Mr. Dane's Defense. A Story

Mr. Dane's Defense BY D. W. CUMMINGS "The play? it was fine ! Simply great!" "What enthusiasm! Is it good authorship or — good digestion?" twitted Mrs. Gordon. "Equal parts of both!" laughed her husband who, though a portly man, carried his weight well. "You, my dear, prepared the dinner," she curtsied mockingly, "and Henry Arthur Jones wrote the play." "Distinguished collaborators, I declare!" interposed Billy Lind, a slim, cynical, scholarly-looking man." You should be joy personified, Mr. Gordon." "We thank you !" retorted the quick-witted lady, bowing deeply to Lind. He just as gravely returned the bow, amid laughter from the others. "I know what won me my honors," continued Mrs. Gordon. brightly. "It was my roast veal. But which of my distinguished collaborators' triumphs has thus delighted you this evening?" "You mean, what play did we see, don't you?" asked her husband, a trifle more soberly. She nodded. "It was Mrs. Dane's Defense!" "A good play," observed his wife, quietly. "Marian and I saw it the day she went to Ogden." A pause followed, during which Mrs. Gordon resumed the fancy work she had been engaged upon when the three men came in from the theater. In the light of the study lamp by which she worked, her face and form looked strikingly youthful for one already past middle age. Her eyes were a clear brown, gaily sparkling even in repose. Back of the humor in them, however, lay strength and intelligence. From occasional glances toward her husband one gleaned readily that she loved him as fondly as she teased him mercilessly. Near her sat George Hampton, who had not as yet spoken. He was tall, well made, strikingly and consciously handsome. Not insipidly so, however, for there was a masterful, honest strength in his every feature. He had remained silently interested in the conversation so far. The pause was broken by Mrs. Gordon. She arose, put away her work, and then, turning on her husband with a twinkling eye, she began : "My dear, though modesty forbids you to confess, I know that in your deepest interior, you are hungry !"

446 IMPROVEMENT ERA "My deepest interior reverberates with gratitude at your insight," returned her husband with a grin, "though how you knew — " "Husband mine," she interrupted, patronizingly, "to even the simplest minds, any passage of time after a meal, no matter how brief, is sufficient evidence that you are hungry !" "A hit ! I do declare, a hit !" shouted Lind. "A hit, nothing," protested Gordon, hugely enjoying the laugh his wife had brought. "It's a slander !" "John dear, what's the use? I know you! But, without exposing you any further, I'll go get you a snack. I shan't be but a minute," she said to the others, smilingly, as she left the room. A silence followed her exit. Each of the three men were deeply thinking, Hampton seeming especially pensive. Finally, Lind remarked : "That play appears to have sobered you fellows, or whv this silence?" "It's a sobering play," retorted Hampton a trifle gloomily. "Don't you agree with the author's moral?" asked the cynic, with a slight jeer. "Of course, I agree with it, but — " "But what?" "It's infernally hard on the woman!" muttered Hampton, speaking out his thought. "And yet it couldn't be otherwise. She had to pay the price !" broke in Gordon, oratorically. "The young fellow's father was right. No man could live happily with a woman whom he knew had a child — a child — " "Yes, we understand," assisted Lind, almost contemptuously. "Of course, the handsome young man shouldn't have been allowed to throw away his life on such a woman. But," he continued, deliberately, looking hard at Hampton, "I'm wondering — •" "What are you wondering?" demanded Hampton, irritably, as he caught the look. "I'm wondering whether, if Mrs. Dane had been a man with — with — well, with just such a child, and the handsome young hero had been a beautiful daughter, whether or not the father would have been — er — quite so particular." Again he looked hard at Hampton. The latter went very white under the gaze. He rose nervously with clenched fist, as though forcibly to stop Lind if he continued speaking. The situation was saved by the entrance of Mrs. Gordon with a tray of sandwiches and chocolate. Her husband's attention was soon absorbed in his favorite pastime, and she, busily arranging the dainties, did not observe the other two men. Hampton worked cautiously around to Lind.

