A MID-OCTOBER DAY
One chilly, rainy afternoon in mid-October Courtney appeared at the
house on the knoll half an hour earlier than was his custom. Alix
was expecting friends down from the city for tea. From the hall
where he was removing his raincoat he had a fair view through
an open door of the north end of the long living-room. Logs were
blazing merrily in the fireplace. Alix was standing before the fire,
tearing a sheet of paper into small pieces. She was angry. She threw
rather than dropped the bits of paper into the flames,--unmistakably
she was furious. He waited a moment before entering the room. Her
back was toward him. She turned in response to his discreet cough.
Even in the dim light that filtered in from the grey, leaden day
outside, he could detect the heightened colour in her cheeks, and
as he advanced he saw that her eyes were wet with illy-suppressed
tears. She bit her lip and forced a smile.
He possessed the philanderer's tact. There was nothing in his
manner to indicate that he noticed anything unusual. He greeted
her cheerfully and then, affecting a shiver, passed on to spread
his hands out over the fire.
"This is great," he exclaimed, his back to her. He was giving her
a chance to compose herself. "Nothing like a big log fire to warm
the cockles of your heart,--although it isn't my heart that needs
warming. Moreover, I don't know what cockles are. I must look 'em
up in the dictionary. Come here, Sergeant,--there's a good dog!
Come over and get warm, old fellow. Toast your cockles. By Jove,
Miss Crown, isn't he ever going to make friends with me?"
"They are 'one man' dogs, Mr. Thane," she replied. "Come, Sergeant,--if
you're going to be impolite you must leave the room. Excuse me a
moment. Sergeant! Do you hear me, sir? Come!"
The big grey dog followed her slowly, reluctantly, from the room.
Courtney heard her going up the stairs.
"That nasty brute is going to take a bite out of me some day," he
muttered under his breath. "Fat chance I'd have to kiss her with
that beast around."
He heard the closing of an upstairs door. His thoughts were still
of the police dog.
"There's one thing sure," he said to himself. "That dog and I can't
live in the same house." Then his thoughts rose swiftly to that
upstairs room,--he was sure it was a dainty, inviting room,--to
picture her before the mirror erasing all visible evidence of
agitation. He found himself wondering what it was that caused this
exhibition of temper. A letter? Of course,--a letter. A letter that
contained something she resented, something that infuriated her.
A personal matter, not a business one. She would not have treated
a business matter in such a way. He knew her too well for that. The
leaping flames gave no hint of what they had destroyed. Was it an
anonymous letter? Had it anything to do with him?
His eye fell upon several envelopes on the library table. After a
moment's hesitation and a quick glance toward the door, he strode
over to inspect them. They were all unopened. Two were postmarked
Chicago, one New York; on the others the postmarks were indistinct.
The handwriting was feminine on most of them. A narrow, folded slip
of paper lay a little detached from the letters. He picked it up
and quickly opened it. It proved to be a check on a Philadelphia
bank. A glance sufficed to show that it was for two hundred and
fifty dollars, payable to the order of Alix Crown, and signed "D.
W. Strong."
The door upstairs was opened and closed. Replacing the bit of
paper on the table, he resumed his position before the fire. Quite
a different Alix entered the room a few seconds later. She was
smiling, her eyes were soft and tranquil. All traces of the passing
tempest were gone.
"Sit down,--draw this big chair up to the fire,--do. It IS raw and
nasty today, isn't it? I think the Mallons are coming out in an
open car. Isn't it too bad?"
"Bad for the curls," he drawled. "Mind if I smoke?"
"Certainly not. Don't you know that by this time?"
He had drawn a chair up beside hers. Her reply afforded him a very
definite sense of elation.
"It seems to me that the world is getting to be a rather heavenly
place to live in," he said, and there was a trace of real feeling
in his voice. "You don't mind my saying it's entirely due to you,
do you?"
"Not in the least," she said calmly. "Charlie Webster once paraphrased
a time-honoured saying. He said 'In the fall an old man's fancy
slightly turns to thoughts of comfort.' I sha'n't deprive my fireplace
and my big armchair of their just due by believing a word of what
you say."
He tossed the match into the fire, drew in a deep breath of smoke,
settled himself comfortably in the chair before exhaling, and then
remarked:
"But I don't happen to be an old man. I happen to be a rather young
one,--and a very truthful one to boot."
"Do you always tell the truth?"
He grinned. "More or less always," was his reply. "I never lie in
October."
"And the other eleven months of the year?"
