Part 51 (1/2)
”But how the deuce are you going to get along?” questioned the young man.
”I shall manage very well,” was the grave rejoinder. ”I have a few hundreds which will suffice for my present needs, and, if my hands have not lost their cunning, I can abundantly provide for my future by means of my profession. By the way, what are your own plans?--if I may inquire,” he concluded, to change the subject.
The young man paled at the question, and an angry frown settled upon his brow.
”I am going to return immediately to New York--I am bound to find that girl,” he said, with an air of sullen resolution.
”Then you were not successful in your search?” Mr. G.o.ddard remarked, dropping his lids to hide the flash of satisfaction that leaped into his eyes at the words.
”No, and yes. I found out that she arrived safely in New York, where she was met by a young lawyer--Royal Bryant by name--who immediately spirited her away to some place after dodging the policeman I had set on her track. I surmise that he has put her in the care of some of his own friends. I went to him and demanded that he tell me where she was, but I might just as well have tried to extract information from a stone as from that astute disciple of the law--blast him! He finally intimated that my room would be better than my company, and that I might hear from him later on.”
”Ah! he has doubtless taken her case in hand--she has chosen him as her attorney,” said Mr. G.o.ddard.
”It looks like it,” snapped the young man; ”but he will not find it an easy matter to free her from me; the marriage was too public and too shrewdly managed to be successfully contested.”
”It was the most shameful and dastardly piece of villainy that I ever heard of,” exclaimed Gerald G.o.ddard, indignantly, ”and--”
”And you evidently intend to take the girl's part against me,” sneered his companion, his anger blazing forth hotly. ”If I remember rightly, you rather admired her yourself.”
”I certainly did; she was one of the purest and sweetest girls I ever met,” was the dignified reply. ”Emil, you have not a ghost of a chance of supporting your claim if the matter comes to trial, and I beg that you will quietly relinquish it without litigation,” he concluded, appealingly.
”Not if I know myself,” was the defiant retort.
”But that farce was no marriage.”
”All the requirements of the law were fulfilled, and I fancy that any one who attempts to prove to the contrary will find himself in deeper water than will be comfortable, in spite of your a.s.sertion that I 'have not a ghost of a chance.'”
”Possibly, but I doubt it. All the same, I warn you, here and now, Correlli, that I shall use what influence I have toward freeing that beautiful girl from your power,” Mr. G.o.ddard affirmed, with an air of determination not to be mistaken.
”Do you mean it--you will publicly appear against me if the matter goes into court?”
”I do.”
The young man appeared to be in a white rage for a moment; then, snapping his fingers defiantly in his companion's face, he cried:
”Do your worst! I do not fear you; you can prove nothing.”
”No, I have no absolute proof, but I can at least give the court the benefit of my suspicions and opinion.”
”What! and compromise your dead wife before a scandal-loving public?”
”Emil, if Anna could speak at this moment, I believe she would tell the truth herself, and save that innocent and lovely child from a fate which to her must seem worse than death,” Mr. G.o.ddard solemnly a.s.serted.
”Thank you--you are, to say the least, not very flattering to me in your comparisons,” angrily retorted Monsieur Correlli, as he sprang from his chair and moved toward the door.
He stopped as he laid his hand upon the silver k.n.o.b and turned a white, vindictive face upon the other.
”Well, then,” he said, between his white, set teeth, ”since you have determined to take this stand against me, it will not be agreeable for us to meet as heretofore, and I feel compelled to ask you to vacate these premises at your earliest convenience.”