"I wish you would come to see us, Graham. Delight so often speaks of you."
Graham stiffened almost imperceptibly.
"Thanks, I will." But his tone was distant.
"You know she comes out this winter."
"Really?"
"And--you were great friends. I think she misses you a little."
"I wish I thought so!"
Gentle Mrs. Haverford glanced up at him quickly.
"You know she doesn"t approve of me."
"Why, Graham!"
"Well, ask her," he said. And there was a real bitterness under the lightness of his tone. "I"ll come, of course, Mrs. Haverford. Thank you for asking me. I haven"t a lot of time. I"m a sort of clerk down at the mill, you know."
Natalie overheard, and her eyes met Clayton"s, with a glance of malicious triumph. She had been deeply resentful that he had not made Graham a partner at once. He remembered a conversation they had had a few months before.
"Why should he have to start at the bottom?" she had protested. "You have never been quite fair to him, Clay." His boyish diminutive had stuck to him. "You expect him to know as much about the mill now as you do, after all these years."
"Not at all. I want him to learn. That"s precisely the reason why I"m not taking him in at once."
"How much salary is he to have?"
"Three thousand a year."
"Three thousand! Why, it will take all of that to buy him a car."
"There are three cars here now; I should think he could manage."
"Every boy wants his own car."
"I pay my other managers three thousand," he had said, still patient.
"He will live here. His car can be kept here, without expense.
Personally, I think it too much money for the service he will be able to give for the first year or two."
And, although she had let it go at that, he had felt in her a keen resentment. Graham had got a car of his own, was using it hard, if the bills the chauffeur presented were an indication, and Natalie had overdrawn her account two thousand five hundred dollars.
The evening wore on. Two tables of bridge were going, with Denis Nolan sitting in at one. Money in large amounts was being written in on the bridge scores. The air of the room was heavy with smoke, and all the men and some of the women were drinking rather too much. There were splotches of color under the tan in Graham"s cheeks, and even Natalie"s laughter had taken on a higher note.
Chris"s words rankled in Clayton Spencer"s mind. A step from the Sat.u.r.day night carouse. How much better was this sort of thing? A dull party, driven to cards and drink to get through the evening. And what sort of home life were he and Natalie giving the boy? Either this, or the dreary evenings when they were alone, with Natalie sifting with folded hands, or withdrawing to her boudoir upstairs, where invariably she summoned Graham to talk to him behind closed doors.
He went into the library and shut the door. The room rested him, after the babble across. He lighted a cigar, and stood for a moment before Natalie"s portrait. It had been painted while he was abroad at, he suspected, Rodney"s instigation. It left him quite cold, as did Natalie herself.
He could look at it dispa.s.sionately, as he had never quite cared to regard Natalie. Between them, personally, there was always the element she never allowed him to forget, that she had given him a son. This was Natalie herself, Natalie at forty-one, girlish, beautiful, fretful and--selfish. Natalie with whom he was to live the rest of his life, who was to share his wealth and his future, and with whom he shared not a single thought in common.
He had a curious sense of disloyalty as he sat down at his desk and picked up a pad and pencil. But a moment later he had forgotten her, as he had forgotten the party across the hall. He had work to do. Thank G.o.d for work.
CHAPTER II
Natalie was in bed when he went up-stairs. Through the door of his dressing-room he could see her lying, surrounded by papers. Natalie"s handsome bed was always covered with things, her handkerchief, a novel, her silk dressing-gown flung over the footboard, sometimes bits of dress materials and lace. Natalie did most of her planning in bed.
He went in and, clearing a s.p.a.ce, sat down on the foot of the bed, facing her. Her hair was arranged in a loose knot on top of her head, and there was a tiny s.p.a.ce, perhaps a quarter of an inch, slightly darker than the rest. He realized with a little start that she had had her hair touched up during his absence. Still, she looked very pretty, her skin slightly glistening with its night"s bath of cold cream, her slim arms lying out on the blue silk eiderdown coverlet.
"I told Doctor Haverford to-night that we would like to give him a car, Natalie," he began directly. It was typical of him, the "we."
"A car? What for?"
"To ride about in, my dear. It"s rather a large parish, you know. And I don"t feel exactly comfortable seeing him tramping along when most people are awheel. He"s not very young."
"He"ll kill himself, that"s all."
"Well, that"s rather up to Providence, of course."
"You are throwing a sop to Providence, aren"t you?" she asked shrewdly.
"Throwing bread on the waters! I daresay he angled for it. You"re easy, Clay. Give you a good dinner--it was a nice dinner, wasn"t it?"
"A very nice dinner," he a.s.sented. But at the tone she looked up.
"Well, what was wrong?" she demanded. "I saw when I went out that you were angry about something. Your face was awful."
"Oh, come now, Natalie," he protested. "It wasn"t anything of the sort. The dinner was all right. The guests were--all right. I may have unconsciously resented your att.i.tude about Doctor Haverford. Certainly he didn"t angle for it, and I had no idea of throwing a sop to Providence."
"That isn"t what was wrong at dinner."
"Do you really want me to tell you?"
"Not if it"s too disagreeable."
"Good heavens, Natalie. One would think I bullied you!"
"Oh, no, you don"t bully. It"s worse. It"s the way you look. Your face sets. Well?"
"I didn"t feel unpleasant. It"s rather my misfortune that my face--"
"Didn"t you like my gown?"
"Very much. It seemed a trifle low, but you know I always like your clothes." He was almost pathetically anxious to make up to her for that moment"s disloyalty in the library.
"There!" she said, brushing the papers aside. "Now we"re getting at it. Was I anything like as low as Audrey Valentine? Of course not! Her back--You just drive me to despair, Clay. Nothing I do pleases you. The very tone of that secretary of yours to-day, when I told her about that over-draft--it was positively insulting!"