Later in the day Laura came to the apartment. It was a dreary February
morning and the outlook from the front windows was bleak and cheerless.
Eileen had sat for an hour contemplating the waste of sullen water,
and Judith had let her alone. She was thinking things out. She would
come to her sister for help when she needed it. At times the older
woman could follow her thought process by an intuition that was almost
uncanny. This morning not a glimmer of light came through. Scarcely had
Mrs. Ramsay disposed of her furs and selected her favourite rocker when
the girl began, her face whiter than usual and her lips compressed:
“Judith, I am going to tell her. I can’t go on feeling like a dirty
sneak.”
“You--what, Eileen?” Laura asked, her hazel eyes opening in wonder.
“May I, Judith? You know what I mean.”
“If you feel that it is right, dear. You know how it looks to you.”
“Then here goes! Mrs. Ramsay, you and your husband have been perfectly
splendid to me--and I owe it to you, not to have you go on this way any
longer. As far as your mother is concerned--she’s been a darling; but
I’ve paid that with my violin. I don’t need to tell her. But I do need
to tell you that I am not Mrs. Winthrop, and my husband didn’t drown
in that Alaska steamship disaster. I am Eileen Trench--and I never had
a husband....” She set her teeth hard, then went on heroically: “There
won’t be any name for the baby that comes, the first of May.”
“Eileen, are you mad! Judith, what has come over the girl?”
“No. It’s just cold facts. I’m not twenty years. I’ll be seventeen, the
last of March. Long before I was sixteen I was crazy mad in love with
a man. It was mostly my fault--that he wasn’t the hero I made him out,
I mean. We were engaged and we talked things over--things that aren’t
safe for a girl and a man to talk about before they are married. I
don’t need to tell you the rest.”
“And the contemptible cur deserted you?”
“Not exactly ... deserted. When we found out, he said at first that he
would be loyal, and would marry me after he got through with college.
To save my reputation, he wanted me to commit murder.”
“What did you say to him? How did you answer the cad?”
“I blacked his eye.”
The words fell cold and mirthless.
“I was going to kill myself, but Judith wouldn’t let me. She married
Lary, so that they could take--”
Laura Ramsay’s usually placid face took on an expression of intense
emotion. She rose to her feet and walked hurriedly to the window.
“If you are going to cut me off--well, that’s all the more reason why
I had to tell you,” Eileen said, following her. “It’s what I have to
expect.”
“But I don’t intend to cut you off, child. Judith, why couldn’t I do
for her what I did in Nelka’s case? Especially if it turns out to be a
little girl. Junior is wild for a sister--and it’s the only way I can
hope to get one for him. And of course I’d be game, if it were another
boy. Won’t you, Judith? I’m sure Griff would approve. Why--why, Eileen,
what is the matter?”
The girl had flung herself on her knees, her face in Judith’s lap,
her slender body shaken with sobs. When the paroxysm had passed, she
slipped to the floor and sat looking from one to the other with a wry
smile.
“There is only one stumbling block in the way, Mrs. Ramsay--and that’s
_me_. Judith and I are going to the sanitarium, the middle of April.
After the baby comes, I am to hand it over to her and forget about it.
Why, I can’t. I croon over it every night, in my dreams. When I’m wide
awake, I see him, a splendid man, thrilling audiences with his violin.
Wouldn’t I lose my head, some day--go raving mad and tell the whole
thing?”
“All the more reason why it should be in the nursery, out at Rye, where
you wouldn’t see it. Boy or girl, you must let me have it. The child
will be a musical genius,” Laura cried, her eyes beaming with expectant
mother-pride.