 | II. In The Bishop's Carriage |  |
2. II.
Yes, empty-handed, Tom Dorgan. And I can't honestly say I didn't have the chance, but — if my hands are empty my head is full.
Listen.
There's a girl I know with short brown hair, a turned-up nose and gray eyes, rather far apart. You know her, too? Well, she can't help that.
But this girl — oh, she makes such a pretty boy! And the ladies at the hotel over in Brooklyn, they just dote on her when she's not only a boy but a bell-boy. Her name may be Nancy when she's in petticoats, but in trousers she's Nathaniel — in short, Nat.
Now, Nat, in blue and buttons, with his nails kept better than most boys', with his curly hair parted in the middle, and with a gentle tang to his voice that makes him almost girlish — who would suspect Nat of having a stolen pass-key in his pocket and a pretty fair knowledge of the contents of almost every top bureau-drawer in the hotel?
Not Mrs. Sarah Kingdon, a widow just arrived from Philadelphia, and desperately gone on young Mr. George Moriway, also fresh from Philadelphia, and desperately gone on Mrs. Kingdon's money.
The tips that lady gave the bad boy Nat! I knew I couldn't make you believe it any other way; that's why I passed 'em on to you, Tommy-boy.
The hotel woman, you know, girls, is a hotel woman because she isn't fit to be anything else. She's lazy and selfish and little, and she's shifted all her legitimate cares on to the proprietor's shoulders. She actually — you can understand and share my indignation, can't you, Tom, as you've shared other things? — she even gives over her black tin box full of valuables to the hotel clerk to put in the safe; the coward! But her vanity — ah, there's where we get her, such speculators as you and myself. She's got to outshine the woman who sits at the next table, and so she borrows her diamonds from the clerk, wears 'em like the peacock she is, and trembles till they're back in the safe again.
In the meantime she locks them up in the tin box which she puts in her top bureau-drawer,
He comes.
As I said, he's a prompt, gentle little bell-boy, slight, looks rather young for his job, but that very youth and innocence of his make him such a fellow to trust!
“Nat,” says Mrs. Kingdon, tearfully pressing half a dollar into the nice lad's hand, “I — I've lost something and I want you to — to help me find it.”
“Yes'm,” says Nat. He's the soul of politeness.
“It must be here — it must be in this room,” says the lady, getting wild with the terror of losing. “I'm sure — positive — that I went straight to the shoe-bag and slipped it in there. And now I can't find it, and I must have it before I go out this afternoon for — for a very special reason. My daughter Evelyn will be home to-morrow and — why don't you look for it?”
“What is it, ma'am?”
“I told you once. My key — a little flat key that locks — a box I've got,” she finishes distrustfully.
“Have you looked in the shoe-bag, ma'am?”
“Why, of course I have, you little stupid. I want you to hunt other places where I can't easily get. There are other places I might have put it, but I'm positive it was in the shoe-bag.”
Well, I looked for that key. Where? Where not? I looked under the rubbish in the waste-paper basket; Mrs. Kingdon often fooled thieves by dropping it there. I pulled up the corner of the carpet and looked there — it was loose; it had often been used for a hiding-place. I looked in Miss Evelyn's boot and in her ribbon box. I emptied Mrs. Kingdon's full powder box. I climbed ladders and felt along cornices. I looked through the pockets of Mrs. Kingdon's gowns — a clever bell-boy it takes to find a woman's pocket, but even the real masculine ones among 'em are half feminine; they've had so much to do with women.
I rummaged through her writing-desk, and, in searching a gold-cornered pad, found a note from Moriway hidden under the corner. I hid it again carefully — in my coat pocket. A love-letter from Moriway, to a woman twenty years older than himself — 'tain't a bad lay, Tom Dorgan, but you needn't try it.
At first she watched every move I made, but later, as her headache grew worse, she got desperate. So then I put my hand down into the shoe-bag and found the key, where it had slipped under a fold of cloth.
Do you suppose that woman was grateful? She snatched it from me.
