Rather early the next morning, Mrs. Diggs dropped in upon Claire, "to
hear all about it," as she said, alluding to the dinner-party.
She dismissed two of the gentlemen with two little contemptuous nods.
"They are both well enough in point of respectability," she affirmed.
"So are their wives. All four are so swathed in dull convention that you
even forget to criticise them; they're like animals which resemble the
haunts they inhabit to such a degree that you can tell them from the
surrounding foliage or furrows only when they move or show life. Whom
else did you have?"
"There was Mr. Stuart Goldwin," said Claire.
"Goldwin? Yon don't mean it, really? _Did_ you have Goldwin?" Here Mrs.
Diggs looked hard at Claire, and slowly shook her head. "My dear," she
went on, "it must indeed be true that your husband is achieving great
financial distinction. Pardon my saying it, Claire, but Goldwin wouldn't
have put his limbs under your mahogany if this had not been true. He's
an enormous personage. Other Wall Street grandees have been very small
pygmies in the social estimate. But Goldwin carries everything before
him. You needn't tell me that you like him. It would be something
abnormal if you didn't. He is really the most charming of men. You can't
trust him, don't you know, further than you can see him; he bristles
with all sorts of humbug. And yet you accept him, because it is such
well-bred, engaging humbug. He has hosts of adherents, and he deserves
them. He gives the most enchanting entertainments. They are never
vulgar, and yet they cost vast sums. For example, he will give a
Delmonico dinner, at which every lady finds a diamond-studded locket hid
modestly in the heart of her bouquet. I need not add that in a
matrimonial way he is simply groveled to. But beware of him, my dear
Claire; he is dangerous."
"Dangerous?" repeated Claire.
"Well, not so much in himself. Goldwin, in himself, is a shallow yet
clever man, a forcible yet weak man, a man whose pluck has aided him a
good deal, and whose luck has aided him still more. He has caught the
trick of looking like a prince, and hence of giving his princely
amassment of money a superb glamour. He will fade, some day, and leave
not a rack behind. Of course he will. They all do. I don't know that he
would if he married. And now I come to my previous point. He doesn't
marry; therefore, he is dangerous."
"I don't follow you," Claire said.
"He doesn't marry Mrs. Ridgeway Lee. That is what I mean. As it is, she
guards his approaches. She is a woman of high position, considerable
queer, uncanny beauty, monstrous affectation, and a fondness for _him_
that amounts to idolatry. She's the most intense of pietists; she riots
in all sorts of religious charities. She has other idolatries besides
Goldwin, but he is her foremost. I have never been just able to make her
out. She is a sort of cousin of mine. She's wonderfully handsome, but
it's the lean, cold beauty of a snake. As I said, she guards Goldwin's
approaches. She's a widow, and a rich one, and she wants Goldwin to ask
her to marry him. He doesn't, however, and hence she coils herself, so
to speak, at the threshold of his acquaintance. If any other woman draws
near--I mean, too near--she hisses and bites.... Oh, don't look
incredulous. I've known her to positively do both. She'll do it to you,
if Goldwin is too attentive. That is why I warn you; that is why I call
that nice, brilliant, headlong, gentlemanly Goldwin a dangerous man."
In a few more days Hollister, of his own accord, proposed to Claire that
she should engage a maid. He also told her that he had made purchase of
two carriages, a span of horses, and an extra horse for single harness
besides.
"You will be able to drive out, either in your coupe or your larger
carriage, my dear," he said, "by Wednesday next." Then he broke into one
of his most genial laughs, and added: "I hope that is not too long to
wait."
Claire took this prophecy of coming splendor with serious quietude. She
had talked with her husband regarding his recent plethoric influx of
thousands.
"I've an idea, Herbert," she said, using a slow, wise-seeming
deliberation. "It is this: why do you not buy our house? We both like
it; it is comfortable and agreeable; it fills all our wants. And it is
for sale, you know."
Hollister looked grave, then smiled, then affirmatively nodded.
"I'll do it, Claire," he answered. "I'll do it to-morrow, if you wish."
"I do wish, Herbert. And when you have bought the house, I want you to
put it in my name. I want you to give it to _me_."
