"But what _can_ you do?" she asked, after considering his words. "You"re so involved. All this business--and the people in South America--"
"Oh, there are ways and means. I haven"t made plans, but I"ve thought, from time to time, of what I should do if I ever came to just this pa.s.s.
The first thing would be to tell the few people who are most concerned, confidentially. Then I should go back to South America, and settle things give me your respect again--not even the little you"ve given me hitherto--and G.o.d knows that can"t have been much. I could stand anything in the world--anything--rather than that you should come to that."
"But I shouldn"t, when I myself had dissuaded you--"
"No, no; don"t try. You"d be doing wrong. You"ve been to me so high and holy that I don"t like to think you haven"t the strength to go on to the end. I"ve got it, because you"ve given it me. Don"t detract from your own gift by holding me back from using it. You found me a prisoner--or an escaped one--and I"ve been a prisoner all these years, the prisoner of something worse than chains. Now I"m going free. Look!" he cried, with sudden inspiration. "I"ll show you how it"s done. You"ll see how easy it will be."
He moved to cross the room.
"What are you going to do?"
She sprang up as if to hold him back, but his finger was on the bell.
"You don"t mind, I hope?" he asked; but he had rung before she could give an answer. The maid appeared in the doorway.
"Ask Mr. Wayne if he would be good enough to come in here a minute. Tell him Mr. Strange particularly wants to see him."
He went back to his place by the fireside, where he stood apparently calm, showing no sign of excitement except in heightened color and the stillness of nervous tension Miriam sank into her chair again.
"Don"t do anything rash," she pleaded. "Wait till to-morrow There will always be time. For G.o.d"s sake!"
If he heard her he paid no attention, and presently Wayne appeared. He hesitated a minute on the threshold, and during that instant Ford could see that he looked ashy and older, as if something had aged him suddenly.
His hands trembled, too, as he felt his way in.
"Good-evening," he said, speaking into the air as blind men do. "I thought I heard your voice."
Having groped his way across the room and reached the table that stood between the arm-chairs Miriam and Ford had occupied, he stopped. He stood there, with fingers drumming soundlessly on the polished wood, waiting for some one to speak.
In spite of the confidence with which he had rung the bell, Ford found it difficult now to begin. It was only after one or two inarticulate attempts that he was able to say anything.
"I asked you to come in, sir," he began, haltingly, "to tell you something very special. Miss Strange knows it already.... If I"ve done wrong in not telling you before ... you"ll see I"m prepared to take my punishment....
My name isn"t Strange ... it isn"t Herbert."
"I know it isn"t."
The words slipped out in a sharp tone, not quite nervous, but thin and worn. Miriam"s att.i.tude grew tense. Ford took a step forward from the fireside. With his arm flung over the back of his chair, and his knee resting on the seat of it, he strained across the table, as if to annihilate the s.p.a.ce between Wayne and himself.
"You _knew_?"
The blind man nodded. When he spoke it was again into the air.
"Yes; I knew. You"re Norrie Ford. I ought to say I"ve only known it latterly--about a fortnight now."
"How?"
"Oh, it just came to me--by degrees, I think."
"Why didn"t you say something about it?"
"I thought I wouldn"t. It has worried me, but I thought I"d keep still."
"Do you mean that you were going to let everything--go on?"
"I weighed all the considerations. That"s the decision I came to. You must understand," he went on to explain, in a voice that was now tremulous as well as thin, "that I"d had you a good deal on my mind, during these past eight years. I sentenced you to death when I almost knew you were innocent. It was my duty. I couldn"t help it. The facts told dead against you. Every one admitted that. True, the evidence might have been twisted to tell against old Gramm and his wife, but they hadn"t been dissipated, and they hadn"t been indicted, and they hadn"t gone round making threats against Chris Ford"s life like you."
"I didn"t mean them. It was nothing but a boy"s rage--"
"Yes, but you made them; and when the old man was found--But I"ll not go into that now. I only want to say that, while I couldn"t acquit you with my intelligence, I felt constrained to do it in my heart, especially when everything was over, and it was too late. The incident has been the one thing in my professional career that I"ve most regretted. I don"t quite blame myself. I had to do my duty. And yet it was a relief to me when you got away. I don"t know that I could have acted differently, but--but I liked you. I"ve gone on liking you. I"ve often thought about you, and wondered what had become of you. And one day--not long ago--as I was going over the old ground once more, I saw I"d been thinking about--_you_.
That"s how it came to me."
"And you were going to remain silent, and let me marry Evie?"
The blind man reflected.
"I saw what was to be said against it. But I weighed all the evidence carefully. You were an injured man; you"d made a great fight and you"d won--as far as one man can win against the world. I came to the conclusion that I wasn"t called on to strike you down a second time, after you"d scrambled up so pluckily. Evie is very dear to me; I don"t say that I should see her married to you without some misgiving; but I decided that you deserved her. It was a great responsibility to take, but I took it and made up my mind to--let her go."
"Oh, you"re a good man! I didn"t think there was such mercy in the world."
Ford flung out the words in a cry that was half a groan and half a shout of triumph. Miriam choked back a sob. The neat little man shrugged his shoulders deprecatingly.
"There"s one thing I should like to ask," he pursued, "among the many that I don"t know anything about, and that I don"t care to inquire into. How did you come by the name of this lady"s father, my old friend Herbert Strange?"
Ford and Miriam exchanged swift glances. She shook her head, and he took his cue.
"I happened to see it in a--a sort of--paper. I had no idea it was that of a real person. I fancied it had come out of a novel--- or something like that. I didn"t mean to keep it, but it got fastened on me."
"Very odd," was his only comment. "Isn"t it, Miriam?
"Now," he _added_, "I suppose you"ve had all you want of me, so I"ll say good-night."
He held out his hand, which Ford grasped, clinched rather, in both his own.
"G.o.d bless you!" Wayne murmured, still tremulously. "G.o.d bless you--my boy, and bring everything out right. Miriam, I suppose you"ll come in and see me before you go to bed."
They watched him shuffle his way out of the room, and watched the door long after he had closed it. When at last Miriam turned her eyes on Ford they were luminous with the relief of her own defeat.
"You see!" she cried, triumphantly. "You see the difference between him and me--between his spirit and mine! Now which of us was right?"
"You were."
XIX