CHAPTER VI--GALOREY SEEKS ADVICE
Blair did not go back at once to Osdene Park. He stopped over in Londonfor a few days to see Joshua Ruggles, and so remarked for the first timethe difference between the speech of the old and the new world. Mr.Ruggles spoke broadly, with complete disregard of the frills andadornments of the King's English. He spoke United States of the pure,broad, western brand, and it rang out, it vibrated and swelled androlled, and as Ruggles didn't care who heard him, nothing of what he hadto say was lost.
Old Mr. Blair had left behind him a comrade, and as far as advice couldgo the old man knew that his Dan would not be bankrupt.
"Advice," Dan Blair senior once said to his boy, "is the kind of thingwe want some fellow to give us when we ain't going to do the thing weought to do, or are a little ashamed of something we have done. It's anawful good way to get cured of asking advice just to do what the fellowtells you to at once."
During Ruggles' stay in London the young fellow looked to it thatRuggles saw the sights, and the two did the principal features of thebig town, to the rich enjoyment of the Westerner. Dan took his friendevery night to the play, and on the fourth evening Ruggles said: "Let'sgo to the circus or a vaudeville, Dan. I have learned _this_ show byheart!" They had been every night to see _Mandalay_.
"Oh, you go on where you like, Josh," the boy answered. "I'm going tosee how she looks from the pit."
Ruggles was not a Blairtown man. He had come from farther west, and hadnever heard anything of Sarah Towney or Letty Lane. He applauded theactress vigorously at the Gaiety at first, and after the third nightslept through most of the performance. When he waked up he tried todiscover what attraction Letty Lane had for Dan. For the young man neverleft Ruggles' side, never went behind the scenes, though he seemedabsorbed, as a man usually is absorbed for one reason only.
In response to a telegram from Osdene Park, Dan motored out there oneafternoon, and during his absence Ruggles was surprised at his hotel bya call.
"My dear Mr. Ruggles," Lord Galorey said, for he it was the page boyfetched up, "why don't you come out to see us? All friends of old Mr.Blair's are welcome at Osdene."
Ruggles thanked Galorey and said he was not a visiting man, that he onlyhad a short time in London, and was going to Ireland to look up "hisfamily tree."
"There are one hundred acres of trees in Osdene," laughed Galorey; "youcan climb them all." And Ruggles replied:
"I guess I wouldn't find any O'Shaughnessy Ruggles at the top of any of'em, my lord. The boy has gone out to see you all to-day."
Galorey nodded. "That is just why I toddled in to see you!"
Ruggles' caller had been shown to the sitting-room, where he and Danhobnobbed and smoked during the Westerner's visit. There was a pile ofpapers on the table, in one corner a typewriter covered by a blackcloth. Galorey took a chair and, refusing a cigarette, lit his pipe.
"I didn't have the pleasure of meeting you in the West when I was outthere with Blair. I knew Dan's father rather well."
Ruggles responded: "I knew him rather well too, for thirty years. If,"he went on, "Blair hadn't known you pretty well he wouldn't have sentthe boy out to you as he has done. He was keen on every trail. I mightsay that he had been over every one of 'em like a hound before he setthe boy loose."
Galorey answered, "Quite so," gravely. "I know it. I knew it when Danturned up at Osdene--" Holding his pipe bowl in the palm of his slenderhand, he smoked meditatively. He hadn't thought about things, as he hadbeen doing lately, for many years. His sense of honor was the strongestthing in Gordon Galorey, the only thing in him, perhaps, that had beenleft unsmirched by the touch of the world. He was unquestionably agentleman.
"Blair, however," he said, "wasn't as keen on this scent as you'dexpect. His intuition was wrong."
Ruggles raised his eyebrows slightly.
"I mean to say," Lord Galorey went on, "that he knew me in the West whenI had cut loose for a few blessed months from just these things intowhich he has sent his boy--from what, if I had a son, God knows I'd throwhim as far as I could."
"Blair wanted Dan to see the world."
