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diff --git a/14393-h/14393-h.htm b/14393-h/14393-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..229574e --- /dev/null +++ b/14393-h/14393-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,8127 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta name="generator" content= +"HTML Tidy for Windows (vers 1st February 2004), see www.w3.org" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content= +"text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>The Inner Shrine, Basil King.</title> + +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[*/ + + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + p {text-align: justify;} + blockquote {text-align: justify;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} + pre {font-size: 0.7em;} + + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + hr.short {text-align: center; width: 20%;} + html>body hr.short {margin-right: 40%; margin-left: 40%; width: 20%;} + + + .figure, .figcenter, .figright, .figleft + {padding: 1em; margin: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em;} + .figure img, .figcenter img, .figright img, .figleft img + {border: none;} + .figure p, .figcenter p, .figright p, .figleft p + {margin: 0; text-indent: 1em;} + .figcenter {margin: auto;} + .figright {float: right;} + .figleft {float: left;} + + .inline {border: none; vertical-align: middle;} + + p.author {text-align: right;} + + --> +/*]]>*/ +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14393 ***</div> + +<div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:75%;"><a href= +"images/cover.jpg"><img width="75%" src="images/cover.jpg" alt= +"Front cover" /></a></div> +</div> +<h1>THE</h1> +<h1>INNER</h1> +<h1>SHRINE</h1> +<h4>A NOVEL OF TODAY</h4> +<h4>ILLUSTRATED</h4> +<h4>HARPER & BROTHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON M.C.M.I.X</h4> +<h4>Copyright, 1908, 1909, by HARPER & BROTHERS.</h4> +<h4><i>All rights reserved.</i></h4> +<h4>Published May, 1909.</h4> +<p>[Transcriber's note: The name of the author, Basil King, does +not appear in the text.]</p> +<div> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:75%;"><a href= +"images/frontispiece.png"><img width="75%" src= +"images/frontispiece.png" alt= +"SHE STOOD WATCHING THE RISE AND DIP OF THE STEAMER'S BOW" /></a></div> +</div> +<h2><i>ILLUSTRATIONS</i></h2> +<table summary="Illustrations" align="center" width="80%"> +<tr> +<td align="left">SHE STOOD WATCHING THE RISE AND DIP OF THE +STEAMER'S BOW (See page 61)</td> +<td align="right"><i>Frontispiece</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">THE BANKER TOOK A LONGER TIME THAN WAS NECESSARY +TO SCAN THE POOR LITTLE LIST</td> +<td align="right"><i>Facing p</i>.<a href="#p046">46</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">PRESENTLY ALL FOUR WERE ON THEIR WAY BACK TO THE +DRAWING-ROOM</td> +<td align="right">" <a href="#p078">78</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">DIANE PROPPED THE CABLEGRAM IN A CONSPICUOUS +PLACE</td> +<td align="right">" <a href="#p152">152</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">"I'VE NO ONE TO SPEAK A WORD FOR ME BUT YOU"</td> +<td align="right">" <a href="#p202">202</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">IT WAS WHAT MRS. WAPPINGER CALLED AN +"OFF-DAY"</td> +<td align="right">" <a href="#p252">252</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">MRS. BAYFORD WAS PURRING TO HER GUESTS</td> +<td align="right">" <a href="#p260">260</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">HAVING MADE A COPY OF THIS LETTER, SHE CALLED +SIMMONS AND FULTON AND GAVE THEM THEIR INSTRUCTIONS</td> +<td align="right">" <a href="#p264">264</a></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td align="left">"SINCE THE INNER SHRINE IS UNLOCKED—AT +LAST—I'LL GO IN "</td> +<td align="right">" <a href="#p354">354</a></td> +</tr> +</table> + +<h2><i>THE INNER SHRINE</i></h2> +<p>I</p> +<p>Though she had counted the strokes of every hour since midnight, +Mrs. Eveleth had no thought of going to bed. When she was not +sitting bolt upright, indifferent to comfort, in one of the +stiff-backed, gilded chairs, she was limping, with the aid of her +cane, up and down the long suite of salons, listening for the sound +of wheels. She knew that George and Diane would be surprised to +find her waiting up for them, and that they might even be annoyed; +but in her state of dread it was impossible to yield to small +considerations.</p> +<p>She could hardly tell how this presentiment of disaster had +taken hold upon her, for the beginning of it must have come as +imperceptibly as the first flicker of dusk across the radiance of +an afternoon. Looking back, she could almost make herself believe +that she had seen its shadow over her early satisfaction in her +son's marriage to Diane. Certainly she had felt it there before +their honeymoon was over. The four years that had passed since then +had been spent—or, at least, she would have said so +now—in waiting for the peril to present itself.</p> +<p>And yet, had she been called on to explain why she saw it +stalking through the darkness of this particular June night, she +would have found it difficult to give coherent statement to her +fear. Everything about her was pursuing its normally restless +round, with scarcely a hint of the exceptional. If life in Paris +was working up again to that feverish climax in which the season +dies, it was only what she had witnessed every year since the last +days of the Second Empire. If Diane's gayety was that of excitement +rather than of youth, if George's depression was that of jaded +effort rather than of satiated pleasure, it was no more than she +had seen in them at other times. She acknowledged that she had few +facts to go upon—that she had indeed little more than the +terrified prescience which warns the animal of a storm.</p> +<p>There were moments of her vigil when she tried to reassure +herself with the very tenuity of her reasons for alarm. It was a +comfort to think how little there was that she could state with the +definiteness of knowledge. In all that met the eye George's +relation to Diane was not less happy than in the first days of +their life together. If, on Diane's part, the spontaneity of wedded +love had gradually become the adroitness of domestic tact, there +was nothing to affirm it but Mrs. Eveleth's own power of +divination. If George submitted with a blinder obedience than ever +to each new extravagance of Diane's Parisian caprice, there was +nothing to show that he lived beyond his means but Mrs. Eveleth's +maternal apprehension. His income was undoubtedly large, and, for +all she knew, it justified the sumptuous style Diane and he kept +up. Where the purchasing power of money began and ended was +something she had never known. Disorder was so frequent in her own +affairs that when George grew up she had been glad to resign them +to his keeping, taking what he told her was her income. As for +Diane, her fortune was so small as to be a negligible quantity in +such housekeeping as they maintained—a poverty of <i>dot</i> +which had been the chief reason why her noble kinsfolk had +consented to her marriage with an American. Looking round the +splendid house, Mrs. Eveleth was aware that her husband could never +have lived in it, still less have built it; while she wondered more +than ever how George, who led the life of a Parisian man of +fashion, could have found the means of doing both.</p> +<p>Not that her anxiety centred on material things; they were too +remote from the general activities of her thought for that. She +distilled her fear out of the living atmosphere around her. She was +no novice in this brilliant, dissolute society, or in the meanings +hidden behind its apparently trivial concerns. Hints that would +have had slight significance for one less expert she found luminous +with suggestion; and she read by signs as faint as those in which +the redskin detects the passage of his foe across the grass. The +odd smile with which Diane went out! The dull silence in which +George came home! The manufactured conversation! The forced gayety! +The startling pause! The effort to begin again, and keep the tone +to one of common intercourse! The long defile of guests! The +strangers who came, grew intimate, and disappeared! The glances +that followed Diane when she crossed a room! The shrug, the +whisper, the suggestive grimace, at the mention of her name! All +these were as an alphabet in which Mrs. Eveleth, grown skilful by +long years of observation, read what had become not less familiar +than her mother-tongue.</p> +<p>The fact that her misgivings were not new made it the more +difficult to understand why they had focussed themselves to-night +into this great fear. There had been nothing unusual about the day, +except that she had seen little of Diane, while George had remained +shut up in his room, writing letters and arranging or destroying +papers. There had been nothing out of the common in either of +them—not even the frown of care on George's forehead, or the +excited light in Diane's eyes—as they drove away in the +evening, to dine at the Spanish Embassy. They had kissed her +tenderly, but it was not till after they had gone that it seemed to +her as if they had been taking a farewell. Then, too, other little +tokens suddenly became ominous; while something within herself +seemed to say, "The hour is at hand!"</p> +<p>The hour is at hand! Standing in the middle of one of the +gorgeous rooms, she repeated the words softly, marking as she did +so their incongruity to herself and her surroundings. The note of +fatality jarred on the harmony of this well-ordered life. It was +preposterous, that she, who had always been hedged round and +sheltered by pomp and circumstance, should now in her middle age be +menaced with calamity. She dragged herself over to one of the long +mirrors and gazed at her reflection pityingly.</p> +<p>The twitter of birds startled her with the knowledge that it was +dawn. From the Embassy George and Diane were to go on to two or +three great houses, but surely they should be home by this time! +The reflection meant the renewal of her fear. Where was her son? +Was he really with his wife, or had the moment come when he must +take the law into his own hands, after their French manner, to +avenge himself or her? She knew nothing about duelling, but she had +the Anglo-Saxon mother's dread of it. She had always hoped that, +notwithstanding the social code under which he lived, George would +keep clear of any such brutal senselessness; but lately she had +begun to fear that the conventions of the world would prove the +stronger, and that the time when they would do so was not far +away.</p> +<p>Pulling back the curtains from one of the windows, she opened it +and stepped out on a balcony, where the long strip of the Quai +d'Orsay stretched below her, in gray and silent emptiness. On the +swift, leaden-colored current of the Seine, spanned here and there +by ghostly bridges, mysterious barges plied weirdly through the +twilight. Up on the left the Arc de Triomphe began to emerge dimly +out of night, while down on the right the line of the Louvre lay, +black and sinister, beneath the towers and spires that faintly +detached themselves against the growing saffron of the morning. +High above all else, the domes of the Sacred Heart were white with +the rays of the unrisen sun, like those of the City which came down +from God.</p> +<p>It was so different from the cheerful Paris of broad daylight +that she was drawing back with a shudder, when over the Pont de la +Concorde she discerned the approach of a motor-brougham.</p> +<p>Closing the window, she hurried to the stairway. It was still +night within the house, and the one electric light left burning +drew forth dull gleams from the wrought-metal arabesques of the +splendidly sweeping balustrades. When, on the ringing of the bell, +the door opened and she went down, she had the strange sensation of +entering on a new era in her life.</p> +<p>Though she recalled that impression in after years, for the +moment she saw nothing but Diane, all in vivid red, in the act of +letting the voluminous black cloak fall from her shoulders into the +sleepy footman's hands.</p> +<p>"Bonjour, petite mère!" Diane called, with a nervous +laugh, as Mrs. Eveleth paused on the lower steps of the stairs.</p> +<p>"Where is George?"</p> +<p>She could not keep the tone of anxiety out of her voice, but +Diane answered, with ready briskness:</p> +<p>"George? I don't know. Hasn't he come home?"</p> +<p>"You must know he hasn't come home. Weren't you together?"</p> +<p>"We were together till—let me see!—whose house was +it?—till after the cotillon at Madame de Vaudreuil's. He left +me there and went to the Jockey Club with Monsieur de Melcourt, +while I drove on to the Rochefoucaulds'."</p> +<p>She turned away toward the dining-room, but it was impossible +not to catch the tremor in her voice over the last words. In her +ready English there was a slight foreign intonation, as well as +that trace of an Irish accent which quickly yields to emotion. +Standing at the table in the dining-room where refreshments had +been laid, she poured out a glass of wine, and Mrs. Eveleth could +see from the threshold that she drank it thirstily, as one who +before everything else needs a stimulant to keep her up. At the +entrance of her mother-in-law she was on her guard again, and sank +languidly into the nearest chair. "Oh, I'm so hungry!" she yawned, +pulling off her gloves, and pretending to nibble at a sandwich. "Do +sit down," she went on, as Mrs. Eveleth remained standing. "I +should think you'd be hungry, too."</p> +<p>"Aren't you surprised to see me sitting up, Diane?"</p> +<p>"I wasn't, but I can be, if that's my cue," Diane laughed.</p> +<p>At the nonchalance of the reply Mrs. Eveleth was, for a second, +half deceived. Was it possible that she had only conjured up a +waking nightmare, and that there was nothing to be afraid of, after +all? Possessing the French quality of frankness to an unusual +degree, it was difficult for Diane to act a part at any time. With +all her Parisian finesse her nature was as direct as lightning, +while her glance had that fulness of candor which can never be +assumed. Looking at her now, with her elbows on the table, and the +sandwich daintily poised between the thumb and forefinger of her +right hand, it was hard to connect her with tragic possibilities. +There were pearls around her neck and diamonds in her hair; but to +the wholesomeness of her personality jewels were no more than dew +on the freshness of a summer morning.</p> +<p>"I thought you'd be surprised to find me sitting up," Mrs. +Eveleth began again; "but the truth is, I couldn't go to bed +while—"</p> +<p>"I'm glad you didn't," Diane broke in, with an evident intention +to keep the conversation in her own hands. "I'm not in the least +sleepy. I could sit here and talk till morning—though I +suppose it's morning now. Really the time to live is between +midnight and six o'clock. One has a whole set of emotions then that +never come into play during the other eighteen hours of the day. +They say it's the minute when the soul comes nearest to parting +with the body, so I suppose that's the reason we can see things, +during the wee sma' hours, by the light of the invisible +spheres."</p> +<p>"I should be quite content with the light of this +world—"</p> +<p>"Oh, I shouldn't," Diane broke in, with renewed eagerness to +talk against time. "It's like being content with words, and having +no need of music. It's like being satisfied with photographs, and +never wanting real pictures."</p> +<p>"Diane," Mrs. Eveleth interrupted, "I insist that you let me +speak."</p> +<p>"Speak, petite mère? What are you doing but speaking now? +I'm scarcely saying a word. I'm too tired to talk. If you'd spent +the last eight or ten hours trying to get yourself down to the +conversational level of your partners, you'd know what I've been +through. We women must be made of steel to stand it. If you had +only seen me this evening—"</p> +<p>"Listen to me, Diane; don't joke. This is no time for that."</p> +<p>"Joke! I never felt less like joking in my life, and—"</p> +<p>She broke off with a little hysterical gasp, so that Mrs. +Eveleth got another chance.</p> +<p>"I know you don't feel like joking, and still less do I. There's +something wrong."</p> +<p>"Is there? What?" Diane made an effort to recover herself. "I +hope it isn't indiscreet to ask, because I need the bracing effect +of a little scandal."</p> +<p>"Isn't it for you to tell me? You're concealing something of +which—"</p> +<p>"Oh, petite mère, is that quite honest? First, you say +there's something wrong; and then, when I'm all agog to hear it, +you saddle me with the secret. That's what you call in English a +sell, isn't it? A sell! What a funny little word! I often wonder +who invents the slang. Parrots pass it along, of course, but it +must take some cleverness to start it. And isn't it curious," she +went on, breathlessly, "how a new bit of slang always fills a +vacant place in the language? The minute you hear it you know it's +what you've always wanted. I suppose the reason we're obliged to +use the current phrase is because it expresses the current need. +When the hour passes, the need passes with it, and something new +must be coined to meet the new situation. I should think a most +interesting book might be written on the Psychology of Slang, and +if I wasn't so busy with other things—"</p> +<p>"Diane, I entreat you to answer me. Where is George?"</p> +<p>"Why, I must have forgotten to tell you that he went to the +Jockey Club with Monsieur de Melcourt—"</p> +<p>"You did tell me so; but that isn't all. Has he gone anywhere +else?"</p> +<p>"How should I know, petite mère? Where should he go but +come home?"</p> +<p>"Has he gone to fight a duel?"</p> +<p>The question surprised Diane into partially dropping her mask. +For an instant she was puzzled for an answer.</p> +<p>"Men who fight duels," she said, at last, "don't generally tell +their wives beforehand."</p> +<p>"But did George tell you?"</p> +<p>Again Diane hesitated before speaking.</p> +<p>"What a queer question!" was all she could find to say.</p> +<p>"It's a question I have a right to ask."</p> +<p>"But have I a right to answer?"</p> +<p>"If you don't answer, you leave me to infer that he has."</p> +<p>"Of course I can't keep you from inferring, but isn't that what +they call meeting trouble half-way?"</p> +<p>"I must meet trouble as it comes to me."</p> +<p>"But not before it comes. That's my point."</p> +<p>"It has come. It's here. I'm sure of it. He's gone to fight. You +know it. You've sent him. Oh, Diane, if he comes to harm his blood +will be on your head."</p> +<p>Diane shrugged her shoulders, and took another sandwich.</p> +<p>"I don't see that. In the first place, it's quite unlikely +there'll be any blood at all—or more than a very little. One +of the things I admire in men—our men, especially—is +the maximum of courage with which they avenge their honor, coupled +with the minimum of damage they work in doing it. It must require a +great deal of skill. I know I should never have the nerve for it. I +should kill my man every time he didn't kill me. But they hardly +ever do."</p> +<p>"How can you say that? Wasn't Monsieur de Cretteville killed? +And Monsieur Lalanne?"</p> +<p>"That makes two cases. I implied that it happens +sometimes—generally by inadvertence. But it isn't likely to +do so in this instance—at least not to George. He's an +excellent shot—and I believe it was to be pistols."</p> +<p>"Then it's true! Oh, my God, I know I shall lose him!"</p> +<p>Mrs. Eveleth flung her cane to the floor and dropped into a +seat, leaning on the table and covering her face with her hands. +For a minute she moaned harshly, but when she looked up her eyes +were tearless.</p> +<p>"And this is my reward," she cried, "for the kindness I've shown +you! After all, you are nothing but a wanton."</p> +<p>Diane kept her self-control, but she grew pale.</p> +<p>"That's odd," was all she permitted herself to say, delicately +flicking the crumbs from her fingertips; "because it was to prove +the contrary that George called Monsieur de Bienville out."</p> +<p>"Bienville! You've stooped to <i>him?</i>"</p> +<p>"Did I say so?" Diane asked, with a sudden significant lifting +of the head.</p> +<p>"There's no need to say so. There must have been +something—"</p> +<p>"There was something—something Monsieur de Bienville +invented."</p> +<p>"Wasn't it a pity for him to go to the trouble of +invention—?"</p> +<p>"When he could have found so much that was true," Diane +finished, with dangerous quietness. "That's what you were going to +say, isn't it?"</p> +<p>"You have no right to ascribe words to me that I haven't +uttered. I never said so."</p> +<p>"No; that's true; I prefer to say it for you. It's safer, in +that it leaves me nothing to resent."</p> +<p>"Oh, what shall I do! What shall I do!" Mrs. Eveleth moaned, +wringing her hands. "My boy is gone from me. He will never come +back. I've always been sure that if he ever did this, it would be +the end. It's my fault for having brought him up among your +foolish, hot-headed people. He will have thrown his life +away—and for nothing!"</p> +<p>"No; not that," Diane corrected; "not even if the worst comes to +the worst."</p> +<p>"What do you mean? If the worst comes to the worst, he will have +sacrificed himself—"</p> +<p>"For my honor; and George himself would be the first to tell you +that it's worth dying for."</p> +<p>Diane rose as she spoke, Mrs. Eveleth following her example. For +a brief instant they stood as if measuring each other's strength, +till they started with a simultaneous shock at the sharp call of +the telephone from an adjoining room. With a smothered cry Diane +sprang to answer it, while Mrs. Eveleth, helpless with dread, +remained standing, as though frozen to the spot.</p> +<p>"Oui—oui—oui," came Diane's voice, speaking eagerly. +"Oui, c'est bien Madame George Eveleth. Oui, oui. Non. Je +comprends. C'est Monsieur de Melcourt. +Oui—oui—Dites-le-moi tout de +suite—j'insiste—Oui—oui. Ah-h-h!"</p> +<p>The last, prolonged, choking exclamation came as the cry of one +who sinks, smitten to the heart. Mrs. Eveleth was able to move at +last. When she reached the other room, Diane was crouched in a +little heap on the floor.</p> +<p>"He's dead? He's dead?" the mother cried, in frenzied +questioning.</p> +<p>But Diane, with glazed eyes and parted lips, could only nod her +head in affirmation.</p> +<p>II</p> +<p>During the days immediately following George Eveleth's death the +two women who loved him found themselves separated by the very +quality of their grief. While Diane's heart was clamorous with +remorse, the mother's was poignantly calm. It was generally +remarked, in the Franco-American circles where the tragedy was +talked of, that Mrs. Eveleth displayed unexpected strength of +character. It was a matter of common knowledge that she shrank from +none of the terrible details it was necessary to supervise, and +that she was capable of giving her attention to her son's practical +affairs.</p> +<p>It was not till a fortnight had passed that the two women came +face to face alone. The few occasions on which they had met +hitherto had been those of solemn public mourning, when the great +questions between them necessarily remained untouched. The desire +to keep apart was common to both, for neither was sufficiently +mistress of herself to be ready for a meeting.</p> +<p>The first move came from Diane. During her long, speechless days +of self-upbraiding certain thoughts had been slowly forming +themselves into resolutions; but it was on impulse rather than +reflection that, at last, she summoned up strength to knock at Mrs. +Eveleth's door.</p> +<p>She entered timidly, expecting to find some manifestation of +grief similar to her own. She was surprised, therefore, to see her +mother-in-law sitting at her desk, with a number of businesslike +papers before her. She held a pencil between her fingers, and was +evidently in the act of adding up long rows of figures.</p> +<p>"Oh, come in," she said, briefly, as Diane appeared. "Excuse me +a minute. Sit down."</p> +<p>Diane seated herself by an open window looking out on the +garden. It was a hot morning toward the end of June, and from the +neighboring streets came the dull rumble of Paris. Beyond the +garden, through an opening, she could see a procession of +carriages—probably a wedding on its way to Sainte-Clotilde. +It was her first realizing glimpse of the outside world since that +gray morning when she had driven home alone, and the very fact that +it could be pursuing its round indifferent to her calamity impelled +her to turn her gaze away.</p> +<p>It was then that she had time to note the changes wrought in +Mrs. Eveleth; and it was like finding winter where she expected no +more than the first genial touch of autumn. The softnesses of +lingering youth had disappeared, stricken out by the hard, straight +lines of gravity. Never having known her mother-in-law as other +than a woman of fashion, Diane was awed by this dignified, +sorrowing matron, who carried the sword of motherhood in her +heart.</p> +<p>It was a long time before Mrs. Eveleth laid her pencil down and +raised her head. For a few minutes neither had the power of words, +but it was Diane who spoke at last.</p> +<p>"I can understand," she faltered, "that you don't want to see +me; but I've come to tell you that I'm going away."</p> +<p>"You're going away? Where?"</p> +<p>The words were spoken gently and as if in some absence of mind. +As a matter of fact, Mrs. Eveleth was scarcely thinking of Diane's +words—she was so intent on the poor little, tear-worn face +before her. She had always known that Diane's attractions were +those of coloring and vivacity, and now that she had lost these she +was like an extinguished lamp.</p> +<p>"I haven't made up my mind yet," Diane replied, "but I want you +to know that you'll be freed from my presence."</p> +<p>"What makes you think I want to be—freed?"</p> +<p>"You must know that I killed George. You said that night that +his blood would be on my head—and it is."</p> +<p>"If I said that, I spoke under the stress of terror and +excitement—"</p> +<p>"You needn't try to take back the words; they were quite +true."</p> +<p>"True in what sense?"</p> +<p>"In almost every sense; certainly in every sense that's vital. +If it hadn't been for me, George would be here now."</p> +<p>"It's never wise to speculate on what might have happened if it +hadn't been for us. There's no end to the useless torture we can +inflict on ourselves in that way."</p> +<p>"I don't think there ought to be an end to it."</p> +<p>"Have you anything in particular to reproach yourself with?"</p> +<p>"I've everything."</p> +<p>"That means, then, that there's no one incident—or +person—I didn't know but—" She hesitated, and Diane +took up the sentence.</p> +<p>"You didn't know but what I had given George specific reason for +his act. I may as well tell you that I never did—at least not +in the sense in which you mean it. George always knew that I loved +him, and that I was true to him. He trusted me, and was justified +in doing so. It wasn't that. It was the whole thing—the whole +life. There was nothing worthy in it from the beginning to the end. +I played with fire, and while George knew it was only playing, it +was fire all the same."</p> +<p>"But you say you were never—burnt."</p> +<p>"If I wasn't, others were. I led men on till they +thought—till they thought—I don't know how to say +it—"</p> +<p>"Till they thought you should have led them further?"</p> +<p>"Precisely; and Bienville was one of them. It wasn't entirely +his fault. I allowed him to think—to think—oh, all +sorts of things!—and then when I was tired of him, I turned +him into ridicule. I took advantage of his folly to make him the +laughing-stock of Paris; and to avenge himself he lied. He said I +had been his—No; I can't tell you."</p> +<p>"I understand. You needn't tell me. You needn't tell me any +more."</p> +<p>"There isn't much more to tell that I can put into words. It was +always—just like that—just as it was with Bienville. He +wasn't the only one. I made coquetry a game—but a game in +which I cheated. I was never fair to any of them. It's only the +fact that the others were more honorable than Bienville that's kept +what has happened now from having happened long ago. It might have +come at any time. I thought it a fine thing to be able to trifle +with passion. I didn't know I was only trifling with death. Oh, if +I had been a good woman, George would have been with us still!"</p> +<p>"You mustn't blame yourself," the mother-in-law said, speaking +with some difficulty, "for more than your own share of our +troubles. I want to talk to you quite frankly, and tell you things +you've never known. The beginning of the sorrows that have come to +us dates very far back—back to a time before you were +born."</p> +<p>"Oh?"</p> +<p>Diane's brown eyes, swimming in tears, opened wide in a sort of +mournful curiosity.</p> +<p>"I admit," Mrs. Eveleth continued, "that in the first hours of +our—our bereavement I had some such thoughts about you as +you've just expressed. It seemed to me that if you had lived +differently, George might have been spared to us. It took +reflection to show me that if you <i>had</i> lived differently, +George himself wouldn't have been satisfied. The life you led was +the one he cared for—the one I taught him to care for. The +origin of the wrong has to be traced back to me."</p> +<p>"To you?" Diane uttered the words in increasing wonder. It was +strange that a first rôle in the drama could be played by any +one but herself.</p> +<p>"I've always thought it a little odd," Mrs. Eveleth observed, +after a brief pause, "that you've never been interested to hear +about our family."</p> +<p>"I didn't know there was anything to tell," Diane answered, +innocently.</p> +<p>"I suppose there isn't, from your European point of view; but, +as we Americans see things, there's a good deal that's significant. +Foreigners care so little about who or what we are, so long as we +have money."</p> +<p>Diane raised her hand in a gesture of deprecation, intimating +that such was not her attitude of mind.</p> +<p>"And I've never wanted to bore you with what, after all, wasn't +necessary for you to hear. I shouldn't do so now if it had not +become important. There's a great deal to settle and arrange."</p> +<p>"I can understand that there must be business affairs," Diane +murmured, for the sake of saying something.</p> +<p>"Exactly; and in order to make them clear to you, I must take +you a little further back into our history than you've ever gone +before. I want you to see how much more responsible I am than you +for our calamity. You were born into this life of Paris, while I +came into it of my own accord. You did nothing but yield naturally +to the influences around you, while I accepted them after having +been fully warned. If you knew a little more of our American ideals +I should find it easier to explain."</p> +<p>"I should like to hear about them," Diane said, sympathetically. +The new interest was beginning to take her out of herself.</p> +<p>"My husband and I," Mrs. Eveleth went on again, "belong to that +New York element which dates back to the time when the city was New +Amsterdam, and the State, the New Netherlands. To you that means +nothing, but in America it tells much. I was Naomi de Ruyter; my +husband, on his mother's side, was a Van Tromp."</p> +<p>"Really?" Diane murmured, feeling that Mrs. Eveleth's tone of +pride required a response. "I know there's a Mr. van Tromp +here—the American banker."</p> +<p>"He is of the same family as my husband's mother. For nearly +three hundred years they've lived on the island of Manhattan, and +seen their farms and pastures grow into the second city in the +world. The world has poured in on them, literally in millions. It +would have submerged them if there hadn't been something in that +old stock that couldn't be kept down. However high the tide rose, +they floated on the top. My people were thrifty and industrious. +They worked hard, saved money, and lived in simple ways. They cared +little for pleasure, for beauty, or for any of the forms of art; +but, on the contrary, they lived for work, for religion, for +learning, and all the other high and serious pursuits. It was fine; +but I hated it."</p> +<p>"Naturally."</p> +<p>"I longed to get away from it, and when I married I persuaded my +husband to give up his profession and his home in order to +establish himself here."</p> +<p>"But surely you can't regret that? You were free."</p> +<p>"Only the selfish and the useless are ever free. Those who are +worth anything in this world are bound by a hundred claims upon +them. They must either stay caught in the meshes of love and duty, +or wrench themselves away—and that's what I did. Perhaps I +suffered less than many people in doing the same thing; but I +cannot say that I haven't suffered at all."</p> +<p>"But you've had a happy life—till now."</p> +<p>"I've had what I wanted—which may be happiness, or may not +be."</p> +<p>"I've heard that you were very much admired. Madame de Nohant +has told me that when you appeared at the Tuileries, no one was +more graceful, not even the Empress herself."</p> +<p>"I had what I wanted," Mrs. Eveleth repeated, with a sigh. "I +don't deny that I enjoyed it; and yet I question now if I did +right. When my husband died, and George was a little boy, my +friends made one last effort to induce me to take him back, and +bring him up in his own country. I ignored their opinions, because +all their views were so different from mine. I was young and +independent, and enamoured of the life I had begun to lead. I had +scruples of conscience from time to time; but when George grew up +and developed the tastes I had bred in him, I let other +considerations go. I was pleased with his success in the little +world of Paris, just as I had been flattered by my own. When he +fell in love with you I urged him to marry you, not because of +anything in yourself, but because you were Mademoiselle de la +Ferronaise, the last of an illustrious family. I looked upon the +match as a useful alliance for him and for me. I encouraged George +in extravagance. I encouraged him when he began to live in a style +far more expensive than anything to which he had been accustomed. I +encouraged him when he built this house. I wanted to impress you; I +wanted you to see that the American could give you a more splendid +home than any European you were likely to marry, however exalted +his rank. I was not without fears that George was spending too much +money; but we've always had plenty for whatever we wanted to do; +and so I let him go on when I should have stopped him. It was my +vanity. It wasn't his fault. He inherited a large fortune; and if I +had only brought him up wisely, it would have been enough."</p> +<p>"And wasn't it enough?"</p> +<p>In spite of her growing dread, Diane brought out the question +firmly. Mrs. Eveleth sat one long minute motionless, with hands +clasped, with lips parted, and with suspended breath.</p> +<p>"No."</p> +<p>The monosyllable seemed to fill the room. It echoed and +re-echoed in Diane's ears like the boom of a cannon. While her +outward vision took in such details as the despair in Mrs. +Eveleth's face, the folds of crape on her gown, the Watteau picture +on the panel of moss-green and gold that formed the background, all +the realities of life seemed to be dissolving into chaos, as the +glories of the sunset sink into a black and formless mass. When +Mrs. Eveleth spoke again, her voice sounded as though it came from +far away.</p> +<p>"I want to take all the blame upon myself. If it hadn't been for +me, George would never have gone to such extremes."</p> +<p>"Extremes?"</p> +<p>Diane spoke not so much from the desire to speak as from the +necessity of forcing her reeling intelligence back to the world of +fact.</p> +<p>"I'm afraid there's no other word for it."</p> +<p>"Do you mean that there are debts?"</p> +<p>"A great many debts."</p> +<p>"Can't they be paid?"</p> +<p>"Most of them can be paid—perhaps all; but when that is +done I'm afraid there will be very little left."</p> +<p>"But surely we haven't lived so extravagantly as that. I know +I've spent a great deal of money—"</p> +<p>"It hasn't been altogether the style of living. When my poor boy +saw that he was going beyond his means he tried to recoup himself +by speculation. Do you know what that is?"</p> +<p>"I know it's something by which people lose money."</p> +<p>"He had no experience of anything of the kind, and his men of +business tell me he went into it wildly. He had that optimistic +temperament which always believes that the next thing will be a +success, even though the present one is a failure. Then, too, he +fell into the hands of unscrupulous men, who made him think that +great fortunes were to be made out of what they call wildcat +schemes, when all the time they were leading him to ruin."</p> +<p>Ruin! The word appealed to Diane's memory and imagination alike. +It came to her from her remotest childhood, when she could remember +hearing it applied to her grandfather, the old Comte de la +Ferronaise. After that she could recollect leaving the great +château in which she was born, and living with her parents, +first in one European capital, and then in another. Finally they +settled for a few years in Ireland, her mother's country, where +both her parents died. During all this time, as well as in the +subsequent years in a convent at Auteuil, she was never free from +the sense of ruin hanging over her. Though she understood well +enough that her way of escape lay in making a rich marriage, it was +impressed upon her that the meagreness of her <i>dot</i> would make +her efforts in this direction difficult. When, within a few months +of leaving the convent, she was asked by George Eveleth to become +his wife, it seemed as if she had reached the end of her cares. She +had the less scruple in accepting what he had to give in that she +honestly liked the generous, easy-going man who lived but to +gratify her whims. During the four years of her married life she +had spent money, not merely for the love of spending, but from +sheer joy in the sense that Poverty, the arch-enemy, had been +defeated; and lo! he was springing at her again.</p> +<p>"Ruin!" she echoed, when Mrs. Eveleth had let fall the word. "Do +you mean that we're—ruined?"</p> +<p>"It depends on how you look at it. You will always have your own +small fortune, on which you can live with economy."</p> +<p>"But you will have yours, too."</p> +<p>Mrs. Eveleth smiled faintly.</p> +<p>"No; I'm afraid that's gone. It was in George's hands, and I can +see he tried to increase it for me, by doing with it—as he +did with his own. I'm not blaming him. The worst of which he can be +accused is a lack of judgment."</p> +<p>"But there's this house!" Diane urged, "and all this +furniture!—and these pictures!"</p> +<p>She glanced up at the Watteau, the Boucher, and the Fragonard, +which gave the key to the decorations of the dainty boudoir. The +faint smile still lingered on Mrs. Eveleth's lips, as it lingers on +the face of the dead.</p> +<p>"There'll be very little left," she repeated.</p> +<p>"But I don't understand," Diane protested, with a perplexed +movement of the hand across her brow. "I don't know much about +business, but if it were explained to me I think I could +follow."</p> +<p>"Come and sit beside me at the desk," Mrs. Eveleth suggested. +"You will understand better if you see the figures just as they +stand."</p> +<p>She went over the main points, one by one, using the same +untechnical simplicity of language which George's men of business +had employed with herself. The facts could be stated broadly but +comprehensively. When all was settled the Eveleth estate would have +disappeared. Diane would possess her small inheritance, which was a +thing apart. Mrs. Eveleth would have a few jewels and other minor +personal belongings, but nothing more. The very completeness of the +story rendered it easy in the telling, though the largeness of the +facts made it impossible for Diane to take them in. It was an +almost unreasonable tax on credulity to attempt to think of the +tall, fragile woman sitting before her, with luxurious nurture in +every pose of the figure, in every habit of the mind, as penniless. +It was trying to account for daylight without a sun.</p> +<p>"It can't be!" Diane cried, when she had done her best to weigh +the facts just placed before her.</p> +<p>Mrs. Eveleth shook her head, the glimmering smile fixed on her +lips as on a mask.</p> +<p>"It is so, dear, I'm afraid. We must do our best to get used to +it."</p> +<p>"I shall never get used to it," Diane cried, springing to her +feet—"never, never!"</p> +<p>"It will be hard for you to do without all you've had—when +you've had so much—but—"</p> +<p>"Oh, it isn't that," Diane broke in, fiercely. "It isn't for me. +I can do well enough. It's for you."</p> +<p>"Don't worry about me, dear. I can work."</p> +<p>The words were spoken in a matter-of-fact tone, but Diane +recoiled at them as at a sword-thrust.</p> +<p>"You can—what?"</p> +<p>It was the last touch, not only of the horror of the situation, +but of its ludicrous irony.</p> +<p>"I can work, dear," Mrs. Eveleth repeated, with the poignant +tranquillity that smote Diane more cruelly than grief. "There are +many things I could do—"</p> +<p>"Oh, don't!" Diane wailed, with pleading gestures of the hands. +"Oh, don't! I can't bear it. Don't say such things. They kill me. +There must be some mistake. All that money can't have gone. Even if +it was only a few hundred thousand francs, it would be something. I +will not believe it. It's too soon to judge. I've heard it took a +long time to settle up estates. How can they have done it yet?"</p> +<p>"They haven't. They've only seen its possibilities—and +impossibilities."</p> +<p>"I will never believe it," Diane burst out again. "I will see +those men. I will tell them. I am positive that it cannot be. Such +injustice would not be permitted. There must be laws—there +must be something—to prevent such outrage—especially on +you!" She spoke vehemently, striding to and fro in the little room, +and brushing back from time to time the heavy brown hair that in +her excitement fell in disordered locks on her forehead. "It's too +wicked. It's too monstrous. It's intolerable. God doesn't allow +such things to happen on earth, otherwise He wouldn't be God! No, +no; you cannot make me think that such things happen. You work! The +Mater Dolorosa herself was not called upon to bear such +humiliation. If God reigns, as they say He does—"</p> +<p>"But, Diane dear," Mrs. Eveleth interrupted, gently, "isn't it +true that we owe it to George's memory to bear our troubles +bravely?"</p> +<p>"I'm ready to bear anything bravely—but this."</p> +<p>"But isn't this the case, above all others, in which you and I +should be unflinching? Doesn't any lack of courage on our parts +imply a reflection on him?"</p> +<p>"That's true," Diane said, stopping abruptly.</p> +<p>"I don't know how far you honor George's memory—?"</p> +<p>"George's memory? Why shouldn't I honor it?"</p> +<p>"I didn't know. Some women—after what you've just +discovered—"</p> +<p>"I am not—some women! I am Diane Eveleth. Whatever George +did I shared it, and I share it still."</p> +<p>"Then you forgive him?"</p> +<p>"Forgive him?—I?—forgive him? No! What have I to +forgive? Anything he did he did for me and in order to have the +more to give me—and I love him and honor him as I never did +till now."</p> +<p>Mrs. Eveleth rose and stood unsteadily beside her desk.</p> +<p>"God bless you for saying that, Diane."</p> +<p>"There's no reason why He should bless me for saying anything so +obvious."</p> +<p>"It isn't obvious to me, Diane; and you must let <i>me</i> bless +you—bless you with the mother's blessing, which, I think, +must be next to God's."</p> +<p>Then opening her arms wide, she sobbed the one word "Come!" and +they had at last the comfort, dear to women, of weeping in each +other's arms.</p> +<p>III</p> +<p>In the private office of the great Franco-American banking-house +of Van Tromp & Co., the partners, having finished their +conference, were about to separate.</p> +<p>"That's all, I think," said Mr. Grimston. He rose with a jerky +movement, which gave him the appearance of a little figure shot out +of a box.</p> +<p>Mr. van Tromp remained seated at the broad, flat-topped desk, +his head bent at an angle which gave Mr. Grimston a view of the +tips of shaggy eyebrows, a broad nose, and that peculiar kind of +protruding lower lip before which timid people quail. As there was +no response, Mr. Grimston looked round vaguely on the sombre, +handsome furnishings, fixing his gaze at last on the lithographed +portrait of Mr. van Tromp senior, the founder of the house, hanging +above the mantelpiece.</p> +<p>"That's all, I think," Mr. Grimston repeated, raising his voice +slightly in order to drown the rumble that came through the open +windows from the rue Auber.</p> +<p>Suddenly Mr. van Tromp looked up.</p> +<p>"I've just had a letter," he said, in a tone indicating an +entirely new order of discussion, "from a person who signs herself +Diana—or is it Diane?—Eveleth."</p> +<p>"Oh, Diane! She's written to you, has she?" came from Mr. +Grimston, as his partner searched with short-sighted eyes for the +letter in question among the papers on the desk.</p> +<p>"You know her, then?"</p> +<p>"Of course I know her. You ought to know her, too. You would, if +you didn't shut yourself up in the office, away from the +world."</p> +<p>"N-no, I don't recall that I've ever met the lady. Ah, here's +the note, just sit down a minute while I read it."</p> +<p>Mr. Grimston shot back into his seat again, while Mr. van Tromp +wiped his large, circular glasses.</p> +<p>"'Dear Mr. van Tromp,' she begins, 'I am most anxious to talk to +you on very important business, and would take it as a favor if you +would let me call on Tuesday morning and see you very privately. +Yours sincerely, Diane Eveleth.' That's all. Now, what do you make +of it?"</p> +<p>The straight smile, which was all the facial expression Mr. +Grimston ever allowed himself, became visible between the lines of +his closely clipped mustache and beard. He took his time before +speaking, enjoying the knowledge that this was one of those social +junctures in which he had his senior partner so conspicuously at a +disadvantage.</p> +<p>"It's a bad business, I'm afraid," he said, as though summing up +rather than beginning.</p> +<p>"What does the woman want with me?"</p> +<p>"That, I fear, is painfully evident. You must have heard of the +Eveleth smash a couple of months ago. Or—let me see!—I +think it was just when you were in New York. No; you'd be likely +not to hear of it. The Eveleths have so carefully cut their +American acquaintance for so many years that they've created a kind +of vacuum around themselves, out of which the noise of their doings +doesn't easily penetrate. They belong to that class of American +Parisians who pose for going only into French society."</p> +<p>"I know the kind."</p> +<p>"Mrs. Grimston could tell you all about them, of course. Equally +at home as she is in the best French and American circles, she +hears a great many things she'd rather not hear."</p> +<p>"She needn't listen to 'em."</p> +<p>"Unfortunately a woman in her position, with a daughter like +Marion, is obliged to listen. But that's rather the end of the +story—"</p> +<p>"And I want the beginning, Grimston, if you don't mind. I want +to know why this Diane should be after me."</p> +<p>"She's after money," Mr. Grimston declared, bluntly. "She's +after money, and you'd better let me manage her. It would save you +the trouble of the refusal you'll be obliged to make."</p> +<p>"Well, tell me about her and I'll see."</p> +<p>Mr. Grimston stiffened himself in his chair and cleared his +throat.</p> +<p>"Diane Eveleth," he stated, with slow, significant emphasis, "is +an extremely fascinating woman. She has probably turned more men +round her little finger than any other woman in Paris."</p> +<p>"Is that to her credit or her discredit?"</p> +<p>"I don't want to say anything against Mrs. Eveleth," Mr. +Grimston protested. "I wish she hadn't come near us at all. As it +is, you must be forewarned."</p> +<p>"I'm not particular about that, if you'll give me the +facts."</p> +<p>"That's not so easy. Where facts are so deucedly disagreeable, a +fellow finds it hard to trot out any poor little woman in her +weaknesses. I must make it clear beforehand that I don't want to +say anything against her."</p> +<p>"It's in confidence—privileged, as the lawyers say. I +sha'n't think the worse of her—that is, not much."</p> +<p>"Poor Diane," Mr. Grimston began again, sententiously, "is one +of the bits of human wreckage that have drifted down to us from the +pre-revolutionary days of French society. Her grandfather, the old +Comte de la Ferronaise, belonged to that order of irreconcilable +royalists who persist in dashing themselves to pieces against the +rising wall of democracy. I remember him perfectly—a handsome +old fellow, who had lost an arm in the Crimea. He used to do +business with us when I was with Hargous in the rue de Provence. +Having impoverished himself in a plot in favor of the Comte de +Chambord, somewhere about 1872, he came utterly to grief in raising +funds for the Boulanger craze, in the train of the Duchesse +d'Uzès. He died shortly afterward, one of the last to break +his heart over the hopeless Bourbon cause."</p> +<p>"That, I understand you to say, was the grandfather of the young +woman who is after money. She's a Frenchwoman, then?"</p> +<p>"She's half French. That was her grandfather. The father was of +much the same type, but a lighter weight. He married an Irish +beauty, a Miss O'Hara, as poor as himself. He died young, I +believe, and I'd lost sight of the lot, till this Mademoiselle +Diane de la Ferronaise floated into view, some five years ago, in +the train of the Nohant family. Her marriage to George Eveleth, +which took place almost at once, was looked upon as an excellent +thing all round. It rid the Nohants of a poor relation, and helped +to establish the Eveleths in the heart of the old aristocracy. +Since then Diane has been going the pace."</p> +<p>"What pace?"</p> +<p>"The pace the Eveleth money couldn't keep up with; the pace that +made her the most-talked-of woman in a society where women are +talked of more than enough; the pace that led George Eveleth to put +a bullet through his head under pretence of fighting a duel."</p> +<p>"Dear me! Dear me! A most unusual young woman! Do you tell me +that her husband actually put an end to himself?"</p> +<p>"So I understand. The affair was a curious one; but Bienville +swears he fired into the air, and I believe him. Besides, George +Eveleth was found shot through the temple, and no one but himself +could have inflicted a wound like that. To make it conclusive, +Melcourt and Vernois, who were seconds, testify to having seen the +act, without having the time to prevent it. You can see that it is +a relief to me to be able to take this view of the case—on +poor Marion's account."</p> +<p>"Marion—your daughter! Was she mixed up in the +affair?"</p> +<p>"Mixed up is a little to much to say. I don't mind telling you +in confidence that there was something between her and Bienville. I +don't know where it mightn't have ended; but of course when all +this happened, and we got wind of Bienville's entanglement with +Mrs. Eveleth, we had to put a stop to the thing, and pack her off +to America. She'll stay there with her aunt, Mrs. Bayford, till it +blows over."</p> +<p>"And your friend Bienville? Hasn't he brought himself within the +clutches of the law?"</p> +<p>"George Eveleth was officially declared a suicide. He had every +reason to be one—though I don't want to say anything against +Mrs. Eveleth. When Bienville refused to put an end to him, he +evidently decided to do it himself. His family know nothing about +that, so please don't let it slip out if you see Diane. With her +notions, the husband fallen in her cause has perished on the field +of honor; and if that's any comfort to her, let her keep it. As for +Bienville, he's joined young Persigny, the explorer, in South +America. By the time he returns the affair will have been +forgotten. He's a nice young fellow, and it's a thousand pities he +should have fallen into the net of a woman like Mrs. Eveleth. I +don't want to say anything against her, you understand—"</p> +<p>"Oh, quite!"</p> +<p>"But—"</p> +<p>Mr. Grimston pronounced the word with a hard-drawn breath, and +presented the appearance of a man who restrains himself. He was +still endeavoring to maintain this attitude of repression when a +discreet tap on the door called from Mr. van Tromp a gruff "Come +in." A young man entered with a card.</p> +<p>"She's here," the banker grunted, reading the name.</p> +<p>Mr. Grimston shot up again.</p> +<p>"Better let me see her," he insisted, in a warning tone.</p> +<p>"No, no. I'll have a look at her myself. Bring the lady in," he +added, to the young man in waiting.</p> +<p>"Then I'll skip," said Mr. Grimston, suiting the action to the +word by disappearing in one direction as Diane entered from +another.</p> +<p>Mr. van Tromp rose heavily, and surveyed her as she crossed the +floor toward him. He had been expecting some such seductive French +beauty as he had occasionally seen on the stage on the rare +occasions when he went to a play; so that the trimness of this +little figure in widow's dress, with white bands and cuffs, after +the English fashion, somewhat disconcerted him. Unaccustomed to the +ways of banks, Diane half offered her hand, but, as he was on his +guard against taking it, she stood still before him.</p> +<p>"Mrs. Eveleth, I believe," he said, when he had surveyed her +well. "Have the goodness to sit down, and tell me what I can do for +you."</p> +<p>Diane took the seat he indicated, which left a discreet space +between them. The heavy black satchel she carried she placed on the +floor beside her. When she raised her veil, Mr. van Tromp observed +to himself that the pale face, touching in expression, and the +brown eyes, in which there seemed to lurk a gentle reproach against +the world for having treated her so badly, were exactly what he +would have expected in a woman coming to borrow money.</p> +<p>"I've come to you, Mr. van Tromp," Diane began, timidly, +"because I thought that perhaps—you might know—who I +am."</p> +<p>"I don't know anything at all about you," was the not +encouraging response.</p> +<p>"Of course there's no reason why you should—" Diane +hastened to say, apologetically.</p> +<p>"None whatever," he assured her.</p> +<p>"Only that a good many people do know us—"</p> +<p>"I dare say. I haven't the honor to be among the number."</p> +<p>"And I thought that possibly—just possibly—you might +be predisposed in my favor."</p> +<p>"A banker is never predisposed in favor of any one—not +even his own flesh and blood."</p> +<p>"I didn't know that," Diane persisted, bravely, "otherwise I +might just as well have gone to anybody else."</p> +<p>"Just as well."</p> +<p>"Would you like me to go now?"</p> +<p>The question took him by surprise, and before replying he looked +at her again with queer, bulgy eyes peering through big circular +glasses, in a way that made Diane think of an ogre in a fairy +tale.</p> +<p>"You're not here for what I like," he said at last, "but for +what you want yourself."</p> +<p>"That's true," Diane admitted, ruefully, "but I might go away. I +<i>will</i> go away, if you say so."</p> +<p>"You'll please yourself. I didn't send for you, and I'll not +tell you to go. How old are you?"</p> +<p>It was Diane's turn to be surprised, but she brought out her age +promptly.</p> +<p>"Twenty-four."</p> +<p>"You look older."</p> +<p>"That's because I've had so much trouble, perhaps. It's because +we're in trouble that I've come to you, Mr. van Tromp."</p> +<p>"I dare say. I didn't suppose you'd come to ask me to dinner. +There are not many days go by without some one expecting me to pull +him out of the scrape he would never have got into if it hadn't +been for his own fault."</p> +<p>"I'm afraid that's very like my case."</p> +<p>"It's like a good many cases. You're no exception to the +rule."</p> +<p>"And what do you do at such times, if I may ask?"</p> +<p>"You may ask, but I'll not tell you. You're here on your own +business, I presume, and not on mine."</p> +<p>"I thought that perhaps you'd be good enough to make mine yours. +Though we've never met, I have seen you at various times, and it +always seemed to me that you looked kind; and so—"</p> +<p>"Stop right there, ma'am!" he cried, putting up a warning hand. +"'Most important business,' was what you said in your note, +otherwise I shouldn't have consented to see you. If you have any +business, state it, and I'll say yes or no, as it strikes me. But +I'll tell you beforehand that there isn't a chance in a thousand +but what it'll be no."