By the time his anger had cooled down, Thor regretted the words with
which he had left his father's presence, and continued to regret them.
They were braggart and useless. Whatever he might feel impelled to do,
for either Leonard Willoughby or Jasper Fay, he could do better without
announcing his intentions beforehand. He experienced a sense of guilt
when, on the next day, and for many days afterward, his father showed by
his manner that he had been wounded.
Lois Willoughby showed that she, too, had been wounded. The process of
"easing the first one off," besides affording him side-lights on a
woman's heart, involved him in an erratic course of blowing hot and cold
that defeated his own ends. When he blew cold the chill was such that he
blew hotter than ever to disperse it. He could see for himself that this
seeming capriciousness made it difficult for Lois to preserve the equal
tenor of her bearing, though she did her best.
He had kept away from her for a week or more, and would have continued
to do so longer had he not been haunted by the look his imagination
conjured up in her eyes. He knew its trouble, its bewilderment, its
reflected heartache. "I'm a damned cad," he said to himself; and
whenever he worked himself up to that point remorse couldn't send him
quickly enough to pay her a visit of atonement.
He knew she was at home because he met one or two of the County Street
ladies coming away from the house. With knowing looks they told him he
should find her. They did not, however, tell him that she had another
visitor, whose voice he recognized while depositing his hat and overcoat
on one of the Regency chairs in the tapestried square hall.
"Oh, don't go yet," Lois was saying. "Here's Dr. Thor Masterman. He'll
want to see you."
But Rosie insisted on taking her departure, making polite excuses for
the length of her call.
She was deliciously pretty; he saw that at once on entering. Wearing the
new winter suit for which she had pinched and saved, and a hat of the
moment's fashion, she easily dazzled Thor, though Lois could perceive,
in details of material, the "cheapness" that in American eyes is the
most damning of all qualities. Rosie's face was bright with the flush of
social triumph, for the County Street ladies had been kind to her, and
she had had tea with all the ceremony of which she read in the
accredited annals of good society. If she had not been wondering whether
or not the County Street ladies knew her brother was in jail, she could
have suppressed all other causes for anxiety and given herself freely to
the hour's bliss.
But she would not be persuaded to remain, taking her leave with a full
command of graceful niceties. Thor could hardly believe she was his
fairy of the hothouse. She was a princess, a marvel. "Beats them all,"
he said, gleefully, to himself, referring to the ladies of County
Street, and almost including Lois Willoughby.
He did not quite include her. He perceived that he couldn't do so when,
after having bowed Rosie to the door, he returned to take his seat in
the drawing-room. There was a distinction about Lois, he admitted to
himself, that neither prettiness nor fine clothes nor graceful niceties
could rival. He wondered if she wasn't even more distinguished since
this new something had come into her life--was it joy or grief?--which
he himself had brought there.
Her greeting to him was of precisely the same shade as all her greetings
during the past two months. It was like something rehearsed and executed
to perfection. When she had given him his tea and poured another cup for
herself, they talked of Rosie.
"Do you know," she said, in a musing tone, "I think the poor little
thing has really enjoyed being here this afternoon?"
"Why shouldn't she?"
"Yes, but why should she? Apart from the very slight novelty of the
thing--which to an American girl is no real novelty, after all--I don't
understand what it is she cares so much about?"
He weighed the question seriously. "She finds a world of certain--what
shall I say?--of certain amenities to which she's equal--any one can see
that!--and which she hasn't got. That's something in itself--to a girl
with imagination."
"I think she's in love," Lois said, suddenly.
Thor was startled. "Oh no, she isn't. She can't be. Who on earth could
she be in love with?"
"Oh, it's not with you. Don't be alarmed," Lois smiled. It was so like
Thor to be shy of a pretty girl. He had been so ever since she could
remember him.
"That's good," he managed to say. He regained control of himself, though
he tingled all over. "It would have to be with me or Dr. Hilary. We're
the only two men, except the Italians, who ever appear on the place."
"Oh, you don't know," Lois said, pensively. "Girls like that often have
what they call, rather picturesquely, a fellow."
"Oh, don't!" His cry was instantly followed by a nervous laugh. He felt
obliged to explain. "It's so funny to hear you talk like that. It
doesn't go with your style."
