DANIEL TAY
I
THE great amphitheatre of the Albert Hall was filled from arena to dome:
some ten thousand women and three hundred men, exclusive of police. Slim
young women in the white uniform of stewards and decorated with the
badges of their unions stood at the back of the gangways. On the
platform, against flowers and banners, sat the officials of the Woman’s
Social and Political Union and of the several unions it had inspired. Of
the most important of these, Julia France had been elected president
eighteen months before, and to-night sat at the right of Mrs. Pethick
Lawrence, who occupied the chair in the absence of Mrs. Pankhurst.
The great rally had a fourfold purpose: to celebrate the victory of the
Militants in the general election, during which they had fought the
Liberals in forty constituencies; their energy, cleverness, and resource
being not the least of the factors which had transferred eighteen seats
to the Conservatives (thus throwing the Government upon the Labor and
Irish vote for support); to protest once more against the inhuman
treatment of the hunger strikers in Holloway gaol; to add to the
£100,000 fund; and to listen to Mrs. France’s account of her three
months’ lecture tour in the United States.
When Julia had risen to speak, she had been greeted by a magnificent
demonstration. Every woman in the audience had sprung to her feet,
cheered, and waved her banner for five minutes. This enthusiasm was not
inspired by Julia’s notable tour only, nor to the money she had brought
back with her, but to her four years’ record of steadfast and valuable
work in the Militant cause, the large number of recruits she had brought
in by her personal efforts, the many Liberal candidates she had helped
to defeat at by-elections, her religious devotion to a work for which
nothing in her previous life would seem to have prepared her, and above
all, to the great gift for leadership she had displayed during the last
year and a half. For her indomitable courage, her indifference to
personal comfort, and to bodily suffering when maltreated by police,
stewards, or hooligans, or endured in gaol, they had no applause; this
was a mere matter of course. But in addition to her services, Julia was
a favorite with all of them: she was picturesque without being
sensational, a brilliant powerful persuasive speaker, and a lovely
picture on the platform. Moreover, she possessed (and desperately clung
to) the priceless gift of humor, and humor in suffragette ranks was
rare. Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughters, great speakers as they were, had
not a ray of it; and even Mrs. Pethick Lawrence, the most genial of
women, fell under the spell of the world’s tragedy the moment she rose
to speak.
To-night, Julia, knowing that most of the minds present were oppressed
by the sufferings in Holloway, made the account of her American
experiences as diverting as possible, although she finished with a
passionate denunciation of the Government, and an appeal to her audience
to proselytize unceasingly, until their numbers were irresistible.
When she sat down, Mrs. Lawrence, preparatory to making her appeal for
funds, gave a graphic and terrible picture of the hunger strikers, who,
forcibly fed through the nose and throat with surgical instruments of
torture, were now having a dose of martyrdom that compared favorably
with any in the records of the Inquisition. Julia, too well acquainted
with the horrible details, glanced over the House and nodded to Ishbel
Dark and Bridgit Maundrell, seated in a box. Ishbel was still the
prettiest woman in any assembly she chose to grace, and her attire, as
ever, looked like the petals of a flower. Bridgit, severely tailored,
albeit in velvet, was sitting forward tensely, her eyes flashing at the
iniquities of man. Julia noted with amusement that Maundrell was behind
her, and listening with an expression no less indignant. Dark
consistently refused to show himself at Suffrage rallies, although more
sympathetic of late, but Maundrell was not only complaisant, but
converted. To have lived with Bridgit for three years and failed to be
impressed by that burning and immovable faith would have stamped him
superman, and the next step was to surrender to a cause capable of
making such an apostle. He already had made a number of speeches, in and
out of the House, advocating the extension of the franchise to a limited
number of women, and as he was a man of distinguished abilities, there
was much rejoicing in Suffrage ranks. He had even permitted his wife to
take part in the last great raid on the House, although, without her
knowledge, he had circled near her, and diverted the attention of the
police when she had been too eager for trouble. He had no intention of
letting her go to gaol and ruin her health.
But the Westminster police avoided arresting women of Mrs. Maundrell’s
position unless their official faces were slapped. For that matter they
were growing more and more averse from arresting women at all, and had
been heard to wish that the Parliamentarians would come out and do their
own dirty work. The women had so far won their liking and respect that
when the Government wanted them knocked about, they were forced to order
up reserves from the slums. The Westminster officers formed woman-proof
cordons about the Houses of Parliament, effectively protecting the men
within, but repulsed their assailants good-naturedly, only making
arrests when the women were inexorable. When Julia, determined upon
arrest in one of the raids of 1909, made a technical assault upon a tall
policeman’s chin, he had whispered: “Harder, Mrs. France. Give me a good
crack on me cheek. That’ll be assault, as the Inspector’s looking this
way, and I’ll have to arrest ye.”
The great number of Militants arrested, the injustice of their trials
and sentences, the severity of their treatment in gaol, had succeeded as
nothing else had done in arousing the women of Great Britain. Very
nearly a million had declared themselves in favor of Suffrage, and many
of these had joined one or other of the forty-one societies and unions.
Only the mean-spirited, the hopelessly old-fashioned, and the sex
idolaters had failed to rally to their cause. Never in the history of
England had there been such monster mass-meetings, such impressive
parades, such a widespread upheaval. If these rebels had been
Socialists, or any other body of men demanding concessions, they would
have won their battle long since.
Mrs. Lawrence passed on to her favorite subject, the injustice of
visiting the penalties of the law upon desperate girls for infanticide,
while ignoring her partner in crime. Julia, whose mind had wandered to
her own prison experiences, happily over before the hunger strike was
organized, and the devices to which she had resorted before she had
compelled arrest in spite of the duke’s vigilance, suddenly, without an
instant’s transition, began to think vividly of Daniel Tay. She started
and sat up straighter, drawing her brows together in perplexity. Her
thought was very consecutive these days.
During their long but irregular correspondence—often conducted on his
part by cable—she had thought of him exclusively while writing, or
reading his characteristic letters, and then dismissed him from her
mind. There was always a certain excitement in “talking” confidentially
into a mind on the other side of the globe, and his epistles, however
brief, were sympathetic. He had long since given up his attempt to turn
her from her purpose; he recognized her as a force, and asserted that he
was proud of her. She fancied that he no longer cared to meet her again,
but found his own amusement in the novelty of the correspondence; and
she too no longer experienced tremors at sight of his handwriting. But
she was conscious of a bond, and welcomed an occasional vibration from
the other end of the line.
And now she suddenly found herself thinking of him intensely. She peered
out into that acre of faces. Could he be present? Hardly, as he had
written but a few weeks ago that he was “up to his neck” in business and
politics. The famous Graft Prosecution was sitting expectantly on the
edge of its grave, dug by corrupting gold, the rallying of every
dishonest business man in San Francisco to the standard of the
scoundrels in politics, and a few mistakes of its own. Business, too,
was “awful,” San Francisco’s luck not having turned since the morning of
the earthquake. No, he could not be present, but she stirred uneasily,
nevertheless. She was highly organized, and quick to respond to the
concentration of another mind upon her own. Once more she searched that
mass of faces, but they seemed to melt into one. She banished Tay from
her mind. He returned promptly. She frowned, but gave it up and let her
mind drift.
Mrs. Lawrence had made her usual stirring appeal for an addition to the
growing fund, and the money was rolling in. The girl stewards were
running back and forth, and Mrs. Lawrence was reading aloud the promise
cards as they were handed up, while her husband made the additions on
the score board. Some £5000 had been subscribed amidst continuous
applause, when Julia forgot Tay and almost laughed aloud as she heard
Mrs. Winstone’s name read out to the tune of £20. “Alas!” this convert
had cried plaintively to Julia, a few days before. “What will you?
Haven’t I always said that one secret of lookin’ young was to dress in
the fashion of the moment, not have any silly style of your own? And
you’ve got to keep your mind dressed up to date as well as your figger.
I’m not goin’ to gaol and ruin what complexion I’ve got left, but I’ve
taken a box at Albert Hall and I’m havin’ meetings in my drawin’-room.
It’s a God-send to have a new fad, anyway. All the old ones were
motheaten.”
Julia lost her breath. She felt her body cold and rigid, and all its
blood flown to her face.
