by Zane Grey
Margaret wondered how many thousands of girls had been similarly placed, and pitied them. She thought of the atmosphere in which she lived, where it seemed to her every mother was possessed singularly and entirely of one aim, to marry her daughter as soon as possible to a man as rich as possible. Marrying well simply meant marrying money. Only a few days before her mother had come to her and said: “Mrs. Fisher called and she was telling me about her daughter Alice. It seems Alice is growing very pretty and very popular. She said she was afraid Alice had taken, a liking to that Brandeth fellow, who’s only a clerk. So Mrs. Fisher intends taking Alice to the seashore this summer, to an exclusive resort, of course, but one where there will be excitement and plenty of young gentlemen.”
At the remembrance Margaret gave a little contemptuous laugh. A year ago she would not have divined the real purport of her mother’s words. How easy that was now! Mrs. Fisher had decided that as Alice was eighteen it was time a suitable husband was found for her. Poor Alice! Balls, parties, receptions there would be, and trips to the seashore and all the other society manoeuvers, made ostensibly to introduce Alice to the world; but if the truth were told in cold blood all this was simply a parading of the girl before a number of rich and marriageable men. Poor Harry Brandeth!
She recalled many marriages of friends and acquaintances. With strange intensity of purpose she brought each one to mind, and thought separately and earnestly over her. What melancholy facts this exercise revealed! She could not recall one girl who was happy, perfectly happy, unless it was Jane Silvey who ran off with and married a telegraph operator. Jane was still bright-eyed and fresh, happy no doubt in her little house with her work and her baby, even though her people passed her by as if she were a stranger. Then Margaret remembered with a little shock there was another friend, a bride who had been found on her wedding night wandering in the fields. There had been some talk, quickly hushed, of a drunken husband, but it had never definitely transpired what had made her run out into the dark night. Margaret recollected the time she had seen this girl’s husband, when he was drunk, beat his dog brutally. Then Margaret reflected on the gossip she never wanted to hear, yet could not avoid hearing, over her mother’s tea-table; on the intimations and implications. Many things she would not otherwise have thought of again, but they now recurred and added their significance to her awakening mind. She was not keen nor analytical; she possessed only an ordinary intelligence; she could not trace her way through a labyrinth of perplexing problems; still, suffering had opened her eyes and she saw something terribly wrong in her mother’s world.
Once more she stopped pacing her room, for a step in the hall arrested her, and made her stand quivering, as if under the lash.
“I won’t!” she breathed intensely. Swiftly and lightly she sped across her room, opened a door leading to the balcony and went out, closing the door behind her softly.
Mr. Maynard sat before the library fire with a neglected cigar between his fingers. The events of the day had stirred him deeply. The cold shock he had felt when he touched his daughter’s cheek in the accustomed good-night kiss remained with him, still chilled his lips. For an hour he sat there motionless, with his eyes fixed on the dying fire, and in his mind hope, doubt and remorse strangely mingled. Hope persuaded him that Margaret was only a girl, still sentimental and unpoised. Unquestionably she had made a good marriage. Her girlish notions about romance and love must give way to sane acceptance of real human life. After all money meant a great deal. She would come around to a sensible view, and get that strange look out of her eyes, that strained blighted look which hurt him. Then he writhed in his self-contempt; doubt routed all his hope, and remorse made him miserable.
A hurried step on the stairs aroused Mr. Maynard. Swann came running into the library. He was white; his sharp featured face wore a combination of expressions; alarm, incredulity, wonder were all visible there, but the most striking was mortification.
“Mr. Maynard, Margaret has left her room. I can’t find her anywhere.”
The father stared blankly at his son-in-law.
Swann repeated his statement.
“What!” All at once Mr. Maynard sank helplessly into his chair. In that moment certainty made him an old broken man.
