He could feel her move within the circle of his arms.
"No," she cried, "Doctor Fornay told me there will never be another child!"
13.
The large overhead fan droned on and the August heat lay heavy and humid in the Governor's office.
The slightly built, nervous male secretary showed Rina to a chair in front of the massive desk.
She sat down and watched the young man, standing nervously next to the Governor, pick up sheet after sheet of paper as the Governor signed each one.
At last he was finished and the secretary picked up the last sheet of paper and hurried out, closing the door behind him.
She looked at the Governor as he reached across the desk and took a cigar from a humidor. For a moment, she caught a glimpse of piercing dark eyes, set deep in a handsome face.
His voice was slightly husky. "Do you mind if I smoke, Miss Marlowe?"
She shook her head.
He smiled, taking a small knife and carefully trimming the end of the cigar.
He placed it in his mouth and struck a match. The flame burned brightly yellow, large and small, with his breath as he drew on the cigar.
She was conscious of the faintly pleasant smell of Havana leaf as he dropped the match into an ash tray.
He smiled again.
"One of the few pleasures my physician still allows me," he said.
He had a simple yet extraordinary clear voice that easily filled the room, though he spoke quietly, like an actor trained to have his whispers heard in the far reaches of the second balcony.
He leaned across the desk, his voice lowering to a confidential whisper.
"You know, I expect to live to be a hundred and twenty-five and even my physician thinks I might make it if I cut down on my smoking."
She felt the convincing warmth and intensity flow toward her and for the moment, she believed it, too.
"I’m sure you will, Governor."
He leaned back in his chair, a faintly pleased look on his face.
"Just between us, I don't really care whether I live that long or not," he said.
"It's just that when I die, I don't want to leave any enemies, and I figure the only way I’ll ever do that is to outlive them all."
He laughed and she joined him, for the moment forgetting her reason for being there.
There was something incredibly young and vital about him that belied the already liberal sprinkling of gray in his thick, lustrous black hair.
He looked across the massive desk at her, feeling once again the rushing of time against him. He drew on his cigar and let the smoke out slowly.
He liked what he saw. None of this modern nonsense about dieting and boyish bobs for her. Her hair fell long and full to her shoulders.
He looked up and suddenly met her eyes. Almost instantly, he knew that she had been aware that he was studying her.
He smiled without embarrassment.
"You were a child when I approved your adoption papers."
Her words put him at ease. "My mother and father often told me how kind you were and how you made it possible for them to adopt me."
He nodded slowly. It was smart of them to tell her the truth.
Sooner or later, she'd have found out, anyway.
"You're eighteen now?"
"Nineteen next month," she said quickly.
"You've grown a little since I saw you." Then his face turned serious as he placed the cigar carefully in the ash tray. "I know why you've come to see me," he said in his resonant voice. "And I'd like to express my sympathy for the predicament your father is in."
"Have you studied the charges that are being made against him?" Rina asked quickly.
"I've looked over the papers," he admitted.
"Do you think he's guilty?"
The Governor looked at her.
"Banking is like politics," he said.
"There are many things which are morally right and legally wrong.
That they may be one and the same thing doesn't matter. Judgment is rendered only on the end result."
"You mean," she said quickly, "the trick is – not to get caught!"
He felt a glow of satisfaction. He liked quick, bright people, he liked the free exchange of ideas that came from them.
Too bad that politics attracted so few of that kind. "I wouldn't be cynical," he said quietly.
"It isn't as simple as that.
The law is not an inflexible thing. It is alive and reflects the hopes and desires of the people. That's why laws are so often changed or amended.
In the long run, we trust that eventually the legal and the moral will come together like parallel lines which meet in infinity."
"Infinity is a long time for a man my father's age to wait," she said.