The footman only bowed assent.
“Go to Miss Walton and say I must see her a moment.”
“Miss Walton instructed me to add, in case Mr. Maitland persisted, that she prefers to hold no intercourse with Mr. Maitland and will receive no messages from him.”
Pride came to my rescue, and I passed silently into the hall. The servant opened the door, and I went out from my old home, never to enter it more. At the foot of the steps I turned and looked back, hardly yet believing what I had been told. Even in the sting and humiliation of that moment my love was stronger than the newer sensations. I said, “Good-night, Maizie. God keep you,” and walked away.
VIII
February 27. I sat for hours in my room, that night, trying to find some solution of the mystery and groping for a future course of action. I thought of a visit to my mother, on the chance that she would give me the key to the puzzle, but could not bring myself to it. Rejecting that idea, I decided to seek out Mr. Blodgett, who, being your friend, might know the reason for what you had done.
Finding on inquiry, the next morning, that Mr. Blodgett was a member of one of the chief banking firms of New York, I went to his office. The ante-room was well filled with people anxious to see the great banker, and the door-boy refused me access to him without giving my name and business. Knowing that “Donald Maitland” would mean nothing to Mr. Blodgett, and might even fail to secure me an audience, I wrote on a slip of paper, “A seeker of knowledge from the Altai Mountains.” Nor was I wrong, for the boy, on his return, gave me immediate entrance, and another moment brought me face to face with my once-disliked countryman.
His hand was extended to greet me, but as he looked at my face his arm dropped in surprise. “Your name, please?” he demanded, with a business-like clip to his voice, at the same time picking up and glancing quickly at three or four cards and slips of paper that were on the corner of his desk.
“I am the attorney for ancient peoples,” I announced, smiling, “come to thank the New World for its kindness to a broken-legged man.”