"Why, I--She said--I think it will come about all right, d.i.c.ky." She was pitifully unnerved.
"Have you told her why she must marry me?"
"It is not time to tell her--it is not right--I can"t--"
He seized her arm and pulled her into the sitting-room. The daughter rose and faced them, reproof and astonishment mingling in her expression.
"This thing is going to be settled here and now," said the lover, roughly. "There is going to be no more fooling. Has your mother put this matter up to you so that you understand it, Kate?"
"She has told me that she owes you five thousand dollars," returned the girl. Her eyes flashed her contempt. "You told me that yourself. I repeated the statement to her and she admits it."
"But did she tell you how it happens that she owes me that money?"
"For G.o.d"s sake, Richard, have some pity! This is my own daughter.
I will sell everything. I will slave. I will pay you. Kate, for my sake--for your own sake, tell him that you will marry him."
"I will not marry this man," declared the girl. "It has been a mistake from the beginning. As to your business with him, mother, that is not my affair. You must settle it."
"You belong in the settlement," declared Dodd. "Hold on! Don"t leave this room, Kate."
He reached out his hands to intercept her, and Mrs. Kilgour, released, fell upon the floor and began to grovel and cry entreaties.
But his raucous tones overrode her appeals.
"We"re all together in this. I am five thousand dollars shy in the state treasury, Kate. I took that money and loaned it to your mother when she begged me to save her stocks. But she didn"t have any stocks."
Mrs. Kilgour grasped his knees and shook him. But he kept on.
"She had embezzled from Dalton & Company. What I did saved her from prison and you from disgrace, Kate. And now I am in the hole! Listen here! There"s h.e.l.l to pay in this state just now! The soreheads are banding together. A man has just offered to bet me big money that there"s going to be an overturn in the State House departments. I don"t know whether it will happen--but you can understand what kind of torment I"m in. Kate, are you going to let me stand this thing all alone?"
The girl stood silent and motionless in the middle of the room.
She did not weep or faint. Her face displayed no emotion. It was as white as marble.
"Do you want to drag my daughter down with you?" cried Mrs. Kilgour.
"You"d better not talk about dragging down," he shouted, pa.s.sionately.
"I didn"t steal for myself. Give me your love, Kate! Give me yourself to encourage me, and I"ll get out of the sc.r.a.pe somehow. I"ll find ways.
But if you don"t come with me I won"t have the courage or the desire to fight my way through. I"ll not disgrace you if you marry me--I swear I will not! With you to protect from everything I"ll make good. Symonds Dodd is my uncle. He won"t see the family name pulled in. But you must marry me!"
"And if I do not?" she asked.
"We"ll all go to d.a.m.nation together. I don"t care! I"ll blow it all. I won"t be disgraced alone because of something I did for your mother. I may sound like a cur. I don"t care, I say! I"m going to have you, and I don"t care how I get you!"
"We need not be so dramatic," said the girl. Some wonderful influence seemed to be controlling her. "Mother, stop your noise and go and sit in that chair. You demand, do you, Mr. Dodd, that to save my mother from exposure as a woman who has stolen, I must be your wife?"
"I do."
"Do you really want a wife who has been won in that fashion?"
"I want you."
"You realize, fully, don"t you, the spirit in which I shall marry you?"
"We"ll take care of that matter after we are married, Kate. You have liked me. You will care for me more when you come to your senses in this thing."
"You remember what my father did in the way of sacrifice, I suppose? It was no secret in this state."
"Yes," he muttered, abashed under her steady gaze.
"I am like my father in many ways--in many of my thoughts. Perhaps if he had not set me such an example in the way of sacrifice I should say something else to you, Mr. Dodd. But as the matter stands between us, considering the demand you make on me, I will marry you."
The concession was flung at him so suddenly--he had expected so much more of rebellion--that he staggered where he stood. He advanced toward her. But she waved him back.
"Sit down!" she commanded. "This matter has gone far outside romance.
It has become one of business. It is a matter of barter. I have had some experience in business. You say that mother owes you five thousand dollars which you took from the state treasury?"
"Yes, Kate."
"And your books will be examined very carefully, of course, if there is an overturn in your office?"
"Yes. It won"t be any mere legislative auditing."
"I know something about politics as well as about business, Mr. Dodd.
I cannot very well help knowing, after my experience in your uncle"s office. I suppose the next state convention will determine pretty effectually whether there will be an overturn or not?"
"If we renominate Harwood it ought to give us a good line on the control of the next legislature," he told her. "A hobo and a goody-goody," he added, with scorn, "think they have stirred up a revolution, but they have another think coming." He had been calmed by her outwardly matter-of-fact acceptance of the situation. But he did not perceive the fires of her soul gleaming deep in her eyes.
"If Governor Harwood is renominated and the next legislature is in the hands of your uncle, as usual, you will be sure to remain in your position?"
"Of course!"
"And you can hide the discrepancy on your books from the auditing committee?"
"I am pretty sure I can."
"You appreciate fully, don"t you, Mr. Dodd, why, after all my troubles in this life up till now, I should hesitate to marry a man with state prison hanging over him?"
"Yes."
"If Governor Harwood is not renominated I shall expect you to defer our marriage until you can work out of your difficulties. There will be danger and it is not in the bargain of my sacrifice that I shall pa.s.s through such disgrace with you; at any rate, I do not consider that added suffering is in the trade and will not agree to it. I prefer to remain as I am and share the disgrace of my mother. Do you agree to that?"
"I don"t like it, but I suppose I"ve got to be decent in the matter."
"But if Governor Harwood is renominated at the convention I will concede a point on my part and will marry you at once, taking it for granted that you will be able to clear yourself. In that way both of us are making concessions--and such things should be considered in a bargain."
She was coldly polite.
He bowed, not knowing exactly what reply to make to her.