As they were about to separate, she taking the motor and he walking, she made a face of charming dismay and said: "How provoking! I"ve left my bag at the hotel."
Instead of the expected prompt offer of money he said, "It"ll only take you a minute or so to drive there."
"But it"s out of the way," she replied. "I"ll need only a hundred francs or so."
Said he: "I"ve an account at the Bon Marche. Go there and have the things charged. It"s much the best big shop in Paris."
"Very well," was all she could trust herself to say. She concealed her anger beneath a careless smile and drove away. How dense he was! Could anything be more exasperating--or more disagreeable? What SHOULD she do? The situation was intolerable; yet how could it be ended, except by a humiliating direct request for money? She wondered how young wives habitually dealt with this problem, when they happened to marry husbands so negligent, not to say underbred, as to cause them the awkwardness and the shame. There followed several days during which the money idea was an obsession, nagging and grinning at her every instant. The sight of money gave her a peculiar itching sensation.
When the little general paid for anything--always drawing out a great sheaf of bank notes in doing it--she flushed hot and cold, her glance fell guiltily and sought the money furtively. At last her desperation gave birth to an inspiration.
About her and the general, or, rather, about the general, revolved the usual rich man"s small army of satellites of various degrees--secretaries, butlers, footmen, valets, other servants male and female, some of them supposed to be devoted entirely to her service, but all in fact looking ever to the little general. The members of this company, regardless of differences of rank and pay, were banded together in a sort of democratic fellowship, talking freely with one another, on terms of perfect equality. She herself had, curiously, gotten on excellent terms with this motley fraternity and found no small relief from the strain of the general"s formal dignity in talking with them with a freedom and ease she had never before felt in the society of underlings. The most conspicuous and most agreeable figure in this company was Harding, the general"s factotum. Why not lay the case before Harding? He was notably sensible, and sympathetic--and discreet.
The following day she did so. Said she, blushing furiously: "Mr.
Harding, I find myself in a very embarra.s.sing position. I wonder if you can help me?"
Harding, a young man and of one of the best blond types, said: "No doubt I can--and I"ll be glad to."
"The fact is"-- Her voice was trembling with nervousness. She opened the gold bag, took out the little silver pieces and the big copper piece, extended her pink palm with them upon it--"there"s all I"ve got left of the money I brought with me."
Harding gazed at the exhibit tranquilly. He was chiefly remarkable for his perfect self-possession. Said he: "Do you wish me to cash a check for you?"
The stupidity of men! Tears of vexation gathered in her eyes. When she could speak she faltered:
"No."
He was looking at her now--a grave, kind glance.
She somehow felt encouraged and heartened. She went on: "I was hoping--that--that the gen--that my husband had said something to you and that you perhaps had not thought to say anything to me."
Their glances met, his movingly sympathetic and understanding, hers piteously forlorn--the look of a lovely girl, stranded and friendless in a far strange land. Presently he said gently:
"Yes, he told me to say something to you--if you should speak to me about this matter." His tone caused in her heart a horrible stillness of suspense. He went on: "He said--I give you his exact words: "If my wife should ask you for money, tell her my ideas on the subject.""
A pause. She started up, crimson, her glance darting nervously this way and that to avoid his. "Never mind. Really, it"s of no importance. Thank you--I"ll get on very well--I"m sorry to have troubled you--"
"Pardon me, Mrs. Siddall," he interposed, "but I think you"d best let me finish."
She started to protest, she tried to move toward the door. Her strength failed her, she sat down, waited, nervously clasping and unclasping the costly, jewel-embroidered bag.
