"n.o.body stands a chance in a show-down with Quarrier. But--"
Plank gaped until the tension became unbearable.
"But--what?" he blurted out.
"Plank," said Mortimer solemnly, and his voice vibrated with feeling, "Let me do a little thinking before I ask you a--a vital question."
But Plank had become agitated again, and he said something so bluntly that Mortimer wheeled on him, glowering:
"Look here, Plank: you don"t suppose I"m capable of repeating a confidence, do you?--if you choose to make me understand it"s a confidence."
"It isn"t a confidence; it isn"t anything; I mean it is confidential, of course. All there"s in it is what I said--or rather what you took me up on so fast," ended Plank, abashed.
"About your being in love with Syl--"
"Confound it!" roared Plank, crimson to his hair; and he set his heavy spurs to his mount and plunged forward in a storm of dust. Mortimer followed, silent, profoundly immersed in his own thoughts and deductions; and as he pounded along, turning over in his mind all the varied information he had so unexpectedly obtained in these last few days, a dull excitement stirred him, and he urged his huge horse forward in a thrill of rising exhilaration such as seizes on men who hunt, no matter what they hunt--the savage, swimming sense of intoxication which marks the man who chases the quarry not for its own value, but because it is his nature to chase and ride down and enjoy spoils.
And all that afternoon, having taken to his room on pretence of neuralgia, he lay sprawled on his bed, thinking, thinking. Not that he meant harm to anybody, he told himself very frequently. He had, of course, information which certain degraded men might use in a contemptible way, but he, Mortimer, did not resemble such men in any particular. All he desired was to do Plank a good turn. There was nothing disreputable in doing a wealthy man a favour.
And G.o.d knew a wealthy man"s grat.i.tude was necessary to him at that very moment--grat.i.tude substantially acknowledged.
He liked Plank--wished him well; that was all right, too; but a man is an a.s.s who doesn"t wish himself well also.
Two birds with one stone.
Three! for he hated Quarrier. Four!
for he had no love for his wife.
Besides, it would teach Leila a wholesome lesson--teach her that he still counted; serve her right for her disgusting selfishness about Plank.
No, there was to be nothing disreputable in his proceedings; that he would be very careful about.
Probably Major Belwether might express his grat.i.tude substantially if he, Mortimer, went to him frankly and volunteered not to mention to Quarrier the scene he had witnessed between Sylvia Landis and Stephen Siward at three o"clock in the morning in the corridor; and if, in playful corroboration, he displayed the cap and rain-coat and the big fan, all crushed, which objects of interest he had discovered later in the bay-window.
Yes, probably Major Belwether would be very grateful, because he wanted Quarrier in the family; he needed Quarrier in his business.
But, faugh! that was close enough to blackmail to rub off!
No!
No! He wouldn"t go to Belwether and promise any such thing!
On the contrary, he felt it his duty to inform Quarrier! Quarrier had a right to know what sort of a girl he was threatened with for life!
A man ought not to let another man go blindly into such a marriage.
Men owed each other something, even if they were not particularly close friends.
And he had always had a respect for Quarrier, even a sort of liking for him--yes, a distinct liking!
And, anyhow, women were devils! and it behooved men to get together and stand for one another!
Quarrier would give her her walking papers d.a.m.ned quick!
And, in her humiliation, is there anybody mad enough to fancy that she wouldn"t snap up Plank in such a fix?
And make it look like a jilt for Quarrier?
But Plank must do his part on the minute; Plank must step up in the very nick of time; Plank, with his millions and his ambitions, was bound to be a winner anyway, and Sylvia might as well be his pilot and use his money.
And Plank would be very, very grateful--very useful, a very good friend to have.
And Leila would learn at last that he, Mortimer, had cut his wisdom teeth, by G.o.d!
As for Siward, he amounted to nothing; probably was one of that contemptible sort of men who b.u.t.ted in and kissed a pretty girl when he had the chance. He, Mortimer, had only disgust for such amateurs of the social by-ways; for he himself kept to the highways, like any self-respecting professional, even when a tour of the highways sometimes carried him below stairs. There was no romantic shilly-shallying fol-de-rol about him. Women learned what to expect from him in short order. En garde, Madame!--ou Mademoiselle--tant pis!
