In any great and growing business, there is often a readjusting and
shifting of duties from shoulder to shoulder, as one official after
another discovers aptitude for a special line of work.
Thus it happened that, contrary to Helen's fears, no comment was excited
either in the office itself or in Ysleta over Elijah's prolonged
absence. In both places it was tacitly assumed that his new venture was
consuming the greater part of his time. For some weeks most of the
routine business transacted in Elijah's name had in reality been
performed by Helen, so that it was easy for her to take upon herself the
entire direction of the office work. In their intimate official
relations, Helen had discovered Elijah's weak points, but this discovery
had drawn her closer to him. In the multitudinous business details of
the office, often petty and annoying, Elijah had shown a restless
impatience, and an inability to straighten them out satisfactorily. He
had discovered a lack of the subtle distinctions of honor and honesty,
characteristic of a man of strong, rugged integrity. With the
development of the Las Cruces to a point of assured success, there had
grown up in Elijah an increasing sense of the magnitude of his work and
of himself.
Helen had taken the details of the office upon herself and with infinite
patience she had worked them into harmony. She had been Elijah's
conscience in a thousand different ways that were buried from sight in
the work as a whole. Sometimes patiently, more often impatiently, Elijah
had rebelled against her insistent suggestions, but in the end he had
yielded. To a certain extent Helen had been blinded as to the real
Elijah by her preconceived notions of him. She had regarded him as a
great man with great ideas. With this central thought she had looked
leniently upon his faults, as weaknesses inseparable from greatness.
With a loyal devotion, especially characteristic of women, she had
largely submerged herself in Elijah. She had gradually come to believe
in him almost as he believed in himself. The disintegrating effects of
this belief upon her character were gradual and insinuating. She was
deteriorating from the strong, sturdy sense of honor that had been her
chief characteristic. Upon Elijah, the effects of her loyalty were bound
to be equally disastrous. She was his ideal of womanhood. She was his
devoted ally. The result was a growing belief that what he desired was
right and that this right should not be questioned.
Beyond a vague, ill-defined consciousness that she was getting on
dangerous ground, Helen had given little thought to what might be the
end of her intimate relations with Elijah. He was a married man. She had
met his wife. The meeting had had the sinister effect of developing her
sympathy for Elijah in a new line.
In the affairs of the Las Cruces, Helen had been Elijah's conscience. He
had repeatedly yielded to her judgment. She had experienced a glow of
satisfaction in this that had strengthened the bonds between them. Of
late, she had been conscious that her influence was becoming less
potent, but she had not connected this fact with the advent of Mrs.
MacGregor. The first indication that Elijah's actions were not as wholly
in her keeping as she had assumed was her suspicion of his transaction
with the Pacific Bank. This had startled her, but to a certain extent
she had glossed it over.
When she learned, not through Elijah, but through the published fact, of
Elijah's mortgage to Mellin, the veil of his influence was thinned. It
had startled her, shocked her, but it had strengthened her determination
to make the venture a success, even at the price of an open rupture when
her strength would be pitted against Elijah's. She had no fear for
results; Elijah had placed too many weapons in her hands which she could
use against him. She would compel him, if her influence failed. If
Elijah should force her to go to Seymour or Ralph, she was ready to take
any consequences they might thrust upon her.
When she had learned, not by Elijah's voluntary confession, but by the
confession which she had forced from him, that he had converted the
company's money to his own use, and had in reality made her a party to
it, the shock impelled her to open rupture and at once. Then came the
reaction to pity for the strained, agonized face that pleaded more
strongly for mercy than his words. Her thoughts were not deliberately
logical, but vibrating from point to point.
Another swing of her mental pendulum and the confession of his guilty
love came back to her with crushing, humiliating force. She could not
forget the shame of it. Even to this day the pain was not lulled. But in
the first withering humiliation, when the last remnant of the veil of
her illusion had been torn away, the sense of self-preservation had been
strong within her. The open rupture had come. From now on she must fight
Elijah and alone, fight for her honor and his redemption if possible. In
the days that followed she had forgiven Elijah, but she could not
forgive herself without atonement. The forgiveness had not drawn her to
Elijah, it had put him farther away. She forgave him in justice, for she
felt that in some way, she did not see why, she could not reason why,
but in some way, she had opened the road that had led to his
declaration. Personalities were at an end between them; she had a right
to this much; but in the Pico ranch transaction, the end was not yet.
She revolted against it in her heart, but in this matter were involved
more than herself and Elijah. She would see it through; she must.