Part 19 (1/2)

Miss Gannion sat still for a moment, with her clear eyes fixed on the glowing embers.

”Are you sure that it would be best to prevent it?” she asked then.

Bobby started to his feet, faced about, and stood looking down at the little figure of his hostess.

”Miss Gannion, Beatrix and I have been chums ever since we could go alone. In fact, we learned to go alone by hanging on to each other's hands. I love her as a fellow without any sisters is bound to love a girl cousin; and I'll be blest if I can keep quiet and see her throw herself away.”

”Have you spoken to her about it?”

”I don't dare,” Bobby returned bluntly. ”I know I should end by losing my temper and saying things about Lorimer. I wouldn't hurt Beatrix for the world, and I believe she honestly thinks she is doing the Lord's own work in not throwing Lorimer over.”

”Perhaps she may be,” Miss Gannion said gently.

”Miss Gannion! Well, if she is, I shall have to revise my notions of the Lord,” Bobby responded hotly.

Miss Gannion's smile never wavered. She knew Bobby Dane too well to resent his occasional outbursts.

”Bobby, my dear boy,” she said, with the maternal accent she a.s.sumed at times; ”this isn't too easy a problem for any of us; but the hardest part of its solution is coming on Beatrix. It's not an easy place to put a woman with a conscience. The old-fas.h.i.+oned idea was to marry a man to reform him; the new-fas.h.i.+oned practice is to wash your hands of him altogether, as soon as he makes a single slip. The middle course is the most difficult one to take and the most thankless. Any good woman is sure to have a strong hold on the man who loves her; and, in times of real danger, she is afraid to let go that hold.”

Bobby shook his head.

”That's Beatrix all over, Miss Gannion. But it will take a mighty strong grip to haul Lorimer across to firm ground.”

”I realize that.”

”But the question is, does Beatrix realize it, too,” Sally said abruptly.

”Better than we can. I think she has measured both the danger and her own strength.”

Bobby took a turn or two up and down the room. Then he came back to the hearthrug.

”She can't do it,” he said conclusively. ”The odds are all against her.

Lorimer can't pull her down, of course; but he can tug and tug till he has used up all her strength and she has to let him go. And then what?

Miss Gannion, do you honestly think it worth the while?”

”No; I do not,” she said reluctantly.

”Then why the deuce do you argue for it?” he asked, with a recurrence of his former temper. ”I beg your pardon, Miss Gannion; but this maddens me, and I came here to have you help me find a way out. Instead, you are in favor of Beatrix's signing her own death warrant.”

”No,” she said slowly. ”Down in my heart of hearts, I think it is all a mistake, a terrible mistake; and I have tried in vain to find a way to prevent it. Then, each time I think it over, I am afraid to prevent it, because it seems to me that Beatrix's mistake is just a little bit n.o.bler than the safe course which we ourselves would take.”

”Have you heard Mr. Thayer say what he thinks about it?” Sally asked.

”Not lately.”

Sally's eyes were under less subjection than her tongue, and Miss Gannion answered the question they so plainly asked.

”Long ago, before the night of the concert, even, Mr. Thayer spoke of the matter to me. Since then he has never mentioned it.”