Happy in the hope that the news was “exclusive”, the Despatch had thrown
the name of Stephen Hallowell, his portrait, a picture of his house, and
the words, “At Point of Death!” across three columns. The announcement
was heavy, lachrymose, bristling with the melancholy self-importance
of the man who “saw the deceased, just two minutes before the train hit
him.”
But the effect of the news fell short of the effort. Save that city
editors were irritated that the presidents of certain railroads figured
hastily on slips of paper, the fact that an old man and his millions
would soon be parted, left New York undisturbed.
In the early 80’s this would not have been so. Then, in the uplifting of
the far West, Stephen Hallowell was a national figure, in the manoeuvres
of the Eastern stock market an active, alert power. In those days, when
a man with a few millions was still listed as rich, his fortune was
considered colossal.
A patent coupling-pin, the invention of his brother-in-law, had given
him his start, and, in introducing it, and in his efforts to force it
upon the new railroads of the West, he had obtained a knowledge of their
affairs. From that knowledge came his wealth. That was twenty years
ago. Since then giants had arisen in the land; men whose wealth made
the fortune of Stephen Hallowell appear a comfortable competence, his
schemes and stratagems, which, in their day, had bewildered Wall Street,
as simple as the trading across the counter of a cross-roads store. For
years he had been out of it. He had lost count. Disuse and ill health
had rendered his mind feeble, made him at times suspicious, at times
childishly credulous. Without friends, along with his physician and the
butler, who was also his nurse, he lived in the house that in 76, in
a burst of vanity, he had built on Fifth Avenue. Then the house was a
“mansion,” and its front of brown sandstone the outward sign of wealth
and fashion. Now, on one side, it rubbed shoulders with the shop of a
man milliner, and across the street the houses had been torn down and
replaced by a department store. Now, instead of a sombre jail-like
facade, his outlook was a row of waxen ladies, who, before each change
of season, appeared in new and gorgeous raiment, and, across the avenue,
for his approval, smiled continually.
“It is time you moved, Stephen,” urged his friend and lawyer, Judge
Henry Gaylor. “I can get you twice as much for this lot as you paid for
both it and the house.”
But Mr. Hallowell always shook his head. “Where would I go, Henry?”
he would ask. “What would I do with the money? No, I will live in this
house until I am carried out of it.”
With distaste, the irritated city editors “followed up” the three-column
story of the Despatch.
“Find out if there’s any truth in that,” they commanded. “The old man
won’t see you, but get a talk out of Rainey. And see Judge Gaylor. He’s
close to Hallowell. Find out from him if that story didn’t start as a
bear yarn in Wall Street.”
So, when Walsh of the Despatch was conducted by Garrett, the butler of
Mr. Hallowell, upstairs to that gentlemen’s library, he found a group of
reporters already entrenched. At the door that opened from the library
to the bedroom, the butler paused. “What paper shall I say?” he asked.
“The Despatch,” Walsh told him.
The servant turned quickly and stared at Walsh.
He appeared the typical butler, an Englishman of over forty, heavily
built, soft-moving, with ruddy, smooth-shaven cheeks and prematurely
gray hair. But now from his face the look of perfunctory politeness had
fallen; the subdued voice had changed to a snarl that carried with it
the accents of the Tenderloin.
“So, you’re the one, are you?” the man muttered.
For a moment he stood scowling; insolent, almost threatening, and then,
once more, the servant opened the door and noiselessly closed it behind
him.
The transition had been so abrupt, the revelation so unexpected, that
the men laughed.
“I don’t blame him!” said young Irving. “I couldn’t find a single fact
in the whole story. How’d your people get it--pretty straight?”
“Seemed straight to us,” said Walsh.
“Well, you didn’t handle it that way,” returned the other. “Why didn’t
you quote Rainey or Gaylor? It seems to me if a man’s on the point of
death”--he lowered his voice and glanced toward the closed door--“that
his private doctor and his lawyer might know something about it.”
Standing alone with his back to the window was a reporter who had
greeted no one and to whom no one had spoken.
Had he held himself erect he would have been tall, but he stood
slouching lazily, his shoulders bent, his hands in his pockets. When he
spoke his voice was in keeping with the indolence of his bearing. It was
soft, hesitating, carrying with it the courteous deference of the South.
Only his eyes showed that to what was going forward he was alert and
attentive.
“Is Dr. Rainey Mr. Hallowell’s family doctor?” he asked.
Irving surveyed him in amused superiority.
“He is!” he answered. “You been long in New York?” he asked.
Upon the stranger the sarcasm was lost, or he chose to ignore it, for he
answered simply, “No, I’m a New Orleans boy. I’ve just been taken on the
Republic.”
“Welcome to our city,” said Irving. “What do you think of our Main
Street?”
From the hall a tall portly man entered the room with the assurance of
one much at home here and, with an exclamation, Irving fell upon him.
“Good morning, Judge,” he called. He waved at him the clipping from the
Despatch. “Have you seen this?”
Judge Gaylor accepted the slip of paper gingerly, and in turn moved
his fine head pompously toward each of the young men. Most of them
were known to him, but for the moment he preferred to appear too deeply
concerned to greet them. With an expression of shocked indignation, he
recognized only Walsh.
“Yes, I have seen it,” he said, “and there is not a word of truth in it!
Mr. Walsh, I am surprised! You, of all people!”
“We got it on very good authority,” said the reporter.
“But why not call me up and get the facts?” demanded the Judge. “I was
here until twelve o’clock, and--”
“Here!” interrupted Irving. “Then he did have a collapse?”
Judge Gaylor swung upon his heel.
“Certainly not,” he retorted angrily. “I was here on business, and I
have never known his mind more capable, more alert.” He lifted his hands
with an enthusiastic gesture. “I wish you could have seen him!”
“Well,” urged Irving, “how about our seeing him now?”
For a moment Judge Gaylor permitted his annoyance to appear, but he at
once recovered and, murmuring cheerfully, “Certainly, certainly; I’ll
try to arrange it,” turned to the butler who had re-entered the room.
“Garett,” he inquired, “is Mr. Hallowell awake yet?” As he asked the
question his eyebrows rose; with an almost imperceptible shake of the
head he signaled for an answer in the negative.
“Well, there you are!” the Judge exclaimed heartily. “I can’t wake him,
even to oblige you. In a word, gentlemen, Stephen Hallowell has never
been in better health, mentally and bodily. You can say that from
me--and that’s all there is to say.”
“Then, we can say,” persisted Irving, “that you say, that Walsh’s story
is a fake?”
“You can say it is not true,” corrected Gaylor. “That’s all, gentlemen.”
The audience was at an end. The young men moved toward the hall and
Judge Gaylor turned to the bedroom. As he did so, he found that the new
man on the Republic still held his ground.
“Could I have a word with you, sir?” the stranger asked. The reporters
halted jealously. Again Gaylor showed his impatience.
“About Mr. Hallowell’s health?” he demanded. “There’s nothing more to
say.”
“No, it’s not about his health,” ventured the reporter.
