THE WOMAN
Terhune, Albert Payson
The Woman A Novel By ALBERT PA YSON TERHUNE Founded on William C de MUle't Play IUattrated with Photographs {Copyright 191Z, The Bobbs-MerriU Company} What Has Gone Before /CONGRESSMAN STANDISH...
...broke in Wanda, first of all to detect the note of weakening in Grace's voice...
...You shan't arrest her, Mark...
...You are striking with the blindness of a man...
...And he'll see that she is held in bail too heavy for her friends to pay...
...Robertson's face went purple...
...Grace...
...You know this Woman's name," he declared...
...You don't know what you're implying —what you're letting them think...
...The men were leaning forward eagerly to catch Grace's first syllable...
...Neligan, go downstairs and get rid of that officer...
...It's all right...
...It will fall on her husband more heavily than on her...
...called Tom joyously...
...At the mastery that vibrated through his voice and look, she faltered, through no conscious volition of her own: "Yes...
...Van-Dyke will be around at the station-house in a few minutes to make the charge...
...intuition telling her why Grace was there...
...Wanda, her arms clasped protectingly about the unheeding Woman, who did not so much as realize their presence nor feel the warm sympathy of their embrace...
...without dreaming where the blow will fall...
...The latter raised a protesting hand...
...Miss Kelly is threatened with imprisonment for cutting off Blake's conversation with the Associated Press, because of her refusal to give the name of the Woman or the number called by Standish...
...Blake had forestalled Her answer...
...Standish is willing," said he, "to see this girl here terribly punished for protecting the guilty Woman...
...Blake calls up the Associated Press to order the publication of the story, but is cut off and communication is restored too late to get the story in the morning papers...
...I wish you'd clear out...
...He lays a trap to secure the name of the Woman...
...It's all right, I tell you, girl...
...You're all worked up over this...
...Leaving her abruptly, he crossed to Robertson...
...Grace enters and protests against the order for Wanda's arrest, much to the surprise of her father and husband...
...I'm enough of a believer in divine justice to know that...
...Van Dyke grim, alert, master of the moment, his lean face set in lines of unwonted sadness...
...Why, Grace...
...But Grace neither felt the contact nor heard the whisper of eager futile comforting...
...You have often boasted, Jim," said he, "that you owe your success to the fact you see things just a second sooner than other people...
...Blake's legs gave way and he sprawled inert into a chair, his head on his breast He had all at once grown old—very, very old...
...Don't tell...
...What are you trying to get at...
...Tell it to me...
...Don't you understand...
...queried Van Dyke, who had dropped back in his chair a few moments earlier, taking no longer even a passive part in the scene...
...Meantime, Robertson had forced his own dazed brain back into a semblance of its former strong control...
...It's a trick to—to—" She caught his shaking hand and murmured a broken incoherent syllable or two amid the passion of her sobs...
...Grace is going to tell us...
...It is abominable...
...None of them will tell...
...It was an odd tableau: Grace, helpless, shaking, dumb...
...If you don't need me any further, Mr...
...So it must be since then that she talked with the Woman about it...
...So much the better...
...Out with it, man...
...No—no...
...Don't beat about the bush...
...He seemed about to say more...
...It isn't like you to—" "No," agreed Mark, "it isn't...
...There, there...
...You're right," assented Tom, following in Neligan's wake...
...His words had fallen on deaf ears...
...Don't tell...
...Then they turned stupidly upon Grace who bowed her head in a spasm of hysterical unchecked weeping before the panic query in their gaze...
...She pleads in vain...
...No, no...
...We win...
...You've been howling for a fight to a finish...
...I won't believe it...
...By telephone...
...At the conclusion of the interview with Blake Standish gets a New York wire and calls Plaza 1001...
...Yes—I'm—I'm licked...
...Grace sends for Miss Kelly, apologizes for her rudeness and begs Wanda's assistance...
...The Woman awakens to the fact that she does not love Standish and calls their engagement off...
...yelled Tom, springing in front of the giant henchman as the latter moved toward Wanda...
...I—" He got no further...
...Tom Blake goes to Wanda's assistance and acts as her counsel...
...But, in one black mass, tiers upon tiers of garish lights glowed...
...The Machine is seeking means to discredit Standish in the hope of pushing the bill through...
...he was chuckling...
...Yes," answered Blake, without stirring or so much as looking up...
...Miss Kelly refuses to give Jim Blake the 'number called by Standish...
...Slowly, with bent shoulders and dragging step Blake made his way to the big room's farthest end...
...he blustered...
...Go with him, Tom," whispered Wanda...
