"You are mysterious--"a sort of aunt." And is this "sort of aunt" with you here?"
"No. I used to live with her, but within the last month we have--separated."
"Is that my son"s doings?"
"No--that is--no."
"So you are quite alone?"
"Yes."
"And my son comes to see you?"
"He comes--yes, he comes."
"But that is rather defiant of everything, is it not?"
A blush of almost intense carmine washed Winifred"s face and neck. Mrs.
Carshaw knew how to strike hard. Every woman knows how to hurt another woman.
"Miss Goodman, my landlady, usually stays in here when he comes," said she.
"All the time?"
"Most of the time."
"Well, I must not catechise you. No one woman has the right to do that to another, and you are sweet to have answered me at all. I think you are good and true; and you will therefore find it all the easier to sympathize with my motives, which have your own good at heart, as well as my son"s. First of all, do you understand that my son is very much in love with you?"
"I--you should not ask me--I may have thought that he liked me.
Has--he--told you so?"
"He has never mentioned your name to me. I never knew of your existence till yesterday. But it is so; he is fond of you, to such an unusual extent, that quite a scandal has arisen in his social set--"
"Not about me?"
"Yes."
"But there is nothing----"
"Yes; it is reported that he intends to marry you."
"And is that what the scandal is about? I thought the scandal was when you did not marry, not when you did."
Mrs. Carshaw permitted herself to be surprised. She had not looked for such weapons in Winifred"s armory. But she was there to carry out what she deemed an almost sacred mission, and the righteous can be horribly unjust.
"Yes, in the middle cla.s.ses, but not in the upper, which has its own moral code--not a strictly Biblical one, perhaps," she retorted glibly.
"With us the scandal is not that you and my son are friends, but that he should seriously think of marrying you, since you are on such different levels. You see, I speak plainly."
Winifred suddenly covered her face with her hands. For the first time she measured the great gulf yawning between her and that dear hope growing up in her heart.
"That is how the matter stands before marriage," went on Mrs. Carshaw, sure that she was kind in being merciless. "You can conceive how it would be afterwards. And society is all nature--it never forgives; or, if it forgives, it may condone sins, but never an indiscretion. Nor must you think that your love would console my son for the great social loss which his connection with you threatens to bring on him. It will console him for a month, but a wife is not a world, nor, however beloved, does she compensate for the loss of the world. If, therefore, you love my son, as I take it that you do--do you?"
Winifred"s face was covered. She did not answer.
"Tell me in confidence. I am a woman, too, and know--"
A sob escaped from the poor bowed head. Mrs. Carshaw was moved. She had not counted on so hard a task. She had even thought of money!
"Poor thing! That will make your duty very hard. I wish--but there is no use in wishing! Necessity knows no pity. Winifred, you must summon all your strength of mind, and get out of this false position."
"What am I to do? What can I do?" wailed Winifred. She was without means or occupation, and could not fly from the house.
"You can go away," said Mrs. Carshaw, "without letting him know whither you have gone, and till you go you can throw cold water on his pa.s.sion by pretending dislike or indifference--"
"But could I do such a thing, even if I tried?" came the despairing cry.
"It will be hard, certainly, but a woman should be able to accomplish everything for the man she loves. Remember for whose sake you will be doing it, and promise me before I leave you."
"Oh, you should give me time to think before I promise anything," sobbed Winifred. "I believe I shall go mad. I am the most unfortunate girl that ever lived. I did not seek him--he sought me; and now, when I--Have you no pity?"
"You see that I have--not only pity, but confidence. It is hard, but I feel that you will rise to it. I, and you, are acting for Rex"s sake, and I hope, I believe, you will do your share in saving him. And now I must go, leaving my sting behind me. I am so sorry! I never dreamed that I should like you so well. I have seen you before somewhere--it seems to me in an old dream. Good-by, good-by! It had to be done, and I have done it, but not gladly. Heaven help us women, and especially all mothers!"
Winifred could not answer. She was choked with sobs, so Mrs. Carshaw took her departure in a kind of stealthy haste. She was far more unhappy now than when she entered that quiet house. She came in bristling with resolution. She went out, seemingly victorious, but feeling small and mean.
When she was gone Winifred threw herself on a couch with buried head, and was still there an hour later when Miss Goodman brought up a letter.
It was from a dramatic agent whom she had often haunted for work--or rather it was a letter on his office paper, making an appointment between her and a "manager" at some high-sounding address in East Orange, New Jersey, when, the writer said, "business might result."
She had hardly read it when Rex Carshaw"s tap came to the door.
About that same time Steingall threw a note across his office table to Clancy, who was there to announce that in a house in Brooklyn a fine haul of coiners, dies, presses, and other illicit articles, human and inanimate, had just been made.
"Ralph V. Voles and his bad man from the West have come back to New York again," said the chief. "You might give "em an eye."
"Why on earth doesn"t Carshaw marry the girl?" said Clancy.
"I dunno. He"s straight, isn"t he?"
"Strikes me that way."
"Me, too. Anyhow, let"s pick up a few threads. I"ve a notion that Senator Meiklejohn thinks he has side-stepped the Bureau."
Clancy laughed. His mirth was grotesque as the grin of one of those carved ivories of j.a.pan, and to the effect of the crinkled features was added a shrill cackle. The chief glanced up.
"Don"t do that," he said sharply. "You get my goat when you make that beastly noise!"
These two were beginning again to snap at each other about the Senator and his affairs, and their official quarrels usually ended badly for the other fellow.