"Mr. Waddington says he is very sorry if there's any misunderstanding. I
don't know whether you remember getting this letter from him?"
Mrs. Levitt blinked hard as she read the letter.
"Of course I remember."
"You see that he could hardly have stated his position more clearly."
"But--this letter is dated October the thirty-first. The promise I refer
to was made long after that."
"It doesn't appear so from his letters--all that I've taken down. If you
can show me anything in writing--"
"Writing? Mr. Waddington is a gentleman and he was my friend. I never
dreamed of pinning him down to promises in writing. I thought his word
was enough. I never dreamed of his going back on it. And after
compromising me the way he's done."
Barbara's eyebrows lifted delicately, innocently. "_Has_ he compromised
you?"
"He has."
"How?"
"Never mind how. Quite enough to start all sorts of unpleasant stories."
"You shouldn't listen to them. People will tell stories without anything
to start them."
"That doesn't make them any less unpleasant. I should have thought the
very least Mr. Waddington could do--"
"Would be to pay you compensation?"
"There can be no compensation in a case of this sort, Miss Madden. I'm
not talking about compensation. Mr. Waddington must realize that he
cannot compromise me without compromising himself."
"I should think he would realize it, you know."
"Then he ought to realize that he is not exactly in a position to
repudiate his engagements."
"Do you consider that _you_ are in a position--exactly--to hold him to
engagements he never entered into?"
"I've told you already that he has let me in for engagements that I
cannot meet if he goes back on his word."
"I see. And you want to make it unpleasant for him. As unpleasant as you
possibly can?"
"I can make it even more unpleasant for him, Miss Madden, than it is for
me."
"What, after all the compromising?"
"I think so. If, for instance, I chose to tell somebody what happened
the other day, what you saw yourself."
"_Did_ I see anything?"
"You can't deny that you saw something you were not meant to see."
"You mean Wednesday afternoon? Well, if Mr. Waddington chose to say that
I saw you in a bad fit of hysterics I shouldn't deny _that_."
"I see. You're well posted, Miss Madden."
"I am, rather. But supposing you told everybody in the place he was
caught making love to you, what good would it do you?"
"Excuse me, we're not talking about the good it would do me, but the
harm it would do him."
"Same thing," said Barbara. "Supposing you told everybody and nobody
believed you?"
"Everybody will believe me. You forget that those stories have been
going about long before Wednesday."
"All the better for Mr. Waddington and all the worse for you. You were
compromised before Wednesday. Then why, if you didn't like being
compromised, did you consent to come to tea alone with him when his wife
was away?"
"I came on business, _as you know_."
"You came to borrow money from a man who had compromised you? If you're
so careful of your reputation I should have thought that would have been
the last thing you'd have done."
"You're forgetting my friendship with Mr. Waddington."
"You said business just now. Friendship or business, or business _and_
friendship, I don't think you're making out a very good case for
yourself, Mrs. Levitt. But supposing you did make it out, and supposing
Mr. Waddington did lose his head and _was_ making love to you on
Wednesday, do you imagine people here are going to take _your_ part
against _him_?"
"He's not so popular in Wyck as all that."
"He mayn't be, but his caste is. Immensely popular with the county,
which I suppose is all you care about. You must remember, Mrs. Levitt,
that he's Mr. Waddington of Wyck; you're not fighting one Mr.
Waddington, but three hundred years of Waddingtons. You're up against
all his ancestors."
"I don't care _that_ for his ancestors," said Mrs. Levitt with a
gesture of the thumb.
"You may not. I certainly don't. But other people do. Major Markham, the
Hawtreys, the Thurstons, even the Corbetts, do you suppose they're all
going to turn against him because he lost his head for a minute on a
Wednesday? Ten to one they'll all think, and _say_, you made him do it."
"I made him? Preposterous!"
"Not so preposterous as you imagine. You must make allowances for
people's prejudices. If you wanted to stand clear you shouldn't have
taken all that money from him."
"All that money indeed! A loan, a mere temporary loan, for an investment
he recommended."
"Not only that loan, but--" Barbara produced the cheque books with
their damning counterfoils. "Look here--twenty-five pounds on the
thirty-first of January. And here--October last year, and July, and
January before that--More than a hundred and fifty altogether. How
are you going to account for that?
"And who's going to believe that Mr. Waddington paid all that for
nothing, if some particularly nasty person gets up and says he didn't?
You see what a horrible position you'd be in, don't you?"
Mrs. Levitt didn't answer. Her face thickened slightly with a dreadful
flush. Her nerve was going.
Barbara watched it go. She followed up her advantage. "And supposing I
were to tell everybody--his friend, Major Markham, say--that you were
pressing him for that five hundred, immediately _after_ the affair of
Wednesday, on threats of exposure, wouldn't that look very like
blackmail?"
"Blackmail? _Really_, Miss Madden--"
"I don't suppose you _mean_ it for blackmail; I'm only pointing out what
it'll look like. It won't look _well_.... Much better face the facts.
You _can't_ do Mr. Waddington any real harm, short of forcing his wife
to get a separation."
There was a black gleam in Mrs. Levitt's eyes. "Precisely. And
supposing--since we _are_ supposing--I told Mrs. Waddington of his
behaviour?"
"Too late. Mr. Waddington has told her himself."
"His own version."
"Certainly, his own version."
"And supposing I gave mine?"
"Do. Whatever you say it'll be your word against ours and she won't
believe you. If she did she'd think it was all your fault.... And
remember, I have the evidence for your attempts at blackmail.
"I don't think," said Barbara, going to the door and opening it,
"there's anything more to be said."
Mrs. Levitt walked out with her agitated waddle. Barbara followed her
amicably to the front door. There Elise made her last stand.
"_Good_ afternoon, Miss Madden. I congratulate Mr. Waddington--on the
partnership."
Barbara rushed to the relief of the besieged in his office redoubt.
"It's all over!" she shouted at him joyously.
Mr. Waddington did not answer all at once. He was still sitting in his
uneasy Windsor chair, absorbed in meditation. He had brought out a
little note from his inmost pocket and as he looked at it he smiled.
It began thus, and its date was the Saturday following that dreadful
Wednesday:
"MY DEAR MR. WADDINGTON:
"After the way you have stood by me and helped me in the past, I cannot
believe that it is all over, and that I can come to you, my generous
friend, and be repulsed--"
He looked up. "How did she behave, Barbara?" "Oh--she wanted to bite--to
bite badly; but I drew all her teeth, very gently, one by one." Teeth.
Elise's teeth--drawn by Barbara.
He tore the note into little bits, and, as he watched them flutter into
the waste-paper basket, he sighed. He rose heavily.
"Let's go and tell Fanny all about it," said Barbara.