...Mark" he said, flinching not at all before the bloodshot fury in the husband's little eyes, "we are here as lawyers, making an investigation...
...cried the telephone girl in terror...
...For my sake...
...In his harsh eagerness, Mark forcibly lifted his wife's bent head and forced her eyes to meet his...
...She gives as one of the reasons her determination to get revenge on Jim Blake for ruining her father, Congressman E'rank E. Kelly...
...I'm going to phone Gregg to let the house know the whole story...
...He proposes marriage and is refused...
...Now that you are safe—" The door closed behind the two departing men...
...And don't come back...
...Grace's sobs broke the tense silence, as she fought weakly for self-control...
...Grace pleads with Governor Robertson to withhold the Standish story for the sake of the Woman...
...But—but—tell me —that—that this was all over and— and done with—before you married Mark...
...What does that matter now...
...It is wicked to punish Wanda Kelly for her loyalty in trying to save a friend from disgrace...
...Van Dyke," he said as calmly as if he were giving a routine order, "you will have every trace of this story destroyed tonight...
...What are you going to do...
...You know the name," pursued Mark, still gripping his wife's brain by the magnetism that was almost hypnotic power...
...At a stride Robertson was beside his wife...
...Father...
...For the briefest moment he stood stupefied, expressionless...
...Even his tongue tricked him...
...pleaded the latter...
...Grace's lips paled...
...I'm sorry, daughter...
...You're crazy...
...If—" "I think not," denied Van Dyke, the cold sorrow in his voice now apparent to every one...
...I can count on you...
...A few minutes later Robertson tells Miss Kelly to call Plaza 1001 and get his wife or one of the servants on the phone...
...This is our last punch and it's going to be a knockout...
...And we must move quickly...
...And I will barely have time to reach the capitol before the bill comes to a vote...
...Don't give her away...
...He was eyeing Grace strangely...
...Oh, don't cry like that, darling...
...How could she have communicated with the Woman...
...At the horror that now deepened in it he saw what his next and crowning move must be...
...Good night...
...What d'ye mean...
...Then, cautiously, half-cringingly, as if expecting a blow, he moved back to Van Dyke...
...That's no concern of ours," said Mark...
...And it was Van Dyke who broke the brief silence...
...Congressman Standish, turned insurgent, is fighting the Mullins bill, a measure in the interests of the railroads...
...No," refused the husband...
...Dad's own, own little girl...
...It's all right...
...he demanded sharply...
...Blake, telephone instrument in hand, paused to glare down in angry amazement at the saturnine lawyer who so calmly opposed him in the hour of victory...
...He tells Miss Kelly that he is going to have a talk with Standish and that at its conclusion the latter will call up a number on the telephone to warn the Woman...
...It's no place—" "But, father, can't you see...
...But you can't use it, Jim...
...Blake crossed over to her...
...But, glancing furtively at Mark's set changeless face, he forebore...
...Mark shifted his attack with unexpected swiftness...
...Robertson, son-in-law of Jim Blake and the latter's candidate for Speaker of the House, tries to win Standish over, and failing threatens to dig into his past...
...Tom Blake tells his father of his love for Wanda Kelly and a family row ensues...
...I can't bear it...
...You're wasting time that we haven't got...
...It must never get beyond this room...
...The telephone was set down by a hand that shook as though from palsy...
...Mark Robertson was still frowning perplexedly at Van Dyke...
...Come, Grace," prompted Mark...
...Good night," he repeated...
...We've got the name...
...Mark, your injustice to this girl here is a thousandfold worse than your cruelty to the Woman...
...But—" "Mrs...
...It's not for you to say how she shall suffer...
...He crossed the room to the telephone...
...Are you...
...Miss Kelly calls on Grace to warn her that her good name is threatened by Impending exposure of Standish and is insulted for her pains...
...I advise you to keep the number as small as possible...
...Miss Kelly is protecting some poor woman who has done wrong and who has repented...
...begged Van Dyke...
...And he was gone...
...Standish," he went on with a savage joy that rent away the last remnant of the velvet from the iron beneath...
...Grace appeals to Standish to give up the fight in order to protect her name...
...Who is she...
...But give me the right to do that by telling the Woman's name at once...
...The Woman A Novel By ALBERT PA YSON TERHUNE Founded on William C de MUle't Play IUattrated with Photographs {Copyright 191Z, The Bobbs-MerriU Company} What Has Gone Before /CONGRESSMAN STANDISH and the Woman, believing themselves In love, ^* spend a trial week as man and wife in a hotel In northern New York under assumed names...