“Daniel Tay, £200,” read Mrs. Lawrence.
And the women cheered, as they always did when a man offered himself up
for encouragement.
Julia stared at her hands and tried to close her lips! So! He was here!
She was furious with herself for her agitation; she also cast a hasty
glance over her costume. Ishbel and her maid attended to her wardrobe,
keeping her admirably dressed; nothing was asked of her but to wear her
clothes, and this she could always be relied upon to do with
distinction. She had hardly been aware of the color or fashion of her
gown until this moment of searching investigation, and was gratified to
observe that it was of white chiffon cloth and gentian blue velvet; made
with simplicity, but long of line, and moulded to her round slim young
figure. She wore a long chain of blue tourmalines and moonstones, the
colors of her Union, and presented by her American admirers. Her
abundant flame-colored locks were braided about her head as in the days
of Bosquith, little curls escaping on her brow and neck.
Her self-possession returned, and looking out, she deliberately smiled,
a very hospitably sisterly smile. She believed that Tay would move,
change his seat abruptly; but everybody was moving, and many were
standing. To recognize him would be impossible unless he came directly
up to the platform. She rather wondered that he did not, being an
informal creature. Then she looked forward confidently to finding him at
the stage door.
The meeting broke up, amidst renewed cheers and waving of flags. Tay was
not at the stage door. After lingering for a few moments in
conversation, she went round to the front entrance. But only the police
stood there, a long stately and useless rank. They all saluted Julia,
and one told her he had missed her. Finally she permitted him to put her
into a cab, and drove to Clement’s Inn with her black brows in a
straight line. She excogitated until the brilliant idea struggled out
that Tay had intrusted his donation to some friend, who had recklessly
unchained himself from his desk in that unhappy city of San Francisco.
II
WHEN she had entered her flat she sat down at her desk and scowled more
deeply still. She was angry not only at her past agitation but at her
present disappointment. For seven years now, save for brief lapses,
almost forgotten, she had been complete mistress of herself. During the
last four she had so far sunk her personality into the great impersonal
cause of her adoption that she had had no time to moon about herself
after the fashion of idle women.
Work! Had that been the secret? How commonplace, and how expositive!
Who, indeed, when speaking, planning, fighting, proselytizing, writing
innumerable leaflets, newspaper and magazine articles, drilling
recruits, attending thousands of meetings, to say nothing of organizing
her own Union and fighting army, would find a moment’s time to cast a
thought to man save as present enemy and future co-worker. Even when in
gaol, from which she had been mysteriously released both times at the
end of a week, she had deliberately slept when not writing articles in
her head. In America she had not gone farther west than Chicago, but she
suddenly realized that if the question of including California in the
itinerary had arisen she should have felt something like panic, possibly
the same superstitious fear that had assailed her at three pillar boxes
four years earlier. Well, indeed, that Tay had sent his contribution.
She had no desire to have her work interrupted, nor to go through any
female throes. To know that she was still hospitable to them was bad
enough. Switch him out! She took her typewriter from its case, haughtily
refusing to sleep.
The telephone beside her rang. She put the receiver to her ear,
wondering who dared interrupt her at night in times of peace. Although a
truce with the Government was not formally declared until February 14th,
the Militants were resting on the laurels won in the General Election.
A man’s voice answered her “Hello!”
“Who is it?”
“Guess!”
“I—I can’t.”
“Well, I hope my voice has changed some.”
“Oh—so you _are_ here. How generous of you to give us those £200!”
“Generous nothing. You fired me up so with that speech that I came near
subscribing my entire letter of credit, and then borrowing back enough
to pay my hotel bill and get out.”
“Why didn’t you come up to the platform afterward, or wait for me in the
lobby?”
“Frightened out of my wits. I’m never shy at the other end of the
telephone, so thought I’d meet you this way first. If you’d made the
usual female speech, I should have remained quite myself. But with all
your wit and fire, you’re so finished, so polished—and you look that
way, too. My teeth are still chattering. Somehow, in spite of
everything, I suddenly realized that I’d always remembered you as the
little princess on the tower.”
(“And I in the fatal young thirties!”) “Nonsense! I’ve merely worked
hard these last four years. No one ever dreamed of being afraid of me.
Of course you’ll call to-morrow?”
“I think I might summon up courage if you would infuse a little
cordiality into your voice. You’ve thawed a bit, but not too much.”
“You took me so completely by surprise. I had just made up my mind that
you had asked some friend to make that donation in your name.”
“Never should have thought of such a thing, although you could have had
all I’ve got at any moment. What time may I call to-morrow?”
“When did you arrive?”
“This morning. Saw at once that you were going to speak, and thought I’d
see what you were like before I ventured. What time may I call to-morrow
morning?”
“Let me think—I’ve always a thousand things to attend to in the
morning—”
“Please cut them out. You need a rest, anyhow. I’d like to call at
eleven.”
“Well—why not? We might go to the National Gallery—”
“What! You’re not going to begin on that? Reminds me of Cherry and the
torments of my youth. I’d like to talk to you for twelve hours on end,
and take you out to lunch and dinner, but I’ll go to no morgues!”
“Oh, very well. It will be quite delightful. But as it will be what you
call a strenuous day, perhaps I’d better go to bed now. Good night.”
“Good night, Militant Princess.”
When Julia hung up the receiver she was still smiling. Then, to show how
completely mistress of herself she was, she went to bed and slept.
III
THE next morning Julia looked dubiously about her little sitting-room. A
workshop, truly. No hint here of the charming woman’s boudoir. It would
have been impossible for Julia to live in tasteless surroundings, and
the walls were covered with green burlap, the carpet was of the same
shade, the chairs were of leather, the big desk was of old oak. But
there was not a picture on the walls, not a bibelôt, only books, books
everywhere; and in the corners piles of papers. She rang for the maid
that took care both of her and the flat (her meals were brought in
unless she went out for them), and ordered her to make the room as
presentable as possible while she took the walk with which she began her
day. It was raining, but no weather kept her indoors, and she walked
rapidly to Kensington Park and back.
When she reëntered the flat she petrified the maid by ordering her to
bring forth her new coats and skirts for inspection. There was a rough
but handsome green tweed for heavy wear, the inevitable black cloth, and
a more elaborate costume of electric blue cloth with a white velvet
collar and fancy blouse, intended for the simple functions of her
present life. She arrayed herself in the last without an instant’s
hesitation, then after trying on the graceful little hat three times,
decided that it would be more hospitable to receive an old friend in the
hair he admired.
“Have I any tea-gowns?” she asked abruptly.
“Tea-gowns, mum?” Collins barely articulated. “No, mum. You’ve never had
use for tea-gowns.”
“How odd, when I often come home tired.”
“I’ve never seen you really tired, mum.”
“Everybody is tired at times—and—and—I always wanted tea-gowns.”
“I’ll go at once to her ladyship’s—”
“Yes, do. No, go to the big French houses—I’ve given Lady Dark so much
trouble. Buy me two, ready-made. A pale green one, and a white one with
sapphire-blue ribbons—or cornflower blue. It doesn’t matter.”
“Yes, mum.” And Collins went on her errand joyfully.
“Now what a fool I am,” thought Julia. But she did not recall the maid.
She carried the forgotten typewriter into the next room and deposited it
on the bed, then sat down and reflected that Swani Dambaba, her Hindu
master, had often reminded her there was nothing like a short, but
thorough, vacation from the mind’s accustomed travail, to recuperate the
mental faculties and prepare them for still more arduous labors. She had
thought of one thing only for four years. This, no doubt, was the
opportunity her mind had impatiently awaited, for its Suffrage
activities had lain down to sleep without a preliminary yawn. Her
secretary had come and gone, mystified.
Promptly on the stroke of eleven she answered a sharp rap and extended
both hands with a cold friendly brightness she could always adjust like
a visor. Tay flung his hat on a chair and shook her hands for quite a
minute. Obviously his diffidence was a thing of overnight, for it was
not in evidence as he smiled down upon her with his keen clever eyes.
“By Jove!” he exclaimed, “but you look good to me. You haven’t changed a
bit. To tell the truth, if business hadn’t forced me to come over here,
I don’t believe I’d ever have come—was so afraid you’d be old and
ugly—”
“Old and ugly!” cried Julia, indignantly. “When I’m only—” She paused
abruptly. Tay knew that she was thirty-four, and she was willing that he
should know, but, quite like any woman after twenty-eight, she couldn’t
force the combination past her lips.
“I know, but you’ve worked like a man, and been in so many free fights.
Batting cops over the head, sitting on roofs in the rain to devil
politicians at the psychological moment, to say nothing of gaol, doesn’t
improve women, as a rule. I was almost certain you would have lost your
complexion—and your hair!”
“Well, I haven’t. Do sit down. Will you smoke?”
“Will you?”
“I never smoke in the morning.”
“No more do I. Don’t let my nerves get ahead of me.”
“It would be delightful to see you all again,” said Julia, amiably, as
he took off his overcoat and made himself comfortable. Then she plunged
into the safe subject of Mrs. Bode and her amusing experiences in London
during the Spanish war, meanwhile examining him with cool smiling eyes,
which appeared to dwell upon the cheerful memory of his sister. She was
gratified to find him as well dressed and groomed, even to the crown of
his sleek black head, as any man he might meet in Piccadilly, and
confessed that she would have been intensely disappointed had his attire
been as Western as his vocabulary. His accent was also agreeable,
without nasal inflection, and although it lacked the cultivation of the
best English voice, it was manly even over the telephone. He had grown
several inches taller, although he had been a tall boy, and his figure
was straight and well set up. Save for the keen depth of the black-gray
eyes, and the accentuated squareness of chin and jaw, he had changed
surprisingly little. Even as a boy he had held his head high; now he had
the air of one accustomed to command a large number of men. His manner,
while courteous and amiable, betrayed possibilities of impatience. She
could quite appreciate what he had once written her, that he was “some
pumpkins on the street.”
He looked steadily at her as they talked, and she detected an expression
both defensive and wary at the back of his eyes, reflected in the slight
smile on his firm, rather grim mouth. She guessed that he had no
intention of falling in love with her again. Every once in a while,
however, his eyes flashed with admiration, and then he looked quite
boyish; his smile was spontaneous and delightful. But she suddenly
realized that he would not be as easy to understand as she had thought.
“You might have sent me a photograph,” he said abruptly, tired of
Cherry. “I have a large collection of libels, cut from weekly magazines,
but—”
“How odd you never asked for one.”
“I guess I didn’t want the charming picture in my mind disturbed. I
feared you might have grown to look masculine, at the least. It’s queer
you haven’t, you know.”
“None of us looks masculine, although a good many look sexless, if you
like. Don’t you want to come down to the offices and meet the big ones?”
“I—do—_not_.”
“I thought you were so interested—”
“As far as I am concerned the entire movement is concentrated in you.
You may be the type, but I don’t believe it, and anyhow I don’t care.”
“Well, you saw some of them on the platform last night.”
“I saw no one but you. In fact I had an opera-glass trained on you
throughout the whole show.”
“Oh! Did you? But you haven’t told me what brought you over.”
“We’re trying to open an important connection in London, and our
representative cabled me to come over and help him. An American has to
sit up nights to keep an Englishman from getting ahead of him, much as
an Englishman has to sit up watching a Scot. This is the top of
civilization, all right—and all that term implies. No wonder your women
are ahead in their particular game.”
“But the American women are now almost as keen on Suffrage as we are.”
“Yes, but in their way, not yours. I’m for giving them the vote, for
they’ll help us to clean up, and incidentally develop their minds. But
your women are a century ahead—not that we’ll ever have such women.
Thank God, we haven’t the men to breed them. You’re up against the
hundred-per-cent male. That is enough to make women stronger than death.
With us it’s more likely to be the other way.”
“You don’t look henpecked.”
“No more I am, nor ever shall be. Our women only think they do the
tyrannizing. Give a woman her head in trifles, all the money she can
whine or nag for, and she thinks she’s the whole show. That’s the way we
manage ours. What they don’t know doesn’t hurt them.”
“I rather think that’s worse. We at least know what we are fighting.”
“Exactly. And it has made great fighters of you. None better in the
history of the world. That shows how much cleverer the American man is
than the Englishman. We lie low like Br’er Rabbit, and say nuffin.
American women are discontented, want the earth, but can find nothing to
sharpen their axes on, and that is good for us. They may help us in the
United States, and we’ll be glad to have ’em, but they’ll never rule.
Now I am willing to bet my unmade millions that the Englishwomen will be
ruling this country fifty years from now, perhaps twenty. I expect to
live to see a woman Prime Minister. You, perhaps! Awful thought!”
“I should like it,” said Julia, frankly. “And I’m glad I wasn’t born an
American.”
“Oh, you are _you_. I don’t class you geographically—except—well, I
read up after I’d got a letter or two from you, and it set me
thinking—also talking with an astrologer we have in San Francisco,
who’s some nuts on Oriental lore. We came to the same conclusion, that
you were a lightning streak straight out of the past—not Earth’s past,
but some previous solar system—”
“Oh!” Julia sprang to her feet, startled quite out of her visor. “San
Francisco! You! It is too uncanny!”
“Hoped I’d get a rise out of you. Nothing uncanny about it. Some of the
weirdest characters, not to say scholars, have drifted out there.
California is not the God-forsaken hole you may have been led to
believe. I’ll admit that lore of any sort is not exactly our business
man’s idea of recreation, and but for you I might be in happy ignorance
of Oriental mysteries myself.”
“And how much do you believe?”
“Oh, sometimes I laugh at it—and myself, but—perhaps I like the queer
romance of it. Lord knows it’s sufficiently un-American. Now that I’ve
seen you once more—I’m not so sure how much of it I do believe. You
don’t look several hundred thousand years old, not by a long sight. I
hope you have a young appetite. Will you come over to the Savoy, or is
that not allowed in Militant circles?”
“Nonsense. Once, perhaps; but now I’d lunch with a coal heaver if I
chose.”
“Thanks! I have a taxi downstairs—”
“Waiting? You _are_ extravagant! Like your cables. They were too funny.”
“Not at all. I’m more at home in a cable office than in bed.”
“But I thought you were all so badly off in San Francisco?”
“My dear princess, the harder up a San Franciscan is, the more money he
spends. I can’t explain; doubtless it’s a law of nature. But if you’ll
put on a hat to match that charming frock—”
“I’ll be ready in a second. How nice that you notice what a woman has
on. I had almost forgotten that pleasant characteristic of a few men.”
“I shall be here a month, and hope to pass on your entire wardrobe.”
And they went as gayly forth as if indeed the good old friends they fain
would feel but could not; but young withal, and agreeably titillated.
IV
IF a man and a woman tentatively interested in each other would part for
years at the end of a long day together, during which they had talked
until every subject on earth seemed exhausted, and ennui inevitable, the
cure would be effected before the disease had declared itself. An
appreciative thought now and again, a passing regret, other minds as
stimulating, the episode is closed. Astute wives have been known to
apply a form of this treatment to husbands and the objects of their
roving fancy; perchance in time it will be recognized as a sort of love
vaccine and scientifically administered.
Julia and Tay talked almost uninterruptedly until eleven o’clock that
night, and existed comfortably apart for nearly a week. Julia plunged
into routine work with renewed ardors, refused to look at her tea-gowns,
and when she thought of Tay at all was rather glad they had met at last
and had a jolly talk. Tay sent her a box of roses (automatically), but
was too busy to think about her; for the increased importance of his
house, to say nothing of his reluctant millions, depended upon the
success of his efforts in London. But on Saturday he found himself idle,
and promptly thought of Julia. A brief talk on the telephone ended in an
invitation to dine at Clement’s Inn that night; and with his desire for
feminine society once more alert, and for Julia’s in particular, he
appeared with his usual promptness.
Julia, who had grown methodical, had put on the green tea-gown as a
logical result of its purchase for the delectation of her old friend;
and he gave it instant approval.
“By Jove!” he exclaimed. “That’s the sort of thing you were made for.
You look less of a Suffragette than ever. I hope that when you have
accomplished your horrible purpose and have nothing to do but vote, you
will receive me in a boudoir the same shade.”
