The Silent Barrier Part 35

"My little ramble does not appear to interest you?"

"It does," he said. "I have been arguing the pros and cons of a ticklish problem. There are two courses to me. I can either bribe you, or leave you to your own devices. The latter method implies the interference of the police. I dislike that. Helen would certainly be opposed to it. I make the one thousand into five; but I want your answer now."

"I accept," she said instantly.

"Ah, but you are trembling. Queer, isn't it, how thin is the part.i.tion between affluence and a prison? There are dozens of men who stand high in commercial circles in London who ought to be in jail. There are quite as many convicts in Portland who reached penal servitude along precisely the same road. That is the penalty of being found out. Let me congratulate you. And do try another gla.s.s of this excellent wine.

You need it, and you have to pack your belongings at once, you know."

"Thank you."

Her eyes sparkled. Her well modulated voice was hardly under control.

Five thousand pounds was a great deal of money; but the tragedy of Etta Stampa's life might have been worth more. How could she find out the whole truth? She must accomplish that, in some way.

Therein, however, she greatly miscalculated. Bower divined her thought almost before it was formed. "For goodness' sake, let us put things in plain English!" he said. "I am paying you handsomely to save the woman I am going to marry from some little suffering and heartache. Perhaps it is unnecessary. Her fine nature might forgive a man a transgression of his youth. At any rate, I avert the risk by this payment. The check will be payable to you personally. In other words, you must place it to your own account in your bank. Any breach of our contract in letter or spirit during the next two days will be punished by its stoppage.

After that time, the remotest hint on your part of any scandalous knowledge affecting me, or Helen, or the causes which led to my present weakness in allowing you to blackmail me, will imply the immediate issue of a warrant for your arrest. Need I explain the position at greater length?"

"No," said Millicent, who wished now that she had bitten off the end of her tongue before she vented her spleen to the Vavasours and the Wraggs.

"On second thoughts," went on Bower unconcernedly, "I forego the stipulation as to a letter of apology. I don't suppose Helen will value it. a.s.suredly, I do not."

The cheapening of her surrender stung more than she counted on. "I have tried to avoid the appearance of uncalled for rudeness to-day,"

she blurted out.

"Well--yes. What is the number of your room?"

She told him.

"I shall send the check to you at once. Have you finished?"

He accompanied her to the door, bowed her out, and came back. Smiling affably, he pulled a chair to Mrs. de la Vere's side.

"I quite enjoyed my luncheon," he said. "You all heard that stupid outburst of Millicent's last night; so there is no harm in telling you that she regrets it. She is leaving the hotel forthwith."

Helen rose suddenly. "She is one of my few friends," she said. "I cannot let her go in anger."

"She is unworthy of your friendship," exclaimed Bower sharply. "Take my advice and forget that she exists."

"You cannot forget that anyone exists, or has existed," said Spencer quietly.

"What? You too?" said Bower. His eyes sought the American's, and flashed an unspoken challenge.

He felt that the world was a few hundred years too old. There were historical precedents for settling affairs such as that now troubling him by means that would have appealed to him. But he opposed no further hindrance to Helen's departure. Indeed, he perceived that her meeting with Millicent would provide in some sense a test of his own judgment. He would soon learn whether or not money would prevail.

He waited a little while, and then sent his valet with the check and a request for an acknowledgment. The man brought him a scribbled note:

"Was rather taken aback by appearance of H. She says you told her I was leaving the hotel. We fell on each other's neck and wept. Is that right? M. J."

He cut the end off a cigar, lit the paper with a match, and lit the cigar with the paper.

"Five thousand pounds!" he said to himself. "It is a lot of money to one who has none. I remember the time when I would have sold my soul to the devil for half the amount."

But that was not a pleasing notion. It suggested that, by evil hazard, some such contract had, in fact, been made, but forgotten by one of the parties to it. So he dismissed it. Having disposed of Stampa and Millicent, practically between breakfast and lunch, there were no reasons why he should trouble further about them. The American threatened a fresh obstacle. He was winning his way with Helen altogether too rapidly. In the light of those ominous words at the luncheon table his close a.s.sociation with Stampa indicated a definite knowledge of the past. Curse him! Why did he interfere?

Bower was eminently a selfish man. He had enjoyed unchecked success for so long a time that he railed now at the series of mischances that tripped the feet of his desires. Looking back through recent days, he was astonished to find how often Spencer had crossed his path. Before he was four hours in Maloja, Helen, in his hearing, had singled out the American for conjecture and scrutiny. Then Dunston spoke of the same man as an eager adversary at baccarat; but the promised game was arranged without Spencer's cooperation, greatly to Dunston's loss. A man did not act in such fashion without some motive. What was it? This reserved, somewhat contemptuous rival had also s.n.a.t.c.hed Helen from his company many times. He had undoubtedly rendered some service in coming to the Forno hut; but Bower's own lapse from sanity on that occasion did not escape his notice. Finally, this cool mannered, alert youngster from the New World did not seem to care a fig for any prior claim on Helen's affections. His whole att.i.tude might be explained by the fact that he was Stampa's employer, and had won the old guide's confidence.

