Mrs. Balfame: A Novel

  CHAPTER XXVII

  Three days before the date set for the opening of the trial, Mrs.Balfame deferred to the advice of her counsel and friends and receivedthe women reporters--not only the four depending upon Miss Crumley, buta representative of every Woman's Page in New York and Brooklyn.

  They presented themselves in a body at three o'clock in the afternoonand were conducted upstairs by the fluttered Mrs. Larks, who hadanticipated them with all the chairs in the jail. They crowded into thelittle sitting-room, and were given time to dispose themselves beforethe door leading into the bedroom opened and Mrs. Balfame entered.

  She bowed composedly and, with a slight diffident smile, walked to thechair reserved for her. Her weeds were relieved by white crepe at theneck and wrists, but to two of the newspaper women who had interviewedher a year since as the founder of the Friday and the Country clubs, shehad lost her haunting air of girlhood; there was not a line in herbeautiful skin nor a gleam of silver in her abundant brown hair, but shehad suddenly entered upon the full maturity of her years, and what shemay have lost in charm they decided she had gained in subtle force. Theother women agreed that she looked as cold and chaste as Diana, quiteincapable of any of those mortal passions that drive fallible Earthiansinto crime.

  It was an ordeal, and she drew a long breath.

  "You--you wish to interview me?"

  Miss Sarah Austin, whose brilliant parts were generally recognised andwhose creative fervour was suspected by few, had been elected to theoffice of spokeswoman and replied promptly:

  "Indeed we do, Mrs. Balfame, and before asking you any of the tiresomequestions without which there could be no interview, we should be gladto know if you read the woman's pages in our newspapers and realise thatwe are all friends and shout our belief in your innocence from thehousetops?"

  "Yes, oh yes," murmured Mrs. Balfame stiffly, but with a morespontaneous smile. "That is the reason I finally consented to see you. Ido not like being interviewed. But you have been very kind, and I amgrateful."

  There was a deep murmur, and after Miss Austin had thanked her prettilyfor her appreciation of their modest efforts, she continued in a briskand businesslike manner: "Now, Mrs. Balfame, what we should like is yourstory. We have been warned by Mr. Rush that we cannot ask you whom yoususpect, much less the reasons upon which you found yoursuspicions--ah!"

  Her final vocative was expressed in an angry gurgle. Rush had entered.He was so close to panic at the prospect of facing a roomful of womenunsupported by a single male that his face was almost terrifying in itsstrength, but it had suddenly occurred to him that although these girlshad agreed to write their interviews at the Dobton Inn and submit themto his censorship, it was possible one or more would slip over to NewYork, bent upon sheer sensationalism.

  "You must excuse me," he said with a valiant assault upon the lightermood, "but my client is in the witness box, you see, and must beprotected by counsel."

  Miss Austin swung about and faced him with a faint satiric smile. "Oh,very well," she said. "You may stay; but I for one shall not adjust myhat."

  It is a curious fact that newspaper women are seldom, if ever, of themasculine type; their sheer femininity, indeed, is almost as invariableas their air of physical weariness. Not one of the little companylaughed with a more than perfunctory appreciation of their captain'swit, and several stared at Rush, fascinated by his harsh masculinity,the peculiar atmosphere of tense-alertness in which he seemed to havehis being, the magnetism which was more an emanation from an almostperpetual concentration of his mental forces than from any of thelighter physical attributes. He folded his arms and leaned against thedoor, and it is only fair to the cause of woman to state that hardly oneof these, whose ages ranged from twenty to thirty-six, was unwomanlyenough, despite the fact that she earned her bread in daily competitionwith man, to give Mrs. Balfame her whole attention thereafter. Whilekeeping their business heads, they uncovered a corner of their hearts tothe sun, and quickened, however faintly, in its glow.

  "Now," Miss Austin resumed, "we will, counsel permitting, ask you togive us your story of that night. As you have been misquoted and therehas been so much speculative stuff published about you, there surely canbe no objection to that." And she squared her shoulders upon Mr. Rush.

  Mrs. Balfame looked at her counsel with a gracious deference, and henodded.

  "No harm in that," he said curtly. "Tell them practically the story youwould tell if you took the stand. There's only one story to tell, and itis as well the public should bear it in mind while reading the reportsof the witnesses for the prosecution."

  "That means he's rehearsed her," whispered Miss Lauretta Lea, who hadreported many trials, to Miss Tracy, who was a novice. "But that's allright."

  "Well, I suppose I should begin with the scene at the Club--that is tosay, I do not care to speak of it in detail,--quite aside from a naturalregard for good taste,--but it seems to have been given a uniqueimportance."

  "Just so," said Miss Austin encouragingly. "Do let us have your version.The public simply longs for it."

  "Well--I should tell you first that, although my husband was sometimesirritable, he really was a good husband and we never had any vulgarquarrels. It was only when he was not quite himself that he sometimessaid more than he meant, and he never quite forgot himself as he didthat day out at the Country Club.

