HUGH GORDON WINS HENRIETTA'S CONFIDENCE
Henrietta reached the office early that morning, lest her employer, in
his eagerness to push his work, now that he could devote himself to it
with undivided energies, should get there first. She looked forward to
the day with pleasant anticipations, for she had assisted him in this
way before and she liked it the best of all her duties. The books were
ready upon his desk, but he had not yet arrived. She waited for him
all the forenoon, employing herself as best she could, and still he
did not come.
In the afternoon she tried to get his apartment on the telephone, but
there was no answer. Surely, he would not have left the city, after
such preparations for a busy day, without sending her some message.
She called up Dr. Annister and asked if he had seen Mr. Brand that
day, or knew whether or not he had unexpectedly gone out of the city.
No, the doctor replied, he had not seen Mr. Brand since the evening
before, when he and Mildred and Mrs. Annister had gone to the theatre
together. As Mildred had been looking quite happy all day he did not
think Felix could have said anything about going out of town. And he
had promised to dine with them tomorrow night. Doubtless if he had
gone anywhere it was only for the day and Dr. Annister was cheerfully
confident Henrietta might expect to see him again on the morrow.
She lingered at the office an hour later than usual, hoping for some
word from the architect. But none came. The next morning she hurried
back, eagerly anticipating a letter or a telegram, but found neither.
All day she waited, her nerves on edge with expectation and anxiety,
but Brand did not come nor did he send her any message.
"This is worse than it was before," thought Henrietta, "for then
he told me beforehand that he might have to go. And he said so
positively, only a little while ago, that he did not intend to take
that trip south again. Perhaps he found he had to go after all.
Anyway, I guess it's what I'd better tell people."
Remembering his dinner engagement at Dr. Annister's, she made that
explanation over the telephone. Both to Dr. Annister and afterward to
Mildred she said that she did not know positively that he had gone to
West Virginia, but that he had told her, when he returned from his
former absence, that that was where he had been and that he might have
to go again, although he had not told her the exact place because, for
business reasons, he did not want it to be known.
Yes, Mildred assented, he had said the same thing to her and she
understood just how it was. But all the same, it was cruel of Felix,
and not at all like him, for he was always so sweetly considerate, to
go off in this sudden, secret way and leave them all in such suspense.
"When we're married," and a happy little laugh came rippling over the
telephone to Henrietta's ear, "it shan't be like this, for then he'll
have to take me with him on all such jaunts and I'll see to it that
you know where we are."
As the days went by, Henrietta, pondering with ever increasing anxiety
the mystery of this second disappearance, began to doubt the
explanation she gave to others. This time there came up no reason for
public interest and so even the knowledge that he was away was
confined to a few of his friends and to those who wished to see him
upon business. With all inquirers his secretary treated his absence as
an ordinary matter, saying merely that she thought he was somewhere in
the mountains of West Virginia, she did not know exactly where, nor
could she say positively when he would be back.
Nevertheless, looking back over what he said to her on his return
after his previous long absence, Henrietta recognized in it a touch of
insincerity. At the time she had accepted it as a matter of course,
but now, scrutinizing her memory of his words and his manner, in the
light of all that had happened since, she finally said to herself, "I
don't believe he was telling me the truth."
But if that southern business trip was a deliberate fabrication, what,
then, could be the reason for a prolonged absence, so injurious to all
his interests, whose real nature and purpose he had been at such pains
to conceal? She had heard of men who sometimes slipped out of sight
that they might plunge unhampered into debauchery, and she began to
wonder if such were the case with him, or if, perhaps, he had fallen a
victim to some secret vice. But against either of these suppositions
both her feminine instincts and her personal liking for her employer
rebelled.
"I don't see how that could be," she thought, "for he is always so
nice and refined. There is no suggestion about him of anything gross
or so--unclean. No, it can't be anything of that sort. And yet, he
seemed so nervous, and just as if he were fighting against something
with all his might--and I suppose it would be like that if he were
fighting the desire to drink or take some kind of dope. But I can't
believe it. I wonder if that Hugh Gordon could have anything to do
with it. Well, whatever the explanation, it's evident he doesn't want
people to know about his being away, and he doesn't like it to be
talked about, so the thing for me to do is to keep as still as a mouse
and not to let anybody else do any more talking than I can help."
Even at home, in her loyalty to her sense of duty, Henrietta said no
more than to make a mere mention of her employer's absence and to
reply, when her mother or sister made occasional inquiry, that he had
not yet returned.
Brand had been away almost a week when the office boy brought her a
card one morning and said the gentleman was particularly anxious to
see her. As she looked at it and read "Hugh Gordon" her heart began to
beat faster and her face flushed a sudden red.
Had he come, she wondered, to bring her news of Brand's whereabouts,
or, perhaps, tidings of some serious misfortune? The apprehensive
thought flashed through her mind that perhaps he would try, under
threat of evil to herself or her employer, to force from her some
personal or business information that he could afterward use as a
lever against the architect, and she told herself that she must be
very careful what she said to him.
