Part 45 (1/2)
”Satisfy?” cried Jennie. ”I hope no other woman lives in the kind of h.e.l.l I do.”
”It's always the way,” said Kate, ”when people will insist on getting out of their cla.s.s. You would have gotten ten times more from life as the wife of a village merchant, or a farmer, than you have as the wife of a rich man. Since you're married to him, and there are children, there's nothing for you to do but finish your job as best you can.
Rest your head easy about me. I wouldn't touch John Jardine married to you; I wouldn't touch him with a ten-foot pole, divorced from you. Get that clear in your head, and do please go!”
Kate turned again to the water, but when she was sure Jennie was far away she sat down suddenly and asked of the lake: ”Well, wouldn't that freeze you?”
CHAPTER XXIV
POLLY TRIES HER WINGS
FINALLY Kate wandered back to the hotel and went to their room to learn if Nancy Ellen was there. She was and seemed very much perturbed. The first thing she did was to hand Kate a big white envelope, which she opened and found to be a few lines from John Jardine, explaining that he had been unexpectedly called away on some very important business.
He reiterated his delight in having seen her, and hoped for the same pleasure at no very distant date. Kate read it and tossed it on the dresser. As she did so, she saw a telegram, lying opened among Nancy Ellen's toilet articles, and thought with pleasure that Robert was coming. She glanced at her sister for confirmation, and saw that she was staring from the window as if she were in doubt about something.
Kate thought probably she was still upset about John Jardine, and that might as well be gotten over, so she said: ”That note was not delivered promptly. It is from John Jardine. I should have had it before I left. He was called away on important business and wrote to let me know he would not be able to keep his appointment; but without his knowledge, he had a representative on the spot.”
Nancy Ellen seemed interested so Kate proceeded: ”You couldn't guess in a thousand years. I'll have to tell you spang! It was his wife.”
”His wife!” cried Nancy Ellen. ”But you said--”
”So I did,” said Kate. ”And so he did. Since the wife loomed on the horizon, I remembered that he said no word to me of marriage; he merely said he always had loved me and always would--”
”Merely?” scoffed Nancy Ellen. ”Merely!”
”Just 'merely,'” said Kate. ”He didn't lay a finger on me; he didn't ask me to marry him; he just merely met me after a long separation, and told me that he still loved me.”
”The brute!” said Nancy Ellen. ”He should be killed.”
”I can't see it,” said Kate. ”He did nothing ungentlemanly. If we jumped to wrong conclusions that was not his fault. I doubt if he remembered or thought at all of his marriage. It wouldn't be much to forget. I am fresh from an interview with his wife. She's an old acquaintance of mine. I once secured her for his mother's maid.
You've heard me speak of her.”
”Impossible! John Jardine would not do that!” cried Nancy Ellen.
”There's a family to prove it,” said Kate. ”Jennie admits that she studied him, taught him, made herself indispensable to him, and a few weeks after his mother's pa.s.sing, married him, after he had told her he did not love her and never could. I feel sorry for him.”
”Sure! Poor defrauded creature!” said Nancy Ellen. ”What about her?”
”Nothing, so far as I can see,” said Kate. ”By her own account she was responsible. She should have kept in her own cla.s.s.”
”All right. That settles Jennie!” said Nancy Ellen. ”I saw you notice the telegram from Robert--now go on and settle me!”
”Is he coming?” asked Kate.
”No, he's not coming,” said Nancy Ellen.
”Has he eloped with the widder?” asked Kate flippantly.
”He merely telegraphs that he thinks it would be wise for us to come home on the first train,” said Nancy Ellen. ”For all I can make of that, the elopement might quite as well be in your family as mine.”
Kate held out her hand, Nancy Ellen laid the message in it. Kate studied it carefully; then she raised steady eyes to her sister's face.