By January the complex social mechanism of the metropolis was whirling
smoothly again; the last ultra-fashionable December lingerer had
returned from the country; those of the same caste outward bound for
a Southern or exotic winter had departed; and the glittering machine,
every part assembled, refurbished, repolished, and connected, having
been given preliminary speed-tests at the horse show, and a tuning up at
the opera, was now running under full velocity; and its steady,
subdued whir quickened the clattering pulse of the city, keying it to a
sublimely syncopated ragtime.
The commercial reaction from the chaos of the holidays had become a
carnival of recovery; shop windows grew brighter and gayer than ever,
bursting into gaudy winter florescence; the main arteries of the town
roared prosperity; cross streets were packed; Fifth Avenue, almost
impassible in the morning, choked up after three o'clock; and all
the afternoon through, and late into the night, mounted police of the
traffic squad, adrift in the tide of carriages, stemmed the flashing
currents pouring north and south from the white marble arch to the
gilded bronze battle-horse and its rider on guard at the portals of the
richest quarter of the wealthiest city in the world.
So far, that winter, snow had fallen only twice, lasting but a day
or two each time; street and avenue remained bone dry where the
white-uniformed cleaning squads worked amid clouds of dust; and all day
long the flinty asphalt echoed the rattling slap of horses' feet; all
day long the big, shining motor-cars sped up town and down town,
droning their distant warnings. It was an open winter in New York, and,
financially, a prosperous one; and that meant a brilliant social season.
Like a set piece of fireworks, with its interdependent parts taking fire
in turn, function after function, spectacle after spectacle, glittered,
fizzed, and was extinguished, only to give place to newer and more
splendid spectacles; separate circles, sets, and groups belonging to the
social solar system whizzed, revolved, rotated, with edifying effects
on everybody concerned, unconcerned, and not at all concerned; and at
intervals, when for a moment or two something hung fire, the twinkle of
similar spectacles sputtering away in distant cities beyond the
horizon was faintly reflected in the social sky above the incandescent
metropolis. For the whole nation was footing it, heel and toe, to the
echoes of strains borne on the winds from the social capital of the
republic; and the social arbiter at Bird Centre was more of a facsimile
of his New York confrère than that confrère could ever dream of even in
the most realistic of nightmares.
Three phenomena particularly characterised that metropolitan winter:
the reckless rage for private gambling through the mediums of bridge
and roulette; the incorporation of a company known as The Inter-County
Electric Company, capitalised at a figure calculated to disturb nobody,
and, so far, without any avowed specific policy other than that which
served to decorate a portion of its charter which otherwise might have
remained ornately and comparatively blank; the third phenomenon was the
retirement from active affairs of Stanley S. Quarrier, the father of
Howard Quarrier, and the election of the son to the presidency of the
great Algonquin Loan and Trust Company, with its network system of
dependent, subsidiary, and allied corporations.
The day that the newspapers gave this interesting information to the
Western world, Leroy Mortimer, on being bluntly notified that he
had overdrawn his account with the Algonquin Loan and Trust, began
telephoning in every direction until he located Beverly Plank at the
Saddle Club--an organisation of wealthy men, and sufficiently exclusive
not to compromise Plank's possible chances for something better; in
fact, the Saddle Club, into which Leroy Mortimer had already managed to
pilot him, was one riser and tread upward on the stair he was climbing,
though it was more of a lobby for other clubs than a club in itself. To
be seen there was, perhaps, rather to a man's advantage, if he did not
loaf there in the evenings or use it too frequently. As Plank carefully
avoided doing either, Mortimer was fortunate in finding him there; and
he crawled out of his hansom, saying that the desk clerk would pay, and
entered the reading-room, where Plank sat writing a letter.
Beverly Plank had grown stouter since he had returned to town from Black
Fells; but the increase of weight was evenly distributed over his
six feet odd, which made him only a trifle more ponderous and not
abdominally fat. But Mortimer had become enormous; rolls of flesh
crowded his mottled ear-lobes outward and bulged above his collar;
cushions of it padded the backs of his hands and fingers; shaving left
his heavy, distended face congested and unpleasantly shiny. But he was
as minutely groomed as ever, and he wore that satiated air of prosperity
which had always been one of his most important assets.
The social campaign inaugurated by Leila Mortimer in behalf of Beverly
Plank had, so far, received no serious reverses. His box at the horse
show, of course, produced merely negative results; his box at the opera
might mean something some day. His name was up at the Lenox and the
Patroons; he had endowed a ward in the new pavilion of St. Berold's
Hospital; he had presented a fine Gainsborough--The Countess of
Wythe--to the Metropolitan Museum; and it was rumoured that he had
consulted several bishops concerning a new chapel for that huge bastion
of the citadel of Faith looming above the metropolitan wilderness in the
north.
So far, so good. If, as yet, he had not been permitted to go where he
wanted to go, he at least had been instructed where not to go and what
not to do; and he was as docile as he was dogged, understanding how much
longer it takes to shuffle in by way of the mews and the back door than
to sit on the front steps and wait politely for somebody to unchain the
front door.
Meanwhile he was doggedly docile; his huge house, facing the wintry park
midway between the squat palaces of the wealthy pioneers and the outer
hundreds, remained magnificently empty save for certain afternoon
conferences of very solemn men, fellow directors and associates in
business and financial matters--save for the periodical presence of the
Mortimers: a mansion immense and shadowy, haunted by relays of yawning,
livened servants, half stupefied under the vast silence of the twilit
splendour. He was patient, not only because he was told to be, but also
because he had nothing better to do. Society stared at him as blankly
as the Mountain confronted Mahomet. But the stubborn patience of the man
was itself a strain on the Mountain; he was aware of that, and he waited
for it to come to him. As yet, however, he could detect no symptoms of
mobility in the Mountain.
“Things are moving all the same,” said Mortimer, as he entered the
reading room of the Saddle Club. “Quarrier and Belwether have listened
a damned sight more respectfully to me since they read that column about
you and the bishops and that chapel business.”
Plank turned his heavy head with a disturbed glance around the room; for
he always dreaded Mortimer's indiscretions of speech--was afraid of his
cynical frankness in the presence of others; even shrank from the brutal
bonhomie of the man when alone with him.
“Can't you be careful?” he said; “there was a man here a moment ago.”
He picked up his unfinished letter, folded and pocketed it, touched an
electric bell, and when a servant came, “Take Mr. Mortimer's order,”
he said, supporting his massive head on his huge hands and resting his
elbow on the writing-desk.
“I've got to cut out this morning bracer,” said Mortimer, eyeing the
servant with indecision; but he gave his order nevertheless, and later
accepted a cigar; and when the servant had returned and again retired,
he half emptied his tall glass, refilled it with mineral water, and,
settling back in the padded arm-chair, said: “If I manage this thing as
it ought to be managed, you'll go through by April. What do you think of
that?”
