A clerk tip-toed in. George swung sharply.
"What is it, Carson?"
"Mr. Dalrymple"s outside, sir. It"s so late I hesitated to bother you, but he said it was very important he should see you, sir."
George sighed.
"Wait outside, Carson. I"ll call you in a moment."
And when the door was closed he turned to Lambert.
"I"m going to see him here--alone."
"Why?" Lambert asked, uneasily. "I don"t quite see what you"re up to. No more battles of the ink pots!"
"Please get out, Lambert; but maybe you"d better hang about the office.
I think d.i.c.ky"s gone for the night. Wait in his room."
"All right," Lambert agreed.
George opened the door, and, as Lambert went through reluctantly, beckoned the clerk.
"Send Mr. Dalrymple in, Carson."
He stood behind his desk, facing the open door. Almost immediately the doorway was blocked by Dalrymple. George stared, trying to value the alteration in the man. The weak, rather handsome face was bold and contemptuous. Clearly he had come here for blows of his own choosing, and had just now borrowed courage from some illicit bar, but he had taken only enough, George gathered, to make him a.s.sured and not too calculating. He was clothed as if he had returned from an affair, with a flower in his b.u.t.tonhole, and a top hat held in the hand with his stick and gloves.
"Come in!"
Dalrymple closed the door and advanced, smiling.
Not for a moment did George"s glance leave the other. He felt taut, hard to the point of brittleness.
"It"s fortunate you"ve come," he said, quietly. "I"ve just been trying to get hold of you."
"Oh! Then Lambert"s been here!" Dalrymple answered, jauntily.
George nodded.
"You"ve been crooked, Dalrymple. Now we"ll have an accounting."
Dalrymple laughed.
"It"s what I"ve come for; but first I advise you to hold your temper.
It"s late, but there are plenty of people still outside. Any more rough stuff and you"ll spend the night in a cell, or under bail."
"If you lived nine lives," George commented, "you"d never be able to intimidate me."
Yet the other"s manner troubled, and George"s doubtful curiosity grew as he watched Dalrymple commence to draw the strings of the mask.
Dalrymple put down his hat and cane, bent swiftly, placed the palms of his hands on the desk, stared at George, his face inflamed, his eyes choked with malicious exultation.
"Your blackmail," he cried, "is knocked into a c.o.c.ked hat. I married Sylvia half an hour ago."
Before George"s response he lost some of his colour, drew back warily; but George had no thought of attacking him; it was too late now. That was why he experienced a dreadful realization of defeat, for a moment let through a flickering impression of the need for violence, but--and Dalrymple couldn"t be expected to understand that--violence against George Morton who had let this situation materialize, who experienced, tumbling about his head, the magnificent but incomplete efforts of many years. That sensation of boundless, imponderable wreckage crushing upon him sent him back to his chair where for a moment he sat, sunk down, stripped of his power and his will.
And Dalrymple laughed, enjoying it.
In George"s overwhelmed brain that laughter started an awakening clamour.
"What difference does the money make now?" Dalrymple jibed. "And she"ll believe nothing else you may tell her, and violence would only make a laughing stock of you. It"s done."
"How was it done?" George whispered.
"No objections to amusing you," Dalrymple mocked. "Lambert interfered last night, and spoiled his own game by dragging you in. By gad, she has got it in for you! Don"t see why you ever thought----Anyway, she agreed right enough then, and I didn"t need to explain it was wiser, seeing how Lambert felt about it, and her father, and you, of all people, to get the thing over without any bra.s.s bands. Had a bit of luck ducking the reporters at the license bureau. Tied the knot half an hour ago. She"s gone home to break the glad news."
He grinned.
"But I thought it only decent to jump the subway and tell you your filthy money"s all right and that you can plant a tombstone on your pound of flesh."
He laughed again.
In George"s brain the echoes of Dalrymple"s triumph reverberated more and more intelligibly. Little by little during the recital his slumped att.i.tude had altered.
"In a way! In a way! In a way!" had sung through his brain, deriding him.
Then, as he had listened, had flashed the question: "Is it really too late?" And he had recalled his old determination that nothing--not even this--should bar the road to his pursuit. So, at the close of Dalrymple"s explanation, he was straight in his chair, his hands grasping the arms, every muscle, every nerve, stretched tight, and in his brain, overcoming the boisterous resonance of Dalrymple"s mirth, rang his old purposeful refrain: "I will! I will! I will!"
Dalrymple had married her, but it wasn"t too late yet.
"Jealous old fellow!" Dalrymple chaffed. "No congratulations for Dolly.
Blow up about your notes any time you please. I"ll see they"re paid."
He took up his hat and stick.
"Want to run along now and break the news to brother-in-law. Sure to find him. He"s a late bird."
George stood up.
"Wait a minute," he said, quietly. "Got to say you"ve put one over, Dalrymple. It was crooked, but it"s done. You"ve settled it, haven"t you?"
"Glad you take it reasonably," Dalrymple laughed, turning for the door.
"Wait a minute," George repeated.
Dalrymple paused, apparently surprised at the tone, even and colourless.
"Lambert"s somewheres about the place," George explained. "Just stay here, and I"ll find him and send him in."