CHAPTER V
THE COMMAND OF LOVE
Mr. Allen put down his teacup and gazed across the table at Helen. SinceMrs. Bosworth had left the drawing-room, ten minutes before, they hadbeen arguing the old, old point, and both held their old positions.
"Then you will never, never give your ideas up?" he sighed, withmock-seriousness that was wholly serious.
"Then you will never, never give your ideas up?" she repeated in thesame tone.
"Never, never."
"Never, never."
They looked at each other steadily for a moment, then their make-believelightness fell from them.
"We certainly do disagree to perfection!" he exclaimed.
"Yes. So perfectly that the more I think of what you've asked for, themore inadvisable does it seem."
"But you'll change yet. A score of drawn battles do not discourage me ofultimate victory."
"Nor me," she returned quietly.
Their skirmish was interrupted by the entrance of a footman. Helen tookthe card from the tray and glanced at it.
"Show her into the library and tell her I'll join her soon." She turnedback to Mr. Allen. "Perhaps you remember her--she was a maid at yourhouse a little while--a Miss Morgan."
"I remember her, yes," he said indifferently.
His face clouded; he made an effort at lightness, but his words weresharp. "Where, oh where, are you going to stop, Helen! You are at St.Christopher's twice a week, not counting frequent extra visits. Two daysago, so you've just told me, that Mr. Aldrich was here. To-day, it'sthis girl. And the week's not yet over! Don't you think there might atleast be a little moderation?"
"You mean," she returned quietly, "that, if we were married, you wouldnot want these friends of mine to come to your house?"
"I should not! And I wish I knew of some way to snap off all that sideof your life!"
She regarded him meditatively. "Since there's so much about me you don'tapprove of, I've often wondered why you want to marry me. Love is not areason, for you don't love me."
The answers ran through his head: He admired her; she had beauty,brains, social standing, social tact, and, last of all but still ofimportance, she had money--the qualities he most desired in his wife.But to make a pretence of love, whatever the heart may be, is aconvention of marriage--like the bride's bouquet, or her train. So hesaid:
"But I do love you."
"Oh, no you don't--no more than I love you."
"Then why would you marry me?--if you do."
"Because I like you; because I admire your qualities; because I believemy life would be richer and fuller and more efficient; and because Ishould hope to alter certain of your opinions."
"Well, I don't care what the reasons are--just so they're strongenough," he said lightly. He rose and held out his hand; his face grewserious; his voice lowered. "I must be going. Four more days,remember--then your answer."
After he had gone she sat for several minutes thinking of life with him,toward which reason and circumstances pressed her, and from which, sincethe day he had declared himself, she had shrunk. This marriage was sodifferent from the marriage of her dreams--a marriage of love, of commonideals; yet in it, her judgment told her, lay the best use of her life.
She dismissed her troubling thoughts with a sigh and walked back to thelibrary. As she entered Kate rose from a high-backed chair behind thegreat square library-table, whose polished top shone with the light fromthe chandelier. Kate's face was white, the mouth was a taut line, theeyes gleamed feverishly amid the purpled rings of wakeful nights.
Helen came smiling across the noiseless rug, her hand held out.
"I'm very happy to see you, Miss Morgan."
Kate did not move. She allowed Helen to stand a moment, hand stilloutheld, while her dark eyes blazed into Helen's face. Then she abruptlylaid her hand into the other, and as abruptly withdrew it.
"I want to speak to you," she said.
"Certainly. Won't you sit down?"
Kate jerked a hand toward the wide, curtained doorway through whichHelen had entered.
"Close the door."
"Why?" asked Helen, surprised.
"Close the door," she repeated in the same low, short tone. "Nobody musthear."
The forced voice, and the repressed agitation of Kate's bearing,startled Helen. She drew together the easy-running doors, and returnedto the table.
Kate jerked her hand toward the open plate-glass door that led into theconservatory.
"And that door."