MR. DANE'S DEFENSE 447 "Curse that tongue of yours!" he muttered in a low tone, when close enough, "why can't you let that drop?" "Because I've been finding out a few things," coolly replied Lind. He walked to the table, took a sandwich for himself and returned with one for Hampton. "Have one?" The other man took it with a jerk. "What is there to find out, that you don't know already? I tell you that thing's done with !" "Is it? Just wait a minute. Mrs. Gordon, may I ring for Susan? I want some of your incomparable chili-sauce for my sandwich." "Certainly, flatterer !" Lind reached for the bell cord and pulled it. Then he retured to Hampton's side. Presently the door opened. "Look!" he said in a low voice to Hampton. "Bertha!" gasped his friend paling to a chalky white. He trembled violently and then, almost with a leap, sprang into a shadow of the room. The girl at the door came in like a child who has just been hurt and is fearful. She was of rather slight build and pretty in a colorless fashion. Yet, in spite of her timid, forceless appearance, there was something curiously maternal in her bearing, a little saving dignity. "Susan, bring in some chili-sauce," ordered Mrs. Gordon with marked kindliness. "I don't see why Susan is so timid," she continued when the girl had gone out. "She has been here for three days now, and yet acts as strange and frightened as a child." "Easy to understand," murmured Lind in Hampton's ear, isn't it?" At this point Mr. Gordon began talking business outright. He had been fidgeting near the subject all during the theater party that Lind had been giving in small celebration of Hampton's return that afternoon from a southern trip, but as yet he had not had a clear field until this moment. Now, he swooped down on the opportunity resistlessly. "Gordon & Co., contractors and builders, in and by me for the moment represented," he began, with mock pondosity, "would respectfully inquire of their architect George Hampton, lately returned from a business trip, what it is going to cost to erect a certain postoffice in a certain town in this our fair state of Utah. Huh ?" Hampton struggled to smile responsively, but it was a feeble attempt. Finally, to gain time, he said: "I have the estimates in my grip which I haven't as yet unpacked. Give me half an hour with Lind's help and I'll serve you to all the information you can desire."

448 IMPROVEMENT ERA "You are excused for half an hour, sir." "And when you get back you may have ten minutes. By that time Marian will be here, and after a week's separation, I imagine she will probably have considerable — on her chest, to put it in choice American." Hampton went paler still, and, not even attempting a reply, fled. Lind found him a moment later in his own room, pacing back and forth, almost in a frenzy. "Well?" he demanded, impotently. "Well ?" echoed Lind, placidly throwing himself on a sofa. "Why didn't you tell me she was here ?" "My dear fellow, it's only because I'm chicken-hearted that I didn't let you face her before the whole family." "Billy, why is it that you are such a prince of a friend to me in every respect but this ? Why will you never overlook this one bad break?" "Because it's the one thing in which you've proved yellow," responded his friend mercilessly, "and the more I find out, the yellower you appear to have been. I thought you told me the girl had married and gone to Hawaii." "It — it was only half true," confessed Hampton, turning a dull red. "She did go to Hawaii, but as a lady's maid. She wasn't married." "Where is the boy?" probed Lind. "I've placed him with a safe family in — Provo. That's straight," he added, quickly, as he caught Lind's suspicious glance. "I've been to see him on this last trip. I'm — I'm fond of him." There was a pause. "What are you going to do?" "I'm going to see her and get her out of the way." "Why?" ' "Man alive, you don't suppose Marian Gordon will marry me if she knows that story!" "That will be determined when she knows the story." "What do you mean? Billy! You wouldn't tell her." "No ; you will. Now 'cut' that friend-of-mine stuff, and all that. I am the best friend you've got, and you're my only one. But you've been yellow in this thing, and you've got to pay. Besides, Marian Gordon is too fine a girl to be dragged into such a mess as that, unknowingly." The slim man was sitting straight up now, and his eyes snapped. There was something hard, resistless about him, frail though he looked. His delicate features seemed like cold steel, and from him came to Hampton a feeling of overwhelming mastery. The big man sank down with a sob : "Billy, I can't — I can't do it!"

