Black Oxen Part 28

"Mary Ogden was brought up in those same cast-iron traditions."

"Yes, but Madame Zattiany belongs to a cla.s.s of women that derive less from immediate ancestors than from a legendary race of sirens--not so merely legendary, perhaps, as we think. Convention is only a flexible harness for such women and plays no part whatever in their secret lives."

"You're in love with Mary."

"_Don't_ come back to me. I won't have it. For the moment I don't feel as if I had an atom of personality left, I'm so utterly absorbed in you; and I'd give my immortal soul to help you."

"Yes, I know that. I wouldn't be turning myself inside out if I didn't. I've never talked to a living soul as I've talked to you tonight and I never shall again."

She stared at him for a moment, and then she burst into a loud laugh.

It was awe-inspiring, that laugh. Lucifer in h.e.l.l, holding his sides at the futilities of mankind, could not have surpa.s.sed it. "What a mess! What a mess! Life! Begins nowhere, ends nowhere." She went on muttering to herself, and then, abruptly, she broke into the sarcastic speech which her friends knew best.

"Lord, Lee, I wish you could have been behind a screen at that luncheon. Thirteen old tombstones in feathers and net collars--seven or eight of 'em, anyhow--colonial profiles and lorgnettes, and all looking as if they'd been hit in the stomach. I at one end of the table looking like the Witch of Endor, Mary at the other looking like one of our granddaughters and trying to be animated and intimate. I forgot my own tragedy and haw-hawed three times. She looked almost apologetic when she called us by our first names, especially when she used the diminutive. Polly Vane, who's got a head like a billiard ball and has to wear a wig for decency's sake, drew herself up twice and then relaxed with a sickly grin... . All the same I don't think Mary felt any more comfortable or liked it much better than the rest of us.

Too much like reading your own epitaph on a tombstone. I thought I saw her squirm."

"How did they take it individually?" Clavering hoped she was finally diverted. "Were they jealous and resentful?"

"Some. Elinor Goodrich had always been too besottedly fond of her to mind. Others, who had been merely admirers and liked her, were--well, it's too much to say they were enchanted to see Mary looking not a day over thirty, but they were able to endure it. Isabel Lawrence thought it downright immoral, and Polly Vane looked as if she had fallen into a stinking mora.s.s and only refrained from holding her nose out of consideration for her hostess. I think she feels that Mary's return is an insult to New York. Lily Tracy was painfully excited. No doubt she'll begin collecting for the Vienna poor at once and finding it necessary to go over and distribute the funds in person. Mary lost no time getting in her fine work for Vienna relief."

"But they'll all stand by her?"

"Oh, yes, she's Mary Ogden. We'd be as likely to desert New York itself because we didn't like the mayor. And she'll need us. It's the young women she'll have to look out for. My G.o.d! How they'll hate her. As for Anne Goodrich and Marian Lawrence----"

Clavering sprang to his feet. "Who's that? Jim?"

A man was running up the stairs.

"Janet," said Mrs. Oglethorpe grimly. "She's out."

x.x.xIII

"Don't be a flat tyre, Don't be a dumb-bell; Run from the dumb ducks, Run from the plumbers.

Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha!"

Oglethorpe pounded on the door with his stick. There was a sudden hush in the room, then a wild scurry and a slamming door. He rattled the k.n.o.b and, to his surprise, for he had a.s.sumed that these wild parties of his young friends were soundly barricaded, the door opened.

There were only four young men standing about a table covered with the remains of a chafing dish supper and many champagne bottles, but an excited whispering came through the part.i.tion. Young Farren was leaning against the table, his large moon-face pallid with fright. As he recognized Oglethorpe and Clavering fright was wiped out by astonishment and relief.

"Thought you were the police," he muttered. "Though they've got no business here----"

"I've come for Janet. Go into that room and bring her out at once."

"Janet ain't here. Haven't seen Janet for a week. Tried to get her on the 'phone early this afternoon and couldn't----"

"If you don't go into that room and fetch her, I will." As he started for the inner door, Farren with drunken dignity opposed his broad bulk.

"Now, Mr. Oglethorpe, you wouldn't do that. Ladies in there. Chorus girls----"

"That's a lie. Stand aside."

Farren, who was very young and very drunk, but who had a rudimentary sense of responsibility where girls of his own cla.s.s were concerned, burst into tears. "You wouldn't, Mr. Oglethorpe! I swear to G.o.d Janet's not there. But--but--some of her friends are. They wouldn't want you to see them." His mood changed to righteous indignation.

"What right you got breaking into a gentleman's rooms like a d.a.m.ned policeman? It's an outrage and if I had a gun I'd shoot you.

I'd--I'd----" And then he collapsed on a chair and was very sick.

Oglethorpe turned to Clavering, who had thought it best to remain in the hall and watch other exits. "Just stay there, will you?" He turned to the three gaping youngsters. "You dare make a move and I'll knock your heads together. Just remember that you're drunk and I'm sober."

He went into the next room, and immediately saw several forms under the bed. He reached down and jerked them out by their legs. They rolled over, covering their faces and sobbing with fright. Emanc.i.p.ated as they were and disdainful of pre-war parents, when it came to late parties in a bachelor's rooms they exercised strategy to slip out, not defiance.

"Oh, Mr. Oglethorpe," gasped one convulsively. "Don't tell on us, p-l-e-a-s-e."

"I've no intention of telling on you. You can go to the devil in your own way for all I care. I'm after Janet----"

"She's not here----"

"That's what I'm going to find out." He opened the door of a wardrobe and another girl tumbled into his arms, shrieked, and flung herself face downward on the bed. But it was not Janet. He investigated every corner of the apartment and then returned to Clavering, slamming the door behind him.

"She's not there, Lee," he said, leaning heavily against the wall.

"Where in G.o.d's name is she? I don't know where to look next. This is her particular gang. She has no other intimates that I know of. But what do I know about her, anyway?"

"You're sure she isn't hiding anywhere at home?"

"Searched the house from top to bottom."

"I suppose it isn't likely that she's gone to any of her aunts."

"Good Lord, no. She'd take a chance on mother, but never with any of the rest of the family, and she's got no money. I saw to that. D'you suppose she's roaming the streets?"

"Well, she can't roam long; legs will give out. Perhaps she's home by now or at Mrs. Oglethorpe's. Better telephone."

They went out and found a public telephone. Janet had not been seen nor heard from.

"You don't think it's going to be another Dorothy Arnold case?" gasped Oglethorpe, who seemed completely unnerved.

"Good Heavens no, Jim! And she's able to take care of herself. n.o.body better. She'll give you a scare and then turn up--with her thumb at her nose, likely. Better come up to my rooms and have a drink."

"Orright. I can't go home and I don't want to be alone anywhere. I'd go out of my senses. Anything might happen to her, and I shan't call in the police until the last minute. Filthy scandal."

"Police? Certainly not. And as Janet is cold sober, be sure she'll come to no harm."

A few moments later they were in the lift ascending to Clavering's rooms. "Hullo!" he said, as he opened the door of his little hall.

"The fool maid has left the light on," and, as they entered the living-room, "what the devil--" Cigarette smoke hung in the air.

[Ill.u.s.tration: It took a lot of self possession and grit for Zattiany (Corinne Griffith) and Clavering (Conway Tearle) to hide their feelings when she alighted to go to the s.h.i.+p which was to return her to Europe.

(_Screen version of "The Black Oxen."_)]