“I shouldn’t wonder if I did have a boudoir one of these days— You look
rather nice yourself in your evening clothes— That would be a good idea
for all of us. We’ll take a rest cure first, and then feminize ourselves
just enough.”
“Rather flat, though, to receive women in boudoirs, for no men will go
to see you—them.”
“Oh, won’t they? Men will readjust their old ideals when they have to,
and be glad of something new in women.”
“Yes, but that sort won’t care a hang about boudoirs.”
“They will about mine. And I’ll promise it shall be large enough for
people with long legs. I hope the waiters won’t stumble over yours when
they bring in the dinner.”
Tay had had some misgivings about this dinner, having been asked to
speak once or twice before women’s clubs, foregathered at the luncheon
hour. But Julia had not lost her taste for dainty edibles, and he hardly
could have fared better anywhere, save in the city of his birth.
“How is it you know so much about food?” he asked as the dishes were
being removed. “You say the Suffragettes are not even masculine, they
are sexless. No wonder they could stand gaol. No doubt they live on
ancestral memories.”
“Gaol has ruined most of their stomachs, all the same, and I should have
choked over every morsel I ate, if I hadn’t deliberately thought about
something else—detached my mind.”
“Can you do that?” he asked, looking at her curiously.
“Rather. I learned a good many secrets in the East. I can control both
my mental and physical machinery.”
“How appalling! If you found yourself falling in love, I suppose you’d
just turn on your mental hose-pipe and wash it out by the roots.”
“Something like that.”
“Julia,” said Tay, removing his cigar and looking at the ash, “what
would you really do if you ever did fall in love?”
“I never shall.”
“Ah? Is prophecy included in the mental make-up of the new sex?”
“I mean I’ll never have time.”
“But you’ll win this fight, and then, mercifully, have time to think of
other things. There _are_ a few things besides Suffrage in the world
even now, you know.”
“We won’t have so much more time; perhaps less. Our work will only just
have begun.”
“Yes, but the holy martyr’s fire will have burned out for want of
something to feed on. Your interests will be more diverse, at least,
your minds less concentrated. Men have time to fall in love, you may
have observed. You’ll all begin to look about.”
“I doubt it. We’ve been through too much ever to be quite like other
women.”
“Nonsense, Julia, nonsense. You can’t get ahead of Nature. She may take
a back seat for a time, but she, being really unhuman, never sleeps. She
watches her chance and the moment it comes she gets her fine work in.
She hits good and hard, too; all the harder because she appropriates to
herself some of the vengeance of the Lord.”
“That’s a man’s reasoning, but it is beside the question as far as I am
concerned. Insane people live forever.”
“Have you any prejudice against divorce?”
“Rather not. One of the first things we accomplish is a reform of the
unjust divorce laws of this country. But I doubt if even women will
consent to the divorce of the insane. It can be done in only one or two
states of your own country.”
“True. But a marriage can be annulled if it is shown that one of the
parties to the contract was insane at the time of marriage.”
“Marriage can be annulled on the same ground here, but not without more
horrors of detail than any woman who had lived with a man for eight
years would care to suffer.”
“A simple statement would be enough in Reno—why do you laugh?”
“I have heard of Reno before.”
“Ah?” Tay sat up alertly. “Who else—who has wanted to take you out to
Reno and marry you?”
“Oh, that is over long since. He remains a dear friend, my one intimate
man friend—except you, of course—but we never meet any more except by
accident. He has great responsibilities and is a good deal older now. It
has become quite impracticable. Neither of us would desert England.”
“Did you ever love this man?”
“Not enough.”
“What is he like?”
“Oh, the best type of Englishman, and more, for he has genius, and uses
it in the interest of the race.”
“Sounds like an infernal prig.”
“He is not!”
“Oh! Is he good-looking?”
“Rather!”
“Do women like him?”
“It shows how really remarkable he is, that he has never been spoiled by
them.”
“Are you trying to make me jealous?”
“Of course I am not! I hope I have pulled all my pettiness up by the
roots—long ago!”
“You are one of the purest types of female I have ever met. If you
weren’t, you wouldn’t radiate charm from every electrical hair on your
head.” He had been trying to stride about the little room. He stopped
short and leaned both hands on the table. “Julia,” he said, “do you want
to know exactly what I think of you?”
“What could be more interesting?”
“I think you are a magnificent bluffer. No, don’t flash those arc-lights
on me. I mean you bluff yourself, not the world. You are sincere, all
right. But you’ve hypnotized yourself. Ask your old Mohammedan if I’m
not right. He gave you a suggestion or two, from all accounts.”
“If you were not talking nonsense, I should be angry. I’m quite well
aware that I was deliberately prepared for all this, and long before I
went to India. Wait until you meet Bridgit; she’ll tell you her part in
it. And even if I were hypnotized? Are not we all more or less?
Hypnotized by the currents of life, by its waves beating on our brains?
Some are drawn to one current, some to another. It all depends upon our
particular gift for usefulness. This happens to be my métier. Sooner or
later, whether I had gone to India or not, even if I had not known
Bridgit, even if—a friend had not written the book that started us all
in this direction, I should have drifted into my current. Only I had the
good fortune to be steered soon instead of late.”
“Not bad reasoning.” Tay stared at her for a moment, then took up his
restricted march. “All the same there are layers and layers that you
have deliberately covered up. Pretended they are not there. That is what
I mean by bluffing.”
“Oh, you don’t understand us. Wait until you have met twenty or thirty
more.”
“Yes, wait! I don’t propose to know even one more. And I don’t care a
continental for the whole Militant bunch. Not even rolled into one
magnificent manifestation of sexless sex. I am quite willing to believe
they were born that way, and have no desire to dwell on the thought. You
are a different proposition.”
“Not at all.”
“Exactly. When a woman is made soft and beautiful and dainty, she’s made
for man, don’t you make any mistake about that. Nature is no fool. She
hasn’t so much of that sort of material that she can afford to waste it.
The number of undesirable women in the world is simply appalling. Mind
you—” as Julia nearly overturned the table in her wrath, “I don’t argue
that she’s made for that and nothing else. No man has less use for the
pretty fool. Nor have I a word to say against this cause you are
exercising your talents on. Go ahead and win. It’s a great cause, and
deserves a good deal of sacrifice from great women. But for God’s sake
don’t go on making a fool of yourself. The real you is under all that
manufactured impersonal edifice, and sooner or later, it’ll wake up and
knock the impersonal edifice into a cocked hat.”
“Never!” Julia sat down again.
Tay took his own chair and leaned across the table.
“Julia,” he said. “I have heard you speak once. I have read a good many
of your more serious speeches. I have had a great many letters from you,
all—except those in which you seemed to find some relief in your
Eastern experiences—on this one subject. You have given a good deal
more than concentration of mind to this cause. You have given it an
amount of white-hot passion that not one woman in a million possesses.
What are you going to do with that when the cause is won?”
“You are describing all the women—”
“Damn the other women. Do me the favor to leave them out of the
conversation. I don’t happen to be a fool, and if I haven’t managed to
fall in love all these years, that doesn’t mean I know nothing about
women. There is a certain quality of mental passion that springs from
sex only. Now you’ve got it, and you’ve got to reckon with it. When do
you expect to win this fight?”
“This year. We are almost sure now that the Government is ready to
yield, but doesn’t wish to appear coerced. That is the reason we shall
declare a truce.”
“Ah? It may be longer than you think. But not so very long. And when
that is off your chest, I’m going to marry you.”
“You? You’re not a bit in love with me.”
“I’m not so sure. I came over determined not to be, for although I like
strong women, I don’t like ’em too strong. But your personal quality is
stronger still—magnetism?—call it what you like—”
“Oh, if that is all, you’ll soon get over it. Remember you are going
back to America in a month—”
“Perhaps. That, however, has nothing to do with it. You knocked me out
at fifteen, and you’re about to do it again. What have I waited for all
these years? I’ve felt superstitious about it before—”
“I don’t love you the least bit, and never could.” And Julia made her
eyes look pure steel.
“Oh, couldn’t you? Julia—” He leaned farther across the table and
looked into the steel with no appreciable tremor. “Julia, play the part
you look for just three minutes and a quarter.”
“Do you want me to kiss you?” asked Julia, furiously.
“Don’t I? I want nothing so much on earth, not even to get the best of
those four-flushers in the City.”
