THE KEY TO A DILEMMA
Evelyn had telephoned to Mrs. Whipple of her father's illness in terms
which allayed alarm; but when the afternoon paper referred to it
ominously, the good woman set out through the first snowstorm of the
season for the Porter house, carrying her campaign outfit, as the
general called it, in a suit-case. Mrs. Whipple's hopeful equanimity was
very welcome to Evelyn, who suffered as women do when denied the
privilege of ministering to their sick and forced to see their natural
office usurped by others. Mrs. Whipple brought a breath of May into the
atmosphere of the house. She found ways of dulling the edge of Evelyn's
anxiety and idleness; she even found things for Evelyn to do, and busied
herself disposing of inquiries at the door and telephone to save Evelyn
the trouble. In Evelyn's sitting-room Mrs. Whipple talked of clothes and
made it seem a great favor for the girl to drag out several new gowns
for inspection,--a kind of first view, she called it; and she sighed
over them and said they were more perfect than perfect lyrics and would
appeal to a larger audience.
She chose one of the lyrics of black chiffon and lace, with a high
collar and half sleeves and forced Evelyn to put it on; and when they
sat down to dinner together she planned a portrait of Evelyn in the same
gown, which Chase or Sargent must paint. She managed the talk tactfully,
without committing the error of trying to ignore the sick man upstairs.
She made his illness seem incidental merely, and with a bright side, in
that it gave her a chance to spend a few days at the Hill. Then she went
on:
"Warry and Mr. Saxton were at the house last night. It's delightful to
see men so devoted to each other as they are; and it's great fun to hear
them banter each other. I didn't know that Mr. Saxton could be funny,
but in his quiet way he says the drollest things!"
"I thought he was very serious," said Evelyn. "I rarely see him, but
when I do, he flatters me by talking about books. He thinks I'm
literary!"
"I can't imagine it."
Evelyn laughed.
"Oh, thanks! I'm making progress!"
"It's funny," Mrs. Whipple continued, "the way he takes care of Warry.
The general says Mr. Saxton is a Newfoundland and Warry a fox terrier.
Warry's at work again, and I suppose we have Mr. Saxton's influence to
thank."
"A man like that could do a great deal for Warry," said Evelyn. "If
Warry doesn't settle down pretty soon he'll lose his chance." Then, her
father coming into her thoughts, she added irrelevantly: "Mr. Thompson
will probably come home. Mr. Wheaton telephoned that the directors had
wired him."
"Oh, yes," said Mrs. Whipple, looking at the girl quickly,--"so much
responsibility,--I suppose it would be hardly fair to Mr. Wheaton--"
"I suppose not," said Evelyn.
"It's just the same in business as it is in the army," continued Mrs.
Whipple, who referred everything back to the military establishment.
"The bugle's got to blow every morning whether the colonel's sick or
not. I suppose the bank keeps open just the same. When a thing's once
well started it has a way of running on, whether anybody attends to it
or not."
"But you couldn't get father to believe that," said Evelyn, smiling in
recollection of her father's life-long refutation of this philosophy.
"No indeed," assented Mrs. Whipple. "But in the army there is a good
deal to make a man humble. If he gets transferred from one end of the
land to another, somebody else does the work he has been doing, and
usually you wouldn't know the difference. The individual is really
extinguished; they all sign their reports in exactly the same place, and
one signature is just as good at Washington as another." This was a
favorite line of discourse with Mrs. Whipple; she had reduced her army
experience to a philosophy, which she was fond of presenting on any
occasion.
The maid brought Evelyn a card before they had finished coffee.
"It's Mr. Wheaton," she explained; "I asked him to come. Father was
greatly troubled about some matter which he said must not be neglected.
He wanted me to give the key of his box to Mr. Wheaton,--there are some
papers which it is very necessary for Mr. Fenton to have. It's something
I hadn't heard of before, but it must be important. He's been flighty
this afternoon and has tried to talk about it."
Evelyn had risen and stood by the table with a troubled look on her
face, as if expecting counsel; but she was thinking of the sick man
upstairs and not of his business affairs.
"Yes; don't wait for me," said the older woman, as though it were merely
a question of the girl's excusing herself. When Evelyn had gone, Mrs.
