Rigidly Mrs. Crimm stiffened. Indignantly she waved Archie away.
"I"m a church member. I never danced in my life, and it"s unfeeling of you to be asking of me when my poor brother"s only been in his grave eight days." She took out a, black-bordered handkerchief from a bag hanging at her side, and opened it carefully. "It"s unfeeling of you, with him only dead one day over a week."
Hands in his coat pockets, Archie bowed low. "I ask your pardon, ma"am. I hadn"t heard about, your brother--leaving you, and I didn"t guess it, seeing you sitting here as handsome as a hollyhock, though now you speak of it, I see your dress is elegant black and extra becoming. I beg you"ll be excusing of me. Mrs. Mundy, ma"am, I hope you"ll honor me."
The room had grown quiet, each waiting for the other to move, and, hearing a step in the hall, I looked toward the door, which was partly open, then went forward, thinking a belated guest might be coming in. The door opened wider and Selwyn stood on its threshold.
For a half-minute I stared at him and he at me. In his face was amazement. As I held out my hand he recovered himself and came inside.
"I beg your pardon. I"m afraid I"m intruding. I did not know you were having a--"
"Party. I am." I was angry with myself for the flush in my face.
"You are in time to share in some of it. Mr. Guard"--I turned to the latter, who happened to be near the door--"will you introduce Mr.
Thorne to some of my friends while I see Martha? I will be back in a moment." I had changed my mind and decided to have supper before we danced.
Selwyn bit his lip and his eyes narrowed, then over his face swept change, and, shaking hands with David Guard, he went forward and spoke to Mrs. Mundy and Bettina; shook hands with Mr. Crimm, and met in turn each of my guests. Why had he come to-night of all nights? I asked myself. He evidently intended to stay and perhaps my party might be ruined.
But it was not ruined. With an ability I did not know he possessed Selwyn gave himself to the furtherance of the evening"s pleasure, talking to first one and then the other, and later, with the ease of long usage, he waited on Mrs. Gibbons and Mrs. Crimm, serving them punctiliously with all that was included in the evening"s refreshments. When there was nothing more that he could do I saw him sitting between Gracie Hurd the little shirtwaist girl, and Marion Spade, a waitress at one of the up-town restaurants, eating his supper as they ate theirs, and they were finding him apparently somewhat more than entertaining.
From my corner where I poured tea I watched the pictures made by the different groupings and tried not to think of Selwyn. He was behaving well, but he didn"t approve of what I was doing. He rarely approves of what I do.
"Do let Mrs. Mundy bring you some hot oysters." I leaned over and spoke to Bettie Flynn, upon whom Mrs. Mundy and I were keeping watch lest she show signs of her old trouble. "And can"t I give you a cup of coffee?" I held out my hand for her empty cup.
Bettie shook her head regarding the coffee, but handed her plate to Mrs. Mundy. "You certainly can give me some more oysters. I"ve been an Inmate for nine years and Inmates don"t often have a chance at oysters. At the City Home your chief nourishment is thankfulness.
You"re expected to get fat on thankfulness. I ain"t thankful, which is what keeps me thin, maybe." She turned to me. "My dress looks real nice, don"t it? Seeing we"re such different shapes, it"s strange how good your clothes fit me. I hope the rats won"t eat this dress. I"m going to keep it to be buried in. Good gracious! I didn"t know you was going to have ice-cream and cake. I wouldn"t have et all them oysters if I"d known."
When supper was over d.i.c.k Banister, who is Gracie Hurd"s beau, asked me, with awkward bowing, for the first dance, and, beginning with him, I danced with every man in the room who made pretense of knowing how, except Selwyn. He did not ask me. Bravely, however, he did his part. He overlooked no one, and David Guard, watching, blinked his eyes a bit and smiled. Selwyn would make a magnificent martyr. A situation forced upon him is always met head up.
Mr. Crimm, who, like his wife, did not dance, though for different reasons, at a quarter to twelve took out his watch and, looking at it, got up with a start. "Come on, old lady, we"ve got to go."
Taking his wife by the arm, he held out his hand to me. "It"s been great, Miss Heath. I never had such a good time in my life. Good night, friends." He bowed beamingly, then made a special bow in Selwyn"s direction.
"I"m glad to know you, sir. I used to know your father. I"ve heard many a case tried in his court. A juster man never lived. Good night, sir. Good night, Miss Heath."
