Part 74 (1/2)
”Dear, I know of nothing lost which may not be regained, except life. I know of nothing which cannot be rendered tolerable through loyalty.
”That material happiness which means so much to some, means now so very little to me, perhaps because I have never lacked it.
”Yet I know that, once mistress of myself, nothing else could matter unless your love failed.”
Again she wrote him toward the end of November:
”Why will you not let me help you, dear? My fortune is practically intact so far, except that, of course, I met those obligations which Scott could not meet. Poor Scott!
”You know it's rather bewildering to me where millions go to. I don't quite comprehend how they can so utterly vanish in such a short time, even in such a frightful fiasco as the Cascade Development Company.
”So many people have been here--Mr. Landon and Mr. Gayfield, Mr.
Stainer of Elting & Stainer, that dreadful creature Klawber, a very horrid man named Amos Flack--and dear, grim, pig-headed Mr.
Tappan--old Remsen Tappan of all men!
”He practically kicked out Mr. Flack and the creature Klawber, who had been trying to frighten Scott and me and even our lawyers.
”And think, Duane! He never uttered one sarcasm, one reproach for Scott's foolishness; he sat grim and rusty as the iron that he once dealt in, listening to what Scott had to tell him, never opening that cragged jaw, never unclosing that thin line of cleavage which is his mouth.
”We did not know what he had come for; but we know now. He is _so_ good--so good, Duane! And I, who hated him as a child, as a girl--I am almost too ashamed to let him take command and untangle for us, with those knotted, steel-sinewed fingers of his, the wretched, tangled mess that has coiled around Scott and me.
”Surely, this man Klawber is a very great villain; and it seems that Mr. Skelton and the wretched Flack creature are little less. As for Jack Dysart, it is all too sorrowful to think about. How must he feel! Surely, surely he could not have known what he was doing. He must have been desperate to go to Delancy Grandcourt. It was wrong; nothing on earth could have propped up the Algonquin, and why did he let his best friend go down with it?
”But it was fine of Delancy to stand by him--fine, fine! His father is perfectly furious, but, Duane, it _was_ fine!
”And now, dear, about Scott. It will amuse you, and perhaps horrify you, if I tell you that he has not turned a hair.
”Not that he doesn't care; not that he is not more or less mortified. But he blames n.o.body except himself; and he's laying plans quite cheerfully for a career on a small income that really does not require the austerity and frugality he imagines.
”One thing is certain; the town house is to be sold. My income is not sufficient to maintain it and Roya-Neh, and live as we do, and have anything left. I don't yet know how far my fortune is involved, but I have a very unpleasant premonition that there is going to be much less left than anybody believes, and that ultimately we ought to sell Roya-Neh.
”However, it is far too early to speculate; besides, this family has done enough speculating for one generation.
”Dear, you ask about myself. I am not one bit worried, sad, or apprehensive. I am _better_, Duane. Do you understand? All this has developed a set of steadier nerves in me than I have had since I was a child.
”A new and curiously keen enjoyment has been slowly growing in me--a happiness in physical and violent effort. I've a devilish horse to ride; and I love it! I've climbed all over the Gilded Dome and Lynx Peak after the biggest and s.h.a.ggiest boar you ever saw. Oh, Duane! I came on him just at the edge of evening, and he winded me and went thundering down the Westgate ravine, and I fired too quickly.
”But I'm after him almost every day with old Miller, and my arms and legs are getting so strong, and my flesh so firm, and actually I'm becoming almost plump in the face! Don't you care for that kind of a girl?
”Dear, do you think I've pa.s.sed the danger mark? Tell me honestly--not what you want to think, but what you do believe. I don't know whether I have pa.s.sed it yet. I feel, somehow, whichever side of it I am on, that the danger mark is not very far away from me. I've got to get farther away. The house in town is open. Mrs.
Farren, Hilda, and Nellie are there if we run into town.
”Kathleen is so happy for me. I've told her about the red cross. She is too sweet to Scott; she seems to think he really grieves deeply over the loss of his private fortune. What a dear she is! She is willing to marry him now; but Scott strikes att.i.tudes and declares she shall have a man whose name stands for an achievement--meaning, of course, the Seagrave process for the extermination of the Rose-beetle.
”Duane, I am quite unaccountably happy to-day. Nothing seems to threaten. But don't stop loving me.”
Followed three letters less confident, and another very pitiful--a frightened letter asking him to come if he could. But his father's condition forbade it and he dared not.
Then another letter came, desperate, almost incoherent, yet still bearing the red cross faintly traced. And on the heels of it a telegram: