"Maybe so," she said, still indifferent. "I"ve had two operations. But it"s ancient history now."
"You mayn"t have reached the end yet," I persisted. "People suppose they are cured of gonorrhea, when really it"s only suppressed, and is liable to break out again at any time."
"Yes, I knew. That"s some of the information Larry had been making love to me with."
"It may get into the joints and cause rheumatism; it may cause neuralgia; it"s been known to affect the heart. Also it causes two-thirds of all the blindness in infants----"
And suddenly Claire laughed. "That"s Sylvia Castleman"s lookout it seems to me!"
"Oh! OH!" I whispered, losing my self-control.
"What"s the matter?" she asked, and I noticed that her voice had become sharp.
"Do you really mean what you"ve just implied?"
"That Mrs. Douglas van Tuiver may have to pay something for what she has done to me? Well, what of it?" And suddenly Claire flew into a pa.s.sion, as she always did when our talk came to her rival. "Why shouldn"t she take chances the same as the rest of us? Why should I have it and she get off?"
I fought for my composure. After a pause, I said: "It"s not a thing we want anybody to have, Claire. We don"t want anybody to take such a chance. The girl ought to have been told."
"Told? Do you imagine she would have given up her great catch?"
"She might have, how can you be sure? Anyhow, she should have had the chance."
There was a long silence. I was so shaken that it was hard for me to find words. "As a matter of fact," said Claire, grimly, "I thought of warning her myself. There"d have been some excitement at least! You remember--when they came out of church. You helped to stop me!"
"It would have been too late then," I heard myself saying.
"Well," she exclaimed, with fresh excitement, "it"s Miss Sylvia"s turn now! We"ll see if she"s such a grand lady that she can"t get my diseases!"
I could no longer contain myself. "Claire," I cried, "you are talking like a devil!"
She picked up a powder-puff, and began to use it diligently. "I know,"
she said--and I saw her burning eyes in the gla.s.s--"you can"t fool me.
You"ve tried to be kind, but you despise me in your heart. You think I"m as bad as any woman of the street. Very well then, I speak for my cla.s.s, and I tell you, this is where we prove our humanity. They throw us out, but you see we get back in!"
"My dear woman," I said, "you don"t understand. You"d not feel as you do, If you knew that the person to pay the penalty might be an innocent little child."
"_Their_ child! Yes, it"s too bad if there has to be anything the matter with the little prince! But I might as well tell you the truth--I"ve had that in mind all along. I didn"t know just what would happen, or how--I don"t believe anybody does, the doctors who pretend to are just faking you. But I knew Douglas was rotten, and maybe his children would be rotten, and they"d all of them suffer. That was one of the things that kept me from interfering and smashing him up."
I was speechless now, and Claire, watching me, laughed. "You look as if you"d had no idea of it. Don"t you know that I told you at the time?"
"You told me at the time!"
"I suppose, you didn"t understand. I"m apt to talk French when I"m excited. We have a saying: "The wedding present which the mistress leaves in the basket of the bride." That was pretty near telling, wasn"t it?"
"Yes," I said, in a low voice.
And the other, after watching me for a moment more, went on: "You think I"m revengeful, don"t you? Well, I used to reproach myself with this, and I tried to fight it down; but the time comes when you want people to pay for what they take from you. Let me tell you something that I never told to anyone, that I never expected to tell. You see me drinking and going to the devil; you hear me talking the care-free talk of my world, but in the beginning I was really in love with Douglas van Tuiver, and I wanted his child. I wanted it so that it was an ache to me. And yet, what chance did I have? I"d have been the joke of his set for ever if I"d breathed it; I"d have been laughed out of the town. I even tried at one time to trap him--to get his child in spite of him, but I found that the surgeons had cut me up, and I could never have a child. So I have to make the best of it--I have to agree with my friends that it"s a good thing, it saves me trouble! But _she_ comes along, and she has what I wanted, and all the world thinks it wonderful and sublime. She"s a beautiful young mother! What"s she ever done in her life that she has everything, and I go without? You may spend your time shedding tears over her and what may happen to her but for my part, I say this--let her take her chances! Let her take her chances with the other women in the world--the women she"s too good and too pure to know anything about!"
10. I came out of Claire"s house, sick with horror. Not since the time when I had read my poor nephew"s letter had I been so shaken. Why had I not thought long ago of questioning Claire about these matters. How could I have left Sylvia all this time exposed to peril?
The greatest danger was to her child at the time of birth. I figured up, according to the last letter I had received; there was about ten days yet, and so I felt some relief. I thought first of sending a telegram, but reflected that it would be difficult, not merely to tell her what to do in a telegram, but to explain to her afterwards why I had chosen this extraordinary method. I recollected that in her last letter she had mentioned the name of the surgeon who was coming from New York to attend her during her confinement. Obviously the thing for me to do was to see this surgeon.
"Well, madame?" he said, when I was seated in his inner office.
He was a tall, elderly man, immaculately groomed, and formal and precise in his manner. "Dr. Overton," I began, "my friend, Mrs. Douglas van Tuiver writes me that you are going to Florida shortly."
"That is correct," he said.
"I have come to see you about a delicate matter. I presume I need hardly say that I am relying upon the seal of professional secrecy."
I saw his gaze become suddenly fixed. "Certainly, madame," he said.
"I am taking this course because Mrs. van Tuiver is a very dear friend of mine, and I am concerned about her welfare. It has recently come to my knowledge that she has become exposed to infection by a venereal disease."
He would hardly have started more if I had struck him. "HEY?" he cried, forgetting his manners.
"It would not help you any," I said, "if I were to go into details about this unfortunate matter. Suffice it to say that my information is positive and precise--that it could hardly be more so."
There was a long silence. He sat with eyes rivetted upon me. "What is this disease?" he demanded, at last.
I named it, and then again there was a pause. "How long has this--this possibility of infection existed?"
"Ever since her marriage, nearly eighteen months ago."
That told him a good part of the story. I felt his look boring me through. Was I a mad woman? Or some new kind of blackmailer? Or, was I, possibly, a Claire? I was grateful for my forty-cent bonnet and my forty-seven years.
"Naturally," he said at length, "this information startles me."
"When you have thought it over," I responded, "you will realise that no possible motive could bring me here but concern for the welfare of my friend."
He took a few moments to consider. "That may be true, madame, but let me add that when you say you KNOW this----"
He stopped. "I MEAN that I know it," I said, and stopped in turn.
"Has Mrs. van Tuiver herself any idea of this situation?"
"None whatever. On the contrary, she was a.s.sured before her marriage that no such possibility existed."
Again I felt him looking through me, but I left him to make what he could of my information. "Doctor," I continued, "I presume there is no need to point out to a man in your position the seriousness of this matter, both to the mother and to the child."
"Certainly there is not."
"I a.s.sume that you are familiar with the precautions that have to be taken with regard to the eyes of the child?"
"Certainly, madame." This with just a touch of HAUTEUR, and then, suddenly: "Are you by any chance a nurse?"
"No," I replied, "but many years ago I was forced by tragedy in my own family to realise the seriousness of the venereal peril. So when I learned this fact about my friend, my first thought was that you should be informed of it. I trust that you will appreciate my position."