CROSS FIRE.
Duncan was dressing. It was already five minutes past the hour named for
dinner on his invitation, but if Duncan were not late at dinner, it
would deprive the guests of one stock topic of conversation, and he had
never yet been so inconsiderate. No one waited for him, and when he
finally appeared with some trumped up excuse, it was greeted with a
round of laughter, and served to enliven the naturally trifling _entree_
conversation; so no one,--least of all the hostess,--blamed him. One who
has been in an engine house when an alarm of fire is turned in can form
some idea of Duncan's dressing accomplishments. There were, to be sure,
no clanging gongs, stamping horses, and scurrying, half-dressed men, but
there was the same instantaneous assumption of perfect order out of
bewildering chaos. His servant was his faithful assistant, and when
Duncan's steps were heard upon the stairs, he would seize a shirt in
one hand and a pair of trousers in the other, which he held waiting for
the arrival of his master. Duncan would make a wild rush through the
door, and his top coat, coat and waistcoat would fly across the room at
random, while Parker pulled off one pair of trousers and assisted him on
with another. A dive into a face bath would give Parker time to change
the odds and ends in Duncan's pockets; while on would go the shirt, and
the tie would be adjusted and his hair smoothed while the servant
replaced the muddy boots with evening shoes. Coat and waistcoat would go
on together, hat, umbrella and overcoat be seized, and off Duncan would
start in the official time of three minutes and seventeen seconds.
On the present occasion he desisted from his dressing long enough to
read a small, blue note which he found upon his dressing table. It was
worded as follows: "The coast is clear at nine, and will be so till
after midnight. I will see you if you come." There was no signature or
address. It had been left by a maid in the usual way, so Parker said,
but even unsigned and non-committal as it was, it did not please
Duncan. "I wish I could forget that woman," he muttered to himself. "But
I suppose I will be there and play the fool, just as I always do. I have
a mind to break away from her, though." Then, turning to Parker, he
continued audibly, "I am going to Chicago to-morrow morning. Have my
portmanteau and shirt box packed. You know about what I want, but put in
plenty of shirts as I may be gone some weeks."
"Very good, sir," replied the taciturn Parker. "Hi suppose you will want
your hulster for the journey, sir."
"Yes," replied Duncan; then putting on his coat and hat, and seizing a
pair of gloves and a stick, he rushed down the stairs without stopping
for that apartment elevator which was never running, jumped into the cab
he had left waiting, and was off uptown to his dinner. He was only half
an hour late but his rudeness was punished, for he was placed between a
debutante and a dowager, and condemned for two mortal hours to endure
alternately insipid zephyrs and chilling blasts of small talk.
Stiff-backed chairs were there and stiff-backed people were in them.
Shaded candles threw a flickering light upon a mass of plate and
flowers, bonbons, almonds, fruit and glasses. Around the table was a
circle of bare necks and diamonds, white shirts and ties; and behind the
chairs solemn footmen silently moved from place to place passing the
endless courses. Some of the guests were bright and others solemn; some
brilliant and others stupid; but they were the component parts of a
fashionable dinner. There was a banker, a broker, a yachtsman, a
diplomat, a merchant, and a sprinkling of dawdling men of leisure, and
their wives, daughters, and cousins. The forks rattled and the tongues
clattered, while each strove to hide his inner nature behind an
effective pose. The clever succeeded and the stupid failed. Coffee was
brought; the women arose, a man or two sprawled beneath the table to
find some fan or glove, and then the women filed slowly out to gossip
and dissect their neighbors, and the men remained to drink and smoke and
drink again, while a ribald wag related some choice but scandalous tale,
and ardent sportsmen took sides in vain disputes about the "Poseidon's"
time allowance and "Salvador's" Suburban chances.
Duncan was moodily indisposed for banter or dispute. His buoyant and
careless spirit seldom deserted him, but this dinner only claimed his
presence because his senior partner was the host, and none of his
_intimes_ being there, he fell readily into a state of passive
ill-humor. He dosed over his glass of port, carelessly puffed his cigar
and occasionally proffered an opinion with a superior air incited by his
social ascendency over most of the men present. Duncan Grahame was a man
whose dominant characteristic was assurance, tempered only by an
intuitive knowledge of the social amenities. He was often bold but never
vulgar. He was rude in the manner of most society men, but his rudeness
was a pose prompted by the mannerisms of the age, and designed, as was
his coat, after the latest London model. He possessed the rare fortune
of being considered handsome both by men and women. His beauty was of
the vigorous type, which wins admiration by its manliness rather than
its perfection. His eyes were great, grey wells, which gave to women a
Narcissus-like reflection of their own impulses. They charmed by their
seeming sympathy, but were really the artful tools of conscious power.