</p> +<p>"I did come because I thought you looked kind," Diane declared, +indignantly, "and if you think it was for any other reason +whatever, you're absolutely mistaken."</p> +<p>"Then we'll let it be. I can't help my looks, nor what you think +about them. The point is that you're here for something; so let's +know what it is."</p> +<p>"You make it very hard for me," Diane said, almost tearfully, +"but I'll try. I must tell you, first of all, that we've lost a +great deal of money."</p> +<p>"That's no new situation."</p> +<p>"It is to me; and it's even more so to my poor mother-in-law. I +should think you must have heard of her at least. She is Mrs. +Arthur Eveleth. Her maiden name was Naomi de Ruyter, of New +York."</p> +<p>"Very likely."</p> +<p>"Her husband was related, on his mother's side, to the Van +Tromps—the same family as your own."</p> +<p>"That's more likely still. There are as many Van Tromps in New +York as there are shrimps on the Breton coast, and they're all +related to me, because I'm supposed to have a little money."</p> +<p>"I sha'n't let you offend me," Diane said, stoutly, "because I +want your help."</p> +<p>"That's a very good reason."</p> +<p>"But since you take so little interest in us I will not attempt +to explain how it is that we've come to such misfortune."</p> +<p>"I'll take that for granted."</p> +<p>"The blow has fallen more heavily on my mother-in-law than on +me. She has lost everything she had in the world; while I have +still my own money—my <i>dot</i>—and a little over from +the sale of my jewels."</p> +<p>"Well?"</p> +<p>"If you'd ever seen her, you would know how terrible, how +impossible, such a situation is for her. She's the sort of woman +who ought to have money—who <i>must</i> have money. And so I +thought if I came to you—"</p> +<p>"I'd give her some."</p> +<p>"No," Diane said, quickly, with a renewed touch of indignation, +"but that you'd help me to do it."</p> +<p>He looked at her with an odd, upward glance under his shaggy, +overhanging brows, while the protruding lower lip went a shade +further out.</p> +<p>"Help you to do it? How?"</p> +<p>"By letting her have mine."</p> +<p>Again he looked at her, almost suspiciously.</p> +<p>"You've got plenty to give away, I suppose?"</p> +<p>"On the contrary, I've pitifully little; but such as it is, I +want her to have it all. She could live on it—with economy; +or at least she says I could."</p> +<p>"And can't you?"</p> +<p>"I don't want to. As there isn't enough for two, I wish to +settle it on her. Isn't that the word?—settle?"</p> +<p>"It'll do as well as another. And what do you propose to do +yourself?"</p> +<p>"Work."</p> +<p>Diane forced the word in a little gasp of humiliation, but she +got it out.</p> +<p>"And what'll you work at?"</p> +<p>"I don't know yet, exactly. I shall have to see. My +mother-in-law is going to America; and when she does I'll join +her."</p> +<p>"Humph! My good woman, you wouldn't do more than just keep ahead +of starvation."</p> +<p>"Oh, I shouldn't expect to do more. If I succeeded in +that—I should live."</p> +<p>"How much money have you got?"</p> +<p>"It's all here," she answered, picking up the black satchel and +opening it. "These are my securities, and I'm told they're very +good."</p> +<p>"And do you take them round with you every time you go +shopping?"</p> +<p>"No," Diane smiled, somewhat wanly. "They've been in the hands +of the Messrs. Hargous for a good many years past. They are +entirely at my own disposal—not in trust, they said; so that +I had a right to take them away. I thought I would just bring them +to you."</p> +<p>"What for?"</p> +<p>"To keep them for my mother-in-law and pay her the interest, or +whatever it is."</p> +<p>"Why didn't you leave them with Hargous?"</p> +<p>"I was afraid, from some things he said, he would object to what +I wanted to do."</p> +<p>"And what made you think I wouldn't object to it, too?"</p> +<p>"Two or three reasons. First, Monsieur Hargous is not an +American, and you are; and I'd been told that Americans always like +to help one another—"</p> +<p>"I don't know who could have put that notion into your +head."</p> +<p>"And, then, from the few glimpses I've had of you—I +<i>will</i> say it!—I thought you looked kind."</p> +<p>"Well, now that you've had a better look, you see I don't. How +much money have you got? You haven't told me that yet."</p> +<p>"Here's the memorandum. They said they were mostly bonds, and +very good ones."</p> +<a name="p046" id="p046"></a> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:75%;"><a href= +"images/p046.png"><img width="75%" src="images/p046.png" alt= +"THE BANKER TOOK A LONGER TIME THAN WAS NECESSARY TO SCAN THE POOR LITTLE LIST" /> +</a></div> +<p>With the slip of paper in his hand the banker leaned back in the +chair, and took a longer time than was necessary to scan the poor +little list. In reality he was turning over in his mind the +unexpected features of the case, venturing a peep at Diane as she +sat meekly awaiting the end of his perusal.</p> +<p>"Hasn't it occurred to you," he asked, at last, "that you could +leave your affairs in Hargous' hands, and still turn over to your +mother-in-law whatever sums he paid you?"</p> +<p>"Yes; but she wouldn't take the money unless she thought it was +her very own."</p> +<p>"But it isn't her very own. It's yours."</p> +<p>"I want to make it hers. I want to transfer it to her +absolutely—so that no one else, not even I, shall have a +claim upon it. There must be ways of doing that."</p> +<p>"There are ways of doing that, but as far as she's concerned it +comes to the same thing. If she won't touch the income, she will +refuse to accept the principal."</p> +<p>"I've thought of that, too; and it's among the reasons why I've +come to you. I hoped you'd help me—"</p> +<p>"To tell a lie about it."</p> +<p>"I should think it might be done without that. My mother-in-law +is a very simple woman in business affairs. She has been used all +her life to having money paid into her account, when she had only +the vaguest idea as to where it came from. If you should write to +her now and say that some small funds in her name were in your +hands, and that you would pay her the income at stated intervals, +nothing would seem more natural to her. She would probably +attribute it to some act of foresight on her son's part, and never +think I had anything to do with it at all."</p> +<p>For three or four minutes he sat in meditation, still glancing +at her furtively under his shaggy brows, while she waited for his +decision.</p> +<p>"I don't approve of it at all," he said, at last.</p> +<p>"Don't say that," she pleaded. "I've hoped so much that +you'd—"</p> +<p>"At the same time I won't say that the thing isn't feasible. +I'll just verify these bonds and certificates, and—"</p> +<p>He took them, one by one, from the bag, and, having compared +them with the list, replaced them.</p> +<p>"And," he continued, "you can come and see me again at this time +to-morrow."</p> +<p>"Oh, thank you!"</p> +<p>"You can thank me when I've done something—not before. +Very likely I sha'n't do anything at all. But in the mean while you +may leave your satchel here, and not run the risk of being robbed +in the street. If I refuse you to-morrow—as is probable I +shall—I'll send a man with you to see you and your money +safely back to Hargous."</p> +<p>He touched a bell, and a young man entered. On directions from +the banker the clerk left the room, taking the bag with him; while +Diane, feeling that her errand had been largely accomplished, rose +to leave.</p> +<p>"You can't go without the receipt for your securities. How do +you know I'm not stealing them from you? What right would you have +to claim them when you came again? Sit down now and tell me +something more about yourself."</p> +<p>Half smiling, half tearfully, Diane complied. Before the clerk +returned she had given a brief outline of her life, agreeing in all +but the tone of telling with much of what Mr. Grimston had stated +half an hour earlier.</p> +<p>"It has been all my fault," she declared, as the young man +re-entered. "There's been nobody to blame but me."</p> +<p>"I see that well enough," the old man agreed, and once more she +prepared to depart.</p> +<p>"Look at your receipt. Compare it with the list there on the +desk." Diane obeyed, though her eyes swam so that she could not +tell one word from another. "Is it all right? Then so much the +better. You'll find me at the same time to-morrow—if you're +not late."</p> +<p>"Since you won't let me thank you, I must go without doing so," +she began, tremulously, "but I assure you—"</p> +<p>"You needn't assure me of anything, but just come again +to-morrow."</p> +<p>She smiled through the mist over her eyes, and bowed.</p> +<p>"I shall not be—late," was all she ventured to say, and +turned to leave him.</p> +<p>She had reached the door, and half opened it, when she heard his +voice behind her.</p> +<p>"Stay! Just a minute! I'd like to shake hands with you, young +woman."</p> +<p>Diane turned and allowed him to take her hand in a grip that +hurt her. She was so astounded by the suddenness of the act, as +well as by the rapidity with which he closed the door behind her, +that her tears did not actually fall until she found herself in the +public department of the bank, outside.</p> +<p>IV</p> +<p>On board the <i>Picardie</i>, steaming to New York, Mrs. Eveleth +and Diane were beginning to realize the gravity of the step they +had taken. As long as they remained in Paris, battling with the +sordid details of financial downfall, America had seemed the land +of hope and reconstruction, where the ruined would find to their +hands the means with which to begin again. The illusion had +sustained them all through the first months of living on little, +and stood by them till the very hour of departure. It faded just +when they had most need of it—when the last cliffs of France +went suddenly out of sight in a thick fog-bank of nothingness; and +the cold, empty void, through which the steamer crept cautiously, +roaring from minute to minute like a leviathan in pain, seemed all +that the universe henceforth had to offer them. They would have +been astonished to know that, beyond the fog, Fate was getting the +New World ready for their reception, by creating among the rich +those misfortunes out of which not infrequently proceed the +blessings of the poor.</p> +<p>When that excellent aged lady, Miss Regina van Tromp, sister to +the well-known Paris banker, was felled by a stroke of apoplexy, +the personal calamity might, by a mind taking all things into +account, have been considered balanced by the circumstance that it +was affording employment to some refined woman of reduced means, +capable of taking care of the invalid. It had the further advantage +that, coming suddenly as it did, it absorbed the attention of Miss +Lucilla van Tromp, the sick lady's companion and niece, who became +unable henceforth to give to the household of her cousin, Derek +Pruyn, that general supervision which a kindly old maid can +exercise in the home of a young and prosperous widower. Were +Destiny on the lookout for still another opening, she could have +found it in the fact that Miss Dorothea Pruyn, whose father's +discipline came by fits and starts, while his indulgence was +continuous, had reached a point in motherless maidenhood where, +according to Miss Lucilla, "something ought to be done." There was +thus unrest, and a straining after new conditions, in that very +family toward which Mrs. Eveleth's imagination turned from this +dreary, leaden sea as to a possible haven.</p> +<p>Since the wonderful morning when the banker had brought her the +news of her little inheritance her thoughts had dwelt much on Van +Tromps and Pruyns, as representatives of that old New York clan +with which she deigned to claim alliance; and she found no small +comfort in going over, again and again, the details of the +interview which had brought her once more into contact with her +kin. James van Tromp, she informed Diane, as they lay covered with +rugs in their steamer-chairs, had been gruff in manner, but kind in +heart, like all the Van Tromps she had ever heard of. He had not +scrupled to dwell upon her past extravagance, but he had tempered +his remarks by commending her resolution to return to her old home +and friends. In the matter of friends, he assured her, she would +find herself with very few. She would be forgotten by some and +ignored by others; while those who still took an interest in her +would resent the fact that in the days of her prosperity she had +neglected them. In any case, she must have the meekness of the +suppliant. As her means at most would be small, she must be +grateful if any of her relatives would take her without wages, as a +sort of superior lady's maid, and save her the expense of board and +lodging.</p> +<p>"And so you see, dear," she finished, humbly, "it's going to be +all right. George thought of me; and far more than any money, I +value that. James van Tromp said that this sum had been placed in +his hands some time ago to be specially used for me, and I couldn't +help understanding what that meant. When my boy saw the disaster +coming he did his best to protect me; and it will be my part now to +show that he did enough."</p> +<p>If Diane listened to these familiar remarks, it was only to take +a dull satisfaction in the working of her scheme; but Mrs. +Eveleth's next words startled her into sudden attention.</p> +<p>"Haven't I heard you say that you knew James van Tromp's nephew, +Derek Pruyn?"</p> +<p>"I did know him," Diane answered, with a trace of +hesitation.</p> +<p>"You knew him well?"</p> +<p>"Not exactly; it was different from—well."</p> +<p>"Different? How? Did you meet him often?"</p> +<p>"Never often; but when we did meet—"</p> +<p>The possibilities implied in Diane's pause induced Mrs. Eveleth +to turn in her chair and look at her.</p> +<p>"You've never told me about that."</p> +<p>"There wasn't much to tell. Don't you know what it is to have +met, just a few times in your life, some one who leaves behind a +memory out of proportion to the degree of the acquaintance? It was +something like that with this Mr. Pruyn."</p> +<p>"Where was it? In Paris?"</p> +<p>"I met him first in Ireland. He was staying with some friends of +ours the last year mamma and I lived at Kilrowan. What I remember +about him was that he seemed so young to be a +widower—scarcely more than a boy."</p> +<p>"Is that all?"</p> +<p>"It's very nearly all; but there <i>is</i> something more. He +said one day when we were talking intimately—we always seemed +to talk intimately when we were together—that if ever I was +in trouble, I was to remember him."</p> +<p>"How extraordinary!"</p> +<p>"Yes, it was. I reminded him of it when we met again. That was +the year I was going out with Marie de Nohant, just before George +and I were married."</p> +<p>"And what did he say then?"</p> +<p>"That he repeated the request."</p> +<p>"Extraordinary!" Mrs. Eveleth commented again. "Are you going to +do anything about it?"</p> +<p>"I've thought of it," Diane admitted, "but I don't believe I +can."</p> +<p>"Wouldn't it be a pity to neglect so good an opportunity?"</p> +<p>"It might rather be a pity to avail one's self of it. There are +things in life too pleasant to put to the test."</p> +<p>"He might like you to do it. After all, he's a connection."</p> +<p>Not caring to continue the subject, Diane murmured something +about feeling cold, and rose for a little exercise. Having advanced +as far forward as she could go, she turned her back upon her +fellow-passengers, stretched in mute misery in their chairs or +huddled in cheerful groups behind sheltering projections, and stood +watching the dip and rise of the steamer's bow as it drove onward +into the mist. Whither was she going, and to what? With a desperate +sense of her ignorance and impotence, she strained her eyes into +the white, dimly translucent bank, from which stray drops +repeatedly lashed her face, as though its vaporous wall alone stood +between her and the knowledge of her future.</p> +<hr /> +<p>If she could have seen beyond the fog and carried her vision +over the intervening leagues of ocean, so as to look into a large, +old-fashioned New York house in Gramercy Park, she would have found +Derek Pruyn and Lucilla van Tromp discussing one of the cardinal +points on which that future was to turn.</p> +<p>That it was not an amusing conversation would have been clear +from the agitation of Derek's manner as he strode up and down the +room, as well as from the rigidity with which his cousin, usually a +limp person, held herself erect, in the attitude of a woman who has +no intention of retiring from the stand she has taken.</p> +<p>"You force me to speak more plainly than I like, Derek," she was +saying, "because you make yourself so obtuse. You seem to forget +that years have a way of passing, and that Dorothea is no longer a +very little girl."</p> +<p>"She's barely seventeen—no more than a child."</p> +<p>"But a motherless child, and one who has been allowed a great +deal of liberty."</p> +<p>"Is there any reason why a girl shouldn't be a free +creature?"</p> +<p>"Only the reason why a boy shouldn't be one."</p> +<p>"That's different. A boy would be getting into mischief."</p> +<p>"Even a girl isn't proof against that possibility. It mayn't be +a boy's kind of mischief, but it's a kind of her own."</p> +<p>Unwilling to credit this statement, and yet unable to contradict +it, Pruyn continued his march for a minute or two in silence, while +Miss Lucilla waited nervously for him to speak again. It was one of +the few points in the round of daily existence on which she was +prepared to give him battle. It was part of the ridiculous irony of +life that Derek, with the domestic incompetency natural to a banker +and a club-man, should have a daughter to train, while she whose +instinct was so passionately maternal must be doomed to +spinsterhood. She had never made any secret of the fact that to +watch Derek bringing up Dorothea made her as fidgety as if she had +seen him trimming hats, though she recognized the futility of +trying to snatch the task from his hands in order to do it +properly. The utmost she had been able to accomplish was to be +allowed to plod daily from Gramercy Park to Fifth Avenue, in the +hope of keeping bad from becoming worse; and even this insufficient +oversight must be discontinued now, since Aunt Regina would +monopolize her care. If she took the matter to heart, it was no +more, she thought, than she had a right to do, seeing that Derek +was almost like a younger brother, and, with the exception of Uncle +James in Paris, and Aunt Regina in New York, her nearest relative +in the world.</p> +<p>As she glanced up at him from time to time she reflected, with +some pride, that no one could have taken him for anything but what +he was—a rising young New York banker of some hereditary +line. As in certain English portraits there is an inborn aptitude +for statesmanship, so in Derek Pruyn there was that air, almost +inseparable from the Van Tromp kinship, of one accustomed to +possess money, to make money, to spend money, and to support +moneyed responsibilities. The face, slightly stern by nature, +slightly grave by habit, and tanned by outdoor exercise, was that +of a man who wields his special kind of power with a due sense of +its importance, and yet wields it easily. Nature having endowed the +Van Tromps with every excellence but that of good looks, it was +Miss Lucilla's tendency to depreciate beauty; but she was too much +a woman not to be sensible of the charms of six feet two, with +proportionate width of shoulder, and a way of standing straight and +looking straight, incompatible with anything but "acting straight," +that was full of a fine dominance. That he should be carefully +dressed was but a detail in the exactitude which was the main +element in his character; while his daily custom of wearing in his +button-hole a dark-red carnation, a token of some never-explained +memory of his dead wife, indicated a capacity for sober romance +which she did not find displeasing.</p> +<p>"Then what would you do about it?" he asked, at last, pausing +abruptly in his walk and confronting her.</p> +<p>"There isn't much choice, Derek. Human society is so constituted +as to leave us very little opportunity for striking into original +paths. Aunt Regina has told you many a time what was possible, and +you didn't like it; but I'll repeat it if you wish. You could send +her to a good boarding-school—"</p> +<p>"Never!"</p> +<p>"Or you could have a lady to chaperon her properly."</p> +<p>"Rubbish!"</p> +<p>"Well, there you are, Derek. You refuse the only means that +could help you in your situation; and so you leave Dorothea a prey +to a woman like Mrs. Wappinger. You'll excuse me for mentioning it; +but—"</p> +<p>"I'd excuse you for mentioning anything; but even Mrs. Wappinger +ought to have justice. You know as well as I do that Uncle James +wanted to marry her, and that it was only her own common-sense that +saved us from having her as an aunt. You may not admire her type, +but you can't deny that it's one which has a legitimate place in +American civilization. Ours isn't a society that can afford to +exclude the self-made man, or his widow."</p> +<p>"That may be quite true, Derek; only in that case you have also +to reckon with—his son."</p> +<p>Derek bounded away once more, making manifest efforts to control +himself before he spoke again.</p> +<p>"You know this subject is most distasteful to me, Lucilla," he +said, severely.</p> +<p>"I know it is; and it's equally so to me. But I see what's going +on, and you don't—there's the difference. What should a young +man like you know about bringing up a school-girl? To see you +intrusted with her at all makes me very nearly doubt the wisdom of +the ends of Providence. She's a good little girl by nature, but +your indulgence would spoil an angel."</p> +<p>"I don't indulge her. I've forbidden her to do lots of +things."</p> +<p>"Exactly; you come down on the poor thing when she's not doing +any harm, and you put no restrictions on the things in which she's +wilful. If there's a girl on earth who is being brought up +backward, it's Dorothea Pruyn."</p> +<p>"She's my child. I presume I've got a right to do what I like +with her."</p> +<p>"You'll find that you've done what you don't like with her, when +you've allowed her to get into a ridiculous, unmaidenly flirtation +with the young man Wappinger."</p> +<p>"I shouldn't let that distress me if I were you. As far as +Dorothea is concerned, your young man Wappinger doesn't exist."</p> +<p>"That's as it may be," Miss Lucilla sniffed, now on the brink of +tears.</p> +<p>"That's as it is," he insisted, picking up his hat.</p> +<p>"It's to be regretted," he added, with dignity, as he took his +leave, "that on this subject you and I cannot see alike; but I +think you may trust me not to endanger the happiness of my +child."</p> +<hr /> +<p>Even if Diane could have transcended space to assist at this +brief interview, she would probably have missed its bearing on +herself; but had she transported her spirit at the same instant to +still another scene, the effect would have been more enlightening. +While she still stood watching the rise and dip of the steamer's +bow, Mrs. Wappinger, in a larger and more elaborate mansion than +the old-fashioned house in Gramercy Park, was reading to her son +such portions of a letter from James van Tromp as she considered it +discreet for him to hear. A stout, florid lady, in jovial middle +age, her appearance as an agent in her affairs would certainly have +surprised Diane, had the vision been vouchsafed to her.</p> +<p>Passing over those sentences in which the old man admitted the +wisdom of her decision in rejecting his proposals, on the ground +that he saw now that the married state would not have suited him, +Mrs. Wappinger came to what was of common interest.</p> +<p>"'... You will remember, my good friend,'" she read, with a +strong Western accent, "'that both at the time of, and since, your +husband's death I have been helpful to you in your business +affairs, and laid you under some obligation to me. I have, +therefore, no scruple in asking you to fulfil a few wishes of mine, +in token of such gratitude as I conceive you to feel. There will +arrive in your city by the steamer <i>Picardie</i>, on the +twenty-eighth day of this month, two foolish women, answering to +the name of Eveleth—mother-in-law and +daughter-in-law—both widows—and presenting the sorry +spectacle of Naomi and Ruth returning to the Land of Promise, after +a ruinous sojourn in a foreign country—with whose history you +are familiar from your reading of the Scriptures.'"</p> +<p>"Is there a Bible in the house, mother?" Carli Wappinger asked, +swinging himself on the piano-stool.</p> +<p>"I think there must be—somewhere. There used to be one. +But, hush! Let me go on. 'They will descend,'" she continued to +read, "'at a modest French hostelry in University Place, to which I +have commended them, as being within their means. I desire, first, +that you will make their acquaintance at your earliest possible +convenience. I desire, next, that you will invite them to your +house on some occasion, presumably in the afternoon, when you can +also ask my nephew, Derek Pruyn, and Lucilla van Tromp, my niece, +to meet them. I desire, furthermore, that though you may use my +name to the Mesdames Eveleth, as a passport to their presence, you +will in no wise speak of me to my relatives in question, or give +them to understand that I have inspired the invitation you will +accord them....'"</p> +<p>Mrs. Wappinger threw down the letter with the emphasis of +gesture which was one of her characteristics.</p> +<p>"There!" she exclaimed, in a loud, hearty voice, not without a +note of triumph; "that's what I call a chance."</p> +<p>"Chance for what, mother?"</p> +<p>"Chance for a good many things—and first of all for +bearding Lucilla van Tromp right in her own den."</p> +<p>"I don't see—"</p> +<p>"No; but I do. We're on to a big thing. I've got to go right +there; and she's got to come right here. She's held off, and she's +kept me off; but now the ice'll be broken with a regular thaw."</p> +<p>"Still, I don't see. It's one thing to invite her, to oblige old +man Van Tromp; but it's another thing to get her to come."</p> +<p>"She'll come fast enough—this time; she'll come as if she +was shot here by a secret spring. There is a secret spring, you may +take my word for it. I don't know what it is, and I don't care; +it's enough for me to know that it's in good working +order—which it is, if James van Tromp has got his hand on it. +James van Tromp may look like a fool and talk like a fool, but he +isn't a fool—No, sir!"</p> +<p>It is commonly believed that a woman never thinks otherwise than +gently of the man who has wanted to marry her; and if this be the +rule, Mrs. Wappinger was no exception to it. As she sat on the sofa +in her son's room, the mere mention of the old man's name, attended +by the kindly opinion she had just expressed, sent her off into +sudden reverie. While it was quite true that, in her own phrase, +she "would no more have married him than she would have married a +mole," it was none the less flattering to have been desired. The +onlooker, like Lucilla van Tromp or Derek Pruyn, might wonder what +were those hidden forces of affinity which led a man to single Mrs. +Wappinger out of all the women in the world; but to Mrs. Wappinger +herself the circumstance could not be otherwise than pleasing.</p> +<p>Seeing her pensive, Carli swung himself back to the keyboard +again, pounding out a few bars of the dance music in Strauss' +<i>Salome</i>, of which the score lay open before him. He was a +good-looking young man of twenty-two, of whom any mother, not too +exacting, might be proud. Very blond—with well-chiselled +features and waving hair—not so tall as to make his excessive +slimness seem disproportionate—there was something in the +perfection with which he was "turned out" that gave him the air of +a "creation." Mrs. Wappinger's joy in him was the more satisfying +because of the fact that, relative to herself, he was in the line +of progress. He was the blossom of culture, travel, and sport, +borne by her own strenuous generation of successful material +effort. To the things to which he had attained she felt that in a +certain sense she had attained herself, on the principle of +<i>facit per alium, facit per se.</i> In the social position she +had reached it was a pleasure to know that Harvard, Europe, and +money had given Carli a refinement that made up in some measure for +her own deficiencies.</p> +<p>"Well, what are you going to do about it?" he asked, breaking +off in the midst of the cruel ecstasy of the daughter of Herodias, +and swinging himself back, so as to confront her.</p> +<p>"I'm going to give a little tea," Mrs. Wappinger answered, with +decision; "a <i>tay antime,</i> as the French say. I shall have +these two Eveleths—or whatever their name is—Lucilla +van Tromp, and Derek and Dorothea Pruyn."</p> +<p>"You may accomplish the first and the last. You'll find it +difficult to fill in the middle. To say nothing of the old girl, +Derek Pruyn is too busy for teas—<i>intime</i>, or +otherwise."</p> +<p>"I'm going to have him," she stated, with energy.</p> +<p>"You go round and tell Dorothea she's got to bring +him—she's just got to, that's all. He'll come—I know he +will. There are forces at work here that you and I don't see, and +if something doesn't happen, my name isn't Clara Wappinger."</p> +<p>With this mysterious saying she rose, to leave Carli to his +music.</p> +<p>"How very occult!" he laughed.</p> +<p>"Nobody knows James van Tromp better than I do," she declared, +with pride, turning on the threshold, "and he doesn't write that +way unless he has a plan in mind. You tell Dorothea what I say. Let +me see! To-day is Tuesday; the <i>Picardie</i> will get in on +Saturday; you'll see Dorothea on Sunday; and we'll have the tea on +Thursday next."</p> +<p>With her habitual air of triumphant decision Mrs. Wappinger +departed, and the incident closed.</p> +<p>V</p> +<p>It must be admitted that Diane Eveleth found her entry into the +Land of Promise rather disappointing. To outward things she paid +comparatively little heed. The general aspect of New York was what +she had seen in pictures and expected. That habits and customs +should be strange to her she took as a matter of course; and she +was too eager for a welcome to be critical. As a Frenchwoman, she +was neither curious nor analytical regarding that which lay outside +her immediate sphere of interest, and she instituted no comparisons +between Broadway and the boulevards, or any of the tall buildings +and Notre Dame. It may be confessed that her thoughts went scarcely +beyond the human element, with its possible bearing on her +fortunes.</p> +<p>In this respect she made the discovery that Mrs. Eveleth was not +to be taken as an authority. She had given Diane to understand that +the return of Naomi de Ruyter to New York would be a matter of +civic interest, "especially among the old families," and that they +would scarcely have landed before finding themselves amid people +whom she knew. But forty years had made a difference, and Mrs. +Eveleth recognized no familiar faces in the crowd congregated on +the dock. When it became further evident that not only was Naomi de +Ruyter forgotten in the city of her birth, but that the very +landmarks she remembered had been swept away, there was a moment of +disillusion, not free from tears.</p> +<p>To Diane the discovery meant only that, more than she had +supposed, she would have to depend upon herself. This, to her, was +the appalling fact that dwarfed all other considerations. To be +alone, while the crowds surged hurriedly by her, was one thing; to +be obliged to press in among them and make room for herself was +another. As she walked aimlessly about the streets during the few +days following her arrival she had the forlorn conviction that in +these serried ranks there could be no place for one so +insignificant as she. The knowledge that she must make such a +place, or go without food and shelter, only served to paralyze her +energies and reduce her to a state of nerveless inefficiency.</p> +<p>She had gone forth one day with the letters of introduction she +hoped would help her, only to find that none of the persons to whom +they were addressed had returned to town for the winter. Tired and +discouraged, she was endeavoring on her return to cheer Mrs. +Eveleth with such bits of forced humor as she could squeeze out of +the commonplace happenings of the day, when cards were brought in, +bearing the unknown name of Mrs. Wappinger.</p> +<p>That in this huge, overwhelming town any one could desire to +make their acquaintance was in itself a surprise; but in the +interview that followed Diane felt as though she had been caught up +in a whirlwind and carried away. Mrs. Wappinger's autocratic +breeziness was so novel in character that she had no more thought +of resisting it than of resisting a summer storm. She could only +let it blow over her and bear her whither it listed. In the end she +felt like some wayfarer in the <i>Arabian Nights</i>, who has been +wafted by kindly <i>jinn</i> across unknown miles of space, and set +down again many leagues farther on in his career.</p> +<p>Never in her life did Diane receive in the same amount of time +so much personal information as Mrs. Wappinger conveyed in the +thirty minutes her visit lasted. She began by explaining that she +was a friend of James van Tromp's—a very great friend. In +fact, her husband had been at one time a partner in the Van Tromp +banking-house; but it was an old business, and what they call +conservative, while Mr. Wappinger was from the West. The West was a +long way ahead of New York, though Mrs. Wappinger had "lived East" +so long that she had dropped into walking pace like the rest. She +traced her rise from a comparatively obscure position in Indiana to +her present eminence, and gave details as to Mr. Wappinger's +courtship and the number of children she had lost. Left now with +one, she had spent a good deal of money on him, and was happy to +say that he showed it. While she preferred not to name names, she +made no secret of the fact that Carli was in love; though for her +own part a feeling of wounded pride induced her to hope that he +would never enter a family where he wasn't wanted. The transition +of topic having thus become easy, the invitation to tea was given, +and its acceptance taken as a matter of course.</p> +<p>"It'll only be a <i>tay antime</i>," she declared, in answer to +Diane's faint protests, "so you needn't be afraid to come; and as I +never do things by halves, I shall send one of my automobiles for +the old lady and you at a little after four to-morrow." With these +words and a hearty shake of the hand, she bustled away as suddenly +as she had come, leaving Diane with a bewildering sense of having +beheld an apparition.</p> +<hr /> +<p>It was not less surprising to Diane to find herself, on the +following afternoon, face to face with Derek Pruyn. Though she had +expected, in so far as she thought of him at all, that chance would +one day throw them together, she had not supposed that the event +would occur so soon. The lack of preparation, the change in her +fortunes, and the necessity to explain, combined to bring about one +of those rare moments in which she found herself at a loss.</p> +<p>On his side, Pruyn had come to the house with a very special +purpose. In spite of the stoutness of his protest when young +Wappinger's name was coupled with his child's, he was not without +some inward misgivings, which he resolved to allay once and for +all. He would dispel them by seeing with his own eyes that they had +no force, while he would convict Miss Lucilla of groundless alarm +by ocular demonstration. It would be enough, he was sure, to watch +the young people together to prove beyond cavil that Dorothea was +aware of the gulf between the son of Mrs. Wappinger, worthy woman +though she might be, and a daughter of the Pruyns. He had, +therefore, astonished every one not only by accepting the +invitation himself, but by insisting that Miss Lucilla should do +the same, forcing her thus to become a witness to the vindication +of his wisdom.</p> +<p>Arrived on the spot, however, it vexed him to find that instead +of being a mere spectator, permitted to take notes at his ease, he +was passed from lady to lady—Mrs. Wappinger, Miss Lucilla, +Mrs. Eveleth, in turn—only to find himself settled down at +last with a strange young woman in widow's weeds, in a dim corner +of the drawing-room. The meeting was the more abrupt owing to the +circumstance that Diane, unaware of his arrival, had just emerged +from the adjoining ball-room, which was decorated for a dance. Mrs. +Wappinger, coming forward at that minute with a cup of tea for her, +pronounced their names with hurried indistinctness, and left them +together.</p> +<p>With her quick eye for small social indications, Diane saw that, +owing to the dimness of the room and the nature of her dress, he +did not know her, while he resented the necessity for talking to +one person, when he was obviously looking about for another. With +her tea-cup in her hand she slipped into a chair, so that he had no +choice but to sit down beside her.</p> +<p>He was not what is called a lady's man, and in the most fluent +of moods his supply of easy conversation was small. On the present +occasion he felt the urgency of speech without inspiration to meet +the need. With a furtive flutter of the eyelids, while she sipped +her tea, she took in the salient changes the last five years had +produced in him, noting in particular that though slightly older he +had improved in looks, and that the dark-red carnation still held +its place in his buttonhole.</p> +<p>"Very unseasonable weather for the time of year," he managed to +stammer, at last.</p> +<p>"Is it? I hadn't noticed."</p> +<p>His manner took on a shade of dignity still more severe, as he +wondered whether this reply was a snub or a mere ineptitude.</p> +<p>"You don't worry about such trifles as the weather," he +struggled on.</p> +<p>"Not often."</p> +<p>"May I ask how you escape the necessity?"</p> +<p>"By having more pressing things to think about." With the +finality of this reply the brief conversation dropped, though the +perception on Derek's part that it was not from her inability to +carry it on stirred him to an unusual feeling of pique. Most of the +women he met were ready to entertain him without putting him to any +exertion whatever. They even went so far as to manifest a +disposition to be agreeable, before which he often found it +necessary to retire. Without being fatuous on the point, he could +not be unaware of the general conviction that a wealthy widower, +who could still call himself young, must be in want of a wife; and +as long as he was unconscious of the need himself, he judged it +wise to be as little as possible in feminine society. On the rare +occasions when he ventured therein he was not able to complain of a +lack of welcome; nor could he remember an instance in which his +hesitating, somewhat scornful, advances had not been cordially met, +until to-day. The immediate effect was to cause him to look at +Diane with a closer, if somewhat haughty, attention, their eyes +meeting as he did so. Her voice, with its blending of French and +Irish elements, had already made its appeal to his memory, so that +the minute was one in which the presentiment of recognition came +before the recognition itself. In his surprise he half arose from +his chair, resuming his seat as he exclaimed:</p> +<p>"It's Mademoiselle de la Ferronaise!"</p> +<p>His astonished tone and awe-struck manner called to Diane's lips +a little smile.</p> +<p>"It used to be," she said, trying to speak naturally; "it's Mrs. +Eveleth now."</p> +<p>"Yes," he responded, with the absent air of a man getting his +wits together; "I remember; that was the name."</p> +<p>"You knew, then, that I'd been married?"</p> +<p>"Yes; but I didn't know—"</p> +<p>His glance at her dress finished the sentence, and she hastened +to reply.</p> +<p>"No; of course not. My husband died at the beginning of last +summer—six months ago. I hoped some one would have told you +before we met. But we have not many common acquaintances, have +we?"</p> +<p>"I hope we may have more now—if you're making a visit to +New York."</p> +<p>"I'm making more than a visit; I expect to stay."</p> +<p>"Oh! Do you think you'll like that?"</p> +<p>"It isn't a question of liking; it's a question of living. I may +as well tell you at once that since my husband's death I have my +own bread to earn."</p> +<p>To no Frenchwoman of her rank in life could this statement have +been an easy one, but by making it with a certain quiet +outspokenness she hoped to cover up her foolish sense of shame. The +moment was not made less difficult for her by the astonishment, +mingled with embarrassment, with which he took her remark.</p> +<p>"You!" he cried. "You!"</p> +<p>"It isn't anything very unusual, is it?" she smiled.</p> +<p>"I'm not the first person in the world to make the attempt."</p> +<p>"And may I ask if you're succeeding?"</p> +<p>"I haven't begun yet. I only arrived a few days ago."</p> +<p>"Oh, I see. You've come here—"</p> +<p>"In the hope of finding employment—just like the rest of +the disinherited of the earth. I hope to give French lessons, +and—"</p> +<p>"There's always an opening to any one who can," he interrupted, +encouragingly. "I'm not without influence in one or two good +schools that my daughter has attended—"</p> +<p>"Is that your daughter?" she asked, glad to escape from her +subject, now that it was stated plainly—"the very pretty girl +in red?"</p> +<p>The question gave Pruyn the excuse he wanted or looking about +him.</p> +<p>"I believe she's in red—but I don't see her."</p> +<p>He searched the dimly lighted room, where Mrs. Wappinger sat, +silent and satisfied, behind her tea-table, while Mrs. Eveleth was +conversing with Lucilla on Knickerbocker genealogy; but neither of +the young people was to be seen. His look of anxiety did not escape +Diane, who responded to it with her usual straightforward +promptness.</p> +<p>"I fancy she's still in the ball-room with young Mr. Wappinger," +she explained. "We were all there a few minutes ago, looking at the +decorations for the dance Mrs. Wappinger is giving to-night. It was +before you came."</p> +<p>The shadow that shot across his face was a thing to be noticed +only by one accustomed to read the most trivial signs in the social +sky. In an instant she took in the main points of the case as +accurately as if Mrs. Wappinger had named those names over which +she had shown such laudable reserve.</p> +<p>"Wouldn't you like to see them?—the decorations? They're +very pretty. It's just in here."</p> +<p>She rose as she spoke, with a gesture of the hand toward the +ball-room. He followed, because she led the way, but without seeing +the meaning of the move until they were actually on the polished +dancing-floor. Owing to the darkness of the December afternoon, the +large empty room was lit up as brilliantly as at night. For a +minute they stood on the threshold, looking absently at the palms +grouped in the corners and the garlands festooning the walls. It +was only then that Pruyn saw the motive of her coming; and for an +instant he forgot his worry in the perception that this woman had +divined his thought.</p> +<p>"There's no one here," he said, at last, in a tone of relief, +which betrayed him once more.</p> +<p>"No," Diane replied, half turning round. "Perhaps we had better +go back to the drawing-room. My mother-in-law will be getting +tired."</p> +<p>"Wait," he said, imperiously. "Isn't that—?"</p> +<p>He was again conscious of having admitted her into a sort of +confidence; but he had scarcely time to regret it before there was +a flash of red between the tall potted shrubs that screened an +alcove. Dorothea sauntered into view, with Carli Wappinger, bending +slightly over her, walking by her side. They were too deep in +conversation to know themselves observed; but the earnestness with +which the young man spoke became evident when he put out his hand +and laid it gently on the muff Dorothea held before her. In the +act, from which Dorothea did not draw back, there was nothing +beyond the admission of a certain degree of intimacy; but Diane +felt, through all her highly trained subconscious sensibilities, +the shock it produced in Derek's mind.</p> +<p>The situation belonged too entirely to the classic repertoire of +life to present any difficulties to a woman who knew that +catastrophe is often averted by keeping close to the +commonplace.</p> +<p>"Isn't she pretty!" she exclaimed, in a tone of polite +enthusiasm. "Mayn't I speak to her? I haven't met her yet."</p> +<p>Before she had finished the concluding words, or Wappinger had +withdrawn his hand from Dorothea's muff, she had glided across the +floor, and disturbed the young people from their absorption in each +other.</p> +<p>"Mr. Wappinger," Derek heard her say, as he approached, "I want +you to introduce me to Miss Pruyn. I'm Mrs. Eveleth, Miss Pruyn," +she continued, without waiting for Carli's intermediary offices. "I +couldn't go away without saying just a word to you."</p> +<p>If she supposed she was coming to Dorothea's rescue in a moment +which might be one of embarrassment, she found herself mistaken. No +experienced dowager could have been more amiable to a nice +governess than Dorothea Pruyn to a lady in reduced circumstances. A +facility in adapting herself to other people's manners enabled +Diane to accept her cue; and presently all four were on their way +back to the drawing-room, where farewells were spoken.</p> +<a name="p078" id="p078"></a> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:75%;"><a href= +"images/p078.png"><img width="75%" src="images/p078.png" alt= +"PRESENTLY ALL FOUR WERE ON THEIR WAY BACK TO THE DRAWING-ROOM" /></a></div> +<p>While Miss Lucilla was making Mrs. Eveleth renew her promise to +come and see her, and "bring young Mrs. Eveleth with her," Pruyn +found an opportunity for another word with Diane.</p> +<p>"You must understand," he said, in a tone which he tried to make +one of explanation for her enlightenment rather than of apology for +Dorothea—"you must understand that girls have a good deal of +liberty in America."</p> +<p>"They have everywhere," she rejoined. "Even in France, where +they've been kept so strictly, the old law of Purdah has been more +or less relaxed."</p> +<p>"If you take up teaching as a work, you'll naturally be thrown +among our young people; and you may see things to which it will be +difficult to adjust your mind."</p> +<p>"I've had a good deal of practice in adjusting my mind. It often +seems to me as movable as if it was on a pivot. I'm rather ashamed +of it."</p> +<p>"You needn't be. On the contrary, you'll find it especially +useful in this country, where foreigners are often eager to convert +us to their customs, while we are tenacious of our own."</p> +<p>"Thank you," she said, in the spirit of meekness his didactic +attitude seemed to require. "I'll try to remember that, and not +fall into the mistake."</p> +<p>"And if I can do anything for you," he went on, awkwardly, "in +the way of +schools—or—or—recommendations—you know I +promised long ago that if you ever needed any one—"</p> +<p>"Thank you once more," she said, hurriedly, before he had time +to go on. "I know I can count on your help; and if I require a good +word, I shall not hesitate to ask you for it."</p> +<p>As she slipped away, Pruyn was left with the uncomfortable sense +of having appeared to a disadvantage. He had been stilted and +patronizing, when he had meant to be cordial and kind. On the other +hand, he resented the quickness with which she had read his +thoughts, as well as her perception that he had ground for +uneasiness regarding his child. That she should penetrate the inner +shrine of reserve he kept closed against those who stood nearest to +him in the world gave him a sense of injury; and he turned this +feeling to account during the next few hours in trying to deaden +the echo of the French voice with the Irish intonation that haunted +his inner hearing, as well as to banish the memory of the plaintive +smile in which, as he feared, meekness was blended with amusement +at his expense.</p> +<p>VI</p> +<p>If the secret spring worked by James van Tromp had been an +active agency in bringing Diane and Derek Pruyn once more together, +as well as in creating the intimacy that sprang up during the next +two months between Miss Lucilla and the elder Mrs. Eveleth, it had +certainly nothing to do with the South American complications in +the business of Van Tromp & Co., which made Pruyn's departure +for Rio de Janeiro a possibility of the near future. He had long +foreseen that he would be obliged to make the journey sooner or +later, but that he should have to do it just now was particularly +inconvenient. There was but one aspect in which the expedition +might prove a blessing in disguise—he might take Dorothea +with him.</p> +<p>During the six or eight weeks following the afternoon at Mrs. +Wappinger's he had bestowed upon Dorothea no small measure of +attention, obtaining much the same result as a mastiff might gain +from his investigation of the ways of a bird of paradise. He +informed himself as to her diversions and her dancing-classes, +making the discovery that what other girls' mothers did for them, +Dorothea was doing for herself. As far as he could see, she was +bringing herself up with the aid of a chosen band of eligible, +well-conducted young men, varying in age from nineteen to +twenty-two, whom she was training as a sort of body-guard against +the day of her "coming out." On the occasions when he had +opportunities for observation he noted the skill with which she +managed them, as well as the chivalry with which they treated her; +and yet there was in the situation an indefinable element that +displeased him. It was something of a shock to learn that the +flower he thought he was cultivating in secluded sweetness under +glass had taken root of its own accord in the midst of young New +York's great, gay parterre. Aware of the possibilities of this soil +to produce over-stimulated growth, he could think of nothing better +than to pluck it up and, temporarily at least, transplant it +elsewhere. Having come to the decision overnight, he made the +proposition when they met at breakfast in the morning.</p> +<p>A prettier object than Miss Dorothea Pruyn, at the head of her +father's table, it would have been difficult to find in the whole +range of "dainty rogues in porcelain." From the top of her +bronze-colored hair to the tip of her bronze-colored shoes she was +as complete as taste could make her. The flash of her eyes as she +lifted them suddenly, and as suddenly dropped them, over her task +among the coffee-cups was like that of summer waters; while the +rapture of youth was in her smile, and a becoming school-girl +shyness in her fleeting blushes. In the floral language of American +society, she was "not a bud"; she was only that small, hard, green +thing out of which the bud is to unfold itself, but which does not +lack a beauty of promise specially its own. If any criticism could +be passed upon her, it was that which her father made—that +there was danger of the promise being anticipated by a rather +premature fulfilment, and the flower that needed time forced into a +hurried, hot-house bloom.</p> +<p>"What! And leave my friends!" she exclaimed, when Derek, with +some hesitation, had asked her how she would like the journey.</p> +<p>"They would keep."</p> +<p>"That's just what they wouldn't do. When I came back I should +find them in all sorts of new combinations, out of which I should +be dropped. You've got to be on the spot to keep in your set, +otherwise you're lost."</p> +<p>"Why should you be in a set? Why shouldn't you be +independent?"</p> +<p>"That just shows how much you understand, father," she said, +pityingly. "A girl who isn't in a set is as much an outsider as a +Hindoo who isn't in a caste. I must know people; and I must know +the right people; and I must know no one but the right people. It's +perfectly simple."</p> +<p>"Oh, perfectly. I can't help wondering, though, how you +recognize the right people when you see them."</p> +<p>"By instinct. You couldn't make a mistake about that, any more +than one pigeon could make a mistake about another, or take it for +a crow."</p> +<p>"And is young Wappinger one of the right people?"</p> +<p>It was with an effort that Derek made up his mind to broach this +subject, but Dorothea's self-possession was not disturbed.</p> +<p>"Certainly," she replied, briefly, with perhaps a slight +accentuation of her maiden dignity.</p> +<p>"I'm rather surprised at that."</p> +<p>"Yes; you should be," she conceded; "but I couldn't make you +understand it, any more than you could make me understand +banking."</p> +<p>"I'm not convinced of the impossibility of either," he objected, +knocking the top off an egg. "Suppose you were to try."</p> +<p>Dorothea shook her head.</p> +<p>"It wouldn't be of any use. The fact is, I really don't +understand it myself. What's more, I don't suppose anybody else +does. Carli Wappinger belongs to the right people because the right +people say he does; and there is no more to be said about it."</p> +<p>"I should think that Mrs. Wappinger might be +a—drawback."</p> +<p>"Not if the right people don't think so; and they don't. They've +taken her up, and they ask her everywhere; but they couldn't tell +you why they do it, any more than birds could tell you why they +migrate. As a matter of fact, they don't care. They just do it, and +let it be."</p> +<p>"That sort of election and predestination may be very convenient +for Mrs. Wappinger, but I should think you might have reasons for +not caring to indorse it."</p> +<p>"I haven't. Why should I, more than anybody else."</p> +<p>"You've so much social perspicacity that I hoped you would see +without my having to tell you. It's chiefly a question of +antecedents."</p> +<p>Dorothea looked thoughtful, her head tipped to one side, as she +buttered a bit of toast.</p> +<p>"I know that's an important point," she admitted, "but it isn't +everything. You've got to look at things all round, and not mistake +your shadow for your bone."</p> +<p>"I'm glad you see there is a shadow."</p> +<p>"I see there is only a shadow."</p> +<p>"A shadow on—what?"</p> +<p>Pruyn meant this for a leading question, and as such Dorothea +took it. She gazed at him for a minute with the clear eyes and +straightforward expression that were so essential a part of her +dainty, self-reliant personality. If she was bracing herself for an +effort, there was no external sign of it.</p> +<p>"I may as well tell you, father," she said, "that Carli +Wappinger has asked me to marry him."</p> +<p>For a long minute Derek sat with body seemingly stunned, but +with mind busily searching for the wisest way in which to take this +astounding bit of information. At the end of many seconds of +silence he exploded in loud laughter, choosing this method of +treating Dorothea's confidence in order to impress her with the +ludicrous aspect of the affair, as it must appear to the grown-up +mind.</p> +<p>"Funny, isn't it?" she remarked, dryly, when he thought it +advisable to grow calmer.</p> +<p>"It's not only funny; it's the drollest thing I ever heard in my +life."</p> +<p>"I thought it might strike you that way. That's why I told +you."</p> +<p>"And what did you tell him, if I may ask?"</p> +<p>"I told him it was out of the question—for the +present."</p> +<p>"For the present! That's good. But why the reservation?"</p> +<p>"I couldn't tell him it would be out of the question always, +because I didn't know. As long as he didn't ask me for a definite +answer, I didn't feel obliged to give him one."</p> +<p>"I think you might have committed yourself as far as that."</p> +<p>"I prefer not to commit myself at all. I'm very young and +inexperienced—"</p> +<p>"I'm glad you see that."</p> +<p>"Though neither so inexperienced nor so young as mamma was when +she married you. And you were only twenty-one yourself, father, +while Carli is nearly twenty-three."</p> +<p>"I wouldn't compare the two instances if I were you."</p> +<p>"I don't. I merely state the facts. I want to make it plain +that, though we're both very young, we're not so young as to make +the case exceptional."</p> +<p>"But I understood you to say that there was no—case."</p> +<p>"There is to this extent: that while I'm free, Carli considers +himself bound. That's the way we've left it."</p> +<p>"That is to say, he's engaged, but you aren't."</p> +<p>"That's what Carli thinks."</p> +<p>"Then I refuse to consent to it."</p> +<p>"But, father dear," Dorothea asked, arching her pretty eyebrows, +"do you have to consent to what Carli thinks about himself? Can't +he do that just as he likes?"