The Whitecap would have been under way except for the delay of the gay little Mrs. Babbitt and her admiring husband, who sent word that they could not arrive until after dinner, so the yacht, long and low and slender and glistening1 white, lay in the middle of the Hudson River, while her guests, bundled warmly against the crisp breeze, gathered in the forward shelter deck and watched the beginnings of the early sunset.
“I like Doctor Boyd in his yachting cap,” commented Lucile, as that young man joined them, with a happy mother on his arm.
“It takes away that deadly clerical effect,” laughed Arly. “His long coat makes him look like the captain, and he’s ever so much more handsome.”
“I don’t mind being the topic of discussion so long as I’m present,” commented the Reverend Smith Boyd, glancing around the group as if in search of some one.
“It rather restricts the conversation,” Mrs. Helen Davies observed, at the same time watching, with a smile, the tableau3 of her sister Grace and Jim Sargent. Gail and herself had taken Grace out shopping, and had forced on her sedate4 taste a neat and “fetching” yachting costume, from flowing veiled cap to white shoes, which had dropped about twenty years from her usual 316appearance, and had brought a renewed enthusiasm to the eyes of her husband.
The cherub-cheeked Marion Kenneth glanced wistfully over at the rail where Dick Rodley, vieing with the sunset in splendour, stood chatting with easy Ted2 Teasdale and the stiff Gerald Fosland.
“Where’s Gail?” demanded the cherub-cheeked one.
“She’s probably taking advantage of the opportunity to dress for dinner,” surmised6 Mrs. Davies. “In fact, I think it’s a good idea for all of us,” but the sunset was too potent7 to leave for a few moments, and she sat still.
Where indeed was Gail? In her beautiful little curly maple8 stateroom, sitting on the edge of a beautiful little curly maple bed, and digging two small fists into the maple-brown coverlet. The pallor of the morning had not yet left her face, and there were circles around the brown eyes which gave them a wan9 pathos10; there was a crease11 of pain and worry, too, in the white brow.
Gail had come to the greatest crisis in her life. To begin with, Allison. She would not permit herself to dwell on the most horrible part of her experience with him. That she put out of her mind, as best she could, with a shudder12. She hoped, in the time to come, to be free of the picture of him as he advanced slowly towards her in the music room, with that frenzied13 glare in his eyes and that terrifying evil look upon his face. She hoped, in the time to come, to be free of that awful fear which seemed to have gripped her heart with a clutch that had left deep imprints14 upon it, but, just now, she let the picture and the fear remain before her 317eyes and in her heart, and centred upon her grave responsibilities.
So far she had told no one of what had occurred that morning. When she had rushed into the rector’s study he had sprung up, and, seeing the fright in her face and that she was tottering15 and ready to fall, he had caught her in his strong arms, and she had clung trustfully to him, half faint, until wild sobs17 had come to her relief. Even in her incoherence, however, even in her wild disorder18 of emotion, she realised that there was danger, not only to her but to every one she loved, in the man from whom she had run away; and she could not tell the young rector any more than that she had been frightened. Had she so much as mentioned the name of Allison, she instinctively20 knew that the Reverend Smith Boyd, in whom there was some trace of impetuosity, might certainly have forgotten his cloth and become mere21 man, and have strode straight across to the house before Allison could have collected his dazed wits; and she did not dare add that encounter to her list of woes22. It was strange how instinctively she had headed for the Reverend Smith Boyd’s study; strange then, but not now. In that moment of flying straight to the protection of his arms, she knew something about herself, and about the Reverend Smith Boyd, too. She knew now why she had refused Howard Clemmens, and Willis Cunningham, and Houston Van Ploon, and Dick Rodley; poor Dick! and Allison, and all the others. She frankly23 and complacently24 admitted to herself that she loved the Reverend Smith Boyd, but she put that additional worry into the background. It could be fought out later. She would have been very happy about it if she had had time, although 318she could see no end to that situation but unhappiness.
These threats of Allison’s. How far could he go with them, how far could he make them true? All the way. She had a sickening sense that there was no idleness in his threats. He had both the will and the power to carry them out. He would bankrupt her family; he would employ slander25 against her, from which the innocent have less defence than the guilty; he would set himself viciously to wreck26 her happiness at every turn. The long arm of his vindictiveness27 would follow her to her home, and set a barrier of scandalous report even between her and her friends.
But let her first take up the case of her Uncle Jim. She had not dared go with her news to hot-tempered Jim Sargent. His first impulse would have been one of violence, and she could not see that a murder on her soul, and her Uncle Jim in jail as a murderer, and her name figuring large, with her photograph in the pages of the free and entirely28 uncurbed metropolitan29 press, would help any one in the present dilemma30. Yet even a warning, to her Uncle Jim, of impending31 financial danger might bring about this very same result, for he had a trick of turning suddenly from the kind and indulgent and tremendously admiring uncle, into a stern parent, and firing one imperative32 question after another at her, in the very image and likeness33 of her own father; and that was an authoritative34 process which she knew she could not resist. Yet Uncle Jim must be protected! How? It was easy enough to say that he must be, and yet could he be? Could he even protect himself? She shook her head as she gazed, with unseeing eyes, out of the daintily curtained port hole upon the river, with its swarm35 of bustling36 small craft.
319Where to turn for advice, or even to have a sharer in the burden which she felt must surely crush her. There was no one. It was a burden she must bear alone, unless she could devise some plan of effective action, and the sense of how far she had been responsible for this condition of affairs was one which oppressed her, and humbled37 her, and deepened the circles about her woe-smitten eyes.
She had been guilty. In a rush of remorse38 and repentance39, she over-blamed herself. She did not allow, in her severe self-injustice, for the natural instincts which had led her into a full and free commingling40 with all this new circle; for, as Arly later put it for her by way of comfort, how was she to know if she did not find out. Now, however, she allowed herself no grain of comfort, or sympathy, or relief, from the stern self-arraignment through which she put herself. She had been wicked, she told herself. Had she delved41 deeply enough into her own heart, and acknowledged what she saw there, and had she abided by that knowledge, she could have spared her many suitors a part of the pain and humiliation42 she had caused them by her refusal. She had not been surprised by any of them. With the infliction43 of but very slight pain, she could have stopped them long before they came to the point of proposal, she saw that now. Why had she not done so? Pride! That was the answer. The pleasure of being so eagerly sought, the actually spoken evidence of her popularity, and the flattery of having aroused in all these big men emotions so strong that they took the sincere form of the offering of a lifetime of devotion. And she, who had prated44 to herself so seriously of marriage, had held it as so sacred a thing, she had so toyed with it, and had toyed, too, with that instinct in these good men!
320In the light of her experience with Allison, she began to distrust her own sincerity45, and for some minutes she floundered in that Slough46 of Despond.
But no, out of that misery47 she was able to emerge clear of soul. Her worst fault had been folly48. An instinctive19 groping for that other part of her, which nature had set somewhere, unlabelled, to make of the twain a complete and perfect human entity49, had led her into all her entanglements50, even with Allison. And again the darkness deepened around her troubled eyes.
After all, had she but known it, she had a greater fault than folly. Inexperience. Her charm was another, her youth, her beauty, her virility—and her sympathy! These were her true faults, and the ones for which every attractive girl must suffer. There is no escape. It is the great law of compensation. Nature bestows51 no gift of value for which she does not exact a corresponding price.
Gail took her little fists from their pressure into the brown coverlet, and held her temples between the fingertips of either hand; and the brown hair, springing into wayward ringlets from the salt-breeze which blew in at the half opened window, rippled52 down over her slender hands, as if to soothe53 and comfort them. She had been wasting her time in introspection and self-analysis when there was need for decisive action! Fortunately she had a respite54 until Monday morning. In the past few days of huge commercial movements which so vitally interested her, she had become acquainted with business methods, to a certain extent, and she knew that nothing could be done on Saturday afternoon or Sunday; therefore her Uncle Jim was safe for two nights and a day. Then Allison would deny the connection of her Uncle Jim’s road with the A.-P., and the beginning of the destruction 321of the Sargent family would be thoroughly55 accomplished56! She had been given a thorough grasp of how easily that could be done. What could she do in two nights and a day? It was past her ingenuity57 to conceive. She must have help!
But from whom could she receive it? Tod Boyd? The same reason which made her think of him first made her swiftly place him last. Her Uncle Jim? Too hotheaded. Her Aunt Grace? Too inexperienced. Her Aunt Helen? Too conventional. Lucile, Ted, Dick? She laughed. Arly?
There was a knock on her door, and Arly herself appeared.
“Selfish,” chided Arly. “We’re all wanting you.”
“That’s comforting,” smiled Gail. “I have just been being all alone in the world, on the most absolutely deserted58 island of which you can conceive. Arly, sit down. I want to tell you something.”
