Chapter XXV: The Letter

Following on the heels of her first shock came disappointment. She reached the three story building where Thorne and Foster had established temporary office to find the door of the office locked and a sign tacked to the outside door panel which bore the information: “Gone for the day.”

“Who told them they could go?” she sulkily muttered. “Wait till I see that pair. All they do is loaf and rob me. They’re slackers. That old cotton-top Bean has working for her is worth more than a dozen of these slackers.”

Leslie swung petulantly down the one flight of stairs to the street. The wind whistled in her face causing her to duck her head into her high fur collar.

“It’s too cold to drive back to the campus,” she concluded. “I’ll run the car into the garage and hunt for cover. The hotel for me tonight. I’ll go there and stay there.” She promised herself that next day she would make it a point to go to the garage site and see what was going on. She could pick up Doris then at the Colonial and take her back to town.

She drove to the garage, saw the car housed and battled her way against the wind the distance of one block to the hotel. At the desk the clerk handed her a letter. Leslie stared at the address in fascination. Her face turned as nearly white as its swarthiness would permit. Her lips moved as though she were trying to speak and could not. Her hands shook so violently she dropped the letter on the tessellated marble floor.

She bent to retrieve it, and nearly lost her balance. Sight of certain black, jagged handwriting all but drained her of strength. She walked to the door of the elevator steadily enough, but her knees weakened under her as she stood and waited for what seemed an age for the descending cage.

“Great Scott!” she breathed in a voice not quite steady as the door of her room closed behind her. She stumbled over to a chair and fell into it. “I never had such a wobbly time in all my life before,” she said aloud again. “I’m glad to see that writing.”

Leslie was so staggered at seeing again the characteristic handwriting of Peter Cairns she had only one idea. Her father had written her a letter. In the exultant glow she experienced as she tore open the envelope she lost her first panic of agitation.

Her hands began to tremble anew as she hastily tore the envelope across, in order to quickly get at the letter inside it. Two sheets of his club paper brought a sparkle to her eyes. She unfolded them and read with hungry concentration:

“LESLIE:

“So long as you minded your own affairs and did not involve
others in your ridiculous schemes I decided to let you go on and
see if you had any common sense. You have shown so little of
this necessary quality I have been compelled to interfere and
undo, if possible, the mischief you have done.

“There are two ways of doing business; a wise way and a foolish
way. Business enterprises are conducted in order to bring wealth
to their promoters; not for the purpose of “getting even” with
another, or others. I know precisely what you have been doing
since you disgraced yourself and me at college. I have not once
approved of you. Your purchase of a certain piece of property
near the college was typical of your business idiocy. Some day
you may learn why.

“When you were a youngster I had some hope of helping you to the
career you fancied. You are very far away from that point of
intelligence now. Prudence should have taught you never to buck
against an institution of learning of the traditional worth and
material wealth of Hamilton College.

“I have put a definite end to your silly, wasteful garage
venture. You chose the last site suitable for a public garage.
If you make an effort, no matter how small, or as you may
believe, secret, to carry on this enterprise or to have another
carry it on for you, I will wipe out your fortune and send you
to business college. You have shown sufficient lack of gray
matter to insure my closer guardianship over you, as your
father. For the present Mrs. Gaylord will remain your chaperon.
You thought no doubt in the beginning that you engaged her. I
daresay you know differently now. Women seldom keep their
secrets. You will arrange to be in New York not later than the
fifteenth of this month. You are not to return to Hamilton. I
have seen Lavigne and had matters out with him. You deceived
him, but he should have known better than to bother with you. He
has changed his address. You may be interested in this news.

“In New York you will select a suitable apartment for yourself
and Mrs. Gaylord and resume your friendship with Natalie Weyman.
She is a shallow creature, but at least has social pride. You
are to devote yourself to society for a while. Perhaps in that
way you may get over your business fallacy.

“PETER CAIRNS.”

With a kind of howl such as a mourning, solitary creature of the wild might utter, Leslie dropped her head on her arms. She had ever been careless of the feelings of others; always ready to sneer at even her friends. Now for the first time in her selfish life she had been cut to the heart by words.

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