Part 25 (1/2)

I kept silent until I had control of myself. Then, as if talking--of a matter that had been finally and amicably settled, I began: ”The apartment isn't exactly ready for us, but Joe's just about now telephoning my man that we are coming, and telephoning your people to send your maid down there.”

”I wish to go to my uncle's,” she repeated.

”My wife will go with me,” said I quietly and gently. ”I am considerate of _her_, not of her unwise impulses.”

A long pause, then from her, in icy calmness: ”I am in your power just now.

But I warn you that, if you do not take me to my uncle's, you will wish you had never seen me.”

”I've wished that many times already,” said I sadly. ”I've wished it from the bottom of my heart this whole evening, when step by step fate has been forcing me on to do things that are even more hateful to me than to you.

For they not only make me hate myself, but make you hate me, too.” I laid my hand on her arm and held it there, though she tried to draw away.

”Anita,” I said, ”I would do anything for you--live for you, die for you.

But there's that something inside me--you've felt it; and when it says 'must,' I can't disobey--you know I can't. And, though you might break my heart, you could not break that will. It's as much my master as it is yours.”

”We shall see--to-morrow,” she said.

”Do not put me to the test,” I pleaded. Then I added what I knew to be true: ”But you will not. You know it would take some one stronger than your uncle, stronger than your parents, to swerve me from what I believe right for you and for me.” I had no fear for ”to-morrow.” The hour when she could defy me had pa.s.sed.

A long, long silence, the electric speeding southward under the arching trees of the West Drive. I remember it was as we skirted the lower end of the Mall that she said evenly: ”You have made me hate you so that it terrifies me. I am afraid of the consequences that must come to you and to me.”

”And well you may be,” I answered gently. ”For you've seen enough of me to get at least a hint of what I would do, if goaded to it. Hate is terrible, Anita, but love can be more terrible.”

At the Willoughby she let me help her descend from the electric, waited until I sent it away, walked beside me into the building. My man, Sanders, had evidently been listening for the elevator; the door opened without my ringing, and there he was, bowing low. She acknowledged his welcome with that regard for ”appearances” that training had made instinctive. In the center of my--our--drawing-room table was a ma.s.s of fresh white roses.

”Where did you get 'em?” I asked him, in an aside.

”The elevator boy's brother, sir,” he replied, ”works in the florist's shop just across the street, next to the church. He happened to be down stairs when I got your message, sir. So I was able to get a few flowers. I'm sorry, sir, I hadn't a little more time.”

”You've done n.o.ble,” said I, and I shook hands with him warmly.

Anita was greeting those flowers as if they were a friend suddenly appearing in a time of need. She turned now and beamed on Sanders. ”Thank you,” she said; ”thank you.” And Sanders was hers.

”Anything I can do--ma'am--sir?” asked Sanders.

”Nothing--except send my maid as soon as she comes,” she replied.

”I shan't need you,” said I.

”Mr. Monson is still here,” he said, lingering. ”Shall I send him away, sir, or do you wish to see him?”

”I'll speak to him myself in a moment,” I answered.

When Sanders was gone, she seated herself and absently played with the b.u.t.tons of her glove.

”Shall I bring Monson?” I asked. ”You know, he's my--factotum.”

”_I_ do not wish to see him,” she answered.

”You do not like him?”