"Where is she? I seem never to be able to find her at home."
"Now, don't be absurd, Jim. You know she would have broken any engagement to see you, had she known you were going to call to-day. She has only gone to the dressmaker's."
"How long will she be there?"
"Until four."
"Four hours at a dressmaker's——"
"And then she's going to the hair dressser's."
"And then?"
"She has an engagement for tea. I don't expect her home until seven. I'm awfully3 sorry."
"Of course, I understand, Mrs. Primrose," Stuart said with a light laugh, "I should have told her—but I didn't know until a few moments ago that I was coming."
"Nothing serious has happened, I hope?" she asked, with carefully modulated4 sympathy which said plainly that she hoped for the worst.
"No. Just say that I'll call after dinner."
"All right, Jim, dear," the mother purred. "I'll see that she's here if I have to lock the door."
Stuart smiled in spite of himself as he passed out murmuring:
"Thank you."
It was useless to try to work. His mind was in a tumult5 of passionate6 protest. He must have this thing out with Nan once for all. Their engagement must be announced immediately.
He went to the Players' Club and lunched alone in brooding silence. He tried to read and couldn't. He strolled out aimlessly and began to ramble7 without purpose. Somehow to-day everything on which his eye rested and every sound that struck his ear proclaimed the advent8 of the new power of which Bivens was the symbol—Bivens with his delicate, careful little hand, his bulging9 forehead, his dark keen eyes! An ice wagon10 dashed by. It belonged to the ice trust. A big coal cart blocked the sidewalk. The coal trust was one of the first. The street crossing at Broadway and Twenty-third Street was jammed with a string of delivery waggons11 from the department stores whose growth had crushed a hundred small trades. The clang of the cars proclaimed the Street Railway Merger12 and a skyscraper13 called "The Flatiron" was just raising its giant frame on the little triangle where a half-dozen old-fashioned buildings had stood for generations. Across Madison Square the Metropolitan14 Life Insurance Company was tearing down a whole block, section by section, and a palace of white marble was slowly rearing its huge form. The passing of an era was plain. He could see the hand of the new mysterious power building a world before his very eyes. Strange he hadn't noticed it until Bivens's dark sneering15 face this morning, insolent16 in its conscious strength, had opened his eyes. What chance had his old friend Woodman against such forces?
Yet why should he resent them personally? He was young. The future was his—not the past. He didn't resent them. Of course not. What he did resent was the approach of the particular Juggernaut named John C. Calhoun Bivens toward the woman he loved. That Bivens should fall hopelessly and blindly in love with Nan at first sight was too stupefying to be grasped at once. She couldn't love such a man—and yet his millions and that slippery mother were a sinister17 combination. He congratulated himself that his interview with Bivens had put him in possession of a most important secret, and he would force the issue at once.
By evening he had thrown off his depression and met Nan with something of his old gaiety, to which she responded with a touch of coquetry.
"Tell me, Jim," she began with a smile of mischief18 in her eyes, "why you called at the remarkable19 hour of twelve noon, to-day? Am I becoming so resistless that work no longer has any charms? You must have something very important to say?" Her eyes danced with the consciousness of her advantage.
"Yes. I have, Nan," he answered soberly, taking her hand. "I want a public announcement of our engagement in to-morrow morning's papers."
"Jim!"
"I mean it."
"But why? You know the one concession20, the only one I have ever made to my mother's hostility21 to you, is that our engagement shall be kept a secret until we are ready to marry. We must play fair."
"I will, we are ready now."
Nan's voice broke into a ripple22 of laughter.
"Oh, are we?—I didn't know it."
"Yes, that's what I came to tell you," Stuart went on, catching23 her spirit of fun and pressing her hand. "I've arranged a little trip to the country to-morrow, and I'm going to convince you before we return. You can go?"
"Of course, I'm open to conviction."
"And you consent to the announcement?"
"To-night?"
"Yes."
"No. You must convince me first. You've planned the trip for that purpose."
