Of course this was precisely what Pussy Comstock had been clever enough
to see when, in the idiom with which Mr. Crane was familiar, she had had
the trust officer "on the carpet" and "called him down" on that
memorable occasion of the day after. He might tell her, as he had
recklessly done, that her own relation to the rich girl depended solely
upon his consent, and hint coarsely that he knew well enough the ground
of her extreme interest in Adelle's fate. Miss Comstock did not take the
trouble to deny either fact. She merely smiled at the blustering banker,
and intimated that the president and directors of the trust company
might have views about the conduct of its trust officer towards their
ward. She had heard much of the prominent social position of President
West, and if she were not mistaken Mr. Nelson Glynn, the father of one
of her girls, was a director in the bank. Mr. Crane wilted under this
fine treatment, and departed as we have seen to do Miss Comstock's will.
This blunder of Adelle's official guardian also gave Miss Comstock a
great prestige with the girl herself. Pussy had so cleverly unmasked the
designing man that Adelle felt only mortification for the incident and
was grateful for Miss Comstock's friendship and impressed by her
knowledge of the world. Miss Comstock made much of her in the ensuing
weeks, and for this angular and somewhat worn middle-aged woman Adelle
began to have the first real passion of her life. She was putty in her
hands for a time and obeyed her slightest suggestion. Instead of curbing
Adelle's tendency to extravagance, the mistress of the Villa Ponitowski
encouraged it, partly for her own gratification and partly to serve
warning upon the trust officer. Mr. Crane might well wonder where Adelle
put the money she drew; he would have been amazed if he could have known
the ingenious ways which Miss Comstock found for improving her
opportunity. In all the years that she had pursued her parasitic
occupation, she had never had such a free chance, and she began to dream
ambitiously of appropriating Adelle and Clark's Field for life.
With Pussy's approval Adelle bought another motor, a high-powered
touring-car, and she kept besides several saddle-horses for use in the
Bois. She generously assumed the entire rent of Miss Baxter's expensive
studio when that imprudent artist found herself in difficulties; but
that comes a little later. Adelle defrayed all the expenses of the Nile
trip which Miss Comstock made with her family this winter. These are a
few instances of the spending habit, but the great leak was the constant
wastefulness to which Adelle was becoming accustomed. She spent a lot of
money merely for the sake of spending it, buying nothings of all sorts
to give away or throw away. It seemed as if all the penurious years of
the Clarks were now being revenged in one long prodigal draft by this
last representative of their line. The magic lamp responded admirably
each time Adelle rubbed it by simply writing her name upon a slip of
paper at the banker's. She had a child's curiosity to find out the
limits of its marvelous power, and daringly increased her demands upon
it. Possibly if Miss Comstock's designs had carried, she might have
discovered this limit within a few years: but her fate was shaping
otherwise.
Meantime her little "affair" with the banker excited the other girls in
the family, who felt that the rich young heiress must encounter many
wonderful adventures in love. Adelle was initiated in the great theme,
and for the first time began to take an interest in men. Perhaps Mr.
Ashly Crane's crude love-making had broken down certain inhibitions in
the girl's passive nature, had overcome an instinctive repugnance to sex
encounters. The path of the next wooer would doubtless be easier. But
that lucky man did not put in an appearance. Miss Comstock jealously
guarded the approaches to her treasure with greater discretion than ever
before. She made no effort to prepare for her an alliance with an
impecunious scion of the minor Continental nobility such as she arranged
later for Sadie Paul. She said that she could think of no one good
enough for her dear Adelle, and anyway the girl was altogether too young
to think of marrying--another year would be ample time. So Adelle was
confined to the younger brothers and friends of her companions, who
turned up in Paris at different times, and upon these she tried timidly
her powers of charm with no great success. Apparently she was content to
remain without "beaux." Luxury had made her indolent, and her days were
full of petty occupations that distract the spirit. Yet at times she
felt a vague emptiness in her life which she soon found means of filling
in an unsuspected manner.
Adelle's interest in the art of jewelry had not ceased, but she was away
from Paris this second year so much that her work in Miss Baxter's
studio had been sadly interrupted. After her return from the Nile in
March, however, she developed anew her passion for making pins and
chains and rings, and spent long afternoons in the studio on the Rue de
l'Universite. Miss Comstock thought nothing of these absences; indeed,
was relieved to have Adelle so harmlessly and elegantly employed. It is
true that Adelle was working in the studio, but she was working under a
new tutelage. A fellow-townsman of Miss Baxter's had turned up in Paris
that autumn and frequented her studio as the only place where he could
be sure of a welcome, warmth, and an occasional cup of tea. This young
Californian, Archie Davis by name, had found his way to Paris as the
traditional home of the arts, and expected to make himself famous as a
painter. A graduate of the State University, he had been engaged by his
father in vine culture on the sunny slopes of Santa Rosa, but the life
of a California wine-grower had not appealed to him. From the slopes of
Santa Rosa he soon drifted to San Francisco, and there conceived of
himself as a painter. He was a large, vigorous, rather common young
Californian, with reddish hair and a slightly freckled face, who was
really at home on horseback in the wilds of his native land, but at a
loss on the streets of Paris where he found himself frequently without
much money. Viticulture was not paying well at this time in California,
and Archie's father, in cutting down expenses all around, chose to begin
with Archie, who had not done anything to assist the family fortunes.