</p> +<p>"He can't become a hanger-on of my family without my +permission."</p> +<p>"He says he's not going to hang on, but to stand off. He's going +to allow me full liberty of action and fair play."</p> +<p>"That's very kind of him."</p> +<p>"Only, when I choose to come back to him I shall find him +waiting."</p> +<p>"I might suggest that you never go back to him at all, only that +there's a better way of meeting the situation. That is to put a +stop to the nonsense now; and I shall take steps to do it."</p> +<p>Dorothea preserved her self-control, but two tiny hectic spots +began to burn in her cheeks, while she kept her eyes persistently +lowered, as though to veil the spirit of determination glowing +there.</p> +<p>"Hadn't you better leave that to me?" she asked, after a brief +pause.</p> +<p>"I will, if you promise to put it through."</p> +<p>"You see," she answered, in a reasoning tone, "my whole object +is not to promise anything—yet. I should think the advantage +of that would strike you, if only from the point of view of +business. It's like having the refusal of a picture or a piece of +property. You may never want them; but it does no harm to know that +nobody else can get them till you decide."</p> +<p>"Neither does it do any harm to let somebody else have a chance, +when you know that you can't take them."</p> +<p>"Of course not; but I couldn't say that now. I quite realize +that I'm too young to know my own mind; and it's only reasonable to +consider things all round. Carli is rich and good-looking. He has a +cultivated mind and a kind heart. There are lots of men, to whom +you'd have no objection whatever, who wouldn't possess all those +qualifications, or perhaps any of them."</p> +<p>"Nevertheless, I should imagine that the fact that I have +objections would have its weight with you."</p> +<p>"Naturally; and yet you would neither force me into what I +didn't like to do, nor refuse me what I wanted."</p> +<p>With this definition of his parental attitude Dorothea pushed +back her chair and moved sedately from the room.</p> +<p>Physically, Derek was able to go on with his breakfast and +finish it, but mentally he was like a man, accustomed to action, +who suddenly finds himself paralyzed. To the best of his knowledge +he had never before been put in a position in which he had no idea +whatever as to what to do. He had been placed in some puzzling +dilemmas in private life, and had passed through some serious +crises in financial affairs, but he had always been able to take +some course, even if it was a mistaken one. It had been reserved +for Dorothea to checkmate him in such a way that he could not move +at all.</p> +<hr /> +<p>That the feminine mind possessed resources which his own did not +was a claim Derek had made it a principle to deny. The theory on +which he had brought up Dorothea had been based on his belief in +his own insight into his daughter's character. Though he was far +from abjuring that confidence even yet, nevertheless, when the +succeeding days brought no enlightenment of counsel, and the long +journey to South America became more imminent, he was forced once +more to turn his steps toward Gramercy Park, and seek inspiration +from the great, eternal mother-spirit of mankind, as represented by +his cousin.</p> +<p>Miss Lucilla van Tromp passed among her friends as a sort of +diffident Minerva. Though deficient in outward charms, she was +considered to possess intellectual ability; and, having once been +told that her profile resembled George Eliot's, she made the +pursuit of learning, music, and Knickerbocker genealogy her special +aims. Derek had, all his life, felt for her a special tenderness; +and having neither mother, wife, nor sister, he was in the habit of +coming to her with his cares.</p> +<p>"You're a woman," he declared, now, in summing up his case. +"You're a woman. If you'd been married, you would probably have had +children. You ought to be able to tell me exactly what to do."</p> +<p>Flushes of shy rapture illumined and softened her ill-assorted +features on being cited as the type of maternity and sex, so that +when she replied it was with an air of authority.</p> +<p>"I can tell you what to do, Derek; but I've done it already, and +you wouldn't listen. You should send her to a good +school—"</p> +<p>"It's too late for that. She wouldn't go."</p> +<p>"Then you should have some woman to live in your house who would +be wise enough to manage her."</p> +<p>He jerked out the monosyllable, and began, according to his +custom when puzzled or annoyed, to stride up and down the +library.</p> +<p>"That is," Miss Lucilla went on, "you wouldn't like it. It would +bore you to see a stranger in the house."</p> +<p>"Naturally."</p> +<p>"And so you would sacrifice Dorothea to your personal +convenience."</p> +<p>"I wouldn't, if there was a woman competent to take the place; +but there isn't."</p> +<p>"There is. There's Diane Eveleth."</p> +<p>"Who?"</p> +<p>The dark flush that swept into his face made it clear to Lucilla +that his question was not put for purposes of information. She had +remarked in Derek during the past few weeks a manner of fighting +shy of Diane at variance with his usual method with women. Safety +in flight was the course he commonly adopted; but since Diane +appeared on the scene, Lucilla had noticed that it was flight with +a curious tendency to looking backward.</p> +<p>"I said Diane Eveleth," she replied, in tactful answer to his +superfluous question; "and I assure you she's fully equal to the +duties you would require of her. I suppose you've never noticed her +especially—?"</p> +<p>"I used to know her a little," he said, in an offhand manner. +"I've seen her here. That's all."</p> +<p>"If a woman could have been made on purpose for what you want, +it's she."</p> +<p>"Dear me! You don't say so!"</p> +<p>"It's no use trying to be sarcastic about it, Derek. She's not +the one to suffer by it; it's Dorothea. Though, when it comes to +suffering, she has her share, poor thing."</p> +<p>"I suppose no decent woman who has just lost her husband is +expected to be absolutely hilarious over the event."</p> +<p>"She hasn't <i>just</i> lost him; it's getting on toward a year. +And, besides, it isn't only that. As a matter of fact, I don't +believe she ever loved him as she could love the man to whom she +gave her heart. If grief was her only trouble, I am sure the poor +thing could bear it."</p> +<p>"And can't she bear it as it is?"</p> +<p>"The fact that she does bear it shows that she can; but it must +be hard for a woman, who has lived as she has, to be brought to +want."</p> +<p>"Want? Isn't that a strong word? One isn't in want unless one is +without food and shelter."</p> +<p>"She has the shelter for the time being; I'm not sure that she +always has the food."</p> +<p>"What? You don't know what you're saying."</p> +<p>"I know exactly what I'm saying; and I mean exactly what I say. +There have been days when I've suspected that she's pinching in the +essentials of meat and drink."</p> +<p>"But she has pupils."</p> +<p>"She has two; but they must pay her very little. It's dreadful +for people who have as much as we to have to look on at the tragedy +of others going hungry—"</p> +<p>"Good Lord! Don't pile it on."</p> +<p>Striding to a window, he stood with his back to her, staring +out.</p> +<p>"I'm not piling it on, Derek. I wish I were."</p> +<p>"Well, can't we do something? If it's as you say, they mustn't +be left like that."</p> +<p>"It's a very delicate matter. The mother-in-law has money of her +own; but Diane has nothing. It's difficult to see what to do, +except to find her a situation."</p> +<p>"Then find her one."</p> +<p>"I have; but you won't take her."</p> +<p>"In any case," he said, in the aggressive tone of a man putting +forward a weak final argument, "you couldn't leave the +mother-in-law all alone."</p> +<p>"I'd take her," Lucilla said, promptly. "You have no idea how +much I want her, in this big, empty house. It's getting to be more +than I can do to take care of Aunt Regina all alone."</p> +<p>Minutes went by in silence; but when Derek turned from the +window and spoke, Lucilla shrank with constitutional fear from the +responsibility she had assumed.</p> +<p>"Go and ring them up, and tell young Mrs. Eveleth I'm waiting to +see her here."</p> +<p>"But, Derek, are you sure—?"</p> +<p>"I'm quite sure. Please go and ring them up."</p> +<p>"But, Derek, you're so startling. Have you reflected?"</p> +<p>"It's quite decided. Please do as I say, and call them up."</p> +<p>"But if anything were to go wrong in the future you'd think it +was my—"</p> +<p>"I shall think nothing of the kind. Don't say any more about it, +but please go and tell Diane I'm waiting."</p> +<p>The use of this name being more convincing to Lucilla than +pledges of assurance, she sped away to do his bidding; but it was +not till after she had gone that Derek recognized the fact that the +word had passed his lips.</p> +<p>VII</p> +<p>During the half-hour before the arrival of Mrs. Eveleth and +Diane, Miss Lucilla's tact allowed Derek to have the library to +himself. He was thus enabled to co-ordinate his thoughts, and enact +the laws which must henceforth regulate his domestic life. It was +easy to silence the voice that for an instant accused him of taking +this step in order to provide Diane Eveleth with a home; for +Dorothea's need of a strong hand over her was imperative. He had +reached the point where that circumstance could no longer be +ignored. The avowal that the child had passed beyond his control +would have had more bitterness in it, were it not for the fact that +her naïve self-sufficiency touched his sense of humor, while +her dainty beauty wakened his paternal pride.</p> +<p>Nevertheless, it was patent that Dorothea had been too much her +own mistress. Without admitting that he had been wrong in his +methods hitherto, he confessed that the time had come when the +duenna system must be introduced, as a matter not only of +propriety, but of prudence. He assured himself of his regret that +no American lady who could take the position chanced to be on the +spot, but allayed his sorrow on the ground that any fairly +well-mannered, virtuous woman could fulfil the functions of so +mechanical a task, just as any decent, able-bodied man is good +enough to be a policeman.</p> +<p>It was somewhat annoying that the lady in question should be +young and pretty; for it was a sad proof of the crudity of human +nature that the mere residence of a free man and a free woman under +the same roof could not pass without comment among their friends. +For himself it was a matter of no importance; and as for her, a +woman who has her living to earn must often be placed in situations +where she is exposed to remark.</p> +<p>To anticipate all possibility of mistake, it would be necessary +that his attitude toward Mrs. Eveleth should be strictly that of +the employer toward the employed. He must ignore the circumstance +of their earlier acquaintance, with its touch of something +memorable which neither of them had ever been able to explain, and +confine himself as far as possible, both in her interests and his +own, to such relations as he held with his stenographers and his +clerks. What friendliness she required she must receive from other +hands; and, doubtless, she would find sufficient.</p> +<p>Having intrenched himself behind his fortifications of reserve, +he was able to maintain just the right shade of dignity, when, in +the half-light of the midwinter afternoon, Diane glided into the +big, book-lined apartment, in which the comfortable air induced +through long occupancy by people of means did not banish a certain +sombreness. She entered with the subdued manner of one who has been +sent for peremptorily, but who acknowledges the right of summons. +The perception of this called an impulse to apologize to Derek's +lips; but on reflection he repressed it. It was best to assume that +she would do his bidding from the first. Standing by the fireplace, +with his arm on the mantelpiece, he bowed stiffly, without offering +his hand. Diane bowed in return, keeping her own hands securely in +her small black muff.</p> +<p>"Won't you sit down?"</p> +<p>Without changing his position he indicated the large leathern +chair on the other side of the hearth. Diane sat down on the very +edge—erect, silent, submissive. If he had feared the +intrusion of the personal element into what must be strictly a +business affair, it was plain that this pale, pinched little woman +had forestalled him.</p> +<p>Yes; she was pale and pinched. Lucilla had been right about +that. There was something in Diane's appearance that suggested +privation. Derek had seen such a thing before among the +disinherited of mankind, but never in his own rank in life. With +her air of proud gentleness, of gallant acceptance of what fate had +apportioned her, she made him think of some plucky little citadel +holding out against hunger. If there was no way of showing the +pity, the mingled pity and approbation, in his breast, it was at +least some consolation to know that in his house she would be +beyond the most terrible and elemental touch of want.</p> +<p>"I've troubled you to come and see me," he began, with an effort +to keep the note of embarrassment out of his voice, "to ask if you +would be willing to accept a position in my family."</p> +<p>Diane sat still and did not raise her eyes, but it seemed to him +that he could detect, beneath her veil, a light of relief in her +face, like a sudden gleam of sunshine.</p> +<p>"I'm looking for a position," was all she said, "and if I could +be of service—"</p> +<p>"I'm very much in need of some one," he explained; "though the +duties of the place would be peculiar, and, perhaps, not +particularly grateful."</p> +<p>"It would be for me to do them, without questioning as to +whether I liked them or not."</p> +<p>"I'm glad you say that, as it will make it easier for us to come +to an understanding. You've already guessed, perhaps, that I am +looking for a lady to be with my daughter."</p> +<p>"I thought it might be something of that kind."</p> +<p>The difficult part of the interview was now to begin, and Pruyn +hesitated a minute, considering how best to present his case. +Reflection decided him in favor of frankness, for it was only by +frankness on his side that Diane would be able to carry out his +wishes on hers. The responsibility imposed upon him by his wife's +death, he said, was one he had never wished to shirk by leaving his +child to the care of others. Moreover, he had had his own ideas as +to the manner in which she should be brought up, and he had put +them into practice. The results had been good in most respects, and +if in others there was something still to be desired, it was not +too late to make the necessary changes, whether in the way of +supplement or correction. Indeed, in his opinion, the psychological +moment for introducing a new line of conduct had only just +arrived.</p> +<p>"It is often better not to force things," Diane murmured, +vaguely, "especially with the very young."</p> +<p>To this he agreed, though he laid down the principle that not to +take strong measures when there was need for them would be the part +of weakness. Diane having no objection to offer to this bit of +wisdom, it was possible for him to go on to explain the emergency +she would be called on to meet. Briefly, it arose from his own +error in allowing Dorothea too much liberty of judgment. While he +was in favor of a reasonable freedom for all young people, it was +evident that in this case the pendulum had been suffered to swing +so far in one direction that it would require no small amount of +effort on his part and Diane's—chiefly on Diane's—to +bring it back. In the interest of Dorothea's happiness it was +essential that the proper balance should be established with all +possible speed, even though they raised some rebellion on her part +in doing it.</p> +<p>He explained Dorothea's methods in creating her body-guard of +young men, as far as he understood them; he described the young +people whose society she frequented, and admitted that he was +puzzled as to the precise quality in them that shocked his views; +coming to the affair with Carli Wappinger, he spoke of it as "a bit +of preposterous nonsense, to which an immediate stop must be put." +There were minor points in his exposition; and at each one, as he +made it, Diane nodded her head gravely, to show that she followed +him with understanding, and was in sympathy with his opinion that +it was "high time that some step should be taken."</p> +<p>Encouraged by this intelligent comprehension, Derek went on to +define the good offices he would expect from Diane. She should come +to his house not only as Dorothea's inseparable companion, but as a +sort of warder-in-chief, armed, by his authority, with all the +powers of command. There was no use in doing things by halves; and +if Dorothea needed discipline she had better get it thoroughly, and +be done with it. It was not a thing which he, Derek, would want to +see last forever; but while it did last it ought to be effective, +and he would look to Diane to make it so. As it was not becoming +that a daughter of his should need a bodyguard of youths, Diane +would undertake the task of breaking up Dorothea's circle. Young +men might still be permitted "to call," but under Diane's +supervision, while Dorothea sat in the background, as a maiden +should. Diane would make it a point to know the lads personally, so +as to discriminate between them, and exclude those who for one +reason or another might not be desirable friends. As for Mr. Carli +Wappinger, the door was to be rigorously shut against him. Here the +question was not one of gradual elimination, but of abrupt +termination to the acquaintanceship. He must request Diane to see +to it that, as far as possible, Dorothea neither met the young man, +nor held communication with him, on any pretext whatever. He laid +down no rule in the case of Mrs. Wappinger, but it would follow as +a natural consequence that the mother should be dropped with the +son. These might seem drastic measures to Dorothea, to begin with; +but she was an eminently reasonable child, and would soon come to +recognize their wisdom. After all, they were only the conditions to +which, as he had been given to understand, other young girls were +subjected, so that she would have nothing to complain of in her +lot. The probability of his own departure for South America, with +an absence lasting till the spring, would make it necessary for +Diane to use to the full the powers with which he commissioned her. +He trusted that he made himself clear.</p> +<p>For some minutes after he ceased speaking Diane sat looking +meditatively at the fire. When she spoke her voice was low, but the +ring of decision in it was not to be mistaken.</p> +<p>"I'm afraid I couldn't accept the position, Mr. Pruyn."</p> +<p>Derek's start of astonishment was that of a man who sees +intentions he meant to be benevolent thrown back in his face.</p> +<p>"You couldn't—? But surely—?"</p> +<p>"I mean, I couldn't do that kind of work."</p> +<p>"But I thought you were looking for it—or something of the +sort."</p> +<p>"Yes; something of the sort, but not precisely that."</p> +<p>"And it's precisely that that I wish to have done," he said, in +a tone that betrayed some irritation; "so I suppose there is no +more to be said."</p> +<p>"No; I suppose not. In any case," she added, rising, "I must +thank you for being so good as to think of me; and if I feel +obliged to decline your proposition, I must ask you to believe that +my motives are not petty ones. Now I will say good-afternoon."</p> +<p>Keeping her hands rigidly within her muff, and with a slight, +dignified inclination of the head, she turned from him.</p> +<p>She was half-way to the door before Derek recovered himself +sufficiently to speak.</p> +<p>"May I ask," he inquired, "what your objections are?"</p> +<p>She turned where she stood, but did not come back toward +him.</p> +<p>"I have only one. The position you suggest would be intolerable +to your daughter and odious to me."</p> +<p>"But," he asked, with a perplexed contraction of the brows, +"isn't it what companions to young ladies are generally engaged +for?"</p> +<p>"I was never engaged as a companion before, so I'm not qualified +to say. I only know—"</p> +<p>She stopped, as if weighing her words.</p> +<p>"Yes?" he insisted; "you only know—what?"</p> +<p>"That no girl with spirit—and Miss Pruyn <i>is</i> a girl +with spirit—would submit to that kind of tyranny."</p> +<p>"It wouldn't be tyranny in this case; it would be +authority."</p> +<p>"She would consider it tyranny—especially after the +freedom you've allowed her."</p> +<p>"But you admit that it's freedom that ought to be curbed?"</p> +<p>"Quite so; but aren't there methods of restriction other than +those of compulsion?"</p> +<p>"Such as—what?"</p> +<p>"Such as special circumstances may suggest."</p> +<p>"And in these particular circumstances—?"</p> +<p>"I'm not prepared to say. I'm not sufficiently familiar with +them."</p> +<p>"Precisely; but I am."</p> +<p>"You're familiar with them from a man's point of view," she +smiled; "but it's one of those instances in which a man's point of +view counts for very little."</p> +<p>"Admitting that, what would be your advice?"</p> +<p>"I have none to give."</p> +<p>"None?"</p> +<p>She shook her head. Leaving his fortified position by the +mantelpiece, he took a step or two toward her.</p> +<p>"And yet when I began to speak you seemed favorably inclined to +the offer I was making you. You must have had ideas on the subject, +then."</p> +<p>"Only vague ones. I made the mistake of supposing that yours +would be equally so."</p> +<p>"And with your vague ideas, your intention was—?"</p> +<p>"To adapt myself to circumstances; I couldn't tell beforehand +what they would be. I imagined that what you wanted for your +daughter was the society of an experienced woman of the world; and +I am that, whatever else I may not be."</p> +<p>"You're very young to make the claim."</p> +<p>"There are other ways of gaining experience than by years; and," +she added, with the intention to divert the conversation from +herself, "the small store I happen to possess I was willing to +share with your daughter, in whatever way she might have need of +it."</p> +<p>"But not in my way."</p> +<p>"Not in your way, perhaps, but for the furthering of your +purposes."</p> +<p>"How could you further my purposes when you wouldn't do what I +wanted?"</p> +<p>"By getting her to do it of her own accord."</p> +<p>"Could you promise me she would?"</p> +<p>"I couldn't promise you anything at all. I could only do my +best, and see how she would respond to it."</p> +<p>"She's a very good little girl," he hastened to declare.</p> +<p>"I'm sure of that. Though I don't know her well, I've seen her +often enough to understand that whatever mistakes she may make, +they are those of youth and independence. She is only a motherless +girl who has been allowed—who, in a certain way, has been +obliged—to look after herself. I've noticed that underneath +her self-reliant manner she's very much a child."</p> +<p>"That's true."</p> +<p>"But I should never treat her as a child, except—except in +one way."</p> +<p>"Which would be—?"</p> +<p>"To give her plenty of affection."</p> +<p>"She's always had that."</p> +<p>"Yes, yours; she hasn't had her mother's. Don't think me cruel +in saying it, but no girl can grow up nourished only by her +father's love, and not miss something that the good God intended +her to have. The reason women are so essential to babies and men is +chiefly because of their faculty for understanding the +inarticulate. With all your daughter has had, there is one great +thing that she hasn't had; and if you had placed me near her, my +idea, which I call vague, would have been—as far as any one +could do it now—to supply her with some of that."</p> +<p>Derek retreated again to the fireside, alarmed by a language +suspiciously like that he had heard on other occasions concerning +the motherless condition of his child. Was it going to turn out +that all women were alike? There had been minutes during the last +half-hour when, as he looked into Diane's face, it seemed to him +that here at last was one as honest as air and as straightforward +as light. But no experienced woman of the world, as she declared +herself to be, could forget that this was a ludicrously delicate +topic with a widower. She must either avoid it altogether, or +expose herself to misinterpretation in pursuing it. It took him a +few minutes to perceive that Diane had chosen the latter course, +and had done it with a fine disdain of anything he might choose to +think. She was not of the order of women who hesitate for petty +considerations, or who stoop to small manoeuvrings.</p> +<p>"I'm afraid I must go now," she said, when he had stood some +time without speaking.</p> +<p>"Don't go yet. Sit down."</p> +<p>His tone was still one of command, but not of the same quality +of command as that which he had used on her entry. He brought her a +chair, and she seated herself again.</p> +<p>"You said just now," he began, resuming his former attitude, +with his arm on the mantelpiece, "that you didn't expect me to be +so definite. Suppose I had been indefinite; then what would you +have done?"</p> +<p>"I should have been indefinite, too."</p> +<p>"That's all very well; but, you see, I have to look at things +from the point of view of business."</p> +<p>"And is there never anything indefinite in business?"</p> +<p>"Not if we can help it."</p> +<p>"And what happens when you can't help it?"</p> +<p>"Then we have to look for some one to whose discretion we can +trust."</p> +<p>"Exactly; and, if you'll allow me to say it, Miss Pruyn is at an +age and in a position where she needs a friend armed with +discretion rather than authority."</p> +<p>"Well, suppose we were agreed about everything—the +discretion and all—what would you begin by doing?"</p> +<p>"I shouldn't begin by doing anything. I should try to win your +daughter's confidence; and if I couldn't do that I should go +away."</p> +<p>"So that in the end it might happen that nothing would be +accomplished."</p> +<p>"It might happen so. I shouldn't expect it. Good hearts are +generally sensitive to good influences; and beneath her shell of +manner Miss Pruyn strikes me as neither more nor less than a dear +little girl."</p> +<p>Again he was suspicious of a bid for favor; but again Diane's +air of almost haughty honesty negatived the thought.</p> +<p>"I'm glad you see that," was the only comment he made. "But," he +added, once more taking a step or two toward her, "when you had won +her confidence, then you would do things that I suggested, wouldn't +you?"</p> +<p>"I shouldn't have to. She would probably do them herself, and a +great deal better than you or I."</p> +<p>"I don't see how you can be sure of that. If you don't make +her—"</p> +<p>"When you've watered your plant and kept it in the sunshine you +don't have to make it bloom. It will do that of itself."</p> +<p>"But all these young men?—and this young +Wappinger—?"</p> +<p>"I should let them alone."</p> +<p>"Not young Wappinger!"</p> +<p>"What harm is he doing? I admit that the present situation has +its foolish aspects from your point of view and mine; but I can +think of things a great deal worse. At least you know there is +nothing clandestine going on; and young people who have the virtue +of being open have the very first quality of all. If you let them +alone—or leave them to sympathetic management—you will +probably find that they will outgrow the whole thing, as children +outgrow an inordinate love of sweets."</p> +<p>There was a brief pause, during which he stood looking down at +her, a smile something like that of amusement hovering about his +lips.</p> +<p>"So that, in your judgment," he began again, "the whole thing +resolves itself into a matter of discretion. But now—if +you'll pardon me for asking anything so blunt—how am I to +know that you would be discreet?"</p> +<p>For an instant she lifted her eyes to his, as if begging to be +spared the reply.</p> +<p>"If it's not a fair question—" he began.</p> +<p>"It <i>is</i> a fair question," she admitted; "only it's one I +find difficult to answer. If it wasn't important—urgently +important—that I should obtain work, I should prefer not to +answer it at all. I must tell you that I haven't always been +discreet. I've had to learn discretion—by bitter +lessons."</p> +<p>"I'm not asking about the past," he broke in, hastily, "but +about the future."</p> +<p>"About the future one cannot say; one can only try."</p> +<p>"Then suppose we try it?"</p> +<p>His own words took him by surprise, for he had meant to be more +cautious; but now that they were uttered he was ready to stand by +them. Once more, as it seemed to him, he could detect the light of +relief steal into her expression, but she made no response.</p> +<p>"Suppose we try it?" he said again.</p> +<p>"It's for you to decide," she answered, quietly. "My position +places me entirely at the disposal of any one who is willing to +employ me."</p> +<p>"So that this is better than nothing," he said, in some +disappointment at her lack of enthusiasm.</p> +<p>"I shouldn't put it in that way," she smiled; "but then I +shouldn't put it in any way, until I saw whether or not I gave you +satisfaction. You must remember you're engaging an untried person; +and, as I've told you, I have nothing in the way of +recommendations."</p> +<p>"We will assume that you don't need them."</p> +<p>"It's a good deal to assume; but since you're good enough to do +it, I can't help being grateful. Is there any particular time when +you would like me to begin?"</p> +<p>"Perhaps," he suggested, drawing up a small chair and seating +himself nearer her, "it would be best to settle the business part +of our arrangement first. You must tell me frankly if there is +anything in what I propose that you don't find satisfactory."</p> +<p>"I'm sure there won't be," Diane murmured, faintly, with a +feeling akin to shame that any one should be offering to pay for +such feeble services as hers. She was thankful that the winter +dusk, creeping into the room, hid the surging of the hot color in +her face, as Derek talked of sums of money and dates of payment. +She did her best to pretend to give him her attention, but she +gathered nothing from what he said. If she had any coherent thought +at all, it was of the greatness, the force, the authority, of one +who could control her future, and dictate her acts, and prescribe +her duties, with something like the power of a god. In times past +she would have tried to weave her spell around this strong man, in +sheer wantonness of conquest, as Vivian threw her enchantments over +Merlin; now she was conscious only of a strange willingness to +submit to him, to take his yoke, and bow down under it, serving him +as master.</p> +<p>She was glad when he ended, leaving her free to rise and say his +arrangements suited her exactly. She had promised to join Miss +Lucilla van Tromp and Mrs. Eveleth at tea, and perhaps he would +come with her.</p> +<p>"No, I'll run away now," he said, accompanying her to the door, +"if you'll be good enough to make my excuses to Lucilla. But one +word more! You asked me when you had better begin. I should say as +soon as you can. As I may leave for Rio de Janeiro at any time, it +would be well for things to be in working order before I go."</p> +<p>So it was settled, and as she departed he opened the door for +her and held out his hand. But once more the little black muff came +into play, and Diane walked out as she had come in, with no other +salutation than a dignified inclination of the head.</p> +<p>Derek closed the door behind her and stood with his hand on the +knob. He took the gentle rebuke like a man.</p> +<p>"I'm a cad," he said to himself. "I'm a cad."</p> +<p>Returning to his former place on the hearth, he remained long, +gazing into the dying embers, and rehearsing the points of the +interview in his mind. The gloaming closed around him, and he took +pleasure in the fancy that she was still sitting +there—silent, patient, erect, with that pinched look of +privation so gallantly borne.</p> +<p>"By Jove! she's a brave one!" he murmured, under his breath. +"She's a brick. She's a soldier. She's a lady. She's the one woman +in the world to whom I could intrust my child."</p> +<p>Then, as his head sank in meditation, he shook himself as though +to wake up from sleep into actual day.</p> +<p>"I've been dreaming," he said—"I've been dreaming. I must +get away. I must go back to the office. I must get to work."</p> +<p>But instead of going he threw himself into one of the deep +arm-chairs. Dropping off into a reverie, he conjured up the scene +which had long been the fairest in his memory.</p> +<p>It was the summer. It was the country. It was a garden. In the +long bed the carnations of many colors were bending their +beauty-drunken heads, while over them a girl was stooping. She +picked one here, one there, in search of that which would suit him +best. When she had found it—deep red, with shades in the +inner petals nearly black—she turned to offer it. But when +she looked at him, he saw it was—Diane.</p> +<p>VIII</p> +<p>It had apparently been decreed that Derek Pruyn was not to go to +South America that year. On more than one occasion he had been +delayed on the eve of sailing. From February the voyage was +postponed to May, and from May to September. In September it had +ceased for the moment to be urgent, while remaining a possibility. +It was the February of a year later before it became a definite +necessity no longer to be put off.</p> +<p>In the mean while, under the beneficent processes of time, +sunshine, and Diane Eveleth's cultivation, Miss Dorothea Pruyn had +become a "bud." The small, hard, green thing had unfolded petals +whose delicacy, purity, and fragrance were a new contribution to +the joy of living. Society in general showed its appreciation, and +Derek Pruyn was proud.</p> +<p>He was more than proud; he was grateful. The development that +had changed Dorothea from a forward little girl into a charming +maiden, and which might have been the mere consequence of growth, +was to him the evident fruit of Diane's influence. The subtle +differences whereby his own dwelling was transformed from a +handsome, more or less empty, shell into an abode of the domestic +amenities sprang, in his opinion, from a presence shedding grace. +All the more strange was it, therefore, that both presence and +influence remained as remote from his own personal grasp as music +on the waves of sound or odors in the air. Of the many impressions +produced by a year of Diane's residence beneath his roof, none +perplexed him more than her detachment. Moreover, it was a +detachment as difficult to comprehend in quality as to define in +words. There was in her attitude nothing of the retreating nymph or +of the self-effacing sufferer. She took her place equally without +obtrusiveness and without affectation. Such effects as she brought +about came without noise, without effort, and without laboriousness +of good intention. Simple and straightforward in all her ways, she +nevertheless contrived to throw into her relations with himself an +element as impersonal as sunshine.</p> +<p>In the first days of her coming it was he who, in pursuance of +his method of reserve, had held aloof. He had been frequently +absent from New York, and, even when there, had lived much at one +or another of his clubs. Weeks had already passed when the +perception stole on him that his goings and comings meant little +more to her than to the trees waving in the great Park before his +door.</p> +<p>The discovery that he had been taking such pains to abstract +himself from eyes which scarcely noticed whether he was there or +not brought with it a little bitter raillery at his own expense. He +was piqued at once in his self-love and in his masculine instinct +for domination. It seemed to be out of the natural order of things +that his thoughts should dwell so much on a woman to whom he was +only a detail in the scheme of her surroundings—superior to +the butler, and more animate than the pictures on the wall, but as +little in her consciousness as either. It was certainly an easy +opportunity in which to display that self-restraint which he had +undertaken to make his portion; but when the heroic nature finds no +obstacles to overcome, it has a tendency to create them.</p> +<p>Without obtruding himself upon Diane, Derek began to dine more +frequently at his own house. On those occasions when Dorothea went +out alone it was impossible for the two who remained at home to +avoid a kind of conversation, which, with the topics incidental to +the management of a common household, often verged upon the +intimate. When Diane accompanied his daughter to the opera, he +adopted the habit of dropping into the box, and perhaps taking +them, with some of Dorothea's friends, to a restaurant for supper. +He planned the little parties and excursions for which Dorothea's +"budding" offered an excuse; and, while he recognized the +subterfuge, he made his probable journey, with the long absence it +would involve, serve as a palliation. Since, too, there was no +danger to Diane, there could be the less reason for stinting +himself in the pleasure of her presence, so long as he was prepared +to pay for it afterward in full.</p> +<p>Thus the first winter had gone by, until with the shifting of +the environment in summer a certain change entered into the +situation. The greater freedom of country life on the Hudson made +it requisite that Diane should be more consciously circumspect. In +her detachment Derek noticed first of all a new element of +intention; but since it was the first sign she had given of +distinguishing between him and the dumb creation, it did not +displease him. While he could not affirm that she avoided him, he +saw less of her than when in town. During those difficult moments +when they had no guests and Dorothea was making visits among her +friends, Diane found pretexts for slipping away to New York, on +what she declared to be business of her own—availing herself +of the seclusion of the little French hostelry that had first given +her shelter.</p> +<p>It was at times such as these that Derek began to perceive what +she had become to him. As long as she was near him he could keep +his feelings within the limitations he had set for them; but in her +absence he was restless and despondent till she returned. The +brutality of life, which made him master of the beauty of the +country and the coolness of the hills, while it drove her to stifle +in the town, stirred him with alternate waves of indignation and +compassion.</p> +<p>There was a torrid afternoon in August when the sight of her, +trudging along the dusty highway to the station, almost led him to +betray himself by his curses upon fate. Dorothea having left for +Newport in the morning, Diane was, as usual, seeking the privacy of +University Place for the two weeks the girl's visit was to last. +Understanding her desire not to be alone with him for even a few +hours when there was no third person in the house, Derek had taken +the opportunity to motor for lunch to a friend's house some miles +away. With the intention of not returning till after she had gone, +he had ordered a carriage to be in readiness to drive her to her +train; but his luncheon was scarcely ended when the thought +occurred to him that, by hurrying back, he might catch a last +glimpse of her before she started.</p> +<p>He had already half smothered her in dust when he perceived that +the little woman in black, under a black parasol, was actually +Diane. To his indignant queries as to why she should be plodding +her way on foot, with this scorching sun overhead, her replies were +cheerful and uncomplaining. A series of small accidents in the +stable—such had constantly happened at her own little +château in the Oise—having made it inadvisable to take +the horses out, one of the men had conveyed her luggage to the +station, while she herself preferred to walk. She was used to the +exigencies of country life, in both France and Ireland; and as for +the heat, it was a detail to be scorned. Dust, too, was only matter +out of place, and a necessary concomitant of summer. Would he not +drive on, without troubling himself any more about her?</p> +<p>No; decidedly he would not. She must get in and let him take her +to the station. There he could work off his wrath only by buying +her ticket and seeing to her luggage; while his charge to the negro +porter to look to her comfort was of such a nature that during the +whole of the journey she was pelted with magazine literature and +tormented with glasses of ice-water.</p> +<p>That night he found himself impelled by his sense of honor as a +gentleman to write a letter of apology for the indignity she had +been exposed to while in his house. When it had gone he considered +it insufficient, and only the reflection that he ought to have +business in town next day kept him from following it up with a +second note.</p> +<p>Arrived in New York, where the city was burning as if under a +sun-glass, he found his chief subject for consideration to be the +choice of a club at which to lunch. There, in the solitude of the +deserted smoking-room, where the heat was tempered, the glare shut +out, and the very footfall subdued, he thought of the little hotel +in University Place. Because human society had mysterious unwritten +laws, the woman he loved was forced to steal away from the +freshness and peace of green fields and sweeping river, to take +refuge amid the noisome ugliness from which, in spite of her +courage, her exquisite nature must shrink. He, whose needs were +simple, as his tastes were comparatively coarse, could command the +sybaritic luxury of a Roman patrician, while she, who could not +lift her hand without betraying the habits of inborn refinement, +was exposed not only to vulgar contact, but to a squalor of +discomfort as odious as vice. The thought was a humiliation. Even +if he had not loved her, it would have seemed almost the duty of a +man of honor to step in between her and the cruel pathos of her +lot.</p> +<p>It was a curious reflection that it was the very fact that he +did love her which held him back. Could he have turned toward +Paradise and said to the sweet soul waiting for him there, "This +woman has need of me, but you alone reign in my heart," he would +have felt more free to act. But the time when that would have been +possible had gone by. Anything he might do now would be less for +her need than his own; and his own he could endure if loyalty to +his past demanded it. None the less was it necessary to find a way +in which to come to Diane's immediate relief; and by the time he +had finished his cigar he thought he had discovered it.</p> +<p>"Having been obliged to run up to town," he explained, when she +had received him in the little hotel parlor, "I've dropped in to +tell you that I'm going away for a few weeks into Canada."</p> +<p>"Isn't it rather hot weather for travelling?" she asked, with +that clear, smiling gaze which showed him at once that she had seen +through his pretext for coming.</p> +<p>"It won't be hot where I'm going—up into the valley of the +Metapedia."</p> +<p>"It's rather a sudden decision, isn't it?"</p> +<p>"N—no. I generally try to get a little sport some time +during the year."</p> +<p>"Naturally you know your own intentions best. I only happen to +remember that you said, yesterday morning, you hoped not to leave +Rhinefields till the middle of next month."</p> +<p>"Did I say that? I must have been dreaming?"</p> +<p>"Very likely you were. Or perhaps you're dreaming now."</p> +<p>"Not at all; in fact, I'm particularly wide awake. I see things +so clearly that I've looked in to tell you some of them. You must +get out of this stifling hole and go back to Rhinefields at +once."</p> +<p>"I don't like that way of speaking of a place I've become +attached to. It isn't a stifling hole; it's a clean little inn, +where the service is the very law of kindness. The art may be of a +period somewhat earlier than the primitive," she laughed, looking +round at the highly colored chromos of lake and mountain scenery +hanging on the walls, "and the furniture may not be strictly in the +style of Louis Quinze, but the host and hostess treat me as a +daughter, and every garçon is my slave."</p> +<p>"I can quite understand that; but all the same it's no fit place +for you."</p> +<p>"I suppose the fittest place for any one is the place in which +he feels at home."</p> +<p>"Don't say that," he begged, with sudden emotion in his +voice.</p> +<p>"I think I ought to say it," she insisted, "first of all because +it's true; and then because you would feel more at ease about me if +you knew just how it's true."</p> +<p>"You know that I'm not at ease about you."</p> +<p>"I know you think I must be discontented with my lot, +when—in a certain sense—I'm not at all so. I don't +pretend that I prefer working for a living to having money of my +own; but I've found this"—she hesitated, as if thinking out +her phrase—"I've found that life grows richer as it goes on, +in whatever way one has to live it. It's as if the streams that fed +it became more numerous the farther one descended from the +height."</p> +<p>"I'm glad you're able to say that—"</p> +<p>"I can say it very sincerely; and I lay stress upon it, because +I know you're kind enough to be worried about me. I wish I could +make you understand how little reason there is for it, though you +mustn't think that I'm not touched by it, or that I mistake its +motive. I've come to see that what I've often heard, and used +scarcely to believe, is quite true, that American men have an +attitude toward women entirely different from that of our men. Our +men probably think more about women than any other men in the +world; but they think of them as objects of prey—with joys +and sorrows not to be taken seriously. You, on the contrary, are +willing to put yourself to great inconvenience for me, merely +because I am a woman."</p> +<p>"Not merely because of that," Derek permitted himself to +say.</p> +<p>"We needn't weigh motives as if they were golddust. When we have +their general trend we have enough. I only want you to see that I +understand you, while I must ask you not to be hurt if I still +persist in not availing myself of your courtesy. I wish you +wouldn't question me any more about it, because there are +situations in which one cheapens things by the very effort to put +them into words. If you were a woman, you'd comprehend my +feeling—"</p> +<p>"Let us assume that I do, as it is. I have still another +suggestion to make. Admitting that I stay at Rhinefields, why can't +you ask your mother-in-law to come and make you a couple of weeks' +visit there?"</p> +<p>For a moment Diane forgot the restraint she made it a habit to +impose upon herself in the new conditions of her life, and slipped +back into the spontaneous manner of the past.</p> +<p>"How tiresome you are! I never knew any one but a child twist +himself in so many directions to get his own way."</p> +<p>"You see, I'm accustomed to having my own way. You ought not to +think of resisting me."</p> +<p>"I'm not resisting you; I'm only eluding your grasp. There's one +great obstacle to what you've just been good enough to propose: my +mother-in-law couldn't come. Miss Lucilla van Tromp couldn't spare +her. As a matter of fact, she—Miss Lucilla—asked me to +go to Newport and stay with her all the time Dorothea is with the +Prouds; but I declined the invitation. You see now that I don't +lack cool and comfortable quarters because I couldn't get +them."</p> +<p>"I see," he nodded. "You evidently prefer—this."</p> +<p>"I'll tell you what I prefer: I prefer a breathing-space in +which to commune with my own soul."</p> +<p>"You could commune with your own soul at Rhinefields."</p> +<p>"No, I couldn't. It's an exercise that requires not only +solitude and seclusion, but a certain withdrawal from the world. If +I were in France, I should go and spend a fortnight in my old +convent at Auteuil; but in this country the nearest approach I can +make to that is to be here where I am. After all that has happened +in the last year and more, I am trying to find myself again, so to +speak—I'm trying to re-establish my identity with the Diane +de la Ferronaise, who seems to me to have faded back into the +distant twilight of time. Won't you let me do it in my own way, and +ask me no more questions? Yes; I see by your face that you will; +and we can be friends again. Now," she added, briskly, springing up +and touching a bell, "you're going to have some of my iced coffee. +I've taught them to make it, just as I used to have it at the +Mauconduit—that was our little place near +Compiègne—and I know you'll find it refreshing."</p> +<p>It was half an hour later, while he was taking leave of her, +that a thought occurred to him which promised to be fruitful of new +resources.</p> +<p>"Very well," he declared, as they were parting, "if you persist +in staying here, I, too, shall persist in looking in whenever I +come to town—which will have to be pretty often just +now—to see that you're not down with some sort of fever."</p> +<p>"But," she laughed, "I thought you were going away—to +Canada?"</p> +<p>"I'm not obliged to; and you've rather succeeded in dissuading +me."</p> +<p>"Then let me succeed in dissuading you from everything. Don't +come here again—please don't."</p> +<p>"I certainly shall."</p> +<p>"I'm generally out."</p> +<p>"In that case I shall stay till you come in."</p> +<p>"Of course I can't keep you from doing that. I will only say +that the American man I've had in mind for the past few +months—wouldn't."</p> +<p>The fact that he did not go back to University Place, either on +this or any subsequent occasion when she thought it well to +withdraw there, emphasized his helplessness to aid her. By the time +autumn returned, and the household was once more settled in town, +he had grown aware that between Diane and himself there was an +impalpable wall of separation, which he could no more pass than he +could transcend the veil between material existence and the Unseen +World. He began to perceive that what he had called detachment of +manner, more or less purposely maintained, was in reality an +element in the situation which from the beginning had precluded +friendship. Diane and he could not be friends in any of the +ordinary senses of the word. As employer and employed their +necessary dealings might be friendly; but to anything more +personal, under the present arrangement, there was attached the +impossible condition of stepping off from terra firma into +space.</p> +<p>The obvious method of putting their mutual relationship on a +basis richer in future potentialities Derek still felt himself +unable to adopt of his own initiative act. The vow which bound him +to his dead wife was one from which circumstances—and not +merely his own fiat—must absolve him; but as winter advanced +it seemed to him that life had begun to speak on the subject with a +voice of imperative command.</p> +<p>It was the middle of January, when a small, accidental happening +drew all his growing but still debatable intentions into one sharp +point of resolution. It was such an afternoon as comes rarely, even +in the exhilarating winter of New York—an afternoon when the +unfathomable blue of the sky overhead runs through all the gamut of +tones from lavender to indigo; when the air has the living keenness +of that which the Spirit first breathed into the nostrils of man; +when the rapture of the heart is that of neither passion, wine, nor +nervous excitement, but comes nearer the exaltation of deathless +youth in a deathless world than anything else in a temporary earth. +It was a day on which even the jaded heart is in the mood to begin +all over again, in renewed pursuit of the happiness which up to now +has been elusive. To Derek, whose heart was by no means jaded, it +was a day on which the instinctive hope of youth, which he supposed +he had outlived, proved itself of one essence with the conscious +passion of maturity.</p> +<p>When, as he walked homeward along Fifth Avenue, he overtook +Diane, also making her way homeward, the happy occurrence seemed +but part of the general radiance permeating life. The chance +meeting on the neutral ground of out-of-doors took Diane by +surprise; and before she had time to put up her guards of reserve +she had betrayed her youth in a shy heightening of color. Under the +protection of the cheerful, slowly moving crowd she felt at liberty +to drop for a minute the subdued air of his daughter's paid +companion, and in her replies to what he said she spoke with some +of her old gayety of verve. It was an unfortunate moment in which +to yield to this temptation, for it was, perhaps, the only occasion +since her coming to New York on which she was closely observed.</p> +<p>Engrossed as they were, the one with the other, they had +insensibly relaxed their pace, becoming mere strollers on the +outside edge of the throng. The sense of being watched came to both +of them at once, and, looking up at the same moment, they saw, +approaching at a snail's pace, an open Victoria, in which were two +ladies, to whom they were objects of plainly expressed interest. +The elder was an insignificant little woman, who looked as though +she were being taken out by her costly furs, while the younger was +a girl of some two or three and twenty, of a type of beauty that +would have been too imperious had it not been toned down by that +air which to the unintelligent means boredom, though the wise know +it to spring from something gone amiss in life. Both ladies kept +their eyes fixed so exclusively on Diane that they had almost +passed before remembering to salute Derek with a nod.</p> +<p>"I've seen those ladies somewhere," Diane observed, when they +had gone by.</p> +<p>"I dare say. They've probably seen you, too. The elder is Mrs. +Bayford, sister of Mr. Grimston, my uncle's partner in Paris. The +girl is Marion Grimston, his daughter."</p> +<p>"I remember perfectly now. They used to come to our charity +sales, and—and—anything of that kind."</p> +<p>Pruyn laughed.</p> +<p>"Anything, you mean, that was open to all comers. Mrs. Grimston +would be flattered."</p> +<p>"I didn't mean to speak slightingly," she hastened to say. +"There were plenty of nice people in Paris whom I didn't know."</p> +<p>"And plenty, I imagine, who thought you ought to have known +them. Mrs. Grimston, and Mrs. Bayford, too, would have been among +that number."</p> +<p>"Well, you see I do know them—by sight. I recall Miss +Grimston especially. She's so handsome."</p> +<p>"I shall tell her that to-night."</p> +<p>"To-night?"</p> +<p>"Yes; it's with them that Dorothea and I are dining. The name +conveying nothing to you, you probably didn't remember it. The fact +is that, as Mrs. Bayford is the sister of my uncle's +partner—my partner, too—I make it a point to be very +civil to her twice a year—once when I dine with her, and once +when she dines with me. The annual festivals have been delayed this +season because she has only just returned from a long visit to +Japan and India, with Marion in her wake."</p> +<p>There had been so much to say which, in the glamour of that +glorious afternoon, was more important that no further time was +spent on the topic. Derek forgot the meeting till Mrs. Bayford +recalled it to him as he sat beside her in the evening. She was one +of those small, ill-shapen women whose infirmities are thrown into +more conspicuous relief by dress and jewels and +<i>décolletage</i>. Seated at the head of her table, she +produced the impression of a Goddess of Discord at a feast of +well-meaning, hapless mortals.</p> +<p>"I want a word with you," she said, parenthetically, to Derek, +on her left, before turning her attention to the more important +neighbor on her right.</p> +<p>"One is scant measure," he laughed, in reply, "but I must be +grateful even for that."</p> +<p>It was the middle of dinner before she took notice of him again, +but when she did she plunged into her subject boldly.</p> +<p>"I suppose you didn't think I knew who you were walking with +this afternoon?"</p> +<p>"Yes, I did, because the lady recognized you. She said you and +Mrs. Grimston were among the nice people in Paris whom she hadn't +met—but whom she knew very well by sight."</p> +<p>If Derek thought this reply calculated to appease an angry +deity, he discovered his mistake.</p> +<p>"Did she have the indecency to say she hadn't met me?"</p> +<p>"I think she did; but she probably didn't know that the word +indecency could apply to anything connected with you."</p> +<p>"Why, I was introduced to her four times in one season!"</p> +<p>"I suppose she hasn't as good a memory as yours."</p> +<p>"Oh, as for that, it wasn't a matter of memory. Nobody was +permitted to forget her—she was quite notorious."</p> +<p>"I've always heard that in Paris the mere possession of beauty +is enough to keep any one in the public eye."