the flying triangle reached wilkes-barre for breakfast.
while waiting for agnes, john and thane transacted an important piece of business.
“look here,” said john.
he sat at a desk in the office and wrote rapidly on a sheet of hotel paper as follows:
memorandum of contract
in consideration of one month’s wages paid in hand on the signing of this paper, alexander thane agrees to give his skill and services exclusively to the north american manufacturing company, ltd., (john breakspeare, agent), for a period of two years, and the north american manufacturing company, ltd., agrees to pay alexander thane not less that five thousand dollars a year, plus a ten per cent. share in the profits.
signed { john breakspeare
“put your name over mine,” he said, handing the paper to thane, who read it slowly.
“this the mill you meant last night?”
“yes,” said john.
“how did you come to know as i could run a mill?”
“i think you can,” john said.
[190]
thane signed his name in large, bold writing, blotted it hard, and handed the paper back to john.
“you’re right,” he said. “i can. and if it appears for any reason as i can’t that thing ain’t no good and you can tear it up.”
it never occurred to him that the business had a fabulous aspect. he took what john said at its face value. he could imagine no other way of taking a friend’s word. and if it were unusual for a young puddler to become a participating mill superintendent over night, so urgently wanted that he must sign up before breakfast, that might be easily explained. his friend, john breakspeare, was an extravagant person, very impulsive, with unexpected flashes of insight. who else would have known what thane could do? anyhow he had got the right man to run the mill. thane was sure of that. he supposed john was sure of it, too.
john just then was sure of nothing. his one anxiety was to get thane and agnes into some kind of going order. he was aware that his motives were exceedingly complex and would not examine them. he let himself off with saying it was his moral responsibility; he was to blame for having got them into a dilemma that neither was able to cope with. yet all the time he was thrilled by what he did because he was doing it for agnes.
thane’s artlessness about the contract was an instant relief. a fatal difficulty might otherwise have arisen at that point. but it was also very surprising. was he so extremely na?ve? or had he such a notion[191] of his ability to conduct a mill as to think he would be worth five thousand a year and one-tenth of the profits? yes, that was the explanation, john decided: and it gave him a bad twist in his conscience to think how hurt and unforgiving thane would be if he knew the truth,—that he had signed a contract with a non-existent company to superintend a mythical mill.
they ate a hearty breakfast, coming to it from a night in the open air with no sleep at all. although they talked very little they were friendly under a truce without terms, all tingling with a sense of plastic adventure. there was no telling what would come of it; but it was exciting; and everything that happened was new.
both agnes and john had a surreptitious eye for the puddler’s manners. they were not intrinsically bad or disgusting. they were only fundamentally wrong. he delivered with his knife, took his coffee from his saucer, modelled and arranged his food before attacking it, cut all his meat at once, did everything that cannot be done, and did it all with a certain finish. that is to say, he was a neat eater, very handy with his tools, and cleaned up. he took pride in the performance; his confidence in it was impervious. he was not in the least embarrassed or uneasy. he did not wait to see what they did. he did it his way and minded his own business.
once john caught agnes eyeing thane aslant, and she stared him down for it. he could not decide whether she was scandalized or fascinated.
when they had finished thane called for the reckoning[192] and paid, john politely protesting, agnes looking somewhat surprised. after that in all cases thane paid for two and john paid for himself.
instead of resting for a day in wilkes-barre they chose to go on by train to pittsburgh and arrived there in the middle of the afternoon. john recommended a hotel where he was sure they could be quite comfortable while deciding how they wished to live. he was acquainted there. he would introduce them. in fact, it was where he meant to lodge himself. so of course they all went together.
john managed the whole affair of settling them in their rooms, doing it so tactfully, however, as to leave thane with the sense of having done it himself. when at last there was not another thing to be thought of john held out his hand to agnes, saying:
“congratulations.”
this was subtle, wicked treachery, and in the act was a sting of shame, yet her coolness was so audacious he could not resist the temptation to try its depth. she took his hand and met his look with steady eyes.
“thank you,” she said. “may i share them with my husband?”
“no, don’t,” he said. “they are all his. i’m about to lose my wits. well, no matter.... thane,”—turning to him,—“mrs. thane may want to do some shopping. the best places are three blocks east. i’ll see you in the morning. or later, perhaps? there’s no hurry.”
“tomorrow morning,” thane answered.
[193]
they were standing in a group outside the thanes’ rooms, loath to break up, each for a different reason.
“i’m under the same roof, you know, if you should need me,” said john.
“thanks,” said thane.
still they lingered in a group.
“have a bit of supper with us,” said thane, suddenly.
“not tonight,” said john. “we shall be too sleepy.”
agnes was silent.
after a long pause, “well,” said thane, “this is pittsburgh.”
john pensively nodded his head, and added, “well.”
agnes might have yawned. that would have produced the necessary centrifugal impulse. or she might have said something to have that effect. but she was apparently sunk in thought.
after another long pause the two men shook hands in a hasty manner and john walked rapidly down the hall. from the head of the staircase he looked back. they were still there,—agnes, her hands behind her, leaning against the wall with her head thrown back, gazing from afar at thane, who stood in an awkward twist, with one superfluous leg, looking away. his face was towards john, and john waved his hand, but there was no response. the puddler was staring at an invisible thing.
that last accidental glimpse of them left a vivid after-image in john’s eyes. it stood there for hours like a transparent illusion. he walked the sun down[194] on a country road and still it was there. returning, he paced the streets until ten o’clock and it tortured him still. coming presently to a fine brick house, not very large, with a marble fountain and small flower garden in front, he turned in. his feet knew their way up the narrow walk and he pulled the bell knob with the air of one to whom nothing unexpected is likely to happen. no light was anywhere visible. the windows were hermetically shuttered. nor did his pull at the bell knob produce any audible sound. yet almost at once the door opened, revealing a brilliantly lighted interior, and a servant in livery bowed him in. there was an air of vulgar elegance about the hall. the servant did not speak. having offered to take the visitor’s hat, to which the visitor shook his head, he opened a heavy door to the right and there came from beyond it intermittent sounds of small clatter. the room john entered was what had been the front drawing room. back of it were two more rooms, in a train to the depth of the house, all thrown together by means of unfolded doors, so that the effect was of one very long apartment, about thirty feet wide, laid with rich, deep carpet on which the feet made not the slightest sound. the walls were full of pictures, some of them good. there were several art objects on pedestals, a great many nice chairs and some small tables, like tea tables, evidently used for serving refreshments. on one of these tables was a large humidor and on another a tray with a cut glass service of decanters, goblets and ice bowl. that was all, except down both sides of the first two rooms roulette[195] wheels and in the last room at the end three faro layouts.
twenty or thirty men were betting at roulette, in groups of three or four each. john passed them with a negligent, preoccupied air, walking straight back.
no faro play was just then going on. at one layout sat a dealer in that state of chilled ophidian tension characteristic of professional gamblers in the face of their prey, and by none so remarkably achieved as by the faro bank dealer, who drinks ice water without warming it, who sees without looking, who speaks only under great provocation and then softly, and whose slightest movement is pontifical until he reaches for the six-shooter. that movement is as a rattlesnake strikes.
on the players’ side of a faro table are representations of the thirteen cards,—ace, deuce, trey, etc., to the king, in two rows of six each with the seven at one end. on the dealer’s side, besides the rack containing the chips, the cash drawer and the invisible six-shooter, is a little metal box in which a pack of cards will snugly lie, face up. the dealer moves the cards off one at a time. they fall alternately into two piles. one pile wins; the other loses. the players bet which pile a card will fall in, indicating it by the way they place their money on the table. no vocal sound is necessary. it is a silent game. the expert might play for ever and never speak a word.
john dragged up a large chair, hung his coat on the back of it, settled himself to face the dealer and passed five hundred dollars across the table. the dealer put[196] the money in the cash drawer and pushed out five stacks of yellow chips. john began to play. he did not make his bets at random. he played a slow, rhythmic, two-handed game, never hesitating, always thoughtful, precisely with the air of a man playing solitaire.
