Part 9 (1/2)
”Then--” her little teeth snapped together, and a cold light flashed in her eyes--”I am sorry you have had your journey for nothing.”
”You--I'm afraid I don't understand.”
”Please go back, Mr. North, and tell them that Gentleman Geoff's Billie refuses to become Miss Willa Murdaugh. I don't want that wicked old man's money, I don't want anything to do with any of that breed! If those two poor young folks you tell me about were really my father and mother, he was as guilty of their deaths as if he'd shot them down in cold blood! Of course, he did not need to help them if they defied his wishes, but to starve them, to drive them from pillar to post and deny them the right to earn the money with which to live, to force other people to close their doors--oh, he wasn't square!”
”But, my dear young lady! All that was long ago, and he is dead. He regretted the past, he tried to make rest.i.tution. As an evidence of that he has made you his heiress----”
”Not if I refuse.” Her tone was still quiet, but her breast rose and fell convulsively. ”You said awhile ago that no one need know about my being adopted. You meant no one need know about Dad, didn't you? That I'd been brought up by a gambler in an oil-boom town? You thought I'd be ashamed of Dad among all those fine people? Why, I'm proud of him!
Proud that I was known as his girl! He took me when n.o.body else cared whether I lived or died, and he's loved me and been everything to me ever since I can remember. And he was square! It's my own grandfather that I'm ashamed of for his crookedness! He stacked the cards, and that's all I need to know about him. Give that Mrs. Halstead what she was going to get for making me over into a lady, and tell her she needn't bother. I was raised Gentleman Geoff's Billie and that's good enough for me. I'm going to stay right here.”
”You cannot realize what you are saying!” Mr. North betrayed symptoms of imminent apoplexy. ”You can have no conception now of what this will mean to you in the future. Millions are involved, I tell you, millions!”
”I don't want them,” she reiterated doggedly. ”I don't want even the name. If I've got to have another, I'll take my mother's--Ashton, wasn't it?”
The rotund little lawyer bounced from his chair and strode up and down before the bar, his hands clenched behind his back and his mustache bristling. The girl watched him curiously, after a brief glance at Jim, who was sitting very straight, obviously fighting back the words which choked him.
There was a pause, and then North halted before her.
”I trust that you will not complicate matters by adhering to this hasty resolution, Miss Murdaugh. It is perhaps natural that you should resent the treatment accorded your parents, but the past is dead and I am convinced that when you will have had time for calm, sober reflection you will realize the absurdity of attempting to maintain your present att.i.tude. Fortunately the decision does not rest with you. You cannot know your own mind, you are still a minor----”
”Yes.” Billie acquiesced. ”That was why I asked you, first off, just how old I am. You'll have a tough time trying to get me out of Mexico if I don't want to go, Mr. North. I've seen some law fights over oil leases down here and I know how cases can be strung out. I'll be of age in a year and four months and I reckon I can bluff you till then.
I don't know why you should be so anxious to force that money on me and make me acknowledge myself the granddaughter of a man who didn't play fair!”
”It is entirely for your own benefit. Surely you can see that?” The lawyer spoke almost pleadingly. ”It would be idiocy, madness to throw away such a fortune for a quixotic idea! You have never come into contact with young people of the cla.s.s to which you really belong or you would realize all that circ.u.mstances have deprived you of heretofore.”
”Oh, I've met one or two.” The girl's lip curled. ”There's a rich young New Yorker down here now, named Wiley----”
”Indeed? Starr Wiley?” Mr. North bit his mustache. ”H'm! That is awkward, for you will inevitably encounter him again in the circle to which your cousins belong. I had hoped--ah, that you would not be hampered by a.s.sociations or reminders of your former circ.u.mstances, but Mr. Wiley is a friend and I will see him----”
”Not here, you won't!” growled Jim. ”He's gone.”
The girl wheeled upon him, her face darkening.
”Gone where?” she demanded. ”What do you mean, Jim?”
”How should I know where?” The hotel-keeper shrugged. ”His hacienda is shut up tight, except for the caretaker. Reckon he's gone home for good. It wasn't none too healthy for him around here.”
Billie rose and stumbled to the window. Across the plaza beyond the flower-market, the Blue Chip could be discerned in an unfamiliar aspect of transformation. Scaffolding had been erected against its walls and their cerulean expanse was being rapidly hidden beneath a coating of brick red. Her eyes blurred for a moment, then a swift hardness came into them and her small fists clenched at her sides.
”We will not discuss the matter of your inheritance, further, for the moment.” The lawyer's voice, smooth as oil, came from just behind her.
”You will listen to reason, I know, when you have had time for consideration. Mr. Baggott, here, will agree with me that you must accept the conditions of your grandfather's will----”
”Mr. Baggott will do nothing of the kind,” vociferated that gentleman, suddenly. ”I've listened to all you had to say, and kept my mouth shet, but since you're bringing me into this, you might as well know where I stand. Billie's going to do just what she d.a.m.n' pleases about this. She don't need the old scoundrel's money--she's got plenty of her own, and she's not going to be shanghaied across the border while I'm here to prevent it!”
”Sir----!”
”Never mind, Jim.” The girl wheeled quickly. ”I've changed my mind.