“Well, not now. I am very late this morning.” The Judge again moved to
the bedroom and the reporter, as though accepting the verdict, started
to follow the others. As he did so, as though in explanation or as a
warning he added: “You said to always come to you for the facts.”
The lawyer halted, hesitated. “What facts do you want?” he asked. The
reporter bowed, and waved his broad felt hat toward the listening men.
In polite embarrassment he explained what he had to say could not be
spoken in their presence.
Something in the manner of the stranger led Judge Gaylor to pause. He
directed Garrett to accompany the reporters from the room. Then, with
mock politeness, he turned to the one who remained. “I take it, you are
a new comer in New York journalism. What is your name?” he asked.
“My name is Homer Lee,” said the Southerner. “I am a New Orleans boy.
I’ve been only a month in your city. Judge,” he began earnestly, but in
a voice which still held the drawl of the South, “I met a man from home
last week on Broadway. He belonged to that spiritualistic school on
Carondelet Street. He knows all that’s going on in the spook world,
and he tells me the ghost raisers have got their hooks into the old man
pretty deep. Is that so?”
The bewilderment of Judge Gaylor was complete and, without question,
genuine.
“I don’t know what you mean,” he said.
“My informant tells me,” continued the reporter, “that Mr. Hallowell has
embraced--if that’s what you call it--spiritualism.”
Gaylor started forward.
“What!” he roared.
Unmoved, the other regarded the Judge keenly.
“Spiritualism,” he repeated, “and that a bunch of these mediums have got
him so hypnotized he can’t call his soul his own, or his money, either.
Is that true?”
Judge Gaylor’s outburst was overwhelming. That it was genuine Mr. Lee,
observing him closely, was convinced.
“Of all the outrageous, ridiculous”--the judge halted, gasping for
words--“and libelous statements!” he went on. “If you print that,”
he thundered, “Mr. Hallowell will sue your paper for half a million
dollars. Can’t you see the damage you would do? Can’t your people see
that if the idea got about that he was unable to direct his own affairs,
that he was in the hands of mediums, it would invalidate everything he
does? After his death, every act of his at this time, every paper he
had signed, would be suspected, and--and”--stammered the Judge as his
imagination pictured what might follow--“they might even attack his
will!” He advanced truculently. “Do you mean to publish this libel?”
Lee moved his shoulders in deprecation. “I’m afraid we must,” he said.
“You must!” demanded Gaylor. “After what I’ve told you? Do you think I’m
lying to you?”
“No,” said the reporter; “I don’t think you are. Looks more like you
didn’t know.”
“Not know? I?” Gaylor laughed hysterically. “I am his lawyer. I am his
best friend! Who will you believe?” He stepped to the table and pressed
an electric button, and Garrett appeared in the hall. “Tell Dr. Rainey I
want to see him,” Gaylor commanded, “and return with him.”
As they waited, Judge Gaylor paced quickly to and fro. “I’ve had to deny
some pretty silly stories about Mr. Hallowell,” he said, “but of all
the absurd, malicious--There’s some enemy back of this; some one in Wall
Street is doing this. But I’ll find him--I’ll--” he was interrupted
by the entrance of the butler and Dr. Rainey, Mr. Hallowell’s personal
physician.
Rainey was a young man with a weak face, and knowing, shifting eyes
that blinked behind a pair of eyeglasses. To conceal an indecision of
character of which he was quite conscious, he assumed a manner that,
according to whom he addressed, was familiar or condescending. At one
of the big hospitals he had been an ambulance surgeon and resident
physician, later he had started upon a somewhat doubtful career as a
medical “expert.” Only two years had passed since the police and
the reporters of the Tenderloin had ceased calling him “Doc.” In a
celebrated criminal case in which Gaylor had acted as chief counsel, he
had found Rainey complaisant and apparently totally without the moral
sense. And when in Garrett he had discovered for Mr. Hallowell a model
servant, he had also urged upon his friend, for his resident physician,
his protege Rainey.
Still at white heat, the older man began abruptly: “This gentleman is
from the Republic. He is going to publish a story that Mr. Hallowell has
fallen under the influence of mediums, clairvoyants; that everything he
does is on advice from the spirit world--” he turned sharply upon Lee.
“Is that right?” The reporter nodded.
“You can see the effect of such a story. It would invalidate every act
of Mr. Hallowell’s!”
Dr. Rainey laughed offensively.
“It might,” he said, “but who’d believe it?”
“He believes it!” cried Gaylor, “or he pretends to believe it. Tell
him!” he commanded. “He won’t believe me. Does Mr. Hallowell associate
with mediums, and spirits--and spooks?”
Again the young doctor laughed.
“Of course not!” he exclaimed. “It’s not worth answering, Judge. You
ought to treat it with silent contempt.” From behind his glasses he
winked at the reporter with a jocular, intimate smile. He was adapting
himself to what he imagined was his company. “Where did you pick up that
pipe dream?” he asked.
Without answering, the Southerner regarded him steadily with inquiring,
interested eyes. The doctor coughed nervously and turned to Judge
Gaylor. In the manner of a cross-examination Gaylor called up his next
witness.
“Garrett, does any one visit Mr. Hallowell without your knowledge?” he
asked. “You may not open the door for him, but you know every one who
gets in to see Mr. Hallowell, do you not?”
“Every one, sir.”
“Do you admit any mediums, palm-readers, or people of that sort?”
“Certainly not,” returned the butler.
“Dr. Rainey,” he added, “would not permit it, sir.”
Gaylor stamped his foot with impatience.
“Do you admit any one,” he demanded, “without Dr. Rainey’s permission?”
“No, sir!” The reply could not have rung with greater emphasis.
Triumphantly, Gaylor, with a wave of the hand, as though saying, “Take
the witness,” turned to Lee. “There you are,” he cried. “Now, are you
satisfied?”
The reporter moved slowly toward the door. “I am satisfied,” he said,
“that the man doesn’t admit any one without Dr. Rainey’s permission.”
Indignantly, as though to intercept him, Judge Gaylor stepped forward.
Both Rainey and himself spoke together.
“What do you mean by that?” Rainey demanded.
“Are you trying to be insolent, sir?” cried the Judge.
Lee smiled pleasantly. “I had no intention of being insolent,” he said.
“We have the facts--I only came to give you a chance to explain them.”
Gaylor lost all patience.
“What facts?” he shouted. “What facts? That mediums come here?”
“Yes,” said Lee.
“When?” Gaylor cried. “Tell me that! When?”
Lee regarded the older man thoughtfully.
“Well, today is Thursday,” he said. “They were here Monday morning, and
Tuesday morning--and--the one they call Vera--will be here in half an
hour.”
Rainey ran across the room, stretching out eager, detaining hands.
“See here!” he begged. “We can fix this!”
“Fix it?” said the reporter. “Not with me, you can’t.” He turned to the
door and found Garrett barring his exit. He halted, fell back on his
heels, and straightened his shoulders. For the first time they saw how
tall he was.
