The Fighting Chance

Then, as the child sat silent, her ragged arms piled with roses, he asked her jestingly what else she desired.

“Nothing. I like to look at you,” she answered simply.

“And I like to look at you. Will you tell me your name?”

“Molly.”

But that is all the information he could extract. Presently she said she was going, hesitated, looked a very earnest good-bye, and darted away across the park, her hoop over one arm, the crimson roses bobbing above her shoulders. Something in her flight attracted the errant cat, for she, too, jumped down and bounded after the little flying feet, but, catlike, halted half-way to scratch, and then forgetting what she was about, wandered off toward the Mews again, whence she had been lured by instinctive fascination.

Siward, intensely amused, sat there in the late sunlight which streamed through the park, casting long shadows from the elms and sycamores. It was that time of the day, just before sunset, when the old square looked to him as he remembered it as a child. Even the marble arch, pink in the evening sun, did not disturb the harmony of his memories. He saw his father once more, walking home from down town, tall, slim, laughingly stopping to watch him as he played there with the other children—the nurses, seated in a row, crocheting under the sycamores; he saw the old-fashioned carriage pass, Mockett on the box, Wands beside him, and his pretty mother leaning forward to wave her hand to him as the long-tailed, long-maned horses wheeled into Fifth Avenue. Little unimportant scenes, trivial episodes, grew in the spectral garden of memory: the first time he ever saw Marion Page, when, aged five, she was attempting to get into the fountain, pursued by a shrieking nurse; and a certain flight across the grass he had indulged in with Leila Mortimer, then Leila Egerton, aged six, in hot pursuit, because she found that it bored him horribly to be kissed, and she was bound to do it. He had a fight once, over by that gnarled, old, silver poplar-tree, with Kemp Ferrall—he could not remember what about, only that they ended by unanimously assaulting their nurses and were dragged howling homeward.

He turned, looking across to where the gray towers of the University once stood. There had been an old stone church there, too; and, south of that, old, old houses with hip-roofs and dormers where now the high white cliffs of modern architecture rose, riddled with tiny windows, every vane glittering in the sun. South, the old houses still remained, now degraded to sordid uses. North, the square, red-brick mansions, with their white pillars and steps, still faced the sunset—the last practically unbroken rank of the old régime, the last of the old guard, standing fast and still confronting, still resisting the Inevitable looming in limestone and granite, story piled on story, aloft in the kindling, southern sky.

A cab, driven smartly, passed through the park, the horses’ feet slapping the asphalt till the echoes rattled back from the marble arch. He followed it idly with his eyes up Fifth Avenue; saw it suddenly halt in the middle of the street; saw a woman spring out, stand for a moment talking to her companion, then turn and look toward the square.

She stood so long, and she was so far away, that he presently grew tired of watching her. A dozen ragged urchins were prowling around the fountain, casting sidelong glances at a distant policeman. But it was not hot enough that evening to permit the children to splash in the water, and the policeman drove them off.

“Poor little devils!” said Siward to himself; and he rose, adjusted his crutches, and started through the park with a vague idea of seeing what could be done.

As he limped onward, the sun level in his eyes, he heard somebody speak behind him, but did not catch the words or apply the hail to himself. Then, “Mr. Siward!” came the low, breathless voice at his elbow.

His heart stopped as he did. The sun had dazzled his eyes, and when he turned on his crutches he could not see clearly for a second. That past, he looked at Sylvia, looked at her outstretched hand, took it mechanically, still staring at her with only a dazed unbelief in his eyes.

“I am in town for a day,” she said. “Leila Mortimer and I were driving up town from the bank when we saw you; and the next thing that happened was me, on Fifth Avenue, running after you—no, the next thing was my flying leap from the hansom, and my standing there looking down the street and across the square where you sat. Then Leila told me I was probably crazy, and I immediately confirmed her diagnosis by running after you!”

She stood laughing, flushed, sunburned, and breathless, her left hand still in his, her right hand laid over it.

“Oh,” she said, with a sudden change to anxiety, “does it tire you to stand?”

“No. I was going to saunter along.”

“May I saunter with you for a moment? I mean—I only mean, I am glad to see you.”

“Do you think I am going to let you go now?” he asked, astonished.

She looked at him, then her eyes evaded his: “Let us walk a little,” she said, withdrawing her hand, “if you think you are strong enough.”