He started, and stared at her. A gleam of distrust appeared to slip
coldly into his frank eyes. Claire saw this, but answered his look with
firm calm. "Why do you say that?" he murmured.
She went nearer to him, and laid one hand on his shoulder. "Why do I say
it?" she softly iterated. "Because I know something of the risks and
perils you are daily forced to meet."
He watched her intently and soberly, for a few seconds, after she had
thus spoken. Then his characteristic smile broke forth like a burst of
sun. He kissed her on the lips. "It shall be just as you say!" he
exclaimed, drawing her nearer to him, with a look which they of bids and
sales and stock-traffic had never seen on his manly yet winsome face.
"You are right. You are always right, Claire. There's a lot of money
drifting in; it seems as if the money would never stop drifting in."
"I hope it never will," said Claire, showing her pure teeth in a laugh,
as he again kissed her. At the same time she drew back from him while
his encircling arm still retained her, in a way to which he had grown
wholly familiar, and which, in an unwedded woman, would have readily
seemed like the reserve of absolute maidenhood.
A slight further lapse of days brought grand results for Claire. She was
legally the owner of the charming little house in which she dwelt; she
had her maid, obsequiously attendant on her least wants; she possessed
her coupe, drawn by a large, silver-trapped horse; she possessed, also,
a glossy, dark-appointed carriage, drawn by two horses of equally smart
gear, and supervised by coachman and footman in approved and modish
livery.
Mrs. Diggs was in ecstasies at the prosperous change. "Now you're indeed
_lancee_, don't you know?" she said. "By the way, has Cornelia Van Horn
left a card on you, my dear?"
"No," said Claire.
"Can she really mean open warfare?"
"Let her wage it," Claire answered. "That is better than to have it
concealed."
The opera-season began the next evening. Hollister had engaged a box,
permanently. It was a season that opened with much auspicious
brilliancy. Claire appeared in her first really notable toilette. One of
the reigning _modistes_ had made it, and for the first time in her life
she was called upon to stand the test of surpassingly beautiful
dressing. It is a test that some very fair women stand ill. They show to
best advantage, in garments which have no atmosphere of festival; it
becomes them to be clad with domesticity or at least moderation. This
was by no means true, however, of Claire. The diamond necklace which
Hollister had spread on her dressing-table but a few minutes before the
hour of departure glittered round her smooth, slender neck with telling
saliency. Her gown was of a pale, pink brocaded stuff, and she carried
its full-flowing train with a light-stepping and perfect repose. Before
she had unclasped her cloak and seated herself in the box at Hollister's
side, numerous lorgnettes were leveled upon the lovely, dignified
picture that she made. When she had seated herself, the spell continued.
The large pink roses in her bosom were not deep or sweet enough of tint
to do more than heighten the fresh, chaste flush in either cheek. She
bore herself with a fine and delicate majesty. Her dark-blue eyes told
of the quicker pulse that stirred her veins only by a more humid and
dreamy sparkle. She was inwardly glad to be where she sat, and to be
robed as she was robed, but her pleasure softly exulted in its own
outward repression; she was wonderfully self-poised and tranquil,
considering her strong secret excitement. Nearly everybody who looked
upon her pronounced her to be very beautiful, and a good many people,
before an hour had passed, had looked at her with the closest kind of
scrutiny.
The opera was a favorite one; a famed and favorite prima-donna sang in
it. Below, where the real lovers of music mostly thronged, Claire's
presence produced neither comment nor criticism. But up in the region
sacred to fashion, inattention, gossip, and flirtation, she rapidly
became an event which even the most melodious cavatina was powerless to
supersede.
It was not all done by her beauty and novel charm. Hollister, sitting at
her side, nonchalant, handsome, of excellent conventional style in garb
and posture, materially helped to increase the notability which
surrounded her. His success had publicly transpired; a few of those
newspapers which are little save glaring personal placards had of late
proclaimed with graphic zeal his speculative triumphs. He had leapt into
notoriety in a day, almost in an hour. There was but one man in the
house besides her husband whom Claire knew. This man was Stuart Goldwin,
and he soon dropped into her box, remaining there through the two final
acts. Hollister, meanwhile, chose to be absent. He had found some
friends who were solicitous of presenting him to certain ladies. He
spent nearly the whole of these two acts in chatting with these same
ladies. They were all gracious; one or two of them had strong claims to
beauty. It was no less an important evening with himself than with
Claire. Perhaps with him it was even more so, since he obtained his
social acceptance, as it were, by great dames whom he pleased with his
handsome face, happy manners, and growing repute as a potential
millionaire.
