Ferrari, Maxwell, Dombrain. She could ask none of the three to assist her, and yet something must be done. The terrible blow of her father's death had left Kaituna prostrate with grief, and she looked to Mrs. Belswin for every thing. Yes, the daughter, ignorant of the mother's personality, depended upon the mother as she would have done had she known the truth; and Mrs. Belswin, although concealing her real relationship; acted towards her newly-recovered daughter with the utmost tenderness.
Still, what about money?
There was the stage. She could resume her profession, but that would entail time to obtain an engagement and constant absence from Kaituna, who was not fitted in her present upset state of mind to be left alone. So after going over all kinds of possibilities in her mind, Mrs. Belswin found herself at her wits' end which way to turn for assistance.
Coincidences happen in real life as well as in novels, and it was a curious thing that Mrs. Belswin should find in a society journal the name of Silas P. Oates mentioned as staying at the Langham Hotel.
Silas P. Oates, millionaire. Most extraordinary! He had arrived just in time, for she could apply to him for money. He was her old lover; he was the man who had ruined her life; he had deserted her shamefully; but now he was rich, and had a right to help her. Yes, she would call on him at once and ask him for assistance. For the sake of the dead-and-gone days he would not refuse. So with a smile of satisfaction Mrs. Belswin looked at the paper again.
"Mr. Silas P. Oates is accompanied by his wife and daughter."
Oh! he was married then--married and respectable--while she was still tossing on the stormy waters of the Bohemian ocean. Ah, these men, these men! they always have the best of it. They love, and ruin, and forsake a woman, and then settle down into respectable members of society; while the woman, who has lost all for their sake, is condemned for the rest of her life to be the sport of one sex and the scorn of the other.
Still, now that he was married she would certainly be able to obtain what she wished, for he would not dare to refuse lest she should speak to his wife and destroy his happiness.
It never struck Mrs. Belswin that to act in this way would be dishonourable. She had been a free-lance for so long, and had been so accustomed in fighting her way through the world to use all kinds of weapons, that the means she intended to employ to extort money from Oates seemed quite legitimate. Many a woman would have died rather than have applied for help to the man who had basely deserted her; but Mrs. Belswin, her moral sense blunted by constantly battling with the stormy world, not only intended to get money from her old lover, but intended to apply that money to secure the happiness of her innocent daughter. Here is a text for the preacher on human nature. Does the end in this instance justify the means? Strange things are done in this world of ours, but surely nothing more fantastical or shameful entered a woman's mind than to use her former disgrace as a means to secure her daughter's ease and peace of mind. And yet Mrs. Belswin could not see it--did not see it--and made up her mind to call on Silas P. Oates the next day, and not leave him until she had his cheque for a considerable amount in her purse.
To-day, however, Archie was coming in order to tell them about Toby Clendon's proposed mission to Australia, and Kaituna was seated at the window watching for his coming, while Mrs. Belswin pondered over the problem of Silas P. Oates.