“Now, along comes Meynheer Julius Neergard — the only man who seems to have brains enough to see the present value of that parcel to the Siowitha people. Everybody else had the same chance; nobody except Neergard knew enough to take it. Why shouldn’t he profit by it?”
“Yes — but if he’d be satisfied to cut it up into lots and do what is fair—”
“Cut it up into nothing! Man alive, do you suppose the Siowitha people would let him? They’ve only a few thousand acres; they’ve got to control that land. What good is their club without it? Do you imagine they’d let a town grow up on three sides of their precious game-preserve? And, besides, I’ll bet you that half of their streams and lakes take rise on other people’s property — and that Neergard knows it — the Dutch fox!”
“That sort of — of business — that kind of coercion, does not appeal to me,” said Selwyn gravely.
“Then you’d better go into something besides business in this town,” observed Austin, turning red. “Good Lord, man, where would my Loan and Trust Company be if we never foreclosed, never swallowed a good thing when we see it?”
“But you don’t threaten people.”
Austin turned redder. “If people or corporations stand in our way and block progress, of course we threaten. Threaten? Isn’t the threat of punishment the very basis of law and order itself? What are laws for? And we have laws, too — laws, under the law—”
“Of the State of New Jersey,” said Selwyn, laughing. “Don’t flare up, Austin; I’m probably not cut out for a business career, as you point out — otherwise I would not have consulted you. I know some laws — including ‘The Survival of the Fittest,’ and the ‘Chain-of-Destruction’; and I have read the poem beginning
“‘Big bugs have little bugs to bite ‘em.’
“That’s all right, too; but speaking of laws, I’m always trying to formulate one for my particular self-government; and you don’t mind, do you?”
“No,” said Gerard, much amused, “I don’t mind. Only when you talk ethics — talk sense at the same time.”
“I wish I knew how,” he said.
They discussed Neergard’s scheme for a little while longer; Austin, shrewd and cautious, declined any personal part in the financing of the deal, although he admitted the probability of prospective profits.
“Our investments and our loans are of a different character,” he explained, “but I have no doubt that Fane, Harmon & Co.—”
“Why, both Fane and Harmon are members of the club!” laughed Selwyn. “You don’t expect Neergard to go to them?”
A peculiar expression flickered in Gerard’s heavy features; perhaps he thought that Fane and Harmon and Jack Ruthven were not above exploiting their own club under certain circumstances. But whatever his opinion, he said nothing further; and, suggesting that Selwyn remain to dine, went off to dress.
A few moments later he returned, crestfallen and conciliatory:
“I forgot, Nina and I are dining at the Orchils. Come up a moment; she wants to speak to you.”
So they took the rose-tinted rococo elevator; Austin went away to his own quarters, and Selwyn tapped at Nina’s boudoir.
“Is that you, Phil? One minute; Watson is finishing my hair. . . . Come in, now; and kindly keep your distance, my friend. Do you suppose I want Rosamund to know what brand of war-paint I use?”
“Rosamund,” he repeated, with a good-humoured shrug; “it’s likely — isn’t it?”
“Certainly it’s likely. You’d never know you were telling her anything — but she’d extract every detail in ten seconds. . . . I understand she adores you, Phil. What have you done to her?”
“That’s likely, too,” he remarked, remembering his savagely polite rebuke to that young matron after the Minster dinner.
“Well, she does; you’ve probably piqued her; that’s the sort of man she likes. . . . Look at my hair — how bright and wavy it is, Phil. Tell me, do I appear fairly pretty to-night?”
“You’re all right, Nina; I mean it,” he said. “How are the kids? How is Eileen?”
“That’s why I sent for you. Eileen is furious at being left here all alone; she’s practically well and she’s to dine with Drina in the library. Would you be good enough to dine there with them? Eileen, poor child, is heartily sick of her imprisonment; it would be a mercy, Phil.”