Plank's phlegmatic features flushed. “I'm more obliged to you than I
can say,” he began, but Mortimer silenced him with a gesture: “Don't
interrupt. I'm going to put you through The Patroons Club by April.
That's thirty yards through the centre; d'ye see, you dunderheaded
Dutchman? It's solid gain, and it's our ball. The Lenox will take
longer; they're a 'holier-than-thou' bunch of nincompoops, and it always
horrifies them to have any man elected, no matter who he is. They'd
rather die of dry rot than elect anybody; it shocks them to think that
any man could have the presumption to be presented. They require
the spectacle of fasting and prayer--a view of a candidate seated in
sackcloth and ashes in outer darkness. You've got to wait for the Lenox,
Plank.”
“I am waiting,” said Plank, squaring his massive jaws.
“You've got to,” growled Mortimer, emptying his glass aggressively.
Plank looked out of the window, his shrewd blue eyes closing in
retrospection.
“Another thing,” continued Mortimer thickly; “the Kemp Ferralls
are disposed to be decent. I don't mean in asking you to meet some
intellectual second-raters, but in doing it handsomely. I don't know
whether it's time yet,” he added, with a sidelong glance at Plank's
stolid face; “I don't want to push the mourners too hard … Well, I'll
see about it … And if it's the thing to do, and the time to do it”--he
turned on Plank with his boisterous and misleading laugh and clapped
him on the shoulder--“it will be done, as sure as snobs are snobs; and
that's the surest thing you ever bet on. Here's to them!” and he emptied
his glass and fell back into his chair, wheezing and sucking at his
unlighted cigar.
“I want to say,” began Plank, speaking the more slowly because he was
deeply in earnest, “that all this you are doing for me is very handsome
of you, Mortimer. I'd like to say--to convey to you something of how I
feel about the way you and Mrs. Mortimer--”
“Oh, Leila has done it all.”
“Mrs. Mortimer is very kind, and you have been so, too. I--I wish there
was something--some way to--to--”
“To what?” asked Mortimer so bluntly that Plank flushed up and
stammered:
“To be--to do a--to show my gratitude.”
“How? You're scarcely in a position to do anything for us,” said
Mortimer, brutally staring him out of countenance.
“I know it,” said Plank, the painful flush deepening.
Mortimer, fussing and growling over his cigar, was nevertheless
stealthily intent on the game which had so long absorbed him. His
wits, clogged, dulled by excesses, were now aroused to a sort of gross
activity through the menace of necessity. At last Plank had given him an
opening. He recognised his chance.
“There's one thing,” he said deliberately, “that I won't stand for, and
that's any vulgar misconception on your part of my friendship for you.
Do you follow me?”
“I don't misunderstand it,” protested Plank, angry and astonished; “I
don't--”
“--As though,” continued Mortimer menacingly, “I were one of those needy
social tipsters, one of those shabby, pandering touts who--”
“For Heaven's sake, Mortimer, don't talk like that! I had no
intention--”
“--One of those contemptible, parasitic leeches,” persisted Mortimer,
getting redder and hoarser, “who live on men like you. Confound you,
Plank, what the devil do you mean by it?”
“Mortimer, are you crazy, to talk to me like that?”
“No, I'm not, but you must be! I've a mind to drop the whole cursed
business! I've every inclination to drop it! If you haven't horse-sense
enough--if you haven't innate delicacy sufficient to keep you from
making such a break--”
“I didn't! It wasn't a break, Mortimer. I wouldn't have hurt you--”
“You did hurt me! How can I feel the same again? I never imagined you
thought I was that sort of a social mercenary. Why, so little did I
dream that you looked on our friendship in that light that I was--on my
word of honour!--I was just now on the point of asking you for three
or four thousand, to carry me to the month's end and square my bridge
balance.”
“Mortimer, you must take it! You are a fool to think I meant anything by
saying I wanted to show my gratitude. Look here; be decent and fair with
me. I wouldn't offer you an affront--would I?--even if I were a cad. I
wouldn't do it now, just when you're getting things into shape for me.
I'm not a fool, anyway. This is in deadly earnest, I tell you, Mortimer,
and I'm getting angry about it. You've got to show your confidence in
me; you've got to take what you want from me, as you would from any
friend. I resent your failure to do it now, as though you drew a line
between me and your intimates. If you're really my friend, show it!”
There was a pause. A curious and unaccustomed sensation had silenced
Mortimer, something almost akin to shame. It astonished him a little.
He did not quite understand why, in the very moment of success over this
stolid, shrewd young man and his thrifty Dutch instincts, he should feel
uncomfortable. Were not his services worth something? Had he not earned
at least the right to borrow from this rich man who could afford to pay
for what was done for him? Why should he feel ashamed? He had not been
treacherous; he really liked the fellow. Why shouldn't he take his
money?
“See here, old man,” said Plank, extending a huge highly coloured hand,
“is all square between us now?”
“I think so,” muttered Mortimer.
But Plank would not relinquish his hand.
“Then tell me how to draw that cheque! Great Heaven, Mortimer, what
is friendship, anyhow, if it doesn't include little matters like
this--little misunderstandings like this? I'm the man to be sensitive,
not you. You have been very good to me, Mortimer. I could almost wish
you in a position where the only thing I possess might square something
of my debt to you.”
A few minutes later, while he was filling in the cheque, a dusty youth
in riding clothes and spurs came in and found a seat by one of the
windows, into which he dropped, and then looked about him for a servant.
“Hello, Fleetwood!” said Mortimer, glancing over his shoulder to see
whose spurs were ringing on the polished floor.
Fleetwood saluted amiably with his riding-crop; including Plank, whom he
did not know, in a more formal salute.
“Will you join us?” asked Mortimer, taking the cheque which Plank
offered and carelessly pocketing it without even a nod of thanks. “You
know Beverly Plank, of course? What! I thought everybody knew Beverly
Plank.”
Mr. Fleetwood and Mr. Plank shook hands and resumed their seats.
“Ripping weather!” observed Fleetwood, replacing his hat and rebuttoning
the glove which he had removed to shake hands with Plank. “Lot of jolly
people out this morning. I say, Mortimer, do you want that roan hunter
of mine you looked over? I mean King Dermid, because Marion Page wants
him, if you don't. She was out this morning, and she spoke of it again.”
Mortimer, lifting a replenished glass, shook his head, and drank
thirstily in silence.
“Saw you at Westbury, I think,” said Fleetwood politely to Plank, as the
two lifted their glasses to one another.
“I hunted there for a day or two,” replied Plank, modestly. “If it's
that big Irish thoroughbred you were riding that you want to sell I'd
like a look in, if Miss Page doesn't fancy him.”
Fleetwood laughed, and glanced amusedly at Plank over his glass. “It
isn't that horse, Mr. Plank. That's Drumceit, Stephen Siward's famous
horse.” He interrupted himself to exchange greetings with several men
who came into the room rather noisily, their spurs resounding across the
oaken floor. One of them, Tom O'Hara, joined them, slamming his crop on
the desk beside Plank and spreading himself over an arm-chair, from the
seat of which he forcibly removed Mortimer's feet without excuse.
