The whole Arcade seemed to change under the magic of Dangerfield’s
radiating happiness. Though neither he nor Inga ever referred to
what had been settled between them, every one seemed to understand
with the first glimpse of his glowing face. The singing in his
heart seemed to spread its note of joy insensibly among his
neighbors. Perhaps he had not comprehended before how they had
watched breathlessly, waiting the outcome in fear and wonder.
As though a tension had relaxed, the hall seemed to sparkle with
life; doors stood open in friendly invitation, and a constant
running-in and -out filled the floor with excited whispers and
young laughter. O’Leary, at the piano, pounded away for dear life,
rolling out infectious marches, which had Tootles wheeling and
counter-marching in imitation of his favorite Amazon parade. “The
baron” trotted about, singing to himself snatches of Boulevard
songs of other days, mumbling over certain portions which might
be understood. Miss Quirley was so sentimentally aroused that
she clung to Inga’s hand at the first opportunity. Indeed, she
would have liked to give away to the consoling pleasure of tears,
but there was something about Inga’s profound and grave attitude
which forbade such demonstrations, and she was forced to spend her
emotional reserves upon Myrtle, whose wedding-day was fixed for the
middle of the week.
The marriage was to be at high noon, the wedding-party was to
return to the Arcade, where Dangerfield was to give the breakfast.
Mr. Pomello had contemplated an impressive banquet in a private
salon of the neighboring hotel, with arbors of flowers, scattered
flunkeys, and set pieces of horticultural dishes, which represented
to his mind splendor in the shape of plateaus of lobster salad
with Cupids and hearts entwined in crustacean decorations, frozen
sculpture in colored ices, with fish and game entrées from
culinary taxidermists. The proposal was met with indignation and
peremptorily vetoed by the lady most involved.
The slightest suggestion of being displayed, of being put on
parade, sent her into gusts of temper. Mr. Pomello, who could not
understand the reasons of her impatience, acceded hastily. In fact,
during the last week he had been on tenterhooks, so fearful that
she would change her mind and throw him over at the last moment
that his stress of mind was patent to all. In truth, there was
reason for his apprehension. Myrtle Popper, as the day approached,
grew more restless and unsettled. For a word, she would flare up
into a sudden anger, nor try as he would, could he divine what
action of his would displease her. With the others, particularly
toward Millie Brewster, who appeared to avoid her, she was haughty,
abrupt, and suspicious of a whisper or a low-pitched tone, as
though she felt she were being made the subject of ridicule. King
O’Leary, during this time, was noticeably absent, seldom appearing
in the studio and then only in the company of others.
The afternoon before the ceremony arrived, and the hours were
spent in excited preparation for the morrow. Dangerfield, camped
on a step-ladder and bombarded with copious and futile suggestions
from Tootles below, was endeavoring to hang a symbolic Cupid, with
arrows of mistletoe, in the center of radiating garlands of smilax,
which ran to every point of vantage in the room. Flick, stretched
on the sofa, his hands under his head, was adding his yawning
suggestions to the general confusion of the girls, who were passing
and repassing, their arms heaped with trailing greens. Mr. Pomello,
by the step-ladder, had been draped with vines until he disappeared
under them like a stone satyr overgrown with ivy.
O’Leary, who had finished the moving of great pieces of furniture,
had gone to the open window to cool off, when Myrtle Popper came
abruptly over to his side. He looked up, measured the distance
which separated them from the laughing group about the submerged
Mr. Pomello, noticed the look in the girl’s eyes, and realized that
the interview he had persistently avoided had come.
“Hot work,” he said, smiling to hide his confusion.
“Take me out to dinner to-night,” she said directly.
“To-night?” he said, amazed.
“Yes; I’ve got to talk to you!”
He shook his head, and his face grew grave.
“No; can’t do it, Myrtle--sorry.”
“You mean, you won’t?”
He nodded.
“Put it that way.”
Her hand closed tensely over his arm.
“King, for heaven’s sake let me see you; let me talk to you! You’ve
avoided me all the week. I’m desperate!”
“Look out!” he said hastily, drawing his arm away.
“I don’t care,” she said defiantly. “Listen: Go down the hall, down
to the third floor--there’s no one there--and I’ll come after you.”
“No, I won’t,” he said angrily.
“You won’t? King, you must, you must--if you don’t--I--I shall
scream--go mad. I can’t keep up!”
“Look here,” he said roughly; “you’ve got no right to act this
way--you’re about to be married, too--it ain’t right, Myrtle.
You’ve chosen--play square!”
“How do you know I’m going through with it?” she said, with a catch
in her voice.
“Here, steady now--none of that!” he said, with an apprehensive
glance backward.
“Lean out the window; they won’t pay no attention to us,” she
said, under her breath. “King, you’ve got to listen to me! If
you don’t--I’ll--I’ll throw my arms about you--I’ll do something
dreadful!”
“You won’t do anything of the kind.”
