With Irene's farewell note in his pocket and ever present to his mind,
Mostyn spent the remainder of the morning on which it was received
mechanically instructing the elated Delbridge in his rival's new duties
at the bank as its future president. At noon he tore himself away,
plunging again into the streets, there even more fully to face himself
and his coming humiliation. The hot, busy thoroughfares, steaming under
the water sprayed upon them by trundling sprinkling-carts, were a
veritable bedlam--canons of baked pavements and heartless walls of
brick and mortar, plate glass and glaring gilt signs. Cries of
newsboys--and cheerful, happy cries they were--fell on his ears in
sounds so incongruous to his mood that they pierced his soul like
hurled javelins of steel. The affairs of the world, once so
fascinating, were moving on; a juggernaut of a thousand wheels was
rumbling toward him. He drew near his club. On the wide veranda, in
easy-chairs, smoking and reading newspapers, sat several of his
friends. He started to turn in on the walk which bisected the beautiful
greensward, but quailed under the ordeal. How could he exchange
platitudes, discuss politics, market-reports, or listen to new jokes?
He walked on, catching the eye of a friend and saluting with a wave of
his cane. He decided that he would go to his sister's for lunch, but he
was not sure that he would reveal his woe even to her.
He found Mrs. Moore in her cozy library, a handkerchief over her head,
dusting the furniture.
"Got anything to eat?" he asked, seating himself on a divan and
watching her movements with a bland stare.
"Will have in a few minutes." She turned on him, laying her duster on a
book-case and removing her handkerchief. "I really believe there is
something in thought-transference, Dick, for I felt that you were
coming. But I don't know that this is a fair test, either, for it may
have been because I knew Irene was away."
"How did you happen to know that?" he asked, in dumb, creeping
surprise. "She left rather--suddenly." She smiled knowingly. "If you
want me to be frank, I'll say that it is because your doddering
father-in-law is getting to be worse than a gossipy old maid. He was
around here an hour ago. He tried to be sly and throw me off, but I saw
through him. He said Irene had left for Mrs. Hardy's house-party. There
wasn't anything in that alone, you know, to make him bother to come
around, for she certainly goes when and where she likes, but it was the
way the silly old man went about what he was trying to discover. He
asked me if I knew who had gone from here--the men in particular; and
then I saw his hand. He wanted to find out if Andy Buckton went. He
beat about the bush for a long time with a crazy, nervous stare in his
eyes, and as soon as I told him I did not know he rose to leave. Irene
is no doubt acting imprudently, as many of her set do, but if she
doesn't look out her own father will start talk that never can be
stopped."
Mostyn suddenly rose, walked to a window, and looked out.
"What time do you have luncheon?" He glanced at his watch. Mrs. Moore
made no reply. She suddenly fixed a curious, groping stare on him and
moved to his side.
"Dick, what has happened?" she demanded, touching his arm.
"Nothing," he answered. "I've been busy; I'm tired. I thought a cup of
strong coffee might--"
Her fingers clutched his arm. "Out with it, Dick. Something has gone
wrong at the bank. You are in trouble again. You've been plunging. I
feel it. I see it in your eyes. I have never seen you look like this
before. You haven't a bit of blood in your face." She grasped his hand,
stroking his fingers. "Why, you are actually cold. What is the matter?
What is the matter, brother? You can trust me."
He avoided her eyes, going back to the divan and sinking upon it. "You
may as well know," he blurted out, in desperation. "Irene and Buckton
have gone off together."
"No, no, no! Don't tell me that!" The woman paled; her lower lip fell
and hung trembling. "You have heard gossip, as I have, and as every one
has, and in your excited frame of mind--"
He told her of the note from Irene. He started to take it from his
pocket, but changed his mind, recalling the allusion to Marie Winship,
and not having energy enough to explain it.
"Lord have mercy!" she gasped. She sat down by him, her hand on his
knee, her horrified eyes glued to his. "It is awful! I didn't think she
would go that far--nobody did, because she refused him when she married
you. I wish I could advise you, but there is nothing to be done now. Of
course, she left the child."
"Yes, I'd have killed her if she had taken him. I would, by God! He's
all I've got."
"And worse than motherless," Mrs. Moore sighed. "It is awful--awful!
Irene is crazy for excitement and novelty. She has been getting worse
and worse. She thinks she loves Andy Buckton, but she doesn't. She
never loved any one but herself in her life. Mark my words, she will
leave him. She will tire of him. She will never stand the disgrace of
the thing, either. She has been petted all her life by society, and its
cold shoulder will kill her. What a tragedy! But she brought it on
herself."
"She didn't!" he said, grimly. "I had a hand in it. Her father had a
hand in it. She was a straw in a mad stream. I can't blame her. I can't
even be angry. I pity her. I'd save her if I could, but it is too late.
The insane set that helped to wreck her life will chuckle and grin now."
A musical gong in the dining-room sounded softly.
"That's luncheon," Mrs. Moore said. "Let's go out. Do you want to run
up and wash your hands?"
He shook his head dumbly, looking at his splayed fingers with the
vacant stare of an invalid just recovering consciousness. "I want only
the coffee; make it strong, please. I really am not hungry. The thought
of food, somehow, is sickening. I've worked hard this morning."
