Father and son! For a while Jane had the sensation of walking upon
unsubstantial floors, of seeing unsubstantial objects. The encounter did
not seem real, human. Father and son, and they had not rushed into each
other's arms! No matter what had happened in the past, there should have
been some human sign other than astonishment. At the very least two or
three years had separated them. Just stared for a moment, and passed on!
Hypnotism is a fact; a word or a situation will create this peculiar state
of mind. Father and son! The phrase actually hypnotized Jane, and she
remained in the clutch of it until hours later, which may account for the
amazing events into which she permitted herself to be drawn. Father and
son! Her actions were normal; her mental state was not observable; but
inwardly she retained no clear recollection of the hours that intervened
between this and the astonishing climax. As from a distance, she heard the
voice of the son:
"Looks rum to you, no doubt. But I can't tell you the story--at least not
now. It's the story of a tomfool. I had no idea he was on this side. I
haven't laid eyes on him in seven years. Dinner at seven. I'll have that
germicide sent up to your room."
The captain nodded abruptly and made off toward the entrance.
Jane understood. He wanted to be alone--to catch his breath, as it were.
At any rate, that was a human sign that something besides astonishment was
stirring within. So she walked mechanically over to the bookstall and
hazily glanced at the backs of the new novels, riffled the pages of a
magazine; and to this day she cannot recall whether the clerk was a man or
a woman, white or brown or yellow, for a hand touched her sleeve lightly,
compelling her attention. Dennison's father stood beside her.
"Pardon me, but may I ask you a question?"
Jane dropped the fur collaret in her confusion. They both stooped for it,
and collided gently; but in rising the man glimpsed the string of glass
beads.
"Thank you," said Jane, as she received the collaret. "What is it you wish
to ask of me?"
"The name of the man you were with."
"Dennison; his own and yours--probably," she said with spirit, for she
took sides in that moment, and was positive that the blame for the
estrangement lay with the father. The level, unagitated voice irritated
her; she resented it. He wasn't human!
"My name is Cleigh--Anthony Cleigh. Thank you."
Cleigh bowed politely and moved away. Behind that calm, impenetrable mask,
however, was turmoil, kaleidoscopic, whirling too quickly for the brain to
grasp or hold definite shapes. The boy here! And the girl with those beads
round her throat! For the subsidence of this turmoil it was needful to
have space; so Cleigh strode out of the lobby into the fading day, made
his way across the bridge, and sought the Bund. He forgot all about his
appointment with Cunningham.
He lit a cigar and walked on and on, oblivious of the cries of the
'ricksha boys, importunate beggars, the human currents that broke and
flowed each side of him. The boy here in Shanghai! And that girl with
those beads round her throat! It was as though his head had become a
tom-tom in the hands of fate. The drumming made it impossible to think
clearly. It was the springing up of the electric lights that brought him
back to actualities. He looked at his watch.
He had been tramping up and down the Bund for two solid hours.
And now came, clearly defined, the idea for which he had been searching.
He indulged in a series of rumbling chuckles. You will have heard such a
sound in the forest when a stream suddenly takes on a merry mood--broken
water.
To return to Jane, whom Cleigh had left in a state of growing hypnosis.
She was able to act and think intelligently, but the spell lay like a fog
upon her will, enervating it. She grasped the situation clearly enough; it
was tremendous. She had heard of Anthony Cleigh. Who in America had not?
Father and son, and they had passed each other without a nod! Had she not
been a witness to the episode, she would not have believed such a
performance possible.
Through the fog burst a clear point of light. This was not the first time
she had encountered Anthony Cleigh. Where had she seen him before, and
under what circumstance? Later, when she was alone, she would dig into her
storehouse of recollection. Certainly she must bring back that episode.
One thing, she had not known him as Anthony Cleigh.
Father and son, and they had not spoken! It was this that beat
persistently upon her mind. What dramatic event had created such a
condition? After seven years! These two, strong mentally and physically,
in a private war! She understood now how it was that Dennison had been
able to tell her about Monte Carlo, the South Sea Islands, Africa, Asia;
he had been his father's companion on the yacht.
Mechanically she approached the lift. In her room all her actions were
more or less mechanical. From the back of her mind somewhere came the
order to her hands. She took down the evening gown. This time the subtle
odour of lavender left her untouched. To be beautiful, to wish that she
were beautiful! Why? Her hair was lovely; her neck and arms were lovely;
but her nose wasn't right, her mouth was too large, and her eyes missed
being either blue or hazel. Why did she wish to be beautiful?
