Part 32 (1/2)
Was this evidence of fury directed against her because she had been the unwitting cause of Kearn Thode's defection in the matter of the two dances, or was something deeper and more significant in the wind?
Willa was not left in doubt for long. She had scarcely finished her preparations for the night and was braiding her long black hair into a ma.s.sive rope, when a light, brittle tapping came upon her door.
Almost before the wondering a.s.sent had left her lips, Angie slipped in and stood before her. She was still in her spangled dance frock and her round blue eyes were snapping fire.
”I suppose I have come on a thankless mission, Willa,” she began.
”Every time I have tried to help you or teach you anything, you have looked on it, in your spiteful way, as mere jealousy on my part, although why I should be jealous of you, heaven only knows!”
”Please, Angelica! We have had all this out before and I am very tired. Would you mind if I asked you to wait until morning?” Willa gave her hair a final twist and turned from the mirror. ”I am honestly sorry Kearn Thode missed those dances with you to-night, but it really wasn't my fault--”
”Do you suppose I wanted to dance with him?” Angie interrupted in immense scorn. ”I only permitted him to put his name down on my card in ordinary courtesy because of his sister; she has such a caustic tongue that one must keep on the right side of her. If he chose to ignore his dances with me it was because he was playing a game which you, you conceited little simpleton, couldn't see through. Oh, I heard what he said to you in the conservatory--!”
”You listened!” Willa turned on her at last. ”Lord, what a miserable specimen of a girl you are, anyhow! I knew you were spying about and listening at my heels here at home to learn what you could and run with it to the man who's making a tool of you and a fool besides, but I didn't think you were so low down as to skulk about and pry into affairs which are no concern of yours! Is nothing sacred to you?”
”I was only doing my duty!” Angie returned loftily. Then her consuming rage got the better of her once more. ”You dare to speak of anyone making a tool of me! It is you who are waiting for anyone's hand!
Starr Wiley made a fool of you, and you simpered and purred and thought you were taking him from me, when he was only amusing himself for the moment because he was jealous of me with Art. Judson! Now, in your bursting conceit you think this impecunious fortune-hunter, Thode, is in love with you. I listened because it was my duty to keep any member of the family from throwing herself away and I wanted to see how far he would dare to go. I'm here now to tell you the truth.”
”I do not want to hear another word!” Willa cried hotly. ”It is no affair of yours and you shall not speak of Kearn Thode as a--a fortune-hunter! He is the only real man in this whole spindling, self-seeking, artificial crowd! If you listened, you know how proud and independent he is!”
”I heard, but that was only his cleverness; he knew how eager you were and he simply led you on to almost propose to him yourself! That was good stuff about not knowing he cared for you down in Mexico until you were leaving. What would you say if I were to tell you that he made a deliberate play for you from the moment he reached that town? Oh, he's serious enough! He'll marry you if he can; that's what he meant to do from the first.”
”I think you must be mad!” Willa stared at her cousin in sheer wonder.
”Why should he have wanted to marry me? There were lots of other girls in town----”
”Because he knew who you really were all the time! He knew before Mason North ever found you, and he knew, too, what a fortune you were coming into. You needn't look at me like that, I know what I am talking about!”
”I don't think you do,” Willa remarked simply. ”You must have taken leave of your senses or else Starr Wiley has been making you believe the silliest sort of lies. How could Kearn Thode have known who I was?
No one did but--but the man who had made me his own daughter, and he would not tell me because he did not want to hurt me by letting me know what mean, contemptible sn.o.bs my people were and how they had served my own father for marrying my brave mother! Kearn Thode knew nothing!”
”What if I were to show you proof? Here is a letter in his own hand, telling all about you and what he meant to do.” Angie pulled a crumpled wad of paper from her bodice and held it out, her whole body quivering in triumph. ”Read it and then you'll know whether he cares for you or not! Read it, I say!”
”And I say to you that if you don't leave this room at once I will ring and have you put out! Don't you imagine that I can see through a scurvy trick of Starr Wiley's to get back at the man who beat him twice to a mere pulp? I do not want to see the letter, I will not read it.
It is all a lie!”
”Then listen!” Angie smoothed the sheet of paper and fairly danced in her excitement. ”You shall listen! You shall know what that man is scheming to marry you for! There is only a part of it here, but it ought to be enough to open your eyes, blinded with conceit as you are!”
”I will not----!” Willa began indignantly, but Angie's voice silenced her.
”----'Except for him, of course, no one here knows her real name',” she read, ”'and it wouldn't mean anything to them if they did, but I spotted her at once and later events have only proved the truth of my suspicions. She is the undoubted owner of almost boundless wealth and when I have gone after her and won her consent----'”
”Stop!” Willa clapped her hands to her ears. ”I will not listen to one more word! It is a lie, I tell you! A lie!”
”There isn't any more,” Angie announced with a sly grimace. ”That is the bottom of the page, but it ought to be enough for you.”
”Kearn Thode never wrote a word of it!” exclaimed Willa pa.s.sionately.
”I would not believe you if you swore it from now till you die! Go, before I make you!”