MID-LENT
"Mid-Lent, and the Enemy grins," remarked Selwyn as he started for
church with Nina and the children. Austin, knee-deep in a dozen Sunday
supplements, refused to stir; poor little Eileen was now convalescent
from grippe, but still unsteady on her legs; her maid had taken the
grippe, and now moaned all day: "_Mon dieu! Mon dieu! Che fais mourir!_"
Boots Lansing called to see Eileen, but she wouldn't come down, saying
her nose was too pink. Drina entertained Boots, and then Selwyn returned
and talked army talk with him until tea was served. Drina poured tea
very prettily; Nina had driven Austin to vespers. The family dined at
seven so Drina could sit up; special treat on account of Boots's
presence at table. Gerald was expected, but did not come.
The next morning, Selwyn went downtown at the usual hour and found
Gerald, pale and shaky, hanging over his desk and trying to dictate
letters to an uncomfortable stenographer.
So he dismissed the abashed girl for the moment, closed the door, and
sat down beside the young man.
"Go home, Gerald" he said with decision; "when Neergard comes in I'll
tell him you are not well. And, old fellow, don't ever come near the
office again when you're in this condition."
"I'm a perfect fool," faltered the boy, his voice trembling; "I don't
really care for that sort of thing, either; but you know how it is in
that set--"
"What set?"
"Oh, the Fanes--the Ruthv--" He stammered himself into silence.
"I see. What happened last night?"
"The usual; two tables full of it. There was a wheel, too. . . . I had
no intention--but you know yourself how it parches your throat--the
jollying and laughing and excitement. . . . I forgot all about what
you--what we talked over. . . . I'm ashamed and sorry; but I can stay
here and attend to things, of course--"
"I don't want Neergard to see you," repeated Selwyn.
"W-why," stammered the boy, "do I look as rocky as that?"
"Yes. See here, you are not afraid of me, are you?"
"No--"
"You don't think I'm one of those long-faced, blue-nosed butters-in, do
you? You have confidence in me, haven't you? You know I'm an average and
normally sinful man who has made plenty of mistakes and who understands
how others make them--you know that, don't you, old chap?"
"Y-es."
"Then you _will_ listen, won't you, Gerald?"
The boy laid his arms on the desk and hid his face in them. Then he
nodded.
For ten minutes Selwyn talked to him with all the terse and colloquial
confidence of a comradeship founded upon respect for mutual fallibility.
No instruction, no admonition, no blame, no reproach--only an
affectionately logical review of matters as they stood--and as they
threatened to stand.
The boy, fortunately, was still pliable and susceptible, still unalarmed
and frank. It seemed that he had lost money again--this time to Jack
Ruthven; and Selwyn's teeth remained sternly interlocked as, bit by bit,
the story came out. But in the telling the boy was not quite as frank as
he might have been; and Selwyn supposed he was able to stand his loss
without seeking aid.
"Anyway," said Gerald in a muffled voice, "I've learned one lesson--that
a business man can't acquire the habits and keep the infernal hours that
suit people who can take all day to sleep it off."
"Right," said Selwyn.
"Besides, my income can't stand it," added Gerald naïvely.
"Neither could mine, old fellow. And, Gerald, cut out this card
business; it's the final refuge of the feebleminded. . . . You like it?
Oh, well, if you've got to play--if you've no better resource for
leisure, and if non-participation isolates you too completely from other
idiots--play the imbecile gentleman's game; which means a game where
nobody need worry over the stakes."
"But--they'd laugh at me!"
"I know; but Boots Lansing wouldn't--and you have considerable respect
for him."
Gerald nodded; he had immediately succumbed to Lansing like everybody
else.
"And one thing more," said Selwyn; "don't play for stakes--no matter how
insignificant--where women sit in the game. Fashionable or not, it is
rotten sport--whatever the ethics may be. And, Gerald, tainted sport and
a clean record can't take the same fence together."
The boy looked up, flushed and perplexed. "Why, every woman in town--"
"Oh, no. How about your sister and mine?"
"Of course not; they are different. Only--well, you approve of Rosamund
Fane and--Gladys Orchil--don't you?"
"Gerald, men don't ask each other such questions--except as you ask,
without expecting or desiring an answer from me, and merely to be saying
something nice about two pretty women."
The reproof went home, deeply, but without a pang; and the boy sat
silent, studying the blotter between his elbows.
A little later he started for home at Selwyn's advice. But the memory of
his card losses frightened him, and he stopped on the way to see what
money Austin would advance him.
Julius Neergard came up from Long Island, arriving at the office about
noon. The weather was evidently cold on Long Island; he had the
complexion of a raw ham, but the thick, fat hand, with its bitten nails,
which he offered Selwyn as he entered his office, was unpleasantly hot,
and, on the thin nose which split the broad expanse of face, a bead or
two of sweat usually glistened, winter and summer.
"Where's Gerald?" he asked as an office-boy relieved him of his heavy
box coat and brought his mail to him.
"I advised Gerald to go home," observed Selwyn carelessly; "he is not
perfectly well."
Neergard's tiny mouse-like eyes, set close together, stole brightly in
Selwyn's direction; but they usually looked just a little past a man,
seldom at him.
"Grippe?" he asked.
"I don't think so," said Selwyn.
"Lots of grippe 'round town," observed Neergard, as though satisfied
that Gerald had it. Then he sat down and rubbed his large, membranous
ears.
"Captain Selwyn," he began, "I'm satisfied that it's a devilish good
thing."
"Are you?"
"Emphatically. I've mastered the details--virtually all of 'em. Here's
the situation in a grain of wheat!--the Siowitha Club owns a thousand or
so acres of oak scrub, pine scrub, sand and weeds, and controls four
thousand more; that is to say--the club pays the farmers' rents and
fixes their fences and awards them odd jobs and prizes for the farm
sustaining the biggest number of bevies. Also the club pays them to
maintain the millet and buckwheat patches and to act as wardens. In
return the farmers post their four thousand acres for the exclusive
benefit of the club. Is that plain?"
"Perfectly."
"Very well, then. Now the Siowitha is largely composed of very rich
men--among them Bradley Harmon, Jack Ruthven, George Fane, Sanxon
Orchil, the Hon. Delmour-Carnes--_that_ crowd--rich and stingy. That's
why they are contented with a yearly agreement with the farmers instead
of buying the four thousand acres. Why put a lot of good money out of
commission when they can draw interest on it and toss an insignificant
fraction of that interest as a sop to the farmers? Do you see? That's
your millionaire method--and it's what makes 'em in the first place."
He drew a large fancy handkerchief from his pistol-pocket and wiped the
beads from the bridge of his limber nose. But they reappeared again.
"Now," he said, "I am satisfied that, working very carefully, we can
secure options on every acre of the four thousand. There is money in it
either way and any way we work it; we get it coming and going. First of
all, if the Siowitha people find that they really cannot get on without
controlling these acres--why"--and he snickered so that his nose curved
into a thin, ruddy beak--"why, Captain, I suppose we _could_ let them
have the land. Eh? Oh, yes--if they _must_ have it!"
