MR. GILFILLAN IS PUZZLED
Three days passed. The village had recovered from its excitement.
The Weekly Sun appeared with a long and harrowing account of
the "vile attempt to rifle the home of our esteemed and patriotic
citizeness," and sang the praises of Courtney Thane, whose
"well-known valour, acquired by heroic services during the Great
War," prevented what might have been "a most lamentable tragedy."
Those three days were singularly unprofitable to the "hero." He
was unable to see Alix crown. He made daily visits to her home but
always with the same result. Miss Crown was in no condition to see
any one.
"But she saw this fellow Conkling," he expostulated on the third
day. "He sold her a lot of phony oil stock. If she could see him,
I--"
"He came all the way from Chicago to see her,--with a letter from
Mr. Blythe," explained Mrs. Strong. "She had to see him. I guess
you can wait, can't you, Mr. Thane?"
"Certainly. That isn't the point. If I had seen her in time I should
have warned her against buying that stock. She's been let in for
a whale of a loss, that's all I can say,--and it's too late to do
anything about it. Good Lord, if ever a woman needed a man around
the house, she does. She--"
"I will tell her what you say," said Mrs. Strong calmly.
"Don't you do anything of the kind," he exclaimed hastily. "I was
speaking to you as a friend, Mrs. Strong. She means a great deal
to both of us. You understand how it stands with Alix and me, don't
you? I--I would cheerfully lay down my life for her. More than
that, I cannot say or do."
"She will be up by tomorrow," said Mrs. Strong, impressed in spite
of herself by this simple, direct appeal. (All that day she caught
herself wondering if he had cast his spell over her!)
"Please give her my love,--and say that I am thinking about her
every second of the day," said he gravely, and went away.
Alix had received another letter from Addison Blythe. Enclosed with
it was a communication from an official formerly connected with
the American Ambulance. It was brief and to the point:
Courtney Thane volunteered for service in the American Ambulance
in Paris in November, 1915. He was accepted and ordered to appear
at the hospital at Neuilly-sur-Seine for instructions. His conduct
was such that he was dismissed from the service before the expiration
of a week, his uniform taken away from him, and a request made to
the French Military authorities to see that he was ordered to leave
the country at once. Our records show that he left hurriedly for
Spain. He was a bad influence to our boys in Paris, and there was
but one course left open to us. We have no account of his subsequent
movements. With his dismissal from the service, he ceased to be an
object of concern to us.
Alix did not destroy this letter. She locked it away in a drawer
of her desk. She had made up her mind to confront Thane with this
official communication. It was an ordeal she dreaded. Her true
reason for refusing to see him was clear to her if to no one else:
she hated the thought of hurting him! Moreover, she was strangely
oppressed by the fear that she would falter at the crucial moment
and that her half-guarded defences would go down before the assault.
She knew his strength far better than she knew his weakness. She
had had an illuminating example of his power. Was she any stronger
now than on that never-to-be-forgotten night?...She put off the
evil hour.
And on the same third day of renunciation, she had a letter from
David Strong. She wept a little over it, and driven finally by a
restlessness such as she had never known before, feverishly dressed
herself, and set forth late in the afternoon for a long walk in
the open air. She took to the leaf-strewn woodland roads, and there
was a definite goal in mind.
II
Courtney remembered Rosabel Vick.
"I guess I'd better call her up," he said to himself. "I ought
to have done it several days ago. Beastly rotten of me to have
neglected it. She's probably been sitting over there waiting ever
since--Gad, she may; have some good news. Maybe she is mistaken."
He went over to the telephone exchange and called up the Vick house.
Rosabel answered.
"That you, Rosie?...Well, I couldn't. I've been laid up, completely
out of commission ever since I saw you....What?...I--I didn't
get that, Rosie. Speak louder,--closer to the telephone."
Very distinctly now came the words, almost in a wail:
"Oh, Courtney, why--why do you lie to me?"
"Lie to you? My dear girl, do you know what you are--"
A low moan, and a harsh, choking sob smote his ear, and then the
click of the receiver on the hook.
"Well, I'll be hanged!" he muttered angrily. "That's the last time
I'll call you up, take it from me."
And it was the last time he ever called her up.
Then he, too, ravaged by uneasy thoughts, struck off into the
country lanes, the better to commune with himself. In due course,
he came to the gate leading up to the top of Quill's Window. Here
he lagged. His gaze went across the strip of pasture-land to the
deserted house above the main-travelled road. He started. His gaze
grew more intense. A lone figure traversed the highway. It turned
in at the gate, and, as he watched, strode swiftly up the path to
the front door....He saw her bend over, evidently to insert a
key in the lock. Then the door opened and closed behind her.
