<p>B.A. <SPAN name="link2HCH0009" id="link2HCH0009"></SPAN></p>
<h2> CHAPTER IX </h2>
<p>On the last Saturday in April, the New York "Times" published an account
of the strike complications which were delaying Alexander's New Jersey
bridge, and stated that the engineer himself was in town and at his office
on West Tenth Street.</p>
<p>On Sunday, the day after this notice appeared, Alexander worked all day at
his Tenth Street rooms. His business often called him to New York, and he
had kept an apartment there for years, subletting it when he went abroad
for any length of time. Besides his sleeping-room and bath, there was a
large room, formerly a painter's studio, which he used as a study and
office. It was furnished with the cast-off possessions of his bachelor
days and with odd things which he sheltered for friends of his who
followed itinerant and more or less artistic callings. Over the fireplace
there was a large old-fashioned gilt mirror. Alexander's big work-table
stood in front of one of the three windows, and above the couch hung the
one picture in the room, a big canvas of charming color and spirit, a
study of the Luxembourg Gardens in early spring, painted in his youth by a
man who had since become a portrait-painter of international renown. He
had done it for Alexander when they were students together in Paris.</p>
<p>Sunday was a cold, raw day and a fine rain fell continuously. When
Alexander came back from dinner he put more wood on his fire, made himself
comfortable, and settled down at his desk, where he began checking over
estimate sheets. It was after nine o'clock and he was lighting a second
pipe, when he thought he heard a sound at his door. He started and
listened, holding the burning match in his hand; again he heard the same
sound, like a firm, light tap. He rose and crossed the room quickly. When
he threw open the door he recognized the figure that shrank back into the
bare, dimly lit hallway. He stood for a moment in awkward constraint, his
pipe in his hand.</p>
<p>"Come in," he said to Hilda at last, and closed the door behind her. He
pointed to a chair by the fire and went back to his worktable. "Won't you
sit down?"</p>
<p>He was standing behind the table, turning over a pile of blueprints
nervously. The yellow light from the student's lamp fell on his hands and
the purple sleeves of his velvet smoking-jacket, but his flushed face and
big, hard head were in the shadow. There was something about him that made
Hilda wish herself at her hotel again, in the street below, anywhere but
where she was.</p>
<p>"Of course I know, Bartley," she said at last, "that after this you won't
owe me the least consideration. But we sail on Tuesday. I saw that
interview in the paper yesterday, telling where you were, and I thought I
had to see you. That's all. Good-night; I'm going now." She turned and her
hand closed on the door-knob.</p>
<p>Alexander hurried toward her and took her gently by the arm. "Sit down,
Hilda; you're wet through. Let me take off your coat—and your boots;
they're oozing water." He knelt down and began to unlace her shoes, while
Hilda shrank into the chair. "Here, put your feet on this stool. You don't
mean to say you walked down—and without overshoes!"</p>
<p>Hilda hid her face in her hands. "I was afraid to take a cab. Can't you
see, Bartley, that I'm terribly frightened? I've been through this a
hundred times to-day. Don't be any more angry than you can help. I was all
right until I knew you were in town. If you'd sent me a note, or
telephoned me, or anything! But you won't let me write to you, and I had
to see you after that letter, that terrible letter you wrote me when you
got home."</p>
<p>Alexander faced her, resting his arm on the mantel behind him, and began
to brush the sleeve of his jacket. "Is this the way you mean to answer it,
Hilda?" he asked unsteadily.</p>
<p>She was afraid to look up at him. "Didn't—didn't you mean even to
say goodby to me, Bartley? Did you mean just to—quit me?" she asked.
"I came to tell you that I'm willing to do as you asked me. But it's no
use talking about that now. Give me my things, please." She put her hand
out toward the fender.</p>
<p>Alexander sat down on the arm of her chair. "Did you think I had forgotten
you were in town, Hilda? Do you think I kept away by accident? Did you
suppose I didn't know you were sailing on Tuesday? There is a letter for
you there, in my desk drawer. It was to have reached you on the steamer. I
was all the morning writing it. I told myself that if I were really
thinking of you, and not of myself, a letter would be better than nothing.
Marks on paper mean something to you." He paused. "They never did to me."</p>
<p>Hilda smiled up at him beautifully and put her hand on his sleeve. "Oh,
Bartley! Did you write to me? Why didn't you telephone me to let me know
that you had? Then I wouldn't have come."</p>
<p>Alexander slipped his arm about her. "I didn't know it before, Hilda, on
my honor I didn't, but I believe it was because, deep down in me
somewhere, I was hoping I might drive you to do just this. I've watched
that door all day. I've jumped up if the fire crackled. I think I have
felt that you were coming." He bent his face over her hair.</p>
<p>"And I," she whispered,—"I felt that you were feeling that. But when
I came, I thought I had been mistaken."</p>
<p>Alexander started up and began to walk up and down the room.</p>
<p>"No, you weren't mistaken. I've been up in Canada with my bridge, and I
arranged not to come to New York until after you had gone. Then, when your
manager added two more weeks, I was already committed." He dropped upon
the stool in front of her and sat with his hands hanging between his
knees. "What am I to do, Hilda?"</p>
<p>"That's what I wanted to see you about, Bartley. I'm going to do what you
asked me to do when you were in London. Only I'll do it more completely.
I'm going to marry."</p>
<p>"Who?"</p>
<p>"Oh, it doesn't matter much! One of them. Only not Mac. I'm too fond of
him."</p>
<p>Alexander moved restlessly. "Are you joking, Hilda?"</p>
<p>"Indeed I'm not."</p>
<p>"Then you don't know what you're talking about."</p>
<p>"Yes, I know very well. I've thought about it a great deal, and I've quite
decided. I never used to understand how women did things like that, but I
know now. It's because they can't be at the mercy of the man they love any
longer."</p>
<p>Alexander flushed angrily. "So it's better to be at the mercy of a man you
don't love?"</p>
<p>"Under such circumstances, infinitely!"</p>
<p>There was a flash in her eyes that made Alexander's fall. He got up and
went over to the window, threw it open, and leaned out. He heard Hilda
moving about behind him. When he looked over his shoulder she was lacing
her boots. He went back and stood over her.</p>
<p>"Hilda you'd better think a while longer before you do that. I don't know
what I ought to say, but I don't believe you'd be happy; truly I don't.
Aren't you trying to frighten me?"</p>
<p>She tied the knot of the last lacing and put her boot-heel down firmly.
"No; I'm telling you what I've made up my mind to do. I suppose I would
better do it without telling you. But afterward I shan't have an
opportunity to explain, for I shan't be seeing you again."</p>
<p>Alexander started to speak, but caught himself. When Hilda rose he sat
down on the arm of her chair and drew her back into it.</p>
<p>"I wouldn't be so much alarmed if I didn't know how utterly reckless you
CAN be. Don't do anything like that rashly." His face grew troubled. "You
wouldn't be happy. You are not that kind of woman. I'd never have another
hour's peace if I helped to make you do a thing like that." He took her
face between his hands and looked down into it. "You see, you are
different, Hilda. Don't you know you are?" His voice grew softer, his
touch more and more tender. "Some women can do that sort of thing, but you—you
can love as queens did, in the old time."</p>
<p>Hilda had heard that soft, deep tone in his voice only once before. She
closed her eyes; her lips and eyelids trembled. "Only one, Bartley. Only
one. And he threw it back at me a second time."</p>
<p>She felt the strength leap in the arms that held her so lightly.</p>
<p>"Try him again, Hilda. Try him once again."</p>
<p>She looked up into his eyes, and hid her face in her hands.</p>
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