It was like the nightmare sounds he had heard from
his cell in the police station, and Samuel listened
appalled. There came a crash of breaking glass;
and then suddenly, in the midst of the confusion, he
heard his young master cry, “Get out of here!”—and
the dining room door was flung open, and the uproar
burst full upon him.
A terrible sight met his eyes. It was the beautiful
and radiant creature who had kissed Bertie Lockman;
her face was now flushed with drink and distorted
with rage—her hair disheveled and her aspect
wild; and she was screaming in the voice which had
first startled Samuel. Bertie had grappled with
her and was trying to push her out of the room, while
she fought frantically, and screamed: “Let
me go! Let me go!”
“Get out of here, I say!” cried Bertie,
“I mean it now.”
“I won’t! Let me be!” exclaimed
the girl.
“Hurrah!” shouted the others, crowding
behind them. Young Holliday was dancing about,
waving a bottle and yelling like a maniac, “Go
it, Bertie! Give it to him, Belle!”
“This is the end of it!” cried Bertie.
“I’m through with you. And you get
out of here!”
“I won’t! I won’t!” screamed
the girl again and again. “Help!”
And she flung one arm about his neck and caught at
the doorway.
But he tore her loose and dragged her bodily across
the entrance hall. “Out with you!”
he exclaimed. “And don’t ever let
me see your face again!”
“Bertie! Bertie!” she protested.
“I mean it!” he said. “Here
Jack! Open the door for me.”
“Bertie! No!” shrieked the girl;
but then with a sudden effort he half threw her out
into the darkness. There was a brief altercation
outside, and then he sprang back, and flung to the
heavy door, and bolted it fast.
“Now, by God!” he said, “you’ll
stay out.”
The girl beat and kicked frantically upon the door.
But Bertie turned his back and staggered away, reeling
slightly. “That’ll settle it, I guess,”
he said, with a wild laugh.
And amidst a din of laughter and cheers from the others,
he went back to the dining room. One of the other
women flung her arms about him hilariously, and Jack
Holliday raised a bottle of wine on high, and shouted:
“Off with the old love—on with the
new!”
And so Bertie shut the door again, and the scene was
hid from Samuel’s eyes.
For a long while, Samuel stood motionless, hearing
the swish of the rain and the crashing of the thunder
as an echo of the storm in his own soul. It was
as if a chasm had yawned beneath his feet, and all
the castles of his dreams had come down in ruins.
He stood there, stunned and horrified, staring at
the wreckage of everything he had believed.
Then suddenly he crossed the drawing-room and opened
one of the French windows which led to the piazza.
The rain was driving underneath the shelter of the
roof; but he faced it, and ran toward the door.
