +least the penetrating gaze of his gray eyes or the gentle insistence +of his questions. For the longer their talk continued the more he +became convinced that the man before him was not speaking the truth +and the more he felt it necessary, for his daughter's sake, to find +out what was the truth. + +"I am sorry to have to tell you, Felix," said Dr. Annister, in the +beginning of their conversation, "that I am unable to feel entire +confidence in your explanation of your long and mysterious absence." + +The architect hesitated for a bare instant before he turned to reply. +The other noted that he had to stop to think, that neither movement +nor answer was spontaneous. + +"Do you mean me to understand, Dr. Annister," he said courteously, +"that you think I am lying?" + +"Let's not put it just that way. Suppose we call it the endeavor on +your part to conceal something you don't want known--the instinct of +self-defense. Morally, doubtless, it is the same thing. But I am not +concerned just now with the moral nature of the thing itself. I am +much concerned, however, for Mildred's sake, with the nature of the +thing behind it." + +Brand shot a quick, uneasy glance at him and moved restlessly in his +chair. But there was no change in the customary, soft modulations of +his voice or the urbanity of his manner as he replied: "Pardon me, Dr. +Annister, but you are taking for granted something you have no right +to assume. You know that I am an honorable man, accustomed to show at +least ordinary regard for the truth. And therefore I say that you have +no right to doubt my word on mere suspicion." + +"My suspicion, if you wish to call it so, is well enough grounded to +deserve, on my part, the most careful attention and, on yours, entire +respect. Your explanation seems to me to be so thin and full of holes +as not to be worth a moment's notice. It would be puerile for me to +tell you how many opportunities you would have had on the train, as +you were leaving the railroad, when you returned to it, and on your +way home, to write or to telegraph to me, to Mildred, or to Miss +Marne, and give us some idea of your whereabouts and assurance of your +safety." + +"I did write, on the train, to Mildred and also to Miss Marne. +Apparently, the letters were lost in the mails or the porter forgot to +post them." + +Dr. Annister's finger-tips patted one another softly while his eyes +searched the patrician face of his companion and marked in it signs of +uneasiness. + +"I have always supposed," he said quietly, "that a telegraph line runs +beside the railroad into West Virginia, and I have not heard that the +wires were down during your absence." + +Felix Brand rose and with hands thrust into his pockets moved +uncertainly from one chair to another. "Mildred has entire confidence +in my explanation," he said with a touch of defiance in his voice. +"She knows I would not deceive her." + +"Mildred is young," her father replied gently, "and ignorant of the +evil of which there is such a plenty in the world. She is very, very +much in love with her promised husband and if he told her that black +is white the dazzle in her eyes would make her see it white. But, +Felix, it is just because she is so young, so innocent and so much at +the mercy of her loving heart that I must speak plainly to you. I +don't expect you to be entirely worthy of such a wealth of pure young +love as she gives you. The man doesn't live who is clean enough in +heart and in life to be worthy of such a treasure. But I do expect you +to be, Felix, and I must assure myself that you are, clean enough and +honorable enough not to blight all the rest of her life. What is past +is past, but from now on there must be nothing that will not bear the +light of day." + +Brand was moving slowly back and forth, his countenance expressive of +inward debate and hesitation. He was asking himself if it would not be +the wisest plan to lay his trouble frankly before the physician and +ask for his help. But his pride and his confidence in himself drew +back from such a step. + +No, he told himself, nobody must know. It must be kept in the darkest +secrecy--suppose the thing should get out, and into the papers! His +heart quaked at the thought. And he could not feel sure what view Dr. +Annister would take of the truth--he might forbid the marriage with +Mildred. No, he would keep the truth locked in his own breast and +fight his battle alone. Well, he was sure of winning. It might take a +little time, but he had no doubt of the outcome. Nevertheless, there +was some uncertainty in his manner, though his courteous tones were +firm enough as he said: + +"If you will not take my word--and permit me to say, Dr. Annister, +that it has never been doubted before--what more can I say?" + +"You can tell me the truth, Felix," bluntly replied his prospective +father-in-law. "I am fond of you, my boy, very fond of you,--I think +you know that. I am proud of your genius and I expect to see you +become one of the most famous architects of our time. More than +anything else in the world I want to see my little girl as happy, as +your wife, as her love deserves she should be. But I must tell you +frankly, Felix, that I am afraid. I am afraid for you and your future +and very much afraid for that of my daughter with you. That's why I +feel I must speak as plainly as I am going to. I wish you would make +it easier for me by meeting me half way." + +The architect, still moving about the room with slow restlessness, +stopped short and cast a quick, suspicious glance at the physician. +The sweat broke out on his forehead as the fear leaped into his heart +that Dr. Annister had guessed the truth. He had to grope among his +panic thoughts for a moment before he could reply. His voice was a +little strained as he said: + +"Meet you half way? I don't know what you mean?" + +Dr. Annister leaned back in his chair and sighed. But his searching +gray eyes did not leave the other's face nor fail to take note there +of the frequent signs of inner perturbation. Sadly he was saying to +himself that everything in Brand's expression and manner increased his +fears and justified his suspicion. + +"Well, then," he said, "let us come straight to the point. A look, an +expression, a tell-tale sign that I don't like has been steadily +growing stronger in your face for the last six months. For the +physician, and especially for the one who deals as much as I do with +the psychological results of misliving, a man's countenance becomes a +veritable table of contents for the book of his life. And your face is +beginning to tell me such a story of self-indulgence and sensuality as +makes me unwilling to give my daughter to your arms." + +Brand turned a little away, as if he would conceal the traitor face +whose refined beauty this inquisitor was finding even less than skin +deep. "Of course," he said, "I am not as innocent as I was a dozen +years ago. But--what you would have, Dr. Annister? A saint? You know +you would have to look far to find one among modern young men. I'm no +worse than the most of them and much better than some." + +The physician was leaning forward again in his chair, his finger-tips +tapping. He paid no attention to his companion's defense but pursued +his own line of thought with an increasing tensity in his voice. + +"I have been watching that revealing table of contents in your face +grow steadily plainer for the last six months. After each of these +long absences, for which you can give no satisfactory explanation, the +expression has become, to my eyes, stronger and more significant than +before. It forces me to the hypothesis, almost to the conclusion, that +you have been spending this time somewhere in the under-world, in some +sort of secret debauch." + +Brand wiped the starting beads of sweat from his brow, and said, "I +don't believe you really think me that sort of man, Dr. Annister!" + +"Or, possibly," the physician continued, "that you have become a +victim to the alcohol or one of the drug habits. I don't see the +signs of that sort of thing upon you, yet. But--well, if such is your +misfortune, I wish, Felix, that you would confide in me. Such habits +are curable and even if my other hypothesis, which your physical +appearance has forced me to, should be true we might be able to find +its cause in some nerve lesion susceptible of remedy. In either case, +you know as well as I do, Felix, that there is disaster before you, +physical, moral and mental, if you keep on. Make a clean breast of it, +and I'll do my best to help you." + +Again the temptation was assailing the architect's mind to accept this +proffered help and shift his burden to the shoulders of this little +but puissant man of healing. Perhaps those tapping fingers could make +him whole again. But as he faced avowal of the truth his whole soul +drew back. It was impossible--the one thing he could not do. Then came +another idea, perhaps a way out. + +"Suppose--I do not admit it, but suppose, for the sake of +your argument, that your hypothesis should be true. What +then--Mildred--what about----" + +Dr. Annister sprang to his feet and broke in upon the other's +stumbling words in a voice whose low-toned intensity gave his listener +an uncomfortable thrill: "Nothing could make me happier than to see my +child the happy wife of the man she loves, if he deserves her love. +But I'd rather see her dead than married to a man of gross and unclean +life, who has made himself a slave to seasons of secret debauch!" + +There was silence for a moment while Brand looked away, unwilling to +meet the physician's eyes. His face was pale and he breathed as if +there were a weight upon his chest. Again he was considering open +confession. But when he spoke he said: + +"Dr. Annister, you are most unjust. I told you the truth about my +absence. On that question there is nothing more to be said. But it is +my right to know, and I insist upon knowing, whether or not you have +any basis whatever for these insinuations you have been making, except +your own suspicions." + +Mildred's father gazed thoughtfully at her betrothed for a moment +before he replied. He was saying to himself that the man's words were +candid enough in their import, but that, somehow, the speech had not +rung true. There was no spark of indignation in those brown eyes, that +seemed to have some difficulty in meeting his. Nor was there any +quiver of that honest resentfulness he longed to see. Beneath Brand's +habitual manner of slightly ceremonious politeness and deference he +discerned uncertainty of thought and purpose. + +"There's something wrong here," the physician was thinking, "something +woefully wrong. He doesn't seem to feel the monstrosity of what I've +almost been charging him with." Unconsciously he shook his head sadly +as he began to speak aloud: + +"As I told you before, Felix, with the knowledge I have spent a +lifetime of hard work gaining, I don't need any better evidence than +my own eyes can give. I consider it as worthy of confidence as any +information I might have from another. That and my own intelligence +are the sole ground of my fears. These did have, however, some slight +corroboration in the rather mysterious manner and assurances of your +friend, Mr. Hugh Gordon." + +At the sound of that name Brand faced sharply round upon the +astonished doctor, anger flaming in his face and eyes. + +"That man!" he cried. "Are you taking his word against mine? He is my +worst enemy, and he will stop at nothing to injure me. He is a thief, +a murderer, or would be if he dared. I demand that you tell me what he +has been charging me with!" + +Dr. Annister stared in amazement at this flare of hostility and wrath. +"You mistake me, Felix," he said quietly, although inwardly he was +wondering much as to the cause of the outburst. "I did not say he +charged you with anything, nor did he. On the contrary, he seemed to +me to be doing his best to execute a friendly office toward you. I +thought it strange that he should be so positive you were in no danger +of any sort and yet should not know where you were. He seemed sincere +and straightforward and the only hypothesis upon which I could +reconcile his two statements was one that strengthened what you call +my suspicions." + +While the doctor spoke Brand had been moving about with quick steps +and sharp turns, scowling and muttering. "Oh, I know the fellow goes +about making this pretense of friendship," he said sullenly, "but +there's no trust to be put in him. He is bent on my ruin. But I'll get +even with him, I'll down him yet!" + +He took another turn or two, apparently endeavoring to get himself +under control again, while Dr. Annister regarded him with gray brows +wrinkled thoughtfully. He began to feel, uneasily, that there was more +underneath this situation than he had guessed. + +"Well, Felix," he said at last, "I am sorry that our conversation has +had no better result. I hoped you would clear this matter up and, if +you need help, would let me give you whatever advice and aid I could. +Think the matter over more carefully and if you should see it in a +different light come to me at any time and let me see what I can do +for you." + +"I thank you, Dr. Annister. I shall keep your kindness in mind, +although I do not suppose I shall have any more occasion to make use +of it in the future than I have now. But Mildred--" he hesitated as he +turned an anxious countenance upon his companion. "You are not going +to forbid our marriage on account of these baseless and unjust notions +of yours?" + +Down in his heart Dr. Annister was at that moment deciding that +his daughter should never become this man's wife unless all his +apprehensions and fears were first cleared away. But he feared the +effect upon Mildred, especially at this juncture, of a forced breaking +of the engagement. So he temporized. + +"No, I shall not forbid it, or at least, not now. But I can not +consent to a marriage in the early future, as you have both begged me +to do. You will have to wait a while longer, Felix, and prove yourself +worthy. I don't like these mysterious disappearances." + +After Brand had gone the little doctor dropped down into his favorite +arm-chair in his usual attitude of profound thought. "Poor Mildred! +Poor little girl!" he was thinking. "I guess her mother had better +take her abroad this summer and let us see if change and travel and +absence won't have some effect on her devotion. It would be awfully +lonely for me here, Mildred would be wretchedly unhappy and Margaret +would have a devil of a time. Still, the experiment will be worth +trying." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +MRS. FENLOW IS ANGRY + + +"Harry, dear, do please conceal the newspaper in your handbag and +carry it off with you," said Isabella Marne as her sister entered the +dining room. The sun shone in upon a window full of blooming plants, a +bowl of daffodils glowed upon the table and the whole room looked as +cheerful and buoyant, as dainty and pleasing as did the little lady in +a pink and white muslin gown who was putting the last touches to the +breakfast table. "Mother is coming down this morning," she went on, +"and I don't want her to see it." + +"O, dear!" exclaimed Henrietta as she glanced at the head lines. "No, +indeed, mother mustn't see this. It would worry her too much. Have you +read it, Bella? Was he hurt?" + +"The account says Mr. Brand wasn't hurt at all. But some of the others +were--one rather badly, and Miss Andrews had her scalp cut. I hope it +won't spoil her beauty." + +"It must have been a narrow escape for them all," Henrietta commented +in shocked tones as she glanced down the column. "Poor Mildred! She +will be wild with anxiety and jealousy! You know, Bella, she can't +bear for another woman to have a smile from him, or a little attention +of any sort." + +"Sh-h-h! Mother's coming! Do hide the paper quick and please talk real +fast all through breakfast, so she won't think to ask for it until +after you're gone. Mother would never, never let me go out with him in +his auto again if she knew about this accident." + +"I don't think you ought to, anyway, Bella. I wish you wouldn't." + +"What harm does it do? And it gives me a little fun--about all I ever +have, you know. Delia is having another season of introspection," she +went on laughingly as Mrs. Marne entered the room and all three seated +themselves at the table. "It has lasted two days already and I'm +trembling with anxiety as to what will happen next. She was in such a +brown study this morning that she would have sugared the eggs and +salted the coffee if I hadn't been on the watch." + +"Do you think she's making up her mind again to leave us?" said Mrs. +Marne apprehensively. + +"Oh, Delia's all right, except when she gets uneasy about the scarcity +of matrimonial chances in this neighborhood. She doesn't really want +to marry, at least not now, but she likes to think she could if she +wanted to and she likes to see a new man once in a while, as she says, +'to pass a word with.' And I sympathize with her, even if I do have +three letters a week from Warren." + +"Bella!" exclaimed her mother, but with more amusement than reproof in +her voice. + +"You would, too, if you were twenty-five years younger," said Bella, +leaning over to pat her mother's arm affectionately. "Anyway, I prove +my sympathy with Delia by bringing to her all the stray crumbs of +comfort I can find. I haven't told her yet--I'm waiting for her fit of +introspection to reach the acute stage--but the grocer has got a new +delivery boy, a nice young man, good-looking and polite. I wish +somebody would be that kind to me!" she laughed, with a whimsical pout +of her pretty lips. "Harry, if Mr. Brand says anything to you today +about coming over here in his motor-car--" Henrietta looked up with a +disapproving lift of her eyebrows and saw a sparkle of defiant +mischief dancing in her sister's blue eyes--"just tell him, please," +Bella proceeded with a toss of her head, "that my physician has +ordered me to take an auto ride today as the only means of saving my +life!" + +It was mid-April and the very air thrilled with the hurry and promise +of the spring that was making ready to leap at a single bound--would +it be tomorrow, in three days, next week?