"Oh, I merely change the wording. In July I say 'I never lie in
July,'--and so on throughout the twelve-month. I don't slight a
single month. By the by, I hope I didn't pop in too far ahead of
time this afternoon. You asked me to come at four. I'm half an hour
early. Were you occupied with anything--"
"I was not busy. A few letters,--but they can wait." He caught the
faint shadow of a cloud as it flitted across her eyes. "They are
all personal,--nothing important in any of them, I am sure."
She shot a quick glance at the folded check and, arising abruptly,
went over to the table where, with apparent unconcern, she ran
through the little pile of letters. He saw her pick up the check
and thrust it into the pocket of her sport skirt. Then she returned
to the fireplace. The cloud was on her brow again as she stared
darkly into the crackling flames. He knew now that it was Strong's
letter she had destroyed in anger. He would have given much to
know what the man she despised so heartily had written to her. If
he could have seen that brief note he would have read:
DEAR ALIX:
I enclose my checque for two-fifty. If all goes well I hope to
clean up the indebtedness by the first of the year. In any case, I
am sure it can be accomplished by early spring. You may thank the
flu for my present prosperity. It has been pretty bad here in the
East again, although not so virulent as before. Please credit me
with the amount. This leaves me owing you five hundred dollars. It
should not take long to wipe it out entirely, interest and all.
Sincerely yours,
DAVID.
Courtney eyed her narrowly as she stood for a moment looking into
the fire before resuming her seat. He realized that her thoughts
were far away and that they were not pleasant.
"It's queer," he said presently, "that you have never learned to
smoke."
She started slightly at the sound of his voice. As she turned to
sit down, he went on:
"Almost every girl I know smokes. I will not say that I like to
see it,--especially in restaurants and all that sort of thing,--but
it's rather jolly if there's a nice, cosy fire like this,--see
what I mean? Sort of intimate, and friendly, and--soothing. Don't
you want to try one now?"
"Thank you, no. If it weren't so shocking, I think I should like to
learn how to smoke a pipe,--but I suppose that isn't to be thought
of. Somehow I feel that a pipe might be a pal, a good old stand-by,
or even a relative,--something to depend upon in all sorts of
weather, fair and foul. I've noticed that the men on the place who
smoke pipes appear to be contented and jolly and good humoured,--and
efficient. Yes, I think I should like to smoke a pipe."
"Would you like me better if I cut out the cigarettes, and took up
the pipe of peace--and contentment?" he inquired thoughtfully.
"I doubt it," she replied, smiling. "I can't imagine you smoking
a pipe."
"Is that supposed to be flattering or scornful?"
"Neither. It is an impression, that's all."
He frowned slightly. "I used to smoke a pipe,--in college, you know.
Up to my sophomore year. It was supposed to indicate maturity. But
I don't believe I'd have the courage to tackle one now, Miss Crown.
Not since that little gas experience over there. You see, my throat
isn't what it was in those good old freshman days. Pipe smoke,--you
may even say tobacco smoke, for heaven only knows what these
cigarettes are made of,--pipe smoke is too strong. My throat is so
confounded sensitive I--well, I'd probably cough my head off. That
beastly gas made a coward of me, I fear. You've no idea what it does
to a fellow's throat and lungs. If I live to be a thousand years
old, I'll never forget the tortures I went through for weeks,--yes,
ages. Every breath was like a knife cutting the very--But what a
stupid fool I am! Distressing you with all these wretched details.
Please forgive me."
She was looking at him wonderingly. "You are so different from the
poor fellows I saw in New York," she said slowly. "I mean the men
who had been gassed and shell-shocked. I saw loads of them in the
hospitals, you know,--and talked with them. I was always tremendously
affected by their silence, their moodiness, their unwillingness to
speak of what they had been through. The other men, the ones who
had lost legs or arms or even their eyes,--were as a rule cheerful
and as chatty as could be,--oh, how my heart used to ache for
them,--but the shell-shock men and the men who had been gassed,
why, it was impossible to get them to talk about themselves. I
have seen some of them since then. They are apparently well and
strong, and yet not one word can you get out of them about their
sufferings. You are almost unique, Mr. Thane. I am glad you feel
disposed to talk about it all. It is a good sign. It--"
"I didn't say much about it at first," he interrupted hurriedly.
"Moreover, Miss Crown," he went on, "a lot of those chaps,--the
majority of them, in fact,--worked that dodge for all it was worth.
It was a deliberate pose with them. They had to act that way or
people wouldn't think they'd been hurt at all. Bunk, most of it."
