"I know, I know, she's blind to everything, Miriam is ..."
Once more she placed her hand on Murgatroyd's arm, unconsciously,
impersonally but impulsively.
"Oh, it's perfectly dreadful, the whole thing!"
Unwittingly, Murgatroyd changed his mood to meet hers.
"Yes," he said, "to have ruined himself like this! It's a tragedy to see
a man like Challoner go down hill. In the old days he was such a decent
chap."
"You were a friend of his, weren't you?"
"Yes, before he married, when he was poor and decent like the rest of
us--yes, I was a friend of his."
Shirley Bloodgood drew her brows together.
"Indeed! You must have been a good friend to let him take his downward
course."
For an instant this imputation seemed to rest heavily on Murgatroyd's
shoulders; but he cast it from him quickly with a sigh, and answered:--
"A man's best friends are like a man's good wife; they do not desert
him, whatever happens; he deserts them. And so it was with Challoner."
"And so at the last he has no friends?"
"Evidently not, save a flock of vampires that feed upon his purse and
will continue to feed so long as he has a purse." He pulled out his
watch. "But," he protested, "I am wasting time--I--Oh, pardon me," he
quickly corrected, flushing with embarrassment, "I did not mean my time,
exactly; but frankly, I must see Mrs. Challoner."
Shirley shook her head.
"Miriam Challoner is ill, much too ill to see any one. She gave
orders----"
"Excuse me, but Mrs. Challoner is not too ill," persisted Murgatroyd,
"to walk from room to room. My men have seen her through the windows. I
wish you would say to her, please, that I must see her."
Seeing the futility of resisting further, Shirley made a movement to go.
"Oh, I can't tell her!" she cried. "I'll ring for Stevens." She rang.
"Stevens," she said, as he came into the room, "will you tell your
mistress--Oh, I can't--I can't," she faltered.
Murgatroyd stepped into the breach.
"I am the prosecutor of the pleas," he said to Stevens, "tell her that,
and that I'm sorry to disturb her, but I must see her."
The servant left the room. Shirley sank into a chair and half covered
her face with her hands.
"I don't believe--I never will believe that Lawrence did these things!"