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Sallie was one of those persons who regard the pen as the weapon of last resort, not to be used until necessity compels. But Aleck continued writing on a blank leaf of his note-book. The message was this: "Can you give me any information concerning my cousin, James Hambleton, who was thought to be aboard the Jeanne D'Arc?"
This is the Wilkinson who fought in the American Revolution, and was subsequently to this time accused of accepting bribes from Spain and of complicity with Aaron Burr in his treasonable schemes. Another item was to this effect: "Mr. Burr & Genl. Hambleton fought a Duel, the latter was killed."
"Oh, don't fence!" she cried, rather sharply. I had become agitated, but her next words gave me a shock that was momentarily paralyzing. "I asked you to come here to-day, Hugh, because I wished you to know that I have made up my mind to marry Hambleton Durrett." "Hambleton Durrett!" I echoed stupidly. "Hambleton Durrett!" "Why not?" "Have you have you accepted him?" "No. But I mean to do so."
"Knocked at the door twice this morning, and I told him he couldn't come in. 'Why not? said he. 'Danger of fever, said I. Then Mr. Hambleton asked me who was there, and I said, 'I don't exactly know, but it's either Miss Redmond's maid's beau or a press agent, and then Mr. Hambleton called out, as quick and strong as anybody, 'Go 'way!
And I fail to see why you should blame me for taking it when you yourself have taken it. Hambleton Durrett can give it to me. He'll accept me on my own terms, he won't interfere with me, I shan't be disillusionized, and I shall have a position which I could not hope to have if I remained unmarried, a very marked position as Hambleton Durrett's wife. I am thirty, you know."
The announcement of the marriage of Hambleton Durrett would be news of the first magnitude, to be absorbed eagerly by the many who had not the honour of his acquaintance, comparable only to that of a devastating flood or a murder mystery or a change in the tariff. Being absorbed in affairs that seemed more important, the subject did not interest me greatly.
And she guessed rightly that it was due to the man whom he had so ungrudgingly nursed. "I'm glad you are going to Lynn, to be with Mr. Hambleton," she said at last. "As long as he is your friend, I shall be your friend, too, and never uneasy. You may count on that. And now will you do me another kindness?" "I'll put that old racing-car in order, if that's what you mean. Of course."
Certainly I'm not that kind now, even though I know in my heart that the sort of career you have made for yourself, and that I intend to make for myself is all dross. But now I can't do without it." "And yet you are going to marry Hambleton Durrett!" I said. She understood me, although I regretted my words at once. "Yes, I am going to marry him."
Yet I might have returned to Nancy if something had not occurred which I would have thought unbelievable: she began to show a marked preference for Ralph Hambleton. At first I regarded this affair as the most obvious of retaliations. She, likewise, had pride.
"Is the thing a lie?" she said. "What thing, child?" replied my father. "The thing he told me!" "Dillworth?" said my father. "Do you mean Hambleton Dillworth?" The girl put out her free arm in a stiff, circling gesture. "In all the world," she said, "is there any other man who would have told me?" My father's face hardened as if of metal. "What did he tell you?"
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