The young lawyer was to call at eight o'clock. Mrs. Balfame put on her
best black blouse in his honour; it was cut low about the throat and
softened with a rolling collar of hemstitched white lawn. This was as
far in the art of sex allurement as she was prepared to go; the bare
idea of a negligee of white lace and silk, warmed by rose-colored
shades, would have filled her with cold disgust. She was not a religious
woman, but she had her standards.
At a quarter of eight she made a careful inspection of the lower rooms;
sleuths, professional and amateur, would not hesitate to sneak into her
house and listen at keyholes. She inferred that the house was under
surveillance, for she had looked from her window several times and seen
the same man sauntering up and down that end of the avenue. No doubt
some one watched the back doors also.
Convinced that her home was still sacrosanct, she placed two chairs at a
point in the parlour farthest from the doors leading into the hall, and
into a room beyond which Mr. Balfame had used as an office. The doors,
of course, would be open throughout the interview. No one should be able
to say that she had shut herself up with a young man; on the other hand,
it was the duty of the deceased husband's lawyer to call on the widow.
Even if those young devils discovered that she had telephoned for him,
what more regular than that she should wish to consult her lawyer after
such insinuations?
Rush arrived as the town clock struck eight. Frieda, who answered the
door in her own good time, surveyed him suspiciously through a narrow
aperture to which she applied one eye.
"What you want?" she growled. "Mrs. Balfame she have seen all the
reporters already yet."
"Let the gentleman in," called Mrs. Balfame from the parlour. "This is a
friend of my late husband."
Rush was permitted to enter. He was a full minute disposing of his hat
and overcoat in the hall, while Frieda dragged her heelless slippers
back to the kitchen and slammed the door. His own step was not brisk as
he left the hall for the parlour, and his face, always colourless,
looked thin and haggard. Mrs. Balfame, as she rose and gave him her
hand, asked solicitously:
"Are you under the weather? How seedy you look. I wondered why you had
not called--"
"A touch of the grippe. Felt all in for a day or two, but am all right
now. And although I have been very anxious to see you, I had made up my
mind not to call unless you sent for me."
"Well, I sent for you professionally," she retorted coolly. "You don't
suppose I took your love making seriously."
He flushed dully, after the manner of men with thick fair skins, and his
hard blue eyes lost their fire as he stared at her. It was
incomprehensible that she could misunderstand him.
"It was serious enough to me. I merely stayed away, because, having
spoken as I did, I--well, I cannot very well explain. You will remember
that I made you promise to send for me if you were in trouble--"
"I remembered!" She felt his rebuke obscurely. "It never occurred to me
to send for any one else."
"Thank you for that."
"Did you mean anything but politeness when you said that you had been
anxious to see me?"
He hesitated, but he had already made up his mind that the time had come
to put her on her guard. Besides, he inferred that she had begun herself
to appreciate her danger.
"You have read the newspapers. You saw the reporters this afternoon. Of
course you must have guessed that they hope for a sensational trial with
you as the heroine."
"How can men--_men_--be such heartless brutes?"
"Ask the public. Even that element that believes itself to be select and
would not touch a yellow paper devours a really interesting crime in
high life. Never mind that now. Let us get down to brass tacks. They
want to fix the crime on you. How are they going to manage it? That is
the question for us. Tell me exactly what they said, what they made you
say."
Mrs. Balfame gave him so circumstantial an account of the interview that
he looked at her in admiration, although his rigid American face, that
looked so strong, turned paler still.
"What a splendid witness you would make!" He stared at the carpet for a
moment, then flashed his eyes upward much as Broderick had done. "Tell
me," he said softly, "is there anything you withheld from them? You know
how safe you are with me. But I must be in a position to advise you what
to say and to leave unsaid--if the worst comes."
"You mean if I am arrested?" She had a moment of complete naturalness,
and stared at him wildly. He leaned forward and patted her hand.
"Anything is possible in a case like this. But you have nothing to fear.
Now, will you tell me--"
"Do you think I did it?"
"I know that you did not. But I think you know something about it."
"It would cast no light on the mystery. He was shot from that grove on a
pitch dark night, and that is all there is to it."
"Let me be the judge of that."
"Very well. I had put out my light--upstairs--and, as I was nervous, I
looked out of the window to see if Dave was coming. I so longed to have
him come--and go! Then I happened to glance in the direction of the
grove, and I saw some one sneaking about there--"
"Yes!" He half rose, his eyes expanding, his nostrils dilating. "Go on.
Go on."
"I told you I was nervous--wrought up from that dreadful scene at the
club. I just felt like an adventure! I slipped down stairs and out of
the house by the kitchen door--Frieda takes the key of the back hall
door on Saturday nights--thinking I would watch the burglar; of course
that was what I thought he must be; and I knew that Dave would be along
in a minute--"
"How long was this after he telephoned? It would take him some time to
walk from Cummack's; and he didn't leave at once--"
"Oh, quite a while after. I was sure then that he would be along in a
minute or two. Well--it may seem incredible to you, but I really felt
as if excitement of that dangerous sort would be a relief."
