“Hugh!” It was a cry of pain torn from the mother heart. But even in her anguish for her children there came a pang for the man she loved as she gazed at him wide-eyed, distressed. He seemed to have aged ten years since his interview with her only a few hours before. His face was drawn and haggard. Large, dark circles were about the eyes. The wife forced herself to speak calmly. “What do you mean?” she queried.
“I mean,” he answered, coming slowly into the room with lagging footsteps, “that this is all your work!” His gesture took in Elinor and Howard. “And I hope it pleases you,” he repeated bitterly.
“Hugh, at a time like this, when we need all your strength and sympathy to sustain us—you speak to me like this?” Marjorie’s voice was full of reproach. “Why do you use such tones to me?”
“Because,” he replied and there was no suspicion of a softening heart in his hard voice, “I hold you responsible for everything! If I had listened to the dictates of my own heart, we would never have come to New York—but I was weak enough to yield to your persuasions.”
“Surely, Hugh,—” Marjorie’s lips quivered pitifully as she started to protest, but he authoritatively motioned her to silence.
“I tried to argue with you at the time and impress upon you just what an environment such as this would mean to our children, but you wouldn’t listen to me!” he raged. “You told me that you, their mother, should know what was best for them. Well, there they are! Look at your daughter, the pitiful creature of a dissolute man’s fancy, and your son, a——”
“Stop, Hugh!” Marjorie commanded. “You seem to forget one thing, and that is, that they are your children as well as mine.”
“On the contrary,—I have not forgotten it. I am simply trying to impress upon them that I am not to blame for their misfortunes.”
“Then you believe that I alone am entirely responsible for this awful calamity?”
“Entirely and absolutely,” he answered.
“And you call yourself a man!” Marjorie turned upon him, her eyes ablaze with anger. “You inspire me only with contempt! Last night I thought because of the children I could never leave you! But now, for the very same reason, I refuse to remain or to allow them to remain with you another day!”
This was rather more than the angry man had bargained for. In his way he loved Howard and Elinor, and his pride, too, was at stake.
“Do you mean,” Hugh endeavored to conceal his anxiety but it was nevertheless poignant, “that you will take Elinor and Howard away from me?”
“That is precisely what I mean to do!”
“We shall see about that.” He strode forward angrily. “I think the children themselves are the ones to choose between us.”
“Do you imagine for a moment,” Marjorie replied haughtily, “you could persuade them to leave their mother?”
“Elinor and Howard,” Hugh began suddenly, “I want you both to listen to me for a moment.”
Elinor sat up in her chair, dabbing at her eyes with her handkerchief, while Howard turned and stood with his back to the fireplace, staring sullenly in front of him.
“Children, your mother and I have come to the parting of the ways. As you heard her remark a few minutes ago—you are mine as well as hers. I love you both, and—I want you—but you are old enough to decide for yourselves.”
Silence, distressing in its intensity, followed the father’s brutal ultimatum.
“Oh—I—I don’t know what to say?” Elinor was filled with confusion. Her wail was faltering. “This is all so sudden—so strange!”
“You know, dear,” Hugh strode to her chair, and stood looking down upon her, “I am willing to do anything for you—I will take you abroad until this nasty scandal has a chance to blow over, and when we return, should you have any enemies you will find that the best weapon with which to fight them is your father’s money.”
“Elinor, darling,” Marjorie pleaded, “all that I can do is to offer you my love and devotion—and when it comes to protection, you will find that there isn’t a weapon in the world to compare with your mother’s love.”
“Oh, mother—I—I don’t know what to say!” Once more the girl’s frail body was racked with sobs as she sought to see the light—what best to do. “Dad has always been wonderful to me! Ever since I can remember, he has granted my every wish! I don’t know how to answer! Oh, what shall I say?”
“This is a question that your heart must answer for you, dear.” Marjorie’s reply was faint but her voice told of the heart yearning behind the simple reply. “I—I didn’t believe,” she caught her breath sobbingly, “you would hesitate an instant.”
