The Letter of the Contract

The Letter of the Contract, by
Basil King

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Title: The Letter of the Contract
Author: Basil King
Release Date: January 25, 2007 [EBook #20443]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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LETTER OF THE CONTRACT ***

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[Illustration: See p. 29 "Can't you see that my heart's breaking, too?"
She looked him in the face, shaking her head, sadly. "No, I can't see
that."]

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THE LETTER OF THE CONTRACT
BY BASIL KING
AUTHOR OF The Inner Shrine
ILLUSTRATED
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND
LONDON MCMXIV
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BOOKS BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE INNER SHRINE"
BASIL KING
THE LETTER OF THE CONTRACT. Ill'd THE WAY HOME.
Illustrated THE WILD OLIVE. Illustrated THE INNER SHRINE.
Illustrated THE STREET CALLED STRAIGHT. Ill'd LET NOT MAN
PUT ASUNDER. Post 8vo IN THE GARDEN OF CHARITY. Post
8vo THE STEPS OF HONOR. Post 8vo THE GIANT'S STRENGTH.
Post 8vo
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HARPER & BROTHERS, NEW YORK COPYRIGHT, 1914. BY
HARPER & BROTHERS PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF
AMERICA PUBLISHED AUGUST, 1914
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CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. TRANSGRESSION 1 II. RESENTMENT 41 III. REPROACH 83 IV.

DANGER 134 V. PENALTY 160
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ILLUSTRATIONS
"Can't You See that My Heart's Breaking, Too?" She Looked Him in
the Face, Shaking Her Head, Sadly. "No, I Can't See That" Frontispiece
He Turned from the Girl to His Wife. "I'm Willing to Explain Anything
You Like--as Far as I Can" Page 26
"Oh, Chip, Go Away! I Can't Stand Any More--Now." "Do You Mean
that You'll See Me--Later--when We're in London?" " 155
Edith was Standing in the Doorway, the Man Behind Her. "Chip, Mr.
Lacon Knows We Met in England" " 192
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THE LETTER OF THE CONTRACT
I
TRANSGRESSION
It was strange to think that if, on finishing her coffee in her room, she
had looked in on the children, as she generally did, instead of going
down to the drawing-room to write a note, her whole life might have
been different. "Why didn't I?" was the question she often asked herself
in the succeeding years, only to follow it with the reflection: "But
perhaps it would have happened in any case. Since the fact was there, I
must have come to know it--in the long run."
The note was an unimportant one. She could have sent it by a servant at
any minute of the day. The very needlessness of writing it at once, so
that her husband could post it as he went to his office, gave to the act

something of the force of fate.
Everything that morning, when she came to think of it, had something
of the force of fate. Why, on entering the drawing-room, hadn't she
gone straight to her desk, according to her intention, if it wasn't that
fate intervened? As a matter of fact, she went to the oriel window
looking down into Fifth Avenue, with vague thoughts of the weather. It
was one of those small Scotch corner windows that show you both
sides of the street at once. It was so much the favorite conning-spot of
the family that she advanced to it from habit.
And yet, if she had gone to her desk, that girl might have disappeared
before the lines of the note were penned. As it was, the girl was there,
standing as she had stood on other occasions--three or four, at
least--between the two little iron posts that spaced off the opening for
foot-passengers into the Park. She was looking up at the house in the
way Edith had noticed before--not with the scrutiny of one who wishes
to see, but with the forlorn patience of the unobtrusive creature hoping
to be seen.
In a neat gray suit of the fashion of 1904 and squirrel furs she was the
more unobtrusive because of a background of light snow. She was
pathetically unobtrusive. Not that she seemed poor; she suggested,
rather, some one lost or dazed or partially blotted out. People glanced at
her as they hurried by. There were some who turned and glanced a
second time. She might have been a person with a sorrow--a
love-sorrow. At that thought Edith's heart went out to her in sympathy.
She herself was so happy, with a happiness that had grown more
intense each month, each week, each day, of her six years of married
life, that