The New Year festivities were over; in the hall of the old country Manor
the guests had danced and sung, had stood hand in hand in a widening
circle, listening to the clanging of bells in the church-tower near by.
Now, with much hooting and snorting of motors, the visitors from afar
had departed to their homes, and the members of the house-party had
settled themselves by the log fire for the enjoyment of a last chat.
There were eleven people left around the fire, counting the host and
hostess, four men, and five girls, all young, as youth is counted in
these days, the women averaging about twenty-four or five, the men a few
years older, and in the mellow light of the fire, and of the massed
candles in the old brass sconces on the walls, they looked a goodly
company. They belonged, it was easy to see, to the cultured classes;
whatever might be their means or present position, these people had been
born of gentlefolks, had been educated according to the traditions of
their kind, and were equipped with the weapons of courtesy and
self-control, which had descended to them as a heritage from those
passed and gone. Mentally, they might be guilty of anger and
impatience; mentally, they might rage and storm--that was their own
business, and concerned no one but themselves; in the presence of their
fellow-creatures they could be trusted to present a smiling front.
There are occasions, however, when the most reserved natures are tempted
to unclose, and of these the opening of the New Year is surely the most
seductive. When the guests have departed, and the laughter is stilled,
when for a last half-hour men and women sit quietly over the fire, there
arises in the mind a consciousness of severance with the past, a sense
of newness, which is not untouched with awe.
A new year has opened--what will it bring? What gifts, what losses, lie
awaiting in its lap? When its last hour trembles away on the striking
of a deep twelfth chime, what will happen to me? Where shall I be? In
the language, the consciousness of earth--_shall I be at all_?
The tall dark girl, who had borne herself so proudly during the dance,
shivered and bent forward to warm her hands at the fire.
"Whew! It's eerie!" she cried. "How I hate new years, and birthdays,
and anniversaries that make one think! What's the use of them, anyway?
One ambles along quite contentedly in the daily rut--it's only when
one's eyes are opened to see that it is a rut..."
"And that there are a solid three hundred and sixty-five days of it
ahead!" chimed in the man with the firm chin and the tired eyes.
"Exactly! Then one pants to get out."
"And bowl triumphantly along the road in a C-spring carriage, or the
very latest divinity in motor-cars!" laughed the beauty who sat in the
corner of the oak settle, agreeably conscious that the background was
all that could be desired as a foil to her red-gold hair, and that the
dim light shed a kindly illusion over a well-worn frock. "I object to
ruts of every kind and persuasion. They disagree with me, and make me
cross, and I'm so nice when I'm pleased! The parsons say that
prosperity makes people hard and selfish, but it is just the other way
about with me. When there's not enough to go round--well, naturally, I
keep it all for myself; but so long as I have everything I want, I
_like_ other people to be happy. I really do! I'd give them everything
that was over."
She looked around with a challenging smile, and the others obediently
laughed and applauded. It was fashionable to have a new role, and it
was Claudia's role to be honest, and quite blatantly selfish. She was
pretty enough to carry it off, and clever enough to realise that her
plain speaking served as a blind. No one believed for a moment that she
was speaking the truth, whereas, if she had not distracted attention by
waving this red flag, they must certainly have discovered the truth for
themselves. Claudia's god was self; she would have seen her best friend
cut up into mincemeat, to provide herself with a needed _hors d'oeuvre_.
The tall man with the large head and the sharp, hawklike features,
sprang to his feet, and stood in the centre of the circle, aflush with
excitement.
"Ruts!" he repeated loudly. "What's the matter with us all is we're
_content_ with ruts! The thing which depresses me most at the beginning
of a year is to look back and realise the futility, the weakness, the
lack of progress. Great heavens! how much longer are we to be content
with ruts? Our youth is passing; in a short time it will have gone.
What have we done with our years? If we had been worthy the name, we
should have been done with ruts by now, they would have been paved over
with a smooth white path--the path to fortune! We should have walked
along it--our own road, a private road, forbidden to trespassers!"
