He realized instantly that he was helpless. Down home one would have thrashed the editor of such a paper; but here he was in the wolves" own country, and he could do nothing. He went back to his office, and sat down at the desk.
"My dear Mrs. Winnie," he wrote. "I have just read the enclosed paragraph, and I cannot tell you how profoundly pained I am that your kindness to us should have made you the victim of such an outrage. I am quite helpless in the matter, except to enable you to avoid any further annoyance. Please believe me when I say that we shall all of us understand perfectly if you think that we had best not meet again at present; and that this will make no difference whatever in our feelings."
This letter Montague sent by a messenger; and then he went home.
Perhaps ten minutes after he arrived, the telephone bell rang--and there was Mrs. Winnie.
"Your note has come," she said. "Have you an engagement this evening?"
"No," he answered.
"Well," she said, "will you come to dinner?"
"Mrs. Winnie--" he protested.
"Please come," she said. "Please!"
"I hate to have you--" he began.
"I wish you to come!" she said, a third time.
So he answered, "Very well."
He went; and when he entered the house, the butler led him to the elevator, saying, "Mrs. Duval says will you please come upstairs, sir."
And there Mrs. Winnie met him, with flushed cheeks and eager countenance.
She was even lovelier than usual, in a soft cream-coloured gown, and a crimson rose in her bosom. "I"m all alone to-night," she said, "so we"ll dine in my apartments. We"d be lost in that big room downstairs."
She led him into her drawing-room, where great armfuls of new roses scattered their perfume. There was a table set for two, and two big chairs before the fire which blazed in the hearth. Montague noticed that her hand trembled a little, as she motioned him to one of them; he could read her excitement in her whole aspect. She was flinging down the gauntlet to her enemies!
"Let us eat first and talk afterward," she said, hurriedly. "We"ll be happy for a while, anyway."
And she went on to be happy, in her nervous and eager way. She talked about the new opera which was to be given, and about Mrs. de Graffenried"s new entertainment, and about Mrs. Ridgley-Clieveden"s ball; also about the hospital for crippled children which she wanted to build, and about Mrs. Vivie Patton"s rumoured divorce. And, meantime, the sphinx-like attendants moved here and there, and the dinner came and went. They took their coffee in the big chairs by the fire; and the table was swept clear, and the servants vanished, closing the doors behind them.
Then Montague set his cup aside, and sat gazing sombrely into the fire.
And Mrs. Winnie watched him. There was a long silence.
Suddenly he heard her voice. "Do you find it so easy to give up our friendship?" she asked.
"I didn"t think about it"s being easy or hard," he answered. "I simply thought of protecting you."
"And do you think that my friends are nothing to me?" she demanded.
"Have I so very many as that?" And she clenched her hands with a sudden pa.s.sionate gesture. "Do you think that I will let those wretches frighten me into doing what they want? I"ll not give in to them--not for anything that Lelia can do!"
A look of perplexity crossed Montague"s face. "Lelia?" he asked.
"Mrs. Robbie Walling!" she cried. "Don"t you suppose that she is responsible for that paragraph?"
Montague started.
"That"s the way they fight their battles!" cried Mrs. Winnie. "They pay money to those scoundrels to be protected. And then they send nasty gossip about people they wish to injure."
"You don"t mean that!" exclaimed the man.
"Of course I do," cried she. "I know that it"s true! I know that Robbie Walling paid fifteen thousand dollars for some trumpery volumes that they got out! And how do you suppose the paper gets its gossip?"
"I didn"t know," said Montague. "But I never dreamed--"
"Why," exclaimed Mrs. Winnie, "their mail is full of blue and gold monogram stationery! I"ve known guests to sit down and write gossip about their hostesses in their own homes. Oh, you"ve no idea of people"s vileness!"
"I had some idea," said Montague, after a pause.--"That was why I wished to protect you."
"I don"t wish to be protected!" she cried, vehemently. "I"ll not give them the satisfaction. They wish to make me give you up, and I"ll not do it, for anything they can say!"
Montague sat with knitted brows, gazing into the fire. "When I read that paragraph," he said slowly. "I could not bear to think of the unhappiness it might cause you. I thought of how much it might disturb your husband--"
"My husband!" echoed Mrs. Winnie.
There was a hard tone in her voice, as she went on. "He will fix it up with them," she said,--"that"s his way. There will be nothing more published, you can feel sure of that."
Montague sat in silence. That was not the reply he had expected, and it rather disconcerted him.
"If that were all--" he said, with hesitation. "But I could not know. I thought that the paragraph might disturb him for another reason--that it might be a cause of unhappiness between you and him--"
There was a pause. "You don"t understand," said Mrs. Winnie, at last.
Without turning his head he could see her hands, as they lay upon her knees. She was moving them nervously. "You don"t understand," she repeated.
When she began to" speak again, it was in a low, trembling voice. "I must tell you," she said; "I have felt sure that you did not know."
There was another pause. She hesitated, and her hands trembled; then suddenly she hurried on.--"I wanted you to know. I do not love my husband. I am not bound to him. He has nothing to say in my affairs."
Montague sat rigid, turned to stone. He was half dazed by the words. He could feel Mrs. Winnie"s gaze fixed upon him; and he could feel the hot flush that spread over her throat and cheeks.
"It--it was not fair for you not to know," she whispered. And her voice died away, and there was again a silence. Montague was dumb.
"Why don"t you say something?" she panted, at last; and he caught the note of anguish in her voice. Then he turned and stared at her, and saw her tightly clenched hands, and the quivering of her lips.
He was shocked quite beyond speech. And he saw her bosom heaving quickly, and saw the tears start into her eyes. Suddenly she sank down, and covered her face with her hands and broke into frantic sobbing.
"Mrs. Winnie!" he cried; and started to his feet.
Her outburst continued. He saw that she was shuddering violently. "Then you don"t love me!" she wailed.
He stood trembling and utterly bewildered. "I"m so sorry!" he whispered. "Oh, Mrs. Winnie--I had no idea--"
"I know it! I know it!" she cried. "It"s my fault! I was a fool! I knew it all the time. But I hoped--I thought you might, if you knew--"
And then again her tears choked her; she was convulsed with pain and grief.