CHAPTER II
THE MAN OF MONEY
JUST inside the doorway Field made his final plea. In his impetuous earnestness he seized Ellen’s arm with violence.
“Please, Ellen, for the love of heaven,” he begged, “don’t lower yourself by speaking to that insufferable blackguard.”
She withdrew her arm with a touch of resentment.
“Nonsense, Randy, he is my guest.”
“He came without an invitation!”
“Oh, no, dear boy, he reads the papers--at least he owns one. My announcement contained a welcome to every thoughtful man and woman in New York. Besides, I’m consumed just now with curiosity to see what he is really like at close range.”
“But, Ellen, I’m madly in love with you,” Field interrupted; “I won’t stand for it!”
The tall figure grew a bit taller as her eyes met his.
“I’m afraid you’ll have to stand it,” she said quietly. “I’m not in love with you, and if I were I wouldn’t take orders from you. Remember, dear boy, that I live in the big world--a man’s world. I’m going to meet and speak to any human being who interests me. Run along now and don’t annoy me.”
Field flung himself suddenly into the crowd and disappeared before she had finished speaking.
Lucy Sheldon rushed to meet her.
“Where on earth have you been?” she cried.
“On the roof listening to Randy’s fool love-making,” was the frank reply.
“Well, you’re fined for disorderly conduct. The caterer is waiting your orders to announce the buffet dinner.”
Ellen drew up both hands in disgust.
“Tell him to go ahead--what did I hire him for?”
Lucy waved the signal to the caterer, who proceeded to serve the dinner picnic fashion from the sideboard while his minions filled the glasses from the huge punch bowl on the center table.
“And what’s more important,” Lucy continued in a stage whisper, “you have a very distinguished guest here to-night who is vainly seeking an introduction to his hostess.”
“You mean Edwin Brown?”
“Of course, silly--next to you he’s the sensation of the evening. May I introduce him now?”
Ellen suddenly faced her friend.
“Lucy Sheldon, do you mean to tell me that you know that man?”
“And why not?”
“You--the demure little ingenue defender of the home and champion of all the old-fashioned virtues in women?”
“Certainly--he’s one of my best friends--gave me my first job on a newspaper in New York and gave me the letter to Holt, his big rival, that got my permanent job--what of it?”
The ugly thought that crept into Ellen’s mind for a moment was dismissed with a laugh.
“Oh, nothing, dear; you’re too innocent for this world. I’ve told you that before, I think.”
“You’ll meet him now?”
“Certainly, I’m curious to know him.”
A minute later she returned with Brown. The meeting was a distinct shock to Ellen West. A man of more striking and charming appearance she had never met. The shock upset her preconceived ideas of the typical flesh-hunter of whom she had heard much and read more. He walked with an easy swing that provoked comradeship. His tall, finely moulded figure suggested strength and poise of character. The distinctly handsome face wore a winning smile that refused to come off in the presence of a beautiful woman. His clothes fitted to perfection, yet left no suggestion of fine dress. Good-natured, jovial, conscious of power, but without the slightest trace of insolence, he extended his hand with a simple speech that disarmed her.
“I really must beg your pardon, Miss West, for this intrusion to-night, but I was so anxious to meet you I couldn’t resist the temptation to accept your democratic announcement--if for no other reason than to teach you how dangerous such an innovation might be--am I forgiven?”
“There is nothing to forgive, I assure you. I meant every word of my democratic creed in that invitation.”
“Then I shall be very happy to-night,” he replied, bending low.
“But why this overwhelming desire to meet me personally?” Ellen asked with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes. “I’ve heard that your tastes ran to the ingenue type!”
He laughed heartily but made no protest.
“It may be true. I never dispute the gossips. I’m more honored by their attentions than I deserve. Whatever trend a man’s taste may have taken in the past you will admit that a new woman has arrived.”
“And you have come to appraise her?”
“Exactly. And I don’t mind telling you that my impressions are overwhelmingly favorable.”
Ellen smiled at his boyish emphasis and evident sincerity.
“Thank you!” she said with a touch of irony.
“I mean it--and mind you, these impressions had to come along some pretty rough road before they settled. You know a man has been taught from childhood to trail the ‘nice’ girls. You’re a very disturbing young woman. You do a lot of things that make a fellow sit up and take notice.”
“For instance?”
He looked at her with frank admiration, a smile twinkling about the corners of his steel grey eyes, and deliberately swept the room searching for a way out.
“Could we get away from the crowd?” he asked appealingly.
She threw him a quick look of surprise as he went on eagerly:
“Would you honor me with a few minutes’ quiet talk if it’s not asking too much? The animals are all feeding now. They won’t miss you.”
She hesitated and said:
“Certainly, come up on my roof. I’ve a little nook of a garden up there.”
“Splendid!” he whispered.
She led him through the main doorway into the dimly lighted hall and up the narrow stairs to the identical seat beside the fountain on which she had chatted with Field twenty minutes before.