He laughed to himself and rolled over, digging his head into the pillows and stretching his fat hands to ease their congestion. And most of all he amused himself with figuring out the exact degree of his wife"s astonishment and chagrin when, without consulting her, he achieved the triumph of Quarrier"s elimination and the theatrical entry of Beverly Plank upon the stage. He laughed when he thought of Major Belwether, too, confounded under the loss of such a nephew-in-law, humiliated, crushed, all his misleading jocularity, all his sleek pink-and-white suavity, all his humbugging bonhomie knocked out of him, leaving only a rumpled, startled old gentleman, who bore an amusing resemblance to a very much mussed-up buck-rabbit.
"Haw! haw!" roared Mortimer, rolling about in his bed and kicking the slippers from his fat feet. Then, remembering that he was supposed to be suffering silently in his room, he hunched up to a sitting posture and regarded his environment with a subdued grin.
Everything seems easy when it seems funny. After all, the matter was simple--absurdly simple. A word to Quarrier, and crack! the match was off! Girl mad as a hornet, but staggered, has no explanation to offer; man frozen stiff with rage, mute as an iceberg. Then, zip! Enter Beverly Plank--the girl"s rescuer at a pinch--her preserver, the saviour of her "face," the big, highly coloured, leaden-eyed deus ex machina. Would she take fifty cents on the dollar? Would she? to buy herself a new "face"?
And put it all over Quarrier? And live happy ever after? Would she? Oh, not at all!
And Mortimer rolled over in another paroxysm; which wasn"t good for him, and frightened him enough to lie still awhile and think how best he might cut down on his wine and spirits.
The main thing, after all, was to promise Plank his opportunity, but not tell him how he was to obtain it; for Mortimer had an uneasy idea that there was something of the Puritan deep planted under the stolid young man"s hide, and that he might make some absurd and irrelevant objection to the perfectly proper methods employed by his newly self-const.i.tuted guide and mentor. No; that was no concern of Plank"s. All he had to do was to be ready. As for Quarrier, anybody could forecast his action when once convinced of Sylvia"s behaviour.
He lay there pondering several methods of imparting the sad but necessary information to Quarrier. One thing was certain: there was not now time enough before the house-party dissolved to mould Plank into acquiescent obedience. That must be finished in town--unless Plank invited him to stay at the Fells after his time was up at Shotover. By Heaven! That was the idea! And there"d be a chance for him at cards!
Only, of course, Plank would ask Leila too.
But what did he care! He was no longer afraid of her; he"d soon be independent of her and her pittance. Let her go to the courts for her divorce! Let her--
He sat up rather suddenly, perplexed with a new idea which, curiously enough, had not appealed to him before. The astonishing hint so coolly dropped by his wife concerning her fearlessness of divorce proceedings had only awakened him to the consciousness of his own vulnerability and carelessness of conduct.
Now it occurred to him, for the first time, that if it were not a mere bluff on Leila"s part, this sudden coquetting with the question of divorce might indicate an ulterior object. Was Leila considering his elimination in view of this ulterior object? Was there an ulterior gentleman somewhere prepared to replace him? If so, where? And who?
His wife"s possible indiscretions had never interested him; he simply didn"t care--had no curiosity, as long as appearances were maintained.
And she had preserved appearances with a skill which required all the indifferent and easy charity of their set to pretend completely deceived everybody. Yes, he gave her credit for that; she had been clever. n.o.body outside of the social register knew the true state of affairs in the house of Leroy Mortimer--which, after all, was all anybody cared about.
And so, immersed in the details of his dirty little drama, he pondered over the possibility of an ulterior gentleman as he moved heavily to and fro, dressing himself--his neuralgia being much better--and presently descended the stairs to find everybody absent, engaged, as a servant explained, in a game of water basket-ball in the swimming pool. So he strolled off toward the north wing of the house, which had been built for the squash-courts and swimming pool.
There was a good deal of an uproar in the big gymnasium as Mortimer walked in, threading his way through the palms and orange-trees; much splashing in the pool, cries and stifled laughter, and the quick rattle of applause from the gallery of the squash-courts.
The Page boys and Rena and Eileen on one side were playing the last match game against Sylvia, Marion Page, Siward, and Ferrall on the other; the big, slippery, glistening ball was flying about through storms of spray. Marion caught it, but her brother Gordon got it away; then Ferrall secured it and dived toward the red goal; but Rena Bonnesdel caught him under water; the ball bobbed up, and Sylvia flung both arms around it with a little warning shout and hurled it back at Siward, who shot forward like an arrow, his opponents gathering about him in full cry, amid laughter and excited applause from the gallery, where Grace Ferrall and Captain Voucher were wildly offering odds on the blue, and Alderdene and Major Belwether were thriftily booking them.