The black hair and the brown hair cuddled close together, while Gail, her tongue once loosened, poured out in a torrent59 all the pent-up misery which had been accumulating within her for the past tempestuous60 weeks; and Arly, her eyes glistening with the excitement of it all, kept her exclamations61 of surprise and fright and indignation and horror, and everything else, strictly62 to such low monosyllables as would not impede63 the gasping64 narration65.
“I’d like to kill him!” said Arly, in a low voice of startling intensity66, and jumping to her feet she paced up and down the confines of the little stateroom. Among all the other surprises of recent events, there was none more striking than this vast change in the usually cool and sarcastic67 Arly, who had not, until her return from Gail’s home, permitted herself an emotion in two 322years. She came back to the bed with a sudden swift knowledge that Gail had been dry-eyed all through this recital68, though her lips were quivering. She should have cried. Instead she was sitting straight up, staring at Arly with patient inquiry69. She had told all her dilemma, and all her grief, and all her fear; and now she was waiting.
“The only way in which that person can be prevented from attacking your Uncle Jim, which would be his first step, is to attack him before he can do anything,” said Arly, pacing up and down, her fingers clasped behind her slender back, her black brows knotted, her graceful70 head bent71 toward the floor.
“He is too powerful,” protested Gail.
“That makes him weak,” returned Arly quickly. “In every great power there is one point of great weakness. Tell me again about this tremendously big world monopoly.”
Patiently, and searching her memory for details, Gail recited over again all which Allison had told her about his wonderful plan of empire; and even now, angry and humiliated72 and terror stricken as she was, Gail could not repress a feeling of admiration73 for the bigness of it. It was that which had impressed her in the beginning.
“It’s wonderful,” commented Arly, catching74 a trace of that spirit of the exultation75 which hangs upon the unfolding of fairyland; and she began to pace the floor again. “Why, Gail, it is the most colossal76 piece of thievery the world has ever known!” And she walked in silence for a time. “That is the thing upon which we can attack him. We are going to stop it.”
Gail rose, too.
323“How?” she asked. “Arly, we couldn’t, just we two girls!”
“Why not?” demanded Arly, stopping in front of her. “Any plan like that must be so full of criminal crookedness77 that exposure alone is enough to put an end to it.”
“Exposure,” faltered78 Gail, and struggled automatically with a lifelong principle. “It was told to me in confidence.”
Arly looked at her in astonishment79.
“I could shake you,” she declared, and instead put her arm around Gail. “Did that person betray no confidence when he came to your uncle’s house this morning! Moreover, he told you this merely to over-awe you with the glitter of what he had done. He made that take the place of love! Confidence! I’ll never do anything with so much pleasure in my life as to betray yours right now! If you don’t expose that person, I will! If there’s any way we can damage him, I intend to see that it is done; and if there’s any way after that to damage him again and again, I want to do it!”
For the first time in that miserable80 day, Gail felt a thrill of hope, and Arly, at that moment, had, to her, the aspect of a colossal figure, an angel of brightness in the night of her despair! She felt that she could afford to sob16 now, and she did it.
“Do you suppose that would save Uncle Jim?” she asked, when they had both finished a highly comforting time together.
“It will save everybody,” declared Arly.
“I hope so,” pondered Gail. “But we can’t do it ourselves, Arly. Whom shall we get to help us?”
324The smile on Arly’s face was a positive illumination for a moment, and then she laughed.
“Gerald,” she replied. “You don’t know what a dear he is!” and she rang for a cabin boy.
