Kate, who _was_ facing it, telegraphed to Karl Wander. It was all she
could think of to do.
"Can you come?" she asked. "David Fulham has gone away with Mary
Morrison. Honora needs you. You are the cousin of both women. Thought I
had better turn to you." She was brutally frank, but it never occurred
to her to mince matters there. However, where the public was concerned,
her policy was one of secrecy. She called, for example, on the President
of the University, who already knew the whole story.
"Can't we keep it from being blazoned abroad?" she appealed to him.
"Mrs. Fulham will suffer more if he has to undergo public shame than she
possibly could suffer from her own desertion. She's tragically angry,
but that wouldn't keep her from wanting to protect him. We must try to
prevent public exposure. It will save her the worst of torments." She
brooded sadly over the idea, her aspect broken and pathetic.
The President looked at her kindly.
"Did she say so?"
"Oh, she didn't need to say so!" cried Kate. "Any one would know that."
"You mean, any good woman would know that. Of course, I can give it out
that Fulham has been called abroad suddenly, but it places me in a bad
position. I don't feel very much like lying for him, and I shan't be
thought any too well of if I'm found out. I should like to place myself
on record as befriending Mrs. Fulham, not her husband."
"But don't you see that you are befriending her when you shield him?"
"Woman's logic," said the President. "It has too many turnings for my
feeble masculine intellect. But I've great confidence in you, Miss
Barrington. You seem to be rather a specialist in domestic relations. If
you say Mrs. Fulham will be happier for having me bathe neck-deep in
lies, I suppose I shall have to oblige you. Shall it be the lie
circumstantial? Do you wish to specify the laboratory to which he
has gone?"
Kate blushed with sudden contrition.
"Oh, I'll not ask you to do it!" she cried. "Truth is best, of course.
I'm not naturally a trimmer and a compromiser--but, poor Honora! I
pity her so!"
Her lips quivered like a child's and the tears stood in her eyes. She
had arisen to go and the President shook hands with her without making
any promise. However the next day a paragraph appeared in the University
Daily to the effect that Professor Fulham had been called to France upon
important laboratory matters.
At the Caravansary they had scented tragedy, and Kate faced them with
the paragraph. She laid a marked copy of the paper at each place, and
when all were assembled, she called attention to it. They looked at her
with questioning eyes.
"Of course," said Dr. von Shierbrand, flicking his mustache, "this isn't
true, Miss Barrington."
"No," said Kate, and faced them with her chin tilted high.
"But you wish us to pretend to believe it?"
"If you please, dear friends," Kate pleaded.
"We shall say that Fulham is in France! And what are we to say about
Miss Morrison?"
"Who will inquire? If any one should, say that a friend desired her as a
traveling companion."
"Nothing," said Von Shierbrand, "is easier for me than truth."
"Please don't be witty," cried Kate testily, "and don't sneer. Remember
that nothing is so terrible as temptation. I'm sure I see proof of that
every day among my poor people. After all, doesn't the real surprise lie
in the number that resist it?"
"I beg your pardon," said the young German gently. "I shall not sneer. I
shall not even be witty. I'm on your side,--that is to say, on Mrs.
Fulham's side,--and I'll say anything you want me to say."
"I beg you all," replied Kate, sweeping the table with an imploring
glance, "to say as little as possible. Be matter-of-fact if any one
questions you. And, whatever you do, shield Honora."
They gave their affirmation solemnly, and the next day Honora appeared
among them, pallid and courageous. They were simple folk for all of
their learning. Sorrow was sorrow to them. Honora was widowed by an
accident more terrible than death. No mockery, no affected solicitude
detracted from the efficacy of their sympathy. If they saw torments of
jealousy in this betrayed woman's eyes, they averted their gaze; if they
saw shame, they gave it other interpretations. Moreover, Kate was
constantly beside her, eagle-keen for slight or neglect. Her fierce
fealty guarded the stricken woman on every side. She had the imposing
piano which Mary had rented carted back to the warehouse to lie in
deserved silence with Mary's seductive harmonies choked in its recording
fibre; she stripped from their poles the curtains Mary had hung at the
drawing-room windows and burned them in the furnace; the miniatures, the
plaster casts, all the artistic rubbish which Mary's exuberance had
impelled her to collect, were tossed out for the waste wagons to cart
away. The coquetry of the room gave way to its old-time austerity; once
more Honora's room possessed itself.