Mortimer climbed the slippery, marble stairway as fast as his lack of breath permitted, anxious for his share of the harvest if the odds were right. He ignored his wife"s smilingly ironical offer, seeing no sense in bothering about money already inside the family; but he managed to make several apparently desirable wagers with Katharyn Ta.s.sel and one with Beverly Plank, who was also obstinately backing the blues, the losing side. Sylvia played forward for the blues.
Agatha Caithness, sleeves rolled up, tall and slim and strangely pale in her white flannels, came from the squash-court with Quarrier to watch the finish; and Mortimer observed her sidewise, blinking, irresolute, for he had never understood her and was always a trifle afraid of her.
A pair of icicles, she and Quarrier, with whom he had never been on betting terms; so he made no suggestions in that direction, and presently became absorbed in the splashing battle below. Indeed, such a dashing of foam and showering of spray was taking place that the fronds of the big palms hung dripping amid drenched blossoms overweighted and p.r.o.ne on the wet marble edges of the pool.
Suddenly, through the confused blur of foam and spray, the big, glistening ball shot aloft and remained.
"Blue! Blue!" exclaimed Grace Ferrall, clapping her hands; and a little whirlwind of cries and hand clapping echoed from the gallery as the breathless swimmers came climbing out of the pool, with scarcely wind enough left for a word or strength for a gesture toward the laughing crowd above.
Mortimer, disgusted, turned away, already casting about him for somebody to play cards with--it being his temperament and his temper to throw good money after bad. But Quarrier and Miss Caithness had already returned to the squash-courts, the majority of the swimmers to their several dressing-rooms, and Grace Ferrall"s party, equipped for motoring, to the lawn, where they lost little time in disappearing into the golden haze which a sudden shift of wind had spun out of the cloudless afternoon"s sunshine.
However, he got Marion, and also, as usual, the two men who had made a practice of taking away his money--Major Belwether and Lord Alderdene.
He hadn"t particularly wanted them; he wanted somebody he could play with, like Siward, for example, or even the two ten-dollar Pages; not that their combined twenty would do him much good, but it would at least permit him the pleasures of the card-table without personal loss.
But the Pages had retired to dress, and Voucher was for motoring, and he had no use for his wife, and he was afraid of Plank"s game, and Siward, seated on the edge of the pool and sharing a pint of ginger-ale with Sylvia Landis, shook his head at the suggestion and resumed his division of the ginger-ale.
Plank and Leila Mortimer came down to congratulate them. Sylvia, always instinctively and particularly nice to people of Plank"s sort whom she occasionally encountered, was so faultlessly amiable, that Plank, who had never before permitted himself the privilege of monopolising her, found himself doing it so easily that it kept him in a state of persistent mental intoxication.
That slow, sweet, upward training inflection to a statement which instantly became a confided question was an unconscious trick which had been responsible, in Sylvia"s brief life, for more mistakes than anything else. Like others before him, Beverly Plank made the mistake that the sweetness of voice and the friendliness of eyes were particularly personal to him, in tribute to qualities he had foolishly enough hitherto not suspected in himself. Now he suspected them, and whatever of real qualities desirable had been latent in him also appeared at once, confirming his modest suspicions. Certainly he was a wit! Was not this perfectly charming girl"s responsive and delicious laughter proof enough? Certainly he was epigrammatic! Certainly he could be easy, polished, amusing, sympathetic, and vastly interesting all the while. Could he not divine it in her undivided attention, the quick, amused flicker of recognition animating her beautiful face when he had turned a particularly successful phrase or taken a verbal hurdle without a cropper? And above all, her kindness to him impressed him; her natural and friendly pleasure in being agreeable. Here he was already on an informal footing with one of the persons of whom he had been most shy and uncertain. If people were going to be as considerate of him as she had proved, why--why--
His dull, Dutch-blue eyes returned to her, fascinated. The conquest of what he desired and meant to have became merged in a vague plan which included such a marriage as he had dreamed of.
Somebody had once told him that a man who could afford to dress for dinner could go anywhere; meaning that, being a man, nature had fitted his feet with the paraphernalia for climbing as high as he cared to climb.