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Business Analysis Valuation Using Financial Statements
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Chapter 2
Strategy Analysis

Discussion Questions

1. Judith, an accounting major, states, “Strategy analysis seems to be an unnecessary detour in doing
financial statement analysis. Why can’t we just get straight to the accounting issues?” Explain to Judith
why she might be wrong.

Strategy analysis enables the analyst to understand the underlying economics of the firm and the
industry in which the firm competes. There are a number of benefits to developing this knowledge
before performing any financial statement analysis.

1. Strategy understanding provides a context for evaluating a firm’s choice of accounting policies
and hence the information reflected in its financial statements. For example, accounting policies
(such as revenue recognition and cost capitalization) can differ across firms either because of
differences in business economics or because of differences in management’s financial reporting
incentives. Only by understanding differences in firms’ business strategies is it possible to
assess how much to rely on a firm’s accounting information.

2. Strategy analysis highlights the firm’s profit drivers and major areas of risk. An analyst can then
use this information to evaluate current firm performance and to assess the firm’s likelihood of
maintaining or changing this performance based on its business strategy.

3. Strategy analysis also makes it possible to understand a firm’s financial policies and whether
they make sense. As discussed later in the book, the firm’s business economics is an important
driver of its capital structure and dividend policy decisions.

In summary, understanding a firm’s business, the factors that are critical to the success of that
business, and its key risks is critical to effective financial statement analysis.

2. What are the critical drivers of industry profitability?

Rivalry Among Existing Firms. The greater the degree of competition among firms in an industry,
the lower average profitability is likely to be. The factors that influence existing firm rivalry are
industry growth rate, concentration and balance of competitors, degree of differentiation and

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switching costs, scale/learning economies and the ratio of fixed to variable costs, and excess
capacity and exit barriers.

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2 Instructor’s Manual Chapter 2 Strategy Analysis 2

Threat of New Entrants. The threat of new entry can force firms to set prices to keep industry
profits low. The threat of new entry can be mitigated by economies of scale, first mover advantages
to incumbents, greater access to channels of distribution and existing customer relationships, and
legal barriers to entry.

Threat of Substitute Products. The threat of substitute products can force firms to set lower
prices, reducing industry profitability. The importance of substitutes will depend on the price
sensitivity of buyers and the degree of substitutability among the products.

Bargaining Power of Buyers. The greater the bargaining power of buyers, the lower the industry’s
profitability. Bargaining power of buyers will be determined by the buyers’ price sensitivity and
their importance to the individual firm. As the volume of purchases of a single buyer increases, its
bargaining power with the supplier increases.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers. The greater the bargaining power of suppliers, the lower the
industry’s profitability. Suppliers’ bargaining ability increases as the number of suppliers declines
when there are few substitutes available.

3. One of the fastest growing industries in the last twenty years is the memory chip industry, which
supplies memory chips for personal computers and other electronic devices. Yet the average profitability
for this industry has been very low. Using the industry analysis framework, list all the potential factors
that might explain this apparent contradiction.

Concentration and Balance of Competitors. The concentration of the memory chip market is
relatively low. There are many players that compete on a global basis, none of which has a
dominant share of the market. Due to this high degree of fragmentation, price wars are frequent as
individual firms lower prices to gain market share.

Degree of Differentiation and Switching Costs. In general, memory chips are a commodity
product characterized by little product differentiation. While some product differentiation occurs as
chip makers squeeze more memory on a single chip or design specific memory chips to meet
manufacturers’ specific power and/or size requirements, these differences are typically short-lived
and have not significantly reduced the level of competition within the industry. Furthermore,
because memory chips are typically interchangeable, switching costs for users of memory chips
(computer assemblers and computer owners) encouraging buyers to look for the lowest price for
memory chips.

Scale/Learning Economies and the Ratio of Fixed to Variable Costs. Scale and learning
economies are both important to the memory chip market. Memory chip production requires
significant investment in “clean” production environments. Consequently, it is less expensive to
build larger manufacturing facilities than to build additional ones to satisfy additional demand.
Moreover, the yield of acceptable chips goes up as employees learn the intricacies of the extremely

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3 Instructor’s Manual Chapter 2 Strategy Analysis 3

complicated and sensitive manufacturing process. Finally, while investments in memory chip
manufacturing plants are typically very high, the variable costs of materials and labor are relatively
low, providing an incentive for manufacturers to reduce prices to fully utilize their plant’s capacity.

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4 Instructor’s Manual Chapter 2 Strategy Analysis 4

Excess Capacity. Historically, memory chip plants tend to be built in waves, so that several plants
will open at about the same time. Consequently, the industry is characterized by periods of
significant excess capacity where manufacturers will cut prices to use their productive capacity (see
above).

Threat of Substitute Products. There are several alternatives to memory chips including other
information storage media (e.g., hard drives and disk drives) and memory management software
that “creates” additional memory through more efficient use of computer system resources.

Price Sensitivity. There are two main groups of buyers: computer manufacturers and computer
owners. Faced with an undifferentiated product and low switching costs, buyers are very price
sensitive.

All the above factors cause returns for memory chip manufacturers to be relatively low.

4. Rate the pharmaceutical and lumber industries as high, medium, or low on the following dimensions of
industry structure.

Pharmaceutical firms historically have had some of the highest rates of return in the economy,
whereas timber firms have had relatively low returns. The following analysis reveals why.

Pharmaceutical Industry Lumber Industry

Rivalry Medium High

Firms compete fiercely to develop and Industry growth rates are low.
patent drugs. However, once a drug is Products typically have very little
patented, a firm has a monopoly for that differentiation and switching costs
drug, dramatically reducing are low.
competition. Competitors can only
enter the same market by developing a
drug that does not infringe on the
patent.

Threat of Low Low

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5 Instructor’s Manual Chapter 2 Strategy Analysis 5

New Entrants Economies of scale and first mover Entry into the lumber industry
advantages are very high for the In requires access to timber supplies
addition, drug firms’ sales forces
have established relationships with
doctors, which act as a further
deterrent for a new entrant. This
distribution advantage is changing
as managed-care firms have
begun negotiating directly with
drug companies on behalf of the
doctors in their network.

Threat of Low High

Substitute

Products New drugs are protected by patents There are many substitutes for
giving manufacturers a monopoly to lumber, including steel, plastic,
invent around the patent or to wait until and increases, use of these
the patent expires. Once the patent substitutes
expires, a company will reduce also increases.
prices as other manufacturers enter the
market. The threat of substitute
products,
however, is likely to increase as biotech
products enter the market.

Bargaining Low Medium

Power of

Buyers Historically, doctors have had little Many buyers are very large, such
buying power. However, managed- as
powerful recently, and have begun Home Depot, and can choose from
negotiating substantial discounts for care providers have become more
drug purchases. Independent lumber yards and
smaller chains have much less
low, giving buyers additional
leverage.

Bargaining Low High

Power of
Suppliers The chemical ingredients for drugs can

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6 Instructor’s Manual Chapter 2 Strategy Analysis 6

be obtained from a variety of chemical Supplies of timber for lumber are

suppliers. limited. Owners of timberland can
sell to any lumber mill.

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7 Instructor’s Manual Chapter 2 Strategy Analysis 7

5. Joe Smith argues, “Your analysis of the five forces that affect industry profitability is incomplete. For
example, in the banking industry, I can think of at least three other factors that are also important-- namely,
government regulation, demographic trends, and cultural factors.” His classmate Jane Brown disagrees and
says, “These three factors are important only to the extent that they influence one of the five forces.” Explain
how, if at all, the three factors discussed by Joe affect the five forces in the banking industry.

Government regulation, demographic trends, and cultural factors will each impact the analysis of
the banking industry. While these may be important, they can each be recast using the five forces
framework to provide a deeper understanding of the industry. The power of the five forces
framework is its ability to incorporate industry-specific characteristics into analysis for any
industry. To see how government regulation, demographic trends, and cultural factors are important
in the banking industry, we can apply the five forces framework as follows:

Rivalry Among Existing Firms. Government regulation has played a central role in promoting,
maintaining, and limiting competition among banks. Banks are regulated at the federal and state
levels. In the past, these regulations restricted banks from operating across state lines or even within
different regions of the same state, and from paying market rates on deposits. The government also
regulates the riskiness of a bank’s portfolio in an effort to prevent banks from competing for new
customers by taking on too many high-risk investments, loans, or other financial instruments. These
regulations have limited the degree of competition among banks. However, recent deregulation of
the industry has allowed banks to expand into new geographic areas and to pay market rates on
deposits, increasing the level of competition.