Selwyn frowned slightly.
"But the point is," continued Neergard, "that it borders the railroad on
the north; and where the land is not wavy it's flat as a pancake,
and"--he sank his husky voice--"it's fairly riddled with water. I paid a
thousand dollars for six tests."
"Water!" repeated Selwyn wonderingly; "why, it's dry as a desert!"
"_Underground water_!--only about forty feet on the average. Why, man, I
can hit a well flowing three thousand gallons almost anywhere. It's a
gold mine. I don't care what you do with the acreage--split it up into
lots and advertise, or club the Siowitha people into submission--it's
all the same; it's a gold mine--to be swiped and developed. Now there
remains the title searching and the damnable job of financing
it--because we've got to move cautiously, and knock softly at the doors
of the money vaults, or we'll be waking up some Wall Street relatives or
secret business associates of the yellow crowd; and if anybody bawls
for help we'll be up in the air next New Year's, and still hiking
skyward."
He stood up, gathering together the mail matter which his secretary had
already opened for his attention. "There's plenty of time yet; their
leases were renewed the first of this year, and they'll run the year
out. But it's something to think about. Will you talk to Gerald, or
shall I?"
"You," said Selwyn. "I'll think the matter over and give you my opinion.
May I speak to my brother-in-law about it?"
Neergard turned in his tracks and looked almost at him.
"Do you think there's any chance of his financing the thing?"
"I haven't the slightest idea of what he might do. Especially"--he
hesitated--"as you never have had any loans from his people--I
understand--"
"No," said Neergard; "I haven't."
"It's rather out of their usual, I believe--"
"So they say. But Long Island acreage needn't beg favours now. That's
all over, Captain Selwyn. Fane, Harmon & Co. know that; Mr. Gerard ought
to know it, too."
Selwyn looked troubled. "Shall I consult Mr. Gerard?" he repeated. "I
should like to if you have no objection."
Neergard's small, close-set eyes were focused on a spot just beyond
Selwyn's left shoulder.
"Suppose you sound him," he suggested, "in strictest--"
"Naturally," cut in Selwyn dryly; and turning to his littered desk,
opened the first letter his hand encountered. Now that his head was
turned, Neergard looked full at the back of his neck for a long minute,
then went out silently.
* * * * *
That night Selwyn stopped at his sister's house before going to his own
rooms, and, finding Austin alone in the library, laid the matter before
him exactly as Neergard had put it.
"You see," he added, "that I'm a sort of an ass about business methods.
What I like--what I understand, is to use good judgment, go in and
boldly buy a piece of property, wait until it becomes more valuable,
either through improvements or the natural enhancement of good value,
then take a legitimate profit, and repeat the process. That, in outline,
is what I understand. But, Austin, this furtive pouncing on a thing and
clubbing other people's money out of them with it--this slyly acquiring
land that is necessary to an unsuspecting neighbour and then holding him
up--I don't like. There's always something of this sort that prevents my
cordial co-operation with Neergard--always something in the schemes
which hints of--of squeezing--of something underground--"
"Like the water which he's going to squeeze out of the wells?"
Selwyn laughed.
"Phil," said his brother-in-law, "if you think anybody can do a
profitable business except at other people's expense, you are an ass."
"Am I?" asked Selwyn, still laughing frankly.
"Certainly. The land is there, plain enough for anybody to see. It's
always been there; it's likely to remain for a few æons, I fancy.
"Now, along comes Meynheer Julius Neergard--the only man who seems to
have brains enough to see the present value of that parcel to the
Siowitha people. Everybody else had the same chance; nobody except
Neergard knew enough to take it. Why shouldn't he profit by it?"
"Yes--but if he'd be satisfied to cut it up into lots and do what is
fair--"
"Cut it up into nothing! Man alive, do you suppose the Siowitha people
would let him? They've only a few thousand acres; they've _got_ to
control that land. What good is their club without it? Do you imagine
they'd let a town grow up on three sides of their precious
game-preserve? And, besides, I'll bet you that half of their streams and
lakes take rise on other people's property--and that Neergard knows
it--the Dutch fox!"
"That sort of--of business--that kind of coercion, does not appeal to
me," said Selwyn gravely.
"Then you'd better go into something besides business in this town,"
observed Austin, turning red. "Good Lord, man, where would my Loan and
Trust Company be if we never foreclosed, never swallowed a good thing
when we see it?"
"But you don't threaten people."
Austin turned redder. "If people or corporations stand in our way and
block progress, of course we threaten. Threaten? Isn't the threat of
punishment the very basis of law and order itself? What are laws for?
And we have laws, too--laws, under the law--"
"Of the State of New Jersey," said Selwyn, laughing. "Don't flare up,
Austin; I'm probably not cut out for a business career, as you
point out--otherwise I would not have consulted you. I know
some laws--including 'The Survival of the Fittest,' and the
'Chain-of-Destruction'; and I have read the poem beginning
"'Big bugs have little bugs to bite 'em.'
"That's all right, too; but speaking of laws, I'm always trying to
formulate one for my particular self-government; and you don't mind, do
you?"
"No," said Gerard, much amused, "I don't mind. Only when you talk
ethics--talk sense at the same time."
"I wish I knew how," he said.
They discussed Neergard's scheme for a little while longer; Austin,
shrewd and cautious, declined any personal part in the financing of the
deal, although he admitted the probability of prospective profits.
"Our investments and our loans are of a different character," he
explained, "but I have no doubt that Fane, Harmon & Co.--"
"Why, both Fane and Harmon are members of the club!" laughed Selwyn.
"You don't expect Neergard to go to them?"
A peculiar expression flickered in Gerard's heavy features; perhaps he
thought that Fane and Harmon and Jack Ruthven were not above exploiting
their own club under certain circumstances. But whatever his opinion, he
said nothing further; and, suggesting that Selwyn remain to dine, went
off to dress.
A few moments later he returned, crestfallen and conciliatory:
"I forgot, Nina and I are dining at the Orchils. Come up a moment; she
wants to speak to you."
So they took the rose-tinted rococo elevator; Austin went away to his
own quarters, and Selwyn tapped at Nina's boudoir.
"Is that you, Phil? One minute; Watson is finishing my hair. . . . Come
in, now; and kindly keep your distance, my friend. Do you suppose I want
Rosamund to know what brand of war-paint I use?"
"Rosamund," he repeated, with a good-humoured shrug; "it's likely--isn't
it?"
"Certainly it's likely. You'd never know you were telling her
anything--but she'd extract every detail in ten seconds. . . . I
understand she adores you, Phil. What have you done to her?"
"That's likely, too," he remarked, remembering his savagely polite
rebuke to that young matron after the Minster dinner.
"Well, she does; you've probably piqued her; that's the sort of man she
likes. . . . Look at my hair--how bright and wavy it is, Phil. Tell me,
_do_ I appear fairly pretty to-night?"
