CHAPTER XII
AULD ACQUAINTANCE: WHAT CHRISTINA SAW
The only professional appearance which Wheeler had hitherto permittedChristina to make in New York had been when she recited at a benefitearly in the preceding spring. The benefit was for the families of somepolicemen who had perished valiantly in the public service and whenChristina had enlisted the Ingham influence in the cause Wheeler hadmade the whole affair appear of her contriving. To procure herself aninterview with Denny in the Inspector's office before the formalities ofthe Tombs should close about him she had not scrupled to make use ofthis circumstance, and whether because it combined with her havingbusiness there, in the identification of Nancy's message, or because theInspector believed she could really influence Denny to talk, as she saidshe could, or because he wanted to watch them together, or, after all,because she was one of those who get what she desired, there she was.
Herrick was no longer at a loss to account for a sort of tickledadmiration which admitted him as one at least near the rose. She hadevidently been treated with the consideration due the chief mourner,whatever one may think of the corpse; the Inspector, over by the window,had made himself inconspicuous and for a moment Herrick saw onlyChristina--a Christina wholly baffled and at a loss! She had, indeed,that air of having spent her life in the office which was herdistinguishing characteristic in any atmosphere. Her hat was, as usual,anywhere but on her head; she had stripped off her gloves and tossedthem into it. But she now sat in an attitude of despairing quiet whichshe broke on Herrick's entrance only to catch his arm with one hand;turning her face in upon his sleeve, "Bryce," she moaned, "I brought himto this!"
Then he saw that Denny was standing looking through the barred windowwith his back to them. When he turned Herrick had to struggle against atouch of sympathy for the change in his appearance. Although he hadnever seen Denny in the daylight before, there was no denying that hewas only the worn ghost of what he had been last night. His slendernesshad the broken droop of physical and emotional exhaustion; beneath theintense black of his hair, his face was the color of ashes and hisquick, brilliant eyes looked lifeless and burned out. Nevertheless,Herrick preferred the daytime version. The sort of evil phosphorescenceof the French marquis which had continued to dazzle his eyes in thedarkness and the sharp electric light, had wholly vanished; Denny wasnot playing a villain now--and in the blue serge suit of ordinary life,there was something almost boyish in him.
"He won't help me, Bryce," Christina said. "He won't tell me anything,he won't say anything. He won't even tell me what lawyer he wants."
Denny stood with his eyes fixed on his visitors but in an abstractionwhich seemed to take no note of them; and Christina went on to Herrick,as to a more sympathetic audience. "I tell him he shall have the bestlawyers in the world! He shan't be tormented any longer; he shall havethe law to look out for him! He'll be all right, won't he, Bryce, won'the? If he'll only help himself! If he'll only say something!" Her voicerose desperately and broke. "Tell him you're simply _for_ him, as Iam--that's what I brought you here for! Tell him we're with him, both ofus, all the world to nothing, and that we urge him to anything he cansay or do to help himself! And that it will never make any differenceto--either of us!" When Herrick had made out to say that Christina'sfriends were his friends, she went up to Denny and took him by theshoulders. "Don't you understand? I want to speak not only for myself,but for all those dear to me!"
Denny broke into a nervous laugh, but he said nothing.
Herrick guessed that his denial of his guilt had taken Christina whollyby surprise; that she had relied greatly on the story of his provocationand that now she did not know what to do. That it is not seemly foryoung ladies to display such extreme emotion over gentlemen to whom theyare not related and who have had the misfortune to be imprisoned formurder did not cross her mind. She was now reduced to a sort ofhysterical practicality in which, for lack of the treacherous valet, sheenlisted Herrick to discuss with a surprised Inspector what clothes andfurnishings of Denny's she would be allowed to have packed up and sentto the Tombs--"What ought I to do to make them like me there? Oh, yes,Bryce, it makes a difference everywhere! I mustn't wear a veil; and Imust get them plenty of passes. It's a pity we can't pretend to beengaged--it would interest every one so!--How about money, Will?"
"I've plenty, thanks."
"Most ladies don't think beyond flowers!" contrasted the Inspector, inamused admiration.
Exasperated beyond endurance, Herrick heard himself launch the sicklypleasantry, "Any use for flowers, Mr. Denny?"
"Not before the funeral," Denny said.
