<h2><SPAN name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></SPAN>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
<h3>NOT YET</h3>
<p>They had laid him on the bed and Mr. Harper, in his usual practical way,
was hastening to rouse the house, when Georgian stepped before him and
laid her hand upon the door.</p>
<p>"Not yet," said she with authority. "He said there was a way—let us find
it before we give up our secret and our possible safety. Mr. Harper, have
you guessed that way?"</p>
<p>"No, except the usual one of protection through the law which he scouts.
I do not believe, Mrs. Ransom, in any other being necessary. Your
brother's threats answered a very good purpose while he was alive, but
now that he is dead they need not trouble you. I'm not even sure that I
believe in the organization. It was mostly in your brother's brain, Mrs.
Ransom; there's no such band, or if there is, its powers are not so
unlimited as he would make you believe."</p>
<p>She simply pointed to the motionless form and the distorted face which
were slowly assuming an expression of great majesty.</p>
<p>"There is my answer," said she. "Men of his strong attributes do not kill
themselves from fancy. He knew what he did."</p>
<p>"And you think—"</p>
<p>"That I will not live a week if I pass that door under the name of
Georgian Ransom. Mr. Harper, I am sure of it; Roger, I beg you to believe
what I say. It may not come here—but it will come. The mark has been set
against my name. Death only will obliterate this mark. But the name—that
is already a dead one—shall it not stay so?—It is the one way—the way
he meant."</p>
<p>"Georgian!"</p>
<p>It was a cry of infinite protest. Such a cry as one might expect from the
long-suffering Ransom. It drew her from the door; it brought her to his
side. As their eyes and hands met, Harper stepped back to the bedside,
and remembering the sensitiveness of the man before him, softly covered
his poor face. When he turned back, Mrs. Ransom was slowly shaking her
head under her husband's prolonged look and saying softly:</p>
<p>"No, not Georgian, Anitra. Henceforth Anitra, always Anitra. Can you
endure the ordeal for the sake of the safety and peace of mind it will
bring?"</p>
<p>"I endure it! Can you? Remember the deafness that marks Anitra."</p>
<p>"That can be cured." Her smile turned almost arch. "We will travel; there
are great physicians abroad."</p>
<p>"A sister—not a wife?"</p>
<p>"Your wife in time—Ah, it will mean a new courtship and—Anitra is a
different woman from Georgian—she has suffered—you will love her
better."</p>
<p>"O God! Harper, are we living, awake, sane? Help me at this crisis. I do
not know where I am or what this is she really asks."</p>
<p>"She asks the impossible. She asks what you can, perhaps, give, but not
what I can. You forget that this deception calls for connivance on my
part, and whatever you may think of me or my profession, deception is
foreign to my nature and very repugnant to me."</p>
<p>"And you refuse?"</p>
<p>"Mrs. Ransom, I must."</p>
<p>The hope which had held her up, the life which had returned to body and
spirit since this prospect of a possible future had dawned upon her,
faded from glance and smile.</p>
<p>"Then good-by, Roger, we shall never have those happy days together of
which we have often dreamt. I may stay with you a week, a month, a year,
but the horror of a great fear will be over us, and never, never can we
know joy."</p>
<p>She threw herself into her husband's arms; she clung to him.</p>
<p>"One moment," she cried, "one moment of perfect happiness before the
shadow falls. Oh, how I must love you, Roger, to say such words, to think
such thoughts, with the body of the brother I loved so deeply once, lying
there dead before us, killed by his own hand."</p>
<p>Ransom softly drew her aside where her eyes could not fall upon the bed.</p>
<p>Harper stopped still where he was, the picture of gloom and uncertainty.</p>
<p>"It must be settled now," said Ransom. "As we leave this room, our
relations must remain."</p>
<p>"I cannot but think your fears all folly," muttered Harper. "Yet the
responsibility you force upon me is terrible. If it were not for that
will! How can I present it to the Surrogate when I know the testator is
still alive?"</p>
<p>"You need not. I will do that," said Ransom.</p>
<p>"And the property! Given to a man we none of us know. Property that is
not legally his."</p>
<p>"I will make it so," cried Georgian with a burst of new and
uncontrollable hope as she saw, as she thought, this conscientious lawyer
yielding. "There is paper here; draw up a deed of gift. I will sign it
and you shall hold it so that whether I live or die, Auchincloss' title
to his money shall be absolute. Thus much I wish to do, that Alfred's
life should not have been sacrificed for nothing."</p>
<p>"Let me think."</p>
<p>Harper was wavering.</p>
<hr style='width: 45%;' />
<p>A half-hour later the door of Ransom's room was flung hurriedly open, and
loud cries for Mrs. Deo and the office clerk rang through the house. And
when they and others came running at the call, it was to find Mr. Ransom
and the lawyer hanging over the recumbent figure of the dead Hazen, and
the deaf girl Anitra pointing at the group, with wild and inarticulate
cries.</p>
<p>THE END</p>
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