Part 53 (1/2)
He was plainly vacillating. ”Think of the fat news-items my flight will add to the stew.”
Kate shuddered. ”Oh, I know! I hope you don't blame me.--It's true, I _am_ to blame. I _did_ insist on your going to see her.” She was beginning to suffer with this thought, when he put out his hand and drew her to him with affectionate wish to comfort her.
”Don't a.s.sume that worry, Kit. She profoundly interested me from the first, and I do not regret my acquaintance with her--even at this moment. I believe she is essentially untouched by this business and that she can be cleansed of all Clarke's influence. His death removes her worst enemy; and if I can persuade her parents to leave her with us, I am perfectly certain I can root out the deepest of her delusions.”
”Then go,” she said, in final surrender. ”Conventions ought not to count against saving a sweet, good girl. Go and help her, and if you bring her back here, I'll receive her gladly.”
Morton opened the door, and while Kate went to Viola he said: ”Mr.
Lambert, if you will add me to your party, I will be glad to go with you.”
Lambert seized his host's hand and wrung it hard. ”My boy, you save my life! I thought of asking you, but I couldn't find the nerve. We'll all need you--the girl worst of all.” Tears were in his eyes as he added, huskily; ”Yes, we need you.”
Viola, with s.h.i.+ning face, came running towards them, ”Oh, Professor Serviss! Is it true? Are you going?”
”Yes, if you will let me.”
”Let you! Oh, you don't know what it means to have you with us.”
He looked down upon her with a smile whose full message she could not read, but it expressed something very tender and disconcerting. ”You can't know what it means to me to go. You see, I daren't quite trust you alone with these indulgent parents and as your physician it is my duty to see that my prescriptions are fully carried out.”
During the bustle of preparation for the journey, he found opportunity to rea.s.sure Kate: ”Thus far, she has no inkling of what is in our minds.” He closed his fist as if shaking it in the face of an implacable foe, and, through his set teeth, added: ”I accept the challenge! I welcome you and all your dark band to the utterance!”
Kate turned pale. ”Don't say that!” she whispered. ”It's like tempting Providence.”
”I fear neither Providence nor demons; but I am afraid of you. Keep away from Viola as much as you can. If there is any truth in mind-reading she is likelier to divine your thought than mine.”
Kate's eyes suddenly grew dim. ”Morton, I brought this on you, and I'm beginning to doubt. I don't believe I want you to go with her, after all.” She put her hands on his shoulders and gave way to a feeling of loss and loneliness. ”I've always hoped--I've always looked forward to your having a splendid, dignified wife; and though I like her. I don't believe--she's up to you.”
”Now, don't trouble about that, sis. The important thing to me is, am I worthy of her? She entered my heart the first time I saw her, and has never left it. She came at a time when I was certain no woman would ever move me again. I am indebted to her--now, that's the truth.
And so”--he stooped and kissed her--”if she decides to come to me, I shall feel grateful to you. If she decides not to come--you can be grateful to her!”
XXII
THE SPIRITUAL RESCUE
With a conviction that he was entering upon a new order in his life, Morton Serviss opened the door of the coach for Viola and her mother.
Never before had he evaded a contest, or asked for consideration from authority, and deceit had been quite foreign to him; but now, after a deceptive word to the hall-boy, he was conscious of furtively scanning the people approaching on the walk, aware of his weakness and his doubt, for no man of regular and candid life can become a fugitive with entire belief in the righteousness of his flight. He must perforce of conscience look back for a moment.
Once within the carriage he put all question aside and joined Lambert in his attempt to keep from the women the slightest suspicion that his sudden departure involved any serious change in their fortunes. The miner had taken his place beside his wife, thus bringing the young people side by side on the forward seat, and this arrangement had much to do with filling Morton's mind with a new and delicious content, for Viola's face was almost constantly lifted to his, and at every lurch of the vehicle her soft shoulder touched his arm, while the faint perfume of her garments rose like some enchanter's incense, dulling his sense of duties abandoned, quickening his delight in her beauty, and restoring his joy in his own youth. What did the judgment of the world matter at such a time?
He said little on the ride, just enough to hold the conversation to subjects far removed from the causes of their retreat. He was convinced of Viola's ability to read (in a vague way) what lay in his thought, but he also believed in his power to prevent this by a positive and aggressive att.i.tude of mind. Beneath his silences, as beneath his words, ran an undercurrent of suggestion from his subliminal self to hers. Lambert rose n.o.bly to his duty and directed the conversation to the mine and its increasing generosity of output, and to news of the men and their families in whom Viola took deep interest. In the midst of this most wholesome recollection they ended their drive.
At the station Morton remained on guard with the women, while Lambert attended to the trunks and boxes, and at the earliest moment, with care not to betray haste, they pa.s.sed through the gates and into their car, but no feeling of relief came to either of the men till the train began to move. Then Lambert, with a profound sigh, exclaimed: ”Well, now we're off and we've got the trunks, so let's be happy.”
Mrs. Lambert alone remained sad and distraught, and her husband soon drew her away to their own seat, leaving the young people together, a deed for which Morton silently, but none the less fervently, thanked him, affording as it did the chance for his long-desired personal explanation.
The car was spa.r.s.ely occupied and the section opposite was quite empty, and, with a sense of being quite alone with Viola, he lightly began: ”I feel like a truant school-boy, and I'm wondering what Weissmann will say to-morrow morning when his 'first-a.s.sistant' fails to appear.”