"You're all right, Nina; I mean it," he said. "How are the kids? How is
Eileen?"
"That's why I sent for you. Eileen is furious at being left here all
alone; she's practically well and she's to dine with Drina in the
library. Would you be good enough to dine there with them? Eileen, poor
child, is heartily sick of her imprisonment; it would be a mercy, Phil."
"Why, yes, I'll do it, of course; only I've some matters at home--"
"Home! You call those stuffy, smoky, impossible, half-furnished rooms
_home_! Phil, when are you ever going to get some pretty furniture and
art things? Eileen and I have been talking it over, and we've decided to
go there and see what you need and then order it, whether you like it or
not."
"Thanks," he said, laughing; "it's just what I've tried to avoid. I've
got things where I want them now--but I knew it was too comfortable to
last. Boots said that some woman would be sure to be good to me with an
art-nouveau rocking-chair."
"A perfect sample of man's gratitude," said Nina, exasperated; "for I've
ordered two beautiful art-nouveau rocking-chairs, one for you and one
for Mr. Lansing. Now you can go and humiliate poor little Eileen, who
took so much pleasure in planning with me for your comfort. As for your
friend Boots, he's unspeakable--with my compliments."
Selwyn stayed until he made peace with his sister, then he mounted to
the nursery to "lean over" the younger children and preside at prayers.
This being accomplished, he descended to the library, where Eileen
Erroll in a filmy, lace-clouded gown, full of turquoise tints, reclined
with her arm around Drina amid heaps of cushions, watching the waitress
prepare a table for two.
He took the fresh, cool hand she extended and sat down on the edge of
her couch.
"All O.K. again?" he inquired, retaining Eileen's hand in his.
"Thank you--quite. Are you really going to dine with us? Are you sure
you want to? Oh, I know you've given up some very gay dinner
somewhere--"
"I was going to dine with Boots when Nina rescued me. Poor Boots!--I
think I'll telephone--"
"Telephone him to come here!" begged Drina. "Would he come? Oh,
please--I'd love to have him."
"I wish you would ask him," said Eileen; "it's been so lonely and stupid
to lie in bed with a red nose and fishy eyes and pains in one's back and
limbs. Please do let us have a party."
[Illustration: "'Two pillows,' said Drina sweetly."]
So Selwyn went to the telephone, and presently returned, saying that
Boots was overwhelmed and would be present at the festivities; and
Drina, enraptured, ordered flowers to be brought from the dining-room
and a large table set for four, with particular pomp and circumstance.
Mr. Archibald Lansing arrived very promptly--a short, stocky young man
of clean and powerful build, with dark, keen eyes always alert, and
humorous lips ever on the edge of laughter under his dark moustache.
His manner with Drina was always delightful--a mixture of self-repressed
idolatry and busily naïve belief in a thorough understanding between
them to exclude Selwyn from their company.
"This Selwyn fellow here!" he exclaimed. "I warned him over the 'phone
we'd not tolerate him, Drina. I explained to him very carefully that you
and I were dining together in strictest privacy--"
"He begged so hard," said Eileen. "Will somebody place an extra pillow
for Drina?"
They seized the same pillow fiercely, confronting each other; massacre
appeared imminent.
"_Two_ pillows," said Drina sweetly; and extermination was averted. The
child laughed happily, covering one of Boots's hands with both of hers.
"So you've left the service, Mr. Lansing?" began Eileen, lying back and
looking smilingly at Boots.
"Had to, Miss Erroll. Seven millionaires ran into my quarters and chased
me out and down Broadway into the offices of the Westchester Air Line
Company. Then these seven merciless multi-millionaires in buckram bound
and gagged me, stuffed my pockets full of salary, and forced me to
typewrite a fearful and secret oath to serve them for five long, weary
years. That's a sample of how the wealthy grind the noses of the poor,
isn't it, Drina?"
The child slipped her hand from his, smiling uncertainly.
"You don't mean all that, do you?"
"Indeed I do, sweetheart."
"Are you not a soldier lieutenant any more, then?" she inquired,
horribly disappointed.
"Only a private in the workman's battalion, Drina."
"I don't care," retorted the child obstinately; "I like you just as
much."
"Have you really done it?" asked Selwyn as the first course was served.
"_I?_ No. _They?_ Yes. We'll probably lose the Philippines now," he
added gloomily; "but it's my thankless country's fault; you all had a
chance to make me dictator, you know. Miss Erroll, do you want a
second-hand sword? Of course there are great dents in it--"
"I'd rather have those celebrated boots," she replied demurely; and Mr.
Lansing groaned.
"How tall you're growing, Drina," remarked Selwyn.
"Probably the early spring weather," added Boots. "You're twelve, aren't
you?"
"Thirteen," said Drina gravely.
"Almost time to elope with me," nodded Boots.
"I'll do it now," she said--"as soon as my new gowns are made--if you'll
take me to Manila. Will you? I believe my Aunt Alixe is there--"
She caught Eileen's eye and stopped short. "I forgot," she murmured; "I
beg your pardon, Uncle Philip--"
Boots was talking very fast and laughing a great deal; Eileen's plate
claimed her undivided attention; Selwyn quietly finished his claret; the
child looked at them all.
"By the way," said Boots abruptly, "what's the matter with Gerald? He
came in before noon looking very seedy--" Selwyn glanced up quietly.
"Wasn't he at the office?" asked Eileen anxiously.
"Oh, yes," replied Selwyn; "he felt a trifle under the weather, so I
sent him home."
"Is it the grippe?"
"N-no, I believe not--"
"Do you think he had better have a doctor? Where is he?"
"He was here," observed Drina composedly, "and father was angry with
him."
"What?" exclaimed Eileen. "When?"
"This morning, before father went downtown."
Both Selwyn and Lansing cut in coolly, dismissing the matter with a
careless word or two; and coffee was served--cambric tea in Drina's
case.
"Come on," said Boots, slipping a bride-rose into Drina's curls; "I'm
ready for confidences."
"Confidences" had become an established custom with Drina and Boots; it
meant that every time they saw one another they were pledged to tell
each other everything that had occurred in their lives since their last
meeting.
So Drina, excitedly requesting to be excused, jumped up and, taking
Lansing's hand in hers, led him to a sofa in a distant corner, where
they immediately installed themselves and began an earnest and whispered
exchange of confidences, punctuated by little whirlwinds of laughter
from the child.
Eileen settled deeper among her pillows as the table was removed, and
Selwyn drew his chair forward.
"Suppose," she said, looking thoughtfully at him, "that you and I make a
vow to exchange confidences? Shall we, Captain Selwyn?"
"Good heavens," he protested; "I--confess to _you_! You'd faint dead
away, Eileen."
"Perhaps. . . . But will you?"
He gaily evaded an answer, and after a while he fancied she had
forgotten. They spoke of other things, of her convalescence, of the
engagements she had been obliged to cancel, of the stupid hours in her
room--doubly stupid, as the doctor had not permitted her to read or sew.
