MRS. CABLE ENTERTAINS
James Bansemer had not recklessly rushed into Mrs. Cable's presence
with threats of exposure; but on the contrary, he had calmly, craftily
waited. It suited his purpose to let her wonder, dread and finally
develop the trust that her secret was safe with him. Occasionally,
he had visited the Cable box in the theatre; not infrequently he
had dined with them in the downtown cafes and at the homes of mutual
acquaintances; but this was the first time that James Bansemer had
enjoyed the hospitality of Frances Cable's home. His son, on the
best of terms with their daughter, was a frequent visitor there.
There was a rare bump of progressiveness in the character of Graydon
Bansemer. He was good-looking enough beyond doubt, and there was a
vast degree of personal magnetism about him. It seemed but natural
that he should readily establish himself as a friend and a favourite
of the fair Miss Cable. For some time, James Bansemer had watched
his son's progress with the Cable family, not once allowing his
personal interest to manifest itself. It was but a question of time
until Mrs. Cable's suspense and anxiety would bring her to him,
one way or another. Every word that fell from the lips of his son
regarding the Cables held his attention, and it was not long before
he saw the family history as clearly as though it were an open
book--and he knew far more than the open book revealed.
Frances Cable was not deluded by his silence and aloofness; but
she was unable to devise means to circumvent him. Constant fear
of his power to crush lurked near her day and night. Conscious of
her weakness, but eager to have done with the strife, sometimes
she longed for the enemy to advance. At first, she distrusted and
despised the son, but his very fairness battered down the barriers
of prejudice, and real admiration succeeded. Her husband liked
him immensely, and Jane was his ablest ally. David Cable regarded
him as one of the brightest, young men on the Stock Exchange, and
predicted that some day he would be an influential member of the
great brokerage firm for which he now acted as confidential clerk.
Mr. Clegg, the senior member of the firm of Clegg, Groll & Davidson,
his employers, personally had commended young Bansemer to Cable,
and he was properly impressed.
Graydon's devotion to Jane did not go unnoticed. This very condition
should have assured Mrs. Cable that James Bansemer had kept her
secret zealously. There was nothing to indicate that the young man
knew the story of the foundling.
It was not until some weeks after the chance meeting in Hooley's
Theatre that Mrs. Cable came into direct contact with James Bansemer's
designs. She had met him at two or three formal affairs, but their
conversations had been of the most conventional character; on the
other hand, her husband had lunched and dined at the club with the
lawyer. At first, she dreaded the outcome of these meetings, but
as Cable's attitude towards her remained unchanged, she began to
realise that Bansemer, whatever his purpose, was loyal.
They met at last, quite informally, at Mrs. Clegg's dinner, a small
and congenial affair. When the men came into the drawing-room, after
the cigars, Mrs. Cable, with not a little trepidation, motioned to
Mr. Bansemer to draw up his chair beside her.
"I have been looking forward with pleasure to this opportunity,
Mr. Bansemer," she said, in a courteously acidulated way. "It has
been so long in coming."
"Better late than never," he returned, with marked emphasis.
Fortunately, for her, the challenging significance of his words was
quickly nullified by the smile with which she was almost instantly
favoured. "Twenty years, I believe--it certainly came very near
being 'never,'" he went on, abruptly changing from harsh to the
sweetest of tones. "No one could believe that you--you're simply
wonderful!" and added, pointedly, "But your daughter is even more
beautiful, if such is possible, than her--her mother."
Apparently, the innuendo passed unnoticed; in reality, it required
all her courage to appear calm.
"How very nice of you," she said softly; and looking him full in
the face: "Her mother thanks you for the compliment."
It was a brave little speech; such bravery would have softened a
man of another mould--changed his purpose. Not so with Bansemer.
A sinister gleam came into his eyes and his attack became more
brutally direct.
"But the husband--has he never mistrusted?"
The blow told, though her reply was given with rippling laughter
and for the benefit of any chance listeners.
"For shame, Mr. Bansemer!" she cried lightly; "after flattering me
so delightfully, you're surely not going to spoil it all?"
Despite his growing annoyance, admiration shone clearly from
Bansemer's eyes. His memory carried him, back some twenty years to
the scene in his office. Was it possible, he was thinking, that the
charming woman before him exercising so cleverly all the arts of
society, as if born to the purple, and the light-headed, frivolous,
little wife of the Central's engineer were one and the same person?
The metamorphosis seemed incredible.
Unwittingly, his manner lost some of its aggressiveness; and the
woman perceiving the altered conditions, quick to take advantage,
resolved to learn, if possible his intentions. Presently, going
right to the point, she asked:
"Is that extraordinary looking creature you had in your office
still with you, Mr. Bansemer?"
"Extraordinary!" He laughed loudly. "He is certainly that, and more.
Indeed, the English language does not supply us with an adjective
that adequately describes the man."
The people nearest to them, by this time, had moved away to another
part of the large drawing-room; practically, the couple were by
themselves. She had been thinking, for a moment, reasoning with
a woman's logic that it was always well to know one's enemy. When
she next spoke, it was almost in a whisper.
"How much does that terrible man know?"
"He is not supposed to know anything;" and then, with an enigmatical
smile, promptly admitted: "However, I'm afraid that he does."
"You have told him? And yet, you promised nobody should know. How
could---"
"My dear Mrs. Cable, he was not told; if he has found out--I could
not prevent his discovering the truth through his own efforts," he
interrupted in a tone more assuaging than convincing to her; and
then, hitching his chair closer, and lowering his voice a note, he
continued: "The papers had to be taken out--but you must not worry
about him--you can depend on me."
