Part 60 (1/2)

Galt delivered the message to d.i.c.kson and walked uptown to Webb's house, where he expected to find him. He had not lunched, and he remembered suddenly that Nicholas had also gone hungry; but the thought brought a smile as he rang Webb's bell. ”Oh, for once in a lifetime a man may be heroic,” he said. Then he entered the house and found, not Dudley, but Eugenia.

At the sound of his name she had risen and come swiftly forward with outstretched hand. Her face was white and her eyes heavy with anxiety, but he felt then, as always, the calm n.o.bility of her carriage. In the added fulness of her figure her beauty showed majestic.

He took her hand, holding it warmly in his own. ”My dear Eugenia, if you are in trouble, remember that I am an ign.o.ble edition of Juliet.”

”Oh, I want you, not Juliet,” she said. ”I have sent for Dudley, but he has not come--I took the paper at the door by chance--and I find that Colonel Diggs has brought up that old dead lie about the governor. He dares to say that the people of Kingsborough believe it--the coward!

They never believed it--it is false--as false as the lie itself. Oh, if I were a man I would kill him for it, but I am a woman, and you--”

”Kill him!” He laughed harshly. ”We don't kill men who blacken our friend's honour; we wait till they attack our own lives--that's our code for you. If it were otherwise, I should act upon it with pleasure. But I came to see Webb about this thing. Where is he?”

”Oh, he is coming.”

She sat down, keeping her excited eyes upon him. ”It was Bernard, my own brother,” she said pa.s.sionately. ”You know this, and the world must know it. The world shall know it if I have to utter it from the housetops.

Oh, I have sinned enough in ignorance; now I will speak.”

She bit her lips to keep back the quick tears, tapping her foot upon the floor. The red was in her cheeks and her eyes were as black as night.

Her bosom quivered from the lash of her scorn.

”But you must keep out of it, my dear Eugie. Dudley and I will manage it. We'll see Diggs and get a retraction from him--that's sensible and simple. There's no scandal the better for dragging a woman into it.”

She stopped him fiercely. ”Then I give you fair warning. If you do not stop it, I shall. Ah, here's Dudley!”

She met him as he entered the room, clasping her hands upon his arm.

”Dudley, have you seen it--this falsehood?”

He let her hands fall from his arm and drew her with him to the fireside. ”Yes; I have seen it,” he answered, and as he shook hands heartily with Galt he made a casual remark about the weather.

”Oh, Dudley, what does the weather matter?” cried Eugenia. ”No, don't sit down. You are to go at once to Colonel Diggs and tell him everything--and not spare any one--and you may tell him also that--I despise him!”

He smiled at her vehemence--it was so unlike Eugenia. ”I didn't know you took so much interest in these things,” he said lightly. ”I thought the baby had cured you.”

But she caught his hand and held it in her own. ”Don't, Dudley,” she implored. ”You know what it means to me. You know all.”

His face softened as he met her eyes; but instead of replying to her appeal he turned with a question to Galt. ”Can I do any good?” he asked.

”I am willing, of course, to do what I can.”

”I was going to ask you to see Diggs,” said Galt quietly. ”We shall endeavour to keep his speech out of the morning papers, but it has already appeared in the evening issue. You might secure a card from him retracting his statements. I hardly think he knew them to be false.”

”I'll go at once,” replied Dudley. He went into the hall and took up his hat, but as Galt opened the door he lingered an instant and looked at his wife. She came to him, her eyes s.h.i.+ning, and in a flash he realised that to Eugenia it was a question of his own honour as well as of the governor's. With a smile he lifted her chin and met her gaze. ”Are you satisfied, my lady?” he asked; but before she could respond he had joined Galt upon the pavement.

There he paused to light a cigar, while Galt hesitated and looked at his watch. ”I suppose I may leave it in your hands,” suggested the older man. ”Diggs isn't on the best of terms with me, you know.”

Dudley took the cigar from his mouth and threw the match over the railing into the gra.s.s. ”Oh, I'll do my best,” he answered readily, ”and I'll see that the statements are delivered to the newspapers at once. I am as much interested in it as you are. It was a dirty piece of work.”

And leaving Galt, he quickened his pace as he crossed the street.

Diggs was at his hotel and somewhat relieved at the sudden turn of affairs. ”Honestly, I hated it,” he frankly admitted. ”It's the kind of job I'd like to wash my hands of. But Major Rann took oath on the truth of the story, and he convinced me that I owed it to the community to expose Burr's character. I don't know why I believed it, except that it never occurs to one to doubt evil. However, I'm glad you called. I a.s.sure you I'll take more pleasure in retracting the statements than I did in making them.”