"Of course, that is right enough. We all have to see it, I fancy, butthis boy isn't ready to look at it."
"He is twenty-two," Ruggles returned. "When I was his age I wassupporting four people."
Galorey went on: "Osdene Park at present isn't the window for Blair'sboy to see life through, and that is what I have come up to London totalk to you about, Mr. Ruggles. I should like to have you take himaway."
"What's Dan been up to down there?"
"Nothing as yet, but he is in the pocket of a woman--he is in a nest ofwomen."
Ruggles' broad face had not altered its expression of quiet expectation.
"There's a lot of 'em down there?" he asked.
"There are two," Galorey said briefly, "and one of them is my wife."
Ruggles turned his cigarette between his great fingers. He was a slowthinker. He had none of old Blair's keenness, but he had otherqualities. Galorey saw that he had not been quite understood, and hewaited and then said:
"Lady Galorey is like the rest of modern wives, and I am like a lot ofmodern husbands. We each go our own way. My way is a worthless one, Godknows I don't stand up for it, but it is not my wife's way in any senseof the word."
"Does she want Dan to go along on her road?" Ruggles asked. "And howfar?"
"We are financially strapped just now," said Galorey calmly, "and shehas got money from the boy." He didn't remove his pipe from his mouth;still holding it between his teeth he put his hand in his pocket, tookout his wallet, drew forth four checks and laid them down beforeRuggles. "It is quite a sum," Galorey noted, "sufficient to do a lot toOsdene Park in the way of needed repairs." Ruggles had never seen asmile such as curved his companion's lips. "But Osdene Park will have tobe repaired by money from some other source."
Ruggles wondered how the husband had got hold of the checks, but hedidn't ask and he did not look at the papers.
"When Dan came to the Park," said Galorey, "I stopped bridge playing,but this more than takes its place!"
Ruggles' big hand went slowly toward the checks; he touched them withhis fingers and said: "Is Dan in love with your wife?"
And Lord Galorey laughed and said: "Lord no, my dear man, not even that!It is pure good nature on his part--mere prodigality. Edith appealed tohim, that's all."
Relief crossed Ruggles' face. He understood in a flash the worldlywoman's appeal to the rich young man and believed the story the husbandtold him.
"Have you spoken to the boy?"
"My dear chap, I have spoken to him about nothing. I preferred to cometo you."
"You said," Ruggles continued, "there were two ladies down to yourplace."
Galorey had refilled his pipe and held it as before in the palm of hishand.
"I can look after the affairs of my wife, and this shan't happen again,I promise you--not at Osdene, but I'm afraid I can not do much in theother case. The Duchess of Breakwater has been at Osdene for nearlythree weeks, and Dan is in love with her."
Ruggles put the four checks one on top of the other.
"Is the lady a widow?"
"Unfortunately, yes."
"So that's the nest Dan has got into at Osdene," the Westerner said. AndGalorey answered: "That is the nest."
"And he has gone out there to-day--got a wire this morning."
"The duchess has been in an awful funk," said Galorey, "because Dan'sbeen stopping in London so long. She sent him a message, and as soon asDan wired back that he was coming to the Park, I decided to come hereand see you."
Ruggles ruminated: "Has the duchess complications financially?"
"Ra-ther!" the other answered.
And Ruggles turned his broad, honest face full on Galorey: "Do you thinkshe could be bought off?"
Galorey took his pipe out of his mouth.
"It depends on how far Dan has gone on with her. To be frank with you,Mr. Ruggles, it is a case of
emotion on the part of the woman. She isreally in love with Dan. Gad!" exclaimed the nobleman. "I have been onthe point of turning the whole brood out of doors these last days. Itwas like imprisoning a mountain breeze in a charnel house--a woman withher scars and her experience and that boy--I don't know where you've kepthim, or how you kept him as he is, but he is as clear as water. I havetalked to him and I know."
Nothing in Ruggles' expression had changed until now. His eyes glowed.