To most men's minds curly hair is a blemish which barbers' shears and
bristly brushes may remove, but to women Duncan Grahame's short; crispy
black curls were a seldom failing charm. Although his eyes might deceive
even one who knew the countless evidences of breeding and career, his
mouth, partly hidden by a short moustache, betrayed the hard,
unmistakable markings of indulgence, and a student of life would have
mentally described him by the trite, though significant expression, "a
man of the world." And such was Duncan Grahame,--no better and no worse
than scores whose names adorn the blue books of metropolitan life. There
was once a time, not many years before, when he had been an innocent and
confiding boy. He had gone to school and then to college,--a dangerous
experiment at best, but, with a boy like Duncan, who had been brought up
within the strictness of a Connecticut home and turned upon the world
without a knowledge of it, pretty sure to result as it had turned out in
his case. It was the old story of weakness, ignorance, and a desire to
emulate his upper classmen and be a man. The first step was not taken
without a struggle, but one by one the cards of which the Puritan moral
structure was built were blown away, and, left without support, the
edifice collapsed. What other result could be expected? His Christian
ethics were but the expurgated teachings of the pulpit, tempered by
dogmas and doctrines, and in his home the faintest whisperings of the
real world brought blushes to his parents, and stilted, meaningless
words of warning. His first intimations of worldly ways were gathered
surreptitiously in the streets, and his first knowledge of the nature of
sin came with the temptation. The struggle was brief; perhaps it was as
strong as could be expected; and soon he was the careless, fearless
leader of the mischievous, rollicking set to be found in every college.
He became, he thought, a man, and knew the world. He left college and
after two years in London and Paris came to New York. His family was
excellent, his appearance attractive, his manners good, and his
assurance unbounded,--all that was needed, except money, to win social
success in the metropolis. Money he did not have, but he resolved to
make it, so into Wall Street he went, and was so successful there, that
at the end of three years he became the junior partner of a great
brokerage house and was entrusted with the furtherance of many delicate
schemes. In society he had won his way to a leadership in not the best,
but the best advertised, set in New York. The plunge into the cold
torrent of Wall Street deception was sufficient to chill even a stronger
optimistic ardor than Duncan's, but when he was carried on into the
whirling, flashing eddies of smart society, only to be left shivering
upon the cruel reefs of selfishness and debauchery, every chivalrous
sentiment was gone, and when he gathered courage for the second plunge,
it was as a designing, selfish disciple of utility.
To return to the dinner. The men had left their coffee and cigars and
the lucky ones had singled out attractive adversaries, with whom to
thrust and parry bright, sharp phrases in those exhilarating
practice-bouts of love, sure to precede the desperate encounters where
mask and buttoned foil are cast aside. Others, to whom fortune was less
kind, were striving to cull from unsympathetic neighbors some evidences
of interest and intelligence, or had resigned themselves to the
melancholy fate of being bored. Duncan wandered restlessly about awhile.
He found no one to interest him, and being too selfish deliberately to
resign himself to another dowager, he remembered that his intended
journey to the West offered a plausible reason for retiring, so, making
his excuses to the hostess, he took his departure, feeling, as he folded
his muffler about his neck and buttoned his great-coat, that for a
successful dinner more depends on the choice of guests than the choice
of wines.
The little blue note found upon his dressing table turned his steps
still farther uptown. The thaw of the afternoon was over; it was
snowing, and cold blasts blew the flakes against his face, biting his
cheeks and chilling his humor, so that when he had trudged the three
squares he had to go, he felt the ill-temper which a raw wind invariably
produces in one whose moods change with the barometer. He approached the
particular flight of brown stone steps he sought, and observing that
the street both ways was free from passers, and that the curtains of the
adjoining houses were drawn, he ascended and rang the bell; a servant
soon opened the door and he entered quickly. The door closed, and,
instead of darkness and snowflake blasts, there was warmth and light,
and a pretty woman standing just inside the drawing-room door, murmuring
playfully in a soft tone: "Duncan, you cold, naughty fellow, I was
willing to lay a dozen bottles of Houbigant that this wind would have
blown away what little was left of your flighty heart."
"Don't chaff me. I'm in no mood for it. I wish you had sat out a stupid
dinner and afterward had tramped three blocks in the snow."
"I actually believe that the usually serene nature of Mr. Duncan Grahame
is a trifle, that is to say only a trifle, ruffled," she ironically
replied. "I fancied that while Henry Stokes Osgood, Esquire, whom the
laws designate my lord and master, was attending the Yacht Club
election, Mr. Grahame might deign to amuse me. If I was not mistaken,
his lordship, when he has removed his outer garments, can find me in the
back drawing-room."
Duncan was left standing in the hallway. He had silently permitted her
to retire because he had been unable to find a ready reply to her words.
He had made up his mind to be disagreeable, and it angered him to have
his guns silenced after the first fire.
He was in the habit of bullying women, but such tactics had invariably
proved useless against Helen Osgood. When he was away from her he felt
ashamed to think that her's was the stronger nature. He fancied, at
times, that he did not care for her, and was resolved for policy's sake
to break away from her influence, but each attempt of his to anger her,
instead of producing tears and pleadings, ended, as he feared this
would, in a meek surrender on his part. "That woman understands me," he
muttered as he removed his great-coat. He was never sure of his ability
to read her subtle blue-black eyes; even her soft, olive cheeks never
changed their delicate shading, and her thin, languid lips were often
determined and cold. Her hair was of a lustreless black, and her figure
was delicately, but superbly, formed. She was the blended type of Celt
and Creole, her father being Scotch and her mother of Louisiana French
descent. In her the cold cunning of the North bridled the reckless
warmth of the South. Her acts were prompted by impulse but masked by
design, and if Duncan seemed at times to reach her Southern heart, the
canny Scotch nature quickly veiled her feelings, and he was left at a
loss to know whether he had inspired passion or merely aroused
amusement.