“Well, you see, mother,” Elinor’s mood changed to querulousness and she pouted, “I’ve always been selfish and headstrong—you’ve told me so yourself many times! So I—I think—if you don’t mind,” she dropped her eyes and stared at the floor, “I—I shall stick to Dad! I guess he’ll understand me better!”
“My little girl!” Hugh exclaimed tenderly, as he leaned over and gathered her in his arms.
“Oh—my baby—my baby!” Marjorie moaned, her arms outstretched before her, the tears rolling down her cheeks.
“Well, Howard! We’re waiting!” Hugh turned expectantly to his son.
Howard looked his father squarely in the eye as he demanded, with slow deliberation: “Well—what are you waiting for?”
“This is an awful mess—that you have gotten yourself into,” Hugh hastened to explain, but his eyes wavered before the steady gaze of his son. “My attorney says there isn’t a doubt concerning your vindication. All of the witnesses swear that it was either an accident or self-defense—and your motive for quarreling was thoroughly justifiable—but just the same, the law has peculiar twists and angles—and it is going to take a fortune to save you.”
“Well?”
“I want to keep you with me, Howard—and my money——”
“Stop!” It was a son he had never known who took a menacing step toward him, rage flaming in the eyes of scorn with which he searched out his father’s soul. “You and your money!” He flung out. “You think that with it you can conquer the world! You hold my mother responsible for all this trouble—don’t you? Do you want to know the real cause of all the suffering in this room to-night? I’ll tell you—it’s your money! The thing that made me the good-for-nothing idler that I am—that made my sister the frivolous callous-hearted woman you see before you! Your money! You may buy another woman with it and break my mother’s heart! You may make Elinor forget that some day she may have children of her own—but if you think, for a moment, that you can make me forget my manhood to the extent of deserting my mother, then even prison is far too good for me!”
Marjorie stared at him in amazement! Slowly she awakened from her apathy. In a dawning glory that transformed her, her face was aglow with mother love. Her eyes, dim from grief and weeping, fairly beamed with pride and joy. Hugh walked the length of the room twice without speaking. He strove to master himself, but the selfish anger had not been conquered when he came to a stop before his son.
“So that is the way you look at it. Isn’t this display of chivalry rather sudden?” The sneer was in his voice and words.
“I know that I’ve never amounted to very much,” Howard was ready to acknowledge his short-comings, “but I think, Dad, now that it has come to a showdown—I’m more of a man than you are!”
Tiger and cub, they faced each other, glaring.
“I’ve had enough of this.” Hugh’s voice was thunder when he was first to break under the strain. “Go with your mother! Play the hero as much as you damned please! I’m through with you! You’ll find it pretty hard to get out of this trouble without a penny of the money you scorn to help you!”
“I’ll take my chances with hundreds of others—that’s all.” Howard’s serene reply held the indulgence of the conqueror.
Marjorie Benton, too heartfull to speak, to stand between father and son, could hardly realize that this wonderful boy, standing there, superbly defending her, was her son! Never for a moment had she doubted Elinor’s loyalty, and the blow she had received from her had been as unexpected as crushing.
Now, as her husband stalked toward the door with the finality she knew so well, she hurried across the space to place herself in the doorway, obstructing his passage. There was no hint of pleading now, though. All that had gone from Marjorie Benton forever. But there was in the determination with which she barred Hugh Benton’s way something greater—the greatest thing in all the world—the determination of the mother to fight for the child she loves. Her voice was menacingly soft as she spoke, ignoring his annoyed gesture to be allowed to past.
“Just a moment, Hugh,” she said, “we have not quite finished yet. Last night,” she went on, “you made me an offer. You have not forgotten it?”
“An offer?” Hugh lifted eyebrows in puzzled surprise.
“You said if I would consent to a divorce, you would arrange everything and settle three-quarters of your fortune upon me.”
“Yes—I believe I did say that.”
“Are you still willing to go through with it?”
“Most assuredly I am.”
“Then,” Marjorie’s voice rang clear as a bell, “I accept your proposition! Get your divorce any way that you please! I don’t care what the grounds are—only see that I am given every dollar that you promised me!”