"And every day violets from you," she said; "it was certainly nice of
you. And--do you know that somehow--just because you have never yet
failed me--I thought perhaps--when I asked your confidence a moment
ago--"
He looked up quickly.
"_What_ is the matter with Gerald?" she asked. "Could you tell me?"
"Nothing serious is the matter, Eileen."
"Is he not ill?"
"Not very."
She lay still a moment, then with the slightest gesture: "Come here."
He seated himself near her; she laid her hand fearlessly on his arm.
"Tell me," she demanded. And, as he remained silent: "Once," she said,
"I came suddenly into the library. Austin and Gerald were there; Austin
seemed to be very angry with my brother. I heard him say something that
worried me; and I slipped out before they saw me."
Selwyn remained silent.
"Was _that_ it?"
"I--don't know what you heard."
"_Don't_ you understand me?"
"Not exactly."
"Well, then"--she crimsoned--"has Gerald m-misbehaved again?"
"What did you hear Austin say?" he demanded.
"I heard--something about dissipation. He was very angry with Gerald. It
is not the best way, I think, to become angry with either of us--either
me or Gerald--because then we are usually inclined to do it
again--whatever it is. . . . I do not mean for one moment to be disloyal
to Austin; you know that. . . . But I am so thankful that Gerald is fond
of you. . . . You like him, too, don't you?"
"I am very fond of him."
"Well, then," she said, "you will talk to him pleasantly--won't you? He
is _such_ a boy; and he adores you. It is easy to influence a boy like
that, you know--easy to shame him out of the silly things he does. . . .
That is all the confidence I wanted, Captain Selwyn. And you haven't
told me a word, you see--and I have not fainted--have I?"
They laughed a little; her fingers, which had tightened on his arm,
relaxed; her hand fell away, and she straightened up, sitting Turk
fashion, and smoothing her hair which contact with the pillows had
disarranged so that it threatened to come tumbling over eyes and cheeks.
"Oh, hair, hair!" she murmured, "you're Nina's despair and my endless
punishment. I'd twist and pin you tight if I dared--some day I will,
too. . . . What are you looking at so curiously, Captain Selwyn? My
mop?"
"It's about the most stunningly beautiful thing I ever saw," he said,
still curious.
She nodded gaily, both hands still busy with the lustrous strands. "It
_is_ nice; but I never supposed you noticed it. It falls to my waist;
I'll show it to you some time. . . . But I had no idea _you_ noticed
such things," she repeated, as though to herself.
"Oh, I'm apt to notice all sorts of things," he said, looking so
provokingly wise that she dropped her hair and clapped both hands over
her eyes.
"Now," she said, "if you are so observing, you'll know the colour of my
eyes. What are they?"
"Blue--with a sort of violet tint," he said promptly.
She laughed and lowered her hands.
"All that personal attention paid to me!" she exclaimed. "You are
turning my head, Captain Selwyn. Besides, you are astonishing me,
because you never seem to know what women wear or what they resemble
when I ask you to describe the girls with whom you have been dining or
dancing."
It was a new note in their cordial intimacy--this nascent intrusion of
the personal. To her it merely meant his very charming recognition of
her maturity--she was fast becoming a woman like other women, to be
looked at and remembered as an individual, and no longer classed vaguely
as one among hundreds of the newly emerged whose soft, unexpanded
personalities all resembled one another.
For some time, now, she had cherished this tiny grudge in her
heart--that he had never seemed to notice anything in particular about
her except when he tried to be agreeable concerning some new gown. The
contrast had become the sharper, too, since she had awakened to the
admiration of other men. And the awakening was only a half-convinced
happiness mingled with shy surprise that the wise world should really
deem her so lovely.
"A red-headed girl," she said teasingly; "I thought you had better taste
than--than--"
"Than to think you a raving beauty?"
"Oh," she said, "you don't think that!"
As a matter of fact he himself had become aware of it so suddenly that
he had no time to think very much about it. It was rather strange, too,
that he had not always been aware of it; or was it partly the mellow
light from the lamp tinting her till she glowed and shimmered like a
young sorceress, sitting so straight there in her turquoise silk and
misty lace?
Delicate luminous shadow banded her eyes; her hair, partly in shadow,
too, became a sombre mystery in rose-gold.
"Whatever _are_ you staring at?" she laughed. "Me? I don't believe it!
Never have you so honoured me with your fixed attention, Captain Selwyn.
You really glare at me as though I were interesting. And I know you
don't consider me that; do you?"
"How old are you, anyway?" he asked curiously.
"Thank you, I'll be delighted to inform you when I'm twenty."
"You look like a mixture of fifteen and twenty-five to-night," he said
deliberately; "and the answer is more and less than nineteen."
"And you," she said, "talk like a frivolous sage, and your wisdom is as
weighty as the years you carry. And what is the answer to that? Do you
know, Captain Selwyn, that when you talk to me this way you look about
as inexperienced as Gerald?"
"And do _you_ know," he said, "that I feel as inexperienced--when I talk
to you this way?"
She nodded. "It's probably good for us both; I age, you renew the
frivolous days of youth when you were young enough to notice the colour
of a girl's hair and eyes. Besides, I'm very grateful to you. Hereafter
you won't dare sit about and cross your knees and look like the picture
of an inattentive young man by Gibson. You've admitted that you like two
of my features, and I shall expect you to notice and _admit_ that you
notice the rest."
"I admit it now," he said, laughing.
"You mustn't; I won't let you. Two kinds of dessert are sufficient at a
time. But to-morrow--or perhaps the day after, you may confess to me
your approbation of one more feature--only one, remember!--just one more
agreeable feature. In that way I shall be able to hold out for quite a
while, you see--counting my fingers as separate features! Oh, you've
given me a taste of it; it's your own fault, Captain Selwyn, and now I
desire more if you please--in semi-weekly lingering doses--"
A perfect gale of laughter from the sofa cut her short.
"Drina!" she exclaimed; "it's after eight!--and I completely forgot."
"Oh, dear!" protested the child, "he's being so funny about the war in
Samar. Couldn't I stay up--just five more minutes, Eileen? Besides, I
haven't told him about Jessie Orchil's party--"
"Drina, dear, you _know_ I can't let you. Say good-night, now--if you
want Mr. Lansing and your Uncle Philip to come to another party."
"I'll just whisper one more confidence very fast," she said to Boots. He
inclined his head; she placed both hands on his shoulders, and, kneeling
on the sofa, laid her lips close to his ear. Eileen and Selwyn waited.
When the child had ended and had taken leave of all, Boots also took his
leave; and Selwyn rose, too, a troubled, careworn expression replacing
the careless gaiety which had made him seem so young in Miss Erroll's
youthful eyes.
"Wait, Boots," he said; "I'm going home with you." And, to Eileen,
almost absently: "Good-night; I'm so very glad you are well again."
"Good-night," she said, looking up at him. The faintest sense of
disappointment came over her--at what, she did not know. Was it because,
in his completely altered face she realised the instant and easy
detachment from herself, and what concerned her?--was it because other
people, like Mr. Lansing--other interests--like those which so plainly,
in his face, betrayed his preoccupation--had so easily replaced an
intimacy which had seemed to grow newer and more delightful with every
meeting?
