THE SURPRISE OF MR. WENTZ'S LIFE
After an absence from Prouty of several weeks, Kate stepped off the
train alone one afternoon and furnished the town with the liveliest
sensation of its kind that it had known since the Toomeys had gone "on
East."
Through the cooperation of the telephone and of breathless ladies
dashing across lots and from house to house, the town, by night, had a
detailed description of the clothes which had altered Kate's appearance
beyond belief.
Mrs. Abram Pantin expressed the opinion that Kate's Alaskan-seal coat
which, in reality, represented the price of a goodly band of sheep, was
merely native muskrat rather skilfully dyed.
This verdict rendered before the Thursday afternoon session of the Y. A.
K.'s, which had gathered to hear a paper by Mrs. Sudds upon the Ming
Dynasty, afforded its members immense relief. Their fears, too, that the
smart ear-rings Kate wore might be real pearls were assuaged by Mrs.
Neifkins, who declared she had seen their counterpart in Butte for
seventy-five cents.
But the fact had soaked into the average citizen that Kate had
"arrived."
Among those who admitted this was Mrs. Toomey, who lingered at the
breakfast table the morning after Kate's return, thinking of many things
while she absently clinked her spoon against the edge of her cup. Jap
had just left after an animated argument as to whether policy demanded
the entertainment at dinner of the barber and his wife, who contemplated
buying a sewing machine of a make for which Toomey was now the agent.
Recalling the time when they had refused invitations right and left
because there was no one in Prouty whom they had cared to know, a smile
of bitterness came to her lips. Since then, she had eaten the pie of
humbleness to the last crumb. She had become a self-acknowledged toady,
a spineless sycophant, and for what? For the privilege of being invited
to teas, bridge whists, of being sure of a place in the local social
life.
This morning she was doubting the wisdom of her choice. Kate's sincere
unswerving friendship might have been compensation enough for the
anguish of being "left out." Yet she could not exactly blame herself,
for who could have foreseen that things would turn out like this? It was
not remorse that Mrs. Toomey felt, but regret for not arraying herself
on the side which ultimately would have brought her the most benefits.
Mrs. Toomey never had been able to gather anything from Kate's
expression upon the few occasions that they had met since the girl had
called her a "Judas Iscariot" and left the house, but she recalled that
at each later encounter she had experienced the same sense of
uneasiness.
Was the feeling due to a guilty conscience, she asked herself, or was an
implacable hatred that was biding its time, concealed by Kate's
enigmatic face?
Mrs. Toomey concluded that this theory was farfetched--that it was not
human nature to retain resentment for even a real wrong through such a
lapse of years. Time took the keen edge off of everything, including the
bitterest enemy. And yet, in spite of this comforting reassurance, there
remained an inexplicable feeling of disquietude when she thought of the
woman to whom she had proved an ingrate and a cowardly friend.
While Mrs. Toomey's mind was thus engrossingly occupied, Jasper was
having his own troubles in the Security State Bank.
Stimulated by three cups of strong coffee, Toomey had left the house
full of hustle and hope--a state which was apt to continue until about
eleven o'clock when the effect wore off, and then he might be expected
home with another iridescent bubble punctured, and himself gloomy to the
point of suicide.
To-day Toomey's feet as a means of locomotion seemed all too slow as he
covered the distance intervening between his home and the bank. His
black eyes were brilliant with caffeine and the excitement attendant
upon a large and highly satisfactory idea which had come to him in the
night.
Having obtained a hearing, he rolled a cigarette with tremulous fingers
while he unfolded his plan to Mr. Wentz. The banker listened with
equanimity as he sat on the back of his neck with his fingers interlaced
across his smart bottle-green waistcoat. Wentz's lack of enthusiasm only
increased Toomey's eagerness. He leaned forward and declared with all
vehemence:
"Look at the territory I could cover, if I had an automobile! With a
sideline of fruit trees, I can get an order of some kind out of every
family in the northern part of the state. It's a cinch, Wentz. I'm
giving you a chance to make a good loan that you can't afford to let
pass."
Mr. Wentz yawned with marked weariness.
"What's a bank for if not to encourage legitimate enterprises in the
community upon which it depends for its business? There isn't a flaw in
this proposition, Wentz! Can you show me one?"
"It's perfect from your side," Wentz agreed, "but where would we get off
if every family in the northern part of the state didn't happen to need
fruit trees or a sewing machine? We'd have a worn automobile on our
hands and another of your familiar signatures on our already too large
collection of promissory notes. Can't see it, Jap."
Disappointment as well as Wentz's words stung Toomey more deeply than he
had been touched for a long time. A rush of blood dyed his sallow face
as he grabbed his hat and started for the door. Opening it partly, he
turned and flung a retort over his shoulder.
