The Destroying Angel. Vance Louis Joseph

the door, he swung round to find that the girl had got to her feet.

      "He won't be long – " Whitaker began vaguely.

      "I want to tell you something." She faced him bravely, though he refused the challenge of her tormented eyes. "I … I have no husband."

      He bowed gravely.

      "You're so good to me – " she faltered.

      "O – nothing! Let's not talk about that now."

      "I must talk – you must let me. You're so kind, I've got to tell you. Won't you listen?"

      He had crossed to a window, where he stood staring out. "I'd rather not," he said softly, "but if you prefer – "

      "I do prefer," said the voice behind him. "I – I'm Mary Ladislas."

      "Yes," said Whitaker.

      "I … I ran away from home last week – five days ago – to get married to our chauffeur, Charles Morton…"

      She stammered.

      "Please don't go on, if it hurts," he begged without looking round.

      "I've got to – I've got to get it over with… We were at Southampton, at my father's summer home – I mean, that's where I ran away from. He – Charley – drove me over to Greenport and I took the ferry there and came here to wait for him. He went back to New York in the car, promising to join me here as soon as possible…"

      "And he didn't come," Whitaker wound up for her, when she faltered.

      "No."

      "And you wrote and telegraphed, and he didn't answer."

      "Yes – "

      "How much money of yours did he take with him?" Whitaker pursued.

      There was a brief pause of astonishment. "What do you know about that?" she demanded.

      "I know a good deal about that type of man," he said grimly.

      "I didn't have any money to speak of, but I had some jewellery – my mother's – and he was to take that and pawn it for money to get married with."

      "I see."

      To his infinite relief the waiter interrupted them. The girl in her turn went to one of the windows, standing with her back to the room, while Whitaker admitted the man with his tray. When they were alone once more, he fixed the place and drew a chair for her.

      "Everything's ready," he said – and had the sense not to try to make his tone too cheerful.

      "I hadn't finished what I wanted to tell you," said the girl, coming back to him.

      "Will you do me the favour to wait," he pleaded. "I think things will seem – well, otherwise – when you've had some food."

      "But I – "

      "Oh, please!" he begged with his odd, twisted smile.

      She submitted, head drooping and eyes downcast. He returned to his window, rather wishing that he had thought to order for himself as well as for the girl; for it was suddenly borne strongly in upon him that he himself had had little enough to eat since dinner with Peter Stark. He lighted a cigarette, by way of dulling his appetite, and then let it smoulder to ashes between his fingers, while he lost himself in profound speculations, in painstaking analysis of the girl's position.

      Subconsciously he grew aware that the storm was moderating perceptibly, the sky breaking…

      "I've finished," the girl announced at length.

      "You're feeling better?"

      "Stronger, I think."

      "Is there anything more – ?"

      "If you wouldn't mind sitting down – "

      She had twisted her arm-chair away from the table. Whitaker took a seat a little distance from her, with a keen glance appraising the change in her condition and finding it not so marked as he had hoped. Still, she seemed measurably more composed and mistress of her emotions, though he had to judge mostly by her voice and manner, so dark was the room. Through the shadows he could see little more than masses of light and shade blocking in the slender figure huddled in a big, dilapidated chair – the pallid oval of her face, and the darkness of her wide, intent, young eyes.

      "Don't!" she cried sharply. "Please don't look at me so – "

      "I beg your pardon. I didn't mean to – "

      "It's only – only that you make me think of what you must be thinking about me – "

      "I think you're rather fortunate," he said slowly.

      "Fortunate!"

      He shivered a little with the chill bitterness of that cry.

      "You've had a narrow but a wonderfully lucky escape."

      "Oh! … But I'm not glad … I was desperate – "

      "I mean," he interrupted coolly, "from Mr. Morton. The silver lining is, you're not married to a blackguard."

      "Oh, yes, yes!" she agreed passionately.

      "And you have youth, health, years of life before you!"

      He sighed inaudibly…

      "You wouldn't say that, if you understood."

      "There are worse things to put up with than youth and health and the right to live."

      "But – how can I live? What am I to do?"

      "Have you thought of going home?"

      "It isn't possible."

      "Have you made sure of that? Have you written to your father – explained?"

      "I sent him a special delivery three days ago, and – and yesterday a telegram. I knew it wouldn't do any good, but I … I told him everything. He didn't answer. He won't, ever."

      From what Whitaker knew of Thurlow Ladislas, he felt this to be too cruelly true to admit of further argument. At a loss, he fell silent, knitting his hands together as he strove to find other words wherewith to comfort and reassure the girl.

      She bent forward, elbows on knees, head and shoulders cringing.

      "It hurts so!" she wailed … "what people will think … the shame, the bitter, bitter shame of this! And yet I haven't any right to complain. I deserve it all; I've earned my punishment."

      "Oh, I say – !"

      "But I have, because – because I didn't love him. I didn't love him at all, and I knew it, even though I meant to marry him…"

      "But, why – in Heaven's name?"

      "Because I was so lonely and … misunderstood and unhappy at home. You don't know how desperately unhappy… No mother, never daring to see my sister (she ran away, too) … my friendships at school discouraged … nothing in life but a great, empty, lonesome house and my father to bully me and make cruel fun of me because I'm not pretty… That's why I ran away with a man I didn't love – because I wanted freedom and a little happiness."

      "Good Lord!" he murmured beneath his breath, awed by the pitiful, childish simplicity of her confession and the deep damnation that had waited upon her.

      "So it's over!" she cried – "over, and I've learned my lesson, and I'm disgraced forever, and friendless and – "

      "Stop right there!" he checked her roughly. "You're not friendless yet, and that nullifies all the rest. Be glad you've had your romance and learned your lesson – "

      "Please don't think I'm not grateful for your kindness," she interrupted. "But the disgrace – that can't be blotted out!"

      "Oh, yes, it can," he insisted bluntly. "There's a way I know – "

      A glimmering of that way had only that instant let a little light in upon the darkness of his solicitous distress for her. He rose and began to walk and think, hands clasped behind him, trying to make what he had in mind seem right and reasonable.

      "You mean beg my father to take me back. I'll die first!"

      "There