"I couldn"t let you. Remember that. You can"t marry her. Let me say it plainly--"
"Oh, you"ve said it plainly enough."
"If I"ve said it too plainly, it"s because you force me. You"re so wilful."
"You mean, I"m so determined. What it amounts to is the clash of your will against mine; and you refuse to see that I can"t give way."
"I see that you must give way. It"s in the nature of things. It"s inevitable. If I didn"t know that, do you think I should interfere? Do you think I should dare to run the risk of wrecking your happiness if I could do anything else? If you knew how I hate doing anything at all--"
"But you needn"t. You can just let things be."
"I can"t let things be--with all I know; and yet it"s impossible for me to appeal to any one, except yourself. You put me in a position in which I must either betray you or betray those who trust me. Because I can"t do either--"
"I profit by your n.o.ble-mindedness. I told you I would. I"m sorry to have to do it--I"ll even admit that I"m ashamed of it--and yet there"s no other course for me. I"m not taking you at an unfair advantage, because I"ve concealed nothing from you from the first. You talk about the difficulty of your position, but you don"t begin to imagine mine. As if everything else wasn"t gall to me, I"ve got your disapproval to add wormwood."
"It isn"t my disapproval; it"s simply--the situation. My opinion counts for nothing--"
"It counts for everything with me--and yet I have to ignore it. But, after all," he flung out, bitterly, "it"s the old story. I claim the right to squeeze out of life such drops of happiness--if you can call it happiness--as men have left to me, and you deny it. There it is in a nutsh.e.l.l. Because other people have inflicted a great wrong on me, you insist that I shall inflict a greater one on myself. And this time it wouldn"t be only on myself; it would be on poor little Evie. There"s where it cuts. No, no; I shall go on. I"ve the right to do it. You must stop me if you can. If you don"t, or won"t--why, then--"
"I can stop you ... if you drive me to extremes ... but it wouldn"t be by doing ... any of the things you expect."
It was because of the catch in her voice that he stopped in his walk, and confronted her. In spite of the little tremor he could see in her no sign of yielding, and behind her veil he caught a gleam like that of anger. It was at that minute, perhaps, that he became distinctly conscious for the first time of a doubt as to the superiority of "his type of girl."
Notwithstanding the awakening of certain faint perceptions, he had hitherto denied within himself that there was anything higher or more lovely. But in this girl"s unflinching loyalty, and in her tenacious clinging to what she considered right, he was getting a new glimpse of womanhood, which, however, in no way weakened his determination to resist her.
"As far as I see," he said, after long hesitation, "you and I have two irreconcilable duties. My duty is to marry Evie; yours is to prevent me.
In that case there"s nothing for either of us but to forge ahead, and see who wins. If you win, I shall bear no malice; and I hope you"ll be equally generous if I do."
"But I don"t want to win independently of you. If I did, nothing could be easier."
"Then why not do it?"
He tossed up his hand with one of his fatalistic Latin gestures, drawing the attention of the pa.s.sers-by to the man and woman talking so earnestly.
For this reason, and because she was losing her self-command, she hastened to take leave of him.
Arrived at home, it gave her no comfort to find Charles Conquest--the most spick and span of middle-aged New-Yorkers--waiting in the drawing-room.
"I thought you might come in," he explained, "so I stayed. I have to get your signature to the papers about that property in Montreal. I"ve fixed the thing up and we"ll sell."
"You said you"d send the papers--"
"That sounds as if you weren"t glad to see me," he laughed, "but I"ll ignore the discourtesy. Here," he added, unfolding the doc.u.ments, "you put your name there--and there--near the L.S."
She carried the papers to her desk, and sat down to write. Conquest took the liberty of old friendship to stroll about the room, with his hands behind him, humming a little tune.
"Well," he said suddenly, "has he come back?"
He had not approached the subject, beyond alluding to it covertly, since the day she had confided to him the confused story of her hopes. She blotted her signature carefully thinking out her reply.
"I"ve given up expecting him," she said at last.
"Ho! ho! So that"s out of the way."
She pretended to be scanning the doc.u.ments before her so as to be able to sit with her back to him.
"It isn"t, for the reason that there"s--no _way_," she said, after some hesitation.
"Oh yes, there is," he laughed, "where there"s a will."
"But I"ve no will."
"I have; I"ve enough for two."
"I"ll tell you what you have got," she said, half turning and speaking to him over the back of her chair. He drew near her. "You"ve got a great deal of common sense, and I want to ask your advice."
"I can give that, as radium emits light--without ever diminishing the original store."
"Then tell me. Has one ever the right to interfere where a man and a woman--"
"No, never. You needn"t give me any more details, because it"s one of the questions an oracle finds easiest to answer. No one ever thanks you--"
"I shouldn"t be doing it for thanks."
"And you get your own fingers burnt."
"That wouldn"t matter. I"d let my fingers burn to the bone if it would do any good."
"It wouldn"t. You may take my word for it. I know who you"re talking about. It"s Evie Colfax."
She started, looking guilty. "Why should you suppose that?"
"I"ve got eyes. I"ve watched her, and I know she"s a little minx. Oh, you needn"t protest. She"s a taking little minx, and this time she"s in the right."
"I"m afraid I don"t know what you mean."
"What has Billy Merrow got to offer her, even if he is my nephew? Come now! He won"t be in a position to marry for the next two or three years.
Whereas that fellow Strange--"
"Have you heard anything about him?" she asked, breathlessly.
"It isn"t what I"ve heard, it"s what I see. He"s a very good chap, and a first-rate man of business."
"Do you know him well--personally?"
"I meet him around--at the club and other places--and naturally I have something to do with him at the office. I like him. If Evie can snap him up she"ll be doing well for herself. I"m sorry for Billy, of course; but he"ll have time to break his heart more than once before he"ll have money enough to do anything else with it. If I"d married at his age--"
This, however, was venturing on delicate ground, so that he broke off, wheeling round toward the centre of the drawing-room. She folded the doc.u.ments and brought them to him.
"You know why I didn"t send them?" he said, as he took them. "I thought if I came myself, you might have something to tell me."