</p> +<p>"It wasn't beauty alone—if she <i>has</i> beauty; though +for my part I can't see it."</p> +<p>"It <i>is</i> of rather an elusive quality."</p> +<p>"It must be. But if it exists at all, I can tell you that it's +of a dangerous quality."</p> +<p>"Hasn't that always been the peculiarity of beauty ever since +the days of Helen of Troy?"</p> +<p>"I'm sure I can't say. I've always tried to steer clear of that +sort of thing—"</p> +<p>"That must be an excellent plan; only it deprives one of the +power of speaking as an authority, doesn't it?"</p> +<p>"I don't pretend to speak as an authority. If I say anything at +all, it's what everybody knows."</p> +<p>"What everybody knows is generally—scandal."</p> +<p>"This was certainly scandal; but it wasn't the fact that +everybody knew it that made it so."</p> +<p>"Then I'm sure you wouldn't wish to repeat it."</p> +<p>"I don't see why you should be sure of anything of the kind. I +consider it my duty to repeat it."</p> +<p>"Then you won't be surprised if I consider it mine to contradict +it."</p> +<p>"Certainly not. I shouldn't be surprised at anything you could +do, Derek, after what I've heard since I came home."</p> +<p>"I won't ask you what that is—"</p> +<p>"No; your own conscience must tell you. No one can go on as +you've been doing, and not know he must be talked about."</p> +<p>"I've always understood that that was more flattering than to be +ignored."</p> +<p>"It depends. There's such a thing as receiving that sort of +flattery first, only to be ignored in the sequel. I speak as your +friend, Derek—"</p> +<p>"I thoroughly understand that; but may I ask if it's in the way +of warning or of threat?"</p> +<p>"It's in the way of both. You must see that, whatever risks I +may be prepared to run myself, as long as I have Marion with me I +can't expose her to—"</p> +<p>"To what?"</p> +<p>Notwithstanding his efforts to keep the conversation to a tone +of banter, acrimonious though it had to be, Derek was unable to +pronounce the two brief syllables without betraying some degree of +anger. Glancing up at him as she shrank under her weight of jewels, +Mrs. Bayford found him very big and menacing; but she was a brave +woman, and if she shrivelled, it was only as a cat shrivels before +springing at a mastiff.</p> +<p>"I can't expose her to the chance of meeting—"</p> +<p>She paused, not from hesitation, but with the rhetorical +intention of making the end of her phrase more telling.</p> +<p>"My future wife," he whispered, before she had time to go on. +"It's only fair to tell you that."</p> +<p>"Good heavens! You're not going to marry the creature!"</p> +<p>Mrs. Bayford brought out the words with the dramatic action and +intensity they deserved. In the hum of talk around and across the +table it was doubtful whether or not they were heard, and yet more +than one of the guests glanced up with a look of interrogation. +Dorothea caught her father's eyes in a gaze which he had some +difficulty in returning with the proper amount of steadiness; but +Mrs. Berrington Jones came to the rescue of the company by asking +Mrs. Bayford to tell the amusing story of how her bath had been +managed in Japan.</p> +<p>So the incident passed by, leaving a sense of mystery in the +air; though for Derek, all sense of annoyance disappeared in the +knowledge that he was Diane's champion.</p> +<p>He was thinking over the incident in the luxurious semi-darkness +of the electric brougham as they were going homeward, when the +clear voice of Dorothea broke in on his meditation.</p> +<p>"Are you going to be married, father?"</p> +<p>The question could not be a surprise to him after the occurrence +at the table, but he was not prepared to give an affirmative answer +on the spur of the moment.</p> +<p>"What makes you ask?" he inquired, after a second's +reflection.</p> +<p>"I heard what Mrs. Bayford said."</p> +<p>"And how should you feel if I were?"</p> +<p>"It would depend."</p> +<p>"On what?"</p> +<p>"On whether or not it was any one I liked."</p> +<p>"That's fair. And if it was some one whom you did like?"</p> +<p>"Then it would depend on whether or not it was—Diane."</p> +<p>"And if it was Diane?"</p> +<p>"I should be very glad."</p> +<p>"Why?"</p> +<p>She slipped her arm through his and snuggled up to him.</p> +<p>"Oh, for a lot of reasons. First, because I've always supposed +you'd be getting married one day; and I've been terribly afraid +you'd pick out some one I couldn't get along with."</p> +<p>"Have I ever shown any symptom to justify that alarm?"</p> +<p>"N—no; but you never can tell—with a man."</p> +<p>"Can you be any surer with a woman?"</p> +<p>"No; and that's one of my other reasons. I'm not very sure about +myself."</p> +<p>"You don't mean that it's to be young Wap—?" he began, +uneasily.</p> +<p>"I suppose it will have to be he—or some one else. They +keep at me."</p> +<p>"And you don't know how long you may be able to hold out."</p> +<p>"I'm holding out as well as I can," she laughed, "but it can't +go on forever. And then—if I do—"</p> +<p>"Well—what?"</p> +<p>"You'd be left all alone, and, of course, I should be worried +about that—unless you—you—"</p> +<p>"Unless I married some one."</p> +<p>"No; not some one; no one—but Diane."</p> +<p>They were now at their own door, but before she sprang out she +drew down his face to hers and kissed him.</p> +<p>IX</p> +<p>During the succeeding week Derek Pruyn, having practically +announced an engagement which did not exist, found himself in a +somewhat ludicrous situation. Too proud to extort a promise of +secrecy from Mrs. Bayford, he knew the value of his +indiscretion—if indiscretion it were—to any purveyor of +tea-table gossip; and while Diane and he remained in the same +relative positions he was sure it was being bruited about, with his +own authority, that they were to become man and wife. It did not +diminish the absurdity of the situation that he was debarred from +proposing and settling the affair at once by the grotesque fact +that he actually had not time.</p> +<p>There was certainly little opportunity for lovemaking in those +hurried days of preparing for his long absence in South America. He +was often obliged to leave home by eight in the morning, rarely +returning except to go wearily to bed. Though nothing had been said +to him, he had more than one reason for suspecting that Mrs. +Bayford was at work; and, at the odd minutes when he saw Diane, it +seemed to him as if her clearness of look was extinguished by an +expression of perplexity.</p> +<p>He would have reproached himself more keenly for his lack of +energy in overcoming obstacles had it not been for the fact that, +owing to their peculiar position as members of one household, and +that household his, he was planning to ask Diane to become his wife +on that occasion when he would also be bidding her adieu. She would +thus be spared the difficulties of a trying situation, while she +would have the season of his absence in which to adjust her mind to +the revolution in her life. He resolved to adhere to this +intention, the more especially as a small family dinner at Gramercy +Park, from which he was to go directly to his steamer, would give +him the exact combination of circumstances he desired.</p> +<p>When, after dinner, Miss Lucilla's engineering of the company +allowed him to find himself alone with Diane in the library, he +made her sit down by the fireside, while he stood, his arm resting +on the mantelpiece, as on the afternoon of their first serious +interview, over a year before. As on that other occasion, so, too, +on this, she sat erect, silent, expectant, waiting for him to +speak. What was coming she did not know; but she felt once more his +commanding dominance, with its power to ordain, prescribe, and +regulate the conditions of her life.</p> +<p>"Doesn't this make you think of—our first long talk +together?"</p> +<p>"I often think of it," Diane said, faintly, trying to assume +that they were entering on an ordinary conversation. "As you didn't +agree with me—"</p> +<p>"I do now," he said, quickly. "I see you were right, in +everything. I want to thank you for what you've done for +Dorothea—and for me. I didn't dream, a year ago, that the +change in both of us could be so great."</p> +<p>"Dorothea was a sweet little girl, to begin with—"</p> +<p>"Yes; but I don't want to talk about that now. She will express +her own sense of gratitude; but in the mean while I want to tell +you mine. You will understand something of its extent when I say +that I ask you to be my wife."</p> +<p>Diane neither spoke nor looked at him. The only sign she gave of +having heard him was a slight bowing of the head, as of one who +accepts a decree. The first few instants' stillness had the +ineffable quality which might spring from the abolition of time +when bliss becomes eternity. There was a space, not to be reckoned +by any terrestrial counting, during which each heart was caught up +into wonderful spheres of emotion—on his side the relief of +having spoken, on hers the joy of having heard; and though it +passed swiftly it was long enough to give to both the vision of a +new heaven and a new earth. It was a vision that never faded again +from the inward sight of either, though the mists of mortal error +began creeping over it at once.</p> +<p>"If I take you by surprise—" he began, as he felt the +clouds of reality closing round him.</p> +<p>"No," she broke in, still without looking up at him; "I heard +you intended to ask me."</p> +<p>Though he made a little uneasy movement, he knew that this was +precisely what she might have been expected to say.</p> +<p>"I thought you had possibly heard that," he said, in her own +tone of quiet frankness, "and I want to explain to you that what +happened was an accident."</p> +<p>"So I imagined."</p> +<p>"If I spoke of you as my future wife, I must ask you to believe +that it was in the way of neither ill-timed jest nor foolish +boast."</p> +<p>"You needn't assure me of that, because I could never have +thought so. If I want assurance at all it's on other points."</p> +<p>"If I can explain them—"</p> +<p>"I can almost explain them myself. What I require is rather in +the way of corroboration. Wasn't it much as the knight of old threw +the mantle of his protection over the shoulders of a distressed +damsel?"</p> +<p>"I know what you mean; but I don't admit the justice of the +simile."</p> +<p>"But if you did admit it, wouldn't it be something like what +actually occurred?"</p> +<p>"You're putting questions to me," he said, smiling down at her; +"but you haven't answered mine."</p> +<p>"I must beg leave to point out," she smiled, in return, "that +you haven't asked me one. You've only stated a fact—or what I +presume to be a fact. But before we can discuss it I ought to be +possessed of certain information; and you've put me in a position +where I have a right to demand it."</p> +<p>After brief reflection Derek admitted that. As nearly as he +could recall the incident at Mrs. Bayford's dinner-party, he +recounted it.</p> +<p>"You see," he explained, in summing up, "that, as a snobbish +person, she could hardly be expected to forgive you for forgetting +her, when she had been introduced to you four times in a season. +She not unnaturally fancied you forgot her on purpose, so to +speak—"</p> +<p>"I suppose I did," she murmured, penitently.</p> +<p>"What?" he asked, with sudden curiosity. "Would you—"</p> +<p>"I wouldn't now. I used to then. Everybody did it, when people +were introduced to us whom we didn't want to know. I've done it +when it wasn't necessary even from that point of view—out of +a kind of sport, a kind of wantonness. I've really forgotten about +Mrs. Bayford now—everything except her face—but I dare +say I remembered perfectly well, at the time. It would have been +nothing unusual if I had."</p> +<p>"In that case," he said, slowly, "you can't be +surprised—"</p> +<p>"I'm not," she hastened to say. "If Mrs. Bayford retaliates, now +that she has the power, she's within her right—a right which +scarcely any woman would forego. It was perfectly natural for Mrs. +Bayford to speak ill of me; and it was equally natural for you to +spring to my defence. You'd have sprung to the defence of any +one—"</p> +<p>"No, no," he interjected, hurriedly.</p> +<p>"Of any one whom you—respected, as I hope you respect me. +You've offered me," she went on, her eyes filling with sudden +tears—"you've offered me the utmost protection a man can give +a woman. To tell you how deeply I'm touched, how sincerely I'm +grateful, is beyond my power; but you must see that I can't avail +myself of your kindness. Your very willingness to repeat at leisure +what you said in haste makes it the more necessary that I shouldn't +take advantage of your chivalry."</p> +<p>"Would that be your only reason for hesitating to become my +wife?"</p> +<p>The deep, vibrant note that came into his voice sent a tremor +through her frame, and she looked about her for support. He himself +offered it by taking both her hands in his. She allowed him to hold +them for a second before withdrawing behind the intrenched position +afforded by the huge chair from which she had risen, and on the +back of which she now leaned.</p> +<p>"It's the reason that looms largest," she replied—"so +large as to put all other reasons out of consideration."</p> +<p>"Then you're entirely mistaken," he declared, coming forward in +such a way that only the chair stood between them. "It's true that +at Mrs. Bayford's provocation I spoke in haste, but it was only to +utter the resolution I had taken plenty of time to form. If I were +to tell you how much time, you'd be inclined to scorn me for my +delay. But the truth is I'm no longer a very young man; in +comparison with you I'm not young at all. You yourself, as a woman +of the world, must readily understand that at my age, and in my +position, prudence is as honorable an element in the offer I am +making you as romance would be in a boy's. I make no apology for +being prudent. I state the fact that I've been so only that you may +know that I've tried to look at this question from every point of +view—Dorothea's as well as yours and mine. I took my time +about it, and long before I warned Mrs. Bayford that she was +speaking of one who was dear to me, my mind was made up. With such +hopes as I had at heart it would have been wrong to have allowed +her to go on without a word of warning."</p> +<p>"I can see that it would have that aspect."</p> +<p>"Then, if you can see that, you must see that I speak to you now +in all sincerity. My desire isn't new. I can truthfully say that, +since the first day I saw you, your eyes and voice have haunted me, +and the longing to be near you has never been absent from my heart. +I'll be quite frank with you and say that, before you came here, it +was my avowed intention not to marry again. Now I have no desire on +earth—my child apart—so strong as to win you for my +wife. The year we've spent under the same roof must have given you +some idea of the man whom you'd be marrying; and I think I can +promise you that with your help he would be a better man than in +the past. Won't you say that I may hope for it?"</p> +<p>With arms supported by the high back of the chair and cheek on +her clasped hands, she gazed away into the dimness of the room, as +if waiting for him to continue; but during the silence that ensued +it seemed to Derek as if a shadow crossed her features, while her +bright look died out in a kind of wistfulness. She had, perhaps, +been hoping for a word he had not spoken—a word whose absence +he had only covered up by phrases.</p> +<p>"Well? Have you nothing to say to me?" he asked, when some +minutes had gone by.</p> +<p>"I'm thinking."</p> +<p>"Of what?"</p> +<p>"Of what you say about prudence. I like it. It seems to me I +ought to be prudent, too."</p> +<p>"Undoubtedly," he agreed, in the dry tone of one who assents to +what he finds slightly disagreeable.</p> +<p>"I mean," she said, quickly, "that I ought to be prudent for +you—for us all. There are a great many things to be thought +of, things which people of our age ought not to let pass +unconsidered. Men <i>think</i> the way through difficulties, while +women <i>feel</i> it. I'm afraid I must ask for time to get my +instincts into play."</p> +<p>"Do you mean that you can't give me an answer +to-night—before I go on this long journey?"</p> +<p>"I couldn't give you an affirmative one."</p> +<p>"But you could say, No?"</p> +<p>"If you pressed the matter—if you insisted—that's +what I should have to say."</p> +<p>"Why?"</p> +<p>"That would be—my secret."</p> +<p>"Is it that you think you couldn't love me?"</p> +<p>For the first time the color came to her cheek and surged up to +her temples, not suddenly or hotly, but with the semi-diaphanous +lightness of roseate vapor mounting into winter air. As he came +nearer, rounding the protective barrier of the arm-chair, she +retreated.</p> +<p>"I should have to solve some other questions before I could +answer that," she said, trying to meet his eyes with the necessary +steadiness.</p> +<p>"Couldn't I help you?"</p> +<p>She shook her head.</p> +<p>"Then couldn't you consider it first?"</p> +<p>"A woman generally does consider it first, but she speaks about +it last."</p> +<p>"But you could tell me the result of what you think, as far as +you've drawn conclusions?"</p> +<p>"No; because whatever I should say you would find misleading. If +you're in earnest about what you say to-night, it would be better +for us both that you should give me time."</p> +<p>"I'm willing to do that. But you speak as if you had a doubt of +me."</p> +<p>"I've no doubt of you; I've only a doubt about myself. The woman +you've known for the last twelve months isn't the woman other +people have known in the years before that. She isn't the Diane +Eveleth of Paris any more than she is the Diane de la Ferronaise of +the hills of Connemara, or of the convent at Auteuil. But I don't +know which is the real woman, or whether the one who now seems to +me dead mightn't rise again."</p> +<p>"I shouldn't be afraid of her."</p> +<p>"But I should. You say that because you didn't know her; and I +couldn't let you marry me without telling you something of what she +was."</p> +<p>"Then tell me."</p> +<p>"No, not now; not to-night. Go on your long journey, and come +back. When it's all over, I shall be sure—sure, that is, of +myself—sure on the point about which I'm so much in doubt, as +to whether or not the other woman could return."</p> +<p>"I should be willing to run the risk," he said, with a short +laugh, "even if she did."</p> +<p>"But I shouldn't be willing to let you. You forget she ruined +one rich man; she might easily ruin another."</p> +<p>"That would depend very much upon the man."</p> +<p>"No man can cope with a woman such as I was only a few years +ago. You can put fetters on a criminal, and you can quell a beast +to submission, but you can't bind the subtle, mischievous +woman-spirit, bent on doing harm. It's more ruthless than war; it's +more fatal than disease. You, with your large, generous nature, are +the very man for it to fasten on, and waste him, like a fever."</p> +<p>She moved back from him, close to the bookshelves against the +wall. The eyes which Derek had always seen sad and lustreless +glowed with a fire like the amber's.</p> +<p>"You must understand that I couldn't allow myself to do the same +thing twice," she hurried on, "and, if I married you, who knows but +what I might? I'm not a bad woman by nature, but I think I must +need to be held in repression. You'd be giving me again just those +gifts of money, position, and power which made me dangerous."</p> +<p>"Suppose you were to let me guard against that?" he said.</p> +<p>"You couldn't. It would be like fighting a poisonous vapor with +the sword. The woman's spell, whether for good or ill, is more +subtle and more potent than anything in the universe but the love +of God."</p> +<p>"I can believe that, and still be willing to trust myself to +yours," he answered, gravely. "I know you, and honor you as men +rarely do the women they marry, until the proof of the years has +tried them. In your case the trial has come first. I've watched you +bear it—watched you more closely than you've ever been aware +of. I've stood by, and seen you carry your burden, when it was +harder than you imagine not to take my part in it. I've looked on, +and seen you suffer, when it was all I could do to keep from saying +some word of sympathy you might have resented. But, Diane," he +cried, his voice taking on a strange, peremptory sharpness, "I +can't do it any longer! My power of standing still, while you go on +with your single-handed fight, is at an end. If ever God sent a man +to a woman's aid, He has sent me to yours; and you must let me do +what I'm appointed for. You must come to me for comfort in your +loneliness. You must come to me for care in your necessity. I have +both care and comfort for you here; and you must come."</p> +<p>Without moving toward her he stood with open arms.</p> +<p>"Come!" he cried again, commandingly.</p> +<p>The tears coursed down her cheeks, but she gave no sign of +obeying him, except to drag one hand from the protecting bookcase +ledge, to which she seemed to cling.</p> +<p>"Come, Diane!" he repeated! "Come to me!"</p> +<p>The other hand fell to her side, while she gazed at him +piteously, as though in reluctant submission to his will.</p> +<p>"Come!" he said once more, in a tone of authority mingled with +appeal.</p> +<p>Drawn by a force she had no power to withstand, she took one +slow, hesitating step toward him.</p> +<p>"I haven't yielded," she stammered. "I haven't consented. I +can't consent—yet."</p> +<p>"No, dearest, no," he murmured, with arms yearning to her as she +approached him; "nevertheless—come!"</p> +<p>X</p> +<p>Notwithstanding the fact that she had wept in his +arms—wept as women weep who are brave in the hour of trial, +only to break down in the moment of relief—Diane would give +Derek Pruyn no other answer. She could not consent—yet. With +this reply he was obliged to sail away, getting what comfort he +might from its implications.</p> +<p>During the three months of his absence Diane took knowledge of +herself, appraising her strength and probing her weakness. She was +too honest not to own that there were desires in her nature which +leaped into newness of life at the thought that there might again +be means to support them. Diane de la Ferronaise was not dead, but +sleeping. Her love of luxury and pleasure—her joy in jewels, +equipage, and dress—her woman's elemental weaknesses, second +only to the instinct for maternity—all these, grown lethargic +from hunger, were ready to awake again at the mere possibility of +food. She was forced to confront the fact that, with the same +opportunities, she had it in her to go back to the same life. It +was a humiliating fact, but it stared her in the face, that +experience had shown her a creature for a man to be afraid of. +Derek Pruyn had seen her subdued by circumstances, as the panther +is subdued by famine; but it was not yet proved that the savage, +preying thing was tamed.</p> +<p>There was only one force that would tame her; but there +<i>was</i> that force, and Diane knew that she had submitted to its +domination. From weeks of tortuous self-examination she emerged +into this knowledge, as one comes out of a labyrinthine cavern into +sunshine. Even here in the open, however, was a problem still to +solve. Could she marry the man who had never told her that he loved +her, even though she herself loved him? Had she the power to give +herself without stint, while asking of him only what he chose to +offer her? Would she, who had made men serve her, with little more +than smiles for their reward, be content to serve in her own turn, +getting nothing but a half-loaf for her heart's sustenance? She +asked herself these questions, but put off answering +them—waiting for him to force decision on her.</p> +<p>So the rest of the winter passed, and by the time Derek came +back the hyacinths were fading from the gardens and parks, and the +tulips were coming into bloom. To both Diane and Dorothea spring +was bringing a new motive for looking forward together with a new +comprehension of the human heart's capacity for joy.</p> +<p>Perhaps no day of their patient waiting was so long in passing +as that on which it was announced to them that Derek Pruyn had +landed that afternoon. He had sent word that he could not come home +at once, as business required his immediate presence at the office. +Having already exhausted their ingenuity in adorning the house, and +putting everything he could possibly want in the place where he +could most easily find it, there was nothing to do but to sit +through the long hours in an impatience which even Diane found it +difficult to disguise. The visits of the postman were welcomed as +affording the additional task of arranging Derek's letters on the +desk in the small, book-lined room specially devoted to his use; +and when, in the evening, a cablegram arrived, Diane herself +propped it in a conspicuous place, with a tiny silver dagger, for +opening the envelope, beside it. The act, with its suggestion of +intimate life, gave her a stealthy pleasure; and when Dorothea +glided in and caught her sitting in Derek's own chair at the desk, +she blushed like a school-girl detected in a crime. It was perhaps +this acknowledgment of weakness that enabled Dorothea to speak out, +and say what had been for some time on her mind.</p> +<p>"Diane," she asked, dropping among the cushions of a divan, "are +you going to marry father?"</p> +<a name="p152" id="p152"></a> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:75%;"><a href= +"images/p152.png"><img width="75%" src="images/p152.png" alt= +"DIANE PROPPED THE CABLEGRAM IN A CONSPICUOUS PLACE" /></a></div> +<p>Diane felt the color receding from her face as suddenly as it +had come, while she gained time in which to collect her astonished +wits by putting the silver dagger down beside the telegram with +needless exactitude before attempting a response.</p> +<p>"Do you remember what Sir Walter Scott said, in the days when +the authorship of <i>Waverley</i> was still a secret, to the +indiscreet people who asked him if he had written it? 'No,' he +answered; 'but if I had I should give you the same reply.'"</p> +<p>"That means, I suppose, that you don't want to tell me?"</p> +<p>"It might be taken to imply something of the sort."</p> +<p>"As a matter of fact, I suppose it would be more delicate on my +part not to ask you."</p> +<p>"I won't attempt to contradict you there."</p> +<p>"I shouldn't do it if I didn't wish you <i>were</i> going to +marry him. I've wanted it a long time; but I want it more than ever +now."</p> +<p>"Why more than ever now?"</p> +<p>"Because I expect to be married before very long myself."</p> +<p>"May I venture to inquire to which of the many—"</p> +<p>"To none of the many. There's never, really, been more than +one."</p> +<p>"And his name—?"</p> +<p>"Is Carli Wappinger."</p> +<p>"Oh, Dorothea!"</p> +<p>"That's just it. That's why I want you to marry father. I want +to put a stop to the 'Oh, Dorotheas!' and you're the only person in +the world who can help me do it."</p> +<p>"How?"</p> +<p>"I don't have to tell you that. It's one of the reasons why I +rely on you so thoroughly that you always know exactly what to do +without having to receive suggestions. I put myself in your hands +entirely."</p> +<p>"You mean that you're going to marry a man to whom your father +will be bitterly opposed, and you expect me to win his joyful +benediction."</p> +<p>"That's about it," Dorothea sighed, from the depth of her +cushions.</p> +<p>"Of course, I must be grateful to you, dear, for this display of +confidence; but you won't be surprised if I find it rather +overwhelming."</p> +<p>"I shall be very much surprised, indeed. I've never seen you +find anything overwhelming yet; and you've been put in some +difficult situations. You only have to <i>live</i> things in order +to make other people take them for granted. You've never done +anything to specially please father, and yet he listens to you as +if you were an oracle. It's the same way with me. If any one had +told me two years ago that I should ever come to praying for a +stepmother I should have thought them crazy; and yet I have come to +it, just because it's you."</p> +<p>After that it was not unnatural that Diane should go and sit on +the divan beside Dorothea for any exchange of such confidences as +could not be conveniently made from a distance. If she admitted +anything on her own part, it was by implication rather than by +direct assertion, and though she did not promise in words to come +to the aid of the youthful lovers, she allowed the possibility that +she would do so to be assumed.</p> +<p>So, in soft, whispered, broken confessions the evening slipped +away more rapidly than the day had done, and by ten o'clock they +knew he must be near. The last touch of welcome came when they +passed from room to room, lighting up the big house in cheerful +readiness for its lord's inspection. When all was done Dorothea +stationed herself at a window near the street; while Diane, with a +curious shrinking from what she had to face, took her seat in the +remotest and obscurest corner in the more distant of the two +drawingrooms. When the sound of wheels, followed by a loud ring at +the bell, told her that he was actually at the door, she felt faint +from the violence of her heart's beating.</p> +<p>Dorothea danced into the hail, with a cry and a laugh which were +stifled in her father's embrace. Diane rose instinctively, waiting +humbly and silently where she stood. At their parting she had torn +herself, weeping and protesting, from his arms; but when he came in +to find her now, he would see that she had yielded. The door was +half open through which he was to pass—never again to leave +her!</p> +<p>"Diane is in there."</p> +<p>It was Dorothea's voice that spoke, but the reply reached the +far drawing-room only as a murmur of deep, inarticulate bass.</p> +<p>"What's the matter, father?"</p> +<p>Dorothea's clear voice rose above the noise of servants moving +articles of luggage in the hall; but again Diane heard nothing +beyond a confused muttering in answer. She wondered that he did not +come to her at once, though she supposed there was some slight +prosaic reason to prevent his doing so.</p> +<p>"Father"—Dorothea's voice came again, this time with a +distinct note of anxiety—"father, you don't look well. Your +eyes are bloodshot."</p> +<p>"I'm quite well, thank you," was the curt reply, this time +perfectly audible to Diane's ears. "Simmons, you fool, don't leave +those steamer rugs down here!"</p> +<p>Diane had never heard him speak so to a servant, and she knew +that something had gone amiss. Perhaps he was annoyed that she had +not come to greet him. Perhaps it was one of the duties of her +position to receive him at the door. She had known him to give way +occasionally to bursts of anger, in which a word from herself had +soothed him. Leaving her place in the corner, she was hurrying to +the hall, when again Dorothea's voice arrested her.</p> +<p>"Aren't you going in to see Diane?"</p> +<p>"No."</p> +<p>From where she stood, just within the door, Diane knew that he +had flung the word over his shoulder as he went up the hail toward +the stairway. He was going to his room without speaking to her. For +an instant she stood still from consternation, but it was in +emergencies like this that her spirit rose. Without further +hesitation she passed out into the hall, just as Derek Pruyn turned +at the bend in the staircase, on his way upward. For a brief +second, as, standing below, she lifted her eyes to his in +questioning, their glances met; but, on his part, it was without +recognition.</p> +<p>XI</p> +<p>Half an hour after Derek's return Diane was summoned into his +presence in the little room where she had arranged his letters in +the afternoon. The door was standing open, and she went in slowly, +her head high. She was dressed as when she had parted from him; and +the whiteness of her neck and shoulders, free from jewels, collar, +or chain, was the more brilliant from contrast with the severe line +of black. In her pale face all expression was focussed into the +pained inquiry of her eyes.</p> +<p>She entered so silently that he did not hear her, or lift his +head from the hand on which it leaned wearily, as he rested his +elbow on the desk. Pausing in the middle of the room, she had time +to notice that he had opened a few of the letters lying before him, +but had thrust them impatiently from him, evidently unread. The +cablegram she had laid where his glance would immediately fall upon +it was between his fingers, but the envelope was unbroken. His +attitude was so much that of a man tired and dispirited that her +heart went out to him.</p> +<p>It was perhaps the involuntary sigh that broke from her lips +that caused him to look up. When he did so his eyes fixed +themselves on her with a dazed stare, as though he wondered whence +and for what she had come. In the eager attention with which she +regarded him she noted subconsciously that he was unshaven and +ill-kempt, and that his eyes, as Dorothea had said, were +bloodshot.</p> +<p>He dragged himself to his feet, and with forced courtesy asked +her to sit down. She allowed herself to sink mechanically to the +edge of the divan where, only an hour ago, Dorothea and she had +exchanged happy confidences. In the minutes of silence that +followed, when he had resumed his own seat, she felt as if she were +in some queer nightmare, where nothing could be explained.</p> +<p>"Did you ever hear of a young French explorer named +Persigny?"</p> +<p>She nodded, without speaking. The irrelevancy of the question +was in keeping with the odd horror of the dream.</p> +<p>"Did you know he was exploring in Brazil?"</p> +<p>"I think I may have heard so."</p> +<p>"He came up from Rio with me—on the same steamer."</p> +<p>She listened, with eyes fixed fast upon him, wondering what he +meant.</p> +<p>"He wasn't alone," Derek went on, speaking in a lifeless +monotone. "There were others of his party with him. There was one, +especially, with whom I became on terms that were +almost—intimate."</p> +<p>For the first time it occurred to her that he was trying to see +through her thoughts; but in her bewilderment at his words, she met +his gaze steadily.</p> +<p>"There was something about this young man that attracted me," he +continued, in the same dull voice, "and I listened to his troubles. +In particular he told me why he had fled from Paris to hide himself +in the forests of the Amazon. Shall I tell you the reason?"</p> +<p>"If you like."</p> +<p>"It was an old story; in some respects a vulgar story. He had +got into the toils of an unscrupulous woman."</p> +<p>Her sudden perception of what he was leading up to forced her +into a little involuntary movement.</p> +<p>"I see you understand," he said, quickly, with the glimmer of a +smile. "I thought you would; for, as a matter of fact, much of what +he said brought back our conversation on the night before I sailed. +There was not a little in it that was mystery to me at the time, +which he—illumined."</p> +<p>She sat with lips parted and bosom heaving, her hands clasped +tightly in her lap. If she was conscious of any sensation, it was +of terrible curiosity to know how the tale was to be turned.</p> +<p>"What you said to me then," he pursued, in the same cruel +quietness of tone—"what you said to me then, as to the +influence of a bad woman in a man's life, seemed to me—what +shall I say?—not precisely exaggerated, but somewhat +overwrought. I didn't know it could be so true to the actual facts +of experience. My friend's words at times were almost an echo of +your own. He had been the lover of a woman—"</p> +<p>Once more she started, raising her hand in silent protest +against the words.</p> +<p> +"He—had—been—the—lover—of—a—woman," +he repeated, with slow emphasis, "who, after having ruined her +husband's life, was preparing to ruin his. She would have ruined +his as she had ruined the lives of other men before him. When he +endeavored to elude her, she set on her husband to call him out. +There was a duel—or the semblance of a duel. My friend fired +into the air. The poor devil of a husband shot himself. It appears +that he had every reason for doing so."</p> +<p>"My husband didn't shoot himself."</p> +<p>"Your husband?" he asked, with an ironical lifting of the +eyebrows. "What makes you think I've been speaking of him?"</p> +<p>"The man whom you call your friend is the Marquis de +Bienville—"</p> +<p>"He didn't mention your name; but I see you're able to tell me +his. It's what I was afraid of. I've repeated only a very little of +what he said; but since you recognize its truth already, it isn't +necessary to continue."</p> +<p>She passed her hand over her forehead, with the gesture of one +trying desperately to see aright.</p> +<p>"I must ask you to tell me plainly: Was I the—the +unscrupulous woman into whose toils Monsieur de Bienville +fell?"</p> +<p>"He didn't say so."</p> +<p>"Then why—why have you spoken of this to me?"</p> +<p>"Because what I heard from him fitted in so exactly with what I +had heard from you that it made an entire story. It was like the +two parts of a puzzle. The one without the other is incomplete and +perplexing; but having both, you can see the perfect whole. I will +be frank enough to tell you that many of your sayings were dark to +me until I had his to lend them light."</p> +<p>"Would it be of any use to say that what he told you wasn't +true?"</p> +<p>"I don't know that it would be of any use to say it, unless it +could be proved."</p> +<p>"Did you ask him to give you proof?"</p> +<p>"No; because you had already provided me with that."</p> +<p>"How?"</p> +<p>"Surely you must remember telling me that you had ruined one +rich man, and might ruin another: that no man could cope with a +woman such as you were two or three years ago. There were these +things—there were other things—many other +things—"</p> +<p>"And that's what you understood from them?"</p> +<p>"I understood nothing whatever. If I thought of such words at +all, it was to attribute them to a morbid sensibility. It wasn't +until I got their interpretation that they came back to me. It +wasn't until I had met some one who knew you before I did, and +better than I did—"</p> +<p>"It wasn't till then that you thought of me what no man ever +thinks of a woman until he is ready to trample her in the mire, +under his feet."</p> +<p>Straightening himself up, as a man who defends his position, he +took an argumentative tone.</p> +<p>"What motive would Bienville have for lying?—to a +stranger?—and about a stranger? There are moments when you +know a man is telling you the truth, as if he were in the +confessional. He wasn't speaking of you, but of himself. Not only +were no names mentioned, but he had no reason to think I had ever +heard of the woman he talked to me about, nor has he yet. If it +hadn't been for your own half-hints, your own half-confessions, I +doubt if I should ever have had more than a suspicion +of—of—the truth."</p> +<p>"I could have explained everything," she said, with a break in +her voice. "I've never concealed from you the fact that there was a +time in my life when I was very indiscreet. I lived like the women +of fashion around me. I was inconsiderate of other people. I did +things that were wrong. But before I knew you I had repented of +them."</p> +<p>"Quite so; but, unfortunately, what is conventionally known as a +repentant woman is not the sort of person I would have chosen to be +near my child."</p> +<p>She rose, wearily, dragging herself toward the desk. "Now that +I've heard your opinion of me," she said, quietly, "I suppose you +have no reason for detaining me any longer."</p> +<p>"Are you going away?" he asked, sharply.</p> +<p>"What else is there for me to do?"</p> +<p>"Have you nothing to say in your own defence?"</p> +<p>"You haven't asked me to say anything. You've tried and +condemned me unheard. Since you adopt that method of justice I'm +forced to abide by it. I'm not like a person who has rights or who +can claim protection from any outside authority. You're not only +judge and jury to me, but my final court of appeal. I must take +what you mete out to me—and bear it."</p> +<p>"I don't want to be hard on you," he groaned.</p> +<p>"No; I can believe that. I dare say the situation is just as +cruel for you as for me. When circumstances become so entangled +that you can't explain them, everybody has to suffer."</p> +<p>"I'm glad you can do me that justice. My life for the past +week—ever since Bienville began to talk to me—has been +hell."</p> +<p>"I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry to have brought it on you. I'm +afraid, too, that the future may be harder for you still; for no +man can do a woman such wrong as you're doing me, and not pay for +it."</p> +<p>"Wrong? Can you honestly say I'm doing you wrong, Diane? Isn't +it true—you'll pardon me if I put my questions bluntly, the +circumstances don't permit of sparing either your feelings or my +own—isn't it true that for two or three years before your +husband's death your name in Paris was nothing short of a +byword?"</p> +<p>"I'm not sure of what you mean by a byword. I acknowledge that I +braved public opinion, and that much ill was said of +me—often, more than I deserved."</p> +<p>"Isn't it true that your name was connected with that of a man +called Lalanne, and that he was killed in a duel on your +account?"</p> +<p>"It's true that Monsieur Lalanne made love to me; it's also true +that he was killed in a duel; but it's not true that it was on my +account. The instance is an excellent illustration of the degree to +which the true and the false are mixed in Parisian +gossip—perhaps in all gossip—and a woman's reputation +blasted. Unhappily for me, I felt myself young and strong enough to +be indifferent to reputation. I treated it with the neglect one +often bestows upon one's health—not thinking that there would +come a day of reckoning."</p> +<p>"If there had been only one such case it might have been allowed +to pass; but what do you say of De Cretteville? what of De +Melcourt? what of Lord Wendover?"</p> +<p>"I have nothing to say but this: that for such scandal I've a +rule, from which I have no intention of departing even now: I +neither tell it, nor listen to it, nor contradict it. If it pleases +the Marquis de Bienville to repeat it, and you to give it credence, +I can't stoop to correct it, even in my own defence."</p> +<p>"God knows I'm not delving into scandal, Diane. If I bring up +these miserable names, it's only that you may have the opportunity +to right yourself."</p> +<p>"It's an opportunity impossible for me to use. If I were to +attempt to unravel the strand of truth from the web of falsehood, +it would end in your condemning me the more. The canons of conduct +in France are so different from those in America that what is +permissible in one country is heinous in the other. In the same way +that your young girls shock our conceptions of propriety, our +married women shock yours. It would be useless to defend myself in +your eyes, because I should be appealing to a standard to which I +was never taught to conform."</p> +<p>"I thought I had taken that into consideration. I'm not entirely +ignorant of the conditions under which you've lived, and I meant to +have allowed for them. But isn't it true that you exceeded the very +wide latitude recognized by public opinion, even in a place like +Paris?"</p> +<p>"I didn't take public opinion into account. I was reckless of +its injustice, as I was careless of its applause. I see now, +however, that indifference to either brings its punishment."</p> +<p>"Those are abstract ideas, and I'm trying to deal with concrete +facts. Isn't it true that George Eveleth was a rich man when you +married him, and that your extravagance ruined him?"</p> +<p>"It helped to ruin him. I plead guilty to that. I had no +knowledge of the value of money; but I don't offer that as an +excuse."</p> +<p>"Isn't it true that the Marquis de Bienville was your lover, and +that you were thinking of deserting your husband to go with +him?"</p> +<p>"It's true that the Marquis de Bienville asked me to do so, and +that I was rash enough to turn him into ridicule. I shouldn't have +done it if I had known that there was a man in the world capable of +taking such a revenge upon a woman as he took on me."</p> +<p>"What revenge?"</p> +<p>"The revenge you're executing at this minute. He said—what +very few men, thank God, will say of a woman, even when it's true, +and what it takes a dastard to say when it's not true. Even in the +case of the fallen woman there's a chivalrous human pity that +protects her; while there's something more than that due to the +most foolish of our sex who has not fallen. I took it for granted +that, at the worst, I could count on that, until I met your friend. +His cup of vengeance will be full when he learns that he has given +you the power to insult me."</p> +<p>"I don't mean to insult you," he said, in a dogged voice, "but I +mean, if possible, to know the truth."</p> +<p>"I'm not concealing it. I'm ready to tell you anything."</p> +<p>"Then, tell me this: isn't it the case that when George Eveleth +discovered your relations with Bienville, he challenged him?"</p> +<p>"It's the case that he challenged him, not because of what he +discovered, but of what Monsieur de Bienville said."</p> +<p>"At their encounter, didn't Bienville fire into the +air—?"</p> +<p>"I've never heard so."</p> +<p>"And didn't George Eveleth fall from a self-inflicted shot?"</p> +<p>"No. He died at the hand of the Marquis de Bienville."</p> +<p>"So you told me once before, though you didn't tell me the man's +name. But, Diane, aren't you convinced in your heart that George +Eveleth knew that which made his life no longer worth the +living?"</p> +<p>"Do you mean that he knew something—about me?"</p> +<p>"Yes—about you."</p> +<p>"That's the most cruel charge Monsieur de Bienville has invented +yet."</p> +<p>"Suppose he didn't invent it? Suppose it was a fact?"</p> +<p>"Have you any purpose in subjecting me to this needless +torture?"</p> +<p>"I have a purpose, and I'm sorry if it involves torture; but I +assure you it isn't needless. I must get to the bottom of this +thing. I've asked you to marry me; and I must know if my future +wife—"</p> +<p>"But I'm not—your future wife."</p> +<p>"That remains to be seen. I can come to no decision—"</p> +<p>"But I can."</p> +<p>"That must wait. The point before us is this: Did, or did not, +George Eveleth kill himself?"</p> +<p>"He did not."</p> +<p>"You must understand that it would prove nothing if he did."</p> +<p>"It would prove, or go far to prove, what you said just +now—that I had made his life not worth the living."</p> +<p>"His money troubles may have counted for something in that. What +it would do is this: it would help to corroborate Bienville's word +against—yours."</p> +<p>"Fortunately there are means of proving that I'm right. I can't +tell you exactly what they are; but I know that, in France, when +people die the registers tell just what they died of."</p> +<p>"I've already sent for the necessary information. I've done even +more than that. I couldn't wait for the slow process of the mails. +I cabled this morning to Grimston, one of my Paris partners, to +wire me the cause of George Eveleth's death, as officially +registered. This is his reply."</p> +<p>He held up the envelope Diane had placed on the desk earlier in +the evening.</p> +<p>"Why don't you open it?" she asked, in a whisper of +suspense.</p> +<p>"I've been afraid to. I've been afraid that it would prove him +right in the one detail in which I'm able to put his word to the +test. I've been hoping against hope that you would clear yourself; +but if this is in his favor—"</p> +<p>"Open it," she pleaded.</p> +<p>With the silver dagger she had laid ready to his hand he ripped +up the envelope, and drew out the paper.</p> +<p>"Read it," he said, passing it to her, without unfolding it.</p> +<p>Though it contained but one word, Diane took a long time to +decipher it. For minutes she stared at it, as though the power of +comprehension had forsaken her. Again and again she lifted her eyes +to his, in sheer bewilderment, only to drop them then once more on +the all but blank sheet in her hand. At last it seemed as if her +fingers had no more strength to hold it, and she let it flutter to +the floor.</p> +<p>"He was right?"</p> +<p>The question came in a hoarse undertone, but Diane had no voice +in which to reply. She could only nod her head in dumb assent.</p> +<p>It grew late, and Derek Pruyn still sat in the position in which +Diane had left him. His hands rested clinched on the desk before +him, while his eyes stared vacantly at the cluster of electric +lights overhead. He was living through the conversations with +Bienville on shipboard. He began with the first time he had noticed +the tall, brown-eyed, black-bearded young Frenchman on the day when +they sailed out of the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. He passed on to +their first interchange of casual remarks, leaning together over +the deck-rail, and watching the lights of Para recede into the +darkness. It was in the hot, still evenings in the Caribbean Sea +that, smoking in neighboring deck-chairs, they had first drifted +into intimate talk, and the young man had begun to unburden +himself. They had been distinctly interesting to Derek, these +glimpses of a joyous, idle, light-o'-love life, with a tragic +element never very far below its surface, so different from his own +gray career of business. They not only beguiled the tedious nights, +but they opened up vistas of romance to an imagination growing dull +before its time, in the seriousness of large practical affairs. In +proportion as the young Frenchman showed himself willing to +narrate, Derek became a sympathetic listener. As Bienville told of +his pursuit, now of this fair face, and now of that, Derek received +the impression of a chase, in which the hunted engages not of +necessity, but, like Atalanta, in sheer glee of excitement. Like +Atalanta, too, she was apt to over-estimate her speed, and to end +in being caught.</p> +<p>It was not till after he had recounted a number of <i>petites +histoires</i>, more or less amusing, that Bienville came to what he +called "<i>l'affaire la plus sérieuse de ma vie,</i>" while +Derek drank in the tale with all the avidity the jealous heart +brings to the augmentation of its pain. To the idealizing purity of +his conception of Diane any earthly failing on her part became the +extremity of sin. He had placed her so high that when she fell it +was to no middle flight of guilt; as to the fallen angel, there was +no choice for her, in his estimation, between heaven and the nether +hell.</p> +<p>Outwardly he was an ordinary passenger, smoking quietly in a +deck-chair, in order to pass the time between dinner and the hour +for "turning in." His voice, as he plied Bienville with questions, +betrayed his emotions no more than the darkened surface of the sea +gave evidence of the raging life within its depths. To Bienville +himself, during these idle, balmy nights, there was a threefold +inspiration, which in no case called for strict exactitude of +detail. There was, first, the pleasure of talking about himself; +there was, next, the desire to give his career the advantage of a +romantic light; and there was, thirdly, the story-teller's natural +instinct to hold his hearer spellbound. The little more or the +little less could not matter to a man whom he didn't know, in +talking about a woman whose name he hadn't given; while, on the +other hand, there was the satisfaction, to which the Latin is so +sensitive, of showing himself a lion among ladies.</p> +<p>Moreover, he had boasted of his achievements so often that he +had come to believe in them long before giving Derek the detailed +account of his victory on the gleaming Caribbean seas. On his part, +Derek had found no difficulty in crediting that which was related +with apparent fidelity to fact, and which filled up, in so +remarkable a manner, the empty spaces between the mysterious, +broken hints Diane had at various times given him of her own inner +life. The one story helped to tell the other as accurately as the +fragments of an ancient stele, when put together, make up the whole +inscription. The very independence of the sources from which he +drew his knowledge negatived the possibility of doubt. There was +but one way in which Diane could have put herself right with him: +she could have swept the charge aside, with a serene +contemptuousness of denial. Had she done so, her assertion would +have found his own eagerness to believe in her ready to meet it +half-way. As it was, alas! her admissions had been damning. Where +she acknowledged the smoke, there surely must have been the fire! +Where she owned to so much culpability, there surely must have been +the entire measure of guilt!</p> +<p>For the time being, he forgot Bienville, in order to review the +conversation of the last half-hour. Diane had not carried herself +like a woman who had nothing with which to reproach herself; and +that a woman should be obliged to reproach herself at all was a +humiliation to her womanhood. In the midst of this gross world, +where the man's soul naturally became stained and coarsened, hers +should retain the celestial beauty with which it came forth from +God. That, in his opinion, was her duty; that was her instinct; +that was the object with which she had been placed on earth. A +woman who was no better than a man was an error on the part of +nature; and Diane—oh, the pity of it!—had put herself +down on the man's level with a naiveté which showed her +unconscious of ever having been higher up. She had confessed to +weaknesses, as though she were of no finer clay than himself, and +spoke of being penitent, when the tragedy lay in the fact that a +woman should have anything to repent of.</p> +<p>The minutes went by, but he sat rigid, with hands clinched +before him, and eyes fixed in a kind of hypnotic stare on the +cluster of lights, taking no account of time or place. Throughout +the house there was the stillness of midnight, broken only by the +rumble of a carriage or the clatter of a motor in the street. The +silence was the more ghostly owing to the circumstance that +throughout the empty rooms lights were still flaring uselessly, +welcoming his return. Presently there came a sound—faint, +soft, swift, like the rustle of wings, or a weird spirit footfall. +Though it was scarcely audible, it was certain that something was +astir.</p> +<p>With a start Derek came back from the contemplation of his +intolerable pain to the world of common happenings. He must see +what could be moving at this unaccustomed hour; but he had barely +risen in his place when he was disturbed by still another sound, +this time louder and heavier, and characterized by a certain +brusque finality. It was the closing of a door; it was the closing +of the large, ponderous street-door. Some one had left the +house.</p> +<p>In a dozen strides he was out in the hail and on the stairway. +There, on the landing, where an hour or two ago he had turned to +look down upon Diane, stood Dorothea in her night-dress—a +little white figure, scared and trembling.</p> +<p>"Oh, father, Diane has gone away!"</p> +<p>For some seconds he stared at her blankly, like a man who +puzzles over something in a strange language. When he spoke, at +last, his voice came with a forced harshness, from which the girl +shrank back, more terrified than before:</p> +<p>"She was quite right to go. You run back to bed."</p> +<p>XII</p> +<p>From the shelter of the little French hostelry in University +Place, Diane wrote, on the following morning, to Miss Lucilla van +Tromp, telling her as briefly and discreetly as possible what had +occurred. While withholding names and suppressing the detail which +dealt with the manner of her husband's death, she spoke with her +characteristic frankness, stating her case plainly. Though she +denied the main charge, she repeated the admissions Derek had found +so fatal, and accepted her share of all responsibility.</p> +<p>"Mr. Pruyn is not to blame," she wrote. "From many points of +view he is as much the victim of circumstances as I am. I have to +acknowledge myself in fault; and yet, if I were more so, my problem +would be easier to solve. There are conditions in which it is +scarcely less difficult to discern the false from the true than it +is to separate the foul current from the pure, after their streams +have run together; and I cannot reproach Mr. Pruyn if, looking only +on the mingled tides, he does not see that they flow from +dissimilar sources. Though I left his house abruptly, it was not +because he drove me forth; it was rather because I feel that, until +I have regained some measure of his respect, I cannot be worthy in +his eyes—nor in my own—to be under one roof with his +daughter."