"Is old Mr. Wright worse?" Martha called downstairs, when the doctor
let himself in at midnight.
"No."
"Well, where on earth have you been?" Mrs. King demanded. She was
leaning over the banisters in her gray flannel dressing-gown, her
candle in its hooded candlestick, throwing a flickering light on her
square, anxious face.
William, locking the front door, made no answer. Martha hesitated, and
then came down-stairs.
"I must say, William, flatly and frankly, that you--" she paused. "You
look tired out, Willy?"
William, fumbling with the guard-chain, was silent.
"Come into the dining-room and I'll get you something to eat," said his
wife.
"I don't want anything to eat."
Martha glanced at him keenly. His face was white and haggard, and
though he looked at her, he did not seem to see her; when she said
again something about food, he made no answer. "Why, William!" she said
in a frightened voice. Then with quick common sense, she put her alarm
behind her. "Come up-stairs, and go to bed. A good night's sleep will
make a new man of you." And in a sort of cheerful silence, she pushed
him along in front of her. She asked no more questions, but just as he
got into bed she brought him a steaming tumbler of whiskey and water.
"I guess you have taken a little cold, my dear," she said.
William looked at her dumbly; then realizing that there was no escape,
drank his whiskey, while Martha, her candle in one capable hand, waited
to make sure that he drained the last drop. When he gave the glass back
to her, she touched his shoulder gently and bade him go to sleep. As
she turned away, he caught that capable hand and held it in both of his
for a moment.
"Martha," he said, "I beg your pardon."
"Oh, well," said Martha, "of course, a doctor often has to be out late.
If you only don't come down with a cold on your lungs, it's all right."
"I sha'n't come down with a cold on my lungs," said William King.
The letter Helena wrote Lloyd Pryor after she had picked herself up,
sobbing, from the floor, had no diplomacy about it. Things had
happened; she would not go into them now, she said, but things had
happened which made her feel that she must accept his offer to carry
out their original plan. "When I got your letter, last week, I did
hesitate," she wrote, "because I could not help seeing that you did not
feel about it as you used to. But I can't hesitate any longer. I must
ask you--"
Lloyd Pryor read as far as that, and set his teeth. "Lloyd, my friend,"
he said aloud, "it appears you have got to pay the piper."
Swearing quietly to himself he tore the letter into many small pieces,
and threw them into the fire. "Well," he said grimly, "I have never
repudiated yet, but I propose to claim my ninety days,--if I can't
squeeze out of it before that!" He sat a long time in his inner office,
thinking the thing over: if it had to be, if the piper was inexorable,
if he could not squeeze out, how should he safeguard Alice? Of course,
a girl of nineteen is bound to resent her father's second marriage; her
annoyance and little tempers Lloyd Pryor could put up with, if only she
need never know the truth. But how should the truth be covered? They
could all three go to Europe for a year. If there was going to be any
gossip--and really the chance of gossip was rather remote; very few
people had known anything about Frederick Richie or his affairs, and
Helena had absolutely no relatives,--but if they went to Europe for a
year, any nine days' wonder would have subsided before they got back.
As for the offensiveness of presenting Helena to his daughter as a
stepmother, Pryor winced, but admitted with a cold impartiality, that
she was not intrinsically objectionable. It was only the idea which was
unpleasant. In fact, if things were not as they were, she would make an
admirable stepmother--"and she is good-looking still," he thought, with
an effort to console himself, But, of course, if he could squeeze out
of it--And so his answer to Helena's letter was a telegram to say he
was coming to Old Chester.
William King, driving down the hill in the October dusk, had a glimpse
of him as the stage pulled up at the gate of the Stuffed Animal House,
and the doctor's face grew dully red. He had not seen Helena since that
black, illuminating night; he had not seen Dr. Lavendar; he had
scarcely seen his own wife. He devoted himself to his patients, who, it
appeared, lived back among the hills. At any rate, he was away from
home from morning until night. William had many things to face in those
long drives out into the country, but the mean self-consciousness that
he had been fooled was not among them. A larger matter than
mortification held him in its solemn grip. On his way home, in the
chill October twilights, he usually stopped at Mr. Benjamin Wright's.