III
Every word of David's letter was impressed on Alix's brain. Over and
over again she repeated to herself certain passages as she strode
rapidly through the winding lanes. She spoke them tenderly,
wonderingly, and her eyes were shining.
DEAREST ALIX:
I have always loved you. I want you to know it. There has never been
an hour in all these years that I have not thought of you, that your
dear face has not been before me. In France, here, everywhere,--always
I am looking into your eyes, always I am hearing your voice, always
I am feeling the gentle touch of your hand. Now you know. I could
not have told you before. I am the blacksmith's son. God knows I
am not ashamed of that. But I cannot forget, nor can you, that a
blacksmith's son lies buried at the top of that grim old hill, and
that he was not good enough for the daughter of a Windom. I hear
that you have given your heart to some one else. You will marry
him. But to the end of your days,--and I hope they may be many,--I
want you to know that there is one man who will love you with all
his heart and all his soul to the end of HIS days. I hope you will
be happy. It is my greatest, my only wish. Once upon a time, we
stole away, you and I, to write romances of love and adventure. Even
then, you were my heroine. I was putting you into my poor story,
but you were putting your dreams into yours, and I was not your
dream hero. Then we would read to each, other what we had written.
Do you remember how guardedly we read and how stealthy we were so
as not to arouse suspicion or attract attention to our lair? I
shall never forget those happy hours. Every line I wrote and read
to you, Alix dear, was of you and FOR you. You were my heroine.
My hero, feeble creature, told you how much I loved you, and you
never suspected.
I am telling you all this now, when my hope is dead, so that you
may know that my love for you began when you were little more than a
baby, and has endured to this day and will endure forever. I pray
God you may always be happy. And now, in closing, I can only add
the trite sentence,--which I recall reading in more than one novel
and which I was imitative enough to put into my own unfinished
masterpiece: If ever you are in trouble and despair and need me, I
will come to you from the ends of the earth. I mean it, Alix. With
all the best wishes in the world, I am and will remain
Yours devotedly,
DAVID.
P.S.--I have just looked up from this letter to catch sight of
myself in a mirror across the office. I have to smile. That beastly
but honourable glass reveals the true secret of my failure to
captivate you. How could any self-respecting heroine fall in love
with a chap with a nose like mine, and a mouth that was intended
for old Goliath himself, and cheek bones that were handed down
by Tecumseh, and eyes that squint a little--but I daresay that's
because they are somewhat blurred at this particular instant. I am
reminded of the "Yank" who had his nose shot off at Chateau Thierry.
He said that now that the Germans didn't have anything visible to
train their artillery on, the war would soon be over. He had lost
his nose but not his sense of the ridiculous. I have managed to
retain both.
Up in that bare, dust-laden room, with the two candles burning
at her elbows, sat Alix. There were tears in her eyes, a wistful
little smile on her lips. She was reading again the clumsy lines
David had written in those long-ago days of adolescence. Now they
meant something to her. They were stilted, commonplace expressions;
she would have laughed at them had they been written by any one else,
and she still would have been vastly amused, even now, were it not
for the revelations contained in his letter. And the postscript,--how
like him to have added that whimsical twist! He wanted her to smile,
even though his heart was hurt.
Ten years! Ten years ago they had sat opposite each other at this
dusty table, their heads bent to the task, their brows furrowed,
their hands reaching out to the same bottle of ink, their souls
athrill with romance. And she was writing of a handsome, incredibly
valiant hero, whilst he--he was writing of her! Time and again his
hand, in seeking the ink, had touched the hand of his heroine,--she
remembered once jabbing her pen into his less nimble finger as she
went impatiently to the fount of romance, and he had exclaimed with
a grimace: "Gee, you must have struck a snag, Alix!" She recalled
the words as of yesterday, almost as of this very moment, and her
arrogant rejoinder, "Well, why can't you keep your hand out of the
way?"
She was always hurting him, and he was always patient. She was
always sorry, and he was always forgiving. She was superior in her
weakness, he was gentle in his strength.
And his heroine? She read through the mist that filled her eyes
and saw herself. The lofty heroine wooed by the poor and humble
musician who crept up from unutterable depths to worship unseen
at her feet! "The Phantom Singer!" The lover she could not see
because her starry eyes were fixed upon the peak! And yet he stood
beneath her casement window and sang her to sleep, lulled her into
sweet dreams,--and went his lonely way in the chill of the morning
hours, only to return again at nightfall.
She looked up from the sheet she held. She stared, not into space,
but at the face of David Strong, sitting opposite,--the phantom
singer. It was as plain to her as if he were actually there. She
looked into his deep grey eyes, honest and true and smiling.
