diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:47:04 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:47:04 -0700 |
| commit | ac1d6dc44cf348686da78a379927aaf8b8638478 (patch) | |
| tree | a24d6b2808b64424c5619d3725426d7d06056250 /15570-h | |
Diffstat (limited to '15570-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 15570-h/15570-h.htm | 12594 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15570-h/images/illus1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 39283 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15570-h/images/illus2.jpg | bin | 0 -> 45443 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15570-h/images/illus3.jpg | bin | 0 -> 33621 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 15570-h/images/illus4.jpg | bin | 0 -> 40026 bytes |
5 files changed, 12594 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/15570-h/15570-h.htm b/15570-h/15570-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..91db4c5 --- /dev/null +++ b/15570-h/15570-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,12594 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of PARADISE GARDEN, by GEORGE GIBBS. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 15%; + margin-right: 15%; + } + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span {display: block; margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em;} + .poem span.i12 {display: block; margin-left: 10em;} + .poem span.i14 {display: block; margin-left: 12em;} + + li {padding-top: .5em;} + + ul {list-style-type: none; margin-left: 25%} + ol.withroman {list-style-type: upper-roman; margin-left: 25%} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +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. + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>PARADISE GARDEN</h1> + +<h2><i>THE SATIRICAL NARRATIVE</i><br /> +<i>OF A GREAT EXPERIMENT</i><br /><br /></h2> + +<h3><small>BY</small><br /> +GEORGE GIBBS</h3> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF THE YELLOW DOVE, ETC.<br /><br /><br /></h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12"><i>I have considered well his loss of time</i><br /></span> +<span class="i12"><i>And how he cannot be a perfect man</i><br /></span> +<span class="i12"><i>Not being tried and tutored in the world.</i><br /></span> +<span class="i14">—TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.</span> +</div></div> + +<h4><br />ILLUSTRATED BY WILLIAM A. HOTTINGER<br /><br /><br /></h4> + + +<h3>GROSSET & DUNLAP<br /> +PUBLISHERS NEW YORK</h3> + +<p class="center">Printed in the United States of America +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<div class="center"><a name="illus1" id="illus1"></a> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" width="375" height="603" alt=""'Love!' he sneered ... 'I thought you'd say that.'"" title="" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption"><a href="#Love_he_sneered">"'Love!' he sneered ... 'I thought you'd say that.'"</a></span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CONTENTS" id="CONTENTS"></a>CONTENTS</h2> + +<ol class="withroman"><li> <a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b><span class="smcap">The Great Experiment</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b><span class="smcap">Jerry</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b><span class="smcap">Jerry Grows</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b><span class="smcap">Enter Eve</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b><span class="smcap">The Minx Returns</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b><span class="smcap">The Cabin</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b><span class="smcap">Jack Ballard Takes Charge</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b><span class="smcap">Jerry Emerges</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b><span class="smcap"> Foot-work</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b><span class="smcap">Marcia</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b><span class="smcap">The Siren</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b><span class="smcap">Introducing Jim Robinson</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b><span class="smcap">Una</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b><span class="smcap">Jerry Goes Into Training</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b><span class="smcap">The Unknown Unmasked</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b><span class="smcap">The Fight</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b><span class="smcap">Marcia Recants</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b><span class="smcap">Two Embassies</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b><span class="smcap">The Path In The Woods</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b><span class="smcap">Revolt</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b><span class="smcap">Jerry Asks Questions</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b><span class="smcap">The Chipmunk</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b><span class="smcap">The Enemy's Country</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b><span class="smcap">Feet Of Clay</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b><span class="smcap">The Mystery Deepens</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><b><span class="smcap">Dryad And Satyr</span></b></a></li> +<li> <a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><b><span class="smcap">Revelations</span></b></a></li></ol> + + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS" id="LIST_OF_ILLUSTRATIONS"></a>LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS</h2> + + +<ul><li><a href="#illus1">"'Love!' he sneered ... 'I thought you'd say that.'"</a></li> + +<li><a href="#illus2">"In the evenings sometimes I read while Jerry whittled"</a></li> + +<li><a href="#illus3">"This then was Jerry's house-party—!"</a></li> + +<li><a href="#illus4">"'Have pity, Jerry,' she whimpered"</a></li></ul> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PARADISE_GARDEN" id="PARADISE_GARDEN"></a>PARADISE GARDEN</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>THE GREAT EXPERIMENT</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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 <i>deus ex +machina</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>I laughed him off, not sure that this wasn't a sample of the Ballard +humor.</p> + +<p>"Anything," I said, trying to smile, "short of murder—"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>He broke off suddenly and grasped me by the arm.