One thing that I had to do myself was to notify my mother of my father"s death. From the time she had quitted us my father and I had avoided mention of her; but during his illness he asked me to write in case of his death, and gave me her New York address, from which I inferred that in some way he had kept himself informed concerning her, though I feel very certain that she had never written him. That I had never tried to learn anything myself was due to the estrangement, but still more to my interest in my studies and work. Now I wrote her, as I had promised, telling her briefly the circ.u.mstances of my father"s illness and death, and offering to write fuller details if she wished to know them. I would not feign love for her, but I wrote tenderly of him and without coldness to her. She never replied.
Kind as were all my intimates, I craved more than friendship, however loving it might be. One of the two great loves of my life had gone out from it, and, in the gap it left, the other became doubly dear to me.
The wish to see you grew and strengthened each day, until at last it shaped my plans, and I announced my intention to visit America; making the specious explanation that, after my long invalidism and grief, the change would be the best specific for me.
At this time I received the offer of appointment as professor extraordinarius of philology and ethnology under Jastrow, another manifestation of his love; but till I had seen you I would not bind myself by accepting, and through his influence I was given three months to consider my answer. I seem doomed never to requite the services of those I love the most, but I am glad that in the nine months which I pa.s.sed under his roof my knowledge of the Eastern dialects had pushed his work so much nearer completion.
Leaving all my possessions behind except the ma.n.u.script of my history, I started on my voyage of love. For two days I tarried in Paris, settling my little property. I had long known that the flotsam of my father"s fortune, wrecked in Wall Street, was a few bonds deposited with Paris bankers; and when I called upon the firm it was merely to continue the old arrangement, by which they cut the coupons and placed them to my bank credit. It was in this visit that I searched out our old pension, and sat dreaming in the park. How could I imagine, remembering those days of closest love and sympathy, and knowing too your kindness to one you thought a mere Eastern stroller, that you could have changed so to your former friend?
The most curious fact to me, in looking back upon that time, is that the idea never occurred to me that you were a married woman. It never entered my thoughts that a beauty which fascinated and drew me so far from my natural orbit must be an equally powerful charm to other men. As for Mr. Blodgett, I never gave him a second thought, not even accounting for his relations with you. My foolishness, I suppose, is typical of the scholar"s abstraction and impracticality.
As the steamer neared New York, my impatience to see you increased apace. Far from longing for our old ten-day pa.s.sage, I found a voyage of seven days too long. Ridiculous as it may seem, I almost lost my temper at the slowness of the customs examination. I believe I was half mad, and only marvel that I did so sane a thing as to go to a hotel, change my clothes, and dine, before attempting to see you.
I ascertained Mr. Walton"s address the moment I reached my hotel, and sent a messenger there to inquire your whereabouts. He brought me back word that Mr. Walton was absent from the city, but the servant had informed him that you still lived with your uncle and that you were in town.
I cannot tell you the surprise and joy I felt when, on arriving at your house on Madison Avenue that evening, I discovered it to be our old habitat. It seemed as if your selection of that as your home, probably from sentiment, was a bow of promise for the future, and I rang the bell, almost trembling with emotion and happiness.
The footman showed me to the drawing-room and took my card. All inside, so far as I could see, was changed past the point of recognition, but everything was beautiful, and I felt in that one room that no decorator"s conventional taste had formed its harmony, but that an artistic sense had planned the whole. What a contrast it was to the old days of untasteful and untidy richness!
I sat but a moment before the footman returned. Looking not at me, but over my head, and with an att.i.tude and air as deferential as if I were the guest of all others most welcome, he said, "Miss Walton declines the honor of Mr. Maitland"s acquaintance, and begs to be excused."
The blow came so suddenly, and was so crushing, that for a moment I lost my dignity. "There must be some mistake!" I exclaimed. "You gave Miss Walton my card?"
The footman only bowed a.s.sent.
"Go to Miss Walton and say I must see her a moment."
"Miss Walton instructed me to add, in case Mr. Maitland persisted, that she prefers to hold no intercourse with Mr. Maitland and will receive no messages from him."