“Drink? Of course I want a drink!” he replied irritably to
Fleetwood--“one, three, ten, several! Billy, whose weasel-bellied pinto
was that you were kicking your heels into in the park? Some of the
squadron men asked me--the major. Oh, beg pardon! Didn't know you were
trying to stick Mortimer with him. He might do for the troop ambulance,
inside! … What? Oh, yes; met Mr. Blank--I mean Mr. Plank--at Shotover,
I think. How d'ye do? Had the pleasure of potting your tame pheasants.
Rotten sport, you know. What do you do it for, Mr. Blank?”
“What did you come for, if it's rotten sport?” asked Plank so simply
that it took O'Hara a moment to realise he had been snubbed.
“I didn't mean to be offensive,” he drawled.
“I suppose you can't help it,” said Plank very gently; “some people
can't, you know.” And there was another silence, broken by Mortimer,
whose entire hulk was tingling with a mixture of surprise and amusement
over his protégé's developing ability to take care of himself. “Did you
say that Stephen Siward is in Westbury, Billy?”
“No; he's in town,” replied Fleetwood. “I took his horses up to hunt
with. He isn't hunting, you know.”
“I didn't know. Nobody ever sees him anywhere,” said Mortimer. “I guess
his mother's death cut him up.”
Fleetwood lifted his empty glass and gently shook the ice in it. “That,
and--the other business--is enough to cut any man up, isn't it?”
“You mean the action of the Lenox Club?” asked Plank seriously.
“Yes. He's resigned from this club, too, I hear. Somebody told me that
he has made a clean sweep of all his clubs. That's foolish. A man may be
an ass to join too many clubs but he's always a fool to resign from any
of 'em. You ask the weatherwise what resigning from a club forecasts.
It's the first ominous sign in a young man's career.”
“What's the second sign?” asked O'Hara, with a yawn.
“Squadron talk; and you're full of it,” retorted Fleetwood--“'I said to
the major,' and 'The captain told the chief trumpeter'--all that sort
of thing--and those Porto Rico spurs of yours, and the ewe-necked
glyptosaurus you block the bridle-path with every morning. You're an
awful nuisance, Tom, if anybody should ask me.”
Under cover of a rapid-fire exchange of pleasantries between Fleetwood
and O'Hara, Plank turned to Mortimer, hesitating:
“I rather liked Siward when I met him at Shotover,” he ventured. “I'm
very sorry he's down and out.”
“He drinks,” shrugged Mortimer, diluting his mineral water with Irish
whisky. “He can't let it alone; he's like all the Siwards. I could have
told you that the first time I ever saw him. We all told him to cut it
out, because he was sure to do some damfool thing if he didn't. He's
done it, and his clubs have cut him out. It's his own funeral. … Well,
here's to you!”
“Cut who out?” asked Fleetwood, ignoring O'Hara's parting shot
concerning the decadence of the Fleetwood stables and their owner.
“Stephen Siward. I always said that he was sure, sooner or later, to
land in the family ditch. He has a right to, of course; the gutter is
public property.”
“It's a damned sad thing,” said Fleetwood slowly.
After a pause Plank said: “I think so, too. … I don't know him very
well.”
“You may know him better now,” said O'Hara insolently.
Plank reddened, and, after a moment: “I should be glad to, if he cares
to know me.”
“Mortimer doesn't care for him, but he's an awfully good fellow, all
the same,” said Fleetwood, turning to Plank; “he's been an ass, but who
hasn't? I like him tremendously, and I feel very bad over the mess he
made of it after that crazy dinner I gave in my rooms. What? You hadn't
heard of it? Why man, it's the talk of the clubs.”
“I suppose that is why I haven't heard,” said Plank simply; “my
club-life is still in the future.”
“Oh!” said Fleetwood with an involuntary stare, surprised, a trifle
uncomfortable, yet somehow liking Plank, and not understanding why.
“I'm not in anything, you see; I'm only up for the Patroons and the
Lenox,” added Plank gravely.
“I see. Certainly. Er--hope you'll make 'em; hope to see you there soon.
Er--I see by the papers you've been jollying the clergy, Mr. Plank.
Awfully handsome of you, all that chapel business. I say: I've a
cousin--er--young architect; Beaux Arts, and all that--just over. I'd
awfully like to have him given a chance at that competition; invited to
try, you see. I don't suppose it could be managed, now--”
“Would you like to have me ask the bishops?” inquired Plank, naively
shrewd. And the conversation became very cordial between the two, which
Mortimer observed, keeping one ironical eye on Plank, while he continued
a desultory discussion with O'Hara concerning a very private dinner
which somebody told somebody that somebody had given to Quarrier and the
Inter-County Electric people; which, if true, plainly indicated who was
financing the Inter-County scheme, and why Amalgamated stock had tumbled
again yesterday, and what might be looked for from the Algonquin Trust
Company's president.
“Amalgamated Electric doesn't seem to like it a little bit,” said
O'Hara. “Ferrall, Belwether, and Siward are in it up to their necks; and
if Quarrier is really the god in the machine, and if he really is doing
stunts with Amalgamated Electric, and is also mixing feet with the
Inter-County crowd, why, he is virtually paralleling his own road;
and why, in the name of common sense, is he doing that? He'll kill it;
that's what he'll do.”
“He can afford to kill it,” observed Mortimer, punching the electric
button and making a significant gesture toward his empty glass as the
servant entered; “a man like Quarrier can afford to kill anything.”
“Yes; but why kill Amalgamated Electric? Why not merge? Why, it's a
crazy thing to do, it's a devil of a thing to do, to parallel your own
line!” insisted O'Hara. “That is dirty work. People don't do such things
these days. Nobody tears up dollar bills for the pleasure of tearing.”
“Nobody knows what Quarrier will do,” muttered Mortimer, who had tried
hard enough to find out when the first ominous rumours arose concerning
Amalgamated, and the first fractional declines left the street
speechless and stupefied.
O'Hara sat frowning, and fingering his glass. “As a matter of fact,” he
said, “a little cold logic shows us that Quarrier isn't in it at all.
No sane man would ruin his own enterprise, when there is no need to.
His people are openly supporting Amalgamated and hammering Inter-County;
and, besides, there's Ferrall in it, and Mrs. Ferrall is Quarrier's
cousin; and there's Belwether in it, and Quarrier is engaged to marry
Sylvia Landis, who is Belwether's niece. It's a scrap with Harrington's
crowd, and the wheels inside of wheels are like Chinese boxes. Who knows
what it means? Only it's plain that Amalgamated is safe, if Quarrier
wants it to be. And unless he does he's crazy.”
Mortimer puffed stolidly at his cigar until the smoke got into his eyes
and inflamed them. He sat for a while, wiping his puffy eyelids with his
handkerchief; then, squinting sideways at Plank, and seeing him still
occupied with Fleetwood, turned bluntly on O'Hara:
“See here: what do you mean by being nasty to Plank?” he growled. “I'm
backing him. Do you understand?”