A girl seated on an oak stool, in the shadow of the settle, raised her
quiet eyes, and watched him while he spoke. She was a slim, frail
thing, with hair parted in the centre and coiled flatly round her head.
She had taken the lowest seat, and had drawn it into the shadow, but now
she leaned forward, and the firelight searched her face. She was not
beautiful, she was not even pretty, she was small and insignificant, she
had made no effort to join in the conversation, and now, as John Malham
finished speaking, she shrank back into her corner, and became once more
a frail, shadowy shape; nevertheless, a beholder who had been vouchsafed
that one glimpse would have found himself turning once and again to that
shaded corner. He would have wanted to see that girl again; he would
have been conscious of a strange attraction towards her; he would have
asked himself curiously was it liking, or--hate?
The girl said nothing, but a man by her side punctuated the pause by a
laugh. He was a handsome fellow, with a bright, quizzical face and a
pair of audacious blue eyes.
"Oh, be hanged to fortune!" he cried loudly. "Be hanged to flagged
paths! They're the deepest ruts of all, if you could but see it.
What's wrong with us all is lethargy, slackness, the inability to move
of our own accord. What we get matters nothing, it's the _getting_ that
counts! Why, when I think of the whole wide world lying open, waiting,
beckoning, and of fellows like myself pacing every day of our lives in a
square mile cage in the City, I--I--" (he snapped his fingers in a
frenzy of impatience) "I wonder how long I can carry my chains! They'll
snap some day, and I'll be off, and it will be a long good-bye to the
civilised world."
The girl in the blue dress looked at him with wistful eyes, but she
laughed more gaily than ever, and cried:
"Wait, please, till after the dance on the tenth, and when you _do_ go,
send home things to us, won't you? Shawls and cashmeres, and
embroideries. And pearls! I've always longed to know a real live
pearl-fisher. He ought to remember us, oughtn't he, everybody--because
we've been so kind and patient with his vagaries? We all deserve
something, but bags Me the pearls!"
"Oh, you shall have your pearls right enough," said the handsome man,
but there was a careless tone in his voice which made the promise seem
worthless as sand, and he never glanced in the direction of the girl in
the blue dress.
Pretty, wistful little Norah Boyce looked up quickly as if she were
about to speak; thought better of it, and turned back to stare into the
fire.
The girl seated on the oak stool leaned forward once again, and looked
straight into the face of the handsome man. One white hand rested
against her throat, a slim column of a throat, bare of ornament. Her
fingers moved as though in imagination they were fingering a rope of
pearls.
Buried in the depth of a great arm-chair lay the form of a giant of a
man who had listened to the conversation with a sleepy smile. At this
point a yawn overcame him; he struggled with it, only to find himself
entangled in a second.
"I say," he drawled lazily, "what about bed? Doesn't that strike you as
about the most sensible proposition for the moment? I know this
dissatisfied feeling. No New Year's gathering is complete without it.
Best thing to get to sleep as soon as possible, and start afresh next
day. Things look better after coffee and bacon. What's the use of
grizzling? If we can't have what we want, let us like what we can get.
Eh? It's pretty certain we'll never get what we want."
"Are you so sure of that?" asked a quiet voice. The hostess sat erect
in her seat, her graceful head with its silvering hair silhouetted
against the wall. She looked round the circle of her guests, and
smiled, a fine, delicate smile. "When you make that statement, Frank,
you are contradicting flatly all the premises of modern thought. The
time has passed for sitting still and lamenting the impossible. The
time is past for calling anything impossible. The thing that a man
strives for--deeply, strongly, persistently--_that thing he can hovel_
That is the theory held by many great thinkers of to-day. And it is
_true_."
There was silence for a moment, while everyone looked questioningly at
the figure of the speaker. The man with the tired eyes asked a
question:
"I suppose that applies to women as well as to men! Have _you_ proved
it, Mrs Ingram?"
