"And you didn't want to see me!"
"Yes, yes," cried Miriam, suddenly catching Shirley and clinging to her
affectionately. "Yes, I have wanted you to come so much, but I hoped you
never would see this!" And she spread out her arms as though to exhibit
the room.
"What a poor opinion you have of me! Why, Miriam, if I wanted to see
handsome apartments, I need not have taken all this trouble to find you.
No, indeed, I value your friendship too highly to desert you on account
of this."
And now the two women fell to talking about things past and present.
After a while, it was Shirley who delicately broached the subject of
Laurie.
"And Laurie--how is he?" she asked.
Miriam's eyes kindled for an instant, but its fire soon died out.
"Poor boy," she answered, "he's under such a strain. It's a wonder he
doesn't break down. He's so good and kind through it all, too. He's a
fine fellow, now," she went on with great enthusiasm.
"Let me see," said Shirley, reminiscently, "his conviction was reversed
on appeal, wasn't it?"
"Why, no; don't you remember that it was affirmed--affirmed ..."
"I do remember now. And it was that day or the next one that you ran
away from me, you bad girl, and I've never seen you since.
Affirmed--affirmed," she mused; and then suddenly leaned forward and
inquired eagerly:--
"Then how did he get off?"
Miriam shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know," she said, "nobody knows; not even Laurie knows that. One
day after the affirmance, the jail doors were opened, and he was
free--that's all--and he came back to me."
"Surely Murgatroyd knows," said Shirley.
"Oh, yes, of course he knows; but we have never asked any questions. Why
should we? I shall never forget Murgatroyd though--I remember him in my
prayers. He was honest; he kept his word----"
Shirley smiled a grim smile.
"Murgatroyd, the man with a _price_! Well, I suppose it's just as well
that there are people in this world who can be bought now and then."
"I have never forgiven myself," sighed Miriam.
Shirley looked up at her questioningly.
"You? What for, pray?"
"For blurting out in the court-room what I did when the jury found
Laurie guilty. Why, it was abominable! it was treachery! I had promised,
don't you see?"
"That was clever in Murgatroyd," admitted Shirley. "He would have been a
fool to acquit Laurie on that trial. Oh, yes," she added, with a sneer,
"he's clever, all right!"
Mrs. Challoner straightened up.
"Fortunately my outbreak did no great harm; nobody believed me."
"Except myself," observed Shirley, "and Murgatroyd!"
"Even Laurie didn't believe me," went on Miriam, "until--well, I don't
know whether he's quite sure about it to-day. We never discuss the
subject, anyway. It's barely possible," she said, flushing, "that he
thinks we spent the money long ago."
There was a pause that was a trifle embarrassing to both women. Miriam
was the first to speak.
"Murgatroyd is making a name for himself, isn't he?"
Shirley threw up her hands in indignation.
"Who wouldn't, with that stolen money to back him!" she exclaimed
fiercely.
Miriam shook her head.
"He's doing good work with it. He's breaking up the organisation--the
inside ring. I'm sure that the effect of his work is felt even over
here." And then she added vehemently: "But his best work will be over
when he has succeeded in breaking Cradlebaugh's. When he does that----"
"After he downs Cradlebaugh's," interrupted Shirley, "if he ever does, I
hope he'll down himself. That's my wish for Billy Murgatroyd!"
"Murgatroyd is honest," protested Miriam.
Shirley smiled a hard smile.
"You mistake his motive, Miriam. He's ambitious--frightfully ambitious.
Why even now he's planning to go to the Senate," declared Shirley; but
she did not add that it was she who had put the idea into his head.
"Think of Billy Murgatroyd's being Senator! He'll ask a billion the next
time he's bought, instead of a million!" she wound up, scornfully.
"You forget," quietly but forcibly reminded Miriam, "that I stand up for
Murgatroyd."
"Poor Miriam," sighed Shirley to herself, "she always was easily
fooled." A moment later, she exclaimed: "A typewriter!"
"I don't wonder at your surprise," said Miriam. "But it is easy work and
I like it immensely. I work for different people in the neighbourhood,"
she went on to explain. "A real estate dealer, one or two lawyers,
it's----"
She broke off abruptly, for they were interrupted by a faint whistle.
"It's the speaking tube," said Miriam, tremblingly; but the next instant
she was in a little dark alcove calling down the tube.
Meanwhile, Shirley allowed her gaze to wander about the apartment;
nothing had escaped her notice, not even the cooking that was going on
in the kitchen.
"Somebody whistled up the tube," said Miriam, returning, "but I couldn't
get an answer. I can't imagine who it is."
Then suddenly for the third time that afternoon, the outer door opened;
but this time it was thrust open with great violence, and James Lawrence
Challoner came into the room with the stamp of the gutter upon him.
Shirley was dumbfounded. Quickly her mind went back to that afternoon,
long ago it seemed, when he had come home after the tragedy. Then, it is
true, he was unkempt, soiled, but now ... and she asked herself whether
it were possible that Miriam could not see the man as he really was. The
answer was immediately forthcoming, for Miriam went over and caught him
in her embrace.
"Poor Laurie, tired, aren't you, dear?" she said fondly; and then
turning toward the girl: "Here's an old friend of ours--Shirley
Bloodgood!"
"So I see," he growled; and without more ado he turned to Miriam and
demanded gruffly:--
"Well, where's your money? I've got to have some money right away."
Miriam fumbled for an instant at her waist. She did this more for
appearance' sake than anything else, for she well knew that she had none
to give him. Every day she had given him about everything she made.
"Yes, Laurie," she faltered, "yes, of course." And turning to Shirley,
added by way of apology for him: "Such an ordeal as Laurie has been
through--such a strain."
Shirley was in a panic. What she had seen was enough to make her
heart-sick.
"Oh," she suddenly exclaimed, "I have forgotten all about father! I left
him alone--I simply must go now. You don't know how glad ..." And
turning to Challoner, she held out her hand to him. But ignoring her
completely, he again said to his wife:--
"Miriam, where is that money?"
"Laurie is such a business man now, Shirley," said Miriam, smiling
bravely at the girl.
But the contempt which Shirley felt for the man before her was too great
for words; and she merely repeated:--
"Yes, I must be going now!"
Half way across the room she halted, hesitated for a moment, and then
finally opening her purse, took from it a fifty dollar bill.
"There, Miriam," she said with a note of relief, "I have been meaning
for a long time to pay back that fifty dollars I borrowed from you a few
years ago--when I was so hard up for money. I'm ashamed not to have
returned it before; and it's just like you not to remind me. There,
dear, I've put it on the chiffonier; and now, good-bye!" And she was
gone before Miriam could even protest against her action.
For Miriam knew quite as well as did Shirley that there never had been
such a loan between them; and rushing out into the hall, she called to
the other to come back; but Shirley by this time was well out of
hearing.
"She's gone!" Miriam declared forlornly, panting from her fruitless
chase.
Shirley's flight did not worry Challoner. He took advantage of Miriam's
temporary absence to steal to the chiffonier and to seize the fifty
dollar bill. Miriam entered the room in time to see him thrusting it
into his pocket, and cried out angrily:--
"Laurie, I wish you to put that back! We are not thieves; it does not
belong to us; and I'm going to send it back to Shirley."
Challoner grinned.
"What do you think I am?" he finally asked. "A fool?"