diff options
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7863-8.txt | 4902 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7863-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 98273 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7863.txt | 4902 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 7863.zip | bin | 0 -> 98220 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
7 files changed, 9820 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/7863-8.txt b/7863-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9d13ab1 --- /dev/null +++ b/7863-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4902 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Avalanche, by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Avalanche + +Author: Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton + +Release Date: June 30, 2004 [EBook #7863] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AVALANCHE *** + + + + +Produced by Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + THE AVALANCHE + + _A MYSTERY STORY_ + + BY GERTRUDE ATHERTON + + 1919 + + + + +TO CHARLES HANSON TOWNE + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +I + +Price Ruyler knew that many secrets had been inhumed by the earthquake +and fire of San Francisco and wondered if his wife's had been one of +them. After all, she had been born in this city of odd and whispered +pasts, and there were moments when his silent mother-in-law suggested a +past of her own. + +That there was a secret of some sort he had been progressively convinced +for quite six months. Moreover, he felt equally sure that this impalpable +gray cloud had not drifted even transiently between himself and his wife +during the first year and a half of their marriage. They had been +uncommonly happy; they were happy yet ... the difference lay not in the +quality of Hélène's devotion, enhanced always by an outspoken admiration +for himself and his achievements, but in subtle changes of temperament +and spirits. + +She had been a gay and irresponsible young creature when he married her, +so much so that he had found it expedient to put her on an allowance and +ask her not to ran up staggering bills in the fashionable shops; which +she visited daily, as much for the pleasure of the informal encounter +with other lively and irresponsible young luminaries of San Francisco +society as for the excitement of buying what she did not want. + +He had broached the subject with some trepidation, for they had never had +a quarrel; but she had shown no resentment whatever, merely an eager +desire to please him. She even went directly down to the Palace Hotel and +reproached her august parent for failing to warn her that a dollar was +not capable of infinite expansion. + +But no wonder she had been extravagant, she told Ruyler plaintively. It +had been like a fairy tale, this sudden release from the rigid +economies of her girlhood, when she had rarely had a franc in her +pocket, and they had lived in a suite of the old family villa on one +of the hills of Rouen, Madame Delano paying her brother for their +lodging, and dressing herself and Hélène with the aid of a half +paralyzed seamstress with a fiery red nose. Ma foi! It was the +nightmare of her youth, that nose and that croaking voice. But the +woman had fingers, and a taste! And her mother could have concocted a +smart evening frock out of an old window curtain. + +But the petted little daughter was never asked to go out and buy a spool +of thread, much less was she consulted in the household economies. All +she noticed was that her clothes were smarter than Cousin Marthe's, who +had a real dressmaker, and was subject to fits of jealous sulks. No +wonder that when money was poured into her lap out in this wonderful +California she had assumed that it was made only to spend. + +But she would learn! She would learn! She would ask her mother that very +day to initiate her into the fascinating secrets of personal economies, +teach her how to portion out her quarterly allowance between her +wardrobe, club dues, charities, even her private automobile. + +This last heroic suggestion was her own, and although her husband +protested he finally agreed; it was well she should learn just what it +cost to be a woman of fashion in San Francisco, and the allowance was +very generous. His old steward, Mannings, ran the household, although as +he went through the form of laying the bills before his little mistress +on the third of every month, she knew that the upkeep of the San +Francisco house and the Burlingame villa ran into a small fortune a year. + +"It is not that I am threatened with financial disaster," Ruyler had said +to her. "But San Francisco has not recovered yet, and it is impossible to +say just when she will recover. I want to be absolutely sure of my +expenditures." + +She had promised vehemently, and, as far as he knew, she had kept her +promise. He had received no more bills, and it was obvious that her +haughty chauffeur was paid on schedule time, until, seized with another +economical spasm, she sold her car and bought a small electric which she +could drive herself. + +Ruyler, little as he liked his mother-in-law, was intensely grateful to +her for the dexterity with which she had adjusted Hélène's mind to the +new condition. She even taught her how to keep books in an elemental way +and balanced them herself on the first of every month. As Hélène Ruyler +had a mind as quick and supple as it was cultivated in _les graces_, she +soon ceased to feel the chafing of her new harness, although she did +squander the sum she had reserved for three months mere pocket money upon +a hat; which was sent to the house by her wily milliner on the first day +of the second quarter. She confessed this with tears, and her husband, +who thought her feminine passion for hats adorable, dried her tears and +took her to the opening night of a new play. But he did not furnish the +pathetic little gold mesh bag, and as he made her promise not to borrow, +she did not treat her friends to tea or ices at any of the fashionable +rendezvous for a month. Then her native French thrift came to her aid and +she sold a superfluous gold purse, a wedding present, to an envious +friend at a handsome bargain. + +That was ancient history now. It was twenty months since Price had +received a bill, and secret inquiries during the past two had satisfied +him that his wife's name was written in the books of no shop in San +Francisco that she would condescend to visit. Therefore, this maddening +but intangible barrier had nothing to do with a change of habit that had +not caused an hour of tears and sulks. Hélène had a quick temper but a +gay and sweet disposition, normally high spirits, little apparent +selfishness, and a naïve adoration of masculine superiority and strength; +altogether, with her high bred beauty and her dignity in public, an +enchanting creature and an ideal wife for a busy man of inherited social +position and no small degree of pride. + +But all this lovely equipment was blurred, almost obscured at times, by +the shadow that he was beginning to liken to the San Francisco fogs that +drifted through the Golden Gate and settled down into the deep hollows of +the Marin hills; moving gently but restlessly even there, like ghostly +floating tides. He could see them from his library window, where he often +finished his afternoon's work with his secretaries. + +But the fog drifted back to the Pacific, and the shadow that encompassed +his wife did not, or rarely. It chilled their ardors, even their serene +domesticity. She was often as gay and impulsive as ever, but with abrupt +reserves, an implication not only of a new maturity of spirit, but of +watchfulness, even fear. She had once gone so far as to give voice +passionately to the dogma that no two mortals had the right to be as +happy as they were; then laughed apologetically and "guessed" that the +old Puritan spirit of her father's people was coming to life in her +Gallic little soul; then, with another change of mood, added defiantly +that it was time America were rid of its baneful inheritance, and that +she would be happy to-day if the skies fell to-morrow. She had flung +herself into her husband's arms, and even while he embraced her the eyes +of his spirit searched for the girl wife who had fled and left this more +subtly fascinating but incomprehensible creature in her place. + + +II + +The morning was Sunday and he sat in the large window of his library that +overlooked the Bay of San Francisco. The house, which stood on one of the +highest hills, he had bought and remodeled for his bride. The books that +lined these walls had belonged to his Ruyler grandfather, bought in a day +when business men had time to read and it was the fashion for a gentleman +to cultivate the intellectual tracts of his brain. The portraits that +hung above, against the dark paneling, were the work of his mother's +father, one of the celebrated portrait painters of his time, and were +replicas of the eminent and mighty he had painted. Maharajas, kings, +emperors, famous diplomats, men of letters, artists of his own small +class, statesmen and several of the famous beauties of their brief day; +these had been the favorite grandson's inheritance from Masewell Price, +and they made an impressive frieze, unique in the splendid homes of the +city of Ruyler's adoption. + +He had brought them from New York when he had decided to live in +California, and hung them in his bachelor quarters. He had soon made up +his mind that he must remain in San Francisco for at least ten years if +he would maintain the business he had rescued from the disaster of 1906 +at the level where he had, by the severest application of his life, +placed it by the end of 1908. Meanwhile he had grown to like San +Francisco better than he would have believed possible when he arrived in +the wrecked city, still smoking, and haunted with the subtle odors of +fires that had consumed more than products of the vegetable kingdom. + +The vast ruin with its tottering arches and broken columns, its lonely +walls looking as if bitten by prehistoric monsters that must haunt this +ancient coast, the soft pastel colors the great fire had given as sole +compensation for all it had taken, the grotesque twisted masses of steel +and the aged gray hills that had looked down on so many fires, had +appealed powerfully to his imagination, and made him feel, when wandering +alone at night, as if his brain cells were haunted by old memories of +Antioch when Nature had annihilated in an instant what man had lavished +upon her for centuries. Nowhere, not even in what was left of ancient +Rome, had he ever received such an impression of the age of the world and +of the nothingness of man as among the ruins of this ridiculously modern +city of San Francisco. It fascinated him, but he told himself then that +he should leave it without a pang. He was a New Yorker of the seventh +generation of his house, and the rest of the United States of America was +merely incidental. + +The business, a branch of the great New York firm founded in 1840 by an +ancestor grown weary of watching the broad acres of Ruyler Manor +automatically transmute themselves into the yearly rent-roll, and +reverting to the energy and merchant instincts of his Dutch ancestors, +had been conducted skillfully for the thirty years preceding the +disaster by Price's uncle, Dryden Ruyler. But the earthquake and fire in +which so many uninsured millions had vanished, had also wrecked men past +the rebounding age, and Dryden Ruyler was one of them. He might have +borne the destruction of the old business building down on Front Street, +or even the temporary stagnation of trade, but when the Pacific Union +Club disappeared in the raging furnace, and, like many of his old +cronies who had no home either in the country or out in the Western +Addition, he was driven over to Oakland for lodgings, this ghastly +climax of horrors--he escaped in a milk wagon after sleeping for two +nights without shelter on the bare hills behind San Francisco, while the +fire roared its defiance to the futile detonations of dynamite, and his +sciatica was as fiery as the atmosphere--had broken the old man's +spirit, and he had announced his determination to return to +Ruyler-on-Hudson and die as a gentleman should. + +There was no question of Price's father, Morgan Ruyler, leaving New +York, even if he had contemplated the sacrifice for a moment; that his +second son and general manager of the several branches of the great +business of Ruyler and Sons--as integral a part of the ancient history +of San Francisco as of the comparatively modern history of New +York--should go, was so much a matter of course that Price had taken the +first Overland train that left New York after the receipt of his uncle's +despairing telegram. + +In spite of the fortune behind him and his own expert training, the +struggle to rebuild the old business to its former standard had been +unintermittent. The terrific shock to the city's energies was followed +by a general depression, and the insane spending of a certain class of +San Franciscans when their insurance money was paid, was like a brief +last crackling in a cold stove, and, moreover, was of no help to the +wholesale houses. + +But Price Ruyler, like so many of his new associates in like case, had +emerged triumphant; and with the unqualified approval and respect of the +substantial citizens of San Francisco. + +It was this position he had won in a community where he had experienced +the unique sensation of being a pioneer in at the rebirth of a great +city, as well as the outdoor sports that kept him fit, that had endeared +California to Ruyler, and in time caused him whimsically to visualize New +York as a sternly accusing instead of a beckoning finger. Long before he +found time to play polo at Burlingame he had conceived a deep respect for +a climate where a man might ride horseback, shoot, drive a racing car, or +tramp, for at least eight months of the year with no menace of sudden +downpour, and hardly a change in the weight of his clothes. + +To-day the rain was dashing against his windows and the wind howled about +the exposed angles of his house with that personal fury of assault with +which storms brewed out in the vast wastes of the Pacific deride the +enthusiastic baptism of a too confident explorer. All he could see of the +bay was a mad race of white caps, and dark blurs which only memory +assured him were rocky storm-beaten islands; mountain tops, so geological +tradition ran, whose roots were in an unquiet valley long since dropped +from mortal gaze. + +The waves were leaping high against the old forts at the entrance to the +Golden Gate, and occasionally he saw a small craft drift perilously near +to the rocks. But he loved the wild weather of San Francisco, for he was +by nature an imaginative man and he liked to think that he would have +followed the career of letters had not the traditions of the great +commercial house of Ruyler and Sons, forced him to carry on the burden. + +The men of his family had never been idlers since the recrudescence of +ancestral energy in the person of Morgan Ruyler I; it was no part of +their profound sense of aristocracy to retire on inherited or invested +wealth; they believed that your fine American of the old stock should die +in harness; and if the harness had been fashioned and elaborated by +ancestors whose portraits hung in the Chamber of Commerce, all the more +reason to keep it spic and up to date instead of letting it lapse into +those historic vaults where so many once honored names lay rotting. They +were a hard, tight-fisted lot, the Ruylers, and Price in one secluded but +cherished wing of his mind was unlike them only because his mother was +the daughter of Masefield Price and would have been an artist herself if +her scandalized husband would have consented. Morgan Ruyler IV had +overlooked his father-in-law's divagation from the orthodox standards of +his own family because he had been a spectacular financial success; +bringing home ropes of enormous pearls from India in addition to the +fantastic sums paid him by enraptured native princes. But while Morgan +Ruyler believed that rich men should work and make their sons work, if +only because an idle class was both out of place in a republic and +conducive to unrest in the masses, it was quite otherwise with women. +They were for men to shelter, and it was their sole duty to be useful in +the home, and, wherever possible, ornamental in public. Nor had he the +least faith in female talent. + +Marian Ruyler had yielded the point and departed hopefully for a broader +sphere when her second and favorite son was eight. Morgan Ruyler married +again as soon as convention would permit, this time carefully selecting a +wife of the soundest New York predispositions and with a personal +admiration of Queen Victoria; and he had watched young Price like an +affectionate but inexorable parent hawk until the young man followed his +brother--a quintessential Ruyler--into the now historic firm. However, he +suffered little from anxiety. Price, too, was conservative, intensely +proud of the family traditions, an almost impassioned worker, and +unselfish as men go. Two sons in every generation must enter the firm. It +was not in the Ruyler blood to take long chances. + + +III + +Life out here in California had been too hurried for more than fleeting +moments of self-study, but on this idle Sunday morning Price Ruyler's +perturbed mind wandered to that inner self of his to which he once had +longed to give a freer expression. It was odd that the conservative +training, the rigid traditions of his family, conventional, +old-fashioned, Puritanical, as became the best stock of New York, a stock +that in the Ruyler family had seemed to carry its own antidote for the +poisons ever seeking entrance to the spiritual conduits of the rich, had +left any place for that sentimental romantic tide in his nature which had +swept him into marriage with a girl outside of his own class; a girl of +whose family he had known practically nothing until his outraged father +had cabled to a correspondent in Paris to make investigation of the +Perrin family of Rouen, to which the girl's mother claimed to belong. + +The inquiries were satisfactory; they were quite respectable, +bourgeois, silk merchants in a small way--although at least two strata +below that haute bourgeoisie which now regarded itself as the real +upper class of the République Française. A true Ruyler, however, would +have fled at the first danger signal, never have reached the point +where inquiries were in order. + +California was replete with charming, beautiful, and superlatively +healthy girls; the climate produced them as it did its superabundance of +fruit, flowers, and vegetables. But they had left Price Ruyler +untroubled. He had been far more interested watching San Francisco rise +from its ruins, transformed almost overnight from a picturesque but +ramshackle city, a patchwork of different eras, into a staid metropolis +of concrete and steel, defiant alike of earthquake and fire. He had liked +the new experience of being a pioneer, which so subtly expanded his +starved ego that he had, by unconscious degrees, made up his mind to +remain out here as the permanent head of the San Francisco House; and in +time, no doubt, marry one of these fine, hardy, frank, out-of-door, +wholly unsubtle California girls. Moreover, he had found in San Francisco +several New Yorkers as well as Englishmen of his own class--notably John +Gwynne, who had thrown over one of the greatest of English peerages to +follow his personal tastes in a legislative career--all of whom had +settled down into that free and independent life from motives not +dissimilar from his own. + +But he had ceased to be an untroubled spirit from the moment he met +Hélène Delano. He had gone down to Monterey for polo, and he had +forgotten the dinner to which he had brought a keen appetite, and stared +at her as she entered the immense dining room with her mother. + +It was not her beauty, although that was considerable, that had summarily +transposed his gallant if cool admiration for all charming well bred +women into a submerging recognition of woman in particular; it was her +unlikeness to any of the girls he had been riding, dancing, playing golf +and tennis with during the past year and a half (for two years after his +arrival he had seen nothing of society whatever). Later that evening he +defined this dissimilarity from the American girl as the result not only +of her French blood but of her European training, her quiet secluded +girlhood in a provincial town of great beauty, where she had received a +leisurely education rare in the United States, seen or read little of the +great world (she had visited Paris only twice and briefly), her mind +charmingly developed by conscientious tutors. But at the moment he +thought that the compelling power lay in some deep subtlety of eye, her +little air of lofty aloofness, her classic small features in a small +face, and the top-heavy masses of blue black hair which she carried with +a certain naïve pride as if it were her only vanity; in her general +unlikeness to the gray-eyed fair-haired American--a type to which himself +belonged. Her only point in common with this fashionable set patronizing +Del Monte for the hour, was the ineffable style with which she wore her +perfect little white frock; an American inheritance, he assumed after he +knew her; for, as he recalled provincial French women, style was not +their strong point. + +When he met her eyes some twenty minutes later, he dismissed the +impression of subtlety, for their black depths were quick with an eager +wonder and curiosity. Later they grew wistful, and he guessed that she +knew none of these smart folk, down, like himself, for the tournament; +people who were chattering from table to table like a large family. That +some of his girl acquaintances were interested in the young stranger he +inferred from speculative and appraising eyes that were turned upon her +from time to time. + +Price, with some irony, wondered at their curiosity. The San Francisco +girl, he had discovered, possessed an extra sense all her own. There was +no lofty indifference about her. She had the worth-while stranger +detected and tabulated and his or her social destiny settled before the +Eastern train had disgorged its contents at the Oakland mole. And even +the immense florid mother of this lovely girl, with her own masses of +snow white hair dressed in a manner becoming her age, and a severe gown +of black Chantilly net, relieved by the merest trifle of jet, looked the +reverse of the nondescript tourist. The girl wore white embroidered silk +muslin and a thin gold chain with a small ruby pendant. She was rather +above the average height, although not as tall as her mother, and if she +were as thin as fashion commanded, her bones were so small that her neck +and arms looked almost plump. Her expressive eyes were as black as her +hair, and her only large feature. Her skin was of a quite remarkably pink +whiteness, although there was a pink color in her lips and cheeks. The +older men stared at her more persistently than the younger ones, who +liked their own sort and not girls who looked as if they might be "booky" +and "spring things on a fellow." + +There was a ball in the evening and once more mother and daughter sat +apart, while the flower of San Francisco--an inclusive term for the +select circles of Menlo Park, Atherton, Burlingame, San Mateo, far San +Rafael and Belvedere--romped as one great family. Newport, Ruyler +reflected for the twentieth time, did it no better. To the stranger +peering through the magic bars they were now as insensible as befitted +their code. These two people knew nobody and that was the end of it. + + +IV + +But Price noted that now the girl's eyes were merely wistful, and once or +twice he saw them fill with tears. As three of the dowagers merely +sniffed when he sought possible information, he finally had recourse to +the manager of the hotel, D.V. Bimmer. They were a Madame and +Mademoiselle Delano from Rouen, and had been at the hotel for a +fortnight, not seeming to mind its comparative emptiness, but enjoying +the sea bathing and the drives. The girl rode, and went out every morning +with a groom. + +"But didn't they bring any letters?" asked Ruyler. "They are ladies and +one letter would have done the business. That poor girl is having the +deuce of a time." + +"D.V.," who knew "everybody" in California, and all their secrets, shook +his head. "'Fraid not. The French maid told the floor valet that although +the father was American--from New England somewheres--and the girl born +in California, accidentally as it were, she had lived in France all her +life--she's just eighteen--never crossed the ocean before. Can you beat +it? Until last month, and then they came from Hong Kong--taking a trip +round the world in good old style. The madame, who scarcely opens her +month, did condescend to tell me that she had admired California very +much when she was here before, and intended to travel all over the state. +Perhaps I met her in that far off long ago, for I was managing a hotel in +San Francisco about that time, and her face haunts me somehow--although +when features get all swallowed up by fat like that you can't locate +them. The girl, too, reminds me of some one, but of course she was in +arms when she left and as I ain't much on cathedrals I never went to +Rouen. Of course it's the old trick, bringing a pretty girl to a +fashionable watering place to marry her off, but these folks are not +poor. Not what we'd call rich, perhaps, but good and solid. I don't fall +for the old lady; she's a cool proposition or I miss my guess, but the +girl's all right. I've seen too many girls in this Mecca for adventurous +females and never made a mistake yet. I wish some of our grand dames +would extend the glad hand. But I'm afraid they won't. Terrible +exclusive, this bunch." + +Ruyler scowled and walked back to the ballroom. The exclusiveness of this +young society on the wrong side of the continent sometimes made him +homesick and sometimes made him sick. He saw little chance for this poor +girl to enjoy the rights of her radiant youth if her mother had not taken +the precaution to bring letters. France was full of Californians. Many +lived there. Surely she must have met some one she could have made use +of. It was tragic to watch a pathetic young thing staring at two or three +hundred young men and maidens disporting themselves with the natural +hilarity of youth, and but few of them too ill-natured to welcome a young +and lovely stranger if properly introduced. + +He experienced a desperate impulse to go up to the mother and offer +her the hospitality of the evening, ask her to regard him as her host. +But Madame Delano had a frozen eye, and no doubt orthodox French ideas +on the subject of young girls. A moment later his eye fell on Mrs. +Ford Thornton. + +"Fordy" was many times a millionaire, and his handsome intelligent wife +lived the life of her class. But she was far less conservative than any +woman Price had met in San Francisco. Although she was no longer young he +had more than once detected symptoms of a wild and insurgent spirit, and +an impatient contempt for the routine she was compelled to follow or go +into retirement. She was always leaving abruptly for Europe, and every +once in a while she did something quite uncanonical; enjoying wickedly +the consternation she caused among the serenely regulated, and betraying +to the keen eyes of the New Yorker an ironic appreciation of the immense +wealth which enabled her to do as she chose, answerable to no one. Her +husband was uxorious and she had no children. She had seemed to Price +more restless than usual of late and showing unmistakable signs of abrupt +departure. (He was sure she dusted the soles of her boots as she locked +the door of drawing-room A.) Perhaps to-night she might be in a +schismatic mood. + +She was standing apart, a tall, dark, almost fiercely haughty woman, but +dressed with a certain arrogant simplicity, without jewels, her hair in a +careless knot at the base of her head. There were times when she was +impeccably groomed, others when she looked as if an infuriated maid had +left her helpless. She was, as Ruyler well knew, a kind and generous +woman (in certain of her moods), with whom the dastardly cradle fates had +experimented, hoping for high drama when the whip of life snapped once +too often. Perhaps she had found her revenge as well as her consolation +in cheating them. + +It was evident to Price that she had been snubbing somebody, for a group +of matrons, flushed and drawn apart, were whispering resentfully. Price +Ruyler stood in no awe of her. He could match her arrogance, and he liked +and admired her more than any of his new friends. They quarreled +furiously but she had never snubbed him. + +He walked over to her, his cool gray eyes lit with the pleasure in seeing +her that she had learned to expect. "Good evening, oh, Queen of the +Pacific," he said lightly. "You are looking quite wonderful as usual. Are +you standing alone almost in the middle of the room to emphasize +the--difference?" + +"I am in no mood for compliments, satiric or otherwise." She looked him +over with cool penetration. "I may not massage or have my old cuticle +ripped off. If I choose to look my age you must admit that it gives me +one more claim to originality." + +"You should have let the world know long since just how original you are, +instead of settling down into the leadership of San Francisco society--" + +He enjoyed provoking her. Her dark narrow eyes opened and flashed as they +must have done in their unchastened youth. "Don't dare call me the leader +of this--this!" + +"Granted. But the fact remains that your word alone is law. Therefore I +am about to ask you to forget that I am a bungling diplomat and do a kind +act. For once you would be able to be both kind and original." + +"I did not know you went in for charities. I am sick of shelling out." + +"My only part in charities is shelling out." + +"Well, come to the point. What do you want?" + +"I want you to go over to that lady--Madame Delano, her name is--sitting +beside that beautiful girl, and introduce yourself and then me. They are +strangers and I'd like to give them a good time." + +"How disinterested of you!" She looked the isolated couple over. "The +girl is all right, but I don't like the mother. She is well dressed--oh, +correct from tip to toe--but not quite the lady." + +Ruyler's cool insolent gaze swept the dado of amiable overfed ladies who +fanned themselves against the wall. + +"None of that! You know that I do not tolerate the New York attitude. +At least we know who ours are; they came into their own respectably, +and with no uncertain touch. Of course it is stupid of them to get fat. +Naturally it makes them look _bourgeoise_. But this is a lazy climate. +As to that woman: there is something about her I do not like. She is +aggressively not massaged, not made up. Only a woman of assured +position can afford to be mid-Victorian. It is now quite the smart +thing to make up." + +"No doubt her position is assured in her own provincial town. It will be +easy enough to drop her if she doesn't go down. You can't deny that the +girl is all right--and a sweet pathetic figure." + +"If the girl marries one of our boys--and no doubt that is what she was +brought here for--we shall not be able to get rid of the mother. We've +tried that and failed." + +At that moment Ruyler's eyes met those of the girl. They flashed an +irresistible appeal. He drew a short breath. How different she looked! +She radiated a subtle promise of perfect companionship. Price Ruyler did +what all men will do until the end of time. He made up his mind that he +had found his woman and without vocal assistance. + +Mrs. Thornton, who had been watching the unusual mobility of his face, +met his eyes with a satirical smile in her own, her thin red curling lips +drawn almost straight for a moment. She had played with the fancy, before +anger banished it, that if she had been twenty years younger.... Men had +fallen madly in love with her in her own day.... She detected the +symptoms in this man at once. Her savage will compelled her to accept +accumulating years without a concession. But she had forgotten nothing. + +Ruyler may have read her thoughts. + +"You know," he said, with an attempt at lightness, although the coast +wind tan, which was his only claim to coloring, had paled a little, "that +girl reminds me so much of you that I have made up my mind to marry her. +I don't care who she is. If you don't help me to meet her conventionally +I'll manage somehow, but I should hate to practice any subterfuges on the +woman I intend to make my wife." + +For a moment he had the sensation of being pinned to the wall by that +narrow concentrated gaze. Then Mrs. Thornton swung on her heel. "I'll do +it," she said. + +She walked across the room with the supple grace her slender figure had +never lost and sat down beside the older woman. In a moment the +astonished dowagers who had "suffered from her fiendish temper all +evening," saw her talking with spontaneous graciousness to both the +strangers. Madame Delano was at first more distant and reserved than Mrs. +Thornton had ever been, manifestly betraying all the suspicion and +unsocial instincts of her class; but she thawed, and the two women +chatted, while once more the girl's eyes wandered to the dancers. + +When Mrs. Thornton had tormented Ruyler for quite fifteen minutes she +beckoned to him imperiously. A moment later he was whirling the girl down +the ball room and thrilling at her contact. + + +V + +The wooing had been as headlong as his falling in love. Hélène Delano had +a deep sweet voice, which completed the conquest during the hour they +spent in the grounds under the shelter of a great palm, until hunted down +by a horrified parent. + +Hélène talked frankly of her life. Her mother had been visiting relatives +in a small New England town--Holbrook Centre, she believed it was called, +but hard American names did not cling to her memory--she loved the soft +Latin and Indian names in California--and there she had met and married +her father, James Delano. They were on their way to Japan when business +detained him in San Francisco much longer than he had expected and she +was born. She believed that he had owned a ranch that he wanted to sell. +He died on the voyage across the Pacific and her mother had returned to +live among her own people in Rouen--very plain bourgeois, but of a +respectability, Oh, là! là! + +"But it was a tiresome life for a young girl with American blood in her, +monsieur." Her mother's income from her husband's estate was not large, +but they lived in a wing of the old house and were very comfortable. From +her window there was a lovely view of the Seine winding off to Paris. +"Oh, monsieur, how I used to long to go to Paris! America was too far. I +never even dreamed of it. But Paris! And only two little glimpses of +it--the last when we spent a fortnight there before sailing, to get me +some nice frocks...." + +She had studied hard--but hard! She knew four languages, she told Ruyler +proudly. "I had no _dot_ then, you see. It was possible I might have to +teach one day. A governess in England, Oh, là! là!" + +But six months ago a good old uncle had died and left them some money. +She would have a little _dot_ now, and they could travel. Maman said she +would not have a large enough _dot_ to make a fine marriage in France, +but that the English and American men were more romantic. They went first +to the Orient, as there were many Englishmen of good family to be met +there. "But maman is difficult to please," she added with her enchanting +artlessness, "as difficult as I myself, monsieur. I wish to fall in love +like the American girls. Maman says it is not necessary, but I am half +American, so, why not? There was an English gentleman with a nice title +in Hong Kong and maman was quite pleased with him until she discovered +that he gambled or did something equally horrid and she bought our +tickets for San Francisco right away." + +Yes, she was enjoying her travels, but she was a little lonesome; in +Rouen at least she had her cousins. For the first time in her life she +was talking to a young man alone; even on the steamer she was not +permitted to speak to any of the nice young men who looked as if they +would like her if only maman would relent. + +"In our ugly old rooms in Rouen maman cherished me like some rare little +flower in an old earthen pot," she added quaintly. "Now the pot has +tinsel and tissue paper round it, but until to-night I have felt as if I +might just as well be an old cabbage." + +But it had been heaven to dance with a young man who was not a cousin; +and to sit out alone with him in the moonlight, Oh, _grace à Dieu_! + +Traveling she had read modern novels for the first time. There were many +in the ship's library, oh, but dozens! and she knew now how American and +English girls enjoyed life. Her mother had been ill nearly all the way +over. She had given her word not to speak to any one, but maman had been +ignorant of the library replete with the novelists of the day, and +although she was not untruthful, _enfin_, she saw no reason to ask her +too anxious parent for another prohibition and condemn herself to yawn +at the sea. + +Ruyler proposed at the end of a week. She was the only really innocent, +unspoiled, unselfconscious girl he had ever met, almost as old-fashioned +as his great grandmother must have been. Not that he set forth her +virtues to bolster his determination to marry a girl of no family even in +her own country; he was madly in love, and life without her was +unthinkable; but he tabulated the thousand points to her credit for the +benefit of his outraged father. + +He did not pretend to like Madame Delano. She was a hard, calculating, +sordid old bourgeoisie, but when he refused the little _dot_ she would +have settled upon Hélène, he knew that he had won her friendship and that +she would give him no trouble. She was not a mother-in-law to be ashamed +of, for her manners were coldly correct, her education in youth had +evidently been adequate, and in her obese way she was imposing. She gave +him to understand that she had no more desire to live with her son-in-law +than he with her, and established herself in a small suite in the Palace +Hotel. After a "lifetime" in a provincial town, economizing mercilessly, +she felt, she remarked in one of her rare expansive moments, that she had +earned the right to look on at life in a great hotel. + +The rainy season she spent in Southern California, moving from one large +hotel crowded with Eastern visitors to another. This uncommon +self-indulgence and her devotion to Hélène were the only weak spots +Ruyler was able to discover in that cast-iron character. She seldom +attended the brilliant entertainments of her daughter and refused the +endowed car offered by her son-in-law. Hélène married to the best _parti_ +in San Francisco and quite happy, she seemed content to settle down into +the role of the onlooker at the kaleidoscope of life. She spent eight +hours of the day and evening seated in an arm chair in the court of the +Palace Hotel, and for air rode out to the end of the California Street +car line, always on the front seat of the dummy. She was dubbed a "quaint +old party" by her new acquaintances and left to her own devices. If she +didn't want them they could jolly well do without her. + + +VI + +Hélène's social success was immediate and permanent. Californians rarely +do things by halves. Society was no exception. She had "walked off" with +the most desirable man in town, but they were good gamblers. When they +lost they paid. She had married into "their set." They had accepted her. +She was one of them. No secret order is more loyal to its initiates. + +During that first year and a half of ideal happiness Ruyler, in what +leisure he could command, found Hélène's rapidly expanding mind as +companionable as he had hoped; and the girlish dignity she never lost, +for all her naiveté and vivacity, gratified his pride and compelled, upon +their second brief visit to New York, even the unqualified approval of +his family. + +She had inherited all the subtle adaptability of her father's race, +nothing of the cold and rigid narrowness of her mother's class. Price had +feared that her lively mind might reveal disconcerting shallows, but +these little voids were but the divine hiatuses of youth. He sometimes +wondered just how strong her character was. There were times when she +showed a pronounced inclination for the line of least resistance ... but +her youth ... her too sheltered bringing up ... those drab cramped +years ... no wonder.... + +He was glad on the whole that his was the part to mold. Nevertheless, he +had his inconsistencies. Unlike many men of strong will and driving +purpose he liked strength of character and pronounced individuality in +women; and he, too, had had fleeting visions of what life might have been +had Flora Thornton entered life twenty years later. He had been quite +sincere in telling her that the young stranger reminded him of the most +powerful personality he had met in California, and he believed that +within a reasonable time Hélène would be as variously cultivated, as +widely, if less erratically developed. But was there any such insurgent +force in her depths? It was not within the possibilities that at any time +in her life Flora Thornton had been pliable. + +A man had little time to study his wife in California these days. Or at +any time? He sometimes wondered. Certainly happy marriages were rare and +divorces many. Fine weather nearly all the year round played the deuce +with domesticity, and his business could not be neglected for the long +vacation abroad to which they both had looked forward so ardently. + +Sometimes, even before this vague gray mist had risen between them, he +had had moments of wondering whether he knew his wife at all. How could a +man know a woman who did not yet know herself? He sighed and wished he +had more time to explore the uncharted seas of a woman's soul. + +But the cause of the change in her was something far less picturesque, +something concrete and sinister. He felt sure of that.... + + +VII + +Unless--but that was ridiculous! Impossible! + +He sprang to his feet, incredulous, disgusted at the mere thought. + +But why not? She was very young, and older and wiser women were afflicted +with inconsistencies, little tenacious desires and vanities never quite +to be grasped by the elemental male. + +He went over to a bookcase containing heavy works of reference and +pressed his index finger into the molding. It swung outward, revealing +the door of a safe. He manipulated the combination, took from a drawer of +the interior a box, opened it and stared at a magnificent Burmah ruby. It +was or had been a royal jewel, presented to Masewell Price by one of the +great princes of India whose portrait he had painted. The pearls had all +been captured long since by Price's sisters and by Morgan V. for his +wife; but this ruby his mother had given him as she lay dying. She had +bidden him leave it in his father's safe until he was out of college, and +then keep it as closely in his personal possession as possible. It would +be turned over to him with the rest of his private fortune. + +"Never let any woman wear it," she had whispered. "It brings luck to men +but not to women. Nothing could have affected my luck one way or the +other--I was born to have nothing I wanted, but you, dear little boy. +Keep it for your luck and in a safe place, but near you." + +He had looked back upon this scene as he grew older as the mere +expression of a whim of dissolution, but it had made so deep an +impression upon him at the time that insensibly the words sank into his +plastic mind creating a superstition that refused to yield to reason. The +ruby was Hélène's birthstone and she was passionately fond of it. She had +begged and coaxed to wear this jewel, and upon one occasion had stamped +her little foot and sulked throughout the evening. He had given her a +ruby bar, had the clasp of her pearl necklace set with rabies, and last +Christmas had presented her with a small but fine "pigeon blood" +encircled with diamonds. These had enraptured her for the moment, but she +had always circled back to the historic stone, over which her indulgent +husband was so unaccountably obstinate. + +Until lately. He recalled that for several months she had not mentioned +it. Could she have been indulging in a prolonged attack of interior +sulks, which affected her spirits, dimmed her radiant personality? He +abominated the idea but admitted the possibility. She would not be the +first person to be the victim of a secret but furious passion for jewels. +He recalled a novel of Hichens; not the matter but the central idea. +Authors of other races had used the same motive. Well, if his wife had an +abnormal streak in her the sooner he found out the truth the better. + +He closed the door of the safe, swung the bookcase into place, slipped +the ruby with its curious gold chain that looked massive but hardly +weighed an ounce, into his pocket, rang for a servant and told him to ask +Mrs. Ruyler to come down to the library as soon as she was dressed. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +I + +Ruyler sighed as he heard his wife walk down the hall. There had been a +time when she came running like a child at his summons, but in these days +she walked with a leisurely dignity which to his possibly morbid ear +betrayed a certain crab-like disposition in her little high heels to slip +backward along the polished floor. + +She came in smiling, however, and kissed him quickly and warmly. Her +extraordinary hair hung down in two long braids, their blue blackness +undulating among the soft folds of her thin pink negligée. For the first +time Ruyler realized that pink was Hélène's favorite color; she seldom +wore anything else except white or black, and then always relieved with +pink. And why not, with that deep pink blush in her white cheeks, and the +velvet blackness of her eyes? People still raved over Hélène Ruyler's +"coloring," and Price told himself once more as she stood before him, her +little head dragged back by the weight of her plaits, her slender throat +crossed by a narrow line of black velvet, that he had married one of the +most beautiful girls he had ever seen. + +He was seized with a sudden sharp pang of jealousy and caught her in his +arms roughly, his gray eyes almost as black as hers. + +"Tell me," he exclaimed, and the new fear almost choked him, "does any +other man interest you--the least little bit?" + +She stared at him and then burst into the most natural laugh he had heard +from her for months. "That is simply too funny to talk about." + +"But I am able to give you so little of my time. Working or tired out at +night--letting you go out so much alone--but I haven't the heart to +insist that you yawn over a book, while I am shut up here, or too fagged +to talk even to you. Life is becoming a tragedy for business men--if +they've got it in them to care for anything else." + +"Well, don't add to the tragedy by cultivating jealousy. I've told you +that I am perfectly willing to give up Society and sit like Dora holding +your pens--or filling your fountain pen--no, you dictate. What chance has +a woman in a business man's life?" + +"None, alas, except to look beautiful and be happy. Are you that?--the +last I mean, of course!" + +She nestled closer to him and laughed again. "More so than ever. To be +frank you have completed my happiness by being jealous. I have wondered +sometimes if it were a compliment--your being so sure of me." + +"That's my idea of love." + +"Well, it's mine, too. But if you want me to stay home--" + +"Oh, no! You are fond of society? Really, I mean? Why shouldn't you +be?--a young thing--" + +"What else is there? Of course, I should enjoy it much more if you were +always with me. Shall we never have that year in Europe together?" + +"God knows. Something is wrong with the world. It needs +reorganizing--from the top down. It is inhuman, the way even rich men +have to work--to remain rich! But sit down." + +He led her over to a chair before the window. The storm was decreasing in +violence, the heavy curtain of rain was no longer tossed, but falling in +straight intermittent lines, and the islands were coming to life. Even +the high and heavy crest of Mount Tamalpais was dimly visible. + +"It is the last of the storms, I fancy. Spring is overdue," said Price, +who, however, was covertly watching his wife's face. Her color had faded +a little, her lids drooped over eyes that stared out at the still +turbulent waters. + +"I love these San Francisco storms," she said abruptly. "I am so glad we +have these few wild months. But Mrs. Thornton has worried and so have we. +Her fête at San Mateo comes off on the fourteenth, the first +entertainment she has given since her return, and it would be ghastly if +it rained. It should be a wonderful sight--those grounds--everybody in +fancy dress with little black velvet masks. Don't you think you can go?" + +"The fourteenth? I'll try to make it. Who are you to be?" + +"Beatrice d'Este--in a court gown of black tissue instead of velvet, with +just a touch of pink--oh, but a wonderful creation! I designed it myself. +We are not bothering too much about historical accuracy." + +"How would you like this for the touch of pink!" He took the immense ruby +from his pocket and tossed it into her lap. + +For a moment she stared at it with expanding eyes, then gave a +little shriek of rapture and flung herself into his arms, the child +he had married. + +"Is it true? But true? Shall I wear this wonderful thing? The women will +die of jealousy. I shall feel like an empress--but more, more, I shall +wear this lovely thing--I, I, Hélène Ruyler, born Perrin, who never had a +franc in her pocket in Rouen! Price! Have you changed your mind--but no! +I cannot believe it." + +That was it then! He watched her mobile face sharply. It expressed +nothing but the excited rapture of a very young woman over a magnificent +toy. There was none of the morbid feverish passion he had dreadfully +anticipated. His spirits felt lighter, although he sighed that a bauble, +even if it were one of the finest of its kind in the world, should have +projected its sinister shadow between them. It had a wicked history. But +Hélène saw no shadows. She held it up to the light, peered into it as it +lay half concealed in the cup of her slender white hands, fondled it +against her cheek, hung the chain about her neck. + +"How I have dreamed of it," she murmured. "How did you come to change +your mind?" + +"I thought it a pity such a fine jewel should live forever in a safe; and +it will become you above all women. Nature must have had you in her eye +when she designed the ruby. I had a sudden vision ... and made up my mind +that you should wear it the first time I was able to take you to a party. +I must keep the letter of my promise." + +"And I can only wear it when you are with me?" + +"I am afraid so." + +"I'm you, if there is anything in the marriage ceremony." Then she kissed +him impulsively. "But I won't be a little pig. And I can tell everybody +between now and the Thornton fête that I am going to wear it, and I can +think and dream of my triumph meanwhile. But why didn't you let me know +you were down? It is Sunday, our only day. I overslept shockingly. I +didn't get home till two." + +"Two? Do you dance until two every night?" + +"What else? They lead such a purposeless life out here. We sometimes have +classes--but they don't last long. I have almost forgotten that I once +had a serious mind. But what would you? It is either society or suffrage. +I won't be as serious as that yet. I mean to be young--but young! for +five more years. Then I shall become a 'leader,' or vote for the +President, or ride on a float in a suffrage parade dressed as the Goddess +of Liberty, with my hair down." + +He laughed, more and more relieved. "Yes, please remain young until you +are twenty-five. By that time I hope the world will have adjusted itself +and I shall have the leisure to companion you. Meanwhile, be a child. It +is very refreshing to me. Come. I must lock this thing up. I have an +interview here with Spaulding in about ten minutes." + +She gave it up reluctantly, kissing it much as she had kissed him during +their engagement; warm, lingering, but almost impersonal kisses. The ruby +seemed miraculously to have restored her beaten youth. + +She sat on the edge of a chair as he opened the safe and placed the jewel +in its box and drawer. + +"There is one other thing I wanted to ask," he said as he rose. "Is your +allowance sufficient? It has sometimes occurred to me that you wanted +more--for some feminine extravagance." + +The light went out of her face. He wondered whimsically if he had locked +it in with the ruby, and once more he was conscious that something +intangible floated between them. But she looked at him squarely with her +shadowed eyes. + +"Oh, one could spend any amount, of course, but I really have +quite enough." + +"You shall have double your present allowance when these cursed times +improve. And I have always intended to settle a couple of hundred +thousand on you--a quarter of a million--as soon as I could realize +without loss on certain investments. But one day I want you to be quite +independent." + +Her eyes had opened very wide. "A quarter of a million? And it would be +all my own? I could do anything with it I liked?" + +"Well--I think I should put it in trust. I haven't much faith in the +resistance of your sex to tempting investments promising a high rate of +interest." + +"I have heard you say that when rich men die the amount of worthless +stock found in their safe deposit boxes passes belief." + +"Quite true. But that is hardly an argument in favor of trusting an even +more inexperienced sex with large sums of money." + +She laughed, but less naturally than when he had been seized with an +unwonted spasm of jealousy. "You will always get the best of me in an +argument," she said with her exquisite politeness. "Really, I think I +love being wholly dependent upon you. Here comes your detective. What +a bore. But at least we lunch together if we do have company. And +thank you, thank you a thousand times for promising I shall wear the +ruby at last." + +She slipped her hand into his for a second, then left the room, smiling +over her shoulder, as the locally celebrated "Jake" Spaulding entered. +Both Ruyler and his general manager had thought it best to have their +cashier watched. There were rumors of gambling and other road house +diversions, and they proposed to save their man to the firm, if possible; +if not, to discharge him before he followed the usual course and involved +Ruyler and Sons in the loss of thousands they could ill afford to spare. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +I + +On the following day Ruyler, who had looked upon the whirlwind of passion +that had swept him into a romantic and unworldly marriage, as likely to +remain the one brief drama of his prosaic business man's life, began +dimly to apprehend that he was hovering on the edge of a sinister and +complicated drama whose end he could as little foresee as he could escape +from the hand of Fate that was pushing him inexorably forward. When Fate +suddenly begins to take a dramatic interest in a man whose course has run +like a yacht before a strong breeze, she precipitates him toward one half +crisis after another in order to confuse his mental powers and render him +wholly a puppet for the final act. These little Earth histrionics are +arranged no doubt for the weary gods, who hardly brook a mere mortal +rising triumphantly above the malignant moods of the master playwright. + +He lunched at the Pacific Union Club and caught the down-town California +Street cable car as it passed, finding his favorite seat on the left side +of the "dummy" unoccupied. He was thinking of Hélène, a little +disappointed, but on the whole vastly relieved, congratulating himself +that, no longer haunted, he could give his mind wholly to the important +question of the merger he contemplated with a rival house that had limped +along since the disaster, but had at last manifested its willingness to +accept the offer of Ruyler and Sons. + +It was a moment before he realized that his mother-in-law occupied the +front seat across the narrow space, and even before he recognized that +large bulk, he had registered something rigid and tense in its muscles; +strained in its attitude. When he raised his eyes to the face he found +himself looking at the right cheek instead of the left, and it was +pervaded by a sickly green tint quite unlike Madame Delano's florid +color. She was listening to a man who sat just behind her on the long +seat that ran the length of the dummy. Although the day was clear, there +was still a sharp wind and no one else sat outside. + +Ruyler knew the man by sight. Before the fire he had owned some of the +most disreputable houses in the district the car would pass on its way to +the terminus. The buildings were uninsured, and he had made his living +since as a detective. Even his political breed had gone out of power in +the new San Francisco, but he was well equipped for a certain type of +detective work. He had a remarkable memory for faces and could pierce any +disguise, he was as persistent as a ferret, and his knowledge of the +underworld of San Francisco was illimitable. But his chief assets were +that he looked so little like a detective, and that, so secretive were +his methods, his calling was practically unknown. He had set up a cheap +restaurant with a gambling room behind at which the police winked, +although pretending to raid him now and again. He was a large soft man +with pendulous cheeks streaked with red, a predatory nose, and a black +overhanging mustache. His name was 'Gene Bisbee, and there was a +tradition that in his younger days he had been handsome, and irresistible +to the women who had made his fortune. + +Ruyler was absently wondering what his haughty mother-in-law could have +to say to such a man when to his amazement Bisbee planted his elbow in +the pillow of flesh just below Madame Delano's neck, and said easily: + +"Oh, come off, Marie. I'd know you if you were twenty years older and +fifty pounds heavier--and that's going some. Bimmer and two or three +others are not so sure--won't bet on it--for twenty years, and, let me +see--you weighed about a hundred and thirty-five--perfect figger--in the +old days. Must weigh two seventy-five now. That makes one forty-five +pounds extra. Well, that and time, and white hair, would change pretty +near any woman, particularly one with small features. You look a real old +lady, and you can't be mor'n forty-five. How did you manage the white +hair? Bleach?" + +Ruyler felt his heart turn over. The frozen blood pounded in his brain +and distended his own muscles, his mouth unclosed to let his breath +escape. Then he became aware that the woman had recovered herself and +moved forward, displacing the familiar elbow. She turned imperiously to +the motorman. + +"Stop at the corner," she said. "And if this man attempts to follow me +please send back a policeman. He is intoxicated." + +The car stopped at the corner of the street opposite the site of the +old Saint Mary's Cathedral, a street where once had been that row of +small and evil cottages where French women, painted, scantily dressed +in a travesty of the evening gown, called to the passer-by through the +slats of old-fashioned green shutters. That had been before Ruyler's +day, but he knew the history of the neighborhood, and this man's +interest in it. He was not surprised to hear Bisbee laugh aloud as +Madame Delano, who stepped off the car with astonishing agility, +waddled down the now respectable street. But she held her head +majestically and did not look back. + +Ruyler squared his back lest the man, glancing over, recognize him. That +would be more than he could bear. As the car reached Front Street he +sprang from the dummy and walked rapidly north to Ruyler and Sons. He +locked himself in his private office, dismissing his stenographer with +the excuse that he had important business to think out and must not be +disturbed. + + +II + +But business was forgotten. He was as nearly in a state of panic as was +possible for a man of his inheritance and ordered life. He belonged to +that class of New Yorker that looked with cold disgust upon the women of +commerce. So far as he knew he had never exchanged a word with one of +them, and had often listened with impatience to the reminiscences of his +San Francisco friends, now married and at least intermittently decent, of +the famous ladies who once had reigned in the gay night life of San +Francisco. + +And his mother-in-law! The mother of his wife! + +Her name was Marie. In that chaos of flesh an interested eye might +discover the ruins of beauty. Her hair, he knew, had been black. He +recalled the terror expressed in every line of that mountainous +figure--which may well have been perfect twenty years ago. The green +pallor of her cheek! And he had long felt, rather than knew, that she +possessed magnificent powers of bluff. Her dignified exit had been no +more convincing to him than to Bisbee. + +He went back over the past and recalled all he knew of the woman whose +daughter he had married. She had visited the United States about +twenty-one years ago, met and married Delano, and remained in San +Francisco two or three months on their way to Japan. Delano had died on +the voyage across the Pacific, been buried at sea, and his widow had +returned to her family in Rouen and settled down in her brother's +household. + +This was practically all he knew, for it was all that Hélène knew, and +Madame Delano never wasted words. It had not occurred to him to question +her. Their status in Rouen was established, and if not distinguished it +was indubitably respectable and not remotely suggestive of mystery. + +Price, convinced that Hélène's father must have been a gentleman, +recalled that he had asked her one day to tell him something of the +Delanos, but his wife had replied vaguely that she believed her +mother had been too sad to talk about him for a long while, and then +probably had got out of the habit. She knew nothing more than she +already had told him. + +It came back to him, however, that several times his wife's casual +references to the past, and particularly regarding her parents, had not +dove-tailed, but that he had dismissed the impression; attributing it to +some lapse in his own attention. He had a bad habit of listening and +thinking out a knotty business problem at the same time. And there is a +curious inhibition in loyal minds which forbids them to put two and two +together until suspicion is inescapably aroused. + +He had a very well ordered mind, furnished with innumerable little pigeon +holes, which flew open at the proper vibration from his admirable memory. +He concentrated this memory upon a little bureau of purely personal +receptacles and before long certain careless phrases of his wife stood in +a neat row. + +She had mentioned upon one occasion that she thought she must have been +about five when she arrived in Rouen, and remembered her first impression +of the Cathedral as well as the boats on the Seine at night. And Cousin +Pierre had taken her up the river one Sunday to the church on the height +which had been built for a statue of the Virgin that had been excavated +there, and bade her kneel and pray at this station for what she wished +most. She had prayed for a large wax doll that said papa and mama, and +behold, it had arrived the next day. + +Madame Delano had told him unequivocally that she had gone directly to +Rouen after her husband's death ... but again, although Hélène +remembered arriving in Rouen with her mother, she must have been left +for a time elsewhere, for Hélène had another memory--of a convent, where +she had tarried for what seemed a very long time to her childish mind. +Could she have been sent to a convent from the house in Rouen when she +was so little that her memories of that first sojourn were confused? And +why? The family had apparently been fond of "la petite Americaine," and +even if her devoted mother had been obliged to leave her for several +years it is doubtful if they would have sent so young a child to a +convent. Rack his memory as he would he could recall no allusion to such +a journey, to any separation between mother and child after they were +established in Rouen. + +But he did remember one of Madame Delano's few references to the past, +which might suggest that she had left the child somewhere while she went +home to make peace with her family to get her bearings. Her brother had +not approved of her marrying an American. "But," she had added +graciously, "you see I had no such prejudice. Neither now nor then. James +was the best of husbands." + +"James!" "Jim." + +He had heard the name Jim as he boarded the dummy, uttered in extremely +familiar accents; by Bisbee, of course. Yes, and something else. "We all +felt bad when he croaked." + +His feverishly alert memory darted to another pigeon hole and exhumed +another treasure. Some ten or twelve months ago he had been obliged to go +to a northern county on business that involved buying up smaller +concerns, and would keep him away for a fortnight or more. He had taken +Hélène, and as they were motoring through one of the old towns she had +leaned forward with a little gasp exclaiming: + +"How exactly like! If I didn't know that I had never been in California +before except merely to be born here I could vow that is where I lived +with the dear nuns." + +He had asked idly: "Where was your convent?" and she had shaken her head. +"Maman says I never was in a convent, that I dreamed it." She had lifted +to Ruyler a puzzled face. "I remember she punished me once, when I was +about seven and persisted in talking about the convent--I suppose I had +forgotten it for a time in the new life, and something brought it back to +me. But it is the most vivid memory of my childhood. Do you think I could +have been one of those uncanny children that live in a dream world? I +hope not. I like to think I am quite normal and full to the brim of +common sense." He had laughed and told her not to worry. He had lived in +a dream world himself when he was little. + +The conviction grew upon him as he sat there that Hélène had spent the +first five years of her life at the Ursuline Convent in St. Peter. What +had her mother--young and beautiful--been doing during those years, the +years of a mother's most anxious devotion and pleasurable interest? He +searched his memory for Club reminiscences of a Marie Delano of twenty +years earlier, or less. No such name rewarded his mental explorations, +and Marie Delano was not a name likely to escape. + +He exclaimed aloud at his stupidity. The astute French woman was hardly +likely to return to the scene of her former triumphs with an innocent +young daughter and an infamous name. Nor, apparently, had she carried it +to Rouen after she had manifestly foresworn vice for the sake of her +child, even to the length of resigning herself to the dullness of a +provincial town. + +But "Jim"? Her husband? Could Bisbee have referred to some other Jim who +had "croaked" recently? Such women have more than one Jim in their +voluminous lives. + +Ruyler had that order of mental temperament to which dubiety is the +one unendurable condition; he had none of that cowardice which +postpones an unpleasant solution until the inevitable moment. Whatever +this hideous mystery he would solve it as quickly as possible and then +put it out of his life. Beyond question poor Hélène was the victim of +blackmail; that was the logical explanation of her ill-concealed +anxiety--misery, no doubt! + +He wished she had had the courage to come directly to him, but it was +idle to expect the resolution of a woman of thirty in a child of twenty. +It was apparent that she had even tried to shield her mother, for that +Madame Delano had been caught unaware to-day was indisputable. + +What incredible impudence--or courage?--to return here! There were other +resorts in the South and on the Eastern Coast where a pretty girl might +reap the harvest of innocent and lovely youth. + +Once more his mind abruptly focused itself. + +Shortly after his marriage Madame Delano had asked him casually if he +could inform her as to the reliability of a certain firm of lawyers, +Lawton, Cross and Co. She "thought of buying a ranch," and the firm had +been suggested to her by some one or other of these rich people. She also +wished to make a will. + +He had replied as casually that it was a leading firm, and forgotten the +incident promptly. He recalled now that several times he had seen his +mother-in-law coming out of the Monadnock Building, where this firm had +its offices. He had upon one occasion met her in the lift and she had +explained with unaccustomed volubility that she was still thinking of +buying a ranch, possibly in Napa County. She understood that quite a +fortune might be made in fruit, and it would be a diverting interest for +her old age. Possibly she might encourage a favorite nephew to come out +and help her run it. + +Ruyler, who had been absorbed in his own affairs and hated the sight of +any woman during business hours, had felt like telling her that if she +wanted to sink her money in a ranch, that was as good a way to get rid of +it as any, but had merely nodded and left the elevator. He was not the +man to give any one unasked advice and be snubbed for his pains. + +If "Jim" was her husband and had "croaked" some two years since, what +more natural than that she had been obliged to come to California and +settle his estate? Lawton and Cross would keep her secret, as California +lawyers, with or without blackmail, had kept many others; perhaps she was +an old friend of Lawton's. He had been a "bird" in his time. + +Undoubtedly this was the solution. Otherwise she never would have risked +the return to San Francisco, even with her changed appearance. + + +III + +It was time to dismiss speculation and proceed to action. He rang up +detective headquarters and asked Jake Spaulding to come to him at once. + +Spaulding began: "But the matter ain't ripe yet, boss. Nothin' doin' +last night--" + +But Ruyler cut him short. "Please come immediately--no, not here. Meet me +at Long's." + +He left the building and walked rapidly to a well-known bar where +estimable citizens, even when impervious to the seductions of cocktail +and highball, often met in private soundproof rooms to discuss momentous +deals, or invoke the aid of detectives whose appearance in home or office +might cause the wary bird to fly away. + +The detective did not drink, so Ruyler ordered cigars, and a few moments +later Spaulding strolled in. His physical movements always belied his +nervous keen face. He was the antithesis of 'Gene Bisbee. All honest men +compelled to have dealings with him liked and trusted him. A rich man +could confide a disgraceful predicament to his keeping without fear of +blackmail, and a poor man, if his cause were interesting, might command +his services with a nominal fee. He loved the work and regarded himself +as an artist, inasmuch as he was exercising a highly cultivated gift, not +merely pursuing a lucrative profession. He sometimes longed, it is true, +for worthier objects upon which to lavish this gift, and he found them a +few years later when the world went to war. He was one of the most +valuable men in the Federal Secret Service before the end of 1915. + +"What's up?" he asked, as he took possession of the most comfortable +chair in the little room and lit a cigar. "You look as if you hadn't +slept for a week, and you were lookin' fine yesterday." + +"Do you mind if I only half confide in you? It's a delicate matter. I'd +like to ask you a few questions and may possibly ask you to find the +answer to several others." + +"Fire away. Curiosity is not my vice. I'll only call for a clean breast +if I find I can't work in the dark." + +"Thanks. Do--do you remember any woman of the town named--Marie Delano?" +He swallowed hard but brought it out. "Who may have flourished here +fifteen or twenty years ago?" + +Spaulding knew that Ruyler's wife had been named Delano, but he refrained +from whistling and fixed his sharp honest blue eyes on the opposite wall. + +"Nope. Sounds fancy enough, but she was no Queen of the Red Light +District in S.F." + +"I was convinced she could not have been known under that name. Do you +know of any woman of that sort who was married--possibly--to a man whose +first name was James--Jim--and who left abruptly, while she was still +young and handsome, just about fifteen years ago?" + +"Lord, that's a poser! Do you mean to say she married and retired--landed +some simp? They do once in a while. Could tell you queer things about +certain ancestries in this old town." + +"No--I don't think that was it. I have reason to think she had been +married for at least six years before she left. Can't you think of any +Marie who was married to a Jim--in--in that class of life?" + +"I was pretty much of a kid fifteen years ago, but I can recall quite a +few Maries and even more Jims. But the Jims were much too wary to marry +the Maries. Try it again, partner. Let us approach from another angle. +What did your Marie look like?" + +"She must have been tall--uncommonly tall--with black hair and small +features; black eyes that must have been large at that time. +I--I--believe she had a very fine figure." + +"What nationality?" + +"French." + +The detective recrossed his legs. "French. Oh, Lord! The town was fairly +overrun with them. Made you think there was nothing in all this talk +about gay Paree. All the ladybirds seemed to have taken refuge here. You +have no idea of her last name!" + +"It might have been Perrin." + +"Never. Not after she got here and set up in business. More likely +Lestrange or Delacourt--" + +"Was there a Delacourt?" + +"Not that I remember. I don't see light anywhere. Of course it won't take +me twenty-four hours to get hold of the history and appearance of every +queen who was named Marie fifteen years ago, and your description helps a +lot. Records were burned, but some of the older men on the force are +walking archives. For the matter of that you might draw out some old +codger in your club and get as much as I can give you--" + +"Rather not! I think I'll have to give you my confidence." + +"Much the shortest and straightest route. Just fancy you're takin' a +nasty dose of medicine for the good of your health. I guess this is a +case where I can't work in the dark." + +"Have you ever noticed an elderly woman, seated in the court of the +Palace Hotel--immensely stout?" + +"I should say I had. One of the sights of S.F. Why--of course--she's your +mother-in-law!" + +"Has there been any talk about her!" + +"Some comment on her size. And her childlike delight in watchin' +the show." + +"Nothing else? No one has claimed to recognize her?" + +Spaulding sat up straight, his nose pointing. "Recognize her? What +d'you mean?" + +"I mean that I overheard a conversation--one-sided--to-day on the +California Street dummy, in which Bisbee accused Madame Delano +practically of what I have told you. At least that is the way I +interpreted it. He called her Marie, alluded in an unmistakable manner to +a disgraceful past in which he had known her intimately, and was +confident that he recognized her in spite of her flesh and white hair. I +am positive that she recognized him, although she was clever enough not +to reply." + +"Jimminy! The plot thickens. That scoundrel never forgot a face in his +life. I don't train with him--not by a long sight--so if there's been any +talk in his bunch, I naturally wouldn't have heard it. You say her name +is Marie now?" + +"Yes." + +"And Perrin is her real name?" + +"She comes of a well-known family of Rouen of that name. She lived there +with her child for at least thirteen years before her return to +California. Of that I am certain. Her daughter is now twenty. I wish to +know where she kept that child during the first five years of its life. I +have reason to think it was in the Ursuline Convent at St. Peter." + +"That's easy settled. And you think the father's first name was Jim?" + +"She told me that his name was James Delano. Also that he died within the +first year of their marriage, when the child was two months old, during +the voyage to Japan. That may be, but I can see no reason for her +returning here unless he died more recently and the settlement of his +estate demanded her presence." + +"Pretty good reasoning, particularly if you are sure she stayed here +until the child was five. Some of them have pretty decent instincts. She +may have made up her mind to give the kid a chance, and returned to her +relations. Of course we must assume that they knew nothing of her life." + +"I am positive they did not. But there had been some sort of +estrangement. I have been given to understand that it was because she +married an American. Of course she may not have written to them at all +for six or seven years. Her story is that she was visiting other +relatives in a place called Holbrook Centre, Vermont, and met this man +and married him. Then that he was detained by business in San Francisco +for several months, and the child born here." + +"Good commonplace story. Just the sort that is never questioned. Of +course if she did not correspond with her family during all that time she +could adopt any name for her return to respectability that she chose. +Delano wasn't it? That's certain. What line do you intend to take? After +I've delivered the facts?" + +"My object is to have the child's legitimacy established, if possible, +then see that Madame Delano leaves California forever. I think that she +could be terrified by a threat of blackmail. I can't imagine the mere +chance of recognition worrying her, for I should say she had as much +courage as presence of mind. But her passion is money. If she thought +there was any danger of being forced to hand over what she has I fancy +she would get out as quickly as possible. She is an intelligent woman and +I imagine she has taken a sardonic pleasure in sitting out in full view +of San Francisco, and getting away with it." + +"And marrying her girl to the greatest catch in California," thought the +detective, but he said: + +"I believe you're dead right, although, of course, there may be nothing +in it. Even 'Gene Bisbee might be mistaken, pryin' a gazelle out of an +elephant like that. Now, tell me all you know." + +When Ruyler had covered every point Spaulding nodded. "It's possible this +Jim was the maquereau and she made him marry her for the sake of the +child. Doubt if the date can be proved except through the lawyers, and it +will be hard to make them talk. Of course if there is a Holbrook Centre +and she was married there--but I have my doubts. The point is that he +evidently married her if she is settlin' up his estate. I'll find out +what Jims have died within the last three years or so. That's easy. The +direct route to the one we want is through St. Peter. I'll go up +to-night." + +"And you'll report to-morrow?" + +"Yep. Meet me here at six P.M. Lucky the man seems to have died after +the fire. I'll set some one on the job of searching death records +right away." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +I + +Ruyler had half promised to go to a dinner that night at the house of +John Gwynne, whose wife would chaperon his wife afterward to the last of +the Assembly dances. + +Gwynne was his English friend who had abandoned the ancient title +inherited untimely when he was making a reputation in the House of +Commons, and become an American citizen in California, where he had a +large ranch originally the property of an American grandmother. His +migration had been justified in his own eyes by his ready adaptation to +the land of his choice and to the opportunities offered in the rebuilding +of San Francisco after the earthquake and fire, as well as in the +renovation of its politics. He had made his ranch profitable, read law as +a stepping-stone to the political career, and had just been elected to +Congress. Ruyler was one of his few intimate friends and had promised to +go to this farewell dinner if possible. A place would be kept vacant for +him until the last minute. + +Gwynne had married Isabel Otis[A], a Californian of distinguished beauty +and abilities, whose roots were deep in San Francisco, although she had +"run a ranch" in Sonoma County. The Gwynnes and the Thorntons until +Ruyler met Hélène had been the friends whose society he had sought most +in his rare hours of leisure, and he had spent many summer week-ends at +their country homes. He had hoped that the intimacy would deepen after +his marriage, but Hélène during the past year had gone almost exclusively +with the younger set, the "dancing squad"; natural enough considering her +age, but Ruyler would have expected a girl of so much intelligence, to +say nothing of her severe education, to have tired long since of that +artificial wing of society devoted solely to froth, and gravitated +naturally toward the best the city afforded. But she had appeared to like +the older women better at first than later, although she accepted their +invitations to large dinners and dances. + +[Footnote A: See "Ancestors."] + +Ruyler made up his mind to attend this dinner at Gwynne's, and telephoned +his acceptance before he left Long's. Business or no business, he should +be his wife's bodyguard hereafter. There were blackmailers in society as +out of it, and it was possible that his ubiquity would frighten them off. +Whether to demand his wife's confidence or not he was undecided. Better +let events determine. + + +II + +When he arrived at home he went directly to Hélène's room, but paused +with his hand on the knob of the door. He heard his mother-in-law's voice +and she was the last person he wished to meet until he was in a position +to tell her to leave the country. He was turning away impatiently when +Madame Delano lifted her hard incisive tones. + +"And you promised me!" she exclaimed passionately. "I trusted you, I +never believed--" + +Price retreated hurriedly to his own room, and it was not until he +had taken a cold shower and was half dressed that he permitted +himself to think. + +That wretch had known, then! It was she who had been blackmailing her +daughter. And the poor child had been afraid to confide in him, to ask +him for money. No wonder her eyes had flashed at the prospect of a +fortune of her own.... + +An even less welcome ray illuminated his mind at this point. His wife was +not unversed in the arts of dissimulation herself. True, she was French +and took naturally to diplomatic wiles; true, also, the instinct of +self-preservation in even younger members of a sex that man in his +centuries of power had made, superficially, the weaker, was rarely inert. + +What woman would wish her husband to know disgraceful ancestral secrets +which were no fault of hers? A much older woman would not be above +entombing them, if the fates were kind. But it saddened him to think that +his wife should be rushed to maturity along the devious way. Poor child, +he must win her confidence as quickly as his limping wits would permit +and shift her burden to his own shoulders. + +Having learned through the medium of the house telephone that his +mother-in-law had departed, he knocked at his wife's door. She opened it +at once and there was no mark of agitation on her little oval face under +its proudly carried crown of heavy braids. She was looking very lovely in +a severe black velvet gown whose texture and depth cunningly matched her +eyes and threw into a relief as artful the white purity of her skin and +the delicate pink of lip and cheek. + +She smiled at him brilliantly. "It can't be true that you are +going with me?" + +"I've reformed. I shall go with you everywhere from this time forth. But +I thought I heard your mother's voice when I came in--" + +"She often comes in about dressing time to see me in a new frock. How +heavenly that you will always go with me." Her voice shook a little and +she leaned over to smooth a possible wrinkle in her girdle. + +"Will you come down to the library? We are rather early." + +He went directly to the safe and took out the ruby and clasped the chain +about her neck. The chain was long and the great jewel took a deeper and +more mysterious color from the somber background of her bodice. + +Hélène gasped. "Am I to wear it to-night? That would be too wonderful. +This is the last great night in town." + +"Why not? I shall be there to mount guard. You shall always wear it when +I am able to go out with you." + +She lifted her radiant face, although it remained subtly immobile with a +new and almost formal self-possession. "I am even more delighted than I +was yesterday, for at the fête there will be so much novelty to distract +attention. You always think of the nicest possible things." + +When they were in the taxi he put his arm about her. + +"I wonder," he began gropingly, "if you would mind not going out when I +cannot go with you? I'll go as often as I can manage. There are +reasons--" + +He felt her light body grow rigid. "Reasons? You told me only +yesterday--" + +"I know. But I have been thinking it over. That is rather a fast lot you +run with. I know, of course, they are F.F.C.'s, and all the rest of it, +but if I ever drove up to the Club House in Burlingame in the morning and +saw you sitting on the veranda smoking and drinking gin fizzes--" + +"You never will! I could not swallow a gin fizz, or any nasty mixed +drink. And although I have had my cigarette after meals ever since I was +fifteen, I never smoke in public." + +"I confess I cannot see you in the picture that rose for some perverse +reason in my mind; but--well, you really are too young to go about so +much without your husband--" + +"I am always chaperoned to the large affairs. Mrs. Gwynne takes me to the +Fairmont to-night." + +"I know. But scandal is bred in the marrow of San Francisco. Its social +history is founded upon it, and it is almost a matter of principle to +replace decaying props. Do you mind so much not going about unless I can +be with you?" + +"No, of course not." Her voice was sweet and submissive, but her body did +not relax. She added graciously: "After all, there are so many luncheons, +and we often dance in the afternoon." + +He had not thought of that! What avail to guard her merely in the +evening? It was not her life that was in danger.... + +And he seemed as immeasurably far from obtaining her confidence as +before. He had always understood that the ways of matrimonial diplomacy +were strewn with pitfalls and wished that some one had opened a school +for married men before his time. + +He made another clumsy attempt. The cab was swift and had almost covered +the long distance between the Western Addition and Russian Hill. "Other +things have worried me. You are so generous. Society here as elsewhere +has its parasites, its dead beats, trying to limp along by borrowing, +gambling, 'amusing,' doing dirty work of various sorts. It has worried me +lest one or more of these creatures may have tried to impose on you with +hard luck tales--borrow--" + +She laughed hysterically. "Price, you are too funny! I do lend +occasionally--to the girls, when their allowance runs out before the +first of the month; but I don't know any dead beats." + +He plunged desperately. "Your mother's voice sounded rather agitated for +her. Of course I did not stop to listen, but it occurred to me that she +may have been gambling in stocks, or have got into some bad land deal. +She is so confoundedly close-mouthed--if she wants money send her to me." + +Hélène sat very straight. Her little aquiline profile against the passing +street lights was as aloof as imperial features on an ancient coin. + +"Really, Price, I don't think you can be as busy as you pretend if you +have time to indulge in such flights of imagination. Maman has never +tried to borrow a penny of me, and she is the last person on earth to +gamble in stocks or any thing else. Or to buy land except on expert +advice. I think she has given up that idea, anyhow. She said this evening +she thought it was time for her to visit our people in Rouen." + +"Oh, she did! Hélène, I must tell you frankly that I heard her reproach +you for having broken a promise, and she spoke with deep feeling." + +It was possible that the Roman profile turned white, but in the dusk of +the car he could not be sure. His wife, however, merely shrugged her +shoulders and replied calmly: + +"My dear Price, if that has worried you, why didn't you say so at once? I +am rather ashamed to tell you, all the same. Maman has been at me lately +to persuade you to let her have the ruby for a week. She is dreadfully +superstitious, poor maman, and is convinced it would bring her some +tremendous good fortune--" + +"I have never met a woman who, I could swear, was freer from +superstition--" + +Price closed his lips angrily. Of what use to tax her feminine defenses +further? He had known her long enough to be sure she would rather tell +the truth than lie. It was evident that she had no intention of lowering +her barriers, and he must play the game from the other end: get the proof +he needed and engineer his mother-in-law out of the United States. + +Some time, however, he would have it out with his wife. Being a business +man and always alert to outwit the other man, he wanted neither intrigue +nor mystery in his home, but a serene happiness founded upon perfect +confidence. He found it impossible to remain appalled or angry at his +wife's readiness of resource in guarding a family secret that must have +shocked the youth in her almost out of existence. + +He patted her hand, and felt its chill within the glove. + +"It was like you never to have mentioned it," he murmured. "For, of +course, it is quite impossible." + +"That is what I told her decidedly to-night, and I do not think she will +ask again. It hurts me to refuse dear maman anything. Her devotion to me +has been wonderful--but wonderful," she added on a defiant note. + +"A mother's devotion, particularly to a girl of your sort, does not make +any call upon my exclamation points. But here we are." + + * * * * * + +The car rolled up the graded driveway Gwynne had built for the old San +Francisco house that before his day had been approached by an almost +perpendicular flight of wooden steps. They were late and the company +had assembled: the Thorntons, Trennahans, and eight or ten young +people, all of whom would be chaperoned by the married women to the +dance at the Fairmont. + +Russian Hill had escaped the fire, but Nob Hill had been burnt down to +its bones, and the Thorntons and Trennahans had not rebuilt, preferring, +like many others, to live the year round in their country homes and use +the hotels in winter. + +The moment Hélène entered the drawing-room it was evident that the ruby +was to make as great a sensation as the soul of woman could desire. Even +the older people flocked about her and the girls were frank and shrill in +their astonishment and rapture. + +"Hélène! Darling! The duckiest thing--I never saw anything so perfectly +dandy and wonderful! I'd go simply mad! Do, just let me touch it! I +could eat it!" + +Mrs. Thornton, who at any time scorned to conceal envy, or pretend +indifference, looked at the great burning stone with a sigh and turned to +her husband. + +"Why didn't you manage to get it for me?" she demanded. "It would be far +more suitable--a magnificent stone like that!--on me than on that baby." + +"My darling," murmured Ford anxiously, "I never laid eyes on the thing +before, or on one like it. I'll find out where Ruyler got it, and try--" + +"Do you suppose I'd come out with a duplicate? You should have thought of +it years ago. You always promised to take me to India." + +"It should be on you!" He gazed at her adoringly. Her hair was dressed +in a high and stately fashion to-night. She wore a gown of gold brocade +and a necklace and little tiara of emeralds and diamonds; she was +looking very handsome and very regal. Thornton was a thin, dark, nervous +wisp of a man, who had borne his share of the burdens laid upon his city +in the cataclysm of 1906, but if his wife had demanded an enormous +historic ruby he would have done his best to gratify her. But how the +deuce could a man-- + +Mrs. Gwynne was holding the stone in her hand and smiling into its +flaming depths without envy. She was one of those women of dazzling white +skin, black hair and blue eyes, who, when wise, never wear any jewels but +pearls. She wore the Gwynne pearls to-night and a shimmering white gown. + +Ruyler glanced round the fine old room with the warm feeling of +satisfaction he always experienced at a San Francisco function, where the +women were almost as invariably pretty as they were gay and friendly. He +did not like the younger men he met on these occasions as well as he did +many of the older ones; the serious ones would not waste their time on +society, and there were too many of the sort who were asked everywhere +because they had made a cult of fashion, whether they could afford it or +not. A few were the sons of wealthy parents, and were more dissipated +than those obliged to "hold down" a job that provided them with money +enough above their bare living expenses to make them useful and +presentable. + +Ruyler looked upon both sorts as cumberers of the earth, and only +tolerated them in his own house when his wife gave a party and dancing +men must be had at any price. + +There was one man here to-night for whom he had always held particular +detestation. His name was Nicolas Doremus. He was a broker in a small +way, but Ruyler guessed that he made the best part of his income at +bridge, possibly poker. He lived with two other men in a handsome +apartment in one of the new buildings that were changing the old skyline +of San Francisco. His dancing teas and suppers were admirably appointed +and the most exclusive people went to them. + +Ruyler knew his history in a general way. His father had made a fortune +in "Con. Virginia" in the Seventies, and his mother for a few years had +been the social equal of the women who now patronized her son. But +unfortunately the gambling microbe settled down in Harry Doremus' veins, +and shortly after his son was born he engaged his favorite room at the +Cliff House and blew out his brains. His wife was left with a large +house, which as a last act of grace he had forborne to mortgage and made +over to her by deed. She immediately advertised for boarders, and as her +cooking was excellent and she had the wit to drop out of society and give +her undivided attention to business, she prospered exceedingly. + +She concentrated her ambitions upon her only child; sent him to a private +school patronized by the sons of the wealthy, and herself taught him +every ingratiating social art. She wanted him to go to college, but by +this time "Nick" was nineteen and as highly developed a snob as her +maternal heart had planned. Knowing that he must support himself +eventually, he was determined to begin his business career at once, and +believed, with some truth, that there was a prejudice in this broad field +against college men. He entered the brokerage firm of a bachelor who had +occupied Mrs. Doremus' best suite for fifteen years, and made a +satisfactory clerk, the while he cultivated his mother's old friends. + +When Mrs. Doremus died he sold the house and good will for a considerable +sum, and, combining it with her respectable savings, formed a partnership +with two other young fellows, whose fathers were rich, but old-fashioned +enough to insist that their sons should work. Nick did most of the work. +His partners, during the rainy season, sat with their feet on the +radiator and read the popular magazines, and in fine weather upheld the +outdoor traditions of the state. + +The firm had a slender patronage, as Ruyler happened to know, but Doremus +was a member of the Pacific Union Club, and although he dined out every +night, he must have spent six or seven thousand a year. It was amiably +assumed that his social services,--he played and sang and often +entertained exacting groups throughout an entire evening--his fetching +and carrying for one rich old lady, accounted for his ability to keep out +of debt and pay for his many extravagances; but Ruyler knew that he was +principally esteemed at the small green table, and he vaguely recalled as +he looked over his head to-night that he had heard disconnected murmurs +of less honorable sources of revenue. + +As Ruyler turned away with a frown he met Gwynne's eyes traveling from +the same direction. "I didn't ask him," he said apologetically. "Hate men +too well dressed. Looks as if he posed for tailors' ads in the weeklies. +Never could stand the social parasite anyhow, but Aileen Lawton asked +Isabel to let her bring him, as they are going to open the ball to-night +with some new kind of turkey trot. + +"Glad I'm off for Washington. California's the greatest place on earth in +the dry season, but I'd have passed few winters here if it hadn't been +for the work we all had to do, and even then it would have been heavy +going without my wife's companionship." + +Ruyler sighed. Should he ever enjoy his wife's companionship? And into +what sort of woman would she develop if forced along crooked ways by ugly +secrets, blackmail, perpetual lying and deceit? He longed impatiently for +the decisive interview with Spaulding on the morrow. Then, at least he +could prepare for action, and, after all, even of more importance now +than winning his wife's confidence and saving her from mental anguish, +was the averting of a scandal that would echo across the continent +straight into the ears of his half-reconciled father. + + +IV + +It was about halfway through dinner that the primitive man in him routed +every variety of apprehension that had tormented him since two o'clock +that afternoon. + +Trennahan, another distinguished New Yorker, who had made his home in +California for many years, had taken in Mrs. Gwynne, and his Spanish +California wife sat at the foot of the table with the host. Ford had +been given a lively girl, Aileen Lawton, to dissipate the financial +anxieties of the day, and, to Ruyler's satisfaction, Mrs. Thornton had +fallen to his lot and he sat on the left of Isabel. In this little group +at the head of the table, his chosen intimates, who were more interested +in the affairs of the world than in Consummate California, Ruyler had +forgotten his wife for a time and had not noticed with whom she had gone +in to dinner. + +But during an interval when Mrs. Thornton's attention had been captured +by the man on her right, and the others drawn into a discussion over +the merits of the new mayor, Price became aware that Doremus sat beside +his wife halfway down the table on the opposite side, and that they +were talking, if not arguing, in a low tone, oblivious for the moment +of the company. + +The deferential bend was absent from the neck of the adroit social +explorer, his head was alertly poised above the lovely young matron whose +beauty, wealth, and foreign personality, to say nothing of the importance +of her husband, gave her something of the standing of royalty in the +aristocratic little republic of San Francisco Society. There was a vague +threat in that poise, as if at any moment venom might dart down and +strike that drooping head with its crown of blue-black braids. Suddenly +Hélène lifted her eyes, full of appeal, to the round pale blue orbs that +at this moment openly expressed a cold and ruthless mind. + +Ruyler endeavored to piece together those disconnected whispers--letters +discovered or stolen--blackmail--but such whispers were too often the +whiffs from energetic but empty minds, always floating about and never +seeming to bring any culprit to book. + +Had this man got hold of his wife's secret? + +But this merely sequacious thought was promptly routed. The young man, +who was undeniably good looking and was rumored to possess a certain cold +charm for women--although, to be sure, the wary San Francisco heiress had +so far been impervious to it--was now leaning over Mrs. Price Ruyler with +a coaxing possessive air, and the appeal left Hélène's eyes as she smiled +coquettishly and began to talk with her usual animation; but still in a +tone that was little more than a murmur. + +She moved her shoulder closer to the man she evidently was bent upon +fascinating, and her long eyelashes swept up and down while her black +eyes flashed and her pink color deepened. + +There was a faint amusement mixed with Doremus' habitual air of amiable +deference, and somewhat more of assurance, but he was as absorbed as +Hélène and had no eyes for Janet Maynard, on his left, whose fortune ran +into millions. + +For a moment Ruyler, who had kept his nerve through several years of +racking strain which, even an American is seldom called upon to survive, +wondered if he were losing his mind. To business and all its fluctuations +and even abnormalities, he had been bred; there was probably no condition +possible in the world of finance and commerce which could shatter his +self-possession, cloud his mental processes. But his personal life had +been singularly free of storms. Even his emotional upheaval, when he had +fallen completely in love for the first time, had lacked that torment of +uncertainty which might have played a certain havoc, for a time, with +those quick unalterable decisions of the business hour; and even his +engagement had only lasted a month. + +It was true that during the past six months he had worried off and on +about the shadow that had fallen upon his wife's spirits and affected his +own, but, when he had had time to think of it, before yesterday morning, +he had assumed it was due to some phase of feminine psychology which he +had never mastered. That she could be interested in another man never had +crossed his mind, in spite of his passing flare of jealousy. She was +still passionately in love with, him, for all her vagaries--or so he had +thought-- + +Ruyler was conscious of a riotous confusion of mind that really made him +apprehensive. Had he witnessed that scene on the dummy--this +afternoon?--it seemed a long while ago--had he heard those portentous +words of his mother-in-law to his wife?--had they meant that she had +warned her daughter against the bad blood in her veins, extracted a +promise--broken!--to walk in the narrow way of the dutiful +wife--mercifully spared by a fortunate marriage the terrible temptations +of the older woman's youth? Had Hélène confessed ... in desperate need of +help, advice? ... Doremus was just the bounder to compromise a woman and +then blackmail her.... Good God! What _was_ it? + +For all his mental turmoil he realized that here alone was the only +possible menace to his life's happiness. His mother-in-law's past was a +bitter pill for a proud man to swallow, and there was even the +possibility of his wife's illegitimacy, but, after all, those were +matters belonging to the past, and the past quickly receded to limbo +these days. + +Even an open scandal, if some one of the offal sheets of San Francisco +got hold of the story and published it, would be forgotten in time. But +this--if his wife had fallen in love with another man--and women had no +discrimination where love was concerned--(if a decent chap got a lovely +girl it was mainly by luck; the rotters got just as good)--then indeed he +was in the midst of disaster without end. The present was chaos and the +future a blank. He'd enlist in the first war and get himself shot.... + +Hélène had a charming light coquetry, wholly French, and she exercised it +indiscriminately, much to the delight of the old beaux, for she loved to +please, to be admired; she had an innocent desire that all men should +think her quite beautiful and irresistible. Even her husband had never +seen her in an unbecoming _déshabillé_; she coquetted with him +shamelessly, whenever she was not too gloriously serious and intent only +upon making him happy. Until lately-- + +This was by no means her ordinary form. + +He had come upon too many couples in remote corners of conservatories, +had been a not unaccomplished principal in his own day ... there was, +beyond question, some deep understanding between her and this man. + +Suddenly Ruyler's gaze burned through to his wife's consciousness. She +moved her eyes to his, flushed to her hair, then for a moment looked +almost gray. But she recovered herself immediately and further showed her +remarkable powers of self-possession by turning back to her partner and +talking to him with animation instead of plunging into conversation with +the man on her right. + +At the same moment Ruyler became subtly aware that Mrs. Thornton was +looking at his wife and Doremus, and as his eyes focused he saw her long, +thin, mobile mouth curl and her eyes fill with open disdain. The mist in +his brain fled as abruptly as an inland fog out in the bay before one of +the sudden winds of the Pacific. In any case, his mind hardly could have +remained in a state of confusion for long; but that his young wife was +being openly contemned by the cleverest as well as the most powerful +woman in San Francisco was enough to restore his equilibrium in a flash. +Whatever his wife's indiscretions, it was his business to protect her +until such time as he had proof of more than indiscretion. And in this +instance he should be his own detective. + +He turned to Mrs. Thornton. + +"Going on to the Fairmont?" he asked. + +"Oh, yes, I have a new gown--have you admired it? Arrived from Paris last +night--and I am chaperoning two of these girls. You are not, of course?" + +"I did intend to, but it's no go. Still, I may drop in late and take my +wife home--" + +"Let me take her home." Was his imagination morbid, or was there +something both peremptory and eager in Mrs. Thornton's tones? "I'm +stopping at the Fairmont, of course, but Fordy and I often take a drive +after a hot night and a heavy supper." + +"If you would take her home in case I miss it. I must go to the office--" + +"I'd like to. That's settled." This time her tones were warm and +friendly. Ruyler knew that Mrs. Thornton did not like his wife, but her +friendliness toward him, since her return from Europe three or four +months ago, had increased, if anything. His mind was now working with its +accustomed keen clarity. He recalled that there had been no surprise +mixed with the contempt in her regard of his wife and Doremus.... He also +recalled that several times of late when he had met her at the +Fairmont--where he often lunched with a group of men--she had regarded +him with a curious considering glance, which he suddenly vocalized as: +"How long?" + +This affair had been going on for some time, then. Either it was common +talk, or some circumstance had enlightened Mrs. Thornton alone. + +He glanced around the table. No one appeared to be taking the slightest +notice of one of many flirtations. At least, whatever his wife's +infatuation, he could avert gossip. Mrs. Thornton might be a tigress, but +she was not a cat. + +"When do you go down to Burlingame?" she asked. + +"Not for two or three weeks yet. I don't fancy merely sleeping in the +country. But by that time things will ease up a bit and I can get down +every day in time to have a game of golf before dinner." + +"Shall Mrs. Ruyler migrate with the rest?" + +"Hardly." + +"It will be dull for her in town. No reflections on your charming +society, but of course she does not get much of it, and she will miss her +young friends. After all, she is a child and needs playmates." + +Ruyler darted at her a sharp look, but she was smiling amiably. Doremus +and the men he lived with, in town had a bungalow at Burlingame and they +bought their commutation tickets at precisely the fashionable moment. +"She will stay in town," he said shortly. "She needs a rest, and San +Francisco is the healthiest spot on earth." + +"But trying to the nerves when what we inaccurately call the trade winds +begin. Why not let her stay with me? Of course she would be lonely in her +own house, and is too young to stay there alone anyhow, but I'd like to +put her up, and you certainly could run down week-ends--possibly oftener. +American men are always obsessed with the idea that they are twice as +busy as they really are." + +"You are too good. I'll put it up to Hélène. Of course it is for her to +decide. I'd like it mighty well." But grateful as he was, his uneasiness +deepened at her evident desire to place her forces at his disposal. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +I + +"And you won't take me to the party?" Hélène pouted charmingly as her +husband laid her pink taffeta wrap over her shoulders. "I thought you +said you might make it, and it would be too delightful to dance with you +once more." + +"I'm afraid not. The Australian mail came in just as business closed and +it's on my mind. I want to go over it carefully before I dictate the +answers in the morning, and that means two or three hours of hard work +that will leave me pretty well fagged out. Mrs. Thornton has offered to +take you home." + +"I hate her." + +"Oh, please don't!" Ruyler smiled into her somber eyes. "She wants the +drive, and it would be taking the Gwynnes so far out of the way. Mrs. +Thornton very kindly suggested it." + +"I hate her," said Hélène conclusively. "I wish now I'd kept my own car. +Then I could always go home alone." + +"You shall have a car next winter. And this time I shall not permit you +to pay for it out of your allowance--which in any case I hope to increase +by that time." + +Her eyes flamed, but not with anger. "Then I'll sell my electric to +Aileen Lawton right away. We have the touring car in the country, and +she has been trying to make her father buy her an electric--" + +"I'm afraid you'll be disappointed in your bargain. Second-hand cars, no +matter what their condition, always go at a sacrifice, and old Lawton is +a notorious screw. Better not let it go for two or three hundreds; you +look very sweet driving about in it.... Oh, by the way--I had +forgotten." He slipped his hand under her coat, unfastened the chain and +slipped the jewel into his pocket. "I am sorry," he said, with real +contrition, "and almost wish I had forgotten the thing; but I am a little +superstitious about keeping that old promise." + +She laughed. "And yet you will not permit poor maman a little +superstition of her own! But I am rather glad. Everybody at the ball will +hear of the ruby, and I shall be able to keep them in suspense until the +Thornton fête. Good night. Don't work too hard. Couldn't you get there +for supper?" + +"'Fraid not." + + +II + +He did go down to the office and glance through the Australian mail, +but at a few moments before twelve he took a California Street car up +to the Fairmont Hotel and went directly to the ballroom. Mrs. +Thornton was standing just within the doorway, but came toward him +with lifted eyebrows. + +"This is like old times," she said playfully. + +"I found less mail than I expected and thought I would come and have a +dance with my wife." His eyes wandered over the large room, gayly +decorated, and filled with dancing couples. + +Mrs. Thornton laughed. "A belle like your wife? She is always engaged for +every dance on her program before she is halfway down this corridor." + +"Oh, well, husbands have some rights. I'll take it by force. I don't see +her--she must be sitting out." + +Mrs. Thornton slipped her arm through his. "This dance has just begun. +Walk me up and down. I am tired of standing on one foot." + +They strolled down the corridor and through the large central hall. Older +folks sat or stood in groups; a few young couples were sitting out. +Ruyler did not see his wife, and concluded she had been resting at the +moment in the dowager ranks against the wall of the ballroom. The music +ceased sooner than he expected and Mrs. Thornton, who had been talking +with animation on the subject of several fine pictures she had bought +while abroad for the Museum in Golden Gate Park, including one by +Masefield Price, broke off with an impatient exclamation: "Bother! I must +run up to my room at once and telephone. Wait for me here." + +She steered him toward a group of men. "Mr. Gwynne, keep Mr. Ruyler from +causing a riot in the ballroom. He insists upon dancing with his wife. +Hold him by force." + +They were standing near the staircase and some distance from the lift. +Mrs. Thornton ran up the stairs, pausing for an irresistible moment and +looking down at the company. As she stood there, poised, she looked a +royal figure with her cloth of gold train covering the steps below her +and her high and flashing head. "Wait for me," she said, imperiously to +Price. "I cannot meander down that corridor, deserted and alone." + +Ruyler smiled at her, but said to Gwynne: "I'll just go and engage my +wife for a dance and be back in a jiffy--" + +Gwynne clasped his hand about Ruyler's arm. "Just a moment, old chap. I +want your opinion--" + +"But there is the music again. I'll be knocking people over--" + +"You will if you go now, and there'll be dancing for hours yet. Your wife +has been dividing up--now, tell me if you back me in this proposition or +not. I'm going to Washington to represent you fellows--" + +But Ruyler had broken politely away and was walking down the long +corridor. When he arrived at the ballroom he saw at a glance that his +wife was not there, for the floor was only half filled. But there were +other rooms where dancers sat in couples or groups when tired. He went +hastily through all of them, but saw nothing of his wife. Nor of Doremus. + +Mrs. Thornton had gone in search of her. + +And Gwynne knew. + +This time the hot blood was pounding in his head. He felt as he imagined +madmen did when about to run amok. Or quite as primitive as any +Californian of the surging "Fifties." + +He was in one of the smaller rooms and he sat down in a corner with his +back to the few people in it and endeavored to take hold of himself; the +conventional training of several lifetimes and his own intense pride +forbade a scene in public. But his curved fingers longed for Doremus' +throat and he made up his mind that if his awful suspicions were +vindicated he would beat his wife black and blue. That was far more +sensible and manly than running whining to a divorce court. + +The effort at self-control left him gasping, but when he rose from his +shelter he was outwardly composed, and determined to seek Gwynne and +force the truth from him. He would not discuss his wife with another +woman. And whatever this hideous tragedy brooding over his life he would +go out and come to grips with it at once. + + +III + +And in the corridor he saw his wife chatting gayly with a group of young +friends. Her color was paler than usual, perhaps, but that was not +uncommon at a party, and otherwise she was as unruffled, as normal in +appearance and manner, as when they had parted at the Gwynnes'. + +Nevertheless, he went directly up to her, and as she gave a little cry of +pleased surprise, he drew her hand through his arm. "Come!" he said +imperiously. "You are to dance this with me. I broke away on purpose--" + +"But, darling, I am full up--" + +"You have skipped at least two. I have been looking everywhere for you--" + +"Polly Roberts dragged me upstairs to see the new gowns M. Dupont brought +her from Paris. They came this afternoon--so did Mrs. Thornton's--but of +course I'll dance this with you. You don't look well," she added +anxiously. "Aren't you?" + +"Quite, but rather tired--mentally. I need a dance...." + +He wondered if she had gently propelled him down the corridor. They were +some distance from the group. It was impossible for him to go back and +ask if his wife's story were true. Mrs. Thornton was nowhere to be seen, +neither in the corridor nor in the ballroom. Nor was Doremus. He set his +teeth grimly and managed to smile down upon his wife. + +"I shall insist upon having more than one," he said gallantly. "At least +three hesitations." + +She drew in her breath with a mock sigh and swept from under her long +lashes a glance that still had the power to thrill him. "Outrageous, but +I shall try to bear up," and the next moment they were giving a graceful +exhibition of the tango. + +"I don't see your friend Doremus," he said casually, as he stood fanning +her at the end of the dance. + +She lifted her eyebrows haughtily. "My friend? That parasite?" + +"You seemed very friendly at dinner." + +"I usually am with my dinner companion. One's hostess is to be +considered. Oh--I remember--he was telling me some very amusing gossip, +although he teased me into fearing he wouldn't. Now, if you are going to +dance this hesitation with me you had better whirl me off. It is Mr. +Thornton's, and I see him coming." + +Ruyler did not see Doremus until supper was half over and then the young +man entered the dining-room hurriedly, his usually serene brow lowering +and his lips set. He walked directly up to Hélène. + +"Beastly luck!" he exclaimed. "Hello, Ruyler. Didn't know you honored +parties any more. I had to break away to meet the Overland train--beastly +thing was late, of course. Then I had to take them to five hotels before +I could settle them. They had two beastly little dogs and the hotels +wouldn't take them in and they wouldn't give up the dogs. Some one ought +to set up a high-class dog hotel. Sure it would pay. But you'll give me +the first after supper, won't you?" + +Hélène gave him a casual smile that was a poor reward for his elaborate +apology. "So sorry," she said with the sweet distant manner in which she +disposed of bores and climbers, "but Mr. Ruyler and I are both tired. We +are going home directly after supper." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +I + +On the following day at six o'clock Ruyler went to Long's to meet Jake +Spaulding. By a supreme effort of will he had put his private affairs out +of his mind and concentrated on the business details which demanded the +most highly trained of his faculties. But now he felt relaxed, almost +languid, as he walked along Montgomery Street toward the rendezvous. He +met no one he knew. The historic Montgomery Street, once the center of +the city's life, was almost deserted, but half rebuilt. He could saunter +and think undisturbed. + +What was he to hear? And what bearing would it be found to have on his +wife's conduct? + +He had gone to sleep last night as sure as a man may be of anything that +his wife was no more interested in Doremus than in any other of the +young men who found time to dance attendance upon idle, bored, but +virtuous wives. + +If the man knew her secret and were endeavoring to exact blackmail he +would pay his price with joy--after thrashing him, for he would have +sacrificed the half of his fortune never to experience again not only the +demoralizing attack of jealous madness of the night before, which had +brought in its wake the uneasy doubt if civilization were as far advanced +as he had fondly imagined, but the sensation of amazed contempt which had +swept over him at the dinner table as he had seen his wife, whom he had +believed to be a woman of instinctive taste and fastidiousness, +manifestly upon intimate terms with a creature who should have been +walking on four legs. Better, perhaps, the desire to kill a woman than to +despise her-- + +He slammed the door when he entered the little room reserved for him, and +barely restrained himself from flinging his hat into a corner and +breaking a chair on the table. His languor had vanished. + +Spaulding followed him immediately. + +"Howdy," he said genially, as he pushed his own hat on the back of his +head and bit hungrily at the end of a cigar. "Suppose you've been +impatient--unless too busy to think about it." + +"I'd like to know what you've found out as quickly as you can tell me." + +"Well, to begin with the kid. I had some trouble at the convent. They're +a close-mouthed lot, nuns. But I frightened them. Told them it was a +property matter, and unless they answered my questions privately they'd +have to answer them in court. Then they came through." + +"Well?" + +Spaulding lit his cigar and handed the match to Ruyler, who ground it +under his heel. + +"Just about nineteen years ago a Frenchwoman, giving her name as Madame +Dubois, arrived one day with a child a year old and asked the nuns to +take care of it, promising a fancy payment. The child had been on a farm +with a wet-nurse (French style), but Madame Dubois wanted it to learn +from the first to speak proper English and French, and to live in a +refined atmosphere generally from the time it was able to take notice. +She said she was on the stage and had to travel, so was not able to give +the kid the attention it should have, and the doctor had told her that +traveling was bad for kids that age, anyhow. Her lawyers would pay the +baby's board on the first of every month--" + +"Who were the lawyers?" + +"Lawton and Cross." + +"I thought so. Go on." + +"The nuns, who, after all, knew their California, thought they smelt a +rat, for the woman was extraordinarily handsome, magnificently dressed; +the Mother Superior--who is a woman of the world, all right--read the +newspapers, and had never seen the name of Dubois--and knew that only +stars drew fat salaries. She asked some sharp questions about the father, +and the woman replied readily that he was a scientific man, an inventor, +and--well, it was natural, was it not? they did not get on very well. He +disliked the stage, but she had been on it before she married him, and +dullness and want of money for her own needs and her child's had driven +her back. He had lived in Los Angeles for a time, but had recently gone +East to take a high-salaried position. It was with his consent that she +asked the nuns to take the child--possibly for two or three years. When +she was a famous actress and could leave the road, she would keep house +for her husband in New York, and make a home for the child. + +"The Mother Superior, by this time, had made up her mind that the father +wished the child removed from the mother's influence, and although she +took the whole yarn with a bag of salt, the child was the most beautiful +she had ever seen, and obviously healthy and amiable. Moreover, the +convent was to receive two hundred dollars a month--" + +"What?" + +"Exactly. Can you beat it? The Mother Superior made up her mind it was +her duty to bring up the little thing in the way it should go. As the +woman was leaving she said something about a possible reconciliation with +her family, who lived in France; they had not written her since she went +on the stage. They were of a respectability!--of the old tradition! But +if they came round she might take the child to them, if her husband would +consent. She should like it to be brought up in France-- + +"Here the Mother Superior interrupted her sharply. Was her husband a +Frenchman? And she answered, no doubt before she thought, for these +people always forget something, that no, he was an American--her family, +also, detested Americans. The Mother Superior once more interrupted her +glibness. How, then, did he have a French name? Oh, but that was her +stage name--she always went by it and had given it without thinking. What +was her husband's name? After a second's hesitation she stupidly give the +name Smith. I can see the mouth of the Mother Superior as it set in a +grim line. 'Very well,' said she, 'the child's name is Hélène Smith'; and +although the woman made a wry face she was forced to submit. + +"The child remained there four years, and the Mother Superior had some +reason to believe that 'Madame Dubois' spent a good part of that time in +San Francisco. She came at irregular intervals to see the child--always +in vacation, when there were no pupils in the convent, and always at +night. The Mother Superior, however, thought it best to make no +investigations, for the child throve, they were all daffy about her, and +the money came promptly on the first of every month. When the mother came +she always brought a trunk full of fine underclothes, and left the money +for a new uniform. Then, one day, Madame Dubois arrived in widow's weeds, +said that her husband was dead, leaving her quite well off, and that she +was returning to France." + +"And Madame Delano's story is that he died on the way to Japan--if it is +the same woman--" + +"Haven't a doubt of it myself. I did a little cabling before I left last +night to a man I know in Paris to find out just when Madame Delano +returned with her child to live with her family in Rouen. He got busy and +here is his answer--just fifteen years ago almost to the minute." + +"Then who was her husband?" + +"There you've got me--so far. He was no 'scientist, who later accepted +a high-salaried position.' A decent chap of that sort would have +written to his child, paid her board himself, most likely taken it away +from the mother--" + +"But she may have kidnapped it--" + +"People are too easy traced in this State--especially that sort. Nor do +I believe she was an actress. There never was any actress of that +name--not so you'd notice it, anyhow, and that woman would have been +known for her looks and height even if she couldn't act. Moreover, if +she was an actress there would be no sense in giving the nuns a false +name, since she had admitted the fact. No, it's my guess that she was +something worse." + +"Well, I've prepared myself for anything." + +"I figure out that she was the mistress of one of our rich highfliers, +and that when he got tired of her he pensioned her off, and she made up +her mind to reform on account of the kid, and went back to Rouen, and +proceeded to identify herself with her class by growing old and shapeless +as quickly as possible. She must have adopted the name Delano in New York +before she bought her steamer ticket, for although I've had a man on the +hunt, the only Delanos of that time were eminently respectable--" + +"Why are you sure she was not a--well--woman of the town?" + +"Because, there again--there's no dame of that time either of that name +or looks--neither Dubois nor Delano. Of course, they come and go, but +there's every reason to think she stayed right on here in S.F. Of +course, I've only had twenty-four hours--I'll find out in another +twenty-four just what conspicuous women of fifteen to twenty years ago +measure up to what she must have looked like--I got the Mother Superior +to describe her minutely: nearly six feet, clear dark skin with a +natural red color--no make-up; very small features, but well made--nose +and mouth I'm talking about. The eyes were a good size, very black with +rather thin eyelashes. Lots of black hair. Stunning figure. Rather large +ears and hands and feet. She always dressed in black, the handsomest +sort. They generally do." + +"Well?" asked Ruyler through his teeth. He had no doubt the woman was his +mother-in-law. "The Jameses? What of them?" + +"That's the snag. Rest is easy in comparison. Innumerable Jameses must +have died about that time, to say nothing of all the way along the line, +but while some of the records were saved in 1906, most went up in smoke. +Moreover, there's just the chance that he didn't die here. But that's +going on the supposition that the man died when she left California, +which don't fit our theory. I still think he died not so very long before +her return to California, and that she probably came to collect a legacy +he had left her. Otherwise, I should think it's about the last place she +would have come to. I put a man on the job before I left of collecting +the Jameses who've died since the fire. Here they are." + +He took a list from his pocket and read: + +"James Hogg, bookkeeper--races, of course. James Fowler, saloon-keeper. +James Despard, called 'Frenchy,' a clever crook who lived on +blackmail--said to have a gift for getting hold of secrets of men and +women in high society and squeezing them good and plenty--" + +He paused. "Of course, that might be the man. There are points. I'll have +his life looked into, but somehow I don't believe it. I have a hunch the +man was a higher-up. The sort of woman the Mother Superior described can +get the best, and they take it. To proceed: James Dillingworth, lawyer, +died in the odor of sanctity, but you never can tell; I'll have him +investigated, too. James Maston--I haven't had time to have had the +private lives of any of these men looked into, but I knew some of them, +and Maston, who was a journalist, left a wife and three children and was +little, if any, over thirty. James Cobham, broker--he was getting on to +fifty, left about a million, came near being indicted during the Graft +Prosecutions, and although his wife has been in the newspapers as a +society leader for the last twenty years, and he was one of the founders +of Burlingame, and then was active in changing the name of the high part +to Hillsboro when the swells felt they couldn't be identified with the +village any longer, and he handed out wads the first of every year to +charity, there are stories that he came near being divorced by his +haughty wife about fifteen years ago. Of course, those men don't parade +their mistresses openly like they did thirty years ago--I mean men with +any social position to keep up. But now and again the wife finds a note, +or receives an anonymous letter, and gets busy. Then it's the divorce +court, unless he can smooth her down, and promises reform. Cobham seems +to me the likeliest man, and I'm going to start a thorough investigation +to-morrow. These other Jameses don't hold out any promise at +all--grocers, clerks, butchers. It's the list in hand I'll go by, and if +nothing pans out--well, we'll have to take the other cue she threw out +and try Los Angeles." + +"Do you know anything about a man named Nicolas Doremus?" asked +Ruyler abruptly. + +"The society chap? Nothing much except that he don't do much business on +the street but is supposed to be pretty lucky at poker and bridge. But he +runs with the crowd the police can't or don't raid. I've never seen or +heard of him anywhere he shouldn't be except with swell slumming or +roadhouse parties. He's never interested me. If Society can stand that +sort of bloodsucking tailor's model, I guess I can. Why do you ask? Got +anything to do with this case?" + +"I have an idea he has found out the truth and is blackmailing my wife. +You might watch him." + +"Good point. I will. And if he's found out the truth I guess I can." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +I + +Hélène, as Ruyler had anticipated, refused positively to accept Mrs. +Thornton's invitation. + +"Do you think I'd leave you--to come home to a dreary house every night? +Even if I don't see much of you, at least you know I'm there; and that if +you have an evening off you have only to say the word and I'll break any +engagement--you have always known that!" + +Ruyler had not, but she looked so eager and sweet--she was lunching with +him at the Palace Hotel on the day following his interview with +Spaulding--that he hastened to assure her affectionately that the +certainty of his wife's desire for his constant companionship was both +his torment and his consolation. + +Hélène continued radiantly: + +"Besides, darling, Polly Roberts is staying on. Rex can't get away yet." + +"Polly Roberts is not nearly good enough for you. She hasn't an idea in +her head and lives on excitement--" + +Hélène laughed merrily. "You are quite right, but there's no harm in her. +After all, unless one goes in for charities (and I can't, Price, yet; +besides the charities here are wonderfully looked after), plays bridge, +has babies, takes on suffrage--what is there to do but play? I suppose +once life was serious for young women of our class; but we just get into +the habit of doing nothing because there's nothing to do. Take to-morrow +as an example: I suppose Polly and I will wander down to The Louvre in +the morning and buy something or look at the new gowns M. Dupont has just +brought from Paris. + +"Then we'll lunch where there's lots of life and everybody is chatting +gayly about nothing. + +"Then we'll go to the Moving Pictures unless there is a matinée, and then +we'll motor out to the Boulevard, and then back and have tea somewhere. + +"Or, perhaps, we'll motor down to the Club at Burlingame for lunch and +chatter away the day on the veranda, or dance. This afternoon we'll +probably ring up a few that are still in town, and dance in Polly's +parlor at the Fairmont." + +Hélène's lip curled, her voice had risen. With, all her young enjoyment +of wealth and position, she had been bred in a class where to idle is a +crime. "Just putting in time--time that ought to be as precious as +youth and high spirits and ease and popularity! But what is one to do? +I have no talents, and I'd lose caste in my set if I had. I don't +wonder the Socialists hate us and want to put us all to work. No doubt +we should be much happier. But now--even if you retired from business, +you'd spend most of your time on the links. We poor women wouldn't be +much better off." + +"It does seem an abnormal state of affairs; I've barely given it a +thought, it has always been such a pleasure to find you, after a hard +day's work, looking invariably dainty, and pretty, and eloquently +suggestive of leisure and repose. But--to the student of history--I +suppose it is a condition that cannot last. There must be some sort of +upheaval due. Well, I hope it will give me more of your society." + +They smiled at each other across the little table in perfect confidence. +They were lunching in the court, and after she had blown him a kiss over +her glass of red wine, her eyes happened to travel in the direction of +the large dining-room. She gave a little exclamation of distaste. + +"There is maman lunching with that hateful old Mr. Lawton. He was in her +sitting-room when I ran in to call on her yesterday, and nearly snapped +my head off when I asked him if he wouldn't buy my electric for Aileen. +He said it was time she began to learn a few economies instead of more +extravagances. Poor darling Aileen. She has to stay in town, too, for he +won't open the house in Atherton until he is ready to go down himself +every night." + +"Is he an old friend of your mother's?" + +"She and Papa met him when they were here, and Mrs. Lawton was very kind +when I was born. It's too bad Mrs. Lawton's dead. She'd be a nice friend +for maman." + +"Perhaps your mother is asking Mr. Lawton's advice about the investment +of money." + +He had been observing his wife closely, but it was more and more apparent +that if Mr. Lawton held the key to her mother's past she had not been +informed of the fact. She answered indifferently: + +"Possibly. One can get much higher interest out here than in France, and +maman would never invest money without the best advice. She loves me, but +money next. Oh, là! là!" + +"Has she said anything more about going back to Rouen?" + +"I didn't have a word with her alone yesterday, but I'll ask her to-day. +Poor maman! I fancy the novelty has worn off here, and she would really +be happier with her own people and customs. She hates traveling, like all +the French; but don't you think that, after a bit we shall be able to go +over to Europe at least once a year?" + +"I am sure of it. And while I am attending to business in London you +could visit your mother in Rouen. Tell her that one way or another I'll +manage it." + +And this seemed to him an ideal arrangement! + + +II + +When they left the table and walked through the more luxurious part of +the court, they saw Madame Delano alone and enthroned as usual in the +largest but most upright of the armchairs. And as ever she watched under +her fat drooping eyelids the passing throng of smartly dressed women, +hurrying men, sauntering, staring tourists. Here and there under the +palms sat small groups of men, leaning forward, talking in low earnest +tones, their faces, whether of the keen, narrow, nervous, or of the +fleshy, heavy, square-jawed, unimaginative, aggressive, ruthless type, +equally expressing that intense concentration of mind which later would +make their luncheon a living torment. + +Hélène threw herself into a chair beside her mother and fondled her hand. +Ruyler noted that after Madame Delano's surprised smile of welcome she +darted a keen glance of apprehension from one to the other, and her tight +little mouth relaxed uncontrollably in its supporting walls of flesh. But +she lowered her lids immediately and looked approvingly at her daughter, +who in her new gown of gray, with gray hat and gloves and shoes, was a +dainty and refreshing picture of Spring. Then she looked at Ruyler with +what he fancied was an expression of relief. + +"I wonder you do not do this oftener," she said. + +"I never know until the last moment when or where I shall be able to take +lunch, and then I often have to meet three or four men. Such is life in +the city of your adoption." + +"There is no city in the world where women are so abominably idle and +useless!" And at the moment, whatever Madame Delano may have been, her +voice and mien were those of a virtuous and outraged bourgeoisie. "You +are all very well, Ruyler, but if I had known what the life of a rich +young woman was in this town, I'd have married Hélène to a serious young +man of her own class in Rouen; a husband who would have given her +companionship in a normal civilized life, who would have taken care of +her as every young wife should be taken care of, and who would have +insisted upon at least two children as a matter of course. With us The +Family is a religion. Here it is an incident where it is not an +accident." + +Ruyler, who was still standing, looked down at his mother-in-law with +profound interest. He had never heard her express herself at such length +before. "Do you think I fail as a husband?" he asked humbly. "God knows +I'd like to give my wife about two-thirds of my time, but at least I have +perfect confidence in her. I should soon cease to care for a wife I was +obliged to watch." + +"Young things are young things." Madame Delano looked at Hélène, who had +turned very white and had lowered her own lids to hide the consternation +in her eyes. But as her mother ceased speaking she raised them in swift +appeal to Ruyler. + +"Maman says I coquette too much," she said plaintively, and Price +wondered if a slight movement under the hem of Madame Delano's long +skirts meant that the toe of a little gray shoe were boring into one of +the massive plinths of his mother-in-law. "But tell him, maman, that you +don't really mean it. I can't have Price jealous. That would be too +humiliating. I'm afraid I do flirt as naturally as I breathe, but Price +knows I haven't a thought for a man on earth but him." The color had +crept back into her cheeks, but there was still anxiety in her soft black +eyes, and Price was sure that the little pointed toe once more made its +peremptory appeal. + +Madame Delano looked squarely at her son-in-law. + +"That's all right--so far," she said grimly. "Hélène is devoted to +you. But so have many other young wives been to busy American husbands. +Now, take my advice, and give her more of your companionship before it +is too late. _Watch over her_. There always comes a time--a +turning-point--European husbands understand, but American husbands are +fools. Woman's loyalty, fed on hope only, turns to resentment; and then +her separate life begins. Now, I've warned you. Go back to your office, +where, no doubt, your clerks are hanging out of the windows, wondering if +you are dead and the business wrecked. I want to talk to Hélène." + + +III + +In spite of his wise old French mother-in-law's insinuations, Ruyler felt +lighter of heart as he left the hotel and walked toward his office than +he had since Sunday. Of two things he was certain: there was no ugly +understanding between the mother and daughter over that unspeakable past, +and Madame Delano's new attitude toward her daughter was merely the +result of an over-sophisticated mother's apprehensions: those of a woman +who was looking in upon smart society for the first time and found it +alarming, and--unwelcome, but inevitable thought--peculiarly dangerous to +a young and beautiful creature with wild and lawless blood in her veins. + +However, it was patent that so far her apprehensions were merely the +result of a rare imaginative flight, the result, no doubt, of her own +threatened exposure. Once more he admired her courage in returning to San +Francisco, and as he recalled the covert air of cynical triumph, with +which she had accepted his offer for her daughter's hand, he made no +doubt that one object had been to play a sardonic joke on the city she +must hate. + +He renewed his determination to keep what guard he could over his young +wife, and wondered if his brother Harold, who also had elected to enter +the old firm, could not be induced to come out and take over a certain +share of the responsibility. The young man had paid him a visit a year +ago and been enraptured with life in California. + +True, he was accustomed to make quick decisions without consulting any +one, and he should find a partner irksome, but he was beginning to +realize acutely that business, even to an American brain, packed with its +traditions and energies, was not even the half of life, should be a means +not an end; he set his teeth as he walked rapidly along Montgomery Street +and vowed that he would keep his domestic happiness if he had to retire +on what was available of his own fortune. He even wondered if it would +not be wise to buy a fruit ranch, where he and Hélène could share equally +in the management, and begin at once to raise a family. They both loved +outdoor life, and this life of complete frivolity, in which she seemed to +be hopelessly enmeshed, might before long corrode her nature and blast +the mental aspirations that still survived in that untended soil. When +this great merging deal was over he should be free to decide. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +I + +He arrived at home on the following afternoon at six and was +immediately rung up by Spaulding, who demanded an interview. It was not +worth while going down town again, as Hélène was out and would no doubt +return only in time to dress for dinner. They were to dine at half-past +seven and go to the play afterward. He told Spaulding to take a taxi +and come to the house. + +Nothing had occurred meanwhile to cause him anxiety. He had taken Hélène +out to the Cliff House to dinner the night before, and afterward to see +the road-houses, whose dancing is so painfully proper early in the +evening. Polly Roberts had come into the most notorious of them at +eleven, chaperoning a party, which included Aileen Lawton, a girl as +restless and avid of excitement as herself. Rex Roberts and several other +young men had been in attendance, and Polly had begged Ruyler to stay on +and let his wife see something of "real life." + +"This is one of the sights of the world, you know," she said, puffing her +cigarette smoke into his face. "It's _too_ middle-class to be shocked, +and not to see occasionally what you really cannot get anywhere else. +Why, there'll even be a lot of tourists here later on, and these dancers +don't do the real Apache until about one. At least leave Hélène with me, +if you care more for bed than fun." + +But Ruyler had merely laughed and taken his wife home. Hélène had made +no protest; on the contrary had put her arm through his in the car and +her head on his shoulder, vowing she was worn out, and glad to go home. +It was only afterward that it occurred to him that she had clung to him +that night. + +Spaulding entered the library without taking off his hat, and chewing a +toothpick vigorously. He began to talk at once, stretching himself out in +a Morris chair, and accepting a cigar. This time Price smoked with him. + +"Well," said the detective, "it's like the game of button, button, who's +got the button? Sometimes I think I'm getting a little warmer and then I +go stone cold. But I've found out a few things, anyhow. How tall should +you say Madame Delano is? I've only seen her sitting on her throne there +in the Palace Court lookin' like an old Sphinx that's havin' a laugh all +to herself." + +"About five feet ten." + +"The Mother Superior said six feet, but no doubt when she had figger +instead of flesh she looked taller. Well, I've discovered no less than +five tall handsome brunettes that sparkled here in the late Eighties and +early Nineties, but it's the deuce and all to get an exact description +out of anybody, especially when quite a few years have elapsed. Most +people don't see details, only effects. That's what we detectives come up +against all the time. So, whether these ladies were five feet eight, five +feet ten, or six feet, whether they had large features or small, big +hands and feet or fine points, or whether they added on all the inches +they yearned for by means of high heels or style, is beyond me. But here +they are." + +He took his neat little note-book from his pocket and was about to read +it, when Ruyler interrupted him. + +"But surely you know whether these women were French or not?" + +"Aw, that's just what you can't always find out. Lots of 'em pretend to +be, and others--if they come from good stock in the old country--want you +to forget it. But the queens generally run to French names, as havin' a +better commercial value than Mary Jane or Ann Maria. One of these was +Marie Garnett, who wasn't much on her own but spun the wheel in Jim's +joint down on Barbary Coast, which was raided just so often for form's +sake. She always made a quick getaway, was never up in court, and died +young. Gabrielle ran an establishment down on Geary Street and was one of +the swellest lookers and swellest togged dames in her profession till the +drink got her. I can't find that she ever hooked up to a James or any one +else. Pauline-Marie was another razzle-dazzle who swooped out here from +nowhere and burrowed into quite a few fortunes and put quite a few of our +society leaders into mourning. She disappeared and I can't trace her, but +she seems to have been the handsomest of the bunch, and was fond of +showing herself at first nights, dressed straight from Paris, until some +of our war-hardened 'leaders' called upon the managers in a body and +threatened never to set foot inside their doors again unless she was kept +out, and the managers succumbed. Then there was the friend of a rich +Englishman, whose first name I haven't been able to get hold of. They +lived first at Santa Barbara, then loafed up and down the coast for a +year or two, spending quite a time in San Francisco. She was 'foreign +looking' and a stunner, all right. All of these dames drifted out about +the same time--" + +"What was the Englishman's name?" + +"J. Horace Medford. Front name may or may not have been James. I doubt if +his name could be found on any deeds, even in the south, where there was +no fire. He doesn't seem to have bought any property or transacted any +business. Just lived on a good-sized income. Of course, all the hotel +registers here were burnt, but I wired to Santa Barbara and Monterey and +got what I have given you. + +"He had a yacht, and he took the woman with him everywhere. There was +always a flutter when they appeared at the theater. Of course she went by +his name, but as he never presented a letter all the time he was here and +it was quite obvious he could have brought all he wanted, and as men are +always 'on' anyhow, there was but one conclusion." + +"Where did he bank? They might have his full name." + +"Bank of California, but his remittances were sent to order of J. Horace +Medford, and, of course, he signed his cheques the same way." + +"That sounds the most likely of the lot--and the most hopeful." + +"Well, haven't handed you the fifth yet, and to my mind she's the most +likely of all. Ever hear of James Lawton's trouble with his wife?" + +"Trouble? I thought she died." + +"She--did--not. She went East suddenly about fifteen years ago, and soon +after a notice of her death appeared in the San Francisco papers. But +there was a tale of woe (for old Lawton) that I doubt if most of her own +crowd had even a suspicion of." + +"Good heavens!" Ruyler recalled the apparent intimacy of his +mother-in-law and the senior member of the respectable firm of Lawton and +Cross. If "Madame Delano" were the former Mrs. Lawton, how many things +would be explained. + +"This woman's name was Marie all right, and she was French, although she +seems to have been adopted by some people named Dubois and brought up in +California. She was quite the proper thing in high society, but the +trouble was that she liked another sort better. She was a regular +fly-by-night. It began when Norton Moore, a rotten limb of one of the +grandest trees in San Francisco Society--so respectable they didn't know +there was any side to life but their own--sneaked Mrs. Lawton and three +girls out of his mother's house one night when she was givin' a ball, put +'em in a hack and took 'em down to Gabrielle's. There they spent an hour +lookin' at Gabrielle's swell bunch dressed up and doin' the grand society +act with some of the men-about-town. Then they danced some and opened a +bottle or two. + +"I never heard that this little jaunt hurt the girls any, but it woke up +something in Mrs. Lawton. After that--well, there are stories without +end. Won't take up your time tellin' them. The upshot was that one night +Lawton, who took a fling himself once in a while, met her at Gabrielle's +or some other joint, and she went East a day or two after. I suppose he +didn't get a divorce, partly on account of the kid--Aileen--partly +because he had no intention of trying his luck again." + +"But is there any evidence that she had another child--that she +hid away?" + +"No, but it might easy have been. This life went on for about eight +years, and it was at least five that she and Lawton merely lived under +the same roof for the sake of Aileen. They never did get on. That much, +at least, was well known. It might easy be--" + +Ruyler made a rapid calculation. Aileen Lawton was just about three years +older than Hélène. She was fair like her father. There was no resemblance +between her and his wife, but the intimacy between them had been +spontaneous and had never lapsed. She had grown up quite unrestrained and +spoilt, and broken three engagements, and was always rushing about +proclaiming in one breath, that California was the greatest place on +earth and in the next that she should go mad if she didn't get out and +have a change. Another grievance was that although her father let her +have her own way, or rather did not pretend to control her, he gave her a +rather niggardly allowance for her personal expenses and she was supposed +to be heavily in debt. Ruyler thought he could guess where a good deal of +his wife's spare cash had gone to. He disliked Aileen Lawton as much as +he did Polly Roberts; more, if anything, because she might have been +clever and she chose to be a fool. Both of these intimate friends of his +wife were the reverse of the superb outdoor type he admired. + +"Good Lord!" he said. "I don't think there's much choice." + +But in a moment he shook his head. "Too many things don't connect. Where +did she get the money to go to her relations in Rouen--" + +"He pensioned her off, of course." + +"And the child? How did he consent to let her return here with a daughter +he probably never had heard of--" + +"I figger out, either that she came into some money from a relation over +in France, or else she has something on the old boy, and wanting to come +back here and marry her daughter, she held him up. He's a pillar of the +church, been one of the Presidents of the Pacific-Union Club, has argued +cases before the Supreme Court that have been cabled all over the +country. When a man of that sort gets to Lawton's time of life he don't +want any scandals." + +"All the same," said Ruyler positively, "I don't believe it. I think it +far more likely that he was a friend of Madame Delano's husband--assuming +that she had one--and that some money was left with him in trust for her +or the child." + +"Well, it may be, but I incline to Lawton--" + +"There's one person would know--" + +"'Gene Bisbee. But I never went to that bunch yet for any information, +and I don't go this time except as a last resort. Of course he knows, and +that is one reason I believe she is Mrs. Lawton. He was Gabrielle's +maquereau for years--when he'd wrung enough out of her he set up for +himself--Well, I ain't through yet, by a long sight. Beliefs ain't +proof." He rose slowly from the deep chair, stretched himself, and +settled his hat firmly on his head. + +"What's this I hear about a wonderful ruby your wife wore up to Gwynne's +the other night? Gosh! I'd like to see a sparkler like that." + +"Why, by all means." + +Ruyler swung the bookcase outward, opened the safe and handed him the +ruby. Spaulding regarded it with bulging eyes, and touched it with his +finger tips much as he would a newborn babe. "Some stone!" he said, as he +handed it back, "but why in thunder don't you keep it in a safe deposit +box? There are crooks that can crack any safe, and if they got wise to +this--oh, howdy, ma'am--" + +Hélène had come in and stood behind the two men. + +Spaulding snatched off his hat and she acknowledged her husband's +introduction graciously. She was dressed for the evening in white. Her +eyes looked abnormally large, and she kept dropping her lids as if to +keep them from setting in a stare. Her lovely mouth with its soft curves +was faded and set. The whole face was almost as stiff as a mask, and even +her graceful body was rigid. Ruyler saw Spaulding give her a sharp +"sizing-up" look, as he murmured, + +"Well, so long, Guv. See you to-morrow. Hope the man'll turn out all +right after all." + +"I hope so. He's a good chap otherwise." + +"Good night, ma'am. Tell your husband to put that ruby in a safe +deposit box." + +"Oh, nobody knows the safe is there except Mr. Ruyler and myself--" + +"There have been safes hidden behind bookcases before," said Spaulding +dryly. "And crooks, like all the other pests of the earth, just drift +naturally to this coast. If I were you I'd have a detective on hand +whenever you wear that bit o' glass--not at a friendly affair like the +Gwynnes' dinner, of course, but--" + +"Good idea!" exclaimed Ruyler. "My wife will wear the ruby to the +Thornton fête on the fourteenth. Will you be on hand to guard it?" + +"Won't I? About half our force is engaged for that blow-out, but no one +but yours truly shall be guardian angel for the ruby. Well, good night +once more, and good luck." + + * * * * * + +As soon as the detective had gone Ruyler drew his wife to him anxiously, +"What is it, Hélène? You look--well, you don't look yourself!" + +"I have a headache," she said irritably. "Perhaps I'm developing nerves. +I do wish you would take me to New York. Other women get away from this +town once in a while." + +"But you told me on Sunday that you adored California, that it was like +fairy land--" + +"Oh, all the women out here bluff themselves and everybody else just +so long and then suddenly go to pieces. It's a wonderful state, but +what a life! What a life! Surely I was made for something better. I +don't wonder--" + +"What?" he asked sharply. + +"Oh, nothing. I feel ungrateful, of course. I really should be quite +happy. Think if I had to go back to Rouen to live--after this taste of +freedom, and beauty--for California has all the beauties of youth as well +as its idiocies and vices--" + +"There is not the remotest danger of your ever being obliged to live in +Rouen again--" + +"Oh, I don't know. You might get tired of me. We might fight like cat and +dog for want of common interests, of something to talk about. You would +never take to drink like so many of the men, but I might--well, I'm glad +dinner is ready at last." + +But she played with her food. That she was repressing an intense and +mounting excitement Ruyler did not doubt, and he also suspected that she +wished to broach some particular subject from which she turned in panic. +They were alone after coffee had been served, and he said abruptly: + +"What is it, Hélène? Do you want money? I have an idea that Polly Roberts +and Aileen Lawton borrow heavily from you, and that they may have cleaned +you out completely on the first--" + +"How dear of you to guess--or rather to get so close. It's worse than +that. I--that is--well--poor Polly went quite mad over a pearl necklace +at Shreve's and they told her to take it and wear it for a few days, +thinking, I suppose, she would never give it up and would get the money +somehow. She--oh, it's too dreadful--she lost it--and she dares not tell +Rex--he's lost quite a lot of money lately--and she's mad with +fright--and I told her--" + +"Where did she lose it? It's not easy to lose a necklace, especially when +the clasp is new." + +"She thinks it was stolen from her neck at the theater--you heard what +that man said." + +"Ah! What was the price of the necklace?" + +"Twenty thousand dollars. The pearls weren't so very large, of course, +but Polly never had had a pearl necklace--" + +"I'll let her have the money to pay for it on one condition--that it is a +transaction, between Roberts and myself--" + +"No! No! Not for anything!" + +"I've lent him money before--" + +"But he'd never forgive Polly. He--he's one of those men who make an +awful fuss on the first of every month when his wife's bills come in." + +"There must be a bass chorus on the first of every month in San +Francisco--" + +"Oh, please don't jest. She must have this money." + +"She may have it--on those terms. I'll have no business dealings with +women of the Polly Roberts sort. That would be the last I'd ever see of +the twenty thousand--" + +"I never thought you were stingy!" + +Ruyler, in spite of his tearing anxiety, laughed outright. "Is that your +idea of how the indulgent American husband becomes rich?" + +"Oh--of course I wouldn't have you lose such a sum. I really have learned +the value of money in the abstract, although I can't care for it as much +as men do." + +"I have no great love of money, but there is a certain difference between +a miser and a levelheaded business man--" + +"Price, I must have that money. Polly--oh, I am afraid she will +kill herself!" + +"Not she. A more selfish little beast never breathed. She'll squeeze the +money out of some one, never fear! But I think I'll lock up your jewels +in case you are tempted to raise money on them for her--Darling!" + +Hélène, without a sound, had fainted. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +They had intended to go to the theater but Ruyler put her to bed at +once. He offered to read to her, but she turned her back on him with +cold disdain, and he went to the little invisible cupboard where she +kept her own jewels and took out the heavy gold box which had been the +wedding present of one of his California business friends who owned a +quartz mine. + +"I shall put this in the safe," he said incisively, "for, while I admire +your stanchness in friendship, even for such an unworthy object as Polly +Roberts, I do not propose that my wife shall be selling or pawning her +jewels for any reason whatever. Think over the proposal I made +downstairs. If Polly is willing I'll lend Roberts the money to-morrow." + +She had thrown an arm over her face and she made no reply. He went down +stairs and put the box in the safe. It occurred to him that she had +watched him open and close the safe several times but she certainly never +had written the combination down, and it had taken him a long while to +commit it to memory himself. + +He had glanced over the contents of the box before he locked it in. The +jewels were all there, the string of pearls that he had given her on +their marriage day, a few wedding presents, and several rings and +trinkets he had bought for her since. The value was perhaps twenty +thousand dollars, for he had told her that she must wait several years +before he could give her the jewels of a great lady. When she was thirty, +and really needed them to make up for fading charms--it had been one of +their pleasant little jokes. + +As Ruyler set the combination he sighed and wondered whether their days +of joking were over. Their life had suddenly shot out of focus and it +would require all his ingenuity and patience, aided by friendly +circumstance, to swing it into line again. He did not believe a word of +the necklace story. Somebody was blackmailing the poor child. If he could +only find out who! He made up his mind suddenly to put this problem also +in the hands of Spaulding for solution. The question of his +mother-in-law's antecedents was important enough, but that of his wife's +happiness and his own was paramount. + +He decided to go to the theater himself, for he was in no condition for +sleep or the society of men at the club, nor could any book hold his +attention. He prayed that the play would be reasonably diverting. + +He walked down town and as he entered the lobby of the Columbia at the +close of the first act he saw 'Gene Bisbee and D.V. Bimmer, who was now +managing a hotel in San Francisco, standing together. He also saw Bisbee +nudge Bimmer, and they both stared at him openly, the famous hotel man +with some sympathy in his wise secretive eyes, the reformed peer of the +underworld with a certain speculative contempt. + +Ruyler, to his intense irritation, felt himself flushing, and wondered if +the man's regard might be translated: "Just how much shall I be able to +touch him for?" He wished he would show his hand and dissipate the +damnable web of mystery which Fate seemed weaving hourly out of her +bloated pouch, but he doubted if Bisbee, or whoever it was that tormented +his wife, would approach him save as a last resource. They were clever +enough to know that her keenest desire would be to keep the disgraceful +past from the knowledge of her husband, rather than from a society +seasoned these many years to erubescent pasts. + +Moreover it is always easier to blackmail a woman than a man, and Price +Ruyler could not have looked an easy mark to the most optimistic of +social brigands. + +He found it impossible to fix his mind on the play; the cues of the first +act eluded him, and the characters and dialogue were too commonplace to +make the story negligible. + +At the end of the second act Ruyler made up his mind to go home and try +to coax his wife back into her customary good temper, pet her and make +her forget her little tragedy. He still hesitated to broach the subject +to her directly, but it was possible that by some diplomatically +analogous tale he could surprise her into telling him the truth. + +During the long drive he turned over in his mind the data Spaulding had +placed before him during the afternoon. He rejected the theory that +Madame Delano was Mrs. Lawton as utterly fantastic, but admitted a +connection. Hélène had spoken more than once of Mrs. Lawton's kindness to +"maman" when her baby was born during her "enforced stay in San +Francisco," and it was quite possible that the two had been friends, and +that the young mother had adopted the name of Dubois when calling upon +the nuns of the convent at St. Peter, either because it would naturally +occur to her, or from some deeper design which, he could not fathom.... + +Yes, the connection with Mrs. Lawton was indisputable and it remained for +him to "figger out" as Spaulding would say, which of these women, the +gambler's wife, the notorious "Madam," Gabrielle, the briefly coruscating +Pauline Marie, or the Englishman's mistress, a woman of Mrs. Lawton's +position would be most likely to befriend. + +The first three might be dismissed without argument. She had been no +frequenter of "gambling joints" whatever her peccadilloes; Gabrielle, +he happened to know, had died some eight or ten years ago, and +Mademoiselle Pauline Marie, if she had had a child, which was extremely +doubtful, was the sort that sends unwelcome offspring post haste to the +foundling asylum. + +There remained only the spurious Mrs. Medford, and she was the +probability on all counts. What more likely than that she and Mrs. Lawton +had met at one of the great winter hotels in Southern California, and +foregathered? Certainly they would be congenial spirits. + +When the baby came Mrs. Lawton would naturally see her through her +trouble, and advise her later what to do with the child. No doubt, +Medford found it in the way. + +After that Ruyler could only fumble. Did Medford desert the woman, +driving her on the stage?--or elsewhere? Did they start for Japan, and +did he die on the voyage? Did he merely give the woman a pension and tell +her to go back to Rouen, or to the devil? It was positive that when +Hélène was five years old Madame Delano had gone back to her relatives +with some trumped up story and been received by them. + +Moreover, this theory coincided with, his belief that Hélène's father +was a gentleman. No doubt he had been already married when he met the +young French girl, superbly handsome, and intelligent--possibly at one +of the French watering places, even in Rouen itself, swarming with +tourists in Summer. They might have met in the spacious aisles of the +Cathedral, she risen from her prayers, he wandering about, Baedeker in +hand, and fallen in love at sight. One of Earth's million romances, +regenerating the aged planet for a moment, only to sink back and +disappear into her forgotten dust. + +His own romance? What was to be the end of that! + +But he returned to his argument. He wanted a coherent story to tell his +wife, and he wanted also to believe that his wife's father had been a +gentleman. + +Medford, like so many of his eloping kind, had made instinctively for +California with the beautiful woman he loved but could not marry. Santa +Barbara, Ruyler had heard, had been the favorite haven for two +generations of couples fleeing from irking bonds in the societies of +England and the continent of Europe. Southern California combined a wild +independence with a languor that blunted too sensitive nerves, offered an +equable climate with months on end of out of door life, boating, +shooting, riding, driving, motoring, romantic excursions, and even sport +if a distinguished looking couple played the game well and told a +plausible story. + +Breeding was a part of Ruyler's religion, as component in his code as +honor, patriotism, loyalty, or the obligation of the strong to protect +the weak. Far better the bend sinister in his own class than a legitimate +parent of the type of 'Gene Bisbee or D.V. Bimmer. Ruyler was a "good +mixer" when business required that particular form of diplomacy, and the +familiarities of Jake Spaulding left his nerves unscathed, but in bone +and brain cells he was of the intensely respectable aristocracy of +Manhattan Island and he never forgot it. He had surrendered to a girl of +no position without a struggle, and made her his wife, but it is doubtful +if he would even have fallen in love with her if she had been underbred +in appearance or manner. He had never regretted his marriage for a +moment, not even since this avalanche of mystery and portending scandal +had descended upon him; if possible he loved his troubled young wife more +than ever--with a sudden instinct that worse was to come he vowed that +nothing should ever make him love her less. + +When he arrived at his house he found two notes on the hall table +addressed to himself. The first was from Hélène and read: + +"Polly telephoned that she would send her car for me to go down to the +Fairmont and dance. I cannot sleep so I am going. _She cannot sleep +either_! Forgive me if I was cross, but I am terribly worried for her. +Don't wait up for me. Hélène." + +He read this note with a frown but without surprise. It was to be +expected that she would seek excitement until her present fears were +allayed and her persecutors silenced. + +He determined to order Spaulding to have her shadowed constantly for at +least a fortnight and note made of every person in whose company she +appeared to be at all uneasy, whether they were of her own set or not. It +would also be worth while to have Madame Delano's rooms watched, for it +was possible that she would summon Hélène there to meet Bisbee or others +of his ilk. + +Then he picked up the other note. It was from Spaulding, and as he read +it all his finespun theories vanished and once more he was adrift on an +uncharted sea without a landmark in sight. + +"Dear Sir," began the detective, who was always formal on paper. "I've +just got the information required from Holbrook Centre. We didn't half +believe there was such a place, if you remember? Well there is, and +according to the parish register Marie Jeanne Perrin was married to James +Delano on July 25th, 1891. She was there, visiting some French +relations--they went back soon after--and he had left there when he was +about sixteen and had only come back that once to see his mother, who was +dying. Nothing seems to have been known about him in his home town except +a sort of rumor that he was a bad lot and lived somewheres in California. +Can you beat it? But don't think I'm stumped. I'm working on a new line +and I'm not going to say another word until I've got somewheres. + +"Yours truly, + +"J. SPAULDING." + +"Delano's father was a Forty-niner, and lived in California till 1860, +when he went home to H. C. and died soon after. There were wild stories +about him, too." + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +I + +During the next few days Ruyler saw little of his wife. He was obliged to +take two business trips out of town and as he could not return until ten +o'clock at night he advised her to have company to dinner and take her +guests to the play. But she preferred to dine with Polly Roberts and +Aileen Lawton, and she spent her days for the most part at Burlingame, +motoring down with one or more of her friends, or sent for by some +enthusiastic girl admirer already established there for the summer. + +Ruyler was quite willing to forego temporarily his plan of personal +guardianship, as the more she roamed abroad unattended the better could +Spaulding watch her associates. The detective had his agents in society, +as well as in the Palace Hotel, and on the third day he sent a brief note +to Ruyler announcing that he had "lit on to something" that would make +his employer's "hair curl, but no more at present from yours truly." + +"This time," he added, "I'm on the right track and know it. No more fancy +theories. But I won't say a word till I can deliver the goods. Give your +wife all the rope you can." + +Price and Hélène met briefly and amiably and she did not again broach the +subject of the loan for her friend, nor did she ask for her jewels. It +was apparent that she was proudly determined to conceal whatever terrors +or even worries that might haunt her, but the effort deprived her of all +her native vivacity; she was almost formal in manner and her white face +grew more like a classic mask daily. + +On the evening before the Thornton fête, however, Price was able to dine +at home. They met at table and he saw at once that she either had +recovered her spirits or was making a deliberate attempt to create the +impression of a carefree young woman happy in a tête-à-tête dinner with a +busy husband. + +Her talk for the most part was of the great entertainment at San Mateo. +The weather promised to be simply magnificent. Wasn't that exactly like +Flora Thornton's luck? The immense grounds were simply swarming with +workmen; wagon-loads of all sorts of things went through the gates after +every train--simply one procession after another; but no one else could +so much as get her nose through those gates. + +Hélène, with all her old childish glee, related how she and Aileen, Polly +(who apparently had forgotten her impending doom), and two or three other +girls, had called up Mrs. Thornton on the telephone every ten minutes for +an hour--pretending it was long distance to make sure of a personal +response--and begged to be allowed to go over and see the preparations, +until finally, in a towering rage, her ladyship had replied that if they +called her again she would withdraw her invitations. + +"How we did long for an airship. It would have been such fun, for she +does so disapprove of all of us; thinks us a little flock of silly geese. +Well, we are, I guess, but wasn't she one herself once? She has a pretty +hard time even now making life interesting for herself--out here, anyhow. + +"Yesterday we motored down to Menlo and dropped in at the Maynards. There +were a lot of the props of San Francisco society, all as rich as croesus, +sitting on the veranda crocheting socks or sacks for a crop of new babies +that are due. One or two were hemstitching lawn, or embroidering a +monogram, or something else equally useless or virtuous. They were +talking mild gossip, and didn't even have powder on. It was ghastly--" + +"Hélène," said Ruyler abruptly, "what do you think is the secret of +happiness--I mean, of course, the enduring sort--perhaps content would be +the better word. Happiness is too dependent upon love, and love was never +meant for daily food. You are not by nature frivolous, and you are +capable of thought. Have you ever given any to the secret of content?" + +"Yes, work," she answered promptly. "Everybody should have his daily job, +prescribed either by the state or by necessity; but something he must do +if both he and society would continue to exist." + +Ruyler elevated his eyebrows and looked at her curiously. "Socialism. I +didn't know you had ever heard of it." + +"Aileen and I are not such fools as we look--as you were good enough to +intimate just now. We went to a series of lectures early last winter over +at the University, on Socialism--a lot of us formed a class, but all +except Aileen and I dropped out. + +"We continued to read for a time after the lectures were over, but of +course that didn't last. One drops everything for want of stimulus, and +when one begins to flutter again one is lost. + +"But I heard and read and thought enough to deduce that the only vital +interest in life after one's secret happiness--which one would not dare +spread out too thin if one could in this American life--is necessary work +well done. And that is quite different from those fussy interests and +fads we create or take up for the sake of thinking we are busy and +interested. + +"Polly's mother once told me she never was so happy in her life as during +those weeks after the earthquake and fire when all the servants had run +away and she had to cook for the family out in the street on a stove they +bought down in a little shop in Polk Street and set up and surrounded on +three sides by 'inside blinds.' She happened to have a talent for +cooking, and without her the family would have starved. Polly tied a +towel round her head and did the housework, or stood in a line and got +the daily rations from the Government. She never thought once of--" + +"Of what?" + +"Oh, of doing anything rather than expire of boredom. She and Rex had +been married a year and were living at home. Rex and Mr. Carter helped +excavate down in the business district, as the working class wouldn't +lift a finger as long as the Government was feeding them." + +"There you are! Their ideal is complete leisure, and that of our delicate +products of the highest civilization--compulsory jobs! What does progress +mean but the leisure to enjoy the arts and all the finer fruits of +progress? What else do we men really work for?" + +"Progress has gone too far and defeated its own ends. Every healthy human +being should be forced to work six hours a day. + +"That would leave eight for sleep and ten for enjoyment of the arts and +luxuries. Then we really should enjoy them, and if we couldn't have them +unless we did our six hours' stint, ennui and the dissipations that it +breeds would be unknown. + +"I can tell you it is demoralizing, disintegrating, to wake up morning +after morning--about ten o'clock!