Threat of New Entrants. Government regulations at both the federal and state levels have limited
the entry of new players into the banking industry. New banks must meet the requirements set by
regulators before they can begin operation. However, as noted above, deregulation of some aspects
of banking has made it easier for out-of-state banks to enter new markets. Further, it appears to be
relatively easy for non-banking companies to successfully set up financial services units (e.g.,
AT&T, GE, and General Motors). Finally, as consumers have become more comfortable with
technology, “Internet banks” have formed. These “banks” provide the same services as traditional
banks, but with a very different cost structure.

Threat of Substitute Products. The primary functions of banks are lending money and providing a
place to invest money. Thrifts, credit unions, brokerage houses, mortgage companies, and the
financing arms of companies, such as GMAC, provide potential substitutes for these functions.
Government regulation of these entities varies dramatically, affecting how similar their products are
to those of banks. In addition, with the expansion of IRA and 401(k) retirement savings accounts,
consumers have been become increasingly familiar with non-bank options for investing money. As
another example, some brokerage houses provide money market accounts that function as checking
accounts. As a result, the threat of substitutes for bank services has grown over time.

Bargaining Power of Buyers. Business and consumer buyers of credit have little direct bargaining
power over banks and financial institutions. The decline in relationship banking towards a
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8 Instructor’s Manual Chapter 2 Strategy Analysis 8

transactions approach, where consumers seek the lowest-cost lender for each new loan, probably
also reduces the buying power of customers.

Bargaining Power of Suppliers. Depositors have historically had little bargaining power.

In summary, bank regulations have historically had a very important role in determining bank
profitability by restricting competition. However, recent deregulation in the industry as well as the
emergence of non-bank substitutes has increased competition in the industry.

6. Coca-Cola and Pepsi are both very profitable soft drinks. Inputs for these products include corn syrup,
bottles/cans, and soft drink syrup. Coca-Cola and Pepsi produce the syrup themselves and purchase the
other inputs. They then enter into exclusive contracts with independent bottlers to produce their products.
Use the five forces framework and your knowledge of the soft drink industry to explain how Coca-Cola
and Pepsi are able to retain most of the profits in this industry.

While consumers perceive an intensely competitive relationship between Coke and Pepsi, these
major players in the soft drink industry have structured their businesses to retain most of the profits
in the industry by concentrating operations in its least competitive segments. Coke and Pepsi have
segmented the soft drink industry into two industries—production of soft drink syrup and
manufacturing/distribution of the soft drinks at the retail level. Moreover, they have chosen to
operate primarily in the production of soft drink syrup, while leaving the independent bottlers with
the more competitive segment of the industry.

Coca-Cola and Pepsi compete primarily on brand image rather than on price. They sell their syrup
to independent bottlers who have exclusive contracts to distribute soft drinks and other company
products within a specific geographic area. (While other syrup producers exist, they are typically
regional and have very small shares of the market.) Given the large number of competing forms
of containers for soft drinks (glass bottles, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, etc.), it is difficult for
bottlers to earn any more than a normal return on their investment. Consequently, Coke and Pepsi
can write exclusive contracts with bottlers prohibiting them from simultaneously bottling for a
competitor. It is also difficult for independent bottlers to switch from Coke to Pepsi products, since
there is likely to be an existing Pepsi bottler in the same geographic area. Consequently,
independent bottlers have little bargaining power and Coke and Pepsi are able to charge them
relatively high prices for syrup.

The threat of new entrants at the syrup level is restricted by limited access to adequate distribution
channels and by the valuable brand names that have been created by both Coke and Pepsi. While
soda syrup is relatively inexpensive and easy to make, a new syrup producer would have difficulty
finding a distributor that could get its products to retail stores and placed in desirable shelf space.
The high levels of advertising by Coke and Pepsi have created highly valued, universally
recognized brands, which would be difficult for a potential competitor to replicate.

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9 Instructor’s Manual Chapter 2 Strategy Analysis 9

The main ingredients of syrup are sugar and flavoring, and the markets for these inputs are
generally competitive. As a result, Coke and Pepsi exert considerable influence over their suppliers.
For example, in the 1980s when corn syrup became a less-expensive sweetener than cane sugar,

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10 Instructor’s Manual Chapter 2 Strategy Analysis
10

Coke and Pepsi switched to corn syrup. Thus, Coke and Pepsi are able to retain profits rather than
pay them out to their suppliers.

The production and distribution of soft drinks at the retail level is likely to be less profitable than is
syrup production for several reasons. First, despite tremendous amounts of advertising designed to
create differentiated products, many people view sodas as being relatively similar and switching
costs for consumers are very low, which makes it difficult to price one soft drink significantly
higher than another. Second, there are a great number of substitutes for soft drinks, such as water,
milk, juice, athletic drinks, etc., which consumers could switch to if the price of soda were to
increase. Third, because of low switching costs, consumers can be price sensitive and also exercise
relative bargaining power over independent bottlers. Finally, as discussed before, the structure of
the relationship between Coke and Pepsi and the independent bottlers gives Coke and Pepsi greater
bargaining power over the bottlers, further limiting the ability of independent bottlers to keep a
larger share of their profits.

7. All major airlines offer frequent flier programs. Originally seen as a way to differentiate their
providers in response to excess capacity in the industry, these programs have long since become
ubiquitous. Many industry analysts believe that these programs have met with only mixed success in
accomplishing their goal. Use the competitive advantage concepts to explain why.

Initially, frequent flier programs had only limited success in creating differentiation among airlines.
Airlines tried to bundle frequent flier mileage programs with regular airline transportation to
increase customer loyalty and to create a differentiated product. Furthermore, the airlines
anticipated that the programs would fill seats that would otherwise have been empty and would, so
they believed, have had a low marginal cost. However, because the costs of implementing a
program were low, there were very few barriers to other airlines starting their own frequent flier
programs. Before long, every airline had a frequent flier program with roughly the same
requirements for earning free air travel. Simply having a frequent flier program no longer
differentiated airlines.

More recently, airlines have had some success in differentiating frequent flier programs by creating
additional ways to earn frequent flier mileage and increasing the number of destinations covered.
Airlines have developed “tie-ins” with credit card companies, car rental companies, hotels, etc. to
allow members of a particular frequent flier program more ways to earn frequent flier mileage.
They have also reached agreements with foreign airlines so that frequent flier mileage can be
redeemed for travel to locations not served by the carrier. Finally, the programs have provided
additional services for their best customers, including special lines for check-in and better flight
upgrade opportunities. As a result of these efforts, airline programs have been somewhat successful
in increasing customer loyalty.

8. What are the ways that a firm can create barriers to entry to deter competition in its business? What
factors determine whether these barriers are likely to be enduring?
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11 Instructor’s Manual Chapter 2 Strategy Analysis
11

Barriers to entry allow a firm to earn profits while at the same time preventing other firms from
entering the market. The primary sources of barriers to entry include economies of scale, absolute
costs advantages, product differentiation advantages, and government restrictions on entry of
competitors. Firms can create these barriers through a variety of means.

1. A firm can engineer and design its products, processes, and services to create economies of
scale. Because of economies of scale, larger plants can produce goods at a lower cost that
smaller plants. Hence, a firm considering entering the existing firm’s market must be able to
take advantage of the same scale economies or be forced to charge a higher price for its products
and services.

2. Cost leaders have absolute cost advantages over rivals. Through the development of superior
production techniques, investment in research and development, accumulation of greater
operating experience or special access to raw materials, or exclusive contracts with distributors
or suppliers, cost leaders operate at a lower cost than any potential new entrants to the market.

1. A firm can engineer and design its products, processes, and services to create economies of
scale. Because of economies of scale, larger plants can produce goods at a lower cost that
smaller plants. Hence, a firm considering entering the existing firm’s market must be able to
take advantage of the same scale economies or be forced to charge a higher price for its products
and services.

3. Differentiation of the firm’s products and services may also help create barriers to entry for
other firms. Firms often spend considerable resources to differentiate their products or services.
Soft drink makers, for example, invest in advertising designed to differentiate their products
from other products in the market. Other competitors that would like to enter the market will be
forced to make similar investments in any new products.