“It is curious,” mused O'Hara coolly, “how much of a cad a fairly decent
man can be when he's out of temper!”
“You mean Plank, or me?” demanded Mortimer, darkening angrily.
“No; I mean myself. I'm not that way usually. I took him for a bounder,
and he's caught me with the goods on. I've been thinking that the men
who bother with such questions are usually open to suspicion themselves.
Watch me do the civil, now. I'm ashamed of myself.”
“Wait a moment. Will you be civil enough to do something for him at the
Patroons? That will mean something.”
“Is he up? Yes, I will;” and, turning in his chair, he said to Plank:
“Awfully sorry I acted like a bounder just now, after having accepted
your hospitality at the Fells. I did mean to be offensive, and I'm sorry
for that, too. Hope you'll overlook it, and be friendly.”
Plank's face took on the dark-red hue of embarrassment; he looked
questioningly at Mortimer, whose visage remained non-committal, then
directly at O'Hara.
“I should be very glad to be friends with you,” he said with an
ingenuous dignity that surprised Mortimer. It was only the native
simplicity of the man, veneered and polished by constant contact
with Mrs. Mortimer, and now showing to advantage in the grain. And
it gratified Mortimer, because he saw that it was going to make many
matters much easier for himself and his protégé.
The tall glasses were filled and drained again before they departed to
the cold plunge and dressing-rooms above, whence presently they emerged
in street garb to drive down town and lunch together at the Lenox Club,
Plank as Fleetwood's guest.
Mortimer, very heavy and inert after luncheon, wedged himself into a
great stuffed arm-chair by the window, where he alternately nodded over
his coffee and wheezed in his breathing, and leered out at Fifth Avenue
from half-closed, puffy eyes. And there he was due to sit, sodden and
replete, until the fashionable equipages began to flash past. He'd
probably see his wife driving with Mrs. Ferrall or with Miss Caithness,
or perhaps with some doddering caryatid of the social structure; and
he'd sit there, leering with gummy eyes out of the club windows, while
servants in silent processional replenished his glass from time to time,
until in the early night the trim little shopgirls flocked out into
the highways in gossiping, fluttering coveys, trotting away across
the illuminated asphalt, north and south to their thousand dingy
destinations. And after they had gone he would probably arouse himself
to read the evening paper, or perhaps gossip with Major Belwether and
other white-haired familiars, or perhaps doze until it was time to
summon a cab and go home to dress.
That afternoon, however, having O'Hara and Fleetwood to give him
countenance, he managed to arouse himself long enough to make Plank
known personally to several of the governors of the club and to a dozen
members, then left him to his fate. Whence, presently, Fleetwood
and O'Hara extracted him--fate at that moment being personified by a
garrulous old gentleman, one Peter Caithness, who divided with Major
Belwether the distinction of being the club bore--and together they
piloted him to the billiard room, where he beat them handily for a
dollar a point at everything they suggested.
“You play almost as pretty a game as Stephen Siward used to play,” said
O'Hara cordially. “You've something of his cue movement--something of
his infernal facility and touch. Hasn't he, Fleetwood?”
“I wish Siward were back here,” said Fleetwood thoughtfully, returning
his cue to his own rack. “I wonder what he does with himself--where he
keeps himself all the while? What the devil is there for a man to do, if
he doesn't do anything? He's not going out anywhere since his mother's
death; he has no clubs to go to, I understand. What does he do--go to
his office and come back, and sit in that shabby old brick house all day
and blink at the bum portraits of his bum and distinguished ancestors?
Do you know what he does with himself?” to O'Hara.
“I don't even know where he lives,” observed O'Hara, resuming his coat.
“He's given up his rooms, I understand.”
“What? Don't know the old Siward house?”
“Oh! does he live there now? Of course; I forgot about his mother. He
had apartments last year, you remember. He gave dinners--corkers they
were. I went to one--like that last one you gave.”
“I wish I'd never given it,” said Fleetwood gloomily. “If I hadn't, he'd
be a member here still. … What do you suppose induced him to take that
little gin-drinking cat to the Patroons? Why, man, it wasn't even an
undergraduate's trick! it was the act of a lunatic.”
For a while they talked of Siward, and of his unfortunate story and the
pity of it; and when the two men ceased,
“Do you know,” said Plank mildly, “I don't believe he ever did it.”
O'Hara looked up surprised, then shrugged. “Unfortunately he doesn't
deny it, you see.”
“I heard,” said Fleetwood, lighting a cigarette, “that he did deny it;
that he said, no matter what his condition was, he couldn't have done
it. If he had been sober, the governors would have been bound to take
his word of honour. But he couldn't give that, you see. And after they
pointed out to him that he had been in no condition to know exactly what
he did do, he shut up. … And they dropped him; and he's falling yet.”
“I don't believe that sort of a man ever would do that sort of thing,”
repeated Plank obstinately, his Delft-blue eyes partly closing, so that
all the Dutch shrewdness and stubbornness in his face disturbed its
highly coloured placidity. And he walked away toward the wash-room to
cleanse his ponderous pink hands of chalk-dust.
“That's what's the matter with Plank,” observed O'Hara to Fleetwood as
Plank disappeared. “It isn't that he's a bounder; but he doesn't know
things; he doesn't know enough, for instance, to wait until he's a
member of a club before he criticises the judgment of its governors. Yet
you can't help tolerating the fellow. I think I'll write a letter for
him, or put down my name. What do you think?”
“It would be all right,” said Fleetwood. “He'll need all the support he
can get, with Leroy Mortimer as his sponsor. … Wasn't Mortimer rather
nasty about Siward though, in his rôle of the alcoholic prophet? Whew!”
“Siward never had any use for Mortimer,” observed O'Hara.
“I'll bet you never heard him say so,” returned Fleetwood. “You know
Stephen Siward's way; he never said anything unpleasant about any man.
I wish I didn't either, but I do. So do you. So do most men. … Lord!
I wish Siward were back here. He was a good deal of a man, after all,
Tom.”
They were unconsciously using the past tense in discussing Siward, as
though he were dead, either physically or socially.
“In one way he was always a singularly decent man,” mused O'Hara,
walking toward the great marble vestibule and buttoning his overcoat.
“How exactly do you mean?”
“Oh, about women.”
“I believe it, too. If he did take that Vyse girl into the Patroons, it
was his limit with her--and, I believe his limit with any woman. He was
absurdly decent that way; he was indeed. And now look at the reputation
he has! Isn't it funny? isn't it, now?”
“What sort of an effect do you suppose all this business is going to
have on Siward?”
“It's had one effect already,” replied Fleetwood, as Plank came up,
ready for the street. “Ferrall says he looks sick, and Belwether says
he's going to the devil; but that's the sort of thing the major is
likely to say. By the way, wasn't there something between that pretty
Landis girl and Siward? Somebody--some damned gossiping somebody--talked
about it somewhere, recently.”
