The last words of his half-reluctant, half-exultant confession had scarcely left Richard Amory's lips when Tredennis rose from his chair.
"If you can," he said, "tell me the literal truth. Blundel is at your house with your wife. There is something she is to do. What is it?"
"She is to hand him an envelope containing a slip of paper," said Richard, doggedly. "That is what she is to do."
Tredennis crossed the room, and took his hat from its place.
"Will you come with me," he said, "or shall I go alone?"
"Where?" asked Richard.
Tredennis glanced at his watch.
"He would not call until late, perhaps," he said, "and she would not give it to him at once. It is ten now. We may reach there in time to spare her that, at least."
Richard bit his lip.
"There seems to be a good deal of talk of sparing her," he said. "Nobody spares me. Every folly I have been guilty of is exaggerated into a crime. Do you suppose that fellow isn't used to that sort of thing? Do you suppose I should have run the risk if he had not shown his hand this afternoon? She knows nothing of what she is to give him. There is no harm done to her."
"How is he to know she is not in the plot?" said Tredennis. "How is he to guess that she is not—what she has been made to seem to be? What insult is he not at liberty to offer her if he chooses?"
[Pg 481]
"She will take care of herself," said Richard. "Let her alone for that."
"By Heaven!" said Tredennis. "She has been let alone long enough. Has she ever been anything else but alone? Has there been one human creature among all she knew to help or defend or guide her? Who has given her a thought so long as she amused them and laughed with the rest? Who"—
Richard got up, a dawning curiosity in his face.
"What is the matter with you?" he said. "Have you been"—
The words died away. The colonel's gleaming eye stopped him.
"We will go at once, if you please," said Tredennis, and strode out of the room before him.
When they reached the house Bertha was still standing where her guest had left her a few moments before, and but one glance at her face was needed to show both of them that something unusual had occurred.
"You have had Blundel here?" Richard asked, with an attempt at his usual manner, which ill-covered his excitement. "We thought we saw him crossing the street."
"Yes," she answered. "He has just left me."
She turned suddenly and walked back to the hearth.
"He left a message for you," she said. "That is it,"—and she pointed to the last bit of tinder flickering on the coals.
"The—letter!" exclaimed Richard.
"Yes," she answered. "Do you want Colonel Tredennis to hear about the letter, Richard, or does he know already?"
"He knows everything," answered Richard, "as every one else will to-morrow or the day after."
For a moment his despair made him so reckless that he did not make an effort at defence. He flung himself into a chair and gave up to the misery of the hour.
"You knew," said Bertha, looking toward Tredennis,[Pg 482] "and did not tell me. Yes, I forgot,"—with a bitter little smile,—"there was something you warned me of once and I would not listen, and perhaps you thought I would not listen now. If you know, will you tell me what was in the letter? I do not know yet, and I want to hear it put into words. It was money—or an offer of money? Tell me, if you please."
"It was money," said Richard, defiantly. "And there are others who have taken the same thing peacefully enough."
"And I was to give it to him because—because he was a little more difficult, and seemed to be my friend. Do all female lobbyists do such things, Richard, or was I honored with a special service?"
"It is not the first time it has been done," he answered, "and it won't be the last."
"It is the first time I have done it," she returned, "and it will be the last. The—risk is too great."
Her voice shook a little, but it was perfectly cold; and, though her eyes were dilated, such fire as might have been in them was quenched by some light to which it would have been hard to give a name.
"I do not mean the risk to myself," she said to Richard. "That I do not count. I meant risk to you. When he burned the letter he said, 'Tell them I did it for your sake, and that it is safer for them that I did it.'"
"What else did he say?" asked Richard, desperately. "He has evidently changed his mind since this afternoon."
"He told me you had a reason for your interest in the scheme, which was not the one you gave me. He told me you had invested largely in it, and could not afford to lose."
Richard started up, and turned helplessly toward Tredennis. He had not expected this, just yet at least.
"I—I"—he faltered.
The colonel spoke without lifting his eyes from the floor.
[Pg 483]
"Will you let me explain that?" he asked. "I think it would be better."
There was a moment's silence, in which Bertha looked from one to the other.
"You?" she said.
Richard's lids fell. He took a paper-knife from the table he leaned against, and began to play with it nervously. He had become a haggard, coarsened, weakened copy of himself; his hair hung in damp elf-locks over his forehead; his lips were pale and dry; he bit them to moisten them.
"The money," said Tredennis, "was mine. It was a foolish investment, perhaps; but the money—was mine."
"Yours!" said Bertha. "You invested in the Westoria lands!"
She put her hand in its old place on the mantel, and a strange laugh fell from her lips.
"Then I have been lobbying for you, too," she said. "I—wish I had been more successful."
Richard put his hand up, and pushed back the damp, falling locks of hair from his forehead restlessly.
"I made the investment," he said, "and I am the person to blame, as usual; but you would have believed in it yourself."
"Yes," she answered; "I should have believed in it, I dare say. It has been easy to make me believe, but I think I should also have believed in a few other things,—in the possibility of their being honor and good faith"—
She paused an instant, and then began again.
"You told me once that you had never regarded me seriously. I think that has been the difficulty—and perhaps it was my fault. It will not be necessary to use me any more, and I dare say you will let me go away for a while after a week or so. I think it would be better."
She left her place to cross the room to the door. On her way there she paused before Colonel Tredennis.
"I beg your pardon," she said, and went on.
At the door she stopped again one moment, fronting them both, her head held erect, her eyes large and bright.
"When Senator Blundel left me," she said, "he told me to go to my children. If you will excuse me, I will go."
And she made a stately little bow, and left them.