Connecticut.
‘But,’ inquired John curiously, ‘who did plan all your wonderful reception rooms and halls, and approaches and bathrooms —?’
‘Well,’ answered Percy, ‘I blush to tell you, but it was a moving-picture fella. He was the only man we found who was used to playing with an unlimited amount of money, though he did tuck his napkin in his collar and couldn’t read or write.’
As August drew to a close John began to regret that he must soon go back to school. He and Kismine had decided to elope the following June.
‘It would be nicer to be married here,’ Kismine confessed, ‘but of course I could never get father’s permission to marry you at all. Next to that I’d rather elope. It’s terrible for wealthy people to be married in America at present – they always have to send out bulletins to the press saying that they’re going to be married in remnants, when what they mean is just a peck of old second-hand pearls and some used lace worn once by the Empress Eugénie.[41]’
‘I know,’ agreed John fervently. ‘When I was visiting the Schnlitzer-Murphys, the eldest daughter, Gwendolyn, married a man whose father owns half of West Virginia.[42] She wrote home saying what a tough struggle she was carrying on on his salary as a bank clerk – and then she ended up by saying that “Thank God, I have four good maids anyhow, and that helps a little.”’
‘It’s absurd,’ commented Kismine. ‘Think of the millions and millions of people in the world, laborers and all, who get along with only two maids.’
One afternoon late in August a chance remark of Kismine’s changed the face of the entire situation, and threw John into a state of terror.
They were in their favorite grove, and between kisses John was indulging in some romantic forebodings which he fancied added poignancy to their relations.
‘Sometimes I think we’ll never marry,’ he said sadly. ‘You’re too wealthy, too magnificent. No one as rich as you are can be like other girls. I should marry the daughter of some well-to-do wholesale hardware man from Omaha[43] or Sioux City,[44] and be content with her half-million.’
‘I knew the daughter of a wholesale hardware man once,’ remarked Kismine. ‘I don’t think you’d have been contented with her. She was a friend of my sister’s. She visited here.’
‘Oh, then you’ve had other guests?’ exclaimed John in surprise.
Kismine seemed to regret her words.
‘Oh, yes,’ she said hurriedly, ‘we’ve had a few.’
‘But aren’t you – wasn’t your father afraid they’d talk outside?’
‘Oh, to some extent, to some extent,’ she answered. ‘Let’s talk about something pleasanter.’
But John’s curiosity was aroused.
‘Something pleasanter!’ he demanded. ‘What’s unpleasant about that? Weren’t they nice girls?’
To his great surprise Kismine began to weep.
‘Yes – th – that’s the – the whole t-trouble. I grew qu-quite attached to some of them. So did Jasmine, but she kept inv-viting them anyway. I couldn’t understand it.’
A dark suspicion was born in John’s heart.
‘Do you mean that they told, and your father had them – removed?’
‘Worse than that,’ she muttered brokenly. ‘Father took no chances – and Jasmine kept writing them to come, and they had such a good time!’
She was overcome by a paroxysm of grief.
Stunned with the horror of this revelation, John sat there open-mouthed, feeling the nerves of his body twitter like so many sparrows perched upon his spinal column.
‘Now, I’ve told you, and I shouldn’t have,’ she said, calming suddenly and drying her dark blue eyes.
‘Do you mean to say that your father had them murdered before they left?’
She nodded.
‘In August usually – or early in September. It’s only natural for us to get all the pleasure out of them that we can first.’
‘How abominable! How – why, I must be going crazy! Did you really admit that – ’
‘I did,’ interrupted Kismine, shrugging her shoulders. ‘We can’t very well imprison them like those aviators, where they’d be a continual reproach to us every day. And it’s always been made easier for Jasmine and me because father had it done sooner than we expected. In that way we avoided any farewell scene – ’
‘So you murdered them! Uh!’ cried John.
‘It was done very nicely. They were drugged while they were asleep – and their families were always told that they died of scarlet fever in Butte.’
‘But – I fail to understand why you kept on inviting them!’
‘I didn’t,’ burst out Kismine. ‘I never invited one. Jasmine did. And they always had a very good time. She’d give them the nicest presents toward the last. I shall probably have visitors too – I’ll harden up to it. We can’t let such an inevitable thing as death stand in the way of enjoying life while we have it. Think how lonesome it’d be out here if we never had any one. Why, father and mother have sacrificed some of their best friends just as we have.’
‘And so,’ cried John accusingly, ‘and so you were letting me make love to you and pretending to return it, and talking about marriage, all the time knowing perfectly well that I’d never get out of here alive – ’
‘No,’ she protested passionately. ‘Not any more. I did at first. You were here. I couldn’t help that, and I thought your last days might as well be pleasant for both of us. But then I fell in love with you, and – and I’m honestly sorry you’re going to – going to be put away – though I’d rather you’d be put away than ever kiss another girl.’
‘Oh, you would, would you?’ cried John ferociously.
‘Much rather. Besides, I’ve always heard that a girl can have more fun with a man whom she knows she can never marry. Oh, why did I tell you? I’ve probably spoiled your whole good time now, and we were really enjoying things when you didn’t know it. I knew it would make things sort of depressing for you.’
‘Oh, you did, did you?’ John’s voice trembled with anger. ‘I’ve heard about enough of this. If you haven’t any more pride and decency than to have an affair with a fellow that you know isn’t much better than a corpse, I don’t want to have any more to do with you!’
‘You’re not a corpse!’ she protested in horror. ‘You’re not a corpse! I won’t have you saying that I kissed a corpse!’
‘I said nothing of the sort!’
‘You did! You said I kissed a corpse!’
‘I
Empress Eugénie – императрица Евгения, жена Наполеона III (1808–1873), председателя Второй республики, а затем императора Франции.
West Virginia – Западная Вирджиния, маленький горный штат к востоку от реки Миссисипи, вошедший в состав США в 1863 г.
Omaha – Омаха, город на западном берегу реки Миссисипи на востоке штата Небраска.
Sioux City – Сиу-Сити, город, основанный в 1854 г. на реке Миссури, на северо-западе штата Айова.