“Strong! Look, Sylvia!” and he stood unsupported by his crutches, then walked a little way, slowly, but quite firmly. “I am rather a coward about my foot, that is all. I shall not lug these things about after to-day.”

“Did the doctor say you might?”

“Yes, after to-day. I could walk home now without them. I could do a good many things I couldn’t do a few minutes ago. Isn’t that curious?”

“Very,” she said, avoiding his eyes.

He laughed. She dared not look at him. The excitement and impetus of sheer impulse had carried her this far; now all the sadness of it was clutching hard at her throat and for awhile she could not speak—walking there in her dainty, summer gown beside him, the very incarnation of youth and health, with the sea-tan on wrist and throat, and he, white, hollow-eyed, crippled, limping, at her elbow!

Yet at that very moment his whole frame seemed to glow and his heart clamour with the courage in it, for he was thinking of Plank’s words and he knew Plank had spoken the truth. She could not give herself to Quarrier, if he stood firm. His was the stronger will after all; his was the right to interfere, to stop her, to check her, to take her, draw her back—as he had once drawn her from the fascination of destruction when she had swayed out too far over the cliffs at Shotover.

“Do you remember that?” he asked, and spoke of the incident.

“Yes, I remember,” she replied, smiling.

“Doctors say” he continued, “that there is a weak streak in people who are affected by great heights, or who find a dizzy fascination drawing them toward the brink of precipices.”

“Do you mean me?” she asked, amused.

But he continued serenely: “You have seen those pigeons called ‘tumbler pigeons’ suddenly turn a cart-wheel in mid-air? Scientists say it’s not for pleasure they do it; it’s because they get dizzy. In other words, they are not perfectly normal.”

She said, laughing: “Well, you never saw me turn a cart-wheel!”

“Only a moral one,” he replied airily.

“Stephen, what on earth do you mean? You’re not going to be disagreeable, are you?”

“I am going to be so agreeable,” he said, laughing, “that you will find it very difficult to tear yourself away.”

“I have no doubt of it, but I must, and very soon.”

“I’m not going to let you.”

“It can’t be helped,” she said, looking up at him. “I came in with Leila. We’re asked to Lenox for the week’s end. We go to Stockbridge on the early train to-morrow morning.

“I don’t care,” he said doggedly; “I’m not going to let you go yet.”

“If I took to my heels here in the park would you chase me, Stephen?” she asked with mock anxiety.

“Yes; and if I couldn’t run fast enough I’d call that policeman. Now do you begin to understand?”

“Oh, I’ve always understood that you were spoiled. I’m partly guilty of the spoiling process, too. Listen: I’ll walk with you a little way”—she looked at him—“a little way,” she continued gently; “then I must go. There is only a caretaker in our house and Leila will be furious if I leave her all alone. Besides, we’re going to dine there and it won’t be very gay if I don’t give a few orders first.”

“But you brought your maid?”

“Naturally.”

“Then telephone her that you and Leila are dining out.”

“Where, silly? Do you want us to dine somewhere with you?”

“Want you! You’ve got to!”

“Stephen, it isn’t best.”

“It is best.”

She turned to him impulsively: “Oh, I do want to so much! Do you think I might? It is perfectly delicious to see you again. I—you have no idea—”

“Yes, I have,” he said sternly.

They turned, walking past the fountain toward Fifth Avenue again. Furtively she glanced at his hands with the city pallor on them as they grasped the cross-bars of the crutches, then looked up at his worn face. He was much thinner, but now in the softly fading light the shadows under the eyes and cheek-bones seemed less sharp, his face fuller and more boyish; the contour of head and shoulders, the short, crisp hair were as she remembered—and the old charm held her, the old fascination grew, tightening her throat, stealing through every vein, stirring her pulses, awakening imperceptibly once more the best in her. The twilight of a thousand years seemed to slip from the world as she looked out at it through eyes opening from a long, long sleep; the marble arch burned rosy in the evening glow; a fairy haze hung over the enchanted avenue, stretching away, away into the blue magic of the city of dreams.

“There is no use,” she said under her breath; “I can’t go back to Leila. Stephen, the dreadful part of it is that I—I wish she were in Jericho! I wish the whole world were in Ballyhoo, and you and I alone once more!”