"Make the announcement to-night, dear! On my honour I promise to convince you to-morrow that we are ready. I've an argument that never fails—an argument no woman can resist."
"Not to-night, Jim," was the laughing reply.
"Can't you trust me, when I tell you that I've discovered something to-day that makes it necessary?"
The girl looked at him sharply.
"Now, I can't trust you at all! I've got to know the secret of your call this morning. What has happened since we parted last night?"
"I have seen Mr. Bivens."
Nan leaped to her feet, her face flushed, her voice ringing with triumph.
"And you did what I asked you—oh, you're a darling! Why did you tease me so last night? You accepted his offer?"
"You misunderstand, I didn't call on Bivens. He came to see me."
"And you refused! Oh, Jim, don't tell me you were so foolish!"
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, dear, but I had to—that's all."
The girl dropped into her seat with a sigh, while he went on:
"My interview with Bivens led to a most important and embarrassing discovery."
"Embarrassing—what do you mean? He offered you the position?"
"Yes, and finally confessed that he did it wholly to please you."
Nan's figure suddenly straightened.
"Indeed! I'm glad to hear that my wishes find favour somewhere!"
"Bivens further confided24 in me the fact that he is hopelessly and desperately25 in love with you."
A flash of anger mantled26 Nan's cheeks.
"That will do, Jim," she said in quiet cold tones. "Your joke has gone far enough."
"Joke! Do you think I could joke on such a subject?"
A smile began to play about the corners of the full lips.
"You don't mean it—really?"
"Certainly. He told me so in the plainest sort of blunt English. And you mean to say that you have not suspected it?"
"I never dreamed he was so easy!" Still smiling dreamily Nan crossed her hands over her knees and studied the pattern in the rug, ignoring the presence of her lover.
"Then you underestimate your powers."
"Evidently."
Her eyes were laughing again mischievously27.
"Let's not joke, Nan. It's too serious."
"Serious! I fail to see it."
"Can't you see that we must at once announce our engagement?"
The girl's lips curled with the faintest suggestion of sarcasm28.
"I don't see it at all. You may be a good lawyer, but I fail to follow your logic29."
Stuart rose with a gesture of anger.
"Come to the point, Nan. Let's not beat the devil around the stump30 any longer. You know as well as I do that you've been trying to flirt31 with this little insect——"
"Trying to flirt?"
"Yes."
"Trying? Don't you think I could if I wished without bungling32 the effort? What a poor opinion you hold of my talent."
"You know in your heart of hearts you despise Bivens."
"On the contrary, I vastly admire him. The man who can enter with his handicap this big heartless city and successfully smash the giants who oppose him is not an insect. I'd rather call him a hero. All women admire success."
"I see," Stuart replied with suppressed fury, "you enjoy your conquest."
"And why not?" she drawled, with lazy indifference33.
"It's disgusting!"
Nan fixed34 her dark eyes on Stuart.
"How dare you use such a word to me?"
"Because it's true and you know it."
"True or false, you can't say it"—she rose deliberately—"you may go now!"
"Forgive me, dear," Stuart stammered35 in a queer muffled36 voice. "I didn't mean to hurt you. I was mad with jealousy37."
"You may go," was the hard even answer.
"I can't go like this, dearest," he pleaded. "You must forgive me—you must! Look at me!"
She turned slowly, stared him full in the face for a moment without the quiver of an eyelid38, her fine figure tense, erect39, cold, as she quietly said:
"You are tiring me, Jim."
For an instant an impulse of overwhelming anger mastered him. He returned her look with one of concentrated rage and their eyes met in the first supreme40 clash of wills. For a moment he saw the world red, and caught in its glare something he had never seen in Nan before, a conscious cruelty and a joy in her power that was evil—a cruelty that could spring only from the deepest and most merciless self-worship. For the first time he saw a cold-blooded calculation behind her beautiful eyes, caught its accent in the richly modulated voice, and felt it in the smile which showed the white teeth—the smile of a woman who would pause at nothing to get what she wanted. The old savage41 impulse to strangle surged through his veins42, and he was startled into the consciousness of his situation by the fierce grip of his finger nails in his fists clinched43 so tight they began to cut the flesh.