...For a single instant the heavy-lidded eyes were wholly, starkly unveiled in a glare of unbelieving horror...
...Robertson...
...names, dates and all...
...Van Dyke, in gloomy wonder, turned on his chief...
...Tell Van Dyke he lies...
...Mark," begged Grace, "let me tell It to you alone...
...I—" "You'll tell...
...Her tongue would not stir...
...What's the matter...
...Tom Blake and his father have a family row over the father's political theories...
...Hell's full of losers...
...That is what has been puzzling me...
...expostulated Blake, in pitiful bravado...
...her face and had read it...
...Mrs...
...Jim Blake sends for Standish...
...She rose at his approach...
...She has not left this hotel...
...Roughly brushing aside Wanda's embracing arms he caught Grace by the shoulder and held her...
...He secures all the facts except the name of the Woman and proposes to use the story as a club to force Standish to allow the Mullins bill to pass...
...Blake has a story of the Standish episode prepared ready to send out as soon as the Woman's name is learned...
...declared Blake, again picking up the telephone...
...He looked furtively at Grace...
...And now," Mark demanded, as his wife still hesitated, "who is she, Grace...
...But you would have it...
...It's a way we've got...
...Steady...
...snapped Mark...
...The machine attempts again to force Standish out of the fight, without success...
...Must the Woman's years of repentance all count for nothing...
...Hold on, Jim," objected Van Dyke...
...I must speak to you—afterward...
...It concerns us all...
...But there's one thing we've got to know...
...Don't you understand—even yet...
...And I am sorry for it...
...I—" "Grace...
...I don't think you need me here any longer, gentlemen...
...It was 'for better, for worse.' If that vow is any good at all, it's as good for 'worse' as for 'better.' Mark—bo gentle with her, boy...
...roared Neligan...
...Why in blazes can't we use It...
...If you put a finger on her I'll—" "No...
...Yes," he said again, and his voice was dead...
...For the moment, the great corporation lawyer chanced to be also a man...
...No, I don't," returned Mark...
...You always do...
...Grace," he commanded, his voice still gentle, but with a ring of iron behind its suavity, "look at me...
...Wanda declares she will never betray the Woman...
...His mind would not fix itself on the lighted capitol and the wreck of his life-work...
...but crept over back into the dim room behind him...
...Mark's eyes had never for an in-Btant left his wife's face...
...And, at the sight, Jim Blake gave a great wordless cry and gathered her into his arms as though she were a baby...
...You shan't be bothered...
...To Be Concluded...
...but we've got to...
...Drawing aside the curtains he glanced out into the night...
...His precise dry voice was tinged by a note of something almost solemn as he addressed Robertson...
...On his way from the room, Van Dyke paused beside Blake's chair...
...That is our affair, not yours," retorted Mark...
...Steady, daughter...
...Mr...
...It isn't fair...
...We're almost against the ropes over there at the capitol...
...We still have time to use it...
...Neligan," he ordered, "take this phone girl downstairs and turn her over to the officer who is waiting...
...It will fall where it is deserved...
...she murmured distractedly...
...Blake," she said gently, "I'll go...
...You've got it, yes...
...But you couldn't beat the organization...
...It is the finish," agreed Standish, his deep voice infinitely sad...
...When did she make that promise...
...It isn't fair...
...For when he would have made it recite further the tale of his losses, it muttered brokenly: "My own little girl...
...but I advise you to clear the room before you let her speak...
...She shall tell us alL Inside of a few hours the whole country is going to know that name...
...Not yet" "Not yet...
...The Woman is here in th0is house...
...I—yes...
...You don't want to hear the name...
...Why don't you speak...
...Blake's daughter, Grace, arrives with her husband, Governor Robertson...
...And I'm still loss-proof...
...You hear what this man insinuates?'" he cried thickly...
...Jim Blake finds out about the episode Ave years back at the northern New York hotel...
...Shall I tell Mullins to let the bill come to a vote...
...It's none of my business...
...The Woman's possible repentance is between her and her God...
...Daughter," said Blake, almost timidly, "they've all gone...
...CHAPTER XX The Last Card WANDA was first to see her, even before Mark felt the restraining clasp on his arm...
...Suppose the second call were not a mistake...
...Mark," he said, "Miss Kelly has told us that she promised the—the Woman not to tell...
...Wait, I say...
...ordered the lawyer...
...Certainly," agreed Van Dyke with equal coolness...
...Tell him he lies, I say...
...I would have spared you, Robertson...
...The lightning quick and accurate faculty of deduction that had won his first success at the bar was stirring strongly within him...