“Do you suppose I’d kiss a man unless I intended to marry him?”
“I hope not. I’m quite ready to do the right thing by you.”
“Oh, I wish you would stop joking. It’s rather indecent, anyhow.”
“Not a bit of it. And what do you suppose I’ve come into your life for?
To take up your education where Mrs. Maundrell and your Orientals left
off. I’m part of the course. I’m inevitable. And if I’ve surrendered,
why shouldn’t you?”
“Surrender? I repeat that you are not a bit in love with me.”
“And I repeat that I am not so sure. After we parted the other day, I
was comfortably certain there was nothing in it for me, that I was as
safe as a cat up a tree. But these last two days—well, I began to be
uneasy. I wouldn’t look it squarely in the face, but I was haunted with
the idea of something wanting. I was uncomfortable away from you, that
is the long and the short of it.”
“You merely wanted some one sympathetic to talk to. I shall introduce
you to all my old friends.”
“Delighted to meet them. Or—shall I chuck business and take the next
steamer?”
He was pale now and staring hard at her, perplexity and some
astonishment deepening in his eyes.
“Good idea,” said Julia, coolly.
“You provocative little— Were you ever a coquette?”
“Of course not.”
“I wish I had been ten years older fifteen years ago. However—” He
threw himself back in his chair. “I’ll not cut and run. I’ll be hanged
if I do know whether I love you or not. You’ve a physical essence that
goes to the head, but you are too self-centred, too unified, to give the
complete happiness we men dream of. Fifteen years ago!”
“Do you mean I’m too old?”
“In a way, yes. You have lived too much in these fifteen years, although
in one sense you haven’t lived at all. But you have the strength of ten
women, and a man would have to be a good deal weaker than I am to want
that much counterpoise. And yet you pull me like the devil, and I have
admired you more these fifteen years than any woman on earth—”
“Really, you mustn’t disturb yourself,” said Julia, who was now so angry
that she looked merely satirical. “I should not marry—neither you nor
any one—if my husband were dead and the cause won. Winning the vote for
women is merely a necessary preliminary, and my work for them but a part
of an ideal of development I conceived even before I went to the East. I
have a theory that the world will not improve much until a few women
achieve a state of moral and mental perfection far ahead of anything the
race has yet known. Such an achievement is impossible to man because he
is either oversexed, or the reverse, and in both cases incapable of
achieving perfect unity in himself, and absolute strength. But to woman
it is possible. There will only be a few of us. Man needn’t worry. The
world will always be full of the other kind. But to stand alone! To feel
yourself equipped to accomplish for the world what twenty centuries of
men have failed in—despite even their honest endeavor—do you fancy
that one of us would exchange that great work for what any mere mortal
could give us?”
“Whew!” Tay’s eyes, that had looked as hard as her own, flashed and
smiled as he sprang to his feet and put on his overcoat. He held out his
hand.
“Let’s cut all this out for a time,” he said. “Perhaps you’ve put me
off, and perhaps you haven’t. Perhaps you are right. But if you are not,
well, out to Reno you go. Is it to-morrow you take me to call on your
aunt?”
“Yes. Will you come here?”
“I will. Goodnight.”
After he had gone Julia for an hour stared straight at the wall as if
deciphering hieroglyphics. Then she smiled and went to bed.
V
MRS. WINSTONE had put on her new intellectual expression. Her lids were
slightly drooped, thus banishing the young stare of wonder; her brows
were almost intimate, and she had powdered her nose with an art that
elevated the bridge.
When Julia and Tay arrived at the house in Tilney Street she was
standing beside a table at the end of the drawing-room. One hand rested
lightly upon it, the other held a slip of paper. On her left sat Mrs.
Maundrell and Lady Dark, on her right Mrs. Flint, a working woman from
the slums of Bloomsbury, and an eminent leader in the Militant ranks of
her own class. The room was well filled with charmingly gowned women,
some mildly but financially sympathetic with the cause of Suffrage,
others as mildly adverse. All looked mildly expectant.
“Aunt Maria said nothing about this,” whispered Julia to Tay. “We’ll sit
at the back until it’s over—that is, if you think you can stand it.”
“I’ll do my best. Like you, I can detach my mind.”
“Ladies,” began Mrs. Winstone, in a deep grave voice, and not seeing
Julia, wondering who on earth the attractive-looking stranger could be,
“we all know too much of the great cause which brings us together to-day
for me to waste any words on its history. Suffice it to say that—a—”
(she referred to the slip in her hand) “it is now a cause which no woman
that respects herself can afford to ignore, a cause that for the first
time in history has united all classes of women in one indissoluble
bond. It originated in the great middle or manufacturing class,
eloquently known as the backbone of England, and quickly spread to what
is in our generation the most powerful of all, the working class. Thirty
members of this great class sit in the House of Commons, but their
better part is still clamoring at the gates. I refer, of course, to the
thousands of working women now enrolled in the Militant army. One of
these, the most—a—distinguished of its leaders, has kindly consented
to talk to us to-day. She has her scars of battle. She has stormed the
house of the Prime Minister, both when he lived in Cavendish Square, and
after he was elevated to the more historic Downing Street. She has six
times fought with the police guarding the House of Commons, and three
times served a term in Holloway. Her recruits are numberless—Ladies,
allow me to introduce Mrs. Flint.”
She sat down and spread out her train. Mrs. Flint rose amidst the
pleasant impact of kid, and Julia murmured to Tay:—
“A fine bluffer, my aunt, if you like. But all Englishwomen seem to
speak well, by instinct.”
Tay was groaning in spirit, but soon gave his ear to Mrs. Flint, who
made a short pointed and effective speech. Her restraint and simplicity
alone would have commanded attention. She began by remarking with grim
humor that she had not been at all worried by the punching and kicking
of the police, as her husband had beaten her every Saturday night for
ten years until he disappeared, leaving her to support and bring up
seven children as best she might. But although she had long since
forgiven him for all this, it being quite in the nature of things, she
had enjoyed kicking the policemen back and clawing when she got her
chance, as they belonged to that sex which had ruined the lives of two
of her girls: one had flung herself into the Thames, and the other come
home with her child, shattered in body and mind. Then, dismissing her
personal affairs, she went on to speak of the wrongs of working women in
general, their miserable wages for men’s work, and the new hope that
filled their lives at the prospect of women being able to force men to
keep their election promises and command a fixed and adequate wage for
women’s work, shorter hours, and improved social conditions; conditions
at present beyond the efforts of women on the municipal boards or even
of the Friendly Societies. There was no ranting against man. Mrs. Flint
recognized that he couldn’t help himself, having been born that way, and
incapable of understanding the limited endurance, and the needs, of
women and children. She paid a just tribute to the few humane and
enlightened men that had improved conditions in the past, but added that
she saw no disciples among the present men in power. The only men that
seemed to give any thought to the improvement of the poor were the
Socialists, and they did nothing but talk and write pamphlets. They
showed nothing of the life and the fighting spirit of the women now
engaged in a war which would cease only when they were either all dead
or victorious. When she had illustrated her address with a number of
brief but terrible anecdotes, she finished with an eloquent appeal to
her hearers to take part in the next raid on the House of Commons,
should the Government fail to keep its tacit promise; and sat down amid
a lively applause, as sincere as her speech.
“By Jove!” said Tay. “A working woman! Wish you could see ours. But we
have the scum of Europe. Mrs. Flint is the undiluted British article.
After all, it doesn’t speak so badly for your men that such women have
been allowed to breed in this country—also your own lot. Ever think of
that?”
“Rather, and they must take the consequences. We prove ourselves the
more logical sex inasmuch as we demand the logical result. Now!
Bridgit!”
Mrs. Maundrell spoke like a fiery torrent, reënforcing Mrs. Flint’s
personal experiences with several of her own, garnered when she had
worked in the slums; and impressing her audience with their duty to go
out and fight to mitigate the lot of the poor, even if they had not
sufficient self-respect to demand the ballot because it was their right
on general principles.
Ishbel followed, speaking with her usual calm practical sense, and her
appeal was to the immediate pocket. The funds of the unions must
constantly be replenished, and she asked all present, in the soft
accents of one unaccustomed to denial, and with her most enchanting
smile, to subscribe liberally to the union represented by Mrs. Flint.
