Young Hanlon looked, as he felt, very solicitous for the aged spinster, and he cast an anxious glance at her disturbed face.
"I must," she insisted; "it is the only way. I had great trouble to find you, Mr. Hanlon. I had to communicate with Mr. Mortimer, in Newark--and at last we traced you here. Are you all through with your fake tricks?"
"Yes," Hanlon laughed. "I wore them out. I"ve gone into a legitimate business."
"Sign painting?"
"Yes, as you see."
"But such big signs!" and the old lady"s eyes wandered to photographs and sketches of enormous scenic signs, such as are painted on high buildings or built on housetops.
"That"s the specialty of this firm. I"m only learning, but it strongly appeals to me. It"s really more of an art than a trade. Now, as to this man you want to see, Miss Ames, I"ll give you his address, but I beg of you to think it over before you visit him. Consult with some one--not Mrs. Embury--some man, of good judgment and clear mind. Who is advising you?"
"Mr. Hendricks and Mr. Elliott--you saw them both the day you were at our house--they advise my niece and myself in all matters. Shall I ask them?"
Miss Abby was pathetic in her simple inquiry, and Hanlon spoke gently as he replied.
"Yes, if you are determined to try the experiment. But I do not advise you to see Mr. Marigny, the medium I spoke of. Here is the address, but you talk it over with those two men you mentioned. I know they are both practical, logical business men, and their advice on the subject will be all right. I thank you, Miss Ames, for honoring me with a call. I hope if you do go to see Marigny, it will prove a satisfactory seance, but I also hope you will decide not to go. You are, as I said, too emotional, too easily swayed by the supernatural to go very deeply into those mysteries. Shall I take you to the elevator?"
"If you please, Mr. Hanlon," and still in that half oblivious mood, Miss Ames allowed herself to be led through the halls.
Hanlon went down with her, for he feared to leave her to her own devices. He was relieved to find she had a taxicab in waiting, and as he put her into it, he cautioned the driver to take his fare straight home.
"But I want to go to Marigny"s now," objected Miss Ames, as she heard what Hanlon said.
"Oh, you can"t. You must make an appointment with him--by mail or by telephone. And, too, you promised me you"d put it up to Mr. Hendricks or Mr. Elliott first."
"So I did," and the old head nodded submissively, as the taxi drove away.
When Ferdinand admitted Aunt Abby to the Embury home, she heard voices in the living-room that were unmistakably raised in anger.
"You know perfectly well, Fifi," Eunice was saying, "that your little bridge games are quite big enough to be called a violation of the law--you know that such stakes as you people play for--"
"It isn"t the size of the stake that makes gambling!" Fifi Desternay cried, shrilly; "I"ve had the advice of a lawyer, and he says that as long as it"s my own home and the players are invited guests, there"s no possibility of being--"
"Raided!" said Eunice, scathingly. "Might as well call things by their real name!"
"Hush up! Some of the servants might hear you! How unkind you are to me, Eunice. You used to love your little Fifi!"
"Well, she doesn"t now!" said Miss Ames, tartly, as she came in. "You see, Mrs. Desternay, you have been instrumental in bringing our dear Eunice under a dreadful, and absolutely unfounded suspicion--"
"Dreadful, but far from unfounded!" declared Mrs. Desternay, her little hands uplifted, and her pretty face showing a scornful smile. "You and I, Aunt Abby, know what our dear Eunice"s temper is--"
"Don"t you "Aunt Abby" me, you good-for-nothing little piece! I am surprised Eunice allows you in this house!"
"Now, now--if Eunice doesn"t want me, I"ll get out--and jolly well glad to do so! How about it, Eunice? I came here to help, but if I"m not wanted--out goes little Fifi!"
She rose, shaking her fur stole into place about her dainty person, and, whipping out a tiny mirror from her vanity case, she applied a rouge stick to her already scarlet lips.
"No--no--" and Eunice wailed despairingly. "Don"t go, Fifi, I--oh, I don"t know how I feel toward you! You see--I will speak plainly--you see, it was my acquaintance with you that caused the trouble--mostly--between me and San."
"Thought it was money matters--his stinginess, you know."
"He wasn"t stingy! He wouldn"t give me an allowance, but he was generous in every other way. And that"s why--"
"Why you came to my "gambling house" to try to pick up a little ready cash! I know. But now looky here, Eunice, you"ve got to decide--either you"re with me or agin me! I won"t have any blow hot, blow cold! You"re friends with Fifi Desternay--or--she"s your enemy!"
"What do you mean?"
"Just what I say! You like me, you"ve always liked me. Now, stand by me, and I"ll stand by you."
"How?"
"You think I can"t! Well, madame, you"re greatly mistaken! That big blundering fool of a detective person has been to see me--"
"Shane?"
"The same. And--he grilled me pretty thoroughly as to our going to see "Hamlet" and whether we talked the poison scene over--and so forth and so on. In a word, Eunice Embury, I hold your life in my hands!"
Fifi held out her pretty little hands, dramatically. She still stood, her white fur scarf hanging from one shoulder, her small turban of red breast feathers c.o.c.ked at a jaunty angle above her straight brows, and one tiny slippered foot tapping decidedly on the floor.
"Yes, ma"am, in my two hands,--me--Fifi! If I tell all we said about that poisoning of the old "Hamlet" gentleman, through his ear--you know what we said, Eunice Embury--you know how we discussed the impossibility of such a murder ever being discovered--you know if I should give Shane a full account of that talk of ours--the life of Madame Embury wouldn"t be worth that!"
A snap of a dainty thumb and finger gave a sharp click that went straight through Eunice"s brain, and made her gasp out a frightened "Oh!"
"Yes, ma"am, oh! all you like to--you can"t deny it! Shane came to see me three times. I almost told him all the last time, for you steadily refused to see me--until to-day. And now, to-day, I put it to you, Eunice Embury, do you want me for friend--or foe?"
Fifi"s blue eyes glittered, her red lips closed in a tight line, and her little pointed face was as the face of a wicked sprite. Eunice stood, surveying her. Tall, stately, beautiful, she towered above her guest, and looked down on her with a fine disdain.
Eunice"s eyes were stormy, not glittering--desperate rather than defiant--she seemed almost like a fierce, powerful tiger appraising a small but very wily ferret.
"Is this a bargain?" she cried scathingly. "Are you offering to buy my friendship? I know you, Fifi Desternay! You are--a snake in the gra.s.s!"
Fifi clenched her little fists, drew her lips between her teeth, and fairly hissed, "Serpent, yourself! Murderess! I know all--and I shall tell all! You"ll regret the day you scorned the friendship--the help of Fifi Desternay!"
"I don"t want your help, at the price of friendship with you! I know you for what you are! My husband told me--others have told me! I did go to your house for the sake of winning money--yes, and I am ashamed of it! And I am ready to face any accusation, brave any suspicion, rather than be shielded from it, or helped out of it by you!"
"Fine words! but they mean nothing! You know you"re justly accused!
You know you"re rightly suspected! But you are clever--you also know that no jury, in this enlightened age, will ever convict a woman!
Especially a beautiful woman! You know you are safe from even the lightest sentence--and that though you are guilty--yes, guilty of the murder of your husband, you will get off scot free, because"--Fifi paused to give her last shot telling effect--"because your counsel, Alvord Hendricks, is in love with you! He will manage it, and what he can"t accomplish, Mason Elliott can! With those two influential men, both in love with you, you can"t be convicted--and probably you won"t even be arrested!"
"Go!" said Eunice, and she folded her arms as she gazed at her angry antagonist. "Go! I scorn to refute or even answer your words."
"Because they"re true! Because there is no answer!" Fifi fairly screamed. "You think you"re a power! Because you"re tall and statuesque and stunning! You know if those men can"t keep you out of the court-room at least you are safe in the hands of any judge or jury, because they are men! You know if you smile at them--pathetically--if you cast those wonderful eyes of yours at them, they"ll grovel at your feet! I know you, Eunice Embury! You"re banking on your femininity to save you from your just fate."
"You judge me by yourself, Fifi. You are a power among men, most women are, but I do not bank on that--"
"Not alone! You bank on the fact that either Hendricks or Elliott would go through h.e.l.l for you, and count it an easy journey. You rest easy in the knowledge that those two men can do just about anything they set their minds to--"