She took this pleasantly and they spoke of other things; but Thor was
eager to get away. A real visit of atonement had become impossible. That
must be put off for another day--perhaps for ever. He wasn't sure. He
couldn't tell. For the minute his head was in a whirl. He hardly knew
what he was saying, except that his rejoinders to Lois's remarks were
more or less at random. Vital questions were pounding through his brain
and demanding an answer. Who knew but that with regard to Rosie she was
right--and yet wrong? Women, with their remarkable powers of divination,
didn't always hit the nail directly on the head. It might be the case
with Lois now. She might be right in her surmise that Rosie was in love,
and mistaken in those light and cruel words: "Oh, not with you!" He
didn't suppose it was with him. And yet ... and yet...!
* * * * *
He got away at last, and tore through the winter twilight toward the old
apple-orchard above the pond. He knew what he would say. "Rosie, are you
in love with any one? If so, for God's sake, tell me." What he would do
when she answered him was matter outside his present capacity for
thought.
It had begun to snow. By the time he reached the house on the hill his
shoulders were white. The necessity for shaking himself in the little
entry gave the first prosaic chill to his ardor.
Rosie had returned and was preparing supper. The princess and marvel had
resolved herself again into the fairy of the hothouse. Not that Thor
minded that. What disconcerted him was her dry little manner of
surprise. She had not expected him. There was nothing in her mother's
condition to demand his call. She herself was busy. She had come from
the kitchen to answer the door. A smell of cooking filled the house.
No one of these details could have kept him from carrying out his
purpose; but together they were unromantic. How could he adjure her to
tell him for God's sake whether or not she was in love with any one when
he saw she was afraid that something was burning on the stove? He could
only stammer out excuses for having come. Inventing on the spot new and
incoherent directions for the treatment of Mrs. Fay, he took himself
away again, not without humiliation.
Being in a savage mood as he stalked down the hill, he was working
himself into a rage when an unexpected occurrence gave him other things
to think of.
At the foot of the hill, just below the slope of the Square, was the
terminus of the electric tram-line from the city. In summer it was a
pretty spot, well shaded by ornamental trees, with a small Gothic church
and its parsonage in the center of a trimly kept lawn. It was prettier
still as Thor Masterman approached it, at the close of a winter's day,
with the great soft flakes, heaping their beauty on roof and shrub and
roadway, the whole lit up with plenty of cheerful electricity, and no
eye to behold it but his own.
Because of this purity and solitude a black spot was the more
conspicuous; and because it was a moving black spot it caught the
onlooker's glance at once. It was a moving black spot, though it
remained in one place--on the cement seat that circled a
copper-beech-tree for the convenience of villagers waiting for the cars.
It was extraordinary that any one should choose this uninviting,
snow-covered resting-place, unless he couldn't do otherwise.
The doctor in Thor was instantly alert, but before advancing many paces
he had made his guess. Patients were beginning to take his time,
rendering his afternoons less free; and so what might have been expected
had happened. Mr. Willoughby had managed to come homeward by the
electric car, but was unable to go any farther.
Nevertheless, Thor was startled as he crossed the roadway to hear a
great choking sob. The big creature was huddled somehow on the seat, but
with face and arms turned to the trunk of the tree, against whose cold
bark he wept. He wept shamelessly aloud, with broken exclamations of
which "O my God! O my God!" was all that Thor could hear distinctly.
"It's delirium this time, for sure," he said to himself, as he laid his
hand on the great snow-heaped shoulder.
He changed his mind on that score as soon as Mr. Willoughby was able to
speak coherently. "I'm heart-broken, Thor. Haven't touched a thing
to-day--scarcely. But I'm all in."
More sobs followed. It was with difficulty that Thor could get the
lumbering body on its feet. "You mustn't stay here, Mr. Willoughby.
You'll catch cold. Come along home with me."
"I do' wan' to go home, Thor. Got no home now. Ruined--tha's what I am.
Ruined. Your father's kicked me out. All my money gone. No' a cent left
in the world."
Thor dragged him onward. "But you must come home just the same, Mr.
Willoughby. You can't stay out here. The next car will be along in a
minute, and every one will see you."
"I do' care who sees me, Thor. I'm ruined. Father says I'll have to go.
Got all the papers ready. O my God! what'll Bessie say?"
As they stumbled forward through the snow Thor tried to learn what had
happened.
"Got all my money and then kicked me out," was the only explanation.
"Not a cent in the world. What'll Bessie say? Oh, what'll Bessie say?