"I have proved it," answered the quiet voice. The host leaned forward,
and knocked the ash of his cigarette into the grate. His face was
hidden from view. Mrs Ingram looked round with a sudden, challenging
smile. "_Why don't you all prove it_?" she cried. "Why don't you all
start forth on this year with an aim in view? I don't say you will gain
it in one year, or in two, or possibly in a dozen; but if you care
enough to go on trying, it _will_ be gained! It's a question of one big
aim instead of a dozen. The lesser things must go; you must become a
man, a woman, of one idea. There are other things which are good and
pleasant and alluring, but they must be set aside as weights which would
hamper the chase. You cannot have the one big thing--and everything
else! Therefore it is well to ask oneself seriously at the
beginning--_Is it worth while_?"
Once more the guests were silent, staring into the heart of the fire.
That last question, uttered in a deep, grave tone, had called to the bar
those inner voices which had so long breathed envy and discontent. Each
listener examined his own motives, and knew a chill of doubt, but the
chill passed, and the conviction remained. Each one felt convinced that
life held no good outside the coveted goal.
The silence gave assent, as Mrs Ingram realised without need of further
words.
"Suppose," she said gently, "you make me your father confessor to-night,
and confess your various aims and ambitions? It is the sort of
confession appropriate to a New Year's dawn, and perhaps the very
putting into words will vitalise your dreams and take them the first
step towards becoming realities. You must _all_ confess, remember!
There must be no holding back; if one begins the rest must follow, and
after the confessions have been made, we must pledge ourselves to help
each other towards our separate goals, if not by material aids, by
reinforcing his will with our own!"
The girl in blue laughed lightly, and cried: "Oh, let's! Let's all
confess, and then, years afterwards, when we are old, and wear
transformations, we'll meet again, at the dying of the year, and sit
round the Yule log, and tell the stories of our lives. And if we have
failed, we will weep salt tears of disappointment; and if we have
succeeded, we'll weep more, because it's all hollow and stuffed with
bran, and we'll make pious reflections, and sigh: `Oh, me! Oh, my!' and
preach sermons to the youngsters, and they won't believe a word. And so
it will all begin over again. Juliet, you set the ball rolling, by
speaking of ruts. You ought to be the first to confess. What is the
secret longing of your heart?"
The dark girl showed no sign of embarrassment at being chosen to lead
the way. There was no sign of shrinking or hesitation upon her face; on
the contrary, at the sound of that penetrating question, the careless
smile died away, and her features seemed suddenly to glow with life.
"_Adventure_!" she cried quickly. "Give me that, and, for good or ill,
I shall be satisfied. Fate made me with a vagrant's heart shut up in a
woman's body, and for twenty-four years it's been fed on monotony in a
country parish. Since I left the schoolroom I've never had a real
experience of my own. I've had trivial pleasures, never one real big
joy; never"--she looked slowly, thoughtfully, from face to face--"_never
a grief_! There's something here"--she laid her hand on her
heart--"fighting to get out! The ordinary, quiet, comfortable life
would not content it. It wants more. It wants happenings, changes,
excitement--it wants the big world, and I am a prisoner in the castle of
convention. Mrs Ingram, how does your prophecy apply to me? How am I
to get out?"
"No prison is so strong that it cannot be pulled down, Juliet. The
walls of Jericho fell at the sound of the trumpet. But you must
discover your own trumpet, and the walls won't fall at the first
flourish," said Mrs Ingram, and then suddenly and incontinently she
added: "Poor child!"
"Just so! Miss Juliet will certainly be one of those who will sigh:
`Woe's me!' at our future merry meeting," cried the tall man with the
hawklike features, "and it's rough on her, too, for she's so touchingly
modest in her desire. Doesn't care a pin apparently whether she comes
out better or worse! Now, for my own part, that's all I do care for.
