DAVID CABLE'S DEBTS
Two days passed before David Cable was permitted to see his wife.
During those trying hours he lived an age of agony in suspense. She
had been removed to her home late on the night of the "hold-up," as
the newspapers felt justified in calling it. He did not go to his
office the next day--nor the next--but haunted her door, sleepless,
nervous, held close by dread. A dozen times, at least, he sought
admittance to her room, but was always turned away, cursing the
doctor and the nurses for their interference.
His worst fear, however, was that his wife would not forgive him.
Not the dread of exposure, nor his own shame or remorse--not even
the punishment that the law might inflict, could be compared to the
fear of what might be her life-long hatred. He grew to feel that
the doctor, the nurses, the servants looked upon him with strange,
unfriendly though respectful eyes. In his heart he believed that
his wife had cursed him in their presence, laying bare his part in
the unhappy transaction.
At last the suspense became unbearable. He had noticed a slight
change in Jane's manner and at once attributed it to something
his wife had said, for Jane had been allowed in the sick-room. The
discovery that she was not his child had not as yet struck deep
into his understanding. In a vague sort of way he realised that she
was different, now that he knew, but it was impossible for him to
consider her in any other light than that of the years gone by.
The time would come when the full realisation would cut into his
heart more deeply than now, but at present a calamity of his own
making was forcing all other troubles into the background. His
greatest desire was to reach his wife's side, to know the worst
that could come of his suit for forgiveness.
The evening of the second day he swore that he would see her--and
alone. They admitted him and he entered trembling in every nerve.
She was lying, white and haggard, in her bed, her back toward him.
He paused for an instant and was certain that he saw her shudder
violently. It was significant. She feared and loathed him.
"Is it you, David?" he heard her ask weakly. "At last! Oh, I was
afraid that something had happened to you! That---"
He threw himself on his knees beside the bed and wept with all the
pent-up bitterness and misery that was in him--and still he was
afraid to speak to her. Not a word left his lips until he felt her
hand in his hair--a tender, timid hand. It was then that he began
pouring forth his cry for forgiveness. With a groan, he checked
her own appeal for mercy.
"We can talk about Jane another time, not now," he cried. "I must
know that you forgive me--I don't care for anything--nothing else
in the world."
When the nurse came in a few minutes later, he was sitting upon the
edge of the bed holding her hands in his. Their faces were radiant.
"Please stay out," he said, almost gruffly.
"For just a little while," his wife added gently. The nurse hesitated
a moment and then left the room.
Frances Cable told him Jane's history so far as it was known to
her. He listened dully.
"She will never know her true parents," said she in the end.
"No, I suppose not," said he, looking out of the window.
"You understand, don't you, David, dear," she said feebly; "how
I dreaded to have you learn the truth after all these years, and
above all, how I hoped that Jane might never know. I tried every
means in my power to buy James Bansemer's silence. It was not money
that he wanted, it was..." she buried her head shamefully in her
arms; after a moment, she went on: "He professes to love his son,
but his is the love an animal gives the offspring it would destroy.
And yet Graydon worships him."
"Are you quite sure that Graydon is as unsuspecting as you think?"
"In regard to his father?"
"In regard to Jane."
"Oh, I'm sure of it. He is not a party to his father's schemes. If
James Bansemer has not already told Graydon, he never will. It is
not his plan to do so; his only object has been to browbeat me into
submission. David, it will all come out right in the end, won't
it? You'll forgive me?"
"Yes, dear; but this man," and David Cable shook with emotion as he
spoke, "will have to answer to me. There will be no more to fear,"
he said reassuringly; "I'll crush him as I would a snake."
"David, you must not---"
"Don't worry," he broke in; "I'll attend to him and see that no
harm comes to anyone else. That man has no business among honest
people."
"But, David, I was not honest with you," she confessed.
"That was a long time ago, and she's as much mine as she is yours.