"I understand perfectly." Rush spoke with the fatuousness of man who
believes that love and complete comprehension of the object beloved are
natural corollaries. "But--but that is not the sort of story that goes
down with a jury of small farmers and trades-people. They don't know
much about your sort of nerves. But go on."
"Well, I managed to get into the grove without being either seen or
heard by that man. I am sure of that. He moved round a good deal, and I
thought he was feeling about for some point from which he could make a
dart for the house. Then I heard Dave in Dawbarn Street, singing. Then I
saw him under the lamp-post. After that it all happened so quickly I can
hardly recall it clearly enough to describe. The man near me crouched. I
can't tell you what I thought then--if I knew he was going to shoot--or
why I didn't cry out. Almost before I had time to think at all, he
fired, and Dave went down."
"But what about that other bullet? Are you sure there was no one else in
the grove?"
"There may have been a dozen. I heard some one running afterwards; there
may have been more than one."
"Did you have a pistol?" He spoke very softly. "Don't be afraid to tell
me. It might easily have gone off accidentally--or something deeper than
your consciousness may have telegraphed an imperious message to your
hand."
But Mrs. Balfame, like all artificial people, was intensely secretive,
and only delivered herself of the unvarnished truth when it served her
purpose best. She gave a little feminine shudder. "I never kept a pistol
in the house. If I had, it would have been empty--just something to
flourish at a burglar."
"Ah--yes. I was going to say that I was glad of that, but I don't know
that it matters. If you had taken a revolver out that night, loaded or
otherwise, and confessed to it, you hardly could have escaped arrest by
this time, even if it were a .38. And if you confessed to going out into
the dark to stalk a man without one--that would make your adventure look
foolhardy and purposeless--"
It was evident that he was thinking aloud. She interrupted him sharply:
"But you believe me?"
"I believe every word you say. The more differently you act from other
women, the more natural you seem to me. But I think you were dead right
in suppressing the episode. It leads nowhere and would incriminate you."
"It may come out yet. That is why I sent for you, not because I was
afraid of those reporters. Frieda was on the backstairs that night when
I came in. I thought I heard a sound and called out. I told Anna that
night and she questioned Frieda indirectly and was satisfied that she
had heard nothing, for although she had come home early with a
toothache, she was suffering so intensely that she wouldn't have heard
if the shot had been fired under her window. So I dismissed such
misgivings as I had from my mind. But just after those reporters left
she came up to my room and told me that she saw me come in, and tried to
blackmail me for five hundred dollars. I soon made her admit that she
had not seen me; but she heard me, no doubt of that. I explained
logically why I was there--after a drink of water, and that I called out
to her because I thought I heard some one try the door--but if those
reporters get hold of her--"
His face looked very grim. "That is bad, bad. By the way, why didn't you
run to Balfame? That would seem the natural thing--"
"I was suddenly horribly afraid. I think I knew he was dead and I didn't
want to go near _that_. I ran like a dog back to its kennel."
"It was a feminine enough thing to do." For the first time he smiled,
and his voice, which had insensibly grown inquisitorial, softened once
more. "It was a dreadful position to find oneself in and no mistake.
Your instinct was right. If you had been found bending over him--still,
as you had no weapon--"
"I think on the whole it would have been better to have gone to him. Of
course that is what I should have done if I had loved him. As it was, I
ran as far from him as I could get--"
"Well, don't let us waste time discussing the ought to have beens.
Unless some one can prove that you were out that night, the whole
incident must be suppressed. If you are arrested on any trumped up
charge--and the district attorney is keener than the reporters--you must
stick to your story. By the way, why didn't you tell the reporters that
Frieda was in the house about the time the shot was fired?"
"I had forgotten. The house has been full of people; the neighbourhood
has lived here; I have noticed her no more than if she were as wooden as
she looks."
"Do you think she did it?"
"I wish I could. But she would not have had time to get into the house
before I did. And the footsteps were running toward the lane at the back
of the grounds."
"She is one of the swiftest dancers down in that hall where she goes
with her crowd every Saturday night. I have been doing a little
sleuthing on my own account, but I can't connect her up with Balfame."
"He wouldn't have looked at her."
"You never can tell. A man will often look quite hard at whatever
happens to be handy. But she doesn't appear to have any sweetheart,
although she's been in the country for four years. She is intimate in
the home of Old Dutch and goes about with young Conrad, but he is
engaged to some one else. All the boys like to dance with her. She left
the hall suddenly and ran home--ostensibly wild with a toothache. If she
hid in the grove to kill Balfame she could have got into the house
before you did. What was she doing on the stair, anyway?"
"I didn't ask her."
"She may have been too out of breath to answer you. Or too wary. Those
other footsteps--they may have been those of an accomplice; the man who
fired the other pistol."
