He had not failed her; the final authority still lay with him. Only that knowledge had sustained her during the long night.
The car stopped at her establishment; she came out of her painful abstraction with a slight start, flushed, and looked at him.
“Will you lunch with me, Jim?”
“I think I’ll lunch at the club,” he said, coolly.
“Very well. Will you bring the car around at five?”
“The car will be here for you.”
“And — you?” She tried to smile.
“Probably.”
“Oh! If you have any engagements — —”
“I might make one between now and five,” he said carelessly. “If I do, I’ll come up on the train.”
She had not been prepared for this attitude. But there was nothing to say. He got out and aided her to descend, and took her to the door. His manners were always faultless.
“I hope you will come for me,” she said, almost timidly.
“I hope so,” he said.
And that was all; she offered her hand; he took it, smiled, and replaced his hat after the shop door closed behind her.
Then he went back to the car.
“Drive me to Mrs. Hammerton’s,” he said curtly; got in, and slammed the door.
CHAPTER XVI
A surprised and very doubtful maid admitted him to Mrs. Hammerton’s tiny reception room and took his card; and he fidgeted there impatiently until the maid returned to conduct him.
Mrs. Hammerton sat at coffee in the combination breakfast and dining room of her pretty little apartment. He had never seen her wear glasses, but a pair, presumably hers, was lying across the morning paper on the edge of the table.
Windows behind her threw her face into shadow against the sunlight, and he could not clearly distinguish her features. A canary sang persistently in the sunshine; a friendly cat yawned on the window sill.
“Have some coffee, James?” she asked, without greeting him.
“Thanks, I’ve breakfasted.”
“Very well. There’s a chair.” She motioned dismissal to the maid. “And close the door!” she added curtly.
The maid vanished, closing the door. Aunt Hannah poured more coffee for herself; now she began to browse on toast and bacon.
“Have you seen the papers?” he asked bluntly.
Her eyes snapped fire: “That was a brave thing you did! I never knew any of the Desboros were cowards.”
He looked at her in angry astonishment.
“Well, what do you call it if it isn’t cowardice — to slink off and marry a defenseless girl like that!”
“Did you expect me to give you a chance to destroy me and poison Jacqueline’s mind? If I had been guilty of the thing with which you charge me, what I have done would have been cowardly. Otherwise, it is justified.”
“You have been guilty of enough without that particular thing to rule you out.”
“If,” he said, controlling his anger, “you really were appointed God’s deputy on earth, you’d have to rule out the majority of men who attempt to marry.”
“I’d do it, too,” she remarked.
“Fortunately,” he went on, “your authority for meddling is only self delegated. You once threatened me. You gave me warning like a fair adversary. But even rattlesnakes do that!”
He could see her features more plainly now, having become accustomed to the light; and her scornful expression and the brilliant danger in her beady eyes did not escape him. She darted at a bit of toast and swallowed it.
“So,” he ended calmly, “I merely accepted the warning and acted accordingly — if you call that cowardly.”
“I see. You were much too clever for me. In other words, you forestalled me, didn’t you?”
“Ask yourself, Aunt Hannah.”
“No, I ask you. You did forestall me, didn’t you, Jim?”
“I think it amounts to that.”
“Oh! Then why are you here at this hour of the morning, after your wedding night?”
There was a silence. Presently she put on her glasses and glanced at the paper. When he had his temper and his voice under absolute control again, he said very quietly:
“Somebody is trying to make my wife unhappy. May I ask if it is you?”
“Certainly you may ask, James. Ask as many times as you like.” She continued to scan the paper.
“I do ask,” he insisted.
“‘Why don’t you ask your — wife?’”
She laid aside the paper and took off her glasses:
“Very well; failing to obtain the desired information from me, why don’t you ask your — wife?”
“I have asked her,” he said, in a low voice.
“Oh, I see! Jacqueline also refuses the desired information. So you come to inquire of me. Is that it?”
“Yes, that is it.”
“You go behind your wife’s back — —”
“Don’t talk that way, please.”
“Indeed! Now, listen very attentively, James, because that is exactly the way I am going to talk to you. And I’ll begin by telling you plainly just what you have done. You — and you know what you are — have married clandestinely a young, innocent, inexperienced girl. You, who are not fit to decide the fate of a new-born yellow pup, have assumed the irrevocable responsibility of this girl’s future — arranged it yourself in the teeth of the eternal fitness and decency of things! You, James Desboro, a good-for-nothing idler, irresponsible spendthrift, half bankrupt, without ambition, without a profession, without distinction except that you have good looks and misleading manners and a line of ancestors which would make an Englishman laugh.
