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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Hollow of Her Hand, by George Barr McCutcheon
+(#14 in our series by George Barr McCutcheon)
+
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+Title: The Hollow of Her Hand
+
+Author: George Barr McCutcheon
+
+Release Date: July, 2004  [EBook #6045]
+[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
+[This file was first posted on October 23, 2002]
+
+Edition: 10
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE HOLLOW OF HER HAND ***
+
+
+
+
+Charles Aldarondo, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team.
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "The black pile is mine, the gay pile is yours,"
+she went on, turning toward the sleeping girl]
+
+THE HOLLOW OF HER HAND
+
+By GEORGE BARR McCUTCHEON
+
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+
+
+I MARCH COMES IN LIKE THE LION
+
+II THE PASSING OF A NIGHT
+
+III HETTY CASTLETON
+
+IV WHILE THE MOB WAITED
+
+V DISCUSSING A SISTER-IN-LAW
+
+VI SOUTHLOOK
+
+VII A FAITHFUL CRAYON-POINT
+
+VIII IN WHICH HETTY IS WEIGHED
+
+IX HAWKRIGHT'S MODEL
+
+X THE GHOST AT THE FEAST
+
+XI MAN PROPOSES
+
+XII THE APPROACH OF A MAN NAMED SMITH
+
+XIII MR. WRANDALL PERJURES HIMSELF
+
+XIV IN THE SHADOW OF THE MILL
+
+XV SARA WRANDALL FINDS THE TRUTH
+
+XVI THE SECOND ENCOUNTER
+
+XVII CROSSING THE CHANNEL
+
+XVIII RATTLING OLD BONES
+
+XIX VIVIAN AIRS HER OPINIONS
+
+XX ONCE MORE AT BURTON'S INN
+
+XXI DISTURBING NEWS
+
+XXII THE HOLLOW OF HER HAND
+
+XXIII SARA WRANDALL'S DECISION
+
+XXIV THE JURY OF FOUR
+
+XXV RENUNCIATION
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+MARCH COMES IN LIKE THE LION
+
+
+
+
+The train, which had roared through a withering gale of sleet
+all the way up from New York, came to a standstill, with many an
+ear-splitting sigh, alongside the little station, and a reluctant
+porter opened his vestibule door to descend to the snow-swept
+platform: a solitary passenger had reached the journey's end. The
+swirl of snow and sleet screaming out of the blackness at the end
+of the station-building enveloped the porter in an instant, and
+cut his ears and neck with stinging force as he turned his back
+against the gale. A pair of lonely, half-obscured platform lights
+gleamed fatuously at the top of their icy posts at each end of the
+station; two or three frost-encrusted windows glowed dully in the
+side of the building, while one shone brightly where the operator
+sat waiting for the passing of No. 33.
+
+The train itself was dark. Frosty windows, pelted for miles by the
+furious gale, white outside but black within, protected the snug
+travellers who slept the sleep of the hurried and thought not of
+the storm that beat about their ears nor wondered at the stopping
+of the fast express at a place where it had never stopped before.
+Far ahead the panting engine shed from its open fire-box an aureole
+of glaring red as the stoker fed coal into its rapacious maw. The
+unblinking head-light threw its rays into the thick of the blinding
+snow storm, fruitlessly searching for the rails through drifts
+denser than fog and filled with strange, half-visible shapes.
+
+An order had been issued for the stopping of the fast express at
+B--, a noteworthy concession in these days of premeditated haste.
+Not in the previous career of flying 33 had it even so much as
+slowed down for the insignificant little station, through which it
+swooped at midnight the whole year round. Just before pulling out
+of New York on this eventful night the conductor received a command
+to stop 33 at B---- and let down a single passenger, a circumstance
+which meant trouble for every despatcher along the line.
+
+The woman who got down at B---- in the wake of the shivering
+but deferential porter, and who passed by the conductors without
+lifting her face, was without hand luggage of any description.
+She was heavily veiled, and warmly clad in furs. At eleven o'clock
+that night she had entered the compartment in New York. Throughout
+the thirty miles or more, she had sat alone and inert beside the
+snow-clogged window, peering through veil and frost into the night
+that whizzed past the pane, seeing nothing yet apparently intent
+on all that stretched beyond. As still, as immobile as death itself
+she had held herself from the moment of departure to the instant
+that brought the porter with the word that they were whistling for
+B---.  Without a word she arose and followed him to the vestibule,
+where she watched him as he unfastened the outer door and lifted
+the trap.  A single word escaped her lips and he held out his hand
+to receive the crumpled bill she clutched in her gloved fingers.
+He did not look at it. He knew that it would amply reward him for
+the brief exposure he endured on the lonely, wind-swept platform
+of a station, the name of which he did not know.
+
+She took several uncertain steps in the direction of the station
+windows and stopped, as if bewildered. Already the engine was
+pounding the air with quick, vicious snorts in the effort to get
+under way; the vestibule trap and door closed with a bang; the
+wheels were creaking. A bitter wind smote her in the face; the wet,
+hurtling sleet crashed against the thin veil, blinding her.
+
+The door of the waiting-room across the platform opened and a man
+rushed toward her.
+
+"Mrs. Wrandall?" he called above the roar of the wind.
+
+She advanced quickly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"What a night!" he said, as much to himself as to her. "I'm sorry
+you would insist on coming to-night. To-morrow morning would have
+satisfied the--"
+
+"Is this Mr. Drake?"
+
+They were being blown through the door into the waiting-room as
+she put the question. Her voice was muffled. The man in the great
+fur coat put his weight against the door to close it.
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Wrandall. I have done all that could be done under the
+circumstances. I am sorry to tell you that we still have two miles
+to go by motor before we reach the inn. My car is open,--I don't
+possess a limousine,--but if you will lie down in the tonneau you
+will find some protection from--"
+
+She broke in sharply, impatiently. "Pray do not consider me, Mr.
+Drake. I am not afraid of the blizzard."
+
+"Then we'd better be off," said he, a note of anxiety in his
+voice,--a certain touch of nervousness. "I drive my own car. The
+road is good, but I shall drive cautiously. Ten minutes, perhaps.
+I--I am sorry you thought best to brave this wretched--"
+
+"I am not sorry for myself, Mr. Drake, but for you. You have been
+most kind. I did not expect you to meet me."
+
+"I took the liberty of telephoning to you. It was well that I
+did it early in the evening. The wires are down now, I fear." He
+hesitated for a moment, staring at her as if trying to penetrate
+the thick, wet veil. "I may have brought you on a fool's errand.
+You see, I--I have seen Mr. Wrandall but once, in town somewhere,
+and I may be wrong. Still, the coroner,--and the sheriff,--seemed
+to think you should be notified,--I might say questioned. That is
+why I called you up. I trust, madam, that I am mistaken."
+
+"Yes," she said shrilly, betraying the intensity of her emotion.
+It was as if she lacked the power to utter more than a single word,
+which signified neither acquiescence nor approval.
+
+He was ill-at-ease, distressed. "I have engaged a room for you at
+the inn, Mrs. Wrandall. You did not bring a maid, I see. My wife
+will come over from our place to stay with you if you--"
+
+She shook her head. "Thank you, Mr. Drake. It will not be necessary.
+I came alone by choice. I shall return to New York to-night."
+
+"But you--why, you can't do that," he cried, holding back as they
+started toward the door. "No trains stop here after ten o'clock.
+The locals begin running at seven in the morning. Besides--"
+
+She interrupted him. "May we not start now, Mr. Drake? I am--well,
+you must see that I am suffering. I must see, I must know. The
+suspense--" She did not complete the sentence, but hurried past
+him to the door, throwing it open and bending her body to the gust
+that burst in upon them.
+
+He sprang after her, grasping her arm to lead her across the icy
+platform to the automobile that stood in the lee of the building.
+
+Disdaining his command to enter the tonneau, she stood beside the
+car and waited until he cranked it and took his place at the wheel.
+Then she took her seat beside him and permitted him to tuck the
+great buffalo robe about her. No word was spoken. The man was a
+stranger to her. She forgot his presence in the car.
+
+Into the thick of the storm the motor chugged. Grim and silent,
+the man at the wheel, ungoggled and tense, sent the whirring thing
+swiftly over the trackless village street and out upon the open
+country road. The woman closed her eyes and waited.
+
+You would know the month was March. He said: "It comes in like a
+lion," but apparently the storm swallowed the words for she made
+no response to them.
+
+They crossed the valley and crept up the tree-covered hill, where
+the force of the gale was broken. If she heard him say: "Fierce,
+wasn't it?" she gave no sign, but sat hunched forward, peering ahead
+through the snow at the blurred lights that seemed so far away and
+yet were close at hand.
+
+"Is that the inn?" she asked as he swerved from the road a few
+moments later.
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Wrandall. We're here."
+
+"Is--is he in there?"
+
+"Where you see that lighted window upstairs." He tooted the horn
+vigorously as he drew up to the long, low porch. Two men dashed
+out from the doorway and clumsily assisted her from the car.
+
+"Go right in, Mrs. Wrandall," said Drake. "I join you in a jiffy."
+
+She walked between the two men into the feebly lighted office
+of the inn. The keeper of the place, a dreary looking person with
+dread in his eyes, hurried forward. She stopped stock-still. Some
+one was brushing the stubborn, thickly caked snow from her long
+chinchilla coat.
+
+"You must let me get you something hot to drink, madam," the landlord
+was saying dolorously.
+
+She struggled with her veil, finally tearing it away from her face.
+Then she took in the rather bare, cheerless room with a slow,
+puzzled sweep of her eyes.
+
+"No, thank you," she replied.
+
+"It won't be any trouble, madam," urged the other. "It's right here.
+The sheriff says it's all right to serve it, although it is after
+hours. I run a respectable, law-abiding house. I wouldn't think of
+offering it to anyone if it was in violation--"
+
+"Never mind, Burton," interposed a big man, approaching. "Let the
+lady choose for herself. If she wants it, she'll say so. I am the
+sheriff, madam. This gentleman is the coroner, Dr. Sheef. We waited
+up for you after Mr. Drake said you'd got the fast train to stop
+for you. To-morrow morning would have done quite as well. I'm sorry
+you came to-night in all this blizzard."
+
+He was staring as if fascinated at the white, colourless face of
+the woman who with nervous fingers unfastened the heavy coat that
+enveloped her slender figure. She was young and strikingly beautiful,
+despite the intense pallor that overspread her face. Her dark,
+questioning, dreading eyes looked up into his with an expression
+he was never to forget. It combined dread, horror, doubt and a
+smouldering anger that seemed to overcast all other emotions that
+lay revealed to him.
+
+"This is a--what is commonly called a 'road-house'?" she asked
+dully, her eyes narrowing suddenly as if in pain.
+
+The inn-keeper made haste to resent the implied criticism.
+
+"My place is a respectable, law-abiding--"
+
+The sheriff waved him aside.
+
+"It is an inn during the winter, Mrs. Wrandall, and a road-house
+in the summer, if that makes it plain to you. I will say, however,
+that Burton has always kept well within the law. This is the
+first--er--real bit of trouble he's had, and I won't say it's his
+fault. Keep quiet, Burton. No one is accusing you of anything wrong.
+Don't whine about it."
+
+"But my place is ruined," groaned the doleful one. "It's got a
+black eye now. Not that I blame you, madam, but you can see how--"
+
+He quailed before the steady look in her eyes, and turned away
+mumbling.
+
+There were half a dozen men in the room, besides the speakers,
+sober-faced fellows who conversed in undertones and studiously kept
+their backs to the woman who had just come among them. They were
+grouped about the roaring fireplace in the lower end of the room.
+Steam arose from their heavy winters garments. Their caps were
+still drawn far down over their ears. These were men who had been
+out in the night.
+
+"There is a fire in the reception-room, madam," said the coroner;
+"and the proprietor's wife to look out for you if you should require
+anything. Will you go in there and compose yourself before going
+upstairs? Or, if you would prefer waiting until morning, I shall
+not insist on the--er--ordeal to-night."
+
+"I prefer going up there to-night," said she steadily.
+
+The men looked at each other, and the sheriff spoke. "Mr. Drake is
+quite confident the--the man is your husband. It's an ugly affair,
+Mrs. Wrandall. We had no means of identifying him until Drake came
+in this evening, out of curiosity you might say. For your sake, I
+hope he is mistaken."
+
+"Would you mind telling me something about it before I go upstairs?
+I am quite calm. I am prepared for anything. You need not hesitate."
+
+"As you wish, madam. You will go into the reception-room, if you
+please. Burton, is Mrs. Wrandall's room quite ready for her?"
+
+"I shall not stay here to-night," interposed Mrs. Wrandall. "You
+need not keep the room for me."
+
+"But, my dear Mrs. Wrandall--"
+
+"I shall wait in the railway station until morning if necessary.
+But not here."
+
+The coroner led the way to the cosy little room off the office.
+She followed with the sheriff. The men looked worn and haggard in
+the bright light that met them, as if they had not known sleep or
+rest for many hours.
+
+"The assistant district attorney was here until eleven, but went
+home to get a little rest. It's been a hard case for all of us--a
+nasty one," explained the sheriff, as he placed a chair in front
+of the fire for her. She sank into it limply.
+
+"Go on, please," she murmured, and shook her head at the nervous
+little woman who bustled up and inquired if she could do anything
+to make her more comfortable.
+
+The sheriff cleared his throat. "Well, it happened last night. All
+day long we've been trying to find out who he is, and ever since
+eight o'clock this morning we've been searching for the woman who
+came here with him. She has disappeared as completely as if swallowed
+by the earth. Not a sign of a clew---not a shred. There's nothing
+to show when she left the inn or by what means. All we know is that
+the door to that room up there was standing half open when Burton
+passed by it at seven o'clock this morning---that is to say, yesterday
+morning, for this is now Wednesday. It is quite clear, from this,
+that she neglected to close the door tightly when she came out,
+probably through haste or fear, and the draft in the hall blew it
+wider open during the night. Burton says the inn was closed for
+the night at half-past ten. He went to bed. She must have slipped
+out after every one was sound asleep. There were no other guests
+on that floor. Burton and his wife sleep on this floor, and the
+servants are at the top of the house and in a wing. No one heard
+a sound. We have not the remotest idea when the thing happened, or
+when she left the place. Dr. Sheef says the man had been dead for
+six or eight hours when he first saw him, and that was very soon
+after Burton's discovery. Burton, on finding the door open, naturally
+suspected that his guests had skipped out during the night to avoid
+paying the bill, and lost no time in entering the room.
+
+"He found the man lying on the bed, sprawled out, face upward and
+as dead as a mack--I should say, quite dead. He was partly dressed.
+His coat and vest hung over the back of a chair. A small service
+carving knife, belonging to the inn, had been driven squarely into
+his heart and was found sticking there. Burton says that the man,
+on their arrival at the inn, about nine o'clock at night, ordered
+supper sent up to the room. The tray of dishes, with most of the food
+untouched, and an empty champagne bottle, was found on the service
+table near the hed. One of the chairs was overturned. The servant
+who took the meal to the room says that the woman was sitting at
+the window with her wraps on, motor veil and all, just as she was
+when she came into the place. The man gave all the directions,
+the woman apparently paying no attention to what was going on. The
+waitress left the room without seeing her face. She had instructions
+not to come for the tray until morning.
+
+"That was the last time the man was seen alive. No one has seen
+the woman since the door closed after the servant, who distinctly
+remembers hearing the key turn in the lock as she went down the
+hall. It seems pretty clear that the man ate and drank but not the
+woman. Her food remained untouched on the plate and her glass was
+full. 'Gad, it must have been a merry feast! I beg your pardon,
+Mrs.  Wrandall!"
+
+"Go on, please," said she levelly.
+
+"That's all there is to say so far as the actual crime is concerned.
+There were signs of a struggle,--but it isn't necessary to go into
+that. Now, as to their arrival at the inn. The blizzard had not
+set in. Last night was dark, of course, as there is no moon, but
+it was clear and rather warm for the time of year. The couple came
+here about nine o'clock in a high power runabout machine, which
+the man drove. They had no hand-baggage and apparently had run out
+from New York. Burton says he was on the point of refusing them
+accommodations when the man handed him a hundred dollar bill.
+It was more than Burton's cupidity could withstand. They did not
+register.  The state license numbers had been removed from the
+automobile, which was of foreign make. Of course, it was only a
+question of time until we could have found out who the car belonged
+to. It is perfectly obvious why he removed the numbers."
+
+At this juncture Drake entered the room. Mrs. Wrandall did not at
+first recognise him.
+
+"It has stopped snowing," announced the new-comer.
+
+"Oh, it is Mr. Drake," she murmured. "We have a little French car,
+painted red," she announced to the sheriff without giving Drake
+another thought.
+
+"And this one is red, madam," said the sheriff, with a glance at
+the coroner. Drake nodded his head. Mrs. Wrandall's body stiffened
+perceptibly, as if deflecting a blow. "It is still standing in the
+garage, where he left it on his arrival."
+
+"Did no one see the face of--of the woman?" asked Mrs. Wrandall,
+rather querulously. "It seems odd that no one should have seen her
+face," she went on without waiting for an answer.
+
+"It's not strange, madam, when you consider ALL the circumstances.
+She was very careful not to remove her veil or her coat until the
+door was locked. That proves that she was not the sort of woman
+we usually find gallavanting around with men regardless of--ahem,
+I beg your pardon. This must be very distressing to you."
+
+"I am not sure, Mr. Sheriff, that it IS my husband who lies up
+there. Please remember that," she said steadily. "It is easier to
+hear the details now, before I KNOW, than it will be afterward if
+it should turn out to be as Mr. Drake declares."
+
+"I see," said the sheriff, marvelling.
+
+"Besides, Mr. Drake is not POSITIVE," put in the coroner hopefully.
+
+"I am reasonably certain," said Drake.
+
+"Then all the more reason why I should have the story first," said
+she, with a shiver that no one failed to observe.
+
+The sheriff resumed his conclusions. "Women of the kind I referred
+to a moment ago don't care whether they're seen or not. In fact,
+they're rather brazen about it. But this one was different. She
+was as far from that as it was possible for her to be. We haven't
+been able to find any one who saw her face or who can give the least
+idea as to what she looks like, excepting a general description of
+her figure, her carriage, and the out-door garments she wore. We
+have reason to believe she was young. She was modestly dressed. Her
+coat was one of those heavy ulster affairs, such as a woman uses
+in motoring or on a sea-voyage. There was a small sable stole about
+her neck. The skirt was short, and she wore high black shoes of
+the thick walking type. Judging from Burton's description she must
+have been about your size and figure, Mrs. Wrandall. Isn't that
+so, Mrs.  Burton?"
+
+The inn-keeper's wife spoke. "Yes, Mr. Harben, I'd say so myself.
+About five feet six, I'd judge; rather slim and graceful-like, in
+spite of the big coat."
+
+Mrs. Wrandall was watching the woman's face. "I am five feet six,"
+she said, as if answering a question.
+
+The sheriff cleared his throat somewhat needlessly.
+
+"Burton says she acted as if she were a lady," he went on. "Not the
+kind that usually comes out here on such expeditions, he admits.
+She did not speak to any one, except once in very low tones to the
+man she was with, and then she was standing by the fireplace out in
+the main office, quite a distance from the desk. She went upstairs
+alone, and he gave some orders to Burton before following her.
+That was the last time Burton saw her. The waitress went up with
+a specially prepared supper about half an hour later."
+
+"It seems quite clear, Mrs. Wrandall, that she robbed the man after
+stabbing him," said the coroner.
+
+Mrs. Wrandall started. "Then she was NOT a lady, after all," she
+said quickly. There was a note of relief in her voice. It was as
+if she had put aside a half-formed conclusion.
+
+"His pockets were empty. Not a penny had been left. Watch, cuff-links,
+scarf pin, cigarette case, purse and bill folder,--all gone. Burton
+had seen most of these articles in the office."
+
+"Isn't it--but no! Why should I be the one to offer a suggestion
+that might be construed as a defence for this woman?"
+
+"You were about to suggest, madam, that some one else might have
+taken the valuables--is that it?" cried the sheriff.
+
+"Had you thought of it, Mr. Sheriff?"
+
+"I had not. It isn't reasonable. No one about this place is suspected.
+We have thought of this, however: the murderess may have taken
+all of these things away with her in order to prevent immediate
+identification of her victim. She may have been clever enough for
+that. It would give her a start."
+
+"Not an unreasonable conclusion, when you stop to consider, Mr.
+Sheriff, that the man took the initiative in that very particular,"
+said Mrs. Wrandall in such a self-contained way that the three men
+looked at her in wonder. Then she came abruptly to her feet. "It
+is very late, gentlemen. I am ready to go upstairs, Mr. Sheriff."
+
+"I must warn you, madam, that Mr. Drake is reasonably certain that
+it is your husband," said the coroner uncomfortably. "You may not
+be prepared for the shock that--"
+
+"I shall not faint, Dr. Sheef. If it IS my husband I shall ask you
+to leave me alone in the room with him for a little while." The
+final word trailed out into a long, tremulous wail, showing how near
+she was to the breaking point in her wonderful effort at self-control.
+The men looked away hastily. They heard her draw two or three deep,
+quavering breaths; they could almost feel the tension that she was
+exercising over herself.
+
+The doctor turned after a moment and spoke very gently, but with
+professional firmness. "You must not think of venturing out in this
+wretched night, madam. It would be the worst kind of folly. Surely
+you will be guided by me--by your own common sense. Mrs. Burton
+will be with you--"
+
+"Thank you, Dr. Sheef," she interposed calmly. "If what we all fear
+should turn out to be the truth, I could not stay here. I could
+not breathe. I could not live. If, on the other hand, Mr. Drake is
+mistaken, I shall stay. But if it is my husband, I cannot remain
+under the same roof with him, even though he be dead. I do not
+expect you to understand my feelings. It would be asking too much
+of men,--too much."
+
+"I think I understand," murmured Drake.
+
+"Come," said the sheriff, arousing himself with an effort.
+
+She moved swiftly after him. Drake and the coroner, following
+close behind with Mrs. Burton, could not take their eyes from the
+slender, graceful figure. She was a revelation to them. Feeling as
+they did that she was about to be confronted by the most appalling
+crisis imaginable, they could not but marvel at her composure.
+Drake's mind dwelt on the stories of the guillotine and the heroines
+who went up to it in those bloody days without so much as a quiver
+of dread.  Somehow, to him, this woman was a heroine.
+
+They passed into the hall and mounted the stairs. At the far end
+of the corridor, a man was seated in front of a closed door. He
+arose as the party approached. The sheriff signed for him to open
+the door he guarded. As he did so, a chilly blast of air blew upon
+the faces of those in the hall. The curtains in the window of the
+room were flapping and whipping in the wind. Mrs. Wrandall caught
+her breath.  For the briefest instant, it seemed as though she was
+on the point of faltering. She dropped farther behind the sheriff,
+her limbs suddenly stiff, her hand going out to the wall as if for
+support.  The next moment she was moving forward resolutely into
+the icy, dimly lighted room.
+
+A single electric light gleamed in the corner beside the bureau.
+Near the window stood the bed. She went swiftly toward it, her
+eyes fastened upon the ridge that ran through the centre of it: a
+still, white ridge that seemed without beginning or end.
+
+With nervous fingers, the attendant lifted the sheet at the head
+of the bed and turned it back. As he let it fall across the chest
+of the dead man, he drew back and turned his face away.
+
+She bent forward and then straightened her figure to its full
+height, without for an instant removing her gaze from the face of
+the man who lay before her: a dark-haired man grey in death, who
+must have been beautiful to look upon in the flush of life.
+
+For a long time she stood there looking, as motionless as the object
+on which she gazed. Behind her were the tense, keen-eyed men, not
+one of whom seemed to breathe during the grim minutes that passed.
+The wind howled about the corners of the inn, but no one heard it.
+They heard the beating of their hearts, even the ticking of their
+watches, but not the wail of the wind.
+
+At last her hands, claw-like in their tenseness, went slowly to
+her temples. Her head drooped slightly forward, and a great shudder
+ran through her body. The coroner started forward, expecting her
+to collapse.
+
+"Please go away," she was saying in an absolutely emotionless voice.
+"Let me stay here alone for a little while."
+
+That was all. The men relaxed. They looked at each other with a
+single question in their eyes. Was it quite safe to leave her alone
+with her dead? They hesitated.
+
+She turned on them suddenly, spreading her arms in a wide gesture
+of self-absolution. Her sombre eyes swept the group.
+
+"I can do no harm. This man is mine. I want to look at him for the
+last time--alone. Will you go?"
+
+"Do you mean, madam, that you intend to--" began the coroner in
+alarm.
+
+She clasped her hands. "I mean that I shall take my last look at
+him now--and here. Then you may do what you like with him. He is
+your dead--not mine. I do not want him. Can you understand? _I_ DO
+NOT WANT THIS DEAD THING. But there is something I would say to
+him, something that I must say. Something that no one must hear
+but the good God who knows how much he has hurt me. I want to say
+it close to those grey, horrid ears. Who knows? He may hear me!"
+
+Wondering, the others backed from the room. She watched them until
+they closed the door.
+
+Listening, they heard her lower the window. It squealed like a
+thing in fear.
+
+Ten minutes passed. The group in the hall conversed in whispers.
+
+"Why did she put the window down?" asked the wife of the inn-keeper,
+crossing herself.
+
+Drake shook his head. "I wonder what she is saying to him," he
+muttered.
+
+"A wonderful nerve," said Dr. Sheef. "Positively wonderful. I've
+never seen anything like it."
+
+"Her own husband, too," said Mrs. Burton. "Why, I--I should have
+said she'd go into hysterics. Such a handsome man he was."
+
+"I guess, from what I've heard of this fellow, Wrandall, he's not
+been an angel," volunteered the sheriff.
+
+Drake shook his head once more.
+
+"He ain't one now, I'll bet on that," said the man who stood guard.
+"He's in hell if ever a man--"
+
+"Sh!" whispered the woman in horror. "God forgive you for uttering
+words like that!"
+
+"Every one in the city knows what sort of a man he's been," said
+Drake.
+
+He comes of a fine family," said the coroner. "One of the best in
+New York. I guess he's never been much of a credit to it, however."
+
+"They say he ran after chorus girls," said Mrs. Burton. The men
+grinned.
+
+"I've an idea she's had the devil's own time with him," mused the
+sheriff, with a jerk of his head in the direction of the door.
+
+"Poor thing," said the inn-keeper's wife.
+
+"Well," said Drake, taking a deep breath, "she won't have to worry
+any more about his not coming home nights. I say, this business will
+create a fearful sensation, sheriff. The Four Hundred will have a
+conniption fit."
+
+"We've got to land that girl, whoever she is," grated the official.
+"Now that we know who he is, it shouldn't be hard to pick out the
+women he's been trailing with lately. Then we can sift 'em down
+until the right one is left. It ought to be easy."
+
+"I'm not so sure of it," said the coroner, shaking his head. "I
+have a feeling that she isn't one of the ordinary type. It wouldn't
+surprise me if she belongs to--well, you might say, the upper ten.
+Somebody's wife, don't you see. That will make it rather difficult,
+especially as her tracks have been pretty well covered."
+
+"It beats me, how she got away without leaving a single sign behind
+her," acknowledged the sheriff. "She's a wonder, that's all I've
+got to say."
+
+At that instant the door opened and Mrs. Wrandall appeared. She
+stopped short, confronting the huddled group, dry-eyed but as pallid
+as a ghost. Her eyes were wide, apparently unseeing; her colourless
+lips were parted in the drawn rigidity that suggested but one
+thing to the professional man who looks: the RISIS SARDONICUS of
+the strychnae victim. With a low cry, the doctor started forward,
+fully convinced that she had swallowed the deadly drug.
+
+"For God's sake, madam," he began. But as he spoke, her expression
+changed; she seemed to be aware of their presence for the first
+time. Her eyes narrowed in a curious manner, and the rigid lips
+seemed to surge with blood, presenting the effect of a queer,
+swift-fading smile that lingered long after her face was set and
+serious.
+
+"I neglected to raise the window, Dr. Sheef," she said in a low
+voice. "It was very cold in there." She shivered slightly. "Will
+you be so kind as to tell me what I am to do now? What formalities
+remain for me--"
+
+The coroner was at her side. "Time enough for that, Mrs. Wrandall.
+The first thing you are to do is to take something warm to drink,
+and pull yourself together a bit--"
+
+She drew herself up coldly. "I am quite myself, Dr. Sheef. Pray do
+not alarm yourself on my account. I shall be obliged to you, however,
+if you will tell me what I am to do as speedily as possible, and
+let me do it so that I may leave this--this unhappy place without
+delay. No! I mean it, sir. I am going to-night--unless, of course,"
+she said, with a quick look at the sheriff, "the law stands in the
+way."
+
+"You are at liberty to come and go as you please, Mrs. Wrandall,"
+said the sheriff, "but it is most fool-hardy to think of--"
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Sheriff," she said, "for letting me go. I thought
+perhaps there might be legal restraint." She sent a swift glance
+over her shoulder, and then spoke in a high, shrill voice, indicative
+of extreme dread and uneasiness:
+
+"Close the door to that room!"
+
+The door was standing wide open, just as she had left it. Startled,
+the coroner's deputy sprang forward to close it. Involuntarily,
+all of her listeners looked in the direction of the room, as if
+expecting to see the form of the murdered man advancing upon them.
+The feeling, swiftly gone, was most uncanny.
+
+"Close it from the INSIDE," commanded the coroner, with unmistakable
+emphasis. The man hesitated, and then did as he was ordered, but
+not without a curious look at the wife of the dead man, whose back
+was toward him.
+
+"He will not find anything disturbed, doctor," said she, divining
+his thought. "I had the feeling that something was creeping toward
+us out of that room."
+
+"You have every reason to be nervous, madam. The situation has been
+most extraordinary,--most trying," said the coroner. "I beg of you
+to come downstairs, where we may attend to a few necessary details
+without delay. It has been a most fatiguing matter for all of us.
+Hours without sleep, and such wretched weather."
+
+They descended to the warm little reception-room. She sent at once
+for the inn-keeper, who came in and glowered at her as if she were
+wholly responsible for the blight that had been put upon his place.
+
+"Will you be good enough to send some one to the station with me
+in your depot wagon?" she demanded without hesitation.
+
+He stared. "We don't run a 'bus in the winter time," he said gruffly.
+
+She opened the little chatelaine bag that hung from her wrist and
+abstracted a card which she submitted to the coroner.
+
+"You will find, Dr. Sheef, that the car my husband came up here in
+belongs to me. This is the card issued by the State. It is in my
+name. The factory number is there. You may compare it with the one
+on the car. My husband took the car without obtaining my consent."
+
+"Joy riding," said Burton, with an ugly laugh. Then he quailed
+before the look she gave him.
+
+"If no other means is offered, Dr. Sheef, I shall ask you to let
+me take the car. I am perfectly capable of driving. I have driven
+it in the country for two seasons. All I ask is that some one be
+directed to go with me to the station. No! Better than that, if
+there is some one here who is willing to accompany me to the city,
+he shall be handsomely paid for going. It is but little more than
+thirty miles.  I refuse to spend the night in this house. That is
+final."
+
+They drew apart to confer, leaving her sitting before the fire,
+a stark figure that seemed to detach itself entirely from its
+surroundings and their companionship. At last, the coroner came to
+her side and touched her arm.
+
+"I don't know what the district attorney and the police will say
+to it, Mrs. Wrandall, but I shall take it upon myself to deliver
+the car to you. The sheriff has gone out to compare the numbers. If
+he finds that the car is yours, he will see to it, with Mr. Drake,
+that it is made ready for you. I take it that we will have no
+difficulty in--" He hesitated, at a loss for words.
+
+"In finding it again in case you need it for evidence?" she supplied.
+He nodded. "I shall make it a point, Dr. Sheef, to present the car
+to the State after it has served my purpose to-night. I shall not
+ride in it again."
+
+"The sheriff has a man who will ride with you to the station or
+the city, whichever you may elect. Now, may I trouble you to make
+answer to certain questions I shall write out for you at once? The
+man is Challis Wrandall, your husband? You are positive?"
+
+"I am positive. He is--or was--Challis Wrandall."
+
+Half an hour later, she was ready for the trip to New York City.
+The clock in the office marked the hour as one. A toddied individual
+in a great buffalo coat waited for her outside, hiccoughing and
+bandying jest with the half-frozen men who had spent the night with
+him in the forlorn hope of finding THE GIRL.
+
+Mrs. Wrandall gave final instructions to the coroner and his deputy,
+who happened to be the undertaker's assistant. She had answered all
+the questions that had been put to her, and had signed the document
+with a firm, untrembling hand. Her veil had been lowered since the
+beginning of the examination. They did not see her face; they only
+heard the calm, low voice, sweet with fatigue and dread.
+
+"I shall notify my brother-in-law as soon as I reach the city," she
+said. "He will attend to everything. Mr. Leslie Wrandall, I mean.
+My husband's only brother. He will be here in the morning, Dr. Sheef.
+My own apartment is not open. I have been staying in a hotel since
+my return from Europe two days ago. But I shall attend to the
+opening of the place to-morrow. You will find me there."
+
+The coroner hesitated a moment before putting the question that
+had come to his mind as she spoke.
+
+"Two days ago, madam? May I inquire where your husband has been
+living during your absence abroad? When did you last see him alive?"
+
+She did not reply for many seconds, and then it was with a perceptible
+effort.
+
+"I have not seen him since my return until--to-night," she replied,
+a hoarse note creeping into her voice. "He did not meet me on
+my return. His brother Leslie came to the dock. He--he said that
+Challis, who came back from Europe two weeks ahead of me, had been
+called to St. Louis on very important, business. My husband had
+been living at his club, I understand. That is all I can tell you,
+sir."
+
+"I see," said the coroner gently.
+
+He opened the door for her and she passed out. A number of men
+were grouped about the throbbing motor-car. They fell away as she
+approached, silently fading into the shadows like so many vast,
+unwholesome ghosts. The sheriff and Drake came forward.
+
+"This man will go with you, madam," said the sheriff, pointing
+to an unsteady figure beside the machine. "He is the only one who
+will undertake it. They're all played out, you see. He has been
+drinking, but only on account of the hardships he has undergone
+to-night. You will be quite safe with Morley."
+
+No snow was falling, but a bleak wind blew meanly. The air was free
+from particles of sleet; wetly the fall of the night clung to the
+earth where it had fallen.
+
+"If he will guide me to the Post-road, that is all I ask," said
+she hurriedly. Involuntarily she glanced upward. The curtains in
+an upstairs window were blowing inward and a dim light shone out
+upon the roof of the porch. She shuddered and then climbed up to
+the seat and took her place at the wheel.
+
+A few moments later, the three men standing in the middle of the
+road watched the car as it rushed away.
+
+"By George, she's a wonder!" said the sheriff.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE PASSING OF A NIGHT
+
+
+
+
+The sheriff was right. Sara Wrandall was an extraordinary woman,
+if I may be permitted to modify his rather crude estimate of her.
+It is difficult to understand, much less to describe a nature like
+hers.  Fine-minded, gently bred women who can go through an ordeal
+such as she experienced without breaking under the strain are
+rare indeed.  They must be wonderful. It is hard to imagine a more
+heart-breaking crisis in life than the one which confronted her
+on this dreadful night, and yet she had faced it with a fortitude
+that seems almost unholy.
+
+She had loved her handsome, wayward husband. He had hurt her deeply
+more times than she chose to remember during the six years of their
+married life, but she had loved him in spite of the wounds up to
+the instant when she stood beside his dead body in the cold little
+room at Burton's Inn. She went there loving him as he had lived,
+yet prepared, almost foresworn, to loathe him as he had died, and
+she left him lying there alone in that dreary room without a spark
+of the old affection in her soul. Her love for him died in giving
+birth to the hatred that now possessed her. While he lived it
+was not in her power to control the unreasoning resistless thing
+that stands for love in woman: he WAS her love, the master of her
+impulses.  Dead, he was an unwholesome, unlovely clod, a pallid
+thing to be scorned, a hulk of worthless clay. His blood was cold.
+He could no longer warm her with it; it could no longer kill the
+chill that his misdeeds cast about her tender sensitiveness; his
+lips and eyes never more could smile and conquer. He was a dead
+thing. Her love was a dead thing. They lay separate and apart. The
+tie was broken.  With love died the final spark of respect she had
+left for him in her tired, loyal, betrayed heart. He was at last
+a thing to be despised, even by her. She despised him.
+
+She sent the car down the slope and across the moonless valley
+with small regard for her own or her companion's safety. It swerved
+from side to side, skidded and leaped with terrifying suddenness,
+but held its way as straight as the bird that flies, driven by a
+steady hand and a mind that had no thought for peril. A sober man
+at her side would have been afraid; this man swayed mildly to and
+fro and chuckled with drunken glee.
+
+Her bitter thoughts were not of the dead man back there, but of the
+live years that she was to bury with him: years that would never
+pass beyond her ken, that would never die. He had loved her in his
+wild, ruthless way. He had left her times without number in the
+years gone by, but he had always come back, gaily unchastened, to
+remould the love that waited with dog-like fidelity for the touch
+of his cunning hand. But he had taken his last flight. He would
+not come back again. It was all over. Once too often he had tried
+his reckless wings. She would not have to forgive him again.
+Uppermost in her mind was the curiously restful thought that his
+troubles were over, and with them her own. A hand less forgiving
+than hers had struck him dead.
+
+Somehow, she envied the woman to whom that hand belonged. It had
+been her divine right to kill, and yet another took it from her.
+
+Back there at the inn she had said to the astonished sheriff:
+
+"Poor thing, if she can escape punishment for this, let it be so.
+I shall not help the law to kill her simply because she took it
+in her own hands to pay that man what she owed him. I shall not be
+the one to say that he did not deserve death at her hands, whoever
+she may be. No, I shall offer no reward. If you catch her, I shall
+be sorry for her, Mr. Sheriff. Believe me, I bear her no grudge."
+
+"But she robbed him," the sheriff had cried.
+
+"From my point of view, Mr. Sheriff, that hasn't anything to do
+with the case," was her significant reply.
+
+"Of course, I am not defending HIM."
+
+"Nor am I defending her," she had retorted. "It would appear that
+she is able to defend herself."
+
+Now, on the cold, trackless road, she was saying to herself that
+she did have a grudge against the woman who had destroyed the life
+that belonged to her, who had killed the thing that was hers to
+kill. She could not mourn for him. She could only wonder what the
+poor, hunted terrified creature would do when taken and made to
+pay for the thing she had done.
+
+Once, in the course of her bitter reflections, she spoke aloud in
+a shrill, tense voice, forgetful of the presence of the man beside
+her:
+
+"Thank God, they will see him now as I have seen him all these
+years. They will know him as they have never known him. Thank God
+for that!"
+
+The man looked at her stupidly and muttered something under his
+breath. She heard him, and recalling her wits, asked which turn she
+was to take for the station. The fellow lopped back in the seat,
+too drunk to reply.
+
+For a moment she was dismayed, frightened. Then she resolutely
+reached out and shook him by the shoulder. She had brought the car
+to a full stop.
+
+"Arouse yourself, man!" she cried. "Do you want to freeze to death?
+Where is the station?"
+
+He straightened up with an effort, and, after vainly seeking light
+in the darkness, fell back again with a grunt, but managed to wave
+his hand toward the left. She took the chance. In five minutes she
+brought the car to a standstill beside the station. Through the
+window she saw a man with his feet cocked high, reading. He leaped
+to his feet in amazement as she entered the waiting-room.
+
+"Are you the agent?" she demanded.
+
+"No, ma'am. I'm simply stayin' here for the sheriff. We're lookin'
+for a woman--Say!" He stopped short and stared at the veiled face
+with wide, excited eyes. "Gee whiz! Maybe you--"
+
+"No, I am not the woman you want. Do you know anything about the
+trains?"
+
+"I guess I'll telephone to the sheriff before I--"
+
+"If you will step outside you will find one of the sheriff's deputies
+in my automobile, helplessly intoxicated. I am Mrs.  Wrandall."
+
+"Oh," he gasped. "I heard 'em say you were coming up to-night.
+Well, say! What do you think of--"
+
+"Is there a train in before morning?"
+
+"No ma'am. Seven-forty is the first."
+
+She waited a moment. "Then I shall have to ask you to come out and
+get your fellow-deputy. He is useless to me. I mean to go on in
+the machine. The sheriff understands."
+
+The fellow hesitated.
+
+"I cannot take him with me, and he will freeze to death if I leave
+him in the road. Will you come?"
+
+The man stared at her.
+
+"Say, IS it your husband?" he asked agape.
+
+She nodded her head.
+
+"Well, I'll go out and have a look at the fellow you've got with
+you," said he, still doubtful.
+
+She stood in the door while he crossed over to the car and peered
+at the face of the sleeper.
+
+"Steve Morley," he said. "Fuller'n a goat."
+
+"Please remove him from the car," she directed.
+
+Later on, as he stood looking down at the inert figure in the
+big rocking chair, and panting from his labours, he heard her say
+patiently:
+
+"And now will you be so good as to direct me to the Post-road."
+
+He scratched his head. "This is mighty queer, the whole business,"
+he declared, assailed by doubts. "Suppose you are NOT Mrs. Wrandall,
+but--the other one. What then?"
+
+As if in answer to his question, the man Morley opened his blear-eyes
+and tried to get to his feet.
+
+"Wha--what are we doin' here, Mis' Wran'all? Wha's up?"
+
+"Stay where you are, Steve," said the other. "It's all right."
+Then he went forth and pointed the way to her. "It's a long ways
+to Columbus Circle," he said. "I don't envy you the trip. Keep
+straight ahead after you hit the Post-road." He stood there listening
+until the whir of the motor was lost in the distance. "She'll never
+make it," he said to himself. "It's more than a strong man could
+do on roads like these. She must be crazy."
+
+Coming to the Post-road, she increased the speed of the car, with
+the sharp wind behind her, her eyes intent on the white stretch
+that leaped up in front of the lamps like a blank wall beyond
+which there was nothing but dense oblivion. But for the fact that
+she knew that this road ran straight and unobstructed into the
+outskirts of New York, she might have lost courage and decision. The
+natural confidence of an experienced driver was hers. She had the
+daring of one who has never met with an accident, and who trusts to
+the instincts rather than to an actual understanding of conditions.
+With her, it was not a question of her own capacity and strength,
+but a belief in the fidelity of the engine that carried her forward.
+It had not occurred to her that the task of guiding that heavy,
+swerving thing through the unbroken road was something beyond her
+powers of endurance. She often had driven it a hundred miles and
+more without resting, or without losing zest in the enterprise:
+then why should she fear the small matter of thirty miles, even
+under the most trying of conditions?
+
+The restless, driving desire to be as far as possible from that
+horrid sight at the inn, with all that went to make it repellant,
+put strength into her arms. The car swung from one side of the road
+to the other, picking its way through the opaque desert, reeling
+from rut to rut past hideous shadows and deeper into the black
+abyss that lay ahead. No friendly light gleamed by the wayside; the
+world was black and cold and dead. She alone was on the highway,
+the only human creature who defied the night. Off there on either
+side people lived, and slept, and were in darkness just as she was,
+but not in dreadful darkness. They were not pursued by ghosts; they
+were not running away from a Thing! They slept and were at peace,
+and their lights were out for they were not afraid in the dark.
+She thought of it: she was alone! No other creature was abroad--not
+one!
+
+Sharply there came to her mind the question: was she the only one
+abroad in this black little world? What of the other woman? The
+one who was being hunted? Where was she? And what of the ghost at
+HER heels?
+
+The car bounded over a railroad crossing. She recalled the directions
+given by the man at the station and hastily applied the brake. There
+was another and more dangerous crossing a hundred yards ahead. She
+had been warned particularly to take it carefully, as there was a
+sharp curve in the road beyond.
+
+Suddenly she jammed down the emergency brake, a startled exclamation
+falling from her lips. Not twenty feet ahead, in the middle of
+the road and directly in line with the light of the lamps, stood
+a black, motionless figure--the figure of a woman whose head was
+lowered and whose arms hung limply at her sides.
+
+The woman in the car bent forward over the wheel, staring hard. Many
+seconds passed. At last the forlorn object in the roadway lifted
+her face and looked vacantly into the glare of the lamps. Her eyes
+were wide-open, her face a ghastly white.
+
+"God in heaven!" struggled from the stiffening lips of Sara Wrandall.
+Her fingers tightened on the wheel.
+
+She knew. This was the woman!
+
+The long brown ulster; the limp, fluttering veil! "A woman about
+your size and figure," the sheriff had said.
+
+The figure swayed and then moved a few steps forward. Blinded by
+the lights, she bent her head and shielded her eyes with her hand
+the better to glimpse the occupant of the car.
+
+"Are you looking for me?" she cried out shrilly, at the same time
+spreading her arms as if in surrender. It was almost a wail.
+
+Mrs. Wrandall caught her breath. Her heart began to beat once more.
+
+"Who are you? What do you want?" she cried out, without knowing
+what she said.
+
+The girl started. She had not expected to hear the voice of a woman.
+She staggered to the side of the road, out of the line of light.
+
+"I--I beg your pardon," she cried,--it was like a wail of
+disappointment,--"I am sorry to have stopped you."
+
+"Come here," commanded the other, still staring.
+
+The unsteady figure advanced. Halting beside the car, she leaned
+across the spare tires and gazed into the eyes of the driver. Their
+faces were not more than a foot apart, their eyes were narrowed in
+tense scrutiny.
+
+"What do you want?" repeated Mrs. Wrandall, her voice hoarse and
+tremulous.
+
+"I am looking for an inn. It must be near by. I do--"
+
+"An inn?" with a start.
+
+"I do not recall the name. It is not far from a village, in the
+hills."
+
+"Do you mean Burton's?"
+
+"Yes. That's it. Can you direct me?" The voice of the girl was
+faint; she seemed about to fall.
+
+"It is six or eight miles from here," said Mrs. Wrandall, still
+looking in wonder at the miserable nightfarer.
+
+The girl's head sank; a moan of despair came through her lips,
+ending in a sob.
+
+"So far as that?" she murmured. Then she drew herself up with a
+fine show of resolution. "But I must not stop here. Thank you."
+
+"Wait!" cried the other. The girl turned to her once more. "Is--is
+it a matter of life or death?"
+
+There was a long silence. "Yes. I must find my way there. It
+is--death."
+
+Sara Wrandall laid her heavily gloved hand on the slim fingers that
+touched the tire.
+
+"Listen to me," she said, a shrill note of resolve ringing in her
+voice. "I am going to New York. Won't you let me take you with me?"
+
+The girl drew back, wonder and apprehension struggling for the
+mastery of her eyes.
+
+"But I am bound the other way. To the inn. I must go on."
+
+"Come with me," said Sara Wrandall firmly. "You must not go back
+there. I know what has happened there. Come! I will take care of
+you. You must not go to the inn."
+
+"You know?" faltered the girl.
+
+"Yes. You poor thing!" There was infinite pity in her voice.
+
+The girl laid her head on her arms.
+
+Mrs. Wrandall sat above her, looking down, held mute by warring
+emotions. The impossible had come to pass. The girl for whom the
+whole world would be searching in a day or two, had stepped out
+of the unknown and, by the most whimsical jest of fate, into the
+custody of the one person most interested of all in that self-same
+world. It was unbelievable. She wondered if it were not a dream,
+or the hallucination of an overwrought mind. Spurred by the sudden
+doubt as to the reality of the object before her, she stretched
+out her hand and touched the girl's shoulder.
+
+Instantly she looked up. Her fingers sought the friendly hand and
+clasped it tightly.
+
+"Oh, if you will only take me to the city with you! If you only
+give me the chance," she cried hoarsely. "I don't know what impulse
+was driving me back there. I only know I could not help myself.
+You really mean it? You WILL take me with you?"
+
+"Yes. Don't be afraid. Come! Get in," said the woman in the car
+rapidly. "You--you are real?"
+
+The girl did not hear the strange question. She was hurrying around
+to the opposite side of the car. As she crossed before the lamps,
+Mrs. Wrandall noticed with dulled interest that her garments were
+covered with mud; her small, comely hat was in sad disorder; loose
+wisps of hair fluttered with the unsightly veil. Her hands, she
+recalled, were clad in thin suede gloves. She would be half-frozen.
+She had been out in all this terrible weather,--perhaps since the
+hour of her flight from the inn.
+
+The odd feeling of pity grew stronger within her. She made no
+effort to analyse it, nor to account for it. Why should she pity
+the slayer of her husband? It was a question unasked, unconsidered.
+Afterwards she was to recall this hour and its strange impulses,
+and to realise that it was not pity, but mercy that moved her to
+do the extraordinary thing that followed.
+
+Trembling all over, her teeth chattering, her breath coming in
+short little moans, the girl struggled up beside her and fell back
+in the seat. Without a word, Sara Wrandall drew the great buffalo
+robe over her and tucked it in about her feet and legs and far up
+about her body, which had slumped down in the seat.
+
+"You are very, very good," chattered the girl, almost inaudibly.
+"I shall never forget--" She did not complete the sentence, but
+sat upright and fixed her gaze on her companion's face. "You--you
+are not doing this just to turn me over to--to the police? They
+must be searching for me. You are not going to give me up to them,
+are you?  There will be a reward I--"
+
+"There is no reward," said Sara Wrandall sharply. "I do not mean to
+give you up. I am simply giving you a chance to get away. I have
+always felt sorry for the fox when the time for the kill drew near.
+That's the way I feel."
+
+"Oh, thank you! Thank you! But what am I saying? Why should I permit
+you to do this for me? I meant to go back there and have it over
+with. I know I can't escape. It will have to come, it is bound to
+come. Why put it off? Let them take me, let them do what they will
+with me. I--"
+
+"Hush! We'll see. First of all, understand me: I shall not turn you
+over to the police. I will give you the chance. I will help you.
+I can do no more than that."
+
+"But why should you help me? I--I--Oh, I can't let you do it! You
+do not understand. I--have--committed--a--terrible--" she broke
+off with a groan.
+
+"I understand," said the other, something like grimness in her level
+tones. "I have been tempted more than once myself." The enigmatic
+remark made no impression on the listener.
+
+"I wonder how long ago it was that it all happened," muttered the
+girl, as if to herself. "It seems ages,--oh, such ages."
+
+"Where have you been hiding since last night?" asked Mrs. Wrandall,
+throwing in the clutch. The car started forward with a jerk, kicking
+up the snow behind it.
+
+"Was it only last night? Oh, I've been--" The thought of her
+sufferings from exposure and dread was too much for the wretched
+creature. She broke out in a soft wail.
+
+"You've been out in all this weather?" demanded the other.
+
+"I lost my way. In the hills back there. I don't know where I was."
+
+"Had you no place of shelter?"
+
+"Where could I seek shelter? I spent the day in the cellar of a
+farmer's house. He didn't know I was there. I have had no food."
+
+"Why did you kill that man?"
+
+"There was nothing left for me to do but that."
+
+"And why did you rob him?"
+
+"Ah, I had ample time to think of all that. You may tell the
+officers they will find everything hidden in that farmhouse cellar.
+God knows I did not want them. I am not a thief. I'm not so bad as
+that."
+
+Mrs. Wrandall marvelled. "Not so bad as that!" And she was a
+murderess, a wanton!
+
+"You are hungry? You must be famished."
+
+"No, I am not hungry. I have not thought of food." She said it in
+such a way that the other knew what her whole mind had been given
+over to since the night before.
+
+A fresh impulse seized her. "You shall have food and a place where
+you can sleep--and rest," she said. "Now please don't say anything
+more. I do not want to know too much. The least you say to-night,
+the better for--for both of us."
+
+With that she devoted all of her attention to the car, increasing
+the speed considerably. Far ahead she could see twinkling, will-o'-the-wisp
+lights, the first signs of thickly populated districts. They were
+still eight or ten miles from the outskirts of the city and the
+way was arduous. She was conscious of a sudden feeling of fatigue.
+The chill of the night seemed to have made itself felt with abrupt,
+almost stupefying force. She wondered if she could keep her strength,
+her courage,--her nerves.
+
+The girl was English. Mrs. Wrandall was convinced of the fact almost
+immediately. Unmistakably English and apparently of the cultivated
+type. In fact, the peculiarities of speech that determines the London
+show-girl or music-hall character were wholly lacking. Her voice,
+her manner, even under such trying conditions, were characteristic
+of the English woman of cultivation. Despite the dreadful strain
+under which she laboured, there were evidences of that curious
+serenity which marks the English woman of the better classes: an
+inborn composure, a calm orderliness of the emotions.  Mrs. Wrandall
+was conscious of a sense of surprise, of a wonder that increased as
+her thoughts resolved themselves into something less chaotic than
+they were at the time of contact with this visible condition.
+
+For a mile or more, she sent the car along with reckless disregard
+for comfort or safety. Her mind was groping for something tangible
+in the way of intentions. What was she to do with this creature?
+What was to become of her? At what street corner should she turn
+her adrift? The idea of handing her over to the police did not
+enter her thoughts for an instant. Somehow she felt that the girl
+was a stranger to the city. She could not explain the feeling, yet
+it was with her and very persistent. Of course, there was a home
+of some sort, or lodgings, or friends, but would the girl dare show
+herself in familiar haunts?
+
+She had said to the sheriff that she hoped the slayer of her husband
+would never be caught. She recalled her words, and she remembered how
+sincere she had been in uttering them. But she had not figured on
+herself as an instrument in furthering the hope to the point of actual
+realisation. What could be more incongruous, more theatric,--yes,
+more bizarre, than her attitude at this moment? It seemed impossible
+that this shrinking, inert heap at her side was a living thing; a
+woman who had slain a fellow creature, and that creature the man
+who had been her husband for six years. It seemed utterly beyond
+sense or reason that she should be helping this murderess to escape,
+that she should be showing her the slightest sign of mercy. And
+yet, it was all true. She was helping her, she was befriending her.
+
+She found herself wondering why the poor wretch had not made way
+with herself. Escape seemed out of the question. That must have been
+clear to her from the beginning, else why was she going back there
+to give herself up? What better way out of it all than self-destruction?
+Sara Wrandall reached a sudden conclusion. She would advise the girl
+to leave the car when they reached the centre of a certain bridge
+that spanned the river! No one would find her...
+
+Even as the thought took shape in her mind, she experienced a great
+sense of awe, so overwhelming that she cried out with the horror
+of it. She turned her head for a quick glance at the mute, wretched
+face showing white above the robe, and her heart ached with sudden
+pity for her. The thought of that slender, alive thing going down
+to the icy waters--her soul turned sick with the dread of it!
+
+In that instant, Sara Wrandall--no philanthropist, no sentimentalist--made
+up her mind to give this erring one more than an even chance for
+salvation. She would see her safely across THAT bridge and many
+others. God had directed the footsteps of this girl so that she
+should fall in with the one best qualified to pass judgment on
+her. It was in that person's power to save her or destroy her. The
+commandment, "Thou shalt not kill," took on a broader meaning as
+she considered the power that was hers: the power to kill.
+
+Back of all these finely human impulses was the mysterious arbiter
+that makes great decisions for all of us, from which there can be
+no appeal, and which brooks no argument: Self. Self it was that
+put a single question to her and answered it as well: what personal
+grievance had she against this unhappy girl? None whatever. Self it
+was therefore that slyly thanked her for an unspeakable blessing:
+she had brought to an end not only the life of her husband but the
+false position she herself had been obliged to maintain through a
+mistaken sense of duty and self-respect. And who was to say, outside
+the law, that this frail girl had not just cause to slay?
+
+A great relaxation came over Sara Wrandall. It was as if every
+nerve, every muscle in her body had reached the snapping point
+and suddenly had given way. For a moment her hands were weak and
+powerless; her head fell forward. In an instant she conquered,--but
+only partially,--the strange feeling of lassitude. Then she realised
+how tired she was, how fiercely the strain had told on her body
+and brain, how much she had really suffered.
+
+Her blurred eyes turned once more for a look at the girl, who
+sat there, just as she had been sitting for miles, her white face
+standing out with almost unnatural clearness, and as rigid as that
+of the sphinx.
+
+The girl spoke. "Do they hang women in this country?"
+
+Mrs. Wrandall started. "In some of the States," she replied, and
+was unable to account for the swift impulse to evade.
+
+"But in this State?" persisted the other, almost without a movement
+of the lips.
+
+"They send them to the electric chair--sometimes," said Mrs.
+Wrandall.
+
+There was a long silence between them, broken finally by the girl.
+
+"You have been very kind to me, madam. I have no means of expressing
+my gratitude. I can only say that I shall bless you to my dying
+hour. May I trouble you to set me down at the bridge? I remember
+crossing one. I shall be able to--"
+
+"No!" cried Mrs. Wrandall shrilly, divining the other's intention
+at once. "You shall not do that. I too thought of that as a way out
+of it for you, but--no, it must not be that. Give me a few minutes
+to think. I will find a way."
+
+The girl turned toward her. Her eyes were burning.
+
+"Do you mean that you will help me to get away?" she cried, slowly,
+incredulously.
+
+"Let me think!"
+
+"You will lay yourself liable--"
+
+"Let me think, I say."
+
+"But I mean to surrender myself to--"
+
+"An hour ago you meant to do it, but what were you thinking of ten
+minutes ago? Not surrender. You were thinking of the bridge. Listen
+to me now: I am sure that I can save you. I do not know all the--all
+the circumstances connected with your association with--with that
+man back there at the inn. Twenty-four hours passed before they
+were able to identify him. It is not unlikely that to-morrow may
+put them in possession of the name of the woman who went with him
+to that place. They do not know it to-night, of that I am positive.
+You covered your trail too well. But you must have been seen with
+him during the day or the night--"
+
+The other broke in eagerly: "I don't believe any one knows that
+I--that I went out there with him. He arranged it very--carefully.
+Oh, what a beast he was!" The bitterness of that wail caused the
+woman beside her to cry out as if hurt by a sharp, almost unbearable
+pain. For an instant she seemed about to lose control of herself.
+The car swerved and came dangerously near to leaving the road.
+
+A full minute passed before she could trust herself to speak. Then
+it was with a deep hoarseness in her voice.
+
+"You can tell me about it later on, not now. I don't want to hear
+it. Tell me, where do you live?"
+
+The girl's manner changed so absolutely that there could be but
+one inference: she was acutely suspicious. Her lips tightened and
+her figure seemed to stiffen in in the seat.
+
+"Where do you live?" repeated the other sharply.
+
+"Why should I tell you that? I do not know you. You--"
+
+"You are afraid of me?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know what to say, or what to do," came from the lips
+of the hunted one. "I have no friends, no one to turn to, no one to
+help me. You--you can't be so heartless as to lead me on and then
+give me up to--God help me, I--I should not be made to suffer for
+what I have done. If you only knew the circumstances. If you only
+knew--"
+
+"Stop!" cried the other, in agony.
+
+The girl was bewildered. "You are so strange. I don't understand--"
+
+"We have but two or three miles to go," interrupted Mrs. Wrandall.
+"We must think hard and--rapidly. Are you willing to come with me
+to my hotel? You will be safe there for the present. To-morrow we
+can plan something for the future."
+
+"If I can only find a place to rest for a little while," began the
+other.
+
+"I shall be busy all day, you will not be disturbed. But leave the
+rest to me. I shall find a way."
+
+It was nearly three o'clock when she brought the car to a stop in
+front of a small, exclusive hotel not far from Central Park. The
+street was dark and the vestibule was but dimly lighted. No attendant
+was in sight.
+
+"Slip into this," commanded Mrs. Wrandall, beginning to divest
+herself of her own fur coat. "It will cover your muddy garments. I
+am quite warmly dressed. Don't worry. Be quick. For the time being
+you are my guest here. You will not be questioned. No one need know
+who you are. It will not matter if you look distressed. You have
+just heard of the dreadful thing that has happened to me. You--"
+
+"Happened to you?" cried the girl, drawing the coat about her.
+
+"A member of my family has died. They know it in the hotel by this
+time. I was called to the death bed--to-night. That is all you will
+have to know."
+
+"Oh, I am sorry--"
+
+"Come, let us go in. When we reach my rooms, you may order food and
+drink. You must do it, not I. Please try to remember that it is I
+who am suffering, not you."
+
+A sleepy night watchman took them up in the elevator. He was not
+even interested. Mrs. Wrandall did not speak, but leaned rather
+heavily on the arm of her companion. The door had no sooner closed
+behind them when the girl collapsed. She sank to the floor in a
+heap.
+
+"Get up!" commanded her hostess sharply. This was not the time for
+soft, persuasive words. "Get up at once. You are young and strong.
+You must show the stuff you are made of now if you ever mean to
+show it. I cannot help you if you quail."
+
+The girl looked up piteously, and then struggled to her feet. She
+stood before her protectress, weaving like a frail reed in the
+wind, pallid to the lips.
+
+"I beg your pardon," she murmured. "I will not give way like that
+again. I dare say I'm faint. I have had no food, no rest--but never
+mind that now. Tell me what I am to do. I will try to obey."
+
+"First of all, get out of those muddy, frozen things you have on."
+
+Mrs. Wrandall herself moved stiffly and with unsteady limbs as
+she began to remove her own outer garments. The girl mechanically
+followed her example. She was a pitiable object in the strong
+light of the electrolier. Muddy from head to foot, water-stained
+and bedraggled, her face streaked with dirt, she was the most
+unattractive creature one could well imagine.
+
+These women, so strangely thrown together by Fate, maintained
+an unbroken silence during the long, fumbling process of partial
+disrobing. They scarcely looked at one another, and yet they were
+acutely conscious of the interest each felt in the other. The
+grateful warmth of the room, the abrupt transition from gloom and
+cheerlessness to comfortable obscurity, had a more pronounced effect
+on the stranger than on her hostess.
+
+"It is good to feel warm once more," she said, an odd timidness in
+her manner. "You are very good to me."
+
+They were in Mrs. Wrandall's bed-chamber, just off the little
+sitting-room. Three or four trunks stood against the walls.
+
+"I dismissed my maid on landing. She robbed me," said Mrs. Wrandall,
+voicing the relief that was uppermost in her mind. She opened a
+closet door and took out a thick eider-down robe, which she tossed
+across a chair. "Now call up the office and say that you are speaking
+for me. Say to them that I must have something to eat, no matter
+what the hour may be. I will get out some clean underwear for you,
+and--Oh, yes; if they ask about me, say that I am cold and ill.
+That is sufficient. Here is the bath. Please be as quick about it
+as possible."
+
+Moving as if in a dream, the girl did as she was told. Twenty minutes
+later there was a knock at the door. A waiter appeared with a tray
+and service table. He found Mrs. Wrandall lying back in a chair,
+attended by a slender young woman in a pink eiderdown dressing-gown,
+who gave hesitating directions to him. Then he was dismissed with
+a handsome tip, produced by the same young woman.
+
+"You are not to return for these things," she said as he went out.
+
+In silence she ate and drank, her hostess looking on with gloomy
+interest. It was no shock to Mrs. Wrandall to find that the girl,
+who was no more than twenty-two or three, possessed unusual beauty.
+Her great eyes were blue,--the lovely Irish blue,--her skin was
+fair and smooth, her features regular and of the delicate mould
+that defines the well-bred gentlewoman at a glance. Her hair, now
+in order, was dark and thick and lay softly about her small ears
+and neck. She was not surprised, I repeat, for she had never known
+Challis Wrandall to show interest in any but the most attractive
+of her sex. She found herself smiling bitterly as she looked.
+
+To herself she was saying: "It isn't so hard to bear when I realise
+that he betrayed me for one who is so much more beautiful than I.
+He loved me because I am beautiful. His every defection proves it.
+The others have all been beautiful. And to think that this gentle,
+slender creature should have been the one to give him his death-blow.
+It seems incredible. If it had been struck by some outraged husband,
+strong of arm and fierce with vengeance, I could understand. But--but
+this young, pretty, soft-eyed thing!"
+
+But who may know the thoughts of the other occupant of that little
+sitting-room? Who can put herself in the place of that despairing,
+hunted creature who knew that blood was on the hands with which
+she ate, and whose eyes were filled with visions of the death-chair?
+
+So great was her fatigue that long before she finished the meal her
+tired lids began to droop, her head to nod in spasmodic surrenders
+to an overpowering desire for sleep. Suddenly she dropped the fork
+from her fingers and sank back in the comfortable chair, her head
+resting against the soft, upholstered back. Her lids fell, her hands
+dropped to the arms of the chair. A fine line appeared between her
+dark eyebrows,--indicative of pain.
+
+For many minutes Sara Wrandall watched the haggardness deepen in
+the face of the unconscious sleeper. Then, even as she wondered
+at the act, she went over and took up one of the slim hands in her
+own. The hand of an aristocrat! It lay limp in hers, and helpless.
+Long, tapering fingers and delicately pink with the return of
+warmth.
+
+Rousing herself from the mute contemplation of her charge, she shook
+the girl's shoulder. Instantly she was awake and staring, alarm in
+her dazed, bewildered eyes.
+
+"You must go to bed," said Mrs. Wrandall quietly. "Don't be afraid.
+No one will think of coming here."
+
+The girl arose. As she stood before her benefactress, she heard
+her murmur as if from afar-off: "Just about your size and figure,"
+and wondered not a little.
+
+"You may sleep late. I have many things to do and you will not be
+disturbed. Come, take off your clothes and get into my bed.  To-morrow
+we will plan further--"
+
+"But, madam," cried the girl, "I cannot take your bed. Where are
+you to--"
+
+"If I feel like lying down, I shall lie there beside you."
+
+The girl stared. "Lie beside ME?"
+
+"Yes. Oh, I am not afraid of you, child. You are not a monster.
+You are just a poor, tired--"
+
+"Oh, please don't! Please!" cried the other, tears rushing to her
+eyes. She raised Mrs. Wrandall's hand to her lips and covered it
+with kisses.
+
+Long after she went to sleep, Sara Wrandall stood beside the bed,
+looking down at the pain-stricken face, and tried to solve the
+problem that suddenly had become a part of her very existence.
+
+"It is not friendship," she argued fiercely. "It is not charity,
+it is not humanity. It's the debt I owe, that's all. She did the
+thing for me that I could not have done myself because I loved him.
+I owe her something for that."
+
+Later on she turned her attention to the trunks. Her decision was
+made. With ruthless hands she dragged gown after gown from the
+"innovations" and cast them over chairs, on the floor, across the
+foot of the bed: smart things from Paris and Vienna; ball gowns,
+street gowns, tea gowns, lingerie, blouses, hats, gloves and all
+of the countless things that a woman of fashion and means indulges
+herself in when she goes abroad for that purpose and no other to
+speak of. From the closets she drew forth New York "tailor-suits"
+and other garments.
+
+Until long after six o'clock she busied herself over this huge
+pile of costly raiment, portions of which she had worn but once or
+twice, some not at all, selecting certain dresses, hats, stockings,
+etc., each of which she laid carelessly aside: an imposing pile of
+many hues, all bright and gay and glittering. In another heap she
+laid the sombre things of black: a meagre assortment as compared
+to the other.
+
+Then she stood back and surveyed the two heaps with tired eyes, a
+curious, almost scornful smile on her lips. "There!" she said with
+a sigh. "The black pile is mine, the gay pile is yours," she went
+on, turning toward the sleeping girl. "What a travesty!"
+
+Then she gathered up the soiled garments her charge had worn and
+cast them into the bottom of a trunk, which she locked. Laying out
+a carefully selected assortment of her own garments for the girl's
+use when she arose, Mrs. Wrandall sat down beside the bed and
+waited, knowing that sleep would not come to her.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+HETTY CASTLETON
+
+
+
+
+At half-past six she went to the telephone and called for the morning
+newspapers. At the same time she asked that a couple of district
+messenger boys be sent to her room with the least possible delay.
+The hushed, scared voice of the telephone girl downstairs convinced
+her that news of the tragedy was abroad; she could imagine the girl
+looking at the headlines with awed eyes even as she responded to
+the call from room 416, and her shudder as she realised that it
+was the wife of the dead man speaking.
+
+One of the night clerks, pale and agitated, came up with the papers.
+He inquired if there was anything he could do. He tried to tell
+her that it was a dreadful, sickening thing, but the words stuck
+in his throat. She stood before him, holding the door open; the
+light in the hall fell upon her white, haggard face. He began to
+tremble all over, as if with the ague.
+
+"Will you be good enough to come in?" she inquired, quite steadily.
+"The newspapers--have they printed the--the details?"
+
+He entered and she closed the door.
+
+"Just the--just the news that it was Mr. Wrandall," he replied
+jerkily. "Later on they'll have--"
+
+She interrupted him. "Let me have them, please." Without so much
+as a glance at the headlines, she tossed the papers on the table.
+"I have sent for two messenger boys. It is too early to accomplish
+much by telephone, I fear. Will you be so kind as to telephone at
+seven o'clock or a little after to my apartment?--You will find
+the number under Mr. Wrandall's name. Please inform the butler or
+his wife that they may expect me by ten o'clock, and that I shall
+bring a friend with me--a young lady. Kindly have my motor sent
+to Haffner's garage, and looked after. When the reporters come, as
+they will, please say to them that I will see them at my own home
+at eleven o'clock."
+
+"Can't I--we--I should say, don't you want us to send word to
+your--your friends, Mrs. Wrandall,--the family, I mean? No trouble
+to do it, and--"
+
+"Thank you, no. The messengers will attend to all that is necessary.
+When my lawyer arrives, please send him here to me. Mr. Carroll.
+Thank you."
+
+The clerk, considerably relieved, took his departure in some
+haste, and she was left with the morning papers, each of which she
+scanned rapidly. The details, of course, were meagre. There was a
+double-leaded account of her visit to the inn and her extraordinary
+return to the city. Her chief interest, however, did not rest in
+these particulars, but in the speculations of the authorities as
+to the identity of the mysterious woman--and her whereabouts. There
+was the likelihood that she was not the only one who had encountered
+the girl on the highway or in the neighbourhood of the inn. So far
+as she could glean from the reports, however, no one had seen the
+girl, nor was there the slightest hint offered as to her identity.
+The papers of the previous afternoon had published lurid accounts of
+the murder, with all of the known details, the name of the victim
+at that time still being a mystery. She remembered reading the
+story with no little interest. The only new feature in the case,
+therefore, was the identification of Challis Wrandall by his
+"beautiful wife," and the sensational manner in which it had been
+brought about. With considerable interest she noted the hour that
+these despatches had been received from "special correspondents,"
+and wondered where the shrewd, lynx-eyed reporters napped while
+she was at the inn. All of the despatches were timed three o'clock
+and each paper characterised its issue as an "Extra," with Challis
+Wrandall's name in huge type across as many columns as the dignity
+of the sheet permitted.
+
+Not one word of the girl! Absolute mystery!
+
+Mrs. Wrandall returned to her post beside the bed of the sleeper
+in the adjoining room. Deliberately she placed the newspapers on
+a chair near the girl's pillow, and then raised the window shades
+to let in the hard grey light of early morn.
+
+It was not her present intention to arouse the wan stranger, who
+slept as one dead. So gentle was her breathing that the watcher
+stared in some fear at the fair, smooth breast that seemed scarcely
+to rise and fall. For a long time she stood beside the bed, looking
+down at the face of the sleeper, a troubled expression in her eyes.
+
+"I wonder how many times you were seen with him, and where, and by
+whom," were the questions that ran in a single strain through her
+mind. "Where do you come from? Where did you meet him? Who is there
+that knows of your acquaintance with him?"
+
+There was no kindly light in her eyes, nor was there the faintest
+sign of animosity. Merely the look of one who calculates in the
+interest of a well-shaped purpose. She was estimating the difficulties
+that were likely to attend the carrying out of a design as yet
+half-formed and quixotic. There were many things to be considered.
+At present she was working in utter darkness. What would the light
+bring forth?
+
+Her lawyer came in great haste and perturbation at eight o'clock,
+in response to the letter delivered by one of the messengers.
+A second letter had gone by like means to her husband's brother,
+Leslie Wrandall, instructing him to break the news to his father
+and mother and to come to her apartment after he had attended to
+the removal of the body to the family home near Washington Square.
+She made it quite plain that she did not want Challis Wrandall's
+body to lie under the roof that sheltered her.
+
+His family had resented their marriage. Father, mother and sister had
+objected to her from the beginning, not because she was unworthy,
+but because her tradespeople ancestry was not so remote as his. She
+found a curious sense of pleasure in returning to them the thing
+they prized so highly and surrendered to her with such bitterness
+of heart. She had not been good enough for him: that was their
+attitude. Now she was returning him to them, as one would return
+an article that had been tested and found to be worthless.  She
+would have no more of him!
+
+Leslie, three years younger than Challis, did not hold to the views
+that actuated the remaining members of the family in opposing her
+as an addition to the rather close corporation known far and wide
+as "the Wrandalls." He had stood out for her in a rather mild but
+none-the-less steadfast manner, blandly informing his mother on
+mere than one occasion that Sara was quite too good for Challis,
+any way you looked at it: an attitude which provoked sundry caustic
+references to his own lamentable shortcomings in the matter of
+family pride and--intelligence.
+
+He and Sara had been good friends after a fashion. He was a bit of
+a snob but not much of a prig. She had the feeling about him that
+if he could be weaned away from the family he might stand for
+something fine in the way of character. But he was an adept at
+straddling fences, so that he was never fully on one side or the
+other, no matter which way he leaned.