His wife, on the other hand, had gained a different victory. She was
pronounced to be charming and remarkable; she had acquired the prestige
of Goldwin's open attentions. But she was a woman, and she had not yet
received the endorsement of her own sex. It might possibly soon arrive,
or it might be withheld: there was still no actual certainty.
Claire loved the music, but she would have heard its cadences in
discontent if fate had decreed that she should sit, this evening, with
no attendant devotee. She knew well that Goldwin's company distinguished
her. Mrs. Diggs had given her points, as the phrase goes. She was quite
aware that the horse-shoe of boxes in our metropolitan opera-house, and
the other more commodious proscenium boxes which flank its stage, are at
nearly all times occupied by just the kind of people among whom she
wished to win her coveted lofty place. She understood that they would
note, comment, gauge, admire, or condemn; and while her manner bespoke a
sweet and placid unconsciousness of their observation, she was alive to
the exact amount of observation which she attracted.
"I am so glad that you came," Goldwin told her. "For very selfish
reasons, I mean. You appear, and you corroborate my statements. Now
people can at last see and judge for themselves. The verdict is sure."
He said many more things in this vein, all uttered low, and all
accompanied by his smile, that seemed either to mean volumes or to leave
his true meaning adroitly ambiguous.
Mrs. Ridgeway Lee was in a somewhat near box. When Goldwin returned to
her side, just as the curtain was falling on the last act, she accepted
his escort to her carriage with a fine composure. He met Mrs. Van Horn,
a little later, in the crush that always occurs along the Fourteenth
Street lobby of our Academy when a full house disgorges its throng.
The two ladies talked together. Not far away from them stood Mrs. Diggs
and Claire, each waiting for an absent husband to secure her carriage.
"What a contrast there is between them," Claire murmured to her
companion. "One is so blonde and peaceful, the other so dark and
restless."
"Yes, my dear Claire. Have you caught Cornelia's eye?"
"No. She does not appear to see me."
"She sees you perfectly. She has not yet made up her mind just how to
act."
"I think that she means to cut me," said Claire, under her breath.
"Never," came the emphatic answer, so bass and gruff because of its
vocal suppression that it produced odd contrast with Mrs. Diggs's bodily
thinness. "To cut you would be to burn her ships. She has an object in
knowing you. I'm afraid it's a dark one. But be sure that she is only
making up her mind just _how_ to know you. She will soon decide; she
has already delayed too long, and she feels it. Be ready for a prompt
change."
If the behavior of Mrs. Van Horn was really to be explained on the
theory of her prophetic cousin, then she made up her mind very soon
after the delivery of these oracular sentences. A chance turn of the
neck seemed to render her conscious of Claire's neighboring presence.
She bowed with soft decision the instant that their eyes met; and Claire
returned the bow.
The next instant she laid one gloved hand on the arm of Mrs. Ridgeway
Lee, and then both ladies moved in Claire's direction. Their progress
was of necessity made between the forms of several assembled ladies, who
nodded and smiled as the great personage and her companion pushed
courteously past them. They were mostly the loyal adherents of Mrs. Van
Horn, in the sense that they held it high honor to have the right of
occasionally darkening her Washington Square doorway. Two or three of
them were perhaps co-regents with her as regarded caste and power.
They all saw and intently watched the little astonishing action that now
followed. Mrs. Van Horn glided up to Claire and extended her hand.
"I was so very sorry to have missed your dinner, Mrs. Hollister," said
the great lady, with her best affability, "but another engagement forced
me to be absent." She again put her hand on the arm of Mrs. Ridgeway
Lee; she had thus far wholly ignored Mrs. Diggs; her nose was well in
the air, as usual, but her smile was bland, conciliatory, impressive;
she glowed with an august amiability.