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>I hadn't.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Figures meant nothing to me and I told him so.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not so sure," I put in slowly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Interesting!" I muttered, trying to conceal my amazement and delight.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I?" I said, a little bewildered. "What makes you think I'm qualified +for such an undertaking?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And if I couldn't put it over?" I laughed. "A growing youth isn't a +fifteen-pound shot or a football, Ballard."</p> + +<p>"You could if you wanted to. Five thousand a year isn't to be sneezed +at."</p> + +<p>"I assure you that I've never felt less like sneezing in my life, +but—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Mine?" I gasped.</p> + +<p>He laughed.</p> + +<p>"Good Lord, Pope! You always did hate 'em, you know."</p> + +<p>"Hate? Who?"</p> + +<p>"Women."</p> + +<p>I felt myself frowning.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He laughed.</p> + +<p>"I have reasons for believing the antipathy is deeper than that."</p> + +<p>I shrugged the matter off. It is one which I find little pleasure in +discussing.</p> + +<p>"You may draw whatever inference you please," I finished dryly.</p> + +<p>He lighted a cigarette and inhaled it jubilantly.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Suppose I was the wrong man," I quibbled for want of something better +to say.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Thanks, I'll write. Good afternoon."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You'll do," he laughed. "I was positive of it."</p> + +<p>"I can't imagine how you reach that conclusion," I put in rather +tartly, still reminiscent of the rubber stamp.</p> + +<p>"Oh," he said, his eye twinkling, "simplest thing in the world. The +governor's rather brief with those he doesn't like."</p> + +<p>"Brief! I feel as though I'd just emerged from a glacial douche."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he's nippy. But he never misses a trick, and he got your number +all O.K."</p> + +<p>As we reached the street I took his hand.</p> + +<p>"Thanks, Ballard," I said warmly. "It's been fine of you, but I'm +sorry that I can't share your hopes."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>We had reached the corner of the street when he stopped and took out +his watch.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>JERRY</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It's lucky you care nothing for women, Canby," said Mr. Ballard +crisply; "this monastic idea may not bother you."</p> + +<p>"It doesn't in the least, Mr. Ballard," I said dryly. "I shall survive +the ordeal with composure."</p> + +<p>He glanced at me, smiled and then went on.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I understand. I am not difficult to get on with."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Christopher," said my companion. "Is Mr. Radford about?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. He'll be up in a minute, sir."</p> + +<p>"This is Mr. Canby, Christopher, Master Jeremiah's new tutor."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, you'll find Miss Redwood and Master Jerry in the library."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I feel a good deal like the Minotaur, Jerry. Did you ever hear of the +Minotaur?"</p> + +<p>He hadn't, and so I told him the story. "But I'm not going to eat +<i>you</i>," I laughed.</p> + +<p>I had broken the ice, for a smile, a genuine joyous smile, broke +slowly and then flowed in generous ripples across his face.</p> + +<p>"You're different, aren't you?" he said presently, his brown eyes now +gravely appraising me.</p> + +<p>"How different, Jerry?" I asked.</p> + +<p>He hesitated a moment and then:</p> + +<p>"I—I thought you'd come all in black with a lot of grammar books +under your arms."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He still inspected me as though he wasn't quite sure it wasn't all a +mistake. And then again:</p> + +<p>"Can you talk Latin?"</p> + +<p>"Bless you, I'm afraid not."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" he sighed, though whether in relief or disappointment I couldn't +say.</p> + +<p>"But you can do sums in your head and spell hippopotamus?"</p> + +<p>"I might," I laughed. "But I wouldn't if I didn't have to."</p> + +<p>"But <i>I'll</i> have to, won't I?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, some day."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid <i>I</i> never can," he sighed again.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Are you sorry Miss Redwood is going?" I asked him.</p> + +<p>"Yes. She plays games."</p> + +<p>"I know some games, too—good ones."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"Would you like to see my bull pup?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<div class="center"><a name="illus2" id="illus2"></a> +<img src="images/illus2.jpg" width="377" height="606" alt=""In the evenings sometimes I read while Jerry +whittled."" title="" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"In the evenings sometimes I read while Jerry +whittled."</span> +</div> + +<p>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 +<i>Hispaniola</i> with glowing eyes.</p> + +<p>"But are there bad men like that now out in the world, Mr. Canby?" he +broke in excitedly.</p> + +<p>"There are bad men in the world, Jerry," I replied coolly.</p> + +<p>"Like John Silver?"</p> + +<p>"Not precisely. Silver's only a character. This didn't really happen, +you know, Jerry. It's fiction."</p> + +<p>"Fiction!"</p> + +<p>"A story, like Grimm's tales."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" His jaw dropped and he stared at me. "What a pity!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + + +<h3>JERRY GROWS</h3> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Do you see him?" I called.</p> + +<p>"I see something, but it looks too big for a coon," he returned.</p> + +<p>"What does it look like?"</p> + +<p>"It looks more like a cat, with queer-looking ears."</p> + +<p>"You'd better come down then, Jerry," I said quickly.</p> + +<p>"It looks like a lynx," he called again, quite unperturbed.</p> + +<p>It was quite possible that he was right, for in this part of the +Catskill country lynxes were still plentiful.</p> + +<p>"Then come down at once," I shouted. "He may go for you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'm not worried about that. I have my hunting knife," he said +coolly.