+
+He had not been deeply attached to his brother. Their ways were
+wide apart. All his life he had known Challis for what he was;
+his heart if not his hand was against him. From the first, he had
+regarded Sara's marriage as a bad bargain for her, and toward the
+last bluntly told her so. Not once but many times had he taken it
+upon himself to inform her that she was a fool to put up with all
+the beastly things Challis was doing. He characterised as infatuation
+the emotion she was prone to call love when they met to discuss
+the escapades of the careless Challis, for she always went to him
+with her troubles. In direct opposition to his counselling, she
+invariably forgave the erring lover who was her husband. Once Leslie
+had said to her, in considerable heat: "You act as if you were his
+mistress, instead of his wife. Mistresses have to forgive; wives
+don't." And she had replied: "Yes, but I'd much rather have him a
+lover than a husband." A remark which Leslie never quite fathomed,
+being somewhat literal himself.
+
+Carroll, her lawyer, an elderly man of vast experience, was not
+surprised to find her quite calm and reasonable. He had come to
+know her very well in the past few years. He had been her father's
+lawyer up to the time of that excellent tradesman's demise,
+and he had settled the estate with such unusual despatch that the
+heirs,--there were many of them,--regarded him as an admirable
+person and--kept him busy ever afterward straightening out their
+own affairs. Which goes to prove that policy is often better than
+honesty.
+
+"I quite understand, my dear, that while it is a dreadful shock to
+you, you are perfectly reconciled to the--er--to the--well, I might
+say the culmination of his troubles," said Mr. Carroll tactfully,
+after she had related for his benefit the story of the night's
+adventure, with reservation concerning the girl who slumbered in
+the room beyond.
+
+"Hardly that, Mr. Carroll. Resigned, perhaps. I can't say that I
+am reconciled. All my life I shall feel that I have been cheated,"
+she said.
+
+He looked up sharply. Something in her tone puzzled him. "Cheated,
+my dear? Oh, I see. Cheated out of years and years of happiness.
+I see."
+
+She bowed her head. Neither spoke for a full minute.
+
+"It's a horrible thing to say, Sara, but this tragedy does away
+with another and perhaps more unpleasant alternative: the divorce
+I have been urging you to consider for so long."
+
+"Yes, we are spared all that," she said. Then she met his gaze with
+a sudden flash of anger in her eyes. "But I would not have divorced
+him--never. You understood that, didn't you?"
+
+"You couldn't have gone on for ever, my dear child, enduring the--"
+
+She stopped him with a sharp exclamation. "Why discuss it now? Let
+the past take care of itself, Mr. Carroll. The past came to an end
+night before last, so far as I am concerned. I want advice for the
+future, not for the past."
+
+He drew back, hurt by her manner. She was quick to see that she
+had offended him,
+
+"I beg your pardon, my best of friends," she cried earnestly.
+
+He smiled. "If you will take PRESENT advice, Sara, you will let go
+of yourself for a spell and see if tears won't relieve the tension
+under--"
+
+"Tears!" she cried. "Why should I give way to tears? What have I
+to weep for? That man up there in the country? The cold, dead thing
+that spent its last living moments without a thought of love for
+me?  Ah, no, my friend; I shed all my tears while he was alive.
+There are none left to be shed for him now. He exacted his full
+share of them.  It was his pleasure to wring them from me because
+he knew I loved him." She leaned forward and spoke slowly, distinctly,
+so that he would never forget the words. "But listen to me, Mr.
+Carroll. You also know that I loved him. Can you believe me when
+I say to you that I hate that dead thing up there in Burton's Inn
+as no one ever hated before? Can you understand what I mean? I hate
+that dead body, Mr. Carroll. I loved the life that was in it. It
+was the life of him that I loved, the warm, appealing life of him.
+It has gone out. Some one less amiable than I suffered at his hands
+and--well, that is enough. I hate the dead body she left behind
+her, Mr. Carroll."
+
+The lawyer wiped the cool moisture from his brow.
+
+"I think I understand," he said, but he was filled with wonder.
+"Extraordinary! Ahem! I should say--Ahem! Dear me! Yes, yes--I've
+never really thought of it in that light."
+
+"I dare say you haven't," she said, lying back in the chair as if
+suddenly exhausted.
+
+"By the way, my dear, have you breakfasted?"
+
+"No. I hadn't given it a thought. Perhaps it would be better if I
+had some coffee--"
+
+"I will ring for a waiter," he said, springing to his feet.
+
+"Not now, please. I have a young friend in the other room--a guest
+who arrived last night. She will attend to it when she awakes. Poor
+thing, it has been dreadfully trying for her."
+
+"Good heaven, I should think so," said he, with a glance at the
+closed door, "Is she asleep?"
+
+"Yes. I shall not call her until you have gone."
+
+"May I enquire--"
+
+"A girl I met recently--an English girl," said she succinctly, and
+forthwith changed the subject. "There are a few necessary details
+that must be attended to, Mr. Carroll. That is why I sent for you
+at this early hour. Mr. Leslie Wrandall will take charge--Ah!" she
+straightened up suddenly. "What a farce it is going to be!"
+
+Half an hour later he departed, to rejoin her at eleven o'clock,
+when the reporters were to be expected. He was to do the talking
+for her. While he was there, Leslie Wrandall called her up on the
+telephone. Hearing but one side of the rather prolonged conversation,
+he was filled with wonder at the tactful way in which she met
+and parried the inevitable questions and suggestions coming from
+her horror-struck brother-in-law. Without the slightest trace of
+offensiveness in her manner, she gave Leslie to understand that
+the final obsequies must be conducted in the home of his parents,
+to whom once more her husband belonged, and that she would abide by
+all arrangements his family elected to make. Mr. Carroll surmised
+from the trend of conversation that young Wrandall was about to
+leave for the scene of the tragedy, and that the house was in a
+state of unspeakable distress. The lawyer smiled rather grimly to
+himself as he turned to look out of the window. He did not have to
+be told that Challis was the idol of the family, and that, so far
+as they were concerned, he could do no wrong!
+
+After his departure, Mrs. Wrandall gently opened the bedroom door
+and was surprised to find the girl wide-awake, resting on one
+elbow, her staring eyes fastened on the newspaper that topped the
+pile on the chair.
+
+Catching sight of Mrs. Wrandall she pointed to the paper with a
+trembling hand and cried out, in a voice full of horror:
+
+"Did you place them there for me to read? Who was with you in the
+other room just now? Was it some one about the--some one looking
+for me? Speak! Please tell me. I heard a man's voice--"
+
+The other crossed quickly to her side.
+
+"Don't be alarmed. It was my lawyer. There is nothing to fear--at
+present. Yes, I left the papers there for you to see. You can see
+what a sensation it has caused. Challis Wrandall was one of the most
+widely known men in New York. But I suppose you know that without
+my telling you."
+
+The girl sank back with a groan. "My God, what have I done? What
+will come of it all?"
+
+"I wish I could answer that question," said the other, taking
+the girl's hand in hers. Both were trembling. After an instant's
+hesitation, she laid her other hand on the dark, dishevelled hair
+of the wild-eyed creature, who still continued to stare at the
+headlines. "I am quite sure they will not look for you here, or in
+my home."
+
+"In your home?"
+
+"You are to go with me. I have thought it all over. It is the only
+way. Come, I must ask you to pull yourself together. Get up at once,
+and dress. Here are the things you are to wear." She indicated the
+orderly pile of garments with a wave of her hand.
+
+Slowly the girl crept out of bed, confused, bewildered, stunned.
+
+"Where are my own things? I--I cannot accept these. Pray give me
+my own--"
+
+Mrs. Wrandall checked her.
+
+"You must obey me, if you expect me to help you. Don't you understand
+that I have had a--a bereavement? I cannot wear these things now.
+They are useless to me. But we will speak of all that later on.
+Come, be quick; I will help you to dress. First, go to the telephone
+and ask them to send a waiter to--these rooms. We must have something
+to eat. Please do as I tell you."
+
+Standing before her benefactress, her fingers fumbling impotently
+at the neck of the night-dress, the girl still continued to stare
+dumbly into the calm, dark eyes before her.
+
+"You are so good. I--I--"
+
+"Let me help you," interrupted the other, deliberately setting
+about to remove the night-dress. The girl caught it up as it slipped
+from her shoulders, a warm flush suffusing her face, a shamed look
+springing into her eyes.
+
+"Thank you, I can--get on very well. I only wanted to ask you a
+question. It has been on my mind, waking and sleeping. Can you tell
+me anything about--do you know his wife?"
+
+The question was so abrupt, so startling that Mrs. Wrandall uttered
+a sharp little cry. For a moment she could not reply.
+
+"I am so sorry, so desperately sorry for her," added the girl
+plaintively.
+
+"I know her," the other managed to say with an effort.
+
+"If I had only known that he had a wife--" began the girl bitterly,
+almost angrily.
+
+Mrs. Wrandall grasped her by the arm. "You did not know that he
+had a wife?" she cried.
+
+The girl's eyes flashed with a sudden, fierce fire in their depths.
+
+"God in heaven, no! I did not know it until--Oh, I can't speak of
+it! Why should I tell you about it? Why should you be interested
+in hearing it?"
+
+Mrs. Wrandall drew back and regarded the girl's set, unhappy face.
+There was a curious light in her eyes that escaped the other's
+notice,--a light that would have puzzled her not a little.
+
+"But you WILL tell me--EVERYTHING--a little later," she said,
+strangely calm. "Not now, but,--before many hours have passed. First
+of all, you must tell me who you are, where you live,--everything
+except what happened in Burton's Inn. I don't want to hear that at
+present--perhaps never. Yes, on second thoughts, I will say NEVER!
+You are never to tell me just what happened up there, or just what
+led up to it. Do you understand? Never!"
+
+The girl stared at her in amazement. "But I--I must tell some one,"
+she cried vehemently. "I have a right to defend myself--"
+
+"I am not asking you to defend yourself," said Mrs. Wrandall shortly.
+Then, as if afraid to remain longer, she rushed from the room. In
+the doorway, she turned for an instant to say: "Do as I told you.
+Telephone. Dress as quickly as you can." She closed the door swiftly.
+
+Standing in the centre of the room, her hands clenched until the
+nails cut the flesh, she said over and over again to herself: "I
+don't want to know! I don't want to KNOW!"
+
+A few minutes later she was critically inspecting the young woman
+who came from the bedroom attired in a street dress that neither
+of them had ever donned before. The girl, looking fresher, prettier
+and even younger than when she had seen her last, was in no way
+abashed.  She seemed to have accepted the garments and the situation
+in the same spirit of resignation and hope: as if she had decided
+to make the most of her slim chance to profit by these amazing
+circumstances.
+
+They sat opposite each other at the little breakfast table.
+
+"Please pour the coffee," said Mrs. Wrandall. The waiter had left
+the room at her command. The girl's hand shook, but she complied
+without a word.
+
+"Now you may tell me who you are and--but wait! You are not to say
+anything about what happened at the inn. Guard your words carefully.
+I am not asking for a confession. I do not care to know what happened
+there. It will make it easier for me to protect you. You may call
+it conscience. Keep your big secret to yourself. NOT ONE WORD TO
+ME. Do you understand?"
+
+"You mean that I am not to reveal, even to you, the causes which
+led up to--"
+
+"Nothing--absolutely nothing," said Mrs. Wrandall firmly.
+
+"But I cannot permit you to judge me, to--well, you might say to
+acquit me,--without hearing the story. It is so vital to me."
+
+"I can judge you without hearing all of the--the evidence, if that's
+what you mean. Simply answer the questions I shall ask, and nothing
+more. There are certain facts I must have from you if I am to shield
+you. You must tell me the truth. I take it you are an English girl.
+Where do you live? Who are your friends? Where is your family?"
+
+The girl's face flushed for an instant and then grew pale again.
+
+"I will tell you the truth," she said. "My name is Hetty Castleton.
+My father is Col. Braid Castleton, of--of the British army. My mother
+is dead. She was Kitty Glynn, at one time a popular music-hall
+performer in London. She was Irish. She died two years ago. My
+father was a gentleman. I do not say he IS a gentleman, for his
+treatment of my mother relieves him from that distinction. He is
+in the Far East, China, I think. I have not seen him in more than
+five years. He deserted my mother. That's all there is to that
+side of my story. I appeared in two or three of the musical pieces
+produced in London two seasons ago, in the chorus. I never got
+beyond that, for very good reasons. I was known as Hetty Glynn.
+Three weeks ago I started for New York, sailing from Liverpool.
+Previously I had served in the capacity of governess in the family
+of John Budlong, a brewer. They had a son, a young man of twenty.
+Two months ago I was dismissed. A California lady, Mrs. Holcombe,
+offered me a situation as governess to her two little girls soon
+afterward. I was to go to her home in San Francisco. She provided
+the money necessary for the voyage and for other expenses. She is
+still in Europe. I landed in New York a fortnight ago and, following
+her directions, presented myself at a certain bank,--I have the
+name somewhere--where my railroad tickets were to be in readiness
+for me, with further instructions. They were to give me twenty-five
+pounds on the presentation of my letter from Mrs. Holcombe. They
+gave me the money and then handed me a cable-gram from Mrs. Holcombe,
+notifying me that my services would not be required. There was no
+explanation. Just that.
+
+"On the steamer I met--HIM. His deck chair was next to mine. I
+noticed that his name was Wrandall--'C. Wrandall' the card on the
+chair informed me. I--"
+
+"You crossed on the steamer with him?" interrupted Mrs. Wrandall
+quickly.
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Had--had you seen him before? In London?"
+
+"Never. Well, we became acquainted, as people do. He--he was very
+handsome and agreeable." She paused for a moment to collect herself.
+
+"Very handsome and agreeable," said the other slowly.
+
+"We got to be very good friends. There were not many people on
+board, and apparently he knew none of them. It was too cold to stay
+on deck much of the time, and it was very rough. He had one of the
+splendid suites on the--"
+
+"Pray omit unnecessary details. You landed and went--where?"
+
+"He advised me to go to an hotel--I can't recall the name. It was
+rather an unpleasant place. Then I went to the bank, as I have stated.
+After that I did not know what to do. I was stunned, bewildered.
+I called him up on the telephone and--he asked me to meet him for
+dinner at a queer little cafe, far down town. We--"
+
+"And you had no friends, no acquaintances here?"
+
+"No. He suggested that I go into one of the musical shows, saying
+he thought he could arrange it with a manager who was a friend.
+Anything to tide me over, he said. But I would not consider it,
+not for an instant. I had had enough of the stage. I--I am really
+not fitted for it. Besides, I AM qualified--well qualified--to
+be governess--but that is neither here nor there. I had some
+money--perhaps forty pounds. I found lodgings with some people in
+Nineteenth street. He never came there to see me. I can see plainly
+now why he argued it would not be--well, he used the word 'wise.'
+But we went occasionally to dine together. We went about in a
+motor--a little red one. He--he told me he loved me. That was one
+night about a week ago. I--"
+
+"I don't care to hear about it," cried the other. "No need of that.
+Spare me the silly side of the story."
+
+"Silly, madam? In God's name, do you think it was silly to me?
+Why--why, I believed him! And, what is more, I believe that he DID
+love me--even now I believe it."
+
+"I have no doubt of it," said Mrs. Wrandall calmly. "You are very
+pretty--and charming."
+
+"I--I did not know that he had a wife until--well, until--" She
+could not go on.
+
+"Night before last?"
+
+The girl shuddered. Mrs. Wrandall turned her face away and waited.
+
+"There is nothing more I can tell you, unless you permit me to tell
+ALL," the girl resumed after a moment of hesitation.
+
+Mrs. Wrandall arose.
+
+"I have heard enough. This afternoon I will send my butler with
+you to the lodging house in Nineteenth street. He will attend to
+the removal of your personal effects to my home, and you will return
+with him. It will be testing fate, Miss Castleton, this visit to
+your former abiding place, but I have decided to give the law its
+chance. If you are suspected, a watch will be set over the house
+in which you lived. If you are not suspected, if your association
+with--with Wrandall is quite unknown, you will run no risk in going
+there openly, nor will I be taking so great a chance as may appear
+in offering you a home, for the time being at least, as companion--or
+secretary or whatever we may elect to call it for the benefit of
+all enquirers. Are you willing to run the risk--this single risk?"
+
+"Perfectly willing," announced the other without hesitation. Indeed,
+her face brightened. "If they are waiting there for me, I shall go
+with them without a word. I have no means of expressing my gratitude
+to you for--"
+
+"There is time enough for that," said Mrs. Wrandall quickly. "And
+if they are not there, you will return to me? You will not desert
+me now?"
+
+The girl's eyes grew wide with wonder. "Desert you? Why do you put
+it in that way? I don't understand."
+
+"You will come back to me?" insisted the other.
+
+"Yes. Why,--why, it means everything to me. It means life,--more
+than that, most wonderful friend. Life isn't very sweet to me. But
+the joy of giving it to you for ever is the dearest boon I crave.
+I DO give it to you. It belongs to you. I--I could die for you."
+
+She dropped to her knees and pressed her lips to Sara Wrandall's
+hand; hot tears fell upon it.
+
+Mrs. Wrandall laid her free hand on the dark, glossy hair and smiled;
+smiled warmly for the first time in--well, in years she might have
+said to herself if she had stopped to consider.
+
+"Get up, my dear," she said gently. "I shall not ask you to die for
+me--if you DO come back. I may be sending you to your death, as it
+is, but it is the chance we must take. A few hours will tell the
+tale. Now listen to what I am about to say,--to propose. I offer
+you a home, I offer you friendship and I trust security from the
+peril that confronts you. I ask nothing in return, not even a word
+of gratitude. You may tell the people at your lodgings that I have
+engaged you as companion and that we are to sail for Europe in a
+week's time if possible. Now we must prepare to go to my own home.
+You will see to packing my--that is, our trunks--"
+
+"Oh, it--it must be a dream!" cried Hetty Castleton, her eyes swimming.
+"I can't believe--" Suddenly she caught herself up, and tried to
+smile. "I don't see why you do this for me. I do not deserve--"
+
+"You have done me a service," said Mrs. Wrandall, her manner so
+peculiar that the girl again assumed the stare of perplexity and
+wonder that had been paramount since their meeting: as if she were
+on the verge of grasping a great truth.
+
+"What CAN you mean?"
+
+Sara laid her hands on the girl's shoulders and looked steadily
+into the puzzled eyes for a moment before speaking.
+
+"My girl," she said, ever so gently, "I shall not ask what your
+life has been; I do not care. I shall not ask for references. You
+are alone in the world and you need a friend. I too am alone. If
+you will come to me I will do everything in my power to make you
+comfortable and--contented. Perhaps it will be impossible to make
+you happy. I promise faithfully to help you, to shield you, to repay
+you for the thing you have done for me. You could not have fallen
+into gentler hands than mine will prove to be. That much I swear
+to you on my soul, which is sacred. I bear you no ill-will. I have
+nothing to avenge."
+
+Hetty drew back, completely mystified.
+
+"Who are you?" she murmured, still staring.
+
+"I am Challis Wrandall's wife."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+WHILE THE MOB WAITED
+
+
+
+
+The next day but one, in the huge old-fashioned mansion of
+the Wrandalls in lower Fifth Avenue, in the drawing-room directly
+beneath the chamber in which Challis was born, the impressive but
+grimly conventional funeral services were held.
+
+Contrasting sharply with the sombre, absolutely correct atmosphere
+of the gloomy interior was the exterior display of joyous curiosity
+that must have jarred severely on the high-bred sensibilities
+of the chief mourners, not to speak of the invited guests who had
+been obliged to pass between rows of gaping bystanders in order to
+reach the portals of the house of grief, and who must have reckoned
+with extreme distaste the cost of subsequent departure. A dozen
+raucous-voiced policemen were employed to keep back the hundreds
+that thronged the sidewalk and blocked the street. Curiosity was
+rampant. Ever since the moment that the body of Challis Wrandall
+was carried into the house of his father, a motley, varying crowd
+of people shifted restlessly in front of the mansion, filled with
+gruesome interest in the absolutely unseen, animated by the sly
+hope that something sensational might happen if they waited long
+enough.
+
+Men, women, children struggled for places nearest the tall iron
+fence surrounding the spare yard, and gazed with awed but wistful
+eyes at the curtained windows and at the huge bow of crepe on the
+massive portals. In hushed voices they spoke of the murder and
+expressed a single opinion among them all: the law ought to make
+short work of her! If this thing had happened in England, said
+they who scoff at our own laws, there wouldn't be any foolishness
+about the business: the woman would be buried in quick-lime before
+you could know what you were talking about. The law in this country
+is a joke, said they, with great irritability. Why can't we do the
+business up, sharp and quick, as they do in England? Get it over
+with, that's the ticket. What's the sense of dragging it out for a
+year? Send 'em to the chair or hang 'em while everybody's interested,
+not when the thing's half forgotten. Who wants to see a person
+hanged after the crime's been forgotten? And then, think of the
+saving to the State? Hang 'em, men or women, and in a couple of
+years' time there wouldn't be a tenth part of the murders we have
+now. Statistics prove, went on the wise ones, that only one out of
+every hundred is hanged. What's that? The jury system is rotten!
+No sirree, we are 'way behind England in that respect. Just look
+at that big murder case in London last month! Remember it? Murderer
+was hanged inside of three weeks after he was caught. That's the
+way to do it! And the London police catch 'em too. Our police stand
+around doing nothing until the criminal has got a week's start, and
+then--oh, well, what can you expect? "Now if I was at the head of
+the New York department I'd have that woman behind the bars before
+night, that's what I'd do. You bet your life, I would," said more
+than one. And no one questioned his ability to do so.
+
+And then all of them would growl at the policemen who pushed them
+back from the gates, and call them "scabs" and "mutts" in repressed
+tones, and snarl under their breath that they wouldn't be pushing
+people around like that if they didn't have stars and clubs and a
+great idea of their own importance. "If it wasn't for the family at
+home dependin' on me for support, I'd take a punch at that stiff,
+so help me God, even if I went to the Island for it!"
+
+And so it WAS and ever shall be, world without end.
+
+Newsboys, hoarse-voiced and pipe-voiced, mingled with the crowd,
+and shrieked their extras under the very noses of the always-aloof
+Wrandalls, who up to this day had turned them up at the sight of
+a vulgar extra, but who now looked down them with a trembling of
+the nostrils that left no room for doubt as to their present state
+of mind.
+
+Up to the very portals these assiduous peddlers yelped for pennies
+and gave in exchange the latest headlines. "All about Mr. Challis
+Wran'all's fun'ral!" "Horrible extry!" Ding-donging the thing in
+the very ears of the dead man himself!
+
+Motor after motor, carriage after carriage, rolled up to the curb
+and emptied its sober-faced, self-conscious occupants in front
+of the door with the great black bow; with each arrival the crowd
+surged forward, and names were muttered in undertones, passing from
+lip to lip until every one in the street knew that Mr. So-and-So,
+Mrs. This-or-That, the What-do-you-call-ems and others of the
+city's most exclusive but most garishly advertised society leaders
+had entered the house of mourning. It was a great show for the
+plebeian spectators. Much better than Miss So-and-So's wedding,
+said one woman who had attended the aforesaid ceremony as a unit
+in the well-dressed mob that almost wrecked the carriages in the
+desire to see the terrified bride. Better than a circus, said a man
+who held his little daughter above the heads of the crowd so that
+she might see the fine lady in a wild-beast fur. Swellest funeral
+New York ever had, remarked another, excepting one 'way back when
+he was a kid.
+
+At the corner below stood two patrol wagons, also waiting.
+
+Inside the house sat the carefully selected guests, hushed and
+stiff and gratified. (Not because they were attending a funeral,
+but because the occasion served to separate them from the chaff:
+they were the elect.) It would be going too far to intimate that
+they were proud of themselves, but it is not stretching it very
+much to say that they counted noses with considerable satisfaction
+and were glad that they had not been left out. The real, high-water
+mark in New York society was established at this memorable function.
+It was quite plain to every one that Mrs. Wrandall,--THE Mrs.
+Wrandall,--had made out the list of guests to be invited to the
+funeral of her son. It was a blue-stocking affair. You couldn't
+imagine anything more so. Afterwards, the two hundred who were
+there looked with utmost pity and not a little scorn on the other
+two hundred who failed to get in, notwithstanding there was ample
+room in the spacious house for all of them. There wasn't a questionable
+guest in the house, unless one were to question the right of the
+dead man's widow to be there--and, after all, she was upstairs with
+the family. Even so, she was a Wrandall--remotely, of course, but
+recognisable.
+
+Yes, they counted noses, so to say. As one after the other arrived
+and was ushered into the huge drawing-room, he or she was accorded
+a congratulatory look from those already assembled, a tribute
+returned with equal amiability. Each one noted who else was there,
+and each one said to himself that at last they really had something
+all to themselves. It was truly a pleasure, a relief, to be able to
+do something without being pushed about by people who didn't belong
+but thought they did. They sat back,--stiffly, of course,--and in
+utter stillness confessed that there could be such a thing as the
+survival of the fittest. Yes, there wasn't a nose there that couldn't
+be counted with perfect serenity. It was a notable occasion.
+
+Mrs. Wrandall, the elder, had made out the list. She did not consult
+her daughter-in-law in the matter. It is true that Sara forestalled
+her in a way by sending word, through Leslie, that she would be pleased
+if Mrs. Wrandall would issue invitations to as many of Challis's
+friends as she deemed advisable. As for herself, she had no wish
+in the matter; she would be satisfied with whatever arrangements
+the family cared to make.
+
+It is not to be supposed, from the foregoing, that Mrs. Wrandall,
+the elder, was not stricken to the heart by the lamentable death
+of her idol. He WAS her idol. He was her first-born, he was her
+love-born. He came to her in the days when she loved her husband
+without much thought of respecting him. She was beginning to
+regard him as something more than a lover when Leslie came, so it
+was different. When their daughter Vivian was born, she was plainly
+annoyed but wholly respectful. Mr. Wrandall was no longer the lover;
+he was her lord and master. The head of the house of Wrandall was
+a person to be looked up to, to be respected and admired by her,
+for he was a very great man, but he was dear to her only because
+he was the father of Challis, the first-born.
+
+In the order of her nature, Challis therefore was her most dearly
+beloved, Vivian the least desired and last in her affections as
+well as in sequence.
+
+Strangely enough, the three of them perfected a curiously significant
+record of conjugal endowments. Challis had always been the wild,
+wayward, unrestrained one, and by far the most lovable; Leslie,
+almost as good looking but with scarcely a noticeable trace of the
+charm that made his brother attractive; Vivian, handsome, selfish
+and as cheerless as the wind that blows across the icebergs in the
+north. Challis had been born with a widely enveloping heart and an
+elastic conscience; Leslie with a brain and a soul and not much of
+a heart, as things go; Vivian with a soul alone, which belonged to
+God, after all, and not to her. Of course she had a heart, but it
+was only for the purpose of pumping blood to remote extremities, and
+had nothing whatever to do with anything so unutterably extraneous
+as love, charity or self-sacrifice.
+
+As for Mr. Redmond Wrandall he was a very proper and dignified
+gentleman, and old for his years.
+
+Secretly, Vivian was his favourite. Moreover, possessing the
+usual contrariness of man, and having been at one time or other, a
+hot-blooded lover, he professed--also in secret--a certain admiration
+for the beautiful, warm-hearted wife of his eldest son.  He looked
+upon her from a man's point of view. He couldn't help that. Not
+once, but many times, had he said to himself that perhaps Challis
+was lucky to have got her instead of one of the girls his mother
+had chosen for him out of the minute elect.
+
+It may be seen, or rather surmised, that if the house of Wrandall
+had not been so admirably centred under its own vine and fig tree,
+it might have become divided against itself without much of an
+effort.
+
+Mrs. Redmond Wrandall was the vine and fig tree.
+
+And now they had brought her dearly beloved son home to her,
+murdered and--disgraced. If it had been either of the others, she
+could have said: "God's will be done." Instead, she cried out that
+God had turned against her.
+
+Leslie had had the bad taste--or perhaps it was misfortune--to
+blurt out an agonised "I told you so" at a time when the family
+was sitting numb and hushed under the blight of the first horrid
+blow.  He did not mean to be unfeeling. It was the truth bursting
+from his unhappy lips.
+
+"I knew Chal would come to this--I knew it," he had said. His arm
+was about the quivering shoulders of his mother as he said it.
+
+She looked up, a sob breaking in her throat. For a long time she
+looked into the face of her second son.
+
+"How can you--how dare you say such a thing as that?" she cried,
+aghast.
+
+He coloured, and drew her closer to him.
+
+"I--I didn't mean it," he faltered.
+
+"You have always taken sides against him," began his mother.
+
+"Please, mother," he cried miserably.
+
+"You say this to me NOW," she went on. "You who are left to take
+his place in my affection.--Why, Leslie, I--I--"
+
+Vivian interposed. "Les is upset, mamma darling. You know he loved
+Challis as deeply as any of us loved him."
+
+Afterwards the girl said to Leslie when they were quite alone:
+"She will never forgive you for that, Les. It was a beastly thing
+to say."
+
+He bit his lip, which trembled. "She's never cared for me as she
+cared for Chal. I'm sorry if I've made it worse."
+
+"See here, Leslie, was Chal so--so--"
+
+"Yes. I meant what I said a while ago. It was sure to happen to
+him one time or another. Sara's had a lot to put up with."
+
+"Sara! If she had been the right sort of a wife, this never would
+have happened."
+
+"After all is said and done, Vivie, Sara's in a position to rub it
+in on us if she's of a mind to do so. She won't do it, of course,
+but--I wonder if she isn't gloating, just the same."
+
+"Haven't we treated her as one of us?" demanded she, dabbing her
+handkerchief in her eyes. "Since the wedding, I mean. Haven't we
+been kind to her?"
+
+"Oh, I think she understands us perfectly," said her brother.
+
+"I wonder what she will do now?" mused Vivian, in that speech
+casting her sister-in-law out of her narrow little world as one
+would throw aside a burnt-out match.
+
+"She will profit by experience," said he, with some pleasure in a
+superior wisdom.
+
+In Mrs. Wrandall's sitting-room at the top of the broad stairway,
+sat the family,--that is to say, the IMMEDIATE family,--a solemn-faced
+footman in front of the door that stood fully ajar so that the
+occupants might hear the words of the minister as they ascended,
+sonorous and precise, from the hall below. A minister was he who
+knew the buttered side of his bread. His discourse was to be a
+beautiful one. He stood at the front of the stairs and faced the
+assembled listeners in the hall, the drawing-room and the entresol,
+but his infinitely touching words went up one flight and lodged.
+
+Sara Wrandall sat a little to the left of and behind Mrs. Redmond
+Wrandall, about whom were grouped the three remaining Wrandalls,
+father, son and daughter, closely drawn together. Well to the fore
+were Wrandall uncles and cousins and aunts, and one or two carefully
+chosen blood-relations to the mistress of the house, whose hand
+had long been set against kinsmen of less exalted promise.
+
+The room was dark. A forgotten French clock ticked madly and
+tinkled its quarter-hours with surpassing sprightliness. Time went
+on regardless. One of the Wrandall uncles, obeying a look from his
+wife, tiptoed across the room and tried to find a way to subdue
+the jingling disturber. But it chimed in his face, and he put his
+black kid glove over his lips. The floor creaked horribly as he
+went back to his chair.
+
+Beside Sara Wrandall, on the small pink divan, sat a stranger in
+this sombre company: a young woman in black, whose pale face was
+uncovered, and whose lashes were lifted so rarely that one could
+not know of the deep, real pain that lay behind them, in her Irish
+blue eyes.
+
+She had arrived at the house an hour or two before the time set for
+the ceremony, in company with the widow. True to her resolution,
+the widow of Challis Wrandall had remained away from the home of
+his people until the last hour. She had been consulted, to be sure,
+in regard to the final arrangements, but the meetings had taken
+place in her own apartment, many blocks distant from the house in
+lower Fifth Avenue. The afternoon before she had received Redmond
+Wrandall and Leslie, his son. She had not sent for them. They came
+perfunctorily and not through any sense of obligation. These two
+at least knew that sympathy was not what she wanted, but peace.
+Twice during the two trying days, Leslie had come to see her. Vivian
+telephoned.
+
+On the occasion of his first visit, Leslie had met the guest in the
+house. The second time he called, he made it a point to ask Sara
+all about her.
+
+It was he who gently closed the door after the two women when, on
+the morning of the funeral, they entered the dark, flower-laden
+room in which stood the casket containing the body of his brother.
+He left them alone together in that room for half an hour or more,
+and it was he who went forward to meet them when they came forth.
+Sara leaned on his arm as she ascended the stairs to the room where
+the others were waiting. The ashen-faced girl followed, her eyes
+lowered, her gloved hands clenched.
+
+Mrs. Wrandall, the elder, kissed Sara and drew her down beside her
+on the couch. To her own surprise, as well as that of the others,
+Sara broke down and wept bitterly. After all, she was sorry for
+Challis's mother. It was the human instinct; she could not hold
+out against it. And the older woman put away the ancient grudge
+she held against this mortal enemy and dissolved into tears of real
+compassion.
+
+A little later she whispered brokenly in Sara's ear: "My dear, my
+dear, this has brought us together. I hope you will learn to love
+me."
+
+Sara caught her breath, but uttered no word. She looked into her
+mother-in-law's eyes, and smiled through her tears. The Wrandalls,
+looking on in amaze, saw the smile reflected in the face of the
+older woman. Then it was that Vivian crossed quickly and put her
+arms about the shoulders of her sister-in-law. The white flag on
+both sides.
+
+Hetty Castleton stood alone and wavering, just inside the door. No
+stranger situation could be imagined than the one in which this
+unfortunate girl found herself at the present moment. She was virtually
+in the hands of those who would destroy her; she was in the house
+of those who most deeply were affected by her act on that fatal
+night. Among them all she stood, facing them, listening to the
+moans and sobs, and yet her limbs did not give way beneath her....
+
+Some one gently touched her arm. It was Leslie. She shrank back,
+a fearful look in her eyes. In the semi-darkness he failed to note
+the expression.
+
+"Won't you sit here?" he asked, indicating the little pink divan
+against the wall. "Forgive me for letting you stand so long."
+
+She looked about her, the wild light still in her eyes. She was
+like a rat in a trap.
+
+Her lips parted, but the word of thanks did not come forth. A
+strange, inarticulate sound, almost a gasp, came instead. Pallid
+as a ghost, she dropped limply to the divan, and dug her fingers
+into the satiny seat. As if fascinated, she stared over the black
+heads of the three women immediately in front of her at the full
+length portrait hanging where the light from the hall fell full
+upon it: the portrait of a dashing youth in riding togs.
+
+A moment later Sara Wrandall came over and sat beside her. The girl
+shivered as with a mighty chill when the warm hand of her friend
+fell upon hers and enveloped it in a firm clasp.
+
+"His mother kissed me," whispered Sara. "Did you see?"
+
+The girl could not reply. She could only stare at the open door.
+A small, hatchet-faced man had come up from below and was nodding
+his head to Leslie Wrandall,--a man with short side whiskers, and
+a sepulchral look in his eyes. Then, having received a sign from
+Leslie, he tiptoed away. Almost instantly the voices of people
+singing softly came from some distant, remote part of the house.
+
+And then, a little later, the perfectly modulated voice of a man
+in prayer.
+
+Back of her, Wrandalls; beside her, Wrandalls; beneath her, friends
+of the Wrandalls; outside, the rabble, those who would join with
+these black, raven-like spectres in tearing her to pieces if they
+but knew!
+
+Sitting, with his hand to his head, Leslie Wrandall found himself
+staring at the face of this stranger among them; not with any
+definable interest, but because she happened to be in his line of
+vision and her face was so singularly white that it stood out in
+cameo-like relief against all this ebony setting.
+
+The droning voice came up from below, each well-chosen word distinct
+and clear: tribute beautiful to the irreproachable character of the
+deceased. Leslie watched the face of the girl, curiously fascinated
+by the set, emotionless features, and yet without a conscious interest
+in her. He was dully sensible to the fact that she was beautiful,
+uncommonly beautiful. It did not occur to him to feel that she was
+out of place among them, that she belonged downstairs.  Somehow
+she was a part of the surroundings, like the spectre at the feast.
+
+If he could have witnessed all that transpired while Sara was in
+the room below with her guest--her companion, as he had come to
+regard her without having in fact been told as much,--he would have
+been lost in a maze of the most overwhelming emotions.
+
+To go back: The door had barely closed behind the two women when
+Hetty's trembling knees gave way beneath her. With a low moan of
+horror, she slipped to the floor, covering her face with her hands.
+
+Sara knelt beside her.
+
+"Come," she said gently, but firmly; "I must exact this much of
+you.  If we are to go on together, as we have planned, you must
+stand beside me at his bier. Together we must look upon him for the
+last time. You must see him as I saw him up there in the country.
+I had my cruel blow that night. It is your turn now. I will not
+blame you for what you did. But if you expect me to go on believing
+that you did a brave thing that night, you must convince me that
+you are not a coward now. It is the only test I shall put you to.
+Come; I know it is hard, I know it is terrible, but it is the true
+test of your ability to go through with it to the end. I shall know
+then that you have the courage to face anything that may come up."
+
+She waited a long time, her hand on the girl's shoulder. At last
+Hetty arose.
+
+"You are right," she said hoarsely. "I should not be afraid."
+
+Later on, they sat over against the wall beyond the casket, into
+which they had peered with widely varying emotions. Sara had said:
+
+"You know that I loved him."
+
+The girl put her hands to her eyes and bowed her head.
+
+"Oh, how can you be so merciful to me?"
+
+"Because he was not," said Sara, white-lipped. Hetty glanced at
+the half-averted face with queer, indescribable expression in her
+eyes.
+
+Then her nerves gave way. She shrank away from the casket,
+whimpering like a frightened child, mouttering, almost gibbering
+in the extremity of despair. She had lived in dread of this ordeal;
+it had been promised the day before by Sara Wrandall, whose will
+was law to her. Now she had come to the very apex of realisation.
+She felt that her mind was going, that her blood was freezing. In
+response to a sudden impulse she sprang up and ran, blindly and
+without thought, bringing up against the wall with such force that
+she dropped to the floor, quite insensible.
+
+When she regained her senses, she was lying back in Sara Wrandall's
+arms, and a soft faraway voice was pleading with her to wake, to
+say something, to open her eyes.
+
+If Leslie Wrandall could have looked in upon them at that moment,
+or at any time during the half an hour that followed, he would have
+known who was the slayer of his brother, but it is doubtful if he
+could have had the heart to denounce her to the world.
+
+When they were ready to leave the room, Hetty had regained control
+of her nerves to a most surprising extent, a condition unmistakably
+due to the influence of the older woman.
+
+"I can trust myself now, Mrs. Wrandall," said Hetty steadily as
+they hesitated for an instant before turning the knob of the door.
+
+"Then, I shall ask YOU to open the door," said Sara, drawing back.
+
+Without a word or a look, Hetty opened the door and permitted the
+other to pass out before her. Then she followed, closing it gently,
+even deliberately, but not without a swift glance over her shoulder
+into the depths of the room they were leaving.
+
+Of the two, Sara Wrandall was the paler as they went up the broad
+staircase with Leslie.
+
+The funeral oration by the Rev. Dr. Maltby dragged on. Among all
+his hearers there was but one who believed the things he said of
+Challis Wrandall, and she was one of two persons who, so the saying
+goes, are the last to find a man out; his mother and his sister.
+But in this instance the mother was alone. The silent, attentive
+guests on the lower floor listened in grim approval: Dr. Maltby
+was doing himself proud. Not one but all of them knew that Maltby
+KNEW. And yet how soothing he was.
+
+Thus afterwards, to his wife, on the way home after a fruitful
+silence, spoke Colonel Berkimer, well known to the Tenderloin:
+
+"When I die, my dear, I want you to be sure to have Maltby in for
+the sermon. He's really wonderful."
+
+"You don't mean to say you BELIEVED all that he said," cried his
+wife.
+
+"Certainly NOT," he snapped. "That's the point."
+
+Once at the end of a beautifully worded sentence, eulogistic of
+the dead man's character as a son and husband, the tense silence
+of the room upstairs was shattered by the utterance of a single,
+poignant word:
+
+"God!"
+
+It was so expressive of surprise, of scorn, of contempt, although
+spoken in little more than a whisper, that every one in the room
+caught his or her breath in a sharp little gasp, as if cringing
+from the effect of an unexpected shock to a sensitive nerve.
+
+Each looked at his neighbour and then in a shocked sort of way at
+every one else, for no one could quite make out who had uttered
+the word, and each wondered if, in a fit of abstraction, he could
+have done it himself. It unmistakably had been the voice of a woman,
+but whose? Hetty knew, but not by the slightest sign did she betray
+the fact that the woman who sat beside her was the one to utter
+the brief but scathing estimate of the minister's eulogy.
+
+The hatchet-faced little undertaker stood in the open door again
+and solemnly bowed his head to Leslie, lifting his dolorous eyebrows
+in lieu of the verbal question. Receiving a simple nod in reply,
+he announced that as soon as the guests had departed he would be
+pleased to have the family descend to the carriages.
+
+Outside, the shivering, half-frozen multitude edged its way up to
+the line of blue-coats and again whispered the names of the departing
+guests, and every neck was craned in the effort to secure the first
+view of the casket, the silk-hatted pall-bearers and the weeping
+members of the family.
+
+"They'll be out with 'im in a minute now," said a hoarse-voiced man
+who clung to the ornamental face of the tall gate and passed back
+the word, for he could see beyond the stream of guests into the
+hallway of the house.
+
+"Git down out o' that," commanded a policeman tapping him sharply
+with his night-stick.
+
+"Aw, I ain't botherin' anybody--"
+
+"Git down, I say!"
+
+Grumbling, the man slunk back, and a woman took his place. This was
+better for the crowd, as her voice was shriller and she had less
+compunction about making herself heard.
+
+A small boy crept beyond the line and peered, round-eyed, up the
+carpeted steps. He received a sharp push from a night-stick and
+went blubbering back into the crowd.
+
+And all through the eager, seething mob went sharp-eyed men in
+plain clothes, searching each face with crafty eyes, looking for
+the sign that might betray the woman who had brought all this about.
+They were men from the central office. Another of their ilk had the
+freedom of the house in the guise of an undertaker's assistant. He
+watched the favoured few!
+
+There is a saying that a strange, mysterious force drags the
+murderer to the scene of his crime, whether he will or no, to look
+with others upon the havoc he has wrought. He has been known to sit
+beside the bier of his victim; he has been known to follow him to
+the tomb; he has been known to betray himself at the very edge of
+the grave. A grim, fantastic thing is conscience!
+
+At last the crowd gave out a deep, hissing breath and surged forward.
+They were bearing Challis Wrandall down the steps. The wall of
+policemen held firm; the morbid hundreds fell back and glared with
+unblinking eyes at the black thing that slowly crossed the sidewalk
+and slid noiselessly into the yawning mouth of the hearse.  No
+man in all that mob uncovered his head, no woman crossed herself.
+Inwardly they reviled the police who kept them from seeing all that
+they wanted to see. They were being cheated.
+
+Then there was an eager shout from the foremost in the throng, and
+the word went singing through the crowd, back to the outer fringe,
+where men danced like so many jumping-jacks in the effort to see
+above the heads of those in front.
+
+"Here they come!" went the hoarse whisper, like the swish of the
+wind.
+
+"Stand back, please!"
+
+"That's his mother!" cried a shrill voice, triumphantly,--even
+gladly. She was the first to give the news.
+
+"Keep back!" growled the police, lifting their clubs.
+
+"Which one is his wife?"
+
+"Has she come out yet?"
+
+"Get out of my way, damn you!"
+
+"Say, if these cops was doing their duty they'd--"
+
+"That's what I say! No wonder they never ketch anybody."
+
+"Say, they don't seem to be takin' it very hard. I thought they'd
+be cryin' like--"
+
+"Is that his wife?"
+
+"Poor little thing! Ouch! You big ruffian!"
+
+"Swell business, eh?"
+
+"She won't be sayin' 'Where's my wanderin' boy--'"
+
+"If we had police in this city that could ketch a street car we'd--"
+
+"That's old man Wrandall. I've waited on him dozens o' times."
+
+"Did they have any children?"
+
+Up in the front rank stood a slim little thing with yellow hair and
+carmined lips, wrapped in costly furs yet shivering as if chilled
+to the bone. Four plain clothes men were watching her narrowly. She
+was known to have been one of Challis Wrandall's associates. When
+she shrank back into the crowd and made her way to the outskirts,
+hurrying as if pursued by ghosts, two men followed close behind,
+and kept her in sight for many blocks.
+
+The motors and carriages rolled away, and there was left only the
+policemen and the unsatiated mob. They watched the undertaker's
+assistant remove the great bow of black from the door of the house.
+
+By the end of the week the murder of Challis Wrandall was forgotten
+by all save the police. The inquest was over, the law was baffled,
+the city was serenely waiting for its next sensation. No one cared.
+
+Leslie Wrandall went down to the steamer to see his sister-in-law
+off for Europe.
+
+"Good-bye, Miss Castleton," he said, as he shook the hand of the
+slim young Englishwoman at parting. "Take good care of Sara. She
+needs a friend, a good friend, now. Keep her over there until she
+has--forgotten."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+DISCUSSING A SISTER-IN-LAW
+
+
+
+
+"You remember my sister-in-law, don't you, Brandy?" was the question
+that Leslie Wrandall put to a friend one afternoon, as they sat
+drearily in a window of one of the fashionable up-town clubs, a
+little more than a year after the events described in the foregoing
+chapters. Drearily, I have said, for the reason that it was Sunday,
+and raining at that.
+
+"I met Mrs. Wrandall a few years ago in Rome," said his companion,
+renewing interest in a conversation that had died some time before
+of its own exhaustion. "She's most attractive. I saw her but once.
+I think it was at somebody's fete."
+
+"She's returning to New York the end of the month," said Leslie.
+"Been abroad for over a year. She had a villa at Nice this winter."
+
+"I remember her quite well. I was of an age then to be particularly
+sensitive to female loveliness. If I'd been staying on in Rome, I
+should have screwed up the courage, I'm sure, to have asked her to
+sit for me."
+
+"Lord love you, man, she's posed for half the painters in the world,
+it seems to me. Like the duchesses that Romney and those old chaps
+used to paint. It occurs to me those grand old dames did nothing but
+sit for portraits, year in and year out, all their lives. I don't
+see where they found time to scratch up the love affairs they're
+reported to have had. There always must have been some painter or
+other hanging around. I remember reading that the Duchess of--I
+can't remember the name--posed a hundred and sixty-nine times, for
+nearly as many painters. Sara's not so bad as all that, of course,
+but I don't exaggerate when I say she's been painted a dozen
+times--and hung in twice as many exhibits."
+
+"I know," said the other with a smile. "I've seen a few of them."
+
+"The best of them all is hanging in her place up in the country,
+old man. It's the one my brother liked. A Belgian fellow did it a
+couple of years ago. Never been exhibited, so of course you haven't
+seen it. Challis wouldn't consent to its being revealed to the
+vulgar gaze, he loved it so much."
+
+"I like that," resented Brandon Booth, with a mild glare.
+
+"Lot of common, vulgar people do hang about picture galleries, you
+will have to admit that, Brandy. They visit 'em in the winter time
+to get in where it's warm, and in the summer time they go because
+it's nice and shady. That's the sort I mean."
+
+"What do you know about art or the people who--"
+
+"I know all there is to know about it, old chap. Haven't we got
+Gainsboroughs, and Turners, and Constables, and Corots hanging all
+over the place? And a lot of others, too. Reynolds, Romney and
+Raeburn,--the three R's. And didn't I tag along with mother to
+picture dealers' shops and auctions when every blessed one of 'em
+was bought? I know ALL about it, let me tell you. I can tell you what
+kind of an 'atmosphere' a painting's got, with my eyes closed; and
+as for 'quality' and 'luminosity' and 'broadness' and 'handling,'
+I know more this minute about such things than any auctioneer in the
+world. I am a past master at it, believe me. One can't go around
+buying paintings with his mother without getting a liberal education
+in art. She began taking me when I was ten years old. Challis
+wouldn't go, so she MADE me do it. Then I always had to go back
+with her when she wanted to exchange them for something else the
+dealer assured her she ought to have in our collection, and which
+invariably cost three times as much. No, my dear fellow, you are
+very much mistaken when you say that I don't know anything about
+art. I am a walking price-list of all the art this side of the
+Dresden gallery. You should not forget that we are a very old New
+York family. We've been collecting for over twenty years."
+
+Both laughed. He liked Wrandall best when he affected mockery
+of this sort, although he was keenly alive to a certain breath of
+self-glorification in his raillery. Leslie felt a delicious sense
+of security in railing at family limitations: he knew that no one
+was likely to take him seriously.
+
+"Nevertheless, your mother has some really fine paintings in the
+collection," proclaimed Booth amiably, also descending to snobbishness
+without really meaning to do so. He considered Velasquez to be the
+superior of all those mentioned by Wrandall, and there was the end
+to it, so far as he was concerned. It was ever a source of wonder
+to him that Mrs. Wrandall didn't "trade in" everything else she
+possessed for a single great Velasquez.
+
+"Getting back to Sara,--my sister-in-law,--why don't you ask her to
+sit for you this summer? She's not going out, you know, and time
+will hang so heavily on her hands that she will even welcome another
+portrait agony."
+
+"I can't ask her to--"
+
+"I'll do the asking, if you say the word."
+
+"Don't be an ass."
+
+"I'm quite willing to be one, if it will help you out, old man,"
+said Leslie cheerfully.
+
+"And make one of me as well, I suppose. She'd think me a frightful
+cub after all those other fellows. After Sargent, ME! Ho, ho! She'd
+laugh in my face."
+
+"If you could paint that smile of hers, Brandy, you'd make Romney
+look like an amateur. Most wonderful smile. It's a splendid idea.
+Let her laugh in your face, as you say; then paint like the devil
+while she's doing it, and your reputation is made for--"
+
+"Will you have another drink?"
+
+"No, thanks. I can change the subject without it. What time is it?"
+
+Both looked at their watches, and put them back again without
+remark to resume the interrupted contemplation of Fifth Avenue in
+the waning light of a drab, drizzly day. A man in a shiny "slicker"
+was pushing a sweep and shovel in the centre of the thoroughfare.
+They wondered how long it would be before a motor struck him.
+
+Brandon Booth was of an old Philadelphia family: an old and wealthy
+family. Both views considered, he was qualified to walk hand in
+glove with the fastidious Wrandalls. Leslie's mother was charmed
+with him because she was also the mother of Vivian. The fact that
+he went in for portrait painting and seemed averse to subsisting on
+the generosity of his father, preferring to live by his talent, in
+no way operated against him, so far as Mrs. Wrandall was concerned.
+That was HIS lookout, not hers; if he elected to that sort of
+thing, all well and good. He could afford to be eccentric; there
+remained, in the perspective he scorned, the bulk of a huge fortune
+to offset whatever idiosyncrasies he might choose to cultivate.
+Some day, in spite of himself, she contended serenely, he would
+be very, very rich. What could be more desirable than fame, family
+and fortune all heaped together and thrust upon one exceedingly
+interesting and handsome young man? For he would be famous, she was
+sure of it.  Every one said that of him, even the critics, although
+she didn't have much use for critics, retaining opinions of her
+own that seldom agreed with theirs. It was enough for her that he
+was a Booth, and knew how to behave in a drawing-room, because he
+belonged there and was not lugged in by the scruff of an ill-fitting
+dress-suit to pose as a Bohemian celebrity. Moreover, he was a
+level-headed, well-balanced fellow in spite of his calling; which
+was saying a great deal, proclaimed the mother of Vivian in opposition
+to her own argument that painters never made satisfactory or even
+satisfying husbands: the artistic temperament and all that sort of
+thing getting in the way of compatibility.
+
+He had been the pupil of celebrated draughtsmen and painters in
+Europe, and had exhibited a sincerity of purpose that was surprising,
+all things considered. The mere fact that he was not obliged to
+paint in order to obtain a living, was sufficient cause for wonder
+among the artists he met and studied with or under. At first they
+regarded him as a youth with a fancy that soon would pass, leaving
+him high and dry and safe on something steadier than Art. They
+couldn't understand a rich man's son really having aspirations,
+although they granted him temperament and ability. But he went
+about it so earnestly, so systematically, that they were compelled
+to alter the time-honoured tune and to sing praises instead of
+whistling their insulting "I-told-you-sos." To the disgust of many,
+he had a real purpose supported by talent, and that was what they
+couldn't understand in a rich man's son. They hated to see their
+traditions spoiled. The only way in which they could account for
+it all was that he was an American, and Americans are always doing
+the things one doesn't expect them to do, especially along grooves
+that ought to be kept closed by tradition.
+
+When he said good-bye to his European friends and masters, and set
+his face toward home, they took off their hats to him, so to speak,
+and agreed that he had a brilliant future, without a thought of
+the legacy that one day would be his.
+
+His studio in New York was not a fashionable resting place. It was
+a work-shop. You could have tea there, of course, and you were sure
+to meet people you knew and liked, but it was quite as much of a
+work-shop as any you could mention. He was not a dabbler in art,
+not a mere dauber of pigments: he was an ARTIST. People argued that
+because he was a thoroughbred and doomed to be rich, his conscious
+egotism would show itself at once in the demand for ridiculously high
+prices. In that they happily were fooled, not to say disappointed.
+He began by painting the portrait of a well-known society woman of
+great wealth, who sat to him because she wanted to "take him up,"
+and who was absolutely disconsolate when he announced, at the end
+of the sittings, that his price was five hundred dollars. She would
+not believe her ears.
+
+"Why, my dear Brandon, you will be ruined--utterly ruined--if it
+becomes known that you ask less than five thousand," she had cried,
+almost in tears. "No one will come to you."
+
+He had smiled. "A master's price is for a master, not for a tyro.
+If they want to pay five thousand dollars for a portrait, I can
+recommend a dozen or more gentlemen whose work is worth it. Mine
+isn't. Some day I hope to be able to say five thousand with a great
+deal more assurance than I now say five hundred, Mrs. Wheeler, but
+it won't be until I have courage, not nerve."
+
+"But NOBODY will sit for a five hundred dollar portrait," she
+expostulated. "Really, Brandon, I prefer to pay five thousand. I
+can't--I simply cannot tell people that I paid only five--"
+
+"Will you give six hundred?" he asked, his smile broadening.
+
+"Absurd!"
+
+"Seven hundred?"
+
+"Why, it sounds as if you were jewing me up, not I trying to jew
+you down," she cried, dismayed.
+
+"That's the point," he said, with mock gravity. "If my price isn't
+what it ought to be in your opinion, it is only fair that I should
+make concessions. My picture is worth five hundred dollars, but I
+am willing to do a little better than that by you. I will make it
+seven-fifty to you, but not a cent more."
+
+"Can't I jew you up any higher, dear boy?"
+
+"No," with a smile; "but if you will consent to sit to me ten years
+from now, I promise faithfully to ask five thousand of you without
+a blush."
+
+"Ah, but ten years from now I should blush to even think of having
+my portrait painted."
+
+"Ten years will make no change in you," said he gallantly, "but I
+expect them to make quite another artist of me."
+
+And so his price was established for the time being. He offset
+the chilling effect of the low figure by deliberately declining
+commissions to paint women who fell below a rather severe standard
+of personal attractiveness. Gross women were not allowed to crowd
+his canvases; ugly ones who succeeded in tempting him were surprised
+to find how ugly they really were when the portrait was finished.
+He made it a point never to lie about a woman, not even on canvas.
+It made him very unpopular with certain ladies who wanted to be
+lied about--on canvas.
+
+As the result of his rather independent attitude, he had more
+commissions than he could fill. When it got about that he cared to
+paint only attractive women, his studio was besieged by ladies of
+a curious turn of mind. If they discovered that he was willing to
+paint them, they blissfully dropped the matter and went happily on
+their way. If they found that his time was so fully occupied that
+he could not paint them they urged him to reconsider--even offering
+to quadruple his price if he would only "do" them. One exceedingly
+plain woman, who couldn't be reconciled to Nature, offered him
+twenty thousand dollars if he would paint her for the Metropolitan
+Museum. Another asked him if he was a pupil of Gainsborough. Finding
+that he was not, she asked WHY not, with all the money he had at
+his command.
+
+He had been in New York for the better part of two years at the
+time he is introduced into this narrative. Years of his life had
+been spent abroad, yet he was not a stranger in a strange land
+when he took up his residence in Gotham. Society opened its arms
+to him. It was like a home-coming. Had he been a bridge player,
+his coronation might have been complete.
+
+Booth was thirty,--perhaps a year or two older; tall, dark and
+good-looking. The air of the thoroughbred marked him. He did not
+affect loose flowing cravats and baggy trousers, nor was he careless
+about his finger-nails. He was simply the ordinary, everyday sort
+of chap you would meet in Fifth Avenue during parade hours, and
+you would take a second look at him because of his face and manner
+but not on account of his dress. Some of his ancestors came over
+ahead of the Mayflower, but he did not gloat.
+
+Leslie Wrandall was his closest friend and harshest critic. It
+didn't really matter to Booth what Leslie said of his paintings:
+he quite understood that he didn't know anything about them.
+
+"When does Mrs. Wrandall return?" asked the painter, after a long
+period of silence spent in contemplation of the gleaming pavement
+beyond the club's window.
+
+"That's queer," said Leslie, looking up. "I was thinking of Sara
+myself. She sails next week. I've had a letter asking me to open her
+house in the country. Her place is about two miles from father's.
+It hasn't been opened in two years. Her father built it fifteen or
+twenty years ago, and left it to her when he died. She and Challis
+spent several summers there."
+
+"Vivian took me through it one afternoon last summer."
+
+"It must have been quite as much of a novelty to her as it was to
+you, old chap," said Leslie gloomily.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Vivian's a bit of a snob. She never liked the place because old
+man Gooch built it out of worsteds. She never went there."
+
+"But the old man's been dead for years."
+
+"That doesn't matter. The fact is, Vivian didn't quite take to Sara
+until after--well, until after Challis died. We're dreadful snobs,
+Brandy, the whole lot of us. Sara was quite good enough for a much
+better man than my brother. She really couldn't help the worsteds,
+you know. I'm very fond of her, and always have been. We're pals.
+'Gad, it was a fearful slap at the home folks when Challis justified
+Sara by getting snuffed out the way he did."
+
+Booth made an attempt to change the subject, but Wrandall got back
+to it.
+
+"Since then we've all been exceedingly sweet on Sara. Not because
+we want to be, mind you, but because we're afraid she'll marry some
+chap who wouldn't be acceptable to us."
+
+"I should consider that a very neat way out of it," said Booth
+coldly.
+
+"Not at all. You see, Challis was fond of Sara, in spite of everything.
+He left a will and under it she came in for all he had.  As that
+includes a third interest in our extremely refined and irreproachable
+business, it would be a deuce of a trick on us if she married one
+of the common people and set him up amongst us, willy-nilly. We
+don't want strange bed-fellows. We're too snug--and, I might say,
+too smug. Down in her heart, mother is saying to herself it would
+be just like Sara to get even with us by doing just that sort of
+a trick. Of course, Sara is rich enough without accepting a sou
+under the will, but she's a canny person. She hasn't handed it back
+to us on a silver platter, with thanks; still, on the other hand,
+she refuses to meddle. She makes us feel pretty small.  She won't
+sell out to us. She just sits tight. That's what gets under the
+skin with mother."
+
+"I wouldn't say that, Les, if I were in your place."
+
+"It is a rather priggish thing to say, isn't it?"
+
+"Rather."
+
+"You see, I'm the only one who really took sides with Sara. I forget
+myself sometimes. She was such a brick, all those years."
+
+Booth was silent for a moment, noting the reflective look in his
+companion's eyes.
+
+"I suppose the police haven't given up the hope that sooner or
+later the--er--the woman will do something to give herself away,"
+said he.
+
+"They don't take any stock in my theory that she made way with
+herself the same night. I was talking with the chief yesterday. He
+says that any one who had wit to cover up her tracks as she did,
+is not the kind to make way with herself. Perhaps he's right. It
+sounds reasonable. 'Gad, I felt sorry for the poor girl they had
+up last spring. She went through the third degree, if ever any one
+did, but, by Jove, she came out of it all right. The Ashtley girl,
+you remember. I've dreamed about that girl, Brandy, and what they
+put her through. It's a sort of nightmare to me, even when I'm
+awake.  Oh, they've questioned others as well, but she was the only
+one to have the screws twisted in just that way."
+
+"Where is she now?"
+
+"She's comfortable enough now. When I wrote to Sara about what she'd
+been through, she settled a neat bit of money on her, and she'll
+never want for anything. She's out West somewhere, with her mother
+and sisters. I tell you, Sara's a wonder. She's got a heart of
+gold."
+
+"I look forward to meeting her, old man."
+
+"I was with her for a few weeks this winter. In Nice, you know.
+Vivian stayed on for a week, but mother had to get to the baths.
+'Gad, I believe she hated to go. Sara's got a most adorable
+girl staying with her. A daughter of Colonel Castleton, and she's
+connected in some way with the Murgatroyds--old Lord Murgatroyd,
+you know. I think her mother was a niece of the old boy. Anyhow,
+mother and Vivian have taken a great fancy to her. That's proof of
+the pudding."
+
+"I think Vivian mentioned a companion of some sort."
+
+"You wouldn't exactly call her a companion," said Leslie. "She's
+got money to burn, I take it. Quite keeps up with Sara in making it
+fly, and that's saying a good deal for her resources. I think it's
+a pose on her part, this calling herself a companion. An English
+joke, eh?  As a matter of fact, she's an old friend of Sara's
+and my brother's too. Knew them in England. Most delightful girl.
+Oh, I say, old man, she's the one for you to paint." Leslie waxed
+enthusiastic. "A type, a positive type. Never saw such eyes in all
+my life. Dammit, they haunt you. You dream about 'em."
+
+"You seem to be hard hit," said Booth indifferently. He was watching
+the man in the "slicker" through moody eyes.
+
+"Oh, nothing like that," disclaimed Leslie, with unnecessary promptness.
+"But if I were given to that sort of thing, I'd be bowled over in
+a minute. Positively adorable face. If I thought you had it in you
+to paint a thing as it really is, I'd commission you myself to do
+a miniature for me, just to have it around where I could pick it
+up when I liked and hold it between my hands, just as I've often
+wanted to hold the real thing."
+
+"Come, come! You're dotty about her."
+
+"Get Vivian to tell you about her," said Leslie sweepingly. "Come
+down and have dinner with me to-night. She'll bear out--"
+
+"I'll take your word for it. Thanks for the bid, but I can't come.
+Dining at the Ritz with Joey and Linda. I think I'll be off."
+
+He stretched himself, took the final, reluctant look of the artist
+at the "slicker" man, and moved away. Leslie called after him:
+
+"Wait till you see her."
+
+"All right. I'll wait."
+
+Sara Wrandall returned to New York at the end of the month,
+and Leslie met her at the dock, as he did on an occasion fourteen
+months earlier. Then she came in on a fierce gale from the wintry
+Atlantic; this time the air was soft and balmy and sweet with the
+kindness of spring. It was May and the sea was blue, the land was
+green.
+
+Again she went to the small, exclusive hotel near the Park. Her
+apartment was closed, the butler and his wife and all of their
+hastily recruited company being in the country, awaiting her arrival
+from town. Leslie attended to everything. He lent his resourceful
+man-servant and his motor to his lovely sister-in-law, and saw to
+it that his mother and Vivian sent flowers to the ship. Redmond
+Wrandall called at the hotel immediately after banking hours,
+kissed his daughter-in-law, and delivered an ultimatum second-hand
+from the power at home: she was to come to dinner and bring Miss
+Castleton. A little quiet family dinner, you know, because they
+were all in mourning, he said in conclusion, vaguely realising all
+the while that it really wasn't necessary to supply the information,
+but, for the life of him, unable to think of anything else to say
+under the circumstances. Somehow it seemed to him that while Sara
+was in black she was not in mourning in the same sense that the
+rest of them were. It seemed only right to acquaint her with the
+conditions in his household. And he knew that he deserved the scowl
+that Leslie bestowed upon him.
+
+Sara accepted, much to his surprise and gratification. He had been
+rather dubious about it. It would not have surprised him in the
+least if she had declined the invitation, feeling, as he did, that
+he had in a way come to her with a white flag or an olive branch
+or whatever it is that a combative force utilises when it wants to
+surrender in the cause of humanity.
+
+Leslie was a very observing person. It might have been said of him
+that he was always on the lookout for the things that most people
+were unlikely to notice: the trivial things that really were
+important. He not only took in his father's amiable blunder, but
+caught the curious expression in Hetty's dark blue eyes, and the
+sharp almost inaudible catch of her breath. The gleam was gone
+in an instant, but it made an impression on him. He found himself
+wondering if the girl was a snob as well as the rest of them.
+The look in her eyes betrayed unmistakable surprise and--yes, he
+was quite sure of it--dismay when Sara accepted the invitation to
+dine.  Was it possible that the lovely Miss Castleton considered
+herself--but no! Of course it couldn't be that. The Wrandalls were
+good enough for dukes and duchesses. Still he could not get beyond
+the fact that he HAD seen the look of disapproval. 'Gad, thought
+he, it was almost a look of appeal. He made up his mind, as he
+stood there chatting with her, that he would find out from Vivian
+what his mother had done to create an unpleasant estimate of
+the family in the eyes of this gentle, refined cousin of old Lord
+Murgatroyd.
+
+He was quite as quick to detect the satirical smile in Sara's frank,
+amused eyes as she graciously accepted the invitation to the home
+whose doors had only been half-open to her in the past. It scratched
+his pride a bit to think of the opinion she must have of the family,
+and he was inexpressibly glad that she could not consistently class
+him with the others. He found himself feeling a bit sorry for the
+old gentleman, and hoped that he missed the touch of irony in Sara's
+voice.
+
+Old Mr. Wrandall floundered from one invitation to another.
+
+"Of course, Sara, my dear, you will want to go out to the cemetery
+to-morrow, I shall be only too ready to accompany you. We have
+erected a splendid--"
+
+"No, thank you, Mr. Wrandall," she interrupted gently. "I shall
+not go to the cemetery."
+
+Leslie intervened. "You understand, don't you, father?" he said,
+rather out of patience.
+
+The old gentleman lowered his head. "Yes, yes," he hastened to
+say.  "Quite so, quite so. Then we may expect you at eight, Sara,
+and you, Miss Castleton. Mrs, Wrandall is looking forward to seeing
+you again. It isn't often she takes a liking to--ahem! I beg your
+pardon, Leslie?"
+
+"I was just going to suggest that we move along, dad. I fancy you
+want to get at your trunks, Sara. Smuggled a few things through,
+eh?  Women never miss a chance to get a couple of dozen dresses
+through, as you'll discover if you become a real American, Miss
+Castleton.  It's in the blood."
+
+Mr. Wrandall fell into another trap. "Now please remember that we
+are to dine very informally," he hastened to say, his mind on the
+smuggled gowns. It was his experience that gowns that escaped duty
+invariably were "creations."
+
+Leslie got him away.
+
+As soon as they were alone, Hetty turned to her friend.
+
+"Oh, Sara, can't you go without me? Tell them that I am ill--suddenly
+ill. I--I don't think it right or honourable of me to accept--"
+
+Sara shook her head, and the words died on the girl's lips.
+
+"You must play the game, Hetty."
+
+"It's--very hard," murmured the other, her face very white and
+bleak.
+
+"I know, my dear," said Sara gently.
+
+"If they should ever find out," gasped the girl, suddenly giving
+way to the dread that had been lying dormant all these months.
+
+"They will never know the truth unless you choose to enlighten
+them," said Sara, putting her arm about the girl's shoulders and
+drawing her close.
+
+"You never cease to be wonderful, Sara,--so very wonderful," cried
+the girl, with a look of worship in her eyes.
+
+Sara regarded her in silence for a moment, reflecting. Then, with
+a swift rush of tears to her eyes, she cried fiercely:
+
+"You must never, never tell me all that happened, Hetty! You must
+not speak it with your own lips."
+
+Hetty's eyes grew dark with pain and wonder.
+
+"That is the thing I can't understand in you, Sara," she said
+slowly.
+
+"We must not speak of it!"
+
+Hetty's bosom heaved. "Speak of it!" she cried, absolute agony in
+her voice. "Have I not kept it locked in my heart since that awful
+day--"
+
+"Hush!"
+
+"I shall go mad if I cannot talk with you about--"
+
+"No, no! It is the forbidden subject! I know all that I should
+know--all that I care to know. We have not said so much as this
+in months--in ages, it seems. Let sleeping dogs lie. We are better
+off, my dear. I could not touch your lips again."
+
+"I--I can't bear the thought of that!"
+
+"Kiss me now, Hetty."
+
+"I could die for you, Sara," cried Hetty, as she impulsively obeyed
+the command.
+
+"I mean that you shall live for me," said Sara, smiling through
+her tears. "How silly of me to cry. It must be the room we are in.
+These are the same rooms, dear, that you came to on the night we
+met. Ah, how old I feel!"
+
+"Old? You say that to me? I am ages and ages older than you," cried
+Hetty, the colour coming back to her soft cheeks.
+
+"You are twenty-three."
+
+"And you are twenty-eight."
+
+Sara had a far away look in her eyes. "About your size and figure,"
+said she, and Hetty did not comprehend.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+SOUTHLOOK
+
+
+
+
+Sara Wrandall's house in the country stood on a wooded knoll
+overlooking the Sound. It was rather remotely located, so far as
+neighbours were concerned. Her father, Sebastian Gooch, shrewdly
+foresaw the day when land in this particular section of the suburban
+world would return dollars for the pennies, and wisely bought
+thousands of acres: woodland, meadowland, beachland and hills,
+inserted between the environs of New York City and the rich towns
+up the coast. Years afterward he built a commodious summer home on
+the choicest point that his property afforded, named it Southlook,
+and transformed that particular part of his wilderness into
+a millionaire's paradise, where he could dawdle and putter to his
+heart's content, where he could spend his time and his money with
+a prodigality that came so late in life to him that he made waste
+of both in his haste to live down a rather parsimonious past.
+
+Two miles and a half away, in the heart of a scattered colony of
+purse-proud New Yorkers, was the country home of the Wrandalls, an
+imposing place and older by far than Southlook. It had descended
+from well-worn and time-stained ancestors to Redmond Wrandall,
+and, with others of its kind, looked with no little scorn upon the
+modern, mushroom structures that sprouted from the seeds of trade.
+There was no friendship between the old and the new. Each had
+recourse to a bitter contempt for the other, though consolation
+was small in comparison.
+
+It was in the wooded by-ways of this despised domain that Challis
+Wrandall and Sara, the earthly daughter of Midas, met and loved and
+defied all things supernal, for matches are made in heaven. Their
+marriage did not open the gates of Nineveh. Sebastian Gooch's
+paradise was more completely ostracised than it was before the
+disaster. The Wrandalls spoke of it as a disaster.
+
+Clearly the old merchant was not over-pleased with his daughter's
+choice, a conclusion permanently established by the alteration he
+made in his will a year or two after the marriage. True, he left
+the vast estate to his beloved daughter Sara, but he fastened a
+stout string to it, and with this string her hands were tied. It
+must have occurred to him that Challis was a profligate in more ways
+than one, for he deliberately stipulated in his will that Sara was
+not to sell a foot of the ground until a period of twenty years had
+elapsed. A very polite way, it would seem, of making his investment
+safe in the face of considerable odds.
+
+He lived long enough after the making of his will, I am happy to
+relate, to find that he had made no mistake. As he preceded his
+son-in-law into the Great Beyond by a scant three years, it readily
+may be seen that he wrought too well by far. Seventeen unnecessary
+years of proscription remained, and he had not intended them for
+Sara ALONE. He was not afraid of Sara, but for her.
+
+When the will was read and the condition revealed, Challis Wrandall
+took it in perfect good humour. He had the grace to proclaim
+in the bosom of his father's family that the old gentleman was a
+father-in-law to be proud of. "A canny old boy," he had announced
+with his most engaging smile, quite free from rancour or resentment.
+Challis was well acquainted with himself.
+
+And so the acres were strapped together snugly and firmly, without
+so much as a town-lot protruding.
+
+So impressed was Challis by the farsightedness of his father-in-law
+that he forthwith sat him down and made a will of his own. He would
+not have it said that Sara's father did a whit better by her than
+he would do. He left everything he possessed to his wife, but put
+no string to it, blandly implying that all danger would be past
+when she came into possession. There was a sort of grim humour in
+the way he managed to present himself to view as the real and ready
+source of peril.
+
+Among certain of the Wrandall clan there was serious talk of
+contesting the will. It was a distinct shock to all of them. Some
+one made bold to assert that Challis was not in his right mind at
+the time it was executed. For that matter, a couple of uncles on
+his mother's side were of the broad opinion that he never had been
+mentally adequate.
+
+During a family conference four days after the funeral, Leslie
+launched forth at some length and with considerable heat, expressing
+an opinion that met with small favour at the outset but which had
+its results later on.
+
+"Why," he declaimed, standing before the fireplace with his hands
+in his pockets, "if Sara dreamed that we even so much as contemplate
+making a fuss about Chal's will, she'd up and chuck the whole blooming
+legacy in our faces, and be glad to do it. She's got plenty of her
+own. She doesn't need the little that Challis left her. Then, what
+would we look like, tell me that? What would the world say?  Why,
+it would say that she didn't think our money was clean enough to
+mix with old man Gooch's. She'd throw it in our faces and the whole
+town would snicker."
+
+"Figuratively speaking, young man, figuratively speaking," said
+one of the uncles, a stockholder and director.
+
+"What do you mean by that?"
