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Updated: May 21, 2025
Why, Riatt," he added solemnly, "I'd far rather see her married to you than to him." If Max felt disposed to smile at this innocent endorsement, he suppressed the inclination, and merely answered: "You may have your wish." "I hope so," said Ned. "But you mustn't go off to kingdom-come, and leave Linburne a clear field.
How much of Christine's story about Linburne was to be believed? What more natural than that they had always loved each other? Some one knew the truth every one, very likely, except himself. But whom could he ask? He could have believed Nancy on one side as little as Laura on the other.
He did not even feel annoyed at his cousin's suggestion that he did not know his way about the world. He knew it rather better than she did, he fancied. And having so disposed of his mail, he took up the evening paper which lay beneath it, and read the first headline: Mrs. Lee Linburne to seek divorce: Wife of well-known multimillionaire now at Reno As he read this a blind rage swept over Riatt.
Riatt felt some temptation to answer truthfully and say: "She is designing, mercenary, hard-hearted and as beautiful as a goddess." But he did not, and, as he paused he saw the head waiter spring forward from the doorway, smiling and holding up a pencil to attract the attention of some underling, and then he saw that Christine, Hickson and Mr. and Mrs. Linburne were being ushered in.
Perhaps the young poet had not been so wrong in attaching the name of Helen to Miss Fenimer, for she sat now as calmly interested in the conflict developing before her, as Helen when she sat on the walls of Troy and designated the Greek heroes for the amusement of her newer friends. "May I ask, Mr. Riatt, what rights in the matter you consider that you have?" Linburne pursued.
He had a letter from Laura Ussher not the first in the series urging him to come back at once. "Max," she wrote, with a haste that made her almost indecipherable, "you must come. What are you dreaming of to leave a proud, beautiful, impressionable creature like Christine the prey to so finished a villain as Linburne? You are not so ignorant of the ways of the world as not to know his intentions.
"And may I ask if you consider that she does intend to marry you that is if you should happen to become marriageable?" "That is a question between her and me," returned Linburne. Riatt laughed. "I see," he said. "The matrimonial plans of my future wife are no affair of mine?" And for an instant he felt his most proprietary rights were being invaded. "Miss Fenimer is not your future wife."
Then the juster side of his nature reasserted itself, and he saw that she was only laying the trail for the breaking of her engagement. Yet this evidence of her good faith did not entirely allay the irritation of his spirit. When he went back to the box, Linburne was gone, and the man who had replaced him, yielded to Riatt with the most submissive promptness.
Linburne was angry at Christine, not only for insisting on seeing Riatt, but for the lovely smile with which she had greeted him. He was glad of an outlet for his feelings. He almost shrugged his shoulders. "An outsider can only judge by your conduct, Mr. Riatt," he answered.
"The connection of any old friend who does not care to see Miss Fenimer neglected and humiliated," answered Linburne, all the more hotly because he knew it was an awkward question.
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