"I said `Idiot'!"
"You mean Egerton Villard?"
"Both of you!"
"You think I'm an idiot, Hedrick?" Her tone was calm, merely
inquisitive.
"Yes, I do!"
"Oh, no," she said pleasantly. "Don't you think if I were _really_
an idiot I'd be even fonder of you than I am?"
It took his breath. In a panic he sat waiting he knew not what;
but Cora blandly resumed her interrupted remarks to her mother,
beginning a description of Mrs. Villard's dress; Laura was talking
unconcernedly to Miss Peirce; no one appeared to be aware that
anything unusual had been said. His breath came back, and,
summoning his presence of mind, he found himself able to consider
his position with some degree of assurance. Perhaps, after all,
Cora's retort had been merely a coincidence. He went over and over
it in his mind, making a pretence, meanwhile, to be busy with his
plate. "If I were _really_ an idiot." . . . It was the "_really_"
that troubled him. But for that one word, he could have decided
that her remark was a coincidence; but "_really_" was ominous; had
a sinister ring. "If I were _really_ an idiot!" Suddenly the
pleasant clouds that had obscured his memory of the fatal evening
were swept away as by a monstrous Hand: it all came back to him
with sickening clearness. So is it always with the sinner with his
sin and its threatened discovery. Again, in his miserable mind, he
sat beside Lolita on the fence, with the moon shining through her
hair; and he knew--for he had often read it--that a man could be
punished his whole life through for a single moment's weakness. A
man might become rich, great, honoured, and have a large family,
but his one soft sin would follow him, hunt him out and pull him
down at last. "_Really_ an idiot!" Did that relentless Comanche,
Cora, know this Thing? He shuddered. Then he fell back upon his
faith in Providence. It _could_ not be that she knew! Ah, no!
Heaven would not let the world be so bad as that! And yet it did
sometimes become negligent--he remembered the case of a baby-girl
cousin who fell into the bath-tub and was drowned. Providence had
allowed that: What assurance had he that it would not go a step
farther?
"Why, Hedrick," said Cora, turning toward him cheerfully, "you're
not really eating anything; you're only pretending to." His heart
sank with apprehension. Was it coming? "You really must eat," she
went on. "School begins so soon, you must be strong, you know. How
we shall miss you here at home during your hours of work!"
With that, the burden fell from his shoulders, his increasing
terrors took wing. If Laura had told his ghastly secret to Cora,
the latter would not have had recourse to such weak satire as
this. Cora was not the kind of person to try a popgun on an enemy
when she had a thirteen-inch gun at her disposal; so he reasoned;
and in the gush of his relief and happiness, responded:
"You're a little too cocky lately, Cora-lee: I wish you were _my_
daughter--just about five minutes!"
Cora looked upon him fondly. "What would you do to me," she
inquired with a terrible sweetness--"darling little boy?"
Hedrick's head swam. The blow was square in the face; it jarred
every bone; the world seemed to topple. His mother, rising from
her chair, choked slightly, and hurried to join the nurse, who was
already on her way upstairs. Cora sent an affectionate laugh
across the table to her stunned antagonist.
"You wouldn't beat me, would you, dear?" she murmured. "I'm almost
sure you wouldn't; not if I asked you to kiss me some _more_."
All doubt was gone, the last hope fled! The worst had arrived. A
vision of the awful future flamed across his staggered mind. The
doors to the arena were flung open: the wild beasts howled for
hunger of him; the spectators waited.
Cora began lightly to sing:
. . . "Dear,
Would thou wert near
To hear me tell how fair thou art!
Since thou art gone I mourn all alone,
Oh, my Lolita----"
She broke off to explain: "It's one of those passionate little
Spanish serenades, Hedrick. I'll sing it for your boy-friends next
time they come to play in the yard. I think they'd like it. When
they know why you like it so much, I'm sure they will. Of course
you _do_ like it--you roguish little lover!" A spasm rewarded this
demoniacal phrase. "Darling little boy, the serenade goes on like
this:
Oh, my Lolita, come to my heart:
Oh, come beloved, love let me press thee,
While I caress thee
In one long kiss, Lolita!
Lolita come! Let me----"
Hedrick sprang to his feet with a yell of agony. "Laura Madison,
you tattle-tale," he bellowed, "I'll never forgive you as long as
I live! I'll get even with you if it takes a thousand years!"
With that, and pausing merely to kick a rung out of a chair which
happened to be in his way, he rushed from the room.
His sisters had risen to go, and Cora flung her arms round Laura
in ecstacy. "You mean old viper!" she cried. "You could have told
me days ago! It's almost too good to be true: it's the first time
in my whole life I've felt safe from the Pest for a moment!"
Laura shook her head. "My conscience troubles me; it did seem as
if I ought to tell you--and mamma thought so, too; and I gave him
warning, but now that I have done it, it seems rather mean
and----"
"No!" exclaimed Cora. "You just gave me a chance to protect myself
for once, thank heaven!" And she picked up her skirts and danced
her way into the front hall.
"I'm afraid," said Laura, following, "I shouldn't have done it."
"Oh, Laura," cried the younger girl, "I am having the best time,
these days! This just caps it." She lowered her voice, but her
eyes grew even brighter. "I think I've shown a certain gentleman a
few things he didn't understand!"
"Who, dear?"
"Val," returned Cora lightly; "Valentine Corliss. I think he knows
a little more about women than he did when he first came here."
"You've had a difference with him?" asked Laura with eager
hopefulness. "You've broken with him?"
"Oh, Lord, no! Nothing like that." Cora leaned to her
confidentially. "He told me, once, he'd be at the feet of any
woman that could help put through an affair like his oil scheme,
and I decided I'd just show him what I could do. He'd talk about
it to me; then he'd laugh at me. That very Sunday when I got papa
to go in----"
"But he didn't," said Laura helplessly. "He only said he'd try
to----when he gets well."
"It's all the same--and it'll be a great thing for him, too," said
Cora, gayly. "Well, that very afternoon before Val left, he
practically told me I was no good. Of course he didn't use just
those words--that isn't his way--but he laughed at me. And haven't
I shown him! I sent Richard a note that very night saying papa had
consented to be secretary of the company, and Richard had said
he'd go in if papa did that, and he couldn't break his word----"
"I know," said Laura, sighing. "I know."
"Laura"--Cora spoke with sudden gravity--"did you ever know
anybody like me? I'm almost getting superstitious about it,
because it seems to me I _always_ get just what I set out to get.
I believe I could have anything in the world if I tried for it."
"I hope so, if you tried for something good for you," said Laura
sadly. "Cora, dear, you will--you will be a little easy on
Hedrick, won't you?"
Cora leaned against the newel and laughed till she was exhausted.