A blush of shame tinged44 his face as he tremblingly said:
"Please, dear, let's not part like this! I've suffered enough to-day. You're only teasing me. And I've acted like a fool. Say that you forgive me!"
"Our engagement is at an end, Mr. Stuart," was the quiet answer.
"Nan——"
Before he could recover from the shock or utter a protest, she opened the door and he had passed out into the night.
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1
primrose
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| n.樱草，最佳部分， | |
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2
conceal
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| v.隐藏，隐瞒，隐蔽 | |
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awfully
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| adv.可怕地，非常地，极端地 | |
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modulated
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| 已调整[制]的，被调的 | |
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tumult
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| n.喧哗；激动，混乱；吵闹 | |
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6
passionate
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| adj.热情的，热烈的，激昂的，易动情的，易怒的，性情暴躁的 | |
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7
ramble
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| v.漫步，漫谈，漫游；n.漫步，闲谈，蔓延 | |
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8
advent
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| n.(重要事件等的)到来，来临 | |
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9
bulging
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| 膨胀； 凸出（部）； 打气； 折皱 | |
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10
wagon
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| n.四轮马车，手推车，面包车；无盖运货列车 | |
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11
waggons
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| 四轮的运货马车( waggon的名词复数 )； 铁路货车； 小手推车 | |
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12
merger
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| n.企业合并，并吞 | |
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13
skyscraper
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| n.摩天大楼 | |
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14
metropolitan
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| adj.大城市的，大都会的 | |
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15
sneering
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| 嘲笑的，轻蔑的 | |
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16
insolent
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| adj.傲慢的，无理的 | |
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17
sinister
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| adj.不吉利的，凶恶的，左边的 | |
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18
mischief
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| n.损害，伤害，危害；恶作剧，捣蛋，胡闹 | |
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19
remarkable
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| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
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20
concession
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| n.让步，妥协；特许(权) | |
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21
hostility
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| n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争 | |
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22
ripple
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| n.涟波，涟漪，波纹，粗钢梳；vt.使...起涟漪，使起波纹； vi.呈波浪状，起伏前进 | |
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23
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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24
confided
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| v.吐露（秘密，心事等）( confide的过去式和过去分词 )；（向某人）吐露（隐私、秘密等） | |
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25
desperately
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| adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地 | |
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26
mantled
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| 披着斗篷的，覆盖着的 | |
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27
mischievously
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| adv.有害地；淘气地 | |
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28
sarcasm
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| n.讥讽，讽刺，嘲弄，反话 （adj.sarcastic） | |
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29
logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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30
stump
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| n.残株，烟蒂，讲演台；v.砍断，蹒跚而走 | |
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31
flirt
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| v.调情，挑逗，调戏；n.调情者，卖俏者 | |
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32
bungling
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| adj.笨拙的，粗劣的v.搞糟，完不成( bungle的现在分词 )；笨手笨脚地做；失败；完不成 | |
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33
indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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34
fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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35
stammered
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| v.结巴地说出( stammer的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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36
muffled
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| adj.（声音）被隔的；听不太清的；（衣服）裹严的；蒙住的v.压抑，捂住( muffle的过去式和过去分词 )；用厚厚的衣帽包着（自己） | |
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37
jealousy
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| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
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38
eyelid
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| n.眼睑，眼皮 | |
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39
erect
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| n./v.树立，建立，使竖立；adj.直立的，垂直的 | |
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40
supreme
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| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
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41
savage
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| adj.野蛮的；凶恶的，残暴的；n.未开化的人 | |
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42
veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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43
clinched
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| v.（尤指两人）互相紧紧抱[扭]住( clinch的过去式和过去分词 )；解决（争端、交易），达成（协议） | |
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44
tinged
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| v.（使）发丁丁声( ting的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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