"I'll tell you what I think, Vermin!" Mr. Wentz winced. This perversion
of his name had darkened his childhood days and he never had outgrown
his antipathy to it. "I think," Toomey went on, "that you're shaky as
the devil--that Neifkins' big loss put such a crimp in you that an
honest bank examiner could close your doors! I'll bet my hat against a
white chip that even a boys'-size 'run' could shut your little two by
twice bank up tight as a drum!"
It was a random shot, but the president's face showed that it went home.
He gathered himself immediately, but not before Kate who, on coming in
brushed shoulders with the departing Toomey, had heard the speech and
noted its effect.
So Neifkins had had a big loss! She grasped the full significance of it
at once and exultation filled her heart.
Wentz looked at the "Sheep Queen" hard as she advanced. Astonishment and
admiration were in his eyes when he recognized her at last. It was
beyond belief that a mere matter of clothes could effect such a
transformation as this. She looked the last word in feminine elegance.
Filled with the wonder of it, he forgot for a moment the specter which
had been his sleeping and waking companion for some weeks past and which
had confronted him with the substance of reality at Toomey's taunt.
The banker went to meet Kate with an outstretched hand.
"You've been gone a long time; I've been wondering when we'd see you
back."
"I've been east," she replied, casually.
"The trip's did wonders for you. You look--well, bloomin' isn't hardly
strong enough. Miss Prentice, I want you to meet my wife--you must."
"Thanks--so much." A certain dryness momentarily disconcerted Mr. Wentz.
With a shade of chagrin Mr. Wentz returned to his desk, telling himself
inelegantly that she was "feeling her oats."
Kate filled out a check in a deliberate and careful way and passed it in
to the cashier, who had been noting the details of her appearance with
unqualified interest. Her eyes had an increased brilliancy and there was
a faint flush on her cheeks, but otherwise there was nothing in her
impassive face to show how fast her heart was beating as she waited in
the silence to learn if the blow she meant to strike had been well-timed
or not.
She was not kept long in suspense. The swift consternation which made
the cashier's color fade when he grasped the fact that the check was for
the full amount of her deposit told her all she wished to know. The
shadow of her enigmatic smile rested on her lips.
She was curiously aware of every sound--the ticking of the flat clock
against the wall, the scratching of Wentz's pen, the steps of passersby
on the sidewalk--as she waited for what seemed an unconscionable time
for the cashier to speak. Panic was in his eyes when he finally raised
them from the check. He stood uncertainly for a moment, then turned and
walked quickly to the president's desk.
Wentz read it without lifting his head as it lay before him. He
continued to stare at it as though he had been stunned, while Kate with
her eyes fixed upon his face thrummed lightly on the counter with her
finger tips. He had pictured something like this a thousand times, yet
now that it actually had come he seemed as little prepared to meet it as
if it were a crushing and complete surprise.
He lifted his head as though with an effort.
"Will you step here, please?" His voice sounded thick.
The cashier quickly withdrew while Wentz arose slowly and opened the
gate.
As Kate sank slowly into the depths of a leather covered chair, the
much-discussed coat, a fitting garment for a princess, with its ample
cut and voluminous unstinted hem, swirled gracefully about her feet. Her
gloves, her close-fitting hat with its well-adjusted veil drawn over her
carefully-dressed hair--everything, to the smallest detail of the
subdued elegance of her toilette--suggested not only discriminating
taste but unlimited means with which to indulge it.
The Sheep Queen toyed idly with a gold mesh-bag suspended by a chain
about her neck, and her face was sphinx-like as she waited for Wentz to
speak.
The check fluttered as the banker picked it up at last and held it
between his two trembling hands.
"Is it necessary, Miss Prentice, that you have this money at once?"
Kate replied evenly:
"No--I can't say that. Why?"
He hesitated and the color swept hotly over his face.
"It will be an accommodation to us if you will wait a few days."
"In what way?"
Her calmness reassured him and he replied with a little less constraint:
"This is a large sum for a small bank, and I don't mind telling you
confidentially that the payment of this check will leave us a
little--er--short."
Kate raised her beautifully arched eyebrows and questioned:
"Yes?"
Wentz drew a deep breath of relief.
"You see, I inferred that you would be leaving this with us for a
considerable length of time and, anyway, I was sure that you would be
considerate if it was not quite--not quite convenient to pay the full
amount at once."
"What made you think that?" she asked softly.
"Oh, our friendly relations, and all that," he replied more easily.
"Aren't you taking a great deal for granted, Mr. Wentz?"
