For several minutes after John's departure, Laura stood motionless.
Every vestige of color had left her face; her large lustrous eyes
stared blankly into vacancy. She looked as if she had been suddenly
petrified into stone. Yet, inert as she seemed, her brain was working
hard. Perhaps all was not yet lost! John knew nothing, suspected
nothing. She might still be happy. Why should he know what had occurred
during his absence? There was no one to enlighten him. A life of
happiness with the one man she truly loved, might still be hers.
Instantly she was galvanized into action. There was no time to be lost.
She must get away from New York and be safely married before Brockton
or any one else had a chance to ruin her life. She must pack her things
at once, so as to be ready for John when he returned. Feverishly, she
began her preparations. Going rapidly over to the dresser, she picked
up a large jewel case, and, taking down a doll that was hanging on the
dresser, put them on her left arm. With her disengaged hand, she picked
up her black cat and carried it over to the center-table. Then, opening
the door leading to the kitchen, she called out:
"Annie! Annie! Come here."
The negress entered the room.
"Yassum."
"Annie, I'm going away, and I've got to hurry."
"Going away!" exclaimed the maid in blank astonishment.
Her mistress had already begun to pile things in the center of the
room. Hurriedly, Laura said:
"Yes--I want you to bring both my trunks out here--I'll help you--and
start to pack. We can't take everything, but bring all the clothes out,
and we'll hurry as fast as we can."
They entered the sleeping apartments together, and in a short time
reappeared, carrying a large trunk between them. Pushing the sofa back,
they laid it down in the center of the room.
"Look out for your feet, Miss Laura!" exclaimed the maid.
"I think I'll take two trunks," said her mistress thoughtfully.
[Illustration: LAURA COMMENCED TO PACK THE TRUNK.
_Page 307._]
The negress pushed the table out of the way, and, in her flurry, nearly
fell over the armchair.
"Golly, such excitement!" she exclaimed. "Wheah yuh goin', Miss Laura?"
"Never mind where I'm going," snapped her mistress. "I haven't any time
to waste now talking. I'll tell you later. This is one time, Annie,
that you've got to move. Hurry up!"
Giving the maid a push, she hustled her out of the room, and followed
closely behind herself. Presently they returned with a smaller trunk.
"Look out fo' yo' dress, Miss Laura," exclaimed the maid.
The trunks were set down, side by side. Laura opened one and commenced
to throw the things out, while Annie stood watching her. Soon the
actress was down on her knees in front of the trunk, humming "_Bon Bon
Buddy_" packing for dear life, while the maid watched her in amazement.
"Ah nevah see you so happy, Miss Laura."
"I never was so happy!" cried Laura almost hysterically. Giving the
girl a push, she exclaimed impatiently: "For Heaven's sake, girl, go
get something! Don't stand there looking at me. I want you to hurry."
Thus admonished, Annie ran helter-skelter in the direction of her
mistress' room.
"I'll bring out all de fluffy ones first," she cried as she
disappeared.
"Yes, everything!" cried Laura, who was on her knees busy laying the
things neatly away in the trunk.
Presently the maid returned laden with an armful of dresses and a
hat-box. The box she placed on the floor, the dresses on top of the
trunk. Going out again for more, she asked:
"Yuh goin' to take dat opera cloak?"
"Yes, everything--everything!" answered Laura, breathless from the
speed at which she was working.
Annie reentered with more dresses. There seemed no end to them, each
more beautiful and costly than the other. The maid put them on the
sofa; then, picking up the opera cloak, she laid it out on top of the
dresses in the trunk. Even the humble colored menial was spellbound by
the beauty of these adjuncts of feminine loveliness.
"My, but dat's a beauty! I jest love dat crushed rosey one."
Laura looked up impatiently. The girl's chatter made her nervous.
Sharply, she said:
"Annie, go and put the best dresses on the foot of the bed. I'll get
them myself. You heard what I said?"
The girl ran. She stood in awe of her mistress when she was in
ill-humor.
"Yassum!"
While the negress was in the inner room taking the garments from the
cupboards, Laura continued busily arranging the contents of the trunk,
placing garments here, and some there, sorting them out. While she was
thus engaged, with her back to the door, the door leading to the outer
corridor opened, and Brockton appeared. He entered quietly, without
disturbing Laura, and for a minute or two stood watching her in
silence. Then, suddenly, he said:
"Going away?"
Startled, Laura jumped up and confronted him.
"Yes," she said, with some confusion.
"In somewhat of a hurry, I should say," he said dryly.
"Yes."
"What's the plan?" he inquired.
"I'm just going--that's all," she said calmly.
"Madison been here?" he asked in the same even tone.
"He's just left," she answered.
"Of course you are going with him?"
"Yes."
"West?"
"To Nevada."
"Going--er--to get married?" he demanded.
"Yes, this afternoon."
He looked at her keenly, and said significantly:
"So he didn't care then?"
Flushing, she flared up:
"What do you mean, when you say 'He didn't care'?"
"Of course you told him about the letter, and how it was burned up, and
all that sort of thing, didn't you?"
"Why, yes," she replied, averting her eyes.
"And he said it didn't make any difference?"
"He--he didn't say anything. We're just going to be married, that's
all."
"Did you mention my name, and say that we'd been--rather companionable
for the last two months?"
"I told him--you'd been--a very good friend to me."
She spoke with hesitation, at moments with difficulty, as if seeking to
gain time, to find answers for his awkward questions. But she did not
deceive him. Brockton was too much the man of the world to be easily
hoodwinked. He knew she was lying, and his face flushed with anger.
"How soon do you expect him back?" he demanded.
