Part 29 (1/2)

--XIX--

THE SANCTUARY OF DARKNESS

There was a grim, merciless smile on Madison's lips; and a whiteness in his face windowed the pa.s.sion that seethed within him. He stood motionless, listening, in Helena's room. He heard the automobile going away again; then he heard Helena's light step in the hallway without--and the smile died as his lips thinned.

But she did not come in--instead, he heard her go into the Patriarch's room, heard her talking to the Patriarch, and bid the Flopper go to the kitchen and make her some tea. Then the Flopper's step sounded, pa.s.sing down to the rear, of the cottage.

The minutes pa.s.sed--then that light footfall again. The door of the room swung suddenly wide--and closed--there was a cry--and Helena, wide-eyed, the red of her cheeks fading away, leaned heavily back against the door.

Neither spoke. Madison, in the center of the room, did not move. The smile came back to his lips.

Helena's great brown eyes met the gray ones, read the ugly glint, dropped, raised again--and held the gray ones steadily.

Madison gave a short laugh--that was like a curse. His hands at his sides knotted into lumps.

Then Madison spoke.

”Why don't you say, 'you!--_you_!'--and scream it out and clutch at your bosom the way they do in story books!” he flung out raucously. ”Why don't you do your little stunt--go on, you're on for the turn--you can put anything over me, I'm only a complacent, blind-eyed fool! Anything goes! Why don't you start your act?”

”You don't know what you are saying,” she said in a low voice. ”If there's anything you want to talk about, we'd better wait until you're cooler.”

”Oh, h.e.l.l!” he roared, his pa.s.sion full to the surface now. ”Cut out the bunk--cut it out! _Anything_! No, it isn't much of anything--for you--out all night with Thornton. Do you think I'm going to stand for it! Do you think I'm going to sit and suck my thumb and _share_ you, and--”

”You lie!” She was away from the door now, close before him, her breath coming fast, white to the lips, and in a frenzy her little fists pummelled upon him. ”It's a lie--a lie--a lie! It's a lie--and you know it!”

He pushed her roughly from him.

”It is, eh?”--his words came in a sort of wild laugh. ”And I know it--do I? Why should I know it? What do you think you are? Say, you'd think you were trying to kid yourself into believing you're the real thing--the real, sweet, shy, modest Miss Vail. Cut it out! You're name's Smith--maybe! And it's my money that's keeping you, and you belong to me--do you understand?”

She stood swaying a little, her hands still tightly clenched, breathing through half parted lips in short, quick, jerky inhalations like dry sobs.

”It's true,” she faltered suddenly--and suddenly buried her face in her hands. And then she looked up again, and the brown eyes in their depths held an anger and a shame. ”It's true--I was--was--what you say. But now”--her voice hurried on, an eagerness, a strange earnestness in it--”you must believe me--you must. I'll make you--I must make you.”

”Oh, don't hurt yourself trying to do it!” jeered Madison. ”We're talking plain now. I'm not taking into account how you feel about it --don't you fool yourself for a minute. The sanct.i.ty of my home hasn't been ruined--because it couldn't be! Get that? Thornton don't get you--not for _keeps_! But you and he don't make a monkey of me again. Do you understand--say, do you get that? You're _mine_--whether you like it or not--whether you'd rather have Thornton or not. But I'll fix you both for this--I'm no angel with a cherub's smile! I'll take it out of Thornton till the laugh he's got now fades to a fare-thee-well; and I'll put you where there aren't any strings tying me up the way there are here. Do you understand!” His voice rose suddenly, and for a moment he seemed to lose all control of himself as he reached for her and caught her shoulder. ”I love you,” he flashed out between his teeth. ”I love you--that's what's the matter with me! And you know that--you know you've got me there--and you'd play the fool with me, would you!” He dropped his hands--and laughed a short, savage bark--and stepped back and stared at her.

”Will you listen?”--she was twisting her hands, her head was drooped, the long lashes veiled her eyes, her lips were quivering. ”Will you listen?” she said again, fighting to steady her voice. ”It was an accident.”

”I saw the machine when you drove up--it was a wreck!” snapped Madison sarcastically.

”We ran out of gasoline,” she said quietly.

And then Madison laughed--fiercely--in his derision.

”Oh, keep on!” he rasped. ”I told you I was only a blind fool that you could put anything over on! That accounts for it, of course--a breakdown isn't so easy to get away with. Gasoline!”

”We were miles from anywhere,” she went on. ”We had taken what we thought was a short cut. Mr. Thornton built a shelter for me in the woods, and went to--to--”

He caught up her hesitation like a flash.

”Fake the lines, Helena, if you haven't had enough rehearsals,” he suggested ironically. ”Anything goes--with me.”