“Yes, I will,” she said obstinately. She spoke under her breath,
her shoulders close to his, her lips drawn, and her gaze set
in sternness over the dusty roofs and sooty chimneys. Suddenly
she drew off the engagement ring Mr. Pomello had given her, a
magnificent solitaire.
“Pretty fine--isn’t it?--cost over a thousand, King--some diamond!”
“There’ll be more of those, too,” said O’Leary cunningly.
She held it gingerly in her fingers and extended her arm over the
sheer dark descent into the thronged street.
“You say the word, and it’s down it goes.”
“And what’d Pomello say?”
“Pomello and all his rocks can go”--she laughed gaily at him,
defiantly--“well, you know where--if you say the word.”
“I’ve told you my advice,” he said, looking away from her. “It’s
your life, not mine. What have I got to do with it?”
“Shall I marry him?” she said obstinately.
“You’d be a fool if you didn’t!”
“Won’t you ever understand?” she said, in a low voice.
“You ask my advice--I’ve told you it.”
“You’ve told me nothing.”
“What do you mean?”
“Can’t you understand--won’t you understand that I’m throwing
myself at you, King? Have I got to make myself plain?”
“Don’t,” he said hastily.
“What do I care? It’s my last chance. Listen, King: Say the word,
and I’m yours. It’s you I want--it’s _you_. You’ve made me say
it--I don’t care. Think of me what you want, but if you’ll as much
as wave your little finger at me, King, I’ll follow--and that’s
flat!”
She stopped breathlessly and waited the answer which was forming in
his mind.
“Well?” she said, at last, and her hand stole out and lay over his.
“You should not have said it,” he mumbled, “you ain’t in your right
mind.”
“That’s not the answer I want,” she said abruptly. “King, give it
to me straight. Is it to be me and you--or----”
“You’re right, Myrtle,” he said, frowning; “I’ve got to hand it out
straight. Well, I’m sorry. It can’t be.”
“You’re saying that because you’re only thinking of the money,
because you think it’s too big an opportunity for me, that you
oughtn’t to stand in my way. Don’t you think I’m flesh and blood?
You don’t think I can forget that--that time you took me in your
arms----”
“I shouldn’t have done it!”
She laughed, a laugh that made Inga turn and glance in their
direction.
“Look out!” he said hastily.
“I don’t care; let them all hear! Well?”
“Well, kid, I’m sorry--sorry,” he said, shaking his head. “I had no
right to do what I did, because----”
“Because you don’t love me,” she said quickly.
“Not in that way,” he said lamely, looking away from her, across
the chimneys, to the river with its floating steam clouds.
“Any one else?” she said finally.
He shook his head.
“And what you said’s the truth?”
“The whole truth.”
“Yes; I guess it is,” she said quietly.
They stood a moment longer at the window, gazing aimlessly. Then
she slipped the ring back on her finger and returned to the crowd.
* * * * *
The wedding-breakfast was a great success. The bride went through
the day with complete equanimity, without a trace of the irritation
of the past week, and came back to the Arcade a vision of youth and
gaiety under the gossamer veil. She was in the liveliest spirits
and danced so repeatedly with King O’Leary that all marveled, with
the exception of Mr. Pomello, who moved about quite bewildered,
as though he could not comprehend that this thing of beauty and
joy was actually his. At the supper, every one made a speech of
congratulation, with prophecies of future bliss to the bride
and groom, in a wave of optimism which spread from Mr. Teagan’s
simple, romantic soul to Tootles, who forgave Pansy Hartmann and
surreptitiously clung to her fingers under the table-cloth. Then
King O’Leary rose to his toast. What made him reveal what he did
no one could quite understand--perhaps it was the treacherous
sentimental currents of such affairs; perhaps the explanation lay
in the cunning of the punch; perhaps the real reason was understood
by only Myrtle herself.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” he said, beginning awkwardly enough,
“you’ve all heard about what Mr. Teagan had to say about wedded
bliss--”
“Thirty years, and we’ve yet to have our first growl!” said Teagan
joyfully, with his glass upraised to his better half.
“Thirty years and never a growl,” said O’Leary solemnly, and those
near him saw that he hesitated and shifted nervously. “Well, all
I’ve got to say is, I hope--” He waved one hand awkwardly toward
the bride and groom--“I hope you get off better than I did.” At
this, every one drew back with a scraping of chairs and looked at
him in amazement. O’Leary breathed hard and went on obstinately:
“Yes; I wish you never get what I got! I haven’t said anything
about it--a man’s own affairs are his own affairs, I guess. But ten
years ago, I sat down just as you’re sitting down and just as proud
and happy. And for a year and a half I was just that--the happiest
and proudest man in North Ameriky or any other Ameriky. Then
something went wrong--I never knew; I wasn’t given the benefit of
knowing even that. Perhaps the going was too hard--perhaps--well,
anyhow, it was out in Seattle and luck was against us. We were
stranded for sure--seventeenth of April--that was the day. I came
back to the rooms and found them empty, everything gone, cleaned
out, even to the tooth-brush on the wall and not a word of why or
where for. That was eight years ago. I never knew what was wrong or
why she did it. I’ve never heard of her since. I don’t know as I
ought to have chucked my tale of woe into this sort of an affair.