She herself would distribute the promise cards.
“When I go back,” said Tay, “I’ll drum up all the useless beauties I
know and start a class for their education in public speaking, and in
thinking of something besides themselves. No wonder these women hit the
bull’s-eye every time.”
And he cheerfully parted with five pounds when the distracting Ishbel
told him how she had longed to meet this old friend of her own dear
friend, and begged him to dine with her on the following evening.
“And you really must take advantage of this truce, dear,” she said to
Julia, “and see a bit of the lighter side of life once more. We’ll be
just a family party—like old times!”
“Nigel? Is he in town?” asked Julia, in alarm.
“No, he’s in Syria; writes from some hotel on Mount Carmel. I believe
you suggested—”
“Ah! At last! I feared he never really would care for the idea.” But the
relief in her voice was not in the cause of the Bahai religion.
Here Mrs. Maundrell bore down on them, and her eyes flashed from Tay’s
face to Julia’s with an expression of angry misgiving. But Julia was
cool and smiling, and Tay shook her hand heartily and protested that he
had long thought of her as another old friend. Mrs. Maundrell liked him
so spontaneously that she was more alarmed than ever.
“Come and meet my aunt,” said Julia, hastily, and bore him off.
Mrs. Winstone, who knew nothing of the correspondence, almost betrayed
her surprise as the two approached her, and wondered if Julia really
were going to turn out a woman. At all events she had shown taste in her
sudden departure from sixteen years of inhuman indifference. The hostess
greeted the one man present with warmth.
“So glad you could come, and so sorry I’m goin’ away. It would have been
too jolly to know Charlotte’s brother. But I’m startin’ for my old home
in the West Indies on Wednesday.”
“What?” cried Julia. “You never told me.”
“How very odd. But my nerves need a rest. Hannah and Pirie are goin’
with me.”
“To visit my mother?” gasped Julia.
“Rather not. Bath House has been rebuilt, in part. They are goin’ to
take the baths for their gout. Any message for your mother?”
“Give her my love, of course.”
“Why not come along?”
“Well, you see, Aunt Maria, I am not quite casual enough, if I am
English, to leave my party on a day’s notice.”
“So glad I’m not a leader. I always do what I want, without botherin’
about anybody else. Makes life so simple. How do, Hannah? Have you
survived it?”
Tay had been swept off into a vortex of suffragists and antis, all
arguing with determination. Julia sought out Ishbel and had a talk in a
corner with that ever soothing friend.
VI
“JULIA,” said Tay, as they emerged into Tilney Street, “what is your
idea of something real devilish?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean that after that flow of soul, I am in a mood to whoop it up,
paint the town magenta, get up on a box in Hyde Park and holler, but not
to suffragettes. And I want your company. Can’t you feel that way?”
“Perhaps,” admitted Julia, laughing. “What a boy you still are.”
“Not so much of a boy as you think, but enough. But I don’t know your
tastes in crime. Give me a hint, and we’ll do it.”
“I’m afraid I haven’t any.”
“You are as truthful as a woman can be, so investigate your
possibilities and own up. Admit that under my demoralizing influence you
are suffering some from reaction.”
“I believe I am.” Julia laughed again, with youth in her voice.
“I surmised as much, if only on general principles. I am subject to
violent reactions myself. You’ve been good too long. If you don’t take a
mild fling or two, your nervous system will dictate that you rise in the
night and blow up the Prime Minister. Suppose we walk, as it isn’t
raining. That, for London, is almost variety enough. Now, if you made up
your mind to go on the wildest spree you could think of, what would it
be? A French ball, with a hump and a limp; or a day on the Thames, if it
happened to be summer, all alone with one man in a punt?”
“Let me think.” Julia had quite fallen in with his mood. “I think I’d go
on a sort of platonic honeymoon with the most companionable man I
knew—you, for instance—to some foreign town, one I’d never visited,
and where we could hear the best music. There would be a certain
excitement in avoiding English people lest they misinterpret what was
eminently proper, if quite irregular.”
“I could never have conceived of such a hilarious program. But if that
is your best, it would be better than nothing. As it is winter, I
suppose we would shiver over our respective radiators when not at the
opera.”
“Oh, there are always the museums and art galleries—”
“More and more intoxicating. My idea of complete happiness is to wear
out my old shoes and the back of my neck in art galleries—”
“As it is winter, think of the exercise.”
“I prefer using a pair of dumb-bells at an open window. Do you happen to
know of any musical European town where we could get food fit to eat?”
“Oh, there is always some good restaurant, and of course we could dine
together—”
“And breakfast, and lunch, or I don’t go. Of course you’ll send me to a
different hotel. Shall you take a sitting-room—”
“Oh, that wouldn’t do at all. Besides, it wouldn’t be necessary. We’ll
be out all the time. There are always the theatres at night, when we
don’t go to the opera.”
“As I don’t understand a word of any language except my own and Spanish,
I can slumber peacefully while you improve your mind and feel wicked. I
don’t see where I come in on this game.”
“Joking aside, Ishbel and Dark are going to Munich next week, and we
might go along. My mind is a bit relaxed since the arrival of your
upsetting self. It might be well to humor it.”
“Ah!” Tay had frowned, but his brow cleared suddenly. After all, he
might see more of the real Julia with a chaperon, than if she were
tormented by recurring alarms. “Very well. Munich, by all means.
Anything to cut you loose from Suffrage. Promise right here that you
will chuck it until we return.”
“I shall try to forget it—if only that I may return to it with a mind
completely refreshed.”
“Exactly. But I haven’t yet had an object lesson in your switching-off
trick, so I’ll strike a bargain with you right here: if you mention
Suffrage, I shall make love to you. If you don’t, I won’t.”
“I promise,” said Julia, hastily. “I really should like to feel quite
young and frivolous for a bit. And love is as deadly serious as
Suffrage.”
“So you will find when I get ready to make love to you.”
“Can you get away—I thought you were so busy?”
“I’ll get away, all right. Just as well to jar their calm deliberation
by flaunting my scornful indifference. Here we are. We’ll meet to-morrow
night.”
And they parted gayly at the gates of Clement’s Inn.
VII
AS Ishbel had promised, it was but a family party at her house on the
following evening, and after dinner, the men went to the billiard room,
the women upstairs. Julia was to stay overnight, and after she and
Ishbel had made themselves comfortable in negligées, they met in the
boudoir for a talk. Bridgit was striding up and down as they entered,
her hands clasped behind her. As they dropped into easy chairs, she took
up her stand before the fire-screen.
“Julia,” she said fiercely, “you are going to fall in love with that
man.”
“I am in love with him,” said Julia, coolly, lighting a cigarette.
“Good!” said Ishbel. “It is high time.”
“High time!” cried Mrs. Maundrell. “You could fall in love and I could
fall in love, and no damage done. We have married Englishmen and gone
straight ahead with our work. But not only is Julia the leader of a
great party which demands her undivided allegiance, but this man is an
American.”
“Perhaps he would live over here,” suggested Ishbel, who was normally
hopeful. “He is far more sympathetic with our cause than Eric.”
“Not he. He is more American than the Americans—perhaps because he is a
Californian. He told me all about his fight for reform in San
Francisco—never heard anything so exciting—and he’s going to try it
again after they’ve had another dose of corruption under the present
mayor. Besides, there’s going to be a big fight this year to put in a
reform governor, and he means to take part in it. He’ll never desert. It
will be Julia—”
“Don’t excite yourself,” murmured Julia. “I didn’t say I meant to marry
him.”
“But why not?” asked Ishbel. “We are sure to win this year, and then you
will have done your great work. We should always need you, of course,
but it will be mainly educational work for a long time, and the others
can do that. It will be ages before women get into a Cabinet or even
into Parliament. And—splendid idea—you could drill the American women,
become the leader over there. With your experience and reputation you
would be simply invaluable to them.”
“Suppose we don’t win this year?” asked Julia, languidly.
“We won’t!” said Mrs. Maundrell, emphatically. “They’re merely hedging.
There’s nothing for us but to fight the Liberals at every general
election until we get the Conservatives in.”
