"No," Hodder a.s.sented, "I can see that now." He paused a moment, and as his mind dwelt upon the scene and he saw again the woman standing before him in bravado, the whole terrible meaning of her life and end flashed through him as one poignant sensation. Her dauntless determination to accept the consequence of her acts, her willingness to look her future in the face, cried out to him in challenge.
"She refused unconditionally," he said.
Mr. Bentley seemed to read his thought, divine his appeal.
"We must wait," he answered.
"Do you think?--" Hodder began, and stopped abruptly.
"I remember another case, somewhat similar," said Mr. Bentley. "This woman, too, had the spirit you describe--we could do nothing with her. We kept an eye on her--or rather Sally Grover did--she deserves credit--and finally an occasion presented itself."
"And the woman you speak of was--rehabilitated?" Hodder asked. He avoided the word "saved."
"Yes, sir. It was one of the fortunate cases. There are others which are not so fortunate."
Hodder nodded.
"We are beginning to recognize that we are dealing, in, many instances, with a disease," Mr. Bentley went on. "I am far from saying that it cannot be cured, but sometimes we are forced to admit that the cure is not within our power, Mr. Hodder."
Two thoughts struck the rector simultaneously, the revelation of what might be called a modern enlightenment in one of Mr. Bentley"s age, an indication of uninterrupted growth, of the sense of continued youth which had impressed him from the beginning; and, secondly, an intimation from the use of the plural p.r.o.noun we, of an a.s.sociation of workers (informal, undoubtedly) behind Mr. Bentley. While he was engaged in these speculations the door opened.
"Heah"s Miss Sally, Ma.r.s.e Ho"ace," said Sam.
"Good morning, Sally," said Mr. Bentley, rising from the table with his customary courtesy, "I"m glad you came in. Let me introduce Mr. Hodder, of St. John"s."
Miss Grover had capability written all over her. She was a young woman of thirty, slim to spareness, simply dressed in a shirtwaist and a dark blue skirt; alert, so distinctly American in type as to give a suggestion of the Indian. Her quick, deep-set eyes searched Hodder"s face as she jerked his hand; but her greeting was cordial, and, matter-of-fact. She stimulated curiosity.
"Well, Sally, what"s the news?" Mr. Bentley asked.
"Gratz, the cabinet-maker, was on the rampage again, Mr. Bentley. His wife was here yesterday when I got home from work, and I went over with her. He was in a beastly state, and all the n.i.g.g.e.rs and children in the neighbourhood, including his own, around the shop. Fusel oil, labelled whiskey," she explained, succinctly.
"What did you do?"
"Took the bottle away from him," said Miss Grower. The simplicity of this method, Holder thought, was undeniable. "Stayed there until he came to. Then I reckon I scared him some."
"How?" Mr. Bentley smiled.
"I told him he"d have to see you. He"d rather serve three months than do that--said so. I reckon he would, too," she declared grimly. "He"s better than he was last year, I think." She thrust her hand in the pocket of her skirt and produced some bills and silver, which she counted. "Here"s three thirty-five from Sue Brady. I told her she hadn"t any business bothering you, but she swears she"d spend it."
"That was wrong, Sally."
Miss Grower tossed her head.
"Oh, she knew I"d take it, well enough."
"I imagine she did," Mr. Bentley replied, and his eyes twinkled. He rose and led the way into the library, where he opened his desk, produced a ledger, and wrote down the amount in a fine hand.
"Susan Brady, three dollars and thirty-five cents. I"ll put it in the savings bank to-day. That makes twenty-two dollars and forty cents for Sue. She"s growing rich."
"Some man"ll get it," said Sally.
"Sally," said Mr. Bentley, turning in his chair, "Mr. Holder"s been telling me about a rather unusual woman in that apartment house just above Fourteenth Street, on the south side of Dalton."
"I think I know her--by sight," Sally corrected herself. She appealed.
to Holder. "Red hair, and lots of it--I suppose a man would call it auburn. She must have been something of a beauty, once."
The rector a.s.sented, in some astonishment.
"Couldn"t do anything with her, could you? I reckoned not. I"ve noticed her up and down Dalton Street at night."
Holder was no longer deceived by her matter-of-fact tone.
"I"ll tell you what, Mr. Holder," she went on, energetically, "there"s not a particle of use running after those people, and the sooner you find it out the less worry and trouble you give yourself."
"Mr. Holder didn"t run after her, Sally," said Mr. Bentley, in gentle reproof.
Holder smiled.
"Well," said Miss Grower, "I"ve had my eye on her. She has a history--most of "em have. But this one"s out of the common. When they"re brazen like that, and have had good looks, you can nearly always tell. You"ve got to wait for something to happen, and trust to luck to be on the spot, or near it. It"s a toss-up, of course. One thing is sure, you can"t make friends with that kind if they get a notion you"re up to anything."
"Sally, you must remember--" Mr. Bentley began.
Her tone became modified. Mr. Bentley was apparently the only human of whom she stood in awe.
"All I meant was," she said, addressing the rector, "that you"ve got to run across "em in some natural way."
"I understood perfectly, and I agree with you," Holder replied. "I have come, quite recently, to the same conclusion myself."
She gave him a penetrating glance, and he had to admit, inwardly, that a certain satisfaction followed Miss Grower"s approval.
"Mercy, I have to be going," she exclaimed, glancing at the black marble clock on the mantel. "We"ve got a lot of invoices to put through to-day. See you again, Mr. Holder." She jerked his hand once more. "Good morning, Mr. Bentley."
"Good morning, Sally."
Mr. Bentley rose, and took his hat and gold-headed stick from the rack in the hall.
"You mustn"t mind Sally," he said, when they had reached the sidewalk.
"Sometimes her brusque manner is not understood. But she is a very extraordinary woman."
"I can see that," the rector a.s.sented quickly, and with a heartiness that dispelled all doubt of his liking for Miss Grower. Once more many questions rose to his lips, which he suppressed, since Mr. Bentley volunteered no information. Hodder became, in fact, so lost in speculation concerning Mr. Bentley"s establishment as to forget the errand on which--they were bound. And Sally Grower"s words, apropos of the woman in the flat, seemed but an energetic driving home of the severe lessons of his recent experiences. And how blind he had been, he reflected, not to have seen the thing for himself! Not to have realized the essential artificiality of his former method of approach! And then it struck him that Sally Grower herself must have had a history.
Mr. Bentley, too, was preoccupied.
Presently, in the midst of these thoughts, Hodder"s eyes were arrested by a crowd barring the sidewalk on the block ahead; no unusual sight in that neighbourhood, and yet one which aroused in him sensations of weakness and nausea. Thus were the hidden vice and suffering of these sinister places occasionally brought to light, exposed to the curious and morbid stares of those whose own turn might come on the morrow. It was only by degrees he comprehended that the people were gathered in front of the house to which they were bound. An ambulance was seen to drive away: it turned into the aide street in front of them.
"A city ambulance!" the rector exclaimed.
Mr. Bentley did not reply.