CHAPTER XXXV

THE END OF IT ALL

A woman who can prove herself generous and wide-minded is the woman who gets the greatest advantage in every circumstance of life.

"How is it," said Regina, "that she is here with you?"

The words dropped out one by one. There was a world of torture and suffering, tinged with reproach and bitterness, in Mrs. Whittaker's tones. Alfred Whittaker gave a great start, and drew his wife down to her seat.

"Queenie," he said, "you haven't had it in your mind that that creature is anything to me?"

"I'm afraid I have," said Regina, and under the comfort of the word "creature" her voice took a softer tone.

"That mixture of fire and vulgarity! Oh, my dear!--Come, come, you've been traveling all night, you must have your breakfast. Here is the finest omelette in Paris. I say, waiter, _garcon_, try if you can't get madame a few strawberries to follow the _bifteck Chateaubriand_.--I'm sure, Queenie," he went on as the waiter whisked the cover off and betook himself away, "that a good breakfast is more important to you at this moment than even the state of my morals. You see, I've had my breakfast, so you can hear all about Madame Raumonier while you are taking yours. Now, what could have put it into your head, since you knew I was over here on her business--"

"But I didn't," said Regina.

"Then what made you come?"

The omelette was good and hot, and Regina took two mouthfuls before she answered.

"Alfred," she said, "this has been going on for a long time. I know everything."

"Then you are a clever woman. Now, what do you know?"

"You bought her a bracelet."

"I? I've never bought a bracelet for anyone but you in my life."

"Well, Templeton told me so."

At this Alfred Whittaker burst out laughing. "I did buy a bracelet, you are quite right, but it was for Mrs. Chamberlain."

"You gave a bracelet to Mrs. Chamberlain?" said Regina.

"No, no, no, I didn't do anything of the kind. I bought the bracelet for Chamberlain to give his wife. Chamberlain had been in an extremely ugly corner for some time past. I didn't tell you anything about it, because I thought it more than likely that Mrs. Chamberlain might come round pumping you. If you didn't know anything, I felt you wouldn't be able to tell her anything."

"Surely you might have trusted me?"

"It isn't that I couldn't trust you, for I can and always have done. As it happened, Mrs. Chamberlain was, as you know, by way of being an heiress, and Chamberlain was ridiculously in love."

"Can a man be ridiculously in love?" put in Regina.

"Yes, very much so. When I married you I told you everything that had happened to me, good, bad and indifferent--Chamberlain didn't, and Mrs. Chamberlain is possessed of a demon of jealousy. She got fixed in her silly little head that Chamberlain had been a sort of King Arthur until she met him. A moment's reflection would have told the silly little fool that the less she inquired into her husband's past the better, and Chamberlain was so much in love with her, and in such a hurry to catch the little heiress, that he did not completely sever ties that he had contracted previously, and trusted to luck to go on shelling out to this Frenchwoman who had had an affair with him lasting some years before his marriage. The French lady did not like being put on short commons, still less did she like being pensioned off, and she began to make herself unpleasant. Poor old Chamberlain got himself into an awful muddle, and confided everything to me. I thought him a fool, and I told him so very plainly; but he's my partner, and I couldn't refuse to help him out. The day that I went to Templeton's and bought that bracelet, Chamberlain went in quite a different direction to have an interview with Madame Raumonier and try to bring her to reason. At that time Mrs. Chamberlain used to make stringent inquiries as to how he had spent every moment of his time. As a matter of fact she had come to the office for him that very day, and was told that he had already gone. When he got home she was told some necessary and harmless lies to the effect that he had been to Templeton's to buy her a bracelet. Heaven only knows what would have happened if she had found out that Chamberlain had never been near Templeton's."

"But why were you dragged into it?"

"Oh, I was trying to get a settlement."

"Why did you bring her to Paris?"

"Well, it was like this. Chamberlain and I finally agreed between ourselves that the only way to get a settlement of the affair was to provide Madame Raumonier with an income sufficient to live upon for the rest of her life. He didn't grudge that, he's not a mean man, and he offered to settle five pounds a week upon her on one condition: that she cleared out of England and never crossed the Channel again."

"Oh, I see. But why did you have to come to Paris to settle that?"

"My dear child, Madame Raumonier is no fool. She had no notion of being cut adrift from Chamberlain and left stranded at her age--she must be at least five-and-thirty--without the certainty of a provision being made for her. I took her out to dinner one night--dined at the Trocadero--"

"Yes, I saw you," said Regina.

