"Then," she went on presently, "we became engaged after we reached New York.We all thought you dead," she concluded simply.
"Do you think as much of him now as you did when you promised to marry him?" he asked, ignoring her reference to himself and all that it implied.
Barbara nodded.
"What is at the bottom of this row?" persisted Billy.He had fallen back into the decent pronunciation that Barbara had taught him, but neither noticed the change.For a moment he had forgotten that he was playing a part.Then he recollected.
"Nothing much," replied the girl."I couldn't rid myself of the feeling that they had murdered you, by leaving you back there alone and wounded.I began to think 'coward' every time I saw Mr.Mallory.I couldn't marry him, feeling that way toward him, and, Billy, I really never LOVED him as--as--"Again she stumbled, but the mucker made no attempt to grasp the opportunity opened before him.
Instead he crossed the library to the telephone.Running through the book he came presently upon the number he sought.A moment later he had his connection.
"Is this Mallory?" he asked.
"I'm Byrne--Billy Byrne.De guy dat cracked your puss fer youse on de Lotus.""Dead, hell! Not me.Say, I'm up here at Barbara's.""Yes, dat's wot I said.She wants youse to beat it up here's swift as youse kin beat it."Barbara Harding stepped forward.Her eyes were blazing.
"How dare you?" she cried, attempting to seize the telephone from Billy's grasp.
He turned his huge frame between her and the instrument.
"Git a move!" he shouted into the mouthpiece."Good-bye!"and he hung up.
Then he turned back toward the angry girl.
"Look here," he said."Once youse was strong on de sob stuff wit me, tellin' me how noble I was, an' all de different tings youse would do fer me to repay all I done fer youse.
Now youse got de chanct."
"What do you mean?" asked the girl, puzzled."What can Ido for you?"
"Youse kin do dis fer me.When Mallory gits here youse kin tell him dat de engagement is all on again--see!"In the wide eyes of the girl Billy read a deeper hurt than he had dreamed of.He had thought that it would not be difficult for her to turn back from the vulgar mucker to the polished gentleman.And when he saw that she was suffering, and guessed that it was because he had tried to crush her love by brute force he could carry the game no further.
"O Barbara," he cried, "can't you see that Mallory is your kind--that HE is a fit mate for you.I have learned since Icame into this house a few minutes ago the unbridgeable chasm that stretches between Billy Byrne, the mucker, and such as you.Once I aspired; but now I know just as you must have always known, that a single lifetime is far too short for a man to cover the distance from Grand Avenue to Riverside Drive.
"I want you to be happy, Barbara, just as I intend to be.
Back there in Chicago there are plenty of girls on Grand Avenue as straight and clean and fine as they make 'em on Riverside Drive.Girls of my own kind, they are, and I'm going back there to find the one that God intended for me.
You've taught me what a good girl can do toward making a man of a beast.You've taught me pride and self-respect.
You've taught me so much that I'd rather that I'd died back there beneath the spears of Oda Iseka's warriors than live here beneath the sneers and contempt of servants, and the pity and condescension of your friends.
"I want you to be happy, Barbara, and so I want you to promise me that you'll marry Billy Mallory.There isn't any man on earth quite good enough for you; but Mallory comes nearer to it than anyone I know.I've heard 'em talking about him around town since I came back--and there isn't a rotten story chalked up against him nowhere, and that's a lot more than you can say for ninety-nine of a hundred New Yorkers that are talked about at all.
"And Mallory's a man, too--the kind that every woman ought to have, only they ain't enough of 'em to go 'round.
Do you remember how he stood up there on the deck of the Lotus and fought fair against my dirty tricks? He's a man and a gentleman, Barbara--the sort you can be proud of, and that's the sort you got to have.You see I know you.
"And he fought against those fellows of Yoka in the street of Oda Iseka's village like a man should fight.There ain't any yellow in him, Barbara, and he didn't leave me until there seemed no other way, even in the face of the things I told them to make them go.Don't harbor that against him--I only wonder that he didn't croak me; your dad wanted to, and Mallory wouldn't let him.""They never told me that," said Barbara.
The bell rang.
"Here he is now," said Billy."Good-bye--I'd rather not see him.Smith'll let me out the servants' door.Guess that'll make him feel better.You'll do as I ask, Barbara?"He had paused at the door, turning toward her as he asked the final question.
The girl stood facing him.Her eyes were dim with unshed tears.Billy Byrne swam before them in a hazy mist.
"You'll do as I ask, Barbara!" he repeated, but this time it was a command.
As Mallory entered the room Barbara heard the door of the servants' entrance slam behind Billy Byrne.