  "I was playing bridge in one of the smaller rooms when I heard his voicepitched in a very excited key. I knew that something unusual hadoccurred, and went out into the large central room at once. There I sawhim at the upper end of the room surrounded by several of the men, whowere apparently trying to induce him to leave. He was shouting andsaying such extraordinary things that my first impression was that hewas ill or had lost his mind.

  "I reasoned with him, and as it did no good and as I was deeply hurtand mortified, I left him to the men and returned to the bridge-room.There, in spite of the kindness of my friends, I found I was tooovercome to play, and Dr. Anna Steuer offered to drive me home. That isall, as far as the scene at the clubhouse is concerned, except that Icannot sufficiently emphasise that he never had acted in a similarmanner before. If he had, I should not have continued to live withhim--not that I should have obtained a divorce, for I do not approve ofthe institution; but I should have moved out. I have a little money ofmy own, left me by my father."

  "Ah--yes. Thanks. And after you were in your own house? Do you mind? Ofcourse, we have read the story you told the men, but we should like ourown story. Perhaps you may have thought of some other points since."

  "Yes, there are one or two. I had entirely forgotten in the agitation ofthat time that I went below, after packing my husband's suitcase, to geta drink of filtered water and thought I heard some one try the kitchendoor. I also thought I heard some one upstairs, and called the name ofmy maid. Of course, a good deal will be made of this omission, butconsidering the terrible circumstances and the fact that I never hadbeen interviewed before, I do not find it in the least remarkable.

  "But, of course, you want me to begin at the beginning." And in herpleasant shallow voice, she told the story she had immediately concoctedfor her friends.

  As Miss Austin asked a few questions in the endeavour to inject someessence of personality into the bald story, Rush permitted thesensation of dismay with which he had listened to take implacable form.He never had heard a less convincing story on the witness stand. Mrs.Balfame had talked glibly, far too glibly. It was evident to the leastinitiated that she had been rehearsed. Was her mind really as colourlessas her voice? Had she no sense of drama? He had hoped that theexcitement of this interview, coming after weeks of supreme monotony,would kindle her to animation and a natural enrichment of vocabulary;and, witnessing its effect upon these friendly women, she would beencouraged to simulate both on the witness-stand. It was a pity, hereflected bitterly, that a woman who could lie to her counsel with sucha fine front of innocence could not "put over" the large dramatic liethat would help him so materially in his
difficult task.

  Miss Austin, despairing of colour, made a shift with psychology. "Wouldyou mind telling us, Mrs. Balfame, if you feel a very great dread of thetrial? We realise that it must loom a terrible ordeal."

  "Oh, of course, the mere thought of all that publicity horrifies mewhenever I permit myself to think of it, but it has to be, and that isthe end of it, since the real culprit will not come forward. But I feelconfident I shall not break down under the strain. I might have done soif the trial had followed immediately upon my arrest, but all theseweeks in jail have prepared me for anything."

  "But you are not terrified--of--of the outcome? We know and rejoice thatthe chances are all in your favour, but men are so queer."

  "I am not in the least terrified. It is impossible to convict aninnocent woman in this country; and then"--inclining her head graciouslyto the watchful Rush,--"I have the first criminal lawyer in BrabantCounty to defend me. It is a detestable thought,--to be stared at in thecourtroom as if I were an object in a museum,--but I shall keep thinkingthat in a few days at most it will be over and that I shall then returnto the private life I love."

  "Yes. And would you mind telling us something of your plans? Shall youcontinue to live in Elsinore?"

  "I shall go far away, to Europe, if possible. I suppose I shall returnin time. Of course" (in hasty afterthought) "I should not be contentedfor very long without my friends; they have grown to be doublyvaluable--and valued--during this long term of incarceration. But I musttravel for a while."

  "That is quite natural. How normal you are, dear Mrs. Balfame!" It wasMiss Lauretta Lea who spoke up with enthusiasm. "You are just a sweet,serene, normal woman who couldn't commit a violent act if you tried. Besure the public shall see you as you are. I don't wonder your friendsadore you. Don't mind being stared at. The more people that see you, themore friends you will have."

  Her eyes moved to Rush, and she was rewarded by a smile that expressedrelief. She was a very experienced reporter and knew exactly how hefelt.

  "And believe me," she said as they trooped down the stairs, havingpassed before the Balfame throne and received a limp handshake ofdismissal, "that poor man's worried half to death. He'll get about asmuch help from her on the stand as he would from a tired codfish. Butshe really is a divinely sweet woman and lovely to look at, and so I'llsob over her for all I'm worth and seclude from the cynical and thesentimental that she has distilled crystal in her veins."

  "Did you ever know such a perfectly rotten interview!" Miss Austin wasscowling fiercely. "The men did a thousand times better because theytook her by surprise, but even they cursed her. I figure out she hasmade up her Friday Club mind to look the marble goddess minus everyfemale instinct, including a natural desire to shoot a brute of ahusband. But I wish she had brain enough to put it over with some pep.She was afraid to be dramatic,--or couldn't be,--and so she was tryingto be literary--"

  "I don't agree with you!" And arguing and scolding, they wended theirdisapproving way over to the Dobton Inn and sat them down at tables tomake the most of their bare material.

  "No censorship needed here," growled Miss Austin. "She froze my veryimagination."