--and know that you have nothing worth +while to do for another day--for all the days!--that you have no place in +the world except as an ornament! Women of limited incomes and a family of +growing children have enough, to do, of course--too much--they never can +feel superfluous and demoralized--except by envy--but as for us! Why, I +can tell you, it is a marvel we don't all go straight to the devil." + +They were alone with the coffee, and she was pounding the table with her +little fist. Her cheeks were deeply flushed and her black somber eyes +were opening and closing rapidly, as if alternately magnetized by some +ugly vision and sweeping it aside. + +Price watched her with deep interest and deeper anxiety. "A good many +women go to the devil," he said. "But you are not that sort." + +"Oh, I don't know. I never could get up enough interest in another man to +solve the problem in the usual way--but there are other +resources--I--well--" + +"What?" Price sat up very straight. + +"Oh, dance ourselves into tuberculosis," she said lightly, and dropping +her eyelashes. "And tuberculosis of the mind, certainly. On the whole, I +think I prefer physical to spiritual death.... + +"However--I found out one thing to-day. The dancing is to be out of +doors. There will be an immense arbor or something of the sort erected +on the lawn above the sunken garden. My gown is a dream and I shall wear +the ruby." + +"Yes," he said smiling. "You shall wear the ruby. But you must expect me +to keep very close to you--" + +"The closer the better." She smiled charmingly. "Have you tried on +your costume?" + +"I haven't even looked at it. Who am I?" + +"Caesar Borgia. You are not much like him yourself, darling, but I +thought he was not so very unlike modern American business, as a whole." + +Ruyler laughed. "Why not Machiavelli? But as no doubt it is black velvet, +much puffed and slashed, I may hope it will be becoming to my nondescript +fairness. You must promise not to wander off for long walks with any of +your admirers. Not that I fear the admirers, but the thieves that are +bound to get into that crowd one way or another. They have a way of +unclasping necklaces even of the most circumspect wives in the company of +not too absorbing men." + +Her eyes opened and flashed, but he had no time to analyze that fleeting +expression before she was promising volubly not to wander from the +illuminated spaces. + + * * * * * + +He interrupted her suddenly. They were in the library now, and sat down +on a little sofa in front of the window. The moon was high and brilliant +and the great expanse of water with the high clusters of lights on the +islands, the sharp hard silhouette of the encircling mountains, the green +and silver stars so high above, the moving golden dots of an incoming +liner from Japan, the long rows of arc lights along the shore, made a +landscape of the night that Mrs. Thornton with all her millions hardly +could rival. + +"Are you not grateful for this?" he asked whimsically and a little +wistfully. + +"Oh, Price, dear, I am more grateful than you will ever know. I have not +a fault on earth to find with you. You would be the prince of the fairy +tale if you were not so busy. + +"But that is the tragedy. You are busy--I am not." + +"Well, let us have the personal solution--one that fits ourselves. You +have time to think it out. I, alas! have not." He took her hand and +fondled it, hoping for her confidence. + +"I don't know." She had a deep rich voice and she could make it very +intense. "I only know there must--must--be a change--if--if--I am +to--Can't you take me abroad for a year? That might not be work, but at +least I should be learning some thing--I have traveled almost not at +all--and, at least, I should have you." + +"But later? Most of your friends have spent a good deal of time in +Europe. I doubt if any state in the Union goes to Europe as often as +California! They are all the more discontented when they come back here +to vegetate--as Mrs. Thornton would express it. + +"It would be a blessed interval, but no more." + +"We should have time to think out a new and different life.... + +"You know--in the class I come from--in France--the women are the +partners of their husbands. Even in the higher bourgeoisie, that is, +where they still are in business, not living on great inherited +fortunes-- + +"My uncle had a small silk house in Rouen, and my aunt kept the books +and attended to all the correspondence. He always said she was the +cleverer business man of the two; but French women have a real genius +for business. Some of our great ladies help their husbands manage +their estates. + +"It is only the few that live for pleasure and glitter in the most +glittering city in the world that have furnished the novelists the +material to give the world a false impression of France. + +"The majority live such sober, useful, busy lives that only the highest +genius could make people read about them. + +"Of course, young girls dream of something far more brilliant, and wait +eagerly for the husband who shall deliver them from their narrow +restricted little spheres... perhaps take them to the great world of +Paris; but they settle down, even in Paris, and devote themselves to +their husbands' interests, which are their own, and to their children.... + +"That is it! They are indispensable--not as women, but as partners. I +barely know what your business is about--only that you are in some +tremendous wholesale commission thing with tentacles that reach half +round the world. + +"Only the wives of politicians are any real help to their husbands in +this country. Isabel Gwynne! What a help she will be--has been--to Mr. +Gwynne. But then she was always busy. When her uncle died he left her +that little ranch and scarcely anything else, she took to raising +chickens--not to fuss about and fill in her time, but to keep a roof over +her head and have enough to eat and wear. I doubt if she ever was bored +in her life." + +"I can't take you into the business, sweetheart," said Ruyler slowly. +"For that would violate the traditions of a very old conservative house. +But I can quite see that something must be done.... + +"I married you to make you happy and to be happy myself. I do not intend +that our marriage shall be a failure. It is possible that Harold would +consent to come out here and take my place. The business no longer +requires any great amount of initiative, but the most unremitting +vigilance. I have thought--it has merely passed through my mind--but you +might hate it--how would you like it if I bought a large fruit ranch, +several thousand acres, and put up a canning factory besides? I would +make you a full partner and you would have to give to your share of the +work considerably more than six hours of the day-- + +"We could build a large, plain, comfortable house, take all our books and +pictures, subscribe to all the newspapers, magazines and reviews, keep up +with everything that is going on in the world, have house parties once in +a while, come to town for a few weeks in summer for the plays. + +"We should live practically an out-of-door life--if you preferred we +could buy a cattle ranch in the south. That would mean the greater part +of the day in the saddle-- + +"How does it appeal to you?" + +He had turned off the electricity, but as he fumbled with his +embryonic idea he saw her eyes sparkle and a light of passionate hope +dawn on her face. + +"Oh, I should love it! But love it! Especially the fruit ranch. That +would be like France--our orchards are as wonderful as yours, even if +nothing could be as big as a California ranch-- + +"That is, if it would not be a makeshift. Another form of playing at +life." + +"I can assure you that we will have to make it pay or go to the wall. My +father would probably disinherit me, for it would be breaking another +tradition, and he compliments me by believing that I am the best business +man in the firm at present. + +"My only capital would be such of my fortune as is not tied up in the +House--about a hundred thousand dollars in Government bonds. Of course, +in time, if all goes well, and California does not have another +setback--if business improves all over the world--I shall be able to take +the rest of my money out, that I put into this end of the business after +the fire; but that may be ten years hence. I shouldn't even ask for +interest on it--that would be the only compensation I could offer for +deserting the firm. + +"Perhaps I had better buy a cattle ranch. Then, if we fail, I shall at +least have had the training of a cowboy and can hire out." + +Hélène laughed and clapped her hands. + +"Fail? You? But I should help you to make it a success--I should be +really necessary?" + +"Indispensable. Either you or another partner." + +"No! No! I shall be the partner--" + +"And you mean that you would be willing to bury your youth, your beauty, +on a ranch? I have heard bitter confidences out here from women forced to +waste their youth on a ranch. You are one of the fine flowers of +civilization--" + +"That soon wither in the hothouse atmosphere. I wish to become a hardy +annual. And when the ranch was running like a clock we could take a month +or two in Europe every year or so--" + +"Rather! And I could show you off--Bother! I'll not answer." + +The telephone bell on the little table in the corner (his own private +wire) rang so insistently that Ruyler finally was magnetized reluctantly +across the room. He put the receiver to his ear and asked, "Well?" in his +most inhospitable tones. + +The answer came in Spaulding's voice, and in a moment he sat down. + +At the end of ten minutes he hung the receiver on the hook and returned +to find Hélène standing by the window, all the light gone from her eyes, +staring out at the hard brilliant scene with an expression of +hopelessness that had relaxed the very muscles of her face. + +Ruyler was shocked, and more apprehensive than he had yet been. "Hélène!" +he exclaimed. "What is the matter? Surely you may confide in me if you +are in trouble." + +"Oh, but I am not," she replied coldly. "Did I look odd? I was just +wondering how many really happy people there were behind those +lights--over on Belvedere, at Sausalito--the lights look so golden and +steady and sure--and glimpses of interiors at night are always so +fascinating--but I suppose most of the people are commonplace and just +dully discontented--" + +"Well, I am afraid I have something to tell you that hardly will restore +your delightful gayety of a few moments ago. I am sorry--but--well, the +fact is I must leave for the north to-morrow morning and hardly shall be +able to return before the next night. I am really distressed. I wanted so +much to take you to-morrow night--" + +"And I can't wear the ruby?" Her voice was shrill. Ruyler wondered if his +stimulated imagination fancied a note of terror in it. + +"I--I--am afraid not--darling--" + +"But that Spaulding man will be there to watch--" + +"Unfortunately--I forgot to tell you--he cannot go--he is on an important +case. Besides--when I make a promise I usually keep it." + +"But--but--" She stammered as if her brain were confused, then turned and +pressed her face to the window. "I suppose nothing matters," she said +dully. "Perhaps you will let me wear my own little ruby. After all, that +was maman's, and she gave it to me before I was married. I should like to +wear one jewel." + +"You shall have all your jewels, if you will promise not to give them to +Polly Roberts or any one else." + +"I promise." + +He went over and opened the safe, and when he rose with the gold jewel +case he saw that she was standing behind him. Once more it flitted +through his mind that she had watched him manipulate the combination +several times, but he had little confidence in any but a professional +thief's ability to memorize such an involved assortment of figures as had +been invented for this particular safe. It was only once in a while that +he was not obliged to refer to the key that he carried in his pocketbook. + +Nor was she looking at the safe, but staring upward at a maharajah, +covered with pearls of fantastic size. She took the box from his hand +with a polite word of thanks, offered her cheek to be kissed, and +left the room. + +Price threw himself into a chair and rehearsed the instructions Spaulding +had given him. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It was half-past eleven when Ruyler and Spaulding, masked and wearing +colored silk dominoes, entered the great gates of the Thornton estate in +San Mateo, the detective merely displaying something in his palm to the +stern guardians that kept the county rabble at bay. + +The mob stood off rather grumblingly, for they would have liked to get +closer to that gorgeous mass of light they could merely glimpse through +the great oaks of the lower part of the estate, and to the music so +seductive in the distance. + +They were not a rabble to excite pity, by any means. A few ragged tramps +had joined the crowd, possibly a few pickpockets from the city, watching +their opportunity to slip in behind one of the automobiles that brought +the guests from the station or from the estates up and down the valley. +They were, for the most part, trades-people from the little towns--San +Mateo, Redwood City--or the wives of the proletariat--or the servants of +the neighboring estates. But, although, they grumbled and envied, they +made no attempt to force their way in; it was only the light-fingered +gentry the police at the great iron gates were on the lookout for. + +Ruyler, if his mind had been less harrowed with the looming and possibly +dire climax of his own secret drama, would have laughed aloud at this +melodramatic entrance to the grounds of one of his most intimate friends. +He and Spaulding had walked from the train, but they were not detained as +long as a gay party of young people from Atherton, who teased the police +by refusing to present their cards or lift their masks. Ruyler knew them +all, but they finally sped past him without even a glance of contempt for +mere foot passengers, even though they looked like a couple of dodging +conspirators. + +He had met Spaulding at the station in San Francisco, and private +conversation on the crowded train had been impossible. When they had +walked a few yards along the wide avenue, as brilliant as day with its +thousands of colored lights concealed in the astonished pines, Ruyler sat +deliberately down upon a bench and motioned the detective to take the +seat beside him. + +"It is time you gave me some sort of a hint," he said. "After all, it is +my affair--" + +"I know, but as I said, you might not approve my methods, and if you +balk, all is up. We've got the chance of our lives. It's now or never." + +"I do not at all like the idea that you may be forcing me into a position +where I may find myself doing something I shall be ashamed of for the +rest of my life." + +Ruyler's tone was haughty. He did not relish being led round by the nose, +and his nerves were jumping. + +"Now! Now!" said Spaulding soothingly, as he lit a cigar. "When you hire +a detective you hire him to do things you wouldn't do yourself; and if +you won't give him the little help he's got to have from you or quit, +what's the use of hiring him at all? + +"I know perfectly well that nothing but your own eyes would convince you +of what it's up to me to prove--to say nothing of the fact that I count +on your entrance at the last minute to put an end to the whole bad +business. For it is a bad business--believe me. But not a word of that +now. You couldn't pry open my lips with a five dollar Havana." + +"Well--you say you had a talk with Madame Delano to-day. Surely you can +tell me some of the things you have discovered." + +"A whole lot. I've been waiting for the chance. Not that I got anything +out of her. She's one grand bluffer and no mistake. I take off my hat to +her. When I told her that I could lay hands on the proof that she was +Marie Garnett--although Jim had married her in his home town under his +own name--and that she'd gone home to France with the kid when it was +five, taking the cue from her friend, Mrs. Lawton, and sending word back +she was dead--" + +"You were equally sure a few days ago that she was Mrs. Lawton--" + +"That was just my constructive imagination on the loose. It was a lovely +theory, and I sort of hung on to it. But I had no real data to go on. Now +I've got the evidence that Jim Garnett died two months before the fire +burnt up pretty nearly all the records, and that his body was shipped +back to Holbrook Centre to be buried in the family plot. You see, he was +sick for some time out on Pacific Avenue, and his death was registered +where the fire didn't go--" + +"But what put you on?" asked Ruyler impatiently. "I should almost rather +it had been any one else. He seems to have been about as bad a lot as +even this town ever turned out." + +"He was, all right, and his father before him, although they came from +mighty fine folks back east. His father came out in '49 with the gold +rush crowd, panned out a good pile, and then, liking the life--San +Francisco was a gay little burg those days--opened one of the crack +gambling houses down on the Old Plaza. Plate glass windows you could look +through from outside if you thought it best to stay out, and see hundreds +of men playing at tables where the gold pieces--often slugs--were piled +as high as their noses, and hundreds more walking up and down the aisles +either waiting for a chance to sit, or hoping to appease their hunger +with the sight of so much gold. They didn't try any funny business, for +every gambler had a six-shooter in his hip pocket, and sometimes on the +table beside him. + +"Sometimes men would walk out and shoot themselves on the sidewalk in +front of the windows, and not a soul inside would so much as look up. +Well, Delano the first had a short life but a merry one. He couldn't keep +away from the tables himself, and first thing he knew he was broke, sold +up. He went back to the mines, but his luck had gone, and his wife--she +had followed him out here--persuaded him to go back home and live in the +old house, on a little income she had; and he bored all the neighbors to +death for a few years about 'early days in California' until he dropped +off. Her name was Mary Garnett. + +"That's what put me on--the G. in the middle of the name of the man +Madame Delano married. I telegraphed to Holbrook Centre to find out what +his middle name was, and after that it was easy. I also found out that he +was born in California, and I guess that old wild life was in his blood. +He stood Holbrook Centre until he was sixteen, and then homed back and +took up the trade he just naturally had inherited. + +"I figger out that he didn't tell his wife the truth when he married her +back there, not until he was on the train pretty close to S.F., and then +he told her because he couldn't help himself. She couldn't help herself, +either, and besides she was in love with him. He was a handsome, +distinguished lookin' chap, and he kept right on bein' a fascinator as +long as he lived. + +"I guess that's the reason she left him in the end. She stood for the +gambling joint, and, although she had a cool sarcastic way with her that +kept the men who fell for her at a distance, she was a good decoy, and +she looked a regular queen at the head of the green table. She was chummy +with Jim's intimates, two of whom were D.V. Bimmer and 'Gene Bisbee, but +even 'Gene didn't dare take any liberties with her. + +"It was natural that a woman brought up as she had been should have kept +her child out of it, and I figger that she got disgusted with Jim and +came to the full sense of her duty to the poor kid about the same time. +But she didn't go until Jim settled so much a month on her through old +Lawton--who used to amuse himself at Garnett's a good deal in those days, +and who was one of her best friends. + +"Well, she also got Garnett to make a curious sort of a will, leaving his +money to James Lawton, to 'dispose of as agreed upon.' She had a thrifty +business head, had that French dame, and she had made him buy property +when he was flush, and put it in her name, although she gave a written +agreement never to sell out as long as he lived. + +"He agreed to let her go because he was dippy about another skirt at the +time, and, besides, she played on his family pride--lineal descendant of +the Delanos, Garnetts, and so forth. He'd never seen the kid after it was +taken to the convent, but I guess he liked the idea, all right, of its +being brought up wearing the old name, and gettin' rid of Marie at the +same time. + +"She was too canny to leave him a loophole for divorce, even in +California; but I guess that didn't worry him much. + +"If the earthquake and fire hadn't come so soon after the will was +probated there might have been a lot of speculation about it, among men, +at least. Those old gossips in the Club windows would soon have been +putting two and two together; but the calamity that burnt up all the Club +windows, just swept it clean out of their heads. + +"I figger out that old Lawton continued to pay Madame Delano the income +she'd been havin' both from Jim and her properties, out of his own +pocket, until the city was rebuilt and he could settle the estate. He had +to borrow the money to rebuild the houses Jim had put up on his wife's +property, and when things got to a certain pass he wrote Madame D. to +come along and take over her property. She'll be good and rich one of +these days, when all the mortgages are paid off and Lawton paid back, but +it was wise for her to stay on the job. Lawton is dead straight, but his +partner is sowing wild oats in his old age--good old S.F. style, and I +guess it ain't wise to tempt him too far. Get me?" + +"It's atrocious!" + +"Oh, not nearly so bad as it might be. Just think, if it had been +Gabrielle, or Pauline-Marie, or even Mrs. Lawton. That's the worst kind +of bad blood for a woman to inherit. Marie Garnett hung on like grim +death to what the grand society you move in pretends to value most, and +the Lord knows she'll never lose it now. + +"Nor need there be any scandal to drive your family to suicide. The thing +to do is to hustle Madame Delano out of San Francisco. She'll go, all +right, with you to look after her interests. She don't fancy being +recognized and blackmailed, or I miss my guess. You may have to pay +Bisbee something, but D. V.'s not that sort, and I don't think anybody +else is on. If they've suspected they'll soon forget it when the old lady +disappears from the Palace Hotel. Gee, but she has a nerve." + +"She is an old cynic. If she had any snobbery in her she'd be here +to-night, rubbing elbows with the women who never knew of her existence +twenty years ago, although their husbands did. It has satisfied her +ironic French soul to sit in the court of the Palace Hotel day after day +and defy San Francisco to recognize Marie Garnett in the obese Madame +Delano, whose daughter is one of the great ladies of the city to whose +underworld she once belonged, and from whose filthy profits she derives +her income. Good God!" + +He sat forward and clutched his head, but Spaulding, who had drawn out +his watch, tapped him on the shoulder. + +"Come on," he said. "Time's gettin' short. The stunt is to be pulled off +just before supper." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +I + +They walked rapidly up the close avenue--planted far back in the Fifties +by Ford Thornton's grandfather--the blaze of light at the end of the long +perspective growing wider and wider. As they emerged they paused for a +moment, dazzled by the scene. + +The original home of the Thorntons had been of ordinary American +architecture and covered with ivy; it might have been transplanted from +some old aristocratic village in the East. Flora Thornton had maintained +that only one style of architecture was appropriate in a state settled by +the Spaniards, and famous for its missions of Moorish architecture. Fordy +loved the old house, but as he denied his wife nothing he had given her a +million, three years before the fire which so sadly diminished fortunes, +and told her to build any sort of house she pleased; if she would only +promise to live in it and not desert him twice a year for Europe. + +The immense structure, standing on a knoll, bore a certain resemblance to +the Alhambra, with its heavy square towers; its arched gateways leading +into courtyards with fountains or sunken pools, the red brown of the +stucco which looked like stone and was not. To-night it was blazing with +lights of every color. + +So were the ancient oaks, which were old when the Alhambra was built, +the shrubberies, the vast rose garden. The surface of the pool in the +sunken garden reflected the green or red masses of light that shot up +every few moments from the four corners of the terrace surrounding it. +On the lawn just above and to the right of the house, a platform had +been built for dancing; it was enclosed on three sides with an arbor of +many alcoves, lined with flowers, soft lights concealed in depending +clusters of oranges. + +And everywhere there were people dressed in costumes, gorgeous, +picturesque, impressive, historic, or recklessly invented, but suggesting +every era when dress counted at all. They danced on the great platform to +the strains of the invisible band, strolled along the terraces above the +sunken garden, wandered through the groves and "grounds," or sat in the +windows of the great house or in its courts. All wore the little black +satin mask prescribed by Mrs. Thornton, and created an illusion that +transported the imagination far from California. Ruyler had a whimsical +sense of being on another star where the favored of the different periods +of Earth had foregathered for the night. + +But there was nothing ghostly in the shrill chatter as incessant as the +twitter of the agitated birds, who found their night snatched from them +and hardly knew whether to scold or join in the chorus. + +Ruyler had always protested against the high-pitched din made by even six +American women when gathered together, and to the infernal racket at any +large entertainment; but to-night he sighed, forgetting his apprehensions +for the moment. + +He had exquisite memories of these lovely grounds; he and Hélène had +spent several days with Mrs. Thornton during their engagement, and she +had lent them the house for their honeymoon; he would have liked to +wander through the pleasant spaces with his wife to-night and make love +to her, instead of spying on her in the company of a detective. + +For that, he was forced to conclude, was what he had been brought for. +Spaulding had mentioned her name casually, when telling him that he must +be on hand to nab the "party" who was at the bottom of the whole trouble; +but Spaulding hardly could have watched the person who was blackmailing +without including her in his surveillance. He wished now that he had left +that part of the mystery to take care of itself, trusting to his +mother-in-law's departure to relieve the situation. No doubt she would +have told him the truth herself rather than leave her daughter to the +mercy of the men who knew her secret. + +But he was still far from suspecting the worst of the truth. + +There were a number of men in fancy dominoes; he and Spaulding crossed +the lawn in front of the house unchallenged and, passing under the +frowning archway, entered the first of the courts. + +The oblong sunken pool was banked with myrtle, and above, as well as in +the great inner court with the fountain, there were narrow arcaded +windows with fluttering silken curtains. Mrs. Thornton had too satiric a +sense of humor to have had the famous arabesques of the Alhambra +reproduced any more than the massive coats-of-arms above the arches, but +the walls were delicately colored, the delicate columns looked like old +ivory, and the greatest of the local architects had been entirely +successful in combining the massiveness of the warrior stronghold with +the airy lightness and spaciousness of the pleasure house. + +The bedrooms, Ruyler told Spaulding, were all as modern as they were +luxurious, and the library, living-rooms, and dining-room, were in the +best American style. Fordy had rebelled at too much "Spanish atmosphere," +his blood being straight Anglo-Saxon, and Mrs. Thornton always knew when +to yield. Nevertheless, Flora Thornton had built the proper setting for +her barbaric beauty, and, possibly, spirit. + +People were sitting about the courts on piles of colored silken cushions, +those that had got themselves up in Eastern costumes having drifted +naturally to the suitable surroundings; for, after all, the Moors had +been Mohammedans. + +"Don't let's hang round here," said the detective, "and don't stand +holding yourself like a ramrod--like that gent out there with the ruff +that must be taking the skin off his chin. I kinder thought I'd like to +see the whole show, but we'd best go now and wait for our little turn." + +He led the way round the building to the rear of the southwest tower. +There was a little grove of jasmine trees just beneath it, that made the +air overpoweringly sweet, but there were no lights on this side, as the +garages, stables, vegetable gardens, and servants' quarters would have +destroyed the picture. + +Spaulding glanced about sharply, but there was not even a strolling +couple, and even the moon was shining on the other side of the heavy mass +of buildings. + +"Now, listen," he said. "You see this window?"--he indicated one directly +over their heads. "At exactly one o'clock, when everybody is flocking to +the supper tables on the terraces, I expect some one to lean out of that +window and talk to some one who will be waiting just below. There may be +no talk, but I think there will be, and I want you to listen to every +word of it without so much as drawing a long breath, no matter what is +said, until I grab your elbow--like this--then I want you to put up your +hand in a hurry while I'm also attendin' to business. + +"That's all I'll say now. But by the time a few words have been said, +later, I guess you'll be on. + +"Now, we must resign ourselves to a long wait without a smoke and to +keeping perfectly still. I dared not risk comin' any later for fear the +others might be beforehand, too." + +Ruyler ground his teeth. He felt ridiculous and humiliated. It was no +compensation that he was holding up the wall of a stucco Moorish palace +and that some three hundred masked people in fancy dress were within +earshot... or did the way he was togged out make him feel all the more +absurd? The whole thing was beastly un-American.... + +But, was it, after all? If he and Hélène had been here together to-night, +not married and harrowed, but engaged and quick with romance, would he +have thought it absurd to conspire and maneuver to separate her from the +crowd and snatch a few moments of heavenly solitude? Would he have +despised himself for suffering torments if she flouted him or for wanting +to murder any man who balked him? + +Love, and all the passions, creative and destructive, it engendered, all +the sentiments and follies and crimes, to say nothing of ambition and +greed and the lust to kill in war--these were instincts and traits that +appeared in mankind generation after generation, in every corner +civilized and savage of the globe. The world changed somewhat in form +during its progress, but never in substance. + +And mystery and intrigue were equally a part of life, as indigenous to +the Twentieth Century as to those days long entombed in history when the +troops of Ferdinand and Isabella sat down on the plain before Grenada. + +Plot and melodrama were in every life; in some so briefly as hardly to be +recognized, in others--in that of certain men and women in the public +eye, for instance--they were almost in the nature of a continuous +performance. + +In these days men took a bath morning and evening, ate daintily, had a +refined vocabulary to use on demand, dressed in tweeds instead of velvet. +There were longer intervals between the old style of warfare when men +were always plugging one another full of holes in the name of religion or +disputed territory, merely to amuse themselves with a tryout of Right +against Might, or to gratify the insane ambition of some upstart like +Napoleon. To-day the business world was the battlefield, and it was his +capital a man was always healing, his poor brain that collapsed nightly +after the strain and nervous worry of the day. + +It suddenly felt quite normal to be here flattened against a wall waiting +for some impossible dénouement. + +Nevertheless, he was sick with apprehension. + +Would it merely be the prelude to another drama? Was his life to be a +series of unwritten plays, of which he was both the hero and the +bewildered spectator? Or would it bring him calm, the terrible calm of +stagnation, of an inner life finished, sealed, buried? + +It was inevitable in these romantic surroundings and conditions that he +should revert to his almost forgotten jealousy. Suppose Spaulding had +stumbled upon something.... But he had been asked for no such +evidence.... It would be a damnable liberty.... It might be inextricably +woven with the business in hand.... There were other men besides Doremus +whom Hélène saw constantly.... Spaulding may have seen his chance to nip +the thing in the bud, and had taken the risk.... + +He felt the detective's lips at his ear: "Hear anything? Move a little +so's you can look up." + +Ruyler heard his wife's voice above him, then Aileen Lawton's. He parted +the branches and saw the two girls lean over the low sill of the +casement. Both had removed their masks, but their faces were only dimly +revealed. Their voices, however, were distinct enough, and his wife's was +dull and flat. + +"Oh, I can't," she said. "I can't." + +"Well, you'll just jolly well have to. You've got it, haven't you?" + +"Oh, yes, I've got it!" + +"Well, he'll never suspect you." + +"I shall tell him." + +"Tell him? You little fool. And give us all away?" + +"I'd mention no other names." + +"As if he wouldn't probe until he found out. Don't you know Price Ruyler +yet? My father said once he'd have made a great District Attorney. What's +the use of telling him later, for that matter? Why not now?" + +"I haven't the courage yet. I might have one day--at just the right +moment. I never thought I was a coward." + +"You're just a kid. That's what's the matter. We ought to have left you +out. I told Polly that--" + +"You couldn't! Oh, don't you see you couldn't. That's the terrible part +of it! Left me out? I'd have found my way in." + +"I'm not so sure. You were interested in heaps of things, and in love, +and all that--" + +"Oh, I'd like to excuse myself by blaming it on being bored, and tired of +trying to amuse myself doing nothing worth while, but it's bad blood, +that's what it is, bad blood, and you know it, if none of the others do." + +"Oh, I'm not one of your heredity fiends. When did your mother tell you?" + +"Only the other day." + +"Well, she ought to have told you long ago. I believe you'd have kept out +if you'd known." + +"Wouldn't I? But of course she hated to tell the truth to me--" + +"Well, if I'd known that you didn't know I'd have told you, all right. I +wormed it out of Dad soon after you arrived, and at first I thought it +was a good joke on Society, to say nothing of Price Ruyler, with his air +of God having created heaven first, maybe, but New York just after. Then +I got fond of you and I wouldn't have told for the world. But I would +have put you on your guard if I'd known." + +"Oh, it doesn't matter. Even if Price doesn't find out about this, if he +learns the other--who my father was, and that awful men have recognized +my mother--I suppose he'll hate me, and in time I'll go back to Rouen--" + +"Now, you don't think as ill as that of him, do you? He makes me so mad +sometimes I could spit in his face, but if he's one thing he's true blue. +He's the straight masculine type with a streak of old romance that would +make him love a woman the more, the sorrier he was for her, and the +weaker she was--I mean so long as she was young. After this, just get to +work on your character, kid. When you're thirty maybe he won't feel that +it's his whole duty to protect you. You'll never be hard and seasoned +like me, nor able to take care of yourself. I like danger, and +excitement, and uncertainty, and mystery, and intrigue, and lying, and +wriggling out of tight places. I'd have gone mad in this hole long ago, +if I hadn't, for I don't care for sport. But you were intended to develop +into what is called a 'fine woman,' surrounded by the right sort of man +meanwhile. And Price Ruyler is the right sort. I'll say that much for +him. He'd have driven me to drink, but he's just your sort--" + +"And what am I doing? I am the most degraded woman in the world." + +"Oh, no, you're not. Not by a long sight. You don't know how much worse +you could be. One woman who is here to-night I saw lying dead drunk in +the road between San Mateo and Burlingame the other day when I was +driving with Alice Thorndyke, and Alice is having her fourth or fifth +lover, I forget which--" + +"They are no worse than I." + +"Listen. He's coming. Got it ready?" + +"I can't." + +"You must. He'll hound you in the _Merry Tattler_ until the whole town +knows you're a welcher, and not a soul would speak to you. That is the +one unpardonable sin--" + +"I wish I'd told Price--" + +"Oh, no, you don't. This is just a lovely way out. Glad he had the +inspiration. Hello, Nick." + +A man had groped his way between the trees and stood just under +the window. + +"What are you doing here?" asked Doremus sourly. + +"Witness, witness, my dear Nick. Besides, poor Hélène never would have +come alone, so there you are." + +"To hell with all this melodramatic business. It could have been done +anywhere--" + +"Not much. Dark corners for dark doings." + +"Well, hand it over." + +Ruyler had given his brain an icy shower bath as soon as he heard his +wife's voice, and was now as cool and alert as even the detective could +have wished. He did not wait for the promised impulse to his elbow; his +hand shot up just ahead of Doremus's and closed over his wife's hand, +which, he felt at once, held the ruby. At the same moment Spaulding +caught Doremus by his medieval collar and shook him until the man's teeth +chattered, then he slapped his face and kicked him. + +"Now, you," he said standing over the panting man, who was mopping his +bleeding nose, and holding the electric torch so that it would shine on +his own face. "You get out of California, d'you hear? You're a gambler +and a blackmailer and a panderer to old women, and I've got some +evidence that would drag you into court however it turned out, so's +you'd find this town a live gridiron. So, git, while you can. Go while +the going's good." + +Doremus, too shaken to reply, slunk off, and Spaulding after a glance +upward, left as silently. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +I + +Aileen had shrieked and fled. Ruyler stood in the room with the ruby in +his open hand. He saw that Hélène was standing quite erect before him. +She had made no attempt to leave the room, nor did she appear to be +threatened with hysterics. + +He groped until he found the electric button. The room, as Ruyler had +inferred, was Mrs. Thornton's winter boudoir, a gorgeous room of yellow +brocade and oriental stuffs. + +"Will you sit down?" he asked. + +Hélène shook her head. She was very white and she looked as old as a +young actress who has been doing one night stands for three months. +Behind the drawn mask of her face there was her indestructible youth, but +so faint that it thought itself dead. + +She looked at her hands, which she twisted together as if they were cold. + +"Will you tell me the truth now?" asked Price. + +"Don't you guess it?" + +"When I came here to-night I believed that you were the victim of +blackmail. I was not watching you--I hope you will take my word for that. +We--I had a detective on the case--Spaulding merely wanted to nab the man +who was blackmailing you--" + +"Do you still believe that?" + +"I overheard your conversation with Aileen Lawton. I don't know what +to believe." + +"I am a gambler. My father was a gambler. He kept a notorious place in +San Francisco. His name out here was James Garnett. My grandfather was a +gambler. He was even more spectacular--" + +"I know all that. Don't mind." + +"You knew it?" For the first time she looked at him, but she turned her +eyes away at once and stared at the oblong of dark framed by the +window. "Why--" + +"Spaulding told me to-night only." + +"Mother told me a week or so ago. She'd been recognized. Shortly after I +married, when she found out how the women played bridge and poker here, +she made me promise I'd never touch a card, never play any sort of +gambling game. I promised readily enough, and I thought nothing of her +insistence. Maman was old-fashioned in many ways--I mean the life we +lived in. Rouen was so different from this that I could understand how +many things would shock her. I never thought about it--but--it was about +six months ago--you were away for a week and I stayed with Polly Roberts +at the Fairmont. I knew of course that she played and that Aileen and a +lot of the others did, but I hadn't given the matter a thought. One heard +nothing but bridge, bridge, bridge. I was sick of the word. + +"But I found they played poker. Polly and Aileen, Alice Thorndyke, Janet +Maynard, Mary Kimball, Nick Doremus, Rex and one or two other men who +could get off in the afternoons. + +"I never had dreamed any one in society played for such high stakes. +Janet Maynard and Mary Kimball could afford it, but Polly and Alice and +Aileen couldn't. Still they often won--enough, anyhow, to clean up and go +on. Doremus is a wonderful player. That is how I got interested, watching +him after he had explained the game to me. + +"It was a long time before I was persuaded to take a hand. It was so +interesting just to watch. And not only the game, but their faces. Some +would have a regular 'poker face,' others would give themselves away. +Once Aileen had the most awful hysterics. We were afraid some one outside +would hear her; the deadening was burnt out of the walls of the Fairmont +at the time of the fire. But we were in the middle room of the suite. + +"Nick told her in his dreadful cold expressionless voice that if she ever +did that again he'd never play another game with her. That meant that +they'd all drop her, and she came to and promised, and she kept her word. +Poker is the breath of life to her. I think she'd become a drug fiend if +she couldn't have it. + +"At last they persuaded me to play. We were playing at Nick's, and after +a light dinner served by his Jap, we went right on playing until +midnight. I never thought of you or anything. I seemed to respond with +every nerve in my body and brain. I won and won and won, and even when I +lost I didn't mind. The sensation, the tearing excitement just under a +perfectly cool brain was wonderful. + +"I only ceased to enjoy it when I realized what it meant. When I couldn't +keep away from it. When I lived for the hour when we would meet,--at +Polly's, or at Nick's or at Aileen's--any of the places where we were +supposed to be dancing, but where there was no danger of being found out. +Of course I dared not have them at home, and the others lived with their +families, or had too many servants.... + +"I came fully to my senses one day when Nick told me I was a born +gambler if ever there was one. Then, when I realized, I became +desperately unhappy. + +"I was the slave of a thing. I was deceiving you. When I was at the table +I loved poker better than you, better than anything on earth. When I was +alone I hated it. But I couldn't break away. Besides, I didn't always +win. I had to play in the hope of winning back. Or if I won a lot it was +a point of honor to go on and play again, and give them their chance. + +"Mrs. Thornton found out. She gave me a terrible talking to. I am afraid +I was very insolent. + +"But she came up that night of the Assembly and warned me that you were +down stairs. I was playing in Polly's room. We had all danced two or +three times and then slipped up to the next floor by different stairs and +lifts. I liked her better then. Of course she did it for your sake, not +mine. But she's a good sort, not a cat. + +"You have not noticed, but I have not bought a new gown this season +except that little gray one and this--which was made in the house. I +dared not pawn my jewels, for fear you would miss them. + +"I have been in hell. + +"Then--it was that evening you heard maman reproach me for breaking my +promise--I had lost a dreadful lot of money and Nick had scurried round +and borrowed it for me. I didn't know then that he meant all the time to +get hold of the ruby--I am sure now that he cheated and made me lose. + +"Well, I sent the maid away that night and told maman. She was nearly off +her head. I never saw her excited before. Then she told me the truth. I +felt as if I had been turned to stone. But I felt suddenly cool and wary. +I knew I must keep my head. It was as if my father had suddenly come +alive in my brain. I had never lied to you before, merely put you off. +But how I lied that night! I felt possessed. But I knew I must not be +found out, and I made up my mind to stop playing as soon as I came out +even. If I had known that my father and my grandfather had been gamblers +I never should have touched a card. I'd far rather have drunk poison. + +"I made up my mind then, and there to stop and I felt quite capable of +it. But I had to go on and square myself, for I owed that money to Nick. +But when I played it was with my head only. All the fever had gone out of +my veins. I loathed it. I loathed still more deceiving you. + +"I won and won and won. I thought I was delivered. I was almost happy +again. Some day I meant to tell you--when it was all over. + +"Then I began to lose horribly. Thousands. It ran up to twenty thousand. +I did not betray myself, and the girls thought I had money of my own and +could pay my losses quite easily. They didn't know that Nick always +helped me out. He was never the least bit in love with me--he couldn't +love any woman--but he said I played such a wonderful game and was such a +sport, never lost my head, that he wouldn't lose me for the world--when I +threatened to stop and never play again. + +"But all the time he wanted the ruby. I found that out when he told me he +must have the money inside of a week; he'd taken it out of his business, +and it really belonged to his partners, and they'd find him out and send +him to prison-- + +"I offered him my jewels. They would have brought half their value at +least. I could have told you they were stolen--only one more lie. It was +then he said he must have the ruby. He had known about it ever since you +came out here, but after he saw it on me that night at the Gwynnes' he +was more than ever determined to have it. + +"I laughed at him at first. It seemed preposterous that he could demand a +ruby worth two or three hundred thousand dollars in payment for a debt of +twenty thousand. I thought of selling my jewels and furs and laces, or +pawning them and raising the amount--he only had my I.O.U. for that sum. +But I didn't know where to go. So I told Aileen. She wouldn't hear of my +disposing of my things, said it would, be all over town in twenty-four +hours. She advised me to get the twenty thousand out of you on one +pretext or another. + +"I tried. You will remember. Then Nick began to haunt me. He whispered in +my ear wherever we met. I was nearly frantic. He said he could hold me up +to shame without compromising himself. I had written him some frantic +letters, and he said they read just like--like--the other thing. + +"I felt perfectly helpless. I knew that even if I did manage to pawn the +jewels, you would miss them from the safe and trace them. I ceased to +feel cool. I nearly went off my head. But I stopped gambling. I felt sure +by this time that he could make me lose, but I couldn't prove it. Aileen +told me I must give him the ruby. He promised me before Aileen that he +would give me back my I.O.U.'s as well as my notes if I would hand over +the ruby. He knew I was to wear it to-night. + +"Finally I gave in. Yesterday Nick called me up on the telephone and told +me to come down to the California Market to lunch, and to bring Aileen. +He told me there that unless I promised to give him the ruby to-night, +and kept my word, he'd either give my I.O.U.'s and my notes to you or to +the _Merry Tattler_. He didn't care which. I could have my choice. + +"I said I would do it. But it was terribly conspicuous. Everybody would +notice when it was gone. He said I must conceal it anyhow until we +unmasked after supper, and then I could pretend I had lost it. He +discussed several plans for having me slip it to him, but it was Aileen +who insisted we should come here. Mrs. Thornton never opens her boudoir +at a party. Everywhere else would be a blaze of light. In this dark +corner we should be safe, especially if he came from the outside and I +from inside. How did your detective find out?" + +"I think Aileen did a decent thing for once in her life." + +She went on in her monotonous voice. "I felt reckless after that and I +really was gay and almost happy at dinner last night. The die was cast. I +didn't much care for anything. I thought perhaps it was my last night +with you--that when I told you I had lost the ruby you would suspect and +turn me out of your house, tell maman to take me back to Rouen. + +"Then came that awful moment when you said you had to go away and I could +not wear it. For a few moments I thought I should scream and tell you +everything. But I was both too proud and too much of a coward. Then I +knew I should have to rob the safe, and somehow I hated that part more +than anything else. I did it just ten minutes before Rex and Polly called +for me to motor down here. It had seemed the most horrible thing in the +world to be a gambler, but it was worse to be a thief. + +"I remembered the combination perfectly. I have that sort of memory: it +registers photographically. I had seen you move the combination several +times. Perhaps I deliberately registered it. I can't say. I have lived in +such a maze of intrigue lately. I can't say. That is all--except that I +didn't get the letters and the other things." + +"He had an envelope in one hand. Spaulding has it beyond a doubt." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +There was silence for a moment and then Price said awkwardly: "It is a +pity you haven't the chain or you could wear the ruby for the rest of +the evening." + +She turned her eyes from the window and stared at him. "I have the +chain--" She raised her hand to the tip of her bodice--"but--but--you +can't mean--it isn't possible that you can forgive me." + +"I think I have taken very bad care of you. What are you, after all, but +a brilliant child? I am thirty-three--" + +He suddenly tore off his domino with, a feeling of rage, and thrust his +hands into his friendly pockets. He had never made many verbal +protestations to her, although the most exacting wife could have found no +fault with his love-making. But to-night he felt dumb; he was mortally +afraid of appearing high and noble and magnanimous. + +"You see, things always happen during the first years of married life. +Perhaps more happens--I mean in a pettier way--when the man has leisure +and can see too much of his wife. In my case--our case--it was the other +way--and something almost tragic happened. So I vote we treat it +casually, as something that must have been expected sooner or later to +disturb our--our--even tenor--and forget it." + +"Forget it?" + +"Well, yes. I can if you can." + +"And can you forget who I am?" + +"You are exactly what you were before those scoundrels recognized your +mother, and--and--set me going. Of course I had to find out the truth. I +thought you knew and tried to make you tell me. But you +wouldn't--couldn't--and I had to employ Spaulding." + +"Do you mean you would have married me if you had known the truth at +the time?" + +"Rather." + +"And--but--I told you--I became a regular gambler." + +He could not help smiling. "I have no fear of your gambling again. And I +don't fancy you were a bit worse than the others who had no gambling +blood in them--all the world has that. Gambling is about the earliest of +the vices. I--if--you wouldn't mind promising--I know you will keep it." + +"Nothing under heaven would induce me to play again. But--but--I opened +your safe like a thief and stole--" + +"Oh, not quite. After all it was yours as much as mine. If I had died +without a will you would have got it. + +"Of course--I know what you mean--but men have always driven women into a +corner, and they have had to get out by methods of their own. I wish now +I had given you the twenty thousand. I prefer you should accept my +decision that it was all my fault. Give me the chain." + +She drew it from her bosom and handed it to him. He fastened the ruby in +its place and threw the chain over her neck. The great jewel lit up the +front of her somber gown like a sudden torch in a cavern. + +The stern despair of Hélène's tragic mask relaxed. She dropped her face +into her hands and began to sob. Then Ruyler was himself again. He +picked her up in his arms and settled comfortably into the deepest of +the chairs. + +THE END + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Avalanche, by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AVALANCHE *** + +***** This file should be named 7863-8.txt or 7863-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/7/8/6/7863/ + +Produced by Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/7863-8.zip b/7863-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..b6281de --- /dev/null +++ b/7863-8.zip diff --git a/7863.txt b/7863.