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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Paradise Garden, by George Gibbs
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Paradise Garden
+       The Satirical Narrative of a Great Experiment
+
+Author: George Gibbs
+
+Release Date: April 6, 2005 [EBook #15570]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARADISE GARDEN ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+  PARADISE GARDEN
+
+  _THE SATIRICAL NARRATIVE
+  OF A GREAT EXPERIMENT_
+
+
+  BY
+  GEORGE GIBBS
+
+  AUTHOR OF THE YELLOW DOVE, ETC.
+
+
+     _I have considered well his loss of time
+     And how he cannot be a perfect man
+     Not being tried and tutored in the world._
+
+     --TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.
+
+
+  ILLUSTRATED BY WILLIAM A. HOTTINGER
+
+
+  GROSSET & DUNLAP
+  PUBLISHERS NEW YORK
+
+  Printed in the United States of America
+
+
+[Illustration: "'Love!' he sneered ... 'I thought you'd say that.'"]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+CHAPTER
+
+     I. THE GREAT EXPERIMENT
+
+    II. JERRY
+
+   III. JERRY GROWS
+
+    IV. ENTER EVE
+
+     V. THE MINX RETURNS
+
+    VI. THE CABIN
+
+   VII. JACK BALLARD TAKES CHARGE
+
+  VIII. JERRY EMERGES
+
+    IX. FOOT-WORK
+
+     X. MARCIA
+
+    XI. THE SIREN
+
+   XII. INTRODUCING JIM ROBINSON
+
+  XIII. UNA
+
+   XIV. JERRY GOES INTO TRAINING
+
+    XV. THE UNKNOWN UNMASKED
+
+   XVI. THE FIGHT
+
+  XVII. MARCIA RECANTS
+
+ XVIII. TWO EMBASSIES
+
+   XIX. THE PATH IN THE WOODS
+
+    XX. REVOLT
+
+   XXI. JERRY ASKS QUESTIONS
+
+  XXII. THE CHIPMUNK
+
+ XXIII. THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY
+
+  XXIV. FEET OF CLAY
+
+  XXV. THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
+
+ XXVI. DRYAD AND SATYR
+
+XXVII. REVELATIONS
+
+
+
+
+LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+"'Love!' he sneered ... 'I thought you'd say that.'"
+
+"In the evenings sometimes I read while Jerry whittled"
+
+"This then was Jerry's house-party--!"
+
+"'Have pity, Jerry,' she whimpered"
+
+
+
+
+PARADISE GARDEN
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+THE GREAT EXPERIMENT
+
+
+It might be better if Jerry Benham wrote his own memoir, for no matter
+how veracious, this history must be more or less colored by the point
+of view of one irrevocably committed to an ideal, a point of view
+which Jerry at least would insist was warped by scholarship and stodgy
+by habit. But Jerry, of course, would not write it and couldn't if he
+would, for no man, unless lacking in sensibility, can write a true
+autobiography, and least of all could Jerry do it. To commit him to
+such a task would be much like asking an artist to paint himself into
+his own landscape. Jerry could have painted nothing but impressions of
+externals, leaving out perforce the portrait of himself which is the
+only thing that matters. So I, Roger Canby, bookworm, pedagogue and
+student of philosophy, now recite the history of the Great Experiment
+and what came of it.
+
+It is said that Solomon and Job have best spoken of the misery of man,
+the former the most fortunate, the latter the most unfortunate of
+creatures. And yet it seems strange to me that John Benham, the
+millionaire, Jerry's father, cynic and misogynist, and Roger Canby,
+bookworm and pauper, should each have arrived, through different
+mental processes, at the same ideal and philosophy of life. We both
+disliked women, not only disliked but feared and distrusted them,
+seeing in the changed social order a menace to the peace of the State
+and the home. The difference between us was merely one of condition;
+for while I kept my philosophy secret, being by nature reticent and
+unassertive, John Benham had both the means and the courage to put his
+idealism into practice.
+
+Life seldom makes rapid adjustments to provide for its mistakes, and
+surely only the happiest kind of accident could have thrown me into
+the breach when old John Benham died, for I take little credit to
+myself in saying that there are few persons who could have fitted so
+admirably into a difficult situation.
+
+Curiously enough this happy accident had come from the most unexpected
+source. I had tried and failed at many things since leaving the
+University. I had corrected proofs in a publishing office, I had
+prepared backward youths for their exams, and after attempting life in
+a broker's office downtown, for which I was as little fitted as I
+should have been for the conquest of the Polar regions, I found myself
+one fine morning down to my last few dollars, walking the streets with
+an imminent prospect of speedy starvation. The fact of death, as an
+alternative to the apparently actual, did not disconcert me. I
+shouldn't have minded dying in the least, were it not for the fact
+that I had hoped before that event to have expounded for modern
+consumption certain theories of mine upon the dialectics of Hegel. As
+my money dwindled I was reduced to quite necessary economies, and
+while not what may be called a heavy eater, I am willing to admit
+that there were times when I felt distinctly empty. Curiously enough,
+my philosophy did little to relieve me of that physical condition, for
+as someone has said, "Philosophy is a good horse in the stable, but an
+arrant jade on a journey."
+
+But it seems that the journeying of my jade was near its ending. For
+upon this morning, fortune threw me into the way of a fellow who had
+been in my class at the University, who was to be my _deus ex
+machina_. No two persons in the world could have been more dissimilar
+than "Jack" Ballard and I, and yet, perhaps for that reason, there had
+always been a kind of affinity between us. He was one of the
+wealthiest men in my class and was now, as he gleefully informed me,
+busily engaged clipping coupons in his father's office, "with office
+hours from two to three some Thursdays." Of course, that was his idea
+of a joke, for it seems quite obvious that a person who gave so little
+time to his business had better have kept no hours at all. He greeted
+me warmly and led me into his club, which happened to be near by,
+where over the lunch table he finally succeeded in eliciting the fact
+that I was down to my last dollar with prospects far from encouraging.
+
+"Good old Pope!" he cried, clapping me on the back. "Pope" was my
+pseudonym at the University, conferred in a jocular moment by Ballard
+himself on account of a fancied resemblance to Urban the Eighth. "Just
+the man! Wonder why I didn't think of you before!" And while I
+wondered what he was coming at, "How would, you like to make a neat
+five thousand a year?"
+
+I laughed him off, not sure that this wasn't a sample of the Ballard
+humor.
+
+"Anything," I said, trying to smile, "short of murder--"
+
+"Oh, I am not joking!" he went on with an encouraging flash of
+seriousness. "Five thousand a year cool, and no expenses--livin' on
+the fat of the land, with nothin' to do but--"
+
+He broke off suddenly and grasped me by the arm.
+
+"Did you ever hear of old John Benham, the multi-millionaire?" he
+asked. I remarked that my acquaintance with millionaires, until that
+moment, had not been large.
+
+"Oh, of course," he laughed, "if I had mentioned Xenophon, you'd have
+pricked up your ears like an old war horse. But John Benham, as a name
+to conjure with, means nothing to you. You must know then that John
+Benham was for years the man of mystery of Wall Street. Queer old
+bird! Friend of the governor's, or at least as much of a friend of the
+governor's as he ever was of anybody. Made a pot of money in
+railroads. Millions! Of course, if you've never heard of Benham you've
+never heard of the Wall."
+
+I hadn't.
+
+"Well, the Benham Wall in Greene County is one of the wonders of the
+age. It's nine feet high, built of solid masonry and encloses five
+thousand acres of land."
+
+Figures meant nothing to me and I told him so.
+
+"The strange thing about it is that there's no mystery at all. The old
+man had no secrets except in business and no past that anybody could
+care about. But he was a cold-blooded proposition. No man ever had
+his confidence, no woman ever had his affection except his wife, and
+when she died all that was human in him was centered on his son, the
+sole heir to twenty millions. Lucky little beggar. What?"
+
+"I'm not so sure," I put in slowly.
+
+"Now this is where you come in," Ballard went on quickly. "It seems
+that inside his crusty shell old Benham was an idealist of sorts with
+queer ideas about the raising of children. His will is a wonder. He
+directs his executors (the governor's one of six, you know) to bring
+up his boy inside that stone wall at Horsham Manor, with no knowledge
+of the world except what can be gotten from an expurgated edition of
+the classics. He wants him brought to manhood as nearly as can be
+made, a perfect specimen of the human male animal without one thought
+of sex. It's a weird experiment, but I don't see why it shouldn't be
+interesting."
+
+"Interesting!" I muttered, trying to conceal my amazement and delight.
+
+"The executors must proceed at once. The boy is still under the care
+of a governess. On the twelfth of December he will be ten years of
+age. The woman is to go and a man takes her place. I think I can put
+you in. Will you take it?"
+
+"I?" I said, a little bewildered. "What makes you think I'm qualified
+for such an undertaking?"
+
+"Because you were the best scholar in the class, and because you're a
+blessed philosopher with leanings toward altruism. A poor helpless
+little millionaire with no one to lean on must certainly excite your
+pity. You're just the man for the job, I tell you. And if you said
+you'd do it, you'd put it over."
+
+"And if I couldn't put it over?" I laughed. "A growing youth isn't a
+fifteen-pound shot or a football, Ballard."
+
+"You could if you wanted to. Five thousand a year isn't to be sneezed
+at."
+
+"I assure you that I've never felt less like sneezing in my life,
+but--"
+
+"Think, man," he urged, "all expenses paid, a fine house, horses,
+motors, the life of a country gentleman. In short, your own rooms,
+time to read yourself stodgy if you like, and a fine young cub to
+build in your own image."
+
+"Mine?" I gasped.
+
+He laughed.
+
+"Good Lord, Pope! You always did hate 'em, you know."
+
+"Hate? Who?"
+
+"Women."
+
+I felt myself frowning.
+
+"Women! No, I do not love women and I have some reasons for believing
+that women do not love me. I have never had any money and my
+particular kind of pulchritude doesn't appeal to them. Hence their
+indifference. Hence mine. Like begets like, Jack."
+
+He laughed.
+
+"I have reasons for believing the antipathy is deeper than that."
+
+I shrugged the matter off. It is one which I find little pleasure in
+discussing.
+
+"You may draw whatever inference you please," I finished dryly.
+
+He lighted a cigarette and inhaled it jubilantly.
+
+"Don't you see," he said, "that it all goes to show that you're
+precisely the man the governor's looking for? What do you say?"
+
+I hesitated, though every dictate of inclination urged. Here was an
+opportunity to put to the test a most important theory of the old
+Socratic doctrine, that true knowledge is to be elicited from within
+and is to be sought for in ideas and not in particulars of sense. What
+a chance! A growing youth in seclusion. Such a magnificent seclusion!
+Where I could try him in my own alembic! Still I hesitated. The
+imminence of such good fortune made me doubt my own efficiency.
+
+"Suppose I was the wrong man," I quibbled for want of something better
+to say.
+
+"The executors will have to take their chance on that," he said,
+rising with the air of a man who has rounded out a discussion. "Come!
+Let's settle the thing."
+
+Ballard had always had a way with him, a way as foreign to my own as
+the day from night. From my own point of view I had always held Jack
+lightly, and yet I had never disliked him--nor did I now--for there
+was little doubt of his friendliness and sincerity. So I rose and
+followed him, my docility the philosophy of a full stomach plus the
+chance of testing the theory of probabilities; for to a man who for
+six years had reckoned life by four walls of a room and a shelf of
+books this was indeed an adventure. I was already meshed in the loom
+of destiny. He led me to a large automobile of an atrocious red color
+which was standing at the curb, and in this we were presently hurled
+through the crowded middle city to the lower part of the town, which,
+it is unnecessary for me to say, I cordially detested, and brought up
+before a building, the entire lower floor of which was given over to
+the opulent offices of Ballard, Wrenn and Halloway.
+
+Ballard the elder was tall like his son, but here the resemblance
+ceased, for while Ballard the younger was round of visage and jovial,
+the banker was thin of face and repressive. He had a long, accipitrine
+nose which imbedded itself in his bristling white mustache, and he
+spoke in crisp staccato notes as though each intonation and breath
+were carefully measured by their monetary value. He paid out to me in
+cash a half an hour, during which he questioned and I replied while
+Jack grinned in the background. And at the end of that period of time
+the banker rose and dismissed me with much the air of one who has
+perused a document and filed it in the predestined pigeonhole. I felt
+that I had been rubber-stamped, docketed and passed into oblivion.
+What he actually said was:
+
+"Thanks, I'll write. Good afternoon."
+
+The vision of the Great Experiment which had been flitting in
+rose-color before my eyes, was as dim as the outer corridor where I
+was suddenly aware of Jack Ballard's voice at my ear and his friendly
+clutch upon my elbow.
+
+"You'll do," he laughed. "I was positive of it."
+
+"I can't imagine how you reach that conclusion," I put in rather
+tartly, still reminiscent of the rubber stamp.
+
+"Oh," he said, his eye twinkling, "simplest thing in the world. The
+governor's rather brief with those he doesn't like."
+
+"Brief! I feel as though I'd just emerged from a glacial douche."
+
+"Oh, he's nippy. But he never misses a trick, and he got your number
+all O.K."
+
+As we reached the street I took his hand.
+
+"Thanks, Ballard," I said warmly. "It's been fine of you, but I'm
+sorry that I can't share your hopes."
+
+"Rot! The thing's as good as done. There's another executor or two to
+be consulted, but they'll be glad enough to take the governor's
+judgment. You'll hear from him tomorrow. In the meanwhile," and he
+thrust a paper into my hands, "read this. It's interesting. It's John
+Benham's brief for masculine purity with a few remarks (not taken from
+Hegel) upon the education and training of the child."
+
+We had reached the corner of the street when he stopped and took out
+his watch.
+
+"Unfortunately this is the Thursday that I work," he laughed, "and
+it's past two o'clock, so good-by. I'll stop in for you tomorrow," and
+with a flourish of the hand he left me.
+
+Still dubious as to the whole matter, which had left me rather
+bewildered, when I reached my shabby room I took out the envelope
+which Ballard had handed me and read the curious paper that it
+contained.
+
+As I began reading this remarkable document (neatly typed and
+evidently copied from the original in John Benham's own hand) I
+recognized some of the marks of the Platonic philosophy and read with
+immediate attention. Before I had gone very far it was quite clear to
+me that the pedagogue who took upon himself the rearing of the infant
+Benham, must himself be a creature of infinite wisdom and discretion.
+As far as these necessary qualifications were concerned, I saw no
+reason why I should refuse. The old man's obvious seriousness of
+purpose interested me.
+
+"It is my desire that my boy, Jeremiah, be taught simple religious
+truths and then simple moral truths, learning thereby insensibly the
+lessons of good manners and good taste. In his reading of Homer and
+Hesiod the tricks and treacheries of the gods are to be banished, the
+terrors of the world below to be dispelled, and the misbehavior of the
+Homeric heroes are to be censured.
+
+"If there is such a thing as original sin--and this I beg leave to
+doubt, having looked into the eyes of my boy and failed to find it
+there--then teaching can eradicate it, especially teaching under such
+conditions as those which I now impose. The person who will be chosen
+by my executors for the training of my boy will be first of all a man
+of the strictest probity. He will assume this task with a grave sense
+of his responsibility to me and to his Maker. If after a proper period
+of time he does not discover in his own heart a sincere affection for
+my child, he will be honest enough to confess the truth, and be
+discharged of the obligation. For it is clear that without love, such
+an experiment is foredoomed to failure. To a man such as my mind has
+pictured, affection here will not be difficult, for nature has favored
+Jerry with gifts of mind and body."
+
+Everywhere in John Benham's instructions there were signs of a deep
+and corroding cynicism which no amount of worldly success had been
+able to dispel. Everywhere could be discovered a hatred of modern
+social forms and a repugnance for the modern woman, against whom he
+warns the prospective tutor in language which is as unmistakable as
+the Benham Wall. It pleased me to find at least one wise man who
+agreed with me in this particular. Until the age of twenty-one, woman
+was to be taboo for Jerry Benham, not only her substance, but her
+essence. Like the mention of hell to ears polite, she was forbidden at
+Horsham Manor. No woman was to be permitted to come upon the estate in
+any capacity. The gardeners, grooms, gamekeepers, cooks, house
+servants--all were to be men at good wages chosen for their discretion
+in this excellent conspiracy. The penalty for infraction of this rule
+of silence was summary dismissal.
+
+I read the pages through until the end, and then sat for a long while
+thinking, the wonderful possibilities of the plan taking a firmer hold
+upon me. The Perfect Man! And I, Roger Canby, should make him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+JERRY
+
+
+With Ballard the elder, to whom and to those plutocratic associates,
+as had been predicted, my antecedents and acquirements had proven
+satisfactory, I journeyed on the twelfth of December to Greene County
+in the Ballard limousine. A rigorous watch was kept upon the walls of
+Horsham Manor, and in response to the ring of the chauffeur at the
+solid wooden gates at the lodge, a small window opened and a red
+visage appeared demanding credentials. Ballard put the inquisitor to
+some pains, testing his efficiency, but finally produced his card and
+revealed his identity, after which the gates flew open and we entered
+the forbidden ground.
+
+It was an idyllic spot, as I soon discovered, of fine rolling country,
+well wooded and watered, the road of macadam, rising slowly from the
+entrance gates, turning here and there through a succession of natural
+parks, along the borders of a lake of considerable size, toward the
+higher hills at the further end of the estate, among which, my
+companion told me, were built the Manor house and stables. Except for
+the excellent road itself, no attempt had been made to use the art of
+the landscape gardener in the lower portion of the tract, which had
+been left as nature had made it, venerable woodland, with a
+well-tangled undergrowth, where rabbits, squirrels and deer abounded,
+but as we neared the hills, which rose with considerable dignity
+against the pale, wintry sky, the signs of man's handiwork became
+apparent. A hedge here, a path there, bordered with privet or
+rhododendron; a comfortable looking farmhouse, commodious barns and
+well-fenced pastures, where we passed a few men who touched their caps
+and stared after us.
+
+"It's lucky you care nothing for women, Canby," said Mr. Ballard
+crisply; "this monastic idea may not bother you."
+
+"It doesn't in the least, Mr. Ballard," I said dryly. "I shall survive
+the ordeal with composure."
+
+He glanced at me, smiled and then went on.
+
+"Except for the presence of Miss Redwood, who goes today, the new
+regulation has been in force here for a month. The farmers and
+gamekeepers are all bachelors. We have an excellent steward, also a
+bachelor. You and he will understand each other. In all things that
+pertain to the boy he is under your orders. Questions of authority
+where you differ are to be referred to me."
+
+"I understand. I am not difficult to get on with."
+
+My employer had described to me thoroughly but quite impersonally all
+the conditions of his trust and mine, but had made no comments which
+by the widest stretch of imagination could be construed into opinions.
+He gave me the impression then as he did later that he was carrying
+out strictly the letter of his instructions from the dead. He had a
+face graven into austere lines, which habit had schooled into perfect
+obedience to his will. He might have believed the experiment to which
+he was committed a colossal joke, and no sign of his opinion would be
+reflected in his facial expression, which was, save on unimportant
+matters, absolutely unchanging. Nor did he seem to care what my own
+thoughts might be in regard to the matter, though I had not refrained
+from expressing my interest in the project. My character, my
+reputation for conscientiousness, my qualifications for the position
+were all that seemed to concern him. I was merely a piece of
+machinery, the wheels of which he was to set in motion, which would
+perform its allotted task to his satisfaction.
+
+The road soon reached an eminence from which Horsham Manor was
+visible, a fine Georgian house set handsomely enough in a cleft of the
+hills, before which were broad lawns that sloped to the south and
+terminated at the borders of a stream which meandered through a rocky
+bed to the lake below. Wealth such as this had never awed me. John
+Benham with all his stores of dollars had been obliged to come at last
+to a penurious philosopher to solve for his son the problem of life
+that had baffled the father. So intent was I upon the house which was
+to be my home that I caught but a glimpse of the fine valley of meadow
+and wood which ended in the faint purplish hills, beyond which
+somewhere was the Hudson River.
+
+It was evident that our arrival had been telephoned from the lodge at
+the gate, for as the machine drew up at the main doorway of the house
+a servant in livery appeared and opened the door.
+
+"Ah, Christopher," said my companion. "Is Mr. Radford about?"
+
+"Yes, sir. He'll be up in a minute, sir."
+
+"This is Mr. Canby, Christopher, Master Jeremiah's new tutor."
+
+"Yes, sir, you'll find Miss Redwood and Master Jerry in the library."
+
+We went up the steps while the aged butler (who had lived with John
+Benham) followed with the valises, and were ushered into the library,
+where my pupil and his governess awaited us.
+
+I am a little reluctant to admit at this time that my earliest
+impression of the subject of these memoirs was disappointing. Perhaps
+the dead man's encomiums had raised my hopes. Perhaps the barriers
+which hedged in this most exclusive of youngsters had increased his
+importance in my thoughts. What I saw was a boy of ten, well grown for
+his years, who ambled forward rather sheepishly and gave me a moist
+and rather flabby hand to shake.
+
+He was painfully embarrassed. If I had been an ogre and Jerry the
+youth allotted for his repast, he could not have shown more distress.
+He was distinctly nursery-bred and, of course, unused to visitors, but
+he managed a smile, and I saw that he was making the best of a bad
+job. After the preliminaries of introduction, amid which Mr. Radford,
+the steward of the estate, appeared, I managed to get the boy aside.
+
+"I feel a good deal like the Minotaur, Jerry. Did you ever hear of the
+Minotaur?"
+
+He hadn't, and so I told him the story. "But I'm not going to eat
+_you_," I laughed.
+
+I had broken the ice, for a smile, a genuine joyous smile, broke
+slowly and then flowed in generous ripples across his face.
+
+"You're different, aren't you?" he said presently, his brown eyes now
+gravely appraising me.
+
+"How different, Jerry?" I asked.
+
+He hesitated a moment and then:
+
+"I--I thought you'd come all in black with a lot of grammar books
+under your arms."
+
+"I don't use 'em," I said. "I'm a boy, just like you, only I've got
+long trousers on. We're not going to bother about books for awhile."
+
+He still inspected me as though he wasn't quite sure it wasn't all a
+mistake. And then again:
+
+"Can you talk Latin?"
+
+"Bless you, I'm afraid not."
+
+"Oh!" he sighed, though whether in relief or disappointment I couldn't
+say.
+
+"But you can do sums in your head and spell hippopotamus?"
+
+"I might," I laughed. "But I wouldn't if I didn't have to."
+
+"But _I'll_ have to, won't I?"
+
+"Oh, some day."
+
+"I'm afraid _I_ never can," he sighed again.
+
+I began to understand now. His mind was feminine and at least three
+years backward. There wasn't a mark of the boy of ten about him. But I
+liked his eyes. They were wide and inquiring. It wouldn't be difficult
+to gain his confidence.
+
+"Are you sorry Miss Redwood is going?" I asked him.
+
+"Yes. She plays games."
+
+"I know some games, too--good ones."
+
+He brightened, but said nothing for a moment, though I saw him
+stealing a glance at me. Whatever the object of his inspection, I
+seemed to have passed it creditably, for he said rather timidly:
+
+"Would you like to see my bull pup?"
+
+It was the first remark that sounded as though it came from the heart
+of a real boy. I had won the first line of entrenchments around
+Jerry's reserve. When a boy asks you to see his bull pup he confers
+upon you at once the highest mark of his approval.
+
+I only repeat this ingenuous and unimportant conversation to show my
+first impression of what seemed to me then to be a rather commonplace
+and colorless boy. I did not realize then how strong could be the
+effect of such an environment. Miss Redwood, as I soon discovered, was
+a timid, wilting individual, who had brought him successfully through
+the baby diseases and had taught him the elementary things, because
+that was what she was paid for, corrected his table manners and tried
+to make him the kind of boy that she would have preferred to be
+herself had nature fortunately not decided the matter otherwise, and
+chameleon-like, Jerry reflected her tepor, her supineness and
+femininity. She recounted his virtues with pride, while I questioned
+her, hoping against hope to hear of some prank, the breaking of
+window-panes, the burning of a haystack or the explosion of a giant
+cracker under the cook. But all to no purpose.
+
+So far as I could discover, he had never so much as pulled the tail
+of a cat. As old John Benham had said, of original sin he had none.
+
+But my conviction that the boy had good stuff in him was deepened on
+the morrow, when, banishing books, I took him for a breather over hill
+and dale, through wood and underbrush, three miles out and three miles
+in. I told him stories as we walked and showed him how the Indians
+trailed their game among the very hills over which we plodded. I told
+him that a fine strong body was the greatest thing in the world, a
+possession to work for and be proud of. His muscles were flabby, I
+knew, but I put him a brisk pace and brought him in just before lunch,
+red of cheek, bright of eye, and splashed with mud from head to foot.
+I had learned one of the things I had set out to discover. He would do
+his best at whatever task I set him.
+
+I have not said that he was a handsome boy, for youth is amorphous and
+the promise of today is not always fulfilled by the morrow. Jerry's
+features were unformed at ten and, as has already been suggested, made
+no distinct impression upon my mind. Whatever his early photographs
+may show, at least they gave no sign of the remarkable beauty of
+feature and lineament which developed in his adolescence. Perhaps it
+was that I was more interested in his mind and body and what I could
+make them than in his face, which, after all, was none of my concern.
+
+That I was committed to my undertaking from the very beginning will
+soon be evident. Before three weeks had passed Jerry began to awake
+and to develop an ego and a personality. If I had thought him
+unmagnetic at first, he quickly showed me my mistake. His imagination
+responded to the slightest mental touch, too quickly even for the work
+I had in mind for him. He would have pleased me better if he had been
+a little slower to catch the impulse of a new impression. But I
+understood. He had been starved of the things which were a boy's
+natural right and heritage, and he ate and drank eagerly of the
+masculine fare I provided. He had shed a few tears at Miss Redwood's
+departure and I liked him for them, for they showed his loyalty, but
+he had no more games of the nursery nor the mawkish sentimentality
+that I found upon the nursery shelves. I had other plans for Jerry.
+John Benham should have his wish. I would make Jerry as nearly the
+Perfect Man as mortal man could make God's handiwork. Spiritually he
+should grow "from within," directed by me, but guided by his own inner
+light. Physically he should grow as every well-made boy should grow,
+sturdy in muscle and bone, straight of limb, deep of chest, sound of
+mind and strong of heart. I would make Jerry a Greek.
+
+Perhaps these plans may seem strange coming from one who had almost
+grown old before he had been young. But I had made sure that Jerry
+should profit by my mistakes, growing slowly, built like the Benham
+Wall, of material that should endure the sophistries of the world and
+remain unbroken.
+
+I worked Jerry hard that first winter and spring, and his physical
+condition showed that I had no need to fear for his health. And when
+the autumn came I decided to bring him face to face with nature when
+she is most difficult. I was a good woodsman, having been born and
+bred in the northern part of the state, and until I went to the
+University had spent a part of each year in the wilderness. We left
+Horsham Manor one October day, traveling light, and made for the
+woods. We were warmly clad, but packed no more than would be essential
+for existence. A rifle, a shotgun, an ax, and hunting knives were all
+that we carried besides tea, flour, a side of bacon, the ammunition
+and implements for cooking. By night we had built a rough shack and
+laid our plans for a permanent cabin of spruce logs, which we proposed
+to erect before the snow flew. Game was abundant, and before our bacon
+was gone our larder was replenished. I had told Radford of our plans
+and the gamekeepers were instructed to give us a wide berth. Jerry
+learned to shoot that year, not for fun, but for existence, for one
+evening when we came in with an empty game bag we both went to our
+blankets hungry. The cabin rose slowly, and the boy learned to do his
+share of work with the ax. He was naturally clever with his hands, and
+there was no end to his eagerness. He was living in a new world, where
+each new day brought some new problem to solve, some difficulty to be
+surmounted. He had already put aside childish things and had entered
+early upon a man's heritage. There are persons who will say that I
+took great risks in thus exposing Jerry while only in his eleventh
+year, but I can answer by the results achieved. We lived in the woods
+from the fifteenth of October until a few days before Christmas.
+During that time we had built a cabin, ten feet by twelve, with a
+stone fireplace and a roof of clay; had laid a line of deadfalls, and
+rabbit snares; had made a pair of snowshoes and a number of vessels
+of birch bark, and except for the tea and flour had been
+self-supporting, items compensated for by the value of our labors.
+
+In that time we had two snows, one a severe one, but our cabin roof
+was secure and we defied it. Jerry wanted to stay at the cabin all
+winter, a wish that I might easily have shared, for the life in the
+open and the companionship of the boy had put new marrow into my dry
+bones. I had smuggled into camp three books, "Walden," "Rolf in the
+Woods" and "Treasure Island," one for Jerry's philosophy, one for his
+practical existence and one for his imagination. In the evenings
+sometimes I read while Jerry whittled, and sometimes Jerry read while
+I worked at the snowshoes or the vessels of birch bark.
+
+[Illustration: "In the evenings sometimes I read while Jerry whittled."]
+
+In those two months was formed the basis of Jerry's idea of life as
+seen through the philosophy of Roger Canby. We had many talks, and
+Jerry asked many questions, but I answered them all, rejoicing in his
+acuteness in following a line of thought to its conclusion, a
+procedure which, as I afterward discovered, was to cause me anxious
+moments. "Walden" made him thoughtful, but he caught its purpose and
+understood its meaning. "Rolf in the Woods" made his eyes bright with
+the purpose of achievement in woodcraft and a desire (which I
+suppressed) to stalk and kill a deer. But "Treasure Island" touched
+some deeper chord in his nature than either of the other books had
+done. He followed Jim and the Squire and John Silver in the
+_Hispaniola_ with glowing eyes.
+
+"But are there bad men like that now out in the world, Mr. Canby?" he
+broke in excitedly.
+
+"There are bad men in the world, Jerry," I replied coolly.
+
+"Like John Silver?"
+
+"Not precisely. Silver's only a character. This didn't really happen,
+you know, Jerry. It's fiction."
+
+"Fiction!"
+
+"A story, like Grimm's tales."
+
+"Oh!" His jaw dropped and he stared at me. "What a pity!"
+
+I had wanted to stir in him a knowledge of evil and chose the
+picturesque as being the least unpleasant. But he couldn't believe
+that old John Silver and the Squire and Benn Gunn hadn't been real
+people. The tale dwelt in his mind for days, but the final defeat of
+the mutineers seemed to satisfy him as to the intention of the
+narrative.
+
+"If there are evil men in the world like those mutineers, Mr. Canby,
+it must be a pretty bad place to live in," was the final comment, and
+I made no effort to undeceive him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+JERRY GROWS
+
+
+It is not my intention to dwell too long upon the first stages of my
+tutorship, which presented few difficulties not easily surmounted, but
+it is necessary in order to understand Jerry's character that I set
+down a few facts which show certain phases of his development. Of his
+physical courage, at thirteen, I need only relate an incident of one
+of our winter expeditions. We were hunting coons one night with the
+dogs, a collie and the bull pup, which now rejoiced in the name of
+Skookums, already mentioned. The dogs treed their game three miles
+from the Manor house, and when we came up were running around the
+tree, whimpering and barking in a high state of excitement. The night
+was dark and the branches of the tree were thick, so we could see
+nothing, but Jerry clambered up, armed with a stout stick, and
+disappeared into the gloom overhead.
+
+"Do you see him?" I called.
+
+"I see something, but it looks too big for a coon," he returned.
+
+"What does it look like?"
+
+"It looks more like a cat, with queer-looking ears."
+
+"You'd better come down then, Jerry," I said quickly.
+
+"It looks like a lynx," he called again, quite unperturbed.
+
+It was quite possible that he was right, for in this part of the
+Catskill country lynxes were still plentiful.
+
+"Then come down at once," I shouted. "He may go for you."
+
+"Oh, I'm not worried about that. I have my hunting knife," he said
+coolly.
+
+"Come down, do you hear?" I commanded.
+
+"Not until he does," he replied with a laugh.
+
+I called again. Jerry didn't reply, for just then there was a sudden
+shaking of the dry leaves above me, the creaking of a bough and the
+snarl of a wild animal, and the sound of a blow.
+
+"Jerry!" I cried. No reply, but the sound of the struggle overhead
+increased, dreadful sounds of snarling and of scratching, but no sound
+of Jerry. Fearful of imminent tragedy, I climbed quickly, amid the
+uproar of the dogs, and, knife in hand, had got my feet an the lower
+branches, when a heavy weight shot by me and fell to the ground. Thank
+God, not the boy!
+
+"Jerry!" I cried again, clambering upward.
+
+"A-all r-right, Mr. Canby," I heard. "You're safe, not hurt?"
+
+"I'm all right, I think. Just--just scratched."
+
+By this time I had reached him. He was braced in the crotch of a limb,
+leaning against the tree trunk still holding his hunting knife. His
+coat was wet and I guessed at rather than saw the pallor of his face
+Below were the sounds of the dogs worrying at the animal.
+
+"I--I guess they've finished him," said Jerry coolly sheathing his
+knife.
+
+"It's lucky he didn't finish _you_," I muttered. "You're sure you're
+not hurt?"
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+"Can you get down alone?"
+
+"Yes, of course."
+
+But I helped him down, nevertheless, and he reached the ground in
+safety, where I saw that his face at least had escaped damage. But the
+sleeve of his coat was torn to ribbons, and the blood was dripping
+from his finger ends.
+
+"Come," I said, taking his arm, "we'll have to get you attended to."
+And then severely: "You disobeyed me, Jerry. Why didn't you come
+down?"
+
+He hesitated a moment, smiling, and then: "I had no idea a lynx was so
+large."
+
+"It's a miracle," I said in wonder at his escape. "How did you hang
+on?"
+
+"I saw him spring and braced myself in time," he said simply, "and
+putting my elbow over my head, struck with my knife when he was on
+me--two, three, many times--until he let go. But I was glad, very glad
+when he fell."
+
+I drove the dogs away, lifted the dead beast over my shoulder and led
+the way to the dog cart, which we had left in the road half a mile
+off, reaching the Manor house very bloody but happy. But the happiest
+of the lot of us, even including Skookums, the bull pup, was Jerry
+himself at the sight under the lamplight of the formidable size of his
+dead enemy. But I led Jerry at once upstairs, where I stripped him and
+took account of his injuries.
+
+His left arm was bitten twice and his neck and shoulder badly torn,
+but he had not whimpered, nor did he now when I bathed and cauterized
+his wounds. Whatever pain he felt, he made no sign, and I knew that by
+inference my night-talks by the campfire had borne fruit. Old
+Christopher, the butler, to whom the Great Experiment was a mystery,
+hovered in the background with towels and lotions, timidly
+reproachful, until Jerry laughed at him and sent him to bed, muttering
+something about the queer goings on at Horsham Manor.
+
+This incident is related to show that Jerry had more courage than most
+boys of his years. Part of it was inherent, of course, but most of it
+was born of the habit, learned early, to be sure of himself in any
+emergency. There was little doubt in my mind that there was some of
+the stuff in Jerry of which heroes are made. I thought so then, for I
+was proud of my handiwork. I did not know, alas! to what tests my
+philosophy and John Benham's were to be subjected. All of which goes
+to show that in running counter to human nature the wisest plans, the
+greatest sagacity, are as chaff before the winds of destiny. But to
+continue:
+
+The following summer Jerry gave further proofs of his presence of mind
+in an accident of which I was the victim. For while trudging with
+Jerry along a rocky hillside I stepped straight into the death trap of
+a rattlesnake. He struck me below the knee, and we were a long way
+from help. But the boy was equal to the emergency. Quite coolly he
+killed the snake with a club. I fortunately kept my head and directed
+him, though he knew just what to do. With his hunting knife he cut my
+trouser leg away and double gashed my leg where the fangs had entered,
+then sucked the wound and spat out the poison until the blood had
+ceased to flow. Then he quickly made a tourniquet of his handkerchief
+and fastened it just above the wound, and, making me comfortable, he
+ran the whole distance to the house, bringing a motor car and help in
+less than an hour. There isn't the slightest doubt that Jerry saved my
+life on this occasion just as the following winter I saved him from
+death at the horns of a mad buck deer.
+
+You will not wonder therefore that the bond of affection and reliance
+was strong between us. I gave Jerry of the best that was in me, and in
+return I can truly say that not once did he disappoint me.
+
+In addition to the woodlore that I taught him, I made him a good shot
+with rifle and revolver. I had men from the city from time to time,
+the best of their class, who taught him boxing and fencing. I had a
+gymnasium built with Mr. Ballard's consent, and a swimming pool, which
+kept him busy after the lesson hour. At the age of fifteen Jerry was
+six feet tall and weighed one hundred and sixty-five pounds, all bone
+and muscle. In the five years since I had been at Horsham Manor there
+had not been a day when he was ill, and except for an occasional
+accident such as the adventure with the lynx, not one when I had
+called in the services of a doctor. Physically at least I had so far
+succeeded, for in this respect Jerry was perfection.
+
+As to his mind, perhaps my own ideals had made me too exacting.
+According to my carefully thought out plans, scholarship was to be
+Jerry's buckler and defense against the old Adam. God forbid that I
+should have planned, as Jack Ballard would have had it, to build Jerry
+in my own image, for if scholarship had been my own refuge it had also
+done something to destroy my touch with human kind. It was the quality
+of sympathy in Jerry which I had lacked, the love for and confidence
+in every human being with whom he came into contact which endeared him
+to every person on the place. From Radford to Christopher, throughout
+the house, stables and garage, down to the humblest hedge-trimmer, all
+loved Jerry and Jerry loved them all. He had that kind of nature. He
+couldn't help loving those about him any more than he could help
+breathing, and yet it must not be supposed that the boy was lacking in
+discernment. Our failings, weaknesses and foibles were a constant
+source of amusement to him, but his humor was without malice and his
+jibes were friendly, and he ran the gamut of my own exposed nerve
+pulps with such joyous consideration that I came to like the
+operation. He loved me and I knew it.
+
+But nothing could make him love his Latin grammar. He worried through
+arithmetic and algebra and blarneyed his French and German tutors into
+making them believe he knew more than he did, but the purely
+scientific aspects of learning did not interest him. It was only when
+he knew enough to read the great epics in the original that my
+patience had its reward. The Iliad, the Odyssey, the Aeneid held him
+in thrall, and by some magic eliminated at a bound the purely
+mechanical difficulties which had fettered him. Hector, Achilles,
+Agamemnon, Ulysses--Jerry was each of these in turn, lacking only the
+opportunity to vanquish heroic foes or capture impregnable cities.
+
+I had not censored the Homeric gods, as Jerry's father had commanded,
+and my temerity led to difficulties. It began with Calypso and Ulysses
+and did not even end when Dido was left alone upon the shores of
+Carthage.
+
+"I don't understand it at all," he said one day with a wrinkled brow,
+"how a man of the caliber of Ulysses could stay so long the prisoner
+of Calypso, a woman, when he wanted to go home. It's a pretty shabby
+business for a hero and a demigod. A woman!" he sneered, "I'd like to
+see any woman keep me sitting in a cave if I wanted to go anywhere!"
+
+His braggadicio was the full-colored boyish reflection of the Canby
+point of view. I had merely shrugged woman out of existence. Now Jerry
+castigated her.
+
+"What could she do?" he went on scornfully. "She couldn't shoot or run
+or fight. All she did was to lie around or strut about with a veil
+around her head and a golden girdle (sensible costume!) and serve the
+hero with ambrosia and ruddy nectar. I've never eaten ambrosia, but
+I'm pretty sure it was some sweet, sticky stuff, like _her_." There is
+no measure for the contempt of his accents.
+
+"She could swim," I ventured timidly.
+
+"Swim! Even a fish can swim!"
+
+I don't know why, but at this conversation, the first of Jerry's
+maturer years in which the topic had been woman, I felt a slight
+tremor go over me. Jerry was too good to look at. I fancied that there
+were many women who would have liked to see the flash of his eye at
+that moment and to meet his challenge with their wily arts. In the
+pride of his masculine strength and capacity he scorned them as I had
+taught him. I had done my work well. Had I done it too well?'
+
+"What are women anyway?" he stormed at me again. "For what good are
+they? To wash linen and have white arms like Nausicaa? Who cares
+whether her arms were white or not? They're always weeping because
+they're loved or raging because they're not. Love! Always love! I love
+you and Christopher and Radford and Skookums, but I'm not always
+whining about it. What's the use? Those things go without saying.
+They're simply what are in a fellow's heart, but he doesn't talk about
+them."
+
+"Quite right. Jerry. Let's say no more about it."
+
+"I'm glad there are no women around here, but now that I come to think
+of it, I don't see why there shouldn't be."
+
+"Your father liked men servants best. He believed them to be more
+efficient."
+
+"Oh, yes, of course," and then, suddenly: "When I go out beyond the
+wall I'll have to see them and talk to them, won't I?"
+
+"Not if you don't want to."
+
+"Well, I don't want to."
+
+He paused a second and then went on. "But I _am_ a little curious
+about them. Of course, they're silly and useless and flabby, but it
+seems queer that there are such a lot of 'em. If they're no good, why
+don't they pass out of existence? That's the rule of life, you tell
+me, the survival of the fittest. If they're not fit they ought to
+have died out long ago."
+
+"You can't keep them from being born, Jerry," I laughed.
+
+"Well," he said scornfully, "it ought to be prevented."
+
+I made a pretense of cutting the leaves of a book. He was going too
+far. I temporized.
+
+"Ah, they're all right, Jerry," I said with some magnificence, "if
+they do their duty. Some are much better than others. Now, Miss
+Redwood, for instance, your governess. She was kind, willing and
+affectionate."
+
+"Oh, yes," he said, "she was all right, but she wasn't like a man."
+
+I had him safe again. Physical strength and courage at this time were
+his fetish. But he was still thoughtful.
+
+"Sometimes I think, Roger" (he called me Roger now, for after all I
+was more like an elder brother than a father to him), "sometimes I
+think that things are too easy for me; that I ought to be out doing my
+share in the work of the world."
+
+"Oh, that will come in time. If you think things are too easy, I might
+manage to make them a little harder."
+
+He laughed affectionately and clapped me on the shoulder.
+
+"Oh, no, you don't, old Dry-as-dust. Not books. That isn't what I
+meant. I mean life, struggles against odds. I've just been wondering
+what chance I'd have to get, along by myself, without a lot of people
+waiting on me."
+
+"I've tried to show you, Jerry. You can go into the woods with a gun
+and an ax and exist in comfort."
+
+"Yes, but the world isn't all woods; and axes and guns aren't the
+only weapons."
+
+"But the principle is the same."
+
+He flashed a bright glance at me.
+
+"Flynn told me yesterday that I could make good in the prize ring if
+I'd let him take me in hand."
+
+(The deuce he had! Flynn would lose his engagement as a boxing teacher
+if he didn't heed my warnings better.)
+
+"The prize ring is not what you're being trained for, my young
+friend," I said with some asperity.
+
+"What then?" he asked.
+
+"First of all I hope I'm training you to be a gentleman. And that
+means--"
+
+"Can't a boxer be a gentleman?" he broke in quickly.
+
+"He might be, I suppose, but he usually isn't." He was forcing me into
+an attitude of priggishness which I regretted.
+
+"Then why," he persisted, "are you having me taught to box?"
+
+"Chiefly to make your muscles hard, to inure you to pain, to teach you
+self-reliance."
+
+"But I oughtn't to learn to box then, if it's going to keep me from
+being a gentleman. What is a gentleman, Roger?"
+
+I tried to think of a succinct generalization and failed, falling back
+instinctively upon safe ground.
+
+"Christ was a gentleman, Jerry," I said quietly.
+
+"Yes," he assented soberly, "Christ. I would like to be like Christ,
+but I couldn't be meek, Roger, and I like to box and shoot--"
+
+"He was a man, Jerry, the most courageous the world has ever known.
+He was even not afraid to die for an ideal. He was meek, but He was
+not afraid to drive the money changers from the temple."
+
+"Yes, that was good. He was strong and gentle, too. He was wonderful."
+
+I have merely suggested this part of the conversation to show the
+feeling of reverence and awe with which the boy regarded the Savior.
+The life of Christ had caught his imagination and its lessons had sunk
+deeply into his spirit, touching chords of gentleness that I had never
+otherwise been able to reach. His religion had begun with Miss Redwood
+and he had clung to it instinctively as he had clung to the vague
+memory of his mother. No word of mine and no teaching was to destroy
+so precious a heritage. He was not goody-goody about it. No boy who
+did and said and thought the things that Jerry did could be accused of
+prudery or sentimentalism. But in his quieter moods I knew that he
+thought deeply of sacred things.
+
+But this conversation with Jerry had warned me that the time was
+approaching when the boy would want to think for himself. Already in
+our nature-talks some of his questions had embarrassed me. He had seen
+birds hatched from their eggs and had marveled at it. The mammals and
+their young had mystified him and he had not been able to understand
+it. I had reverted to the process of development of the embryo of the
+seed into a perfect plant. I had waxed scientific, he had grown
+bewildered. We had reached our _impasse_. In the end we had
+compromised. Unable to comprehend, Jerry had ascribed the propagation
+of the species to a miracle of God. And since that was the precise
+truth I had been content to let the matter rest there.
+
+But there was another problem that our conversation had suggested: the
+choice of a vocation. The proposition of the misguided Flynn had made
+me aware of the fact that I was already letting my charge drift toward
+the maws of the great unknown which began just beyond the Wall without
+a plan of life save that he should be a "gentleman." It occurred to me
+with alarming suddenness that the term "gentleman" was that frequently
+applied to persons who had no occupation or visible means of support.
+Nowhere in John Benham's instructions was there mention of any plan
+for a vocation. Obviously if the old man had intended Jerry for a
+business career he would have said so, and the omission of any exact
+instructions convinced me that such an idea was furthest from John
+Benham's thoughts. It remained for me to decide the matter in the best
+way that I could, for determined I was that Jerry, merely because of
+the possession of much worldly goods, should not be that bane of
+humanity and of nations, an idler.
+
+At about this period Mr. Ballard the elder came down to Horsham Manor
+on one of his visits of inspection and inquiry. He brought up the
+subject of his own accord.
+
+"What do you think, Canby, what have you planned about Jerry's
+future?"
+
+I told him that my only ambition, so far, had been to make of Jerry a
+gentleman and a scholar.
+
+"Yes, of course," he nodded. "That's what you are here for. But beyond
+that?"
+
+"Nothing," I replied. "I am following my instructions from Mr.
+Benham. They go no further than that."
+
+He frowned into the fire.
+
+"That's all very well as far as it goes, but it doesn't go far enough.
+Jerry is now eighteen. Do you realize that in three years he comes
+into possession of five million dollars, an income of over two hundred
+thousand a year; and that in seven years, at twenty-five, the
+executors must relinquish the entire estate?"
+
+I had not thought of the imminence of this disaster.
+
+"I was not aware, Mr. Ballard," I said. "At the present moment Jerry
+doesn't know a dollar from a nickel."
+
+He opened his eyes wide and examined me as though he feared he had not
+heard correctly or as though it were blasphemy, heresy that I was
+uttering.
+
+"You mean that he doesn't know the value and uses of money?"
+
+"So far as I am aware," I replied coolly, "he has never seen a piece
+of money in his life."
+
+"All wrong, all wrong, Canby. This won't do at all. He had his
+arithmetic, percentage and so forth?"
+
+"Yes. But money doesn't interest him. Can you see any reason why it
+should?"
+
+Again the frown and level gaze.
+
+"And what had you planned for him?" he asked. He did not intend to be
+satirical perhaps. He was merely worldly.
+
+"I thought when the time came he might be permitted to choose a
+vocation for himself. In the meanwhile--"
+
+"A vocation!" he snapped. "Isn't the controlling interest in a
+transcontinental line of railroad vocation enough? To say nothing of
+coal, copper and iron mines, a steel mill or two and a fleet of
+steamers?"
+
+He overpowered me for the moment. I had not thought of Jerry as being
+all these things. To me he was merely Jerry. But I struggled upward
+through the miasma of oppressive millions and met the issue squarely.
+
+"There is nothing in John Benham's advice which directs any vocational
+instruction," I said staunchly. "I was to bring the boy to the age of
+manhood without realization of sin."
+
+"A dream, Canby. Utopian, impossible!"
+
+"It has not proved so," I replied, nettled. "I am merely following
+instructions, Mr. Benham's instructions through you to me. The dream
+is very real to Jerry."
+
+Mr. Ballard gazed into the fire and smiled.
+
+"The executors are permitted some license in this matter. We are
+entirely satisfied with your work. We have no desire to modify in the
+slightest degree the purely moral character of your instruction or
+indeed to change his mode of life. Indeed, I think we all agree that
+you are carrying out with rare judgment the spirit if not the actual
+letter of John Benham's wishes. Jerry is a wonderful boy. But in our
+opinion the time has come when his mind should be slowly shaped to
+grasp the essentials of the great career that awaits him."
+
+"I can be of no assistance to you, Mr. Ballard," I said dryly.
+
+"We think the time has arrived," he went on, passing over my remark as
+though it hadn't been uttered, "for Jerry to have some instruction
+from one versed in the theory, if not the practice, of business. It
+is our purpose to engage a professor from a school of finance of one
+of the universities to work with Jerry for a part of each summer."
+
+I did not dare to speak for fear of saying something I might regret.
+Thus far he was within his rights, I knew, but had he proposed to take
+Jerry into the cafes of Broadway that night, he couldn't have done my
+plans for the boy a greater hurt. He was proposing nothing less than
+an assault upon my barriers of idealism. He was going to take the
+sentient thing that was Jerry and make of him an adding machine. Would
+he? Could he? I found courage in a smile.
+
+"Of course, if that is your desire," I managed at last, "I have
+nothing to say except that if you had asked my opinion I should have
+advised against it."
+
+"I'm sorry, Canby," he finished, "but the matter has already been
+taken out of your hands."
+
+Youth fortunately is the age of the most lasting impressions. Dr.
+Carmichael, of the Hobart School of Finance of Manhattan University,
+came and went, but he made no appreciable ripple in the placid surface
+of Jerry's philosophy. He cast stone after stone into the lovely pool
+of Jerry's thoughts, which broke the colorful reflections into smaller
+images, but did not change them. And when he was gone the pool was as
+before he came. Jerry listened politely as he did to all his masters
+and learned like a parrot what was required of him, but made no secret
+of his missing interest and enthusiasm. I watched furtively,
+encouraging Jerry, as my duty was, to do his tasks as they were set
+before him. But I knew then what I had suspected before, that they
+would never make a bond-broker of Jerry. I had but to say a word, to
+give but a sign and bring about an overt rebellion. But I was too wise
+to do that. I merely watched the widening circles in the pool and saw
+them lost in the border of dreamland.
+
+Jerry learned, of course, the difference between a mortgage and an
+insurance policy; he knew the meaning of economics, the theory of
+supply and demand, and gained a general knowledge which I couldn't
+have given him of the general laws of barter and trade. But he
+followed Carmichael listlessly. What did he care for bonds and
+receiverships when the happy woods were at his elbow, the wild-flowers
+beckoning, his bird neighbors calling? Where I had appealed to Jerry
+through his imagination, Carmichael used only the formulæ of matter
+and fact. There was but one way in which he could have succeeded, and
+that was through the picture of the stupendous agencies of which Jerry
+was to be the master: the fast-flying steamers, the monster engines on
+their miles of rails, the glowing furnaces, the sweating figures in
+the heat and grime of smoke and steam, the energy, the inarticulate
+power, the majesty of labor which bridged oceans, felled mountains and
+made animate the sullen rock. All this I saw, as one day Jerry should
+see it. But I did not speak. The time was not yet. Jerry's
+understanding of these things would come, but not until I had prepared
+him for them.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+ENTER EVE
+
+
+This memoir is not so much the history of a boy or of a man as of an
+experiment. Therefore I will not longer delay in bringing Jerry to the
+point where my philosophy and John Benham's was to be put to the test.
+I have tried to indicate in as few phrases as possible Jerry Benham's
+essential characteristics, the moral attributes that were his and the
+shapeliness and strength of his body. I have never set great value on
+mere physical beauty, which too often reacts unpleasantly upon the
+character of its owner. But looks meant nothing to Jerry and he was as
+unconscious of his striking beauty as the scarlet poppy that nods in
+the meadow.
+
+At the age of twenty, to which point this narrative has arrived, Jerry
+Benham was six feet two inches in height and weighed, stripped, one
+hundred and eighty-two pounds. His hair was brown, his eyes gray and
+his features those of the Hermes of Praxiteles. His skin, naturally
+fair, was tanned by exposure to a ruddy brown, and his body, except
+for the few white scars upon his shoulder, relics of his encounter
+with the lynx, was without blemish. He was always in training, and his
+muscles were long and closely knit. I can hardly believe that there
+was a man on the Olympian fields of ancient Greece who could have
+been prettier to see than Jerry when he sparred with Flynn. He was as
+agile as a cat, never off his balance or his guard, and slipped in and
+out, circling and striking with a speed that was surprising in one of
+his height and weight. "Foot-work," Flynn called it, and there were
+times, I think, when the hard-breathing Irishman was glad enough at
+the call of "time."
+
+Flynn's own reply when I reproved him for the nonsense he had put into
+Jerry's head about the prize ring will show how Jerry stood in the
+eyes of one of the best athletes of his day. "He's a wonder, Misther
+Canby. Sure, ye can't blame me f'r wantin' to thry him against good
+'uns. He ain't awake yet, sor, an' he's too good-nachured. Holy
+pow'rs! If the b'ye ever cud be injuced to get mad-like, he'd lick his
+weight in woild-cats--so he w'ud."
+
+There were times, as you may imagine, when I felt much like
+Frankenstein in awe of the creature I had created. But Jerry
+fortunately couldn't be "injuced to get mad-like." If things didn't
+happen to please him, he frowned and set his jaws until his mood had
+passed and he could speak his mind in calmness. His temper, like his
+will, was under perfect control. And yet I knew that the orderly habit
+of his mind was the result of growth in a sheltered environment and
+that even I, carefully as I had trained him, had not gauged his depths
+or known the secret of the lees which had never been disturbed.
+
+At the age of twenty, then, Jerry had the body of a man, the brain of
+a scholar and the heart of a child. Less than a year remained before
+the time appointed when he must go forth into the world. Both of us
+approached that day with regret. For my part I should have been
+willing to stay on with Jerry at Horsham Manor indefinitely, and
+Jerry, whatever curiosity he may have felt as to his future, gave no
+sign of impatience. I knew that he felt that perhaps the years to come
+might make a difference in our relations by the way he referred to the
+good years we had passed together and the small tokens of his
+affection which meant much from one not greatly demonstrative by
+habit. As Jerry had grown toward manhood he did much serious reading
+in books of my selection (the Benham library having been long since
+expurgated), and I had been working steadily on my Dialectics. We did
+our out-of-door work as usual, but there were times when I was busy,
+and then Jerry would whistle to the dogs and go off for his afternoon
+breather alone. There had never been a pledge exacted of him to keep
+within the wall, but he knew his father's wish, and the thought of
+venturing out alone had never entered his mind. Perhaps you will say
+that it was the one thing Jerry would want to do, being the thing that
+was forbidden him, but you would not understand as I did the way
+Jerry's mind worked. If as a boy Jerry had been impeccable in the way
+of matters of duty, he was no less so now. He had been trained to do
+what was right and now did it instinctively, not because it was his
+duty, but because it was the only thing that occurred to him.
+
+And so, upon a certain day in June while I was reading in my study,
+Jerry went out with a rod and fly-book bound for the silent pools of
+Sweetwater, where the big trout lurked. My book, I remember, was the
+"Dialogues of Hylas and Philonous upon the Reality and Perfection of
+Human Understanding," and before Jerry had been long gone from the
+house I was completely absorbed in what Fraser in his preface calls
+"the gem of British metaphysical literature." But had I known what was
+to happen to Jerry on that sunny afternoon, or conceived of the
+dialogue in which he was to take a part, I should have regretted the
+intellectual attraction of Berkeley's fine volume which had been the
+cause of my refusal to accompany the boy.
+
+I find that I must reconstruct the incident as well as I can from my
+recollection of the facts as related by Jerry in the course of several
+conversations, each of which I am forced to admit amplified somewhat
+the one which had preceded it.
+
+It seems that instead of making for the stream at its nearest point to
+the eastward, Jerry had cast into the woods above the gorge and worked
+upstream into the mountains. His luck had been fair, and by the time
+he neared the point where the Sweetwater disappeared beneath the wall
+his creel was half full. He clambered over a large rock to a higher
+level and found himself looking at a stranger, sitting on a fallen
+tree, fastening a butterfly net. He did not discover that the stranger
+was a girl until she stood up and he saw that she wore skirts, short
+skirts, showing neat leather gaiters. She eyed him coolly and neither
+of them spoke for a long moment, the girl probably because she was
+waiting for him to speak first, Jerry because (as he described it) of
+sheer surprise at the trespass and of curiosity as to its
+accomplishment. Then the girl smiled at Jerry.
+
+"Hello!" she said at last.
+
+Jerry advanced a few steps, frowning.
+
+"I suppose you know," he said quickly, "that you're trespassing."
+
+She glanced up at him, rather brazenly I fancy, and grinned.
+
+"Oh, really!" Her eyes appraised him and Jerry, I am sure, felt rather
+taken aback.
+
+"Yes," he went on severely, "you're trespassing. We don't allow any
+females in here."
+
+Her reply was a laugh which irritated Jerry exceedingly.
+
+"Well, I'm here," she said; "what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"Do about it?" Jerry advanced two or three paces and stood looking
+down at her. In our first conversation he told me that she seemed
+absurdly small, quite too insignificant to be so impudent. In our
+second conversation I elicited the fact that he thought her skin
+smooth; in our third that her lips were much redder than mine.
+
+When he got near her he paused, for she hadn't moved away as he had
+expected her to and only looked up at him and laughed.
+
+"Yes, _do_ about it," she repeated.
+
+"You--you know I could--could throw you over the wall with one hand,"
+he stammered.
+
+"Perhaps, but you wouldn't."
+
+"Why not?'
+
+"Because you're a gentleman."
+
+"Oh, am I?"
+
+"Yes. Or if you aren't you ought to be."
+
+He frowned at that, a little puzzled.
+
+"Where do you come from?" he asked.
+
+"I can't see how that can possibly be any business of yours."
+
+"H-m. How did you get in here?"
+
+"I followed my nose. How did you?"
+
+"I--I--I belong here."
+
+"It's an asylum, isn't it?" she asked quite coolly.
+
+"N--no." Jerry missed the irony. "Not at all. I live here. It's my
+place. You--you're the first woman that ever got in here, and I can't
+imagine how you did it. I--I don't want to be impolite, but I'm afraid
+you'll have to go at once."
+
+The sound of her laughter was most disconcerting. Jerry had no lack of
+a sense of humor and yet there was nothing that he could see to laugh
+at.
+
+"That's very amusing," she said. "A moment ago you were going to throw
+me over the wall and now you're afraid you're impolite."
+
+Jerry found himself smiling in spite of himself.
+
+"I--I don't suppose I really meant that," he muttered.
+
+"What? Throwing me over the wall or being polite?"
+
+He looked rather bewildered, I think, at the inanity of her
+conversation. Jerry wasn't much given to small talk.
+
+"I'm sorry you don't think I'm polite. I--I'm not used to talking to
+women. They're too fussy about trifles. What does it matter--"
+
+"I don't call throwing a female visitor over a wall a trifle," she
+broke in. "And it isn't quite hospitable. Now is it?"
+
+Jerry rubbed his head and regarded her seriously.
+
+"Now that you mention it, I don't suppose it is. But nobody asked you.