4. Firms often try to persuade governments to impose entry restrictions through patents,
regulations, and licenses. AT&T fought with the government for many years to prevent other
providers of long distance telephone service from entering the market. Similarly, the local Bell
operating companies have lobbied the federal government to write laws to make it difficult for
other firms to provide local phone service.

Several factors influence how long specific barriers to entry are effective at preventing the entry of
competitors into an industry.
• Economies of scale depend on the size and growth of the market. If a market is growing quickly,
a competitor could build a larger plant capable of producing at a cost lower than the incumbent.
If a market is flat, there may not be enough demand to support additional production at the
efficient scale, which forces new entrants to have higher costs.

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12 Instructor’s Manual Chapter 2 Strategy Analysis
12

• Absolute cost advantages depend on competitors’ difficulty in designing better processes. Some
processes receive legal protection from patents. Entrants must either wait for the patent to expire
or bear the expense of trying to invest around the patent. Similarly, differentiation advantages

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13 Instructor’s Manual Chapter 2 Strategy Analysis
13

last only so long as a firm continues to invest in differentiation and it is difficult for other firms
to replicate the same differentiated product or service.
• Incumbent firms and potential entrants can both lobby the government. If potential entrants
launch intensive lobbying and public interest campaigns, laws, regulations, and rules can change
to ease entry into a once-protected industry. Several examples in the U.S. are deregulation of the
airline, trucking, banking, and telecommunications industries.

9. Explain why you agree or disagree with each of the following statements:
a. It’s better to be a differentiator than a cost leader, since you can then charge premium prices.

Disagree. While it is true that differentiators can charge higher prices compared to cost leaders, both
strategies can be equally profitable. Differentiation is expensive to develop and maintain. It often
requires significant company investment in research and development, engineering, training, and
marketing. Consequently, it is more expensive for companies to provide goods and services under a
differentiated strategy. Thus, profitability of a firm using the differentiated strategy depends on
being able to produce differentiated products or services at a cost lower than the premium price. On
the other hand, the cost leadership strategy can be very profitable for companies. A cost leader will
often be able to maintain larger margins and higher turnover than its nearest competitors. If a
company’s competitors have higher costs but match the cost leader’s prices, the competitors will be
forced to have lower margins. Competitors that choose to keep prices higher and maintain margins
will lose market share. Hence, being a cost leader can be just as profitable as being a differentiator.

b. It’s more profitable to be in a high-technology industry than a low- technology one.

Disagree. There are highly profitable firms in both high technology and low technology industries.
The argument presumes that high technology always creates barriers to entry. However, high
technology is not always an effective entry barrier and can be associated with high levels of
competition among existing firms, high threat of new entrants, substitute products, and high
bargaining power of buyers and/or sellers. For example, the personal computer industry is a high-
technology business, yet is highly competitive. There are very low costs of entering the industry,
little product differentiation in terms of quality, and two very powerful suppliers (Microsoft and
Intel). Consequently, firms in the PC business typically struggle to earn a normal return on their
capital. In contrast, Wal-Mart is a cost leader in a very low-tech industry, and is one of the most
profitable companies in the U.S.

c. The reason why industries with large investments have high barriers to entry is because it is costly to
raise capital.
Disagree. The cost of raising capital is generally related to risk of the project rather than the size of
the project. As long as the risks of the project are understood, the costs of raising the necessary
capital will be fairly priced. However, large investments can act as high entry barriers in several

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14 Instructor’s Manual Chapter 2 Strategy Analysis
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other ways. First, where large investments are necessary to achieve scale economies, if additional
capacity will not be fully used, it may make it unprofitable for entrants to invest in new plant.

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15 Instructor’s Manual Chapter 2 Strategy Analysis
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Second, a new firm may be at an initial cost disadvantage as it begins to learn how to use the new
assets in the most efficient manner. Third, existing firms may have excess capacity in reserve that
they could use to flood the market if potential competitors attempt to enter the market.

10. There are very few companies that are able to be both cost leaders and differentiators. Why? Can you
think of a company that has been successful at both?

Cost leadership and differentiation strategies typically require a different set of core competencies
and a different value chain structure. Cost leadership depends on the firm’s ability to capture
economies of scale, scope, and learning in its operations. These economies are complemented by
efficient production, simpler design, lower input costs, and more efficient organizational structures.
Together, these core competencies allow the firm to be the low cost producer in the market. On the
other hand, differentiation tends to be expensive. Firms differentiate their products and services
through superior quality, variety, service, delivery, timing, image, appearance, or reputation. Firms
achieve this differentiation through investment in research and development, engineering, training,
or marketing. Thus, it is the rare firm that can provide differentiated products at the lowest cost.
Companies that attempt to implement both strategies often do neither well and as a result suffer in
the marketplace. Differentiation exerts upward pressure on firm costs, while one of the easiest
sources of cost reduction is reducing product or service complexity, which leads to less
differentiation.

Home Depot, a lumber, hardware, and home improvement company, is one example of a company
that has been successful as both a cost leader and a differentiator. Home Depot operates hardware
and lumber superstores that focus on do-it-yourself home improvement. While they stock tens
of thousands of top quality items in each store, advertise extensively, and provide expert advice
and service for customers (by employing a highly-skilled and well-trained workforce that is
knowledgeable about their products and home improvement), they are also able to provide low
prices through aggressive purchasing and warehouse stores.

11. Many consultants are advising diversified companies in emerging markets such as India, South Korea,
Mexico, and Turkey to adopt corporate strategies proven to be of value in advanced economies like the
U.S. and the U.K. What are the pros and cons of this advice?

