burke denby was well pleased with the letter that he had sent to his wife, enclosing the ten-thousand-dollar check. he felt that it was both conclusive and diplomatic; and he believed that it carried a frankness that would prove to be disarming. he had every confidence that helen would eventually (if not at once) recognize its logic and reasonableness, and follow its suggestions. with a light heart, therefore, he gave himself up to the enjoyment of the day with his father. by saturday, however, a lively curiosity began to assail him as to just how helen did take the note, after all. there also came unpleasantly to him a recurrence of the uncomfortable feeling that his abrupt departure from home thursday night had been neither brave nor kind, and, in fact, hardly decent, under the circumstances. he decided that he would, when he saw helen, really quite humble himself and apologize roundly. it was no more than her due, poor girl!

by sunday, between his curiosity and his uneasy remorse, he was too nervous really to enjoy anything to the full; but he sternly adhered to his original plan of not going down to the dale street flat before monday, believing, in his heart, that nothing could do so much good to both of them, under the[pg 183] circumstances, as a few days of thought apart from each other. monday, however, found him headed for dale street; but in an hour he was back at elm hill. he was plainly very angry.

"she's gone," he announced, with a brevity more eloquent of his state of mind than a flood of words would have been.

"gone! where?"

"home—to spend that ten thousand dollars, of course. she left this."

with a frown john denby took the proffered bit of paper upon which had been scrawled:—

i hope you'll enjoy your playday as much as i shall mine. address me at wenton—if you care to write.

helen.

"where did you find this?"

"on my chiffonier. i didn't think that—of helen."

"and there was nothing to show when she left?"

"nothing—except that the apartment was in spick-and-span order from end to end; and that must have taken some time to accomplish."

"but perhaps the neighbors would—"

"there's no one she knows but mrs. cobb," interrupted burke, with an impatient gesture. "do you suppose i'm going to her and whimper, 'my wife's gone. please, do you know when she went?' not much! i saw her—the dear creature! and one glance at her face showed that she was dying to be asked. but i didn't afford her that satisfaction. i[pg 184] gave her a particularly blithe 'good-morning,' and then walked away as if i'd known i was coming home to an empty house all the time. but, i repeat, i'm disappointed. i didn't think this of helen—running off like this!"

"you think she was angry, then, at your letter?"

"of course she was—at that, and at the way i left her the other night. i was a bit of a cad there, i'll admit; but that doesn't excuse her for doing a trick like this. i wrote her a good letter, and you sent her a very generous check; and i told her i was coming to-day to pick up my traps and say good-bye. she didn't care to see me—that's all. but she might have had some thought that i'd like to see my daughter before i go. if there was time i'd run up there. but it's out of the question—with only to-morrow before we start."

"wenton is her home town, i suppose."

"yes. she left there, you know, two years before i saw her. her father died and then her mother; and she had to look out for herself. i shall write, of course, and send it up before i go. and i shall try to write decently; but i will own up, father, i'm mad clear through."

"too bad, too bad!" john denby frowned and shook his head again. "i must confess, burke, that i, too, didn't quite think this—of helen."

"i don't know her street address, of course." burke was on his feet, pacing back and forth. "but that isn't necessary. it's a small town—i know that.[pg 185] i told her i thought she'd like the hotel best; but she may prefer to go to some friend's home. however, that doesn't signify. she'll get it all right, if i direct it simply to wenton. but i can't have a reply before i leave. there isn't time, even if she deigned to write—which i doubt, in her present evident frame of mind. pleasant, isn't it? makes me feel real happy to start off with, to-morrow!"

"no, of course it doesn't," admitted john denby, with a sigh. "but, come, burke,"—his eyes grew wistful,—"don't let this silly whim of helen's spoil everything. fretting never did help anything, and perhaps, after all, it's the best thing that could have happened. a meeting between you, in helen's present temper, could have resulted only in unhappiness. obviously helen is piqued and angry at your suggesting a separation for a time. she determined to give it to you—but to give it to you a little sooner than you wanted. that's her way of getting back at you. that's all. let her alone. she'll come to her senses in time. oh, write, of course," he hastened to add, in answer to the expression on his son's face. "but don't expect a reply too soon. you must remember you gave helen a pretty big blow to her pride. i wish she had looked at the matter sensibly, of course; but probably that was too much to expect."