All her money. Hasn't got a hundred thousand dollars left out of tha'
grea' big estate. Make away with myself. Tha's what I'll do. O my God!
my God!"
On arriving in front of the house Thor saw lights in the drawing-room.
Lois was probably still there. It was no more than a half-hour since he
had left her, and other callers might have succeeded him. He tried to
steer his charge round the corner toward the side entrance in
Willoughby's Lane.
But Len grew querulous. "I do' want to go in the side door. Go in the
front door, hang it all! Father can't turn me out of my own house, the
infernal hound."
The door opened, and Lois stood in the oblong of light. "Oh, what is
it?" she cried, peering outward. "Is it you, Thor? What's the matter?"
"Treat me like a servant," Willoughby complained, as, with Thor
supporting him, he stumbled up the steps. "I do' want to go in the side
door. Front door good enough for me. No confounded kitchen-boy, if I
_am_ ruined. Look here, Lois," he rambled on, when he had got into the
hall and Thor was helping him to take off his overcoat--"look here,
Lois; we haven't got a cent in the world. Tha's wha' we haven't got--not
a cent in the world. Archie Masterman's got my money, and your money,
and your mother's money, and the whole damned money of all of us. Kicked
me out now. No good to him any more."
With some difficulty Thor got him to his room, where he undressed him
and put him to bed. On his return to the hall he found Lois seated in
one of the arm-chairs, her face pale.
"Oh, Thor, is this what you meant a few weeks ago?"
He did his best to explain the situation to her gently. "I don't know
just what's happened, but I'm afraid there's trouble ahead."
She nodded. "Yes; I've been expecting it, and now I suppose it's come."
"I shouldn't wonder if it had. But you must be brave, Lois, and not
think matters worse than they are."
"Oh, I sha'n't do that," she said, with a hint of haughtiness at his
solicitude. "Don't worry about me. I'm quite capable of bearing
whatever's to be borne. Please go on."
"If anything has happened," he said, speaking from where he stood in the
middle of the floor, "it's that father wants to dissolve the
partnership."
"I've been looking for that. So has mamma."
"And if they do dissolve the partnership, I'm afraid--I'm afraid
there'll be very little money coming to Mr. Willoughby."
"Whose fault would that be?"
"Frankly, Lois, I don't know. It might be that of my father or of
yours--"
"And I shouldn't think you'd want to find out."
He looked down at her curiously. "Why do you say that? Shouldn't you?"
She seemed to shiver. "Why should I? If the money's gone, it's gone.
Whether my father has squandered it or your father has--" She rose and
crossed the hall to the stairs, where, with a foot on the lowest of the
steps, she leaned on the pilaster of the balustrade. "I don't want to
know," she said, with energy. "If the money's gone, they've shuffled it
away between them; and I don't see that it would help either you or me
to find out who's to blame."
It was a minute at which Thor could easily have brought out the words
which for so many years he had supposed he would one day speak to her.
His pity was such that it would have been a luxury to tell her to throw
all the material part of her care on him. If he could have said that
much without saying more he would have had no hesitation. But there was
still a chance of the miracle happening with regard to Rosie Fay. Love
was love--and sweet. It was first love, and, in its way, it was young
love. It was springtide love. The dew of the morning was on it, and the
freshness of sunrise. It was hard to renounce it, even to go to the aid
of one whose need of him was so desperate that to hide it she turned her
face away. Instead of the words of cheer and rescue that were almost
gushing to his lips, he said, soberly:
"Has your mother any idea of what's going on?"
She began pacing restlessly up and down. "Oh, she's been worried for the
last few weeks. She couldn't help knowing something. Papa's been
dropping so many hints that she's been meaning to see your father."
"I suppose it will be very hard for her."
She paused, confronting him. "It will be at first. But she'll rise to
it. She does that kind of thing. You don't know mother. Very few people
do. She simply adores papa. It's pathetic. All this time that he's been
so--so--she won't recognize it. She won't admit for a second--or let me
admit it--that he's anything but tired or ill. It's splendid--and yet
there's something about it that almost breaks my heart. Mamma has lots
of pluck, you know. You mightn't think it--"
"Oh, I know it."
"I'm glad you do. People in general see only one side of her, but it's
not the only side. She has her weaknesses. I see that well enough. She's
terribly a woman; and she can't grow old. But that's not criminal, is
it? There's a great deal in her that's never been called on, and perhaps
this trouble will bring it out."