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..eae3e1a --- /dev/null +++ b/7863.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4902 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Avalanche, by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Avalanche + +Author: Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton + +Release Date: June 30, 2004 [EBook #7863] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AVALANCHE *** + + + + +Produced by Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + + + + + + THE AVALANCHE + + _A MYSTERY STORY_ + + BY GERTRUDE ATHERTON + + 1919 + + + + +TO CHARLES HANSON TOWNE + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +I + +Price Ruyler knew that many secrets had been inhumed by the earthquake +and fire of San Francisco and wondered if his wife's had been one of +them. After all, she had been born in this city of odd and whispered +pasts, and there were moments when his silent mother-in-law suggested a +past of her own. + +That there was a secret of some sort he had been progressively convinced +for quite six months. Moreover, he felt equally sure that this impalpable +gray cloud had not drifted even transiently between himself and his wife +during the first year and a half of their marriage. They had been +uncommonly happy; they were happy yet ... the difference lay not in the +quality of Helene's devotion, enhanced always by an outspoken admiration +for himself and his achievements, but in subtle changes of temperament +and spirits. + +She had been a gay and irresponsible young creature when he married her, +so much so that he had found it expedient to put her on an allowance and +ask her not to ran up staggering bills in the fashionable shops; which +she visited daily, as much for the pleasure of the informal encounter +with other lively and irresponsible young luminaries of San Francisco +society as for the excitement of buying what she did not want. + +He had broached the subject with some trepidation, for they had never had +a quarrel; but she had shown no resentment whatever, merely an eager +desire to please him. She even went directly down to the Palace Hotel and +reproached her august parent for failing to warn her that a dollar was +not capable of infinite expansion. + +But no wonder she had been extravagant, she told Ruyler plaintively. It +had been like a fairy tale, this sudden release from the rigid +economies of her girlhood, when she had rarely had a franc in her +pocket, and they had lived in a suite of the old family villa on one +of the hills of Rouen, Madame Delano paying her brother for their +lodging, and dressing herself and Helene with the aid of a half +paralyzed seamstress with a fiery red nose. Ma foi! It was the +nightmare of her youth, that nose and that croaking voice. But the +woman had fingers, and a taste! And her mother could have concocted a +smart evening frock out of an old window curtain. + +But the petted little daughter was never asked to go out and buy a spool +of thread, much less was she consulted in the household economies. All +she noticed was that her clothes were smarter than Cousin Marthe's, who +had a real dressmaker, and was subject to fits of jealous sulks. No +wonder that when money was poured into her lap out in this wonderful +California she had assumed that it was made only to spend. + +But she would learn! She would learn! She would ask her mother that very +day to initiate her into the fascinating secrets of personal economies, +teach her how to portion out her quarterly allowance between her +wardrobe, club dues, charities, even her private automobile. + +This last heroic suggestion was her own, and although her husband +protested he finally agreed; it was well she should learn just what it +cost to be a woman of fashion in San Francisco, and the allowance was +very generous. His old steward, Mannings, ran the household, although as +he went through the form of laying the bills before his little mistress +on the third of every month, she knew that the upkeep of the San +Francisco house and the Burlingame villa ran into a small fortune a year. + +"It is not that I am threatened with financial disaster," Ruyler had said +to her. "But San Francisco has not recovered yet, and it is impossible to +say just when she will recover. I want to be absolutely sure of my +expenditures." + +She had promised vehemently, and, as far as he knew, she had kept her +promise. He had received no more bills, and it was obvious that her +haughty chauffeur was paid on schedule time, until, seized with another +economical spasm, she sold her car and bought a small electric which she +could drive herself. + +Ruyler, little as he liked his mother-in-law, was intensely grateful to +her for the dexterity with which she had adjusted Helene's mind to the +new condition. She even taught her how to keep books in an elemental way +and balanced them herself on the first of every month. As Helene Ruyler +had a mind as quick and supple as it was cultivated in _les graces_, she +soon ceased to feel the chafing of her new harness, although she did +squander the sum she had reserved for three months mere pocket money upon +a hat; which was sent to the house by her wily milliner on the first day +of the second quarter. She confessed this with tears, and her husband, +who thought her feminine passion for hats adorable, dried her tears and +took her to the opening night of a new play. But he did not furnish the +pathetic little gold mesh bag, and as he made her promise not to borrow, +she did not treat her friends to tea or ices at any of the fashionable +rendezvous for a month. Then her native French thrift came to her aid and +she sold a superfluous gold purse, a wedding present, to an envious +friend at a handsome bargain. + +That was ancient history now. It was twenty months since Price had +received a bill, and secret inquiries during the past two had satisfied +him that his wife's name was written in the books of no shop in San +Francisco that she would condescend to visit. Therefore, this maddening +but intangible barrier had nothing to do with a change of habit that had +not caused an hour of tears and sulks. Helene had a quick temper but a +gay and sweet disposition, normally high spirits, little apparent +selfishness, and a naive adoration of masculine superiority and strength; +altogether, with her high bred beauty and her dignity in public, an +enchanting creature and an ideal wife for a busy man of inherited social +position and no small degree of pride. + +But all this lovely equipment was blurred, almost obscured at times, by +the shadow that he was beginning to liken to the San Francisco fogs that +drifted through the Golden Gate and settled down into the deep hollows of +the Marin hills; moving gently but restlessly even there, like ghostly +floating tides. He could see them from his library window, where he often +finished his afternoon's work with his secretaries. + +But the fog drifted back to the Pacific, and the shadow that encompassed +his wife did not, or rarely. It chilled their ardors, even their serene +domesticity. She was often as gay and impulsive as ever, but with abrupt +reserves, an implication not only of a new maturity of spirit, but of +watchfulness, even fear. She had once gone so far as to give voice +passionately to the dogma that no two mortals had the right to be as +happy as they were; then laughed apologetically and "guessed" that the +old Puritan spirit of her father's people was coming to life in her +Gallic little soul; then, with another change of mood, added defiantly +that it was time America were rid of its baneful inheritance, and that +she would be happy to-day if the skies fell to-morrow. She had flung +herself into her husband's arms, and even while he embraced her the eyes +of his spirit searched for the girl wife who had fled and left this more +subtly fascinating but incomprehensible creature in her place. + + +II + +The morning was Sunday and he sat in the large window of his library that +overlooked the Bay of San Francisco. The house, which stood on one of the +highest hills, he had bought and remodeled for his bride. The books that +lined these walls had belonged to his Ruyler grandfather, bought in a day +when business men had time to read and it was the fashion for a gentleman +to cultivate the intellectual tracts of his brain. The portraits that +hung above, against the dark paneling, were the work of his mother's +father, one of the celebrated portrait painters of his time, and were +replicas of the eminent and mighty he had painted. Maharajas, kings, +emperors, famous diplomats, men of letters, artists of his own small +class, statesmen and several of the famous beauties of their brief day; +these had been the favorite grandson's inheritance from Masewell Price, +and they made an impressive frieze, unique in the splendid homes of the +city of Ruyler's adoption. + +He had brought them from New York when he had decided to live in +California, and hung them in his bachelor quarters. He had soon made up +his mind that he must remain in San Francisco for at least ten years if +he would maintain the business he had rescued from the disaster of 1906 +at the level where he had, by the severest application of his life, +placed it by the end of 1908. Meanwhile he had grown to like San +Francisco better than he would have believed possible when he arrived in +the wrecked city, still smoking, and haunted with the subtle odors of +fires that had consumed more than products of the vegetable kingdom. + +The vast ruin with its tottering arches and broken columns, its lonely +walls looking as if bitten by prehistoric monsters that must haunt this +ancient coast, the soft pastel colors the great fire had given as sole +compensation for all it had taken, the grotesque twisted masses of steel +and the aged gray hills that had looked down on so many fires, had +appealed powerfully to his imagination, and made him feel, when wandering +alone at night, as if his brain cells were haunted by old memories of +Antioch when Nature had annihilated in an instant what man had lavished +upon her for centuries. Nowhere, not even in what was left of ancient +Rome, had he ever received such an impression of the age of the world and +of the nothingness of man as among the ruins of this ridiculously modern +city of San Francisco. It fascinated him, but he told himself then that +he should leave it without a pang. He was a New Yorker of the seventh +generation of his house, and the rest of the United States of America was +merely incidental. + +The business, a branch of the great New York firm founded in 1840 by an +ancestor grown weary of watching the broad acres of Ruyler Manor +automatically transmute themselves into the yearly rent-roll, and +reverting to the energy and merchant instincts of his Dutch ancestors, +had been conducted skillfully for the thirty years preceding the +disaster by Price's uncle, Dryden Ruyler. But the earthquake and fire in +which so many uninsured millions had vanished, had also wrecked men past +the rebounding age, and Dryden Ruyler was one of them. He might have +borne the destruction of the old business building down on Front Street, +or even the temporary stagnation of trade, but when the Pacific Union +Club disappeared in the raging furnace, and, like many of his old +cronies who had no home either in the country or out in the Western +Addition, he was driven over to Oakland for lodgings, this ghastly +climax of horrors--he escaped in a milk wagon after sleeping for two +nights without shelter on the bare hills behind San Francisco, while the +fire roared its defiance to the futile detonations of dynamite, and his +sciatica was as fiery as the atmosphere--had broken the old man's +spirit, and he had announced his determination to return to +Ruyler-on-Hudson and die as a gentleman should. + +There was no question of Price's father, Morgan Ruyler, leaving New +York, even if he had contemplated the sacrifice for a moment; that his +second son and general manager of the several branches of the great +business of Ruyler and Sons--as integral a part of the ancient history +of San Francisco as of the comparatively modern history of New +York--should go, was so much a matter of course that Price had taken the +first Overland train that left New York after the receipt of his uncle's +despairing telegram. + +In spite of the fortune behind him and his own expert training, the +struggle to rebuild the old business to its former standard had been +unintermittent. The terrific shock to the city's energies was followed +by a general depression, and the insane spending of a certain class of +San Franciscans when their insurance money was paid, was like a brief +last crackling in a cold stove, and, moreover, was of no help to the +wholesale houses. + +But Price Ruyler, like so many of his new associates in like case, had +emerged triumphant; and with the unqualified approval and respect of the +substantial citizens of San Francisco. + +It was this position he had won in a community where he had experienced +the unique sensation of being a pioneer in at the rebirth of a great +city, as well as the outdoor sports that kept him fit, that had endeared +California to Ruyler, and in time caused him whimsically to visualize New +York as a sternly accusing instead of a beckoning finger. Long before he +found time to play polo at Burlingame he had conceived a deep respect for +a climate where a man might ride horseback, shoot, drive a racing car, or +tramp, for at least eight months of the year with no menace of sudden +downpour, and hardly a change in the weight of his clothes. + +To-day the rain was dashing against his windows and the wind howled about +the exposed angles of his house with that personal fury of assault with +which storms brewed out in the vast wastes of the Pacific deride the +enthusiastic baptism of a too confident explorer. All he could see of the +bay was a mad race of white caps, and dark blurs which only memory +assured him were rocky storm-beaten islands; mountain tops, so geological +tradition ran, whose roots were in an unquiet valley long since dropped +from mortal gaze. + +The waves were leaping high against the old forts at the entrance to the +Golden Gate, and occasionally he saw a small craft drift perilously near +to the rocks. But he loved the wild weather of San Francisco, for he was +by nature an imaginative man and he liked to think that he would have +followed the career of letters had not the traditions of the great +commercial house of Ruyler and Sons, forced him to carry on the burden. + +The men of his family had never been idlers since the recrudescence of +ancestral energy in the person of Morgan Ruyler I; it was no part of +their profound sense of aristocracy to retire on inherited or invested +wealth; they believed that your fine American of the old stock should die +in harness; and if the harness had been fashioned and elaborated by +ancestors whose portraits hung in the Chamber of Commerce, all the more +reason to keep it spic and up to date instead of letting it lapse into +those historic vaults where so many once honored names lay rotting. They +were a hard, tight-fisted lot, the Ruylers, and Price in one secluded but +cherished wing of his mind was unlike them only because his mother was +the daughter of Masefield Price and would have been an artist herself if +her scandalized husband would have consented. Morgan Ruyler IV had +overlooked his father-in-law's divagation from the orthodox standards of +his own family because he had been a spectacular financial success; +bringing home ropes of enormous pearls from India in addition to the +fantastic sums paid him by enraptured native princes. But while Morgan +Ruyler believed that rich men should work and make their sons work, if +only because an idle class was both out of place in a republic and +conducive to unrest in the masses, it was quite otherwise with women. +They were for men to shelter, and it was their sole duty to be useful in +the home, and, wherever possible, ornamental in public. Nor had he the +least faith in female talent. + +Marian Ruyler had yielded the point and departed hopefully for a broader +sphere when her second and favorite son was eight. Morgan Ruyler married +again as soon as convention would permit, this time carefully selecting a +wife of the soundest New York predispositions and with a personal +admiration of Queen Victoria; and he had watched young Price like an +affectionate but inexorable parent hawk until the young man followed his +brother--a quintessential Ruyler--into the now historic firm. However, he +suffered little from anxiety. Price, too, was conservative, intensely +proud of the family traditions, an almost impassioned worker, and +unselfish as men go. Two sons in every generation must enter the firm. It +was not in the Ruyler blood to take long chances. + + +III + +Life out here in California had been too hurried for more than fleeting +moments of self-study, but on this idle Sunday morning Price Ruyler's +perturbed mind wandered to that inner self of his to which he once had +longed to give a freer expression. It was odd that the conservative +training, the rigid traditions of his family, conventional, +old-fashioned, Puritanical, as became the best stock of New York, a stock +that in the Ruyler family had seemed to carry its own antidote for the +poisons ever seeking entrance to the spiritual conduits of the rich, had +left any place for that sentimental romantic tide in his nature which had +swept him into marriage with a girl outside of his own class; a girl of +whose family he had known practically nothing until his outraged father +had cabled to a correspondent in Paris to make investigation of the +Perrin family of Rouen, to which the girl's mother claimed to belong. + +The inquiries were satisfactory; they were quite respectable, +bourgeois, silk merchants in a small way--although at least two strata +below that haute bourgeoisie which now regarded itself as the real +upper class of the Republique Francaise. A true Ruyler, however, would +have fled at the first danger signal, never have reached the point +where inquiries were in order. + +California was replete with charming, beautiful, and superlatively +healthy girls; the climate produced them as it did its superabundance of +fruit, flowers, and vegetables. But they had left Price Ruyler +untroubled. He had been far more interested watching San Francisco rise +from its ruins, transformed almost overnight from a picturesque but +ramshackle city, a patchwork of different eras, into a staid metropolis +of concrete and steel, defiant alike of earthquake and fire. He had liked +the new experience of being a pioneer, which so subtly expanded his +starved ego that he had, by unconscious degrees, made up his mind to +remain out here as the permanent head of the San Francisco House; and in +time, no doubt, marry one of these fine, hardy, frank, out-of-door, +wholly unsubtle California girls. Moreover, he had found in San Francisco +several New Yorkers as well as Englishmen of his own class--notably John +Gwynne, who had thrown over one of the greatest of English peerages to +follow his personal tastes in a legislative career--all of whom had +settled down into that free and independent life from motives not +dissimilar from his own. + +But he had ceased to be an untroubled spirit from the moment he met +Helene Delano. He had gone down to Monterey for polo, and he had +forgotten the dinner to which he had brought a keen appetite, and stared +at her as she entered the immense dining room with her mother. + +It was not her beauty, although that was considerable, that had summarily +transposed his gallant if cool admiration for all charming well bred +women into a submerging recognition of woman in particular; it was her +unlikeness to any of the girls he had been riding, dancing, playing golf +and tennis with during the past year and a half (for two years after his +arrival he had seen nothing of society whatever). Later that evening he +defined this dissimilarity from the American girl as the result not only +of her French blood but of her European training, her quiet secluded +girlhood in a provincial town of great beauty, where she had received a +leisurely education rare in the United States, seen or read little of the +great world (she had visited Paris only twice and briefly), her mind +charmingly developed by conscientious tutors. But at the moment he +thought that the compelling power lay in some deep subtlety of eye, her +little air of lofty aloofness, her classic small features in a small +face, and the top-heavy masses of blue black hair which she carried with +a certain naive pride as if it were her only vanity; in her general +unlikeness to the gray-eyed fair-haired American--a type to which himself +belonged. Her only point in common with this fashionable set patronizing +Del Monte for the hour, was the ineffable style with which she wore her +perfect little white frock; an American inheritance, he assumed after he +knew her; for, as he recalled provincial French women, style was not +their strong point. + +When he met her eyes some twenty minutes later, he dismissed the +impression of subtlety, for their black depths were quick with an eager +wonder and curiosity. Later they grew wistful, and he guessed that she +knew none of these smart folk, down, like himself, for the tournament; +people who were chattering from table to table like a large family. That +some of his girl acquaintances were interested in the young stranger he +inferred from speculative and appraising eyes that were turned upon her +from time to time. + +Price, with some irony, wondered at their curiosity. The San Francisco +girl, he had discovered, possessed an extra sense all her own. There was +no lofty indifference about her. She had the worth-while stranger +detected and tabulated and his or her social destiny settled before the +Eastern train had disgorged its contents at the Oakland mole. And even +the immense florid mother of this lovely girl, with her own masses of +snow white hair dressed in a manner becoming her age, and a severe gown +of black Chantilly net, relieved by the merest trifle of jet, looked the +reverse of the nondescript tourist. The girl wore white embroidered silk +muslin and a thin gold chain with a small ruby pendant. She was rather +above the average height, although not as tall as her mother, and if she +were as thin as fashion commanded, her bones were so small that her neck +and arms looked almost plump. Her expressive eyes were as black as her +hair, and her only large feature. Her skin was of a quite remarkably pink +whiteness, although there was a pink color in her lips and cheeks. The +older men stared at her more persistently than the younger ones, who +liked their own sort and not girls who looked as if they might be "booky" +and "spring things on a fellow." + +There was a ball in the evening and once more mother and daughter sat +apart, while the flower of San Francisco--an inclusive term for the +select circles of Menlo Park, Atherton, Burlingame, San Mateo, far San +Rafael and Belvedere--romped as one great family. Newport, Ruyler +reflected for the twentieth time, did it no better. To the stranger +peering through the magic bars they were now as insensible as befitted +their code. These two people knew nobody and that was the end of it. + + +IV + +But Price noted that now the girl's eyes were merely wistful, and once or +twice he saw them fill with tears. As three of the dowagers merely +sniffed when he sought possible information, he finally had recourse to +the manager of the hotel, D.V. Bimmer. They were a Madame and +Mademoiselle Delano from Rouen, and had been at the hotel for a +fortnight, not seeming to mind its comparative emptiness, but enjoying +the sea bathing and the drives. The girl rode, and went out every morning +with a groom. + +"But didn't they bring any letters?" asked Ruyler. "They are ladies and +one letter would have done the business. That poor girl is having the +deuce of a time." + +"D.V.," who knew "everybody" in California, and all their secrets, shook +his head. "'Fraid not. The French maid told the floor valet that although +the father was American--from New England somewheres--and the girl born +in California, accidentally as it were, she had lived in France all her +life--she's just eighteen--never crossed the ocean before. Can you beat +it? Until last month, and then they came from Hong Kong--taking a trip +round the world in good old style. The madame, who scarcely opens her +month, did condescend to tell me that she had admired California very +much when she was here before, and intended to travel all over the state. +Perhaps I met her in that far off long ago, for I was managing a hotel in +San Francisco about that time, and her face haunts me somehow--although +when features get all swallowed up by fat like that you can't locate +them. The girl, too, reminds me of some one, but of course she was in +arms when she left and as I ain't much on cathedrals I never went to +Rouen. Of course it's the old trick, bringing a pretty girl to a +fashionable watering place to marry her off, but these folks are not +poor. Not what we'd call rich, perhaps, but good and solid. I don't fall +for the old lady; she's a cool proposition or I miss my guess, but the +girl's all right. I've seen too many girls in this Mecca for adventurous +females and never made a mistake yet. I wish some of our grand dames +would extend the glad hand. But I'm afraid they won't. Terrible +exclusive, this bunch." + +Ruyler scowled and walked back to the ballroom. The exclusiveness of this +young society on the wrong side of the continent sometimes made him +homesick and sometimes made him sick. He saw little chance for this poor +girl to enjoy the rights of her radiant youth if her mother had not taken +the precaution to bring letters. France was full of Californians. Many +lived there. Surely she must have met some one she could have made use +of. It was tragic to watch a pathetic young thing staring at two or three +hundred young men and maidens disporting themselves with the natural +hilarity of youth, and but few of them too ill-natured to welcome a young +and lovely stranger if properly introduced. + +He experienced a desperate impulse to go up to the mother and offer +her the hospitality of the evening, ask her to regard him as her host. +But Madame Delano had a frozen eye, and no doubt orthodox French ideas +on the subject of young girls. A moment later his eye fell on Mrs. +Ford Thornton. + +"Fordy" was many times a millionaire, and his handsome intelligent wife +lived the life of her class. But she was far less conservative than any +woman Price had met in San Francisco. Although she was no longer young he +had more than once detected symptoms of a wild and insurgent spirit, and +an impatient contempt for the routine she was compelled to follow or go +into retirement. She was always leaving abruptly for Europe, and every +once in a while she did something quite uncanonical; enjoying wickedly +the consternation she caused among the serenely regulated, and betraying +to the keen eyes of the New Yorker an ironic appreciation of the immense +wealth which enabled her to do as she chose, answerable to no one. Her +husband was uxorious and she had no children. She had seemed to Price +more restless than usual of late and showing unmistakable signs of abrupt +departure. (He was sure she dusted the soles of her boots as she locked +the door of drawing-room A.) Perhaps to-night she might be in a +schismatic mood. + +She was standing apart, a tall, dark, almost fiercely haughty woman, but +dressed with a certain arrogant simplicity, without jewels, her hair in a +careless knot at the base of her head. There were times when she was +impeccably groomed, others when she looked as if an infuriated maid had +left her helpless. She was, as Ruyler well knew, a kind and generous +woman (in certain of her moods), with whom the dastardly cradle fates had +experimented, hoping for high drama when the whip of life snapped once +too often. Perhaps she had found her revenge as well as her consolation +in cheating them. + +It was evident to Price that she had been snubbing somebody, for a group +of matrons, flushed and drawn apart, were whispering resentfully. Price +Ruyler stood in no awe of her. He could match her arrogance, and he liked +and admired her more than any of his new friends. They quarreled +furiously but she had never snubbed him. + +He walked over to her, his cool gray eyes lit with the pleasure in seeing +her that she had learned to expect. "Good evening, oh, Queen of the +Pacific," he said lightly. "You are looking quite wonderful as usual. Are +you standing alone almost in the middle of the room to emphasize +the--difference?" + +"I am in no mood for compliments, satiric or otherwise." She looked him +over with cool penetration. "I may not massage or have my old cuticle +ripped off. If I choose to look my age you must admit that it gives me +one more claim to originality." + +"You should have let the world know long since just how original you are, +instead of settling down into the leadership of San Francisco society--" + +He enjoyed provoking her. Her dark narrow eyes opened and flashed as they +must have done in their unchastened youth. "Don't dare call me the leader +of this--this!" + +"Granted. But the fact remains that your word alone is law. Therefore I +am about to ask you to forget that I am a bungling diplomat and do a kind +act. For once you would be able to be both kind and original." + +"I did not know you went in for charities. I am sick of shelling out." + +"My only part in charities is shelling out." + +"Well, come to the point. What do you want?" + +"I want you to go over to that lady--Madame Delano, her name is--sitting +beside that beautiful girl, and introduce yourself and then me. They are +strangers and I'd like to give them a good time." + +"How disinterested of you!" She looked the isolated couple over. "The +girl is all right, but I don't like the mother. She is well dressed--oh, +correct from tip to toe--but not quite the lady." + +Ruyler's cool insolent gaze swept the dado of amiable overfed ladies who +fanned themselves against the wall. + +"None of that! You know that I do not tolerate the New York attitude. +At least we know who ours are; they came into their own respectably, +and with no uncertain touch. Of course it is stupid of them to get fat. +Naturally it makes them look _bourgeoise_. But this is a lazy climate. +As to that woman: there is something about her I do not like. She is +aggressively not massaged, not made up. Only a woman of assured +position can afford to be mid-Victorian. It is now quite the smart +thing to make up." + +"No doubt her position is assured in her own provincial town. It will be +easy enough to drop her if she doesn't go down. You can't deny that the +girl is all right--and a sweet pathetic figure." + +"If the girl marries one of our boys--and no doubt that is what she was +brought here for--we shall not be able to get rid of the mother. We've +tried that and failed." + +At that moment Ruyler's eyes met those of the girl. They flashed an +irresistible appeal. He drew a short breath. How different she looked! +She radiated a subtle promise of perfect companionship. Price Ruyler did +what all men will do until the end of time. He made up his mind that he +had found his woman and without vocal assistance. + +Mrs. Thornton, who had been watching the unusual mobility of his face, +met his eyes with a satirical smile in her own, her thin red curling lips +drawn almost straight for a moment. She had played with the fancy, before +anger banished it, that if she had been twenty years younger.... Men had +fallen madly in love with her in her own day.... She detected the +symptoms in this man at once. Her savage will compelled her to accept +accumulating years without a concession. But she had forgotten nothing. + +Ruyler may have read her thoughts. + +"You know," he said, with an attempt at lightness, although the coast +wind tan, which was his only claim to coloring, had paled a little, "that +girl reminds me so much of you that I have made up my mind to marry her. +I don't care who she is. If you don't help me to meet her conventionally +I'll manage somehow, but I should hate to practice any subterfuges on the +woman I intend to make my wife." + +For a moment he had the sensation of being pinned to the wall by that +narrow concentrated gaze. Then Mrs. Thornton swung on her heel. "I'll do +it," she said. + +She walked across the room with the supple grace her slender figure had +never lost and sat down beside the older woman. In a moment the +astonished dowagers who had "suffered from her fiendish temper all +evening," saw her talking with spontaneous graciousness to both the +strangers. Madame Delano was at first more distant and reserved than Mrs. +Thornton had ever been, manifestly betraying all the suspicion and +unsocial instincts of her class; but she thawed, and the two women +chatted, while once more the girl's eyes wandered to the dancers. + +When Mrs. Thornton had tormented Ruyler for quite fifteen minutes she +beckoned to him imperiously. A moment later he was whirling the girl down +the ball room and thrilling at her contact. + + +V + +The wooing had been as headlong as his falling in love. Helene Delano had +a deep sweet voice, which completed the conquest during the hour they +spent in the grounds under the shelter of a great palm, until hunted down +by a horrified parent. + +Helene talked frankly of her life. Her mother had been visiting relatives +in a small New England town--Holbrook Centre, she believed it was called, +but hard American names did not cling to her memory--she loved the soft +Latin and Indian names in California--and there she had met and married +her father, James Delano. They were on their way to Japan when business +detained him in San Francisco much longer than he had expected and she +was born. She believed that he had owned a ranch that he wanted to sell. +He died on the voyage across the Pacific and her mother had returned to +live among her own people in Rouen--very plain bourgeois, but of a +respectability, Oh, la! la! + +"But it was a tiresome life for a young girl with American blood in her, +monsieur." Her mother's income from her husband's estate was not large, +but they lived in a wing of the old house and were very comfortable. From +her window there was a lovely view of the Seine winding off to Paris. +"Oh, monsieur, how I used to long to go to Paris! America was too far. I +never even dreamed of it. But Paris! And only two little glimpses of +it--the last when we spent a fortnight there before sailing, to get me +some nice frocks...." + +She had studied hard--but hard! She knew four languages, she told Ruyler +proudly. "I had no _dot_ then, you see. It was possible I might have to +teach one day. A governess in England, Oh, la! la!" + +But six months ago a good old uncle had died and left them some money. +She would have a little _dot_ now, and they could travel. Maman said she +would not have a large enough _dot_ to make a fine marriage in France, +but that the English and American men were more romantic. They went first +to the Orient, as there were many Englishmen of good family to be met +there. "But maman is difficult to please," she added with her enchanting +artlessness, "as difficult as I myself, monsieur. I wish to fall in love +like the American girls. Maman says it is not necessary, but I am half +American, so, why not? There was an English gentleman with a nice title +in Hong Kong and maman was quite pleased with him until she discovered +that he gambled or did something equally horrid and she bought our +tickets for San Francisco right away." + +Yes, she was enjoying her travels, but she was a little lonesome; in +Rouen at least she had her cousins. For the first time in her life she +was talking to a young man alone; even on the steamer she was not +permitted to speak to any of the nice young men who looked as if they +would like her if only maman would relent. + +"In our ugly old rooms in Rouen maman cherished me like some rare little +flower in an old earthen pot," she added quaintly. "Now the pot has +tinsel and tissue paper round it, but until to-night I have felt as if I +might just as well be an old cabbage." + +But it had been heaven to dance with a young man who was not a cousin; +and to sit out alone with him in the moonlight, Oh, _grace a Dieu_! + +Traveling she had read modern novels for the first time. There were many +in the ship's library, oh, but dozens! and she knew now how American and +English girls enjoyed life. Her mother had been ill nearly all the way +over. She had given her word not to speak to any one, but maman had been +ignorant of the library replete with the novelists of the day, and +although she was not untruthful, _enfin_, she saw no reason to ask her +too anxious parent for another prohibition and condemn herself to yawn +at the sea. + +Ruyler proposed at the end of a week. She was the only really innocent, +unspoiled, unselfconscious girl he had ever met, almost as old-fashioned +as his great grandmother must have been. Not that he set forth her +virtues to bolster his determination to marry a girl of no family even in +her own country; he was madly in love, and life without her was +unthinkable; but he tabulated the thousand points to her credit for the +benefit of his outraged father. + +He did not pretend to like Madame Delano. She was a hard, calculating, +sordid old bourgeoisie, but when he refused the little _dot_ she would +have settled upon Helene, he knew that he had won her friendship and that +she would give him no trouble. She was not a mother-in-law to be ashamed +of, for her manners were coldly correct, her education in youth had +evidently been adequate, and in her obese way she was imposing. She gave +him to understand that she had no more desire to live with her son-in-law +than he with her, and established herself in a small suite in the Palace +Hotel. After a "lifetime" in a provincial town, economizing mercilessly, +she felt, she remarked in one of her rare expansive moments, that she had +earned the right to look on at life in a great hotel. + +The rainy season she spent in Southern California, moving from one large +hotel crowded with Eastern visitors to another. This uncommon +self-indulgence and her devotion to Helene were the only weak spots +Ruyler was able to discover in that cast-iron character. She seldom +attended the brilliant entertainments of her daughter and refused the +endowed car offered by her son-in-law. Helene married to the best _parti_ +in San Francisco and quite happy, she seemed content to settle down into +the role of the onlooker at the kaleidoscope of life. She spent eight +hours of the day and evening seated in an arm chair in the court of the +Palace Hotel, and for air rode out to the end of the California Street +car line, always on the front seat of the dummy. She was dubbed a "quaint +old party" by her new acquaintances and left to her own devices. If she +didn't want them they could jolly well do without her. + + +VI + +Helene's social success was immediate and permanent. Californians rarely +do things by halves. Society was no exception. She had "walked off" with +the most desirable man in town, but they were good gamblers. When they +lost they paid. She had married into "their set." They had accepted her. +She was one of them. No secret order is more loyal to its initiates. + +During that first year and a half of ideal happiness Ruyler, in what +leisure he could command, found Helene's rapidly expanding mind as +companionable as he had hoped; and the girlish dignity she never lost, +for all her naivete and vivacity, gratified his pride and compelled, upon +their second brief visit to New York, even the unqualified approval of +his family. + +She had inherited all the subtle adaptability of her father's race, +nothing of the cold and rigid narrowness of her mother's class. Price had +feared that her lively mind might reveal disconcerting shallows, but +these little voids were but the divine hiatuses of youth. He sometimes +wondered just how strong her character was. There were times when she +showed a pronounced inclination for the line of least resistance ... but +her youth ... her too sheltered bringing up ... those drab cramped +years ... no wonder.... + +He was glad on the whole that his was the part to mold. Nevertheless, he +had his inconsistencies. Unlike many men of strong will and driving +purpose he liked strength of character and pronounced individuality in +women; and he, too, had had fleeting visions of what life might have been +had Flora Thornton entered life twenty years later. He had been quite +sincere in telling her that the young stranger reminded him of the most +powerful personality he had met in California, and he believed that +within a reasonable time Helene would be as variously cultivated, as +widely, if less erratically developed. But was there any such insurgent +force in her depths? It was not within the possibilities that at any time +in her life Flora Thornton had been pliable. + +A man had little time to study his wife in California these days. Or at +any time? He sometimes wondered. Certainly happy marriages were rare and +divorces many. Fine weather nearly all the year round played the deuce +with domesticity, and his business could not be neglected for the long +vacation abroad to which they both had looked forward so ardently. + +Sometimes, even before this vague gray mist had risen between them, he +had had moments of wondering whether he knew his wife at all. How could a +man know a woman who did not yet know herself? He sighed and wished he +had more time to explore the uncharted seas of a woman's soul. + +But the cause of the change in her was something far less picturesque, +something concrete and sinister. He felt sure of that.... + + +VII + +Unless--but that was ridiculous! Impossible! + +He sprang to his feet, incredulous, disgusted at the mere thought. + +But why not? She was very young, and older and wiser women were afflicted +with inconsistencies, little tenacious desires and vanities never quite +to be grasped by the elemental male. + +He went over to a bookcase containing heavy works of reference and +pressed his index finger into the molding. It swung outward, revealing +the door of a safe. He manipulated the combination, took from a drawer of +the interior a box, opened it and stared at a magnificent Burmah ruby. It +was or had been a royal jewel, presented to Masewell Price by one of the +great princes of India whose portrait he had painted. The pearls had all +been captured long since by Price's sisters and by Morgan V. for his +wife; but this ruby his mother had given him as she lay dying. She had +bidden him leave it in his father's safe until he was out of college, and +then keep it as closely in his personal possession as possible. It would +be turned over to him with the rest of his private fortune. + +"Never let any woman wear it," she had whispered. "It brings luck to men +but not to women. Nothing could have affected my luck one way or the +other--I was born to have nothing I wanted, but you, dear little boy. +Keep it for your luck and in a safe place, but near you." + +He had looked back upon this scene as he grew older as the mere +expression of a whim of dissolution, but it had made so deep an +impression upon him at the time that insensibly the words sank into his +plastic mind creating a superstition that refused to yield to reason. The +ruby was Helene's birthstone and she was passionately fond of it. She had +begged and coaxed to wear this jewel, and upon one occasion had stamped +her little foot and sulked throughout the evening. He had given her a +ruby bar, had the clasp of her pearl necklace set with rabies, and last +Christmas had presented her with a small but fine "pigeon blood" +encircled with diamonds. These had enraptured her for the moment, but she +had always circled back to the historic stone, over which her indulgent +husband was so unaccountably obstinate. + +Until lately. He recalled that for several months she had not mentioned +it. Could she have been indulging in a prolonged attack of interior +sulks, which affected her spirits, dimmed her radiant personality? He +abominated the idea but admitted the possibility. She would not be the +first person to be the victim of a secret but furious passion for jewels. +He recalled a novel of Hichens; not the matter but the central idea. +Authors of other races had used the same motive. Well, if his wife had an +abnormal streak in her the sooner he found out the truth the better. + +He closed the door of the safe, swung the bookcase into place, slipped +the ruby with its curious gold chain that looked massive but hardly +weighed an ounce, into his pocket, rang for a servant and told him to ask +Mrs. Ruyler to come down to the library as soon as she was dressed. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +I + +Ruyler sighed as he heard his wife walk down the hall. There had been a +time when she came running like a child at his summons, but in these days +she walked with a leisurely dignity which to his possibly morbid ear +betrayed a certain crab-like disposition in her little high heels to slip +backward along the polished floor. + +She came in smiling, however, and kissed him quickly and warmly. Her +extraordinary hair hung down in two long braids, their blue blackness +undulating among the soft folds of her thin pink negligee. For the first +time Ruyler realized that pink was Helene's favorite color; she seldom +wore anything else except white or black, and then always relieved with +pink. And why not, with that deep pink blush in her white cheeks, and the +velvet blackness of her eyes? People still raved over Helene Ruyler's +"coloring," and Price told himself once more as she stood before him, her +little head dragged back by the weight of her plaits, her slender throat +crossed by a narrow line of black velvet, that he had married one of the +most beautiful girls he had ever seen. + +He was seized with a sudden sharp pang of jealousy and caught her in his +arms roughly, his gray eyes almost as black as hers. + +"Tell me," he exclaimed, and the new fear almost choked him, "does any +other man interest you--the least little bit?" + +She stared at him and then burst into the most natural laugh he had heard +from her for months. "That is simply too funny to talk about." + +"But I am able to give you so little of my time. Working or tired out at +night--letting you go out so much alone--but I haven't the heart to +insist that you yawn over a book, while I am shut up here, or too fagged +to talk even to you. Life is becoming a tragedy for business men--if +they've got it in them to care for anything else." + +"Well, don't add to the tragedy by cultivating jealousy. I've told you +that I am perfectly willing to give up Society and sit like Dora holding +your pens--or filling your fountain pen--no, you dictate. What chance has +a woman in a business man's life?" + +"None, alas, except to look beautiful and be happy. Are you that?--the +last I mean, of course!" + +She nestled closer to him and laughed again. "More so than ever. To be +frank you have completed my happiness by being jealous. I have wondered +sometimes if it were a compliment--your being so sure of me." + +"That's my idea of love." + +"Well, it's mine, too. But if you want me to stay home--" + +"Oh, no! You are fond of society? Really, I mean? Why shouldn't you +be?--a young thing--" + +"What else is there? Of course, I should enjoy it much more if you were +always with me. Shall we never have that year in Europe together?" + +"God knows. Something is wrong with the world. It needs +reorganizing--from the top down. It is inhuman, the way even rich men +have to work--to remain rich! But sit down." + +He led her over to a chair before the window. The storm was decreasing in +violence, the heavy curtain of rain was no longer tossed, but falling in +straight intermittent lines, and the islands were coming to life. Even +the high and heavy crest of Mount Tamalpais was dimly visible. + +"It is the last of the storms, I fancy. Spring is overdue," said Price, +who, however, was covertly watching his wife's face. Her color had faded +a little, her lids drooped over eyes that stared out at the still +turbulent waters. + +"I love these San Francisco storms," she said abruptly. "I am so glad we +have these few wild months. But Mrs. Thornton has worried and so have we. +Her fete at San Mateo comes off on the fourteenth, the first +entertainment she has given since her return, and it would be ghastly if +it rained. It should be a wonderful sight--those grounds--everybody in +fancy dress with little black velvet masks. Don't you think you can go?" + +"The fourteenth? I'll try to make it. Who are you to be?" + +"Beatrice d'Este--in a court gown of black tissue instead of velvet, with +just a touch of pink--oh, but a wonderful creation! I designed it myself. +We are not bothering too much about historical accuracy." + +"How would you like this for the touch of pink!" He took the immense ruby +from his pocket and tossed it into her lap. + +For a moment she stared at it with expanding eyes, then gave a +little shriek of rapture and flung herself into his arms, the child +he had married. + +"Is it true? But true? Shall I wear this wonderful thing? The women will +die of jealousy. I shall feel like an empress--but more, more, I shall +wear this lovely thing--I, I, Helene Ruyler, born Perrin, who never had a +franc in her pocket in Rouen! Price! Have you changed your mind--but no! +I cannot believe it." + +That was it then! He watched her mobile face sharply. It expressed +nothing but the excited rapture of a very young woman over a magnificent +toy. There was none of the morbid feverish passion he had dreadfully +anticipated. His spirits felt lighter, although he sighed that a bauble, +even if it were one of the finest of its kind in the world, should have +projected its sinister shadow between them. It had a wicked history. But +Helene saw no shadows. She held it up to the light, peered into it as it +lay half concealed in the cup of her slender white hands, fondled it +against her cheek, hung the chain about her neck. + +"How I have dreamed of it," she murmured. "How did you come to change +your mind?" + +"I thought it a pity such a fine jewel should live forever in a safe; and +it will become you above all women. Nature must have had you in her eye +when she designed the ruby. I had a sudden vision ... and made up my mind +that you should wear it the first time I was able to take you to a party. +I must keep the letter of my promise." + +"And I can only wear it when you are with me?" + +"I am afraid so." + +"I'm you, if there is anything in the marriage ceremony." Then she kissed +him impulsively. "But I won't be a little pig. And I can tell everybody +between now and the Thornton fete that I am going to wear it, and I can +think and dream of my triumph meanwhile. But why didn't you let me know +you were down? It is Sunday, our only day. I overslept shockingly. I +didn't get home till two." + +"Two? Do you dance until two every night?" + +"What else? They lead such a purposeless life out here. We sometimes have +classes--but they don't last long. I have almost forgotten that I once +had a serious mind. But what would you? It is either society or suffrage. +I won't be as serious as that yet. I mean to be young--but young! for +five more years. Then I shall become a 'leader,' or vote for the +President, or ride on a float in a suffrage parade dressed as the Goddess +of Liberty, with my hair down." + +He laughed, more and more relieved. "Yes, please remain young until you +are twenty-five. By that time I hope the world will have adjusted itself +and I shall have the leisure to companion you. Meanwhile, be a child. It +is very refreshing to me. Come. I must lock this thing up. I have an +interview here with Spaulding in about ten minutes." + +She gave it up reluctantly, kissing it much as she had kissed him during +their engagement; warm, lingering, but almost impersonal kisses. The ruby +seemed miraculously to have restored her beaten youth. + +She sat on the edge of a chair as he opened the safe and placed the jewel +in its box and drawer. + +"There is one other thing I wanted to ask," he said as he rose. "Is your +allowance sufficient? It has sometimes occurred to me that you wanted +more--for some feminine extravagance." + +The light went out of her face. He wondered whimsically if he had locked +it in with the ruby, and once more he was conscious that something +intangible floated between them. But she looked at him squarely with her +shadowed eyes. + +"Oh, one could spend any amount, of course, but I really have +quite enough." + +"You shall have double your present allowance when these cursed times +improve. And I have always intended to settle a couple of hundred +thousand on you--a quarter of a million--as soon as I could realize +without loss on certain investments. But one day I want you to be quite +independent." + +Her eyes had opened very wide. "A quarter of a million? And it would be +all my own? I could do anything with it I liked?" + +"Well--I think I should put it in trust. I haven't much faith in the +resistance of your sex to tempting investments promising a high rate of +interest." + +"I have heard you say that when rich men die the amount of worthless +stock found in their safe deposit boxes passes belief." + +"Quite true. But that is hardly an argument in favor of trusting an even +more inexperienced sex with large sums of money." + +She laughed, but less naturally than when he had been seized with an +unwonted spasm of jealousy. "You will always get the best of me in an +argument," she said with her exquisite politeness. "Really, I think I +love being wholly dependent upon you. Here comes your detective. What +a bore. But at least we lunch together if we do have company. And +thank you, thank you a thousand times for promising I shall wear the +ruby at last." + +She slipped her hand into his for a second, then left the room, smiling +over her shoulder, as the locally celebrated "Jake" Spaulding entered. +Both Ruyler and his general manager had thought it best to have their +cashier watched. There were rumors of gambling and other road house +diversions, and they proposed to save their man to the firm, if possible; +if not, to discharge him before he followed the usual course and involved +Ruyler and Sons in the loss of thousands they could ill afford to spare. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +I + +On the following day Ruyler, who had looked upon the whirlwind of passion +that had swept him into a romantic and unworldly marriage, as likely to +remain the one brief drama of his prosaic business man's life, began +dimly to apprehend that he was hovering on the edge of a sinister and +complicated drama whose end he could as little foresee as he could escape +from the hand of Fate that was pushing him inexorably forward. When Fate +suddenly begins to take a dramatic interest in a man whose course has run +like a yacht before a strong breeze, she precipitates him toward one half +crisis after another in order to confuse his mental powers and render him +wholly a puppet for the final act. These little Earth histrionics are +arranged no doubt for the weary gods, who hardly brook a mere mortal +rising triumphantly above the malignant moods of the master playwright. + +He lunched at the Pacific Union Club and caught the down-town California +Street cable car as it passed, finding his favorite seat on the left side +of the "dummy" unoccupied. He was thinking of Helene, a little +disappointed, but on the whole vastly relieved, congratulating himself +that, no longer haunted, he could give his mind wholly to the important +question of the merger he contemplated with a rival house that had limped +along since the disaster, but had at last manifested its willingness to +accept the offer of Ruyler and Sons. + +It was a moment before he realized that his mother-in-law occupied the +front seat across the narrow space, and even before he recognized that +large bulk, he had registered something rigid and tense in its muscles; +strained in its attitude. When he raised his eyes to the face he found +himself looking at the right cheek instead of the left, and it was +pervaded by a sickly green tint quite unlike Madame Delano's florid +color. She was listening to a man who sat just behind her on the long +seat that ran the length of the dummy. Although the day was clear, there +was still a sharp wind and no one else sat outside. + +Ruyler knew the man by sight. Before the fire he had owned some of the +most disreputable houses in the district the car would pass on its way to +the terminus. The buildings were uninsured, and he had made his living +since as a detective. Even his political breed had gone out of power in +the new San Francisco, but he was well equipped for a certain type of +detective work. He had a remarkable memory for faces and could pierce any +disguise, he was as persistent as a ferret, and his knowledge of the +underworld of San Francisco was illimitable. But his chief assets were +that he looked so little like a detective, and that, so secretive were +his methods, his calling was practically unknown. He had set up a cheap +restaurant with a gambling room behind at which the police winked, +although pretending to raid him now and again. He was a large soft man +with pendulous cheeks streaked with red, a predatory nose, and a black +overhanging mustache. His name was 'Gene Bisbee, and there was a +tradition that in his younger days he had been handsome, and irresistible +to the women who had made his fortune. + +Ruyler was absently wondering what his haughty mother-in-law could have +to say to such a man when to his amazement Bisbee planted his elbow in +the pillow of flesh just below Madame Delano's neck, and said easily: + +"Oh, come off, Marie. I'd know you if you were twenty years older and +fifty pounds heavier--and that's going some. Bimmer and two or three +others are not so sure--won't bet on it--for twenty years, and, let me +see--you weighed about a hundred and thirty-five--perfect figger--in the +old days. Must weigh two seventy-five now. That makes one forty-five +pounds extra. Well, that and time, and white hair, would change pretty +near any woman, particularly one with small features. You look a real old +lady, and you can't be mor'n forty-five. How did you manage the white +hair? Bleach?" + +Ruyler felt his heart turn over. The frozen blood pounded in his brain +and distended his own muscles, his mouth unclosed to let his breath +escape. Then he became aware that the woman had recovered herself and +moved forward, displacing the familiar elbow. She turned imperiously to +the motorman. + +"Stop at the corner," she said. "And if this man attempts to follow me +please send back a policeman. He is intoxicated." + +The car stopped at the corner of the street opposite the site of the +old Saint Mary's Cathedral, a street where once had been that row of +small and evil cottages where French women, painted, scantily dressed +in a travesty of the evening gown, called to the passer-by through the +slats of old-fashioned green shutters. That had been before Ruyler's +day, but he knew the history of the neighborhood, and this man's +interest in it. He was not surprised to hear Bisbee laugh aloud as +Madame Delano, who stepped off the car with astonishing agility, +waddled down the now respectable street. But she held her head +majestically and did not look back. + +Ruyler squared his back lest the man, glancing over, recognize him. That +would be more than he could bear. As the car reached Front Street he +sprang from the dummy and walked rapidly north to Ruyler and Sons. He +locked himself in his private office, dismissing his stenographer with +the excuse that he had important business to think out and must not be +disturbed. + + +II + +But business was forgotten. He was as nearly in a state of panic as was +possible for a man of his inheritance and ordered life. He belonged to +that class of New Yorker that looked with cold disgust upon the women of +commerce. So far as he knew he had never exchanged a word with one of +them, and had often listened with impatience to the reminiscences of his +San Francisco friends, now married and at least intermittently decent, of +the famous ladies who once had reigned in the gay night life of San +Francisco. + +And his mother-in-law! The mother of his wife! + +Her name was Marie. In that chaos of flesh an interested eye might +discover the ruins of beauty. Her hair, he knew, had been black. He +recalled the terror expressed in every line of that mountainous +figure--which may well have been perfect twenty years ago. The green +pallor of her cheek! And he had long felt, rather than knew, that she +possessed magnificent powers of bluff. Her dignified exit had been no +more convincing to him than to Bisbee. + +He went back over the past and recalled all he knew of the woman whose +daughter he had married. She had visited the United States about +twenty-one years ago, met and married Delano, and remained in San +Francisco two or three months on their way to Japan. Delano had died on +the voyage across the Pacific, been buried at sea, and his widow had +returned to her family in Rouen and settled down in her brother's +household. + +This was practically all he knew, for it was all that Helene knew, and +Madame Delano never wasted words. It had not occurred to him to question +her. Their status in Rouen was established, and if not distinguished it +was indubitably respectable and not remotely suggestive of mystery. + +Price, convinced that Helene's father must have been a gentleman, +recalled that he had asked her one day to tell him something of the +Delanos, but his wife had replied vaguely that she believed her +mother had been too sad to talk about him for a long while, and then +probably had got out of the habit. She knew nothing more than she +already had told him. + +It came back to him, however, that several times his wife's casual +references to the past, and particularly regarding her parents, had not +dove-tailed, but that he had dismissed the impression; attributing it to +some lapse in his own attention. He had a bad habit of listening and +thinking out a knotty business problem at the same time. And there is a +curious inhibition in loyal minds which forbids them to put two and two +together until suspicion is inescapably aroused. + +He had a very well ordered mind, furnished with innumerable little pigeon +holes, which flew open at the proper vibration from his admirable memory. +He concentrated this memory upon a little bureau of purely personal +receptacles and before long certain careless phrases of his wife stood in +a neat row. + +She had mentioned upon one occasion that she thought she must have been +about five when she arrived in Rouen, and remembered her first impression +of the Cathedral as well as the boats on the Seine at night. And Cousin +Pierre had taken her up the river one Sunday to the church on the height +which had been built for a statue of the Virgin that had been excavated +there, and bade her kneel and pray at this station for what she wished +most. She had prayed for a large wax doll that said papa and mama, and +behold, it had arrived the next day. + +Madame Delano had told him unequivocally that she had gone directly to +Rouen after her husband's death ... but again, although Helene +remembered arriving in Rouen with her mother, she must have been left +for a time elsewhere, for Helene had another memory--of a convent, where +she had tarried for what seemed a very long time to her childish mind. +Could she have been sent to a convent from the house in Rouen when she +was so little that her memories of that first sojourn were confused? And +why? The family had apparently been fond of "la petite Americaine," and +even if her devoted mother had been obliged to leave her for several +years it is doubtful if they would have sent so young a child to a +convent. Rack his memory as he would he could recall no allusion to such +a journey, to any separation between mother and child after they were +established in Rouen. + +But he did remember one of Madame Delano's few references to the past, +which might suggest that she had left the child somewhere while she went +home to make peace with her family to get her bearings. Her brother had +not approved of her marrying an American. "But," she had added +graciously, "you see I had no such prejudice. Neither now nor then. James +was the best of husbands." + +"James!" "Jim." + +He had heard the name Jim as he boarded the dummy, uttered in extremely +familiar accents; by Bisbee, of course. Yes, and something else. "We all +felt bad when he croaked." + +His feverishly alert memory darted to another pigeon hole and exhumed +another treasure. Some ten or twelve months ago he had been obliged to go +to a northern county on business that involved buying up smaller +concerns, and would keep him away for a fortnight or more. He had taken +Helene, and as they were motoring through one of the old towns she had +leaned forward with a little gasp exclaiming: + +"How exactly like! If I didn't know that I had never been in California +before except merely to be born here I could vow that is where I lived +with the dear nuns." + +He had asked idly: "Where was your convent?" and she had shaken her head. +"Maman says I never was in a convent, that I dreamed it." She had lifted +to Ruyler a puzzled face. "I remember she punished me once, when I was +about seven and persisted in talking about the convent--I suppose I had +forgotten it for a time in the new life, and something brought it back to +me. But it is the most vivid memory of my childhood. Do you think I could +have been one of those uncanny children that live in a dream world? I +hope not. I like to think I am quite normal and full to the brim of +common sense." He had laughed and told her not to worry. He had lived in +a dream world himself when he was little. + +The conviction grew upon him as he sat there that Helene had spent the +first five years of her life at the Ursuline Convent in St. Peter. What +had her mother--young and beautiful--been doing during those years, the +years of a mother's most anxious devotion and pleasurable interest? He +searched his memory for Club reminiscences of a Marie Delano of twenty +years earlier, or less. No such name rewarded his mental explorations, +and Marie Delano was not a name likely to escape. + +He exclaimed aloud at his stupidity. The astute French woman was hardly +likely to return to the scene of her former triumphs with an innocent +young daughter and an infamous name. Nor, apparently, had she carried it +to Rouen after she had manifestly foresworn vice for the sake of her +child, even to the length of resigning herself to the dullness of a +provincial town. + +But "Jim"? Her husband? Could Bisbee have referred to some other Jim who +had "croaked" recently? Such women have more than one Jim in their +voluminous lives. + +Ruyler had that order of mental temperament to which dubiety is the +one unendurable condition; he had none of that cowardice which +postpones an unpleasant solution until the inevitable moment. Whatever +this hideous mystery he would solve it as quickly as possible and then +put it out of his life. Beyond question poor Helene was the victim of +blackmail; that was the logical explanation of her ill-concealed +anxiety--misery, no doubt! + +He wished she had had the courage to come directly to him, but it was +idle to expect the resolution of a woman of thirty in a child of twenty. +It was apparent that she had even tried to shield her mother, for that +Madame Delano had been caught unaware to-day was indisputable. + +What incredible impudence--or courage?--to return here! There were other +resorts in the South and on the Eastern Coast where a pretty girl might +reap the harvest of innocent and lovely youth. + +Once more his mind abruptly focused itself. + +Shortly after his marriage Madame Delano had asked him casually if he +could inform her as to the reliability of a certain firm of lawyers, +Lawton, Cross and Co. She "thought of buying a ranch," and the firm had +been suggested to her by some one or other of these rich people. She also +wished to make a will. + +He had replied as casually that it was a leading firm, and forgotten the +incident promptly. He recalled now that several times he had seen his +mother-in-law coming out of the Monadnock Building, where this firm had +its offices. He had upon one occasion met her in the lift and she had +explained with unaccustomed volubility that she was still thinking of +buying a ranch, possibly in Napa County. She understood that quite a +fortune might be made in fruit, and it would be a diverting interest for +her old age. Possibly she might encourage a favorite nephew to come out +and help her run it. + +Ruyler, who had been absorbed in his own affairs and hated the sight of +any woman during business hours, had felt like telling her that if she +wanted to sink her money in a ranch, that was as good a way to get rid of +it as any, but had merely nodded and left the elevator. He was not the +man to give any one unasked advice and be snubbed for his pains. + +If "Jim" was her husband and had "croaked" some two years since, what +more natural than that she had been obliged to come to California and +settle his estate? Lawton and Cross would keep her secret, as California +lawyers, with or without blackmail, had kept many others; perhaps she was +an old friend of Lawton's. He had been a "bird" in his time. + +Undoubtedly this was the solution. Otherwise she never would have risked +the return to San Francisco, even with her changed appearance. + + +III + +It was time to dismiss speculation and proceed to action. He rang up +detective headquarters and asked Jake Spaulding to come to him at once. + +Spaulding began: "But the matter ain't ripe yet, boss. Nothin' doin' +last night--" + +But Ruyler cut him short. "Please come immediately--no, not here. Meet me +at Long's." + +He left the building and walked rapidly to a well-known bar where +estimable citizens, even when impervious to the seductions of cocktail +and highball, often met in private soundproof rooms to discuss momentous +deals, or invoke the aid of detectives whose appearance in home or office +might cause the wary bird to fly away. + +The detective did not drink, so Ruyler ordered cigars, and a few moments +later Spaulding strolled in. His physical movements always belied his +nervous keen face. He was the antithesis of 'Gene Bisbee. All honest men +compelled to have dealings with him liked and trusted him. A rich man +could confide a disgraceful predicament to his keeping without fear of +blackmail, and a poor man, if his cause were interesting, might command +his services with a nominal fee. He loved the work and regarded himself +as an artist, inasmuch as he was exercising a highly cultivated gift, not +merely pursuing a lucrative profession. He sometimes longed, it is true, +for worthier objects upon which to lavish this gift, and he found them a +few years later when the world went to war. He was one of the most +valuable men in the Federal Secret Service before the end of 1915. + +"What's up?" he asked, as he took possession of the most comfortable +chair in the little room and lit a cigar. "You look as if you hadn't +slept for a week, and you were lookin' fine yesterday." + +"Do you mind if I only half confide in you? It's a delicate matter. I'd +like to ask you a few questions and may possibly ask you to find the +answer to several others." + +"Fire away. Curiosity is not my vice. I'll only call for a clean breast +if I find I can't work in the dark." + +"Thanks. Do--do you remember any woman of the town named--Marie Delano?" +He swallowed hard but brought it out. "Who may have flourished here +fifteen or twenty years ago?" + +Spaulding knew that Ruyler's wife had been named Delano, but he refrained +from whistling and fixed his sharp honest blue eyes on the opposite wall. + +"Nope. Sounds fancy enough, but she was no Queen of the Red Light +District in S.F." + +"I was convinced she could not have been known under that name. Do you +know of any woman of that sort who was married--possibly--to a man whose +first name was James--Jim--and who left abruptly, while she was still +young and handsome, just about fifteen years ago?" + +"Lord, that's a poser! Do you mean to say she married and retired--landed +some simp? They do once in a while. Could tell you queer things about +certain ancestries in this old town." + +"No--I don't think that was it. I have reason to think she had been +married for at least six years before she left. Can't you think of any +Marie who was married to a Jim--in--in that class of life?" + +"I was pretty much of a kid fifteen years ago, but I can recall quite a +few Maries and even more Jims. But the Jims were much too wary to marry +the Maries. Try it again, partner. Let us approach from another angle. +What did your Marie look like?" + +"She must have been tall--uncommonly tall--with black hair and small +features; black eyes that must have been large at that time. +I--I--believe she had a very fine figure." + +"What nationality?" + +"French." + +The detective recrossed his legs. "French. Oh, Lord! The town was fairly +overrun with them. Made you think there was nothing in all this talk +about gay Paree. All the ladybirds seemed to have taken refuge here. You +have no idea of her last name!" + +"It might have been Perrin." + +"Never. Not after she got here and set up in business. More likely +Lestrange or Delacourt--" + +"Was there a Delacourt?" + +"Not that I remember. I don't see light anywhere. Of course it won't take +me twenty-four hours to get hold of the history and appearance of every +queen who was named Marie fifteen years ago, and your description helps a +lot. Records were burned, but some of the older men on the force are +walking archives. For the matter of that you might draw out some old +codger in your club and get as much as I can give you--" + +"Rather not! I think I'll have to give you my confidence." + +"Much the shortest and straightest route. Just fancy you're takin' a +nasty dose of medicine for the good of your health. I guess this is a +case where I can't work in the dark." + +"Have you ever noticed an elderly woman, seated in the court of the +Palace Hotel--immensely stout?" + +"I should say I had. One of the sights of S.F. Why--of course--she's your +mother-in-law!" + +"Has there been any talk about her!" + +"Some comment on her size. And her childlike delight in watchin' +the show." + +"Nothing else? No one has claimed to recognize her?" + +Spaulding sat up straight, his nose pointing. "Recognize her? What +d'you mean?" + +"I mean that I overheard a conversation--one-sided--to-day on the +California Street dummy, in which Bisbee accused Madame Delano +practically of what I have told you. At least that is the way I +interpreted it. He called her Marie, alluded in an unmistakable manner to +a disgraceful past in which he had known her intimately, and was +confident that he recognized her in spite of her flesh and white hair. I +am positive that she recognized him, although she was clever enough not +to reply." + +"Jimminy! The plot thickens. That scoundrel never forgot a face in his +life. I don't train with him--not by a long sight--so if there's been any +talk in his bunch, I naturally wouldn't have heard it. You say her name +is Marie now?" + +"Yes." + +"And Perrin is her real name?" + +"She comes of a well-known family of Rouen of that name. She lived there +with her child for at least thirteen years before her return to +California. Of that I am certain. Her daughter is now twenty. I wish to +know where she kept that child during the first five years of its life. I +have reason to think it was in the Ursuline Convent at St. Peter." + +"That's easy settled. And you think the father's first name was Jim?" + +"She told me that his name was James Delano. Also that he died within the +first year of their marriage, when the child was two months old, during +the voyage to Japan. That may be, but I can see no reason for her +returning here unless he died more recently and the settlement of his +estate demanded her presence." + +"Pretty good reasoning, particularly if you are sure she stayed here +until the child was five. Some of them have pretty decent instincts. She +may have made up her mind to give the kid a chance, and returned to her +relations. Of course we must assume that they knew nothing of her life." + +"I am positive they did not. But there had been some sort of +estrangement. I have been given to understand that it was because she +married an American. Of course she may not have written to them at all +for six or seven years. Her story is that she was visiting other +relatives in a place called Holbrook Centre, Vermont, and met this man +and married him. Then that he was detained by business in San Francisco +for several months, and the child born here." + +"Good commonplace story. Just the sort that is never questioned. Of +course if she did not correspond with her family during all that time she +could adopt any name for her return to respectability that she chose. +Delano wasn't it? That's certain. What line do you intend to take? After +I've delivered the facts?" + +"My object is to have the child's legitimacy established, if possible, +then see that Madame Delano leaves California forever. I think that she +could be terrified by a threat of blackmail. I can't imagine the mere +chance of recognition worrying her, for I should say she had as much +courage as presence of mind. But her passion is money. If she thought +there was any danger of being forced to hand over what she has I fancy +she would get out as quickly as possible. She is an intelligent woman and +I imagine she has taken a sardonic pleasure in sitting out in full view +of San Francisco, and getting away with it." + +"And marrying her girl to the greatest catch in California," thought the +detective, but he said: + +"I believe you're dead right, although, of course, there may be nothing +in it. Even 'Gene Bisbee might be mistaken, pryin' a gazelle out of an +elephant like that. Now, tell me all you know." + +When Ruyler had covered every point Spaulding nodded. "It's possible this +Jim was the maquereau and she made him marry her for the sake of the +child. Doubt if the date can be proved except through the lawyers, and it +will be hard to make them talk. Of course if there is a Holbrook Centre +and she was married there--but I have my doubts. The point is that he +evidently married her if she is settlin' up his estate. I'll find out +what Jims have died within the last three years or so. That's easy. The +direct route to the one we want is through St. Peter. I'll go up +to-night." + +"And you'll report to-morrow?" + +"Yep. Meet me here at six P.M. Lucky the man seems to have died after +the fire. I'll set some one on the job of searching death records +right away." + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +I + +Ruyler had half promised to go to a dinner that night at the house of +John Gwynne, whose wife would chaperon his wife afterward to the last of +the Assembly dances. + +Gwynne was his English friend who had abandoned the ancient title +inherited untimely when he was making a reputation in the House of +Commons, and become an American citizen in California, where he had a +large ranch originally the property of an American grandmother. His +migration had been justified in his own eyes by his ready adaptation to +the land of his choice and to the opportunities offered in the rebuilding +of San Francisco after the earthquake and fire, as well as in the +renovation of its politics. He had made his ranch profitable, read law as +a stepping-stone to the political career, and had just been elected to +Congress. Ruyler was one of his few intimate friends and had promised to +go to this farewell dinner if possible. A place would be kept vacant for +him until the last minute. + +Gwynne had married Isabel Otis[A], a Californian of distinguished beauty +and abilities, whose roots were deep in San Francisco, although she had +"run a ranch" in Sonoma County. The Gwynnes and the Thorntons until +Ruyler met Helene had been the friends whose society he had sought most +in his rare hours of leisure, and he had spent many summer week-ends at +their country homes. He had hoped that the intimacy would deepen after +his marriage, but Helene during the past year had gone almost exclusively +with the younger set, the "dancing squad"; natural enough considering her +age, but Ruyler would have expected a girl of so much intelligence, to +say nothing of her severe education, to have tired long since of that +artificial wing of society devoted solely to froth, and gravitated +naturally toward the best the city afforded. But she had appeared to like +the older women better at first than later, although she accepted their +invitations to large dinners and dances. + +[Footnote A: See "Ancestors."] + +Ruyler made up his mind to attend this dinner at Gwynne's, and telephoned +his acceptance before he left Long's. Business or no business, he should +be his wife's bodyguard hereafter. There were blackmailers in society as +out of it, and it was possible that his ubiquity would frighten them off. +Whether to demand his wife's confidence or not he was undecided. Better +let events determine. + + +II + +When he arrived at home he went directly to Helene's room, but paused +with his hand on the knob of the door. He heard his mother-in-law's voice +and she was the last person he wished to meet until he was in a position +to tell her to leave the country. He was turning away impatiently when +Madame Delano lifted her hard incisive tones. + +"And you promised me!" she exclaimed passionately. "I trusted you, I +never believed--" + +Price retreated hurriedly to his own room, and it was not until he +had taken a cold shower and was half dressed that he permitted +himself to think. + +That wretch had known, then! It was she who had been blackmailing her +daughter. And the poor child had been afraid to confide in him, to ask +him for money. No wonder her eyes had flashed at the prospect of a +fortune of her own.... + +An even less welcome ray illuminated his mind at this point. His wife was +not unversed in the arts of dissimulation herself. True, she was French +and took naturally to diplomatic wiles; true, also, the instinct of +self-preservation in even younger members of a sex that man in his +centuries of power had made, superficially, the weaker, was rarely inert. + +What woman would wish her husband to know disgraceful ancestral secrets +which were no fault of hers? A much older woman would not be above +entombing them, if the fates were kind. But it saddened him to think that +his wife should be rushed to maturity along the devious way. Poor child, +he must win her confidence as quickly as his limping wits would permit +and shift her burden to his own shoulders. + +Having learned through the medium of the house telephone that his +mother-in-law had departed, he knocked at his wife's door. She opened it +at once and there was no mark of agitation on her little oval face under +its proudly carried crown of heavy braids. She was looking very lovely in +a severe black velvet gown whose texture and depth cunningly matched her +eyes and threw into a relief as artful the white purity of her skin and +the delicate pink of lip and cheek. + +She smiled at him brilliantly. "It can't be true that you are +going with me?" + +"I've reformed. I shall go with you everywhere from this time forth. But +I thought I heard your mother's voice when I came in--" + +"She often comes in about dressing time to see me in a new frock. How +heavenly that you will always go with me." Her voice shook a little and +she leaned over to smooth a possible wrinkle in her girdle. + +"Will you come down to the library? We are rather early." + +He went directly to the safe and took out the ruby and clasped the chain +about her neck. The chain was long and the great jewel took a deeper and +more mysterious color from the somber background of her bodice. + +Helene gasped. "Am I to wear it to-night? That would be too wonderful. +This is the last great night in town." + +"Why not? I shall be there to mount guard. You shall always wear it when +I am able to go out with you." + +She lifted her radiant face, although it remained subtly immobile with a +new and almost formal self-possession. "I am even more delighted than I +was yesterday, for at the fete there will be so much novelty to distract +attention. You always think of the nicest possible things." + +When they were in the taxi he put his arm about her. + +"I wonder," he began gropingly, "if you would mind not going out when I +cannot go with you? I'll go as often as I can manage. There are +reasons--" + +He felt her light body grow rigid. "Reasons? You told me only +yesterday--" + +"I know. But I have been thinking it over. That is rather a fast lot you +run with. I know, of course, they are F.F.C.'s, and all the rest of it, +but if I ever drove up to the Club House in Burlingame in the morning and +saw you sitting on the veranda smoking and drinking gin fizzes--" + +"You never will! I could not swallow a gin fizz, or any nasty mixed +drink. And although I have had my cigarette after meals ever since I was +fifteen, I never smoke in public." + +"I confess I cannot see you in the picture that rose for some perverse +reason in my mind; but--well, you really are too young to go about so +much without your husband--" + +"I am always chaperoned to the large affairs. Mrs. Gwynne takes me to the +Fairmont to-night." + +"I know. But scandal is bred in the marrow of San Francisco. Its social +history is founded upon it, and it is almost a matter of principle to +replace decaying props. Do you mind so much not going about unless I can +be with you?" + +"No, of course not." Her voice was sweet and submissive, but her body did +not relax. She added graciously: "After all, there are so many luncheons, +and we often dance in the afternoon." + +He had not thought of that! What avail to guard her merely in the +evening? It was not her life that was in danger.... + +And he seemed as immeasurably far from obtaining her confidence as +before. He had always understood that the ways of matrimonial diplomacy +were strewn with pitfalls and wished that some one had opened a school +for married men before his time. + +He made another clumsy attempt. The cab was swift and had almost covered +the long distance between the Western Addition and Russian Hill. "Other +things have worried me. You are so generous. Society here as elsewhere +has its parasites, its dead beats, trying to limp along by borrowing, +gambling, 'amusing,' doing dirty work of various sorts. It has worried me +lest one or more of these creatures may have tried to impose on you with +hard luck tales--borrow--" + +She laughed hysterically. "Price, you are too funny! I do lend +occasionally--to the girls, when their allowance runs out before the +first of the month; but I don't know any dead beats." + +He plunged desperately. "Your mother's voice sounded rather agitated for +her. Of course I did not stop to listen, but it occurred to me that she +may have been gambling in stocks, or have got into some bad land deal. +She is so confoundedly close-mouthed--if she wants money send her to me." + +Helene sat very straight. Her little aquiline profile against the passing +street lights was as aloof as imperial features on an ancient coin. + +"Really, Price, I don't think you can be as busy as you pretend if you +have time to indulge in such flights of imagination. Maman has never +tried to borrow a penny of me, and she is the last person on earth to +gamble in stocks or any thing else. Or to buy land except on expert +advice. I think she has given up that idea, anyhow. She said this evening +she thought it was time for her to visit our people in Rouen." + +"Oh, she did! Helene, I must tell you frankly that I heard her reproach +you for having broken a promise, and she spoke with deep feeling." + +It was possible that the Roman profile turned white, but in the dusk of +the car he could not be sure. His wife, however, merely shrugged her +shoulders and replied calmly: + +"My dear Price, if that has worried you, why didn't you say so at once? I +am rather ashamed to tell you, all the same. Maman has been at me lately +to persuade you to let her have the ruby for a week. She is dreadfully +superstitious, poor maman, and is convinced it would bring her some +tremendous good fortune--" + +"I have never met a woman who, I could swear, was freer from +superstition--" + +Price closed his lips angrily. Of what use to tax her feminine defenses +further? He had known her long enough to be sure she would rather tell +the truth than lie. It was evident that she had no intention of lowering +her barriers, and he must play the game from the other end: get the proof +he needed and engineer his mother-in-law out of the United States. + +Some time, however, he would have it out with his wife. Being a business +man and always alert to outwit the other man, he wanted neither intrigue +nor mystery in his home, but a serene happiness founded upon perfect +confidence. He found it impossible to remain appalled or angry at his +wife's readiness of resource in guarding a family secret that must have +shocked the youth in her almost out of existence. + +He patted her hand, and felt its chill within the glove. + +"It was like you never to have mentioned it," he murmured. "For, of +course, it is quite impossible." + +"That is what I told her decidedly to-night, and I do not think she will +ask again. It hurts me to refuse dear maman anything. Her devotion to me +has been wonderful--but wonderful," she added on a defiant note. + +"A mother's devotion, particularly to a girl of your sort, does not make +any call upon my exclamation points. But here we are." + + * * * * * + +The car rolled up the graded driveway Gwynne had built for the old San +Francisco house that before his day had been approached by an almost +perpendicular flight of wooden steps. They were late and the company +had assembled: the Thorntons, Trennahans, and eight or ten young +people, all of whom would be chaperoned by the married women to the +dance at the Fairmont. + +Russian Hill had escaped the fire, but Nob Hill had been burnt down to +its bones, and the Thorntons and Trennahans had not rebuilt, preferring, +like many others, to live the year round in their country homes and use +the hotels in winter. + +The moment Helene entered the drawing-room it was evident that the ruby +was to make as great a sensation as the soul of woman could desire. Even +the older people flocked about her and the girls were frank and shrill in +their astonishment and rapture. + +"Helene! Darling! The duckiest thing--I never saw anything so perfectly +dandy and wonderful! I'd go simply mad! Do, just let me touch it! I +could eat it!" + +Mrs. Thornton, who at any time scorned to conceal envy, or pretend +indifference, looked at the great burning stone with a sigh and turned to +her husband. + +"Why didn't you manage to get it for me?" she demanded. "It would be far +more suitable--a magnificent stone like that!--on me than on that baby." + +"My darling," murmured Ford anxiously, "I never laid eyes on the thing +before, or on one like it. I'll find out where Ruyler got it, and try--" + +"Do you suppose I'd come out with a duplicate? You should have thought of +it years ago. You always promised to take me to India." + +"It should be on you!" He gazed at her adoringly. Her hair was dressed +in a high and stately fashion to-night. She wore a gown of gold brocade +and a necklace and little tiara of emeralds and diamonds; she was +looking very handsome and very regal. Thornton was a thin, dark, nervous +wisp of a man, who had borne his share of the burdens laid upon his city +in the cataclysm of 1906, but if his wife had demanded an enormous +historic ruby he would have done his best to gratify her. But how the +deuce could a man-- + +Mrs. Gwynne was holding the stone in her hand and smiling into its +flaming depths without envy. She was one of those women of dazzling white +skin, black hair and blue eyes, who, when wise, never wear any jewels but +pearls. She wore the Gwynne pearls to-night and a shimmering white gown. + +Ruyler glanced round the fine old room with the warm feeling of +satisfaction he always experienced at a San Francisco function, where the +women were almost as invariably pretty as they were gay and friendly. He +did not like the younger men he met on these occasions as well as he did +many of the older ones; the serious ones would not waste their time on +society, and there were too many of the sort who were asked everywhere +because they had made a cult of fashion, whether they could afford it or +not. A few were the sons of wealthy parents, and were more dissipated +than those obliged to "hold down" a job that provided them with money +enough above their bare living expenses to make them useful and +presentable. + +Ruyler looked upon both sorts as cumberers of the earth, and only +tolerated them in his own house when his wife gave a party and dancing +men must be had at any price. + +There was one man here to-night for whom he had always held particular +detestation. His name was Nicolas Doremus. He was a broker in a small +way, but Ruyler guessed that he made the best part of his income at +bridge, possibly poker. He lived with two other men in a handsome +apartment in one of the new buildings that were changing the old skyline +of San Francisco. His dancing teas and suppers were admirably appointed +and the most exclusive people went to them. + +Ruyler knew his history in a general way. His father had made a fortune +in "Con. Virginia" in the Seventies, and his mother for a few years had +been the social equal of the women who now patronized her son. But +unfortunately the gambling microbe settled down in Harry Doremus' veins, +and shortly after his son was born he engaged his favorite room at the +Cliff House and blew out his brains. His wife was left with a large +house, which as a last act of grace he had forborne to mortgage and made +over to her by deed. She immediately advertised for boarders, and as her +cooking was excellent and she had the wit to drop out of society and give +her undivided attention to business, she prospered exceedingly. + +She concentrated her ambitions upon her only child; sent him to a private +school patronized by the sons of the wealthy, and herself taught him +every ingratiating social art. She wanted him to go to college, but by +this time "Nick" was nineteen and as highly developed a snob as her +maternal heart had planned. Knowing that he must support himself +eventually, he was determined to begin his business career at once, and +believed, with some truth, that there was a prejudice in this broad field +against college men. He entered the brokerage firm of a bachelor who had +occupied Mrs. Doremus' best suite for fifteen years, and made a +satisfactory clerk, the while he cultivated his mother's old friends. + +When Mrs. Doremus died he sold the house and good will for a considerable +sum, and, combining it with her respectable savings, formed a partnership +with two other young fellows, whose fathers were rich, but old-fashioned +enough to insist that their sons should work. Nick did most of the work. +His partners, during the rainy season, sat with their feet on the +radiator and read the popular magazines, and in fine weather upheld the +outdoor traditions of the state. + +The firm had a slender patronage, as Ruyler happened to know, but Doremus +was a member of the Pacific Union Club, and although he dined out every +night, he must have spent six or seven thousand a year. It was amiably +assumed that his social services,--he played and sang and often +entertained exacting groups throughout an entire evening--his fetching +and carrying for one rich old lady, accounted for his ability to keep out +of debt and pay for his many extravagances; but Ruyler knew that he was +principally esteemed at the small green table, and he vaguely recalled as +he looked over his head to-night that he had heard disconnected murmurs +of less honorable sources of revenue. + +As Ruyler turned away with a frown he met Gwynne's eyes traveling from +the same direction. "I didn't ask him," he said apologetically. "Hate men +too well dressed. Looks as if he posed for tailors' ads in the weeklies. +Never could stand the social parasite anyhow, but Aileen Lawton asked +Isabel to let her bring him, as they are going to open the ball to-night +with some new kind of turkey trot. + +"Glad I'm off for Washington. California's the greatest place on earth in +the dry season, but I'd have passed few winters here if it hadn't been +for the work we all had to do, and even then it would have been heavy +going without my wife's companionship." + +Ruyler sighed. Should he ever enjoy his wife's companionship? And into +what sort of woman would she develop if forced along crooked ways by ugly +secrets, blackmail, perpetual lying and deceit? He longed impatiently for +the decisive interview with Spaulding on the morrow. Then, at least he +could prepare for action, and, after all, even of more importance now +than winning his wife's confidence and saving her from mental anguish, +was the averting of a scandal that would echo across the continent +straight into the ears of his half-reconciled father. + + +IV + +It was about halfway through dinner that the primitive man in him routed +every variety of apprehension that had tormented him since two o'clock +that afternoon. + +Trennahan, another distinguished New Yorker, who had made his home in +California for many years, had taken in Mrs. Gwynne, and his Spanish +California wife sat at the foot of the table with the host. Ford had +been given a lively girl, Aileen Lawton, to dissipate the financial +anxieties of the day, and, to Ruyler's satisfaction, Mrs. Thornton had +fallen to his lot and he sat on the left of Isabel. In this little group +at the head of the table, his chosen intimates, who were more interested +in the affairs of the world than in Consummate California, Ruyler had +forgotten his wife for a time and had not noticed with whom she had gone +in to dinner. + +But during an interval when Mrs. Thornton's attention had been captured +by the man on her right, and the others drawn into a discussion over +the merits of the new mayor, Price became aware that Doremus sat beside +his wife halfway down the table on the opposite side, and that they +were talking, if not arguing, in a low tone, oblivious for the moment +of the company. + +The deferential bend was absent from the neck of the adroit social +explorer, his head was alertly poised above the lovely young matron whose +beauty, wealth, and foreign personality, to say nothing of the importance +of her husband, gave her something of the standing of royalty in the +aristocratic little republic of San Francisco Society. There was a vague +threat in that poise, as if at any moment venom might dart down and +strike that drooping head with its crown of blue-black braids. Suddenly +Helene lifted her eyes, full of appeal, to the round pale blue orbs that +at this moment openly expressed a cold and ruthless mind. + +Ruyler endeavored to piece together those disconnected whispers--letters +discovered or stolen--blackmail--but such whispers were too often the +whiffs from energetic but empty minds, always floating about and never +seeming to bring any culprit to book. + +Had this man got hold of his wife's secret? + +But this merely sequacious thought was promptly routed. The young man, +who was undeniably good looking and was rumored to possess a certain cold +charm for women--although, to be sure, the wary San Francisco heiress had +so far been impervious to it--was now leaning over Mrs. Price Ruyler with +a coaxing possessive air, and the appeal left Helene's eyes as she smiled +coquettishly and began to talk with her usual animation; but still in a +tone that was little more than a murmur. + +She moved her shoulder closer to the man she evidently was bent upon +fascinating, and her long eyelashes swept up and down while her black +eyes flashed and her pink color deepened. + +There was a faint amusement mixed with Doremus' habitual air of amiable +deference, and somewhat more of assurance, but he was as absorbed as +Helene and had no eyes for Janet Maynard, on his left, whose fortune ran +into millions. + +For a moment Ruyler, who had kept his nerve through several years of +racking strain which, even an American is seldom called upon to survive, +wondered if he were losing his mind. To business and all its fluctuations +and even abnormalities, he had been bred; there was probably no condition +possible in the world of finance and commerce which could shatter his +self-possession, cloud his mental processes. But his personal life had +been singularly free of storms. Even his emotional upheaval, when he had +fallen completely in love for the first time, had lacked that torment of +uncertainty which might have played a certain havoc, for a time, with +those quick unalterable decisions of the business hour; and even his +engagement had only lasted a month. + +It was true that during the past six months he had worried off and on +about the shadow that had fallen upon his wife's spirits and affected his +own, but, when he had had time to think of it, before yesterday morning, +he had assumed it was due to some phase of feminine psychology which he +had never mastered. That she could be interested in another man never had +crossed his mind, in spite of his passing flare of jealousy. She was +still passionately in love with, him, for all her vagaries--or so he had +thought-- + +Ruyler was conscious of a riotous confusion of mind that really made him +apprehensive. Had he witnessed that scene on the dummy--this +afternoon?--it seemed a long while ago--had he heard those portentous +words of his mother-in-law to his wife?--had they meant that she had +warned her daughter against the bad blood in her veins, extracted a +promise--broken!--to walk in the narrow way of the dutiful +wife--mercifully spared by a fortunate marriage the terrible temptations +of the older woman's youth? Had Helene confessed ... in desperate need of +help, advice? ... Doremus was just the bounder to compromise a woman and +then blackmail her.... Good God! What _was_ it? + +For all his mental turmoil he realized that here alone was the only +possible menace to his life's happiness. His mother-in-law's past was a +bitter pill for a proud man to swallow, and there was even the +possibility of his wife's illegitimacy, but, after all, those were +matters belonging to the past, and the past quickly receded to limbo +these days. + +Even an open scandal, if some one of the offal sheets of San Francisco +got hold of the story and published it, would be forgotten in time. But +this--if his wife had fallen in love with another man--and women had no +discrimination where love was concerned--(if a decent chap got a lovely +girl it was mainly by luck; the rotters got just as good)--then indeed he +was in the midst of disaster without end. The present was chaos and the +future a blank. He'd enlist in the first war and get himself shot.... + +Helene had a charming light coquetry, wholly French, and she exercised it +indiscriminately, much to the delight of the old beaux, for she loved to +please, to be admired; she had an innocent desire that all men should +think her quite beautiful and irresistible. Even her husband had never +seen her in an unbecoming _deshabille_; she coquetted with him +shamelessly, whenever she was not too gloriously serious and intent only +upon making him happy. Until lately-- + +This was by no means her ordinary form. + +He had come upon too many couples in remote corners of conservatories, +had been a not unaccomplished principal in his own day ... there was, +beyond question, some deep understanding between her and this man. + +Suddenly Ruyler's gaze burned through to his wife's consciousness. She +moved her eyes to his, flushed to her hair, then for a moment looked +almost gray. But she recovered herself immediately and further showed her +remarkable powers of self-possession by turning back to her partner and +talking to him with animation instead of plunging into conversation with +the man on her right. + +At the same moment Ruyler became subtly aware that Mrs. Thornton was +looking at his wife and Doremus, and as his eyes focused he saw her long, +thin, mobile mouth curl and her eyes fill with open disdain. The mist in +his brain fled as abruptly as an inland fog out in the bay before one of +the sudden winds of the Pacific. In any case, his mind hardly could have +remained in a state of confusion for long; but that his young wife was +being openly contemned by the cleverest as well as the most powerful +woman in San Francisco was enough to restore his equilibrium in a flash. +Whatever his wife's indiscretions, it was his business to protect her +until such time as he had proof of more than indiscretion. And in this +instance he should be his own detective. + +He turned to Mrs. Thornton. + +"Going on to the Fairmont?" he asked. + +"Oh, yes, I have a new gown--have you admired it? Arrived from Paris last +night--and I am chaperoning two of these girls. You are not, of course?" + +"I did intend to, but it's no go. Still, I may drop in late and take my +wife home--" + +"Let me take her home." Was his imagination morbid, or was there +something both peremptory and eager in Mrs. Thornton's tones? "I'm +stopping at the Fairmont, of course, but Fordy and I often take a drive +after a hot night and a heavy supper." + +"If you would take her home in case I miss it. I must go to the office--" + +"I'd like to. That's settled." This time her tones were warm and +friendly. Ruyler knew that Mrs. Thornton did not like his wife, but her +friendliness toward him, since her return from Europe three or four +months ago, had increased, if anything. His mind was now working with its +accustomed keen clarity. He recalled that there had been no surprise +mixed with the contempt in her regard of his wife and Doremus.... He also +recalled that several times of late when he had met her at the +Fairmont--where he often lunched with a group of men--she had regarded +him with a curious considering glance, which he suddenly vocalized as: +"How long?" + +This affair had been going on for some time, then. Either it was common +talk, or some circumstance had enlightened Mrs. Thornton alone. + +He glanced around the table. No one appeared to be taking the slightest +notice of one of many flirtations. At least, whatever his wife's +infatuation, he could avert gossip. Mrs. Thornton might be a tigress, but +she was not a cat. + +"When do you go down to Burlingame?" she asked. + +"Not for two or three weeks yet. I don't fancy merely sleeping in the +country. But by that time things will ease up a bit and I can get down +every day in time to have a game of golf before dinner." + +"Shall Mrs. Ruyler migrate with the rest?" + +"Hardly." + +"It will be dull for her in town. No reflections on your charming +society, but of course she does not get much of it, and she will miss her +young friends. After all, she is a child and needs playmates." + +Ruyler darted at her a sharp look, but she was smiling amiably. Doremus +and the men he lived with, in town had a bungalow at Burlingame and they +bought their commutation tickets at precisely the fashionable moment. +"She will stay in town," he said shortly. "She needs a rest, and San +Francisco is the healthiest spot on earth." + +"But trying to the nerves when what we inaccurately call the trade winds +begin. Why not let her stay with me? Of course she would be lonely in her +own house, and is too young to stay there alone anyhow, but I'd like to +put her up, and you certainly could run down week-ends--possibly oftener. +American men are always obsessed with the idea that they are twice as +busy as they really are." + +"You are too good. I'll put it up to Helene. Of course it is for her to +decide. I'd like it mighty well." But grateful as he was, his uneasiness +deepened at her evident desire to place her forces at his disposal. + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +I + +"And you won't take me to the party?" Helene pouted charmingly as her +husband laid her pink taffeta wrap over her shoulders. "I thought you +said you might make it, and it would be too delightful to dance with you +once more." + +"I'm afraid not. The Australian mail came in just as business closed and +it's on my mind. I want to go over it carefully before I dictate the +answers in the morning, and that means two or three hours of hard work +that will leave me pretty well fagged out. Mrs. Thornton has offered to +take you home." + +"I hate her." + +"Oh, please don't!" Ruyler smiled into her somber eyes. "She wants the +drive, and it would be taking the Gwynnes so far out of the way. Mrs. +Thornton very kindly suggested it." + +"I hate her," said Helene conclusively. "I wish now I'd kept my own car. +Then I could always go home alone." + +"You shall have a car next winter. And this time I shall not permit you +to pay for it out of your allowance--which in any case I hope to increase +by that time." + +Her eyes flamed, but not with anger. "Then I'll sell my electric to +Aileen Lawton right away. We have the touring car in the country, and +she has been trying to make her father buy her an electric--" + +"I'm afraid you'll be disappointed in your bargain. Second-hand cars, no +matter what their condition, always go at a sacrifice, and old Lawton is +a notorious screw. Better not let it go for two or three hundreds; you +look very sweet driving about in it.... Oh, by the way--I had +forgotten." He slipped his hand under her coat, unfastened the chain and +slipped the jewel into his pocket. "I am sorry," he said, with real +contrition, "and almost wish I had forgotten the thing; but I am a little +superstitious about keeping that old promise." + +She laughed. "And yet you will not permit poor maman a little +superstition of her own! But I am rather glad. Everybody at the ball will +hear of the ruby, and I shall be able to keep them in suspense until the +Thornton fete. Good night. Don't work too hard. Couldn't you get there +for supper?" + +"'Fraid not." + + +II + +He did go down to the office and glance through the Australian mail, +but at a few moments before twelve he took a California Street car up +to the Fairmont Hotel and went directly to the ballroom. Mrs. +Thornton was standing just within the doorway, but came toward him +with lifted eyebrows. + +"This is like old times," she said playfully. + +"I found less mail than I expected and thought I would come and have a +dance with my wife." His eyes wandered over the large room, gayly +decorated, and filled with dancing couples. + +Mrs. Thornton laughed. "A belle like your wife? She is always engaged for +every dance on her program before she is halfway down this corridor." + +"Oh, well, husbands have some rights. I'll take it by force. I don't see +her--she must be sitting out." + +Mrs. Thornton slipped her arm through his. "This dance has just begun. +Walk me up and down. I am tired of standing on one foot." + +They strolled down the corridor and through the large central hall. Older +folks sat or stood in groups; a few young couples were sitting out. +Ruyler did not see his wife, and concluded she had been resting at the +moment in the dowager ranks against the wall of the ballroom. The music +ceased sooner than he expected and Mrs. Thornton, who had been talking +with animation on the subject of several fine pictures she had bought +while abroad for the Museum in Golden Gate Park, including one by +Masefield Price, broke off with an impatient exclamation: "Bother! I must +run up to my room at once and telephone. Wait for me here." + +She steered him toward a group of men. "Mr. Gwynne, keep Mr. Ruyler from +causing a riot in the ballroom. He insists upon dancing with his wife. +Hold him by force." + +They were standing near the staircase and some distance from the lift. +Mrs. Thornton ran up the stairs, pausing for an irresistible moment and +looking down at the company. As she stood there, poised, she looked a +royal figure with her cloth of gold train covering the steps below her +and her high and flashing head. "Wait for me," she said, imperiously to +Price. "I cannot meander down that corridor, deserted and alone." + +Ruyler smiled at her, but said to Gwynne: "I'll just go and engage my +wife for a dance and be back in a jiffy--" + +Gwynne clasped his hand about Ruyler's arm. "Just a moment, old chap. I +want your opinion--" + +"But there is the music again. I'll be knocking people over--" + +"You will if you go now, and there'll be dancing for hours yet. Your wife +has been dividing up--now, tell me if you back me in this proposition or +not. I'm going to Washington to represent you fellows--" + +But Ruyler had broken politely away and was walking down the long +corridor. When he arrived at the ballroom he saw at a glance that his +wife was not there, for the floor was only half filled. But there were +other rooms where dancers sat in couples or groups when tired. He went +hastily through all of them, but saw nothing of his wife. Nor of Doremus. + +Mrs. Thornton had gone in search of her. + +And Gwynne knew. + +This time the hot blood was pounding in his head. He felt as he imagined +madmen did when about to run amok. Or quite as primitive as any +Californian of the surging "Fifties." + +He was in one of the smaller rooms and he sat down in a corner with his +back to the few people in it and endeavored to take hold of himself; the +conventional training of several lifetimes and his own intense pride +forbade a scene in public. But his curved fingers longed for Doremus' +throat and he made up his mind that if his awful suspicions were +vindicated he would beat his wife black and blue. That was far more +sensible and manly than running whining to a divorce court. + +The effort at self-control left him gasping, but when he rose from his +shelter he was outwardly composed, and determined to seek Gwynne and +force the truth from him. He would not discuss his wife with another +woman. And whatever this hideous tragedy brooding over his life he would +go out and come to grips with it at once. + + +III + +And in the corridor he saw his wife chatting gayly with a group of young +friends. Her color was paler than usual, perhaps, but that was not +uncommon at a party, and otherwise she was as unruffled, as normal in +appearance and manner, as when they had parted at the Gwynnes'. + +Nevertheless, he went directly up to her, and as she gave a little cry of +pleased surprise, he drew her hand through his arm. "Come!" he said +imperiously. "You are to dance this with me. I broke away on purpose--" + +"But, darling, I am full up--" + +"You have skipped at least two. I have been looking everywhere for you--" + +"Polly Roberts dragged me upstairs to see the new gowns M. Dupont brought +her from Paris. They came this afternoon--so did Mrs. Thornton's--but of +course I'll dance this with you. You don't look well," she added +anxiously. "Aren't you?" + +"Quite, but rather tired--mentally. I need a dance...." + +He wondered if she had gently propelled him down the corridor. They were +some distance from the group. It was impossible for him to go back and +ask if his wife's story were true. Mrs. Thornton was nowhere to be seen, +neither in the corridor nor in the ballroom. Nor was Doremus. He set his +teeth grimly and managed to smile down upon his wife. + +"I shall insist upon having more than one," he said gallantly. "At least +three hesitations." + +She drew in her breath with a mock sigh and swept from under her long +lashes a glance that still had the power to thrill him. "Outrageous, but +I shall try to bear up," and the next moment they were giving a graceful +exhibition of the tango. + +"I don't see your friend Doremus," he said casually, as he stood fanning +her at the end of the dance. + +She lifted her eyebrows haughtily. "My friend? That parasite?" + +"You seemed very friendly at dinner." + +"I usually am with my dinner companion. One's hostess is to be +considered. Oh--I remember--he was telling me some very amusing gossip, +although he teased me into fearing he wouldn't. Now, if you are going to +dance this hesitation with me you had better whirl me off. It is Mr. +Thornton's, and I see him coming." + +Ruyler did not see Doremus until supper was half over and then the young +man entered the dining-room hurriedly, his usually serene brow lowering +and his lips set. He walked directly up to Helene. + +"Beastly luck!" he exclaimed. "Hello, Ruyler. Didn't know you honored +parties any more. I had to break away to meet the Overland train--beastly +thing was late, of course. Then I had to take them to five hotels before +I could settle them. They had two beastly little dogs and the hotels +wouldn't take them in and they wouldn't give up the dogs. Some one ought +to set up a high-class dog hotel. Sure it would pay. But you'll give me +the first after supper, won't you?" + +Helene gave him a casual smile that was a poor reward for his elaborate +apology. "So sorry," she said with the sweet distant manner in which she +disposed of bores and climbers, "but Mr. Ruyler and I are both tired. We +are going home directly after supper." + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +I + +On the following day at six o'clock Ruyler went to Long's to meet Jake +Spaulding. By a supreme effort of will he had put his private affairs out +of his mind and concentrated on the business details which demanded the +most highly trained of his faculties. But now he felt relaxed, almost +languid, as he walked along Montgomery Street toward the rendezvous. He +met no one he knew. The historic Montgomery Street, once the center of +the city's life, was almost deserted, but half rebuilt. He could saunter +and think undisturbed. + +What was he to hear? And what bearing would it be found to have on his +wife's conduct? + +He had gone to sleep last night as sure as a man may be of anything that +his wife was no more interested in Doremus than in any other of the +young men who found time to dance attendance upon idle, bored, but +virtuous wives. + +If the man knew her secret and were endeavoring to exact blackmail he +would pay his price with joy--after thrashing him, for he would have +sacrificed the half of his fortune never to experience again not only the +demoralizing attack of jealous madness of the night before, which had +brought in its wake the uneasy doubt if civilization were as far advanced +as he had fondly imagined, but the sensation of amazed contempt which had +swept over him at the dinner table as he had seen his wife, whom he had +believed to be a woman of instinctive taste and fastidiousness, +manifestly upon intimate terms with a creature who should have been +walking on four legs. Better, perhaps, the desire to kill a woman than to +despise her-- + +He slammed the door when he entered the little room reserved for him, and +barely restrained himself from flinging his hat into a corner and +breaking a chair on the table. His languor had vanished. + +Spaulding followed him immediately. + +"Howdy," he said genially, as he pushed his own hat on the back of his +head and bit hungrily at the end of a cigar. "Suppose you've been +impatient--unless too busy to think about it." + +"I'd like to know what you've found out as quickly as you can tell me." + +"Well, to begin with the kid. I had some trouble at the convent. They're +a close-mouthed lot, nuns. But I frightened them. Told them it was a +property matter, and unless they answered my questions privately they'd +have to answer them in court. Then they came through." + +"Well?" + +Spaulding lit his cigar and handed the match to Ruyler, who ground it +under his heel. + +"Just about nineteen years ago a Frenchwoman, giving her name as Madame +Dubois, arrived one day with a child a year old and asked the nuns to +take care of it, promising a fancy payment. The child had been on a farm +with a wet-nurse (French style), but Madame Dubois wanted it to learn +from the first to speak proper English and French, and to live in a +refined atmosphere generally from the time it was able to take notice. +She said she was on the stage and had to travel, so was not able to give +the kid the attention it should have, and the doctor had told her that +traveling was bad for kids that age, anyhow. Her lawyers would pay the +baby's board on the first of every month--" + +"Who were the lawyers?" + +"Lawton and Cross." + +"I thought so. Go on." + +"The nuns, who, after all, knew their California, thought they smelt a +rat, for the woman was extraordinarily handsome, magnificently dressed; +the Mother Superior--who is a woman of the world, all right--read the +newspapers, and had never seen the name of Dubois--and knew that only +stars drew fat salaries. She asked some sharp questions about the father, +and the woman replied readily that he was a scientific man, an inventor, +and--well, it was natural, was it not? they did not get on very well. He +disliked the stage, but she had been on it before she married him, and +dullness and want of money for her own needs and her child's had driven +her back. He had lived in Los Angeles for a time, but had recently gone +East to take a high-salaried position. It was with his consent that she +asked the nuns to take the child--possibly for two or three years. When +she was a famous actress and could leave the road, she would keep house +for her husband in New York, and make a home for the child. + +"The Mother Superior, by this time, had made up her mind that the father +wished the child removed from the mother's influence, and although she +took the whole yarn with a bag of salt, the child was the most beautiful +she had ever seen, and obviously healthy and amiable. Moreover, the +convent was to receive two hundred dollars a month--" + +"What?" + +"Exactly. Can you beat it? The Mother Superior made up her mind it was +her duty to bring up the little thing in the way it should go. As the +woman was leaving she said something about a possible reconciliation with +her family, who lived in France; they had not written her since she went +on the stage. They were of a respectability!