“I understand,” Hugh sneered. “You intend using that money for Howard.”
“What difference can it make to you—how I intend using it?” she inquired coldly.
His voice was cold as her own as he rejoined:
“Nothing matters to me—except my freedom. Come, baby!” He looked pityingly at Elinor. “You’re completely worn out—I’m going to take you upstairs.”
Alone with his mother, Howard’s diffidence returned. In spite of all his newly-found chivalry he did not feel at ease.
“Mother,” he began, “I can’t let you do this for me. You don’t believe in divorce.”
“I believe in a great many things,” Marjorie answered, her eyes filled with unshed tears, “that I never believed before. I believe that it takes a great sorrow to bring forth the real character of a true man or woman.”
“You never would have given father his freedom if this hadn’t happened with me.”
Marjorie placed both hands tenderly upon Howard’s shoulders and looked up at him with eyes brimming with love.
“I’m so proud of you—my son!” she murmured.
“Gee whiz, mater,” Howard was the boy once more,—the boy who shied at too much display of emotion! “I only did what any fellow would do.”
“Your father has always been such a pal to you, while I have never been—very close—and yet you turn to me. I—I can’t understand why!” she murmured on softly.
“Oh—well—you know, father’s all right—but there’s something about a boy’s mother—Gee!—that gets him, from the time he’s born till he’s an old man.”
“Do you know, dear, that at this moment, when I should be heart-broken, I am the happiest woman in the world!”
“But mother, you’re crying,” he protested.
“Tears of joy, dear—because—I am your mother!”
“I’ve never done a thing in my life to make you proud of me, mother, and now I’ve brought this new disgrace upon you. It seems almost too bad that Druid didn’t get me first.”
“Hush, dear!” Marjorie shivered. “You are all that I have, now, and we will face this thing bravely—together.”
There was little sleep for any members of the Benton family that night, or rather morning, as it was close to five o’clock before they retired. When Mr. Hammond called at ten o’clock, he found Hugh waiting in the library for him.
“Good morning, Benton,” he began in his abrupt manner. “Hope you managed to get some rest? I’ve been busy since before eight, and I’m afraid things are not going to be quite as simple as they seemed a few hours ago.”
“Why—what do you mean?” Hugh asked anxiously.
“Well it seems that Howard did a lot of talking at the club before he went to Druid’s apartment. He spoke to two of the members, and the entire conversation was overheard by the coat-boy.”
“What could he have said?”
“Oh, many things—all leading up to the statement ‘that he intended to get Druid and settle with him for ruining his sister’s reputation.’ Mind—I don’t say this will make any difference in the outcome of it all—it will just complicate matters. If it hadn’t been for the influence we brought forward last night, I don’t believe we should have been able to bail him out until after the coroner’s inquest.”
“When does that take place?”
“This afternoon.”
“Just what do you think their verdict will be, Hammond?”
“I expect it to be ‘death by accident,’ ” the lawyer answered confidently. “Then this thing will never have to be tried. Now I’d like to have a talk with both Elinor and Howard. Are they up yet?”
“I believe so,” Hugh answered. “Would it be possible for you to give me about half an hour of your time before seeing them?”
“Why, yes!” Hammond pulled out his watch. “We don’t have to be downtown until two o’clock.”
Hugh opened the bottom drawer of his desk and brought out a box of choice Havanas. He offered them to the lawyer, then lighted one himself. But he was apparently ill at ease as Hammond waited inquiringly.
“You and I have been friends a great many years, haven’t we, Hammond?” was his beginning.
“Indeed, we have,” Hammond replied warmly. “I am happy to have you look upon me as your friend instead of merely your attorney.”
“I need your friendship now, Hammond, more than I ever needed anything in my life.”
Hammond grasped his hand firmly: “You can depend upon me, Hugh. Had Howard been anyone’s son but yours, I should never have bothered with this case. You know it is entirely out of my line of work.”
“It is not about Howard at all that I wish to speak,” Hugh announced calmly.
“No? Of whom then?”
“Myself——”
“Yourself?” Hammond inquired, surprisedly.
