A TEST OF ATTITUDE
What are they going to do, a man and a woman who have met and loved in
the past, and have separated conscientiously, when brought together
again under extraordinary circumstances, after each has felt that loving
and of real living had been denied, and endured it all for years? What
is going to happen when, because of one of the accidents of life and of
one of the great accomplishing conditions, such two as this have been,
once more, thrown, figuratively, into each other's arms?
This man had saved this woman's life yesterday, stumbling upon her after
all this separation, after he done a man's work in another hemisphere
and had, disappointed with life, supposed the chapter closed. Now he was
to meet her at the breakfast table. What must be the demeanor of these
two toward each other now? Be assured neither of them knew, not even the
woman,--and in foreseeing as to such a situation a woman knows more, by
some instinct, than a man may learn in a thousand years.
She knew that they would meet that morning. That was the inevitable,
after yesterday. Anything else would have been a foolish affectation. He
knew, as well, that he must go in to that breakfast table and sit
opposite her and that then they must face together a situation
delicately psychological and dangerous and altogether fascinating--from
a philosopher's point of view. It was not perhaps, quite so fascinating
to these two people with what we call conscience and the possession of
what makes the greatness of humanity, whether it appertain to man or
woman. There is no sex to nobility.
She was sitting there, divinely sweet, as he stalked in. She was sitting
there, divinely sweet, because she was made that way, and never did
Stafford realize it more. The years had taken from her gentle beauty not
the slightest toll.
She bloomed this fair morning--it was only moderately fair, by the
way--as there entered the man who had saved her life the day before and
with whom in the past hers had been the closest understanding of her
life. To the eye she was merely placid and infinitely enchanting. The
man did not appear to such advantage. He entered blunderingly and
doubtful.
There were, of course, the usual expression of morning courtesies and
then they settled down to a fencing which was but a lovingness as vast
as unexpressed. They talked of a variety of things but there was no
allusion even so near as Saturn, to what was lying close against the
hearts of both. We are rather fine but we are unexplainable sometimes,
we men and women whom Nature made so curiously.
As a matter of fact, this one of the most forceful of men and one of the
most sweet and desirable of women said practically nothing throughout
the entire breakfast. They did not even refer to the grim incident of
the dog and the grapple, which had been something worth while. Had the
thing been less they would have talked about it. But, to them, by an
indefinable knowing, this matter was something too great to consider at
the present moment. And, so, unconsciously, understanding each other,
they consigned themselves to ordinary table talk.
But we cannot always command lack of remembrance and get obedience.
There is something better. Nature has her ways. One of her ways is to
have given us eyes, and how she did place us under her soft thumb when
she did that!
They said very little, but they looked into each other's eyes. They
couldn't help that very well. Then the laws of life worked themselves
out. It is a way they have.
What are you going to do with a woman's eyes? Inside the depths of a
woman's eyes, lurking lovingly, sometimes, are all the revelations that
must come when the time comes and reflect themselves into the
looking-glasses God provides to tell us of the thoughts of others. There
are different women and different eyes, of course. We must take our
chances on that.
And, so as said, they did not even refer to the happenings of the day
before or of any of the context of all that had occurred. They did not
refer to the great hound. They talked of nothing but of things
incidental. She asked him when they would probably be released from
their snow imprisonment and he told her that it would be within two
days.
And, so they separated and had practically said nothing.
But eyes, as announced, are the most astonishing things. They had talked
a great deal that morning. As we human beings are made, they are a
little the neatest and finest expression of all there is in life. They
hold and send forth the beaconing flash from every intellectual and
loving light-house in the world. They are, with what they say, the
confessional between any two human beings, man and woman, in the world.
They are the mediums of revelation. No wonder that those who know want
sometimes, foolishly, it may be, to die when to them comes a physical
blindness which may not be remedied.
And this man and woman looked into each other's eyes, he hardly
comprehending at first but having the great consciousness come to him at
last, she doubtless understanding sooner, and even more acutely.
Intelligent fluttering of the heart is what might possibly be said of
her. She was alarmed and yet, from another point of view, entirely
without fear. She realized the situation better than did he. Ever since
the world was first firmly encrusted out of the steaming fog woman has
been the braver of the two in our love affairs.
Exceedingly clever as these two people were, there is no opportunity to
do any exceedingly brilliant work in telling all about them. Brought
down to its last analysis, theirs was but the plain, old-fashioned love
which has stood the test of all the centuries and which, in our modern
English and American times, has the flavor of the hollyhocks which grow
about the front fence and the old-fashioned pinks in the yard and a lot
of other things. We have new ways in other things, but love has not
changed much since the time of Egypt. Doubtless it was about the same
way before.
"What is the day of the week, please," had been Stafford's last
utterance. She did not even reply. She looked back into his eyes and
that look, if it could have been weighed, could have been considered by
nothing but Troy weight, the jeweller's weight, and then it would have
been too coarse for the occasion and the demand.
And so they separated and had practically said nothing.
Not the great Sultan Schariar, when listening to the fair Scheherazade,
as she prolonged her life from day to day and finally saved it by the
fascination of her stories; not the august hearer, as Sinbad the Sailor
described his marvelous adventures; not Margaret of Angouleme, as she
gathered the more lettered ladies and gallants of her court and induced
them to add to the gayety of nations by the relation of brisk and risque
experiences; not Dickens, as he spun the threads himself of his Tales of
a Wayside Inn, had a more keen enjoyment than the Colonel listening to
the words of his drafted and mustered volunteers. He fairly glowed
appreciation and satisfaction. As Stafford entered the Cassowary, he
perceived that the Colonel was still recruiting.