SOMETHING OUT OF ANCIENT ROME
The hot torrent of words ceased. There was silence in the gaily-tinted,
flower-filled salon, save for the tick of an absurd Louis Seize clock on
the mantel. Under the gilt wheel of Time a cupid balanced back and
forth, in a Rhinestone swing--"Yes," "No," the seesaw motion seemed to
say.
The stillness was terrible to Severance. He did not get up from his
knees. He did not release the women's waists from the girdle of his
arms. His eyes were on the face of Marise. Never had he seen her so
pale.
"For God's sake, speak!--one of you," he stammered.
Abruptly the girl pushed his arm away, and sprang to her feet.
"You are wicked!" she cried. "Horrible! It can't be true that this has
happened to me. It's a nightmare. I want to wake up!"
Severance abandoned his prayerful position and faced her. He would have
caught her hands, but she thrust him back with violence.
"I thought you were a modern Englishman, like other Englishmen--like all
other decent men I've known. But you're not," she panted. "You're
something out of the Middle Ages. No! you're before that You're of
Ancient Rome--the time of the Borgias. Or Beatrice Cenci."
"Don't, don't, Marise, my child!" Mary joined soothing with command.
"You'll make yourself ill. We must be calm. We must think."
"Think?" the girl repeated. "What is there to think about? Surely you
don't suggest that I should 'reflect'--that I should study whether to
accept or not such a--bargain?"
"That's a hard word!" Severance pleaded. "And as for Ancient Rome, I
should say that it and modern Britain--or France--or even your own
America--are the same at bed-rock. We're all volcanoes with our lava
cooled a bit on the surface by laws--or civilisation. Human passions
don't change; and the strongest of them is love. Anyhow, it is so with
me. I'm half Greek, you know, and my English half is half Spanish."
"Dearest, when I tell you to 'think,' of course it depends on whether
you love Tony or not," Mary Sorel reminded her daughter. But even she
did not dare touch Marise at that moment. It would have been much like
trying to pat a young, unfed leopardess. She, always keeping on the
conventional side, had never before called Severance "Tony" to his face.
As a parched patch of earth thirstily sucks in the least drop of dew, he
caught at this sign of grace, and thanked his stars that he had made a
reckless bid for Mary's friendship. She adored England and old English
customs; above all, old English titles. In the midst of gratitude, the
man knew her for a snob, and counted on the sacrifice she would offer
the god of Snobbery. If anyone could help him, she could. If any counsel
could prevail with the hurt, humiliated, angry girl, it would be her
mother's.
"Do you love him?" Mary persevered, when Marise kept silence behind a
bitten red lip.
"I did love him. I thought I did."
"Darling, I know you loved him, and do love him. You're suffering now.
But, remember poor Tony is suffering too."
"Poor Tony!"
"Yes, poor Tony. He has gone through a great deal, and has kept it in,
hoping against hope. He didn't speak out till there seemed to be no more
hope--except in this one way. I told you, even on shipboard, I felt he
was living under some strain. I'm a woman, and your mother. I'd be the
first on earth to resent the slightest insult to you, if it were meant.
But just because I'm a woman, who has lived through a woman's experience
of life and love--love of husband--love of child--I recognise sincerity
by instinct. Severance is truly sincere. He worships you, and if he has
been carried away, it is by worship. Don't drive him to desperation by
refusing to forgive him, whatever else you may decide to do."
"It rests with you, Marise, whether I live or die," Severance was now
encouraged to plead.
The girl's lips trembled. "Oh, if only I could wake up!" she cried.
Tears poured over her cheeks. Mary caught the shaking figure to her
breast. The two wept together.
"We must--must face things!" Mary let herself sob. "I'm afraid we _are_
awake--wider awake than we've ever been in our happy life these last
three years. We took the pleasant side of things for granted. As they
say over here, we're 'up against' the grim side now. If you love Tony
only half as much as he loves you, why, it seems to me you ought--indeed
it's your duty to your future--to think twice before sending him out
into darkness, with no light of hope."
"Things like my plan often happen to people, just by accident," said
Tony. "A man who loves one girl has to marry another. His wife dies.
Meanwhile, the first girl has taken a husband--perhaps out of pique.