What was it, then, that he found more interesting, more important, than
their friendship, their companionship? Was she never to grow old enough,
or wise enough, or experienced enough to exact--without exacting--his
paramount consideration and interest? Was there no common level of
mental equality where they could meet?--where termination of interviews
might be mutual--might be fairer to her?
Now he went away, utterly detached from her and what concerned her--to
seek other interests of which she knew nothing; absorbed in them to her
utter exclusion, leaving her here with the long evening before her and
nothing to do--because her eyes were not yet strong enough to use for
reading.
Lansing was saying: "I'll drive as far as the club with you, and then
you can drop me and come back later."
"Right, my son; I'll finish a letter and then come back--"
"Can't you write it at the club?"
"Not that letter," he replied in a low voice; and, turning to Eileen,
smiled his absent, detached smile, offering his hand.
But she lay back, looking straight up at him.
"Are you going?"
"Yes; I have several--"
"Stay with me," she said in a low voice.
For a moment the words meant nothing; then blank surprise silenced him,
followed by curiosity.
"Is there something you wished to tell me?" he asked.
"N-no."
His perplexity and surprise grew. "Wait a second, Boots," he said; and
Mr. Lansing, being a fairly intelligent young man, went out and down the
stairway.
"Now," he said, too kindly, too soothingly, "what is it, Eileen?"
"Nothing. I thought--but I don't care. Please go, Captain Selwyn."
"No, I shall not until you tell me what troubles you."
"I can't."
"Try, Eileen."
"Why, it is nothing; truly it is nothing. . . . Only I was--it is so
early--only a quarter past eight--"
He stood there looking down at her, striving to understand.
"That is all," she said, flushing a trifle; "I can't read and I can't
sew and there's nobody here. . . . I don't mean to bother you--"
"Child," he exclaimed, "do you _want_ me to stay?"
"Yes," she said; "will you?"
He walked swiftly to the landing outside and looked down.
"Boots!" he called in a low voice, "I'm not going home yet. Don't wait
for me at the Lenox."
"All right," returned Mr. Lansing cheerfully. A moment later the front
door closed below. Then Selwyn came back into the library.
For an hour he sat there telling her the gayest stories and talking the
most delightful nonsense, alternating with interesting incisions into
serious subjects: which it enchanted her to dissect under his confident
guidance.
Alert, intelligent, all aquiver between laughter and absorption, she had
sat up among her silken pillows, resting her weight on one rounded arm,
her splendid young eyes fixed on him to detect and follow and interpret
every change in his expression personal to the subject and to her share
in it.
His old self again! What could be more welcome? Not one shadow in his
pleasant eyes, not a trace of pallor, of care, of that gray aloofness.
How jolly, how young he was after all!
They discussed, or laughed at, or mentioned and dismissed with a gesture
a thousand matters of common interest in that swift hour--incredibly
swift, unless the hall clock's deadened chimes were mocking Time itself
with mischievous effrontery.
She heard them, the enchantment still in her eyes; he nodded, listening,
meeting her gaze with his smile undisturbed. When the last chime had
sounded she lay back among her cushions.
"Thank you for staying," she said quite happily.
"Am I to go?"
Smilingly thoughtful she considered him from her pillows:
"Where were you going when I--spoiled it all? For you were going
somewhere--out there"--with a gesture toward the darkness
outside--"somewhere where men go to have the good times they always seem
to have. . . . Was it to your club? What do men do there? Is it very gay
at men's clubs? . . . It must be interesting to go where men have such
jolly times--where men gather to talk that mysterious man-talk which we
so often wonder at--and pretend we are indifferent. But we are very
curious, nevertheless--even about the boys of Gerald's age--whom we
laugh at and torment; and we can't help wondering how they talk to each
other--what they say that is so interesting; for they somehow manage to
convey that impression to us--even against our will. . . . If you stay,
I shall never have done with chattering. When you sit there with one
lazy knee so leisurely draped over the other, and your eyes laughing at
me through your cigar-smoke, about a million ideas flash up in me which
I desire to discuss with you. . . . So you had better go."
"I am happier here," he said, watching her.
"Really?"
"Really."
"Then--then--am _I_, also, one of the 'good times' a man can have?--when
he is at liberty to reflect and choose as he idles over his coffee?"
"A man is fortunate if you permit that choice."
"Are you serious? I mean a man, not a boy--not a dance or dinner
partner, or one of the men one meets about--everywhere from pillar to
post. Do you think me interesting to real men?--like you and Boots?"
"Yes," he said deliberately, "I do. I don't know how interesting,
because--I never quite realised how--how you had matured. . . . That was
my stupidity."
"Captain Selwyn!" in confused triumph; "you never gave me a chance; I
mean, you always were nice in--in the same way you are to Drina. . . . I
liked it--don't please misunderstand--only I knew there was something
else to me--something more nearly your own age. It was jolly to know you
were really fond of me--but youthful sisters grow faster than you
imagine. . . . And now, when you come, I shall venture to believe it is
not wholly to do me a kindness--but--a little--to do yourself one, too.
Is that not the basis of friendship?"
"Yes."
"Community and equality of interests?--isn't it?"
"Yes."
"--And--in which the--the charity of superior experience and the
inattention of intellectual preoccupation and the amused concession to
ignorance must steadily, if gradually, disappear? Is that it, too?"
Astonishment and chagrin at his misconception of her gave place to
outright laughter at his own expense.
"Where on earth did you--I mean that I am quite overwhelmed under your
cutting indictment of me. Old duffers of my age--"
"Don't say that," she said; "that is pleading guilty to the indictment,
and reverting to the old footing. I shall not permit you to go back."
"I don't want to, Eileen--"
"I am wondering," she said airily, "about that 'Eileen.' I'm not sure
but that easy and fluent 'Eileen' is part of the indictment. What do you
call Gladys Orchil, for example?"
"What do I care what I call anybody?" he retorted, laughing, "as long as
they
"'Answer to "Hi!"
Or to any loud cry'?"
"But _I_ won't answer to 'Hi!'" she retorted very promptly; "and now
that you admit that I am a 'good time,' a mature individual with
distinguishing characteristics, and your intellectual equal if not your
peer in experience, I'm not sure that I shall answer at all whenever you
begin 'Eileen.' Or I shall take my time about it--or I may even reflect
and look straight through you before I reply--or," she added, "I may be
so profoundly preoccupied with important matters which do not concern
you, that I might not even hear you speak at all."
Their light-hearted laughter mingled delightfully--fresh, free,
uncontrolled, peal after peal. She sat huddled up like a schoolgirl,
lovely head thrown back, her white hands clasping her knees; he, both
feet squarely on the floor, leaned forward, his laughter echoing hers.