"I want you to let me present my cousin, Mrs. Lee," she proceeded. "We
have both heard so much about you, of late, from Mr. Goldwin. You can't
think how devoted a friend you have suddenly made."
Before Claire could answer, Mrs. Lee spoke. She had got herself into her
usual extraordinary twist. Her visage, her hands, and her lower limbs,
regarded according to their relative disposements, would have made a
very sinuous line. Like Mrs. Van Horn, she was wrapped in an opera
cloak. But her dark little head rose from the large circlet of swansdown
about her slight throat with an effect not unlike the slim crest of a
turtle stealing from its shell. She constantly suggested a creature of
this lean and chill type, though rarely with any of its repulsive
traits.
"Indeed, yes!" she softly exclaimed to Claire. "Mr. Goldwin is a great
friend of mine, and he has told me hundreds of charming things about
you."
"Our acquaintance has been a very short one," said Claire, looking at
Mrs. Diggs. In a certain way, she sought to gain a kind of tacit cue
from the latter's face. She failed to perceive just how matters were
drifting. Was this patronage on the part of both ladies? Or was it meant
for irreproachable courtesy?
Mrs. Diggs gave a laugh. "Goldwin can say a hundred charming things very
easily on a brief acquaintance," she declared. "Can't you?" were her
next words, delivered to Goldwin himself, who had just then slipped up
to the group.
"Oh, no, I can't," he at once replied, "unless I mean every one of
them."
"Dear me!" said Mrs. Diggs, "how quickly you grasp the situation! So
you heard what we were talking about, did you? You've found out that we
were discussing your last enthusiasm?"
"Ah," said Goldwin, "I have very few of them. Don't cheapen me, please,
in the regard of Mrs. Hollister."
"You seem to count upon her regard with singular confidence," said Mrs.
Van Horn.
"That's entirely our affair," laughed Goldwin. He looked at Claire, but
while he did so Mrs. Van Horn placed her hand within his arm. She took
it for granted that her carriage had been properly summoned by the
financier, and she was going to permit him to accompany her thither, as
she had permitted him to find it; she nearly always put herself in the
attitude of permitting favors and not soliciting them, by some deft,
secure art, quite her own. The bow of farewell which she gave Claire was
handsomely suave. Mrs. Lee moved away at her other side. Mrs. Lee had
been her guest, that evening, and they were to ride home together.
"So, Claire, it's settled," presently said Mrs. Diggs. "Cornelia is to
know you. So is Sylvia Lee. Be careful of them both. I can't feel
certain, yet, of exactly what it all means.... Here's that dear
Manhattan of mine. He has got our carriage. Shall I remain with you till
your husband reappears?... Very well; I will. But this is no place in
which to talk over the whole odd, interesting thing. I'll try and drop
in upon you soon; possibly to-morrow, if I can manage it.... Does
Manhattan see us? Just observe how stupidly he stares everywhere but
here. He's been a little strange and absent-minded all the evening. I
really think he's forgotten where he left me. He smokes too many of
those strong, horrid cigars, don't you know? I truly believe that they
cloud his brain half the time ... but then it's better he should smoke
too much than drink too much. I don't know what I _should_ do if the
dear fellow drank too much!" ...
Mrs. Diggs did present herself at Claire's house on the following day.
But Claire was not at home. She had driven out in company with her
husband.
It was a momentous drive. They had left home together at about one
o'clock. Claire had no idea whither they were going, at first. Hollister
had chosen to assume an air of profound mysticism. "I have a great
surprise for you," he said.
There was no characteristic twinkle in his eye as he made this
statement. Claire felt that he was far from saddened, and yet his
gravity looked an undoubted fact.
"I will accompany you blindly," she said, just before they entered the
carriage. "I suppose, however, there are some more jewels at Tiffany's
which you want me to see and choose from."
"No," said Hollister, shaking his head. "I shouldn't spend nearly a
whole day away from Wall Street for anything of that sort."
