"DOWN AND OUT"
Dr. Harpe ripped open the envelope addressed to Essie Tisdale and
devoured its contents standing by the window, bare-shouldered in the
dawn. Long before she had finished reading her hand shook with
excitement, and her nose looked pinched and drawn about the nostrils. As
a matter of fact the woman was being dealt a staggering blow. Until the
moment she had not herself realized how strongly she had built upon the
outcome of this self-constructed romance of hers.
In her wildest dreams she had not considered Van Lennop's attentions to
Essie Tisdale serious or, indeed, his motives good. That Ogden Van
Lennop had entertained the remotest notion of asking Essie Tisdale to be
his wife was furthest from her thoughts. Yet there it was in black and
white, staring at her in words which burned themselves upon her brain,
searing the deeper because she learned from them that her own deed had
precipitated the crisis.
"I wasn't sure of myself until last night," Van Lennop wrote, "but that
creature's disgraceful act left me in no doubt. If I had been sure of
_you_, Essie Tisdale, I would have put my arm about you then and there
and told that braying crowd that any indignity offered you was offered
to my future wife.
"But I was not sure, I am not sure now, and only business of the utmost
urgency could take me away from you in this state of uncertainty. If you
want me to come back won't you send me a telegram telling me so to the
address I am giving below? Just a word, Essie Tisdale, to let me know
that you care a little bit, that your sweet friendship holds something
more for me than just friendship? I shall haunt the office until I hear
from you, so lose no time."
Further on she read:
"I love you mightily, Essie Tisdale, and I have not closed my eyes for
making plans for you and me. It is quite the most delirious happiness I
have ever known. I long to take you away from Crowheart and place you in
the environment in which you rightly belong, for, while we know nothing
of your parentage, I would stake my life that in it you have no cause
for shame. I am filled with all a lover's eagerness to give, to heap
upon you the things which women like--to share with you my possessions
and my pleasures.
"But in the midst of my castle building comes the chilling thought that
I am taking everything for granted and the fear that I have been
presumptuous in mistaking your dear, loyal comradeship for something
more makes me fairly tremble. I am very humble, Essie Tisdale, when I
think of you, but I am going to believe you will say '_yes_' until you
have said '_no_'."
Dr. Harpe crumpled the letter and hurled it into the farthermost corner
of the room, half sick with a feeling of helplessness, of passionate
regret and despair. She realized to the fullest what she was losing, or,
as she phrased it to herself, what was "slipping through her fingers,"
And this was to be the future of the girl whom it seemed to her she
hated above all others and all else in the world! The thought was
maddening. She strode to and fro, kicking her torn flounce and trailing
skirt out of the way with savage resentment. Van Lennop's letter
temporarily punctured her conceit, chagrin and mortification adding to
her feeling the anguish of that bad half hour. "That creature" he was
calling her while in her ridiculous self-complacency she was drinking to
her Supreme Moment. Oh, it was unbearable! She covered her reddening
face with both hands.
When she raised it at last there was a light in her eyes, new purpose in
her face. Her moment of weakness and defeat had passed. She would make
good her boast that that person was not yet born who could ultimately
defeat her. She would not go so far as to say that in the end she would
marry Van Lennop nor would she admit that it was impossible, but she
swore that whatever else might happen, Essie Tisdale should never be his
wife. In every clash between herself and this girl she had won, so why
not again? There must be--there was--some way to prevent it!
She had no plan in mind as yet, but something would suggest itself, she
knew, for her crafty resourcefulness had helped her since her childhood
in many a tight place, from seemingly hopeless situations. She picked up
the crumpled letter and seating herself by the window smoothed the
sheets upon her knee.
She read it through again, calmly, critically this time, lingering over
the paragraph which hinted at the things he had to offer the woman who
became his wife.
"Diamonds and good clothes that means, a box at the Opera, fine horses
and a limousine. The trollop! the----!" The epithet was the most
offensive that she knew. "He knows she would like such things," she
reasoned.
Her mind was working in a circuitous way toward a definite goal which
she herself had not as yet perceived, but when she did see it, it came
with the flash of inspiration. She all but bounded to her feet and began
to pace the floor in the quick strides of mental excitement. A plan
suddenly outlined itself before her with the clearness of a written
text. Her crushing disappointment was almost forgotten in the keen joy
of working out the details of her plot. If only she could influence
certain minds--could manipulate conditions.
"I can! I _will_!" She emphasized her determination with clenched fist.
After a hasty toilette she surveyed herself in the glass with
satisfaction. The jaded look was fast fading under the stimulus of the
congenial work ahead of her and little trace of her intemperate
indulgence of the night remained.
"You're standing up well under the jolt, Harpe," she commented. "That
letter was sure a body blow."
She seated herself at the breakfast table and in her habitual attitude
of slouching nonchalance sat with half-lowered lids watching Essie
Tisdale as she moved about the dining-room. There was something in her
crouching pose, the cruel eagerness of her eyes, which suggested a bird
of prey, but it was not until they were alone that she asked
carelessly--
"How's the hand, Ess?"
The girl gave no sign of having heard.
"That was rather a bad fall you got."
Essie turned upon her with blazing eyes.
"Not so bad as you intended."