Success! Success! that's my mania: forging ahead, gaining on my
opponents, winning the lead. Adventure doesn't count. I'd sit at an
office desk for fourteen hours out of the twenty-four, for fourteen
years at a stretch, if it ensured success at the end--a big success, a
success which left me head and shoulders above the ruck. I'd walk the
world barefooted from one end to the other to gain a secret that was
worth while. Success is my god. To gain it I would sacrifice
everything else."
"Then, of a certainty, it can be yours," said Mrs Ingram quietly, and
she looked at him with such a gentle glance that he asked her a laughing
question: "Are you going to call me `poor child!' too?"
"Not yet," she said quietly. Then she turned to the big man, and laid a
hand on his arm. "You next, Frank?"
"Oh, well!" he laughed good-humouredly yet with a tinge of
embarrassment. "I didn't bargain for this confession business, but
since it's the rule, I must follow suit, I suppose. I'm a commonplace
beggar! I'm pretty well content with things as they come. I'm not keen
on any adventures that I know of; if I can have enough to be
comfortable, that's all I want. I'd like a nice wife, and a house with
a bit of garden; and a youngster or two, and a runabout car, don't you
know, and the usual accessories! That's about all I fancy. `Man wants
but little here below.'"
"Frank plumps for comfort," said Mrs Ingram, smiling. "His programme
sounds distinctly restful, for a change. Take care of your figure,
Frank! I should suggest mowing the garden as a helpful recreation.
Next, please! Claudia!"
"Oh, money, please!" cried Claudia eagerly. "_Lots_ of money, and a
safe full of jewels. Do you know, I dress on forty pounds a year all
told, and a rich cousin sends me cast-offs! I take them hungrily, but I
hate her for it, and when I'm a millionaire I'll cut her dead. A German
Jew stock-broker, dear, or a Maharajah of `something-core,' or a
soap-boiler without h's--anyone will do if he has enough money! I'd
rather not, of course, but it's the only way! Dear people, will you
_all_ come to my wedding?"
"Claudia, you are impossible! You ought to be ashamed!"
"Yes, I should, but I'm not! Isn't it horrid of me? If I blow _very_
loudly, do you think I shall go off this season?"
"Claudia speaks in her usual highly coloured fashion, but there's no
doubt about her aim. She wants money, and, incidentally, all that it
can buy.--Adventure. Success. Comfort. Money. We are getting plenty
of variety! Rupert, what are you going to give us?"
The man with the tired eyes and the firm chin leaned forward in his
seat, with his elbows resting on his knees and his chin supported in the
hollow of his hands. The firelight showed the delicate network of lines
round eyes and mouth, the modelling of the long curved lips.
"I--want--Love!" he said quietly, and a stir of amazement passed round
the circle of listeners. He looked round and smiled, a slow, amused
smile. "Surprised, aren't you? Didn't expect that from me; but it
isn't as simple as it sounds. I'm not thinking of Frank's `nice' wife,
and a house in the suburbs, the usual midsummer madness followed by
settling down to live--stodgily!--ever after. I'm speaking of something
big, primal, overwhelming; something that _lasts_. Love comes to most
men in the course of their lives, a modicum of love. The dullest dog
has his day, a day uplifted, glorified, when he walks like a god.
Afterwards he looks back upon it from his padded arm-chair, and smiles--
a smug smile. It was a moment of madness; now he is sane, that's _his_
point of view; but mine happens to be precisely the opposite! To me
those moments are life, the only life worth living. The rest is a
sleep. If I could have what I wish, I'd choose to love, to _be_ loved,
like the great masters in the art, the lovers _par excellence_ of the
ages. I'd be willing, if needs be, to sacrifice everything else, and
count the world well lost. It would be a love not only of the senses,
but of the mind, of the soul, and so it would live on, undimmed by the
passing of youth. That is my dream, you understand! As regards
expectation, I don't share Mrs Ingram's optimism. It's not only myself
who is involved, you see. It is another person, and my desires are so
absurdly in excess of my deserts. Who am I that I should expect the
extraordinary?"
