The iron Hudson flowed sullenly, far below the ice-enameled rock on
the Palisades, where stood Ruth and Carl, shivering in the abrupt wind
that cut down the defile. The scowling, slatey river was filled with
ice-floes and chunks of floating, water-drenched snow that broke up
into bobbing sheets of slush. The sky was solid cold gray, with no
arch and no hint of the lost sun. Crows winging above them stood out
against the sky like pencil-marks on clean paper. The estates in upper
New York City, across the river, were snow-cloaked, the trees chilly
and naked, the houses standing out as though they were freezing and
longing for their summer wrap of ivy. And naked were the rattling
trees on their side of the river, on the Palisades. But the cold
breeze enlivened them, the sternness of the swift, cruel river and
miles of brown shore made them gravely happy. As they tramped briskly
off, atop the cliffs, toward the ferry to New York, five miles away,
they talked with a quiet, quick seriousness which discovered them to
each other. It was too cold for conversational fencing. It was too
splendidly open for them not to rejoice in the freedom from New York
streets and feel like heroes conquering the miles.
Carl was telling of Joralemon, of Plato, of his first flights before
country fairs; something of what it meant to be a newspaper hero, and
of his loneliness as a Dethroned Prince. Ruth dropped her defenses of
a chaperoned young woman; confessed that now that she had no mother to
keep her mobilized and in the campaign to get nearer to "Society" and
a "decent marriage," she did not know exactly what she wanted to do
with life. She spoke tentatively of her vague settlement work; in all
she said she revealed an honesty as forthright as though she were a
gaunt-eyed fanatic instead of a lively-voiced girl in a blue corduroy
jacket with collar and cuffs of civet and buttons from Venice.
Then Carl spoke of his religion--the memory of Forrest Haviland. He
had never really talked of him to any one save Colonel Haviland and
Titherington, the English aviator; but now this girl, who had never
seen Forrest, seemed to have known him for life. Carl made vivid by
his earnestness the golden hours of work together in California; the
confidences in New York restaurants; his long passion for their
Brazilian trip. Ruth's eyes looked up at him with swift comprehension,
and there was a tear in them as he told in ten words of the message
that Forrest was dead.
They turned gay, Ruth's sturdy, charming shoulders shrugging like a
Frenchman's with the exhilaration of fast walking and keen air, while
her voice, light and cheerful, with graceful modulations and the
singer's freedom from twang, rejoiced:
"I'm so glad we came! I'm so glad we came! But I'm afraid of the wild
beasts I see in the woods there. They have no right to have twilight
so early. I know a big newspaper man who lives at Pompton, N. J., and
I'm going to ask him to write to the governor about it. The
legislature ought to pass a law that dusk sha'n't come till seven,
Saturday afternoons. Do you know how glad I am that you made me
come?... And how honored I am to have you tell me--Lieutenant
Haviland--and the very bad Carl that lived in Joralemon?"
"It's----I'm glad----Say, gee! we'll have to hurry like the dickens if
we're going to catch a ferry in time to get you home for dinner."
"I have an idea. I wonder if we dare----I have a friend, sort of a
distant cousin, who married her a husband at Winklehurst, on the
Palisades, not very far from the ferry. I wonder if we couldn't make
her invite us both for dinner? Of course, she'll want to know all
about you; but we'll be mysterious, and that will make it all the more
fun, don't you think? I do want to prolong our jaunt, you see."
"I can't think of anything I'd rather do. But do you dare impose a
perfectly strange man on her?"
"Oh yes, I know her so well that she's told me what kind of a tie her
husband had on when he proposed."
"Let's do it!"
"A telephone! There's some shops ahead there, in that settlement.
Ought to be a telephone there.... I'll make her give us a good dinner!
If Laura thinks she'll get away with hash and a custard with a red
cherry in it, she'd better undeceive herself."
They entered a tiny wayside shop for the sale of candy and padlocks
and mittens. While Ruth telephoned to her friend, Mrs. Laura Needham,
Carl bought red-and-blue and lemon-colored all-day suckers, and a
sugar mouse, and a candy kitten with green ears and real whiskers. He
could not but hear Ruth telephoning, and they grinned at each other
like conspirators, her eyelids in little wrinkles as she tried to look
wicked, her voice amazingly innocent as she talked, Carl carefully
arraying his purchases before her, making the candy kitten pursue the
sugar mouse round and round the telephone.
"Hello, hello! Is Mrs. Needham there?... Hello!... Oh, hel-_lo_, Laura
dear. This is Ruth. I.... Fine. I feel fine. But chillery. Listen,
Laura; I've been taking a tramp along the Palisades. Am I invited to
dinner with a swain?... What?... Oh yes, I am; certainly I'm invited
to dinner.... Well, my dear, go in town by all means, with my
blessing; but that sha'n't prevent you from having the opportunity to
enjoy being hospitable.... I don't know. What ferry do you catch?...
The 7.20?... N-no, I don't think we can get there till after that, so
you can go right ahead and have the Biddy get ready for us.... All
right; that _is_ good of you, dear, to force the invitation on me."
She flushed as her eyes met Carl's. She continued: "But seriously,
will it be too much of a tax on the Biddy if we do come? We're drefful
cold, and it's a long crool way to town.... Thank you, dear. It shall
be returned unto you--after not too many days.... What?... Who?... Oh,
a man.... Why, yes, it might be, but I'd be twice as likely to go
tramping with Olive as with Phil.... No, it isn't.... Oh, as usual.
He's getting to be quite a dancing-man.... Well, if you must know--oh,
I can't give you his name. He's----" She glanced at Carl appraisingly,
"----he's about five feet tall, and he has a long French shovel beard
and a lovely red nose, and he's listening to me describe him!"
Carl made the kitten chase the mouse furiously.
"Perhaps I'll tell you about him some time.... Good-by, Laura dear."
She turned to Carl, rubbing her cold ear where the telephone-receiver
had pressed against it, and caroled: "Her husband is held late at the
office, and Laura is going to meet him in town, and they're going to
the theater. So we'll have the house all to ourselves. Exciting!" She
swung round to telephone home that she would not be there for dinner.
As they left the shop, went over a couple of blocks for the
Winklehurst trolley, and boarded it, Carl did some swift thinking. He
was not above flirting or, if the opportunity offered, carrying the
flirtation to the most delicious, exciting, uncertain lengths he
could. Here, with "dinner in their own house," with a girl interesting
yet unknown, there was a feeling of sudden intimacy which might mean
anything. Only--when their joined eyes had pledged mischief while she
telephoned, she had been so quiet, so frank, so evidently free from a
shamefaced erotic curiosity, that now he instantly dismissed the
query, "How far could I go? What does she expect?" which, outside of
pure-minded romances, really does come to men. It was a wonderful
relief to dismiss the query; a simplification to live in the joy each
moment gave of itself. The hour was like a poem. Yet he was no
extraordinary person; he had, in the lonely hours of a dead room, been
tortured with the unmoral longings which, good or bad, men do feel.
As they took their seats in the car, and Ruth beat on her knees with
her fur-lined gloves, he laughed back, altogether happy, not
pretending, as he had pretended with Eve L'Ewysse.
Happy. But hungry!
Mrs. Needham should have been graciously absent by the time they
reached her house--a suburban residence with a large porch. But, as
they approached, Ruth cried:
"'Shhhh! There seems to be somebody moving around in the living room.
I don't believe Laura 's gone yet. That would spoil it. Come on. Let's
peep. Let's be Indian scouts!"
Cautioning each other with warning pats, they tiptoed guiltily to the
side of the house and peered in at the dining-room window, where the
shade was raised a couple of inches above the sill. A noise at the
back of the house made them start and flatten against the wall.
"Big chief," whispered Carl, "the redskins are upon us! But old Brown
Barrel shall make many an one bite the dust!"
"Hush, silly.... Oh, it's just the maid. See, she's looking at the
clock and wondering why we don't get here."
"But maybe Mrs. Needham 's in the other room."
"No. Because the maid's sniffing around--there, she's reading a
post-card some one left on the side-table. Oh yes, and she's chewing
gum. Laura has certainly departed. Probably Laura is chewing gum
herself at the present moment, now that she's out from under the eye
of her maid. Laura always was ree-fined, but I wouldn't trust her to
be proof against the feeling of wild dissipation you can get out of
chewing gum, if you live in Winklehurst."
They had rung the door-bell on the porch by now.
"I'm so glad," said Ruth, "that Laura is gone. She is very
literal-minded. She might not understand that we could be hastily
married and even lease a house, this way, and still be only tea
acquaintances."
The maid had not yet answered. Waiting in the still porch, winter
everywhere beyond it, Carl was all excited anticipation. He hastily
pressed her hand, and she lightly returned the pressure, laughing,
breathing quickly. They started like convicted lovers as the maid
opened the door. The consciousness of their starting made them the
more embarrassed, and they stammered before the maid. Ruth fled
up-stairs, while Carl tried to walk up gravely, though he was tingling
with the game.
When he had washed (discovering, as every one newly discovers after
every long, chilly walk, that water from the cold tap feels amazingly
warm on hands congealed by the tramp), and was loitering in the upper
hall, Ruth called to him from Mrs. Needham's room:
"I think you'll find hair-brushes and things in Jack's room, to the
right. Oh, I am very stupid; I forgot this was our house; I mean in
your room, of course."
He had a glimpse of her, twisting up a strand of naturally wavy brown
hair, a silver-backed hair-brush bright against it, her cheeks flushed
to an even crimson, her blue corduroy jacket off, and, warmly intimate
in its stead, a blouse of blue satin, opening in a shallow triangle at
her throat. With a tender big-brotherliness he sought the room that
was his, not Jack's. No longer was this the house of Other People, but
one in which he belonged.
"No," he heard himself explain, "she isn't beautiful. Istra Nash was
nearer that. But, golly! she is such a good pal, and she is beautiful
if an English lane is. Oh, stop rambling.... If I could kiss that
little honey place at the base of her throat...."
"Yes, Miss Winslow. Coming. _Am_ I ready for dinner? Watch me!"
She confided as he came out into the hall, "Isn't it terribly
confusing to have our home and even three toby-children all ready-made
for us, this way!"
Her glance--eyes that always startled him with blue where dark-brown
was expected; even teeth showing; head cocked sidelong; cheeks burning
with fire of December snow--her glance and all her manner trusted him,
the outlaw. It was not as an outsider, but as her comrade that he
answered:
"Golly! have we a family, too? I always forget. So sorry. But you
know--get so busy at the office----"
"Why, I _think_ we have one. I'll go look in the nursery and make
sure, but I'm almost positive----"
"No, I'll take your word for it. You're around the house more than I
am.... But, oh, say, speaking of that, that reminds me: Woman, if you
think that I'm going to buy you a washing-machine this year, when I've
already bought you a napkin-ring and a portrait of Martha
Washington----"
"_Oh weh!_ I knew I should have a cruel husband who----Joy! I think
the maid is prowling about and trying to listen. 'Shhh! The story
Laura will get out of her!"
While the maid served dinner, there could scarce have been a more
severely correct pair, though Carl did step on her toe when she was
saying to the maid, in her best offhand manner, "Oh, Leah, will you
please tell Mrs. Needham that I stole a handkerchief from my--I mean
from her room?"
But when the maid had been unable to find any more imaginary crumbs to
brush off the table, and had left them alone with their hearts and the
dessert, a most rowdy young "married couple" quarreled violently over
the washing-machine he still refused to buy for her.
Carl insisted that, as suburbanites, they had to play cards, and he
taught her pinochle, which he had learned from the bartender of the
Bowery saloon. But the cards dropped from their fingers, and they sat
before the gas-log in the living-room, in a lazy, perfect happiness,
when she said:
"All the while we've been playing cards--and playing the still more
dangerous game of being married--I've been thinking how glad I am to
know about your life. Somehow----I wonder if you have told so very
many?"
"Practically no one."
"I do----I'm really not fishing for compliments, but I do want to be
found understanding----"
"There's never been any one so understanding."
Silent then. Carl glanced about the modern room. Ruth's eyes followed.
She nodded as he said:
"But it's really an old farm-house out in the hills where the snow is
deep; and there's logs in the fireplace."
"Yes, and rag carpets."
"And, oh, Ruth, listen, a bob-sled with----Golly! I suppose it is a
little premature to call you 'Ruth,' but after our being married all
evening I don't see how I can call you 'Miss Winslow.'"
"No, I'm afraid it would scarcely be proper, under the circumstances.
Then I must be 'Mrs. Ericson.' Ooh! It makes me think of Norse galleys
and northern seas. Of course--your galley was the aeroplane.... 'Mrs.
Eric----'" Her voice ran down; she flushed and said, defensively:
"What time is it? I think we must be starting. I telephoned I would be
home by ten." Her tone was conventional as her words.
But as they stood waiting for a trolley-car to the New York ferry, on
a street corner transformed by an arc-light that swung in the wind and
cast wavering films of radiance among the vague wintry trees of a
wood-lot, Ruth tucked her arm under his, small beside his great
ulster, and sighed like a child:
"I am ver-ee cold!"
He rubbed her hand protectingly, her mouselike hand in its fur-lined
glove. His canny, self-defensive, Scotchlike Norse soul opened its
gates. He knew a longing to give, a passion to protect her, a whelming
desire to have shy secrets with this slim girl. All the poetry in the
world sounded its silver harps within him because his eyes were opened
and it was given to him to see her face. Gently he said:
"Yes, it's cold, and there's big gray ghosts hiding there in the
trees, with their leathery wings, that were made out of sea-fog by the
witches, folded in front of them, and they're glumming at us over the
bony, knobly joints on top their wings, with big, round platter eyes.
And the wind is calling us--it's trying to snatch us out on the arctic
snow-fields, to freeze us. But I'll fight them all off. I won't let
them take you, Ruth."
"I'm sure you won't, Carl."
"And--oh--you won't let Phil Dunleavy keep you from running away, not
for a while yet?"
"M-maybe not."
The sky had cleared. She tilted up her chin and adored the
stars--stars like the hard, cold, fighting sparks that fly from a
trolley-wire. Carl looked down fondly, noting how fair-skinned was her
forehead in contrast to her thick, dark brows, as the arc-light's
brilliance rested on her worshiping face--her lips a-tremble and
slightly parted. She raised her arms, her fingers wide-spread,
praising the star-gods. She cried only, "Oh, all this----" but it was
a prayer to a greater god Pan, shaking his snow-incrusted beard to the
roar of northern music. To Carl her cry seemed to pledge faith in the
starred sky and the long trail and a glorious restlessness that by a
dead fireplace of white, smooth marble would never find content.
"Like sword-points, those stars are," he said, then----
Then they heard the trolley-car's flat wheels grinding on a curve. Its
search-light changed the shadow-haunted woodland to a sad group of
scanty trees, huddling in front of an old bill-board, with its top
broken and the tattered posters flapping. The wanderers stepped from
the mystical romance of the open night into the exceeding realism of
the car--highly realistic wooden floor with small, muddy pools from
lumps of dirty melting snow, hot air, a smell of Italian workmen, a
German conductor with the sniffles, a row of shoes mostly wet and all
wrinkled. They had to stand. Most realistic of all, they read the
glossy car-signs advertising soap and little cigars, and the
enterprising local advertisement of "Wm. P. Smith & Sons, All Northern
New Jersey Real Estate, Cheaper Than Rent." So, instantly, the
children of the night turned into two sophisticated young New-Yorkers
who, apologizing for fresh-air yawns, talked of the theatrical season.
But for a moment a strange look of distance dwelt in Ruth's eyes, and
she said: "I wonder what I can do with the winter stars we've found?
Will Ninety-second Street be big enough for them?"