Whipple plied her spoon in her cup long after the single lump of sugar
was dissolved. Mrs. Whipple had a way of disliking people thoroughly
when they did not please her, and she did not like James Wheaton. She
was wondering why, as she sat alone at the table and played with the
spoon.
The maid who admitted Wheaton had let him elect between the drawing room
and the library, and he chose the latter instinctively, as less formal
and more appropriate for an interview based on his dual social and
business relations with the Porters. His slim figure appeared to
advantage in evening clothes; he was no longer afraid of rooms that were
handsome and spacious like this. There was nowadays no more correctly
groomed man in Clarkson than he, though Warry Raridan had remarked to
Wheaton at the Bachelors' that his ties were composed a trifle too
neatly; a tie to be properly done should, Raridan held, leave something
to the imagination. Wheaton heard the swish of Evelyn's skirts in the
hall with a quickening heartbeat. Her black gown intensified her
fairness; he had never seen her in black before, and it gave a new
accent to her beauty as she came toward him.
"It was a great shock to us down town to hear of your father's illness.
He seemed as well as usual yesterday."
"Did you think so? I thought he looked worn when he came home last
evening. He has been working very hard lately."
Wheaton had never seen her so grave. He was sincerely sorry for her
trouble, and he tried to say so. There was something appealing in her
unusual calm; the low tones of her voice were not wasted on him.
"Father asked me to send for you this morning, but he had grown so ill
in a few hours that I took the responsibility of not doing it. The
doctor said emphatically that he must not see people. But something in
particular was on his mind, some papers that Mr. Fenton should have.
They are in his box at the bank, and I was to give you the key to it. It
is something about the Traction Company; no doubt you know of it?"
"Yes," Wheaton assented. It was not necessary for him to say that Mr.
Porter had told him nothing about it.
"You can attend to this easily?"
"Yes, certainly. Mr. Fenton spoke to me about the matter this afternoon.
It is very important and he wished me to report to him as soon as I
found the papers. No doubt they are in your father's box," he said. "He
is always very methodical." He smiled at her reassuringly and rose. She
did not ask him to stay longer, but went to fetch the key.
It was a small, thin bit of steel. Wheaton turned it over in his hand.
"I'll return the key to-morrow, after I've found the papers Mr. Fenton
wants."
"Very well. I hope you will have no difficulty."
He still held the key in his fingers, not knowing whether this was his
dismissal or not.
"There is one thing more, Mr. Wheaton. Father seemed very much troubled
about this Traction matter--"
"Very unnecessarily, I'm sure," said Wheaton soothingly.
"He evidently wished all the papers he has concerning the company to be
given to Mr. Fenton. Now, this probably is of no importance whatever,
but several years ago father gave me some stock in the street railway
company. It came about through a little fun-making between us. We were
talking of railway passes,--you know he never accepts any"--Wheaton
blinked--"and I told him I'd like to have a pass on something, even if
it was only a street car line."
She was smiling in her eagerness that he should understand perfectly.
"And he said he guessed he could fix that by giving me some stock in the
company. I remember that he made light of it when I thanked him, and
said it wasn't so important as it looked. He probably forgot it long
ago. I had forgotten it myself--I never got the pass, either! but I
brought the stock down that Mr. Fenton might have use for it." She went
over to the mantel and picked up a paper, while he watched her; and when
she put it into his hand he turned it over. It was a certificate for one
hundred shares, issued in due form to Evelyn Porter, but was not
assigned.
"It may be important," said Wheaton, regarding the paper thoughtfully.
"Mr. Fenton will know. It couldn't be used without your name on the
back," he said, indicating the place on the certificate.
"Oh, should I sign it?" she asked, in the curious fluttering way in
which many women approach the minor details of business. Wheaton
hesitated; he did not imagine that this block of stock could be of
importance, and yet the tentative business association with Miss Porter
was so pleasant that he yielded to a temptation to prolong it.
"Yes, you might sign it," he said.
Evelyn went to her father's table and wrote her name as Wheaton
indicated.
"A witness is required and I will supply that." And Wheaton sat down at
the table and signed his name beside hers, while she stood opposite him,
the tips of her fingers resting on the table.
