Stumbling back as if struck, Harrie leaned against the door-frame,
and the hat in his hand dropped to the floor. Selwyn, too, for a
half-minute drew back, then he came inside and spoke to Etta, and to
me, and to Mrs. Mundy, and to Kitty. Pushing a chair close to the
fire, he took Harrie by the arm and led him to it.
"Sit down," he said, quietly. "You'll be better in a minute."
Harrie had given Etta no sign of recognition, but the horror in his
once-handsome face, now white and drawn, told of his shock at finding
her with me, and fear and recoil weakened him to the point of
faintness. In his effort to recover himself, to resist what might be
coming, he struggled as one for breath, but from him came no word, no
sound.
Infinite pity for Selwyn made it impossible for me to speak for a
moment, and before words would come Mrs. Mundy and Kitty had gone out
of the room and Selwyn had turned to Etta.
With shoulders again drawn back, and eyes dark with fear and
defiance, she looked at him. "Why have you come here?" she asked.
"What are you going to do? You've taken him home and left me to go
back to where he drove me. Isn't that enough? Why have you brought
him here?"
"To ask Miss Heath to say what he must do. That is why I have come."
Pushing the trembling girl in a chair behind Harrie's, Selwyn looked
up at me. "You must decide what is to be done, Dandridge. This is a
matter beyond a man's judgment. I do not seem able to think clearly.
You must tell me what to do."
"I? Oh no! It is not for me. Surely you cannot mean that I must
tell you--" The blood in my body surged thickly, and I drew back,
appalled that such decision should be laid upon me, such
responsibility be mine. "What is it you want--of me?"
"To tell me--what Harrie must do." In Selwyn's face was the
whiteness of death, but his voice was quiet. "I did not know, until
David Guard told me, that there was a child, and that Harrie was its
father, and that because of the child Etta would not go away as I had
tried to make her. I did not know she had no father or brother to
see that, as far as possible, her wrong is righted. I want you to
forget that Harrie is my brother and remember the girl, and tell
me--what he must do."
From the chair in which Harrie sat came a lurching movement, and I
saw his body bend forward, saw his elbows on his knees, his face
buried in his hands, and then I heard a sudden sob, a soft, little
cry that stabbed, and Etta was on the floor beside him, crouching at
his feet, holding his hands to her heart, and uttering broken,
foolish words and begging him to speak to her, to tell her that he
would marry her--that he would marry her and take her away.
"Harrie--oh, Harrie!" Faintly we could hear the words that came
stumblingly. "Could we be married, Harrie, and go away, oh, far
away, where nobody knows? I will work for you--live for you--die for
you, if need be, Harrie! We could be happy. I would try--oh, I
would try so hard to make you happy, and the baby would have a name.
You would not hate her if we were married. She was never to know she
had a mother, she was to think her real mother was dead and that I
was just some one who loved her. But if we were married I would not
have to die to her. Tell me--oh, tell me, Harrie, that we can be
married--and go away--where nobody knows!"
But he would tell her nothing. With twitching shoulders and head
turned from her he tried to draw his hands from those which held his
in piteous appeal, and presently she seemed to understand, and into
her face came a ghastly, shuddering smile, and slowly she got up and
drew a deep breath.
As she stood aside Harrie, with a sudden movement, was on his feet
and at the door. His hand was on the knob and he tried to open the
door, but instantly Selwyn was by him, and with hold none too gentle
he was thrust back into the room.
"You damned coward!" Selwyn's voice was low. "She is the mother of
your child, and you want to quit her; to run, rather than pay your
price! By God! I'll see you dead before you do!"
Again the room grew still. The ticking of the clock and the beat of
raindrops on the windowpanes mingled with the soft purring of the
fire's flames, and each waited, we knew not for what; and then Etta
spoke.
"But you, too, would have to pay--if he were made to pay--the price."
She looked at Selwyn. "It is not fair that you should pay. I will
go away--somewhere. It does not matter about the baby or me. Thank
you, but-- Good-by. I'm going--away."
Before I could reach her, hold her back, she was out of the room and
running down the steps and the front door had closed. Mrs. Mundy
looked up as I leaned over the banister. "It is better to leave her
alone to-day," she said, and I saw that she was crying. "We can see
her to-morrow. She had better be by herself for a while."
Back in the room Selwyn and I looked at each other with white and
troubled faces. We had bungled badly and nothing had been done.
"Come to-morrow night. I must see David Guard, must see Etta again,
before I-- Come to-morrow and I will tell you. I must be sure." I
turned toward Harrie, but he had gone into the hall. Quickly my
hands went out to Selwyn, and for a long moment he held them in his,
then, without speaking, he turned and left me.