Late that afternoon, still shrinking under his weighty secret, he went
home. The slanting rays of the setting sun lay like kindling flames on
the grass of the lawn. He saw little Dick and Hilda seated on the
lowest step of the veranda; and, seeing him entering the gate, the
child rose and slowly limped toward him.
"Dick got a stomach-ache," the boy said, a wry look on his rather
sallow and pinched face.
Mostyn paused and bent down. "Where does it hurt you?" he asked,
automatically, for the complaint seemed a slight thing compared to the
tragedy lowering over them both.
"It's here, Daddy." Dick put his little tapering hand on his right side.
"He eats too many sweet things," the nurse said, coming up. "He's been
complainin' of his stomach for the last week, but he will eat what he
oughtn't to. I've got some good stomach medicine. I'm goin' to dose 'im
well to-night an' make 'im stay out o' the kitchen. The cook lets him
have everything he wants."
"Give him the medicine, and tell the cook she must stop feeding him."
Mostyn took the boy in his arms and started on to the house. "You will
stop eating trash, won't you, Dick?" The child nodded, worming his
fingers through his father's hair. He took off Mostyn's hat, put it on
his bonny head, and laughed faintly. Reaching the veranda, Mostyn
turned him over to Hilda, who said she was going to give him a bath and
put him to bed. When they had gone Mostyn went into the library. The
great portrait-hung room in the shadows seemed a dreary, accusing
place, and he was turning to leave when the rustling of a newspaper and
a little nasal snort called his attention to a high-backed chair of the
wing type in which his father-in-law reclined and was just waking from
a nap.
"Oh, is that you?" Mitchell yawned and stretched his arms. "I was
wondering when you'd get here. I've been to the gate several times."
"Anything you want?" Mostyn regretted the impulsive question the
instant the words had been spoken.
The old man put his hands on the arms of the chair and stood up,
feebly. "Yes, I want to know if your wife has written or telegraphed
you since she got to Knoxville?"
"No," Mostyn thought rapidly, "but--but I hardly expected her to. She
doesn't usually when she is away."
"It is the very Old Nick in you both!" Mitchell sniffed. "I don't
expect you to know or care what she's up to; but I'm her own flesh and
blood, and supposed to be interested more or less. Home is lonely
enough when she is here in town, without her being off so much.
Besides, I know some things--humph! Well, I'm no fool, if I _am_ a back
number. To-day I made it my business to inquire if a certain party--you
know who I mean--was in town. I knew in reason that he wouldn't be, but
I just asked to satisfy my mind. Do you get at my meaning, sir?"
"I think I do." Mostyn's own words seemed to him to come from the heavy
folds of the portiere hiding the desolate drawing-room beyond.
"I thought you would." The retort was all but a snarl. "And, do you
know, when I asked some of his friends about the club if they knew, I
caught them looking at one another in an odd sort of way with twinkles
in their eyes? Oh no, they didn't know where he was. But I found out,
all the same. I met his mother down-town. She said he had gone on a
hurried trip to Norfolk. You can see through that, can't you? I can, if
you can't. Knoxville is on the way to Norfolk. The two are at that
party together; and, not only that, I'll bet this whole town knows it.
That ought to be stopped. I know my daughter, if you don't, sir. She is
not acting right. She has plunged into pleasure and excitement till she
doesn't know what she wants. A new string of diamonds wouldn't amuse
her a minute. This giddy, fast life has actually cursed her. The other
night I caught her taking morphine tablets to make her sleep--said
she'd lie awake and think till morning if she didn't. She hasn't
contracted the habit yet, but she can easy enough if she keeps it up.
She takes a bottle of them wherever she goes. When I was young, a woman
who was a mother of a child like hers loved it, nursed it, petted it,
got natural joy out of it; but Irene seldom speaks to Dick, and he
doesn't care for her any more than for a stranger, but he loves
you--God only knows why, but he does. It is 'Daddy, Daddy, Daddy' with
nearly every breath he draws."
Mostyn felt a force within him rising and expanding. A sob lodged in
his tight throat and pained him. He was grateful for the deepening
shadows, for the droning prattle from the old lips. He sank into a
chair. The droning continued, sounding far off. A thousand incidents
and faces (smiling and blending) sprang upon him out of the past--the
happy, irresponsible past, the seductive, confident, ambitious past.
Surely Fate was a mental entity, capable of crafty design against the
heedless young. He remembered the vows of chastity and honor he had
made during a revival in a country church under a blazing faith. He
recalled how soon they were forgotten, how sure he was, later on, that
Nature's physical laws were the highest known. Man was made to live,
enjoy, and conquer all if he could. And he had succeeded. He had become
rich and prosperous. Next he found his memory swimming through that
black period of satiated desire and disgust of self.
"I wish folks would not mix _me_ up with your private matters." The
words rose sharply from the senile prattle and penetrated Mostyn's
lethargy. "There's old Jeff Henderson--he had the cheek to come to me
to-day to borrow money. Said his family was in rags and starving. Said
you euchred him out of all he had and got your start on it. What in the
name of common sense does he come to _me_ for? I don't own you, and I
knew nothing about that transaction, either. I reckon he's going crazy,
but that doesn't keep him from bothering me."
Seeing the futility of explaining a thing he had many times explained,
Mostyn rose. Before him the open doorway framed an oblong patch of calm
gray sky, and toward it he moved, his mental hands impotently
outstretched, a soundless cry welling up from the depths of himself.