“She’s gone!” said Swann, in a shaken voice. “She has run off from me. I knew she would; I knew she’d do something. I’ve never been able to kiss her—only last night we quarreled about it. I tell you it’s—”
“Pray do not get excited,” interrupted Mr. Maynard, bracing up. “I’m sure you exaggerate. Tell me what you know.”
“I went to her room an hour, two hours ago, and knocked. She was there but refused me admittance. She spoke sharply—as if—as if she was afraid. I went and knocked again long after. She didn’t answer. I knocked again and again. Then I tried her door. It was not locked. I opened it. She was not in the room. I waited, but she didn’t come. I—I am afraid something is—wrong.”
“She might be with her mother,” faltered Mr. Maynard.
“No, I’m sure not,” asserted Swann. “Not tonight of all nights. Margaret has grown—somewhat cold toward her mother. Besides Mrs. Maynard retired hours ago.”
The father and the husband stole noiselessly up the stairs and entered Margaret’s room. The light was turned on full. The room was somewhat disordered; bridal finery lay littered about; a rug was crumpled; a wicker basket overturned. The father’s instinct was true. His first move was to open the door leading out upon the balcony. In the thin snow drifted upon this porch were the imprints of little feet.
Something gleamed pale blue in the light of the open door. Mr. Maynard picked it up, and with a sigh that was a groan held it out to Swann. It was a blue satin slipper.
“Heavens!” exclaimed Swann. “She’s run out in the snow—she might as well be barefooted.”
“S-sh-h!” warned Mr. Maynard. Unhappy and excited as he was he did not forget Mrs. Maynard. “Let us not alarm any one.”
“There! See, her footsteps down the stairs,” whispered Swann. “I can see them clear to the ground.”
“You stay here, Swann, so in case Mrs. Maynard or the servants awake you can prevent alarm. We must think of that. I’ll bring her back.”
Mr. Maynard descended the narrow stairway to the lower porch and went out into the yard. The storm had ceased. A few inches of snow had fallen and in places was deeper in drifts. The moon was out and shone down on a white world. It was cold and quiet. When Mr. Maynard had trailed the footsteps across his wide lawn and saw them lead out into the street toward the park, he fell against a tree, unable, for a moment, to command himself. Hope he had none left, nor a doubt. On the other side of the park, hardly a quarter of a mile away, was the river. Margaret had gone straight toward it.
Outside in the middle of the street he found her other slipper. She had not even stockings on now; he could tell by the impressions of her feet in the snow. He remembered quite mournfully how small Margaret’s feet were, how perfectly shaped. He hurried into the park, but was careful to obliterate every vestige of her trail by walking in the soft snow directly over her footprints. A hope that she might have fainted before she could carry out her determination arose in him and gave him strength. He kept on. Her trail led straight across the park, in the short cut she had learned and run over hundreds of times when a little girl. It was hastening her now to her death.
At first her footsteps were clear-cut, distinct and wide apart. Soon they began to show evidences of weariness; the stride shortened; the imprints dragged. Here a great crushing in a snow drift showed where she had fallen.
Mr. Maynard’s hope revived; he redoubled his efforts. She could not be far. How she dragged along! Then with a leap of his heart, and a sob of thankfulness he found her, with disheveled hair, and face white as the snow where it rested, sad and still in the moonlight.
CHAPTER XIX
Middleville was noted for its severe winters, but this year the zero weather held off until late in Janu
ary. Lane was peculiarly susceptible to the cold and he found himself facing a discomfort he knew he could not long endure. Every day he felt more and more that he should go to a warm and dry climate; and yet he could not determine to leave Middleville. Something held him.
The warmth of bright hotel lobbies and theatres and restaurants uptown was no longer available for Lane. His money had dwindled beyond the possibility of luxury, and besides he shrank now from meeting any one who knew him. His life was empty, dreary and comfortless.