Archie took it good-naturedly and kept usually cheerful, though seedy
and often hungry. He felt that his was the typical story of the artist,
and if he would only persist, in spite of poverty and discouragement, he
must ultimately become a great painter because of his discomfiture.
"They can't freeze me out!" was a common saying on his lips, given with
a toss of the head and a smiling face which made an impression upon
women. Also his whistling philosophy, phrased as, "You never know your
luck!"
Miss Baxter, who had no great confidence in his ability, was kind to
Archie Davis for the sake of California, where she had known his people,
and because a single woman, no matter what her kind or condition may be,
likes to have some man within call. Adelle met him, as she met dozens of
other men, in the easy intimacy of the studio. At first she did not
regard him nor he her. Sadie Paul, who happened to be present at the
time, pronounced him a "bounder," which made no great impression upon
Adelle, any more than had Miss Comstock's "cad" for the banker. It was
not until she had settled in Paris for the spring and was a fairly
regular worker in the studio that Archie began to play a part in her
life.
It is easy to see why they should draw together. Adelle, thanks to all
the accessories that her money provided, presented a radiant and rare
vision to the young Californian, who knew only women like Cornelia
Baxter--mere workers--or the more vulgar intimacies of the streets and
cafes. Adelle Clark did not resemble even the sturdy California lassies
with whom he had been a favorite on the university campus. With her
motors and gowns and jewels she was the exotic, the privileged goddess
of wealth. To her Archie was at first mere Boy, then Youth. His seedy
state did not disturb her. Though dainty in habit, she had not become
delicate in instinct. And Archie's "freshness" amused her, his casual
familiarity of the sort that exclaimed, while he fingered a bit of her
handiwork,--"Say, girlie, but that is a peach of a ring!... Is it for
Some One now?"
She laughed at his "freshness," and felt perfectly at home with him. It
was not until after several weeks of this acquaintanceship that the
affair developed, unexpectedly, the opportunity being given.
One rainy April afternoon when Adelle arrived at the studio she found it
empty except for the presence of Archie Davis, who was dozing on the
divan in front of the small stove. Adelle had come briskly up the stairs
from her car, and the ride through the damp air had given her pale
cheeks some color. She threw back her long coat, revealing a
rose-colored bodice that made her quite pretty. Then the two discovered
themselves alone in the big studio. Adelle had a faint consciousness of
the fact, but supposing that Miss Baxter would return, she tossed aside
her wrap and with a mere "Hello, Archie!" went over to the corner where
on a small bench she was wont to pound and chisel and twist.
"Say, but you look good enough to eat!" the youth remarked
appreciatively.
Adelle laughed at the compliment.
"Why are you always thinking of eating?" she asked.
"I guess because a good meal don't often come my way," he yawned in
reply.
Adelle wanted to find out why this was so, but could not frame her
question to her satisfaction. Archie happened to be in one of those rare
moments of melancholy introspection when he doubted even his divine
calling to art. He was really hungry and somewhat cold, and life did not
seem inviting.
"I don't know," he observed after a time, "as this art game is all it
looks to be from a distance--that is," he added, watching Adelle with
appreciative eyes, "unless you happen to have the dough to support it on
the side."
"Aren't you painting?" Adelle asked after another pause.
"Nope!"
"Why not?"
"I can't paint when I'm feeling bad."
"What's the matter?..."
According to the novelists love-making--"the approach of the sexes"--is
an affair of infinite precision and fine intention; but according to
nature, at least in those less self-conscious circles wherein are found
the vast majority, it is one of the casual and apparently aimless forms
of human contact. For a good hour these two played the ancient game, but
the movements, the articulate ones, at least, were of the last degree of
banality and insignificance--too trivial to recite even here.
That consciousness of being alone with a young man, which had come over
Adelle on her entrance, developed gradually into a pleasant sense of
intimacy with Archie. Miss Baxter did not come back to make the tea, as
she usually did at this hour. Adelle was acutely aware that the young
man had counted on getting this tea and really needed the nourishment.
She wanted to give him food, to be kind to him. At last she ventured to
suggest,--"Don't you know some place around here where we could get
something to eat? I guess Miss Baxter isn't coming back this afternoon."
Archie instantly rose to the suggestion: he knew all the restaurants
within the radius of two miles. And so, escorted by the young man,
Adelle was soon entering a discreet small cafe, where, after infinite
conversation with the proprietor, a tepid concoction was served with
some excellent small cakes. Adelle then had one of the purest joys of
her existence in watching the gusto with which the young Californian
dispatched his tea and cakes even to the last crumbs of the _brioche_.
She wanted to ask him to dine with her somewhere, but did not dare. In
time they went back to the studio, which was now dark and still
deserted, and after puttering for another half-hour Adelle departed in
her car for the Villa Ponitowski. Nothing more momentous than what has
been related happened, but both felt profoundly that something had
happened. Archie, less daring or more skillful than his predecessor, did
not press his advantage,--did not even ask to accompany the girl
home,--and Adelle was left with the happy illusion of a mysterious human
interest.