</p> +<hr /> +<p>To Miss Lucilla, in her ignorance of the world, it seemed, as +she read on, as if the foundations of the great deep had been +broken up and the windows of heaven opened. That such things +happened in romances, she had read; that they were not unknown in +real life, even in New York, she had heard it whispered; but that +they should crop up in her own immediate circle was not less +wonderful than if the night-blooming cereus had suddenly burst into +flower in her strip of garden. Miss Lucilla owned to being shocked, +to being grieved, to being puzzled, to being stunned; but she could +not deny the thrill of excitement at being caught up into the whirl +of a real love-affair.</p> +<p>When the first of the morning's duties in the sickroom were over +she waylaid Mrs. Eveleth in a convenient spot and told her tale. +She did not read the letter aloud, finding its phraseology at times +too blunt; but, with those softening circumlocutions of which good +women have the secret, she conveyed the facts. There was but one +short passage which she quoted just as Diane had written it:</p> +<p>"'I am sure my mother-in-law will stand by me, and bear me out. +She alone knows the sort of life I led with her son, and I am +convinced that she will see justice done me.'"</p> +<p>Mrs. Eveleth listened silently, with the still look of pain that +belongs to those growing old in the expectation of misfortune.</p> +<p>"I've been afraid something would happen," was her only +comment.</p> +<p>"But surely, dear Mrs. Eveleth, you don't think any of it can be +true!"</p> +<p>The elder woman began moving toward the door.</p> +<p>"So many things have been true, dear, that I hoped were +not!"</p> +<p>This answer, given from the threshold, left Miss Lucilla not +more aghast than disappointed. It brought into the romance features +which no single woman can afford to contemplate. She would have +entered into the affairs of a wronged heroine with enthusiastic +interest; but what was to be done with those of a possibly guilty +one? She was so ready for the unexpected that as she stood at a +back window, looking into the garden, it was almost a surprise not +to find the night-blooming cereus really lifting its exotic head +among the stout spring shoots of the peonies. With the vague +feeling that the Park might prove more fruitful ground for the +phenomenon, she moved to a front window, where she was not long +unrewarded. If it was not the night-blooming cereus that drove up +in the handsome, open automobile, turning into the Park, it was +something equally portentous; for Mrs. Bayford had already played a +part in Diane's drama, and was now, presumably, about to enter on +the scene again. Miss Lucilla drew back, so as to be out of sight, +while keeping her visitors in view. For a minute she hoped that +Marion Grimston herself might be minded to make her a call, for she +liked the handsome girl, whose outspoken protests against the shams +of her life agreed with her own more gentle horror of pretension. +Marion, wreathed in veils, was, however, at the steering-wheel, +and, as she guided the huge machine to the curbstone, showed no +symptoms of wishing to alight. Beside her was Reggie Bradford, a +large, fat youth, whose big, good-natured laugh almost called back +echoes from the surrounding houses. As the car stopped he lumbered +down from his perch, and helped Mrs. Bayford to descend. When he +had clambered back to his place again the great vehicle rolled on. +It was plain now to Miss Lucilla that a new act of the piece was +about to begin, and she hurried back to the library in order to be +in her place before the rising of the curtain. For Miss Lucilla's +callers there was always an immediate subject of conversation which +had to be exhausted before any other topic could be touched upon; +and Mrs. Bayford tackled it at once, asking the questions and +answering them herself, so as to get it out of the way.</p> +<p>"Well, how is Regina? Very much the same, of course. I don't +suppose you'll see any change in her now, until it's for the worse. +Poor thing! one could almost wish, in her own interests, that our +Heavenly Father would think fit to take her to Himself. Now, I want +to talk to you about something serious."</p> +<p>Mrs. Bayford made herself comfortable in a deep, low chair, with +her feet on a footstool.</p> +<p>"I suppose you've never guessed," she asked, at last, "why +Marion has been with me all this time?"</p> +<p>"I did guess," Miss Lucilla admitted, with a faint blush, "but I +don't know that I guessed right."</p> +<p>"I expect you did. No one could see as much of her as you've +done without knowing she had a love-affair."</p> +<p>"That's what I thought."</p> +<p>"It's been a great trial," Mrs. Bayford sighed, "and it isn't +over yet. In fact, I don't know but what it's only just +beginning."</p> +<p>"Wasn't he—desirable?"</p> +<p>"Oh yes; very much so, and is so still. It wasn't that. He was +all that any one could wish—old family, position, title, good +looks, everything."</p> +<p>"But if Marion liked him, and he liked her—?"</p> +<p>"I could explain it to you better if you knew more about +men."</p> +<p>"I do know a—a little," Miss Lucilla ventured to assert, +shyly.</p> +<p>"There is a case in which a little is not enough. You've got to +understand a man's capacity for loving one woman and being +fascinated by another. I think they call it double +consciousness."</p> +<p>"I don't think it's very honorable," Miss Lucilla declared, in +disapproval.</p> +<p>"A man doesn't stop to think of honor, my dear, when he's in a +grand passion. Bienville has honor written in his very countenance, +but this was an occasion when he couldn't get it into play. It was +perfectly tragic. He had already spoken to Robert Grimston in the +manliest way—told all about himself—found out how much +Marion would have as her <i>dot</i>—and got permission to pay +her his addresses—when all came to nothing because of another +woman."</p> +<p>With this as an introduction it was natural that Mrs. Bayford +should go on to repeat the oft-told tale in its entirety, lending +it a light that no one had given to it yet. With the information +she already possessed from Diane's letter it was impossible for +Lucilla not to recognize all the characters as readily as Derek +Pruyn had done, while she had the advantage over him of knowing +Marion Grimston's place in the action. It was a dreadful story, and +if Miss Lucilla was not more profoundly shocked it was because Mrs. +Bayford, by overshooting the mark, rendered it incredible. None the +less she agreed with Mrs. Bayford on the main point she had come to +urge, that Diane, on one side, and Marion and Bienville, on the +other, should be kept, if possible, from meeting.</p> +<p>"Not that I think," Mrs. Bayford went on, "that +Raoul—that's his name—would ever take up with her +again. Still, you never can tell; I've seen such cases. A fire will +often blaze up when you think it's out. And now that everything is +going so smoothly it would be a thousand pities to throw any +obstacle in the way."</p> +<p>"Everything is going smoothly, then? I'm glad of that, for +Marion's sake."</p> +<p>"Yes; it's practically a settled thing. When it seemed likely +that he would return to France by way of New York, Robert Grimston +wrote me to say that if anything happened it would have his full +consent. Things move rapidly in Paris, and the whole episode is as +much a part of the past as last year's styles. Then, too, everybody +there knows now that Raoul didn't kill George Eveleth; and, of +course, that removes a certain unpleasant thought that some people +might have about him."</p> +<p>"Have you seen him yet?"</p> +<p>"I heard from him this morning. He asked if he could call on +Marion and me this afternoon. You can guess what was my reply."</p> +<p>The nature of this having been made clear, Mrs. Bayford went on +to express her fears as to the complications which might arise from +the chance meeting of Bienville and Derek on the steamer, of which +the former had given her information in his note. Nothing would be +more natural now than for Derek to invite Marion and Bienville to +dinner; and there would be Diane!</p> +<p>"I think I can relieve your mind on that point," Miss Lucilla +said, trying to choose her words cautiously. "There would be no +danger of their meeting Mrs. Eveleth just now, as she has left +Dorothea for the present."</p> +<p>There was so much satisfaction to Mrs. Bayford in knowing that, +as far as Diane was concerned, the coast was comparatively clear, +that she gathered up her skirts and departed. After she had gone, +Miss Lucilla's sense of being the pivot of a romantic plot was +heightened by the appearance of Diane. She came in with her usual +air of confidence in her ability to meet the world, and if her pale +face showed traces of tears and sleeplessness, its expression was, +if anything, more courageous. Had it not been for this brave show +Miss Lucilla would have wanted to embrace her and hold her hands, +but, as it was, she could only retire shyly into herself, as in the +presence of one too strong to need the support of friends.</p> +<p>"No; don't call my mother-in-law yet," Diane pleaded, as Miss +Lucilla was about to touch a bell. "I want to talk to you first, +and tell you things I couldn't say in writing."</p> +<p>Then the story was told again, and from still another point of +view. Once more Diane acknowledged the weaknesses of conduct she +had confessed already, but Miss Lucilla was a woman and understood +her speech.</p> +<p>"I knew you'd believe in me," Diane said, half sobbing, as she +ended her tale. "I knew you'd understand that one can be a foolish +woman without having been a wicked one. Mr. Pruyn would not have +been so hard on me if he had thought of that."</p> +<p>"Shall I go and tell him?"</p> +<p>"No; it's too late. The wrong that's been done needs a more +radical remedy than you or I could bring to it. Bienville has lied, +and I must force him to retract. Nothing else can help me."</p> +<p>To poor Miss Lucilla this was a new and alarming feature in the +situation. If it was so, then Marion Grimston ought not to be +allowed to marry him. If Diane was right—and she must be +right—Mrs. Bayford was mistakenly urging on a match that +would bring unhappiness to her niece. This complication was almost +more than Miss Lucilla's quietly working intellect could seize, and +she followed Diane's succeeding words with but a wandering +attention. She understood, however, that, next to being justified +by Bienville, Diane attached importance to the aid she expected +from Mrs. Eveleth. Hers was the only living voice that could +testify to the happy relations always existing between her son and +his wife. She could tell, and would tell, that George had fallen as +the champion of Diane's honor, and not as the victim of her +baseness. If he died it was because he believed in her, not because +he was seeking the readiest refuge from their common life. Diane +would explain all to Mrs. Eveleth, to whose loyalty she could +trust, and on whose love she could depend.</p> +<p>"I'll go and find her," Miss Lucilla said, rising. "You'd like +to see her alone?"</p> +<p>"No; I'd rather you were present. My troubles have got beyond +the stage of privacy. It's best that those who care for me should +hear what can be said in my defence."</p> +<p>Miss Lucilla went, and returned. A few minutes later Mrs. +Eveleth could be heard coming slowly down the stairs. But before +she had time to enter the room Derek Pruyn, using the privilege of +a relative, walked in without announcement.</p> +<p>XIII</p> +<p>If the morning had brought surprises to Miss Lucilla van Tromp, +it had not denied them to the Marquis de Bienville. They were all +the more astonishing in that they came out of a sky that was +relatively clear. As he stood in his dressing-gown, with a +cigarette between his fingers, at one of the upper windows of his +tall, towerlike hotel, he would have said that his life at the +moment resembled the blue dome above him, from which, after a +cloudy dawn and dull early morning, the last fleecy drifts were +being blown away.</p> +<p>There were many circumstances that combined just now to make him +glad of being Raoul de Laval, Marquis de Bienville. The mere +material comfort of modern hotel luxury had a certain joyous +novelty after nearly two years spent amid the unprofitable +splendors of the tropical forest. True, New York was not Paris; but +it was an excellent distributing centre for Parisian commodities +and news, and would do very well for the work he had immediately in +hand. So far, all promised hopefully. His valet had joined him from +France, with whatever he could wish in the way of wardrobe; and +Mrs. Bayford's reply to his note contained much information beyond +what was actually written down in words. Moreover, the statement he +had found awaiting him from the Crédit Lyonnais revealed the +fact that, owing to the two years in which he had little or no need +to spend money, he could now live with handsome extravagance until +after he married Miss Grimston. He might even pay the more pressing +of his debts, though that possibility presented itself in the light +of a work of supererogation, seeing that in so short a time he +should be able to pay them all.</p> +<p>Then would begin a new era in his life. On that point he was +quite determined. At thirty-two years of age it was high time to +think of being something better in the world than a mere +man-beauty. His experience with Persigny had shown that he was +capable of something worthier than dalliance, as his fathers had +been before him.</p> +<p>He did not precisely blame himself for shortcomings in the past, +since, according to French ideas, he had not enough money on which +to be useful, while his social position precluded work. He could +not serve his country for fear of serving the republic, nor live on +his estates, because Bienville was too expensive to keep up. +However well-meaning his nature, there had been almost nothing open +to him but the career of the idle, handsome, high-born youth, with +money enough to pay for the luxuries of life, while his name +secured credit for its necessities.</p> +<p>With his looks and his address it would have been easy to find a +wife who, by meeting his financial need, would have facilitated his +path in virtue; but on this point he was fastidious. Rather, +perhaps, he was typical of that modern, transitional phase of the +French social mind which, while still acknowledging the supremacy +of the family in matrimonial affairs, insists on some freedom of +personal selection. That his future wife should have enough money +to make her a worthy chatelaine of Bienville, as well as to meet +the subsidiary expenses the position implied, was a foregone +conclusion; but it was equally a matter beyond dispute that she +should be some one whom he could love. He had not found this +combination of essentials until he met Marion Grimston, and the +hand he was thereupon prepared to offer her was not wholly empty of +his heart.</p> +<p>In her he saw for the first time in his life the intrepid maiden +who seems to dare a man to come and master her. That she should be +the daughter of Robert Grimston, with his commercial primness, and +Mrs. Grimston, with her pretentious snobbery, was a mystery he made +no attempt to solve. It was enough for him that this proud creature +was in the world, especially as her bearing toward him inspired the +hope that he might win her. It was a pity that he should have +turned aside from such high endeavor in a foolish dash to make +himself the Hippomenes of Diane Eveleth's Atalanta. Putting little +heart into the latter contest, he would have suffered little +mortification from defeat, had it not been that the high spirits of +the pursued lady invited the world to come and laugh with her at +his expense.</p> +<p>Then it was that the Marquis de Bienville, in an uncontrollable +access of wounded vanity, had thrown his traditions of honor to the +winds, and lied. It was not such a lie as could be told—and +forgotten; for there were too many people eager to believe and +repeat it. Within twenty-four hours he found himself famous, all +the way from the Parc Monceau to the rue de Varennes. After his +conscience had given him a sleepless night he got up to see that +any modification of his statement meant retraction. Retraction was +out of the question, in that it involved the loss of his reputation +among men. He was caught in a trap. He must lie and maintain his +place, or he must confess and go out of society. It must not be +supposed that he took his predicament lightly, or that he made his +choice without pangs of self-pity at the cruel necessity. It was +his honor, or hers! and if only the one or the other could be +saved, it must be his. So he saved it—according to his +lights. He saved it by being very bold in his statements by day, +and heaping ignominy on himself during the black hours of +sleeplessness. He found, however, that the process paid; for +boldness engendered a sort of fictitious belief which paralyzed the +tendency to self-upbraiding until it ceased.</p> +<p>The special quality of his courage was shown on that gray dawn +when he stood up before George Eveleth in a corner of the +Pré Catalan. He had not the moral force to confess himself a +perjurer in the sight of Paris, but he could stand ready to take +the bullets in his breast. In going to the encounter he had no +intention of doing otherwise. He would not atone to an injured +woman by setting her right in the eyes of men, but he would make +her the offering of his life.</p> +<p>It was a satisfaction now to know, as he was assured by letters, +that the incident was practically forgotten, and that Diane Eveleth +had disappeared. He himself found it easier than it used to be to +dismiss the subject from his mind; and if he recalled it at times, +it was generally—as it had been on shipboard—when at +the end of his store of confidential anecdotes. He was thinking, +however, of dropping the story from his repertoire, for he had more +than remarked that its effect was slightly sinister upon himself. +He noticed, too, that, during the first twenty-four hours on the +steamer, Derek Pruyn avoided him, while he on his part had felt a +curious impulse to slink out of sight, which could only be +explained by the supposition that, as often happens on long +voyages, they had seen too much of each other.</p> +<p>Finding that he had let his cigarette go out, he threw it away, +and turned from the window to complete his toilet. As he did so his +valet entered with a card, stating that the gentleman who had sent +it in was waiting in the hail outside.</p> +<p>"Ask him to come in," he said, briefly, when he had read the +name. He was scarcely surprised, for Pruyn had spoken more than +once of showing him some civilities when they reached New York, and +putting him up at one or two convenient dubs.</p> +<p>"My dear sir," he cried, going forward with outstretched hand; +but the words died on his lips as Derek pushed his way in +brusquely, without greeting.</p> +<p>Again the young man attempted the ceremonious by apologizing for +the informality of his surroundings and the state of his dress; but +again he faltered before the haggard glare in Derek's eyes.</p> +<p>"I want to talk to you," Pruyn said, abruptly. Bienville made a +gesture of mingled politeness and astonishment.</p> +<p>"Certainly; but shall we not sit down while we do it? Will you +smoke? Here are cigarettes, but you probably prefer a cigar."</p> +<p>Educated in England, like many young Frenchmen of the upper +classes, Bienville spoke English fluently and with little +accent.</p> +<p>"I want to talk to you," Derek said again. He took no notice of +the proffered seat, and they remained standing, as they were, with +the round table, bestrewn with letters, between them. "You +remember," Derek continued, speaking with difficulty—"you +remember the story you told me on the voyage—about a +woman?"</p> +<p>Bienville nodded. He had a sudden presentiment of what was +coming.</p> +<p>"I must tell you that on the night before I sailed for South +America, three months ago, I asked that woman to be my wife."</p> +<p>"In that case," Bienville said, promptly, and with a +tranquillity he did not feel, "I withdraw my statements."</p> +<p>"Withdrawal isn't enough. You must tell me they were not +true."</p> +<p>Bienville remained silent for a minute. He was beginning to +realize the firmness of the ground he stood on. His instinct for +self-preservation was strong, and he had confidence in his +dexterous use of the necessary weapons.</p> +<p>"You must give me time to reflect on that," he said, after a +pause.</p> +<p>"Why do you need time? If the thing isn't true, you've only got +to say so."</p> +<p>"It's not quite so easy as that. You can't cut every difficulty +with a sword, as they did the Gordian knot. One may go far in +defence of a woman's honor, but there are boundaries which even a +gallant man cannot pass; and, before I speak, I must see where they +lie."</p> +<p>"I want the truth. I want no defence of a woman's +honor—"</p> +<p>"Ah, but I do. That's the difference."</p> +<p>"Damn your difference! You didn't think much of a woman's honor +when you began your infernal tales."</p> +<p>"Did you, when you let me go on?"</p> +<p>"No. That's where I share your crime. That's all that keeps me +from striking you now."</p> +<p>"I let that pass. I know how you feel. I know just how hard it +is for you. I've been in something like your situation myself. No +man can have much to do with a woman without being put there in one +way if not another. It's because I do understand you that I share +your pain—and support your insults."</p> +<p>The tremor in his voice, coupled with the dignity of his +bearing, carried a certain degree of conviction, so that when Derek +spoke again it was less fiercely.</p> +<p>"Then I understand you to confirm what you told me on board +ship?"</p> +<p>"On the contrary; you understand me to take it back. Why +shouldn't that be enough for you—- without asking further +questions?"</p> +<p>"Because I'm not here to go through formalities, but to seek for +facts."</p> +<p>"Precisely; and yet, wouldn't it be wise, under the +circumstances, not to be too exacting? If I do my best for +you—"</p> +<p>"It isn't a question of doing your best, but of telling me the +truth."</p> +<p>"I can quite see that it might strike you in that way; but +you'll pardon me, I know, if I see it from another point of view. +No man in my situation would consider it a matter of telling you +the truth, so much as of coming to the aid of a lady whose good +name he had unwittingly imperilled. My supreme duty is there; and +I'm willing to do it to the utmost of my power. I am willing to +withdraw everything I have ever uttered that could tell against +her. Can you ask me to do more?"</p> +<p>"Yes; I can ask you to deny it."</p> +<p>"Isn't that already a form of denial?"</p> +<p>"No; it's a form of affirmation."</p> +<p>"That's because you choose to take it so. It's because you +prefer to go behind my words, and ascribe to me motives which, for +all you know, I do not possess."</p> +<p>"I've nothing to do with your motives; my aim is to get at the +truth."</p> +<p>"Since you have nothing to do with my motives," Bienville said, +with a slight lifting of the brows, "you'll permit me, I am sure, +to be equally indifferent to your aims. I tell you what I am +prepared to do; but what is it to me whether you are satisfied or +not? I am sorry to—to—inconvenience the lady; but as +for you—!"</p> +<p>With a snap of the fingers he turned and strolled to the window, +where he stood, looking out, with his back toward his guest. It was +significant of their tension of feeling and concentration of mind +that both gesture and attitude went unnoted by both. Derek remained +silent and motionless, his slower mind trying to catch up with the +Frenchman's nimble adroitness. He had not yet done so when +Bienville turned and spoke again.</p> +<p>"Why should we quarrel? What should we gain by doing that? You +and I are two men of the world, to whom human nature is as an open +book. What do you expect me to do? What do you expect me to say? +What more did you think to call forth from me when you came here +this morning? Do me justice. Am I not going as far as a man can go +when I say that I blot out of my memory the cursed evenings you and +I spent together in cursed talk? That doesn't cover the ground, you +think; but would any other form of words cover it any better? Would +you believe me the more, whatever set of speeches I might adopt? +Would you not always have in the back of your mind your expressive +English phrase, that I was lying like a gentleman? You know best +what you can do, as I know best what I can do; but is it not true +that we have arrived at a point where the less that is spoken in +words on either side, the better it will be for us all?"</p> +<p>When he had finished, Bienville turned again toward the window, +leaning his head wearily against the frame. Derek stood a minute +longer watching him. Then, as if accepting the assertion that there +was nothing more that could be said, he went quietly, with bent +head, from the room.</p> +<hr /> +<p>He was down in the street before he became fully conscious that, +among the confused, strangled cries of pain within him, that which +was loudest and most imploring was a wailing self-reproach. It was +a self-reproach with a strain of pleading in it, akin to that with +which a mother blames herself for the failings of her son, seizing +on any one else's wrong to palliate the guilt of the accused. He +had injured Diane himself! He had pried into her past, and laid +bare her sins, and stripped her life of that covering of secrecy +which no human existence could do without, least of all his +own.</p> +<p>He walked on with bowed head, his eyes blind to the May +sunshine, his ears deaf to the city's joyous, energetic uproar, his +mind closed to the fact that important business affairs were +awaiting his attention. His feet strayed toward Gramercy Park, +directed not so much by volition as by the primary man-instinct to +be near some sweet, sympathetic woman in the hour of pain. Lucilla +and he had, grown up in one family as boy and girl together, and +there were moments when he found near her the peace he could get +nowhere else in the world.</p> +<p>He pushed by the footman who admitted him and walked straight to +the room where Lucilla was generally to be found. Though he could +scarcely be surprised to see Diane sitting by her, he stopped on +the threshold, with signs of embarrassment, and made as though he +would withdraw. Overwhelmed by the responsibilities of such a +moment, Miss Lucilla looked appealingly at Diane, who rose.</p> +<p>"Don't go, Mr. Pruyn," she said, forcing herself to show +firmness. "You arrive very opportunely. I have just asked my +mother-in-law to come to my aid in some of the things we discussed +last night. Won't you do me the justice to hear her?"</p> +<p>She crossed the room to where Mrs. Eveleth appeared on the +threshold, and, taking her by the hand, led her to the chair which +Pruyn placed for her.</p> +<p>"I'd better go, Diane dear," Miss Lucilla whispered, +tremblingly.</p> +<p>"Please don't," Diane insisted. "I'd much rather have you stay. +I've no secrets from Miss Lucilla," she added, speaking to Derek. +"I need a woman friend; and I've found one."</p> +<p>"You couldn't find a better," Pruyn murmured, while Miss Lucilla +slipped her arm around Diane's waist, rather to steady herself than +to support her friend.</p> +<p>"Miss Lucilla knows everything that you know, petite +mère," Diane continued, turning to where her mother-in-law +sat, slightly bowed, her extended hand resting on her cane, like +some graceful Sibyl. "She knows everything that you know, and she +knows one thing more. She knows what some cruel people say was the +way in which—George died."</p> +<p>Diane uttered the last two words in a kind of sob, and Mrs. +Eveleth looked up, startled.</p> +<p>"George—died?" she questioned, slowly, with a look of +wonder.</p> +<p>Diane nodded, unable, for the minute, to speak.</p> +<p>"But we know how—he died."</p> +<p>"Mr. Pruyn tells me that we don't."</p> +<p>"I beg you not to put it in that way," Derek said, hurriedly. "I +repeated only what was told me, and what was afterward verified. Do +you not think we can spare Mrs. Eveleth what must be so +painful?"</p> +<p>"There's no need to spare me, Mr. Pruyn. I think I've reached +the point to which old people often come—where they can't +feel any more."</p> +<p>"Oh, mother, don't say that," Diane wailed, with a curiously +childlike cry. She had never before called Mrs. Eveleth mother, and +the word sounded strangely in this room which had not heard it +since Miss Lucilla was a little girl. "My mother would rather +know," she declared, almost proudly, speaking again to Pruyn, "than +be kept in ignorance of something in which she could help me so +much."</p> +<p>"What is it?" Mrs. Eveleth asked, eagerly.</p> +<p>Then Diane told her. It had been stated, so she said, that +George had not fallen in her defence, but by his own hand—- +to escape her; and there was no one in the world but his own mother +to give this monstrous calumny the lie. During the recital Mrs. +Eveleth sat with clasped hands, but with head sinking lower at each +word. Once she murmured something which only Miss Lucilla was near +enough to hear:</p> +<p>"Then that's why they wouldn't let me look at him in his +coffin."</p> +<p>"He did love me, didn't he?" Diane cried. "He was happy with me, +wasn't he, mother dear? He understood me, and upheld me, and +defended me, whatever I did. He didn't want to leave me. He knew I +should never have cared for the loss of the money—- that we +could have faced that together. Tell them so, mother; tell +them."</p> +<p>For the first time since he had known her Derek saw Diane forget +her reserve in eager pleading. She stepped forward from Miss +Lucilla's embrace, standing before Mrs. Eveleth with palms opened +outward, in an attitude of petition. The older woman did not raise +her head nor speak.</p> +<p>"He was happy with me," Diane insisted. "I made him happy. I +wasn't the best wife he could have had, but he was satisfied with +me as I was, in spite of my imperfections. He was worried +sometimes, especially toward—toward the last; but he wasn't +worried about me, was he, mother dear?"</p> +<p>Still the mother did not speak nor raise her head. Diane took a +step nearer and began again.</p> +<p>"I didn't know we were living beyond our means. I didn't know +what was going on around me. I reproach myself for that. A wiser +woman <i>would</i> have known; but I was young, and foolish, and +very, very happy. I didn't know I was ruining George, though I'm +ready to take all the responsibility for it now. But he never +blamed me, did he, mother? never, by a word, never by a look. Oh, +speak, and tell them!"</p> +<p>Her voice came out with a sharp note of anxiety, in which there +was an inflection almost of fear; but when she ceased there was +silence.</p> +<p>"Petite mère," she cried, "aren't you going to say +anything?"</p> +<p>The bowed head remained bowed; the only sign came from the +trembling of the extended hand, resting on the top of the +stick.</p> +<p>"If you don't speak," Diane cried again, "they'll think it's +because you don't want to."</p> +<p>If there was a response to this, it was when the head bent +lower.</p> +<p>"Mother," Diane cried, in alarm, "I've no one in the world to +speak a word for me but you. If you don't do it, they'll believe I +drove George to his death—they'll say I was such a woman that +he killed himself rather than live with me any longer."</p> +<p>Suddenly Mrs. Eveleth raised her head and looked round upon them +all. Then she staggered to her feet.</p> +<p>"Take me away!" she said, in a dead voice, to Lucilla van Tromp. +"Help me! Take me away! I can't bear any more!" Leaning on Miss +Lucilla's arm, she advanced a step and paused before Diane, who +stood wide-eyed, and awe-struck rather than amazed, at the +magnitude of this desertion. "May God forgive you, Diane," she +said, quietly, passing on again. "I try to do so; but it's +hard."</p> +<p>While Derek's eyes were riveted on Diane, she stood staring +vacantly at the empty doorway through which Mrs. Eveleth and Miss +Lucilla had passed on their way up-stairs. This abandonment was so +far outside the range of what she had considered possible that +there seemed to be no avenues to her intelligence through which the +conviction of it could be brought home. She gazed as though her own +vision were at fault, as though her powers of comprehension had +failed her.</p> +<p>Derek, on his part, watched her, with the fascination with which +we watch a man performing some strange feat of skill—from +whom first one support, and then another, and then another, falls +away, until he is left with nothing to uphold him, perilously, +frightfully alone.</p> +<p>When at length the knowledge of what had occurred came over her, +Diane looked round the familiar room, as though to bring her senses +back out of the realm of the incredible. When her eyes rested on +him it was simply to include him among the common facts of earth +after this excursion into the impossible. She said nothing, and her +face was blank; but the little gesture of the hands—the +little limp French gesture: the sudden lift, the sudden drop, the +soft, tired sound, as the arms fell against the sides—implied +fatality, finality, inexplicability, and an infinite weariness of +created things.</p> +<a name="p202" id="p202"></a> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:75%;"><a href= +"images/p202.png"><img width="75%" src="images/p202.png" alt= +""I'VE NO ONE TO SPEAK A WORD FOR ME BUT YOU"" /></a></div> +<p>XIV</p> +<p>"Do you think he did—shoot himself?"</p> +<p>They continued to stand staring into each other's eyes—the +width of the room between them. A red azalea on the long mahogany +table, strewn with books, separated them by its fierce splash of +color. The apathy of Diane's voice was not that of worn-out +emotion, but of emotion which finds no adequate tones. The very way +in which her inquiry ignored all other subjects between them had +its poignancy.</p> +<p>"What do <i>you</i> think?"</p> +<p>"Oh, I suppose he did. Every one says so; then why shouldn't it +be true? If it were, it would only be of a piece with all the +rest."</p> +<p>"I reminded you last night that he had other troubles +besides—besides—"</p> +<p>"Besides those I may have caused him."</p> +<p>"If you like to put it so. He might have been driven to a +desperate act by loss of fortune." "Leaving me to face poverty +alone. No; I can't think so ill of him as that. If you suggest it +by way of offering me consolation, you're making a mistake. Of the +two, I'd rather think of him as seeking death from +horror—horror of me—than from simple cowardice."</p> +<p>"It would be no new thing in the history of money troubles; and +it would relieve you of the blame."</p> +<p>"To fasten it on him. I see what you mean; but I prefer not to +accept that kind of absolution. If there's any consolation left to +me, it's in the pride of having been the wife of an honorable man. +Don't take it away from me as long as there's any other explanation +possible. I see you're puzzled; but you'd have to be a wife to +understand me. Accuse me of any crime you like; take it for granted +that I've been guilty of it; only don't say that he deserted me in +that way. Let me keep at least the comfort of his memory."</p> +<p>"I want you to keep all the comfort you can get, Diane. God +forbid that I should take from you anything in which you find +support. So far am I from that, that I come to offer you—what +I have to offer."</p> +<p>There was a minute's silence before she replied:</p> +<p>"I don't know what that is."</p> +<p>"My name."</p> +<p>There was another minute's silence, during which she looked at +him hardly.</p> +<p>"What for?"</p> +<p>"I should think you'd see."</p> +<p>"I don't. Will you be good enough to explain?"</p> +<p>"Is that necessary? Is this a minute in which to bandy +words?"</p> +<p>"It's a minute in which I may be permitted to ask the meaning of +your—generosity."</p> +<p>"It isn't generosity. I'm saying nothing new. I've come only for +an answer to the question I asked you before going to South +America, three months ago."</p> +<p>"Oh, but I thought that question had answered itself."</p> +<p>"Then perhaps it has—in that, whatever reply you might +have given me under other conditions, now you must accept me."</p> +<p>"You mean, I must accept—your name."</p> +<p>"My name, and all that goes with it."</p> +<p>"How could you expect me to do that, after what happened last +night?"</p> +<p>"What happened last night shall be—as though it had not +happened."</p> +<p>"Could you ever forget it?"</p> +<p>"I didn't say I should forget it. I suppose I couldn't do that +any more than you. I said it should be as though it hadn't +been."</p> +<p>"And what about Dorothea?"</p> +<p>"That must be as it may."</p> +<p>"You mean that Dorothea would have to take her chance."</p> +<p>"She needn't know anything about it—yet."</p> +<p>"You couldn't keep it from her forever."</p> +<p>"No. But she'll probably marry soon. After that she'll +understand things better."</p> +<p>"That is, she'll understand the position in which you've been +placed—that you could hardly have acted otherwise."</p> +<p>"I don't want to go into definitions. There are times in life +when words become as dangerous as explosives. Let us do what we see +to be our obvious duty, without saying too much about it."</p> +<p>"Isn't it your first duty to protect your child?"</p> +<p>"My first duty, as I see it now, is to protect you."</p> +<p>"I don't see much to be gained by shielding one person when you +expose another. What happens to me is a small matter compared with +the consequences to her."</p> +<p>"Your influence hasn't hurt her in the past; why should it do so +now?"</p> +<p>"You forget that there are other things besides my influence. +Her whole position, her whole life, would be changed, if she had +for a mother—if you had for a wife—a notorious woman +like me."</p> +<p>"There are situations where the child must follow the +parent."</p> +<p>"But there are none, as far as I know, in which the parent must +sacrifice the child."</p> +<p>"I don't agree with you. There are moments in which we must act +in a certain definite manner, no matter what may be the outcome. +Don't let us talk of it any more, Diane. You must know as well as I +that there is but one thing for us to do."</p> +<p>"You mean, of course, that I must marry you."</p> +<p>"You must give me the right to take care of you."</p> +<p>"Because it's a duty that no one else would assume. That's what +it comes to, isn't it?"</p> +<p>"I repeat that I don't want to discuss it—"</p> +<p>"You must let me point out that some amount of discussion is +needed. If we didn't have it before marriage, we should have it +afterward, when it would be worse. You won't think I'm boasting if +I say that I think my vision is a little keener than yours, and +that I see what you'd be doing more clearly than you do yourself. +You know me—or you think you know me—as a guilty woman, +homeless, penniless, and without a friend in the world. You don't +want to leave me to my fate, and there's no way of helping me but +one. That way you're prepared to take, cost what it will. I admire +you for it; I thank you for it; I know you would do it like a man. +But it's just because you <i>would</i> do it like a +man—because you <i>are</i> doing it like a man—that +your kindness is far more cruel than scorn. No woman, not the +weakest, not the worst, among us, would consent to be taken as +you're offering to take me. A man might bring himself to accept +that kind of pity; but a woman—never! You said just now that +you had come to offer me—what you had to offer; but surely +I'm not fallen so low as to have to take it."</p> +<p>"I said I offered you my name and all that goes with it. I would +try to tell you what it is, only that I find something in our +relative positions transcending words. But since you need +words—since apparently you prefer plainness of +speech—I'll tell you something: I saw Bienville this +morning."</p> +<p>She looked up with a new expression, verging on that of +curiosity.</p> +<p>"And—?"</p> +<p>"Since then," he continued, "I've become even more deeply +conscious than I was before of the ineradicable nature of what I +feel for you."</p> +<p>"Ah?"</p> +<p>"I've come to see that, whatever may have happened, whatever you +may be, I want you as my wife."</p> +<p>"Do you mean that you would overlook wrongdoing on my part, +and—and—care for me, just the same?"</p> +<p>"I mean that life isn't a conceivable thing to me without you; I +mean that no considerations in the world have any force as against +my desire to get you. Whatever your life has been, I subscribe to +it. Listen! When I saw Bienville this morning he withdrew what he +said on shipboard—as nearly as possible, without giving +himself the lie, he denied it—and yet, Diane, and yet I knew +his first story was—the truth. No, don't shrink. Don't cry +out. Let me go on. I swear to God that it makes no difference. I +see the whole thing from another point of view. I'll not only take +you as you are, but I want you as you are. I give you my honor, +which is dearer than my life—I give you my child, who is more +precious than my honor. Everything—everything is cheap, so +long as I can win you. Don't shrink from me, Diane. Don't look at +me like that—"</p> +<p>"How can I help shrinking from anything so base?"</p> +<p>Her voice rose scarcely above a whisper, but it checked the +movement with which, after the minutes of almost motionless +confrontation, he came toward her with eager arms.</p> +<p>"Base?" he echoed, offended.</p> +<p>"Yes—base. That a man should care for a woman whom he +thinks to be bad is comprehensible; that he should wish to make her +his wife is credible; that he should hope to lift her out of her +condition is admirable; but that he should descend from his own +high plane to stay on hers is despicably weak; while to drag down +with him a girl in the very flower of her purity is a crime without +a name."</p> +<p>The dark flush showed how quickly his haughty spirit responded +to the flicker of the lash.</p> +<p>"If you choose to put that interpretation of my words—" he +began, indignantly.</p> +<p>"I don't; but it's the interpretation they deserve. There's +almost no indignity that can be uttered which you haven't heaped +upon me; and of them all this last is the hardest to be borne. I +bear it; I forgive it; because it convinces me of what I've been +afraid of all along—that I'm a woman who throws some sort of +evil influence over men. Even you are not exempt from it—even +you! Oh, Derek, go away from me! If you won't do it for your own +sake, do it for Dorothea's. I won't do battle with Bienville's +accusations now. Perhaps I may never do battle with them at all. +What does it matter whether he tells the truth or lies? The +pressing thing just now is that you should be saved—"</p> +<p>"Thank you; I can take care of myself. Let's have no more fine +splitting of moral hairs. Let us settle the thing, and be done with +it. There's one big fact before us, and only one. You can't do +without me; I can't do without you. It's a crisis at which we've +the right to think only of ourselves and thrust every one else +outside."</p> +<p>"Wait!" she cried, as he advanced once more upon her. "Wait! Let +me tell you something. You mustn't be hard on me for saying it. You +asked just now for my answer to your question of three months ago. +My answer is—"</p> +<p>"Diane!" he said, lifting his hand in warning. "Be careful. +Don't speak in a hurry. I'm not in a mood to plead or argue any +longer. What you say now will be—the irrevocable word."</p> +<p>"I know it. It will not only be the irrevocable word, but the +last word. Derek, I see you as you are, a strong, simple, honest +man. I admire you; I esteem you; I honor you; I'm grateful to you +as a woman is rarely grateful to a man. And yet I'd rather be all +you think me; I'd rather earn my bread as desperate women do earn +it than be your wife."</p> +<p>They looked at each other long and steadily. When he spoke, his +words were those she had invited, but they made her gasp as one +gasps at that which suddenly takes one's breath.</p> +<p>"As you will," he said, briefly.</p> +<p>XV</p> +<p>As the pivot of events, Miss Lucilla van Tromp was beginning to +feel the responsibilities of her position. Only a woman with an +inexhaustible heart could have met as she did the demands for +sympathy, of various shades, made by the chief participants in the +drama; while there was one phase of the action which called for a +heroic display of conscience.</p> +<p>It was impossible now to contemplate Marion Grimston's peril +without a grave sense of the duties imposed by friendship. Some +people might stand by and see a girl wreck her happiness by giving +her heart to an unworthy suitor, but Miss van Tromp was not among +that number. It was, in fact, one of those junctures at which all +her good instincts prompted her to say, "I ought to go and tell +her." As a patriotic spinster, she held decided views on the +question of marriage between American heiresses and impecunious +foreign noblemen—and, in her eyes, all foreign noblemen were +impecunious—in any case; but to see Marion Grimston become +the victim of her parents' vulgar ambition gave to the subject a +personal bearing which made her duty urgent. If ever there was a +moment when a goddess in a machine could feel justified in +descending, for active intervention, it was now. She had the less +hesitation in doing so, owing to the fact that she had known Marion +since her cradle; and between the two there had always existed the +subtle tie which not seldom binds the widely diverse but +essentially like-minded together. Accordingly, on a bright May +morning, within a few days of the last meeting between Derek Pruyn +and Diane Eveleth, she sallied forth to the fashionable quarter +where Mrs. Bayford dwelt, coming home, some two hours later, with a +considerably extended knowledge of the possibilities inherent in +human nature.</p> +<p>The tale Miss Lucilla told was that which had already been many +times repeated, each narrator lending to it the color imparted by +his own views of life. As now set forth, it became the story of a +girl sought in marriage by a man who has inflicted mortal wrong +upon an innocent young woman. With unconscious art Miss Lucilla +placed Marion Grimston herself in the centre of the piece, making +the subsidiary characters revolve around her. This situation +brought with it a double duty: the one explicit in righting the +oppressed, the other implicit—for Miss Lucilla balked at +putting it too plainly into words—in punishing a wicked +marquis.</p> +<p>The girl sat with head slightly bowed and rich color deepening. +If she showed emotion at all, it was in her haughty stillness, as +though she voluntarily put all expression out of her face until the +recital was ended. The effect on Miss Lucilla, as they sat side by +side on a sofa, was slightly disconcerting, so that she came to her +conclusion lamely.</p> +<p>"Of course, my dear, I don't know his side of the story, or what +he may have to say in self-defence. I'm only telling you what I've +heard, and just as I heard it."</p> +<p>"I dare say it's quite right."</p> +<p>The brevity and suggested cynicism of this reply produced in +Miss Lucilla a little shock.</p> +<p>"Oh! Then, you think—?"</p> +<p>"There would be nothing surprising in it. It's the sort of thing +that's always happening in Paris. It's one of the peculiarities of +that society that you can never believe half the evil you hear of +any one—not even if it's told you by the man himself. I might +go so far as to say that, when it's told you by himself you're +least of all inclined to credit it."</p> +<p>"But how dreadful!"</p> +<p>"Things are dreadful or not, according to the degree in which +you're used to them. I've grown up in that atmosphere, and so I can +endure it. In fact, any other atmosphere seems to me to lack some +of the necessary ingredients of air; just as to some +people—to Napoleon, for instance—a woman who isn't +rouged isn't wholly dressed."</p> +<p>"I know that's only your way of talking, dear. Oh, you can't +shock <i>me</i>."</p> +<p>"At any rate, the way of talking shows you what I mean. I can +quite understand how Monsieur de Bienville might have said that of +Mrs. Eveleth."</p> +<p>Lucilla's look of pain induced Miss Grimston promptly to qualify +her statement.</p> +<p>"I said I could understand it; I didn't say I respected it. It's +only what's been said of hundreds of thousands of women in Paris by +hundreds of thousands of men, and in the place where they've said +it it's taken with the traditional grain of salt. If all had gone +as it was going at the time—if the Eveleths hadn't lost their +money—if Mr. Eveleth hadn't shot himself—if Mrs. +Eveleth had kept her place in French society—the story +wouldn't have done her any harm. People would have shrugged their +shoulders at it, and forgotten it. It's the transferring of the +scene here, among you, that makes it grave. All your ideas are so +different that what's bad becomes worse, by being carried out of +its milieu. Monsieur de Bienville must be made to understand that, +and repair the wrong."</p> +<p>"You seem to think there's no question but that—there +<i>is</i> a wrong?"</p> +<p>"Oh, I suppose there isn't. There are so many cases of the kind. +Mrs. Eveleth is probably neither more nor less than one of the many +Frenchwomen of her rank in life who like to skate out on the thin +edge of excitement without any intention of going through. There +are always women like my aunt Bayford to think the worst of people +of that sort, and to say it."</p> +<p>"And yet I don't see how that justifies Monsieur de +Bienville."</p> +<p>"It doesn't justify; it only explains. Responsibility presses +less heavily on the individual when it's shared."</p> +<p>"But wouldn't the person—you'll forgive me, dear, won't +you, if I'm going too far?—wouldn't the person who has to +take his part in that kind of responsibility be a doubtful keeper +of one's happiness?"</p> +<p>Miss Grimston, half lowering her eyes, looked at her visitor +with slumberous suspension of expression, and made no reply.</p> +<p>"If a man isn't good—" Miss Lucilla began again, +tremblingly.</p> +<p>"No man is perfect."</p> +<p>"True, dear; and yet are there not certain qualities which we +ought to consider as essentials—?"</p> +<p>"Monsieur de Bienville has those qualities for me."</p> +<p>"But surely, dear, you can't mean—?"</p> +<p>"Yes, I do mean."</p> +<p>The avowal was made quietly, with the still bearing of one who +gives a few drops of confession out of deep oceans of reserve. Miss +Lucilla gazed at her in astonishment. That her parents should +sacrifice her was not surprising; but that she should be willing to +sacrifice herself went beyond the limits of thought. The revelation +that Marion could actually love the man was so startling that it +shocked her out of her timidity, loosening the strings of her +eloquence and unsealing the sources of her maternal tenderness. +There was nothing original in Miss Lucilla's subsequent line of +argument. It was the old, oft-uttered, futile appeal to the head, +when the heart has already spoken. It premised the possibility of +placing one's affections where one cannot give one's respect, +regardless of the fact that the thing is done a thousand times a +day. It reasoned, it predicted, it implored, with an effect no more +disintegrating on the girl's decision than moonbeams make upon a +mountain. Through it all, she sat and listened with the veiled eyes +and mysterious impassivity which gave to her personality a +curiously incalculable quality, as of a force presenting none of +the ordinary phenomena by which to measure or compute it.</p> +<p>It was not till Miss Lucilla touched on the subject of honor +that she obtained any sign of the effect she was producing. It was +no more, on Marion's part, than an uneasy movement, but it betrayed +its cause. Miss Lucilla pressed her point with renewed insistence, +and presently two big tears hung on the long, black lashes and +rolled down.</p> +<p>"I should like to see Mrs. Eveleth."</p> +<p>Like the hasty raising and dropping of a curtain on some +jealously guarded view, the words gave to Miss Lucilla but a +fleeting glimpse of what was passing in the obscure recesses of the +girl's heart; but she determined to make the most of it by fixing, +there and then, the day and hour when, without apparently forcing +the event, the two might come face to face on the neutral ground of +Gramercy Park.</p> +<p>It was a meeting that, when it took place, would have been +attended with embarrassment had not both young women been practised +in the ways of their little world. Progress in mutual understanding +was made the easier by the existence, on both sides, of the +European view of life, with its fusion of interests, its softness +of outline, its give and take of toleration, in contradistinction +to the sharp, clear, insistent American demands for a certain line +of conduct and no other. Five minutes had not gone by in talk +before each found in the other's presence that sense of repose +which comes from similar habits of thought and a common native +idiom. Whatever grounds for difference they might find, they were, +at least, ranged on the same side in that battle which the two +hemispheres half unconsciously wage upon each other as to the main +purposes of life. Thus they were able to approach their subject +without that first preliminary shock which makes it difficult for +races to agree; and thus, too, Marion Grimston found herself, +before she was aware of it, pouring out to Diane Eveleth that heart +which, in response to Miss Lucilla's tender pleading, had been +dumb.</p> +<p>They sat in the big, sombre library where, only a few days +before, Diane had seen Derek Pruyn turn his back on her, without +even a gesture of farewell. On the long mahogany table the red +azalea was in almost passionate luxuriance of blossom; while +through the open window faint odors of lilac came from Miss +Lucilla's bit of garden.</p> +<p>"I don't want you to think him worse than you're obliged to," +Marion said, as though in defence of the stand her heart had taken. +"I've been told that very few men possess the two kinds of +courage—the moral and the physical. Savonarola had the one +and Nelson had the other; but neither of them had both. And of the +two, for me, the physical is the essential. I can't help it. If I +had to choose between a soldier and a saint, I'd take the soldier. +When the worst is said of Monsieur de Bienville, it must be +admitted that he's brave."</p> +<p>"I've always understood that he was a good rider and a good +shot," Diane admitted. "I've no doubt that in battle he would +conduct himself like a hero."</p> +<p>The girl's head went up proudly, and from the languorous eyes +there came one splendid flash before the lids fell over them +again.</p> +<p>"I know he would; and when a man has that sort of courage he's +worth saving."</p> +<p>"You admit, then, that he needs to be—saved?" Again the +heavy lids were lifted for one brief, search-light glance.</p> +<p>"Yes; I admit that. I believe he has wronged you. I can't tell +you how I know it; but I do. It's to tell you so that I've asked +you to come here. I hoped to make you see, as I do, that he's +capable of doing it without appreciating the nature of his crime. +If we could get him to see that—"</p> +<p>"Then—what?"</p> +<p>"He'd make you reparation."</p> +<p>"Are you so sure?"</p> +<p>"I'm very sure. If he didn't—" The consequences of that +possibility being difficult of expression, she hung upon her +words.</p> +<p>"I should be sorry to have you brought to so momentous a +decision on my account."</p> +<p>"It wouldn't be on your account; it would be on my own. I +understand myself well enough to see that I could love a +dishonorable man; but I couldn't marry him."</p> +<p>"You have, of course, your own idea as to what makes a man +dishonorable."</p> +<p>"What makes a man dishonorable is to persist in dishonor after +he has become aware of it. Any one may speak thoughtlessly, or +boastfully, or foolishly, and be forgiven for it. But he can't be +forgiven if he keeps it up, especially when by his doing so a woman +has to suffer."</p> +<p>The movement with which Diane pushed back her chair and rose +betrayed a troubled rather than an impatient spirit.</p> +<p>"Miss Grimston," she said, standing before the girl and looking +down upon her, "I should almost prefer not to have you take my +affairs into your consideration. I doubt if they're worth it. I +can't deny that I shrink from becoming a factor in your life, as +well as from feeling that you must make your decisions, or unmake +them, with reference to me."