“Why, yes, I’ll do it, of course; only I’ve some matters at home—”
“Home! You call those stuffy, smoky, impossible, half-furnished rooms home! Phil, when are you ever going to get some pretty furniture and art things? Eileen and I have been talking it over, and we’ve decided to go there and see what you need and then order it, whether you like it or not.”
“Thanks,” he said, laughing; “it’s just what I’ve tried to avoid. I’ve got things where I want them now — but I knew it was too comfortable to last. Boots said that some woman would be sure to be good to me with an art-nouveau rocking-chair.”
“A perfect sample of man’s gratitude,” said Nina, exasperated; “for I’ve ordered two beautiful art-nouveau rocking-chairs, one for you and one for Mr. Lansing. Now you can go and humiliate poor little Eileen, who took so much pleasure in planning with me for your comfort. As for your friend Boots, he’s unspeakable — with my compliments.”
Selwyn stayed until he made peace with his sister, then he mounted to the nursery to “lean over” the younger children and preside at prayers. This being accomplished, he descended to the library, where Eileen Erroll in a filmy, lace-clouded gown, full of turquoise tints, reclined with her arm around Drina amid heaps of cushions, watching the waitress prepare a table for two.
He took the fresh, cool hand she extended and sat down on the edge of her couch.
“All O.K. again?” he inquired, retaining Eileen’s hand in his.
“Thank you — quite. Are you really going to dine with us? Are you sure you want to? Oh, I know you’ve given up some very gay dinner somewhere—”
“I was going to dine with Boots when Nina rescued me. Poor Boots! — I think I’ll telephone—”
“Telephone him to come here!” begged Drina. “Would he come? Oh, please — I’d love to have him.”
“I wish you would ask him,” said Eileen; “it’s been so lonely and stupid to lie in bed with a red nose and fishy eyes and pains in one’s back and limbs. Please do let us have a party.”
“‘Two pillows,’ said Drina sweetly.”
So Selwyn went to the telephone, and presently returned, saying that Boots was overwhelmed and would be present at the festivities; and Drina, enraptured, ordered flowers to be brought from the dining-room and a large table set for four, with particular pomp and circumstance.
Mr. Archibald Lansing arrived very promptly — a short, stocky young man of clean and powerful build, with dark, keen eyes always alert, and humorous lips ever on the edge of laughter under his dark moustache.
His manner with Drina was always delightful — a mixture of self-repressed idolatry and busily naïve belief in a thorough understanding between them to exclude Selwyn from their company.
“This Selwyn fellow here!” he exclaimed. “I warned him over the ‘phone we’d not tolerate him, Drina. I explained to him very carefully that you and I were dining together in strictest privacy—”
“He begged so hard,” said Eileen. “Will somebody place an extra pillow for Drina?”
They seized the same pillow fiercely, confronting each other; massacre appeared imminent.
“Two pillows,” said Drina sweetly; and extermination was averted. The child laughed happily, covering one of Boots’s hands with both of hers.
“So you’ve left the service, Mr. Lansing?” began Eileen, lying back and looking smilingly at Boots.
“Had to, Miss Erroll. Seven millionaires ran into my quarters and chased me out and down Broadway into the offices of the Westchester Air Line Company. Then these seven merciless multi-millionaires in buckram bound and gagged me, stuffed my pockets full of salary
, and forced me to typewrite a fearful and secret oath to serve them for five long, weary years. That’s a sample of how the wealthy grind the noses of the poor, isn’t it, Drina?”
The child slipped her hand from his, smiling uncertainly.
“You don’t mean all that, do you?”
“Indeed I do, sweetheart.”
“Are you not a soldier lieutenant any more, then?” she inquired, horribly disappointed.
“Only a private in the workman’s battalion, Drina.”
“I don’t care,” retorted the child obstinately; “I like you just as much.”
“Have you really done it?” asked Selwyn as the first course was served.
“I? No. They? Yes. We’ll probably lose the Philippines now,” he added gloomily; “but it’s my thankless country’s fault; you all had a chance to make me dictator, you know. Miss Erroll, do you want a second-hand sword? Of course there are great dents in it—”
“I’d rather have those celebrated boots,” she replied demurely; and Mr. Lansing groaned.