MR. DANE'S DEFENSE 449 "But you've got to — Mister Dane!" Hampton writhed. Lind went on remorselessly : "I steered you into that play on purpose tonight, Budge. I'd seen it before. But," cynically, "I wanted to reproduce the play in real life with the sex of the principal character reversed. 1 wanted you and complacent Air. Gordon to hear the woman's side strongly put, and then, with you in the role of Mrs. Dane. I wanted to hear your defense and his verdict." "Oh!" burst out Hampton, womanishly, "you are cruel!" Lind turned on him like a flash. "Cruel! What about you and your dirty, yellow work? What about that slip of a girl torn away from her baby and sent off to Hawaii to save your precious hide? What about the kid himself when he's grown up and somebody asks him who his mother was? What about Marian Gordon, whom you made to love you, ignorant of all this miserable business? You whining baby, you've played torment with three lives, and because some of the flame begins to scorch you, you bawl !" During this tirade Hampton sat up. His face was marble white, but he was looking Lind straig'ht in the eye : "You've said about enough !" he grated, in a level tone. "Now listen to me. I'll admit I was yellow with the girl. I was a kid with not much sense nor courage. For the boy I've done the best I could. I meant to lie to him when he came with questions about his mother, and never let him know the truth. But, barring that, my record's clean. You've called me a whining baby. Maybe I am — though I'm not so. sure but that, in the same fix, even you, my heroic friend, might squirm. But, since there does seem to be some injustice in keeping this thing from Marian, I will, as you suggest, tell her myself." A glint of admiration shone in Lind's eyes, but he did not soften. He was a cynic. "We will go back to the dining room now," said Hampton, briefly. But on their arrival, they found only Susan clearing away the sandwich plates a"nd cholocate cups. Her back was toward them as thev entered. Hampton walked up to her and said, simply : "Hello!" The girl shivered. Then, fearfully, she turned and looked him full in the face. When she had recovered herself somewhat, she curtsied. "How do you do, sir?" she murmured, faintly. "How long have you been back?" questioned Hampton, with the air of a master to a servant. "I just landed, sir — five days ago." "Why did you return?"

450 IMPROVEMENT ERA She fingered her dress nervously, and then said, with a kind of desperation : "I wanted to see — my boy, sir !" Hampton shrank a little. Then he muttered : "He is your boy, too — isn't he?" "Yes, sir," she answered, softly, looking down. Then, with her eyes suddenly tearful, she looked up at him again. "You won't stop me from seeing him, will you? You'll tell me where he is, won't you ? I shan't stand in your way, sir, but — I want my baby !" Hampton's distress was terrific. Lind turned sick as he watched. "Doesn't it strike you there is something painfully wrong here ?" he burst out. For a long time Hampton stood in troubled thought. Finally he turned to the girl and said, gently : "The boy is with Mrs. Findley in Provo. You will find her address on this card. Have you any money ?" "No, sir, my money ran out. That is why I took this place." "Then here is enough to take you to Provo and keep you for a month. Stay at the little hotel near the station." He stopped and wrote a few lines on the card he was holding. "I am telling Mrs. Findley to let you see — the boy, as often as you wish. His name is George. You must not take him away from her home. In the future, I shall provide for you, and you may stay near the boy always." He handed her the card and the money. Her eyes were wet glories of happiness. "I — I shall leave in the morning, sir," she stammered, gratefully. "And — God bless you, sir !" Then, sobbing, with her face aglow, she backed stumblingly from the room. Hampton stood looking after her, musingly. "I could never get her to drop that 'sir'," he observed at last. "You remember she was a servant in our home." Lind nodded. Then there was a pause of several minutes. It was finally broken by Lind : "What are you going to do?" he asked. "If I am to confess this business, I must do it now," replied Hampton painfully. "I can't meet Marian again and keep it from her. But why can't I ? You ! what have you done to me tonight?" turning savagely on Lind. "Nothing much," came the placid response. "You had an ulcer on your conscience for a long time and I'v just lanced it." Hampton started to reply, but stopped as he saw the door