"i'm afraid it was—of—" biting his lips, burke pulled himself up sharply. "i'll go and write my letter," he finished wearily, instead.

and john denby echoed the long sigh he drew.[pg 186]

it was january when john denby and his son returned from their alaskan trip. the long and rather serious illness of john denby in november, and the necessary slowness of their journeying thereafter, had caused a series of delays very trying to both father and son.

to neither john denby nor burke had the trip been an entire success. burke, in spite of his joy at being with his father and his delight in the traveling itself, could not get away from the shadow of an upturned bottle of ink in a dale street flat. at times, with all the old boyish enthusiasm and lightness of heart, he entered into whatever came; but underneath it all, and forever cropping uppermost, was a surge of anger, a bitterness of heart.

not once, through the entire trip, had burke heard from his wife. their mail, of course, had been infrequent and irregular; but, from time to time, a batch of letters would be found waiting for them, and always, with feverish eagerness, burke had scanned the envelopes for a sight of helen's familiar scrawl. he had never found it, and he was very angry thereat. he was not worried or frightened. any denby of the dalton denbys was too well known not to have any vital information concerning him or her communicated to the family headquarters. if anything had happened to either helen or the child, he would have known of it, of course, through brett. this silence could mean, therefore, but one thing: helen's own wish that he should not hear. he felt[pg 187] that he had a right to be angry. he pictured helen happy, gay in her new finery, queening it over her old school friends in wenton, and nursing wrath and resentment against himself (else why did she not write?)—and the picture did not please him.

he had suggested separation (for a time), to be sure; but he had not suggested total annihilation of all intercourse! if she did not care to say anything for herself, she might, at least, be decent enough to let him hear as to the welfare of his child, he reasoned indignantly.

on one course of action he was determined. as soon as he returned home he would go to helen and have it out with her. if she wished to carry to such absurd lengths her unreasonable pique at his perfectly reasonable suggestion, he wanted to know it at once, and not live along this way!

under these circumstances it is not strange, perhaps, that the trip, for burke, was not an unalloyed joy; and the delays, in addition to giving him no little anxiety for his father, fretted him almost beyond endurance.

as to john denby—he, too, could not get away from the shadow of an upturned bottle of ink. besides suffering the reflection of its effect on his son, in that son's moodiness and frequent lack of enthusiasm, he had no small amount of it on his own account.

burke's word-picture of that evening's catastrophe had been a vivid one; and john denby could not forget it. he realized that it meant much in many[pg 188] ways. the fact that it had been followed by helen's ominous silence did not lessen his uneasy questionings. he wondered if, after all, he had done the wise thing in bringing about this temporary separation. he still believed, in his heart, that he had. but he did not seem to find much happiness in that belief. in spite of his supreme joy and content in his son's companionship, he found himself many a time almost wishing the trip were over. and the delays at the end were fully as great a source of annoyance to himself, as they were to his son. he, as well as burke, therefore, heaved a long sigh of relief as the train drew into the dalton station, bringing into view the old denby family carriage (john denby did not care for motor cars), with old horace on the box, and with brett near by, plainly waiting to extend a welcoming hand. brett's face was white and a little strained-looking. john denby, noticing it through the car window, remarked to his son:—

"guess brett will be glad to see us. he looks tired. overworked, i fear. faithful fellow—that, burke! we owe him our trip, anyway. but who supposed it was going to prolong itself away into january like this?"

"who did, indeed?" murmured burke, as he followed his father from the car.

burke denby had not been at home half an hour, when, his face drawn and ashen, he strode into the library where his father was sitting before the fire.[pg 189]

"father, helen has not been at wenton at all," he said in the tragically constrained voice of a man who is desperately trying to keep himself from exploding into ravings and denunciations.

john denby came erect in his chair.

"not been there— what do you mean? how do you know?"

"brett. i found these upstairs in my room—every letter i've written her—even the first one from here before i left—returned unopened, marked 'unclaimed, address unknown,' together with a letter from brett in explanation. i've just been talking with him on the 'phone, too."

"so that's it—why he looked so at the station! what did he say? why didn't he let you know before?"

"he says it was a long time before the first letter came back. he knew we were away up in the mountains, and would be very likely started for home before he could reach us with it, anyway. and there wouldn't be a thing we could do—up there, except to come home; and we'd already be doing that, anyway. and this would only worry us, and trouble us, and make our return trip a horror—without helping a bit."

"quite right. brett is always right," nodded john denby.

"then, of course, came the delay, your sickness, and all. of course he wouldn't let us know then—when we couldn't come. by that time other letters[pg 190] i had written on the way out began to come back from wenton. (i always used my own envelopes with the dalton address in the corner, so of course they all showed up here in time.) when the second and third came he knew it wasn't a mistake. he'd been hoping the first one was, somehow, he said."

"yes, yes, i see. and of course it might have been. but what did he do? didn't he do—anything?"

"yes. first, he said, he kept his own counsel—here in town. he knew we'd want to avoid all gossip and publicity."

"of course!"