But it was not his nature to analyze deeply or reflect long. He removed
his coat, walked slowly down the long hallway, and entered the back
drawing-room door. Mrs. Osgood was gracefully ensconced in the corner of
a divan from the Orient, and her eyes were fixed apparently upon the
latest work of Paul Bourget. A tall, bronze lamp was at her side and its
rays were tempered by a carefully selected shade of the most becoming
tinge. The other lights were dimmed, and beyond could be seen the
subdued forms of graceful plants, while beneath her feet the yielding
fur of an Arctic bear half hid two tiny bronze-tipped slippers and just
enough of scarlet silk.
Duncan stood silently before her. Uncurbed natures are the most
capricious, and as he gazed his anger turned to admiration, and he
softly sat down beside her, took her hand, and said winningly, "Nell,
dear, let's be friends."
She pushed him away, and with a quick, proud toss of her head coldly
said, "Not till my lord Duncan has humbly sued for pardon."
"Pardon for what?"
"For intended flight to the West without permission and leave-taking."
"Am I not, then, the master of my actions?" Duncan replied in a somewhat
ruffled tone.
"Not if you expect my favor." Then, lowering her large, black eyes, and
pointing authoritatively to the floor, she continued: "Down on your
knees and confess you were attempting to act without my knowledge."
Duncan started angrily. He was nettled at the tone of authority she
assumed, so he replied: "I will do nothing of the kind. I see no reason
why my actions should be accounted to, much less pardoned by, you."
"You big, foolish fellow," she laughingly said. "You have been spoilt by
women. You expect that a declaration of independence delivered with so
much bluster will anger me. Down on your knees and ask forgiveness."
Duncan jumped to his feet and paced the floor. He was too angry to speak
at first, but he finally said in defiant tones: "I should think that my
intended departure without your being informed of it, would be
sufficient to advise you that your possible feelings on the subject were
of supreme indifference to me."
"Indeed!" she replied, carelessly tossing aside the Bourget novel. "So I
am to infer that Mr. Duncan Grahame, being weary of the woman upon whom
he has previously pretended to bestow his favors, imagines that the
easiest, and of course the most manly, way to rid himself of her is
surreptitiously to steal away and leave her to discover his change of
heart as best she can. Very well, so be it. But I really wish you would
not molest that poor bear's head with the toe of your boot. If you have
no regard for me, you should, at least, consider the feelings of my
rug."
She quietly commenced reading her book, and the careless and continued
tapping of the little bronze-toed slipper on the rug seemed to emphasize
her apparently complete absorption in the words of the French romancer.
There is no man--or woman either--who will not chafe under the strain of
indifference, and Duncan was no exception to the rule. Open war he
relished, but to be dismissed with peremptory coldness when he had
intended to be the aggressor was humiliating to the strongest sentiment
of his nature, his pride. He silently watched her, trying, meanwhile, to
formulate some plan of action. Angry words rose to his lips but were
checked by prudence. He had lost his temper too much, he thought. His
eyes carelessly wandered toward the book she was reading; "Coeur de
femme" were the words printed across the yellow cover leaf. "If that
Frenchman understands his subject," he thought, "she will read somewhere
in that book that a woman's heart adores its master and detests its
slave. Bourget is an analyst of nature, they say. Could he teach me
more than that submission can never be success. Thank you, Monsieur
Bourget; your yellow cover has given me an idea." Then, assuming an air
of mock humility, he said: "I have been waiting to hear if you have
anything further to add to your discharge."
She slowly raised her eyes from her book and said coolly, "Nothing
whatever. I think you understand me perfectly; if you are satisfied I
am." Then she turned again to the book, apparently vexed at the
interruption.
"Very well," he replied. "Since the understanding is mutually perfect,
please accept the conventional expressions of leave taking, and permit
me to say 'adieu'."
"That is a favor you can easily obtain," she replied. "But pray spare me
the task of calling a servant; this book is intensely amusing, and I
feel sure you know all the doors of the house."
"By Jove, you are a keen one," Duncan muttered to himself; then he
slowly walked to the door, put on his coat, took his hat, turned up his
collar, opened the door, and descended the steps. "That woman," he
thought, "is a sportsman to the bone, but it will do her good to leave
her for a while. She's a thoroughbred, though, and I wish I didn't love
her."
Mrs. Osgood listened quietly until the door had shut and the sound of
his steps had died away. "So he expected me to act like a school-girl,"
she said, half aloud. "Some women are fools, I suppose. I am glad he did
not bluster any more. I hate a man who loses his temper. So, Mr. Duncan,
you want to leave me. You have my permission; but you will soon be back,
and then perhaps you will hear me tell you that I--no you won't, for I
want to keep your handsome, curly head all for myself."