“How tall you’re growing, Drina,” remarked Selwyn.
“Probably the early spring weather,” added Boots. “You’re twelve, aren’t you?”
“Thirteen,” said Drina gravely.
“Almost time to elope with me,” nodded Boots.
“I’ll do it now,” she said— “as soon as my new gowns are made — if you’ll take me to Manila. Will you? I believe my Aunt Alixe is there—”
She caught Eileen’s eye and stopped short. “I forgot,” she murmured; “I beg your pardon, Uncle Philip—”
Boots was talking very fast and laughing a great deal; Eileen’s plate claimed her undivided attention; Selwyn quietly finished his claret; the child looked at them all.
“By the way,” said Boots abruptly, “what’s the matter with Gerald? He came in before noon looking very seedy—” Selwyn glanced up quietly.
“Wasn’t he at the office?” asked Eileen anxiously.
“Oh, yes,” replied Selwyn; “he felt a trifle under the weather, so I sent him home.”
“Is it the grippe?”
“N-no, I believe not—”
“Do you think he had better have a doctor? Where is he?”
“He was here,” observed Drina composedly, “and father was angry with him.”
“What?” exclaimed Eileen. “When?”
“This morning, before father went downtown.”
Both Selwyn and Lansing cut in coolly, dismissing the matter with a careless word or two; and coffee was served — cambric tea in Drina’s case.
“Come on,” said Boots, slipping a bride-rose into Drina’s curls; “I’m ready for confidences.”
“Confidences” had become an established custom with Drina and Boots; it meant that every time they saw one another they were pledged to tell each other everything that had occurred in their lives since their last meeting.
So Drina, excitedly requesting to be excused, jumped up and, taking Lansing’s hand in hers, led him to a sofa in a distant corner, where they immediately installed themselves and began an earnest and whispered exchange of confidences, punctuated by little whirlwinds of laughter from the child.
Eileen settled deeper among her pillows as the table was removed, and Selwyn drew his chair forward.
“Suppose,” she said, looking thoughtfully at him, “that you and I make a vow to exchange confidences? Shall we, Captain Selwyn?”
“Good heavens,” he protested; “I — confess to you! You’d faint dead away, Eileen.”
“Perhaps. . . . But will you?”
He gaily evaded an answer, and after a while he fancied she had forgotten. They spoke of other things, of her convalescence, of the engagements she had been obliged to cancel, of the stupid hours in her room — doubly stupid, as the doctor had not permitted her to read or sew.
“And every day violets from you,” she said; “it was certainly nice of you. And — do you know that somehow — just because you have never yet failed me — I thought perhaps — when I asked your confidence a moment ago—”
He looked up quickly.
“What is the matter with Gerald?” she asked. “Could you tell me?”
“Nothing serious is the matter, Eileen.”
“Is he not ill?”
“Not very.”
She lay still a moment, then with the slightest gesture: “Come here.”
He seated himself near her; she laid her hand fearlessly on his arm.
“Tell me,” she demanded. And, as he remained silent: “Once,” she said, “I came suddenly into the library. Austin and Gerald were there; Austin seemed to be very angry with my brother. I heard him say something that worried me; and I slipped out before they saw me.”
Selwyn remained silent.
“Was that it?”
“I — don’t know what you heard.”
“Don’t you understand me?”
“Not exactly.”
“Well, then” — she crimsoned— “has Gerald m-misbehaved again?”
“What did you hear Austin say?” he demanded.
“I heard — something about dissipation. He was very angry with Gerald. It is not the best way, I think, to become angry with either of us — either me or Gerald — because then we are usually inclined to do it again — whatever it is. . . . I do not mean for one moment to be disloyal to Austin; you know that. . . . But I am so thankful that Gerald is fond of you. . . . You like him, too, don’t you?”
“I am very fond of him.”