“I don't believe that, either,” said Plank, in his heavy, measured,
passionless voice, as they descended the steps of the white portico and
looked around for a cab.
“As for me, I've got to hustle,” observed O'Hara, glancing at his watch.
“I'm due to shine at a function about five. Are you coming up-town
either of you fellows? I'll give you a lift as far as Seventy-second
Street, Plank.”
“Tell you what we'll do,” said Fleetwood, impulsively, turning to Plank:
“We'll drive down town, you and I, and we'll look up poor old Siward!
Shall we? He's probably all alone in that God-forsaken red brick family
tomb! Shall we? How about it, Plank?”
O'Hara turned impatiently on his heel with a gesture of adieu, climbed
into his electric hansom, and went buzzing away up the avenue.
“I'd like to, but I don't think I know Mr. Siward well enough to do
that,” said Plank diffidently. He hesitated, colouring up. “He might
misunderstand my going with you--as a liberty--which perhaps I might not
have ventured on had he been less--less unfortunate.”
Again Fleetwood warmed toward the ruddy, ponderous young man beside him.
“See here,” he said, “you are going as a friend of mine--if you care to
look at it that way.”
“Thank you,” said Plank; “I should be very glad to go in that way.”
The Siward house was old only in the comparative Manhattan meaning of
the word; for in New York nothing is really very old, except the faces
of the young men.
Decades ago it had been considered a big house, and it was still so
spoken of--a solid, dingy, red brick structure, cubical in proportions,
surmounted by heavy chimneys, the depth of its sunken windows hinting
of the thickness of wall and foundation. Window-curtains of obsolete
pattern, all alike, and all drawn, masked the blank panes. Three massive
wistaria-vines, the gnarled stems as thick as tree-trunks, crawled
upward to the roof, dividing the façade equally, and furnishing some
relief to its flatness, otherwise unbroken except by the deep reveals
of window and door. Two huge and unsymmetrical catalpa trees stood
sentinels before it, dividing curb from asphalt; and from the centres of
the shrivelled, brown grass-plots flanking the stoop under the basement
windows two aged Rose-of-Sharon trees bristled naked to the height of
the white marble capitals of the flaking pillars supporting the stained
portico.
An old New York house, in the New York sense. Old in another sense,
too, where in a rapid land Time outstrips itself, painting, with the
antiquity of centuries, the stone and mortar which were new scarce ten
years since.
“Nice old family mausoleum,” commented Fleetwood, descending from the
hansom, followed by Plank. The latter instinctively mounted the stoop on
tiptoe, treading gingerly as one who ventures into precincts unknown but
long respected; and as Fleetwood pulled the old-fashioned bell, Plank
stole a glance over the façade, where wisps of straw trailed from
sparrows' nests, undisturbed, wedged between plinth and pillar; where,
behind the lace pane-screens, shadowy edges of heavy curtains framed
the obscurity; where the paint had blistered and peeled from the iron
railings, and the marble pillars of the portico glimmered, scarred by
frosts of winters long forgotten.
“Cheerful monument,” repeated Fleetwood with a sarcastic nod. Then
the door was opened by a very old man wearing the black “swallow-tail”
clothes and choker of an old-time butler, spotless, quite immaculate,
but cut after a fashion no young man remembers.
“Good evening,” said Fleetwood, entering, followed on tiptoe by Plank.
“Good evening, sir.” … A pause; and in the unsteady voice of age: “Mr.
Fleetwood, sir. … Mr.--.” A bow, and the dim eyes peering up at Plank,
who stood fumbling for his card-case.
Fleetwood dropped both cards on the salver unsteadily extended. The
butler ushered them into a dim room on the right.
“How is Mr. Siward?” asked Fleetwood, pausing on the threshold and
dropping his voice.
The old man hesitated, looking down, then still looking away from
Fleetwood: “Bravely, sir, bravely, Mr. Fleetwood.”
“The Siwards were always that,” said the young man gently.
“Yes, sir. … Thank you. Mr. Stephen--Mr. Siward,” he corrected,
quaintly, “is indisposed, sir. It was a--a great shock to us all, sir!”
He bowed and turned away, holding his salver stiffly; and they heard him
muttering under his breath, “Bravely, sir, bravely. A--a great shock,
sir! … Thank you.”
Fleetwood turned to Plank, who stood silent, staring through the fading
light at the faded household gods of the house of Siward. The dim light
touched the prisms of a crystal chandelier dulled by age, and edged the
carved foliations of the marble mantel, above which loomed a tarnished
mirror reflecting darkness. Fleetwood rose, drew a window-shade higher,
and nodded toward several pictures; and Plank moved slowly from one to
another, peering up at the dead Siwards in their crackled varnish.
“This is the real thing,” observed Fleetwood cynically, “all this Fourth
Avenue antique business; dingy, cumbersome, depressing. Good God! I see
myself standing it. … Look at that old grinny-bags in a pig-tail over
there! To the cellar for his, if this were my house. … We've got some,
too, in several rooms, and I never go into 'em. They're like a scene
in a bum play, or like one of those Washington Square rat-holes, where
artists eat Welsh-rabbits with dirty fingers. Ugh!”
“I like it,” said Plank, under his breath.
Fleetwood stared, then shrugged, and returned to the window to watch a
brand-new French motor-car drawn up before a modern mansion across the
avenue.
The butler returned presently, saying that Mr. Siward was at home and
would receive them in the library above, as he was not yet able to pass
up and down stairs.
“I didn't know he was as ill as that,” muttered Fleetwood, as he and
Plank followed the old man up the creaking stairway. But Gumble, the
butler, said nothing in reply.
Siward was sitting in an arm-chair by the window, one leg extended, his
left foot, stiffly cased in bandages, resting on a footstool.
“Why, Stephen!” exclaimed Fleetwood, hastening forward, “I didn't know
you were laid up like this!”
Siward offered his hand inquiringly; then his eyes turned toward Plank,
who stood behind Fleetwood; and, slowly disengaging his hand from
Fleetwood's sympathetic grip, he offered it to Plank.
“It is very kind of you,” he said. “Gumble, Mr. Fleetwood prefers rye,
for some inscrutable reason. Mr. Plank?” His smile was a question.
“If you don't mind,” said Plank, “I should like to have some tea--that
is, if--”
“Tea, Gumble, for two. We'll tipple in company, Mr. Plank,” he added.
“And the cigars are at your elbow, Billy,” with another smile at
Fleetwood.
“Now,” said the latter, after he had lighted his cigar, “what is the
matter, Stephen?”
Siward glanced at his stiffly extended foot. “Nothing much.” He reddened
faintly, “I slipped. It's only a twisted ankle.”
For a moment or two the answer satisfied Fleetwood, then a sudden,
curious flash of suspicion came into his eyes; he glanced sharply at
Siward, who lowered his eyes, while the red tint in his hollow cheeks
deepened.