--from swelling bud and +bronzing tree into full flower and leafage. As Henrietta hastened down +the street beneath budding trees busy at their yearly miracle and past +little green lawns with their beds of crocuses and snowdrops and +tulips, the splendid caressing sunshine bathed her in its gaiety, the +smell of freshly turned earth challenged her to buoyant mood and the +singing and fluttering and twittering of birds called her to equal +delight in the radiant season. But all was not well with her world and +she was more conscious of the anxiety in her heart than of the call of +the spring that was storming at her senses. + +True, she could begin to look forward now with reasonable surety, she +told herself, to the last payment, in a very few months, upon their +cottage with its little lawn and garden, and that would make sure, +whatever might happen, a home for her mother. Bella would probably +marry within a year the young physician to whom she had been engaged +so long. They had waited for his graduation from the medical school of +Harvard and now he wanted to be sure of a good enough practice to feel +warranted in marrying. The delay had been necessary, too, on Bella's +part, for her help in the care of their mother had been indispensable. +But their improving financial prospects had acted like a magic draught +upon Mrs. Marne and now, as she felt more and more assured of +Henrietta's ability and success, she was rapidly growing so much +better and stronger that she would soon be able to take care of their +housekeeping and leave Bella free to marry as soon as her fiance could +offer her a home. + +But Henrietta was so anxious about other things that these untangling +perplexities gave her small comfort. Her sisterly caution told her it +was not prudent for Isabella to go so frequently with Felix Brand in +his automobile. Twice since Brand's return from his last absence had +she found, when she reached home at the end of the day, that Bella had +just returned from a long drive, wherein Brand's machine had +apparently torn to tatters all speed laws and appeared to onlookers as +a mere streak of color. After such a trip Bella's heightened spirits, +Henrietta thought, made her very lovely and bewitching, with the flush +in her cheeks, the sparkle in her eyes and her merry talk. + +"She's young and gay-spirited and has so few pleasures," Henrietta +thought, regardless of the fact that she herself was younger and had +just as few, "that I feel awfully mean to object to anything that +seems so innocent. But it is reckless of him to go so fast, and this +accident last night--oh, I'm afraid it's dangerous. And then there's +Mildred--if he was engaged to anybody else I shouldn't think anything +about that; but--well, mother thinks it's all right and lovely of him +to give Bella a little outing now and then; and if it wasn't I suppose +he wouldn't do it." + +But on this last point Henrietta was not without uneasiness. For +little rifts were beginning to appear in that perfect confidence she +had felt until recently in her employer. She had thought him the soul +of uprightness and honor, but in his business affairs, nearly all of +which passed through her hands, she knew that he had begun to make use +of the barest falsehoods and to practice evasions and tricks that made +her blush with shame to be the medium by which they were transmitted +to paper. + +Simple, sturdy forthrightness being the backbone of Henrietta's +character, she could not help feeling as if she were an accomplice in +his shiftiness and untruths when she typed and mailed his letters. +She told herself that it was none of her affair, that she was no more +than a machine in the work she did for him and that to look after her +own morals was all that was incumbent upon her. Nevertheless, she was +a good deal disturbed about it on this bright morning. + +"He seems so different from what he was a few months ago," she thought +with a sigh. "I don't understand why he should change so. I almost +begin to feel like trying to find another situation. But I mustn't +think about it now, for I can't afford yet to take any risks." + +Her thoughts turned to another phase of Brand's character upon which +also she was beginning to have doubts. She did not see many people, +but a few bits of talk had reached her ears which made her wonder if +the man whose character she had believed to be almost ideally fine and +noble were not after all a devotee of sinister pleasures. She had +begun to feel conscious, after his last return, of a feeling toward +him of physical repulsion and this she knew was growing upon her. As +she recalled these things her thoughts flashed uneasily back to her +sister. She felt wretchedly ignorant and uncertain as to what she +ought to do and wished there were some one better versed in worldly +knowledge than herself to whom she could go for advice. + +"I can't talk it over with mother," she thought, "because it would +make her worry about it and about me, and I don't like to go to Dr. +Annister, because he has enough troubles to listen to, with all those +half-crazy patients of his, and Mrs. Annister admires Mr. Brand so +much that she'd be offended by any suggestion that he isn't all right +and--well, I don't think she's very level-headed anyway. I wish I +could see Mr. Gordon again--it seems a long time. But I ought not to +tell him anything about these things even if I should see him, since +there seems to be so much feeling between him and Mr. Brand. + +"And I'm afraid Bella wouldn't pay much attention to anything that was +contrary to her own desires, anyway. I don't like the kind of +influence Mr. Brand seems to be having over her. I understand it, +because he used to make me feel that way myself--dissatisfied and +selfish and wishful of all sorts of delightful things that I couldn't +have. Well, I went through it all right, without any bad results +except my own ugly feelings; and she's so dear and sweet and so +happy-natured I guess she will, too, after a little." + +She reached the avenue where ran the trolley line that carried her to +the ferry and saw that she had just missed a car. + +"Oh, dear! Isn't that provoking?" she muttered as she watched it +rattling on its way. "And there isn't another one in sight yet. I hope +I won't have to wait long, for I do want to get there early this +morning, there's so much to do today." + +Her thoughts sped on to her office and the duties that awaited her and +hovered over the familiar figure of her employer at work at his desk. + +"I don't see," she argued with herself, "how it can be true that he is +living a bad life when he is working so hard." + +She remembered how eagerly upon his return he had plunged into the +work awaiting him and with what absorption he had devoted himself to +it ever since. Repeatedly during the last two or three weeks he had +told her that never before had he worked so rapidly and so easily and +with such satisfaction in the results. + +With keen pleasure and interest she was watching his design for the +capitol building take form beneath his fingers, thinking it more +beautiful than anything he had done before. Once she had told him, +laughingly, that she believed the fairies must come in the night and +touch his pencil with magic, else it would not be possible for him to +put upon paper so rapidly a thing so lovely. + +Only yesterday he had shown her the finished cartoon for the front +elevation and with a catch of her breath she had exclaimed, "Oh, Mr. +Brand, it is exquisite! I don't know why it is so beautiful, for it +looks simple, but, somehow, it seems exactly right." + +And he had nodded and smiled in a pleased way and said: + +"Yes, that's just it--that's what I wanted to do. It's all in the +proportions, and I think, for the first time in my life, I have got +them just right." + +As she recalled the conversation an automobile whizzed past her, +slowed down and returned, and she saw Mrs. Fenlow leaning out and +calling to her: + +"I thought it was you, Miss Marne! Waiting for a trolley, aren't you? +Well, don't wait, jump in with me. I'm going to the city and I'll take +you right to your office." + +Henrietta had met Mrs. Fenlow a number of times during the +long-drawn-out time when the architect was endeavoring to meet her +wishes with a design for the country house she had determined to build +up the Hudson. She had found the elder woman's open speech and breezy +manners amusing, but she had also conceived liking and respect for the +sincerity and warm-heartedness that were evident underneath a rather +brusque and erratic exterior. + +She had been pleased and touched also by the hearty affection and +comradeship between Mrs. Fenlow and her only son, Mark Fenlow, her +eldest child. Henrietta had met the young man several times in her +employer's office and also at his theatre party and house-warming the +previous autumn. She knew that Mark had been graduated from college +the previous spring and afterwards had been taken into a trust company +in which his father was a stock-holder and director and that his +mother, who was very proud of him, expected him to climb the ladder +rapidly and become an important figure in big financial operations. +Henrietta had found him a debonair youth, full of gay humor and +high spirits and having, apparently, much of the same kind of +good-heartedness and sincerity which she admired in his mother. + +"Have you seen the morning paper?" was Mrs. Fenlow's first remark, as +Henrietta settled into her seat. + +"You mean the accident Mr. Brand had with his automobile? Didn't they +have a fortunate escape!" + +"That man has the luck of the Irish army!" declared Mrs. Fenlow. + +"Did you notice that he was the only one to escape without any injury, +though the cause of it was evidently his reckless driving? That's the +way things always happen with him. He gets his pleasure and other +people take the consequences." + +Mrs. Fenlow's tone was so sharp and bitter that Henrietta looked at +her in surprise. There were signs of trouble in her face, which bore +also something of a war-like aspect. Dark hollows under her eyes and +little lines about her mouth seemed to tell of mental anguish. But her +lips were pressed together determinedly and she held her head high. + +"But he can't go on like this much longer. He's bound to have a +smash-up some of these fine days." + +"What do you mean, Mrs. Fenlow?" queried Henrietta, wide-eyed. + +Mrs. Fenlow had been speaking straight ahead of her, into the air, as +if, absorbed in her own bitter thoughts, she had for the moment +forgotten her companion. At the girl's question she turned with a +quick movement suggestive of the swoop of a bird of prey. + +"Pardon me, my dear, if I use disrespectful language about your +employer. The Good Lord knows I have reason enough for it. But you +needn't feel uneasy because I say it in your hearing, for I'm going to +his office this very day to say the same things, and worse, to his +face. When I think of the way he's used his influence over Mark--and I +believed him the pink of perfection and was as pleased as an old fool +over his friendship for my boy! My God!" + +Her voice sank to a whisper of such fierce indignation that Henrietta +shrunk a little away, staring in astonishment at her set face and +quivering lips. + +"Of course," she presently went on in a more natural tone, "Mark ought +to have known better, he ought to have had more sense and more +strength of character than to yield to that sort of temptation. But he +was only a lad, and Felix Brand was old enough to know the danger +there was in it for a young fellow like that. And Mark admired him so +much he thought whatever Brand did must be all right." + +She broke off into sudden silence and Henrietta saw her wipe a tear +from the corner of her eye. The girl was so confused and embarrassed +by these signs of keen emotion and hidden trouble and so ignorant of +their cause that she could think of nothing that seemed well to say or +do, and so she, too, remained silent until presently the elder woman +turned to her again and spoke more gently. + +"Don't mind me, my dear. I'm in great trouble--on Mark's account. I've +had an awful blow, and I don't know yet how it will all come out. I +don't want to be unjust to Felix Brand, but I can't help thinking that +he's largely responsible for it. I know he was for the beginning of +the whole thing. And I've found out that poor Mark's not the only +one--" she was talking off into the air again, oblivious of the girl +beside her--"who's paying for the consequences of Felix Brand's +private pleasures. It's time he began to pay for some of them +himself." + +Her voice, quivering with the indignation and anguish she was trying +to conceal, subsided into a muttering whose words Henrietta could not +distinguish and finally she lapsed into silence. At the door of the +building in which was Brand's suite of offices she said to her +companion: + +"I'm going up with you, my dear, if you'll let me. I want to see Mr. +Brand without delay and if he isn't here yet I'll wait for him." + +Miss Marne, busy at her desk with the morning's mail, heard sounds +from her employer's private room during Mrs. Fenlow's call that +betokened a change in the friendly relations formerly existing between +them. She could hear the woman's voice raised in what seemed to be +bitter denunciation and the man's replying in sneering tones. These +seemed so unlike Felix Brand that she paused for a moment in her work, +astonished at the unaccustomed note. During the last few weeks she had +seen him several times give way to sudden temper, but even these +outbursts, unprecedented though they were in her experience of him, +had not seemed to her so foreign to his usual affable manner and +pleasant speech as did the harsh, sarcastic antagonism of the voice in +which she could hear him speaking to Mrs. Fenlow. + +"But it must be Mr. Brand," thought his secretary, looking in puzzled +wonder at the door into his room, "for there's surely nobody else in +there." + +As she gazed, held by her surprise, a letter in her hands, the +wrathful voices rose again, now one, then the other, and in Mrs. +Fenlow's she presently caught the words, "Hugh Gordon." + +At that came the sound of the man springing to his feet, of an +overturned chair rattling to the floor, of a blow upon his desk and a +loud and angry oath. The girl started with a whispered exclamation of +amazement and horror. Her shocked ears heard her employer denouncing +both Gordon and his caller and heard the rustle of the woman's dress +as she hurried across the room. + +In her anger and indignation Mrs. Fenlow had rushed to the first door +that met her eyes, which chanced to be the one into Henrietta's room. +As she opened it she flung back over her shoulder at Brand, in a white +heat of scorn and wrath: + +"You whited sepulchre! I'm done with you and all my friends shall know +what you are!" + +She rushed past Henrietta without seeming to see her, and on through +the outer room into the corridor. The door into Brand's office was +left wide open and Henrietta saw him standing beside his desk, his +face so distorted with passion that for a moment she doubted that it +was he, and, apparently--and here again she could hardly believe her +eyes--shaking his fist at his departing visitor. