"In case you"re nervous about Mr. Pierce," put in McGuire Ellis with Machiavellian innuendo, "I can pa.s.s it on to him that you"re in no way responsible for the "Clarion"s" policy."
"Me, afraid of Elias M. Pierce?" Our Leading Citizen"s p.r.i.c.kly vanity was up in arms at once. "I"ll match him or fight him dollar for dollar, as long as my weasel-skin lasts. No, sir: if Hal"s going to fight, I"ll stick by him as long as there"s a dollar in the till."
"It"s mighty good of you, Dad, and I know you"d do it. But I"ve made up my mind to win out or lose out on the capital you gave me. And I won"t take a cent more."
"That"s business, too, son. I like that. But I hate to see you lose. By publishing your editorial you"re committing your paper absolutely to a policy, and a fatal one. Well, I won"t argue any more. But I haven"t given up yet."
"Well, that"s over," said Hal, as his father departed, gently smoothing down his silk hat. "And I hope that ends it."
"Do you?" McGuire Ellis raised a tuneful baritone in song:--
"You may think you"ve got "em going," said the bar-keep to the b.u.m.
"But cheer up And beer up.
The worst is yet to come!"
"Unless my estimate of E.M. Pierce is wrong," he continued, "you"ll begin to hear from the other newspapers soon."
So it proved. Advertising managers called up and talked interminably over the telephone. Editors-in-chief wrote polite notes. One fellow proprietor called. By all the canons of editorial courtesy they exhorted Mr. Surtaine to hold his hand from the contemplated sacrilege against their friend and patron, Elias M. Pierce. Equally polite, Mr. Surtaine replied that the "Clarion" would print the news. How much of the news would he print? All the news, now and forever, one and inseparable, or words to that effect. Painfully and protestingly the n.o.ble fellowship of the free and untrammeled press pointed out that if the "Clarion"
insisted on informing the public, they too, in self-defense, must supply something in the way of information to cover themselves, loth though they were so to do. But the burden of sin and vengeance would rest upon the paper which forced them into such a course. Still patient, Hal found refuge in truism: to wit, that what his fellow editors chose to do was wholly and specifically their business. From the corollary, he courteously refrained.
Meantime, the object of Editor Surtaine"s scathing had not been idle. To the indignant journalist, Miss Kathleen Pierce had appeared a brutal and hardened scion of wealth and injustice. This was hardly a just view.
Careless she was, and unmindful of standards; but not cruel. In this instance, panic, not callousness, had been the mainspring of her apparent cruelty. She was badly scared; and when her angry father told her what she might expect at the hands of a "yellow newspaper," she became still more badly scared. In this frame of mind she fled for refuge to Miss Esme Elliot.
"I didn"t mean to run over her," she wailed. "You know I didn"t, Esme.
She ran out just like a m-m-mouse, and I felt the car hit her, and then she was all crumpled up in the gutter. Oh, I was so frightened! I wanted to go back, but I was afraid, and Phil began to cry and say we"d killed her, and I lost my head and put on speed. I didn"t mean to, Esme!"
"Of course you didn"t, dear. Who says you did?"
"The newspaper is going to say so. That awful reporter! He caught me at the station and asked me a lot of questions. I just shook my head and wouldn"t say a word," lied the frightened girl. "But they"re going to print an awful interview with me, father says. He"s furious at me."
"In what paper, Kathie?"
"The "Clarion." Father says the other papers won"t publish anything about it, but he can"t stop the "Clarion.""
"I can," said Miss Esme Elliot confidently.
The heiress to the Pierce millions lifted her woe-begone face. "You?"
she cried incredulously. "How?"
"I"ve got a pull," said Esme, dimpling.
A light broke in upon her suppliant. "Of course! Hal Surtaine! But father has been to see him and he won"t promise a thing. I don"t see what he"s got against me."
"Don"t worry, dear. Perhaps your father doesn"t understand how to go about it."
"No," said the other thoughtfully. "Father would try to bully and threaten. He tried to bully me!" Miss Pierce stamped a well-shod foot in memory of her manifold wrongs. Then feminine curiosity interposed a check. "Esme! Are you engaged to Hal Surtaine?"
"No, indeed!" The girl"s laughter rang silvery and true.
"Are you going to be?"
"I"m not going to be engaged to anybody. Not for a long time, anyway.
Life is too good as it is."
"Is he in love with you?" persisted Kathleen.
Esme lifted up a very clear and sweet mezzo-soprano in a mocking lilt of song:--
"How should my heart know What love may be?"
The visitor regarded her admiringly. "Of course he is. What man wouldn"t be! And you"ve seen a lot of him lately, haven"t you?"
"I"m helping him run his paper--with good advice."
"Oh-h-h!" Miss Pierce"s soft mouth and big eyes formed three circles.
"And you"re going to advise him--"
"I"m going to advise him ver-ree earnestly not to say a word about you in the paper, if you"ll promise never, never to do it again."
The other clasped her in a bear-hug. "You duck! I"ll just crawl through the streets after this. You watch me! The police will have to call time on me to make sure I"m not obstructing the traffic. But, Esme--"
"Well?"
Kathleen caught her hand and snuggled it up to her childishly. "How often do you see Hal Surtaine?"
"You ought to know. There"s something going on every evening now. And he goes everywhere."
"Yes: but outside of that?"
Esme laughed. "How hard you"re working to make a romance that isn"t there. I go to his office once in a while, just to see the wheels go "round."
"And are you going to the office now?"
"No," said Esme, after consideration. "Hal Surtaine is coming here. This evening."
"You have an appointment with him?"
"Not yet. I"ll telephone him."
"Father telephoned him, but he wouldn"t come to see father. So father had to go to see him."
"Mahomet! Well, I"m the mountain in this case. Go in peace, my child."
Esme patted the other"s head with an absurd and delightful affectation of maternalism. "And look in the "Clarion" to-morrow with a clear a.s.surance. You shan"t find your name there--unless in the Social Doings column. Good-bye, dear."
Having thus engaged her honor, the advisor to the editor sat her down to plan. At the conclusion of a period of silent thought, she sent a telephone message which made the heart of young Mr. Surtaine accelerate its pace perceptibly. Was he too busy to come up to Greenvale, Dr.
Elliot"s place, at 8.30 sharp?
Busy he certainly was, but not too busy to obey any behest of his partner.