"It was exactly as I"m going to tell you, but I don"t think you should call him a scamp. You see, he"s engaged to Evie--"
"He"s not engaged to her now?"
"He is. She means to be true to him. So do we all."
Two little scarlet spots burned in her cheeks, but it was not more in the way of emotion than a warm partisanship on Evie"s account demanded.
"Well, I"m blowed!" He swung one leg across the other, making his chair describe a semicircle.
"Perhaps you won"t be so much--blowed, when you hear all I have to tell you."
"Go ahead; I"m more interested than if it was a dime novel."
As lucidly as she could she gave him the outline of Ford"s romance, dwelling as he had done in relating it to her, less on its incidents than on its mental and moral effect upon himself. She suppressed the narrative of the weeks spent in the cabin and based her report entirely on information received from Ford. For testimony as to his life and character in the Argentine she had the evidence of Miss Jarrott, while on the subject of his business abilities--no small point with a New York business man, as she was astute enough to see--there could be no better authority than Conquest himself, who, as Stephens and Jarrott"s American legal adviser, had had ample opportunity of judging. She was gratified to note that as her story progressed it called forth sympathetic looks, and an occasional appreciative exclamation, while now and then he slapped his thigh as a mark of the kind of amused astonishment that verges on approbation.
"So we couldn"t desert him now, after she"s been so brave, could we?" she pleaded, with some amount of confidence; "and especially when he"s engaged to Evie."
"I suppose we can"t desert him, if he"s sane."
"Oh, he"s sane."
"Then why the deuce, when he was so well out of harm"s way, didn"t he stay there?"
"Because of his love for Evie, don"t you see?" She had to explain Ford"s moral development and psychological state all over again, until he could see it with some measure of comprehension.
"It certainly is the queerest story I ever heard," he declared, in enjoyment of its dramatic elements, "and we"re all in it, aren"t we? It"s like seeing yourself in a play."
"I thought you would look at it in that way. As soon as I began wondering what we could do--this morning--I saw that, after Evie, you were the person most concerned."
"Who? I? Why am I concerned? I"ve got nothing to do with it!"
"No, of course not, except as Stephens and Jarrott"s lawyer. When their representative in New York--"
"Oh, but my dear girl, my duties don"t involve me in anything of this kind. I"m the legal adviser to the firm, but I"ve nothing to do with the private affairs of their employees."
"Mr. Jarrott is very fond of Mr. Strange--"
"Perhaps this will cool his affection."
"I don"t think it will as long as Evie insists on marrying him. I"m sure they mean to stand by him."
"They won"t be able to stand by him long, if the law gives him--what it meant to give him before."
"Oh, but you don"t think there"s any danger of that?"
"I don"t know about it," he said, shaking his head, ominously. "The fact that he comes back and gives himself up isn"t an argument in favor of his innocence. There"s generally remorse behind that dodge."
"Then isn"t that all the more reason why we should help him?"
"Help him? How?"
"By trying to win his case for him."
He looked at her with eyes twinkling while his fingers concealed the smile behind his colorless mustache.
"And how would you propose to set about that?"
"I don"t know, but I suppose you do. There must be ways. He"s leaving as soon as he can for South America. He thinks it may be months before he gets back. I thought that--perhaps--in the mean time--while he won"t be able to do anything for himself--you might see--"
"Yes, yes; go on," he said, as she hesitated.
"You might see if there is any evidence that could be found--that wasn"t found before--isn"t that the way they do it?--and have it ready--for him when he came back."
"For a wedding present."
"It _would_ be a wedding present--to all of us. It would be for Evie"s sake. You know how I love her. She"s the dearest thing to me in the world.
If I could only secure her happiness like that--"
"You mean, if I could secure it."
"You"d be doing it actively, but I should want to co-operate."
"In what way?"
She sat very still. She was sure he understood her by the sudden rigidity of his pose, while his eyes stopped twinkling, and his fingers ceased to travel along the line of his mustache. Her eyes fell before the scrutiny in his, but she lifted them again for one of her quick, wild glances.
"In any way you like."
She tried to make her utterance distinct, matter of fact, not too significant, but she failed. In spite of herself, her words conveyed all their meaning. The brief pause that followed was not less eloquent, nor did it break the spell when Conquest gave a short little laugh that might have been nervous and, changing his posture, leaned forward on his desk and scribbled on the blotting-pad. While he would never have admitted it, it was a relief to him, too, not to be obliged to face her.
He was not shocked, neither was he quite surprised. He was accustomed to the thought that a woman"s love was a thing to purchase. One man bought it from her father for a couple of oxen, another from herself for an establishment and a diamond tiara. It was the same principle in both cases. He had never considered Miriam Strange as being without a price; his difficulty had been in knowing what it was. The establishment and the diamond tiara having proved as indifferent to her as the yoke of oxen, he was thrown back upon the alternative of heroic deeds. He had more than once suspected that these might win her if they had only been in his line.
There being few opportunities for that kind of endeavor as the head of a large and lucrative legal practice, the suggestion only left him cynical.
In the bottom of his heart he had long wished to dazzle, by some act of prowess, the eyes that saw him only as a respectable man of middle age, but the desire had merely mocked him with the kind of derision which impotence gets from youth. It seemed now a stroke of luck which almost merited being termed an act of Providence that there should have come a call for exactly his variety of "derringdo" from the very quarter in which he could make it tell.
"We"ve never gone in for any criminal business here," he said, after long reflection, while he continued to scribble aimlessly, "but, of course, we"re in touch with the people who take it up."
"I thought you might be."
"But it"s only fair to tell you that if your motive is to save time for our friend in question--"
"That _is_ my motive--the only one."
"Then you could get in touch with them, too."
"But I don"t want to."
"Still I think you should consider it. The best legal advice in the world can be--bought--for money."
"I know that."