"he put the thing into the hands of a private detective whom he could trust; and he went himself to wenton—for a vacation, apparently."

"good old brett! wise, as usual. what did he find?"

"nothing—except that she was not there, and hadn't been there since she left some years ago, soon after her mother's death. he says he's positive of that. so he had to come back no wiser than he went."

"but—the detective."

"very little there. still, there was something. he traced her to boston."

"boston!"

"yes."

"what friends has she in boston?"

"none, so far as i know. i never heard her mention knowing a soul there. still, i believe she had a—a position there with some one, before she went to aunt eunice; but i don't know who it was."[pg 191]

"there's gleason—she knows him."

burke gave his father a glance from scornful eyes.

"my best friend! she'd be apt to go to him, wouldn't she, if she were running away from me? besides, we've had three or four letters from him since we've been gone. don't you suppose he'd tell us of it, if she'd gone to him?"

"yes, yes, of course," frowned john denby, biting his lips. "it's only that i was trying to get hold of some one—or something. think of it—that child alone in boston, and—no friends! of course she had money—that is, i suppose she cashed it—that check?" john denby turned with a start.

"oh, yes. i asked brett about that. i hoped maybe there'd be a clue there, if she got somebody to cash it for her. but there was nothing. she got the money herself, at the bank here, not long after we went. so she must have come back for a time, anyway. brett says spawlding, at the bank, knew her, of course, and so there was no question as to identification. still it was so large a one that he telephoned to brett, before he paid it, asking if it were all right—you being away. brett evidently knew you had given her such a check—"

"yes, i had told him," nodded john denby.

"so he said yes, it was. he says he supposed she had come down from wenton to get it cashed, and that she would leave the bulk of it there in the bank to her credit. anyway, all he could do was to assure[pg 192] spawlding that you had given her such a check just before you went away."

"yes, yes, i see," nodded john denby again.

"she didn't leave any of the money, however. she took it all with her."

"took it all—ten thousand dollars!"

"yes. the detective, of course, is still working on the case. he got to boston, but there he's up against a blank wall. he's run a fine-tooth comb through all sorts of public and private institutions in boston and vicinity without avail. he's made a thorough search at the railroad station. he can't find a person who has any recollection of a young woman and child answering their description, arriving on that date, who seemed to be troubled or in doubt where to go. he questioned the matron, ticket-men, cabbies, policemen—everybody. of course every one had seen plenty of young women with babies in their arms—young women who had the hair and eyes and general appearance of helen, and who were anxious and fretted. (they said young women with babies were apt to be anxious and fretted.) but they didn't remember one who asked frantic questions as to what to do, and where to go, and all that—acting as we think helen would have acted, alone in a strange city."

"poor child, poor child!" groaned john denby. "where can—"

but his son interrupted sternly.

"i don't know where she is, of course. but don't[pg 193] be too sure it is 'poor child' with her, dad. she's doing this thing because she wants to do it. don't forget that. didn't she purposely mislead us by that note she left on my chiffonier? she didn't say she had gone to wenton, but she let me think she had. 'address me at wenton, if you care to write,' she said. and don't forget that she also said: 'i hope you'll enjoy your playday as much as i shall mine.' don't you worry about helen. she's taken my child and your ten thousand dollars, and she's off somewhere, having a good time;—and helen could have a good time—on ten thousand dollars! incidentally she's also punishing us. she means to give us a good scare. she's waiting till we get home, and till the money's gone. then she'll let herself be found."

"oh, come, come, burke, aren't you just a little bit—harsh?" remonstrated john denby.

"i don't think so. she deserves—something for taking that child away like this. honestly, as my temper is now, if it wasn't for the baby, i should feel almost like saying that i hoped she wouldn't ever come back. i don't want to see her. but, of course, with the baby, that's another matter."

"i should say so!" exclaimed john denby emphatically.

"yes; but, see here, dad! helen knew where she was going. she's gone to friends. wouldn't she have left some trace in that station if she'd been frightened and uncertain where to go? brett says the detective found one cabby who remembered taking just such[pg 194] a young woman and child from an evening train at about that time. he didn't recollect where he took her, and he couldn't say as to whether she had been crying, or not; but he's positive she directed him where to go without a moment's hesitation. if that was helen, she knew where she was going all right."

john denby frowned and did not answer. his eyes were troubled.

"but perhaps here—at the flat—" he began, after a time.

"the detective tried that. he went as a student, or something, and managed to hire a room of mrs. cobb. he became very friendly and chatty, and showed interest in all the neighbors, not forgetting the vacant flat on the same floor. but he didn't learn—much."

"but he learned—something?"

an angry red mounted to burke's forehead.