The carriage had soon passed Tiffany's by a considerable distance, in
what we call the downward direction. As its progress increased, Claire's
curiosity heightened, but for some time she gave no proof of this. Her
talk was of their new attainments, of their growing pastimes, pleasures,
and luxuries. She spoke often with a slightly unfamiliar speed; it was a
little habit that of late had come upon her; it betrayed gentle
excitement in place of previous composure. To Hollister, when he
observed it at all, the effect was filled with charm; he no more
disliked it than he would have disliked to see a very tender breeze
lightly agitate some beautiful bloom. But now his gravity by no means
lessened under the spell of Claire's rather voluble advances. She had
plainly seen the change; on a sudden she herself became serious as he;
then, after an interval of almost complete silence, she placed her hand
in his. The carriage was now very near to one of the Brooklyn ferries.
No doubt the first real suspicion of the truth had flashed through
Claire's mind when she abruptly said:--
"Where _are_ we going, Herbert? You really _must_ tell me."
He met her intent look; she had rarely seen his blithe eyes more solemn
than now.
"Haven't you guessed by this time?" he said.
"Perhaps I have," she answered. Her tone was a low murmur; she had
averted her eyes from his, and would have withdrawn from him her hand,
had not the clasp of his own softly rebelled against this act. Her
cheeks had flushed almost crimson. "Go on," she persisted. "Tell me if I
am right."
"I think you are, Claire; I think you have guessed it, at last." The
carriage had just entered the big gateway of the ferry; wheels and hoofs
took a new sound as they struck the planks of the wharf. "Don't you
remember that night at the Island, a little while after our engagement,
when you told me that it would give you such joy to regain your father's
body and to have it decently buried, in a Christian way?"
"Yes, Herbert ... I remember." She spoke the words so faintly that he
scarcely heard them.
"Well, Claire, I made you a promise, then, and I recollected the
promise."
"But _I_ forgot it!" she cried, throwing both arms about his neck, for
an instant, and kissing his cheek. Immediately afterward she burst into
tears. "Oh, Herbert, you remembered and I forgot! How wicked of me! I
let other things--things that were trifles and vanities--drive it from
my mind! Poor, dear, dead Father! He would never have done that to me!
He loved me too well--far too well!"
The tears were rushing down her face, and her frame was in a miserable
tremor. Already he had caught both her hands, and was firmly pressing
them while he bent toward her, and while she leaned in a relaxed posture
against the back of the carriage. He thought her repentance as exquisite
as it was needless; he held it as only a fresh proof of her sweet,
refined spirit. It brought the mist into his sight, and made his voice
throb very unwontedly, to see her weep and tremble thus.
"My darling," his next words hurried, "you're not in the least to blame.
You would have thought about it a little later, I'm certain. But so much
has happened since our marriage, you know. Besides, what you call
trifles and vanities are just what he wanted you to think about. He must
be glad (if the dead are ever glad or sorry in any way) to see you climb
higher, and get the notice and influence you deserve. You never slighted
his memory at all. Don't fancy you did, Claire. He was in your mind all
the while, only you postponed speaking of him a little longer than you
intended. You had told me what to do, don't you see, and you felt a
certain security as regarded my doing it. That was all. Now do cheer
up. We've quite a ride to Greenwood after we leave the ferry. Everything
has been done, quietly, dear, without your knowing. I thought it would
pain you too much to stand beside any open grave of his. The body was
not hard to find. You recollected its ... its number, you know. I'm sure
you will like the stone I've had put over him. It is just a plain
granite one, with the name, and date of death. The date of birth shall
be put there afterward; I didn't want to ask it of you yet; that would
have spoiled my surprise."
She grew perfectly calm again, some time before they reached the
cemetery. The cessation of her tears deeply relieved Hollister. He had
never seen her weep before, and the betrayal of such emotion, feminine
though it was, had harshly disturbed him. Once more composed, she
returned to him in her proper strength. She became Claire again. It was
not that he did not like her to show weakness, but rather that in
showing weakness she appeared new and odd to him, and hence not just his
own strong, serene, familiar Claire. Any jar, as it were, in the
steadfast vibrations of his fealty sent to the heart of this most
unswerving loyalist a strange, acute dismay.