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +"WHICH SHOULD HAVE THE GIFT OF LIFE?" + + +There was a chorus of admiration and praise from all over the country +when Felix Brand's design for the capitol building was published. It +was everywhere recognized as a signal achievement, far in advance of +anything he had previously done, and he himself was acclaimed as one +of the most promising architects of the time and the most gifted that +America had yet produced. Other reproductions of his recent work, +business buildings, country houses, a church and a memorial structure, +were made public at about the same time and these and the capitol +building aroused so much interest that newspapers and magazines +published articles about him, with many illustrations of his work and +criticisms of his art that praised his present accomplishment in +glowing terms and prophesied he would do still greater things. In him, +it was declared, had come at last a great American architect, a man +of such originality, such skill and such sense of beauty and fitness +that, if he continued to give such rich fulfillment of his early +promise, he would soon create a distinctly American style of +architecture, infused with the national spirit and expressive of the +national ideals, worthy to take its place among the great +architectures of the world. + +His secretary collected these articles and kept them for him to see +when he should return. For early in May, just before this round of +praise began, when she went one morning to the office she found a +letter from him saying that it had suddenly become necessary for him +to go abroad at once and that, as he would be sailing in the early +morning, he would have to leave affairs once more in her charge. There +were some words of praise for her astuteness in the management of his +business when he had been away at other times, a few directions +concerning things he would like her to do or to leave undone, a brief +regret that he should have to leave just now when it was most +important for him to be on hand, and the hope that he would not be +gone more than three or four weeks at most. But there was neither +indication of where, in that large section of the world covered by +"abroad," he might be reached by letter or cable, nor mention of which +one of the several steamers sailing that day would bear him to his +unnamed destination. + +Henrietta put the letter down with a sigh of dismay. "It is too bad, +too bad!" she exclaimed. "Just when everything is going nicely and he +is doing wonderful work! Now things will begin to tangle up again and +people will get impatient, and he will lose a lot of money. Well, I'll +have to do the best I can until he comes back." + +But notwithstanding her devotion to her employer's interests and the +deep and genuine pleasure she felt in seeing them advance and in +knowing that she was helping to put them forward--the delight of any +honest worker in doing well and successfully the thing that he +undertakes to do--she soon began to be conscious of a sense of relief +at being rid for even a little while of Brand's physical presence. +After his violent outburst against Mrs. Fenlow, Henrietta had felt +her repugnance increase until it amounted to positive aversion. She +did not know how great had been the nervous strain of trying +constantly to suppress and ignore this feeling until she was relieved +of it by his absence. + +"I wonder," she said to herself on her way home a few days later, "if +I can endure it long enough after he returns to get entirely rid of +that mortgage. Well, I'll have to wait until he does return, anyway, +and then I ought to give him, I suppose, two or three weeks' notice. +Perhaps, when he comes home this time, he'll be more as he used to be +and it won't be so difficult. I'll wait until then before I decide." + +As she came to this conclusion she was entering the ticket gate of the +ferry waiting room and, lifting her eyes from the dropping of her +ticket in the box, she saw a young man of goodly figure, dressed in a +loose fitting suit of gray, advancing toward her and lifting his soft +felt hat. Even in the surprise of the moment she was conscious of a +quick effort to keep out of her countenance the full measure of the +joy she felt at this unexpected meeting with Hugh Gordon. But she was +not successful enough to hide all signs of the pleasure that swept +through her and shone in her smile of welcome. + +"Will you let me cross the ferry with you?" he said as he guided her +through the crowd to a vantage point near the gate. "I did not go to +the office, and I shall not go there again, because I know what orders +Felix gave concerning me and I will not subject you to any unpleasant +experience with his violent temper." + +Henrietta looked at him in surprise, wondering how, since there was +evidently bitter enmity between the two men, this one should have such +intimate knowledge of the characteristics that had but lately appeared +in the other. + +"But the ferry boat," he was saying, with one of the smiles that so +rarely lighted his serious countenance, "is nobody's private property +and you are the only one who can forbid me to ride across the bay in +it at just the time when you are going home." + +He must have read encouragement rather than objection in her manner, +for the next evening he was waiting for her again, and by the end of +the week it had become a tacit understanding between them that they +should meet thus and take together the ride across the shining evening +water. Golden red it glowed and sparkled all about them and spread a +radiant path toward the red and gold of the May sunset. Behind them +Manhattan reared its mighty, tawny-yellow walls and towers through the +golden haze--Mammon rising from the waves, with feet lapped in the +rose-gold waters and front ablaze with the diamond dazzle of a +thousand sunset-lighted windows. + +It was the month of May, nature's month of marvels, when with her +magic wand she strikes upon earth, and tree, and plant, and human +heart, and the indwelling, everlasting life and youth gush forth in +countless streams of leaf and bloom and song and leaping spirit. All +through the marvelous month these two rode back and forth every day +across the enchanted waters. For it was not long until she began to +find him waiting for her in the morning also, at the door of the +ferry-house in St. George. + +All the world was robed in the young beauty of the spring, but +Henrietta Marne soon discovered that for her companion it had but +slight appeal. If she, thrilled by the pageant of sunset colors, +glowing in the sky and reflected in the waters of the bay, voiced her +delight in it Gordon's response would be polite but perfunctory. He +would look and make comment, but she knew that it left him cold. If +she wore a flower at her belt or her throat, chosen with utmost care +to make a tender little harmony of color with her waist or her tie or +the faint pink of her cheeks, it nettled her a little that he did not +even seem to see it. + +"If I do that at the office when Mr. Brand is there," she said to +herself, "it's the first thing he sees and he always speaks about it +and looks at it with pleasure and he--doesn't care anything about me!" + +"I know, it is a defect of my nature," he said one day in response to +a little gentle rallying on her part because of his lack of interest +in an evening panorama of unusual beauty. "I know I lose a great deal +of the pleasure of living because of it, but I can't help it. +Something seems to have been left out of my make-up. But I hope that +some time I shall recover it. You are so sensitive to these things, +perhaps you can teach me how to feel them, too." + +Their talk verged soon into the more or less confidential themes of +personal viewpoints, experiences and ambitions. Henrietta noticed that +Gordon said nothing about his past life, about his relatives or +friends or where he had grown up, or gone to school, or what he had +done in his youth. But he was full of hopes and plans for the future. +His brain was busy working out ideas for large industrial schemes that +should prove the possibility of combining reasonable profit for their +creators and managers with ample wages, comfortable homes and +expanding lives for their workers. In his mind projects were taking +form, though vague as yet, for renovating those noisome places of the +city where human nature, undiluted by space, stews corrosion and +corruption for its souls and bodies. Every day he would give her a +glimpse of one or another of a multitude of half formed ideas, perhaps +but just conceived, perhaps taking tentative form, which he was eager +to work out and put to practical test. For the most part they seemed +to her to be an unusual combination of business shrewdness, just +feeling, and altruistic intent. Apparently his aim in them was to +attain the end of social betterment by means of the co-operative and +mutually profitable effort of all concerned in them. + +He talked much and with enthusiasm of these things and Henrietta soon +found that they and kindred hopes and plans were the purpose and the +inspiration of his life. + +"I have the business instinct," he told her one day. "It is easy to +make money. It is a pleasure, too, to busy one's mind with large +schemes and see them coming your way. But that is nothing to the +pleasure it will be to set to work, as I shall soon be able to do, +upon some of these schemes and see them coming out as I want them to." + +"Your pleasure then will be a double one," she said, "the pleasure of +creating something and that of doing good as well. Mr. Brand must have +that double pleasure, too, when he feels all his faculties at work and +knows that he is creating something that is beautiful, as you will +feel that you are doing something good." + +His face darkened and his eyes flashed at the sound of Brand's name. +She felt that he stiffened, mind and body, into hostility. + +"Pardon me," he said curtly, "if I am not pleased with the comparison. +I consider Felix Brand, his ideas and principles and his mode of life, +to be so thoroughly detestable that even the mention of his name +rouses my contempt and disgust. I consider him," Gordon went on, his +tones lower and more tense, "a plague spot, a source of evil that +would be a menace to any community." + +"Oh, Mr. Gordon!" she protested. "Aren't you exaggerating dreadfully? +Aren't you prejudiced against him? Think of the beautiful buildings he +creates and of the elevating and refining influence of such noble and +beautiful architecture!" + +"I know," he assented, "the man has genius, great genius. He has +proved that already, and he might have gone farther in his line and +done much finer and greater things, if he had lived a different life. +But he is bringing his fate upon himself." He paused for an instant, +and she, wondering what he meant by that last dark sentence, which he +had spoken in a tone of the most serious significance, was about to +ask him for an explanation when he turned upon her abruptly. + +"Tell me," he demanded, "do you think that a man is to be pardoned for +being a source of evil, for leading or forcing others into wrong-doing +and misfortune, while he keeps himself prosperous and honored, just +because he can create beautiful things in art, or architecture, or +music, or literature? Is the world in greater need of being made more +beautiful and more pleasurable for the few than it is of being made +better for the many? Would you condone a man for deliberately making +it worse because he was adding to its beauty?" + +Gordon's intent gaze and the solemn, eager earnestness with which he +spoke appalled his listener ever so little. It was as if he were +asking these questions from his inmost, deepest heart. + +"I--I don't know just what to say," she faltered. "I never thought of +the matter in that way before. One doesn't like to answer so serious a +question offhand. But--" she hesitated and felt herself being swept +into agreement by his very forcefulness of character and intensity of +feeling. "Why, yes--I suppose you are right. If the world were +entirely wicked it would be a failure, no matter how beautiful it +might be." + +"I was sure you would agree with me," he responded with a look of +pleased satisfaction. "But now I want you to tell me something else," +he pursued in a gentler tone and with a humbler, softer manner. "I +want to suppose the case of two possible men and I want you to tell me +which of the two you think would be the more deserving of life." + +He moved closer to her and, leaning against the deck rail, was looking +into her face with an expression so different from any she had ever +seen in his brown eyes before, wistful and beseeching instead of +confident, alert and dauntless, that it set her heart a-flutter with a +sudden, tantalizing half-memory. Where, when, had she seen brown eyes +with that look in them? + +She groped after the answer in the back of her mind while she listened +to his voice, still with its impetuous tones unsubdued, though he +seemed to be trying to state his hypothetical case in cool, bare +terms. + +"Suppose there were two men," he was saying, "and suppose that one of +them possessed a genius for the creation of noble and beautiful works +of art of any sort, which would afford great pleasure to many people +and would refine and elevate their tastes. But suppose that at the +same time he was living such a private, even secret, life as made him +a source of wickedness and corruption, an endless influence for evil. +Then would such a man, do you think--" his voice sank lower and +thrilled with solemn earnestness--"deserve to live rather than the +other one, who, though he had no genius for the creation of beauty, +was using all his powers to make the world a better place for all men +to live in? If both men could not have the gift of life, Miss Marne, +which do you think ought to have it?" + +She looked at him, glanced away, and hesitated, her mind still bent on +that teasing memory. "You are putting strange riddles to me this +morning, Mr. Gordon," she demurred. + +Had she ever seen a wild creature expecting destruction at human +hands? No, surely not, she told herself, and yet this wistful pleading +expression might be just the look in the eyes of an animal facing +death but dumbly begging for life. + +Then, in a flash, it all came back--her own little parlor, Billikins +whining and hiding in her skirts in mysterious terror, and Felix Brand +gazing at her with all the usual soft, caressing look of his brown +eyes curtained behind some absorbing anxiety and fear. But in these +eyes into which she was looking now there was no fear, only a +longing that her answer should be what he wished. She shivered as +a half-sensed intuition of impending tragedy shot through her. + +"You--you make me feel as if I were a judge and called upon to +pronounce sentence upon some one," she said and tried to pass the +situation off with a little laugh as she added, "Really, it isn't +fair!" + +But he would not have it so and with even greater earnestness and +solemnity pressed his question farther: "Then we'll put it another +way. Suppose a mother about to bear a man-child could choose its soul +and the life it was to live. Which of those two men would a good, +noble woman wish her son to be? Imagine yourself in such a woman's +place, Miss Marne, and tell me, which would be your choice." + +She felt the compelling force of his earnestness and she was moved by +the intense feeling evident in his voice, look and manner. Her face +blanched with the sudden conviction that some high consequence hung +upon her answer. But she took counsel bravely with herself for a +little space as her gaze wandered across the water. + +"I think," she replied slowly, "yes, I'm quite sure, any good woman +would wish her son to be good rather than great. I don't believe any +good woman would hesitate at all, if it were possible for her to make +such a choice." + +He straightened up and a solemn joy overspread his eyes and face. "I +thank you, Miss Marne," he said, barely resting for an instant one +hand upon hers that lay on the rail. "I had little doubt what your +answer would be, because you are a good woman. But I wanted to know +for a certainty. It is my final warrant that I am right." + +He said no more, and Henrietta, a little awed by the rapt, triumphant +look with which, sitting upright with head thrown back, he gazed into +the distance, kept silence also. And in a few moments their ship +bumped into its berth and they joined silently the crowd that pressed +forward. + +After that she was conscious in his manner toward her of an increased +air of guardianship. It gave her a warm sense of comfort and security +and she found herself gradually confiding in it more and more. She +even sought his advice, finally, upon the intimate personal problems +that were troubling her so deeply. Did he think she ought to permit +her sister to motor with Mr. Brand? Was it likely that she herself +could find another situation that would carry her safely out of her +financial difficulties if she should continue to find her work under +Mr. Brand so disagreeable? + +"I hesitate to say anything to you about these things, because I know +how much you dislike him," she apologized, "but I feel so uncertain +and so much worried about them, and there is nobody else to whom I can +go who knows him as well as you do. His whole character has changed so +much in the last few months that he hardly seems to be the same man. I +have an uneasy feeling that it isn't wise for my sister to go with +him, although it does seem the most innocent thing in the world, and +the kindest, for him to stop at our house, when he has some business +farther down the island, and take Isabella for a spin. She enjoys it +so much and she has so few pleasures. And she and mother have such +confidence in Mr. Brand that they feel sure he would never ask her to +do anything that wasn't perfectly all right. I felt that way, too, at +first, but I don't now." + +"I am glad you have spoken of it," he replied with interest, "for I +have been thinking I ought to give you some warning before Felix +returns. He is simply serving a purpose of his own, an utterly selfish +purpose, and he is using her to help him gain his end without the +least compunction. Don't let her go again, Miss Marne, if you can +help it. I know Felix Brand through and through, and he is not to be +trusted." + +Henrietta could only look at him speechless, her eyes wide with +apprehension. + +"Don't be alarmed," he hastened to assure her. "I don't think there is +anything for you to be uneasy about, except that his influence is +always evil--" he paused on a raised inflection and looked at her +admiringly. "One of the reasons," he went on regardless of the abrupt +change, "why I like you and feel so sure that you are sound and good +and strong clear through is because you have not yielded in the least +to the subtle influence he has over most people. You have held to your +own ideas of what is right and wrong." + +She blushed under his eyes and his words. "I'm afraid I don't deserve +all that credit. I