“Get out of my way,” he said. The butler hesitated and fell back. Lee
walked into the hall.
“I’ll leave you gentlemen to fight it out among you,” he said. “It’s a
better story than I thought.”
As he descended to the floor below, the men remained motionless. The
face of Judge Gaylor seemed to have grown older. When the front
door closed, he turned and searched the countenance of each of his
companions. The butler had dropped into a chair muttering and beating
his fist into his open palm.
Gaylor’s voice was hardly louder than a whisper. “Is this true?” he
asked.
Like a cur dog pinned in a corner and forced to fight, Rainey snarled at
him evilly. “Of course it’s true,” he said.
“You’ve let these people see him!” cried Gaylor. “After I forbade it?
After I told you what would happen?”
“He would see them,” Rainey answered hotly. “Twas better I chose them
than--”
Gaylor raised his clenched hands and took a sudden step forward. The
Doctor backed hastily against the library table. “Don’t you come near
me!” he stammered. “Don’t you touch me.”
“And you’ve lied to me!” cried Gaylor. “You’ve deceived me. You--you
jailbirds--you idiots.” His voice rose hysterically. “And do you think,”
he demanded fiercely, “I’ll help you now?”
“No!” said the butler.
The word caught the Judge in the full rush of his anger. He turned
stupidly as though he had not heard aright. “What?” he asked. From the
easy chair the butler regarded him with sullen, hostile eyes.
“No!” he repeated. “We don’t think you’ll help us. You never meant to
help us. You’ve never thought of any one but yourself.”
The face of the older man was filled with reproach.
“Jim!” he protested.
“Don’t do that!” commanded the butler sharply. “I’ve told you not to do
that.”
The Judge moved his head slowly in amazement. The tone of reproach was
still in his voice.
“I thought you could understand,” he said. “It doesn’t matter about him.
But you! You should have seen what I was doing!”
“I saw what you were doing,” the butler replied. “Buying stocks, buying
a country place. You didn’t wait for him to die. What were we getting?”
With returning courage, Rainey nodded vigorously.
“That’s right, all right,” he protested. “What were we getting?”
“What were you getting?” demanded Gaylor, eagerly. “If you’d only left
him to me, till he signed the new will, you’d have had everything. It
only needs his signature.”
“Yes,” interrupted Garrett contemptuously; “that’s all it needs.”
“Oh, he’d have signed it!” cried Gaylor. “But what’s it worth now!
Nothing! Thanks to you two--nothing! They’ll claim undue influence,
they’ll claim he signed it under the influence of mediums--of ghosts.”
His voice shook with anger and distress. “You’ve ruined me!” he cried.
“You’ve ruined me.”
He turned and paced from them, his fingers interlacing, his teeth
biting upon his lower lip. The two other men glanced at each other
uncomfortably; their silence seemed to assure Gaylor that already they
regretted what they had done. He stood over Garrett, and for an instant
laid his hand upon his shoulder. His voice now was sane and cold.
“I’ve worked three years for this,” he said. “And for you, too, Jim. You
know that. I’ve worked on his vanity, on his fear of death, on his damn
superstition. When he talked of restitution, of giving the money to
his niece, I asked Why?’ I said, Leave it for a great monument to your
memory. Isn’t it better that ten million dollars should be spent in good
works in your name than that it should go to a chit of a child to
be wasted by some fortune hunter? And--then--I evolved the Hallowell
Institute, university, hospital, library, all under one roof, all
under one direction; and I would have been the director. We should have
handled ten millions of dollars! I’d have made you both so rich,” he
cried savagely, “that in two years you’d have drunk yourselves into
a mad-house. And you couldn’t trust me! You’ve filled this house with
fakes and palm-readers. And, now, every one will know just what he
is--a senile, half-witted old man who was clay in my hands, clay in my
hands--and you’ve robbed me of him, you’ve robbed me of him!” His voice,
broken with anger and disappointment, rose in an hysterical wail. As
though to meet it a bell rang shrilly. Gaylor started and stood with
eyes fixed on the door of the bedroom. The three men eyed each other
guiltily.
The butler was the first to recover. With mask-like face he hastened
noiselessly across the room. In his tones of usual authority, Gaylor
stopped him.
“Tell Mr. Hallowell,” he directed, “that his niece and District Attorney
Winthrop will be here any moment. Ask him if he wishes me to see them,
or if he will talk to them himself?”
When the faithful servant had entered the bedroom Gaylor turned to
Rainey.
“When do these mediums come today?” he asked.
Rainey stared sulkily at the floor.
“I think they’re here now--downstairs,” he answered. “Garrett generally
hides them there till you’re out of the house.”
“Indeed,” commented Gaylor dryly. “After Winthrop and Miss Coates have
gone, I want to talk with your friends.”
“Now, see here, Judge,” whined Rainey; “don’t make trouble. It isn’t as
bad as you think. The old man’s only investigating--”
“Hush!” commanded the Judge.
From the bedroom, leaning on the butler’s arm, Stephen Hallowell came
stumbling toward them and, with a sigh, sank into an invalid’s chair
that was placed for him between the fire and the long library table..
He was a very feeble, very old man, with a white face, and thin, white
hair, but with a mouth and lower jaw as hard and uncompromising as those
of a skull. His eyes, which were strangely brilliant and young-looking,
peered suspiciously from under ragged white eyebrows. But when they fell
upon the doctor, the eyes became suddenly credulous, pleading, filled
with self-pity.
“I’m a very sick man, Doctor,” said Mr. Hallowell.
Judge Gaylor bustled forward cheerily. “Nonsense, Stephen, nonsense,” he
cried; “you look a different man this morning. Doesn’t he, Doctor?”
“Sure he does!” assented Rainey. “Little sleep was all he needed.” Mr.
Hallowell shook his head petulantly. “Not at all!” he protested. “That
was a very serious attack. This morning my head hurts--hurts me to
think--”
“Perhaps,” said Gaylor, “you’d prefer that I talked to your niece.”
“No!” exclaimed the invalid excitedly. “I want to see her myself. I want
to tell her, once and for all--” He checked himself and frowned at the
Doctor. “You needn’t wait,” he said. “And Doctor,” he added meaningly,
“after these people go, you come back.”
With a conscious glance at the Judge, Rainey nodded and left them.
“No,” continued the old man; “I want to talk to my niece myself. But I
don’t want to talk to Winthrop. He’s too clever a young man, Winthrop.
In the merger case, you remember--had me on the stand for three hours.
Made me talk too.” The mind of the old man suddenly veered at a tangent.
“How the devil can Helen retain him?” he demanded peevishly. “She can’t
retain him. She hasn’t any money. And he’s District Attorney too. It’s
against the law. Is he doing it as a speculation? Does he want to marry
her?”
Judge Gaylor laughed soothingly.
“Heavens, no!” he said. “She’s in his office, that’s all. When she
took this craze to be independent of you, he gave her a position as
secretary, or as stenographer, or something. She’s probably told him her
story, her side of it, and he’s helping her out of charity.” The Judge
smiled tolerantly. “He does that sort of thing, I believe.”