He ceased, and again the silence fell. The girl in blue bit hard on her
under lip and shrank back into the shadow; the girl who had wished for
adventure drew a quick gasp of excitement; the woman who had lived, and
gained her desire, drew a quivering sigh. Silent, immovable, in the
shadow of the settle, sat the girl in white.
"Oh, dear!" cried Claudia suddenly. "If he _only_ had money! I'd adore
beyond all things to be worshipped on a pedestal! Rupert, if an old
aunt dies, and leaves you her millions,--would I do?"
That was the best of Claudia, her prattle bridged so many awkward gaps!
In an instant the tension had eased, and a general laugh broke the
silence. Rupert laughed with the rest, no whit embarrassed by the
question.
"Not at all, Beauty," he said calmly. "I need a great passion in
return, and you are incapable of it. Most women are! I doubt if in the
whole course of my life I have met one who could rise to it," and he
cast a quick glance round the group until his eyes met those of his
hostess.
"Very few men would understand what you are talking about, or, if they
did, would desire so demanding a romance," Mrs Ingram told him. "The
man who _does_ will find his mate, but--he must pay the price! So we
have come to Love at last! I thought it would have taken an earlier
place."
"Mrs Ingram," cried Claudia boldly, "was _that_ what you wished for
yourself? You told us you had proved your own theories. Did _you_ wish
for love?"
"No!" said the hostess quietly. "It was not love." She glanced across
the hearth as she spoke, and her eyes and her husband's met, and
exchanged a message.
The man with the magnetic eyes burst hastily into the conversation, as
if anxious to divert attention to himself.
"I suppose I come next? I've been questioning myself while you've all
been talking. It's difficult to condense one's ambitions into just one
word, but I've got it at last--or the one which most nearly expresses
what I mean. _Danger_! That's it. That's what I want. I'm fed up
with monotony, and convention, and civilisation, but I go a step farther
than Miss Juliet, for I demand, so to speak, the superlative of
adventure. Risk, uncertainty, the thrill, the fear! I want to take my
life in my hands, to get out into the open of life, and come face to
face with the unknown. Put me down as `Danger,' Mrs Ingram, and when
you think over all the wishes, mine really seems the easiest of
fulfilment. There's plenty of trouble knocking around, and a man need
not have far to search. I think, on the whole, I'll absolve my friends
from that promise to help! It might land them in disagreeable
consequences!"
"But are we expected to wish you good luck? It really _is_ an invidious
position!" cried the girl in blue. She sighed, and twisted her fingers
together in her lap.
"It's coming to my turn," she continued, "and I'm so horribly
embarrassed, for my confession sounds the most selfish of all: I want
just to be happy! That's all! But it means so much, and it's such a
difficult thing to accomplish. Don't anyone _dare_ to tell me that it's
in my own power, and must be manufactured inside, because I've heard it
so often, and it's not true! I need _outside_ things, and I can't be
happy till I get them. But I only want them so that I can be happy, and
I'd give them up in a minute if _other_ things would have the same
effect. Don't I express myself lucidly and well? I'm a sweet,
tender-hearted little girl, dear friends, and I ask for so little! Kind
contributions gratefully received. Mrs Ingram dear, you won't preach,
will you?"
"Not for the world," cried Mrs Ingram laughing. "Why shouldn't you be
happy, Meriel dear? I am sure we all wish you a short quest, and a rich
harvest! And what does Norah want?"
