CHAPTER XV
I
Mortimer looked nonplussed when Alexina informed him at dinner of the immediate solution of their difficulties. He detested Tom and Maria Abbott; there were certain things he could forget in his aristocratic wife"s presence, far as she had withdrawn, but never in theirs.
Moreover he feared Abbott. He was as keen as a hawk; an unconsidered word and he might as well have told the whole story. Well, he never talked much anyhow; he would merely talk less.
When Alexina asked him if he had any better plan to propose he was forced to shrug his shoulders and set his lips in a straight line of resignation. When she told him what her original plan had been he was so appalled, so humiliated at the bare thought of his wife in a servant"s ap.r.o.n (to say nothing of the culinary arrangements) that he almost warmed to the Abbotts.
II
Ten days later, on the eve of the Abbotts" arrival, the equanimity of spirit he was striving to regain by the simple process of thinking of something else when his late delinquencies obtruded themselves, received a severe shock. Alexina handed him a cheque for ten thousand dollars and asked him to place it to Gora"s account in the bank where she kept her savings.
"Where did you get it?" he asked stupidly, staring at the slip of paper so heavily freighted.
"Anne Montgomery sold some of my things to a good-natured ignoramus whose husband made a fortune in Tonopah. She doesn"t know how to buy and Anne advises her."
"What did you sell? Your jewels?"
"Some. I never wear anything but the pearls anyhow; and it"s bad taste to wear jewels unless you"re wealthy. I had some old lace that is hard to buy now, and real lace isn"t the fashion any more. New rich people always think it"s just the thing. I also sold her two of the biggest and clumsiest of the Italian pieces. She is crazy about them. Anne told her that they were as good as a pa.s.sport."
Mortimer sprang to the only, the nave, the eternal masculine conclusion.
"You do love me still!" The dull eyes of his spirit flashed with the sudden rejuvenation of his heavy body. "I never really believed you had ceased to care.... you were capricious like all women ... a little spoilt. I knew that if I had patience ... Only a loving wife would do such a thing."
Alexina made a wry face at the ba.n.a.lity of his climax, although the fatuous outburst had barely amused her.
"No, I don"t love you in the least, Mortimer, and never shall. Make up your mind to that. Love some one else if you like.... I did this for two reasons: I did not have the courage to tell Gora the truth--and that I was too unjust and penurious to restore the money you had taken; and as your wife it would have hurt my pride unbearably."
"And you are not afraid to trust me with this money?" he asked, his voice toneless.
"Not in the least. There"s no other way to manage it and I fancy you know what would happen if you didn"t hand it over. There is such a thing as the last straw."
CHAPTER XV
I
It was a week later. Alexina was changing her dress. Maria had asked a number of her girlhood friends in for luncheon, and they were to exchange reminiscences in the old house over a table laden as of yore with the ma.s.sive Ballinger silver, English cutgla.s.s, and French china.
Alexina was about to take refuge with Janet Maynard.
Her door opened unceremoniously and Gora entered.
Alexina caught her breath as she saw her sister-in-law"s eyes. They looked like polar seas in a tropical storm.
"Why, Gora, dear," she said lightly. "I thought you were on an important case."
"Man died last night. I have just been to see Mortimer. When I got his note--just three lines--saying that he had received a cheque from Utica and deposited it to my account I knew at once--as soon as I had time to think--there was something wrong. The natural thing would have been to call me up--couldn"t tell me the good news too soon.... And there was a hollow ring about that note.... Well, as soon as I woke up to-day I went straight down to his office. I had to wait an hour. When he came in and saw me he turned green. I marched him into a back room and corkscrewed the truth out of him--the whole truth. Then I blasted him.
He knows exactly what one person in this world thinks of him, what everybody else would think of him if he were found out. I gathered that you had let him down easy. Your toploftical pride, I suppose. Well, I must have a good plebeian streak in me somewhere and for the first time I was glad of it. When I left him he looked shrunken to half his natural size. His eyes looked like a dead fish"s and all the muscles of his face had given Way. He looked as if he were going to die and I wish he would. Faugh! A thief in the family. That at least we never had before."
"Don"t be too sure. Remember n.o.body else knows about Morty, and everybody"ll go on thinking he"s honest. Half our friends may be thieves for all we know, and as for our ancestors--what are you doing?"
II
Gora had taken a roll of yellow bills from her purse. She counted them on the table; ten bills denominating a thousand dollars each.
"I won"t take them." said Alexina stiffy. "I think you are horrid, simply horrid."
"And do you imagine I would keep it? I What do you take me for?"
"I am in a way responsible for Mortimer"s debts--his partner."
"That cuts no ice with me--nor with you. That is not the reason you sold your jewels and laces and those superb--Oh, you poor child! If I"m furious, it"s more for you than on any other account. You don"t deserve such a fate--"
"I don"t deserve to have you treat me so ungratefully. I can"t get my things back. I wanted you to have the money more than I eared for those things, anyhow. I have no use for the money. I don"t owe anything and the rent Tom pays me for six months will help me to run the house for the rest of the year and pay taxes besides. So, you just keep it, Gora.
It"s yours and that"s the end of it."
"This is the end of it as far as I"m concerned." She opened the secret drawer of the cabinet and stuffed in the bills. "They"re safe from any sort of burglars there. But not from fire. Bank them to-morrow."
"I"ll not touch them."
"Nor I either."
III
Gora threw her hat on the floor and sitting down before the table thrust her hands into her hair and tugged at the roots. "I always do this when I"m excited--which is oftener than you think. What dreams I had that first night--I got his note late and was too tired to reason, to suspect.... I just dreamed until I fell asleep. I"d start for England a week later--for England!"
Goose flesh made Alexina"s delicate body feel like a cold nutmeg grater. "England?"
"Yes! ... ah ... you see, it"s the only place where literary recognition counts for anything."
"Oh? I rather thought the British authors looked upon Uncle Sam in the light of a fairy G.o.dfather. Our recognition counts for a good deal, I should say. I never thought you were sn.o.bbish."