"That"s what I said."
"Do you mean"--his voice dropped to an incredulous whisper--"that you are threatening to betray Augusta to attain your end?"
"I don"t like to be thwarted for a whim--a senseless piece of sentiment.
This contract means too much to me."
"But do I understand aright?" She gloated as she saw his fading color.
"Do you intend to say that the price of your silence is this contract?"
"Something of the sort," she replied in cold stubbornness.
The full knowledge of her power swept over him; the helplessness of his position filled him with sudden fury. He sprang to his feet and hurled his cigar through the open window. His thick fingers twitched to choke the insolent smile from her face.
"You traitor! You blackmailer!"
She arose leisurely.
"Unpleasant words--but there are others as unpleasant."
With his hands thrust deep in his trousers pockets Symes faced her, eyeing her with an expression which would have made most women wince but which she returned with absolute composure. She was in control of the situation and realized it to the full. Symes was speechless nearly in the face of such effrontery, such disloyalty, such ingrat.i.tude.
"You would sacrifice your best friend for money!"
"Business is business, and I"m out for the stuff, as I told you, but there"s no sense in letting it come to that. I don"t _want_ to do it, so don"t be a fool!"
Symes groaned; she had attacked him in his most vulnerable spot, namely, his horror of scandal, of anything which would besmirch the name of which he was so inordinately proud. This pride was at once his strength and his weakness.
"And if I permit myself to be blackmailed--there is no use in mincing words--if I give you this contract in exchange for my wife"s good name are you willing to consider every obligation wiped out?"
Her eyes flashed their triumph at this quick collapse of his stand.
"I am."
"And, furthermore, will you agree to discontinue your visits to my house?"
"Why?" There was hard bravado in the question.
"Your influence is not good, Dr. Harpe."
"What does Augusta say?"
"I"ve not consulted her."
"And the contract is mine?--that is settled?"
"So long as you keep your word."
She smiled enigmatically.
"I"ll keep my word."
A fumbling at the door ended the interview, for it opened to admit a white-faced woman with a child moaning in her arms.
"Oh, Doctor, I"m so glad you"re here!" she cried in relief. "He"s been like this since early this morning and I brought him in town as quick as I could. Is it anything serious?"
"Come here, my little man."
Symes saw the reddening of the ranchwoman"s eyelids at the sympathy in the Doctor"s voice, at the gentleness with which she took the child from her arms. Symes paused in the doorway to look longer at the swift transition which made her the woman that her patients knew. There was a softly maternal look in her face as she hung brooding over the child, a look so genuine that it bewildered him in the light of what had just transpired. Was this another phase of the woman"s character or was it a.s.sumed for his benefit?
The child"s shawl slipped to the floor and, as the mother stooped for it, Dr. Harpe flashed him a mocking glance which left him in no doubt.
XV
SYMES"S AUTHORITY
Symes descended the stairs of the Terriberry House in a frame of mind that was very different from the determined arrogance with which he had ascended them less than an hour before. He was filled with a humiliating sense of defeat, and of having acted weakly. He returned mechanically the salutations of those he pa.s.sed upon the street and sunk into his office chair with his hat upon his head, a dazed sense of shock and humiliation still upon him.
He had been blind as a bat, he told himself, blinder even, for a bat has an instinct which warns it of danger. The interview which had revealed the woman"s character came in the nature of a revelation in spite of that he already knew. The part he had been forced to play did not become more heroic by contemplation, and the only satisfaction he could wring from it was that he was rid of her--that she would never pollute his home again. It had cost him his pride and the sacrifice of his conscience, but he tried to make himself believe that it was worth the purchase price; yet the thought always came back that he, Andy P. Symes, had allowed himself to be blackmailed.
The knowledge of Dr. Harpe"s unbelievable perfidy would be a shock to Augusta, but it would terminate the friendship, he told himself, and he would be relieved of the disagreeable necessity of a.s.serting his authority too strongly.
Symes removed his hat and flung it upon a near-by chair, then turned to his desk. A telegram propped conspicuously upon the ink-well proved to be from Mudge, the promoter, and read:
Have possible investor who wants detailed information. Better come on at once.
S. L. MUDGE
Symes"s face lighted.
"This is lucky! It couldn"t have been more opportune! We"ll go to-morrow and I"ll tell Augusta while we"re gone."
Thus the problem of abruptly ending the friendship without causing comment was solved. He had no misgivings as to the outcome when he issued his mandate concerning Dr. Harpe, but there might be a scene, and he had a man"s instinctive dread of a family row in case that Augusta was loath to believe. She was loyal by nature and there was that possibility.
When his wife was removed from the influence which had undermined him in his own home, the old Augusta would return, he thought confidently; that adoring Augusta so flatteringly attentive to his opinions, so responsive to his moods. He wanted the old Augusta back more than he would have believed possible.
As his thoughts slipped in retrospect over the weeks past he could see that the change in her had come almost from the commencement of her friendship with Dr. Harpe. He shut his teeth hard as he thought of the ba.n.a.l influence she had exercised over a good woman; he always had considered Augusta that.
Well, it was ended. They would start once more with a better understanding of each other, in a clearer atmosphere. Something in the prospect made him glow; he felt a boyish eagerness to tell her of the proposed trip, but decided to wait until evening, as she would then have plenty of time to prepare.
The nervous strain of the day previous and the interview of the morning left Symes with a feeling of fatigue when evening came. As he stretched himself upon a couch watching Augusta moving to and fro freshly dressed for the dinner which had now wholly replaced the plebeian supper in the Symes household, he was again impressed by the improvement in her appearance.
The artificial wave in her straight, ash-blond hair softened greatly her prominent cheek bones, and a frill of lace partially hid the peasant hand that had so frequently distressed him. Her high-heeled slippers shortened and gave an instep to her long, flat foot. He smiled a little at the prim dignity which she unconsciously took on with her clothes; but that at which he did not smile was the air of cool toleration with which she listened to his few remarks. She seemed restless and went frequently to the door; when they faced each other at the dinner table he exerted himself to interest her and his reward was a shadowy smile.
He was not at all sure that she was listening and he asked himself if this could be the woman who not so long ago had glowed with happiness merely to be noticed? As the meal progressed he became alternately chagrined and angry. Was the change in her more marked than usual, or was it only that he was awake? He felt that he could not endure her vacant, absent-minded stare much longer without comment, so it was a distinct relief when they arose from the table. He concluded to keep the pleasant surprise he had for her a little longer.