The practical question was: What sum would make him impossible to Christine as a husband? Twenty thousand a year would be out of the question. But to be perfectly safe he decided to leave himself only fifteen thousand. He would begin operation as soon as the exchange opened in the morning. In the meantime what about that mine of Welsley"s? There was an easy means of sinking almost any sum.
He took up the telephone and sent a telegram at once.
"Plans for my wedding prevent trip to mine. Have, however, decided after minute investigation here to invest $500,000 in it. Believe we shall make our fortunes."
He stood an instant with the instrument still in his hand. "Suppose the d.a.m.ned thing succeeds," he thought, "I shall be worse off than ever."
Then his faith returned to him. "Nothing of Welsley"s ever did succeed," he thought; and with this conclusion he went back to bed and slept like a child.
CHAPTER VI
With his definite decision and unalterable plan of action, wonderful peace of mind had come to Riatt. He said to himself that he was now to have a few weeks--whatever time it should take him to lose his fortune decently--of being engaged to a woman whom, he now acknowledged, he pa.s.sionately loved. He intended to make the best of it.
The next day as he walked up Fifth Avenue on his way to lunch with her, another inspiration came to him; it was not necessary to lose his money; spending it would be quite as effective. Acting on this idea, he went into a celebrated jeweler"s shop, and with astonishing celerity chose, paid for and pocketed a string of brilliant pearls.
It was a present that might have made any man welcome--and Christine had never been accused of not being able to express herself when she wanted to--but Christine had already welcomed him for his changed demeanor; his brilliant smile and unruffled brow told her as soon as she saw him that he was a very different person from the tortured and irritable creature who had left her the preceding afternoon.
Never were two people more disposed to find each other and themselves agreeable, and Riatt was in process of clasping the pearls about Christine"s neck (for she had had some unaccountable difficulty in doing it for herself) when the drawing-room door opened and Nancy Almar strolled in.
Her jaw did not actually drop at the scene that met her eyes, for that did not happen to be her method of expressing surprise, but her manner conveyed none the less an astonishment not very agreeable.
"Was I mistaken," she said, "in thinking I was to stop and take you to the Bentons"?"
"Quite right, my dear. Only Max"s return has put everything else out of my head."
"What, you didn"t ever expect him to come back?"
"You talk, Nancy, as if you had never heard that we were engaged."
"If you really are, Christine, why are the Linburnes being divorced?"
"Because they loathe each other, I imagine."
"What a changeable creature you are, Christine! It seems only the other day that you were crying your eyes out because Lee was engaged."
Without glancing at Max, Christine became aware that some of the gaiety had gone from his expression.
"Have you seen my pearls, dear?" she said.
It was a complete answer, so far as Nancy was concerned, for she was one of the women who can never harden herself to the sight of another woman"s jewels.
"How beautiful, love," she answered. "If they were only a trifle larger they might be mistaken for your old imitation string." Then feeling that she could never better this, she took her departure.
"Oh, dear," sighed Christine, "do you think I shall ever get so superior that Nancy can"t tease me when she says things like that?"
"Did you really cry, Christine?"
"The night you went away?"
"When you first heard of Linburne"s engagement?"
She nodded at him, like a child who would like to lie its way out of a sc.r.a.pe.
"But then I often cry over trifles," she added.
"Like my going away?"
"Really, Max, you ought to be able to understand why I cried over Lee"s engagement. It was Nancy who brought me the news, and she was so triumphant over it. She said every one would think he had been making a fool of me. You know she has the power of teasing me more than any one in the world--except, perhaps, you."
"I have a piece of news for you, Christine."
"Good or bad?"
"Indifferent, I think you would say. It"s a scientific discovery."
"An invention, Max? Could I understand it?"
"I think you can if you make an effort."
"What is it?"
He put his arms suddenly about her. "I find I"m in love with you," he said, and added a moment later: "And just think that I"ve been engaged to you so long and that"s the first time I"ve kissed you."
Christine with her head still buried on his shoulders murmured, "But it won"t be the last."
Riatt"s expression changed. "Not absolutely the last, perhaps," he answered with something that just wasn"t a sigh.
She looked up at him. "That piece of indifferent news of yours--" she began.
"Didn"t I describe it correctly?"
"It wasn"t news to me."
"You mean you had already guessed that I loved you?"
"I"ve always known it."
"Always?"
"You can"t think I would ever have let you go away at all, if I had not felt sure. And if you hadn"t loved me, I couldn"t have brought you back."
"I came back because--"
"Because the Linburnes were getting a divorce, and because Laura wrote you a letter. Do you fancy I had nothing to do with either of those events?"