“I knew it was there. I told you it was there. If you'd had any sense you'd have looked there first. The boys in this hotel are so stupid.”
“That's all, ma'am?”
She nodded. She was fitting the key into the black box she'd taken from the top drawer. Nat had got to the outside door when he heard her come shrieking after him.
“Nat — Nat — come back! My diamonds — they're not here. I know I put them back last night — I'm positive. I could swear to it. I can see myself putting them in the chamois bag, and — O my God, where can they be! This time they're gone!”
Nat could have told her — but what's the use? He felt she'd only lose 'em again if she had 'em. So he let them lie snug in his trousers pocket — where he had put the chamois bag, when his eyes
This time she followed his every step. He could not put his hand on the smallest thing without rousing her suspicion. If he hesitated, she scolded. If he hurried, she fumed. Most unjust, I call it, because he had no thought of stealing — just then.
“Come,” she said at last, “we'll go down and report it at the desk.”
“Hadn't I better wait here, ma'am, and look again?”
She looked sharply at him.
“No; you'd better do just as I tell you.”
So down we went. And we met Mr. Moriway there. She'd telephoned him. The chambermaid was called, the housekeeper, the electrical engineer who'd been fixing bells that morning, and, as I said, a bell-boy named Nat, who told how he'd just come on duty when Mrs. Kingdon's bell rang, found her key and returned it to her, and was out of the room when she unlocked the box. That was all he knew.
“Is he telling the truth?” Moriway asked Mrs Kingdon.
“Ye — es, I guess he is; but where are the diamonds? We must have them — you know — to-day, George,” she whispered. And then she turned and went upstairs, leaving Moriway to do the rest.
“There's only one thing to do, Major,” he said to the proprietor. “Search 'em all and then — ”
“Search me? It's an outrage!” cried the housekeeper.
“Search me if ye loike,” growled McCarthy, resentfully. “Oi wasn't there but a minute; the lady herself can tell ye that.”
Katie, the chambermaid, flushed painfully, and there were indignant tears in her eyes, which, I'll tell you in confidence, made a girl named Nancy uncomfortable.
But the boy Nat; knowing that bell-boys have no rights, said nothing. But he thought. He thought, Tom Dorgan, a lot of things and a long way ahead.
The peppery old Major marched us all off to his private office.
Not much, girls, it hadn't come. For suddenly the annunciator rang out.
Out of the corner of his eye, Nat looked at the bell-boy's bench. It was empty. There was to be
“Number Twenty-one!” shouted the clerk at the desk.
But Number Twenty-one didn't budge. His heart was beating like a hammer, and the ting — ng — ng of that bell calling him rang in his head like a song.
“Number Twenty-one!” yelled the clerk.
Oh, he's got a devil of a temper, has that clerk. Some day, Tom, when you love me very much, go up to the hotel and break his face for me.
“You. — boy — confound you, can't you hear?” he shouted.
That time he caught the Major's ear — the one that wasn't deaf. He looked from Powers' black face to the bench and then to me. And all the time the bell kept ringing like mad.
“Git!” he said to the boy. “And come back in a hurry.”
Number Twenty-one got — but leisurely. It wouldn't do for a bell-boy to hurry, particularly when he had such good cause.
Oh, girls, those stone stairs, the servants' stairs
One flight.
No chance.
Another.
Everything bare as stone and soap could keep it.
The third flight — my knees began to tremble, and not with climbing. The call came from this floor. But I ran up a fourth just on the chance, and there in a corner was a fire hatchet strapped to the wall. Behind that hatchet Mrs. Kingdon's diamonds might lie snug till evening. I put the ends of my fingers first in the little crack to make
And there behind me, stealthily coming up the last turn of the stairs was Mr. George Moriway!
Don't you hate a soft-walking man, Mag? That cute fellow was cuter than the old Major himself, and had followed me every inch of the way.
“There's something loose with this hatchet, sir,” I said, innocently looking down at him.