The old man struck the library table with his palm. “I wish he’d mind
his own business,” he cried. “It’s my money. She has no claim to it,
never had any claim--”
The Judge interrupted quickly.
“That’s all right, Stephen; that’s all right,” he said. “Don’t excite
yourself. Just get what you’re to say straight in your mind and stick to
it. Remember,” he went on, as though coaching a child in a task already
learned, “there never was a written agreement.
“No!” muttered Hallowell. “Never was!”
“Repeat this to yourself,” commanded the Judge. “The understanding
between you and your brother-in-law was that if you placed his patent
on the market, for the first five years you would share the profits
equally. After the five years, all rights in the patent became yours. It
was unfortunate,” commented the Judge dryly, “that your brother-in-law
and your sister died before the five years were up, especially as
the patent did not begin to make money until after five years.
Remember--until after five years.”
“Until after five years,” echoed Mr. Hallowell. “It was over six years,”
he went on excitedly, “before it made a cent. And, then, it was my
money--and anything I give my niece is charity. She’s not entitled--”
Garrett appeared at the door. “Miss Coates,” he announced, “and Mr.
Winthrop.” Judge Gaylor raised a hand for silence, and as Mr. Hallowell
sank back in his chair, Helen Coates, the only child of Catherine
Coates, his sister, and the young District Attorney of New York came
into the library. Miss Coates was a woman of between twenty-five and
thirty, capable, and self-reliant. She had a certain beauty of a severe
type, but an harassed expression about her eyes made her appear to be
always frowning. At times, in a hardening of the lower part of her face,
she showed a likeness to her uncle. Like him, in speaking, also, her
manner was positive and decided.
In age the young man who accompanied her was ten years her senior, but
where her difficulties had made her appear older than she really was,
the enthusiasm with which he had thrown himself against those of his own
life, had left him young.
The rise of Winthrop had been swift and spectacular. Almost as soon as
he graduated from the college in the little “up-state” town where he
had been educated, and his family had always lived, he became the
prosecuting attorney of that town, and later, at Albany, represented
the district in the Assembly. From Albany he entered a law office in
New York City, and in the cause of reform had fought so many good fights
that on an independent ticket, much to his surprise, he had been lifted
to the high position he now held. No more in his manner than in his
appearance did Winthrop suggest the popular conception of his role. He
was not professional, not mysterious. Instead, he was sane, cheerful,
tolerant. It was his philosophy to believe that the world was innocent
until it was proved guilty.
He was a bachelor and, except for two sisters who had married men of
prominence in New York and who moved in a world of fashion into which he
had not penetrated, he was alone.
When the visitors entered, Mr. Hallowell, without rising, greeted his
niece cordially.
“Ah, Helen! I am glad to see you,” he called, and added reproachfully,
“at last.”
“How do you do, sir?” returned Miss Helen stiffly. With marked
disapproval she bowed to Judge Gaylor.
“And our District Attorney,” cried Mr. Hallowell. “Pardon my not rising,
won’t you? I haven’t seen you, sir, since you tried to get the Grand
Jury to indict me.” He chucked delightedly. “You didn’t succeed,” he
taunted.
Winthrop shook hands with him, smiling, “Don’t blame me,” he said, “I
did my best. I’m glad to see you in such good spirits, Mr. Hallowell. I
feared, by the Despatch--”
“Lies, lies,” interrupted Hallowell curtly. “You know Judge Gaylor?”
As he shook hands, Winthrop answered that the Judge and he were old
friends; that they knew each other well.
“Know each other so well!” returned the Judge, “that we ought to be old
enemies.”
The younger man nodded appreciatively. “That’s true!” he laughed, “only
I didn’t think you’d admit it.”
With light sarcasm Mr. Hallowell inquired whether Winthrop was with them
in his official capacity.
“Oh, don’t suggest that!” begged Winthrop; “you’ll be having me indicted
next. No sir, I am here without any excuse whatsoever. I am just
interfering as a friend of this young lady.”
“Good,” commented Hallowell. “I’d be sorry to have my niece array
counsel against me--especially such distinguished counsel. Sit down,
Helen.”
Miss Coates balanced herself on the edge of a chair and spoke in cool,
business-like tones, “Mr. Hallowell,” she began, “I came.”
“Mr. Hallowell?” objected her uncle.
“Uncle Stephen,” Miss Coates again began, “I wish to be as brief as
possible. I asked you to see me today because I hoped that by talking
things over we might avoid lawsuits and litigation.”
Mr. Hallowell nodded his approval. “Yes,” he said encouragingly.
“I have told Mr. Winthrop what the trouble is,” Miss Coates went on,
“and he agrees with me that I have been very unjustly treated--”
“By whom?” interrupted Hallowell.
“By you,” said his niece.
“Wait, Helen,” commanded the old man. “Have you also told Mr. Winthrop,”
he demanded, “that I have made a will in your favor? That, were I to
die tonight, you would inherit ten millions of dollars? Is that the
injustice of which you complain?”
Judge Gaylor gave an exclamation of pleasure.
“Good!” he applauded. “Excellent!”
Hallowell turned indignantly to Winthrop. “And did she tell you also,”
he demanded, “that for three years I have urged her to make a home in
this house? That I have offered her an income as large as I would
give my own daughter, and that she has refused both offers. And what’s
more”--in his excitement his voice rose hysterically--“by working
publicly for her living she has made me appear mean and uncharitable,
and--”
“That’s just it,” interrupted Miss Coates. “It isn’t a question of
charity.”
“Will you allow me?” said Winthrop soothingly. “Your niece contends,
sir,” he explained, “that this money you offered her is not yours to
offer. She claims it belongs to her. That it’s what should have been her
father’s share of the profits on the Coates-Hallowell coupling pin. But,
as you have willed your niece so much money, although half of it is
hers already, I advised her not to fight. Going to law is an expensive
business. But she has found out--and that’s what brings me uptown this
morning--that you intend to make a new will, and leave all her money and
your own to establish the Hallowell Institute. Now,” Winthrop continued,
with a propitiating smile, “Miss Coates also would like to be a
philanthropist, in her own way, with her own money. And she wishes to
warn you that, unless you deliver up what is due her, she will proceed
against you.”
Judge Gaylor was the first to answer.
“Mr. Winthrop,” he said impressively, “I give you my word, there is not
one dollar due Miss Coates, except what Mr. Hallowell pleases to give
her.”
Miss Coates contradicted him sharply. “That is not so,” she said. She
turned to her uncle, “You and my father,” she declared, “agreed in
writing you would share the profits always.” Mr. Hallowell looked from
his niece to his lawyer. The lawyer, eyeing him apprehensively, nodded.
With the patient voice of one who tried to reason with an unreasonable
child, Mr. Hallowell began. “Helen,” he said, “I have told you many
times there never was such an agreement. There was a verbal--”
“And I repeat, I saw it,” said Miss Coates.
“When?” asked Hallowell.
“I saw it first when I was fifteen,” answered the young woman steadily,
“and two years later, before mother died, she showed it to me again. It
was with father’s papers.”
“Miss Coates,” asked the Judge, “where is this agreement now?”
For a moment Miss Coates hesitated. Her dislike for Gaylor was so
evident that, to make it less apparent, she lowered her eyes. “My
uncle should be able to tell you,” she said evenly. “He was my father’s
executor. But, when he returned my father’s papers”--she paused and
then, although her voice fell to almost a whisper, continued defiantly,
“the agreement was not with them.”
There was a moment’s silence. To assure himself the others had heard as
he did, Mr. Hallowell glanced quickly from Winthrop to Gaylor. He half
rose from his chair and leaned across the table.
“What!” he demanded. His niece looked at him steadily.
“You heard what I said,” she answered.
The old man leaned farther forward.
“So!” he cried; “so! I am not only doing you an injustice, but I am
a thief! Mr. Winthrop,” he cried appealingly, “do you appreciate the
seriousness of this?”
Winthrop nodded cheerfully. “It’s certainly pretty serious,” he
assented.
“It is so serious,” cried Mr. Hallowell, “that I welcome you into this
matter. Now, we will settle it once and forever.” He turned to his
niece. “I have tried to be generous,” he cried; “I have tried to be
kind, and you insult me in my own house.” He pressed the button that
summoned the butler from the floor below. “Gentlemen, this interview is
at an end. From now on this matter is in the hands of my lawyer. We will
settle this in the courts.”
With an exclamation of pleasure that was an acceptance of his challenge,
Miss Coates rose.
“That is satisfactory to me,” she said. Winthrop turned to Mr.
Hallowell.
“Could I have a few minutes talk with Judge Gaylor now?” he asked. “Not
as anybody’s counsel,” he explained; “just as an old enemy of his?”
“Well, not here,” protested the old man querulously. “I’m--I’m expecting
some friends here. Judge, take Mr. Winthrop to the drawing room
downstairs.” He turned to Garrett, who had appeared in answer to his
summons, and told him to bring Dr. Rainey to the library. The butler
left the room and, as Gaylor and Winthrop followed, the latter asked
Miss Coates if he might expect to see her at the “Office.” She told him
that she was now on her way there. Without acknowledging the presence
of her uncle, she had started to follow the others, when Mr. Hallowell
stopped her.
After they were alone, for a moment he sat staring at her, his eyes
filled with dislike and with a suggestion of childish spite. “I might as
well tell you,” he began, “that after what you said this morning, I will
never give you a single dollar of my money.”
The tone in which his niece replied to him was no more conciliatory than
his own. “You cannot give it to me,” she answered, “because it is not
yours to give.” As though to add impressiveness to what she was about
to say, or to prevent his interrupting her, she raised her hand. So
interested in each other were the old man and the girl that neither
noticed the appearance in the door of Dr. Rainey and the butler, who
halted, hesitating, waiting permission to enter.
“That money belongs to me,” said Miss Coates slowly, “and as sure as
my mother is in Heaven and her spirit is guiding me, that money will be
given me.”
In the pause that followed, a swift and singular change came over the
face of Mr. Hallowell. He stared at his niece as though fascinated.
His lower lip dropped in awe. The look of hostility gave way to one of
intense interest. His voice was hardly louder than a whisper.
“What do you mean?” he demanded.
The girl looked at him, uncomprehending. “What do I mean?” she repeated.
“When you said,” he stammered eagerly, “that the spirit of your mother
was guiding you, what did you mean?”
In the doorway, Rainey and the butler started. Each threw the other a
quick glance of concern.
“Why,” exclaimed the girl impatiently, “her influence, her example, what
she taught me.”
“Oh!” exclaimed the old man. He leaned back with an air almost of
disappointment.
“When she was alive?” he said.
“Of course,” answered the girl.
“Of course,” repeated the uncle. “I thought you meant--” He looked
suspiciously at her and shook his head. “Never mind,” he added. “Well,”
he went on cynically, striving to cover up the embarrassment of the
moment, “your mother’s spirit will probably feel as deep an interest in
her brother as in her daughter. We shall see, we shall see which of us
two she is going to help.” He turned to Garrett and Rainey in the hall.
“Take my niece to the door, Garrett,” he directed.
As soon as Miss Coates had disappeared, Hallowell turned to Rainey, his
face lit with pleased and childish anticipation.
“Well,” he whispered eagerly, “is she here?”
Rainey nodded and glanced in the direction opposite to the one Miss
Coates had taken. “She’s been waiting half an hour. And the Professor
too.”
“Bring them at once,” commanded Mr. Hallowell excitedly. “And then shut
the door--and--and tell the Judge I can’t see him--tell him I’m too
tired to see him. Understand?”
Rainey peered cautiously over the railing of the stairs to the first
floor, and then beckoned to some one who apparently was waiting at the
end of the hall.
“Miss Vera, sir,” he announced, “and Professor Vance.”
Although but lately established in New York, the persons Dr. Rainey
introduced had already made themselves comparatively well-known. For the
last six weeks as “headliners” at one of the vaudeville theatres, and
as entertainers at private houses, under the firm name of “The Vances,”
they had been giving an exhibition of code and cipher signaling. They
called it mind reading. During the day, at the house of Vance and his
wife, the girl, as “Vera, the Medium,” furnished to all comers memories
of the past or news of the future. In their profession, in all of its
branches, the man and the girl were past masters. They knew it from the
A, B, C of the dream book to the post-graduate work of projecting from a
cabinet the spirits of the dead. As the occasion offered and paid
best, they were mind readers, clairvoyants, materializing mediums, test
mediums. From them, a pack of cards, a crystal globe, the lines of the
human hand, held no secrets. They found lost articles, cast horoscopes,
gave advice in affairs of the heart, of business and speculation,
uttered warnings of journeys over seas and against a smooth-shaven
stranger. They even stooped to foretell earthquakes, or caused to drop
fluttering from the ceiling a letter straight from the Himalayas. Among
those who are the gypsies of the cities, they were the aristocrats of
their calling, and to them that calling was as legitimate a business as
is, to the roadside gypsy, the swapping of horses. The fore-parents
of each had followed that same calling, and to the children it was
commonplace and matter-of-fact. It held no adventure, no moral obloquy.
“Prof.” Paul Vance was a young man of under forty years. He looked like
a fox. He had red eyes, alert and cunning, a long, sharp-pointed nose,
a pointed red beard, and red eyebrows that slanted upward. His hair,
standing erect in a pompadour, and his uplifted eyebrows gave him the
watchful look of the fox when he hears suddenly the hound baying in
pursuit. But no one had ever successfully pursued Vance. No one had ever
driven him into a corner from which, either pleasantly, or with raging
indignation, he was not able to free himself. Seven years before he had
disloyally married out of the “profession” and for no other reason than
that he was in love with the woman he married. She had come to seek
advice from the spirit world in regard to taking a second husband. After
several visits the spirit world had advised Vance to advise her to marry
Vance.