+
+"That she--ahem! That she couldn't actually THROW it."
+
+"I'm not so literal as you, Uncle George."
+
+"Then why use the word THROW?"
+
+"Of course, Uncle George, I don't mean to say she'd have it reduced
+to gold coin and stand off and take shots at us. You understand
+that, don't you?"
+
+"Leslie," put in his father, "you have a most distressing way
+of--er--putting it. Your Uncle George is not so dense as all that."
+
+"I didn't use the word 'throw' in the first place," said Leslie,
+with a shrug. "I said 'chuck.'"
+
+"I distinctly heard you use the word 'throw,'" said Uncle George,
+very red in the face.
+
+"It was on the second occasion, George," said Mrs. Wrandall, loyal
+to Leslie.
+
+"In either case," said her son, "we'd be made ridiculous. That's
+the long and short of it. Even if she HANDED it to us on a silver
+plate,--figuratively speaking, Uncle George,--we'd be made to look
+like thirty cents."
+
+"Well, I'm damn--" began Uncle George, almost forgetting where he
+was, but remembering in time. He was afraid to utter a word for
+the next ten minutes, and Leslie was spared the interruptions.
+
+It was decided that the will should stand. Later on, the alarming
+prospect of Sara's perfect right to marry again came up to mar the
+peace of mind of all the Wrandalls, and it grew to be horribly real
+without a single move on her part to warrant the fears they were
+encouraging.
+
+Sara and Hetty did not stay long in town. The newspapers announced
+the return of Challis Wrandall's widow and reporters sought her
+out for interviews. The old interest was revived and columns were
+printed about the murder at Burton's Inn, with sharp editorial
+comments on the failure of the police to clear up the mystery.
+
+The woods were green and the earth was redolent of rich spring
+odours; wild flowers peeped shyly from the leaf-strewn soil in the
+shadow of the trees; some, more bold than others, came down to
+the roadway, and from the banks and hedges smiled saucily upon all
+who passed; the hillsides were like spotless carpets, the meadows
+a riot of clover hues. The world was light with the life of the
+new-born year, for who shall say that the year does not begin with
+the birth of spring? May! May, when the earth begins to bear, not
+January when it sets out in sorrow to bury its dead. New Year's
+day it is, when the first tiny flower of spring comes to life and
+smiles oh the face of Mother Earth, and the sun is warm with the
+love of a gentle father.
+
+"I shall ask Leslie down for the week-end," said Sara, the third
+day after their arrival in the country. The house was huge and
+lonely, and time hung rather heavily despite the glorious uplift
+of spring.
+
+Hetty looked up quickly from her book. A look of dismay flickered
+in her eyes for an instant and then gave way to the calmness that
+had come to dwell in their depths of late. Her lips parted in the
+sudden impulse to cry out against the plan, but she checked the
+words. For a moment, her dark, questioning eyes studied the face
+of her benefactress; then, as if nothing had been revealed to her,
+she allowed her gaze to drift pensively out toward the sunset sea.
+
+They were sitting on the broad verandah overlooking the Sound. The
+dusk of evening was beginning to steal over the earth. She laid
+her book aside.
+
+"Will you telephone in to him after dinner, Hetty?" went on Sara,
+after a long period of silence.
+
+Again Hetty started. This time a look of actual pain flashed in
+her eyes.
+
+"Would not a note by post be more certain to find him in the--"
+she began hurriedly.
+
+"I dislike writing notes," said Sara calmly. "Of course, dear, if
+you feel that you'd rather not telephone to him, I can--"
+
+"I dare say I am finicky, Sara," apologised Hetty in quick contrition.
+"Of course, he is your brother. I should remem--"
+
+"My brother-in-law, dear," said Sara, a trifle too literally.
+
+"He will come often to your house," went on Hetty rapidly. "I must
+make the best of it."
+
+"He is your friend, Hetty. He admires you."
+
+"I cannot see him through your eyes, Sara."
+
+"But he IS charming and agreeable, you'll admit," persisted the
+other.
+
+"He is very kind, and he is devoted to you. I should like him for
+that."
+
+"You have no cause for disliking him."
+
+"I do not dislike him. I--I am--Oh, you always have been so
+thoughtful, so considerate, Sara, I can't understand your failing
+to see how hard it is for me to--to--well, to endure his open-hearted
+friendship."
+
+Sara was silent for a moment. "You draw a pretty fine line, Hetty,"
+she said gently.
+
+Hetty flushed. "You mean that there is little to choose between
+wife and brother? That isn't quite fair. You know everything, he
+knows nothing. I wear a mask for him; you have seen into the very
+heart of me. It isn't the same."
+
+Sara came over and stood beside the girl's chair. After a moment of
+indecision, she laid her hand on Hetty's shoulder. The girl looked
+up, the ever-recurring question in her eyes.
+
+"We haven't spoken of--of these things in many months, Hetty."
+
+"Not since Mrs. Wrandall and Vivian came to Nice. I was upset--dreadfuly
+upset then, Sara. I don't know how I managed to get through with
+it."
+
+"But you managed it," pronounced Sara. Her fingers seemed to tighten
+suddenly on the girl's shoulder. "I think we were quite wonderful,
+both of us. It wasn't easy for me."
+
+"Why did we come back to New York, Sara?" burst out Hetty, clasping
+her friend's hand as if suddenly spurred by terror. "We were happy
+over there. And free!"
+
+"Listen, my dear," said Sara, a hard note growing in her voice:
+"this is my home. I do not love it, but I can see no reason for
+abandoning it. That is why we came back to New York."
+
+Hetty pressed her friend's hand to her lips. "Forgive me," she
+cried impulsively. "I shouldn't have complained. It was detestable."
+
+"Besides," went on Sara evenly, "you were quite free to remain on
+the other side. I left it to you."
+
+"You gave me a week to decide," said Hetty, in a hurried manner of
+speaking. "I--I took but twenty-four hours--less than that. Over
+night, you remember. I love you, Sara. I could not leave you. All
+that night I could feel you pulling at my heart-strings, pulling
+me closer and closer, and holding me. You were in your room, I in
+mine, and yet all the time you seemed to be bending over me in the
+darkness, urging me to stay with you and love you and be loved by
+you. It couldn't have been a dream."
+
+"It was not a dream," said Sara, with a queer smile.
+
+"You DO love me?" tensely.
+
+"I DO love you," was the firm answer. Sara was staring out across
+the water, her eyes big and as black as night itself. She seemed
+to be looking far beyond the misty lights that bobbled with nearby
+schooners, far beyond the yellow mass on the opposite shore where
+a town lay cradled in the shadows, far into the fast darkening sky
+that came up like a wall out of the east.
+
+Hetty's fingers tightened in a warmer clasp. Unconsciously perhaps,
+Sara's grip on the girl's shoulder tightened also: unconsciously,
+for her thoughts were far away. The younger woman's pensive gaze
+rested on the peaceful waters below, taking in the slow approach of
+the fog that was soon to envelop the land. Neither spoke for many
+minutes: inscrutable thinkers, each a prey to thoughts that leaped
+backward to the beginning and took up the puzzle at its inception.
+
+"I wonder--" began Hetty, her eyes narrowing with the intensity of
+thought. She did not complete the sentence.
+
+Sara answered the unspoken question. "It will never be different
+from what it is now, unless you make it so."
+
+Hetty started. "How could you have known what I was thinking?" she
+cried in wonder.
+
+"It is what you are always thinking, my dear. You are always asking
+yourself when will I turn against you."
+
+"Sara!"
+
+"Your own intelligence should supply the answer to all the questions
+you are asking of yourself. It is too late for me to turn against
+you." She abruptly removed her hand from Hetty's shoulder and walked
+to the edge of the verandah. For the first time, the English girl
+was conscious of pain. She drew her arm up and cringed. She pulled
+the light scarf about her bare shoulders.
+
+The butler appeared in the doorway.
+
+"The telephone, if you please, Miss Castleton. Mr. Leslie Wrandall
+is calling."
+
+The girl stared. "For me, Watson?"
+
+"Yes, Miss. I forgot to say that he called up this afternoon while
+you were out," very apologetically, with a furtive glance at Mrs.
+Wrandall, who had turned.
+
+"Loss of memory, Watson, is a fatal affliction," she said, with a
+smile.
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Wrandall. I don't see 'ow it 'appened."
+
+"It is not likely to happen again."
+
+"No, madam."
+
+Hetty had risen, visibly agitated.
+
+"What shall I say to him, Sara?" she cried.
+
+"Apparently it is he who has something to say to you," said the
+other, still smiling. "Wait and see what it is. Please don't neglect
+to say that we'd like to have him over Sunday."
+
+"A box of flowers has just come up from the station for you, Miss,"
+said Watson.
+
+Hetty was very white as she passed into the house. Mrs. Wrandall
+resumed her contemplation of the fog-screened Sound.
+
+"Shall I fetch you a wrap, ma'am?" asked Watson, hesitating.
+
+"I am coming in, Watson. Open the box of flowers for Miss Castleton.
+Is there a fire in the library?"
+
+"Yes, Mrs. Wrandall."
+
+"Mr. Leslie will be out on Saturday. Tell Mrs. Conkling."
+
+"The evening train, ma'am?"
+
+"No. The eleven-thirty. He will be here for luncheon."
+
+When Hetty hurried into the library a few minutes later, her
+manner was that of one considerably disturbed by something that
+has transpired almost on the moment. Her cheeks were flushed and
+her eyes were reflectors of a no uncertain distress of mind. Mrs.
+Wrandall was standing before the fireplace, an exquisite figure
+in the slinky black evening gown which she affected in these days.
+Her perfectly modelled neck and shoulders gleamed like pink marble
+in the reflected glow of the burning logs. She wore no jewellery,
+but there was a single white rose in her dark hair, where it had
+been placed by the whimsical Hetty an hour earlier as they left
+the dinner table.
+
+"He is coming out on the eleven-thirty, Sara," said the girl
+nervously, "unless you will send the motor in for him. The body of
+his car is being changed and it's in the shop. He must have been
+jesting when he said he would pay for the petrol--I should have
+said gasoline."
+
+Sara laughed. "You will know him better, my dear," she said. "Leslie
+is very light-hearted."
+
+"He suggested bringing a friend," went on Hetty hurriedly. "A Mr.
+Booth, the portrait painter."
+
+"I met him in Italy. He is charming. You will like HIM, too, Hetty."
+The emphasis did not escape notice.
+
+"It seems that he is spending a fortnight in the village, this Mr.
+Booth, painting spring lambs for rest and recreation, Mr. Leslie
+says."
+
+"Then he is at our very gates," said Sara, looking up suddenly.
+
+"I wonder if he can be the man I saw yesterday at the bridge,"
+mused Hetty. "Is he tall?"
+
+"I really can't say. He's rather vague. It was six or seven years
+ago."
+
+"It was left that Mr. Wrandall is to come out on the eleven-thirty,"
+explained Hetty. "I thought you wouldn't like sending either of
+the motors in."
+
+"And Mr. Booth?"
+
+"We are to send for him after Mr. Wrandall arrives. He is stopping
+at the inn, wherever that may be."
+
+"Poor fellow!" sighed Sara, with a grimace. "I am sure he will like
+us immensely if he has been stopping at the inn."
+
+Hetty stood staring down at the blazing logs for a full minute
+before giving expression to the thought that troubled her.
+
+"Sara," she said, meeting her friend's eyes with a steady light
+in her own, "why did Mr. Wrandall ask for me instead of you? It is
+you he is coming to visit, not me. It is your house. Why should--"
+
+"My dear," said Sara glibly, "I am merely his sister-in-law. It
+wouldn't be neecssary to ask me if he should come. He knows he is
+welcome."
+
+"Then why should he feel called upon to--"
+
+"Some men like to telephone, I suppose," said the other coolly.
+
+"I wonder if you will ever understand how I feel about--about
+certain things, Sara."
+
+"What, for instance?"
+
+"Well, his very evident interest in me," cried the girl hotly. "He
+sends me flowers,--this is the second box this week,--and he is so
+kind, so VERY friendly, Sara, that I can't bear it--I really can't."
+
+Mrs. Wrandall stared at her. "You can't very well send him about
+his business," she said, "unless he becomes more than friendly.
+Now, can you?"
+
+"But it seems so--so horrible, so beastly," groaned the girl.
+
+Sara faced her squarely. "See here, Hetty," she said levelly, "we
+have made our bed, you and I. We must lie in it--together. If Leslie
+Wrandall chooses to fall in love with you, that is his affair, not
+ours. We must face every condition. In plain words, we must play
+the game."
+
+"What could be more appalling than to have him fall in love with
+me?"
+
+"The other way 'round would be more dramatic, I should say."
+
+"Good God, Sara!" cried the girl in horror. "How can you even speak
+of such a thing?"
+
+"After all, why shouldn't--" began Sara, but stopped in the middle
+of her suggestion, with the result that it had its full effect without
+being uttered in so many cold-blooded words. The girl shuddered.
+
+"I wish, Sara, you would let me unburden myself completely to you,"
+she pleaded, seizing her friend's hands. "You have forbidden me--"
+
+Sara jerked her hands away. Her eyes flashed. "I do not want to
+hear it," she cried fiercely. "Never, never! Do you understand?
+It is your secret. I will not share it with you. I should hate you
+if I knew everything. As it is, I love you because you are a woman
+who suffered at the hand of one who made me suffer. There is nothing
+more to say. Don't bring up the subject again. I want to be your
+friend for ever, not your confidante. There is a distinction. You
+may be able to see how very marked it is in our case, Hetty. What
+one does not know, seldom hurts."
+
+"But I want to justify myself--"
+
+"It isn't necessary," cut in the other so peremptorily that the
+girl's eyes spread into a look of anger. Whereupon Sara Wrandall
+threw her arm about her and drew her down beside her on the
+chaise-longue. "I didn't mean to be harsh," she cried. "We must
+not speak of the past, that's all. The future is not likely to hurt
+us, dear. Let us avoid the past."
+
+"The future!" sighed the girl, staring blankly before her.
+
+"To appreciate what it is to be," said the other, "you have but to
+think of what it might have been."
+
+"I know," said Hetty, in a low voice. "And yet I sometimes wonder
+if--"
+
+Sara interrupted. "You are paying me, dear, instead of the law,"
+she said gently. "I am not a harsh creditor, am I?"
+
+"My life belongs to you. I give it cheerfully, even gladly."
+
+"So you have said before. Well, if it belongs to me, you might at
+least permit me to develop it as I would any other possession. I
+take it as an investment. It will probably fluctuate."
+
+"Now you are jesting!"
+
+"Perhaps," said Sara laconically.
+
+The next morning Hetty set forth for her accustomed tramp over the
+roads that wound through the estate. Sara, the American, dawdled
+at home, resenting the chill spring drizzle that did not in the
+least discourage the Englishwoman. The mistress of the house and
+of the girl's destiny stood in the broad French window watching her
+as she strode springily, healthily down the maple lined avenue in
+the direction of the gates. The gardeners doffed their caps to her
+as she passed, and also looked after her with surreptitious glances.
+
+There was a queer smile on Sara's lips that remained long after the
+girl was lost to view beyond the lodge. It was still on her lips
+but gone from her eyes as she paused beside the old English table
+to bury her nose in one of the gorgeous roses that Leslie had sent
+out to Hetty the day before. They were all about the room, dozens
+of them. The girl had insisted on having them downstairs instead of
+in her own little sitting-room, for which they plainly were intended.
+
+A nasty sea turn had brought lowering grey skies and a dreary,
+enveloping mist that never quite assumed the dignity of a drizzle
+and yet blew wet and cold to the very marrow of the bones. Hetty
+was used to such weather. Her English blood warmed to it. As she
+strode briskly across the meadow-land road in the direction of the
+woods that lay ahead, a soft ruddy glow crept up to her cheeks,
+and a sparkle of joy into her eyes. She walked strongly, rapidly.
+Her straight, lithe young figure was a joyous thing to behold.
+High boots, short skirt, a loose jacket and a broad felt hat made
+up her costume. She was graceful, adorable; a young, healthy,
+beautiful creature in whom the blood surged quickly, strongly: the
+type of woman men are wont to classify as "ineffably feminine,"
+though why we should differentiate is no small mystery unless
+there really is such a thing as one woman possessing an adorably
+feminine quality denied to her sisters. Be that as it may, there
+IS a distinction and men pride themselves on knowing it. Hetty was
+alluringly feminine.  Leaving out the matter of morals, whatever
+they are, and coming right up to her as an example of her sex, pure
+and simple if you please, we are bound to say that she was perfect.
+The best thing we can say of Challis Wrandall is that he took the
+same view of her that we should, and fell in love with her. He
+would have married her if he could, there isn't much doubt as to
+that, no matter what she had been before he knew her or what she
+was at the time of his discovery. No more is it to be considered
+unique that his brother should have experienced a similar interest
+in her, knowing even less.
+
+She was the sort of girl one falls in love with and remembers it
+the rest of his life.
+
+Take her now, for instance, as she swings along the highway, fresh,
+trim and graceful, her chin uptilted, her cheeks warm, her eyes
+clear and as blue as sapphires, and we experience the most intense,
+unreasoning desire to be near her, at her side, where hands could
+touch her and the very spell of her creep out over one to make a
+man of him.
+
+The kind of woman one wants to draw close to him because his heart
+is sweet.
+
+She had the blood of a fellow creature on her hands--the blood of
+one of us--and yet we men will overlook one commandment for another.
+It is a matter of choice.
+
+What of her present position in the house and in the heart of the
+one woman who of all those we know is abnormally unfeminine in that
+she subordinates the natural and instinctive animosity of woman
+toward another who robs her of a husband, no matter how unworthy
+or how hateful he may have been to her behind the screen with which
+she hides her sores from the world. The answer is ready: Hetty
+was a slave bound to an extraordinary condition. There had been no
+coercion on the part of Challis Wrandall's wife; no actual restraint
+had been set upon the girl. The situation was a plain one from every
+point of view: Hetty owed her life to Sara, she would have paid
+with her life's blood the debt she owed. It had become perfectly
+natural for her to consider herself a willing, grateful prisoner--a
+prisoner on parole. She would not, could not abuse the parole. She
+loved her gaoler with a love that knew no bounds; she loved the
+walls Sara had thrown up about her; she was content to live and
+die in the luxurious cell, attended by love and kindness and mercy.
+After all, Hetty was even more feminine than we seem able to convey
+in words.
+
+Not in that she lacked in pride or sensitiveness, but that she
+possessed to a self-satisfying degree the ability to subordinate
+both of these to a loyalty that had no bounds. There were fine
+feelings in Hetty. She was honest with herself. She did not look
+beyond her present horizon for brighter skies. They were as bright
+as they could ever be, of that she was sure; her hopes lay within
+the small circumference that Sara Wrandall made possible for her.
+She knew that her peril, her ruin lay in the desire to step outside
+that narrow circle, for out there the world was cold and merciless.
+
+She lived as one charmed by some powerful influence, and was content.
+Not once had the fear entered her soul that Sara would turn against
+her. Her trust in Wrandall's wife was infinite. In her simple,
+devoted heart she could feel no prick of dread so far as the present
+was concerned. The past was dreadful, but it was the past, and its
+loathsomeness was moderated by subtle contrast with the present.
+As for the future, it belonged to Sara Wrandall. It was safe.
+
+If Sara were to decide that she must be given up to the law, all
+well and good. She could meet her fate with a smile for Sara, and
+with love in her heart. She could pay in full if the demand was
+made by the wife of the man she had left in the grim little upstairs
+room at Burton's Inn on that never-to-be-forgotten night in March.
+
+The one great, inexplicable mystery to her was the heart of Sara
+Wrandall. She could not fathom it.
+
+She could understand her own utter subjection to the will of the
+other woman; she could explain it satisfactorily to herself, and
+she could have explained it to the world. Self-preservation in the
+beginning, self-surrender as time went on, self-sacrifice as the
+prerogative.
+
+And so it was, on this grey spring day, that she gazed undaunted at
+the world, with the shadows all about her, and hummed a sprightly
+tune through warm red lips that were kissed by the morning mist.
+
+She came to the bridge by the mill, long since deserted and now
+a thing of ruin and decay. A man in knickerbockers stood leaning
+against the rail, idly gazing down at the trickling stream below.
+The brier pipe that formed the circuit between hand and lips sent
+up soft blue coils to float away on the drizzle.
+
+She passed behind him, with a single furtive, curious glance at
+his handsome, undisturbed profile, and in that glance recognised
+him as the man she had seen the day before.
+
+When she was a dozen rods away, the tall man turned his face from
+the stream and sent after her the long-restrained look. There was
+something akin to cautiousness in that look of his, as if he were
+afraid that she might turn her head suddenly and catch him at it.
+Something began stirring in his heart, the nameless something that
+awakens when least expected. He felt the subtle, sweet femininity
+of her as she passed. It lingered with him as he looked.
+
+She turned the bend in the road a hundred yards away. For many
+minutes he studied the stream below without really seeing it.
+Then he straightened up, knocked the ashes from his pipe, and set
+off slowly in her wake, although he had been walking in quite the
+opposite direction when he came to the bridge,--and on a mission
+of some consequence, too.
+
+There was the chance that he would meet her coming back.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+A FAITHFUL CRAYON-POINT
+
+
+
+
+Leslie Wrandall came out on the eleven-thirty. Hetty was at
+the station with the motor, a sullen resentment in her heart, but
+a welcoming smile on her lips. The sun shone brightly. The Sound
+glared with the white of reflected skies.
+
+"I thought of catching the eight o'clock," he cried enthusiastically,
+as he dropped his bag beside the motor in order to reach over and
+shake hands with her. "That would have gotten me here hours earlier.
+The difficulty was that I didn't think of the eight o'clock until
+I awoke at nine."
+
+"And then you had the additional task of thinking about breakfast,"
+said Hetty, but without a trace of sarcasm in her manner.
+
+"I never think of breakfast," said he amiably. "I merely eat it.
+Of course, it's a task to eat it sometimes, but--well, how are you?
+How do you like it out here?"
+
+He was beside her on the broad seat, his face beaming, his gay
+little moustache pointing upward at the ends like oblique brown
+exclamation points, so expansive was his smile.
+
+"I adore it," she replied, her own smile growing in response to his.
+It was impossible to resist the good nature of him. She could not
+dislike him, even though she dreaded him deep down in her heart. Her
+blood was hot and cold by turns when she was with him, as her mind
+opened and shut to thoughts pleasant and unpleasant with something
+of the regularity of a fish's gills in breathing.
+
+"I knew you would. It's great. You won't care much for our place,
+Miss Castleton. Sara's got the pick of the coast in that place of
+hers. Trust old Sebastian Gooch to get the best of everything. If
+my dad or my grand-dad had possessed a tenth of the brain that that
+old chap had, we'd have our own tabernacle up there on the point,
+instead of sulking at his back gate. That's really where we're
+located, you know. His back gate opens smack in the face of our
+front one. I think he did it with malice aforethought, too. His
+back gate is two miles from the house. It wasn't really necessary
+to go so far for a back gate as all that, was it? To make it worse,
+he put a big sign over it for us to read: 'NO TRESPASSING. THIS
+MEANS YOU.' Sara took it down after the old boy died."
+
+"I suppose by that time the desire to trespass was gone," she said.
+"One doesn't enjoy freedom of that sort."
+
+"I've come to believe that the only free things we really covet
+are passes to the theatre. We never get over that, I'm sure. I'd
+rather have a pass to the theatre than a ten dollar bill any time.
+I say, it was nice of you to come down to meet me. It was more than
+I--er--expected." He almost said "hoped for."
+
+"Sara was too busy about the house to come," she explained quickly.
+"And I had a few errands to do in the village."
+
+"Don't spoil it!"
+
+"I am a horribly literal person," she said.
+
+"Better that than literally horrible," he retorted, rather proud
+of himself for it. "It's wonderful, the friendship between you two
+girls--Sara's not much more than a girl, you see. You're so utterly
+unlike in every way."
+
+"It isn't strange to me," said she simply, but without looking at
+him.
+
+"Of course, I can understand it," he went on. "I've always liked
+Sara. She's bully. Much too good for my brother, God rest his soul.
+He never--"
+
+"Oh, don't utter a thing like that, even in jest," she cried,
+shocked by his glib remark.
+
+He flushed. "You didn't know Challis," he said almost surlily.
+
+She held her breath.
+
+After a moment, the points of his little moustache went up again
+in the habitual barometrical smile. Rather a priggish, supercilious
+smile, she thought, taking a glance at his face.
+
+"I say I can understand it, but mother and Vivian will never be
+able to get it through those tough skulls of theirs. They really
+don't like Sara. Snobs, both of 'em--of the worst kind, too. Why,
+mother has always looked upon Sara as a--e---a sort of brigandess,
+the kind that steals children and holds them for ransom. Of
+course, old man Gooch was as common as rags--utterly impossible,
+you know--but that shouldn't stand against Sara. By the way, her
+father called her Sallie. Her mother was a very charming woman,
+they say. We never knew her. For that matter, we never knew the
+old man until he became prominent as a father-in-law."
+
+The girl was silent. He went on.
+
+"Mother likes you. She doesn't say it in so many words, but I
+can see that she wonders how you can have anything in common with
+Sara.  She prides herself on being able to distinguish blue blood
+at a glance. Silly notion she's got, but--"
+
+"Please don't go on, Mr. Wrandall," cried Hetty in distress.
+
+"I'm not saying she isn't friendly to Sara nowadays," he explained.
+"She's changed a good deal in the last few months. I think she's
+broadening out a bit. Since that visit to Nice, she's been quite
+different. As a matter of fact, she expects to see a good bit of
+Sara and you this summer. It's like a spring thaw, by Jove, it is."
+
+"When does she come to the country?" asked Hetty, bent on breaking
+his train of confidence.
+
+"In three or four weeks. But, as I was saying, the mater has taken
+a great fancy to you. She--"
+
+"It's very nice of her."
+
+"She prides herself, as I said before, but she always makes sure
+by asking questions."
+
+"Questions?"
+
+"Yes. Although she could see through you as if you were plate glass,
+she made it a point to ask Sara all the questions she could think
+of. Over in Nice, you know. Of course Sara told her everything,
+and now she's quite sure she can't be mistaken in people. Really,
+Miss Castleton, she's very amusing sometimes, mother is."
+
+Hetty was looking straight ahead, her face set.
+
+"What did Sara tell her about me?"
+
+"Oh, all that was necessary to prove to mother that she was right.
+As if it really made any difference, you know."
+
+"Please explain."
+
+"What is there to explain? She merely gave your pedigree, as we'd
+say at the dog show, begging your pardon, ma'am. Pedigrees are a
+sort of hobby with the mater. She collects 'em wherever she goes."
+
+He gave his moustache a little twist.
+
+"Then my references are satisfactory, so to speak," said she, with
+a wry little smile.
+
+"Perfectly," said he, with conviction; "if we are to put any
+dependence in the intelligence office."
+
+"Doesn't it stagger Mrs. Wrandall somewhat to reconcile my pedigree
+to the position I occupy in Sara's household--that of companion,
+so to say?" asked Hetty, a slight curl to her lip.
+
+He looked rather blank. "I don't believe she looks at you in just
+that light," said he uncomfortably.
+
+"I fancy you'd better enlighten her."
+
+"Let well enough alone," quoted he glibly.
+
+"But I AM a companion," insisted Hetty, a little spot of red in
+each cheek.
+
+"In a sense, I suppose," said he affably. "Of course, Sara puts
+you down as a friend."
+
+"I think you'd better understand my real position, Mr. Wrandall,"
+said she firmly.
+
+"I do," said he. "You are Sara's friend. That's enough for me.
+The fact that your father was or is a distinguished English army
+officer, and some sort of a cousin to a lord, and that you have
+the entre to fashionable London drawing-rooms, is quite enough for
+mother. That qualifies you to be companion to anybody, she'd say.
+And there's the end to it."
+
+She was looking at him in amazement. Her lips were slightly parted
+and her eyes were wide. For a moment she was puzzled. Then a swift
+smile illumined her face. She understood.
+
+"Of course, in London, it really isn't anything to boast about,
+getting into drawing-rooms," she said, vastly amused.
+
+"Well, it is over here," said he promptly.
+
+"And it isn't always open sesame to be related to a peer."
+
+"I suppose not."
+
+"Nevertheless, I am glad that your mother and Miss Vivian take
+me for what I am. Do you, by any chance, go in for pedigree, Mr.
+Wrandall?"
+
+The shaft of irony sped over his head.
+
+"Only in dogs and horses," he replied promptly. "It means a lot
+when it comes to buying a dog or a horse."
+
+"How do you feel when you've been sold?"
+
+"I take my medicine."
+
+"As a good sportsman should."
+
+"I dare say you think I'm a deuce of a prig for saying the things--"
+
+"On the contrary, I appreciate your candour."
+
+"Don't hesitate to say it. I'm used to being called a prig. My
+brother Challis always considered me one. I think he meant snob.
+But that was because our ideals weren't the same. By the way, you
+ought to like Vivian."
+
+"That depends."
+
+"On Vivian, I suppose?"
+
+"Not precisely. I should say it depends on your sister's attitude
+toward Sara."
+
+"Oh, she likes Sara well enough. Viv's not particularly narrow,
+Miss Castleton."
+
+Hetty bestowed a smile upon him.
+
+"That's comforting, Mr. Wrandall," she said, and he was silent for
+a moment, reflecting.
+
+"Do you know," said he, as if a light had suddenly burst in upon
+him, "you've got more poise than any girl I've ever seen?"
+
+"It's my bringing up, sir," she said mockingly.
+
+"Ancestral habit," he explained, with a polite bow.
+
+"Pedigreeable manners, perhaps."
+
+"I wish the mater could have heard you say that." admiringly.
+
+"Don't you adore the country at this time of the year?"
+
+"When I get to heaven I mean to have a place in the country the
+year round," he said conclusively.
+
+"And if you don't get to heaven?"
+
+"I suppose I'll take a furnished flat somewhere."
+
+Sara was waiting for them at the bottom of the terrace as they
+drove up. He leaped out and kissed her hand.
+
+"Much obliged," he murmured, with a slight twist of his head in
+the direction of Hetty, who was giving orders to the chauffeur.
+
+"You're quite welcome," said Sara, with a smile of understanding.
+"She's lovely, isn't she?"
+
+"Enchanting!" said he, almost too loudly.
+
+Hetty walked up the long ascent ahead of them. She did not have
+to look back to know that they were watching her with unfaltering
+interest. She could feel their gaze.
+
+"Absolutely adorable," he added, enlarging his estimate without
+really being aware that he voiced it.
+
+Sara shot a look at his rapt face, and turned her own away to hide
+the queer little smile that flickered briefly and died away.
+
+Hetty, pleading a sudden headache, declined to accompany them later
+on in the day when they set forth in the car to "pick up" Brandon
+Booth at the inn. They were to bring him over, bag and baggage, to
+stay till Tuesday.
+
+"He will be wild to paint her," declared Leslie when they were
+out of sight around the bend in the road. He had waved his hat to
+Hetty just before the trees shut off their view of her. She was
+standing at the top of the steps beside one of the tall Italian
+vases.
+
+Sara did not respond.
+
+"By the way, Sara, is she the niece or the grand-daughter of old
+Lord Murgatroyd? I'm a bit mixed."
+
+"Her father is Colonel Castleton, of the Indian Army, and he is the
+eldest son of a second son, if you don't find that too difficult
+to solve. The second son aforesaid mentioned, so to speak, was the
+brother of Lord Murgatroyd. That would make Colonel Castleton his
+Lordship's nephew, but utterly without prospects of coming into a
+title, as there are several healthy British obstacles in the way.
+I suppose one would call Hetty a grand-niece."
+
+"Mother wasn't quite certain whether you said niece or grand-daughter,"
+explained Leslie. "Her mother's dead, I take it.  Who was she?"
+
+"Why are you so curious?"
+
+"Isn't it quite natural?"
+
+"Her mother was a Glynn. You have heard of the Glynns, of course?"
+She trusted to his vanity and was rewarded. The question was a sort
+of reproach.
+
+"Certainly," he replied, without hesitation. The mere fact that she
+spoke of them as "THE Glynns" was sufficient. It was proof enough
+that they were people one ought to know, by name at least, if one
+were to profess intelligence regarding the British aristocracy. As
+a matter of fact, he had not heard of the Glynns, but that didn't
+matter. "The Irish Glynns, you mean?" he ventured, taking a chance
+at hitting the mark. He had a faint recollection of hearing her
+say that Hetty was part Irish.
+
+"You have only to look into her eyes to know she's Irish," she said
+diplomatically.
+
+"I've never seen such eyes," he exclaimed.
+
+"She's a darling," said Sara and changed the subject, knowing full
+well that he would come back to it before long. "Is it true that
+Vivian and Mr. Booth are interested in each other?"
+
+"Yes and no," he replied, with a profound sigh. "That is to say,
+she's interested in him and he isn't interested in her--in the way
+I take you to mean it. I suspect it's an easy matter for a girl to
+fall in love with Brandy. He's a corking fine chap."
+
+"Then it would be very nice for Vivian, eh?"
+
+"Oh, quite so--quite so. His forbears came over with Noah, according
+to mother. You know mother, Sara."
+
+"Indeed I do," said she with conviction.
+
+He laughed without restraint. "Mother can rattle off the best
+families in the Bible without missing a name, beginning with the
+Honourable Adam. Of course, she knows the Glynns and the Castletons
+and the Murgatroyds, although I dare say they haven't had much to
+do with the Bible. Come to think of it, she did go to the trouble
+of looking up the Castleton family in the Debrett."
+
+"She did?" exclaimed Sara, with a slight narrowing of the eyes.
+
+"Yes. She established the connection all right enough. She's keen
+for Miss Castleton."
+
+"Oh," said she, relieved. After a moment: "And you?"
+
+"I'm mad about her," he said simply, and then, for some unaccountable
+reason, gave over being loquacious and lapsed into a state of almost
+lugubrious quiet.
+
+She glanced at his face, furtively at first, as if uncertain of
+his mood, then with a prolonged stare that was frankly curious and
+amused.
+
+"Don't lose your head, Leslie," she said softly, almost purringly.
+
+He started. "Oh, I say, Sara, I'm not likely to--"
+
+"Stranger things have happened," she interrupted, with a shake of
+her head. "I can't afford to have you making love to her and getting
+tired of the game, as you always do, dear boy, just as soon as you
+find she's in love with you. She is too dear to be hurt in that
+way.  You mustn't--"
+
+"Good Lord!" he cried; "what a bounder you must take me for! Why,
+if I thought she'd--But nonsense! Let's talk about something else.
+Yourself, for instance."
+
+She leaned back with a smile on her lips, but not in her eyes; and
+drew a long, deep breath. He was hard hit. That was what she wanted
+to know.
+
+They found Booth at the inn. He was sitting on the old-fashioned
+porch, surrounded by bags and boys. As he climbed into the car after
+the bags, the boys grinned and jingled the coins in their pockets
+and ventured, almost in unison, the intelligence that they would
+all be there if he ever came back again. Big and little, they had
+transported his easel and canvases from place to place for three
+weeks or more and his departure was to be regarded as a financial
+calamity.
+
+"I could go to ten circuses this summer if that many of 'em was
+to come to town," said one small citizen as Croesus rode away in
+a cloud of village dust.
+
+"Gee, I wish to goodness he'd come back," was the soulful cry of
+another.
+
+"I don't like them pictures he paints, though, do you?" observed
+another, more critical than avaricious.
+
+"Naw!" was the scornful reply, also in unison.
+
+From which it may he gathered that Mr. Brandon Booth was not
+cherished for art's sake alone, but for its relation to Mammon.
+
+The object of their comments was making himself agreeable to
+the lady who was to be his hostess for the next few days. Leslie,
+perhaps in the desire to be alone with his reflections, sat forward
+with the chauffeur, and paid little or no heed to that unhappy person's
+comments on the vile condition of ALL village thorough-fares, New
+York City included.
+
+"By the way, Sara," he said, suddenly breaking in on the conversation
+that went on at his back, and thereby betraying a secret wish that
+was taking shape in his mind, "what have you done with the little
+red runabout you had a year or two ago?"
+
+She started. "You mean--"
+
+As she hesitated, he went on. "It would come in very handy for
+twosome tours."
+
+"I disposed of it some time ago, Leslie," said she. "I thought
+you'd remember."
+
+"Oh,--er--by Jove!" he stammered in confusion.
+
+He remembered that she had GIVEN it away a day or two after that
+awful night in March, and he recalled her reason for doing so. He
+twisted the tiny end of his moustache with unnecessary vigour--I
+might say fury. It was a most unhappy FAUX PAS.
+
+"Softening of the brain," he muttered, in dismal apology to himself.
+
+"And you painted those wretched little boys instead of the beautiful
+things that Nature provides for us out here, Mr. Booth?" Sara was
+saying to the artist beside her.
+
+"Of course, I managed to get in a bit of Nature, even at that,"
+said he, with a smile. "Boys are pretty close to earth, you know.
+To be perfectly honest, I did it in order to get away from the
+eminently beautiful but unnatural things I'm required to paint at
+home."
+
+"Your subjects wouldn't care for that," she warned him, in some
+amusement.
+
+"Oh, as to that, the comments of the boys on the things I did up
+here weren't altogether flattering to me, so I'm chastened. They
+were more than frank about them. We live to learn."
+
+"Where are the canvases?"
+
+"I immortalised them, one and all, by destroying them by fire and
+sword, only the sword happened to be a penknife. They made a most
+excellent bonfire."
+
+"And so, you've nothing to show for your fortnight?"
+
+"Oh, yes. A most desirable invitation to forget my failures at your
+expense."
+
+"Poof!"
+
+"I don't blame you. It WAS inane. Still, I can't help saying, Mrs.
+Wrandall, that it is a desirable invitation. You won't say 'poof'
+to that, because I won't listen to it."
+
+"On the other hand, it's very good of you to come."
+
+"It seems to me I'm always in debt to Leslie, with slim prospect
+of ever squaring accounts," said he whimsically. "But for him, I
+couldn't have come."
+
+"I suppose we will see you at the Wrandall place this summer."
+
+"I'm coming out to paint Leslie's sister in June, I believe. And
+that reminds me, I came upon an uncommonly pretty girl not far from
+your place the other day--and yesterday, as well--some one I've
+met before, unless I'm vastly mistaken. I wonder if you know your
+neighbours well enough--by sight, at least--to venture a good guess
+as to who I mean."
+
+She appeared thoughtful.
+
+"Oh, there are dozens of pretty girls in the neighbourhood. Can't
+you remember where you met--" She stopped suddenly, a swift look
+of apprehension in her eyes.
+
+He failed to note the look or the broken sentence. He was searching
+in his coat pocket for something. Selecting a letter from the middle
+of a small pocket, he held it out to her.
+
+"I sketched this from memory. She posed all too briefly for me,"
+he said.
+
+On the back of the envelope was a remarkably good likeness of Hetty
+Castleton, done broadly, sketchily with a crayon point, evidently
+drawn with haste while the impression was fresh, but long after
+she had passed out of range of his vision.
+
+"I know her," said Sara quietly. "It's very clever, Mr. Booth."
+
+"There is something hauntingly familiar about it," he went on,
+looking at the sketch with a frown of perplexity. "I've seen her
+somewhere, but for the life of me I can't place her. Perhaps in a
+crowded street, or the theatre, or a railway train--just a fleeting
+glimpse, you know. But in any event, I got a lasting impression.
+Queer things like that happen, don't you think so?"
+
+Mrs. Wrandall leaned forward and spoke to Leslie. As he turned,
+she handed him the envelope, without comment.
+
+"Great Scott!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Mr. Booth is a mind reader," she explained. "He has been reading
+your thoughts, dear boy."
+
+Booth understood, and grinned.
+
+"You don't mean to say--" began the dumfounded Leslie, still staring
+at the sketch. "Upon my word, it's a wonderful likeness, old chap.
+I didn't know you'd ever met her."
+
+"Met her?" cried Booth, an amiable conspirator. "I've never met
+her."
+
+"See here, don't try anything like that on me. How could you do
+this if you've never seen--"
+
+"He IS a mind reader," cried Sara.
+
+"Haven't you been thinking of her steadily for--well, we'll say
+ten minutes?" demanded Booth.
+
+Leslie reddened. "Nonsense!"
+
+"That's a mental telepathy sketch," said the artist, complacently.
+
+"When did you do it?"
+
+"This instant, you might say. See! Here is the crayon point. I
+always carry one around with me for just such--"
+
+"All right," said Leslie blandly, at the same time putting the
+envelope in his own pocket; "we'll let it go at that. If you're so
+clever at mind pictures, you can go to work and make another for
+yourself. I mean to keep this one."
+
+"I say," began Booth, dismayed.
+
+"One's thoughts are his own," said the happy possessor of the
+sketch. He turned his back on them.
+
+Sara was contrite. "He will never give it up," she lamented.
+
+"Is he really hard hit?" asked Booth in surprise.
+
+"I wonder," mused Sara.
+
+"Of course, he's welcome to the sketch, confound him."
+
+"Would you like to paint her?"
+
+"Is this a commission?"
+
+"Hardly. I know her, that's all. She is a very dear friend."
+
+"My heart is set on painting some one else, Mrs. Wrandall."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"When I know you better, I'll tell you who she is."
+
+"Could you make a sketch of this other one from memory?" she asked
+lightly.
+
+"I think so. I'll show you one this evening. I have my trusty crayon
+about me always, as I said before."
+
+Later in the afternoon Booth came face to face with Hetty. He was
+descending the stairs and met her coming up. The sun streamed in
+through the tall windows at the turn in the stairs, shining full
+in her uplifted face as she approached him from below. He could
+not repress the start of amazement. She was carrying a box of roses
+in her arms--red roses whose stems protruded far beyond the end of
+the pasteboard box and reeked of a fragrant dampness.
+
+She gave him a shy, startled smile as she passed. He had stopped
+to make room for her on the turn. Somewhat dazed he continued on
+his way down the steps, to suddenly remember with a twinge of dismay
+that he had not returned her polite smile, but had stared at her
+with most unblinking fervour. In no little shame and embarrassment,
+he sent a swift glance over his shoulder. She was walking close to
+the banister rail on the floor above. As he glanced up their eyes
+met, for she too had turned to peer.
+
+Leslie Wrandall was standing near the foot of the stairs. There
+was an eager, exalted look in his face that slowly gave way to
+well-assumed unconcern as his friend came upon him and grasped his
+arm.
+
+"I say, Leslie, is--is she staying here?" cried Booth, lowering
+his voice to an excited half-whisper.
+
+"Who?" demanded Wrandall vacantly. His mind appeared to be elsewhere.
+
+"Why, that's the girl I saw on the road--Wake up! The one on the
+envelope, you ass. Is she the one you were telling me about in the
+club--the Miss What's-Her-Name who--"
+
+"Oh, you mean Miss Castleton. She's just gone upstairs. You must
+have met her on the steps."
+
+"You know I did. So THAT is Miss Castleton."
+
+"Ripping, isn't she? Didn't I tell you so?"
+
+"She's beautiful. She IS a type, just as you said, old man,--a
+really wonderful type. I saw her yesterday--and the day before."
+
+"I've been wondering how you managed to get a likeness of her on
+the back of an envelope," said Leslie sarcastically. "Must have had
+a good long look at her, my boy. It isn't a snap-shot, you know."
+
+Booth flushed. "It is an impression, that's all. I drew it from
+memory, 'pon my soul."
+
+"She'll be immensely gratified, I'm sure."
+
+"For heaven's sake, Les, don't be such a fool as to show her the
+thing," cried Booth in consternation. "She'd never understand."
+
+"Oh, you needn't worry. She has a fine sense of humour."
+
+Booth didn't know whether to laugh or scowl. He compromised with
+himself by slipping his arm through that of his friend and saying
+heartily:
+
+"I wish you the best of luck, old boy."
+
+"Thanks," said Leslie drily.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+IN WHICH HETTY IS WEIGHED
+
+
+
+
+Booth and Leslie returned to the city on Tuesday. The artist left
+behind him a "memory sketch" of Sara Wrandall, done in the solitude
+of his room long after the rest of the house was wrapped in slumber
+on the first night of his stay at Southlook. It was as sketchily
+drawn as the one he had made of Hetty, and quite as wonderful in
+the matter of faithfulness, but utterly without the subtle something
+that made the other notable. The craftiness of the artist was there,
+but the touch of inspiration was lacking.
+
+Sara was delighted. She was flattered, and made no pretence of
+disguising the fact.
+
+The discussion which followed the exhibition of the sketch at
+luncheon, was very animated. It served to excite Leslie to such a
+degree that he brought forth from his pocket the treasured sketch
+of Hetty, for the purpose of comparison.
+
+The girl who had been genuinely enthusiastic over the picture of
+Sara, and who had not been by way of knowing that the first sketch
+existed, was covered with confusion. Embarrassment and a shy sense
+of gratification were succeeded almost at once by a feeling of keen
+annoyance. The fact that the sketch was in Leslie's possession--and
+evidently a thing to be cherished--took away all the pleasure she
+may have experienced during the first few moments of interest.
+
+Booth caught the angry flash in her eyes, preceding the flush and
+unaccountable pallor that followed almost immediately. He felt
+guilty, and at the same time deeply annoyed with Leslie. Later on
+he tried to explain, but the attempt was a lamentable failure. She
+laughed, not unkindly, in his face.
+
+Leslie had refused to allow the sketch to leave his hand. If she
+could have gained possession of it, even for an instant, the thing
+would have been torn to bits. But it went back into his commodious
+pocket-book, and she was too proud to demand it of him.
+
+She became oddly sensitive to Booth's persistent though inoffensive
+scrutiny as time wore on. More than once she had caught him looking
+at her with a fixedness that betrayed perplexity so plainly that
+she could not fail to recognise an underlying motive. He was vainly
+striving to refresh his memory: that was clear to her. There is no
+mistaking that look in a person's eyes. It cannot be disguised.
+
+He was as deeply perplexed as ever when the time came for him to
+depart with Leslie. He asked her point blank on the last evening
+of his stay if they had ever met before, and she frankly confessed
+to a short memory for faces. It was not unlikely, she said, that
+he had seen her in London or in Paris, but she had not the faintest
+recollection of having seen him before their meeting in the road.
+
+Urged by Sara, she had reluctantly consented to sit to him for a
+portrait during the month of June. He put the request in such terms
+that it did not sound like a proposition. It was not surprising
+that he should want her for a subject; in fact, he put it in such
+a way that she could not but feel that she would be doing him
+a great and enduring favour. She imposed but one condition: the
+picture was never to be exhibited. He met that, with bland magnanimity,
+by proffering the canvas to Mrs. Wrandall, as the subject's "next
+best friend," to "have and to hold so long as she might live," "free
+gratis," "with the artist's compliments," and so on and so forth,
+in airy good humour.
+
+Leslie's aid had been solicited by both Sara and the painter in
+the final effort to overcome the girl's objections. He was rather
+bored about it, but added his voice to the general clamour. With
+half an eye one could see that he did not relish the idea of Hetty
+posing for days to the handsome, agreeable painter. Moreover, it
+meant that Booth, who could afford to gratify his own whims, would
+be obliged to spend a month or more in the neighbourhood, so that
+he could devote himself almost entirely to the consummation of this
+particular undertaking. Moreover, it meant that Vivian's portrait
+was to be temporarily disregarded.
+
+Sara Wrandall was quick to recognise the first symptoms of jealousy
+on the part of her brother-in-law. She had known him for years.
+In that time she had been witness to a dozen of his encounters in
+the lists of love, or what he chose to designate as love, and had
+seen him emerge from each with an unscarred heart and a smiling
+visage.  Never before had he shown the slightest sign of jealousy,
+even when the affair was at its rosiest. The excellent ego which
+mastered him would not permit him to forget himself so far as to
+consider any one else worthy of a feeling of jealousy. But now he
+was flying an alien flag. He was turning against himself and his
+smug convictions. He was at least annoyed, if not jealous. Doubtless
+he was surprised at himself; perhaps he wondered what had come over
+him.
+
+Sara noted these signs of self-abasement (it could be nothing else
+where a Wrandall was concerned), and smiled inwardly. The new idol
+of the Wrandalls was in love, selfishly, insufferably in love as
+things went with all the Wrandalls. They hated selfishly, and so
+they loved. Her husband had been their king. But their king was
+dead, long live the king! Leslie had put on the family crown,--a
+little jauntily, perhaps,--cocked over the eye a bit, so to speak--but
+it was there just the same, annoyingly plain to view.
+
+Sara had tried to like him. He had been her friend, the only one she
+could claim among them all. And yet, beneath his genial allegiance,
+she could detect the air of condescension, the bland attitude of a
+superior who defends another's cause for the reason that it gratifies
+Nero. She experienced a thrill of malicious joy in contemplating
+the fall of Nero. He would bring down his house about his head,
+and there would be no Rome to pay the fiddler.
+
+In the train that Tuesday morning, Booth elected to chaff his
+friend on the progress of his campaign. They were seated opposite
+to each other in the almost empty parlour car.
+
+"Buck up, old chap," he counselled scoffingly. "Don't look so
+disconsolate. You're coming out again at the end of the week."
+
+Leslie had been singularly reticent for a matter of ten miles or
+more after leaving the little station behind. His attention seemed to
+be engaged strictly in the study of objects beyond the car window.
+
+"What's that?" he demanded curtly.
+
+"I say you're lucky enough to be asked again for the end of the--"
+
+"I've got a standing invitation, if that's what you mean. Sara gives
+me a meal ticket, as it were. Nothing extraordinary in my going
+out whenever I like, is there?" His manner was a trifle offish.
+
+Booth laughed. "In spite of your disagreeable remark, I wish you
+good luck, old man."
+
+"What the devil are you driving at, Brandy?"
+
+"I only meant to cheer you up a bit, that's all."
+
+"Thanks!"
+
+There was another interval of silence. Leslie furtively studied
+the face of his friend, who had resumed his dreamy contemplation
+of the roof of the car, his hands clasped behind his head, his legs
+outstretched.
+
+"I say, Brandy," he ventured at last, a trace of embarrassment in
+his manner, "if you've nothing better to do, come down and dine
+with us to-night--en famille. Viv said over the 'phone this morning
+that we are dining alone in state. Come along, old chap, and wake
+us up.  What say?"
+
+A clever mind-reader could have laid bare the motive in this cordial,
+even eager invitation. He was seeking to play Vivian against Hetty
+in the game, which seemed to have taken on a new turn.
+
+Booth was not a mind-reader, although in jest he had posed as one.
+"I'm quite sure I've nothing better to do," he said. "I'd suggest,
+however, that you let the invitation come from some one in authority.
+Your mother, for instance."
+
+"Nonsense," cried the other blithely. "You know you've got a meal
+ticket at our house, good for a million punches. Still I'll have
+Vivian call you up this afternoon."
+
+"If she wants me, I'll come," said Booth in the most matter-of-fact
+way.
+
+Leslie settled down with a secret sigh of relief. He regained his
+usual loquaciousness. The points of his little moustache resumed
+their uprightness.
+
+"How do you like Sara?" he asked. It was a casual question, with
+no real meaning behind it as it was uttered. No sooner had it left
+his lips, however, than a new and rather staggering idea entered
+his mind,--a small thing at first but one that grew with amazing
+swiftness.
+
+"She is splendid," said Booth warmly.
+
+"I thought you'd like her," said Leslie, the idea growing apace:
+It did not occur to him that he might be nurturing disloyalty to
+the interests of his own sister. Things of that sort never bothered
+Leslie. When all was said and done, Vivian had but a slim chance
+at best, so why champion a faint hope? "Why don't you do a portrait
+of her? It would be a wonderful thing, old chap."
+
+He sat up a trifle straighter in his chair.
+
+"She hasn't asked me to, which is the best reason in the world.
+
+"Oh, I can fix that." His lively imagination was full of it now.
+
+"Thanks. Don't bother."
+
+"And there's this to be said for a portrait of Sara," went on Leslie,
+rather too eagerly: "she wouldn't object to having it exhibited in
+the galleries. 'Gad, it would do you a world of good, Brandy."
+
+The other's eyes narrowed. "I suppose I am to infer that Mrs.
+Wrandall courts publicity."
+
+"Not at all," cried the other impatiently. "What I mean is this:
+she's taken a fancy to you, and if her portrait could be the means
+of helping you--"
+
+"Oh, cut that out, Les,--cut it out," growled Booth coldly.
+
+"Well, in any event, if you want to paint her, I can fix it for
+you," announced his companion.
+
+"If you don't mind, old chap, I'll tackle Miss Castleton first,"
+said Booth, dismissing the matter with a yawn.
+
+"I hate the word tackle," said Leslie.
+
+On a bright, sunny afternoon two weeks later, Mrs. Redmond Wrandall
+received her most intimate friend in her boudoir. They were both
+in ample black. Mrs. Rowe-Martin, it seems, had suffered a recent
+bereavement--with an aspect of permanency,--in the loss of a four
+thousand dollar Airdale who had stopped traffic in Fifth Avenue for
+twenty minutes while a sympathetic crowd viewed his gory remains,
+and an unhappy but garrulous taxi-cab driver tried to account for
+his crime. He never even thought of the insanity dodge. The Airdale
+was given a most impressive funeral and was buried in pomp with
+all his medals, ribbons, tags, collars and platinum leashes, but
+minus a few of the uncollected parts of his anatomy. While it had
+been a complete catastrophe, he was by no means a complete carcass.
+
+Be that as it may, his mistress went into mourning, denying herself
+so many diversions that not a few of her friends became alarmed
+and advised her husband to put her in a sanitarium. He was willing,
+poor chap, but not she. She couldn't see the sense of confining
+her grief to the four walls of a sanitarium while the four winds
+of heaven were at her disposal.
+
+The most distressing feature of the great Airdale's taking-off
+lay in the fact that his descendants--he had several sets of
+great-grandchildren--appeared to be uncommonly ordinary brutes,
+without a symptom of good breeding in the lot of them. They were
+so undeviatingly gauche and middle-class, that already the spiteful
+tongues of envy had begun to question his right to the medals and
+ribbons acquired at the bench shows, where Mrs. Rowe-Martin was
+considered one of the immortals. She could have got a blue ribbon
+on a yellow dog any time. Of course, in defence of her exotic Airdale,
+she unblinkingly fell back on the paraphrase: "It's a wise father
+that knows his own son"; or the other way round, just as you please.
+
+Mrs. Rowe-Martin professedly was middle-aged--that is to say, just
+rounding fifty. As a woman is always fifty until she is sixty, just
+as it is nine o'clock until the stroke of ten, there may be some
+question as to which end of the middle-aged period she was rounding,
+but as that isn't material to the development of this story, we
+will give her the benefit of the doubt and merely say that sensibly
+she dressed in black.
+
+She was Mrs. Wrandall's closest friend and confidante. It was Mrs.
+Rowe-Martin who rushed over and gave the smelling salts to Mrs.
+Wrandall when that excellent lady collapsed on hearing that her son
+Challis was going to marry the daughter of old Sebastian Gooch. It
+was she who acted as spokeswoman for the distressed mother and told
+the world--that is to say, THEIR world--that Sara was a scheming,
+designing creature, whose sole aim in life was to get into the smart
+set by the easiest way. It was she who comforted Mrs. Wrandall, after
+the lamentable deed was done, by proclaiming from the house-tops
+that old man Gooch's daughter should never enter society if she
+could prevent it, and went so far as to invite Challis to all of
+her affairs without asking his wife to accompany him, quite as if
+she didn't know that he had a wife. (In speaking of her to Challis,
+she invariably alluded to Sara as Miss Gooch, for something over
+a year after the wedding--and might have gone on for ever had not
+Mrs.  Wrandall, senior, upset everything by giving a reception in
+honour of her daughter-in-law: a bolt from a clear sky, you may
+be sure, that left Mrs. Rowe-Martin stunned and bleeding on the
+battlefield of a mistaken cause.) She never quite got over that
+bit of treachery on the part of her very best friend, although she
+made the best of it by slyly confiding to other stupefied persons
+that Challis's father had taken the bit in his mouth,--God knows
+why!--and that Mrs. Wrandall thought best to humour him for the
+time being, at least. And it was she who came to Mrs. Wrandall in
+her greatest trial and performed the gentlest deeds that one woman
+can do for another when all the world has gone black and hateful
+to her. When you put her to the real test, a woman will always rise
+above herself, no matter how lofty she may have considered herself
+beforehand.
+
+They were drinking tea, with the lemon left out.
+
+"My dear," said Mrs. Rowe-Martin, "I quite agree with you. Leslie
+should be thinking of it."
+
+"It means so much to me, Harriet, his getting the right sort of girl.
+I feel confident that he is interested--very deeply interested in
+Miss Castleton."
+
+"I am so glad you like her."
+
+"She is a dear."
+
+"My sister has met her in London, and at one or two of the country
+places. I was inquiring only yesterday. When I mentioned that she
+is related to Lord Murgatroyd, Frances remembered her quite well.
+She sees a lot of them, you know, during the season," explained
+Mrs.  Rowe-Martin affably.
+
+Mrs. Wrandall concealed her curiosity. In the most casual way she
+remarked:
+
+"I must ask Miss Castleton if she remembers Mrs. Roodleigh."
+
+"Oh, I fancy she won't recall her," her friend made haste to say.
+"Young girls are not likely to remember elderly persons whom they
+meet--Oh, you might say in passing, for that's what it really is,
+you know."
+
+"Still, if Frances knows the Murgatroyds so intimately it isn't
+likely--"
+
+"Did I say she knew them intimately?" protested the other, somewhat
+plaintively. "How like me! So stupid! As a matter of fact, my dear,
+I don't believe Frances knows them at all--except as one knows people
+in a general sort of way. Drawing-rooms, you know, and all that
+sort of thing. Of course, every one knows Lord and Lady Murgatroyd.
+Just as they might know the Duke of--well any one of the great
+dukes, for that matter."
+
+"Or King George," added Mrs. Wrandall softly, without a perceptible
+trace of spite.
+
+"She has met them, of course," said Mrs. Rowe-Martin defensively.
+Somehow, a defence was called for; she couldn't sit there and say
+nothing.
+
+Mrs. Wrandall changed the subject, or at least divided it. She put
+the chaff aside, for that was what Mrs. Rowe-Martin's revelations
+amounted to.
+
+"Leslie is such a steady, unimpressionable boy, you see," she said,
+apropos of nothing.
+
+"And so good looking," added her friend beamingly.
+
+"It wouldn't be like him to make a mistake where his own happiness
+and welfare are concerned," said the subject's mother, speaking
+more truth than she knew, but not more than Mrs. Rowe-Martin knew.
+That lady knew Leslie like a book.
+
+"And he is really devoted to her?"
+
+"I fear so," said her hostess, with a faint sigh. The other sighed
+also.
+
+"My dear, it would be perfectly lovely. Why do you say that?"
+
+"I suppose it's the way all mothers feel. Of course, I want to be
+sure that he is to be very, very happy."
+
+"That is perfectly natural. And he WILL be happy."
+
+If either of them recalled the strenuous efforts Mrs. Wrandall
+had made a couple of years before to get her only daughter married
+off to a degenerate young English duke, the thought was submerged
+in the present sea of sentimentality. It speaks well for Vivian's
+character that she flatly refused to be given in marriage, although
+it appeared to be the fashion at the time. It was the year of the
+coronation.
+
+"Miss Castleton is a most uncommon girl," said Mrs. Wrandall, again
+apropos of nothing that had gone before.
+
+"Most English girls are," agreed her friend, scenting something.
+
+"I mean to say, she is so unlike the girls one sees in society. My
+husband says she's level-headed. Sound as a rivet, he also says.
+Nothing silly or flip about her, he adds when he is particularly
+enthusiastic, and he knows I hate the word 'flip.' Of course he
+means flippant. He is very much taken with her."
+
+Mrs. Rowe-Martin pondered a moment before risking her next remark.
+
+"I can't quite understand her taking up with Sara Gooch in this
+fashion. You know what I mean. Sara is the last person in the world
+you'd think a gently bred person would--" Here she pulled herself
+up with a jerk. "I mean, of course, a gently bred girl. Naturally
+she would appeal to men--and gently bred men, at that. But this
+present intimacy--well, isn't it rather extraordinary?"
+
+Mrs. Wrandall drained her cup, without taking her eyes from the
+face of her friend.
+
+"You must remember, my dear Harriet, that Miss Castleton looks upon
+Sara as a Wrandall, not a Gooch. She was the wife of a Wrandall.
+That covers everything so far as the girl is concerned. I dare say
+she finds Sara amusing, interesting, and we all know she is kindness
+itself. It doesn't surprise me that Miss Castleton admires her, or
+that she loves her. Sara has improved in the last seven or eight
+years." She said this somewhat loftily.
+
+Mrs. Rowe-Martin was most amiable. "She has, indeed, thanks to
+propinquity."
+
+"And her own splendid intelligence," added Mrs. Wrandall.
+
+"Isn't it wonderful how superior they are when it comes to
+intelligence?" cried her friend, almost plaintively. "I've noticed
+it in shop-girls and manicures, over and over again."
+
+"Perhaps you got the effect by contrast," said Mrs. Wrandall,
+pouring a little more tea into her friend's cup. Mrs. Rowe-Martin
+was silent. "Sara deserves a lot of credit. She has made a position
+for herself, a very decided position. We are all quite proud of
+her."
+
+Mrs. Rowe-Martin was on very intimate terms with the Wrandall family
+skeleton. She could afford to be plain spoken.
+
+"It is hard to reconcile your present attitude, my dear, to the
+position you held a few years ago. Heaven knows you weren't proud
+of her then. She was dirt beneath your feet."
+
+"My dear Harriet," said Mrs. Wrandall, without so much as the
+flutter of an eyelid, "I am not saying that I would select her as
+a daughter-in-law, even to-day. Don't misunderstand me."
+
+"I am not underestimating her splendid intelligence," said Mrs.
+Rowe-Martin sharply, and her hostess was so long in working it out
+that it was allowed to pass unresented. "I dare say she will marry
+again," went on the speaker blandly.
+
+Sara's mother-in-law was startled.
+
+"It's rather early to suggest such a thing, isn't it?" she asked
+reproachfully.
+
+"Forgive me," cried Mrs. Rowe-Martin, but she did not attempt to
+unsay the words. She meant them to sink in when she uttered them.
+It was commonly predicted in society that Challis Wrandall's wife
+would further elevate herself by wedding the most dependable nobleman
+who came along, and without any appreciable consideration for the
+feelings of her late husband's family.
+
+"It is quite natural--and right--that she should marry," said Mrs.
+Wrandall, after a moment's deliberation. "She is young and beautiful
+and we sincerely hope she will find some one--But, my dear, aren't
+we drifting? We were speaking of Leslie."
+
+"And Miss Castleton. You are quite satisfied, then? You don't feel
+that he would be making a mistake?"
+
+Mrs. Wrandall touched her handkerchief to the corners of her eyes.
+
+"We could not possibly raise any objection to Miss Castleton, if
+that is what you mean, Harriet," she said.
+
+"I am so glad you feel that way about it, my dear," said her friend,
+touching her handkerchief to her lips. "It would grieve me more
+than I can tell you if I thought you would have to go through with
+another experience like that of--Forgive me! I won't distress you
+by recalling those awful days. Poor, susceptible Challis!"
+
+"No," said Mrs. Wrandall firmly; "Leslie is safe. We feel quite
+sure of him."
+
+The visitor was reflective. "I suppose there is no doubt that Miss
+Castleton will accept him," she mused aloud.
+
+"We are assuming, of course, that Leslie means to ask her," said
+Leslie's mother, with infinite patience.
+
+"I only mentioned it because it is barely possible she may have
+other fish to fry."
+
+"Fish?"
+
+"A figure of speech, my dear."
+
+And it set Mrs. Wrandall to thinking.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+HAWKRIGHT's MODEL
+
+
+
+
+Brandon Booth took a small cottage on the upper road, half way
+between the village and the home of Sara Wrandall, and not far from
+the abhorred "back gate" that swung in the teeth of her connections
+by marriage. He set up his establishment in half a day and, being
+settled, betook himself off to dine with Sara and Hetty. All his
+household cares, like the world, rested snugly on the shoulders of
+an Atlas named Pat, than whom there was no more faithful servitor in
+all the earth, nor in the heavens, for that matter, if we are to
+accept his own estimate of himself. In any event, he was a treasure.
+Booth's house was always in order. Try as he would, he couldn't
+get it out of order. Pat's wife saw to that. She was the cook,
+housekeeper, steward, seamstress, nurse and everything else except
+the laundress, and she would have been that if Booth hadn't put
+his foot down on it. He was rather finicky about his bosoms, it
+seems--and his cuffs, as well.
+
+Pat and Mary had been in the Booth family since the flood, so to
+speak. As far back as Brandon could remember, the quaint Irishman
+had been the same wrinkled, nut-brown, merry-eyed comedian that he
+was to-day, and Mary the same serene, blarneying wife of the man.
+They were not a day older than they were in the beginning. He
+used to wonder if Methuselah knew them. When he set up bachelor
+quarters for himself in New York, his mother bestowed these priceless
+domestic treasures upon him. They journeyed up from Philadelphia
+and complacently took charge of his destinies; no matter which
+way they led or how diversified they may have been in conception,
+Brandon's destinies always came safely around the circle to the
+starting point with Pat and Mary atop of them, as chipper as you
+please and none the worse for erosion.
+
+They stoutly maintained that one never gets too old to learn, a
+conclusion that Brandon sometimes resented.
+
+He had been obliged to discharge three chauffeurs because Pat did
+not get on well with them, and he had found it quite impossible
+to keep a dog for the simple reason that Mary insisted on keeping
+a cat--a most unamiable, belligerent cat at that. He would have
+made home a hell for any well-connected dog.
+
+As he swung jauntily down the tree-lined road that led to Sara's
+portals, Booth was full of the joy of living. Dusk was falling.
+A soft bronze glowed in the western sky. Over the earth lay the
+tranquil purple of spent refulgence, the after-glow of a red day,
+for the sun had shone hot since early morn through a queer, smoky
+screen of haze. There was a deep stillness over everything. Indolent
+Nature slept in the shadows, as if at rest after the weary day,
+with scarcely a leaf stirring. And yet there was a subtle coolness
+in the air, the feel of a storm that was yet unborn--the imperceptible
+shudder of a tempest that was drawing its first breath.
+
+Before the night was half gone, the storm would be upon them,
+to revel for a while and then pass on, leaving behind it the dank
+smell of a grateful earth.
+
+But Booth had no thought for the thing that was afar off. He was
+thinking of the quarter-of-an-hour that came next in the wheel of
+time, whose minutes were to check off the results of a fortnight's
+anticipation. He had not seen either of the ladies of Southlook
+in the past two weeks, but he had been under the spell of them so
+sharply that they were seldom out of his thoughts.
+
+Sara was at the bottom of the terrace, moving among the flower
+beds in the formal garden. He distinguished her from a distance: a
+slender, graceful figure in black. A black scarf edged with maribou
+covered her shoulders, the line of a white neck separating it from
+the raven hue of her hair. He paused at the lower gate to look.
+Then his gaze was drawn to the gleaming white figure at the top of
+the terrace, outlined distinctly against the blue-black sky that
+hung over the Sound. Hetty stood there, straight and motionless,
+looking out over the water. So still was the evening wind that not
+a flutter of her soft gown was noticeable. She was like a statue.
+
+At the sound of his footsteps on the gravel, Sara looked up and
+instantly smiled her welcome. When Sara smiled the heart of man
+responded, long in advance of his lips. Hers was the inviting,
+mysterious smile of the Orient, with the eyes half shaded by
+drooping, languorous lids: dusky, shadowy eyes that looked at you
+as through a veil, and yet were as clear as crystal once you lost
+the illusion.
+
+"It is so nice to see you again," she said, giving him her hand.
+
+"'My heart's in the highlands,'" he quoted, waving a vague tribute
+to the heavens. "And it's nice of you to see me," he added gracefully.
+Then he pointed up the terrace. "Isn't she a picture?  'Gad, it's
+lovely--the whole effect. That picture against the sky--"
+
+He stopped short, and the sentence was never finished, although
+she waited for him to complete it before remarking:
+
+"Her heart is not in the highlands."
+
+"You mean--something's gone wrong--"
+
+"Oh, no," she said, still smiling; "nothing like that. Her heart
+is in the lowlands. You would consider Washington Square to be in
+the lowlands, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Oh, I see," he said slowly. "You mean she's thinking of Leslie."
+
+"Who knows? It was a venture on my part, that's all. She may be
+thinking of you, Mr. Booth."
+
+"Or some chap in old England, that's more like it," he retorted.
+"She can't be thinking of me, you know. No one ever thinks of me
+when I'm out of view. Out of sight, out of mind. No; she's thinking
+of something a long way off--or some one, if you choose to have it
+that way."
+
+"In that case, it isn't good for her to be thinking of things so
+remote. Shall we shout 'halloa the house'?"
+
+He shot a glance at her and responded gallantly: "If she isn't
+thinking of us, why should we be thinking of her? Is it too near the
+dinner hour for you to let me sit here and rest before attempting
+to climb all those steps? And will you sit beside me, as the good
+Omar might have said?" He was fanning himself with his straw hat.
+
+She searched his face for a second, a smiling but inscrutable
+expression in her eyes, and then sat down on the rustic bench at
+the foot of the terrace.
+
+"Why didn't you let me send the motor for you?" she asked, as he
+took his place beside her.
+
+"I mean to have an appetite in the country," he said, taking a
+deep, full breath. "Motors don't aid the appetite. Aeroplanes are
+better.  I had a flight with a friend up in Westchester last week.
+I was very hungry when I came down."
+
+[Illustration: Hetty stood there, straight and motionless, looking
+out over the water]
+
+"We'll all be flying before we really know it," said she. "Hetty
+tried it in France this spring. Have you seen Leslie this week?"
+
+"I've been in Philadelphia for a few days. Is he coming out on
+Friday?"
+
+"Oh, yes. He comes so often nowadays that we call him a commuter."
+
+"Attractive spot, this," said he, with a significant glance up the
+terrace.
+
+"So it would appear."
+
+"He's really keen about her?"
+
+She did not reply, but her smile meant more than words.
+
+"I am eager to get at the portrait," said he, after a moment.
+
+"Leslie tells me that you want to do me also," said she carelessly.
+
+He flushed. "Confound him! I suppose it annoys you, Mrs. Wrandall.
+He shouldn't carry tales."
+
+"But do you?"
+
+"I should say I do," he cried warmly. "For my own pleasure and
+satisfaction, you understand. There's nothing I'd like better."
+
+"We'll see how successfully you flatter Hetty," said she. "If it
+is possible to make her prettier than she really is, you may paint
+me.  I shall be the first to fall at your feet and implore you to
+make me beautiful."
+
+His eyes gleamed. "If I fail in that," said he warmly, "it will be
+because I am without integrity."
+
+Again she smiled upon him with half-closed, shadowy eyes, and shook
+her head. Then she arose.
+
+"Let us go in. Hetty is eager to see you again."
+
+They started up the terrace. His face clouded.
+
+"I have had a feeling all along that she'd rather not have this
+portrait painted, Mrs. Wrandall. A queer sort of feeling that she
+doesn't just like the idea of being put on canvas."
+
+"Nonsense," she said, without looking at him.
+
+"Of course, I could understand her not caring to give up the time
+to it. It's a nuisance, I know. But it isn't that sort of feeling
+I have about her attitude. There's something else. Doesn't she like
+me?"
+
+"Of course she does," she exclaimed. "How ridiculous. She will love
+it, once the picture is under way. It is the beginning of it that
+disturbs her. Isn't that always the way?"
+
+"I am afraid you don't know women," said he banteringly.
+
+"By the way, have you been able to recall where you first saw her,
+or is your memory still a blank?" she asked suddenly.
+
+"I can't think where it was or when," said he, "but I am absolutely
+positive I've seen her before. Her face is not the kind one forgets,
+you know."
+
+"It may come to you unexpectedly."
+
+"It's maddening, not to be able to remember."
+
+The dusk of night hid the look of relief that came into her eyes.
+
+Hetty met them at the top of the steps. The electric porch lights
+had just been turned on by the butler. The girl stood in the path
+of the light. Booth was never to forget the loveliness of her in
+that moment. He carried the image with him on the long walk home
+through the black night. (He declined Sara's offer to send him
+over in the car for the very reason that he wanted the half-hour of
+solitude in which to concentrate all the impressions she had made
+on his fancy.)
+
+The three of them stood there for a few minutes, awaiting the
+butler's announcement. Sara's arm was about Hetty's shoulders. He
+was so taken up with the picture they presented that he scarcely
+heard their light chatter. They were types of loveliness so full of
+contrast that he marvelled at the power of Nature to create women
+in the same mould and yet to model so differently.
+
+They were as near alike in height, figure and carriage as two
+women could be, and yet there was a subtle distinction that left
+him conscious of the fact that two vastly different strains of
+blood ran through their veins. Apart, he would not have perceived
+this marked difference in them. Hetty represented the violet, Sara
+the pansy.  The distinction may be subtile. However, it was the
+estimate he formed in that moment of comparison.
+
+The English girl's soft white gown was cut low in the neck, her
+shapely arms were bare. Sara's black covered her arms and shoulders,
+even to the slender throat. The hair of both was black and rich
+and alive with the gloss of health. The eyes of one were blue and
+velvety, even in the glare of light that fell from above; those of
+the other were black, Oriental, mysterious.
+
+As they entered the vestibule, a servant came up with the word that
+Miss Castleton was wanted at the telephone, "long distance from
+New York."