Corporate strategy involves making choices regarding the scope of a firm’s business activities. As
the chapter discusses, firm scope is a function of transaction costs in the market place. If the
transaction costs in the market are high, internalizing some of these activities inside a firm will be
optimal. Transaction costs are a function of the degree to which intermediary institutions are
developed. Emerging markets such as India, Korea, and Mexico have less developed market
institutions compared to advanced markets such as the U.S. and the U.K. As a result, transaction
costs in these economies are likely to be higher, leading to a different set of optimal firm scope
choices. Therefore, replicating the strategic choices of advanced market companies in these
economies will not be optimal.
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scanned, part. or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website,
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different content
the sound of the approaching step caught his ear he started and
looked up, with the narrowed eyes of the near-sighted, and then
jumped to his feet.
“Miss Moreau?” he said inquiringly, and extended a long, thin hand
which, closing on hers, felt to her warm, soft grasp like a bunch of
chilled sticks. She had not the slightest idea who he was, and
looking at him under the wan light, saw he was some one from that
world of wealth with which she had so few affiliations. Something
about him—the coldness of his hand, an indescribable trepidation of
manner—suggested to her that he was exceedingly ill at ease. She
looked at him wonderingly, and said:
“Won’t you sit down?”
He sat at her bidding on the chair he had risen from, subsiding into
the small, shrunken figure in the middle of enveloping folds of
overcoat. One hand hung down between his knees holding his hat.
He looked at Mariposa and then looked down at the hat.
“Cold afternoon, isn’t it?” he said.
“Very cold,” she responded, “but I like it. I hope you haven’t been
waiting long.”
“Not very,” he looked up at her, blinking near-sightedly through the
glasses; “I don’t know whether you know what my name is, Miss
Moreau? It’s Shackleton—Winslow Shackleton. I forgot my card.”
Mariposa felt a lightning-like change come over her face, in which
there was a sudden stiffening of her features into something hard
and repellent. To Win, at that moment, she looked very like his
father.
“Oh!” she said, hearing her voice drop at the end of the interjection
with a note of vague disapproval and uneasiness.
“I’ve seen you,” continued Win, “once at The Trumpet office, when
you were there with Mrs. Willers. I don’t think you saw me. I was
back in the corner, near the table where Jack—that’s the boy—sits.”
Mariposa murmured:
“No, I didn’t see you.”
She hardly knew what he said or what she responded. What did this
mean? What was going to happen now?
“You must excuse my coming this way, without an introduction or
anything, but as you knew my father and mother, I—I—thought you
wouldn’t mind.”
He glanced at her again, anxiously, she thought, and she said
suddenly, with her habitual directness:
“Did you come from your mother?”
“No, I came on—on—my own hook. I wanted”—he looked vaguely
about and then laid his hat on a table near him—“I wanted to see
you on business of my own.”
The nervousness from which he was evidently suffering began to
communicate itself to Mariposa. The Shackleton family had come to
mean everything that was painful and agitating to her, and here was
a new one wanting to talk to her about business that she knew, past
a doubt, was of some unusual character.
“If you’ve come to talk to me about going to Europe,” she said
desperately, “I may as well tell you, there’s no use. I won’t go to
Paris now, as I once said I would, and there’s no good trying to
make me change my mind. Your mother and Mrs. Willers have both
tried to, and it’s very kind of them, but I—can’t.”
She had an expression at once of fright and determination. The
subject was becoming a nightmare to her, and she saw herself
attacked again from a strange quarter, and with, she imagined, a
new set of arguments.
“It’s nothing to do with going to Europe,” he said. “It’s—it’s”—he put
up one of the long, bony hands, and with the two first fingers
pressed his glasses back against his eyes, then dropped the hand
and stared at Mariposa, the eyes looking strangely pale and
prominent behind the powerful lenses.
“It’s something that’s just between you and me,” he said.
She surveyed him without answering, her brows drawn, her mind
concentrated on him and on what he could mean.
“Do you want me to teach somebody music?” she said, wondering if
this could be the pleasant solution of the enigma.
“No. The—er—the business I’ve come to talk to you about ought to
do away altogether with the necessity of your giving lessons.”
They looked at each other silently for a moment. Win was conscious
that his hands were trembling, and that his mouth was dry. He rose
from his chair and mechanically reached for his hat. When he had
started on his difficult errand he had been certain that she knew her
relationship to his father. Now the dreadful thought entered his mind
that perhaps she did not. And even if she did, it was evident that
she was not going to give him the least help.
“What is the business you’ve come to see me about?” she asked.
“It’s a question of money,” he answered.
“Money!” ejaculated Mariposa, in baffled amaze. “What money?
Why?”
He glanced desperately into his hat and then back at her. She saw
the hat trembling in his hand and suddenly realized that this man
was trying to say something that was agitating him to the marrow of
his being.
“Mr. Shackleton,” she said, rising to her feet, “tell me what you
mean. I don’t understand. I’m completely at sea. How can there be
any question of money between us when I’ve never seen you or met
you before? Explain it all.”
He dropped the hat to his side and said slowly, looking her straight
in the face:
“I want to give you a share of the estate left me by my father. I look
upon it as yours.”
There was a pause. He saw her paling under his gaze, and realized
that, whatever she might pretend, she knew. His heart bled for her.
“As mine!” she said in a low, uncertain voice. “Why?”
“Because you have a right to it.”
There was another pause. He moved close to her and said, in a
voice full of a man’s deep kindness:
“I can’t explain any more. Don’t ask it. Don’t let’s bother about
anything in the background. It’s just the present that’s our affair.”
He suddenly dropped his hat and took her hand. It was as cold now
as his had been. He pressed it, and Mariposa, looking dazedly at
him, saw a gleam like tears behind the glasses.
“It’s hateful to have you living here like this, while we—that is, while
other people—have everything. I can’t stand it. It’s too mean and
unfair. I want you to share with me.”
She shook her head, looking down, a hundred thoughts bursting in
upon her brain. What did he know? How had he found it out? In his
grasp, her hand trembled pitifully.
“Don’t shake your head,” he pleaded, “it’s so hard to say it. Don’t
turn it down before you’ve heard me out.”
“And it’s hard to hear it,” she murmured.
“No one knows anything of this but me,” he continued, “and I
promise you that no other ever shall. It’ll be just between us as
between”—he paused and then added with a voice that was husky
—“as between brother and sister.”
She shook her head again, feeling for the moment too upset to
speak, and tried to draw away from him. But he put his other hand
on her shoulder and held her.
“I’ll go halves with you. I can have it all arranged so that no one will
ever find out. I can’t make the regular partition of the property until
the end of the year. But, until then, I’ll send you what would be your
interest, monthly, and you can live where, or how, you like. I—I—
can’t go on, knowing things, and thinking of you living in this sort of
way and teaching music.”
“I can’t do it,” she said, in a strangled undertone, and pulling her
hand out of his grasp. “I can’t. It’s not possible. I can’t take money
that was your father’s.”
“But it’s not his—it’s mine now. Don’t let what’s dead and buried
come up and interfere.”
She backed away from him, still shaking her head. She made an
effort toward a cold composure, but her pain seemed to show more
clearly through it. He looked at her, vexed, irresolute, wrung with
pity, that he knew she would not permit him to express.
It was impossible for them to understand each other. She, with her
secret knowledge of her mother’s lawful claim and her own
legitimacy—he regarding her as the wronged child of his father’s sin.
In her dazed distress she only half-grasped what he thought. The
strongest feeling she had was once again to escape the toils that
these terrible people, who had so wronged her mother, were
spreading for her. They wanted to pay her to redeem the stain on
their past.
“Money can’t set right what was wrong,” she said. “Money can’t
square things between your family and mine.”
“Money can’t square anything—I don’t want it to. I’m not trying to
square things; I’ve not thought about it that way at all. I just wanted
you to have it because it seemed all wrong for you not to. You had a
right, just as I had, and Maud had. I don’t think I’ve thought much
about it, anyway. It just came to me that you ought to have what
was yours. I wouldn’t make you feel bad for the world.”
“Then remember, once and forever, that I take nothing from you or
your people. I’d rather beg than take money that came from your
father.”
“But he has nothing to do with it. It’s mine now. I’ve done you no
injury, and it’s I that want you to take it. Won’t you take it from
me?”
He spoke simply, almost wistfully, like a little boy. Mariposa
answered:
“No—oh, Mr. Shackleton, why don’t you and your people let me
alone? I won’t tell. I’ll keep it all a secret. But your mother torments
me to go to Europe—and now you come! If I were starving, I
wouldn’t—I couldn’t—take anything from any of you. I think you’re
kind. I think you’ve just come to-day because you were sorry. But
don’t talk about it any more. Let me be. Let me go along teaching
here where I belong. Forget me. Forget that you ever saw me.
Forget the miserable tie of blood there is between us.”
“That’s the thing I can’t forget. That’s the thing that worries me. It’s
not the past. I’ve nothing to do with that. It’s the present that’s my
affair. I can’t have everything while you have nothing. It don’t seem
to me it’s like a man to act that way. It goes against me, anyhow. I
don’t offer you this because of anything in the past; that’s my
father’s affair. I don’t know anything about it. I offer it because I—I
—I”—he stammered over the unfamiliar words and finally jerked out
—“because I want to give back what belongs to you. That’s all there
is to it. Please take it.”
She looked directly into his eyes and said, gravely:
“No. I’m sorry if it’s a disappointment, but I can’t.”
Then she suddenly looked down, her face began to quiver, and she
said in a broken undertone:
“Don’t talk about it any more; it hurts me so.”
Win turned quickly away from her and picked up his hat. He was
confused and disappointed, and relieved, too, for he had done the
most difficult piece of work of his life. But, at the moment, his most
engrossing feeling was sympathy for this girl, so bravely drawing her
pride together over the bleeding of her heart.
She murmured a response in a steadier voice and he turned toward
her. Had any of his society friends been by they would hardly have
known him. The foolish manner behind which he sheltered his shy
and sensitive nature was gone. He was grave and looked very much
of a man.
“Well, of course, it’s for you to say what you want. But there’s one
thing I’d like you to promise.”
“To promise?” she said uneasily.
“Yes, and to keep it, too. And that is, if you ever want anything—
help in any way; if you get blue in your spirits, or some one’s not
doing the straight thing by you, or gone back on you—to come to
me. I’m not much in some ways, but I guess I could be of use. And,
anyway, it’s good for a girl to have some friend that she can count
on, who’s a man. And”—he paused with the door-handle in his hand
—“and now you know me, anyway, and that’s something. Will you
promise?”
“Yes, I’ll promise that,” said Mariposa, and moving toward him she
gave him her hand.
He pressed it, dropped it, and opened the door. A moment later
Mariposa heard the hall door bang behind him. She sat down in the
chair from which she had risen, her hands lying idle in her lap, her
eyes on a rose in the carpet, trying to think, to understand what it
meant.
She did not hear the door open or notice Benito’s entrance, which
was accomplished with some disturbance, as he was astride a cane.
His spirited course round the room, the end of the cane coming in
violent contact with the pieces of furniture that impeded his route,
was of so boisterous a nature that it roused her. She looked absently
at him, and saw him wreathed in smiles. Having gained her
attention, he brought his steed toward her with some ornamental
prancings. She noticed that he held a pair of gloves in his hands.
“That man what came to see you,” he said, “left this cane. It was in
the hat-rack, and I came out first, so I swiped it. I took these for
Miguel”—he flourished the gloves—“but the cane’s mine all right.
Come in to supper.”
And he wheeled away with a bridling step, the end of his cane
rasping on the worn ribs of the carpet. Mariposa, mechanically
following him, heard his triumphant cries as he entered the dining-
room and then his sudden wails of wrath as Miguel expressed his
disapprobation of the division of the spoils in the vigorous manner of
innocent childhood.
 CHAPTER XVIII
WITH ME TO HELP

“Look in my face, my name is—Might Have Been!