“Oh, there is? What an observing little fellow you are! Never mind the hatchet; just tell me what number you were sent to answer.”
“Number?” I repeated, as though I couldn't see why he wanted to know. “Why — 431.”
“Not much, my boy — 331.”
“ 'Scuse me, sir, ain't you mistaken?”
He looked at me for full a minute. I stared him straight in the eye. A nasty eye he's got — black and bloodshot and cold and full of suspicion. But it wavered a bit at the end.
“I may be,” he said slowly, “but not about the number. Just you turn around and get down to 331.”
“All right, sir. Thank you very much. It
“I guess you'll get in trouble all right,” he said and stood watching — from where he stood he could watch me every inch of the way — till I got to 331, at the end of the hall, Mrs. Kingdon's door.
And the goods still on me, Tom, mind that.
My, but Mrs. Kingdon was wrathy when she saw me!
“Why did they send you?” she cried. “Why did you keep me waiting so long? I want a chambermaid. I've rung a dozen times. The whole place is crazy about that old ball to-night, and no one can get decent attention.”
“Can't I do what you want, ma'am?” I just yearned to get inside that door.
“No,” she snapped. “I don't want a boy to fasten my dress in the back — ”
“We often do, ma'am,” I said softly.
“You do? Well — ”
“Yes'm.” I breathed again.
“Well — it's indecent. Go down and send me a maid.”
She was just closing the door in my face — and Moriway waiting for me to watch me down again.
“Mrs. Kingdon — ”
“Well, what do you want?”
“I want to tell you that when I get down to the office they'll search me.”
She looked at me amazed.
“And — and there's something in my pocket I — you wouldn't like them to find.”
“What in the world — my diamonds! You did take them, you little wretch?”
She caught hold of my coat. But Lordy! I didn't want to get away a little bit. I let her pull me in, and then I backed up against the door and shut it.
“Diamonds! Oh, no, ma'am. I hope I'm not a thief. But — but it was something you dropped — this.”
I fished Moriway's letter out of my pocket and handed it to her.
The poor old lady! Being a bell-boy you know just how old ladies really are. This one at evening, after her face had been massaged for an hour, and the manicure girl and the hair-dresser
“You abominable little wretch!” she sobbed. “I suppose you've told everybody in the office.”
“How could I, ma'am?”
“How could you?” She looked up, the tears on her flabby, flushed cheek.
“I didn't know myself. I can't read writing — ”
It was thin, but she wanted to believe it.
She could have taken me in her arms, she was so happy.
“There! there!” she patted my shoulder and gave me a dollar bill. “I was a bit hasty, Nat. It's only a — a little business matter that Mr. Moriway's attending to for me. We — we'll finish it up this afternoon. I shouldn't like Miss Kingdon to know of it, because — because I — never like to worry her about business, you know. So don't mention it when she comes to-morrow.”
“No'm. Shall I fasten your dress?” I simply had to stay in that room till I could get rid of those diamonds.
With a faded old blush — the nicest thing about her I'd ever seen — she turned her back.
“It's dark to-day, ma'am,” I coaxed. “Would you mind coming nearer the window?”
No, she wouldn't mind. She backed up to the corner like a gentle little lamb. While I hooked with one hand, I dropped the little bag where the carpet was still turned up, and with the toe of my shoe spread it flat again.
“You're real handy for a boy,” she said, pleased.
“Thank you, ma'am,” I answered, pleased myself.
Moriway was still watching me, of course, when I came out, but I ran downstairs, he following close, and when the Major got hold of me, I pulled my pockets inside out like a little man.
Moriway was there at the time. I knew he wasn't convinced. But he couldn't watch a bell-boy all day long, and the moment I was sure his eyes were off me I was ready to get those diamonds back again.
But not a call came all that afternoon from the
At last I couldn't stand it any longer. There's only one thing to do when your chance won't come to you; that is, to go to it. At about four o'clock I lit out, climbed to the second story and there — Mag, I always was the luckiest girl at the Cruelty, wasn't I? Well, there was suite 231 all torn up, plumbers and painters in there, and nothing in the world to prevent a boy's skinning through when no one was watching, out of the window and up the fire-escape.
