"That's what I said."
"Do you mean"--his voice dropped to an incredulous whisper--"that you
are threatening to betray Augusta to attain your end?"
"I don't like to be thwarted for a whim--a senseless piece of sentiment.
This contract means too much to me."
"But do I understand aright?" She gloated as she saw his fading color.
"Do you intend to say that the price of your silence is this contract?"
"Something of the sort," she replied in cold stubbornness.
The full knowledge of her power swept over him; the helplessness of his
position filled him with sudden fury. He sprang to his feet and hurled
his cigar through the open window. His thick fingers twitched to choke
the insolent smile from her face.
"You traitor! You blackmailer!"
She arose leisurely.
"Unpleasant words--but there are others as unpleasant."
With his hands thrust deep in his trousers pockets Symes faced her,
eyeing her with an expression which would have made most women wince but
which she returned with absolute composure. She was in control of the
situation and realized it to the full. Symes was speechless nearly in
the face of such effrontery, such disloyalty, such ingratitude.
"You would sacrifice your best friend for money!"
"Business is business, and I'm out for the stuff, as I told you, but
there's no sense in letting it come to that. I don't _want_ to do it, so
don't be a fool!"
Symes groaned; she had attacked him in his most vulnerable spot, namely,
his horror of scandal, of anything which would besmirch the name of
which he was so inordinately proud. This pride was at once his strength
and his weakness.
"And if I permit myself to be blackmailed--there is no use in mincing
words--if I give you this contract in exchange for my wife's good name
are you willing to consider every obligation wiped out?"
Her eyes flashed their triumph at this quick collapse of his stand.
"I am."
"And, furthermore, will you agree to discontinue your visits to my
house?"
"Why?" There was hard bravado in the question.
"Your influence is not good, Dr. Harpe."
"What does Augusta say?"
"I've not consulted her."
"And the contract is mine?--that is settled?"
"So long as you keep your word."
She smiled enigmatically.
"I'll keep my word."
A fumbling at the door ended the interview, for it opened to admit a
white-faced woman with a child moaning in her arms.
"Oh, Doctor, I'm so glad you're here!" she cried in relief. "He's been
like this since early this morning and I brought him in town as quick as
I could. Is it anything serious?"
"Come here, my little man."
Symes saw the reddening of the ranchwoman's eyelids at the sympathy in
the Doctor's voice, at the gentleness with which she took the child from
her arms. Symes paused in the doorway to look longer at the swift
transition which made her the woman that her patients knew. There was a
softly maternal look in her face as she hung brooding over the child, a
look so genuine that it bewildered him in the light of what had just
transpired. Was this another phase of the woman's character or was it
assumed for his benefit?
The child's shawl slipped to the floor and, as the mother stooped for
it, Dr. Harpe flashed him a mocking glance which left him in no doubt.