+You just came. Didn't you see the trespass signs?"
+
+"Oh, yes, they're all about," she said carelessly, as she picked up
+her tin specimen-box and turned away. "I didn't mean to stay. I
+followed a butterfly. He came in the iron railings, where the stream
+goes through the wall. I crawled under where the iron is bent. If
+you're afraid of women you'd better have it fixed."
+
+"Afraid!" It was one word that Jerry detested. "Afraid! That's funny.
+Do you think I'm afraid of _you_?"
+
+"Yes," she replied, eyeing him critically. "I rather think you are."
+
+"Well, I--I'm not. It would take more than a woman to make _me_
+afraid."
+
+Something in the turn of the phrase and tone of voice made her turn
+and examine him with a new interest.
+
+"You're a queer boy," she said.
+
+"How--queer?" he muttered.
+
+"You look and act as though you'd never seen a girl before."
+
+If he had known women better he wouldn't have believed that she meant
+what she said. As it was, her wizardry astounded him.
+
+"How can you tell that?"
+
+She was now regarding him wide-eyed in amazement.
+
+"It's true, then?" she gasped.
+
+"Yes, it's true. You're the first girl that I remember having seen.
+But what difference does that make? Why should I be afraid of you?
+You couldn't hurt a flea. You can talk pretty well, but talk never
+killed anybody."
+
+She seemed stricken suddenly dumb and regarded him with an air which
+to anyone but Jerry would have shown her as discomfited as he.
+
+"Do you mean that you've lived all your life a prisoner inside this
+wall and never seen a woman?" she asked incredulously.
+
+"That depends upon what you mean by prisoner," said Jerry. "If having
+everything you want, doing everything you want is being a prisoner, I
+suppose that's what I am."
+
+"Extraordinary! And you've had no curiosity to go out--to see the
+world?"
+
+"No. I'm going soon, but I don't care about it. There isn't anything
+out there half as good as what I've got."
+
+"How do you know if you haven't been there?"
+
+"Oh, I know. I've heard. I read a great deal."
+
+Jerry told me (in our second conversation) that he wondered why he
+still stood there talking to her. He supposed it was because he
+thought he had been impolite enough. But she made no move to go.
+
+"What have you heard?" she asked again. "I suppose you thought that a
+girl had horns and a tail."
+
+Unconsciously his gaze wandered down over her slim figure. Then he
+burst into a sudden fit of laughter.
+
+"You're funny," he said.
+
+"Not half as funny as I would be if I had them."
+
+"You might have a tail twisted under your dress for all I know. What
+do girls wear skirts for?"
+
+"To keep them warm. Why do you wear trousers?"
+
+"Trousers aren't silly. Skirts are."
+
+"That depends on who's in them."
+
+He was forced to admit the logic of that. Skirts might be silly, but
+she wasn't. She interested him, this strange creature that talked
+back, not in the least like Miss Redwood. The jade! Jerry did not know
+their tricks as I did. She was reading him, I haven't a doubt, like an
+open book. It was a pity. I hadn't yet prepared Jerry for this
+encounter. The girl had moved two or three paces away when she paused
+again.
+
+"What's your name?" she asked suddenly.
+
+"Jerry."
+
+"That's a nice name. I think it's like you."
+
+"How--like me?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know--boyish and rather jolly, in spite of being
+Jeremiah. It _is_ Jeremiah, isn't it?"
+
+He nodded.
+
+"I was sure of it. It was Jeremiah who wanted to throw me over the
+wall, but it was Jerry who didn't. Which are you really? If you're
+Jerry I'm not afraid of you in the least. But if you're Jeremiah, I
+must go at once."
+
+He smiled at her.
+
+"Oh, that's all right. You needn't hurry. I wouldn't hurt you. You
+seem to be a very sprightly sort of a creature. You laugh as though
+you really meant it. What's your name? I've told you mine."
+
+"Una."
+
+"H-m. That means 'first'."
+
+"But not the last. There are five others--all girls."
+
+"Girls! What a pity!"
+
+She must have glanced around at him quickly, with that bird-like
+pertness I discovered later. He was declaring war, himself
+defenseless, and was not even aware of it.
+
+"You're not flattering. A pity! Why?"
+
+"It's too bad if you had to be born why some of you couldn't have been
+boys. You'd have been a fine sort of a boy, I think."
+
+"Would I really?" she said. "A better sort of a boy than I am a girl?"
+
+He shrugged his shoulders, oblivious of the bait for flattery.
+
+"How should I know what sort of a girl you are? You seem sensible
+enough and you're not easily frightened. You know, I--I rather like
+you."
+
+"Really!"
+
+He missed the smile and note of antagonism and went on quickly:
+
+"You're fond of the woods, aren't you? Do you know the birds? They
+like this place. And butterflies--I'd like to show you my collection."
+
+"Oh, you collect?"
+
+"Of course--specimens of all kinds. Birds, eggs, nests,
+lepidoptera--I've got a museum down at the Manor. Next year you'll
+have to come and see it."
+
+"Next year!"
+
+"Yes. You see--" Jerry's pause must have been that of embarrassment. I
+think he realized that he had been going it rather rapidly. I didn't
+hear this part of the dialogue until our third conversation. "Well,
+you see, I'm not supposed to see any--any females until I'm
+twenty-one. Not that I've ever wanted to, you know, but it seems
+rather foolish that I can't ask you down, if you'd like to come."
+
+Can you visualize a very modern young woman during this ingenuous
+revelation? Jerry said that close, cool inspection of her slate-blue
+eyes (he had, you see, also identified their color) rather
+disconcerted him.
+
+"I'm sure I should be delighted to come," she said with a gravity
+which to anyone but Jerry would have made her an object of suspicion.
+
+Jerry shook his head.
+
+"But I--I'm afraid it wouldn't do. I've never given my word, but it's
+an understanding--"
+
+"With whom?"
+
+"With Roger. He's my tutor, you know."
+
+"Oh, I see. And Roger objects to--er--females?"
+
+"Oh, yes, and so do I. They're so useless--most of them. You don't
+mind my saying so, do you?"
+
+"Oh, not at all," she replied, though I'm sure her lips must have been
+twitching.
+
+"Of course, you're different. You're really very like a boy. And I
+don't doubt you're very capable."
+
+"How--capable?"
+
+"You look as if you could do things--I mean useful things."
+
+At this she sank on a rock and buried her face in her hands, quivering
+from head to foot. Jerry thought that she was crying.
+
+"What's the--?"
+
+She threw out her arms, leaned back against a tree, her long
+suppressed merriment bubbling forth unrestrained.
+
+"Oh, you'll be the death of me," she laughed, the tears running down
+her cheeks. "I can't stand being bottled up another minute. I can't."
+
+Jerry was offended.
+
+"I don't see what there is to laugh at," he said with some dignity.
+
+"You don't--that's just it, you don't, and that's what's so funny."
+
+And she laughed again.
+
+"What's funny?" he asked.
+
+"You--!"
+
+"I'm not half as funny as _you_ are, but I don't laugh at you."
+
+"Y--you w-would if you didn't p-pity me so much," she gasped between
+giggles.
+
+"I don't pity you at all. And I think you're extremely foolish to
+laugh so much at nothing."
+
+"Even when I'm laughing at y-you?"
+
+She had taken out her handkerchief and now composed herself with
+difficulty while Jerry's ruffled dignity in silence preened at its
+feathers. She watched him furtively, I'm sure, between dabs with her
+handkerchief and at last stopped laughing, got up and offered him her
+hand.
+
+"I've made you angry," she said. "I'm sorry."
+
+He found that he had taken her hand and was looking at it. The words
+he used in describing it were these: "It was small, soft and warm,
+Roger, and seemed alive with vitality, but it was timid, too, like a
+young thrush just fallen from its nest." So far as I could discover,
+he didn't seem to know what to do with her hand, and before he decided
+anything she had withdrawn it abruptly and was turning away.
+
+"I'm going now," she said calmly. "But I've enjoyed being here,
+awfully. It was very nice of you not to--to throw me over the wall."
+
+"I wouldn't have, really," he protested.
+
+"But you might have had me arrested, which would have been worse." She
+opened her tin box. "It's your butterfly, of course. You can have it,
+if you like."
+
+"Oh, I wouldn't take it for anything. Besides, that's no good."
+
+"No good?"
+
+"No, common. I've got loads of 'em."
+
+Her nose wrinkled and then she smiled.
+
+"Oh, well, I'll keep it as a souvenir of our acquaintance. Good-by,
+Jerry." She smiled.
+
+"Good-by, Una. I'm sorry--" he paused.
+
+"For what?"
+
+"If I was cross--"
+
+"But you weren't. I shouldn't have laughed."
+
+"I think I like you better when you laugh than when--when you're
+'bottled up'."
+
+"But I mustn't laugh at _you_. I didn't mean to. I just--couldn't
+help. You've forgiven me, haven't you?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+She had taken up her hat and now walked away upstream. Jerry followed.
+
+"Will you really come next year?" he asked. "I--I should like to show
+you my specimens."
+
+"Next year! Next year is a long way off. You know, I don't belong
+here. I'm only visiting."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+She clambered down into the bed of the stream toward the iron railing.
+Two of the bars, as he could now see, were bent inward at the bottom.
+
+When she reached the railing she turned and flashed a smile up at him.
+
+"You'd better tell Roger about the broken fence."
+
+"Why?"
+
+She thrust her net and tin box through the bars and then slipped
+quickly through the opening.
+
+"Why?" he repeated.
+
+She stood upright and laughed.
+
+"I might come in again."
+
+Jerry, I think, must have stood looking down at her wistfully. I
+cannot believe that the psychology of sex made any matter here. Youth
+merely responded wordlessly to youth. Had she been a boy it would have
+been the same. But the girl was clever.
+
+"I think I will," she said gayly. "It looks very pretty from out
+here."
+
+"I--I can't invite you," said Jerry. "I should like to, but I--I
+can't."
+
+"I could come without being invited," she laughed.
+
+"But you wouldn't, would you?"
+
+"I might. I didn't hurt you, did I?"
+
+"No," he laughed.
+
+"Then I don't see what harm it would do. I'm coming."
+
+No reply.
+
+"I'm coming tomorrow."
+
+No reply. This was really stoical of Jerry.
+
+"And Jerry--" she called.
+
+"Yes, Una--"
+
+"I think you're--you're _sweet_."
+
+There was a rustle among the leaves and she was gone.
+
+Thus did the serpent enter our garden.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+THE MINX RETURNS
+
+
+That afternoon when Jerry returned to the Manor he gave me a
+superficial account of the adventure--so superficial and told with
+such carelessness that I was not really alarmed. The second
+conversation in the evening after dinner aroused my curiosity but not
+my suspicion. I was not in the habit of mistrusting Jerry. The
+intrusion of the stranger was an accident, not likely to occur again.
+It was only after our discussion had taken many turns and curiously
+enough had always come back to the pert intruder that I realized that
+Jerry's interest had really been aroused. Late at night over our
+evening reading the boy made the comments upon the visitor's
+appearance, her voice and the texture of her skin. He had been quite
+free in his opinions, favorable and unfavorable alike, and it was this
+very frankness which had disarmed me. The incident, as far as Jerry's
+story went, ended when the visitor crawled under the railing. I am not
+sure what motive was in his mind, but the events which followed lend
+strong color to the presumption that Jerry believed the girl when she
+said that she was coming back and that at the very time he was
+speaking to me he intended to meet her when she came.
+
+I had decided to treat the incident lightly, trusting to the
+well-ordered habits of Jerry's life and the number of his daily
+interests to put the visitor out of his mind. I did not even warn him,
+as I should have done had I realized the imminence of danger or the
+necessity of keeping to the letter as well as the spirit of John
+Benham's definite instruction, for this I thought might lay undue
+stress upon the matter. And in the course of the morning, nothing
+further having been said, I was lulled into a sense of security.
+
+In the afternoon Bishop Berkeley's book called me again and it was not
+until late that I realized that the boy had been gone from the house
+for four hours. His rod, creel and fly-book were missing from their
+accustomed places but even then I suspected nothing. It was not until
+the approach of the dinner hour when, Jerry not having returned, I
+began to think of yesterday's visitor.
+
+After waiting dinner for awhile, I dined alone, expecting every minute
+to hear the sound of his step in the hall or his cheery greeting but
+there was no sign of him and I guessed the truth. The minx had come in
+again and Jerry was with her.
+
+The events which followed were the first that cast the slightest
+shadow over our friendship, a shadow which was not to pass, for, from
+the day when Eve entered our garden, Jerry was changed. It wasn't that
+he loved me any the less or I him. It was merely that his attitude
+toward life and toward my point of view had shifted. He had begun to
+doubt my infallibility.
+
+It was this indefinable difference in our relations which delayed
+Jerry's confession, and not until some days later did he tell me how
+it all happened. He didn't think she would really come back, he said,
+and I chose at the time not to doubt him, but the fact was that he
+made his way directly upstream after leaving the house, and catching
+no fish, sat down on a rock near the iron grille. That the girl
+returned was not Jerry's fault, he said, because he didn't ask her to.
+But the fact that he was there awaiting her when she arrived shows
+that the wish was the father to the thought with Jerry. He had been
+sitting there alone fifteen or twenty minutes "listening for bird
+calls," as he explained it and had already identified twenty distinct
+notes when he heard the twenty-first.
+
+It was human. "Hello, Jerry," it said.
+
+It came from the iron railing, behind which the female Una was
+standing, grinning at him. He got up and walked toward her.
+
+"Hello!" he returned.
+
+"You didn't think I'd come, did you, Jerry?" she asked, though how she
+could have arrived at that conclusion with the boy sitting there
+waiting for her is more than I can imagine.
+
+"No, I didn't," he replied, already learning to prevaricate with calm
+assurance. "Are you coming in?"
+
+"I will if you ask me to."
+
+"I can't do that," he laughed. "You know the rules. But I don't see
+what I could do to stop you."
+
+"_Please_ invite me, Jerry."
+
+"No, I won't invite you. But I won't put you out if you come."
+
+"_Please!_"
+
+"Why do you insist?"
+
+"Because--I think you ought to, you know. Just to make me feel
+comfortable."
+
+"You seemed very comfortable yesterday."
+
+"I think you're horrid."
+
+"Horrid! Because I won't break my promise?"
+
+"But you've made no promise."
+
+"It's understood. See here. I'll turn my back and walk away. If you
+come in it's not my fault."
+
+"You needn't bother. I'm not coming." She turned and made as though to
+go.
+
+"Una," he called. "_Please._ Come in."
+
+She reappeared miraculously, her vanity appeased by Jerry's downfall,
+bobbed through the bent irons, and rose smiling decorously as Eve must
+have smiled when she watched Adam first bite the apple.
+
+"Thanks," she laughed, clambering up the rocks. "It's awfully nice of
+you. I knew you would. I couldn't have come else."
+
+"It doesn't really make much difference, I suppose," said Jerry
+dubiously.
+
+"What doesn't?"
+
+"Whether I ask you or whether you just come."
+
+"I wouldn't have come if you hadn't."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Positive. I was just passing this way and I saw you sitting here. I
+hadn't the slightest intention of coming in. Of course, when you
+_invited_ me, that made things different."
+
+He laughed and motioned to a rock upon which she sank.
+
+"Tell me," he said, "how you happen to be up here in the mountains
+alone. You don't belong around here. You didn't know about the wall,
+or about me, did you?"
+
+"Of course not; not yesterday. But I do now. I asked last night."
+
+"Who did you ask?"
+
+"The people I'm staying with."
+
+"And what did they tell you?"
+
+"They weren't very polite. It doesn't do to ignore one's neighbors.
+They said you were a freak."
+
+"What's a freak?"
+
+"Something strange, unnatural."
+
+"And do you think I'm strange or unnatural?" he asked soberly.
+
+She looked at him and laughed.
+
+"Unnatural! If nature is unnatural."
+
+"What else do they say?" Jerry asked after a thoughtful pause.
+
+"That your precious Roger is a dealer in magic and spells; that you've
+already learned flying on a broomstick and practice it on nights when
+the moon is full; that you're hideously ugly; that you're wonderfully
+beautiful; that you live in a tree; that you sleep in a coffin; that
+you're digging for gold; that you've found the recipe for diamonds;
+that you've--"
+
+"Now you're making fun of me," he laughed as she paused for lack of
+breath.
+
+"I'm not. If there's anything that you are or aren't that I haven't
+heard, I can't imagine what it is. In other words, Jerry, you're the
+mystery of the county. Aren't you glad?"
+
+"Glad? Of course not. It's all such utter rot."
+
+"Of course. But doesn't it make you _feel_ mysterious?"
+
+"Not a bit."
+
+"Doesn't it ever occur to you how important a person you are?"
+
+"How--important?"
+
+"To begin with, of course, you're fabulously wealthy. You knew that,
+didn't you?"
+
+"Oh, I suppose I've got some money, but I don't let it worry me."
+
+"Do you know how much?"
+
+"No, I haven't the slightest idea."
+
+"Not that you've got millions--_millions_!"
+
+"If my millions are as impalpable as my broomstick they won't hurt me
+much," he laughed. And then soberly: "Say, Una, you seem to know a lot
+more about me than I know about myself."
+
+"I think I do," she returned. "For instance, of course, you couldn't
+guess that half the match-making mammas of the county are already
+setting their caps for you."
+
+He looked bewildered at that, I'm sure.
+
+"Do you know," he said, "that I haven't the slightest idea what you're
+talking about."
+
+"Of course," she laughed. "I forgot. They want to marry you to their
+daughters."
+
+"Marry! Me! You're joking."
+
+I think he must have seemed really alarmed.
+
+"I'm not. The fat, the small, the lean and the tall. They're all after
+you. The moment you poke your nose outside the gate next year, they're
+all going to pounce on you and try to carry you off."
+
+"But I can't marry them all," he said aghast. "Besides I don't want
+to marry anybody. And I'm not going to."
+
+She couldn't restrain herself now and burst into wild peals of
+merriment, while Jerry watched her, uncertain whether to be angry or
+amused. At last he decided to smile.
+
+"You seem to have a lot of fun with me, Una, don't you?"
+
+"I don't mean to. But the picture of you trying to escape the
+engulfing flood of mammas is too much. I've got to laugh, Jerry. I
+can't help it."
+
+"Laugh, then. I don't think it's so funny, though."
+
+"But it is. Because I'm sure you'd be too polite to refuse them--any
+of them."
+
+"Polite! I won't be polite. Just because I'm nice to you isn't any
+sign. I--I'll send 'em all packing. You'll see."
+
+"Oh, you're brave enough now, but wait--wait!" She bent over, clasping
+her knees, still shaking with merriment.
+
+"Why, Jerry, you couldn't be impolite to a woman any more than you
+could _fly_. You'd do just whatever she said."
+
+"I wouldn't. They're idiots, the lot of 'em. What's the use? What do
+girls want to get married for, anyway?"
+
+She glanced up at him quickly. Then at the glimpse she had of Jerry's
+sober profile her wide gaze dulled and then sought the earth before
+her. It was true then what she believed of him. A child--this gorgeous
+creature that shaved its face!
+
+"I suppose it's because they--they haven't anything else to do," she
+stammered.
+
+"There's plenty for every woman to do without marrying, or there ought
+to be. They can work like men, or clean their houses, or raise their
+children."
+
+At this point the girl was seized with a sudden fit of coughing and
+her face was purple.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"I--I just swallowed the wrong way," she gasped.
+
+"Here, I'll pat you on the back. All right now?"
+
+"Y-yes, better, thanks." But she held her fingers before her eyes and
+still struggled for breath. In a moment when she raised her head,
+there were traces of a smile, but she was quite composed.
+
+"Then you--you don't believe in marriage as an institution?" she asked
+with some hesitation.
+
+"No. I can't see the use of it. We're all animals like the wild folk,
+the beasts of the field, the birds. They get along all right."
+
+"Birds mate, don't they?" she put in.
+
+"Oh, yes, but they don't need a minister to mate 'em. They just hop
+about together a bit and then start their nest. It's simple as rolling
+off a log."
+
+"That's what humans do, as you say; they just hop about a bit and then
+get married."
+
+"But marriage doesn't make 'em any happier, does it? I'm sure I
+wouldn't want to be tied down to one woman as long as I lived. Suppose
+I changed my mind or suppose she did."
+
+"You wouldn't change your mind if you loved a woman."
+
+"Love!" he sneered. "There you go. I thought you'd say that."
+
+"You don't believe in love, then?" she asked.
+
+"It seems to me that there's a lot of sentimental rubbish written
+about it. What's the use of talking so much about a thing that's as
+plain as the nose on your face? Love means loyalty, friendship, honor
+and everything that's fine, but when the classic poets begin writing
+reams of rot about it, it's time--it's time somebody was sensible."
+
+"Poor Jerry," she laughed. "I'm so sorry for you."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because when you fall, you're going to fall so very hard."
+
+"How--fall?"
+
+"Fall in love. You will, some day. Everybody does. It's as sure as
+death or taxes."
+
+"Everybody! _You_ haven't, have you?"
+
+"Oh, dear, no. Not yet. But I suppose I shall some day."
+
+Jerry regarded her in silence for a moment.
+
+"I didn't think you were a bit slushy."
+
+"I'm _not_ slushy," indignantly. "I _hate_ slushy people. Where did
+you get that word?"
+
+"Roger. He hates 'em too."
+
+"Your Roger doesn't like women, does he?"
+
+"No. He's very wise, Roger is. But sometimes I think he's prejudiced.
+I'd like you to know Roger, I really would."
+
+She gazed straight before her for a moment deliberating and then:
+
+"I hope you don't mind if I say so, but I think your Roger must be a
+good deal of a fossil."
+
+"A fossil. Now see here, Una--I can't have you talking about Roger
+like that."
+
+"He is. I'm sure of it. All theorists are."
+
+"He's not. He's the broadest fellow you ever knew."
+
+"Nobody's broad who ignores the existence of woman," she returned
+hotly. "It's sinful--that sort of philosophy. It's against nature.
+We're here--millions of us, working as hard as men do, earning our own
+way in the world, active, live intelligences, writing books, nursing
+in hospitals, cleaning the plague-spots out of the cities, influencing
+in a thousand ways the uplift of that coarser brute man and besides
+all this practicing a thousand acts of self-abnegation in the home.
+Keeping man's house, cooking his food, bearing his ch--"
+
+She stopped abruptly and bit her lip.
+
+"Bearing his--what?" asked Jerry.
+
+"Burdens," she blurted out. "Burdens--all sorts of burdens," she
+finished weakly.
+
+"I suppose there _are_ things that women can do," said Jerry after a
+moment. "Of course, I don't know much about it. But--"
+
+"Well, it's time you did," she broke in again. "It may be beautiful
+here--inside these walls--an unbroken idyl of peace and contentment,
+but it isn't life. It's just existence, that's all. If I were a man,
+I'd want to do a man's work in the world. I wouldn't want to miss an
+hour of it, childhood, boyhood or manhood. I'd want to meet my
+temptations and conquer them. It's selfish, the way you live, unreal,
+cowardly."
+
+"See here, Una--"
+
+"I mean it. You've got me started and I can't help it. If I say
+anything that hurts, you'll have to put me out. But I'm going to tell
+you what I think."
+
+"You're rather bewildering. But I'm not a coward. I don't want you to
+say that. If you were a man, I'd give you a thrashing," he said
+quietly.
+
+Their glances must have flashed fire. Jerry's face was red, I'm sure,
+and his fingers were twitching to get hold of something, but the girl
+didn't flinch. Jerry told me afterward that he found his anger
+softening strangely as he looked at her and in a moment they were both
+smiling. The girl spoke first.
+
+"I've gone too far, Jerry. Forgive me."
+
+"Of course," he said awkwardly. "I suppose you've got a right to your
+opinions. But it isn't very pleasant to be told that one's life is a
+failure."
+
+"I didn't say that," she put in quickly. "You haven't failed, of
+course. You've missed something, but you've gained something too." Her
+words trailed slowly again and her gaze sought the deep woods. "Yes,"
+she repeated softly and thoughtfully, "I'm very sure you've gained
+something."
+
+"What have I gained?"
+
+There was a long pause before she replied.
+
+"Simplicity," she said carefully. "Life, after all, nowadays, is so
+very complex," she sighed.
+
+But when he questioned as to what she meant, she waved him off. "No,
+I've said enough. I didn't intend to. Don't let's talk any more about
+what I think. Let's talk about what _you_ think, what you read, what
+you do. People say you live in the woods most of the time--do you?
+Where? How?"
+
+"In a cabin. We built it. Would you like to see it? It's not far. I'll
+make you a cup of tea."
+
+As the reader will perceive, in these two conversations, lasting
+perhaps two hours, this slip of a girl, in mere idle curiosity, had
+touched with her silly chatter the vital, the vulnerable points of
+Jerry's philosophy of life. Fate had not been fair to me or with him.
+Less than a year; remained of Jerry's period of probation. In December
+the boy was to go out into the world. And through an unfortunate
+accident due to a broken iron, a chaos of half-baked ideas had come
+pouring through the breach. If I said that my labors of ten years had
+been useless or that the fruition of John Benham's ideals for his son
+were still in doubt I should be putting the matter too strongly, but I
+have no hesitancy in confessing that the appearance of the girl had at
+least put them in jeopardy. She had turned his mind into a direction
+which I had carefully avoided. He must think now and ask questions
+that I could not be ready to answer. By this time it must be well
+understood that I have no love for women, but I will do this girl the
+credit of saying that in a general way she saw fit to respect Jerry's
+artlessness. I think that the sex instinct, so ready with its
+antagonisms, its insinuations, its alternate attacks and defenses, was
+atrophied as in the presence of a phenomenon. She was modern enough,
+God knows, but she had some delicacy at least and was impotent before
+the splendor of Jerry's innocence.
+
+What they said on the way to the cabin must have been unimportant. I
+suppose Jerry told her about his routine at the Manor and something of
+what I had taught him of woodcraft, but I think that she was very
+reticent in speaking of herself. No doubt her unceremonious visit to
+our domain and the unusual intimacy of their conversation had made it
+seem necessary to her to preserve her incognito, or perhaps it was
+coquetry, which no woman, however placed, is quite without. As far as
+I have been able to learn, they were as two children, the girl's mind
+as well as her actions, in spite of her sophistication, reflecting the
+artlessness of her companion. The damage that she had done, as I was
+afterwards to discover, was mainly by the force of suggestion. She
+assumed the absurd premises of modernity, drew her own preposterous
+conclusions and Jerry drank them in, absorbed them as he did all
+information, like a sponge.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+THE CABIN
+
+
+Having decided upon a course of action, I lost no time in setting
+forth, following the Sweetwater to the wall and then, not finding
+Jerry, making as though by instinct for the cabin. Perhaps I may be
+pardoned for approaching the place with cautious footsteps. I was
+justified, I think, by the anxiety of the moment and the fear of a
+damage that might be irreparable. I am sure that the somber shade of
+old John Benham guided me upon my way and made light my footsteps as I
+crept through the bushes and peered through the window of the cabin.
+
+There upon the floor, before the hearth, in which some fagots were
+burning, sat Jerry and the minx, as thick as thieves, oblivious of the
+fall of night, wrapped in their own conversation and in themselves. I
+am willing to admit that the girl was pretty, though from the glimpses
+I had of it, her profile gave no suggestion of the classical ideals of
+beauty, for her nose made a short line far from regular and her hair,
+though carelessly dressed, was worn, in some absurd modern fashion
+with which I was unfamiliar. And yet in a general way I may say that
+there seemed to be no doubt as to her comeliness. She was quite small
+and crouched as she was upon the floor before the fire she even seemed
+childish--quite too unimportant a creature to have made such a
+hullabaloo in this small world of ours.
+
+Nevertheless I felt justified in keeping silence and even in listening
+to their conversation.
+
+"You didn't mean it," I heard Jerry ask, "about all those girls'
+mothers, did you?"
+
+She laughed.
+
+"Of course I did. You're a catch, you know."
+
+"You mean, they want to catch _me_? Nonsense. I don't believe you."
+
+"It's true. You're too rich to escape."
+
+"If that's the way marriage is made I don't think much of it."
+
+"It isn't always like that." She smiled. "People aren't all as rich as
+you are."
+
+"It's queer," he said after a pause. "I've never thought of myself as
+being different from other people. If money makes one man more
+desirable than another then money sets false standards of judgment.
+The people here I like for what they are, not for what they have.
+That's all wrong somehow, Una. It makes me think crooked."
+
+"I suppose I'm talking too much. You don't have to believe what I
+say," she said slowly.
+
+"But I want to know and I want you to talk. You've stirred something
+deep in me. You somehow make me think I've been looking at everything
+sideways without being able to walk around it. Roger knows what he's
+about, of course, and I suppose he has reasons of his own, but I'm a
+not a child any longer. And if he does not care to tell me the whole
+truth, I've got to find out things for myself from somebody else."
+And then, turning upon her suddenly: "You aren't lying to me, are
+you?"
+
+"Do you think I would?" she asked.
+
+"No, I don't. But I thought you might say queer things, just as a
+joke."
+
+She shook her head. "No," she said calmly. "I laughed a little at
+first, because I didn't understand, but I'm quite serious now."
+
+"You said Roger was a fossil. I know what a fossil is. That wasn't
+kind."
+
+"But it's true," she repeated warmly. "He might keep things from you,
+but he has no right to misrepresent women."
+
+"_Are_ women as fine as men?" he asked.
+
+She looked around at him.
+
+"Why shouldn't they be? I think they're finer. Your Roger wouldn't
+agree with me. I've told you the kind of things they do--that men
+can't and won't do. You may believe me or not as you choose. Some day
+you'll find out."
+
+"But I want to find out now. I want to find out everything."
+
+She smiled into the fire.
+
+"That's a great deal, isn't it?" she said.
+
+He went on soberly:
+
+"You see, I don't want you to think I'm an idiot and I don't want you
+to think Roger is narrow-minded. If you only knew him--"
+
+"I'm sure he has a long nose, sandy hair, grayish? watery eyes and
+spectacles."
+
+"There. I knew you hadn't a notion of him. He's nothing like that."
+
+"Well, what _is_ he like?"
+
+"Why, I've never thought. But he isn't like that. He has a beautiful
+mind. I think that is what matters more than anything. What do looks
+count for? I would rather think fine thoughts than be the handsomest
+person in the world."
+
+He might have been the handsomest person in the world but he wouldn't
+have been aware of it. Through the window I saw the girl search his
+bent head quickly and then peer into the fire smiling. But Jerry did
+not know what she was thinking about and went on slowly:
+
+"You've said some things that make me believe I ought to know more
+about women and their work. I didn't know that they ever did the sort
+of things you tell me of. It's strange I don't know, but I've always
+been pretty busy in here and I've never really thought much about
+them. What did you mean by 'the plague-spots of the cities'?" he
+asked. "Surely there can be no such a disease as the plague in a
+modern city when science has made such progress."
+
+She smiled.
+
+"Moral plague-spots, Jerry, civic sores." She paused.
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"You will in time. The world isn't all as beautiful as you think it
+is. There are men and women with diseased minds, diseased bodies that
+no medicine can cure. There are hospitals and homes for them, but
+there never seems to be enough money or skill or civic righteousness
+to make such people well."
+
+"How do you know all this?" he asked in wonder.
+
+"I've always been interested in social problems. I can't abide being
+idle."
+
+"Social problems! And do you mean that you go among these diseased
+people and try to make them well?"
+
+She nodded.
+
+"I begin to understand," he said slowly, "why you said you thought I
+wasn't doing my work in the world. It's true. I've been sheltered from
+evil. Things have been made easy for me. And you"--he burst forth
+admiringly--"I think you're very wonderful. Perhaps some day I can
+help. You'll let me help, won't you?"
+
+"Oh, would you, Jerry?" she cried.
+
+"I don't see any reason why I shouldn't. I shall be twenty-one in
+December. I can do what I please. The executors want to make me a
+business man--to go to board meetings and help run some companies my
+money is in. But I don't want to. Finance makes my head tired. I've
+been working at it some. Seems like awful rubbish to me. They want me
+to make a lot more money. I suppose I've got enough to get along on. I
+don't want any more than I've got. I'd much rather do something
+useful."
+
+She laughed.
+
+"Useful! I'm afraid your executors have different ideals of utility."
+
+Jerry sighed.
+
+"Of course, I've got to go through with the thing for awhile. But
+I--I'd rather give you my money to cure the plague spots."
+
+"Not all of it, Jerry," she cried, "but would you, some of it? Just a
+very little?"
+
+"Of course--as much as you like. You can do a lot more with it than I
+can."
+
+In my hiding place, I didn't know whether to be alarmed or amused. She
+had done well. Jerry was already giving her his twenty millions. She
+was a capital missionary. It seemed about time I made my entrance, so
+I coughed, then walked through the door and faced them.
+
+"I beg pardon for intruding," I said dryly, "but the fact is that it's
+almost if not quite bedtime."
+
+They got to their feet in some haste, Jerry red as a turkey-cock, the
+girl, I think, a little pale.
+
+"Is it--_is_ it Roger?" stammered Jerry. "I hadn't the slightest
+notion--" And from his appearance I could readily believe him. "Is it
+dinner--bedtime? Why, of course, it _must_ be." He shuffled his feet
+awkwardly and looked from me to the girl. "This is--Una, Roger. We've
+been talking."
+
+"So I should suppose," I remarked, aware of the cool and rather
+contemptuous glances that the young lady was sending in my direction.
+"It's too bad that I interrupted. I hope that Miss--er--"
+
+"Smith," sniffed the girl.
+
+"Quite so. I hope that Miss Smith will forgive me. We are a little
+unused to visitors and of course--"
+
+"I'm going at once," she said, moving a step or two, but seeing that I
+stood in the door, hesitated.
+
+"I don't want you to go yet, please," said Jerry, recovering his
+coolness amazingly. "I want you and Roger to know each other. I've
+been telling her all about us, Roger. She's awfully interested. She
+just happened in, you know. It's all been very agreeable."
+
+"I don't doubt it in the least," I remarked. "Of course, you have
+settled all the affairs of the nations between you."
+
+"Oh, not quite that," laughed Jerry uneasily. "But we did have a talk,
+didn't we, Una?"
+
+"I'm sure I--I hadn't the slightest idea how late it was," said the
+girl stiffly, fingering at her hair.
+
+"Time passes so quickly when one is amused or interested," I said.
+
+"I was thinking, Roger, how nice it would be if Una would come to
+dinner at the Manor."
+
+"Oh, no, thanks--not now. I must be going."
+
+"Couldn't you? I'll show you my specimens. Then we could send you on
+in the machine afterwards."
+
+"No--no, thanks."
+
+"Doubtless the friends of Miss--er--Miss Smith will be worried about
+her."
+
+She shot a malevolent glance at me.
+
+"Not at all. I'm accustomed to doing exactly as I please."
+
+"But I couldn't think of letting you go through the forest alone. It's
+fully half a mile beyond the wall to the highroad."
+
+"Thanks, but I won't bother you at all. If you'll let me pass--"
+
+But Jerry had caught her by the arm.
+
+"Roger's right," he said quickly. "I didn't think. Of course you can't
+go alone. I--"
+
+"If you'll leave it to me, Jerry, I'll see that the lady reaches the
+highroad in safety. I would suggest that you go at once to the house.
+I will join you later."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Will you do as I ask?"
+
+Our glances met in a level gaze. There was a moment of rebellion in
+Jerry's, but it flickered out.
+
+"I think I know best, Jerry," I said quietly.
+
+"Yes, but I don't want her to think--"
+
+"Please don't worry about me," said the girl. "I'm accustomed to
+looking out for myself." She brushed by me quickly and before I could
+restrain her, was merged into the shadows of the trees. But Jerry was
+after her in a hurry while I followed.
+
+"Please go with Roger," I heard Jerry say when I came up.
+
+"I don't need a _keeper_!" she flared at him.
+
+"Una!"
+
+"Go, Jerry," I said again.
+
+He paused but the girl went on, so I followed quickly, and wisely, it
+seemed, for she wandered blindly and would have been lost in a moment.
+
+"If you'll follow me," I ventured, "you will find the way out much
+more quickly. Otherwise you will probably scratch your face."
+
+I'm sure by the sound of her feet in the dry leaves and her hurried
+breathing behind me that she would have liked to scratch _my_ face.
+But she didn't. I think she realized for the first time that without
+my guidance she would probably spend the rest of the night in the
+woods.
+
+"I'm sorry to have been obliged to be so unceremonious," I said at
+last over my shoulder. No reply. But I wasn't in the least daunted. I
+had made up my mind that she shouldn't venture in again.
+
+"It's rather lucky you weren't seen by any of the gamekeepers. You
+might have spent the night in the lockup."
+
+Still no reply.
+
+"You see, the trespass rules here are very strictly enforced. It's too
+bad you didn't know about them. They've been in force for ten years.
+This is the first time, I think, that a woman has been inside the
+wall."
+
+"I--I'm a stranger," she gasped. "I'm only visiting here."
+
+"Of course, that explains it. I couldn't imagine your having ventured
+in otherwise."
+
+We had come to an opening where the trail was wider and I slowed my
+pace so that in a moment she walked beside me. She forged ahead at
+once, but I kept my place.
+
+"Since you're interested in sociological questions, Miss--er--Smith,
+perhaps--"
+
+"You listened?" she asked scornfully.
+
+"I did," grimly. "I listened for at least ten minutes."
+
+"I'm sure you're quite welcome," she gasped.
+
+"Since you're interested in sociological questions," I repeated,
+"perhaps you may be interested in educational ones."
+
+"I'm not."
+
+"That's not consistent, for sociological problems can hardly be solved
+without the aid of--"
+
+"Oh!" Her pent-up temper exploded. "I didn't come in here to--to
+listen to a dissertation on--" Rage choked her and she couldn't go on.
+
+"I should be very much interested to learn what you _did_ come in
+for."
+
+"You're a beast!" she flashed at me.
+
+"Come now, you don't mean that. As a matter of fact, I'm merely a
+mild-mannered person of studious instincts hired to carry out a most
+valuable experiment in comparative psychology."
+
+"I have no interest in your experiments."
+
+"Or the object of them?" I put in quickly. She found that difficult to
+answer.
+
+"You must admit that my inquiry is natural," I went on suavely. "Since
+Jerry has just promised to give you his entire fortune, it seems to me
+only fair that his executors--"
+
+"Will you be silent?" she cried, stopping suddenly. "It seems that I'm
+at your mercy. You will at least have the decency to let me go in
+peace."
+
+She broke away, running aimlessly. I followed rapidly, my conscience
+hurting, but my purpose relentless.
+
+"This way," I said coolly. "You've left the trail."
+
+"I don't care," she gasped. "Leave me."
+
+"I can't do that. You see, I promised Jerry. But I will lead the way
+if you like. The stream is not far."
+
+I set out again and I heard her trudging behind me. If she had stuck
+me in the back with a hatpin, I shouldn't have been surprised. But she
+was more tractable now.
+
+"How are you getting on?" I asked as I neared the Sweetwater. But she
+wouldn't reply. Her sentiments toward me, I am sure, were too deep for
+words.
+
+"Where did you come in?" I asked again.
+
+"The iron railing--at the stream," she mumbled.
+
+"Oh! It must be repaired at once."
+
+"You needn't bother," she said scornfully, "so far as I am concerned."
+
+"That's very kind of you. Ah, here we are."
+
+We went carefully over the rocks and in a short while the dim bulk of
+the wall rose before us. I descended, preceding her, found the opening
+and went through it.
+
+"You're not going any further with me," she commanded in a suppressed
+tone. "I forbid it."
+
+I rose on the other side of the grille and dusted my knees.
+
+"I should be sorry to disobey your commands," I said firmly, "but the
+dangers of the woods at night--"
+
+"Oh! How I abominate you!"
+
+"Really? I am sorry."
+
+But she followed me through the aperture and I led the way down a
+path, which seemed fairly well worn, alongside the wall.
+
+"Of course, your real name isn't Smith," I began again in a moment.
+And then after waiting in vain for a reply: "Are you staying with the
+Laidlaws? The Carews? The Van Wycks then? You won't tell me? Oh, very
+well, I'll inquire."
+
+My threat brought her to her senses.
+
+"You wouldn't do that!" she said in an agonized tone, catching me by
+the arm.
+
+"I'm quite capable of it," I replied, stopping beside her.
+
+"I--I beg of you not to do that."
+
+"_Am_ I a beast?" I smiled.
+
+"No, no--not a beast. I'm sorry."
+
+"Why do you wish to remain unknown?"
+
+"I--I had no business coming. No one knows. It was mere--mere feminine
+curiosity." She turned away, "Does _that_ satisfy you?" she cried.
+
+"I think it does," I said more gently. "And you'll not return?"
+
+"No--no, never."
+
+"Good. I ask no questions. You stay out. It's a bargain."
+
+She led the way now silently, and I hurried after her, a little sorry
+for my own part in the matter, but still jealous for our violated
+sanctuary. She had force, this girl, and not a little courage. Modern
+she was, if you like, but very spirited and human. When we reached the
+highroad I paused.
+
+"If you wish, I will go on with you."
+
+"Our paths separate here."
+
+I offered her my hand.
+
+"Forgive me," I said gently. "I am only doing my duty."
+
+But she turned quickly and in a moment was running down the road where
+the night soon swallowed her.
+
+Women are queer animals. She might at least have given me her hand.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+JACK BALLARD TAKES CHARGE
+
+
+On my way back to the Manor house I thought deeply of a way to make
+the best of the situation. That Jerry was a philosopher seemed for the
+moment to be a matter of little importance, for the portion of his
+conversation in the cabin which I had overheard was an indictment both
+of my teaching and my integrity. His eyes, thanks to the gabble of
+this mischievous visitor, were now open. He would want to know
+everything and I found myself placed in the position of being obliged
+to choose between a frankness which would be hazardous and a deception
+which would be intolerable. The time had suddenly come for generous
+revelations. I had labored all these years to bring Jerry to manhood,
+armed with righteousness and a sound philosophy, equipment enough
+according to my reading of his character and the meaning of life, to
+make him impervious to all sophistry and all sin. The conversation
+that I had overheard did nothing to weaken my faith in the Great
+Experiment which in my heart I felt already to be an unqualified
+success, but it notified me of the fact which had almost escaped me,
+that Jerry was no longer a boy but a man in years as well as body and
+intelligence and that his desire for worldly knowledge was not to be
+thwarted.
+
+And yet the prospect seemed far from pleasing to me. It was the
+beginning of the end of our Utopia. Upon the threshold of the world
+Jerry was eager for that which I had scorned. Our paths would
+separate. The old relation would be no more.
+
+I went home slowly and I think some sign of my weariness and
+perplexity must have been marked upon my features as I entered the
+hall where Jerry with sober countenance awaited me. There was nothing
+for it but to talk the thing out. I did not upbraid him nor he me. We
+understood each other too well for that.
+
+Then followed the flood of eager questions from a mind topsy-turvy. I
+answered him slowly, deliberately, and gave him in some detail his
+father's thesis on education, explaining how and why I happened to be
+in sympathy with it and pointing out by the results attained the
+wisdom of our plans.
+
+"Results!" he cried. "What results? In what respect is my education
+better than another man's? I know my Latin, and my Greek, my French,
+my German. I'm a good history scholar, and what you've taught me of
+philosophy,--the inside of books--all of it. But life, Roger,--you've
+starved me--starved me! If I were a babe in arms I couldn't know
+less--"
+
+"You'll know life in time, Jerry, see it through a finer prism."
+
+"I want to see it as it is, in the raw, not beautiful when it is not
+beautiful. I want the truth--all the truth, Roger, the rough and the
+ugly where it _is_ rough and ugly. You say you've made me a man,
+taught me to think fine thoughts, given me a good mind and a strong
+body, but all the while you were sheltering me, saving me--from what?
+What good are my mind and body if they aren't strong enough to be put
+to the test of life and survive it?"
+
+He was much agitated.
+
+"I have no fear to put you to any test--today, tomorrow," I said
+quietly.
+
+"Then put me to it--out there." With a wave of his arm he cried: "I
+must see for myself, think for myself."
+
+"You shall, Jerry, soon. Will you be patient a little while longer?"
+
+He controlled himself with an effort and bent forward in his chair,
+bringing his head down into his hands.
+
+"It's hard. I feel like a coward, a coward--not taking my share--"
+
+"Ah," I said suddenly, "_she_ called you that?"
+
+"Yes. If she had been a man I should have thrashed her. But in a
+moment I knew that she had spoken the truth."
+
+"But Jerry, a coward is one who is afraid. How could you be afraid of
+something you didn't know about?"
+
+"But I know now. She told me very little, Roger, but I've guessed the
+rest."
+
+He went on in this vein for awhile and at last grew calmer. And the
+result of it all was a promise on my part to answer more frankly all
+his questions, to subscribe to two newspapers and some magazines, and
+to begin on the morrow a course of reading which would prepare the way
+for his contact with the world. He seemed satisfied and at last went
+to bed with his old cheery "Good night, Dry-as-dust."
+
+After all, I had gotten out of it well enough. Only a few months
+remained for him within the wall and with the exception of the
+newspapers, my plans for him were really little changed. I may as well
+confess at once that my delay in broadening his point of view was
+selfish. I had made such a beautiful thing that I was as proud of it
+as any painter of his masterpiece. Until the present moment I had been
+true to my own ideals. What was to follow must be a concession to
+convention.
+
+But I entered frankly enough into the new scheme of things and set
+Jerry a course in modern fiction in books carefully chosen and before
+the summer was gone and the autumn far advanced Jerry had read at
+least a shelf-full of volumes. He went through them avidly and asked
+few questions. Love between the sexes he now accepted as a matter of
+course, but he hadn't the slightest conception of what it meant and
+told me so. He had passed the morbid age between boyhood and manhood,
+his head in the air, his gaze upon the stars, and what he read now did
+not trouble him.
+
+And as the months flew by without the expected revelation, I breathed
+more freely. His heart was so clean that the suggestion of forbidden
+things made no impression upon it. He already accepted suffering, sin,
+disease, as part of the lot of a too complex society, but he made few
+comments upon his reading and these were perfunctory. He was so free
+from guile that I actually believe he could have been given access to
+any library without fear of contamination.
+
+In November Jack Ballard arrived for a visit of a few days and
+announced that his father had bought a house in New York which was to
+be ready for occupancy after Jerry's birthday. As Jack is to occupy a
+prominent place in these pages, I may as well announce at once that at
+this time he had reached the age of thirty-five, had kept most of his
+hair, was slightly inclined to corpulency, and wore gay cravats which
+matched his handkerchiefs, shirts and socks, the "sartorial symphony,"
+as he described it. He still kept office hours from two to three on
+Thursdays and refused all efforts on the part of his father to make
+him take life other than as a colossal joke. He had not married,
+though I do not doubt that there were many who would have nabbed him
+quickly enough.
+
+In his previous visits to Horsham Manor Jack had, at no little cost,
+repressed his speech into accord with my teachings, and Jerry was very
+fond of him. They fished, swam and sparred by day, and in the evenings
+Jack told stories of hunting in foreign countries to which Jerry
+listened wide-eyed.
+
+But now, it seemed, his visit had a purport. There was just a
+suggestion of swagger in Jack's manner at the dinner table where, to
+Jerry's surprise, he wore a jacket and a fluted shirt.
+
+At the boy's comment, Jack inhaled deeply of his cigarette (another
+operation which Jerry always regarded with a certain awe) and stated
+the object of his visit, which was nothing less than that of
+sartorially equipping Jerry for the fray.
+
+"To be well-dressed, my boy," he said gayly, "is to show the finishing
+touch of a perfect culture. Without well-fitting garments no man is
+complete. I am going to clothe you, Jerry, from the skin out. That's
+my privilege. I shall be the framemaker for Roger's _magnum opus_.
+And not over my dead body shall you wear after December twelfth a
+tartan-cravat." (Jerry fingered at the gay bit of ribbon at his neck.)
+"If you will remember, our friend Ruskin said that the man who wears a
+tartan-cravat will most surely be damned."
+
+As you will observe. Jack Ballard exactly defined sophistication, root
+and branch. But his sophistries were always colorful and ornamental
+and of course Jerry laughed.
+
+"I'll take your word for it, Uncle Jack," he said. "But you know I
+rather like color."
+
+"Of course, in a rainbow, my boy. But in a cravat--no! The cravat is
+the chevron of gentility. You shall see. Symphonies in browns and
+gray-greens! I'll make you a heart-breaker."
+
+"Why do you put such rubbish in his head, Ballard?" I said testily.
+
+"Because he's got quite enough essential matter there already," he
+laughed. "For ten years you've been packing him with facts. I have a
+feeling that if one only shook Jerry a little, he would disgorge them
+all--dates of battles, maxims, memorabilia of all sorts, a
+heterogeneous mess. He's full to the brim, I tell you, and ready to
+explode. Suppose he did! How would you like to be hit in the midriff
+by an apothegm of Cicero, or be hamstrung by the subjunctive
+pluperfect of an irregular French verb?"
+
+Jerry was laughing immoderately, though I admit such blackface
+pleasantry appealed little to my sense of humor. But I found myself
+smiling. "Surely you don't expect to avert this catastrophe by
+providing Jerry with a new cravat?" I urged.
+
+"That is precisely what I _do_ expect," he said. "You've had your
+fling at him, Pope. I'm going to have mine. Tomorrow a tailor will
+arrive, also a haberdasher and a bootmaker. Jerry will be measured
+from top to toe. The mountain is coming to Mahomet."
+
+"Let's be sure no mouse is born," I said dryly.
+
+"Six feet two of country mouse," he roared. "Oh, Pope, don't you
+worry. We'll show you a thing or two, won't we, Jerry?"
+
+The tailor, the haberdasher and the bootmaker came, saw and measured,
+while Jack sat in the background, with a sheaf of plates of men's
+clothing in his lap, and gave directions. Jerry must have felt a great
+deal like a fool during the operation for I'm sure he looked one. But
+Ballard had his way and not until night did he leave us to peace and
+our own devices.
+
+The time for the boy's emergence approached, alas, too quickly. A
+change had come over the spirit of Jerry's dreams. I saw that he was
+eager to go. It seemed that he already stood on tiptoe peering forth,
+eager, straining at his leash. And since he was no longer content at
+Horsham Manor, I reasoned, with regret, that the sooner he went the
+better. I had done all I could for him. His destiny was now in the lap
+of the gods.
+
+Everything had been carefully arranged. The Ballards, elder and
+younger, were to take him to the new house in town where Christopher
+would look after him. At first Jerry would not listen to the
+arrangement. I had for so long been his guide and philosopher I must
+continue his friend. He wanted me with him in New York. But to this I
+demurred. Much as I disliked the thought of separation, I had made up
+my mind that he must go alone, cut adrift from all moral support. I
+had wished to go away, for having saved practically all my salary for
+ten years I was now independent, but at Jerry's insistent pleading we
+compromised. For the present I would stay on at the Manor and finish
+my book.
+
+Jerry's birthday dinner was an impressive affair. With the two
+Ballards came the five solemn co-executors of John Benham's will--Mr.
+Stewardson, Mr. da Costa, Mr. Wrenn, Mr. Walsenberg and Mr. Duhring.
+And these, with Jerry, Radford, Flynn, the boxer, and myself made up
+the company. Jerry had insisted on having Flynn and no amount of
+urging could dissuade him. Flynn was his friend, he said, more his
+friend than Mr. Wrenn, Mr. Duhring or indeed any of the others whom he
+barely knew by sight. And so Flynn came.
+
+The elders were solemn and significant, Jerry, at the head of the
+table, wearing for the first time his new finery (under the hypnotism,
+as he confessed in a whisper, of the vast expanse of white
+shirt-front), trying to look as though he were enjoying himself.
+Radford and I were mere onlookers. Flynn was acutely miserable. Had it
+not been for Jack Ballard I fear the conversation would have
+degenerated into a discussion of the merits and possibilities of
+Jerry's many "companies." But every time that that danger threatened
+the irrepressible Jack demolished it with an anecdote. He wasn't going
+to have Jerry's bud nipped so early, as his own had been, by the frost
+of finance. By the time we had reached the roast, and the champagne,
+the plutocrats seemed to realize that the occasion was a birthday
+party and not a board meeting.
+
+Over the port there were speeches, toasts by the plutocrats, one by
+one, to the newly risen Railroad King, while Jerry grasped the arms of
+his chair, a ballet dancer's smile on his lips, trying to look happy.
+But when Jack got up he laughed genuinely.
+
+"Gentlemen, I've known our host of this evening almost since he was
+born. I have watched with solicitude the rearing of this infant. I am
+his fairy godfather. I got Canby. Thanks to my wisdom, Jerry has now
+safely emerged from the baby diseases, and confronts the world in a
+boiled shirt. He has kindly consented, I think, against the advice of
+his tutor, to permit me to put the finishing touches on his education.
+
+"Jerry has already been proposed at three excellent clubs, to two of
+which he has been elected today. I have warned him against the
+insidious cocktail and the deadly cigarette" (here Jack puffed at one
+vigorously) "and have advised him that ladies were designed by their
+Maker for purely ornamental purposes. I am not sure that he has taken
+my word for it and will probably propose to verify my statement
+according to his reading of aesthetics. I wish him all success in the
+purely scientific side of his investigations.
+
+"As to his career, gentlemen, I warn you that he will choose it for
+himself. If you don't believe me, I will ask you carefully to examine
+the breadth and squareness of his chin. In proposing Jerry Benham's
+health, a superfluous proceeding at the best, I don't think I can pay
+him a higher tribute than in saying that in addition to being both a
+scholar and a gentleman, he is also the best heavyweight boxer I have
+ever seen, in the ring or out of it, and that anyone who expects to
+make him do anything he does not want to do, will be a subject for
+commiseration--or the coroner. Gentlemen, Jerry Benham!"
+
+Having discharged this bombshell into the ranks of the plutocrats,
+Jack sat down. Of course, everybody laughed, and while they were
+laughing Flynn awkwardly got up, perspiring profusely, first shooting
+his cuffs and then fingering at his neckband. "Misther Ballard's
+right, gents. He's right. I don't know much about books, but if
+Masther Jerry's as good at edjication as he is wid his fists, then all
+I've got to say is that he's _some_ perfessor. I've been workin' wid
+him on an' off these four year an' all I'd loike to say to you, gents,
+is just this: Don't crowd him, _don't crowd him_, gents, because he's
+got an uppercut like a ton o' coal."
+
+Flynn sat down amid applause and Jerry rose, flushing happily. I think
+what Flynn had said pleased him more than all that had preceded it.
+
+"My friends," he said quietly, "I am glad to see you here and hope
+that I may prove worthy of your good opinions. I'm grateful to you and
+Mr. Ballard, Mr. Stewardson, Mr. da Costa, Mr. Walsenberg, Mr. Wrenn
+and Mr. Duhring for all that you've done for me in here, but I want
+you all to know that it's to Roger Canby that I owe my greatest debt,
+to Roger Canby, my tutor, brother, mother, father,--friend."
+
+They wanted me to speak. I could not. But Jerry understood.
+
+In the library after dinner I overheard part of a conversation
+between Ballard the elder and Mr. Duhring.
+
+"What's all this rubbish of Jack's, Harry, about Jerry having a square
+chin. Do you think he'll be difficult to manage?"
+
+Henry Ballard smiled.
+
+"Jack can't resist his little joke. I'm afraid I've spoiled that boy
+outrageously."
+
+"Yes, I rather think you have," said the other dryly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+JERRY EMERGES
+
+
+In hearing from Jack Ballard's own lips the story of Jerry Benham's
+first appearance in Broadway I was forcibly reminded of the opening
+cantos of the Divine Comedy where Dante follows the shade of Virgil
+into the abyss of hell. I had not let Jerry know of my presence in New
+York, for I believed that he would have wanted me with him and did not
+care to be placed in a position to refuse him. Indeed I can give no
+reason for my visit except the very plausible one that, my work going
+badly, I felt the need of a change. Jack was much amused at my sudden
+appearance one morning at his apartments, but welcomed me warmly
+enough, giving the pledge of secrecy I demanded.
+
+"Oh, it's been perfectly ripping," he said, when we were seated,
+fairly bubbling over with delectable reminiscences. "He's like a
+newly-hatched chicken, all fluffy and clean, a little batty-eyed and
+groggy but intensely curious about everything."
+
+"Has he asked any questions?"
+
+"Millions of 'em, like balls from a Roman candle. He shoots 'em at
+every angle and some of 'em hit."
+
+"You've taken him about?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, but he doesn't exactly comprehend the meaning and purposes of
+his clubs. I took him in one of them, the most select, on several
+afternoons. The same fellows were always sitting around a window
+looking out, others, older ones, were asleep in armchairs. I didn't
+offer him anything to drink and we sat there, watching the chaps in
+the window and listening to their talk. The conversation was not
+brilliant."
+
+"'Do these gentlemen do this all the time?' asked Jerry softly.
+
+"'Yes, almost all the time.'
+
+"'Don't they ever get tired of looking out of the window?'
+
+"'They don't seem to. It's restful to watch other people working.'
+
+"'But don't they _do_ anything else?'
+
+"'Not much. They're rich.'
+
+"'And the others, the old gentlemen asleep in the chairs, are they
+rich too?'
+
+"'Yes, rich too, but tired.'
+
+"'Tired of being rich?'
+
+"'Perhaps.'
+
+"'I see.'
+
+"He was quiet for a long while and then: 'What a horrible waste of
+opportunity!'
+
+"I thought this was the psychological moment to put in my brief for
+the governor.
+
+"'It certainly is. Luckily you've got a career waiting for you.'
+
+"'But if riches only lead to this, Uncle Jack, I'm pretty sure I'd
+much rather be poor.'
+
+"'There isn't much chance of your getting _that_ wish,' I laughed.
+
+"'Well, I could give my money away,' he said. I looked at him
+quickly, for his tone was very earnest.
+
+"'That won't do, my boy. Indiscriminate giving may be very injurious.'
+
+"'I can't understand that.'
+
+"A few nights later a beggar touched his arm as he passed. The man
+said he was hungry and looked it. Jerry gave him his pocketbook. The
+fellow glanced at the pocketbook and then at Jerry as though he
+thought the boy was crazy and bolted without a word. Jerry watched him
+out of sight. 'Might at least have said "Thank you,"' he murmured. He
+didn't speak of giving away money for awhile.
+
+"A night or two later he had an experience of another sort. It was
+after the theater, the least noxious play I could discover on the
+bills. Two women met us in a dark cross street. I saw Jerry stop and
+stare at one of them. That was unusual. I urged him to go on but he
+stopped and listened.
+
+"'In an awful hurry, ain't you, dearie?' one of the girls asked.
+
+"'Why, no, not at all,' says Jerry, politely taking off his hat. And
+then as her appellation struck him: 'I think you must have mistaken me
+for someone else.'
+
+"The girl was a little puzzled.
+
+"'Aw, yer stringin' me,' she said.
+
+"'Stringing?' asked Jerry.
+
+"'Cut it out. You know what I mean well enough'. Come along,' and she
+moved a pace away.
+
+"Jerry followed. 'I'd be glad to come if I can be of any assistance.'
+
+"'Assistance,' laughed the girl.
+
+"'Did you hear that, Geraldine?'
+
+"And with that they both burst into roars of laughter.
+
+"Jerry's ignorance of things made him keenly sensitive to ridicule.
+
+"'I think you're very impolite,' he said with dignity.
+
+"'Aw, go chase yourself,' said Geraldine and vanished into the shadows
+with her companion.
+
+"That interview took a lot of explaining. In fact, all the way to
+Jerry's house the mystery of the girls' behavior hung like a cloud
+over him. 'Do you know, Jack,' he said as we were parting, 'I think
+that girl was mad--quite mad.'"
