"Then, Larry, what a lot of frauds we all are!"
"I suppose we are," I admitted doubtfully, not sure where the joke lay.
"You have been trying to be very kind to me, haven"t you?"
"I have accomplished nothing."
"You have tried to make my way easy here; and you have had no end of trouble. I am not as dull as I look, Larry."
"If I have deceived you it has been with an honest purpose."
"I don"t question that. But Helen has been giving you a great deal of trouble, hasn"t she? You don"t quite make her out; isn"t that true?"
"I understand her perfectly," I averred recklessly.
"You are a daring young man, Larry, to make that statement of any woman. Helen has not always dealt honestly with you--or me!"
"She is the n.o.blest girl in the world; she is splendid beyond any words of mine. I don"t understand what you mean, Miss Holbrook."
"Larry, you dear boy, I am no more blind or deaf than I am dumb! Helen has been seeing her father and Reginald Gillespie. She has run off at night, thinking I wouldn"t know it. She is an extremely clever young woman, but when she has made a feint of retiring early, only to creep out and drop down from the dining-room balcony and dodge your guards, I have known it. She was away last night and came creeping in like a thief. It has amused me, Larry; it has furnished me real diversion.
The only thing that puzzles me is that I don"t quite see where you stand."
"I haven"t always been sure myself, to be frank about it!"
"Why not tell me just how it is: whether Helen has been amusing herself with you, or you with Helen."
"Oh!" I laughed. "When you came here you told me she was the finest girl in the world, and I accepted your word for it. I have every confidence in your judgment, and you have known your niece for a long time."
"I have indeed."
"And I"m sure you wouldn"t have deceived me!"
"But I did! I wanted to interest you in her. Something in your eye told me that you might do great things for her."
"Thank you!"
"But instead of that you have played into her hands. Why did you let her steal out at night to meet her father, when you knew that could only do her and me a grave injury? And you have aided her in seeing Gillespie, when I particularly warned you that he was most repugnant to me."
I laughed in spite of myself as I remembered the night"s adventure; and Miss Pat stopped short in the path and faced me with the least glint of anger in her eyes.
"I really didn"t think you capable of it! She will marry him for his money!"
"Take my word for it, she will do nothing of the kind."
"You are under her spell, and you don"t know her! I think--sometimes--I think the girl has no soul!" she said at last.
The dear voice faltered, and the tears flashed into Miss Pat"s eyes as she confronted, me in the woodland path.
"Oh, no! It"s not so bad as that!" I pleaded.
"I tell you she has no soul! You will find it out to your cost. She is made for nothing but mischief in this world!"
"I am your humble servant, Miss Holbrook."
"Then," she began doubtfully, and meeting my eyes with careful scrutiny, "I am going to ask you to do one thing more for me, that we may settle all this disagreeable affair. I am going to pay Henry his money; but before I do so I must find my brother Arthur, if he is still alive. That may have some difficulties."
She looked at me as though for approval; then went on.
"I have been thinking of all these matters carefully since I came here.
Henry has forfeited his right to further inheritance by his contemptible, cowardly treatment of me; but I am willing to forgive all that he has done. He was greatly provoked; it would not be fair for me to hold those things against him. As between him and Arthur; as between him and Arthur--"
Her gaze lay across the twinkling lake, and her voice was tremulous.
She spoke softly as though to herself, and I caught phrases of the paragraph of her father"s will that Gillespie had read to me: "_Dishonor as it is known, accounted and reckoned among men_;"--and she bowed her head on the veranda rail a moment; then she rose suddenly and smiled bravely through her tears.
"Why can"t you find Arthur for me? Ah, it you could only find him there might be peace between us all; for I am very old, Larry. Age without peace is like life without hope. I can not believe that Arthur is dead. I must see him again. Larry, if he is alive find him and tell him to come to me."
"Yes," I said; "I know where he is!"
She started in amazement and coming close, her hands closed upon my arm eagerly.
"It can"t be possible! You know where he is and you will bring him to me?"
She was pitifully eager and the tears were bright in her eyes.
"Be a.s.sured of it. Miss Holbrook. He is near by and well; but you must not trouble about him or about anything. And now I am going to take you home. Come! There is much to do, and I must be off. But you will keep a good heart; you are near the end of your difficulties."
She was quite herself again when we reached St. Agatha"s, but at the door she detained me a moment.
"I like you, Larry!" she said, taking my hand; and my own mother had not given me sweeter benediction. "I never intended that Helen should play with you. She may serve me as she likes, but I don"t want her to singe your wings, Larry."
"I have been shot at in three languages, and half drowned in others, and rewards have been offered for me. Do you think I"m going down before a mere matter of _beaux yeux_! Think better of me than that!"
"But she is treacherous; she will deliver you to the Philistines without losing a heart-beat."
"She could, Miss Patricia, but she won"t!"
"She has every intention of marrying Gillespie; he"s the richest man she knows!"
"I swear to you that she shall not marry Gillespie!"
"She would do it to annoy me if for nothing else."
I took both her hands--they were like rose-leaves, those dear slightly tremulous hands!
"Now, Miss Pat--I"m going to call you Miss Pat because we"re such old friends, and we"re just contemporaries, anyhow--now, Miss Pat, Helen is not half so wicked as she thinks she is. Gillespie and I are on the best of terms. He"s a thoroughly good fellow and not half the fool he looks. And he will never marry Helen!"
"I should like to know what"s going to prevent her from marrying him!"
she demanded as I stepped back and turned to go.