...Father," said Grace in eager appeal, "you won't go on with this...
...His voice grew husky...
...admonished Blake, amazed at his usually well-poised child's vehemence...
...He had at last raised...
...And witnesses are necessary in an affair like this...
...Wait till you hear the name...
...Mark," he faltered, avoiding his son-in-law's eye, "you promised to protect her...
...He refuses...
...Mark," he said, tapping the duplicate telephone list, "your house in New York is charged here with two calls...
...He took an involuntary step toward Van Dyke...
...Why not...
...We—" "Then leave her punishment to God...
...Wanda Kelly, telephone girl at Hotel Keswick, Washington, 13 loved by Tom Blake, son of the political boss of the House...
...Oh, my little girl...
...Miss Kelly is sent for and Robertson ordered to give her the third degree in an attempt to learn the name of the Woman...
...he choked, "Dad's own, own little girl...
...Every trace of weeping was seared away by the flame of sudden indignation...
...Almighty...
...Standish protests undying devotion...
...You'll make everything right...
...Must she be punished so...
...Wait, Jim...
...The big veins near his temples swelled grotesquely...
...his lean face working...
...Slowly, as by hard physical effort, she raised her panic-widened eyes to meet his gaze...
...The gloom of the sleeping city was below and around him...
...There was no hint in his voice or in his manner that Mark's command entailed the defeat of a bill, the collapse of millions of dollars worth of stocks, a probable panic on Wall street and the money interests' total if temporary loss of power in Congress...
...But she was staring blankly ahead of her with eyes that saw nothing...
...hesitated Van Dyke...
...Blake stared open-mouthed, his face greenish and flabby, the stem jaw loose, the keen eyes bulging...
...Blake, still gripping the telephone and glowering in angry surprise at the lawyer...
...Three people here already know the name...
...The Woman faced him in dry-eyed horror...
...It will do no harm to know the type Of woman he's married...
...Not a word of it...
...Don't...
...and now the iron glinted more openly through the velvet sheathing, "do you mean to say you are go-insr to let us face ruin when one word from you would—" "1 tell you, I can't—I can't...
...We—" "She never heard of the affair until early this evening...
...Never you mind what they threaten to do to me...
...There, in the capitol, the Mullins bill was coming to a vote...
...In there," he muttered, pointing toward the door that led to the inner rooms...
...By the time I get on the wire Grace will have told...
...I'm with you, no matter what you've done...
...Miss Kelly has been on duty downstairs ever since six o'clock...
...But they were dry and cracked...
...Robertson was standing moveless, unseeing...
...This is the time to do it...
...Grace...
...It's too late now to spare any one's feelings...
...Jim," he said hesitatingly, "I'm going over to tne capitol...
...As Van Dyke opened the door, Wanda made as though to follow him...
...But he found his subconscious self straying from the picture he \va3 so ruthlessly drawing...
...Keep your nerve...
...We thought it was a mistake A wordless gurgle from Jim Blake interrupted him...
...There, Matthew Standish, freed by a miracle from the toils that craftier men had woven about him, was winning the victory which was to clear for him the pathway to the very summit of political power...
...It's been a long fight...
...Robertson...
...asked Mark, exultant at the success of his ruse...
...But Van Dyke, with a peremptory gesture, halted him...
...Mr...
...croaked Blake, his throat sanded with a horror that he would not confess, "don't you hear what they're saying, girl...
...He took the receiver from the hook...
...No," growled Bake, "I don't...
...His fierce appeal broke off in a cry of pain...
...Are you weakening...
...I don't ask you to foul your lips by denying it I'll attend to him later...
...Blake lifted a palsied hand in negation...
...Help us...
...This is the finish...
...Mark, his triumph tinged with impatience at his wife's hesitation...
...We've been tearing your poor heart to pieces and your old father was the bitterest against you...
...What have the two phone calls to my home got to do with...
...Dad'll see you through...
...CHAPTER XXI Jim Blake, Loser AND SO for an instant they stood...
...Van Dyke faced Robertson...
...He offers Miss Kelly $100 for that number...
...Neligan...
...Shut up...
...There, in the window's embrasure, out of earshot, his back to the others, he halted...
...When the old man raised his eyes, Mark and Grace alone were left in the room with him...
...It's cowardly—unbelievable...
...I—I can't I won't...
...Wanda Kelly wound her arms tighter about the heavy body...
...Pardon me, Robertson," intervened Standish, as he saw Grace's last barrier break down...
...wailed Grace in the same breath...
...At last we have struck the right trail: I am sorry it leads where it does...
Vol. 6 • February 1914 • No. 6