Mrs Ingram's voice was a trifle apologetic as she looked towards where
Norah Boyce sat, turning her head from side to side to listen to the
pronouncements of her fellow guests, sometimes serious, sometimes
smiling, but always with that little wistful pucker of the brows which
of late had become a settled expression. It seemed at the moment as if
it would be more sensible to inquire what Norah did _not_ want, for a
very harvest of last straws had combined to break her back within the
last two years. She was an orphan, but having been possessed of a
moderate, but comfortable income (five hundred a year to wit), had
contrived to lead a sufficiently full and agreeable life during the
half-dozen years which had elapsed since she had left school. She paid
visits, she travelled abroad with congenial friends, she had a room at a
ladies' club, and stayed frequently as paying guest with such of her
friends as were not overburdened with this world's wealth. Everyone was
pleased to entertain a pretty, particularly sweet-tempered girl, and to
receive five pounds a week for the privilege, for there was no meanness
about Norah, she looked upon money simply as a means to an end, spent
lavishly, and was as ignorant as a doll as to the investments from which
her income arose. She knew by reference to her bank-book that a cheque
for about a hundred pounds was due in December, and was convenient for
Christmas gifts, and that another--about fifty--arrived in time for the
July sales. She knew that her receipts varied, but that, of course, was
the result of a Liberal Government, and would come right with its fall
from power! On one occasion a cheque never came at all, and it appeared
that something had gone wrong in America, and that it never would come
any more. Norah felt very indignant with her trustee, and was convinced
that the loss was entirely his fault. She asked pathetically what was
the _use_ of having a trustee, and felt very Christian and forbearing,
because she was quite civil to him when they next met,--from all which
it will be gathered that Norah Boyce was a survival of the
old-fashioned, unworldly, more or less helpless young women of a past
generation. She had not been trained either to work, or to think for
herself; her education had not specialised on any one subject; her value
in the wage-earning market was exactly nil, and before the end of her
twenty-fifth year her income had fallen to nearly the same point.
It had been a year of calamity. Everything went wrong. A European war
sent down the prices of stocks and shares. A railway strike at home
swallowed up dividends; a bank failed; water leaked into an oil well,
and dried up on a rubber plantation. Norah had no time to recover from
one disaster before another burst upon her; while she was still
sorrowfully digesting the fact that a summer remittance was not to hand,
intelligence arrived that as regarded autumn payments, the trustee
regretfully pronounced no dividends. In short, Fortune, having smiled
upon the young woman for twenty-five years, had now turned her back with
a vengeance, until eventually she was face to face with the fact that in
future her work must be to earn, rather than to spend.
Mrs Ingram had played her usual part of confidante and consoler during
the year of upheaval, and the invitation had been given with the
intention of allowing "the poor little dear time to think." It would
not be tactful to exclude her from the general questioning that had
sprung out of New Year confidences, but in her heart the hostess shrank
from putting the question.
"And what do _you_ want, Norah? I think it's your turn!"
Contrary to expectation Norah did not look at all perturbed. She
shrugged her shoulders, and cried instantly, "Oh, Work, of course!
Plenty of work. At once. With a handsome remuneration, paid quarterly
in advance! It sounds very moral and praiseworthy, but it isn't a bit.
I'm not fond of work; I'd a great deal sooner go on amusing myself in my
own way. I've never had one scrap of longing to be a bachelor girl, and
live on my own, and cook sketchy meals on a greasy stove. I detest food
in the raw, and should never be able to eat it, after contending with it
in its earliest stages. I'd live on tea and nuts. But it's a got-to!
I _must_ earn money, so I must work. The trouble is to discover what I
can do... I can think of thousands of things that I _can't_... I can--
with care--make five shillings go about as far as an ordinary person's
half-crown, so I'm not exactly suited to be a housekeeper. I couldn't
trim a hat to save my life, but I can alter one quite well. I'm clever
at it. It's generally accomplished by first sitting on it, and then
putting it on in the dark. You wouldn't believe how smart it can look!
Do you think there'd be any chance of selling the patent? Or could I
advertise in a fashion paper--`Lady remodels hats to latest mode. Send
orders for two and six to N.B.'? ... I can't write a book, or paint a
picture, or teach a child over three, or nurse, or massage, or type, or
keep a beauty parlour--or--or--or anything that working women _do_ do!
