The Mask Part 39

"Yes--all night. The other morning it was seven o'clock when he came home--and his dress suit and shirt looked as if he had been in a fight."

The young girl put down her work and looked at her sister in dismay.

"Sis!--what's the matter with Ken all at once?"

Helen made no reply, but covering her face with her two hands, burst into tears. Ray rose quickly and going over to where she was sitting, sat on the edge of the chair and put her arms about her. Soothingly she said:

"Don't cry, dear, don't cry. He will soon be himself again. His terrible experience on the steamer upset him dreadfully. His nervous system underwent such a shock that it has entirely changed his character. Wilbur says it is quite a common phenomenon. Only the other day he read in some medical book an article on that very subject.

The writer says any great shock of that kind can cause a temporary disarrangement of the moral sense and perceptions. For example, a man who, under ordinary circ.u.mstances is a perfect model of a husband, with every good quality and virtue, may suddenly lose all sense of conduct and become am unprincipled _roue_. In other words, we have two natures within us. When our system is working normally we succeed in keeping the evil that's in us under control; but following any great shock, the system is disarranged, the evil gains the ascendancy, and we appear quite another person. This explains the dual personality about which Wilbur and I had an argument the other day. Don't you remember?"

Helen nodded. Sadly she said:

"I begin to think you are right. Certainly he has changed. If he had been like this when I first met him I should never have married him.

It is not the Kenneth I learned to love." Bitterly, she added: "As he is now, I feel I dislike and detest him. Unless he soon changes for the better, I shall leave him. In self respect I can't go on living like this?"

Kissing her sister again, Ray rose and went back to her seat.

Confidently, she said:

"Don't worry, dear. I'm sure everything will be all right soon. You see if I'm not right. By my wedding day--only three weeks away now--you'll think as much of Ken as ever----"

"I hope so, dear, but three weeks is a long time to wait----"

The young girl laughed.

"Why that's nothing at all. Just imagine Ken is ill or gone away from you on a visit for that length of time----"

As she spoke the door opened, and Francois entered with a silver salver, which he presented to his mistress.

"A letter for Madame."

Helen looked at the envelope and threw it down with a gesture of impatience. Crossly, she exclaimed:

"Francois, I do wish you'd be more careful. Can't you read. Don't you see the letter is addressed to Mr. Traynor?"

The valet nodded.

"_Oui_, madame. But as Monsieur is out I thought that possibly madame----"

Incensed more at the fellow's impudent air than by what he actually said, Helen lost her temper. Angrily, she exclaimed:

"Don't think. People of your cla.s.s are not hired to think; they are paid to do as they are told. You've been very careless in your work recently. The next time it happens I shall have to tell you to find another place."

The valet smiled. An insolent look pa.s.sed over his sallow, angular face. Dropping completely his deferential manner and fixing the two women with a bold, familiar stare, he said impudently:

"You needn't wait till next time. I'll quit right now, _parbleu_.

It's a rotten job, anyhow."

Indignant, Helen pointed to the door.

"Go!" she cried. "The housekeeper will settle with you. Never let me see your face again."

The Frenchman shrugged his shoulders and went toward the door. As he reached it, he turned round, a sneer on his face:

"You'll see me again all right, but ze circ.u.mstances may be different?

My lady may not be so proud ze next time."

With this parting shot, he went away, and a moment later they heard him going up to his room to pack his things.

Ray turned to her sister. Reprovingly, she said:

"Weren't you a little severe with him?"

Helen shook her head. Quickly, she said:

"I never could bear the sight of the man. He is treacherous and deceitful. I'm not at all sure that he's honest. It was only after he'd been here some time that I learned he was formerly with Signor Keralio. That was enough to set me against him. Like master, like valet, as the saying goes, and it's usually a true saying. On several occasions lately I have noticed things that seemed suspicious. The fellow is more intimate now with Kenneth than I, his wife, have ever been. Only the other day I discovered them in earnest and intimate conversation. Directly I appeared they separated and Francois, instead of continuing to converse on terms of apparent social equality, was once more the fawning valet. I didn't take the trouble to ask Kenneth what it all meant. So many singular things have happened since his return, that this only adds one more to the list."

"May I come in?" said a voice.

Helen looked up quickly. It was Wilbur Steell who was standing at the door with his head half in the room, laughing at them. The two women had been so busy talking that they had not heard the sound of approaching footsteps. With an exclamation of joy Ray jumped to her feet and ran up to him.

"It's Wilbur--my precious Wilbur!"

Helen nodded approvingly, as she noticed the girl's enthusiasm.

Certainly her sister had changed. She was hardly the cold, self-centered Ray of six months ago. With a smile she said:

"It's astonishing how a man can alter a girl--if he's the right kind."

The lawyer laughed.

"It works both ways. The right kind of woman can make a man change his ways--even a hardened old bachelor. Who could have guessed that I would ever fall in love?"

Helen sighed.

"What is love? We have it to-day; it eludes us to-morrow. A few weeks ago I thought I loved my husband better than any being in the world.

To-day, I can hardly look him in the face. How do you account for it?"

Dropping into a chair, the lawyer look serious.

"I can't account for it, nor can I blame you. Kenneth has returned from South Africa a changed man. Whether the wreck and the loss of the diamonds affected his mind I do not know. Only a psychologist could determine that. But he is not the same. Where is he to-night?"

Helen threw up her hands.

"Do I ever know?" she exclaimed wearily. "I haven't seen him since morning, and don't expect to see him before breakfast to-morrow. He's at his club or drinking and carousing, or in some gambling house playing roulette. How do I know?"

"It is certainly a most singular case," said the lawyer meditatively.

"Mr. Parker and I have gone carefully over his accounts at the Company's office. Everything is perfectly regular. There only remains the missing diamonds. We have detectives working on half a dozen clues but so far we have accomplished nothing. We have also gone to Washington to get the secret service men interested in the case on the ground that if the diamonds are here they were smuggled in and no duty was paid. But we found the secret service men busy following up counterfeiters. The country is being flooded with counterfeit $10 bills--a splendid reproduction, almost defying detection. It is believed that the plates and presses from which they are made are right here in New York and the whole secret service force is at work trying to run the counterfeiters to earth. This is why our diamond case is going so slowly. They are so busy following up the counterfeiters they have no time for us."

Ray, much interested, leaned eagerly forward.