Neither spoke for a while. Plank sipped the tea which Wands, the second
man, brought. Siward brooded over his cup, head bent. Fleetwood made
more noise than necessary with his ice.
“I miss you like hell!” said Fleetwood musingly, measuring out the
old rye from the quaint decanter. “Why did you drop the Saddle Club,
Stephen?”
“I'm not riding; I have no use for it,” replied Siward.
“You've cut out the Proscenium Club, too, and the Owl's Head, and the
Trophy. It's a shame, Stephen.”
“I'm tired of clubs.”
“Don't talk that way.”
“Very well, I won't,” said Siward, smiling. “Tell me what is
happening--out there,” he made a gesture toward the window; “all the
gossip the newspapers miss. I've talked Dr. Grisby to death; I've talked
Gumble to death; I've read myself stupid. What's going on, Billy?”
So Fleetwood sketched for him a gay cartoon of events, caricaturing
various episodes in the social kaleidoscope which might interest him.
He gossiped cynically, but without malice, about people they both knew,
about engagements, marriages, and divorces, plans and ambitions; about
those absent from the metropolis and the newcomers to be welcomed.
He commented briefly on the opera, reviewed the newer plays at the
theatres, touched on the now dormant gaiety which had made the season at
nearby country clubs conspicuous; then drifted into the hunting field,
gossiping pleasantly in the vernacular about horses and packs and
drag-hunts and stables, and what people thought of the new English
hounds of the trial pack, and how the new M. F. H., Maitland Gray, had
managed to break so many bones at Southbury.
Politics were touched upon, and they spoke of the possibility of
Ferrall going to the Assembly, the sport of boss-baiting having become
fashionable among amateurs, and providing a new amusement for the idle
rich.
So city, State, and national issues were run through lightly, business
conditions noticed, the stock market speculated upon; and presently
conversation died out, with a yawn from Fleetwood as he looked into his
empty glass at the last bit of ice.
“Don't do that, Billy,” smiled Siward. “You haven't discoursed upon art,
literature, and science yet, and you can't go until you've adjusted the
affairs of the nation for the next twenty-four hours.”
“Art?” yawned Fleetwood. “Oh, pictures? Don't like 'em. Nobody ever
looks at 'em except débutantes, who do it out of deviltry, to floor a
man at a dinner or a dance.”
“How about literature?” inquired Siward gravely. “Anything doing?”
“Nothing in it,” replied Fleetwood more gravely still. “It's another
feminine bluff--like all that music talk they hand you after the opera.”
“I see. And science?”
“Spider Flynn is matched to meet Kid Holloway; is that what you mean,
Stephen? Somebody tumbled out of an air-ship the other day; is that what
you mean? And they're selling scientific jewelry on Broadway at a dollar
a quart; is that what you want to know?”
Siward rested his head on his hand with a smile. “Yes, that's about
what I wanted to know, Billy--all about the arts and sciences. … Much
obliged. You needn't stay any longer, if you don't want to.”
“How soon will you be out?” inquired Fleetwood.
“Out? I don't know. I shall try to drive to the office to-morrow.”
“Why the devil did you resign from all your clubs? How can I see you
if I don't come here?” began Fleetwood impatiently. “I know, of course,
that you're not going anywhere, but a man always goes to his club. You
don't look well, Stephen. You are too much alone.”
Siward did not answer. His face and body had certainly grown thinner
since Fleetwood had last seen him. Plank, too, had been shocked at the
change in him--the dark, hard lines under the eyes; the pallor, the
curious immobility of the man, save for his fingers, which were always
restless, now moving in search of some small object to worry and turn
over and over, now nervously settling into a grasp on the arm of his
chair.
“How is Amalgamated Electric?” asked Fleetwood, abruptly.
“I think it's all right. Want to buy some?” replied Siward, smiling.
Plank stirred in his chair ponderously. “Somebody is kicking it to
pieces,” he said.
“Somebody is trying to,” smiled Siward.
“Harrington,” nodded Fleetwood. Siward nodded back. Plank was silent.
“Of course,” continued Fleetwood, tentatively, “you people need not
worry, with Howard Quarrier back of you.”
Nobody said anything for a while. Presently Siward's restless hands,
moving in search of something, encountered a pencil lying on the table
beside him, and he picked it up and began drawing initials and scrolls
on the margin of a newspaper; and all the scrolls framed initials,
and all the initials were the same, twining and twisting into endless
variations of the letters S. L.
“Yes, I must go to the office to-morrow,” he repeated absently. “I am
better--in fact I am quite well, except for this sprain.” He looked down
at his bandaged foot, then his pencil moved listlessly again, continuing
the endless variations on the two letters. It was plain that he was
tired.
Fleetwood rose and made his adieux almost affectionately. Plank moved
forward on tiptoe, bulky and noiseless; and Siward held out his hand,
saying something amiably formal.
“Would you like to have me come again?” asked Plank, red with
embarrassment, yet so naively that at first Siward found no words to
answer him; then--
“Would you care to come, Mr. Plank?”
“Yes.”
Siward looked at him curiously, almost cautiously. His first impressions
of the man had been summed up in one contemptuous word. Besides, barring
that, what was there in common between himself and such a type as Plank?
He had not even troubled himself to avoid him at Shotover; he had merely
been aware of him when Plank spoke to him; never otherwise, except that
afternoon beside the swimming pool, when he had made one of his rare
criticisms on Plank.
Perhaps Plank had changed, perhaps Siward had; for he found nothing
offensive in the bulky young man now--nothing particularly attractive,
either, except for a certain simplicity, a certain direct candour in the
heavy blue eyes which met his squarely.
“Come in for a cigar when you have a few moments idle,” said Siward
slowly.
“It will give me great pleasure,” said Plank, bowing.
And that was all. He followed Fleetwood down the stairs; Wands held
their coats, and bowed them out into the falling shadows of the winter
twilight.
Siward, sitting beside his window, watched them enter their hansom and
drive away up the avenue. A dull flush had settled over his cheeks; the
aroma of spirits hung in the air, and he looked across the room at the
decanter. Presently he drank some of his tea, but it was lukewarm, and
he pushed the cup from him.
The clatter of the cup brought the old butler, who toddled hither
and thither, removing trays, pulling chairs into place, fussing and
pattering about, until a maid came in noiselessly, bearing a lamp. She
pulled down the shades, drew the sad-coloured curtains, went to the
mantelpiece and peered at the clock, then brought a wineglass and a
spoon to Siward, and measured the dose in silence. He swallowed
it, shrugged, permitted her to change the position of his chair and
footstool, and nodded thanks and dismissal.
“Gumble, are you there?” he asked carelessly.
The butler entered from the hallway. “Yes, sir.”
“You may leave that decanter.”
But the old servant may have misunderstood, for he only bowed and
ambled off downstairs with the decanter, either heedless or deaf to his
master's sharp order to return.