She felt assured that he was there for no good purpose, and during the
moment that she waited for the boy to bring him into her room her mind
formed a swift picture of an elderly fellow, slouching and shabby,
red-nosed and unshaven, bearing all the marks of a parasitic and
dissipated life.
When she saw instead a well-groomed young man, wearing an English
looking gray suit, advancing toward her with a quick, firm step and a
self-confident air, the reversal of her preconceived ideas was so
complete that for an instant she thought it must be some one else. The
suggestion of a smile crossed his serious face as he met her
disconcerted look and, halting beside her desk, he repeated his name.
"I have come to see you, Miss Marne, to relieve your mind of any
apprehension you may feel concerning Mr. Felix Brand."
"Oh," she exclaimed, the reassurance his words gave her evident at
once in her voice. "Then you have seen him? You know that he is quite
well?"
His keen, dark eyes swept the room with an alert glance. On her desk
glowed a vase of sunshine-colored daffodils. She remembered afterward
that, while his one swift glance had seemed to take in everything in
the room, it had passed over the flowers as coolly as it had over the
chairs and the typewriter, and she compared it with the way Felix
Brand's eyes would have lingered and feasted upon them.
"I have not seen him for several days," he replied, his gaze again
straight into her eyes. He spoke rapidly, in a direct, almost blunt
manner. "But I can assure you that you need to feel no anxiety about
him. He is quite safe and will be back here as soon as circumstances
permit."
Henrietta hesitated for an instant, in quick debate with herself as to
the most prudent course to pursue. Should she try to find out all that
this man knew, or, refusing to admit how much she was in the dark
herself, thank him for his kindness in such a way as to make him
believe she did not need his information? She was aware that already
she was not so suspicious of him as she had been a few moments before.
The friendly sincerity of his look and the blunt frankness of his
manner compelled her into a less wary, less hostile feeling. Reminding
herself again that she must be on her guard she motioned him to a
chair beside her desk.
"You must know, Mr. Gordon," she said, looking at him with a gaze as
direct as his own, "that your attitude toward Mr. Brand some weeks ago
was not such as to make me feel, now, much confidence in your good
intentions. Frankly, I find it difficult to believe that you have come
here with his good in view."
Gordon's serious countenance relaxed a little and Henrietta felt
herself impelled to a responsive smile, which she quickly checked.
"No," he agreed, "I can't expect you, not knowing all the
circumstances, to understand that what I did then was intended for
Felix Brand's good. I believed, or at least I hoped, that it would
have a salutary effect upon him and induce him to turn back from a
course of conduct that I foresaw would be disastrous."
He straightened up and his dark eyes, that would have been somber but
for their keenness, ran quickly down over her face and figure and then
rested again with a softened expression upon hers.
"I would like you to believe that, whatever was the result of what I
did, I had no evil or selfish motive in doing it. Can you feel that
much confidence in me, Miss Marne?"
She bent her eyes upon the desk for the moment of silence that
followed his question and made effort to voice her reply in a cool,
disinterested tone.
"I can understand that you might have been moved by a sense of duty
toward the public welfare--if you believed in your own assertions. I
gather from what you said just now that you wish to be considered Mr.
Brand's friend; but that sort of thing does not agree with my idea of
the loyalty there should be between friends."
His black brows drew together in a slight frown as he looked intently
at her averted face. "Well," he said, more slowly than he had
previously spoken, "I shall not try to justify myself. I shall only
repeat that my motive was neither selfish nor malicious. I had not
thought particularly, in fact, I had not thought at all then, about
the public side of it. I did it solely in the hope that it would have
a good effect upon Felix." He paused again for a moment and as she
noted his familiar use of her employer's name she thought that, after
all, the relations between them must be intimate.
"But I hope," he went on, his manner again brusque, "that you will
free your mind from all suspicion as to my reasons for coming here
today."
She flushed and turned a little more away, and he smiled behind his
hand as he stroked his short, thick, black mustache.
"I know already more about Felix Brand and his affairs than pleases me
and I am just now much more interested in my own."
She faced him with a sudden movement and asked sharply: "Do you know
where he is?"
Her eyes caught an inscrutable change in his. Something almost like
awe came into them and into his countenance as his gaze turned to the
window and sought the blue and distant sky.
"No," he said, his voice sounding a solemn note, and repeated: "No, I
do not. I do not know where he is now."
His eyes returned to her face and as he met her startled expression he
exclaimed in a kindly way, leaning forward as if to reassure her:
"There! I've frightened you! Please don't be alarmed. I assure you,
there's nothing to be anxious about. Although I don't know positively
where Felix is, just now, I do know he has suffered no harm, no real
harm, and I believe, I am quite sure, he will be back here again as
well as ever, before very long. I came here to tell you this."
She studied his face for a moment and somehow, against her will, the
conviction came upon her that this man was moved, as he declared, by
good motives.
