"Glad of it! Oh, if you knew how it makes me feel about myself! But you don"t, or you"d never be here now."
"Why shouldn"t I be here now?" He spoke slowly, as though he were himself searching for any sound reason.
"Oh, it"s----" The power of explanation failed her. People who will not see obvious things sometimes hold a very strong position. Janie began to feel rather helpless. "Do go. I don"t want anybody to come and find you here." She had turned from command to entreaty.
"I"m jolly glad," he resumed, settling himself back in his chair, "that the business between you and Harry Tristram"s all over. It ought never to have gone so far, you know."
"Are you out of your mind to-day, Bob?"
"And now, what about the Major, Miss Janie?"
She flushed red in indignation, perhaps in guilt too. "How dare you?
You"ve no business to----"
"I don"t know the right way to say things, I dare say," he admitted, but with an abominable tranquillity. "Still I expect you know what I mean all the same."
"Do you accuse me of having encouraged Major Duplay?"
"I should say you"d been pretty pleasant to him. But it"s not my business to worry myself about Duplay."
"I wish you always understood as well what isn"t your business."
"And it isn"t what you have done but what you"re going to do that I"m interested in." He paused several moments and then went on very slowly, "I tell you what it is. I"m not very proud of myself. So if you happen to be feeling the same, why that"s all right, Miss Janie. The fact is, I let Harry Tristram put me in a funk, you know. He was a swell, and he"s got a sort of way about him too. But I"m hanged if I"m going to be in a funk of Duplay." He seemed to ask her approval of the proposed firmness of his att.i.tude. "I"ve been a bit of an a.s.s about it all, I think," he concluded with an air of thoughtful inquiry.
The opening was irresistible. Janie seized it with impetuous carelessness. "Yes, you have, you have indeed. Only I don"t see why you think it"s over, I"m sure."
"Well, I"m glad you agree with me," said he. But he seemed now rather uncertain how he ought to go on. "That"s what I wanted to say," he added, and looked at her as if he thought she might give him a lead.
The whole thing was preposterous; Janie was bewildered. He had outraged all decency in coming at such a moment and in talking like this. Then having got (by such utter disregard of all decency) to a point at which he could not possibly stop, he stopped! He even appeared to ask her to go on for him! She stood still in the middle of the room, looking at him as he sat squarely in his chair.
"Since you"ve said what you wanted to say, I should think you might go."
"Yes, I suppose I might, but----" He was puzzled. He had said what he wanted to say, or thought he had, but it had failed to produce the situation he had antic.i.p.ated from it. If he went now, leaving matters just as they stood, could he be confident that the spoke was in the wheel? Up to now nothing was really agreed upon except that he himself had been an a.s.s. No doubt this was a pregnant conclusion, but Bob was not quite clear exactly how much it involved; while it encouraged him, it left him still doubtful. "But don"t you think you might tell me what you think about it?" he asked in the end.
"I think I"m not fit to live," cried Janie. "That"s what I think about it, Bob." Her voice trembled; she was afraid she might cry soon if something did not happen to relieve the strain of this interview. "And you saw what Harry thought by his sending me that letter. The very moment it happened, he sent me that letter!"
"I saw what he thought pretty well, anyhow," said Bob, smiling reflectively again.
"Oh, yes, if that makes it any better for me!"
"Well, if he"s not miserable, I don"t see why you need be."
"The things you don"t see would fill an encyclopaedia!"
Bob looked at his watch; the action seemed in the nature of an ultimatum; his glance from the watch to Janie heightened the impression.
"You"ve nothing more to say?" he asked her.
"No. I agreed with what you said--that you"d been--an a.s.s. I don"t know that you"ve said anything else."
"All right." He got up and came to her, holding out his hand. "Good-by for the present, then."
She took his hand--and she held it. She could not let it go. Bob allowed it to lie in hers.
"Oh, dear old Bob, I"m so miserable; I hate myself for having done it, and I hate myself worse for being so glad it"s undone. It did seem best till I did it. No, I suppose I really wanted the t.i.tle and--and all that. I do hate myself! And now--the very same day--I let you----"
"You haven"t let me do much," he suggested consolingly.
"Yes, I have. At least----" She came a little nearer to him. He took hold of her other hand. He drew her to him and held her in his arms.
"That"s all right," he remarked, still in tones of consolation.
"If anybody knew this! You won"t say a word, will you, Bob? Not for ever so long? You will pretend it was ever so long before I--I mean, between----?"
"I"ll tell any lie," said Bob very cheerfully.
She laughed hysterically. "Because I should never be able to look people in the face if anybody knew that on the very same day----"
"I should think a--a week would be about right?"
"A week! No, no. Six months."
"Oh, six months be----"
"Well then, three? Do agree to three."
"We"ll think about three. Still miserable, Janie?"
"Yes, still--rather. Now you must go. Fancy if anybody came!"
"All right, I"ll go. But, I say, you might just drop a hint to the Major."
"I can"t send him another message that I"m--that I"ve done it again!"
She drew a little away from him. Bob"s hearty laugh rang out; his latent sense of humor was touched at the idea of this second communication to the Major. For a moment Janie looked angry, for a moment deeply hurt.
Bob laughed still. There was nothing for it but to join in. Her own laugh rang out gayly as he caught her in his arms again and kissed her.
"Oh, if anybody knew!" sighed Janie.
But Bob was full of triumph. The task was done, the spoke was in the wheel. There was an end of the Major as well as of Harry--and an end to his own long and not very hopeful waiting. He kissed his love again.
There was a sudden end to the scene too--startling and sudden. The door of the room opened abruptly, and in the doorway stood Mrs Iver. Little need to dilate on the situation as it appeared to Mrs Iver! Had she known the truth, the thing was bad enough. But she knew nothing of Harry Tristram"s letter. After a moment of consternation Janie ran to her, crying,
"I"m not engaged any more to Harry Tristram, mother!"
Mrs Iver said nothing. She stood by the open door. There was no mistaking her meaning. With a shame-faced bow, struggling with an unruly smile, Bob Broadley got through it somehow. Janie was left alone with Mrs Iver.
Such occurrences as these are very deplorable. Almost of necessity they impair a daughter"s proper position of superiority and put her in a relation toward her mother which no self-respecting young woman would desire to occupy. It might be weeks before Janie Iver could really a.s.sert her dignity again. It was strong proof of her affection for Bob Broadley that, considering the matter in her own room (she had not been exactly sent there, but a retreat had seemed advisable) she came to the conclusion that, taking good and bad together, she was on the whole glad that he had called.