Well, perhaps, it may be worth while to remember there are other
sides--sides it’s better to keep away from. I hope you’ll get a
better deal than I did, Mr. and Mrs. Pomello!”
He sat down abruptly and every one began talking in excited tones.
Dangerfield, who was watching the blurred, staring gaze of Myrtle
Pomello, formed his own opinions of why O’Leary had done what he
had done, and possibly Mr. Cornelius also understood with his
shrewd, kindly glance. As for the others, they were so frightened
at the revelation that they flung themselves nervously into a
revulsion of momentary gaiety--all except Millie Brewster. She
sat quite still, looking down, and never said a word until they
all rose from the table. Then she disappeared without any one’s
remembering just when she had left.
* * * * *
A week later, with only King O’Leary present, Dangerfield and
Inga were married before a justice of the peace, and departed
quietly for the lakes of New Hampshire, where Dangerfield had
gone as a boy, and where, in the unfashionable month of May, he
sought the seclusion and solitude of awakening nature, which his
own reawakening soul had begun to crave. It had been her wish
that there should be as little ceremony as possible, and from the
court-room they drove directly to the station.
“I can’t bear to think of other people watching us at such a time,”
she had said. “I want to feel alone.”
He had nodded assent, grateful for the depth of delicacy which he
divined in her. Now, in the carriage, O’Leary left behind on the
curb with still uplifted hat, he had a feeling of being indeed
alone, alone with strange thoughts which surprised him, alone with
the sudden stranger who sat silently by his side, whose thoughts
he could not divine, alone and yet violently and abruptly apart.
She had passed through the ceremony as one steeled to an ordeal,
gravely calm, without useless words, neither showing joy, nor
elation, nor trace of shyness or excitement. When he had put the
ring on her finger and the words had been pronounced which made
them man and wife, she turned and looked at him--a long, searching
glance that moved him so that he forgot his surroundings gazing
into the profound eyes that seemed to open to him the road to
tears. The judge joked him for a laggard; he caught himself,
glanced down at her, and kissed her hurriedly.
“Best man’s privilege!” said the judge, chuckling, while the
attendants grinned.
She gravely offered her cheek to O’Leary, who hesitated and then
raised her hand to his lips.
When they were at last alone, Dangerfield said abruptly:
“You can take it off now; you don’t need to wear it--the ring.”
She took off her glove and held up the little hand with the golden
circle shining among the slender fingers. Then she drew the glove
on again.
“No; I shall wear it.”
He felt a strangeness in this intimacy, almost a diffidence. He
wondered why he could not speak to her, but he remained silent--he
could not mention trivial things, and what lay next to their
hearts seemed forbidden. For the thoughts that had come to him now
seemed to be the beginning of the barrier which would grow between
them day by day, month by month, the prohibition that every one
instinctively erects to solitudes of the soul from the encroachment
of complete possession.
He had taken the final step, and he felt its finality; he had
burned his bridges behind him--there was now no retreat back into
the life from which he had come, into that kingdom of caste that,
despite the devastation it had worked on him, still held him with
remembered instinct.
“It’s ended. This will be my life from now on--a life of work. The
other, the old associations, the old friends are gone,” he said to
himself. “I have cut myself off from all that--whatever happens.
I have done the right thing. I can never leave her now--no matter
what happens. This is final; this is what I wanted.”
It was done, and he had wished it done. Yet he was surprised at
the stir in him which the realization had brought, and, though he
was angry at himself, he was conscious of a certain unreasoning
rebellion, not so much at the fact that his marriage meant to
him the seeking of another world but that his freedom of choice
had ended. The feeling seemed to him almost disloyalty. He hated
himself for entertaining it, and then he glanced at Inga, sitting
so straight and grave by his side, and wondered curiously if such
secret thoughts could live behind the brooding of her eyes.
“What a rabble, what an insanity of noise and ugliness!” he said,
at last, glancing out the window at the torpid, living masses in
the street, and the ugly, vacant masses above, which shut out the
sky. “Thank God, we’re getting away to something clean and real!”
She nodded.
“I’m glad.”
And this was all they said to each other--until they had gone
through the flurry of the station and found their compartment.
The porter stowed their bags, glanced at them with a smile, and
went out, closing the door. Presently the train began to move, and
something black and stifling closed about them. The same gravity
still lay upon her, the same faraway brooding in her eyes. All at
once, at the compelling touch of his hand, her glance met his, and
then her lips smiled bravely.
“Doesn’t it seem strange to you?” he said quietly.
“Very.”
“I feel as if I have done the last thing I wanted to do--brought
sorrow into your life,” he said, in despair. “I don’t know; I can’t
understand--you seem to have gone further from me than ever before.”
She looked at him again, with the same intense, prophetic scrutiny
she had given him after the ceremony. Then she put out her hand and
drew his into the warm shelter of hers.
“Don’t try to say anything--we can’t--not now,” she said. They
continued to sit thus side by side silently, while the train ran on
into the fading day.