+
+The girl stopped in her tracks. Booth looked at her in mild surprise,
+a condition which gave way an instant later to perplexity.  The
+look of annoyance in her eyes could not be disguised or mistaken.
+
+"Ask him to call me up later, Watson," she said quietly.
+
+"This is the third time he has called, Miss Castleton," said the
+man. "You were dressing, if you please, ma'am, the first time--"
+
+"I will come," she interrupted sharply, with a curious glance at
+Sara, who for some reason avoided meeting Booth's gaze.
+
+"Tell him we shall expect him on Friday," said Mrs. Wrandall.
+
+"By George!" thought Booth, as she left them. "I wonder if it can
+be Leslie. If it IS--well, he wouldn't be flattered if he could
+have seen the look in her eyes."
+
+Later on, he had no trouble in gathering that it WAS Leslie Wrandall
+who called, but he was very much in the dark as to the meaning of
+that expressive look. He only knew that she was in the telephone
+room for ten minutes or longer, and that all trace of emotion was
+gone from her face when she rejoined them with a brief apology for
+keeping them waiting.
+
+He left at ten-thirty, saying good-night to them on the terrace.
+Sara walked to the steps with him.
+
+"Don't you think her voice is lovely?" she asked. Hetty had sung
+for them.
+
+"I dare say," he responded absently. "Give you my word, though, I
+wasn't thinking of her voice. SHE is lovely."
+
+He walked home as if in a dream. The spell was on him.
+
+Far in the night, he started up from the easy chair in which he
+had been smoking and dreaming and racking his brain by turns.
+
+"By Jove!" he exclaimed aloud. "I remember! I've got it! And
+to-morrow I'll prove it."
+
+Then he went to bed, with the storm from the sea pounding about
+the house, and slept serenely until Pat and Mary wondered whether
+he meant to get up at all.
+
+"Pat," said he at breakfast, "I want you to go to the city this
+morning and fetch out all of the STUDIOS you can find about the
+place. The old ones are in that Italian hall seat and the late ones
+are in the studio. Bring all of them."
+
+"There's a divvil of a bunch of thim," said Pat ruefully.
+
+He was not to begin sketching the figure until the following day.
+After luncheon, however, he had an appointment to inspect Hetty's
+wardrobe, ostensibly for the purpose of picking out a gown for the
+picture. As a matter of fact, he had decided the point to his own
+satisfaction the night before. She should pose for him in the dainty
+white dress she had worn on that occasion.
+
+While they were going over the extensive assortment of gowns,
+with Sara as the judge from whom there seemed to be no appeal, he
+casually inquired if she had ever posed before.
+
+Two ladies' maids were engaged in flinging the costly garments
+about as if they represented so much rubbish. The floor was littered
+with silks and satins and laces. He was accustomed to this ruthless
+handling of exquisite fabrics by eager ladies of wealth: it was
+one way these pampered women had of showing their contempt for
+possession. Gowns came from everywhere by the armload; from closets,
+presses and trunks, ultimately landing in a conglomerate heap on
+the floor when cast aside as undesirable by the artist, the model
+and the censor.
+
+He watched her closely as he put the question. She was holding up
+a beautiful point lace creation for his inspection, and there was
+a pleading smile on her lips. It must have been her favourite gown.
+The smile faded away. The hand that dangled the garment before
+his eyes suddenly became motionless, as if paralysed. In the next
+instant, she recovered herself, and, giving the lace a quick fillip
+that sent its odour of sachet leaping to his nostrils, responded
+with perfect composure.
+
+"Isn't there a distinction between posing for an artist, and sitting
+for one's portrait?" she asked.
+
+He was silent. The fact that he did not respond seemed to disturb
+her after a moment or two. She made the common mistake of pressing
+the question.
+
+"Why do you ask?" was her inquiry. When it was too late she wished
+she had not uttered the words. He had caught the somewhat anxious
+note in her voice.
+
+"We always ask that, I think," he said. "It's a habit."
+
+"Oh," she said doubtfully.
+
+"And by the way, you haven't answered."
+
+She was busy with the gown for a time. At last she looked him full
+in the face.
+
+"That's true," she agreed; "I haven't answered, have I? No, Mr.
+Booth, I've never posed for a portrait. It is a new experience for
+me. You will have to contend with a great deal of stupidity on my
+part. But I shall try to be plastic."
+
+He uttered a polite protest, and pursued the question no farther.
+Her answer had been so palpably evasive that it struck him as bald,
+even awkward.
+
+Pat, disgruntled and irritable to the point of profanity,--he was
+a privileged character and might have sworn if he felt like it
+without receiving notice,--came shambling up the cottage walk late
+that afternoon, bearing two large, shoulder-sagging bundles. He
+had walked from the station,--a matter of half-a-mile,--and it was
+hot.  His employer sat in the shady porch, viewing his approach.
+
+"Have you got them?" he inquired.
+
+Pat dropped the bundles on the lower step and stared, speechless.
+Then he mopped his drenched, turkey-red face with his handkerchief.
+He got his breath after a spell of contemptuous snorting.
+
+"Have I got what?" he demanded sarcastically. "The measles?"
+
+"The STUDIOS, Patrick," said Booth reprovingly.
+
+"No, sor," said Pat; "I came absolutely empty-handed, as you may
+have seen, sor."
+
+"I knew I couldn't be mistaken. I was confident I saw nothing in
+your hands."
+
+"I kept thim closed, sor, so's you couldn't see what was r'ally
+in thim. I've been wid you long enough, sor, to know how you hate
+the sight av blisthers."
+
+"They must be quite a novelty to you, Patrick. I should think you'd
+be proud of them."
+
+"Where am I to put them, sor?"
+
+"The blisters?"
+
+"Yis, sor."
+
+"On this table, if you please. And you might cut the strings while
+you're about it."
+
+Pat put the bundles on the wicker table and cut the heavy twine
+in dignified silence. Carefully rolling it up in a neat ball, he
+stuck it in his pocket. Then he faced his employer.
+
+"Is there annyt'ing else, sor?"
+
+"I think not, at present."
+
+"Not aven a cup av tea, sor?"
+
+"No, thanks."
+
+"Thin, if you will excuse me, I'll go about me work. I've had a
+pleasant day off, sor, thanks to ye. It's hard to go back to work
+afther such a splindid spell of idleness. Heigho! I'd like to be
+a gintleman av leisure all the time, that I would, sor. The touch
+I've had av it to-day may be the sp'iling av me. If you're a smart
+man, Mr. Brandon Booth, ye'll not be letting me off for a holiday
+like this again very soon."
+
+Booth laughed outright. Pat's face wrinkled into a slow, forgiving
+grin.
+
+"I love you, Pat," cried the painter, "in spite of the way you bark
+at me."
+
+"It's a poor dog that don't know his own master," said Pat
+magnanimously. "Whin you're t'rough wid the magazines, I'll carry
+thim down to the cellar, sor."
+
+"What's the matter with the attic?"
+
+"Nothing at all, at all. I was only finking they'd be handier
+for you to get at in the cellar. And it's a dom sight cooler down
+there."
+
+With that he departed, blinking slyly.
+
+The young man drew a chair up to the table and began the task
+of working out the puzzle that now seemed more or less near to
+solution. He had a pretty clear idea as to the period he wanted to
+investigate. To the best of his recollection, the Studios published
+three or four years back held the key. He selected the numbers and
+began to run through them. One after another they were cast aside
+without result. In any other cause he would have tired of the quest,
+but in this his curiosity was so commanding that he stuck to the
+task without complaint. He was positive in his mind that what he
+desired was to be found inside the covers of one of these magazines.
+He was searching for a vaguely remembered article on one of the
+iesser-known English painters who had given great promise at the
+time it was published but who dropped completely out of notice soon
+afterward because of a mistaken notion of his own importance. If
+Booth's memory served him right, the fellow came a cropper, so to
+speak, in trying to ride rough shod over public opinion, and went
+to the dogs. He had been painting sensibly up to that time, but
+suddenly went in for the most violent style of impressionism. That
+was the end of him.
+
+There had been reproductions of his principal canvases, with sketches
+and studies in charcoal. One of these pictures had made a lasting
+impression on Booth: the figure of a young woman in deep meditation
+standing in the shadow of a window casement from which she looked
+out upon the world apparently without a thought of it. A slender young
+woman in vague reds and browns, whose shadowy face was positively
+illuminated by a pair of wonderful blue eyes.
+
+He came upon it at last. For a long time he sat there gazing at
+the face of Hetty Castleton, a look of half-wonder, half-triumph
+in his eyes. There could be no doubt as to the identity of the
+subject. The face was hers, the lovely eyes were hers: the velvety,
+dreamy, soulful eyes that had haunted him for years, as he now
+believed. In no sense could the picture be described as a portrait.
+It was a study, deliberately arranged and deliberately posed for in
+the artist's studio. He was mystified. Why should she, the daughter
+of Colonel Castleton, the grand-niece of an earl, be engaged in
+posing for what evidently was meant to be a commercial product of
+this whilom artist?
+
+He remembered the painting itself as he had seen it in the
+exhibition at the National Academy when this fellow--Hawkright was
+his name--was at the top of his promise as a painter. He remembered
+going back to it again and again and marvelling at the subtle,
+delicate beauty of the thing. Now he knew that it was the face,
+and not the art of the painter that had affected him so enduringly.
+The fellow had shown other paintings, but he recalled that none
+of them struck him save this one. After all, it WAS the face that
+made the picture memorable.
+
+Turning from this skilfully coloured full page reproduction,
+he glanced at first casually over the dozen or more sketches and
+studies on the succeeding pages. Many of them represented studies
+of women's heads and figures, with little or no attempt to obtain
+a likeness. Some were half-draped, showing in a sketchy way the
+long graceful lines of the half-nude figure, of bare shoulders and
+breasts, of gauze-like fabrics that but illy concealed impressive
+charms. Suddenly his eyes narrowed and a sharp exclamation fell
+from his lips. He bent closer to the pages and studied the drawings
+with redoubled interest.
+
+Then he whistled softly to himself, a token of simple amazement.
+The head of each of these remarkable studies suggested in outline
+the head and features of Hetty Castleton! She had been Hawkright's
+model!
+
+The next morning at ten he was at Southlook, arranging his easel
+and canvas in the north end of the long living-room, where the light
+from the tall French windows afforded abundant and well-distributed
+light for the enterprise in hand. Hetty had not yet appeared. Sara,
+attired in a loose morning gown, was watching him from a comfortable
+chair in the corner, one shapely bare arm behind her head; the
+free hand was gracefully employed in managing a cigarette. He was
+conscious of the fact that her lazy, half-alert gaze was upon him
+all the time, although she pretended to be entirely indifferent to
+the preparations. Dimly he could see the faint smile of interest
+on her lips.
+
+"By Jove," he exclaimed with sudden fervour, "I wish I could get
+you just as you are, Mrs. Wrandall. Do you mind if I sketch you
+in--just to preserve the pose for the future--"
+
+"Never!" she cried and forthwith changed her position. She laughed
+at the look of disappointment in his face.
+
+"You've no idea how--er--attractive--" he began confusedly, but
+broke off with a laugh. "I beg your pardon. I couldn't help it."
+
+"The potent appeal of a cigarette," she surmised shrewdly.
+
+"Not at all," he said promptly. He was a bit red in the face as he
+turned to busy himself with the tubes and brushes. When he glanced
+at her again, he found that she had resumed her former attitude.
+
+Hetty came in at that moment, calm, serene and lovelier than ever
+in the clear morning light. She was wearing the simple white gown
+he had chosen the day before. If she was conscious of the rather
+intense scrutiny he bestowed upon her as she gave him her hand in
+greeting, she did not appear to be in the least disturbed.
+
+"You may go away, Sara," she said firmly. "I shall be too dreadfully
+self-conscious if you are looking on."
+
+Booth looked at her rather sharply. Sara indolently abandoned her
+comfortable chair and left them alone in the room.
+
+"Shall we try a few effects, Miss Castleton?" he inquired, after
+a period of constraint that had its effect on both of them.
+
+"I am in your hands," she said simply.
+
+He made suggestions. She fell into the positions so easily, so
+naturally, so effectively, that he put aside all previous doubts
+and blurted out:
+
+"You have posed before, Miss Castleton."
+
+She smiled frankly. "But not for a really truly portrait," she
+said.  "Such as this is to be."
+
+He hesitated an instant. "I think I recall a canvas by Maurice
+Hawkright," he said, and at once experienced a curious sense of
+perturbation. It was not unlike fear.
+
+Instead of betraying the confusion or surprise he expected, Miss
+Castleton merely raised her eyebrows inquiringly.
+
+"What has that to do with me, Mr. Booth?" she asked.
+
+He laughed awkwardly.
+
+"Don't you know his work?" he inquired, with a slight twist of his
+lip.
+
+"I may have seen his pictures," she replied, puckering her brow as
+if in reflection.
+
+He stared for a second.
+
+"Why do you look at me in that way, Mr. Booth?" she cried, with a
+nervous little laugh.
+
+"Do you mean to say you--er--that is, you don't know Hawkright's
+work?"
+
+"Is that so very strange?" she inquired plaintively.
+
+"By Jove," he muttered, quite taken aback. "I don't understand.
+I'm flabbergasted."
+
+"Please explain yourself," she said stiffly.
+
+"You must have a double somewhere, Miss Castleton," said he, still
+staring. "Some one who looks enough like you to be--"
+
+"Oh," she cried, with a bright smile of understanding. "I see! Yes,
+I have a double--a really remarkable double. Have you never seen
+Hetty Glynn, the actress?"
+
+"I am sure I have not," he said, taking a long breath. It was one
+of relief, he remembered afterward. "If she is so like you as all
+that, I COULDN'T have forgotten her."
+
+"She is quite unknown, I believe," she went on, ignoring the implied
+compliment. "A chorus-girl, or something like that. They say she
+is wonderfully like me--or was, at least, a few years ago."
+
+He was silent for a few minutes, studying her face and figure with
+the critical eye of the artist. As he turned to the canvas with his
+crayon point, he remarked, with an unmistakable note of relief in
+his voice:
+
+"That explains everything. It must have been Hetty Glynn who posed
+for all those things of Hawkright's."
+
+"I dare say," said she indifferently.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+THE GHOST AT THE FEAST
+
+
+
+
+The next day he appeared bright and early with his copy of the
+Studio.
+
+"There," he said, holding it before her eyes. She took it from his
+hands and stared long and earnestly at the reproduction.
+
+"Do you think it like me?" she inquired innocently.
+
+"Amazingly like you," he declared with conviction.
+
+She turned the page. He was watching her closely. As she looked upon
+the sketches of the half-nude figure a warm blush covered her face
+and neck. She did not speak for a full minute, and he was positive
+that her fingers tightened their grasp on the magazine.
+
+"The same model," he said quietly.
+
+She nodded her head.
+
+"Hetty Glynn, I am sure," she said, after a pause, without lifting
+her eyes. Her voice was low, the words not very distinct.
+
+He drew a long breath, and she looked up quickly. What he saw in
+her honest blue eyes convicted her.
+
+Sara Wrandall came into the room at that moment. Hetty hastily
+closed the magazine and held it behind her. Booth had intended to
+show the reproduction to Mrs. Wrandall, but the girl's behaviour
+caused him to change his mind. He felt that he possessed a secret
+that could not be shared with Sara Wrandall, then or afterward.
+Moreover, he decided that he would not refer to the Hawkright
+picture again unless the girl herself brought up the subject. All
+this flashed through his mind as he stepped forward to greet the
+newcomer.
+
+When he turned again to Hetty, the magazine had disappeared. He
+never saw it afterward, and, what is more to the point, he never
+asked her to produce it.
+
+There was a marked change in Hetty's manner after that when they
+were left alone together. She seemed inert, distrait and at times
+almost unfriendly. There were occasions, however, when she went to
+the other extreme in trying to be at ease with him. These transitions
+were singularly marked. He could not fail to notice them. As for
+himself, he was uncomfortable, ill-at-ease. An obvious barrier had
+sprung up between them.
+
+When Sara was present, the girl seemed to be her old self, but at
+no other time. Frequently during the sittings of the next few days
+he caught her looking at him without apparently being aware of the
+intensity of her gaze. He had the feeling that she was trying to
+read his thoughts, but what impressed him more than anything else
+was the increasing look of wonder and appeal that lurked in her
+deep, questioning eyes. It seemed almost as if she were pleading
+for mercy with them.
+
+He thought hard over the situation. The obvious solution came to
+him: she had been at one time reduced to the necessity of posing,
+a circumstance evidently known to but few and least of all to Sara
+Wrandall, from whom the girl plainly meant to keep the truth. This
+conviction distressed him, but not in the way that might have been
+expected. He had no scruples about sharing the secret or in keeping
+it inviolate; his real distress lay in the fear that Mrs. Wrandall
+might hear of all this from other and perhaps ungentle sources. As
+for her posing for Hawkright, it meant little or nothing to him. In
+his own experience, two girls of gentle birth had served as models
+for pictures of his own making, and he fully appreciated the exigencies
+that had driven them to it. One had posed in the "altogether." She
+was a girl of absolutely irreproachable character, who afterwards
+married a chap he knew very well, and who was fully aware of
+that short phase in her life. That feature of the situation meant
+nothing to him. He was in no doubt concerning Hetty. She was what
+she appeared to be: a gentlewoman.
+
+He began to experience a queer sense of pity for her. Her eyes
+haunted him when they were separated; they dogged him when they
+were together. More than once he was moved to rush over and take
+her in his arms, and implore her to tell him all, to trust him with
+everything. At such times the thought of holding the slim, warm,
+ineffably feminine body in his arms was most distracting. He rather
+feared for himself. If such a thing were to happen,--and it might
+happen if the impulse seized him at the psychological moment of
+least resistance,--the result in all probability would be disastrous.
+She would turn on him like an injured animal and rend him! Alas,
+for that leveller called reason! It spoils many good intentions.
+
+He admitted to himself that he was under the spell of her. It was
+not love, he was able to contend; but it was a mysterious appeal
+to something within him that had never revealed itself before. He
+couldn't quite explain what it was.
+
+In his solitary hours at the cottage on the upper road, he was wont
+to take his friend Leslie Wrandall into consideration. As a friend,
+was it not his duty to go to him with his sordid little tale? Was
+it right to let Wrandall go on with his wooing when there existed
+that which might make all the difference in the world to him? He
+invariably brought these deliberations to a close by relaxing into
+a grim smile of amusement, as much as to say: "Serve him right,
+anyway. Trust him to sift her antecedents thoroughly. He's already
+done it, and he is quite satisfied with the result. Serve them all
+right, for that matter."
+
+But then there was Hetty Glynn. What of her? Hetty Glynn, real or
+mythical, was a disturbing factor in his deductions. If there was
+a real Hetty Glynn and she was Hetty Castleton's double, what then?
+
+On the fifth day of a series of rather prolonged and tedious
+sittings, he was obliged to confine his work to an hour and a half
+in the forenoon. Mrs. Wrandall was having a few friends in for
+auction-bridge immediately after luncheon. She asked him to stay
+over and take a hand, but he declined. He did not play bridge.
+
+Leslie was coming out on an evening train. Booth, in commenting
+on this, again remarked a sharp change in Hetty's manner. They had
+been conversing somewhat buoyantly up to the moment he mentioned
+Leslie's impending visit. In a flash her manner changed. A quick
+but unmistakable frown succeeded her smiles, and for some reason
+she suddenly relapsed into a state of reserve that was little short
+of sullen. He was puzzled, as he had been before.
+
+The day was hot. Sara volunteered to take him home in the motor.
+An errand in the village was the excuse she gave for riding over
+with him. Heretofore she had sent him over alone with the chauffeur.
+
+She looked very handsome, very tempting, as she came down to the
+car.
+
+"By Jove," he said to himself, "she is wonderful!"
+
+He handed her into the car with the grace of a courtier, and she
+smiled upon him serenely, as a princess might have smiled in the
+days when knighthood was in flower.
+
+When she sat him down at his little garden gate, he put the
+question that had been seething in his mind all the way down the
+shady stretch they had traversed.
+
+"Have you ever seen Hetty Glynn, the English actress?"
+
+Sara was always prepared. She knew the question would come when
+least expected.
+
+"Oh, yes," she replied, with interest. "Have you noticed the resemblance?
+They are as like as two peas in a pod. Isn't it extraordinary?"
+
+He was a bit staggered. "I have never seen Hetty Glynn," he replied.
+
+"Oh? You have seen photographs of her?" she inquired casually.
+
+"What has become of her?" he asked, ignoring her question. "Is she
+still on the stage?"
+
+"Heaven knows," she replied lightly. "Miss Castleton and I were
+speaking of her last night. We were together the last time I saw
+her. Who knows? She may have married into the nobility by this
+time.  She was a very poor actress, but the loveliest thing in the
+world--excepting OUR Hetty, of course."
+
+If he could have seen the troubled look in her eyes as she was whirled
+off to the village, he might not have gone about the cottage with
+such a blithesome air. He was happier than he had been in days,
+and all because of Hetty Glynn!
+
+Leslie Wrandall did not arrive by the evening train. He telephoned
+late in the afternoon, not to Hetty but to Sara, to say that he was
+unavoidably detained and would not leave New York until the next
+morning.
+
+Something in his voice, in his manner of speaking, disturbed her.
+She went to bed that night with two sources of uneasiness threatening
+her peace of mind. She scented peril.
+
+The motor met him at the station and Sara was waiting for him in the
+cool, awning-covered verandah as he drove up. There was a sullen,
+dissatisfied look in his face. She was stretched out comfortably,
+lazily, in a great chaise-longue, her black little slippers peeping
+out at him with perfect abandonment.
+
+"Hello," he said shortly. She gave him her hand. "Sorry I couldn't
+get out last night." He shook her hand rather ungraciously.
+
+"We missed you," she said. "Pull up a chair. I was never so lazy
+as now. Dear me, I am afraid I'll get stout and gross."
+
+"Spring fever," he announced. He was plainly out of sorts. "I'll
+stand, if you don't mind. Beastly tiresome, sitting in a hot, stuffy
+train."
+
+He took a couple of turns across the porch, his eyes shifting in
+the eager, annoyed manner of one who seeks for something that, in
+the correct order of things, ought to be plainly visible.
+
+"Please sit down, Leslie. You make me nervous, tramping about like
+that. We can't go in for half an hour or more."
+
+"Can't go in?" he demanded, stopping before her. He began to pull
+at his little moustache.
+
+"No. Hetty's posing. They won't permit even me to disturb them."
+
+He glared. With a final, almost dramatic twist he gave over jerking
+at his moustache, and grabbed up a chair, which he put down beside
+her with a vehemence that spoke plainer than words.
+
+"I say," he began, scowling in the direction of the doorway, "how
+long is he going to be at this silly job?"
+
+"Silly job? Why, it is to be a masterpiece," she cried.
+
+"I asked you how long?"
+
+"Oh, how can I tell? Weeks, perhaps. One can't prod a genius."
+
+"It's all tommy-rot," he growled. "I suppose I'd better take the
+next train back to town."
+
+"Don't you like talking with me?" she inquired, with a pout.
+
+"Of course I do," he made haste to say. "But do you mean to say
+they won't let anybody in where--Oh, I say! This is rich!"
+
+"Spectators upset the muse, or words to that effect."
+
+He stared gloomily at his cigarette case for a moment. Then he
+carefully selected a cigarette and tapped it on the back of his
+hand.
+
+"See here, Sara, I'm going to get this off my chest," he said
+bluntly. "I've been thinking it over all week. I don't like this
+portrait painting nonsense."
+
+"Dear me! Didn't you suggest it?" she inquired innocently, but all
+the time her heart was beating violent time to the song of triumph.
+
+He was jealous. It was what she wanted, what she had hoped for all
+along. Her purpose now was to encourage the ugly flame that tortured
+him, to fan it into fury, to make it unendurable. She knew him
+well: his supreme egoism could not withstand an attack upon its
+complacency. Like all the Wrandalls, he had the habit of thinking
+too well of himself. He possessed a clearly-defined sense of
+humour, but it did not begin to include self-sacrifice among its
+endowments.  He had never been able to laugh at himself for the
+excellent reason that some things were truly sacred to him.
+
+She realised this, and promptly laughed at him. He stiffened.
+
+"Don't snicker, Sara," he growled. He took time to light his cigarette,
+and at the same time to consider his answer to her question. "In
+a way, yes. I suggested a sort of portrait, of course.  A sketchy
+thing, something like that, you know. But not an all-summer
+operation."
+
+"But she doesn't mind," explained Sara. "In fact, she is enjoying
+it. She and Mr. Booth get on famously together."
+
+"She likes him, eh?"
+
+"Certainly. Why shouldn't she like him? He is adorable."
+
+He threw his cigarette over the railing. "Comes here every day, I
+suppose?"
+
+"My dear Leslie, he is to do me as soon as he has finished with
+her.  I don't like your manner."
+
+"Oh," he said in a dull sort of wonder. No one had ever cut him
+short in just that way before. "What's up, Sara? Have I done anything
+out of the way?"
+
+"You are very touchy, it seems to me."
+
+"I'm sore about this confounded portrait monopoly."
+
+"I'm sorry, Leslie. I suppose you will have to give in, however.
+We are three to one against you,--Hetty, Mr. Booth and I."
+
+"I see," he said, rather blankly. Then he drew his chair closer.
+"See here, Sara, you know I'm terribly keen about her. I think about
+her, I dream about her, I--oh, well, here it is in a nutshell: I'm
+in love with her. Now do you understand?"
+
+"I don't see how you could help being in love with her," she said
+calmly. "I believe it is a habit men have where she is concerned."
+
+"You're not surprised?" he cried, himself surprised.
+
+"Not in the least."
+
+"I mean to ask her to marry me," he announced with finality. This
+was intended to bowl her over completely.
+
+She looked at him for an instant, and then shook her head. "I'd
+like to be able to wish you good luck."
+
+He stared. "You don't mean to say she'd be fool enough--" he began
+incredulously, but caught himself up in time. "Of course, I'd have
+to take my chances," he concluded, with more humility than she had
+ever seen him display. "Do you know of any one else?"
+
+"No," she said seriously. "She doesn't confide in me to that extent,
+I fear. I've never asked."
+
+"Do you think there was any one back there in England?" He put it
+in the past tense, so to speak, as if there could be no question
+about the present.
+
+"Oh, I dare say."
+
+He was regaining his complacency. "That's neither here nor there,"
+he declared. "The thing I want you to do, Sara, is to rush this
+confounded portrait. I don't like the idea, not a little bit."
+
+"I don't blame you for being afraid of the attractive Mr. Booth,"
+she said, with a significant lifting of her eyebrows.
+
+"I'm going to have it over with before I go up to town, my dear
+girl," he announced, in a matter-of-fact way. "I've given the whole
+situation a deuce of a lot of thought, and I've made up my mind to
+do it. I'm not the sort, you know, to delay matters once my mind's
+made up. By Jove, Sara, YOU ought to be pleased. I'm not such a
+rotten catch, if I do say it who shouldn't."
+
+She was perfectly still for a long time, so still that she did
+not appear to be breathing. Her eyes grew darker, more mysterious.
+If he had taken the pains to notice, he would have seen that her
+fingers were rigid.
+
+"I AM pleased," she said, very softly, even gently.
+
+She could have shrieked the words.
+
+He showed no elation. Why should he? He took it as a matter of
+course. Settling back in his chair, he lit another cigarette, first
+offering the case to her, but she shook her head. Then he lapsed
+into a satisfied discussion of the situation as it appeared to him.
+All the while she was regarding him with a thoroughly aroused light
+in her dark eyes. She was breathing quickly again, and there were
+moments when she felt a shudder rush through her veins, as of
+exquisite excitement.
+
+How she hated all these smug Wrandalls!
+
+"I came to the decision yesterday," he went on, tapping the arm of
+the chair with his finger tips, as if timing his words with care
+and precision. "Spoke to dad about it at lunch. I was for coming
+out on the five o'clock, as I'd planned, but he seemed to think
+I'd better talk it over with the mater first. Not that she would
+be likely to kick up a row, you know, but--well, for policy's sake.
+See what I mean? Decent thing to do, you know. She never quite got
+over the way you and Chal stole a march on her. God knows I'm not
+like Chal."
+
+Her eyes narrowed again. "No," she said, "you are not like your
+brother."
+
+"Chal was all right, mind you, in what he did," he added hastily,
+noting the look. "I would do the same, 'pon my soul I would, if there
+were any senseless objections raised in my case. But, of course,
+it WAS right for me to talk it over with her, just the same.  So
+I stayed in and gave them all the chance to say what they thought
+of me--and, incidentally, of Hetty. Quite the decent thing, don't
+you think? A fellow's mother is his mother, after all. See what I
+mean?"
+
+"And she was appeased?" she said, in a dangerously satirical tone.
+
+"Hardly the word, old girl, but we'll let it stand. She WAS appeased.
+Wanted to be sure, of course, if I knew my own mind, and all that.
+Just as if I didn't! Ha! Ha! I was considerate enough to ask her
+if she was satisfied I wasn't marrying beneath the family dignity.
+'Gad, she got off a rather neat one at that. Said I might marry under
+the family tree if I felt like it. Rather good, eh, for mother? I
+said I preferred a church. Nothing al fresco for me."
+
+"She is quite satisfied, then, that you are not throwing yourself
+away on Miss Castleton," said Sara, with a deep breath, which he
+mistook for a sigh.
+
+"Oh, trust mother to nose into things. She knows Miss Castleton's
+pedigree from the ground up. There's Debrett, you see. What's more,
+you can't fool her in a pinch. She knows blood when she sees it.
+Father hasn't the same sense of proportion, however. He says you
+never can tell."
+
+Sara was startled. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Oh, it's nothing to speak of; only a way he has of grinding mother
+once in a while. He uses you as an example to prove that you never
+can tell, and mother has to admit that he's right. You have upset
+every one of her pet theories. She sees it now, but--whew! She
+couldn't see it inthe old days, could she?"
+
+"I fear not," said she in a low voice. Her eyes smouldered. "It
+is quite natural that she should not want you to make the mistake
+your brother made."
+
+"Oh, please don't put it that way, Sara. You make me feel like a
+confounded prig, because that's what it comes to, with them, don't
+you know. And yet my attitude has always been clear to them where
+you're concerned. I was strong for you from the beginning. All that
+silly rot about--"
+
+"Please, please!" she burst out, quivering all over.
+
+"I beg your pardon," he stammered. "You--you know how I mean it,
+dear girl."
+
+"Please leave me out of it, Leslie," she said, collecting herself.
+After a moment she went on calmly: "And so you are going to marry
+my poor little Hetty, and they are all pleased with the arrangement."
+
+"If she'll have me," he said with a wink, as if to say there wasn't
+any use doubting it. "They're tickled to death."
+
+"Vivian?"
+
+"Viv's a snob. She says Hetty's much too good for me, blood and bone.
+What business, says she, has a Wrandall aspiring to the descendant
+of Henry the Eighth."
+
+"What!"
+
+"The Murgatroyds go back to old Henry, straight as a plummet.
+'Gad, what Vivvy doesn't know about British aristocracy isn't worth
+knowing. She looked it up the time they tried to convince her she
+ought to marry the duke. But she's fond of Hetty. She says she's
+a darling. She's right: Hetty is too good for me."
+
+Sara swished her gown about and rose gracefully from the chaise-longue.
+Extending her hand to him she said, and he was never to forget the
+deep thrill in her voice:
+
+"Well, I wish you good luck, Leslie. Don't take no for an answer."
+
+"Lord, if she SHOULD say no," he gasped, confronted by the possibility
+of such stupidity on Hetty's part. "You don't think she will?"
+
+Her answer was a smile of doubt, the effect of which was to destroy
+his tranquillity for hours.
+
+"It is time for luncheon. I suppose we'll have to interrupt them.
+Perhaps it is just as well, for your sake," she said tauntingly.
+
+He grinned, but it was a sickly effort.
+
+"You're the one to spoil anything of that sort," he said, with some
+ascerbity.
+
+"I?"
+
+"Certainly," he said with so much meaning in the word that she
+flushed.
+
+"Oh, I see," she mused, with understanding. "Can't you trust Vivian
+to do that for you?" There was intense irony in the question.
+
+He laughed disdainfully. "Vivvy wouldn't stand a ghost of a chance
+with you, take it from me." He stopped abruptly at the doorway, a
+frown of recollection creasing his seamless brow. "Oh, that reminds
+me, there is something else I want to discuss with you, Sara. After
+luncheon will be time enough. Remind me of it, will you?"
+
+"Not if it is to be unpleasant," she replied, with a sudden chill
+in her heart.
+
+"It's this, in a word: Viv would like to have Miss Castleton over
+to spend a month or so with her after the--well, after the house
+is open." He came near to saying after the engagement was announced.
+
+Sara's decision was made at once. Her face hardened.
+
+"That is quite out of the question, Leslie," she said.
+
+"We can discuss it, can't we?" he demanded loftily.
+
+She did not condescend to reply. They were now in the wide hallway,
+and she was a step or two ahead of him. Voices could be heard
+in the recess at the lower end of the hall, beyond the staircase,
+engaged in what appeared to be a merry exchange of opinions. He
+caught the sound of a low laugh from Booth. There was something
+acutely subdued about it, as if a warning had been whispered by
+some one. Leslie's sensitive imagination pictured the unseen girl
+with her finger to her lips.
+
+He caught up with Sara, and, curiously red in the face, snapped
+out with dogged insistence:
+
+"Mother is set on having her come, Sara. Can't you see the way the
+land lays? They--"
+
+Hetty and Booth came into view at that instant, and his lips were
+closed. The painter was laying a soft, filmy scarf over the girl's
+bare shoulders as he followed close behind her.
+
+"Hello!" he cried, catching sight of Wrandall. "Train late, old
+chap? We've been expecting you for the last hour. How are you?"
+
+He came up with a frank, genuine smile of pleasure on his lips,
+his hand extended. Leslie rose to the occasion. His self-esteem was
+larger than his grievance. He shook Booth's hand heartily, almost
+exuberantly.
+
+"Didn't want to disturb you, Brandy," he cried, cheerily. "Besides,
+Sara wouldn't let me." He then passed on to Hetty, who had lagged
+behind. Bending low over her hand, he said something commonplace in
+a very low tone, at the same time looking slyly out of the corner
+of his eye to see if Booth was taking it all in. Finding that his
+friend was regarding him rather fixedly, he obeyed a sudden impulse
+and raised the girl's slim hand to his lips. As suddenly he released
+her fingers and straightened up with a look of surprise in his eyes;
+he had distinctly heard the agitated catch in her throat. She was
+staring at her hand in a stupefied sort of way, holding it rigid
+before her eyes for a moment before thrusting it behind her back as
+if it were a thing to be shielded from all scrutiny save her own.
+
+"You must not kiss it again, Mr. Wrandall," she said in a low,
+intense voice. Then she passed him by and hurried up the stairs,
+without so much as a glance over her shoulder.
+
+He blinked in astonishment. All of a sudden there swept over him
+the unique sensation of shyness--most unique in him. He had never
+been abashed before in all his life. Now he was curiously conscious
+of having overstepped the bounds, and for the first time to be
+shown his place by a girl. This to him, who had no scruples about
+boundary lines!
+
+All through luncheon he was volatile and gay. There was a bright
+spot in his cheek, however, that betrayed him to Sara, who already
+suspected the temper of his thoughts. He talked aeroplaning
+without cessation, directing most of his conversation to Booth, yet
+thrilled with pleasure each time Hetty laughed at his sallies. He
+was beginning to feel like a half-baked schoolboy in her presence,
+a most deplorable state of affairs he had to admit.
+
+"If you hate the trains so much, and your automobile is out
+of whack, why don't you try volplaning down from the Metropolitan
+tower?" demanded Booth in response to his lugubrious wail against
+the beastly luck of having to go about in railway coaches with a
+lot of red-eyed, nose-blowing people who hadn't got used to their
+spring underwear as yet.
+
+"Sinister suggestion, I must say," he exclaimed. "You must be eager
+to see my life blood scattered all over creation. But, speaking
+of volplaning, I've had three lessons this week. Next week Bronson
+says I'll be flying like a gull. 'Gad, it's wonderful. I've had two
+tumbles, that's all,--little ones, of course,--net result a barked
+knee and a peeled elbow."
+
+"Watch out you're not flying like an angel before you get through
+with it, Les," cautioned the painter. "I see that a well-known
+society leader in Chicago was killed yesterday."
+
+"Oh, I love the danger there is in it," said Wrandall carelessly.
+"That's what gives zest to the sport."
+
+"I love it, too," said Hetty, her eyes a-gleam. "The glorious feel
+of the wind as you rush through it! And yet one seems to be standing
+perfectly still in the air when one is half a mile high and going
+fifty miles an hour. Oh, it is wonderful, Mr. Wrandall."
+
+"I'll take you out in a week or two, Miss Castleton, if you'll
+trust yourself with me."
+
+"I will go," she announced promptly.
+
+Booth frowned. "Better wait a bit," he counselled. "Risky business,
+Miss Castleton, flying about with fledgelings."
+
+"Oh, come now!" expostulated Wrandall with some heat. "Don't be a
+wet blanket, old man."
+
+"I was merely suggesting she'd better wait till you'ye got used to
+your wings."
+
+"Jimmy Van Wickle took his wife with him the third time up," said
+Leslie, as if that were the last word in aeroplaning.
+
+"It's common report that she keeps Jimmy level, no matter where
+she's got him," retorted Booth.
+
+"I dare say Miss Castleton can hold me level," said Leslie, with
+a profound bow to her. "Can't you, Miss Castleton?"
+
+She smiled. "Oh, as for that, Mr. Wrandall, I think we can all
+trust you to cling pretty closely to your own level."
+
+"Rather ambiguous, that," he remarked dubiously.
+
+"She means you never get below it, Leslie," said Booth, enjoying
+himself.
+
+"That's the one great principle in aeroplaning," said Wrandall,
+quick to recover. "Vivian says I'll break my neck some day, but
+admits it will be a heroic way of doing it. Much nobler than pitching
+out of an automobile or catapulting over a horse's head in Central
+Park." He paused for effect before venturing his next conclusion.
+"It must be ineffably sublime, being squashed--or is it squshed?--after
+a drop of a mile or two, isn't it?"
+
+He looked to see Miss Castleton wince, and was somewhat dashed to
+find that she was looking out of the window, quite oblivious to
+the peril he was in figuratively for her special consideration.
+
+Booth was acutely reminded that the term "prig" as applied
+to Leslie was a misnomer; he hated the thought of the other word,
+which reflectively he rhymed with "pad."
+
+It occurred to him early in the course of this rather one-sided
+discussion that their hostess was making no effort to take part
+in it, whether from lack of interest or because of its frivolous
+nature he was, of course, unable to determine. Later, he was struck
+by the curious pallor of her face, and the lack-lustre expression
+of her eyes. She seldom removed her gaze from Wrandall's face,
+and yet there persisted in the observer's mind the rather uncanny
+impression that she did not hear a word her brother-in-law was
+saying. He, in turn, took to watching her covertly. At no time did
+her expression change. For reasons of his own, he did not attempt
+to draw her into the conversation, fascinated as he was by the
+study of that beautiful, emotionless face. Once he had the queer
+sensation of feeling, rather than seeing, a haunted look in her eyes,
+but he put it down to fancy on his part. Doubtless, he concluded,
+the face or voice or manner of her husband's brother recalled
+tragic memories from which she could not disengage herself. But
+undoubtedly there was something peculiar in the way she looked at
+Leslie through those dull, unblinking eyes. It was some time before
+Booth realised that she made but the slightest pretence of touching
+the food that was placed before her by the footman.
+
+And Leslie babbled on in blissful ignorance of, not to say disregard
+for, this strange ghost at the feast, for, to Booth's mind, the
+ghost of Challis Wrandall was there.
+
+Turning to Miss Castleton with a significant look in his eyes, meant
+to call her attention to Mrs. Wrandall, he was amazed to find that
+every vestige of colour had gone from the girl's face. She was
+listening to Wrandall and replying in monosyllables, but that she
+was aware of the other woman's abstraction was not for an instant
+to be doubted. Suddenly, after a quick glance at Sara's face, she
+looked squarely into Booth's eyes, and he saw in hers an expression
+of actual concern, if not alarm.
+
+Leslie was in the middle of a sentence when Sara laughed aloud,
+without excuse or reason. The next instant she was looking from one
+to the other in a dazed sort of way, as if coining out of a dream.
+
+Wrandall turned scarlet. There had been nothing in his remarks to
+call for a laugh, he was quite sure of that. Flushing slightly,
+she murmured something about having thought of an amusing story,
+and begged him to go on, she wouldn't be rude again.
+
+He had little zest for continuing the subject and sullenly disposed
+of it in a word or two.
+
+"What the devil was there to laugh at, Brandy?" he demanded of his
+friend after the women had left them together on the porch a few
+minutes later. Hetty had gone upstairs with Mrs. Wrandall, her arm
+clasped tightly about the older woman's waist.
+
+"I dare say she was thinking about you falling a mile or two," said
+Booth pleasantly.
+
+But he was perplexed.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+MAN PROPOSES
+
+
+
+
+The young men cooled their heels for an hour before word was
+brought down to them that Mrs. Wrandall begged to be excused for
+the afternoon on account of a severe headache. Miss Castleton was
+with her, but would be down later on. Meanwhile they were to make
+themselves at home, and so on and so forth.
+
+Booth took his departure, leaving Leslie in sole possession of
+the porch. He was restless, nervous, excited; half-afraid to stay
+there and face Hetty with the proposal he was determined to make,
+and wholly afraid to lorsake the porch and run the risk of missing
+her altogether if she came down as signified. Several things
+disturbed him. One was Hetty's deplorable failure to hang on his
+words as he had fondly expected her to do; and then there was that
+very--disquieting laugh of Sara's. A hundred times over he repeated
+to himself that sickening question: "What the devil was there to
+laugh at?" and no answer suggested itself. He was decidedly cross
+about it.
+
+Another hour passed. His heels were quite cool by this time, but
+his blood was boiling. This was a deuce of a way to treat a fellow
+who had gone to the trouble to come all the way out in a stuffy
+train, by Jove, it was! With considerable asperity he rang for a
+servant and commanded him to fetch a time table, and to be quick
+about it, as there might be a train leaving before he could get
+back if it took him as long to find it as it took other people to
+remember their obligations! His sarcasm failed to impress Murray,
+who said he thought there was a schedule in Mrs. Wrandall's room,
+and he'd get it as soon as the way was clear, if Mr. Wrandall didn't
+mind waiting.
+
+"If I minded waiting," snapped Leslie, "I wouldn't be here now."
+
+"It's the thing most people object to in the country, sir," said
+Murray consolingly. "Waiting for trains, sir."
+
+"And the sunset," added Mr. Wrandall pointedly, with a westward
+glare.
+
+"We don't mind that, sir. We rather look forward to it. It means
+one day less of waiting for the trains." It was rather cryptic,
+but Leslie was too deeply absorbed in self-pity to take account of
+the pathos in Murray's philosophy.
+
+"What time is it, Murray?"
+
+"Five-twenty, Mr. Wrandall."
+
+"That's all, Murray."
+
+"Thank you, sir."
+
+As the footman was leaving, Sara's automobile whirled up to the
+porte-cochere.
+
+"Who is going out, Murray?" he called in surprise.
+
+"Miss Castleton, sir. For the air, sir."
+
+"The deuce you say!" gasped the harassed Mr. Wrandall. It was a
+pretty kettle of fish!
+
+Hetty appeared a few minutes later, attired for motoring.
+
+"Oh, there you are," she said, espying him. "I am going for a spin.
+Want to come along?"
+
+He swallowed hard. The ends of his moustache described a pair of
+absolutely horizontal exclamation points. "If you don't mind being
+encumbered," he remarked sourly.
+
+"I don't in the least mind," said she sweetly.
+
+"Where are you going?" he asked without much enthusiasm. He wasn't
+to be caught appearing eager, not he. Besides, it wasn't anything
+to be flippant about.
+
+"Yonder," she said, with a liberal sweep of her arm, taking in the
+whole landscape. "And be home in time to dress for dinner," she
+added, as if to relieve his mind.
+
+"Good Lord!" he groaned, "do we have to eat again?"
+
+"We have to dress for it, at least," she replied.
+
+"I'll go," he exclaimed, and ambled off to secure a cap and coat.
+
+"Sara has planned for a run to Lenox to-morrow if it doesn't rain,"
+she informed him on his return.
+
+"Oh," he said, staring. "Booth gets a day off on the portrait then."
+
+"Being Sunday," she smiled. "We knock off on Sundays and bank
+holidays. But, after all, he doesn't really get a holiday. He is
+to go with us, poor fellow."
+
+He looked as though he expected nothing. He could only sit back
+and wonder what the deuce Sara meant by behaving like this.
+
+It was not by way of being a profitable excursion, if we are to
+judge by the amount of pleasure Leslie derived from the two hours'
+spin through the cool, leafy byways of the forest with the obj ect
+of his heart's desire on the seat beside him. He tried to screw up
+his courage to the point of asking her why he shouldn't kiss her
+band, which might have opened the way to more profound interrogations,
+but somehow he felt unable to cope with the serenity that confronted
+him. Moreover, he had a horrible conviction that the chauffeur
+was a brute with abnormally long ears and a correspondingly short
+sense of honour. No, it was not the time or the place for love-making.
+He would have to be content to bide his time till after dinner,
+which now began to lose some of its disadvantages. There was a most
+engaging nook, he remembered, in the corner of the garden facing
+the Sound, where the shadows were deep; where sentiment could thrive
+on its own ecstasy; where no confounded menial dared to show his
+face--although he had to admit that the chauffeur was most punctilious
+in that respect.
+
+And so he was satisfied to sit back in the corner of the seat and
+feed his senses on the lovely creature before him. He had never seen
+her so beautiful, so utterly worth having as now. He was conscious
+of a great, overwhelming sense of pride, somewhat smothering in
+its vastness. She was a creature to be proud of! His heart was very
+full.
+
+They returned at seven. Dinner was unusually merry. Sara appeared
+to have recovered from her indisposition; there was colour in her
+cheeks and life in her smile. He took it to be an omen of good
+fortune, and was immeasurably confident. The soft cool breezes of
+the star-lit night blew visions of impending happiness across his
+lively imagination; fanned his impatience with gentle ardour; filled
+him with surpressed sighs of contentment, and made him willing to
+forego the delight of conquest that he might live the longer in
+serene anticipation of its thrills.
+
+Ten o'clock came. He arose and stretched himself in a sort of
+ecstasy. His heart was thumping loudly, his senses swam. Walking
+to the verandah rail he looked out across the moonlit Sound, then
+down at the selected nook over against the garden wall--spot to
+be immortalised!--and actually shivered. In ten minutes' time, or
+even less, she would be down there in his arms! Exquisite meditations!
+
+He turned to her with an engaging smile, in which she might have
+discerned a prophecy, and asked her to come with him for a stroll
+along the wall. And so he cast the die.
+
+Hetty sent a swift, appealing look at Sara's purposely averted
+face.  Leslie observed the act, but misinterpreted its meaning.
+
+"Oh, it is quite warm," he said quickly. "You won't need a wrap,"
+he added, and in spite of himself his voice trembled. Of course
+she wouldn't need a wrap!
+
+"I have a few notes to write," said Sara, rising. She deliberately
+avoided the look in Hetty's eyes. "You will find me in the library."
+
+She stood in the doorway and watched them descend to the terrace,
+a sphinx-like smile on her lips. Hetty seemed very tall and erect,
+as one going to meet a soldier's fate.
+
+Then Sara entered the house and sat down to wait.
+
+A long time after a door closed stealthily in a distant part of
+the house--the sun-parlour door, she knew by direction.
+
+A few minutes later an upstairs door creaked on its hinges. Some
+one had come in from the mellow night, and some one had been left
+outside.
+
+Many minutes passed. She sat there at her father's writing table
+and waited for the other to come in. At last quick, heavy footfalls
+sounded on the tiled floor outside and then came swiftly down the
+hall toward the small, remote room in which she sat. She looked up
+as he unceremoniously burst into the room.
+
+He came across and stood over her, an expression of utter bewilderment
+in his eyes. There was a ghastly smile on his lips.
+
+"Damn it all, Sara," he said shrilly, "she---she turned me down."
+
+He seemed incapable of comprehension.
+
+She was unmoved. Her eyes narrowed, but that was the only sign of
+emotion.
+
+"I--I can't believe--" he began querulously. "Oh, what's the use?
+She won't have me. 'Gad! I'm trembling like a leaf. Where's Watson?
+Have him get me something to drink. Never mind! I'll get it from
+the sideboard. I'm--I'm damned!"
+
+He dropped heavily into a chair at the end of the table and looked
+at her with glazed eyes. As she stared back at him she had the
+curious feeling that he had shrunk perceptibly, that his clothes
+hung rather limply on him. His face seemd to have lost all of its
+smart symmetry; there was a looseness about the mouth and chin that
+had never been there before. The saucy, arrogant moustache sloped
+dejectedly.
+
+"I fancy you must have gone about it very badly," she said, pursing
+her lips.
+
+"Badly?" he gasped. "Why--why, good heavens, Sara, I actually pleaded
+with her," he went on, quite pathetically. "All but got down on my
+knees to her. Damn me, if I can understand myself doing it either.
+I must have lost my head completely. Begged like a love-sick school-boy!
+And she kept on saying no--no--no! And I, like a blithering ass,
+kept on telling her I couldn't live without her, that I'd make her
+happy, that she didn't know what she was saying, and--But, good
+Lord, she kept on saying no! Nothing but no! Do--do you think she
+meant to say no? Could it have been hysteria? She said it so often,
+over and over again, that it might have been hysteria.  I never
+thought of that. I--"
+
+"No, Leslie, it wasn't hysteria, you may be sure of that," she said
+deliberately. "She meant it, old fellow."
+
+He sagged deeper in the chair.
+
+"I--I can't get it through my head," he muttered.
+
+"As I said before, you did it badly," she said. "You took too much
+for granted. Isn't that true?"
+
+"God knows I didn't EXPECT her to refuse me," he exclaimed, glaring
+at her. "Would I have been such a fool as to ask her if I thought
+there was the remotest chance of being--" The very thought of the
+word caused it to stick in his throat. He swallowed hard.
+
+"You really love her?" she demanded.
+
+"Love her?" There was a sob in his voice. "I adore her, Sara. I
+can't live without her. And the worst of it is, I love her now more
+than I did before, Oh, it's appalling! It's horrible! What am I to
+do, Sara? What AM I to do?"
+
+"Be a man for a little while, that's all," she said coolly.
+
+"Don't joke with me," he groaned.
+
+"Go to bed, and when you see her in the morning tell her that you
+understand. Thank her for what she has done for you. Be--"
+
+"Thank her?" he almost shouted.
+
+"Yes; for destroying all that is detestable in you, Leslie,--your
+self-conceit, your arrogance, your false notions concerning
+yourself,--in a word, your egotism."
+
+He blinked incredulously. "Do you know what you're saying?" he
+gasped.
+
+She went on as if she hadn't heard him.
+
+"Assure her that she is to feel no compunction for what she has
+done, that you are content to be her loyal, devoted friend to the
+end of your days."
+
+"But, hang it, Sara, I LOVE her!"
+
+"Don't let her suspect that you are humiliated. On the contrary,
+give her to understand that you are cleansed and glorified."
+
+"What utter tommy--"
+
+"Wait! Believe me, it is your only chance. You will have to learn
+some time that you can't ride rough-shod among angels. Think it
+over, old fellow. You have had a good lesson. Profit by it."
+
+"You mean I'm to sit down and twirl my thumbs and let some other
+chap snap her up under my very nose? Well, I guess not!"
+
+"Not necessarily. If you take it manfully, she may discover a new
+interest in you. Don't breathe a word of love to her. Go on as if
+nothing had happened. Don't forget that I told you in the beginning
+not to take no for an answer."
+
+He drooped once more, biting his lip. "I don't see how I can ever
+tell mother that she refused--"
+
+"Why tell her?" she inquired, rising.
+
+His eyes brightened. "By Jove, I shan't," he exclaimed.
+
+"I am going up to the poor child now," she went on. "I dare say
+you have frightened her almost to death. Naturally she is in great
+distress. I shall try to convince her that her decision does not
+alter her position in this house. I depend on you to do your part,
+Leslie. Make it easy for her to stay on with me."
+
+He mellowed to the verge of tears.
+
+"I can't keep on coming out here after this, as I've been doing,
+Sara."
+
+"Don't be silly! Of course you can. This will blow over."
+
+"Blow over?" he almost gasped.
+
+"I mean the first effects. Try being a martyr for a while, Leslie.
+It isn't a bad plan, I can assure you. It may interest you to know
+that Challis proposed to me three times before I accepted him, and
+yet I--I loved him from the beginning."
+
+"By Jove!" he exclaimed, coming to his feet with a new light in
+his eyes. The hollows in his cheeks seemed to fill out perceptibly.
+
+"Good-night!"
+
+"I say, Sara dear, you'll--you'll help me a bit, won't you? I mean,
+you'll talk it over with her and--"
+
+"My sympathy is entirely with Miss Castleton," she said from the
+doorway. His jaw dropped.
+
+He was still ruminating over the callousness of the world in respect
+to lovers when she mounted the stairs and tapped firmly on Hetty's
+door.
+
+His hopes began to revive. A new thought had entered in and lodged
+securely among them, bracing them up amazingly. "By Jove," he said
+to himself, staring hard at the floor, "I dare say I did go about
+it badly. Sara was clever enough to see it. I must have taken her
+off her feet with my confounded earnestness. Girls do lose their
+heads, bless 'em, if you go at them with a rush. I'm sure she'll
+look at it differently when she's had time to compose herself."
+He was perplexed, however, over something he had not revealed to
+Sara, and his sudden frown proved that it was still disturbing him.
+"I can't for the life of me understand why she should have been so
+damned horrified at the idea."
+
+He started for the dining-room, recalling his need of a drink,
+but changed his mind in the hall. Grabbing up his hat and stick,
+he darted out of the house and was soon swinging briskly down the
+moonlit avenue. He had come to the conclusion that a long walk
+would prove settling; and moreover it wasn't a stupid idea to go
+over and have his drink with Brandon Booth. The longer he walked,
+the more springy his stride. Sara was quite right; he HAD gone
+about it badly. He'd go about it differently next time.
+
+Half way to Booth's cottage his pace slackened. A disconcerting
+thought struck him, almost like a dash of cold water in the face:
+Was she in love with Booth? He sat down on the rugged stone fence
+to ponder. A cold perspiration broke out all over him. When he
+next resumed his walk, his back was towards Booth's cottage. He
+attributed the perspiration to the violence of his exercise.
+
+Hetty Castleton was standing in the middle of her room when Sara
+entered. From her position, it was evident that she had stopped
+short in her nervous, excited pacing of the floor. She was very
+pale but there was a dogged, set expression about her mouth.
+
+"Come in, dear," she said, in a manner that showed she had been
+expecting the visit. "Have you seen him?"
+
+Sara closed the door, and then stood with her back against it,
+regarding her agitated friend with serious, compassionate eyes.
+
+"Yes. He is terribly upset. It was a blow to him, Hetty."
+
+"I am sorry for him, Sara. He was so dreadfully in earnest. But,
+thank God, it is over!" She threw back her head and breathed deeply.
+"That horrible, horrible nightmare is ended. I suppose it had to
+be.  But the mockery of it--think of it, Sara!--the damnable mockery
+of it!"
+
+"Poor Leslie!" sighed the other. "Poor old Leslie."
+
+Hetty's eyes filled with tears. "Oh, I AM sorry for him. He didn't
+deserve it. God in heaven, if he really knew everything! If he knew
+why I could not listen to him, why I almost screamed when he held
+my hands in his and begged--actually begged me to--Oh, it was
+ghastly, Sara!"
+
+She covered her face with her hands, and swayed as if about to fall.
+Sara came quickly to her side. Putting an arm about the quivering
+shoulders, she led the girl to the broad window seat and threw open
+the blinds.
+
+"Don't speak of it, dearest,--don't think of THAT. Sit here quietly
+in the air and pull yourself together. Let me talk to you. Let me
+tell you how deeply distressed I am, not only on your account, but
+his."
+
+They were silent for a long time, the girl lying still and almost
+breathless against the other's shoulders. She was still wearing
+the delicate blue dinner gown, but in her fingers was the exquisite
+pearl necklace Sara had given her for Christmas. She had taken it
+off and had forgotten to drop it in her jewel box.
+
+"I suppose he will go up to the city early," she said monotonously.
+
+"Leslie is a better loser than you think, my dear," said Sara,
+looking out over the tops of the cedars. "He will not run away."
+
+Hetty looked up in alarm. "You mean he will persist in--in his
+attentions," she cried.
+
+"Oh, no. I don't believe you will find him to be the bugbear you
+imagine. He can take defeat like a man. He is devoted to you, he
+is devoted to me. Your decision no doubt wrecks his fondest hope
+in life, but it doesn't make a weakling of him."
+
+"I don't quite understand--"
+
+"He is sustained by the belief that he has paid you the highest
+honour a man can pay to a woman. There is no reason why he should
+turn his back on you, as a sulky boy might do. No, my dear, I think
+you may count on him as your best, most loyal friend from this night
+on. He has just said to me that his greatest pain lies in the fear
+that you may not be willing to accept him as a simple, honest,
+unpresuming friend since--"
+
+"Oh, Sara, if he will only be that and nothing more!" cried the
+girl wonderingly.
+
+Sara smiled confidently. "I fancy you haven't much to fear in that
+direction, my dear. It isn't in Leslie Wrandall's make-up to court
+a second repulse. He is all pride. The blow it suffered to-night
+can't be repeated--at least, not by the same person."
+
+"I am so sorry it had to be Leslie," murmured Hetty.
+
+"Be nice to him, Hetty. He deserves that much of you, to say the
+least. I should miss him if he found it impossible to come here on
+account of--"
+
+"I wouldn't have that happen for the world," cried the girl
+in distress. "He is your dearest friend. Send me away, Sara, if
+you must. Don't let anything stand in the way of your friendship
+for Leslie. You depend on him for so much, dear. I can't bear the
+thought of--"
+
+"Hush, dearest! You are first in my love. Better for me to lose
+all the others and still have you."
+
+The girl looked at her in wonder for a long time. "Oh, I know you
+mean it, Sara, but--but how can it be true?"
+
+"Put yourself in my place," was all that Sara said in reply, and
+her companion had no means of translating the sentence.
+
+She could only remain mute and wondering, her eyes fixed on that
+other mystery: the cameo face in the moon that hung high above the
+sombre forest.
+
+"If it were not for the trip to Lenox," she murmured plaintively.
+
+"The trip is off," announced Sara. She too was staring at the
+cloudless sky. "There will be rain tomorrow."
+
+"It is very clear to-night, Sara."
+
+"Do you hear that little wail in the trees--as if a child were
+whimpering out there? That is the plaint of the fairies who live
+in the buds and twigs, in the flower cups and mosses. They famish,
+their gods will hear. Their gods hear when ours is deaf. You will
+see. There will be clouds over us to-morrow and we will breathe
+the mist."
+
+The girl shivered.
+
+Many minutes afterward she said, as one who marvels: "I hear the
+promise in the wind, Sara,--the new, cool wind."
+
+"The gods are whispering. Soon the fairies and elves will come
+forth to revel. Ah, what a wonderful thing the night is!"
+
+"The fairies," mused the girl. "You believe in them?"
+
+"Resolutely."
+
+"And I too."
+
+"We will never grow old, my dear," said Sara. "That is what the
+fairies are for: to keep those who love them young."
+
+Hetty had relaxed. Her soft young body was warm again; that ineffably
+feminine charm was revived in her.
+
+"Poor Leslie," murmured Sara, a long time afterward, a dreamy note
+in her voice. "I can't put him out of my thoughts. He will never
+get over it. I have never seen one so stricken and yet so brave.
+He would have been more than a husband to you, Hetty. It is in him
+to be a slave to the woman he loves. I know him well, poor boy."
+
+Hetty was silent, brooding. Sara resumed her thoughtful observations.
+
+"Why should you let what happened months ago stand in the way of--"
+
+She got no farther than that. With an exclamation of horror, the
+girl sprang away from her and glowered at her with dilated eyes.
+
+"My God, Sara!" she whispered hoarsely. "Are you mad?"
+
+The other sighed. "I suppose you must think it of me," she said
+dismally. "We are made differently, you and I. If I cared for a man,
+nothing in all this world could stand between me and him. My love
+would fortify me against the enemy we are prone to call conscience.
+It would justify me in slaying the thing we call conscience. In
+your heart, Hetty, you have not wronged Leslie Wrandall by any act
+of yours. You owe him no reparation. On the contrary, it is not far
+out of the way to say that he owes you something, but of course it
+is a claim for recompense and resolves itself into a sentimental
+debt, so there's really no use discussing it."
+
+Hetty was still staring. "You don't mean to say you would have me
+marry Challis Wrandall's brother?" she said, in a sort of stupefaction.
+
+Sara shook her head. "I mean this: you would be justified in
+permitting Leslie to glorify that which his brother desecrated;
+your womanhood, my dear."
+
+"My God, Sara!" again fell in a hoarse whisper from the girl's
+lips.
+
+"I simply voice my point of view," explained Sara calmly. "As I
+said before, we look at things differently."
+
+"I can't believe you mean what you have said," cried Hetty.
+"Why--why, if I loved him with all my heart, soul and body I could
+not even think of--Oh, I shudder to think of it!"
+
+"I love you," continued Sara, fixing her mysterious eyes on those
+of the girl, "and yet you took from me something more than a brother.
+I love you, knowing everything, and I am paying in full the debt
+he owes to you. Leslie, knowing nothing, is no less your debtor.
+All this is paradoxical, I know, my dear, but we must remember that
+while other people may be indebted to us, we also owe something
+to ourselves. We ought to take pay from ourselves. Please do not
+conclude that I am urging or even advising you to look with favour
+upon Leslie Wrandall's honourable, sincere proposal of marriage. I
+am merely trying to convince you that you are entitled to all that
+any man can give you in this world of ours,--we women all are, for
+that matter."
+
+"I was sure that you couldn't ask me to marry him. I couldn't
+believe--"
+
+"Forget what I have said, dearest, if it grieves you," cried Sara
+warmly. She arose and drew the girl close to her. "Kiss me, Hetty."
+Their lips met. The girl's eyes were closed, but Sara's were wide
+open and gleaming. "It is because I love you," she said softly,
+but she did not complete the sentence that burned in her brain.
+To herself she repeated: "It is because I love you that I would
+scourge you with Wrandalls!"
+
+"You are very good to me, Sara," sobbed Hetty.
+
+"You WILL be nice to Leslie?"
+
+"Yes, yes! If he will only let me be his friend."
+
+"He asks no more than that. Now, you must go to bed."
+
+Suddenly, without warning, she held the girl tightly in her arms.
+Her breathing was quick, as of one moved by some sharp sensation
+of terror. When Hetty, in no little wonder, opened her eyes Sara's
+face was turned away, and she was looking over her shoulder as if
+cause for alarm had come from behind.
+
+"What is it?" cried Hetty anxiously.
+
+She saw the look of dread in her companion's eyes, even as it began
+to fade.
+
+"I don't know," muttered Sara. "Something, I can't tell what, came
+over me. I thought some one was stealing up behind me. How silly
+of me."
+
+"Ah," said Hetty, with an odd smile, "I can understand how you
+felt."
+
+"Hetty, will you take me in with you to-night?" whispered Sara
+nervously. "Let me sleep with you. I can't explain it, but I am
+afraid to be alone to-night." The girl's answer was a glad smile
+of acquiescence. "Come with me, then, to my bedroom while I change.
+I have the queerest feeling that some one is in my room. I don't
+want to be alone. Are you afraid?"
+
+Hetty held back, her face blanching.
+
+"No, I am not afraid," she cried at once, and started toward the
+door.
+
+"There IS some one in this room," said Sara a few moments later,
+when they were in the big bedroom down the hall.
+
+"I--I wonder," murmured Hetty.
+
+And yet neither of them looked about in search for the intruder!
+
+Far into the night Sara sat in the window of Hetty's dressing-room,
+her chin sunk low in her hands, staring moodily into the now opaque
+night, her eyes sombre and unblinking, her body as motionless as
+death itself. The cooling wind caressed her and whispered warnings
+into her unheeding ears, but she sat there unprotected against
+its chill, her night-dress damp with the mist that crept up with
+sinister stealth from the sea.
+
+In the flats below, a vast army of frogs shrilled in ceaseless
+chatter; night birds and insects responded to the bedlam challenge;
+the hoarse monotonous grunts of a fog-horn came up from the Sound.
+There were people out there, asleep in passage.
+
+A cat mewed piteously somewhere in the garden. She was curiously
+disturbed by this. She hated cats. There had never been one on the
+place before.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE APPROACH OF A MAN NAMED SMITH
+
+
+
+
+Mr. Redmond Wrandall, grey and gaunt and somewhat wistful, rode
+slowly through the leafy lane, attended some little distance behind
+by Griggs the groom, who slumped in the saddle and thought only of
+the sylvan dell to curse it with poetic license. (Ever since Mr.
+Wrandall had been thrown by his horse in the Park a few years
+before his wife had insisted on having a groom handy in case he lost
+his seat again: hence Griggs.) It sometimes got on Mr. Wrandall's
+nerves, having Griggs lopping along like that, but there didn't
+seem to be any way out of it, nor was there the remotest likelihood
+that the groom himself might one day be spilled and broken in many
+places while engaged in this obnoxious espionage.
+
+Mr. Wrandall was grey because he was old, he was gaunt because he
+was old, and he usually was somewhat wistful for the same reason.
+He nourished the lament that he had grown old before his time,
+despite the sixty odd years that lay behind him. He was always
+a trifle annoyed with himself for not having demanded more of
+his youth.  Griggs, therefore, was a physical insult, any way you
+looked at him: his very presence in the road behind was a blatant,
+house-top sort of proclamation that he, Redmond Wrandall, was in
+his dotage, and that was something Mr. Wrandall would never have
+admitted if he had had anything to say about it.
+
+To-day he was riding over to Southlook to visit his daughter-in-law
+and one whom he looked upon as a prospective daughter-in-law. It
+was Wednesday and the family had been in the country since Monday.
+His wife and Vivian had motored over on Tuesday. They were letting
+no grass grow under their feet, notwithstanding a sudden and
+unexplained period of procrastination on the part of Leslie, who
+had gone off for a fortnight's fishing in Maine. Moreover, so far
+as they knew, he had departed without proposing to Miss Castleton:
+an oversight which deprived his mother of at least two weeks of
+activity along obvious lines. Naturally, it was quite impossible
+to discuss the future with Miss Castleton under the circumstances,
+and it was equally out of the question to discuss it with security
+in the very constricted circle that Mrs. Wrandall affected in the
+country. It really was too bad of Leslie! He should have known
+better.
+
+Half way to Southlook, Mr. Wrandall, turning a bend in the road,
+caught sight of two people walking some distance ahead: a man and
+a woman. They were several hundred yards away, and travelling in
+the direction he was going. He pulled his horse down to a walk, a
+circumstance that for the moment escaped the attention of Griggs,
+who rode alongside before he quite realised what had happened.
+
+"Griggs," said his master, staring at the pedestrians, "when did
+my son return?"
+
+Griggs grasped the situation at a glance--a rather vague and imperfect
+glance, however. "This morning, sir," he replied promptly, although
+he was as much at sea as his master.
+
+"I understood Mrs. Wrandall to say he was not expected before
+Saturday."
+
+"Yes, sir. He came unexpected, sir."
+
+"Well," said Mr. Wrandall, with an indulgent smile, "we will not
+ride them down."
+
+"No, indeed, sir," consented Griggs, with a wink that Mr. Wrandall
+did not see.
+
+The pleased, satisfied smile grew on Redmond Wrandall's gaunt old
+face: not reminiscent, I am bound to say, yet reflective.
+
+The tall young man and the girl far ahead apparently were not aware
+of the scrutiny. They appeared to be completely absorbed in each
+other. At last, coming to a footpath diverging from the macadam, they
+stopped and parleyed. Then they turned into this narrow, tortuous
+path over the hillside and were lost to view.
+
+Mr. Wrandall's smile broadened as he touched his horse lightly
+with the crop. Coming to the obscure little bypath, he shot a
+surreptitious glance into the fastnesses of the wood, but did not
+slacken his speed. No one was in sight.
+
+"I dare say the danger is past, Griggs," he said humorously. "They
+are safe."
+
+"I believe you, sir," said Griggs, also forgetting himself so far
+as to steal a look over his right shoulder.
+
+It was Mr. Wrandall's design to ride on to Southlook and surprise
+Leslie and his inamorata at the lodge gates, where he would wait
+for them. Arriving there, he dismounted and turned his steed over
+to Griggs, with instructions to ride on. He would join Mr. Leslie
+and Miss Castleton and walk with them for the remainder of the
+distance.
+
+He sat down on the rustic bench and lighted a cigar. The lodge-keeper
+saluted him from the garden below. Later the keeper's small son
+came up and from the opposite side of the roadway regarded him with
+the wide, curious gaze of a four-year-old. Mr. Wrandall disliked
+children. He made no friendly overtures. The child stood his
+ground, which was in a sense disconcerting, althought he couldn't
+tell why. He felt like saying "shoo!" Presently the keeper's collie
+came up and sniffed his puttees, all the while looking askance.
+Mr. Wrandall said: "Away with you," and the dog retreated with some
+dignity to the steps where he laid down and fixed his eyes on the
+stranger.
+
+Half-an-hour passed. Mr. Wrandall frowned as he looked at his watch.
+Another quarter of an hour went by. He changed his position, and
+the dog lifted his head, without wagging his tail.
+
+"'Pon my soul," said Mr. Wrandall in some annoyance.
+
+Just then the dog and the child deflected their common stare. He
+was at first grateful, then interested. The child was beaming, the
+dog's tail was thumping a merry tattoo on the wooden step. Footsteps
+crunched on the gravel and he turned to look, although it was not
+the direction from which he expected his son and Miss Castleton.
+
+He came to his feet, plainly perplexed. Miss Castleton approached,
+but the fellow beside her was not Leslie.
+
+"How are you, Mr. Wrandall?" called out the young man cheerily,
+crossing the road.
+
+"Good afternoon, Brandon," said Mr. Wrandall, nonplussed. "How do
+you do, Miss Castleton? Delighted to see you looking so well. Where
+did you leave my son?"
+
+"Haven't seen him," said Booth. "Is he back?"
+
+Mr. Redmond Wrandall swallowed hard.
+
+"I was so informed," he replied, with an effort.
+
+"Are you not coming up to the house, Mr. Wrandall?" inquired Miss
+Castleton, and he thought he detected a note of appeal in her voice.
+
+"Certainly," he announced, taking his place beside her. To himself
+he was saying: "This young blade has been annoying her, confound
+him."
+
+"Miss Castleton had a note from Leslie this morning, saying he
+wouldn't start home till Friday," said Booth, puzzled. "You don't
+mind my saying so, Miss Castleton?"
+
+"Not at all. I am sure he said Friday."
+
+"I fancy he did say Friday," said Mr. Wrandall. "I think Griggs
+had been drinking."
+
+"Griggs?" inquired the two in unison.
+
+He volunteered no more than that. He was too busily engaged in wondering
+what his son could be thinking of, to leave this delightful girl
+to the tender mercies of a handsome, fascinating chap like Brandon
+Booth. He didn't relish the look of things. She was agitated,
+suspiciously so; and Booth wasn't what one would describe as perfectly
+at ease. There was something in the air, concluded Leslie's father.
+
+"I hear you are coming over to spend a fortnight with us, Miss
+Castleton," said he pleasantly.
+
+Hetty started. "I beg your pardon, Mr. Wrandall," she said, although
+he had spoken very distinctly.
+
+"Leslie mentioned it a--oh, some time ago, my dear. This is the
+first time I have seen you, otherwise I should have added my warmest
+appeal for you to come early and to stay late. Ha-ha! Hope you will
+find your way to our place, Brandon. You are always a most welcome
+visitor."
+
+The girl walked on in silence, her lips set with curious firmness.
+Booth looked at her and indulged in a queer little smile, to which
+she responded with a painful flush.
+
+"Vivian expects to have a few friends out at the same time--very
+quietly, you know, and without much of a hurrah. Young ladies you
+ought to know in New York, my dear Miss Castleton. I dare say you
+will remember all of them, Brandon."
+
+"I dare say," said Booth, without interest.
+
+"I understand the portrait is finished," went on the old gentleman,
+blissfully oblivious to the disturbance he had created. "Mrs.
+Wrandall says it is wonderful, Brandon. You won't mind showing it
+to me? I am very much interested."
+
+"Glad to have you see it, sir."
+
+"Thanks."
+
+He slackened his pace, an uneasy frown appearing between his eyes.
+
+"I am almost afraid to tell Sara the news we have had from town
+this morning. She is so opposed to notoriety and all that sort of
+thing.  Poor girl, she's had enough to drive one mad, I fear, with
+all that wretched business of a year ago."
+
+Hetty stopped in her tracks. She went very white.
+
+"What news, Mr. Wrandall?"
+
+"They say they have stumbled upon a clew,--an absolutely indisputable
+clew. Smith had me on the wire this morning. He is the chief operative,
+you understand, Miss Castleton. He informs me that his original
+theory is quite fully substantiated by this recent discovery. If
+you remember, he gave it as his opinion a year ago that the woman
+was not--er--I may say, of the class catalogued as fast. He is
+coming out to-morrow to see me."