"What!"

"I was there."

"You were dining at the Trocadero the night I took Madame Raumonier there?"

"I was."

"And you never told me!"

"No, Alfred, I never told you." Regina finished the last bit of omelette with relish, and sat back in her chair and waited for the rest of the story.

"You never told me!" repeated Alfred. "You cooked it up--you mean to tell me that you thought I was dining with her on my own account?"

"What else was I to think?"

"Who were you dining with?"

"I was not dining with a gentleman, at least not by myself," said Regina. "Julia and I were dining with Maudie and Harry."

"And they saw--?"

"They did."

"And they thought--?"

"They did."

"That I was dining on my own with that creature! I never felt so insulted in my life."

"Insulted, Alfred?"

"Insulted, Queenie. When I take to dining ladies on my own, they shall be women who are something to look at. Damn it all!" he went on, "I've been accustomed to taking a smart woman about. This creature wasn't even amusing, and what's more, she's the least French of any Frenchwoman I ever came across in my life."

"Well, go on. You were telling me--?"

"Oh, I don't know what I was telling you--I don't know what I was telling you. Oh, well, I know, I was telling you about dining her at the Trocadero. Yes, she was willing enough to have the settlement, she was willing enough to go back to her beloved France; she hated London and everything in it--didn't know why she ever left sunny France. But like all Frenchwomen, she was a woman of business, and she didn't mean to leave go her hold upon poor old Chamberlain unless her settlement was perfectly secure. My dear, if she had been a lawyer fifty times over she couldn't have been sharper at her job."

"I don't blame her," said Regina, "I never blame a woman for getting the better of a man."

"Yes, I know, my dear, you always held that opinion. But the long and the short of it was that she would accept nothing but a definite settlement in Paris, and I can tell you, even when you come over with the money in your hand, it's not such a simple matter as it would seem to arrange a bit of business in this land of liberty, equality and brotherhood. From the way these people have spun it out one would have thought that I was getting something out of them, instead of making an ample settlement on one of their countrywomen. And the funniest part of the whole thing has been that every one of them thinks that Chamberlain and I are one and the same person. Gad! You thought so too! My dear," putting his hand on the papers again, "this is the final note; this will be signed this afternoon; I shall hand Madame Raumonier bank-notes for a hundred pounds, and then I shall wash my hands of her altogether for good and all."

For a moment Regina did not speak, but applied her attention entirely to the very excellent _bifteck_ on her plate. Then she looked up at her husband with penitent eyes.

"Alfred," she said, "I really feel I ought to apologize to you."

"Apologize?" said Alfred, "apologize? Nay, if any apology is needed it is from me to you for having apparently given you cause for uneasiness; but, thank God! Queenie, there is no need of apology on either side. There's been a little misapprehension, but it's all over now, and we are as much together again as we were when we set out on our honeymoon. Did it make you very miserable, Queenie?" He laid his hand on hers as he spoke, and Regina looked up at him with shining eyes.

"I've been so miserable, Alfred," she said, "that I almost wished I could die, and I think I should have died or put myself out of the road--or something--if I hadn't resolved to win you back at any cost."

"But you are satisfied now?"

"Satisfied! Oh, I'm so happy--so happy. I'll never let such a cloud come between us--next time I'll tell you the very first suspicion that crosses my mind."

"There isn't going to be a next time," said Alfred. "Poor old Chamberlain! he's come to the end of his tether now."

"Alfred," said Regina, after a long pause, "I don't think I would waste any pity on 'poor old Chamberlain'; it seems to me that he has met with more than his deserts. If I have any feeling of pity for any of the three it is for the unfortunate Frenchwoman who trusted him where he was not fit to be trusted. These people in the hotel thought I was going to spring a mine upon you; I saw the landlady frown at the waiter when he said you were breakfasting together. I have always been a wide-minded woman, Alfred, and I am a very happy one this morning. Let us ask Madame Raumonier to join us to-night by way of celebrating the settlement of her affairs."

For a moment Alfred did not--indeed, could not--speak.

"Queenie," he said, "I have always admired you, I have always loved you, but this morning, at this moment, I feel that, compared with you in your benevolence, your real wide-mindedness, I am a mere worm."

"My noble Alfred!" said Regina, "my noble Alfred!"