“I don’t believe it,” said Ishbel, who, like many of the women, was
certain of victory in that year of 1910 which was to bring their “Black
Friday.” “The Government may hate us, but they have given ample proof
that they fear us; they know it is time to make friends of us. They will
consent to the enfranchisement of only a limited number, of course, but
I wouldn’t care if they only enfranchised the wives of Cabinet
ministers. Let them make the fatal admission that woman has a political
and legal existence and the rest is only a matter of time.”
“Yes, and nobody knows that better than themselves. They may be brutes,
but they are not fools. I don’t hope for it—perhaps not even from the
Conservatives—until fully four-fifths of the wives of this country have
risen and devilled the lives out of their husbands. And the average
British female is about as easy to wake up as a stuffed hippopotamus.
She merely protrudes her front teeth and says, ‘How very _odd_!’ No,
Julia can’t leave us. Fatal gift, that of leadership. Must take the
consequences, old girl.”
“Who said I wouldn’t? Women have fallen in love without marrying before
this. I intend to remain in love for a fortnight longer. Then I shall
forget it and return to work.”
“Yes, if you can. I fought, fought like the devil. Didn’t I confide in
you? Didn’t I look like the last rose? You are strong, but so am I. Let
me tell you that love is a disease—”
“Quite so. There you have it. Love _is_ a disease—of the subconscious
or instinctive mind. It is a profound auto-suggestion, induced, in the
region where the primal instincts dwell, by the superior suggestive
power of some one else, and can be treated mentally like any disease of
the body.”
Bridgit flung herself on the floor and clasped her knees. “How
diabolically interesting! Tell us how you do it.”
Ishbel smiled and lit another cigarette.
“I may not be able to do it myself. Love, like sleep, the circulation of
the blood, the digestive apparatus, to say nothing of drug and drink
habits, is controlled by the subconscious mind. We can unwittingly give
ourselves suggestions, but not deliberately. But all mental diseases,
short of insanity, can be cured by counter-suggestions, administered by
an expert. If I found that my will was helpless before intermittent
attacks of love fever, and all that horrible accompaniment of longing
and aching we read about, to say nothing of confusion of mind which
unfits one for work, I should go to Paris and put myself in the hands of
an eminent psychotherapeutist I know of. He would throw me into a
semicataleptic state, or hypnotic, if I were not amenable in the other,
and give me counter-suggestions until I was as completely cured as if I
merely had had an attack of insomnia, or had taken a drug until it had
weakened my will.”
“How beautifully simple! Why didn’t you tell me when I was in the
throes, and doubtful of its being for the best?”
“I didn’t think of it. It only occurred to me when I was beginning to
feel—perplexed. Now, as I really need a rest, and can take it in this
interval of peace, I am going to see what the preliminary surrenders are
like, and enjoy them. That much I owe to myself. And I shall not have
its memory destroyed, neither.”
“No, don’t,” said Ishbel. “Merely have it put in cold storage. Suspended
animation. You might be able to marry Mr. Tay, after all. It would be a
pity to lose it altogether. Should you have to fall in love all over
again, or should you go back to your psychowhatyoucallhim and have the
original suggestions replanted? Will he keep them in alcohol in a glass
jar like those things in the Sorbonne?”
“You can jest, my dear, but I am talking pure science. And I learned it
at the fountainhead. The Anglo-Saxon world is slow to accept anything it
thinks new, but suggestive therapeutics were practised two thousand
years B.C.”
“No one could be less conservative than I, although I have an adorable
husband and two babies. Some day that may be thought radical. My mind is
hospitable to all your lore, but I want to hear you work it out to its
logical conclusion. What shall you do if you suddenly find yourself free
to marry Mr. Tay—delightful man!—before he, with or without the aid of
psychos, has recovered from you?”
“I have other reasons for intending to marry no man. And as for Dan—he
is not even sure he is in love with me—”
“Oh, isn’t he?” cried Bridgit and Ishbel in chorus.
“Well, granted he is; he was not when he came over. He was convinced
that I had grown hard and masculine, altogether terrifying; he was quite
over his boyish infatuation. Now, he is attracted because he is
delighted to find me not so much changed outwardly from his old ideal,
and much more interesting to talk to. Besides, his masculinity is alert
at the prospect of a difficult hunt. But when he is once more on the
other side of the world, he will recover.”
“Julia,” said Ishbel, “you haven’t studied that man’s jaw-bones. And he
has had his own way too much. He is tenacious. Now, as you are a human
woman, you will adopt my suggestion. You will take him with you to
Paris, and persuade him to go in for alternate treatments. Sauce for the
goose, etc.”
“No,” said Julia, frowning.
“Julia!” said Ishbel, severely. “Are you losing your sense of humor?”
“Of course not!” Julia sprang to her feet. “But, you see, all this is A
B C to me; and as it’s merely funny to you, you think there must be an
air pocket in my mind into which my sense of humor has dropped—”
“No, dear, not a bit of it. We all know that you learned more in the
East than you’ll ever tell, and we’ve heard vague rumors of Charcot—”
“Oh, his hypnotism is all out of date. The present men are as scientific
as the ancients—”
“Well, don’t be too hard on us, Julia, and pity Mr. Tay. Take him with
you to Paris. I mean it. It’s the least you can do.”
“I’ll not.”
“And why not, dear?”
“Oh, you see,” said Julia, “the unexpected might happen, and I might
want to marry him. And when men recover, they recover so completely; not
to say console themselves with some one else. I shall have the
suggestion made, that if I ever should—but I’m not going to say another
word about it. Good night.” And she ran out of the room.
“I don’t doubt she could do all that,” said Ishbel, as Bridgit gathered
herself up. “But one thing I am positive of, and that is that she
won’t.”
“I rather hope she will. Then we can have a private conference with the
psycho and tell him to plant the haunting image of Nigel in the place of
Tay, dispossessed. Then we’ll all be happy.”
“Do you believe Nigel cares still for Julia?”
“Don’t I? But he’s strong, if you like. He can’t marry her in England,
so he thinks of her as little as possible and does the work of two men.”
“But if he can’t marry her?”
“I’ll tell you something if you’ll vow not to tell Julia—or Mr. Tay.”
“Very well.”
“France has been having bad heart attacks. I have it from Aunt Peg.”
“Julia is as likely to hear it from the same source.”
“Not she. The duke has forgiven her, but has no desire to be reminded
that he has a suffragette in the family. Never reads the Militant news,
and all the rest of it. So Julia spares his feelings and never goes
there. (I spare him the sight of me!) I don’t want her to know it until
Mr. Tay is safely at home in his absorbing San Francisco. It would never
do, Ishbel. I’d like to see Julia happy myself, but she can’t leave
England. And she’d be happier with Nigel, for he’s her own sort. I like
Mr. Tay; he’s really frightfully attractive—but—after Part I of
love-plus-matrimony had run its course, they’d have a bad time adapting
themselves. The real tyrants are the masterful Americans, because in
their heart of hearts they regard women as children, handle them subtly,
won’t fight in the open. Now remember, you’ve promised. If Mr. Tay found
out that France was likely to die any minute, he’d ‘camp’ here, as he
expresses it, until he could marry Julia out of hand. He has a jaw, as
you’ve observed yourself.”
“Yes,” said Ishbel. “I’ve promised, but I rather wish I hadn’t. I like
fair play.”
“We are in war,” said Mrs. Maundrell, coolly. “Good night.”
VIII
“JULIA!” came Tay’s voice over the telephone. “We are in adjoining
hotels! I never felt so truly wicked in my life! How do you feel?”
“Cold. My stove won’t warm up.”
“Mine looks like a polar bear on end. I expect it to open its jaws and
devour me. Wish it would if what you English chastely call its inside is
warmer than its out. I’ve just had an exhilarating supper of cold ham,
beer, and double-barrelled crusts, which appear to be a staple. I
suppose you have had precisely the same, as this is Germany and the hour
11.30 P.M.”
“Yes, and I’m going to bed this minute and forget it. Good night.”
“One minute. To-morrow morning?”
“Hadn’t we better wait till the Darks arrive?”
