Part 13 (1/2)
”I don't know; she said she'd left for good and that she'd never live with her husband again. I told her she could do as she pleased about _that_, but I didn't propose to become involved. Then she threatened to commit suicide--throw herself in the lake. I told her to go ahead and then she had hysterics all over the place. I had a fine tea-party, I can tell you.... Somebody sent me a marked copy of the Club Window. I knew, then, it wouldn't be long before her husband would get wise to it and I didn't know what kind of a game he'd spring on me. I guess it's not the first time the lady has kicked over the matrimonial traces, according to reports. Maybe he's looking for just such an opening.”
The room was thick with tobacco-smoke. Will was burning up one cigar after another.
”She made a fine spectacle of herself and of me by showing up at the railway station looking like a boiled owl. After our scene she capped the climax by getting a peach of a jag.... By George, I never will hear the last of it from the members of the company.” He pulled down a window from the top and stopped at the desk, where he took a telegram from his portfolio--a Christmas present I had made him.
”Yesterday morning I received this.” I read the message:
”Call me long distance Friday noon sharp. Important.
(Signed) DOC.”
”It was decent of the Doc, wasn't it? Well, I got him on long distance and the first thing he asked me was whether the lady were with me.
'Well, not exactly _with_ me, but I can't shake her,' I shouted back.
'You've got to,' the Doc went on, 'for your wife's sake you mustn't get landed with the goods.' The Doc is one of these 'from-Missouri'
gentlemen and wouldn't believe I was innocent under oath. Just the same he's a good fellow. He told me he knew all about my predicament and that he'd taken time by the forelock and got hold of madame's sister, who was standing beside him while he talked. She had her grip with her, ready to start for Cincinnati at once. I told him to send her by the fastest express. The Doc said that madame's husband had returned to town unexpectedly--just as I had antic.i.p.ated--and after a stay of twenty-four hours had again disappeared. No one at his office or at his home knew where he had gone. The sister said he had called her up and inquired where his wife had gone and had rung off abruptly. Then the Doc quizzed the stenographer, who was an old chum of his, and she confided to him that the husband's secretary had bought a ticket to Cleveland.... 'He's on the trail,' the Doc warned, 'and there's only one thing for you to do ... send for your wife if she's able to travel.... Make her get to Cincinnati before he does. Your wife is a level-headed little woman and if you put it to her straight she'll play up.... Together you can cook up something to placate the irate husband....' Can't you just hear the old Doc roar? Well, I thought his advice good and I wired you at once.”
... ”Has the sister arrived?” ... I found it difficult to make myself heard. My voice was dry and grated harshly....
”Yes, she's here; they're on the floor below.” Will poured a gla.s.s of water and handed it me. Then he sat on the edge of the bed and waited.
It was his turn to be silent. He seemed to have talked himself out....
”Which of them is it?... Do I know her?”
”Yes; we had dinner at her house one Sunday night.”
”Blonde?”
”Um--yes....”
”Art's triumph over Nature, I suppose.” ... I could not resist the thrust ... suddenly I sat bolt upright.
”Will ... _Will_.... Not--Mrs F.--not the woman with the two little girls ... not the mother of those children....”
He nodded and raised his shoulders with a gesture which was half deploring, half deprecating.
”O!!!....” I covered my face with my hands ... the picture was _too_ revolting.... ”Children don't cut much ice,” the doctor had said. I stopped up my ears to shut out his voice....
”How did it begin?” I said at last.
”O ... the usual way ... supper--or dinner, I've forgotten which--a little flirtation, lots of booze, motor-rides, rendez-vous while you listen to the neglected wife song and dance, more dinners and suppers and motor-rides ... and the first thing you know the fool woman is in love with you, or thinks she is, which is worse.... I hope you don't blame _me_. I can't help it if women make fools of themselves over me.”
... Something in Will's tone--a _sang froid_--almost a _braggadocio_--sent the blood to my face with a rush of anger. I leaned forward in my chair and looked him in the eyes.
”Will ... do you mean to tell me that you never encouraged this woman?”
”How do you mean--encouraged?”
”In G.o.d's name don't juggle with your words--don't equivocate! You know what I mean as well as I do!--to encourage in a hundred intangible ways; to show that you are flattered by a woman's attention; to let her believe that _you_ believe you are the only one upon whom she has bestowed her favours; to let her tell you that you are the first man for whom she has betrayed her husband, though she has been neglected and unhappy for years and years; to cram down your throat the intimate confidences of her married life and to tell you she has never sought consolation elsewhere; to let her do all these without giving her the lie when you know in your heart she was lying. That's what I mean!... O, believe me I am beginning to understand the intricacies of the game ...