He wondered what the effects of this hour face to face with death would be on her character.
He was amazed at the changes in Ruth since he had last seen her.
She had blossomed into the perfect beauty of womanhood. Not a trace of anxiety was left on her face. Her great dark eyes were calm and soft. Her lips were fuller, and her complexion white and pink, wreathed in its raven hair. Her figure was now the perfection of the pet.i.te Spanish type, in full, voluptuous lines, yet erect, lithe, with small hands and feet and tiny wrists, her whole being breathing a spiritual charm. Grace, delicacy, and distinction were in every movement of her body, and over it all, an unconscious and winning dignity.
After several hours of silence, as they sped back toward New York, Kate looked at him curiously and laughed.
"You"re not quite so handsome, Frank, in those trousers that stop at the top of your shoes and that coat that pauses just below your elbow."
He held up his long, powerful arms and said, meditatively:
"No. Gestures arrayed like that could hardly move an audience."
The shadows fell across the blue eyes again and they swept him with a critical expression.
"I didn"t tell you that Ruth saved my life."
Gordon turned suddenly.
"Yes, and it was a shock to me I"ll never get over. I don"t know whether I could have done as much for her under similar circ.u.mstances, with two children clinging to me and life depending on a moment"s time perhaps. But she did it, swiftly and beautifully. To tell you the truth, I"ve quite fallen in love with her. She is a wonderful little woman. I"ve been sitting here for hours wondering at the meanness of a man who could desert her. Those great soulful eyes of hers! When I looked up into them, crying like a poor coward for life--I, who had robbed her of what she held dearer than life--I saw only a tender mother"s soul looking down at me. Frank, I fear your spell over me is broken. You"re a poor piece of clay. The blaze in that car lit up some corners of my soul I never saw before. I think I"ll despise all men and love all women after to-day. What fools and puppets we are!"
The man made no reply. He only looked out the window at the flying landscape and saw the sweet face of a little girl.
CHAPTER XXVII
VENUS VICTRIX
The flames of those burning cars, leaping into the skies above the tops of the storm-tossed trees, had lighted some dark places in Gordon"s soul, and he was sobered by the revelation.
The clasp of Ruth"s arms about his neck, the warm touch of her plump figure, the pressure of her lips on his, and the pa.s.sionate murmur of the low contralto voice in his ears, "My own dear love!"
thrilled him with tenderest memories.
He sat by Kate"s side brooding over the days and nights of their married life. Baffled and puzzled, his mind would come back with everlasting persistence to the strange feeling that held him to Ruth--a subtle and sweet mystery, the most intimate relation the soul and body can ever bear on earth, the union in love in the morning of life and its tender blossoming into a living babe.
He began to ask himself had not their being mingled somehow in essence? Had they not been really united by that vital process which sometimes makes married people grow to look alike, and often to die on the same day?
Intimately he knew this little woman, to her deepest soul secrets, and yet she had still eluded him, and now revealed subtle spiritual and physical charms he had never seen nor felt before.
He was conscious at the same time of a new feeling of repulsion on Kate"s part, and the thought filled him with nervous foreboding.
Whatever change her disillusion had brought, his own physical infatuation for her was, if possible, deeper and more unreasonable.
She could not make him quarrel, but he would sit doggedly gloating over her beauty, his gray eyes flashing and gleaming with the fever for possession that is the soul of murder.
He was not long left in doubt as to the turn her thoughts had taken from the crisis through which she had pa.s.sed. Her drawing-room was crowded. These receptions were protracted until long past midnight, and he had never seen her so gay or reckless in manner.
She dressed with a splendour never affected before, and received the attentions of Overman with a favour so marked it could not escape the eye of the most casual observer. She made not the slightest effort to conceal it, and her manner was so plain a challenge to Gordon he was stunned by its audacity.
Overman felt this challenge in her mood, and, alarmed, withdrew from the scene. He did not return to the house during the week, and on Sat.u.r.day he received a dainty perfumed note from her by messenger.
It was the first missive he had ever received from a woman.
He turned it over in his broad hand, touched it nervously, and opened it with his fingers trembling as he recognised her handwriting.
"My Dear Mr. Overman: I have been sorely disappointed in not seeing you again this week. I write to command your presence Sunday morning at ten o"clock to accompany me to the Temple, if I choose to go, and to dine with me. Sincerely, KATE RANSOM GORDON."
He wrote an answer accepting and then sat holding this note in his hand as though it were something alive. For an hour he paced back and forth in his office alone, screening his eye behind his bushy brows, wrinkling his forehead, twisting his mouth, and now and then thrusting his hand into his collar and tugging at it, as though he were choking.
Gordon"s new study was in the dome of the Temple commanding a wonderful view of the great city, its rivers and bays, and the long dim line of the open sea beyond the towers of Coney Island. It was his habit to take an early breakfast on Sunday mornings and spend the three hours before his services there.
When Overman reached the house at ten o"clock, clouds had obscured the sun, The air was wet and penetrating, and charged with the premonition of storm. He felt nervous, excited and irritable.
The maid showed him into the s.p.a.cious library, where a cheerful fire of red-hot coals glowed, and his spirits rose.
He stood before the fire without removing his top coat, and the maid said:
"Mrs. Gordon says to make yourself comfortable. The day is so raw she will not go out. She will be down in a moment."
He removed his coat, sank into an easy chair, and began to wonder what could be the meaning of that note. He knew intuitively that he was approaching a crisis in his life.
He felt a sense of anxiety and discomfort at the idea of spending the morning alone with his friend"s wife. Yet he told himself he had no choice--it was fate. A woman had arranged it.
When Kate entered the room, he sprang to his feet with a cry of amazement at the vision of radiant beauty sweeping with sinuous step to meet him. He had never seen her so conscious of power or with better reason for it.
She was dressed in a gown of pink-and-white filmy stuff, which clung to her form, revealing its beautiful lines from the rounded shoulders to the tips of her dainty slippers. The sleeves were open to the elbow, showing the magnificent bare arms. From the shoulders, soft diaphanous draperies hung straight down the length of her figure, revealing by contrast more sharply the graceful curves of the body. The throat was bare, and her smooth ivory neck glowed in round fulness against the background of her hair falling in waves of fiery splendour.
Around her shapely waist hung a double cord of silver, knotted low in front and drawn below the knee by heavy ta.s.sels.
The effect of the dress was simplicity itself. There was not a superfluous ruffle or ribbon. Its sole design was not to attract attention to itself, but to reveal the superb charms of the woman who wore it, with every breath she breathed, every step, and every gesture.
The rhythmic music of her walk--quick, strong, luxurious--breathed an excess of vitality. The full lips were smiling and her cheeks aflame with pleasure at his admiration.
Her eyes spoke straight into his with a candour that was unmistakable.
They knew what they desired and said so aloud. They had thrown scruples to the winds, and in untamed, primeval strength gazed on life with daring freedom.
Overman stammered and cleared his throat, bowed, and blushed.
She took both his hands cordially and smiled into his face.
"Why didn"t you come back to see me this week?"
He hesitated, disconcerted.