"I don't believe that, Mr. Thane. I saw too many of them. The ones
with whom I came in contact certainly were not trying to deceive
anybody. They were in a pitiable condition, every last one of
them,--pitiable."
"I do not say that all of them were shamming,--but I am convinced
that a great many of them were."
"The doctors report that the shell-shock cases--"
"Ah, the doctors!" he broke in, shrugging his shoulders. "They were
all jolly good fellows. All you had to do was to even hint that
you'd been knocked over by a shell that exploded two hundred yards
away and--zip! they'd send you back for repairs. As for myself,
the only reason I didn't like to talk about my condition at first
was because it hurt my throat and lungs. It wasn't because I was
afflicted with this heroic melancholy they talk so much about.
I was mighty glad to be alive. I couldn't see anything to mope
about,--certainly not after I found out I wasn't going to die."
"I daresay there were others who took it as you did. I wish there
could have been more."
He hesitated a moment before speaking again. Then he hazarded the
question:
"What does your friend, Dr. Strong, have to say about the general
run of such cases?"
"I don't know. I have not seen Dr. Strong since the war ended."
He looked mildly surprised. "Hasn't he been home since the war?"
"I believe so. I was away at the time."
"How long was he in France?"
"He went over first in 1916 and again in the fall of 1917, and
remained till the end of the war. His mother is here with me, you
know."
"Yes, I know. By Jove, I envy him one thing,--lucky dog." She
remained silent. "You were playmates, weren't you?"
"Yes," she said, lifting her chin slightly.
"Well, that's why I envy him. To have been your playmate,--Why,
I envy him every minute of his boyhood. When I think of my own
boyhood and how little there was to it that a real boy should have,
I--I--confound it, I almost find myself hating chaps like Strong,
chaps who lived in the country and had regular pals, and girl
sweethearts, and went fishing and hunting, and played hookey as it
ought to be played, and grew up with something fine and sweet and
wholesome to look back upon,--and to have had you for a playmate,--maybe
a sweetheart,--you in short frocks, with your hair in pigtails,
barefooted in summertime, running--"
She interrupted him. "Your imagination is at fault there, Mr.
Thane," she said, smiling once more. "I never went barefooted in
my life."
"At any rate, HE did. And he played all sorts of games with you;
he--"
"My impression of David Strong is that he was a boy's boy," she broke
in rather stiffly. "His games were with the boys of the town,--and
they were rough games. Football, baseball, shinney, circus,--things
like that."
"I don't mean sports, Miss Crown. I was thinking of those wonderful
boy and girl games,--such as 'playing house,' 'getting married,'
'hide-and-go-seek,'--all that sort of thing."
"Yes, I know," she admitted. "We often played at getting married,
and we had very large but inanimate families, and we quarrelled
like real married people, and I used to cry and take my playthings
home, and he used to stand outside our fence and make faces at me
till I hated him ferociously. But all that was when we were very
small, you see."
"And as all such things turn out, I suppose he grew up and went
off and got married to some one else."
"He is not married, Mr. Thane."
"Well, for that matter, neither are you," said he, leaning forward,
his eyes fixed intently on hers. She did not flinch. "I wonder just
how you feel toward him today, Miss Crown."
She was incapable of coquetry. "We are not the best of friends,"
she said quietly. "Now, if you please, let us talk of something
else. Did I tell you that an old Ambulance man is coming down for
a day or two nest week? A Harvard man who lives in Chicago. His
sister and I went to New York together to take our chances there
on getting over to France. I think I've told you about her,--Mary
Blythe?"
"Blythe?" repeated Courtney thoughtfully. "Blythe. Seems to me
I heard of a chap named Blythe over there in the Ambulance, but
I don't remember whether I ran across him anywhere or not. He may
have been after my time, however. I was with the Ambulance in '15
and the early part of '16, you see."
"Addison Blythe. He was afterwards a Field Artillery captain. I've
known Mary Blythe for years, but I know him very slightly. He went
direct from Harvard to France, you see."
"What section was he with?"
"I don't know. I only know he was at Pont-a-Mousson for several
months. You were there too at one time, I remember. I've heard him
speak of the Bois le Pretre. You may have been there at the same
time."
"Hardly possible. I should have known him in that case. My section
was sent up to Bar le Duc just before the first big Verdun battle."
"Why, he was all through the first battle of Verdun. His section
was transferred from Pont-a-Mousson at an hour's notice. Were there
more than one section at Pont-a-Mousson?"