+
+"Couldn't you have prevented that meeting?" I asked.
+
+"I didn't try. Besides, Jerry is a persistent chap. When I asked him
+why he stopped, he said it was because the girl looked like somebody
+he was hunting for."
+
+"Who? I can't imagine."
+
+"He said her name was Una Smith."
+
+"Oh, yes. The minx who slipped into Horsham Manor. I told you about
+her. But her name isn't Smith."
+
+"Jerry has been looking for her." He laughed. "He thought at first, he
+said, he'd see her on the street, but was surprised to find the city
+so large. He was a little disappointed. But I think he's forgotten.
+There's safety in numbers."
+
+"Then he doesn't know anything yet?"
+
+"Bless your heart! I'd no more think of teaching Jerry filth than I
+would my own sister. But by the Lord Harry, he's an inquisitive cuss.
+He's learning that life isn't all beer and skittles, has felt the
+skinny talons of poverty on his elbow and has heard a truck-driver
+swear in the approved New York manner. That in itself was a liberal
+education. The worst of it was that the chap happened to be swearing
+at Jerry."
+
+He chuckled at the memory.
+
+"What happened?" I asked.
+
+"Jerry jumped over the wheel, caught the man by the collar of his coat
+and threw him into the street. He was a big 'un too."
+
+Ballard lingered provokingly in the narrative, which was interesting
+me greatly.
+
+"And then?" I asked.
+
+"The fellow rose, covered with slime, looking vicious.
+
+"'What did you mean taking God's name in vain?' says Jerry sternly.
+
+"'I'll show you, you--'
+
+"He came in with a rush, grimy fists flying. Jerry feinted just once,
+side-stepped and caught him prettily on the point of the jaw. The blow
+was beautifully timed, and the fellow dropped like a log."
+
+"And then?"
+
+"A crowd was gathering and so we ducked--I slipped Jerry into a hotel
+entrance near by and out we went by another way." Ballard paused in
+the act of lighting a cigarette. "You see, he's already giving battle
+to society. A walk abroad with Jerry is an adventure which may end in
+metaphysics or the jail. But it won't do, Roger, tilting at wind-mills
+like that. He can't make New York like Horsham Manor--at least not all
+at once."
+
+"He'd try that if he could," I laughed.
+
+"It will be a slow business, I'm afraid. New York is quite contented
+to be exactly what she is. And the women!" He emitted a tenuous
+whistle. And then, "I don't suppose it ever occurred to you, Pope,
+that all these years you've been sheltering the Apollo Belvedere."
+
+"He _is_ good looking. Thank God he doesn't know it."
+
+"He will in time. It's really a shame the way the women stare at him
+on the street. He's never through blushing when he isn't asking
+questions.
+
+"'What do those women look at me for?' he asks. 'Nothing queer about
+me, is there?'
+
+"'Oh, no,' I reply. 'They look at everybody like that. It's a
+characteristic of the sex, curiosity. You don't mind, do you?'
+
+"'Oh, I suppose not. I rather like it when the pretty ones do. How red
+their cheeks are and their lips! It must be much more healthful in the
+city than I had supposed.'"
+
+"Rouge?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, of course. Even the flappers do it. It takes good eyesight to
+tell 'em from the dowagers nowadays."
+
+"And Jerry doesn't know the difference?"
+
+"I think he's beginning to. A few days ago I met an old girl I know,
+Mrs. Warrington, walking with Marcia Van Wyck; you know, the heiress,
+who has the big place up near Horsham Manor--father, mother both dead.
+Spoiled all her life. Lives with a companion, you know,--poor
+relation. They stopped us--mere curiosity--not to talk to _me_, bless
+your heart, but to see Jerry. It seems they'd heard we'd turned him
+loose, and guessed who my companion was. We talked awhile and Marcia
+asked us to call. When they went off. Jerry turned to me in a stage
+whisper:
+
+"'Jack, that lady has paint on her face.'
+
+"'Woman, not lady,' said I. 'This is Fifth Avenue. The ladies of New
+York are only to be found on Broadway and the Bowery,'
+
+"He looked bewildered but his other discovery interested him the most.
+
+"'But I say she had paint on her face,' he repeated.
+
+"'How could you tell?' I asked innocently.
+
+"'It was streaky. I saw it.'
+
+"'Possibly. But it isn't polite to notice such things.'
+
+"He was silent a moment. And then: 'I think the other, the girl, Miss
+Van Wyck, is very beautiful. I think I should like to call on her,
+Jack.'
+
+"So you see, Pope, he's looking up. Marcia _is_ pretty. She has been
+out three seasons but she takes good care of herself. I've never liked
+her much myself--a little too studied, you know, and quite
+ultra-modern."
+
+"You think Jerry was impressed?" I asked. There may have been a deeper
+note of interest in my query than I intended, for Jack burst into
+laughter.
+
+"There you go. Your one chick is a duckling now, Pope, old boy. You'll
+have to let him swim if he wants to. The water's deep there, too--very
+deep. Marcia knows her way about."
+
+"It would be a pity if she made a fool of him," I ventured.
+
+He only smiled.
+
+"It would, of course. Perhaps she will. But Jerry's got to cut his eye
+teeth. And he might as well cut 'em on Marcia as anybody else. But
+there's no danger of her marrying him for his money. She's almost if
+not quite as rich as he is. Half the young bloods in town are after
+her. It's rather flattering to Jerry. She gave me the impression
+yesterday of rather liking him."
+
+"Oh, you called?"
+
+"It was something of a command. When a girl rolls her eyes the way she
+did at Jerry and says that he must come to see her, there's nothing
+for him but to go. Besides, they're neighbors up in the country, you
+know. I went with him. I had an idea what we were in for, but Jerry
+didn't, naturally. She expected us and the butler led the way past the
+drawing-room into the lady's particular sanctorum, a smallish room in
+a wing of the house all hung in black damask, with black velvet rugs
+and ebony chairs. Marcia's blonde, you know, and gets her effects
+daringly. I must admit that she looked dazzling, like a bit of Meissen
+or Sevres in an ormolu cabinet. She was lolling on a black divan
+smoking a cigarette and put out her slim fingers languidly. That's her
+pose--condescension mixed with sudden spasms of intense interest. She
+extended her fingers to be kissed--she had learned that nonsense in
+Europe somewhere--and so I kissed 'em. They were dry, cool, very
+beautifully tinted, with the nails long and highly polished and had
+the odor, very faintly, of jasmine. Jerry kissed 'em too, looking
+extremely foolish."
+
+"He would," I growled. "The hussy!"
+
+Ballard shook with laughter.
+
+"Oh, that's rather rough, Pope. She's merely the product of a highly
+sensitized _milieu_. Because I don't like girls of that stamp doesn't
+argue her unlikable. I've never heard a word against her except that
+she has much attention from men. And with her money and looks that's
+natural enough."
+
+"What happened?" I put in shortly.
+
+"Oh, she was very languid at first and a little formal, thawing
+effectively as she drew Jerry out. You see she had a little the
+advantage in knowing his history.
+
+"'I'm very flattered that you should have come so soon,' she said,
+comprehending us both in her level gaze. 'Will you smoke, Mr. Benham?
+No? You haven't succumbed yet to all of the amiable weaknesses of
+human nature. They're very mild. _Do_ change your mind. There! I knew
+you would,'
+
+"Jerry fingered the thing and lighted it as though it might have been
+the match of a blunderbuss.
+
+"'I've been wondering for a great many years, Mr. Benham, what you
+could be like,' she went on in a tone which is more nearly described
+as a purr than anything else. 'You know, our places up in Ulster
+County are almost adjoining. At times I've been tempted to scale your
+wall. It looked so very attractive from outside. But they told me you
+kept a private banshee, trained to visit those you didn't like. You
+don't, do you?'
+
+"Jerry laughed. 'The nearest thing I've got to a banshee is my dog
+Skookums. But he's blind in one eye and his teeth are gone, and he's
+too lazy even to wag his tail. Besides I don't see why I should set
+him on _you_!
+
+"She laughed, showing a row of rather small but even teeth.
+
+"'They say you don't like girls. Tell me it isn't so, Mr.
+Ballard'--she appealed to me.
+
+"I saw the way the wind was blowing but I chose to humor her.
+
+"'I am sure he adores the very ground you walk on,' I said politely,
+'especially when you look like a figure on an Etruscan amphora.'
+
+"She smiled slowly. 'You _can_ say nice things, can't you, Mr.
+Ballard? But that doesn't quite exculpate Mr. Benham.'
+
+"'I'm sure,' said Jerry very gravely, 'that you're the most beautiful
+creature I've ever seen!'
+
+"Her fishing prospered. Her eyelashes lowered so that we both could
+see how long they were and when she raised them again and looked at
+Jerry her eyes were opened wide.
+
+"'That is the greatest compliment I've ever received in my life,' she
+said evenly. 'I hope you mean it, Mr. Benham.'
+
+"'I shouldn't have said it if I didn't think so,' said Jerry quickly.
+
+"Something in the positive way he spoke pleased her again for she
+smiled bewitchingly, effacing me completely. I think we're going to be
+very good friends,' she said, moving up on the divan a little nearer
+to him. 'Of course, it takes more than the aesthetic appeal to bring
+two sensible people together,' she murmured. 'It is not the eye which
+must catch the reflection, but the mind. You've thought a good
+deal--and studied? Men are so vapid nowadays.' She sighed. 'I hope
+some day you will think I'm clever enough for you to talk to me about
+things.'
+
+"She was playing up to him, you see, I think that Jerry is the most
+extraordinary male animal that has ambled into her vision this winter.
+
+"'I'd be glad to. Of course you're different from anything I ever saw
+before,' said Jerry. 'I've always thought of nature as the most
+beautiful thing in the world. Now I seem to be just as sure that art
+is.'
+
+"That rather took her aback, but she didn't turn a hair.
+
+"'You think all this--superfluous?'
+
+"'Not superfluous, perhaps. Merely artificial.'
+
+"'Am I artificial?'
+
+"'Yes,' bluntly! 'I don't understand it at all. But it's singularly
+effective. It's like night with only one star visible--'
+
+"'The more visible,' I put in, 'for being Venus.'
+
+"She looked at me slantways. 'I'm sorry you said that, Mr. Ballard.
+Venus is not my goddess. Diana--'
+
+"'The Huntress,' I broke in again.
+
+"'Pallas Athene, the guardian and guide of heroes,' she countered
+neatly.
+
+"'I'm glad you don't like Venus, Miss Van Wyck,' put in Jerry quickly.
+'She made a lot of trouble, just because she was pretty. Diana--she
+_was_ the right sort, no sentimental rot for her.'
+
+"'Of course. Sentiment _is_ rot and so sloppy.'
+
+"Jerry laughed ingenuously. 'That's a good word,' he said. 'Imagine
+Diana being sloppy.'
+
+"'Women aren't nearly as sentimental as they used to be. As a woman's
+weapon hysteria has gone to the dust heap. Women are learning
+independence. You believe in women thinking for themselves, don't
+you?'
+
+"'Of course,' said Jerry. 'But they don't, do they?'
+
+"'_I_ do. It's one of my gospels to be self-sufficient. Don't you
+believe me?'
+
+"'I'd like to, you're so lovely to look at. I'd like to think you were
+perfect in everything.'
+
+"He refreshed her. Her artificialities one by one were falling away
+from her like discarded garments. And yet I was not sure that it
+wasn't artifice that was discarding them. She was very clever. I might
+have guessed it, had I noticed earlier the volumes by Freud and
+Strindberg on the little ebony side table."
+
+Ballard paused a moment to light a fresh cigarette.
+
+"Bah!" I muttered contemptuously.
+
+He looked over at me thoughtfully. "You may sneer, Pope, my boy," he
+commented. "But this sort of thing has come to stay. The infants are
+imbibing it with their bottles--self-expression, self-analysis and all
+that."
+
+"But this girl is dangerous," I remarked.
+
+"I imagine she is," he said calmly. "At any rate, she's going to prove
+or disprove your precious hypothesis."
+
+"I'm not afraid for Jerry," I growled. "No chameleon will change _his_
+color. What else did she say?"
+
+"She was very much pleased at Jerry's compliment.
+
+"'Someone has taught you to be very polite,' she said with a smile.
+
+"'Polite?' asked Jerry. 'Merely because I was hoping you weren't
+flabby?'
+
+"'Well, I'm not flabby,' she smiled indulgently. 'I hate flabby
+people.'
+
+"'I don't see any reason why a woman should be different from a man,'
+Jerry went on. 'Men don't cry, why should women? I've always thought
+the Greeks were right. To me there's only one sin the world and that's
+weakness.'
+
+"You'll pardon me, Pope, if I say that he sounded very much like you,"
+he laughed. "He had the preaching tone, the assertiveness. It was most
+amusing. Imagine the paradox, this babe, an ascetic and this
+worldling, a sybarite, meeting upon a common ground! For I really
+believe she was sincere about her self-sufficiency. Whatever her
+tastes, she's no weakling."
+
+"But she's trivial, a smatterer, a decadent--"
+
+"And handsome," laughed Ballard. "Don't forget that."
+
+"Mere looks will never ensnare Jerry."
+
+"I hope not, but she'll teach him a thing or two before she's through
+with him."
+
+I was silent for some moments, and then: "What else do you know of
+this girl?" I asked.
+
+"Nothing. I've painted you the picture as well as I could. The
+conversation that followed was unimportant. Her remarks became guarded
+and later descended to the mere commonplace."
+
+"She _is_ dangerous," I said.
+
+"I've warned Jerry. He laughed at me."
+
+"When was this call?" I asked.
+
+"The day before yesterday."
+
+"And where is Jerry today?"
+
+"I have a notion that he is spending the afternoon with Miss Marcia
+Van Wyck," he said with a smile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+FOOT-WORK
+
+
+I should very much like to have been present while Jerry made some of
+his visits to the house of the girl Marcia in order to have heard with
+my own ears what she said to Jerry in those first few weeks of their
+acquaintance. Some of it, a very little, I did learn from Jerry's
+letters to me, but much more from Jack Ballard, who visited the lady
+upon his own account and supplied the missing links in my information
+as to the growing friendship. But the nature of Jerry's feelings
+toward her I can only surmise by my knowledge of the character of the
+boy himself through which I tried to peer as with my own eyes, at the
+personality of this extraordinary female. That she was more than
+ordinarily clever there was no reason to doubt; that she was
+attractive to the better class of young men in her own set was beyond
+dispute; that she was thoroughly unscrupulous as to the means by which
+she attained her ends (whatever they were) seemed more than probable.
+Perhaps she did not differ greatly from other young female persons in
+her own walk of life, but I would have been better pleased if Jerry's
+education in the ways of the world could have proceeded a little more
+slowly. It seemed to me as I compared them, that the girl Una, who had
+called herself Smith, brazen as she was, would have been a much saner
+companion. I could not believe, of course, that either of them could
+sway Jerry definitely from the path of right thinking, but I realized
+that the eleven years during which Jerry had been all mine were but a
+short period of time when compared to the years that lay before him.
+From the description I had of her, the Van Wyck girl was not at all
+the kind of female that I thought Jerry would like. She was an exotic,
+and was redolent, I am sure, of faint sweet odors which would perplex
+Jerry, who had known nothing but the smell of the forest balsams. She
+was effete and oriental, Jerry clean and western.
+
+But, of course, I had not met the girl and my opinion of her was based
+upon the merest guesses as to her habits and character. She seemed to
+be, according to Ballard, essentially feminine (whatever he meant by
+that) and in spite of her protestations to Jerry as to her
+self-sufficiency and soundness, to have a faculty for ingratiating
+herself into the fullest confidence of the young men who came into her
+net.
+
+In looking over the above, it occurs to me that I may be accused of
+prejudice against or unfairness to this girl of whom I really knew so
+little, for if I do not tell the truth, this work has no value. But
+upon consideration I have decided to let my opinions stand, leaving my
+own personal point of view to weigh as little or as much as it may in
+the mind of my reader. To say that I was jealous of Jerry's attentions
+to any young woman would be as far from the truth as to say that I was
+not jealous for his happiness. But as several weeks went by and Jerry
+did not appear at the Manor, his notes meanwhile becoming more and
+more fragmentary, I found a conviction slowly growing in my mind that
+my importance in Jerry's scheme of things was diminishing with the
+days. One afternoon just before the dinner hour I was reading Heminge
+and Condell's remarkable preface to the "Instauratio Magna" of Bacon,
+which advances the theory that the state of knowledge is not greatly
+advancing and that a way must be opened for the human understanding
+entirely different from any known. In the midst of my studies Jerry
+rushed in, flushed with his long drive in the open air, and threw his
+great arms around my neck, almost smothering me.
+
+"Good old Dry-as-dust! Thought I'd surprise you. Glad to see me?
+Anything to eat? By George! You're as yellow as a kite's foot. Been
+reading yourself into a mummy, haven't you?"
+
+It was good to see him. He seemed to bring the whole of outdoors in
+with him.
+
+I took him by the shoulders and held him off from me, laughing in pure
+happiness.
+
+"Well. What are you looking at? Expect to see my spots all changed?"
+
+"I think you've actually grown."
+
+"In four weeks? Rubbish! I think I've contracted. If there's anything
+to make a fellow feel small it's rubbing elbows with four million
+people. Good old Roger! Seems as if I'd been away for a lifetime. Then
+again it seems as if I'd never been away at all, as if New York was
+all a dream. Well, here I am, like Shadrach, past the fiery furnace
+and not even scorched. It's a queer place--New York--full of queer
+people, living on shelves, like the preserves in a pantry. Great
+though! I'm getting to understand 'em a little, though they don't
+understand me. I suppose I'm queer to them. Funny, isn't it? 'Old
+fashioned,' a fellow called me the other day. I didn't know whether to
+hit him or take him by the hand. I think he meant it as a compliment.
+I had been polite, that's all. Most people don't understand you when
+you say, 'Thank you' or 'Excuse me.' They just stare, and then dash
+on. I used to wonder where they were all going and why they were
+rushing. I don't now. I rush like the rest of 'em, even when I've got
+nothing to do of a morning but to buy a new cravat. By Jove, I'm
+rattling on. Is dinner ready?"
+
+It was. We dined on Horsham Manor's simple fare, but Jerry ate it as
+though he had never been away. And when dinner was over we adjourned
+to the library and talked far into the night. I observed for one
+thing, that he was now smoking cigarettes with perfect facility. I
+made no comment, but could not help recalling the fact that it was in
+this, too, that Eve had tempted and Adam fallen. He ran on at a great
+rate, but said little of the girl Marcia, or indeed of any women. I
+think he hadn't been able to forget my attitude toward them, and in
+the light of his new contacts considered himself vastly superior to me
+in experience of the world. But the mere fact that he now avoided
+mention of the Van Wyck girl advised me that his thoughts of her were
+of a sort which he thought I could not possibly comprehend.
+
+He told of some of the things already mentioned, with humor and some
+bewilderment. He had made it a habit to go and walk the streets for
+awhile every day when he could mingle with the crowds and try and get
+their point of view. He hadn't gotten very far yet, but he was
+learning. He knew the different parts of the city and chose for his
+walks the East side by preference. He had seen filth and squalor on
+one avenue and on the next one elegance and wealth. The contrasts were
+amazing.
+
+"Something's wrong, Roger," he said again and again. "Something's
+wrong. It doesn't seem fair somehow. I'm sure the people on one street
+can't all be deserving and those on another all undeserving. The Fifth
+Avenue lot, the ones I associate with in the clubs, are all very well
+in their way, but they seem to waste a lot of time. They don't produce
+anything, they're not helping to keep the world together. The real
+workers are elsewhere. I've seen 'em, talked to some of 'em. They've
+got vitality that the other chaps haven't. Flynn's friends are
+_great_. I've been sparring with 'em--some pretty good ones, too."
+
+"How did you manage?"
+
+"All right. You know, Flynn always said I gave promise of being a
+pretty good boxer, so I've been working a little in the afternoon at
+his gymnasium. I had to, Roger, to keep in shape. There are all sorts
+of chaps there, mostly professionals. You know he's training this new
+middleweight, Carty, for a fight next March. I didn't like to put on
+the gloves with any of 'em, but Flynn insisted."
+
+Jerry paused and I saw a smile growing slowly at the corners of his
+lips. I knew that smile. Jerry wore it the day Skookums disobeyed
+orders and had the encounter with the skunk.
+
+"You had a good go of it?" I asked.
+
+He nodded.
+
+"You see, there was a big Jew named Sagorski, 'Battling' Sagorski
+they call him, hanging around the place. He's a 'White Hope.' He's
+been sparring partner of one of the champions and he thinks a good
+deal of himself. Flynn doesn't like him a great deal--some dispute
+about a debt, I believe. I was sparring with Flynn, Sagorski watching.
+
+"I heard someone make a remark and then Sagorski's voice sneering.
+Flynn dropped his hands and turned.
+
+"'Ye always c'ud talk, Sagorski,' said he. 'But talk's cheap. I'll
+match the bye again ye six rounds, fer points, double or quits, the
+same bein' the small amount that's been hangin' betune us the little
+matter of a year.'
+
+"Sagorski was up in a moment, smiling rather disdainfully. 'Yer on,'
+he growled.
+
+"They fixed us up, seconds, timekeepers and all, and we went at it. He
+was a good one and strong but slow, Roger. You know, Flynn's lighter
+than I am, but lightning fast. Sagorski gave me more time, but he had
+a good left and an awful wallop with his right. Flynn had warned me to
+look out for that right and I did. The first round was slow. Each of
+us was feeling the other out. I landed a few and got one in the ribs.
+The second round went faster. I avoided him by ducking and
+side-stepping, but he kept boring in, still smiling disagreeably. I
+didn't like that smile. He wanted to knock me out, I think, for he
+made several vicious swings that might have settled me, but I got away
+from them and kept him moving.
+
+"'Wot's this, sonny?' he sneered at last, 'a foot race?'
+
+"But he didn't make me mad--not then. I kept hitting him freely, not
+hard, you know, but piling up points nicely for Flynn. He couldn't
+really reach me at all and was getting madder and madder. It was
+funny. I think I must have let up a little then, for I think it was in
+the fourth round he got in past my guard and swung a hard right on my
+nose. The blow staggered me and I nearly went down. Anyway, Roger, it
+made me angry. It seemed a part of that ugly smile. I saw red for a
+moment and then I went for him with everything I had, straight-arms,
+swings, uppercuts--everything. I think I must have been in better
+shape than he was, for by the time the round was ended he was groggy.
+
+"When we came up for the next I heard Flynn whispering at my ear,
+'Finish him, Masther Jerry. If you don't, he'll put ye out.'
+
+"I didn't need that warning. I sparred carefully for a minute, feeling
+out what he had left. He swung at me hard, just grazing my ear. Then I
+went after him again, feinted into an opening and caught him flush on
+the point of the chin."
+
+He paused for breath. "I didn't want to, you know, Roger, but Flynn
+was so insistent--and, of course, having started--"
+
+"'You bored in, that th' opposed might beware of thee,'" I
+paraphrased.
+
+He laughed.
+
+"Yes, I bored in. There was nothing else to do. Flynn didn't say much,
+but he was pleased as punch. It took ten minutes to bring the fellow
+around. I was bending over Sagorski, wetting his face, and as he
+looked up at me I told him I was awfully sorry. What do you think he
+said?
+
+"'Aw, you go to hell!' Impolite beggar, wasn't he?"
+
+"You have been at least catholic in the choice of companions," I
+remarked, with a smile, recalling Flynn's prediction about Jerry's
+weight in wild cats.
+
+"Oh, yes. All sorts of people. I think on the whole I understand the
+poorer classes best. They do swear, I find, horribly at times, but
+they don't intend harm by it. I doubt if they really know what it
+means. 'Hell' is merely an expletive like 'Oh' or 'By Jove' with us
+chaps. Funny, isn't it?"
+
+"That truck-driver didn't think so," I said.
+
+"That was my first week. I know a lot more now. I've felt sorry about
+him."
+
+"You needn't," I laughed.
+
+And after a pause:
+
+"And down town, Jerry," I inquired. "How are things going there?"
+
+His expression grew grave at once.
+
+"Oh, I've been going to the office pretty regularly, but it's slow
+work. I don't understand why, but I don't seem to get on at all."
+
+"That's too bad," I said slowly. "You must get on, old man."
+
+"Yes, I know, but it comes hard. It seems that I'm frightfully rich.
+In fact, nobody seems to know how rich I am. I've got millions and
+millions, twenty--thirty perhaps. So much that it staggers me. It's
+like the idea of infinity or perpetuity. I can't grasp it at all. It's
+piling up in new investments, just piling up and nothing can stop it."
+
+"You don't want to stop it, do you?"
+
+"But if it was only doing some good--When I see the misery all
+about--"
+
+"Wait a bit. You're putting the cart before the horse, my boy. There's
+no sin in being rich, in piling it up, as you say, if you're not doing
+anybody any harm. Have you ever thought of the thousands who work for
+you, of the lands, the railroads, the steamships, the mills, all
+carrying and producing--producing, Jerry, helping people to live, to
+work? Isn't it something to have a share in building up your country?"
+
+"But not the lion's share. It's so impersonal, Roger. My companies may
+be helping, but I'm not. I want to help people myself."
+
+"That's just what I'm getting at. The more money you make, the more
+people you can help," I laughed. "It's simplicity itself."
+
+"In theory, yes. But I see where it's leading me. If I go on making
+money, where will I find the time to give it away? It seems to be a
+passion with these men getting more--always more. I don't want to get
+like Ballard or Stewardson. And I _won't!"_
+
+He snapped his jaws together and strode with long steps the length of
+the room.
+
+"I _won't_, Roger," he repeated. "And I've told 'em so."
+
+I remained silent for a moment, gazing at the portrait of John Benham
+on the wall opposite me. He had a jaw like Jerry's, not so well turned
+and the lips were thinner, a hard man, a merciless man in business, a
+man of mystery and hidden impulses. The boy was keen enough, I knew,
+when it came to a question of right and wrong. There was some ancient
+history for Jerry to learn. Did Jerry already suspect the kind of man
+his father had been?
+
+"You're sure that you're right?" I asked quietly.
+
+"Positive. It's all very well to talk about those my money helps, but
+it harms, too. If anything gets in the way of Ballard's interests or
+mine, he crushes 'em like egg-shells. My father--"
+
+Jerry hesitated, repeated the word and then paced the floor silently
+for a moment. I thought it wise to remain silent.
+
+"Oh, I know what it all means to those men. Power! Always! More power!
+And I don't want it if it's going to make me the kind of man that
+Henry Ballard is, blind to beauty, deaf to the voice of compassion, a
+piece of machinery, as coldly scientific in his charities as he is in
+the--"
+
+"But that's necessary, Jerry," I broke in. "A man of Henry Ballard's
+wealth must plan to put his money where it will do the most good--"
+
+"Or where it will magnify the name of Henry Ballard," he said quickly.
+"Oh, I don't know much yet, but I'm pretty sure that kind of thing
+isn't what Christ meant."
+
+He threw out his arms in a wide gesture. "Roger, I've talked to some
+of these poor people. There's something wrong with these charity
+organizations. They're too cold. They patronize too much. They don't
+get under the skin."
+
+"You haven't wasted a great deal of time," I remarked when he paused.
+
+He smiled. "Well, you know, I couldn't sit in a club window and watch
+the buses go by."
+
+"Have you declared these revolutionary sentiments to your executors?"
+I asked after awhile.
+
+He threw himself in an armchair and sighed.
+
+"I suppose I ought to say that Mr. Ballard has been very patient with
+me. He was. I told him that I didn't want any more money, that I had
+enough. I think I rather startled him, for he looked at me for a long
+while over the half-moons in his glasses before he spoke.
+
+"'I don't think you realize the seriousness (he wanted to say enormity
+but didn't) of your point of view. There's no standing still in this
+world,' he said. 'If you don't go ahead, you're going to go back.
+That's all very well for you personally if you choose to remain idle,
+but it won't do where great financial interests are involved. I want
+to try to make you understand that a going concern moves of its own
+momentum. But it's so heavy that once you stop it, it won't go again.
+The thought of abandoning your career is in itself hazardous. I hope
+you will not repeat the sentiments you have expressed to me elsewhere.
+If the street heard what you have just said there would be a fall in
+your securities which might be disastrous.'
+
+"'But other people would benefit, wouldn't they?' I asked.
+
+"He glared at me, speechless, Roger, and got very red in the face.
+'And this,' he stammered at last, 'is the fine result of your Utopia.
+Ideals! Dreams! My God! If your father could hear you--he'd rise in
+his grave!'
+
+"I'm just what he made me,' I said coolly.
+
+"He stared at me again as though he hadn't heard what I had said.
+
+"'Do you mean that you're going to abandon this career we've made for
+you, the most wonderful that could be given mortal man?' he asked,
+though his tone was not pleasant.
+
+"I did owe him a lot, you see. He's true to his own ideals, though
+they're not mine. And I was very uncomfortable.
+
+"'I hope you won't think me ungrateful, Mr. Ballard,' I said as calmly
+as I could. 'In some ways you've been very like a father to me. I want
+you to understand that I appreciate all that you and the other
+co-executors have done for me. I've been very happy. But I want you to
+know, if you don't know it already, that I'm very stupid about
+business. It bewilders me. I'll try as hard as I can to please you and
+will do my best at it, but you can understand that that won't be very
+much when my heart isn't in it. I don't want to see the Benham
+securities fall, because that would hurt you, too. I'll keep silent
+for awhile and do just what you want me to do. But I don't want any
+more money. The responsibility, the weight of it, oppresses me. I'm
+too simple, if you like, but I don't think I'll change.'
+
+"'And what,' he asked slowly when I stopped, 'what do you propose to
+do with all this money we've kept together for you?'
+
+"His voice was low, but his face was purple and he snapped his words
+off short as if their utterance hurt him.
+
+"'With your permission, sir,' I said quietly, 'I expect to give a
+great deal of it away.'
+
+"Roger, he couldn't speak for rage. He glared at me again and then,
+jamming his hat on his head, stalked stiffly out. Oh, I've made a
+mess of things, I suppose," he sighed, "but I can't help it. I'm sick
+of the whole miserable business."
+
+I made no comment. I had foreseen this interview, but it had come much
+sooner than I had expected. I felt that I had known Jerry's mind and
+what he would do eventually, but it was rather startling that he had
+come to so momentous a decision and had expressed it so vigorously at
+the very outset of his career. It was curious, too, as I remembered
+things that had gone before, how nearly his resolution coincided with
+the one boyishly confessed to the female, Una Smith, in the cabin in
+the woods last summer. At the time, I recalled, the matter had made no
+great impression upon me. I had not believed that Jerry could realize
+what he was promising. But here he was reiterating the promise at the
+very seats of the mighty.
+
+The subject was too vast a one for me to grasp at once. I wanted to
+think about it. Besides, he didn't ask my advice. I don't think he
+really wanted it. I looked at Jerry's chin. It _was_ square. For all
+his sophistries, Jack Ballard was no mean judge of human nature.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+MARCIA
+
+
+Jerry came down to the breakfast table attired in tweeds of a rather
+violent pattern, knickerbockers and spats. He wore a plaid shirt with
+turnover cuffs, a gay scarf and a handkerchief just showing a neat
+triangle of the same color at his upper coat pocket. This
+handkerchief, he informed me airily, was his "show-er." He kept the
+"blow-er" in his trousers. At all events, he was much pleased when I
+told him that the symphony was complete.
+
+"The linen, _allegro_, the cravat, _adagio con amore_, the
+suit--there's too much of the _scherzo_ in the suit, my boy."
+
+"_Con amore?_" he asked, looking up from his oatmeal.
+
+"Yes," I said calmly, for not until this moment had I guessed the
+truth. "_Con amore_," I repeated. "I could hardly have hoped, if Miss
+Marcia Van Wyck had not come to the neighborhood, that you would have
+done me the honor of a visit."
+
+It was a random shot, but it struck home, for he reddened ever so
+slightly.
+
+"How did you know? Who--who told you?" he stammered awkwardly.
+
+"I think it must have been the cravat," I laughed.
+
+"It _was_ a good guess," he said rather sheepishly (I suppose because
+he hadn't said anything to me about her).
+
+"She was tired of town. She's opening Briar Hills for a week or so.
+Awfully nice girl, Roger. You've got to meet her right away."
+
+"I shall be delighted," I remarked.
+
+"She knows all about you. Oh, she's clever. You'll like her. Reads
+pretty deep sort of stuff and can talk about anything."
+
+"An intellectual attraction!" I commented. "Very interesting, and of
+course rare."
+
+"Very. We don't agree, you know, on a lot of things. She's way beyond
+me in the modern philosophies. She's an artist, too--understands color
+and its uses and all that sort of thing. She's very fine, Roger, and
+good. Fond of nature. She wants to see my specimens. I'm going to have
+her over soon. We could have a little dinner, couldn't we? She has a
+companion, Miss Gore, sort of a poor relation. She's not very pretty,
+and doesn't like men, but she's cheerful when she's expected to be.
+You sha'n't care, shall you?"
+
+"Yes, I shall care," I growled, "but I'll do it if you don't mind my
+not dressing. I haven't a black suit to my name."
+
+"Oh, that doesn't matter. Very informal, you know."
+
+The motor was already buzzing in the driveway and he wasted little
+time over his eggs.
+
+"Fix it for tomorrow night, will you, Roger?" he flung at me from the
+doorway as he slipped into his great coat. "Nothing elaborate, you
+know; just a sound soup, entrée, roast, salad and dessert. And for
+wines, the simplest, say sherry, champagne and perhaps some port."
+
+"Shall you be back to luncheon?" I inquired.
+
+"No; dinner, perhaps. G'by!" And he was down the steps and in the
+machine, which went roaring down the drive, cut-out wide, making the
+fair winter morning hideous with sound. I stood in the doorway
+watching, until only a cloud of blue vapor where the road went through
+into the trees remained to mark the exit of the Perfect Man.
+
+I turned indoors with a sigh, habit directing me to the door of the
+study, where I paused, reminded of Jerry's final admonitions.
+Dinner--"nothing elaborate," with an entrée, salad, and wines to be
+got for two women, Jerry's beautiful decadent who loved nature and
+ornithology, and the "not very pretty" poor relation who didn't like
+men but could be "cheerful when she was expected to be." Damn her
+cheerfulness! It was inconsiderate of Jerry to set me to squiring
+middle-aged dames while he spooned with his Freudian miracle in the
+conservatory. Strindberg indeed! Schnitzler, too, in all probability!
+While I invented mid-Victorian platitudes for the prosaic, "not very
+pretty" Miss Gore--Bore! Bore--Gore! Bah!
+
+I gave the necessary orders and went in to my work. I merely sat and
+stared at the half-written sheet of foolscap on the desk, unable to
+concentrate my thoughts. I am a most moderate man, a philosopher, I
+hope, and yet today I felt possessed, it seemed, of an insensate
+desire to burst forth into profanity--a fine attitude of mind for a
+contemplative morning! My whole world was turned suddenly upside down.
+
+But out of chaos cosmos returned. I had given up the thought of work,
+but at last found satisfaction in a quiet analysis of Jerry's
+narration of the night before. What did one female or two or a dozen
+matter if Jerry was fundamentally sound? Sophistry might shake,
+blandishment bend, sex-affinity blight, but Jerry would stand like an
+oak, its young leaves among the stars, its roots deep in mother earth.
+Marcia Van Wyck, her black damask boudoirs, her tinted finger tips,
+her Freud, Strindberg and all the rest of her modern trash--there
+would come a day when Jerry would laugh at them!
+
+I think I must have dozed in my chair, for I seemed to hear voices,
+and, opening my eyes, beheld Jerry in my Soorway, a laughing group in
+the hall behind him.
+
+"'Even the worthy Homer sometimes nods,'" he was quoting gayly. "Wake
+up, Roger. Visitors!"
+
+I started to my feet in much embarrassment. "Miss Van Wyck, Miss
+Gore--Mr. Canby," said Jerry, and I found myself bowing to a very
+handsome young person, dressed in an outdoor suit of a vivid, cherry
+color. I had no time to study her carefully at the moment, but took
+the hand she thrust forward and muttered something.
+
+"I feel very guilty," she was saying. "It's all my fault, Mr. Canby.
+I've been simply wild for years to see what was inside the wall."
+
+"I hope it will not disappoint you," I said urbanely.
+
+"It's very wonderful. I don't wonder Jerry never wanted to leave. I
+shouldn't have gone--ever. A wall around one's own particular
+Paradise! Could anything be more rapturous?"
+
+("Jerry!" They were progressing.)
+
+The tone was thin, gentle and studiously sweet, and her face, I am
+forced to admit, was comely. Its contour was oval, slightly accented
+at the cheek bones, and its skin was white and very smooth. Her lips
+were sensitive and scarlet, like an open wound. Her eyes, relics, like
+the cheek bones, of a distant Slav progenitor, were set very slightly
+at an angle and were very dark, of what color I couldn't at the moment
+decide, but I was sure that their expression was remarkable. They were
+cool, appraising, omniscient and took me in with a casual politeness
+which neglected nothing that might have been significant. I am not one
+of those who find mystery and enigma in women's reticences, which are
+too often merely the evasions of ignorance or duplicity. But I admit
+that this girl Marcia puzzled me. Her characteristics clashed--cool
+eyes with sensual lips, clear voice with languid gestures, a
+pagan--that was how she impressed me then, a pagan chained by
+convention.
+
+As I had foreseen, when she and Jerry went off to the Museum, I was
+left to the poor relation. She was tall, had a Roman nose, black hair,
+folded straight over her ears, and wore glasses. When I approached she
+was examining a volume on the library table, a small volume, a thin
+study of modern women that I had picked up at a book store in town.
+Miss Gore smiled as she put the volume down, essaying, I suppose, that
+air of cheerfulness of which Jerry had boasted.
+
+"'Modern Woman,'" she said in a slow and rather deep voice, and then
+turning calmly, "I was led to, understand, Mr. Canby, that you weren't
+interested in trifles."
+
+"I'm not," I replied, "but I can't deny their existence."
+
+"You can. Here at Horsham Manor."
+
+"_Could_, Miss Gore," I corrected. "The Golden Age has passed."
+
+I didn't feel like being polite. Nothing is so maddening to me as
+cheerfulness in others when I have suddenly been awakened. Her smile
+faded at once."
+
+"I didn't come of my own volition," she said icily. "And I will not
+bother you if you want to go to sleep again."
+
+"Oh, thanks," I replied. "It doesn't matter."
+
+She had turned her back on me and walked to the window.
+
+"Would you like to see the English Garden?" I asked, suddenly aware of
+my inhospitality.
+
+"Yes, if you'll permit me to visit it alone."
+
+That wasn't to be thought of. After all she was only obeying orders. I
+followed her out of doors, hastening to join her.
+
+"I owe you an apology. I'm not much used to the society of women. They
+annoy me exceedingly."
+
+She looked around at me quizzically, very much amused.
+
+"You consider that an apology?" she asked.
+
+"I intended it to be one," I replied. "I have been rude. I hope you'll
+forgive me."
+
+"You _are_ a philosopher, I see," she said with a smile. "I am sorry
+to annoy you."
+
+"Y--you don't, I think. You seem to be a sensible sort of a person."
+
+She smiled again most cheerfully.
+
+"Don't bother, Mr. Canby. We're well met. I'm not fond of meaningless
+personalities--or the authors of them."
+
+She really was a proper sort of a person. Her conversation had no
+frills or fal-lals, and she wasn't afraid to say what she thought.
+Presently we began speaking the same language. We talked of the
+country, the wonderful weather and of Jerry, to whom it seemed she had
+taken a fancy.
+
+"You've created something, Mr. Canby--a rare thing in this age--" she
+looked off into the distance, her eyes narrowing slightly. "But he
+can't remain as he is."
+
+"Why not?" I asked quickly. "Knowledge of evil isn't impurity."
+
+"It will permeate him."
+
+"No. He will repel it."
+
+She smiled knowingly.
+
+"Impossible. Society is rotten. It will tolerate him, then resent him,
+and finally," she made a wide gesture, "engulf!"
+
+"I'm not afraid," I said staunchly.
+
+"You should be. He's in danger--" She stopped suddenly. "I mean--" She
+paused again, and then said evenly, "It seems a pity to me, that's
+all."
+
+"What's a pity?"
+
+"That all your teaching must end in failure."
+
+"H-m! You haven't a very high opinion of your fellows."
+
+"No, men are weak."
+
+"Jerry isn't weak."
+
+"He's human--too human."
+
+"One can be human and still be a philosopher--"
+
+"No."
+
+"But he knows the good from the bad."
+
+"Oh, does he? And if the bad is masquerading? It is always. You think
+he would recognize it?"
+
+She was speaking in riddles, and yet it seemed to me with a purpose.
+
+"What do you mean, Miss Gore?"
+
+"Merely that such innocence as his is dangerous."
+
+It was an unusual sort of a conversation to be engaged in with a woman
+I had known but twenty minutes. I think she felt it, too. There was
+some restraint in her manner, but I realized that her interest in
+Jerry was driving her, if against her better judgment, with a definite
+design that would not balk at trifles.
+
+"You seem to know a great deal about Jerry," I said at last. "Who has
+told you?"
+
+"My eyes are tolerably good, Mr. Canby, my ears excellent."
+
+I would have questioned further, but Jerry and the Van Wyck girl at
+this moment came out on the terrace. Jerry was laughing.
+
+"Caught in the act," he cried, as they came down to join us. "There's
+hope for you yet, Roger."
+
+Marcia came and thrust her arm through Miss Gore's. "Isn't it
+wonderful to be the first woman in the Garden of Paradise?"
+
+Miss Gore nodded carelessly.
+
+The girl was so radiant in her air of possession that I couldn't help
+speaking.
+
+"But you're not," I said.
+
+Marcia's narrow eyes regarded me coolly and then looked at Jerry
+inquiringly, and when she spoke her voice was almost too sweet.
+
+"Please don't rob us of our poor little halos, Mr. Canby," she said.
+"Do you mean that there have been other women, girls--in here before?"
+
+I can't imagine why Jerry hadn't told her that. She seemed to know
+about everything else. "Yes, one."
+
+"Jerry!" reproachfully. "And you said I was the first girl you'd ever
+really known!"
+
+He smiled, though he was quite pink around the ears.
+
+"You are really. Er--she didn't count."
+
+"I shall die of chagrin. Her name, Mr. Canby," she appealed.
+
+I hesitated. But Jerry, still red, blurted out:
+
+"Una Smith. But Roger says that couldn't have been her name."
+
+"But why shouldn't it be her name? She had nothing to be ashamed
+about, had she?"
+
+"Of course not. She just slipped in through a broken grille. She was a
+stranger around here--I just happened to meet her and--er--we had a
+talk."
+
+The boy seemed to be quite ill at ease. What did he already owe this
+girl Marcia that such an innocent confession made him uncomfortable?
+
+"Una--Una--Smith," the girl was repeating. "This is really beginning
+to be fearfully interesting. Una," she turned quickly, her eyes
+widening. In the bright sunlight they seemed very light in color, a
+dark gray shot with little flecks of yellow. "Of course," she
+exclaimed. And then, "When was this--er--intrusion, Jerry? Last July?"
+
+"I think so."
+
+It was Jerry's turn to be surprised.
+
+"She was brown-haired, smallish, with blue eyes? Quite pretty?"
+
+Jerry nodded.
+
+"Wore leather gaiters and carried a butterfly net?"
+
+"You know her, Marcia?" he broke in.
+
+"Of course. Jerry, I'm really surprised--also a trifle
+disillusioned--"
+
+They moved off down the path toward the lake, Jerry talking earnestly.
+I watched them for a moment in silence, wondering what crisis I had
+precipitated in Jerry's affairs.
+
+Beside me I heard the deep voice of Miss Gore.
+
+"You see? He's already madly infatuated with her."
+
+"Yes, yes," I replied, still watching them. "And she?"
+
+Miss Gore shrugged her thin shoulders.
+
+"I don't know. She won't marry him. I doubt if she will ever marry."
+
+"Thank God for that," I said feelingly. She looked up at me quickly.
+
+"You don't like Marcia?" she asked.
+
+"No." I realized that I had gone too far, but I stood firm to my guns.
+
+I was surprised that she didn't resent my frankness. Instead of being
+angry she merely smiled.
+
+"Mr. Canby, it is difficult for many of us who live in the world to
+realize the effect of luxury and over-refinement upon society! We live
+too close to it. Mr. Benham is an anachronism. I would have given much
+if he had not become interested in Marcia. She is not for him nor he
+for her. But I think it is his mind that attracts her--"
+
+"Rubbish!" I broke in. "Has he no face, no body?"
+
+She smiled at my impetuousness. Strangely enough, we were both too
+interested to resent mere forms of intercourse.
+
+"It's true. She has a good mind, but badly trained. His innocence
+fascinates, tantalizes her. I've watched them--heard them. She toys
+with it, testing it in a hundred ways. It's like nothing she has ever
+known before. But she isn't the kind you think she is. I doubt even if
+Jerry has kissed her. To Marcia men are merely so much material for
+experimentation. She has a reputation for heartlessness. I'm not sure
+that she isn't heartless. It's a great pity. She's very young, but
+she's already devoured with hypercriticism. She's cynical, a
+philanderer. You can't tamper with a passion the way Marcia has done
+without doing it an injury. You see, I'm speaking frankly. I don't
+quite understand why, but I'm not sorry."
+
+I bowed my head in appreciation of her confidence. This woman improved
+upon acquaintance.
+
+"You care for her," I said soberly. "I should have been more guarded."
+
+"Yes, I care for her. She has many virtues. She gets along with women
+and I can understand her attraction for men. But she has confessed to
+me that men both attract and repel her. Sex-antagonism, I think the
+moderns call it--a desire to tease, to attract, to excite, to destroy.
+She uses every art to play her game. It is her life. If any man
+conquered her she would be miserable. A strange creature, you will
+say, but--"
+
+"Strange, unnatural, horrible!"
+
+She smiled at my sober tone.
+
+"And yet she is acting within her rights. She asks nothing that is not
+freely given."
+
+"Women are curiously tolerant of moral imperfections in those they
+care for. Your Marcia is dangerous. I shall warn Jerry."
+
+But she shook her dark head sagely.
+
+"It will do no good. You will fail."
+
+We walked slowly toward the house and I tried to make her understand
+that I was grateful for her interest. She was not pretty, but, as I
+had discovered, had some beauties of the mind which made her physical
+attractions a matter of small importance.
+
+As we neared the terrace, a thought came to me and I paused.
+
+"You know who the girl Una is?" I asked.
+
+"Yes," she nodded, "but her name isn't Smith."
+
+"I was aware of that. Would you mind telling me who and what she is?"
+
+She remained thoughtful a moment, fingering the stem of a plant.
+
+"I don't see why I shouldn't. Her name is Habberton, Una Habberton.
+She was visiting the Laidlaws here last summer. Her family, a mother
+and a lot of girls, live in the old house down in Washington Square.
+They're fairly well off, but Una has gone in for social work--spends
+almost all of her time at it--slumming. I don't know much about her,
+but I think she must be pretty fine to give up all her social
+opportunities for that."
+
+I smiled.
+
+"She may have another idea of social opportunity," I said.
+
+"Yes--you're quite right. I used the wrong words. One is not
+accustomed in Marcia's set to find that sort of thing an opportunity."
+
+"Miss Van Wyck knows her?" I asked.
+
+"Yes. Marcia is on a committee that provides money for this particular
+charity. They know each other. She came over to Briar Hills one night
+with Phil Laidlaw. Marcia saw her several times in our fields with her
+butterfly net. You see, her name is unusual. Marcia guessed the rest."
+
+"Thanks," I said. "I hope you've forgiven me for my churlishness. I
+should like to know you better if you'll let me."
+
+She turned her head toward me with a motherly smile.
+
+"I don't care for the society of men," she said amusedly. "They annoy
+me exceedingly."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE SIREN
+
+
+Something went wrong with Jerry's afternoon, for not long after lunch
+I heard his machine in the driveway. But I didn't go out to meet him.
+I knew that if there was anything he wanted to say to me he would come
+to the study door. But I heard him pass and go upstairs. I hadn't been
+able to do any work at my book since yesterday morning, and the
+prospect of going on with it seemed to be vanishing with the hours.
+
+The astounding frankness of Miss Gore had set me thinking. As may be
+inferred, I did not understand women in the least and hadn't cared to,
+for their ways had not been my ways, nor mine theirs. But the woman's
+revelations as to the character of her cousin had confirmed me in the
+belief that Jerry had gotten beyond his depth. I think I understood
+her motives in telling me. I was Jerry's guardian and friend. If Miss
+Gore was Marcia's cousin she was also her paid companion, her
+creature, bound less by the ties of kinship than those of convention.
+I suppose it was Jerry's helplessness that must have appealed to the
+mother in her, his youth, innocence and genuineness. Perhaps she was
+weary treading the mazes of deception and intrigue with which the girl
+Marcia surrounded herself. Jerry wasn't fair game. All that was good
+in her had revolted at the maiming of a helpless animal.
+
+For such, I am sure, Jerry already was. How much or how little the
+unconscious growth in the boy of the sexual impulse had to do with his
+sudden subjugation by the girl it was impossible for me to estimate.
+For if the impulse was newly born, it was born in innocence. This I
+knew from the nature of his comments on his experiences in the city.
+Knowledge of all sorts he was acquiring, but, like Adam, of the fruit
+of the tree he had not tasted. And yet, even I, stoic though I was,
+had been sensible of the animal in the girl. Her voice, her gestures,
+her gait, all proclaimed her. Miss Gore had spoken of a psychic
+attraction. Bah! There is but one kind of affinity of a woman of this
+sort for a beautiful animal like Jerry!
+
+It was bewildering for me to discover how deeply I was becoming
+involved in Jerry's personal affairs. With the appointed day I had
+turned him adrift to work out in his future career, alone and unaided,
+my theory of life and his own salvation. And yet here, at the first
+sign of danger, I found myself flying to his defense as Jack Ballard
+would have it, like a hen that had hatched out a duckling. I reasoned
+with myself sternly that I feared nothing for Jerry. He would emerge
+from such an experience greater, stronger, purer even, and yet, in
+spite of my confidence, I found myself planning, devising something
+that would open the boy's eyes before damage was done. I was
+solicitous for Jerry, but there were other considerations. Jerry
+wasn't like other men. He had been taught to reason carefully from
+cause to effect. He would not understand intrigue, of course, or
+double dealing. They would bewilder him and he would put them aside,
+believing what he was told and acting upon it blindly. For instance,
+if this girl told him she cared for him, he would believe it and
+expect her to prove it, not in accordance with her notions of the
+obligation created, but in accordance with his own. There lay the
+difficulty, for he was all ideals, and she, as I suspected, had none.
+There would be damage done, spiritual damage to Jerry, but what might
+happen to Marcia? Jerry was innocent, but he was no fool, and with all
+his gentleness he wasn't one to be imposed upon. Flynn had understood
+him. He was polite and very gentle, but Sagorski, the White Hope, knew
+what he was when aroused. I wondered if Marcia Van Wyck with all her
+cleverness might miss this intuition.
+
+Dinner time found the boy quiet and preoccupied. If he hadn't been
+Jerry I should have said he was sullen. That he was not himself was
+certain. It was not until he had lighted his cigarette after dinner
+that he was sure enough of himself to speak.
+
+"What made you talk of Una to Marcia, Roger?" he asked quietly.
+
+"I didn't," I said coolly. "_You_ did, Jerry. And if I had, I can't
+see what it matters."
+
+"It does a little, I think. You see, Marcia knows who she is. Una gave
+a false name. She wouldn't care to have people know she had come in
+here alone."
+
+This was a reason, but of course not the real one. It wasn't like
+Jerry to mask his purposes in this fashion. I laughed at him.
+
+"If you'll remember, Jerry, I mentioned no names."
+
+"But why mention the incident at all?"
+
+"Because to tell the truth," I said frankly, "I thought Miss Marcia
+Van Wyck entirely too self-satisfied."
+
+He opened his eyes wide and stared at me. "Oh!" he said.
+
+And then after the pause:
+
+"You don't like Marcia?"
+
+"No," I replied flatly, "I don't."
+
+He paced the length of the room, while I sat by a lamp and
+ostentatiously opened the evening paper.
+
+"I hope you realize," he said presently, with a dignity that would
+have been ridiculous if it hadn't been pathetic, "that Miss Van Wyck
+is a very good friend of mine."
+
+"Is she?" I asked quietly.
+
+"Yes--I'm very fond of her."
+
+"Are you?" still quietly.
+
+"Yes." He walked the floor jerkily, made a false start or so and then
+brought up before me with an air of decision. "I--I'm sorry you don't
+like her, Roger. I--I should be truly grieved if I--I thought you
+meant it. For I intend some day to ask her to be my--my--wife."
+
+It was as bad as that? I dropped pretense and the newspaper, folding
+my arms and regarding him steadily.
+
+"Isn't this decision--er--rather sudden?" I asked evenly.
+
+"I've loved her from the first moment I saw her," he exclaimed. "She
+is everything, everything that a woman should be. Amiable, charitable,
+beautiful, talented, intellectual." He paused and threw out his arms
+with an appealing gesture. "I can't understand why you don't see it,
+Roger, why you can't see her as I see her."
+
+I was beginning to realize that the situation was one to be handled
+with discretion. He was in a frame of mind where active opposition
+would only add fuel to his flame.
+
+"I'm sorry that I've grown to be so critical, Jerry. You forget that
+I've never much cared for the sex."
+
+It seemed that this was just the reply to restore him to partial
+sanity, for his face broke in a smile.
+
+"I forgot, old Dry-as-dust. You don't like 'em--don't like any of 'em.
+That's different. But you _will_ like Marcia. You _shall_. Why, Roger,
+she's an angel. You couldn't help liking her."
+
+I smiled feebly. My acquaintance with decadent angels had been
+limited. I turned the subject adroitly.
+
+"Have you discovered who Una is?" I asked.
+
+"No. Marcia wouldn't tell me. She only laughed at me, but I really
+wanted to know. She _was_ a nice girl, Roger, and I'd hate to have her
+shown in a false light. Not that Marcia would do that, of course, but
+girls are queer. I think she really resented our acquaintance. I can't
+imagine why."
+
+"Nor I," I said shortly. "She doesn't _own_ you, does she?"
+
+He looked up at me with a blank expression.
+
+"No, I suppose not," he said slowly.
+
+I followed up my advantage swiftly.
+
+"It's rather curious, Jerry, this attraction Miss Van Wyck has for
+you. A moment ago you were chivalrous enough in your hope that Una's
+identity would not be discovered. Was this chivalry genuine? Were you
+sorry on Una's account or on your own? I really want to know. You
+liked Una, Jerry. Didn't you?"
+
+"Yes, but--"
+
+"She seemed a very interesting, a fine, even a noble creature. The
+thought of a girl doing the sort of things she was doing made you
+reproach yourself for your idleness--your cowardice, I think you
+called it. Now what I'd like to discover is whether you've quite
+forgotten the impression she made--the ideal she left in your mind?"
+
+"Of course not. My ideals are still the same. I've tried to tell you
+that I'm going to put them into practice," he muttered.
+
+"You've forgotten the impression made by Una herself; what reason have
+you for believing that you won't forget the ideals also?"
+
+"There's no danger of that. She merely opened my eyes. Anyone else
+could have done the same thing."
+
+"Ah! Has Miss Van Wyck done so?"
+
+"Yes. She's very charitable. But she doesn't make a business of it
+like Una. She has so many interests and then--" He paused. I waited.
+
+"Roger," he went on in a moment, "I thought Una wonderful. I still do.
+But Marcia's different. Una was a chance visitor. Marcia is a
+friend--an old friend. She's like no other woman in the world. You
+will understand her better some day."
+
+"Perhaps," I said thoughtfully. After that Jerry would say no more.
+Perhaps he thought he had already said too much, for presently he took
+himself off to bed. At the foot of the stairs he paused.
+
+"By the way, Roger, we'll be five instead of four for dinner
+tomorrow."
+
+"Who now?"
+
+"A friend of Marcia's, Channing Lloyd, a chap from town. He came up
+today."
+
+That admission cost Jerry something, and it explained many things, for
+I had heard of Channing Lloyd.
+
+"Ah, very well," I said carelessly and shook out my paper.
+
+"Good-night, Roger."
+
+"Good-night, Jerry."
+
+The boy was changed. It may not seem a serious thing to you, my
+precocious reader, who number your flirtations among the trivial
+affairs of life. Calf love, you will say, is not a matter worth
+bothering one's brains about. You will class that ailment perhaps with
+the whooping cough and the measles and sneer it out of existence. But
+I would remind you that Jerry's mind and character were quite mature.
+I had schooled them myself and I know. If Jerry had fallen in love
+with Marcia Van Wyck who proposed to play at her game of
+"pitch-farthing" with so fine a soul as Jerry's, the thing was
+serious, serious for both of them. His attitude toward the girl in his
+conversation tonight reminded me that affairs had already progressed a
+long way. She had come to Briar Hills, flattering Jerry, of course,
+that they could be alone, intriguing meanwhile with Channing Lloyd, a
+wild fellow, according to Jack Ballard, who at thirty could have
+unprofitably shared his omniscience with the devil. A fine foil for
+Jerry!
+
+At dinner, the following night, we made a curious party. Marcia Van
+Wyck, radiant in pale green, with her admirers one at either hand;
+Channing Lloyd, dark, massive, well-groomed, with a narrow smile and
+an air of complete domination of the table; Jerry at the other side,
+rolling bread-pills and forcing humor rather awkwardly; Miss Gore,
+solemn in black satin--all of them elegant and correct in evening
+clothes, while I in my rather shabby serge sat awkwardly trying to
+hide the shininess of my elbows. From my position at one end of the
+table I had an excellent opportunity to study the company. I saw in
+Lloyd, I think, the attraction for Marcia. His looks, his topics, his
+appetites were animal and gross. He drank continuously, smoked after
+his salad, and monopolized the guest of the evening to the complete
+exclusion of the others. Fragments of their talk reached me, of which
+I understood a little--Greek to Jerry. Miss Gore sat calmly through it
+all, leading Jerry into the conversation at propitious moments and out
+of it when it threatened incomprehension.
+
+There is a kind of charity of the dinner table and ballroom finer, I
+think, than the mere kindness of giving, finer because it requires
+discretion, nobler because it requires self-elimination. The more I
+saw of Miss Gore the more deeply was I impressed by her many amiable
+qualities. She had an ear for Jerry, but aware of my complete
+elimination by the rowdy upon my left, found time to relieve the
+awkwardness of my situation and contribute something to the pleasure
+of what for me would otherwise have been a very unenjoyable repast.
+
+But when dinner was over, to my great surprise, I found myself alone
+with the girl Marcia. I have no very distinct notion of the means by
+which she accomplished this feat, remembering only hazily that we all
+ambled over to the conservatory, where a particular variety of orchid
+seemed to interest the girl. And there we were, I explaining and she
+listening, the others off somewhere near the entrance to the
+gymnasium, where I heard Lloyd's voice in bored monotone. I was quite
+sure in a moment that she hadn't managed to get me there to talk
+orchids, and I felt a vague sense of discomfort at her nearness. I
+have given the impression that her eyes were cold. As I looked into
+them I saw that I had been mistaken. In the dim light they seemed
+illumined at their greater depth by a hidden fire. She fixed her gaze
+upon my face and moved ever so slightly toward me. You may think it
+strange after what I have written when I say that at this moment I
+felt a doubt rising in me as to whether or not I might have done this
+girl an injustice, for her smile was frank, her air gracious, her tone
+friendly.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Canby," she said in her even voice, "I've wanted to tell you
+what a wonderful thing it is that you have created--to thank you for
+Jerry. He's a gift, Mr. Canby, refreshing like the rain to thirsty
+flowers. You can't know what meeting a man like Jerry means to a woman
+like me. I don't think you possibly can."