The autumn darkness had almost fallen upon the multitudinous tombs of
Greenwood before Claire was willing to leave that of her father. His
name, cut in the modest gray of the stone, seemed for hours afterward
cut into her conscience as well. The grand repose of the place, too,
left its haunting thrill in her soul. A great sombre note had been
struck through all her being, at a time when brain and nerves had begun
to feel the full intoxication of worldly longing. While she was living
intensely, death had come to her in the shape of keen, reproachful
reminder. The vast cemetery had now no vernal or summer charm. Above,
the sky was soft as a clouded turquoise, but underfoot, and on tree and
shrub, the lovely melancholy of waning autumn met the bitter melancholy
of a far more woful decay. It was all like one mighty threnody put to
mighty yet very tender music. With a certain sinister and piercing
eloquence, moreover, this huge, mute city of death addressed Claire.
Many noted family names had of late passed into her memory, as those of
people whom it would be safe, wise, politic to know; and not a few of
these she now saw, lettered on slabs or shafts, and graven over the
portals of vaults. Each one, as her gaze read it, wore a frightful
sarcasm. More than once she closed her eyes and shuddered, as the
carriage made both exit and entrance here in this sad domain. The
perfect culture of the place rendered its doleful pathos even more
poignant. The dead were not neglected, here; others, now alive and of
the bright world she had yearned to triumph in, must soon lie down
beside them. The narrow beds were kept well tended, perhaps, for just
this dreary and hideous reason.
That night she spent almost without sleep. She heard her mother's
vindictive voice ring through the stillness; she had waking visions of
her father's face, clad with an angelic rebuke; she seemed to listen
once more while Beverley Thurston spoke those words of remonstrance and
chiding which were the last he had uttered in her presence: "I warn you
against yourself ... there is an actual curse hanging over you ... it
will surely fall, unless by the act of your own will you change it into
a blessing."
Yes, her aim had been false and worthless. She knew it well, at last.
Her father's grave had told her so. She was born for better things than
to fling down a dainty gauntlet of social warfare at Mrs. Van Horn. The
big world had big work for such a woman as herself to front and do. She
realized it now; she had realized it all along. Herbert thought she had
been right merely because he loved her. To-morrow she would make Herbert
see clearly the folly of his own acquiescence. Now that the money had
come, there were great charities possible. She would go back, too, among
her books; these should teach her more than they had ever yet taught. It
was true enough that in one way she was cold; she could not feel passion
like other women. The infatuation of a Mrs. Ridgeway Lee was an enigma
to her. But she could love a loftier ideal of life--love it and try to
climb thither by the steeper and harsher path. This, surely, was what
her father had meant, long ago.
Such were her new reflections and her new resolves. It took just one
day, and no more, to dissipate them completely. Mrs. Diggs sent her a
note on the following afternoon, saying that a hundred little
obstructive matters had prevented her purposed visit that morning, but
begging to have the pleasure of her own and her husband's company at
dinner on the same evening. Would not Claire drop in very early--say
about four o'clock? "It is my visiting day," wrote her correspondent.
"Perhaps there will be four or five feminine callers, perhaps none. If
there are none, we can have a good three hours' chat, don't you know?
I've some new things from Paris that I want to show you. It strikes me
that Worth's taste grows more depraved every year, and I want you to
give me your advice as to whether I shall throw all these hideous
importations over to my maid or no. You can leave a little note at home
for that delightful husband of yours, telling him that the Diggses dine
at seven. Or you can show him this note, unless you have jealous
feelings with regard to my florid adjective."
Claire quitted the house at about four that afternoon, leaving behind
her a few lines for Hollister. She chose to go on foot, the day being
fair and pleasant. But she had scarcely got twenty yards away from her
own stoop, when a carriage rattled past her, stopping suddenly. It was
an equipage of great elegance. Claire soon perceived that it had stopped
before the door from which she had just made exit. A footman sprang from
the box, and immediately afterward what appeared to be more than a
single card was handed him by an unseen occupant of the carriage. He
then ascended the stoop of the Hollister abode, and sharply rang its
bell. When his summons was answered the man held brief converse with
Claire's new butler, and then presented, with a little bow, the card or
cards intrusted to him. In a trice he was down the stoop again, and
again at the carriage door. He did not seem to deliver any spoken
message, but merely touched with one raised finger the rim of his
cockaded hat. The carriage then started briskly off, without its
high-throned driver paying the slightest heed to the fact that his
liveried associate must scramble up to his side while the vehicle was in
full motion. But this feat was accomplished with great ease; a mannerism
of fashion demanded that the footman should so perform it; the approved
effect of complete unconcern on the one hand and up-leaping agility on
the other was never produced with more complete success.