</p> + +<p>"Come down, do you hear?" I commanded.</p> + +<p>"Not until he does," he replied with a laugh.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!</p> + +<p>"Jerry!" I cried again, clambering upward.</p> + +<p>"A-all r-right, Mr. Canby," I heard. "You're safe, not hurt?"</p> + +<p>"I'm all right, I think. Just—just scratched."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I—I guess they've finished him," said Jerry coolly sheathing his +knife.</p> + +<p>"It's lucky he didn't finish <i>you</i>," I muttered. "You're sure you're +not hurt?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no."</p> + +<p>"Can you get down alone?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>He hesitated a moment, smiling, and then: "I had no idea a lynx was so +large."</p> + +<p>"It's a miracle," I said in wonder at his escape. "How did you hang +on?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>her</i>." There is +no measure for the contempt of his accents.</p> + +<p>"She could swim," I ventured timidly.</p> + +<p>"Swim! Even a fish can swim!"</p> + +<p>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?'</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Quite right. Jerry. Let's say no more about it."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Your father liked men servants best. He believed them to be more +efficient."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Not if you don't want to."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't want to."</p> + +<p>He paused a second and then went on. "But I <i>am</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"You can't keep them from being born, Jerry," I laughed.</p> + +<p>"Well," he said scornfully, "it ought to be prevented."</p> + +<p>I made a pretense of cutting the leaves of a book. He was going too +far. I temporized.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," he said, "she was all right, but she wasn't like a man."</p> + +<p>I had him safe again. Physical strength and courage at this time were +his fetish. But he was still thoughtful.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that will come in time. If you think things are too easy, I might +manage to make them a little harder."</p> + +<p>He laughed affectionately and clapped me on the shoulder.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I've tried to show you, Jerry. You can go into the woods with a gun +and an ax and exist in comfort."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but the world isn't all woods; and axes and guns aren't the +only weapons."</p> + +<p>"But the principle is the same."</p> + +<p>He flashed a bright glance at me.</p> + +<p>"Flynn told me yesterday that I could make good in the prize ring if +I'd let him take me in hand."</p> + +<p>(The deuce he had! Flynn would lose his engagement as a boxing teacher +if he didn't heed my warnings better.)</p> + +<p>"The prize ring is not what you're being trained for, my young +friend," I said with some asperity.</p> + +<p>"What then?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"First of all I hope I'm training you to be a gentleman. And that +means—"</p> + +<p>"Can't a boxer be a gentleman?" he broke in quickly.</p> + +<p>"He might be, I suppose, but he usually isn't." He was forcing me into +an attitude of priggishness which I regretted.</p> + +<p>"Then why," he persisted, "are you having me taught to box?"</p> + +<p>"Chiefly to make your muscles hard, to inure you to pain, to teach you +self-reliance."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>I tried to think of a succinct generalization and failed, falling back +instinctively upon safe ground.</p> + +<p>"Christ was a gentleman, Jerry," I said quietly.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Yes, that was good. He was strong and gentle, too. He was wonderful."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>impasse</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What do you think, Canby, what have you planned about Jerry's +future?"</p> + +<p>I told him that my only ambition, so far, had been to make of Jerry a +gentleman and a scholar.</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course," he nodded. "That's what you are here for. But beyond +that?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing," I replied. "I am following my instructions from Mr. +Benham. They go no further than that."</p> + +<p>He frowned into the fire.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>I had not thought of the imminence of this disaster.</p> + +<p>"I was not aware, Mr. Ballard," I said. "At the present moment Jerry +doesn't know a dollar from a nickel."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You mean that he doesn't know the value and uses of money?"</p> + +<p>"So far as I am aware," I replied coolly, "he has never seen a piece +of money in his life."</p> + +<p>"All wrong, all wrong, Canby. This won't do at all. He had his +arithmetic, percentage and so forth?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. But money doesn't interest him. Can you see any reason why it +should?"</p> + +<p>Again the frown and level gaze.</p> + +<p>"And what had you planned for him?" he asked. He did not intend to be +satirical perhaps. He was merely worldly.</p> + +<p>"I thought when the time came he might be permitted to choose a +vocation for himself. In the meanwhile—"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"A dream, Canby. Utopian, impossible!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Mr. Ballard gazed into the fire and smiled.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I can be of no assistance to you, Mr. Ballard," I said dryly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry, Canby," he finished, "but the matter has already been +taken out of your hands."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>ENTER EVE</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Hello!" she said at last.</p> + +<p>Jerry advanced a few steps, frowning.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you know," he said quickly, "that you're trespassing."</p> + +<p>She glanced up at him, rather brazenly I fancy, and grinned.</p> + +<p>"Oh, really!" Her eyes appraised him and Jerry, I am sure, felt rather +taken aback.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he went on severely, "you're trespassing. We don't allow any +females in here."</p> + +<p>Her reply was a laugh which irritated Jerry exceedingly.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'm here," she said; "what are you going to do about it?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Yes, <i>do</i> about it," she repeated.