Under their gay laughter quivered the undertone of excitement. Sylvia said:

“I’d like to talk to you all alone. It won’t do, of course; but I may say what I’d like—mayn’t I? What time is it? If I’m dining with you we’ve got to have Leila for convention’s sake, if not from motives of sheer decency, which you and I seem to lack, Stephen.”

“We lack decency,” said Siward, “and we’re proud of it. As for Leila, I am going to arrange for her very simply but very beautifully. Plank will take care of her. Sylvia! There’s not a soul in town and we can be as imprudent as we please.”

“No, we can’t. Agatha’s at the Santa Regina. She came down with us.”

“But we are not going to dine at the Santa Regina. We’re going where Agatha wouldn’t intrude her colourless nose—to a thoroughly unfashionable and selectly common resort overlooking the classic Harlem; and we’re going to whiz thither in Plank’s car, and remain thither until you yawn for mercy, whence we will return thence—”

“Stephen, you silly! I’m perfectly mad to go with you!”

“You’ll be madder when you get there, if the table has not improved.”

“Table! As though tables mattered on a night like this!” Then with sudden self-reproach and quick solicitude: “Am I making you walk too far? Wouldn’t you like to go in now?”

“No, I’m not tired; I’m millions of years younger, and I’m as strong as the nine gods of your friend Porsena. Besides, haven’t I waited for this?” and under his breath, fiercely, “Haven’t I waited!” he repeated, turning on her.

“Do—do you mean that as a reproach?” she asked, lowering her eyes.

“No. I knew you would not come on ‘the first sunny day.’”

“Why did you think I would not come? Did you know me for the coward I am?”

“I did not think you would come,” he repeated, halting to rest on his crutches. He stood, balanced, staring dreamily into the dim perspective; and again her fascinated eyes ventured to rest on the worn, white face, listless, sombre in its fixedness.

The tears were very near her eyes; the spasm in her throat checked speech. At length she stammered: “I did not come b-because I simply couldn’t stand it!”

His face cleared as he turned quietly: “Child, you must not confuse matters. You must not think of being sorry for me. The old order is passing—ticking away on every clock in the world. All that inverted order of things is being reversed. You don’t know what I mean, do you? Ah, well; you will know when I grow into something of what you think you remember in me, and when I grow out of what I really was.”

“Truly I don’t understand, Stephen. But then—I am out of training since you went—went out of things. Have I changed? Do I seem more dull? I—it has not been very gay with me. I don’t see—looking back across all the noise, all the chaos of the winter—I do not see how I stood it alone.”

“Alone?”

“N-not seeing you—sometimes.”

He looked at her with smiling, sceptical eyes. “Didn’t you enjoy the winter?”

“Do you enjoy being drugged with champagne?”

His face altered so quickly that, confused, she only stared at him, the fixed smile stamped on her lips; then, overwhelmed in the revelation:

“Stephen, surely, surely you know what I meant! I did not mean that! Dear, do you dream for one moment that—that I could—”

“No. You have not hurt me. Besides, I know what you mean.”

After a moment he swung forward on his crutches, biting his lip, the frown gathering between his temples.

They were passing the big, old-fashioned hotel with its white façade and green blinds, a lingering landmark of the older city.

“We’ll telephone here,” he said.

Side by side they went up the great, broad stoop and entered the lobby.

“If you’ll speak to Leila, I’ll get Plank on the wire. Say that we’ll stop for you at seven.”

She gave her number; then, at the nod of the operator, entered a small booth. Siward was given another booth in a few moments.

Plank answered from his office; his voice sounded grave and tired but it quickened, tinged with surprise, when Siward made known his plan for the evening.

“Is Mrs. Mortimer in town?” he demanded. “I had a wire from her that she expected to be here and I hoped to see her at the station to-morrow on her way to Lenox.”

“She’s stopping with Miss Landis. Can’t you manage to come?” asked Siward anxiously.

“I don’t know. Do you wish it particularly? I have just seen Quarrier and Harrington. I can’t quite understand Quarrier’s attitude. There’s a certain hint of defiance about it. Harrington is all caved in. He is ready to thank us for any mercies. But Quarrier—there’s something I don’t fancy, don’t exactly understand about his attitude. He’s like a dangerous man whom you’ve searched for concealed weapons, and who knows you’ve overlooked the knife up his sleeve. That’s why I’ve expected to spend a quiet evening, studying up the matter and examining every loophole.”

