"Strangways," he swore, as he dropped to the arm of his seat, "you"re going to answer for this."
Strangways replied, composedly:
"I"m ready to answer for anything I know. You can"t expect me to be responsible for what I don"t know anything about."
He slapped his knee.
"What are you doing in that particular chair? Even if you"re going to Boston, why aren"t you somewhere else?"
"That"s easily explained. You told me to get two tickets by this train.
Knowing that I was to travel by it myself I asked for three. I dare say it was stupid of me not to think that the propinquity would be open to objection; but as it"s a public conveyance, and there"s not generally anything secret or special about a trip of the kind--"
"Why in thunder didn"t you get a drawing-room, as I told you to?"
"For the reason I"ve given--there were none to be had. If you could have taken me into your confidence a little--But I suppose that wasn"t possible."
To this there was no response, but a series of muttered oaths that bore the same relation to soliloquy as a frenzied lion"s growl. For some twenty minutes they sat in the same att.i.tudes, Strangways quiet, watchful, alert, ready for any turn the situation might take, the other man stretched on the arm of his chair, indifferent to comfort, cursing spasmodically, perplexity on his forehead, rage in his eyes, and something that was folly, futility, and helplessness all over him.
Almost no further conversation pa.s.sed between them till they got out in Boston. In the crowd Strangways endeavored to go off by himself, but found Mr. Grainger constantly beside him. He was beside him when they reached the place where taxicabs were called, and ordered his porter to call one.
"Get in," he said, then.
Larry Strangways protested.
"I"m going to--"
I must be sufficiently unlady-like to give Mr. Grainger"s response just as it was spoken, because it strikes me as characteristic of men.
"Oh, h.e.l.l! Get in. You"re coming with me."
Characteristic of men was the rest of the evening. In spite of what had happened--and had not happened--Messrs. Grainger and Strangways partook of an excellent supper together, eating and drinking with appet.i.te, and smoking their cigars with what looked like an air of tranquillity.
Though the fury of the balked wild animal returned to Stacy Grainger by fits and starts, it didn"t interfere with his relish of his food and only once did it break its bounds. That was when he struck the arm of his chair, saying beneath his breath, and yet audibly enough for his secretary to hear:
"She funked it--d.a.m.n her!"
Larry Strangways then took it on himself to say:
"I don"t know the lady, sir, to whom you refer, nor the reasons she may have had for funking it, but may I advise you for your own peace of mind to withdraw the two concluding syllables?"
A pair of fierce, melancholy eyes rested on him for a second uncomprehendingly.
"All right," the crestfallen lover groaned heavily at last. "I may as well take them back."
Characteristic of women were my experiences while this was happening.
Bundled out into the station at Providence no two poor females could ever have been more forlorn. Standing in the waiting-room with our bags around us I felt like one of those immigrant women, ignorant of the customs and language of the country to which they have come, I had sometimes seen on docks at Halifax. As for Mrs. Brokenshire, she was as little used to the unarranged as if she had been a royalty. Never before had she dropped in this way down upon the unexpected; never before had she been unmet, unwelcomed, and unprepared. She was _bouleverse_--overturned. Were she falling from an aeroplane she could not have been more at a loss as to where she was going to alight. Small wonder was it that she should sit down on one of her own valises and begin to cry distressfully.
That, for the minute, I was obliged to disregard. If she had to cry she must cry. I could hear the train puffing out of the station, and as far as that went she was safe. My first preoccupations had to do with where we were to go.
For this I made inquiries of the porter, who named what he considered to be the two or three best hotels. I went to the ticket-office and put the same question, getting approximately the same answer. Then, seeing a well-dressed man and lady enter the station from a private car, which I could discern outside, I repeated my investigations, explaining that I had come from New York with an invalid lady who had not been well enough to continue the journey. They told me I could make no mistake in going to one of the houses already named by my previous informants; and so, gathering up the hand-luggage and Mrs. Brokenshire, we set forth.
At the hotel we secured an apartment of sitting-room and two bedrooms, registering our names as "Miss Adare and friend." I ordered the daintiest supper the house could provide to be served up-stairs, with a small bottle of champagne to inspirit us; but, unlike the two heroes of the episode, neither of us could do more than taste food and drink. No kidnapped princess in a fairy-tale was ever more lovely or pathetic than Mrs. Brokenshire; no giant ogre more monstrously cruel than myself. Now that it was done, I figured, both in her eyes and in my own, not as a savior, but a capturer.
She had dried her tears, but she had dried them resentfully. As far as possible she didn"t look at me, but when she couldn"t help it the reproach in her glances almost broke my heart. Though I knew I had acted for the best, she made me feel a bad angel, a marplot, a spoil-sport. I had thwarted a dream that was as full of bliss as it was of terror, and reduced the dramatic to the commonplace. Here she was picking at a cold quail in aspic face to face with me when she might have been. . . .
I couldn"t help seeing myself as she saw me, and when we had finished what was not a repast I put her to bed with more than the humility of a serving-maid. You will think me absurd, but when those tender eyes were turned on me with their silent rebuke, I would gladly have put her back on the train again and hurried her on to destruction. As the dear thing sobbed on her pillow I laid my head beside hers and sobbed with her.
But I couldn"t sob very long, as I still had duties to fulfil. It was of little use to have her under my care at Providence unless those who would in the end be most concerned as to her whereabouts were to know the facts--or the approximate facts--from the start. It was a case in which doubt for a night might be doubt for a lifetime; and so when she was sufficiently calm for me to leave her I went down-stairs.
Though I had not referred to it again, I had made a mental note of the fact that Mr. Brokenshire was at Newport. If at Newport I knew he could be nowhere but in one hotel. Within fifteen minutes I was talking to him on the telephone.
He was plainly annoyed at being called to the instrument so late as half past ten. When I said I was Alexandra Adare he replied that he didn"t recognize the name.
"I was formerly nursery governess to your daughter, Mrs. Rossiter," I explained. "I"m the woman who"s refused as yet to marry your son, Hugh."
"Oh, that person," came the response, uttered wearily.
"Yes, sir; that person. I must apologize for ringing you up so late; but I wanted to tell you that Mrs. Brokenshire is here at Providence with me."
The symptoms of distress came to me in a series of choking sounds over the wire. It was a good half-minute before I got the words:
"What does that mean?"
"It means that Mrs. Brokenshire is perfectly well in physical condition, but she"s tired and nervous and overwrought."
I made out that the m.u.f.fled and strangled voice said:
"I"ll motor up to Providence at once. It"s now half past ten. I shall be there between one and two. What hotel shall I find you at?"
"Don"t come, sir," I pleaded. "I had to tell you we were in Providence, because you could have found that out by asking where the long-distance call had come from; but it"s most important to Mrs. Brokenshire that she should have a few days alone."
"I shall judge of that. To what hotel shall I come?"
"I beg and implore you, sir, not to come. Please believe me when I say that it will be better for you in the end. Try to trust me. Mrs.
Brokenshire isn"t far from a nervous breakdown; but if I can have her to myself for a week or two I believe I could tide her over it."
Reproof and argument followed on this, till at last he yielded, with the words:
"Where are you going?"
Fortunately, I had thought of that.
"To some quiet place in Ma.s.sachusetts. When we"re settled I shall let you know."
He suggested a hotel at Lenox as suitable for such a sojourn.
"She"d rather go where she wouldn"t meet people whom she knows. The minute she has decided I shall communicate with you again."