Just outside of Mrs. Kingdon's window I lay still a minute. I had seen her and Moriway go out together — she all gay with finery, he carrying her bag. The lace curtains in 331 were blowing in the breeze. Cautiously I parted them and looked in. Everything was lovely. From where I lay I reached down and turned back the flap of the carpet. It was too easy. Those darling diamonds seemed just to leap up into my hand. In a moment I had them tucked away in my pants pocket. Then down the fire-escape and out through
But he paid no attention to me. No one did, though I felt those diamonds shining like an X-ray through my very body. I got downstairs and was actually outside the door, almost in the street and off to you, when a girl called me.
“Here, boy, carry this case,” she said.
Do you know who it was? Oh, yes, you do, a dear old friend of mine from Philadelphia, a young lady whose taste — well, all right, I'll tell you: it was the girl with the red coat, and the hat with the chinchilla fur.
How did they look? Oh, fairly well on a blonde! But to my taste the last girl I'd seen in the coat and hat was handsomer.
Well, I carried her suit-case and followed her back into the hotel. I didn't want to a bit, though that coat still — wonder how she got it back!
She sailed up the hall and into the elevator, and I had to follow. We got of at the third story, and she brought me right to the door of 331. And then I knew this must be Evelyn.
“Mrs. Kingdon's out, Miss. She didn't expect you till to-morrow.”
“Did she tell you that? Too bad she isn't at home! She said she'd be kept busy all day to-day with a business matter, and that I'd better not get here till to-morrow. But I — ”
“Wanted to get here in time for the wedding?” I suggested softly.
You should have seen her jump.
“Wedding! Not — ”
“Mrs. Kingdon and Mr. Moriway.”
She turned white.
“Has that man followed her here? Quick, tell me. Has she actually married him?”
“No — not yet. It's for five o'clock at the church on the corner.”
“How do you know?” She turned on me, suddenly suspicious
“Well — I do know. And I'm the only person in the house that does.”
“I don't believe you.”
She took out her key and opened the door, and I followed her in with the suit-case. But before I could get it set down on the floor, she had swooped on a letter that was lying in the middle of the table, had torn it open, and then with a cry had come whirling toward me.
“Where is this church? Come, help me to get to it before five and I'll — oh, you shall have anything in the world you want!”
She flew out into the hall, I after her. And first thing you know we were down in the street, around the corner, and there in front of the church was a carriage with Moriway just helping Mrs. Kingdon out.
“Mother!”
At that cry the old lady's knees seemed to crumble under her. Her poor old painted face looked out ghastly and ashamed from her wedding finery. But Evelyn in her red coat flew to her and took her in her arms as though she was a child. And like a child, Mrs. Kingdon sobbed and made excuses and begged to be forgiven.
I looked at Moriway. It was all the pay I wanted — particularly as I had those little diamonds.
“You're just in time, Miss Kingdon,” he said uneasily, “to make your mother happy by your presence at her wedding.”
“I'm just in time, Mr. Moriway, to see that my mother's not made unhappy by your presence.”
“Evelyn!” Mrs. Kingdon remonstrated.
“Come, Sarah.” Moriway offered his arm.
The bride shook her head.
“To-morrow,” she said feebly.
Moriway breathed a swear.
Miss Kingdon laughed.
“I've come to take care of you, you silly little mother, dear. . . . It won't be to-morrow, Mr. Moriway.”
“No — not to-morrow — next week,” sighed Mrs. Kingdon.
“In fact, mother's changed her mind, Mr. Moriway. She thinks it ungenerous to accept such a sacrifice from a man who might be her son — don't you, mother?”
“Well, perhaps, George — ” She looked up from her daughter's shoulder — she was crying all over that precious red coat of mine — and her eyes lit on me. “Oh — you wicked boy, you told a lie!” she gasped. “You did read my letter.”