Always to be poor, to be hanging on the edge of things, never enough of
this or that--genteel poverty. She had inherited the condition, as had her
mother before her--gentlefolk who had to count the pennies. Her two
sisters--really handsome girls--had married fairly well; but one lived in
St. Louis and the other in Seattle, so she never saw them any more.
Tired. That was it. Tired of the war for existence; tired of the following
odours of antiseptics; tired of the white walls of hospitals, the sight of
pain. On top of all, the level dullness of the past, the leaden horror of
these months in Siberia. She laughed brokenly. Gardens scattered all over
the world, and she couldn't find one--the gardens of imagination! Romance
everywhere, and she never could touch any of it!
Marriage. Outside of books, what was it save a legal contract to cook and
bear children in exchange for food and clothes? The humdrum! She flung out
her arms with a gesture of rage. She had been cheated, as always. She had
come to this side of the world expecting colour, movement, adventure. The
Orient of the novels she had read--where was it? Drab skies, drab people,
drab work! And now to return to America, to exchange one drab job for
another! Nadir, always nadir, never any zenith!
Her bitter cogitations were interrupted by a knock on the door. She threw
on her kimono and answered. A yellow hand thrust a bottle toward her. It
would be the wash for the jade. She emptied the soap dish, cleaned it,
poured in the germicide, and dropped the jade necklace into the liquid.
She left it there while she dressed.
Dennison Cleigh, returning to the States to look for a job! Nothing she
had ever read seemed quite so fantastic. She paused in her dressing to
stare at some inner thought which she projected upon the starred curtain
of the night beyond her window. Supposing they had wanted to fling
themselves into each other's arms and hadn't known how? She had had a
glimpse or two of Dennison's fierce pride. Naturally he had inherited it
from his father. Supposing they were just stupid rather than vengeful?
Poor, foolish human beings!
She proceeded with her toilet. Finishing that, she cleansed the jade
necklace with soap and water, then realized that she would not be able to
wear it, because the string would be damp. So she put on the glass beads
instead--another move by the Madonna of the Pagan. Jane Norman was to have
her fling.
Dennison was in the lobby waiting for her. He gave a little gasp of
delight as he beheld her. Of whom and of what did she remind him? Somebody
he had seen, somebody he had read about? For the present it escaped him.
Was she handsome? He could not say; but there was that in her face that
was always pulling his glance and troubling him for the want of knowing
why.
The way she carried herself among men had always impressed him. Fearless
and friendly, and with deep understanding, she created respect wherever
she went. Men, toughened and coarsened by danger and hardship, somehow
understood that Jane Norman was not the sort to make love to because one
happened to be bored. On the other hand, there was something in her that
called to every man, as a candle calls to the moth; only there were no
burnt wings; there seemed to be some invisible barrier that kept the
circling moths beyond the zone of incineration.
Was there fire in her? He wondered. That copper tint in her hair suggested
it. Magnificent! And what the deuce was the colour of her eyes? Sometimes
there was a glint of topaz, or cornflower sapphire, gray agate; they were
the most tantalizing eyes he had ever gazed into.
"Hungry?" he greeted her.
"For fourteen months!"
"Do you know what?"
"What?"
"I'd give a year of my life for a club steak and all the regular
fixings."
"That isn't fair! You've gone and spoiled my dinner."
"Wishy-washy chicken! How I hate tin cans! Pancakes and maple syrup!
What?"
"Sliced tomatoes with sugar and vinegar!"
"You don't mean that!"
"I do! I don't care how plebeian it is. Bread and butter and sliced
tomatoes with sugar and vinegar--better than all the ice cream that ever
was! Childhood ambrosia! For mercy's sake, let's get in before all the
wings are gone!"
They entered the huge dining room with its pattering Chinese boys--entered
it laughing--while all the time there was at bottom a single identical
thought--the father.
Would they see him again? Would he be here at one of the tables? Would a
break come, or would the affair go on eternally?
"I know what it is!" he cried, breaking through the spell.
"What?"
"Ever read 'Phra the Phoenician'?"
"Why, yes. But what is what?"
"For days I've been trying to place you. You're the British heroine!"
She thought for a moment to recall the physical attributes of this
heroine.
"But I'm not red-headed!" she denied, indignantly.
"But it is! It is the most beautiful head of hair I ever laid eyes on."
"And that is the beginning and the end of me," she returned with a little
catch in her voice.
The knowledge bore down upon her that her soul was thirsty for this kind
of talk. She did not care whether he was in earnest or not.
"The beginning, but not the end of you. Your eyes are fine, too. They keep
me wondering all the time what colour they really are."
"That's very nice of you."
"And the way you carry yourself!"
"Good gracious!"