She did so, and though the man was still in love with his wife, he had
not found her, in his work, the assistance he had hoped she might
be. She still was a “believer”; in the technical vernacular of her
husband--“a dope.” Not even the intimate knowledge she had gained
behind the scenes could persuade her that Paul, her husband, was not in
constant communication with the spirit world, or that, if he wished, he
could not read the thoughts that moved slowly through her pretty head.
At the time of his marriage, the girl Vera, then a child of fourteen,
had written to Vance for help. She was ill, without money, and asked for
work. To him she was known as the last of a long line of people who had
always been professional mediums and spiritualists, and, out of
charity and from a sense of noblesse oblige to one of the elect of the
profession, Vance had made her his assistant. He had never regretted
having done so. The bread cast upon the waters was returned a
thousandfold. From the first, the girl brought in money. And his wife,
the older of the two, had welcomed her as a companion. After a fashion
the Vances had adopted her. In the advertisements she was described as
their “ward.”
Vera now was twenty-one, tall, wonderfully graceful, and of the most
enchanting loveliness. Her education had been cosmopolitan. In the
largest cities of America she had met persons of every class--young
women, old women, mothers with married sons and daughters; women of
society as it is exploited in the Sunday supplements; school girls, shop
girls, factory girls--all had told her their troubles; and men of every
condition had come to scoff and had remained to express, more or less
offensively, their admiration. Some of the younger of these, after a
first visit, returned the day following, and each begged the beautiful
priestess of the occult to fly with him, to live with him, to marry
him. When this happened Vera would touch a button, and “Mannie” Day,
who admitted visitors, and later, in the hall, searched their hats and
umbrellas for initials, came on the run and threw the infatuated one out
upon a cold and unfeeling sidewalk.
So Vera had seen both the seamy side of life and, in the drawing rooms
where Vance and she exhibited their mind reading tricks, had been made
much of by great ladies and, for an hour as brief as Cinderella’s,
had looked upon a world of kind and well-bred people. Since she was
fourteen, for seven years, this had been her life--a life as open to
the public as the life of an actress, as easy of access as that of
the stenographer in the hotel lobby. As a result, the girl had encased
herself in a defensive armor of hardness and distrust, a protection
which was rendered futile by the loveliness of her face, by the softness
of her voice, by the deep, brooding eyes, and the fine forehead on
which, like a crown, rested the black waves of her hair.
In her work Vera accepted, without question, the parts to which Vance
assigned her. When in their mummeries they were successful, she neither
enjoyed the credulity of those they had tricked nor was sobered with
remorse. In the world Vance found a certain number of people with money
who demanded to be fooled. It was his business and hers to meet that
demand. If ever the conscience of either stirred restlessly, Vance
soothed it by the easy answer that if they did not take the money some
one else would. It was all in the day’s work. It was her profession.
As she entered the library of Mr. Hallowell, which, with Vance, she
already had visited several times, she looked like a child masquerading
in her mother’s finery. She suggested an ingenue who had been suddenly
sent on in the role of the Russian adventuress. Her slight girl’s figure
was draped in black lace. Her face was shaded by a large picture
hat, heavy with drooping ostrich feathers; around her shoulders was a
necklace of jade, and on her wrists many bracelets of silver gilt. When
she moved they rattled. As the girl advanced, smiling, to greet Mr.
Hallowell, she suddenly stopped, shivered slightly, and threw her right
arm across her eyes. Her left arm she stretched over the table.
“Give me your hand!” she commanded. Dubiously, with a watchful glance at
Vance, Mr. Hallowell leaned forward and took her hand.
“You have been ill,” cried the girl; “very ill--I see you--I see you
in a kind of faint--very lately.” Her voice rose excitedly. “Yes, last
night.”
Mr. Hallowell protested with indignation. “You read that in the morning
paper,” he said.
Vera lowered her arm from her eyes and turned them reproachfully on him.
“I don’t read the Despatch,” she answered.
Mr. Hallowell drew back suspiciously. “I didn’t say it was the
Despatch,” he returned.
Vance quickly interposed. “You don’t have to say it,” he explained
with glibness; “you thought it. And Vera read your thoughts. You
were thinking of the Despatch, weren’t you? Well, there you are! It’s
wonderful!”
“Wonderful? Nonsense!” mocked Mr. Hallowell. “She did read it in the
paper or Rainey told her.”
The girl shrugged her shoulders patiently. “If you would rather find
out you were ill from the newspapers than from the spirit world,” she
inquired, “why do you ask me here?”
“I ask you here, young woman,” exclaimed Hallowell, sinking back in his
chair, “because I hoped you would tell me something I can’t learn from
the newspapers. But you haven’t been able to do it yet. My dear young
lady,” exclaimed the old man wistfully, “I want to believe, but I must
be convinced. No tricks with me! I can explain how you might have found
out everything you have told me. Give me a sign!” He beat the flat of
his hand upon the table. “Show me something I can’t explain!”
“Mr. Hallowell is quite right, Vera,” said Vance. “He is entering what
is to him a new world, full of mysteries, and that caution which in this
world has made him so successful--”
With an exclamation, Hallowell cut short the patter of the showman.
“Yes, yes,” he interrupted petulantly; “I tell you, I want to believe.
Convince me.”
Considering the situation with pursed lips and thoughtful eyes, Vera
gazed at the old man, frowning. Finally she asked, “Have you witnessed
out demonstrations of mind reading?”
Mr. Hallowell snorted. “Certainly not,” he replied; “it’s a trick!”
“A trick!” cried the girl indignantly, “to read a man’s mind--to see
right through your forehead, through your skull, into your brain? Is
that a trick?” She turned sharply to Vance. “Show him!” she commanded;
“show him!” She crossed rapidly to the window and stood looking down
into the street, with her back to the room.
Vance, with his back turned to Vera, stood close to the table, on the
other side of which Hallowell was reclining in his arm chair. Vance
picked up a pen holder.
“Think of what I have in my hand, please,” he said. “What is this,
Vera?” he asked. The girl, gazing from the window at the traffic in the
avenue below her, answered with indifference, “A pen holder.”
“Yes, what about it?” snapped Vance.
“Gold pen holder,” Vera answered more rapidly. “Much engraving--initials
S. H.--Mr. Hallowell’s initials--”
“There is a date too. Can you--”
“December--” Vera hesitated.
“Go on,” commanded Vance.
“Twenty-five, one, eight, eight, six; one thousand eight hundred and
eighty-six.” She moved her shoulders impatiently.
“Oh, tell him to think of something difficult,” she said.
From behind Mr. Hallowell’s chair Rainey signaled to Vance to take
from the table a photograph frame of silver which held the picture of a
woman.
Vance picked it up, holding it close to him.
“What have I here, Vera?” he asked.
Hallowell, seeing what Vance held in his hand, leaned forward. “Put that
down!” he commanded. But Vera had already begun to answer.
“A picture, a picture of a young woman. Ask him to think of who it is
and I will tell him.”
