THE RICHES OF THE WORLD
Dorothy was waiting to see him. She was still excited, still anxious
concerning himself. She had quite forgotten his words about the will
in her worry lest the blow on his head had proved more serious than had
at first appeared.
He met her quietly in a large, common parlor--the duplicate of a
thousand such rooms in New York--and was thoroughly determined to curb
the impetuous surging of his feelings. She was wearing a bunch of his
carnations, and had never seemed more beautiful in all her wondrous
moods of beauty.
Just to have sat where he could look upon her all he wished, without
restraint or conventions, would almost have satisfied his soul. But
she gave him her hand with a grace so compelling, and her eyes asked
their question so tenderly--a question only of his welfare--that riot
was loosed in his veins once more and love surged over him in billows.
"I was afraid you might not come," she said. "I have never been more
worried or afraid. Such a terrible moment--all of it--and that
creature striking you down! If you hadn't come I'd have been so sure
you were very badly hurt. I'd have felt so guilty for all I've done to
jeopardize your life in my petty affairs."
"It's all right. I was ashamed for going out so easily," said
Garrison, turning away in self-defense and seating himself in a chair.
"He struck me so suddenly I had no time to guard. But that part isn't
worth another thought."
"I thought it the _only_ part worth anything," said Dorothy in her
honesty. "It came upon me suddenly that nothing I was after was worth
the risks you've been assuming in my behalf. And they may not be
ended. I wish they were. I wish it were all at an end! But Foster is
innocent. If you knew how glad I am of that you would feel a little
repaid."
"I feel thoroughly repaid and gratified," said Garrison. "I have told
you before that I am glad you came into my existence with your
need--your case. I have no regret over anything that has happened--to
myself. It has been life to me--life! And I take a certain pride in
feeling that when you come to dismiss me, at the end, I shall not have
been an absolute disappointment."
She looked at him in a new alarm. He had purposely spoken somewhat
bluntly of his impending dismissal. She had come to a realizing sense
that she could never dismiss him from her life--that to have him near,
to know he was well--to love him, in a word--had become the one motive
of her life.
Nevertheless she was helpless. And he was treating the matter as if
her fate were sealed to that of Fairfax indissolubly. What little
timid hopes she might have entertained of gaining her freedom, some
time in the future, and saving herself, soul and body, for him--all
this he had somewhat dimmed by this reference to going from her ken.
"But I--I haven't said anything about dismissing--anyone," she
faltered. "I hadn't thought----" She left her sentence incomplete.
"I know," said Jerold. "There has been so much to think about, the
subject may have been neglected. As a matter of fact, however, I am
already out of it, supplanted by your genuine husband. We can no
longer maintain the pretense.
"The moment Mr. Fairfax and Theodore chance to meet, our bit of
theatricalism goes to pieces. We would scarcely dare to face a court,
in a will probation, with Fairfax on the scene. So, I say, I am
practically eliminated already."
The one thing that remained in her mind at the end of his speech was
not in the least the main concern. She looked at him with pain in her
eyes.
"Has it been nothing but a bit of theatricalism, after all?"
He dared not permit himself to answer from his heart. He kept up his
show of amusement, or indifference to sentiment.
"We have played theatric rôles to a small but carefully selected
audience," he said. "I for a fee, and you--for needful ends. We might
as well be frank, as we were the day it all began."
It was the way of a woman to be hurt. She felt there was something of
a sting in what he said. She knew she had halted his impassioned
declaration of love--but only because of the right. She had heard it,
despite her protest--and had treasured it since, and echoed it over in
her heart repeatedly.
She wished him to say it all again--all of it and more--but--not just
yet. She wanted him to let her know that he loved her more than
anything else in the world, but not by spoken words of passion.
"I am sorry if I've seemed so--so heartless in it all," she said. "I
hadn't the slightest intention of--of permitting you to----"
"I know," he interrupted, certain he knew what she meant. "I haven't
accused anyone. It was all my own fault. We'll drop it, if you wish."
"You haven't let me finish," she insisted. "I started to say that I
had no intention of making you feel like--like nothing more than an
agent--toward me--I mean, I had no intention of appearing to you like a
selfish, heartless woman, willing to sacrifice the sweetest--the
various things of life to gain my ends. I want you to believe that
I--I'd rather you wouldn't call it all just mere theatrics."
Garrison gripped his chair, to restrain the impulse to rise and take
her in his arms. He could almost have groaned, for the love in his
heart must lie there, dumb and all but hopeless.
"Dorothy," he said when he felt his mastery complete, "I have already
made it hard enough for myself by committing a folly against which you
gave me ample warning. I am trying now to redeem myself and merit your
trust and regard."
Her eyes met his in a long, love-revealing look--a look that could
bridge all the gulfs of time and the vast abyss of space itself--and
words would have been but a jar. Whatever the outcome, after this,
nothing could rob them of the deep, supernal joy that flashed there
between them for a moment.
Even when her lashes fell, at last, the silence was maintained.
After a time Garrison spoke again, returning to earth and the
unfinished labor before him.
"I must go," he said, consulting his watch. "I hope to catch a train
for Branchville in order to be there early in the morning."
"On our--this business?" she inquired.
He felt it quite impossible to raise her hopes--or perhaps her
fears--by announcing he felt he should find John Hardy's latest will.
Moreover, he had undergone a wakeful man's distrust of the "dream" he
had experienced after falling at the hands of Wicks. He resorted to a
harmless deceit, which, after all, was not entirely deceitful.
"Mr. Fairfax left for Branchville--he said to spring a surprise," he
imparted. "I thought it would do no harm to be on hand and prepare for
his moves, as far as possible."
He had risen. Dorothy did likewise. A slight suggestion of paleness
overspread her face, followed at once by a faint, soft flush of color.
"I hope you will try to avoid him--avoid anything that might be
dangerous," she faltered. "I feel already I shall never be able to
forgive myself for the dangers into which I have sent you."
"This is the surest way to avoid any possible dangers," he assured her.
"And, by the way, there is no particular reason now why you should
longer remain away from Ninety-third Street. The newspaper men have
done their worst, and the Robinsons will be entirely disarmed by the
various events that have happened--unless Theodore should happen to
spring a new surprise, and in any event you might be far more
comfortable."
"Perhaps I will return--some time to-morrow," she said. "I'll see."
Garrison went to the door and she walked at his side.
He merely said: "Good-night--and Heaven bless you, Dorothy."
She answered: "Good-night, Jerold," and gave him her hand.
He held it for a moment--the riches of the world. And when he had gone
they felt they had divided, equally, a happiness too great for
terrestrial measurement.