+
+"What does it mean to you?" I asked.
+
+"It means a new point of view on life, a thing scarce enough in this
+day when all existence is either sordid or vicious. I had reached a
+Slough of Despond, Mr. Canby, weary of the attainable, not strong
+enough or clever enough or courageous enough to defy criticism and
+obey the small voice that urged. I was sick with self-analysis,
+filled to the brim with modern philosophies--"
+
+"I understand," I broke in with a smile, which seemed to come in spite
+of me. "There's no medicine for that."
+
+"Yes, Jerry. I--I think he's cured me--or at least Pm well on the road
+to recovery. Nobody could be mind-sick long with Jerry letting
+daylight in."
+
+"Daylight, yes. You found it startling?"
+
+"A little, at first. I felt the way I look sometimes at dawn after
+dancing all night, my tinsel tarnished, my color faded. All my effects
+are planned for artificial light, you see."
+
+Her frankness disarmed me.
+
+"I'm thanking you for Jerry," she went on, "but I can't help knowing
+that Jerry is what you've made him; that his ideals, his simplicity,
+his purity are yours also."
+
+If she had baited her hook with flattery there was no sign of
+premeditation in the gentleness of her accents or in the friendly look
+she gave me. Could it be possible that this was the person in whom I
+had seen such a menace to Jerry's happiness?
+
+"I have merely taught Jerry to be honest, Miss Van Wyck," I replied.
+"I ask no credit of him or of you."
+
+"But if it pleases me to give it to you," she said softly, "you surely
+can't object."
+
+"No, but I don't ask laurels I don't deserve. Jerry is--merely
+himself."
+
+"Plus, Mr. Roger Canby--purist and pedagogue," she laughed. "No, you
+can't get out of it. Jerry reflects you; I think I actually recognize
+inflections of the voice. You ought to be very glad to have laid so
+strong an impress on so fine a thing."
+
+Just then I heard the raucous laugh of Channing Lloyd from the
+distant lawn, which reminded me with a startling suddenness that this
+slender creature who spoke softly of ideals and purity could choose a
+man like this fellow for an intimate. I noticed, too, the delicate
+odor which rose from her corsage of which Jack Ballard had spoken,
+something subtle and unfamiliar.
+
+I straightened and looked out through the open window, steeling myself
+against her.
+
+"I am glad you think him fine," I said dryly. "No doubt he compares
+very favorably with other young men of your acquaintance."
+
+"You mean Mr. Lloyd, of course," she said quickly.
+
+I was silent, avoiding her gaze and her perfume.
+
+"I'm afraid you don't understand me, Mr. Canby," she said softly. "I'm
+sorry. Any friend of Jerry's ought to be a friend of mine."
+
+"I should like to be, of course, but--"
+
+I paused. This woman, against my will, was making me lie to her.
+
+"But what--? Am I so--so unpleasant to you? What have I done to earn
+your displeasure?"
+
+"Nothing," I stammered. "Nothing."
+
+"Is it that you fear the contamination of the kind of culture I've
+been bred and born in? Or the effect of my familiarity with doctrines
+with which you're not in sympathy?"
+
+Was she mocking? Her voice was still gentle, but I had a notion that
+inside of her she was laughing. It was as though, having failed to win
+me, she was beginning to unmask. I peered into her face. It was
+guileless and wore the appealing expression of a reproachful child.
+
+"You do not understand," I said. "I fear nothing for Jerry. He is
+strong enough to stand alone. I hope you know just how strong he is,
+that's all."
+
+She was a little puzzled--and interested.
+
+"I hope I do; but I wish you would explain."
+
+I turned toward her quickly.
+
+"I mean this. You and he are very different. He cares for you, of
+course. It was to be expected, because you're everything that he is
+not. Whatever you are, Jerry will be serious. And you can't bind the
+characters of two strong people together without mutilating one or the
+other, or perhaps both. Jerry will believe everything you tell him and
+continue to believe it unless you deceive him. He's ingenuous, but I
+hope you won't underestimate him."
+
+She fingered the leaves of a rose, but her eyes under their lids were
+looking elsewhere.
+
+"How should I deceive him, Mr. Canby?" she asked, her voice still
+unchanging.
+
+"Perhaps I put it too baldly. But I'm not in the habit; of mincing
+words. Jerry is no plaything. I'll give you an instance of how much in
+earnest he is." And then briefly, but with some sense of the color of
+the thing, I gave her a description of Jerry's bout with Sagorski. She
+listened without looking at me, while her slender fingers caressed the
+rose leaf, but beneath their lids I saw; her eyes flashing. When I had
+finished I turned to her with a smile.
+
+"That's the kind of man that Jerry is--harmless, docile and most
+agreeable, but let him be aroused--"
+
+I paused, letting the paralipsis finish my suggestion.
+
+She was silent a moment, finally turning to me with a laugh that rang
+a little discordantly against the softness of her speech.
+
+"Jerry wouldn't beat _me_, would he, Mr. Canby?"
+
+"I'm sure I haven't the least means of knowing," I replied.
+
+"You are merely warning me, I see. Thanks. But I'm afraid you give me
+credit for greater hardihood than I possess. On the whole I think I'm
+flattered."
+
+She snipped a bud and put it to her lips as though to conceal a smile,
+and then passed me slowly.
+
+"Come, Mr. Canby," she said. "I think it's time we joined the others."
+
+It was. The night was cool, but I was perspiring profusely.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+INTRODUCING JIM ROBINSON
+
+
+Of course, I had made an enemy of the girl and to no purpose. I had
+felt her physical attraction, and I knew that only by putting myself
+beyond its pale could I be true to my own convictions as to her
+venality. She was the kind of woman to whom any man, even such a one
+as I, is fish for her net. A girl may whet her appetite by coquetry
+and deprave it by flirtation, setting at last such a value upon her
+skill at seduction that she counts that day lost in which some male
+creature is not brought into subjection to her wiles. As I thought
+over the conversation later in the privacy of my bedroom I began to
+realize that instead of good I had only done harm. For a warning, such
+a futile one as I had given would only inflame a girl like Marcia, and
+the suggestion of danger was just the fillip her jaded tastes
+required.
+
+It was not long before I had a confirmation of my mistake in judgment.
+A week passed, a week of alternate joys and depressions for Jerry,
+during which he spoke little to me of the girl. The night after the
+dinner at the Manor he had upbraided me for telling Marcia the story
+of his bout with Sagorski. He had not cared to tell her of that event,
+he said, because he thought it too brutal for the ears of a girl of
+her delicate and sensitive nature. The next night he spoke of it
+again, but this time without reserve. It seemed that Marcia was very
+much interested in his feats of physical strength and hoped that Jerry
+would permit her to watch him when he sparred. Of course, he didn't
+see why she shouldn't watch him when he sparred if she was really
+interested in that sort of thing, but it was curious how he had
+misjudged her tastes; she seemed so ethereal, so devoted to the
+gentler things of life, that he had not thought it possible she could
+care for the rugged art he loved, which at times, as I knew, verged
+upon the brutal. I mentioned with a smile that there remained in all
+of us, women as well as men, some relics of the age of stone.
+
+"Of course," he assented cheerfully, "I knew she wasn't namby-pamby.
+It's rather nice of her, I think, to take so much interest."
+
+A few days after that Jerry left me and I knew that Briar Hills was
+closed again.
+
+The events which were to follow came upon me with startling
+unexpectedness. Scarcely two weeks had passed since Jerry's departure
+and I had hardly settled back into my routine at the Manor, where I
+was trying again to take up the lost threads of my work, when a
+message came over the wire from Jack Ballard asking me to come down to
+New York to visit him for a few days. I inferred from what he said
+that he wanted to see me about Jerry, and, of course, I lost no time
+in getting to the city and to his apartment, where I found him before
+his mirror, tying his cravat.
+
+"Pope, my boy, I knew you'd come. Just itching for an excuse anyway,
+weren't you? But you needn't look so alarmed. Jerry's all right. He
+hasn't even run off; with a chorus lady or founded a home for
+non-swearing truckmen."
+
+"Well what _has_ he done?" I asked.
+
+"Not much--merely engaged to become one of the principals in a prize
+fight in Madison Square Garden."
+
+"Jerry! I can't believe you."
+
+"It's quite true. Sit down, my boy. Have you break-fasted yet?"
+
+"Hours ago at the Manor."
+
+"Just reproach! But the early worm gets caught by the bird, you know.
+I never get up--"
+
+"Tell me," I broke in impatiently, "where you heard this extravagant
+tomfoolery?"
+
+"From the extravagant tomfool himself. Jerry told me yesterday. I'm
+afraid there's no doubt about the matter. The articles of agreement
+are signed, the money, five thousand a side, is in the hands of the
+stakeholder--one Mike Finnegan, a friend of Flynn's, who keeps a
+saloon upon the Bowery."
+
+"Preposterous! It hasn't come out, the newspapers--"
+
+"They're full enough of it as it is. Jerry's opponent is a very
+prominent pug--an aspirant for the heavyweight title, no less a one
+than Jack Clancy, otherwise known as 'The Terrible Sailor, Champion of
+the Navy.'"
+
+"But your father--the public--! It will ruin Jerry--ruin him--"
+
+"Wait a bit. Fortunately Jerry's anonymity has been carefully kept. At
+Flynn's gymnasium he's called Jim Robinson, and it's as Jim Robinson,
+Flynn's wonderful unknown, that he will make his public appearance."
+
+"But a name is a slender thread to hang Jerry's whole reputation on.
+He'll be recognized, of course. This thing can't go on. It must be
+stopped at once," I cried.
+
+"Exactly," said Ballard coolly over his coffee cup. "But how?"
+
+"An appeal to the boy's reason. He must be insane to do such a thing.
+It's Flynn who's put him up to this."
+
+"I think not. If I understand Jerry correctly, he urged Flynn to make
+the match. He's quite keen about it."
+
+I paced the floor in some bewilderment, trying to think of a reason
+for Jerry's strange behavior, but curiously enough the real one did
+not come to me.
+
+"I can't imagine how such an ambition could have got into his head," I
+muttered.
+
+Ballard struck a match for his cigarette and smiled.
+
+"The nice balance of Jerry's cosmos between the purely physical and
+the merely mental has been disturbed--that's all. Liberty has become
+license and has gone into his muscles. What shall we do about it?
+Flatly, I don't know. That's what I asked you down to discuss."
+
+I took a turn or two up and down the room.
+
+"Your father--the executors--know nothing of this?"
+
+"Phew! I should say not!"
+
+"They could stop it, I suppose."
+
+"I'm not so sure," he said quietly. "If the boy has made up his mind."
+
+I sank in a chair, trying to think.
+
+"The executors mustn't know. Jack. We'll keep the thing quiet. We've
+got to appeal to Jerry."
+
+"That's precisely the conclusion I've reached myself. I've asked him
+to come this morning. He may be in at any moment."
+
+I looked out of the window thoughtfully toward the distant Jersey
+shore.
+
+"This isn't like Jerry. He's a fine athlete and a good sportsman--for
+the fun he gets out of the thing. But he has too good a mind not to be
+above the personal vulgarity of such an exhibition as this. His finer
+instincts, his natural modesty, his lack of vanity--everything that we
+know of the boy contradicts the notion of a personal incentive for
+this wild plan. Does he know what he's doing--what it means--the
+publicity--?"
+
+"He thinks he's dodging that. Nobody knows him in New York except a
+few fellows at the clubs, he says."
+
+"But has he no consideration for _us_--for _me_?" I cried.
+
+"Apparently his friends haven't entered into his calculations."
+
+"I repeat, it isn't like him, Jack. Somebody has put this idea into
+his head."
+
+I stopped so abruptly that Ballard regarded me curiously.
+
+"Somebody--who?"
+
+I paced the floor with long strides, my fingers twitching to get that
+pretty devil by the throat. I knew now--it had come in a flash of
+light--Marcia. Jerry listened now to no one but Marcia; but I couldn't
+tell Jack.
+
+"Somebody--somebody at Flynn's," I muttered.
+
+He regarded me curiously.
+
+"But the boy is immune to flattery. There isn't a vain bone in his
+body. I confess he puzzles me. But I think you'll find he's quite
+stubborn about it."
+
+"Stubborn, yes, but--"
+
+My remark was cut short by a ring of the bell, immediately answered by
+Ballard's man, and Jerry entered. He was, I think, attired in one of
+Jack's "Symphonies," wore a blossom in his buttonhole, swung a stick
+jauntily, and altogether radiated health and good humor, greeting us
+both in high spirits.
+
+"Well, fairy godfathers, what's my gift today?" he laughed. "A golden
+goose, a magic ring, or a beautiful Cinderella hidden behind the
+curtain?" and he poked at the portiere playfully. "But you have the
+appearance of conspirators. Is it only a lecture?"
+
+"I've just been telling Roger," Jack began gravely, "about your fight
+with Clancy, Jerry."
+
+I saw the boy's jaw muscles clamp, but he replied very quietly.
+
+"Yes, Uncle Jack. He objects, I suppose."
+
+"Not object," I said quickly. "It's the wrong word, Jerry. You're your
+own master, of course. We were just wondering whether you hadn't
+undervalued our friendship in not asking our advice before making your
+plans."
+
+Jerry followed a pattern in the rug with the point of his stick.
+
+"I wish you hadn't put it just that way, Roger."
+
+"I don't know how else to put it. That's the fact, isn't it, Jerry?"
+
+"No. I don't undervalue your friendship. You know that, Roger, you
+too. Uncle Jack. I suppose I should have said something about it. But
+I--I just sort of drifted into it. I think walloping Sagorski spoiled
+me--made me rather keen to have a try at somebody who had licked him.
+Clancy's almost, if not quite, the best in his class. I'll get well
+thrashed, I guess, but it's going to be a lot of fun trying--and if
+nobody knows who I am, I can't see what harm it does."
+
+I couldn't tell what there was in his tone and manner that made me
+think he was playing a part not his own. I was not yet used to Jerry
+out in the world, but as compared with the Jerry of Horsham Manor, he
+didn't ring true.
+
+"You can't keep people from knowing, Jerry," I said. "Your picture
+will be on every sporting page in the United States."
+
+"Oh, we've fixed that with a photographer. Flynn had a picture of a
+cousin of his who is dead--young chap--looked something like me.
+They're faking the thing."
+
+The boy was getting a new code of morals as well as a new vocabulary.
+
+"You can't hide a lie, Jerry."
+
+"I'm not harming anybody," he muttered.
+
+"Nobody but yourself," I said sternly.
+
+"I don't see that," he growled, clasping his great fists over his
+knees.
+
+"It's the truth. You'll harm yourself irrevocably. The thing will come
+out somehow. Jim Robinson isn't Jerry Benham. He's the New York and
+South Western Railroad Company, the Seaboard Transportation Line, the
+United Oil Company--"
+
+"I'd get Clancy's goat in the first round if he thought I was all
+that, wouldn't I?" Jerry grinned sheepishly, while Jack Ballard fought
+back a smile.
+
+"If you won't consider your own interests, what you must consider is
+that you've no right to jeopardize the property interests of those who
+have put their money and their faith behind these enterprises which
+you control. You're already in a responsible position. You're making
+yourself a mountebank, a laughing-stock. No one will ever trust you in
+a position of responsibility again."
+
+"I'm sorry, Roger, if you think things are as bad as that," said Jerry
+coolly. "I don't. And besides, I'm too far in this thing to back out
+now."
+
+There was no shaking his resolution. We pleaded with him, argued,
+cajoled, ridiculed, but all to no purpose. Jack painted a picture of
+the crowd in the Garden, the cat-calls, the jeers, imitated the
+introduction of past and present champions, and Jerry winced a little,
+but was not moved. Finding all else unavailing, I fell back upon our
+friendship, recalling all Jerry's old ideals and mine. He softened a
+little, but merely repeated:
+
+"I can't back out now, Roger. They'll think me a quitter. I'd like to
+please you in everything, but I can't, Roger, I can't."
+
+Jack Ballard was so incensed at this obstinacy that he swore at the
+boy, flung out of the room and disappeared.
+
+With a sober expression Jerry watched him go out and then rose and
+walked slowly to the window. I looked at him in silence. I knew his
+manner. Confession was on the tip of his tongue, and yet he would not
+speak. But I waited patiently. Finally the silence became oppressive,
+and he swung around at me petulantly.
+
+"I can't see what's the use of making such a lot of fuss over the
+thing," he muttered. "It seems as though because I have a lot of money
+I've got to be fettered to it hand and foot. I'm not going to be a
+slave to a desk. I've warned you of that. You wanted me to be a great
+athlete, Roger, and now when I'm putting my skill to the test you
+rebel."
+
+"An athlete--but a gentleman. There are some things a gentleman
+doesn't do."
+
+"A gentleman," he sneered. "I hear of a lot of things a gentleman must
+not do. Perhaps I don't know what the word means. In New York a
+gentleman can get drunk at dances, swear, treat people impolitely, and
+as long as he comes of a good family or has money back of him nobody
+questions him. So long as I treat people decently and do no one any
+harm I'm willing to take my chances with God Almighty. With Sailor
+Clancy fighting is a business. With me it's a sport. He hasn't had
+many good matches. I've given him a chance to make five thousand
+dollars and gate receipts. Who am I hurting? Surely not Clancy. Not
+Flynn. His gym is so full of people we've had to get special training
+quarters. I've hired a lot of people to look after me, rubbers,
+assistants--why, old Sagorski worships the very ground I walk on. Who
+am I hurting?" he urged again.
+
+"Yourself," I persisted sternly.
+
+He laughed up at the ceiling.
+
+"Good old Roger! You haven't much opinion of my moral fiber, after
+all, have you? My poor old morals! They'd all be shot to shreds by
+now if you had your way. I don't drink, steal, cheat, lie--"
+
+I rose, shrugging my shoulders, and walked past him.
+
+"I'll say no more except that I hope you know I think you're a fool."
+
+"I do, Roger," he laughed. "You've indicated it clearly."
+
+At the fireplace I turned, laying my trap for him skillfully.
+
+"You've told Marcia?" I asked carelessly.
+
+"Yes," he said. "You see, Marcia--" he bit his lip, reddened and came
+to a full stop, searching my face with a quick glance, but he found me
+elaborately removing a speck of lint from my coat sleeve.
+
+"Yes, Jerry. Marcia--?" I encouraged innocently.
+
+For a fraction of a minute he paused and then went on, blurting the
+whole thing in his old boyish way.
+
+"You see, Marcia's very broad-gauge, Roger. She's really very much
+interested in the whole thing. It was a good deal of a surprise to me.
+It began when she heard about my bout with Sagorski. She was awfully
+keen about my gym work--you remember--at the Manor that night. She
+thought every man ought to develop his body to its fullest capability.
+I had Flynn out one night at Briar Hills. I didn't tell you about
+that--thought you mightn't understand--and we sparred six fast rounds.
+She kept the time and thought it was great. It was like going to a
+vaudeville show, she said, only a thousand times more exciting. She
+tried to make Lloyd do a turn, but he wouldn't, though I'd have liked
+to have mussed him up a bit. Well, one thing led to another and we
+had a lot of talks about education--you know, the Greek idea. It
+seemed that my work with you was just in line with her whole
+philosophy of life." (God bless his innocence--_her_ philosophy and
+_mine_!) "The whole scheme of modern life was lopsided, she said, all
+the upper classes going to brains and no body and all the lower
+classes all to body and no brains. Conflict in the end was inevitable.
+The unnatural way of living was weakening the fiber of the governing
+powers the people of which intermarried and brought into the world
+children of weak muscular tissue. She doesn't believe in marriage
+unless both the man and the woman have passed rigid physical tests as
+to their fitness."
+
+"What tests?" I asked interestedly.
+
+"Oh, I don't know. A woman who bears a child ought surely to have the
+strength to do it. You and I have never talked much about these
+things, Roger, and the miracle of birth, like the miracle of death,
+must always be an enigma to us. But I think she's right, and I told
+her that if she was ever going to have any children she ought to have
+a gym built both at Briar Hills and in town for herself and begin
+getting in shape for it right away."
+
+"And what did she say to that?" I asked trying to keep countenance.
+
+"Oh, she laughed and said that she wasn't thinking of having any
+children just yet."
+
+This, then, was the type of after-dinner conversation that took place
+between them. I began more clearly to understand the fascination that
+Jerry had for her--to understand, too, her growing delight in the
+splendid, vital, innocent animal that she had chained to her chariot
+wheel.
+
+"Go on, Jerry," I said in a moment. "She wants you to typify the new
+race--"
+
+"Exactly. To spread the gospel of physical strength among my own
+kind--to prove that mind, other things being more or less equal, is
+greater than matter."
+
+"I see," I said thoughtfully. "Then it _was_ Marcia's idea, wasn't
+it?"
+
+He hesitated a moment before replying.
+
+"Oh, yes, I suppose so. But I've been pretty keen about it from the
+beginning. You must admit that it's interesting in theory."
+
+"The superbeast versus the superman," I commented. "Your mind is made
+up then--irrevocably?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+I had not known Jerry all these years for nothing. I shrugged my
+shoulders and sank into my chair again. "Then, of course, there's
+nothing for it but to try to keep the thing out of the papers."
+
+He took up his hat and stick gayly. "Oh, they'll never guess in the
+world. When I go down to Flynn's I get into an old suit Christopher
+got for me down on Seventh Avenue--a hand-me-down, and when Marcia
+goes she wears--"
+
+"Ah--Marcia goes--?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sometimes in the afternoons. She wears the worst-looking
+things--her maid got 'em somewhere. She watches me work. They call her
+my 'steady.' It's great sport. She's having more fun than she ever had
+before in her life, she says. I'd like you to run down this
+afternoon. You know the place. It will liven up your dry bones. Come
+along, will you?"
+
+"Perhaps," I said helplessly, looking out of the window.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+UNA
+
+
+Jerry's destiny was indeed in the lap of the gods. Whatever may have
+been my hope, during his visit to the Manor, of opening his eyes, I
+now confessed myself utterly at a loss. He was dipping life up by the
+ladle-full and yet curiously enough thus far had missed the vital, the
+significant fact of existence. I supposed that it was because the
+history of his early years was known to but few and that the men with
+whom he came into contact, nice enough fellows at the clubs, friends
+of Jack Ballard, had taken his worldliness for granted. He had missed
+the filthy story perhaps, or if he had heard it, had ignored its point
+and turned away to topics he understood. Business, too, had taken some
+of his time and Marcia had taken more. The clubs, I had inferred, had
+not greatly interested him. Flynn, his other crony, was no
+scandal-monger and the habits of the years at Horsham Manor would
+still be strong with him at the gymnasium. As I have said before,
+Jerry hadn't the kind of a mind to absorb what did not interest him.
+
+It must be obvious, however, that I was greatly concerned over Jerry's
+venture into pugilism. I tried to view the Great Experiment as from a
+great distance, as across a space of time looking forward to the hour
+when Jerry would emerge scatheless from all his tests both material
+and spiritual. But Jerry's personality, his thoughts, his
+sensibilities bulked too large. There was no room for a perspective.
+To all intents and purposes I myself was Jerry, thinking his thoughts,
+tasting his enthusiasms and his regrets. But I think if he had married
+a street wench or engaged in a conspiracy to blow up the Capitol at
+Washington I could scarcely have been more perturbed for him than I
+was at finding how strong was the influence that this girl Marcia
+exercised upon his actions. His fondness for her was the only flaw I
+had ever discovered in Jerry's nature. He could speak of her
+spirituality as he pleased, but there was another attraction here. I
+had felt the allure of her personality, a magnetism less mental than
+physical. Physical, of course, and because incomprehensible to Jerry
+the more marvelous. I had looked upon the boy as a perfect human
+animal, forgetting that he was only an animal after all. Marcia, the
+woman without a heart, whose game was the hearts of others! Bah! No
+woman without a heart could hold Jerry. If passion danced to him in
+the mask of a purer thing, Jerry's honesty would strip off the
+disguise in time. The danger was not now, but then, and even then
+perhaps more hers than his.
+
+I waited long for Jack Ballard, but he did not return and so I went
+out into the streets and walked rapidly for exercise down town in the
+general direction of Flynn's Gymnasium over on the East Side, where I
+proposed to meet Jerry later in the afternoon. I had kept no record of
+the time and when my appetite advised me that it was the luncheon
+hour, I looked at my watch. It was two o'clock. I sauntered into a
+cross street, finding at last a quiet place where I could eat and
+think in peace. "Dry-as-dust!" I was. Twelve years ago I had railed at
+the modern woman and learned my lesson from her. But now--! The years
+had swept madly past my sanctuary, license running riot. Sin stalked
+openly. The eyes of the women one met upon the streets were hard with
+knowledge. Nothing was sacred--nothing hidden from young or old. And
+men and women of wealth and tradition--I will not call them society,
+which is far too big a word for so small a thing--men and women born
+to lead and mold public thought and conduct, showed the way to a
+voluptuousness which rivaled tottering Rome.
+
+And this was the world into which my sinless man had been liberated!
+
+I smiled to myself a little bitterly. It was unfortunate that out of
+all the women in New York, Jerry should have fallen in love with the
+first hypocrite that had come his way, a follower of strange gods,
+cold, calculating, too selfish even to be sinful! Eheu! She was
+getting on my nerves. Analysis--always analysis! I could not let her
+be. She obsessed me as she had obsessed Jerry--a slender wisp of a
+thing that I could have broken in my fingers and would still, I think,
+unless reason returned.
+
+I paid my bill and would have risen, but just at that moment through
+the door beside my table entered, to my bewilderment, Jerry himself
+and a girl. I was so amazed at seeing him in this place that I made no
+sound or motion and watched the pair pass without seeing me and take a
+table beyond a small palm tree just beside me, and when they were
+seated my amazement grew again, for I saw that his companion was the
+girl Una--Una Habberton who had called herself Smith. Their
+appearance at this moment together found me at a loss to know what to
+do. To get up and join them would interfere with a tête-à-tête which,
+whatever its planning, I deemed most fortunate; to get up and leave
+the room without being observed would have been impossible, for Jerry
+faced the door. So I sat debating the matter, watching the face of the
+girl and listening to the conversation, aware for a second time that I
+was playing the part of eavesdropper upon these two and now without
+justification. And yet no qualm of conscience troubled me. Brazen she
+may have seemed at Horsham Manor, but here in New York in her sober
+suit and hat she seemed to have lost something of her raffish
+demeanor, and there was a wholesomeness about her, a frankness in her
+smile, which was distinctly refreshing.
+
+It was not until several days later that I heard from Jerry how they
+had happened to meet. It seems that after leaving Ballard's apartment
+Jerry had gone home, attired himself in his old suit and made his way
+to meet Flynn, with whom he had an appointment to go down to
+Finnegan's saloon to attend to some final details of his match with
+Clancy. This business finished, the party came out upon the street,
+Jerry, Flynn, Finnegan (in his shirt sleeves) and Clancy's manager,
+Terry Riley. In the midst of a brogue of farewells Jerry fairly bumped
+into the girl. He took off his hat and apologized, finding himself
+looking with surprise straight into Una's face. She started back and
+would have gone on, but Jerry caught her by the arm.
+
+"Una!" he said. "Don't you know me?"
+
+"Yes, Jerry. Of course, but it seems so strange to see you--here--"
+She paused. "To see you down here--in the Bowery."
+
+"It is, isn't it?" he stammered. "But I--I'll explain in a minute--if
+you'll let me walk with you."
+
+She looked him over with a sober air, her gaze passing for a moment
+over his soft hat pulled down over the eyes, his rough clothing, the
+cigarette in his fingers (he hadn't really begun rigid training yet),
+and then shrugged.
+
+"Of course, I can have no objection," she said coolly.
+
+Jerry threw the cigarette away.
+
+"I suppose you think it's very curious to see me down here at
+Finnegan's," Jerry repeated.
+
+No reply.
+
+"I've been there on--er--a matter of business--with--with Flynn. He's
+my athletic instructor, you know. It's a sort of secret. I--I'm
+supposed to belong up town."
+
+"Oh, _are_ you?" Still, I think, the cool, indifferent tone.
+
+"You know I--I'm awfully glad to see you. I've been hunting for you
+ever since I came out of the--the asylum--you know."
+
+It must have pleased her that Jerry should have remembered her phrase.
+
+"Really!" her tone melting a little. "It's pleasant to
+be--remembered."
+
+She turned and again searched him slowly with her gaze, smiling a
+little.
+
+"How long have you been in New York?"
+
+"Oh, ages--almost two months."
+
+"And in that time," she said quizzically, "the Faun has learned the
+habit of saloons and cigarettes. You've progressed, haven't you?"
+
+"Oh, I say, Una. That's not quite fair. I don't make a habit of
+saloons, and a cigarette once in a while doesn't hurt a fellow if his
+wind and heart are good."
+
+"And _are_ your wind and heart good?" she asked with her puzzling
+smile.
+
+"Now you're making fun of me. You always did though, didn't you? You
+know it's awfully fine to hear you talk like that. Makes it seem as if
+we'd just met by the big rock on the Sweetwater. You remember, don't
+you?"
+
+"Yes, I remember," she replied.
+
+He eyed her sober little profile curiously. She seemed strangely
+demure.
+
+"I don't think you're very glad to see me," he said. "I thought
+perhaps you would be. There were so many things that we began to talk
+about and didn't finish. I've thought about them a good deal. I really
+want to talk to you about them again. Couldn't we--er--go somewhere
+and--Have you had lunch yet? Can't we find a place to get a cup of
+tea?"
+
+She turned toward him and their eyes met. When her gaze turned away
+from him she was smiling.
+
+"Yes. I'd like a cup of tea," she said after a moment of deliberation.
+
+He didn't very well know this part of the city, but he remembered a
+restaurant he had once gone to with Flynn, the very one, it seems,
+where I had taken refuge. And there they were, looking at each other
+across the table, the girl, as Jerry expressed it, a little demure, a
+little quizzical, possibly a little upon the defensive, but friendly
+enough. If she hadn't been friendly, he argued, most properly, she
+wouldn't have come with him.
+
+"I can't seem to think it's really you," Jerry began after he had
+given his order. "You're different somehow--soberer and a little
+pale."
+
+"Am I?"
+
+"Yes, I can't think just how I expected you to look in New York. Of
+course, you wouldn't wear leather gaiters, or carry a butterfly net.
+There aren't any butterflies in the Bowery, are there?"
+
+"No--no butterflies." She paused a moment. "Only moths with singed
+wings."
+
+She examined him furtively, but he was frankly puzzled.
+
+"Moths--! I don't think I understand."
+
+"Yes--moths--I--I spend a good deal of my time at the Blank Street
+Mission."
+
+"And what is that?"
+
+She gazed for a moment at him wide-eyed.
+
+"A home--a refuge," she went on haltingly, "for--for women in trouble.
+They're the moths--bewildered by the lights of the town--they--they
+singe their wings and then we try to help them."
+
+"It's great of you, Una."
+
+"And what do you do with _your_ time?" she broke in quickly. "Whom
+have you met? Is the riddle of existence easier for you in New York
+than at Horsham Manor?"
+
+"No," he blurted out. "I don't understand it at all. I'm always making
+the most absurd mistakes. I'm fearfully stupid. Do you ever use rouge,
+Una?"
+
+The suddenness of the question took her aback, but in a second she
+was smiling in spite of herself.
+
+"No, I don't, Jerry. But lots of girls do. It's the fashion."
+
+"I know, but do you approve of it?"
+
+"It's very effective if not overdone," she evaded.
+
+"But do you approve of it?" he insisted.
+
+"There's no harm in it, is there? I'd wear it if I wanted to."
+
+"But you don't want to."
+
+"No. Why do you want to know?"
+
+But he didn't seem to hear her question.
+
+"Do you drink cocktails? Or smoke cigarettes?"
+
+"No. I don't like cocktails. Besides they're not served at the
+Mission. We think they might create false notions of the purposes of
+the organization."
+
+He didn't laugh.
+
+"But surely you smoke cigarettes!"
+
+"No, I don't smoke. I don't like cigarettes."
+
+"But if you liked them, _would_ you smoke?" he questioned eagerly.
+
+"What a funny boy you are! What difference does it make what I do or
+don't do?"
+
+"Would you smoke, if you liked to?" he still insisted.
+
+She was very much amused.
+
+"How can I tell what I'd do if I liked to when I don't like to?"
+
+"Do you approve of them then--for women, I mean?"
+
+"Why do you want to know?"
+
+"Just because I'd like to know what you think of such things--because
+you seem to me to be so calm, so sane in your point of view. You
+always impressed me that way--from the very first, even when you were
+making fun of me."
+
+"Why do you think I'm sane?" she asked amusedly.
+
+"Because there's no nonsense about you. There are a lot of things I'd
+like to talk to you about--things I don't quite understand--if you'd
+only let me see you."
+
+"You're seeing me now, aren't you?"
+
+"Yes. But I can't talk about them all--at once."
+
+"You've made a pretty good start, I should say."
+
+Jerry laughed. "I have, haven't I? That's the way I always do when I'm
+with you."
+
+"Always?" she inquired, raising her brows with a show of dignity. "Do
+you realize that I have only met you once--twice before in my
+life--and then _most_ informally?"
+
+"I feel as if I'd known you always."
+
+"But you haven't. And I'm beginning to think I don't know you at all."
+
+"But you do, better than anybody almost. It was awfully good of you to
+come here with me today--after my meeting you the way I did. I ought
+to apologize. Girls don't like to go with fellows when they come out
+of saloons, but I wasn't drinking, you know."
+
+"Oh, weren't you?"
+
+"No," he said hastily. And then to cover a possible misconception of
+his meaning, "But of course I _would_ drink, if I wanted to. I don't
+see any difference between having a drink at Finnegan's and having it
+in a club uptown."
+
+She regarded him for a moment in silence and then,
+
+"You do belong to some of the clubs, then?"
+
+"Oh, yes. The Cosmos, the Butterfly and several others--" He broke off
+with a laugh. "You see, I'm supposed to be something of a swell"--
+
+"You don't look much of a swell today," she said with a glance at his
+clothes. "And Finnegan's, though exclusive for the Bowery, is hardly
+what might be called smart. I _am_ curious, Jerry. Curiosity is one of
+my besetting sins--otherwise I'd never have gotten inside your wall.
+I've been wondering what on earth you could have been doing in
+Finnegan's saloon."
+
+Jerry sipped at his tea and was silent. The girl's eyes still
+questioned good-humoredly and then, still smiling, looked away. But
+Jerry would not speak. A coward she had once called him. Was it that
+he feared her sober judgment of this wild plan of his? Did he see
+something hazardous in the conservatism of her calm slate-blue eyes
+that would put his new mode of thought, his new habit of mind to tests
+which they might not survive?
+
+"I--I said it was on business of Flynn's," he evaded at last. "He's a
+very good friend of mine. It wouldn't interest you in the least, you
+know," he finished lamely.
+
+"Possibly not," she said calmly. "I hope you'll forgive my
+impertinence."
+
+He felt the change in her tone and was up in arms at once. "Don't talk
+in that way, Una. I'd let you know if there was any possible use." He
+paused and then decidedly, "But there isn't, you see. Won't you take
+my word for it?"
+
+She laughed at his serious demeanor.
+
+"You know I _am_ a curious creature, unduly so about this. But you
+_do_ seem a little like the Caliph in the Arabian Nights, or Prince
+Florizel in London. You aren't a second-story man, are you? Or a
+member of a suicide club?"
+
+He gazed at her in perplexity and then laughed. "You're just as real
+as ever, aren't you?"
+
+"Real! I should hope so. But _you_ aren't. The first time I see you,
+you're a woodland philosopher, living on berries and preaching in the
+wilderness; the second time, you're merely a caged enthusiast without
+a mission; the third time you're Haroun al Raschid, smoking cigarettes
+at Finnegan's. I wonder what you're going to be next."
+
+He felt the light sting of irony, but her humor disarmed him.
+
+"I'm not going to be anything else," he said slowly. "And I'm not an
+enthusiast without a mission. I may have been then, but I'm not now.
+You don't just understand. I'm pretty busy in a way, learning the
+ropes, business, social and all the rest of them, but I'm not idle.
+I'm learning something all the time, Una, and I'm going to try to
+help--I can, too."
+
+"Do you really mean that?" she asked incredulously when he paused.
+
+"Yes, I mean it. I want to try to help right away, if you'll let me.
+See here, Una--" He leaned across the table in a sudden burst of
+enthusiasm. "I don't want you to think that I've ever said anything I
+don't mean. I said up there at Horsham Manor that I wanted to help you
+in your work, and I'm going to prove it to you that whatever your
+doubts of me I haven't changed my purposes. You didn't believe me
+when I said I'd been hunting for you. You don't have to, if you don't
+want to, but you'll have to believe me now when I tell you that I want
+to set aside a fund for you to use--to administer yourself. Oh, you
+needn't be surprised. I've got more money than I know what to do with.
+It's rotting in a bank--piling up. I don't want it. I don't need it,
+and I want you to take some of it right away and put it where it will
+do the most good. You've got to take it--you've got to, if only to
+prove that you don't believe me insincere. I'm going to start giving
+money now and if you don't help me I'll have to ask somebody else. I'd
+rather have you do it, personally, than work through some big charity
+organization, that would spend seven or eight dollars, in overhead
+charges, before they could distribute one. That kind of charity is all
+very well and does fine work, I suppose, but I want to feel that I'm
+helping personally--directly. I'll want to pitch in down here some day
+and do what I can myself. You've got to do it, Una--let me give you
+some money to start with right away, won't you?"
+
+He paused breathless awaiting her reply. Her face was turned toward me
+during the whole of Jerry's rather long speech and I watched the play
+of emotion upon her features. She had been prepared, I suppose, from
+the appearance of Jerry's companions at Finnegan's, to find her
+woodland idyl shattered, and she followed Jerry word by word through
+his boyish outburst, incredulously at first, then earnestly and then
+eagerly. She had an unusually expressive countenance and the
+transition I observed was the more illuminating in the light of my
+previous knowledge of their acquaintance. Jerry was enthroned again,
+panoplied in virtues.
+
+"You almost take my breath way," she said at last. "It's very
+bewildering," she smiled. "But are you sure you're--" she paused. "I
+mean, isn't there someone else to be consulted?"
+
+"No," he cried, I think a little triumphantly. "No one, I'm my own
+master. I can do as I please. How much do you want, Una? Would five
+thousand help? Five thousand right away? And then five thousand more
+the first of each month?"
+
+She started back in her chair and gazed at him in an expression of
+mingled incredulity and dismay.
+
+"Five thou--!"
+
+"And five thousand a month," Jerry repeated firmly.
+
+"You can't mean--"
+
+"I do. See here. I'll show you."
+
+He felt in his pockets, I suppose for his check-book,--but could not
+find it. Naturally! It evidently wasn't a habit of the pugilist
+Robinson to carry about in his hand-me-down suit a check-book carrying
+a bank balance of forty or fifty thousand dollars. He was rather put
+out at not finding it and felt that she must still consider his
+magnificent offer somewhat doubtfully.
+
+"Well, I'll send it to you tomorrow. You'll see if I don't."
+
+The boy was uppermost in him now and I saw the gay flash of her eye
+which recognized it--the enthusiast of Horsham Manor who wanted to
+help cure the "plague spots."
+
+"I knew it," she laughed at him. "I knew you'd be somebody else if I
+only waited long enough. Now you're Prester John and Don Quixote
+rolled into one. You propose by the simple process of financing the
+operation to turn our slums into Happy Valleys, our missions into
+gardens of resurrection. It's a very beautiful purpose, Jerry, quite
+worthy of your colorful imagination, but the modern philanthropist
+doesn't wed his Danae with a shower of gold. He's discovered that it's
+very likely to turn her head."
+
+"But if it's wisely given--" he put in peevishly.
+
+"Oh, wisely! That's just the point."
+
+"It ought not to be so difficult."
+
+She smiled at him soberly.
+
+"Charity isn't merely giving money, Jerry," she said. "Money sometimes
+does more harm than good."
+
+"I can't see that."
+
+"It's quite true. We try to keep people from being dependent. What you
+propose is a kind of philanthropic chaos. If I used your money as
+freely as you would like, it wouldn't be long before half the people
+in my district would be living on you--giving nothing--no effort, no
+work, no self-respect in return. You don't mind if I say so, but that
+sort of thing isn't charity, Jerry. It's merely sentimental tomfoolery
+which might by accident do some good, but would certainly do much
+harm."
+
+Jerry's eyes opened wide as he listened. She was frank enough, but I
+couldn't help admitting to myself that she was quite wise. Jerry was
+discovering that it wasn't so easy to help as he had supposed.
+Whatever he may have thought of her theories of social science, he
+made no comment upon them.
+
+"Then you won't let me help you?" he asked quite meekly, for Jerry.
+
+"Oh, no," she smiled coolly. "I didn't say that. I was merely trying
+to show you what the difficulties are. We're very glad to get
+voluntary contributions when we're sure just what we can do with them.
+I know of several cases now--"
+
+"Yes," eagerly. "Whatever you need--"
+
+"But five thousand--"
+
+"Couldn't you use it?" eagerly.
+
+She paused and then smiled brightly across the table at him.
+
+"I'll try to, Jerry."
+
+"And the five thousand a month?" he urged. "Oh, you don't know, Una.
+It isn't a third of my income even now and later I've got more--so
+much that I'm sick thinking of it. You've got to use it, somehow. If
+you can't help the women, use it on the men, or the children--"
+
+"We might add a day nursery--" she murmured thoughtfully.
+
+"Yes, that's it--a day nursery--wonderful thing--a day nursery. Add
+two of 'em. You must. You've got to plan; and if your organization
+isn't big enough to handle it, you must get the right people to help
+you."
+
+He reached across the table, upsetting a teacup, and seized her hands
+in both of his. "Oh, you will, Una, won't you?"
+
+She withdrew her hands gently and looked at him, on her lips a queer
+little crooked smile.
+
+"What are you now? The philosopher, the enthusiast or the Caliph?
+You're very insistent, aren't you? I think you must be the Caliph--or
+the Grand Cham!"
+
+"Then you agree?" he cried.
+
+"I'll try," she said quietly.
+
+Jerry gave a great gasp. "By Jove," he said with a boyish laugh. "I
+can't tell you what a relief it is to get this off my mind. I know I
+ought to be down here helping, but I--I can't just now. Uncle
+Jack--that's Ballard Junior--says I've got a place in the world to
+keep up and a lot of rubbish about--"
+
+"That's very right and proper--of course," she said, gathering up her
+gloves.
+
+He noted the motion.
+
+"Oh, don't go yet, Una. There are a lot of things I'd like to ask
+you."
+
+"I think I will have to go."
+
+"But you'll let me see you and talk to you about things, won't you?"
+
+"Of course, I'll have to make an accounting of your money--"
+
+"Oh, yes--the check. You'll get it tomorrow."
+
+"But, Jerry--"
+
+"Your address, please," he insisted with a stern and business-like
+air.
+
+The moment was propitious. They would certainly see me when they got
+up, so when their heads were bent together over the slip of paper the
+waiter brought, I quietly rose and, braving detection, went out of the
+door.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+JERRY GOES INTO TRAINING
+
+
+Outside the restaurant I changed my plans. I decided not to go to
+Flynn's that afternoon, for I wanted Jerry to understand how little I
+was in sympathy with his prize fight. And after the first day he no
+longer insisted on my going with him. But he came to Ballard's
+apartment and we had several talks in which, after one final and
+fruitless effort to dissuade him from his fight, I gave up and we
+talked of other things.
+
+It was not necessary for me to tell Jerry that I had overheard his
+interview with Una Habberton. And when he spoke of the incident, I
+encouraged him to talk until I learned just how much--and how
+little--the meeting meant to him. The impression, the rather unique
+impression she had first made upon the clean, fair surface of his
+mind, remained indelibly printed: the first female creature he had
+seen and talked with, a youthful being, like himself, with whom he
+could talk as he talked with me, without care or restraint,--a
+creature of ideals, humor, and a fine feeling for human companionship
+which she did not hesitate to share; a friend like Skookums or me, but
+of an infinitely finer grain, with a gentler voice, a smoother skin
+and softer eyes, better to look at; in short, more agreeable, more
+surprising, more sympathetic, more appealing. This chance meeting, I
+think, merely confirmed the previous impression, reasserting an early
+conception of femininity with which the charms of Marcia Van Wyck
+could have nothing in common. He must have compared them, but with
+different standards of comparison, for each in Jerry's mind was _sui
+generis_. The glamour of Marcia, her perfumes, her artistry, the lure
+of her voice and eyes, her absorbing abstractions and sudden
+enthusiasms--how could Una's quaint transitions compare with such as
+these? And yet I am sure that he judged Una Habberton not unfavorably
+in Marcia's reflected glamour, for he spoke of the character in her
+hands (thinking of Marcia's rosy nails) and the radiancy of her smile
+(thinking of Marcia's red lips). And whatever he may have thought of
+her personal pulchritude or the quiet magnetism of her friendliness,
+there was no room in his mind just now for the merely spiritual. If
+Una had a place in his heart, it was where the ebb and flow were
+quiet, not in the mid-stream of hot blood. But Jerry kept his word.
+His check for Una's day nursery went forward on the day following
+their meeting and Jerry found time in the intervals between Marcia,
+business and the gymnasium to call upon Una and talk over in a general
+way the great project in which their interest was involved. I heard
+little of these few meetings, for after a short visit with Ballard,
+during which we discussed Jerry's plans in despair, I went back to the
+Manor to resume my much neglected work.
+
+It was now March. I missed Jerry as I knew I should miss him always at
+this season when it had been our custom to fare forth in search of
+woodland adventure and the early signs of spring. I wondered if Jerry
+in the city could be feeling the call of the wanderlust as I did. I
+managed to work a few hours of each day, but my habit of concentration
+seemed to fail me, and my thoughts kept recurring unpleasantly to the
+ruin Jerry was courting both for his reputation and his spirit. Clean
+as he was, he couldn't play too long with pitch and not be defiled. I
+heard one day that Briar Hills had just been opened and I pricked up
+my ears. Aha! It couldn't be long now before the bird would come
+homing.
+
+The notice of this home-coming reached me in the form of a wire.
+
+"Will arrive with party tomorrow. Have six bedrooms prepared for
+guests. Will explain when I see you."
+
+Six bedrooms! A house party--in the very midst of his training! I
+couldn't understand. A fine hope surged in me. A house party--guests!
+Could it be that something had happened to change his plans? Had he
+given up his bout with Clancy? I could hardly restrain my impatience
+and tried to get Jack Ballard on the telephone. He had left town. It
+was very curious; for somewhere in me vague misgivings stirred. What
+if--!
+
+The morrow brought the painful solution of my uncertainties. For
+toward four o'clock of the afternoon there was a roaring of
+automobiles in the drive which brought me to the study window, from
+which vantage point I saw Jerry dismounting from the car in front with
+three other men, Flynn, Christopher and a large colored man, while
+from the other car, a hired machine, by the look of it, four other
+figures descended--all unloading suit-cases upon the terrace steps--a
+motley crowd in flannel shirts and sweaters, with cropped heads, thick
+necks and red hands, all talking loudly and staring up at the towers
+of the house as though they expected them to fall on them. This then
+was Jerry's house-party--! Thugs, cut-throats, apaches--his pugilist
+friends from Flynn's!
+
+[Illustration: "This then was Jerry's house-party--!"]
+
+Jerry hurried along the terrace and met me at the hall door, where he
+burst into unseemly laughter. I suppose at the expression of dismay
+which must have been written upon my countenance. He seized me by both
+hands and led me indoors.
+
+"There wasn't any use wiring you the truth, Roger. I didn't want to
+make you unhappy any sooner than I had to. Are you upset?"
+
+"Nothing can ever upset me again," I said with dignity. "It's your
+house. I can move out."
+
+"But you won't, Roger," he clapped an arm around my shoulders and
+walked me into the study. "We're not going to bother you. But we just
+had to get away from town for some road work--and it's devilish
+conspicuous anywhere near the city, people watching, reporters and all
+that sort of thing."
+
+He turned, for the dismayed servants had come out and stood in a row
+in the hall aghast at the appearance of the visitors who stood
+awkwardly shifting their feet in the main doorway, their suit-cases
+and bundles in their arms, awaiting directions.
+
+"Take those things upstairs--show 'em, Christopher," says Jerry. "You
+show 'em to their rooms, Poole. And when you're washed up, Flynn, come
+down here again."
+
+Over his shoulder I watched the hulking devils go past in sheepish
+single file with furtive glances at me. When they had passed out of
+sight, Jerry explained rapidly.
+
+"You see, Roger, we had to do it. There was no other way. I needed
+some running badly and there wasn't a chance for it--without the whole
+thing coming out in the papers."
+
+I smiled ironically. "And you think you've chosen a way to avoid publicity
+by bringing these"--I restrained myself with difficulty--"these
+_gentlemen_ here? Don't you know that every paper in New York
+will have a man here writing the thing up?"
+
+"No, they won't. They can't get in. I stopped at the Lodge as I came
+by and gave my orders."
+
+"But they'll know that Jim Robinson and Jerry Benham are the same."
+
+Jerry winked an eye and laid a finger along his nose.
+
+"No, they won't, old Dry-as-dust, for the very simple reason that he
+isn't."
+
+"I don't understand."
+
+"Well, you see, I'm Jim Robinson and _you_ are Jerry Benham."
+
+"I!" I gasped.
+
+"Precisely. You are Jerry Benham, patron of the manly art--Mæcenas,
+friend and backer of Robinson aforesaid, whom you've invited to
+Horsham Manor to complete his training."
+
+"Preposterous! These--these bruisers" (I let go now) "think I'm
+_you_?"
+
+"No, dear Roger, not I, who am Robinson, but Jerry Benham,
+multi-millionaire and king of good fellows. Flynn knows the truth, of
+course, but he's shut as tight as a clam. He won't talk, for his own
+interests are involved."
+
+"You expect me to play the part of good fellow," I broke out when I
+had sufficiently recovered from the shock of his information. "You
+expect me to entertain this motley aggregation of assorted criminals
+as Jerry Benham! Well, I won't, and that's flat."
+
+"Now, Roger, don't be unreasonable," he said with a cajoling smile.
+"They're a pretty decent lot, really. Sagorski--the big chap with the
+fuzzy hair, he's not half bad when you know him; and Carty, the one
+with the cauliflower ear, his fight comes off inside of a week. We're
+helping him out, too, you see--good food, clean air--bully fellow--a
+little too finely drawn just now and a bit irritable--"
+
+"I see. A bit irritable--so am I--"
+
+"And then," he went on, "the other big fellow is Tim O'Halloran, my
+chopping block, has a nasty left--and is a demon for punishment. The
+little fellow is Kid Spatola, an Italian, one of my handlers, the
+bootblack champion. Oh, they're a fine lot, Roger--You'll get to like
+'em. Nothing like being thrown with chaps a lot to know what they're
+like--inside of 'em, I mean."
+
+"Quite true," I remarked with desperate calmness. "And who, if I may
+ask, is the colored gentleman in the yellow sweater?"
+
+"Oh!" said Jerry pleasantly. "That's Danny Monroe, my rubber. He's the
+best masseur outside of Sweden, knows all the tricks; wait until you
+see him rubbing me down."
+
+"I shall try to possess my soul in patience until then," I said. "Have
+you designated which of the spare rooms these gentlemen are to
+occupy?"
+
+"Ah, don't be stodgy, Roger," he said. "They'll all be in the wing.
+They won't bother you. I'm counting on you to help. Just try, won't
+you? It will only be for about three weeks."
+
+I gasped and sank into the nearest chair. Three weeks in which this
+gang of hoodlums must be fed, looked after and entertained. I was
+helpless. Radford, the superintendent, had gone for a lengthy visit to
+relatives in California.
+
+"I hope you have their criminal records--also a private detective to
+watch the silver," I murmured weakly.
+
+"No, I haven't," Jerry retorted. "I'm not afraid of any of them. It's
+rather narrow, Roger, to think, just because a chap goes into pugilism
+as a business, that he isn't straight. You've taught me that one man
+is as good as another and now you're--you're crawling. That's what
+you're doing--crawling."
+
+I was indeed, crawling, groveling. I strove upward, but remained
+prostrate.
+
+"How could you do such a thing, Jerry?" I remonstrated feebly.
+
+He patted me on the back--much, I think, as he would have patted
+Skookums in encouragement.
+
+"Oh, be a good sport, Roger. You _can_ be when you want to, you know.
+We won't bother you. We'll be in the gym or on the road most of the
+day, and in bed at nine sharp."
+
+"What do you--want me to do?" I stammered at last.
+
+"Why nothing," he said, his face brightening. "Just to be Jerry Benham
+for awhile. It isn't such a lot to ask, is it? Just make believe
+you're pleased as punch to have 'em around--come and watch me work"
+(he had the jargon at his tongue's tip) "and show some interest in
+the proceedings. You _are_ interested, Roger."
+
+"I'm not."
+
+"You don't want to see me licked, do you?"
+
+I sighed. The affair was out of my hands.
+
+"What shall you want to eat?" I asked meekly.
+
+"Oh, beefsteak, lots of it--and other things. Flynn will tell you." He
+folded his arms and gazed down at me contentedly. "Thanks, old man,"
+he said gratefully. "I knew you would. It's fine of you. I won't
+forget it."
+
+"Nor will I," I said. Jerry only laughed. D--n the boy. It was rank
+tyranny.
+
+Flynn and Sagorski were already down the stairs. I eyed them
+malevolently, but rose and went to the kitchen to give the necessary
+orders. There I found the force of servants in executive session and
+my appearance was the signal for immediate notice from the entire lot.
+I hadn't foreseen this difficulty which immediately assumed the
+proportions of a calamity. They stated their objections, which may
+well be imagined, most respectfully but in no uncertain terms. They
+could have endured Mr. Flynn, Mr. Carty and Mr. Sagorski, but they
+balked at Mr. Danny Monroe. I had balked at him, too, but I didn't
+tell them so. The upstairs maids (we had chambermaids now) absolutely
+refused to consider any of my arguments in rebuttal and were already
+pinning on their hats, when Jerry, who had gotten wind of the mutiny
+from Christopher (poor Christopher!), came running and planting
+himself in their very midst, demolished their objections with a laugh
+and an offer of double wages. They smiled at a joke he made, weakened,
+finally unpinned their hats and took up their aprons. I have never in
+my experience seen such an example of the blandishment of wealth.
+
+Peace restored and the orders given, which included a pledge of
+secrecy as to Jerry's real identity and mine, I made my way to the
+gymnasium with Jerry in a valiant effort to "be a good sport" and to
+appear as "pleased as punch" at the invasion of my sanctuary by
+Jerry's Huns. Carty and Flynn were having a fast "go" of it on the
+floor, with Monroe, the Swedish negro, keeping time, while from beyond
+came sounds of howling where "Kid" Spatola and Tim O'Halloran were
+sporting like healthy grampuses in Jerry's--my--marble pool. Jerry
+made the introductions gayly and O'Halloran splashed a greeting, while
+Spatola eyed my rusty black serge critically (Spatola was the Beau
+Brummel of the party as I discovered later) nodded, and then did a
+back flip-flap from the diving board.
+
+But unwelcome as they were to me, they were not nearly so unpleasant
+in a state of nature as they had been in their clothing, for when
+considered as sentient beings they left much to be desired; as healthy
+human animals, I had to admit that they were a success, and having
+conceded the fact that they were animals and Horsham Manor was for the
+present a zoo, the rest was merely a matter of mental adjustment. I
+played my part of host, I fear, with a bad grace, but as manners held
+no high place in their code of being, my deficiencies passed
+unnoticed.
+
+Was this triumph of matter over mind nature's cynical reply to my
+years of care and study in bringing Jerry to perfect manhood? Had I
+erred in giving importance to the growth and development of Jerry's
+body? Or was it, as Jack Ballard had said, merely that the nice
+adjustment of mind and matter had been suddenly disarranged? How far
+was this muscular orgy to carry him? And where would it end? After
+Madison Square Garden--what?
+
+Dinner found me no nearer a solution and I sighed as my glance passed
+the length of the table, along the row of villainous faces to where
+opposite me Jim Robinson grinned cheerfully over his plate. It was
+quite wonderful to see these Vandals eat--beefsteak, bread,
+vegetables, eggs, milk--everything put before them vanished as if by
+magic, while Poole and Christopher with set and scornful faces hurried
+to the pantry, bearing in their empty dishes the mute evidence of the
+gastronomic miracles that were being performed beneath their very
+eyes. For my part I confess that I was so fascinated in watching the
+way in which Sagorski used his knife and fork and the dexterous manner
+in which he dispatched his food in spite of such a handicap that I ate
+nothing. They talked in mono-syllables and grunts for the most part,
+and when really conversing used language which I found it most
+difficult to understand. Their dinner finished, they rose, stretching
+and eructating in true Rabelaisian fashion.
+
+"A stroll in the Park, byes, now. And then--the feathers," said Flynn,
+passing the chewing gum.
+
+"A fine lot, ain't they, Mr. Benham?" said Jerry to me as they filed
+out.
+
+"Extraordinary," I replied, with a fictitious smile, "most
+extraordinary."
+
+He grinned at me and followed them.
+
+It was not until the next day in the hour between road and gym work
+that I managed to get Flynn aside. He had thus far succeeded in
+avoiding me, but I caught him by the arm as he was passing, dragged
+him into my study and shut the door.
+
+"See here, Flynn," I said with some warmth, "it's not my affair to
+interfere with any of Mr. Benham's plans. He's his own master now and
+can do what he pleases, but you and I have always been good enough
+friends, and I should like to know just how much or how little you've
+had to do with getting the boy into this match at the Garden--"
+
+He looked at me quizzically for a moment and then grinned.
+
+"Ye've got a right to ask me that, Mr. Canby. An' I'll give ye a fair
+answer. I had nothin' to do wid it, sor--honor bright--" He paused and
+grinned again. "Mind ye, I'm not sayin' I'm sorry he's doin' it, for I
+won't lie to ye. I'd like to see him lick Sailor Clancy an' I'm doin'
+my best to help him to it. But for havin' a hand in puttin' Masther
+Jerry up to the game ye can count me out. 'Twas Masther Jerry himself,
+sor. He got it into his head someway an' there was no gettin' rid of
+it. I made the match for the bye because he wanted it--an' that's a
+fact--nothin' else."
+
+He looked me in the eye and I knew that he told the truth.
+
+"What chance has Jerry of winning, Flynn?" I asked.
+
+"Ah, there ye've got me, sor. Jerry's a rare one, he is, and
+plucky--and quick as any man of his weight in the wor-rld--but Clancy
+is a good 'un, too--young, strong as a bull an' expayrienced. Fought
+steady for three years, an' winning, sor. He'll have the
+confidence--but Masther Jerry is a wonder. He'll have a chanct, sor,
+more than an even chanct, I'd say, if he don't waste nothin'."
+
+"Waste nothing?"
+
+"He's got to land, sor--every time and waste no whiffs on nothin'."
+
+"I see."
+
+Flynn was eyeing the door impatiently. He was a busy man and had no
+time to answer foolish questions.
+
+"There's no chance of getting out of it?" I asked.
+
+"None, sor. He couldn't quit now. Ye wouldn't want him to, would you,
+sor?" he finished in a reproachful tone, which just missed being
+disagreeable.