remember a time when I did have some ugly feelings +and some tempestuous desires for pleasures that were out of my reach. +But I had too many other things to do and to think about, and so I +guess I outgrew them." + +"And I guess, too, that they didn't find congenial soil in your heart +to take root in," he added. "But you needn't be much worried about +your sister, for I am sure it will not last much longer. At the +best--or worst--there will not be many more opportunities--" again he +straightened up and sent that triumphant glance of his alert, +confident eyes out across the water--"in which it will be possible for +him to work any evil. But he is so thoroughly base that if I were you +I would not trust her with him again." + +Henrietta wondered what he meant by that "not many more +opportunities," but forebore to ask him lest she might unintentionally +pry into some matter of which he did not wish to speak. Another +enigmatical fragment from his secret thought came out when she asked +his advice about her own relations with Brand. She told him how +repugnant she was beginning to find her work because--and here she +skipped lightly and diplomatically over her reasons, so that she might +not do violence to her own sense of loyalty to her employer--she did +not now feel in harmony with his methods of doing business and his +ways of looking at a good many things. + +"You don't need to put it in so roundabout a way," he told her +impulsively. "I know all about that change in the man's character and +how nearly he has lost all sense of truth and honesty. Luckily, he +still controls his temper with you and treats you with respect----" + +He stopped and his whole manner suddenly bristled with aggressiveness. +In his voice as he spoke the next words there was a significant ring: +"And I don't think he'll do otherwise. But of course you can't put up +much longer with these developments in him. I would advise you to look +for another position at once. In fact, I am sure you'd better, because +it won't be long until Felix will not need you." + +She gazed at him with such question and alarm in her eyes, that he +returned her look with surprise. "Oh," he exclaimed, "I see. You are +puzzled by what I said. I forgot for the moment,--perhaps I have +before, too--that you do not know all that I do about Felix. But don't +be troubled about it now. Some day you shall know--I shall tell +you--the whole story. I dare say it will seem marvelous to you at +first. But you will soon see how inevitable it has all been. Felix +will return soon, I suppose." + +"Oh, I hope so," Henrietta broke in. "He has been gone five weeks and +his affairs are in an awful condition!" + +Gordon nodded. "Yes, they must be. It is quite time for him to come +back and put them in order. But I warn you, Miss Marne, that it will +be wise for you not to mention my name to him when he does return. He +hates me so furiously and he has so little control over that violent +temper he has developed, that there is no telling what he will say or +do if any one so much as speaks of me in his presence. You remember +his outrageous conduct to Mrs. Fenlow?" + +"Oh, did Mrs. Fenlow tell you about that?" Henrietta asked with a +quick look of surprise that was reminiscent, too, of the shock the +incident had given her. "I thought she mentioned your name. Was that +what made him so angry?" + +"That was what caused his final brutality. The trouble was about Mark +Fenlow. You know how fond and proud of him his mother has been and +what high expectations she has always had for him. Felix had got him +into the way of gambling and the boy had developed a passion for it +which he could not restrain. Ever since Felix has had money he has +played a good deal, and for pretty high stakes, because of the +pleasure he got out of it. But he knew when to stop, just as he did +with all his vicious indulgences." + +Gordon's eyes were flashing and his voice growing tense with hostile +feeling. But Henrietta saw that he was making a strong effort to keep +himself under control and to speak calmly about his enemy. + +"That is," he went on, "he used to be able to stop before doing +himself injury. He didn't care what happened to others. But he can't +now. The gambler's mania has got hold of him in just the same way that +he's lost control of his temper, and he's likely, if he keeps on, to +gamble away everything he's got. He liked Mark Fenlow and led him into +more evil than just the gambling. But it was that that proved the +boy's ruin. It was the old story--playing, losing, borrowing, +financial difficulties, the temptation of money in sight, the belief +that he could pay it back the next day. His last filchings, which +brought about discovery and confession of the whole business to his +mother and father, were due to the fact that Felix was ruthlessly +pressing him to pay back some borrowed money. That was why Mrs. Fenlow +went up to Felix's office and told him what she thought of him. Weeks +ago I went to the boy and tried to reason with him about the way he +was going and persuade him to quit, short off. He told his mother +about that, too, and that was how she happened to mention my name in +their controversy." + +"Poor Mrs. Fenlow!" said Henrietta. "I knew she must be in some great +trouble that morning. But what has become of Mark?" + +"His father made good his peculations and hushed the matter all up, +and then they sent him out west to a cattle ranch." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +ISABELLA TAKES ONE MORE RIDE + + +Henrietta Marne looked curiously at the envelope bearing the stamp of +Hugh Gordon's business firm. "There is always a letter from Mr. Gordon +just before Mr. Brand gets back," she said to herself, "so I suppose +he'll be here some time today. If he does I'll have to decide about +leaving him. But there'll be such a lot of work to do it won't be fair +for me to say anything about going till we get things straightened out +again." + +On that same June morning Penelope Brand was reading a letter in a +similar envelope. She was out of doors, in her wheel-chair, in the +shade of that same tree from which she had fallen, years before, to +such pitiful maiming of her body and her life. Beside her was a little +table holding some books, a pad of paper and a pencil and her +work-basket. For here she spent the greater part of every fine day, +by turns reading, making notes, writing, sewing, and talking with her +mother. The roses that grew along the fence were in bloom and a few +steps in the other direction was the little vegetable garden where her +mother worked when the sun was not too hot, so near that they could +speak to each other now and then. + +Penelope was beginning to find a new pleasure in life, the deepest of +all pleasures to the woman-heart, the pleasure of service. For Hugh +Gordon had been sending her books treating of the sociological +questions in which she had long taken an intellectual interest and had +asked her to make digests of them for him, to tell him what she +thought of them and to write him at length upon such of their contents +as seemed to her of particular consequence. She had had a number of +letters from him discussing these things and outlining plans upon +which he wanted her opinion. + +All this was affording her the keenest satisfaction. Her mother, who +had never seen her so genuinely happy and contented, beamed with shy +delight over the new pleasure that had come into their lives. For her +it was sadly darkened by her son's violent antagonism to their new +friend. They had learned that they must not mention Hugh Gordon's name +to him even in letters, and when he last came to see them, on one of +his brief and infrequent visits, they had trembled with anxiety during +the whole of his stay lest they might inadvertently approach too near +the subject that now loomed so large in the narrow round of their +lives and had brought such freshening and broadening of their +interests. + +They speculated much as to the cause of the animosity between the two +men, and it was evident to Mrs. Brand, in all their talk, that her +daughter's sympathies were with Hugh Gordon. For Penelope, deep in her +heart, well concealed from her mother, had long harbored a feeling +toward her brother that was very near distrust and contempt. Mrs. +Brand had found in Hugh Gordon and the affection he plainly longed to +give and receive, a young man fashioned so much more after her spirit +than was her own son that her mother-heart yearned to enfold him also +in its love. It grieved her deeply to know how intense was the +bitterness between them. + +"If they could only both be my boys, and be good friends," she said to +Penelope, with brimming eyes. + +As Penelope opened her letter from Hugh Gordon she gazed with +astonishment at the check it contained, a check for a bigger sum than +she and her mother had ever possessed. + + "Dear Sister Penelope," she read. "For you didn't say that I + mustn't call you sister, and so I shall, because you know + that is the way I think of you. I am very happy just now + thinking how surprised you will be when you see this check. + It is some money that I borrowed of Felix last winter when I + wanted to start in business. I am now paying it back to you + and your mother instead of to him, because I know that he is + not taking care of you as he ought, and also because I know + that if I pay it to him he will merely make some bad and + wasteful use of it. Enclosed you will find a memorandum of + the date, the principal, rate, interest and amount. I shall + tell him that I have sent it to you. + + "I have wanted very much to see you during this last month, + for there are many things to talk over with you at more + length than is possible by letter. But I knew what a rage it + put Felix into when he learned about my being there the last + time and how unhappy his anger and violent talk made both of + you, and especially your mother, and I didn't want to + subject you to such an experience again. + + "But the time is coming soon when I shall be able to visit + you as often as you will let me. I am looking forward to + that time with such anticipations of happiness as I hardly + dare tell you about. If you should decide against me, if you + should not feel toward me as I hope you will--but, no, that + would not be possible. And so I shall go on thinking of the + happy times we shall have when I run over often to see you + and when I take both of you upon little trips--to the + seashore, to New York, wherever you think you would like to + go. For we can make that sort of pleasure possible for you, + Penelope, if you want to undertake it. + + "It will all be decided and everything explained the next + time I see you. But to prepare the way for all that I shall + have to tell you, so that you will be ready to listen to it + understandingly, I am sending you a book to read in the + meantime. You will find in it one of the wonder stories of + modern science, and in its light that quick, keen mind of + yours will go to the heart of this matter at once. You will + see clearly through the essentials of the mystery you have + already sensed in the relations between Felix and me. But I + hope you will not make up your mind about it until I can + explain to you the whole matter, from beginning to end. I + think that will be soon, within two or three weeks. In the + meantime, you will not hear from me again, for I shall have + to go away for a while." + +The rest of the letter was taken up with matters about which they had +been conferring for some time. But Penelope was not able to find in +them her usual interest, so deep was her absorption in Gordon's +mystifying allusions and promises. + +The anxious wonder they aroused in her, however, was hardly greater +than the trepidation and the sense of mystery which descended upon +Henrietta Marne as she studied, that same morning, the envelope of +Gordon's letter to Felix Brand. Why should such a letter always herald +Brand's return from these unaccountable absences, which grew ever +longer and of darker omen? What had Hugh Gordon meant by those two or +three curt, unconsidered sentences that seemed to hint at some uncanny +fate toward which Brand was hastening? And what would be the +architect's demeanor now? Would it be such that she could not stay +longer in his employ? With all the financial risk involved would she +yet feel that she must go forth and look for another position? + +This last question did not long remain unanswered in her mind. Brand's +manner, it was true, had not lost entirely its habitual suavity and +polish. Formerly she had thought these to be the genuine expression of +the innate refinement and kindness of his nature. But now, as if some +inner corrosion were eating its way outward, she found that they had +ceased to be anything more than the thinnest veneer, through which +often broke, in words, or manner, or look, peevish irritation or +sullen anger. + +"It's as if he were just seething inside," said Henrietta to herself +after he had been back several days, "about something or other that +makes him too angry to control himself. Well, that's no reason why he +should take it out on me, as he did today. I wish I could see Mr. +Gordon again. Well, anyway, I can't stand this any longer. I'm sure +he'd advise me not to. Mr. Brand is much worse than he was before he +went away, and he looks as if he were the bad, base man that Hugh +Gordon says he is. I shall tell him at once that he'll have to find +another secretary." + +When she told her mother and sister that she had decided to look for +another position, she had to face a chorus of amazed protests and she +found it difficult to convince them of the soundness of her reasons. + +"He seems to have lost all sense of honor," she told them. "In all the +business that he carries on through me by correspondence and sometimes +by my seeing people, too, he lies and cheats even when I can't see, +sometimes, that he expects to gain anything by it. And I don't want to +be a party to that kind of thing any longer, even if I am only a sort +of a machine. And he is growing so ill-tempered and irritable and rude +that I really can't endure it." + +"Oh, well, don't worry about it, Harry," said Isabella with her usual +optimism. "You'll soon get another position. Please make it part of +your bargain next time that your employer must come over here and take +me out motoring quite frequently, if not oftener." + +"That reminds me, Bella, that I want to ask you not to go with Mr. +Brand again. I'm sure he's not the kind of man we've always thought +him." + +"Oh, nonsense!" Bella rejoined, breezily. "Don't be alarmed for your +handsome Felix Brand. It doesn't do him a bit of harm and I have a lot +of fun. Don't worry about me, Harry. I'm not an infant. And I don't +suppose I'll be offered any more perquisites of that sort, now that +you're going to leave him. Poor little me!" + +Henrietta found her employer in a particularly trying mood the next +morning. He looked tired and worn, as though he had not slept, and +his mobile countenance, always so eloquent of his state of mind that +every changing emotion shone through it as through a window into his +soul, told of secret harassment. So also did his tense nerves, which +seemed wrought up almost to the snapping point. They vented themselves +in frequent bursts of irritability and snarling anger. His secretary +noticed that he started at every sudden sound, and sometimes also when +she had heard nothing, and that then he would look round him in an +alarmed, furtive way, as if he expected to see some menace take form +out of the air. To her relief he did not return to the office after +luncheon. If she had known that he was speeding in his automobile +toward her home she would have taken less comfort in her quiet +afternoon. + +"Bella, dear, do you think you'd better go?" said her mother. "Harry +seems so anxious about it, and she knows him better than we do. Hadn't +you better tell you have an engagement, and then take me out for a +little walk?" + +"Oh, just this one more time won't make any difference, mother! I +guess my chatter is good for him, for he always seems blue when we +start out, but by the time we come home he's in as good spirits as I +am. So it would really be unkind not to go, wouldn't it, mother?" + +"Well, dear, if you think best. But I shall be anxious about you, so +please ask him to bring you back as soon as he can." + +When they returned in the late afternoon Isabella caught a glimpse, as +the automobile stopped and she glanced up toward her mother's room, of +a man's figure standing beside Mrs. Marne's chair, near the window. +Brand helped her out, and then, casting a keen glance at her, with a +little laugh he took her by the arm and guided her up the path and +across the porch to the door. Fumbling with her key, she scarcely +noticed his departure and by the time she stepped inside, his machine +was disappearing down the street. + +As she entered the hall she saw a man descending the stairs. Looking +up uncertainly, she staggered back a little and leaned against the +wall. + +"Bella!" he cried joyfully, and again, "Bella, darling!" and ran down +the steps. + +She gave a maudlin giggle. "Warren! Warren! Such s'prise! S' glad t' +see you!" she muttered thickly and, lurching toward him, would have +fallen had he not caught her. + +"Bella! What is the matter?" he exclaimed in anxious tones, and then, +in a moment, sudden disgust ringing in his voice: "Bella, you're +drunk! My God! And I meant to marry you next month! Motoring with a +man and coming home drunk! Good-bye, Miss Marne! It's lucky I +discovered my mistake in time!" + +He snatched his hat from the rack and slammed the door behind him; and +she, as understanding of what had happened dawned upon her, fell +forward upon the banister with a long, agonized cry. + +Mrs. Marne, lying down to rest in smiling happiness, with her heart +full of pleasure as she thought of her dear one's surprise and joy, +heard that shriek and hurried in alarm to the head of the stairs. +"Bella!" she called. "What is the matter? Where is Warren?" + +Isabella, suddenly sobered, lifted a white, drawn face: "Oh, mother, +he's gone! He's left me! Oh, mother, mother! It's all over!" + +She turned with sudden resolution and fled toward the dining room, so +absorbed in her own wild misery that she heard and saw nothing as her +mother cried out, swayed to and fro, and then toppled to the floor. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +"AND YOU COULD DO THIS, FELIX BRAND!" + + +The June afternoon was glowing with sunshine and all the world was +clothed in the sumptuous beauty of spring at its highest tide. +Henrietta Marne looked about her as she walked slowly up the street +toward her home with a heart more at ease than she had known for many +weeks. For she had that day secured a position at a salary equal to +that she was receiving from Felix Brand and was to begin work in it as +soon as the time should expire for which she had already given him +notice. + +"Difficulties always disappear as soon as you tackle them in real +earnest," she was saying to herself as she smiled in pleasure of the +green world all about her and of the satisfaction that glowed in her +own breast. "Everything is coming out all right. When Hugh Gordon +comes back he'll be pleased to find that I've acted on his advice. I'm +sorry, awfully sorry, about Mr. Brand--it was so delightful working +for him at first, and for a long time--but if he will act like this, +what can he expect?" + +Glancing upward at the windows of her mother's room as she entered her +gate she was surprised not to see there a loving face on the watch for +her coming. She opened the front door and the silence of the house +struck her heart with a chill of apprehension. + +"Mother! Bella!" she called, a flutter of alarm in her tones. "Where +are you?" + +"Miss Harry! Miss Harry!" came Delia's voice in response. "Do come +here, quick, quick!" + +She rushed to the dining room and saw her sister stretched upon the +lounge and Delia kneeling beside her. On the floor was an empty bottle +bearing a death's head and cross-bones and "strychnine" upon its +label. She herself had bought it on their physician's prescription, as +a tonic for Mrs. Marne, only a few days before. + +"What is it, Delia? Did she take that poison?" gasped Henrietta. + +"Yes'm, she took it, the whole bottle full. I heard her scream in the +hall an' soon she come flyin' in here, an' she snatched up that bottle +an' swallowed all them pills before I knew what she was doin'. Then +she tumbled down an' I grabbed her an' stuck me finger down her +throat. She fought me and tried to push me away, but I wouldn't an' I +kep' on stickin' me finger way down an' after a while she spewed it +all up. Oh, the dear an' lovely darlin', an' her so merry an' happy +all the time! She won't die now, will she, Miss Harry?" + +Henrietta had hastily mixed an emetic and together they forced it down +her throat. + +"I hope she won't, Delia--I hope you've saved her. But we must have a +doctor now, at once. Run, Delia, and send the first person you can +find as fast as he can go for a doctor to come immediately--say it's a +case of life and death." + +Delia rushed away and Henrietta, though her heart was full of anxiety +about her mother, hovered over Isabella, who lay with closed eyes and +ghastly face, moaning but seemingly unconscious. + +Presently, fearful of what the silence of the house might mean with +regard to its other occupant, she left her sister and hurried +upstairs. There she found Mrs. Marne unconscious on the floor. But she +knew what should be done and met the crisis with quick and capable +action. And in a few moments more she heard in the hall below the +voice of their own physician, whom the maid had luckily encountered +nearby upon the street. + +But scarcely had she supported Mrs. Marne to her bed when a shriek in +Delia's voice, followed by the cry of "Doctor! Miss Harry! Come +quick!" sent her on flying feet down the stairs again. Isabella, whom +she had thought unconscious, had risen and tottered to the kitchen. +There the maid, rushing on from the empty dining-room, had found her +beside the sink with a bottle of carbolic acid upraised, ready to pour +down her throat. Delia had struck it from her hand barely in time to +save her from all but a chance burn upon her cheek. + +"She must have had some sudden and very serious shock," said the +physician later, as he and Henrietta stood beside the bed where +Isabella lay, at last sleeping quietly but moaning in her slumber. +"Her second attempt to kill herself shows how profound it must have +been. But she will come through all right now, I think, though her +recovery will perhaps be slow. What she will need more than anything +else will be to talk, and as soon as it is prudent you must persuade +her to confide in you and tell you the whole story of whatever it was +that led her to take this violent measure. Her nature is one that +needs sympathy and support, now far more than ever, and the sooner she +can be led to pour out all her trouble the sooner she will be able to +get her grip on life again. But of course you'll keep all the +knowledge of it that you can away from your mother. You'll have to use +your own discretion about that. She's had a pretty severe shock, too, +and, though she was getting on so well, it's likely to set her back a +good deal." + +For days Isabella lay in her bed, like a broken, withered flower, +weeping much and asking between her sobs why they had not let her die. +But at last her sister's love and tender, persistent effort broke +through the wrappings of grief and shame that had kept her bound in +silence and in Henrietta's arms she sobbed out the pitiful tale that +had come to so tragic an ending. + +"Oh, Harry," she said, "I can't understand why this awful thing should +have happened when I meant no harm at all. I can't see yet that there +was anything wrong in my going out with Mr. Brand now and then. It +wasn't many times, you know, and always he had some business errand +and just stopped for me to give me a little pleasure and to have some +company himself. I suppose he liked to have me go with him because I +was always jolly and kept him in good spirits. For I did notice, +Harry, that when he came he always seemed rather blue and anxious, and +then, after we had been out for a while and I had laughed and +chattered a lot, he would be more cheerful and by the time we would +get back he would seem quite himself again. + +"Since I have been lying here and thinking and thinking, Harry, dear," +she stopped and hid her face and a shiver of shame passed over her +body. Henrietta's arms tightened about her and she whispered +soothing, loving words. "I've been thinking, dear," Isabella went on +brokenly, "that perhaps that was why he always stopped somewhere and +ordered a bottle of champagne. Because it did put me in such gay +spirits and, I suppose, made me more lively and just that much better +company. And that, I guess, was what he wanted. I never drank but +little, never more than a glass or two, and I couldn't see any harm in +it, though you did think I oughtn't. Sometimes I held back and asked +him if he thought I'd better, and he always laughed at me and urged me +on and made it seem silly in me to have scruples. + +"But that last day--" again she stopped and broke into a passion of +sobbing that took all of Henrietta's loving sympathy and tenderness to +soothe. "You asked me not to go again," she went on after a while in +trembling tones, "and when he came mother, too, thought I'd better +not. Oh, Harry, how I wish I had heeded you and refused to go! I could +have made some excuse, and then--Oh, Harry, Harry, I don't want to +live any longer!" + +"There, there, darling!" soothed her sister. "Try to control yourself +and tell me all that happened. I'm sure it couldn't have been anything +so very bad. Tell me all about it, dear, and then you'll feel better." + +"Mr. Brand seemed so different from what he used to be," she presently +went on, "and I began to understand what you told us about the change +in him. I was just a little afraid after we started, he seemed to be +in such an ugly temper and, oh, Harry, what a bad man he looks now! +I begged him to bring me home again after a little while, but he +wouldn't and said his business was too important to be put aside for +my whims. + +"I was a little frightened and a good deal anxious and so of course I +wasn't as gay as usual, and that seemed to make him angry. Then he +said we'd stop and have some wine and I thought perhaps it would be +best to humor him and then maybe I could persuade him to bring me +home. I meant not to drink more than a glass, but he made me--perhaps +he thought it would make me more lively. Anyway, he was so rough in +his manner and looks and there was such an angry gleam in his eyes +that I was too frightened not to do what he told me to. And by the +time we got home I was--oh, Harry, I can't say it--and Warren met +me as I came in and saw--and he said--an awful thing--and rushed +away--and it's all over, Harry--I can never see him again--it's all +over." + +"Don't think that, yet, Bella, dear. I'll write to him and explain it +all, and he'll know it wasn't your fault. He won't blame you. He's too +kind-hearted and good not to see that it was hasty of him to act as he +did." + +"That won't matter, Harry. I'd like him to know that I'm not the kind +of woman he seemed to think. But I could never, never look him in the +face again after--that--after what he saw and said. I'd always think +he was thinking of it. It's all over, Harry, it's all over." + +When at last Henrietta had soothed her sister to sleep she stood +beside the bed looking down at Isabella's grief-stricken face and +listening to the sobs that now and then convulsed her throat. + +"And you could do this, Felix Brand!" she said bitterly. "You, that we +thought so noble and good! Hugh Gordon is right--you are a wicked man, +and if you are the one he meant you don't deserve to live!" + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +"SAVE ME, DR. ANNISTER!" + + +Mildred Annister, passing the open door of her father's waiting room, +sent into it a casual glance, came to a sudden stop, and then, with a +brightening face, went quickly in, saying softly, "Felix!" Sweeping +the room with her eyes she saw that he was its only occupant and ran +toward him, holding out her hands and asking, apprehensively: + +"Felix! You're waiting to see father! Are you ill?" + +She put her hands upon his shoulders and studied his face with anxious +scrutiny for an instant, until, yielding to the pressure of his arms, +she sank upon his breast with a murmur of happy laughter. + +"No, dearest, I'm not ill--you can see how perfectly well I look. It's +just a little nerve tire, I guess, and I want to ask Dr. Annister to +prescribe a tonic for me. It's nothing of any consequence." + +She drew back and studied his face again. Even her fascinated eyes +began to see in it something different from the look of the man who +had won her love so completely a year before. She was conscious of +a little shiver, that meant, she knew not what, but kept her from +yielding when he would press her again into his arms. + +"I'm afraid--Felix, dear--I know you must be working too hard. That's +what's the matter and that's what makes you look--a little--strange. +You are tired. You are doing such lots of work. And you mustn't break +down--now!" With another happy, loving little laugh she gave up and +nestled against his shoulder, while he kissed her cheek and brow and +lips. + +"Felix!" she exclaimed, "I'm standing out bravely against that trip to +Europe father is so determined I shall take with mother this summer. +I won't go and leave you. He hasn't said so much about it lately, +because he's not well and mother is anxious about him. I've almost +persuaded her that she ought not to leave him." + +She paused a moment, her face rosy with his caresses. Her eyes sought +his and her voice sank to a whisper. "Felix, dear heart, if we could +only go there alone together! Can't we tell them and then just go away +by ourselves?" + +"I don't think we'd better tell them yet. Your father seems to have +become opposed to us, for some reason, and I'm trying to win him over. +We must wait a little." + +"It's only because he can't bear to think of my marrying any one. He +doesn't want to give me up----" + +"I don't blame him for that!" + +"But he'll have to some time, and--oh, Felix! I wish we could tell +him, and mother, soon! It makes me feel so underhanded, and it mars my +happiness, just a little, darling. Don't you think it would be better +to face the music and have it over with?" + +The sound of Dr. Annister's voice dismissing a patient came to their +ears and she sprang out of his embrace. "No, no! don't whisper a word +of it," he hastily adjured her. "We must wait a little while longer. +Remember what I say." There was a touch of impatience, almost of +roughness, in his tone as he spoke the last words that made her turn +wondering eyes upon him for an instant. But her father was opening +the door into his consulting room and now came forward with an +outstretched hand. She put her arm through her lover's and walked +with him into the office. + +"This naughty boy has been working too hard, father," she said gaily, +"and he has that tired feeling. I think you'd better prescribe a six +months' rest and a trip around the world!" + +She was smiling persuasively at her father and did not see the look of +irritation that leaped into Brand's eyes as he turned them suddenly +upon her. Then he laughingly shook his head, saying: + +"It would be a bigger dose than I could swallow, I'm afraid. I have +too many contracts on my hands now to be able to take any such French +leave as that." + +"Anyway, father," she insisted as she moved toward the door and, from +behind the doctor's back, threw her lover a kiss, "you must tell him +not to overwork himself, as he's been doing lately." + +"Well, Felix, what is it? What's the trouble?" said the little +physician kindly, as he sank back into the depths of his capacious +arm-chair. + +But the architect was ill at ease. He sprang up from the chair where +he had just seated himself and began walking back and forth in the +narrow space. His whole soul was in rebellion against the confession +he had come there to make. + +"Perhaps you will remember, Dr. Annister," he began, broke off, +stopped to wipe his brow, then stumbled on: "It was here in your +office--you will remember, when I recall it to you--some time ago, you +told me--you asked me about--certain things, and urged me to come to +you--if at any time I felt I needed your help." + +"Yes, yes, I remember," the doctor rejoined in encouraging tones. He +was looking at Brand with a searching gaze and saying to himself: +"Faugh! How repulsive his face has grown! He's going to tell me the +whole truth this time!" + +Brand was silent again and the doctor went on, a little more briskly: +"Well, let's begin and have it over with. You must bear in mind that +the secrets of the physician's office are as sacred as those of the +confessional." + +"I know it, Dr. Annister. But it's a strange story I have to tell you, +and I don't know whether or not you can help me. I thought I could +fight it out myself and win, but I can't. And if you can't help me God +knows what will become of me." + +His voice sank despairingly and he dropped into the chair again, his +face in his hands. + +"I'll do my best, Felix, whatever it is," the other encouraged again. +"Don't hesitate to confide in me. I've listened to many, many strange +stories in this room, and only the walls are any the wiser." + +"I suppose I'm ill." Brand started up again and moved about with +uneasy steps. "I believe you physicians have decided it's an +illness--and I think you've treated some cases--" he halted and seemed +to gather up resolution for his next words--"dissociated, or dual, +personality--that's what you call it, isn't it?" + +Dr. Annister sat bolt upright and for an instant could not put under +professional control the surprise that crossed his face. But Brand, +half turned away, was gazing at the floor as if he found it difficult +to meet his companion's eyes. He was conscious of an edge of +impersonal interest in the physician's voice: + +"Yes, I've done a little in that line--a few cases--but nothing to +equal in importance the work of one or two others. But I've been +pretty successful. Doubtless I can help you. Go on. Tell me about it." + +"It's that damned Hugh Gordon!" the architect broke out, turning +savagely toward the doctor, his face distorted with anger and his eyes +blazing. "He's fighting me for my body! He said he'd push me off the +edge, and he's doing it. Save me, Dr. Annister! Save me from him! Send +him back to where he came from!" In sudden realization of the fate +that threatened him Brand sank trembling into his chair. + +"I'll try, Felix, I'll do my best, and I'm sure I can help you. But +you must tell me everything about it. How long has this condition been +going