"It is certainly a mess," said Montague.
"There"s no bottom to it," said the other. "Absolutely--it would take your breath away! Just listen to what Vandam told me to-day!"
And then Harvey named one of the directors of the Fidelity who was well known as a philanthropist. Having heard that the wife of one of his junior partners had met with an accident in childbirth, and that the doctor had told her husband that if she ever had another child, she would die, this man had asked, "Why don"t you have her life insured?"
The other replied that he had tried, and the companies had refused her.
"I"ll fix it for you," said he; and so they put in another application, and the director came to Freddie Vandam and had the policy put through "by executive order." Seven months later the woman died, and the Fidelity had paid her husband in full--a hundred thousand or two!
"That"s what"s going on in the insurance world!" said Siegfried Harvey.
And that was the story which Montague took with him to add to his enjoyment of the festivities at the country club. It was a very gorgeous affair; but perhaps the sombreness of his thoughts was to blame; the flowers and music and beautiful gowns failed entirely in their appeal, and he saw only the gluttony and drunkenness--more of it than ever before, it seemed to him.
Then, too, he had an unpleasant experience. He met Laura Hegan; and presuming upon her cordial reception of his visit, he went up and spoke to her pleasantly. And she greeted him with frigid politeness; she was so brief in her remarks and turned away so abruptly as almost to snub him. He went away quite bewildered. But later on he recalled the gossip about himself and Mrs. Winnie, and he guessed that that was the explanation of Miss Hegar"s action.
The episode threw a shadow over his whole visit. On Sunday he went out into the country and tramped through a snowstorm by himself, filled with a sense of disgust for all the past, and of foreboding for the future. He hated this money-world, in which all that was worst in human beings was brought to the surface; he hated it, and wished that he had never set foot within its bounds. It was only by tramping until he was too tired to feel anything that he was able to master himself.
And then, toward dark, he came back, and found a telegram which had been forwarded from New York.
"Meet me at the Penna depot, Jersey City, at nine to-night. Alice."
This message, of course, drove all other thoughts from his mind. He had no time even to tell Oliver about it--he had to jump into an automobile and rush to catch the next train for the city. And all through the long, cold ride in ferry-boats and cabs he pondered this mystery.
Alice"s party had not been expected for two weeks yet; and only two days before there had come a letter from Los Angeles, saying that they would probably be a week over time. And here she was home again!
He found there was an express from the West due at the hour named; apparently, therefore, Alice had not come in the Prentice"s train at all. The express was half an hour late, and so he paced up and down the platform, controlling his impatience as best he could. And finally the long train pulled in, and he saw Alice coming down the platform. She was alone!
"What does it mean?" were the first words he said to her.
"It"s a long story," she answered. "I wanted to come home.";
"You mean you"ve come all the way from the coast by yourself!" he gasped.
"Yes," she said, "all the way."
"What in the world--" he began.
"I can"t tell you here, Allan," she said. "Wait till we get to some quiet place."
"But," he persisted. "The Prentice? They let you come home alone?"
"They didn"t know it," she said. "I ran away."
He was more bewildered than ever. But as he started to ask more questions, she laid a hand upon his arm. "Please wait, Allan," she said. "It upsets me to talk about it. It was Charlie Carter."
And so the light broke. He caught his breath and gasped, "Oh!"
He said not another word until they had crossed the ferry and settled themselves in a cab, and started. "Now," he said, "tell me."
Alice began. "I was very much upset," she said. "But you must understand, Allan, that I"ve had nearly a week to think it over, and I don"t mind it now. So I want you please not to get excited about it; it wasn"t poor Charlie"s fault--he can"t help himself. It was my mistake.
I ought to have taken your advice and had nothing to do with him."
"Go on," said he; and Alice told her story.
The party had gone sight-seeing, and she had had a headache and had stayed in the car. And Charlie Carter had come and begun making love to her. "He had asked me to marry him already--that was at the beginning of the trip," she said. "And I told him no. After that he would never let me alone. And this time he went on in a terrible way--he flung himself down on his knees, and wept, and said he couldn"t live without me. And nothing I could say did any good. At last he--he caught hold of me--and he wouldn"t let me go. I was furious with him, and frightened.