I am also called, No More, Too Late, Farewell.”

—Rosetti.

Had Essex realized that Mrs. Willers was an adverse agent in his
pursuit of Mariposa, he would not have greeted her with the urbane
courteousness that marked their meetings. He was a man of many
manners, and he never would have wasted one of his best on the
newspaper woman, to him essentially uninteresting and unattractive,
unless he had intended thereby to further his own ends. Mrs. Willers
he knew to be a friend of Mariposa’s, and he thought it a wise policy
to keep in her good graces. He made that mistake, so often the
undoing of those who are unscrupulous and clever, of not crediting
Mrs. Willers with her full amount of brains. He had seen her foolish
side, and he knew that she was a good journalist of the hustling,
energetic, unintellectual type, but he saw no deeper.
Since their meeting in the park and her unequivocal rejection of him
his feeling for Mariposa had augmented in force and fire until it had
full possession of him. He was of the order of men whom easy
conquests cool. Now added to the girl’s own change of front was the
overwhelming inducement of the wealth she represented. His
original idea of Mariposa as a handsome mistress that he would take
to France and there put on the operatic stage, of whom he would be
the proud owner, while they toured Europe together, her voice and
beauty charming kings, had been abandoned since the night of his
talk with Harney. He would marry her, and, with her completely
under his dominion, he would turn upon the Shackleton estate and
make her claim. He supposed her to be in entire ignorance of her
parentage, and his first idea had been to marry her and not lighten
this ignorance till she was safely in his power. He had a fear of her
shrinking before the hazards of the enterprise, but he was confident
that, once his, all scruples, timidity and will would give way before
him.
But her refusal of him had upset these calculations, and her coldness
and repugnance had been as oil to the flame of his passion. He was
enraged with himself and with her. He thought of the night in the
cottage and cursed himself for his precipitation, and his gods for the
ill luck that, too late, had revealed to him her relationship to the
dead millionaire. At first he had thought the offer of marriage would
obliterate all unpleasant memories. But her manner that day in the
park had frightened him. It was not the haughty manner, adopted to
conceal hidden fires, of the woman who still loves. There had been a
chill poise about her that suggested complete withdrawal from his
influence.
Since then he had cogitated much. He foresaw that it was going to
be very difficult to see and have speech of her. An occasional walk
up Third Street to Sutter with Mrs. Willers kept him informed of her
movements and doings. Had he guessed that Mrs. Willers, with her
rouge higher up on one cheek than the other, the black curls of her
bang sprawlingly pressed against her brow by a spotted veil, was
quite conversant with his pretensions and their non-success, he
would have been more guarded in his exhibition of interest. As it
was, Mrs. Willers wrote to Mariposa after one of these walks in
which Essex’s questions had been carelessly numerous and frank,
and told her that he was still “camped on her trail, and for goodness’
sake not to weaken.” Mariposa tore up the letter with an angry
ejaculation.
“Not to weaken!” she said to herself. If she had only dared to tell
Mrs. Willers the whole instead of half the truth!
The difficulty of seeing Mariposa was further intensified by the
fullness of his own days. He had little time to spare. The new
proprietor worked his people for all there was in them and paid them
well. Several times on the regular weekly holiday the superior men
on The Trumpet were given, he loitered along streets where she had
been wont to pass. But he never saw her. The chance that had
favored him that once in the park was not repeated. Mrs. Willers
said she was very busy. Essex began to wonder if she suspected him
of lying in wait for her and was taking her walks along unfrequented
byways.
Finally, after Christmas had passed and he had still not caught a
glimpse of her, he determined to see her in the only way that
seemed possible. He had inherited certain traditions of good
breeding from his mother, and it offended this streak of delicacy and
decency that was still faintly discernible in his character to intrude
upon a lady who had so obviously shown a distaste for his society.
But there was nothing else for it. Interests that were vital were at
stake. Moreover, his desire, for love’s sake, to see her again was
overmastering. Her face came between him and his work. There
were nights when he stood opposite the Garcia house watching for
her shadow on the blind.
He timed his visit at an hour when, according to the information
extracted from Mrs. Willers, Mariposa’s last pupil for the day should
have left. He loitered about at the corner of the street and saw the
pupil—one of the grown-up ones in a sealskin sack and a black
Gainsborough hat—open the gate and sweep majestically down the
street. Then he strode from his coign of vantage, stepped lightly up
the stairs, and rang the bell.
It was after school hours, and Benito opened the door. Essex, in his
silk hat and long, dark overcoat, tall and distinguished, was so much
more impressive a figure than Win that the little boy stared at him in
overawed surprise, and only found his breath when the stranger
demanded Miss Moreau.
“Yes, she’s in,” said Benito, backing away toward the stairs; “I’ll call
her. She has quite a lot of callers sometimes,” he hazarded
pleasantly.
The door near by opened a crack, and a female voice issued
therefrom in a suppressed tone of irritation.
“Benito, why don’t you show the gentleman into the parlor?”
“He’ll go in if he wants,” said Benito, who evidently had decided that
the stranger knew how to take care of himself; “that’s the door; just
open it and go in.”
Essex, who was conscious that the eye which pertained to the voice
was surveying him intently through the crack, did as he was bidden
and found himself in the close, musty parlor. It was late in the
afternoon, and the long lace curtains draped over the windows
obscured the light. He wanted to see Mariposa plainly and he looped
the curtains back against the brass hooks. His heart was beating
hard with expectation. As he turned round to look at the door he
noticed that the key was in the lock, and resolved, with a sense of
grim determination, that if she tried to go when she saw who it was,
he could be before her and turn the key.
Upstairs Benito had found Mariposa sitting in front of the fire. She
had been giving lessons most of the day and was tired. She
stretched herself like a sleepy cat as he came in, and put her hand
up to her hair, pushing in the loosened hairpins.
“It’s some one about lessons, I guess,” she said, rising and giving a
hasty look in the glass. “At this rate, Ben, I’ll soon be rich.”
“What’ll we do then?” said Benito, clattering to the stair-head beside
her.
“We’ll buy a steam yacht, just you and I, and travel round the world.
And we’ll stop in all sorts of strange countries and ride on elephants
and buy parrots, and shoot tigers and go up in balloons and do
everything that’s dangerous and interesting.”
She was in good spirits at the prospect of a new pupil, and, with her
hand on the door-knob, threw Benito a farewell smile, which was still
on her lips as she entered.
It remained there for a moment, for at the first glance she did not
recognize Essex, who was standing with his back to the panes of the
unveiled windows; then he moved toward her and she saw who it
was.
She gave a smothered exclamation and drew back.
“Mr. Essex!” she said; “why do you come here?”
He had intended to meet her with his customary half impudent, half
cajoling suavity, but found that he could not. The sight of her filled
him with fiery agitation.
“I came because I couldn’t keep away,” he said, advancing with his
hand out.
“No,” she said, glancing at the hand and turning her head aside with
an impatient movement; “there can’t be any pretenses at friendship
between us. I don’t want to shake hands with you. I don’t want to
see you. What did you come for?”
“To see you. I had to see you.”
His eyes, fixed on her as she stood in the light of the window,
seemed to italicize the words of the sentence.
“There’s no use beginning that subject again,” she said hurriedly;