For a while Siward sat there, eyes fixed, scowling into vacancy; then
the old, listless, careworn expression returned; he rested one elbow
on the window-sill, his worn cheek on his hand, and with the other hand
fell to weaving initials with his pencil on the margin of the newspaper
lying on the table beside him.
Lamplight brought out sharply the physical change in him--the angular
shadows flat under the cheek-bones, the hard, slightly swollen flesh
in the bluish shadows around the eyes. The mark of the master-vice was
there; its stamp in the swollen, worn-out hollows; its imprint in the
fine lines at the corners of his mouth; its sign manual in the faintest
relaxation of the under lip, which had not yet become a looseness.
For the last of the Siwards had at last stepped into the highway which
his doomed forebears had travelled before him.
“Gumble!” he called irritably.
A quavering voice, an unsteady step, and the old man entered again. “Mr.
Stephen, sir?”
“Bring that decanter back. Didn't you hear me tell you just now?”
“Sir?”
“Didn't you hear me?”
“Yes, Mr. Stephen, sir.”
There was a silence.
“Gumble!”
“Sir?”
“Are you going to bring that decanter?”
The old butler bowed, and ambled from the room, and for a long while
Siward sat sullenly listening and scoring the edges of the paper with
his trembling pencil. Then the lead broke short, and he flung it from
him and pulled the bell. Wands came this time, a lank, sandy, silent
man, grown gray as a rat in the service of the Siwards. He received his
master's orders, and withdrew; and again Siward waited, biting his under
lip and tearing bits from the edges of the newspaper with fingers never
still; but nobody came with the decanter, and after a while his tense
muscles relaxed; something in his very soul seemed to snap, and he sank
back in his chair, the hot tears blinding him.
He had got as far as that; moments of self-pity were becoming almost as
frequent as scorching intervals of self-contempt.
So they all knew what was the matter with him--they all knew--the
doctor, the servants, his friends. Had he not surprised the quick
suspicion in Fleetwood's glance, when he told him he had slipped, and
sprained his ankle? What if he had been drunk when he fell--fell on his
own doorsteps, carried into the old Siward house by old Siward servants,
drunk as his forefathers? It was none of Fleetwood's business. It was
none of the servants' business. It was nobody's business except his own.
Who the devil were all these people, to pry into his affairs and doctor
him and dose him and form secret leagues to disobey him, and hide
decanters from him? Why should anybody have the impertinence to meddle
with him? Of what concern to them were his vices or his virtues?
The tears dried in his hot eyes; he jerked the old-fashioned bell
savagely; and after a long while he heard servants whispering together
in the passageway outside his door.
He lay very still in his chair; his hearing had become abnormally
acute, but he could not make out what they were saying; and as the dull,
intestinal aching grew sharper, parching, searing every strained muscle
in throat and chest, he struck the table beside him, and clenched his
teeth in the fierce rush of agony that swept him from head to foot,
crying out an inarticulate menace on his household. And Dr. Grisby came
into the room from the outer shadows of the hall.
He was very small, very meagre, very bald, and clean-shaven, with a face
like a nut-cracker; and the brown wig he wore was atrocious, and curled
forward over his colourless ears. He wore steel-rimmed spectacles,
each glass divided into two lenses; and he stood on tiptoe to look out
through the upper lenses on the world, and always bent almost double to
use the lower or reading lenses.
Besides that, he affected frilled shirts, and string ties, which nobody
had ever seen snugly tied. His loose string tie was the first thing
Siward could remember about the doctor; and that the doctor had
permitted him to pull it when he had the measles, at the age of six.
“What's all this racket?” said the little old doctor harshly. “Got
colic? Got the toothache? I'm ashamed of you, Stephen, cutting capers
and pounding the furniture! Look up! Look at me! Out with your tongue!
Well, now, what the devil's the trouble?”
“You--know,” muttered Siward, abandoning his wrist to the little man,
who seated himself beside him. Dr. Grisby scarcely noted the pulse; the
delicate pressure had become a strong caress.
“Know what?” he grunted. “How do I know what's the matter with you? Hey?
Now, now, don't try to explain, Steve; don't fly off the handle! All
right; grant that I do know what's bothering you; I want to see that
ankle first. Here, somebody! Light that gas. Why the mischief don't
you have the house wired for electricity, Stephen? It's wholesome.
Gas isn't. Lamps are worse, sir. Do as I tell you!” And he went on
loquaciously, grumbling and muttering, and never ceasing his talk, while
Siward, wincing as the dressing was removed, lay back and closed his
eyes.
Half an hour later Gumble appeared, to announce dinner.
“I don't want any,” said Siward.
“Eat!” said Dr. Grisby harshly.
“I--don't care to.”
“Eat, I tell you! Do you think I don't mean what I say?”
So he ate his broth and toast, the doctor curtly declining to join him.
He ate hurriedly, closing his eyes in aversion. Even the iced tea was
flat and distasteful to him.
And at last he lay back, white and unstrung, the momentarily deadened
desperation glimmering under his half-closed eyes. And for a long while
Dr. Grisby sat, doubled almost in two, cuddling his bony little knees
and studying the patterns in the faded carpet.
“I guess you'd better go, Stephen,” he said at length.
“Up the river--to Mulqueen's?”
“Yes. Let's try it, Steve. You'll be on your feet in two weeks. Then
you'd better go--up the river--to Mulqueen's.”
“I--I'll go, if you say so. But I can't go now.”
“I didn't say go now. I said in two weeks.”
“Perhaps.”
“Will you give me your word?” demanded the doctor sharply.
“No, doctor.”
“Why not?”
“Because I may have to be here on business. There seems to be some sort
of crisis coming which I don't understand.”
“There's a crisis right here, Steve, which I understand!” snapped Dr.
Grisby. “Face it like a man! Face it like a man! You're sick--to your
bones, boy--sick! sick! Fight the fight, Steve! Fight a good fight.
There's a fighting chance; on my soul of honour, there is, Steve, a
fighting chance for you! Now! now, boy! Buckle up tight! Tuck up your
sword-sleeve! At 'em, Steve! Give 'em hell! Oh, my boy, my boy, I know;
I know!” The little man's voice broke, but he steadied it instantly with
a snap of his nut-cracker jaws, and scowled on his patient and shook his
little withered fist at him.
His patient lay very still in the shadow.
“I want you to go,” said the doctor harshly, “before your self-control
goes. Do you understand? I want you to go before your decision is
undermined; before you begin to do devious things, sly things, cheating
things, slinking things--anything and everything to get at the thing
you crave. I've given you something to fight with, and you won't take it
faithfully. I've given you free rein in tobacco and tea and coffee. I've
helped you as much as I dare to weather the nights. Now, you help me--do
you hear?”
“Yes … I will.”
“You say so; now do it. Do something for yourself. Do anything! If
you're sick of reading--and I don't blame you, considering the stuff
you read--get people down here to see you; get lots of people. Telephone
'em; you've a telephone there, haven't you? There it is, by your elbow.