"It was kind of you," she replied at last with a gracious smile, "and
I thank you very much. I was quite anxious, but I believe what you
have told me and I am greatly relieved."
He looked pleased and exclaimed impulsively: "And I thank you for your
confidence in me!"
As he rose to go, his glance once more traveled quickly down over her
face and figure and returned to her eyes with a look in his own that
her woman's instinct knew to mean appreciation, interest, liking.
"By the way," he said, turning impulsively toward her and speaking in
a quick, brusque way, "there is another matter I must not forget. It
was part of my reason for coming here. There was a letter--you
remember--that Felix had you write the last day he was here and then
asked you not to send just then. You haven't mailed it yet, have you?"
She stared at him in astonishment and said "No," before she could take
counsel of her caution.
"I didn't suppose you had. However, I happen to know, he told me, that
he would like you to send it at once, just as it stands now."
Henrietta was so astounded by this revelation of the intimacy that
must exist between the two men that for a moment she could not reply.
For the letter was concerned with an effort Brand was making to get
control of the marble quarry company in which he had invested some
months before, and she knew that he was keeping the matter very secret
and considered it of great importance. It had worried her more than
anything else in his arrested affairs, for she hesitated to mail it
without farther instructions from him and yet had feared that if she
did not his plans might fall through.
Gordon went on without appearing to notice her surprise, although she
felt sure that he saw it and was amused by it. "As you know, he wanted
to wait a day or two for certain developments at the other end."
Henrietta nodded. "Yes, and I have not been able to find out just what
happened."
"It's all right--just as Felix hoped it would be," he assured her and
went on to tell her briefly what had occurred.
After his departure Henrietta found herself comparing her visitor with
her employer. All her previous thought of Gordon had been in
connection with Brand as the cause of his troubles, as his enemy and
even his persecutor. So now, when Gordon appeared in person, it was
against a contrasting background of the appearance and character of
the man to whom she felt so grateful for the opportunity of livelihood
amid congenial surroundings.
Gordon was much in her mind during the rest of the day; and as she
traveled homeward in the afternoon, in the subway, across the ferry in
the glowing sunset light, and in the clattering trolley car, her
thought was busy with speculation about him, with comparison of him
with Felix Brand, with recollections of what he had said and how he
had looked, with conjecture as to the meaning of his expression when
she asked him if he knew where Brand was.
At dinner she spoke of her caller to her mother and sister. At once
they were interested and were eager to know what he was like and what
Henrietta thought of him. As she answered their questions she felt her
cheeks flushing when she saw their surprise that she should praise or
seem to admire the man who was Felix Brand's enemy.
"I know you are surprised," she said, trying to overcome a sudden
access of self-consciousness, "that he isn't at all the sort of man we
thought him, or at least that I was sure he must be. But it was
certainly considerate of him to come, and there was nothing at all in
anything he said or did that suggested a different motive. I never was
more surprised in my life than I was by his appearance. You know Mr.
Brand told the reporters that he is a relative and I had supposed he
must be some dissipated, disreputable sort of creature. And then in
came this good-looking young man--for he is good-looking, though not
so handsome as Mr. Brand--his face hasn't that look of refinement and
affability. He was well-dressed and looked like a prosperous young
business man, and he has such a straightforward, independent air."
"Does he look like Mr. Brand?" queried Isabella, so interested that
she was forgetting her dinner.
"A little--yes. In some ways a good deal, and then again he seems so
different. He is dark and his features have a family resemblance. But
otherwise the two men are not alike. You know that dear expression Mr.
Brand's eyes always have, so winning and affectionate, and as if he
thought the world of you. Well, Mr. Gordon's eyes are large and
brown, too, but they are keen and they look right through you and he
flashes one glance around the room and you feel that he knows
everything in it. He isn't so polished in his manners----"
"Mr. Brand has the loveliest manners of any man I ever met," Isabella
interrupted. "His mission in life ought to be to travel round and show
them off as a pattern for all other young men. I wish Warren could
have the advantage of a few lessons."
"Bella!" exclaimed her mother reprovingly. "You ought not to speak
that way of the man who is almost your husband. And Warren is such a
good man, too!"
"So is Mr. Brand," Isabella replied saucily, "awfully good, just too
good to be true. Tell us more about Mr. Gordon, Harry."
"Why, as I was saying, his manner isn't so polished as Mr. Brand's. In
fact, he is so direct and positive that he seems a little curt, though
I'm sure he doesn't mean to be. He makes you feel that he's very
sincere, too. Mr. Brand seems to draw people to him without making any
effort, but Mr. Gordon is more compelling and something about him
makes you take an interest in him and believe in him."
"He impressed you a good deal, didn't he, Harry?" said Isabella,
looking at her sister thoughtfully.
Henrietta felt her cheeks warming again and was annoyed at herself
that she should blush in this way when, as she scolded herself, "there
was no reason for it."
"I don't know that he did, particularly," she said defensively. "His
coming was rather curious and you and mother seemed interested and
wanted to know all about him."