She repressed a laugh at the expense of mere man. She was studying the animal at close range. It had just dawned on her--the full significance of Field’s desperate love-making, of Bridges’ endless sighs, of Brown’s audacity--they had each read into her final article on the “Free Alliance as a Substitute for Marriage” an invitation to make the personal experiment. The driveling idiots--as if she must thus advertise for a man!
She sat down on the iron seat, her nerves quivering with suppressed rage. Brown walked to the edge of the little garden, looked across the moonlit square toward the Metropolitan tower and up at the star-lit sky. The movement enabled him to glance into every nook and corner of the place and make sure that they were alone.
Ellen’s keen eye had caught the side glances.
“How quiet and beautiful it is up here!” he exclaimed. “Your own idea to fix this old roof into a garden, I’ll bet?”
“Yes, I write here when the weather’s fine,” she answered.
He drew a chair in front of her and threw his tall figure into it with an easy swinging grace and looked for a moment at her with deliberate admiration.
“Would it surprise you, Miss West,” he began slowly, “if I told you that my call was made to-night with the most serious intentions?”
“Very much,” she answered emphatically.
“It’s true,” he went on musingly. “You have not only interested me enormously as a passing sensation----”
“Passing is good!” she interrupted.
“I mean, of course, from the newspaper point of view,” he apologized, “but your personality, which seems to contradict your theories, has interested me far more.”
“Really?”
“Honestly.”
“And we have known each other just fifteen minutes.”
He shook his head in protest.
“Pardon me. I have known you for more than a year.”
Ellen frowned.
“I don’t get the point of your joke,” she answered drily.
“No joke, I assure you,” he went on briskly. “From the day I heard you address a crowd in Union Square--a little more than a year ago--I have read every line that you have written and attended every meeting at which you have spoken.”
“Incognito?”
“Certainly not. This is a big village, Miss West. When I dismiss my car I go where I please and do as I please. The crowd doesn’t know or care who I am. You have been the most puzzling study of the past year. When I see you sway a throng of eager listeners, discussing the history of suffrage and the abstract principles of democracy, there’s something cold and steel-like in you that repels and yet provokes the deepest interest. I’ve heard you discuss the management of maternity hospitals, the sexual meaning of the dance, the segregation of the unfit, the improvement of the breed of men by proper mating and the white slave traffic with the cold precision of a demonstrator of anatomy pointing out the different nerves and muscles of the human body in a dissecting room.”
“And still your interest held?” she asked.
“The funny part is that it grew in intensity. One minute I’ve thought you splendid. The next that you were absurd. I’ll swear you were both, and yet always alive--alive to your finger tips with a power to communicate the sense of boundless vitality to others. You’ve drawn and held me as a magnet. I couldn’t keep away from you----”
He leaned forward and gazed at her intently.
“And so I’m here to-night.”
“I am honored, I assure you,” she said with a touch of sarcasm.
“To make myself perfectly plain, Miss West,” he went on evenly, “I love you.”
Ellen laughed until he began to flush with wounded pride. She lifted her rounded arms above her head and laughed again.
He waited for her to speak.
“And I am to believe, of course, that I am the first to whom you have ever spoken those three magic words?”
“On the other hand,” he protested seriously, “I scorn so cheap a lie. To be honest with you, women have been my chief interest in life. I’ve never wasted a minute with them. I’ve always gotten the full value of both my time and my money. I’ve lost thousands in bad investments; I’ve lost hundreds of thousands in Wall Street crazy speculations; I’ve lost thousands and months of life fooling with vanities; I’ve nothing to show for it--but the women I have known and loved----”
He paused, smiled and shook his handsome head.
“They have made life worth living. And because of this I can truthfully say that I think our planet a nice place on which to tarry.”
“At least you have the courage of your convictions,” Ellen observed drily.
“You have been a revelation to me in the possibilities of a higher and more beautiful womanhood.”
She leaned forward, fixed him with her eyes and spoke with intensity.
“And how much will you give for me?”
He hesitated and fumbled the black-braided watch guard which circled his neck, glanced at her uneasily, flushed and was silent.
“How much?” she insisted sternly.
He studied her and answered deliberately.
“A house on Fifth Avenue, a country place, and a settlement of twenty-five thousand a year.”
The audacity and magnificence of his offer stunned her.
There could be no doubt about his meaning. There could be no doubt about his sincerity. His finely shaped hands were trembling and his voice quivered with excitement.
Ellen drew a deep breath, folded her arms and studied his face. He had not attempted to touch her hand or suggest the slightest liberty. His frankness and the poise with which he had announced his Epicurean code of morals had appealed to her imagination.
He straightened his tall figure and waited for her to speak. A long silence followed which he broke at last in low tones.
“All right; we’ll make it fifty thousand a year, if you say the word?”
Another silence.
When Ellen spoke at last there were tears in her voice as well as in her eyes.