Use it! Call up people. Talk all the time.”
“Yes, I will.”
“Good! Now, Steve, we know what's the matter, physically, don't we? Of
course we do! Now, then, what's the matter mentally?”
“Mentally?” repeated Siward under his breath.
“Yes, mentally. What's the trouble? Stocks? Bonds? Lawsuits? Love?” the
slightest pause, and a narrowing of the gimlet eyes behind the lenses.
“Love?” he repeated harshly. “Which is it, boy? They're all good to let
alone.”
“Business,” said Siward. But, being a Siward, he was obliged to add
“partly.”
“Business--partly,” repeated the doctor. “What's the matter with
business--partly?”
“I don't know. There are rumours. Hetherington is pounding
us--apparently. That Inter-County crowd is acting ominously, too.
There's something underhand, somewhere.” He bent his head and fell to
plucking at the faded brocade on the arm of his chair, muttering to
himself, “somewhere, somehow, something underhand. I don't know what; I
really don't.”
“All right--all right,” said the doctor testily; “let it go at that!
There's treachery, eh? You suspect it? You're sure of it--as reasonably
sure as a gentleman can be of something he is not fashioned to
understand? That's it, is it? All right, sir--all right! Very
well--ver-y well. Now, sir, look at me! Business symptoms admitted, what
about the 'partly,' Stephen?--what about it, eh? What about it?”
But Siward fell silent again.
“Eh? Did you say something? No? Oh, very well, ver-y well, sir. …
Perfectly correct, Stephen. You have not earned the right to admit
further symptoms. No, sir, you have not earned the right to admit them
to anybody, not even to yourself. Nor to--her!”
“Doctor!”
“Sir?”
“I have--admitted them.”
“To yourself, Steve? I'm sorry. You have no right to--yet. I'm sorry--”
“I have admitted them--admitted them--to her.”
“That settles it,” said the doctor grimly, “that clinches it! That locks
you to the wheel! That pledges you. The squabble is on, now. It's your
honour that's engaged now, not your nerves, not your intestines. It's
a good fight--a very good fight, with no chance of losing anything but
life. You go up the river to Mulqueen's. That's the strategy in this
campaign; that's excellent manoeuvring; that's good generalship! Eh?
Mask your purpose, Steve; make a feint of camping out here under my
guns; then suddenly fling your entire force up the Hudson and fortify
yourself at Mulqueen's! Ho, that'll fix 'em! That's going to astonish
the enemy!”
His harsh, dry, crackling laughter broke out like the distant rattle of
musketry.
The ghost of a smile glimmered in Siward's haunted eyes, then faded as
he leaned forward.
“She has refused me,” he said simply.
The little doctor, after an incredulous stare, began chattering
with wrath. “Refused you! Pah! Pooh! That's nothing! That signifies
absolutely nothing! It's meaningless! It's a detail. You get well--do
you hear? You go and get well; then try it again! Then you'll see! And
if she is an idiot--in the event of her irrational persistence in an
incredible and utterly indefensible attitude”--he choked up, then fairly
barked at Siward--“take her anyway, sir! Run off with her! Dominate
circumstances, sir! take charge of events! … But you can't do it till
you've clapped yourself into prison for life. … And God help you if you
let yourself escape!”
And after a long while Siward said: “If I should ever marry--and--and--”
“Had children, eh? Is that it? Oh, it is, eh? Well, I say, marry! I say,
have children! If you're a man, you'll breed men. The chances are they
may not inherit what you have. It skips some generations--some, now and
then. But if they do, good God! I say it's better to be born and have
a chance to fight than never to come into the arena at all! By winning
out, the world learns; by failure, the world is no less wise. The
important thing is birth. The main point is to breed--to produce--to
reproduce! but not until you stand, sword in hand, and your armed heel
on the breast of your prostrate and subconscious self!”
He jumped up and began running about the room with short little bantam
steps, talking all the while.
“People say, 'Shall criminals be allowed to mate and produce young?
Shall malefactors be allowed to beget? No!' And I say no, too. Never so
long as they remain criminals and malefactors; so long as the evil in
them is in the ascendant. Never, until they are cured. That's what I
say; that's what I maintain. Crime is a disease; criminals are sick
people. No marriage for them until they're cured; no children for them
until they're well. If they cure themselves, let 'em marry; let 'em
breed; for then, if their children inherit the inclination, they also
inherit the grit to cauterise the malady.”
He produced a huge handkerchief from the tails of his coat, and wiped
his damp features and polished his forehead so violently that his wig
took a new and jaunty angle.
“I'm talking too much,” he said fretfully; “I'm talking a great
deal--all the time--continually. I've other patients--several--plenty!
Do you think you're the only man I know who's trying to disfigure his
liver and make spots come out all over inside him? Do you?”
Siward smiled again, a worn, pallid smile.
“I can stand it while you are here, doctor, but when I'm alone
it's--hard. One of those crises is close now. I've a bad night ahead--a
bad outlook. Couldn't you--”
“No!”
“Just enough--”
“No, Stephen.”
“--Enough to dull it--just a little? I don't ask for enough to make
me sleep--not even to make me doze. You have your needle; haven't you,
doctor?”
“Yes.”
“Then, just this once--for the last time.”
“No.”
“Why? Are you afraid? You needn't be, doctor. I don't care for it except
to give me a little respite, a little rest on a night like this. I'm so
tired of this ache. If I could only have some sleep, and wake up in good
shape, I'd stand a better chance of fighting. … Wait, doctor! Just one
moment. I don't mean to be a coward, but I've had a hard fight, and--I'm
tired. … If you could see your way to helping me--”
“I dare not help you any more that way.”
“Not this once?”
“Not this once.”
There was a dead silence, broken at last by the doctor with a violent
gesture toward the telephone. “Talk to the girl! Why don't you talk to
the girl! If she's worth a hill o' beans she'll help you to hang on.
What's she for, if she isn't for such moments? Tell her you need her
voice; tell her you need her faith in you. Damn central! Talk out in
church! Don't make a goddess of a woman. The men who want to marry her,
and can't, will do that! The nincompoop can always be counted on to
deify the commonplace. And she is commonplace. If she isn't, she's no
good! Commend me to sanity and the commonplace. I take off my hat to it!
I honour it. God bless it! Good-night!”
Siward lay still for a long while after the doctor had gone. More than
an hour had passed before he slowly sat up and groped for the telephone
book, opened it, and searched in a blind, hesitating way until he found
the number he was looking for.
He had never telephoned to her; he had never written her except once,
in reply to her letter in regard to his mother's death--that strange,
timid, formal letter, in which, grief-stunned as he was, he saw only
the formality, and had answered it more formally still. And that was all
that had come of the days and nights by that northern sea--a letter and
its answer, and silence.
And, thinking of these things, he shut the book wearily, and lay back in
the shadow of the faded curtain, closing his sunken eyes.