"Dan's all right," he said softly. "Don't you worry! He's all right. Iguess his father knew what he was doing, and I'll bet the whole thingwas just what he sent him over here for! Old Dan Blair wasn't worth acopper when the boy was born, and yet he had ideas about everything andhe seemed to know more in that old gray head of his than a whole libraryof books. Dan's all right."
"My dear man," said the nobleman, "that is just where you Americans arewrong. You comfort yourself with your eternal 'Dan's all right,' and youwon't see the truth. You won't breathe the word 'scandal' and yet youare thick enough in them, God knows. You won't admit them, but they arethere. Now be honest and look at the truth, will you? You are a man ofcommon sense. Dan Blair is _not_ all right. He is in an infernallydangerous position. The Duchess of Breakwater will marry him. It is whatshe has wanted to do for years, but she has not found a man rich enough,and she will marry this boy offhand."
"Well," said the Westerner slowly, "if he loves her and if he marriesher--"
"Marries her!" exclaimed the nobleman. "There you are again! Do youthink marriage makes it any better? Why, if she went off to theContinent with him for six weeks and then set him free, that would bepreferable to marrying her. My dear man," he said, leaning over thetable where Ruggles sat, "if I had a boy I would rather have him marryLetty Lane of the Gaiety. Now you know what I mean."
Ruggles' face, which had hardened, relaxed.
"I have seen that lady," he exclaimed with satisfaction; "I have seen_her_ several times."
Galorey sank back into his chair and neither man spoke for a fewseconds. Turning it all over in his slow mind, Ruggles remembered Dan'sabsorption in the last few days. "So there are three women in the nest,"he concluded thoughtfully, and Gordon Galorey repeated:
"No, not three. What do you mean?"
"Your wife"--Ruggles held up one finger and Galorey interrupted him tomurmur:
"I'll take care of Edith."
"The Duchess of Breakwater you think won't talk of money?"
"No, don't count on it. She is aiming at ten million pounds."
Ruggles was holding up the second finger.
"Well, I guess Dan has gone out to take care of _her_ to-day."
Dan and Ruggles had seen _Mandalay_ from a box, from the pit and fromthe stalls. On the table lay a book of the opera. While talking withGalorey, Ruggles had unconsciously arranged the checks on top of thelibretto of _Mandalay_.
"_I'll_ take care of Miss Lane," Ruggles said at length.
His lordship echoed, "Miss Lane?" and looked up in surprise. "What MissLane, for God's sake?"
"Miss Letty Lane at the Gaiety," Ruggles answered.
"Why, she isn't in the question, my dear man."
"You put her there just now yourself."
"Bosh!" Galorey exclaimed impatiently, "I spoke of her as being thelimit, the last thing on the line."
"No," corrected the other, "you put the Duchess of Breakwater as thelimit."
Galorey smiled frankly. "You are right, my dear chap," he accepted, "andI stand by it."
A page boy knocked at the door and came in holding out on a salver acard for Mr. Ruggles, and at the interruption Galorey rose and invitedRuggles to go out with him that night to Osdene. "Lady Galorey will bedelighted."
But Ruggles shook his head. "The boy is coming back here to-night," andGalorey laughed.
"Don't you believe it! You don't know how deep in he is. You don't knowthe Duchess of Breakwater. Once he is with her--"
At the same time that the page boy handed Mr. Ruggles the card of thecaller, he gave him as well a small envelope, which contained boxtickets for the Gaiety. Ruggles examined it.
"I have got some writing to do," he told Galorey, "and I'm going to seea show to-night, and I think I'll just stay here and watch my hole."
As soon as Galorey had left the Carlton, Mr. Ruggles despatched hisletters and his visitor, made a very careful toilet, and after waitinguntil past eight o'clock for Dan to return to dinner, dined alone onroast beef and a tart, and with perfect digestion, if somewhatthoughtful mind, left the hotel and walked down the dim street to thebrilliant Strand, and on foot to the Gaiety.