She shook him a little in her eagerness. "Books. And tobacco. And thingsto drink. And the best food. And magazines. And all the newspapers."Christina clung to the items like a child trying to comfort itself."Or--perhaps--not the newspapers--"
Denny flung restlessly out of her hands. "Oh, yes," he said, "thenewspapers, please! Let me at least know how I am admired." He went backto staring out of the window; he seemed so little interested in hisvisitors that it was as though he had left them alone.
Christina stood looking at him with an infinite pity. She was not cryingbut her magnificent eyes swam in a sort of luminous ether and Herrickhad never seen her so girlishly helpless.--"Knowing me brought him tothis!"
"Don't talk like a fool, Christina!" Denny interrupted over his shoulderin his dead-and-alive voice.
"It's true. If you'd never known me, or if I'd never engaged myself toJim--"
"Or if I'd never been born. It's just as true and just about asrelevant." His absent voice died in his throat. Then, of a sudden, heturned on her with a kind of restive suspicion. "What did you say,awhile ago, about Kane's office?"
"He's sent for me to come there to-morrow at two."
"Well, whatever you begin telling him, remember there's one thing Ican't put up with. And that's--Well, anything less than--the full dose."He came up to the girl and took her hand in his cold fingers. "And Iimplore you, Christina, whatever you do, not to set such a motion onfoot, not to work up any sympathies nor bring forward any circumstanceswhich might lead to what they call a merciful sentence. I couldn't standit, Chris. It's the one thing I can't bear.--Oh, don't cry, don't cry!Come, my dear! Why, you surely don't want me to live--like this! Withnothing to think of except--about Nancy! Well, then!" But Christina wasvisibly gasping for breath and, in a nature easily drawn togetheragainst a world harsh or indifferent, all the defenses against feelingbegan to give way. Some comfort must be found for those that insist uponcaring! But what comfort?--"Ah now, Chris, dear old girl, such a bravegirl--it's all right. It's bound to be. Why, it's what I want, really.Really it is. You know that. You know I've been pretty well through, allthese weeks, isn't that so?--Oh, take her away, won't you?" he cried toHerrick.
But Christina had by this time begun to cry, indeed, and now she threwher arms round Denny's neck, pulled down his face and kissed him. "Toleave you here!" she wept.
For a moment he stood stiff in her embrace and then he gently returnedher kiss; suddenly, with a sobbing breath, he caught her by theshoulders as a man clings to something tried and dear, which he knows hemay not often see again. "Poor Chris!" he said. "All right, Chris!"
The Inspector signed to the doorman who stepped up, pleasantly enough,to Denny, and at his touch Denny took the girl by her elbows and heldher off.
"Come," he said, "you've got a performance to-night!"
"Oh, God help me!" Christina cried. "How am I to go through with it!"
"Why," said Denny, quickly, "do it for me! Don't let me wreck everythingI touch!" He looked at Herrick as though to say, "Be good to her--she'sonly a girl! You needn't fear she can help me!" And aloud he continued,"Look here, Christina, you mustn't fail. You're my friend, to pull methrough and make friends for me, isn't that so? Well, then, you mustn'tbe a nobody! If you're going to get me out of here, you've got to be acelebrity, and move worlds. Well, you've got nothing but to-night to doit with. People like us, my dear, we'v
e nothing but ourselves to fightwith, just ourselves! Come, get yourself together and pull it offto-night! For me!" Over her head his miserable eyes besought Herrick totake her away while she could believe this. But the girl, straighteningup, held out her hand. Denny took it and "All right," she said, "Iwill!" As they stood thus, a door from within the building opened andthere was admitted no less a person than Cuyler Ten Euyck.
Christina was standing between him and Denny. The eyes of the two menmet and slashed like whips. Herrick never needed to be told whose wasthe hand that long ago, for Christina's sake, had struck Ten Euyck. NowDenny said in a quick undertone, "Don't fret, old girl!" And the guardtook him away.
The newcomer looked rather more frozen than usual; he was surprised andhe did not take kindly to surprises. "It seems to be my fate tointerrupt! Mr. Herrick, don't you feel de trop?"
He indulged himself in this discomforting question while his byplay ofglances was really saying to Inspector Corrigan, "What are all thesepeople doing here?" and Corrigan's was replying, "None of yourbusiness!" There was evidently no love lost between the types,particularly when the first glance persisted, "You got nothing out ofhim?" And the second was obliged to admit, "Nothing!"--"But I imploreyour toleration," Ten Euyck continued to Christina, "I can perhaps doyou some service for the prisoner with Inspector Corrigan."