</p> + +<p>"You—you know I could—could throw you over the wall with one hand," +he stammered.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, but you wouldn't."</p> + +<p>"Why not?'</p> + +<p>"Because you're a gentleman."</p> + +<p>"Oh, am I?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Or if you aren't you ought to be."</p> + +<p>He frowned at that, a little puzzled.</p> + +<p>"Where do you come from?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"I can't see how that can possibly be any business of yours."</p> + +<p>"H-m. How did you get in here?"</p> + +<p>"I followed my nose. How did you?"</p> + +<p>"I—I—I belong here."</p> + +<p>"It's an asylum, isn't it?" she asked quite coolly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Jerry found himself smiling in spite of himself.</p> + +<p>"I—I don't suppose I really meant that," he muttered.</p> + +<p>"What? Throwing me over the wall or being polite?"</p> + +<p>He looked rather bewildered, I think, at the inanity of her +conversation. Jerry wasn't much given to small talk.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>Jerry rubbed his head and regarded her seriously.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Afraid!" It was one word that Jerry detested. "Afraid! That's funny. +Do you think I'm afraid of <i>you</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," she replied, eyeing him critically. "I rather think you are."</p> + +<p>"Well, I—I'm not. It would take more than a woman to make <i>me</i> +afraid."</p> + +<p>Something in the turn of the phrase and tone of voice made her turn +and examine him with a new interest.</p> + +<p>"You're a queer boy," she said.</p> + +<p>"How—queer?" he muttered.</p> + +<p>"You look and act as though you'd never seen a girl before."</p> + +<p>If he had known women better he wouldn't have believed that she meant +what she said. As it was, her wizardry astounded him.</p> + +<p>"How can you tell that?"</p> + +<p>She was now regarding him wide-eyed in amazement.</p> + +<p>"It's true, then?" she gasped.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>She seemed stricken suddenly dumb and regarded him with an air which +to anyone but Jerry would have shown her as discomfited as he.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that you've lived all your life a prisoner inside this +wall and never seen a woman?" she asked incredulously.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Extraordinary! And you've had no curiosity to go out—to see the +world?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"How do you know if you haven't been there?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I know. I've heard. I read a great deal."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What have you heard?" she asked again. "I suppose you thought that a +girl had horns and a tail."</p> + +<p>Unconsciously his gaze wandered down over her slim figure. Then he +burst into a sudden fit of laughter.</p> + +<p>"You're funny," he said.</p> + +<p>"Not half as funny as I would be if I had them."</p> + +<p>"You might have a tail twisted under your dress for all I know. What +do girls wear skirts for?"</p> + +<p>"To keep them warm. Why do you wear trousers?"</p> + +<p>"Trousers aren't silly. Skirts are."</p> + +<p>"That depends on who's in them."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What's your name?" she asked suddenly.</p> + +<p>"Jerry."</p> + +<p>"That's a nice name. I think it's like you."</p> + +<p>"How—like me?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I don't know—boyish and rather jolly, in spite of being +Jeremiah. It <i>is</i> Jeremiah, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>He nodded.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He smiled at her.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Una."</p> + +<p>"H-m. That means 'first'."</p> + +<p>"But not the last. There are five others—all girls."</p> + +<p>"Girls! What a pity!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You're not flattering. A pity! Why?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Would I really?" she said. "A better sort of a boy than I am a girl?"</p> + +<p>He shrugged his shoulders, oblivious of the bait for flattery.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Really!"</p> + +<p>He missed the smile and note of antagonism and went on quickly:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you collect?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Next year!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Jerry shook his head.</p> + +<p>"But I—I'm afraid it wouldn't do. I've never given my word, but it's +an understanding—"</p> + +<p>"With whom?"</p> + +<p>"With Roger. He's my tutor, you know."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see. And Roger objects to—er—females?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, and so do I. They're so useless—most of them. You don't +mind my saying so, do you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, not at all," she replied, though I'm sure her lips must have been +twitching.</p> + +<p>"Of course, you're different. You're really very like a boy. And I +don't doubt you're very capable."</p> + +<p>"How—capable?"</p> + +<p>"You look as if you could do things—I mean useful things."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What's the—?"</p> + +<p>She threw out her arms, leaned back against a tree, her long +suppressed merriment bubbling forth unrestrained.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Jerry was offended.</p> + +<p>"I don't see what there is to laugh at," he said with some dignity.</p> + +<p>"You don't—that's just it, you don't, and that's what's so funny."</p> + +<p>And she laughed again.</p> + +<p>"What's funny?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"You—!"</p> + +<p>"I'm not half as funny as <i>you</i> are, but I don't laugh at you."</p> + +<p>"Y—you w-would if you didn't p-pity me so much," she gasped between +giggles.</p> + +<p>"I don't pity you at all. And I think you're extremely foolish to +laugh so much at nothing."</p> + +<p>"Even when I'm laughing at y-you?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I've made you angry," she said. "I'm sorry."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't have, really," he protested.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I wouldn't take it for anything. Besides, that's no good."</p> + +<p>"No good?"</p> + +<p>"No, common. I've got loads of 'em."</p> + +<p>Her nose wrinkled and then she smiled.</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, I'll keep it as a souvenir of our acquaintance. Good-by, +Jerry." She smiled.