THE END

LOVE AND THE SOUL HUNTERS

By John Oliver Hobbes

_Author of_ "_The Gods, Some Morals, and Lord Wickenham_," "_The Herb Moon_," "_Schools for Saints_," "_Robert Grange_," _etc., etc._

In this new novel Mrs. Craigie (John Oliver Hobbes) has made, according to her own statement, the great effort of her life. It is the most brilliant creation of an author whose talent and versatility have surprised readers and critics in both Europe and America for several years. It treats of unique examples of human nature as they are, and not merely as they ought to be. Swayed by complex motives, they are always attractive, but often do what is least expected of them. The story is graphically told, and is full of action. Each personage is distinctively drawn to the life.

"There is much that is worth remembering in her writings."--_Mail and Express_, New York.

"More than any other woman who is now writing, Mrs. Craigie is, in the true manly sense, a woman of letters. She is not a woman with a few personal emotions to express: she is what a woman so rarely is--an artist."--_The Star_, London.

"Few English writers have so lapidarian a style of writing as Mrs. Craigie, and few such a capacity for writing epigrams."--_The Toronto Globe._

_12mo, Cloth. $1.50_

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, Publishers NEW YORK & LONDON

A BRILLIANT SATIRE ON MILITARISM CAPTAIN JINKS, HERO

By Ernest Crosby

A satirical novel based on the military history of the United States since the outbreak of the Spanish War. It is a smiting denunciation of militarism and the military spirit, and a biting burlesque on cheap hero worship. The parallel between savagery and soldiery is unerringly drawn. It is full of wit and sarcasm.

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_Twenty-five Clever Drawings by Dan Beard. 12mo, Cloth. Ornamental Cover. Price. $1.50, post-paid._

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK & LONDON

_St. Louis Globe-Democrat:_ "It is a simple, gentle, quietly-humorous narrative, with several love affairs in it."

UNDER MY OWN ROOF

By Adelaide L. Rouse

_Author of_ "_The Deane Girls_," "_Westover House_," _etc._

A story of a "nesting impulse" and what came of it. A newspaper woman determines to build a home for herself in a Jersey suburb. The story of its planning is delightfully told, simply and with a literary-humorous flavor that will appeal to lovers of books and of the fireside.

Before the house-building details are allowed to tire the reader, a love story is begun, and catches the interest. It concerns the home-builder, an old flame, and an old friend, the third of whom has become a next-door neighbor. With this romance are entwined a number of heart affairs as well as warm friendships.

The style is bright, and the humor genial and pervasive. The "literary worker" and the "suburbanite" particularly will enjoy the book. Women of culture everywhere should appreciate its delicate style.

Illustrations by Harrie A. Stoner. 12mo, Cloth. Price, $1.20, net; postage, 13 cents.

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK & LONDON

THE HOUR-GLASS STORIES

_A Series of Entertaining Novelettes Illustrated and Issued in Dainty Dress._

Small 12mo, ornamental covers. Illustrated. Price, 40 cents per volume. Postage, 5 cents.

I.

THE COURTSHIP _of_ SWEET ANNE PAGE

By Ellen V. Talbot

A brisk, dainty little love story incidental to "The Merry Wives of Windsor," full of fun and frolic and telling of the courtship of Sweet Anne Page by the three lovers: Abraham Slender, the tallow-faced gawk, chosen by her father; Dr. Caius, the garlic-scented favorite of her mother; and the "gallant Fenton," the choice of her own wilful self.

II.

THE SANDALS

By Rev. Z. Grenell

A beautiful little idyl of sacred story about the sandals of Christ. It tells of their wanderings and who were their wearers, from the time that they fell to the lot of a Roman soldier when Christ's garments were parted among his crucifiers to the day when they came back to Mary, the Mother of Jesus. The book exhibits both strength and beauty of literary style.

III.

THE TRANSFIGURATION _of_ MISS PHILURA

By Florence Morse Kingsley

_Author of_ "_Titus_," "_Prisoners of the Sea_," _etc._

An entertaining story woven around the "New Thought," which is finding expression in Christian Science, Divine Healing, etc., in the course of which Miss Philura makes drafts upon the All-Encircling Good for a husband and various other things, and the All-Encircling Good does not disappoint her.

FUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK & LONDON

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Transcriber's note:

Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; otherwise, every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and intent.