"The prisoner thanks you, as I do. But we have played in melodrama andwe are acquainted with the practice of poisoned bouquets. InspectorCorrigan and I are doing very well as we are!"
"You are unkind and, believe me, you are unwise. I really wish to pleaseyou--do you find that so unnatural?--and to justify myself in yourregard. I want to begin by advising you not to let your friend'smelodramatic silence suggest to the public that he is going to hidebehind some story of a woman--"
"He is very foolishly trying to keep a woman's name out of his story,"Christina clearly and boldly declared.
"Nonsense! There is no such person!"
"Why not?"
"Because if there were he would be only too anxious to get her to comeforward and tell the jury what she told him. It might get him off."
"How do you know what she told him?"
"My dear lady, they all tell the same thing. It seems to those who areinterested--"
"It seems nothing whatever but a chance to divert yourself with what youconsider his disgrace, because the idea of disgrace comes natural toyou--and, indeed, to you, in his presence, it should do so! But I relyon Inspector Corrigan to limit your diversions. His favors are thefavors of a practical man; neither he nor I are fortune's darlings; weboth work for our living and we both understand one another.--I ought tosay that I am sorry to be rude. But I am not sorry, I rejoice. Whilethere was a suspicion for you to nose out I was afraid of you. But now Iam free of you. If I were your poor mother," cried Christina, catchingup her hat, "I should pray you were ever in a disgrace that did you somuch honor!"
This outburst produced a silence: Inspector Corrigan amused andgratified, Inspector Ten Euyck struggling to appear amused and tolerant.In fact, as Christina, still breathing fire, drew on her gloves, hebecame so very easy and happy as to hum a little tune. The wordsinstantly fitted themselves to it in Herrick's mind.
"Je suis aussi sans desir Autre que d'en bien finir--"
"That's very charming!" said Christina, in the tone of a person alwaysgoverned by amiability. "Where did you hear that?"
"I don't really know. I'll trace it for you, if that will make mypeace."
"Thank you, no.--Then you think," said Christina, sharply to bothofficials, "that it would do him great good if this woman, whether he'sinnocent or guilty, should come forward of her own accord, and repeatthe story of her trouble as she repeated it to him?"
"Undoubtedly!"
"Well, then, she shall!"
"Christina!"
"Miss Hope!"
Christina was inexpressibly grave; she trembled a little, but her voicewas firm. "What must be, must be!" she said.
"But, Miss Hope, in person?"
"In person, yes."
"But how, when, where?"
"Very simply. On Friday. At the office of the District Attorney."
"And you can be certain of this?"
"I can."
"You know who she is then?"
"Most assuredly I do."
"Mr. Herrick's terrible shadow?"
"Oh, she needn't bring her shadow, need she?" Christina said.
Ten Euyck, who was just leaving the building, turned and looked at her;there was always a covert, sullen admiration in his glances at her. "I'mglad to see your spirits are improving. It's now you who are singing!"
"'Auld acquaintance'--a sad enough song! But my Nancy's favorite! Don'tbegrudge it me, Inspector Ten Euyck; it reminds all who love her of kindhours. '_Should_ auld acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind?'Good-by, Mr. Ten Euyck." The outside door closed after him, and she saidto the Inspector, "There is something you wish me to identify?"
"Here we are!" said the Inspector. "The experts say she wrote it!"
Christina looked at the four words a long time. The tears rose in hereyes again. "Yes. She did." She turned to Herrick. "This was what I cameto tell Will last night. My mother had just told me. But now that he'shelpless, he mustn't know!"
"Well?" said the Inspector, and he handed Christina the red lock ofcurly hair.
She took it a little gingerly; studying it, as it lay in the palm of herhand. "Of course, one could be deceived," she said, slowly. "But it'seither her hair or it's exactly like it." She lifted the curl and heldit to the light. She untied the string which bound it, and thinning itout in her fingers spread it to a soft flame of color. "Oh, surely, it'sher hair--oh, poor little girl!" she cried, and crossed by a suddenshiver, she let the hair fall from her hand. Swifter than the men abouther she gathered it up again, and again stood studying the tumbled andscattered little mass. And then Herrick saw a terrible change come overher face--an immense amazement, mingled almost at once with passionateincredulity; slowly, the incredulity gave way to conviction and to fear;and then there swept upon Christina's face a blaze of such anger asHerrick had never seen in a woman's eyes.
"What is it?" they all cried to her.
She opened her lips, as if to call it forth; but then she seemed to loseher breath, and, all at once, she slipped down in a dead faint at theirfeet.