on? When did it begin?" + +"Oh, I hardly know how to answer that, it came about so gradually. +Last fall, in October, was the first time he--he--came out. But +long before that he was alive, inside of me, and I knew about him +sometimes in my dreams. For years, ever since I was a boy, I have had +occasionally a curious experience in a dream. I would be in the dream +always, but not as myself. I would know, in the dream and afterwards, +that it was I who was feeling, thinking, acting, talking, but at the +same time it would seem to be an entirely different personality. Of +course there is always more or less of that feeling in a dream, but +in this case the divergence was so sharp and the consciousness of a +different individuality was so distinct that it was just as if my +mind, or soul, or whatever it is that holds the essence of myself, had +left me and taken possession of some other individual. Can you tell me +what that meant, Dr. Annister? For it was the beginning of the whole +business, and I've thought, sometimes, that I might have saved myself +all--_this_. Do you think I could?" + +Dr. Annister was gazing at his patient with inscrutable eyes, sitting +upright, his fingers tapping. "I can't say now, Felix. I don't know +enough yet. But this experience was probably due to your sub-conscious +self. For we are pretty well assured that there is an existence, +perhaps more than one, in every human being subordinate to that of +which he is conscious, which is himself. Submerged beneath the full +stream of his conscious existence, with all its phases of physical and +psychical activity, this other existence goes on. In most people it is +either so deeply submerged or so closely bound up in their conscious +existence that they never know anything about it. Sometimes they catch +dim glimpses of it, and once in awhile, in one person out of many +millions, some nervous shock will break the bonds between the two +and the submerged consciousness will rise to the surface and take +possession. That is probably what happened in your dreams, with, +doubtless, some shock at the beginning to make it possible. Did these +dreams occur frequently?" + +"I don't think they did at first. But I was too young and thoughtless +to take any account of them. I remember that they occurred once in +a while in my teens. Afterwards they became more frequent and the +impression they made upon me was much stronger. Then that impression +began to remain with me after I was awake, more as a memory at first, +an unusually vivid remembrance of a dream state. Then it grew so +strong that for an hour or two after waking it would dominate me and +I could feel myself almost swaying back into that other person I had +been while I was asleep and dreaming. I thought it would be a curious +and interesting experience if I could slip over into this other person +sometimes while I was awake. You know you get rather tired sometimes +of your own individuality." + +He stopped and smiled, then went on: "It has never been my habit to +pass by any interesting or pleasurable experience that came my way." + +The smile became almost a leer and then stiffened into a sneering +defiance as his gaze met the clear gray eyes of the physician, +impersonal, professional, unresponding. The doctor's chin rested upon +his locked fingers and his eyes were fastened upon the other's face. +Brand did not know how much of his soul that searching gaze was +gradually forcing him to reveal. + +"I have always thought," he went on, as if moved by an impulse of +self-defense, the half-leering, half-sneering smile still on his face, +"that a man has the right to sample all the pleasures that come within +his reach. It's the only way by which he can come into full knowledge +of himself, and so reach his highest development. And that, I take it, +is one of the things a man lives for. Therefore he owes it to himself +to let nothing pass by him untried." + +Brand ceased speaking and waited as if he expected some response. +"Don't you agree with me?" he said, after a moment of silence, in his +old, suave and deferent manner. + +"Eh? Agree with you? Oh, my opinion on that matter is of no +consequence just now. You were speaking about this other individuality +beginning to dominate you after you awoke. What happened then?" + +The architect straightened up and sent an irritated glance toward his +companion. But that clear gaze had established too firm a hold over +his will to be swayed by sudden temper. He fidgeted in his chair, then +took up his story again: + +"Yes, I wondered what it would be like really to be somebody else +now and then. The dream was no more real to me than any dream ever +is, and if I could let myself be this other individuality for a +little while awake it seemed to me that it would be a wonderful +experience--something that nobody else had ever had. One morning last +fall I woke up with the remembrance of such a dream particularly vivid +and the impression of this other personality stronger than it had ever +been. It seemed to me that if I so much as shut my eyes I'd drift off +into this other being. While I was dressing I thought I'd just try it +and see what would happen. I was getting ready to shave and as I made +up my mind, or, rather, took down my determination against it, I +happened to look at the bright blade of my razor. It seemed as if my +eyes fairly stuck fast to it for a moment and--the thing was done." + +The doctor nodded. "Yes. Self-hypnosis. Go on. The case is most +interesting." + +"Well, for about an hour I was--the Lord knows where or what. When I +came to myself again I had no recollection of what had taken place. +Except for the clock I wouldn't have known that any time at all had +passed. I found that I had shaved myself, and had left my mustache, +but what else I had done I don't know. I tried it again a little +later, hoping I might, if I knew what was coming, be aware of what +happened. But I wasn't. I completely lost my own consciousness for +that time. + +"Then this--this creature was able, after that, to come out of his own +will, without my giving permission. He would come while I was asleep, +at first only for a few hours, and he would usually leave a letter for +me in the room telling me what he had done and what he wanted me to +do. He called himself 'Hugh Gordon' and always signed his letters that +way. + +"At first I thought this was rather amusing. But each time that +he came his power grew stronger, and so did his desire for an +independent existence. Before long he was taking possession of my body +for a day or two at a time, going out and following his own affairs. +He bought a suit of gray clothes--he seemed to want everything +different from me--and when at last he was able to keep himself going +for a week or two he had my hair cut short and let a mustache grow, +and began sending his damned insolent letters through the mail to my +office. + +"Now you know, Dr. Annister, why I couldn't explain my absences any +better. Each time that he pushes me down and gets possession of my +body he keeps it longer. Now he's threatening me with annihilation. He +says that the next time he comes he's going to stay. And I'm at the +end of my strength, doctor. I've fought him back, and he's fought to +get out, for hours, and days. It's worst at night, because, so far, +the change has always taken place when I was asleep. For the last two +nights I have not slept--I've been afraid to close my eyes. I've +tramped up and down my apartment and I've drank brandy and I've gone +around town and raised hell. But I can't fight him off much longer +and I've got to have some sleep. Unless you can help me I've come to +the end." + +Dr. Annister was looking at him gravely, sympathetically, the deepest +interest manifest in his countenance. "I hope I can help you, Felix. I +hope I can. We'll try. I wish you had come to me with this long ago. +It might have been easier. But I need to know still more about it. +The case is very peculiar, very interesting, and it has features +that differentiate it from any other that has been studied by any +physician. These dreams that the whole thing seems to have grown out +of--try to remember, Felix, were they preceded by any severe nervous +shock, an illness, anything that might have aided in the breaking up +of your personality?" + +Brand hesitated and a faint color crept into his face. He knew when +they began and it was a thing he did not like to think of, even now, +after so many years and the change which these later months had made +in his character. But the doctor's gaze was upon him and he felt +compulsion in it. + +"I think," he said slowly, "it must have been perhaps twenty years or +more ago. I had just entered my teens. My sister and I were in a tree +in our yard and she fell out and was badly hurt. She--she has never +recovered. It was a good deal of a shock to me. I began to notice the +dreams soon afterward. But they weren't very frequent." + +"Just so. It might have been that." The doctor was tapping his +finger-tips together thoughtfully. There was something he wanted to +know, which he must find out. But he did not believe that the man +before him would answer truthfully the questions he needed to ask. So +he decided to experiment in another direction. "This--this other you," +he went on, "this Hugh Gordon, came to see me once and----" + +"Don't call him my other self!" Felix cried out angrily, jumping to +his feet and scowling. "He is a thief, a murderer! He has stolen my +good name, my money, my body, he is trying to kill me! I know he came +here and tried to poison your feeling against me--and I think he must +have succeeded, too. He has tried to set my own mother and sister +against me in that same way. He goes snooping out to their home and +makes them believe all sorts of tales about me. He's even been +whispering his lies into the ear of my secretary, until she's going to +leave me." + +In his rage, which grew with each fresh accusation that he brought +against his enemy, Brand was rushing about with uneven steps and now +and then smiting a table or a chair with his fist. "He is determined +to pull me down and cover me with disgrace and then annihilate me for +his own benefit. Damn him, I won't have him spoken of as my other +self!" + +"Try to be calm, Felix," urged the doctor quietly. "You only make your +task the harder every time you give up to such outbursts of rage." He +was looking at the other's trembling hands and working face and +thinking that here was at least a beginning of what he wished to know. + +"Has this abnormal condition affected you in the exercise of your +special gift?" he asked. Brand's face brightened and his manner +quieted at once. + +"Ah! That's something he's not been able to filch from me, the damned +thief!" he exclaimed exultantly as he seated himself again. "I've +kept all the talent I ever had in that line, and it has developed and +increased wonderfully--I don't mean to boast, Dr. Annister, but I know +what I'm talking about--since this has been going on. If you saw the +pictures that were published and the things all the critics said of me +a few weeks ago you would know that is true. I'm astonished myself +lately at the ease, the rapidity and the success with which I work. +But it's all he has not stolen," Brand continued more gloomily. "He +has taken all my business sense. I used to have a good deal of it. I +could make money and I would soon have been a rich man. Now I'm +getting poorer every day, and he's getting rich." + +"Yes, I see." The physician was nodding and softly beating his fingers +together. "I get an idea of how the cleavage has been. Your nature was +broken into two parts--as clean and sharp and complete a break as in +any case I know of. Our task now is to reunite them and make a whole +man again out of the halves into which you have separated." + +Brand leaned forward eagerly. "Then you'll help me?" he demanded. "You +won't go over to his side? The damned hypocrite! He says he is more +entitled to life than I am, because he's a better man, because he +wants to do good. Why, Doctor, in the last letter he sent me--" +Brand's anger was rising again--"he ordered me to make my will, and to +leave a letter for some one that would explain my disappearance so +that it would be known that I was gone for good, that I was never +coming back!" The physician held his patient with a calm gaze and made +a sign that he was to control himself. And in a moment Felix sank back +into his seat, trembling with the reaction from his burst of temper, +and imploring the other for the gift of a longer lease of life. + +"You'll send him back to where he came from, won't you, Dr. Annister? +You won't let him have his will over me?" + +"We can succeed," the doctor assured him in confident tones, "if you +will do your part. You must control yourself at all times. Try to +strengthen your enfeebled will power. Live quietly, sanely, and a +clean, moral life. I don't believe you've been doing that, Felix." + +"Oh, I've had to keep some excitement going. I've motored like the +devil all around New York, and when I could have pleasant company with +me that helped to hold that damned creature down as much as anything. +Some people were better than others. Miss Marne's sister, a jolly +girl, especially if I fed her with champagne while we were out, was +very useful and she saved me several times. But the last time it was +a failure. She seemed to be afraid of me and though I made her drink +wine till she was drunk, it was no good. I came back no better off +than I was before." + +Dr. Annister made a sudden movement and looked at his watch. He was +conscious of an irruption of unprofessional loathing into his feeling +for his patient. He was wondering how much this callous disregard of +everything but his own interest was due to his abnormal condition and +how much to his innate selfishness; and his thoughts flew to his own +cherished daughter. + +"Well, Felix," he said rising, "I'm due--I've barely time to make +it--at a consultation over an important case, so that we can't go any +farther into this now. But I can help you. I'm sure I can, if you will +follow orders. I shall try hypnosis. It's the only thing we know, yet, +that really has much effect. But some wonderful cures have been made +with it. Come back tonight. My evening office hour is from eight to +nine. Come about nine o'clock, so that I can take you the last one +and have plenty of time for experiment. And there's another thing, +Felix,--ah!" He stopped suddenly, as a little spasm of pain crossed +his face, and pressed his hand against his heart. "It's nothing," he +went on deprecatingly, at the other's look of inquiry. "This little +organ in here," and he patted his breast, "reminds me of its +existence, once in a while, lately. I'm ordered to take a rest, and I +suppose I'll have to before long." + +"You're not going away?" Brand queried anxiously. "You won't go till +after you've fixed me up?" + +"I can't go for some time--unless I have to. And don't mention it to +Mildred or Mrs. Annister. Now, about that other thing. I must insist, +Felix, that you release Mildred from this engagement between you. I +have let it go on against my own judgment too long already, because I +was hoping that time would lessen her infatuation. But in the light of +all that you have just told me it is impossible--it must not continue +another day. You ought to see yourself how unfair it would be to her." + +"But suppose," said Brand, with the suggestion of a sneer in his +voice, "that Mildred should not wish to be released?" + +The doctor pressed his lips together and his gray eyes flashed. His +pale face looked very weary. "Her wishes can make no difference now," +he replied decisively. "Write to her and say that you wish to end the +engagement. Make any excuse that you like. But you must not see her +again. That is final, Felix. Good-bye. I'll see you tonight." + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +HUGH GORDON TELLS HIS STORY + + +Dr. Annister dismissed his last patient and looked at his watch. It +was nine o'clock and Felix Brand, he thought, was probably in the +waiting room. His face was even paler than usual and its deep lines +told of pain, anxiety and spent strength. He sat down, his head upon +his hand and his thoughts upon his daughter. + +"Poor child!" he said to himself. "It will go hard with her. But there +can be no 'ifs' or 'ands' about it now. Her mother must take her away +where there will be no possibility of her seeing him again. Poor +little girl!" + +He rose with a weary sigh and crossed to the door into the waiting +room. As he threw it open a man at the farther side of the room arose +and came toward him with a quick, firm stride and a confident manner. +He saw at once that it was not Felix Brand. + +"Good evening, Dr. Annister," said the stranger. "I know you were +expecting to see Mr. Brand, but I have come in his place. I am Hugh +Gordon." + +"I am glad to see you, Mr. Gordon," the doctor replied, his interest +at once at high pitch. "You can tell me the other side of the case. I +met you once before, I believe. Will you come in?" + +The physician cast a keen glance at his visitor and said to himself, +astonished, that he would never have believed this physical envelope +to be the same that housed the man with whom he had talked a few hours +before. Feature and coloring were there, it was true, but a different +soul animated the body and lighted the countenance and made of the +whole another man. The tell-tale signs of evil living had vanished +from the face, and so also had