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1
glistening
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| adj.闪耀的，反光的v.湿物闪耀，闪亮( glisten的现在分词 ) | |
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ted
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| vt.翻晒，撒，撒开 | |
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tableau
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| n.画面，活人画（舞台上活人扮的静态画面） | |
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sedate
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| adj.沉着的，镇静的，安静的 | |
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decided
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| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
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surmised
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| v.臆测，推断( surmise的过去式和过去分词 )；揣测；猜想 | |
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potent
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| adj.强有力的，有权势的；有效力的 | |
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maple
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| n.槭树，枫树，槭木 | |
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wan
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| (wide area network)广域网 | |
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pathos
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| n.哀婉，悲怆 | |
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crease
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| n.折缝，褶痕，皱褶；v.(使)起皱 | |
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shudder
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| v.战粟，震动，剧烈地摇晃；n.战粟，抖动 | |
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frenzied
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| a.激怒的；疯狂的 | |
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imprints
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| n.压印( imprint的名词复数 )；痕迹；持久影响 | |
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tottering
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| adj.蹒跚的，动摇的v.走得或动得不稳( totter的现在分词 )；踉跄；蹒跚；摇摇欲坠 | |
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16
sob
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| n.空间轨道的轰炸机；呜咽，哭泣 | |
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sobs
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| 啜泣（声），呜咽（声）( sob的名词复数 ) | |
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disorder
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| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
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instinctive
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| adj.(出于)本能的；直觉的；(出于)天性的 | |
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instinctively
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| adv.本能地 | |
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mere
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| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
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woes
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| 困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉 | |
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frankly
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| adv.坦白地，直率地；坦率地说 | |
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complacently
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| adv. 满足地, 自满地, 沾沾自喜地 | |
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slander
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| n./v.诽谤，污蔑 | |
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wreck
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| n.失事，遇难；沉船；vt.(船等)失事，遇难 | |
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vindictiveness
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| 恶毒；怀恨在心 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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metropolitan
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| adj.大城市的，大都会的 | |
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dilemma
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| n.困境，进退两难的局面 | |
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impending
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| a.imminent, about to come or happen | |
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imperative
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| n.命令，需要；规则；祈使语气；adj.强制的；紧急的 | |
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likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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authoritative
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| adj.有权威的，可相信的；命令式的；官方的 | |
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swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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bustling
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| adj.喧闹的 | |
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humbled
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| adj. 卑下的，谦逊的，粗陋的 vt. 使 ... 卑下，贬低 | |
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remorse
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| n.痛恨，悔恨，自责 | |
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repentance
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| n.懊悔 | |
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40
commingling
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| v.混合，掺和，合并( commingle的现在分词 ) | |
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41
delved
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| v.深入探究，钻研( delve的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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42
humiliation
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| n.羞辱 | |
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43
infliction
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| n.（强加于人身的）痛苦，刑罚 | |
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44
prated
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| v.（古时用语）唠叨，啰唆( prate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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45
sincerity
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| n.真诚，诚意；真实 | |
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46
slough
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| v.蜕皮，脱落，抛弃 | |
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misery
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| n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦 | |
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folly
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| n.愚笨，愚蠢，蠢事，蠢行，傻话 | |
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entity
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| n.实体，独立存在体，实际存在物 | |
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50
entanglements
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| n.瓜葛( entanglement的名词复数 )；牵连；纠缠；缠住 | |
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51
bestows
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| 赠给，授予( bestow的第三人称单数 ) | |
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52
rippled
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| 使泛起涟漪（ripple的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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53
soothe
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| v.安慰；使平静；使减轻；缓和；奉承 | |
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54
respite
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| n.休息，中止，暂缓 | |
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55
thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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56
accomplished
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| adj.有才艺的；有造诣的；达到了的 | |
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57
ingenuity
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| n.别出心裁；善于发明创造 | |
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58
deserted
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| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
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59
torrent
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| n.激流，洪流；爆发，(话语等的)连发 | |
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60
tempestuous
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| adj.狂暴的 | |
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61
exclamations
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| n.呼喊( exclamation的名词复数 )；感叹；感叹语；感叹词 | |
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62
strictly
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| adv.严厉地，严格地；严密地 | |
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63
impede
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| v.妨碍，阻碍，阻止 | |
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64
gasping
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| adj. 气喘的, 痉挛的 动词gasp的现在分词 | |
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65
narration
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| n.讲述，叙述；故事；记叙体 | |
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66
intensity
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| n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度 | |
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67
sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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68
recital
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| n.朗诵，独奏会，独唱会 | |
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69
inquiry
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| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
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70
graceful
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| adj.优美的，优雅的；得体的 | |
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71
bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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72
humiliated
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| 感到羞愧的 | |
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73
admiration
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| n.钦佩，赞美，羡慕 | |
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74
catching
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| adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住 | |
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75
exultation
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| n.狂喜，得意 | |
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76
colossal
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| adj.异常的，庞大的 | |
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77
crookedness
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| [医]弯曲 | |
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78
faltered
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| （嗓音）颤抖( falter的过去式和过去分词 )； 支吾其词； 蹒跚； 摇晃 | |
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79
astonishment
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| n.惊奇，惊异 | |
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80
miserable
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| adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的 | |
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