"Quite soon," she replied, with an effort to be calm. "I don't know
just exactly how long he'll be."
She turned her back and proceeded with her packing. He came nearer and
stood overlooking the trunk.
"And you mean to tell me that you kept your promise and told him the
truth?" he persisted.
She stammered confusedly, and then, her patience exhausted, she broke
out into open defiance.
"What business have you got to ask me that? What business have you got
to interfere, anyway?"
Rising and going to the bed in the alcove, she took the dresses and
carried them to the sofa. Brockton followed her, his fists clenched.
"Then you've lied again!" he cried furiously. "You lied to him, and you
just tried to lie to me now. You're not particularly clever at it,
although I don't doubt but that you've had considerable practice."
With a contemptuous shrug of his shoulders, he walked over to the chair
at the table and sat down, still holding his hat in his hand, and
without removing his overcoat. Laura came back laden with more things.
Seeing Brockton sitting, she stopped, and, turning on him, laid the
dresses down.
"What are you going to do?" she demanded.
"Sit down here and rest a few moments; maybe longer," he replied
coolly.
She looked at him in dismay.
"You can't do that!" she exclaimed.
"I don't see why not. This is my own place."
"But don't you see that he'll come back here soon and find you here?"
"That's just exactly what I want him to do."
Laura looked at him helplessly. With suppressed emotion, almost on the
verge of hysteria, she broke out:
"I want to tell you this. If you do this thing, you'll ruin my life.
You've done enough to it already. Now, I want you to go. I don't think
you've got any right to come here now, in this way, and take this
happiness from me. I've given you everything I've got, and now I want
to live right and decently. He wants me to marry him. We love each
other. Now, Will Brockton, it's come to this. You've got to leave this
place, do you hear? You've got to leave this place. Please get out!"
Brockton was white and determined looking. For the first time in his
life, he was really angry. Leaving his chair and advancing towards her,
he said menacingly:
"Do you think I'm going to let a woman make a liar out of me? I'm going
to stay right here. I like that boy, and I'm not going to let you put
him to the bad."
"I want you to go!" she cried.
Shutting the trunk-lid down, she went over to the dresser and opened
the drawer, to get more things out.
"And I tell you I won't go," he retorted furiously. "I'm going to show
you up. I'm going to tell him the truth. It isn't you I care for--he's
got to know."
Slamming the drawer shut, she turned and faced him, almost tiger-like
in her anger.
"You don't care for me?" she cried.
"No."
"It isn't me you're thinking of?"
"No."
"Who's the liar now?"
"Liar?"
"Yes, liar. You are! You don't care for this man, and you know it."
"You're foolish."
"Yes, I am foolish, and I've been foolish all my life, but I'm getting
a little sense now."
Kneeling in the armchair facing him, her voice shaking with anger, she
went on:
"All my life, since the day you first took me away, you've planned and
planned and planned to keep me, and to trick me and bring me down with
you. When you came to me I was happy. I didn't have much, just a little
salary and some hard work."
He shrugged his shoulders, and smiled skeptically. Ironically, he said:
"But, like all the rest, you found that wouldn't keep you, didn't you?"
Ignoring his taunt, she went on:
"You say I'm bad, but who's made me so? Who took me out night after
night? Who showed me what these luxuries were? Who put me in the habit
of buying something I couldn't afford? You did."
"Well, you liked it, didn't you?"
"Who got me in debt, and then, when I wouldn't do what you wanted me
to, who had me discharged from the company, so I had no means of
living? Who followed me from one place to another? Who, always
entreating, tried to trap me into this life? I didn't know any better."
"Didn't know better?" he echoed derisively.
"I knew it was wrong--yes; but you told me everybody in this business
did that sort of thing, and I was just as good as any one else. Finally
you got me and you kept me. Then, when I went away to Denver, and for
the first time found a gleam of happiness, for the first time in my
life----"
"You're crazy," he said contemptuously.
"Yes, I am crazy!" she cried hysterically.
Her patience was at an end. She felt that if he stayed there another
minute to taunt and torture her, she would go stark, raving mad. A
choking sensation rose in her throat. Seized with a sudden fury, she
swept the table cover off the table, and, making one stride to the
dresser, knocked all the bottles off. Then she turned on him furiously.
Almost screaming, she shouted:
"You've made me crazy! You followed me to Denver, and then when I got
back you bribed me again. You pulled me down, and you did the same old
thing until this happened. Now, I want you to get out, you understand?
I want you to get out!"
He turned to pacify her. More gently, he said:
"Laura, you can't do this."
But she refused to listen. Walking up and down the room, gesticulating
wildly, she kept crying:
"Go--do you hear--go!"
He took a seat on a trunk. Instantly she turned on him like an
infuriated tigress, attempting to push him off by sheer strength.
"No, you won't," she screamed; "you won't stay here! You're not going
to do this thing again. I tell you, I'm going to be happy. I tell you,
I'm going to be married. You won't see him! I tell you, you won't tell
him! You've got no business to. I hate you! I've hated you for months!
I hate the sight of your face! I've wanted to go, and now I'm going.
You've got to go, do you hear? You've got to get out--get out!"
Such an exhibition of rage in this usually mild girl was something so
strange and uncanny that it suddenly aroused in him a feeling of
disgust. After all, why should he care? He ought to be glad to get out
and be through with her. As she pushed him again, he rose, and threw
her off, causing her to stagger to a chair. With a gesture of
impatience, he went towards the door.
"What the hell is the use of fussing with a woman?" he exclaimed.
The door slammed noisily behind him. Sinking down on her knees, Laura
started to pack with renewed vigor, crying hysterically:
"I want to be happy! I'm going to be married, I'm going to be happy!"