"Oh, no, that"s not necessary," she replied, walking on. "There are the stairs...."
The young man fell in behind her.
"The old house is really quite bewildering, upstairs. It happened that my office was the only place available. Perhaps you will let me show you--"
"Oh, I don"t think I need trouble you, thank you."
"It is no trouble," said V. Vivian.
Good sentences these, and well p.r.o.nounced. With them, conversation seemed to languish. The processional pair moved across the shadowy court in entire silence. The benevolent lady led, never so securely entrenched in the victorious order, the beloved of prodigal Hugo Canning, to whom no harm should befall. After her proceeded the slum doctor: the hard marble betrayed the inequality of his footsteps. A minute more and they would be upstairs, swallowed and dispersed in the publicity of the meeting. Floor and ceiling above them brought down the sounds of a company near at hand, the sc.r.a.ping of a chair-leg, the m.u.f.fled echo of voices. Carlisle"s foot trod upon the bottom step of the broad stairway.
"I wonder if you would give me five minutes after the meeting, Miss Heth?" said the young man"s voice behind her. "There"s a--a matter I"ve wanted very much to speak to you about."
Cally"s heart seemed to jump a little.
"What is it that you want to speak to me about?" she asked coolly, not turning. And, to her own surprise, she brought her other foot up on the stair.
"Well, it concerns the Works," said Vivian.
And he added at once, hastily: "Oh, nothing that you need object to at all, I hope. Not at all...."
She had stopped short at the fighting-word, and turned, pink-cheeked.
Certes, there was a point at which _n.o.blesse oblige_ becomes mere flabby spinelessness.
And upstairs Mrs. Heth, complacent right up at the front, craned round her neck, and thought that Cally was very long in coming....
"Yes? What about the Works?" said Cally, her breath quickening.
"Oh, I don"t mean to detain you now, of course--"
"But now that you have detained me?" she pursued, with no great polish of courtesy.
The young man raised a hand and pushed back his hair, which was short but wavy. It was observed that he wore, doubtless in memory of his uncle, a mourning tie of grosgrain silk, replacing the piquant aquarium scene.
"I could hardly explain it all in just a few sentences," said he, affecting reluctance, "and I--certainly don"t want to give you a wrong impression.... To begin quite at the end, I"ve been wondering if I--I might be allowed to make one or two small improvements there, at the Works, I mean,--in fact, out of a--a sort of fund I have."
Carlisle stared at him spellbound. She stood on the bottom step of the old grand stairway, one gloved hand on the bal.u.s.trade; and, as she so stood, her eyes just came on a level with those of the tall doctor. His hare-brained audacity almost took her breath away.
"Oh," said she. "Out of a fund you have."
And she thought wildly of accepting his offer at once, compelling him to name a definite sum, just for the fun of seeing how he would wriggle out of it afterwards.
"I"m tremendously interested in the Works, you know," the man rushed on, quite as if he found encouragement in her reply, "because I have so many friends who work there. It"s to gratify my peace of mind, just to know that they have--everything they need. As I say, I happen to--to have a sort of fund--a little public fund, you might say--for--for purposes of the kind. And the idea of outside cooperation in such a matter is a perfectly sound one, as you doubtless know, a--a sound, advanced socialistic idea. It"s simply the community acknowledging some responsibility where it already claims the right to regulate ..."
At this point her stare seemed to penetrate him with a doubt, and he said, with the air of having skipped hastily and turned back:
"I mustn"t detain you now to give the full argument, of course, but I a.s.sure you the idea is sound and--mutually beneficial, as I believe.
Unfortunately," he added, with a certain embarra.s.sment, "I don"t know your father."
"Tell me," said Carlisle, feeling an excitement mounting within her, "how is it that you are always thinking up these plans for doing good to other people?"
Before Dr. Vivian could meet this poser, the front door opened with a bang, and a youngish man in a wet yellow raincoat came striding rapidly across the court toward them. He was a powerfully built man with a blue-tinged chin, and wore the air of a person of authority.
"Meeting not begun yet?" he demanded, without salutation, apparently addressing Carlisle. "Thought I was late."
"Ah, Mr. Pond--glad to see you," said Vivian, stepping forward a little to meet the newcomer. "They"ve just begun--you"ll find an ovation waiting for you."
"In your office? Aren"t you going up, to lead the applause?"
The doctor bowed gravely. "In my office. I"ll join you directly."
"I see," said the man, nodding, having never checked his stride.
But all that he had seemed to see with his keen black eyes was the lovely girl posed on the last step of the ornamental stairway. He almost brushed against her as he strode by.
The Pond person"s footsteps diminished up the long stairs. A moment later a volley of hand-clapping, sounding very near, indicated his arrival in the meeting-room. But his interruption and his irritating stare had accomplished no mollifying purpose down in the court. But one end, indeed, could justify the proud Miss Heth in lingering in a public hall with the slanderer of herself and her family.
"Doesn"t it occur to you," she said, hardly waiting for the intruder to get out of earshot, "that so much preaching about other people"s business seems rather--odd, coming from you?"
Dr. Vivian now affected to look troubled.
"There was just that difficulty," said he, slowly, "that you might think I was preaching. I"m not, this time, really--"
"Don"t you know perfectly well you only said that in a--a horrid way to try to make me feel uncomfortable?"
She paused for a reply; her excitement was growing. Her figure was enveloped in a slim raincoat of fine gray; she wore a yellow straw hat of an intriguing shape, and over it a white veil closely drawn to keep the wet wind from her face. Now and then, as her eyes moved, a descending black-and-gold eyelash became entangled with this veil; that occurrence, in fact, took place at this precise moment, creating an emergency situation of some consequence. It was a matter of considerable public interest to see how it would all work out. However, the girl merely raised an indifferent hand, and plucked the veil out a little.
The man V.V. looked hurriedly away.
He was saying: "I a.s.sure you I meant nothing of the kind. However, doubtless it"s natural that you should think so--"
"It seems _very_ natural to me--especially here in the new Settlement building!... What about the _parable of the rich young man now_?"
He stood looking at her without a reply; one of his quaint looks, it was.
However, Carlisle knew positively that he did not want to improve the Works out of any fund he pretended to have, and was resolved to show him no mercy now. She had really meant to spare him, and he, mistaking magnanimity for weakness, had said what he had said. On his head be it: his deceptive trusting look should not save him now.
"Why don"t you say something?" she demanded.
The young man gave an embarra.s.sed laugh.
"Well, to tell the honest truth, I don"t seem to think of anything to say--"
"Oh!... So the Settlement suggests _nothing_ to you--as to picking the beam from your own eye?"
"Not at this moment, I think. In fact, I don"t seem to grasp at all--"
"_Oh!_" said Cally, with a little gasp.
And then, stung on by his reckless hardihood, she struck to kill: