Philip and Isabel were in full time for luncheon. The wife noticed that
her husband ate his toast and squab with appetite. His cheeks were
flushed from the canter back to the hotel, while during the half hour at
table he appeared both happy and talkative.
"Shall you mind if I go off this afternoon for golf?" he asked, as they
went from the dining-room.
Isabel's face expressed satisfaction. Her husband had hardly left her
side since their arrival. She believed in casual separation. She knew
instinctively that Philip must feel renewed interest in his own sex, to
be quite the man he had been before his trouble of months back.
"Go, by all means," she encouraged, as they went from the elevator to
their rooms. "Golf must be your game; it will do you a world of good to
follow the links."
"And you won't miss me?"
"Not a bit," she answered. "Besides, I want to expect you back. I wish
to feel the pang of parting, so that I may know how very, very lonely I
used to be." She spoke lightly, but he knew that in reality she did not
jest. "And the man--your opponent in golf?" she asked.
Philip stooped and kissed her. "How do you know that I am not going to
tread the turf with a fair lady?" he teased.
"I should be awfully jealous," she confessed. He knew that she spoke the
truth. It came over him at the time that men were few who might claim
such love as Isabel's. In her starry eyes he read salvation, felt the
depth of her womanly will. Inadequate power to repay his debt made him
humble. He kissed her again, holding her close with adoring tenderness.
Then he told her that he was about to play golf with the great publisher
whom he had recently met. The triumph on her lips amused him.
"Build no air-castles!" he begged. But she freed herself from his arms
and danced like a child.
"What a chance!" she cried. "You must make him your friend. I saw last
evening that he was immensely interested in you, and now he may ask you
to write for his magazine." Isabel's estimate of her husband's genius,
of his ability to rush into print in one of the foremost monthly
publications in the country, was fresh proof of her blind passion.
"Don't think such foolish things, dear little girl," Philip commanded.
"The road to solicited manuscripts is a long way off--as yet. I shall
have to get my stuff back many, many times before I can count on an
indulgent editor." He spoke humbly, yet withal the eternal spark of hope
had kindled for his literary career.
"Shall you tell him of your book--about 'The Spirit of the Cathedral'?"
Philip shook his head. "That might frighten him. He would think that I
had an ax to grind."
"But you have sent your manuscript to another publishing house," she
persisted.
"That is true," he assented, "but until I hear definitely, I do not care
to talk of my forthcoming book. Besides, the man is here for rest and
change. If I am able to make him my friend he may possibly tell me
things. Above all, I must not bore him with my own uncertain
achievements." He laughed, tugging at his golf shoe. "But you shall try
your art on the man this evening; I have promised to present him."
"I will do my best," Isabel answered. "And by reason of the dance
to-night the bride may wear white satin. She is irresistible in la robe
empire."
Philip faced her. "I see all my manuscripts accepted at once," he said
jestingly.
"Of course. Now run along; do not keep our great man waiting. I shall
rest for an hour, then write to madame and Reginald."
"And you are really able for a ball, after the high steps of the mission
tower?"
It was the first time that he had spoken of their morning's experience.
Isabel was overjoyed at his light reference to the visit to the old
church.
"To dance will limber me, beyond doubt," she declared, with a wave of
her hand. She watched him pass down the hall to the elevator; then she
went back to her sitting-room.
At last she felt the glad sense of partnership. Ambition for the man she
loved threatened to become more absorbing than all else in her life.
Suddenly her boy seemed to reproach her. On the table his lifelike
portrait begged for notice. She caught up the silver frame.
"Darling little son!" she murmured, "mother will soon be at home--more
than ever your playmate, your companion." She put the picture down and
sat with her head resting between her hands. Her thoughts were now all
with Reginald. What was he doing? Was he out in his pony cart? Was
dainty baby Elizabeth along, giving the dolls an airing? Then, above
all, did the boy miss his "mother dear"? She drew a crumpled half sheet
of paper from an envelope. "Bless his dear little heart," she again
murmured. Reginald's zigzag message, together with round spots
wonderfully colored to represent kisses, drew her lips. She responded to
a realistic fancy, smiling above her son's confident masterpiece. Then
she re-read a letter from madame. All were moving along, and the child
was happy.
Her old friend's idiomatic expression kept her smiling to the end, while
she realized anew the good fortune which had brought the French woman to
California. In future Reginald might have every chance with his French.
The mother decided to make luncheon, with the boy at table, a time set
apart for French conversation. Philip, too, spoke the foreign tongue;
and again Isabel planned for Reginald's liberal education. And she meant
to study herself, by the side of a talented husband. How full life
promised to become. But with every consistent hope her own ambition was
subordinate to love. To love, to be loved by Philip, by Reginald, by
friends, constituted the little world she longed to conquer. And
to-night, she wished to shine at the ball, not as a woman evoking
admiration from the crowd, but as Philip's wife. If she might help to
bring him fresh power she was satisfied. Nor did Isabel deny her own
evident advantage. She was too familiar with standards of beauty not to
be glad of a rich inheritance; yet in all her life she had never been
vain. For to be vain is to be selfish, pinned upon a revolving, personal
pivot. Isabel had always thought first of others. To-day her mind was
full of schemes for Philip, for Reginald, and for old madame. If Philip
agreed she wished to live permanently in California. She had already put
her closed house in the West on the market. The city which had once been
home no longer claimed her interest. And Philip must never go back to
the scene of his past humiliation. She reached for a traveling portfolio
and began to write to Reginald. Here and there she pasted bright
pictures to illustrate a little story which would be sure to delight her
boy. When she had finished she dashed off a letter in French to madame;
then, fearing that Philip might be late, she laid out his dinner
clothes. She was not in need of companionship, and a couch close to the
wide window facing the sea lured her. She would rest. Waves splashed a
rhythm of contentment. Out beyond the breakers a buoy creaked in vain,
for her nerves were as sound as her boy's. She did not mind the
incessant grind. She was happy--satisfied.