When all good-bys were over and all were gone Selwyn, standing with his back to the fire, looked at me, but for a moment said nothing.
As completely as if he had stepped from one body into another he seemed a different person from the man who had been most charming to my guests a few minutes before when he had told them good night as if he were, indeed, their host. Looking at him, I saw his face was haggard and worn and that he was nervously anxious and uneasy.
"It is late. I know I shouldn"t stay." His voice was as troubled as his eyes. "I"m sorry to keep Mrs. Mundy up, but I must talk to you tonight. Again I must ask you what to do."
CHAPTER XXIII
"It"s pretty beastly in me to put this on you." Selwyn, who had taken his seat in a chair opposite mine, first leaned back, then forward, and, hands clasped between his knees, looked down upon the floor. "I"ve kept away from you lest I trouble you with what I have no right--"
"If you did not talk to me frankly I would be much more troubled." I drew the scarf about my shoulders a little closer. I knew what was coming. The thought of it chilled. "Is it about Harrie you are again worried?"
Selwyn nodded. "You knew he had left home? Knew he had taken a bachelor apartment downtown?"
"I heard it day before yesterday. Kitty told me. Billie is pretty upset about him. Being five years older and married, Billie is seeing life rather differently from the way Harrie takes it, and the latter"s recklessness--"
Selwyn looked at me, then away. "The boy is beyond comprehension. I haven"t seen him but once in nearly two weeks. Five days before Christmas he had his trunk and certain things sent down-town, and wrote me a note telling of the apartment he"d taken. I"ve been to see him several times, but he"s never in and, I"m told, hasn"t been in now for over a week. I"ve written him, made every inquiry likely to lead to information without exciting undue suspicion, and now, unless I go to the police--" Biting the ends of his close-cut mustache, Selwyn stopped abruptly.
"Does Mrs. Swink know he has left home?"
"If she doesn"t, she"ll know it to-morrow when she gets my answer to this." Taking a letter from his pocket, Selwyn threw it on the table behind me. "Later you can read that, if you"ve time to waste. I got it to-day. Harrie hasn"t been to see Madeleine for over a week.
Mrs. Swink wants to know why. Wants to know where he is. So do I."
"Didn"t he dine with Mildred on Christmas day? I thought both of you were always there at Christmas."
"We are. When Mildred"s Christmas dinner is over I thank G.o.d there will be three hundred and sixty-five days before she can have another one. Harrie was all right when he came in, but he took too much egg-nog, too much of other things Mildred had no business having, I tried to make him go home with me, but he wouldn"t do it. Then I tried to go with him and he wouldn"t let me do that either. Said he had an engagement with Miss Swink. He was not in a condition to fill it, but, thinking if she saw him Mrs. Swink might take in what she so far has failed to understand, I was rather glad he was going to keep his engagement. He didn"t keep it."
"What did he do? Where did he go?"
Selwyn"s face darkened. "I don"t know. n.o.body knows. He hasn"t been in his apartment since Christmas day. His trunk and clothes are in his rooms, also his suit-cases and bags, and there is no evidence of his having gone off on a trip. I haven"t told Mildred. She"d go into hysterics and tell the town Harrie had disappeared. Mrs. Swink, however, had to be told something. Madeleine, I imagine, has given notice and her mother is sitting up." Selwyn"s hands made gesture of disgust. "Her letter is inquisitorial and hysterical. My answer will give a b.u.mp, I imagine."
"You"ve clouded visions and waked her from sweet dreaming. She"s been seeing herself in the Thorne house as the mother of its mistress. I don"t mean to laugh, indeed I don"t, but--" I did laugh. Mrs. Swink and Selwyn dwelling under the same roof was a picture beyond the resistance of laughter. Incompatibility and incongruity would be feeble terms with which to designate such a situation, and at its suggestion seriousness was impossible. That is, to me. In Selwyn"s face was no smiling.
"If there have been any little dreams I"m glad she wrote me. In reply I had a chance to say what there has been no chance to say before. Were there imaginings that Harrie was to bring his wife to his old home they will cease when she gets my note. No house is big enough for a bride and groom and members of either family, and certainly mine isn"t. I limited comment on Harrie to his financial condition; expressed regret at my inability to explain his failure to keep his engagement, and gave her no hint of my uneasiness. Only to you have I given it. Something is wrong. I"m afraid the boy is ill somewhere. The thing has gotten on my nerves. I"ve got to do something. I can"t go on this way."
