“Ugh! The meanness of it,” said Hugh repugnantly. “She is so frank and honest that it’s disgusting to be plotting against her. Grimshaw has got it all over me. He’s in his own cockatoo colors when all’s said and done; but I”—the speaker lifted a fold of his rich robe and dropped it with a groan.
“I’m pleased that you like Miss Frink so much,” said Ogden, ignoring this. “Everything will come out all right. Everybody confined to a sick-room gets morbid.” The speaker looked about the spacious apartment, and through a door ajar had a glimpse of the silver and tile of the bathroom. “Isn’t the house charming?”
“I don’t know,” replied Hugh curtly. “I know when I once get out of it I’ll never see it again.”
Ogden smiled. “My actor is more temperamental than an opera star,” he mused aloud. “Promise me one thing, boy; I think you owe me that much. Promise me you won’t take any step without forewarning me.”
“Of course I owe it to you,” said Hugh bitterly. “I owe everybody. I’ve been the most appalling expense both to you and Miss Frink, it makes me sick to think of it when I don’t know how I can ever get even.”
“You’ll get even with me by just doing what I say,” returned the other forcefully. “Of course, I haven’t seen you and Miss Frink together yet, but I’m certain you have been and are being a wonderful event in her life. She has been the loneliest woman I ever knew except on her business side. Look at this perfectly appointed house. I never heard of any entertaining here, nor even a passing guest. It took somebody with the nerve to come in and go right to bed and stay.”
Hugh drew a long breath, and felt that he should never like John Ogden again. He might be a ne’er-do-well himself, but at least he had a sense of honor.
“But, by the way, I found the record broken to-day,” went on Ogden. “I was much surprised to find Miss Frink had a niece, and that she is staying here: a Mrs. Reece—or I think she said it was Lumbard or some such name, now.”
“Yes, I shall have to divide the fortune with one person.”
John Ogden laughed cheerfully. The statement came so tragically from between clenched teeth. “Have you met her?” he continued.