I laughed; laughed out loud, it was such a bully thing to watch Moriway's face.
But that was an unlucky laugh of mine; it turned his wrath on me. He made a dive toward me. I ducked and ran. Oh, how I ran! But if
“Stop thief! stop thief! Thief! Thief! Thief!”
May you never hear it, Mag, behind you when you've somebody else's diamonds in your pocket. It sounds — it sounds the way the bay of the hounds must sound to the hare. It seems to fly along with the air; at the same time to be behind you, at your side, even in front of you.
I heard it bellowed in a dozen different voices, and every now and then I could hear Moriway as I pelted on — that brassy, cruel bellow of his that made my heart sick.
And then all at once I heard a policeman's whistle.
That whistle was like a signal — I saw the gates of the Correction open before me. I saw your Nance, Tom, in a neat striped dress, and she was behind bars — bars — bars! There were bars everywhere before me. In fact, I felt them against my very hands, for in my mad race I had shot up a blind alley — a street that ended in a garden behind an iron fence.
I grabbed the diamonds to throw them from me,
I might have jumped from the frying-pan? Of course, I might. But it was all fire to me. To be caught at the end is at least no worse than to be caught at the beginning. Anyhow, it was my one chance, and I took it as unhesitatingly as a rat takes a leap into a trap to escape a terrier. Only — only, it was my luck that the trap wasn't set! The room was empty. I pushed open a glass door, and fell over an open trunk that stood beside it.
It bruised my knee and tore my hand, but oh! — it was nuts to me. For it was a woman's trunk filled with women's things.
A skirt! A blessed skirt! And not a striped one. I threw off the bell-boy's jacket and I got into that dear dress so quick it made my head swim.
The jacket was a bit tight but I didn't button it, and I'd just got a stiff little hat perched on my head when I heard the tramp of men on the sidewalk, and in the dusk saw the cop's buttons at the gate.
Caught? Not much. Not yet. I threw open the glass doors and walked out into the garden.
“Miss — Omar — I wonder if it would be Miss Omar?”
You bet I didn't take time to see who it was talking before I answered. Of course I was Miss Omar. I was Miss Anybody that had a right to wear skirts and be inside those blessed gates.
“Ah — h! I fancied you might be. I've been expecting you.”
It was a lazy, low voice with a laugh in it, and it came from a wheeled chair, where a young man lay. Sallow he was and slim and long, and helpless — you could see that by his white hanging hands. But his voice — it was what a woman's voice would be if she were a man. It made you perk up and pretend to be somewhere near its level. It fitted his soft, black clothes and his fine, clean face. It meant silks and velvets and —
Oh, all right, Tommy Dorgan, if you're going to get jealous of a voice!
“Excuse me, Mr. Latimer.” The cop came in as he spoke, Moriway following; the rest of the hounds hung about. “There's a thieving bell-boy from the hotel that's somewhere in your grounds. Can I come in and get him?”
“In here, Sergeant? Aren't you mistaken?”
“No; Mr. Moriway here saw him jump the gate not five minutes since.”
“Strange, and I here all the time! I may have dozed of, though. Certainly — certainly. Look for the little rascal. What's he stolen? Diamonds! Tut! tut! Enterprising, isn't he? . . . Miss Omar, won't you kindly reach the bell yonder — no, on the table; that's it — and ring for some one to take the officer about?”
I rang.
Do you know what happened? An electric light strung on the tree above the table shone out, and there I stood under it with Moriway's eyes full upon me.
“Great — !” he began.
“Just ring again — ” Mr. Latimer's voice came soft as silk.
My fingers trembled so, the bell clattered out of them and fell jangling to the ground. But it rang. And the light above me went out like magic. I fell back into a garden chair.
“I beg your pardon, Mr. — was Moriway the name? — I must have interrupted you, but my eyes are troubling me this evening, and I can't bear the light. Miss Omar, I thought the housekeeper had
“Thank you — no. If you don't mind, I'll wait out here.”