+
+Things went suddenly black before her eyes, but in an instant she
+regained control of herself.
+
+"They have had many clews, Mr. Wrandall," she complained, shaking
+her head.
+
+"I know," he replied; "and this one may be as futile as the rest.
+Smith appears to be absolutely certain this time, however."
+
+"I understood that Mrs. Wrandall--I mean Mrs. Challis Wrandall--refused
+to offer a reward," said Booth. "These big detective agencies are
+not keen about--"
+
+"There is a ten thousand dollar reward still standing, Brandon,"
+said Mr. Wrandall.
+
+Again the girl started.
+
+"That isn't generally known, sir," observed the painter. "Leslie
+told me there was no reward."
+
+"It was privately arranged," explained Leslie's father.
+
+They came in sight of the house at that moment, and the subject
+was dropped, for Sara was approaching them in earnest conversation
+with Mr. Carroll, her lawyer.
+
+They met at the edge of the lower basin, where the waters trickled
+down from an imposing Italian fountain on the level above, forming
+a deep, clear pool to which the lofty sky lent unfathomable depths.
+To the left of the basin there was a small tea-house, snug in the
+shadow of the cypresses that lined the crest of the hill. A series
+of rough stone steps wound down to the water's edge and the boathouse.
+
+"Mr. Carroll is the bearer of startling news, Mr. Wrandall," said
+Sara, after the greetings. There was a trace of the sardonic in
+her voice.
+
+"Indeed?" said Mr. Wrandall gravely.
+
+"I was not aware, sir," said the old lawyer stiffly, and with a
+positive glare, "that your detectives were such unmitigated asses
+as they now appear to be."
+
+"I fail to understand, Mr. Carroll," with considerable loftiness.
+
+"That confounded rascal Smith called to see me this morning, sir.
+He is a rogue, sir. He--"
+
+"I beg your pardon, Mr. Carroll," protested Mr. Wrandall, in a far
+from conciliatory manner.
+
+"It seems, in short, that he has been working on a very intimate
+clew," said Sara, staring fixedly at her father-in-law's face.
+
+"So he informed me over the 'phone this morning," said he, rather
+taken a-back. "However, he did not go into the details. I am here,
+Sara, to tell you that he is coming out to-morrow. I want to ask
+you to come over to my place at--"
+
+"That is out of the question, sir," exclaimed Mr. Carroll vehemently.
+
+"My dear Mr. Carroll--" began Wrandall angrily, but Sara interrupted
+him to suggest that they talk it over in the tea-house. She would
+ring for tea.
+
+"If you will excuse me, Mrs. Wrandall, I think I will be off," said
+Booth.
+
+"Please stay, Mr. Booth," she urged. "I would like to have you
+here."
+
+She fell behind with Hetty. The girl's eyes were glassy.
+
+"Don't be alarmed," she whispered.
+
+Booth pressed the button for her. "Thank you. You will be surprised,
+Mr. Wrandall, to hear that the new clew leads to a member of your
+own family."
+
+Mr. Wrandall was in the act of sitting down. At her words he dropped.
+His eyes bulged.
+
+"Good God!"
+
+"It appears that Mr. Smith suspects--ME!" said she coolly.
+
+Her father-in-law's lips moved, but no sound issued. His face was
+livid.
+
+"The stupid fool!" hissed the irate Mr. Carroll.
+
+There was deathly silence for a moment following this outburst.
+Every face was pale. In Hetty's there was an expression of utter
+horror. Her lips too were moving.
+
+"He has, it seems, put one thing and another together, as if it
+were a picture puzzle," went on Sara. "His visit to Mr. Carroll
+this morning was for the purpose of ascertaining how much it would
+be worth to me if he dropped the case--NOW."
+
+"The infernal blackmailer!" gasped Mr. Wrandall, finding his voice.
+"I will have him kicked off the place if he comes to me with--My
+dear, my dear! You cannot mean what you say."
+
+He was in a shocking state of bewilderment.
+
+"I'd advise you to call off your infernal blackmailer, Mr. Redmond
+Wrandall," snarled Mr. Carroll, pacing back and forth.
+
+"My dear sir," stammered the other, "I--I--do you mean to imply
+that I know anything about this infamous business?"
+
+"He is your dog, not ours," declared the lawyer, pacing the brick
+floor.
+
+"Peace, gentlemen," admonished Sara. "Let us discuss it calmly."
+
+"Calmly?" gasped Mr. Wrandall.
+
+"Calmly!" snapped the lawyer.
+
+"At least deliberately. It appears, Mr. Wrandall, that Smith has
+been working on the theory all along that it was I who went to the
+inn with Challis. You recall the description given of the woman? She
+was of my size and figure, they said at the time. Well, he has--"
+
+"It is infamous!" shouted Mr. Wrandall, springing to his feet.
+"He shall hear from me to-night. I shall have him lodged in jail
+before--"
+
+"You will do nothing of the sort," interrupted Sara firmly. "I think
+you will do well to hear his side of the story. And remember, sir,
+that it would be very difficult for me to establish an alibi."
+
+"Bless me!" groaned the old man. Then his eyes brightened. "But
+Miss Castleton can prove that for you, my dear. Don't forget Miss
+Castleton."
+
+"Miss Castleton did not come to me, you should remember, until after
+the--the trouble. It occurred the second night after my arrival
+from Europe. Mr. Smith has discovered that I was not in my rooms
+at the hotel that night."
+
+"You were not?" fell from Mr. Wrandall's lips. "Where were you?"
+
+"I spent the night in our apartment--alone." She shivered as with
+a chill as she uttered these words.
+
+"What!"
+
+"Leslie met me at the dock. He said that Challis had gone away
+from town for a day or two. The next day I telephoned to the garage
+and asked them to send the big car to me as I wanted to make some
+calls.  They said that Mr. Wrandall had discharged the chauffeur
+a week or two before and had been using my little French runabout
+for a few days, driving it himself. I then instructed them to send
+the runabout around with one of their own drivers. You can imagine
+my surprise when I was told that Mr. Wrandall had taken the car
+out that morning and had not returned with it."
+
+"I see," said Mr. Wrandall, beads of perspiration standing on his
+forehead.
+
+"He had not left town. I will not try to describe my feelings. Late
+in the afternoon, I called them up again. He had not returned. It
+was then that I thought of going to the apartment, which had been
+closed all winter. Watson and his wife were to go in the next day
+by my instructions. Challis had been living at a club, I believe.
+Somehow, I had the feeling that during the night my husband would
+come to the apartment--perhaps not alone. You understand. I went
+there and waited all night. That is the story. Of course, it is known
+that I did not spend the night at the hotel. Mr. Smith evidently
+has learned as much. It is on this circumstance that he bases his
+belief."
+
+Booth was leaning forward, breathless with interest.
+
+"May I enquire, Mr. Carroll, how the clever Mr. Smith accounts for
+the secrecy observed by Mr. Wrandall and his companion, if, as he
+proclaims, you were the woman? Is it probable that husband and wife
+would have been so mysterious?"
+
+Mr. Carroll answered. "He is rather ingenious as to that, Mr.
+Booth.  You must understand that he does not specifically charge
+my cli--Mrs. Wrandall with the murder of her husband. He merely
+arranges his theories so that they may be applied to her with
+a reasonable degree of assurance. He only goes this far in his
+deductions: If, as he has gleaned, Challis Wrandall was engaged
+in an illicit--er--we'll say distraction--with some one unknown to
+Sara his wife, what could be more spectacular than her discovery
+of the fact and the subsequently inspired decision to lay a trap
+for him? Of course, it is perfect nonsense, but it is the way he
+goes about it. It has been established beyond a doubt that Wrandall
+met the woman at a station four miles down the line from Burton's
+Inn.  She came out on one of the local trains, got off at this
+station as prearranged, and found him waiting for her. Two men,
+you will recall, testified to that effect at the inquest sixteen
+months ago.  She was heavily veiled. She got in the motor and drove
+off with him.  This was at half past eight o'clock in the evening.
+Smith makes this astounding guess; the woman instead of being the
+person expected, was in reality his wife, who had by some means
+intercepted a letter.  Our speculative friend Smith is not prepared
+to suggest an arrest on these flimsy claims, but he believes it to
+be worth Mrs. Wrandall's while to have the case permanently closed,
+rather than allow these nasty conclusions to get abroad. They would
+spread like wildfire. Do you see what I mean?"
+
+"It is abominable!" cried Hetty, standing before them with flashing
+eyes. "I KNOW she did not--"
+
+"Hetty, my dear!" cried Sara sharply.
+
+The girl looked at her for a moment in a frenzied way, and then
+turned aside, biting her lips to keep back the actual confession
+that had rushed up to them.
+
+"It is blackmail," repeated Mr. Wrandall miserably.
+
+"In the most diabolical form," augmented Carroll. "The worst of it
+is, Wrandall, we can't stop his tongue unless we fairly choke him
+with greenbacks. All he has to do is to give the confounded yellow
+journals an inkling of his suspicions, and the job is done. It seems
+to be pretty well understood that the crime was not committed by a
+person in the ordinary walks of life, but by one who is secure in
+the protection of mighty influences. There are those who believe
+that his companion was one of the well-known and prominent young
+matrons in the city, many of whom were at one time or another interested
+in him in a manner not at all complimentary. Smith suggests--mind
+you, he merely suggests--that the person who was to have met Wrandall
+in the country that night was so highly connected that she does
+not dare reveal herself, although absolutely innocent of the crime.
+Or, it is possible on the other hand, he says, that she may consider
+herself extremely lucky in failing to keep her appointment and
+thereby alluring him to take up with another, after she had written
+the letter breaking off the engagement,--said letter not having
+been received by him because it had fallen into the hands of his
+wife. Do you see? It is ingenious, isn't it?"
+
+"What is to be done?" groaned Mr. Wrandall, in a state of collapse.
+He was sitting limply back in the chair, crumpled to the chin.
+
+"The sanest thing, I'd suggest," said Booth sarcastically, "is the
+capture of the actual perpetrator of the deed."
+
+"But, confound them," growled Carroll, "they say they can't."
+
+"I shall withdraw my offer of reward," proclaimed the unhappy
+father, struggling to his feet. "I never dreamed it could come to
+such a pass as this. You DO believe me, don't you, Sara, my child--my
+daughter? God hear me, I never--"
+
+"Oh," said she cuttingly, "you, at least, are innocent, Mr.
+Wrandall."
+
+He looked at her rather sharply.
+
+"The confounded fellow is coming to see me to-morrow," he went on
+after a moment of indecision. "I shall be obliged to telephone to
+the city for my attorney to come out also. I don't believe in taking
+chances with these scoundrels. They--"
+
+"May I enquire, sir, why you entrusted the matter to a third rate
+detective agency when there are such reputable concerns as the
+Pinkertons or--" began Mr. Carroll bitingly.
+
+Mr. Wrandall held up his hand deprecatingly.
+
+"We had an idea that an unheard of agency might accomplish more
+than one of the famous organisations."
+
+"Well, you see what has come of it," growled the other.
+
+"I was opposed to the reward, sir," declared Mr. Wrandall with some
+heat. "Not that I was content to give up the search, but because I
+felt sure that the guilty person would eventually reveal herself.
+They always do, sir. It is the fundamental principle of criminology.
+Soon or late they falter. My son Leslie is of a like opinion. He
+has declared all along that the mystery will be cleared up if we
+are quiescent. A guilty conscience takes its own way to relieve
+itself.  If you keep prodding it with sharp sticks you encourage
+fear, and stealth, and all that sort of thing, without really
+getting anywhere in the end. Give a murderer a free rope and he'll
+hang himself, is my belief. Threaten him with that self-same rope,
+and he'll pay more attention to dread than to conscience, and your
+ends are defeated."
+
+Sara was inwardly nervous. She stole a glance at the white, emotionless
+face of the girl across the table, and was filled with apprehension.
+
+"Can you be sure, Mr. Wrandall," she began earnestly, "that justice
+isn't the antidote for the poisonous thing we call a conscience?
+Suppose this woman to have been fully justified in doing what she
+did, does it follow that conscience can force her to admit, even
+to herself, that she is morally guilty of a crime against man? I
+doubt it, sir."
+
+She was prepared for a subtle change in Hetty's countenance and was
+not surprised to see the light of hope steal back into her eyes.
+
+"Fully justified?" murmured the old gentleman painfully.
+
+"Perhaps we would better not go into that question too intimately,"
+suggested Mr. Carroll.
+
+"My son Leslie has peculiar views along the very line--" began Mr.
+Wrandall, in great distress of mind. He fell into a reflective mood
+and did not finish the sentence.
+
+"I shall see this man Smith," announced Sara calmly.
+
+Her father-in-law stood over her, his face working. "My dear,"
+he said, "I promise you this absurd business shall go no farther.
+Don't let it trouble you in the least. I will attend to Smith. If
+there is no other way to check his vile insinuations, I will pay
+his price.  You are not to be submitted to these dreadful--"
+
+She interrupted him. "You will do nothing of the kind, Mr.  Wrandall,"
+she said levelly. "Do you want to convince him that I AM guilty?"
+
+"God in heaven, no!"
+
+"Then why pay him the reward you have offered for the person who
+is guilty?"
+
+"It is an entirely different propo--"
+
+"It amounts to the same thing, sir. He tells you he has discovered
+the woman you want and you fulfil your part of the bargain by
+paying him for his services. That closes the transaction, so far
+as he is concerned. He goes his way fully convinced that he has
+put his hands on the criminal, and then proceeds to wash them in
+private instead of in public. No. Let me see this man. I insist."
+
+"He will be at my place to-morrow at eleven," said Wrandall
+resignedly. "I wish Leslie were here. He is so level-headed."
+
+Sara laid her hand on his arm. He looked up and found her regarding
+him rather fixedly.
+
+"It would be just as well as to keep this from Mrs. Wrandall and
+Vivian," she said meaningly.
+
+"You are right, Sara. It would distress them beyond words."
+
+She smiled faintly. "May I enquire whether Mr. Smith is to report
+to you or to Mrs. Wrandall?"
+
+He flushed. "My wife--er--made the arrangements with him, Sara," he
+said, but added quickly: "With my sanction, of course. He reports
+to me. As a matter of fact, now that I think of it, he advised me
+to say nothing to my wife until he had talked with me."
+
+"Inasmuch as he has already talked it over with me, through counsel,
+I don't see any reason why we should betray his gentle confidence,
+do you?"
+
+"I--I suppose not," said he uncomfortably.
+
+"Then, bring him here at eleven, Mr. Wrandall," said she serenely.
+"He has already paved the way. I imagine he expects to find me at
+home. Put the things here, Watson."
+
+Watson had appeared with the tray. It being a very hot day, he did
+not bring tea.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+MR. WRANDALL PERJURES HIMSELF
+
+
+
+
+Smith arrived at eleven, somewhat after the fashion of the Hawkshaws
+of "yellow back" fame, who, if our memory serves us right, were so
+punctual that their appearance anywhere was described as being in
+the "nick o' time," only in this instance he was expected and did
+not "drop from the sky," as the saying goes.
+
+Mr. Wrandall met him at the station and escorted him in a roundabout
+way to Southlook, carefully avoiding the main village thoroughfare
+and High street, where the fashionable colony was intrenched. Mr.
+Smith, being an experienced detective, was not surprised to find
+(after the introduction), that Mr. Wrandall's attorney had been a
+fellow-passenger from town. If he was impressed, he did not once
+betray the fact during the four mile spin to Sara's. On the contrary,
+he seemed to be entirely absorbed in the scenery.
+
+Mr. Wrandall had said, without shaking hands: "We will repair at
+once to Mrs. Challis Wrandall's house, Mr. Smith. She is expecting
+you. I have informed her of your mission."
+
+"I think we'd better discuss the matter between ourselves, Mr.
+Wrandall, before putting it up to--"
+
+"There is nothing in connection with this unhappy affair, sir, that
+cannot be discussed first-hand with her," said his employer stiffly.
+
+"Just as you like, sir," said Smith indifferently. "I have talked
+it over with old man Carroll. He understands."
+
+"I am quite sure he does, Mr. Smith," said the other, with emphasis.
+Mr. Smith successfully hid a smile.
+
+He took his seat beside the chauffeur.
+
+"I am surprised," he observed to the driver, as a "feeler," "that
+you haven't changed bodies."
+
+"Mr. Wrandall ordered the limousine, sir," said the chauffeur.
+
+"Oh, I see. Keeps it on hand for rainy days, I suppose."
+
+"It's Mrs. Wrandall's idea," explained the man. "Women are fussy
+about their hair. We always have a limousine handy."
+
+"It is a handy thing to have about," said Mr. Smith drily, as he
+looked out of the corner of his eye and remarked the two men behind
+him. They were in very close conversation.
+
+"The boss usually takes the other car. He likes the wind in his
+face, he says. I don't know why he ordered the limousine to-day."
+
+"Probably there's something in the wind to-day he doesn't like,"
+remarked Smith, after which he devoted himself assiduously to the
+road ahead, not being a practiced motorist.
+
+As they were ascending the steps in Sara's exotic garden, Smith
+ventured a somewhat sinister remark.
+
+"These steps are not good for a man with a weak heart, Mr. Wrandall.
+I hope yours is sound."
+
+"Quite, Mr. Smith. Have no fear," said Mr. Wrandall, with an acute
+sense of divination. "You will also find it to be in the right
+place."
+
+"Umph," said Mr. Smith.
+
+Sara did not keep them waiting long in the morning room. She came
+in soon after they were announced, followed by Mr. Carroll, who had
+spent the night at Southlook. Hetty Castleton was not in evidence.
+
+She motioned them to seats after Mr. Wrandall had ceremoniously
+introduced his lawyer, and as unceremoniously neglected to do as
+much for Smith.
+
+"This is Mr. Smith, I presume," said she, with a slight uplifting
+of her eyebrows. She took a chair facing the detective.
+
+"Yes, my dear," said her father-in-law. "Joseph Smith."
+
+"Benjamin, if you please," corrected Mr. Smith.
+
+"I regret to state that my memory for names does not go back to
+the Old Testament," said Wrandall, with a frosty smile.
+
+"There are no Smiths in the Old Testament," said the detective
+grimly.
+
+"I understand, Mr. Smith, that you are prepared to charge me with
+the murder of my husband."
+
+She said it very quietly, very levelly. Smith was a bit staggered.
+
+"Well, I--er--hardly that, Mrs. Wrandall," he said, disconcerted.
+
+"Will you be good enough to come to the point at once?"
+
+"My report in this matter, madam, is to be made to Mr. Wrandall
+here, as I understand it," said the detective, his jaw stiffening.
+"We don't, as a rule, report our findings to--well, to the person
+we suspect. It isn't what you'd call regular. Mr, Wrandall has
+employed me to make the investigation. He can hardly expect me to
+reveal my findings to you."
+
+"My dear Sara--" began Mr. Wrandall.
+
+"As this is a rather intimate conference, Mr. Smith," interrupted
+Sara, with a gracious smile for her father-in-law, "I fancy we have
+nothing to gain, one way or another, by recriminations. You have
+already consulted Mr. Carroll, and I have talked it over with Mr.
+Wrandall. That was to have been expected, I believe. As I understand
+the situation, you are somewhat curious to know just how much it
+is worth to me to have the matter dropped."
+
+Smith eyed her steadily.
+
+"That is the case, precisely," he said briefly.
+
+"Then you are not really interested in having the guilty person
+brought to justice?"
+
+"I am not an officer of the law, madam. I am a private individual,
+working for private ends. It is for Mr. Wrandall to say whether my
+discoveries shall be related in court. I respectfully submit that
+I am acting within my rights. My deductions have been formed.
+That is as far as I can go without his authority. He has offered a
+reward, and he has gone farther than that by engaging us to devote
+our time, brains and energies to the case. I am in this position at
+present: our firm cannot accept the reward he has offered without
+deliberately declaring to the world that we can put our hand on
+the slayer of his son. As I cannot produce the actual proof that
+we have found that person, I am in honour compelled to submit our
+findings so far as they have gone, and then either to withdraw from
+the matter or carry it on to the end, as he may elect. Our time
+is worth something, madam. We have made a careful and exhaustive
+investigation. We have come to the point where we can go no farther
+without more or less publicly associating you with our theories.
+I spoke to Mr. Carroll yesterday, it is true, and I am here to-day
+to lay my facts before Mr. Wrandall--and his attorney, I see. Mr.
+Carroll chose to call me a blackmailer. He may be correct in his
+legal way of looking at it. But he is wrong in assuming that MY
+motives are criminal. I submit that they are fair, open and above
+board."
+
+There was a moment's silence following this astonishingly succinct
+summing up of his position. The three men had not taken their eyes
+from his shrewd, frank face during that clever speech. They had
+nothing to say. It had been agreed among them that Sara was to do
+the talking. They were to do the watching.
+
+"You put the case very fairly, Mr. Smith," said she seriously. "I
+think your position is clear enough, assuming of course that you
+have any real evidence to support your theories, whatever they may
+be. I am perfectly free to say that you interest me."
+
+"Interest you?" he said, in some exasperation. He had expected her
+to fly into a passion. "Don't you take me seriously, madam?"
+
+"As far as you have gone, yes."
+
+Mr. Wrandall could hold in no longer. He was most uncomfortable.
+
+"See here, Smith, out with it. Let us have your story. My
+daughter-in-law is not in the least alarmed. You've been on the
+wrong track, of course. But that isn't the point. What we want now
+is to find out just where we stand."
+
+"You put it in a rather compromising way, Mr. Wrandall. The pronoun
+'we' is somewhat general, if you will permit me to say so. Do you
+expect me to discuss my findings in the presence of Mrs. Wrandall
+and her counsel?"
+
+"Certainly, sir, certainly. You need have no hesitancy on that
+score. I dare say you came here knowing that what you were to say
+would go no further than these four walls."
+
+"Would you say that, sir, if I were to submit proof that would
+make it look so black for Mrs. Wrandall that you couldn't very well
+doubt her complicity in the crime, even though you saw fit to let
+it go no further than these four walls?"
+
+Mr. Wrandall hesitated. A heavy frown appeared between his eyes;
+his fingers worked nervously on the arm of the chair.
+
+"I may say to you, Mr. Smith, that if you produce conclusive proof
+I shall do my duty as a law-respecting citizen. I would not hesitate
+on that score."
+
+Sara looked at him through half-closed lids. His jaws were firmly
+set.
+
+Smith seemed to be reflecting. He did not speak for a long interval.
+
+"In the first place, it struck me as odd that the man's wife did
+not take more interest in the search that was made immediately
+after the kill--after the tragedy. Not only that, but it is of
+record that she deliberately informed the police that she didn't
+care whether they caught the guilty party or not. Isn't that true?"
+
+The question was directed to no one in particular.
+
+It was Sara who answered.
+
+"Quite true, Mr. Smith. And if it will interest you in the least,
+I repeat that I don't care even now."
+
+"You were asked if you would offer a reward in addition to the small
+one announced by the authorities. Why didn't you offer a reward?"
+
+"Because I did not care to make it an object for well-meaning
+detectives to pry into the affairs of indiscreet members of society,"
+she said.
+
+"I see," said he reflectively. "May I be so bold as to ask why you
+don't want to have the guilty punished?"
+
+She looked at Mr. Wrandall before offering a reply to this direct
+question.
+
+"I can't answer that question without publicly wounding Mr.
+Wrandall."
+
+"We understand each other, Sara," said the old man painfully. "I
+think you would better answer his question."
+
+"Because my husband courted the fate that befell him, Mr. Smith.
+That is my reply. While I do not know what actually transpired at
+the inn, I am reasonably certain that my husband's life was taken
+by some one who had suffered at his hands. I can say no more."
+
+"The eye for an eye principle, eh?" There was deep sarcasm in the
+way he said it. As she did not respond to the challenge, he abruptly
+changed tactics. "Where were you on the night of the murder, Mrs.
+Wrandall?"
+
+She smiled. "I thought you knew, Mr. Smith."
+
+"I have reason to believe that you were at Burton's Inn," he said
+bluntly.
+
+"But you wouldn't be at all sure about it if I said I wasn't there,
+would you, Mr. Smith?"
+
+"I don't quite get you, Mrs. Wrandall."
+
+"I mean to say, if I made it worth your while to change your
+opinion," she said flatly.
+
+He cleared his throat. "You couldn't change my opinion, so there's
+an end to that. You could stop me right where I am, if that's what
+you mean. I'm perfectly frank about it, gentlemen. You needn't
+look as if you'd like to kill me. I'm not anxious to go on with
+the investigation. I don't know enough up to date to be sure of a
+conviction, but I guess I could get the proof if it is to be found.
+This is a family affair, I take it. Mr. Wrandall here doesn't want
+to--"
+
+Mr. Wrandall struck the arm of his chair a violent blow with his
+clenched fist.
+
+"You have no authority, sir, to make such a statement!" he exclaimed.
+"I want it distinctly understood that I would give half of what I
+possess to have the slayer of my son brought to justice."
+
+"But you don't want this thing to go any further so far as Mrs.
+Challis Wrandall is concerned," said Smith coolly.
+
+"Of course not, you miserable scoundrel!" cried the other in a
+rage.  "She's no more guilty than I am."
+
+"Don't call names, Mr. Wrandall," said Smith, a steely glitter in
+his eyes. "I am prepared to lay before you certain facts that I
+have unravelled, but I am not willing to give them to Mrs. Wrandall."
+
+"My daughter-in-law spent the night at her own apartment, waiting
+for my son," said Wrandall, regaining control of himself. "That is
+positively known to me, sir. Positively!"
+
+"How can you be sure of that, Mr. Wrandall?" asked Smith sharply.
+
+The gaunt old face, suddenly very much older than it had been
+before, took on a stern, defiant expression.
+
+"I spoke with her over the telephone at half past nine o'clock that
+night," said he steadily.
+
+Smith was not the only one to be surprised by this startling
+declaration. Sara Wrandall's eyes widened ever so slightly, and
+one might have detected a sharp catch in her breath.
+
+"She called you up?" asked Smith, after a moment to collect his
+wits.
+
+Mr. Wrandall was not to be trapped. He had made up his mind to
+lie for Sara in this hour of need, and he had considered well his
+methods.
+
+"No. I called up the apartment."
+
+"How did you know she was at her apartment?"
+
+"I did not know it. I called up to speak with my son. She answered
+the call, Mr. Smith."
+
+He arose from the chair. Smith also came slowly to his feet, the
+look of astonishment still on his face.
+
+"And now, sir," went on the old man, levelling a bony finger at
+him, "I think we can dispense with your services. I will give you
+credit for one thing: you are plain-spoken and above board. You
+want money and you don't beat about the bush. If you will instruct
+your office to send to me a bill for services, I will pay it. I
+engaged you, and I am ready to pay for my stupidity. My car will
+take you back to the station."
+
+Smith picked up his hat and fumbled with it for a moment, plainly
+dismayed.
+
+"If I have been on the wrong lead, Mr. Wrandall, I am willing
+to drop it and start all over again. I suppose your reward still
+stands. I am sure we can--"
+
+"It does not stand, sir. I shall withdraw it this very day. God
+knows if I had thought it would lead us to this pass, it should
+never have been offered. Now, go, sir."
+
+Smith held his ground doggedly. "There are a few points I'd like
+to--"
+
+"No!"
+
+"For the sake of justice and--"
+
+Sara interrupted the man. She had crossed to Mr. Wrandall's side,
+a queer light in her eyes. Her hand fell upon his trembling old
+arm and he felt a thrill pass from her warm, strong fingers into
+the very core of his body.
+
+"Mr. Smith, will you give me an off-hand estimate of what your
+services amount to in dollars and cents up to date?"
+
+"You don't owe me anything, Mrs. Wrandall," said Smith, flushing
+a dull red.
+
+"You came here to give me a chance, Mr. Smith, feeling that I was
+actually implicated. You had a price fixed in your mind. You still
+have your doubts, in spite of what Mr. Wrandall says. It occurred
+to you that it would be worth considerable to me if the investigation
+went no farther. You realised that you could not have brought this
+crime home to me, because you could not have found REAL, satisfying
+evidence. But you could have gone to the newspapers with your
+suspicions, and you could have made one-half the world believe that
+an innocent person was guilty of a foul crime. The world loves its
+sensations. It would have gloated over the little you could have
+given it, and it would have damned me unheard. I owe you something
+for sparing me a fate so wretched as that. Your price: What is it?"
+
+"Sara!" cried Mr. Wrandall, aghast.
+
+"My dear Mrs. Wrandall," cried Carroll, blinking his eyes, "you
+are not thinking of--"
+
+"I am thinking of paying Mr. Smith his price," said Sara calmly.
+
+"Why, damn it all," roared Carroll, "you countenance his ridiculous
+assertions--"
+
+"No; I do nothing of the sort, Mr. Carroll, and Mr. Smith knows it
+quite as well as you do. He still has it in his power to set the
+tongues to wagging. We can't get around that, gentlemen. I want to
+pay him to drop the case entirely. The reward has been withdrawn.
+Will it satisfy your cupidity, Mr. Smith, if I agree to pay to you
+a like amount?"
+
+"Good Lord!" gasped Smith, staggered.
+
+"I cannot permit--" began Mr. Wrandall.
+
+She looked him squarely in the eye and the words died on his lips.
+
+"I prefer to have it my way," she said. "I will not accept favours
+from Mr. Smith--nor any other man." Wrandall alone caught the
+significance of the last four words. She would not accept the favour
+of a lie from him! And yet she would not humiliate by denying him
+in the presence of others. "Mr. Carroll will attend to this matter for
+me, Mr. Smith, if you will call at his office at your convenience.
+I shall make but a single stipulation in addition to the one
+involved: you are to drop the case altogether. Mr. Wrandall has
+already dismissed you. You are under no further obligations to him
+or his family. I respectfully submit to all of you, gentlemen, that
+when the investigations go so far astray as they have gone in this
+instance, it isn't safe to let them continue with the possible chance
+of proving unwholesome to other innocent persons, toward whom, in
+some justice, attention might be drawn. The young woman now in the
+far West is a sickening example. I refer to the Ashtley girl.  If,
+by any chance, the right person should be taken, I will do my part,
+Mr. Wrandall, with the same purpose if not the same spirit that
+actuates you, but I am opposed to baring skeletons to gratify
+the morbid curiosity of a public that despises all of us because,
+unhappily, we are what we are. I trust I make myself plain to you.
+I loved my husband. I have no desire to know the names of women
+who were his--we will say--who were in love with him."
+
+Mr. Wrandall bowed his head and said not a word. His attorney, who
+had been a silent listener from the beginning, spoke for the first
+time.
+
+"If Mr. Smith will call at my office to-morrow, I will attend to
+the closing of this matter to his entire satisfaction. Mr. Wrandall
+has already authorised me to settle in full for his time and--patience."
+
+"I don't like to take money in this way--"
+
+"We won't discuss ethics, Mr. Smith."
+
+"Just as you like, then. I'm only too happy to be off the job. Good
+morning, madam. Good morning, gentlemen."
+
+He stalked from the room. Watson was waiting in the hall.
+
+"This way," he said, indicating the big front door.
+
+Smith grinned sheepishly. "'Gad, they don't even think I can find
+a front door," he said.
+
+Redmond Wrandall turned to the two men after he heard the door of
+his automobile slam in the porte-cochere.
+
+"Gentlemen, I believe it is unnecessary to announce to you that I
+did not speak over the telephone with my daughter-in-law on that
+wretched night," he said slowly.
+
+They nodded their heads.
+
+"I am not a good liar. Do you think the fellow believed me?"
+
+"No," said Sara instantly. "He is accustomed to better lying than
+you can supply. But it doesn't in the least matter. He knows, however,
+that you spoke the truth when you said I was in my apartment, even
+though you are not sure of it yourself, Mr.  Wrandall. I will not
+presume to thank you for what you did, but I shall never forget
+it, sir."
+
+He regarded her rather austerely for a moment. "I am glad you do
+not thank me, Sara," he said. "You are not to feel that you are
+under the slightest obligation to me."
+
+"I regret that you felt it necessary to perjure yourself," she
+said levelly, and then broke into a soft little laugh as she laid
+her hand on his arm once more. "Come! Let us have a semi-public
+view of Hetty's portrait."
+
+He looked up alertly at the mention of the girl's name.
+
+"By the way, where is Miss Castleton?" he asked, drawing a long
+breath as if the air had suddenly become wholesome.
+
+"She is back yonder in the living-room, having her last sitting
+to Brandon Booth. Just a few finishing touches, that's all. I hear
+them laughing. The day's work is done."
+
+She led the way down the long hall, followed by the old gentlemen,
+who came three abreast, hoary retainers at the heels of youth.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+IN THE SHADOW OF THE MILL
+
+
+
+
+Later on Sara, in sober reflection, endorsed what had appeared at
+the time to be a whimsical, quixotic proceeding on her part. She
+brought herself completely to the point where she could view her
+action with complacency. At first, there was an irritating, nagging
+fear that Mr. Wrandall had been genuinely soul-sacrificing in his
+effort to defend her; that his decisive falsehood was a sincere
+declaration of loyalty to her and not the transparent outburst of
+one actuated by a sort of fanatical selfishness, in that he dreaded
+the further dragging in the dust of the name of Wrandall, and all
+that in spite of his positive belief that she was being wrongly,
+unfairly attacked. She knew that her father-in-law had no doubt in
+his mind that she could successfully combat any charge Smith might
+bring against her; that her innocence would prevail even in the
+opinion of the scheming detective. But behind all this was the
+Wrandall conclusion that a skin was to be saved, and that skin the
+one which covered the Wrandall pride.
+
+His lie was not glorifying. She even consented that it might
+be the first deliberate falsehood this honourable, discriminating
+gentleman had told in all his life. At the moment, he may have
+been actuated by a motive that deceived him, but even unknown to
+him the Wrandall self-interest was at work. He was not lying for
+her, but for the Wrandalls! And she would have to remain his debtor
+all her life because of that amiable falsehood!
+
+She intuitively felt the force of that secret motive almost
+the instant it found expression, and she resented it even as she
+applauded it in the first wave of inward enthusiasm. She might
+have marked it down to his credit, and loved him a little for it,
+had not his rather distorted integrity impelled him to confess his
+transgression to the lawyers, whereas it was perfectly plain that
+they appreciated his distortion of the truth without having it
+explained to them in so many words. That virtuous little speech
+of his was all-illuminating; it let in a great light and laid bare
+the weakness that was too strong for him.
+
+Her abrupt change of front, her suddenly formed resolve to pay the
+man his price, was the result of a natural opposition to the elder
+Wrandall. She acted hastily, even ruthlessly, in direct contradiction
+to her original intentions, but she now felt that she had acted
+wisely. There could be no doubt in the mind of the keen-witted
+Smith that Mr. Wrandall had lied; his lips therefore were sealed,
+not by the declaration, but by her own surprising offer to remunerate.
+
+When she told Hetty what she had done, the girl, who had been
+tortured by doubts and misgivings, threw herself into her arms and
+sobbed out her gratitude.
+
+"I could die for you, Sara. I could die a thousand deaths," she
+cried.
+
+"Oh, I dare say Smith is quite delighted," said Sara carelessly.
+"He had come up against a brick wall, don't you see. He could go
+no further. There was but one thing for him to do and he did it.
+He had no case, but he felt that he ought to be paid just the same.
+Mr.  Wrandall would never have paid him, he was sure of that. His
+game failed. He thinks better of me now than he ever did before,
+and I have made a friend of him, strange as it may appear."
+
+"Oh, I hope so."
+
+Sara stroked her cheek gently. "Don't be afraid, Hetty. We are
+quite safe."
+
+Hetty secretly gloated over that little pronoun 'we.' It spelt
+security.
+
+"And wasn't it splendid of Mr. Wrandall to say what he did?" she
+mused, lying back among the cushions with a sigh of relaxation.
+
+Sara did not at once reply. She smiled rather oddly.
+
+"It was," she said succinctly. "I am sure Leslie will go into
+raptures over his father's decline and fall."
+
+"Must he be told?" in some dismay.
+
+"Certainly. Every son should know his own father," she explained,
+with a quiet laugh.
+
+The next day but one was overcast. On cloudy, bleak days Hetty
+Castleton always felt depressed. Shadowless days, when the sun was
+obscured, filled her with a curious sense of apprehension, as if
+when the sun came out again he would not find the world as he had
+left it. She did not mope; it was not in her nature. She was more
+than ever mentally alert on such days, for the very reason that
+the world seemed to have lapsed into a state of indifference, with
+the sun nowhere to be seen. There was a queer sensation of dread
+in knowing that that great ball of fire was somewhere in the vault
+above her and yet unlocated in the sinister pall that spread over
+the skies. Her fancy ofttimes pictured him sailing in the west when
+he should be in the east, dodging back and forth in impish abandon
+behind the screen, and she wondered at such times if he would be
+where he belonged when the clouds lifted.
+
+Leslie was to return from the wilds on the following day. Early
+in the morning Booth had telephoned to enquire if she did not want
+to go for a long walk with him before luncheon. The portrait was
+finished, but he could not afford to miss the morning hour with
+her.  He said as much to her in pressing his invitation.
+
+"To-morrow Leslie will be here and I shan't see as much of you as
+I'd like," he explained, rather wistfully. "Three is a crowd, you
+know. I've got so used to having you all to myself, it's hard to
+break off suddenly."
+
+"I will be ready at eleven," she said, and was instantly surprised
+to find that her voice rang with new life, new interest. The greyness
+seemed to lift from the view that stretched beyond the window; she
+even looked for the sun in her eagerness.
+
+It was then that she knew why the world had been bleaker than usual,
+even in its cloak of grey.
+
+A little before eleven she set out briskly to intercept him at
+the gates. Unknown to her, Sara sat in her window, and viewed her
+departure with gloomy eyes. The world also was grey for her.
+
+They came upon each other unexpectedly at a sharp turn in the
+avenue. Hetty coloured with a sudden rush of confusion, and had
+all she could do to meet his eager, happy eyes as he stood over her
+and proclaimed his pleasure in jerky, awkward sentences. Then they
+walked on together, a strange shyness attending them. She experienced
+the faintness of breath that comes when the heart is filled with
+pleasant alarms. As for Booth, his blood sang. He thrilled with
+the joy of being near her, of the feel of her all about him, of
+the delicious feminine appeal that made her so wonderful to him.
+He wanted to crush her in his arms, to keep her there for ever, to
+exert all of his brute physical strength so that she might never
+again be herself but a part of him.
+
+They uttered commonplaces. The spell was on them. It would lift,
+but for the moment they were powerless to struggle against it. At
+length he saw the colour fade from her cheeks; her eyes were able
+to meet his without the look in them that all men love. Then he
+seemed to get his feet on the ground again, and a strange, ineffably
+sweet sense of calm took possession of him.
+
+"I must paint you all over again," he said, suddenly breaking in
+on one of her remarks. "Just as you are to-day,--an outdoor girl,
+a glorious outdoor girl in--"
+
+"In muddy boots," she laughed, drawing her skirt away to reveal a
+shapely foot in an American walking shoe.
+
+He smiled and gave voice to a new thought. "By Jove, how much better
+looking our American shoes are than the kind they wear in London!"
+
+"Sara insists on American shoes, so long as I am with her. I don't
+think our boots are so villainous, do you?"
+
+"Just the same, I'm going to paint you again, boots and all. You--"
+
+"Oh, how tired you will become of me!"
+
+"Try me!"
+
+"Besides, you are to do Sara at once. She has consented to sit to
+you. She will be wonderful, Mr. Booth, oh, how wonderful!"
+
+There was no mistaking the sincerity of this rapt opinion.
+
+"Stunning," was his brief comment. "By the way, I've hesitated
+about asking how she and Mr. Wrandall came out with the detective
+chap."
+
+Her face clouded. "It was so perfectly ridiculous, Mr. Booth. The
+man is satisfied that he was wrong. The matter is ended."
+
+"Pure blackmail, I'd call it. I hope it isn't ended so far as she
+is concerned. I'd have him in jail so quick his--"
+
+"She's tender-hearted, and sensitive. No real harm has been done.
+She refuses to prosecute him."
+
+"You can't mean it."
+
+"If you knew her as I do, you would understand."
+
+"But her lawyer, what had he to say about it? And Mr. Wrandall? I
+should have thought they--"
+
+"I believe they quite approve of what she has done. Nothing will
+come of it."
+
+He walked on in silence for a couple of rods. "I have a feeling
+they will never know who killed Challis Wrandall," he said. "It is
+a mystery that can't be solved by deduction or theory, and there
+is nothing else for them to work on, as I understand the case. The
+earth seems to have been generous enough to swallow her completely.
+She's safe unless she chooses to confess, and that isn't likely.
+To be perfectly frank with you, Miss Castleton, I rather hope they
+never get her. He was something of a beast, you know."
+
+She was looking straight ahead. "You used the word generous, Mr.
+Booth. Do you mean that she deserves pity?"
+
+"Without knowing all the circumstances, I would say yes. I've had
+the feeling that she was more sinned against than sinning."
+
+"Would you believe that she acted in self-defence?"
+
+"It is quite possible."
+
+"Then, will you explain why she does not give herself up to the
+authorities and assert her innocence? There is no proof to the
+contrary." She spoke hurriedly, with an eagerness which he mistook
+for doubt.
+
+"For one reason, she may be a good woman who was indiscreet. She
+may have some one else to think of besides herself. A second reason:
+she may lack moral courage."
+
+"Moral courage!"
+
+"It is one thing to claim self-defence and another thing to get
+people to believe in it. I suppose you know what Leslie thinks
+about it?"
+
+"He has not discussed it with me."
+
+"He believes his brother deserved what he got."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"For that reason he has not taken an active part in hounding her
+down."
+
+She was silent for a long time, so long indeed that he turned to
+look at her.
+
+"A thoroughly decent, fair-minded chap is Leslie Wrandall," he
+pronounced, for want of something better to say. "Still, I'm bound
+to say, I'm sorry he is coming home to-morrow."
+
+The red crept into her cheeks again.
+
+"I thought you were such pals," she said nervously.
+
+"I expect to be his best man if he ever marries," said he, whacking
+a stone at the road-side with his walking stick. Then he looked
+up at her furtively and added, with a quizzical smile: "Unless
+something happens."
+
+"What COULD happen?"
+
+"He MIGHT marry the girl I'm in love with, and, in that case, I'd
+have to be excused."
+
+"Where shall we walk to this morning?" she asked abruptly. He had
+drawn closer to her in the roadway. "Is it too far to the old stone
+mill? That's where I first saw you, if you remember."
+
+"Yes, let us go there," she said, but her heart sank. She knew what
+was coming. Perhaps it were best to have it over with; to put it
+away with the things that were to always be her lost treasures. It
+would mean the end of their companionship, the end of a love dream.
+She would have to lie to him: to tell him she did not love him.
+
+One would go many a fruitless day in quest of a more attractive pair
+than they as they strode swiftly down the shady road. They lagged
+not, for they were strong and healthy, and walking was a joy
+to them, not an exercise. She kept pace beside him, with her free
+stride; half a head shorter than he, she did not demand it of him
+that he should moderate his stride to suit hers. He was tall and
+long-limbed, but not camel-like in his manner of walking, as so many
+tall men are apt to be. His eyes were bright with the excitement
+that predicted a no uncertain encounter, although he had no
+definite purpose in mind. There was something singularly wistful,
+unfathomable, in her velvety blue eyes that gave him hope, he knew
+not why.
+
+Coming to the jog in the broad macadam, they were striking off
+into the narrow road that led to the quaint old mill, long since
+abandoned in the forest glade beyond, when their attention was drawn
+to a motor-car, which was slowing down for the turn into Sara's
+domain. A cloud of dust swam in the air far behind the machine.
+
+A bare-headed man on the seat beside the driver, waved his hand to
+them, and two women in the tonneau bowed gravely. Both Hetty and
+Booth flushed uncomfortably, and hesitated in their progress up
+the forest road.
+
+The man was Leslie Wrandall. His mother and sister were in the back
+seat of the touring car.
+
+"Why--why, it was Leslie," cried Booth, looking over his shoulder
+at the rapidly receding car. "Shall we turn back, Miss Castleton?"
+
+"No," she cried instantly, with something like impatience in her
+voice. "And spoil our walk?" she added in the next breath, adding
+a nervous little laugh.
+
+"It seems rather--" he began dubiously.
+
+"Oh, let us have our day," she cried sharply, and led the way into
+the by-road.
+
+They came, in the course of a quarter-of-an-hour, to the bridge over
+the mill-race. Beyond, in the mossy shades, stood a dilapidated,
+centurion structure known as Rangely's Mill, a landmark with
+a history that included incidents of the revolutionary war, when
+eager patriots held secret meetings inside its walls and plotted
+under the very noses of Tory adherents to the crown.
+
+Pausing for a few minutes on the bridge, they leaned on the rail
+and looked down into the clear, mirror-like water of the race. Their
+own eyes looked up at them; they smiled into their own faces. And
+a fleecy white cloud passed over the glittering stream and swept
+through their faces, off to the bank, and was gone for ever.
+
+Suddenly he looked up from the water and fixed his eyes on her
+face.  He had seen her clear blue eyes fill with tears as he gazed
+into them from the rail above.
+
+"Oh, my dear!" he cried. "What is it?"
+
+She put her handkerchief to her eyes as she quickly turned away.
+In another instant, she was smiling up at him, a soft, pleading
+little smile that went straight to his heart.
+
+"Shall we start back?" she asked, a quaver in her voice.
+
+"No," he exclaimed. "I've got to go on with it now, Hetty. I didn't
+intend to, but--come, let us go up and sit on that familiar old
+log in the shade of the mill. You must, dear!"
+
+She suffered him to lead her up the steep bank beyond and through
+the rocks and rotten timbers to the great beam that protruded
+from the shattered foundations of the mill. The rickety old wheel,
+weather-beaten and sad, rose above them and threatened to topple
+over if they so much as touched its flimsy supports.
+
+He did not release her hand after drawing her up beside him.
+
+"You must know that I love you," he said simply.
+
+She made no response. Her hand lay limp in his. She was staring
+straight before her.
+
+"You DO know it, don't you?" he went on.
+
+"I--God knows I don't want you to love me. I never meant that you
+should--" she was saying, as if to herself.
+
+"I suppose it's hopeless," he said dumbly, as her voice trailed
+off in a whisper.
+
+"Yes, it is utterly hopeless," she said, and she was white to the
+lips.
+
+"I--I shan't say anything more," said he. "Of course, I understand
+how it is. There's some one else. Only I want you to know that I
+love you with all my soul, Hetty. I--I don't see how I'm going to
+get on without you. But I--I won't distress you, dear."
+
+"There isn't any one else, Brandon," she said in a very low voice.
+Her fingers tightened on his in a sort of desperation. "I know what
+you are thinking. It isn't Leslie. It never can be Leslie."
+
+"Then,--then--" he stammered, the blood surging back into his
+heart--"there may be a chance--"
+
+"No, no!" she cried, almost vehemently. "I can't let you go on
+hoping. It is wrong---so terribly wrong, You must forget me. You
+must--"
+
+He seized her other hand and held them both firmly, masterfully.
+
+"See here, my--look at me, dearest! What is wrong? Tell me! You
+are unhappy. Don't be afraid to tell me. You--you DO love me?"
+
+She drew a long breath through her half-closed lips. Her eyes
+darkened with pain.
+
+"No. I don't love you. Oh, I am so sorry to have given you--"
+
+He was almost radiant. "Tell me the truth," he cried triumphantly.
+"Don't hold anything back, darling. If there is anything troubling
+you, let me shoulder it. I can--I will do anything in the world
+for you. Listen: I know there's a mystery somewhere. I have felt it
+about you always. I have seen it in your eyes, I have always sensed
+it stealing over me when I'm with you--this strange, bewildering
+atmosphere of--"
+
+"Hush! You must not say anything more," she cried out. "I cannot
+love you. There is nothing more to be said."
+
+"But I know it now. You do love me. I could shout it to--" The
+miserable, whipped expression in her eyes checked this outburst.
+He was struck by it. even dismayed. "My dearest one, my love," he
+said, with infinite tenderness, "what is it? Tell me!"
+
+He drew her to him. His arm went about her shoulders. The final
+thrill of ecstasy bounded through his veins. The feel of her! The
+wonderful, subtle, feminine feel of her! His brain reeled in a new
+and vast whirl of intoxication.
+
+She sat there very still and unresisting, her hand to her lips,
+uttering no word, scarcely breathing. He waited. He gave her time.
+After a little while her fingers strayed to the crown of her limp,
+rakish panama. They found the single hat-pin and drew it out. He
+smiled as he pushed the hat away and then pressed her dark little
+head against his breast. Her blue eyes were swimming.
+
+"Just this once, just this once," she murmured with a sob in
+her voice. Her hand stole upward and caressed his brown cheek and
+throat. Tears of joy started in his eyes--tears of exquisite delight.
+
+"Good God, Hetty, I--I can't do without you," he whispered, shaken
+by his passion. "Nothing can come between us. I must have you always
+like this."
+
+"Che sara, sara," she sighed, like the breath of the summer wind
+as it sings in the trees.
+
+The minutes passed and neither spoke. His rapt gaze hung upon the
+glossy crown that pressed against him so gently. He could not see
+her eyes, but somehow he felt they were tightly shut, as if in
+pain.
+
+"I love you, Hetty. Nothing can matter," he whispered at last.
+"Tell me what it is."
+
+She lifted her head and gently withdrew herself from his embrace.
+He did not oppose her, noting the serious, almost sombre look in
+her eyes as she turned to regard him steadfastly, an unwavering
+integrity of purpose in their depths.
+
+She had made up her mind to tell him a part of the truth. "Brandon,
+I am Hetty Glynn."
+
+He started, not so much in surprise as at the abruptness with which
+she made the announcement.
+
+"I have been sure of it, dear, from the beginning," he said quietly.
+
+Then her tongue was loosed. The words rushed to her lips. "I was
+Hawkright's model for six months. I posed for all those studies,
+and for the big canvas in the academy. It was either that or
+starvation.  Oh, you will hate me--you must hate me."
+
+He laid his hand on her hair, a calm smile on his lips. "I can't love
+and hate at the same time," he said. "There was nothing wrong in
+what you did for Hawkright. I am a painter, you know. I understand.
+Does--does Mrs. Wrandall know all this?"
+
+"Yes--everything. She knows and understands. She is an angel, Brandon,
+an angel from heaven. But," she burst forth, "I am not altogether
+a sham. I AM the daughter of Colonel Castleton, and I AM the cousin
+of all the Murgatroyds,--the poor relation. It isn't as if I were
+the scum of the earth, is it? I AM a Castleton. My father comes
+of a noble family. And, Brandon, the only thing I've ever done in
+my life that I am really ashamed of is the deception I practised
+on you when you brought that magazine to me and faced me with it.
+I did not lie to you. I simply let you believe I was not the--the
+person you thought I was. But I deceived you--"
+
+"No, you did not deceive me," he said gently. "I read the truth in
+your dear eyes."
+
+"There are other things, too. I shall not speak of them, except
+to repeat that I have not done anything else in all my life that I
+should be ashamed of." Her eyes were burning with earnestness. He
+could not but understand what she meant.
+
+Again he stroked her hair. "I am sure of that," he said.
+
+"My mother was Kitty Glynn, the actress. My father, a younger son,
+fell in love with her. They were married against the wishes of his
+father, who cut him off. He was in the service, and he was brave
+enough to stick. They went to one of the South African garrisons,
+and I was born there. Then to India. Then back to London, where an
+aunt had died, leaving my father quite a comfortable fortune. But
+his old friends would have nothing to do with him. He had lived--well,
+he had made life a hell for my mother in those frontier posts.  He
+deserted us in the end, after he had squandered the fortune. My
+mother made no effort to compel him to provide for her or for me.
+She was proud. She was hurt. To-day he is in India, still in the
+service, a martinet with a record for bravery on the field of battle
+that cannot be taken from him, no matter what else may befall. I
+hear from him once or twice a year. That is all I can tell you about
+him. My mother died three years ago, after two years of invalidism.
+During those years I tried to repay her for the sacrifice she had
+made in giving me the education, the--" She choked up for a second,
+and then went bravely on. "Her old manager made a place for me in one
+of his companies. I took my mother's name, Hetty Glynn, and--well,
+for a season and a half I was in the chorus. I could not stay there.
+I COULD not," she repeated with a shudder. "I gave it up after my
+mother's death. I was fairly well equipped for work as a children's
+governess, so I engaged myself to--"
+
+She stopped in dismay for he was laughing.
+
+"And now do you know what I think of you, Miss Hetty Glynn?" he
+cried, seizing her hands and regarding her with a serious, steadfast
+gleam in his eyes. "You are the pluckiest, sandiest girl I've ever
+known. You are the kind that heroines are made of. There is nothing
+in what you've told me that could in the least alter my regard for
+you, except to increase the love I thought could not be stronger.
+Will you marry me, Hetty?"
+
+She jerked her hands away, and held them clenched against her
+breast.
+
+"No! I cannot. It is impossible, Brandon. If I loved you less than
+I do, I might say yes, but--no, it is impossible."
+
+His eyes narrowed. A grey shadow crept over his face.
+
+"There can be only one obstacle so serious as all that," he said
+slowly. "You--you are already married."
+
+"No!" she cried, lifting her pathetic eyes to his. "It isn't that.
+Oh, please be good to me! Don't ask me to say anything more. Don't
+make it hard for me, Brandon. I love you--I love you. To be your
+wife would be the most glorious--No, no! I must not even think of
+it. I must put it out of my mind. There IS a barrier, dearest. We
+cannot surmount it. Don't ask me to tell you, for I cannot. I--I
+am so happy in knowing that you love me, and that you still love
+me after I have told you how mean and shameless I was in deceiving--"
+
+He drew her close and kissed her full on the trembling lips. She
+gasped and closed her eyes, lying like one in a swoon. Soft, moaning
+sounds came from her lips. He could not help feeling a vast pity
+for her, she was so gentle, so miserably hurt by something he could
+not understand, but knew to be monumental in its power to oppress.
+
+"Listen, dearest," he said, after a long silence; "I understand
+this much, at least: you can't talk about it now. Whatever it is,
+it hurts, and God knows I don't want to make it worse for you in
+this hour when I am so selfishly happy. Time will show us the way.
+It can't be insurmountable. Love always triumphs. I only ask you to
+repeat those three little words, and I will be content. Say them."
+
+"I love you," she murmured.
+
+"There! You are mine! Three little words bind you to me for ever.
+I will wait until the barrier is down. Then I will take you."
+
+"The barrier grows stronger every day," she said, staring out beyond
+the tree-tops at the scudding clouds. "It never can be removed."
+
+"Some day you will tell me--everything?"
+
+She hesitated long. "Yes, before God, Brandon, I will tell you.
+Not now, but--some day. Then you will see why--why I cannot--" She
+could not complete the sentence.
+
+"I don't believe there is anything you can tell me that will
+alter my feelings toward you," he said firmly. "The barrier may be
+insurmountable, but my love is everlasting."
+
+"I can only thank you, dear, and--love you with all my wretched
+heart."
+
+"You are not pledged to some one else?"
+
+"No."
+
+"That's all I want to know," he said, with a deep breath. "I thought
+it might be--Leslie."
+
+"No, no!" she cried out, and he caught a note of horror in her
+voice.
+
+"Does--does he know this--this thing you can't tell me?" he demanded,
+a harsh note of jealousy in his voice.
+
+She looked up at him, hurt by his tone. "Sara knows," she said.
+"There is no one else. But you are not to question her. I demand
+it of you."
+
+"I will wait for you to tell me," he said gently.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+SARA WRANDALL FINDS THE TRUTH
+
+
+
+
+Sara had kept the three Wrandalls over for luncheon.
+
+"My dear," said Mrs. Redmond Wrandall, as she stood before Hetty's
+portrait at the end of the long living-room, "I must say that Brandon
+has succeeded in catching that lovely little something that makes
+her so--what shall I say?--so mysterious? Is that what I want?  The
+word is as elusive as the expression."
+
+"Subtle is the word you want, mother," said Vivian, standing beside
+Leslie, tall, slim and aristocratic, her hands behind her back, her
+manner one of absolute indifference. Vivian was more than handsome;
+she was striking.
+
+"There isn't anything subtle about Hetty," said Sara, with a laugh.
+"She's quite ingenuous."
+
+Leslie was pulling at his moustache, and frowning slightly. The
+sunburn on his nose and forehead had begun to peel off in chappy
+little flakes.
+
+"Ripping likeness, though," was his comment.
+
+"Oh, perfect," said his mother. "Really wonderful. It will make
+Brandon famous."
+
+"She's so healthy-looking," said Vivian.
+
+"English," remarked Leslie, as if that covered everything.
+
+"Nonsense," cried the elder Mrs. Wrandall, lifting her lorgnette
+again. "Pure, honest, unmixed blood, that's what it is. There is
+birth in that girl's face."
+
+"You're always talking about birth, mother," said her son sourly,
+as he turned away.
+
+"It's a good thing to have," said his mother with conviction.
+
+"It's an easy thing to get in America," said he, pulling out his
+cigarette case. "Have a cigarette, mother? Sara?"
+
+"I'll take one, Les," said Vivian. She selected one and passed the
+case on to her mother. Sara shook her head.
+
+"No, thanks," she said.
+
+Mrs. Redmond Wrandall laid her cigarette down without attempting
+to light it, a sudden frostiness in her manner. Vivian and Leslie
+blew long plumes of smoke from the innermost recesses of their
+lungs.
+
+"Nerves?" asked Vivian mildly.
+
+"I don't like Leslie's brand," explained Sara.
+
+"They're excellent, I think," said Mrs. Wrandall, and thereupon
+accepted a light from Leslie.
+
+"Well, let's be off," said he, somewhat irritably. "Tell Miss
+Castleton we're sorry to have missed her."
+
+It was then that Sara prevailed upon them to stop for luncheon.
+"She always takes these long walks in the morning, and she will be
+disappointed if she finds you haven't waited--"
+
+"Oh, as for that--" began Leslie and stopped, but he could not have
+been more lucid if he had uttered the sentence in full.
+
+"Why didn't you pick her up and bring her home with you?" asked
+Sara, as they moved off in the direction of the porch.
+
+"She seemed to be taking Brandy out for his morning exercise," said
+he surlily. "Far be it from me to--Umph!"
+
+Sara repressed the start of surprise. She thought Hetty was alone.
+
+"She will bring him in for luncheon, I suppose," she said carelessly,
+although there was a slight contraction of the eyelids.  "He is a
+privileged character."
+
+It was long past the luncheon hour when Hetty came in, flushed and
+warm. She was alone and she had been walking rapidly.
+
+"Oh, I am so sorry to be late," she apologised, darting a look of
+anxiety at Sara. "We grew careless with time. Am I shockingly late?"
+
+She was shaking hands with Mrs. Redmond Wrandall as she spoke.
+Leslie and Vivian stood by, rigidly awaiting their turn. Neither
+appeared to be especially cordial.
+
+"What is the passing of an hour, my dear," said the old lady, "to
+one who is young and can spare it?"
+
+"I did not expect you--I mean to say, nothing was said about
+luncheon, was there, Sara?" She was in a pretty state of confusion.
+
+"No," said Leslie, breaking in; "we butted in, that's all. How are
+you?" He clasped her hand and bent over it. She was regarding him
+with slightly dilated eyes. He misinterpreted the steady scrutiny.
+"Oh, it will all peel off in a day or two," he explained, going a
+shade redder.
+
+"When did you return?" she asked. "I thought to-morrow was--"
+
+"Leslie never has any to-morrows, Miss Castleton," explained Vivian.
+"He always does to-morrow's work to-day. That's why he never has
+any troubles ahead of him."
+
+"What rot!" exclaimed Leslie.
+
+"Where is Mr. Booth?" inquired Sara. "Wouldn't he come in, Hetty?"
+
+"I--I didn't think to ask him to stop for luncheon," she replied,
+and then hurried off to her room to make herself presentable.
+
+"Don't be long," called out Sara.
+
+"We are starving," added Vivian.
+
+"Vivian!" exclaimed her mother, in a shocked voice.
+
+"Well, _I_ am," declared her daughter promptly.
+
+"You know you NEVER eat anything in the middle of the day," said
+her mother, frowning. As Sara was paying no attention to their
+remarks, Mrs. Wrandall was obliged to deliver the supplemental
+explanation to Leslie, who hadn't the remotest interest in the
+matter. "She's so silly about getting fat."
+
+Hetty was in a state of nervous excitement during the luncheon.
+The encounter with Booth had not resulted at all as she had fancied
+it would. She had betrayed herself in a most disconcerting manner,
+and now was more deeply involved than ever before. She had been
+determined at the outset, she had failed, and now he had a claim--an
+incontestable claim against her. She found it difficult to meet
+Sara's steady, questioning gaze. She wanted to be alone.
+
+"I suppose you have heard nothing recent from poor Lord Murgatroyd,"
+Mrs. Wrandall was saying to her, in a most sympathetic tone.
+
+Hetty scarcely grasped the importance of the remark. She looked
+rather blankly at their guest.
+
+Sara stepped into the breach. "What do the morning despatches say,
+Mrs. Wrandall?"
+
+"He is sinking rapidly, I fear. Of course, his extreme age is
+against him. How old is he, Miss Castleton?"
+
+"I--I haven't the remotest idea, Mrs. Wrandall," said the girl.
+"He is very, very old."
+
+"Ninety-two, the Sun says," supplied Vivian.
+
+There was an unaccountable silence.
+
+"I suppose there is--ah--really no hope," said Mrs. Redmond Wrandall
+at last.
+
+"I fear not," said Hetty composedly. "Except for the heirs-at-law."
+
+Mrs. Wrandall sat up a little straighter in her chair. "Dear me,"
+she said.
+
+"They've been waiting for a good many years," commented Hetty,
+without emotion. "Of course, Mrs. Wrandall, you understand that
+I am not one of those who will profit by his death. The estate is
+entailed. I am quite outside the walls."
+
+"I did not know the--ah--"
+
+"My father may come in for a small interest. He is in England at
+present on furlough. But there are a great many near relatives to
+be fed before the bowl of plenty gets to him."
+
+"Dear, dear!" murmured Mrs. Wrandall, quite appalled by her way
+of putting it. Leslie looked at her and coughed. "What a delicious
+dressing you have for these alligator pears, Sara," she went on,
+veering quickly. "You must tell me how it is made."
+
+After luncheon, Leslie drew Sara aside.
+
+"I must say she doesn't seem especially overjoyed to see me," he
+growled. "She's as cool as ice."
+
+"What do you expect, Leslie?" she demanded with some asperity.
+
+"I can't stand this much longer, Sara," he said. "Don't you see
+how things are going? She's losing her heart to Booth."
+
+"I don't see how we can prevent it."
+
+"By gad, I'll have another try at it--to-night. I say, has she
+said--anything?"
+
+"She pities you," said she, a malicious joy in her soul. "That's
+akin to something else, you know."
+
+"Confound it all, I don't want to be pitied!"
+
+"Then I'd advise you to defer your 'try' at it," she remarked.
+
+"I'm mad about her, Sara. I can't sleep, I can't think, I can't--yes,
+I CAN eat, but it doesn't taste right to me. I've just got to have
+it settled. Why, people are beginning to notice the change in me.
+They say all sorts of things. About my liver, and all that sort
+of thing. I'm going to settle it to-night. It's been nearly three
+weeks now. She's surely had time to think it over; how much better
+everything will be for her, and all that. She's no fool, Sara. And
+do you know what Vivian's doing this very instant over there in the
+corner? She's inviting her to spend a fortnight over at our place.
+If she comes,--well, that means the engagement will be announced
+at once."
+
+Sara did not marvel at his assurance in the face of what had gone
+before. She knew him too well. In spite of the original rebuff,
+he was thoroughly satisfied in his own mind that Hetty Castleton
+would not be such a fool as to refuse him the second time.
+
+"It is barely possible, Leslie," she said, "that she may consider
+Brandon Booth quite as good a catch as you, and infinitely better
+looking at the present moment."
+
+"It's this beastly sunburn," he lamented, rubbing his nose gently,
+thinking first of his person. An instant later he was thinking
+of the other half of the declaration. "That's just what I've been
+afraid of," he said. "I told you what would happen if that portrait
+nonsense went on for ever. It's your fault, Sara."
+
+"But I have reason to believe she will not accept him, if it goes
+so far as that. You are quite safe in that direction."
+
+"'Gad, I'd hate to risk it," he muttered. "I have a feeling she's
+in love with him."
+
+Vivian approached. "Sara, you must let me have Miss Castleton for
+the first two weeks in July," she said serenely.
+
+"I can't do it, Vivian," said the other promptly. "I can't bear
+the thought of being alone in this big old barn of a place. Nice
+of you to want her, but--"
+
+"Oh, don't be selfish, Sara," cried Vivian.
+
+"You don't know how much I depend on her," said Sara.
+
+"I'd ask you over, too, dear, if there weren't so many others coming.
+I don't know where we're going to put them. You understand, don't
+you?"
+
+"Perfectly," said her sister-in-law, smiling.
+
+"But I've been counting on--Hetty."
+
+"I say, Sara," broke in Leslie, "you COULD go up to Bar Harbour
+with the Williamsons at that time. Tell her about the invitation,
+Vivie."
+
+"It isn't necessary," said Sara coldly. "I scarcely know the
+Williamsons." She hesitated an instant and then went on with sardonic
+dismay: "They're in trade, you know."
+
+"That's nothing against 'em," protested he. "Awfully jolly
+people--really ripping. Ain't they, Viv?"
+
+"I don't know them well enough to say," said Vivian, turning away.
+"I only know we're all snobs of the worst sort."
+
+"Just a minute, Viv," he called out. "What does Miss Castleton
+say about coming ?" It was an eager question. Much depended on the
+reply.
+
+"I haven't asked her," said his sister succinctly. "How could I,
+without first consulting Sara?"
+
+"Then, you don't intend to ask her?"
+
+"Certainly not."
+
+"Oh, I'll fix it up with Sara," said he confidently.
+
+"Eh, Sara?"
+
+"I'd suggest that you 'fix it up' with Miss Castleton," said Sara
+pointedly.
+
+Vivian shot a swift glance over her shoulder at her sister-in-law,
+and then broke into a good-humoured laugh. She joined Hetty and
+Mrs.  Redmond Wrandall.
+
+"Sometimes I feel that I really like Vivian," observed Sara, as
+much to herself as to Leslie. "She's above the board, at least."
+
+"Disagreeable as the devil at times, though," said he, biting his
+lip.
+
+After the Wrandalls had departed, Sara took Hetty off to her room.
+The girl knew what was coming.
+
+"Hetty," said the older woman, facing her after she had closed
+the door of her boudoir, "what is going on between you and Brandon
+Booth? I must have the truth. Are you doing anything foolish?"
+
+"Foolish? Heaven help me, no! It--it is a tragedy," cried Hetty,
+meeting her gaze with one of utter despair.
+
+"What has happened? Tell me!"
+
+"What am I to do, Sara darling? He--he has told me that he--he--"
+
+"Loves you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"And you have told him that his love is returned?"
+
+"I couldn't help it. I was carried away. I did not mean to let him
+see that I--"
+
+"You are such a novice in the business of love," said Sara sneeringly.
+"You are in the habit of being carried away, I fear."
+
+"Oh, Sara!"
+
+"You must put a stop to all this at once. How can you think of
+marrying him, Hetty Glynn? Send him--"
+
+"I do not intend to marry him," said the girl, suddenly calm and
+dignified.
+
+"I am to draw but one conclusion, I suppose," said the other,
+regarding the girl intently.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"Is it necessary to ask that question?"
+
+The puzzled expression remained in the girl's eyes for a time, and
+then slowly gave way to one of absolute horror.
+
+"How dare you suggest such a thing?" she cried, turning pale, then
+crimson. "How dare you?"
+
+Sara laughed shortly. "Isn't the inference a natural one? You are
+forgetting yourself."
+
+"I understand," said the girl, through pallid lips. Her eyes were
+dark with pain and misery. "You think I am altogether bad." She
+drooped perceptibly.
+
+"You went to Burton's Inn," sententiously.
+
+"But, Sara, you must believe me. I did not know he was--married.
+For God's sake, do me the justice to--"
+
+"But you went there with him," insisted the other, her eyes hard
+as steel. "It doesn't matter whether he was married--or free. You
+WENT."
+
+Hetty threw herself upon her companion's breast and wound her strong
+young arms about her.
+
+"Sara, Sara, you must let me explain--you must let me tell you
+everything. Don't stop me! You have refused to hear my plea--"
+
+"And I still refuse!" cried Sara, throwing her off angrily. "Good
+God, do you think I will listen to you? If you utter another word,
+I will--strangle you!"
+
+Hetty shrank back, terrified. Slowly she moved backward in the
+direction of the door, never taking her eyes from the impassioned
+face of her protector.
+
+"Don't, Sara, please don't!" she begged. "Don't look at me like
+that! I promise--I promise. Forgive me! I would not give you an
+instant's pain for all the world. You would suffer, you would--"
+
+Sara suddenly put her hands over her eyes. A single moan escaped
+her lips--a hoarse gasp of pain.
+
+"Dearest!" cried Hetty, springing to her side.
+
+Sara threw her head up and met her with a cold, repelling look.
+
+"Wait!" she commanded. "The time has come when you should know what
+is in my mind, and has been for months and months. It concerns you.
+I expect you to marry Leslie Wrandall."
+
+Hetty stopped short.
+
+"How can you jest with me, Sara?" she cried, suddenly indignant.
+
+"I am not jesting," said Sara levelly.
+
+"You--you--really mean--what you have just said?" The puzzled look
+gave way to one of revulsion. A great shudder swept over her.
+
+"Leslie Wrandall must pay his brother's debt to you."
+
+"My God!" fell from the girl's stiff lips. "You--you must be going
+mad--mad!"
+
+Sara laughed softly. "I have meant it almost from the beginning,"
+she said. "It came to my mind the day that Challis was buried. It
+has never been out of it for an instant since that day. Now you
+understand."
+
+If she expected Hetty to fall into a fit of weeping, to collapse,
+to plead with her for mercy, she was soon to find herself mistaken.
+The girl straightened up suddenly and met her gaze with one in
+which there was the fierce determination. Her eyes were steady,
+her bosom heaved.
+
+"And I have loved you so devotedly--so blindly," she said, in low
+tones of scorn. "You have been hating me all these months while I
+thought you were loving me. What a fool I have been! I might have
+known. You COULDN'T love me."
+
+"When Leslie asks you to-night to marry him, you are to say that
+you will do so," said Sara, betraying no sign of having heard the
+bitter words.
+
+"I shall refuse, Sara," said Hetty, every vestige of colour gone
+from her face.
+
+"There is an alternative," announced the other deliberately.
+
+"You will expose me to--him? To his family?"
+
+"I shall turn you over to them, to let them do what they will with
+you. If you go as his wife, the secret is safe. If not, they may
+have you as you really are, to destroy, to annihilate. Take your
+choice, my dear."
+
+"And you, Sara?" asked the girl quietly. "What explanation will
+you have to offer for all these months of protection?"
+
+Her companion stared. "Has the prospect no terror for you?"
+
+"Not now. Not since I have found you out. The thing I have feared
+all along has come to pass. I am relieved, now that you show me
+just where I truly stand. But, I asked: what of you?"
+
+"The world is more likely to applaud than to curse me, Hetty. It
+likes a new sensation. My change of heart will appear quite natural."
+
+"Are you sure that the world will applaud your real design? You
+hate the Wrandalls. Will they be charitable toward you when the
+truth is given out? Will Leslie applaud you? Listen, please: I am
+trying to save you from yourself, Sara. You will fail in everything
+you have hoped for. You will be more accursed than I. The world
+will pity me, it may even forgive me. It will listen to my story,
+which is more than you will do, and it will believe me. Ah, I am
+not afraid now.  At first I was in terror. I had no hope of escape.
+All that is past.  To-day I am ready to take my chances with the
+big, generous world.  Men will try me, and men are not made of
+stone and steel. They punish but they do not avenge when they sit
+in jury boxes. They are not women! Good God, Sara, is there a man
+living to-day who could have planned this thing you have cherished
+all these months? Not one! And all men will curse you for it, even
+though they send me to prison or to the--chair. But they will not
+condemn me. They will hear my story and they will set me free. And
+then, what of you?"
+
+Sara stood perfectly rigid, regarding this earnest reasoner with
+growing wonder.
+
+"My dear," she said, "you would better be thinking of yourself,
+not of me."
+
+"Why, when I tell my story, the world will hate you, Sara Wrandall.
+You have helped me, you have been good to me, no matter what sinister
+motive you may have had in doing so. It is my turn to help you."
+
+"To help me!" cried Sara, astonished in spite of herself.
+
+"Yes. To save you from execration--and even worse."
+
+"There is no moral wrong in marriage with Leslie Wrandall," said
+Sara, returning to her own project.
+
+"No moral wrong!" cried Hetty, aghast. "No, I suppose not," she
+went on, a moment later. "It is something much deeper, much blacker
+than moral wrong. There is no word for it. And if I marry him,
+what then?  Wherein lies your triumph? You can't mean that--God
+in Heaven! You would not go to them with the truth when it was too
+late for him to--to cast me off!"
+
+"I am no such fool as that. The secret would be for ever safe in
+that event. My triumph, as you call it, we will not discuss."
+
+"How you must hate me, to be willing to do such an infamous thing
+to me!"
+
+"I do not hate you, Hetty."
+
+"In heaven's name, what do you call it?"