So, what's the odds now? It's a facer, I'll admit, but it can't
be helped." It was thus that the man whose anger, only a few hours
before had led him almost to crime, now readily absolved her of
any blame.
"Poor child, poor child!" she moaned; "it will break her heart.
She is so proud and so happy."
"Yes, she's proud. There is good blood in her. I don't wonder now
that I used to think she was such a marvel. She's--she's not just
the same sort of stock that we are, take it as you will."
"She never must know the truth, David."
"She's bound to find it out, dear. We'd better tell her. It will
be easier for her. Bansemer's fangs must be made harmless forever.
He shan't bother her. She'd better hear the story from us and not
from him."
"But Graydon? She'll lose him, David."
"I'm not so sure of it. She's worthy of any man's love and we must
know that Graydon loves her. I'll trust to that. But, first of
all, we must put it beyond the power of James Bansemer to injure
her in any shape or form. Then, when I go after him--Graydon or no
Graydon--he'll know that there is such a place as hell."
"Be rational, David. Let us take our time and think well, dear.
I can't bear the thought of the story that will go out concerning
me--how I deceived you about Jane for years and years. What will
people think of me? What will they say?" she almost wailed.
"Frances," said he, his voice tense and earnest, "that is between
you and me. I intend to say to the world, if occasion demands, that
I have known from the first that Jane was not our child. That will
be---"
"Oh, David, you CAN'T say that," she cried joyously.
"I shall say it, dear old partner. I shall say that you took her
from the asylum with my consent. There is only James Bansemer to
call me a liar, and he will not dare!"
"That old man Droom, David--his clerk. The man who saved me--he
knows."
"He is in the boat with his master. He DID save you, though. I'll
spare him much for that. And I have more to fear from him than you
think. Frances, I am sure he saw me night before last down there
at the sea wall. He knows--I am morally certain--that you were not
attacked by a robber."
"But, David, I WAS robbed. My rings and my pendant were taken by
someone. If Droom was the first man at my side--after you--then he
must have taken them."
"I can't charge him with the theft," groaned Cable. "He saved your
life and he might ruin mine. I would give anything I have to know
just how much he saw of the affair. I can't account for his presence
there. It seems like fate."
"It is impossible for him to accuse you, David."
"It is not impossible, I'm afraid. He may have seen me plainly."
"But I have described my assailant to the police. You do not answer
the description in any particular."
In the next ten minutes the nurse came in twice to caution him
against overtaxing her nerves, politely hinting that he should
depart at once. There was no medicine, no nursing, no care that
could have done her so much good as this hour with her husband.
"It hurt me more than I can tell you, David, when I saw that you
were jealous of him. I could see it growing in you day after day,
and yet I could not find the courage to make everything clear to
you. Oh, how could you have suspected me of that?"
"Because I am a man and because I love you enough to care what
becomes of you. I was wrong, I am happy to confess. Forgive me,
dear. I can't tell you how terrible the last month has been to me.
I can't tell you of the bitter thoughts I have had, nor the vicious
deeds I have planned. I was almost insane. I was not accountable.
I have much to pay to you in the rest of the years that I live;
I have much to pay to my own conscience; and I also owe something
to James Bansemer. I shall try to pay all these different debts in
the coin that they call for."
"We owe something, you and I, to Jane," said she, as he arose to
leave the room.
"A confession and more love than ever, Frances. I love her with
all my heart. When you are stronger, we will tell her that she is
not our child. We have loved her so long and so well that she can't
ask for better proof of our devotion. That terrible thing at the
sea wall must remain our secret, dear. To-morrow I shall begin
pulling James Bansemer's fangs."
He found Graydon downstairs with Jane. A sharp look into the young
man's eyes convinced him that his questions concerning Mrs. Cable
and the latest news concerning the efforts to take the bandit were
sincere. Cable held his hand for a long time; the firm, warm grasp
was that of an honest man. As he stepped out into the night for a
short walk over town he wondered, with a great pain in his heart,
if Graydon Bansemer would turn from Jane when he heard the truth
concerning her.