I had to threaten to call for help before he would stop. And so--you see how it was."
"I see," said Montague, gravely. "Go on."
"Well, after that I made up my mind that I couldn"t stay anywhere where I had to see him. And I knew he would never go away without a scene. If I had asked Mrs. Prentice to send him away, there would have been a scandal, and it would have spoiled everybody"s trip. So I went out, and found there was a train for the East in a little while, and I packed up my things, and left a note for Mrs. Prentice. I told her a story--I said I"d had a telegram that your mother was ill, and that I didn"t want to spoil their good time, and had gone by myself. That was the best thing I could think of. I wasn"t afraid to travel, so long as I was sure that Charlie couldn"t catch up with me."
Montague said nothing; he sat with his hands gripped tightly.
"It seemed like a desperate thing to do," said Alice, nervously. "But you see, I was upset and unhappy. I didn"t seem to like the party any more--I wanted to be home. Do you understand?"
"Yes," said Montague, "I understand. And I"m glad you are here."
They reached home, and Montague called up Harvey"s and told his brother what had happened. He could hear Oliver gasp with astonishment. "That"s a pretty how-do-you-do!" he said, when he had got his breath back; and then he added, with a laugh, "I suppose that settles poor Charlie"s chances."
"I"m glad you"ve come to that conclusion," said the other, as he hung up the receiver.
This episode gave Montague quite a shock. But he had little time to think about it--the next morning at eleven o"clock his case was to come up for trial, and so all his thoughts were called away. This case had been the one real interest of his life for the last three months; it was his purpose, the thing for the sake of which he endured everything else that repelled him. And he had trained himself as an athlete for a great race; he was in form, and ready for the effort of his life. He went down town that morning with every fibre of him, body and mind, alert and eager; and he went into his office, and in his mail was a letter from Mr. Hasbrook. He opened it hastily and read a message, brief and direct and decisive as a sword-thrust:
"I beg to inform you that I have received a satisfactory proposition from the Fidelity Company. I have settled with them, and wish to withdraw the suit. Thanking you for your services, I remain, sincerely."
To Montague the thing came like a thunderbolt. He sat utterly dumbfounded--his hands went limp, and the letter fell upon the desk in front of him.
And at last, when he did move, he picked up the telephone, and told his secretary to call up Mr. Hasbrook. Then he sat waiting; and when the bell rang, picked up the receiver, expecting to hear Mr. Hasbrook"s voice, and to demand an explanation. But he heard, instead, the voice of his own secretary: "Central says the number"s been discontinued, sir."
And he hung up the receiver, and sat motionless again. The dummy had disappeared!
To Montague this incident meant a change in the prospect of his whole life. It was the collapse of all his hopes. He had nothing more to work for, nothing more to think about; the bottom had fallen out of his career!
He was burning with a sense of outrage. He had been tricked and made a fool of; he had been used and flung aside. And now there was nothing he could do--he was utterly helpless. What affected him most was his sense of the overwhelming magnitude of the powers which had made him their puppet; of the utter futility of the efforts that he or any other man could make against them. They were like elemental, cosmic forces; they held all the world in their grip, and a common man was as much at their mercy as a bit of chaff in a tempest.
All day long he sat in his office, brooding and nursing his wrath. He had moods when he wished to drop everything, to shake the dust of the city from his feet, and go back home and recollect what it was to be a gentleman. And then again he had fighting moods, when he wished to devote all his life to punishing the men who had made use of him. He would get hold of some other policy-holder in the Fidelity, one whom he could trust; he would take the case without pay, and carry it through to the end! He would force the newspapers to talk about it--he would force the people to heed what he said!
And then, toward evening, he went home, bitter and sore. And there was his brother sitting in his study, waiting for him.
"h.e.l.lo," he said, and took off his coat, preparing his mind for one more ignominy--the telling of his misfortune to Oliver, and listening to his inevitable, "I told you so."
But Oliver himself had something to communicate something that would not bear keeping. He broke out at once--"Tell me, Allan! What in the world has happened between you and Mrs. Winnie?"
"What do you mean?" asked Montague, sharply.
"Why," said Oliver, "everybody is talking about some kind of a quarrel."
"There has been no quarrel," said Montague.
"Well, what is it, then?"
"It"s nothing."