“there’s no use talking about those things.”
“What things? What are you referring to?”
For a moment she felt the old helpless feeling coming over her, but
she forced it aside and said, looking steadily at him:
“The things we talked about in the park the last time we met.”
She saw his dark face flush. He was too much in earnest now to be
able to assert his supremacy by teasing equivocations.
“Nevertheless, I’ve come to-day to repeat those things.”
“Don’t—don’t,” she said quickly; “there’s no use. I won’t listen to
them. It’s not polite to intrude into a lady’s house and try to talk
about subjects she detests.”
“The time has passed for us to be polite or impolite,” he answered
hotly; “we’re not the man and woman as society and the world has
made them. We’re the man and woman as they are and have always
been from the beginning. We’re not speaking to each other through
the veils of conventionality; we’re speaking face to face. We have
hearts and souls and passions. We’ve loved each other.”
“Never,” she said; “never for a moment.”
“You have a bad memory,” he answered slowly; “is it natural or
cultivated?”
He had the satisfaction of seeing her color rise. The sight sent a thrill
of hope through him. He moved nearer to her and said in a voice
that vibrated with feeling:
“You loved me once.”
“No, never, never. It was never that.”
“Then why,” he answered, his lips trying to twist themselves into a
sardonic smile, while rage possessed him, “why did you—let us say—
encourage me so that night in the cottage on Pine Street?”
Though her color burned deeper, her eyes did not drop. He had
never seen her dominating her own girlish impulses like this. It
seemed to remove her thousands of miles from the circle of his
power.
“I’ll tell you,” she answered; “I was lonely and miserable, and you
seemed the only creature that I had to care for. I thought you were
fond of me, and I thought it was wonderful that any one as clever as
you could really care for me. That you regarded me as you did I
could no more have imagined than I could have suspected you of
picking my pocket or murdering me. And that night in the cottage,
when in my loneliness and distress I seemed to be holding out my
arms to you, asking you to protect and comfort me, you laughed at
me and struck me a blow in the face. It was the end of my dream. I
wakened then and saw the reality. But you—you as you are—as I
know you now—I never loved, I never could have loved.”
Her words inflamed his rage, not alone against her, but against
himself, who had had her in this pliant mood in his very arms and
had lost her.
“And was it only a desire for consolation and sympathy that made
you behave toward me in what was hardly—a—” he paused as if
hesitating for a word that would in a seemly manner express his
thought, in reality racking his brains for the one that would hurt her
most—“hardly a maidenly way considering your lack of interest in
me?”
The word he had chosen told. Her color sank suddenly away, leaving
her very pale. Her face seemed to stiffen and lose its youthful
curves.
“I don’t think,” she said slowly, “that it’s necessary to continue this
conversation. It doesn’t seem to me to be very profitable to
anybody.”
She looked at him, but he made no movement.
“You will have to excuse me, Mr. Essex,” she said, moving toward the
door, “but if you won’t go I must.”
The expected had happened. He sprang before her and locked the
door. Leaning his back against it, he stared at her. Both were now
very pale.
“No,” he said, hearing his own voice shaken by his rapid breathing,
“you’re not going. I’ve not said half I came to say. I’ve not come to-
day to plead and sue like a beggar for the love that you’re ready to
give one day and take back the next. I’ve other things to talk about.”
“Open the door,” she commanded; “open the door and let me out. I
want to hear nothing that you have to say.”
“Don’t you want to hear who you are?” he asked.
The words passed through Mariposa like a current of electricity.
Every nerve in her body seemed to tighten. She looked at him,
staring and repeating:
“Hear who I am?”
“Yes,” he said, leaning toward her while one hand still gripped the
door-handle; “hear what your real name is, and who you are? Hear
who your father was and where you were born?”
Her face blanched under his eyes. The sight pleased him, suggesting
as it did weakness and fear that would give him back his old
ascendancy. Horror invaded her. He, of all people on earth, to know!
She could say nothing; could hardly think; only seemed a thing of
ears to hear.
“Hear who my father was!” she repeated, this time almost in a
whisper.
“Yes; I can tell you all that, and more, too. I’ve got a wonderfully
interesting story for you. You’ll not want to go when I begin. Sit
down.”
“What do you know? Tell me quickly.”
“Don’t be impatient. It’s a long story. It begins on the Nevada
desert. That’s where you were born; not in the cabin in Eldorado
County, as I heard you telling Jake Shackleton that day at Mrs.
Willers’.”
He was watching her like a tiger, still standing with his back against
the door. Her eyes were on him, wild and intent. Each word fell like a
drop of vitriol on her brain. She saw that he knew everything.
“Your mother was Lucy Fraser, but your father was not Dan Moreau.
He was a very different man, and you were his eldest child, his
eldest and only legitimate child. Do you know what his name was?”
“Yes,” said Mariposa in a low voice; “Jake Shackleton.”
It was Essex’s turn to be amazed. He stared at her, speechless,
completely staggered.
 “DON’T YOU WANT TO HEAR WHO YOU ARE?”
“You know it?” he cried, starting forward toward her; “you know it?”
“Yes,” she answered; “I know it.”
He stood glaring, trying to collect his senses and grasp in one
whirling moment what difference her knowledge would make to him.
“How—how—did you know it?” he stammered.
“That’s not of any consequence. I know that I am Jake Shackleton’s
eldest living child; that my mother was married twice; that I was
born in the desert instead of in Eldorado County. I know it all. And
what is there so odd about that?” She threw her head up and looked
with baffling coldness into his eyes. “Why shouldn’t I know my own
parentage and birthplace?”
“And—and—” he continued to speak with eager unsteadiness
—“you’ve done nothing yet?”
“Done nothing yet,” she repeated; “what should I do?”
“That’s all right,” he said hastily, evidently relieved; “you couldn’t do
anything alone. There must be some one to help you.”
“Help me do what?”
Both had forgotten the quarrel, the locked door, the fever pitch of
ten minutes earlier. All other thoughts had been crowded out of
Mariposa’s mind by the horrible discovery of Essex’s knowledge, and
by the apprehensions that were cold in her heart. She shrank from
him more than ever, but had no desire now to leave the room.
Instead, she persisted in her remark:
“Help me do what? I don’t know what you mean.”
“Help you in establishing your claim. And fate has put into my hands
the very person, the one person who can do that. You know there
was a man who was in the cabin with Moreau—a partner. Did you
ever hear of him?”
She nodded, swallowing dryly. Her sense of apprehension
strengthened with his every word.
“Well, I have that man under my hand. He and Mrs. Shackleton are
the only living witnesses of the transaction whereby your mother
and you passed into Moreau’s keeping. And I have him. I’ve got him
here.” He made a gesture with his thumb as though pressing the ball
of it down on something. Then he looked at Mariposa with eyes full
of an eager cupidity.
She did not respond with the show of interest he had expected, but
stood looking down, pale and motionless. Her brain was in an
appalled chaos from which stood out only a few facts. This terrible
man knew her secret—the secret of her mother’s life and honor—
that she would have died to hide in the sacredness of her love for
the dead man and woman who could no longer defend themselves.
“It seems as if fate had sent me to help you,” he went on; “you
couldn’t do it alone.”
“Do what?” she asked without moving.
“Establish your claim as the real heir. Of course you’re the chief heir.
I’ve been looking it up. The others will get a share as acknowledged
children. But you ought to get the bulk of the fortune as the only
legitimate child.”
“Establish my claim?” she repeated. “Do you mean, prove that I’m
Jake Shackleton’s daughter?”
“Yes. And there’s a tremendously important point. Did your mother
have papers or letters showing that she had been Shackleton’s
wife?”
