by Max Brand
27
She qualified her surrender, of course, by sitting on the very edge ofthe chair. She had on a wine-colored dress, and, with the excitementwhipping color into her cheeks and her eyes dancing, Nelly Lebrun was alovely picture.
"I must go at once," said Nelly.
"Of course, I can't expect you to stay."
She dropped one hand on the edge of the table. One would have thoughtthat she was in the very act of rising.
"Do you know that you frighten me?"
"I?" said Donnegan, with appropriate inflection.
"As if I were a man and you were angry."
"But you see?" And he made a gesture with both of his palms turned up."People have slandered me. I am harmless."
"The minute is up, Mr. Donnegan. What is it you wish?"
"Another minute."
"Now you laugh at me."
"No, no!"
"And in the next minute?"
"I hope to persuade you to stay till the third minute."
"Of course, I can't."
"I know; it's impossible."
"Quite." She settled into the chair. "See how people stare at me! Theyremember poor Jack Landis and they think--the whole crowd--"
"A crowd is always foolish. In the meantime, I'm happy."
"You?"
"To be here; to sit close to you; to watch you."
Her glance was like the tip of a rapier, searching him through for someiota of seriousness under this banter.
"Ah?" and Nelly Lebrun laughed.
"Don't you see that I mean it?"
"You can watch me from a distance, Mr. Donnegan."
"May I say a bold thing?"
"You have said several."
"No one can really watch you from a distance."
She canted her head a little to one side; such an encounter of personalquips was a seventh heaven to her.
"That's a riddle, Mr. Donnegan."
"A simple one. The answer is, because there's too much to watch."
He joined her when she laughed, but the laughter of Donnegan made not asound, and he broke in on her mirth suddenly.
"Ah, don't you see I'm serious?"
Her glance flicked on either side, as though she feared someone mighthave read his lips.
"Not a soul can hear me," murmured Donnegan, "and I'm going to be bolderstill, and tell you the truth."
"It's the last thing I dare stay to hear."
"You are too lovely to watch from a distance, Nelly Lebrun."
He was so direct that even Nelly Lebrun, expert in flirtations, wasgiven pause, and became sober. She shook her head and raised acautioning finger. But Donnegan was not shaken.
"Because there is a glamour about a beautiful girl," he said gravely."One has to step into the halo to see her, to know her. Are youcontented to look at a flower from a distance? That's an old comparison,isn't it? But there is something like a fragrance about you, NellyLebrun. Don't be afraid. No one can hear; no one shall ever dream I'vesaid such bold things to you. In the meantime, we have a truth party.There is a fragrance, I say. It must be breathed. There is a glow whichmust touch one. As it touches me now, you see?"
Indeed, there was a faint color in his cheeks. And the girl flushed moredeeply; her eyes were still bright, but they no longer sharpened to sucha penetrating point. She was believing at least a little part of what hesaid, and her disbelief only heightened her joy in what was real in thisstrangest of lovemakings.
"I shall stay here to learn one thing," she said. "What deviltry isbehind all this talk, Mr. Donnegan?"
"Is that fair to me? Besides, I only follow a beaten trail in TheCorner."
"And that?"
"Toward Nelly Lebrun."
"A beaten trail? You?" she cried, with just a touch of anger. "I'm not achild, Mr. Donnegan!"
"You are not; and that's why I am frank."
"You have done all these things--following this trail you speak of?"
"Remember," said Donnegan soberly. "What have I done?"
"Shot down two men; played like an actor on a stage a couple of times atleast, if I must be blunt; hunted danger like--like a reckless madman;dared all The Corner to cross you; flaunted the red rag in the face ofthe bull. Those are a few things you have done, sir! And all on onetrail? That trail you spoke of?"
"Nelly Lebrun--"
"I'm listening; and do you know I'm persuading myself to believe you?"
"It's because you feel the truth before I speak it. Truth speaks foritself, you know."
"I have closed my eyes--you see? I have stepped into a masquerade. Nowyou can talk."
"Masquerades are exciting," murmured Donnegan.
"And they are sometimes beautiful."
"But this sober truth of mine--"
"Well?"
"I came here unknown--and I saw you, Nelly Lebrun."
He paused; she was looking a little past him.
"I came in rags; no friends; no following. And I saw that I should haveto make you notice me."
"And why? No, I shouldn't have asked that."
"You shouldn't ask that," agreed Donnegan. "But I saw you the queen ofThe Corner, worshiped by all men. What could I do? I am not rich. I amnot big. You see?"
He drew her attention to his smallness with a flush which never failedto touch the face of Donnegan when he thought of his size; and he seemedto swell and grow greater in the very instant she glanced at him.
"What could I do? One thing; fight. I have fought. I fought to get theeye of The Corner, but most of all to attract your attention. I camecloser to you. I saw that one man blocked the way--mostly. I decided tobrush him aside. How?"
"By fighting?" She had not been carried away by his argument. She waswatching him like a lynx every moment.
"Not by that. By bluffing. You see, I was not fool enough to think thatyou would--particularly notice a fighting bully."
He laid his open hand on the table. It was like exposing both strengthand weakness; and into such a trap it would have been a singularlyhard-minded woman who might not have stepped. Nelly Lebrun leaned alittle closer. She forgot to criticize.
"It was bluff. I saw that Landis was big and good-looking. And what wasI beside him? Nothing. I could only hope that he was hollow; yellow--yousee? So I tried the bluff. You know about it. The clock, and all thatclaptrap. But Landis wasn't yellow. He didn't crumble. He lasted longenough to call my bluff, and I had to shoot in self-defense. And then,when he lay on the floor, I saw that I had failed."
"Failed?"
He lowered his eyes for fear that she would catch the glitter of them.
"I knew that you would hate me for what I had done because I had onlyproved that Landis was a brave youngster with enough nerve for nine outof ten. And I came tonight--to ask you to forgive me. No, not that--onlyto ask you to understand. Do you?"
He raised his glance suddenly at that, and their eyes met with one ofthese electric shocks which will go tingling through two people. Andwhen the lips of Nelly Lebrun parted a little, he knew that she was inthe trap. He closed his hand that lay on the table--curling the fingersslowly. In that way he expressed all his exultation.
"There is something wrong," said the girl, in a tone of one who argueswith herself. "It's all too logical to be real."
"Ah?"
"Was that your only reason for fighting Jack Landis?"
"Do I have to confess even that?"
She smiled in the triumph of her penetration, but it was a brief,unhappy smile. One might have thought that she would have been glad tobe deceived.
"I came to serve a girl who was unhappy," said Donnegan. "Her fiance hadleft her; her fiance was Jack Landis. And she's now in a hut up the hillwaiting for him. And I thought that if I ruined him in your eyes he'd goback to a girl who wouldn't care so much about bravery. Who'd forgivehim for having left her. But you see what a fool I was and how clumsilyI worked? My bluff failed, and I only wounded him, put him in yourhouse, under your care, where he'll be happiest, and where there'llneve
r be a chance for this girl to get him back."
Nelly Lebrun, with her folded hands under her chin, studied him.
"Mr. Donnegan," she said, "I wish I knew whether you are the mostchivalrous, self-sacrificing of men, or simply the most gorgeous liar inthe desert."
"And it's hardly fair," said Donnegan, "to expect me to tell you that."
