When the season was fairly open the Kimberlys made Alice the recipient
of every attention. A solidarity had always seemed, in an unusual
degree, to animate the family. They were happy in their common
interests and their efforts united happily now to make Alice a favored
one in their activities.
In everything proposed by Dolly or Imogene, Alice was consulted. When
functions were arranged, guests lists were submitted to her.
Entertainment was decided upon after Alice had been called in. The
result was a gay season even for Second Lake. And Dolly said it was the
influx of Alice's new blood into the attenuated strain at the lake that
accounted for the successful summer. Alice herself grew light-hearted.
In social affairs the battalions inclined to her side. Even Lottie
Nelson could not stand out and was fain to make such peace as she could.
In all of this Alice found consolation for the neglect of her husband.
She had begun to realize that this neglect was not so much a slight,
personal to her, as a subordination of everything to the passion for
money-getting. It is impossible to remain always angry and Alice's
anger subsided in the end into indifference as to what her husband said
or did.
She had, moreover--if it were a stimulus--the continual stimulus of
Kimberly's attitude. Without insincerity or indifference he accommodated
his interest in her to satisfactory restraint. This gave Alice the
pleasure of realizing that her firmness had in nowise estranged him and
that without being turbulent he was always very fond of her. She knew he
could look to many other women for whatever he chose to ask of favor,
yet apparently he looked to her alone for his pleasure in womankind; and
in a hundred delicate ways he allowed her to feel this.
A handsome young Harvard man came to her at the lake seeking an opening
in the refineries. His people were former Colorado acquaintances whom
Alice was extremely desirous of obliging. She entertained her visitor
and tried vainly to interest her husband in him. MacBirney promised but
did nothing, and one day Dolly calling at Cedar Lodge found Alice
writing a note to the college boy, still waiting in town on MacBirney's
empty promises, telling him of the failure of her efforts and advising
him not to wait longer.
"But why worry?" asked Dolly, when Alice told her. "Speak to Robert
about it. He will place him within twenty-four hours."
"I can't very well ask a favor of that kind from Mr. Kimberly, Dolly."
"What nonsense! Why not?"
Alice could not say precisely why. "After my own husband hasn't found a
way to place him!" she exclaimed.
Dolly did not hesitate. "I will attend to it. Give me his address.
Football, did you say? Very good."
Within a week the young man wrote Alice--from the Orange River
refineries, where he was, he picturesquely said, knee-deep in
sugar--that he had actually been before the sugar magnate, Robert
Kimberly himself, adding with the impetuous spelling of a football man,
that the interview had been so gracious and lasted so long he had grown
nervous about the time Mr. Kimberly was giving him.
Kimberly never referred to the matter nor did Alice ever mention it to
him. It was merely pleasant to think of. And in such evidences as the
frequent letters from her protege she read her influence over the man
who, even the chronicle of the day could have told her, had she needed
the confirmation, extorted the interest of the world in which he moved;
and over whom, apparently, no woman other than herself could claim
influence.
She came tacitly to accept this position toward Kimberly. Its nature
did not compromise her conscience and it seemed in this way possible
both to have and not have. She grew to lean upon the thought of him as
one of the consoling supports in her whirling life--the life in which
reflection never reached conclusion, action never looked forward to
result, and denial had neither time nor place.
The pursuit of pleasure, sweetened by that philanthropy and the
munificent almsgiving which was so esteemed by those about her, made up
her life. Alice concluded that those of her circle severely criticised
by many who did not know them, did much good. Their failings,
naturally, would not condemn them with critics who, like herself, came
in contact with them at their best.
Some time after the placing of the young college man, Alice, running in
one morning on Dolly found her in tears. She had never before seen
Dolly even worried and was at once all solicitude. For one of the very
few times in her life, it appeared, Dolly had clashed with her brother
Robert. Nor could Alice get clearly from her what the difference had
been about. All that was evident to Alice was that Dolly was very much
grieved and mortified over something Kimberly had said or done, or
refused to say or do, concerning a distinguished actress who upon
finishing an American tour was to be entertained by Dolly.
Alice in the afternoon was over at Imogene's. Robert Kimberly was there
with his brother. Afterward he joined Imogene and Alice under the elms
and asked them to drive. While Imogene went in to make ready Alice
poured a cup of tea for Kimberly. "I suppose you know you have made
Dolly feel very bad," she said with a color of reproach.
Kimberly responded with the family prudence. "Have I?" Alice handed him
the tea and he asked another question. "What, pray, do you know about
it?"
"Nothing at all except that she is hurt, and that I am sorry."
"She didn't tell you what the difference was?"
"Except that it concerned her coming guest."
"I offered Dolly my yacht for her week. She wanted me to go with the
party. Because I declined, she became greatly incensed."
"She thought, naturally, you ought to have obliged her."
"I pleaded I could not spare the time. She has the Nelsons and enough
others, anyway."
"Her answer, of course, is that your time is your own."
"But the fact is, her guest made the request. Dolly without consulting
me promised I would go, and now that I will not she is angry."
"I should think a week at sea would be a diversion for you."
"To tag around a week in heavy seas with wraps after a person of
distinction? And pace the deck with her on damp nights?"
"That is unamiable. She is a very great actress."
Kimberly continued to object. "Suppose she should be seasick. I once
went out with her and she professed to be ill every morning. I had to
sit in her cabin--it was a stuffy yacht of De Castro's--and hold her
hand."
"But you are so patient. You would not mind that."
"Oh, no; I am not in the least patient. The Kimberlys are described as
patient when they are merely persistent. If I am even amiable,
amiability is something quite other than patience. Patience is almost
mysterious to me. Francis is the only patient man I ever have known."
"In this case you are not even amiable. We all have to do things we
don't want to do, to oblige others. And Dolly ought to be obliged."
"Very well. If you will go, I will. What do you say?"
"You need not drag me in. I shall have guests of my own next week. If
Dolly made a mistake about your inclination in the affair it would be
only generous to help her out."
"Very well, I will go."
"Now you are amiable."
"They can put in at Bar Point and I will join them for the last two
days. I will urge McEntee, the captain, to see that they are all sick,
if possible, before I come aboard. Then they will not need very much
entertaining."
"How malicious!"
"Not a bit. Dolly is a good sailor. Her guest cares nothing for me.
It is only to have an American at her heels."
"They say that no one can resist her charm. You may not escape it this
time."
A fortnight passed before any news came to Alice from the yachting
party. Then Fritzie came home from Nelsons' one day with an interesting
account of the trip. Until the story was all told, Alice felt gratified
at having smoothed over Dolly's difficulty.
"They were gone longer than they expected," said Fritzie. "Robert was
having such a good time. Lottie Nelson tells me Dolly's guest made the
greatest sort of a hit with Robert. He didn't like her at first. Then
she sang a song that attracted him, and he kept her singing that song
all the time. He sat in a big chair near the piano and wouldn't move.
The funny thing was, she was awfully bored the way he acted. By the
way, you must not miss the golf to-morrow. Everybody will be out."
Alice hardly heard the last words. She was thinking about Kimberly's
entertaining the celebrity. Every other incident of the voyage had been
lost upon her. When she found herself alone her disappointment and
resentment were keen. Some unaccountable dread annoyed her. He was
then, she reflected, like all other men, filled with mere professions of
devotion.
Something more disturbed her. The incident revealed to her that he had
grown to be more in her thoughts than she realized. Racks and
thumb-screws could not have dragged from her the admission that she was
interested in him. It was enough that he professed to be devoted to her
and had been led away by the first nod of another woman.