At the words Mr. Hallowell hesitated, frowned, and then nodded.
“It is his sister,” called Vera. “Her name was--I seem to get a
Catherine--yes, that’s it; Catherine Coates. She is no longer with
us. She passed into the spirit world three years ago.” The girl turned
suddenly and approached the table, holding her head high, as though
offended.
“How do you explain that trick?” she demanded.
Mr. Hallowell moved uneasily in his chair. “Oh, the picture’s been on my
desk each time you’ve been here,” he answered dubiously. “Rainey could
have told you.”
“As a matter of fact, I didn’t,” said Rainey.
Hallowell’s eyes lightened with interest. “Didn’t you?” he asked. He
turned to Vera. “If you can read my mind,” he challenged--“you,” he
added, pointing at Vance, “keep out of this now--tell me of what I am
thinking.” As Vance drew back, Rainey and himself exchanged a quick
glance of apprehension, but the girl promptly closed her eyes, and at
once, in a dull, measured tone, began to speak.
“You were thinking you would like to ask a question of some one in the
spirit,” she recited. “But you are afraid. You do not trust me. You will
wait until I give you a sign; then you will ask that question of some
one dear to you, who has passed beyond, and she will answer, and your
troubles will be at an end.” She opened her eyes and stared at Mr.
Hallowell like one coming out of a dream. “What did I say?” she asked.
“Was I right?”
Hallowell slank back in his chair, shaking his head.
“Yes,” he began grudgingly, “but--”
With an eagerness hardly concealed, Vance interrupted.
“What is the question you wish to ask?” he begged.
With a frown of suspicion, Hallowell turned from him to Rainey.
“I don’t think I ought to let them know,” he questioned; “do you?” But
his attention was sharply diverted.
Vera, in a hushed and solemn voice, called for silence.
“My control,” she explained--her tone was deep and awestruck--“is trying
to communicate with me.”
Vance gave an exclamation of concern. The prospect of the phenomena
Vera promised seemed to fill him with delightful expectations. “Be very
quiet,” he cautioned, “do not disturb her.”
Deeply impressed, Mr. Hallowell struggled from his chair. Unaided, he
moved to below the table and leaning against it looked, with unwilling
but fascinated interest, at Vera’s uplifted face.
“Some one in the spirit,” Vera chanted, in an unemotional, drugged
voice, “wishes to speak to Mr. Hallowell. Give me your hand.”
“Quick!” directed Vance, “give her your hand. Take her hand.”
“Yes, he is here,” Vera continued. “A woman has a message for you, she
is standing close beside you. She is holding out her arms. And she
is trying, so hard, to tell you something. What is it?” the girl
questioned. “Oh, what is it? Tell me,” she begged. “Can’t you tell me?”
Hallowell eyed her greedily, waiting almost without breathing for her
words. The hand with which he held hers crushed her rings into her
fingers.
“What sort?”--whispered the old man. “What sort of a woman?”
With eyes still closed, swaying slightly and with abrupt shudders
running down her body, the girl continued in dull, fateful tones.
“She is a fair woman; about forty-five. She is speaking. She calls to
you, Brother, brother.” Vera’s voice rose excitedly. “It is the woman
in the picture; your sister! Catherine! I see it written above her
head--Catherine. In letters of light.” She turned suddenly and fiercely.
“Ask her your question!” she commanded. “Ask her your question, now!”
By the sudden swaying forward of Vance and Rainey, in the intent look
in their eyes, it was evident that a crisis had approached. But Mr.
Hallowell, terrified and trembling, shrank back. His voice broke
hysterically. “No, no!” he pleaded. Both anger and disappointment showed
in the face of Vance and Rainey; but the girl, as though detached from
any human concerns, continued unmoved. “I see another figure,” she
recited. “A young girl, but she is of this world. I seem to get an H.
Yes. Helen, in letters of fire.”
“My niece, Helen!” Hallowell whispered hoarsely.
“Yes, your niece,” chanted the girl. Her voice rose and thrilled. “And
I see much gold,” she cried. “Between the two women, heaps of gold.
Everywhere I look I see gold. And, now, the other woman, your sister, is
trying to speak to you. Listen! She calls to you, Brother!”
So centered was the interest of those in the room, so compelling the
sound of the girl’s voice, that, unnoticed, the sliding doors to the
library were slipped apart. Unobserved, Judge Gaylor and Winthrop halted
in the doorway. To the Judge the meaning of the scene was instantly
apparent. His face flushed furiously. Winthrop, uncomprehending, gazed
unconcerned over Gaylor’s shoulder. The voice of Vera rose hysterically
to her climax.
“She bids me tell you,” Vera cried; “Tell my brother--”
Gaylor swept toward her.
“What damned farce is this?” he shouted.
The effect of the interruption was instant and startling. Mr. Hallowell,
who, in the last few minutes, had believed he was listening to a voice
from the dead, collapsed upon the shoulder of Rainey, who sprang to
support him. Like a somnambulist wrenched from sleep, Vera gave a scream
of fright, half genuine, half assumed, and swayed as though about to
fall. Vance caught her in his arms. He turned on Gaylor, his cunning red
eyes flashing evilly.
“You brute!” he cried, “you might have killed her.”
Between her sobs, Vera, her head upon the shoulder of Vance, whispered a
question. As quickly, under cover of muttered sympathy, Vance answered:
“Gaylor. The Judge.”
Still slightly swaying, Vera stood upright. She passed her hand vaguely
before her eyes. “Where am I?” she asked feebly. “Where am I?”
Gaylor shook his fist at the girl.
“You know where you are!” he thundered; “and you know where you’re
going--you’re going to jail!”
In the hush that followed Vera drew herself to her full height. She
regarded Gaylor wonderingly, haughtily, as though he were some drunken
intruder from the street.
“Are you speaking to me?” she asked.
“Yes, to you,” shouted the lawyer. “You’re an imposter, and a swindler,
and--and--”
Winthrop pushed between them.
“Yes, and she’s a woman,” he said briskly. “If you want a row, talk to
the man.”
To this point the scene had brought to Vera no emotion save the
excitement that is felt by the one who is struggling to escape. The
appearance of a champion added a new interest. Through no fault of her
own, she had learned by experience that to the one man who annoyed her
there always were six to spring to her protection. So the glance she
covertly turned upon Winthrop was one less of gratitude than curiosity.
But at the first sight of him the girl started, her eyes lit with
recognition, her face flushed. And then, although the man was in no
way regarding her, her eyes filled, and in mortification and dismay she
blushed crimson.
His anger still unsatisfied, Gaylor turned upon Vance.
“And you,” he cried; “you’re going to jail too. I’ll drive--”
The voice of Mr. Hallowell, shaken with pain and distress, rose feebly,
beseechingly. “Henry!” he begged. “I can’t stand it!”
“Judge Gaylor!” thundered Rainey, “I won’t be responsible if you keep
this up.”
With an exclamation of remorse, Vera ran to the side of the old man.