One wintry afternoon Lane did not wander round as long as usual, for the reason that his endurance was lessening. He returned early to his new quarters, and in the dim hallway he passed a slight pale girl who looked at him. She seemed familiar, but Lane could not place her. Evidently she had a room in the building. Lane hated the big barn-like house, and especially the bare cold room where he had to seek rest. Of late he had not eaten any dinner. He usually remained in bed as long as he could, and made a midday meal answer all requirements. Appetite, like many other things, was failing him. This day he sat upon his bed, in the abstraction of the lonely and unhappy, until the cold forced him to get under the covers.
His weary eyelids had just closed when he was awakened. The confused sense of being torn from slumber gave way to a perception of a voice in the room next to his. It was a man’s voice, rough with the huskiness Lane recognized as peculiar to drunkards. And the reply to it seemed to be a low-toned appeal from a woman.
“Playin’ off sick, eh? You don’t want to work. But you’ll get me some money, girl, d’ye hear?”
A door slammed, rattling the thin partition between the two rooms, and heavy footsteps dragged in the hall and on the stairway.
Sleep refused to come back to Lane. As he lay there he was surprised at the many sounds he heard. The ramshackle old structure, which he had supposed almost vacant, was busy with life. Stealthy footfalls in the hallways passed and repassed; a piano drummed somewhere; a man’s loud voice rang out, and a woman’s laugh faint, hollow and far away, like the ghost of laughter, returned in echo. The musical clinking of glasses, the ring of a cash register, the rattling click of pool balls, came up from below.
Presently Lane remembered the nature of the place. It was a house of night. In daylight it was silent; its inmates were asleep. But as the darkness unfolded a cloak over it, all the hidden springs of its obscure humanity began to flow. Lying there with the woman’s appeal haunting him and all those sounds in his ears he thought of their meaning. The drunkard with his lust for money; his moaning victim; the discordant piano; the man with the vacant laugh; the lost hope and youth in the woman’s that echoed it; the stealing, slipping feet of those who must tread softly—all conveyed to Lane that he had awakened in another world, a world which shunned sunlight.
Toward morning he dozed off into a fitful sleep which lasted until ten o’clock when he arose and dressed. As he was about to go out a knock on the door of the room next to his recalled the incident of the night. He listened. Another knock followed, somewhat louder, but no response came from within.
“Say, you in there,” cried a voice Lane recognized as the landlady’s. She rattled the door-knob.
A girl’s voice answered weakly: “Come in.”
Lane heard the door open.
“I wants my room rent. I can’t get a dollar out of your drunken father. Will you pay? It’s four weeks overdue.”
“I have no money.”
“Then get out an’ leave me the room.” The landlady spoke angrily.
“I’m ill. I can’t get up.” The answer was faint.
Lane opened his door quickly, and confronted the broad person of the landlady.
“How much does the woman owe?” he asked, quietly.
“Ah-huh!” the exclamation was trenchant with meaning. “Twenty dollars, if it’s anything to you.”
“I’ll pay it. I think I heard the woman say she was ill.”
“She says she is.”
“May I be of any assistance?”
“Ask her.”
Lane glanced into the little room, a counterpart of his. But it was so dark he could see nothing distinctly.
“May I come in? Let me raise the blind. There, the sun is fine this morning. Now, may I not—”
He looked down at a curly head and a sweet pretty face that he knew.
“I know you,” he said, groping among past associations.
“I am Rose Clymer,” she whispered, and a momentary color came into her wan cheeks.
“Rose Clymer! Bessy Bell’s friend!”
“Yes, Mr. Lane. I’m not so surprised as you. I recognized you last night.”
“Then it was you who passed me in the hall?”
“Yes.”
“Well! And you’re ill? What is the matter? Ah! Last night—it was your—your father—I heard?”
“Yes,” she answered. “I’ve not been well since—for a long time, and I gave out last night.”
“Here I am talking when I might be of some use,” said Lane, and he hurried out of the room. The landlady had discreetly retired to the other end of the hall. He thrust some money into her hands.
“She seems pretty sick. Do all you can for her, be kind to her. I’ll pay. I’m going for a doctor.”
He telephoned for Doctor Bronson.