--of the old tradition! But +if they came round she might take the child to them, if her husband would +consent. She should like it to be brought up in France-- + +"Here the Mother Superior interrupted her sharply. Was her husband a +Frenchman? And she answered, no doubt before she thought, for these +people always forget something, that no, he was an American--her family, +also, detested Americans. The Mother Superior once more interrupted her +glibness. How, then, did he have a French name? Oh, but that was her +stage name--she always went by it and had given it without thinking. What +was her husband's name? After a second's hesitation she stupidly give the +name Smith. I can see the mouth of the Mother Superior as it set in a +grim line. 'Very well,' said she, 'the child's name is Helene Smith'; and +although the woman made a wry face she was forced to submit. + +"The child remained there four years, and the Mother Superior had some +reason to believe that 'Madame Dubois' spent a good part of that time in +San Francisco. She came at irregular intervals to see the child--always +in vacation, when there were no pupils in the convent, and always at +night. The Mother Superior, however, thought it best to make no +investigations, for the child throve, they were all daffy about her, and +the money came promptly on the first of every month. When the mother came +she always brought a trunk full of fine underclothes, and left the money +for a new uniform. Then, one day, Madame Dubois arrived in widow's weeds, +said that her husband was dead, leaving her quite well off, and that she +was returning to France." + +"And Madame Delano's story is that he died on the way to Japan--if it is +the same woman--" + +"Haven't a doubt of it myself. I did a little cabling before I left last +night to a man I know in Paris to find out just when Madame Delano +returned with her child to live with her family in Rouen. He got busy and +here is his answer--just fifteen years ago almost to the minute." + +"Then who was her husband?" + +"There you've got me--so far. He was no 'scientist, who later accepted +a high-salaried position.' A decent chap of that sort would have +written to his child, paid her board himself, most likely taken it away +from the mother--" + +"But she may have kidnapped it--" + +"People are too easy traced in this State--especially that sort. Nor do +I believe she was an actress. There never was any actress of that +name--not so you'd notice it, anyhow, and that woman would have been +known for her looks and height even if she couldn't act. Moreover, if +she was an actress there would be no sense in giving the nuns a false +name, since she had admitted the fact. No, it's my guess that she was +something worse." + +"Well, I've prepared myself for anything." + +"I figure out that she was the mistress of one of our rich highfliers, +and that when he got tired of her he pensioned her off, and she made up +her mind to reform on account of the kid, and went back to Rouen, and +proceeded to identify herself with her class by growing old and shapeless +as quickly as possible. She must have adopted the name Delano in New York +before she bought her steamer ticket, for although I've had a man on the +hunt, the only Delanos of that time were eminently respectable--" + +"Why are you sure she was not a--well--woman of the town?" + +"Because, there again--there's no dame of that time either of that name +or looks--neither Dubois nor Delano. Of course, they come and go, but +there's every reason to think she stayed right on here in S.F. Of +course, I've only had twenty-four hours--I'll find out in another +twenty-four just what conspicuous women of fifteen to twenty years ago +measure up to what she must have looked like--I got the Mother Superior +to describe her minutely: nearly six feet, clear dark skin with a +natural red color--no make-up; very small features, but well made--nose +and mouth I'm talking about. The eyes were a good size, very black with +rather thin eyelashes. Lots of black hair. Stunning figure. Rather large +ears and hands and feet. She always dressed in black, the handsomest +sort. They generally do." + +"Well?" asked Ruyler through his teeth. He had no doubt the woman was his +mother-in-law. "The Jameses? What of them?" + +"That's the snag. Rest is easy in comparison. Innumerable Jameses must +have died about that time, to say nothing of all the way along the line, +but while some of the records were saved in 1906, most went up in smoke. +Moreover, there's just the chance that he didn't die here. But that's +going on the supposition that the man died when she left California, +which don't fit our theory. I still think he died not so very long before +her return to California, and that she probably came to collect a legacy +he had left her. Otherwise, I should think it's about the last place she +would have come to. I put a man on the job before I left of collecting +the Jameses who've died since the fire. Here they are." + +He took a list from his pocket and read: + +"James Hogg, bookkeeper--races, of course. James Fowler, saloon-keeper. +James Despard, called 'Frenchy,' a clever crook who lived on +blackmail--said to have a gift for getting hold of secrets of men and +women in high society and squeezing them good and plenty--" + +He paused. "Of course, that might be the man. There are points. I'll have +his life looked into, but somehow I don't believe it. I have a hunch the +man was a higher-up. The sort of woman the Mother Superior described can +get the best, and they take it. To proceed: James Dillingworth, lawyer, +died in the odor of sanctity, but you never can tell; I'll have him +investigated, too. James Maston--I haven't had time to have had the +private lives of any of these men looked into, but I knew some of them, +and Maston, who was a journalist, left a wife and three children and was +little, if any, over thirty. James Cobham, broker--he was getting on to +fifty, left about a million, came near being indicted during the Graft +Prosecutions, and although his wife has been in the newspapers as a +society leader for the last twenty years, and he was one of the founders +of Burlingame, and then was active in changing the name of the high part +to Hillsboro when the swells felt they couldn't be identified with the +village any longer, and he handed out wads the first of every year to +charity, there are stories that he came near being divorced by his +haughty wife about fifteen years ago. Of course, those men don't parade +their mistresses openly like they did thirty years ago--I mean men with +any social position to keep up. But now and again the wife finds a note, +or receives an anonymous letter, and gets busy. Then it's the divorce +court, unless he can smooth her down, and promises reform. Cobham seems +to me the likeliest man, and I'm going to start a thorough investigation +to-morrow. These other Jameses don't hold out any promise at +all--grocers, clerks, butchers. It's the list in hand I'll go by, and if +nothing pans out--well, we'll have to take the other cue she threw out +and try Los Angeles." + +"Do you know anything about a man named Nicolas Doremus?" asked +Ruyler abruptly. + +"The society chap? Nothing much except that he don't do much business on +the street but is supposed to be pretty lucky at poker and bridge. But he +runs with the crowd the police can't or don't raid. I've never seen or +heard of him anywhere he shouldn't be except with swell slumming or +roadhouse parties. He's never interested me. If Society can stand that +sort of bloodsucking tailor's model, I guess I can. Why do you ask? Got +anything to do with this case?" + +"I have an idea he has found out the truth and is blackmailing my wife. +You might watch him." + +"Good point. I will. And if he's found out the truth I guess I can." + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +I + +Helene, as Ruyler had anticipated, refused positively to accept Mrs. +Thornton's invitation. + +"Do you think I'd leave you--to come home to a dreary house every night? +Even if I don't see much of you, at least you know I'm there; and that if +you have an evening off you have only to say the word and I'll break any +engagement--you have always known that!" + +Ruyler had not, but she looked so eager and sweet--she was lunching with +him at the Palace Hotel on the day following his interview with +Spaulding--that he hastened to assure her affectionately that the +certainty of his wife's desire for his constant companionship was both +his torment and his consolation. + +Helene continued radiantly: + +"Besides, darling, Polly Roberts is staying on. Rex can't get away yet." + +"Polly Roberts is not nearly good enough for you. She hasn't an idea in +her head and lives on excitement--" + +Helene laughed merrily. "You are quite right, but there's no harm in her. +After all, unless one goes in for charities (and I can't, Price, yet; +besides the charities here are wonderfully looked after), plays bridge, +has babies, takes on suffrage--what is there to do but play? I suppose +once life was serious for young women of our class; but we just get into +the habit of doing nothing because there's nothing to do. Take to-morrow +as an example: I suppose Polly and I will wander down to The Louvre in +the morning and buy something or look at the new gowns M. Dupont has just +brought from Paris. + +"Then we'll lunch where there's lots of life and everybody is chatting +gayly about nothing. + +"Then we'll go to the Moving Pictures unless there is a matinee, and then +we'll motor out to the Boulevard, and then back and have tea somewhere. + +"Or, perhaps, we'll motor down to the Club at Burlingame for lunch and +chatter away the day on the veranda, or dance. This afternoon we'll +probably ring up a few that are still in town, and dance in Polly's +parlor at the Fairmont." + +Helene's lip curled, her voice had risen. With, all her young enjoyment +of wealth and position, she had been bred in a class where to idle is a +crime. "Just putting in time--time that ought to be as precious as +youth and high spirits and ease and popularity! But what is one to do? +I have no talents, and I'd lose caste in my set if I had. I don't +wonder the Socialists hate us and want to put us all to work. No doubt +we should be much happier. But now--even if you retired from business, +you'd spend most of your time on the links. We poor women wouldn't be +much better off." + +"It does seem an abnormal state of affairs; I've barely given it a +thought, it has always been such a pleasure to find you, after a hard +day's work, looking invariably dainty, and pretty, and eloquently +suggestive of leisure and repose. But--to the student of history--I +suppose it is a condition that cannot last. There must be some sort of +upheaval due. Well, I hope it will give me more of your society." + +They smiled at each other across the little table in perfect confidence. +They were lunching in the court, and after she had blown him a kiss over +her glass of red wine, her eyes happened to travel in the direction of +the large dining-room. She gave a little exclamation of distaste. + +"There is maman lunching with that hateful old Mr. Lawton. He was in her +sitting-room when I ran in to call on her yesterday, and nearly snapped +my head off when I asked him if he wouldn't buy my electric for Aileen. +He said it was time she began to learn a few economies instead of more +extravagances. Poor darling Aileen. She has to stay in town, too, for he +won't open the house in Atherton until he is ready to go down himself +every night." + +"Is he an old friend of your mother's?" + +"She and Papa met him when they were here, and Mrs. Lawton was very kind +when I was born. It's too bad Mrs. Lawton's dead. She'd be a nice friend +for maman." + +"Perhaps your mother is asking Mr. Lawton's advice about the investment +of money." + +He had been observing his wife closely, but it was more and more apparent +that if Mr. Lawton held the key to her mother's past she had not been +informed of the fact. She answered indifferently: + +"Possibly. One can get much higher interest out here than in France, and +maman would never invest money without the best advice. She loves me, but +money next. Oh, la! la!" + +"Has she said anything more about going back to Rouen?" + +"I didn't have a word with her alone yesterday, but I'll ask her to-day. +Poor maman! I fancy the novelty has worn off here, and she would really +be happier with her own people and customs. She hates traveling, like all +the French; but don't you think that, after a bit we shall be able to go +over to Europe at least once a year?" + +"I am sure of it. And while I am attending to business in London you +could visit your mother in Rouen. Tell her that one way or another I'll +manage it." + +And this seemed to him an ideal arrangement! + + +II + +When they left the table and walked through the more luxurious part of +the court, they saw Madame Delano alone and enthroned as usual in the +largest but most upright of the armchairs. And as ever she watched under +her fat drooping eyelids the passing throng of smartly dressed women, +hurrying men, sauntering, staring tourists. Here and there under the +palms sat small groups of men, leaning forward, talking in low earnest +tones, their faces, whether of the keen, narrow, nervous, or of the +fleshy, heavy, square-jawed, unimaginative, aggressive, ruthless type, +equally expressing that intense concentration of mind which later would +make their luncheon a living torment. + +Helene threw herself into a chair beside her mother and fondled her hand. +Ruyler noted that after Madame Delano's surprised smile of welcome she +darted a keen glance of apprehension from one to the other, and her tight +little mouth relaxed uncontrollably in its supporting walls of flesh. But +she lowered her lids immediately and looked approvingly at her daughter, +who in her new gown of gray, with gray hat and gloves and shoes, was a +dainty and refreshing picture of Spring. Then she looked at Ruyler with +what he fancied was an expression of relief. + +"I wonder you do not do this oftener," she said. + +"I never know until the last moment when or where I shall be able to take +lunch, and then I often have to meet three or four men. Such is life in +the city of your adoption." + +"There is no city in the world where women are so abominably idle and +useless!" And at the moment, whatever Madame Delano may have been, her +voice and mien were those of a virtuous and outraged bourgeoisie. "You +are all very well, Ruyler, but if I had known what the life of a rich +young woman was in this town, I'd have married Helene to a serious young +man of her own class in Rouen; a husband who would have given her +companionship in a normal civilized life, who would have taken care of +her as every young wife should be taken care of, and who would have +insisted upon at least two children as a matter of course. With us The +Family is a religion. Here it is an incident where it is not an +accident." + +Ruyler, who was still standing, looked down at his mother-in-law with +profound interest. He had never heard her express herself at such length +before. "Do you think I fail as a husband?" he asked humbly. "God knows +I'd like to give my wife about two-thirds of my time, but at least I have +perfect confidence in her. I should soon cease to care for a wife I was +obliged to watch." + +"Young things are young things." Madame Delano looked at Helene, who had +turned very white and had lowered her own lids to hide the consternation +in her eyes. But as her mother ceased speaking she raised them in swift +appeal to Ruyler. + +"Maman says I coquette too much," she said plaintively, and Price +wondered if a slight movement under the hem of Madame Delano's long +skirts meant that the toe of a little gray shoe were boring into one of +the massive plinths of his mother-in-law. "But tell him, maman, that you +don't really mean it. I can't have Price jealous. That would be too +humiliating. I'm afraid I do flirt as naturally as I breathe, but Price +knows I haven't a thought for a man on earth but him." The color had +crept back into her cheeks, but there was still anxiety in her soft black +eyes, and Price was sure that the little pointed toe once more made its +peremptory appeal. + +Madame Delano looked squarely at her son-in-law. + +"That's all right--so far," she said grimly. "Helene is devoted to +you. But so have many other young wives been to busy American husbands. +Now, take my advice, and give her more of your companionship before it +is too late. _Watch over her_. There always comes a time--a +turning-point--European husbands understand, but American husbands are +fools. Woman's loyalty, fed on hope only, turns to resentment; and then +her separate life begins. Now, I've warned you. Go back to your office, +where, no doubt, your clerks are hanging out of the windows, wondering if +you are dead and the business wrecked. I want to talk to Helene." + + +III + +In spite of his wise old French mother-in-law's insinuations, Ruyler felt +lighter of heart as he left the hotel and walked toward his office than +he had since Sunday. Of two things he was certain: there was no ugly +understanding between the mother and daughter over that unspeakable past, +and Madame Delano's new attitude toward her daughter was merely the +result of an over-sophisticated mother's apprehensions: those of a woman +who was looking in upon smart society for the first time and found it +alarming, and--unwelcome, but inevitable thought--peculiarly dangerous to +a young and beautiful creature with wild and lawless blood in her veins. + +However, it was patent that so far her apprehensions were merely the +result of a rare imaginative flight, the result, no doubt, of her own +threatened exposure. Once more he admired her courage in returning to San +Francisco, and as he recalled the covert air of cynical triumph, with +which she had accepted his offer for her daughter's hand, he made no +doubt that one object had been to play a sardonic joke on the city she +must hate. + +He renewed his determination to keep what guard he could over his young +wife, and wondered if his brother Harold, who also had elected to enter +the old firm, could not be induced to come out and take over a certain +share of the responsibility. The young man had paid him a visit a year +ago and been enraptured with life in California. + +True, he was accustomed to make quick decisions without consulting any +one, and he should find a partner irksome, but he was beginning to +realize acutely that business, even to an American brain, packed with its +traditions and energies, was not even the half of life, should be a means +not an end; he set his teeth as he walked rapidly along Montgomery Street +and vowed that he would keep his domestic happiness if he had to retire +on what was available of his own fortune. He even wondered if it would +not be wise to buy a fruit ranch, where he and Helene could share equally +in the management, and begin at once to raise a family. They both loved +outdoor life, and this life of complete frivolity, in which she seemed to +be hopelessly enmeshed, might before long corrode her nature and blast +the mental aspirations that still survived in that untended soil. When +this great merging deal was over he should be free to decide. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +I + +He arrived at home on the following afternoon at six and was +immediately rung up by Spaulding, who demanded an interview. It was not +worth while going down town again, as Helene was out and would no doubt +return only in time to dress for dinner. They were to dine at half-past +seven and go to the play afterward. He told Spaulding to take a taxi +and come to the house. + +Nothing had occurred meanwhile to cause him anxiety. He had taken Helene +out to the Cliff House to dinner the night before, and afterward to see +the road-houses, whose dancing is so painfully proper early in the +evening. Polly Roberts had come into the most notorious of them at +eleven, chaperoning a party, which included Aileen Lawton, a girl as +restless and avid of excitement as herself. Rex Roberts and several other +young men had been in attendance, and Polly had begged Ruyler to stay on +and let his wife see something of "real life." + +"This is one of the sights of the world, you know," she said, puffing her +cigarette smoke into his face. "It's _too_ middle-class to be shocked, +and not to see occasionally what you really cannot get anywhere else. +Why, there'll even be a lot of tourists here later on, and these dancers +don't do the real Apache until about one. At least leave Helene with me, +if you care more for bed than fun." + +But Ruyler had merely laughed and taken his wife home. Helene had made +no protest; on the contrary had put her arm through his in the car and +her head on his shoulder, vowing she was worn out, and glad to go home. +It was only afterward that it occurred to him that she had clung to him +that night. + +Spaulding entered the library without taking off his hat, and chewing a +toothpick vigorously. He began to talk at once, stretching himself out in +a Morris chair, and accepting a cigar. This time Price smoked with him. + +"Well," said the detective, "it's like the game of button, button, who's +got the button? Sometimes I think I'm getting a little warmer and then I +go stone cold. But I've found out a few things, anyhow. How tall should +you say Madame Delano is? I've only seen her sitting on her throne there +in the Palace Court lookin' like an old Sphinx that's havin' a laugh all +to herself." + +"About five feet ten." + +"The Mother Superior said six feet, but no doubt when she had figger +instead of flesh she looked taller. Well, I've discovered no less than +five tall handsome brunettes that sparkled here in the late Eighties and +early Nineties, but it's the deuce and all to get an exact description +out of anybody, especially when quite a few years have elapsed. Most +people don't see details, only effects. That's what we detectives come up +against all the time. So, whether these ladies were five feet eight, five +feet ten, or six feet, whether they had large features or small, big +hands and feet or fine points, or whether they added on all the inches +they yearned for by means of high heels or style, is beyond me. But here +they are." + +He took his neat little note-book from his pocket and was about to read +it, when Ruyler interrupted him. + +"But surely you know whether these women were French or not?" + +"Aw, that's just what you can't always find out. Lots of 'em pretend to +be, and others--if they come from good stock in the old country--want you +to forget it. But the queens generally run to French names, as havin' a +better commercial value than Mary Jane or Ann Maria. One of these was +Marie Garnett, who wasn't much on her own but spun the wheel in Jim's +joint down on Barbary Coast, which was raided just so often for form's +sake. She always made a quick getaway, was never up in court, and died +young. Gabrielle ran an establishment down on Geary Street and was one of +the swellest lookers and swellest togged dames in her profession till the +drink got her. I can't find that she ever hooked up to a James or any one +else. Pauline-Marie was another razzle-dazzle who swooped out here from +nowhere and burrowed into quite a few fortunes and put quite a few of our +society leaders into mourning. She disappeared and I can't trace her, but +she seems to have been the handsomest of the bunch, and was fond of +showing herself at first nights, dressed straight from Paris, until some +of our war-hardened 'leaders' called upon the managers in a body and +threatened never to set foot inside their doors again unless she was kept +out, and the managers succumbed. Then there was the friend of a rich +Englishman, whose first name I haven't been able to get hold of. They +lived first at Santa Barbara, then loafed up and down the coast for a +year or two, spending quite a time in San Francisco. She was 'foreign +looking' and a stunner, all right. All of these dames drifted out about +the same time--" + +"What was the Englishman's name?" + +"J. Horace Medford. Front name may or may not have been James. I doubt if +his name could be found on any deeds, even in the south, where there was +no fire. He doesn't seem to have bought any property or transacted any +business. Just lived on a good-sized income. Of course, all the hotel +registers here were burnt, but I wired to Santa Barbara and Monterey and +got what I have given you. + +"He had a yacht, and he took the woman with him everywhere. There was +always a flutter when they appeared at the theater. Of course she went by +his name, but as he never presented a letter all the time he was here and +it was quite obvious he could have brought all he wanted, and as men are +always 'on' anyhow, there was but one conclusion." + +"Where did he bank? They might have his full name." + +"Bank of California, but his remittances were sent to order of J. Horace +Medford, and, of course, he signed his cheques the same way." + +"That sounds the most likely of the lot--and the most hopeful." + +"Well, haven't handed you the fifth yet, and to my mind she's the most +likely of all. Ever hear of James Lawton's trouble with his wife?" + +"Trouble? I thought she died." + +"She--did--not. She went East suddenly about fifteen years ago, and soon +after a notice of her death appeared in the San Francisco papers. But +there was a tale of woe (for old Lawton) that I doubt if most of her own +crowd had even a suspicion of." + +"Good heavens!" Ruyler recalled the apparent intimacy of his +mother-in-law and the senior member of the respectable firm of Lawton and +Cross. If "Madame Delano" were the former Mrs. Lawton, how many things +would be explained. + +"This woman's name was Marie all right, and she was French, although she +seems to have been adopted by some people named Dubois and brought up in +California. She was quite the proper thing in high society, but the +trouble was that she liked another sort better. She was a regular +fly-by-night. It began when Norton Moore, a rotten limb of one of the +grandest trees in San Francisco Society--so respectable they didn't know +there was any side to life but their own--sneaked Mrs. Lawton and three +girls out of his mother's house one night when she was givin' a ball, put +'em in a hack and took 'em down to Gabrielle's. There they spent an hour +lookin' at Gabrielle's swell bunch dressed up and doin' the grand society +act with some of the men-about-town. Then they danced some and opened a +bottle or two. + +"I never heard that this little jaunt hurt the girls any, but it woke up +something in Mrs. Lawton. After that--well, there are stories without +end. Won't take up your time tellin' them. The upshot was that one night +Lawton, who took a fling himself once in a while, met her at Gabrielle's +or some other joint, and she went East a day or two after. I suppose he +didn't get a divorce, partly on account of the kid--Aileen--partly +because he had no intention of trying his luck again." + +"But is there any evidence that she had another child--that she +hid away?" + +"No, but it might easy have been. This life went on for about eight +years, and it was at least five that she and Lawton merely lived under +the same roof for the sake of Aileen. They never did get on. That much, +at least, was well known. It might easy be--" + +Ruyler made a rapid calculation. Aileen Lawton was just about three years +older than Helene. She was fair like her father. There was no resemblance +between her and his wife, but the intimacy between them had been +spontaneous and had never lapsed. She had grown up quite unrestrained and +spoilt, and broken three engagements, and was always rushing about +proclaiming in one breath, that California was the greatest place on +earth and in the next that she should go mad if she didn't get out and +have a change. Another grievance was that although her father let her +have her own way, or rather did not pretend to control her, he gave her a +rather niggardly allowance for her personal expenses and she was supposed +to be heavily in debt. Ruyler thought he could guess where a good deal of +his wife's spare cash had gone to. He disliked Aileen Lawton as much as +he did Polly Roberts; more, if anything, because she might have been +clever and she chose to be a fool. Both of these intimate friends of his +wife were the reverse of the superb outdoor type he admired. + +"Good Lord!" he said. "I don't think there's much choice." + +But in a moment he shook his head. "Too many things don't connect. Where +did she get the money to go to her relations in Rouen--" + +"He pensioned her off, of course." + +"And the child? How did he consent to let her return here with a daughter +he probably never had heard of--" + +"I figger out, either that she came into some money from a relation over +in France, or else she has something on the old boy, and wanting to come +back here and marry her daughter, she held him up. He's a pillar of the +church, been one of the Presidents of the Pacific-Union Club, has argued +cases before the Supreme Court that have been cabled all over the +country. When a man of that sort gets to Lawton's time of life he don't +want any scandals." + +"All the same," said Ruyler positively, "I don't believe it. I think it +far more likely that he was a friend of Madame Delano's husband--assuming +that she had one--and that some money was left with him in trust for her +or the child." + +"Well, it may be, but I incline to Lawton--" + +"There's one person would know--" + +"'Gene Bisbee. But I never went to that bunch yet for any information, +and I don't go this time except as a last resort. Of course he knows, and +that is one reason I believe she is Mrs. Lawton. He was Gabrielle's +maquereau for years--when he'd wrung enough out of her he set up for +himself--Well, I ain't through yet, by a long sight. Beliefs ain't +proof." He rose slowly from the deep chair, stretched himself, and +settled his hat firmly on his head. + +"What's this I hear about a wonderful ruby your wife wore up to Gwynne's +the other night? Gosh! I'd like to see a sparkler like that." + +"Why, by all means." + +Ruyler swung the bookcase outward, opened the safe and handed him the +ruby. Spaulding regarded it with bulging eyes, and touched it with his +finger tips much as he would a newborn babe. "Some stone!" he said, as he +handed it back, "but why in thunder don't you keep it in a safe deposit +box? There are crooks that can crack any safe, and if they got wise to +this--oh, howdy, ma'am--" + +Helene had come in and stood behind the two men. + +Spaulding snatched off his hat and she acknowledged her husband's +introduction graciously. She was dressed for the evening in white. Her +eyes looked abnormally large, and she kept dropping her lids as if to +keep them from setting in a stare. Her lovely mouth with its soft curves +was faded and set. The whole face was almost as stiff as a mask, and even +her graceful body was rigid. Ruyler saw Spaulding give her a sharp +"sizing-up" look, as he murmured, + +"Well, so long, Guv. See you to-morrow. Hope the man'll turn out all +right after all." + +"I hope so. He's a good chap otherwise." + +"Good night, ma'am. Tell your husband to put that ruby in a safe +deposit box." + +"Oh, nobody knows the safe is there except Mr. Ruyler and myself--" + +"There have been safes hidden behind bookcases before," said Spaulding +dryly. "And crooks, like all the other pests of the earth, just drift +naturally to this coast. If I were you I'd have a detective on hand +whenever you wear that bit o' glass--not at a friendly affair like the +Gwynnes' dinner, of course, but--" + +"Good idea!" exclaimed Ruyler. "My wife will wear the ruby to the +Thornton fete on the fourteenth. Will you be on hand to guard it?" + +"Won't I? About half our force is engaged for that blow-out, but no one +but yours truly shall be guardian angel for the ruby. Well, good night +once more, and good luck." + + * * * * * + +As soon as the detective had gone Ruyler drew his wife to him anxiously, +"What is it, Helene? You look--well, you don't look yourself!" + +"I have a headache," she said irritably. "Perhaps I'm developing nerves. +I do wish you would take me to New York. Other women get away from this +town once in a while." + +"But you told me on Sunday that you adored California, that it was like +fairy land--" + +"Oh, all the women out here bluff themselves and everybody else just +so long and then suddenly go to pieces. It's a wonderful state, but +what a life! What a life! Surely I was made for something better. I +don't wonder--" + +"What?" he asked sharply. + +"Oh, nothing. I feel ungrateful, of course. I really should be quite +happy. Think if I had to go back to Rouen to live--after this taste of +freedom, and beauty--for California has all the beauties of youth as well +as its idiocies and vices--" + +"There is not the remotest danger of your ever being obliged to live in +Rouen again--" + +"Oh, I don't know. You might get tired of me. We might fight like cat and +dog for want of common interests, of something to talk about. You would +never take to drink like so many of the men, but I might--well, I'm glad +dinner is ready at last." + +But she played with her food. That she was repressing an intense and +mounting excitement Ruyler did not doubt, and he also suspected that she +wished to broach some particular subject from which she turned in panic. +They were alone after coffee had been served, and he said abruptly: + +"What is it, Helene? Do you want money? I have an idea that Polly Roberts +and Aileen Lawton borrow heavily from you, and that they may have cleaned +you out completely on the first--" + +"How dear of you to guess--or rather to get so close. It's worse than +that. I--that is--well--poor Polly went quite mad over a pearl necklace +at Shreve's and they told her to take it and wear it for a few days, +thinking, I suppose, she would never give it up and would get the money +somehow. She--oh, it's too dreadful--she lost it--and she dares not tell +Rex--he's lost quite a lot of money lately--and she's mad with +fright--and I told her--" + +"Where did she lose it? It's not easy to lose a necklace, especially when +the clasp is new." + +"She thinks it was stolen from her neck at the theater--you heard what +that man said." + +"Ah! What was the price of the necklace?" + +"Twenty thousand dollars. The pearls weren't so very large, of course, +but Polly never had had a pearl necklace--" + +"I'll let her have the money to pay for it on one condition--that it is a +transaction, between Roberts and myself--" + +"No! No! Not for anything!" + +"I've lent him money before--" + +"But he'd never forgive Polly. He--he's one of those men who make an +awful fuss on the first of every month when his wife's bills come in." + +"There must be a bass chorus on the first of every month in San +Francisco--" + +"Oh, please don't jest. She must have this money." + +"She may have it--on those terms. I'll have no business dealings with +women of the Polly Roberts sort. That would be the last I'd ever see of +the twenty thousand--" + +"I never thought you were stingy!" + +Ruyler, in spite of his tearing anxiety, laughed outright. "Is that your +idea of how the indulgent American husband becomes rich?" + +"Oh--of course I wouldn't have you lose such a sum. I really have learned +the value of money in the abstract, although I can't care for it as much +as men do." + +"I have no great love of money, but there is a certain difference between +a miser and a levelheaded business man--" + +"Price, I must have that money. Polly--oh, I am afraid she will +kill herself!" + +"Not she. A more selfish little beast never breathed. She'll squeeze the +money out of some one, never fear! But I think I'll lock up your jewels +in case you are tempted to raise money on them for her--Darling!" + +Helene, without a sound, had fainted. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +They had intended to go to the theater but Ruyler put her to bed at +once. He offered to read to her, but she turned her back on him with +cold disdain, and he went to the little invisible cupboard where she +kept her own jewels and took out the heavy gold box which had been the +wedding present of one of his California business friends who owned a +quartz mine. + +"I shall put this in the safe," he said incisively, "for, while I admire +your stanchness in friendship, even for such an unworthy object as Polly +Roberts, I do not propose that my wife shall be selling or pawning her +jewels for any reason whatever. Think over the proposal I made +downstairs. If Polly is willing I'll lend Roberts the money to-morrow." + +She had thrown an arm over her face and she made no reply. He went down +stairs and put the box in the safe. It occurred to him that she had +watched him open and close the safe several times but she certainly never +had written the combination down, and it had taken him a long while to +commit it to memory himself. + +He had glanced over the contents of the box before he locked it in. The +jewels were all there, the string of pearls that he had given her on +their marriage day, a few wedding presents, and several rings and +trinkets he had bought for her since. The value was perhaps twenty +thousand dollars, for he had told her that she must wait several years +before he could give her the jewels of a great lady. When she was thirty, +and really needed them to make up for fading charms--it had been one of +their pleasant little jokes. + +As Ruyler set the combination he sighed and wondered whether their days +of joking were over. Their life had suddenly shot out of focus and it +would require all his ingenuity and patience, aided by friendly +circumstance, to swing it into line again. He did not believe a word of +the necklace story. Somebody was blackmailing the poor child. If he could +only find out who! He made up his mind suddenly to put this problem also +in the hands of Spaulding for solution. The question of his +mother-in-law's antecedents was important enough, but that of his wife's +happiness and his own was paramount. + +He decided to go to the theater himself, for he was in no condition for +sleep or the society of men at the club, nor could any book hold his +attention. He prayed that the play would be reasonably diverting. + +He walked down town and as he entered the lobby of the Columbia at the +close of the first act he saw 'Gene Bisbee and D.V. Bimmer, who was now +managing a hotel in San Francisco, standing together. He also saw Bisbee +nudge Bimmer, and they both stared at him openly, the famous hotel man +with some sympathy in his wise secretive eyes, the reformed peer of the +underworld with a certain speculative contempt. + +Ruyler, to his intense irritation, felt himself flushing, and wondered if +the man's regard might be translated: "Just how much shall I be able to +touch him for?" He wished he would show his hand and dissipate the +damnable web of mystery which Fate seemed weaving hourly out of her +bloated pouch, but he doubted if Bisbee, or whoever it was that tormented +his wife, would approach him save as a last resource. They were clever +enough to know that her keenest desire would be to keep the disgraceful +past from the knowledge of her husband, rather than from a society +seasoned these many years to erubescent pasts. + +Moreover it is always easier to blackmail a woman than a man, and Price +Ruyler could not have looked an easy mark to the most optimistic of +social brigands. + +He found it impossible to fix his mind on the play; the cues of the first +act eluded him, and the characters and dialogue were too commonplace to +make the story negligible. + +At the end of the second act Ruyler made up his mind to go home and try +to coax his wife back into her customary good temper, pet her and make +her forget her little tragedy. He still hesitated to broach the subject +to her directly, but it was possible that by some diplomatically +analogous tale he could surprise her into telling him the truth. + +During the long drive he turned over in his mind the data Spaulding had +placed before him during the afternoon. He rejected the theory that +Madame Delano was Mrs. Lawton as utterly fantastic, but admitted a +connection. Helene had spoken more than once of Mrs. Lawton's kindness to +"maman" when her baby was born during her "enforced stay in San +Francisco," and it was quite possible that the two had been friends, and +that the young mother had adopted the name of Dubois when calling upon +the nuns of the convent at St. Peter, either because it would naturally +occur to her, or from some deeper design which, he could not fathom.... + +Yes, the connection with Mrs. Lawton was indisputable and it remained for +him to "figger out" as Spaulding would say, which of these women, the +gambler's wife, the notorious "Madam," Gabrielle, the briefly coruscating +Pauline Marie, or the Englishman's mistress, a woman of Mrs. Lawton's +position would be most likely to befriend. + +The first three might be dismissed without argument. She had been no +frequenter of "gambling joints" whatever her peccadilloes; Gabrielle, +he happened to know, had died some eight or ten years ago, and +Mademoiselle Pauline Marie, if she had had a child, which was extremely +doubtful, was the sort that sends unwelcome offspring post haste to the +foundling asylum. + +There remained only the spurious Mrs. Medford, and she was the +probability on all counts. What more likely than that she and Mrs. Lawton +had met at one of the great winter hotels in Southern California, and +foregathered? Certainly they would be congenial spirits. + +When the baby came Mrs. Lawton would naturally see her through her +trouble, and advise her later what to do with the child. No doubt, +Medford found it in the way. + +After that Ruyler could only fumble. Did Medford desert the woman, +driving her on the stage?--or elsewhere? Did they start for Japan, and +did he die on the voyage? Did he merely give the woman a pension and tell +her to go back to Rouen, or to the devil? It was positive that when +Helene was five years old Madame Delano had gone back to her relatives +with some trumped up story and been received by them. + +Moreover, this theory coincided with, his belief that Helene's father +was a gentleman. No doubt he had been already married when he met the +young French girl, superbly handsome, and intelligent--possibly at one +of the French watering places, even in Rouen itself, swarming with +tourists in Summer. They might have met in the spacious aisles of the +Cathedral, she risen from her prayers, he wandering about, Baedeker in +hand, and fallen in love at sight. One of Earth's million romances, +regenerating the aged planet for a moment, only to sink back and +disappear into her forgotten dust. + +His own romance? What was to be the end of that! + +But he returned to his argument. He wanted a coherent story to tell his +wife, and he wanted also to believe that his wife's father had been a +gentleman. + +Medford, like so many of his eloping kind, had made instinctively for +California with the beautiful woman he loved but could not marry. Santa +Barbara, Ruyler had heard, had been the favorite haven for two +generations of couples fleeing from irking bonds in the societies of +England and the continent of Europe. Southern California combined a wild +independence with a languor that blunted too sensitive nerves, offered an +equable climate with months on end of out of door life, boating, +shooting, riding, driving, motoring, romantic excursions, and even sport +if a distinguished looking couple played the game well and told a +plausible story. + +Breeding was a part of Ruyler's religion, as component in his code as +honor, patriotism, loyalty, or the obligation of the strong to protect +the weak. Far better the bend sinister in his own class than a legitimate +parent of the type of 'Gene Bisbee or D.V. Bimmer. Ruyler was a "good +mixer" when business required that particular form of diplomacy, and the +familiarities of Jake Spaulding left his nerves unscathed, but in bone +and brain cells he was of the intensely respectable aristocracy of +Manhattan Island and he never forgot it. He had surrendered to a girl of +no position without a struggle, and made her his wife, but it is doubtful +if he would even have fallen in love with her if she had been underbred +in appearance or manner. He had never regretted his marriage for a +moment, not even since this avalanche of mystery and portending scandal +had descended upon him; if possible he loved his troubled young wife more +than ever--with a sudden instinct that worse was to come he vowed that +nothing should ever make him love her less. + +When he arrived at his house he found two notes on the hall table +addressed to himself. The first was from Helene and read: + +"Polly telephoned that she would send her car for me to go down to the +Fairmont and dance. I cannot sleep so I am going. _She cannot sleep +either_! Forgive me if I was cross, but I am terribly worried for her. +Don't wait up for me. Helene." + +He read this note with a frown but without surprise. It was to be +expected that she would seek excitement until her present fears were +allayed and her persecutors silenced. + +He determined to order Spaulding to have her shadowed constantly for at +least a fortnight and note made of every person in whose company she +appeared to be at all uneasy, whether they were of her own set or not. It +would also be worth while to have Madame Delano's rooms watched, for it +was possible that she would summon Helene there to meet Bisbee or others +of his ilk. + +Then he picked up the other note. It was from Spaulding, and as he read +it all his finespun theories vanished and once more he was adrift on an +uncharted sea without a landmark in sight. + +"Dear Sir," began the detective, who was always formal on paper. "I've +just got the information required from Holbrook Centre. We didn't half +believe there was such a place, if you remember? Well there is, and +according to the parish register Marie Jeanne Perrin was married to James +Delano on July 25th, 1891. She was there, visiting some French +relations--they went back soon after--and he had left there when he was +about sixteen and had only come back that once to see his mother, who was +dying. Nothing seems to have been known about him in his home town except +a sort of rumor that he was a bad lot and lived somewheres in California. +Can you beat it? But don't think I'm stumped. I'm working on a new line +and I'm not going to say another word until I've got somewheres. + +"Yours truly, + +"J. SPAULDING." + +"Delano's father was a Forty-niner, and lived in California till 1860, +when he went home to H. C. and died soon after. There were wild stories +about him, too." + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +I + +During the next few days Ruyler saw little of his wife. He was obliged to +take two business trips out of town and as he could not return until ten +o'clock at night he advised her to have company to dinner and take her +guests to the play. But she preferred to dine with Polly Roberts and +Aileen Lawton, and she spent her days for the most part at Burlingame, +motoring down with one or more of her friends, or sent for by some +enthusiastic girl admirer already established there for the summer. + +Ruyler was quite willing to forego temporarily his plan of personal +guardianship, as the more she roamed abroad unattended the better could +Spaulding watch her associates. The detective had his agents in society, +as well as in the Palace Hotel, and on the third day he sent a brief note +to Ruyler announcing that he had "lit on to something" that would make +his employer's "hair curl, but no more at present from yours truly." + +"This time," he added, "I'm on the right track and know it. No more fancy +theories. But I won't say a word till I can deliver the goods. Give your +wife all the rope you can." + +Price and Helene met briefly and amiably and she did not again broach the +subject of the loan for her friend, nor did she ask for her jewels. It +was apparent that she was proudly determined to conceal whatever terrors +or even worries that might haunt her, but the effort deprived her of all +her native vivacity; she was almost formal in manner and her white face +grew more like a classic mask daily. + +On the evening before the Thornton fete, however, Price was able to dine +at home. They met at table and he saw at once that she either had +recovered her spirits or was making a deliberate attempt to create the +impression of a carefree young woman happy in a tete-a-tete dinner with a +busy husband. + +Her talk for the most part was of the great entertainment at San Mateo. +The weather promised to be simply magnificent. Wasn't that exactly like +Flora Thornton's luck? The immense grounds were simply swarming with +workmen; wagon-loads of all sorts of things went through the gates after +every train--simply one procession after another; but no one else could +so much as get her nose through those gates. + +Helene, with all her old childish glee, related how she and Aileen, Polly +(who apparently had forgotten her impending doom), and two or three other +girls, had called up Mrs. Thornton on the telephone every ten minutes for +an hour--pretending it was long distance to make sure of a personal +response--and begged to be allowed to go over and see the preparations, +until finally, in a towering rage, her ladyship had replied that if they +called her again she would withdraw her invitations. + +"How we did long for an airship. It would have been such fun, for she +does so disapprove of all of us; thinks us a little flock of silly geese. +Well, we are, I guess, but wasn't she one herself once? She has a pretty +hard time even now making life interesting for herself--out here, anyhow. + +"Yesterday we motored down to Menlo and dropped in at the Maynards. There +were a lot of the props of San Francisco society, all as rich as croesus, +sitting on the veranda crocheting socks or sacks for a crop of new babies +that are due. One or two were hemstitching lawn, or embroidering a +monogram, or something else equally useless or virtuous. They were +talking mild gossip, and didn't even have powder on. It was ghastly--" + +"Helene," said Ruyler abruptly, "what do you think is the secret of +happiness--I mean, of course, the enduring sort--perhaps content would be +the better word. Happiness is too dependent upon love, and love was never +meant for daily food. You are not by nature frivolous, and you are +capable of thought. Have you ever given any to the secret of content?" + +"Yes, work," she answered promptly. "Everybody should have his daily job, +prescribed either by the state or by necessity; but something he must do +if both he and society would continue to exist." + +Ruyler elevated his eyebrows and looked at her curiously. "Socialism. I +didn't know you had ever heard of it." + +"Aileen and I are not such fools as we look--as you were good enough to +intimate just now. We went to a series of lectures early last winter over +at the University, on Socialism--a lot of us formed a class, but all +except Aileen and I dropped out. + +"We continued to read for a time after the lectures were over, but of +course that didn't last. One drops everything for want of stimulus, and +when one begins to flutter again one is lost. + +"But I heard and read and thought enough to deduce that the only vital +interest in life after one's secret happiness--which one would not dare +spread out too thin if one could in this American life--is necessary work +well done. And that is quite different from those fussy interests and +fads we create or take up for the sake of thinking we are busy and +interested. + +"Polly's mother once told me she never was so happy in her life as during +those weeks after the earthquake and fire when all the servants had run +away and she had to cook for the family out in the street on a stove they +bought down in a little shop in Polk Street and set up and surrounded on +three sides by 'inside blinds.' She happened to have a talent for +cooking, and without her the family would have starved. Polly tied a +towel round her head and did the housework, or stood in a line and got +the daily rations from the Government. She never thought once of--" + +"Of what?" + +"Oh, of doing anything rather than expire of boredom. She and Rex had +been married a year and were living at home. Rex and Mr. Carter helped +excavate down in the business district, as the working class wouldn't +lift a finger as long as the Government was feeding them." + +"There you are! Their ideal is complete leisure, and that of our delicate +products of the highest civilization--compulsory jobs! What does progress +mean but the leisure to enjoy the arts and all the finer fruits of +progress? What else do we men really work for?" + +"Progress has gone too far and defeated its own ends. Every healthy human +being should be forced to work six hours a day. + +"That would leave eight for sleep and ten for enjoyment of the arts and +luxuries. Then we really should enjoy them, and if we couldn't have them +unless we did our six hours' stint, ennui and the dissipations that it +breeds would be unknown. + +"I can tell you it is demoralizing, disintegrating, to wake up morning +after morning--about ten o'clock!