“When you did this thing you knew you were not fit to tie her shoes. You knew, too, that those who really love her and who might have shielded her except for this — this treachery, had warned you to keep your distance. You knew more than that; you knew that our little Jacqueline had all her life before her; that for the first time in her brief career the world was opening its arms to her; that she was certain to be popular, sure to be welcomed, respected, liked, loved. You knew that now she was going to have her chance; that men of distinction, of attainment, of lofty ideals and irreproachable private lives — men well to do materially, too — men of wealth, ambitious men, forceful men who count, certainly would seek her, surround her, prefer her, give her what she had a right to have — the society of her intellectual peers — the exercise of a free, untrammeled judgment, and, ultimately, the opportunity to select from among real men the man most worthy of such a woman as she is.”
Mrs. Hammerton laid one shapely hand on the table, fingers clenched, and, half rising, fairly glared at Desboro.
“You have cheated her out of what was her due! You have stolen her future! You have robbed her of a happy and worthy career to link her life with your career — your career — or whatever you call the futile parody on life which men of your sort enact, disgracing God that He knew no more than to create you! And my righteous anger against you is not wholly personal — not because you have swindled me alone — taken from me the only person I have really ever cared for — killed her confidence in me, her tenderness — but because you have cheated her, and the world, too! For she is a rare woman — a rare, sweet woman, James. And that is what you have done to the civilisation that has tolerated you!”
He had risen, astounded; but as her denunciation of him became fiercer, and the concentrated fury in her eyes more deadly, a slightly dazed feeling began to dull his own rage, and he found himself listening as though a mere spectator at the terrible arraignment of another man.
He remained standing. But she had finished; and she was shaking a little when she resumed her chair; and still he stood there, pallid, staring at space. For several minutes neither of them stirred. Finally she said, in a harsh but modified voice:
“I will tell you this much. Since I have known that she is married I have not interfered. On the contrary, I have written her offering her my love, my
sympathy, and my devotion as long as I live. But it is a terrible and wicked thing that you have done. And I can see little chance for her, little hope, and less of happiness — when she fully realises what she has done, and what you have done to her — when she really understands how low she has stooped and to what level she has descended to find the man she has married.”
He merely gazed at her without expression. She shook her head.
“Hers will become a solitary life, intellectually and spiritually. There is nothing in you to mate with it. Only materially are you of the slightest use — and I think I am not mistaken when I say your usefulness even there is pitiably limited, and that what you have to offer her will not particularly attract her. For she is a rare woman, James — a species of being absolutely different from you. And it had been well for you, also, if you had been wise enough to let her alone. High altitudes don’t agree with you; and not even the merry company on Mount Olympus — let alone the graver gathering higher up — are suitable for such as you and your mundane kind.”
He nodded, scarcely conscious of his mechanical acquiescence in what she said. Hat and stick in hand, he moved slowly toward the door. She, watching his departure, said in a lower voice:
“You and I are of the same species. I am no better than you, James. But — she is different. And you and I are capable of recognising that there is a difference. It seems odd, almost ridiculous to find out at this late date that it is not an alliance with fashion, wealth, family, social connections, that can do honour to Jacqueline Nevers, bourgeoise daughter of a French shop-keeper; it is Jacqueline who honours the caste to which, alas, she has not risen, but into which she has descended. God knows how far such a sour and soggy loaf can be leavened by such as she — or what she can do for you! Perhaps — —”
She checked herself and shook her head. He walked back to her, made his adieux mechanically, then went out slowly, like a man in a trance.
Down in the sunny street the car was waiting; he entered and sat there, giving no orders, until the chauffeur, leaning wide from his seat and still holding open the door, ventured to remind him.
“Oh, yes! Then — you may drive me to Mrs. Clydesdale’s.”
But the woman whose big and handsome house was now his destination, had forbidden her servants to disturb her that morning; so when Desboro presented himself, only his card was received at the door.
Elena, in the drawing-room, hearing the bell, had sprung to her feet and stepped into the upper hall to listen.
She heard Desboro’s voice and shivered, heard her butler say that she was not at home, heard the bronze doors clash behind him.
Then, with death in her heart, she went back noiselessly into the drawing-room where Mr. Waudle, who was squatting on a delicate French chair, retaining his seat, coolly awaited a resumption of the interrupted conference. As a matter of fact, he resumed it himself before she was seated on the sofa at his elbow.
“As I was telling you,” he continued, “I’ve got to make a living. Why shouldn’t you help me? We were friends once. You found me amusing enough in the old days — —”
“Until you became impudent!”
“Who provoked me? Women need never fear familiarity unless they encourage it!”
“It was absolutely innocent on my part — —”
“Oh, hell!” he said, disgustedly. “It’s always the man’s fault! When you pull a cat’s tail and the animal scratches, it’s the cat’s fault. All right, then; granted! But the fact remains that if you hadn’t looked sideways at me it never would have entered my head to make any advances to you.” Which was a lie. All men made advances to Elena.
“Leave it so,” she said, with the angry flush deepening in her cheeks.
“Sure, I’ll leave it; but I’m not going to leave you. Not yet, Elena. You owe me something for what you’ve done to me.”
“Oh! Is that the excuse?” she nodded scornfully; but her heart was palpitating with fear, and her lips had become dry again.