“Not much! Do you think I’m going to moon about a strange town by my
lonesome? If we could travel together—”
“There are so many English people in Munich, and I am in the position of
Cæsar’s wife at present—”
“Don’t dare to mention the word—the fatal word. Now, expect me
to-morrow morning at nine-thirty. If you are not downstairs on the
minute, I’ll send a procession of bell-boys up to your room until the
hotel is ringing with the scandal.”
“Very well. It would be rather stupid.”
“Glad you see the point. By the way, what have you told the police you
are? I longed to write anarchist and see what would happen. I
compromised by writing, ‘Proprietor of a Free Lunch Counter and
Antigraft Sausage Factory.’”
“You didn’t!”
“Cross my heart.”
“I hope you’ll have a visit from the police first thing in the morning.
I wrote ‘Ward in Chancery’; thought that rather funny.”
“Best English joke I ever heard! Well, go to bed, Princess of the Tower.
Mind you stay on it.”
Lord Dark had been detained at the last minute, and Julia easily had
been persuaded to go on alone with Tay. Both had made merry at first
over the mock elopement; but the trains were crowded and cold, the wait
at Cologne was long and colder still, and both were unsentimentally
relieved to arrive at their destination. Here, at least, in the
beautiful city of Munich, they really could enjoy a day or two of
complete liberty. Julia had not had the faintest notion of secluding
herself.
On the following morning as Tay left his hotel he saw her waiting in
front of her own. As she smiled and waved her hand he experienced a
slight agreeable shock. “Aha!” he thought. “I really believe she has
switched off. For all mercies, etc.”
Julia’s eyes were dancing with anticipation, the firm lines of her mouth
had relaxed, and it looked even younger than when he first met her, for
then it had curved with some of that bitterness of youth which she had
long since outgrown; although it had been replaced first by a cynical
humor and then by pride and determination. This morning she was smiling
almost as she may have smiled through her first party at Government
House. And she was looking remarkably pretty in her forest-green tweed,
and the sable toque and stole she had taken from their long storage.
“Did you ever feel such air?” she cried. “After the heavy dampness of
London, it goes to one’s head. I can almost see the Alps, as well as
feel them.”
“It’s positively immoral, this climate,” said Tay, shaking her hand
vigorously. “How do people ever sleep here? Now I know why they drink so
much beer—to keep their feet on the earth.”
“We’ll walk miles and miles.”
“So we will. Sorry I couldn’t keep my engagement with you for breakfast,
but they fairly shoved that frugal meal into my bed. When we have walked
a few hours, we’ll drop in somewhere and eat veal sausages and drink
chocolate. That, I am told, is the proper stunt about eleven o’clock.
Certainly in this climate one could digest the maternal cow between
meals.”
They had been walking briskly, but paused at the Maximilianplatz. The
closely planted trees and shrubs of the long narrow park were covered
with ice and glittered blindingly in the bright winter sunshine. Even
the tall houses on the further sides of the streets that enclosed it had
icicles depending from the windows, glittering with the prismatic hues.
Overhead soft thick masses of cloud hung below the deep rich blue of the
sky. People were hurrying along in their furs, the shop-windows were
full of color. A royal carriage passed, as blue as the sky, and an old
man saluted his loyal subjects.
Tay whistled.
“Lucky for you it’s so hard to get married in a foreign town, or my
promises might go up in smoke. This is just the place for a honeymoon.”
“Isn’t it? Let’s imagine we are just married and doing Europe for the
first time.”
“You can do the imagining,” said Tay, dryly. “My imagination will take a
well-earned rest for the present. We’ll return to Munich later.”
They wandered about the narrow crooked shopping district for a time,
then up the wide Ludwigstrasse, almost deserted at this hour.
“Good clean street,” said Tay, approvingly. “And I like these flat brown
old palaces. They look like Italy without suggesting daggers and
poison.”
Julia didn’t answer, and Tay looked at her curiously. Her head was
thrown back, her mouth half open, as if inhaling the crystal air. There
was a faint pink flush in her white cheeks, and her lips were scarlet.
Her shining happy eyes were moving restlessly, as if to take in all
points of the beautiful street at once. Tay was about to ask her a
question that had been in his mind since they started, when she caught
him suddenly by the arm.
“Look!” she exclaimed. “Do you see that party there across the street?
They have skates! I remember now, Ishbel said there was fine skating in
the park. Oh, how I should love to skate once more!”
“Then skate!” cried Tay. “We’ll follow them.”
“But of course you don’t. There is no ice in California.”
“But of course I do. You forget I spent four winters in New England. Let
me tell you, I didn’t miss a trick.”
“Do you fancy we can hire skates?”
“I fancy we’ll skate if you want to. Come along. We mustn’t let them out
of our sight.”
They followed the group of girls and boys into the Englischer Garten, a
vast and glittering expanse of ice-laden trees. The lake was already
well covered with skaters, young people for the most part, as it was
Saturday, wearing worsted sweaters, scarves, and mitts, and all looking
very red, very ugly, and very happy in a stolid deliberate way. Tay
found skates without difficulty, and after a few minutes’ uncertain
practice, they skimmed smoothly over the surface.
“I wish we had it to ourselves,” said Tay, discontentedly. “If it were
not for these unromantic mortals, we could imagine we were in a sort of
polar fairy land. I’ve seen the ice-storm in New England but never on
such a scale. We are quite in the middle of a frozen wood.”
“If the people of Munich were as artistic about themselves as they are
about their city, they would all dress in white for skating. Then what a
sight it would be! But at least they look happy.”
“So do you.”
“I am, oh, I am!”
“May I ask if it is because you have the rare privilege of a day in my
exclusive society?”
“Partly that. But not all. Can you make curves? I never shall forget my
delight when I skated for the first time—after being brought up in the
tropics! Fancy!”
“Perhaps it didn’t take so much to make you happy in those days.”
“Oh, far more! Far, far more! I have been really happy since then.”
“If you don’t mind what you call it.”
“Where do you suppose the swans go in winter?”
“Haven’t an idea, and care less. Look out!”
They almost collided with a large corsetless lady in a white sweater, a
red woollen scarf tied round her purple face, and a gray skirt
exhibiting massive pedestals. She glared at the fashionable intruders,
but described a curve of surprising agility, although as she propelled
herself to the other side of the lake she gave the impression of
waddling.
Julia snatched her hand from Tay’s and shot after the expansive back.
“Catch me!” she cried. And for the next twenty minutes Tay pursued her,
sometimes almost heading her off, sometimes almost grasping her waving
hand, only to find her flying to the other end of the lake. She looked
like an elf, with her green dress and golden hair, and was not for a
moment lost sight of in the undistinguished throng. Tay, whose blood was
up, chased her until he finally brought her to bay, when she threw
herself down on the bank and held out her skates to be unbuckled.
“Good symbol,” said Tay, as he knelt before her, “I’ll catch you every
time, my lady. Don’t ever try running away, or you’ll merely get tired
for nothing.”
“I’m the better skater!”
“You are. But I’m a good sprinter. Do you want to race me?”
“Rather!”
He delivered up the skates, and when they reached a straight expanse of
road, they drew a long breath, hunched their shoulders, and started on a
dead run.
To Tay’s surprise she kept abreast of him for nearly fifty yards, making
up for what she lacked in length of limb with a fleetness of foot that
gave her the effect of a bird in full flight. Then he shot past her, and
came back to find her panting, but with dancing eyes.
“I am so hungry!” she cried. “Is it time for sausages and chocolate?”
“It’s time for lunch, or whatever they call it here. Do you suppose we
can find a cab? Much as I dote on exercise I think a cab after coffee
and rolls some three hours agone would suit me.”
“Where shall we lunch?”
“I’ll sample your hotel, if you don’t mind, and you will dine with me.”
“And afterward we must go to one of the big cafés for coffee. That is
the proper thing.”
“You shall have your way in trifles so long as I have beaten you twice.”
They found a cab near one of the gates of the park, and drove as rapidly
to the hotel as the fat driver and lean horse could be persuaded to go,
and both too hungry for further nonsense. They had an admirable
luncheon, in spite of the fact that it was not the “high season,” and
then were directed to the Café Luitpold for their coffee. It was full of
students, the “trees” covered with their caps of every color, and the
atmosphere dense with smoke. They found a table in an alcove, and Julia
lit a cigarette with the agreeable sensation of having come at last to
the real Bohemia.