Therefore he was surprised to hear himself say in soothing, almost cooing tones:
“Well, my dear, what can I do for you?”
Shades of Abigail! “Well, my dear!” Tutt-Tutt! Tutt!
“I am in great trouble,” faltered Mrs. Allison, gazing in misty helplessness out of her blue grottoes at him while her beautiful red lips trembled.
“I hope I can help you!” he breathed. “Tell me all about it! Take your time. May I relieve you of your wrap?”
She wriggled out of it gratefully and he saw for the first time the round, slender pillar of her neck. What a head she had-in its nimbus of hazy gold. What a figure! His forty-eight-year-old lawyer's heart trembled under its heavy layer of half-calf dust. He found difficulty in articulating. He stammered, staring at her most shamelessly both of which symptoms she did not notice. She was used to them in the other sex. Tutt did not know what was the matter with him. He had in fact entered upon that phase at which the wise man, be he old or young, turns and runs.
But Tutt did not run. In legal phrase he stopped, looked and listened, experiencing a curious feeling of expansion. This enchanting creature transmuted the dingy office lined with its rows of calfskin bindings into a golden grot in which he stood spellbound by the low murmur of her voice. A sense of infinite leisure emanated from her-a subtle denial of the ordinary responsibilities-very relaxing and delightful to Tutt. But what twitched his very heartstrings was the dimple that came and went with that pathetic little twisted smile of hers.
“I came to you,” said Mrs. Allison, “because I knew you were both kind and clever.”
Tutt smiled sweetly.
“Kind, perhaps-not clever!” he beamed.
“Why, everyone says you are one of the cleverest lawyers in New York,” she protested. Then, raising her innocent China-blue eyes to his she murmured, “And I so need kindness!”
Tutt's breast swelled with an emotion which he was forced to admit was not altogether avuncular-that curious sentimental mixture that middle-aged men feel of paternal pity, Platonic tenderness and protectiveness, together with all those other euphemistic synonyms, that make them eager to assist the weak and fragile, to try to educate and elevate, and particularly to find out just how weak, fragile, uneducated and unelevated a helpless lady may be. But in spite of his half century of experience Tutt's knowledge of these things was purely vicarious. He could have told another man when to run, but he didn't know when to run himself. He could have saved another, himself he could not save-at any rate from Mrs. Allison.
He had never seen anyone like her. He pulled his chair a little nearer. She was so slender, so supple, so-what was it?-svelte! And she had an air of childish dignity that appealed to him tremendously. There was nothing, he assured himself, of the vamp about her at all.
“I only want to get my rights,” she said, tremulously. “I'm nearly out of my mind. I don't know what to do or where to turn!”
“Is there”-he forced himself to utter the word with difficulty-“a-a man involved?”
She flushed and bowed her head sadly, and instantly a poignant rage possessed him.
“A man I trusted absolutely,” she replied in a low voice.
“His name?”
“Winthrop Oaklander.”
Tutt gasped audibly, for the name was that of one of Manhattan's most distinguished families, the founder of which had swapped glass beads and red-flannel shirts with the aborigines for what was now the most precious water frontage in the world-and moreover, Mrs. Allison informed Tutt, he was a clergyman.
“I don't wonder you're surprised!” agreed Mrs. Allison.
“Why-I-I'm-not surprised at all!” prevaricated Tutt, at the same time groping for his silk handkerchief. “You don't mean to say you've got a case against this man Oaklander!”
“I have indeed!” she retorted with firmly compressed lips. “That is, if it is what you call a case for a man to promise to marry a woman and then in the end refuse to do so.”
“Of course it is!” answered Tutt. “But why on earth wouldn't he?”
“He found out I had been divorced,” she explained. “Up to that time everything had been lovely. You see he thought I was a widow.”
“Ah!”
Mr. Tutt experienced another pang of resentment against mankind in general.
“I had a leading part in one of the season's successes on Broadway,” she continued miserably. “But when Mr. Oaklander promised to marry me I left the stage; and now-I have nothing!”
“Poor child!” sighed Tutt.
He would have liked to take her in his arms and comfort her, but he always kept the door into the outer office open on principle.
“You know, Mr. Oaklander is the pastor of St. Lukes-Over-the-Way,” said Mrs. Allison. “I thought that maybe rather than have any publicity he might do a little something for me.”
“I suppose you've got something in the way of evidence, haven't you? Letters or photographs or something?” inquired Tutt, reverting absent-mindedly to his more professional manner.
“No,” she answered. “We never wrote to one another. And when we went out it was usually in the evening. I don't suppose half a dozen people have ever seen us together.”
“That's awkward!” meditated Tutt, “if he denies it.”
“Of course he will deny it!”
“You can't tell. He may not.”
“Oh, yes, he will! Why, he even refuses to admit that he ever met me!” declared Mrs. Allison indignantly.
Now, to Tutt's credit be it said that neither at this point nor at any other did any suspicion of Mrs. Allison's sincerity enter his mind. For the first time in his professional existence he accepted what a lady client told him at its face value. Indeed he felt that no one, not even a clergyman, could help loving so miraculous a woman, or that loving her one could refrain from marrying her save for some religious or other permanent obstacle He was sublimely, ecstatically happy in the mere thought that he, Tutt, might be of help to such a celestial being, and he desired no reward other than the privilege of being her willing slave and of reading her gratitude in those melting, misty eyes.
Mrs. Allison went away just before lunch time, leaving her telephone number, her handkerchief, a pungent odor of violet talc, and a disconsolate but highly excited Tutt. Never, at any rate within twenty years, had he felt so young. Life seemed tinged with every color of the spectrum. The radiant fact was that he would-he simply had to-see her again. What he might do for her professionally-all that aspect of the affair was shoved far into the background of his mind. His only thought was how to get her back into his office at the earliest possible moment.
“Shall I enter the lady's name in the address book?” inquired Miss Wiggin coldly as he went out to get a bite of lunch.
Tutt hesitated.
“Mrs. Georgie Allison is her name,” he said in a detached sort of way.
“Address?”
Tutt felt in his waistcoat pocket.
“By George!” he muttered, “I didn't take it. But her telephone number is Lincoln Square 9187.”
To chronicle the details of Tutt's second blooming would be needlessly to derogate from the dignity of the history of Tutt &Tutt. There is a silly season in the life of everyone-even of every lawyer-who can call himself a man, and out of such silliness comes the gravity of knowledge. Tutt found it necessary for his new client to come to the office almost every day, and as she usually arrived about the noon hour what was more natural than that he should invite her out to lunch? Twice he walked home with her. The telephone was busy constantly. And the only thorn in the rose of Tutt's delirious happiness was the fear lest Abigail might discover something. The thought gave him many an anxious hour, cost him several sleepless nights. At times this nervousness about his wife almost exceeded the delight of having Mrs. Allison for a friend. Yet each day he became on more and more cordial terms with her, and the lunches became longer and more intimate.