The lawyer shook his head doggedly. “I'm not going to tell a thing I don't have to tell. That's settled.” He hesitated a moment before he went on. “I've got a reason why I want to stand well with the Fromes, Jeff. I'm not in a position to risk anything.”
Jeff waited. He thought he knew that reason.
“I'm going to marry Alice Frome if I can.”
“You've asked her.” Jeff's voice sounded to himself as if it belonged to another man.
“No. Not yet. Ned Merrill's in the running. Strong, too. He's being backed by his father and old P. C. Frome. The idea is to consolidate interests by this marriage. But I've got a fighting chance. She likes me. Since I went into this political fight against her father she's taken pains to show me how friendly she feels. But if this story gets out--I'm smashed. That's all.”
“Go to her. Tell her the truth. She'll stand by you,” his cousin urged.
“You don't understand these people, Jeff. I do. Even if she wanted to stand by me she couldn't. They wouldn't let her. Right now I'm carrying all the handicap I can.”
Jeff walked to the window and stood looking out with his hands in his pockets. The hum of the busy street rose to his ears, but he did not hear it. Nor did he see the motor cars whizzing past, the drays lumbering along, the thronged sidewalks of Powers Avenue. A door that had for years been ajar in his heart had swung to with a crash. The incredible folly of his dream was laid bare to him. Despised, distrusted and disgraced, there was no chance that he might be even a friend to her. She moved in another world, one he could not reach if he would and would not if he could. All that he believed in she had been brought up to disregard. Much that was dear to her he must hammer down so long as there was life in him.
But James--he had fought his way up to her. Why shouldn't he have his chance? Better--far better James than Ned Merrill. He had heard the echoes of a disgraceful story about that young man in his college days, the story of how he had trampled down a working girl for his pleasure. James was clean and honorable... and she loved him. Jeff's mind fastened on that last as a thing assured. Had he not seen her with starry eyes fixed on her hero, held fast as a limed bird? She too was entitled to her chance, and there was a way he could give it to her.