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Una. I'm sorry—" he paused.</p> + +<p>"For what?"</p> + +<p>"If I was cross—"</p> + +<p>"But you weren't. I shouldn't have laughed."</p> + +<p>"I think I like you better when you laugh than when—when you're +'bottled up'."</p> + +<p>"But I mustn't laugh at <i>you</i>. I didn't mean to. I just—couldn't +help. You've forgiven me, haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course."</p> + +<p>She had taken up her hat and now walked away upstream. Jerry followed.</p> + +<p>"Will you really come next year?" he asked. "I—I should like to show +you my specimens."</p> + +<p>"Next year! Next year is a long way off. You know, I don't belong +here. I'm only visiting."</p> + +<p>"Oh!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>When she reached the railing she turned and flashed a smile up at him.</p> + +<p>"You'd better tell Roger about the broken fence."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>She thrust her net and tin box through the bars and then slipped +quickly through the opening.</p> + +<p>"Why?" he repeated.</p> + +<p>She stood upright and laughed.</p> + +<p>"I might come in again."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I think I will," she said gayly. "It looks very pretty from out +here."</p> + +<p>"I—I can't invite you," said Jerry. "I should like to, but I—I +can't."</p> + +<p>"I could come without being invited," she laughed.</p> + +<p>"But you wouldn't, would you?"</p> + +<p>"I might. I didn't hurt you, did I?"</p> + +<p>"No," he laughed.</p> + +<p>"Then I don't see what harm it would do. I'm coming."</p> + +<p>No reply.</p> + +<p>"I'm coming tomorrow."</p> + +<p>No reply. This was really stoical of Jerry.</p> + +<p>"And Jerry—" she called.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Una—"</p> + +<p>"I think you're—you're <i>sweet</i>."</p> + +<p>There was a rustle among the leaves and she was gone.</p> + +<p>Thus did the serpent enter our garden.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>THE MINX RETURNS</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>It was human. "Hello, Jerry," it said.</p> + +<p>It came from the iron railing, behind which the female Una was +standing, grinning at him. He got up and walked toward her.</p> + +<p>"Hello!" he returned.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"No, I didn't," he replied, already learning to prevaricate with calm +assurance. "Are you coming in?"</p> + +<p>"I will if you ask me to."</p> + +<p>"I can't do that," he laughed. "You know the rules. But I don't see +what I could do to stop you."</p> + +<p>"<i>Please</i> invite me, Jerry."</p> + +<p>"No, I won't invite you. But I won't put you out if you come."</p> + +<p>"<i>Please!</i>"</p> + +<p>"Why do you insist?"</p> + +<p>"Because—I think you ought to, you know. Just to make me feel +comfortable."</p> + +<p>"You seemed very comfortable yesterday."</p> + +<p>"I think you're horrid."</p> + +<p>"Horrid! Because I won't break my promise?"</p> + +<p>"But you've made no promise."</p> + +<p>"It's understood. See here. I'll turn my back and walk away. If you +come in it's not my fault."</p> + +<p>"You needn't bother. I'm not coming." She turned and made as though to +go.</p> + +<p>"Una," he called. "<i>Please.</i> Come in."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Thanks," she laughed, clambering up the rocks. "It's awfully nice of +you. I knew you would. I couldn't have come else."</p> + +<p>"It doesn't really make much difference, I suppose," said Jerry +dubiously.</p> + +<p>"What doesn't?"</p> + +<p>"Whether I ask you or whether you just come."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't have come if you hadn't."</p> + +<p>"Are you sure?"</p> + +<p>"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 +<i>invited</i> me, that made things different."</p> + +<p>He laughed and motioned to a rock upon which she sank.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not; not yesterday. But I do now. I asked last night."</p> + +<p>"Who did you ask?"</p> + +<p>"The people I'm staying with."</p> + +<p>"And what did they tell you?"</p> + +<p>"They weren't very polite. It doesn't do to ignore one's neighbors. +They said you were a freak."</p> + +<p>"What's a freak?"</p> + +<p>"Something strange, unnatural."</p> + +<p>"And do you think I'm strange or unnatural?" he asked soberly.</p> + +<p>She looked at him and laughed.</p> + +<p>"Unnatural! If nature is unnatural."</p> + +<p>"What else do they say?" Jerry asked after a thoughtful pause.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Now you're making fun of me," he laughed as she paused for lack of +breath.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Glad? Of course not. It's all such utter rot."</p> + +<p>"Of course. But doesn't it make you <i>feel</i> mysterious?"</p> + +<p>"Not a bit."</p> + +<p>"Doesn't it ever occur to you how important a person you are?"</p> + +<p>"How—important?"</p> + +<p>"To begin with, of course, you're fabulously wealthy. You knew that, +didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I suppose I've got some money, but I don't let it worry me."</p> + +<p>"Do you know how much?"</p> + +<p>"No, I haven't the slightest idea."</p> + +<p>"Not that you've got millions—<i>millions</i>!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He looked bewildered at that, I'm sure.</p> + +<p>"Do you know," he said, "that I haven't the slightest idea what you're +talking about."</p> + +<p>"Of course," she laughed. "I forgot. They want to marry you to their +daughters."</p> + +<p>"Marry! Me! You're joking."</p> + +<p>I think he must have seemed really alarmed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But I can't marry them all," he said aghast. "Besides I don't want +to marry anybody. And I'm not going to."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You seem to have a lot of fun with me, Una, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Laugh, then. I don't think it's so funny, though."</p> + +<p>"But it is. Because I'm sure you'd be too polite to refuse them—any +of them."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're brave enough now, but wait—wait!" She bent over, clasping +her knees, still shaking with merriment.</p> + +<p>"Why, Jerry, you couldn't be impolite to a woman any more than you +could <i>fly</i>. You'd do just whatever she said."</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't. They're idiots, the lot of 'em. What's the use? What do +girls want to get married for, anyway?"</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>"I suppose it's because they—they haven't anything else to do," she +stammered.