“Myself and my wife. Hammond, you will no doubt be very much surprised to hear that Mrs. Benton and I have agreed—to separate.”
“Separate! Why I can’t believe it!” The lawyer seemed dumfounded at the news. “You have a grown son and daughter, and you have been married a great many years. Why I thought that you and Mrs. Benton——”
“You thought the same thing as everyone else who knows us,” Hugh interrupted with undisguised bitterness, “that we are an absolutely mismated couple endeavoring to drag out an unhappy existence together.”
“You’re wrong, Benton. I never thought that. I knew that Mrs. Benton was different from the majority of the women of to-day, and candidly speaking, I admired her for that very reason.”
“But don’t you think Mrs. Benton carries her ideas of propriety rather to the extreme?” Hugh asked irritably.
“That depends entirely upon the way you look at it. I must confess that I am somewhat of the old school myself, and therefore I don’t particularly approve of your modern ‘feminists,’ as I believe they choose to call themselves.”
“Just what is your definition of ‘feminist,’ ” asked Hugh. “And why the disapproval?”
“Because,” and there was a dreaminess in Hammond’s eyes that would have astonished many a judge and lawyer in New York city, could they but have seen it, “they have tried to replace the most wonderful women of all times—the women of bygone years—the women our mothers were. Instead of glorying in wifehood and motherhood—the true mission of every womanly woman—they launch forth into politics or business or professions with ambitions and determinations worthy of men, or else they fritter their lives away, becoming more and more useless every day.”
“Why, Hammond, you speak as though you have been the victim of a bitter experience.”
“No,” was the answer, with a shake of the head, “I’m not speaking from experience at all—I’m speaking from observation. In my career, I can view the drama of Life from a front-seat.”
“Strange,” Hugh meditated. “In all the years that I have known you, John Hammond, I never once suspected that you, with your abrupt manner and stern demeanor could be an idealist.”
“Well,” he laughed, “I wouldn’t go quite so far as to say I am an idealist, but I do admire and hold in the highest esteem a true woman.”
“But you won’t permit your ideas to influence you—you’ll be perfectly fair with me?” Hugh demanded.
“I always try to be fair, Benton—but in this case I’ll be more than fair, inasmuch as we will not consider this an interview between client and attorney, but a talk—between friends.”
“Fine, Hammond—I couldn’t ask for more. Now, then, as I told you before, Mrs. Benton and myself have agreed to separate.”
“Yes? May I ask why?”
“Incompatibility, for one thing,” answered Benton, his eyes roving about the room. Those searching orbs of the lawyer made him nervous, he fretted to himself.
Hammond was silent a moment: then abruptly he asked: “Just how many years have you been married?”
“Almost twenty-two.”
“And it has taken you two people twenty-two years to discover that you are incompatible? You asked me to be fair, Benton—I in return must ask you to be honest with me?”
“But—I don’t——”
“You’re asking for my advice,” Hammond continued sharply. “Why don’t you come out at once and tell me plainly that you have lost your head over another woman?”
“Why—I—” Hugh blushed and stammered uneasily, “I thought to give you the facts as delicately as possible. Your method seems—er—pardon me—almost crude.”
“Come, come, Benton,” Hammond replied impatiently. “I don’t believe in beating about the bush! You can’t change a deed or a statement by attempting to glaze it over with a polish. The fundamental fact remains the same no matter what you do. Just a minute, please,” as Hugh endeavored to interrupt him, “let me tell you that I’ll have a great deal more respect for you if you stop this quibbling and come out with the plain truth!”
“Very well, then. I have fallen in love with another woman, and I want to marry her.”
“Of course, you know you could never obtain a divorce from Mrs. Benton?”
“Mrs. Benton has agreed to obtain the divorce from me. I will arrange all of the details, and I want you to help me.”
“Does Mrs. Benton know on what grounds she will have to bring suit?” Hammond inquired in surprise.
“Certainly she knows!” Benton was becoming irascible. He was unused to being talked to like a naughty child, and Hammond’s tone, to say the least, was not the kind the financier usually heard. “We have discussed the New York State laws,” he replied.
