"You played ?"
"Never. Only a shameless hussy would play cards with men."
"You were present, though."
"I replenished their drinks. Flirted a little, to keep them in good humor. I sided with them against my own brother when there was a dispute."
"You signalled."
Her shoulders tipped slightly, in philosophic resignation. "That's what I was there for."
His arms were folded, in the attitude of one passing grim judgment--or rather having already irrevocably passed it--whom none of the pleas, the importunities, of the suppliant could any longer sway. He tapped his fingers restlessly against the sides of his own arms.
"And what of Julia? The other Julia, the actual one?"
"I've come to that now," she murmured acquiescently. She drew deep breath to see her through the cumulative part of her recital. "We used to go down about once a month, never more often. It wouldn't have been prudent. Stop a while, and then go up again. We left St. Louis the eighteenth of May the last time, on the City of New Orleans."
"As she did."
She nodded. "The first night out something went wrong. He met his match at last. I don't know how it came about. It could not have been sheer luck on the prospect's part, for he had too many sure ways of curing that. It must have been that he'd finally come across someone who had even better tricks than his own up his sleeve. I couldn't see the man's cards; he seemed to play from memory, keeping them turned inward to one another face to face. And all my messages to show the suits, by fondling necklace, bracelet, earring, finger ring, were worthless, I couldn't send them. The game kept on for half the night, and my partner lost steadily, until at last he had nothing left to play with any longer. And since, in these games, the players were always travelers and strangers to one another, nothing but actual money was ever used, so the loss was real."
"The cheaters cheated," he commented.
"But long before that, hours earlier, the man had already asked me to leave the two of them to themselves. Pointedly, but in such a polite way that there was nothing I could do but obey, or risk bringing to the point of open accusation the certainty that it was obvious he already felt about me. He pretended he was unused to playing in the presence of ladies, and wished to remove his coat and waistcoat, and the instant permission I gave him to do so, he rejected, so I had to go. My partner tried to forbid it by every urgent signal at his command, but there was no further use in my remaining there, so I went. We'd fallen into our own trap, I'm afraid.
"Loitering on deck, beside the rail, a woman, unaccompanied like myself, presently stopped beside me and struck up a conversation. I was not used to chatting with other women, there was no meat in it for my purpose, so at first I gave her only half an ear.
"She was a fool. Within the space of minutes she was telling me all her business, unsolicited. Who she was, where she was bound, what her purpose in going there was. She was too trustful, she had no experience of the outside world. Especially the world of the river boats, and the people you meet on them.
"I tried to shake her off at first, but without succeeding. She attached herself to me, followed me around. It was as though she were starving for a confidante, had to have someone to pour out her heart to, she was brimming so full of romantic anticipations. She gave me your name, and, stopping by a lighted doorway, insisted on taking out and showing me the picture you had sent her, and even reading passages from the last letter or two you had sent her, as though they were Holy Gospel.
"At last, just when I was beginning to feel I could bear no more of it without revealing my true feelings by a burst of temper that would have startled her into silence once and for all, she discovered the-for her--lateness of the hour and fled in the direction of her own cabin like a tardy child, turning all the way to wave back at me, she was so taken by me.
"We had a bitter quarrel later that night, he and I. He accused me of neglecting our 'business.' Unwisely, in self-defense, I told him about her. That she was on her way, sight unseen, to marry a man worth one hundred thousand dollars, who--"
He straightened alertly. "How could she know that?" he said sharply. "I only told the 'you' that was supposed to be she after you'd once arrived and were standing on the dock beside me."
She laughed humorlessly. "She'd investigated, long before she'd ever left St. Louis. I may have fooled you in the greater way, but she fooled you just as surely in the lesser."
He held silent for a long moment, almost as if finding in this new revelation of feminine guile some amelioration of her own.
Presently, unurged, as if gauging to a nicety the length of time he should be allowed for contemplation, of what she knew him to be contemplating, she proceeded.
"I saw him look at me when I told him that. He broke off our quarrel then and there, and left me, and paced the deck for a while. I can only tell you what happened as it happened. I did not know then its meaning as it was happening. Looking back, I can give it meaning now. I couldn't have then. You must believe me. You must, Lou."
She clasped her hands, and brought them close before his face, and wrung them supplicatingly.
"I must? By what compulsion?"
"This is the truth I'm telling tonight. Every word the truth, if never before, if never again."
If never before, if never again, he caught himself gullibly repeating after her, unheard in his own mind.
"I went out again to find him, to ask him if he intended to recoup his losses any more that night; if he'd have any further need of me, or if I could shut my door and go to sleep. I found him motionless, in deep thought, against the rail. The moon was down and the river was getting dark. We were still coasting the lower Missouri shore, I think we were to clear it before dawn. I scarcely knew him for sure until I was at his elbow, he was so indistinct in the gloom.
"He said to me in a whisper, 'Knock on her door and invite her out for a walk on deck with you.'
"I said, 'But it's late, she may have already retired. She's unused to hours such as we keep.'
"Do as I tell you!' he ordered me fiercely. 'Or I'll put some compliance into you with my fists. Find some way of bringing her out here, you'll know how. Tell her you are lonely and want company. Or tell her there are some lights coming presently on the shore that are not to be missed, that she must see. If she is as innocent as you say, any excuse should do.'
"And he gave me a push that nearly sent me face down to the deck boards."
"You went?"
"I went. What could I do? Why should I suffer for a stranger? What stranger had ever suffered for me?"
He didn't answer that.
"I went to her door and I knocked, and when she called out, startled, to ask who it was, I remember answering in honeyed tones to reassure her, 'It's your new little friend, Miss Charlotte.'"
"You had that name upon the boat ?"
"For that voyage. She opened at once, so great was her trust in me. She had not yet removed her clothes, but told me she had been about to do so. If only she already had!"
"You're merciful now in retrospect," he let her know. "You weren't at the time."
She didn't flinch. "I delivered my invitation. I complained of a headache, and refusing all the remedies she instantly put herself out to offer me, said I preferred to let the fresh air cure it, and would she walk with me a while, because of the lateness of the hour.
"I remember I was strangely uneasy, as to what his intentions might be--oh, I knew he boded her no good, but I didn't dare allow myself to believe he meant her any actual bodily harm; some intricate blackmailing scheme, at most, I thought, to be brought to bear on her later, once she was married to you--and even as I spoke, I kept hoping she would refuse me, and I could give him that for an excuse. But she seemed to have become inordinately fond of me. Before I could ask her twice she had already accepted, her face all alight with pleasure at my seeking her out. She hurriedly put a shawl about her for warmth, and closed the door after her, and came away with me."