Yes, the American was the real danger. That pale ghost conjured from the grave by Stampa was intangible, powerless, a dreamlike wraith evoked by a madman's fancy. Already the fear engendered myopia of the morning was pa.s.sing from Bower's eyes. The pa.s.sage of arms with Millicent had done him good. He saw now that if he meant to win Helen he must fight for her.

Glancing at his watch, he found that the time was a quarter to three.

He opened a window in his sitting room, which was situated in the front of the hotel. By leaning out he could survey the carriage stand at the foot of the long flight of steps. A pair-horse vehicle was drawn up there, and men were fastening portly dress baskets in the baggage carrier over the hind wheels.

He smiled. "The pretty dancer travels luxuriously," he thought. "I wonder whether she will be honest enough to pay her debts with my money?"

He still hated her for having dragged him into a public squabble. He looked to the future to requite him. A year, two years, would soon pa.s.s. Then, when funds were low and engagements scarce, she would appeal to him again, and his solicitors would reply. He caught himself framing curt, stinging sentences to be embodied in the letter; but he drew himself up with a start. Surely there was something very wrong with Mark Bower, the millionaire, when he gloated over such paltry details. Why, his reflections were worthy of that old spitfire, Mrs.

de Courcy Vavasour.

His cigar had gone out. He threw it away. It had the taste of Millicent's cheap pa.s.sion. A decanter of brandy stood on the table, and he drank a small quant.i.ty, though he had imbibed freely of champagne at luncheon. He glanced at a mirror. His face was flushed and care lined, and he scowled at his own apparition.

"I must go and see the last of Millicent. It will cheer me up," he said to himself.

When he entered the foyer, Millicent was already in the veranda, a dainty picture in furs and feathers. Somewhat to his surprise, Helen was with her. A good many people were watching them covertly, a quite natural proceeding in view of their strained relations overnight.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "It will paralyze the dowager brigade if we hug each other."

_Page 309_]

Millicent's first action after quitting the _salle a manger_ had been to worm out of Leontine the full, true, and particular history of Etta Stampa, or so much of the story as was known to the hotel servants.

The recital was cut short by Helen's visit, but resumed during packing operations, as Millicent had enlarged her store of knowledge considerably during the process of reconciliation.

So, alive to possibilities going far beyond a single check, even for five thousand pounds, at the last moment she sent a message to Helen.

"Come and see me off," she wrote. "It will simply paralyze the dowager brigade if we hug each other on the mat."

Helen agreed. She was not sorry that her critics should be paralyzed, or stupefied, or rendered incapable in some way of inflicting further annoyance. In her present radiant mood, nearly all her troubles having taken unto themselves wings, she looked on yesterday's episode in the light of a rather far fetched joke. Bower stood so high in her esteem that she was sure the outspoken announcement of his intentions was dictated chiefly by anger at Millicent's unfair utterances. Perhaps he had some thought of marriage; but he must seek a wife in a more exalted sphere. She felt in her heart that Spencer was only awaiting a favorable opportunity to declare his love, and she did not strive to repress the wave of divine happiness that flooded her heart at the thought.

After much secret pondering and some shy confidences intrusted to Mrs.

de la Vere, she had resolved to tell him that if he left the Maloja at once--an elastic phrase in lovers' language--and came to her in London next month, she would have an answer ready. She persuaded herself that there was no other honorable way out of an embarra.s.sing position. She had come to Switzerland for work, not for love making.

Spencer would probably wish to marry her forthwith, and that was not to be thought of while "The Firefly's" commission was only half completed. All of which modest and maidenly reasoning left wholly out of account Spencer's strenuous wooing; it is chronicled here merely to show her state of mind when she kissed Millicent farewell.

It is worthy of note also that two young people who might be expected to take the liveliest interest in each other's company were steadfast in their determination to separate. Each meant to send the other back to England with the least possible delay, and both were eager to fly into each other's arms--in London! Whereat the G.o.ds may have laughed, or frowned, as the case may be, if they glanced at the horoscopes of certain mortals pent within the mountain walls of the Upper Engadine.

While Helen was still gazing after Millicent's retreating carriage, Bower came from the darksome foyer to the sunlit veranda. "So you parted the best of friends?" he said quietly.

She turned and looked at him with shining eyes. "I cannot tell you how pleased I am that a stupid misunderstanding should be cleared away!"

she said.

"Then I share your pleasure, though, to be candid, I was thinking that a woman's kiss has infinite gradations. It may savor of Paradise or the Dead Sea."

"But she told me how grieved she was that she had behaved so foolishly, and appealed to me not to let the folly of a day break the friendship of years."

"Ah! Millicent picks up some well turned sentiments on the stage. Come out for a little stroll, and tell me all about it."