+
+"Justification. Listen to me now. I am saying this for your good
+sense to seize and appreciate. Would it be right in me to allow
+you to marry any other man, knowing all that I know? There is but
+one man you can in justice marry: the one who can repair the wreck
+that his own blood created. Not Brandon Booth, nor any man save
+Leslie Wrandall. He is the man who must pay."
+
+"I do not intend to marry," said Hetty.
+
+"But Leslie will marry some one, and I intend that it shall be you.
+He shall marry the ex-chorus girl, the artist's model, the--the
+prostitute! Wait! Don't fly at me like that! Don't assume that
+look of virtuous horror! Let me say what I have to say. This much
+of your story shall they know, and no more. They will be proud of
+you!"
+
+Hetty's eyes were blazing. "You use that name--you call me THAT--and
+yet you have kissed me, caressed me--loved me!" she cried hoarse
+with passion.
+
+"He will ask you to-night for the second time. You will accept him.
+That is all."
+
+"You must take back what you have just said to me--of me,--Sara
+Wrandall. You must unsay it! You must beg my pardon for THAT!"
+
+"I draw no line between mistress and prostitute."
+
+"But I--"
+
+"Enough!"
+
+"You wrong me vilely! You must let me--"
+
+"I have an excellent memory, and it serves me well."
+
+Hetty suddenly threw herself upon the couch and buried her face in
+her arms. Great sobs shook her slender frame.
+
+Sara stood over her and watched for a long time with pitiless eyes.
+Then a queer, uneasy, wondering light began to develop in those
+dark, ominous eyes. She leaned forward the better to listen to the
+choked, inarticulate words that were pouring from the girl's lips.
+At last, moved by some power she could not have accounted for,
+she knelt beside the quivering body, and laid her hand, almost
+timorously, upon the girl's shoulder.
+
+"Hetty,--Hetty, if I have wronged you in--in thinking that of
+you,--I--I--" she began brokenly. Then she lifted her eyes, and
+the harsh light tried to steal back into them. "No, no! What am I
+saying? What a fool I am to give way--"
+
+"You have wronged me--terribly, terribly!" came in smothered tones
+from the cushions. "I did not dream you thought that of me."
+
+"What was I to think?"
+
+Hetty lifted her head and cried out: "You would not let me speak!
+You refused to hear my story. You have been thinking this of me all
+along, holding it against me, damning me with it, and I have been
+closer to you than--My God, what manner of woman are you?"
+
+Sara seized her hands and held them in a fierce, tense grip. Her
+eyes were glowing with a strange fire.
+
+"Tell me--tell me now, on your soul, Hetty;--were you--were you--"
+
+"No! No! On my soul, no!"
+
+"Look into my eyes!"
+
+The girl's eyes did not falter. She met the dark, penetrating
+gaze of the other and, though dimmed by tears, her blue eyes were
+steadfast and resolute. Sara seemed to be searching the very soul
+of her, the soul that laid itself bare, denuded of every vestige
+of guile.
+
+"I--I think I believe you," came slowly from the lips of the
+searcher. "You are looking the truth. I can see it. Hetty, Hetty,
+I--I don't understand myself. It is so--so overwhelming, so
+tremendous. It is so incredible. Am I really believing you? Is it
+possible that I have been wrong in--"
+
+"Let me tell you everything," cried the girl, suddenly throwing
+her arms about her.
+
+"Not now! Wait! Give me time to think. Go away now. I want to be
+alone." She arose and pushed the girl toward the door. Her eyes
+were fixed on her in a wondering, puzzled sort of way, and she was
+shaking her head as if trying to discredit the new emotion that
+had come to displace the one created ages ago.
+
+Slowly Hetty Castleton retreated toward the door. With her hand on
+the knob, she paused.
+
+"After what has happened, Sara, you must not expect me to stay with
+you any longer. I cannot. You may give me up to the law, but--"
+
+Some one was tapping gently on the door.
+
+"Shall I see who it is?" asked the girl, after a long period of
+silence.
+
+"Yes."
+
+It was Murray. "Mr. Leslie has returned, Miss Castleton, and asks
+if he may see you at once. He says it is very important."
+
+"Tell him I will be down in a few minutes, Murray."
+
+After the door closed, she waited until the footman's steps died
+away on the stairs.
+
+"I shall say no to him, Sara, and I shall say to him that you
+will tell him why I cannot be his wife. Do you understand? Are you
+listening to me?"
+
+Sara turned away without a word or look of response.
+
+Hetty quietly opened the door and went out.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE SECOND ENCOUNTER
+
+
+
+
+Booth trudged rapidly homeward after leaving Hetty at the lodge. He
+was throbbing all over with the love of her. The thrill of conquest
+was in his blood. She had raised a mysterious barrier; all the more
+zest to the inevitable victory that would be his. He would delight
+in overcoming obstacles--the bigger the better,--for his heart
+was valiant and the prize no smaller than those which the ancient
+knights went out to battle for in the lists of love. He had held
+her in his arms, he had kissed her, he had breathed of her fragrant
+hair, he had felt the beating of her frightened heart against his
+body. With the memory of all this to lift him to the heights of
+divine exaltation, he was unable to conjure up a finer triumph than
+the winning of her after the manner of the knights of old, to whom
+opposition was life, denial a boon.
+
+It was enough for the present to know that she loved him.
+
+What if she were Hetty Glynn? What if she had been an artist's
+model? The look he had had into the soul of her through those pure
+blue eyes was all-convincing. She was worthy of the noblest love.
+
+After luncheon--served with some exasperation by Patrick an hour
+and a half later than usual--he smoked his pipe on the porch and
+stared reminiscently at the shifting clouds above the tree-tops,
+and with a tenderness about the lips that must have surprised and
+gratified the stubby, ill-used brier, inanimate confederate in many
+a lofty plot.  He recalled all she had said to him in that sylvan
+confessional, and was content. His family? Pooh! He had a soul of
+his own. It needed its mate.
+
+He did not see the Wrandall motor at his garden gate until a lusty
+voice brought him down from the clouds into the range of earthly
+sounds. Then he dashed out to the gate, bareheaded and coatless,
+forgetting that he had been sitting in the obscurity of trailing
+vines and purple blossoms the while he thought of her.
+
+Leslie was sitting on the wide seat between his mother and sister.
+
+"Glad to see you back, old man," said Booth, reaching in to shake
+hands with him. "Day early, aren't you? Good-afternoon, Mrs.
+Wrandall. Won't you come in?"
+
+He looked at Vivian as he gave the invitation.
+
+"No, thanks," she replied. "Won't you come to dinner this evening?"
+
+He hesitated. "I'm not quite sure whether I can, Vivian. I've got
+a half-way sort of--"
+
+"Oh, do, old chap," cut in Leslie, more as a command than an
+entreaty. "Sorry I can't be there myself, but you'll fare quite as
+well without me. I'm dining at Sara's. Wants my private ear about
+one thing and another--see what I mean?"
+
+"We shall expect you, Brandon," said Mrs. Wrandall, fixing him with
+her lorgnette.
+
+"I'll come, thank you," said he.
+
+He felt disgustingly transparent under that inquisitive glass.
+
+Wrandall stepped out of the car. "I'll stop off for a chat with
+Brandy, mother."
+
+"Shall I send the car back, dear?"
+
+"Never mind. I'll walk down."
+
+The two men turned in at the gate as the car sped away.
+
+"Well," said Booth, "it's good to see you. Pat!" He called through
+a basement window. "Come up and take the gentleman's order."
+
+"No drink for me, Brandy. I've been in the temperance State of Maine
+for two weeks. One week more of it and I'd have been completely
+pickled. I shall always remember Maine." He dropped into a broad
+wicker chair and felt tenderly of his nose. "'Gad, I'm not quite
+sure that the sun did it, old man. It was dreadful."
+
+Booth grinned. "Do any fishing?"
+
+"Yes. The first day. Oh, you needn't look at me like that. I'm
+back in the narrow path." After a moment of painful reflection, he
+added, "We didn't see water after the first day. I'm just beginning
+to get used to the taste of it again."
+
+"Never mind, Pat," said Booth, as the servant appeared in the
+doorway. "Mr. Wrandall is not suffering."
+
+"You know I'm not a drinking man," declared Leslie, a pathetic note
+of appeal in his voice. "I hate the stuff."
+
+"It is a good thing to let alone."
+
+"And don't I let it alone? You never saw me tight in your life."
+
+Booth sat down on the porch rail, hooked his toes in the supports
+and proceeded to fill his pipe. Then he struck a match and applied
+it, Leslie watching him with moody eyes.
+
+"How do you like the portrait, old man?" he inquired between
+punctuating puffs.
+
+"It's bully. Sargent never did anything finer. Ripping."
+
+"I owe it all to you, Les."
+
+"To me?"
+
+"You induced her to sit to me."
+
+"So I did," said Leslie sourly. "I was Mr. Fix-it sure enough."
+He allowed a short interval to elapse before taking the plunge. "I
+suppose, old chap, if I should happen to need your valuable services
+as best man in the near future, you'd not disappoint me?"
+
+Booth eyed him quizzically. "I trust you're not throwing yourself
+away, Les," he said drily. "I mean to say, on some one--well, some
+one not quite up to the mark."
+
+Leslie regarded him with some severity. "Of course not, old chap.
+What the devil put that into your head?"
+
+"I thought that possibly you'd been making a chump of yourself up
+in the Maine woods."
+
+"Piffle! Don't be an ass. What's the sense pretending you don't
+know who she is?"
+
+"I suppose it's Hetty Castleton," said Booth, puffing away at his
+pipe.
+
+"Who else?"
+
+"Think she'll have you, old man?" asked Booth, after a moment.
+
+"I don't know," replied the other, a bit dashed. "You might wish
+me luck, though."
+
+Booth knocked the burnt tobacco from the bowl of his pipe. A serious
+line appeared between his eyes. He was a fair-minded fellow, without
+guile, without a single treacherous instinct.
+
+"I can't wish you luck, Les," he said slowly. "You see I'm--I'm in
+love with her myself."
+
+"The devil!" Leslie sat bolt upright and glared at him. "I might
+have known! And--and is SHE in love with you?"
+
+"My dear fellow, you reveal considerable lack of tact in asking
+that question."
+
+"What I want to know is this," exclaimed Wrandall, very pale but
+very hot: "is she going to marry you?"
+
+Booth smiled. "I'll be perfectly frank with you. She says she
+won't."
+
+Leslie gulped. "So you've asked her?"
+
+"Obviously."
+
+"And she said she wouldn't? She refused you? Turned you down?"
+His little moustache shot up at the ends and a joyous, triumphant
+laugh broke from his lips. "Oh, this is rich! Ha, ha! Turned you
+down, eh?  Poor old Brandy! You're my best friend, and dammit I'm
+sorry. I mean to say," he went on in some embarrassment, "I'm sorry
+for you. Of course, you can hardly expect me to--er--"
+
+"Certainly not," accepted Booth amiably. "I quite understand."
+
+"Then, since she's refused you, you might wish ME better luck."
+
+"That would mean giving up hope."
+
+"Hope?" exclaimed Leslie quickly. "You don't mean to say you'll
+annoy her with your--"
+
+"No, I shall not annoy her," replied his friend, shaking his head.
+
+"Well, I should hope not," said Leslie with a scowl. "Turned you
+down, eh? 'Pon my soul!" He appeared to be relishing the idea of
+it.  "Sorry, old chap, but I suppose you understand just what that
+means."
+
+Booth's lips hardened for an instant, then relaxed into a queer,
+almost pitying smile.
+
+"And you want me to be your best man?" he said reflectively.
+
+Leslie arose. His chest seemed to swell a little; assuredly he was
+breathing much easier. He assumed an air of compassion.
+
+"I shan't insist, old fellow, if you feel you'd rather not--er--See
+what I mean?" It then occurred to him to utter a word or two of
+kindly advice. "I shouldn't go on hoping if I were you, Brandy.
+'Pon my soul, I shouldn't. Take it like a man. I know it hurts
+but--Pooh!  What's the use aggravating the pain by butting against
+a stone wall?"
+
+His companion looked out over the tree-tops, his hands in his
+trouser pockets, and it must be confessed that his manner was not
+that of one who is oppressed by despair.
+
+"I think I'm taking it like a man, Les," he said. "I only hope
+you'll take it as nicely if she says nay to you."
+
+An uneasy look leaped into Leslie's face. He seemed noticeably
+less corpulent about the chest. He wondered if Booth knew anything
+about his initial venture. A question rose to his lips, but he
+thought quickly and held it back. Instead, he glanced at his watch.
+
+"I must be off. See you to-morrow, I hope."
+
+"So long," said Booth, stopping at the top of the steps while his
+visitor skipped down to the gate with a nimbleness that suggested
+the formation of a sudden resolve.
+
+Leslie did not waste time in parting inanities; he strode off briskly
+in the direction of home, but not without a furtive glance out of
+the tail of his eye as he disappeared beyond the hedge-row at the
+end of Booth's garden. That gentleman was standing where he had
+left him, and was filling his pipe once more.
+
+The day was warm, and Leslie was in a dripping perspiration when
+he reached home. He did not enter the house but made his way direct
+to the garage.
+
+"Get out the car at once, Brown," was his order.
+
+Three minutes later he was being driven over the lower road toward
+Southlook, taking good care to avoid Booth's place by the matter
+of a mile or more. He was in a fever of hope and eagerness. It was
+very plain to him why she had refused to marry Booth. The iron was
+hot.  He didn't intend to lose any time in striking.
+
+And now we know why he came again to Sara's in the middle of
+a blazing afternoon, instead of waiting until the more seductive
+shades of night had fallen, when the moon sat serene in the seat
+of the Mighty.
+
+He didn't have to wait long for Hetty. Up to the instant of
+her appearance in the door, he had revelled in the thought that
+the way was now paved with roses. But with her entrance, he felt
+his confidence and courage slipping. Perhaps that may explain the
+abruptness with which he proceeded to go about the business in
+hand.
+
+"I couldn't wait till to-night," he explained as she came slowly
+across the room toward him. She was half way to him before he awoke
+to the fact that he was standing perfectly still. Then he started
+forward, somehow impelled to meet her at least half-way. "You'll
+forgive me, Hetty, if I have disturbed you."
+
+"I was not lying down, Mr. Wrandall," she said quietly. There was
+nothing ominous in the words, but he experienced a sudden sensation
+of cold. "Won't you sit down? Or would you rather go out to the
+terrace?"
+
+"It's much more comfortable here, if you don't mind. I--I suppose
+you know what it is I want to say to you. You--"
+
+"Yes," she interrupted wearily; "and knowing as much, Mr. Wrandall,
+it would not be fair of me to let you go on."
+
+"Not fair?" he said, in honest amazement. "But, my dear, I--"
+
+"Please, Mr. Wrandall," she exclaimed, with a pleading little smile
+that would have touched the heart of any one but Leslie. "Please
+don't go on. It is quite as impossible now as it was before. I have
+not changed."
+
+He could only say, mechanically: "You haven't?"
+
+"No. I am sorry if you have thought that I might come to--"
+
+"Think, for heaven's sake, think what you are doing!" he cried,
+feeling for the edge of the table with a support-seeking hand.
+"I--I had Sara's word that you were not--"
+
+"Unfortunately Sara cannot speak for me in a matter of this kind.
+Thank you for the honour you would--"
+
+"Honour be hanged!" he blurted out, losing his temper. "I love you!
+It's a purely selfish thing with me, and I'm blowed if I consider
+it an honour to be refused by any woman. I--"
+
+"Mr. Wrandall!" she cried, fixing him with her flashing, indignant
+eyes. "You are forgetting yourself." She was standing very straight
+and slim and imperious before him.
+
+He quailed. "I--I beg your pardon. I--I--"
+
+"There is nothing more to be said," she went on icily. "Good-bye."
+
+"Would you mind telling me whether there is any one else?" he asked,
+as he turned toward the door.
+
+"Do you really feel that you have the right to ask that question,
+Mr. Wrandall?"
+
+He wet his lips with his tongue. "Then, there IS some one!"
+he cried, rapping the table with his knuckles. He didn't realise
+till afterward how vigorously he rapped. "Some confounded English
+nobody, I suppose."
+
+She smiled, not unkindly. "There is no English nobody, if that
+answers your question."
+
+"Then, will you be kind enough to offer a reason for not giving me
+a fair chance in a clear field? I think it's due--"
+
+"Can't you see how you are distressing me? Must I again go through
+that horrid scene in the garden? Can't you take a plain no for an
+answer?"
+
+"Good Lord!" he gasped, and in those two words he revealed the
+complete overturning of a life-long estimate of himself. It seemed
+to take more than his breath away.
+
+"Good-bye," she said with finality.
+
+He stared at the door through which she disappeared, his hopes,
+his conceit, his self-regard trailing after her with shameless
+disloyalty to the standards he had set for them, and then, with a
+rather ghastly smile of self-commiseration on his lips, he slipped
+out of the house, jumped into the motor car, and gave a brief but
+explicit command to the chauffeur, who lost no time in assisting
+his master to turn tail in ignominious flight.
+
+Hetty was gloomily but resolutely employed in laying out certain of
+her personal belongings, preparatory to packing them for departure,
+when Sara entered her room.
+
+They regarded each other steadily, questioningly for a short space
+of time.
+
+"Leslie has just called up to ask 'what the devil' I meant by
+letting him make a fool of himself," said Sara, with a peculiar
+little twisted smile on her lips.
+
+Hetty offered no comment, but after a moment gravely and rather
+wistfully called attention to her present occupation by a significant
+flaunt of her hand and a saddened smile.
+
+"I see," said Sara, without emotion. "If you choose to go, Hetty,
+I shall not oppose you."
+
+"My position here is a false one, Sara. I prefer to go."
+
+"This morning I should have held a sword over your head."
+
+"It is very difficult for me to realise all that has happened."
+
+"You are free to depart. You are free in every sense of the word.
+Your future rests with yourself, my dear."
+
+"It hurts me more than I can tell to feel that you have been hating
+me all these months."
+
+"It hurts me--now."
+
+Hetty walked to the window and looked out.
+
+"What are your plans?" Sara inquired, after an interval.
+
+"I shall seek employment--and wait for you to act."
+
+"I? You mean?"
+
+"I shall not run away, Sara. Nor do I intend to reveal myself to
+the authorities. I am not morally guilty of crime. A year ago I
+feared the consequences of my deed, but I have learned much since
+then. I was a stranger in a new world. In England we have been led
+to believe that you lynch women here as readily as you lynch men.
+I now know better than that. From you alone I learned my greatest
+lesson.  You revealed to me the true meaning of human kindness.
+You shielded me who should not. Even now I believe that your first
+impulse was a tender one. I shall not forget it, Sara. You will
+live to regret the baser thought that came later on. I have loved
+you--yes, almost as a good dog loves his master. It is not for me
+to tell the story of that night and all these months to the world.
+I would not be betraying myself, but you. You would be called upon
+to explain, not I. And you would be the one to suffer. When you met
+me on the road that night I was on my way back to the inn to give
+myself into custody. You have made it impossible for me to do so
+now. My lips are sealed. It rests with you, Sara."
+
+Sara joined her in the broad window. There was a strangely exalted
+look in her face. A gilded bird-cage hung suspended in the casement.
+Without a word, she threw open the window screen. The gay little
+canary in the gilded cage cocked his head and watched her with
+alert eyes. Then she reached up and gently removed the cage from
+its fastenings. Putting it down upon the window sill, she opened
+the tiny door. The bird hopped about his prison in a state of great
+excitement.
+
+Hetty looked on, fascinated.
+
+At last a yellow streak shot out through the open door and an instant
+later resolved itself into the bobbing, fluttering dicky-bird that
+had lived in a cage all its life without an hour of freedom. For
+a few seconds it circled over the tree-tops and then alighted on
+one of the branches. One might well have imagined that he could
+hear its tiny heart beating with terror. Its wings were half-raised
+and fluttering, its head jerking from side to side in wild
+perturbation. Taking courage, Master Dicky hopped timorously to a
+nearby twig, and then ventured a flight to a tree-top nearer the
+window casement. Perched in its topmost branches he cheeped shrilly,
+as if there was fear in his little breast.
+
+In silence the two women in the window watched the agitated movements
+of the bird. The same thought was in the mind of each, the same
+question, the same intense wish.
+
+A brown thrush sped through the air, close by the timid canary. Like
+a flash it dropped to the twigs lower down, its wings palpitating
+in violent alarm.
+
+"Dicky!" called Sara Wrandall, and then cheeped between her teeth.
+
+A moment later Dicky was fluttering about the eaves; his circles
+grew smaller, his winging less rhythmic, till at last with a nervous
+little flutter he perched on the top of the window shutter, so
+near that they might have reached to him with their hands. He sat
+there with his head cocked to one side.
+
+"Dicky!" called Sara again. This time she held out her finger. For
+some time he regarded it with indifference, not to say disfavour.
+Then he took one more flight, but much shorter than the first,
+bringing up again at the shutter-top. A second later he hopped down
+and his little talons gripped Sara's finger with an earnestness
+that left no room for doubt.
+
+She lowered her hand until it was even with the open door of the
+gilded cage. He shot inside with a whir that suggested a scramble.
+With his wings folded, he sat on his little trapeze and cheeped.
+She closed and fastened the door, and then turned to Hetty.
+
+"My symbol," she said softly.
+
+There were tears in Hetty's eyes.
+
+Leslie did not turn up at his father's place in the High Street
+that night until Booth was safely out of the way. He spent a dismal
+evening at the boat club.
+
+His father and mother were in the library when he came in at
+half-past ten. From a dark corner of the garden he had witnessed
+Booth's early departure. Vivian had gone down to the gate in the
+low-lying hedge with her visitor. She came in a moment after Leslie's
+entrance.
+
+"Hello, Les," she said, bending an inquiring eye upon him. "Isn't
+this early for you?"
+
+Her brother was standing near the fireplace.
+
+"There's a heavy dew falling, Mater," he said gruffly. "Shan't I
+touch a match to the kindling?"
+
+His mother came over to him quickly, and laid her hand on his arm.
+
+"Your coat is damp," she said anxiously. "Yes, light the fire."
+
+"It's very warm in this room," said Mr. Wrandall, looking up from
+his book. They were always doing something for Leslie's comfort.
+
+No one seemed to notice him. Leslie knelt and struck a match.
+
+"Well?" said Vivian.
+
+"Well what?" he demanded without looking up.
+
+His sister took a moment for thought. "Is Hetty coming to stay with
+us in July?"
+
+He stood erect, first rubbing his knee to dislodge the dust,--then
+his palms.
+
+"No, she isn't coming," he said. He drew a very long breath--the
+first in several hours--and then expelled it vocally. "She has
+refused to marry me."
+
+Mr. Wrandall turned a leaf in his book; it sounded like the crack
+of doom, so still had the room become.
+
+Vivian had the forethought to push a chair toward her mother. It
+was a most timely act on her part, for Mrs. Wrandall sat down very
+abruptly and very limply.
+
+"She--WHAT?" gasped Leslie's mother.
+
+"Turned me down--cold," said Leslie briefly.
+
+Mr. Wrandall laid his book on the table without thinking to put the
+bookmark in place. Then he arose and removed his glasses, fumbling
+for the case.
+
+"She--she--WHAT?" he demanded.
+
+"Sacked me," replied his son.
+
+"Please do not jest with me, Leslie," said his mother, trying to
+smile.
+
+"He isn't joking, mother," said Vivian, with a shrug of her fine
+shoulders.
+
+"He--he MUST be," cried Mrs. Wrandall impatiently. "What did she
+REALLY say, Leslie?"
+
+"The only thing I remember was 'good-bye,'" said he, and then blew
+his nose violently.
+
+"Poor old Les!" said Vivian, with real feeling.
+
+"It was Sara Gooch's doing!" exclaimed Mrs. Wrandall, getting her
+breath at last.
+
+"Nonsense," said Mr. Wrandall, picking up his book once more and
+turning to the place where the bookmark lay, after which he proceeded
+to re-read four or five pages before discovering his error.
+
+No one spoke for a matter of five minutes or more. Then Mrs.  Wrandall
+got up, went over to the library table and closed with a snap the
+bulky blue book with the limp leather cover, saying as she held
+it up to let him see that it was the privately printed history of
+the Murgatroyd family:
+
+"It came by post this evening from London. She is merely a fourth
+cousin, my son."
+
+He looked up with a gleam of interest in his eye.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+CROSSING THE CHANNEL
+
+
+
+
+Booth, restless with a vague uneasiness that had come over him
+during the night, keeping him awake until nearly dawn, was hard put
+during the early hours of the forenoon to find occupation for his
+interest until a seasonable time arrived for appearing at Southlook.  He
+was unable to account for this feeling of uncertainty and irritation.
+
+At nine he set out to walk over to Southlook, realising that he should
+have to spend an hour in profitless gossip with the lodge-keeper
+before presenting himself at the villa, but somehow relishing the
+thought that even so he would be nearer to Hetty than if he remained
+in his own door-yard.
+
+Half-way there he was overtaken by Sara's big French machine returning
+from the village. The car came to a standstill as he stepped aside
+to let it pass, and Sara herself leaned over and cordially invited
+him to get in and ride home with her.
+
+"What an early bird you are," he exclaimed as he took his seat
+beside her.
+
+She was not in a mood for airy persiflage, as he soon discovered.
+
+"Miss Castleton has gone up to town, Mr. Booth," she said rather
+lifelessly. "I have just taken her to the station. She caught the
+eight-thirty."
+
+He was at once solicitous. "No bad news, I hope?" There was no
+thought in his mind that her absence was other than temporary.
+
+"She is not coming back, Brandon." She had not addressed him as
+Brandon before.
+
+He stared. "You--you mean--" The words died on his lips.
+
+"She is not coming back," she repeated.
+
+An accusing gleam leaped into his eyes.
+
+"What has happened, Mrs. Wrandall?" he asked.
+
+She was quick to perceive the change in his voice and manner.
+
+"She prefers to live apart from me. That is all."
+
+"When was this decision reached?"
+
+"But yesterday. Soon after she came in from her walk with you."
+
+"Do--do you mean to imply that THAT had anything to do with her
+leaving your home?" he demanded, with a flush on his cheek.
+
+She met his look without flinching. "It was the beginning."
+
+"You--you criticised her? You took her to task--"
+
+"I notified her that she was to marry Leslie Wrandall, if she
+marries any one at all," she said in a perfectly level tone.
+
+"Good Lord, Mrs. Wrandall!"
+
+"But she is not going to marry Leslie."
+
+"I know it--I knew it yesterday," he cried triumphantly. "She loves
+me, Sara. Didn't she say as much to you?"
+
+"Yes, Brandon, she loves you. But she will not be your wife."
+
+"What is all this mystery? Why can't she be my wife? What is there
+to prevent?"
+
+She regarded him with dark, inscrutable eyes. Many seconds passed
+before she spoke.
+
+"Would you want her for your wife if you knew she had belonged to
+another man?"
+
+He turned very cold. The palms of his hands were wet, as with
+ice-water. Something dark seemed to flit before his eyes.
+
+"I will not believe that of her," he said, shaking his head with
+an air of finality.
+
+"That is not an answer to my question."
+
+"Yes, I would still want her," he declared steadily.
+
+"I merely meant to put you to the harshest test," she said, and
+there was relief in her voice. "She is a good girl, she is pure.
+I asked my question because until yesterday I had reason to doubt
+her."
+
+"Good heavens, how could you doubt those honest, guiltless eyes
+of--"
+
+She shook her head sadly. "To answer you I would have to reveal
+the secret that makes it impossible for her to become your wife,
+and that I cannot, will not do."
+
+"Is it fair to me?"
+
+"Perhaps not, but it is fair to her, and that is why I must remain
+silent."
+
+"Before God, I shall know the truth,--from her, if not from
+you,--and--"
+
+"If you love her, if you will be kind to her, you will let her go
+her way in peace."
+
+He was struck by the somewhat sinister earnestness of her words.
+
+"Tell me where I may find her," he said, setting his jaw.
+
+"It will not be difficult for you to find her," she said, frowning,
+"if you insist on pursuing her."
+
+"You drive her away from your house, Sara Wrandall, and yet expect
+me to believe that your motives are friendly. Why should I accept
+your word as final?"
+
+"I did not drive her away, nor did I ask her to stay."
+
+He stared hard at her.
+
+"Good Lord, what is the meaning of all this?" he cried in perplexity.
+"What am I to understand?"
+
+The car had come to a stop under the porte cochere. She laid her
+hand on his arm.
+
+"If you will come in with me, Brandon, I will try to make some
+things clear to you."
+
+He left in half-an-hour, walking rapidly down the drive, his coat
+buttoned closely, although the morning was hot and breathless. He
+held in his hand a small scrap of paper on which was written: "If
+I loved you less, I would come to you now and lie to you. If you
+love me, Brandon, you will let me go my way. It is the only course.
+Sara is my friend, and she is yours. Be guided by her, and believe
+in my love for you. Hetty."
+
+And now, as things go in fairy stories, we should prepare ourselves
+to see Hetty pass through a season in drudgery and hardship, with
+the ultimate quintessence of joy as the reward for her trials and
+tribulations. Happily, this is not a fairy tale. There are some
+things more fantastic than fairy tales, if they are not spoiled in
+the telling. Hetty did not go forth to encounter drudgery, disdain
+and obloquy. By no manner of means! She went with a well-filled
+purse, a definite purpose ahead and a determined factor behind.
+
+In a manner befitting her station as the intimate friend of Mrs.
+Challis Wrandall, as the cousin of the Murgatroyds, as the daughter
+of Colonel Castleton of the Indian Corps, as a person supposed to
+be possessed of independent means withal, she went, with none to
+question, none to cavil.
+
+Sara had insisted on this, as much for her own sake as for Hetty's;
+she argued, and she had prevailed in the end. What would the world
+think, what would their acquaintances think, and above all what
+would the high and mighty Wrandalls think if she went with meek
+and lowly mien?
+
+Why should they make it possible for any one to look askance?
+
+And so it was that she departed in state, with a dozen trunks and
+boxes; an obsequiously attended seat in the parlour-car was hers;
+a telegram in her bag assured her that rooms were being reserved
+for herself and maid at the Ritz-Carlton; alongside it reposed a
+letter to Mr. Carroll, instructing him to provide her with sufficient
+funds to carry out the plan agreed upon; and in the seat behind
+sat the lady's maid who had served her for a twelve-month and more.
+
+The timely demise of the venerable Lord Murgatroyd afforded the
+most natural excuse for her trip to England. The old nobleman gave
+up the ghost, allowing for difference in time, at the very moment
+when Mrs.  Redmond Wrandall was undoing a certain package from
+London, which turned out to be a complete history of what his
+forebears had done in the way of propagation since the fourteenth
+century.
+
+Hetty did not find it easy to accommodate her pride to the plan
+which was to give her a fresh and rather imposing start in the
+world. She was to have a full year in which to determine whether she
+should accept toil and poverty as her lot, or emulate the symbolic
+example of Dicky the canary bird. At the end of the year, unless she
+did as Dicky had done, her source of supplies would be automatically
+cut off and she would be entirely dependent upon her own wits and
+resources. In the interim, she was a probationary person of leisure.
+It had required hours of persuasion on the part of Sara Wrandall
+to bring her into line with these arrangements.
+
+"But I am able and willing to work for my living," had been Hetty's
+stubborn retort to all the arguments brought to bear upon her.
+
+"Then let me put it in another light. It is vital to me, of course,
+that you should keep up the show of affluence for a while at least.
+I think I have made that clear to you. But here is another side to
+the matter; the question of recompense."
+
+"Recompense?" cried Hetty sharply.
+
+"Without your knowing it, I have virtually held you a prisoner all
+these months, condemned in my own judgment if not in the sight of
+the law. I have taken the law unto myself. You were not convicted
+of murder in this Unitarian court of mine, but of another sin. For
+fifteen months you have been living under the shadow of a crime you
+did not commit. I was reserving complete punishment for you in the
+shape of an ignoble marriage, which was to have served two bitter
+ends. Well, I have had the truth from you. I believe you to
+be absolutely innocent of the charge I held over you, for which I
+condemned you without a hearing. Then, why should I not employ my
+own means of making restitution?"
+
+"You have condescended to believe in me. That is all I ask."
+
+"True, that is all you ask. But is it altogether the fair way out of
+it? To illustrate: our criminal laws are less kind to the innocent
+than to the guilty. Our law courts find a man guilty and he is
+sent to prison. Later on, he is found to be innocent--absolutely
+innocent. What does the State do in the premises? It issues
+a formal pardon,--a mockery, pure and simple,--and the man is set
+free. It all comes to a curt, belated apology for an error on the
+part of justice. No substantial recompense is offered. He is merely
+pardoned for something he didn't do. The State, which has wronged
+him, condescends to pardon him! Think of it! It is the same as if
+a man knocked another down and then said, before he removed his
+foot from the victim's neck: 'I pardon you freely.' My father was
+opposed to the system we have--that all countries have--of pardoning
+men who have been unjustly condemned. The innocent victim is pardoned
+in the same manner as the guilty one who comes in for clemency. I
+accept my father's contention that an innocent man should not be
+shamed and humiliated by a PARDON. The court which tried him should
+re-open the case and honourably ACQUIT him of the crime. Then
+the State should pay to this innocent man, dollar for dollar, all
+that he might have earned during his term of imprisonment, with an
+additional amount for the suffering he has endured. Not long ago in
+an adjoining State a man, who had served seventeen years of a life
+sentence for murder, was found to be wholly innocent. What happened?
+A PARDON was handed to him and he walked out of prison, broken
+in spirit, health and purse. His small fortune had been wiped out
+in the futile effort to prove his innocence. He gave up seventeen
+years of his life and then WAS PARDONED for the sacrifice. He
+should have been paid for every day spent in prison. That was the
+very least they could have done."
+
+"I see now what you mean," mused Hetty. "I have never thought of
+it in that way before."
+
+"Well, it comes to this in our case, Hetty: I have tried you all
+over again in my own little court and I have acquitted you of the
+charge I had against you. I do not offer you a silly pardon. You
+must allow me to have my way in this matter, to choose my own means
+of compensating you for--"
+
+"You saved my life," protested Hetty, shaking her head obstinately.
+
+"My dear, I appreciate the fact that you are English," said Sara,
+with a weary smile, "but won't you PLEASE see the point?"
+
+Then Hetty smiled too, and the way was easier after that for Sara.
+She gained her quixotic point, and Hetty went away from Southlook
+feeling that no woman in all the world was so bewildering as Sara
+Wrandall.
+
+When she sailed for England, two days later, the newspapers announced
+that the beautiful and attractive Miss Castleton was returning to
+her native land on account of the death of Lord Murgatroyd, and
+would spend the year on the Continent, where probably she would
+be joined later on by Mrs. Wrandall, whose period of mourning and
+distress had been softened by the constant and loyal friendship of
+"this exquisite Englishwoman."
+
+Four hundred miles out at sea, she was overtaken by wireless messages
+from three persons.
+
+Brandon Booth's message said: "I am sailing to-morrow on a faster
+ship than yours. You will find me waiting for you on the landing
+stage." Her heart gave a leap to dizzy heights, and, try as she
+would, she could not crush it back to the depths in which it had
+dwelt for days.
+
+The second bit of pale green paper contained a cry from a most
+unexpected source: "Cable your London address. S. refuses to give it
+to me. I think I understand the situation. We want to make amends
+for what you have had to put up with during the year. She has shown
+her true nature at last." It was signed "Leslie."
+
+From Sara came these cryptic words: "For each year of famine there
+will come seven years of plenty."
+
+All the way across the Atlantic she lived in a state of subdued
+excitement. Conflicting emotions absorbed her waking hours but
+her dreams were all of one complexion: rosy and warm and full of
+a joyousness that distressed her vastly when she recalled them to
+mind in the early morning hours. During the day she intermittently
+hoped and feared that he would be on the landing stage. In any event,
+she was bound to find unhappiness. If he were there her joy would
+be short-lived and blighting; if he were not there, her disappointment
+would be equally hard to bear.
+
+He was there. She saw him from the deck of the tender as they
+edged up to the landing. His tall figure loomed in the front rank
+against the rail that held back the crowd; his sun-bronzed face
+wore a look of eager expectancy; from her obscured position in the
+shadow of the deck building, purposely chosen for reasons only too
+obvious, she could even detect the alert, swift-moving scrutiny
+that he fastened upon the crowd.
+
+Later on, he stood looking down into her serious blue eyes; her hands
+were lying limp in his. His own eyes were dark with earnestness,
+with the restraint that had fastened itself upon him.  Behind her
+stood the respectful but immeasurably awed maid, who could not,
+for the life of her, understand how a man could be on both sides
+of the Atlantic at one and the same time.
+
+"Thank the Lord, Hetty, say I, for the five day boats," he was
+saying.
+
+"You should not have come, Brandon," she cried softly, and the
+look of misery in her eyes was tinged with a glow she could not
+suppress.  "It only makes everything harder for me. I--I--Oh, I
+wish you had not come!"
+
+"But isn't it wonderful?" he cried, "that I should be here and
+waiting for you! It is almost inconceivable. And you were in the
+act of running away from me, too. Oh, I have that much of the tale
+from Sara, so don't look so hurt about it."
+
+"I am so sorry you came," she repeated, her lip trembling.
+
+Noting her emotion, he gave her hands a fierce, encouraging pressure
+and immediately released them.
+
+"Come," he said gently; "I have booked for London. Everything is
+arranged. I shall see to your luggage. Let me put you in the carriage
+first."
+
+As she sat in the railway carriage, waiting for him to return,
+she tried in a hundred ways to devise a means of escape, and yet
+she had never loved him so much as now. Her heart was sore, her
+desolation never so complete as now.
+
+He came back at last and took his seat beside her in the compartment,
+fanning himself with his hat. The maid very discreetly stared out
+of the window at the hurrying throng of travellers on the platform.
+One other person occupied the compartment with them, a crabbed
+Englishman who seemed to resent the fact that his seat was not next
+the window, and that maids should be encouraged to travel first
+class.
+
+"Isn't it really wonderful?" whispered Booth once more, quite as
+if he couldn't believe it himself. She smiled rather doubtfully.
+He was sitting quite close to her and leaning forward.
+
+The Englishman got up and went into the corridor to consult the
+conductor. One might have heard him say he'd very much prefer going
+into another compartment where it wouldn't be necessary for him
+to annoy a beastly American bride and groom--her maid and perhaps
+later on his man--all the way up to London.
+
+"How I love you--Hetty--how I adore you!" Booth whispered passionately.
+
+"Oh, Brandon!"
+
+"And I don't mean to give you up," he added, his lean jaw setting
+hard.
+
+"You must--oh, you must," she cried miserably. "I mean it, Brandon--"
+
+The Englishman came back and took his seat. He glared at Booth
+through his eye-glass, and that young gentleman sat up in sudden
+embarrassment.
+
+"What are your plans?" asked he, turning his back on their
+fellow-passenger.
+
+"Please don't ask me," she pleaded. "You must give it up, Brandon.
+Let me go my own way."
+
+"Not until I have the whole story from you. You see, I am not
+easily thwarted, once I set my heart on a thing. I gathered this
+much from Sara: the obstacle is NOT insurmountable."
+
+"She--said--that?"
+
+"In effect, yes," he qualified.
+
+"What did she tell you?" demanded Hetty, laying her hand on his
+arm.
+
+"I will confess she didn't reveal the secret that you consider a
+barrier, but she went so far as to say that it was very dark and
+dreadful," he said lightly. They were speaking in very low tones.
+"When I pinned her down to it, she added that it did not in any
+sense bear upon your honour. But there is time enough to talk about
+this later on. For the present, let's not discuss the past. I know
+enough of your history from your own lips as well as what little I
+could get out of Sara, to feel sure that you are, in a way, drifting.
+I intend to look after you, at least until you find yourself. Your
+sudden break with Sara has been explained to me.  Leslie Wrandall
+is at the back of it. Sara told me that she tried to force you to
+marry him. I think you did quite right in going away as you did,
+but, on the other hand, was it quite fair to me?"
+
+"Yes, it was most fair," she said, compressing her lips.
+
+He frowned.
+
+"We can't possibly be of the same opinion," he said seriously.
+
+"You wouldn't say that if you knew everything."
+
+"How long do you intend to stay in London?"
+
+"I don't know. When does this train arrive there?"
+
+"At four o'clock, I think. Will you go to an hotel or to friends?"
+He put the question very delicately.
+
+She smiled faintly. "You mean the Murgatroyds?"
+
+"Your father is here, I am informed. And you must have other friends
+or relatives who--"
+
+"I shall go to a small hotel I know near Trafalgar Square," she
+interrupted quietly. "You must not come there to see me, Brandon."
+
+"I shall expect you to dine with me at--say Prince's this evening,"
+was his response to this.
+
+She shook her head and then turned to look out of the window. He
+sat back in his seat and for many miles, with deep perplexity in his
+eyes, studied her half-averted face. The old uneasiness returned.
+Was this obstacle, after all, so great that it could not be overcome?
+
+They lunched together, but were singularly reserved all through the
+meal. A plan was growing in her brain, a cruel but effective plan
+that made her despise herself and yet contained the only means of
+escape from an even more cruel situation.
+
+He drove with her from the station to the small hotel off Trafalgar
+Square. There were no rooms to be had. It was the week of Ascot and
+the city was still crowded with people who awaited only the royal
+sign to break the fetters that bound them to London. Somewhat
+perturbed, she allowed him to escort her to several hotels of a
+like character. Failing in each case, she was in despair. At last
+she plucked up the courage to say to him, not without constraint
+and embarrassment:
+
+"I think, Brandon, if you were to allow me to apply ALONE to one
+of these places I could get in without much trouble."
+
+"Good Lord!" he gasped, going very red with dismay. "What a fool
+I--"
+
+"I'll try the Savoy," she said quickly, and then laughed at him.
+His face was the picture of distress.
+
+"I shall come for you at eight," he said, stopping the taxi at
+once.  "Good-bye till then."
+
+He got out and gave directions to the chauffeur. Then he did a very
+strange thing. He hailed another taxi and, climbing in, started
+off in the wake of the two women. From a point of vantage near
+the corridor leading to the "American bar," he saw Hetty sign her
+slips and move off toward the lift. Whereupon, seeing that she was
+quite out of the way, he approached the manager's office and asked
+for accommodations.
+
+"Nothing left, sir."
+
+"Not a thing?"
+
+"Everything has been taken for weeks, sir. I'm sorry."
+
+"Sorry, too. I had hoped you might have something left for a friend
+who expects to stop here--a Miss Castleton."
+
+"Miss Castleton has just applied. We could not give her anything."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"Fortunately we could let her have rooms until eight this evening.
+We were more than pleased to offer them to her for a few hours,
+although they are reserved for parties coming down from Liverpool
+tonight."
+
+Booth tried the Cecil and got a most undesirable room. Calling up
+the Savoy on the telephone, he got her room. The maid answered.
+She informed him that Miss Castleton had just that instant gone
+out and would not return before seven o'clock.
+
+"I suppose she will not remove her trunks from the station until
+she finds a permanent place to lodge," he inquired. "Can I be of
+any service?"
+
+"I think not, sir. She left no word, sir."
+
+He hung up the receiver and straightway dashed over to the Savoy,
+hoping to catch her before she left the hotel. Just inside the door
+he came to an abrupt stop. She was at the news and ticket booth in
+the lobby, closely engaged in conversation with the clerk. Presently
+the latter took up the telephone, and after a brief conversation
+with some one at the other end, turned to Hetty and nodded his
+head.  Whereupon she nodded her own adorable head and began the
+search for her purse. Booth edged around to an obscure spot and
+saw her pay for and receive something in return.
+
+"By Jove!" he said to himself, amazed.
+
+She passed near him, without seeing him, and went out into the
+court. He watched her turn into the Strand.
+
+When the night boat from Dover to Calais slipped away from her
+moorings that evening, Hetty Castleton and her maid were on board,
+with all their bags and trunks, and Brandon Booth was supposed to
+be completely at sea in the heart of that glittering London-town.
+
+The night was fog-laden and dripping, and the crossing promised
+to be unpleasant. Wrapped in a thick sea-ulster Hetty sat huddled
+up in the lea of the deck-house, sick at heart and miserable. She
+reproached herself for the scurvy trick she was playing on him,
+reviled herself and yet pitied herself. After all, she was doing
+him a good turn in forcing him to despise her for the shameless
+way in which she treated his devotion, his fairness, his loyalty.
+He would be happier in the end for the brief spasm of pain and disgust
+he was to experience in this second revelation of her unworthiness.
+
+Crouching there in the shadow, with the foghorn chortling hoarsely
+over the shabby trick,--so it seemed to her,--she stared back at
+the misty glow of the pier and tried to pierce the distance that
+lay between her and the lights of London, so many leagues away.
+HE was there, in the glitter and glamour of it all, but black with
+disappointment and wonder. Oh, it was a detestable thing she had
+done! Her poor heart ached for him. She could almost see the despair,
+the bewilderment in his honest eyes as he sat in his room, hours
+after the discovery of her flight, defeated, betrayed, disillusioned.
+
+There were but few people crossing. Sailors stood by the rail,
+peering into the fog, but it seemed to her that no one else was
+afoot on board the steamer. Already the boat was beginning to show
+signs of the uneasy trip ahead. Many foghorns, far and near, were
+barking their lugubrious warnings; the choppy waves were slashing
+against the vessel with a steady beat; the bobbling of the ship
+increased as it plunged deeper into the cross-seas. But she had
+no thought of the ship, the channel or the perils that surrounded
+her.  Her mind was back in London with her heart, and there was
+nothing ahead of her save the dread of tomorrow's sunlight.
+
+She was a good sailor. A dozen times, perhaps, she had crossed the
+English Channel, in fair weather and foul, and never with discomfort.
+Her maid, she knew, was in for a wretched brawl with the waves,
+but Hetty was too wise a sailor to think of trying to comfort the
+unhappy creature. Misery does not always love company.
+
+A tall man came shambling down the narrow space along the rail
+and stopped directly in front of her. She started in alarm as he
+reached out his hand to support himself against the deck house. As
+he leaned forward, he laughed.
+
+"You were thinking of me, Hetty," said the man.
+
+For a long time she stared at him, transfixed, and then, with a
+low moan, covered her eyes with her hands.
+
+"Is it true--is it a dream?" she sobbed.
+
+He dropped down beside her and gathered her in his strong, eager
+arms.
+
+"You WERE thinking of me, weren't you? And reproaching yourself,
+and hating yourself for running away like this? I thought so. Well,
+you might just as well try to dodge the smartest detective in the
+world as to give me the slip now, darling."
+
+"You--you spied on me?" she cried, in muffled tones. She lay very
+limp in his arms.
+
+"I did," he confessed, without shame. "'Gad, when I think of what
+I might be doing at this moment if I hadn't found you out in time!
+Think of me back there in London, racing about like a madman,
+searching for you in every--"
+
+"Please, please!" she implored.
+
+"But luck was with me. You can't get away, Hetty. I shan't let you
+out of my sight again. I'll camp in front of your door and you'll
+see me wither and die of sleeplessness, for one or the other of my
+eyes will always be open."
+
+"Oh, I am so tired, so miserable," she murmured.
+
+"Poor little sweetheart!"
+
+"I wish you would hate me."
+
+"Lie where you are, dearest, and--forget!"
+
+"If I only could--forget!"
+
+"Rest. I will hold you tight and keep you warm. We're in for a nasty
+crossing, but it is paradise for me. I am mad with the delight of
+having you here, holding you close to me, feeling you in my arms.
+The wilder the night the better, for I am wild with the joy of it
+all. I love you! I love you!" He strained her closer to him in a
+sort of paroxysm.
+
+She was quiet for a long time. Then she breathed into his ear:
+
+"You will never know how much I was longing for you, just as you
+are now, Brandon, and in the midst of it all you came. It is like
+a fairy story, and oh, I shall always believe in fairies."
+
+All about them were the sinister sounds of the fog--the hoots,
+the growls and groans of lost things in the swirl of the North Sea
+current, creeping blindly through the guideless mist. To both of
+them, the night had a strangely symbolic significance: whither were
+they drifting and where lay the unseen port?
+
+A huge liner from one of the German ports slipped across their bows
+with hoarse blasts of warning. They saw the misty glow of her lights
+for an instant, and even as they drew the sharp breath of fear,
+the night resumed its mantle and their own little vessel seemed to
+come to life again after the shock of alarm and its engines throbbed
+the faster, just as the heartbeats quicken when reaction sets in.
+
+A long time afterward the throbbing ceased, bell-buoys whistled and
+clanged about them; the sea suddenly grew calm and lifeless; they
+slid over it as if it were a quavering sheet of ice; and lights
+sneaked out of the fog and approached with stealthy swiftness.
+Bells rang below and above them, sailors sprang up from everywhere
+and calls were heard below; the rattling of chains and the thumping
+of heavy luggage took the place of that steady, monotonous beat of
+the engines. People began to infest the deck, limp and groaning,
+harassed but voiceless. A mighty sigh seemed to envelop the whole
+ship--a sigh of relief.
+
+Then it was that these two arose stiffly from their sheltered bench
+and gave heed to the things that were about them.
+
+The Channel was behind them.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+BATTLING OLD BONES
+
+
+
+
+They journeyed to Paris by the night mail. He was waiting for her
+on the platform when she descended from the wagon lit in the Gare
+du Nord. Sleepy passengers crowded with them into the customs
+department. She, alone among them all, was smiling brightly, as if
+the world could be sweet at an hour when, by all odds, it should
+be sleepiest.
+
+"I was up and on the lookout for you at Amiens," he declared, as
+they walked off together. "You might have got off there, you know,"
+with a wry grin.
+
+"I shall not run away from you again, Brandon," she said earnestly.
+"I promise, on my honour."
+
+"By Jove," he cried, "that's a relief!" Then he broke into a happy
+laugh.
+
+"I shall go to the Ritz," she said, after her effects had been
+examined and were ready for release.
+
+"I thought so," he announced calmly. "I wired for rooms before I
+left London."
+
+"Really, this is ridic--"
+
+"Don't frown like that, Hetty," he pleaded.
+
+As they rattled and bounced over the cobble-stones in a taxi-metre
+on the way to the Place Vendome, he devoted the whole of
+his conversation to the delicious breakfast they were to have,
+expatiating glibly on the wonderful berries that would come first
+in that always-to-be-remembered meal. She was ravenously hungry
+by the time they reached the hotel, just from listening to his
+dissertation on chops and rolls and coffee as they are served in
+Paris, to say nothing of waffles and honey and the marmalade that
+no Englishman can do without.
+
+Alone in his room, however, he was quite another person. His calm
+assurance took flight the instant he closed the door and moodily
+began to prepare for his bath. Resolution was undiminished, but
+the facts in the case were most desolating. Whatever it was that
+stood between them, there was no gainsaying its power to influence
+their lives. It was no trifle that caused her to take this second
+flight, and the sooner he came to realise the seriousness of
+opposition the better.
+
+He made up his mind on one point in that half-hour before breakfast:
+if she asked him again to let her go her way in peace, it was only
+fair to her and right that he should submit to the inevitable. She
+loved him, he was sure of it. Then there must be a very good reason
+for her perplexing attitude toward him. He would make one more
+attempt to have the truth from her. Failing in that, he would accept
+the situation as hopeless, for the time being at least. She should
+know that he loved her deeply enough for that.
+
+She joined him in the little open-air cafe, and they sat down at
+a table in a remote corner. There were few people breakfasting. In
+her tender blue eyes there was a look of sadness that haunted him,
+even as she smiled and called him beloved.
+
+"Hetty, darling," he said, leaning forward and laying his hand on
+hers, "can't you tell me what it is?"
+
+She was prepared for the question. In her heart she knew the time
+had come when she must be fair with him. He observed the pallor
+that stole, into her warm, smooth cheeks as she regarded him fixedly
+for a long time before replying.
+
+"There is only one person in the world who can tell you, Brandon.
+It is for her to decide. I mean Sara Wrandall."
+
+He felt a queer, sickening sensation of uneasiness sneak into
+existence. In the back of his mind, a hateful fear began to shape
+itself. For a long time he looked into her sombre eyes, and as he
+looked the fear that was hateful took on something of a definite
+shape.
+
+"Did you know her husband?" he asked, and somehow he knew what the
+answer would be.
+
+"Yes," she replied, after a moment. She was startled. Her lips
+remained parted.
+
+He watched her closely. "Has this--this secret anything to do with
+Challis Wrandall?"
+
+"It has," said she, meeting his gaze steadily.
+
+His hands clutched the edge of the table in a grip that turned the
+knuckles white.
+
+"Hetty!" he cried, in a hoarse whisper. "You--can't mean that you--"
+
+"You must go to Sara," she cried hurriedly. "Haven't I told you
+that she is the one--"
+
+"Were you in love with that infernal scoundrel?" he demanded
+fiercely.
+
+"Sara knows everything. She will tell you--"
+
+"Were you carrying on an affair with him while professing to be
+the friend of his wife? Tell me that! Did she find you out and--"
+
+"Oh, Brandon, why will you persist?" she cried, her eyes aflame.
+"I can tell you no more. Why do you glare at me as if I were
+the meanest thing on earth? Is this love? Is this your idea of
+greatness? Isn't it enough for you to know that Sara is my loyal,
+devoted friend; that she--"
+
+"Wait!" he commanded darkly. "Is it possible that she did not
+discover your secret until the day you left her house so abruptly?
+Does that explain your sudden departure?"
+
+"I can answer that," she said quietly. "She has known everything
+from the day I met her. I have not said anything, Brandon, to lead
+you to believe that I was in love with Challis Wrandall, have I?"
+
+His eyes softened. "No, you haven't. I--I hope you will forget what
+I said. You see, I knew Wrandall's reputation. He had no sense of
+honour. He--"
+
+"Well, I HAVE!" she said levelly.
+
+He flushed. "I am a beast! I'll put it in this way, then: Was he
+in love with you?"
+
+"You are still unfair. I shall not answer."
+
+He was silent for a long time. "And Sara's lips are sealed," he
+mused, still possessed of doubts and fears.
+
+"Until she elects to tell the story, dearest love, my lips are also
+sealed. I love you better than anything else in all this world. I
+could willingly offer up my life for you, but--well, my life does
+not belong to me. It is Sara's."
+
+"For heaven's sake, Hetty, what is all this?" he cried in desperation.
+
+"I can say no more. It is useless to insist, Brandon. If you can
+wrest the story from her, all well and good. You will hate me then,
+dear love. But it cannot be helped. I am prepared."
+
+"Tell me this much: when you refused to marry Leslie, was your
+course inspired by what had happened in--in connection with Challis
+Wrandall?"
+
+"You forget that it is YOU that I love," she responded simply.
+
+"But why should Sara urge you to marry Leslie if there is anything--"
+
+"Hush! Here is the waiter. Come to my sitting-room after breakfast.
+I have something to say to you. We must come to a definite
+understanding. This cannot go on."
+
+He was with her for an hour in that pinched little sitting-room,
+and left her there without a vestige of rancour in his soul. She
+would not give an inch in the stand she had taken, but something
+immeasurably great in his make-up rose to the occasion and he went
+forth with the conviction that he had no right to demand more of
+her than she was ready to give. He was satisfied to abide by her
+decision. The spell of her was over him more completely than ever
+before.
+
+Two days later he saw her off at the Gare de Lyons, bound for
+Interlaken. There was a complete understanding between them. She
+wanted to be quite alone in the Alpine town; he was not to follow
+her there. She had reserved rooms at the Schweitzerhof, and the
+windows of her sitting-room looked straight up the valley to the
+snow-covered crest of the Jungfrau. She remembered these rooms; as
+a young girl she had occupied them with her father and mother. By
+some hook or crook, Booth arranged by wire for her to have them
+again, not an easy matter at that season of the year. Later she
+was to go on to Lucerne, and then to Venice.
+
+The slightest shred of hope was left for Booth. Even though he might
+accomplish the task he had set unto himself--the conquest of Sara
+in respect to the untold story--he still had Hetty's dismal prophecy
+that after he learned the truth he would come to see why they could
+not be married. But he would not despair.
+
+"We'll see," was all that he said in response to her forlorn cry
+that they were parting for ever. There was a grimness in the way
+he said it that gave her something to cherish during the months
+to come; the hope that he WOULD come back and take her in spite of
+herself.
+
+He sailed from Cherbourg on the first steamship calling there.
+Awake, he thought of her; asleep, he dreamed of Challis Wrandall.
+There was something uncanny in the persistence with which that
+ruthless despoiler of peace forced his way into his dreams, to the
+absolute exclusion of all else. The voyage home was made horrid
+by these nightly reminders of a man he scarcely knew, yet dreaded.
+He became more or less obsessed by the idea that an evil spell had
+descended upon him in the shape of a ghostly influence.
+
+The weeks passed slowly for Hetty. There were no letters from
+Sara, but an occasional line or so from Mr. Carroll. She had made
+Brandon Booth promise that he would not write to her, nor was he
+to expect anything from her. If her intention was to cut herself
+off entirely from her recent world and its people, as she might
+have done in another way by pursuing the time-honoured and rather
+cowardly plan of entering a convent, she was soon to discover that
+success in the undertaking brought a deeper sense of exile than
+she could have imagined herself able to endure at the outset. She
+found herself more utterly alone and friendless than at any time in
+her life. The chance companions she formed at Interlaken,--despite
+a well-meant reserve,--served only to increase her feeling of
+loneliness and despair. The very natural attentions of men, young
+and old, depressed her, instead of encouraging that essentially
+feminine thing called vanity. She lived as one without an aim,
+without a single purpose except to close one day that she might
+begin the next.
+
+After a time, she went on to Lucerne. Here the life on the surface
+was gayer, and she was roused from her state of lethargy in spite
+of herself. Once, from her little balcony in the National, she
+saw two of her old acquaintances in the chorus at the Gaiety. They
+were wearing many pearls. Another time, she met them in the street.
+She was rather quietly dressed. They did not notice her. But the
+prosperous Hebraic gentlemen who attended them were not so careless.
+
+One day a card was brought to her rooms. For the next two weeks
+she had a true and unavoidable friend in Lucerne. It would appear
+that Mrs. Rowe-Martin had not been apprised of the rift in the
+Wrandall lute. She had no reason to consider the exclusive Miss
+Castleton as anything but the most desirable of companions. Mrs.
+Rowe-Martin was not long in finding out (though how she did it,
+heaven knows!), that Lord Murgatroyd's grandniece was no longer
+the intimate of that impossible person, Sara Gooch. She couldn't
+think of Sara without thinking of Gooch.
+
+But at last Mrs. Rowe-Martin departed, much to Hetty's secret
+relief, but not before she had increased the girl's burthens by
+introducing her into a cold-nosed cosmopolitan set from which there
+were but three ways of escape. She refused to marry one of them,
+denied another the privilege of making love to her, and declined
+to play auction bridge with all of them. They were not long in
+dropping her, although it must be said there was real regret among
+the men.
+
+From Mrs. Rowe-Martin and others she heard that Mrs. Redmond Wrandall
+and Vivian were to be in Scotland in October, for somebody-or-other's
+christening, and that Leslie had been doing some really wonderful
+flying at Pau.
+
+"I am SO glad, my dear," said Mrs. Rowe-Martin, "that you refused
+to marry Leslie. He is a cad. Besides, you would have been in a
+perpetual state of nerves over his flying."
+
+Of Sara, there was no news, as might have been expected. Mrs.  Rowe-Martin
+made it very clear that Sara was a respectable person,--but heavens!
+
+The chill days of autumn came and the crowd began to dwindle. Hetty
+made preparations to join in the exodus. As the days grew short and
+bleak, she found herself thinking more and more of the happy-hearted,
+symbolic dicky-bird on a faraway window ledge. His life was neither
+a travesty nor a tragedy; hers was both of these.
+
+Something told her too that Brandon Booth had wormed the truth out
+of Sara, and that she would never see him again. It hurt her to
+think that while Sara believed in her, the man who loved her did
+not. It is a way men have.
+
+On the eve of her departure, an event transpired that was to alter
+the whole course of her life; or, more properly speaking, it was
+destined to put her back into an old groove.
+
+She was walking along the quay, in the dusk of early evening, her
+mind full of the next day's journey over the mountains to Milan.
+The wind was cold; about her neck there was a boa of white ostrich
+feathers, one end of which fluttered gaily over her shoulder. She
+was continually turning half-way about against the wind to reclaim
+the truant end of the boa. It was in the act of doing so on one
+occasion that her attention was drawn to two men who sauntered
+across the avenue from the approach to the Schweitzerhof.
+
+She stopped still in her tracks, petrified by amazement--and alarm,
+if we may anticipate the sensation by a second or two.
+
+One of the men was Leslie Wrandall, the other--her own father!
+
+In a flash came the impulse to avoid them, to fly before they
+recognised her. But even as she turned and started off with a
+sudden acceleration of speed, a shout assailed her ears, and then
+came the swift rush of footsteps over the hard pavement.
+
+"Hetty! As I live!" cried Leslie, planting himself in front of
+her.  His astonishment alone kept him from laying hands upon her,
+to make sure that she was really there. "Well, of all the--"
+
+She extended her hand. "This is a surprise," she said, with admirable
+control. "I hadn't the faintest notion you were in Lucerne."
+
+"By Jove!" he mumbled, shaking hands with her but still dazed and
+uncertain. He suddenly remembered his companion. Turning with a
+shout, he brought the soldierly, middle-aged gentleman about-face
+with scant ceremony. "Hey! Colonel Castleton! See who's here!
+Doesn't this bowl you over completely?"
+
+Colonel Castleton, sallow, ascetic, deliberate in his movements,
+raised his glass to his eye as he came toward them.
+
+"'Pon my soul!" burst from his astonished lips a second afterward.
+He stopped short and his jaw dropped in a most unmilitary fashion.
+"'Pon my soul! It CAN'T be my daughter!" He seemed to be having
+difficulty not only with his head but with his feet; neither appeared
+to be operating intelligently. As a matter of fact, he stood for an
+instant on his toes and then on his heels. He was perilously near
+to being bowled over completely and literally.
+
+Hetty was the first to recover. She advanced with a fair assumption
+of warmth in her manner. Her heart, belying her, was as cold as
+ice.
+
+"Father!" she cried, holding out her hands.
+
+He grasped them, and looked wildly about.
+
+"Kiss me!" she whispered imperatively.
+
+He stooped and brushed her cheek with his long moustache.
+
+"Good God!" he muttered, still incredulous.
+
+She turned to the excited Leslie with a quavering smile on her
+lips.
+
+"We haven't seen each other in twelve years, Mr. Wrandall," she
+said.
+
+"'Pon my soul!" added her father for the third time, thereby reaching
+the limit of emphasis, having placed it differently each time.
+
+Leslie surprised himself by rising to the occasion. It occurred to
+him that they would like to be alone for a little while at least.
+
+"Then, I'll stroll on, Colonel," he said. "By Jove!" The mild
+expletive was a tribute to Providence.
+
+Not a word was spoken by father or daughter until Wrandall was many
+rods away.
+
+"Where did you meet Leslie Wrandall?" she demanded, showing which
+way her thoughts ran. They were far from filial.
+
+"Aviation field--somewhere," said he in a vague sort of way. "Pau,
+I dare say. What are you doing here? I hear you've cut loose from
+Wrandall's sister-in-law. Was that a sensible thing to do?"
+
+"I fancy you've been misinformed," said she in an emotionless voice,
+but offered no further word of explanation.
+
+"Shan't we sit down here on this bench, my dear?" suggested the
+Colonel, distinctly ill at ease.
+
+"For the sake of appearances, yes," she assented.
+
+Leslie, looking over his shoulder from a distance, saw them sitting
+together on one of the outer benches.
+
+"By Jove!" he said to himself once more, this time with accumulative
+perplexity.
+
+"See here, Hetty, my child," began the Colonel nervously, "it's all
+nonsense your taking the stand you do toward me. I am your father.
+I repeat, it's all nonsense--damned nonsense. You've got to--"
+
+"Has it taken you all these years to find out that it's nonsense?"
+she demanded, her eyes flashing. "It's no good arguing, father. I
+don't like you. There is a very good reason why I should despise
+you. We won't go into it. After this meeting, we go our separate
+ways again. This, it seems, was unavoidable. I shan't ask anything
+of you, and I advise you to ask nothing of me."
+
+"My God, that a child should utter such words to a father!" he
+groaned.
+
+"A father!" she cried so scornfully that he must have shrivelled
+had he been any one else but Colonel Castleton of the Indian Corps.
+As it was, he had the grace to turn a very bright red. "A noble
+father you have been! And what a splendid, self-sacrificing husband
+you were. No! I can't forget how my mother lived and died. You
+call it nonsense. Well, I call it something else. You took a most
+effective way to punish my poor mother for having the temerity to
+marry an English gentleman. Thank God, I have my mother to look
+back to for my own ideas of gentility."
+
+"You never understood the way things went wrong between your mother
+and me," he said harshly. "She wasn't all you may be pleased to
+think she was. She--"
+
+"How dare you insinuate--"
+
+"She chucked me. That's the sum and sub--"
+
+"Oh, I was old enough to know that she left you--chucked you, if
+you will--and to know why she did it. I--I suppose you are looked
+upon by--these people here--Leslie Wrandall and every one else, as
+a fine English gentleman, a cousin of the great Lord Murgatroyd.
+Are you?"
+
+"Confound you, Hetty, how dare you use such a tone in speaking to
+me?" he exclaimed.
+
+"They THINK you are a gentleman, do they?"
+
+"THINK? Why, dammit, I am a gentleman. The only ungentlemanly thing
+I ever did in my life was to--" He checked the angry words, biting
+his lips to keep them down.
+
+"Was to desert your wife," she supplied scathingly.
+
+"No! To marry her!" He blurted it out in his rage.
+
+"Oh!" she cried, shrinking farther away from him, cut to the quick.
+
+He regarded her with cold, fishy eyes. She was uncommonly pretty,
+he was bound to admit that. Her mother's eyes, her mother's exquisite
+skin, but singularly like certain Castleton portraits that he knew.
+It somehow galled him to find that there was quite as much of the
+blue-blooded Castleton in her as there was commonplace Glynn; galled
+him more particularly because she was his own flesh and blood after
+all and, in spite of that, could taunt him with it.
+
+"I didn't mean to hurt you, Hetty," he said, to his own surprise.
+The touch of tenderness had a brief life. He scowled an instant
+later. "We won't discuss the past, if you please. God knows I don't
+want to dig up rotten bones. You are against your own father. That's
+enough for me. I shan't impose myself upon you. You--"
+
+"Why couldn't you have treated her with--" began Hetty hotly.
+
+"Sh! No more of that, I say. I will not be upbraided by my own child.
+Now, see here, what do you mean by letting a chance like that get
+away from you?" He jerked his head in the direction Leslie had
+taken.
+
+"Chance?"
+
+"Yes. This Wrandall fellow. 'Gad, I've known him less than
+a fortnight and he's told me every secret he ever knew. Why don't
+you marry him? He's not a bad sort."
+
+"That is my affair," said she coldly.
+
+"I'd take him like a shot if I was a gel in your shoes."
+
+"He told you I had refused to marry him?"
+
+"A hundred times."
+
+"Did you reward his confidence by relating the WHOLE history of
+the Castleton family?"
+
+He stared at her. "Good Lord, do you think I'm an ass?"
+
+"What have you told him?"
+
+"Nothing. I permitted him to do all the telling. He gave me a highly
+commendable account of myself, of you, of the fine old family of
+Glynns and--God knows what all. He restored my pride, 'pon my soul
+he did." The Colonel laughed as he twisted his moustache with ironic
+fondness.
+
+She was quite still for a minute or two. "I heard you were in
+England," she said, changing the subject.
+
+"It may interest you to know that the old man overlooked us
+completely," he said, striking the calf of his leg with his thin
+walking-stick.
+
+"Why should he leave anything to you?"
+
+"And why not, curse him?" he growled. "Am I not his brother's son?
+What do you mean by asking a question like that?"
+
+"I think I will say good-bye to you now, father," she said
+deliberately. "We may never see each other again." She arose and
+stood before him, cold and proud, without a spark of emotion in
+her eyes.
+
+He sat still, looking up at her in surprise. "Do you think you're
+doing the right thing, Hetty?" he asked, annoyed in spite of
+himself. "Remember that I am your father. I can and will overlook
+all you have said and done--"
+
+"If you will go to her grave and kneel there and ask her pardon, I
+may think differently of you because, after all, I am your daughter.
+You will not find her buried among the stately Castletons, but in
+a poor little spot far, far away from them. I can tell you how to
+find it. You have never inquired, I suppose?"
+
+His eyes narrowed. "By Jove, you are a mean little beggar!"
+
+"Mean?" she cried, clenching her hands. Then she laughed suddenly,
+shrilly. "Oh, if my mother could hear you say that to me!"
+
+"Damme!" he exclaimed, coming to his feet in considerable agitation.
+"Do you want people to hear us ragging each other? Don't go into
+hysterics, Hetty! See here, do you forget that I have written to
+you--loving letters they were--from the heart--written, I say, over
+and over again and what do I get in return? Not a single stroke of
+the pen from you, except the note a year ago telling me where you
+were and--"
+
+"And that was merely to relieve your anxiety when you found I'd
+given up my work on the stage and might become a burden on you.
+Oh, I read between your lines."
+
+"Nothing of the sort. I never wanted you to go on the stage. Why
+have you persistently refused to answer my subsequent letters?"
+
+"Because I read between the lines in all of them," she said levelly.
+
+"You have no right to say that I expected you to get money out of
+that bally Wrandall woman--the goods merchant's daughter. That's
+downright insulting in you. I shan't let it go undefend--"
+
+"You knew I couldn't lend you a thousand pounds, father," said she,
+very slowly and distinctly.
+
+He coughed, perhaps in apology to her but more than likely to
+himself.
+
+"You are at liberty," she went on, "to tell Mr. Leslie Wrandall
+all there is to tell about me. He doesn't know, but it won't matter
+much if he does have the truth concerning me. Tell him all if you
+like."
+
+"My child," said he, with a fine display of wounded dignity, "I am
+not quite the rotter you think I am."
+
+He did not feel called upon to explain to her that he had already
+borrowed a thousand pounds from her disappointed suitor, and was
+setting his nets for another thousand or two.
+
+"It really won't matter," she said wearily. "Good-bye. I am leaving
+at nine to-morrow for Italy."
+
+"See you at dinner? Or afterward, just for a--"
+
+"I think not. I do not care to see Mr. Wrandall."
+
+"Think it over again, Hetty. Don't--"
+
+"Oh, father! How can you say such things to me?" she cried, a break
+in her voice.
+
+"Good God, my dear, isn't it natural for a father to want to see
+his daughter well provided for?"
+
+She turned away.
+
+"I am contemplating a visit to the States shortly," he remarked,
+following after her.
+
+She whirled on him. "What!"
+
+"Young Wrandall has asked me over for a month or two about the
+first of the year. His people are in Scotland now, I hear."
+
+"Are you THROUGH with India?" she asked in a very low voice.
+
+"Resigned," said he succinctly.
+
+"TRULY?"
+
+He flushed and muttered an oath. She understood. He had been "kicked
+out!"
+
+"Hello!" called out a sprightly voice from the gathering darkness,
+and the next moment Leslie joined them. "Have dinner with us
+to-night, Hetty? Just the three of us. Please do."
+
+"No, thank you, Mr. Wrandall. I am getting ready to leave to-morrow.
+Packing and all that sort of thing."
+
+"Did Colonel Castleton tell you that I'm off for New York on Saturday?
+Mother and Viv are to get the boat at Southampton. I thought you'd
+be interested to know what's just turned up over there?"
+
+"What has happened?" she cried quickly.
+
+Leslie hesitated. A curious gleam stole into his eyes. Was it of
+triumph?
+
+"Father's got rather old-fashioned ideas about certain things," he
+observed, by way of preface. "He writes that Sara is contemplating
+a second venture into the state of wedded bliss."
+
+Hetty stared at him. "I--I don't believe it," she said flatly. "How
+can it be possible? She sees no one."
+
+He laughed. "You're wrong there," said he mendaciously. "She's been
+seeing a great deal of a certain mutual friend of ours--all summer
+long."
+
+"You mean?"
+
+"Brandon Booth. Father says that rumour has it they are to be
+married after the holidays. I fancy he needed consolation, after
+what happened to him earlier in the year. He was pretty hard hit,
+believe me." After a moment, he went on boldly: "I ought to be in
+a position to sympathise with him, I suppose, but I don't. It isn't
+in me to--"
+
+"You say they are to be married?" cried Hetty, dazed and bewildered.
+
+They had fallen behind Colonel Castleton, who walked on stiffly
+ahead of them.
+
+Leslie treated her to his most engaging smile.
+
+"Looks very Goochy, doesn't it? I'm coming to believe more than
+ever that blood will tell. Sara knew what she was doing when she
+cleared her decks for action a few months ago. 'Gad, I understand
+now why she was so eager to bring off the--well, another match we
+know about. Pretty canny, eh?"
+
+"It is incredible," said she, with unnecessary vehemence.
+
+"Not in the least. Clever person, Sara is. Sets her heart on a thing,
+and--woof! she gets it, whether or no. Now, don't misunderstand
+me. I'm fond of Brandon Booth. We all are. We don't object to him
+as a sort of family attachment. But if she's going to marry him,
+we want to know where we stand in a business way. You see, he will
+not only step into my brother Chal's shoes at home, but at the
+office. And, heaven knows, Brandy is not a good business man.  He's
+great on portraits, but--I beg pardon!"