With Rainey on his other hand, she raised him upright upon his feet.
“Lean on me,” begged the girl breathlessly. “I’m very strong. Lean on
me.”
Mr. Hallowell shook his head. “No, child,” he protested, “not you.” He
turned to his old friend. “You help me, Henry,” he begged.
With the authority of the medical man, Rainey waved Vance into the
bedroom. “Close those windows,” he ordered. “You help me!” he commanded
of Gaylor. “Put your arm under him.”
Mr. Hallowell, protesting feebly and leaning heavily upon the two men,
stumbled into the bedroom, and the door was shut behind him.
For a moment the girl and the man stood in silence, and then, as though
suddenly conscious of her presence, Winthrop turned and smiled.
The girl did not answer his smile. From under the shadow of the
picture hat and the ostrich feathers her eyes regarded him searchingly,
watchfully.
For the first time, Winthrop had the chance to observe her. He saw that
she was very young, that her clothes cruelly disguised her, that she was
only a child masquerading as a brigand, that her face was distractingly
lovely. Having noted this, the fact that she had driven several grown
men to abuse and vituperation struck him as being extremely humorous;
nor did he try to conceal his amusement. But the watchfulness in the
eyes of the girl did not relax.
“I’m afraid I interfered with your seance,” said the District Attorney.
The girl regarded him warily, like a fencer fixing her eyes on those
of her opponent. There was a pause which lasted so long that had the
silence continued it would have been rude. “Well,” the girl returned at
last, timidly, “that’s what the city expects you to do, is it not?”
Winthrop laughed. “How did you know who I was?” he asked, and then added
quickly, “Of course, you’re a mind reader.”
For the first time the girl smiled. Winthrop found it a charming smile,
wistful and confiding.
“I don’t have to ask the spirit world,” she said, “to tell me who is
District Attorney of New York.”
“Yes,” said the District Attorney; “yes, I suppose you have to be pretty
well acquainted with some of the laws--those about mediums?”
“If you knew as much about other laws,” began Vera, “as I do about the
law--” She broke off and again smiled upon him.
“Then you probably know,” said Winthrop, “that what our excited friend
said to you just now is legally quite true?”
The smile passed from the face of the girl. She looked at the young man
with fine disdain, as a great lady might reprove with a glance the man
who snapped a camera at her. “Yes?” she asked. “Well, what are you going
to do about it--arrest me?” Mocking him, in a burlesque of melodrama,
she held out her arms. “Don’t put the handcuffs on me,” she begged.
Winthrop found her impudence amusing; and, with the charm of her
novelty, he was conscious of a growing conviction that, somewhere, they
had met before; that already at a crisis she had come into his life.
“I won’t arrest you,” he said with a puzzled smile, “on one condition.”
“Ah!” mocked Vera; “he is generous.”
“And the condition is,” Winthrop went on seriously, “that you tell me
where we met before?”
The girl’s expression became instantly mask-like. To learn if he
suspected where it was that they had met, she searched his face quickly.
She was reassured that of the event he had no real recollection.
“That’s rather difficult, isn’t it,” she continued lightly, “when you
consider I’ve been giving exhibitions of mind readings for the last six
weeks on Broadway, and in the homes of people you probably know?”
“No,” Winthrop exclaimed eagerly, “it wasn’t in a theatre, and it wasn’t
in a private house. It was--” he shook his head helplessly, and looked
at her for assistance. “You don’t know, do you?”
The girl regarded him steadily. “How should I?” she said. And then, as
though decided upon a course of action of the wisdom of which she was
uncertain, she laughed uneasily.
“But the spirits would know,” she said. “I might ask them.”
“Do!” cried Winthrop, delightedly. “How much would that be?”
As though to reprove his flippancy, the girl frowned. With a nervous
tremor, which this time seemed genuine enough, she threw back her head,
closed her eyes, and laid her arm across her forehead.
Winthrop, unobserved, watched her with a smile, partly of amusement,
partly on account of her beauty, of admiration.
“I see--a court room,” said the girl. “It is very mean and bare. It is
somewhere up the State; in a small town. Outside, there are trees, and
the sun is shining, and people are walking in a public park. Inside, in
the prisoner’s dock, there is a girl. She has been arrested--for theft.
She has pleaded guilty! And I see--that she has been very ill--that she
is faint from shame--and fear--and lack of food. And there is a young
lawyer. He is defending her; he is asking the judge to be merciful,
because this is her first offence, because she stole the cloak to get
money to take her where she had been promised work. Because this is his
first case.”
Winthrop gave a gasp of disbelief.
“You don’t mean to tell me--” he cried.
“Hush!” commanded the girl. “And he persuades the judge to let her go,”
she continued quickly, her voice shaking, “and he and the girl walk out
of the court house together. And he talks to her kindly, and gives her
money to pay her way to the people who have promised her work.”
Vera dropped her arm, and stepping back, faced Winthrop. Through her
tears her eyes were flashing proudly, gratefully; the feeling that shook
her made her voice vibrate. The girl seemed proud of her tears, proud of
her debt of gratitude.
“And I’ve never forgotten you,” she said, her voice eager and trembling,
“and what you did for me. And I’ve watched you come to this city, and
fight it, and fight it, until you made them put you where you are.” She
stopped to control her voice, and smiled at him. “And that’s why I knew
you were District Attorney,” she said; “and please--” she fumbled in
the mesh purse at her waist and taking a bill from it, threw it upon
the table. “And please, there’s the money I owe you, and--and--I thank
you--and goodbye.” She turned and almost ran from him toward the door to
the hall.
“Stop!” cried Winthrop.
Poised for flight, the girl halted, and looked back.
“When can I see you again?” said the man. The tone made it less a
question than a command.
In a manner as determined as his own, the girl shook her head.
“No!” she said.
“I must!” returned the man.
Again the girl shook her head, definitely, finally.
“It won’t help you in your work,” she pleaded, “to come to see me.”
“I must!” repeated Winthrop simply.
The eyes of the girl met his, appealingly, defiantly.
“You’ll be sorry,” said the girl.
Winthrop laughed an eager, boyish laugh. When he spoke the tenseness in
his voice had gone. His tone was confident, bantering.
“Then I will not come to see you,” he said.
Uncertain, puzzled, Vera looked at him in distress. She thought he was
mocking her.
“No?” she questioned.
“I’ll come to see Vera, the medium,” he explained.
Vera frowned, and then, in happy embarrassment, smiled wistfully.
“Oh, well,” she stammered; “of course, if you’re coming to consult me
professionally--my hours are from four to six.”
“I’ll be there,” cried the District Attorney.
Vera leaned forward eagerly.
“What day will you come?” she demanded.
“What day!” exclaimed the young man indignantly. “Why, this day!”
Vera gave a guilty, frightened laugh.
“Oh, will you?” she exclaimed delightedly. She clasped her fingers in a
gesture of dismay. “Oh, I hope you won’t be sorry!” she cried.
For some moments the District Attorney of New York stood looking at the
door through which she had disappeared.