Here was a predicament. I was missed and wanted--and by the ladies. My heart dropped back from my throat, and I felt it throbbing in the lowest recesses of my boot-heels as I rose and followed my guide.
CHAPTER XII
LUELLA KNAPP
As the door swung open, my heart almost failed me. If there had been a chance of escape I should have made the bolt, then and there.
I had not counted on an interview with the women of Doddridge Knapp"s family. I had, to be sure, vaguely foreseen the danger to come from meeting them, but I had been confident that it would be easy to avoid them. And now, in the face of the emergency, my resources had failed me, and I was walking into Mrs. Knapp"s reception-room without the glimmer of an idea of how I should find my way out.
Two women rose to greet me as I entered the room.
"Good evening," said the elder woman, holding out her hand. "You have neglected us for a long time." There was something of reproach as well as civility in the voice.
Mrs. Doddridge Knapp, for I had no doubt it was she who greeted me, was large of frame but well-proportioned, and stood erect, vigorous, with an air of active strength rare in one of her years. Her age was, I supposed, near forty-five. Her face was strong and resolute, yet it was with the strength and resolution of a woman, not of a man. Altogether she looked a fit mate for Doddridge Knapp.
"Yes," I replied, adjusting my manner nicely to hers, "I have been very busy."
As she felt the touch of my hand and heard the sound of my voice, I thought I saw a look of surprise, apprehension and hesitation in her eyes. If it was there it was gone in an instant, and she replied gaily:
"Busy? How provoking of you to say so! You should never be too busy to take the commands of the ladies."
"That is why I am here," I interrupted with my best bow. But she continued without noting it:
"Luella wagered with me that you would make that excuse. I expected something more original."
"I am very sorry," I said, with a reflection of the bantering air she had a.s.sumed.
"Oh, indeed!" exclaimed the younger woman, to whom my eyes had turned as Mrs. Knapp spoke her name. "How very unkind of you to say so, when I have just won a pair of gloves by it. Good evening to you!" And she held out her hand.
It was with a strong effort that I kept my self-possession, as for the first time I clasped the hand of Luella Knapp.
Was it the thrill of her touch, the glance of her eye, or the magnetism of her presence, that set my pulses beating to a new measure, and gave my spirit a breath from a new world? Whatever the cause, as I looked into the clear-cut face and the frank gray eyes of the woman before me, I was swept by a flood of emotion that was near overpowering my self-control.
Nor was it altogether the emotion of pleasure that was roused within me.
As I looked into her eyes, I had the pain of seeing myself in a light that had not as yet come to me. I saw myself not the friend of Henry Wilton, on the high mission of bringing to justice the man who had foully sent him to death. In that flash I saw Giles Dudley hiding under a false name, entering this house to seek for another link in the chain that would drag this girl"s father to the gallows and turn her life to bitterness and misery. And in the reflection from the clear depths of the face before me, I saw Imposter and Spy written large on my forehead.
I mastered the emotion in a moment and took the seat to which she had waved me.
I was puzzled a little at the tone in which she addressed me. There was a suggestion of resentment in her manner that grew on me as we talked.
Can I describe her? Of what use to try? She was not beautiful, and "pretty" was too petty a word to apply to Luella Knapp. "Fine looking," if said with the proper emphasis, might give some idea of her appearance, for she was tall in figure, with features that were impressive in their attractiveness. Yet her main charm was in the light that her spirit and intelligence threw on her face; and this no one can describe.
The brightness of her speech did not disappoint the expectation I had thus formed of her. It was a finely-cultivated mind that was revealed to me, and it held a wit rare to woman. I followed her lead in the conversational channel, giving but a guiding oar when it turned toward acquaintances she held in common with Henry Wilton, or events that had interested them together.
Through it all the idea that Miss Knapp was regarding me with a hidden disapproval was growing on me. I decided that Henry had made some uncommon blunder on his last visit and that I was suffering the penalty for it. The admiration I felt for the young woman deepened with every sentence she spoke, and I was ready to do anything to restore the good opinion that Henry might have endangered, and in lieu of apology exerted myself to the utmost to be agreeable.
I was unconscious of the flight of time until Mrs. Knapp turned from some other guests and walked toward us.
"Come, Henry," she said pointedly, "Luella is not to monopolize you all the time. Besides, there"s Mr. Inman dying to speak to her."
I promptly hated Mr. Inman with all my heart and felt not the slightest objection to his demise; but at her gesture of command I rose and accompanied Mrs. Knapp, as a young man with eye-gla.s.ses and a smirk came to take my place. I left Luella Knapp, congratulating myself over my cleverness in escaping the pitfalls that lined my way.
"Now I"ve a chance to speak to you at last," said Mrs. Knapp.
"At your service," I bowed. "I owe you something."
"Indeed?" Mrs. Knapp raised her eyebrows in surprise.
"For your kind recommendation to Mr. Knapp."
"My recommendation? You have a little the advantage of me."
I was stricken with painful doubts, and the cold sweat started upon me.
Perhaps this was not Mrs. Knapp after all.
"Oh, perhaps you didn"t mean it," I said.
"Indeed I did, if it was a recommendation. I"m afraid it was unconscious, though. Mr. Knapp does not consult me about his business."
I was in doubt no longer. It was the injured pride of the wife that spoke in the tone.
"I"m none the less obliged," I said carelessly. "He a.s.sured me that he acted on your words."
"What on earth are you doing for Mr. Knapp?" she asked earnestly, dropping her half-bantering tone. There was a trace of apprehension in her eyes.
"I"m afraid Mr. Knapp wouldn"t think your recommendations were quite justified if I should tell you. Just get him in a corner and ask him."
"I suppose it is that dreadful stock market."
"Oh, madam, let me say the chicken market. There is a wonderful opportunity just now for a corner in fowls."
"There are a good many to be plucked in the market that Mr. Knapp will look after," she said with a smile. But there was something of a worried look behind it. "Oh, you know, Henry, that I can"t bear the market. I have seen too much of the misery that has come from it. It can eat up a fortune in an hour. A dear friend saw her home, the house over her head, all she possessed, go in a breath on a turn of the cards in that dreadful place. And her husband left her to face it with two little children. The coward escaped it with a bullet through his head, after he had brought ruin on his home and family."
She shuddered as she looked about her, as though in fancy she saw herself turned from the palace into the street.
"Mr. Knapp is not a man to lose," I said.
"Mr. Knapp is a strong man," she said with a proud straightening of her figure. "But the whirlpool can suck down the strongest swimmer."
"But I suspect Mr. Knapp makes whirlpools instead of swimming into them," I said meaningly.
"Ah, Henry," she said sadly, "how often have I told you that the best plan may come to ruin in the market? It may not take much to start a boulder rolling down the mountain-side, but who is to tell it to stop when once it is set going?"
"I think," said I, smiling, "that Mr. Knapp would ride the boulder and find himself in a gold mine at the end of the journey."