Whirligigs | Page 5

her and propose to her.
He found her to be a woman in black with hair the colour of a bronze
turkey's wings, and mysterious, remembering eyes that - well, that
looked as if she might have been a trained nurse looking on when Eve
was created. Her words and manner, though, were translucent, as Bibb
had said. She spoke, vaguely, of friends in California and some of the
lower parishes in Louisiana. The tropical climate and indolent life
suited her; she had thought of buying an orange grove later on; La Paz.
all in all, charmed her.
Merriam's courtship of the Sphinx lasted three months, although be did
not know that he was courting her. He was using her as an antidote for
remorse, until he found, too late, that he had acquired the habit. During
that time he had received no news from home. Wade did not know
where he was; and he was not sure of Wade's exact address, and was
afraid to write. He thought he had better let matters rest as they were
for a while.
One afternoon he and Mrs. Conant hired two ponies and rode out along
the mountain trail as far as the little cold river that came tumbling down
the foothills. There they stopped for a drink, and Merriam spoke his
piece -- he proposed, as Bibb had prophesied.
Mrs. Conant gave him one glance of brilliant tenderness, and then her
face took on such a strange, haggard look that Merriam was shaken out
of his intoxication and back to his senses.
"I beg your pardon, Florence," he said, releasing her hand; "but I'll have
to hedge on part of what I said. I can't ask you to marry me, of course. I
killed a man in New York -- a man who was my friend - shot him down
-- in quite a cowardly manner, I understand. Of course, the drinking
didn't excuse it. Well, I couldn't resist having my say; and I'll always
mean it. I'm here as a fugitive from justice, and -- I suppose that ends
our acquaintance."
Mrs. Conant plucked little leaves assiduously from the low-hanging
branch of a lime tree.
"I suppose so," she said, in low and oddly uneven tones; "but that

depends upon you. I'll be as honest as you were. I poisoned my
husband. I am a self-made widow. A man cannot love a murderess. So I
suppose that ends our acquaintance."
She looked up at him slowly. His face turned a little pale, and he stared
at her blankly, like a deaf-and-dumb man who was wondering what it
was all about.
She took a swift step toward him, with stiffened arms and eyes blazing.
"Don't look at me like that!" she cried, as though she were in acute pain.
"Curse me, or turn your back on me, but don't look that way. Am I a
woman to be beaten? If I could show you -- here on my arms, and on
my back are scars -- and it has been more than a year -- scars that he
made in his brutal rages. A holy nun would have risen and struck the
fiend down. Yes, I killed him. The foul and horrible words that he
hurled at me that last day are repeated in my ears every night when I
sleep. And then came his blows, and the end of my endurance. I got the
poison that afternoon. It was his custom to drink every night in the
library before going to bed a hot punch made of rum and wine. Only
from my fair hands would he receive it -- because he knew the fumes of
spirits always sickened me. That night when the maid brought it to me I
sent her downstairs on an errand. Before taking him his drink I went to
my little private cabinet and poured into it more than a tea- spoonful of
tincture of aconite -- enough to kill three men, so I had learned. I had
drawn $6,000 that I had in bank, and with that and a few things in a
satchel I left the house without any one seeing me. As I passed the
library I heard him stagger up and fall heavily on a couch. I took a
night train for New Orleans, and from there I sailed to the Bermudas. I
finally cast anchor in La Paz. And now what have you to say? Can you
open your mouth?"
Merriam came back to life.
"Florence," he said earnestly, "I want you. I don't care what you've
done. If the world -- "
"Ralph," she interrupted, almost with a scream, "be my world!"
Her eyes melted; she relaxed magnificentlv and swayed toward
Merriam so suddenly that he had to jump to