--and know that you have nothing worth +while to do for another day--for all the days!--that you have no place in +the world except as an ornament! Women of limited incomes and a family of +growing children have enough, to do, of course--too much--they never can +feel superfluous and demoralized--except by envy--but as for us! Why, I +can tell you, it is a marvel we don't all go straight to the devil." + +They were alone with the coffee, and she was pounding the table with her +little fist. Her cheeks were deeply flushed and her black somber eyes +were opening and closing rapidly, as if alternately magnetized by some +ugly vision and sweeping it aside. + +Price watched her with deep interest and deeper anxiety. "A good many +women go to the devil," he said. "But you are not that sort." + +"Oh, I don't know. I never could get up enough interest in another man to +solve the problem in the usual way--but there are other +resources--I--well--" + +"What?" Price sat up very straight. + +"Oh, dance ourselves into tuberculosis," she said lightly, and dropping +her eyelashes. "And tuberculosis of the mind, certainly. On the whole, I +think I prefer physical to spiritual death.... + +"However--I found out one thing to-day. The dancing is to be out of +doors. There will be an immense arbor or something of the sort erected +on the lawn above the sunken garden. My gown is a dream and I shall wear +the ruby." + +"Yes," he said smiling. "You shall wear the ruby. But you must expect me +to keep very close to you--" + +"The closer the better." She smiled charmingly. "Have you tried on +your costume?" + +"I haven't even looked at it. Who am I?" + +"Caesar Borgia. You are not much like him yourself, darling, but I +thought he was not so very unlike modern American business, as a whole." + +Ruyler laughed. "Why not Machiavelli? But as no doubt it is black velvet, +much puffed and slashed, I may hope it will be becoming to my nondescript +fairness. You must promise not to wander off for long walks with any of +your admirers. Not that I fear the admirers, but the thieves that are +bound to get into that crowd one way or another. They have a way of +unclasping necklaces even of the most circumspect wives in the company of +not too absorbing men." + +Her eyes opened and flashed, but he had no time to analyze that fleeting +expression before she was promising volubly not to wander from the +illuminated spaces. + + * * * * * + +He interrupted her suddenly. They were in the library now, and sat down +on a little sofa in front of the window. The moon was high and brilliant +and the great expanse of water with the high clusters of lights on the +islands, the sharp hard silhouette of the encircling mountains, the green +and silver stars so high above, the moving golden dots of an incoming +liner from Japan, the long rows of arc lights along the shore, made a +landscape of the night that Mrs. Thornton with all her millions hardly +could rival. + +"Are you not grateful for this?" he asked whimsically and a little +wistfully. + +"Oh, Price, dear, I am more grateful than you will ever know. I have not +a fault on earth to find with you. You would be the prince of the fairy +tale if you were not so busy. + +"But that is the tragedy. You are busy--I am not." + +"Well, let us have the personal solution--one that fits ourselves. You +have time to think it out. I, alas! have not." He took her hand and +fondled it, hoping for her confidence. + +"I don't know." She had a deep rich voice and she could make it very +intense. "I only know there must--must--be a change--if--if--I am +to--Can't you take me abroad for a year? That might not be work, but at +least I should be learning some thing--I have traveled almost not at +all--and, at least, I should have you." + +"But later? Most of your friends have spent a good deal of time in +Europe. I doubt if any state in the Union goes to Europe as often as +California! They are all the more discontented when they come back here +to vegetate--as Mrs. Thornton would express it. + +"It would be a blessed interval, but no more." + +"We should have time to think out a new and different life.... + +"You know--in the class I come from--in France--the women are the +partners of their husbands. Even in the higher bourgeoisie, that is, +where they still are in business, not living on great inherited +fortunes-- + +"My uncle had a small silk house in Rouen, and my aunt kept the books +and attended to all the correspondence. He always said she was the +cleverer business man of the two; but French women have a real genius +for business. Some of our great ladies help their husbands manage +their estates. + +"It is only the few that live for pleasure and glitter in the most +glittering city in the world that have furnished the novelists the +material to give the world a false impression of France. + +"The majority live such sober, useful, busy lives that only the highest +genius could make people read about them. + +"Of course, young girls dream of something far more brilliant, and wait +eagerly for the husband who shall deliver them from their narrow +restricted little spheres... perhaps take them to the great world of +Paris; but they settle down, even in Paris, and devote themselves to +their husbands' interests, which are their own, and to their children.... + +"That is it! They are indispensable--not as women, but as partners. I +barely know what your business is about--only that you are in some +tremendous wholesale commission thing with tentacles that reach half +round the world. + +"Only the wives of politicians are any real help to their husbands in +this country. Isabel Gwynne! What a help she will be--has been--to Mr. +Gwynne. But then she was always busy. When her uncle died he left her +that little ranch and scarcely anything else, she took to raising +chickens--not to fuss about and fill in her time, but to keep a roof over +her head and have enough to eat and wear. I doubt if she ever was bored +in her life." + +"I can't take you into the business, sweetheart," said Ruyler slowly. +"For that would violate the traditions of a very old conservative house. +But I can quite see that something must be done.... + +"I married you to make you happy and to be happy myself. I do not intend +that our marriage shall be a failure. It is possible that Harold would +consent to come out here and take my place. The business no longer +requires any great amount of initiative, but the most unremitting +vigilance. I have thought--it has merely passed through my mind--but you +might hate it--how would you like it if I bought a large fruit ranch, +several thousand acres, and put up a canning factory besides? I would +make you a full partner and you would have to give to your share of the +work considerably more than six hours of the day-- + +"We could build a large, plain, comfortable house, take all our books and +pictures, subscribe to all the newspapers, magazines and reviews, keep up +with everything that is going on in the world, have house parties once in +a while, come to town for a few weeks in summer for the plays. + +"We should live practically an out-of-door life--if you preferred we +could buy a cattle ranch in the south. That would mean the greater part +of the day in the saddle-- + +"How does it appeal to you?" + +He had turned off the electricity, but as he fumbled with his +embryonic idea he saw her eyes sparkle and a light of passionate hope +dawn on her face. + +"Oh, I should love it! But love it! Especially the fruit ranch. That +would be like France--our orchards are as wonderful as yours, even if +nothing could be as big as a California ranch-- + +"That is, if it would not be a makeshift. Another form of playing at +life." + +"I can assure you that we will have to make it pay or go to the wall. My +father would probably disinherit me, for it would be breaking another +tradition, and he compliments me by believing that I am the best business +man in the firm at present. + +"My only capital would be such of my fortune as is not tied up in the +House--about a hundred thousand dollars in Government bonds. Of course, +in time, if all goes well, and California does not have another +setback--if business improves all over the world--I shall be able to take +the rest of my money out, that I put into this end of the business after +the fire; but that may be ten years hence. I shouldn't even ask for +interest on it--that would be the only compensation I could offer for +deserting the firm. + +"Perhaps I had better buy a cattle ranch. Then, if we fail, I shall at +least have had the training of a cowboy and can hire out." + +Helene laughed and clapped her hands. + +"Fail? You? But I should help you to make it a success--I should be +really necessary?" + +"Indispensable. Either you or another partner." + +"No! No! I shall be the partner--" + +"And you mean that you would be willing to bury your youth, your beauty, +on a ranch? I have heard bitter confidences out here from women forced to +waste their youth on a ranch. You are one of the fine flowers of +civilization--" + +"That soon wither in the hothouse atmosphere. I wish to become a hardy +annual. And when the ranch was running like a clock we could take a month +or two in Europe every year or so--" + +"Rather! And I could show you off--Bother! I'll not answer." + +The telephone bell on the little table in the corner (his own private +wire) rang so insistently that Ruyler finally was magnetized reluctantly +across the room. He put the receiver to his ear and asked, "Well?" in his +most inhospitable tones. + +The answer came in Spaulding's voice, and in a moment he sat down. + +At the end of ten minutes he hung the receiver on the hook and returned +to find Helene standing by the window, all the light gone from her eyes, +staring out at the hard brilliant scene with an expression of +hopelessness that had relaxed the very muscles of her face. + +Ruyler was shocked, and more apprehensive than he had yet been. "Helene!" +he exclaimed. "What is the matter? Surely you may confide in me if you +are in trouble." + +"Oh, but I am not," she replied coldly. "Did I look odd? I was just +wondering how many really happy people there were behind those +lights--over on Belvedere, at Sausalito--the lights look so golden and +steady and sure--and glimpses of interiors at night are always so +fascinating--but I suppose most of the people are commonplace and just +dully discontented--" + +"Well, I am afraid I have something to tell you that hardly will restore +your delightful gayety of a few moments ago. I am sorry--but--well, the +fact is I must leave for the north to-morrow morning and hardly shall be +able to return before the next night. I am really distressed. I wanted so +much to take you to-morrow night--" + +"And I can't wear the ruby?" Her voice was shrill. Ruyler wondered if his +stimulated imagination fancied a note of terror in it. + +"I--I--am afraid not--darling--" + +"But that Spaulding man will be there to watch--" + +"Unfortunately--I forgot to tell you--he cannot go--he is on an important +case. Besides--when I make a promise I usually keep it." + +"But--but--" She stammered as if her brain were confused, then turned and +pressed her face to the window. "I suppose nothing matters," she said +dully. "Perhaps you will let me wear my own little ruby. After all, that +was maman's, and she gave it to me before I was married. I should like to +wear one jewel." + +"You shall have all your jewels, if you will promise not to give them to +Polly Roberts or any one else." + +"I promise." + +He went over and opened the safe, and when he rose with the gold jewel +case he saw that she was standing behind him. Once more it flitted +through his mind that she had watched him manipulate the combination +several times, but he had little confidence in any but a professional +thief's ability to memorize such an involved assortment of figures as had +been invented for this particular safe. It was only once in a while that +he was not obliged to refer to the key that he carried in his pocketbook. + +Nor was she looking at the safe, but staring upward at a maharajah, +covered with pearls of fantastic size. She took the box from his hand +with a polite word of thanks, offered her cheek to be kissed, and +left the room. + +Price threw himself into a chair and rehearsed the instructions Spaulding +had given him. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +It was half-past eleven when Ruyler and Spaulding, masked and wearing +colored silk dominoes, entered the great gates of the Thornton estate in +San Mateo, the detective merely displaying something in his palm to the +stern guardians that kept the county rabble at bay. + +The mob stood off rather grumblingly, for they would have liked to get +closer to that gorgeous mass of light they could merely glimpse through +the great oaks of the lower part of the estate, and to the music so +seductive in the distance. + +They were not a rabble to excite pity, by any means. A few ragged tramps +had joined the crowd, possibly a few pickpockets from the city, watching +their opportunity to slip in behind one of the automobiles that brought +the guests from the station or from the estates up and down the valley. +They were, for the most part, trades-people from the little towns--San +Mateo, Redwood City--or the wives of the proletariat--or the servants of +the neighboring estates. But, although, they grumbled and envied, they +made no attempt to force their way in; it was only the light-fingered +gentry the police at the great iron gates were on the lookout for. + +Ruyler, if his mind had been less harrowed with the looming and possibly +dire climax of his own secret drama, would have laughed aloud at this +melodramatic entrance to the grounds of one of his most intimate friends. +He and Spaulding had walked from the train, but they were not detained as +long as a gay party of young people from Atherton, who teased the police +by refusing to present their cards or lift their masks. Ruyler knew them +all, but they finally sped past him without even a glance of contempt for +mere foot passengers, even though they looked like a couple of dodging +conspirators. + +He had met Spaulding at the station in San Francisco, and private +conversation on the crowded train had been impossible. When they had +walked a few yards along the wide avenue, as brilliant as day with its +thousands of colored lights concealed in the astonished pines, Ruyler sat +deliberately down upon a bench and motioned the detective to take the +seat beside him. + +"It is time you gave me some sort of a hint," he said. "After all, it is +my affair--" + +"I know, but as I said, you might not approve my methods, and if you +balk, all is up. We've got the chance of our lives. It's now or never." + +"I do not at all like the idea that you may be forcing me into a position +where I may find myself doing something I shall be ashamed of for the +rest of my life." + +Ruyler's tone was haughty. He did not relish being led round by the nose, +and his nerves were jumping. + +"Now! Now!" said Spaulding soothingly, as he lit a cigar. "When you hire +a detective you hire him to do things you wouldn't do yourself; and if +you won't give him the little help he's got to have from you or quit, +what's the use of hiring him at all? + +"I know perfectly well that nothing but your own eyes would convince you +of what it's up to me to prove--to say nothing of the fact that I count +on your entrance at the last minute to put an end to the whole bad +business. For it is a bad business--believe me. But not a word of that +now. You couldn't pry open my lips with a five dollar Havana." + +"Well--you say you had a talk with Madame Delano to-day. Surely you can +tell me some of the things you have discovered." + +"A whole lot. I've been waiting for the chance. Not that I got anything +out of her. She's one grand bluffer and no mistake. I take off my hat to +her. When I told her that I could lay hands on the proof that she was +Marie Garnett--although Jim had married her in his home town under his +own name--and that she'd gone home to France with the kid when it was +five, taking the cue from her friend, Mrs. Lawton, and sending word back +she was dead--" + +"You were equally sure a few days ago that she was Mrs. Lawton--" + +"That was just my constructive imagination on the loose. It was a lovely +theory, and I sort of hung on to it. But I had no real data to go on. Now +I've got the evidence that Jim Garnett died two months before the fire +burnt up pretty nearly all the records, and that his body was shipped +back to Holbrook Centre to be buried in the family plot. You see, he was +sick for some time out on Pacific Avenue, and his death was registered +where the fire didn't go--" + +"But what put you on?" asked Ruyler impatiently. "I should almost rather +it had been any one else. He seems to have been about as bad a lot as +even this town ever turned out." + +"He was, all right, and his father before him, although they came from +mighty fine folks back east. His father came out in '49 with the gold +rush crowd, panned out a good pile, and then, liking the life--San +Francisco was a gay little burg those days--opened one of the crack +gambling houses down on the Old Plaza. Plate glass windows you could look +through from outside if you thought it best to stay out, and see hundreds +of men playing at tables where the gold pieces--often slugs--were piled +as high as their noses, and hundreds more walking up and down the aisles +either waiting for a chance to sit, or hoping to appease their hunger +with the sight of so much gold. They didn't try any funny business, for +every gambler had a six-shooter in his hip pocket, and sometimes on the +table beside him. + +"Sometimes men would walk out and shoot themselves on the sidewalk in +front of the windows, and not a soul inside would so much as look up. +Well, Delano the first had a short life but a merry one. He couldn't keep +away from the tables himself, and first thing he knew he was broke, sold +up. He went back to the mines, but his luck had gone, and his wife--she +had followed him out here--persuaded him to go back home and live in the +old house, on a little income she had; and he bored all the neighbors to +death for a few years about 'early days in California' until he dropped +off. Her name was Mary Garnett. + +"That's what put me on--the G. in the middle of the name of the man +Madame Delano married. I telegraphed to Holbrook Centre to find out what +his middle name was, and after that it was easy. I also found out that he +was born in California, and I guess that old wild life was in his blood. +He stood Holbrook Centre until he was sixteen, and then homed back and +took up the trade he just naturally had inherited. + +"I figger out that he didn't tell his wife the truth when he married her +back there, not until he was on the train pretty close to S.F., and then +he told her because he couldn't help himself. She couldn't help herself, +either, and besides she was in love with him. He was a handsome, +distinguished lookin' chap, and he kept right on bein' a fascinator as +long as he lived. + +"I guess that's the reason she left him in the end. She stood for the +gambling joint, and, although she had a cool sarcastic way with her that +kept the men who fell for her at a distance, she was a good decoy, and +she looked a regular queen at the head of the green table. She was chummy +with Jim's intimates, two of whom were D.V. Bimmer and 'Gene Bisbee, but +even 'Gene didn't dare take any liberties with her. + +"It was natural that a woman brought up as she had been should have kept +her child out of it, and I figger that she got disgusted with Jim and +came to the full sense of her duty to the poor kid about the same time. +But she didn't go until Jim settled so much a month on her through old +Lawton--who used to amuse himself at Garnett's a good deal in those days, +and who was one of her best friends. + +"Well, she also got Garnett to make a curious sort of a will, leaving his +money to James Lawton, to 'dispose of as agreed upon.' She had a thrifty +business head, had that French dame, and she had made him buy property +when he was flush, and put it in her name, although she gave a written +agreement never to sell out as long as he lived. + +"He agreed to let her go because he was dippy about another skirt at the +time, and, besides, she played on his family pride--lineal descendant of +the Delanos, Garnetts, and so forth. He'd never seen the kid after it was +taken to the convent, but I guess he liked the idea, all right, of its +being brought up wearing the old name, and gettin' rid of Marie at the +same time. + +"She was too canny to leave him a loophole for divorce, even in +California; but I guess that didn't worry him much. + +"If the earthquake and fire hadn't come so soon after the will was +probated there might have been a lot of speculation about it, among men, +at least. Those old gossips in the Club windows would soon have been +putting two and two together; but the calamity that burnt up all the Club +windows, just swept it clean out of their heads. + +"I figger out that old Lawton continued to pay Madame Delano the income +she'd been havin' both from Jim and her properties, out of his own +pocket, until the city was rebuilt and he could settle the estate. He had +to borrow the money to rebuild the houses Jim had put up on his wife's +property, and when things got to a certain pass he wrote Madame D. to +come along and take over her property. She'll be good and rich one of +these days, when all the mortgages are paid off and Lawton paid back, but +it was wise for her to stay on the job. Lawton is dead straight, but his +partner is sowing wild oats in his old age--good old S.F. style, and I +guess it ain't wise to tempt him too far. Get me?" + +"It's atrocious!" + +"Oh, not nearly so bad as it might be. Just think, if it had been +Gabrielle, or Pauline-Marie, or even Mrs. Lawton. That's the worst kind +of bad blood for a woman to inherit. Marie Garnett hung on like grim +death to what the grand society you move in pretends to value most, and +the Lord knows she'll never lose it now. + +"Nor need there be any scandal to drive your family to suicide. The thing +to do is to hustle Madame Delano out of San Francisco. She'll go, all +right, with you to look after her interests. She don't fancy being +recognized and blackmailed, or I miss my guess. You may have to pay +Bisbee something, but D. V.'s not that sort, and I don't think anybody +else is on. If they've suspected they'll soon forget it when the old lady +disappears from the Palace Hotel. Gee, but she has a nerve." + +"She is an old cynic. If she had any snobbery in her she'd be here +to-night, rubbing elbows with the women who never knew of her existence +twenty years ago, although their husbands did. It has satisfied her +ironic French soul to sit in the court of the Palace Hotel day after day +and defy San Francisco to recognize Marie Garnett in the obese Madame +Delano, whose daughter is one of the great ladies of the city to whose +underworld she once belonged, and from whose filthy profits she derives +her income. Good God!" + +He sat forward and clutched his head, but Spaulding, who had drawn out +his watch, tapped him on the shoulder. + +"Come on," he said. "Time's gettin' short. The stunt is to be pulled off +just before supper." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +I + +They walked rapidly up the close avenue--planted far back in the Fifties +by Ford Thornton's grandfather--the blaze of light at the end of the long +perspective growing wider and wider. As they emerged they paused for a +moment, dazzled by the scene. + +The original home of the Thorntons had been of ordinary American +architecture and covered with ivy; it might have been transplanted from +some old aristocratic village in the East. Flora Thornton had maintained +that only one style of architecture was appropriate in a state settled by +the Spaniards, and famous for its missions of Moorish architecture. Fordy +loved the old house, but as he denied his wife nothing he had given her a +million, three years before the fire which so sadly diminished fortunes, +and told her to build any sort of house she pleased; if she would only +promise to live in it and not desert him twice a year for Europe. + +The immense structure, standing on a knoll, bore a certain resemblance to +the Alhambra, with its heavy square towers; its arched gateways leading +into courtyards with fountains or sunken pools, the red brown of the +stucco which looked like stone and was not. To-night it was blazing with +lights of every color. + +So were the ancient oaks, which were old when the Alhambra was built, +the shrubberies, the vast rose garden. The surface of the pool in the +sunken garden reflected the green or red masses of light that shot up +every few moments from the four corners of the terrace surrounding it. +On the lawn just above and to the right of the house, a platform had +been built for dancing; it was enclosed on three sides with an arbor of +many alcoves, lined with flowers, soft lights concealed in depending +clusters of oranges. + +And everywhere there were people dressed in costumes, gorgeous, +picturesque, impressive, historic, or recklessly invented, but suggesting +every era when dress counted at all. They danced on the great platform to +the strains of the invisible band, strolled along the terraces above the +sunken garden, wandered through the groves and "grounds," or sat in the +windows of the great house or in its courts. All wore the little black +satin mask prescribed by Mrs. Thornton, and created an illusion that +transported the imagination far from California. Ruyler had a whimsical +sense of being on another star where the favored of the different periods +of Earth had foregathered for the night. + +But there was nothing ghostly in the shrill chatter as incessant as the +twitter of the agitated birds, who found their night snatched from them +and hardly knew whether to scold or join in the chorus. + +Ruyler had always protested against the high-pitched din made by even six +American women when gathered together, and to the infernal racket at any +large entertainment; but to-night he sighed, forgetting his apprehensions +for the moment. + +He had exquisite memories of these lovely grounds; he and Helene had +spent several days with Mrs. Thornton during their engagement, and she +had lent them the house for their honeymoon; he would have liked to +wander through the pleasant spaces with his wife to-night and make love +to her, instead of spying on her in the company of a detective. + +For that, he was forced to conclude, was what he had been brought for. +Spaulding had mentioned her name casually, when telling him that he must +be on hand to nab the "party" who was at the bottom of the whole trouble; +but Spaulding hardly could have watched the person who was blackmailing +without including her in his surveillance. He wished now that he had left +that part of the mystery to take care of itself, trusting to his +mother-in-law's departure to relieve the situation. No doubt she would +have told him the truth herself rather than leave her daughter to the +mercy of the men who knew her secret. + +But he was still far from suspecting the worst of the truth. + +There were a number of men in fancy dominoes; he and Spaulding crossed +the lawn in front of the house unchallenged and, passing under the +frowning archway, entered the first of the courts. + +The oblong sunken pool was banked with myrtle, and above, as well as in +the great inner court with the fountain, there were narrow arcaded +windows with fluttering silken curtains. Mrs. Thornton had too satiric a +sense of humor to have had the famous arabesques of the Alhambra +reproduced any more than the massive coats-of-arms above the arches, but +the walls were delicately colored, the delicate columns looked like old +ivory, and the greatest of the local architects had been entirely +successful in combining the massiveness of the warrior stronghold with +the airy lightness and spaciousness of the pleasure house. + +The bedrooms, Ruyler told Spaulding, were all as modern as they were +luxurious, and the library, living-rooms, and dining-room, were in the +best American style. Fordy had rebelled at too much "Spanish atmosphere," +his blood being straight Anglo-Saxon, and Mrs. Thornton always knew when +to yield. Nevertheless, Flora Thornton had built the proper setting for +her barbaric beauty, and, possibly, spirit. + +People were sitting about the courts on piles of colored silken cushions, +those that had got themselves up in Eastern costumes having drifted +naturally to the suitable surroundings; for, after all, the Moors had +been Mohammedans. + +"Don't let's hang round here," said the detective, "and don't stand +holding yourself like a ramrod--like that gent out there with the ruff +that must be taking the skin off his chin. I kinder thought I'd like to +see the whole show, but we'd best go now and wait for our little turn." + +He led the way round the building to the rear of the southwest tower. +There was a little grove of jasmine trees just beneath it, that made the +air overpoweringly sweet, but there were no lights on this side, as the +garages, stables, vegetable gardens, and servants' quarters would have +destroyed the picture. + +Spaulding glanced about sharply, but there was not even a strolling +couple, and even the moon was shining on the other side of the heavy mass +of buildings. + +"Now, listen," he said. "You see this window?"--he indicated one directly +over their heads. "At exactly one o'clock, when everybody is flocking to +the supper tables on the terraces, I expect some one to lean out of that +window and talk to some one who will be waiting just below. There may be +no talk, but I think there will be, and I want you to listen to every +word of it without so much as drawing a long breath, no matter what is +said, until I grab your elbow--like this--then I want you to put up your +hand in a hurry while I'm also attendin' to business. + +"That's all I'll say now. But by the time a few words have been said, +later, I guess you'll be on. + +"Now, we must resign ourselves to a long wait without a smoke and to +keeping perfectly still. I dared not risk comin' any later for fear the +others might be beforehand, too." + +Ruyler ground his teeth. He felt ridiculous and humiliated. It was no +compensation that he was holding up the wall of a stucco Moorish palace +and that some three hundred masked people in fancy dress were within +earshot... or did the way he was togged out make him feel all the more +absurd? The whole thing was beastly un-American.... + +But, was it, after all? If he and Helene had been here together to-night, +not married and harrowed, but engaged and quick with romance, would he +have thought it absurd to conspire and maneuver to separate her from the +crowd and snatch a few moments of heavenly solitude? Would he have +despised himself for suffering torments if she flouted him or for wanting +to murder any man who balked him? + +Love, and all the passions, creative and destructive, it engendered, all +the sentiments and follies and crimes, to say nothing of ambition and +greed and the lust to kill in war--these were instincts and traits that +appeared in mankind generation after generation, in every corner +civilized and savage of the globe. The world changed somewhat in form +during its progress, but never in substance. + +And mystery and intrigue were equally a part of life, as indigenous to +the Twentieth Century as to those days long entombed in history when the +troops of Ferdinand and Isabella sat down on the plain before Grenada. + +Plot and melodrama were in every life; in some so briefly as hardly to be +recognized, in others--in that of certain men and women in the public +eye, for instance--they were almost in the nature of a continuous +performance. + +In these days men took a bath morning and evening, ate daintily, had a +refined vocabulary to use on demand, dressed in tweeds instead of velvet. +There were longer intervals between the old style of warfare when men +were always plugging one another full of holes in the name of religion or +disputed territory, merely to amuse themselves with a tryout of Right +against Might, or to gratify the insane ambition of some upstart like +Napoleon. To-day the business world was the battlefield, and it was his +capital a man was always healing, his poor brain that collapsed nightly +after the strain and nervous worry of the day. + +It suddenly felt quite normal to be here flattened against a wall waiting +for some impossible denouement. + +Nevertheless, he was sick with apprehension. + +Would it merely be the prelude to another drama? Was his life to be a +series of unwritten plays, of which he was both the hero and the +bewildered spectator? Or would it bring him calm, the terrible calm of +stagnation, of an inner life finished, sealed, buried? + +It was inevitable in these romantic surroundings and conditions that he +should revert to his almost forgotten jealousy. Suppose Spaulding had +stumbled upon something.... But he had been asked for no such +evidence.... It would be a damnable liberty.... It might be inextricably +woven with the business in hand.... There were other men besides Doremus +whom Helene saw constantly.... Spaulding may have seen his chance to nip +the thing in the bud, and had taken the risk.... + +He felt the detective's lips at his ear: "Hear anything? Move a little +so's you can look up." + +Ruyler heard his wife's voice above him, then Aileen Lawton's. He parted +the branches and saw the two girls lean over the low sill of the +casement. Both had removed their masks, but their faces were only dimly +revealed. Their voices, however, were distinct enough, and his wife's was +dull and flat. + +"Oh, I can't," she said. "I can't." + +"Well, you'll just jolly well have to. You've got it, haven't you?" + +"Oh, yes, I've got it!" + +"Well, he'll never suspect you." + +"I shall tell him." + +"Tell him? You little fool. And give us all away?" + +"I'd mention no other names." + +"As if he wouldn't probe until he found out. Don't you know Price Ruyler +yet? My father said once he'd have made a great District Attorney. What's +the use of telling him later, for that matter? Why not now?" + +"I haven't the courage yet. I might have one day--at just the right +moment. I never thought I was a coward." + +"You're just a kid. That's what's the matter. We ought to have left you +out. I told Polly that--" + +"You couldn't! Oh, don't you see you couldn't. That's the terrible part +of it! Left me out? I'd have found my way in." + +"I'm not so sure. You were interested in heaps of things, and in love, +and all that--" + +"Oh, I'd like to excuse myself by blaming it on being bored, and tired of +trying to amuse myself doing nothing worth while, but it's bad blood, +that's what it is, bad blood, and you know it, if none of the others do." + +"Oh, I'm not one of your heredity fiends. When did your mother tell you?" + +"Only the other day." + +"Well, she ought to have told you long ago. I believe you'd have kept out +if you'd known." + +"Wouldn't I? But of course she hated to tell the truth to me--" + +"Well, if I'd known that you didn't know I'd have told you, all right. I +wormed it out of Dad soon after you arrived, and at first I thought it +was a good joke on Society, to say nothing of Price Ruyler, with his air +of God having created heaven first, maybe, but New York just after. Then +I got fond of you and I wouldn't have told for the world. But I would +have put you on your guard if I'd known." + +"Oh, it doesn't matter. Even if Price doesn't find out about this, if he +learns the other--who my father was, and that awful men have recognized +my mother--I suppose he'll hate me, and in time I'll go back to Rouen--" + +"Now, you don't think as ill as that of him, do you? He makes me so mad +sometimes I could spit in his face, but if he's one thing he's true blue. +He's the straight masculine type with a streak of old romance that would +make him love a woman the more, the sorrier he was for her, and the +weaker she was--I mean so long as she was young. After this, just get to +work on your character, kid. When you're thirty maybe he won't feel that +it's his whole duty to protect you. You'll never be hard and seasoned +like me, nor able to take care of yourself. I like danger, and +excitement, and uncertainty, and mystery, and intrigue, and lying, and +wriggling out of tight places. I'd have gone mad in this hole long ago, +if I hadn't, for I don't care for sport. But you were intended to develop +into what is called a 'fine woman,' surrounded by the right sort of man +meanwhile. And Price Ruyler is the right sort. I'll say that much for +him. He'd have driven me to drink, but he's just your sort--" + +"And what am I doing? I am the most degraded woman in the world." + +"Oh, no, you're not. Not by a long sight. You don't know how much worse +you could be. One woman who is here to-night I saw lying dead drunk in +the road between San Mateo and Burlingame the other day when I was +driving with Alice Thorndyke, and Alice is having her fourth or fifth +lover, I forget which--" + +"They are no worse than I." + +"Listen. He's coming. Got it ready?" + +"I can't." + +"You must. He'll hound you in the _Merry Tattler_ until the whole town +knows you're a welcher, and not a soul would speak to you. That is the +one unpardonable sin--" + +"I wish I'd told Price--" + +"Oh, no, you don't. This is just a lovely way out. Glad he had the +inspiration. Hello, Nick." + +A man had groped his way between the trees and stood just under +the window. + +"What are you doing here?" asked Doremus sourly. + +"Witness, witness, my dear Nick. Besides, poor Helene never would have +come alone, so there you are." + +"To hell with all this melodramatic business. It could have been done +anywhere--" + +"Not much. Dark corners for dark doings." + +"Well, hand it over." + +Ruyler had given his brain an icy shower bath as soon as he heard his +wife's voice, and was now as cool and alert as even the detective could +have wished. He did not wait for the promised impulse to his elbow; his +hand shot up just ahead of Doremus's and closed over his wife's hand, +which, he felt at once, held the ruby. At the same moment Spaulding +caught Doremus by his medieval collar and shook him until the man's teeth +chattered, then he slapped his face and kicked him. + +"Now, you," he said standing over the panting man, who was mopping his +bleeding nose, and holding the electric torch so that it would shine on +his own face. "You get out of California, d'you hear? You're a gambler +and a blackmailer and a panderer to old women, and I've got some +evidence that would drag you into court however it turned out, so's +you'd find this town a live gridiron. So, git, while you can. Go while +the going's good." + +Doremus, too shaken to reply, slunk off, and Spaulding after a glance +upward, left as silently. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +I + +Aileen had shrieked and fled. Ruyler stood in the room with the ruby in +his open hand. He saw that Helene was standing quite erect before him. +She had made no attempt to leave the room, nor did she appear to be +threatened with hysterics. + +He groped until he found the electric button. The room, as Ruyler had +inferred, was Mrs. Thornton's winter boudoir, a gorgeous room of yellow +brocade and oriental stuffs. + +"Will you sit down?" he asked. + +Helene shook her head. She was very white and she looked as old as a +young actress who has been doing one night stands for three months. +Behind the drawn mask of her face there was her indestructible youth, but +so faint that it thought itself dead. + +She looked at her hands, which she twisted together as if they were cold. + +"Will you tell me the truth now?" asked Price. + +"Don't you guess it?" + +"When I came here to-night I believed that you were the victim of +blackmail. I was not watching you--I hope you will take my word for that. +We--I had a detective on the case--Spaulding merely wanted to nab the man +who was blackmailing you--" + +"Do you still believe that?" + +"I overheard your conversation with Aileen Lawton. I don't know what +to believe." + +"I am a gambler. My father was a gambler. He kept a notorious place in +San Francisco. His name out here was James Garnett. My grandfather was a +gambler. He was even more spectacular--" + +"I know all that. Don't mind." + +"You knew it?" For the first time she looked at him, but she turned her +eyes away at once and stared at the oblong of dark framed by the +window. "Why--" + +"Spaulding told me to-night only." + +"Mother told me a week or so ago. She'd been recognized. Shortly after I +married, when she found out how the women played bridge and poker here, +she made me promise I'd never touch a card, never play any sort of +gambling game. I promised readily enough, and I thought nothing of her +insistence. Maman was old-fashioned in many ways--I mean the life we +lived in. Rouen was so different from this that I could understand how +many things would shock her. I never thought about it--but--it was about +six months ago--you were away for a week and I stayed with Polly Roberts +at the Fairmont. I knew of course that she played and that Aileen and a +lot of the others did, but I hadn't given the matter a thought. One heard +nothing but bridge, bridge, bridge. I was sick of the word. + +"But I found they played poker. Polly and Aileen, Alice Thorndyke, Janet +Maynard, Mary Kimball, Nick Doremus, Rex and one or two other men who +could get off in the afternoons. + +"I never had dreamed any one in society played for such high stakes. +Janet Maynard and Mary Kimball could afford it, but Polly and Alice and +Aileen couldn't. Still they often won--enough, anyhow, to clean up and go +on. Doremus is a wonderful player. That is how I got interested, watching +him after he had explained the game to me. + +"It was a long time before I was persuaded to take a hand. It was so +interesting just to watch. And not only the game, but their faces. Some +would have a regular 'poker face,' others would give themselves away. +Once Aileen had the most awful hysterics. We were afraid some one outside +would hear her; the deadening was burnt out of the walls of the Fairmont +at the time of the fire. But we were in the middle room of the suite. + +"Nick told her in his dreadful cold expressionless voice that if she ever +did that again he'd never play another game with her. That meant that +they'd all drop her, and she came to and promised, and she kept her word. +Poker is the breath of life to her. I think she'd become a drug fiend if +she couldn't have it. + +"At last they persuaded me to play. We were playing at Nick's, and after +a light dinner served by his Jap, we went right on playing until +midnight. I never thought of you or anything. I seemed to respond with +every nerve in my body and brain. I won and won and won, and even when I +lost I didn't mind. The sensation, the tearing excitement just under a +perfectly cool brain was wonderful. + +"I only ceased to enjoy it when I realized what it meant. When I couldn't +keep away from it. When I lived for the hour when we would meet,--at +Polly's, or at Nick's or at Aileen's--any of the places where we were +supposed to be dancing, but where there was no danger of being found out. +Of course I dared not have them at home, and the others lived with their +families, or had too many servants.... + +"I came fully to my senses one day when Nick told me I was a born +gambler if ever there was one. Then, when I realized, I became +desperately unhappy. + +"I was the slave of a thing. I was deceiving you. When I was at the table +I loved poker better than you, better than anything on earth. When I was +alone I hated it. But I couldn't break away. Besides, I didn't always +win. I had to play in the hope of winning back. Or if I won a lot it was +a point of honor to go on and play again, and give them their chance. + +"Mrs. Thornton found out. She gave me a terrible talking to. I am afraid +I was very insolent. + +"But she came up that night of the Assembly and warned me that you were +down stairs. I was playing in Polly's room. We had all danced two or +three times and then slipped up to the next floor by different stairs and +lifts. I liked her better then. Of course she did it for your sake, not +mine. But she's a good sort, not a cat. + +"You have not noticed, but I have not bought a new gown this season +except that little gray one and this--which was made in the house. I +dared not pawn my jewels, for fear you would miss them. + +"I have been in hell. + +"Then--it was that evening you heard maman reproach me for breaking my +promise--I had lost a dreadful lot of money and Nick had scurried round +and borrowed it for me. I didn't know then that he meant all the time to +get hold of the ruby--I am sure now that he cheated and made me lose. + +"Well, I sent the maid away that night and told maman. She was nearly off +her head. I never saw her excited before. Then she told me the truth. I +felt as if I had been turned to stone. But I felt suddenly cool and wary. +I knew I must keep my head. It was as if my father had suddenly come +alive in my brain. I had never lied to you before, merely put you off. +But how I lied that night! I felt possessed. But I knew I must not be +found out, and I made up my mind to stop playing as soon as I came out +even. If I had known that my father and my grandfather had been gamblers +I never should have touched a card. I'd far rather have drunk poison. + +"I made up my mind then, and there to stop and I felt quite capable of +it. But I had to go on and square myself, for I owed that money to Nick. +But when I played it was with my head only. All the fever had gone out of +my veins. I loathed it. I loathed still more deceiving you. + +"I won and won and won. I thought I was delivered. I was almost happy +again. Some day I meant to tell you--when it was all over. + +"Then I began to lose horribly. Thousands. It ran up to twenty thousand. +I did not betray myself, and the girls thought I had money of my own and +could pay my losses quite easily. They didn't know that Nick always +helped me out. He was never the least bit in love with me--he couldn't +love any woman--but he said I played such a wonderful game and was such a +sport, never lost my head, that he wouldn't lose me for the world--when I +threatened to stop and never play again. + +"But all the time he wanted the ruby. I found that out when he told me he +must have the money inside of a week; he'd taken it out of his business, +and it really belonged to his partners, and they'd find him out and send +him to prison-- + +"I offered him my jewels. They would have brought half their value at +least. I could have told you they were stolen--only one more lie. It was +then he said he must have the ruby. He had known about it ever since you +came out here, but after he saw it on me that night at the Gwynnes' he +was more than ever determined to have it. + +"I laughed at him at first. It seemed preposterous that he could demand a +ruby worth two or three hundred thousand dollars in payment for a debt of +twenty thousand. I thought of selling my jewels and furs and laces, or +pawning them and raising the amount--he only had my I.O.U. for that sum. +But I didn't know where to go. So I told Aileen. She wouldn't hear of my +disposing of my things, said it would, be all over town in twenty-four +hours. She advised me to get the twenty thousand out of you on one +pretext or another. + +"I tried. You will remember. Then Nick began to haunt me. He whispered in +my ear wherever we met. I was nearly frantic. He said he could hold me up +to shame without compromising himself. I had written him some frantic +letters, and he said they read just like--like--the other thing. + +"I felt perfectly helpless. I knew that even if I did manage to pawn the +jewels, you would miss them from the safe and trace them. I ceased to +feel cool. I nearly went off my head. But I stopped gambling. I felt sure +by this time that he could make me lose, but I couldn't prove it. Aileen +told me I must give him the ruby. He promised me before Aileen that he +would give me back my I.O.U.'s as well as my notes if I would hand over +the ruby. He knew I was to wear it to-night. + +"Finally I gave in. Yesterday Nick called me up on the telephone and told +me to come down to the California Market to lunch, and to bring Aileen. +He told me there that unless I promised to give him the ruby to-night, +and kept my word, he'd either give my I.O.U.'s and my notes to you or to +the _Merry Tattler_. He didn't care which. I could have my choice. + +"I said I would do it. But it was terribly conspicuous. Everybody would +notice when it was gone. He said I must conceal it anyhow until we +unmasked after supper, and then I could pretend I had lost it. He +discussed several plans for having me slip it to him, but it was Aileen +who insisted we should come here. Mrs. Thornton never opens her boudoir +at a party. Everywhere else would be a blaze of light. In this dark +corner we should be safe, especially if he came from the outside and I +from inside. How did your detective find out?" + +"I think Aileen did a decent thing for once in her life." + +She went on in her monotonous voice. "I felt reckless after that and I +really was gay and almost happy at dinner last night. The die was cast. I +didn't much care for anything. I thought perhaps it was my last night +with you--that when I told you I had lost the ruby you would suspect and +turn me out of your house, tell maman to take me back to Rouen. + +"Then came that awful moment when you said you had to go away and I could +not wear it. For a few moments I thought I should scream and tell you +everything. But I was both too proud and too much of a coward. Then I +knew I should have to rob the safe, and somehow I hated that part more +than anything else. I did it just ten minutes before Rex and Polly called +for me to motor down here. It had seemed the most horrible thing in the +world to be a gambler, but it was worse to be a thief. + +"I remembered the combination perfectly. I have that sort of memory: it +registers photographically. I had seen you move the combination several +times. Perhaps I deliberately registered it. I can't say. I have lived in +such a maze of intrigue lately. I can't say. That is all--except that I +didn't get the letters and the other things." + +"He had an envelope in one hand. Spaulding has it beyond a doubt." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +There was silence for a moment and then Price said awkwardly: "It is a +pity you haven't the chain or you could wear the ruby for the rest of +the evening." + +She turned her eyes from the window and stared at him. "I have the +chain--" She raised her hand to the tip of her bodice--"but--but--you +can't mean--it isn't possible that you can forgive me." + +"I think I have taken very bad care of you. What are you, after all, but +a brilliant child? I am thirty-three--" + +He suddenly tore off his domino with, a feeling of rage, and thrust his +hands into his friendly pockets. He had never made many verbal +protestations to her, although the most exacting wife could have found no +fault with his love-making. But to-night he felt dumb; he was mortally +afraid of appearing high and noble and magnanimous. + +"You see, things always happen during the first years of married life. +Perhaps more happens--I mean in a pettier way--when the man has leisure +and can see too much of his wife. In my case--our case--it was the other +way--and something almost tragic happened. So I vote we treat it +casually, as something that must have been expected sooner or later to +disturb our--our--even tenor--and forget it." + +"Forget it?" + +"Well, yes. I can if you can." + +"And can you forget who I am?" + +"You are exactly what you were before those scoundrels recognized your +mother, and--and--set me going. Of course I had to find out the truth. I +thought you knew and tried to make you tell me. But you +wouldn't--couldn't--and I had to employ Spaulding." + +"Do you mean you would have married me if you had known the truth at +the time?" + +"Rather." + +"And--but--I told you--I became a regular gambler." + +He could not help smiling. "I have no fear of your gambling again. And I +don't fancy you were a bit worse than the others who had no gambling +blood in them--all the world has that. Gambling is about the earliest of +the vices. I--if--you wouldn't mind promising--I know you will keep it." + +"Nothing under heaven would induce me to play again. But--but--I opened +your safe like a thief and stole--" + +"Oh, not quite. After all it was yours as much as mine. If I had died +without a will you would have got it. + +"Of course--I know what you mean--but men have always driven women into a +corner, and they have had to get out by methods of their own. I wish now +I had given you the twenty thousand. I prefer you should accept my +decision that it was all my fault. Give me the chain." + +She drew it from her bosom and handed it to him. He fastened the ruby in +its place and threw the chain over her neck. The great jewel lit up the +front of her somber gown like a sudden torch in a cavern. + +The stern despair of Helene's tragic mask relaxed. She dropped her face +into her hands and began to sob. Then Ruyler was himself again. He +picked her up in his arms and settled comfortably into the deepest of +the chairs. + +THE END + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Avalanche, by Gertrude Franklin Horn Atherton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE AVALANCHE *** + +***** This file should be named 7863.txt or 7863.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/7/8/6/7863/ + +Produced by Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team. + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/7863.zip b/7863.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d86de0f --- /dev/null +++ b/7863.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab0d76d --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #7863 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7863) |