The Terms of Surrender Part 36

"Ne permettrez-vous pas, ma belle demoiselle, Qu'en vous offre le bras, pour faire le chemin?"

He was struck by the coincidence that the woman to whom he was pledged should be named Marguerite! _Faire le chemin!_ Yes, they would soon be taking the long road of life together. What a.s.sured happiness seemed to breathe from each perfect note; yet what horror and despair would be the outcome of the man's ardor and the maid's shy diffidence! When Marguerite told Faust that she was _ni demoiselle_, _ni belle_, Power could hardly fail to recollect that his own Marguerite, not without cruel cause, was ever tortured by the fear that her disfigurement might some day turn him from her with loathing. Even the slaying of Valentine as the direct outcome of his sister's frailty seemed, to the overwrought imagination of one member of the audience, to bear an uncanny a.n.a.logy to his mother's death. There remained one other point of contact between the story of the opera and Power's own life; but, fortunately for him, or his surcharged emotions might not have withstood the strain, he could not recognize as yet that last and most terrible similarity.

As it was, his rapt interest in the opera attracted the attention of his neighbors in the stalls. As a girl whispered to her attendant cavalier:

"That man near us--the man with the piercing eyes and worn face--seems to regard 'Faust' as history rather than allegory."

"Perhaps he sees the allegory," was the answer, and the girl shrugged her pretty shoulders. She was young, and dwelt in a sheltered garden. To her, "Faust" was only an opera. It had nothing to do with the realities of life; which, if she were asked for a definition, consisted mainly of so ordering one's time as to miss no important social function.

Next morning, though aware of a nervous system still in a curious state of exaltation and strain after his overnight experiences, Power yielded quickly to the stimulating effect of the keen, cold air and bright sunshine of a typical winter's day on the North Atlantic seaboard. After breakfast he walked to his bank, and was received as one risen from the dead. Financial inst.i.tutions, even the soundest and most conservative, have a special flair for clients who allow vast sums of money to acc.u.mulate, year by year, at rates of interest which suit the bank's own purposes.

When Power had been welcomed heartily by the manager--his friend of former days, now promoted--the latter said cheerfully:

"Well, since you have actually returned from Mars, or whatever planet you may have been visiting, I suppose you want to look into your account?"

"It seems a reasonable thing to do, especially as I am thinking of marrying," agreed Power.

The official gave some instruction to the general office, and a pa.s.sbook was produced. There were, of course, hardly any entries on the debit side, and payments from mine and ranch had been made half-yearly; so one small book contained the whole of the seven years' statement. Power, unaccustomed as yet to the methods of financial bookkeeping, turned to the latest column, and saw a row of figures. He looked perplexed, whereat the manager smiled.

"Well," came the question, "I fancy you find yourself well able to maintain a wife?"

Power's eyes seemed to be fascinated by the item which had first attracted them.

"Y-yes," he said hesitatingly; "but I had a notion that I was very much better off."

Then it was the manager's turn to be puzzled. He rose, came round the table at which the two were seated, and adjusted his eyegla.s.ses.

"Better off!" he exclaimed. "Why, you are a very rich man, Mr. Power.

Don't you see----" He broke into a loud laugh as he discovered the entry which this queer-mannered client was gazing at. "Man alive," he cried, "that is the last half-year's interest on your capital! The current rate is rather low, two and one-half per cent. Here," and he pointed to the top of the page, "is a summary of your deposit--four million dollars, all in hard cash. If you mean to begin investing, I must ask you to go slow. Even in your own interests, that is advisable. Heavy purchases of stock tend to bull the market, and it is a little inclined to go that way at the moment. I'll give you a list of gilt-edged securities which will, of course, nearly double your annual revenue from invested capital alone. You had better show it to some other adviser, and, when you have selected your stocks, let me begin operating. I can carry the whole thing through in a couple of months without letting Wall Street know that a big buyer is in the market."

Power was rather stunned by the amount of his wealth, and an odd thought darted through his brain that if, in the world of today, no tempter could bribe another Doctor Faustus with the offer of renewed youth, the fiend might pour gold into his chosen victim's pockets. Almost could he feel the mocking phantom at his shoulder; though, indeed, there was none other in the room than the courteous banker.

"Great Scott!" the latter was saying. "What a bonanza that mine of yours is! And Bison is growing quite a town. I paid it a flying visit last summer. Have you been there recently? I imagine not, since your cablegram came from Buenos Aires."

Bison was a word to evoke shadows; but it sufficed to drive one away just then.

"Ah, Bison!" said Power, standing up. "I must go west at once. I have not even made known to MacGonigal my presence in America. He is well, I hope?"

"Fatter than ever. There is some talk of his running for governor."

"And Jake, the man in charge of the ranch? Did you hear of him when you were in Colorado?"

"Yes, indeed. He is married."

"Married! Jake!"

"More than that, his wife, a pretty little woman, told me she had to threaten a divorce in order to stop him from mounting the little Jakes on what he calls 'plugs' before the kiddies were well out of the perambulator."

A clerk announced through a speaking-tube that someone wanted the banker. The conventional, "Ask him to wait one minute," warned Power that this was no hour for gossip.

"I can have some money now?" he inquired.

"As much as you like."

"May I ask--I am a child in these matters--if good diamonds are obtainable in New York, and what I ought to pay for a ring--an engagement ring?"

