“Billy West?” she cried, with a gasp, as she started back, her eyes big with fear.
“Yes. You remember I went to see him in Denver that time—after your sister wired me—but I was too late.”
Donald interrupted him. His voice sounded harsh and unreal. “Tell Mrs. Rogers what you have just told me,” he said.
Hall looked from one to the other in surprise. He had evidently been treading on strange ground—he was unable to see his way clearly. “Why—I—well, to tell you the truth, Mrs. Rogers, I was gossiping a bit—something I don’t often do. I heard a curious story about West while I was out in Denver, and I was just telling your husband about it.”
“Go on!” cried Donald hoarsely.
“It wasn’t anything,” said Hall nervously. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have mentioned it at all. They told me at the hospital that he had left his entire fortune to some married woman in New York with whom he was madly in love.”
Edith groped blindly forward. Her whole world had come clattering down in ruin about her head. She grasped the back of a chair with both hands, and tried to recover her self-control. “Yes,” she gasped. “I—I know.”
Hall saw her agitation, but did not in any way understand its cause. “Pardon me, Mrs. Rogers; I’m sorry,” he faltered, then turned to Donald. “I say, old man,” he said, “won’t you please take me out and kick me gently around the block? I feel that I am making all kinds of an ass of myself—gossiping here like an old woman.”
Donald stepped suddenly forward. “Mr. West’s death was a great shock to us both, Mr. Hall. Mrs. Rogers has never got over it. You can understand, of course.”
He came to her rescue almost unconsciously, protecting her from the breakdown which now seemed inevitable. She stood clutching the back of the chair, her face twitching with emotion, afraid to look at her husband, afraid to look at Hall, her eyes upon the distant blue of the Sound. The blow had fallen—she knew that tragedy stood at her side, ready to strike her down. The tenseness of the situation was momentarily relieved by the appearance of Mrs. Pope and Alice.