The Man and the Moment | Page 3

to call your soul your own since last October as it is--and before you know where you are, you will be attending the husband's funeral and your own wedding in the same week!"
Michael bounded from his chair with an oath. "I'll be shot if I do!" he said, and sat down again. Then his voice grew a little uncertain, and he went on:
"It is worrying me awfully, though, Henry. If poor old Maurice does puff out--I suppose I ought to marry her--I----"
Mr. Fordyce stiffened, and the sleepy look in his gray eyes altered to a flash of steel.
"Let us have a little plain speaking, Michael, old boy. It is not as though I do not know the whole circumstance of your affair with Violet Hatfield. I warned you about her in the beginning, when you met her at my sister Rose's, but, as usual, you would take your own course----"
Michael began to speak, but checked himself--and Henry Fordyce went on.
"I have had a letter from Rose this morning--as you of course know, Violet is staying for this Whitsuntide with them, having dragged her wretched husband, dying of consumption as he is, to this merry party. Well--Rose says poor Maurice is in a terrible state, caught a fresh cold on Saturday--and she adds, 'So I suppose we shall soon see Violet installed at Arranstoun as mistress.'"
"I know--I heard from Violet herself this morning," and Michael put his head down dejectedly.
"Ebbsworth is only thirty-five miles from here," Mr. Fordyce announced with meaning. "Violet can pop in on you at any moment, and she'll clinch the matter and bind you with her cobwebs before you can escape."
"Oh, Lord!"
"You know you are dead sick of her, Michael--and you know that I am not the sort of man who would ever speak of a woman thus without grave reason; but she does not care for you any more than the half a dozen others who occupied your proud position before your day--it is only for money and the glory of having you tied to her apron strings. It was not any good hammering on while the passion was upon you; but I have watched you, and have seen that it is waning, so now's my time. With this danger in front of you, you have got to pull yourself together, old boy, and cut and run."
"That would be no use--" Then Michael stammered a little. "I say, Henry, I won't hear a word against her. You can thunder at me--but leave her out."
Mr. Fordyce smiled.
"Did she express deep grief at poor Maurice's condition in her letter?" he asked.
"Er--no--not exactly----"
"I thought not--she probably suggested all sorts of joys with you when she is free!"
There was an ominous silence.
Mr. Fordyce's voice now took on that crisp tone which his adversaries in the House of Commons so well knew meant that they must look to their guns.
"Delightful woman! A spider, I tell you, a roaring hypocrite, too, bamboozling poor Rose into thinking her a virtuous, persecuted little darling, with a noble passion for you, and my sister is a downright person not easily fooled. At this moment, Violet is probably shedding tears on her shoulder over poor Maurice, while she is plotting how soon she can become mistress of Arranstoun. Good God! when I think of it--I would rather get in a girl from the village and go through the ceremony with her, and make myself safe, than have the prospect of Violet Hatfield as a wife. Michael, I tell you seriously, dear boy--you won't have the ghost of a chance if you are still unmarried when poor Maurice dies!"
Michael bounded from his chair once more. He was perfectly furious--furious with the situation--furious with the woman--furious with himself.
"Confound it, Henry, I--know it--but it does not mend matters your ranting there--and I am so sorry for the poor chap--Maurice, I mean--a very decent fellow, poor Maurice! Can't you suggest any way out?"
Mr. Fordyce mused a moment, while he deliberately puffed smoke, Michael's impatience increasing so that he ran his hands through his dark, smooth hair, whose shiny, immaculate brushing was usually his pride!
"Can't you suggest a way out?" he reiterated.
Mr. Fordyce did not reply--then after a moment: "You were always too much occupied with women, Michael--from your first scrape when you left Eton; and over this affair you have been a complete fool."
Michael was heard to swear again.
"You have been inconsistent, too, because you did not even employ your usual ruthless methods of doing what you pleased with them. You have simply drifted into allowing this vile creature's cobwebs to cling on to your whole existence until you are almost paralyzed, and it seems to me that an immediate marriage with someone else is your only way of escape. Such a waste of your life! Just analyze the position.