“It would be silly for me to flare up and say that you have insulted me. As a matter of fact you have not. You have paid me the highest compliment you know how to pay a woman. But can’t you see that it is just this condition of chattel slavery out of which I am struggling to lift women? For centuries she has been bought and paid for by man, her master. I have achieved my independence, thank God. Otherwise, I’m honest enough to tell you that your offer might have dazzled me. I don’t see how the average woman who loves luxury could resist such a bid----”
She paused and laughed softly.
“From such a bidder.”
Brown moved in protest.
“Now wait a minute--you mustn’t joke. We’ve gotten beyond that. We’re both in earnest. If I’ve made a mistake, I’ll get right. I’ve taken you at your word. You hate conventional marriage?”
“Yes.”
“That’s why I’ve offered you a free alliance which you could end at a moment’s notice and yet maintain your position of wealth and all that power means. You refuse?”
“I scorn it.”
“All right. Will you marry me?”
“Marry--you?”
“And why not?”
“What would you do with your other establishments?”
“You know that I have them?”
“I’m sure of it.”
He pursed his lips, twisted his fingers with nervous cruelty and breathed deeply.
“You’re not just torturing me, are you?” he asked.
“I want to see how deeply you are in earnest,” she fenced.
“You know that I’m in earnest,” he protested.
Another silence followed.
“I think you are,” she said finally. “Otherwise you wouldn’t hesitate about giving up your other girls.”
“You see I had not faced this sort of possibility when I came here to-night. I didn’t think you were the marrying kind.”
“And yet if you have read my work you must know that the marriage I seek is the highest ideal relation of two free men and women. As much higher than conventional marriage as heaven is above hell.”
“But you would have it free, wouldn’t you?”
“Absolutely.”
“Then wouldn’t you let me see one girl I know occasionally for a short time, if I really wished it? I’m fond of her; she didn’t believe that I’d ever marry. And it wouldn’t be quite the square thing to throw her overboard without a word--I’ll end it in a month.”
“You can see as many as you like.”
“Yes, but I want you. I must have you. I never wanted anything quite so desperately and earnestly in my life and I’ll pay the price if I must--anything you demand--will you marry me?”
“I’m not for sale at any price. When I find the man I love, I shall give myself, not sell.”
“You won’t marry me?” he asked in astonishment.
“No.”
He rose quickly.
“It’s incredible!” he cried impatiently. “Of course I’m spoiled. But this is the first big jolt of my life.”
“You’ll recover.”
“Of course, I’ve got to--but look here----”
He seated himself and touched her arm with the gentlest sort of appeal.
“You’ll give me a chance with the other fellows to win your love?”
“And why not?” she answered archly. “You’re really a most agreeable young man now that I’ve seen you at close range. I’ve been wondering why a man of your fine body and mind should waste his talents in senseless dissipation?”
“That’s a fact, isn’t it? Why don’t you reform me?”
Ellen laughed.
“It doesn’t appeal to me. I’ve more important work to do.”
“I’d try to make the job agreeable,” he urged. “Honestly I would.”
Ellen rose without reply. He knew that further words would be wasted and followed her toward the stairway in silence.
As they were about to enter the door opening on the stairs he said in boyish tones:
“Just one little favor before you disappear in that mob.”
She turned toward him.
“Certainly. What is it?”
“You have the most exquisitely beautiful hand I have ever seen. In remembrance of what I’ve said to you to-night, may I kiss it?”
Ellen gazed at him in surprise until he flushed with embarrassment.
“You are so sentimental.”
“I confess it.”
She extended her hand, he touched it with his own, bent and kissed the tips of her fingers.
“I had no idea you could be so silly,” she said lightly.
“Thank you,” he gravely answered.
As they entered the throng below, Lucy Sheldon met her at the door.
“If Mr. Brown will excuse you now----”
Brown leaned close to the little woman and whispered:
“Thank you, Mrs. Sheldon. I’m your debtor for life for a beautiful evening.”
With a nod to Ellen he passed on into the crowd.
“Where on earth have you been?” Lucy wailed.
“On the roof again.”
“At least you escaped sentimental nonsense this time.”
“I escaped,” Ellen admitted.
“I’ve the surprise of your life in store for you,” she whispered. “The man of your dreams is here.”
Ellen smiled indulgently.
“Lead me to him. The sight will be refreshing.”
Lucy lifted her arm high above her head and waved to a dark, serious young fellow who stood leaning lazily against a balcony column.
He nodded in answer and hurried across the room.
Ellen heard his name in a sort of trance. The sight of his strong manly face and slender wiry figure had stirred suddenly the memories of childhood in Maryland. This boy looked like an old playmate except that he was dark and the boy of her childhood was blonde. Where had she seen him?
“This is my reckless nephew, Mr. Ralph Manning, who, against my advice, has left a good position in the South to butt into metropolitan journalism.”
He took Ellen’s outstretched hand, speaking in a rich Southern voice.
“And why shouldn’t I, Miss West? If a little lorn widow like my Aunt can butt into New York and make her fortune, why can’t a husky young man who is not afraid of hard work do the same?”
She made a conventional reply and continued to study the lines of Manning’s face. Something in the low tones of his voice caught her heart with a queer grip.