The library blinds were drawn and the room was hot and still. Eileen
lay back in the chaise longue, her eyes half closed, her lips pouting
surlily. Her father paced the floor, his blue eyes lost in shadow.
“Mrs. Ascott,” he began in a choked voice, “you know the pitiful thing
that has come upon us. You have been a good neighbour, and we come to
you for advice. We are simple people, and my wife feels that you....”
He finished the sentence with his deep, appealing eyes. “I wanted to go
to Mr. Marksley and insist that his son make restitution.”
“Yes!” Lavinia screamed, the remnant of her self-control tearing
to tatters as she looked at her daughter, “and that idiot of a girl
threatening to kill herself if we go a step.”
“I won’t be married to any man at the point of a gun--as long as there
is a river in Springdale where people can be drowned.”
“It is a mortal sin to take your own life,” her father pleaded. “You
couldn’t face your God with such a crime on your hands.”
“When it comes to a choice between facing God and you people--I’d take
my chances with God any day. If I have committed the unpardonable sin,
I don’t see how marrying Hal Marksley would make it any better.”
She sat bolt upright and her eyes blazed.
“What is right? What is sin? You would hound a woman to death because
she has a child without being tied body and soul to a man she despises.
Hal’s mother and father hate each other ... and look at their children.
There isn’t one of them that’s fit to live. Look at us. We are another
family of misfits. And why? Mamma hates papa, lets him follow her
around like a hungry dog begging for a bone.”
“You insolent girl!” Lavinia gasped.
“You don’t know anything about love--and what it means to come into the
world all warped and out of tune. Do you imagine that I am going to tie
myself to a cad--let him be responsible for other children of mine?
There isn’t any fidelity in a man who is born of hate. If you knew what
a contemptible pup he is, you’d see why the river looks better to me.”
“You might have thought of that, before--” David offered gently.
“I didn’t know him till it was too late.” She relaxed ever so little.
“We had talked it all over, and he had the most advanced ideas. But
when it came to facing the music.... Bah! I despise a man who whimpers.
_He was afraid of his mother._ I could have stood even that. But when
he wanted to take me to Sutton, to a doctor he said was in the habit of
helping those factory girls out of their scrapes ... I slapped him; I
beat him with my two fists; I spit in his face. I told him that if he
was not a man, I would take the consequences alone.”
She paused to gather breath, her cheeks burning, her gaze detached. She
was living over again that monstrous cataclysm. “He tried to defend
himself by saying I had no right to disgrace his family. Imagine!
Disgrace Henry Marksley and Adelaide Nims! I told him I wasn’t going
through life with murder on my soul.”
“I’m glad you told him that, daughter,” David said, his eyes warming.
Judith Ascott crossed the room and laid a hand protectingly on Eileen’s
shoulder. “May I offer a solution? You have asked me to use my wits.
I know of a case--not unlike this one--a young girl who made the same
blunder. She had a married sister who had no child. Among all their
friends, I am the only one who knows that the splendid little boy is
not that sister’s child.”
“How--how was it managed?” Lavinia’s practical mind demanded.
“They went together to a sanitarium, where not even the superintendent
knew which was the wife of the man whose name the baby was to bear. I
should suggest sending at once for Sylvia. She and Eileen could--”
“Never work in the world!” Lavinia exploded. “Oliver detests children.
He won’t let Sylvia have one of her own--even if she wanted it. And
he’d leave her ... if he knew there was such a disgrace in the family.”
“Yes,” Eileen said with bitter scorn, “he was born in Salem, where they
put scarlet letters on women who sin. I guess it’s the river for me.”
“There is another way,” Judith cried, defiant and exultant. “I can take
the baby for my own. I will go away with you, until it’s over, and you
can come back alone, with nobody to know--”
“You mean--” Lavinia Trench stood up, her eyes wild, her throat
swelling--“you mean, marry Larimore and palm the child off as his?”
“That--if no other way can be found. We could go to New York, where the
building of the Sanderson home would provide the necessary explanation.
Eileen might take lessons from Professor Auersbach for several months.
She could come home in a year. I would not return until a child in my
arms would cause no remark.”
David moved to her side and pressed his lips reverently to her brow.
“Daughter,” he murmured, his eyes overflowing.