That meant me. I moved toward the gate.
“Not at all. Have a seat. Miss Omar, sit down, won't you?” I sat down.
“Miss Omar reads to me, Mr. Moriway. I'm an invalid, as you see, dependent on the good offices of my man. I find a woman's voice a soothing change.”
“It must be. Particularly if the voice is pleasing. Miss Omar — I didn't quite catch the name — ”
He waited. But Miss Omar had nothing to say that minute.
“Yes, that's the name. You've got it all right,” said Latimer. “An uncommon name, isn't it?”
“I don't think I ever heard it before. Do you know, Miss Omar, as I heard your voice just before we got to the gate, it sounded singularly boyish to me.”
“Mr. Latimer does not find it so — do you?” I said as sweet — as sweet as I could coax. How sweet's that, Tom Dorgan?
“Not at all.” A little laugh came from Latimer as though he was enjoying a joke all by himself. But Moriway jumped with satisfaction. He knew the voice all right.
“Have you a brother, may I ask?” He leaned over and looked keenly at me.
“I am an orphan,” I said sadly, “with no relatives.”
“A pitiful position,” sneered Moriway. “You look so much like a boy I know that — ”
“Do you really think so?” So awfully polite was Latimer to such a rat as Moriway. Why? Well, wait. “I can't agree with you. Do you know, I find Miss Omar very feminine. Of course, short hair — ”
“Her hair is short, then!”
“Typhoid,” I murmured.
“Too bad!” Moriway sneered.
“Yes,” I snapped. “I thought it was at the time. My hair was very heavy and long, and I had a chance to sit in a window at Troyon's where they were advertising a hair tonic and — ”
Rotten? Of course it was. I'd no business to gabble, and just because you and your new job, Mag, came to my mind at that minute, there I went putting my foot in it.
Moriway laughed. I didn't like the sound of his laugh.
“Your reader is versatile, Mr. Latimer,” he said.
“Yes.” Latimer smoothed the soft silk rug that lay over him. “Poverty and that sort of versatility are often bedfellows, eh? . . . Tell me, Mr. Moriway, these lost diamonds are yours?”
“No. They belong to a — a friend of mine, Mrs. Kingdon.”
“Oh! the old lady who was married this afternoon to a young fortune-hunter!” I couldn't resist it.
Moriway jumped out of his seat.
“She was not married,” he stuttered. “She — ”
“Changed her mind? How sensible of her! Did she find out what a crook the fellow was? What was his name — Morrison? No — Middleway — I have heard it.”
“May I ask, Miss Omar” — I didn't have to see his face; his voice told how mad with rage he was —
“Why, they can't have kept it very secret, the old lady and the young rascal who was after her money, for you see we both knew of it; and I wasn't the bride and you certainly weren't the groom, were you?”
An exclamation burst from him.
“Mr. Latimer,” he stormed, “may I see you a moment alone?”
Phew! That meant me. But I got up just the same.
“Just keep your seat, Miss Omar.” Oh, that silken voice of Latimer's! “Mr. Moriway, I have absolutely no acquaintance with you. I never saw you till to-night. I can't imagine what you may have to say to me, that my secretary — Miss Omar acts in that capacity — may not hear.”
“I want to say,” burst from Moriway, “that she looks the image of the boy Nat, who stole Mrs. Kingdon's diamonds, that the voice is exactly the same, that — ”
“But you have said it, Mr. Moriway — quite successfully intimated it, I assure you.”
"I'll Do You For This Some Day, and I'll Do You Good." Act I.
[Description: Photograph by Harrison Fisher. Evening scence under chinese lanterns. Four figures, two men and two women, stand scattered accross the stage.]“She knows of my — of Mrs. Kingdon's marriage, that that boy Nat found out about.”
“And you yourself also, as Miss Omar mentioned.”
