"Gee!" he muttered as he pa.s.sed down the hall, "they must have had an awful sc.r.a.p!" He turned and quietly retraced his steps. In the library he switched on the lights and crossed to the telephone.
"There isn"t any sense in that," he said, speaking to himself. "Bill loves Eth--that"s a cinch. And she does love him, too, even if she won"t let on.
"She wouldn"t stick up in her room all day bawling her eyes out if she didn"t. I"ll call Bill up and tell him so, then he"ll come and they"ll make up. I bet he"s sorry, too, by now."
At the Carmody residence he was told that Bill was not in. He received the same answer from several clubs, at each of which he left explicit instructions for Mr. Carmody to call him up at the first possible moment.
Thereafter Charlie frequented the gymnasiums and made industrious inquiry, but it was many a day before he again saw his idol. Bill Carmody was missing from his accustomed haunts, and none could tell whither he had gone.
Those were days fraught with anxiety for the boy. Ethel, to whom he was devoted, went about the house listless and preoccupied, in spite of her efforts to appear cheerful. When he attempted to reason with her she burst into tears and forbade him to mention Bill Carmody"s name in her hearing as long as he lived. Whereupon the youngster retired disconsolately to his room to think things over.
"Love"s a b.u.m thing," he told himself. "If they do get married they die or get a divorce or something; and if they don"t--well, Bill has prob"ly committed suicide and Eth is moping around, and most likely now she"ll marry that dang St. Ledger." He made a wry face as he thought of St. Ledger.
"Runty little mollycoddle! Couldn"t lick a chicken--him and his monocle. And that day the wind took his hat and rolled it through the mud, and he said: "Oh, pshaw!" instead of d.a.m.n it! Oh--_slush!_ And I promised mother I"d take care of Eth."
He burrowed his face deep into the pillow, as, in spite of himself, tears came to his eyes.
CHAPTER IV
LOVE OR HATE
Thus a week pa.s.sed, in the course of which the heart of the girl was torn by conflicting emotions. Love clashed with hate and self-pity with self-reproach. Was it true--what he had said? Had she administered the final kick to a man who was down--who, loving her--and deep down in her heart she knew that he did love her--had come to her in the extremity of his need for a word of encouragement?
Now that he was gone she realized how much he had meant to her. How, in spite of his reckless disregard of life"s serious side, she loved him.
Try as she would she could not forget the look of deep hurt that dulled his eyes at her words.
Had she not been justified? Had he not needed just that to bring him to a realization of his responsibilities? Had she not, at the sacrifice of her own love, spurred and strengthened his purpose to make good? Or, had she, by raising a barrier between them, removed his one incentive to great effort?
Over and over the girl pondered these things. One moment her heart cried out for his return, and the next she reiterated her undying hate for the man in whose power it was so sorely to wound her with a word.
And so she sat one evening before an open fire in the library which had been the scene of their parting. Mechanically she turned the pages of a novel, but her mind was elsewhere, and her eyes lingered upon the details of the room.
"He stood there," she mused, "and I here--and then--those awful words.
And, oh! the look in his eyes that day as the portieres closed between us--and he was gone. Where?"
Somehow the idea obsessed her that he had gone to sea. She pictured him big and strong and brave, battling before the mast on some wallowing, storm-hectored trading ship outbound, bearing him away into the melting-pot of strange world-ways.
Would he come clean through the moil, winning honor and his place among men? And thus would he some day return--to _her_? Or would the sea claim him for her own, roughen him, and buffet him about through the long years among queer Far Eastern h.e.l.l-ports where, jostling shoulder to shoulder with brutish men and the women who do not care, he would drink deep and laugh loud among the flesh-pots of society"s discards?
The uncertainty was terrible to the girl, and she forced her thoughts into the one channel in which there was a ray of comfort.
"At least," she murmured, "he has ceased to be a menace to Charlie."
"Mr. Hiram Carmody, miss."
The old manservant who had been with the Mantons always, stood framed in the inverted V of the parted portieres.
Ethel started. Why had he called? During the lifetime of her father the elder Carmody had been a frequent visitor in the Manton home.
Was it about Bill? Was he sick? Had there been an accident, and was he hurt--possibly dead? There was an icy grip at her heart, though her voice was quite firm as she replied:
"I will see Mr. Carmody at once, Craddon."
As the man silently withdrew from the doorway a new thought came to her.
Could it be that Bill was still in New York? That his going away had been an empty threat? And was he now trying to bring about a reconciliation through the medium of his father? How she could despise him for that!
Her lips thinned, and there was a hint of formality in her greeting as she offered her hand to the tall, gray-haired man who advanced toward her.
"Well, well! Miss Ethel," he began, "all alone with a book and a cozy fire. That is what I call solid comfort." He crossed the room and extended his hands to the blaze.
"It is a long time since you have called, Mr. Carmody."
"Yes. We old fellows rarely drift outside the groove of our fixed orbit.
One by one we drop out, and as each one pa.s.ses beyond it shortens the orbit of the others. The circle is always contracting--never expanding.
The last one of us will be found in his dotage never venturing beyond the circle of his own fireside until he, too, shall answer the call."
The voice held a note of sadness which touched the girl deeply, and she suddenly noted that the fine patrician face had aged.
"You should not speak of being old," she said gently. "Why, you are called the Wizard of Wall Street."
"A man is only as old as he feels. Until recently I have considered myself a young man. But of late I feel that I am losing my grip."
"Isn"t that a dangerous admission? If it should become known on the Street----"
"Ha!"--the heavy gray eyebrows met with a ferocity which belied the smile that curved the thin lips--"if it were but whispered upon the Street the wolves would be at my throat before morning. But they would have a fight on their hands! However, all that is beside the purpose. I suppose you are wondering why I called?"
The girl was momentarily at a loss for a reply. "Why, I--You know you are always welcome here."
"Yes, yes. But, as you must have surmised, I called with a definite object in view. A matter that concerns you and--er, my son."
The girl turned a shade paler.
"I do not understand," she replied.
"Nor do I. I have come to you at the risk of being thought a meddling old fool! But the fact is, I have several times lately heard your name mentioned in connection with William"s, and recently there came into my possession this packet of letters addressed to my son in a feminine hand and bearing the Manton crest."
The girl"s face flushed as she took the proffered packet and waited for him to continue.
"Fred Manton was my best friend," went on the old man, "and I won"t see harm come to his daughter, if I can prevent it. You two may be just friends; you may be engaged--or married, for all I know. My son never deemed it worth while to take me into his confidence. In either case, I am here--and I will have my say. I shall put myself in the place of your father and speak as, I believe, he would have spoken. I may seem harsh and bitter toward my own son, but remember, Miss Ethel, I have had vastly more experience in the ways of the world than you have--and I know whereof I speak.
"Slight as is the difference between your ages, you are but an inexperienced girl, as the world knows experience, and William is a man--and a man, I am sorry to say, who is no fit a.s.sociate for a woman like you."
Surprised and perplexed the girl felt her anger rise against this man.
Instinctively she rallied to Bill"s defense: