The Saturday evening hop, which so often was a perfunctory recurrence,
blossomed into an occasion, when a score of United States naval officers
entered the hotel. The great fleet had not then made the gallant dash
around the Horn; but for several years preceding this noted achievement
stray battleships had touched along the Western coast. The ship in
question bound for Manila was now anchored over night outside the
breakers of St. Barnabas. Corridors of the hotel palpitated when
privileged men off the man-of-war burst upon the scene. In less than a
minute maneuvers in the ballroom eclipsed those of the outlying
battleship, as anxious mammas steered young daughters to open port.
Lines drew taut and merciless for all untouched by the accolade of
station, while on every side sat groups of elderly onlookers.
Officers in immaculate evening dress, ready for change, eager to dance
with pretty women, moved easily about, and soon surcharged conditions
were overcome by general satisfaction.
By Isabel's side Gay Lewis shone with reflected prominence. Nor did the
girl deny the evident truth when flocking ensigns marked her for second
choice.
"You are a dear!" she reiterated after each opportunity due to her
friend. "I have not had a chaperone for a long time. Now I see my
blunder." For Philip Barry's wife was the undoubted toast of the navy
men.
In a day when dancing has degenerated into pathetic uncertainty the
advent of willing ensigns might well be put down as something new and
exhilarating. Isabel forgot her strenuous climb to the mission roof. She
had not enjoyed a ball for full five years; and she was like a girl
surrounded by a swarm of admirers. To-night the great publisher had no
chance, with epaulets to right and left. But the afternoon at golf had
been successful. Philip and his new friend stood together on the
outskirts, each duly conscious of his own inadequate worth.
"It behooves us to tread modestly--we fellows who have adopted a sober
career," the editor declared. "I never could learn. My mother kept me at
dancing school until I had tramped the toes of every little girl in the
class, then one day she gave me up." He laughed drolly, while his eyes
took in the swift, unconscious movement of Mrs. Barry and her partner, a
tall young ensign.
"We are not in China, and fortunately I may speak to you of your wife,"
he went on. "As a comparatively new acquaintance, I beg to congratulate
you. You are too fortunate in a world where many are not."
Barry stiffened. The other sensed misapprehension.
"I have never been married," he explained. "I am denied the pleasure of
admiring my own wife. Those days at dancing school took away all
possible hope. For years I could hardly shake hands with a girl of my
own age; then you see I got wedded to single life--spent my days
passing upon loves of fictitious heroes and heroines."
"Too bad," said Philip, deeply interested.
"Sometimes I think I should have made a much better judge of literature
if I had only asked a woman to share my criticisms and bear my remorse
when I turn down very readable things. You see a man who has not married
can never be quite as sure as one who knows the taste of both good and
evil. 'The woman which thou gavest me' may do a lot of mischief, but
when the crash comes she generally compensates. For my part I doubt if
Adam would have gone back into the garden with any interest whatever
after Eve found 'pastures new' outside."
"And you believe that a married man is capable of better work than a
single one?" Philip was growing curious.
"Undoubtedly," the editor answered. "I have in my mind a certain writer
of note, one who but for persistent bachelorhood might have risen to
highest rank in fiction. As it is, he has always fallen short of the
real emotion. A certain class reading his books fail to detect mere
description in supposedly passionate episodes, but to those of deeper
consciousness and experience he has counterfeit feeling. This particular
novelist works from matrimonial patterns--traces all that he draws. I am
older than yourself, and you will pardon me for saying it, but your wife
should help you to achieve almost anything."
Philip flushed. The pride of possession came over him afresh when Isabel
whirled past, with a smile which he knew could never be untrue. Above
her radiance, beauty, he felt her exquisite womanhood. To-night he
believed that she would lead him to "pastures new--outside." Throughout
the evening Philip stayed by the editor, gradually making his way into
the man's confidence, while adhering to a first determination which
withheld the fact of his own unprinted book. Then at midnight, Isabel,
Miss Lewis, and three young officers captured the onlookers and forced
them away to supper.
It was a gay little party. The round table at which all sat became an
excuse for a full hour's enjoyment; and as Isabel had promised, she did
her best to make the editor, who might possibly help Philip, her own
friend also. The undertaking was not difficult. If dancing school trials
had left an eternal scar on the bachelor's unclaimed heart to-night he
showed no unwillingness to devote himself to Isabel. Philip was amused.
Then he remembered his wife's unfailing charm. He had never seen her
unsympathetic or rude. When she really cared to please, she could not be
soon forgotten by any one selected for her favor. And to-night, as
usual, the elderly publisher and the young ensigns from the ship all
went under to a woman's gracious way. Nor was Miss Lewis annoyed.
"Of course," she said afterward, "no one ever attempts to eclipse
Isabel; for don't you see she would not care in the least, and that
being the case, no other woman would be foolish enough to try--and then
fail." And Gay was at her best during supper. Philip had never liked her
as well as when the party broke up. There was, after all, something fine
and straightforward about the girl, who appeared to drift with the tide
of hotel pastimes. Philip told himself that as a priest he had been
narrow in many of his judgments. The evening had stimulated his
respect for the world. His emotional nature went out again to
things he had once given up. Isabel's beauty held him in passionate
bonds; and he felt incentive for new work. His book, which came next to
his wife--for no one writes seriously without the sense of humanized
accomplishment--suddenly went up in his own estimation. The evening with
a real publisher had stiffened his confidence; and for the first time
since his marriage he merged love for Isabel with the success of "The
Spirit of the Cathedral." But his personal undercurrent passed
unnoticed. To his wife he seemed detached from all but the present. As
she drew him away from the shining ballroom she exulted to herself.
Unusual and lighter opportunity seemed to be what her husband most
needed.
The battleship hauled anchor at dawn. The men had already started for
the tug and a trip across the breakers. The hotel was despoiled of
glory. Corridors were soon dim and lonely. To Isabel the night had
proved her husband's ease with a life comparatively new and untried. She
felt young, contented, ready for all which might come. Not a fear for
Philip crossed her mind as she went to her rooms. She had been
exhilarated throughout the evening; but now she was glad to rest. Philip
unfastened her gown, halting to kiss her bare shoulders, to tell her
about their friend, the magazine editor. As she slipped out of her ball
finery she was like a girl after a first night of conquest. Later he
listened to her gentle, regular breathing as he lay by her side. It
seemed yet a dream that she was really his wife. Events of the past
began to fill his mind. Then reaction, which so often came with excess
of feeling, kept him awake for hours. But at last he dropped away, only
to rouse up at intervals. The outgoing tide seemed to carry him to the
anchored ship, gleaming beyond. The incessant, yet broken passion of the
sea forbade sleep. With every tardy lap of waves he grew more restless;
and dawn broke. All at once, a desire to witness the departure of the
man-of-war drew him from bed. Isabel slumbered as a child, and Philip
went softly to the window and looked out. The sea rose and fell an
arctic green. There was no mist, and he could see the great ship
clearly. A streamer of black smoke floated across the morning sky;
already there were signs of departure. Philip dressed quickly and
quietly. It occurred to him that Isabel might be shocked to awaken and
find him gone. He smiled as he slipped into the sitting-room to indite a
line "To the Sleeping Beauty." But his wife did not stir when he pinned
the note to his own empty pillow. He went back to the adjoining
apartment for his field glasses; then out of the door through quiet
halls, to a side entrance below, where he found an open way.