No. 13 Washington Square Part 10

"Yes, I have vaguely heard something about bad business," said Mrs. De Peyster with a bored air. "But what does all this lead to?"

"I am trying to lead you gently, Mrs. De Peyster, to realize the possibility that, in view of its alleged bad business, the New York and New England might decide to pa.s.s dividends for this quarter."

Mrs. De Peyster started forward. "Do you mean to say, Judge Harvey, that such a possibility exists?"

"It's rather more than a possibility."

"More than a possibility?"

"Yes. In fact, it's a--a fact."

"A fact?"

"I have just come from the meeting of the directors. They have voted to pay no dividends."

"No dividends!" Mrs. De Peyster gazed stupefied into the face of Judge Harvey. "No dividends! Then--then--my income?"

"I am very sorry," said Judge Harvey.

Mrs. De Peyster sank back in her chair and laid one hand across her eyes. For a moment she was dazed by this undreamed-of disaster; so overwhelmed that she did not even hear Judge Harvey, whose anger had ere this begun to relax, try to rea.s.sure her with remarks about the company being perfectly solvent. But it was not befitting the De Peyster dignity to exhibit consternation. Instinct, habit, ruled. So, after a moment, she removed her hand, and, though all her senses were floundering, she remarked with an excellent imitation of calm:--

"Thank you very much, Judge Harvey, for your information."

Judge Harvey, though still resentful, was by now feeling contrite for his share of their quarrel and looked unusually handsome in his contrition. And in his concern he could not help pointing the way out.

"I trust you have enough in your bank for your present plans. And if not, your bank will readily advance you what you need."

"Of course," said she with her mechanical composure.

"Or if there is any difficulty," he continued, desirous of making peace, "I shall be glad to arrange a loan for you."

She was too blinded by disaster to think, to realize her needs. And dazed though she was by this reverse, her anger against Judge Harvey for daring to criticize burned as high as before. And then, too, she remembered the haughtiness with which she had just refused his advice and put him in his place. At that moment, the person of all persons in the world from whom it would have been most humiliating to her to accept even a finger's turn of a.s.sistance was Judge Harvey.

"Thank you. I shall manage very well."

"And the Newport house?"

"I shall send you my instructions concerning it later."

He hesitated, waiting for her to speak. But she did not.

"Then that is all?" he queried.

"Quite all," she replied.

He still lingered. He was not to see her again for three months. And he didn't like to part like this; even if--

"After all, Caroline," he said impulsively, holding out his hand, "let's forget what we said and be friends. At any rate, I certainly hope you have a most enjoyable time in Europe."

"Thank you. I am sure I shall have."

Her words were cool, calm; the hand she gave him was without pressure.

Stiffening again, he made her the briefest of bows and angrily walked out.

At the sound of the closing door, announcing that Judge Harvey's eyes were outside the room, Mrs. De Peyster unloosed the mantle of dignity, which with so great an effort she had kept folded about her person, let her face fall forward into her hands, and slumped down into her chair, a loose, inert bundle. Several lifeless minutes dragged by.

A little before, during a silence between Judge Harvey and Mrs. De Peyster, the study door had slowly opened and there had appeared the reconnoitering face of the entrapped Mr. Bradford. Though their attention had apparently been too centered on each other for them to be observant of what happened beyond their very contracted horizon, that had seemed to him no promising moment to try for an escape. With high curiosity, eyes amused and alight with delectable danger, he had studied Judge Harvey a moment, and then the d.u.c.h.ess-like Mrs. De Peyster in her most magnificent towering att.i.tude of wrathful hauteur.

Then quickly and soundlessly the heavy door had closed.

Now again the heavy, sound-proof door of the study began to open--noiselessly, inch by inch. Again the light, humorous, but shrewd, very shrewd, face of Mr. Bradford appeared in the crack. This time the face did not withdraw. He watched the bowed figure of the solitary Mrs. De Peyster for several moments; considered; measured the distance to the door of escape; evaluated the silencing quality of the deep library rug; then slipped through the door, closed it, and with tread as soft as a bird's wing against the air started across the room.

At Mrs. De Peyster's back curiosity checked him and he turned his whimsical face down upon the motionless figure. The great Mrs. De Peyster! He wondered what had thus changed her from the all-commanding presence of a few moments since; for within that perfection of a study he had overheard nothing. An instant he stood thus at her back, alert to disappear upon the warning of a changing breath--the two but an arm's reach apart, and apparently about to go their separate ways forever--she unconscious of him, and he equally unconscious of the seed of a common drama which their own acts had already sown--with never a thought that ships that pa.s.s in the night may possibly alter their courses and meet again in the morning.

He slipped on out of the room, closing the door without a sound. In the hallway he paused. He wished to see Miss Gardner again, ignorant of the sudden fate that had befallen her. But he decided little would be gained by trying for another meeting. Certainly she must have relented sufficiently to have picked up the card he had given her; and perhaps she would change her mind and send him a message in care of the Reverend Mr. Pyecroft. Anyhow, that was his best hope.

Lightly, and with a light heart--for the presence of danger was to him a stimulant--he went down the stairs, eyes and ears on guard against unfortunate rencontres, and eyes also instinctively noting doors and pa.s.sages and articles worth a gentleman's while. At the front door he waited a moment until the sidewalk was empty; then he let himself out, and went down Mrs. De Peyster's n.o.ble stone steps, his face pleasant and frank-gazing, and with the easy self-possession of departing from a call to wish a friend _bon-voyage_.

CHAPTER V

THE HONOR OF THE NAME

After a time Mrs. De Peyster rose totteringly from the sheeted library chair, mounted weakly to the more intimate asylum of her private sitting-room, and sat down and stared into her fire. She was still dazed by Judge Harvey's announcement of the decision of the New York and New England to pay no dividends.

She was not rich, as the rich count riches. Nor did she desire a greater wealth; at least not much greater. In fact, she looked down upon the possessors of those huge fortunes acquired during the last generation as upon beings of an inferior order. It was blood-discs that gave her her supremacy, not vulgar discs of gold. She had enough to maintain the De Peyster station, but just enough; and she had so adjusted her scale of living that her expenses exactly consumed her normal income--no more, no less.

That is, had exactly consumed it, except during the last year or two.

One reason she had so resented Judge Harvey's criticism of her manner of living was that the criticism had the unfortunate quality of being based on truth. Of late, the struggle to maintain her inherited and rightful leadership had involved her in greatly increased expenditure, and this excess she had met in ways best known to herself.

The collapsed Mrs. De Peyster heard Matilda enter, pause, then pa.s.s into the bedroom, but did not look up; nor a moment later when Olivetta reentered from the bedroom, did she at first raise her dejected head.

"Why, what's the matter, Cousin Caroline?" cried Olivetta.

There was no occasion for maintaining an appearance before Olivetta, who was almost as faithful and devoted as though a very member of her body. So Mrs. De Peyster related her misfortune, interrupted by frequent interjections from her sympathetic cousin.

"Do you realize what it means, Olivetta?" she concluded in a benumbed voice. "It means that, except for less than a thousand which I have on hand,--a mere nothing,--I am penniless until more dividends are due--perhaps months! I cannot go to Europe! I cannot go to Newport!"

Olivetta was first stunned, then was ejaculative with consternation.

"But, Caroline," she cried after a moment, "why not have Judge Harvey get you the money?"

"Out of the question, Olivetta; I do not care to explain." She would never unbend to Judge Harvey! Never!

"Then, why not borrow the money from the bank, as you say Judge Harvey suggested?"