“Myself? Damn it, I'm Moriway, the man she was going to marry. Why shouldn't I — ”
“Ah — h!” Latimer's shoulders shook with a gentle laugh. “Well, Mr. Moriway, gentlemen don't swear in my garden. Particularly when ladies are present. Shall we say good evening? Here comes Mulhill now. . . . Nothing, Sergeant? Too bad the rogue escaped, but you'll catch him. They may get away from you, but they never stay long, do they? Good evening — good evening, Mr. Moriway.”
They tramped on and out, Moriway's very back showing his rage. He whispered something to the Sergeant, who turned to look at me but shook his head, and the gate clanged after them.
A long sigh escaped me.
“Warm, isn't it?” Latimer leaned forward. “Now, would you mind ringing again, Miss Omar?”
I bent and groped for the bell and rang it twice.
“How quick you are to learn!” he said. “But I really wanted the light this time. . . . Just light up, Burnett,” he called to the man, who had come out on the porch.
The electric bulb flashed out again just over my head. Latimer turned and looked at me. When I couldn't bear it any longer, I looked defiantly up at him.
“Pardon,” he said, smiling; nice teeth he has and clear eyes. “I was just looking for that boyish resemblance Mr. Moriway spoke of. I hold to my first opinion — you're very feminine, Miss Omar.
Will you read to me now, if you please?” He pointed to a big open book on the table beside his couch.
“I think — if you don't mind, Mr. Latimer, I'll begin the reading to-morrow.” I got up to go. I was through with that garden now.
“But I do mind!”
Silken voice? Not a bit of it! I turned on him so furious I thought I didn't care what came of it — when over by the great gate-post I saw a man crouching — Moriway.
I sat down again and pulled the book farther toward the light.
We didn't learn much poetry at the Cruelty, did we, Mag? But I know some now, just the same. When I began to read I heard only one word — Moriway — Moriway — Moriway. But I must have — forgotten him after a time, and the dark garden with the light on only one spot, and the roses smelling, and Latimer lying perfectly still, his face turned toward me, for I was reading — listen, I bet I can remember that part of it if I say it slow —
And ev'n with Paradise devise the Snake:
For all the sin wherewith the Face of Man
Is blacken'd — Man's forgiveness give — and take!
— when all at once Mr. Latimer put his hand on the book. I looked up with a start. The shadow by the gate was gone.
How oft hereafter will she wax and wane;
How oft hereafter rising look for us
Through this same Garden — and for one in vain!
Latimer was saying it without the book and with a queer smile that made me feel I hadn't quite caught on.
“Thank you, that will do,” he went on. “That is enough, Miss — ” He stopped.
I waited.
He did not say “Omar.”
I looked him square in the eye — and then I had enough.
“But what in the devil did you make believe for?” I asked.
He smiled.
“If ever you come to lie on your back day and night, year in and year out, and know that never in your life will it be any different, you may take pleasure in a bit of excitement and — and learn to pity the under dog, who, in this case, happened to be a boy that leaped over the gate as though his heart was in his mouth. Just as you would admire the nerve of the young lady that came out of the house a few minutes after in your housekeeper's Sunday gown.”
Yes, grin, Torn Dorgan. You won't grin long.
I put down the book and got up to go.
“Good night, then, and thank you, Mr. Latimer.”
“Good night. . . . Oh, Miss — ” He didn't say “Omar” — “there is a favor you might do me.”
“Sure!” I wondered what it could be.
“Those diamonds. I've got to have them, you know, to send them back to their owner. I don't mind helping a — a person who helps himself to other people's things, but I can't let him get away with his plunder without being that kind of person myself. So — ”
Why didn't I lie? Because there are some people you don't lie to, Tom Dorgan. Don't talk to me, you bully, I'm savage enough. To have rings and pins and ear-rings, a whole bagful of diamonds, and to haul 'em out of your pocket and lay 'em on the table there before him!
“I wonder,” he said slowly, as he put them away in his own pocket, “what a man like me could do for a girl like you?”
“Reform her!” I snarled. “Show her how to get diamonds honestly.”
Say, Tom, let's go in for bigger game.
| II. In The Bishop's Carriage | |