Part 32 (1/2)
”I see.” Boyd detected a note hitherto strange in his own voice. ”I am going to try the Tacoma banks to-morrow. Would you like to run over with me in the morning. The Sound trip is beautiful.”
”I would love to,” she exclaimed. ”I may have something to report if I can make Mr. Hilliard talk.”
”Out of curiosity, I should like to know what influenced him.” All women were more or less suspicious, he reflected, and some of them were highly intuitive; still, he could not believe that this was all Willis Marsh's doing. As he mused he idly thumbed the pages of a magazine. He was about to lay it down when his eye caught a well-known face, and he started, then glanced at the date of issue. It was a duplicate of that copy which had affected him so deeply in Cherry's house at Kalvik. He lifted his eyes to find her scrutinizing him.
”No, you can't cut out that page,” she said, with a slightly embarra.s.sed laugh.
”Where did you run across this?”
”I didn't run across it” she admitted; ”I scoured the book-stalls for it all the morning. Curiosity is a feminine trait, you know.”
”I don't quite understand.”
”That missing page has caused me insomnia for months. But now I'm as puzzled as ever, for there are two pictures, one on either side of the leaf, and each has possibilities. Which is it--the society bud or the prima donna?”
”I don't know what you mean,” he answered, somewhat stiffly. His love for Mildred Wayland had always been so sacred and inviolable a thing that even Cherry's frank inquisitiveness seemed an intrusion.
”I'll call for you in time for the nine-o'clock boat,” he added, as he arose to go. ”Meanwhile, if you get a hint from Hilliard, it may be useful.”
Left to his own devices, Boyd spent the evening in gloomy solitude, vainly seeking for some way out of his difficulties. But, despite his preoccupation with his own affairs, a vague feeling of resentment at the thought of Cherry and Hilliard kept forcing itself upon his mind. Perhaps the girl's indiscretion was of no very serious nature; yet he found it hard to excuse even a small breach of propriety upon her part. Surely, she must understand the imprudence of dining alone with the banker. His attentions to her could have but one interpretation. And she was too nice a girl to compromise herself in the slightest degree. Although he told himself that a business reason had prompted her, and reflected that the business methods of women are baffling to the mind of mere man, his reasoning quite failed to reconcile him to the situation. In the end he had to acknowledge that he did not like the look of it in the least.
But in the morning he found it impossible to maintain a critical att.i.tude in Cherry's presence. She had finished her breakfast when he called, and was awaiting him, clad in a brown velvet suit which set off her trim figure with all the effectiveness of skilful tailoring. Brown boots and gloves to match, with a dainty turban in which lay the golden gleam of a pheasant's plumage, completed the picture. She was as perfect to the eye as the morning itself.
”Well, did Hilliard expose the hidden mysteries of the banking system?” he questioned, as they walked down toward the water front.
”He did. It is no mystery at all now.”
”Then it was that newspaper story that frightened him.”
”Indirectly, perhaps. He didn't mention it.”
”What did he say?”
”Nothing.”
”Nothing! Then how--?”,
”He informed me that you are in love with the society girl and not with the actress. He said you are engaged to marry Miss Wayland.”
”Yes. But what did he say about the loan?”
”Only what I have told you. The rest is easy. Had you been less secretive, I would have known instantly whom to blame for this trouble. Wayne Wayland and Willis Marsh are working double, and inasmuch as you are _persona non grata--”_
”Who told you I am _persona non grata?”_
”You told me yourself without intending to. Please give me credit for some shrewdness. If you had been a welcome suitor, you would have had no difficulty in raising twice two hundred thousand dollars in Chicago. Then, too, I remember the story you told me at Kalvik, your mental att.i.tude-- many things, in fact. Oh, it was very simple.”
”Well, what of it? What has all that got to do with my present difficulty?”
”Listen! You want to marry the daughter of the greatest trust-builder in the country, and he doesn't want you for a son-in-law. You undertake an enterprise which seriously threatens his financial interests, and if successful in that, you could defy his opposition in the other matter. Now all goes well until he learns of your plans, then he strikes with his own weapons. A word here and there, a hint to the banks, and your fine castle comes tumbling down about your ears. I thought you had more perception.”