"But I would have seen her running ahead of me."
"Not necessarily. It was very dark. Your mind was stunned. You may have
hesitated longer than you know before making for the house. One is
liable to powerful inhibitions in great crises. Where is the girl? I
think I'll have her in."
He walked the floor nervously while Mrs. Balfame went out to the
kitchen. Frieda was sitting by the stove knitting. Commanded to come to
the parlour, her little eyes almost closed, but she followed Mrs.
Balfame and confronted Rush, who stood in the middle of the room looking
tall and formidable.
"I am Mrs. Balfame's lawyer," he said without preamble. "She sent for me
because you tried to blackmail her. What were you doing on the stairs
when you heard Mrs. Balfame in the kitchen? You left the dance hall
sometime before eight, and that could not have been more than five
minutes past."
Frieda pressed her big lips together in a hard line.
"Oh, you won't speak. Well, if you don't explain to me, you will to the
Grand Jury to-morrow. Or I shall get out a warrant to-night for your
arrest as the murderer of David Balfame."
"Gott!" The girl's face was almost purple. She raised her knitting
needles with a threatening gesture that was almost dramatic. "I did not
do it. She has done it."
"What were you doing on the stairs?"
"I would heat water for my tooth."
"Cold water is the thing for an ulcerated tooth."
"I never have the toothache like that already. I am in my room many
minutes before I think I go down. Then, when I am on the stairs I hear
Mrs. Balfame come in."
"She has explained what you heard."
"No, she have not. I think so when we have talked this evening, but not
now. She is--was, I mean, all out of her breath."
"I was terrified." Mrs. Balfame retorted so promptly that Rush flashed
her a glance of admiration. Here was a woman who could take care of
herself on the witness stand. "First I thought I heard some one trying
to get into the door, and then some one sneaking up the stairs."
"Oh--yes." Frieda's tones expressed no conviction. "The educated lady
can think very quick. But I say that she have come in by the door, the
kitchen door. Always I take the key to the hall door. She know that, and
as she not know that I am in, she go out by the kitchen door. Always in
the daytime when she goes to the yard she go by the hall door."
"What a pity you did not slam the door when you came in. It would have
been quite natural as you were in such agony." Rush spoke sarcastically,
but he was deeply perturbed. It was impossible to tell whether the girl
was telling the truth or a carefully rehearsed story.
"Of course you know that if you tell that story to the police you will
get yourself into serious trouble."
"I get her into trouble."
"Mrs. Balfame is above suspicion. It is not my business to warn you, or
to defeat the ends of the law, of which apparently you know nothing--"
"I know someting. Last night I have tell Herr Kraus; and he say that
since I have told the coroner I know notings, much better I touch the
lady for five hundert and go home."
"O-h-h! That is the advice Old Dutch gave you! Splendid! I think the
best thing I can do is to have you arrested bright and early to-morrow
morning. Mrs. Balfame is cleared already. You may go."
She stared at him for a moment out of eyes that spat fire like two
little guns in the top of a fort; then she swung herself about and
retreated to the kitchen.
"That ought to make her disappear to-night. Her friends will hide her.
The mere fact of her disappearance will convince the police, as well as
the reporters, that she is guilty. You are all right." He spoke
boyishly, and his face, no longer rigid, was full of light.
"But if she is innocent?"
"No harm done. She'll be smuggled out of the country and suspicion
permanently diverted from you. That is all I care about." He caught her
hands impulsively in his. "I am glad, so glad! Oh!--It is too soon now,
but wait--" He was out of the house before she grasped the fact that he
had arrested himself on the brim of another declaration.
Mrs. Balfame went up to bed, serene once more in the belief that her
future was her own, unclouded, full of attractive possibilities for a
woman of her position and intellectual attainments.
She made up her mind to take a really deep course of reading, so that
the most spiteful should not call her superficial; moreover, she had
been conscious more than once of certain mental dissatisfactions, of
uneasy vacancies in a mind sufficiently awake to begin to realise the
cheapness of its furnishings. Perhaps she would take a course in history
at Columbia, another in psychology.
As she put herself into a sturdy cotton night-gown and then brushed back
her hair from a rather large forehead before braiding it severely for
the night, she realised dimly that that way happiness might lie, that
the pleasures of the intellectual life might be very great indeed. She
wished regretfully that she could have been brilliantly educated in her
youth. In that case she would not have married a man who would incite
any spirited woman to seek the summary release, but would be to-day the
wife of a judge, perhaps--some fine fellow who had showed the early
promise that Dwight Rush must have done. If she could attract one man
like that, at the age of forty-two, she could have had a dozen in her
train when young if she had had the sense to appreciate them.
But she was philosophical, and it was not her way to quarrel very deeply
with herself or with life. Her long braids were as evenly plaited as
ever.
She sank into sleep, thinking of the disagreeable necessity of making
the kitchen fire in the morning and cooking her own breakfast. Frieda of
course would be gone.