"Go on," she said.
"I can't tell what happened while I was in Italy, and Lorimer had left
Berlin before I went back there, so I didn't see him till I came to New
York. At first, I thought he had stopped all that sort of thing. His
color was better, his hand steadier. I knew the temptation was less
here, and I hoped he was so taken up with Miss Dane that he wouldn't
have time to get into the wrong set. The night of the Lloyd Avalons's
recital, he was not quite himself, and I advised him to go to Washington
while the matter blew over."
"Strange I didn't hear of it," Miss Gannion said thoughtfully.
"Dane and I saw to it that the story shouldn't get outside the walls of
the smoking-room. Dane is a good fellow, and no fool. He got wind of the
trouble and came for me, and we hurried Lorimer away as fast as
possible. The next day, I began to hear of a supper or two where Lorimer
had been making himself a bit conspicuous."
"And since then?"
"Only twice."
"But twice is more than enough."
"It shows that the trouble is still there, that one can't count on his
promises," Thayer assented gravely.
"He does promise?"
"Yes, like a child. That is the pitiful part of it, pitiful and yet
exasperating. He admits his own weakness, and is sorry and ashamed, as
soon as he comes to himself. For a time, he is a model of caution and
sobriety. Then he blunders into the way of temptation and makes a mess
of it all." Unconsciously Thayer's voice betrayed his dislike of a
weakness of which he had no comprehension. An instant later, he seemed
to realize his own self-betrayal and he pulled himself up sharply. "I
wish you knew Lorimer better, Miss Gannion. Then you would understand
why I am telling you all this. He is so loyal, so generous to his
friends, so full of talent. At Goettingen, they called him the most
brilliant American who had ever studied there, and he was by all odds
the most popular fellow of his time. His very popularity increased the
danger." As if he had been pleading his own cause, Thayer's voice was
full of earnest eagerness. Even in the midst of her anxiety and pain,
Miss Gannion felt the power of its flexible modulation; and her
half-formulated condemnation of Lorimer stayed itself.
Thayer broke the silence which followed, and his accent was resonant
again.
"There's no especial use in thrashing over the past. The present is none
too good; but my question is simply in relation to the future."
"And the question is?" Miss Gannion asked.
"Whether we ought to tell Miss Dane," he answered briefly.
"It will kill her." The feminine in Margaret Gannion was uppermost once
more.
"Such wounds are more likely to mangle than to kill." Thayer spoke
grimly.
"Poor Beatrix!"
"She does love him, then? I didn't see how she could help it."
Margaret Gannion's hands shut on a fold of her skirt.
"She loves him better than she loves her life; but she loves right
better than either."
"And what is right?"
"I am not sure," she confessed weakly. "I can't seem to analyze it at
all. What do you think?"
"That she ought to be told."
"What good will it do?"
"At least, it will put her on her guard."
"Against what? From your own showing, it is like fighting an unseen
enemy. One never knows when or where it will come. She will only be put
under a terrible nervous strain, faced by a fear that will haunt her,
day and night. Besides, she might break the engagement. Have you thought
of that?"
"It was of that I was thinking. She ought to have the facts, and be
allowed to face the alternatives before it is too late. Miss Gannion,"
he turned upon her sharply; "can't you realize the pain it is to me to
be saying this? I love Lorimer, love him as one man rarely loves
another. Perhaps I love him all the more for his lack of strength. But
that is no reason I should let him make havoc of a girl's whole life,
perhaps of other lives to come. Miss Dane loves him; moreover, she is
very proud. She is bound to suffer keenly on both scores."
"Then you think--"
"That the trouble is likely to increase."
"And, if she breaks her engagement to him?"
"That it will increase all the faster. She has a strong hold on him."
"And you would run the risk of loosing this hold, when you know the
danger to your friend?"
"Yes, when I see the danger to Miss Dane."
Miss Gannion's hands unclasped, and she looked up at him with the
pitiful, drooping lips of a frightened child. Like Thayer, she too loved
Lorimer.
"It is terrible, Mr. Thayer. I can see no way out of the trouble; it
stands on either side of the path. But do you think she could hold him,
if she were to try?"
"It is an open question. Lorimer is weak; but I am not sure how strong
she is, nor how patient. If she could steady him and forgive him
ninety-nine times, it is possible that, on the hundredth, she would have
nothing to forgive. But that is asking too much of a woman, that she
should sacrifice her pride and her hope to her loyalty and her love."
"I think Beatrix would do it."
"Perhaps. At least, though, she ought to have the right to choose for
herself."
Once more Miss Gannion mastered herself.
"I am not sure. You make the alternatives certain ruin and possible
salvation. I should cling to the chance."
"And take the responsibility of silence?"
"It is a responsibility; but I should assume it for the present. What we
should say to her could never be unsaid. It might do good; it might do
terrible harm. It is possible that the truth may come to her in some
other way. I should certainly prefer that it might."
He bent over the fire for a moment. Then he straightened up and threw
back his shoulders, like a man relieved of the burden of a heavy load.
"Then that is your final advice?" he asked slowly.