“You’ve got to dine somewhere,” said Siward. “If you could fix it to dine with us—But I won’t urge you.”

“All right. I don’t know why I shouldn’t. I don’t know why I feel this way about things. I—I rather felt—you’ll laugh, Siward!—that somehow I’d better not go out of my own house to-night; that I was safer, better off in my own house, studying this Quarrier matter out. I’m tired, I suppose; and this man Quarrier has come close to worrying me. But it’s all right, of course, if you wish it. You know I haven’t any nerves.”

“If you are tired—” began Siward.

“No, no, I’m not. I’ll go. Will you say that we’ll stop for them at seven? Really, it’s all right, Siward.”

“I don’t want to urge you,” repeated Siward.

“You’re not. I’ll go. But—wait one moment tell me, did Quarrier know that Mrs. Mortimer was to stop with Miss Landis?”

“Wait a moment. Hold the wire.”

He opened the door of the booth and saw Sylvia waiting for him, seated by the operator’s desk. She rose at once when she saw he wished to speak with her.

“Tell me something,” he said in a low voice; “did Mr. Quarrier know that Leila was to stay overnight with you?”

“Yes,” she answered quietly, surprised. “Why?”

Siward nodded vaguely, closed the door again, and said to Plank:

“Yes, Quarrier knows it. Do you think he’ll be there to-night? I don’t suppose Miss Landis and Mrs. Mortimer know he is in town.”

Plank’s troubled voice came back over the wire: “I don’t know. I don’t know what to think. I suppose I’m a little, just a trifle, overworked. Somebody once said that I had one nerve in me somewhere, and Quarrier’s probably found it; that’s all.”

“If you think it better not to come—”

“I’ll come. I’ll stop for you in the motor. Don’t worry, old fellow! And—take your fighting chance! Good-bye!”

Siward, absorbed in his own thoughts, rose and walked slowly out of the booth, utterly unconscious that he had left his crutches leaning upright in the corner. It was only the surprise dawning into tremulous delight on Sylvia’s face that at last arrested him.

“See what you have done!” he said, laughing through his own surprise. “I’ve a mind to leave them there now, and trust to your new cure.”

But she was instantly concerned and anxious, and entering the booth brought out the crutches and forced him to take them.

“No risks now!” she said decisively. “We have too much at stake this evening. Leila is coming. Isn’t it perfectly delightful?”

“Perfectly,” he said, his eyes full of the old laughing confidence again; “and the most delightful part of it all is that you don’t know how delightful it is going to be.”

“Don’t I? Very well. Only I inform you that I mean to be perfectly happy! And that means that I’m going to do as I please! And that means—oh, it may mean anything! What are you laughing at, Stephen? I know I’m excited. I don’t care! What girl wouldn’t be? And I don’t know what’s ahead of me at all; and I don’t want to know—I don’t care!”

Her reckless, little laugh rang sweetly in the old-fashioned, deserted hall; her lovely, daring eyes met his undaunted.

“You won’t make love to me, will you, Stephen?”

“Will you promise me the same?”

“I don’t know, silly! How do I know what I might say to you, you big, blundering boy, who can’t take care of himself? I don’t know at all; I won’t promise. I’m likely to do anything to-night—even before Leila and Mr. Plank—when you are with me. Shame on you for the shameless girl you’ve educated!” Her voice fell, tremulously, and for an instant standing there she remembered her education and his part in it.

The slow colour in his face reflected the pink confusion in hers.

“O tongue! tongue!” she stammered, “I can’t hold you in! I can’t curb you, and I can’t make you say what you ought to be saying to that boy. There’s trouble coming for somebody; there’s trouble here already! Call me a cab, Stephen, or I’ll be dragging you into that big, old-fashioned parlour and planting you on a chair and placing myself opposite, to moon over you until somebody puts us out! There! Now will you call me a hansom?… And I will be all ready at seven.... And don’t dare to keep me waiting one second!… Come before seven. You don’t want to frighten me, do you? Very well then, at a quarter to seven—so I shall not be frightened. And, Stephen, Stephen, we’re doing exactly what we ought not to do. You know it, don’t you? So do I. Nothing can stop us, can it? Good-bye!”