</p> +<p>"I'm not making my decisions, or unmaking them, with reference +to you; it's with reference to Monsieur de Bienville. He has my +father's consent to his asking me to be his wife. I understand +that, according to the formal French fashion, he's going to do it +to-morrow. Before I give him an answer I must know that he is such +a man as I could marry."</p> +<p>"You would have thought him so if you hadn't heard this about +me."</p> +<p>"Even so, it's better for me to have heard it. Any prudent +person would tell you that. What I'm going to ask you to do now +will not be for your sake; it will be for mine."</p> +<p>"You're going to ask me to do something?"</p> +<p>"Yes; to see Monsieur de Bienville."</p> +<p>Diane recoiled with an expression of dismay.</p> +<p>"I know it will be hard for you," Miss Grimston pursued, "and I +wouldn't ask you to do it if it were not the straightest way out of +a perplexing situation. I've confidence enough in him to believe +that when he has seen you and heard your story, he'll act according +to the dictates of a nature which I know to be essentially +honorable, even if it's weak. You can see what that will mean to us +all. It will not only clear you and rehabilitate him, but it will +bring happiness to me."</p> +<p>There was something in the way in which these brief statements +were made that gave them the nature of an appeal. The very +difficulty of the reserved heart in speaking out, the shame-flushed +cheek—the subdued voice—the halting breath—had on +Diane a more potent effect than eloquence. What was left of her own +hope, too, at once put forth its claim at the possibility of +getting justice. It was a matter of taking her courage in both +hands, in one tremendous effort, but the fact that this girl +believed in her was a stimulus to making the attempt. Before they +parted—with stammering expressions of mutual +sympathy—she had given her word to do it.</p> +<p>XVI</p> +<p>In the degree to which masculine good looks and elegance are +accessories to impressing a maid's heart, the Marquis de Bienville +had reason to be sure of the effect he was producing, as he bent +and kissed Miss Marion Grimston's hand, in her aunt's drawing-room, +on the following afternoon. He was not surprised to detect the +thrill that shot through her being at his act of homage, and +communicated itself back to him; for he was tolerably certain of +her love. That had been, to all intents and purposes, confessed +more than two years ago; while, during the intervening time, he had +not lacked signs that the gift once bestowed had never been +withdrawn. He had stood for a few seconds at the threshold on +entering the room, just to rejoice consciously at his great +good-fortune. She had risen, but not advanced, to meet him, her +tall figure, sheathed in some close-fitting, soft stuff, thrown +into relief by the dark-blue velvet portière behind her. He +was not unaware of his unworthiness in the presence of this superb +young creature, and as he crossed the room it was with the humility +of a worshipper before a shrine.</p> +<p>"Mademoiselle," he said, simply, when he had raised himself, "I +come to tell you that I love you."</p> +<p>The glance, slightly oblique, of suspended expression with which +she received the words encouraged him to continue.</p> +<p>"I know how far what I have to give is beneath the honor of your +acceptance; and yet when men love they are impelled to offer all +the little that they have. My one hope lies in the fact that a +woman like you doesn't love a man for what he is—but for what +she can make him."</p> +<p>The words were admirably chosen, reaching her heart with a force +greater than he knew.</p> +<p>"A woman," she answered, with a certain stately uplifting of the +head, "can only make a man that which he has already the power to +become. She may be able to point out the way; but it's for him to +follow it."</p> +<p>"I don't think you'd see me hesitate at that."</p> +<p>"I'm glad you say so; because the road I should have to ask you +to take would be a hard one."</p> +<p>"The harder the better, if it's anything by which I can prove my +love."</p> +<p>"It is; but it's not only that; it's something by which you +could prove mine."</p> +<p>His face brightened.</p> +<p>"In that case, Mademoiselle—speak."</p> +<p>She took an instant to assemble her forces, standing before him +with a calmness she did not feel.</p> +<p>"You must forgive me," she said, trying to keep her voice +steady, "if I take the initiative, as no girl is often called upon +to do. Perhaps I should hesitate more if you hadn't told me, two +years ago, what I know you've come to repeat to-day. The fact that +I've waited those two years to hear you say it gives me a right +that otherwise I shouldn't claim."</p> +<p>He bowed.</p> +<p>"There are no rights that a woman can have over a man which you, +Mademoiselle, do not possess over me."</p> +<p>"Before telling me again," she continued, speaking with +difficulty, "what you've told me already, I want to say that I can +only listen to it on one condition."</p> +<p>"Which is—?"</p> +<p>"That your own conscience is at peace with itself."</p> +<p>There was a sudden startled toss of the head, but he answered, +bravely:</p> +<p>"Is one's conscience ever at peace with itself? A woman's, +perhaps; but a man's—!"</p> +<p>He shook his head with that wistful smile of contrition which is +already a plea for pardon.</p> +<p>"I'm not speaking of life in general, but of something in +particular. I want you to understand, before you ask me—what +you've come to ask, that you couldn't make one woman happy while +you're doing another a great wrong."</p> +<p>He was sure now of what was in store for him, and braced himself +for his part. He was one of those men who need but to see peril to +see also the way of meeting it. He stood for a minute, very +straight and erect, like a soldier before a court-martial—a +culprit whose guilt is half excused by his very manliness.</p> +<p>"I have wronged women. They've wronged me, too. All I can do to +show I'm sorry for it is—not to give them the same sort of +offence again."</p> +<p>"I'm thinking of one woman—one woman in particular."</p> +<p>He threw back his head with fine confidence.</p> +<p>"I don't know her."</p> +<p>"It's Diane Eveleth. She says—"</p> +<p>"I can imagine what she says. If I were you, I wouldn't pay it +more attention than it deserves."</p> +<p>"It deserves a good deal—if it's true."</p> +<p>"Not from you, Mademoiselle. It belongs to a region into which +your thought shouldn't enter."</p> +<p>"My thought does enter it, I'm afraid. In fact, I think of it so +much that I've invited Mrs. Eveleth to come here this afternoon. I +hope you don't mind meeting her?"</p> +<p>"Certainly not. Why should I?" he demanded, with an air of +conscious rectitude.</p> +<p>Miss Grimston touched a bell.</p> +<p>"Ask Mrs. Eveleth to come in," she said to the footman who +answered it.</p> +<p>As Diane entered she greeted Bienville with a slight inclination +of the head, which he returned, bowing ceremoniously.</p> +<p>"I've begged Mrs. Eveleth to meet us," Marion hastened to +explain, "for a very special reason."</p> +<p>"Then perhaps she will be good enough to tell me what it is," +Bienville said, with a look of courteous inquiry.</p> +<p>"Miss Grimston thought—you might be able—to help +me."</p> +<p>There was a catch in Diane's voice as she spoke, but she +mastered it, keeping her eyes on his, in the effort to be +courageous.</p> +<p>"If there's anything I can do—" he began, allowing the +rest of his sentence to be inferred.</p> +<p>He concealed his nervousness by placing a small gilded chair for +Diane to sit on. He himself took a chair a few feet away, seating +himself sidewise, with his elbow supported on the back, in an easy +attitude of attention. Marion Grimston withdrew to the more distant +part of the room, where, with her hands behind her, she stood +leaning against the grand piano, with the bearing of one only +indirectly, and yet intensely, concerned. Bienville left the task +of beginning to Diane. In spite of his determination to be +self-possessed, a trace of compunction was visible in his face as +he contrasted the subdued little woman before him with the +sparkling, insouciant creature to whom, two or three years ago, he +had paid his inglorious court.</p> +<p>"I shall have to speak to you quite simply and frankly," Diane +began, with some hesitation, still keeping her eyes on his, +"otherwise you wouldn't understand me."</p> +<p>"Quite so," Bienville assented, politely.</p> +<p>"You may not have heard that since—my—my husband's +death, I have my own living to earn?"</p> +<p>"Yes; I did hear something of the kind."</p> +<p>"I've had what people in my position call a good situation; but +I have lost it."</p> +<p>"Ah? I'm sorry."</p> +<p>"I thought you would be. That's why Miss Grimston asked me to +tell you the reason. She was sure you wouldn't injure +me—knowingly."</p> +<p>"Naturally. I'm very much surprised that any one should think +I've injured you at all. To the best of my knowledge your name has +not passed my lips for two years, at the least. If it had it would +only have been spoken—with respect."</p> +<p>"I'm sure of that. I'm not pretending when I say that I'm +absolutely convinced you're a man of sensitive honor. If you +weren't you couldn't be a Frenchman and a Bienville. I want you to +understand that I've never attributed—the—things that +have happened—to anything but folly and imprudence—for +which I want to take my full share of the blame."</p> +<p>"I've never ventured to express to you my own regret," Bienville +said, in a tone not free from emotion, "but I assure you it's very +deep."</p> +<p>"I know. All our life was so wrong! It's because I feel sure you +must see that as well as I do that I hoped you'd help me now."</p> +<p>He said nothing in reply, letting some seconds pass in silence, +waiting for her to come to her point.</p> +<p>"On the way up from South America," she began again, with +visible difficulty, "you were on the same ship with +my—my—employer. From certain things you said +then—"</p> +<p>"But I've withdrawn them," he interrupted, quickly. "He should +have told you that. Mademoiselle," he added, rising, and turning +toward Marion Grimston, "wouldn't it spare you if we continued this +conversation alone?"</p> +<p>"No; I'd rather stay," Miss Grimston said, with an inflection of +request. "Please sit down again."</p> +<p>"He should have told you that," Bienville repeated, taking his +seat once more, and speaking with some animation. "I did my best to +straighten things out for him."</p> +<p>"Then he didn't understand you. He told me you had taken back +what you had said, but only in a way that reaffirmed it."</p> +<p>"That's nothing but a tortuous construction put on +straightforward words."</p> +<p>"Quite so; but for that very reason I thought that perhaps you'd +go to him again and explain what you meant more clearly."</p> +<p>He took a minute to consider this before speaking.</p> +<p>"I don't see how I can," he said, slowly. "I've already used the +plainest words of which I have command."</p> +<p>"Words aren't everything. It's the way they're spoken that often +counts most. I'm sure you could convince him if you went the right +way to work about it."</p> +<p>"I doubt that. I'm afraid I don't know how to force conviction +on any one against his will."</p> +<p>"You mean—?"</p> +<p>"I mean—you'll excuse me; I speak quite bluntly—I +mean that he seemed very willing to believe anything that could +tell against you, but less eager to credit what was said in your +defence."</p> +<p>"You think so because you don't understand him. As a matter of +fact—"</p> +<p>"Oh, I dare say. I don't pretend to understand the gentleman in +question. But for that very reason it would be useless for me to +try to enlighten him further. It would only make matters +worse."</p> +<p>"It wouldn't if you'd put things before him just as they +happened. I don't want any excuses made for me. My best defence +would be—the truth."</p> +<p>There was a perceptible pause, during which his eyes shifted +uneasily toward Marion Grimston.</p> +<p>"I should think you could tell him that yourself," he suggested, +at last.</p> +<p>"It wouldn't be the same thing. You're the only person who could +speak with authority. He'd accept your word, if you gave +it—in a certain way."</p> +<p>"I'm afraid I don't know what that way is."</p> +<p>"Oh yes, you do, Bienville!" she exclaimed, pleadingly, leaning +forward slightly, with her hands clasped in her lap. "Don't force +me to speak more plainly than I need. You must know what I refer +to."</p> +<p>He shook his head slowly, with a look of mystification.</p> +<p>"What you may not know," she continued, "is all it means to me. +I won't put the matter on any ground but that of my need for +earning money. Because Mr. Pruyn has—misunderstood you, I've +had to give up my—my—place"—she forced the last +word with a little difficulty—"and until something like a +good name is restored to me I shall find it hard to get another. +You can have no idea of what that means. I had none, until I had to +face it. There's only one kind of work I'm fitted for—the +kind I've been doing; but it's just the kind I can't have without +the—the reputation you could give back to me."</p> +<p>That this appeal was not without its effect was evident from the +way in which his expressive brown eyes clouded, while he stroked +his black beard nervously. The fact that his pity was largely for +himself—that with instincts naturally chivalrous he should be +driven to these miserable verbal shifts—being unknown to +Diane, she was encouraged to proceed.</p> +<p>"You see," she went on, eagerly, "it wouldn't only bring me +happiness, but it would add to your own. You're at the beginning of +a new life, just like me—or, rather, just as I could be if +you'd give me the chance. Think what it would be for you to enter +on it, I won't say with a clear conscience, but with the knowledge +that in rising yourself you had helped an unhappy woman up, instead +of thrusting her further down! It isn't as if it would be so hard +for you, Bienville. I'd make it easy for you. Miss Grimston would +help me. Wouldn't you?" she added, turning toward Marion. "It could +all be done quite simply and confidentially between +ourselves—and Mr. Pruyn."</p> +<p>"Oh no, it couldn't," he said, coldly. "If I were to admit what +you imply, secrecy wouldn't be of any use to me."</p> +<p>"Does that mean," she asked, fixing her earnest eyes upon him, +"that you don't admit it?"</p> +<p>"It means," he said, rising quietly and standing behind his +chair, "that this conversation is extremely painful to me, and I +must ask to be excused from taking any further part in it. I know +only vaguely what you mean, Madame; and if I don't inquire more in +detail, it's because I want to spare you distressing explanations. +I think you must agree with me, Mademoiselle," he continued, +looking toward Miss Grimston, "that we should all be well advised +in letting the subject drop."</p> +<p>Marion came slowly forward, advancing to the side of Diane, over +whose shoulder, as she remained seated, she allowed her hand to +fall, in a pose suggestive of protection.</p> +<p>"Of course, Monsieur," she agreed, "we must let the subject +drop, if you have nothing more to say."</p> +<p>He stood silent a minute, looking at her steadily. "I'm afraid I +haven't," he said, then.</p> +<p>"Nor I," Miss Grimston returned, significantly.</p> +<p>Again there was a minute or two of silence, during which +Bienville seemed to probe for the meaning of the two laconic words. +If anything could be read from his countenance, it was doubt as to +whether to relinquish the prize with dignity or to pay its price in +humiliation. There was an instant in which he appeared to be +bracing himself to do the latter; but when he spoke his +interrogation threw the responsibility for decision on Miss +Grimston.</p> +<p>"Have I received—my answer?"</p> +<p>She waited, finding it hard to give him his reply. It was as if +forced to it against her will that her head bent slowly in +assent.</p> +<p>"Then," he said, in a tone of dignified regret, "there's nothing +for me but to wish Mademoiselle good-by."</p> +<p>He bowed separately to Miss Grimston and to Diane, and, with the +self-possession of a man accustomed to the various turns of +drawing-room drama, he left the room.</p> +<p>XVII</p> +<p>During the summer that followed these events Derek Pruyn set +himself the task of stamping the memory and influence of Diane +Eveleth out of his life. His sense of duty combined with his +feelings of self-respect in making the attempt. In reflecting on +his last interview with her, he saw the weakness of the stand he +had taken in it, recoiling from so unworthy a position with natural +reaction. To have been in love at all at his age struck him as +humiliation enough; but to have been in love with that sort of +woman came very near mental malady. He said "that sort of woman," +because the vagueness of the term gave scope to the bitterness of +resentment with which he tried to overwhelm her. It enabled him to +create some such paradise of pain as that into which the souls of +Othello and Desdemona might have gone together. Had he been a Moor +of Venice he would doubtless have smothered her with a pillow; but +being a New York banker he could only try to slay the image, whose +eyes and voice had never haunted him so persistently as now. In his +rage of suffering he was as little able to take a reasoned view of +the situation as the maddened bull in the arena to appraise the +skill of his tormentors.</p> +<p>When in the middle of May he had retired to Rhinefields it was +with the intention of laying waste all that Diane had left behind +in the course of her brief passage through his life. The process +being easier in the exterior phases of existence than in those more +secret and remote, he determined to work from the outside inward. +Wherever anything reminded him of her, he erased, destroyed, or +removed it. All that she had changed within the house he put back +into the state in which it was before she came. Where he had +followed her suggestions about the grounds and gardens he reversed +the orders. Taken as outward and visible signs of the inward and +spiritual change he was trying to create within himself, these +childish acts gave him a passionate satisfaction. In a short time, +he boasted to himself, he would have obliterated all trace of her +presence.</p> +<p>And so he came, in time, to giving his attention to Dorothea. +She, too, bore the impress of Diane; and as she bore it more +markedly than the inanimate things around, it caused him the +greater pain. He could forbid her to hold intercourse with Diane, +and to speak of her; but he could not control the blending of +French and Irish intonations her voice had caught, or the gestures +into which she slipped through youth's mimetic instinct. In happier +days he had been amused to note the degree to which Dorothea had +become the unconscious copy of Diane; but now this constant +reproduction of her ways was torture. Telling himself that it was +not the child's fault, he bore it at first with what self-restraint +he could; but as solitude encouraged brooding thoughts, he found, +as the summer wore on, that his stock of patience was running low. +There were times when some chance sentence or imitated bit of +mannerism on Dorothea's part almost drew from him that which in +tragedy would be a cry, but which in our smaller life becomes the +hasty or exasperated word.</p> +<p>In these circumstances the explosion was bound to come; and one +day it produced itself unexpectedly, and about nothing. Thinking of +it afterward Derek was unable to say why it should have taken place +then more than at any other time. He was standing on the lawn, +noting with savage complacency that the bit by which he had +enlarged it, at Diane's prompting, had grown up again, in luxuriant +grass, when Dorothea descended the steps of the Georgian brick +house, behind him.</p> +<p>"Would you be afther wantin' me to-day?" she called out, using +the Irish expression Diane affected in moments of fun.</p> +<p>"Dorothea," he cried, sharply, wheeling round on her, "drop that +idiotic way of speaking. If you think it's amusing, you're +mistaken. You can't even do it properly."</p> +<p>The words were no sooner out than he regretted them, but it was +too late to take them back. Moreover, when a man, nervously +suffering, has once wounded the feelings of one he loves, it is not +infrequently his instinct to go on and wound them again.</p> +<p>"We have enough of that sort of language from the servants and +the stable-boys. Be good enough in future to use your +mother-tongue."</p> +<p>Standing where his words had stopped her, a few yards away, she +looked up at him with the clear gaze of astonishment; but the +slight shrug of the shoulders before she spoke was also a trick +caught from Diane, and not calculated to allay his annoyance.</p> +<p>"Very well, father," she answered, with a quietness indicating +judgment held in reserve, "I won't do it again. I only meant to ask +you if you want me for anything in particular to-day; otherwise I +shall go over and lunch at the Thoroughgoods'."</p> +<p>"The Thoroughgoods' again? Can't you get through a day without +going there?"</p> +<p>"I suppose I could if it was necessary; but it isn't."</p> +<p>"I think it is. You'll do well not to wear out your welcome +anywhere."</p> +<p>"I'm not afraid of that."</p> +<p>"Then I am; so you'd better stay at home."</p> +<p>He wheeled from her as sharply as he had turned to confront her, +striding off toward a wild border, where he tried to conceal the +extent to which he was ashamed of his ill temper by pretending to +be engrossed in the efforts of a bee to work its way into a blue +cowl of monk's-hood. When he looked around again she was still +standing where he had left her, her eyes clouded by an expression +of wondering pain that smote him to the heart.</p> +<p>Had he possessed sufficient mastery of himself he would have +gone back and begged her pardon, and sent her away to enjoy +herself. It was what he wanted to do; but the tension of his nerves +seemed to get relief from the innocent thing's suffering. The very +fact that her pretty little face was set with his own obstinacy of +self-will, while behind it her spirit was rising against this +capricious tyranny, goaded him into persistence. He remembered how +often Diane had told him that Dorothea could be neither led nor +driven; she could only be "managed"; but he would show Diane, he +would show himself, that she could be both driven and led, and that +"management" should go the way of the wall-fruit and the roses.</p> +<p>As, recrossing the lawn, he made as though he would pass her +without further words, he was an excellent illustration of the +degree to which the adult man of the world, capable of taking an +important part among his fellow-men, can be, at times, nothing but +an overgrown infant. It was not surprising, however, that Dorothea +should not see this aspect of his personality, or look upon his +commands as other than those of an unreasonable despotism.</p> +<p>"Father," she said, "I can't go on living like this."</p> +<p>"Living like what?"</p> +<p>"Living as we've lived all this summer."</p> +<p>"What's the matter with the summer? It's like any other summer, +isn't it?"</p> +<p>"The summer may be like any other summer; but you're not like +yourself. I do everything I can to please you, but—"</p> +<p>"You needn't do anything to please me but what you're told."</p> +<p>"I always do what I'm told—when you tell me; but you only +tell me by fits and starts."</p> +<p>"Then, I tell you now: you're not to go to the +Thoroughgoods'."</p> +<p>"But they expect me. I said I'd go to lunch. They'll think it +very strange if I don't."</p> +<p>"They'll think what they please. It's enough for you to know +what I think."</p> +<p>"But that's just what I don't know. Ever since Diane went +away—"</p> +<p>"Stop that! I've forbidden you to speak—"</p> +<p>"But you can't forbid me to think; and I think till I'm utterly +bewildered. You don't explain anything to me. You haven't even told +me why she went away. If I ask a question you won't answer it."</p> +<p>"What's necessary for you to know, you can depend on me to tell +you. Anything I don't explain to you, you may dismiss from your +mind."</p> +<p>"But that's not reasonable, father; it's not possible. If you +want me to obey you, I must know what I'm doing. Because I don't +know what I'm doing, I haven't——"</p> +<p>"You haven't obeyed me?" he asked, quickly.</p> +<p>"Not entirely. I've meant to tell you when an occasion offered, +so I might as well do it now. I've written to Diane."</p> +<p>"You've——!"</p> +<p>He strode up to her and caught her by the arm. It was not +strange that she should take the curious light in his face for that +of anger; but a more experienced observer would have seen that two +distinct emotions crowded on each other.</p> +<p>"I've written to her twice," Dorothea repeated, defiantly, as he +held her arm. "She didn't reply to me—but I wrote."</p> +<p>"What for?"</p> +<p>"To tell her that I loved her—that no trouble should keep +me from loving her—no matter what it was."</p> +<p>He released her arm, stepping back from her again, surveying her +with an admiration he tried to conceal under a scowling brow. The +rigidity of her attitude, the lift of her head, the set of her +lips, the directness of her glance, suggested not merely rebellion +against his will, but the assertion of her own. It occurred to him +then that he could break her little body to pieces before he could +force her to yield; and in his pride in this temperament, so like +his own, he almost uttered the cry of "Brava!" that hung on his +lips. He might have done so if Dorothea had not found it a +convenient moment at which to make all her confessions at once and +have them off her mind. It was best to do it, she thought, now that +her courage was up.</p> +<p>"And, father," she went on, "it may be a good opportunity to +tell you something else. I've decided to marry Mr. Wappinger."</p> +<p>During the brief silence that followed this announcement he had +time to throw the blame for it upon Diane, using the fact as one +more argument against her. Had she taken his suggestions at the +beginning, and suppressed the Wappinger acquaintance, this +distressing folly would have received a definite check: As it was, +the odium of putting a stop to it, which must now fall on him, was +but an additional part of the penalty he had to pay for ever having +known her. So be it! He would make good the uttermost farthing! In +doing it he had the same sort of frenzied satisfaction as in +defacing Diane's image in his heart.</p> +<p>"You shall not," he said, at last.</p> +<p>"I don't understand how you're going to stop me."</p> +<p>"I must ask you to be patient—and see. You can make a +beginning to-day, by staying at home from the Thoroughgoods'. That +will be enough for the minute."</p> +<p>Fearing to look any longer into her indignant eyes, he passed on +toward the stables. For some minutes she stood still where he left +her, while the collie gazed up at her, with twitching tail and +questioning regard, as though to ask the meaning of this futile +hesitation; but when, at last, she turned slowly and re-entered the +house, one would have said that the "dainty rogue in porcelain" had +been transformed into an intensely modern little creature made of +steel.</p> +<p>She did not go to the Thoroughgoods' that day, nor was any +further reference made to the discussion of the morning. +Compunction having succeeded irritation, with the rapidity not +uncommon to men of his character, Derek was already seeking some +way of reaching his end by gentler means, when a new move on +Dorothea's part exasperated him still further. As he was about to +sit down to his luncheon on the following day, the butler made the +announcement that Miss Pruyn had asked him to inform her father +that she had driven over in the pony-cart to Mrs. Throughgood's, +and would not be home till late in the afternoon.</p> +<p>He was not in the house when she returned, and at dinner he +refrained from conversation till the servants had left the +room.</p> +<p>"So it's—war," he said, then, speaking in a casual tone, +and toying with his wine-glass.</p> +<p>"I hope not, father," she answered, promptly, making no pretence +not to understand him. "It takes two to make a quarrel, +and——"</p> +<p>"And you wouldn't be one?"</p> +<p>"I was going to say that I hoped you wouldn't be."</p> +<p>"But you yourself would fight?"</p> +<p>"I should have to. I'm fighting for liberty, which is always an +honorable motive. You're fighting to take it away from +me——"</p> +<p>"Which is a dishonorable motive. Very well; I must accept that +imputation as best I may, and still go on."</p> +<p>"Oh, then, it is war. You mean to make it so."</p> +<p>"I mean to do my duty. You may call your rebellion against it +what you like."</p> +<p>"I'm not accustomed to rebel," she said, with significant +quietness. "Only people who feel themselves weak do that."</p> +<p>"And are you so strong?"</p> +<p>"I'm very strong. I don't want to measure my strength against +yours, father; but if you insist on measuring yours against mine, I +ought to warn you."</p> +<p>"Thank you. It's in the light of a warning that I view your +action to-day. You probably went to meet Mr. Wappinger."</p> +<p>In saying this his bow was drawn so entirely at a venture that +he was astonished at the skill with which he hit the mark.</p> +<p>"I did."</p> +<p>He pushed back his chair; half rose; sat down again; poured out +a glass of Marsala; drank it thirstily; and looked at her a second +or two in helpless distress before finding words.</p> +<p>"And you talk of honorable motives!"</p> +<p>"My motive was entirely honorable. I went to explain to him that +I couldn't see him any more—just now."</p> +<p>"While you were about it you might as well have said neither +just now—nor at any other time."</p> +<p>She was silent.</p> +<p>"Do you hear?"</p> +<p>"Yes; I bear, father."</p> +<p>"And you understand?"</p> +<p>"I understand what you mean."</p> +<p>"And you promise me that it shall be so?"</p> +<p>"No, father."</p> +<p>"You say that deliberately? Remember, I'm asking you an +important question, and you're giving me an equally important +reply."</p> +<p>"I recognize that; but I can't give you any other answer."</p> +<p>"We'll see." He pushed back his chair again, and rose. He had +already crossed the room, when, a new thought occurring to him, he +turned at the door. "At least I presume I may count on you not to +see this young man again without telling me?"</p> +<p>"Not without telling you—afterward. I couldn't undertake +more than that."</p> +<p>"H'm!" he ejaculated, before passing out. "Then I must take +active measures."</p> +<p>It was easier, however, to talk about active measures than to +devise them. While Dorothea was sobbing, with her elbows on the +dining-room table, and her face buried in her hands, he was pacing +his room in search of desperate remedies. It was a case in which +his mind turned instinctively to Diane for help; but in the very +act of doing so he was confronted by her theories as to Dorothea's +need of diplomatic guidance. For that, he told himself, the time +was past. The event had proved how impotent mere "management" was +to control her, and justified his own preference for force.</p> +<p>Before she went to bed that night Dorothea was summoned to her +father's presence, to receive the commands which should regulate +her conduct toward "the young man Wappinger." They could have been +summed up in the statement that she must know him no more. She was +not only never to see him, or write to him, or communicate with +him, by direct or indirect means; as far as he could command it, +she was not to think of him, or remember his name. His measures +grew more drastic in proportion as he gave them utterance, until he +himself become aware that they would be difficult to fulfil.</p> +<p>"I will not attempt to extract a promise from you," he was +prudent enough to say, in conclusion, "that you will carry out my +wishes, because I know you would never bring on me the unhappiness +that would spring from disobedience."</p> +<p>"It's hardly fair, father, to say that," she replied, firmly. +"In war, no one should shrink from—the misfortunes of +war."</p> +<p>"That means, then, that you defy me?"</p> +<p>She was calmer than he as she made her reply.</p> +<p>"It doesn't mean that I defy you. I love you too much to put +either you or myself in such an odious position as that. But it +does mean that one day, sooner or later, I shall marry—Mr. +Wappinger."</p> +<p>He looked at her with a bitter smile.</p> +<p>"I admire your frankness, Dorothea," he said, after a brief +pause, "and I shall do my best to imitate it. If it's to be war, we +shall at least fight in the open. I know what you intend to do, and +you know that I mean to circumvent you. The position on both sides +being so pleasantly clear, you may come and kiss me +good-night."</p> +<p>During the process of the stiff little embrace that followed it +was as difficult for her not to fling herself sobbing on his breast +as for him not to seize her in his arms; but each maintained the +restraint inspired by the justice of their respective causes. When +she had closed the door behind her, he stood for a long time, +musing. That his thoughts were not altogether tragic became +manifest as his brow cleared, and the ghost of a smile, this time +without bitterness, hovered about his lips. Suddenly he slapped his +leg, like a man who has made a discovery.</p> +<p>"By Gad!" he whispered, half aloud, "when all is said and done, +she knows how to play the game!"</p> +<p>XVIII</p> +<p>It was, perhaps, the knowledge that Dorothea could play the game +that enabled Derek, during the rest of the summer, to play it +himself. This he did without flinching, finding strength in the +fact that, as time went on, Dorothea seemed to enter into his plans +and submit to his judgment. The first few weeks of pallor and +silence having passed, she resumed her accustomed ways, and, as far +as he could tell, grew cheerful. Always having credited her with +common-sense, he was pleased now to see her make use of it in a way +of which few girls of nineteen would have been capable. She +accepted his surveillance with so much docility that, by the time +they returned to town in the autumn he was able to congratulate +himself on his success.</p> +<p>On her part, Dorothea carried out his instructions to the +letter. Notwithstanding the opening of the season and the renewal +of the usual gayeties, she lived quietly, accepting few +invitations, and rarely going into society at all, except under her +father's wing. On those accidental occasions when Carli Wappinger +came within their range of vision, it was only as a distant ship +drifts into sight at sea—to drift silently away again. If +Dorothea perceived him, she gave no sign. It was clear to Derek +that her spurt of rebellion was over, and that her little +experience had done her no harm. The name of Wappinger being +tacitly ignored between them, he could only express his pleasure, +in the results he had achieved, by an extravagant increase of +Dorothea's allowance, and gifts of inappropriate jewels. It would +have taken a more weatherwise person than he to guess that behind +this domestic calm the storm was brewing.</p> +<p>The first intuition of threatening events came to Mrs. +Wappinger.</p> +<p>"I've seen nothing and heard nothing," she declared, in her +emphatic way, to Diane, "but I know something is going on."</p> +<p>That was in September. They sat in the shade of the cool +flag-paved pergola at Waterwild, Mrs. Wappinger's place on Long +Island. The tea-table stood between them, and they lounged in +wicker chairs. Framed by marble pillars, and festooned from above +by vines drooping from the roof, there was a view of terraced lawns +descending toward the sea. Between the slightly overcrowded urns +and statues there were bright dashes of color, here of dahlias in +full bloom, there of reddening garlands of ampelopsis or Virginia +creeper. It was what Mrs. Wappinger called an "off-day," otherwise +she could not have had Diane at Waterwild. In her loyalty toward +the deserted woman she seized those opportunities when Carli was +away, and she was certain of having no other guests, "to have the +poor thing down for the day, and give her a good meal."</p> +<p>Not that people occupied themselves with Diane or her affairs! +Her place in the hurrying, scrambling social throng had been so +unobtrusive that, now that she no longer filled it, she was easily +forgotten. Among the few who paid her the tribute of recollection +there was the generally received impression that Derek Pruyn, +having discovered her relations with the Marquis de +Bienville—relations which, so they said, had been well known +in Paris, in the days when she was still some one—had +dismissed her from her position in his household. That was natural +enough, and there was no further reason for remembering her. Having +disappeared into the limbo of the unfortunate, she was as far +beyond the mental range of those who retained their blessings as +souls that have passed are out of sight of men and women who still +walk the earth. For this very reason she called out in Mrs. +Wappinger that motherly good-nature which was only partially warped +by the ambition for social success. On more than one of her +"off-days" she had lured Diane out of her refuge in University +Place, treating her with all the kindness she could bestow without +causing disparaging comment upon herself. On the present occasion +she was the more desirous of her company because of the fact that, +as she expressed it herself, she had "sniffed something going +on."</p> +<a name="p252" id="p252"></a> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:75%;"><a href= +"images/p252.png"><img width="75%" src="images/p252.png" alt= +"IT WAS WHAT MRS. WAPPINGER CALLED AN "OFF DAY"" /></a></div> +<p>"As I tell you," she repeated, "I've heard nothing, and seen +nothing; I've just sniffed it. If you were to ask me how, I +couldn't explain it to you any more than I can say how I get the +scent of this climbing heliotrope. But I do get it; and I do know +something is in the wind, more than what is told to you and I."</p> +<p>"One can only hope that it will be nothing foolish," Diane +murmured, guardedly.</p> +<p>"It <i>will</i> be something foolish," Mrs. Wappinger declared, +"and you may take my word for it. Derek Pruyn can't arrogate to +himself the powers of the Lord above any more than we can. If he +thinks he can stop young blood from running he'll find out he's +wrong."</p> +<p>It was the first mention of his name that Diane had heard in +many weeks, and at the sound her hand trembled in such a way that +she was obliged to put down untasted the cup she had half raised to +her lips.</p> +<p>"He's not an unkind man," she found voice to say; "he's only a +mistaken one. He has one of those natures capable of dealing +magnificently with great affairs, but helpless in the trivial +matters of every day. He's like the people who see well at a +distance, but become confused over the objects right under their +eyes."</p> +<p>"Then the farther you keep away from that man the better the +view he'll take of you. It's what I'd say to Carli if he'd ask for +my advice."</p> +<p>"Does that mean," Diane ventured to inquire, "that you don't +want him to marry Dorothea?"</p> +<p>"I certainly do not. If there were no other reason, she's the +sort of girl to make me put one foot into the grave, whether I want +to or no; and it stands to reason that I don't want to be squelched +one hour before my time."</p> +<p>"Naturally; but I fancy you'd find her a sweeter girl than you +might suppose."</p> +<p>"So she may be, dear; but I've spent too much money on Carli to +wish to see him force his way into a family where he isn't +wanted."</p> +<p>This was the text of Mrs. Wappinger's discourse, not only on the +present occasion, but on the subsequent "off-days," when Diane was +induced to visit Waterwild.</p> +<p>"Whatever is going on, Reggie Bradford's in it," she confided to +Diane some few weeks later.</p> +<p>"Is that the fat young man with the big laugh?"</p> +<p>"Yes; and one of the greatest catches in New York. Carli tells +me he's wild about Marion Grimston, and I can see for myself that +Mrs. Bayford is playing him against that Frenchman. She'll get the +title if she can, but if not, she'll fall back on the money."</p> +<p>"It's a pretty safe alternative," Diane smiled, making an effort +to speak without betraying her feelings.</p> +<p>"Reggie is a good-natured boy," Mrs. Wappinger pursued, "but a +regular water-pipe. If you want to get anything out of him you've +only got to turn the faucet. It's just as well that he is; because +whatever Carli is up to Reggie knows, and what Reggie knows Marion +Grimston knows. If ever you see her—"</p> +<p>"Oh, but I don't—not now."</p> +<p>"That's a pity. If you did, you could pump her."</p> +<p>"I'm afraid I'm not much good at that sort of thing."</p> +<p>"Well, I am, when I get a chance. I'm bound to find out, +somehow; and there are more ways of killing a cat than by giving it +poison."</p> +<p>A few weeks later still Mrs. Wappinger informed Diane that +Dorothea Pruyn was not happy.</p> +<p>"The Thoroughgoods told the Louds," she explained, "and the +Louds told me. Her father thinks she has given in to him; but she +hasn't—not an inch. He keeps her like a jailer; and she acts +like a convict—always with an eye open for some way of +escape. That man no more understands women than he does making +pie."</p> +<p>"I've always noticed that the really strong men rarely do. +There's almost invariably something petty about a man to whom a +woman isn't a puzzle and a mystery."</p> +<p>"If it comes to a puzzle and a mystery, I don't know where you'd +find a greater one than Derek Pruyn himself. After the way he's +acted—and treated people—"</p> +<p>Diane flushed, but kept her emotions sufficiently under control +to be able to follow her usual plan of straightforward +speaking.</p> +<p>"If you mean me, Mrs. Wappinger, I ought to say that Mr. Pruyn +has done nothing for which I can blame him. He was placed in a +situation with which only a very subtle intelligence could have +dealt, and I respect him the more for not having had it. It's +generally the man who is most competent in his own domain who is +most likely to blunder when he gets into the woman's; and I, for +one, would rather have him do it. I've had to suffer because of it, +and so has Dorothea; and yet that doesn't make me like it +less."</p> +<p>"No, I dare say not," Mrs. Wappinger responded, sympathetically. +"Mr. Wappinger himself was just such a man as that. He'd put +through a deal that would make Wall Street shiver; but he +understood my woman's nature just about as much as old Tiger there, +wagging his tail on the grass, follows the styles in bonnets. Only, +I'll tell you what, Mrs. Eveleth: it's for men like that that God +created sensible, capable wives, like you and me; and they ought to +have 'em."</p> +<p>This theme admitting of little discussion, Diane did not pursue +it, but she went away from Waterwild with a deepened sense of +Derek's need of her, as well as of Dorothea's. She could so easily +have helped them both that the enforced impotence was a new element +in her pain. To walk the town in search of work to which she was +little suited, when that which no one but herself could accomplish +had to remain undone, became, during the next few weeks, the most +intolerable part of the irony of circumstance. The wifely, the +maternal qualities of her being, of which she had never been +strongly conscious till of late, awoke in response to the need that +drew them forth, only to be blighted by denial.</p> +<p>The inactivity was the harder to endure because of the fact +that, as autumn passed into early winter, there came a period when +all her little world seemed to have dropped her out of sight. There +were no more "off-days" at Waterwild, and Miss Lucilla's occasional +letters from Newport ceased. Between her mother-in-law and herself, +after a few painful attempts at intercourse, there had fallen an +equally painful silence. Even her two or three pupils fell +away.</p> +<p>From the papers she learned that one or another of those for +whom she cared was back in town again. She walked in the chief +thoroughfares in the hope of meeting some of them, but chance +refused to favor her. In the dusk of the early descending November +and December twilights she passed their houses, watching the warm +glow of the lights within, against which, now and then, a shadow +that she could almost recognize would pass by. She could have +entered at Miss Lucilla's door, or Mrs. Wappinger's; but a strange +shyness, the shyness of the unfortunate, had taken hold of her, and +she held back. In the mean time she was free to watch, with sad +eyes and sadder spirit, the great city, reversing the processes of +nature, awaken from the torpor of the genial months into its winter +life.</p> +<p>No one knew better than herself that thrill of excited energy +with which those born with the city instinct return from the +acquired taste for mountain, seaside, and farm, to enter once more +the maze of purely human relationships. It was a moment with which +her own active nature was in sympathy. She liked to see the blinds +being raised in the houses and the barricading doors taken down. +She liked to see the vehicles begin to crowd one another in the +streets and the pedestrians on the pavement wear a brisker air. She +liked to see the shop-windows brighten with color and the great +public gathering-spots let in and let out their throngs. She +responded to the quickened animation with the spontaneity of one +all ready to take her part, till the thought came that a part had +been refused her. It was with a curious sensation of being outside +the range of human activities that, during those days of timid, +futile looking for employment, she roamed the busy thoroughfares of +New York. As time passed she ceased to think much about her need of +sympathetic fellowship in her anxiety to get work. She wrote +advertisements and answered them; she applied at schools, and +offices, and shops; she came down to seeking any humble drudgery +which would give her the chance to live.</p> +<p>It was not till one day in early December that the last flicker +of her hope went out. Chance had made her pass at midday along the +pavement opposite one of the great restaurants. Lifting her eyes +instinctively toward the group of well-dressed people on the steps, +she saw that Mrs. Bayford and Marion Grimston were going in, +accompanied by Reggie Bradford and the Marquis de Bienville. She +had heard little or nothing of them during the last four empty +months; but it was plain now that the lovers were agreed and her +own cause abandoned. Up to this moment she had not realized how +tenaciously she had clung to the belief that the proud, high-souled +girl would yet see justice done her; and now she had deserted her, +like the rest!</p> +<p>For the first time during her years of struggle she felt +absolutely beaten—beaten so thoroughly that it would be +useless to renew the fight. She had been on her way to see a lady +who had advertised for a nursery governess; but she had no strength +left with which to face the interview. In the winter-garden of the +restaurant Mrs. Bayford was purring to her guests, Reggie Bradford +was whispering to Miss Grimston, and the Marquis de Bienville was +ordering the wines, while Diane was wandering blindly back to the +poor little room she called her home, there to lie down and allow +her heart to break.</p> +<p>But hearts do not break at the command of those who own them, +and when she had moaned away the worst of her pain, she fell +asleep. When she awoke it was already growing dark, and the +knocking at her door, which roused her, was like a call from the +peace of dreams to the desolation of reality. When she had turned +on the light she received from the hands of the waiting servant +that which had become a most rare visitant in the blankness of her +life—a note.</p> +<p>The address was in a sprawling hand, which she recognized. What +was written within was more sprawling still:</p> +<blockquote> +<p>"For Heaven's sake, come to me at once. The expected has +happened, and I don't know what to do. The motor will wait and +bring you.</p> +<p>CLARA WAPPINGER."</p> +</blockquote> +<a name="p260" id="p260"></a> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:75%;"><a href= +"images/p260.png"><img width="75%" src="images/p260.png" alt= +"MRS. BAYFORD WAS PURRING TO HER GUESTS" /></a></div> +<p>XIX</p> +<p>As Diane entered, Mrs. Wappinger, dishevelled and distraught, +was standing in the hail, a slip of yellow paper in her hand.</p> +<p>"Oh, my dear, I'm so glad you've come! I'm just about crazy! +Read this!"</p> +<p>Diane took the paper and read:</p> +<p>"D. and I are to be married to-night. Be ready to receive us +to-morrow. CARLI."</p> +<p>"When did this come?" Diane asked, quickly.</p> +<p>"About half an hour ago. I sent for you at once."</p> +<p>"I see it's dated from Lakefield. Where's that?"</p> +<p>Mrs. Wappinger explained that Lakefield was a small winter +health resort some two hours by train from New York. She and Carli +had stayed there, more than once, at the Bay Tree Inn. He would +naturally go to the same hotel, only, when she had telephoned to +it, a few minutes ago, she could find no one of the name in +residence. Under the circumstances, Diane suggested, he would +probably not give his name at all. There followed a few minutes of +silent reflection, during which Mrs. Wappinger gazed at Diane, in +the half-tearful helplessness of one not used to coping with +unusual situations.</p> +<p>"Won't you come in and sit down?" she asked, with a sudden +realization that they were still standing beneath the light in the +hail.</p> +<p>"No," Diane answered, with decision; "it isn't worth while. May +I have the motor for an hour or so?"</p> +<p>"Why, certainly. But where are you going?"</p> +<p>"I'm going first to Mr. Pruyn's, and afterward to +Lakefield."</p> +<p>"To Lakefield? Then I'll go with you. We could go in the +car."</p> +<p>Diane negatived both suggestions. The motor might break down, or +the chauffeur might lose his way; the train would be safer. If any +one went with her, it would have to be Mr. Pruyn.</p> +<p>"But don't go to bed," she added, "or at least have some one to +answer the telephone, for I'll ring you up as soon as I have news +for you."</p> +<p>"God bless you, dear," Mrs. Wappinger murmured. "I know you'll +do your best for me, and them. Keep the auto as long as you like; +and if you decide to go down in it, just say so to Laporte."</p> +<p>But Diane seemed to hesitate before going. A flush came into her +cheek, and she twisted her fingers in embarrassment.</p> +<p>"I wonder", she faltered, "if—if—you could let me +have a little money? I shall need some, and—and I +haven't—any."</p> +<p>"Oh, my dear! my poor dear!"</p> +<p>Mrs. Wappinger bustled away, crumpling the notes she found in +her desk into a little ball, which she forced into Diane's hand. To +forestall thanks she thrust her toward the door, accompanying her +down the steps, and kissing her as she entered the automobile.</p> +<p>"Why, bless my `eart, if it ain't the madam!"</p> +<p>This outburst was a professional solecism on the part of Fulton, +the English butler, at Derek Pruyn's, but it was wrung from him in +sheer joy at Diane's unexpected appearance.</p> +<p>"You'll excuse me, ma'am", he continued, recapturing his air of +decorum, "but I fair couldn't help it. We'll be awful pleased to +see you, ma'am, if I may make so bold as to say it—right down +to the cat. It hasn't been the same 'ouse since you went away, +ma'am; and me and Mr. Simmons has said so time and time again. +You'll excuse me, ma'am, but—"</p> +<p>"You're very kind, Fulton, and so is Simmons, but I'm in a great +hurry now. Is Mr. Pruyn at home?"</p> +<p>"Why, no, he ain't, ma'am, and that's a fact. He's to dine +out."</p> +<p>"Where?"</p> +<p>"I couldn't tell you that, ma'am; but perhaps Mr. Simmons would +know. He took Mr. Pruyn's evening clothes to the bank, and he was +to change there. If you'll wait a minute, ma'am, I'll ask him."</p> +<p>But when Simmons came he could only give the information that +his master was going to a "sort o' business banquet" at one of the +great restaurants or hotels. Moreover, Miss Dorothea had gone out, +saying that she would not be home to dinner.</p> +<p>"Then I must write a note," Diane said, with that air of natural +authority which had seemed almost lost from her manner. "Will you, +Fulton, be good enough to bring me a glass of wine and a few +biscuits while I write? I must ask you, Simmons, for a railway +guide."</p> +<p>In Derek's own room she sat down at the desk where, six months +ago, she had arranged his letters on the night when he had returned +from South America. She had no time to indulge in memories, but a +tremor shot through her frame as she took up the pen and wrote on a +sheet of paper which he had already headed with a date:</p> +<a name="p264" id="p264"></a> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:75%;"><a href= +"images/p264.png"><img width="75%" src="images/p264.png" alt= +"HAVING MADE A COPY OF THIS LETTER, SHE CALLED SIMMONS AND FULTON AND GAVE THEM THEIR INSTRUCTIONS" /> +</a></div> +<blockquote> +<p>"I have bad news for you, but I hope I may be in time to keep it +from being worse. I have reason to think that Dorothea has gone to +Lakefield to be married there to Carli Wappinger. Should there be +any mistake you will forgive me for disturbing you; but I think it +well to be prepared for extreme possibilities. I am, therefore, +going to Lakefield now—at once. A train at seven-fifteen will +get there a little after nine. There are other trains through the +evening, the latest being at five minutes after ten. Should this +reach you in time to enable you to take one of them, you will be +wise to do so; but in case it may be too late, you may count on me +to do all that can be done. Let some one be ready to answer the +telephone all night. I shall communicate with the house from the +Bay Tree Inn. I must ask you again to forgive me if I am +interfering rashly in your affairs, but you can understand that I +have no time to take counsel or reflect.</p> +<p>"DIANE EVELETH."</p> +</blockquote> +<p>Having made a copy of this letter, she called Simmons and Fulton +and gave them their instructions. There had been an accident, she +said, of which she had been able to get only imperfect information, +but it seemed possible that Miss Dorothea was involved in it. She +herself was hurrying to Lakefield, and it would be Simmons' task to +find Mr. Pruyn in time for him to catch the ten-five train, at +latest. He was to pack two valises with all that Mr. Pruyn could +require for a change. He was to take one of the two letters, and +one of the two valises, and go from place to place, until he +tracked his master down. Fulton was to say nothing to alarm the +other servants, merely informing Miss Dorothea's maid that the +young lady was absent for the night and that Mrs. Eveleth was with +her. He would take charge of the second letter and the second +valise, in case Mr. Pruyn should return to the house before Simmons +could find him. The important charge of the telephone was also to +be in Fulton's trust, and he was to answer all calls through the +night. In concluding her directions Diane acknowledged her relief +in having two lieutenants on whose silence, energy, and tact she +could so thoroughly depend. She committed the matter to their hands +not merely as to Mr. Pruyn's butler and valet, but as to his +trusted friends, and in that capacity she was sure they would do +their duty and hold their tongues.</p> +<p>In a similar spirit, when she arrived, about half-past nine, at +the Bay Tree Inn, she asked for the manager, and took him into her +confidence. A runaway marriage, she informed him, had been planned +to take place that very night at Lakefield, and she had come there +as the companion and friend of a motherless girl, her object being +to postpone the ceremony.</p> +<p>The manager listened with sympathy, and promised his help. As a +matter of fact, a gentleman had arrived, driving his own motor, +that very afternoon. He had put the machine in the garage, and +taken a room, but had not registered. Their season having scarcely +begun, and the hotel being empty, they were somewhat careless about +such formalities. He could only say that the young man was tall, +fair, and slender, and seemed to be a person of means. He believed, +too, that at this very minute he was smoking on the terrace before +the door. If Diane had not come up by another way she must have met +him. She could step out on the terrace and see for herself whether +it was the person she was looking for or not.