MR. DANE'S DEFENSE 451 open. With a tremendous effort at self-control, he stiffened to meet Marian Gordon. In sharp contrast to the girl who had just left, she was tall, elegantly gowned and very attractive. There was power in the quick, nervous step, as well as grace and poise. In her face, flushed and lighted with gladness, was reflected a great, tender courageous, unfathomed womanhood. With a manifest instinct of love, she walked swiftly and directly to Hampton, saying the while : "How mean of you to beat me back, when I wanted to give you an especially prepared welcome. I've had a good time, but oh, how I've missed — " By this time she was close to him, and he hadn't as yet raised a hand. He seemed numb with anguish. "Why, Budge! Budge, dear, what's the matter? Is anything wrong?" "I'm — I'm afraid there is, dear," he managed to say, with a great effort. "Then tell me — now !" Just then the door opened again, and her father and mother came in. "Back again, eh, daughter?" exclaimed Mr. Gordon, heartily, raising her chin and kissing her. "Had a great time, I suppose? I say, what's the matter?" "Yes, what is the matter?" repeated his wife in her firm, quiet voice. Hampton was suffering horribly. But with superb command he began to speak : "I've something to say to you — something that should have been said before. As you know, I've asked Marian to marry me. and — she was to give me her answer on my return. But before she decides there is something she must know." He paused Then, deathly pale, he finished : "I've a little boy, but — I never married his mother !" There was a sharp intake of breath heard from the others, but nothing from Marian. Her body seemed to crumple a little, and she reached for her throat as though it hurt. Into her eyes crept a look of horror and pain unspeakable. "You know that I love you," Hampton went on, tensely, "better than anything else in the world. And you know, too, you must know, that with this one exception, my record's clean. I can make you happy and — oh, God ! I can't — I can't lose you !" "That's what Mrs. Dane said!" The words were Mrs. Gordon's, clear, hard, cutting. There is one outrage that makes even tender women cruel.

452 IMPROVEMENT ERA "Yes!" desperately returned Hampton, "but it's different with a man !" "And that," muttered Lind, the cynic, "is just what I expected Mister Dane to say !" But he looked very wretched withal. For a moment no one else said anything. Presently Marian began speaking, her voice level in wonderful control : "George, this is — awful ! Yet, I'm proud of you ! Most men would have kept it hidden. Still, I — it fixes my decision. I — can't — marry you !" "Marian !" It was the cry of a lost soul ! The girl shivered as she heard it, but she went on talking: "I know, it's hard, oh, so hard! But I can't — I just can't. Let me tell you why. Have you seen Mrs. Dane's Defense?" "Yes," replied Hampton, his tongue dry. "So have I, the day I left. Well, doubtless you sympathized with Mrs. Dane as much as I did, but yet, didn't you feel that the boy's father was right ?" "A moment, my dear!" It was Mr. Gordon. His face was pale and grief-stricken. "George has done a terrible thing but — you are too hard on him. The comparison you were about to make is not fair. As he says, it is not the same with a man !" This time the cynic only smiled. But such a smile ! "Oh, why won't you men see that it is !" broke in Mrs. Gordon, impetuously. "Can't you see that it's because you won't that there are so many Mrs. Danes? Can't you see that, if men felt the same moral responsibility as women, there would be two resisting forces instead of only one and a half?" Her husband tried to break in, but she went on relentlessly : "There is the solution of the moral problem. But you men won't see it ! For centuries, you've been fooling yourselves — and us — with that monstrous fallacy. Now, we've paid the price. Now we're going to share the expense !" "And, in this particular case the price is" — Hampton tried desperately to finish the sentence, but his nerve failed him. His conclusion was a look of dumb agony. For the first time Marian seemed to realize just what it all meant. She caught her breath, tried to speak, swayed slightly, and then moaned : "The price — the price — is your happiness — and mine !" Then reaching blindly for her mother's arm, she staggered from the room.