+
+I opened the door and he lost no time in getting to the gymnasium.
+
+That next afternoon in the midst of the work out, I had another
+surprise, for a wagon arrived from the station and in it were Marcia
+Van Wyck and Miss Gore, the latter dragged against her will to play a
+part she little cared for. I happened to meet them in the hall, where,
+since none of the pugilists were present, Marcia put aside subterfuge,
+nodded coolly and asked for Jerry. She wore the badly fitting suit her
+maid had procured for her and chewed gum incessantly. I looked
+anxiously at Miss Gore, but it seems that even her martyrdom stopped
+at that. I led the way to the gymnasium where Jerry and the irritable
+Carty were resting between rounds. The girl nodded to Jerry, who waved
+his glove, and took one of the chairs by the ring-side, the obedient
+Miss Gore next her.
+
+"What round?" she asked masticating leisurely.
+
+"Third," said Flynn with his gaze on his watch, "Time!"
+
+And they went at it hammer and tongs. From my chair beside Miss Gore I
+watched the girl. Her hands were clasped over her knees as she leaned
+forward, her eyes glowing, watching the swift motions of the two men
+as they moved backward and forward. Miss Gore wore the fixed smile of
+the perpetually bored. She watched Jerry and Carty exchanging their
+blows, with a sphinxlike air as though inspecting half-naked men
+dancing around each other was her usual afternoon's employment. She
+was admirable, accepting her lot in life with a philosophy which had
+in it something of the stoic. Only when Carty landed on Jerry's lip
+and the blood showed did she wince.
+
+"You--approve of this?" she whispered, then to me.
+
+"No. I'm helpless," I returned.
+
+"You know?"
+
+"Yes. It's madness. She made him do--"
+
+"Sh--" she warned, for the round had ended, and Marcia turned toward
+her. But I knew that she understood.
+
+"You're a good sport, Mr. Benham," said Marcia to me, assuming her
+role with an air of enjoyment, "havin' the boys up here to train.
+Jim's comin' fast, ain't he?"
+
+I nodded uncomfortably.
+
+Her eyes twinkled mischievously. "You might of sent your honk-honk to
+the train for us though. Cost us a dollar from the station. What d'ye
+think of that? Don't like the ladies, do you, Mr. Benham?" she
+laughed.
+
+"I'll be glad to send you back," I said quickly enough.
+
+"Oh, there ain't a doubt of that, I'm sure. Nice house you've
+got--gym an' all. You might ask us to stay awhile. Won't you, Mr.
+Benham?"
+
+She was very much amused at the awkwardness of the situation.
+
+"I'm afraid I haven't any more room," I replied stiffly. How I hated
+that girl! The sight of blood had inflamed me. I believe I could have
+throttled her where she sat, but fortunately Flynn called "Time" and
+the bout went on.
+
+It was to be war between us two from this moment. I knew what she
+meant. She had accepted my challenge and was defying me. Since I had
+not been able to dissuade Jerry from his fight, she was sure of her
+power. He was her creature now, to do with as she chose, I watched her
+furtively during the next round. She was silent, her gaze fixed upon
+Jerry, her eyes gleaming. There was something morbid in her suppressed
+excitement--something strange and unnatural in the fascination of her
+attention. She chewed gum constantly and was utterly absorbed, driven,
+it seemed to me, by some inner fire which she made no effort to
+control. She was primitive, savage. When Jerry's blows landed, her
+lips parted and she breathed hard. I think at this moment he was the
+only man for her, her mate in savagery, the finest human beast in the
+world. When the round ended I moved away. I had seen enough.
+
+Later, while the men were being rubbed down, Miss Gore, leaving Marcia
+with Flynn, came out to me on the terrace, where I had gone alone for
+a breath of clean air. I was utterly absorbed in my misery and I did
+not hear her step. Her deep voice just at my ear startled me.
+
+"Well, Mr. Canby," she said softly. "Your dream-castle totters."
+
+I glanced up at her quickly, but she still smiled.
+
+"It has fallen," I groaned.
+
+"No--not yet," still cheerfully. She paused a moment, and, leaning her
+elbows on the balustrade, looked out down the valley.
+
+"All will be well," she said at last slowly.
+
+Our glances met. "I have that presentiment," she added.
+
+"Based on what?" I said bitterly. "A man who can inspire such a
+passion as this is no more than a beast--"
+
+"Or no less than a man," she muttered quickly. "You forget that Jerry
+is what you've made him--"
+
+"Not this--the body the servant--not the mind--"
+
+"The mind will survive," she put in evenly. "It must. The whole thing
+is hypnotic. He will pass out of it soon."
+
+"And she--?"
+
+She shrugged lightly. "I don't know. I've never seen her like this
+before. I think if Jerry were to seize her by force and carry her away
+today--now--she couldn't resist him."
+
+"Ah--!"
+
+"But he won't. He treats her as though she were a flower, caresses her
+with his eyes, touches her petals timidly--"
+
+"Bah! I could crush her--"
+
+She smiled indulgently.
+
+"She is a strange creature. Love is an enigma to her. That's why she
+follows this mad whim for Jerry--she doesn't mistake it for love, she
+knows too much--but it's a fair imitation."
+
+"It is morbid, unhealthy."
+
+"Perhaps, but like other diseases, will pass."
+
+"Leaving Jerry sick?"
+
+"He will recover."
+
+A calm fell upon me. Was she right after all? What reason had I to
+lose faith in Jerry when this woman, almost a stranger to me, believed
+in him? I turned and laid my hands quietly over hers.
+
+"Thanks," I stammered. "You're very kind." And then realizing the
+silly impulsiveness of my action, straightened for fear that she might
+misunderstand. Without moving from her position, she turned her head
+and smiled at me quizzically. If her eyes hadn't been kind I would
+have thought she was laughing at me.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+THE UNKNOWN UNMASKED
+
+
+The three weeks of training passed quickly and Carty had won his
+fight, a favorable augury for the camp of Flynn. Jerry worked hard,
+too hard it almost seemed for flesh and blood to endure, but he seemed
+tireless. He had lost weight, of course, and his face was haggard and
+drawn, but he ate and slept well and though a little irritable at
+times, seemed cheerful enough. Marcia came frequently, always with
+Miss Gore, and the word was passed around that Jim Robinson's
+"chicken" was staying in the village. I think Jerry's wooing
+prospered. There were no Channing Lloyds at Briar Hills now. To all
+appearances the girl was with him heart and soul and when Jerry rested
+on the terrace in a reclining chair wrapped in blankets, Marcia sat
+beside him, talking in subdued tones. Sometimes I heard their voices
+raised, but whatever their differences they were not such as to cause
+a breach between them. They were hardly ever entirely alone and for
+purposes of endearment the terrace was not the most secluded spot that
+could have been found. Flynn's word was law and his eye constantly
+watchful. If he had been paid to make Jerry win this fight, he was
+going to earn his money, he said, and anyone who interfered with the
+training would be put out and kept out of the grounds. Whatever her
+own wishes, the girl recognized Flynn's authority, and came and went
+at fixed times which could not interfere with the rigid rules. Jerry
+rose at five and took to the road with Flynn on horseback and either
+O'Halloran or Sagorski afoot. When he came in he had his shower,
+rubdown and then breakfast. After a rest, Flynn boxed four or five
+rounds with him, after which came rope jumping, and exercises with the
+machines to strengthen his arms and wrists. In this way the morning
+passed and after the midday meal came the real work-out of the day
+with his training-partners, where real blows were exchanged and blood
+often flowed. Jerry had improved immeasurably. Even I, tyro as I was,
+could see that his encounters with these professionals had rubbed off
+all signs of the amateur. He had always been a good judge of distance,
+Flynn had said, but he had been schooled recently to make every
+movement count--to "waste nothing." In spite of myself, the excitement
+of the game was getting into my blood. If for the while Jerry was to
+be a beast, why should he not be the best beast of them all? Stories
+came to us from the camp of the Terrible Sailor, who was training down
+on the Jersey shore. He was "coming" fast, they said, and was strong
+and confident. The newspapers followed him carefully and sent their
+reporters to Horsham Manor, one of whom, denied entrance at the Lodge,
+climbed over the wall and even reached the gymnasium where Jerry was
+boxing with O'Halloran, to be put out at my orders (as Jeremiah
+Benham) before he got a fact for his pains. The result of this of
+course was an account full of misstatements about the millionaire
+Jeremiah Benham and his protégé which brought a protest in the mails
+from Ballard the elder who, fortunately for Jerry, hadn't gotten at
+the truth of the matter.
+
+Once or twice I had been on the point of going to Ballard's office and
+making a clean breast of Jerry's plans, hoping that Clancy might be
+bought off and the match canceled. But I could not bring myself, even
+now, to the point of betraying the boy. I am not a fatalist by
+profession or philosophy, but Miss Gore had made me pause and I had
+resolved to see the thing through, trying to believe as she believed
+that Jerry could only be toughened to the usages of life by the rigor
+of circumstance. And so I was silent.
+
+On the morning of the great event I found myself, instead of properly
+censorious, intensely eager for the night to come. Jerry had been
+brought secretly to town the day before in a closed machine and was
+resting under the care of Flynn at Jerry's own house uptown. It was at
+Jerry's request that Jack Ballard and I stayed away from him, and so
+the day passed slowly enough in speculations as to the possibility of
+overtraining and as to Jerry's ability to stand punishment. Of his
+pluck there was no question between us. Both of us had had too many
+proofs of it to doubt, but there was always the chance of the unlucky
+blow early in the battle which might mean defeat where victory seemed
+the only thing possible. I believed that Jerry would win. I think that
+I actually believed him to be invulnerable. I knew that Flynn was
+confident, and that Sagorski, Spatola and O'Halloran had put their
+money on him. Of course he would win. There was no man in the world
+who could stand up against Jerry when he meant to do a thing. No one
+knew better than I what victory meant to Jerry. Money, championship
+laurels--of course they were nothing. However much or little Marcia's
+theories as to the superman meant to Jerry, he was committed to
+her--and she, I suspected, to him. His laurels were in the touch of
+her rosy fingers, the flash of her dark eyes, the gleam of her small
+white teeth when she smiled. Those were his reward, all that he had
+worked for--all that he prized. She expected him to win. He couldn't
+lose.
+
+The day passed slowly. I visited the gymnasium with Jack. Flynn was
+still with Jerry, but confidence reigned. There was a story going the
+rounds of the press that Clancy had gone stale, that he had strained a
+tendon, that he had broken a finger, that his mother had just died.
+
+"Buncombe!" said Jack, who knew the game. "They want to worry the odds
+down a bit. He's fit as a fiddle. You can be sure of that."
+
+The early afternoon papers contained the first hint that Jim Robinson
+was not what he was supposed to be. A heading on the sporting page
+caught my eyes. I have kept it among my papers and give it verbatim.
+
+    PUGILIST SOCIETY MAN
+    JIM ROBINSON, THE HEAVY WEIGHT, A
+    MASQUERADER.
+
+I read the type below hurriedly:
+
+A story is going the rounds that Jim Robinson, the heavyweight, who
+goes against Sailor Clancy in the principal event at the Garden
+tonight, is not Robinson at all, but a well-known society man and
+millionaire. From the hour when this match was made in May last there
+has been a mystery attached to the personality of this fighter never
+before heard of in Fistiana in New York. Flynn, his backer and
+trainer, could not be found to deny or affirm the rumor, and his
+sparring partners at Flynn's Gymnasium, of course, denied it, but
+every circumstance, including the size of the purse, now believed to
+be five thousand dollars, would indicate that Flynn's Unknown, unless
+a well-known Westerner in disguise, is a man of more than usual
+ability--or else a millionaire sport, bent on enriching the
+hard-fisted sailor, who thinks he sees a chance of picking up some
+easy money besides his share of the gate. Whoever Jim Robinson is, we
+welcome him cordially.
+
+But we also warn him that New York is tired of ring fakes and that
+nothing but a good mill will justify the prices asked.
+
+I showed the thing to Ballard, who read it through eagerly, his lips
+emitting a thin whistle.
+
+"Ph-ew! They're getting 'warm,' Pope. Somebody's leaked."
+
+"But who--?"
+
+"May be the management--to draw the crowd." And then, looking at the
+front page, "That's only the twelve o'clock edition. Perhaps--"
+
+He paused and rang the bell (we were at his rooms again), instructing
+his man to go out on the street and buy copies of the latest editions
+of all the afternoon papers.
+
+"It would be the deuce if they followed that up."
+
+He walked to and fro while we waited impatiently. And in a short while
+our worst fears were realized, for when the papers came we saw the
+dreadful facts in scare heads on the first page of the yellowest of
+them. I give the item here:
+
+           JEREMIAH BENHAM--PRIZE FIGHTER.
+    MULTI-MILLIONAIRE SEEKS LAURELS IN RING.
+    FLYNN'S MYSTERIOUS UNKNOWN REVEALED
+      IN PERSON OF MILLIONAIRE SPORTSMAN.
+
+Jack Ballard swore softly, but I read on over his shoulder,
+breathlessly:
+
+     The latest mystery of the prize ring has been revealed by a
+     reporter of the _Despatch_, who proves here conclusively that
+     the so-called Jim Robinson, matched to fight Sailor Clancy in
+     the big event at the Garden tonight, is no less a person than
+     Jeremiah Benham, son of the late John Benham, Railroad and
+     Steamship King. Last month it will be recalled that this paper
+     sent a reporter up to Horsham Manor, the magnificent Benham
+     estate in Greene County, where the so-called Jim Robinson was
+     finishing his training at the invitation of Mr. Benham, who was
+     supposed to take a warm sportsman's interest in the ring.
+     Horsham Manor, one of the wonders of the State, is surrounded,
+     as is well known, by a wall of solid masonry, and much secrecy
+     was observed in the training of the so-called Robinson, all
+     visitors being denied admittance at the lodge gates. The
+     reporter, however, managed to gain admittance and reached Mr.
+     Benham's gymnasium, a palatial affair, fully equipped with all
+     the latest paraphernalia, where the so-called Robinson was
+     boxing with one of his partners. But a person who represented
+     himself to be Mr. Benham immediately gave orders to have the
+     reporter shown out of the grounds.
+
+     The life of the younger Benham has been shrouded in mystery,
+     but this morning after some difficulty the reporter succeeded
+     in finding the photographer who made the picture of Robinson
+     printed herewith, who at last confessed that it was faked.
+     Further investigation among members of an uptown club revealed
+     the fact that Jeremiah Benham has just passed his twenty-first
+     year and could therefore not be the slender, rather crusty,
+     sandy-haired gentleman impersonating the owner of Horsham
+     Manor, who was at least thirty-five.
+
+"Slender--rather crusty!" muttered Ballard. "You! D--n the fellow!"
+
+     In order to verify the suspicion [I read on], the _Despatch_
+     reporter went to the office of the New York and Southwestern
+     Railroad and obtained without difficulty from several sources a
+     description of the person of Mr. Benham, which coincides in all
+     particulars with the so-called Jim Robinson, whom the reporter
+     saw at work at Horsham Manor.
+
+     There is no Jim Robinson, except in name. The opponent of
+     Sailor Clancy in tonight's fight is no less a person than young
+     Jerry Benham, multi-millionaire and sportsman. It is a matter
+     of regret, since Mr. Benham chose, for personal reasons, to
+     hide his identity under another name, that the _Despatch_ could
+     not keep the matter secret, but the _Despatch_ is in the
+     business of supplying news to its patrons, news not presented
+     in other journals, and so important an item as this, of course,
+     could not be suppressed.
+
+The murder was out. We searched the other papers. Nothing.
+
+"A beat!" muttered Jack. "I'd like to show the fellow what a beating
+is."
+
+Jack Ballard was merely angry. I was bewildered into a state of
+helplessness. What should we do? What _could_ we do? The damage was
+done. Telling Jerry wouldn't help matters and might unnerve him. We
+disconnected the telephone and dined at the apartment, making a
+pretense of eating, nervously awaiting the hour when we should go to
+the Garden. We had reached the coffee, of which we were much in need,
+when there was a ring at the bell and Ballard Senior came into the
+room, a copy of the _Despatch_ in his hand.
+
+"Have you seen this?" he snapped.
+
+"We have," said Jack with an assumption of calmness.
+
+"It's a lie?"
+
+"No. It's the truth."
+
+The old man raged the length of the room and turned.
+
+"Do you mean that you've let this thing go on without trying to stop
+it--without letting me know--"
+
+"We did try to stop it. There was no use in letting you know. Jerry's
+mind was made up."
+
+"Jerry! The fool is ruining himself--and us. The thing must be
+stopped--at once."
+
+Jack smiled coolly. "I don't see how you're going to do that."
+
+The father stamped the length of the room again. "I'll show you. Where
+is Clancy?"
+
+"I don't know. You'll find him at Madison Square Garden about ten."
+
+"But where is he now?" he snapped.
+
+Jack shrugged. "I don't know."
+
+"Well, you must come with me. I've got to find him."
+
+"What are you going to do?"
+
+"Buy him off. This match can't take place."
+
+"Do you mean that?" asked Jack with a smile.
+
+"Did you ever know me to waste words?--Come!"
+
+However lenient Henry Ballard had been to his son, at that moment the
+parental word was law, and Jack obeyed, taking up his hat and gloves,
+and laying a pink ticket on the table.
+
+"Yours, Pope. I'll see you later."
+
+And they went out hastily, the old man from beginning to end having
+ignored me completely. I sank in a chair, my gaze shifting from the
+ticket to the brandy bottle and cigarettes. I wanted to do
+something--I didn't know what. I hadn't drunk or smoked for twelve
+years, but that' night I did both. The brandy steadied, the cigarette
+quieted my nerves. I sat there alone over the half-cleared dinner
+table, resolutely impelling calmness. The ticket stared at me, a
+symbol of Jerry's destiny.... My thought shifted curiously to the
+placid Miss Gore. Whatever Fate had in store for Jerry, this phase of
+his life would pass as she had said, the mind would survive. Something
+told me that tonight would mark a turning point in Jerry's career--how
+or what I could not know, but for the first time I realized how deeply
+I was committed to Jerry's plans. I wanted the bout to take place. I
+wanted to see it--win or lose I was committed to it and to Jerry.
+
+It had grown dark outside. I rose, slowly putting the ticket in my
+pocket, and went out. The night was sultry. It would be hot there in
+the ring--but it would be hot for both of them. Muscle for muscle and
+tissue for tissue, Jerry could stand what another could. I glanced at
+my watch. It was now nine. The preliminary bouts would be beginning,
+but I had no interest in these. I walked down town, purposely delaying
+my steps, but found my footsteps hurrying in spite of me, and it was
+only half after nine when I entered the building.
+
+I remembered a six-day bicycle race that I had witnessed there years
+ago, but I was not prepared for the sight of the crowd that had
+gathered under the enormous roof. The match had been well advertised
+and the article in the _Despatch_ must have lent an added spice to the
+attraction. The heated air was already a blue fog of tobacco smoke,
+through which beyond the glare of the ring, tiny spots of light flared
+and disappeared like glow-worms--where in the gallery the smokers
+lighted their tobacco. As I entered I scanned the crowd. Eager, stupid
+or brutal faces, the washed and the unwashed, the gloved and the
+ungloved, cheek by jowl, all talking, smoking, cheering, jeering or
+waiting calmly for the expected thrill. They had paid their money to
+see blood, and as I found my seat I realized the inevitableness of
+Jerry's appearance. He could not disappoint these people now.
+
+My seat was in a box, in the second row of boxes, the first row being
+just back of the press seats which were along the sides of the ring.
+In this vast crowd I would be lost to Jerry and I was thankful not to
+be directly under the ring where the sight of my anxious face might
+have diverted him. A bout was in progress now, of six rounds, between
+two lightweights, a rapid affair which drew to a conclusion none too
+quickly for me. The final bout was to take place at ten, but I knew
+from the long intervals between these preliminaries that the hour
+would be much later. I thought for a moment of going out and walking
+the streets for awhile, but realized that I should be even more
+unhappy there than here; so I sat quietly absorbing the scene,
+listening to the conversation of my neighbors in the next box, who
+seemed to have their money on the sailor. One of their comments
+aroused my ire.
+
+"What's this goldfish their feedin' to the sea lion? Say, that story
+ain't straight about young Benham bein' Robinson?"
+
+"Sure thing. Clancy will eat him alive--_eat him alive_," the man
+repeated, slowly and with unction.
+
+I glanced at the speaker. Squat, stout, heavy jowled--with a neck
+that pushed over the back of his collar--a follower of the ring, smug,
+assertive, confident. A prophet? I was not ready to admit that.
+
+After the third bout three women and three men, following an usher,
+passed along the aisle just in front of me. I recognized her instantly
+in spite of the dark suit, large hat and heavy veil, for her walk
+betrayed her. One of the women was Marcia Van Wyck. Followed by the
+gaze of the men nearest them, they went to a box in the second tier
+just around the corner of the ring where I could see the girl
+distinctly. The other women of the party or the men I did not
+recognize, but Marcia attracted the attention of my neighbors.
+
+"Some dame, that," said one of them admiringly. "Know her, Charlie?"
+
+"Naw," replied the stout man. "Swells, I reckon, friends of the
+goldfish."
+
+As the bout on the boards proceeded and the attention of those nearest
+her was diverted, the girl settled into her seat and coolly removed
+her veil, watching the fight calmly, now and then exchanging a word
+with her companions. She _was_ beautiful, distinguished looking, but
+in this moment of restraint, cold and unfeeling almost to the point of
+cruelty. She looked across the space that separated us, caught my gaze
+and held it, challenging, defying--with no other sign of
+recognition--and presently looked away.
+
+The preliminaries ended, there was a rustle and stir of expectation.
+Men were rushing back and forth from the dressing rooms to the ring
+and whispering to the master of ceremonies between his introductions
+of various pugilists in a great variety of street clothes, who claimed
+the right to challenge the winner of the night's heavyweight event. I
+had heard many of their names during the past three weeks at the
+Manor, and knowing something of the customs of the ring, was not
+surprised to see Tim O'Halloran and Sagorski. It was a little free
+advertising which meant much to these gentlemen and cost little.
+O'Halloran grinned toothlessly, at the plaudits that greeted his name,
+shuffled his feet awkwardly and bobbed down. Sagorski was not so
+popular, but the crowd received him good-naturedly enough, and amid
+cries of "Clancy" and "Bring on the Sailor" the Jew ungracefully
+retired.
+
+I glanced at the girl; she was smiling up into the faces of these men
+as at old acquaintances. If there was any regret in her--any revulsion
+at the vulgarity of this scene into which she had plunged Jerry
+Benham--she gave no sign of it. It seemed to me that she was in her
+element; as though in this adventure, the most unusual she had perhaps
+ever attempted, she had found the very acme, the climax of her
+experience.
+
+When the introductions were finished, the hubbub began anew. Had Henry
+Ballard succeeded in buying Clancy off? I hoped and I feared it. Men
+came from the dressing-rooms and whispered in the ear of the announcer
+who sent them back hurriedly. The crowd was becoming impatient. There
+were no more pugilists to introduce and the man in the ring walked to
+and fro mopping his perspiring brow. At last when the sounds from the
+crowd became one muffled roar, he clambered down through the ropes and
+went himself to the dressing-rooms, returning in a while with the
+referee of the match whom he presented. The new referee looked at his
+watch and announced that there was a slight delay and begged the crowd
+to be patient a few moments longer.
+
+But when the moments were no longer few and there were no signs from
+the dressing-room doors the people in the rear seats rose howling in a
+body. There were cries of "Fake" and "Give us our money" and the man
+in the ring, Diamond Joe Gannon, held up his hands in vain for
+silence. For awhile it looked as though there would be a riot. Had
+Ballard Senior succeeded?
+
+Suddenly the howling was hushed and merged into shouts of acclaim.
+"Good boy, Kid! Here he comes," and, rising with the others, I saw
+coming down the aisle from the dressing-rooms "Kid" Spatola, the
+bootblack champion. He carried a bucket, sponges and towels and after
+a word with the clamorous reporters clambered up into the ring,
+followed by a colored man, in whom I recognized Danny Monroe, the
+Swedish negro. He wore suspenders over his undershirt and carried
+several bottles which he placed in the corner of the ring beside the
+bucket. The eyes of the crowd were focused upon the door from which
+Spatola had emerged. I saw two figures come out, one grim and silent
+who made his way toward the street doors, the other who came quickly
+down the aisle--Ballard Senior and Jack. The latter questioned an
+usher and was shown directly to my box, by his prominence investing
+both himself and me with immediate publicity. I felt the gaze of our
+neighbors upon us, but Jack seated himself coolly and lighted a
+cigarette.
+
+"What happened?" I questioned in a whisper.
+
+"They're going to fight," he returned.
+
+"Your father--?"
+
+He smiled a little. "Mad as a hornet. Jerry blocked the game."
+
+"How--?"
+
+"Dad offered Clancy five thousand and his share of the gate money to
+quit."
+
+"Clancy refused?"
+
+"He was very white about it. He sent the message over to Jerry."
+
+"And Jerry?"
+
+"The boy doubled any amount dad offered if Clancy would go on. Clancy
+stands to win fifteen thousand. Dad quit. I told him Jerry had made up
+his mind. He realizes it now."
+
+"Fifteen thousand! Clancy will work for it."
+
+Jack smiled grimly. "I think Jerry wants him to."
+
+The boy was mad--clean mad.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+THE FIGHT
+
+
+But the madness of the moment had gotten into my blood and Jack's. The
+fight was going to take place. We were glad of it. We felt the
+magnetism of the crowd, the pulse of its excitement, and, as impatient
+as those around us, eagerly awaited developments. The seconds and
+trainers had hardly clambered into Clancy's corner when Clancy
+himself, followed by Terry Riley, appeared and leaped into the ring.
+The crowd roared approval and he bowed right and left, waving his
+hands and nodding to acquaintances whom he recognized at the
+ring-side. He wore a pale blue dressing-gown and though broad of
+shoulder seemed not even so tall as Sagorski, but he had a bullet head
+which at the cerebellum joined his thick neck, without indentation, in
+a straight line and his arms reached almost to his knees--gorilla of a
+man--a superbrute. I caught a glimpse of Marcia watching him intently,
+and tried to read her thoughts. She examined him with the critical
+gaze which she might have given a hackney at a horse show.
+
+Jerry's appearance with Flynn a moment later was the signal for
+another outburst from the crowd--not so long a greeting nor so
+prolonged a one as that which had greeted Clancy, but warm enough to
+make the boy feel that he was not without friends in the house. His
+face was a little pale but he smiled cheerfully enough when he
+reached the ring. He shook hands with Gannon, whom he had met at
+Finnegan's, and then, with a show of real enjoyment, with
+Clancy--conversing with a composure that left nothing to be desired.
+
+The crowd, like Jack and me, was comparing them. Jerry's six feet two
+topped the sailor by more than two inches, though I believe the latter
+would have a few pounds of extra weight.
+
+"Big rascal, ain't he?" the sportsman in the adjoining box commented.
+
+"Yep," grunted the stolid one. "But too leggy. Clancy'll eat him
+alive--_eat him alive_," he repeated with more unction than before.
+
+"Maybe," said the other, "but I want to be shown. There was another
+leggy feller--the freckled one."
+
+"Fitz--but Fitz was a _fighter_."
+
+"Well, I like his looks--good-lookin' feller, ain't he?"
+
+"Aw! This ain't no beauty parlor. He's got a glass jaw, I'll bet. 'S a
+goldfish, I tell you. The sea lion will eat him alive--_eat him
+alive_!"
+
+I don't know why the reiteration of this phrase of the fat man
+irritated me, but it did exceedingly, and I turned around and glared
+at him, a sharp retort on the tip of my tongue. Ballard's fingers
+closed on my arm and I was silent. But the fat man's glances and mine
+had met and held each other.
+
+"What's the matter, perfessor?" he asked testily. "Friend of yours,
+eh? Oh, well--no harm done. But if you'd like to back your judgment
+with a little something--say fifty--"
+
+But I had already turned my back on the fellow.
+
+In the ring the men had thrown aside their dressing-gowns and the
+opposing seconds were examining the bandages upon their hands. Clancy
+wore bright green trunks, which if his name had failed would have
+betrayed his lineage, and his great chest and arms were covered with
+designs in tattoo. Jerry wore dark trunks. And as his wonderful arms
+and torso were exposed to view, a murmur of approval went over the
+audience. In spite of his training in the open his skin was still very
+white beside the bronzed figure of his adversary, but the muscles
+rippled smoothly and strongly under the fair skin--and bulked large at
+thigh and forearm as he moved his limbs. It was not the strong man's
+figure nor yet, like Clancy's, the stocky, thickly built structure of
+the professional fighter's, yet it was so solid, so admirably compact
+that his great height was unnoticeable. I could see from the
+expressions upon the faces of those about me and the calls from the
+seats behind us, that Jerry's appearance had already gained the
+respect of the crowd, some members of which were already hailing him
+by his first name. "Good boy, Jerry," they cried, or "All right, old
+boy. You've got the goods--but look out for his right."
+
+Even the stout person beside me was silent and I heard nothing more
+about the goldfish. Fortunately for him, and for me, I suspect, for
+had he repeated his phrase, I might have brained him with a chair.
+
+The preliminary conferences at an end, the principals took their
+corners, fresh ones not used in the preliminaries, Jerry luckily with
+his back toward the box in which the Van Wyck girl was sitting. If
+their glances had met, I did not notice. For all that I knew. Jerry
+might have been unaware that she was in the house. He did not look
+around in a search for her and seemed totally absorbed in his
+instructions from Flynn, who stood outside the ropes just behind him
+whispering continuously in his ear, Jerry nodding from time to time
+and glancing across the ring to Clancy's corner, where the superbeast
+was sprawled, his long arms extended upon the ropes. Spatola and the
+black Swede were seeing to Jerry's gloves and looking over every
+detail of the corner with careful eyes.
+
+The referee called the two men to the center of the ring and gave them
+some final instructions, to which they nodded assent, and they had
+hardly returned to their corners when the gong clanged, stools and
+paraphernalia were whipped out of the ring, the seconds and trainers
+crouched outside and the fight was on. As the men came together the
+disparity in their sizes became less marked for, while Clancy was the
+shorter, he made up by his huge bulk what he lacked in height. He was
+a dangerous man, but there was no timidity in Jerry's eyes and he came
+forward sparring carefully, gliding backward and forward feeling out
+the other man's length and speed. Clancy's left grazed Jerry's ear and
+the boy countered lightly. His color was rising now and his eyes were
+sparkling. It was good, it was a game he loved. The moment of stage
+fright had passed. He had forgotten the crowd. His foot-work was fast
+and made Clancy seem almost sluggish by comparison. That was the
+danger. Would he waste himself too early? Ten rounds! Not too long for
+Jerry, if the other didn't land dangerously and more often than he.
+Clancy played for the head, and caught the boy fairly on the jaw, but
+got a blow in the ribs that made him grunt. Jerry did most of the
+leading, ducking a vicious swing of Clancy's right, that made the
+Sailor look foolish, and brought a roar of delight from the crowd.
+Clancy grinned cheerfully and came on, stabbing with his long left arm
+at Jerry's head, but getting only his trouble for his pains. At the
+close of the round the honors were even, and both were smiling in
+their corners.
+
+"He's got the science," said the optimist next door, "a pretty piece
+o' work--very pretty."
+
+"Just you wait, Petey," said the stout man, while behind us an
+Irishman shouted, "Get them green tights workin', Clancy."
+
+The second round was clearly Jerry's. Even the stout man admitted it.
+Clancy's famous crouching pose met with mishap early in the round, for
+Jerry by fine judgment twice evaded the advancing left arm and
+straightened Clancy with terrific upper cuts, the kind that Flynn had
+said were like tons of coal. At the end of the round Clancy realized,
+I think, that his opponent was well worth considering seriously, for
+when he came to the center of the ring again, his face washed clean,
+he wore a solemn expression curious and respectful, but villainously
+determined. He began boring in, as the phrase is, leading constantly
+and taking what came. He hit Jerry hard, always when the boy was going
+away, however, and caught some well-judged ones in return. He swung a
+hard right which caught Jerry napping and sent him against the ropes,
+but before he could follow up the advantage the boy had slipped out of
+danger. They exchanged blows here, toe to toe, and the crowd howled
+with delight. Here was a mere boxer who wasn't afraid to take what he
+gave. In the exchange Jerry profited, for Clancy, lunging with his
+right and missing, fell into a clinch where Jerry gave his ribs a
+fearful beating. At the end of the round both were breathing hard, but
+the crowd was cheering, Jerry.
+
+I find myself slipping into the phraseology of the sporting page, and
+little wonder when for weeks the boxer's terms were the only phrases I
+had heard. I hope I will not be blamed for dwelling with too great a
+particularity upon this affair, which, whatever its merits as a test
+of strength and skill, was nothing less than a contest in brutality.
+
+During the minute of time Monroe and Spatola rubbed Jerry vigorously
+and when the gong clanged, though still breathing hard, Jerry was
+ready for Clancy's rush. He had been prepared for this by Flynn, who
+knew the fighter's methods. For before the seconds were well out of
+the ring Clancy had crossed toward Jerry's corner, planning by sheer
+bulk and viciousness to sap some of Jerry's strength. But Jerry
+avoided the rush, stinging Clancy's stomach with a terrific blow as he
+got out of danger. With the whole of the ring back of him he stood up
+and shifting suddenly got inside of Clancy's guard with his right on
+the jaw, which, catching the Sailor off his balance, sent him to the
+ropes, where he sank to the floor. He took a count of six leisurely
+and was up again smiling and fighting hard. Jerry's lip was cut in
+this exchange, but at least during this round Clancy rushed no more.
+They were both landing freely now, Jerry apparently willing to take
+his share of punishment in order to make a good showing. I heard Jack
+Ballard muttering at my ear. This was a mistake; I wondered if Flynn
+knew it. With his skill, Jerry could have kept away and cut the man to
+ribbons. But he was no slacker; this was no boxing tournament, as
+Jerry afterwards explained, but a fight, which meant pugnacity as well
+as skill.
+
+But the crowd appreciated his efforts. They were ring followers and
+knew "science" when they saw it, but more than skill they loved "sand"
+and more than "sand," aggressiveness. With the beginning of the
+seventh round the honors had all been with Jerry. He had scored the
+first blood and the first knock-down and Clancy's rushes had proved
+unavailing. The professional's lip was swollen, one eye was nearly
+closed, and his ribs were crimson from the terrible beating Jerry had
+given them. Though his face was not so badly punished as Clancy's,
+Jerry had not gotten off unscathed. He was grim, determined, and cuts
+at the lip and eyes made him no handsomer than he should have been.
+But he was breathing more easily than Clancy, and, though he had lost
+much of his speed, he still seemed able to avoid his opponent at will
+and to hold him off with his straight left arm. Six rounds in which
+science had been more than a match for all Clancy's bull strength and
+ring experience! That in itself was something of an achievement, but
+Jerry was still further to show his strength, for in this seventh
+round Clancy went to the floor twice, the first time by a clean blow
+to the jaw through a beautiful opening that Jerry planned
+deliberately, feinting for the body, bringing a lead which Jerry
+half-ducked and then side stepped, throwing all the weight of his body
+into a blow with his right, timed and aimed with beautiful precision.
+
+The crowd were on their feet, silent. They thought that the end had
+come, for at the call of _three_ Clancy had not moved, Flynn and
+Spatola were already above the level of the ring clinging to the ropes
+and Jerry stood breathing heavily, his arms at his sides watching the
+prostrate man. At the count of _six_ Clancy was on one elbow, _eight_
+found him on his knees struggling to his feet. He swayed a little, but
+rose and fell into a clinch which saved him. The referee tore the men
+apart and Jerry at once assumed the aggressive, making the weary
+Clancy move warily. But one of Jerry's left-hand blows caught him
+again, and he went half through the ropes.
+
+It was here that Jerry earned the wild applause of the crowd by an act
+of magnanimity that was nothing less than Quixotic. But it was like
+Jerry. He wanted to take no unfair advantages. He bent forward,
+lifting the upper rope, and helped Clancy into the ring. There the
+round ended in a roar of cheering that did my heart and Jack's good to
+hear.
+
+But the thing was foolhardy. The man was not done yet, as Jerry was to
+find out in a moment. I saw Flynn frowning and protesting in Jerry's
+ear, for the boy had been set for a knockout and the bout in all
+probability would have been ended. Jerry listened, his arms stretched
+out along the ropes, smiling up at the glaring electric lights. He was
+breathing convulsively and Spatola swung his towel furiously, fanning
+the heavy air into the boy's gasping lungs. He had had all the
+advantage so far and with good generalship could still win on points
+if he fought his own battle and not Clancy's. But would he? I knew
+what Flynn was saying to him, what he was warning him against. I had
+heard the warning often in the bouts at the Manor. Failing in science
+and skill Clancy would "slug" (Flynn's word, not mine), trusting to
+the prodigious length of his arms, taking the punishment that came to
+him, biding his time and the possible lucky blow which would turn the
+tide in his favor.
+
+I glanced at Clancy's corner. There was anxiety there. I think during
+the seventh round, Clancy had seen his fifteen thousand going
+a-glimmering and Riley was no less emphatic than Flynn. There were but
+three more rounds--three rounds in which the Sailor could regain his
+lost ground and the heavyweight laurels that seemed to be slipping
+from him.
+
+When the gong clanged, it was immediately to be seen that Clancy's
+whole plan of battle had changed. From some hidden sources in that
+great hulk of a body he drew new forces of energy. You will see the
+same thing in any wild beast of the jungle, a hidden reserve of
+nervous power and viciousness, most dangerous apparently when nearest
+extinction. He was ugly--his jowls shot forward, his brow lowering,
+his long arms shooting like pistons--a jungle beast at bay. Jerry
+stopped his progress again--again--with straight thrusts and
+uppercuts, but the man only covered up, crouched lower, and came on
+again. Once he caught Jerry in the stomach and I saw the boy wince
+with pain; again he reached Jerry's head, a terrific blow which would
+have sent him to the floor had Jerry not been moving away. And all the
+while Jerry's blows were landing, cutting the man, blinding him, but
+still he came on. Was there no limit to the amount of punishment that
+he could endure? Jerry's blows were not the leads of a boxer, but
+fighting blows, and Clancy's face and body would bear testimony to
+their strength for many a day, but he always came on for more--a
+superbeast that as long as breath came and blood flowed, was untamed
+and unconquerable. Jerry was tiring now and throwing discretion to the
+winds was trying for a knockout. Two swings he missed by mere wildness
+and weariness of eye, and Flynn's voice rose above the wild clamor of
+the of the crowd. "Keep him off, Jerry--keep him off!" But Jerry did
+not hear or did not choose to hear, for he no longer avoided Clancy's
+blows or his advances, standing his ground and slugging wildly as
+Clancy was doing. Jack Ballard saw the danger and sprang to his feet
+seconding Flynn's advice, but he could not be heard above the roar of
+the crowd. It was a wild moment. A chance blow by either man would end
+the battle then. I was no longer Roger Canby, ex-tutor and
+philosopher, but a mad mother-beast whose cub was fighting for its
+life. "Keep him off, Jerry," I yelled hoarsely again and again, but
+the boy still stood, his toe to Clancy's, fighting wildly. Three times
+they fell into clinches from sheer exhaustion to be pried apart by the
+referee, only to go at each other again. This was no test of skill,
+but of brutality and chance. I think that Jerry was mad--brute mad,
+for, though Clancy's blows were now reaching him, he didn't seem to be
+aware of them. His face was distorted with rage--animal rage. When the
+gong clanged at the end of this round, the eighth, they still fought
+even when Gannon thrust his bulk between them.
+
+The crowd sank back into their seats gasping. It was a long while
+since New York had seen a fight such as this.
+
+"What d' I tell you, Charlie?" whispered the optimist next to me
+hoarsely.
+
+"By--, he's good an' no mistake," confessed the fat man.
+
+"He's got the Sailor goin'."
+
+Jack Ballard and I were in an agony of apprehension, watching the
+faces of the excited men in Jerry's corner, who were trying to warn
+him before it was too late. But we could see that Jerry was stubborn,
+for when Flynn pleaded with him he shook his head. Spatola and the
+negro massaged him furiously, adding their anxious pleas to Flynn's,
+but Jerry would not listen. He was taking the foul air in huge gasps,
+his eyes closed, fighting for recuperation.
+
+When the ninth round opened the men were both groggy and stumbled to
+the center of the ring like two blind men groping for each other,
+swinging wildly and moving slowly. Each was intent upon a knockout.
+Twice each swung and missed rights, avoiding the blows by remnants of
+their craft and cleverness. Twice they stumbled into clinches and were
+torn apart by the pitiless Gannon. In the in-fighting (a technical
+term) Jerry I think must have been struck--I did not see the blow, but
+it must have been a terrific one--for his knees sagged and his hands
+dropped to his sides while his mouth gaped open painfully. At the
+cries from his corner Clancy drove a vicious blow, but Jerry weakly
+managed to avoid it. But he couldn't raise his arms. Jerry was hurt,
+grievously hurt. In a moment they were raised again, but he could not
+seem to see his mark and his swings were wild. In agony I rose, my arm
+in Ballard's, ready for the worst. Clancy straightened, tried to
+collect what remained of his scattered wits and strength, poised
+himself and with a terrible blow, struck Jerry at the point of his
+chin.
+
+He went down with a crash, his head striking the floor, and remained
+motionless. Over him, one hand restraining Clancy, Gannon counted.
+Jerry's figure writhed upon the floor, twisting upon its head
+struggling to rise and then relaxed. The fight was over.
+
+A curious hush had fallen over the great hall. Here and there Clancy's
+friends were shouting in glee, but the great mass of the crowd, those
+whom Jerry had won by his skill and pluck, seemed bewildered. The end
+had come too suddenly for them to realize what had happened and how it
+had happened. The match was his. He had won it. It had only been a
+question of rounds. And then, "Chance blow in the solar-plexus,"
+someone was saying.
+
+It is curious how many and how lasting are the impressions that can be
+crowded into a second of time. I clambered out of the box with Jack
+Ballard toward the ring, fearful of the blow to Jerry's head upon the
+boards, and as I pushed my way through the bewildered crowd, I caught
+just a glimpse of Marcia Van Wyck's party. They were all standing up
+in their box, looking toward the ring. A man beside her made a remark
+at the girl's ear. I saw her turn and flash a bright glance up at him
+and had a glimpse of her small white teeth. She was laughing. This is
+just an impression of a momentary glimpse, but it means much. In this
+situation is the psychology of the real Marcia. Jerry, her man-god,
+her brute-god, lay prone at her feet a quivering mass of bruised
+flesh, beaten and broken mind and body, and she could smile.
+
+Tingling with rage at this incident, which I thanked God Jerry had
+not seen, I fought my way behind Jack to the aisle to the
+dressing-room, whither willing hands had carried the boy. All around
+us we heard the encomiums of the crowd.
+
+"Luck," one said, "mere luck."
+
+"It's all in the game. But Benham's the better man."
+
+"Lucky for Clancy that Jerry mixed it. Could 'a cut the Sailor to
+pieces."
+
+"Some fight--what?"
+
+"The best in years. The boy's a wonder."
+
+All this from hardened followers of the ring. The door to the
+dressing-room was jammed and a force of policemen was keeping back the
+people. Our anxious queries were passed along to the doorway.
+
+"He's coming around all right," said the sergeant. "Now move along
+there, gents. No admittance here."
+
+But Jack and I awaited our chance and when Sagorski poked his head out
+of the door he saw us and the sergeant let us through.
+
+It was a very crestfallen group that greeted us. Flynn and the negro,
+Monroe, were working over Jerry, who lay on a cot-bed near the window.
+He had recovered consciousness and even as we entered he raised his
+head wearily and looked around. His face was battered and bruised, and
+his smile as he greeted us partook of the character of his injuries.
+But he was whole and I hoped not badly hurt. Youth and strength, the
+best of medicines, were already reviving him.
+
+"Well, Roger," he muttered dully, "I'm licked."
+
+"Luck," I said laconically. Jack Ballard had clasped his big
+congested hand, "Proud of you, Jerry, old boy! You ought to have won.
+Why the Devil did you let him coax you into close quarters?"
+
+"I thought--I could stand--what he could," grunted Jerry.
+
+"Not the lucky blow. He had it. If you'd stood him off--"
+
+"I came here to fight--" said Jerry sinking back on his mattress
+wearily.
+
+I think his mind was beginning to work slowly around to the real
+meaning of his defeat, not the mere failure of his science and skill,
+but the failure of his body and mind as against the mind and body of a
+trained brute, whom he had set his heart on conquering. I knew as no
+one else there knew what the victory meant to him, and the memory of
+the brief glimpse I had had of the Van Wyck girl's face when he lay in
+the ring inflamed me anew. I know not what--some vestige of my thought
+reached him, for he drew me toward him and when I bent my head he
+whispered in my ear,
+
+"Marcia--was there?"
+
+I nodded.
+
+"She stayed--saw--?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+He made no sound, and submitted silently to the ministrations of his
+trainers.
+
+Flynn was philosophical.
+
+"The fortunes of war, Misther Canby. 'T'was a gran' fight, as fine a
+mill as you'll see in a loife time--wid the best man losin'--'S a
+shame, sor; but Masther Jerry w'u'd have his way--bad cess to 'm. You
+can't swap swipes wid a gorilla, sor. It ain't done."
+
+"He beat me fairly," said Jerry sitting up.
+
+"Who? Clancy? I'll match you agin him tomorrow, Masther Jerry," and he
+grinned cheerfully, "if ye'll but take advice."
+
+"Advice!" sighed Jerry. "You were right Flynn--I--I was wrong."
+
+"I wudden't mind if it wasn't for thinkin' of that fifteen thousand."
+
+"I think he earned it," laughed Jack.
+
+Jerry sat up on the edge of the bed and stared around, one eye only
+visible. The other was concealed behind a piece of raw meat that Flynn
+was holding over it.
+
+"You lost something, Flynn?" he asked.
+
+"A trifle, sor."
+
+"And the Kid and Tim?"
+
+"_And_ Rozy and Dan--all of us a bit, sor. But it don't matther."
+
+"Well," he said with a laugh. "I'll make it up to you, all of you, d'
+you hear? And I'm very much obliged for your confidence."
+
+It didn't need this munificence on Jerry's part to win the affection
+of these bruisers, but they were none the less cheerful on account of
+it. As Jim Robinson he had won their esteem, and all the evening they
+had stood a little in awe of Jerry Benham, but before they left him
+that night he gave them a good handshake all around and invited them
+to his house on the morrow. Between the crowd of us we got him into
+street clothes and a closed automobile in which Jack and I went with
+him to his house uptown.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+MARCIA RECANTS
+
+
+Thanks to the formidable size of Jerry's training partners, we had
+managed to avoid the reporters at the Garden, and when we reached
+Jerry's house we gave instructions to the butler to admit no one and
+answer no questions. Christopher, now Jerry's valet, we took upstairs
+with us and got the boy ready for bed. As the telephone bell began
+ringing with queries from the morning newspapers, I disconnected the
+wire and we were left in peace. A warm bath and a drink of brandy did
+wonders both for Jerry's appearance and his spirits, and at last we
+got him to bed. But he could not sleep, and so we sat at his bedside
+and talked to him until far into the night, Jerry propped up on his
+pillows, his bad eye comically decorated with a part of his morning's
+steak.
+
+By dint of persuasion and a promise to stay all night at last we got
+the boy to sleep and went to bed. I think Jack was rather glad to be
+beyond the reach of the parental ire, and my own wish was to be near
+Jerry now, to help him on the morrow to readjust his mind to his
+disappointment, and do what other service I could to save him from the
+results of his folly.
+
+The morning papers brought the evidences of it in vivid scare heads
+upon their first pages and detailed accounts of the whole affair,
+written by their best men, who gave Jerry, I am glad to say, the
+credit that was his due, calling him "the new star in pugilistic
+circles," "the coming heavyweight champion," and the yellowest of
+them, the one that had unmasked Jim Robinson the afternoon before,
+came out with an offer to back Jerry Benham for five thousand dollars
+against Jack Clancy or any other heavyweight except the Champion.
+Jerry read the articles in silence, a queer smile upon his face and at
+last shoved the papers aside.
+
+"Nice of those chaps, very, considering the way I've treated 'em, but
+it's no go. I've finished."
+
+Jack had ventured out to brave the storm and I sat quietly, scarcely
+daring to hope that I had heard correctly.
+
+"I'm done, Roger," he repeated. "No more fights for me. I staked
+everything on science and head-work. I failed. He got me--somewhere
+that hurt like the devil--and I saw red. I don't remember much after
+that except that I was as much of a brute as he was. I failed, Roger,
+failed miserably. The fellow that can't hold his temper has no
+business in the ring."
+
+His voice was heavy, like his manner, weary, disappointed, and as he
+threw off his dressing gown I saw that his left arm was hideously
+discolored from wrist to shoulder.
+
+"Does it hurt?" I asked.
+
+"What? Oh, my arm. No. But I'm sore inside of me Roger, my mind I
+mean. To do a thing like that, and fail--that's what hurts. Because I
+hadn't will enough--"
+
+"You're in earnest, then," I asked, "about not fighting again?"
+
+"Yes. I'm through--for good." And then boyishly, "But I didn't quit,
+Roger, did I?"
+
+"I think any unprejudiced observer will admit that you didn't quit," I
+said. "Clancy, I'm sure, knows better than anybody."
+
+"Good old Clancy. He _was_ a sight--but he squared things. I saw that
+knockout coming, but I couldn't move for the life of me. My arms
+wouldn't come up. By George--that _was_ a wallop! Oh well," he sighed,
+"the better man won. I'm satisfied."
+
+I helped him into his clothes and we went down to breakfast. He
+examined his letters quickly and put them aside with an air of
+disappointment, and then asked if there had been any telephone calls,
+seeming much put out when I told him my reasons for disconnecting the
+instrument.
+
+"Oh, it doesn't matter--Beastly nuisance, those reporters--" He looked
+over at me and grinned sheepishly. "Nice morning reading for Ballard,
+Senior! It _was_ a rotten trick to play on him, though. He didn't
+deserve all this. I wouldn't wonder if he didn't speak to me now. I
+deserve that, I think. He cost me ten thousand cold. I'm in disgrace.
+I'll never be able to square myself--never."
+
+When he got up from the breakfast table he caught a glimpse of his
+face in a mirror. "I _am_ a sight. The lip is going down nicely, but
+the eye! Looks like an overripe tomato against a wall. Pretty sort of
+a phiz to go calling on a lady with."
+
+"You're going visiting?"
+
+"Yes, Marcia and I are going up to the country together. You'll have
+to go along."
+
+"Thanks," I said, "but I've some matters to attend to here."
+
+"I say, Roger," he went on quickly examining himself anew in the
+mirror; "I've got to get hold of Flynn. There's a chap in the Bowery
+who makes a business of painting eyes." And he went off to the
+telephone where I heard him making the arrangement.
+
+With Jerry restored to partial sanity my duty at the town house was
+ended. Reporters still came to the door, but were turned away, and,
+seeing that I could be of no further use, I made my adieux and took my
+way downtown.
+
+If no man is a hero to his valet, surely no boy can be a hero to his
+tutor, and I may as well admit that glorious as Jerry's defeat had
+been, I had ceased to reckon him among the perfect creations of this
+world. Nowhere, I think, have I hailed Jerry as a hero. I have not
+meant to place him upon a pedestal. At the Manor, before he came to
+New York, he did no wrong, because the things that were good were
+pleasant to him and because original sin--_Eheu!_ I was beginning to
+wonder! Original sin! John Benham had ignored its existence and I had
+thought him wise. What was original sin? And if its origin was not
+within, where did it originate and how? If the boy had already been
+inoculated with the germ of sin, was he conscious of it? And did he
+yield to it voluntarily or unconsciously or both? And if unconscious
+of sin, was he morally responsible for its commission? These and many
+other vexed theological questions flitted anxiously through my mind
+and brought me to a careful scrutiny of Jerry's acts as I knew them.
+To engage in a prize fight, whatever the prize, whether money or
+merely the love of woman, if a venial, was not a mortal sin. To be
+sure, anger was a mortal sin and Jerry had yielded to it. Such
+fighting as Jerry had done, was not and could not by dint of argument
+become a part of any philosophy that I had taught him. He had sinned.
+He would sin again. As Miss Gore had said, my dream castle was
+tottering--it _had_ tottered and was falling. Jerry, my Perfect Man,
+at the first contact with the world felt the contagion of its innate
+depravity and corruption. The more I thought of Jerry's character, his
+ingenuous belief in the good of all things, the more it seemed to me
+that it was only a question of the strength of Jerry's spiritual
+health to resist the ravages of spiritual disease. You see, already I
+had thrown my philosophy to the winds. For where I had once planned
+that Jerry should go through fire unscorched, it was now merely become
+a question of the amount of his scorching.
+
+I bade Jack good-by, after hearing of the bad quarter-hour he had
+spent with Ballard, Senior, downtown, and made my way to my train for
+Horsham Manor in no very happy frame of mind. Had I known what new
+phase of Jerry's character was soon to be revealed to me, God knows I
+should have been still more unhappy. Jerry was not at the Manor when I
+arrived there. For some reasons best known to Marcia Van Wyck and
+himself it had been decided to stay for awhile longer in town, and it
+was not until over a month later that Jerry arrived bag and baggage in
+his machine with Christopher. He greeted me cheerfully enough, but I
+was not quite satisfied with his appearance. The marks of his fight
+with Clancy had almost, if not quite, disappeared, and while he had
+taken on much of his normal weight, he had little color and his eyes
+were dull. He smoked cigarettes constantly, lighting one from another,
+and on the afternoon and evening of the day of his arrival, sat
+moodily frowning at vacancy, or walked aimlessly about, his mind
+obviously upon some troublesome or perplexing matter. I could not
+believe that Clancy's victory had cast this shadow upon his spirit,
+but I asked no questions. He ordered wine for dinner, a thing he had
+never done before at the Manor, save on a few occasions when we had
+had guests, and drank freely of both sherry and champagne, finishing
+after his coffee with some neat brandy, which he tossed off with an
+air of familiarity that gave me something of a shock. He invited me to
+join him and when I refused seemed to find amusement in twitting me
+about my abstemious habits.
+
+"Come along now, just a nip of brandy, Roger. 'Twill make your blood
+flow a bit faster. No? Why not, old Dry-as-dust? Conscientious
+scruples? A dram is as good as three scruples. Come along, just a
+taste."
+
+"Brandy was made for old dotards and young idiots. I'm neither."
+
+"Oh, very well, here's luck!" and he drank again, setting the glass
+down and drawing a deep breath of satisfaction. And then with a laugh.
+"An idiot! I suppose I am. Good thing to be an idiot, Roger. Nothing
+expected of you. Nobody disappointed."
+
+"You're talking nonsense," I said sternly.
+
+"Nonsense! I differ from you there, old top," he laughed. "The true
+philosophy of life is the one that brings the greatest happiness.
+Self-expression is my motto, wherever it leads you. I fight, I play, I
+smoke, I drink because those are the things my particular ego
+requires."
+
+"Ah! You're happy?"
+
+"'Happiness,' old Dry-as-dust, as our good friend Rasselas puts it,
+'is but a myth.' I have ceased listening with credulity to the
+whispers of fancy or pursuing with eagerness the phantoms of hope.
+They're not for me. To live in the thick of life and take my knockouts
+or give them--Reality! I'm up against it at last,--real people, real
+thoughts, real trials, real problems--I want them all. I'm going to
+drink deep, deep."
+
+He reached for the brandy bottle again, but I whisked it away and
+rose.
+
+"You're a d----d jackass," I said, storming down at where he sat from
+my indignant five feet eight.
+
+His brow lowered and his jaw shot forward unpleasantly. "A jackass," I
+repeated firmly, still holding the neck of the brandy bottle.
+
+He glared at me a moment longer, then he slowly sank back into his
+chair, his features relaxing, and burst into a laugh.
+
+"Roger, you improve upon acquaintance. All these years you've
+concealed from me a nice judgment in the use of profanity. A d----d
+jackass! Hardly Hegelian, but neat, Roger, and most beautifully
+appropriate. A jackass, I am. Also as you have remarked, an idiot. You
+see, there's no argument. I admit the soft impeachment. But I won't
+drink again just now; so set the brandy bottle down like a good
+fellow and we will talk as one gentleman to another."
+
+I saw that I had brought him for the moment to his senses, and obeyed,
+sitting resolutely silent with folded arms, waiting for him to go on.
+He took a pipe from his pocket rather sheepishly, then filled and
+lighted it.
+
+"You _are_ a good sort, Roger," he said at last, with an embarrassment
+that contrasted strangely with the bombast of a moment ago. "I--I'm
+glad you did that. I think you're about the only person in the world
+I'd have taken it from. But I haven't drunk much. I couldn't get to be
+much of a drunkard in three weeks, could I?" He smiled his boyish
+smile and disarmed me.
+
+"But why drink at all?" I asked quietly.
+
+"Oh, I don't know. It's such an easy way to be jolly. Everybody does
+it. You can't seem to go anywhere without somebody sticking a glass
+under your nose. It's part of the social formula. There's no harm in
+it, in reason."
+
+"Jerry," I said sternly. "You've begun wrong. I don't know whether
+it's my fault or not, but you seem to be hopelessly twisted in your
+view of life. You're floundering. Of course it's none of my business.
+I've done what I was paid to do, and you've got to work things out in
+your own way. If you want to drink yourself maudlin, that's your
+privilege. I can move out, but while I'm here in this house I'm not
+going to sit idly by while you make a fool of yourself."
+
+He puffed on his pipe a moment in silence, eyeing the table leg.
+
+"I _am_ a fool," he said soberly at last. And then after a pause, "I
+don't know what the trouble has been exactly, unless I've taken
+people too literally; and that's your fault, Roger. White with you was
+always white and black was black. You taught me to say what I thought
+and to believe that other people said what they thought. That was a
+mistake."
+
+"You forget," I said, "that I wasn't brought here to teach you
+worldliness. But you can't say that I didn't warn you against it."
+
+He had gotten up and now paced the room with long strides.
+
+"Futile, Roger! Absolutely futile. In my heart even then, I think, I
+believed you narrow. You see, I'm frank. A few months in the world
+hasn't changed my opinion. But I do want to think straight." And then
+with a sigh as he paused alongside of me, "It's very perplexing
+sometimes."
+
+I knew what he was thinking about and whom, but he would not speak.
+
+"You have thought me narrow, Jerry, because I laid my life and yours
+along pleasant byways and ignored the beaten track. I've never told
+you why the world had grown distasteful to me. I think you ought to
+know. It may be worth something to you. The old story, always new--a
+girl, pretty, insincere. I was just out of the University, with a good
+education, some prospects, but no money. We became engaged. She was
+going to wait for me until I got a good professorship. But she didn't.
+In less than a year, without even the formality of breaking the
+engagement, she suddenly married a man who had money, a manufacturer
+of gas engines in Taunton, Massachusetts. I won't go into the details.
+They're rather sickening from this distance. But I thought you might
+like to know why I've never particularly cared to trust women."
+
+"I supposed," he said, thoughtfully, "it might have been something
+like that. Women _are_ queer. You think you know them, and then--" He
+paused, confession hovering on his lips, but some delicacy restrained
+him.
+
+"Women, Jerry, are the flavoring of society; I regret that I have a
+poor digestion for sauces. I hope yours will be better."
+
+He laughed. "Poor Roger; was she _very_ pretty?"
+
+"I can't remember. Probably. Calf love seldom considers anything
+else--prettiness! Yes she was pretty."