"He has explained to me, many times," continued Harding, "that he believes women do not understand the value of money and ought not to be trusted with it. He proposes to provide everything for you, every comfort and luxury--I am using his own language, Mrs. Siddall--and he has open accounts at the princ.i.p.al shops in every city where you will go--New York, Washington, Chicago, Denver, Paris, London, Rome. He says you are at liberty to get practically anything you please at these shops, and he will pay the bills. He thus entirely spares you the necessity of ever spending any money. Should you see anything you wish at some shop where he has no account, you can have it sent collect, and I or my a.s.sistant, Mr. Drawl, will settle for it. All he asks is that you use discretion in this freedom. He says it would be extremely painful to him to have to withdraw it."
Harding had p.r.o.nounced this long speech in a dry monotonous voice, like one reading mechanically from a dull book. As Mildred listened, her thoughts began to whirl about the central idea until she fell into a kind of stupor. When he finished she was staring vacantly at the bag in her lap--the bag she was holding open wide.
Harding continued: "He also instructed me to say something about his former--his experiences. The first Mrs. Siddall he married when he was very young and poor. As he grew rich, she became madly extravagant.
And as they had started on a basis on which she had free access to his money he could not check her. The result, finally, was a succession of bitter quarrels, and they were about to divorce when she died. He made the second Mrs. Siddall an allowance, a liberal allowance. Her follies compelled him to withdraw it. She resorted to underhanded means to get money from him without his knowing it. He detected the fraud. After a series of disagreeable incidents she committed the indiscretion which caused him to divorce her. He says that these experiences have convinced him that--"
"The second Mrs. Siddall," interrupted Mildred, "is she still alive?"
Harding hesitated. "Yes," he said reluctantly.
"Is she--poor?" asked Mildred.
"I should prefer not to--"
"Did the general forbid you to tell me?"
"On the contrary, he instructed me-- But I"d rather not talk about it, Mrs. Siddall."
"Is she poor?" repeated Mildred.
"Yes."
"What became of her?"
A long pause. Then Harding said: "She was a poor girl when the general married her. After the divorce she lived for a while with the man. But he had nothing. They separated. She tried various kinds of work--and other things. Since she lost her looks-- She writes from time to time, asking for money."
"Which she never gets?" said Mildred.
"Which she never gets," said Harding. "Lately she was cashier or head waitress in a cheap restaurant in St. Louis."
After a long silence Mildred said: "I understand. I understand." She drew a long breath. "I shall understand better as time goes on, but I understand fairly well now."
"I need not tell you, Mrs. Siddall," said Harding in his gentle, tranquil way, "that the general is the kindest and most generous of men, but he has his own methods--as who has not?"
Mildred had forgotten that he was there--not a difficult matter, when he had in its perfection the secretarial manner of complete self-effacement. Said she reflectively, like one puzzling out a difficult problem:
"He buys a woman, as he buys a dog or a horse. He does not give his dog, his horse, pocket-money. Why should he give his woman pocket-money?"
"Will it help matters, Mrs. Siddall, to go to the other extreme and do him a grave injustice?"
She did not hear. At the picture presented to her mind by her own thoughts she gave a short satirical laugh. "How stupid of me not to have understood from the outset," said she. "Why, I"ve often heard of this very thing."
"It is more and more the custom among men of large property, I believe," said Harding. "Perhaps, Mrs. Siddall, you would not blame them if you were in their position. The rich men who are careless--they ruin everybody about them, I a.s.sure you. I"ve seen it again and again."
But the young wife was absorbed in her own thoughts. Harding, feeling her mood, did not interrupt. After a while she said:
"I must ask you some questions. These jewels the general has been buying--"
Harding made a movement of embarra.s.sment and protest. She smiled ironically and went on:
"One moment, please. Every time I wish to wear any of them I have to go to him to get them. He asks me to return them when I am undressing.
He says it is safer to keep everything in his strong box. I have been a.s.suming that that was the only reason. I begin to suspect-- Am I right, Mr. Harding?"
"Really I can"t say, Mrs. Siddall," said Harding. "These are not matters to discuss with me, if you will permit me to say so."
"Oh, yes, they are," replied she laughingly. "Aren"t we all in the same boat?--all employes of the general?"
Harding made no reply.