for an hour or more he lost steadily. several times his hands made a bothered gesture, as of clearing the space in front of his face. the dealer, the cards, the yellow chips, all objects of common reality, were dim and uncertain, by reason of the image persisting in his eyes,—that etched impression of agnes and thane in the hallway, so twain, so improbable, yet so imminent, so— ... so—....
he groaned aloud and held his head between clenched hands. the dealer stopped and waited. players sometimes behave that way.
recalling himself with a start, john looked up, cleared his play, gave the dealer a nod to proceed and doubled the scale of his bets. that made his game steep enough to attract attention. a little gallery gathered. no one else cut in. he kept the table to himself. gradually the haunted mist broke up. the tormenting picture went away. if it threatened to return he raised his bets again. his health revived. he had some supper brought in and ate it as he played. he played all night.
at seven he rose, yawned, stretched, rubbed his eyes like a man coming out of a deep sleep, pushed his chips across the table to be cashed, and drew on his coat while the dealer counted them.
he had won over three thousand dollars. but it[197] was neither the fact of his winning nor the amount of his gain that floated his spirits. it was getting that picture out of his eyes and the feeling that went with it out of his heart. losing would have served him quite as well, psychically, though of course winning was only that much more to boot.
always for him the excitement of chance was a perfect refuge from thought and reality, better than sleep, which may be troubled with dreams, and restful in the same way that dreamless sleep is.
now as he walked toward the hotel, though the morning was wet and heavy, he felt fresh in his body and optimistic in his mind. he could think of seeing agnes and thane at breakfast without that ugly lurching of his heart.
they were in the dining room when he arrived there an hour later. his impulse was to let them alone, but thane, seeing him, stood up and beckoned.
“we kept a place for you,” he said.
it was so. the table was laid for three. john wondered whose wish that was.
“i’ve had word from new damascus,” he said to agnes. “your father is all right.”
“was there any reason to think he might not be all right?” she asked in surprise.
“no, no,” he said. “it was merely mentioned, like the state of the weather.”
she detected his confusion.
“you saw him last,” she said. “did anything unusual occur?” she was regarding him keenly.
“i thought he looked ill, or about to be,” john said,[198] “and i asked the servants to call the doctor. apparently it was nothing. anyhow ... i’ve had word that he’s all right.”
she did not pursue the subject, but became suddenly silent, and thereafter avoided john’s eyes, for in the midst of his explanation his expression had changed. he had looked at her in a most extraordinary way and she suffered a deep psychic disturbance. it was as if he had blunderingly discovered a nameless secret. and that was precisely what had happened. as he was talking to her,—positively as he would swear with no wanton curiosity in his mind,—as he looked at her and as her eyes met his in open frankness there came an instant in which he saw how matters stood.
how can one tell? one cannot tell. it tells itself in the way the eyes look back, in what is missing from them, in something there that was not there before, in a certain hardness of the chin.
in no such way had agnes changed.
that was what john saw. the discovery shook him. all his senses leaped exultingly. she was not thane’s,—not yet. wild thoughts got loose. the dining room began to sway. then he looked at thane and enormously repented. his feeling for thane was one of intense affection. he could no more help it than he could help his feeling for agnes. they were separate chemistries, antagonistic. so he was torn between them, and when he could bear it no longer he began clumsily to excuse himself.
“we are delayed by legal formalities,” he said to[199] thane. “may be three or four days yet. take it easy. the company can stand it.”
so he left them abruptly.
all that day he fled from himself. all night he played. the next morning he looked at his haggard self in the mirror,—looked deeply into his own eyes, and said aloud:
“but she is his, not mine, and i will let her be, by god.”
on that he slept for twenty-four hours and rose on the third day with a strong appetite, a clear mind and a great vow to the divinity with whom he kept now a time of feud, now a time of grace, whimsically alternating.