+
+"How old were you?"
+
+"Older than you Jerry--and wiser."
+
+He was silent. Once I thought he was about to speak, but he refrained,
+and when he deftly turned the topic, I knew that any chance I might
+have had to help him had passed. I understood, of course, and I could
+not help respecting his delicacy. Jerry was in for some hard knocks, I
+feared, harder ones than Clancy had given him.
+
+He went to bed presently and I sat by the lamp alternately reading and
+thinking of Jerry, comparing him with myself in that long-distant
+romance of my own. They were not unlike, these two women, pretty
+little self-worshipers, born to deceit and chicanery, with clever
+talents for concealing their ignorance, hiding the emptiness of their
+hearts with pretty tricks of coquetry. But Marcia was the more
+dangerous, a clean body and an unclean mind. A half-virgin! I would
+have given much to know what had recently passed between Marcia and
+Jerry. If there was any way to bring about a disillusionment--
+
+As though in answer to my enigma, at this moment Christopher came down
+from Jerry's room on his way below stairs. I stopped him and taking
+him into my study closed the door.
+
+"You're very fond of Master Jerry, Christopher?" I asked.
+
+"Oh, yes, sir, Mr. Canby."
+
+"So am I, Christopher. I think you know that, don't you?"
+
+"Why, yes, sir. You've been a father to 'im, sir. Nobody knows that
+better than me, sir."
+
+"We'd both go through fire and water for him, wouldn't we,
+Christopher?"
+
+"Oh, yes, sir; an' if you please, sir, what with these prize fighters
+at the Manor an' all, I rather think we 'ave, sir."
+
+I smiled.
+
+"A bad business, but over for good, I think, Christopher. But there
+are other things, worse in a way--"
+
+I paused, scrutinizing the man's homely, impassive face.
+
+"Did Master Jerry do much drinking before he went into training,
+Christopher?"
+
+"A little, what any gentleman would, out in the world, sir."
+
+"You've noticed it since the fight?"
+
+He hesitated. Loyalty was bred in his bone.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"You know, Christopher, that I've spent my life trying to make Jerry a
+fine man?"
+
+"You 'ave, sir. It's a pity--the--the drink. But it can't 'ave much
+of a 'old on 'im yet, sir."
+
+"Then you _have_ noticed?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"When did he begin?"
+
+He paused a moment.
+
+"I think it was the day after the fight, that very night, to be
+hexact, sir."
+
+"I see. The night after the fight. He spent the evening out and when
+he came home, was he intoxicated?"
+
+"Not then, no, sir. But 'e'd been drinkin', just mildly lit--in a
+manner o' speakin' sir, not drunk, but gay and kind o' sarcastic-like;
+not like Master Jerry 'imself, sir."
+
+"Had he been with some other gentlemen during the evening?"
+
+"No, sir. 'E 'ad been callin' on a lady, but stopped at 'is club on
+the way around--"
+
+"What lady?"
+
+"I--I--"
+
+"You may speak freely, Christopher. Miss Van Wyck?"
+
+"I--I think so, sir. They 'ad an appointment."
+
+"I see. And did he drink again that night?"
+
+"A few brandies--yes, sir. Ye see, sir, it got to him
+quick-like--breakin' training so suddent."
+
+"I understand. And you put him to bed."
+
+"Yes, sir, in a manner o' speakin' I did, sir."
+
+"When did you notice his drinking again?"
+
+"Not for some days, sir."
+
+"And what then?"
+
+"The same thing happened again, sir."
+
+"I see." I paced the floor silently, my inclination to question
+further struggling against my sense of the fitness of things. Was not
+Christopher, after all, a friend as well as a servant, a well-tried
+friend of Jerry's clan? "Did you connect the fact of Master Jerry's
+drinking with his visits to the lady I have mentioned, Christopher?" I
+asked in a moment.
+
+He paused a moment scratching his head in perplexity, and then blurted
+forth without reserve.
+
+"I'm glad you've spoken, Mr. Canby. I'm not given to talkin' over
+Master Jerry's private affairs, sir, but it's all in the family, like,
+though I wouldn't 'ave Master Jerry know--"
+
+"Master Jerry will not know."
+
+"Well, Mr. Canby, if you'd ask my hopinion, sir, I'd say that this
+young lady--sayin' no names, sir--is doin' no good to Master Jerry.
+She's always got 'im fussed, sir, an' irritable. 'E's not like
+'imself--not like 'imself at all, sir. Why, Mr. Canby, I'm not the
+kind as listens behind keyholes, sir, but one night last week when she
+comes to the 'ouse in New York to visit 'im--"
+
+"Ah, she came to the house?"
+
+"Yes, sir, alone, sir, at night; a most unproper thing for a nice girl
+to do, sir, if I must say it, Mr. Canby. I couldn't 'elp 'earin' in
+the next room, or seein' for the matter of that. Master Jerry is out
+of 'is 'ead about 'er, an' no mistake, sir. I could 'ear 'is voice
+soft-like an she indifferent, leadin' 'im on, a-playin' with 'im, sir.
+Seemed to me like she was sweet an' mad-like by turns. She's a strange
+one, Mr. Canby, an' if the matter goes no further I'd like to say,
+sir, that I've no fancy for such doin's in a lady."
+
+"Nor I, Christopher. You heard what she said?"
+
+"I couldn't 'elp, some of it. 'Twas about the fight, sir. 'But you
+lost,' says she again and again when 'e speaks to 'er soft-like. 'You
+lost. You let that ugly gorilla'--them's 'er words, sir, speakin' o'
+Clancy--'you let that gorilla beat you, you, my fightin' god.' I
+remember the words, sir, 'er hexact words, sir, she said them again
+and again. Queer talk for a drawin' room, Mr. Canby, in a lady's
+mouth, an' Master Jerry talkin' low all the time and tellin' her he
+loved 'er--not darin' even to touch 'er 'and, sir, an' lookin' at her
+pleadin' like; 'im with his soft eyes, 'im with 'is great strength an'
+manhood, like a child before 'er, not even touchin' 'er, sir, with 'er
+temptin' and tantalizing." He broke off with a shrug. "'Tis a queer
+world, sir, where them that calls themselves ladies comes a visitin'
+gentlemen alone at night, an' goes away clean with a laugh on their
+lips. A gentleman Master 'Jerry is, sir, too good for the likes o'
+her." The man paused and looked toward the door with a startled air.
+"I 'ave no business sayin' what's in my mind, even to you, Mr. Canby.
+You'll not tell 'im, sir?"
+
+"No. I'm glad you've spoken. You've said nothing of this--to anyone?"
+
+"I'd cut my tongue out first, sir," he muttered, wagging his head.
+
+I led the way to the door and opened it.
+
+"I like her no better than you, Christopher. Something must be
+done--something--It's too bad--"
+
+"Good night, sir," he said.
+
+"Good night, Christopher."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+TWO EMBASSIES
+
+
+There was something particularly brutal to me in hearing this estimate
+of Marcia Van Wyck's visit to Jerry through the lips of a servant. And
+yet I felt no remorse at encouraging the confession. Good Christopher
+was not brilliant, and only the most obvious of things impressed him,
+but he had seen, and like me, had judged. And his judgment was even
+more damning than mine, for Christopher was an amicable person, who
+doddered along, accepting life as it came, too weary for enmities, or
+too well trained to show them. It must have been at the cost of a
+severe wrench to his habits and traditions that he had dared to speak
+so freely. Good old Christopher! Ten years of the monastic life had
+narrowed your vision and mine, but they had made that vision
+singularly clear.
+
+During that night in my hours of wakefulness before sleep came, I
+studied Jerry's infatuation from every angle. I feared for him. The
+moment of awakening was approaching, and then? Whatever the hidden
+weaknesses in his moral fiber, thus suddenly subjected to strain, he
+was not one to be lightly dealt with by man or woman. He was gentle,
+soft, if you please, childlike with those he loved, but there was
+dangerous mettle in him not to be tampered with by trickery or guile.
+Christopher had shown me with his uncompromising bluntness what I had
+merely suspected; the girl loved danger and saw it in Jerry's eyes,
+fascinated by the imminence of peril that lurked in his innocence. A
+strange passion, calculating, cold, abnormal. And Jerry loved this
+girl--adored her, as though she were a sacred vessel, a fragile thing,
+that would break in his fingers! I began to hope that he would break
+her (and to fear it), crush her and discover her emptiness.
+
+The morrow brought a resolve to visit Briar Hills. Except for the
+afternoons when Jerry fished, he went there daily. He was delighted at
+my wish to accompany him. We drove over in the motor in the flush of
+the afternoon, Jerry blithe again, I silent, wondering at the
+inexhaustible springs of youth, forgetting that it was merely May and
+Jerry on his way to the woman he loved.
+
+The house was full of guests for the week-end, but Marcia Van Wyck,
+with an air of hospitality that quite took me aback, welcomed me
+warmly, confessed herself much honored by this mark of my attention
+and took me to see her garden. Oh, she was clever. Spring flowers,
+youth, grace, the sweetness of the warm, scented paths, her symbolic
+white frock to set the scene for innocence. But I understood her now.
+Two could play at her game.
+
+"It was wonderful of you to come, Mr. Canby," she purred. "So kind, so
+neighborly."
+
+"It's really a great pleasure, I'm sure," I said with a show of
+gallantry. "A lovely spot! Blossoms. I wondered where you got them for
+your cheeks."
+
+She flashed a quick glance at me, wholly humorous.
+
+"For that speech, you shall have a bud for your lapel." And she
+plucked and fastened it, her face very close to mine. She gave me a
+moment of intense discomfort which was only half embarrassment. She
+had planned well. She was a part of the purity and sweetness of this
+lovely summer garden. Guile and she were miles asunder.
+
+"Thanks," I muttered, smelling the blossom with some ostentation.
+
+"Then we're going to be friends?" she queried archly.
+
+"I'm not aware that we were ever anything else," I replied easily.
+
+"Come now, Mr. Canby. You know we haven't always understood each
+other. I'm sure each of us has been frightfully jealous of the other.
+Isn't it so?"
+
+"Jealous! I? Of you, Miss Van Wyck?"
+
+"Don't let's misunderstand again. I'm frightfully cheerful this
+afternoon. It mightn't happen again for weeks. I couldn't quarrel with
+fate itself. You did want Jerry to carry your doctrines out into the
+world with him, didn't you?"
+
+"I'm not aware--"
+
+"And I discovered him far too stodgy to endure. It wasn't so much that
+your philosophy and mine differed as the difference they made in
+Jerry. And so we clashed. I won."
+
+I was silent.
+
+"Didn't I, Mr. Canby?" she persisted, in her gentlest tone.
+
+"Jerry is out of my hands, Miss Van Wyck," I managed coolly.
+
+"And in mine?"
+
+"Yes, in yours," after a pause.
+
+She laughed softly.
+
+"What do you suppose I'm going to do with him?"
+
+The glamour of youth in a garden, her rare humor and the cloudless
+day--I had managed well so far, but she pressed me hard. Jerry was no
+chattel to be bandied carelessly. I felt my body stiffening.
+
+"Jerry is very sweet, Mr. Canby," she went on with that softness of
+voice that I had grown to understand. "He does anything, everything
+that I ask him to. It really is a great responsibility. Human judgment
+is so fallible, especially a woman's. Suppose I asked him to become a
+nihilist or President, or even both."
+
+D--- the vixen. She was making game of me. But I struggled to hold my
+temper, taking her literally.
+
+"Nihilism? Political or moral, Miss Van Wyck? To one of your means,
+the first would be inconvenient; to one of your affections, the other
+dangerous."
+
+She flashed a narrow glance at me. "_Touchée._ I like the thrust from
+cover, but I can parry. Suppose that I said that I would relinquish
+Jerry."
+
+"I'm not sure that you can," I replied coolly.
+
+Our glances met again. She knew that I read her.
+
+"Nothing is impossible to intelligence. I could send him away
+tomorrow, today--"
+
+"But he would come back."
+
+"You frighten me," she said, shuddering prettily.
+
+"That is precisely what I wish to do," I went on stolidly.
+
+"Threats!"
+
+I shrugged. "You underestimate him, that's all."
+
+"Perhaps. You know, Mr. Canby, that you improve vastly on
+acquaintance. If you were younger--" She paused and looked at me
+slantwise.
+
+"Ingenuous, handsome, a fighting god--!"
+
+I could have bitten out my tongue the moment I had spoken the words,
+and the dark look she shot at me as she flashed around gave a measure
+of her latent deviltry.
+
+"Jerry told you that!" she said in tones half-suppressed.
+
+"No."
+
+"He did."
+
+"No. But I know. I haven't watched for a month for nothing. I'm not a
+child, Miss Van Wyck."
+
+"What are you?" she taunted.
+
+"A prophet. Jerry is no woman's plaything. Let him be. You don't know
+him as I do. I warn you."
+
+She suddenly went into a fit of laughter, meant to ruffle my dignity.
+
+"Off with my head! If you knew how much you remind me of the _Queen_
+in 'Alice in Wonderland'!"
+
+"I'm sorry you won't take me seriously."
+
+"I can't," she laughed again. "You're too absurd to be tragic."
+
+"Perhaps we had better be going toward the house," I remarked.
+
+She moved slowly along, her back eloquent of disdain. But she paused
+for a moment to let me join her.
+
+"You see? I've tried. You won't be friendly."
+
+"My advice is friendly--"
+
+"I never follow advice. We're enemies. It is written."
+
+I shrugged. Impolite I may have been, but there was no use mincing
+matters. My preposterous embassy had failed. As we neared the house
+she left me on the lawn and turned to where Jerry and the others were
+moving toward the tennis courts.
+
+"You'll find Miss Gore upon the veranda," she smiled over her shoulder
+with careless gayety. She was extraordinary. But I'm sure that never
+before had I hated the girl as at that moment. Thoughtfully I made my
+way to the veranda and Miss Gore.
+
+"Well," she said cheerfully as I sank into a chair, "you are friends
+again?"
+
+"No."
+
+"It's really too bad. I think you take life too seriously, Mr. Canby."
+
+"Perhaps." I remained silent. She worked at her embroidery frame for a
+moment as though to attune herself to my mood and then:
+
+"Briar Hills can't hope for a visit which hasn't an ulterior purpose.
+What is it?"
+
+As usual she wasted no words and smiled benignly, a comfortable
+motherly smile at once quizzical and forgiving.
+
+"I _did_ want to see you," I put in awkwardly. "It has been a long
+time--"
+
+"I'll spare you the necessity for explanations. You're here to tell me
+that Jerry is drinking and to find out why. Isn't that so?"
+
+I could only stare at her in wonder at her intuitions, and made some
+remark which she chose to disregard.
+
+"As I predicted, the disease is passing," she said quietly, "but it's
+leaving Marcia first. Three weeks ago Jerry was a god to Marcia. Last
+week she showed signs of disenchantment. This week she is plainly
+bored."
+
+"I guessed as much. But why?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders expressively, but having gone so far I was
+not there to waste words.
+
+"I know. Her idol fell in Madison Square Garden, a bone-and-muscle
+idol, Miss Gore."
+
+She remained silent, examining her embroidery with a critical eye.
+
+"You know that that is true," I asserted.
+
+"Idols are as easily made as shattered for Marcia. She may adore him
+again next week."
+
+"I hope not. It would be a pity."
+
+"I agree with you," she said quietly. "It would be a pity."
+
+I said nothing for a moment, watching her slim fingers weaving to and
+fro.
+
+"I have just warned her," I said.
+
+The fingers moved slowly, then stopped and lowered the embroidery
+frame to her lap. Her wide gaze was full upon me.
+
+"You--what?"
+
+"I warned her."
+
+"Against what?"
+
+"Against Jerry."
+
+She straightened and a sound came from her throat.
+
+"You--"
+
+She gave a short laugh. "You'll pardon me, Mr. Canby, but I was on the
+point of calling you a fool."
+
+"I warned her," I muttered. "Jerry isn't like other men. She's playing
+with fire."
+
+"And don't you know that that is the very worst thing you could have
+done, for Jerry--for her?"
+
+"I hadn't meant to do exactly that. She angered me."
+
+"She would. Her idea of existence isn't yours. And if you don't mind
+my saying so, I think you're wasting your time on the possible chance
+of making Jerry appear ridiculous to her, to us all. Your guardianship
+is hardly flattering to his intelligence or his character. You can't
+help matters. Whatever the crisis, it is bound to come, the sooner the
+better for Jerry and for her. My good man, can't you _see_?"
+
+I had realized my futility already, and it was not pleasant to have it
+shown me through another's eyes. Nor did I relish her calling me her
+"good man," but curiously enough when she had finished I made no
+reply. And so I sat meekly, Miss Gore resuming her embroidery.
+
+"It is a pity that he cares for no other girls. There's Margaret
+Laidlaw, pretty, attractive, feminine, and Sarah Carew, handsome,
+sportive, masculine. One would think he'd find a choice between them
+and they both like him. But no, he has eyes in his head for Marcia
+only. A moment ago when he was talking to them, his gaze was on the
+flower-garden. Has he never cared for any other women? Who was the
+girl who got inside the wall last year, Mr. Canby?"
+
+Una! I had forgotten her. But I shook my head.
+
+"I meddle no more, Miss Gore. I've learned a lesson. Jerry must work
+out his own salvation."
+
+"It's merely a suggestion. Think it over."
+
+After awhile I rose, pleading the need of exercise and begging her to
+make my excuses to Marcia, I set out for the Manor. But instead of
+taking the longer road to the lodge gate, when I reached the wall I
+turned to the left into the footpath along which I had come that night
+with the girl Una, reaching the Sweetwater and crawling under the
+broken grille to the rocks where she and Jerry had met. I sat for
+awhile on the brink of the stream, watching the tangling reflections
+in the tiny current. Una! Somehow the place reminded me of Una
+Habberton, a sanctuary for quiet thoughts; the pools below me, her
+eyes reflecting the clear heavens; the intonation of the rill, her
+voice; the cheerful birdnotes, her joy of life; the dignity of the
+tall trees, her sanity. Less than a year ago I had turned her out of
+this garden, fearing for the boy the first woman he had seen, and to
+my ascetic mind because a woman, a minx. I eyed the broken grille
+regretfully and then suddenly rose and started hurriedly toward the
+Manor, the new thought drumming in my mind.
+
+A fool's mission? Perhaps, and yet I resolved to take it. I put some
+things into a bag and, telling Christopher that Jerry wasn't to expect
+me home that night, I caught an evening train to the city.
+
+It was not difficult to reach her by telephone, for I found her at the
+house in Washington Square. She did not recall my voice or my name,
+and only when I said that I had been Jerry Benham's tutor, did she
+remember. It was a personal matter, I explained, having to do with Mr.
+Benham, and at that she consented to see me. I left the telephone
+booth at the hotel perspiring freely, aware for the first time of the
+awkwardness and delicacy of my undertaking. But I dined and changed
+into my blue serge suit, one that I had bought upon the occasion of my
+last visit to town, and at half past eight presented myself in the
+Habberton drawing-room. In the moments before she appeared, I sat ill
+at ease, my eyes taking in every detail of the well-ordered room, the
+cool gray walls, the family portraits, the old-fashioned ornaments
+upon table and mantel, aware, in spite of myself, that I was warm at
+the collar, impatient for the interview to begin, yet fearful for it.
+
+I was watching the folding doors at the end of the room when she
+startled me by appearing silently almost at my elbow. The lights were
+dim, but I could see that her face wore no smile of greeting and as I
+rose she did not offer me her hand.
+
+"Mr. Canby," she said politely, indicating a chair, "won't you sit
+down?"
+
+"Er--thanks," I said. My throat was dry. I hoped she would not make it
+too difficult for me. Meanwhile I saw her eyeing me narrowly as though
+the possibility had just occurred to her that I might have come to ask
+for money. She waited a moment for me to speak, but I found it
+difficult to begin.
+
+"Mr. Benham sent you to me?" she asked at last very coolly.
+
+"Er--not exactly," I stammered. "Mr. Benham did not send me, but
+I--I'm here in his interest."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+The rising inflection on the monosyllable could hardly have been
+called encouraging.
+
+"The circumstance of our first meeting," I ventured again with an
+assumption of ease that I was far from feeling--"its duration was so
+brief that I feared you wouldn't remember me."
+
+Her neck stiffened ever so slightly.
+
+"You surely did not come here," she said icily, "merely to discuss the
+circumstances of our first meeting."
+
+"N--no, not at all, at least, not altogether, Miss Habberton. But I--I
+couldn't help hoping--" here I tried to smile--a ghastly one at
+best--"I couldn't help hoping that you had managed to forgive me for
+performing a very unpleasant duty."
+
+"If you will please come as quickly as possible to the object of your
+visit--"
+
+"I--I will. If you'll be a little patient with me."
+
+She averted her head, but said nothing.
+
+"I think you know, Miss Habberton, that I've given the last eleven
+years of my life to Jerry. He has been like a younger brother to me
+and I have done what I could to develop him physically, mentally,
+morally, to successful manhood. I had hoped under ideal conditions to
+produce--"
+
+"I fail to see, Mr. Canby--"
+
+"Please bear with me a moment longer. I think you may have realized
+last year what Jerry was. You saw him then, a creature with the body
+and intelligence of a man and the heart of a child. He was what I had
+made him. From my point of view he was flawless, as nearly perfect as
+you will find a man in this--"
+
+"Without temptations," she put in quickly, the first encouraging sign
+of her interest.
+
+"I had built my hopes as I had built his body and mind and character,
+sure that contact with the world would only refine and strengthen
+him."
+
+She shook her head. "You do not know the world as I do. It was a
+dream. I could have told you so then, last summer."
+
+"You--you have seen the papers--the accounts of--?"
+
+"I don't see how I could very well help seeing them," she said
+smiling. "He began his battle with the world bravely at least."
+
+"My only hope is that you haven't misjudged him in that affair. All
+his life he has cared for boxing--"
+
+"I can't see what difference my judgment of him can make one way or
+the other. He has done much, is doing much for the people I'm
+interested in. Of course, you know of that. But as to his private
+life--that is something with which, of course, I can have no concern."
+
+"I am sorry to hear you say that. I thought perhaps that as a
+friend--"
+
+"Mr. Benham understands my interest in him, I think," she paused and
+averted her head, one small foot tapping the floor impatiently. "I
+cannot see where this conversation is leading us. I beg that you will
+be explicit."
+
+"I was counting on your interest, for he values your good opinion more
+I think than that of anyone in the world."
+
+Her foot ceased tapping and she bent forward, one elbow on her knee,
+her head lowered thoughtfully.
+
+"What do you want, Mr. Canby?" she asked abruptly.
+
+"Your help."
+
+"Mine!"
+
+"Yes, your help. Jerry needs it--"
+
+"He did not ask--?"
+
+"No. I haven't consulted Jerry--"
+
+"Then I--"
+
+"Please listen. If Jerry's future means anything to you, you will do
+what you can. Jerry has--has gotten into bad company--he is slipping,
+Miss Habberton--slipping down. I don't know whose the fault is, his
+father's for his idealism, or mine for my selfish delight in the
+experiment of his education, but Jerry is failing us. You see, I'm
+telling you all. I have given up. A dream, you have called it. It was
+a dream; but I can't see him fail without an effort to help him. When
+a man centers all his hopes in life on one ambition, its failure is
+tragic. You see I'm humble. It has cost me something to come to you. I
+hope you understand what it means."
+
+My appeal had reached her, for I think she realized how seldom such a
+person as I could be moved to emotion.
+
+"But I--how can I help?" she asked.
+
+"Will you listen and not think me visionary? Jerry cares for you. To
+him you have made a different appeal from that of any other woman in
+the world. You were the first. You stirred him. You may not be aware.
+In his mind you stand for everything that is clean and noble. In his
+heart, I know--I have not studied Jerry all these years for
+nothing--he has a shrine there--for you, Miss Habberton. You will
+always be Una, the first. I hope you will forgive me and believe me.
+It is necessary that you should."
+
+She smiled at me gently.
+
+"You are very much in earnest, Mr. Canby. I can forgive much to one
+of your sincerity. But doesn't it seem to you a curious conversation?"
+
+"I had hoped you cared enough--"
+
+"And if I did, do you think anything would give you the right to come
+to me without Mr. Benham's permission and speak of--"
+
+"You must let me finish," I demanded. "You are kind, charitable.
+Trying to save people from themselves is your life work. I merely
+bring you a soul to save, a friend in danger. Can you refuse, refuse
+him? Jerry is drinking. It has not been for long, but he is in
+trouble. He has gotten beyond his depth--a woman--Oh, don't
+misunderstand me! It is mental, a strange attraction, weird, Jerry
+doesn't understand at all. He's bewitched, but she is slowly
+brutalizing him, his mind I mean. Don't you understand?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," she muttered. "It is not a new situation. But I--no
+friend, man or girl, could avail in a case like that." She paused a
+moment clasping and unclasping her hands. I waited.
+
+"Who is this--this woman?" she blurted out at last.
+
+I hesitated.
+
+"A lady. You--you put me at a disadvantage."
+
+"What is her name?" she insisted.
+
+"Marcia Van Wyck," I muttered.
+
+"Marcia! Surely--" She stopped. A look of bewilderment came over her
+face, ending with a frown of perplexity.
+
+"No," she murmured. "He wouldn't understand Marcia. I--" And then with
+a gasp, "And you want _me_ to interfere? Mr. Canby, I--"
+
+"Just a moment, please. I ask nothing that you cannot do. I have
+thought of a plan. We are alone at the Manor. I ask you to meet Jerry
+as you met him there last summer along by the Sweetwater. I am going
+to arrange to have him fish up the stream on Saturday afternoon. Will
+you come, Miss Habberton, come to the wall and meet him there inside
+the broken grille? I know his mind. It is curiously affected by facts
+of association. It is the only thing. I have--"
+
+The words died on my lips as she rose, her slim figure straight in its
+sudden dignity, and I knew that I had failed.
+
+"Your proposal is preposterous, Mr. Canby," she said coolly, moving
+toward the door.
+
+"You refuse?"
+
+"Of course. I am sorry if Mr. Benham has failed, is failing his
+friends, but the thing that you suggest is impossible." She put out
+her hand in token of dismissal.
+
+"And you won't reconsider? Let me come to see you tomorrow, the next
+day. Is it so much that I ask?"
+
+"Good night, Mr. Canby."
+
+"You do not care enough?"
+
+"Good night."
+
+I bowed over her fingers silently.
+
+Then I took up my hat. There was nothing left to do.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE PATH IN THE WOOD
+
+
+Had I not been obsessed with the desire at all costs to divert the
+unhappy tide of Jerry's infatuation, I must have known that no girl
+such as Una Habberton could lend herself as accessory to a plan like
+mine. I had had evidence enough that she cared for Jerry in a tender,
+almost a motherly way, and while I had been unsuccessful in my
+mission, I now saw no reason to change my opinion. Indeed, in my hotel
+room that night, the more I thought of the interview the more
+convinced I was that whatever modesty deterred her, it was the very
+fact of her caring so much that made the thing impossible to her. Her
+air of indifference, carefully assumed, had not hidden the rapid rise
+and fall of her breast at the confession of my fears. The inquietude
+of her manner, the curiosity which had permitted me to finish my
+story, were proof convincing that her interests in Jerry were more
+than ordinarily involved, and the more I thought of her attitude the
+more I wondered at my own temerity.
+
+A brazen minx I had once thought her, but tonight in her plain white
+frock and sober conventional surroundings she seemed to show something
+of the quiet poise of a nurse or a nun. She seemed to exemplify the
+thought that the ideal woman is both wood-nymph and madonna. By
+contrast to the Nietzschian intriguer I had left that morning at
+Briar Hills, she was a paragon of all virtues. Nietzsche! The
+philosopher of the sty! Freud, his runt!
+
+When, the following morning, I found Jack Ballard in his apartment at
+eleven (as usual fastening his cravat) I told him of the unfortunate
+end to my ventures, but he only laughed at me.
+
+"My dear Pope," he said, "you are suffering from a severe attack of
+paternomania. If you don't mind my saying so, you're making a
+prodigious ass of yourself and of Jerry. If I were the boy, I'd pack
+you out bag and baggage. Imagine it! Put yourself in his place. Would
+_you_ like any meddling in your little affairs of gallantry?" And he
+laughed aloud at his joke. I scowled at him, but passed the absurd
+remark in dignified silence.
+
+"If it _were_ an affair of gallantry!" I said at last, "I could
+forgive him that, and her. But this--it's mere milk and water and he
+thinks it's the nectar of the gods. The pity of it!"
+
+"A pity, yes. But who is responsible? Not Jerry, surely. He's what
+you've made him," Jack paused expressively. "Does he--?" he began and
+paused. I read his meaning.
+
+"No," I said.
+
+"Um! Knowledge will come like a thunderclap to Jerry. Then--look out!"
+
+I agreed with him.
+
+"But Jerry's amatory ventures are none of your business, Pope," he
+went on. "Let the boy go the limit. He has got to do it. It won't hurt
+him. I told you that Marcia would help him cut his eye-teeth. She's
+doing it in approved modern fashion, without instruments or gas.
+He'll recover. Let 'em alone. I'll tell you what to do. Just put your
+precious dialectics in cold storage awhile--they'll keep; nobody'll
+thaw 'em out unless you do--and take a trip to 'Frisco."
+
+"Frisco or not, I meddle no more."
+
+"Frankenstein!" he laughed again. "The monster is getting away from
+you."
+
+"If you're going to be facetious--"
+
+"There are times when nothing else is possible. This is one of 'em.
+Brace up, old boy. All's lost but hope and that's going soon. You go
+home and take a pill. You're yellow. Perhaps I'll come up for the
+week-end for Marcia's party, you know,--if you'll promise to have the
+beds well-aired. I'm sure they're reminiscent of Jerry's pugs. Going?
+Oh, very well. Love to Jerry. And remember, old top, that a man is as
+heaven made him and sometimes a great deal worse."
+
+This was the comforting reflection I took with me to the train that
+afternoon. But I was now resigned. I had done what I could and failed.
+The only thing left, it seemed, was to reconcile myself to the
+situation, seek a friendship with Marcia and await the _débâcle_.
+
+I made, of course, no mention of the object of my visit to New York
+and Jerry gave me no confidences. He went to town Tuesday and
+Wednesday, returned tired and sullen. And the next night after a long
+period alone in the study in which I had managed at last to get my
+mind on my work, I found Jerry in the dining-room quite drunk with the
+brandy bottle beside him. He was ugly and disposed to be quarrelsome,
+but I got him to bed at last, suffering myself no graver damage than a
+bruised biceps where his great fingers had grasped me. Jack Ballard's
+remark about Frankenstein was no joke. That night a monster Jerry was;
+from the bottom of my heart I pitied him.
+
+I argued with Jerry in the morning, pleaded with him and threatened to
+leave the Manor, but he was so contrite, so earnest in his promises of
+reformation that I couldn't find it in my heart to go. I proposed a
+trip to Europe, but he refused.
+
+"Not now, Roger," he demurred. "I've got to stay here now. Just stick
+around with me for awhile, won't you, old chap?"
+
+"Will you stop drinking?" I asked.
+
+"Brandy?"
+
+"Everything."
+
+"H--m. You're the devil of a martinet."
+
+"Will you?"
+
+It was the supreme test of what remained of my influence over him. His
+head ached, I'm sure, for he looked a wreck. I watched his face
+anxiously. He went to the table, took a cigarette from the box and
+lighted it deliberately. Then turning, faced me with a smile, and
+offered his hand.
+
+"Yes," he said. "Old Dry-as-dust, I will."
+
+"A promise? You've never broken one, Jerry."
+
+"A promise, Roger. I--I think I'm getting a little glimmering of
+sense. A promise. I'll keep it."
+
+"Thank God, for that," I said, in so fervent a tone that the boy
+smiled at me.
+
+"Good old Roger! You're a brick," he said. "Friendship, after all, is
+the greatest thing in the world." He turned his head and walked to
+the window and looked out, assuming an air of unconcern which I knew
+hid some deep-seated emotion. I, too, was silent. It was a fine moment
+for us both.
+
+He turned into the room after awhile with an air of gayety.
+
+"We're going to have a party, Roger."
+
+"Ah, when?"
+
+"Marcia's giving a dance tomorrow night, people from all over, and
+I'll have a few of 'em here in the afternoon--for tea out at the
+cabin. Sort of a picnic. Some of 'em are bringing rods to try the
+early fishing. Rather jolly, eh? I'll tell Poole and Christopher--"
+
+I confessed myself much pleased with this arrangement and thanked my
+stars that Una had refused me. It was the day I had wanted her.
+Indeed, since Jerry's promise, life at the Manor had suddenly taken a
+different complexion. A new hope was born in me. Jerry would keep that
+promise. I was sure of it.
+
+I will come as rapidly as possible to the extraordinary happenings of
+that Saturday afternoon, which as much as any other event in this
+entire history, portrays the mutability of the feminine mind. I had
+gone out to the cabin to see that everything was in order, and Jerry
+was to follow later, while a few of the men fished up stream, Marcia
+and some of her guests driving in motors to the upper gate, cutting
+across to the cabin through the woods. Christopher had cleared the
+cabin and he and Poole had brought the eatables and set a table. The
+two days that had passed since Jerry had given me his promise had been
+cheerful ones for the boy. I had not seen Miss Gore, but for aught I
+knew Marcia Van Wyck might have been adoring Jerry again. I did not
+care what her mood was. All would come right, for Jerry had given me a
+promise and he would not break it. The arrangements within the cabin
+having been completed, I went outside and wandered a short way down
+the path toward the stream, sat on a rock and became at once engaged
+in my favorite woodland game of counting birdcalls. Thrushes and
+robins, warblers, sparrows, finches, all engaged in the employment
+that Jerry had described as "hopping around a bit," or chirping,
+calling, singing until the air was melodious with sound. The birdman's
+surprise, a new note differing from the others, a loud clear gurgling
+song, brought me to my feet and I went on down the path listening. It
+was different from the note of a wren which it resembled, that of a
+Lincoln sparrow, I was sure, a rarity at the Manor, only one specimen
+of which Jerry possessed. But midway in my pursuit of the elusive bird
+I saw movement in the path in front of me and I caught a glimpse of
+leather leggins and a skirt. In a moment all thought of my Lincoln
+sparrow was gone from my head. At first I thought the visitor one of
+Jerry's guests, but as she approached, butterfly net in hand, I saw
+that it was Una Habberton. So great was my surprise at seeing her that
+I stood, mouth open, stupidly staring. But she was laughing at me.
+
+"You're a nice one," she was saying. "Here I am a trespasser through
+the grille and not a soul to greet me."
+
+"You came," I muttered inanely.
+
+"Obviously; since here I am. It's Saturday, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes. But--" I paused.
+
+"But what?"
+
+"You said you wouldn't come."
+
+"Oh," she laughed. "I merely changed my mind--my privilege, you know.
+I was a trifle stale. I thought it would do me good. But you don't
+seem in the least glad to see me."
+
+I was--delighted. Joy was one of the things that made me dumb.
+
+"I was just trying to realize--er--Won't you sit down? On a rock, I
+mean. Jerry's somewhere about. He'll be along in a minute."
+
+The possible effect on Una of Jerry's guests, who also might be along
+in a minute, was just beginning to bewilder me.
+
+"He's fishing?"
+
+"He was to meet me at the cabin. He'll be along presently. It will be
+a wonderful surprise. Suppose we hadn't been out here at all?"
+
+"I was prepared to go all the way to the house. Nice of me, wasn't it?
+You know I promised Jerry some day I'd come to see his collection."
+
+"He'll be delighted--Ho! There's his whistle now." I sounded the
+familiar call on my fingers and moved toward the cabin, but she
+stopped me.
+
+"You're not to leave me, Mr. Canby, or I'll go."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"A chance meeting would have been different. This is premeditation.
+Don't leave me. Do you hear!"
+
+I nodded and when Jerry came in sight I called him. He appeared in the
+path, a basket of wine in one hand, a fishing rod in the other.
+
+"Hello, Roger," he shouted and then paused, setting the basket down.
+
+"I didn't know--"
+
+"A surprise, Jerry!"
+
+"Why, it's Una!" he cried. "Una! What on earth--?"
+
+"I was butterflying, and wandered through." She laughed. "I told you
+to have that railing mended."
+
+"The necessity for that is past," he laughed gayly. "Oh, it's jolly
+good to see you."
+
+He took her by both hands and held her off from him examining her
+delightedly.
+
+"It seems like yesterday. I'm not sure it isn't yesterday that you
+broke in and I was going to throw you over the wall. Imagine it! You!
+You're just the same--so different from the sober little mouse of
+Blank Street. I believe you have on the very same clothes, the same
+gaiters--"
+
+"Naturally. Do you think I'm a millionaire?"
+
+Three was a crowd. I would have given my right hand to have
+transported the cabin and all the gay people expected there to the
+ends of the earth. In a moment the woods would be full of them. I was
+at a loss what to do, for when they came the bird would take flight,
+but Jerry seemed to have forgotten everything but the girl before him.
+It was a real enthusiasm and happiness that he showed, the first in
+weeks.
+
+"So you expected to slip in and out without being caught, did you?"
+Jerry was saying. "Pretty sort of a friend, you are! You might at
+least have let a fellow know you were going to be in this part of the
+world; where are you staying?"
+
+"I don't see how that's the slightest concern of yours," she said
+demurely.
+
+"The same old Una!" cried Jerry delightedly. "Always making game of a
+fellow. Do sit down again and let's have a chat. It seems ages since
+I've seen you. How's the day nursery coming on? Did you get the last
+check? I meant to stop in and see the plans. I couldn't, though," he
+frowned a little. "Something turned up. Business, you know."
+
+"Jerry _is_ busy," I put in mischievously, as I sat down beside them.
+"He worked Tuesday and Wednesday this week."
+
+"Aren't you afraid of injuring your health, Jerry?" she asked sweetly.
+"I hope you're not working _too_ hard."
+
+He frowned and then burst into laughter.
+
+"Roger's a chump. He sits staring at a sheet of foolscap all day and
+thinks he's working. I do work, though. I'm reorganizing a railroad,"
+he finished proudly.
+
+"How splendid! I'm sure it needs it. Railroads are the most
+disorganized and disorganizing--"
+
+"And I'm engaged in a freight war with a rival steamship company. It's
+perfectly bully. I've got 'em backed off the map. We're carrying stuff
+for almost nothing and they're howling for help." He had taken out his
+pipe and was lighting it. "I'm going to buy 'em out," he finished.
+"But you don't want to hear about _me_. What are--"
+
+"I do. Of course"--and she exchanged a quick glance with me. "Of
+course, I see a little about you in the papers--your interest in
+athletics--"
+
+"Oh, I say, Una," he cried, flushing a dark red. "It's not fair to--"
+
+"I'm fearfully interested," she persisted calmly. "You know it's
+actually gotten me into the habit of the sporting page. 'Walloping'
+Houligan and 'Scotty' Smith, the Harlem knock-out artist, are no
+longer empty names for me. They're real people with jabs and things."
+
+"It's not kind of you--"
+
+"I've been waiting breathlessly for your next encounter. I hope it's
+with 'Scotty.' It would be so much more of an achievement to win from
+a real knock-out artist--"
+
+"Stop it, Una," he cried painfully. "I forbid you--"
+
+"Do you mean," she asked innocently, "that you don't like to
+discuss--"
+
+"I--I'd rather talk of something else," he stammered. "I've stopped
+boxing."
+
+"Why?" wide-eyed. "The newspapers were wild about you. It _was_ a
+fluke, wasn't it--Clancy 'getting' you in the ninth?"
+
+"No," he muttered sullenly, "he whipped me fairly."
+
+"Really. I'm awfully sorry. When one sets one's heart upon a thing--"
+
+"Will you be quiet, Una?" he cried impetuously. "I won't have you
+talking this way, of these things. I--I was jollied into the thing. I
+mean," with a glance at me, "I never thought of the consequences.
+It--it was only a lark. I'm out of it, for good."
+
+"Oh!" she said in a subdued tone, her gaze upon a distant tree-trunk.
+"It's too bad."
+
+Whatever she meant by that cryptic remark, Jerry looked most
+uncomfortable. Her irony had cut him to the quick, and her humor had
+flayed his quivering sensibilities. That he took it without anger
+argued much for the quality of the esteem in which he held her.
+Another person, even I, in similar circumstances, would have courted
+demolition. Secretly, I was delighted. She had struck just the right
+note. He still writhed inwardly, but he made no effort at unconcern. I
+think he was perfectly willing that she should be a witness of his
+self-abasement.
+
+"I was an idiot, Una, a conceited, silly fool. I deserve everything
+you say. I think it makes me a little happier to hear you say it,
+because if you weren't my friend you'd have kept quiet."
+
+"I haven't said anything," she remarked urbanely. "And of course it's
+none of my affair."
+
+"But it _is_," he was insisting.
+
+I had risen, for along the path some people were coming. Jerry and
+Una, their backs being turned, were so absorbed in their conversation
+that they did not hear the rustle of footsteps, but when I rose they
+glanced at me and saw my face. I would have liked to have spirited
+them away, but it was too late. I made out the visitors now, Marcia,
+Phil Laidlaw, Sarah Carew and Channing Lloyd. I saw a change come in
+Jerry's face, as though a gray cloud had passed over it. Una started
+up, butterfly-net in hand, and glanced from one to the other of us, a
+question in her eyes, her face a trifle set.
+
+"Oh, here you are," Marcia's soft voice was saying. "It seemed ages
+getting here."
+
+Jerry took charge of the situation with a discretion that did the
+situation credit.
+
+"Marcia, you know Miss Habberton--Miss Van Wyck."
+
+"Of course," they both echoed coolly. Marcia examining Una
+impertinently, Una cheerfully indifferent.
+
+"Miss Habberton and I were after butterflies," said Jerry, "but she
+has promised to stop for tea."
+
+"I really ought to be going, Jerry," said Una.
+
+"But you can't, you know, after promising," said Jerry with a smile.
+
+The introductions made, the party moved on toward the cabin, Miss
+Habberton and I bringing up the rear.
+
+"I could kill you for this," she whispered to me and the glance she
+gave me half-accomplished her wish.
+
+"It isn't my fault," I protested. "I didn't know they were coming
+until yesterday--and you know you said--"
+
+"Well, you ought to have warned me. I've no patience with you--none."
+
+"But, my dear child--"
+
+"I feel like a fool--and it's your fault."
+
+"But how could I--?"
+
+"You _ought_ to have known."
+
+Women I knew were not reasonable beings, but I expected better things
+than this of Una. I followed meekly, aware of my insufficiency. I felt
+sorry if Una was uncomfortable, but I had seen enough of her to know
+that she was quite able to cope with any situation in which she might
+be placed. Marcia with Jerry had gone on ahead and I saw that, while
+the girl was talking up at him, Jerry walked with his head very erect.
+The situation was not clear to Marcia. I will give her the credit of
+saying that she had a sense of divination which was little short of
+the miraculous. It must have puzzled her to find Una here if, as I
+suspected. Jerry made her the confidante of all his plans, present and
+future--Una Habberton, the girl who had ventured alone within the
+wall, the account of whose visit had once caused a misunderstanding
+between them. The thought of Una's visit I think must have always been
+a thorn in Marcia's side, for Jerry's strongest hold on Marcia's
+imagination was nurtured by the thought that she, Marcia, was the
+first, the only woman that Jerry had ever really known. And here was
+her forgotten and lightly esteemed predecessor sporting with Jerry in
+the shade!
+
+In the cabin we made a gay party. Una, I am sure, in spite of her
+cheerful pretense with Phil Laidlaw, had a woman's intuition of
+Marcia's antagonism. Jerry joined and chatted in Una's group for a
+moment, but I could see that he had lost something of his buoyancy. I
+watched Marcia keenly. Though absorbed apparently in the pouring of
+the tea, a self-appointed prerogative which she had assumed with
+something of an air--(meant, I am sure, for Una)--her narrowly veiled
+eyes lost no detail of any happening in Una's group, and her ears, I
+am sure, no detail of its conversation. Subtle glances, stolen or
+portentous, shot between them, and Jerry, poor lad, wandered from one
+to the other like some great ship becalmed in a tropic sea aware of an
+impending tempest, yet powerless to prevent its approach.
+
+Una Habberton, I would like to say, had recovered her composure
+amazingly. Phil Laidlaw was an old acquaintance whom she very much
+liked and in a while they were chatting gayly, exchanging
+reminiscences with such a rare degree of concord and amusement that it
+seemed to matter little to either of them who else was in the room.
+But Una, I think, in spite of this abstraction, missed nothing of
+Marcia's slightest glances. She said nothing more of going. It seemed
+almost as though, war having tacitly been declared, she was on her
+mettle for the test whatever it was to be. I had not misjudged her.
+She knew Marcia Van Wyck, and what she did not know she suspected, and
+by the light of that knowledge (and that suspicion) had a little of
+contempt for her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+REVOLT
+
+
+I sat in my corner sipping tea. Being merely a man, middle-aged and
+something of a misogynist into the bargain, I was aware that as an
+active, useful force in this situation, I was a negligible quality.
+But it is interesting to record my impressions of the engagement. It
+began actively, I believe, when Marcia called Jerry from Una's group
+and appeared to appropriate him. Jerry looked ill at ease and from the
+glances he cast in the direction of Channing Lloyd, and the sullen way
+in which he spoke to Marcia, I think that all was not well with this
+ill-sorted pair.
+
+I think that Channing Lloyd had for some time been a bone of
+contention between them and it required little imagination on my part
+to decide that his presence here today at Marcia's request had broken
+some agreement between them. Mere surmise, of course, but interesting.
+Marcia was stubborn and showed her defiance of Jerry's wishes by
+retaliation at Una's expense. But by this time other people who had
+come in from the fishing had joined Una's group by the window where
+the intruder seemed to be oblivious of Marcia and quite in her
+element. Indeed for the moment Marcia was out of it and her
+conversation with Jerry having apparently reached an _impasse_, she
+rose, leaving the tea-table to Christopher's ministrations and
+advanced valiantly to the attack.
+
+Una promptly made room for her on the window sill, a wise bit of
+generalship which forced the enemy at once into polite subterfuge.
+
+"It's _so_ nice to see you, Una dear. How did you manage to escape
+from all your tiresome work at the Mission?"
+
+"I could do it very nicely this week-end," said Una cheerfully. "Why
+haven't you been to any of the committee meetings?"
+
+"It has been _so_ warm. And of course while _you_ are in charge we all
+know that everything _must_ be going right."
+
+"It's kind of you to say so. You know, wonderful things have been
+happening at the Mission. We're building a day nursery on the next
+block to help the working women. Jerry has been awfully kind. Of
+course you knew about it."
+
+"Yes, of course," said Marcia, not turning a hair.
+
+She lied. I knew that Jerry had kept the matter secret even from
+Marcia. I figured that the revelation must have been something of a
+shock to one of her intriguing nature, but she covered her grievance
+skillfully.
+
+"Jerry is very generous," she said sweetly. "Do tell me about it."
+
+Here Jerry blundered in rather sheepishly. "Oh, I say, Una, that's a
+secret, you know."
+
+"Oh, is it?" said Una innocently. "I can't see why. Marcia knows.
+Everybody ought to. It was such a splendid thing to do."
+
+"Jerry is so modest," said Marcia.
+
+"The plans are simply adorable," Una went on quickly. "You know,
+Jerry, we simply had to have that open-air school on the roof. You
+know, you didn't object--"
+
+"N--no--of course," said Jerry, shifting his feet.
+
+"And the ward for nursing babies--we _did_ put those windows in the
+west wall. You know we were a little uncertain about that."
+
+"So we were," echoed Jerry dismally.
+
+This was merely the preliminary skirmish with Una's outposts holding
+their positions close to the enemy's lines. But Marcia was not to be
+daunted. She opened fire immediately.
+
+"It's simply _dear_ of you, Una, to take so much interest in the work.
+I'm sure Jerry must have frightful difficulties in managing to spend
+his income. But to have his _oldest friend_ to help him must relieve
+him of a tremendous burden of responsibility."
+
+The outposts withdrew to the main line of skirmirshers and there
+opened fire again, from cover.
+
+"It isn't so much a matter of friendship as of real interest in the
+needs of the community, you know. Anyone else would do quite as well
+as I; for instance, you, Marcia."
+
+"But you see," Marcia countered coolly, "I haven't known Jerry
+_nearly_ so long as you have."
+
+"Haven't you?"
+
+"I don't think so. Have I, Jerry?"
+
+Jerry evaded the issue with some skill.
+
+"Friendships aren't reckoned in terms of time," he put in with a short
+laugh. "If they were I'd be the most solitary person under the sun."
+
+Marcia merely smiled, saying nothing, and when she joined the talk of
+another group I saw Una's gaze following her curiously.
+
+She seemed to be able to understand Marcia little better than I did.
+But in a moment from my seat in the corner just beside them I saw Una
+look about the room and give a little gasp of pleasure.
+
+"This cabin! Do you remember, Jerry?" she said quietly. "You gave me a
+cup of tea here and we decided just what you and I were going to do
+with the wicked world?"
+
+"Oh, don't I? And you told me all about the plague spots?"
+
+"Yes." She gazed out of the window. "You were interesting that day,
+Jerry."
+
+"Was! I like that."
+
+"So elephantine in your seriousness--"
+
+"Elephantine! Oh, I say--"
+
+"But you _were_ nice. I don't think I've ever liked you so much as
+then. I think you're really much more interesting when you're
+elephantine. It was quite glorious the way you were planning to go
+galumphing over all vice and wickedness."
+
+He shook his head soberly.
+
+"I haven't made good, Una."
+
+"Oh, there's still time. The jungle is still there, but it's an
+awfully big jungle, Jerry, bigger than you thought."
+
+"Yes--bigger and swampier," he said slowly.
+
+"I think if I could see more of you, Una, I might be better."
+
+"I don't know that I've ever denied you the house," she laughed.
+
+"I--I'm coming soon. But I want you to see my place here--the house,
+I mean. Couldn't you come with your mother and--and sisters and spend
+a few days up here?"
+
+"Perhaps it would be time enough for me to answer that question when
+mother does. I--I _am_ busy, you know."
+
+"Please! And we can have one of our good old chats."
+
+"Yes," and then mischievously, "but you'd better ask Marcia first,
+don't you think?"
+
+His gaze fell and he reddened.
+
+"I--I don't quite see what Marcia's got to do with it," he muttered.
+
+"Oh, _don't_ you?"
+
+"No."
+
+She smiled and then with a really serious air:
+
+"Well, I do. I'm sorry I intruded, Jerry. I wouldn't have come for the
+world if I had known--"
+
+"What nonsense you do talk. Promise me you'll come, Una."
+
+"Ask Marcia first."
+
+He laughed uneasily. "What a tease you are!"
+
+"You ought to be very much flattered."
+
+"How?"
+
+"To be worth teasing."
+
+Here they moved slightly away, turning their backs toward me and
+unfortunately I could hear no more. And so I sat listening to the
+group around Marcia, who was again enthroned at the tea-table.
+
+I had not met the men, but they were of the usual man-about-town type,
+"Marcia's ex-es" somebody, I think the mannish Carew girl, amusingly
+called them. Among them Arthur Colton, married only a year, who
+already boasted that he was living "the simple double life." Besides
+the Laidlaws there were the Walsenberg woman, twice a grass widow and
+still hopeful, and the Da Costa debutante who looked as though butter
+wouldn't melt in her mouth, giggled constantly and said things which
+she fondly hoped to be devilish, but which were only absurd. This was
+the girl, I think, whom Jerry had described as having only five
+adjectives, all of which she used every minute. Channing Lloyd, a
+glass of champagne at his elbow, laughed gruffly and filled the room
+with tobacco smoke. I listened. Small talk, banalities, bits of narrow
+glimpses of narrow pursuits. I had to admit that Marcia quite
+dominated this circle, and I understood why. Shallow as she was, she
+was the only one with the possible exception of Phil Laidlaw who gave
+any evidence of having done any thinking at all. I might have known as
+I listened that her conversation had a purpose.
+
+"I claim that obedience to the will of man," Marcia was saying, "has
+robbed woman of all initiative, all incentive to achievement, all
+creative faculty, and that only by renouncing man and all his works
+will she ever be his equal."
+
+"Why don't you renounce 'em then, Marcia?" roared Lloyd, amid
+laughter.
+
+"I know at least one that I could renounce,' said Marcia, smiling as
+she lighted a cigarette.
+
+"Me? You couldn't," he returned. "You've tried, you know, but you've
+got to admit that I'm positively in'spensible to you."
+
+"Do be quiet, Chan. You're idiotic. I'm quite serious."
+
+"You're always serious, but you never mean what you say."
+
+"Oh, don't I?"
+
+"No," he grunted over his glass.
+
+She glanced at him for a moment and their eyes met, hers falling
+first. Then she turned away. I think that the man's attraction for her
+was nothing less than his sheer bestiality.
+
+"I believe in a splendid unconventional morality," she went on, musing
+with half-closed eyes over the ash of her cigarette. "After awhile you
+men will understand what it means."
+
+"Not I," said Lloyd, who was drinking more than he needed. "If you say
+that immorality is conventional I'll agree with you, my dear, but
+morality--" and he drank some champagne, "morality! what rot!"
+
+The others laughed, I'll admit, more at, than with him. But the
+conversation was sickening enough. I saw Jerry and Una shake hands and
+come forward and Marcia immediately turned toward them. The end of the
+battle was not yet, for as Una nodded in the general direction of the
+group in passing, Marcia spoke her name.
+
+"Ah, Una dear. You're going?"
+
+"I must," with a glance at her wrist watch. "It's getting late."
+
+"What a pity. I wanted to talk to you--about the Mission."
+
+"I'd like to, but--"
+
+"We've just been discussing a theme that I know you're really vitally
+interested in."
+
+"I?" I could see by the sudden lift of her brows that Una was now on
+her guard.
+
+"Yes. You believe in women working, in woman's independence, in the
+New-Thought idea of unconventional morality, don't you?"
+
+"I'm not sure what you mean."
+
+"Simply that women are or should be perfectly capable of looking out
+for themselves, as much so as men?"
+
+"That depends a great deal upon the woman, I should say," replied Una,
+smiling tolerantly.
+
+"I was just about to put a hypothetical question. Do you mind
+listening? A young girl, for instance, pretty, romantic, a trifle
+venturesome, weary of the banalities of existence, leaves all the
+tiresome cares of the city and with the wanderlust upon her goes
+faring forth in search of adventure. A purely hypothetical case, but a
+typical one. As she wanders through the woods, she comes upon a high
+stone wall, something like this one of Jerry's, and suddenly remembers
+that within this wall there lives a young man, beautiful beyond the
+dreams of the gods. I have said that she is romantic, also
+venturesome--"
+
+"Her address, please," muttered Lloyd quickly.
+
+"Do be quiet, Chan--" Marcia went on. "Venturesome, modern, moral--"
+
+"It can't be done," muttered the brute again.
+
+"Chan, do be serious. Curiosity overwhelms the girl. Nobody is about.
+So, putting her fears behind her, she climbs the wall and enters."
+
+The daring impertinence of this recital had stricken Jerry suddenly
+dumb, but the veins at his temples were swelling with the hot blood
+that had risen to his face. Una, after a moment of uncertainty, became
+strangely composed.
+
+"It is a beautiful spot. No one is in sight," Marcia went on amusedly.
+"The girl ventures further, and finds the beautiful young man catching
+trout. She talks to him. I think he is amused at her temerity, also
+perhaps a little flattered at her marks of confidence--"
+
+"Marcia!" It was Jerry's voice, deep, booming, and I had hardly
+recognized it. But there was a note in it that caused a hush to fall
+over the room. The girl looked up as though puzzled.
+
+"You interrupt, Jerry--"
+
+"Neither Una nor I are interested in what you're saying," he cried
+hoarsely, while the rest of the company stared at him.
+
+"_I_ am, Jerry," said Una's voice very coolly. Except for Marcia,
+perhaps, she was the least ruffled person in the room. "I want very
+much to hear the rest of the story," she added. "It has
+possibilities."
+
+Marcia laughed.
+
+"Possibilities, yes. There isn't much left to tell except that the
+girl spent the afternoon and the evening in the cabin with the
+beautiful young man and then went over the wall the way she came. Now
+what I wanted to know, Una dear, is whether you think that morality,
+conventional or unconventional, can stand a test like that."
+
+Una was silent for a moment and then her words came slowly, rather
+wistfully.
+
+"Was she a friend of yours?" she asked.
+
+"Oh, yes, a friend."
+
+"And did you know her for any length of time to be honorable,
+upright, decent?"
+
+"Oh, yes, quite so."
+
+Una paused another moment and when she spoke her voice was
+crystal-clear.
+
+"Then all I would like to say is that the mind that can conceive of
+evil in such a piece of innocent imprudence is unclean, beyond words!
+Is that all that you wanted to know?"
+
+Marcia leaned back in her chair holding her breath for a moment and
+then broke into a peal of laughter.
+
+"There! You see. I knew you would agree with me."
+
+The people in the room looked from one to the other, aware of a hidden
+meaning in the situation. Channing Lloyd had paused in the act of
+pouring out another glass of wine and stood blinking heavily. The only
+sound was a nervous titter from the Da Costa girl. Una looked around
+from face to face as though seeking those of her friends and then
+spoke fearlessly.
+
+"You may not know what this hypothetical question means or its
+answer?" she said with a smile. "I will tell you. I was that girl.
+Jerry Benham, the man. The place was here. I am accustomed to going
+where and with whom I please." She tossed her small head proudly,
+"Those who can see evil where evil doesn't exist are welcome to their
+opinions. As for my friends--"
+
+Here a chorus of protest went up, from the treble of the Da Costa girl
+to Laidlaw's deep bass.
+
+"Una--you silly child--of course no one thinks--"
+
+"As for my friends," she repeated, her voice slightly raised, "I will
+choose them by this token."
+
+I had not misjudged her. Her scorn of Marcia was ineffable, and I
+think the girl at the tea-urn had a sense of being at a disadvantage,
+for the idea of Una's frank admission had never entered Marcia's
+pretty intriguing head. She was hoist with her own petard and covered
+her confusion by a light laugh which was most unconvincing.
+
+"Of course, Una, I didn't mean--"
+
+But the rest of her sentence was lost in the sudden disintegration of
+the party into groups, some of which followed Una to the door. Jerry
+had regained his senses and strode out after her."
+
+"I'm going with you, Una," I heard him say.
+
+"It isn't necessary. I can find the way. Good-by, everybody. No,
+thanks, Phil."
+
+But Jerry went on with her and I broke through the sympathetic crowd
+at the doorway and followed. Like Jerry, I too had been stunned, but
+unlike Jerry, in the reaction I was finding a secret delight in Una's
+splendid mastery of the situation. The pair were already far in
+advance of me, Una hurrying sedately, Jerry, his hands deep in his
+pockets, striding like a furious young god beside her, earnestly
+talking. It was not until they heard the sound of my hurrying
+footsteps that they stopped and turned.
+
+"I can't let you go, Miss Habberton," I said breathlessly, "without
+letting you know how contrite I am at a slip of the tongue which--"
+
+"It doesn't matter in the least, Mr. Canby. I have nothing to regret."
+And then, with her crooked little smile, "But you might have omitted
+the details."
+
+"I--I--" I stammered.
+
+"It was I--I who told--" Jerry blurted out. "I am to blame. Why
+shouldn't I tell? Was there anything to be ashamed of? For you? For
+me?"
+
+"No, Jerry. The surest proof of it is that I'm not angry with
+you--with either of you. But I must be going."
