This sent her off again into the depths of self-abas.e.m.e.nt. She had no excuse to offer, she kept protesting, and offered a dozen; the most potent being her uncertainty of Crane"s own feelings for her.
"You behaved so strangely for a man in love, Burt," she wailed, "I was never sure."
"In the sense you mean, I was not in love with you, Cora."
"And yet, you want to marry me?"
"In your own words, I liked and admired you, but I was not in love. The humiliating truth is, my dear girl, that I was so fatuous as to believe that you were fond of me."
There was a short silence, and then Cora exclaimed candidly:
"Aren"t people queer! Here I have been worrying myself sick over my treatment of you, and now that I find you are not made unhappy by it, do you know what I feel? Disappointed, disappointed somehow, that you don"t love me!"
Crane laughed.
"I also," he said, "have been slightly oppressed by the responsibility of your fancied affection, and I, too, am conscious of a certain flatness in facing the truth."
Cora hardly listened.
"It seems so queer you don"t love me," she murmured. "Why don"t you love me, Burt?"
At this they both laughed, and went on presently to the more detailed consideration of Cora"s affairs. She and Lefferts had met the winter before; she had not liked him at first, prejudiced perhaps by the fact that he was a poet, and that he pretended to dislike all the things she cared for, but she had found, almost at once, that he understood more about the things he hated than most men did about their favorite topics.
"He"s really wonderful, Burt," she said. "He understands everything, every one. Do you know, he told me yesterday that I needn"t worry about you--that you weren"t in love with me. Only I did not believe him. He said: "What confuses you, my dear, is that Crane is undoubtedly in love, one sees that clearly enough, but not with you.""
"He did not just hit it there, though," answered Crane, in a rather feeble tone. Cora, however, was in a condition of mind in which it was not difficult to distract her, and she continued without paying any further attention to the example of Lefferts" extraordinary insight. She went on to say that she had had no idea that she was in love, until one day when she found herself speaking of it as if it had always been.
Crane asked about Lefferts" worldly prospects, which turned out to be extremely dark. Had he a profession? Yes, such a strange one for a poet--he was an expert statistician, but, Cora sighed, there did not seem to be a very large demand for his abilities.
Among the many minor responsibilities inherited from his father, Crane remembered a statistical publication. He immediately offered its editorship to Lefferts. Cora"s answer was to fling her arms about his neck.
"Oh, Burt," she said, "you really are an angel!"
It was Crane"s idea of what would have happened if Mrs. Falkener had entered at this moment, which she did not, that made him ask how matters stood in regard to her.
"She doesn"t know," answered Cora, "and I don"t think she even suspects, and I"m such a coward I can"t make up my mind to tell her. Every time I see Leonard he asks me if I have, and now he is threatening to do it himself, and that you know, Burt, would be fatal."
"Cora," said Crane, "I am about to prove that I am no fair weather friend. With your permission, I will tell your mother."
No permission was ever more easily secured.
It was now five o"clock, an hour when the elder lady became restless if not served with a little tea and attention. Crane rang and ordered tea for two served in the office, and then sent Smithfield to ask Mrs.
Falkener if he might have a word with her. She and her daughter pa.s.sed each other on the threshold.
"How cozy this is," she began as she seated herself by the fire.
"Smithfield keeps the silver bright, but I"m afraid he has no judgment.
Have you seen the man he has engaged instead of that dreadful boy?--why, he"s so old and lame he can hardly get up and down stairs. He"ll never do, Burton, take my word for that."
"I have something more serious to say to you than the discussion of domestic matters, Mrs. Falkener," said Crane; and for one of the few times in her life, Mrs. Falkener forgot that the house contained such a thing as servants. A more important idea took possession of her attention.
Burton began to speak about romance. He said he did not know exactly how an older generation than his looked at such questions; for his own part, he regarded himself in many ways as a practical and hard-headed man, and yet more and more he found himself gravitating to the belief that romance, love, the drawing together for mutual strength and happiness of two individuals, was the only basis for individual life. People talked of the modern taste for luxury; to his mind there was no luxury like a congenial companion, no hardship like having to go through life without it. Love--did Mrs. Falkener believe in love?