"What nonsense! What blessed nonsense you and I are talking!" she said,
"but it has made me quite happy. Now you may go to your club and your
mysterious man-talk--"
"I don't want to--"
"Oh, but you must!"--_she_ was now dismissing _him_--"because, although
I am convalescent, I am a little tired, and Nina's maid is waiting to
tuck me in."
"So you send me away?"
"_Send_ you--" She hesitated, delightfully confused in the reversal of
roles--not quite convinced of this new power which, of itself, had
seemed to invest her with authority over man. "Yes," she said, "I must
send you away." And her heart beat a little faster in her uncertainty as
to his obedience--then leaped in triumph as he rose with a reluctance
perfectly visible.
"To-morrow," she said, "I am to drive for the first time. In the evening
I may be permitted to go to the Grays' mid-Lent dance--but not to dance
much. Will you be there? Didn't they ask you? I shall tell Suddy Gray
what I think of him--I don't care whether it's for the younger set
or not! Goodness me, aren't you as young as anybody! . . . Well,
then! . . . So we won't see each other to-morrow. And the day after
that--oh, I wish I had my engagement list. Never mind, I will telephone
you when I'm to be at home--or wherever I'm going to be. But it won't be
anywhere in particular because it's Lent, of course. . . . Good-night,
Captain Selwyn; you've been very sweet to me, and I've enjoyed every
single instant."
When he had gone she rose, a trifle excited in the glow of abstract
happiness, and walked erratically about, smiling to herself, touching
and rearranging objects that caught her attention. Then an innocent
instinct led her to the mirror, where she stood a moment looking back
into the lovely reflected face with its disordered hair.
"After all," she said, "I'm not as aged as I pretended. . . . I wonder
if he is laughing at me now. . . . But he was very, very nice to
me--wherever he has gone in quest of that 'good time' and to talk his
man-talk to other men--"
In a reverie she stood at the mirror considering her own flushed cheeks
and brilliant eyes.
"What a curiously interesting man he is," she murmured naïvely. "I shall
telephone him that I am not going to that _mi-carême_ dance. . . .
Besides, Suddy Gray is a bore with the martyred smile he's been
cultivating. . . . As though a happy girl would dream of marrying
anybody with all life before her to learn important things in! . . .
And that dreadful, downy Scott Innis--trying to make me listen
to _him_! . . . until I was ashamed to be alive! And Bradley
Harmon--ugh!--and oh, that mushy widower, Percy Draymore, who got hold
of my arm before I dreamed--"
She shuddered and turned back into the room, frowning and counting her
slow steps across the floor.
"After all," she said, "their silliness may be their greatest
mystery--but I don't include Captain Selwyn," she added loyally; "he is
far too intelligent to be like other men."
* * * * *
Yet, like other men, at that very moment Captain Selwyn was playing the
fizzing contents of a siphon upon the iced ingredients of a tall, thin
glass which stood on a table in the Lenox Club.
The governor's room being deserted except by himself and Mr. Lansing, he
continued the animated explanation of his delay in arriving.
"So I stayed," he said to Boots with an enthusiasm quite boyish, "and I
had a perfectly bully time. She's just as clever as she can
be--startling at moments. I never half appreciated her--she formerly
appealed to me in a different way--a young girl knocking at the door of
the world, and no mother or father to open for her and show her the
gimcracks and the freaks and the side-shows. Do you know, Boots, that
some day that girl is going to marry somebody, and it worries me,
knowing men as I do--unless you should think of--"
"Great James!" faltered Mr. Lansing, "are you turning into a schatschen?
Are you planning to waddle through the world making matches for your
friends? If you are I'm quitting you right here."
"It's only because you are the decentest man I happen to know," said
Selwyn resentfully. "Probably she'd turn you down, anyway. But--" and he
brightened up, "I dare say she'll choose the best to be had; it's a pity
though--"
"What's a pity?"
"That a charming, intellectual, sensitive, innocent girl like that
should be turned over to a plain lump of a man."
"When you've finished your eulogy on our sex," said Lansing, "I'll walk
home with you."
"Come on, then; I can talk while I walk; did you think I couldn't?"
And as they struck through the first cross street toward Lexington
Avenue: "It's a privilege for a fellow to know that sort of a girl--so
many surprises in her--the charmingly unexpected and unsuspected!--the
pretty flashes of wit, the naïve egotism which is as amusing as it is
harmless. . . . I had no idea how complex she is. . . . If you think you
have the simple feminine on your hands--forget it, Boots!--for she's as
evanescent as a helio-flash and as stunningly luminous as a searchlight.
. . . And here I've been doing the benevolent prig, bestowing society
upon her as a man doles out indigestible stuff to a kid, using a sort of
guilty discrimination in the distribution--"
"What on earth is all this?" demanded Lansing; "are you perhaps _non
compos_, dear friend?"
"I'm trying to tell you and explain to myself that little Miss Erroll is
a rare and profoundly interesting specimen of a genus not usually too
amusing," he replied with growing enthusiasm. "Of course, Holly Erroll
was her father, and that accounts for something; and her mother seems to
have been a wit as well as a beauty--which helps you to understand; but
the brilliancy of the result--aged nineteen, mind you--is out of all
proportion; cause and effect do not balance. . . . Why, Boots, an
ordinary man--I mean an everyday fellow who dines and dances and does
the harmlessly usual about town, dwindles to anæmic insignificance when
compared to that young girl--even now when she's practically
undeveloped--when her intelligence is like an uncut gem still in the
matrix of inexperience--"
"Help!" said Boots feebly, attempting to bolt; but Selwyn hooked arms
with him, laughing excitedly. In fact Lansing had not seen his friend in
such excellent spirits for many, many months; and it made him
exceedingly light-hearted, so that he presently began to chant the old
service canticle:
"I have another, he's just as bad,
He almost drives me crazy--"
And arm in arm they swung into the dark avenue, singing "Barney Riley"
in resonant undertones, while overhead the chilly little Western stars
looked down through pallid convolutions of moving clouds, and the wind
in the gas-lit avenue grew keener on the street-corners.
"Cooler followed by clearing," observed Boots in disgust. "Ugh; it's the
limit, this nipping, howling hemisphere." And he turned up his overcoat
collar.
"I prefer it to a hemisphere that smells like a cheap joss-stick," said
Selwyn.
"After all, they're about alike," retorted Boots--"even to the ladrones
of Broad Street and the dattos of Wall. . . . And here's our bally
bungalow now," he added, fumbling for his keys and whistling "taps"
under his breath.
As the two men entered and started to ascend the stairs, a door on the
parlour floor opened and their landlady appeared, enveloped in a soiled
crimson kimona and a false front which had slipped sideways.
"There's the Sultana," whispered Lansing, "and she's making
sign-language at you. Wig-wag her, Phil. Oh . . . good-evening, Mrs.
Greeve; did you wish to speak to me? Oh!--to Captain Selwyn. Of course."
"If _you_ please," said Mrs. Greeve ominously, so Lansing continued
upward; Selwyn descended; Mrs. Greeve waved him into the icy parlour,
where he presently found her straightening her "front" with work-worn
fingers.