Hammond pondered seriously and there was a chilling change from the friendliness of a moment before when he asked:
“Just when did you reach this decision? I can readily understand your not mentioning it to me last night in all the excitement, but you were in my office two days ago and never said a word. If I remember rightly, I inquired after Mrs. Benton, which would have given you an opening should you have desired to speak?”
“We only reached an understanding early this morning,” Hugh answered hurriedly, “after I came home with Howard. I had talked it over with Marjorie—before—but she refused to listen. Something happened this morning—and she changed her mind.”
“If it is not too personal, would you mind telling me just what that ‘something’ was?”
Hugh Benton threw all subterfuge to the winds. This man was too good a cross-examiner. He would make a clean breast of it and have done with it once and for all. It was an abominable mess, however it was taken.
“Oh, well, if you must know,” and his wide shoulders lifted, “I may as well tell you now as any time, for you will have to know it in order to help me arrange my affairs. You see, Hammond, when we first came to New York to live, it was entirely against my wishes. We had been married five years at the time, and the heated discussion and argument concerning this move caused our first quarrel. Being young and very much in love, I couldn’t hold out long against my wife’s desires. She was filled with ambitions for us all, and to her New York spelled one word in capital letters, and that was ‘Success.’ ”
“Well, from all that I happen to know about your affairs,” the lawyer glanced about the sumptuously furnished room, “you seem to have given her her desire.”
“Yes,” Hugh answered bitterly, “from a financial viewpoint, I suppose I am a success—but—outside of that——” He compressed his lips tightly for a moment. “Oh, I’m not going to play upon your sympathy, Hammond, and go into every little detail regarding the misery of many years! All I’ll say is that it has been—hell.”
The lawyer looked his surprise.
“Apparently you’ve always been the happiest of men—why everyone——”
Hugh Benton broke in irritably. “Surely you don’t expect me to go about like a woman carrying my heart on my sleeve! I’ll tell you one thing, Hammond,” and he jumped up excitedly, “when two people cease to care for one another—when they reach a state of absolute indifference and still continue to live together under the same roof—it’s a crime! They go on—either because they think they owe a duty to children—God, children!” He covered his face with his hands, and there was weariness in all his features as he looked up to continue: “Or else, they fear the censorship of the world! And for one of these two damnable creeds, they condemn themselves to years of torture!”
“I’m sorry, old man, to think that things have been as bad as that,” Hammond was not unsympathetic, but he was beginning to wonder if sympathy would not be wasted here.
“I didn’t mean to drift into all this,” Hugh sighed, impatient at his own garrulity as he went on: “But the remark you passed about my success started me off! Let’s get back to where we were and finish this thing.”
“Exactly—where were we? Oh, yes, I remember. You are to furnish the grounds, and Mrs. Benton is to divorce you.”
“I’ll tell you just what I propose doing.” Hugh drew his chair closer and proceeded to lay out his plan. It was a lengthy recital, during which he kept his gaze focused on his desk. He wouldn’t have admitted even to himself that he was doing something of which he should feel ashamed, and yet there was that within him which prevented him from once lifting his eyes and looking the lawyer in the face.
“I understand.” It was with difficulty Hammond managed to subdue the ring of contempt in his voice. “You have thought it all out admirably; it should do you credit.”
Benton looked up quickly, but Hammond’s expression was blank. He must be mistaken in thinking that last remark revealed a tinge of veiled sarcasm.
“Have you any suggestions to offer?” he asked, lighting a fresh cigar.
“I may have several to offer—but first it will be necessary for me to ask you a few questions.” Hammond’s reply was calmly non-committal.
“Very well—go ahead.”
“I asked you this question before, but you happened to drift away from the subject. What I want to know is—just what was it that caused Mrs. Benton to change her mind?”
“Early last evening, I went to my wife honestly,” Hugh was angry to feel himself blushing at the word, “told her exactly what had happened and pleaded with her to grant me my freedom. She refused, absolutely, and I left the house indignant and determined to find some way or means by which I could compel her to listen to me. When I came home with Howard this morning, I lost complete control of myself and accused her openly of being responsible for all the misfortune which had come to us.”