"There's no one in there." But Helen closed the heavy pane of glass.
"Won't you sit down," she said, when this was done, taking one of therichly carved chairs herself.
"No."
Kate's eyes blazed down upon Helen's face; her breath came and wentrapidly, with a wheezing sound; her hands, on the luminous table-top,were clenched. Her whole body was so rigid that it trembled.
The colour began to leave Helen's face. "I'm waiting--go on."
Kate's lips suddenly quivered back from her teeth. She had to strike,even if she struck unjustly.
"People like you"--her voice was harsh, tremulous with hate--"you alwaysbelieve the worst of a man. You throw him aside--crush him down--walk onhim. You never think perhaps you've made a mistake, perhaps he's allright. Oh, no--you never think good of a man if you can think bad." Sheleaned over the corner of the table. "I hate your kind of people! I hateyou!"
"Is this the thing you wanted no one to hear?" Helen asked quietly.
Kate slowly straightened up. After two days and two nights--a long,fierce, despairing battle between selfish and unselfish love--she haddecided she must come here; but now her rehearsed sentences all lefther. For a moment she stood choking; then the bald words dropped out:
"He's not a thief--never was one."
"Who?"
"David Aldrich."
Helen came slowly to her feet. Her face was white, her eyes were wide.For a moment she did not speak--just stared.
"What do you mean?"
"He did not take the money from the Mission."
Helen moved from the corner of the table, her wide eyes never leavingKate's gleaming ones, and a hand clutched Kate's arm and tightenedthere.
"Tell me all."
"You hurt me."
Helen removed her hand.
Kate crept closer and stared up into her face.
"Does it make any difference to you?" she breathed, tensely.
"Tell me all!"
Kate drew back a pace, and leaned upon her clenched hands. "You knew Mr.Morton," she said, in a quick strained monotone. "When he was young, helived with a woman. He wrote her a lot of letters--love letters. Sheturned up again a few months before he died, and threatened to show theletters if he didn't pay her. He had no money; he took money from theMission and paid her. Then he died. His guilt was about to be found out.But David Aldrich said he took the money and went to prison. He did itbecause he thought if Mr. Morton's guilt was found out, the Missionwould be destroyed and the people would go back to the devil. You knowthe rest. That's all."
Helen continued motionless--silent.
"It's all so," Kate went on. "The woman herself told me. She knew thetruth. She'd been making David pay her to keep from telling that he wasinnocent. She told me before him. He had to admit it."
Kate leaned further across the corner of the table. "He made me promisenever to tell." For a moment of dead quiet she gazed up into Helen'sfixed face. "And why do you think I've broken my promise?" she asked ina low voice, between barely parted lips.
Helen rested one hand on the back of a chair and the other on the table.She trembled slightly, but she did not reply.
"Because"--there was a little quaver in Kate's voice--"I thought itmight sometime make him happy."
There was another dead silence, during which Kate gazed piercingly intoHelen's face.
"Do you love him?" she asked sharply.
Helen's arms tightened. After a moment her lips moved.
&
nbsp; "You love him yourself."
"Me?--it's a lie. I don't!"
Kate moved round the corner of the table and laid a fierce hand onHelen's arm.
"Do you love him?" she demanded.
Silence. "Thank you--for telling me."
Kate laughed a low, harsh laugh, and flung Helen's arm from her.
"You!--you think you're way above him, don't you! Well--you're not!You're not fit for him!" Her eyes leaped with flame. "I hate you!"
Again a moment of silence. A tremor ran through Helen. She movedforward, and her hands reached out and fell upon Kate's shoulders.
"I love you," she whispered.
Kate shrunk sharply away. Her eyes never leaving Helen's face, shebacked slowly toward the doors. She pushed them apart, and gazed atHelen's statued figure. Kate's face had become ashen, drawn. After amoment she slipped through the doors and drew them to.
As the doors clicked, Helen swayed into a chair beside the table, andher head fell forward into her arms.