An hour later Lane, coming upstairs from his meal, met the physician at Rose’s door. He looked strangely at Lane and shook his head.
“Daren, how is it I find you here in this place?”
“Beggars can’t be choosers,” answered Lane, with his old frank smile.
“Humph!” exclaimed the doctor, gruffly.
“How about the girl?” asked Lane.
“She’s in bad shape,” replied Bronson.… “Lane, are you aware of her condition?”
“Why, she’s ill—that’s all I know,” replied Lane, slowly. “Rose didn’t tell me what ailed her. I just found out she was here.”
Doctor Bronson looked at Lane. “Too bad you didn’t find out sooner. I’ll call again today and see her.… And say, Daren, you look all in yourself.”
“Never mind me, Doctor. It’s mighty good of you to look after Rose. I know you’ve more patients than you can take care of. Rose has nothing and her father’s a poor devil. But I’ll pay you.”
“Never mind about money,” rejoined Bronson, turning to go.
Lane could learn little from Rose. Questions seemed to make her shrink, so Lane refrained from them and tried to cheer her. The landlady had taken a sudden liking to Lane which evinced itself in her change of attitude toward Rose, and she was communicative. She informed Lane that the girl had been there about two months; that her father had made her work till she dropped. Old Clymer had often brought men to the hotel to drink and gamble, and to the girl’s credit she had avoided them.
For several days Doctor Bronson came twice daily to see Rose. He made little comment upon her condition, except to state that she had developed peritonitis, and he was not hopeful. Soon Rose took a turn for the worse. The doctor came to Lane’s room and told him the girl would not have the strength to go through with her ordeal. Lane was so shocked he could not speak. Dr. Bronson’s shoulders sagged a little, an unusual thing for him. “I’m sorry, Daren,” he said. “I know you wanted to help the poor girl out of this. But too late. I can ease her pain, and that’s all.”
Strangely shaken and frightened Lane lay down in the dark. The partition between his room and Rose’s might as well have been paper for all the sound it deadened. He could have escaped that, but he wanted to be near her.… And he listened to Rose’s moans in the darkness. Lane shuddered there, helpless, suffering, realizing. Then the foreboding silence became more dreadful than any sound.… It was terrible for Lane. That strange cold knot in his breast, that coil of panic, seemed to spring and tear, quivering through all his body. What had he known of torture, of sacrifice, of divine selflessness? He understood now how the loved and guarded woman went down into the Valley of the Shadow f
or the sake of a man. Likewise, he knew the infinite tragedy of a ruined girl who lay in agony, gripped by relentless nature.
Lane was called into the hall by Mrs. O’Brien. She was weeping. Bronson met him at the door.
“She’s dying,” he whispered. “You’d better come in. I’ve ’phoned to Doctor Wallace.”
Lane went in, almost blinded. The light seemed dim. Yet he saw Rose with a luminous glow radiating from her white face.
“I feel—so light,” she said, with a wan smile.
Lane sat by the bed, but he could not speak. The moments dragged. He had a feeling of their slow but remorseless certainty.
Then there were soft steps outside—Mrs. O’Brien opened the door—and Doctor Wallace entered the room.
“My child,” he gravely began, bending over her.
Rose’s big eyes with their strained questioning gaze sought his face and Doctor Bronson’s and Lane’s.
“Rose—are you—in pain?”
“The burning’s gone,” she said.
“My child,” began Doctor Wallace, again. “Your pain is almost over. Will you not pray with me?”
“No. I never was two-faced,” replied Rose, with a weary shake of the tangled curls. “I won’t show yellow now.”
Lane turned away blindly. It was terrible to think of her dying bitter, unrepentant.
“Oh! if I could hope!” murmured Rose. “To see my mother!”
Then there were shuffling steps outside and voices. The door was opened by Mrs. O’Brien. Old Clymer crossed the threshold. He was sober, haggard, grieved. He had been told. No one spoke as he approached Rose’s bedside.