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>At this point the girl was seized with a sudden fit of coughing and +her face was purple.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"I—I just swallowed the wrong way," she gasped.</p> + +<p>"Here, I'll pat you on the back. All right now?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Then you—you don't believe in marriage as an institution?" she asked +with some hesitation.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Birds mate, don't they?" she put in.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"That's what humans do, as you say; they just hop about a bit and then +get married."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't change your mind if you loved a woman."</p> + +<p><a name="Love_he_sneered" id="Love_he_sneered"></a>"Love!" he sneered. "There you go. I thought you'd say that."</p> + +<p>"You don't believe in love, then?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Poor Jerry," she laughed. "I'm so sorry for you."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because when you fall, you're going to fall so very hard."</p> + +<p>"How—fall?"</p> + +<p>"Fall in love. You will, some day. Everybody does. It's as sure as +death or taxes."</p> + +<p>"Everybody! <i>You</i> haven't, have you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear, no. Not yet. But I suppose I shall some day."</p> + +<p>Jerry regarded her in silence for a moment.</p> + +<p>"I didn't think you were a bit slushy."</p> + +<p>"I'm <i>not</i> slushy," indignantly. "I <i>hate</i> slushy people. Where did +you get that word?"</p> + +<p>"Roger. He hates 'em too."</p> + +<p>"Your Roger doesn't like women, does he?"</p> + +<p>"No. He's very wise, Roger is. But sometimes I think he's prejudiced. +I'd like you to know Roger, I really would."</p> + +<p>She gazed straight before her for a moment deliberating and then:</p> + +<p>"I hope you don't mind if I say so, but I think your Roger must be a +good deal of a fossil."</p> + +<p>"A fossil. Now see here, Una—I can't have you talking about Roger +like that."</p> + +<p>"He is. I'm sure of it. All theorists are."</p> + +<p>"He's not. He's the broadest fellow you ever knew."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>She stopped abruptly and bit her lip.</p> + +<p>"Bearing his—what?" asked Jerry.</p> + +<p>"Burdens," she blurted out. "Burdens—all sorts of burdens," she +finished weakly.</p> + +<p>"I suppose there <i>are</i> things that women can do," said Jerry after a +moment. "Of course, I don't know much about it. But—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"See here, Una—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I've gone too far, Jerry. Forgive me."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"What have I gained?"</p> + +<p>There was a long pause before she replied.</p> + +<p>"Simplicity," she said carefully. "Life, after all, nowadays, is so +very complex," she sighed.</p> + +<p>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 <i>you</i> think, what you read, what +you do. People say you live in the woods most of the time—do you? +Where? How?"</p> + +<p>"In a cabin. We built it. Would you like to see it? It's not far. I'll +make you a cup of tea."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>THE CABIN</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Nevertheless I felt justified in keeping silence and even in listening +to their conversation.</p> + +<p>"You didn't mean it," I heard Jerry ask, "about all those girls' +mothers, did you?"</p> + +<p>She laughed.</p> + +<p>"Of course I did. You're a catch, you know."</p> + +<p>"You mean, they want to catch <i>me</i>? Nonsense. I don't believe you."</p> + +<p>"It's true. You're too rich to escape."</p> + +<p>"If that's the way marriage is made I don't think much of it."</p> + +<p>"It isn't always like that." She smiled. "People aren't all as rich as +you are."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I suppose I'm talking too much. You don't have to believe what I +say," she said slowly.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Do you think I would?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't. But I thought you might say queer things, just as a +joke."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"You said Roger was a fossil. I know what a fossil is. That wasn't +kind."</p> + +<p>"But it's true," she repeated warmly. "He might keep things from you, +but he has no right to misrepresent women."</p> + +<p>"<i>Are</i> women as fine as men?" he asked.</p> + +<p>She looked around at him.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But I want to find out now. I want to find out everything."</p> + +<p>She smiled into the fire.</p> + +<p>"That's a great deal, isn't it?" she said.</p> + +<p>He went on soberly:</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"I'm sure he has a long nose, sandy hair, grayish? watery eyes and +spectacles."</p> + +<p>"There. I knew you hadn't a notion of him. He's nothing like that."</p> + +<p>"Well, what <i>is</i> he like?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>She smiled.</p> + +<p>"Moral plague-spots, Jerry, civic sores." She paused.</p> + +<p>"I don't understand."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"How do you know all this?" he asked in wonder.</p> + +<p>"I've always been interested in social problems. I can't abide being +idle."</p> + +<p>"Social problems! And do you mean that you go among these diseased +people and try to make them well?"</p> + +<p>She nodded.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, would you, Jerry?" she cried.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>She laughed.</p> + +<p>"Useful! I'm afraid your executors have different ideals of utility."</p> + +<p>Jerry sighed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Not all of it, Jerry," she cried, "but would you, some of it? Just a +very little?"</p> + +<p>"Of course—as much as you like. You can do a lot more with it than I +can."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I beg pardon for intruding," I said dryly, "but the fact is that it's +almost if not quite bedtime."</p> + +<p>They got to their feet in some haste, Jerry red as a turkey-cock, the +girl, I think, a little pale.</p> + +<p>"Is it—<i>is</i> 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 <i>must</i> be." He shuffled his feet +awkwardly and looked from me to the girl. "This is—Una, Roger. We've +been talking."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Smith," sniffed the girl.