"Our diamonds are not cheap; but they are supposed to be the pick of the market. I think you ought to get a perfect ring for a thousand dollars.

By the way, there is quite an acc.u.mulation of letters here. Leave your address, and they will be packed and sent to your rooms."

Power wrote a check at the counter, and was given a bundle of notes. He went to a well-known jewelry establishment recommended by the bank manager, and asked to be shown some engagement rings.

"What size, sir?" inquired an attendant.

"Oh, not anything remarkable, but of the best quality."

"I mean, sir, what size is the lady's finger?"

Power laughed. He realized that he must come down out of the clouds, and pay heed occasionally to the minor phases of life.

"I don't know. She has small hands, and, long, tapering fingers," he said, smiling at his own fatuity; for the description might have been a line taken bodily out of nineteen novels among every twenty.

"It really doesn't matter, sir," said the shopman, eager to please a new customer. "If you choose a suitable ring, the lady can send or bring it here, and it will be adjusted to the right size without any delay or extra charge."

"But she is in England."

"Exactly the same conditions apply in our London branch."

So Power bought a very beautiful ring, which happened to contain seven graduated stones in a single row. The number pleased him, and he was sure Meg would note its significance. He secured the gage thus early so that he might write and tell her about it; while its mere possession and safeguarding would supply an extra stimulus for a speedy crossing of the Atlantic.

Then he strolled up Fifth Avenue, and did not flinch from memories of the last time he had pa.s.sed through that remarkable thoroughfare. He would be callous, indeed, if his thoughts did not dwell on Nancy, and go back to the sweet lawlessness of their brief companionship. Where was she now? he wondered. A fine lady, no doubt, ruffling it with matronly self-possession among the high-born friends she had won in Paris and London. And that mean-spirited wretch, her father? Dead, in all probability, or eating his heart out in semi-insanity; for Power was beginning to see, with surer, wider vision, that Willard must have known he was a murderer, since no other hand but his had sent a dear and honored woman to her grave.

Then his mind reverted to Marguerite Sinclair, and he was comforted by his knowledge of her frank, joyous, make-the-best-of-everything temperament. He had not deluded himself into the belief that he was marrying her in the flood-tide of pa.s.sion which had overwhelmed Nancy and himself. Pretense was always hateful to him, and it would be rank hypocrisy to a.s.sume that the madness of that first love could ever again surge through heart and brain. Marguerite's own action in accepting him after she had looked into the pages of his earlier life gave ample a.s.surance that she would be content with his faith and devotion. She was no lovesick maid, but a woman of strong, clear perceptions. He was troubled with no doubt as to the future nor qualm as to the past, and he thanked Providence humbly for having allotted him such a true and honest helpmate for his remaining years.

On returning to the hotel, he found a bulky package in his room. It contained heaps of letters and other doc.u.ments which had been sent to the bank or forwarded from Bison, and, of course, they were mostly seven years old, or thereabouts. Two, bearing recent postmarks, caught his eye, and he read them first.

One was from Dacre. "You see," it ran, "I remain on the map. If this reaches you, cable me. My house is yours for as long as you care to stay."

The other brought a smile to his lips. It was in Spanish, and signed "Bartolomeo Malaspina":

"Honored Senor [wrote the captain of the _Carmen_].--"You asked me to write after seven years. Well, praised be my patron saint, I am still alive, and I hope you are. I have often spoken to my wife of the wretchedness of soul you caused me by disappearing among those accursed Indians; but I must admit, nevertheless, that your short voyage in my ship brought me luck, for I fell in with a liner with a broken shaft caused by colliding with a derelict, and she was drifting into the reefs off Hanover Island when I got a tow-rope on board. It was a fine job to haul her as far as Punta Arenas; but, thanks to the Eleven Thousand Virgins, I managed it, and the salvage made me a rich man. The _Carmen_, too, ran ash.o.r.e at Iquique on the homeward voyage, and she was well insured. Write, I pray you, if you have escaped from the cannibals. If not, a year from this date, I shall pay for two ma.s.ses for the repose of your soul."

So, then, he was remembered by a few friends. The knowledge consoled him for the heedless rush and flurry of New York.

An impulse seized him to break the seals of an envelop marked, "To be burnt, unopened, by my executors," and take therefrom two letters which he knew it contained. The action was nothing more nor less than a trial of his new-born resolve; since the letters were Nancy's to himself and Willard's to his mother. He read them calmly and dispa.s.sionately.

Willard's malicious threat he dismissed quickly. It had served its vile purpose, and its victims had paid the price demanded, the mother by death, the son by suffering. But Nancy's few disconnected sentences gripped his imagination with a new force. Had he misjudged her? he wondered. What argument had Willard used that she yielded so promptly and completely? The broken, pitiful words brought a mist before his eyes. Poor girl! Perhaps, in her woman's way, she had endured miseries from which life among the Indians had rescued him. Then he recalled the farewell message she had given to Dacre, and the momentary belief that he might have acted precipitately died away. Should he ever meet her in the years to come? He hoped not, with all his heart. He must so contrive Meg's life and his own that they would pa.s.s their days far from the haunts of society. The worship of the golden calf permits its votaries no escape. Thank Heaven, and he and his wife would never practise the cult!

Glancing casually through the rest of the heap, his attention was drawn to a couple of cablegrams. He opened one, and found that it was dated in the late autumn of that memorable year. It read:

"Leave everything, and forget all that has pa.s.sed. Come at once.