Miss Balfour's glass made her irritably aware of cheeks unduly flushed and eyes unusually bright.Since she prided herself on being sufficient for the emergencies of life, she cast about in her mind to determine which of the interviews that lay before her was responsible for her excitement.It was, to be sure, an unusual experience for a young woman to be told that her fiance would be unable to marry her, owing to a subsequent engagement, but she looked forward to it with keen anticipation, and would not have missed it for the world.Since she pushed the thought of the other interview into the background of her mind and refused to contemplate it at all, she did not see how that could lend any impetus to her pulse.
But though she was pleasantly excited as she swept into the reception- room, Ridgway was unable to detect the fact in her cool little nod and frank, careless handshake.Indeed, she looked so entirely mistress of herself, so much the perfectly gowned exquisite, that he began to dread anew the task he had set himself.It is not a pleasant thing under the most favorable circumstances to beg off from marrying a young woman one has engaged oneself to, and Ridgway did not find it easier because the young woman looked every inch a queen, and was so manifestly far from suspecting the object of his call."I haven't had a chance to congratulate you personally yes," she said, after they had drifted to chairs."I've been immensely proud of you.""I got your note.It was good of you to write as soon as you heard."She swept him with one of her smile-lit side glances."Though, of course, in a way, I was felicitating myself when I congratulated you.""You mean?"
She laughed with velvet maliciousness."Oh, well, I'm dragged into the orbit of your greatness, am I not? As the wife of the president of theGreater Consolidated Copper Company--the immense combine that takes in practically all the larger copper properties in the country--I should come in for a share of reflected glory, you know."Ridgway bit his lip and took a deep breath, but before he had found words she was off again.She had no intention of letting him descent from the rack yet.
"How did you do it? By what magic did you bring it about? Of course, I've read the newspapers' accounts, seen your features and your history butchered in a dozen Sunday horrors, and thanked Heaven no enterprising reporter guessed enough to use me as copy.Every paper I have picked up for weeks has been full of you and the story of how you took Wall Street by the throat.But I suspect they were all guesses, merely superficial rumors except as to the main facts.What I want to know is the inside story--the lever by means of which you pried open the door leading to the inner circle of financial magnates.You have often told me how tightly barred that door is.What was the open-sesame you used as a countersign to make the keeper of the gate unbolt?
He thought he saw his chance."The countersign was 'Aline Harley,'" he said, and looked her straight in the face.He wished he could find some way of telling her without making him feel so like a cad.
She clapped her hands."I thought so.She backed you with that uncounted fortune her husband left her.Is that it?"That is it exactly.She gave me a free hand, and the immense fortune she inherited from Harley put me in a position to force recognition from the leaders.After that it was only a question of time till I had convinced them my plan was good." He threw back his shoulders and tried to take the fence again."Would you like to know why Mrs.Harley put her fortune at my command?""I suppose because she is interested in us and our little affair.Doesn't all the world love a lover?" she asked, with a disarming candor.
"She had a better reason," he said, meeting her eyes gravely.
"You must tell me it--but not just yet.I have something to tell you first." She held out her little clenched hand."Here is something that belongs to you.Can you open it?"He straightened her fingers one by one, and took from her palm the engagement-ring he had given her.Instantly he looked up, doubt and relief sweeping his face.
"Am I to understand that you terminate our engagement?" She nodded.
"May I ask why?"
"I couldn't bring myself to it, Waring.I honestly tried, but I couldn't doit."
"When did you find this out?"
"I began to find it out the first day of our engagement.I couldn't makeit seem right.I've been in a process of learning it ever since.It wouldn't be fair to you for me to marry you.""You're a brick, Virginia!" he cried jubilantly.
"No, I'm not.That is a minor reason.The really important one is that it wouldn't be fair to me.""No, it would not," he admitted, with an air of candor.
"Because, you see, I happen to care for another man," she purred.His vanity leaped up fully armed."Another man! Who?""That's my secret," she answered, smiling at his chagrin."And his?""I said mine.At any rate, if three knew, it wouldn't be a secret," was her quick retort.
"Do you think you have been quite fair to me, Virginia?" he asked, with gloomy dignity.
"I think so," she answered, and touched him with the riposte: "I'm ready now to have you tell me when you expect to marry Aline Harley."His dignity collapsed like a pricked bladder."How did you know?" he demanded, in astonishment.
"Oh well, I have eyes."
"But I didn't know--I thought--"
"Oh, you thought! You are a pair of children at the game," this thousand-year-old young woman scoffed."I have known for months that you worshiped each other.""If you mean to imply " he began severely.