"I don't know how they were fixed after I left. You see, I was
trying to get into the aviation end of the game along about that
time. I was in an aviation camp for a couple of months, but went
back to the Ambulance just before the Verdun scrap. They slapped
me into another section, of course. I used to see fellows from my
own section occasionally, but I don't recall any one named Blythe.
He probably was sent up while I was at Toul,--or it may have been
during the time I was with a section in the Vosges. I was up near
Dunkirk too for a while,--only for a few weeks. When did you say
he was coming?"
"Next Tuesday. They are stopping off on their way to attend a
wedding in Louisville. You two will have a wonderful time reminiscing."
"Blythe. I'll rummage around in my memory and see if I can place
him. There was a fellow named Bright up there at one time,--at
least I got the name as Bright. It may have been Blythe. I'll be
tickled to death to meet him, Miss Crown."
"You will love Mary Blythe. She is a darling."
"I may be susceptible, Miss Crown, but I am not inconstant," said
he, with a gallant bow.
She was annoyed with herself for blushing.
"Will you throw another log or two on the fire, please?" she said,
arising. "I think I hear a car coming up the drive. The poor Mallons
will be chilled to the bone."
He smiled to himself as he took the long hickory logs from the wood
box and placed them carefully on the fire. He had seen the swift
flood of colour mount to her cheeks, and the odd little waver in
her eyes before she turned them away. She was at the window, looking
out, when he straightened himself and gingerly brushed the wood
dust from his hands. Instead of joining her, he remained with his
back to the fire, his feet spread apart, his hands in his coat
pockets, comforting himself with the thought that she was wondering
why he had not followed her. It was, he rejoiced, a very clever
bit of strategy on his part. He waited for her to turn away from
the window and say, with well-assumed perplexity: "I was sure I
heard a car, Mr. Thane."
And that is exactly what she did say after a short interval, adding:
"It must have been the wind in the chimney."
"Very likely," he agreed.
She remained at the window. He held his position before the fire.
"If I were just a plain damned fool," he was saying to himself,
"I'd rush over there and spoil everything. It's too soon,--too
soon. She's not ready yet,--not ready."
Alix, looking out across the porch into the grey drizzle that drenched
the lawn, thrust her hand into her skirt pocket and, clutching the
bit of paper in her fingers, crumpled it into a small ball. Her
eyes were serene, however, as she turned away and walked back to
the fireplace.
"I don't believe they are coming, after all. I think they might
have telephoned," she said, glancing up at the old French ormula
clock on the mantelpiece. "Half-past four. We will wait a few
minutes longer and then have tea."
His heart gave a sudden thump. Was it possible--but no! She would
not stoop to anything like that. The little thrill of exultation
departed as quickly as it came.
"Tire trouble, perhaps," he ventured.
Tea was being brought in when the belated guests arrived. Courtney,
spurred by the brief vision of success ahead, was never in better
form, never more entertaining, never so well provided with polite
cynicisms. Later on, when he and Alix were alone and he was putting
on his raincoat in the hall, she said to him impulsively:
"I don't know what I should have done without you, Mr. Thane. You
were splendid. I was in no mood to be nice or agreeable to anybody."
"Alas!" he sighed. "That shows how unobserving I am. I could have
sworn you were in a perfectly adorable mood."
"Well, I wasn't," she said stubbornly. "I was quite horrid."
"Has anything happened to--to distress you, Miss Crown?" he inquired
anxiously. His voice was husky and a trifle unsteady. "Can't you
tell me? Sometimes it helps to--"
"Nothing has happened," she interrupted nervously. "I was--just
stupid, that's all."
"When am I to see you again?" he asked, after a perceptible pause.
"May I come tonight?"
"Not tonight," she said, shaking her head.
She gave no reason,--nothing more than the two little words,--and
yet he went away exulting. He walked home through the light, gusty
rain, so elated that he forgot to use his cane,--and he had limped
quite painfully earlier in the afternoon, complaining of the
dampness and chill. He had the habit of talking to himself when
walking alone in the darkness. He thought aloud:
"She wants to be alone,--she wants to think. She has suddenly realized.
She is frightened. She doesn't understand. She is bewildered. She
doesn't want to see me tonight. Bless her heart! I'll bet my head
she doesn't sleep a wink. And tomorrow? Tomorrow I shall see her.
But not a word, not a sign out of me. Not tomorrow or next day or
the day after that. Keep her thinking, keep her guessing, keep her
wondering whether I really care. Pretty soon she'll realize how
miserable she is,--and then!"