“Well, then,” she said, “you will talk to him pleasantly — won’t you? He is such a boy; and he adores you. It is easy to influence a boy like that, you know — easy to shame him out of the silly things he does. . . . That is all the confidence I wanted, Captain Selwyn. And you haven’t told me a word, you see — and I have not fainted — have I?”
They laughed a little; her fingers, which had tightened on his arm, relaxed; her hand fell away, and she straightened up, sitting Turk fashion, and smoothing her hair which contact with the pillows had disarranged so that it threatened to come tumbling over eyes and cheeks.
“Oh, hair, hair!” she murmured, “you’re Nina’s despair and my endless punishment. I’d twist and pin you tight if I dared — some day I will, too. . . . What are you looking at so curiously, Captain Selwyn? My mop?”
“It’s about the most stunningly beautiful thing I ever saw,” he said, still curious.
She nodded gaily, both hands still busy with the lustrous strands. “It is nice; but I never supposed you noticed it. It falls to my waist; I’ll show it to you some time. . . . But I had no idea you noticed such things,” she repeated, as though to herself.
“Oh, I’m apt to notice all sorts of things,” he said, looking so provokingly wise that she dropped her hair and clapped both hands over her eyes.
“Now,” she said, “if you are so observing, you’ll know the colour of my eyes. What are they?”
“Blue — with a sort of violet tint,” he said promptly.
She laughed and lowered her hands.
“All that personal attention paid to me!” she exclaimed. “You are turning my head, Captain Selwyn. Besides, you are astonishing me, because you never seem to know what women wear or what they resemble when I ask you to describe the girls with whom you have been dining or dancing.”
It was a new note in their cordial intimacy — this nascent intrusion of the personal. To her it merely meant his very charming recognition of her maturity — she was fast becoming a woman like other women, to be looked at and remembered as an individual, and no longer classed vaguely as one among hundreds of the newly emerged whose soft, unexpanded personalities all resembled one another.
For some time, now, she had cherished this tiny grudge in her heart — that he had never seemed to notice anything in particular about her except when he tried to be agreeable concerning some new gown. The contrast had become the sharper, too, since she had awakened to the admiration of other men. And t
he awakening was only a half-convinced happiness mingled with shy surprise that the wise world should really deem her so lovely.
“A red-headed girl,” she said teasingly; “I thought you had better taste than — than—”
“Than to think you a raving beauty?”
“Oh,” she said, “you don’t think that!”
As a matter of fact he himself had become aware of it so suddenly that he had no time to think very much about it. It was rather strange, too, that he had not always been aware of it; or was it partly the mellow light from the lamp tinting her till she glowed and shimmered like a young sorceress, sitting so straight there in her turquoise silk and misty lace?
Delicate luminous shadow banded her eyes; her hair, partly in shadow, too, became a sombre mystery in rose-gold.
“Whatever are you staring at?” she laughed. “Me? I don’t believe it! Never have you so honoured me with your fixed attention, Captain Selwyn. You really glare at me as though I were interesting. And I know you don’t consider me that; do you?”
“How old are you, anyway?” he asked curiously.
“Thank you, I’ll be delighted to inform you when I’m twenty.”
“You look like a mixture of fifteen and twenty-five to-night,” he said deliberately; “and the answer is more and less than nineteen.”
“And you,” she said, “talk like a frivolous sage, and your wisdom is as weighty as the years you carry. And what is the answer to that? Do you know, Captain Selwyn, that when you talk to me this way you look about as inexperienced as Gerald?”
“And do you know,” he said, “that I feel as inexperienced — when I talk to you this way?”
She nodded. “It’s probably good for us both; I age, you renew the frivolous days of youth when you were young enough to notice the colour of a girl’s hair and eyes. Besides, I’m very grateful to you. Hereafter you won’t dare sit about and cross your knees and look like the picture of an inattentive young man by Gibson. You’ve admitted that you like two of my features, and I shall expect you to notice and admit that you notice the rest.”
“I admit it now,” he said, laughing.
Works of Robert W Chambers Page 333