"You look as if you had come down from Olympus and had lost the way
back."
"Captain, you're a dear! I've just been wild to have a man say foolish
things to me." She knew that she might play with this man; that he would
never venture across the line. "Men have said foolish things to me, but
always when I was too busy to bother. To-night I haven't anything in this
wide world to do but listen. Go on."
He laughed, perhaps a little ruefully.
"Is there any fire in you, I wonder?"
"Well?"--tantalizing.
"Honestly, I should like to see you in a rage. I've been watching you for
weeks, and have found myself irritated by that perpetual calm of yours.
That day of the riot you stood on the curb as unconcerned as though you
had been witnessing a movie."
"It is possible that it is the result of seeing so much pain and misery. I
have been a machine too long. I want to be thrust into the middle of some
fairy story before I die. I have never been in love, in a violent rage. I
haven't known anything but work and an abiding discontent. Red hair----"
"But it really isn't red. It's like the copper beech in the sunshine, full
of glowing embers."
"Are you a poet?"
"On my word, I don't know what I am."
"There is fire enough in you. The way you tossed about our boys and the
Japs!"
"In the blood. My father and I used to dress for dinner, but we always
carried the stone axe under our coats. We were both to blame, but only a
miracle will ever bring us together. I'm sorry I ran into him. It brings
the old days crowding back."
"I'm sorry."
"Oh, I'll survive! Somewhere there's a niche for me, and sooner or later
I'll find it."
"He stopped me in the lobby after you left. Wanted to know what name you
were using. I told him rather bluntly--and he went on. Something in his
voice--made me want to strike him!"
Dennison balanced a fork on a finger.
"Funny old world, isn't it?"
"Very. But I've seen him somewhere before. Perhaps in a little while it
will come back.... What an extraordinarily handsome man!"
"Where?"--with a touch of brusqueness.
"Sitting at the table on your left."
The captain turned. The man at the other table caught his eye, smiled, and
rose. As he approached Jane noticed with a touch of pity that the man
limped oddly. His left leg seemed to slue about queerly just before it
touched the floor.
"Well, well! Captain Cleigh!"
Dennison accepted the proffered hand, but coldly.
"On the way back to the States?"
"Yes."
"The _Wanderer_ is down the river. I suppose you'll be going home on
her?"
"My orders prevent that."
"Run into the old boy?"
"Naturally," with a wry smile at Jane. "Miss Norman, Mr. Cunningham. Where
the shark is, there will be the pilot fish."
The stranger turned his eyes toward Jane's. The beauty of those dark eyes
startled her. Fire opals! They seemed to dig down into her very soul, as
if searching for something. He bowed gravely and limped back to his
table.
"I begin to understand," was Dennison's comment.
"Understand what?"
"All this racket about those beads. My father and this man Cunningham in
the same town generally has significance. It is eight years since I saw
Cunningham. Of course I could not forget his face, but it's rather
remarkable that he remembered mine. He is--if you tear away the
romance--nothing more or less than a thief."
"A thief?"--astonishedly.
"Not the ordinary kind; something of a prince of thieves. He makes it
possible--he and his ilk--for men like my father to establish private
museums. And now I'm going to ask you to do me a favour. It's just a
hunch. Hide those beads the moment you reach your room. They are yours as
much as any one's, and they may bring you a fancy penny--if my hunch is
worth anything. Hang that pigtail, for getting you mixed up in this! I
don't like it."
Jane's hand went slowly to her throat; and even as her fingers touched the
beads, now warm from contact, she became aware of something electrical
which drew her eyes compellingly toward the man with the face of Ganymede
and the limp of Vulcan. Four times she fought in vain, during dinner, that
drawing, burning glance--and it troubled her. Never before had a man's eye
forced hers in this indescribable fashion. It was almost as if the man had
said, "Look at me! Look at me!"
After coffee she decided to retire, and bade Dennison good-night. Once in
her room she laid the beads on the dresser and sat down by the window to
recast the remarkable ending of this day. From the stars to the room, from
the room to the stars, her glance roved uneasily. Had she fallen upon an
adventure? Was Dennison's theory correct regarding the beads? She rose and
went to the dresser, inspecting the beads carefully. Positively glass!
That Anthony Cleigh should be seeking a string of glass beads seemed
arrant nonsense.
She hung the beads on her throat and viewed the result in the mirror. It
was then that her eye met a golden glint. She turned to see what had
caused it, and was astonished to discover on the floor near the molding
that poor Chinaman's brass hand warmer. She picked it up and turned back
the jigsawed lid. The receptacle was filled with the ash of punk and
charcoal.
There came a knock on the door.