What was it he said in his letter? About his nose and mouth and
eyes? They were before her now. That keen, boyish face with its
coat of tan,--its broad, whimsical mouth and the white, even teeth
that once on a dare had cracked a walnut for her; its rugged jaw
and the long, straight nose; its wide forehead and the straight
eyebrows; and the thick hair as black as the raven's wing, rumpled
by fingers that strove desperately to encourage a recalcitrant
brain; and those big, bony hands, so large that her little brown
paws were lost in them; and the broad shoulders hunched over the
table, supported by widespread elbows that encroached upon her
allotted space so often that she had to remind him: "I do wish you'd
watch what you're doing," and he would get up and meekly recover
the scattered sheets of paper from the floor. Ugly? David ugly?
Why, he was BEAUTIFUL!
Suddenly her head dropped upon her arms, now resting on David's
manuscript; she sobbed.
"Oh, Davy,--Davy, I wish you were here! I wish you were here now!"
The creaking of the stairs startled her. She half arose and stared
at the open door, expecting to see--the ghost! Goose-flesh crept
out all over her. The ghost that people said came to--
The very corporeal presence of Courtney Thane appeared in the
doorway.
For many seconds she was stupefied. She could see his lips moving,
she knew he was speaking, she could see his smile as he approached,
and yet only an unintelligible mumble came to her ears.
"--and so I cut across the field and ventured in where angels do
not fear to tread," were the first words that possessed any degree
of coherency for her.
She hastily thrust the precious manuscript into the drawer. He
stopped several feet away and looked about the room curiously, his
gaze coming back to her after a moment. The light of the candles
was full on her face.
"Well, of all the queer places," he said. "What in the world brings
you here? I thought no one ever entered this house, Alix."
"I have not been inside this house in ten years," she said, struggling
for control of herself. "I came today to--to look for some papers
that were left here. I was on the point of leaving when you came
up." She picked up her gloves from the table.
"It's cold here. Do you think it was wise for you to sit here in
this chilly--Gad, it's like an ice-house or a tomb. Better let me
give you my coat." He started to remove his overcoat. There was an
anxious, solicitous expression in his eyes.
"No,--no, thank you. I am quite warm,--and I shall be as warm
as toast after I've walked a little way. I must be going now, Mr.
Thane." She took a few steps toward the door.
"Are you going away without blowing the candles out?" he inquired.
She halted. She felt herself trapped. She did not want to be alone
in the dark with him.
"If you will go ahead while there is light, I will follow--" The
solution came suddenly. "How stupid! There is nothing to prevent
us carrying the candles downstairs with us, is there? Will you take
one, please?"
She returned to the table and took up one of the candlesticks.
"I've been terribly worried about you, Alix," he said, without
moving. "How wonderful it is to see you again,--to see what is
really you and not the girl I've seen in dreams for the past few
endless nights. You in the flesh, you with your beautiful eyes, you
whose lips--oh, God, I--I have been nearly mad, Alix. A thousand
times I have felt you in my arms,--you've never been out of them
in my thoughts. I--"
"Please--please!" she cried, shrinking back and putting her hands
to her temples.
Still he did not move. There was a gentleness in his voice, a
softness that disarmed her. It was not the voice of a conqueror,
rather it was that of a suppliant.
"I am not worthy to touch the hem of your garment," he went on, an
expression of pain leaping swiftly to his eyes. "I am most unworthy.
My life has not been perfect. I have done many things that I am
ashamed of, things I would give my soul to recall. But my love for
you, Alix Crown, is perfect. All the good that God ever put into
me is in this feeling I have for you. You are the very soul of me.
If you tell me to go away, I will go. That is how I love you. You
DO believe I love you with all my heart and soul, don't you, Alix?
You DO believe that I would die for you?"
Now she was looking into his eyes across the candle flames. David's
features had vanished. She saw nothing save the white, drawn face
of the man whose voice, sweet with passion, fell upon her ears
like the murmur of far-off music. She felt the warm thrill of blood
rushing back into her icy veins, surging up to her throat, to her
trembling lips, to her eyes.
"I--I don't know what to think--I don't know what to believe," she
heard herself saying.
He came a step or two nearer. Her eyes never left his. She tried
to look away.
"I want you to me mine forever, Alix. I want you to be my wife. I
want you to be with me to the end of my life. I cannot live without
you. Do not send me away now. It is too late."
Her knees gave way. She sank slowly to the bench,--and still she
looked into his gleaming eyes.
He came to her. She was in his arms. His face was close to hers,
his breath was on her cheek....
"No! No!" she almost shrieked, and wrenched herself free. "Not now!
Not here! Give me time--give me time to think!"
She had sprung to her feet and was glaring at him with the eyes of
an animal at bay. He fell back in astonishment.