But he never drew rein at the green gate in the hedge; as he was
passing it the night that Pryor arrived, he had to turn aside to let
the stage draw up. A man clambered out, and in the dull flash of the
stage lanterns, William saw his face.
"Lloyd?" some one said, in a low voice; it was Mrs. Richie, waiting for
him inside the gate. William King's face quivered in the darkness.
"That you, Nelly?" Mr. Pryor said;--"no, no; I'll carry my own bag,
thank you. Did a hamper come down on the morning stage? Good! We'll
have something to eat. I hope you haven't got a sick cook this time.
Well, how are you?"
He kissed her, and put his arm around her; then withdrew it, reminding
himself not to be a fool. Yet she was alluring! If only she would be
sensible, there was no reason why things should not be as pleasant as
ever. If she obliged him to pay the piper, Lloyd Pryor was coldly aware
that things would never be pleasant again.
"So many dreadful things have happened!" she burst out; but checked
herself and asked about his journey; "and--and Alice?"
"Oh, pleasant enough, rather chilly. She's well, thank you." And then
they were at the door, and in the bustle of coming in, and taking off
his coat, and saying "Hullo, David! Where's your sling?" disagreeable
topics were postponed. But in the short twilight before the parlor
fire, and at the supper-table, the easy commonplaces of conversation
tingled with the consciousness of the inevitable reappearance of those
same topics. Once, at the table, he looked at her with a frown.
"What's the matter, Nelly? You look old! Have you been sick?"
"Things have happened," she said with an effort; "I've been worried."
"What things?" he said; but before she could reply, Sarah came in with
hot waffles, and the subject was dropped.
"You need more cinnamon with this sugar," Mr. Pryor said with
annoyance. And Helena, flushing with anxiety, told the woman to add
some cinnamon at once. "Oh, never mind now," he said.--"But you ought
to look out for things like that," he added when Sarah had left the
room. And Helena said quickly, that she would; she was so sorry!
"Dr. Lavendar," David announced, "he won't let you say you don't like
things. He says it ain't polite. But I don't like--"
"Dry up! dry up!" Mr. Pryor said irritably; "Helena, this young man
talks too much."
Helena whispered to David to be quiet. She had already arranged with
him that he was not to come into the parlor after supper, which was an
agreeable surprise to him; "For, you know, I don't like your brother,"
he said, "nor neither does Danny." Helena was too absorbed to
remonstrate; she did, however, remember to tell Mr. Pryor that David
had asked if she was coming up to hear him say his prayers.
"I told him I couldn't to-night; and what do you suppose he said? He
said, 'Does God like ladies better than gentlemen? I do.'"
It made him laugh, as she had hoped it would. "I fancy that is a
reflection upon me," he said. "The young man has never liked me." And
when he had clipped off the end of his cigar and struck a match under
the mantelpiece, he added, "So you hear him say his prayers? I didn't
know you were so religiously inclined."
"I'm not religiously inclined; but, of course, one has to teach a child
to say his prayers."
"Oh, I don't object to religion," Mr. Pryor assured her; "in fact, I
like it--"
"In other people?" she interrupted gayly.
"Well, yes; in other people. At any rate in your charming sex. Alice is
very religious. And I like it very much. In fact, I have a good deal of
feeling about it. I wouldn't do anything to--to shock her, you know. I
really am perfectly sincere about that, Helena."
He was sincere; he looked at her with an anxiety that for once was
quite simple.
"That's why I wrote you as I did about the future. I am greatly
embarrassed about Alice."
She caught her breath at the suddenness of his reference, but she knew
him well enough not to be much surprised. If a disagreeable topic was
to be discussed, the sooner it was taken up and disposed of, the
better. That was Lloyd's way.
"Of course," he went on, "if Alice knew of our--ah, acquaintance, it
would shock her. It would shock her very much." He paused. "Alice's
great charm is her absolute innocence," he added thoughtfully.
That comment was like a blow in the face. Helena caught her breath with
the shock of it. But she could not stop to analyze its peculiar terror.
"Alice needn't know," she began--but he made an impatient gesture.