“She left her marriage certificate,” she said dully, hardly conscious of
her words. “I have it.”
“Here?—by you?” with quick curiosity.
“Yes; upstairs—in my little desk.”
“Ah,” he said, with almost a laugh of relief. “That settles it. You with
the certificate and I with Harney! Why, we’ve got them.”
“We?” she said, looking up as though waking. “We?”
“Yes; we,” he answered.
He had come close to her and, standing at her side, bent his head in
order to look more directly into her face.
“This ought to put an end, dear, to your objections,” he said gently;
“you can’t do it alone. No woman could, much less one like you—
young, inexperienced, ignorant of the world. You’ve got no idea
what a big contest like this means. There must be a man to help
you, and I must be that man, Mariposa. We can marry quietly as
soon as you are ready. It would be better not to make any move
until after that, as it would be much easier for me to conduct the
campaign as your husband than as your fiancé. I’d take the whole
thing off your shoulders. You’d have almost nothing to do, except be
certain of your memories and dates, and I’d see to it that you were
letter perfect in that when the time came. I’d stand between you
and everything that was disagreeable.”
He took her hand, which for the moment was passive in his.
“When will it be?” he said, giving it a gentle squeeze; “when,
sweetheart?”
She tore her hand away.
“Why, you’re crazy,” she cried. “There’ll never be any of it. Never be
any claim made or contest, or anything that you talk of. You want
me to make money out of my mother’s story that was a tragedy—
that I can hardly think of myself! Oh!—” She turned around,
speechless, and put her hand to her mouth.
She thought of her dying mother, and grief for that smitten soul, so
deeply loved, so tenderly loving, rent her with a throe of pity,
poignant as bodily pain.
“Your mother is dead,” he said, understanding her and feeling some
real sympathy for her. “It can’t hurt her now.”
“Drag it all out into the light,” she went on. “Fight in a court with
those horrible Shackletons! Have it in the papers and all the mean,
low people in California, who couldn’t for one moment understand
anything that was pure and noble, jeering and talking over my father
and mother! That’s what you call establishing my claim, isn’t it?”
“That’s not all of it,” he stammered, taken aback by her violence.
“And, anyway, it’s all true.”
“Well, then, I’ll lie and say it was false. If it came to fighting I’d say
it was false. That I was not Jake Shackleton’s daughter, and that my
mother never knew him, or saw him, or heard of him. I’d burn that
certificate and say there never was such a thing, and that anybody
who suggested it was a liar or a madman. And when it comes to
you, there’s just one thing to say: I wouldn’t marry you if forty
fortunes hung on it. I’d rather beg or steal than be your wife if you
owned all the Comstock mines. That’s the future you think is going
to tempt me—you for a husband and a fortune for us both, made by
proving that my mother was never really married to the man I called
my father!”
“But—but,” he said, not heeding her anger in his bewildered
amazement, “you intended it sooner or later yourself?”
“I?—I?—Betray my parents for money? I do that?”
She stared at him, with eyes of wild indignation. He began to have a
cold comprehension of what she felt, and it shook him as violently as
his passion for her had ever done.
“But you don’t understand,” he cried. “This is not a matter of
thousands; it’s millions, and it’s yours by right. It’s a colossal fortune
here in your hand—yours almost for the asking.”
“It will never be mine. I wouldn’t have it. Oh, let me go! This is too
horrible.”
“Wait—just one moment. If it came to an actual suit it might be
painful and trying for you. But how if I can arrange a compromise
with Mrs. Shackleton? I think I can. When she knows that you have
the proofs of the marriage she’ll be glad enough to settle. She
doesn’t want these things to come out any more than you do. She’s
a smart woman, and she’ll know that your silence is the most
valuable thing she can buy. Do you understand?”
“I understand just one thing.”
“What’s that?”
“You.”
For the second time they looked at each other for a motionless,
deep-breathing moment. There was nothing in their faces or
attitudes that suggested lovers. They looked like a pair of
antagonists at pause in their struggle—on the alert for a continuance
of battle.
“Yes, I understand you now,” she said in a low voice; “you’ve made
me understand you.”
“I only want to make you understand one thing—how much I love
you.”
She drew back with a movement of violent repugnance. He suddenly
stretched out his arms and came toward her.
She ran toward the door, for the moment forgetting it was locked.
Then, as it resisted, memory awoke. He was beside her and tried to
take her in his arms, but she turned and struck him, with all her
force, a blow on the face. She saw the skin redden under it.
“Open the door!” she gasped; “open the door!”
For the moment the blow so stunned and enraged him that he drew
back from her, his hand instinctively rising to the smarting skin. An
oath burst from his compressed mouth.
“I’d like to kill you for that,” he said.
“Open the door,” she almost shrieked, rattling the handle.
“I’ll pay you for this. You seem to forget that I know all the
disreputable secrets of your beginnings. I can tell all the world how
your mother was sold to Dan Moreau, and how—”
Mariposa heard the click of the gate and a step on the outside stairs.
She drowned the sound of Essex’s voice in a sudden furious
pounding on the door, while she cried with the full force of her
lungs:
“Benito! Miguel! Mrs. Garcia!—Come and open this door! Come and
let me out! I’m locked in! Come!”
Essex was at the door in an instant, the key in the lock. As he turned
it he gave her a murderous look.
“You fool!” he said under his breath.
As the portal swung open and he passed into the hall, the front door
was violently pushed inward, and Barron almost fell against him in
the hurry of his entrance.
The new-comer drew back from the departing stranger with an
apologetic start.
“Beg your pardon,” he said bruskly, “but I thought I heard some one
scream in here.”
“Scream?” said Essex, languidly selecting his hat from the
disreputable collection on the rack; “I didn’t notice it, and I’ve been
sitting in there for nearly an hour with Miss Moreau. I fancy you’ve
made a mistake.”
“I guess I must have. It’s odd.”
The hall door slammed behind Essex, and the other man turned into
the parlor, where the light was now very dim. In his exit from the
room Essex had flung the door open with violence, and Mariposa,
who had backed against the wall, was still standing behind it. As
Barron pushed it to he saw her, a vague black figure with white
hands and face, in the dark.
“What on earth are you doing there?” he said; “standing behind the
door like a child in the corner.”
She thanked heaven for the friendly dark and answered hurriedly:
“I—I—I—didn’t want you to catch me. I’m so—so—untidy.”
“Untidy? I never saw you untidy, and don’t believe you ever were. I
met a man in the hall, who said he’d been here for an hour. You
must have been playing puss in the corner with him.”
“Yes; his name’s Essex, and he’s a friend of Mrs. Willers’ that I know.
He was here, and I thought he’d come about music lessons, so I
came down looking rather untidy. That was how it happened.”
“And he stayed an hour talking about music lessons?”
“No—oh, no; other things.”
They turned into the hall, Barron, in his character of general
guardian of the Garcia fortunes, shutting the door of the state
apartment. He had the appearance of taking no notice of Mariposa,
but as soon as he got into the light of the hall gas he sent a
lightning-like glance over her face.
“It was funny,” he said, “but as I came up the steps I thought I
heard some one calling out. I dashed in and fell into the arms of
your music-lesson man, who said no cries of any kind had disturbed
the joy of his hour in your society.”
Mariposa had begun to ascend the stairs.
“Cries?” she said over her shoulder; “I don’t think there were any
cries. Why should any one cry out here?”
“That’s exactly what I wanted to know,” he said, watching her
ascending back.
She turned and passed out of sight at the top of the stairs. Barron
stood below under the hall gas, his head drooped. He was puzzled,
for, say what they might, he was certain he had heard cries.
 CHAPTER XIX
NOT MADE IN HEAVEN

“Women are like tricks by sleight of hand

Which to admire we should not understand.”

—Congreve.

At The Trumpet office the next morning Essex found a letter

awaiting him. It was from Mrs. Shackleton, asking him to dinner on a
certain evening that week—“very informally, Mr. Essex would
understand, as the family was in such deep mourning.”
Essex turned the letter over, smiling to himself. It was an admirable
testimony to Bessie’s capability. Her monogram, gilded richly,
adorned the top of the sheet of cream-laid paper, and beneath it, in
a fine running hand, were the few carefully-worded sentences, and
then the signature—Bessie A. Shackleton. It was a remarkable letter,
considering all things; wonderful testimony to that adaptive
cleverness which is the birth-right of Bessie’s countrywomen. In her
case this care of externals had not been a haphazard acquirement.
She was not the woman to be slipshod or trust to the tutoring of
experience. When her husband’s star had begun to rise with such
dazzling effulgence she had hired teachers for herself, as well as
those for Maud, and there were many books of etiquette on the
shelves in her boudoir.
The letter contained more for Essex than a simple invitation to
dinner. It was the first move of the Shackleton faction in the
direction he desired to see them take. Bessie had evidently heard
something that had made her realize he, too, might be more than a
pawn in the game. He answered the note with a sentence of
acceptance and a well-turned phrase, expressing his pleasure at the
thought of meeting her again.
He was not in an agreeable frame of mind. His interview with
Mariposa had roused the sleeping devil within him, which, of late,
had only been drowsy. His worst side—ugly traits inherited from his
rascally father—was developing with overmastering force. Lessons
learned in those obscure and unchronicled years when he had
swung between London and Paris were beginning to bear fruit. At
the blow from Mariposa a crop of red-veined passions had burst into
life and grown with the speed of Jack’s beanstalk. His face burned
with the memory of that blow. When he recalled its stinging impact,
he did not know whether he loved or hated Mariposa most. But his
determination to force her to marry him strengthened with her
openly expressed abhorrence. The memory of her face as she struck
at him was constantly before his mental vision, and his fury seethed
to the point of a still, level-brimming tensity, when he recalled the
fear and hatred in it.
The dinner at Mrs. Shackleton’s was a small and informal one. The
company of six—for, besides himself, the only guests were the Count
de Lamolle and Pussy Thurston—looked an exceedingly meager
array in the vast drawing-room, whose stately proportions were
rendered even larger by mirrors which rose from the floor to the
cornice, elongating the room by many shadowy reflections. A small
fire burned at each end, under mantels of Mexican onyx, and these
two little palpitating hearts of heat were the brightest spots in the
spacious apartment where even Miss Thurston’s dress of pale-blue
gauze seemed to melt into the effacing shadows.
The Count de Lamolle gave Essex a quick glance, and, as they stood
together in front of one of the fires—the two girls and Win having
moved away to look at a painting of Bouguereau’s on an easel—
addressed a casual remark to him in French. The count had already
met the newspaper man, and set him down, without illusion or
hesitation, as a clever adventurer. He overcame his surprise at
meeting him in the house of the bonanza widow, by the reflection
that this was the United States where all men are equal, and women
with money free to be wooed by any of them.
The count was in an uncertain and almost uncomfortable state of
mind. The letter he had received from Mrs. Shackleton, bidding him
to the feast, was the second from her since Maud’s rejection of him.
The first had been of a consolatory and encouraging nature. Mrs.
Shackleton told him that Maud was young, and that many women
said no, when they meant yes. The count knew both these things as
well as Mrs. Shackleton; the latter, even better. But it seemed to him
that Maud, young though she was, had not meant yes, and the
handsome Frenchman was not the man to force his attentions on
any woman. He watched her without appearing to notice her. She
had been greatly embarrassed at sight of him, and only for the
briefest moment let her cold fingers touch his palm. Under the flood
of light from the dining-room chandelier she looked plainer than
ever; her lack of color and stolid absence of animation being even
more noticeable than usual in contrast with the brilliant pink and
white prettiness of Pussy Thurston, who chattered gaily with
everybody, and attempted a little French with De Lamolle.
Maud sat beside Essex, and even that easily fluent gentleman found
her difficult to interest. She appeared dull and unresponsive. Looking
at her with slightly narrowed eyes, he wondered how the count, of
whose name and exploits he had often heard in Paris, could
contemplate so brave an act as marrying her.
The count, who, having more heart, could see deeper, asked himself
if the girl was really unhappy. As he listened to Miss Thurston’s
marvelous French he wondered, with a little expanding heat of
irritation, if the mother was trying to force the marriage against the
daughter’s wish. He had broken hearts in his day, but it was not a
pastime he found agreeable. He was too gallant a gentleman to woo
where his courtship was unwelcome.
When the gentlemen entered the drawing-room from their after-
dinner wine and cigars, they found the ladies seated by one of the
fires below the Mexican onyx mantels. Bessie rose as they
approached and, turning to Essex, asked him if he had seen the
Bouguereau on the easel, and steered him toward it.
“It was one of Mr. Shackleton’s last purchases,” she said; “he was
very anxious to have a fine collection. He had great taste.”
Her companion, looking at the plump, pearly-skinned nymph and her
attendant cupids, thought of Harney’s description of Shackleton in
the days when he had first entered California, and said, with
conviction:
“What a remarkably versatile man your husband was! I had no idea
he was interested in art.”
“Oh, he loved it,” said Bessie, “and knew a great deal about it. We
were in Europe two years ago for six months, and Mr. Shackleton
and I visited a great many studios. That is a Meissonier over there,
and that one we bought from Rosa Bonheur. She’s an interesting
woman, looked just like a man. Then in the Moorish room there’s a
Gérôme. Would you like to see it? It’s considered a very fine
example.”
He expressed his desire to see the Gérôme, and followed Bessie’s
rustling wake into the Moorish room. The little room was warm, with
its handful of fire, and softly lit with chased and perforated lanterns
of bronze and brass. The heat had drawn the perfume from the
bowls full of roses and violets that stood about and the air was
impregnated with their sweetness. The Gérôme, a scene in the
interior of a harem, with a woman dancing, stood on an easel in one
corner.
“That’s it,” said Bessie, drawing to one side that he might see it
better. “One on the same sort of subject was in the studio when we
first went there, but Mr. Shackleton thought it was too small, and
this was painted to order.”
“Superb,” murmured Essex; “Gérôme at his best.”
“We hoped,” continued Bessie, sinking into a seat, “to have a fine
collection, and build a gallery for them out in the garden. There was
plenty of room, and they would have shown off better all together
that way, rather than scattered about like this. But I’ve no ambition
to do it now, and they’ll stay as they are.”
“Why don’t you go on with the collection?” said the young man,
taking a seat on a square stool of carved teak wood. “It would be a
most interesting thing to do, and you could go abroad every year or
two, and go to the studios and buy direct from the artists. It’s much
the best way.”
“Oh, I couldn’t,” she said, with a little shrug; “I don’t know enough
about it. I only know what I like, and I generally like the wrong
thing. I’m not versatile like my husband. When I first came to
California I didn’t know a chromo from an oil painting. In fact,” she
said, looking at him frankly and laughing a little, “I don’t think I’d
ever seen an oil painting.”
Essex returned the laugh and murmured a word or two of
complimentary disbelief. He was wondering when she would get to
the real subject of conversation which had led them to the Gérôme
and the Moorish room. She was nearer than he thought.
“It would be a temptation to go to Paris every year or two,” she said.
“That’s the most delightful place in the world. It’s your home, isn’t
it? So, of course, you agree with me.”
“Yes, I was born there, and have lived there off and on ever since.
To me, there is only one Paris.”
“And can you fancy any one having the chance to go there, and live
and study, with no trouble about money, refusing?”
Essex looked into the fire, and responded in a tone that suggested
polite indifference:
“No, that’s quite beyond my powers of imagination.”
“I have a sort of—I think you call it protégée—isn’t that the word?—
yes”—in answer to his nod—“whom I want to send to Paris. She’s a
young girl with a fine voice. Mr. Shackleton was very much
interested in her. He knew her father in the mining days of the early
fifties and wanted to pay off some old scores by helping the
daughter. And now the daughter seems to dislike being helped.”
“There are such people,” said Essex in the same tone. “Does she
dislike the idea of going to Paris, too?”
“That seems to be it. We both wanted to send her there, have her
voice trained, and put her in the way of becoming a singer. Lepine,
when he was here, heard her and thought she had the making of a
prima donna. But,” she suddenly looked at him with a half-puzzled
expression of inquiry, “I think you know her—Miss Moreau?”
Essex looked back at her for a moment with bafflingly expressionless
eyes.
“Yes, I know her. She’s a friend of Mrs. Willers’, one of the Sunday
edition people on The Trumpet. A very handsome and charming girl.”
“That’s the girl,” said Bessie, mentally admiring his perfect aplomb.
“She’s a very fine girl, and, as you say, handsome. But I don’t think
she’s got much common sense. Girls don’t, as a rule, have more
than enough to get along on. But when they’re poor, and so alone in
the world, they ought to pick up a little.
“Certainly, to refuse an offer such as you speak of, argues a lack of
something. Have you any idea of her reason for refusing?”
He looked at Bessie as he propounded the question, his eyelids
lowered slightly. She, in her turn, let her keen gray glance rest on
him. The thought flashed through her mind that it was only another
evidence of Mariposa’s peculiarity of disposition that she should have
refused so handsome and attractive a man.
“No—” she said with unruffled placidity, “I don’t understand it. She’s
a proud girl and objects to being under obligations. But then this
wouldn’t be an obligation. Apart from everything else, there’s no
question about obligations where singers and artists and people like
that are concerned. It’s all a matter of art.”
“Art levels all things,” said the young man glibly.
“That’s what I always thought. But Miss Moreau doesn’t seem to
agree with me. The most curious part of it all is that she was willing
to go in the beginning. That was before her mother died; then she
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