WORSE COMPLICATIONS
“Philip, it would be horrible if Mr. Webster fell in love with Miss Le
Breton!” began Phyllis.
“Why?” inquired Philip.
“Why? How can you ask! You know she has been insane,” said Phyllis with
indignation.
“She is just like other people now,” rejoined Philip.
“But people who have once been insane may become so again,” Phyllis
reminded him.
“Possibly Miss Le Breton was never insane at all, but only hysterical,”
suggested Philip. “She struck me as a perfectly normal young woman. But
whether she is or is not, Dan is not likely to fall in love with her.”
“_Isn’t_ he!” cried Phyllis. “He absolutely raves about her.”
“Painters always rave about a model which is to their taste. But to
drop the subject of Dan. What are you miserable about?”
Phyllis most unexpectedly burst into tears, burying her face in
Philip’s waistcoat.
“Oh, Philip!” she sobbed. “I have found out my mistake!
Dad”--(sob)--“was right after all!”
“What _do_ you mean?” demanded Philip, now really alarmed.
“I mean”--(sob)--“that I ought not to have married”--(sob). “I didn’t
know my own mind!” (More sobs.)
Philip put the girl from him and dabbed his waistcoat with his
handkerchief.
“Look here, Phyllis,” he said firmly, “you did a very silly thing in
inducing Captain Arbuthnot to marry you; but it was only silly. It
was not a crime. It will be a crime if you are false to the man you
compelled to act in a way against which I am sure his sense of honor
revolted. The one thing you have to do now, is to stand firmly by
the vows you made and never let that unfortunate man find out what a
shallow creature he married. What has changed you all at once? you who
were so eager for letters?”
“I don’t know,” answered Phyllis crossly. “How should I know? You
see, Charlie is such a long way off, and I have scarcely heard from
him and--oh, he doesn’t seem so nice as he did, now I can’t see
him--and--and, oh, I don’t know! Charlie ought not to have listened to
me. He is _heaps_ older than I am! I can’t help it, Philip, can I, if I
find out I made a mistake?”
Philip was stern and silent. Anger filled his heart as he thought of
the gallant young soldier out in India. But he had some pity, too, for
Phyllis--fickle, lovable Phyllis!
“Don’t look so angry, Philip,” pleaded Phyllis, “I have something
else to tell you, and if you turn on me I shall be desperate! I love
Dan--yes, I love him! Now hate and despise me if you dare! If you do,
if you throw me over, you may be sorry--after!”
“This is awful!” groaned Philip. “I never dreamed it was as bad as
this. It is downright wicked of you! I must say it, even if it hurts
you. You must have seen this coming. You could have stopped it if you
had any sense of right, and even decency.”
Her next words came calmly. “Philip, have I ever been even a little
free with Mr. Webster since he came back? I never laugh and chat with
him; I am never alone with him; I am acting as a wife should. But I am
miserable--_miserable_! Won’t you pity me a little?”
“Poor little girl!” said Philip soothingly. “Yes, I have noticed that
you never flirt with Dan. There, don’t begin to cry again!”
She _was_ crying weakly, pitifully. Philip took her in his arms to
comfort her, as if she had been a child.
As fate would have it, Dan opened the door quietly and put his head in.
Immediately he retired, smiling. Philip and Phyllis did not see him,
and Dan kept his own counsel.
“Run off to your room and bathe your eyes before mother or uncle see
you,” advised Philip, and the woebegone little figure fled from the
room and up the staircase.
Philip strode up and down with his hands thrust deep into his pockets.
“This is a nice kettle of fish,” he said to himself. “The old Colonel
had longer sight than any of us. My only hope _is_ her fickleness. This
infatuation for Dan may burn itself out. But Dan? what if he, thinking
Phyllis free, should fall in love with her!”
The promise had been given to Phyllis that her secret should be kept.
But in some way Dan must be warned.
Ah! there was Dan smoking in the garden. No time must be lost.
Philip found Dan chuckling to himself.
“I want a chat with you, Dan,” said Philip, scowling.
“Anything the matter, old man?” inquired Dan, still smiling.
“I want a word about Phyllis,” said Philip.
“Oh!” answered Dan, winking.
“I don’t know what you mean by your asinine behavior,” said Philip
indignantly.
“Forgive me!” said Dan, growing serious; “I was in a ridiculous mood.”
“I want to warn you, Dan, not to let yourself get too fond of Phyllis,”
said Philip. “I want to tell you that there is an unsurmountable
obstacle to--to the possibility of anything between you two.”
“My dear fellow!” broke out Dan, laughing outright, “make yourself
quite easy! I have no intention whatever of poaching on your preserves!”
“_My_ preserves, man! Heavens! what can you be thinking of?”
Dan eyed his companion with whimsical criticism in his merry blue eyes,
but he did not tell of the embrace he had witnessed so short a time
before. “They want to keep it dark for some reason--very likely the
Colonel,” he thought within himself. But what he said was:
“All right, old man, no offence meant--a natural conclusion, you know,
from your remarks, and Miss Lane’s frequent visits to the bungalow. I
see I was ‘off the trail,’ as old Alvin says.”
“You were, very much indeed off the trail,” commented Philip.
“He needn’t tell such whoppers about it,” Dan said inwardly; “and I
don’t see why he should keep it a secret from me.”
Aloud he said: “Whatever your reasons may be for warning me not to fall
in love with Miss Lane, I will respect them. But there is not much to
be feared in that quarter. The little lady did flirt with me when I was
a blind man, but now she is all propriety.”
Philip was satisfied, for he knew that Dan’s word was as good as
another man’s oath.
“I am not staying on to dinner,” Philip next said. “I want to get to
work; moreover, the evenings begin to close in, and the road is lonely
and rutty, and I don’t want any more trouble with Soda’s hock.”
Seeing his mother coming towards them, he explained to her that he was
going.
“When will you bring the story to read to us, dear?” she asked.
“Oh, some time,” he answered. “I am going to read it to the folks at
the White House. Alvin asked me to do so. He thinks it will interest
Miss Le Breton. You know I always said I would do anything I could for
poor Eweretta’s half-sister.”
“Dear, faithful heart!” ejaculated the mother.
Somehow the remark made Philip very uncomfortable.