He spoke admiringly. "It will bring out a great deal in you."
She began again to pace up and down. "Oh, me! I'm so useless. I've never
been of any help to any one. Do you know, at times, latterly, I've
envied that little Rosie Fay?"
"Why?"
"Because she's got duties and responsibilities and struggles. She's got
something more to do than dress and play tennis and make calls. There
are people who depend on her--"
"She's splendid, isn't she?"
She paused in her restless pacing. "She might be. She is--very nearly."
Though he had taken the opportunity to get further away from the appeal
of her distress, he felt a pang of humiliation in the promptness with
which she followed his lead.
But he couldn't go on with the discussion. It was too sickening. Every
inflection of her voice implied that with her own need he had no longer
anything to do--that it was all over--that she recognized the fact--that
she was trying her utmost to let him off easily. That she should suspect
the truth, or connect the change with Rosie Fay, he knew was out of the
question. It was not the way in which her mind would work. If she
accounted for the situation at all it would probably be on the ground
that when it came to the point he had found that he didn't care for her.
The promises he had tacitly made and she had tacitly understood she was
ready to give back.
He was quite alive to the fact that her generosity made his impotence
the more pitiable. That he should stand tongue-tied and helpless before
the woman whom he had allowed to think that she could count on him was
galling not only to his manhood, but to all those primary instincts that
sent him to the aid of weakness. There was a minute in which it seemed
to him that if he did not on the instant redeem his self-respect it
would be lost to him for ever. After all, he did care for her--in a way.
There was no woman in the world toward whom he felt an equal degree of
reverence. More than that, there was no woman in the world whom he could
admit so naturally to share his life, whose life he himself could so
naturally share. If Rosie were to marry him, the whole process would be
different. In that case there would be no sharing; there would be
nothing but a wild, gipsy joy. His delight would be to heap happiness
upon her, content with her acceptance and the very little which was all
he could expect her to give him in return. With Lois Willoughby it would
be equality, partnership, companionship, and a life of mutual
comprehension and respect. That would be much, of course; it was what a
few months ago he would have thought enough; it was plainly that with
which he must manage to be satisfied.
He was about to plunge in--to plunge in with one last backward look to
the more exquisite joys he must leave behind--and tell her that his
strength and loyalty were hers to dispose of as she would when she
herself unwittingly balked the impulse.
It was still to hold open to him the way of escape that she continued to
speak of Rosie. "If she were to marry some nice fellow, like Jim Breen,
for instance--"
Thor bounded. "Like--who?"
She was too deeply preoccupied with her own emotions to notice his. "He
was attentive to her for a long time once."
He cried out, incredulously: "Oh no; it couldn't be. She's too--too
superior."
"I'm afraid the superiority is just the trouble--though I don't know
anything about it, beyond the gossip one hears in the village. Any one
who goes to so many of the working people's houses as I do hears it
all."
He was still incredulous. "And you've heard--_that_?"
"I've heard that poor Jim wanted to marry her--and she wouldn't look at
him. It's a pity, I think. She'd be a great deal happier in marrying a
man with the same kind of ways as herself than she'd be with some one--I
can only put it," she added, with a rueful smile, "in a way you don't
like, Thor--than she'd be with some one of another station in life."
His heart pounded so that he could hardly trust himself to speak with
the necessary coolness. "Is there any question of--of any one of another
station in life?"
"N-no; only that if she _is_ in love--and of course I'm only guessing at
it--I think it's very likely to be with some one of that kind."
The statement which was thrown out with gentle indifference affected him
so profoundly that had she again declared that it was not with him he
could have taken it with equanimity. With whom else could it be? It
wasn't with Antonio, and it wasn't with Dr. Hilary. There was the
choice. Were there any other rival, he couldn't help knowing it. He had
sometimes suspected--no, it was hardly enough for suspicion!--he had
sometimes hoped--but it had been hardly enough for hope!--and yet
sometimes, when she gave him that dim, sidelong smile or turned to him
with the earnest, wide-open look in her greenish eyes, he had thought
that possibly--just possibly....
He didn't know what answers he made to her further remarks. A faint
memory remained with him of talking incoherently against reason, against
sentiment, against time, as, with her velvety regard resting upon him
sadly, he swung on his overcoat and hurried to take his leave.