"If we married, it would certainly come out."
He was standing with his back to the fire, one hand in his pocket, the
other holding his cigar; he blew three smoke rings, and smiled. "Will
you let me off, Nelly?"
"I know you don't love me," she broke out passionately--
"Oh, now, Helena, not a scene, please! My dear, I love you as much as
ever. You are a charming woman, and I greatly value your friendship.
But I can love you just as much, not to say more, if you are here in
your own house in Old Chester, instead of being in my house in
Philadelphia. Why, it would be like sitting on a volcano!"
"I cannot stay in Old Chester any longer," she said; "dreadful things
have happened, and--"
"What things? You said that before. Do explain these mysterious
allusions."
"Mr., Wright's son," she began--and then her voice broke. But she told
him as well as she could.
Mr. Pryor gave a frowning whistle. "Shocking! Poor Nelly!"
"You see, I must go away," she said, wringing her hands; "I can't bear
it!"
"But, my dear," he protested, "it wasn't your fault. You were not to
blame because a rash boy--" Then a thought struck him, "but how the
devil did he discover--?"
When Helena explained that she supposed old Mr. Wright had told his
grandson, Pryor's anger broke out: "He knew? How did _he_ find out?"
Helena shook her head; she had never understood that, she said. Lloyd's
anger always confused her, and when he demanded furiously why she had
not told him about the old fool--"he'll blazon the whole thing!"--she
protested, quivering, that Mr. Wright would not do that.
"I meant to tell you, but I--I forgot it. And anyway, I knew he
wouldn't; he said he wouldn't; besides, he had a stroke when he heard
about Sam, and he hasn't spoken since. And Dr. King--" she winced--"Dr.
King says it's the beginning of the end."
"Thank God!" Lloyd said profoundly relieved. He stood frowning for a
minute, then shrugged his shoulders, "Well, of course, that settles it;
you can't stay here; there's no question about that. But there's a very
pleasant little town, on the other side of Mercer, and--"
"It isn't just the going away," she broke in; "it's being different
from people. I never thought about it before; I never really minded.
But now, I can't help seeing that if you are--different, I mean just to
please yourself, you know, it--it hurts other people, somehow. Oh, I
can't explain," she said, incoherently, "and I don't want to trouble
you, or talk about right and wrong, and religion, and--that sort of
thing--"
"No; please don't," he said, dryly.
"But you promised--you promised!"
"I promised," he said, "and I have a prejudice in favor of keeping my
word. Religion, as you call it, has nothing to do with it. I will marry
you; I told you so when I wrote to you. But I felt that if I put the
matter before you, and told you how difficult the situation was, and
appealed to your generosity, for Alice's sake--"
"I appeal to _your_ generosity!--for the sake of other people. It isn't
only Alice who would be shocked, if it was found out. Lloyd, I don't
insist on living with you. Keep the marriage a secret, if you want to;
only, I must, I must be married!" She got up and came and stood beside
him, laying her hands on his arm, and lifting her trembling face to
his; he frowned, and shrugged her hands away.
"Go and sit down, Nelly. Don't get excited. I told you that I had a
prejudice in favor of keeping my word."
She drew back and sat down on the sofa, cowering a little in the
corner. "Do you suppose I have no pride?" she breathed. "Do you suppose
it is easy for me to--_urge?_" He saw her fingers tremble as, with
elaborate self-control, she pleated the crimson silk of her skirt in
little folds across her knee. For a moment they were both silent.
"Secrecy wouldn't do," he said, "To get married, and not tell, is only
whipping Satan round the stump as far as Alice is concerned. Ultimately
it would make double explanations. The marriage would come out,
somehow, and then the very natural question would be: 'Why the devil
were they married secretly?' No; you can't keep those things hidden.
And as for Alice, if she didn't think anything else, she'd think I had
fibbed to her. And that would nearly kill her; she has a perfect mania
about truth! You see, it leads up to the same thing: Alice's discovery
that I have been--like most men. No; if it's got to be, it shall be
open and aboveboard."
She gasped with relief; his look of cold annoyance meant, just for the
moment, nothing at all.