its expression of ultra refinement +and sensitiveness, while in the eyes no longer shone that winning, +caressing look which had been a magnet for the hearts of women. This +man held his head high, his eyes were keen, penetrating, virile, +and in his countenance the doctor read sincerity, forcefulness, +determination. "'As he thinketh in his heart, so is he'," Dr. Annister +mused as he leaned forward to listen to what the young man was saying. + +"I have come to tell you the truth about this matter, so that you can +see for yourself that Felix Brand is not worth saving. You promised +him this morning that you would help him. But when you hear what I can +tell you I have no doubt you will feel, as I do, that he deserves the +fate he has brought upon himself and that the world will be better to +be rid of him." + +"One moment," said the doctor. "Were you aware of all that passed +between us this morning? Do you know all that happens to him?" + +"Everything he thinks and says and does I know, and I have always +known. That is one of the reasons why I have determined that he must +go. I will no longer be a witness within his body of his evil deeds. I +am never unconscious, as he is always when he goes under. And that +is why, also, I am able to tell you the simple truth. It is not so +strange a story as you may think. I wonder sometimes why something of +the sort has not happened to many a man. + +"It began with that incident about his sister of which he told you. +But it wasn't an accident. He wanted her seat on the limb of the tree +and when she wouldn't give it to him he pushed her off. She was almost +killed and was crippled for life. But nobody, except him and her and +me, has ever known that it was not an accident. He surrendered to +selfishness and cowardice and for the first time in his life denied +his conscience. That was the beginning of me, and of all that has +happened since." + +Dr. Annister was leaning forward, almost out of his chair, and so +intense was the interest with which he was listening that his pale +face was alight and its lines of anxiety and fatigue smoothed out. + +"I see!" he exclaimed eagerly. "I begin to understand how it was. The +shock, the struggle within himself and the revulsion of his conscience +from the victory won by the worse side of his nature started up a new +center, or threw off a new nebula, of consciousness--we can only +vaguely guess at the process. It proved strong enough to form within +his brain the embryo of another individuality. + +"I have thought sometimes--" the doctor stopped for a moment, his +attention turning inwards again, while his elbows sought the arms of +the chair and his finger-tips came together. "I am beginning to +believe," he went on, his gaze fixed high up on the wall, "that even +in apparently normal human beings there may exist two or more of these +nebulae of consciousness in process of formation, but bound up so +closely with the dominating consciousness that they never quite +separate themselves. The case never becomes that of complete dual +personality, although such a person may have within himself two widely +different sets of ideals and principles of living. + +"Strangely enough, these cases seem always to be evolved out of the +person's attitude toward the ethical problems of life. There, for +instance, are the officers of powerful corporations who may be +rapacious, ruthless, brutal, criminal, in their business methods, but +in private life the kindest, most sympathetic and generous of men. +Yes, I am beginning to think it may be that such men have set going +within themselves some such physiological and psychological process as +this which has nearly overwhelmed Felix Brand. + +"Who can tell what a few more years of investigation and study of this +problem will give us!" The finger-tips were rhythmically tapping and +the physician's face was alight with interest, although he seemed for +the moment to have forgotten his companion. "Perhaps in another +generation or two we shall have discovered that it is medical not +legal treatment that pirate captains of industry stand in need of. +Perhaps the too shrewd financiers of that day will not be fined or +sent to prison but compelled to take courses of hypnotic treatment." + +Dr. Annister's gaze, wandering downward, fell upon his companion, and +he came back to the matter in hand with a deprecatory smile. + +"Pardon me, Mr. Gordon. I've been going far astray. But the whole +question interests me deeply. Strange, strange, what havoc within a +man's brain that war between right and wrong can make, when his own +fierce desires get mixed up in it! Will you go on, please? After this +first act of cruelty, unintentional doubtless, but afterward +concealed, out of cowardice and the desire to advance his own selfish +interests--then?" + +"Why, it was the beginning of a constantly growing habit of +selfishness in thought and action. I could tell you of thousands of +little incidents, each of which helped to strengthen his conception of +himself as the center of everything and his notion that his wishes +must be gratified and his desires satisfied, at whatever cost to +others. This didn't come all at once, you know. It was the growth of +years, and kept on all through his youth and early manhood, till it +reached its present abominable state. And as it grew, so did I." + +"Yes, yes!" the physician broke in again. "Every impulse toward +altruistic thought or action that was denied broke off and attached +itself to the other nebula of consciousness. Thus he set up within +himself two centers of consciousness, of moral growth, one altruistic +and the other egotistic. And, as these grew, certain other mental +qualities were caught within them, so that, when the separation was at +last complete, each individuality had, intensified, the qualities +that, mingled together, ought to have gone to the making of an evenly +balanced, highly endowed man." + +"That's it. And now the question is, which of us are you going to try +to save? Which will you allow to live?" + +"Why, I'm going to try to put you together again, to mingle you into +one proportioned, rounded individuality." + +Gordon's manner bristled with aggressiveness. "You can't do it," he +exclaimed abruptly. "It's beyond human power, now. 'All the king's +horses and all the king's men' wouldn't be enough for such a job. +Felix Brand is beyond saving. He chose his part and wilfully kept in +it. Let him suffer the consequences. I was his conscience--the part of +him in which conscience abode. He denied me and repulsed me over and +over again, until he so calloused himself that there was no point left +for attack. And so we have become two separate and complete human +beings." + +Gordon's words were rushing forth in an impulsive torrent and the +physician held up an arresting finger. "No, you're wrong there. You +are not two complete human beings. It has come about that he has +divested himself of moral sense. But he still has a wonderful esthetic +gift, of very great value to the world. Have you any part in that?" + +"No, I have not," was Gordon's quick reply. "I admit I am lacking on +that side of my nature. But is that the most important thing for a man +to possess?" + +He sprang to his feet and strode about as he went on pouring out his +arguments with emphatic, forceful manner. Dr. Annister watched him, +wondering at his apparent size. For he looked a considerably larger +man than did Felix Brand. The light gray clothing, of looser fit, +made some difference, but the physician decided that his manner was +responsible for most of the illusion--his self-confident stride, his +masterful quality, the impression he gave of abundant vitality and of +strength of character and of body. These were all in strong contrast +to Brand's courtly, winning manners, affable tones and leisurely, +graceful movements. + +"Felix Brand has become a monster, a swollen toad of egotism. He cares +for nothing but his own advantage, his own interests, his own +pleasures, and these he reaches out and takes, grabs them, without +any regard for other people's rights or necessities. That kind +of selfishness is the root of all evil, and Felix Brand is its +incarnation. He is soaked with wickedness. Oh, you do not know the +half of it, Dr. Annister, though you have guessed something from the +change in the expression of his countenance. For years he has been +like a carrier of typhoid, spreading the contagion of his own sinful +nature wherever he went, himself unpunished, even admired, looked up +to and patterned after. Do you want to keep such a man alive? Do you +think, do you really believe, Dr. Annister, that the genius of such a +man as that, whatever it is, could make amends to the world for all +the evil that he does?" + +"You forget, Mr. Gordon, that it is no part of my purpose to keep him +as he is. It is my duty to save him from the consequences of his folly +and of his perverted view of his relations with the world--to make him +whole again." + +"You can't do it, Dr. Annister, you can't do it! Oil and water will no +more mix than my characteristics and his can be made to mingle in a +smooth blend again. My purpose in life is to add to the well-being of +the world. I want to lessen its poverty and its degradation and help +to reform the soul-poisoning conditions under which so many thousands +live. I have planned my life and my head is full of schemes for the +betterment of the world. I find it easy to make money. I shall be rich +soon. My chief interest and pleasure will be in using my money to work +out those plans. It is not my intention to do this as charity or +according to ordinary, philanthropic methods. I've no use for charity. +It is wrong and it only makes things worse. What I purpose doing is +to carry out my business schemes by such methods as will enable those +who work with me and for me to earn their own betterments in life, and +then to enlighten and guide them in the spending and investment of +their earnings. I want to prove that that sort of thing is possible +and profitable. In that and similar ways, which will benefit and make +others happy quite as much as they will contribute to my satisfaction, +I expect to spend my life. Felix Brand will design some beautiful +buildings. But he will add to the rottenness of the world and spread +disaster and misery with every day of his life. Will the buildings +atone for all that evil?" + +Dr. Annister's person, sunk in the depths of his arm-chair, looked +even smaller than usual, in comparison with this energetic, dominating +figure that stood above him, speaking with emphasis and conviction, +instinct with determined will. He leaned forward and began to tap his +finger-tips, his face thoughtful. Silence fell upon them for a moment. + +"My mission," he presently said, slowly and solemnly, "is to heal, +not to judge. But," he added, in a mournful tone, "you give me an idea +of what a splendid man Felix Brand might have been if he had not so +perverted and maimed himself." + +Gordon made a gesture of impatience and his dark eyes flashed. "He +chose his way. Let him walk in it. I did my best to warn him where it +would lead. As long as I lived in him, I was his conscience and tried +to plead with him and argue with him. After I broke from him and began +to live my own life I wrote letters to him and told him the sort of +creature he was becoming and what he might expect. + +"It was as if we were twins, with only one body between us. At first I +felt strongly the bond that held us together. At the start I did not +want to do anything to injure him. I thought we might both live, +taking turns with our one body. But as soon as I tried to make him see +the evil of his ways he began to hate me. His life grew so much worse +that I lost all patience with him. He would pay no attention to my +warnings. + +"When he decided that he wanted that appointment to the Municipal Art +Commission, of course, characteristically, he wanted it at once, by +fair means or foul. I warned him not to do anything underhanded and he +told me to mind my own affairs. I told him I'd show him up if he +dabbled in any unscrupulous methods. But he went straight ahead after +what he wanted. You know what the consequences were." + +"Yes, I remember," the physician assented. "It was almost my first +intimation, really my first proof, that Felix was not what I, and +everyone, had thought him." + +"Oh, he had kept the outside of his life as admirable as any one could +wish. But I knew, long before that, how dirty and misshapen his soul +was. Even then, though, if he had heeded my warnings and shown any +desire to straighten out his theory of life and clean up his methods +of living I would have done my best to help him. At that time I would +even have given up my own desire to live and tried to reincorporate +myself with him. But it was no good, any of it. + +"There was the case of that young woman, Miss Andrews, a nice girl, +with talent, and likely to make a fine success in her profession. But +Felix Brand crossed her path, took a fancy to her, talked his damnable +ideas into her head and set her feet on the downward path. She's going +down now at a lively rate, thanks to the lessons she had from him, and +she'll soon be at the bottom. It was that incident as much as any one +thing that determined me I'd live my own life, and the whole of it, +and let him work out his own damnation as fast as he could. I didn't +want to be instrumental in continuing his life as such a source of +evil. Do you, Dr. Annister?" + +The little physician sat with his finger-tips softly beating together, +his attention all in drawn and his thought concentrated upon the +problem which had been proposed to him. At last he rose slowly to his +feet and turned his gray eyes upon Gordon, whose intent gaze was +fastened upon his face. + +"Your meaning, as I understand it, Mr. Gordon, is that I should +refrain from giving him any assistance. And you believe that you +can, in that case, dominate him completely, force him out of +consciousness, keep him out of it, and yourself enjoy, from that +time on, uninterrupted, active life, in his body." + +"That is what I think I shall be justified in doing." + +"Then I must tell you that I cannot help you. My Hippocratic oath +binds me to the healing, the saving of life. He is my patient. He +came to me asking my aid. I must give it to him, to the best of my +ability." + +Hugh Gordon straightened up and threw back his head. It seemed to his +companion almost as if his body grew suddenly larger in the tensing of +his purpose and his will. + +"And I must tell you, Dr. Annister," he exclaimed, his eyes flashing +and his face determined, "that I shall succeed in spite of you both. +You cannot make a good man out of him; and it is outrageous, it is +impossible, that evil should thus triumph over good. I will not be +submerged again. I have grown stronger as he has grown weaker and more +wicked. He cannot hold out against me any longer. I shall give him +one more chance to put his affairs in order and make it known that he +will never return. + +"It has been a hard-fought battle between us for the possession of +this body. But I have won it. I am stronger than he is now and, if I +wished, I could go out from this office and never let him see the +light of day again. But it is right for him to have a few days more. + +"And I want him to tell you one thing that he has done. He shall tell +you with his own lips. It is your right to know, but he will not tell +you the truth unless I make him. He shall come to see you tomorrow and +you can try hypnotizing him if you want to. But before you begin give +him an opportunity to make his confession. I shall make him speak. +Goodnight, Dr. Annister." + +The physician sat long in his big arm-chair, his forehead upon his +locked fingers. When he arose his face was haggard and, unconscious of +the movement, he pressed one hand against his breast. + +"No," he said aloud, "I was right. There is a possibility that I can +yet reincarnate these two warring principles of selfishness and +altruism into one big-hearted, splendidly endowed human being. I must +take the chances and do my best. Oh, man, man! How little you know +what you are doing when you trifle with either your soul or your body! +And what miracles you expect of us, to save you from the consequences +you have richly earned--us who know so little more than you do!" + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +"A MOST INTERESTING CASE!" + + +Nine o'clock of the next evening came and passed. Dr. Annister +dismissed his last patient, looked into his waiting room and found it +empty, then sat down to wait for a few minutes, unwilling to take from +Felix Brand what he feared might be his last chance. + +"If I can give him some help tonight," the physician's thoughts ran, +"if I can restore his self-confidence and his grip on himself, that +will be just the impulse in the right direction that he needs. After +that it will be easier for him and he may win yet. A most interesting +case! More interesting even than Dr. Prince's Miss Beauchamp! The +cleavage is complete and clean. If I can cure it, it will be the most +remarkable case on record!" + +There was a tap at the open door behind him and he heard Brand's voice +saying, "Are you here, Dr. Annister?" + +"Come in, Felix, come in," the doctor replied, rising, with more of +professional interest than personal friendliness in his tones. "You've +come for your first treatment, I suppose? Well, we'll see what we can +do." + +Brand was moving about the room with seemingly aimless steps, a +curious unwillingness upon his face. Within himself he was feeling a +sense of compulsion that was moving him against his will. Within his +brain he seemed not so much to hear as to feel a voice saying, "Tell +him! Tell him!" And with all his strength he was battling against +these inward commands. + +Dr. Annister noticed his stubborn look and the defiant poise of his +head. "What is it, Felix?" queried the physician. "Don't you want to +take the treatment? Have you changed your mind?" + +"No, sir. I've not changed my mind. I'm more anxious than ever about +it. Shall we begin at once?" + +Suddenly his ears seemed to roar with the sound of "Tell him! Tell +him! Tell him!" He started and glanced fearfully about the room. + +"I will not! I will not! I will not!" His tongue formed the words of +refusal behind closed lips, pressed together in a hard line. + +Dr. Annister drew a quick, deep breath. "I'm not in very good shape +tonight, Felix, but I'll do the best I can for you," he said, as he +stepped to a cabinet at the back of the room, where he measured out +and swallowed a dose of medicine. "Now, if you're ready, we'll begin," +he went on, and was surprised to see his companion stagger back a step +or two and pass his hand irresolutely over his face. + +"Yes, Dr. Annister, at once. But there is something--" the words came +slowly, in a monotonous, strained tone through his barely opened lips. + +Sudden recollection flashed upon the doctor's mind of something Gordon +had said the night before. He had forgotten it, in his interest in the +peculiar features of the case, until that moment. "Oh," he exclaimed, +"is there something you want to speak of first? What is it?" + +Brand's face was pale, his eyes staring and his hands clenched in the +struggle he was still making against that inward mastery bent on +forcing him to a confession he was determined he would not make. For +he greatly feared its effect upon Dr. Annister's intention to help +him, while its other probable consequences he was most unwilling to +accept. + +But that other will within himself was stronger than his own +determination. Already he felt his defiance growing numb before it. He +walked irresolutely across the room and back while Dr. Annister looked +at him with surprise and dawning suspicion. + +"Well, what is it?" the physician repeated. + +Felix stopped short and gave himself an angry shake. Then with a +little snarl he faced about and began, with eyes averted: + +"I don't suppose it will please you to hear it," he blurted out, and +the other could not know that the sharpness in his tones was merely +the expression of his futile rage against that hated other will, +housed within his own body, that was forcing him to do a thing sure to +interfere with his plans and pleasures. "But I'm going to tell you +and you can make the best of it." + +In his impotent anger he was ready now to say any ruthless thing that +occurred to him. And not for any price would he have had Dr. Annister +discover that he was not making this confession of his own accord. + +"You said yesterday that the engagement between Mildred and me must be +ended. Well, it is ended, but not in the way you meant. We are +married." + +"What! What do you say?" the doctor exclaimed, wheeling toward him +with frowning brow. + +"I said, we're married already. We've been married two months. I took +her over to Jersey one day and we were married there." + +"You dared--Felix Brand, you dared do this, knowing what you knew?" + +"It seems so," the other coolly replied. "Mildred was quite willing," +he went on with a little sneer. "I needed her love. I'd have been a +fool not to take what she was ready to give me. And I married her. +Maybe I was a fool to do that, but I did." + +"A fool? You were a knave, a wretch, to take advantage of an innocent +girl's love!" cried her father, moving toward him with threatening +manner and blazing eyes. Then, suddenly, the physician staggered back +and sank into his arm-chair. + +"Leave me, Felix," he said, and though his tones were suddenly grown +feeble, they still vibrated with angry contempt. "Go, now, at once. I +don't want you near me. But I'll see you again about this matter. And +if you try to communicate with Mildred I'll have you arrested! Go! +Go!" + +The architect turned on his heel and left the room. Dr. Annister sank +wearily into his chair and his hands sought their accustomed position. +Then they too fell back against his chest. "Mildred!" his white lips +whispered, then stiffened and were still. + +[Illustration: "MILDRED!" HIS WHITE LIPS WHISPERED, THEN STIFFENED AND +WERE STILL] + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +WHITHER? + + +Felix Brand opened his eyes, then let the lids quickly flutter down +again. He was afraid to look about him, for he was no longer sure +where he might awaken after what seemed to him to have been no more +than an ordinary night's sleep. Apprehensively he lifted one hand to +his face and felt of his upper lip. There was no mustache upon it. +Reassured, he opened his eyes again, and with deep relief gazed about +his familiar bedroom. + +"I guess it's still the next day after yesterday," he said to himself +with profound satisfaction. For a moment he centered his attention +upon himself. "And that damned Gordon has subsided," he muttered. "I +don't feel him at all this morning. That's promising. I've had a good +night's rest, now I'll have a good day and tonight I'll go to see Dr. +Annister and let him begin--the devil!" Remembrance had flashed upon +him of his last night's interview with the physician. + +"But he promised to help me and he'll have to do it. I'll do anything +he says about Mildred--let her divorce me if he wants her to. A wife's +a nuisance. I'm sure I don't want to be tied up with one. What did I +do it for anyway?" + +Notwithstanding his confidence that there had been no hiatus in his +life since his last waking hours, Brand glanced with some trepidation +at the date line of the morning paper. "That's right," he thought. + +His eyes dropped down over the headlines and he stopped stock still, +his face paling. "Dead!" he exclaimed aloud. "Now what's to become of +me!" + +As he read the article, displayed prominently on the front page, which +told of the death of Dr. Philip Annister, the famous nerve specialist, +from heart-disease, he found that he had been, in all probability, the +last person who had seen the physician alive. He remembered the sudden +failure of strength which had sent the doctor staggering back into his +arm-chair. + +"I suppose," he said to himself, and was aware of no feeling of +compunction, "it was what I told him that did the business. If that +damned whelp Gordon had let me alone--what am I to do now?" + +When the architect appeared at his office one look at him told +Henrietta that she was not to have a comfortable day. "Well, it's my +last one here," she thought, and had occasion, as the hours wore on, +to repeat the assurance to herself many times, for comfort's sake. +Doubly repellent though her service under him had become since that +sad day of her sister's disaster, Henrietta had felt, nevertheless, +that justice demanded of her to continue in it until the time for +which she had given notice should expire. So, loyal to her sense of +fairness, she had kept on, while aversion deepened into loathing and, +of late, was even touched with fear. + +Over and over again, as her troubles and apprehensions pressed sharply +upon her, did her thoughts recur to Hugh Gordon with longing +remembrance of the sense of protection and security she had felt in +his presence. So much did she dwell upon her memories of the hours +they had spent together that in her secret heart the feeling toward +him of intimacy and confidence grew ever stronger, and more and more +frequently the thought would leap into her mind, "I wish Hugh Gordon +were here." + +The day which was to be the last of her service as Felix Brand's +secretary proved to be the most trying of all that she had endured. As +one unpleasant episode succeeded another her eyes sought the clock +again and again and she told herself, "It will be only four hours +more," or, "Now it's only two hours and a half," and again, "In +seventy minutes I shall be through." + +As the hours dragged on it seemed to her that Brand's temper grew +steadily worse. And he went restlessly from one thing to another, +unable to concentrate his attention upon anything. He had on hand +several pieces of work, all of which Henrietta knew he was anxious to +finish as soon as possible. But he would take up first one, then +another, only to throw each one down impatiently with a muttered oath +after a few minutes of effort. + +Henrietta did not know, as Dr. Annister had not known of his inward +compulsion the night before, that within him a stern monitor was +making its orders felt and trying to force him to write the message +which was to set the seal of finality upon his next disappearance. + +He was facing the utter annihilation of his soul, his personal being, +while his body, dwelt in by his ruthless enemy, should still live on, +seeing the sunshine, breathing the sweet air, loving life. He drew +back, terrified but wrathful, from the brink of this black void to +which his luring desires had led him. + +What was it, that gulf of nothingness, into which his soul had plunged +so many times already? Down, down, to what unplumbed depths had it +gone, those other times? True, it had come back. But it had brought no +tidings of that dumb, black vast into which it had sunk. And thinner +and thinner had grown the thread that had drawn it back from that +unsensed abyss until now he knew that it was ready to break. His soul +was numb with the conviction that, let it be thrust once more over +the brink, it would drop beyond recall into oblivion. + +It was his own death warrant that this masterful force within him was +ordering him to write--the death warrant of him, Felix Brand, ardent +lover of life and but barely past its beginning, of all of him save +only his fair physical envelope, which would still live and be glad, +though he had passed into nothingness. + +Stronger and stronger, the more he resisted, grew this inner +compulsion, until it seemed to have entered into his every nerve and +bone and muscle and he feared to remain at his desk lest it force his +unwilling hand to write. For an hour he loitered about, staying his +steps in other parts of the room, wherever he could make pretense of +busying himself. + +But at last, in the late afternoon, he suddenly found himself moving +in the direction of his desk. He stopped, braced himself, took another +step, another, and another, with feet that he could not compel to +cling to the floor. And, after long minutes of struggle, he sank +finally into his desk chair. + +But even yet he would not give up. The muscles of his arm bulged, his +neck sinews stood out and his eyes glared red and wrathful in the +effort he was making to be his own master. But slowly, with jerking +movements, impelled by that inexorable force, his hand moved across +the desk, sought to stay itself upon book or inkwell, then, at last +completely overmastered, took pen and wrote--wrote the words sent down +to it by that dominating power that had taken possession of his will. + +He glowered at the letter as it lay before him in its envelope, +sealed, stamped and addressed to "Miss Mildred Annister," and +muttered, "I'll not let it go! I'll tear it up! I'll get the best of +him yet!" + +At that moment his secretary appeared at his door and asked him +concerning the disposition of certain papers. She was putting +everything in order, she told him, so that her successor would have no +difficulty in beginning the work. + +"Can't you wait a minute?" he snarled at her over his shoulder. + +"Oh, dear!" thought Henrietta, shrinking back. "What's wrong now, I +wonder! Well, I'll be through in ten minutes, and nothing very +dreadful can happen in that time." + +Brand rose, swearing angrily, and turned upon her. The affright and +consternation in her face maddened him the more. + +"Well, what do you want?" he demanded roughly. She repeated what she +had said. + +"You're not going to quit today?" he exclaimed, striding back and +forth, his heart raging against the letter on his desk and all that it +meant. + +She reminded him that the time for which she had agreed to remain +expired that day. "Haven't you engaged any one else, Mr. Brand?" she +asked, quailing a little as she saw the violent anger that possessed +him. + +"No! What time have I had to hunt up secretaries? I can't do without +you. You'll have to stay another week." + +Henrietta's spirit rose. "I shall not stay another day, Mr. Brand! +I've given you ample notice, and I have secured another position. I go +to work there next week." + +He wheeled and strode toward her, a menacing figure. "I tell you, +you'll have to stay another week! You'll get no more money from me +unless you do!" he shouted. + +She saw that he was beside himself with a rage that, to her, was +inexplainable, and she retreated as he came onward until she stood +with her back against the wall and he threatened in front of her, his +face working with unrestrained passion. The thought flashed upon her +that perhaps he had gone suddenly insane. + +"You've got to stay," Brand shouted again. "I'll not pay you unless +you do!" + +He raised his clenched fist, as if he were about to strike her in the +face. She threw up her arm to ward off the blow and her thoughts flew +to the man upon whom they had dwelt so much these recent days, with +quick longing for his care and protection. + +"Oh, Hugh! Hugh! If you were here!" she whispered. + +Low as was the sound it reached the ears of him who stood in front of +her with drawn fist and threatening mien. He started back and she, +with her arm before her face, did not see the awesome look that leaped +across his countenance. His arm dropped and for a moment his face was +the battle-ground of fierce, contending wills and furious passions. +Then his whole body writhed as if in a convulsion, his arms sprang +straight up in the air and a cry of mortal agony, of defeat, despair +and hopeless, futile wrath rang through the room. + +So uncanny and so heartbroken was that cry, as might be the howl of a +lost soul raging impotently, that it seemed to stop the course of the +very blood in her veins. In fear and terror she dropped her guarding +arm, half feeling already the blow she expected to receive in her +face, and quailing from the raving madman she was sure was about to +spring upon her. + +But instead of Felix Brand, frenzied and brutal, her eyes fell upon +the man whose help she had invoked. Hugh Gordon was before her, his +arms upraised as if in gratitude to heaven, his lifted face glowing +with triumph. She stared at him with wide, terrified eyes and cowered +against the wall, all her faculties numbed by the awesomeness of this +miraculous thing. + +"I've won!" Gordon was crying in exultant tones. "That beast is +conquered at last, for good and all!" + +He strode a few paces up the room and back, and his figure seemed to +grow before Henrietta's very eyes in his exultation over his victory. +As he turned back his gaze fell upon the terrified girl at whose need +he had sprung, with mighty effort, into final, lasting dominance. + +"Don't be frightened," he said gently, leaning toward her with +outstretched, reassuring hand. "You called me, and I came--came to +help you, to save you, and to love you. You have nothing to fear now. +That incarnate baseness has sunk down, down, too deep for +resurrection! He shall never return!" + +"Hugh! Hugh!" she quavered. "What have you done with him? Where is +he?" + +Upon Gordon's exultant countenance there fell a shade of solemnity. "I +know not," he replied in awed tones. "What has become of him is one of +the mysteries of the human soul, a mystery whose beginning and whose +growth I understand, as you shall too, but whose end no man can +explain. The man whom you knew, whom everyone knew, who knew himself, +as Felix Brand, is no more. He will never exist again. + +"Deliberately that man chose the worse side of his nature and +cherished it and tried to ignore and cast out the other, the better +side. But, deep down within him, that other side lived and grew +strong, until it was strong enough to take possession of his body and +cast him out. He is gone!" Gordon's voice rose again into triumphal +tones. "He has dropped into an oblivion man's thought cannot fathom +nor man's brain understand. He ordained his own destiny, he worked out +his own fate. Let him have the end that he himself invited!" + +Gordon ceased speaking and leaned toward Henrietta. The terror had +left her countenance and in her eyes was the dawning of renewed trust +in him. + +"Come," he said, "let us leave this place, with all of its wretched +memories." + +And he took her hand and led her forth. + + THE END. + + + + +TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: + +Minor changes have been made to correct obvious typesetters' errors; +otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the author's +words and intent. + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Fate of Felix Brand, by Florence Finch Kelly + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE FATE OF FELIX BRAND *** + +***** This file should be named 30733.txt or 30733.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/0/7/3/30733/ + +Produced by D Alexander and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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