</p> +<p>Being tolerably sure of that already, Diane preferred to +complete her arrangements first. She would ask for a room as near +as possible to the main door of the hotel, so that when the young +lady arrived she could be ushered directly into it. Fortunately the +establishment was able to offer her exactly what she required, one +of the invalids' suites which were a special feature of the +house—a little sitting-room and bedroom for the use of +persons whose infirmities made a long walk between their own +apartments and the sun-parlor inadvisable. Having inspected and +accepted it, Diane bathed her face and smoothed her hair, after +which she stepped out to confront Mr. Wappinger.</p> +<p>XX</p> +<p>She saw him at the end of the terrace, peering through the +moonlight, down the driveway. She did not go forward to meet him, +but waited until he turned in her direction. She knew that at a +distance, and especially at night, her own figure might seem not +unlike Dorothea's, and calculated on that effect. She divined his +start of astonishment on catching sight of her by the abrupt jerk +of his head and the way in which he half threw up his hands. When +he began coming forward, it was with a slow, interrogative +movement, as though he were asking how she had come there, in +disregard of their preconcerted signals. Some exclamation was +already on his lips, when, by the light streaming from the windows +of the hotel, he saw his mistake, and paused.</p> +<p>"Good-evening, Mr. Wappinger. What an extraordinary +meeting!"</p> +<p>Priding himself on his worldly wisdom, Carli Wappinger never +allowed himself to be caught by any trick of feminine finesse. On +the present occasion he stood stock-still and silent, eying Diane +as a bird eyes a trap before hopping into it. Though he knew her as +a friend to Dorothea and himself, he knew her as a subtle friend, +hiding under her sympathy many of those kindly devices which +experience keeps to foil the young. He did not complain of her for +that, finding it legitimate that she should avail herself of what +he called "the stock in trade of a chaperon"; while it had often +amused him to outwit her. But now it was a matter of Greek meeting +Greek, and she must be given to understand that he was the +stronger. How she had discovered their plans he did not stop to +think; but he must make it plain to her that he was not duped into +ascribing her presence at Lakefield to an accident.</p> +<p>"Is it an extraordinary meeting, Mrs. Eveleth—for +you?"</p> +<p>"No, not for me," Diane replied, readily. "I only thought it +might be—for you."</p> +<p>"Then I'll admit that it is."</p> +<p>"But I hoped, too", she continued, moving a little nearer to +him, "that my coming might be in the way of a—pleasant +surprise."</p> +<p>"Oh yes; certainly; very pleasant—very pleasant +indeed."</p> +<p>"I'm a good deal relieved to hear you say that, Mr. Wappinger," +she said, "because there was a possibility that you mightn't like +it."</p> +<p>"Whether I like it or not", he said, warily, "will depend upon +your motive."</p> +<p>"I don't think you'll find any fault with that. I came because I +thought I could help Dorothea. I hoped I might be able indirectly +to help you, too."</p> +<p>"What makes you think we're in need of help?"</p> +<p>She came near enough for him to see her smile.</p> +<p>"Because, until after you're married, you'll both be in an +embarrassing position."</p> +<p>"There are worse things in the world than that."</p> +<p>"Not many. I can hardly imagine two people like Dorothea and +yourself more awkwardly placed than you'll be from the minute she +arrives. Remember, you're not Strephon and Chloe in a pastoral; +you're two most sophisticated members of a most sophisticated set, +who scarcely know how to walk about excepting according to the +rules of a code of etiquette. Neither of you was made for escapade, +and I'm sure you don't like it any more than she will."</p> +<p>"And so you've come to relieve the situation?"</p> +<p>"Exactly."</p> +<p>"And for anything else?"</p> +<p>"What else should I come for?"</p> +<p>"You might have come for—two or three things."</p> +<p>"One of which would be to interfere with your plans. Well, I +haven't. If I had wanted to do that, I could have done it long ago. +I'll tell you outright that Mr. Pruyn requested me more than once +to put a stop to your acquaintance with Dorothea, and I refused. I +refused at first because I didn't think it wise, and afterward +because I liked you. I kept on refusing because I came to see in +the end that you were born to marry Dorothea, and that no one else +would ever suit her. I'm here this evening because I believe that +still, and I want you to be happy."</p> +<p>"Did you think your coming would make us happier?"</p> +<p>"In the long run—yes. You may not see it to-night, but you +will to-morrow. You can't imagine that I would run the risk of +forcing myself upon you unless I was sure there was something I +could do."</p> +<p>"Well, what is it?"</p> +<p>"It isn't much, and yet it's a great deal. When you and Dorothea +are married I want to go with you. I want to be there. I don't want +her to go friendless. When she goes back to town to-morrow, and +everything has to be explained, I want her to be able to say that I +was beside her. I know that mine is not a name to carry much +authority, but I'm a woman—a woman who has head a position of +responsibility, almost a mother's place, toward Dorothea +herself—and there are moments in life when any kind of woman +is better than none at all. You may not see it just now, +but—"</p> +<p>"Oh yes, I do," he said, slowly; "only when you've gone in for +an unconventional thing you might as well be hung for a sheep as a +lamb."</p> +<p>"I don't agree with you. Nothing more than the unconventional +requires a nicely discriminating taste; and it's no use being more +violent than you can help. You and Dorothea are making a match that +sets the rules of your world at defiance, but you may as well avail +yourselves of any little mitigation that comes to hand. Life is +going to be hard enough for you as it is—"</p> +<p>"Oh, I don't know about that. They can't do anything to +us—"</p> +<p>"Not to you, perhaps, because you're a man. But they can to +Dorothea, and they will. This is just one of those queer situations +in which you'll get the credit and she'll get the blame. You can +always make a poem on Young Lochinvar, when it's less easy to +approve of the damsel who springs to the pillion behind him. I +don't pretend to account for this idiosyncrasy of human nature; I +merely state it as a fact. Society will forget that you ran away +with Dorothea, but it will never forget that she ran away with +you."</p> +<p>"H'm!"</p> +<p>"But I don't see that that need distress you. You wouldn't care; +and as for Dorothea, she's got the pluck of a soldier. Depend upon +it, she sees the whole situation already, and is prepared to face +it. That's part of the difference between a woman and a man. +<i>You</i> can go into a thing like this without looking ahead, +because you know that, whatever the opposition, you can keep it +down. A woman is too weak for that. She must count every danger +beforehand. Dorothea has done that. This isn't going to be a leap +in the dark for her; it wouldn't be for any girl of her +intelligence and social instincts. She knows what she's doing, and +she's doing it for you. She has made her sacrifice, and made it +willingly, before she consented to take this step at all. She +crossed her Rubicon without saying anything to you about it, and +you needn't consider her any more."</p> +<p>"Well, I like that!" he said, in an injured tone, thrusting his +hands into his overcoat pockets and beginning to move along the +terrace.</p> +<p>"Yes; I thought you would," she agreed, walking by his side. "It +shows what she's willing to give up for you. It shows even more +than that. It shows how she loves you. Dorothea is not a girl who +holds society lightly, and if she renounces it—"</p> +<p>"Oh, but, come now, Mrs. Eveleth! It isn't going to be as bad as +that."</p> +<p>"It isn't going to be as bad as anything. Bad is not the word. +When I speak of renouncing society, of course I only mean +renouncing—the best. There will always be some people toWell, +you remember Dumas' comparison of the sixpenny and the six-shilling +peaches. If you can't have the latter, you will be able to afford +the former."</p> +<p>They walked on in silence to the end of the terrace, and it was +not till after they had turned that the young man spoke again.</p> +<p>"I believe you're overdrawing it," he said, with some +decision.</p> +<p>"Isn't it you who are overdrawing what I mean? I'm simply trying +to say that while things won't be very pleasant for you, they won't +be worse than you can easily bear—especially when Dorothea +has steeled herself to them in advance. I repeat, too, that, poor +as I am, my presence will be taken as safeguarding some of the +proprieties people expect one to observe. I speak of my presence, +but, after all, you may have provided yourself with some one +better. I didn't think of that."</p> +<p>"No; there's no one."</p> +<p>"Then Dorothea is coming all alone?"</p> +<p>"Reggie Bradford is bringing her—if you want to know."</p> +<p>"By the ten-five train?"</p> +<p>"No; in his motor."</p> +<p>"How very convenient these motors are! And has she no companion +but Mr. Bradford?"</p> +<p>"She hasn't any companion at all. She doesn't even know that the +man driving the machine is Reggie. He thought that, going very +slowly, as he promised to do, to avoid all chances of accident, +they might arrive by eleven."</p> +<p>"And Dorothea was to be alone here with you two men?"</p> +<p>"Well, you see, we are to be married as soon as she arrives. We +go straight from here to the clergyman's house; he's waiting for +us; in ten minutes' time I shall be her husband; and then +everything will be all right."</p> +<p>"How cleverly you've arranged it!"</p> +<p>"I had to make my arrangements pretty close," Carli explained, +in a tone of pride. "There were a good many difficulties to +overcome, but I did it. Dorothea has had no trouble at all, and +will have none; that is", he added, with a sigh, at the +recollection of what Diane had just said, "as far as getting down +here is concerned. She went to tea at the Belfords', and on coming +out she found a motor waiting for her at the door. She walked into +it without asking questions and sat down; and that's all. She +doesn't know whose motor it is, or where she's going, except that +she is being taken toward me. I provided her with everything. She's +got nothing to do but sit still till she gets here, when she will +be married almost before she knows she has arrived."</p> +<p>"It's certainly most romantic; and if one has to do such things, +they couldn't be done better."</p> +<p>"Well, one has to—sometimes."</p> +<p>"Yes; so I see."</p> +<p>"What do you suppose Derek Pruyn will say?" he asked, after a +brief pause.</p> +<p>"I haven't the least idea what he'll say—in these +circumstances. Of course, I always knew—But there's no use +speaking about that now."</p> +<p>"Speaking about what now?" he asked, sharply.</p> +<p>"Oh, nothing! One must be with Mr. Pruyn constantly—live +in his house—to understand him. You can always count on his +being kinder than he seems at first, or on the surface. During the +last months I was with Dorothea I could see plainly enough that in +the end she would get her way."</p> +<p>He paused abruptly in his walk and confronted her.</p> +<p>"Then, for Heaven's sake," he demanded, "why didn't you tell me +that before?"</p> +<p>"You never asked me. I couldn't go around shouting it out for +nothing. Besides, it was only my opinion, in which, after all, I am +quite likely to be wrong."</p> +<p>"But quite likely to be right."</p> +<p>"I suppose so. Naturally, I should have told you," she went on, +humbly, "if I had thought that you wanted to hear; but how was I to +know that? One doesn't talk about other people's private affairs +unless one is invited. In any case, it doesn't matter now. A man +who can cut the Gordian knot as you can doesn't care to hear that +there's a way by which it might have been unravelled."</p> +<p>"I'm not so sure about that. There are cases in which the +longest way round is the shortest way home, and if—"</p> +<p>"But I didn't suppose you would consider so cautious a route as +that."</p> +<p>"I shouldn't for myself; but, you see, I have to think of +Dorothea."</p> +<p>"But I've already told you that there's no occasion for that. If +Dorothea has made her choice with her eyes open—"</p> +<p>"Good Lord!" he cried, impatiently, "you talk as if all I wanted +was to get her into a noose."</p> +<p>"Well, isn't it? Perhaps I'm stupid, but I thought the whole +reason for bringing her down here was because—"</p> +<p>"Because we thought there was no other way," he finished, in a +tone of exasperation. "But if there <i>is</i> another +way—"</p> +<p>"I'm not at all sure that there is," she retorted, with a touch +of asperity, to keep pace with his rising emotion. "Don't begin to +think that because I said Mr. Pruyn was coming round to it he's +obliged to do it."</p> +<p>"No; but if there was a chance—"</p> +<p>"Of course there's always that. But what then?"</p> +<p>"Well, then—there'd be no particular reason for rushing +the thing to-night. But I don't know, though," he continued, with a +sudden change of tone; "we're here, and perhaps we might as well go +through with it. All I want is her happiness; and since she can't +be happy in her own home—"</p> +<p>Diane laughed softly, and he stopped once more in his walk to +look down at her.</p> +<p>"There's one thing you ought to understand about Dorothea," she +said, with a little air of amusement. "You know how fond I am of +her, and that I wouldn't criticise her for the world. Now, don't be +offended, and don't glower at me like that, for I <i>must</i> say +it. Dorothea isn't unhappy because she hasn't a good home, or +because she has a stern father, or because she can't marry you. +She's unhappy because she isn't getting her own way, and for no +other reason whatever. She's the dearest, sweetest, most loving +little girl on earth, but she has a will like steel. Whatever she +sets her mind on, great or small, that she is determined to do, and +when it's done she doesn't care any more about it. When I was with +her, I never crossed her in anything. I let her do what she was +bent on doing, right up to the point where she saw, herself, that +she didn't want to. If her father would only treat her like that, +she—"</p> +<p>"She wouldn't be coming down here to-night. That's what you +mean, isn't it?"</p> +<p>"Oh no! How can you say so?"</p> +<p>"I can say so, because I think there's a good deal of truth in +it. I'm not without some glimmering of insight into her character +myself; and to be quite frank, it was seeing her set her pretty +white teeth and clinch her fist and stamp her foot, to get her way +over nothing at all, that first made me fall in love with her."</p> +<p>"Then I will say no more. I see you know her as well as I +do."</p> +<p>"Yes, I know her," he said, confidently, marching on again. "I +don't think there are many corners of her character into which I +haven't seen."</p> +<p>Several remarks arose to Diane's lips, but she repressed them, +and they continued their walk in silence. During the three or four +turns they took, side by side, up and down the terrace, she divined +the course his thought was taking, and her speech was with his +inner rather than his outer man. Suddenly he stopped, with one of +his jerky pauses, and when he spoke his voice took on a boyish +quality that made it appealing.</p> +<p>"Mrs. Eveleth, do you know what I think? I think that you and I +have come down here on what looks like a fool's business. If it +wasn't for leaving Dorothea here with Reggie Bradford, I'd put you +in the motor and we'd travel back to New York as fast as tires +could take us."</p> +<p>"Upon my word," she confessed, "you make me almost wish we could +do it. But, of course, it isn't possible. There must be some one +here to meet Dorothea—and explain. I could do that if you +liked."</p> +<p>"Oh no!" he exclaimed, with a new change of mind; "I should look +as if I were showing the white feather."</p> +<p>"On the contrary, you'd look as if you knew what it was to be a +man."</p> +<p>"And Derek Pruyn might hold out against me in the end."</p> +<p>"It would be time enough, even then, to do—what you meant +to do to-night; and I'd help you."</p> +<p>He hesitated still, till another thought occurred to him.</p> +<p>"Oh, what's the good? It's too late to rectify anything now. +They must know at her house by this time that she has gone to meet +me."</p> +<p>"No; I've anticipated that. They understand that she's here, at +the Bay Tree Inn—with me."</p> +<p>He moved away from her with a quick backward leap.</p> +<p>"With you? You've done that? You've seen them? You've told them? +You're a wonderful woman, Mrs. Eveleth. I see now what you've been +up to," he added, with a shrill, nervous laugh. "You've been +turning me round your little finger, and I'm hanged if you haven't +done it very cleverly. You've failed in this one point, however, +that you haven't done it quite cleverly enough. I stay."</p> +<p>"Very well; but you won't refuse to let me stay too—for +the reasons that I gave you at first."</p> +<p>"You're wily, I must say! If you can't get best, you're willing +to take second best. Isn't that it?"</p> +<p>"That's it exactly. I did hope that no marriage would take place +between Dorothea and you to-night. I hoped that, before you came to +that, you'd realize to what a degree you're taking advantage of her +wilfulness and her love for you—for it's a mixture of +both—to put her in a false position, from which she'll never +wholly free herself as long as she lives. I hoped you'd be man +enough to go back and win her from her father by open means. +Failing all that, I hoped you'd let me blunt the keenest edge of +your folly by giving to your marriage the countenance which my +presence at it could bestow. Was there any harm in that? Was there +anything for you to resent, or for me to be ashamed of? Is a good +thing less good because I wish it, or a wise thought less wise +because I think it? You talk of turning you round my little finger, +as though it was something at which you had to take offence. My +dear boy, that only shows how young you are. Every good woman, if I +may call myself one, turns the men she cares for round her little +finger, and it's the men who are worth most in life who submit most +readily to the process. When you're a little older, when, perhaps, +you have children of your own, you'll understand better what I've +done for you to-night; and you won't use toward my memory the tone +of semi-jocular disdain that has entered into nearly every word +you've addressed to me this evening. Now, if you'll excuse me," she +added, wearily, "I think I'll go in. I'm very tired, and I'll rest +till Dorothea comes. When she arrives you must bring her to me +directly; and she must stay with me till I take her to—the +wedding. My room is the first door on the left of the main +entrance."</p> +<p>She was half-way across the terrace when he called out to her, +the boyish tremor in his voice more accentuated than before.</p> +<p>"Wait a minute. There's lots of time." She came back a few paces +toward him. "Shouldn't I look very grotesque if I hooked it?"</p> +<p>"Not half so grotesque as you'll look to-morrow morning when you +have to go back to town and tell every one you meet that you and +Dorothea Pruyn have run away and got married. That's when you'll +look foolish and cut a pathetic figure. As things are it could be +kept between two or three of us; but if you go on, you'll be in all +the papers by to-morrow afternoon. Of course your mother +knows?"</p> +<p>"I suppose so; I wired when I thought it was too late for her to +spread the alarm. But I don't mind about her. She'll be only too +glad to have me back at any price."</p> +<p>"Then—I'd go."</p> +<p>The light from the hotel was full on his face, and she could +almost have kissed him for his doleful, crestfallen expression.</p> +<p>"Well—I will."</p> +<p>There was no heroism in the way in which he said the words, and +the spring disappeared from his walk as he went back to the hotel +to pay his bill and order out his "machine." Diane smiled to +herself to see how his head drooped and his shoulders sagged, but +her eyes blinked at the mist that rose before them. After all, he +was little more than a schoolboy, and he and Dorothea were but two +children at play.</p> +<p>She did not continue her own way into the hotel. Now that the +first part of her purpose in coming had been accomplished, she was +free to remember what the comedy with Carli had almost excluded +from her mind—that within an hour or two Derek Pruyn and she +might be face to face again. The thought made her heart leap as +with sudden fright. Fortunately, Dorothea would have arrived by +that time, and would stand between them, otherwise the mere +possibility would have been overwhelming.</p> +<p>Yes; Dorothea ought to be coming soon. She looked at her watch, +and found it was nearly eleven. On the stillness of the night there +came a sound, a clatter, a whiz, a throb—the unmistakable +noise of an automobile. She hurried to the end of the terrace; but +it was not Dorothea coming; it was Carli going away. She breathed +more freely, standing to see him pass, and knowing that he was +really gone.</p> +<p>A minute later he went by in the moonlight, waving his hand to +her as she stood silhouetted on the terrace above him. Then, to her +annoyance, the motor stopped and he leaped out. For a moment her +heart stood still in alarm, for if he was coming back the work +might be to do all over again. He did come back, scrambling up the +steps till he was at her feet. But it was only to seize her hand +and kiss it hastily, after which, without a word, he was off again. +Then once more the huge machine clattered and whizzed and throbbed, +rattling its way down the drive and on into the dark, till all +sound died away in the solemn winter silence.</p> +<p>XXI</p> +<p>During the next half-hour small practical tasks occupied Diane's +mind and kept the thought of Derek Pruyn's arrival from becoming +more than a subconscious dread. She informed the manager of her +success with his mysterious young guest, and arranged that +Dorothea, when she came, should spend the night with her. Then she +put herself in telephonic communication, first with Mrs. Wappinger, +and then with Fulton. She gave the former the intelligence that +Carli had departed, and received from the latter the information +that Simmons had found his master, who had been able to leave for +Lakefield by the ten-five train. These steps being taken, there was +nothing to do but to sit down and wait for Dorothea. Allowing +thirty or forty minutes for possible delays, she calculated that +the girl ought to arrive a good half-hour before her father. This +would give her time to deal with each separately, clearing up +misunderstandings on both sides, and preparing the way for such a +meeting as would lead to mutual concessions and future peace.</p> +<p>Physically tired, she took off her hat and threw herself on the +couch in her little sitting-room. By sheer force of will she +continued to shut out Derek from her thought, concentrating all her +mental faculties on the arguments and persuasions she should bring +to bear on Dorothea. She had no nervousness on this account. The +naughty, headstrong child that runs away from home does not get far +without a realizing sense of its happy shelter. She divined that +the long ride through the dark, with an unknown man, toward an +unknown goal, would have already subdued Dorothea's spirits to the +point where she would be only too glad to find herself dropping +into familiar, feminine arms.</p> +<p>At eleven o'clock she got up from her couch with a vague impulse +to be in a more direct attitude of welcome. At half-past eleven she +went to the office to inquire of the manager how long a motor going +slowly should take to reach Lakefield from New York, assuming that +it had got away from the city about six o'clock. Alarmed by his +reply, she begged him to keep a certain number of the servants up, +and the hotel in readiness to cope with any emergency or accident, +promising liberal remuneration for all unusual work. After that +came another long hour of waiting. It was about half-past twelve +when there was a sound of a carriage coming up the driveway. It was +probably Derek; and yet there was a possibility that, the +automobile having broken down, Reggie and Dorothea had been obliged +to finish their journey in a humbler way than that in which they +had started. Diane hurried to the terrace. The moon had +disappeared, but the stars were out, and the night had grown +colder. The pines surrounding the hotel shot up weirdly against the +midnight sky, soughing with a low murmur, like the moan of primeval +nature. Up the ascent from the main road the carriage crept +wearily, while Diane's heart poured itself out in a sort of +incoherent prayer that Dorothea might have arrived before her +father. The horses dragged themselves to the steps, and Derek Pruyn +sprang out.</p> +<p>Instinctively Diane fell back.</p> +<p>"Oh, it's you," she gasped, unable for the instant to say +more.</p> +<p>"Yes," he returned, quickly, peering down into her face. "What +news?"</p> +<p>"Dorothea hasn't come. The—the other person has gone."</p> +<p>"Gone? How—gone?"</p> +<p>"He went away of his own accord."</p> +<p>"That is, you sent him."</p> +<p>"Not exactly; he was willing to go. He saw he'd been doing +wrong."</p> +<p>A porter having come from the hotel and seized Derek's valise, +it was necessary for them to go in and attend to the small +preliminaries of arrival. When they were finished Derek returned to +Diane, who had seated herself in a wicker chair beside one of the +numerous tea-tables to which a large part of the hall was given up. +Under the eye of the drowsy clerk, who still kept his place at the +office desk, she felt a certain sense of protection, even though +the width of the hotel lay between them.</p> +<p>"Now, tell me," Derek said, in his quick, commanding tones; +"tell me everything."</p> +<p>The repressed intensity of his bearing had on Diane the effect +of making her more calmly mistress of herself. Quietly, and in a +manner as matter-of-fact as she could make it, she told her tale +from the beginning. She narrated her summons from Mrs. Wappinger, +her visit to his own house, her arrangements there, her journey to +Lakefield, and her interview with Carli Wappinger. Without making +light of what he and Dorothea had undertaken to do, she reduced +their fault to a minimum, turning it into indiscretion rather than +anything more grave. She laid stress on the excellence of the young +man's character, as well as on the promptness with which he had +relinquished his part in the plan as soon as he saw its true +nature. In spite of himself Derek began to think of the lad as of +one who had sprung to his help in a moment of need, and to whom he +was indebted for a service. Not until Diane ceased speaking was he +able to brush this absurd impression away, in the knowledge that +Dorothea, who should have arrived nearly two hours ago, was still +out in the dark. That, for the moment, was the one fact to which +everything else was subordinate.</p> +<p>"I can't understand it," he said, nervously. "If they left New +York by six, or even seven, they should have been here by eleven at +the latest. That would have given them time for slow going or +taking a circuitous route."</p> +<p>He rose nervously from his seat, interviewed the clerk at the +desk, went out on the terrace, listened in the silence, walked +restlessly up and down, and, returning to Diane, enumerated the +different possibilities that would reasonably account for the +delay. Glad of this preoccupation, since it diverted thought from +their more personal relations, she pointed out the wisdom of +accepting whatever explanation was least grave until they knew the +certainty. When he had gone out several times more, to listen on +the terrace, he came back, and, resuming his seat, said, +brusquely:</p> +<p>"You look tired. You ought to get some rest."</p> +<p>The tone of intimate care reached Diane's heart more directly +than words of greater import.</p> +<p>"I would," she said, simply—"that is, I'd go to my room if +I thought you'd be kind to Dorothea when she came."</p> +<p>"And <i>don't</i> you think so?"</p> +<p>"I think you'd want to be," she smiled, "if you knew how."</p> +<p>"But I shouldn't know how?"</p> +<p>"You see, it's a situation that calls directly for a woman; and +you're so essentially a man. When Dorothea arrives, she won't be a +headstrong, runaway girl; she'll be a poor little terrified child, +frightened to death at what she has done, and wanting nothing so +much as to creep sobbing into her mother's arms and be comforted. +If you could only—"</p> +<p>"I'll do anything you tell me."</p> +<p>"It's no use telling; you have to know. It's a case in which you +must act by instinct, and not by rule of thumb."</p> +<p>In her eagerness to have something to say which would keep +conversation away from dangerous themes, she spoke exhaustively on +the subject of parental tact, holding well to the thread of her +topic until she perceived that he was not so much listening to what +she said as thinking of her. But she had gained her point, and led +him to see that Dorothea was to be treated leniently, which was +sufficient for the moment.</p> +<p>"Now," she finished, rising, "I think I'll take your advice, and +go and rest till she comes. That's my door, just opposite. I chose +the room for its convenience in receiving Dorothea. You'll be sure +to call me, won't you, the minute you hear the sound of +wheels?"</p> +<p>He had sat gazing up at her, but now he, too, rose. It was a +minute at which their common anxiety regarding Dorothea slipped +temporarily into the background, allowing the main question at +issue between them to assert itself; but it asserted itself +silently. He had meant to speak, but he could only look. She had +meant to withdraw, but she remained to return his look with the +lingering, quiet, steady gaze which time and place and circumstance +seemed to make the most natural mode of expression for the things +that were vital between them. What passed thus defied all analysis +of thought, as well as all utterance in language, but it was +understood by each in his or her own way. To her it was the +greeting and farewell of souls in different spheres, who again pass +one another in space. For him it was the dumb, stifled cry of +nature, the claim of a heart demanding its rightful place in +another heart, the protest of love that has been debarred from its +return by a cruel code of morals, a preposterous convention, grown +suddenly meaningless to a woman like her and to a man like him. +Something like this it would have been a relief to him to cry out, +had not the strong hand of custom been upon him and forced him to +say that which was far below the pressure of his yearning.</p> +<p>"This isn't the time to talk about what I owe you," he said, +feeling the insufficiency of his words; "it's too much to be +disposed of in a few phrases."</p> +<p>"On the contrary, you owe me nothing at all."</p> +<p>"We'll not dispute the point now."</p> +<p>"No; but I'd rather not leave you under a misapprehension. If +I've done anything to-night—been of any use at all—it's +been simply because I loved Dorothea—and—and—it +was right. When it was in my power, I couldn't have refused to do +it for any one—for any one, you understand."</p> +<p>"Oh yes, I understand perfectly; but <i>any one</i>, in the same +circumstances, would feel as I do. No, not as I do," he corrected, +quickly. "No one else in the world could feel—" "I'm really +very tired," she said, hurriedly; "I'll go now; but I count on you +to call me."</p> +<p>He watched her while she glided across the room; but it was only +when her door had closed and he had dropped into his seat that he +was able to state to himself the fact that the mere sight of her +again had demolished all the barricades he had been building in his +heart against her for the last six months. They had fallen more +easily than the walls of Jericho at the blast of the sacred horn. +The inflection of her voice, the look from her eyes, the gestures +of her hands, had dispelled them into nothingness, like ramparts of +mist. But it was not that alone! He was too much a man of affairs +not to give credit to the practical abilities she had shown that +night. No graces of person or charms of mind or resources of +courage could have called forth his admiration more effectively +than this display of prosaic executive capacity. What had to be +done she had done more promptly, wisely, and easily than any man +could have accomplished it. She had foreseen possibilities and +forestalled accident with a thoroughness which he himself could not +have equalled.</p> +<p>"My God!" he groaned, inwardly, "what a wife she would have made +for any man! How I could have loved her, if it hadn't been +for—"</p> +<p>He stopped abruptly and leaped to his feet, looking around dazed +on the great empty hail, at the end of which a porter slept in his +chair, while the clerk blinked drowsily behind his desk.</p> +<p>"I do love her," he declared to himself. "All summer long I have +uttered blasphemies. I do love her. Whatever she may have been, she +shall be my wife."</p> +<p>Out on the terrace the cold wind was grateful, and he stood for +a minute bareheaded, letting it blow over his fevered face and +through his hair. It had risen during the last hour, making the +pines rock slowly in the starlight and swelling their moan into +deep sobs.</p> +<p>As Derek Pruyn paced the terrace in strained expectation he was +deceived again and again into the thought that something was +approaching. Now it was the champing and stamping of horses toiling +up the ascent; now it was the bray and throb of the automobile; now +it was the voices of men, conversing or calling or breaking into +laughter. Twenty times he hastened to the steps at the end of the +terrace, sure he could not have been mistaken, only to hear the +earth-forces sob and sough and shout again, as if in derision of +this puny, presumptuous mortal, with his evanescent joy and +pain.</p> +<p>So another hour passed. His mind was not of the imaginative +order which invents disaster in moments of suspense, so that he was +able to keep his watch more patiently than many another might have +done. Once he tried to smoke; but the mere scent of tobacco seemed +out of place in this curious world, alive with odd psychical +suggestions, and he threw the cigar away into the darkness, where +its light glowed reproachfully, like a dying eye, till it went +out.</p> +<p>It was after three when a sudden sound from the driveway struck +his ear; but he had been deceived so often that he would pay it no +attention. Though it seemed like the unmistakable approach of an +automobile, it had seemed so before, and he would not even look +round till he had reached the distant end of the terrace. When he +turned he could see through the trees, and along the dark line of +the avenue, the advance of the heralding light. Dorothea had come +at last. She was even close upon them. In a few more seconds she +would be alighting at the steps.</p> +<p>He hurried inside to wake the porter and warn Diane.</p> +<p>"She's here!" he called, rapping sharply at her door. "Please +come! Quick!"</p> +<p>There was a response and a hurried movement from within, but he +did not wait for her to appear. When she came out of her room she +could see from the light thrown over the terrace that the motor had +already stopped at the steps. Some one was getting out, and she +could hear men's voices. Advancing to a spot midway between her +room and the main entry, she stood waiting for Derek to bring her +his daughter. A moment later he sprang into the light of the +doorway with features white and alarmed.</p> +<p>"Go back!" he cried to her, with a commanding gesture. "Go +back!"</p> +<p>"But what's the matter?"</p> +<p>"Go back!" he ordered, more imperiously than before.</p> +<p>"Oh, Derek, it's Dorothea! She's hurt. I must go to her. I will +not go back."</p> +<p>She rushed toward the entry, but he caught her and pushed her +back.</p> +<p>"I tell you you must go back," he repeated.</p> +<p>"It's Dorothea!" she cried. "She's hurt! She's killed! Let me +go! She needs me!"</p> +<p>"It isn't Dorothea," he whispered, forcing her over the +threshold of her own room and trying to close the door upon +her.</p> +<p>"Then what is it?" she begged. "Tell me now. You're hurting me. +Let me go! You're killing me."</p> +<p>"It's—"</p> +<p>But there was no need to say more, for the main door swung open +again and the Marquis de Bienville entered, followed by a porter +carrying his valise.</p> +<p>At his appearance Derek relinquished Diane's hands, and Diane +herself was so astonished that she stepped plainly into view. Not +less astonished than herself, Bienville stopped stock-still, looked +at her, looked into the room behind her, looked at Derek with a +long, half-amused, comprehending stare, lifted his hat gravely, and +passed on.</p> +<p>When he had gone there was a minute of dead silence. With parted +lips and awe-stricken eyes Diane gazed after him till he had spoken +to the clerk at the desk and passed on into the darker recesses of +the hotel. When she turned toward Derek he was smiling, with what +she knew was an effort to treat the situation lightly.</p> +<p>"Well, this time we've given him something to talk about," he +laughed, bravely.</p> +<p>She shrugged her shoulders and spread apart her hands with one +of her habitual, fatalistic gestures.</p> +<p>"I don't mind. He can't do me more harm than he's done already. +It's not of him that I'm thinking, but of Dorothea. She hasn't +come."</p> +<p>"No, she hasn't come."</p> +<p>The fact had grown alarming, so much so as to make the incident +of Bienville's appearance seem in comparison a matter of little +moment. Diane remained on the threshold of her room, and Derek in +the hail outside, while, for mutual encouragement, they rehearsed +once more the list of predicaments in which the young people might +have found themselves without serious danger.</p> +<p>Diane was about to withdraw, when a man ran down the hall +calling:</p> +<p>"The telephone!—for the gentleman!"</p> +<p>Derek started on a run, Diane following more slowly. When she +reached the office Derek had the receiver to his ear and was +talking.</p> +<p>"Yes, Fulton. Go on. I hear.... Who has rung you up?... I didn't +catch ... Miss—who? Oh, Miss Marion Grimston. Yes?... In +Philadelphia, at the Hotel Belleville.... Yes; I understand ... and +Miss Dorothea is with her.... Good! ... Did she say how she got +there?... Will explain when we get back to New York to-morrow +morning.... All right.... Yes, to lunch.... She said Miss Dorothea +was quite well, and satisfied with her trip!... That's good.... +Well, good-night, Fulton. Sorry to have kept you up."</p> +<p>He put up the receiver and turned to Diane.</p> +<p>"Did you understand?"</p> +<p>"Perfectly. I think I know what has happened. I can guess."</p> +<p>"Then, I'll be hanged if I can. What is it?"</p> +<p>"I'll let them tell you that themselves. I'm too tired to say +anything more to-night."</p> +<p>She kept close to the office where the clerk was shutting books +and locking drawers preparatory to closing.</p> +<p>"You must let me come and thank you—" he began.</p> +<p>"You must thank Miss Marion Grimston," she interrupted, "for any +real service. All I've done for you, as you see, has been to bring +you on an unnecessary journey."</p> +<p>"For me it has been a journey—into truth."</p> +<p>"I'll say good-night now. I shall not see you in the morning. +You'll not forget to be very gentle with Dorothea, will +you—and with him? Good-night again—good-night."</p> +<p>Smiling into his eyes, she ignored the hand he held out to her +and slipped away into the semi-darkness as the impatient clerk +began turning out the lights.</p> +<p>XXII</p> +<p>Derek Pruyn was guilty of an injustice to the Marquis de +Bienville in supposing he would make the incident at Lakefield a +topic of conversation among his friends. His sense of honor alone +would have kept him from betraying what might be looked upon as an +involuntary confidence, even if it had not better suited his +purposes to intrust the matter, in the form of an amusing anecdote, +told under the seal of secrecy, to Mrs. Bayford. In her hands it +was like invested capital, adding to itself, while he did nothing +at all. Months of insinuation on his part would have failed to +achieve the result that she brought about in a few days' time, with +no more effort than a rose makes in shedding perfume.</p> +<p>Before Derek had been able to recover from the feeling of having +passed through a strange waking dream, before Dorothea and he had +resumed the ordinary tenor of their life together, before he had +seen Diane again, he was given to understand that the little scene +on Bienville's arrival at the Bay Tree Inn was familiar matter in +the offices, banks, and clubs he most frequented. The intelligence +was conveyed by a score of trivial signs, suggestive, satirical, or +over-familiar, which he would not have perceived in days gone by, +but to which he had grown sensitive. It was clear that the story +gained piquancy from its contrast with the staidness of his life; +and his most intimate friends permitted themselves a little covert +"chaff" with him on the event. He was not of a nature to resent +this raillery on his own account; it was serious to him only +because it touched Diane.</p> +<p>For her the matter was so grave that he exhausted his ingenuity +in devising means for her protection. He refrained from even seeing +her until he could go with some ultimatum before which she should +be obliged to yield. An unsuccessful appeal to her, he judged, +would be worse than none at all; and until he discovered arguments +which she could not controvert he decided to hold his peace.</p> +<p>Action of some sort became imperative when he found that Miss +Lucilla Van Tromp had heard the story and drawn from it what seemed +to her the obvious conclusion.</p> +<p>"I should never have believed it," she declared, tearfully, "if +you hadn't admitted it yourself. I told Mrs. Bayford that nothing +but your own words would convince me that any such scene had taken +place."</p> +<p>"Allowing that it did, isn't it conceivable that it might have +had an honorable motive?" "Then, what is it? If you could tell me +that—"</p> +<p>"I could tell you easily enough if there weren't other +considerations involved. I should think that in the circumstances +you could trust me."</p> +<p>"Nobody else does, Derek."</p> +<p>"Whom do you mean by nobody else?—Mrs. Bayford?"</p> +<p>"Oh, she's not the only one. If your men friends don't believe +in you—"</p> +<p>"They believe in me, all right; don't you worry about that."</p> +<p>"They may believe in you as men believe in one another; but it +isn't the way I believe in people."</p> +<p>"I know how you believe in people if ill-natured women would let +you alone. You wouldn't mistrust a thief if you saw him stealing +your watch from your pocket."</p> +<p>"That's not true, Derek. I can be as suspicious as any one when +I like."</p> +<p>"But don't you see that your suspicion doesn't only light, on +me? It strikes Diane."</p> +<p>"That's just it."</p> +<p>"Lucilla! he cried, reproachfully.</p> +<p>"Well, Derek, you know how loyal I've been to her. It's been +harder, too, than you've ever been aware of; for I haven't told +you—I <i>wouldn't</i> tell you—one-half the things that +people have hinted to me during the past two years."</p> +<p>"Yes; but who? A lot of jealous women—"</p> +<p>"It's no use saying that, Derek; because your own actions +contradict you. Why did Diane leave your house, if it wasn't that +you believed—?"</p> +<p>"Don't." He raised his hand to his face, as if protecting +himself from a blow.</p> +<p>"I wouldn't," she cried, "if you didn't make me. I say it only +in self-defence. After all, you can only accuse me of what you've +done yourself. Diane made me think at first that you had misjudged +her; but I see now that if she had been a good woman you wouldn't +have sent her away."</p> +<p>"I didn't send her away. She went."</p> +<p>"Yes, Derek; but why?"</p> +<p>"That has nothing to do with the question under discussion."</p> +<p>"On the contrary, it has everything to do with it. It all +belongs together. I've loved Diane, and defended her; but I've come +to the point where I can't do it any longer. After what's +happened—"</p> +<p>"But, I tell you, what's happened is nothing! If it was only +right for me to explain it to you, as I shall explain it to you +some day, you'd find you owed her a debt that you never could +repay."</p> +<p>"Very well! I won't dispute it. It still doesn't affect the main +point at issue. Can you yourself, Derek, honestly and truthfully +affirm that you look upon Diane as a good woman, in the sense that +is usually attached to the words?"</p> +<p>"I can honestly and truthfully affirm that I look upon her as +one of the best women in the world."</p> +<p>"That isn't the point. Louise de la Vallière became one +of the best women in the world; but there are some other things +that might be said of her. But I'll not argue; I'll not insist. +Since you think I'm wrong, I'll take your own word for it, Derek. +Just tell me once, tell me without quibble and on your honor as my +cousin and a gentleman, that you believe Diane to be—what +I've supposed her to be hitherto, and what you know very well I +mean, and I'll not doubt it further."</p> +<p>For a moment he stood speechless, trying to formulate the lie he +could utter most boldly, until he was struck with the double +thought that to defend Diane's honor with a falsehood would be to +defame it further, while a lie to this pure, trusting, virginal +spirit would be a crime.</p> +<p>"Tell me, Derek," she insisted; "tell me, and I'll believe +you."</p> +<p>He retreated a pace or two, as if trying to get out of her +presence.</p> +<p>"I'm listening, Derek; go on; I'm willing to take your +word."</p> +<p>"Then I repeat," he said, weakly, "that I believe her, I +<i>know</i> her, to be one of the best women in the world."</p> +<p>"Like Louise de la Vallière?"</p> +<p>"Yes," he shouted, maddened to the retort, "like Louise de la +Vallière! And what then?" He stood as if demanding a reply. +"Nothing. I have no more to say." "Then I have; and I'll ask you to +listen." He drew near to her again and spoke slowly. "There were +doubtless many good women in Jerusalem in the time of Herod and +Pilate and Christ; but not the least held in honor among us to-day +is—the Magdalen. That's one thing; and here's something more. +There is joy, so we are told, in the presence of the angels of +God—plenty of it, let us hope!—but it isn't over the +ninety-and-nine just persons who need no repentance, so much as +over the one poor, deserted, lonely sinner that +repenteth—that repenteth, Lucilla, do you hear?-and you know +whom I mean." With this as his confession of faith he left her, to +go in search of Diane. He had formed the ultimatum before which, as +he believed, she should find herself obliged to surrender.</p> +<p>It was a day on which Diane's mood was one of comparative peace. +She was engrossed in an occupation which at once soothed her +spirits and appealed to her taste. Madame Cauchat, the land-lady, +bewailing the continued illness of her lingère, Diane had +begged to be allowed to take charge of the linen-room of the hotel, +not merely as a means of earning a living, but because she +delighted in such work. Methodical in her habits and nimble with +her needle, the neatness, smoothness, and purity of piles of white +damask stirred all those house-wifely, home-keeping instincts which +are so large a part of every Frenchwoman's nature. Her fingers busy +with the quiet, delicate task of mending, her mind could dwell with +the greater content on such subjects as she had for +satisfaction.</p> +<p>They were more numerous than they had been for a long time past. +The meeting at Lakefield had changed her mental attitude toward +Derek Pruyn, taking a large part of the pain out of her thoughts of +him, as well as out of his thoughts of her. She had avoided seeing +him after that one night, and she had heard nothing from him since; +but she knew it was impossible for him to go on thinking of her +altogether harshly. She had been useful to him; she had saved +Dorothea from a great mistake; she had done it in such a way that +no hint of the escapade was likely to become known outside of the +few who had taken part in it; she had put herself in a relation +toward him which, as a final one, was much to be preferred to that +which had existed before. She could therefore pass out of his life +more satisfied than she had dared hope to be with the effect that +she had had upon it. As she stitched she sighed to herself with a +certain comfort, when, glancing up, she saw him standing at the +door. The nature of her thoughts, coupled with his sudden +appearance, drew to her lips a quiet smile.</p> +<p>"They shouldn't have shown you in here," she protested, gently, +letting her work fall to her lap, but not rising from her +place.</p> +<p>"I insisted," he explained, briefly, from the threshold.</p> +<p>"You can come in," she smiled, as he continued to stand in the +doorway. "You can even sit down." She pointed to a chair, not far +from her own, going on again with her stitching, so as to avoid the +necessity for further greeting. "I suppose you wonder what I'm +doing," she pursued, when he had seated himself.</p> +<p>"I'm not wondering at that so much as whether you ought to be +doing it."</p> +<p>"I can relieve your mind on that score. It's a case, too, in +which duty and pleasure jump together; for the delight of handling +beautiful linen is like nothing else in the world."</p> +<p>"It seems to me like servants' work," he said, bluntly.</p> +<p>"Possibly; but I can do servants' work at a +pinch—especially when I like it."</p> +<p>"I don't," he declared.</p> +<p>"But then you don't have to do it."</p> +<p>"I mean that I don't like it for you."</p> +<p>"Even so, you wouldn't forbid my doing it, would you?"</p> +<p>"I wish I had the right to. I've come here this afternoon to ask +you again if you won't give it to me."</p> +<p>For a few minutes she stitched in silence. When she spoke it was +without stopping her work or lifting her head.</p> +<p>"I'm sorry that you should raise that question again. I thought +it was settled."</p> +<p>"Supposing it was, it can be reopened—if there's a +reason."</p> +<p>"But there is none."</p> +<p>"That's all you know about it. There's a very important +reason."</p> +<p>"Since—when?"</p> +<p>"Since Lakefield."</p> +<p>"Do you mean anything that Monsieur de Bienville may have +said?"</p> +<p>"I do."</p> +<p>"That wouldn't be a reason—for me."</p> +<p>"But you don't know—"</p> +<p>"I can imagine. Monsieur de Bienville has already done me all +the harm he can. It's beyond his power to hurt me any more."</p> +<p>"But, Diane, you don't know what you're saying. You don't know +what he's doing. He's—he's—I hardly know how to put +it—He's destroying your reputation."</p> +<p>She glanced up with a smile, ceasing for an instant to sew.</p> +<p>"You mean, he's destroying what's left of it. Well, he's +welcome! There was so little of it—"</p> +<p>"For God's sake, Diane, don't say that; it breaks my heart. You +must consider the position that you put me in. After you've +rendered me one the greatest services one person can do another, do +you think I can sit quietly by while you are being robbed of the +dearest thing in life, just because you did it?"</p> +<p>"I should be sorry to think the opinion other people hold of me +to be the dearest thing in life; but, even if it were, I'd +willingly give it up for—Dorothea."</p> +<p>"It isn't for Dorothea; it's for me."</p> +<p>"Well, wouldn't you let me do it—for you? I'm not of much +use in the world, but it would make me a little happier to think I +could do any one a good turn without being promised a reward."</p> +<p>"A reward! Oh, Diane!"</p> +<p>"It's what you're offering me, isn't it? If it hadn't been +for—for—the great service you speak about, you wouldn't +he here, asking me again to be your wife."</p> +<p>"That's your way of putting it, but I'll put it in mine. If it +hadn't been for the magnitude of the sacrifice you're willing to +make for me, I shouldn't have dared to hope that you loved me. When +all pretexts and secondary causes have been considered and thrust +aside, that's why I'm here, and for no other reason whatever. If +you love me," he continued, "why should you hesitate any longer? If +you love me, why seek for reasons to justify the simple prompting +of your heart? What have you and I got to do with other people's +opinions? When there's a plain, straightforward course before us, +why not go right on and follow it?"</p> +<p>She raised her eyes for one brief glance.</p> +<p>"You forget."</p> +<p>The words were spoken quietly, but they startled him.</p> +<p>"Yes, Diane; I do forget. Rather, there's nothing left for me to +remember. I know what you'd have me recall. I'll speak of it this +once more, to be silent on the subject forever. I want you to +forgive me. I want to tell you that I, too, have repented."</p> +<p>"Repented of what?"</p> +<p>"Of the wrong I've done you. I believe your soul to be as white +as all this whiteness around you."</p> +<p>"Then," she continued, questioning gently, "you've changed your +point of view during the last six months?"</p> +<p>"I have. You charged me then with being willing to come down to +your level; now I'm asking you to let me climb up to it. I see that +I was a self-righteous Pharisee, and that the true man is he who +can smite his breast and say, God be merciful to me a sinner!"</p> +<p>"A sinner—like me."</p> +<p>"I don't want to be led into further explanations," he said, +suddenly on his guard against her insinuations. "You and I have +said too much to each other not to be able to be frank. Now, I've +been frank enough. You've understood what I've felt at other times; +you understand what I feel to-day. Why draw me out, to make me +speak more plainly?"</p> +<p>"I am not drawing you out," she declared. "If I ask you a +question or two, it was to show you that not even the woman that +you take me for—not even the forgiven penitent—could be +a good wife for you. I can't marry you, Mr. Pruyn. I must beg you +to let that answer be decisive."</p> +<p>There was decision in the way in which she folded her work and +smoothed the white brocaded surface in her lap. There was decision, +too, in the quickness with which he rose and stood looking down at +her. For a second she expected him to turn from her, as he had +turned once before, and leave her with no explanation beyond a few +laconic words. She held her breath while she awaited them.</p> +<p>"Then that means," he said, at last, "that you put me in the +position of taking all, while you give all."</p> +<p>"I don't put you in any position whatever. The circumstances are +not of my making. They are as much beyond my control as they are +beyond yours."</p> +<p>"They're not wholly beyond mine. If there are some things I +can't do, there are some I can prevent."</p> +<p>"What things?"</p> +<p>His tone alarmed her, and she struggled to her feet.</p> +<p>"You're willing to make me a great sacrifice; but at least I can +refuse to accept it."</p> +<p>"What do you mean?" She moved slightly back from him, behind the +protection of one of the tables piled breast-high with its white +load.</p> +<p>"You're willing to lose for me the last vestige of your good +name—"</p> +<p>"I don't care anything about that," she said, hurriedly.</p> +<p>"But I do. I won't let you."</p> +<p>"How can you stop me?" she asked, staring at him with large, +frightened eyes.</p> +<p>"I shall tell Dorothea's part in the story."</p> +<p>"You'd—?" she began, with a questioning cry.</p> +<p>"All who care to hear it, shall. They shall know it from its +beginning to its end. They shall lose no detail of her folly or of +your wisdom."</p> +<p>"You would sacrifice your child like that?"</p> +<p>"Yes, like that. Neither she nor I can remain so indebted to any +one, as you would have us be to you."</p> +<p> +"You—wouldn't—be—indebted—to—me?"</p> +<p>"Not to so terrible an extent. If it's a choice between your +good name and hers—hers must go. She'd agree with me herself. +She wouldn't hesitate for one single fraction of an +instant—if she knew. She'd be grateful to you, as I am; but +she couldn't profit by your magnanimity."</p> +<p>"So that the alternative you offer me is this: I can protect +myself by sacrificing Dorothea, or I can marry you, and Dorothea +will be saved."</p> +<p>"I shouldn't express it in just those words, but it's something +like it."</p> +<p>"Then I'll marry you. You give me a choice of evils, and I take +the least."</p> +<p>"Oh! Then to marry me would be—an evil?"