"Promise me that you will make him--I am so fearful of that
awful---" she broke off abruptly. Her fears were proving too much
for her, and she was in imminent danger of a complete breakdown;
all the veneer with which she had bravely commenced the interview
had disappeared.
Bansemer endeavoured to soothe her with promises; but the poor
woman saw only his teeth in the reassuring smile that he presented
to her, together with the warnings that they were likely to
be observed. With the hardest kind of an effort, she succeeded
in pulling herself together sufficiently to bid good-night to her
hostess.
When Mrs. Cable reached home that night, it was a full realisation
that she was irrevocably committed into the custody of these
cold-blooded men.
They met again and again at the homes of mutual friends, and she
had come to loathe the pressure of his hand when it clasped hers.
The undeniable caress in his low, suggestive voice disturbed her;
his manner was unmistakable. One night he held her hand long and
firmly in his, and while she shrank helplessly before him he even
tenderly asked why she had not invited him into her home. It was
what she had expected and feared. Her cup of bitterness was filling
rapidly--too rapidly. His invitation to dinner a fortnight later,
followed.
Jane Cable was radiant as she entered the drawing-room shortly
after the arrival of the two Bansemers.
"It's quite like a family party! How splendid!" she said to Graydon
with a quick glance in the direction of James Bansemer and David
Cable, who stood conversing together, and withdrawing her soft,
white hand, which she had put forth to meet his in friendly clasp.
"It's too good to be true!" she went on in a happy, spontaneous,
almost confiding manner.
The two fathers looked on in amused silence, the one full of
admiration and pride for the clean, vigorous manhood of his son
awaiting to receive welcome from the adorable Jane; the other, long
since conscious of the splendid beauty of his daughter, mentally
declaring that she never had appeared so well as when standing
beside this gallant figure.
Other guests arrived before Mrs. Cable made her appearance in the
drawing-room. She had taken more time than usual with her toilet.
It was impossible for her to hide the fact that the strain was
telling on her perceptibly. The face that looked back into her eyes
from the mirror on her dressing-table was not the fresh, warm one
that had needed so little care a few short months before. There
was a heaviness about the eyes and there were strange, persistent
lines gathering under the soft, white tissues of her skin. But when
she at last stepped into the presence of her guests, with ample
apologies for her tardiness, she was the picture of life and nerve.
So much for the excellent resources of her will.
Bansemer was the last to present himself for her welcome, lingering
in the background until the others had passed.
"I'm so glad you could come. Indeed, it's a pleasure to---" She
spoke clearly and distinctly as she extended her hand; but as she
looked squarely into his eyes she thought him the ugliest man she
ever had seen. Every other woman in the party was saying to herself
that James Bansemer was strikingly handsome.
"Most pleasures come late in life to some of us," he returned,
gallantly, and even Graydon Bansemer wished that he could have said
it.
"Your father is a perfect dear," Jane said to him, softly. "It was
not what he said just then that pleased me, but what he left unsaid."
"Father's no end of a good fellow, Jane. I'm glad you admire him."
"You are not a bit like him," she said reflectively.
"Thanks," he exclaimed. "You are not very flattering."
"But you are a different sort of a good fellow, that's what I mean.
Don't be absurd," she cried in some little confusion.
"I'm like my mother, they say, though I don't remember her at all."
"Oh, how terrible it must be never to have known one's mother,"
said she tenderly.
"Or one's father," added James Bansemer, who was passing at that
instant with Mrs. Cable. "Please include the father, Miss Cable,"
he pleaded with mock seriousness. Turning to Mrs. Cable, who had
stopped beside him, he added: "You, the most charming of mothers,
will defend the fathers, won't you?"
"With all my heart," she answered so steadily that he was surprised.
"I will include the father, Mr. Bansemer," said Jane, "if it
is guaranteed that he possibly could be as nice and dear as one's
mother. In that case, I think it would be--oh, dreadfully terrible
never to have known him."
"And to think, Miss Cable, of the unfortunates who have known neither
father nor mother," said Bansemer, senior, slowly, relentlessly.
"How much they have missed of life and love!"
"That can be offset somewhat by the thought of the poor parents
who never have known a son or a daughter," said Jane.
"How can they be parents, then?" demanded Bobby Rigby, coming up
in time.
"Go away, Bobby," she said scornfully.
"That's a nice way to treat logic," he grumbled, ambling on in
quest of Miss Clegg.
"The debate will become serious if you continue," said Mrs. Cable
lightly. "Come along, Mr. Bansemer; Mrs. Craven is waiting."
When they were across the room and alone, she turned a white face
to him and remonstrated bitterly: "Oh, that was cowardly of you
after your promise to me!"
"I forgot myself," he said quietly. "Don't believe me to be utterly
heartless." His hand touched her arm. Instantly her assumed calm
gave way to her deep agitation, and with a swift change of manner,
she turned on him, her passion alight.
"You---!" she stammered; then her fears found voice. "What do you
mean?" she demanded in smothered, alarmed tones.
He desisted savagely and shrank away, the colour flaming into his
disgusted, saturnine face. He did not speak to her again until he
said good-bye long afterward.
As he had expected, his place at the dinner-table was some distance
from hers. He was across the table from Jane and Graydon, and several
seats removed from. David Cable. He smiled grimly and knowingly
when he saw that he had been cut off cleverly from the Cables.
"To-morrow night, then, Jane!" said Graydon at parting. No one was
near enough to catch the tender eagerness in his voice, nor to see
the happy flush in her cheek as she called after him:
"To-morrow night!"