He's a rotter. She divorces him. Then the pair who've loved each other
are free to be happy ever after. If they're rich, too, so much the
better for them! They don't feel guilty. Why should they? They've
nothing to feel guilty about. Why should it be so appalling if a man, to
save his soul and his love, plans out something of this sort, instead of
blundering into it? I can't see any reason. Aren't you being a
Pharisee--or a hypocrite, Marise?"
"Aren't _you_ being a Joseph Surface?" she flung back. "Perhaps I never
told you that I played 'Lady Teazle,' and got a prize at my dramatic
school. So I know all about the 'consciousness of innocence.'"
The girl spoke stormily. Her eyes blazed at the man through tears. Yet
he and Mary both knew from her words--her tone--that in spite of herself
she had begun to "think."
"Joseph Surface was a cold snake," said Tony. "At worst I'm not that, or
I wouldn't be ready to wade through fire and water to win you at last."
"No, you're not a cold snake," Marise agreed. And the eyes of Severance
and Mrs. Sorel met, as the girl dashed a handkerchief across hers.
Mary's glance telegraphed Tony, "This sad business may come right, after
all!" "You had better leave us, my friend," she said aloud. "Marise and
I will at least talk this over--thrash it out, and----"
"A thrashing is just what it deserves," the girl snapped. "A thorough
thrashing!"
"It shall have it," Mums soothed her patiently. "But we may think----"
"Even if we did think," Marise broke out, with a sudden flash at
Severance, "what good would it do? Even if I were willing--though I
can't conceive it! What use would that be? You can't kindle a fire
without a match. There isn't a man living who'd be the match. A dummy
match!"
"You forget the million dollars," Severance said.
"I don't. But you admitted yourself, he must at least seem a decent man,
or the scheme would fail. No decent man----"
"Some smart actor who fancies himself, and dreams of having his own New
York theatre," cried Severance, inspired. "With a million dollars----"
"He'd want me to stay on the stage and star with him----"
"Well, then, some inventor who'd sell his soul to have his invention
taken up. A million dol----"
The phrase called back an echo in the girl's mind. "I'd sell my soul!"
What man had used those words to her that day--an hour ago?...
Marise laughed out aloud. "An inventor!" she exclaimed. "Oh, it's easy
to generalise--to suggest someone--anyone--vaguely, in a world of men.
But if I should name one--if I should say, 'Here's the man,' you would
shudder. The thought of him in flesh and blood as my husband--dummy or
no dummy--would drive you mad--if you really love me."
"I wouldn't let it drive me mad," Severance swore. "I'd control
myself--and control the man, too."
"You would? Suppose I name your _bete noire_, Major John Garth?"
Severance withered visibly. "Garth wouldn't do it," he stammered.
"There you are!" sneered Marise. But she began to experience a very
extraordinary sensation. It was composed of obstinacy, anger, vanity,
recklessness, resentment, and several fierce sub-emotions, none of which
she made the slightest effort to analyse. Tony Severance believed that
his passion for her excused everything, because he thought it stronger
than any other man living had ever felt. But there was another man, one
at least--who thought and said the same thing of himself.
Much as Tony hated and pretended to despise John Garth, without stopping
to reflect an instant he set the Bounder aside as one among a few men
who wouldn't stoop--who couldn't be tempted--to play so low a part as
that of a "dummy husband." Was Tony right? Or was the man he discarded
the very one who would marry her at any price? Dimly she wondered in a
sullen and heavy curiosity.
"There are plenty of other fellows--of sorts--to choose from, without
dragging in Garth," Severance went on. "Give me leave, Marise (give me
new life, by giving me leave!), to find such a man. If I must go without
finding one here, I will search England. Or I can put it in the hands
of----"
"No!" shrilled Mary. "In no hands but our own."
"I wash mine of it!" cried Marise.
"Perhaps you will think it over--the pros and cons--with me, dear,"
coaxed her mother. "The wonderful future you could have with Tony, when
the clouds should pass and all those millions----"
The girl shrugged her shoulders. And turning without another word, she
whirled away to her room. It would not have been true to nature if she
hadn't slammed the door!
Mary prepared to follow. "Go, Tony," she ordered. "Leave the poor child
to me. All this is awful--terrible! But it isn't as if we were wishing
for Miss Ionides' death. If she's doomed.... Oh, I hear Marise crying!
Go at once--please!"