"Come in,"--Helen turns and faces her dressing room door as Braine
enters.
"Not abed yet?" he says with a smile, taking her face between his hands,
with the old, familiar action.
She puts her hands on his shoulders, and looks intently into his eyes,
as he drops on his knees by the side of her chair. Longing, worship,
anxiety, hesitancy are in her face. Braine smiles at her, and says in
interrogation of her steady scrutiny:
"Yes, what is it?"
Her hands slip from his shoulders to her lap, where he clasps his own
gently over them. She smiles at him a little wistfully and says nothing.
Braine is the lover in every glance, every gesture and attitude at these
moments when they two are alone. Indeed, his love for her seems to have
gained in intensity.
They have been in the Washington house for many weeks. Braine has been
absorbingly occupied with schemes of business and politics every moment,
save one like this, snatched now and then, when he seems to forget the
whole universe in remembering this beautiful woman.
His love finds small expression in words, but much in a caress, a
radiant joy of countenance instead.
After a long study of the face of the woman gazing so steadily at the
fire in front of her, he says, anxiously, with a caress of voice and
hand:
"You are not well, dearest? You look a little worn to-night."
She slowly withdraws her gaze from the coals, and turns her face towards
him. There is an abstraction in the action. She says in a tone that
indicates that her thoughts are on something else:
"Not well? Oh yes--yes," looking back at the fire. After a while he
says, still watching her face:
"You are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. It is not in the
regularity of your features, but in the soul that radiates from even the
tips of your fingers," touching the white, passive hands reverently.
"What woman so made for honor and glory! In a little year or two!"
He pauses, then continues in a low, passionate tone: "In a little year
or two you shall have all in your hands. Women shall envy you and men
shall reverence you. This first season shall make the road to success
clear and direct. This winter will decide all. If it were not for you, I
should be helpless, powerless, absolutely without belief in myself or
the future. My ventures, so far, have been gigantic; I do not know that
I could have taken one step without your presence, and the thought of
you to stimulate me, and banish all fear of failure. My schemes for the
future are desperate--and I shall win."
He is quivering in every limb. There is a fierce energy in his low
tones. The nervous fire of this man's nature seldom flames save in these
moments, with this woman. He has spoken the last words looking
confidently in her face.
She listens without making any sign. Her lips are pressed tightly
together. Braine goes on in his monologue--his words spoken with a
clearness of utterance which has made him remarkable in public speech,
and has an awesome impressiveness about it.
"It will be _you_ who will have done it all. I shall look at you,
commanding the homage of these people, and think great thoughts. I shall
look at you, and be able to speak them. You will be ever at my side,
thinking with me; both working for a common end.
"This social and political debut means all. It is by our mutual
desires--the sympathy of each in every thought of the other--our
cooperation--that we shall win the fight. I thought I loved you years
ago, that you were necessary to me. It was true; but I worship you now,
and without you all would be over. I am appalled when I think of what
this year holds for me to accomplish; it is only the knowledge that you
are by me that makes it possible. I have never needed you--never can
need you--as I do now, as I shall in those immediate months to come.
I--"
Helen turns her face towards him. She checks him with a sudden,
imperative gesture. Her face is as white as death. For a moment she does
not speak. Braine grows white, too, at the expression he sees. He dares
not break the silence, but waits for her to do it. Presently she says,
in a low voice, with apparent effort:
"I--I have something to tell you."
She stops abruptly for a moment, then begins again, looking steadily in
his face:
"I have something to tell you. I--I fear it will make a difference; that
it will cause you regret, and perhaps--if you meant what you have just
said--failure. I--"
She stops as though unable to continue. Braine looks at her in
amazement. He sees her suffering, and involuntarily lays his hand, with
a sudden, assuring movement over hers.
It seems to arouse her, and she clasps her fingers around his with a
despairing little action, half imploringly. She goes on in a hurried
voice, tremulous and choked now and then:
"I have tried to tell you for a long time--a week. I--I--when I
remembered and thought of all that it would mean to you--of the
disappointment, just now, I could not speak, but--but--but--"
She stammers with emotion and excitement, and pauses to recover herself
an instant. She does not take her eyes from his face. It can have no
expression that she does not see. She says convulsively, with a pitiful
effort at calm and control:
"I beg of you not to let this misfortune at this time kill your love for
me. Oh, I have never wanted your love as I do now. I, too, have never
known the necessity for you and your help as I do now. I--"
Braine is staring at her. She has spoken so rapidly that he could not
interrupt her. He does not know what to expect. He tries to calm her
panic by caresses. He says:
"Helen! Helen!"
She motions him to be quiet.
"If you reproach me, it will drive me mad. I am not to blame. Oh, I beg
of you not to remember the desire I expressed long ago, and think that I
have--have sacrificed your wishes--your commands, to satisfy myself. I
am not to blame."
Braine takes her hands firmly between his own. She is beyond
self-control, and is sobbing hysterically, but never looks away from his
face. He says almost sternly:
"Be quiet, Helen. There is nothing on God's earth that you could be
guilty of that I could reproach you for. Now, be perfectly calm and tell
me about it. And remember that I love you."
He says it all in a very matter of fact tone, and it has an immediate
effect on her. She ceases sobbing. After a moment, she says:
"You remember a conversation we had years ago, at the cottage in Thebes?
You told me of the dearest wish of your heart--and said it must not be
fulfilled then--"
She stops speaking. She loses no expression of his face. He says
quietly:
"Yes; well?"
His voice tells nothing, but her hands are in his, and he forgets it and
suddenly tightens his fingers. She says slowly, in a mechanical way:
"Yes."
She knows that he has understood. He knows by her reply that she knows
it.
He puts his arms about her, and draws her gently to him--but she has
seen an expression in his face that she never forgets.