</p> + +<p>"Quite so. I hope that Miss Smith will forgive me. We are a little +unused to visitors and of course—"</p> + +<p>"I'm going at once," she said, moving a step or two, but seeing that I +stood in the door, hesitated.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I don't doubt it in the least," I remarked. "Of course, you have +settled all the affairs of the nations between you."</p> + +<p>"Oh, not quite that," laughed Jerry uneasily. "But we did have a talk, +didn't we, Una?"</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I—I hadn't the slightest idea how late it was," said the +girl stiffly, fingering at her hair.</p> + +<p>"Time passes so quickly when one is amused or interested," I said.</p> + +<p>"I was thinking, Roger, how nice it would be if Una would come to +dinner at the Manor."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, thanks—not now. I must be going."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you? I'll show you my specimens. Then we could send you on +in the machine afterwards."</p> + +<p>"No—no, thanks."</p> + +<p>"Doubtless the friends of Miss—er—Miss Smith will be worried about +her."</p> + +<p>She shot a malevolent glance at me.</p> + +<p>"Not at all. I'm accustomed to doing exactly as I please."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, but I won't bother you at all. If you'll let me pass—"</p> + +<p>But Jerry had caught her by the arm.</p> + +<p>"Roger's right," he said quickly. "I didn't think. Of course you can't +go alone. I—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But—"</p> + +<p>"Will you do as I ask?"</p> + +<p>Our glances met in a level gaze. There was a moment of rebellion in +Jerry's, but it flickered out.</p> + +<p>"I think I know best, Jerry," I said quietly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, but I don't want her to think—"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Please go with Roger," I heard Jerry say when I came up.</p> + +<p>"I don't need a <i>keeper</i>!" she flared at him.</p> + +<p>"Una!"</p> + +<p>"Go, Jerry," I said again.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"If you'll follow me," I ventured, "you will find the way out much +more quickly. Otherwise you will probably scratch your face."</p> + +<p>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 <i>my</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"It's rather lucky you weren't seen by any of the gamekeepers. You +might have spent the night in the lockup."</p> + +<p>Still no reply.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I—I'm a stranger," she gasped. "I'm only visiting here."</p> + +<p>"Of course, that explains it. I couldn't imagine your having ventured +in otherwise."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Since you're interested in sociological questions, Miss—er—Smith, +perhaps—"</p> + +<p>"You listened?" she asked scornfully.</p> + +<p>"I did," grimly. "I listened for at least ten minutes."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure you're quite welcome," she gasped.</p> + +<p>"Since you're interested in sociological questions," I repeated, +"perhaps you may be interested in educational ones."</p> + +<p>"I'm not."</p> + +<p>"That's not consistent, for sociological problems can hardly be solved +without the aid of—"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I should be very much interested to learn what you <i>did</i> come in +for."</p> + +<p>"You're a beast!" she flashed at me.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I have no interest in your experiments."</p> + +<p>"Or the object of them?" I put in quickly. She found that difficult to +answer.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>She broke away, running aimlessly. I followed rapidly, my conscience +hurting, but my purpose relentless.</p> + +<p>"This way," I said coolly. "You've left the trail."</p> + +<p>"I don't care," she gasped. "Leave me."</p> + +<p>"I can't do that. You see, I promised Jerry. But I will lead the way +if you like. The stream is not far."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Where did you come in?" I asked again.</p> + +<p>"The iron railing—at the stream," she mumbled.</p> + +<p>"Oh! It must be repaired at once."</p> + +<p>"You needn't bother," she said scornfully, "so far as I am concerned."</p> + +<p>"That's very kind of you. Ah, here we are."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You're not going any further with me," she commanded in a suppressed +tone. "I forbid it."</p> + +<p>I rose on the other side of the grille and dusted my knees.</p> + +<p>"I should be sorry to disobey your commands," I said firmly, "but the +dangers of the woods at night—"</p> + +<p>"Oh! How I abominate you!"</p> + +<p>"Really? I am sorry."</p> + +<p>But she followed me through the aperture and I led the way down a +path, which seemed fairly well worn, alongside the wall.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>My threat brought her to her senses.</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't do that!" she said in an agonized tone, catching me by +the arm.</p> + +<p>"I'm quite capable of it," I replied, stopping beside her.</p> + +<p>"I—I beg of you not to do that."</p> + +<p>"<i>Am</i> I a beast?" I smiled.</p> + +<p>"No, no—not a beast. I'm sorry."</p> + +<p>"Why do you wish to remain unknown?"</p> + +<p>"I—I had no business coming. No one knows. It was mere—mere feminine +curiosity." She turned away, "Does <i>that</i> satisfy you?" she cried.</p> + +<p>"I think it does," I said more gently. "And you'll not return?"</p> + +<p>"No—no, never."</p> + +<p>"Good. I ask no questions. You stay out. It's a bargain."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"If you wish, I will go on with you."</p> + +<p>"Our paths separate here."</p> + +<p>I offered her my hand.</p> + +<p>"Forgive me," I said gently. "I am only doing my duty."</p> + +<p>But she turned quickly and in a moment was running down the road where +the night soon swallowed her.</p> + +<p>Women are queer animals. She might at least have given me her hand.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>JACK BALLARD TAKES CHARGE</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"You'll know life in time, Jerry, see it through a finer prism."</p> + +<p>"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 <i>is</i> 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?"</p> + +<p>He was much agitated.</p> + +<p>"I have no fear to put you to any test—today, tomorrow," I said +quietly.</p> + +<p>"Then put me to it—out there." With a wave of his arm he cried: "I +must see for myself, think for myself."</p> + +<p>"You shall, Jerry, soon. Will you be patient a little while longer?"