+
+"I must leave you here, Mr. Wrandall. Good-bye!"
+
+"Oh, I say, can't we see something of--"
+
+"I am afraid not."
+
+He kept pace with her through the hall.
+
+"I suppose your father told you that I--I haven't altogether given
+up hope of--you."
+
+"He spoke of going to America with you, if that's what you mean,"
+she said coldly, and left him at the foot of the staircase.
+
+Leslie's hand trembled as it went up to his moustache. "I can't
+understand her beastly obstinacy," he said to himself.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+VIVIAN AIRS HER OPINIONS
+
+
+
+
+Chief among Booth's virtues was his undeviating loyalty to a set
+purpose. He went back to America with the firm intention to clear
+up the mystery surrounding Hetty Castleton, no matter how irksome
+the delay in achieving his aim or how vigorous the methods he would
+have to employ. Sara Wrandall, to all purposes, held the key; his
+object in life now was to induce her to turn it in the lock and
+throw open the door so that he might enter in and become a sharer
+in the secrets beyond.
+
+A certain amount of optimistic courage attended him in his campaign
+against what had been described to him as the impossible. He could
+see no clear reason why she should withhold the secret under the
+new conditions, when so much in the shape of happiness was at stake.
+It was in this spirit of confidence that he prepared to confront
+her on his arrival in New York, and it was the same unbounded faith
+in the belief that nothing evil could result from a perfectly just
+and honourable motive that gave him the needed courage.
+
+He stayed over night in New York, and the next morning saw him on
+his way to Southlook. There was something truly ingenuous in his
+desire to get to the bottom of the matter without fear or apprehension.
+At the very worst, he maintained, there could be nothing more
+reprehensible than a passing infatuation, long since dispelled, or
+perhaps a mildly sinister episode in which virtue had been triumphant
+and vice defeated with unpleasant results to at least one person,
+and that person the husband of Sara Wrandall.
+
+Pat met him at the station and drove him to the little cottage on
+the upper road.
+
+"Ye didn't stay long," said he reflectively, after he had put the
+bag up in front. He took up the reins.
+
+"Not very," replied his master.
+
+After a dozen rods or more, Pat tried again.
+
+"Just siventeen days, I make it."
+
+"Seems longer."
+
+"Perhaps you'll be after going back soon."
+
+"Why should you think that, Patrick?"
+
+"Because you don't seem to be takin' much interest in your surroundin's
+here," said Pat loftily. He delivered a smart smack on the crupper
+with his stubby whip, and pursed his lips for the companionship to
+be derived from whistling.
+
+"I suppose you know why I went to Europe," said Booth, laying his
+hand affectionately on the man's arm.
+
+"Sure I do," said Pat, forgetting to whistle. "And was it bad luck
+you had, sor?"
+
+"A temporary case of it, I'm afraid."
+
+"Well," said the Irishman, looking up at his employer with the most
+profound encouragement in his wink, "if it's anny help to you,
+sor, I'll say that I've niver found bad luck to be annything but
+timporary. And, believe ME, I've had plinty of it. Mary was dom
+near three years makin' up her mind to say yis to me."
+
+"And since then you've had no bad luck?" said Booth, with a smile.
+
+"Plinty of it, begob, but I've had some one besides meself to blame
+for it. There's a lot in that, Mr. Brandon. Whin a man marries, he
+simply divides his luck into two parts, good and bad, and if he's
+like most men he puts the bulk av the bad luck on his wife and
+kapes to himself all he can av the good for a rainy day. That's
+what makes him a strong man and able to meet trouble when it comes.
+The beauty av the arrangement is that bad luck is only timporary
+and a woman enjoys talking about it, while good luck is wid us
+nine-tinths of the time, whether we know it or not, and we don't
+have to talk about it."
+
+This was fine philosophy, but Booth discerned the underlying motive.
+
+"Have you been quarrelling?"
+
+"I have NOT," said Pat wrathfully. "But I won't say as much for
+Mary. The point av me argument is that I have all the good luck in
+havin' married her, and she claims to have had all the bad luck in
+marryin' me. Still, as I said before,'tis but timporary. The good
+luck lasts and the bad don't. She'll be after tellin' me so before
+sundown. That's like all women. You'll find it out for yourself
+wan o' these days, Mr. Brandon, and ye'll be dom proud ye're a man
+and can enjoy your good luck when ye get it. The bad luck's always
+fallin' behind ye, and ye can always look forward to the good luck.
+So don't be down-hearted. She'll take you, or me name's not what
+it ought to be."
+
+Booth was inclined to accept this unique discourse as a fair-weather
+sign.
+
+"Take these bags upstairs, Pat," said he on their arrival at the
+cottage, "and then come down and drive me over to Mrs. Wrandall's."
+
+"Will ye be after stayin' for lunch with her, Mr. Brandon?" inquired
+Pat, climbing over the wheel.
+
+"I can't answer that question now."
+
+"Hiven help both av us if Mary's good luncheon goes to waste,"
+said Pat ominously. "That's all I have to say. She'll take it out
+av both av us."
+
+"Tell her I'll be here for lunch," said Booth, with alacrity. From
+which it may be perceived that master and man were of one mind when
+it came to considering the importance of Mary.
+
+Pat studied his watch for a moment with a calculating eye.
+
+"It's half-past eliven now, sor," he announced. "D'ye think ye can
+make it?"
+
+Booth reflected. "I think not," he said. "I'll have luncheon
+first." Whereupon he leaped from the trap and went in to tell Mary
+how happy he was to be where he could enjoy home-cooking.
+
+At four he was delivered at Sara's door by the astute Patrick,
+announced by the sedate Watson and interrogated by the intelligent
+Murray, who seemed surprised to hear that he would NOT have anything
+cool to drink. Sara sent word that she would be down in fifteen
+minutes, but, as a matter of fact, appeared in less than three.
+
+She came directly to the point.
+
+"Well," she said, with her mysterious smile, "she sent you back to
+me, I see." He was still clasping her hand.
+
+"Have you heard from her?" he asked quickly.
+
+"No. But I knew just what would happen. I told you it would prove
+to be a wild goose chase. Where is she?"
+
+He sat down beside her on the cool, white covered couch.
+
+"In Switzerland. I put her on the train the night before I sailed.
+Yes, she did send me back to you. Now I'm here, I want the whole
+story, Sara. What is it that stands between us?"
+
+For an hour he pleaded with her, all to no purpose. She steadfastly
+refused to divulge the secret. Not even his blunt reference to
+Challis Wrandall's connection with the affair found a vulnerable
+spot in her armour.
+
+"I shan't give it up, Sara," he said, at the end of his earnest
+harangue against the palpably unfair stand both she and Hetty were
+taking. "I mean to harass you, if you please, until I get what I'm
+after. It is of the most vital importance to me. Quite as much so,
+I am sure, as it appears to be to you. If Hetty will say the word,
+I'll take her gladly, just as she is, without knowing what all this
+is about. But, you see, she won't consent. There must be some way
+to override her. You both admit there is no legal barrier. You
+tell me to-day that there is no insanity in her family, and a lot
+of other things that I've been able to bring out by questioning,
+so I am more than ever certain that the obstacle is not so serious
+as you would have me believe. Therefore, I mean to pester you until
+you give in, my dear Sara."
+
+"Very well," she said resignedly. "When may I expect a renewal of
+the conflict?"
+
+"Would to-morrow be convenient?" he asked quaintly.
+
+She returned his smile. "Come to luncheon."
+
+"Have I your permission to start the portrait?"
+
+"Yes. As soon as you like."
+
+He left her without feeling that he had gained an inch along the
+road to success. That night, in the gloaming of his star-lit porch,
+he smoked many a pipeful and derived therefrom a profound estimate
+of the value of tact and discretion as opposed to bold and impulsive
+measures in the handling of a determined woman. He would make haste
+slowly, as the saying goes. Many an unexpected victory is gained by
+dilatory tactics, provided the blow is struck at the psychological
+moment of least resistance.
+
+The weeks slipped by. He was with her almost daily. Other people
+came to her house, some for rather protracted visits, others in
+quest of pillage at the nightly bridge table, but he was seldom
+missing. There were times when he thought he detected a tendency
+to waver, but each cunning attempt on his part to encourage the
+impulse invariably brought a certain mocking light into her eyes
+and he veered off in defeat. Something kept telling him, however,
+that the hour was bound to come when she would falter in her
+resolution; when frankness would meet frankness, and the veil be
+lifted.
+
+A rather impossible relative in the person of an aunt came to
+spend the month of August with Sara--her father's sister. She was
+a true, unvarnished Gooch. Booth shuddered at times when she emerged
+flat-foot from the background and revelled in the Goochiness that
+would not stay put, no matter how hard she tried to subdue it. She
+was a good soul,--much too good, in fact,--and her efforts to live
+up to requirements were not only ludicrous but exasperating. Sara
+was quite serene about her, however. She made no excuses for the
+old lady; in fact, she appeared to be quite devoted to her. Booth
+was beginning to appreciate something of the horror the Wrandalls
+must have felt when Challis took unto himself a Gooch. He berated
+himself in secret for his snobbishness and in public made atonement
+by being expansively polite to Mrs. Coburn. The good lady had the
+habit of telling every one what a wonderful person Sebastian Gooch
+had been, sometimes comparing him not unfavourably with Napoleon
+Bonaparte and George Washington: he was like the Corsican in getting
+the better of his adversaries, no matter how he had to go about
+it, but like the Father of his Country in the matter of veracity.
+So far as she knew, Sebastian had never told a lie. To Mrs. Coburn,
+Sebastian was Saint Sebastian.
+
+The portrait was finished before Mrs. Coburn left. She liked
+everything about it except the gown, the drapery and--yes, the
+hands. They were too long and tapering. No Gooch ever had a hand
+like that. The Gooch hands were broad and strong: like her own.
+All this, notwithstanding the fact that Sara's hand lay exposed all
+the time she was speaking, a physical contradiction to her assertion.
+
+She stayed the month and then re-entered Yonkers.
+
+There were no letters from Hetty, no word of any description. If
+Sara knew anything of the girl's movements she did not take Booth
+into her confidence.
+
+Leslie Wrandall went abroad in August, ostensibly to attend the
+aviation meets in France and England. His mother and sister sailed
+in September, but not before the entire colony of which they were
+a part had begun to discuss Sara and Booth with a relish that was
+obviously distasteful to the Wrandalls.
+
+Where there is smoke there is fire, said all the gossips, and
+forthwith proceeded to carry fagots.
+
+A week or so before sailing, Mrs. Redmond Wrandall had Booth
+in for dinner. I think she said en famille. At any rate, Sara was
+not asked, which is proof enough that she was bent on making it a
+family affair.
+
+After dinner, Booth sat in the screened upper balcony with Vivian.
+He liked her. She was a keen-witted, plain-spoken young woman,
+with few false ideals and no subtlety. She was less snobbish than
+arrogant. Of all the Wrandalls, she was the least self-centred.
+Leslie never quite understood her for the paradoxical reason that
+she thoroughly understood him.
+
+"You know, Brandon," she said, after a long silence between them,
+"they've been setting my cap for you for a long, long time." She
+blew a thin stream of cigarette smoke toward the moon.
+
+He started. It was a bolt from a clear sky. "The deuce!"
+
+"Yes," she went on in the most casual tone, "mother's had her heart
+set on it for months. You were supposed to be mine at first sight,
+I believe. Please don't look so uneasy. I'm not going to propose
+to you." She laughed her little ironic laugh.
+
+"So that is the way things stood, eh?" he said, still a little
+amazed by her candour.
+
+"Yes. And what is more to the point, I am quite sure I should
+have said yes if you had asked me. Sounds odd, doesn't it? Rather
+amusing, too, being able to discuss it so unreservedly, isn't it?"
+
+"Good heavens, Viv!" he cried uncomfortably. "I--I had no idea you
+cared--"
+
+"Cared!" she cried, as he paused. "I don't care two pins for you
+in that way. But I would have married you, just the same, because
+you are worth marrying. I'd very much rather have you for a husband
+than any man I know, but as for loving you! Pooh! I'd love you in
+just the way mother loves father, and I wouldn't have been a bit
+more trouble to you than she is to him."
+
+"'Gad, you don't mind what you say!"
+
+"Failing to nab you, Brandy, I dare say I'll have to come down to
+a duke or, who knows? maybe a mere prince. It isn't very enterprising,
+is it? And certainly it isn't a gay prospect. Really, I had hoped
+you would have me. I flatter myself, I suppose, but, honestly now,
+we would have made a rather nice looking couple, wouldn't we?"
+
+"You flatter me," he said.
+
+"But," she resumed, calmly exhaling, "you very foolishly fell in
+love with some one else, and it wasn't necessary for me to pretend
+that I was in love with you--which I should have done, believe me,
+if you had given me the chance. You fell in love, first with Hetty
+Castleton."
+
+"First?" he cried, frowning.
+
+"And now you are heels over head in love with my beautiful
+sister-in-law. Which all goes to prove that I would have made just
+the kind of wife you need, considering your tendency to fluctuate.
+But how dreadful it would have been for a sentimental, loving girl
+like Hetty!"
+
+He sat bolt upright and stared hard at her.
+
+"See here, Viv, what the dickens are you driving at? I'm not in love
+with Sara--not in the least,--and--" He checked himself sharply.
+"What an ass I am! You're guying me."
+
+"In any event, I am right about Hetty," she said, leaning forward,
+her manner quite serious.
+
+"If it will ease your mind," he said stiffly, "I plead guilty with
+all my heart."
+
+She favoured him with a slight frown of annoyance.
+
+"And you deny the fluctuating charge?"
+
+"Most positively. I can afford to be honest with you, Viv. You are
+a corker. I love Hetty Castleton with all my soul."
+
+She leaned back in her chair. "Then why don't you dignify your soul
+by being honest with HER?"
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+For a half-minute she was silent. "Are you and I of the same stripe,
+after all? Would you marry Sara without loving her, as I would have
+done by you? It doesn't seem like you, Brandon."
+
+"Good heaven, I'm not going to marry Sara!" he blurted out. "It's
+never entered my head."
+
+"Perhaps it has entered hers."
+
+"Nonsense! She isn't going to marry anybody. And she knows how I
+feel toward Hetty. If it came to the point where I decided to marry
+without love, 'pon my soul, Viv, I believe I'd pick you out as the
+victim."
+
+"Wonderful combination!" she said with a frank laugh. "The
+quintessence of 'no love lost.' But to resume! Do you know that
+people are saying you are to be married before the winter is over?"
+
+"Let 'em say it," he said gruffly.
+
+"Oh, well," she said, despatching it all with a gesture, "if that's
+the way you feel about it, there's no more to be said."
+
+He was ashamed. "I beg your pardon, I shouldn't have said that."
+
+"You see," she went on, reverting to the original topic, "people
+who know Sara are likely to credit her with motives you appear to
+be totally ignorant of. She set her heart on my brother Challis,
+when she was a great deal younger than she is now, and she got him.
+If age and experience count for anything, how capable she must be
+by this time."
+
+He was too wise to venture an opinion. "I assure you she has no
+designs on me."
+
+"Perhaps not. But I fancy that even you could not escape as St.
+Anthony did. She is most alluring."
+
+"You don't like her."
+
+"Obviously. And yet I don't dislike her. She has the virtue of
+consistency, if one may use the expression. She loved my brother.
+Leslie says she should have hated him. We have tried to like
+her. I think I have come nearer to it than any of the others, not
+excepting Leslie, who has always been her champion. I suppose you
+know that he was your rival at one time."
+
+"He mentioned it," said Booth drily.
+
+"I should have been very much disappointed in her if she had accepted
+him."
+
+"Indeed?"
+
+"I sometimes wonder if Sara spiked Leslie's guns for him."
+
+"I can tell you something you don't know, Vivian," said he. "Sara
+was rather keen about making a match there."
+
+Vivian's smile was slow but triumphant. "That is just what I thought.
+There you are! Doesn't that explain Sara?"
+
+"In a measure, yes. But, you see, it developed that Hetty cared
+for some one else, and that put a stop to everything."
+
+"Am I to take it that you are the some one else?"
+
+"Yes," said he soberly.
+
+"Then, may I ask why she went away so suddenly?"
+
+"You may ask but I can't answer."
+
+"Do you want my opinion? She went away because Sara, failing in
+her plan to marry her off to Leslie, decided that it would be fatal
+to a certain project of her own if she remained on the field of
+action.  Do I make myself clear?"
+
+"Oh, you are away off in your conclusions, Viv."
+
+"Time will tell," was her cabalistic rejoinder.
+
+Her father appeared on the lawn below and called up to them.
+
+"You are wanted at the telephone, Brandon. I've just been talking
+to Sara."
+
+"Did she call you up, father?" asked Vivian, leaning over the rail.
+
+"Yes. About nothing in particular, however."
+
+She turned upon Booth with a mocking smile. He felt the colour rush
+to his face, and was angry with himself.
+
+He went in to the telephone. Almost her first words were these:
+
+"What has Vivian been telling you about me, Brandon?"
+
+He actually gasped. "Good heavens, Sara!"
+
+He heard her low laugh. "So she HAS been saying things, has she?"
+she asked. "I thought so. I've had it in my bones to-night."
+
+He was at a loss for words. It was positively uncanny. As he stood
+there, trying to think of a trivial remark, her laugh came to him
+again over the wire, followed by a drawling "good-night," and then
+the soughing of the wind over the "open" wire.
+
+The next day he called her up on the telephone quite early. He knew
+her habits. She would be abroad in her gardens by eight o'clock.
+He remembered well that Leslie, in commenting on her absurdly early
+hours, had once said that her "early bird" habit was hereditary:
+she got it from Sebastian.
+
+"What put it into your head, Sara, that Vivian was saying anything
+unpleasant about you last night?"
+
+"Magic," she replied succinctly.
+
+"Rubbish!"
+
+"I have a magic tapestry that transports me, hither and thither,
+and by night I always carry Aladdin's lamp. So, you see, I see and
+hear everything."
+
+"Be sensible."
+
+"Very well. I will be sensible. If you intend to be influenced by
+what Vivian or her mother said to you last night, I think you'd be
+wise to avoid me from this time on."
+
+Prepared though he was, he blinked his eyes and said something she
+didn't quite catch.
+
+She went on: "Moreover, in addition to my attainments in the black
+art, I am quite as clever as Mr. Sherlock Holmes in some respects.
+I really do some splendid deducing. In the first place, you were
+asked there and I was not. Why? Because I was to be discussed. You
+see--"
+
+"Marvellous!" he interrupted loudly.
+
+"You were to be told that I have cruel designs upon you."
+
+"Go on, please."
+
+"And all that sort of thing," she said sweepingly, and he could
+almost see the inclusive gesture with her free hand. He laughed
+but still marvelled at the shrewdness of her perceptions.
+
+"I'll come over this afternoon and show you wherein you are wrong,"
+he began, but she interrupted him with a laugh.
+
+"I am starting for the city before noon, by motor, to be gone at
+least a fortnight."
+
+"What! This is the first I've heard of it."
+
+Again she laughed. "To be perfectly frank with you, I hadn't
+heard of it myself until just now. I think I shall go down to the
+Homestead with the Carrolls."
+
+"Hot Springs?"
+
+"Virginia," she added explicitly.
+
+"I say, Sara, what does all this mean? You--"
+
+"And if you should follow me there, Vivian's estimate of us will
+not be so far out of the way as we'd like to make it."
+
+True to her word, she was gone when he drove over later on in
+the day. Somehow, he experienced a feeling of relief. Not that he
+was oppressed by the rather vivacious opinions of Vivian and her
+ilk, but because something told him that Sara was wavering in her
+determination to withhold the secret from him and fled for perfectly
+obvious reasons.
+
+He had two commissions among the rich summer colonists. One, a full
+length portrait of young Beardsley in shooting togs, was nearly
+finished. The other was to be a half-length of Mrs. Ravenscroft,
+who wanted one just like Hetty Castleton's, except for the eyes,
+which she admitted would have to be different. Nothing was said of
+the seventeen years' difference in their ages. Vivian had put off
+posing until Lent.
+
+The Wrandalls departed for Scotland, and other friends of his
+began to desert the country for the city. The fortnight passed and
+another week besides. Mrs. Ravenscroft decided to go to Europe when
+the picture was half-finished.
+
+"You can finish it when I come back in December, Mr. Booth," she
+said. "I'll have several new gowns to choose from, too."
+
+"I shall be busy all winter, Mrs. Ravenscroft," he said coldly.
+
+"How annoying," she said calmly, and that was the end of it all.
+She had made the unpleasant discovery that it WASN'T going to be
+in the least like Hetty Castleton's, so why bother about it?
+
+Booth waited until Sara came out to superintend the closing of her
+house for the winter. He called at Southlook on the day of her
+arrival. He was struck at once by the curious change in her appearance
+and manner. There was something bleak and desolate in the vividly
+brilliant face: the tired, wistful, harassed look of one who has
+begun to quail and yet fights on.
+
+"Will you go out with me to-morrow, Brandon, for an all-day trip
+in the car?" she asked, as they stood together before the open
+fireplace on this late November afternoon. Her eyes were moody,
+her voice rather lifeless.
+
+"Certainly," he said, watching her closely. Was the break about to
+come?
+
+"I will stop for you at nine." After a short pause, she looked up
+and said: "I suppose you would like to know where I am taking you."
+
+"It doesn't matter, Sara."
+
+"I want you to go with me to Burton's Inn."
+
+"Burton's Inn?"
+
+"That is the place where my husband was killed," she said, quite
+steadily.
+
+He started. "Oh! But--do you think it best, Sara, to open old wounds
+by--"
+
+"I have thought it all out, Brandon. I want to go there--just once.
+I want to go into that room again."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+ONCE MORE AT BURTON'S INN
+
+
+
+
+Again Sara Wrandall found herself in that never-to-be-forgotten
+room at Burton's Inn. On that grim night in March, she had entered
+without fear or trembling because she knew what was there. Now she
+quaked with a mighty chill of terror, for she knew not what was
+there in the quiet, now sequestered room. Burton had told them on
+their arrival after a long drive across country that patrons of the
+inn invariably asked which room it was that had been the scene of
+the tragedy, and, on finding out, refused point-blank to occupy it.
+In consequence, he had been obliged to transform it into a sort of
+store and baggage room.
+
+Sara stood in the middle of the murky room, for the shutters had
+long been closed to the light of day, and looked about her in awe
+at the heterogeneous mass of boxes, trunks, bundles and rubbish,
+scattered over the floor without care or system. She had closed
+the door behind her and was quite alone. Light sneaked in through
+the cracks in the shutters, but so meagrely that it only served to
+increase the gloom. A dismantled bedstead stood heaped up in the
+corner. She did not have to be told what bed it was. The mattress
+was there too, rolled up and tied with a thick garden rope. She
+knew there were dull, ugly blood-stains upon it. Why the thrifty
+Burton had persevered in keeping this useless article of furniture,
+she could only surmise. Perhaps it was held as an inducement to the
+morbidly curious who always seek out the gruesome and gloat even
+as they shudder.
+
+For a long time she stood immovable just inside the door, recalling
+the horrid picture of another day. She tried to imagine the scene
+that had been enacted there with gentle, lovable Hetty Glynn and
+her whilom husband as the principal characters. The girl had told
+the whole story of that ugly night. Sara tried to see it as it
+actually had transpired. For months this present enterprise had
+been in her mind: the desire to see the place again, to go there
+with old impressions which she could leave behind when ready to
+emerge in a new frame of mind. It was here that she meant to shake
+off the shackles of a horrid dream, to purge herself of the last
+vestige of bitterness, to cleanse her mind of certain thoughts and
+memories.
+
+Downstairs Booth waited for her. He heard the story of the tragedy
+from the surly inn-keeper, who crossly maintained that his business
+had been ruined. Booth was vaguely impressed, he knew not why, by
+Burton's description of the missing woman. "I'd say she was about
+the size of Mrs. Wrandall herself, and much the same figger," he
+said, as he had said a thousand times before. "My wife noticed it
+the minute she saw Mrs. Wrandall. Same height and everything."
+
+A bell rang sharply and Burton glanced over his shoulder at the
+indicator on the wall behind the desk. He gave a great start and
+his jaw sagged.
+
+"Great Scott!" he gasped. A curious greyness stole over his face.
+"It's--it's the bell in that very room. My soul, what can--"
+
+"Mrs. Wrandall is up there, isn't she?" demanded Booth.
+
+"It ain't rung since the night he pushed the button for--Oh, gee!
+You're right. She IS up there. My, what a scare it gave me." He
+wiped his brow. Turning to a boy, he commanded him to answer the
+bell. The boy went slowly, and as he went he removed his hands from
+his pockets. He came back an instant later, more swiftly than he
+went, with the word that "the lady up there" wanted Mr. Booth to
+come upstairs.
+
+She was waiting for him in the open doorway. A shaft of bright
+sunlight from a window at the end of the hall fell upon her. Her
+face was colourless, haggard. He paused for an instant to contrast
+her as she stood there in the pitiless light with the vivid creature
+he had put upon canvas so recently.
+
+She beckoned to him and turned back into the room. He followed.
+
+"This is the room, Brandon, where my husband met the death he
+deserved," she said quietly.
+
+"Deserved? Good heavens, Sara, are you--"
+
+"I want you to look about you and try to picture how this place
+looked on the night of the murder. You have a vivid imagination.
+None of this rubbish was here. Just a bed, a table and two chairs.
+There was a carpet on the floor. There were two people here, a man
+and a woman. The woman had trusted the man. She trusted him until
+the hour in which he died. Then she found him out. She had come to
+this place, believing it was to be her wedding night. She found no
+minister here. The man laughed at her and scoffed. Then she knew.
+In horror, shame, desperation she tried to break away from him.
+He was strong. She was a good woman; a virtuous, honourable woman.
+She saved herself."
+
+He was staring at her with dilated eyes. Slowly the truth was being
+borne in upon him.
+
+"The woman was--Hetty?" came hoarsely from his stiffening lips.
+"My God, Sara!"
+
+She came close to him and spoke in a half-whisper. "Now you know
+the secret. Is it safe with you?"
+
+He opened his lips to speak, but no words came forth. Paralysis
+seemed to have gripped not only his throat but his senses. He
+reeled. She grasped his arm in a tense, fierce way, and whispered:
+
+"Be careful! No one must hear what we are saying." She shot a glance
+down the deserted hall. "No one is near. I made sure of that. Don't
+speak! Think first--think well, Brandon Booth. It is what you have
+been seeking for months:--the truth. You share the secret with us
+now. Again I ask, is it safe with you?"
+
+"My God!" he muttered again, and passed his hand over his eyes.
+His brow was wet. He looked at his fingers dumbly as if expecting
+to find them covered with blood.
+
+"Is it safe with you?" for the third time.
+
+"Safe? Safe?" he whispered, following her example without knowing
+that he did so. "I--I can't believe you, Sara. It can't be true."
+
+"It IS true."
+
+"You have known--all the time?"
+
+"From that night when I stood where we are standing now."
+
+"And--and--SHE?"
+
+"I had never seen her until that night. I saved her."
+
+He dropped suddenly upon the trunk that stood behind him, and
+buried his face in his hands. For a long time she stood over him,
+her interest divided between him and the hall, wherein lay their
+present peril.
+
+"Come," she said at last. "Pull yourself together. We must leave
+this place. If you are not careful, they will suspect something
+downstairs."
+
+He looked up with haggard eyes, studying her face with curious
+intentness.
+
+"What manner of woman are you, Sara?" he questioned, slowly,
+wonderingly.
+
+"I have just discovered that I am very much like other women, after
+all," she said. "For awhile I thought I was different, that I was
+stronger than my sex. But I am just as weak, just as much to be
+pitied, just as much to be scorned as any one of my sisters. I have
+spoiled a great act by stooping to do a mean one. God will bear
+witness that my thoughts were noble at the outset; my heart was
+soft. But, come! There is much more to tell that cannot be told
+here. You shall know everything."
+
+They went downstairs and out into the crisp autumn air. She gave
+directions to her chauffeur. They were to traverse for some distance
+the same road she had taken on that ill-fated night a year and a
+half before. In course of time the motor approached a well-remembered
+railway crossing.
+
+"Slow down, Cole," she said. "This is a mean place--a very mean
+place." Turning to Booth, who had been sitting grim and silent
+beside her for miles, she said, lowering her voice: "I remember
+that crossing yonder. There is a sharp curve beyond. This is the
+place.  Midway between the two crossings, I should say. Please
+remember this part of the road, Brandon, when I come to the telling
+of that night's ride to town. Try to picture this spot--this smooth,
+straight road as it might be on a dark, freezing night in the very
+thick of a screaming blizzard, with all the world abed save--two
+women."
+
+[Illustration: For a long time she stood over him, her interest
+divided between him and the hall]
+
+In his mind he began to draw the picture, and to place the two women
+in the centre of it, without knowing the circumstances. There was
+something fascinating in the study he was making, something gruesome
+and full of sinister possibilities for the hand of a virile painter.
+He wondered how near his imagination was to placing the central
+figures in the picture as they actually appeared on that secret
+night.
+
+At sunset they went together to the little pavilion at the end
+of the pier which extended far out into the Sound. Here they were
+safe from the ears of eavesdroppers. The boats had been stowed away
+for the winter. The wind that blew through the open pavilion, now
+shorn of all its comforts and luxuries, was cold, raw and repelling.
+No one would disturb them here.
+
+With her face set toward the sinking east, she leaned against one
+of the thick posts, and, in a dull, emotionless voice, laid bare
+the whole story of that dreadful night and the days that followed.
+She spared no details, she spared not herself in the narration.
+
+He did not once interrupt her. All the time she was speaking he was
+studying the profile of her face as if fascinated by its strange
+immobility. For the matter of a full half-hour he sat on the rail,
+his back against a post, his arms folded across the breast of the
+thick ulster he wore, staring at her, drinking in every word of
+the story she told. A look of surprise crept into his face when
+she came to the point where the thought of marrying Hetty to the
+brother of her victim first began to manifest itself in her designs.
+For a time the look of incredulity remained, to be succeeded by utter
+scorn as she went on with the recital. Her reasons, her excuses,
+her explanations for this master-stroke in the way of compensation
+for all that she had endured at the hands of the scornful Wrandalls,
+all of whom were hateful to her without exception, stirred him
+deeply.  He began to understand the forces that compelled her to
+resort to this Machiavellian plan for revenge on them. She admitted
+everything: her readiness to blight Hetty's life for ever; her
+utter callousness in laying down these ugly plans; her surpassing
+vindictiveness; her reflections on the triumph she was to enjoy when
+her aims were fully attained. She confessed to a genuine pity for
+Hetty Castleton from the beginning, but it was outweighed by that
+thing she could only describe as an obsession!...How she hated
+the Wrandalls!...Then came the real awakening: when the truth came
+to her as a revelation from God. Hetty had not been to blame. The
+girl was innocent of the one sin that called for vengeance so far
+as she was concerned. The slaying of Challis Wrandall was justified!
+All these months she had been harbouring a woman she believed
+to have been his mistress as well as his murderess. It was not so
+much the murderess that she would have foisted upon the Wrandalls
+as a daughter, but the mistress!...She loved the girl, she had
+loved her from that first night. Back of it all, therefore, lay the
+stern, unsuspected truth: from the very beginning she instinctively
+had known this girl to be innocent of guile....Her house of cards
+fell down. There was nothing left of the plans on which it had
+been constructed. It had all been swept away, even as she strove
+to protect it against destruction, and the ground was strewn with
+the ashes of fires burnt out....She was shocked to find that she
+had even built upon the evil spot! Almost word for word she repeated
+Hetty's own story of her meeting with Challis Wrandall, and how she
+went, step by step and blindly, to the last scene in the tragedy,
+when his vileness, his true nature was revealed to her. The girl
+had told her everything. She had thought herself to be in love
+with Wrandall. She was carried away by his protestations. She was
+infatuated. (Sara smiled to herself as she spoke of this. She knew
+Challis Wrandall's charm!) The girl believed in him implicitly.
+When he took her to Burton's Inn it was to make her his wife, as
+she supposed. He had arranged everything. Then came the truth. She
+defended herself....
+
+"I came upon her in the road on that wild night, Brandon, at the
+place I pointed out. Can you picture her as I have described her?
+Can you picture her despair, her hopelessness, her misery? I have
+told you everything, from beginning to end. You know how she came
+to me, how I prepared her for the sacrifice, how she left me. I
+have not written to her. I cannot. She must hate me with all her
+soul, just as I have hated the Wrandalls, but with greater reason,
+I confess. She would have given herself up to the law long ago, if
+it had not been for exposing me to the world as her defender, her
+protector. She knew she was not morally guilty of the crime of
+murder. In the beginning she was afraid. She did not know our land,
+our laws. In time she came to understand that she was in no real
+peril, but then it was too late. A confession would have placed
+me in an impossible position. You see, she thought of me all this
+time.  She loved me as no woman ever loved another. Was not I the
+wife of the man she had killed, and was not I the noblest of all
+women in her eyes? God! And to think of what I had planned for
+her!"
+
+This was the end of the story.
+
+The words died away in a sort of whimpering wail, falling in with
+the wind to be lost to his straining ears. Her head drooped, her
+arms hung limply at her side.
+
+For a long time he sat there in silence, looking out over the
+darkening water, unwilling, unable indeed, to speak. His heart was
+full of compassion for her, mingling strangely with what was left
+of scorn and horror. What could he say to her?
+
+At last she turned to him. "Now you know all that I can tell you of
+Hetty Castleton,--of Hetty Glynn. You could not have forced this
+from me, Brandon. She WOULD not tell you. It was left for me to do
+in my own good time. Well, I have spoken. What have you to say?"
+
+"I can only say, Sara, that I thank God for EVERYTHING," he said
+slowly.
+
+"For everything?"
+
+"I thank God for you, for her and for everything. I thank God that
+she found him out in time, that she killed him, that you shielded
+her, that you failed to carry out your devilish scheme, and that
+your heart is very sore to-day."
+
+"You do not despise me?"
+
+"No. I am sorry for you."
+
+Her eyes narrowed. "I don't want you to feel sorry for me."
+
+"You don't understand. I am sorry for you because you have found
+yourself out and must be despising yourself."
+
+"You have guessed the truth. I despise myself. But what could be
+expected of me?" she asked ironically. "As the Wrandalls would say,
+'blood will tell.'"
+
+"Nonsense! Don't talk like that! It is quite unworthy of you. In
+spite of everything, Sara, you are wonderful. The very thing you
+tried to do, the way you went about it, the way you surrender, makes
+for greatness in you. If you had gone on with it and succeeded,
+that fact alone would have put you in the class with the great,
+strong, virile women of history. It--"
+
+"With the Medicis, the Borgias and--" she began bitterly.
+
+"Yes, with them. But they were great women, just the same. You
+are greater, for you have more than they possessed: a conscience.
+I wish I could tell you just what I feel. I haven't the words. I--"
+
+"I only want you to tell me the truth. Do you despise me?"
+
+"Again I say that I do not. I can only say that I regard you
+with--yes, with AWE."
+
+"As one might think of a deadly serpent."
+
+"Hardly that," he said, smiling for the first time. He crossed
+over and laid his hand on her shoulder. "Don't think too meanly
+of yourself. I understand it all. You lived for months without a
+heart, that's all."
+
+"You put it very gently."
+
+"I think I'm right. Now, you've got it back, and it's hungry for
+the sweet, good things of life. You want to be happy. You want to
+love again and to be loved. You don't want to be pitied. I understand.
+It's the return of a heart that went away long months ago and left
+an empty place that you filled with gall. The bitterness is gone.
+There is something sweet in its place. Am I not right?"
+
+She hesitated. "If you mean that I want to be loved by my enemies,
+Brandon, you are wrong," she said clearly. "I have not been chastened
+in that particular."
+
+"You mean the Wrandalls?"
+
+"It is not in my nature to love my enemies. We stand on the same
+footing as before, and always shall. They understand me, I understand
+them. I am glad that my project failed, not for their sake, but
+for my own."
+
+He was silent. This woman was beyond him. He could not understand
+a nature like this.
+
+"You say nothing. Well, I can't ask you to understand. We will not
+discuss my enemies, but my friends. What do you intend to do in
+respect to Hetty?"
+
+"I am going to make her my wife," he said levelly.
+
+She turned away. It was now quite dark. He could not see the
+expression on her face.
+
+"What you have heard does not weaken your love for her?"
+
+"No. It strengthens it."
+
+"You know what she has done. She has taken a life with her own
+hands. Can you take her to your bosom, can you make her the mother
+of your own children? Remember, there is blood on her hands."
+
+"Ah, but her heart is clean!"
+
+"True," she said moodily, "her heart is clean."
+
+"No cleaner than yours is now, Sara."
+
+She uttered a short, mocking laugh. "It isn't necessary to say a
+thing like that to me."
+
+"I beg your pardon."
+
+Her manner changed abruptly. She turned to him, intense and serious.
+
+"She is so far away, Brandon. On the other side of the world, and
+she is full of loathing for me. How am I to regain what I have lost?
+How am I to make her understand? She went away with that last ugly
+thought of me, with the thought of me as I appeared to her on that
+last, enlightening day. All these months it has been growing more
+horrible to her. It has been beside her all the time. All these
+months she has known that I pretended to love her as--"
+
+"I don't believe you know Hetty as well as you think you do," he
+broke in. "You forget that she loved you with all her soul. You
+can't kill love so easily as all that. It will be all right, Sara.
+You must write and ask her to come back. It--"
+
+"Ah, but you don't know!" Then she related the story of the liberated
+canary bird. "Hetty understands. The cage door is open.  She may
+return when she chooses, but--don't you see?--she must come of her
+own free will."
+
+"You will not ask her to come?"
+
+"No. It is the test. She will know that I have told you everything.
+You will go to her. Then she may understand. If she forgives she will
+come back. There is nothing else to say, nothing else to consider."
+
+"I shall go to her at once," he said resolutely.
+
+She gave him a quick, searching glance.
+
+"She may refuse to marry you, even now, Brandon."
+
+"She CAN'T!" he cried. An instant later his face fell. "By Jove,
+I--I suppose the law will have to be considered now. She will at
+least have to go through the form of a trial."
+
+She whirled on him angrily. "The law? What has the law to do with
+it? Don't be a fool!"
+
+"She ought to be legally exonerated," he said.
+
+Her fingers gripped his arm fiercely. "I want you to understand one
+thing, Brandon. The story I have told you was for your ears alone.
+The secret lives with us and dies with us."
+
+He looked his relief. "Right! It must go no farther. It is not a
+matter for the law to decide. You may trust me."
+
+"I am cold," she said. He heard her teeth chatter distinctly as
+she pulled the thick mantle closer about her throat and shoulders.
+"It is very raw and wet down here. Come!"
+
+As she started off along the long, narrow pier, he sprang after
+her, grasping her arm. She leaned rather heavily against him for
+a few steps and then drew herself up. Her teeth still chattered,
+her arm trembled in his clasp.
+
+"By Jove, Sara, this is bad," he cried, in distress. "You're chilled
+to the marrow."
+
+"Nerves," she retorted, and he somehow felt that her lips were set
+and drawn.
+
+"You must get to bed right away. Hot bath, mustard, and all that.
+I'll not stop for dinner. Thanks just the same. I will be over in
+the morning."
+
+"When will you sail?" she asked, after a moment.
+
+"I can't go for ten days, at least. My mother goes into the hospital
+next week for an operation, as I've told you. I can't leave until
+after that's over. Nothing serious, but--well, I can't go away.
+I shall write to Hetty to-night, and cable her to-morrow. By the
+way, I--I don't know just where to find her. You see, we were not
+to write to each other. It was in the bargain. I suppose you don't
+know how I can--"
+
+"Yes, I can tell you precisely where she is. She is in Venice, but
+leaves there to-morrow for Rome, by the Express."
+
+"Then you have been hearing from her?" he cried sharply.
+
+"Not directly. But I will say this much: there has not been a day
+since she landed in England that I have not received news of her.
+I have not been out of touch with her, Brandon, not even for an
+hour."
+
+"Good heaven, Sara! You don't mean to say you've had her shadowed
+by--by detectives," he exclaimed, aghast.
+
+"Her maid is a very faithful servant," was her ambiguous rejoinder.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+DISTURBING NEWS
+
+
+
+
+He walked home swiftly through the early night, his brain seething
+with tumultuous thoughts. The revelations of the day were staggering;
+the whole universe seemed to have turned topsy-turvy since that
+devastating hour at Burton's Inn. Somehow he was not able to confine
+his thoughts to Hetty Castleton alone. She seemed to sink into the
+background, despite the absolution he had been so ready, so eager
+to grant her on hearing the story from Sara's lips. Not that his
+resolve to search her out and claim her in spite of everything was
+likely to weaken, but that the absorbing figure of Sara Wrandall
+stood out most clearly in his reflections.
+
+What an amazing creature she was! He could not drive her out of his
+thoughts, even when he tried to concentrate them on the one person
+who was dearest to him of all in all the world, his warm-hearted,
+adorable Hetty. Strange contrasts suggested themselves to him as he
+strode along, head bent and shoulders hunched. He could not help
+contrasting the two women. He loved Hetty; he would always love her,
+of that he was positive. She was Sara's superior in every respect,
+infinitely so, he argued. And yet there was something in Sara that
+could crowd this adored one, this perfect one out of his thoughts
+for the time being. He found it difficult to concentrate his thoughts
+on Hetty Castleton.
+
+How white and ill Sara had looked when she said good-night to him
+at the door! The memory of her dark, mysterious eyes haunted him;
+he could see them in the night about him. They had been full of
+pain; there were torrents of tears behind them. They had glistened
+as if burnished by the fires of fever.
+
+Even as he wrote his long, triumphant letter to Hetty Castleton,
+the picture of Sara Wrandall encroached upon his mental vision. He
+could not drive it out. He thought of her as she had appeared to
+him early in the spring; through all the varying stages of their
+growing intimacy; through the interesting days when he vainly tried
+to translate her matchless beauty by means of wretched pigments;
+up to this present hour in which she was revealed, and yet not
+revealed, to him. Her vivid face was always before him, between
+his eyes and the thin white paper on which he scribbled so eagerly.
+Her feverish eyes were looking into his; she was reading what he
+wrote before it appeared on the surface of the sheet!
+
+His letter to Hetty was a triumph of skill and diplomacy, achieved
+after many attempts. He found it hard not to say too much, and
+quite as difficult not to say too little. He spent hours over this
+all-important missive. At last it was finished. He read and re-read
+it, searching for the slightest flaw: a fatal word or suggestion that
+might create in her mind the slightest doubt as to his sincerity.
+She was sure to read this letter a great many times, and always
+with the view to finding something between the lines: such as pity,
+resignation, an enforced conception of loyalty, or even faith! He
+meant that she should find nothing there but love. It was full of
+tenderness, full of hope, full of promise. He was coming to her
+with a steadfast, enduring love in his heart, he wanted her now
+more than ever before.
+
+There was no mention of Challis Wrandall, and but once was Sara's
+name used. There was nothing in the letter that could have betrayed
+their joint secret to the most acute outsider, and yet she would
+understand that he had wrung everything from Sara's lips. Her secret
+was his.
+
+He decided that it would not be safe to anticipate the letter by a
+cablegram. It was not likely that any message he could send would
+have the desired effect. Instead of reassuring her, in all probability
+it would create fresh alarm.
+
+Sleep did not come to him until after three o'clock. At two he got
+up and deliberately added a postscript to the letter he had written.
+It was in the nature of a poignant plea for Sara Wrandall. Even as
+he penned the lines, he shuddered at the thought of what she had
+planned to do to Hetty Castleton. Staring hard at the black window
+before him, the pen still in his hand, he allowed his thoughts
+to dwell so intimately on the subject of his well-meant postcript
+that her ashen face with its burning eyes seemed to take shape in
+the night beyond. It was a long time before he could get rid of
+the illusion. Afterwards he tried to conjure up Hetty's face and
+to drive out the likeness of the other woman, and found that he
+could not recall a single feature in the face of the girl he loved!
+
+When he reached Southlook in the morning, he found that nearly all
+of the doors and windows were boarded up. Wagons were standing in
+the stable-yard, laden with trunks and crates. Servants without
+livery were scurrying about the halls. There was an air of finality
+about their movements. The place was being desolated.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Watson, in reply to his question, "we ARE in a
+rush. Mrs. Wrandall expects to close the 'ouse this evening, sir.
+We all go up this afternoon. I suppose you. know, sir, we 'ave
+taken a new apartment in town."
+
+"No!" exclaimed Booth.
+
+"Yes, sir, we 'ave, sir. They've been decorating it for the pawst
+two weeks. Seems like she didn't care for the old one we 'ad. As
+a matter of fact, I didn't care much for it, either. She's taken
+one of them hexpensive ones looking out over the Park, sir. You
+know we used to look out over Madison Avenue, sir, and God knows it
+wasn't hinspirin'. Yes, sir, we go up this afternoon. Mrs. Wrandall
+will be down in a second, thank you, sir."
+
+Booth actually was startled by her appearance when she entered the
+room a few minutes later. She looked positively ill.
+
+"My dear Sara," he cried anxiously, "this is too bad. You are making
+yourself ill. Come, come, this won't do."
+
+"I shall be all right in a day or two," she said, with a weary little
+gesture. "I have been nervous. The strain was too great, Brandon.
+This is the reaction, the relaxation you might say."
+
+"Your hand is hot, your eyes look feverish. You'd better see your
+doctor as soon as you get to town. An ounce of prevention, you
+know."
+
+"Well," she said, with a searching look into his eyes, "have you
+written to her?"
+
+"Yes. Posted it at seven o'clock this morning."
+
+"I trust you did not go so far as to--well, to volunteer a word in
+my behalf. You were not to do that, you know."
+
+He looked uncomfortable. "I'm afraid I did take your name in vain,"
+he equivocated. "You are a--a wonderful woman, Sara," he went on,
+moved to the remark by a curious influence that he could not have
+explained any more than he could have accounted for the sudden gush
+of emotion that took possession of him.
+
+She ignored the tribute. "You will persuade her to come to New York
+with you?"
+
+"For your sake, Sara, if she won't come for mine."
+
+"She knows the cage is open," was her way of dismissing the subject.
+"I am glad you came over. I have a letter from Leslie. It came this
+morning. You may be interested in what he has to say of Hetty--and
+of yourself." She smiled faintly. "He is determined that you shall
+not be without a friend while he is alive."
+
+"Les isn't such a rotter, Sara. He's spoiled, but he is hardly to
+be blamed for that."
+
+"I will read his letter to you," she said, and there was no little
+significance in the way she put it. She held the letter in her
+hand, but he had failed to notice it before. Now he saw that it
+was a crumpled ball of paper. He was obliged to wait for a minute
+or two while she restored it to a readable condition. "He was in
+London when this was written," she explained, turning to the window
+for light. She glanced swiftly over the first page until she found
+the place where she meant to begin. "'I suppose Hetty Castleton has
+written that we met in Lucerne two weeks ago,'" she read. "'Curious
+coincidence in connexion with it, too. I was with her father, Col.
+Braid Castleton, when we came upon her most unexpectedly. I ran
+across him in Paris just before the aviation meet, and got to know
+him rather well. He's a fine chap, don't you think? I confess I was
+somewhat surprised to learn that he didn't know she'd left America.
+He explained it quite naturally, however. He'd been ill in the
+north of Ireland and must have missed her letters. Hetty was on
+the point of leaving for Italy. We didn't see much of her. But,
+by Jove, Sara, I am more completely gone on her than ever. She is
+adorable. Now that I've met her father, who had the beastly misfortune
+to miss old Murgatroyd's funeral, I can readily see wherein the
+saying "blood will tell" applies to her. He is a prince. He came
+over to London with me the day after we left Hetty in Lucerne, and
+I had him in to meet mother and Vivian at Clarridge's. They like
+him immensely. He set us straight on a good many points concerning
+the Glynn and Castleton families. Of course, I knew they were among
+the best over here, but I didn't know how fine they were until we
+prevailed on him to talk a little about himself. You will be glad
+to hear that he is coming over with us on the Mauretania. She sails
+the 27th. We'll be on the water by the time you get this letter.
+It had been our intention to sail last week, but the Colonel had
+to go to Ireland for a few days to settle some beastly squabbles
+among the tenants.  Next year he wants me to come over for the
+shooting. He isn't going back to India for two years, you may be
+interested to hear. Two years' leave. Lots of influence, believe me!
+We've been expecting him back in London since day before yesterday.
+I dare say he found matters worse than he suspected and has
+been delayed. He has been negotiating for the sale of some of his
+property in Belfast--factory sites, I believe. He is particularly
+anxious to close the deal before he leaves England. Had to lift a
+mortgage on the property, however, before he could think of making
+the sale. I staked him to four thousand pounds, to tide him over.
+Of course, he is eager to make the sale. 'Gad, I almost had to beg
+him to take the money.  Terribly proud and haughty, as the butler
+would say. He said he wouldn't sleep well until he has returned the
+filthy lucre. We are looking for him back any hour now. But if he
+shouldn't get here by Friday, we will sail without him. He said he
+would follow by the next boat, in case anything happened that he
+didn't catch the Mauretania.'"
+
+Sara interrupted herself to offer an ironic observation: "If Hetty
+did not despise her father so heartily, I should advise you to look
+farther for a father-in-law, Brandon. The Colonel is a bad lot.
+Estates in the north of Ireland! Poor Leslie!" She laughed softly.
+
+"He'll not show up, eh?"
+
+"Not a bit of it," she said. "He may be charged to profit and loss
+in Leslie's books. This part of the letter will interest you,"
+she went on, as if all that had gone before was of no importance
+to him.  "'I hear interesting news concerning you, my dear girl.
+My heartiest congratulations if it is all true. Brandy is one in
+a million. I have hoped all along to have him as a full-fledged
+brother-in-law, but I'm satisfied to have him as a sort of
+step-brother-in-law, if that's the way you'd put it. Father writes
+that every one is talking about it, and saying what a fine thing
+it is. He has a feeling of delicacy about approaching you in the
+matter, and I fancy it's just as well until everything is settled. I
+wish you'd let me make a suggestion, however. Wouldn't it be wise
+to let us all get together and talk over the business end of the
+game? Brandy's a fine chap, a corker, in fact, but the question is:
+has he got it in him to take Challis's place in the firm? You've
+got to consider the future as well as the present, my dear. We
+all do. With his artistic temperament he might play hob with your
+interests, and ours too, for that matter. Wouldn't it be wise for
+me to sound him a bit before we take him into the firm? Forgive
+me for suggesting this, but, as you know, your interests are mine,
+and I'm terribly keen about seeing you get the best of everything.
+By the way, wasn't he a bit gone on Hetty? Passing fancy, of course,
+and not deep enough to hurt anybody. Good old Brandy!'"
+
+"There is more, Brandon, but it's of no consequence," she said,
+tossing the letter upon the table. "You see how the land lays."
+
+Booth was pale with annoyance. "By Jove, Sara, what an insufferable
+ass he is!"
+
+"The shoe pinches?"
+
+"Oh, it's such perfect rot! I'm sorry on your account. Have you
+ever heard of such gall?"
+
+"Oh, he is merely acting as the family spokesman. I can see them
+now in solemn conclave. They think it their indisputable right to
+select a husband for me, to pass upon him, to accept or decline
+him as they see fit, to say whether he is a proper man to hang up
+his hat and coat in the offices of Wrandall & Co."
+
+"Do you mean to say--"
+
+"Let's not talk about it, Brandon. It is too silly."
+
+They fell to discussing her plans for the immediate future, although
+the minds of both were at work with something else.
+
+"Now that I have served my purpose, I suppose you will not care to
+see so much of me," she said, as he prepared to take leave of her.
+
+"Served your purpose? What do you mean?"
+
+"I should have put it differently. You have been most assiduous in
+your efforts to force the secret from me. It has been accomplished.
+Now do you understand?"
+
+"That isn't fair, Sara," he protested. "If you'll let me come
+to see you, in spite of what the gossips and Mr. Redmond Wrandall
+predict, you may be sure I will be as much in evidence as ever. I
+suppose I have been a bit of a nuisance, hanging on as I have."
+
+"I admire your perseverance. More than that, I admire your courage
+in accepting the situation as you have. I only hope you may win
+her over to your way of thinking, Brandon. Good-bye."
+
+"I shall go up to town to-morrow, kit and bag. When shall I see
+you?  We have a great deal left to talk about before I sail."
+
+"Come when you like."
+
+"You really want me to come?"
+
+"Certainly."
+
+He studied her pale, tired face for a moment, and then shook his
+head. "You must take care of yourself," he said. "You are unstrung.
+Get a good rest and--and forget certain things if you can.  Everything
+will come out all right in the end."
+
+"It depends on what one is willing to accept as the end," she said.
+
+The next morning she received an expected visitor at her apartment.
+Expecting him, she made a desperate effort to appear as strong and
+unconcerned as she had been on the occasion of a former meeting.
+There was little in her appearance to suggest worry, illness
+or alarm when she entered the rather unsettled little library and
+confronted the redoubtable Mr. Smith.
+
+The detective had dropped her a line earlier in the week asking
+for an audience at the earliest possible moment.
+
+"You are worried, madam," he said, after he had carefully closed
+the door leading to the hall, "and so am I."
+
+"What do you want now?" she demanded. "You have received your money.
+There is nothing else that we--"
+
+"Beg pardon, Mrs. Wrandall, but there is something else. I'm not
+after more money, as you may suspect. The size of the matter is,
+I'm here to put you wise to what's going on without your knowing
+anything about it. Right or wrong, I'm still interested in this
+case of yours. Understand me, I haven't lifted a finger since that
+day in the country. I've quit cold, just as I said I would. The
+trouble is, other people are still nosing around."
+
+"Sit down, Mr. Smith. Now, tell me what you are here for."
+
+Smith followed her example and sat down, drawing a chair quite
+close to hers. He lowered his voice.
+
+"Well, I've got next to something I think you ought to know. Maybe
+old man Wrandall is back of it, but I don't think he is. You see,
+so far as outsiders are concerned, that reward still stands. A
+murder's a murder and that's all there is to it. There are men in
+this business who are going to hunt for that woman until they get
+her.  See what I mean?"
+
+"Please go on. I suppose some one else suspects me, and may have to
+be bought off," she said so significantly that he turned a bright
+red.
+
+"Now don't think that of me, Mrs. Wrandall. I am not in on this,
+I swear. You paid me of your own free will and I laid down on the
+job.  I don't deny that I expected you to do it. I'm not what you'd
+call a model of virtue and integrity. I served time in the pen a
+good many years ago. They say it takes a thief to catch a thief.
+That's not true. A detective has to be dead honest or the thief
+catches him. I think most of the men in my business are honest.
+They have to be.  You may not agree with me, but I thought I was
+doing the square thing by you last summer. I had a theory and I
+was honest in believing it was the right one. I thought you'd pay
+me to drop the matter. I'm now dead sure I was wrong in suspecting
+you for a minute. I'm no fool. I--"
+
+Sara interrupted him.
+
+"Will you be good enough to come to the point, Mr. Smith?" she said
+coldly.
+
+"Well," he said, leaning forward and speaking very deliberately,
+"I've come here to tell you that the police haven't quit on the
+job.  They're about to make a worse mistake than I made."
+
+She felt herself turn pale. It required a great effort of the will
+to suppress the start that might have betrayed her to the keen-eyed
+observer.
+
+"That would be impossible, Mr. Smith," she said, shaking her head
+and smiling.
+
+"They've been watching that Ashtley girl you sent out West just
+after the--er--thing happened. The show-girl, you'll remember."
+
+He must have observed the swift look of relief that leaped into
+her eyes.
+
+"What arrant stupidity," she cried, unable to choose her words.
+"Why, that unhappy girl is dying a slow and awful death. Surely they
+can't be hounding her now. Her innocence was clearly established at
+the time. That is why I felt it to be my duty to help her. She went
+out to her old home, to die or to get well. They must be fools."
+
+"I'm just telling you, Mrs. Wrandall, that's all. Maybe you can
+call 'em off, if you know for a certainty that she's innocent."
+There was something accusing in his manner.
+
+She became very cautious. "My opinion was formed upon the girl's
+story, and by what the police said after investigating it thoroughly."
+
+"It's a way the police have, madam. They were not satisfied at
+the time. They simply gave her the rope, that's all. All this time
+they've had men watching her, day by day, out there in Montana.
+They say they've got new evidence, a lot of it."
+
+"It is perfectly ridiculous," she cried, very much distressed. "And
+it must be stopped. I shall see the authorities at once."
+
+"You may be too late. I heard last night that she is to be re-arrested
+out there and put through a fierce examination. They believe she's
+weakening and will confess if they go after her hard enough."
+
+"Confess? How can she confess when she knows she is innocent?" she
+said sharply.
+
+"You don't know much about the third degree, Mrs. Wrandall. I've
+known innocent people to confess under the bullying--"
+
+"It must be stopped! Do you hear me? This: thing cannot go on."
+She began to pace the floor in her agitation. "Yes, I have heard
+of those third degree atrocities. You are right, they may brow-beat
+the poor, sick thing into a confession. Does she know they have
+been watching her?"
+
+"Sure. That's part of the game. They make it a point to get on the
+nerves. Something is bound to give, sooner or later. They've got
+her scared to death. She knows they're simply waiting for a chance
+to catch her unawares and trip her up. I tell you, it's a fearful
+strain. Strong men go down under it time and again. What must it
+be to this half-dead girl, who hasn't much to be proud of in life
+at the very best?"
+
+"Tell me what to do," she cried, sitting down again, her eyes
+suddenly filling with tears.
+
+"I don't know, ma'am. You see, if we had a grain of proof to work
+on, we might be able to turn 'em back, but there's the rub. We can't
+say they're wrong without having something up our sleeves to show
+that we are right. See what I mean?"
+
+"But I tell you she is innocent!"
+
+"Can you swear to that, Mrs. Wrandall?"
+
+"I--I believe I can," she said, and then experienced a sharp sense
+of dismay. What possessed her to say it? "That is, I could stake
+my--"
+
+"All that won't count for anything, if they get a signed confession
+out of her. Now we both know she is innocent. I'm willing to do
+what I can to help you. Turn about is fair play. If you want to
+send me out there, I'll try to spike their guns. Maybe I can get
+there in time to put fresh heart in the girl. She's safe if she
+doesn't go to pieces and say something she oughtn't to say."
+
+"Oh, this is dreadful," she cried, harassed beyond words.
+
+"It sure is. You see, the police work on the theory that some
+one's just got to be guilty of that crime. If it ain't the girl
+out yonder, then who is it? They know her private history. She said
+enough when she was in custody last year to show that she might
+have had a pretty good reason for going after your husband--begging
+your pardon. You remember she said he'd given her the go-by not
+more than two days before he was killed. They'd been good friends
+up to then.  All of a sudden he chucks her, without ceremony. She
+admits she was sore about it. She says she would have done him
+dirt if she had had the chance. Well, that's against her. She did
+prove an alibi, as you remember, but they're easy to frame up if
+necessary. I don't think she was clever enough to do the job and
+get away as slick as the real one did. She was a booze-fighter in
+those days. They always mess things up. A mighty smooth party did
+that job. Some one with a good deal more at stake than that poor,
+reckless girl who didn't care much what became of her. But the
+trouble is here: they've got her half crazy with fear. First thing
+we know, she'll go clear off her head and BELIEVE she did it.
+Then the law will be satisfied.  She's so far gone, I hear, that
+she won't live to be brought to trial, of course. There's some
+consolation in that."
+
+"Consolation!" cried Sara bitterly. "She is bad, as bad as a woman
+can be, I know, but I can't feel anything but pity for her now."
+
+"I guess your husband made her what she was," said Smith deliberately.
+"I don't suppose you ever dreamed what was going on."
+
+She regarded him with a fixed stare. "You are mistaken, Mr. Smith,"
+she said, and it was his turn to stare. "Come back this evening
+at six. I must consult Mr. Carroll. We will decide what action to
+take."
+
+"I'd advise you to be quick about it, Mrs. Wrandall. Something's
+bound to happen soon. The time is ripe. I know for a positive fact
+that they're expecting news from out there every day. It'd be a God's
+blessing if the poor wretch could die before they get a chance at
+her."
+
+She started. "A God's blessing," she repeated dully.
+
+"Pretty hard lines, though," he mused, fumbling with his hat near
+the door. "Even death wouldn't clear her of the suspicion. Pretty
+tough to be branded a murderess, no matter whether you're in the
+grave or out of it. I'll be back at six."
+
+She stood perfectly still, and, although her lips were parted,
+she allowed him to go without a word in, response to his sombre
+declaration.
+
+Half an hour later Mr. Carroll was on his way to her apartment,
+vastly perturbed by the call that had come to him over the telephone.
+
+While waiting for him to appear, Sara Wrandall deliberately set
+herself to the task of concocting a likely and plausible excuse
+for intervention in behalf of the wretched show-girl. She prepared
+herself for his argument that the police might be right after all,
+and that it would be the better part of wisdom to shift the burden
+to their shoulders. She knew she would be called upon to discount
+some very sensible advice from the faithful old lawyer. Her reasons
+would have to be good ones, not mere whims. He was not likely to
+be moved by sentimentality. Moreover, he had once expressed doubt
+as to the girl's innocence.
+
+It did not once occur to her that it was Mr. Carroll's business to
+respect the secrets of his clients.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE HOLLOW OF HER HAND
+
+
+
+
+To her secret amazement, the old lawyer did not offer a single protest
+when she repeated her convictions that the girl was innocent and
+should be protected against herself as well as against the police.
+There was something very disquieting in the way he acquiesced. She
+began to experience a vague, uneasy sense of wonder and apprehension.
+
+"I am beginning to agree with that amiable scoundrel, Smith,"
+he said, fixing his inscrutable gaze on the snapping coals in the
+fireplace. "A cleverer woman than this Miss--er--What's-Her-Name
+managed that affair at Burton's Inn."
+
+She watched his face closely. Somehow she felt that he was about
+to mention the name of the woman he suspected, and it seemed to
+her that her heart stood still during the moment of suspense.
+
+He lifted his eyes to her face. She saw something in them that set
+her to trembling.
+
+"Why not be fair with me, Sara?" he asked calmly. She stared at
+him, transfixed. "Who killed Challis Wrandall?"
+
+She opened her lips to protest against this startling question,
+but something rushed up from within to completely change the whole
+course of her conduct; something she could not explain but which
+swept away every vestige of strength, and left her weak and trembling,
+open-mouthed and pallid, with the liberated truth surging up from
+its prison to give itself into the keeping of this staunch, loyal
+old friend and counsellor.
+
+Carroll heard her through to the very end of the story without
+an interruption. Then he crossed over and laid his hands on her
+shoulders; there was a gleam of relief and satisfaction in his
+eyes.
+
+"I am sorry you did not come to me with all this in the beginning,
+Sara. A few words from me,--kindly words, my dear,--would have
+shown you the error of your ways and you would have cast out the
+ugly devils that beset you. You would not have planned the thing
+you are so ashamed of now. Together we could have protected Hetty
+and she would not be your accuser now. You began nobly. I am sorry
+you have the other part of it to look back upon. But you may rest
+assured of one thing: you and Miss Castleton have nothing to fear.
+We will keep the secret, if needs be, but if it should come to the
+worst no harm would result to her through the law. The main thing
+now is to protect that unhappy girl out West against the inquisition."
+
+She sat with bowed head.
+
+When Smith returned at six o'clock, he found not only Mr. Carroll
+waiting for him but Brandon Booth as well. His instructions were
+clearly defined and concise. He was to proceed without delay to
+Montana, where he was to bolster up the frail girl's courage and
+prevent if possible the disaster. Moreover, he was to assure her
+that Challis Wrandall's wife forgave her and would contest every
+effort made by the police to lay the crime at her door. He was
+empowered to engage legal counsel on his arrival in the Western
+town and to fight every move of the police, not only in behalf of
+the girl herself, but of Sara Wrandall, who thus publicly pronounced
+her faith in the young woman's innocence.
+
+It was all very cleverly thought out, and Smith went away without
+being much wiser than when he came. Before departing he offered
+this rather sinister conclusion for Sara's benefit:
+
+"Of course, Mrs. Wrandall, you understand that the police will
+wonder why you take such an interest in this girl. They're bound to
+think, and so will every one else, that you know a good deal more
+about the case than you've given out. See what I mean?"
+
+"They are at liberty to think what they like, Mr. Smith," said she.
+
+After Smith had gone, the three discussed the advisability of
+acquainting Hetty with the deplorable conditions that had arisen.
+
+"I don't believe it would be wise to tell her," said Booth
+reflectively. "She'd be sure to sacrifice herself rather than let
+harm come to this girl. We couldn't stop her."
+
+"No, she must not be told," said Sara, with finality.
+
+"She is almost sure to find this out for herself some time,"
+said the lawyer dubiously. "I think we'd better take her into our
+confidence. It is only right and just, you know."
+
+"Not at present, not at present," said Sara irritably. "It would
+ruin everything."
+
+Booth appreciated her reasons for delay much more clearly than they
+appeared to the matter-of-fact lawyer.
+
+"The girl may die at any time," he explained, addressing Mr.
+Carroll, but not without a queer thrill of shame.
+
+"That is not what I meant, Brandon," she exclaimed. "I want Hetty
+to come back with but one motive in her heart. Can't you see?"
+
+As Booth and the lawyer walked down Fifth Avenue toward the club
+where they were to dine together, the latter, after a long silence,
+made a remark that disturbed the young man vastly.
+
+"She's going all to pieces, Booth. Bound to collapse. That's the
+way with these strong-minded, secret, pent-up natures. She has
+brooded all these months and she's been living a lie. Well, the
+break has come. She's told you and me. Now, do you know what I'm
+afraid will happen?"
+
+"I think I know what's in your mind," said the younger man seriously.
+"You are afraid she'll tell others?"
+
+The lawyer tapped his forehead significantly. "It may result in
+THAT."
+
+"Never!" cried the other emphatically. "It will never be that way
+with her, Mr. Carroll. Her head is as clear as--"
+
+"Brain fever," interrupted Carroll, with a gloomy shake of his head.
+"Delirium and all that sort of thing. Haven't you noticed how ill
+she looks? Feverish, nervous, irritable? Well, there you are."
+
+"It is a dreadful state of affairs," groaned Booth.
+
+"Not especially pleasant for you, my friend."
+
+"God knows it isn't!"
+
+"I believe, if I were in your place, I'd rather have the truth
+told broadcast than to live for ever with that peril hanging over
+me. It would be better for Miss Castleton, too."
+
+"I am not worrying over that, sir," said the other earnestly. "I
+shall be able and ready to defend her, no matter what happens. To
+be perfectly honest with you, I don't believe she's accountable to
+any one but God in this matter. The law has no claim against her,
+except in a perfunctory way. I don't deny that it is only right and
+just that Wrandall's family should know the truth, if she chooses
+to reveal it to them. If she doesn't, I shall be the last to suggest
+it to her."
+
+"On that point I thoroughly agree with you. The Wrandall family
+should know the truth. It is--well, I came near to using the word
+diabolical--to keep them in ignorance. There is something owing to
+the Wrandalls, if not to the law."
+
+"Of course they would make a merciless effort to prosecute her,"
+said Booth, feeling the cold sweat start on his brow.
+
+"I am not so sure of that, my friend," was the rather hopeful opinion
+of the old man. He appeared to be weighing something in his mind,
+for as they walked along he shook his head from time to time and
+muttered under his breath, the while his companion maintained a
+gloomy silence.
+
+The perceptions of the astute old lawyer were not far out of the
+way, as developments of the next day were to prove. When Booth called
+in the afternoon at Sara's apartment, he was met by the news that
+she was quite ill and could see no one,--not even him. The doctor
+had been summoned during the night and had returned in the morning,
+to find that she had a very high temperature. The butler could not
+enlighten Booth further than this, except to add that a nurse was
+coming in to take charge of Mrs. Wrandall, more for the purpose
+of watching her symptoms than for anything else, he believed. At
+least, so the doctor had said.
+
+Two days passed before the distressed young man could get any definite
+news concerning her condition. He unconsciously began to think of
+it as a malady, not a mere illness, due of course to the remark
+Carroll had dropped. It was Carroll himself who gave a definite
+report of Sara. He met the lawyer coming away from the apartment
+when he called to inquire.
+
+"She isn't out of her head, or anything like that," said Carroll
+uneasily, "but she's in a bad way, Booth. She is worrying over
+that girl out West, of course, but I'll tell you what I think is
+troubling her more than anything else. Down in her heart she realises
+that Hetty Castleton has got to be brought face to face with the
+Wrandalls."
+
+"The deuce you say!"
+
+"To-day I saw her for the first time. Almost immediately she asked
+me if I thought the Wrandalls would treat Hetty fairly if they
+ever found out the truth about her. I said I thought they would. I
+didn't have the heart to tell her that their grievance undoubtedly
+would be shifted from Hetty to her, and that they wouldn't be
+likely to forgive her for the stand she'd taken. She doesn't seem
+to care, however, what the Wrandalls think of her. By the way, have
+you any influence over Hetty Castleton?"
+
+"I wish I were sure that I had," said Booth.
+
+"Do you think she would come if you sent her a cablegram?"
+
+"I am going over--"
+
+"She will have your letter in a couple of days, according to Sara,
+who seems to have a very faithful correspondent in the person of
+that maid. I shudder to think of the cable tolls in the past few
+months! I sometimes wonder if the maid suspects anything more than
+a loving interest in Miss Castleton. What I was about to suggest
+is this: Couldn't you cable her on Friday saying that Sara is very
+ill?  This is Tuesday. We'll be having word from Smith to-morrow,
+I should think."
+
+"I will cable, of course, but Sara must not know that I've done
+it."
+
+"Can you come to my office to-morrow afternoon?"
+
+"Yes. To-morrow night I shall go over to Philadelphia, to be gone
+till Friday. I hope it will not be necessary for me to stay longer.
+You never can tell about these operations."
+
+"I trust everything will go well, Brandon."
+
+Several things of note transpired before noon on Friday.
+
+The Wrandalls arrived from Europe, without the recalcitrant Colonel.
+Mr. Redmond Wrandall, who met them at the dock, heaved a sigh of
+relief.
+
+"He will be over on the Lusitania, next sailing," said Leslie, who
+for some reason best known to himself wore a troubled look.
+
+Mr. Wrandall's face fell. "I hope not," he said, much to the
+indignation of his wife and the secret uneasiness of his son. "These
+predatory connections of the British nobility--"
+
+"Predatory!" gasped Mrs. Wrandall.
+
+"--are a blood-sucking lot," went on the old gentleman firmly. "If
+he comes to New York, Leslie, I'll stake my head he won't be long
+in borrowing a few thousand dollars from each of us. And he'll not
+seek to humiliate us by attempting to pay it back. Oh, I know them."
+
+Leslie swallowed rather hard. "What's the news here, Dad?" he asked
+hastily. "Anybody dead?"
+
+"Sara is quite ill, I hear. Slow fever of some sort, Carroll tells
+me."
+
+"Is she going to marry Brandy Booth?" asked his son.
+
+Mr. Wrandall's face stiffened. "I fear I was a little hasty in my
+conclusions. Brandon came to the office a few days ago and informed
+me in rather plain words that there is absolutely nothing in the
+report."
+
+"The deuce you say! 'Gad, I wrote her a rather intimate letter--"
+Leslie got no farther than this. He was somewhat stunned and
+bewildered by his private reflections.
+
+Mr. Wrandall was lost in study for some minutes, paying no attention
+to the remarks of the other occupants of the motor that whirled
+them across town.
+
+"By the way, my dear," he said to his wife, a trifle irrelevantly,
+"don't you think it would be right for you and Vivian to drop in
+this afternoon and see Sara? just to let her know that she isn't
+without--"
+
+"It's out of the question, Redmond," said his wife, a shocked
+expression in her face as much as to say that he must be quite out
+of his head to suggest such a thing. "We shall be dreadfully busy
+for several days, unpacking and--well, doing all sorts of NECESSARY
+things."
+
+"She is pretty sick, I hear," mumbled he.
+
+"Hasn't she got a nurse?" demanded his wife.
+
+"I merely offered the suggestion in order--"
+
+"Well, we'll see her next week. Any other news?"
+
+"Mrs. Booth, Brandon's mother, was operated on for something or
+other day before yesterday."
+
+"Oh, dear! The poor thing! Where?"
+
+"Philadelphia, of course."
+
+"I wonder if--let me see, Leslie, isn't there a good train to
+Philadelphia at four o'clock? I could go--"
+
+"Really, my dear," said her husband sharply.
+
+"You forget how busy we are, mother," said Vivian, without a smile.
+
+"Nonsense!" said Mrs. Wrandall, in considerable confusion. "Was it
+a serious operation, Redmond?"
+
+"They cut a bone out of her nose, that's all. Brandon says her heart
+is weak. They were afraid of the ether. She's all right, Carroll
+says."
+
+"Goodness!" cried Mrs. Wrandall. One might have suspected a note
+of disappointment in her voice.
+
+"I shall go up to see Sara this afternoon," said Vivian calmly.
+"What's the number of her new apartment?"
+
+"YOU have been up to see her, of course," said Mrs. Wrandall acidly.
+
+He fidgetted. "I didn't hear of her illness until yesterday."
+
+"I'll go up with you, Viv," said Leslie.
+
+"No, you won't," said his sister flatly. "I'm going to apologise to
+her for something I said to Brandon Booth. You needn't tag along,
+Les."