With eyes in which nervous uneasiness was unrestrained, Selwyn looked at me, asking unconsciously for help I could not give, and for a moment I said nothing. Possibilities of which I could not speak were clutching at my heart and making me cold with fear and horror, for suddenly something I had overheard a girl telling Mrs. Mundy a few days before, as I pa.s.sed through the hall, came to me with cruel and compelling clearness. "He"s a gentleman, all right. Drunk or sober, you can tell that. She ain"t left him day or night since he was taken sick, and except the doctor she won"t let any one come in the room."
The words of the girl talking to Mrs. Mundy repeated themselves with such distinctness that it seemed Selwyn would hear the thick beating of my heart and understand its wonder as to who the man was who was ill, who the girl who was nursing him. Did Mrs. Mundy know? Lest he notice that I, too, was nervous I got up and went over to a table in an opposite corner of the room and drank a gla.s.s of water. Coming back, I took my seat, but Selwyn remained standing, and, taking out his watch again, looked at it.
"I must go. Had I known you were to have a party"--he smiled faintly--"I should not have come. You are too tired to stay up longer. Forget what I"ve told you and go to sleep. If tomorrow you can suggest anything-- I"m pretty ragged and don"t seem able to think clearly. You are keener than I in grasping situations, and quicker in making decisions. Whatever you think might be done--"
Again his teeth came down upon his lips, and, looking up, I saw his face was white.
"Give me a day or two in which to see what can be done. And you won"t mind if I ask Mr. Crimm"s advice?" I seemed pushing the girl I"d heard talking to Mrs. Mundy behind me. "He hasn"t been able to find Etta Blake yet. Do you suppose her disappearance could have any connection with Harrie"s? It may be he really loves her."
Selwyn turned away. "Love is hardly a term to be used in connection with an acquaintanceship such as theirs. A girl with a past, possibly--"
"How about his past?"
"I think you understand pretty well my opinion of his past. But as long as theories yield to accepted custom a man"s past will be forgotten, a woman"s remembered. Harrie, if married, would be received anywhere, provided he married a woman of his world. This little girl would have to pay her price and his, were she his wife, for no one would receive her. That"s hardly the question before us, however. To find where Harrie is, find if anything is wrong, if he"s ill--"
The sharp, sudden ringing of the telephone on the table behind me made me start, and, jumping up like a frightened child, I stood close to Selwyn. "Who on earth-- It"s half past twelve. Who can want me at this time of night?" I started to take the receiver from its hook, but, laughing at me, Selwyn got it first.
"One would think a spook was going to spring at you. Central"s given the wrong number, I guess. h.e.l.lo! Who is that?"
Watching with as strained eagerness as if I were hearing, I saw Selwyn lean forward, after admitting that the number wanted was the right one, and heard him ask again: "Who is it? Who did you say?"
For the next five minutes there was s.n.a.t.c.hy, excited, and incoherent conversation over the telephone, during which Selwyn and I alternated in the talking in an effort to learn what Tom Cressy was saying at the other end of the line, and what it was he wanted me to do. Tom"s voice was not distinct and caution was making it difficult to understand what we finally got from him, which was that he wanted to bring Madeleine down to spend the night with me; that they had started to go away to be married and missed the train by one minute, owing to an accident to the automobile they were in. The next train did not leave until 4 A.M. Could Madeleine stay with me until train time?
"No, she can"t!" Hand over the telephone transmission, Selwyn turned to me. "They"ve got no business mixing you up in this. You"ll be blamed for the whole thing. I"m going to tell him to take her back to the Melbourne. They can make another try some other time. Tom must be crazy!"
"Most people in love are. You"ve never been desperate." I laughed and took the receiver from him. "Madeleine"s courage will be gone after tonight and Tom"s afraid to risk waiting. Get up and let me talk."
Over the telephone I could hear Madeleine crying and I told Tom to bring her down. Her two-penny worth of nerve and dash had given out and she was frightened. Incoherently I was told by Tom that Madeleine was being persecuted, and he wouldn"t stand for it any longer, and the only thing for them to do was to get married. Hadn"t it been for a durned tire--"
"Come on down." I heard a little cry. "And hurry. It"s pretty late."