"Evelyn Porter" and "James Wheaton." He blotted the names with Porter's
blotter, Evelyn still standing by him, slightly mystified as women often
are by the fact that their signatures have a value. He felt that there
was something intimate in the fact of their signing themselves together
there. He was thrilled by her beauty. The black lace falling from her
elbows made a filmy tracery upon her white arms. Her head was bent
toward him, the shaded lamp cast a glow upon her face and throat, and
her slim, white hands rested on the table so near that he could have
touched them. She bent her gaze upon him gravely; she, too, felt that
his relations with her father made a tie between them; he was older than
the other men who came to see her; she yielded him a respect for his
well-won success. A vague sense of what her father liked in him crept
into her mind in the moment that she stood looking down on him; he was
quiet, deft and sure,--qualities which his smoothly-combed black hair
and immaculate linen seemed to emphasize. She gave, in her ignorance of
business, an exaggerated importance to the trifling transaction which he
had now concluded. He smiled up at her as he put down the pen.
"It isn't as serious as it looks," he said, rising.
"It must be very interesting when you understand it," she answered.
"I'm sorry--so very sorry for your trouble. I hope--if I can serve you
in any way you will not hesitate--"
"You are very kind," she said. Neither moved. They regarded each other
across the table with a serious fixed gaze; the sweet girlish spirit in
her was held by some curious fascinating power in him. He bent toward
her, his hand lightly clenched on the edge of the table.
"I hope there may never be a time when you will not feel free to command
me--in any way." He spoke slowly; his words seemed to bind a chain about
her and she could not move or answer. With a sudden gesture he put out
his hand; it almost touched hers, and she did not shrink away.
"Good evening, Mr. Wheaton!" Mrs. Whipple, handsome and smiling, sent
her greeting from the threshold, and swept into the room; and when she
took his hand she held it for a moment, as an elderly woman may, while
she chid him for his remissness in never coming to call on her.
[Illustration]
On his way down the slope to the car, Wheaton felt in his pocket
several times to be sure of the key. There was something the least bit
uncanny in his possession of it. Yesterday, as he knew well enough,
William Porter would no more have intrusted the key of his private box
to him or to any one else than he would have burned down his house. He
read into his errand a trust on Porter's part that included Porter's
daughter, too; but he got little satisfaction from this. He was only the
most convenient messenger available. His spirits rose and fell as he
debated.
The down-town streets were very quiet when he reached the business
district. He went to the side door of the bank and knocked for the
watchman to admit him. He took off his overcoat and hat and laid them
down carefully on his own desk.
"Going to work to-night, Mr. Wheaton?" asked the watchman.
Wheaton felt that he owed it to the watchman to explain, and he said:
"There are some papers in Mr. Porter's box that I must give to Mr.
Fenton to-night. They are in the old vault." This vault was often opened
at night by the bookkeepers and there was no reason why the cashier
should not enter it when he pleased. The watchman turned up the lights
so that Wheaton could manipulate the combination, and then swung open
the door. Wheaton thanked him and went in. Two keys were necessary to
open all of the boxes; one was common to all and was kept by the bank.
Wheaton easily found it, and then he took from his pocket Porter's key
which supplemented the other. His pulses beat fast as he felt the lock
yield to the thin strip of steel, and in a moment the box lay open
before his eyes. He had flashed on the electric light bulb in the vault
and recognized instantly Porter's inscription "Traction" on a brown
bundle. He then opened his own box and took out his Traction certificate
and carried it with Porter's packet into the directors' room.
He sat playing with the package, which was sealed in green wax with the
plain oval insignium of the bank. The packet was larger than he had
expected it to be; he had no idea of the amount of stock it contained;
and he knew nothing of the bonds. He felt tempted to open it; but
clearly that was not within his instructions. He must deliver it intact
to Fenton, and he would do it instantly. He hesitated, though, and drew
out the certificate which Evelyn had given him and turned the crisp
paper over in his hand. Each of them owned one hundred shares of
Traction stock; he was not thinking of this, but of Evelyn, whose
signature held his eye. It was an angular hand, and she ran her two
names together with a long sweep of the pen.
His thoughts were given a new direction by the noise of a colloquy
between the watchman and some one at the door. He heard his own name
mentioned, and thrusting the certificates into his pocket, he went out
to learn what was the matter.
"Mr. Wheaton," called the watchman, who held the door partly closed on
some one, "Mr. Margrave wishes to see you."
As Wheaton walked toward the watchman, Margrave strode in heavily on the
tile floor of the bank.