+
+At half-past five in the afternoon, the Wrandall limousine stopped
+in front of the tall apartment building near the Park, a footman
+jerked open the door, and Miss Wrandall stepped out. At the same
+moment a telegraph messenger boy paused on the sidewalk to compute
+the artistic but puzzling numerals on the imposing grilled doors
+of the building.
+
+Miss Wrandall had herself announced by the obsequious doorman, and
+stood by in patience to wait for the absurd rule of the house to
+be carried out: "No one could get in without being announced from
+below," said the doorman.
+
+"I c'n get in all right, all right," said the messenger boy, "I
+got a tellygram for de loidy."
+
+"Go to the rear!" exclaimed the doorman, with some energy.
+
+While Miss Wrandall waited in Sara's reception hall on the tenth
+floor, the messenger, having traversed a more devious route, arrived
+with his message.
+
+Watson took the envelope and told him to wait. Five minutes
+passed.  Miss Wrandall grew very uncomfortable under the persistent
+though complimentary gaze of the street urchin. He stared at her,
+wide-eyed and admiring, his tribute to the glorious. She stared
+back occasionally, narrow-eyed and reproving, HER tribute to the
+grotesque.
+
+"Will you please step into the drawing-room, Miss Wrandall," said
+Watson, returning. He led her across the small foyer and threw open
+a door. She passed into the room beyond.
+
+Then he turned to the boy who stood beside the hall seat, making
+change for a quarter as he approached. "Here," he said, handing
+him the receipt book and a dime, "that's for you." He dropped the
+quarter into his own pocket, where it mingled with coins that were
+strangers to it up to that instant, and imperiously closed the
+door behind the boy who failed to say "thank you." Every man to
+his trade!
+
+There was a woman in the drawing-room when Vivian entered, standing
+well over against the windows with her back to the light. The
+visitor stopped short in surprise. She had expected to find her
+sister-in-law in bed, attended by a politely superior person in
+pure white.
+
+"Why, Sara," she began, "I am SO glad to see you are up and--"
+
+The other woman came forward. "But I am not Sara, Miss Wrandall,"
+she said, in a well-remembered voice. "How do you do?"
+
+Vivian found herself looking into the face of Hetty Castleton.
+Instantly she extended her hand.
+
+"This IS a surprise!" she exclaimed. "When did you return? Leslie
+told me your plans were quite settled when he saw you in Lucerne.
+Oh, I see! Of course! How stupid of me. Sara sent for you."
+
+"She has been quite ill," said Hetty, non-committally. "We got in
+yesterday. I thought my place was here, naturally."
+
+"Naturally," repeated Vivian, in a detached sort of way. "How is
+she to-day? May I see her?"
+
+"She is very much better. In fact, she is sitting up in her room."
+A warm flush suffused her face, a shy smile appeared in her eyes.
+"She is receiving two gentlemen visitors, to be perfectly honest,
+Miss Wrandall, her lawyer, Mr. Carroll, and--Mr. Booth."
+
+They were seated side by side on the uncomfortable Louis Seize
+divan in the middle of the room.
+
+"Perhaps she won't care to see me, after an audience so fatiguing,"
+said Miss Wrandall sweetly. "And so exasperating," she added, with
+a smile.
+
+Hetty looked her perplexity.
+
+"But she will see you, Miss Wrandall--if you don't mind waiting.
+It is a business conference they're having."
+
+An ironic gleam appeared in the corner of Vivian's eye. "Oh," she
+said, and waited. Hetty smiled uncertainly. All at once the tall
+American girl was impressed by the wistful, almost humble look in
+the Englishwoman's eyes, an appealing look that caused her to wonder
+not a little. Like a flash she jumped at an obvious conclusion,
+and almost caught her breath. This girl loved Booth and was losing
+him!  Vivian exulted for a moment and then, with an impulse she
+could not quite catalogue, laid her hand on the other's slim fingers,
+and murmured somewhat hazily: "Never mind, never mind!"
+
+"Oh, you MUST wait," cried Hetty, not at all in touch with the
+other's mood. "Sara expects to see you. The men will be out in a
+few minutes."
+
+"I think I will run in to-morrow morning," said Vivian hastily. She
+arose almost immediately and again extended her hand. "So glad to
+see you back again, Miss Castleton. Come and see me. Give my love
+to Sara."
+
+She took her departure in some haste, and in her heart she was
+rejoicing that she had not succeeded in making a fool of herself
+by confessing to Sara that she had said unkind things about her to
+Brandon Booth.
+
+Hetty resumed her seat in the broad French window and stared out
+over the barren tree-tops in the Park. A frightened, pathetic droop
+returned to her lips. It had been there most of the day.
+
+In Sara's boudoir, the doors of which were carefully closed, three
+persons were in close, even repressed conference. The young mistress
+of the house sat propped up in a luxurious chaise-longue, wan but
+intense. Confronting her were the two men, leaning forward in their
+chairs. Mr. Carroll held in his hand a number of papers, prominent
+among them being three or four telegrams. Booth's face was radiant
+despite the serious matter that occupied his mind. He had reached
+town early in the morning in response to a telephone message from
+Carroll announcing the sudden, unannounced appearance of Hetty
+Castleton at his offices on the previous afternoon. The girl's
+arrival had been most unexpected. She walked in on Mr. Carroll,
+accompanied by her maid, who had a distinctly sheepish look in her
+eyes and seemed eager to explain something but could not find the
+opportunity.
+
+With some firmness, Miss Castleton had asked Mr. Carroll to
+explain why the woman had been set to spy upon her every movement,
+a demand the worthy lawyer could not very well meet for the good
+and sufficient reason that he wasn't very clear about it himself.
+Then Hetty broke down and cried, confessing that she was eager to
+go to Mrs. Wrandall, at the same time sobbing out something about
+a symbolic dicky-bird, much to Mr. Carroll's wonder and perplexity.
+
+He sent the maid from the room, and retired with Miss Castleton to
+the innermost of his private offices, where without much preamble
+he informed her that he knew everything. Moreover, Mr. Booth was
+in possession of all the facts and was even then on the point of
+starting for Europe to see her. Of course, his letter had failed to
+reach her in time. There was quite a tragic scene in the seclusion
+of that remote little office, during which Mr. Carroll wiped his
+eyes and blew his nose more than once, after which he took it upon
+himself to despatch a messenger to Sara with the word that he and
+Miss Castleton would present themselves within half an hour after
+his note had been delivered.
+
+A telegram already had come from Smith in the far-away Montana town,
+transmitting news that disturbed him more than he cared to admit.
+The showgirl was lying at the point of death, and he was having a
+very hard time of it trying to keep the resolute authorities from
+swooping down upon her for the ante-mortem statement they desired.
+It would appear that he arrived just in time to put courage into the
+girl. He would see to it that any statement she made would be the
+truth! But Mr. Carroll was not so sure of Smith's ability to avert
+disaster. He knew something of the terrors of the third degree.
+The police would fight hard for vindication.
+
+The meeting between Sara and Hetty was affecting....Almost immediately
+the former began to show the most singular signs of improvement.
+She laughed and cried and joyously announced to the protesting nurse
+that she was feeling quite well again! And, in truth, she got up
+from the couch on which she reclined and insisted on being dressed
+for dinner. In another room the amazed nurse was frantically
+appealing to Mr. Carroll to let her send for the doctor, only to
+be confounded by his urbane announcement that Mrs. Wrandall was as
+"right as a string" and, please God, she wouldn't need the services
+of doctor or nurse again for years to come. Then he asked the nurse
+if she had ever heard of a disease called "nostalgia."
+
+She said she had heard of "home-sickness."
+
+"Well, that's what ailed Mrs. Wrandall," he said. "Miss Castleton
+is the CURE."
+
+Booth came the next morning....Even as she lay passive in his arms,
+Hetty denied him. Her arms were around his neck as she miserably
+whispered that she could not, would not be his wife, notwithstanding
+her love for him and his readiness to accept her as she was. She
+was obdurate, lovingly, tenderly obdurate. He would have despaired
+but for Sara, to whom he afterwards appealed.
+
+"Wait," was all that Sara had said, but he took heart. He was
+beginning to look upon her as a sorceress. A week ago he had felt
+sorry for her; his heart had been touched by her transparent misery.
+To-day he saw her in another light altogether; as the determined,
+resourceful, calculating woman who, having failed to attain a certain
+end, was now intensely, keenly interested in the development of
+another of a totally different nature. He could not feel sorry for
+her to-day.
+
+Hetty deliberately had placed herself in their hands, withdrawing
+from the conference shortly before Vivian's arrival to give herself
+over to gloomy conjectures as to the future, not only for herself,
+but for the man she loved and the woman she worshipped with something
+of the fidelity of a beaten dog.
+
+Carroll had in his hand the second telegram from Smith, just
+received.
+
+"This relieves the situation somewhat," he observed, with a deep
+sigh. "She's dead, and she didn't give in, thanks to Smith. Rather
+clever of him to get a signed statement, however, witnessed by the
+prosecuting attorney and the chief of police. It puts an end to
+everything so far as she is concerned."
+
+"Read again, Mr. Carroll, what she had to say about me," said Sara,
+a slight tremour of emotion in her voice.
+
+He read from the lengthy telegram: "'She wants me to thank Mrs.
+Wrandall for all she has done to make her last few months happy
+ones, such as they were. She appreciates her kindness all the
+more because she realises that her benefactress must have known
+everything. Almost the last words she spoke were in the nature of
+a sort of prayer that God would forgive her for what she had done
+to Mrs. Wrandall.'"
+
+"Poor girl! She could not have known that it was justice, not
+sentiment that moved me to provide for her," said Sara.
+
+"Well, she is off our minds, at any rate," said the matter-of-fact
+lawyer. "Now are you both willing to give serious consideration to
+the plan I propose? Take time to think it over. No harm will come
+to Miss Castleton, I am confident. There will be a nine days'
+sensation, but, after all, it is the best thing for everybody. You
+propose living abroad, Booth, so what are the odds if--"
+
+"I shan't live abroad unless Hetty reconsiders her decision to
+not marry me," said the young man dismally. "'Gad, Sara, you must
+convince her that I love her better than--"
+
+"I think she knows all that, Brandon. As I said before, wait! And
+now, Mr. Carroll, I have this to say to your suggestion: I for
+one am relentlessly opposed to the plan you advocate. There is no
+occasion for this matter to go to the public. A trial, you say,
+would be a mere formality. I am not so sure of that. Why put poor
+Hetty's head in the lion's mouth at this late stage, after I have
+protected her so carefully all these months? Why take the risk?
+We know she is innocent. Isn't it enough that we acquit her in
+our hearts? No, I cannot consent, and I hold both of you to your
+promises."
+
+"There is nothing more I can say, my dear Sara," said Carroll,
+shaking his head gloomily, "except to urge you to think it over
+very seriously. Remember, it may mean a great deal to her--and to
+our eager young friend here. Years from now, like a bolt from the
+sky, the truth may come out in some way. Think of what it would
+mean then."
+
+Sara regarded him steadily. "There are but four people who know
+the truth," she said slowly. "It isn't likely that Hetty or Brandon
+will tell the story. Professional honour forbids your doing so.
+That leaves me as the sole peril. Is that what you would imply, my
+dear friend?"
+
+"Not at all," he cried hastily, "not at all. I--"
+
+"That's all tommy-rot, Sara," cried Booth earnestly. "We just
+COULDN'T have anything to fear from you."
+
+With curious inconsistency, she shook her head and remarked: "Of
+course, you never could be quite easy in your minds. There would
+always be the feeling of unrest. Am I to be trusted, after all? I
+have proved myself to be a vindictive schemer. What assurance can
+you and Hetty have that I will not turn against one or the other
+of you some time and crush you to satisfy a personal grievance? How
+do you know, Brandon, that I am not in love with you at this very--"
+
+"Good heavens, Sara!" he cried, agape.
+
+"--at this very moment?" she continued. "It would not be so very
+strange, would it? I am very human. The power to love is not denied
+me. Oh, I am merely philosophising. Don't look so serious. We will
+suppose that I continued along my career as the woman scorned. You
+have seen how I smart under the lash. Well?"
+
+"But all that is impossible," said Booth, his face clearing. "You're
+not in love with me, and never can be. That! for your philosophy!"
+
+At the same instant he became aware of the singular gleam in her
+eyes; a liquid, Oriental glow that seemed to reflect light on her
+lower lids as she sat there with her face in the shadow. Once or
+twice before he had been conscious of the mysterious, seductive
+appeal. He stared back at her, almost defensively, but her gaze
+did not waver. It was he who first looked away, curiously uncomfortable.
+
+"Still," she said slowly, "I think you would be wise to consider
+all possible contingencies."
+
+"I'll take chances, Sara," he said, with an odd buoyancy in his voice
+that, for the life of him, he could not explain, even to himself.
+
+"Even admitting that such should turn out to be the case," said
+Mr.  Carroll judicially, "I don't believe you'd go so far as to
+put your loyal friends in jeopardy, Sara. So we will dismiss the
+thought.  Don't forget, however, that you hold them in the hollow
+of your hand. My original contention was based on the time-honoured
+saying, 'murder will out.' We never can tell what may turn up. The
+best laid plans of men and mice oft--"
+
+Sara settled back among the cushions with a peremptory wave of her
+hand. The loose, flowing sleeve fell away, revealing her white,
+exquisitely modelled arm almost to the shoulder. For some strange,
+unaccountable reason Booth's eyes fell.
+
+"I am tired, wretchedly tired. It has been a most exhausting day,"
+she said, with a sudden note of weariness in her voice. Both men
+started up apologetically. "I will think seriously of your plan,
+Mr.  Carroll. There is no hurry, I'm sure. Please send Miss Wrandall
+in to me, will you? Perhaps you would better tell Hetty to come in
+as soon as Vivian leaves. Come back to-morrow afternoon, Brandon.
+I shall be much more cheerful. By the way, have you noticed that
+Dicky, out in the library, has been singing all afternoon as if
+his little throat would split? It is very curious, but to-day is
+the first time he has uttered a note in nearly five months. Just
+listen to him! He is fairly riotous with song."
+
+Booth leaned over and kissed the hand she lifted to him. "He is
+like the rest of us, Sara, inordinately happy." A slight shiver
+ran through her arm. He felt it.
+
+"I am so afraid his exuberance of spirit may annoy Vivian," said
+she, with a rare smile. "She detests vulgarity."
+
+The men departed. She lay back in the chaise-longue, her eyes fixed
+on the hand he had touched with his lips.
+
+Watson tapped twice on the door.
+
+"Miss Wrandall could not wait, ma'am," he said, opening the door
+softly. "She will call again tomorrow."
+
+"Thank you, Watson. Will you hand me the cigarettes?"
+
+Watson hesitated. "The cigarettes, ma'am?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"But the doctor's orders, ma'am, begging your pardon for--"
+
+"I have a new doctor, Watson."
+
+"I beg pardon, ma'am!"
+
+"The celebrated Dr. Folly," she said lightly.
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+SARA WRANDALL'S DECISION
+
+
+
+
+When Smith returned from the Far West, a few days after the events
+narrated in the foregoing chapter, he repaired at once to Sara's
+apartment, bringing with him not only the signed statement of the
+Ashtley girl, but the well-worn and apparently cherished prayer-book
+that had been her solace during the last few months of her life.
+On the fly-leaf she had written: "I have nothing of God's earthly
+gifts to leave behind but this. It has brought me riches, but it is
+a poor thing in itself. I bequeath it, my only earthly possession,
+to the kind and merciful one who taught me that there is good in
+this bad world of ours." It was inscribed to "Mrs. Challis Wrandall."
+
+"She made me promise to give it to you with my own hands, Mrs.
+Wrandall," said Smith, in the library, putting as much emotion into
+his voice and manner as he thought the occasion and the audience
+demanded. Miss Castleton and Mr. Booth were also present. "She
+was a queer girl. I never saw one just like her, believe me. Just
+after she signed that paper, I had a chance to be alone with her
+for a minute or two. She asked me to stoop over so's I could hear
+what she had to say, and she made me promise not to say a word
+about it until after she was gone. Well, it will surprise you just
+as much as it did me, what she had to say with her dying breath,
+so to speak." He paused for the effect.
+
+"What did she say to you?" demanded Sara.
+
+"Well, sir, do you know that that girl knew all along who it was
+that went up to Burton's Inn that evening with your husband? What
+do you think of that?"
+
+There was not a sound in the room. Even the coals in the fireplace
+seemed to take that instant to hush their blithe crackling. Smith's
+listeners might have been absolutely breathless, they were so rigid.
+Each had the grotesque fear that he was about to point his finger
+at Hetty Glynn and call upon her to aaswer to an accusation from
+the grave.
+
+The next moment they drew a deep, quivering breath of relief. The
+detective went on, almost apologetically. "I tried to bluff her
+into telling me who she was, Mrs. Wrandall, but she wouldn't fall
+for it.  After a little while, I saw it was no use questioning her.
+She was as firm as a rock about it. And she was pretty near gone,
+I can tell you. As a matter of fact, her heart went back on her
+suddenly not ten minutes later, sort of surprising all of us. But
+she did manage to whisper a few things to me while the others were
+conversing in the hall. She said that she saw another girl with Mr.
+Wrandall about a week before the murder, a stranger and a very
+pretty one. He knew how to pick out the pretty--I--I beg your
+pardon, ma'am. That sort of slipped out. You see--"
+
+"Never mind. I understand. Go on."
+
+"Right after that he told her he was through with her. Chucked
+her, that's the sum and substance of it, for the new one, whoever
+she was. She raised a row with him about it, and he laughed at her.
+For nearly a week she spied on him, and she saw him out in the car
+with the stranger at least half a dozen times. Now comes the queer
+part of it, and the thing that made her keep her lips closed at
+first, right after the killing--the murder, I mean. She laid for
+him in front of his home on the very day of the murder and swore
+she'd do something desperate if he didn't give the other one up. He
+took her to a cheap restaurant on the West Side, and she was sure
+that several waiters saw that they were quarrelling. To get her
+out of the place, he induced her to get in his car and they went
+for a ride out as far as Van Courtlandt Park. The police never got
+onto all this. But she lived in terror for a few days, believing
+that the waiters might remember them, although neither of them had
+ever been in the place before. When she was taken up for examination,
+she still wondered if they would be called on to identify her.
+Nothing doing. It was right then, Mrs. Wrandall, that you stepped
+in and said that her alibi was sufficient, and staked her for life
+out there in the West. She says she saw the other girl after the
+murder, but she wouldn't say where it was or when. Of course, she
+couldn't swear that this girl did the job up there at Burton's,
+but she was pretty nearly dead certain she was the one who went
+up there with him. She was just on the point of telling the police
+about this girl, to save herself, when you helped her out of the
+fix, and then she got to thinking strange things, she said. This
+is what she said to me, there on her death-bed, and I want to tell
+you it gave me an idea of character that I had never come across
+before in all my experience. She said that if Mrs. Wrandall here
+could be fine enough to befriend her, knowing all you did, ma'am,
+about her and your husband, it oughtn't to be hard for her to help
+another erring girl by keeping her mouth shut. And that's just what
+she did. She kept still. That sort of reasoning was new to me. But,
+when you stop to think it over, maybe she was right. A word from
+her might have sent a fellow creature to the chair. She had had her
+lesson in charity from you, Mrs. Wrandall, and, while you didn't
+mean it to have that effect, you undoubtedly spoiled the best chance
+we'll ever have to get the real woman in the case."
+
+There was a moment of tense silence. Booth was the first to risk
+the effort at speech.
+
+"And she wouldn't say a word more? She gave you no--no clue?"
+
+"Not the faintest idea, sir. She took that girl's name to the grave
+with her."
+
+"Her name! She knew her name?" cried Sara, leaning forward.
+
+"She heard it a day or two after you had her set free, Mrs.
+Wrandall. Don't it beat all? Now, don't you see what might have
+happened if we'd let the police put the screws on her out there?
+Why, the chances are, a hundred to one, she would have broken down
+in the end, and told who this other woman is. There is where we
+made a fatal mistake. But it's too late now, confound it."
+
+"Yes, it's too late now," said Sara, relaxing in her chair.
+
+"I'm telling you this, although maybe I wasn't expected to. She
+made me promise not to tell the police. Well, I guess I can keep
+that promise. You ain't the police."
+
+"It is a most remarkable story, Mr. Smith," said Sara, "but I do
+not see that it leads us anywhere. We are quite as much in the dark
+as before."
+
+The detective studied the pattern in the rug at his feet, a defeated
+look in his eyes.
+
+"I suppose I MIGHT have forced her to tell me, Mrs. Wrandall, but
+I--I didn't have the heart to bully her. I suppose you'll always
+have it in for me for letting the chance slip?"
+
+"I think I have already told you, Mr. Smith, that I am not at all
+curious."
+
+With the departure of the detective, the three conspirators fell
+into an agitated discussion of the revelations he had made; so grave
+had their peril appeared to be at the opening of his narrative that
+they were still in a state of perturbation from which they were
+not to recover for a long time. Their cheeks were white and their
+eyes were dark with the dread that remained even after the danger
+was past. Hetty's arms hung limp and nerveless at her sides as she
+lay back in the chair and stared numbly at her friends.
+
+"Do you really believe she knew that I was the one?" she asked
+miserably. "Do you think she knew my name?" she shuddered.
+
+"What if she did?" demanded Booth with an assumption of indifference
+he was not yet able to feel. "She was a brick to keep it to herself.
+The danger's past, dearest. Don't let it worry you now."
+
+"But just think of it! At any time she could have told this story
+to the police and--Oh, wasn't it appalling? I thought my heart
+would never beat again!"
+
+"We never knew till now how close we were to the abyss," said
+Sara, drawing the thin wrap closer about her shoulders. Suddenly
+she laughed. "But why contemplate the disaster that didn't occur?
+We are more secure than ever. This girl was the only one who knew,
+because no one else could have had the same incentive to spy upon
+him, Hetty. She is dead. Your name isn't likely to be shouted from
+the housetops, for the simple reason that it is safely locked up
+in a grave." She hesitated for a moment and then added: "In two
+graves, if it makes you feel more secure."
+
+The others looked at her in open astonishment.
+
+Booth was frowning. Sara glanced at his stern face and her eyes fell.
+"If that sounded cold and unfeeling, I am sorry, Hetty. It was my
+unfortunate way of trying to convince you that there is nothing
+left for you to fear."
+
+She left them a moment later, bending over to kiss Hetty's cheek
+as she passed by her chair.
+
+"Now, you see what I mean, Brandon, when I insist that it would
+be a mistake for you to marry me," said Hetty in a troubled voice.
+"We could never be sure of immunity."
+
+"You refer to that remark of hers?"
+
+"She is a strange woman. I sometimes have the feeling that she wants
+to keep me with her for ever. I feel that she will not let me go."
+
+"That's pure nonsense, Hetty," he said. "She wants you to marry
+me, I am positive." He may have thought his tone convincing, but
+something caused her to regard him rather fixedly, as if she were
+trying to solve an elusive puzzle.
+
+He took her by the arms and raised her to her feet. Holding her
+quite close, he looked down into her questioning eyes and said very
+seriously:
+
+"You are suspicious, even of me, dearest. I want you. There is but
+one way for you to be at peace with yourself: shift your cares over
+to my shoulders. I will stand between you and everything that may
+come up to trouble you. We love one another. Why should we sacrifice
+our love for the sake of a shadow? For a week, dearest, I've been
+pleading with you; won't you end the suspense to-day--end it now--and
+say you will be my wife?"
+
+The appeal was so gentle, so sincere, so full of longing that she
+wavered. Her tender blue eyes, lately so full of dread, grew moist
+with the ineffable sweetness of love, and capitulation was in them.
+Her warm, red lips parted in a dear little smile of surrender.
+
+"You know I love you," she said tremulously.
+
+He kissed the lovely, appealing lips, not once but many times.
+
+"God, how I worship you," he whispered passionately. "I can't go on
+without you, darling. You are life to me. I love you! I love you!"
+
+She drew back in his arms, the shadow chasing the light out of her
+eyes.
+
+"We are both living in the present, we are both thinking only of
+it, Brandon. What of the future? Can we foresee the future? Dear
+heart, I am always thinking of your future, not my own. Is it right
+for me to bring you--"
+
+"And I am thinking only of your future," he said gravely. "The future
+that shall be mine to shape and to make glad with the fulfilment
+of every promise that love has in store for both of us.  Put away
+the doubts, drive out the shadows, dearest. Live in the light for
+ever. Love is light."
+
+"If I were only sure that my shadows would not descend upon you,
+I--"
+
+He drew her close and kissed her again.
+
+"I am not afraid of your shadows. God be my witness, Hetty, I glory
+in them. They do not reflect weakness, but strength and nobility.
+They make you all the more worth having. I thank God that you are
+what you are, dear heart."
+
+"Give me a few days longer, Brandon," she pleaded. "Let me conquer
+this strange thing that lies here in my brain. My heart is yours,
+my soul is yours. But the brain is a rebel. I must triumph over
+it, or it will always lie in wait for a chance to overthrow this
+little kingdom of ours. To-day I have been terrified. I am disturbed.
+Give me a few days longer."
+
+"I would not grant you the respite, were I not so sure of the
+outcome," he said gently, but there was a thrill of triumph in the
+tones. Her eyes grew very dark and soft and her lips trembled with
+the tide of love that surged through her body. "Oh, how adorable you
+are!" he cried, straining her close in a sudden ecstasy of passion.
+
+The door-bell rang. They drew apart, breathing rapidly, their
+blood leaping with the contact of opposing passions, their flesh
+quivering. With a shy, sweet glance at him, she turned toward the
+door to await the appearance of Watson. He could still feel her in
+his arms.
+
+A drawling voice came to them from the vestibule, and a moment
+later Leslie Wrandall entered the library, pulling off his gloves
+as he came.
+
+"Hello," he said glibly. "I told that fellow downstairs it wasn't
+necessary to announce me by telephone. Silly arrangement, I say.
+Why the devil should they think everybody's a thief or a book agent
+or a constable with a subpoena? He knows I'm one of the family.
+I'm likely to run in any time, I told him, and--Oh, I say, I'm not
+butting in, am I, Miss Castleton?"
+
+He shook hands with both of them, and then offered his cigarette
+case to Booth, first selecting one for himself. Hetty assured him
+that he was not de trop, sheer profligacy on her part in view of
+his readiness to concede the point without a word from her.
+
+"Nipping wind," he said, taking his stand before the fireplace.
+"Where is Sara? Never mind, don't bother her. I've got all the time
+in the world. By the way, Miss Castleton, what is the latest news
+from your father?"
+
+"I dare say you have later news than I," she said, a trace of
+annoyance in her manner.
+
+"I thought perhaps he had written you about his plans."
+
+"My father does not know that I have returned to New York."
+
+"Oh, I see. Of course. Um--um! By the way, I think the Colonel
+is a corker. One of the most amiable thoroughbreds I've ever come
+across.  Ripping. He's never said anything to me about your antipathy
+toward him, but I can see with half an eye that he is terribly
+depressed about it. Can't you get together some way on--"
+
+"Really, Mr. Wrandall, you are encouraging your imagination to a
+point where words ultimately must fail you," she said very positively.
+Booth could hardly repress a chuckle.
+
+"It's not imagination on my part," said Leslie with conviction,
+failing utterly to recognise the obvious. "I suppose you know
+that he is coming over to visit me for six weeks or so. We became
+rattling good friends before we parted. By Jove, you should hear him
+on old Lord Murgatroyd's will! The quintessence of wit! I couldn't
+take it as he does. Expectations and all that sort of thing, you
+know, going up like a hot air balloon and bursting in plain view.
+But he never squeaked. Laughed it off. A British attribute, I dare
+say. I suppose you know that he is obliged to sell his estate in
+Ireland."
+
+Hetty started. She could not conceal the look of shame that leaped
+into her eyes.
+
+"I--I did not know," she murmured.
+
+"Must be quite a shock to you. Sit down, Brandy. You look very
+picturesque standing, but chairs were made to sit upon--or in,
+whichever is proper."
+
+Booth shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"I think I'll stand, if you don't mind, Les."
+
+"I merely suggested it, old chap, fearing you might have overlooked
+the possibilities. Yes, Miss Castleton, he left us in London to go
+up to Belfast on this dismal business." There was something in the
+back of his mind that he was trying to get at in a tactful manner.
+"By the way, is this property entailed?"
+
+"I know nothing at all about it, Mr. Wrandall," said she, with a
+pleading glance at her lover, as if to inquire what stand she should
+take in this distressing situation.
+
+"If it is entailed he can't sell it," said Booth quietly.
+
+"That's true," said Leslie, somewhat dubiously. Then, with a
+magnanimity that covered a multitude of doubts he added: "Of course,
+I am only interested in seeing that you are properly protected,
+Miss Castleton. I've no doubt you hold an interest in the estates."
+
+"I can't very well discuss a thing I know absolutely nothing about,"
+she said succinctly.
+
+"Most of it is in building lots and factories in Belfast, of course."
+It was more in the nature of a question than a declaration.  "The
+old family castle isn't very much of an asset, I take it."
+
+"I fancy you can trust Colonel Castleton to make the best possible
+deal in the premises," said Booth drily.
+
+"I suppose so," said the other resignedly. "He is a shrewd beggar,
+I'm convinced of that. Strange, however, that I haven't heard
+a word from him since he left us in London, I've been expecting
+a cablegram from him every day for nearly a fortnight, letting me
+know when to expect him."
+
+Hetty had gone over to the window and was looking out over the
+darkening park.
+
+"Perhaps he means to surprise you, old man," said Booth, with a
+smile that Leslie did not in the least interpret.
+
+With a furtive glance at the girl, whose back was toward them,
+he got up from his chair and came quite close to Booth, frowning
+slightly as he plucked at his moustache with nervous fingers.
+Lowering his voice to a cautious half-whisper, he inquired:
+
+"I say, Brandy, what do you know about him? Is he on the level, or
+is he a damned old rascal?"
+
+"Did you lend him any money?" asked Booth, with a malicious grin.
+
+Leslie gulped. A fine perspiration broke out on his forehead. "Yes,
+I did," he replied, and, on reflection, slyly kicked himself on the
+ankle, making sure however that Hetty was still looking the other
+way. "Go on! Break it rudely. He's no good, eh? A shark, eh?"
+
+"Believe me, I don't know anything about him, Les," said Booth,
+with a sudden feeling of loyalty to the Colonel's daughter. "He
+may pay up."
+
+Leslie snapped his fingers while they were on the way to his upper
+lip, and almost missed his moustache by the digression. At any
+rate, he seemed to be fumbling for it.
+
+"I did it on her account," he explained, nodding his head in Hetty's
+direction. He thought hard for a moment. "Of course, he won't be
+such a blithering fool as to come over here, will he?"
+
+"I shouldn't, if I had been able to get what I wanted at home, as
+he very obviously did," said Booth pitilessly. "How much was it?"
+
+Leslie waved his hand disdainfully. "Oh, a few hundred pounds,
+that's all. No harm done."
+
+"Are you going to California this winter for the flying?" asked
+Hetty, coming toward them.
+
+Sara entered at that juncture, and they all sat down to listen for
+half an hour to Leslie's harangue on the way the California meet
+was being mismanaged, at the end of which he departed.
+
+He took Booth away with him, much to that young man's disgust.
+
+"Do you know, Brandy, old fellow," said he as they walked down Fifth
+Avenue in the gathering dusk of the early winter evening, "ever
+since I've begun to suspect that damned old humbug of a father of
+hers, I've been congratulating myself that there isn't the remotest
+chance of his ever becoming my father-in-law. And, by George, you'll
+never know how near I was to leaping blindly into the brambles.
+What a close call I had!"
+
+Booth's sarcastic smile was hidden by the dusk. He made no pretence
+of openly resenting the meanness of spirit that moved Leslie to
+these caddish remarks. He merely announced in a dry, cutting voice:
+
+"I think Miss Castleton is to be congratulated that her injury is
+no greater than Nature made it in the beginning."
+
+"What do you mean by 'nature'?"
+
+"Nature gave her a father, didn't it?"
+
+"Obviously."
+
+"Well, why add insult to injury?"
+
+"By Jove! Oh, I SAY, old man!"
+
+They parted at the next corner. As Booth started to cross over to
+the Plaza, Leslie called out after him:
+
+"I say, Brandy, just a second, please. Are you going to marry Miss
+Castleton?"
+
+"I am."
+
+"Then, I retract the scurvy things I said back there. I asked her
+to marry me three times and she refused me three times. What I
+said about the brambles was rotten. I'd ask her again if I thought
+she'd have me. There you are, old fellow. I'm a rotten cad, but I
+apologise to you just the same."
+
+"You're learning, Leslie," said Booth, taking the hand the other
+held out to him.
+
+While the painter was dining at his club later on in the evening,
+he was called to the telephone. Watson was on the wire. He said
+that Mrs. Wrandall would like to know if Mr. Booth could drop in
+on her for a few minutes after dinner, "to discuss a very important
+matter, if you please, sir." At nine o'clock, Booth was in Sara's
+library, trying to grasp a new and remarkable phase in the character
+of that amazing woman.
+
+He found Hetty waiting for him when he arrived.
+
+"I don't know what it all means, Brandon," she said hurriedly, looking
+over her shoulder as she spoke. "Sara says that she has come to a
+decision of some sort. She wants us to hear her plan before making
+it final. I--I don't understand her at all to-night."
+
+"It can't be anything serious, dearest," he said, but something
+cold and nameless oppressed him just the same.
+
+"She asked me if I had finally decided to--to be your wife, Brandon.
+I said I had asked you for two or three days more in which to
+decide. It seemed to depress her. She said she didn't see how she
+could give me up, even to you. She wants to be near me always. It
+is--it is really tragic, Brandon."
+
+He took he hands in his.
+
+"We can fix that," said he confidently. "Sara can live with us if
+she feels that way about it. Our home shall be hers when she likes,
+and as long as she chooses. It will be open to her all the time,
+to come and go or to stay, just as she elects. Isn't that the way
+to put it?"
+
+"I suggested something of the sort, but she wasn't very much
+impressed. Indeed, she appeared to be somewhat--yes, I could not
+have been mistaken,--somewhat harsh and terrified when I spoke of
+it. Afterwards she was more reasonable. She thanked me and--there
+were tears in her eyes at the time--and said she would think it
+over. All she asks is that I may be happy and free and untroubled
+all the rest of my life. This was before dinner. At dinner she
+appeared to be brooding over something. When we left the table
+she took me to her room and said that she had come to an important
+decision. Then she instructed Watson to find you if possible."
+
+"'Gad, it's all very upsetting," he said, shaking his head.
+
+"I think her conscience is troubling her. She hates the Wrandalls,
+but I--I don't know why I should feel as I do about it,--but I
+believe she wants them to know!"
+
+He stared for a moment, and then his face brightened. "And so do
+I, Hetty, so do I! They ought to know!"
+
+"I should feel so much easier if the whole world knew," said she
+earnestly.
+
+Sara heard the girl's words as she stood in the door. She came
+forward with a strange,--even abashed,--smile, after closing the
+door behind her.
+
+"I don't agree with you, dearest, when you say that the world
+should know, but I have come to the conclusion that you should be
+tried and acquitted by a jury made up of Challis Wrandall's own
+flesh and blood. The Wrandalls must know the truth."
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE JURY OF FOUR
+
+
+
+
+The Wrandalls sat waiting and wondering. They had been sent for and
+they had deigned to respond, much to their own surprise. Redmond
+Wrandall occupied a place at the head of the library table. At his
+right sat his wife. Vivian and Leslie, by direction, took seats at
+the side of the long table, which had been cleared of its mass of
+books and magazines. Lawyer Carroll was at the other end of the
+table, perceptibly nervous and anxious. Hetty sat a little apart
+from the others, a rather forlorn, detached member of the conclave.
+Brandon Booth, pale-faced and alert, drew up a chair alongside
+Carroll, facing Sara who alone remained standing, directly opposite
+the four Wrandalls.
+
+Not one of the Wrandalls knew why they, as a family, were there.
+They had not the slightest premonition of what was to come.
+
+The strong glare of an electric chandelier, seldom used in this
+quiet, subdued little library, threw its light down upon the group,
+outlining every feature with a sharpness that almost created shadows.
+It was a trying light. No play of the emotions could be lost under
+its convicting glow. A clock struck nine. Outside the first savage
+storm of the winter was raging.
+
+The Wrandalls had been routed from their comfortable fireside--for
+what? They were asking the question of themselves and they were
+waiting stonily for the answer.
+
+"It is very stuffy in here," Vivian had said with a glance at the
+closed doors after Sara had successfully placed her jury in the
+box.
+
+"Keep still, Viv," whispered Leslie, with a fine assumption of awe.
+"It's a spiritualistic meeting. You'll scare the spooks away."
+
+It was at this juncture that Sara rose from her chair and faced
+them, as calmly, as complacently as if she were about to ask them
+to proceed to the dining-room instead of to throw a bomb into their
+midst that would shatter their smug serenity for all time to come.
+With a glance at Mr. Carroll she began, clearly, firmly and without
+a prefatory apology for what was to follow.
+
+"I have asked you to come here to-night to be my judges. I am on
+trial. You are about to hear the story of my unspeakable perfidy.
+I only require of you that you hear me to the end before passing
+judgment."
+
+At her words, Hetty and Booth started perceptibly; a quick glance
+passed between them, as if each was inquiring whether the other
+had caught the extraordinary words of self-indictment. A puzzled
+frown appeared on Hetty's brow.
+
+"Perfidy?" interposed Mr. Wrandall. His wife's expression changed
+from one of bored indifference to sharp inquiry. Leslie paused in
+the act of lighting a cigarette.
+
+"It is the mildest term I can command," said Sara. "I shall be as
+brief as possible in stating the case, Mr. Wrandall. You will be
+surprised to hear that I have taken it upon myself, as the wife of
+Challis Wrandall and, as I regard it, the one MOST vitally concerned
+if not interested in the discovery and punishment of the person
+who took his life,--I say I have taken it upon myself to shield,
+protect and defend the unhappy young woman who accompanied him to
+Burton's Inn on that night in March. She has had my constant, my
+personal protection for more than twenty months."
+
+The Wrandalls leaned forward in their chairs. The match burned
+Leslie's fingers, and he dropped it without appearing to notice
+the pain.
+
+"What is this you are saying?" demanded Redmond Wrandall.
+
+"When I left the inn that night, after seeing my husband's body in
+the little upstairs room, I said to myself that the one who took
+his life had unwittingly done me a service. He was my husband; I
+loved him, I adored him. To the end of my days I could have gone
+on loving him in spite of the cruel return he gave for my love and
+loyalty. I shall not attempt to tell you of the countless lapses
+of fidelity on his part. You would not believe me. But he always
+came back to me with the pitiful love he had for me, and I forgave
+him his transgressions. These things you know. He confessed many
+things to you, Mr. Wrandall. He humbled himself to me. Perhaps you
+will recall that I never complained to you of him. What rancour I
+had was always directed toward you, his family, who would see no
+wrong in your king but looked upon me as dirt beneath his feet.
+There were moments when I could have slain him with my own hands,
+but my heart rebelled.  There were times when he said to me that I
+ought to kill him for the things he had done. You may now understand
+what I mean when I say that the girl who went to Burton's Inn with
+him did me a service. I will not say that I considered her guiltless
+at the time. On the contrary, I looked upon her in quite a different
+way. I had no means of knowing then that she was as pure as snow
+and that he would have despoiled her of everything that was sweet
+and sacred to her. She took his life in order to save that which
+was dearer to her than her own life, and she was on her way to pay
+for her deed with her life if necessary when I came upon her and
+intervened."
+
+"You--you know who she is?" said Mr. Wrandall, in a low, incredulous
+voice.
+
+"I have known almost from the beginning. Presently you will hear
+her story, from her own lips."
+
+Involuntarily four pairs of eyes shifted. They looked blankly at
+Hetty Castleton.
+
+Speaking swiftly, Sara depicted the scenes and sensations experienced
+during that memorable motor journey to New York City.
+
+"I could not believe that she was a vicious creature, even then.
+Something told me that she was a tender, gentle thing who had fallen
+into evil hands and had struck because she was unevil. I did not
+doubt that she had been my husband's mistress, but I could not
+destroy the conviction that somehow she had been justified in doing
+the thing she had done. My gravest mistake was in refusing to hear
+her story in all of its details. I only permitted her to acknowledge
+that she had killed him, no more. I did not want to hear the thing
+which I assumed to be true. Therein lies my deepest fault. For
+months and months I misjudged her in my heart, yet secretly loved
+her. Now I understand why I loved her. It was because she was innocent
+of the only crime I could lay at her feet. Now I come to the crime
+of which I stand self-accused. I must have been mad all these
+months. I have no other defence to offer. You may take it as you
+see it for yourselves. I do not ask for pardon. After I deliberately
+had set about to shield this unhappy girl,--to cheat the law, if you
+please,--to cheat you, perhaps,--I conceived the horrible thought
+to avenge myself for ALL the indignities I had sustained at the
+hands of you Wrandalls, and at the same time to even my account with
+the one woman whom I could put my finger upon as having robbed me
+of my husband's love. You see I put it mildly. I have hated all of
+you, Mrs. Wrandall, even as you have hated me.  To-day,--now,--I
+do not feel as I did in other days toward you. I do not love you,
+still I do not hate you. I do not forgive you, and yet I think I
+have come to see things from your point of view. I can only repeat
+that I do not hate you as I once did."
+
+She paused. The Wrandalls were too deeply submerged in horror to
+speak. They merely stared at her as if stupefied; as breathless,
+as motionless as stones.
+
+"There came a day when I observed that Leslie was attracted by the
+guest in my house. On that day the plan took root in my brain. I--"
+
+"Good God!" fell from Leslie's lips. "You--you had THAT in mind?"
+
+"It became a fixed, inflexible purpose, Leslie. Not that I hated
+you as I hated the rest, for you tried to be considerate. The
+one grudge I held against you was that in seeking to sustain me
+you defamed your own brother. You came to me with stories of his
+misdeeds; you said that he was a scoundrel and that you would not
+blame me for 'showing him up.' Do you not remember? And so my plot
+involved you; you were the only one through whom I could strike.
+There were times when I faltered. I could not bear the thought of
+sacrificing Hetty Castleton, nor was it easy to thoroughly appease
+my conscience in respect to you. Still, if I could have had my way
+a few months ago, if coercion had been of any avail, you would now
+be the husband of your brother's slayer. Then I came to know that
+she was not what I had thought she was. She was honest. My bubble
+burst. I came out of the maze in which I had been living and saw
+clearly that what I had contemplated was the most atrocious--"
+
+"Atrocious?" cried Mrs. Redmond Wrandall between her set teeth.
+"Diabolical! Diabolical! My God, Sara, what a devil you--" She did
+not complete the sentence, but sank back in her chair and stared
+with wide, horror-struck eyes at her rigid daughter-in-law.
+
+Her husband, his hand shaking as if with palsy, pointed a finger at
+Hetty. "And so YOU are the one we have been hunting for all these
+months, Miss Castleton! You are the one we want! You who have sat
+at our table, you who have smiled in our faces--"
+
+"Stop, Mr. Wrandall!" commanded Sara, noting the ashen face of the
+girl. "Don't let the fact escape you that I am the guilty person.
+Don't forget that she owed her freedom, if not her life to me.
+I alone kept her from giving herself up to the law. All that has
+transpired since that night in March must be placed to my account.
+Hetty Castleton has been my prisoner. She has rebelled a thousand
+times and I have conquered--not by threats but by LOVE! Do you
+understand? Because of her love for me, and because she believed
+that I loved her, she submitted. You are not to accuse her, Mr.
+Wrandall. Accuse me! I am on trial here. Hetty Castleton is a
+witness against me, if you choose to call upon her as such. If not,
+I shall ask her to speak in my defence, if she can do so."
+
+"This is lunacy!" cried Mr. Wrandall, coming to his feet. "I don't
+care what your motives may have been. They do not make her any the
+less a murderess. She--"
+
+"We must give her over to the police--" began his wife, struggling
+to her feet. She staggered. It was Booth who stepped quickly to
+her side to support her. Leslie was staring at Hetty.
+
+Vivian touched her father's arm. She was very pale but vastly more
+composed than the others.
+
+"Father, listen to me," she said. Her voice trembled in spite of
+her effort to control it. "We are condemning Miss Castleton unheard.
+Let us hear everything before we--"
+
+"Good God, Vivian! Do you mean to--"
+
+"How can we place any reliance on what she may say?" cried Mrs.
+Wrandall.
+
+"Nevertheless," said Vivian firmly, "I for one shall not condemn
+her unheard. I mean to be as fair to her as Sara has been. It shall
+not be said that ALL the Wrandalls are smaller than Sara Gooch!"
+
+"My child--" began her father incredulously. His jaw dropped
+suddenly. His daughter's shot had landed squarely in the heart of
+the Wrandall pride.
+
+"If she has anything to say,"--said Mrs. Wrandall, waving Booth
+aside and sinking stiffly into her chair. Her husband sat down.
+Their jaws set hard.
+
+"Thank you, Vivian," said Sara, surprised in spite of herself. "You
+are nobler than I--"
+
+"Please don't thank me, Sara," said Vivian icily. "I was speaking
+for Miss Castleton."
+
+Sara flushed. "I suppose it is useless to ask you to be fair to
+Sara Gooch, as you choose to call me."
+
+"Do you feel in your heart that we still owe you anything?"
+
+"Enough of this, Vivian," spoke up her father harshly. "If Miss
+Castleton desires to speak we will listen to her. I must advise
+you, Miss Castleton, that the extraordinary disclosures made by my
+daughter-in-law do not lessen your culpability. We do not insist on
+this confession from you. You deliver it at your own risk. I want
+to be fair with you. If Mr. Carroll is your counsel, he may advise
+you now to refuse to make a statement."
+
+Mr. Carroll bowed slightly in the general direction of the Wrandalls.
+"I have already advised Miss Castleton to state the case fully and
+completely to you, Mr. Wrandall. It was I who originally suggested
+this--well, what you might call a private trial for her.  I am
+firmly convinced that when you have heard her story, you, as her
+judges, will acquit her of the charge of murder. Moreover, you
+will be content to let your own verdict end the matter, sparing
+yourselves the shame and ignominy of having her story told in a
+criminal court for the delectation of an eager but somewhat implacable
+world."
+
+"Your language is extremely unpleasant, Mr. Carroll," said Mr.
+Wrandall coldly.
+
+"I meant to speak kindly, sir."
+
+"Do you mean, sir, that we will let the matter rest after hearing
+the--"
+
+"That is precisely what I mean, Mr. Wrandall. You will not consider
+her guilty of a crime. Please bear in mind this fact: but for
+Sara and Miss Castleton you would not have known the truth. Miss
+Castleton could not be convicted in a court of justice. Nor will
+she be convicted here this evening, in this little court of ours."
+
+"Miss Castleton is not on trial," interposed Sara calmly. "I am
+the offender. She has already been tried and proved innocent."
+
+Leslie, in his impatience, tapped sharply on the table with his
+seal ring.
+
+"Please let her tell the story. Permit me to say, Miss Castleton,
+that you will not find the Wrandalls as harsh and vindictive as
+you may have been led to believe."
+
+Mrs. Wrandall passed her hand over her eyes. "To think that we have
+been friendly to this girl all these--"
+
+"Calm yourself, my dear," said her husband, after a glance at his
+son and daughter, a glance of unspeakable helplessness. He could
+not understand them.
+
+As Hetty arose, Mrs. Wrandall senior lowered her eyes and not
+once did she look up during the recital that followed. Her hands
+were lying limply in her lap, and she breathed heavily, almost
+stertoriously. The younger Wrandalls leaned forward with their clear,
+unwavering gaze fixed on the earnest face of the young Englishwoman
+who had slain their brother.
+
+"You have heard Sara accuse herself," said the girl slowly,
+dispassionately. "The shock was no greater to you than it was
+to me.  All that she has said is true, and yet I--I would so much
+rather she had left herself unarraigned. We were agreed that I
+should throw myself on your mercy. Mr. Carroll said that you were
+fair and just people, that you would not condemn me under the
+circumstances. But that Sara should seek to take the blame is--"
+
+"Alas, my dear, I AM to blame," said Sara, shaking her head. "But
+for me your story would have been told months ago, the courts would
+have cleared you, and all the world would have execrated my husband
+for the thing HE did--my husband and your son, Mrs. Wrandall,--whom
+we both loved. God believe me, I think I loved him more than all
+of you put together!"
+
+She sat down abruptly and buried her face in her arms on the edge
+of the table.
+
+"If I could only induce you to forgive her," began Hetty, throwing
+out her hands to the Wrandalls, only to be met by a gesture of
+repugnance from the grim old man.
+
+"Your story, Miss Castleton," he said hoarsely.
+
+"From the beginning, if you please," added the lawyer quietly.
+"Leave out nothing."
+
+Clearly, steadily and with the utmost sincerity in her voice and
+manner, the girl began the story of her life. She passed hastily
+over the earlier periods, frankly exposing the unhappy conditions
+attending her home life, her subsequent activities as a performer
+on the London stage after Colonel Castleton's defection; the
+few months devoted to posing for Hawkright the painter, and later
+on her engagement as governess in the wealthy Budlong family. She
+devoted some time and definiteness to her first encounter with
+Challis Wrandall on board the westbound steamer, an incident that
+came to pass in a perfectly natural way. Her deck chair stood next
+to his, and he was not slow in making himself agreeable. It did not
+occur to her till long afterwards that he deliberately had traded
+positions with an elderly gentleman who occupied the chair on the
+first day out. Before the end of the voyage they were very good
+friends....
+
+"When we landed in New York, he assisted me in many ways.  Afterwards,
+on learning that I was not to go California, I called him up on
+the telephone to explain my predicament. He urged me to stay in New
+York; he guaranteed that there would be no difficulty in securing
+a splendid position in the East. I had no means of knowing that he
+was married. I accepted him for what I thought him to be: a genuine
+American gentleman. They are supposed to be particularly considerate
+with women. His conduct toward me was beyond reproach, I have never
+known a man who was so courteous, so gentle. To me, he was the most
+fascinating man in the world. No woman could have resisted him, I
+am sure of that."
+
+She shot a quick, appealing glance at Booth's hard-set face. Her
+lip trembled for a second.
+
+"I fell madly in love with him," she went on resolutely. "I dreamed
+of him, I could hardly wait for the time to come when I was to see
+him. He never came to the wretched little lodging house I have told
+you about. I--I met him outside. One night he told me that he loved
+me, loved me passionately. I--I said that I would be his wife.
+Somehow it seemed to me that he regarded me very curiously for
+a moment or two. He seemed to be surprised, uncertain. I remember
+that he laughed rather queerly. It did not occur to me to doubt
+him. One day he came for me, saying that he wanted me to see the
+little apartment he had taken, where we were to live after we were
+married.  I went with him. He said that if I liked it, I could
+move in at once, but I would not consent to such an arrangement.
+For the first time I began to feel that everything was not as it
+should be. I--I remained in the apartment but a few minutes. The
+next day he came to me, greatly excited and more demonstrative than
+ever before, to say that he had arranged for a quiet, jolly little
+wedding up in the country. Strangely enough I experienced a queer
+feeling that all was not as it should be, but his eagerness his
+persistence dispelled the small doubt that had begun even then to
+shape itself. I consented to go with him on the next night to an
+inn out in the country, where a college friend who was a minister
+of the gospel would meet us, driving over from his parish a few
+miles away. I said that I preferred to be married in a church. He
+laughed and said it could be arranged when we got to the inn and
+had talked it over with the minister. Still uneasy, I asked why it
+was necessary to employ secrecy. He told me that his family were
+in Europe and that he wanted to surprise them by giving them a
+daughter who was actually related to an English nobleman. The family
+had been urging him to marry a stupid but rich New York girl and
+he--oh, well, he uttered a great deal of nonsense about my beauty,
+my charm, and all that sort of thing--"
+
+She paused for a moment. No one spoke. Her audience of judges,
+with the exception of the elder Mrs. Wrandall, watched her as if
+fascinated. Their faces were almost expressionless. With a perceptible
+effort, she resumed her story, narrating events that carried it
+up to the hour when she walked into the little upstairs room at
+Burton's Inn with the man who was to be her husband.
+
+"I did not see the register at the inn. I did not know till
+afterwards that we were not booked. Once upstairs, I refused to
+remove my hat or my veil or my coat until he brought his friend to
+me. He pretended to be very angry over his friend's failure to be
+there beforehand, as he had promised. He ordered a supper served
+in the room. I did not eat anything. Somehow I was beginning
+to understand, vaguely of course, but surely--and bitterly, Mr.
+Wrandall. Suddenly he threw off the mask.
+
+"He coolly informed me that he knew the kind of girl I was. I had
+been on the stage. He said it was no use trying to work the marriage
+game on him. He was too old a bird and too wise to fall for that.
+Those were his words. I was horrified, stunned. When I began to cry
+out in my fury, he laughed at me but swore he would marry me even
+at that if it were not for the fact that he already was married....I
+tried to leave the room. He held me. He kissed me a hundred times
+before I could break away. I--I tried to scream....A little later
+on, when I was absolutely desperate, I--I snatched up the knife.
+There was nothing else left for me to do. I struck at him. He fell
+back on the bed....I stole out of the house--oh, hours and hours
+afterward it seemed to me. I cannot tell you how long I stood there
+watching him....I was crazed by fear. I--I--"
+
+Redmond Wrandall held up his hand.
+
+"We will spare you the rest, Miss Castleton," he said, his voice
+hoarse and unnatural. "There is no need to say more."
+
+"You--you understand? You DO believe me?" she cried.
+
+He looked down at his wife's bowed head, and received no sign from
+her; then at the white, drawn faces of his children. They met his
+gaze and he read something in their eyes.
+
+"I--I think your story is so convincing that we--we could not endure
+the shame of having it repeated to the world."
+
+"I--I cannot ask you to forgive me, sir. I only ask you to believe
+me," she murmured brokenly. "I--I am sorry it had to be. God is my
+witness that there was no other way."
+
+Mr. Carroll came to his feet. There were tears in his eyes.
+
+"I think, Mr. Wrandall, you will now appreciate my motives in--"
+
+"Pardon me, Mr. Carroll, if I suggest that Miss Castleton does not
+require any defence at present," said Mr. Wrandall stiffly. "Your
+motives were doubtless good. Will you be so good as to conduct us
+to a room where we may--may be alone for a short while?"
+
+There was something tragic in the man's face. His son and daughter
+arose as if moved by an instinctive realisation of a duty, and perhaps
+for the first time in their lives were submissive to an influence
+they had never quite recognised before: a father's unalterable
+right to command. For once in their lives they were meek in his
+presence. They stepped to his side and stood waiting, and neither
+of them spoke.
+
+Mr. Wrandall laid his hand heavily on his wife's shoulder. She
+started, looked up rather vacantly, and then arose without assistance.
+He did not make the mistake of offering to assist her.  He knew
+too well that to question her strength now would be but to invite
+weakness. She was strong. He knew her well.
+
+She stood straight and firm for a few seconds, transfixing Hetty
+with a look that seemed to bore into the very soul of her, and then
+spoke.
+
+"You ask us to be your judges?"
+
+[Illustration: Her audience of judges, with the exception of the
+elder Mrs. Wrandall, watched her as if fascinated]
+
+"I ask you to judge not me alone but--your son as well," said
+Hetty, meeting her look steadily. "You cannot pronounce me innocent
+without pronouncing him guilty. It will be hard."
+
+Sara raised her head from her arms.
+
+"You know the way into my sitting-room, Leslie," she said, with
+singular directness. Then she arose and drew her figure to its full
+height. "Please remember that it is I who am to be judged. Judge
+me as I have judged you. I am not asking for mercy."
+
+Hetty impulsively threw her arms about the rigid figure, and swept a
+pleading look from one to the other of the four stony-faced Wrandalls.
+
+They turned away without a word or a revealing look, and slowly
+moved off in the direction of the boudoir. They who remained behind
+stood still, motionless as statues. It was Vivian who opened the
+library door. She closed it after the others had passed through,
+and did not look behind.
+
+Half an hour passed. Then the door was opened and the tall old man
+advanced into the room.
+
+"We have found against my son, Miss Castleton," he said, his lips
+twitching. "He is not here to speak for himself, but he has already
+been judged. We, his family, apologise to you for what you have
+suffered from the conduct of one of us. Not one but all of us believe
+the story you have told. It must never be re-told. We ask this of
+all of you. It is not in our hearts to thank Sara for shielding you,
+for her hand is still raised against us. We are fair and just. If
+you had come to US on that wretched night and told the story of my
+son's infamy, WE, the Wrandalls, would have stood between you and
+the law. The law could not have touched you then; it shall not touch
+you now. Our verdict, if you choose to call it that, is sealed. No
+man shall ever hear from the lips of a Wrandall the smallest part
+of what has transpired here to-night. Mr. Carroll, you were right.
+We thank you for the counsel that led this unhappy girl to place
+herself in our hands,"
+
+"Oh, God, I thank thee--I thank thee!" burst from the lips of Sara
+Wrandall. She strained Hetty to her breast.
+
+"It is not for us to judge you, Sara," said Redmond Wrandall,
+speaking with difficulty. "You are your own judge, and a harsh one
+you will find yourself. As for ourselves, we can only look upon
+your unspeakable design as the working of a temporarily deranged
+mind.  You could never have carried it out. You are an honest woman.
+At the last you would have revolted, even with victory assured.
+Perhaps Leslie is the only one who has a real grievance against
+you in this matter. I am convinced that he loved Miss Castleton
+deeply. The worst hurt is his, and he has been your most devoted
+advocate during all the years of bitterness that has existed between
+you and us. You thought to play him a foul trick. You could not have
+carried it to the end. We leave you to pass judgment on yourself."
+
+"I have already done so, Mr. Wrandall," said Sara. "Have I not
+accused myself before you? Have I not confessed to the only crime
+that has been committed? I am not proud of myself, sir."
+
+"You have hated us well."
+
+"And you have hated me. The crime you hold me guilty of was committed
+years ago. It was when I robbed you of your son. To this day I am
+the leper in your path. I may be forgiven for all else, but not
+for allowing Challis Wrandall to become the husband of Sebastian
+Gooch's daughter. That is the unpardonable sin."
+
+Mr. Wrandall was silent for a moment.
+
+"You still are Sebastian Gooch's daughter," he said distinctly.
+"You can never be anything else."
+
+She paled. "This last transaction proves it, you would say?"
+
+"This last transaction, yes."
+
+She looked about her with troubled, questioning eyes.
+
+"I--I wonder if THAT can be true," she murmured, rather piteously.
+"Am I so different from the rest of you? Is the blood to blame?"
+
+"Nonsense!" exclaimed Mr. Carroll nervously. "Don't be silly, Sara,
+my child. That is not what Mr. Wrandall means."
+
+Wrandall turned his face away.
+
+"You loved as deeply as you hate, Sara," he said, with a curious
+twitching of his chin. "My son was your god. We are not insensible
+to that. Perhaps we have never realised until now the depth and
+breadth of your love for him. Love is a bitter judge of its enemies.
+It knows no mercy, it knows no reason. Hate may be conquered by
+love, but love cannot be conquered by hate. You had reason to hate
+my son; Instead you persisted in your love for him. We--we owe you
+something for that, Sara. We owe you a great deal more than I find
+myself able to express in words."
+
+Leslie entered the room at this instant. He had his overcoat on
+and carried his gloves and hat in his hand.
+
+"We are ready, father," he said thickly.
+
+After a moment's hesitation, he crossed over to Hetty, who stood
+beside Sara.
+
+"I--I can now understand why you refused to marry me, Miss Castleton,"
+he said, in a queer, jerky manner. "Won't you let me say that I
+wish you all the happiness still to be found in this rather uneven
+world of ours?"
+
+The crowning testimonial to an absolutely sincere ego!
+
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+RENUNCIATION
+
+
+
+
+On the third day after the singular trial of Hetty Castleton in
+Sara's library, young Mrs. Wrandall's motor drew up in front of
+a lofty office building in lower Broadway; its owner stepped down
+from the limousine and entered the building. A few moments later
+she walked briskly into the splendid offices of Wrandall & Co.,
+private bankers and steamship-owners. The clerks in the outer
+offices stared for a moment in significant surprise, and then bowed
+respectfully to the beautiful silent partner in the great concern.
+
+It was the first time she had been seen in the offices since the
+tragic event that had served to make her a member of the firm. A
+boy at the information desk, somewhat impressed by her beauty and
+the trim elegance of her long black broad-tail coat, to say nothing
+of the dark eyes that shone through the narrow veil, forgot the
+dignity of his office and went so far as to politely ask her who
+she wanted to see and "what name, please."
+
+The senior clerk rushed forward and transfixed the new boy with a
+glare.
+
+"A new boy, Mrs. Wrandall," he made haste to explain. To the new
+boy's surprise, the visitor was conducted with much bowing and
+scraping into the private offices, where no one ventured except by
+special edict of the powers.
+
+"Who was it?" he asked, in some awe, of a veteran stenographer who
+came up and sneered at him.
+
+"Mrs. Challis Wrandall, you little simpleton," said she, and for
+once he failed to snap back.
+
+It is of record that for nearly two whole days, he was polite to
+every visitor who approached him and was generally worth his salt.
+
+Sara found herself in the close little room that once had been her
+husband's, but was now scrupulously held in reserve for her own use.
+Rather a waste of space, she felt as she looked about the office.
+The clerk dusted an easy chair and threw open the long unused desk
+near the window.
+
+"We are very glad to see you here, madam," he said. "This room
+hasn't been used much, as you may observe. Is there anything I can
+do for you?"
+
+She continued her critical survey of the room. Nothing had been
+changed since the days when she used to visit her husband here on
+occasions of rare social importance: such as calling to take him out
+to luncheon, or to see that he got safely home on rainy afternoons.
+The big picture of a steamship still hung on the wall across the
+room. Her own photograph, in a silver frame, stood in one of the
+recesses of the desk. She observed that there was a clean white
+blotter there, too; but the ink wells appeared to be empty, if
+she was to judge by the look of chagrin on the clerk's face as he
+inspected them. Photographs of polo scenes in which Wrandall was a
+prominent figure, hung about the walls, with two or three pictures
+of his favourite ponies, and one of a ragged gipsy girl with
+wonderful eyes, carrying a monkey in a crude wooden cage strapped
+to her back. On closer observation one would have recognised Sara's
+peculiarly gipsy-like features in the face of the girl, and then
+one would have noticed the caption written in red ink at the bottom
+of the photograph: "The Trumbell's Fancy Dress Ball, January 10,
+'07.  Sara as Gipsy Mab."
+
+With a start, Sara came out of her painful reverie. She passed her
+hand over her eyes, and seemed thereby to put the polite senior
+clerk back into the picture once more.
+
+"No, thank you. Is Mr. Redmond Wrandall down this afternoon?"
+
+"He came in not ten minutes ago. Mr. Leslie Wrandall is also here.
+Shall I tell Mr. Wrandall you wish to see him?"
+
+"You may tell him, that I am here, if you please," she said.
+
+"I am very sorry about the ink wells, madam," murmured the clerk.
+"We--we were not expecting--"
+
+"Pray don't let it disturb you, Mr. Bancroft. I shall not use them
+to-day."
+
+"They will be properly filled by to-morrow."
+
+"Thank you."
+
+He disappeared. She relaxed in the familiar, comfortable old
+leather-cushioned chair, and closed her eyes. There was a sharp
+little line between them, but it was hidden by the veil.
+
+The door opened slowly and Redmond Wrandall came into the room.
+She arose at once.
+
+"This is--er--an unexpected pleasure, Sara," he said, perplexed and
+ill-at-ease. He stopped just inside the door he had been careful
+to close behind him, and did not offer her his hand.
+
+"I came down to attend to some business, Mr. Wrandall," she said.
+
+"Business?" he repeated, staring.
+
+She took note of the tired, haggard look in his eyes, and the
+tightly compressed lips.
+
+"I intend to dispose of my entire interest in Wrandall & Co.," she
+announced calmly.
+
+He took a step forward, plainly startled by the declaration.
+
+"What's this?" he demanded sharply.
+
+"We may as well speak plainly, Mr. Wrandall," she said. "You do
+not care to have me remain a member of the firm, nor do I blame
+you for feeling as you do about it. A year ago you offered to buy
+me out--or off, as I took it to be at the time. I had reasons then
+for not selling out to you. To-day I am ready either to buy or to
+sell."
+
+"You--you amaze me," he exclaimed.
+
+"Does your offer of last December still stand?"
+
+"I--I think we would better have Leslie in, Sara. This is most
+unexpected. I don't quite feel up to--"
+
+"Have Leslie in by all means," she said, resuming her seat.
+
+He hesitated a moment, opened his lips as if to speak, and then
+abruptly left the room.
+
+Sara smiled.
+
+Many minutes passed before the two Wrandalls put in an appearance.
+She understood the delay. They were telephoning to certain legal
+advisers.
+
+"What's this I hear, Sara?" demanded Leslie, extending his hand
+after a second's hesitation.
+
+She shook hands with him, not listlessly but with the vigour born
+of nervousness.
+
+"I don't know what you've heard," she said pointedly.
+
+His slim fingers went searching for the end of his moustache.
+
+"Why,--why, about selling out to us," he stammered.
+
+"I am willing to retire from the firm of Wrandall & Co.," she said.
+
+"Father says the business is as good as it was a year ago, but I
+don't agree with him," said the son, trying to look lugubrious.
+
+"Then you don't care to repeat your original proposition?"
+
+"Well, the way business has been falling off--"
+
+"Perhaps you would prefer to sell out to me," she remarked quietly.
+
+"Not at all!" he said quickly, with a surprised glance at his
+father. "We couldn't think of letting the business pass out of the
+Wrandall name."
+
+"You forget that MY name is Wrandall," she rejoined. "There would
+be no occasion to change the firm's name; merely its membership."
+
+"Our original offer stands," said the senior Wrandall stiffly. "We
+prefer to buy."
+
+"And I to sell. Mr. Carroll will meet you to-morrow, gentlemen. He
+will represent me as usual. Our business as well as social relations
+are about to end, I suppose. My only regret is that I cannot further
+accommodate you by changing my name. Still you may live in hope
+that time may work even that wonder for you."
+
+She arose. The two men regarded her in an aggrieved way for a
+moment.
+
+"I have no real feeling of hostility toward you, Sara," said Leslie
+nervously, "in spite of all that you said the other night."
+
+"I am afraid you don't mean that, deep down in your heart, Leslie,"
+she said, with a queer little smile.
+
+"But I do," he protested. "Hang it all, we--we live in a glass house
+ourselves, Sara. I dare say, in a way, I was quite as unpleasant
+as the rest of the family. You see, we just can't help being snobs.
+It's in us, that's all there is to it."
+
+Mr. Wrandall looked up from the floor, his gaze having dropped at
+the first outburst from his son's lips.
+
+"We--we prefer to be friendly, Sara, if you will allow us--"
+
+She laughed and the old gentleman stopped in the middle of his
+sentence.
+
+"We can't be friends, Mr. Wrandall," she said, suddenly serious.
+"The pretence would be a mockery. We are all better off if we allow
+our paths, our interests to diverge to-day."
+
+"Perhaps you are right," said he, compressing his lips.
+
+"I believe that Vivian and I could--but no! I won't go so far as
+to say that either. There is something genuine about her. Strange
+to say, I have never disliked her."
+
+"If you had made the slightest effort to like us, no doubt we could
+have--"
+
+"My dear Mr. Wrandall," she interrupted quickly, "I credit YOU
+with the desire to be fair and just to me. You have tried to like
+me. You have even deceived yourself at times. I--but why these
+gentle recriminations? We merely prolong an unfortunate contest
+between antagonistic natures, with no hope of genuine peace being
+established. I do not regret that I am your daughter-in-law, nor do
+I believe that you would regret it if I had not been the daughter
+of Sebastian Gooch."
+
+"Your father was as little impressed with my son as I was with his
+daughter," said Redmond Wrandall drily. "I am forced to confess
+that he was the better judge. We had the better of the bargain."
+
+"I believe you mean it, Mr. Wrandall," she said, a note of gratitude
+in her voice. "Good-bye. Mr. Carroll will see you to-morrow." She
+glanced quickly about the room. "I shall send for--for certain
+articles that are no longer required in conducting the business of
+Wrandall & Co."
+
+With a quaint little smile, she indicated the two photographs of
+herself.
+
+"By Jove, Sara," burst out Leslie abruptly. "I wish you'd let ME
+have that Gipsy Mab picture. I've always been dotty over it, don't
+you know. Ripping study."
+
+Her lip curled slightly.
+
+"As a matter of fact," he explained conclusively, "Chal often said
+he'd leave it to me when he died. In a joking way, of course, but
+I'm sure he meant it."
+
+"You may have it, Leslie," she said slowly. It is doubtful if he
+correctly interpreted the movement of her head as she uttered the
+words.
+
+"Thanks," said he. "I'll hang it in my den, if you don't object."
+
+"We shall expect Mr. Carroll to-morrow, Sara," said his father,
+with an air of finality. "Good-bye. May I ask what plans you are
+making for the winter?"
+
+"They are very indefinite."
+
+"I say, Sara, why don't you get married?" asked Leslie, surveying
+the Gipsy Mab photograph with undisguised admiration as he held it
+at arm's length. "Ripping!" This to the picture.
+
+She paused near the door to stare at him for a moment, unutterable
+scorn in her eyes.
+
+"I've had a notion you were pretty keen about Brandy Booth," he
+went on amiably.
+
+She caught her breath. There was an instant's hesitation on her
+part before she replied.
+
+"You have never been very smart at making love guesses, Leslie,"
+she said. "It's a trick you haven't acquired."
+
+He laughed uncomfortably. "Neat stroke, that."
+
+Following her into the corridor outside the offices, he pushed the
+elevator bell for her.
+
+"I meant what I said, Sara," he remarked, somewhat doggedly. "You
+ought to get married. Chal didn't leave much for you to cherish.
+There's no reason why you should go on like this, living alone and
+all that sort of thing. You're young and beautiful and--"
+
+"Oh, thank you, Leslie," she cried out sharply.
+
+"You see, it's going to be this way: Hetty will probably marry Booth.
+That's on dit, I take it. You're depending on her for companionship.
+Well, she'll quit you cold after she's married. She will--"
+
+She interrupted him peremptorily.
+
+"If Challis did nothing else for me, Leslie, he at least gave me
+you to cherish. Once more, good-bye."
+
+The elevator stopped for her. He strolled back to his office with
+a puzzled frown on his face. She certainly was inexplicable!
+
+The angry red faded from her cheeks as she sped homeward in the
+automobile. Her thoughts were no longer of Leslie but of another...
+She sighed and closed her eyes, and her cheeks were pale.
+
+Workmen from a picture dealer's establishment were engaged in hanging
+a full length portrait in the long living-room of her apartment when
+she reached home. She had sent to the country for Booth's picture
+of Hetty, and was having it hung in a conspicuous place. For a
+long time she stood in the middle of the room, studying the canvas.
+Hetty's Irish blue eyes seemed to return the scrutiny, a questioning
+look in their painted depths. The warm, half smiling lips appeared
+to be on the point of putting into words the eager question that
+lay in her wondering eyes.
+
+Passing the open library door, Sara paused for an instant to peer
+within. Then she went on down the hall to her own sitting-room.
+The canary was singing glibly in his cage by the window-side.
+
+She threw aside her furs, and, without removing her hat, passed
+into the bed-chamber at the left of the cosy little boudoir. This
+was Hetty's room. Her own was directly opposite. On the girl's
+dressing-table, leaning against the broad, low mirror, stood
+the unframed photograph of a man. With a furtive glance over her
+shoulder, Sara crossed to the table and took up the picture in her
+gloved hand. For a long time she stood there gazing into the frank,
+good-looking face of Brandon Booth. She breathed faster; her hand
+shook; her eyes were strained as if by an inward suggestion of
+pain.
+
+She shook her head slowly, as if in final renunciation of a secret
+hope or the banishment of an unwelcome desire, and resolutely
+replaced the photograph. Her lips were almost white as she turned
+away and re-entered the room beyond.
+
+"He belongs to her," she said, unconsciously speaking aloud; "and
+he is like all men. She must not be unhappy."
+
+Presently she entered the library. She had exchanged her tailor-suit
+for a dainty house-gown. Hetty was still seated in the big lounging
+chair, before the snapping fire, apparently not having moved since
+she looked in on passing a quarter of an hour before. One of the
+girl's legs was curled up under her, the other swung loose; an elbow
+rested on the arm of the chair, and her cheek was in her hand.
+
+Coming softly up from behind, Sara leaned over the back of the
+chair and put her hands under her friend's chin, tenderly, lovingly.
+Hetty started and shivered.
+
+"Oh, Sara, how cold your hands are!"
+
+She grasped them in her own and fondly stroked them, as if to
+restore warmth to the long, slim fingers which gave the lie to Mrs.
+Coburn's declarations.
+
+"I've been thinking all morning of what you and Brandon proposed to
+me last night, dear," said Sara, looking straight over the girl's
+head, the dark, languorous, mysterious glow filling her eyes. "It
+is good of you both to want me, but--"
+
+"Now don't say 'but,' Sara," cried Hetty. "We mean it, and you must
+let us have our way."
+
+"It would be splendid to be near you all the time, dear; it would
+be wonderful to live with you as you so generously propose, but I
+cannot do it. I must decline."
+
+"And may I ask why you decline to live with me?" demanded Hetty
+resentfully.
+
+"Because I love you so dearly," said Sara.
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
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