Chapter Twenty-four
_The Ultimate Sacrifice_
She stared at him, as the blow fell, and then her glance turned slowlyto Caroline who had uttered a sharp cry and sunk into a chair.
"Help me, Ruth," she implored pitifully. "No other person in the worldcan help me but you!"
"Do you see that," asked Ruth quietly of John Mark, "and still itdoesn't move you?"
"Not a hairbreadth, my dear."
"But isn't it absurd? Suppose I have my freedom, and I tell the policethat in this house a girl against her will--"
"Tush, my dear! You really do not know me at all. Do you think they canreach me? She may be a hundred miles away before you have spoken tenwords to the authorities."
"But I warn you that all your holds on her are broken. She knows thatyou have no holds over her brother. She knows that Ronicky Doone hasbroken them all--that Jerry is free of you!"
"Ronicky Doone," said Mark, his face turning gray, "is a talented man.No doubt of it; his is a very peculiar and incisive talent, I admit.But, though he has broken all the old holds, there are ways of findingnew ones. If you leave now, I can even promise you, my dear, that,before the next day dawns, the very soul of Caroline will be a pawn inmy hands. Do you doubt it? Such an exquisitely tender, such a delicatesoul as Caroline, can you doubt that I can form invisible bonds whichwill hold her even when she is a thousand miles away from me? Tush, mydear; think again, and you will think better of my ability."
"Suppose," Ruth said, "I were to offer to stay?"
He bowed. "You tempt me, with such overwhelming generosity, to becomeeven more generous myself and set her free at once. But, alas, I amessentially a practical man. If you will stay with me, Ruth, if youmarry me at once, why, then indeed this girl is as free as the wind.Otherwise I should be a fool. You see, my dear, I love you so that Imust have you by fair means or foul, but I cannot put any chain upon youexcept your own word. I confess it, you see, even before this poor girl,if she is capable of understanding, which I doubt. But speak again--doyou make the offer?"
She hesitated, and he went on: "Be careful. I have had you once, and Ihave lost you, it seems. If I have you again there is no power inyou--no power between earth and heaven to take you from me a secondtime. Give yourself to me with a word, and I shall make you mineforever. Then Caroline shall go free--free as the wind--to her lover, mydear, who is waiting."
He made no step toward her, and he kept his voice smooth and clear. Hadhe done otherwise he knew that she would have shrunk. She looked to him,she looked to Caroline Smith. The latter had suddenly raised her headand thrown out her hands, with an unutterable appeal in her eyes. Atthat mute appeal Ruth Tolliver surrendered.
"It's enough," she said. "I think there would be no place for me afterall. What could I do in the world except what you've taught me to do?No, let Caroline go freely, and I give my--"
"Stop!"
He checked her with his raised hand, and his eyes blazed and glitteredin the dead whiteness of his face. "Don't give me your word, my dear. Idon't want that chain to bind you. There might come a time when somepower arose strong enough to threaten to take you from me. Then I wantto show you that I don't need your promise. I can hold you for myself.Only come to me and tell me simply that you will be mine if you can.Will you do that?"
She crossed the room slowly and stood before him. "I will do that," shesaid faintly, half closing her eyes. She had come so close that, if hewilled, he could have taken her in his arms. She nerved herself againstit; then she felt her hand taken, raised and touched lightly againsttrembling lips. When she stepped back she knew that the decisive momentof her life had been passed.
"You are free to go," said John Mark to Caroline. "Therefore don't wait.Go at once."
"Ruth!" whispered the girl.
Ruth Tolliver turned away, and the movement brought Caroline beside her,with a cry of pain. "Is it what I think?" she asked. "Are you making thesacrifice all for me? You don't really care for him, Ruth, and--"
"Caroline!" broke in John Mark.
She turned at the command of that familiar voice, as if she had beenstruck with a whip. He had raised the curtain of the front window besidethe door and was pointing up and across the street.
"I see the window of Gregg's room," he said. "A light has just appearedin it. I suppose he is waiting. But, if you wish to go, your time isshort--very short!"
An infinite threat was behind the calmness of the voice. She could onlysay to Ruth: "I'll never forget." Then she fled down the hall andthrough the door, and the two within heard the sharp patter of herheels, as she ran down to the street.
It was freedom for Caroline, and Ruth, lifting her eyes, looked into theface of the man she was to marry. She could have held out, she felt, hadit not been for the sound of those departing footsteps, running soblithely toward a lifetime of happiness. Even as it was she made herselfhold out. Then a vague astonishment came to clear her mind. There was nojoy in the face of John Mark, only a deep and settled pain.
"You see," he said, with a smile of anguish, "I have done it. I havebought the thing I love, and that, you know, is the last and deepestdamnation. If another man had told me that I was capable of such athing, I'd have killed him on the spot. But now I have done it!"
"I think I'll go up to my room," she answered, her eyes on the floor.She made herself raise them to his. "Unless you wish to talk to melonger?"
She saw him shudder.
"If you can help it," he said, "don't make me see the brand I have puton you. Don't, for Heaven's sake, cringe to me if you can help it."
"Very well," she said.
He struck his clenched hand against his face. "It's the price," hedeclared through his teeth, "and I accept it." He spoke more to himselfthan to her, and then directly: "Will you let me walk up with you?"
"Yes."
He took her passive arm. They went slowly, slowly up the stairs, for ateach landing it seemed her strength gave out, and she had to pause for abrief rest; when she paused he spoke with difficulty, but with his heartin every word.
"You remember the old Greek fable, Ruth? The story about all the painsand torments which flew out of Pandora's box, and how Hope came outlast--that blessed Hope--and healed the wounds? Here, a moment after theblow has fallen, I am hoping again like a fool. I am hoping that I shallteach you to forget; or, if I cannot teach you to forget, than I shalleven make you glad of what you have done tonight."
The door closed on her, and she was alone. Raising her head she foundshe was looking straight across the street to the lighted windows of therooms of Ronicky Doone and Bill Gregg. While she watched she saw thesilhouette of a man and woman running to each other, saw them clasped ineach other's arms. Ruth dropped to her knees and buried her face in herhands.