He surveyed her insolently under his heavy eyelids.
“Come,” he said, “what are you going to do about it? You are the fortunate one; you have everything — I nothing. And, plainly, I’m sick of it. What are you going to do?”
“Suppose,” she said, steadily, “that I tell my husband what you are doing? Had you considered that possibility?”
“Tell him if you like.”
She shrugged.
“What you are doing is blackmail, isn’t it?” she asked disdainfully.
“Call it what you please,” he said. “Suit yourself, Elena. But there is a bunch of manuscript in the Tattler’s office which goes into print the moment you play any of your catty games on me. Understand?”
She said, very pale: “Will you not tell me — give me some hint about what you have written?”
He laughed: “Better question your own memory, little lady. Maybe it isn’t about you and Desboro at all; maybe it’s something else.”
“There was nothing else.”
“There was — me!”
“You?”
“Sure,” he said cheerfully. “What happened in Philadelphia, if put skillfully before any jury, would finish you.”
“Nothing happened! And you know it!” she exclaimed, revolted.
“But juries — and the public — don’t know. All they can do is to hear the story and then make up their minds. If you choose to let them hear your story — —”
“There was nothing! I did nothing! Nothing — —” she faltered.
“But God knows the facts look ugly,” he retorted, with smirking composure. “You’re a clever girl; ask yourself what you’d think if the facts about you and young Desboro — you and me — were skillfully brought out?”
She sat dumb, frightened, twisting her fingers; then, in the sudden anger born of torture:
“If I am disgraced, what will happen to you!” she flashed out — and knew in the same breath that the woman invariably perishes where the man usually survives; and sat silent and pallid again, her wide eyes restlessly roaming about her as though seeking refuge.
“Also,” he said, “if you sue the Tattler for slander, there’s Munger, you know. He saw us in Philadelphia that night — —”
“What!”
“Certainly. And if a jury learned that you and I were in the same — —”
“I did not dream you were to be in the same hotel — in those rooms — you miserable — —”
“Easy, little lady! Easy, now! Never mind what you did or didn’t dream. You’re up against reality, now. So never mind about me at all. Let that Philadelphia business go; it isn’t essential. I’ve enough to work on without that!”
“‘I do not believe you,’ she said between her teeth”
“I do not believe you,” she said, between her teeth.
“Oh! Are you really going to defy me?”
“Perhaps.”
“I see,” he said, thoughtfully, rising and looking instinctively around. He had the quick, alert side-glance which often characterises lesser adepts in his profession.
Then, half way to the door, he turned on her again:
“Look here, Elena, I’m tired of this! You fix it so that your husband keeps those porcelains, or I’ll go down town now and turn in that manuscript! Come on! Which is it?”
“Go, if you like!”
There ensued a breathless silence; his fat hand was on the door, pushing it already, when a stifled exclamation from her halted him. After a moment he turned warily.
“I’m desperate,” he said. “Pay, or I show you up. Which is it to be?”
“I — how do I know? What proof have I that you can damage me — —”
He came all the way back, moistening his thick lips, for he had played his last card at the door; and, for a second, he supposed that he was beaten.
“Now, see here,” he said, “I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to smash anybody, let alone a woman. But, by God! I’ll do it if you don’t come ac
ross. So make up your mind, Elena.”
She strove to sustain his gaze and he leered at her. Finally he sat down beside her:
“I said I wouldn’t give you any proofs. But I guess I will. I’ll prove to you that I’ve got you good and plenty, little lady. Will that satisfy you?”
“Prove it!” she strove to say; but her lips scarcely obeyed her.
“All right. Do you remember one evening, just before Christmas, when you and your husband had been on the outs?”
She bit her lip in silence.
“Do you?” he insisted.
“Perhaps.”
“All right, so far,” he sneered. “Did he perhaps tell you that he had an appointment at the Kiln Club with a man who was interested in porcelains and jades?”
“No.”
“Well, he did. He had an appointment for that night. I was the man.”
She understood nothing.
“So,” he said, “I waited three hours at the Kiln Club and your husband didn’t show up. Then I telephoned his house. You and he were probably having your family row just then, for the maid said he was there, but was too busy to come to the telephone. So I said that I’d come up to the house in half an hour.”
Still she did not comprehend.
“Wait a bit, little lady,” he continued, with sly enjoyment of his own literary methods. “The climax comes where it belongs, not where you expect it. So now we’ll read you a chapter in which a bitter wind blows heavily, and a solitary taxicab might have been seen outward bound across the wintry wastes of Gotham Town. Get me?”
She merely looked at him.
“In that low, black, rakish taxi,” he went on, “sat an enterprising man bent upon selling to your husband the very porcelains which he subsequently bought. In other words, I sat in that taxi. I stopped in front of this house; I saw you leave the house and go scurrying away like a scared rabbit. And then I went up the steps, rang, was admitted, told to wait in the library. I waited.”
Works of Robert W Chambers Page 663