"You--you had no right to follow me here," she was crying. "You had
no right! This place is sacred. It is sanctuary." Her voice broke.
"My mother was born in this room. She died in this room. And I was
born here. Go! Please go!"
He controlled himself. He held back those words that were on his
tongue, ready to be flung out at her: "Yes, and in this room you
behaved like hell with David Strong!" But he checked them in time.
He lowered his head.
"Forgive me, Alix," he said abjectly. "I--I did not know. I was
wrong to follow you here. I could not help myself. I was mad to
see you. Nothing could have stopped me." He looked up, struck by a
sudden thought. "You call this sanctuary. It is a sacred place to
you. Will you make it sacred to me? Promise here and now, in this
sanctuary of yours, to be my wife, and all my life it shall be the
most sacred spot on earth."
She turned her head quickly to look at David Strong. A startled,
incredulous expression leaped into her eyes. He was not there.
By what magic had he vanished? She had felt his presence. He was
sitting there a moment ago, his tousled head bent down over the pad
of paper,--she was sure of it! Then she realized. A wave of relief
surged over her. He was not there to hear this man making love
to her in the room where he had poured out his soul to her. She
experienced a curious thrill of exultation. David could never take
back those unspoken words of love. She had them safely stored away
in that blessed drawer!
A flush of shame leaped to her cheeks. She could not banish the
notion that he,--honest, devoted David,--had seen her in this man's
arms, clinging to him, giving back his passionate kisses with all
the horrid rapture of a--She stiffened. Her head went up. She faced
the man who had robbed David.
"I cannot marry you," she said quietly. The spell was gone. She
was herself again. "I do not love you."
He stared, speechless, uncomprehending.
"You--you do not love me?" he gasped.
"I do not love you," she repeated deliberately.
"But, good God, you--you couldn't have kissed me as you--"
"Please!"
"--as you did just now," he went on, honestly bewildered. "You put
your arms around my neck,--you kissed me--"
"Stop! Yes, I know I did,--I know I did. But it was not love,--it
was not love! I don't know what it was. You have some dreadful,
appalling power to--Oh, you need not look at me like that! I don't
care THAT for your scorn. Call me a fool, if you like,--call me
ANYTHING you like. It is all one to me now. What's done, is done.
But it can never happen again. I will not even say that I am ashamed,
for in saying so I would be confessing that I was responsible for
my actions. I was not responsible. That is all, Mr. Thane. No
doubt you are sincere in asking me to be your wife. No doubt your
love for me is sincere. I should like to think so--always. It would
help me to forget my own weakness. I am going. I want you to leave
this house before I go, Mr. Thane."
She spoke calmly, evenly, with the utmost self-possession.
"I can't let you go like this, Alix! I can't take this as final.
You--you MUST care for me. How can I think otherwise? In God's
name, what has happened to turn you against me? You owe me more of
an explanation than--"
"You are right," she interrupted. "I do owe you an explanation.
This is not the time or the place to give it. If you will come to
see me tomorrow, I will tell you everything. It is only fair that
you should know. But not now."
"Has some one been lying about me?" he demanded, his eyes narrowing.
She waited an instant before replying.
"No, Mr. Thane," she said; "no one has been lying about you."
He took up his hat from the table.
"I will come tomorrow," he said. At the door he paused to say:
"But I am not going to give you up, Alix. You mean too much to me.
I think I understand. You are frightened. I--I should not have come
here."
"Yes, I WAS frightened," she cried out shrilly. "I was frightened,--but
I am not afraid now."
She had moved to Thane's side of the table, and there she stood
until she heard his footsteps on the little porch outside.
She was in an exalted frame of mind as she hurried from the house.
The short October day had turned to night. For a moment she paused,
peering ahead. A queer little thrill of alarm ran through her. She
had never been afraid of the dark before. But now she shivered.
A great uneasiness assailed her. She listened intently. Far up
the hard gravel road she heard the sound of footsteps, gradually
diminishing. He was far ahead of her and walking rapidly.
At the gate she stopped again. Then she struck out resolutely for
home,--the Phantom Singer was beside her. She was not afraid.
A farm-hand, leaning on the fence at the lower corner of the yard,
scratched his head in perplexity.
"Well, here's a new angle to the case," he mused sourly. "I'm up a
tree for sure. Why the devil should Miss Crown be meeting him out
there in this old deserted house. My word, it begins to look a
trifle spicy. It also begins to look like a case that ought to be
dropped before it gets too hot. I guess it's up to me to see my
dear old Uncle Charlie What's-His-Name."
Whereupon Mr. Gilfillan set off in the wake of the girl who had
employed him to catch the masked invader.