</p> +<p>"What else do you make it? You'll admit that it's a little +difficult to keep pace with you. You come to me one day accusing me +of sin, and on another announcing my contrition, while on the third +you may be in some entirely different mood about me."</p> +<p>"You can easily render me ridiculous. That's due to my +awkwardness of expression and not to anything wrong in the way I +feel."</p> +<p>"Oh, but isn't it out of the heart that the mouth speaketh? I +think so. You've advanced some excellent reasons why I should +become your wife, and I can see that you're quite capable of +believing them. At one time it was because I needed a home, at +another because I needed protection, while to-day, I understand, it +is because I love you."</p> +<p>"Is this fair?"</p> +<p>"I dare say you think it isn't; but then you haven't been tried +and judged half a dozen times, unheard, as I've been. I'll confess +that you've shown the most wonderful ingenuity in trying to get me +into a position where I should be obliged to marry you, whether I +would or not; and now you've succeeded. Whether the game is worth +the candle or not is for you to judge; my part is limited to saying +that you've won. I'm ready to marry you as soon as you tell me +when."</p> +<p>"To save Dorothea?"</p> +<p>"To save Dorothea."</p> +<p>"And for no other reason?"</p> +<p>"For no other reason."</p> +<p>"Then, of course, I can't keep you to your word."</p> +<p>"You can't release me from it except on one condition."</p> +<p>"Which is—?"</p> +<p>"That Dorothea's secret shall be kept."</p> +<p>"I must use my own judgment about that."</p> +<p>"On the contrary, you must use mine. You've made me a proposal +which I'm ready to accept. As a man of honor you must hold to +it—or be silent."</p> +<p>"Possibly," he admitted, on reflection. "I shall have to think +it over. But in that case we'd be just where we were—"</p> +<p>"Yes; just where we were."</p> +<p>"And you'd be without help or protection. That's the thought I +can't endure, Diane. Try to be just to me. If I make mistakes, if I +flounder about, if I say things that offend you, it's because I +can't rest while you're exposed to danger. Alone, as you are, in +this great city, surrounded by people who are not your friends, a +prey to criticism and misapprehension, when it is no worse, it's as +if I saw you flung into the arena among the beasts. Can you wonder +that I want to stand by you? Can you be surprised if I demand the +privilege of clasping you in my arms and saying to the world, This +is my wife? When Christian women were thrown to the lions there was +once a heathen husband who leaped into the ring, to die at his +wife's side, because he could do no more. That's my +impulse—only I could save you from the lions. I couldn't +protect you against everything, perhaps, but I could against the +worst. I know I'm stupid; I know I'm dull. When I come near you, +I'm like the clown who touches some exquisite tissue, spun of +azure; but I'm like the clown who would fight for his treasure, and +defend it from sacrilegious hands, and spend his last drop of blood +to keep it pure. It's to be put in a position where I can't do that +that I find hard. It's to see you so defenceless—"</p> +<p>"But I'm not defenceless."</p> +<p>"Why not? Whom have you? Nobody—nobody in this world but +me."</p> +<p>"Oh yes, I have."</p> +<p>"Who?"</p> +<p>She smiled faintly at the fierceness of his brief question.</p> +<p>"It's no one to whom you need feel any opposition, even though +it's some one who can do for me what you cannot."</p> +<p>"What I cannot?"</p> +<p>"What you cannot; what no man can. <i>Asperges me hyssopo, et +mundabor</i>. Thou shalt purge me with hyssop, and I shall be +clean. Derek, He has purged me with hyssop, even though it has not +been in the way you think. With the hyssop of what I've had to +suffer He has purged me from so many things that now I see I can +safely commit my cause to Him."</p> +<p>"So that you don't need me?"</p> +<p>She looked at him in silence before she replied:</p> +<p>"Not for defence."</p> +<p>"Nor for anything else?"</p> +<p>She tried to speak, but her voice failed her.</p> +<p>"Nor for anything else?" he asked again.</p> +<p>Her voice was faint, her head sank, her body trembled, but she +forced the one word, "No."</p> +<p>XXIII</p> +<p>"Mademoiselle has sent for me?" Bienville kissed the hand that +Miss Grimston, without rising from her comfortable chair before the +fire, lifted toward him. The hand-screen with which she shielded +her face protected her not only from the blaze, but from his +scrutiny. In the same way, the winter gloaming, with its uncertain +light, nerved her against her fear of self-betrayal, giving her +that assurance of being mistress of herself which she lacked when +he was near.</p> +<p>"I did send for you. I wanted to see you. Won't you sit +down?"</p> +<p>"I've been expecting the summons," he said, significantly, +taking the seat on the other side of the hearth.</p> +<p>"Indeed? Why?"</p> +<p>"I thought the day would come when you would be more just to +me."</p> +<p>"You thought I'd—hear things?"</p> +<p>"Perhaps."</p> +<p>"I have. That's why I asked you to come."</p> +<p>During the brief silence before she spoke again he was able to +congratulate himself on his diplomacy. He had checked his first +impulse to come to her with his great news immediately on his +return from Lakefield. He had seen how relatively ineffective the +information would be were it to proceed bluntly from himself. He +had even restrained Mrs. Bayford's enthusiasm, in order to let the +intelligence filter gently through the neutral agencies of common +gossip. In this way it would seem to Miss Grimston a discovery of +her own, and appeal to her as an indirect corroboration of his +word. He had the less scruple in taking these precautions in that +he believed Diane to have justified anything he might have said of +her. It was no small relief to a man of honor to know he had not +been guilty of a gratuitous slander, even though it was only on a +woman. He awaited Miss Grimston's next words with complacent +expectancy, but when they came they surprised him.</p> +<p>"I wondered a little why you should have been at Lakefield."</p> +<p>"I'm afraid you'll think it was for a very foolish reason," he +laughed, "but I'll tell you, if you want to know. I went because I +thought you were there."</p> +<p>"I? At three o'clock in the morning?"</p> +<p>"It was like this," he went on. "You'll pardon me if I say +anything to give you offence, but you'll understand the reason why. +On the day when we all lunched together at the Restaurant +Blitz—you, Madame your aunt, your friend Monsieur Reggie +Bradford, and I—I was a little jealous of some understanding +between you two, in which I was not included. You spoke together in +whispers, and exchanged glances in such a way that all my fears +were aroused. Afterward you went away with him. That evening, at +the Stuyvesant Club, I heard a strange rumor. It was whispered from +one to another until it reached me. Your friend Monsieur Bradford +is not a silent person, and what he knows is sure to become common +property. The rumor—which I grant you was an absurd +one—was to the effect that he had persuaded you to run away +and marry him; and that you had actually been seen on the way to +Lakefield in his car."</p> +<p>"I was in his car. That's quite true."</p> +<p>"Ah? Then there was some foundation for the report. Madame your +aunt will have told you how I hurried here, about eleven o'clock +that night. You had disappeared, leaving nothing behind but an +enigmatic note saying you would explain your absence in the +morning. What was I to think, Mademoiselle? I was afraid to think. +I didn't stop to think. I determined to follow you. It was too late +for any train, so I took an auto. I reached the Bay Tree +Inn—and saw what I saw. <i>Voilà</i>!"</p> +<p>A smile of amusement flickered over her grave features, but she +made no remark.</p> +<p>"If I was guilty of an indiscretion in following you, +Mademoiselle," he pursued, "it was because of my great love for +you. If you had chosen to marry some one else, I couldn't have kept +you from it; but at least I was determined to try. Though I thought +it incredible that you should take a step like that, in secrecy and +flight, yet I find so many strange ways of marrying in America that +I must be pardoned for my fear. As it is, I cannot regret it, +since, by a miracle, it gave me proof of that which you have found +it so difficult to believe. It has grieved me more than I could +ever make you understand to know that during all these months you +have doubted me."</p> +<p>"I'm sure of that," she said, softly, gazing into the fire. "But +haven't you wondered where I was that night when you followed me to +Lakefield?"</p> +<p>"If I have, I shouldn't presume to inquire."</p> +<p>"It's a secret; but I should like to tell it to you. I know +you'll guard it sacredly, because it concerns—a woman's +honor."</p> +<p>Though she did not look up, she felt the startled toss of the +head, characteristic of his moments of alarm.</p> +<p>"If Mademoiselle is pleased to be satirical—"</p> +<p>"No. There's no reason why I should be satirical. If, in spite +of everything, my confidence in you wasn't absolute, I shouldn't +risk a name I hold so dear as that of Dorothea Pruyn."</p> +<p>"<i>Tiens!</i>" he exclaimed, under his breath.</p> +<p>"Miss Pruyn is a charming girl, but she's been very foolish. +What she did was not quite so bad in American eyes as it would be +in French ones, but it was certainly very wilful. If you heard +rumors of an elopement, it was hers."</p> +<p>"<i>Mon Dieu!</i> With the big Monsieur Reggie?"</p> +<p>"Not quite. I needn't tell you the young man's name; it will be +enough to say that the big Monsieur Reggie, as you call him, was in +his confidence. It was Reggie who undertook to convey Dorothea to +Lakefield, where she was to meet the bridegroom-elect and marry +him."</p> +<p>"And then?"</p> +<p>"Then Reggie told me. It was silly of any one to intrust him +with a mission of the kind, for he couldn't possibly keep it to +himself. He told me while we were lunching at the Blitz. That's +what he was whispering. That's why I went away with him after lunch +and left you with my aunt. I saw you were annoyed, but I couldn't +help it."</p> +<p>"You wanted to dissuade him?"</p> +<p>"I tried; but I saw it was too late for that. Reggie wouldn't +desert his friend at the last minute. The only concession I could +wring from him was that he should let me take his place in the +motor."</p> +<p>"You?"</p> +<p>"I drive at least as well as Mr. Bradford. I made him see that +in case of accident it would make all the difference in the world +to Miss Pruyn's future life to be with a woman, rather than a +man."</p> +<p>"Did you make her see it, too?"</p> +<p>"I didn't try. The arrangements these wise young people had made +rendered the substitution easy. Dorothea had apparently considered +it part of the romance not to know with whom she was going, or +where she was being taken. At the time and place appointed she +found an automobile, driven by a person in a big fur coat, a cap, +and goggles. It was agreed that she should enter and ask no +questions."</p> +<p>"And did she?"</p> +<p>"She fulfilled her engagement to the letter. As soon as she was +seated I drove away; and for six hours I didn't hear a sound from +her."</p> +<p>"Six hours? Did it take you all that time to reach +Lakefield?"</p> +<p>"I didn't go to Lakefield. I took her to Philadelphia. My one +object was to keep her from meeting the young man that night; but +perhaps that's where I made my mistake."</p> +<p>"But why? It was better for her that she shouldn't."</p> +<p>"For her, perhaps; but not for every one else. You see, I lost +my way two or three times; though, as I had been over the ground +twice already, I was always able to right myself after a while. +Near Trenton, Dorothea got frightened, and when I peeped inside I +could see she was crying. As all danger was over then, I stopped +and let her see who I was."</p> +<p>"Was she angry?"</p> +<p>"Quite the contrary! The poor child was terrified at her own +rashness, and very much relieved to find she had been kept from +being as foolish as she had intended. I got in beside her, and let +her have her cry out in comfort. After that we ate some sandwiches +and took heart. It was weird work, in the dead of night and along +the lonely roads; but we pushed on, and crept into Philadelphia +between one and two in the morning."</p> +<p>"That was a very brave, act, Mademoiselle." Bienville's eyes +glistened and his face lighted up with an ardor that was not +dampened by the casual, almost listless, air with which she told +her story.</p> +<p>"It might have been better if I had let the whole thing +alone."</p> +<p>"Why so?"</p> +<p>"You can rarely interfere in other people's affairs without +doing more harm than good. If I had let them go their own way, +Diane Eveleth wouldn't have been put in a false position."</p> +<p>"Ah?"</p> +<p>"That's the other part of the story. If I had known, I should +have left the matter in her hands. She would have managed it better +than I. As it was, she made my bit of help superfluous."</p> +<p>"I should find it hard to credit that," he said, twisting his +fingers nervously.</p> +<p>"You won't when I tell you."</p> +<p>In the quiet, unaccentuated manner in which she had given her +own share in the action she gave Diane's. Shading her eyes with the +hand-screen, she was able to watch his play of feature, and note +how the first forced smile of bravado faded into an expression of +crestfallen gravity.</p> +<p>"You see," she concluded, "they were frantic at Dorothea's +failure to appear. When you arrived they naturally thought it was +she; and if Derek Pruyn hadn't lost his head when he saw you, he +wouldn't have tried to thrust her out of sight as though she were +caught in a crime. It was so like a man to do it; a woman would +have had a dozen ways of disarming your suspicion, while he did the +very thing to arouse it. I don't blame you for thinking what you +did—not in the least. I don't even blame you for telling it, +since it would seem to bear out—what you said before. I +should only blame you—"</p> +<p>"Yes, Mademoiselle? You would only blame me—?"</p> +<p>"I should only blame you if—now that you know the +truth—you didn't correct the impression you have given."</p> +<p>"Are you going to begin on that again?" he asked, in a tone of +disappointment.</p> +<p>"I'm not beginning again, because I've never ceased. If I say +anything new on the subject, it is this—that it's time the +final word was spoken."</p> +<p>"I agree with you there; it <i>is</i> time for that word; but +you must speak it."</p> +<p>There was a ring of energy in his voice which caused her to turn +from her contemplation of the fire and look at him. When she did he +had taken on a new air of resolution.</p> +<p>"I think it's time we came to a definite understanding," he went +on, "and that you should see how the matter looks from my point of +view. You speak of doing right, Mademoiselle, as if it were an easy +thing. You don't realize that, for me, it would have to be the last +act but one in life."</p> +<p>In spite of the shock, she ignored his implied confession, going +on to speak in the tone of ordinary conversation.</p> +<p>"The last act but one? I don't understand you."</p> +<p>"Really? I'm surprised at that. You're so good a sportsman that +I should think you'd see that if I do what you ask there will be +only one more thing left for me."</p> +<p>For a few minutes she looked at him silently, with fixed gaze, +taking in the full measure of his meaning.</p> +<p>"That's folly," she said at last.</p> +<p>"Is it? Not for me. It might be for some people, but—not +for me. You must remember who I am. I'm a Frenchman. I'm an +aristocrat. I'm a Bienville. I'm a member of a class, of a clan, +that lives and breathes on—honor. I can do without almost +everything in the world but that. I can do without money, I can do +without morals, I can do without most kinds of common honesty, I +can do without nearly all the Christian virtues, and still keep my +place among my friends; but I can't do without that particular +shade of conduct which they and I understand by the word +honor."</p> +<p>"But aren't you doing without it as it is?"</p> +<p>"No; because there again our code is special to ourselves. With +us the crime is not in suspicion or supposition; it isn't even in +detection. It's in admission. It's in confession. All sorts of +things may be thought of you, and said of you, and even known of +you, and you can bluff them out; but when you have acknowledged +them—you're doomed."</p> +<p>"Even so, isn't it better to acknowledge them—and +<i>be</i> doomed?"</p> +<p>"That's the question. That's what I have to decide. That's where +you must help me decide. If you had allowed me, I should have made +up my own mind, on my own responsibility; but you won't let me. Now +that the incident at Lakefield is no good as evidence, I see that +you will never rest until we come to the plainest of plain speech. +The problem I've had to solve is this: Is Diane Eveleth to be +happy, or am I? Is she to rise while I go under, or shall I keep +her down and stay on the surface? Since it's her life or mine, +which is it to be? The alternative may be a brutal one, but there +it is."</p> +<p>"And you've decided in your own favor?"</p> +<p>"So far. I've been actuated by the instinct of +self-preservation."</p> +<p>"And are you going to persist in it?"</p> +<p>"That's for you to tell me. But I should like to remind you +first of this, that if I don't—I go."</p> +<p>"And what if—if I went with you?"</p> +<p>"You couldn't. The journey would be too long."</p> +<p>"But you needn't go so far if I'm there."</p> +<p>"I couldn't take you with me. You must understand that. I once +knew an American girl who married a man who cheated at cards, and +buried herself alive with him. I wouldn't let a woman do that for +me."</p> +<p>"But if she wanted to?"</p> +<p>"In that case she ought to be protected from herself. There's no +use in ruining two lives where one will do."</p> +<p>"There's such a thing as losing your life to find it."</p> +<p>"If so, it's something for me to do—alone."</p> +<p>"Isn't it a kind of moral cowardice to say that?"</p> +<p>"I don't think so. To me it seems only looking things squarely +in the face. I'm not the sort of man for whom there's any +possibility of beginning life anew. A man like me can't live things +down. When once, by his own confession, he has lost his honor, +there's no rehabilitation that can make him a man again. Like Cain, +he has got to go out from the presence of the Lord; only, unlike +Cain, there's no land of Nod waiting to receive him. There's no +place for him anywhere on earth. A few years ago, when I was +motoring in the Black Forest with the d'Aubignys, we dropped into a +little hole of an inn as nearly out of the world as anything could +be. As we approached the door a man got up from a bench and +shambled away. When he had got to what he considered a safe +distance he turned to look at us. I knew him. It was Jacques de la +Tour de Lorme."</p> +<p>"Really?"</p> +<p>"The poor wretch had hidden himself in that God-forsaken spot, +where he supposed no one would be able to track him down; but we +had done it. I've never forgotten his weary gait or the woe-begone +look in his eyes. It is what would come to me if I waited for +it."</p> +<p>"I don't see why. There's no similarity between the cases. +Jacques de La Tour de Lorme did wrong he never could put right. +You'd be doing the very thing he found impossible."</p> +<p>He shook his head. "It wouldn't make any difference in my world. +Nobody there would think of the right or the wrong; they'd only +consider what I'd owned to. It's the confession that would ruin +me."</p> +<p>"Surely you exaggerate. You could do it quietly. No one need +know—outside Derek Pruyn and two or three more of us."</p> +<p>"I don't do things in that way," he said, with an odd return of +his old-time pride. "If I put the woman right, it shall be in the +eyes of the world. I don't ask to have things made easy for me. If +I do it at all, I shall do it thoroughly. I'm not afraid of it or +of anything it entails. It's a curious thing that a man of my +make-up is afraid of being ridiculed or being given the cold +shoulder, but he's not afraid to die."</p> +<p>Though he was looking straight at her, he was too deeply +engrossed in his own thoughts to see how proudly her head went up, +or to note the flash of splendid light in which her glance +enveloped him.</p> +<p>"I was all ready to die," he pursued, in the same meditative +tone, "that morning in the Pré Catalan. George Eveleth could +have had my life for the asking. I'd never known him to miss his +mark, and he wouldn't have missed me—if he hadn't had another +destination for his bullet. I've regretted it more than once. I've +had pretty nearly all that life could give me—and I've made a +mess of it."</p> +<p>"You haven't had—love," she ventured.</p> +<p>"Love?" he echoed, with a short laugh. "I've had every kind of +love but one; and that I'm not worthy of."</p> +<p>"We get a good many things we're not worthy of; but they help us +just the same."</p> +<p>"This wouldn't help me," he returned, speaking very slowly. "I +shouldn't know what to do with it. It would be as useless to me in +my new conditions as a chaplet of pearls to a slave in the galleys. +So, what would you do?"</p> +<p>"I'd do right at any cost."</p> +<p>She scarcely knew that the words were spoken, so intent was her +thought on the strange mixture of elements in his personality. It +was not until she had waited in vain for a response that she found +the echo of her speech still in her mental hearing and recognized +its import. Her first impulse was to cry out and take it back; but +she restrained herself and waited. It was an instant in which the +love of daring, that was so instinctive in her nature, blew, as it +were, a trumpet-challenge to the same passion in his own, while +they sat staring at each other, wide-eyed and speechless, in the +dancing firelight.</p> +<p>XXIV</p> +<p>On the following day the Marquis de Bienville found the +execution of any intentions he might have had toward Derek Pruyn +postponed by the circumstance that Miss Regina van Tromp was dead. +The helpless, inarticulate life, which for three years had served +as a bond to hold more active existences together, had failed +suddenly, leaving in the little group a curious impression of +collapse. It became perceptible that the hushed sick-room, where +Miss Lucilla and Mrs. Eveleth were the only ministrants, had in +reality been a centre for those who never entered it. Now that the +living presence was withdrawn, there came the consciousness of +dispersing interests, inseparable from the passing away of the long +established, which gives the spirit pause. The days before the +funeral became a period of suspended action, in which Life +refrained from too marked a manifestation of its energies, out of +reverence for Death. Even when the grave was filled in, and the +will read, and the family face to face with its new conditions, +there was a respectful absence of hurry in beginning the work of +reconstruction. The lull lasted, in fact, till James van Tromp +arrived from Paris; and it was broken then only by the banker's +desire "to get things settled" with all possible speed, so that he +might return to the Rue Auber.</p> +<p>The first sign of real disintegration came from Mrs. Eveleth. +She had waited for the arrival of the man whom she looked upon now +as her confidential adviser, to make the announcement that, since +Miss Lucilla would no longer need her, she meant to have a home of +her own. The economies she had been able to practise during the +last two years, together with a legacy from Miss van Tromp, would, +when added to "her own income," provide her with modest comfort for +the rest of her days. There was something triumphant in the way in +which she proclaimed her independence of the daughter-in-law who +had been the author of so many of her woes. It was the old banker +himself who brought this intelligence to Diane.</p> +<p>During the fortnight he had been in New York he had formed an +almost daily habit of dropping in on her. She was the more +surprised at his doing so from the fact that her detachment from +the rest of the circle of which she had formed a part was now +complete. She had gone to see Miss Lucilla with words of sympathy, +but her reception was such that she came away with cheeks flaming. +Miss Lucilla had said nothing; she had only wept; but she had wept +in a way to show that Diane herself, more than the departed Miss +Regina, was the motive of her grief. After that Diane had remained +shut up in her linen-room, finding in its occupied seclusion +something of the peace which the nun seeks in the cloister.</p> +<p>There was no one but the old man to push his way into her +sanctuary, and for his visits she was grateful. They not only +relieved the tedium of her days, but they brought her news from +that small world into which her most vital interests had become +absorbed.</p> +<p>"So the old lady is set up for life on your money," he observed, +as he watched Diane hold a white table-cloth up to the light and +search it for imperfections.</p> +<p>"It isn't my money now; and even if it were I'd rather she had +the use of it. She would have had much more than that if it hadn't +been for me."</p> +<p>"She might; and then again she mightn't. Who told <i>you</i> +what would have happened—if everything had been different +from what it is? There are people who think they would have had +plenty of money if it hadn't been for me; but that doesn't prove +they're right."</p> +<p>"In any case I'm glad she has it."</p> +<p>"That's because you're a very foolish little woman, as I told +you when you came to me three years ago. I said then that you'd be +sorry for it some day—"</p> +<p>"But I'm not."</p> +<p>"Tut! tut! Don't tell me! Can't I see with my own eyes? No woman +could lose her good looks as you've done and not know she's made a +mistake. How old are you now?"</p> +<p>"I'm twenty-seven."</p> +<p>"Dear me! dear me! You look forty."</p> +<p>"I feel eighty."</p> +<p>"Yes; I dare say you do. Any one who's got into so many scrapes +as you have must feel the burden of time. I don't think I ever saw +a young woman make such poor use of her opportunities. Why didn't +you marry Derek Pruyn?"</p> +<p>Diane kept herself quite still, her needle arrested half-way +through its stitch. She took time to reflect that it was useless to +feel annoyed at anything he might say, and when she formed her +answer it was in the spirit of meeting him in his own vein.</p> +<p>"What makes you think I ever had the chance?"</p> +<p>"Because I gave it to you myself."</p> +<p>"You, Mr. van Tromp?"</p> +<p>"Yes; me. I did all that wire-pulling when you first came to New +York; and I did it just so that you might catch him."</p> +<p>"Oh?"</p> +<p>"I did," he declared, proudly. "And if you had been the woman I +took you for, you could have had him."</p> +<p>"But suppose I—didn't want him?"</p> +<p>"Oh, don't tell me that," he said, pityingly. "Why shouldn't you +want him?—just as much as he'd want you?"</p> +<p>"Well, I'll put it that way if you like. Suppose he didn't want +me?"</p> +<p>"Then the more fool he. I picked you out for him on +purpose."</p> +<p>"May I ask why?"</p> +<p>"Certainly. I saw he was getting on in life, and, as he'd been a +good many years a widower, I imagined he'd had some difficulty in +getting any one to have him. If he's good-looking, he's not what +you'd call very bright; and he's got a temper like—well, I +won't say what. I'd pity the woman who got him, that's all; and +so—"</p> +<p>"And so you thought you'd pity me."</p> +<p>"I did pity you as it was. It seemed to me you couldn't be worse +off, not even if you married Derek Pruyn."</p> +<p>"It was certainly good of you to give me the opportunity; and if +I had only known—"</p> +<p>"You would have let it slip through your fingers just the same. +You're one of the young women who will always stand in their own +light. I dare say, now, that if I told you I was willing to marry +you myself, you wouldn't profit by the occasion."</p> +<p>"I should never want to profit by your loss, Mr. van Tromp."</p> +<p>"But suppose I could afford—to lose?"</p> +<p>Unable to answer him there, she held her peace, though it was a +relief that, before he had time to speak again, a page-boy knocked +at the door and entered with a card. Diane took it hastily and read +the name.</p> +<p>"Tell the gentleman I can't see him," she said, with a visible +effort to speak steadily.</p> +<p>"Wait!" the banker ordered, as the boy was about to turn. "Who +is it?" Without ceremony he drew the card from Diane's hand and +looked at it. "Heu!" he cried. "It's Bienville, is it? Of course +you'll see him; of course you will; of course! Here, boy, I'll go +with you."</p> +<p>Returning to Gramercy Park after this interview, the banker +pottered about his apartment until, on hearing the door-bell ring, +he looked out of the window and recognized Derek Pruyn's chauffeur. +On the stairs, as he went down, he heard Miss Lucilla's voice in +the hall.</p> +<p>"Oh, come in, Derek. Marion isn't here yet, but she won't be +long. I asked you to come punctually, because I gathered from her +note that she wanted to see you very particularly, and without Mrs. +Bayford's knowledge. She has evidently something on her mind that +she wants to tell you."</p> +<p>"Hello, dears!" the old man interrupted suddenly, as, leaning +heavily on the baluster, he descended the stairs. "I've got good +news for you."</p> +<p>"Good news, Uncle James?" Miss Lucilla said, reproachfully. With +her long, grave face, and in her heavy crape, she looked as though +she found good news decidedly out of place.</p> +<p>"The very best," the banker declared, reaching the hall and +taking his nephew and niece each by an arm. "Come into the library +and I'll tell you. There!" he went on, pushing Miss Lucilla into an +arm-chair. "Sit down, Derek, and make yourself comfortable. Now, +listen, both of you. Perhaps you're going to have a new aunt."</p> +<p>"Oh, Uncle James!" Miss Lucilla cried, in the voice of a person +about to faint.</p> +<p>"You're going to be married!" Derek roared, with the fury of a +father addressing a wayward son.</p> +<p>"The young woman," the banker went on to explain, "is of French +extraction, but Irish on the mother's side."</p> +<p>Derek grasped the arms of his chair and half rose, making an +inarticulate sound.</p> +<p>"'Sh! 'Sh!" the old man went on, lifting a warning hand. "She'd +had reverses of fortune; but that wasn't the reason why she came to +me. Though her husband had just died, leaving nothing, she had her +own <i>dot</i>, on the income of which she could have lived. But +that didn't suit her. Her husband had left a mother, who had +neither <i>dot</i> nor anything else in the world. At the age of +sixty the old woman was a pauper. My little lady came to see me in +order to transfer all her own money secretly to her mother-in-law, +and face the world herself with empty hands."</p> +<p>"My God!" Derek breathed, just audibly. Miss Lucilla sat upright +and tense, hot tears starting to her eyes.</p> +<p>"Plucky, wasn't it?" the uncle went on, complacently. "I didn't +approve of it at first, but I let her do it in the end, knowing +that some good fellow would make it up to her."</p> +<p>"Don't joke, uncle," Derek cried, nervously. "It's too serious +for that."</p> +<p>"I'm not joking. It's what I did think. And if the world wasn't +full of idiots who couldn't tell diamonds from glass, a little +woman like that would have been snapped up long ago."</p> +<p>Derek sprang up and strode across the room.</p> +<p>"Do you mean to tell me," he demanded, turning abruptly, "that +she made over all her money to Mrs. Eveleth—a woman who has +deserted her, like the rest of us?"</p> +<p>"That's what she did; but there's this to be said for the old +lady, that she doesn't know it. She thinks it's the wreck of her +own fortune, and Diane wouldn't let me tell her the truth. Since +you seem to be interested in the little story," he added, with +sarcasm, "you may hear all about it."</p> +<p>With tolerable accuracy he gave the details of his first +interview with Diane, three years previous. Long before he +finished, Lucilla was weeping silently, while Derek stood like a +man turned to stone. Even the banker's own face took on an +expression of whimsical gravity as he said in conclusion:</p> +<p>"And so I've decided to give her a home—that is," he +added, significantly, "if no one else will."</p> +<p>"Do you mean that for me?" Derek asked, in a tone too low for +Lucilla to hear it.</p> +<p>"Oh no—not particularly. I mean it for—any one."</p> +<p>"Because," Derek went on, "as for me—I'm not worthy to +have her under my roof."</p> +<p>The banker made no comment, sitting in a hunched attitude and +humming to himself in a cracked voice while Derek stared down at +him.</p> +<p>They were still in this position when Marion Grimston was shown +in.</p> +<p>XXV</p> +<p>Greetings having been exchanged, it was Miss Lucilla's policy to +draw her uncle away to some other room, leaving Marion free to have +her conference with Pruyn; but the old man settled himself in his +chair again, with no intention of quitting the field. Derek, too, +entered on the task of dislodging him, but without success. Nursing +his knee, and peering at Marion with bulgy, short-sighted eyes, the +banker kept her answering questions as to Mrs. Bayford's health, +blind to her obvious nervousness and distress.</p> +<p>The cousins exchanged baffled, impatient glances, while Lucilla +managed to say in an undertone: "Take Marion to the drawing-room. +We'll never get him to go."</p> +<p>Derek was about to comply with this suggestion, when the footman +threw open the library door again. For a moment no one appeared, +though a sound of smothered voices from the hall caused the four +within the room to sit in strangely aroused expectancy.</p> +<p>"No, no; I can't go in," came a woman's whispered protest. "You +can do it without me."</p> +<p>"You must!" was the man's response; and a second later Bienville +was on the threshold, standing aside as Diane Eveleth entered.</p> +<p>Derek sprang to his feet, but, as if petrified by a sense of his +own impotence, stood still. Miss Lucilla, with the instincts of the +hostess awake, even in these strange conditions, went forward, with +her hand half outstretched and the words "Monsieur de Bienville" on +her lips. The old banker rose, and, taking Diane's hand, drew it +within his arm in a protecting way for which she was grateful, +while she suffered him to lead her some few steps apart. Marion +Grimston alone, seated in a distant corner, did not move. With her +arm resting on a small table, she watched the rapidly enacted scene +with the detachment of a spectator looking at a play. She had +thrown back her black veil over her hat, and against the dark +background her face had the grave, marble whiteness of classic +features in stone.</p> +<p>During the minute of interrogatory silence that ensued, +Bienville, with quick reversion to the habits of the drawing-room, +was able to re-establish his self-control. With his hat, his +gloves, and his stick, he had that air of the casual visitor which +helped to give him back the sensation of having his feet on +accustomed ground.</p> +<p>"I must beg your pardon, Miss van Tromp, for disturbing you," he +said, addressing himself to Miss Lucilla, who stood in the +foreground. "I shouldn't have done so if I hadn't something of +great importance to say."</p> +<p>His voice was so calm that Miss Lucilla could not do otherwise +than reply in the same vein of commonplace formality.</p> +<p>"I'm very glad to see you, Monsieur de Bienville. Won't you sit +down? I was just going to ring for tea."</p> +<p>"Thank you," he said, with a wave of the hand that declined +without words the proffered entertainment. "Perhaps I had better +say what I have to say—and go."</p> +<p>"Oh, if you think so—!"</p> +<p>Having fulfilled her necessary duties as mistress of the house, +she felt at liberty to fall back, leaving Bienville isolated in the +doorway.</p> +<p>"Mr. Pruyn," he said, after further brief hesitation, "I come to +make a confession which can scarcely be a confession to any one in +this room—but you."</p> +<p>Derek grew white to the lips, but remained motionless, while +Bienville went on.</p> +<p>"On the way up from South America last spring I said certain +things about a certain lady which were not true. I said them first +out of thoughtless folly; but I maintained them afterward with +deliberate intent. When I pretended to take them back, I did so in +a way which, as I knew, must convince you further."</p> +<p>"It did."</p> +<p>As he brought out the two words, Derek tried to look at Diane, +but she was clinging to the arm of old James van Tromp, while her +frightened eyes were riveted on Bienville.</p> +<p>"I'm telling you the truth to-day," Bienville continued, "partly +because circumstances have forced my hand, partly because some one +whom I greatly respect desires it, and partly because something +within myself—I might almost call it the manhood I've been +fighting against—has made it imperative. I've come to the +point where my punishment is greater than I can bear. I'm not so +lost to honor as not to know that life is no longer worth the +living when honor is lost to me."</p> +<p>He spoke without a tremor, leaning easily on the cane he held +against his hip.</p> +<p>"I must do myself the justice to say that the wrong of which I +was guilty had its origin, at the first, in a sort of inadvertence. +I had no intention of doing any one irreparable harm. I was taking +part in a game, but I meant to play it fairly. The lady of whom I +speak would bear me out when I say that the people among whom she +and I were born—in France—in Paris—engage in this +game as a sort of sport, and we call it—love. It isn't love +in any of the senses in which you understand it here. We give it a +meaning of our own. It's a game that requires the combination of +many kinds of skill, and, if it doesn't call for a conspicuous +display of virtues, it lays all the greater emphasis on its own +few, stringent rules. Like all other sports, it demands a certain +kind of integrity, in which the moralist could easily pick holes, +but which nevertheless constitutes its saving grace. Well, in this +game of love I—cheated. I said, one day, that I had won, when +I hadn't won. I said it to people who welcomed my victory, not +through friendship for me, but from envy of—her." The +perspiration began to stand in beads upon Bienville's forehead, but +he held himself erect and went on with the same outward +tranquillity. His eyes were fixed on Pruyn's, and Pruyn's on his, +in a gaze from which even the nearest objects were excluded. "In +the little group in which we lived her position was peculiar. She +was both within our gates and without them. While she was one of us +by birth, she was a stranger by education and by marriage. She was +admitted with a welcome, and at the same time with a question. She +was a mark for enmity from the very first. There was some- thing +about her that challenged our institutions. In among our worn-out +passions and moribund ideals she brought a freshness we resented. +She made our prejudices seem absurd from contrast with her own +sanity, and showed our moral standards to be rotten by the light of +the something clear and virginal in her character. I can't tell you +how this effect was brought about, but there were few of us who +weren't aware of it, as there were few of us who didn't hate it. +There was but one impulse among us—to catch her in a fault, +to make her no better than ourselves. The daring of her innocence +afforded us many opportunities; and we made use of them. One man +after another confessed himself defeated. Then came my turn. I +wasn't merely defeated; I was put to utter rout, with ridicule and +scorn. That was too much for me. I couldn't stand it; +and—and—I lied."</p> +<p>"Oh, Bienville, that will do!" Diane cried out, in a pleading +wail. "Don't say any more!"</p> +<p>"I'm not sure that there's any more I need to say. The rest can +be easily understood. Every one knows how a man who lies once is +obliged to lie again, and again, and yet again, unless he frees +himself as I do. When I began I thought I had it in me to go on +heroically—but I hadn't. I can't keep it up. I'm not one of +the master villains, who command respect from force of prowess. I'm +a weakling in evil, as in good, fit neither for God nor for the +devil. But that's my affair. I needn't trouble any one here with +what only concerns myself. It's too late for me to make everything +right now; but I'll do what I can before—before—I +mean," he stammered on, "I'll write. I'll write to the +people—there were only a few of them—to whom I actually +used the words I did. I'll ask them to correct the impression I +have given. I know they'll do it, when they know—"</p> +<p>He stopped helplessly. The lustre died out of his eyes, and his +pallor became sallowness.</p> +<p>"But I've said enough," he began again, making a tremendous +effort to regain his self-mastery. "You can have no doubt as to my +meaning; and you will be able to fill in anything I may have left +unspoken. Now," he added, sweeping the room with a +look—"now—I'd better—go."</p> +<p>"No, by God! you infernal scoundrel," shouted Derek Pruyn, "you +shall not go."</p> +<p>All the suffering of months shot out in the red gleam of his +eyes, while the muscular tension of his neck was like that of an +infuriated mastiff. In three strides he was across the room, with +clinched fist uplifted. Bienville had barely time in which to fold +his arms and stand with feet together and head erect, awaiting the +blow.</p> +<p>"Go on," he said, as Derek stood with hand poised above him. "Go +on."</p> +<p>There was a second of breathless stillness. Then slowly the +clinched fingers began to relax and the open hand descended, +softly, gently, on Bienville's shoulder. Between the two men there +passed a look of things unspeakable, till, with bent head and +drooping figure, Derek wheeled away.</p> +<p>"I'll say good-by—now."</p> +<p>Bienville's voice was husky, but he bowed with dignity to each +member of the company in turn and to Marion Grimston last.</p> +<p>"Raoul!" The name arrested him as he was about to go. He looked +at her inquiringly. "Raoul," she said again, without rising from +her place, "I promised that if you ever did what you've done to-day +I would be your wife."</p> +<p>"You did," he answered, "but I've already given you to +understand that I claim no such reward."</p> +<p>"It isn't you who would be claiming the reward; it's I. I've +suffered much. I've earned it."</p> +<p>"The very fact that you've suffered much would be my motive in +not allowing you to suffer more."</p> +<p>"Raoul, no man knows the sources of a woman's joy and pain. How +can you tell from what to save me?"</p> +<p>"There's one thing from which I <i>must</i> save you: from +uniting your destiny with that of a man who has no +future—from pouring the riches of your heart into a +bottomless pit, where they could do no one any good. I thank you, +Mademoiselle, with all my soul. I've asked you many times for your +love; and of the hard things I've had to do to-day, the hardest is +to give it back to you, now, when at last you offer it. Don't add +to my bitterness by urging it on me."</p> +<p>"But, Raoul," she cried, raising herself up, "you don't +understand. We regard these things differently here from the way in +which you do in France. It may be true, as you say, that in losing +your honor you've lost all—in French eyes; but we don't feel +like that. We never look on any one as beyond redemption. We should +consider that a man who has been brave enough to do what you've +done to-day has gone far to establish his moral regeneration. We +can honor him, in certain ways—in <i>certain</i> ways, +Raoul—almost more than if he had never done wrong at all. +None of us would condemn him, or cast a stone at him—should +we, Lucilla?—should we, Mr. Pruyn?"</p> +<p>"No, no," Miss Lucilla sobbed. "We'd pity him; we'd take him to +our hearts."</p> +<p>"She's right, Bienville," Derek muttered, nodding toward Marion. +"Better do just as she says."</p> +<p>"I'm a Frenchman. I'm a Bienville. I can't accept mercy."</p> +<p>"But you can bestow it," the girl cried, passionately. "Any one +would tell you that, after all that has happened—after +this—I should be happier in sharing your life than in being +shut out of it. I appeal to you, Miss Lucilla! I appeal to you, +Diane!—wouldn't any woman be proud to be the wife of Raoul de +Bienville after what he has done this afternoon, no matter how the +world turned against him?"</p> +<p>"These ladies, in the goodness of their hearts, might say +anything they chose; but nothing would alter their conviction that +for you to be my wife would be only to add misery to mistake."</p> +<p>"That's so," the old banker corroborated, smacking his lips, +"but you wouldn't be much worse when you'd done that than you are +now; so why not just let her have her way?"</p> +<p>Bienville tried to speak again, but his dry lips refused to +frame the words.</p> +<p>"Noble ... impossible ... drag you down," came incoherently from +him, when by a quick backward movement he stepped over the +threshold into the semi-obscurity of the hail.</p> +<p>The act was so sudden that seconds had already elapsed before +Marion Grimston uttered the cry that rent her like the wail of some +strong, primordial creature without the power of tears.</p> +<p>"Raoul, come back!"</p> +<p>With rapid motion she glided across the room and was in the +hail.</p> +<p>"Raoul, come back!"</p> +<p>She had descended the hail, and had almost reached him as he +opened the door to pass out.</p> +<p>"Raoul, I love you!"</p> +<p>But the door closed as, falling against it, she sank to the +floor. Before Miss Lucilla and James van Tromp could reach her she +was already losing consciousness.</p> +<p>XXVI</p> +<p>"No; stay where you are; I'll go." Derek spoke with the terse +command of subdued excitement, almost pushing Diane back, as she, +too, attempted to go to Marion's assistance. She sank obediently +into one of the great chairs, too dazed even for curiosity as to +what was passing in the hail. Derek closed the door behind him, +and, though confused sounds of voices and shuffling feet reached +her, she gave them but a dulled attention. It was not till he came +back that her stunned intelligence revived sufficiently to enable +her to think.</p> +<p>He closed the door again, throwing himself wearily into another +of the big leathern chairs.</p> +<p>"They've taken her into Lucilla's room. She'll be all right now. +It was better that it should end like that."</p> +<p>"I'm not so sure. I'm afraid for him."</p> +<p>"Oh, he'll survive it."</p> +<p>"You don't know our Frenchmen. They're not like you, nor any of +your men. With their sensitiveness to honor and their indifference +to moral right, it's difficult for you to understand them. I +shouldn't be surprised at anything he might do."</p> +<p>"I'll go and see him to-morrow and try to knock a little reason +into him."</p> +<p>"If it isn't too late."</p> +<p>"Oh, I dare say it will be. Everything seems to be—too +late."</p> +<p>"It's better that some things should come too late rather than +not at all."</p> +<p>"What things do you mean?"</p> +<p>"I suppose I mean the same things as you do." He gave a long +sigh that was something of a groan, slipping down in his chair into +an attitude, not of informality, but of dejection. For the moment +neither was equal to facing the great subjects that must be +met.</p> +<p>"I wonder what Bienville will do to himself?" he asked, +suddenly, changing his position with nervous brusqueness, leaning +forward now, with his elbows on his knees. "I wish you'd go and see +him to-night."</p> +<p>"Well, perhaps I will. I've a good deal of fellow-feeling with +him. I can't help thinking that he and I are in much the same box, +and that he has shown me the way Out."</p> +<p>"Derek!"</p> +<p>She sprang up with a cry of alarm, standing, with hands crossed +on her breast, in a sudden access of terror.</p> +<p>"Oh, don't be afraid," he laughed, grimly, staring up at her. +"I'm not his sort. There are no heroics about me. Men of my stamp +don't make theatrical exits; we're too confoundedly sane. Whether +we do well or whether we do ill, we plod along on our treadmill +round, from the house to the office, and from the office to the +grave, as if we never had anything on the conscience. But if I had +the spirit of Bienville, do you know what I should do?"</p> +<p>"No, no, no!" she burst out. "Don't say it! Don't say it!"</p> +<p>"Then I won't. But if Bienville thought of it, why shouldn't I? +What has he done that is worse than what I've done? What has he +done that's as bad? For, after all, you were little or nothing to +him, when you were everything to me. I knew you as he didn't know +you. I had lived in one house with you, watched you, studied you, +tried you, put you to tests that you never knew anything about, and +had seen you come through them successfully. I had seen how you +bore misfortune; I had seen how you carried yourself in difficult +situations; I had seen the skill with which you ruled my house, and +the wisdom with which you were more than a mother to my child; I +had seen you combine with all that is most womanly the patience and +fortitude of a man; and it wasn't enough for me—it wasn't +enough for me!"</p> +<p>He threw himself back into his seat, with a desperate flinging +out of the hands, letting his arms drop heavily over the sides of +his chair till his fingers touched the floor.</p> +<p>"My God! My God!" he groaned, ironically. "It wasn't enough for +me! I doubted her. I doubted her on the first idle word that came +my way. I did more than doubt her. I haled her into my court, and +tried her, and condemned her, and, as nearly as might be, put her +to death. I, with my ten hundred thousand sins—all of them as +black as Erebus—found her not pure enough for me! It ought to +make one die of laughter. Diane," he went on, in another +tone—a tone of ghastly jocularity—"didn't it amuse you, +knowing yourself to be what you are—knowing what you had done +for Mrs. Eveleth—knowing the things Bienville has just said +of you—didn't it amuse you to see me sitting in judgment on +you?"</p> +<p>"It doesn't amuse me to see you sitting in judgment on +yourself."</p> +<p>"Doesn't it? I should think it would. It seems to me that if I +saw a man who had done me so much harm visited with such awful +justice as I'm getting now, it would make up to me for nearly +everything I ever had to suffer."</p> +<p>"In my case it only adds to it. I wish you wouldn't say these +things. If you ever did me wrong, I always knew it was—by +mistake."</p> +<p>"Oh, Lord! Oh, Lord!" He laughed outright, getting up from his +chair and dragging himself heavily across the room, where, with his +hands in his pockets and his back against the bookshelves, he stood +facing her. "What do you think of Bienville's attitude toward +Marion Grimston?" he asked, with an inflection that would have +sounded casual if it had not been for all that lay behind.</p> +<p>"I can understand it; but I think he was wrong."</p> +<p>"You think he ought to allow her to marry him?"</p> +<p>"Weighing one thing with another—yes."</p> +<p>"Would you marry a man who had shown himself such a hound?"</p> +<p>"It would depend."</p> +<p>"On what?"</p> +<p>"Oh, on a good many things."</p> +<p>"Such as—?"</p> +<p>She hesitated a minute before deciding whether or not to walk +into his trap, but, as his eyes were on the ground and she felt +stronger than a minute or two ago, she decided to do it.</p> +<p>"It would depend, for one thing, on whether or not I loved +him."</p> +<p>"And if you did love him?"</p> +<p>Again she hesitated, before making up her mind to speak.</p> +<p>"Then it would depend on whether or not he loved me."</p> +<p>She had given him his chance. The word he had never uttered must +come now or never. For an instant he seemed about to seize his +opportunity; but when he actually spoke it was only to say:</p> +<p>"Would <i>you</i> marry <i>me</i>?"</p> +<p>"No." She gave her answer firmly.</p> +<p>"No?"</p> +<p>"No."</p> +<p>"Why?"</p> +<p>She shrugged her shoulders and threw out her hands, but said +nothing in words.</p> +<p>"Is it because I haven't expressed regret for all the things I +have—to regret?"</p> +<p>She shook her head.</p> +<p>"Because if it is," he went on, "I haven't done it only for the +reason that the utmost expression would be so inadequate as to +become a mockery. When a man has sinned against light, as I've +done, no mere cries of contrition are going to win him pardon. That +must come as a spontaneous act of grace, as it wells out of the +heart of the Most High—or it can't come at all."</p> +<p>"That isn't the reason."</p> +<p>"Then there's another one?"</p> +<p>"Yes; another one."</p> +<p>"One that's insurmountable?"</p> +<p>"Yes, as things are—that's insurmountable."</p> +<p>With a look of dumb, unresenting sadness, he turned away, and, +leaning on the mantelpiece, stood with his back toward her, and his +face buried in his hands.</p> +<a name="p354" id="p354"></a> +<div class="figcenter" style="width:75%;"><a href= +"images/p354.png"><img width="75%" src="images/p354.png" alt= +"SINCE THE INNER SHRINE IS UNLOCKED— AT LAST— I'LL GO IN" /> +</a></div> +<p>Minutes went by in silence. When he spoke it was over his +shoulder, and, as it were, parenthetically:</p> +<p>"But, Diane, I love you."</p> +<p>He stood as he was, listening, but as if without much +expectation, for a response. When none came, and he turned round +inquiringly, he beheld in her that radiant change which was visible +to those who saw the martyred Stephen's face as he gazed straight +into heaven.</p> +<p>For a long minute he stood spellbound and amazed.</p> +<p>"Was it that?" he asked, in a whisper.</p> +<p>She gave him no reply.</p> +<p>"It was that," he declared, in the tone of a man making a +discovery. "It <i>was</i> that."</p> +<p>"Why didn't you tell me so before?" she found strength to +say.</p> +<p>"Tell you, Diane? What was the use of telling you—when you +knew? My life has been open, for you to look into as you +would."</p> +<p>"Yes, but not to go into. There's only one key that unlocks the +inner shrine of all—the word you've just spoken. A woman +knows nothing till she hears it."</p> +<p>He looked at her with the puzzled air of a man getting strange +information.</p> +<p>"Well," he said, after a long pause, "you've heard it. So +what—now?"</p> +<p>"Now I'm willing to say that I love you."</p> +<p>"Oh, but I knew that already," he returned. "A man doesn't need +to be told what he can see. That isn't what I'm asking. What I want +to learn is, not what you feel, but what you'll—do."</p> +<p>She smiled faintly.</p> +<p>"I'm asking what you'll—do?" he repeated.</p> +<p>"If you insist on my telling you that," she said glancing up at +him shyly, "I'll say that—since the inner shrine is +unlocked—at last—I'll go in."</p> +<p>"Then, come, come."</p> +<p>He stood with arms open, his tone of petition still blended with +a suggestion of command, as she crossed the room toward him.</p> +<p>THE END</p> +<hr class="full" /> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14393 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/14393-h/images/cover.jpg b/14393-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..26d2256 --- /dev/null +++ b/14393-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/14393-h/images/frontispiece.png b/14393-h/images/frontispiece.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1de5432 --- /dev/null +++ b/14393-h/images/frontispiece.png diff --git a/14393-h/images/p046.png b/14393-h/images/p046.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e4cb4fd --- /dev/null +++ b/14393-h/images/p046.png diff --git a/14393-h/images/p078.png b/14393-h/images/p078.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..12c95f3 --- /dev/null +++ b/14393-h/images/p078.png diff --git a/14393-h/images/p152.png b/14393-h/images/p152.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..823f7a6 --- /dev/null +++ b/14393-h/images/p152.png diff --git a/14393-h/images/p202.png b/14393-h/images/p202.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c6ffd3d --- /dev/null +++ b/14393-h/images/p202.png diff --git a/14393-h/images/p252.png b/14393-h/images/p252.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2aa621 --- /dev/null +++ b/14393-h/images/p252.png diff --git a/14393-h/images/p260.png b/14393-h/images/p260.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..44398be --- /dev/null +++ b/14393-h/images/p260.png diff --git a/14393-h/images/p264.png b/14393-h/images/p264.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dd5206d --- /dev/null +++ b/14393-h/images/p264.png diff --git a/14393-h/images/p354.png b/14393-h/images/p354.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..15d2eff --- /dev/null +++ b/14393-h/images/p354.png |