* * * * *
A wire came from Karl Wander addressed to Kate.
"Fractured leg. Can't go to you. Honora and the children must come here
at once. Have written."
That seemed to give Honora a certain repose--it was at least a spar to
which to cling. With Kate's help she got over to the laboratory and put
the finishing touches on things there. The President detailed two of
Fulham's most devoted disciples to make a record of their professor's
experiments.
"Fulham shall have full credit," the President assured Honora, calling
on her and comforting her in the way in which he perceived she needed
comfort. "He shall have credit for everything."
"He should have the Norden prize," Honora cried, her hot eyes blazing
above her hectic cheeks. "I want him to have the prize, and I want to be
the means of getting it for him. I told Miss Barrington I meant to have
my revenge, and that's it. How can he stand it to know he ruined my life
and that I got the prize for him? A generous man would find that
torture! You understand, I'm willing to torture him--in that way. He's
subtle enough to feel the sting of it."
The President looked at her compassionately.
"It's a noble revenge--and a poignant one," he agreed.
"It's not noble," repudiated Honora. "It's terrible. For he'll remember
who did the work."
But shame overtook her and she sobbed deeply and rendingly. And the
President, who had thought of himself as a mild man, left the house
regretting that duels were out of fashion.
* * * * *
Then the letter came from the West. Kate carried it up to Honora, who
was in her room crouched before the window, peering out at the early
summer cityscape with eyes which tried in vain to observe the passing
motors, and the people hastening along the Plaisance, but which
registered little.
"Your cousin's letter, woman, dear," announced Kate.
Honora looked up quickly, her vagueness momentarily dissipated. Kate
always had noticed that Wander's name had power to claim Honora's
interest. He could make folk listen, even though he spoke by letter. She
felt, herself, that whatever he said, she would listen to.
Honora tore open the envelope with untidy eagerness, and after she had
read the letter she handed it silently to Kate. It ran thus:--
"COUSIN HONORA, MY DEAR AND PRIZED:--
"Rather a knock-out blow, eh? I shan't waste my time in
telling you how I feel about it. If you want me to follow
David and kill him, I will--as soon as this damned leg gets
well. Not that the job appeals to me. I'm sensitive about
family honor, but killing D. won't mend things. As I spell
the matter out, there was a blunder somewhere. _Perhaps you
know where it was_.
"Of course you feel as if you'd gone into bankruptcy. Women
invest in happiness as men do in property, and to 'go broke'
the way you have is disconcerting. It would overwhelm some
women; but it won't you--not if you're the same Honora I
played with when I was a boy. You had pluck for two of us
trousered animals--were the best of the lot. I want you to
come here and stake out a new claim. You may get to be a
millionaire yet--in good luck and happiness, I mean.
"I'm taking it for granted that you and the babies will soon
be on your way to me, and I'm putting everything in
readiness. The fire is laid, the cupboard stored, the
latchstring is hanging where you'll see it as you cross the
state line.
"You understand I'm being selfish in this. I not only want,
but I need, you. You always seemed more like a sister than a
cousin to me, and to have you come here and make a home out
of my house seems too good to be true.
"There are a lot of things to be learned out here, but I'll
not give them a name. All I can say is, living with these
mountains makes you different. They're like men and women, I
take it. (The mountains, I mean.) The more they are ravaged
by internal fires and scoured by snow-slides, the more
interesting they become.
"Then it's so still it gives you a chance to think, and by
the time you've had a good bout of it, you find out what is
really important and what isn't. You'll understand after
you've been here awhile.
"I mean what I say, Honora. I want you and the babies. Come
ahead. Don't think. Work--pack--and get out here where Time
can have a chance at your wounds.
"Am I making you understand how I feel for you? I guess you
know your old playmate and coz,
"KARL WANDER.
"P.S. My dried-up old bach heart jumps at the thought of
having the kiddies in the house. I'll bet they're wonders."