+
+"I'm going with you," said Jerry quickly.
+
+"No."
+
+"Let him, Miss Habberton," I put in.
+
+"I had better go alone."
+
+"I forbid it," said Jerry. "The machine is at the upper gate. I'll
+drive you. Come."
+
+She hesitated. Our glances met. I think she must have seen the
+eagerness in my face, the friendliness, the admiration. She read too
+the revolt in Jerry's eyes, the dawning of something like reason and
+of his grave sense of the injustice that had been done to her. He
+pleaded almost piteously--as though her acquiescence were the only
+sign he could have of her forgiveness.
+
+"Very well," she said at last, "to the station, then."
+
+"No," said Jerry firmly, "to town. I'm going to drive you to town.
+We've got to have a talk. We've got to--to clear this thing up."
+
+She hesitated again and I think she felt the need of companionship at
+that moment.
+
+"But your guests--"
+
+"Oh, I'll be here," I said. "They'll be going soon. Jerry can be back
+in time for the party."
+
+"I'm not going to that party," Jerry muttered savagely.
+
+He meant it. I bade them good-by--watched them until they passed out
+of sight and hearing, and then sank on a nearby rock, and hugged my
+knees in quiet ecstasy.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+JERRY ASKS QUESTIONS
+
+
+Fortunately for me, neither Jack Ballard nor the expected overflow
+from the Van Wyck house-party came to disturb the serenity of my
+thoughts, Jack being suddenly called to Newport, the guests having
+been taken in elsewhere. So I sat up alone for Jerry until late and
+finally went to bed, happily conscious that my embassy, impossible as
+it had seemed, had borne fruit after all. Jerry did not go to Marcia
+Van Wyck's party, and his evening clothes remained where Christopher
+had laid them out, on the bed in his room. I gave myself an added
+pleasure in slumber that night by going in and looking at them before
+I sought my own room. I cannot remember a night when I have slept more
+soundly and I rose refreshed and intensely eager to hear how things
+had gone with Jerry and the dear lady whom I had once so inaptly
+dubbed "the minx." At the breakfast table Poole informed me that Jerry
+had returned late to the Manor and was sleeping. It was good. The
+glimmerings of reason that had appeared in the boy during the last few
+days had been encouraging, and his open revolt against the enchantress
+had made me hopeful that her dominion over him was not so complete as
+it had appeared. Viewed from any angle, the conduct of the Van Wyck
+girl was reprehensible, and admitted of no excuse. She had overshot
+the mark and had done her target no harm. However warm her friendship
+with those of her guests who were at the cabin, the comments I had
+heard convinced me that Jerry and I were not alone in our
+condemnation. The attack seemed to savor of a lack of finesse,
+surprising in a person of her cleverness, for had her bias not been so
+great she should have known that as a gentleman, Jerry must resent so
+palpable and designing an insult to a guest at Horsham Manor. Her
+impudence still astounded me. Did she think herself so sure of Jerry
+that she chose purposely to try him? Or had the point been reached in
+their amatory relations where she was quite indifferent as to what
+Jerry might do?
+
+Smoothly as my plan had worked and happily (or unhappily) as Marcia's
+pique and ill-humor had fitted into it, I could not believe that
+Jerry's revolt had ended matters. Even if the boy had been willing to
+end them (a thing of which I was not at all sure), Marcia Van Wyck was
+not the kind of girl to retire on this ungraceful climax, and Jerry's
+absence from her house on so important an occasion was nothing less
+than a notice to those present that he and Marcia were no longer on
+terms. I had had a sense of the girl's taste for conquest, and the
+more I thought of her the surer I was that Jerry's championship of Una
+Habberton would revive whatever remained of the lingering sparks of
+Marcia's passion.
+
+Jerry joined me in the study later in the morning and sat for awhile
+reading the newspapers. He was silent, almost morose, and at last got
+up and walked about the place. I feared for a moment that he had gone
+to the garage with the intention of getting into his machine, and
+this I knew meant nothing less than a ride posthaste, to Briar Hills.
+But he came back presently in a more cheerful mood and after luncheon
+suggested fishing, a proposal that I instantly fell in with. And so I
+followed him up stream, my own humor being merely to carry the net,
+watch him whip the pools and pray that his luck might be good, for a
+full creel meant good humor and good humor, perhaps confidences.
+
+Fortune favored. By the time we had gotten up the gorge, Jerry was in
+high spirits, for luck had crowned his skill and at least a dozen fish
+lay stiffening in the basket, and when we reached the iron grille
+Jerry emitted a deep sigh of satisfaction, drew out his pipe and sank
+on a rock to smoke it. I lay back beside him, my hat over my eyes.
+Nothing stimulates confidences so much as indifference. Jerry glanced
+at me once or twice, but I made no sign and after awhile he began
+talking. Whenever he paused I put in a grunt which encouraged him to
+go on. That is how I happened to hear about Jerry's ride home with Una
+Habberton.
+
+It seems that when they got into the machine Una was very quiet and
+answered his questions only in mono-syllables, but Jerry was patient
+and all idea of Marcia's party being out of his head, he drove slowly
+so that he would not reach the city until everything was clear and
+friendly between them again. Her profile was very sober and demure, he
+said. He wasn't quite sure for a long time whether she was going to
+burst into anger, tears, or to laugh. Jerry must have looked sober too
+and for awhile it couldn't have been a very cheerful ride, but at last
+the boy saw Una looking at him slantwise and when he turned toward
+her she burst into the merriest kind of a laugh.
+
+"Oh, Jerry, is it home you're driving me to, or just a funeral?"
+
+He gasped in relief at her sudden change of mood. "I was just
+waiting," he said quietly. "I didn't want to intrude, Una."
+
+"But you _do_ look _so_ like the undertaker's assistant," she smiled.
+"You have no right to be glum. I have. I'm the corpse. A corpse
+_might_ laugh in sheer relief when the lid was screwed down and
+everything comfortable."
+
+"Una! I don't see anything so funny--"
+
+"My reputation! A trifling thing," she said coolly, "still, I value
+it."
+
+"_Your_ reputation! That's absurd--nothing could hurt _you_. I don't
+understand."
+
+"I can't quite see yet how it all came out," she went on thoughtfully,
+"how Marcia knew that I had been inside the wall. Why, Jerry, unless
+she learned it recently, since I saw you in New York--" she paused.
+
+"No," protested Jerry uncomfortably. "It was last summer--"
+
+"But I had no name to you then--I was merely Una--"
+
+"And I blurted it out, Una, the only name I knew, never thinking that
+you and Marcia were acquaintances."
+
+"Oh, I see," and she smiled a little. "If my name had been plain Jane
+or even Mary, my reputation would have been safe."
+
+"What rubbish, Una! Can't a fellow and a girl have a chat without--"
+
+"Yes, but the girl mustn't get through eight-foot walls."
+
+"I don't see what difference that makes." She must have given him a
+swift glance here. But she laughed again. "You evidently don't
+realize, Jerry, that monasteries are supposed to be taboo for young
+girls."
+
+"Yes, but you didn't know about it being a monastery," he said
+seriously.
+
+"Of course, or I shouldn't have dared. But that makes no difference to
+Marcia. I was there. You told her. Don't you know, Jerry, that it
+isn't good form to tell _everything_ you know?"
+
+"She guessed it," he muttered. "It's such a lot of talk about
+nothing." I think Jerry was getting a little warm now. "Suppose you
+_were_ in there, whose affair is it but yours and mine?"
+
+"Everybody's," she shrugged. "Everybody's business! That ought to be
+inscribed on the tombstone of every dead reputation. _Hic jacet_ Una
+Habberton. Nice girl, but she _would_ visit monasteries."
+
+But nothing was humorous to Jerry's mood just then.
+
+"I can't have you talking like that, Una," he said in a suppressed
+tone. "It's very painful to me. I can't imagine why anyone should try
+to injure you. They couldn't, you know. You're above all that sort of
+thing. It's too trivial--"
+
+"Oh, is it? You'll see. All New York will have the story in
+twenty-four hours. Pretty sort of a tale to get to the Mission! The
+Mission! If those people heard! Imagine the embroideries! I could
+never lift my head down there again."
+
+"Let the world go hang. Have you anything to be ashamed of, Una?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor I. Very well."
+
+The seriousness that Una attached to the affair, while it bewildered,
+also inflamed him. "I wish it had been a man who had talked to you the
+way Marcia did."
+
+Una turned toward him soberly.
+
+"What would you do to him, Jerry?"
+
+He smiled grimly. "I think I'd kill him," he said softly.
+
+I think Jerry's tone must have comforted her, for he said that after
+that Una grew quieter.
+
+"The world is very intolerant of idyls, Jerry."
+
+They had reached a road which overlooked the river. Long, cool shadows
+brushed their faces as they rushed on from orchard to meadow, all
+redolent of sweet odors.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because they're a reproach."
+
+"Friendship is no idyl, Una, with us. It's more like reality, isn't
+it?"
+
+"I hope so."
+
+"Don't you believe it?"
+
+"Yes, I think I do."
+
+He smiled at her gayly.
+
+"I'm sure of it. I'm always myself with you, Una. I seem to want you
+to know all the things I'm thinking about. That's the surest
+indication, isn't it? And I want to know what you're thinking about. I
+feel as though I'd given you too many additional burdens down town,
+that you may tire this summer."
+
+"Oh, you needn't worry. I'm quite strong."
+
+"I want you to lay out some definite work that I can do, not merely
+giving money, but myself, my own strength and energy." He laughed.
+"You know I'm really thinking of asking you to establish a mission for
+men only, with _me_ as the first patient. It does seem to straighten
+me out somehow, just being with you--keeps me from thinking crooked."
+
+"_Do_ you think crooked, Jerry?"
+
+"Yes, often. Things bother me. Then I'm like a child. You've no idea
+of the vast abyss of my ignorance."
+
+"But you _mustn't_ think crooked. I won't have it."
+
+"I can't help it, sometimes. People aren't always what you expect 'em
+to be. I ought to understand better by this time, but I don't."
+
+"People aren't like books, Jerry. You're sure of books. But with
+people, you can turn the same page again and again and the printing is
+different every time."
+
+"People _do_ change, don't they?"
+
+"Yes, and the pages are rather smudgy here and there, but you'll learn
+to read them some day. The office will help you, Jerry, because
+business people _have_ to think straight or be repudiated. You ought
+to go to the office every day and work--work whether you like it or
+not. You've got too much money. It's dangerous. You're like a colt
+just out in the pasture, all hocks and skittishness. Work is the only
+thing for that. It may be tiresome but you've got to stick at it if it
+kills you."
+
+"I suppose you're right," he muttered.
+
+"Jerry," she went on rapidly, and I think with a twinkle of mischief
+in her eye, "all of us have streaks of other people in us. I have,
+lots of 'em. Sometimes I wonder which part of me is other people and
+which is me. I think you've even got more different kinds of people in
+you than I have. Students, philosophers, woodsmen, prize fighters--"
+
+"Una!"
+
+"I must. Everything, almost everything you've been and done I like
+except--"
+
+"Oh, don't Una--"
+
+"I've got to. You wanted to clear things up between us. That's one of
+the things we've got to clear up. I don't understand the psychology of
+the prize ring and I'm not sure that I'd care to understand it. I know
+that you are strong in body. You should be glad of that, but not so
+glad as to be vain of it. One doesn't boast of the gifts of the gods.
+One merely accepts them, thankfully--"
+
+"I was a fool--"
+
+"Say rather, merely an animated biped, an instinct on legs. Is _that_
+a thing to be proud of--for a man who knows what real ideals are?"
+
+"Don't--"
+
+"Did you discuss Shakespeare and the musical glasses with 'Kid'
+Spatola?"
+
+"Please!"
+
+"Or the incorporeal nature of the soul with Battling Sagorski?"
+
+"Una!" Her irony was biting him like acid.
+
+"Or did Sagorski make you an accessory before the fact of his next
+housebreaking expedition?"
+
+"Una, that isn't fair. Sagorski is--"
+
+"He's a second-story man, Jerry, with a beautiful record. Shall I give
+it to you?"
+
+"Er--no, thanks," gasped Jerry breathlessly. "I can't believe--"
+
+"You missed nothing at the house?"
+
+She waited for his reply.
+
+"I'm not sure _who_ took them--"
+
+"But you _did_ miss--?"
+
+"Yes, spoons, forks and things--" He broke off exasperated. "Oh, Una,
+it's cruel of you?"
+
+"No, kind. Sagorski is a smudgy page, Jerry. I happened to have seen
+it in the records. And there's a woman at the Mission--"
+
+It was Una's turn to pause in sudden solemnity.
+
+"A woman. His wife?" asked Jerry.
+
+"No, just a woman."
+
+"He had treated her badly?"
+
+"Her soul," she replied slowly, "is dead. Her body doesn't matter."
+
+She must have been thankful for the silence that followed? for the
+look of bewilderment, piteous, I think, it must now have seemed to
+Una, was in his face again. And before he could question further she
+had turned the topic.
+
+A little later, I think, personalities began again.
+
+"You're always helping people, Una, always helping," he said slowly.
+"Does it make you happy?"
+
+"Yes, if I _can_ help."
+
+"And you want to help me? I wonder if I'm worth it."
+
+"Yes, I wouldn't bother if you weren't."
+
+"And how do you know I'm worth it?"
+
+"It's my business to know," she said.
+
+Jerry sent the car spinning joyously down a fine stretch of straight
+empty road. And then when he had reduced the car to a slower pace,
+
+"You know, Una," he laughed, "you do take charge of a fellow, don't
+you?"
+
+"You need 'mothering'," she smiled.
+
+"Or sistering. I wish I had a sister like you. Fellows ought to have
+sisters, anyway. People ought to be born in pairs, male and female."
+
+She laughed and then with sudden seriousness:
+
+"But people ought to stand on their feet. All the 'sistering' in the
+world won't help a lame man to walk."
+
+"I'm not so awfully lame, am I?"
+
+"No. Just limpy. But don't try to run yet, Jerry."
+
+"Oh, I say--"
+
+"Just keep your eyes open. You'll see." And then quietly, "You know
+Phil Laidlaw, don't you?"
+
+"Oh, yes, fine chap."
+
+"I think it wouldn't harm you to know Phil better. He isn't brilliant,
+but he's steady, sure, reliable. And he _stands on his feet_, Jerry,
+on both of them."
+
+Jerry's comment to me in telling this part of the conversation was
+amusing. "Phil Laidlaw _is_ a good fellow and all that," he muttered,
+"but hang it all, Roger, you can't stomach having another man's
+virtues thrust down your throat!"
+
+My own comment may be interesting.
+
+"I don't wonder that she cares for him," I said. "A good match, I
+should say."
+
+"H--m," replied Jerry. "I can't seem to think of Una married to
+anybody. She's so much occupied--"
+
+"But she _will_ be married some day, my boy. Charity begins at home."
+
+She had used her woman's weapons loyally, at least. I think her
+comments on Laidlaw must have made Jerry silent for awhile and he told
+me little of the conversation that followed. But they must have
+"cleared up" all the things that stood between them. I think the
+subsequent conversation must have been largely pleasant and personal,
+for Jerry spoke of the wonderful weather and how Una admired the view
+they had of the great river from Hoboken with the lights of the towers
+of Manhattan, like the sparks of some mighty fire, hanging midway in
+the air.
+
+I was silent when he had concluded. Evidently he wanted me to say
+something, for he looked at me once or twice as he was refilling his
+pipe. But I was thinking deeply.
+
+"She's a wonder," he said after awhile. "You know the committee of
+ladies that's supposed to manage things down town have all gone away,
+leaving the whole responsibility to Una--the plans, specifications,
+business arrangements and all."
+
+"As Marcia suggested," I replied, "they're sure that matters are in
+good hands."
+
+"Yes, she's so sane. That's it. You know when we got to town I took
+dinner with the family down in Washington Square. Jolly lot of girls,
+like stair-steps, from eight to eighteen, but not a bit like Una,
+Roger, and the mother, placid, serene, intelligent with a dignity that
+seems to go with the house and neighborhood--a dear old lady, not so
+terribly old, either, and astonishingly well informed--Fine old house,
+refreshing, cool, mellow with age and decent associations; none of
+your Louis Quinze business there. I always wondered where Una got her
+poise. Now I know."
+
+"Had you never called there before?" I asked when he paused to light
+his pipe.
+
+"No, I always went to her office in the Mission and had her in a
+different setting, a bare room, desk, filing-cases, placards on the
+wall, scrupulously neat and business-like, but uncompromising, Roger,
+and severe. The house makes a better frame for her somehow--"
+
+I knew what he meant, for I had seen her in it, but of course was
+silent.
+
+"She's doing a tremendous work down town. She _is_ the Mission. The
+superintendent and nurses idolize her. I was questioning her mother
+about it. Una has a way with her. The women that come there have to be
+handled carefully, it seems. I'm afraid they're a bad lot, though Una
+won't talk about 'em. She says I wouldn't understand. I suppose I
+wouldn't. I've never learned much about women yet, Roger. Funny, too.
+They seem so easy to understand, and yet they're not. It's the men
+that bring the women down--ruin them, but I can't see why it couldn't
+just as well be the other way about. Men are weak, too; why are the
+men always blamed? That's what I want to know, and what does it all
+mean? I suppose I'm awfully ignorant. Things go in one ear and out the
+other without making any impression. I lack something. It's the way
+I'm made. I've missed something, of the meaning of life, I suppose,
+because I've lived it all with so few people, you, Una, Uncle
+Jack--Flynn and the boys--"
+
+"And Marcia," I put in suggestively.
+
+He ignored my remark.
+
+"Most chaps I've met seem to take so much of my knowledge for granted.
+The boys at Flynn's puzzled me, their strange phrases, hinting at
+hidden vices, but I wasn't going to question _them_. It's up to you,
+Roger. I want to know. What is this threat to Una's reputation when
+Marcia tells of our meeting here alone?"
+
+As I remained resolutely silent, Jerry got up and paced with long
+strides up and down before me.
+
+"Why shouldn't she and I meet here alone if we want to? And why these
+absurd restrictions surrounding the life of girls? I've accepted them,
+as I accept my morning coffee, because they're there. But what do they
+mean? I know that a girl is more delicate than a boy, a being to be
+sheltered and cared for; that seems natural. I accept that. But it
+goes too far. Una does what she pleases. Why shouldn't she? What is
+the meaning of unconventional morality? And why unconventional? Is
+morality so vague a term that there can be any sort of doubt as to its
+real meaning? And is Una any the less moral because she chooses to be
+unconventional? Una! I'd stake my life on her morality and innate
+refinement. No girl sacrifices her youth in the interests of others
+less fortunate than herself without being fine clear through. Then
+what did Marcia mean? And what could Una mean when she said her
+reputation was in danger? The very thought of my having harmed her,
+even by imputation, in the minds of others makes me desperately
+unhappy. And what, what on earth could Marcia suspect of me or of Una
+to place us both in so false a light? What could Marcia mean in
+speaking in that way about Una's visit here when she herself came--"
+He bit the word off abruptly and came to a stop. Some instinct--some
+baser instinct that Marcia was a part of, made frankness impossible. I
+could have finished his sentence for him but I didn't. Instead, I
+rose suddenly to a sitting posture, my tongue loosened.
+
+"Bah!" I muttered. "The spleen of a jealous woman; it stops
+nowhere--at nothing!"
+
+"But what was there in the story," he persisted, "to cause so much
+tension? I felt it in the air, Roger. It was in the looks of those
+about me, in Una's face. She was troubled. I had to speak."
+
+"You did well, Jerry. You had to speak--to defend her--"
+
+"Against what?"
+
+"The results of her own imprudence," I said slowly, feeling my way
+with difficulty. "Una's visits here and at the cabin were not what are
+called conventional."
+
+"Conventional! Perhaps not. But where does the question of morality
+come in?" he went on boring straight at the mark.
+
+"It doesn't," I remarked calmly. "It seems to me that Una's reply was
+quite clear upon that point."
+
+He frowned. "Yes, but she said that Marcia's mind wasn't clean, or
+that's what she meant. That's a terrible thing to say and Una
+shouldn't have said it. She shouldn't have, Roger."
+
+"She had to defend herself," I muttered. "That's the privilege of the
+poorest beast of the woods."
+
+"Yes," he said slowly, "but it has upset me, given me a new view of
+things, of women, of life. What is this terrible thing that threatens
+them, that they fear and court at the hands of men? They act it in
+their advances and sudden defenses. I've learned that much--Even
+Una--Why, Roger, there's something that they're more jealous of than
+they are of life itself. Reputation! That's what Una called it.
+Una--who's giving up her life to try to make people better! If a girl
+like Una has to defend herself, then the world is a rotten place and
+Marcia--"
+
+"And Marcia--"
+
+He walked up and down again muttering.
+
+"She has gone too far, Roger--too far." He paused before me.
+
+"But you haven't answered my questions," he said flatly.
+
+"You've hardly given me time," I said with a smile.
+
+To be truthful, I did not propose to answer them. Aside from a curious
+shyness born of our long and innocent intimacy which made frankness
+now seem a violation of the precedent of years, I found that the
+desire was born in me, born anew with Jerry's awakening consciousness,
+to stand by my guns, and await the results of his lessons from the
+world. He must solve the riddle of the Great Experiment alone.
+
+"You haven't answered my questions, Roger," he insisted.
+
+I was unjointing Jerry's rod with scrupulous care.
+
+"I'm not going to," I said quietly.
+
+"You--?" He examined me with a curious expression. "Who else should I
+go to if not to you?"
+
+I paused a long moment, during which he scraped at the moss with the
+toe of his boot.
+
+"My dear Jerry," I said. "I am more than convinced since the period of
+your probation has passed that my mission at Horsham Manor is ended. I
+was brought here to bring you to manhood with the things that were
+requisite as well for the body as the soul. I thought I had acquitted
+myself with tolerable success in obeying the desires of your dead
+father. But once freed from my influence you took the bit in your
+teeth and ran the race in your own way. I gave you advice but you
+wouldn't take it. If you had listened then, I could have helped you
+now. But you didn't listen. And if I were to warn you, to answer your
+questions, you wouldn't heed me now. Experience is the great teacher.
+Seek it. I'm through."
+
+He reddened and took a turn up and down.
+
+"Do you mean that?"
+
+"I do. I meddle with your personal affairs no longer. If I did I
+should begin at once--" I paused, for an attack on Marcia Van Wyck was
+trembling at the top of my tongue. "But there--you see we should only
+quarrel. I don't like your friends. We couldn't agree--"
+
+"You like Una."
+
+"Yes, unqualifiedly. She is one in a million."
+
+"Well, we're agreed on that at least," he said smiling.
+
+There was another silence in which Jerry puffed on his unlighted pipe.
+
+"You know I've invited Una and her mother up here this week and what's
+better still, they're coming."
+
+This was excellent news. To me it meant that Una thought the boy worth
+saving from himself and now proposed to carry the war into the enemy's
+country.
+
+"I'm delighted," I said briefly.
+
+"So am I," he returned thoughtfully. He scraped his pipe, filled it
+slowly and when it was lighted again, settled down comfortably.
+
+"I think Una has wakened me, Roger. The force of her example is
+tremendous, her life, her way of thinking of things, her cheerfulness,
+hopefulness about everybody. I can't make out why Marcia should attack
+her so unjustly. It wasn't fair."
+
+"It was _cattish_."
+
+"I don't like your saying that," he put in quickly.
+
+"I'm sorry. Can you imagine Una doing a similar thing?"
+
+"No," he admitted, "but Una has been brought up differently."
+
+Another silence. In spite of the recrudescence of Una we were on
+dangerous ground. But hope had given me temerity. In another moment he
+was back to the earlier questions.
+
+"I see no reason why you shouldn't answer me, Roger. I've got to know
+what all this trouble means. If Una has been imprudent I want to know
+why, still more so, if she is to suffer as a consequence of it. If
+Marcia's insinuations are cruel I've got to understand what they
+mean."
+
+"You may take my word for their cruelty," I said dryly and stopped
+with compressed lips. He clasped his hands over his knees and looked
+down into the pool before us.
+
+"Do you think you're quite fair with me, Roger? I give you my
+confidences and you refuse--"
+
+"Half-confidences, Jerry. My usefulness to you is ended. If you would
+speak, I could perhaps help you, solve some of your problems, answer
+your questions. But--"
+
+I paused, throwing out my hands in a helpless gesture.
+
+"What more do you want?" he asked.
+
+I took the bull by the horns. I had wanted to for weeks.
+
+"Freely, unreservedly, the nature of your relations with Marcia Van
+Wyck--"
+
+He rose suddenly, his face flushing darkly and took up his rod and
+creel.
+
+"If you don't mind my saying so," he muttered, "that is none of your
+affair."
+
+I rose, though his reproach stung me bitterly.
+
+"Confidences and advice are inseparable," I said coldly.
+
+"You hate Marcia," he mumbled.
+
+"I do."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because she's unsound, unsafe, im--"
+
+"Be careful!" he cried.
+
+I shrugged but was silent, I think, from the fear of Jerry's fists
+which were clenching his rod and creel ominously.
+
+"She's the woman I love," he declared with pathetic drama.
+
+I braved the fists and laughed.
+
+"Tush!" I said.
+
+He was furious. For a moment I thought he was going to strike me. Had
+he done so I should have been ended there and then, and this
+interesting history brought to an untimely conclusion on the very eve
+of its most interesting disclosures.
+
+But he thought better of it and with a shaking forefinger pointed
+toward the path downstream. "Go, Roger," he said in a trembling voice,
+"please go."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+THE CHIPMUNK
+
+
+I obeyed. There was nothing left for me to do. Our afternoon had ended
+in disaster, but I was not sorry. I had thought from all Jerry had
+told me that he was beginning to awaken, to rouse himself and tear
+asunder the web of enchantment that this girl Marcia had woven about
+him. I had meant to help him lift the veil to let him see her as she
+was, a beautiful, selfish little sensualist with a silken voice and an
+empty heart. But the time was not yet. I sighed, lamenting my failure
+but not regretting my temerity. If he would not waken at least I had
+the satisfaction of knowing it was not because I had not tried to wake
+him.
+
+I made my way down over the rocks, casting a glance over my shoulder
+toward Jerry as I descended. He was following slowly, his hands behind
+him, his head down, the pipe hanging bowl downward in his teeth. There
+was anger in his appearance but there was something of reflection,
+too. Down on a lower level where the going was easier I paused,
+deliberating whether I shouldn't put my pride in my pocket and braving
+rebuffs, wait for him. I had half decided to choose this ignominious
+course when in the path ahead of me at some distance away I espied a
+figure walking toward me. I was deep in the shadow and the person, a
+female, had not espied me, but I could see her quite clearly in the
+sunlight. There was no mistaking her curious gait. It was Marcia Van
+Wyck, come at pains which must convince of her contrition, to make
+peace with Jerry.
+
+I looked again to be sure that my eyes had not deceived me and then
+jumped into the underbrush beside the path and hid myself under a
+projection of nearby rock. I disliked the girl intensely and hated the
+sight of her, and this must, I suppose, account for the sudden impulse
+which led to my undignified retreat. Had I known in advance of the
+unfortunate situation in which it would have placed me, I should have
+faced her boldly or have fled miles away from that spot, to be forever
+associated in my mind with the one really discreditable experience of
+my career. I have always been, I think, an honorable man and such a
+paltry sin as eavesdropping had always been beneath me, save on the
+one occasion when my duty as Jerry's guardian prompted me to listen
+for a few moments at the cabin window last year when Una and Jerry
+were settling between them the affairs of the world. That was a
+pardonable transgression, this, a different affair, for Jerry was now
+released from my guardianship, a grown man ostensibly capable of
+managing his own affairs, which, as he had some moments before taken
+pains to inform me, were none of mine.
+
+But as luck would have it, the girl walking upstream and Jerry walking
+down, they met in the path just beside the rock behind which I was so
+uncomfortably reclining and scarcely daring to breathe. I could not
+see their faces as they came together, but I heard their voices quite
+Distinctly.
+
+"Marcia!" said Jerry, it seemed a trifle harshly. "What are you doing
+here?"
+
+With my vision obstructed, the soft tones of her voice seemed to take
+an added significance.
+
+"I came," she purred, "because, Jerry, I couldn't stay away."
+
+And then, after a pause, her voice even more silken, "You don't seem
+very glad to see me."
+
+"I--I--your appearance surprised me."
+
+"But now that the surprise is over--_are_ you glad to see me?" she
+asked.
+
+A pause and then I heard him mutter.
+
+"I didn't suppose that--after yesterday _you_ would want to see _me_."
+
+"Yesterday," she sighed, "twenty-four hours--an age! The surest proof
+that I wanted to see you is that I'm here, that I ran away from a
+house full of people, just to tell you--"
+
+"Is Channing Lloyd still there?" he broke in harshly.
+
+"Yes, Jerry, he is. But doesn't it mean anything to you that I left
+him, to come to you?"
+
+"You broke your promise--to give him up--"
+
+"Why, Jerry, I _had_ to invite him to my dance. It would have been a
+slight."
+
+"But you promised. He's a--"
+
+"But I've known him for ages, Jerry. I can't be impolite."
+
+"He's not polite to you, to me, or anybody. I told you I wanted you to
+give him up."
+
+"You're fearfully exacting," she said, modulating her voice softly.
+
+"He's a cad. I can't understand your inviting him. His very look is
+an insult, his touch a desecration. I don't like the way he paws you."
+
+"Of course, he--he means nothing by it," she said soothingly. "It's
+only his way."
+
+"But I don't like his way and I don't like him. I've told you so a
+good many times."
+
+"You make it very difficult for me. It would have been insulting not
+to have asked him. We've been very good friends until you came."
+
+"It's a pity I came, then. You've got to choose between us. I've told
+you that before."
+
+"Why, Jerry, I _have_ chosen," she said, her voice softening
+suspiciously. "How could I ever think of anybody else now that I have
+you? It's so _absurd_ of you to be jealous of Chan. He's not like you,
+of course, and his manner is a little rough, but he really isn't
+_nearly_ so terrible a person as you think he is." She sighed. "But if
+you insist, I suppose I shall have to give him up."
+
+"Is it painful to you?" he muttered.
+
+She laughed. "You silly boy, of course not. I _will_ give him up.
+There! Does that settle that matter?"
+
+"I thought it was settled before."
+
+"It was--but--" She paused.
+
+"I don't see how you could want to be with a man I don't like--"
+
+"I don't care for him, Jerry, really I don't. Won't you believe me?"
+
+"I'll believe you when you give him up."
+
+She sighed again, her voice breaking effectively.
+
+"Oh, dear! Do you want me to give up _all_ my friends? And is it
+quite fair?"
+
+"I haven't asked you to give up any of your friends, but Lloyd--"
+
+Well, I've given him up, Jerry. I'll send him home tonight. Don't
+let's think of him any more. I can't stand having anything come
+between us again. I can't, Jerry. It makes me so unhappy. I've been
+wretched since yesterday about Una. That's why I came. I wanted you to
+know how sorry I am that I spoke to Una the way I did."
+
+"Are you, Marcia?" His voice had softened suddenly and from the
+shuffling of his feet I think he took a pace toward her.
+
+"Yes, Jerry dear, contrite. I simply couldn't let another hour pass
+without coming to ask your forgiveness."
+
+He was weakening. Perhaps his arm was around her. I don't know, but
+his silence was ominous.
+
+"I have been _so_ miserable," she murmured. "My conscience has
+troubled me _terribly_. Oh, I can't tell you how I have suffered. All
+the evening I thought you would come. I waited for you; I went out on
+the terrace a hundred times, watching for the lights of your car; but
+you didn't come, you didn't come, Jerry, and I knew how terribly I had
+offended you."
+
+I couldn't see her but I'm sure she was wringing her pretty white
+hands. Jerry must have been deeply moved for his voice was shaky.
+
+"It didn't matter about me, but a visitor, a guest at Horsham Manor,
+Marcia, a friend--!"
+
+"A friend, yes. Oh, I've been so unhappy about it all--so _miserably_
+wretched."
+
+Her voice broke and she seemed upon the point of tears.
+
+"Why did you, Marcia? Why did you?" he repeated.
+
+"I--I--" She appeared to break down and weep and Jerry's voice took on
+a tone of distress.
+
+"Don't, Marcia, please!"
+
+"I--I'm trying not to--but--" and she wept anew.
+
+"Come," said Jerry's voice. "Sit here a moment. I'm sure it can all be
+explained. It makes me very unhappy to see you so miserable."
+
+They moved nearer and she sat upon the very rock beneath which I lay
+among the mouldy leaves; so near that I could have reached out and
+touched the girl's silken ankle with my fingers. Jerry, I think, still
+stood.
+
+"I don't want to--to make you unhappy," she said in a moment. "And it
+was all my fault, but I just couldn't--couldn't stand it, Jerry."
+
+"Stand what?"
+
+A pause and then in muffled tones.
+
+"Don't you know? Don't you really understand?"
+
+"No. I--"
+
+"I was mad," she whispered, "mad with jealousy of Una. She was your
+first love, your first--"
+
+"Marcia! You mustn't. It's absurd."
+
+"No, no," she protested. "I know. Ever since I first learned that she
+had--had been in here with you, I--I haven't been able to get her out
+of mind--I may have appeared to, but I'm not one who forgets things
+easily; and to meet her at the cabin, the very place where I thought I
+should--should have you all to myself--it was too much. Jerry. I
+couldn't stand it. Something--something in me rebelled. I grew cold
+all over and hard against all the world, even you."
+
+"But this was foolish of you. Una, a friend. Surely there was no harm
+in my seeing her here?"
+
+"It was foolish," there was a slight change in the intonation of her
+voice here, "but I know the world so much better than you, Jerry.
+Girls are so designing, so--so untrustworthy."
+
+"You don't know Una if you say that," said Jerry loyally.
+
+"Perhaps I don't. I don't wish to think badly of anyone you call a
+friend but Una is so--er--so independent--so accustomed to moving with
+queer people--" She paused a moment again to give her insinuation
+weight. "I don't know," she sighed. "I thought all sorts of horrible
+things about you."
+
+"Horrible! How? Why?"
+
+"Oh, Jerry. Think for a moment. It was natural in me, wasn't it? If I
+hadn't been jealous of you I couldn't have loved you very much, could
+I?"
+
+"But horrible thoughts! I don't understand. You might think that there
+was something between Una and me if you chose to be suspicious, but to
+think unpleasant things of her, I can't see--"
+
+"You're making it very difficult for me--you're so strange," she
+murmured. "Isn't it something that I've lowered my pride to the earth
+in coming here to you? That I've given up Chan? That I'm pleading to
+you for forgiveness?"
+
+"It is, of course. I do forgive you," he murmured
+
+"Oh, Jerry, if you knew how I had longed to hear you say that--if you
+knew!"
+
+All this while Jerry had been standing beside her in the path while
+the girl sat on the rock. I could tell this from the sounds of their
+voices. In spite of her accents of endearment, notes which she played
+with the deftest touch, I could understand that Master Jerry was still
+a little upon his dignity.
+
+"I do forgive you," he repeated, "but I don't just know what your
+insinuations meant, Marcia."
+
+"Insinuations! Oh, Jerry!"
+
+"Well, what were they? You didn't accuse Una of anything, or me. But
+you meant something--something unpleasant. Una was very much
+disturbed--"
+
+"Oh, she was?" No self-control could have concealed the tiny note of
+exultation.
+
+"Yes, disturbed and angry. What did you mean, Marcia?"
+
+There was an effective pause. What grimaces she was making for his
+benefit I'm sure I can't imagine, but I hope they were worthy of her
+talents.
+
+"Poor, dear Jerry!" she sighed. "You're so innocent. I sometimes
+wonder whether you're really as innocent as you seem."
+
+"I'm innocent of wronging Una," he said with some spirit.
+
+She couldn't restrain a short laugh at the ingenuousness of the remark
+and its tone.
+
+"There are ways and ways of wronging girls, Jerry," she said slowly. I
+couldn't see her face, of course, but I knew that her eyes must have
+been searching him sidelong under their lashes with peculiar avidity.
+"Of course, I don't _say_ that there was anything wrong, but you'll
+admit that Una's hunting you out the way she did was _most_
+imprudent."
+
+"No, I don't admit it," said Jerry. "If Una was imprudent, so are you,
+_here_, today."
+
+"Jerry!" The girl started up, one of her tall French heels within
+reach of my fingers. If her heel had been her vulnerable spot I must
+have struck it at once, like a viper.
+
+Jerry apparently stood his ground, for the image of Una must have
+still been fresh in his memory.
+
+"What is the difference, Marcia?" he asked calmly. "Will you tell me?
+Do you think I could hurt _you_?"
+
+She sank upon the rock again, her tone almost too plaintive.
+
+"You're hurting me now, Jerry--terribly."
+
+"I can't see--"
+
+"That you can't see any difference, between my being here--and Una's."
+
+His voice fell a little.
+
+"Of course, there's a difference. Una is a friend and you--why
+Marcia--" and he came near her, "of course there's all the difference
+in the world in _that_ way. You're the girl I--I love."
+
+"Jerry!" she whispered.
+
+I was miserable. It was nauseating. Fate was surely unkind to me.
+
+"But I want to be just," he went on clearly. "And I want you to be
+just. I surely couldn't harm Una any more than I could you."
+
+"Oh, Jerry; I'm sure you kissed her."
+
+"No. Why should I?"
+
+"Because, I thought she might have asked you to."
+
+"She didn't. I suppose it hadn't occurred to her. I'm not much at
+kissing, Marcia. It's rather meaningless if you don't love a person,
+isn't it? Kissing ought to be a kind of sacrament. It's a symbol. It
+must mean something. At least that's the way it seems to me. The girl
+one loves, Marcia, you--"
+
+He was very close to her now and I think his arms encircled her, for I
+heard her whisper "Kiss me, Jerry! Kiss me!"
+
+I must have deserved this punishment. Aside from the unhappy nature of
+my feelings, I was suffering severe bodily discomfort from some small
+object, a stone, I think, pressed against my ribs. I moved slightly
+and there was a resounding crackle of broken twigs. The silken foot
+beside me started suddenly.
+
+"What was that?" whispered the girl.
+
+"Oh," said Jerry, "merely a squirrel or--or a chipmunk." And then more
+convincingly, "Yes, I think it was a chipmunk."
+
+I held my breath in an agony of apprehension, expecting each second to
+be hauled out of my retreat by Jerry's muscular hand on my collar, and
+it was therefore with a feeling of manifest relief that I heard their
+conversation resumed.
+
+"I'm so glad you think a kiss is a sacrament," she murmured. "It
+should be--shouldn't it?--a pledge," and then, "But that was _such_ a
+light one, Jerry--"
+
+He kissed her again. There was a long silence--long. She had won.
+
+"Oh, Jerry," she sighed at last, "it is _so_ sweet. You have never
+kissed me like that before. Why, what is the matter?"
+
+Jerry, it seemed, had risen suddenly. "I--I mustn't, Marcia. I
+mustn't. It is sweet--but--but terrible. I can't tell you--"
+
+"Terrible, Jerry?"
+
+"Yes, I can't explain. It's a kind of profanation--your sanctity. I
+don't know. It makes me deliriously happy and--horribly miserable."
+
+"But I am yours, Jerry, yours, do you understand? And if I like you to
+kiss me--"
+
+"I mustn't, Marcia, not here."
+
+He was very much disturbed. "Marcia!" he said in a suppressed tone as
+he came quickly to her again. "Was _that_ what you meant--was _that_
+why you asked me if I'd kissed Una?"
+
+"I merely wanted--"
+
+"I didn't," he broke in impetuously. "No, no, I didn't. Why, Marcia,
+it wouldn't have been possible--we were merely friends. Don't think
+I've ever kissed Una, and don't ever believe she would let me. She
+wouldn't. She's not in love with me. She wouldn't let me, if I wanted
+to."
+
+"And you don't want to?"
+
+"No, no. I never think about her in that way. I can't. She's different
+from you. You allure me. It's subtle. I can't explain. I want to take
+you in my arms and yet I don't dare, for fear that I may crush you. I
+might, Marcia. I'm afraid. Just now, the thought of my strength
+frightened me. Don't let me kiss you like that again, Marcia."
+
+"I'm not afraid," I heard her whisper. "Kiss me again, Jerry."
+
+But he didn't. Apparently he still stood before her at a distance,
+fearsome of he knew not what.
+
+"Jerry!" she murmured again, in a little tone of petulance.
+
+"Marcia, we--we should be going on," he muttered.
+
+"Ah, Jerry, not yet," she sighed. "Isn't it wonderful that there's no
+quarrel between us? Just you and I, Jerry, here, alone, like the first
+man and woman--alone in the world. There's no man in it but you, no
+woman but me, we're mated, Jerry, like the birds. Don't you hear them
+singing? The woods are alive with songs of love. And you, Jerry, you
+stand there staring at me with those great, timid eyes of yours. Why
+do you stare at me so? Are you frightened? I think that I am stronger
+than you. It is love that makes me strong. Come to me, Jerry. Kiss me,
+again."
+
+"Marcia!" he gasped. And then another silence.
+
+"I mustn't."
+
+"I love you, Jerry."
+
+"Will you marry me? Tomorrow!"
+
+"Marriage, Jerry? Yes, some day--"
+
+"Tomorrow--!"
+
+"Aren't you satisfied--with this? The wonder of it."
+
+"But I have no right. I can't explain. It's desecration!"
+
+"A sacrament!" she said.
+
+"A sacrament!"
+
+"You said so."
+
+"Not this, Marcia. A sacrament should be gentle. I want to be gentle
+in my thoughts of you. But I can't, not now. I could strangle you if
+you let another man do this, and kill--"
+
+"I love you--when you talk like that. Strangle me if you like, kill
+me, I'm yours--"
+
+I think that to Marcia, this was the greatest moment of her strange
+passion. Fear was its dominant motive, Jerry's innocence its
+inspiration. If he had crushed the breath from her body, I think she
+would have died rapturously. But Jerry, it seems, tore himself from
+her and moved some distance away, I think, his head bent into the
+hollow of his arm, torn between his emotions. I would have given all
+that I possessed on earth to have caught a glimpse of her face at that
+moment. Flushed with victory of course--but passion--Bah! I couldn't
+believe her capable of it. If she had been wholly animal I might have
+forgiven her everything. But the impression had grown in me with the
+minutes that all this like everything else she did was false--false
+penitence, false contrition, false tears, false love and now false
+passion. She was a mere shell, a beautiful shell in which one hears
+the faint murmurs of sweet music, echoes of sounds which might have
+been but were not. These were the sounds that Jerry heard, echoes of
+some earlier incarnation in which spiritual beauty had been his
+fetich. And now, he stood apart, broken, miserable.
+
+"Jerry," I heard her call again softly, "I am not afraid."
+
+That was it. I understood now. What she loved was fear. But Jerry
+would not come back. I heard his voice faintly.
+
+"We must go, Marcia."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"I have learned; we have no right here--alone, you and I. It's
+what--what you accused Una of."
+
+"But you and I--Jerry! Am I not different from Una? I have rights. She
+has none. I've given them to you, and you to me."
+
+"You will marry me, soon?"
+
+"Not if you're going to be so--so--er--inhospitable."
+
+He came forward quickly.
+
+"You know I don't mean that. Would you have me less considerate of
+your reputation, your peace of mind, than I am of Una's? I want you to
+understand how deeply I respect you--that I want to treat you with
+tenderness, with delicacy, with gentle devotion."
+
+I heard her sigh. I'm sure if Jerry's back had been turned she must
+have yawned. She rose and I heard her slow footsteps join his.
+
+"How you disappoint me!" I heard her murmur and then more faintly:
+"How terribly you disappoint me! To analyze one's feelings! To think
+of conventions! Now! What _are_ you?"
+
+"Marcia!"
+
+I heard their voices fading into the distance and peered forth. They
+were walking slowly down the path, away from me. I stirred cautiously,
+straightened my stiffened legs, rose painfully, and then carefully
+made my way farther into the forest, through which I plunged headlong,
+eager to escape the sight of that accursed rock and its harrowing
+sounds. I had not been far wrong in my estimate of her and of Jerry. I
+would to God he had strangled her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY
+
+
+Una and her mother did not come to Horsham Manor during the following
+week, and it was early in June before Jerry ordered the rooms to be
+prepared for them. Jack Ballard, too, having at last found Newport
+irksome, promised to make up the house-party.
+
+It did not seem to me that Jerry was especially overjoyed at the
+prospect of these guests. During the week or more that followed his
+encounter with Marcia in the woods, he had reverted to his former
+habits of strolling aimlessly about when he wasn't at Briar Hills or
+in town, at times cheerful enough; at others obstinately morose. But
+he did not drink. Whatever the differences between us, he evidently
+thought seriously enough of his word to me to make that promise worth
+keeping. I know he believed me to be meddlesome and with good reason
+(if he had known all), but he would not let me leave the Manor. I was
+a habit with him, a bad habit if you like, but it seemed a necessary
+one. Nevertheless in spite of the apparently pleasant nature of our
+relations, there was a coolness between us. Much as he loved me, and I
+was still sure that Marcia had made no real change in that affection,
+there was a new reserve in his manner, meant, I think, to show me that
+I had gone too far and that his affair with Marcia was not to be the
+subject of further discussion between us.
+
+Had he known how thankful I was for that! I knew all that I wanted to
+know of Marcia Van Wyck and of their curious relations. And
+unfortunate as my ambush had seemed, demeaning to my honor and painful
+to my conscience, I had begun to look upon my venture beneath that
+infernal rock as a kind of mixed blessing. At least I knew!
+
+Of Una, Jerry said much in terms of real friendship and undisguised
+admiration--of his visits to her in town and the progress of her work,
+a frankness which, alas! was the surest token of his infatuation
+elsewhere. And yet I could not believe that the boy was any more
+certain of the real nature of his feeling for Marcia than he had been
+a month ago. He was still bewildered, hypnotized, obsessed, his joyous
+days too joyous, his gloomy ones too hopeless. Like a green log, he
+burned with much crackling or sullenly simmered. But the fire was
+still there. Nothing had happened that would put it out, not even Una.
+
+As the hour of the visit of the Habbertons approached, I found myself
+a prey to some misgivings. It was not difficult for me to imagine that
+the frank nature of Jerry's visits to Una might have given the girl a
+false notion of the state of Jerry's mind, for it was like the boy to
+have told her of Marcia's mellifluous contrition which, as I knew, was
+no more genuine than any other of her carefully planned emotional
+crises. I did not know what Marcia thought of Una's approaching visit
+or whether Jerry had even told her of it, but I had no fancy to see
+Una Habberton again placed in a false position. A visit to Miss Gore
+made one morning when Jerry was in town at the office showed me that
+even if Marcia knew of Una's approaching visit, she had not told Miss
+Gore of it and also revealed the unpleasant fact of Channing Lloyd's
+presence in the neighborhood, a guest of the Carews and at the very
+moment of my visit a companion of Marcia in a daylong drive up to Big
+Westkill Mountain. This was the way she was keeping her promise to
+give Lloyd up! What a little liar she was!
+
+Of course, having learned wisdom, I said nothing to Miss Gore, but
+passed a very profitable morning in her society after which she
+invited me to stay for lunch. I can assure you that after Jerry's glum
+looks, Miss Gore's amiable conversation and warm hospitality were balm
+to my wounded spirit. I had no desire to discuss her intangible
+relative or she, I presume, the unfortunate Jerry, both of us having
+washed our hands of the entire affair. She was a prudent person, Miss
+Gore, and though full of the milk of human kindness, not disposed to
+waste it where it would do no good. I left with the promise to call
+upon her another morning and read to her a paper I had written for a
+philosophical magazine upon the "The Identical Character of Thought
+and Being."
+
+Jack Ballard arrived upon the morning of the appointed day in his own
+machine, and since Jerry and his other guests were not expected until
+evening, we had a long afternoon of it together. We took a tramp
+across the country, and while Jack listened with great interest to my
+disclosures, I poured out my heart to him, omitting nothing, not even,
+to salve my self-esteem, my unfortunate experience in eavesdropping.
+I don't really know why I should have expected his sympathy, but he
+only laughed, laughed so much and so long that the tears ran down his
+cheeks and he had to sit down.
+
+"Oh, Pope--a chipmunk! He might at least have allowed you the dignity
+of a bear or a mountain lion!"
+
+"There are no mountain lions in these parts," I said with some
+dignity.
+
+"Or a duck-billed platypus. Oh, I say, Pope, it's too rich. I can't
+help picturing it. Did they coo? Oh, Lord!"
+
+"It was nauseating!" I retorted in accents so genuine that he laughed
+again.
+
+"It's no laughing matter, I tell you, Jack," I said. "The boy is
+completely bewitched. He thinks he adores her. He doesn't. I know."
+
+And bit by bit, while his expression grew interested, I told him all
+that I had heard.
+
+"It's animal, purely animal," I concluded. "And he doesn't know it."
+
+"By George! He's awakening, you think?"
+
+"I'm sure of it. She's leading him on, for the mere sport of the
+thing. It has been going on for four months now, almost every day.
+He's pretty desperate. She won't marry him. She doesn't love him. She
+loves nobody--but herself."
+
+"What will be the end of the matter?" he asked.
+
+I shrugged.
+
+"She'll throw him over when she debases him."
+
+"Debase--!"
+
+"Yes," I said wildly. "I tell you he thinks her an angel, Can't you
+see? A man doesn't learn that sort of thing--_her_ sort of thing--from
+the woman he loves. It's like hearing impurity from the lips of one's
+God! And you ask me if she's debasing him! Why, Jack, he's all ideals
+still. The world has taught him something, but he still holds fast to
+his childish faith in everyone."
+
+"Bless him! He does." And then, "What can I do, Pope?"
+
+"Nothing. I'm waiting. But I don't like his temper. It's dangerous. I
+think he's beginning to suspect her sincerity and when he finds out
+that she's still playing false with Channing Lloyd--then look out!"
+
+"You're going to tell him?"
+
+"No, he'll discover it. She's quite brazen."
+
+He was silent for a while.
+
+"Pope, you surprise me," he muttered at last. "The modern girls, I
+give them up. There's a name for this sort, perverted coquettes,
+'_teasers.'_ The man of the world abominates them, they're beneath
+contempt; but Jerry--No," he remarked with a shake of the head, "he
+wouldn't understand that."
+
+"And when he does?"
+
+"H--m!"
+
+His manner added no encouragement.
+
+"It would serve her jolly well right," he muttered cryptically in a
+moment.
+
+"What?" I asked.
+
+I think he understood Jerry now as well as I did.
+
+"Violence," he blurted out.
+
+"Ah! Then I'm not a fool. You agree with me."
+
+"I'm glad I'm not in Lloyd's shoes, that's all."
+
+We resumed our walk, turning back toward the Manor, and I told him of
+how matters stood with Jerry and Una. He had not met her, but he knew
+her history and was, I think, willing to accept her upon her face
+value.
+
+"But you can't match mere affection with that sort of witchcraft!" he
+said. "It's like trying to treat the hydrophobia with eau de Cologne.
+It can't be done, my boy. Your device does credit to your heart if not
+to your intelligence. She may come in a pretty bottle which exudes
+comforting odors but she's not for him."
+
+"You'll be pleasant to her, Jack? She's fond of Jerry, not in love
+with him, you know, but fond. And doesn't want to see him made a fool
+of any more than I do."
+
+I owed Una this. Whatever I thought of her feelings toward Jerry, even
+Jack had no right to be aware of them.
+
+"Pleasant!" he grinned. "Just you watch. I'll be her Fidus Achates.
+That's my specialty. Pretty, you say?" He kissed the tip of his
+fingers and gestured lightly toward the heavens. "I'm your man. Well,
+rather. I'll make Jerry want to pound my head. And if he neglects her
+for Marcia, I'll pound his."
+
+Una and her mother were having tea with Jerry on the terrace when we
+reached the Manor. Mrs. Habberton was, as Jerry had described her, "a
+dear old lady" with calm eyes and level brows, "astonishingly well
+informed" and immensely proud of her pretty daughter. She was not
+assertive and while I knew nothing of Mr. Habberton, she somehow
+conveyed the impression that if there was anything in Mendel's theory
+of the working of heredity she and her six daughters went a long way
+toward exemplifying it. There was a genuineness about the pair which
+was distinctly refreshing to Jack's jaded tastes in fashionable
+feminine fripperies and he fell into the conversation as smoothly as a
+finger into a well-fitting glove. Una made no secret of her delight at
+being at the Manor and her enthusiasm as we wandered over the place
+brought more than one smile into Jerry's tired face. I know that he
+enjoyed her being there, but there was a weight upon him which he
+masked with a dignity that might have deceived others but not Una or
+me.
+
+"You've been buying too many steamship companies this week. Jerry. I'm
+sure of it. You're 'sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought.' It's
+too bad you have a conscience. It must be fearfully inconvenient." And
+then as we came to the swimming pool, "Isn't it huge? And all of
+marble! You're the most luxurious creature. I was just wondering--"
+She paused.
+
+"Wondering what--?"
+
+"How many Blank Street families I could clean in it without even
+changing the water."
+
+He laughed. "Build one. I'll pay for it."
+
+"It would be _great_ for the boys and men, wouldn't it? But, then--"
+she sighed. "We haven't got our club yet."
+
+He laughed again.
+
+"But you're going to have it, you know, when the day nursery is done."
+
+"Oh, are we?"
+
+"Of course, that's settled."
+
+We had reached the gymnasium.
+
+"And this is where you--?" A pleading look from Jerry made her pause.
+"And do you pull all these ropes? What fun! I believe you could have
+fifty boys in here at once all playing and not one of them in the
+other's way."
+
+We couldn't help smiling. In spite of herself, she was thinking in
+terms of her beloved Blank Street.
+
+"You'll have to forgive me, Jerry, if I'm covetous. That's my
+besetting sin. But it _is_ a fine place--so spacious. And it _would_
+make such an adorable laundry!"
+
+"You shall have one," said Jerry.
+
+The girl laughed.
+
+"No. I won't dare to wish any more. The purse of Fortunatus brought
+him into evil ways. It must be terrible, Jerry, not to be able to want
+something."
+
+"But I do want many things."
+
+"Yes. I suppose we all do that," she said, quickly finishing the
+discussion, but I think she had noticed the sudden drop in Jerry's
+voice.
+
+From there we went to the museum to look over the specimens, and in a
+moment Una and Jerry were deep in a butterfly talk. There Jack and I
+left them, taking Mrs. Habberton into the main hall, where I rang for
+one of the maids who showed her to her room.
+
+"Well," I asked of Jack. "What do you think of her?"
+
+"What I think is of course a matter of no importance to Jerry. But
+since you ask, I don't mind telling you that I love her to
+distraction. Where are the boy's eyes? His ears? And all the rest of
+his receptive organs? If I were ten years younger--" and he patted his
+_embonpoint_ regretfully, "I'd ask something of her charity, something
+immediate and practical. She should found the John K. Ballard Home,
+Pope, a want of mine for many years. But, alas! She has eyes only for
+Jerry."
+
+"Do you really think so?" I asked.
+
+"Yes, I do. And he's not worth bothering about. He ought to be shot,
+offhand."
+
+"I entirely agree with you," I smiled.
+
+Dinner that night was gay and most informal. Jack was at his best and
+gave us in inimitable satire a description of a luncheon at Newport in
+honor of a prize chow dog attended by all the high-bred pups of
+Bellview Avenue, including Jack's own bull terrier Scotty, which in an
+inadvertent moment devoured the small Pekingese of Jack's nearest
+neighbor, a dereliction of social observance which caused the complete
+and permanent social ostracism of Scotty--and Jack.
+
+"How terrible!" said Una.
+
+"It was, really, but it was a kind of poetic canine justice, you know.
+The Pekingese just stared at Scotty and stared without wagging his
+tail. Very impolite, not wagging your tail at a luncheon. Scotty grew
+embarrassed and angry and then--just took him at a gulp. It was the
+easiest way out."
+
+"Or _in_," I suggested.
+
+"Scotty is naturally polite. He never _could_ abide a tail that
+wouldn't wag."
+
+"Nor can I," said Una with a laugh. "Dogs' tails _must_ be meant to
+wag, or what are they there for? I wish people had tails and then you
+could tell whether they were pleasant or not."
+
+"Some of 'em have," said Jack. "Hoofs too--and horns."
+
+"I don't believe that," she laughed.
+
+Jerry took no animated part in the conversation except when we spoke
+of Una's work. Then he waxed eloquent until Una stopped him. Mrs.
+Habberton, I think, watched Jerry a little dubiously as though there
+was something about him that she couldn't understand. Some feminine
+instinct was waking. But Una's cheerfulness and interest in all things
+was unabated. We three men smoked--I, too, for I had lately fallen
+from grace--with the ladies' permission in the drawing-room where Una
+played upon the piano and sang. I don't think that Jerry had known
+about her music for he had said nothing of it to me, and when her
+voice began softly:
+
+    "Oh doux printemps d'autrefois"--
+
+Massenet's "Elegie," as I afterwards learned--a hush fell over the
+room and we three men sat staring at the sweet upturned profile, as
+her lovely throat gave forth the tender sad refrain:
+
+    "Oh doux printemps d'autrefois, vertes saisons ou
+    Vous avez fui pour toujours
+    Je ne vois plus le ciel bleu
+    Je n'entends plus les chants joyeux des oiseaux
+    En emportant mon bonheur,
+    O bien aimé tu t'en es allé
+    Et c'est en vain que revient le printemps."
+
+She sang on to the end and long after she had finished we still sat
+silent, immovable as though fearful to break the spell that was upon
+us. Jerry was near me and I had caught a glimpse of his face when she
+began. He glanced toward her, moved slightly forward in his chair and
+then sat motionless, the puzzled lines in his face relaxing like those
+of a person passing into sleep. When the last long-drawn sigh died
+away and merged into the drowsy murmur of the night outside, Jerry's
+voice broke almost harshly upon the silence.
+
+"I didn't know you could sing like that," he said. "It's wonderful,
+but so--so hopeless."
+
+"Something more cheerful, dear, 'Der Schmetterling,'" put in her
+mother.
+
+She sang again, this time lightly, joyously, and we re ponded to her
+mood like harp-strings all in accord. The room, awakened to melody
+after the long years of silence, seemed transformed by Una's splendid
+gift, a fine, clear soprano, not big nor yet thin or reedy, but
+rounded, full-bodied and deep with feeling. Jerry was smiling now, the
+shadow seemed to have lifted.
+
+"That's your song. It must have been written for you," he cried. "You
+_are_ the butterfly girl when you sing like that."
+
+"_Bis!_" cried Jack, clapping his hands.
+
+She was very obliging and sang again and again. I was silent and quite
+content. The shadow did not fall upon Jerry again that night. I was
+almost ready to believe he had forgotten that such a person as Marcia
+Van Wyck lived in the world. Who could have resisted the gentle appeal
+of Una's purity, friendliness and charm? Not I. Nor Jack. He followed
+the mood of her songs like a huge chameleon, silent when she sang of
+sadness, tender when she sang of love, and joyous with her joy.
+
+When she got up from the piano he rose.
+
+"I wonder why I can find so few evenings like this," he sighed.
+
+"It's so fearfully old-fashioned, Victorian, to be simple nowadays,"
+she laughed.
+
+"That's it," he cried. "The terror of your modern hostess, simplicity.
+You can't go out to dine unless some madwoman drags you away from your
+coffee to the auction table, where other madmen and madwomen scowl at
+you all the evening over their cards. Or else they dance. Dance!
+Dance! Hop! Skip! Not like joyous gamboling lambs but with set faces,
+as though there was nothing else in the world but the martyrdom of
+their feet. Mad! All mad! Please don't tell me that you dance, Miss
+Habberton."