"oh, yes; he learned that it belonged to a poor little woman whose husband was as rich as mud, but quite the meanest thing alive, in that he'd tried to buy her off with ten thousand dollars, because he was ashamed of her! just about what i should think would come from a woman of mrs. cobb's mentality!"

"then she knew about the ten-thousand-dollar check?"

"apparently. but she didn't know helen had gone to boston. the detective found out that. she told him she believed she'd gone back home to her[pg 195] folks. so helen evidently did not confide in her—or perhaps she intentionally misled her, as she did us."

"i see, i see," sighed john denby.

for a minute the angry, perplexed, baffled young husband marched back and forth, back and forth, in the great, silent room. then, abruptly, he stopped short, and faced his father.

"i shall try to find her, of course,—though i think she'll let us hear from her of her own accord, pretty soon, now. but i shan't wait for that. first i shall go to aunt eunice and see if she knows the names of any of the people with whom helen used to live, before she came to her. then, whatever clues i find i shall endeavor to follow to the end. meanwhile, so far as dalton is concerned,—my wife is out of town. that's all. it's no one's business. the matter will be hauled over every dinner-table and rolled under the tongue of every old tabby in town. but they can only surmise and suspect. they can't know anything about it. and we'll be mighty careful that they don't. brett—bless him!—has been the soul of discretion. we'll see that we follow suit. my wife is out of town! that's all!" and he turned and flung himself from the room.

as soon as possible burke denby went to his aunt eunice and told her his sorry tale. from her he obtained one or two names, and—what he eagerly grasped at—an address in boston. each of these clues he followed assiduously, only to find that it led nowhere. angrier, but no wiser, he went back home.[pg 196]

the detective, too, reported no progress. and as the days became weeks, and the weeks a month, with no word of helen, burke settled into a bitterness of wrath and resentment that would not brook the mention of helen's name in his presence.

burke was feeling very much abused these days. he was, indeed, thinking of himself and pitying himself almost constantly. the woman to whom he had given his name (and for whom he had sacrificed so much) had made that name a byword and a laughing stock in his native town. he was neither bachelor nor husband. he was not even a widower, but a nondescript thing to be pointed out as a sort of monster. even his child was taken away from him; and was doubtless being brought up to hate him—burke forgot that dorothy elizabeth was as yet but slightly over two years old.

as for helen's side of the matter—burke was too busy polishing his own shield of defense to give any consideration to hers. when he thought of his wife, it was usually only to say bitterly to himself: "humph! when that ten thousand dollars is gone we'll hear from her all right!" and he was not worrying at all about her comfort—with ten thousand dollars to spend.

"she knows where she is, and she knows where i am," he would declare fiercely to himself. "when she gets good and ready she'll come—and not until then, evidently!"

in march a line from dr. gleason said that he[pg 197] would be in town a day or two, and would drop in to see them.

with the letter in his hand, burke went to his father.

"gleason's coming friday," he announced tersely.

"well?"

"we've got to settle on what to tell him."

"about—"

"helen—yes. of course—he'll have to know something; but—i shall tell him mighty little." burke's lips snapped together in the grim manner that was becoming habitual with him.

gleason came on friday. there was an odd constraint in his manner. at the same time there was a nervous wistfulness that was almost an appeal. yet he was making, obviously, a great effort to appear as usual.

not until burke found himself alone with his guest did he speak of his wife. then he said:—

"you know, of course, that helen has—er—that she is not here."

"yes." there was a subdued excitement in the doctor's voice.

"of course! everybody knows that, i suppose," retorted burke bitterly. he hesitated, then went on, with manifest effort: "if you don't mind, old fellow, we'll leave it—right there. there's really nothing that i care to say."

a look of keen disappointment crossed the doctor's face.[pg 198]

"but, burke, if you knew that your wife—" began the doctor imploringly.

"there are no 'ifs' about it," interrupted burke, with stern implacability. "helen knows very well where i am, and—she isn't here. that's enough for me."

"but, my dear boy—" pleaded the doctor again.

"gleason, please, i'd rather not talk about it," interrupted burke denby decidedly. and the doctor, in the face of the stern uncompromisingness of the man before him, and of his own solemn, but hard-wrung promise, given to a no less uncompromising little woman whom he had left only the day before, was forced to drop the matter. his face, however, still carried its look of troubled disappointment. and he steadfastly refused to remain at the house even for a meal—a most extraordinary proceeding for him.

"he's angry, and he's angry with me," muttered burke denby to himself, his eyes moodily fixed on the doctor's hurrying figure as it disappeared down the street. "he wanted to preach and plead, and tell me my 'duty.' as if i didn't know my own business best myself! bah! a fig for his 'ifs' and 'buts'!"[pg 199]