"I shall tell her that I have met a lady with whom I was in love a long
time ago--"
"_Was_ in love? Oh, Lloyd!" she broke in with a cry of pain; at which
intrusion of sentimentality Lloyd Pryor said with ferocity: "What's
that got to do with it? I'm going to pay the piper! I'll tell Alice
that or any other damned thing I please. I'll tell her I'm going to be
married in two or three months; I shall go through the form of an
engagement. Alice won't like it, of course. No girl likes to have a
stepmother; but I shall depend on you, Helena, to make the thing go as
well as possible. That's all I have to say."
He set his teeth and turning his back on her, threw his half-smoked
cigar into the fire, Helena, cowering on the sofa, murmured something
of gratitude, Mr. Pryor did not take the trouble to listen.
"Well," he said, "the next thing is to get you away from this place.
We've got to stage the drama carefully, I can tell you."
"I can go at once."
"Well; you had better go to New York;--what will you do with your
youngster?" he interrupted himself. "Leave him on Dr. Lavendar's
doorstep, I suppose?"
"My youngster?" she repeated. "Do you mean David?"
Mr. Pryor nodded absently, he was not interested in David.
"Why," Helena said breathlessly, "you didn't suppose I was going to
leave David?"
At which, in spite of his preoccupation, Pryor laughed outright. "My
dear Helena, even you can hardly be so foolish as to suppose that you
could take David with you?"
She sat looking at him, blankly, "Not take David! Why, you surely
didn't think that I would give up David?"
"My dear," said Lloyd Pryor, "you will either give him up, or you will
give me up."
"And you don't care which!" she burst out passionately.
He gave her a deadly look. "I do care which."
And at that she blenched but clung doggedly to his promise. "You must
marry me!"
"There is no _must_ about it. I will. I have told you so. But _I_ did
not suppose it was necessary to make your giving up David a condition.
Not that I mean to turn the young man out, I'm sure. Only, I decline to
take him in. But, good Heavens, Helena," he added, in perfectly genuine
astonishment, "it isn't possible that you seriously contemplated
keeping him? Will you please consider the effect upon the domestic
circle of a very natural reference on his part, to your _brother?_ You
might as well take your servants along with you--or your Old Chester
doctor! Really, my dear Nelly," he ended banteringly, "I should have
supposed that even you would have had more sense."
Helena grew slowly very white. She felt as if caught in a trap; and yet
the amused surprise in Lloyd Pryor's face was honest enough, and
perfectly friendly. "I cannot leave David here," she said faintly. And
as terror and despair and dumb determination began to look out of her
eyes, the man beside her grew gayly sympathetic.
"I perfectly understand how you feel, He is a nice little chap. But, of
course, you see it would be impossible?"
"I can't give him up."
"I wouldn't," he said amiably. "You can go away from Old Chester--of
course you must do that--and take him with you. And I will come and see
you as often as I can."
He breathed more freely than he had for weeks; more freely than since
the receipt of that brief despatch:--"F. is dead," and the initials H.
R. So far from having used a sling and a smooth stone from the brook,
the boy had been a veritable armor-bearer to the giant! Well; poor
Nelly! From her point of view, it was of course a great disappointment.
He hated to have her unhappy; he hated to see suffering; he wished they
could get through this confounded interview. His sidewise, uneasy
glance at her tense figure, betrayed his discomfort at the sight of
pain. What a pity she had aged so, and that her hands had grown so
thin. But she had her old charm yet; certainly she was still an
exquisite creature in some ways--and she had not grown too fat. He had
been afraid once that she would get fat. How white her neck was; it was
like swan's-down where the lace fell open in the front of her dress.
For a moment he forgot his prudent resolutions; he put his arm around
her and bent his head to touch her throat with his lips.
But she pushed him away with a flaming look. "David saves you, does he?
Well; he will save me!"
Without another word she left him, as she had left him once before,
alone in the long parlor with the faintly snapping fire, and the
darkness pressing against the uncurtained windows. This time he did not
follow her to plead outside her closed door. There was a moment's
hesitation, then he shook his head, and took a fresh cigar.
"No," he said, "it's better this way."