The timbre of her voice--the deadly coldness of it--made him start. He
had the sensation of an icicle being drawn slowly the length of his
back.
"Why, I--I don't know," he stammered. "Am I?"
"Do you recall any reason, as you look back, why I should grant this
favor that you ask?"
Mr. Wentz distinctly squirmed.
"N-no."
"Quite the contrary, if you'll recollect."
"I hope," with a deprecatory gesture of his white hand, "you are not
laying that up against us, Miss Prentice? Surely you can understand that
a bank must protect itself."
Kate's eyes which had been violet were gray now.
"But not to the extent that you did when you tried to put the screws on
me for Neifkins' benefit. With every means at your command you
endeavored to take advantage of my necessity. And yet"--she gripped the
fat arms of the leather chair as she threw off her mask of impassivity
and cried in a voice that was hoarse with the emotion with which she
shook--"that's not the real reason that I'm going to close your doors,
that I'm going to wreck you and your bank and give the finishing blow to
this already bankrupt town! It's for a woman's reason that I am going to
take my revenge.
"You weren't content to make a pauper of me. No, you couldn't be
satisfied with that, but you must hurt my woman's pride--you must cut me
to the quick with your studied insolence, the disrespect of your eyes,
your manner, your tone, your speech, every time that business brought me
here!
"You couldn't resist the temptation to hit me when I was down. It was so
easy, and there was so little chance of being hit back. Besides, it gave
you an agreeable feeling of importance, after having been so long
ignored or patronized yourself. That's why, Mr. Wentz," the words
sounded sibilant through her shut teeth, "you're going to honor my check
to-day--_now_--or suspend."
Wentz listened dumbfounded. The slight question which once had been in
his mind as to whether or not she harbored resentment had long since
been removed by her continued patronage and her even courtesy. He never
had dreamed of such a vindictive, deep-rooted animosity as this.
When he could speak he half started from his chair and cried sharply:
"Miss Prentice! Kate! You won't do that!"
"Won't I?" Her short laugh was hard as with a nervous movement she got
up, and walking behind it, laid her folded arms on the back of the big
leather chair. "Do you think I've been planning and working to this end
all these years to weaken at your first outcry? To watch you squirm is a
part of the reward I promised myself, Mr. Wentz."
He thrust out a supplicating hand:
"Give us time--just a little time--that's all I ask! We'll tide over
somehow if you'll--"
Kate interrupted bitterly:
"There's a familiar ring to that. My own words exactly, if you will
recollect--and you sneered in my face." She looked at him with narrowed
eyes and her voice was flint: "The time you'll get is the time it will
require for me to go before a notary and swear that your bank is
insolvent--twenty minutes--a half hour at most."
"For God's sake--" His face was chalky when he sprang out of his chair
as though to stop her forcibly when she laid her hand upon the gate.
"Isn't there some other way--some concession that we can make?"
Wentz did not breathe, in the tense moment that she seemed to hesitate.
"Yes," she flashed, "there is one way to save your bank; turn over to me
your and Neifkins' stock, which will give me the control."
Wentz stood mute.
She demanded imperiously:
"Yes or no?"
"You--you would retain me as president?" he asked, heavily.
Her answer came with the decisive snap of a rapid fire gun.
"Certainly not. You demonstrated your unfitness to occupy a position of
such responsibility when you allowed yourself to be influenced by a man
of Neifkins' stripe, to say nothing of the lack of knowledge of human
nature which you have shown in your dealings with me.
"The man who enabled me to block your game when you thought you had me
down and out--not through any particular kindness of heart or chivalry,
but because he had the gift of insight into character--the discernment
to recognize a safe loan--will take your place. Abram Pantin, if he
wants it, will be this bank's next president."
Wentz looked his amazement.
So that was the source from which her money had come! The bank's ancient
enemy had taken what any other man in Prouty would have considered an
extremely long chance. Wentz never had blamed himself, but this news
made him wince. Pantin--the fox--rather anyone else! A rebellious
expression came over the man's face. With Abram Pantin in his chair his
humiliation would be complete.
"I won't do it!" he blurted.
"Then you'll suspend. I don't bluff. There isn't a plea you can make, or
a single argument, that will have any weight. There's but this one way
to save your reputation and your bank. Do you quite realize what failure
means, coming at this time? It means the finishing touch to a nearly
bankrupt town. It means that the temper of your depositors will be such
that you're liable to be lynched, when they learn that you might have
kept the bank open and did not. Think twice, Mr. Wentz."
"God, but you're cold-blooded!" He groped for the chair and sat down.
"You pay me a compliment," she answered, mockingly. "I take it you
consent?"
He muttered sullenly:
"There's nothin' else. Yes."