Claire had soon reentered the house. She found two cards there, awaiting
her inspection. One bore the name of Mrs. Van Horn, and one that of Mrs.
Ridgeway Lee.
"Delightful!" exclaimed Mrs. Diggs, on learning this occurrence from
Claire herself, about a half hour later. "That visit, from those two
women, has an enormous meaning. How sorry I am you were not at home. It
would have been two against one, but I'm inclined to pay you the very
marked compliment of saying that both your antagonists, deep and clever
as they are, would have been no match for you. Well, hostilities are
postponed. It's an armistice, not a truce. I insist, you see, on using
the terms of warfare. How the battle will be fought is still a mystery,
of course; but two potent truths simply _can't_ be overlooked. You
refused Cornelia Van Horn's brother. That is one of them."
"And the second?" asked Claire, a little absently, because she felt what
answer would come.
"The second? You've roused pointed admiration in the man whom Sylvia Lee
worships."
Claire looked at the speaker, and slowly shook her head. There was
doubt, trouble, irresolution in her face; and now, when she spoke, her
voice had a weary, almost plaintive note.
"I--I feel like not engaging in the fight, if you really think there is
to be one," she said, hesitantly. "I don't mean because I am afraid,"
were her next words, delivered with much greater swiftness. "Oh, no, not
that. There are other reasons. I can't explain, just now." Here she
paused, and her face softly brightened, while she gave a little shrug
of the shoulders. "Well," she abruptly went on, "perhaps I shall never
explain."
She never did explain. This was her last feeble protest against the
slow, sure force of that subtle fascination which was once more steadily
reclaiming her. The gloomy remorse and the vital energy of yesterday's
mood had, neither of them, quite left her. But they both soon withdrew
their last remnant of sway.
Hollister came a little late to Mrs. Diggs's dinner. It had been a great
day with him. He had risked a very important sum by retaining a large
number of shares in a certain precarious stock. He had his reasons for
doing so, and they were clever reasons, judged by the general conditions
of the market. He had made a memorable stroke, and all Wall Street knew
of it before the usual hour for brokers to seek other than their daily
haunts of hazard. He was radiant, if this could be said of one whose
spirits were always bright, as his temper was sweet. There were only
four at dinner. Mr. Diggs overflowed with congratulations to Hollister.
He was quite as tipsy as usual, and to Claire's thinking, quite as
tiresome.
But the dinner was not tiresome. Mrs. Diggs was at her loquacious best.
The recent brilliant manoeuvre of her husband had roused in Claire all
the old exultant feeling. Yesterday was now indeed yesterday. She was
already plunging an eager look straight onward through a long rosy vista
of to-morrows.
"I'm so glad, Herbert!" she said, as they were being driven home
together. "Perhaps I didn't show that I was, there at dinner. That
dreadful Mr. Diggs is made of such explosive material that I was afraid
he would want to drink your health standing, or something of that absurd
sort, if I ventured to tell you how glad I really was that you've made
another hit, luckier than any you ever made before."
Hollister put his lips to her cheek. "I know just how glad you are," he
said, while kissing her. "You needn't tell me another word about it."
Claire had spoken with that little half-excited trip of the tongue,
which has been recorded as a late change in her demeanor.
She was silent, not having returned her husband's caress. This was quite
like the accustomed Claire. Yesterday, in the carriage which had borne
them to Greenwood, she had flung her arms about his neck and kissed him,
as any ordinary wife might do.
Hollister was quietly re-accepting her, so to speak, as the
extraordinary wife--or, in other terser phrase, as Claire.
He went on speaking before she had a chance to answer him. He was still
holding her hand while he spoke. "Oh, by the way, Claire, Goldwin had a
good deal to do with my luck. He gave me points, as they say down there.
But don't breathe it to a living soul. Goldwin's an awfully good friend
of mine, I find, though we haven't always pulled together in a business
way."
"Yes?" Claire answered.
She had somehow got her hand away from his. She was using it to arrange
her wrap about the throat.