"Captain Selwyn, I deemed it my duty to set up in order to inform you of
certain special doin's," she said haughtily.
"What 'doings'?" he inquired.
"Mr. Erroll's, sir. Last night he evidentially found difficulty with the
stairs and I seen him asleep on the parlour sofa when I come down to
answer the milkman, a-smokin' a cigar that wasn't lit, with his feet on
the angelus."
"I'm very, very sorry, Mrs. Greeve," he said--"and so is Mr. Erroll. He
and I had a little talk to-day, and I am sure that he will be more
careful hereafter."
"There is cigar-holes burned into the carpet," insisted Mrs. Greeve,
"and a mercy we wasn't all insinuated in our beds, one window-pane
broken and the gas a blue an' whistlin' streak with the curtains blowin'
into it an' a strange cat on to that satin dozy-do; the proof being the
repugnant perfume."
"All of which," said Selwyn, "Mr. Erroll will make every possible amends
for. He is very young, Mrs. Greeve, and very much ashamed, I am sure. So
please don't make it too hard for him."
She stood, little slippered feet planted sturdily in the first position
in dancing, fat, bare arms protruding from the kimona, her work-stained
fingers linked together in front of her. With a soiled thumb she turned
a ring on her third finger.
"I ain't a-goin' to be mean to nobody," she said; "my gentlemen is
always refined, even if they do sometimes forget theirselves when young
and sporty. Mr. Erroll is now a-bed, sir, and asleep like a cherub, ice
havin' been served three times with towels, extra. Would you be good
enough to mention the bill to him in the morning?--the grocer bein'
sniffy." And she handed the wadded and inky memorandum of damages to
Selwyn, who pocketed it with a nod of assurance.
"There was," she added, following him to the door, "a lady here to see
you twice, leavin' no name or intentions otherwise than business affairs
of a pressin' nature."
"A--lady?" he repeated, halting short on the stairs.
"Young an' refined, allowin' for a automobile veil."
"She--she asked for me?" he repeated, astonished.
"Yes, sir. She wanted to see your rooms. But havin' no orders, Captain
Selwyn--although I must say she was that polite and ladylike and," added
Mrs. Greeve irrelevantly, "a art rocker come for you, too, and another
for Mr. Lansing, which I placed in your respective settin'-rooms."
"Oh," said Selwyn, laughing in relief, "it's all right, Mrs. Greeve. The
lady who came is my sister, Mrs. Gerard; and whenever she comes you are
to admit her whether or not I am here."
"She said she might come again," nodded Mrs. Greeve as he mounted the
stairs; "am I to show her up any time she comes?"
"Certainly--thank you," he called back--"and Mr. Gerard, too, if he
calls."
He looked into Boots's room as he passed; that gentleman, in bedroom
costume of peculiar exotic gorgeousness, sat stuffing a pipe with shag,
and poring over a mass of papers pertaining to the Westchester Air
Line's property and prospective developments.
"Come in, Phil," he called out; "and look at the dinky chair somebody
sent me!" But Selwyn shook his head.
"Come into my rooms when you're ready," he said, and closed the door
again, smiling and turning away toward his own quarters.
Before he entered, however, he walked the length of the hall and
cautiously tried the handle of Gerald's door. It yielded; he lighted a
match and gazed at the sleeping boy where he lay very peacefully among
his pillows. Then, without a sound, he reclosed the door and withdrew to
his apartment.
As he emerged from the bedroom in his dressing-gown he heard the front
door-bell below peal twice, but paid no heed, his attention being
concentrated on the chair which Nina had sent him. First he walked
gingerly all around it, then he ventured nearer to examine it in detail,
and presently he tried it.
"Of course," he sighed--"bless her heart!--it's a perfectly impossible
chair. It squeaks, too." But he was mistaken; the creak came from the
old stairway outside his door, weighted with the tread of Mrs. Greeve.
The tread and the creaking ceased; there came a knock, then heavy
descending footsteps on the aged stairway, every separate step
protesting until the incubus had sunk once more into the depths from
which it had emerged.
As this happened to be the night for his laundry, he merely called out,
"All right!" and remained incurious, seated in the new chair and
striving to adjust its stiff and narrow architecture to his own broad
shoulders. Finally he got up and filled his pipe, intending to try the
chair once more under the most favourable circumstances.
As he lighted his pipe there came a hesitating knock at the door; he
jerked his head sharply; the knock was repeated.
Something--a faintest premonition--the vaguest stirring of foreboding
committed him to silence--and left him there motionless. The match
burned close to his fingers; he dropped it and set his heel upon the
sparks.
Then he walked swiftly to the door, flung it open full width--and stood
stock still.
And Mrs. Ruthven entered the room, partly closing the door behind, her
gloved hand still resting on the knob.
For a moment they confronted one another, he tall, rigid, astounded; she
pale, supple, relaxing a trifle against the half-closed door behind her,
which yielded and closed with a low click.
At the sound of the closing door he found his voice; it did not resemble
his own voice either to himself or to her; but she answered his
bewildered question:
"I don't know why I came. Is it so very dreadful? Have I offended
you? . . . I did not suppose that men cared about conventions."
"But--why on earth--did you come?" he repeated. "Are you in trouble?"
"I seem to be now," she said with a tremulous laugh; "you are
frightening me to death, Captain Selwyn."
Still dazed, he found the first chair at hand and dragged it toward her.
She hesitated at the offer; then: "Thank you," she said, passing before
him. She laid her hand on the chair, looked a moment at him, and sank
into it.
Resting there, her pale cheek against her muff, she smiled at him, and
every nerve in him quivered with pity.
"World without end; amen," she said. "Let the judgment of man pass."
"The judgment of this man passes very gently," he said, looking down at
her. "What brings you here, Mrs. Ruthven?"
"Will you believe me?"
"Yes."
"Then--it is simply the desire of the friendless for a friend. Nothing
else--nothing more subtle, nothing of effrontery; n-nothing worse. Do
you believe me?"
"I don't understand--"
"Try to."
"Do you mean that you have differed with--"
"Him?" She laughed. "Oh, no; I was talking of real people, not of myths.
And real people are not very friendly to me, always--not that they are
disagreeable, you understand, only a trifle overcordial; and my most
intimate friend kisses me a little too frequently. By the way, she has
quite succumbed to you, I hear."
"Who do you mean?"
"Why, Rosamund."
He said something under his breath and looked at her impatiently.
"Didn't you know it?" she asked, smiling.
"Know what?"
"That Rosamund is quite crazy about you?"
"Good Lord! Do you suppose that any of the monkey set are interested in
me or I in them?" he said, disgusted. "Do I ever go near them or meet
them at all except by accident in the routine of the machinery which
sometimes sews us in tangent patches on this crazy-quilt called
society?"
[Illustration: "'I don't know why I came.'"]
"But Rosamund," she said, laughing, "is now cultivating Mrs. Gerard."
"What of it?" he demanded.