+
+"I do," she laughed, "and I love it."
+
+"Youth!" Jack sighed and relapsed into silence.
+
+The evening passed in general conversation, interesting conversation
+which the world, it seems, has come to think is almost a lost art, not
+the least interesting part of which was Una's contribution on some of
+the lighter aspects of Blank Street. And I couldn't help comparing
+again the philosophy of this girl, the philosophy of helpfulness, with
+the bestial selfishness of the point of view of the so-called
+Freudians who, as I have been credibly informed, only live to glut
+themselves with the filth of their own baser instincts.
+Self-elimination as against self-expression, or since we are
+brute-born, merely self-animalization! Una Habberton's philosophy and
+Marcia Van Wyck's! Any but a blind man could run and read, or if need
+be, read and run.
+
+Mrs. Habberton was tired and went up early, her daughter accompanying
+her. I saw Jerry eyeing the girl rather wistfully at the foot of the
+stair. I think he was pleading with her to come down again but she
+only smiled at him brightly and I heard her say, "Tomorrow, Jerry."
+
+"Shall we fish?"
+
+"That will be fine."
+
+"Just you and I?"
+
+"If you think," and she laughed with careless gayety, "if you think
+Marcia won't object."
+
+"Oh, I say--" But his jaw fell and he frowned a little.
+
+"Good-night, Jerry, dear," she flung at him from the curve of the
+landing.
+
+"Good-night, Una," he called.
+
+The telephone bell rang the next morning before the breakfast hour and
+Jerry was called to it. I was in my study and the door was open. I
+couldn't help hearing. Marcia Van Wyck was on the wire. I couldn't
+hear her voice but Jerry's replies were illuminating.
+
+"I couldn't," I heard him say, "I had guests to dinner."
+
+Fortunately neither Una nor her mother was down.
+
+"I didn't tell you," he replied to her question. "It was--er--rather
+sudden. Miss Habberton and her mother. They're staying here for a few
+days. How are you--? Oh, I don't see why you--What difference does
+that make--? Won't you come over this afternoon? Please. Why not--?
+I'm awfully anxious to see you. Why, I couldn't, Marcia, not just now
+and besides--What--?"
+
+Apparently she had rung off. He tried to get her number and when he
+got it came away from the instrument suddenly, for the girl had
+evidently refused to talk to him.
+
+At the breakfast table, to which the ladies but not Jack Ballard
+descended, he was very quiet. I pitied him, but led the conversation
+into easy paths in which after a while he joined us. I saw Una
+glancing at him curiously, but no personal comment passed and when we
+went out on the shaded terrace to look down toward the lake, over the
+shimmering summer landscape, Una took a deep breath and then gave a
+long sigh of delight.
+
+"Isn't it wonderful just to live on a day like this?" And then with a
+laugh, "Jerry, you simply _must_ give us Horsham Manor as a fresh air
+farm."
+
+He smiled slowly.
+
+"It would do nicely, wouldn't it?"
+
+"Oh, yes, splendidly. Five thousand acres! That would be an acre
+apiece for every man, woman and child in the whole district. We would
+build mills by the lake, factories along the road and tenements in
+groups on the hills over there. It _might_ spoil the landscape, but it
+would be so--er--so satisfying."
+
+"And you'd want _me_ to pay the bills," he laughed.
+
+"Oh, yes. Of course. What are bills _for_ unless to be paid?"
+
+"Help yourself," he smiled. "Will you have the deeds made out today or
+wait until next week?"
+
+"I suppose I _might_ wait until tomorrow."
+
+"Oh, thanks. And, for the present, we'll go fishing."
+
+"I'll be ready in a moment." And she went upstairs for her hat and
+gloves.
+
+Already he yielded again to the spell of her comradeship and humor.
+And a moment later I saw them set off toward the Sweetwater, Una
+glowing with quiet delight, Jerry slowly showing the infection of her
+happiness.
+
+The nature of Una's conversation with Jerry during that morning of
+fishing and in the days that followed must always remain a secret to
+me. I know that when they returned Jerry was in a cheerful mood and
+put through an afternoon of tennis with Jack, while Una and her mother
+knitted in the shade. She was wholesome, that girl, and no one could
+be with her long without feeling the impress of her personality. But I
+was not happy. Marcia hung like a millstone around my neck. I knew
+that it was at the risk of a considerable sacrifice of pride that Una
+had decided to come with her mother and make this visit. The world and
+her own frequent contact with women of the baser sort had sharpened
+her wits and instincts amazingly. I am sure that she was just as well
+aware of the nature of Jerry's infatuation as though Jerry had told it
+himself. If Una cared for him as deeply as I had had the temerity to
+suppose, then her position was difficult--painful and thankless. But
+whatever her own wish to help him, I am sure that the nature of the
+desire was unselfish. After events prove that. All that Una saw in the
+situation of Jerry and Marcia was a friend who needed helping, who was
+worth helping from the snare of an utterly worldly and heartless
+woman. I am sure that her knowledge of the world must have made her
+task seem hopeless and it must have taken some courage to pit her own
+charm in the lists against one of Marcia's known quality. But if she
+was unhappy, no sign of it reached my eyes. Only her mother, who
+sometimes raised her eyes and calmly regarded her daughter, had an
+inkling of what was in Una's heart.
+
+Jerry went no more to the telephone. I kept an eye on it and I know.
+And when his car went out, Una or Jack went with him. Three days
+passed with no telephone calls from Briar Hills. When Jerry's guests
+were with him, the duties of hospitality seemed sacred to him and he
+left nothing undone for their comfort or entertainment. At night Una
+sang to us, and Jerry was himself, but during most of the day he moved
+mechanically, only speaking to Jack or me when directly addressed.
+
+"Acts like a sleepwalker," said Jack to me. "It's hypnotic, sheer
+moon-madness!"
+
+Only Una had the power to draw him out of himself. He always had a
+smile for her and a friendly word, but I knew that _she_ knew that she
+had failed. Jerry was possessed of a devil, a she-devil, that none of
+the familiar friendly gods could cast out.
+
+The end came soon and with a startling suddenness. We were out driving
+in Jack's motor one morning before lunch, Jack at the wheel, with Una
+beside him, Jerry and I in the rear seat, when in passing along a
+quiet road not far from Briar Hills, we saw at some distance ahead of
+us and going our way, a red runabout, containing a man and a girl.
+Jack was running the car very slowly, as the road was none too good,
+and we ran close up behind the pair before they were aware of us. I
+saw Jerry lean forward in his seat, peering with the strange set look
+I had recently seen so often in his eyes. I followed his gaze and, as
+I looked, the man in the red car put his arm around the girl's neck
+and she raised her chin and they kissed. All of us saw it. Jack
+chuckled and blew his horn violently. The pair drew apart suddenly and
+the man tried quickly to get away, but Jack with a laugh had already
+put on the power and we passed them before they could get up speed.
+The girl hid her face but the man was Channing Lloyd.
+
+Jerry had recognized them. I saw him start up in his seat, turning
+around, but I caught at his wrist and held him. He was deathly pale,
+ugly, dangerous. But he made no further move. During the ride home he
+sat as though frozen fast into his seat with no word for me or for our
+companions, who had not turned or spoken to us. I think that Jack
+suspected and Una knew and feared to look at Jerry's face. By the time
+we reached the house Jerry had managed to control himself. The
+dangerous look upon his face was succeeded by a glacial calm, which
+lasted through luncheon, of which he ate nothing. Jack did his best to
+bring an atmosphere of unconcern but failed and we got up from the
+table aware of impending trouble. Then Jerry disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+FEET OF CLAY
+
+
+It is with some reluctance that I begin these chapters dealing with
+the most terrible event in Jerry's life, and for that matter the most
+terrible experience in my own, for as the reader of this history must
+now be aware, Jerry's life was mine. I had made him, molded him for
+good or ill according to my own definite plan, by the results of which
+I had professed myself willing to stand whatever came. Had I known
+what these results were to be, it would have been better if I had cast
+myself into the sea than have come to Horsham Manor as Jerry's
+preceptor, the sponsor for old Benham's theory. But human wisdom is
+fallible, true virtue a dream. Dust we are and to dust return,
+groveling meanwhile as best we may, amid the wreck of our illusions.
+It costs me something to admit the failure of the Great Experiment,
+its horrible and tragic failure! To lose a hand, an eye, a limb, to be
+withered by disease, one can replace, repair, renew; but an ideal, a
+system of philosophy, ingrained into one's very life! It is this that
+scars and withers the soul.
+
+I must go on, for, after all, it is not my soul that matters, but
+Jerry's. It was quite an hour after Jerry disappeared before I began
+to suspect that he had gone to Briar Hills. The last I had seen of him
+was when he was on his way up the stair to his own room. But when I
+sought him there a short while afterward, I could not find him, nor
+was he anywhere in the house. I questioned the servants, telephoned
+the garage. All the machines, including Jerry's own roadster, were in
+the building. I went out to question the gardeners and found a man who
+had seen Jerry awhile before, entering the path into the woods behind
+the house. Mr. Benham was hatless, the fellow said, and walked
+rapidly, his head bent. Even then I did not suspect where he was
+going. I thought that he had merely gone to "walk it off," a phrase we
+had for our own cure for the doldrums. But as the moments passed and
+he did not return, I took Jack into confidence, and expressed the fear
+that he had gone to Briar Hills for a reckoning with Marcia and Lloyd.
+
+A worried look came into Jack's face, but he shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"Let him. It's time. We can't do anything."
+
+"We might try."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Go there before damage is done, bring him home."
+
+"And make ourselves ridiculous."
+
+"Oh, that--! I don't care."
+
+"Well, _I_ do. You've got to let this problem work itself out, Pope.
+It's gone too far. He's on the brink of disillusionment. Let it come,
+no matter how or what."
+
+"But violence--!"
+
+"Let it come. Better a violence which may cure than this quiet madness
+that is eating his soul away."
+
+"But Lloyd! Jerry's strength! He might kill the brute."
+
+"Don't fear. If the man would fight Jerry might do him damage. But
+he'll run, Pope. You can't kill a bounder. The breed is resilient."
+
+"I'm afraid."
+
+"You needn't be. This is the turning point of his affair."
+
+"Perhaps. But in which way will it turn?"
+
+"Wait."
+
+I was helpless. Against my own judgment I did as he bade. We waited.
+We sat upon the terrace for awhile with the ladies, Jack reading
+aloud. Una made no comment upon Jerry's absence and gave no sign of
+her prescience of anything unusual, except the frequent turning of her
+head toward the house or toward the paths within the range of her
+vision, as though she hoped every moment that Jerry might appear. The
+shadows lengthened. Jack challenged the girl to a game of tennis and
+even offered to play in the double court against us both, but neither
+of us was willing. I think she knew where Jerry had gone and, like me,
+was frightened. It was a miserable afternoon. As the dinner hour
+approached the ladies retired to dress and I gave a sigh of relief. In
+my anxious state of mind the burden of entertaining them had weighed
+heavily upon me. It had occurred to me that Una's mother might have
+thought it strange that Jerry should have left them so suddenly
+without excuses, for he owed them an explanation at least. I think
+some inkling of an unusual situation had entered Mrs. Habberton's
+mind, for when dinner was nearly over and her host had not appeared,
+she made a vague remark about a letter that had come in the morning
+which might oblige her to curtail her visit, a tactful anticipation
+of any situation which might make their stay impossible. The evening
+dragged hopelessly and the ladies retired early, while at the foot of
+the stair I made some fatuous remark about Jerry's possibly having
+been summoned to town. The "good-nights" were said with an excess of
+cheerfulness on Una's part and my own which did nothing to conceal
+from either of us the real nature of our anxiety.
+
+Jack and I smoked in the library, discussing every phase of the
+situation. The coming of night without a word or a sign from the boy
+had made us both a prey to the liveliest fears. Something had happened
+to Jerry--What? He had been wild, determined. I could not forget his
+look. It was the same expression I had seen at Madison Square Garden
+when he had made his insensate effort to knock Clancy out--a narrow
+glitter of the eyes, brute-keen and directed by a mind made crafty by
+desperation. Weary of surmises, at last we relapsed into silence,
+trying to read. Jack at last dozed over his book and, unable longer to
+remain seated, I got up, went outside and walked around the house
+again and again. The garage tempted me. Jerry's machine was inside.
+Unknown to Jack I would go myself to Briar Hills and see Miss Gore.
+She would know.
+
+There was a light in the window. I turned the knob and entered. As I
+did so someone stooping rose and faced me. It was Jerry, a terrible
+figure, his clothes torn and covered with dirt, his hair matted and
+hanging over his eyes, which gleamed somberly out of dark circles. He
+had a wrench in his hand. For a moment in my timidity and uncertainty
+I thought him mad and about to strike me with it. But he made no move
+toward me and only hung his head like a whipped dog.
+
+"_You_, Roger?"
+
+"What has happened. Jerry?"
+
+"Nothing. Don't ask."
+
+"But Jack and I have been sitting up for you. We've been worried."
+
+"I know. But it couldn't be helped. Just don't ask me anything,
+Roger."
+
+I was glad enough to have him safe and apparently quite sane. I don't
+know why I should have considered his sanity at that moment of
+peculiar importance unless because my own mind had been all the
+afternoon and evening so colored with the impression of his last
+appearance. I had become so used to the sense of strain, of tension in
+his condition of mind, that the quiet, rather submissive tone of his
+voice affected me strangely. It seemed almost as if the disease was
+passing, that his fever was abated.
+
+"I won't ask you anything, if you don't like, but I think you'd better
+come to the house and get a hot bath and to bed."
+
+He remained silent for a long moment.
+
+"I'm not going to the house, Roger. I'm going--"
+
+He paused again.
+
+"Going! Where?" I asked.
+
+"I don't know just yet. Away from here, from New York--at once."
+
+"But I can't let you go without--"
+
+He held up his hand and I paused.
+
+"Don't talk, Roger," he said quickly. "Don't question and don't talk.
+It won't do any good. I had hoped I shouldn't see you. I was
+waiting--waiting until the lights went out."
+
+"But I couldn't."
+
+"Please!" he said quietly, and then went on.
+
+"I was going to get some things and go during the night. Now you'll
+have to help me. Tell Christopher to pack a bag--just a clean suit and
+linen--and bring it here--And--and that's all." He held out his hand
+with a sober smile. "Good-by, Roger," he finished.
+
+"But I can't let you go like this."
+
+"You've got to. Don't worry. I'm all right. I'm not going to make a
+fool of myself--or--or drink or anything. I've got to be alone--to do
+some thinking. I'll write you. Good-by."
+
+"But Una! What shall I say?"
+
+"Una!" He turned away and bent his head. "My God!" he said and then
+repeated the words below his breath, almost like a prayer, and then,
+turning, with a wild gesture, "Tell her anything, Roger. Say I'm all
+right but I can't see her. Say I had a telegram--called West on a
+Railroad matter--anything. Now go."
+
+He caught me by the hand with a crushing grip while he pushed me
+toward the door.
+
+"You will not--?"
+
+"I'm all right, quite. Don't fear for me. I'll come back--soon. Now
+go, old chap. I'll wait for Christopher here. Hurry, please."
+
+He spoke kindly but sharply. I could see that argument was of no
+avail. His mind was made up and with Jerry that was final. Whatever
+had happened--and from his appearance I suspected a soul-wrenching
+struggle--he was at least for the present physically safe and entirely
+sane. But it was with serious misgivings that I slipped past the
+somnolent Jack and upstairs to Jerry's room, where I found Christopher
+and together we packed a bag, descending by the back stairs, where I
+took the bag from Christopher's hand and sent him to bed.
+
+In a moment I was in the garage with Jerry.
+
+"Oh, _you_--!" he frowned.
+
+"Let me go with you at least as far as town," I pleaded.
+
+"No," gruffly. "No one." He threw the bag into the car and clambered
+quickly in.
+
+"Here, your cap," I said, handing it to him. Our fingers met. He
+grasped mine until they pained me.
+
+"Forgive me, Roger. I don't mean to be unkind. You're too good to me."
+
+"Jerry, you fool!" I cried, my eyes wet.
+
+He had started the machine and when I opened the door he moved slowly
+out.
+
+"Good-by, old Dry-as-dust," he called with a wave of the hand and a
+rather sinister smile.
+
+"For God's sake no drink, Jerry!" I whispered tensely.
+
+"I promise," he said solemnly. "Good-by!"
+
+And while I watched, he swept noiselessly around the drive and was
+soon lost in the blur of the trees below.
+
+I walked slowly toward the terrace in the shadow of the trees, deep in
+bewilderment. What should I say to Una? Half unconsciously I glanced
+up at her window, the corner one over the terrace. Something white
+stirred and I thought I heard a sound, a faint sound, and then a
+strangling hush.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
+
+
+But all other considerations were as nothing beside the mystery of
+Jerry's manner and appearance, and his sudden flight filled me with
+the gravest fears. What had he done at Briar Hills, what horrible
+thing? Could it be that the boy had--? I shrank in dismay from the
+terrible thought that came into my mind. I went hurriedly into the
+house and without ceremony waked the sleeping Jack. He aroused himself
+with difficulty but when I told him what had happened he came quickly
+to life.
+
+"You--you're sure you're not mistaken?" he asked, still bewildered.
+
+"Haven't I told you that I saw the boy with my own eyes, that
+something dreadful has happened today at Briar Hills and that he's
+flying from the results of it? Come, Jack. We must go there at once."
+
+"By all means," he said, springing up with an air of decision. "My
+car," and then as we started for the garage, "you don't mean to say
+that you believe the boy has--?"
+
+The terrible words would not come. The mere thought of mentioning them
+frightened him as they had done me.
+
+"How can I tell?" I said irritably.
+
+"God knows," he muttered miserably. "Violence--but not--not that."
+
+"Hurry," I muttered. "Hurry."
+
+In a moment we were in the car, rushing through the night toward the
+lower gate. Briar Hills was not more than four miles from the Manor as
+the crow flies, but fully twelve by the lower road. Jack wasted no
+time and we sped along the empty driveways of the estate at a furious
+pace. The cool damp air of the lowlands refreshed and stimulated us
+and we were now keenly alert and thinking hard. The lodge gates were
+kept open now and we went roaring through them and out into the
+country roads where the going was not so good. Neither of us had dared
+to repeat our former questions which were still uppermost in our
+minds. The topic was prohibitive and until we knew something silence
+were better.
+
+It couldn't have been more than twenty minutes, twenty-five at the
+most, before we reached the gates of the Van Wyck place, though it
+seemed an age to me. Then at my suggestion Jack slowed down and we
+went up the drive as quietly as possible. I don't know what we
+expected to see when we got there, but the sight of the house with
+lights burning in the windows here and there did something to reassure
+us. After debating a plan of action we drove boldly up to the house
+and got out. The front door upon the veranda was wide open but there
+was no sound within or without. Jack was for dashing in at once and
+searching the premises but I took him by the arm.
+
+"Wait," I said, "listen."
+
+Somewhere within I thought I made out the sound of footsteps. "At
+least someone is about. Where's the bell? We'll ring."
+
+I found it and though the hour was late a maid answered. She came to
+the door timidly, uncertainly, as though a little frightened.
+
+"This is Mr. Canby," I explained. "I would like to see Miss Gore,
+please."
+
+"I don't know, sir," she paused and then: "Wait a moment. I'll see--"
+and went upstairs.
+
+We had been prepared for a wait but Miss Gore appeared almost
+immediately. She came down calmly, and asked us into the drawing-room.
+
+"I was expecting you," she said with great deliberateness, "and
+wondered if you'd come."
+
+"Then something--something _has_ happened," I broke in hurriedly.
+
+"I don't know what, exactly," she said. "I can't understand. I've
+thought several things--"
+
+"Is Channing Lloyd here?" I asked excitedly.
+
+"No. He was here to luncheon and went out with Marcia, but he didn't
+come back--to the house, I mean."
+
+"But you know that he has been seen--since?"
+
+I asked the question in terror and trembling.
+
+"Oh, yes," she said. "One of the gardeners saw him and--"
+
+"And Marcia?" I questioned again.
+
+She pointed upward, where we were conscious again of the steadily
+moving footsteps.
+
+"She's upstairs in her room."
+
+I think the gasps of relief that came from each of us at this welcome
+news must have given Miss Gore the true measure of our anxiety, for a
+thin smile broke on her lips.
+
+"Thank God," I said feelingly. "Then they're safe. What has happened,
+Miss Gore? Can you tell me? Jerry has gone, fled from Horsham Manor.
+We feared--the worst."
+
+"I don't know what has happened, Mr. Canby," she admitted. "But it's
+very strange. I will tell you what I know. Marcia and Mr. Lloyd went
+out together after luncheon, not in a motor but afoot. I was in the
+garden in the afternoon cutting roses for the dinner table when I saw
+a figure skulking near the hedge which leads to the main drive. I
+wasn't frightened at all, for Dominick, the man who attends to the
+rose garden, was nearby, but the man's actions were queer and I sent
+the gardener to inquire. He went and I followed, curiously. Dominick
+cut across behind the hedges and came out on the lawn quite near the
+man, who walked with his body slightly inclined and one arm upraised
+and bent across his face, his hand holding a red handkerchief. I could
+make out his figure now. I remembered the suit of shepherd's plaid
+that Channing Lloyd had been wearing. There is no doubt of his
+identity, for Dominick confirmed me. It was Mr. Lloyd."
+
+"But what was he bending over for?" I asked.
+
+"I can't imagine. When Dominick spoke to him, he merely cursed the man
+and went on."
+
+"Curious," said Jack thoughtfully.
+
+"Isn't it? I can't make it out at all."
+
+"And Marcia?" I asked.
+
+"She came back much later. I didn't see her for she rushed into her
+room and locked the door. She's there now. I've tried to get to her.
+But she won't let me in, won't even answer me. Listen," and she
+pointed upward. "She's been doing that for hours. I've taken her food.
+She won't eat or reply. Nothing except, 'Go,' or 'Go away.' I'm at my
+wit's ends. I seem to be sure, Mr. Canby, that Jerry--"
+
+"Yes," I put in. "You're right, Jerry--was here. Something has
+happened."
+
+"But what?" she asked.
+
+"He saw them together in the red motor."
+
+"Kissing," put in Jack rather brutally.
+
+"Ah," she said composedly. And then, "Ah, yes, I see, but why Lloyd's
+curious behavior and Jerry's flight?"
+
+"It's very mysterious."
+
+"Yes, very." Here she rose as with a sudden sense of responsibility
+and brought the interview to an end. I think she read farther than I
+did. "At all events we know that they are all alive," she said with a
+smile. "Perhaps no great damage is done after all."
+
+It seemed as though she were trying to deceive herself or us, but we
+made no comment, presently taking our departure.
+
+It was not until many months later that I learned what had happened on
+that dreadful day. Jack Ballard and the Habbertons left Horsham Manor
+the following afternoon and it was many weeks before I saw Una in New
+York, for some instinct had restrained me; not until some time after I
+had Jerry's first letter, just a few lines written from somewhere in
+Manitoba, merely telling me that he was in good health and asking me
+not to worry. But brief as it was, this message cheered me
+inexpressibly.
+
+I could not bring myself to go to Briar Hills again, but managed a
+meeting with Miss Gore, who told me that Marcia was in a more than
+usually fiendish temper most of the time--quite unbearable, in fact.
+She was going away to Bar Harbor, she thought, and the certainty of
+Miss Gore's tenure of office depended much upon Marcia's treatment of
+her. They had quarreled. To be a poor relation was one thing, to be a
+martyr another.
+
+She couldn't understand Marcia's humor, moody and irascible by turns,
+and once when Miss Gore had mentioned Jerry's name she flew into a
+towering rage and threw a hair brush through a mirror--a handsome
+mirror she particularly liked.
+
+Jerry's affair with Marcia was ended. There could be no possible doubt
+about that. Further than this Miss Gore knew nothing. It was enough. I
+was content, so content that in my commiseration I held her hand
+unduly long and she asked me what I was going to do with it, and not
+knowing I dropped it suddenly and made my exit I fear rather
+awkwardly. What could I have done with it? A fine woman that, but
+cryptic.
+
+It was June when Jerry left, not until midwinter that he returned to
+Horsham Manor. He was very much changed, older-looking, less
+assertive, quieter, deeper-toned, more thoughtful. It was as though
+the physical Jerry that I knew had been subjected to some searching
+test which had eliminated all superfluities, refined the good metal in
+him, solidified, unified him. And the physical was symbolic of the
+spiritual change. I knew that since that night in July the world had
+tried him in its alembic with its severest tests and that he had
+emerged safely. He was not joyous but he seemed content. Life was no
+longer a game. It was a study. Bitter as experience had been, it had
+made him. Perfect he might not be but sound, sane, wholesome. Jerry
+had grown to be a man!
+
+But Jerry and I were to have new moments of _rapprochement_. As the
+days of his stay at the Manor went on, our personal relations grew
+closer. He spoke of his letters to Una and of hers to him, but his
+remarks about her were almost impersonal. It seemed as though some
+delicacy restrained him, some newly discovered embarrassment which
+made the thought of seeing her impossible and so he did not go to pay
+his respects to her. Indeed, he was content just to stay at the Manor
+with me. It seemed that the bond between us, the old brotherly bond
+that had existed before Jerry had gone forth into the world, had been
+renewed. I would have given my life for him and I think he understood.
+He was still much worried and talked of doing penance. Poor lad! As
+though he were not doing penance every moment of his days! I know that
+he wanted to talk, to tell me what had happened, to ask my advice, to
+have my judgment of him and of her. But something restrained him,
+perhaps the memory of the girl he had thought Marcia to be, that
+sublimated being, in whose veins flowed only the ichor of the gods,
+the goddess with the feet of clay. I told him that she had been at Bar
+Harbor with Channing Lloyd and that Miss Gore had told me that the two
+were much together in town.
+
+"Oh, yes," he said slowly, "I know. They're even reported engaged.
+Perhaps they are."
+
+There was a long silence. We were sitting in the library late one
+night, a month at least after he had returned, reading and talking by
+turns.
+
+"She wasn't worthy of you. Jerry," I remarked.
+
+"No, that's not true," he said, a hand shading his eyes from the
+lamplight. "It would be a poor creature that wouldn't be worthy of
+such a beast as I. But she tried me, Roger, terribly."
+
+"She tempted you purposely. It was a game. I saw it. But you, poor
+blind Jerry--"
+
+"Yes, blind and worse than blind, deaf to the appeals of my
+friends--you and--and Una, who saw where I did not. Marcia had
+promised to marry me, Roger, to be my wife. Do you understand what
+such a promise meant to me then? All ideals and clean thoughts. I
+worshiped her, did not even dare to touch her--until--Oh, I kissed
+her, Roger. She taught me--many things, little things, innocent they
+seemed in themselves at the time, but dangerous to my body and to my
+soul. I knew nothing. I was like a new-born babe. My God! Roger--if
+only you had told me! If you had told me--"
+
+"I couldn't then, Jerry," I said softly. "It would have been too late.
+You wouldn't have believed--"
+
+"No," he muttered, "you're right. I wouldn't have believed anything
+against her at the time or found a real meaning in the truth. She
+could have done no wrong. Then I saw her kissing that fellow--you
+remember? I think the change came in me then, my vision. I seemed to
+see things differently without knowing why. Rage possessed me, animal
+rage. I saw red. I wanted to kill."
+
+He rose and paced the length of the room with great strides.
+
+"I mustn't, Roger. I can't say more. It's impossible."
+
+I was silent. A reaction had come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+DRYAD AND SATYR
+
+
+Little by little the story came from him. Perhaps I urged him but I
+think the larger impelling motive to speak was his conscience which
+drove him on to confession. He needed another mind, another heart, to
+help him bear his burden. And the years had taught him that the
+secrets of his lips were mine. I could be as silent, when I chose, as
+a mummy. He had not named me old Dry-as-dust for nothing.
+
+It seems that when Jerry left us at the Manor that afternoon and took
+to the woods he had no very clear notion of what he was going to do.
+All that he knew was that he could not bear the sight or touch or
+hearing of his fellow beings, least of all of those of us who were
+kind to him. In fact, he had no very clear notion of anything, for his
+brain was whirling with terrible grinding, reiterating blows like
+machinery that is out of order. What thoughts he had were chaotic,
+mere fragments of incidents, and conversations jumbled and mostly
+irrelevant. But the vision of the figures in the automobile dominated
+all. I am sure that he was mentally unsound and that his actions were
+instinctive. He walked furiously, because walk he must, because
+violent physical exercise had always been his panacea, and because the
+very act of locomotion was an achievement of some sort. After awhile
+he found himself running swiftly along the paths that led to the
+Sweetwater, and then following the stream through the gorge in the
+hills, leaping over the rocks until he reached the wall and the broken
+grille. There he paused for a moment and tried to reason with himself.
+But he found that he could not think and that his legs still urged him
+on. They were bent on carrying him to Briar Hills, he knew that much
+now, and that he had no power to stop them. The violence of his
+exercise, he said, had cleared the chaos from his brain and only the
+vision of the red automobile remained, Marcia's roadster. He knew it
+well. Had he not driven it? There was no mistake. It crossed his
+disordered brain that red for a machine was a frightful color, a
+painful color it seemed to him, and he wondered why he hadn't thought
+that before. Red, blood color, the color that seemed to be in his eyes
+at that very moment. All the trees were tinged with it, the rocks,
+even the pools in the brook, around the edges especially--and they had
+always seemed so cool, so very cool.
+
+He leaped down the rocks and before he realized it had crawled under
+the broken railing and was in the forest beyond. He did not run now
+but walked quickly and with the utmost care over fallen tree-trunks
+and rocks, avoiding the paths and seeking the deep woods, still moving
+ever nearer to his goal. He made a wide detour around the Laidlaws'
+place and went half a mile out of his way to avoid the sight of some
+farmers working in an open field. As he neared Marcia's land he grew
+more crafty, even crawling upon his hands and knees across a clearing
+where there was little cover. He had no notion as yet of what he was
+going to do when he got there except that he hoped to find the girl
+and Lloyd together.
+
+He saw the house at last and the garden, from a distance. The house
+had a red roof. Red again! It glared horribly in the afternoon
+sunlight. He turned his head so that he might not look at it and moved
+stealthily around a stone wall toward the woods beyond the
+garden--Marcia's woods, pine woods they were, their floor carpeted
+with brown needles where he and she had used to go and walk of an
+afternoon to the rocks by Sweetwater Spring, the source of the stream,
+they said, which Jerry had named the "blushful Hippocrene," the
+fountain of the Muses who met there to do Marcia, their goddess,
+honor.
+
+Marcia, _his_ goddess. And Chan Lloyd! _Would_ they be there? He hoped
+so. The whole success of his venture seemed to depend upon seeing them
+together. It was her favorite spot. She had led Jerry to believe that
+the crevice among the rocks by the spring, a natural throne sculptured
+by nature, was his, his only, and that he was her king. That had
+always seemed a very beautiful thought to Jerry. She used to sit at
+his feet, her arms upon his knees, look up at him and tell him of his
+dominion over her and all the world; her "fighting-god" he had once
+been, and then again her Pan, and she a dryad or an oread.
+
+Jerry crept nearer, stealthily. He had learned the craft of the woods
+years ago, and made no sound. He stalked that grove with the keenness
+of a deerslayer, moving around through the undergrowth until he was
+quite near the rocks. He could hear no voices as yet, but something
+told him that they must be there. It was a very secluded spot; it
+would have been a pity to have had to go on to the house where Miss
+Gore and the servants would hear and see. He crawled on his hands and
+knees, approaching slowly and with some pains. He still heard no
+sound, but at last reached a ridge of rock within a few feet of the
+spring and heard voices, lowered, guilty voices they seemed to him. He
+peered cautiously over. They were there, side by side on the rocky
+ledge.
+
+Jerry told me that at this moment he seemed suddenly to grow strangely
+calm. The noises in his head had ceased and he felt a curious sense of
+quiet exaltation. He couldn't explain this. I think it was a purely
+mental reaction after many months of spiritual coma. He got to his
+feet and even before they heard the sounds of his footsteps he stood
+before them.
+
+They must have been very much alarmed at Jerry's appearance for, after
+dashing hotfoot through the underbrush and crawling among the rocks,
+his clothing must have been disarranged and his hair dirty and
+disordered. The expression of his face, too, in spite of his boasted
+calm, could hardly have been pleasant to contemplate, for I had had a
+glimpse of it that morning in the motor and I am sure that for an hour
+or more he had been mad--quite mad. He said that they sprang apart
+suddenly and that Lloyd rose with a swaggering air and faced him. But
+it seemed that the current of Jerry's thought was diverted by Marcia,
+who had started up and then sank back upon the rock, addressing him in
+her softest tones.
+
+"Why, Jerry!" she cried. "How you startled me!"
+
+It was the first time, Jerry said, that the caressing tones of the
+girl's voice had made no impression upon him. In two strides he was
+alongside of her, within arm's reach of both of them. He looked
+dangerous, I think, for Lloyd edged off a little. Marcia kept her gaze
+fixed upon his face and what she read there was hardly reassuring.
+
+"Jerry!" she cried again. "What does this mean? Your clothes are torn;
+your face scratched. Has--has something happened to you?"
+
+The question was unfortunate, for it loosened Jerry's thick tongue.
+
+"Yes. Something's happened," he muttered, moving a hand across his
+brows as though to clear his thoughts. And then:
+
+"I've waked up, that's all," he growled.
+
+"Waked! I don't understand," her voice still gentle, appealing,
+incredulous.
+
+"Yes, awake. You're false as hell."
+
+"Oh," she started back at that and the venturesome Lloyd took a pace
+forward.
+
+"I say, Benham, I--" He got no further, for Jerry without even looking
+at him, swept his left arm around, the gesture of a giant bothered by
+a troublesome insect. But it caught the fellow full in the chest, and
+sent him reeling backward. Jerry's business just now was with Marcia
+Van Wyck.
+
+"You understand what I mean," he went on quickly. "You've played false
+with me. You've always played false. I saw you there this morning
+kissing this man, the way you kissed me, the way you kiss others for
+all that I know."
+
+"You're mad. You insult me." She rose, pale and trembling, but facing
+him hardily.
+
+"No, I'm not mad. Nothing that I can say can insult you."
+
+"Chan!" She appealed.
+
+It was a fatal mistake, for at the word Lloyd came forward again, bent
+on making some show of resistance. Jerry turned on him with a snarl,
+for the fellow had foolishly put up his hands. A few blows passed and
+then--Jerry told what happened rather apologetically--"It was a pity,
+Roger. It wasn't altogether his fault, but he _is_ a bounder. My fist
+struck his face, seemed to smear it, literally, all into a blot of
+red. It wasn't like hitting a man in the ring, it was like--like
+poking a bag full of dirty linen. The whole fabric seemed to give way.
+He toppled back, turned a complete somersault and collapsed."
+
+I made no comment. I already knew that Lloyd hadn't been killed. The
+girl Marcia seemed stricken dumb for a moment and found her voice only
+when Jerry turned toward her again.
+
+"Jerry," she cried. "It is horrible. You're a brute--beast--"
+
+Jerry only pointed at the prostrate figure slowly struggling to its
+knees.
+
+"Go and kiss him," he cried. "Go. Kiss him now. He's on his knees to
+you, waiting for you."
+
+While they watched, Lloyd got to his feet, turned one look of terror
+in Jerry's direction and then fled blindly into the woods, like one
+possessed of a devil.
+
+Jerry laughed. It couldn't have been very pretty laughter, for the
+girl covered her face with her hands and shrank away from him.
+
+"How _could_ you?" she stammered. "How _could_ you?"
+
+"You were mine. He wanted you."
+
+"Jerry--I--. It's all a mistake. You thought you saw us. I haven't
+kissed--"
+
+"You lie," he came a pace toward her. "I saw you. I'm not a fool--not
+any longer."
+
+Her gaze met his and fell. There was something in his expression,
+something of the primitive that tore away all subterfuge.
+
+But she was not without courage.
+
+"And if I did kiss him--what then?" she asked defiantly. "I'll kiss as
+I please."
+
+"_Will_ you?" He caught at her wrist but she eluded him.
+
+"Yes, I will. What right have you to tell me what I shall do or not
+do? I'll choose my friends as I please and kiss them as I please, Chan
+or anyone!"
+
+She had not gauged his temper. Perhaps she hadn't read the meaning in
+his eyes. Perhaps she thought that she could elude him or that the
+fact that she was on her own land gave her a fancied sense of
+security.
+
+"You'll not," he cried.
+
+"I will. What right have you to question me? You can amuse yourself
+with Una."
+
+"Stop!" he thundered.
+
+But she had found her spirit and her confidence in her ability to win
+him to gentleness by one means or another was returning to her. She
+was bold now but prepared to melt if the need required it.
+
+"I will not stop," she cried. "You and Una. What right have you to
+criticize me for what you yourself--"
+
+She stopped abruptly, for he caught her by the arm and held her. Jerry
+said that even yet he was timid of her delicacy--fearful of the things
+he had thought her to be. But he still held her, though she struggled
+to get away from him.
+
+"Let me go, Jerry. You're hurting me. Please let me go."
+
+She felt the first touch of his imperviousness when he refused to
+release her and chose to change her tone.
+
+"Please let me go, Jerry," she pleaded softly. "Do you think you are
+treating me kindly, after all--all that is between us? I don't care
+for Chan--I don't, Jerry. Let me go."
+
+In his eyes she read the new judgment.
+
+"Then you're worse than I supposed," he muttered.
+
+"Worse! Oh, Jerry. Don't look so--so coldly. It hurts me terribly. I
+must go. I can't stand your looking at me in that way."
+
+She tried to move away, I think she had every intention of taking to
+her heels if Jerry had only given her the chance. But he wouldn't. He
+held her and kept her close beside him. He was hurting her wrist
+cruelly.
+
+"Let me go," she cried, struggling anew.
+
+Her resistance aroused him again. The animal fury of battle had not
+died out of his eyes. He did not know what he intended to do with
+her--had no plan, no purpose, he said. What plan or purpose could he
+have had unless murder? And even in his madness I'm sure that that
+never occurred to him. But his blood was hot and his anger and
+bitterness overwhelming. His fear of her delicacy diminished with her
+struggles, for her resistance inflamed him. He did not know, nor did
+she just then, that the animal instinct to conquer was what she had
+taught him, and that the turgid stream of his blood was finding new
+strength and unreason, a strange new impetus in every struggle. She
+saw her danger and was powerless to prevent it. She looked over her
+shoulder helplessly in the direction in which Chan Lloyd had vanished
+and saw no help from there. Jerry's great strength had never seemed so
+terrible as now. He caught her by the shoulders and held her, shook
+her, I think, a little, as one would shake a child, while she still
+struggled in his grasp. In a moment his grasp loosened a little, then
+tightened again, for the contact of his fingers with her warm skin was
+awaking the demon in him, the dormant devil she had put there.
+
+"Oh, you're hurting me so, Jerry--so terribly."
+
+But he did not even hear her voice. His eyes were speaking to hers,
+holding them with a deathly fascination. If fear was her passion she
+was drinking it now to the full--fear and the sense of the ruthless
+power and dominion in this madman of her own creation. Her hands
+clasped his shoulders.
+
+"Jerry!" she screamed. "Don't look at me like that. Your eyes burn
+me."
+
+"Into your soul--I will burn it--blot it out."
+
+"Jerry, forgive me," she sobbed. "I love you."
+
+"You lie."
+
+"I love you. Forgive me!"
+
+"No. You lie!"
+
+Her arms went around his neck. And he crushed her to him, all the
+length of them in contact. She struggled faintly but her lips sought
+his in a despairing hope of pity. She found the lips, but no pity. The
+breath was almost gone from her body. She struggled, fighting hard,
+breathing his name in little panting sobs. She too was mad now, as
+much of an animal as Jerry, her blood coursing furiously. Her terror
+of herself must have been greater even than her terror of him, for she
+was quivering--shaken by the terrible gusts of his passion.
+
+Suddenly she felt herself released, thrust from him. His fingers
+bruised the tender flesh of her shoulders but his eyes bruised her
+more.
+
+"Jerry!"
+
+His hands had caught the two sides of the flimsy shirt-waist at the
+breast and torn it aside, off her shoulders, off her arms.
+
+"Have pity, Jerry," she whimpered.
+
+[Illustration: "'Have pity, Jerry,' she whimpered."]
+
+"Pity, yes," he laughed wildly. "Kiss me. You want to be kissed. I'll
+kill you with kissing. Death like this--such a death--!"
+
+She struggled more furiously, struck, kissed and struck again. But
+Jerry's madness triumphed--her own.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+At this point Jerry hid his face in his hands, trembling violently.
+
+"I was out of my head, Roger. Tell me that I was, for the love of God.
+I must have been. It was horrible. I did not know. I can scarcely
+remember now. Death would have been better--for her, for me--than
+that. My God! If only you had told me, something. I could have gone
+away, I think--before--But to have knowledge come like that,
+engulfing, flooding, drowning with its terrible bitterness. And
+Marcia--" He raised his head piteously, "I asked her to marry me,
+Roger--at once. But she only looked at me with strange eyes.
+
+"'Marriage!' she said, 'My God!' It was almost as though I had uttered
+a sacrilege.
+
+"I pleaded with her gently, but she shook me off. A fearful change had
+come over her. She drew away and looked at me with alien eyes.
+
+"'Marriage!' she repeated. '_You!_'
+
+"'Marry me tomorrow, Marcia--'
+
+"She thrust her naked arms in front of her, their tatters flying, the
+rags of her honor.
+
+"'Oh, God! How I loathe you!'
+
+"'Marcia!'
+
+"'Go away from me. Go!'
+
+"She put her arm before her eyes as though to shut out the sight of
+me.
+
+"'For God's sake, go,' she repeated, with words that cut like knives.
+'Leave me alone, alone.'
+
+"'I must see you--tomorrow.'
+
+"She turned on me furiously.
+
+"'No, no, no,' she screamed, 'not tomorrow--or ever. It would kill me
+to see you. Kill me. Go away--never comeback. Do you hear? Never!
+Never!'
+
+"She was in a harrowing condition now, mad where I was quite sane.
+There was nothing left for me to do. I turned as in a daze into the
+woods and wandered around as though only half-awake, stupidly trying
+to plan. At last I went back to the spring. Marcia had gone--gone out
+of my life--
+
+"That's all, Roger. I wrote to her from New York, from Manitoba,
+from the ranch in Colorado, repeating my offer of marriage, but she
+has never answered me. You know the rest--" a slow and rather bitter
+smile crossed his features. "She goes about--with Lloyd--and others.
+She is gay. Her picture is in the papers and magazines--at
+hunt-meets--bazaars. She has forgotten--and I--No, I can never forget.
+She will dwell with me all the days I live. I can't forget or
+forgive--myself. Why, Roger, the Mission--the place that I'm giving
+money to support--to keep those women. You understand--I know now.
+_She_ might be one of them and I--I would have brought her there."
+
+I had been stricken dumb by the fearful revelation of Jerry's sin. I
+was silent, thinking of new words of comfort for him and for
+myself--for I was not innocent--but they would not come, and Jerry
+rose and walked the length of the room. "I've got to get away from it
+all again--somewhere. I can't stay here. Everything brings it all
+back. I'm going away."
+
+"Going, Jerry? Where?"
+
+"I don't know. I've made a kind of plan. But I mustn't tell. I don't
+want you to know or anyone. But I've got to leave here." He smiled a
+little as he saw the anxious look in my eyes. "Oh, don't worry. I'm
+going to be all right, I don't drink, you know."
+
+I think he was really a little proud of that admission.
+
+"Are you sure, Jerry," I asked after awhile, "that you care nothing
+for Marcia?"
+
+He took a turn up and down the room before he replied. And then, quite
+calmly:
+
+"It's curious, Roger. She has gone out of my life. Gone like--like a
+burned candle. I do not love her, nor ever could again, and yet I
+would marry her tomorrow if she would have me. I wrote her again
+yesterday, and I'm going to try to see her in New York. But I'll fail.
+My face would always be a reproach to her. I know. She is like
+that--bitter. I don't know that I can blame her."
+
+It was long past midnight. Jerry went to bed. But I sat oblivious of
+the passing hours, wide awake, somber, my gaze fixed upon the square
+of the window which turned from moonlight to dark and then at last
+shimmered with the dusk of the dawn.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+REVELATIONS
+
+
+It was at Jerry's request that I stayed on at Horsham Manor, working
+as I could upon my book, and now I think with a new knowledge of the
+meaning of life as I had learned it through Jerry's failure. I
+discovered comfort in the words of St. Paul, and prayed that out of
+spiritual death the seed of a new life might germinate. Jerry had told
+me nothing on leaving the Manor of his plans or purposes, and I made
+no move to seek him out, aware of a new confidence growing in me that
+wherever Jerry was, whatever he was doing, no new harm would come to
+him. He had found himself at last.
+
+Upon the occasion of my infrequent visits to the city I did myself the
+honor of calling at the house in Washington Square, where I made the
+acquaintance of a fair majority of the feminine Habberton family,
+enjoying long chats with Una in which the bonds of our friendship were
+still more firmly cemented. She told me much of her work and of course
+we spoke of Jerry, but if she had any news of him she gave no sign of
+it, and I always left the house no wiser as to his occupation or
+whereabouts than when I had entered it. But in the early days of the
+following autumn something in her manner, I cannot tell what, perhaps
+the very quality of her content, advised me that she was in some sort
+of communication with Jerry and that she was no longer borrowing
+trouble in his behalf. As I made my way back to the Manor in the train
+next day, I found the conviction growing in my mind that Jerry must be
+somewhere in New York. Una's orbit had not changed. Could it be that
+Jerry's was adapting itself to hers? Jack Ballard had told me that
+Jerry had not been seen at the office and that Ballard, Senior, had
+washed his hands of him in despair, but had agreed to have large
+amounts deposited at stated intervals in the bank. Of course this
+proved nothing, for Jerry might have been using his bank for a
+forwarding address, but the little I knew fitted surprisingly well
+with my own guesses as to Jerry's destiny. Perhaps the wish was father
+to the thought. At any rate, I returned to the Manor and resumed my
+work with a singularly tranquil mind, aware for the first time in
+months of a quiet exhilaration which made the mere fact of existence a
+delight. Perhaps after all I--my philosophy--Jerry--were still to be
+vindicated!
+
+It was not until the following summer that I learned the truth. An
+item in the evening paper caught my eye. It told of the wonderful
+boys' club that was being erected in Blank Street, by an unknown
+philanthropist. The building was six stories in height, covering half
+a block, and was to contain a large gymnasium, a marble swimming pool,
+an auditorium, school-rooms, drill hall for the Boy Scout
+organization, clubrooms, billiard and pool tables, and sleeping
+quarters for a small army. The story was written in the form of an
+interview with the representative of the philanthropist, a Mr. John V.
+Gillespie, who was seeing personally to every detail of the planning
+and construction. The boys' club had already been in existence for a
+year, occupying hired quarters, also under the supervision and control
+of the aforesaid Gillespie, who, it seemed, had the destinies of the
+young males of the district in which the building was situated,
+already in the hollow of his hand. The unknown philanthropist was
+Jerry, of course. I read between the lines, the marble pool which Una
+had envied us, the gymnasium, with "ropes to pull." Jerry and Una had
+frequently discussed the further needs of the district and the
+prospective boys' club, I knew, was one of her hobbies and his.
+
+As may be imagined not many hours elapsed before I made a pilgrimage
+to the city and visited the wonderful new structure, already under
+roof, which was to house the heirs of Jerry's munificence. It was of
+truly splendid proportions and already gave roughly the shape of its
+different rooms, which in point of dimensions left nothing to be
+desired. The operation would, I should think, make short work of a
+million dollars and, with its endowment, two million perhaps! Jerry
+was beginning well.
+
+I inquired of the superintendent for Mr. Gillespie and was informed
+that that gentleman could probably be found at the temporary building
+in the adjoining street. Thither, therefore, I went, sure that after
+so great a lapse of time Jerry must pardon my interest and intrusion.
+I was not surprised to discover that Mr. John V. Gillespie was no less
+a person than Jerry himself, who was at the moment of my arrival
+busily engaged with a Scoutmaster, helping to teach the setting-up
+exercises. I slipped into the room unobtrusively, a place at the rear
+of the building--a dance hall it had once been, as I afterwards
+learned--and patched the youngsters going through their drill. Jerry
+walked around among them, with a word here, a touch on a shoulder
+there, while the boys struggled manfully for perfection. Jerry was so
+interested that he would not have seen me had I not risen as he passed
+my way and offered my hand.
+
+"Roger! By George!"
+
+He clapped his arms around me at once and gave me a bear hug.
+
+"Good old Dry-as-dust!" he cried, "I was wondering how soon you'd find
+me out."
+
+"You're not angry?"
+
+"Bless your heart! I've been thinking of writing you about everything,
+but I wanted to wait until things were a little further along."
+
+"But Jerry--"
+
+"Mum's the word," he whispered. "That's not my name down here."
+
+"Yes, I know," I smiled. "I've seen it in the papers."
+
+"Oh! You saw that? And guessed?" he grinned. Then gave some word to
+the Scoutmaster and led me to his office--a small room beside the
+entrance at the front of the building--and closed the door. In this
+better light I had the opportunity to examine him at my leisure while
+he talked. He was a little thinner in face and body, but not spare or
+lean. There were no shadows in his eyes, which were finely lighted by
+his new enthusiasm. The new fire had burned out the old. He was
+splendid with happiness.
+
+"Oh! You've no idea of the fun I'm getting out of the thing, Roger.
+It's simply great! These boys are fine to work with. They only need a
+chance. I've got several hundred of 'em lined up already, all
+nationalities ready for the melting-pot--Jews, Italians, Irish, all
+religions. I've got the families lined up, too, been to see 'em all
+personally. Rough lot, some of 'em--and dirty! Why, Roger, I never
+knew there was so much filth in all the world. I'm starting to clean
+up the boys, inside and out, getting them jobs and keeping the idle
+ones off the streets. Oh! It's going to take time, but we're going to
+get there in the end. You've seen the new building? Isn't it a corker?
+I haven't been idle, have I?"
+
+"But how on earth," I asked, "have you managed to preserve your
+anonymity?"
+
+"Oh, I keep pretty dark. I don't go uptown at all. I made a visit one
+night to Ballard Senior and made a clean breast of things and at last
+he gave in. You see he had given me up as an office possibility. In
+three years, you know, I'll come in--to all the money. In the
+meanwhile we've fixed things up to provide for our immediate needs
+down here."
+
+"_Ours?_" I queried with a smile. He colored ever so slightly but went
+on unperturbed.
+
+"Yes, you know Una's helping me. I couldn't have done a thing without
+Una. Her experience in dealing with these people has been simply
+invaluable. I thought--" he stopped to laugh--"I thought that all I
+had to do was just to spend the money and everything would work out
+all right. I made a lot of mistakes with these families at first, did
+a lot of harm in a way, offending the proud ones, spoiling the weak
+ones and all that, but I've learned a lot since I've been down here.
+We've devised a plan--a scientific one. It's really beautiful how it
+works. We're going to make these boys all self-supporting and give
+'em an education at the same time: manual training, industrial art and
+science and all the rest of it. Here! you must go over the building
+with me. I've got just half an hour."
+
+He snatched up his cap and we went around the corner, going over the
+building from cellar to roof, Jerry explaining breathlessly and I
+listening, wondering whether to be most astonished at the
+extraordinary change in his mode of thought or at the initiative which
+could have planned and executed so great a project. He spoke of Una
+constantly, "Una wanted this," or "Una suggested that," or "We had an
+awful row over the location of this thing, but Una was right." And
+then as an afterthought, "But then, she almost always is."
+
+He wanted to give her all the credit, you see, and I think she must
+have deserved a great deal, but I saw in the newborn Jerry enough to
+convince me of his strength, intelligence and force. All his
+personality--and I had long known that he had one--had been poured
+into this fine practical work which at every turn bore the impress of
+a man's force, plus a woman's intelligence.
+
+To the god from the machine (for as such, in spite of many ungodlike
+illusions, I still continued to regard myself) it seemed to me that
+all was going beautifully toward the consummation of my heart's
+fondest desire. And it was not until the following evening, when Jerry
+at last managed to find a chance to have a long talk with me, that I
+learned the truth.
+
+It was a hot night in June. We had climbed to the roof of the new
+building for a breath of air, forsaking Jerry's small bedroom in the
+temporary quarters of the club where we had both been perspiring
+profusely. We sat upon the parapet smoking and talking of Jerry's
+plans and, since Una and the plans seemed to be a part of each other,
+of Una.
+
+"I see her constantly, Roger," he said joyously. "We have regular
+meetings three times a week, sometimes at the Mission--and sometimes
+at the club, and when there isn't enough daytime--up in Washington
+Square. She has a wonderful mind for detail--carries everything in her
+head--figures, everything."
+
+"And you're happy?" I asked.
+
+"Need you ask?" he laughed. "I've never known what life was before.
+It's great just to live and see things, good, useful things grow under
+your very eyes, so personal when you've planned 'em yourself."
+
+"And Una?"
+
+"Oh, she's happy too. But then she's always happy, always was. It's
+her nature. I sometimes think she works a little too hard for her
+strength, but she never complains." He paused and looked down the side
+street to where the East River gleamed palely in the dusk night. "You
+know, Roger, I sometimes wish that she _would_ complain. She just goes
+along, quietly planning--doing, without any fuss, accomplishing things
+where I fume and fret and get angry. She puts me to shame. She's a
+wonder--an angel, Roger." He smiled. "And yet she's human enough,
+always poking fun at a fellow, you know. I'm no match for her; I never
+was or will be." He grew quiet and neither of us spoke for a long
+while. We felt the life of the City stirring under us, but overhead
+were the stars, the same stars that hung above the peace of Horsham
+Manor, where in the old days we had dreamed our dreams.
+
+"You care for her?" I ventured softly at last.
+
+He did not speak at once. His gaze was afar.
+
+"Care for her?" he murmured after awhile, "God help me! I love her
+with all the best of me, Roger. I always have loved her. It's so
+strange to me now that I never knew it before--so strange and
+pitiful--now when it is too late."
+
+"Too late, boy?" I said with a smile. "Life for you, for you both, is
+just beginning."
+
+"No, Roger; I would give everything in the world to be able to go to
+her and ask her to marry me. But I can't--" his voice sank and broke,
+"after _that_. I'm a beast--unclean."
+
+He rose and took a pace away from me. "We mustn't speak of
+that--again. It makes me think of what I owe to--the other."
+
+"You owe her nothing. She has refused you. She doesn't care. Her whole
+life avows it. She has forgotten. Why shouldn't you?"
+
+"I can't forget. And I can't look in Una's eyes, Roger. They're so
+clear, so trusting; she believes in me--utterly. It's a mockery, to
+have her near me so much and not be able to tell her--"
+
+"Tell her!" I broke in as he paused, "Waste no time. Tell her that you
+love her. Don't be a fool. She loves you. She always has. I know it."
+
+He turned quickly, caught me by the shoulders and peered closely into
+my face. "You think so, Roger? Do you?" he said.
+
+"I'm sure of it; from the very first."
+
+Slowly his hands relaxed and he turned away. "No--I--can't. I would
+have to tell her all. I owe her that. She would despise me."
+
+"You might at least give her that opportunity," I suggested dryly.
+
+"No," he said softly. "I wouldn't dare. It would make a terrible
+difference between us. I couldn't."
+
+And then his hand grasping my arm as he pushed me toward the stairway,
+"Never speak of this again, Roger--do you hear? Never." I nodded and
+said no more, for he had set me to thinking deeply, and I walked all
+the way uptown to my hotel turning the matter over in my mind,
+arriving, before sleep came, at a decision.
+
+In the morning at half-past seven I dared to call Una upon the
+telephone. I knew her habits and she answered at once, agreeing to
+give me an hour before she went down town. When I reached the
+Habberton house she was ready for the street, and when I told her that
+I had something of importance to talk about, led the way over into the
+square where we found a deserted bench in a shady spot. It was a
+joyous morning of flickering sunlight and a pleasant commotion of
+hurrying people and moving traffic was all about us, in the midst of
+which we seemed unusually isolated. As I have related, there was a
+warm friendship between us. The girl knew that her mission at the
+Manor during Jerry's darkest hour had been an open book to me, but the
+fact that I knew that she had failed in it had made for no loss of
+pride. She knew too, I am sure, that I was aware of the real nature of
+her feelings for Jerry, but my own interest in and affection for them
+both had given me privileges in her friendship possessed not even by
+Jerry himself.
+
+I wasted no words, though I chose to be careful in my use of them.
+With some deliberation, born of the difficulties of this second
+embassy, I told her all that I knew of Jerry's affair with Marcia Van
+Wyck, beginning with the parts of it which she knew, and leading by
+slow degrees to the moment when Jerry had abandoned his guests at the
+Manor and gone on his madman's quest of vengeance through the woods. I
+recalled to her the state of his mind, the indubitable evidences of
+his innocence, and then told of Jerry's meeting with Marcia and Lloyd
+by the spring in the pine wood. She sat, leaning slightly forward, her
+gaze on the sunlit arch, her finely-drawn profile clearly outlined
+against the shadows of the bushes, saying nothing, listening as though
+to a twice-told tale. I could not tell all, but something in her
+calmness advised me that she had already guessed. There was knowledge
+in her eyes, not the hard knowledge one sees in the eyes of the women
+of the streets, but knowledge tempered with pity; wisdom tempered with
+charity for all sin, even for Jerry's. She did not speak for a long
+while and by this token I think she wished me to take her
+understanding for granted.
+
+"Mr. Canby," she said at last softly. "I know something of the world,
+more, I think, in a way than you do, and the more I learn, the less I
+am inclined to judge. But of all the women in the world with whom I
+come in contact, the most dangerous, the most difficult to help, is
+the hypocrite. When a woman is weak one can pity. When she is defiant
+one can even admire, but the hypocrite is beyond the pale. She will
+fawn while her heart is untouched, she will assent while her mind is
+eluding you. And the worst hypocrite is the one who wears the mask of
+decency over a filthy mind. She is diseased, a moral leper--at large
+to contaminate. Jerry was helpless from the first. Oh, the pity of
+it!"
+
+"It was my fault; mine is the blame," I muttered hoarsely.
+
+"No," she said, gently putting her hand over mine. "I would not have
+you relinquish your idyl even now. Jerry is translated, but he is not
+changed. It is curious--you will think it strange--but I cannot find
+it in my heart to judge him. He has suffered much. Perhaps, God knows,
+a man cannot grow to his full stature except through knowledge of
+evil! Jerry has grown. He is a man--a man!"
+
+Her eyes sparkled softly and my spirits rose.
+
+"You care for him, Una? You can forgive him?"
+
+"I--I care for him," she murmured. "You know I have, always."
+
+"Can you forgive him?" I repeated. She remained silent and her gaze
+which sought the distant buildings was troubled. But I had gone too
+far to pause now.
+
+"He worships you, Una," I blurted out. "He has told me. But he cannot
+speak. He is unclean, he says. Have pity on him, Una. Forgive him,
+forgive him--"
+
+She turned toward me, her slate-blue eyes brimming with moisture. And
+then with one of those sudden transitions that were her greatest
+mystery and charm, she rose and with a quick touch of her fingers to
+mine, left me swiftly and in a moment was gone.
+
+I stood a moment bewildered. Then I fingered in my pocket for Miss
+Gore's new address. That remarkable woman would discern what Una's
+conduct meant. Queer creatures, women! But interesting, strangely
+interesting....
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Paradise Garden, by George Gibbs
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