"Do I believe in love, my dear Burt?" she cried. "What else is there to believe in? No girl, no nice girl, ever marries for any other reason.
Oh, they try sometimes to be mercenary, but they don"t succeed. I could never forgive a woman for considering anything else."
"I thought you would feel like that," said Crane. "I thought Cora was wrong in thinking you would oppose her. For, prudent or not from a worldly point of view, there is no doubt that she and Lefferts are in love."
The blow was a cruel one, and perhaps cruelly administered. Mrs.
Falkener, even in the first instant of disaster, saw and took the only way out. Love, yes. But this was not love, this was a mere infatuation on one side, and a dark and wicked plot on the other. She would never forgive Burton, never, for being a party to this scheme to throw her daughter, her dear Cora, into the arms of this adventurer. Burton, who had always professed such friendship for her! She would not stay another moment in his house. There was a six-thirty train to the North, and she and her misguided daughter would take it.
Crane began to see why Cora, for all her physical courage, dreaded a disagreement with her mother. He himself felt as if an avalanche had pa.s.sed over him, leaving him alive but dazed.
Mrs. Falkener sat with her handkerchief pressed to her eyes, not so much to wipe away her tears, for she was not crying, but to shut out the sight of her perfidious young host.
"Be so kind," she directed from behind this veil, "as to give orders for the packing of my trunks, and let Cora know that we are leaving immediately."
Burton hesitated.
"I am afraid, since the housemaid has left, there isn"t any one to pack for you, Mrs. Falkener," he said. "Won"t you delay your going until to-morrow? I can"t bear to have you leave me like this."
Mrs. Falkener shook her head.
"Call Solon," she said. "No, don"t ask me to stay. And why, pray, can"t the cook make herself useful, for once?"
Mrs. Falkener was not, of course, in a position to know that Crane would not at the moment stoop to ask any favor of Jane-Ellen. He was glad of an excuse to escape, however, and summon Solon to take his place. He found Smithfield in the hall and explained to him that the ladies were called suddenly away, and then he himself walked down to the garage to arrange for their departure.
When he came back he found the house in the sort of turmoil that only a thoroughly executive woman in a bad temper can create. Smithfield, Cora and Jane-Ellen seemed to be all together engaged in packing. Solon and the new man were running up and down stairs with forgotten books and coats and umbrellas, while Mrs. Falkener was exercising a general and unflattering supervision of every one"s activities. To say the new man was running is inaccurate. Even Tucker"s dignified celerity hardly deserves such a word. But the new man, crippled and bent as he was, attained only such velocity as was consistent with a perfectly stiff left leg. Crane really felt he ought to interfere on his behalf, when he saw him laboring downstairs with heavy bags and bundles. He probably would have done so, had not his mind been distracted by coming unexpectedly upon a little scene in the upper hall. Cora was trying to press a fee into the hand of Jane-Ellen, and Jane-Ellen was refusing it.
Both were flushed and embarra.s.sed.
"I wanted to give you this because--"
"Oh, I couldn"t, really; I"ve not done any--"
"Oh, you"ve been such a--"
"Oh, no, miss, I"ve not done--"
The approach of Crane enabled the cook to escape. Cora turned to Burton.
"She"s worked so hard, and she wouldn"t take a tip," she said. "And you never felt anything like her little hands, Burt. It"s like touching a bird."
"Yes, I know," said Crane. "I mean, they look so. I want just a word with you, Cora," he continued, rather rapidly. "I"m afraid I haven"t done you much good except that your mother is angrier with me than she is with you, and that"s something."
"Oh, I don"t care, now it"s over," she answered. "And you"ll tell Len this evening all that"s happened, and where to write to me, and we shall both be grateful to you as long as we live."
At this moment, Mrs. Falkener in hat, veil, and wrap swept out of her room, followed by Smithfield, Tucker and the old man, carrying the last of her possessions. The moment of departure had come.