I might offer myself to the Educational Society, as a horrible example
of how a girl ought _not_ to be brought up, and be exhibited on the
platform at lectures. The work would be light, and I could wear pretty
clothes, but I don't think it would be respectful to my parents. I
think I must be a `nice old-fashioned girl,' but there's no demand for
old-fashioned girls to-day. Nobody wants them!"
"I don't agree with you there, Norah. I think there's a big demand,"
Mrs Ingram said quickly, and from the men present came a deep murmur of
agreement. No one present was in love with Norah Boyce herself, but all
were in love with her type. She would make a charming wife, a
delightful mother. To the end of her life she would probably have
difficulties with cheques, and remain hopelessly mixed on political
questions, but she would be a genius in the making of a home!
"You'll find your right niche, dear, I've no doubt of that. You mustn't
allow yourself to despair before you begin your search." Mrs Ingram
continued smiling. "Your ambition, at any rate, is a thing in which we
can all help. Please everybody remember Norah, and let her know at once
if you hear of a suitable post! I think we must make a strong point of
her disposition. Such a very sweet temper ought to be priced above
rubies."
"I'll sell it cheap at three pounds a week!" said Norah ruefully, and
there was a merry outburst of laughter. It died quickly, however, and a
general expectation made itself felt, the echo of which sounded in Mrs
Ingram's voice.
"Only one more confession, and we have gone through our list. Lilith is
hiding, as usual, but she shall not escape. Come out of your corner,
you silent sprite, and tell us what gift you would ask of the Fates
to-night!"
"A white moss rose!" drawled Claudia mockingly, but the ripple of
laughter which usually followed her words was this time feeble and
unreal.
Every eye was turned towards that darkened corner; the very fire, as
though following the general example, threw up a long blue flame which
flickered strangely over Lilith's face.
She moved forward with a noiseless deliberation; first, two tiny,
white-shod feet gleamed upon the oak floor, then two small hands clasped
on folds of satin; last of all, the small head with the tightly swathed
hair, the small, straight features, and the curious light-rimmed eyes.
For a long, silent moment she sat gazing before her. Her voice when she
spoke had an unexpected depth and richness.
"I want," said Lilith slowly--"Power!"
Mrs Ingram disapproved of anachronisms, and set her face sternly
against electric lighting in her ancestral home. To-night, as every
night, the retiring guests helped themselves to one of a row of silver
candlesticks on a table near the staircase, and lit it with a match
before beginning the ascent. Lilith was the last of the ladies to
receive her candle; the last to receive the salutations of the four men.
She raised her face to each in turn, and gazed deep in his eyes, while
their hands met and parted, and to three men out of the four came, at
that moment, a vision and a dream. The man who had wished for love,
thrilled at the thought of a woman's eyes looking out of an unknown
face, which yet would share some magical quality with those now looking
into his own. John Malham saw in a vision an icy peak, sharp and white,
and beautiful with a deadly beauty. The touch of her hand in his was
cold and light as a snowflake. Val Lessing looked at the white column
of her throat, and beheld round it ropes of pearls--lustrous, shimmering
pearls for which a man might venture his life; but Francis, the giant,
had no illusions--he was sleepy, and he thought of bed.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Alone in the great hall, husband and wife stood over the dying logs.
"Well, wonderful woman!" he said, "you have given us a wonderful
evening, and now we must stand by, and watch those nine strugglers in
the maelstrom. It will be interesting; it will be awful. How many of
them do you suppose will win through to their goal?"
Mrs Ingram did not answer his question; she asked another of her own
accord:
"Did you notice," she said softly, "that no one, not one of them--"
"Wished your wish?" he finished for her. "Yes! I noticed!"
He laid his hands on her shoulders, and they stood together, gazing
deeply into each other's eyes.
"But," she sighed softly, "it is the best!"