"Because," she replied, still laughing, "I tell you, she is perfectly
mad about you. There's no use scowling and squaring your chin. Oh, I
ought to know what that indicates! I've watched you do it often enough;
but the fact is that the handsomest and smartest woman in town is for
ever dinning your perfections into my ears--"
"I know," he said, "that this sort of stuff passes in your set for wit;
but let me tell you that any man who cares for that brand of humour can
have it any time he chooses. However, he goes outside the residence
district to find it."
She flushed scarlet at his brutality; he drew up a chair, seated himself
very deliberately, and spoke, his unlighted pipe in his left hand:
"The girl I left--the girl who left me--was a modest, clean-thinking,
clean-minded girl, who also had a brain to use, and employed it.
Whatever conclusion that girl arrived at concerning the importance of
marriage-vows is no longer my business; but the moment she confronts me
again, offering friendship, then I may use a friend's privilege, as I
do. And so I tell you that loosely fashionable badinage bores me. And
another matter--privileged by the friendship you acknowledge--forces me
to ask you a question, and I ask it, point-blank: Why have you again
permitted Gerald to play cards for stakes at your house, after promising
you would not do so?"
The colour receded from her face and her gloved fingers tightened on the
arms of her chair.
"That is one reason I came," she said; "to explain--"
"You could have written."
"I say it was _one_ reason; the other I have already given you--because
I--I felt that you were friendly."
"I am. Go on."
"I don't know whether you are friendly to me; I thought you were--that
night. . . . I did not sleep a wink after it . . . because I was quite
happy. . . . But now--I don't know--"
"Whether I am still friendly? Well, I am. So please explain about
Gerald."
"Are you sure?" raising her dark eyes, "that you mean to be kind?"
"Yes, sure," he said harshly. "Go on."
"You are a little rough with me; a-almost insolent--"
"I--I have to be. Good God! Alixe, do you think this is nothing to
me?--this wretched mess we have made of life! Do you think my roughness
and abruptness comes from anything but pity?--pity for us both, I tell
you. Do you think I can remain unmoved looking on the atrocious
punishment you have inflicted on yourself?--tethered to--to _that_!--for
life!--the poison of the contact showing in your altered voice and
manner!--in the things you laugh at, in the things you live for--in the
twisted, misshapen ideals that your friends set up on a heap of nuggets
for you to worship? Even if we've passed through the sea of mire, can't
we at least clear the filth from our eyes and see straight and steer
straight to the anchorage?"
She had covered her pallid face with her muff; he bent forward, his hand
on the arm of her chair.
"Alixe, was there nothing to you, after all? Was it only a tinted ghost
that was blown into my bungalow that night--only a twist of shredded
marsh mist without substance, without being, without soul?--to be blown
away into the shadows with the next and stronger wind--and again to
drift out across the waste places of the world? I thought I knew a
sweet, impulsive comrade of flesh and blood; warm, quick, generous,
intelligent--and very, very young--too young and spirited, perhaps, to
endure the harness which coupled her with a man who failed her--and
failed himself.
"That she has made another--and perhaps more heart-breaking mistake, is
bitter for me, too--because--because--I have not yet forgotten. And even
if I ceased to remember, the sadness of it must touch me. But I have not
forgotten, and because I have not, I say to you, anchor! and hold fast.
Whatever _he_ does, whatever you suffer, whatever happens, steer
straight on to the anchorage. Do you understand me?"
Her gloved hand, moving at random, encountered his and closed on it
convulsively.
"Do you understand?" he repeated.
"Y-es, Phil."
Head still sinking, face covered with the silvery fur, the tremors from
her body set her hand quivering on his.
Heart-sick, he forbore to ask for the explanation; he knew the real
answer, anyway--whatever she might say--and he understood that any game
in that house was Ruthven's game, and the guests his guests; and that
Gerald was only one of the younger men who had been wrung dry in that
house.
No doubt at all that Ruthven needed the money; he was only a male geisha
for the set that harboured him, anyway--picked up by a big, hard-eyed
woman, who had almost forgotten how to laugh, until she found him
furtively muzzling her diamond-laden fingers. So, when she discovered
that he could sit up and beg and roll over at a nod, she let him follow
her; and since then he had become indispensable and had curled up on
many a soft and silken knee, and had sought and fetched and carried for
many a pretty woman what she herself did not care to touch, even with
white-gloved fingers.
What had she expected when she married him? Only innocent ignorance of
the set he ornamented could account for the horror of her disillusion.
What splendours had she dreamed of from the outside? What flashing and
infernal signal had beckoned her to enter? What mute eyes had promised?
What silent smile invited? All skulls seem to grin; but the world has
yet to hear them laugh.
* * * * *
"Philip?"
"Yes, Alixe."
"I did my best, w-without offending Gerald. Can you believe me?"
"I know you did. . . . Don't mind what I said--"
"N-no, not now. . . . You do believe me, don't you?"
"Yes, I do."
"Thank you. . . . And, Phil, I will try to s-steer straight--because you
ask me."
"You must."
"I will. . . . It is good to be here. . . . I must not come again, must
I?"
"Not again, Alixe."
"On your account?"
"On your own. . . . What do _I_ care?"
"I didn't know. They say--"
"What?" he asked sharply.
"A rumour--I heard it--others speak of it--perhaps to be disagreeable to
me--"
"What have you heard?"
"That--that you might marry again--"
"Well, you can nail that lie," he said hotly.
"Then it is not true?"
"True! Do you think I'd take that chance again even if I felt free to do
it?"
"Free?" she faltered; "but you _are_ free, Phil!"
"I am not," he said fiercely; "no man is free to marry twice under such
conditions. It's a jest at decency and a slap in the face of
civilisation! I'm done for--finished; I had my chance and I failed. Do
you think I consider myself free to try again with the chance of further
bespattering my family?"
"Wait until you really love," she said tremulously.
He laughed incredulously.
"I am glad that it is not true. . . . I am glad," she said. "Oh, Phil!
Phil!--for a single one of the chances we had again and again and
again!--and we did not know--we did not know! And yet--there were
moments--"
Dry-lipped he looked at her, and dry of eye and lip she raised her head
and stared at him--through him--far beyond at the twin ghosts floating
under the tropic stars locked fast in their first embrace.
Then she rose, blindly, covering her face with her hands, and he
stumbled to his feet, shrinking back from her--because dead fires were
flickering again, and the ashes of dead roses stirred above the scented
embers--and the magic of all the East was descending like a veil upon
them, and the Phantom of the Past drew nearer, smiling, wide-armed,
crowned with living blossoms.
The tide rose, swaying her where she stood; her hands fell from her
face. Between them the grave they had dug seemed almost filled with
flowers now--was filling fast. And across it they looked at one another
as though stunned. Then his face paled and he stepped back, staring at
her from stern eyes.
"Phil," she faltered, bewildered by the mirage, "is it only a bad dream,
after all?" And as the false magic glowed into blinding splendour to
engulf them: "Oh, boy! boy!--is it hell or heaven where we've fallen--?"
There came a loud rapping at the door.