Pride came to my rescue, and I pa.s.sed silently into the hall. The servant opened the door, and I went out from my old home, never to enter it more. At the foot of the steps I turned and looked back, hardly yet believing what I had been told. Even in the sting and humiliation of that moment my love was stronger than the newer sensations. I said, "Good-night, Maizie. G.o.d keep you," and walked away.
VIII
_February 27._ I sat for hours in my room, that night, trying to find some solution of the mystery and groping for a future course of action.
I thought of a visit to my mother, on the chance that she would give me the key to the puzzle, but could not bring myself to it. Rejecting that idea, I decided to seek out Mr. Blodgett, who, being your friend, might know the reason for what you had done.
Finding on inquiry, the next morning, that Mr. Blodgett was a member of one of the chief banking firms of New York, I went to his office. The ante-room was well filled with people anxious to see the great banker, and the door-boy refused me access to him without giving my name and business. Knowing that "Donald Maitland" would mean nothing to Mr.
Blodgett, and might even fail to secure me an audience, I wrote on a slip of paper, "A seeker of knowledge from the Altai Mountains." Nor was I wrong, for the boy, on his return, gave me immediate entrance, and another moment brought me face to face with my once-disliked countryman.
His hand was extended to greet me, but as he looked at my face his arm dropped in surprise. "Your name, please?" he demanded, with a business-like clip to his voice, at the same time picking up and glancing quickly at three or four cards and slips of paper that were on the corner of his desk.
"I am the attorney for ancient peoples," I announced, smiling, "come to thank the New World for its kindness to a broken-legged man."
Instantly Mr. Blodgett smiled too, and again extended his hand. "Glad to see you," he said. "Sit down." Then looking at me keenly, he added, "You"ve done a lot of bleaching or scrubbing since we met."
"In the interval my face has been hidden from the sun-G.o.d of my fathers."
"Ah!" Then his Americanism cropped out by a question: "Are you European or Asiatic?--for you are too dark to be the one, and too white to be the other."
"My parents were American, and I was born in New York."
"The deuce you were! Then why were you masquerading in Arab dress and with a brown face in Tangier, and why did you say you came from some mountains in Asia?"
"I was for the time an Arab, and I was last from the Altai Mountains," I explained, and smilingly added, "Is my explanation satisfactory?"
"Well, I suppose you spoke by the book," he replied. "Wherever you were born, I"m glad to see--Hold on!" he cried, interrupting his own speech.
"Why did you call yourself Dr. Rudolph Hartzmann, of Leipzig, if you were an American?"
"I did not," I denied, startled by his question, for my ident.i.ty with the pseudonym was known only to my professors and publishers.
"You weren"t living in Tangier under the name of Hartzmann?" he inquired.
"No."
"Then how came it that when my servant was sent to leave some fruit and flowers for you and inquire your name, he was told that you were Dr.
Rudolph Hartzmann, of Leipzig?"
"Are you serious?" I questioned, as much puzzled as he for the moment.
"Never more so. I remember our astonishment to think that any European should have so dark a skin and live in the native quarter."
"Mr. Blodgett," I explained, "I did not know till this moment that a pen name I have used to sign my writings had been given you, but it was a joke of my father"s to register me under it, and my only theory is that he had given some one in the hotel that name, and, by mischance, your servant was misinformed."
He was too good a business man to look as skeptical as he probably felt, and merely asked, "What is your real name, then?"
"Donald Maitland, son of William Maitland."
His eyes gave a startled wink and he screwed his lips into position for a whistle, but checking the inclination, he merely turned his revolving-chair so that he looked out of a window. He sat thus for a moment, and then, facing me, he questioned, with a sudden curtness of voice and manner, "What is your business with me?"
"I have taken the liberty of calling on the supposition that you are a friend of Miss Walton."
"I am."
"Miss Walton was once my father"s ward, yet last night she refused to see me. Can you tell me why?"
"The reason is rather obvious," he a.s.serted crisply.
"Will you tell me what it is?"
He looked at me from under his gray eyebrows. "Is that all you want of me?" he demanded.
"Yes."
"Well, then, Miss Walton refused to see you because she despises you."
I felt my cheeks burn, but I gripped the arm of my chair and waited till I could speak coolly; then I asked, "For what?"