Part 31 (1/2)

”Yes, Miss Van Allen must have needed such a person, since, as I am told, she lived alone. My sisters-in-law are quite in love with the Van Allen house. Both they and Winnie have been singing its praises this morning. It seems your Vicky Van is a lady of most refined tastes.”

”She certainly is. I can't help thinking if you and she had known each other, in favorable circ.u.mstances, you would have been friends.”

”It may be. I have never felt sure that she is the guilty one, but I have changed my mind about not wanting her to be found. I do want that she should be. Mr. Schuyler's sisters have shown me that to hesitate at or neglect any means of hunting her out would be wrong. And so, I am glad we have Mr. Stone and I hope he will succeed in his search.”

”What changed your mind, especially?”

”I realized that it would be disloyalty to my husband's memory to let his possible slayer go free. The girl must be found, and then if she can be freed of suspicion, very well, but the case must be investigated fully.”

”I dare say you are right. Mr. Schuyler was a man of importance and influence, and aside from that, every deed of blood calls for revenge.

I honor you for deciding as you have.”

”It is justice that moves me, more than my personal inclination,” Ruth went on. ”I will not deny, Mr. Calhoun, that in some ways, my husband's death has freed me from certain restrictions that hampered and galled me. I shouldn't mention this to you, but I know the sisters have told you that I have, in many ways, gone counter to Mr.

Schuyler's wishes, since I have been my own mistress. It is true. He and I disagreed greatly on matters of the household and matters of my personal comfort and convenience. Now that I can do so, I am arranging my life differently. It is natural that I should do this, but the Schuyler ladies think that I have begun indecently soon. I say this, not by way of apology, but because I want you to understand.”

Ruth looked very sweet and wistful, as she seemed to make a bid for my sympathy. I was impressed anew by the soft pallor of her face and the sweet purity of her gray eyes. I contrasted her with Vicky Van. One, the embodiment of life and gayety, the other a gentle, dovelike personality, which, however, hinted sometimes at hidden fires. I believed that Ruth Schuyler had been so repressed, so dominated by her brute of a husband, that her nature had never expanded to its own possibilities.

And, like a blinding flash of lightning, the knowledge came to me that I loved her! It was no uncertain conviction. The fact sprang full-armed, to my brain, and my heart swelled with the bliss of it.

I scarcely dared look at her. I couldn't tell her--yet. I had no reason to think she cared for me, other than as the merest acquaintance, yet, then and there, I vowed to myself that she should care.

I thought of Vicky Van--poor little Vicky. She had interested me--did interest me, but in only a friendly way. Indeed, my interest in her was prompted by sympathy for her luckless position and the trust she had reposed in me, I would hold her trust sacred. I would never play false to Vicky Van. But henceforth and forever my heart and soul belonged to my liege lady, my angel-faced Ruth.

”What is the matter, Mr. Calhoun?” I heard her saying, and I looked up to see her smiling almost gayly at me. ”Your thoughts seem to be a thousand miles away!”

”Oh, not so far as that,” I protested. Somehow, I felt buoyantly happy. I had no wish to tell her of my love, at present I was quite content to wors.h.i.+p her in secret, and I exulted in a sort of clairvoyant knowledge that I should yet win her. I smiled into her dear eyes, as I continued: ”They were really round the corner in Vicky Van's house.”

To my delight she pouted a little. ”Let's talk of something else,” she said. ”I've no doubt Miss Van Allen is charming, and her home a perfect gem, but I own up I'm not anxious to discuss her all the time and with every one.”

”You shall be exempt from it with me,” I promised. ”Henceforth her name is taboo between us, and you shall choose our subjects yourself.”

”Then let's talk about me. Now, you know, Mr. Calhoun, I never see Mr.

Bradbury, so you must be my legal adviser in all my quandaries.

First, and this is a serious matter, I don't want to continue to live with the Schuyler ladies. We are diametrically opposed on all matters of opinion, and disagree on many matters of fact.” Ruth smiled, and I marveled afresh at the way her face lighted up when she indulged in that little smile of hers. ”Nor,” she went on, ”do they want to live with me. So, it ought to be an easy matter to please us all. As to the house and furnis.h.i.+ngs, they are all mine, but if the sisters prefer to live here, and let me go elsewhere, I am willing to give them the house and its contents.”

”I know you don't care for this type of residence,” I said, ”indeed, Miss Schuyler said yesterday, as we looked over Vicky Van's house, that it was just the sort of thing you liked.”

”Oh, I can't think I would like her house! I supposed it was a plain little affair. Harmonious and pretty, Winnie says, but she didn't give me the impression it was elaborate.”

”No, it isn't. And it wouldn't be as grand as your home ought to be.

But mention of the girl is not allowed, I believe--”

She smiled again, and resumed: ”Well, I want you to sound the Schuyler sisters, and find out their wishes. When I speak to them, they only say for me to wait until after the mystery is solved and all this horrid publicity and notoriety at an end. But I want to go away from them now. I want Mr. Stone to do his work, and I hope he will find that girl and all that, but I can't stand it to live in this atmosphere of detectives and reporters and policemen any longer than I must. Would it do for me to go to some quiet hotel for a while? I could take Tibbetts, and just be quietly by myself, while the Schuylers continue to live in this house.”

I thought it over. I understood perfectly how she hated to be questioned continually as to her life with her late husband, for I was beginning to realize that that life had been a continuous tragedy.

Nothing much definite, but many sidelights and stray hints had shown me how he had treated her, and how patiently she had borne it. And, now he was gone, and I, for one, didn't blame her that she wanted to get away from the scenes of her slavery to him. For it had been that.