"Certainly." Van went to the front and waited at the foot of the stairs.
When Beth came down he was standing in the doorway, looking off at the shadowy hills. He heard her steps upon the stairs and turned, removing his hat.
For a moment Beth faced him silently, her color coming and going in rapid alternations. She had never seemed more beautiful than now, in her mood of worry and courage.
"Thank you for waiting," she said to him faintly, her heart beating wildly in her bosom, "I felt as if I had the right--felt it only right--won"t you please tell me what I have done?"
It was not an easy matter for Van to hold his own, to check an impulse utterly incontinent, utterly weak, that urged him fairly to the edge of surrender. But his nature was one of intensity, and inasmuch as he had loved intensely, he distrusted now with equal force.
"What you have done?" he repeated. "I"m sure I can"t tell you of anything that you do not know yourself. What do you wish me to say?"
"I don"t know! I don"t know," she told him honestly. "I thought if I asked you--asked you like this--you"d tell me what is the matter."
"There"s nothing the matter."
"But there is!" she said. "Why not be frank? I know that you"re in trouble. Perhaps you blame----"
"I told you once that taking trouble and having trouble supply all the fun I have," he interrupted. "The man without trouble became extinct before he was born."
"Oh, please don"t jest," she begged him earnestly. "You and I were friends--I"m sure we were friends--but now----"
"Now, if we are not, do you think the fault is mine?"
He, too, was white, for the struggle was great in his soul.
"It isn"t mine!" she said. "I want to say that! I had to say that. I stopped you--just to say that." She blushed to say so much, but she met his stern gaze fearlessly with courage in her eyes.
He could not understand her in the least, unless she still had more to do, and thought to hold his friendship, perhaps for Searle"s protection. He forced himself to probe in that direction.
"And you"d wish to go on being friends?"
It was a hard question--hard to ask and hard to answer. She colored anew, but she did not flinch. Her love was too vast, too strong and elemental to shrink at a crucial moment.
"I valued your friendship--very much," she confessed steadily. "Why shouldn"t I wish it to continue?"
It was aggravating to have her seem so honest, so splendid, so womanly and fine, when he thought of that line in her letter. He could not spare himself or her in the agitation of his nature.
"Your way and mine are different," he said. "My arts in deceit were neglected, I"m afraid."
Her eyes blazed more widely than before. Her color went like sunset tints from the sky, leaving her face an ashen hue of chill.
"Deceit?" she repeated. "You mean that I--I have deceived you? What do you mean?"
He could bear no more of her apparent innocence. It was breaking his resolution down.
"Oh, we may as well be candid!" he exclaimed. "What"s the use of beating round the bush? I saw your letter--read your letter--by mistake."
"My letter?"
"Your letter to your brother. Through some mistake I was given the final page--a fragment merely--instead of your brother"s reply to be brought to you. I was asked to read it--which I did. Is that enough?"
"My letter to---- The last----" At a sudden memory of that letter"s last page, with her heart"s confession upon it, she burned a blinding crimson. "You read----" she stammered, "--and now----" She could not look him in the face. She leaned against the stair in sudden weakness.
"After that," he said, "does my conduct occasion surprise?"
What he meant, in the light of the letter as she had written it to Glen, as she thought he must have read it, was beyond her comprehension. She had fondly believed he loved her. He had told her so in actions, words, and kisses. What terrible secret, deep hidden in his breast, could possibly lie behind this thing was more than mind could fathom. Or did he scorn and loathe her now for having succ.u.mbed to his love? He had read her confession that she loved him more than anything else in all the world. He knew the last faint word in her heart--and flung her away like this!
She cast one frightened, inquiring look at his face. It was set and hard as stone. The light in his eyes was cold, an accusing glitter.
She felt herself utterly abashed, utterly shamed. Her heart had lain naked before him, throbbing with its secret. His foot was upon it.
There was nothing to cover its nakedness--nothing to cover her confusion.
For a moment she stood there, attempting to shrink within herself. Her att.i.tude of pain and shame appeared to him as guilt. He felt the whole thing poignantly--felt sorry to send his shaft so truly home, sorry to see the effect of the blow. But, what was the use? His was the way of plain, straightforward dealing. Better one swift wound, even unto death, than a lingering torture for years.
He opened his lips as if to speak. But there was nothing more to say.
He turned towards the door.
Beth could not suppress one little cry.
"Oh!" It was half a moan, half a shuddering gasp.
With her last rally of strength she faced the stairway, and weakly stumbled up the steps.
A spasm of agony seized Van by the cords of his heart. He went blindly away, with a vision in his eyes of Beth groping weakly up the stairs--a doe with a mortal hurt.
CHAPTER XL
GLEN AND REVELATIONS
How she spent that night Beth never could have told. Her mind had refused to work. Only her heart was sensible of life and emotions, for there lay her wound, burning fiercely all the long hours through. That Van had made excuses to his partners and disappeared on "business" was a matter of which she received no account.
In the morning the unexpected happened. Her brother Glen arrived in Goldite, having driven from Starlight with a friend. He appeared at Mrs. d.i.c.k"s while Beth was still in her room, indisposed. She had eaten no dinner. She took no breakfast. But with Glenmore"s advent she was suddenly awakened to a new excitement, almost a new sort of hope.
Young Kent was a smooth-faced, boyish chap, slightly stooped, exceedingly neat, black-haired, and of medium height. He was like Beth only in a "family" manner. His nose was a trifle large for his face, but something in his modest, good-natured way, coupled to his earnest delivery of slang in all his conversation, lent him a certain charm that no one long resisted.
He was standing in his characteristic pose, with one hand buried in his pocket, as he laughingly explained himself to Mrs. d.i.c.k, when Beth came running down the stairs.
"Glen!" she cried, as she ran along the hall, and casting herself most fervently upon him, with her arms about his neck, she had a good, sky-clearing cry, furious and brief, and looked like a rain-wet rose when she pushed him away and scrutinized him quickly through her tears.
"I say, Sis, why this misplaced fountain on the job?" he said. "Do I look as bad as that?"
"Oh, Glen," she said, "you"ve been ill! You were hurt! I"ve worried so. You"re well? You"ve entirely recovered? Oh, I"m so glad to see you. Glen! There"s so much I"ve got to say!"
"Land snakes!" said Mrs. d.i.c.k. "If I don"t hurry----" and off she went.
"You"re the phonograph for mine," said Glen. "What"s the matter with your eyes? Searle hasn"t got you going on the lachrymals already?"