“Did that seem fair—to you?” Hammond demanded sternly.
“Yes—it did.” Stubbornly Hugh held to his fatuous belief and condoning of himself. “She was entirely to blame for our coming here, and——”
“For Heaven’s sake, Benton.” Irritably the lawyer jumped from his chair to pace the floor. “You can’t mean to sit there—a man of your intelligence—and tell me, with all sincerity, that you hold your coming to New York responsible for the existing conditions?”
“Absolutely! If we had remained in——”
“What about Fate or Destiny, or whatever you choose to call it, playing a part in your life, and all the other lives about you? New York! Ridiculous, I tell you! Had you been in Paris, France, or Trenton, New Jersey, you would have stood just exactly where you stand to-day. Don’t you believe at all in predestination?”
“I do, in every instance—but this.”
“How interesting! But go on—we’ll come back to this later—After you upbraided Mrs. Benton, et cetera—what happened?”
“One word led to another,” Hugh answered, pretending to ignore Hammond’s sarcasm, “and finally she declared that ‘she would leave me and take the children with her!’ ”
“Mm, I see! And then?”
“I told her the children were no longer babies—that they were old enough to decide for themselves, and then I endeavored to make the situation clear to them. Elinor came to the conclusion that she would prefer to remain with me——”
Hammond merely smiled, but Hugh did not see the movement of the lips under the grizzled mustache that formed: “Selfish little beast.”
“Howard handed me the surprise of my life,” Hugh continued in a tone of self-pity. “When I explained to him that this mess he had gotten himself into would cost me a fortune, but that I was willing to spend it if he would remain with me, why, he turned on me like a maniac and denounced me shamefully! Acted like the hero in a dime novel—played heroics to a fare-thee-well—ending up by telling me plainly just what he thought of me and my money!”
Hammond’s eyes shone bright as he urged: “Yes! Yes! Go on—I’m greatly interested.”
“He had tried my patience a bit too far, so I ordered him to go and see just where he would find himself without my money. Then Mrs. Benton made her entrance dramatically, as I daresay she believed. She declared she would accept my offer of the early evening, and grant me my freedom providing I gave her the money I had promised her.”
“It is like her, to do a thing like that,” Hammond murmured, almost inaudibly, “and you consented—I suppose?” He turned inquiringly to Benton.
“Certainly—I wanted my freedom, and if Fate chose to bring——”
“Ah!” the lawyer interrupted him. “There you are! Now you believe in Fate! This is evidently one of the instances when you choose to believe in it.” In a twinkling the lawyer’s attitude changed. All semblance of friendship dropped from him like a cloak. He turned on the financier with accusingly uplifted hand while the voice that so often had brought terror to the heart of a culprit, had swayed juries and filled courtrooms, thundered. “You’re a coward, Hugh Benton! You want to leave this woman, who has been your wife for twenty-two years, and the mother of your children, for another woman and you’re afraid to acknowledge that you yourself are to blame and——”
“But I’m not to blame,” Hugh insisted. “I told you that we have been uncongenial for years——”
“You managed to stand the uncongeniality in your home for twenty-two years, and you would have stood it to the very end—if some other woman hadn’t aroused your passion.”
“See here, Hammond,” Hugh turned white. Hammond was going too far entirely. “I don’t like your tone. You’re my attorney, and you said you were my friend. That is why I am telling you all this. I didn’t ask you for your opinion of me, and it’s immaterial whether my conduct meets with your approval or not! If you don’t wish to handle my affairs, say so—I shall be able to find another attorney in the city.”
“Precisely!” Hammond roared. “You haven’t an inducement you could offer with which to retain my services! I’ve curbed my impatience with difficulty in order to let you reach the end of your narrative. Now I want to tell you that after twenty-five years of practice, I find myself unable to read a man’s character correctly. I was never so deceived in all my life as I have been in you, Hugh Benton, and I blush to think I called you—friend!”