"If I had said it then you wouldn"t have believed me." He looked at her; it was true.
"But now," she went on rapidly, "you must believe me. If I come now to live with you and work for you, no one can accuse me of mercenary motives--not even you, Max. I shan"t get anything from the bargain but you, and that is all I want."
"This is madness," said Riatt, trying not very sincerely to free himself.
"Yes, of course it"s mad, like all really logical things," she answered.
"But that"s the way it"s going to be. I love you, and I am going to stay with you."
"I couldn"t let you," he said. "I couldn"t accept such a sacrifice."
"A sacrifice, Max. That"s the first really stupid thing I ever heard you say. It isn"t a sacrifice; it"s a result, a consequence of the fact that I love you. It isn"t a question of my doing it, or your letting me. It simply can"t be otherwise. The other things I used to value--parties and pretty clothes and luxuries--they were a sort of game I played because I did not know any other. But only part of me was alive then. I was like a blind person; and they were my stick; but now that I can see, the stick is just in my way. It isn"t silly and romantic to believe in love, Max.
The hardest-headed, most practical people believe in it--every one who has any sense really believes in it, when they find it. To be poor, to be uncomfortable--it"s a price, but a small one to pay for love. Isn"t that true--true, at least, as far as you"re concerned?"
"Oh, yes, as far as I"m concerned--"
"Then what right have you to think it"s not true to me? Don"t be such a moral sn.o.b, Max. If love"s the best thing in the world for you, it"s ever so much more so for me--I need it more."
"n.o.body could need it more than I do," he answered, suddenly clasping her to him.
"It"s the way it"s going to be, anyhow," she murmured.
"I can"t let you go," he said, as if arguing with an unseen auditor.
She nodded in a somewhat contracted s.p.a.ce. "That"s it," she announced.
"It has to be."
It was only a few days later that Nancy Almar, driving past a well-known house-furnishing shop on her way home to tea, was surprised to observe her brother standing, with a salesman at his elbow, in trancelike contemplation of a small white enameled ice-box. With her customary decision, Nancy ordered her chauffeur to stop, and entering the shop by another door she stood close beside Hickson during his purchase of the following articles: the ice-box, an improved coffee percolator and a complete set of kitchen china of an extremely decorative pattern.
"Bless me, Ned," she said suddenly in his ear, "might one ask when you are going to housekeeping, and with whom?"
There was no denying that Ned"s start was guilty, and his manner confused as he answered, "Oh, they"re not for me--"
The salesman who, perhaps, lacked tact, or possibly only wanted to get away to wait on another customer, said at this point:
"And the address, sir? I have the name--Mrs. Max Riatt."
"Riatt married!" cried Nancy. "But to whom? I thought he had nothing left in the world."
"He hasn"t," answered Ned, hastily scribbling the address on a card and handing it to the man.
"Oh, then he"s married some one who loves him for himself alone, I know.
That faithful sleek-headed girl from his home town. Won"t Christine be angry when she hears it! She always likes her old loves to pine a long time before they console themselves. Let us go and tell her. Or is she away still?"
A rather sad smile lit up Hickson"s countenance as he followed his sister to her motor. "I think she knows it," he said.
Nancy put her hand on his arm. "Oh, dear, darling Ned," she said. "Get in and drive home with me and tell me all about it. I knew he really never cared for Christine. She dazzled and distressed him in about equal proportions. And yet I doubt if Miss--Whatever-Her-Name-Was--will be very exciting--"
"It is not Miss Lane, who, by the way, I like and admire very much," said Ned, firmly.
"Who is it? Some one I know?"
"Yes, you know her."
Something in his extreme solemnity transferred the idea to her.
"You don"t mean that Christine--"
He nodded. "I was at their wedding yesterday."
"And where are they?"
"That"s it, Nancy. They"re living in a flat and they have no servant--"
His sister leaned back and laughed heartily, and then composing her countenance with an effort, she said: "My poor dear! But it"s really all for the best. She won"t stay with him six months."
"Nancy! She"ll stay with him forever."
"Where is this flat?"
"I"ve promised not to tell. They don"t want to be bothered by all of us."
"They want to conceal their deplorable situation, of course. Well, my dear, I can wait. Six months from now I"ll ask them to dine to meet Linburne. Christine"s dresses will be a little out of fashion, and they"ll come in a trolley car, and she"ll have a veil over her head--"
"Six months from now Riatt may be on the way to making a nice little sum.
He has a very good thing, he thinks."
"He"d better be quick about it. A flat in summer! Oh, the cinders on the window-sill, and the sun on the roof, and the knowledge that all of us are going out of town to lawns and lakes--He"d better be quick, Ned."
The motor had stopped before the door of Nancy"s little house which was arrayed in its summer dress of red and white awnings, and red and white window boxes. The footman had rung the bell, and was waiting with his eye on the front door, so as to catch the right second for opening the door of the motor.
"Nancy," said her brother, with real horror in his tone, "you talk as if you wanted her to fail."
"I do. I do, of course."
"Why? Do you hate her?"
Nancy nodded. "Yes, I hate her now. I didn"t used to."
"It seems to me this is just the moment to admire her. It may be foolish, but surely what she has done is n.o.ble, Nancy."
The hall door opened and simultaneously the door of the motor, and Nancy, putting out one foot, said over her shoulder:
"Oh, Ned, what a goose you are! Don"t you know any woman would have done what she"s done, if she had the chance--the real chance?"
She ran up the steps and into her house, leaving her brother staring after her in amazement.