</p> + +<p>He controlled himself with an effort and bent forward in his chair, +bringing his head down into his hands.</p> + +<p>"It's hard. I feel like a coward, a coward—not taking my share—"</p> + +<p>"Ah," I said suddenly, "<i>she</i> called you that?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. If she had been a man I should have thrashed her. But in a +moment I knew that she had spoken the truth."</p> + +<p>"But Jerry, a coward is one who is afraid. How could you be afraid of +something you didn't know about?"</p> + +<p>"But I know now. She told me very little, Roger, but I've guessed the +rest."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>magnum opus</i>. +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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I'll take your word for it, Uncle Jack," he said. "But you know I +rather like color."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Why do you put such rubbish in his head, Ballard?" I said testily.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"That is precisely what I <i>do</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"Let's be sure no mouse is born," I said dryly.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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 <i>some</i> 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, <i>don't crowd him</i>, gents, because he's +got an uppercut like a ton o' coal."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>They wanted me to speak. I could not. But Jerry understood.</p> + +<p>In the library after dinner I overheard part of a conversation +between Ballard the elder and Mr. Duhring.</p> + +<p>"What's all this rubbish of Jack's, Harry, about Jerry having a square +chin. Do you think he'll be difficult to manage?"</p> + +<p>Henry Ballard smiled.</p> + +<p>"Jack can't resist his little joke. I'm afraid I've spoiled that boy +outrageously."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I rather think you have," said the other dryly.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>JERRY EMERGES</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Has he asked any questions?"</p> + +<p>"Millions of 'em, like balls from a Roman candle. He shoots 'em at +every angle and some of 'em hit."</p> + +<p>"You've taken him about?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"'Do these gentlemen do this all the time?' asked Jerry softly.</p> + +<p>"'Yes, almost all the time.'</p> + +<p>"'Don't they ever get tired of looking out of the window?'</p> + +<p>"'They don't seem to. It's restful to watch other people working.'</p> + +<p>"'But don't they <i>do</i> anything else?'</p> + +<p>"'Not much. They're rich.'</p> + +<p>"'And the others, the old gentlemen asleep in the chairs, are they +rich too?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes, rich too, but tired.'</p> + +<p>"'Tired of being rich?'</p> + +<p>"'Perhaps.'</p> + +<p>"'I see.'</p> + +<p>"He was quiet for a long while and then: 'What a horrible waste of +opportunity!'</p> + +<p>"I thought this was the psychological moment to put in my brief for +the governor.</p> + +<p>"'It certainly is. Luckily you've got a career waiting for you.'</p> + +<p>"'But if riches only lead to this, Uncle Jack, I'm pretty sure I'd +much rather be poor.'</p> + +<p>"'There isn't much chance of your getting <i>that</i> wish,' I laughed.</p> + +<p>"'Well, I could give my money away,' he said. I looked at him +quickly, for his tone was very earnest.</p> + +<p>"'That won't do, my boy. Indiscriminate giving may be very injurious.'</p> + +<p>"'I can't understand that.'</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'In an awful hurry, ain't you, dearie?' one of the girls asked.</p> + +<p>"'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.'</p> + +<p>"The girl was a little puzzled.</p> + +<p>"'Aw, yer stringin' me,' she said.</p> + +<p>"'Stringing?' asked Jerry.</p> + +<p>"'Cut it out. You know what I mean well enough'. Come along,' and she +moved a pace away.</p> + +<p>"Jerry followed. 'I'd be glad to come if I can be of any assistance.'</p> + +<p>"'Assistance,' laughed the girl.</p> + +<p>"'Did you hear that, Geraldine?'</p> + +<p>"And with that they both burst into roars of laughter.</p> + +<p>"Jerry's ignorance of things made him keenly sensitive to ridicule.</p> + +<p>"'I think you're very impolite,' he said with dignity.</p> + +<p>"'Aw, go chase yourself,' said Geraldine and vanished into the shadows +with her companion.</p> + +<p>"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.'"</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you have prevented that meeting?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Who? I can't imagine."</p> + +<p>"He said her name was Una Smith."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. The minx who slipped into Horsham Manor. I told you about +her. But her name isn't Smith."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Then he doesn't know anything yet?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He chuckled at the memory.</p> + +<p>"What happened?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Ballard lingered provokingly in the narrative, which was interesting +me greatly.</p> + +<p>"And then?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"The fellow rose, covered with slime, looking vicious.</p> + +<p>"'What did you mean taking God's name in vain?' says Jerry sternly.</p> + +<p>"'I'll show you, you—'</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And then?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"He'd try that if he could," I laughed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"He <i>is</i> good looking. Thank God he doesn't know it."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'What do those women look at me for?' he asks. 'Nothing queer about +me, is there?'</p> + +<p>"'Oh, no,' I reply. 'They look at everybody like that. It's a +characteristic of the sex, curiosity. You don't mind, do you?'</p> + +<p>"'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.'"</p> + +<p>"Rouge?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course. Even the flappers do it. It takes good eyesight to +tell 'em from the dowagers nowadays."</p> + +<p>"And Jerry doesn't know the difference?"</p> + +<p>"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 <i>me</i>, 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:</p> + +<p>"'Jack, that lady has paint on her face.'</p> + +<p>"'Woman, not lady,' said I. 'This is Fifth Avenue. The ladies of New +York are only to be found on Broadway and the Bowery,'</p> + +<p>"He looked bewildered but his other discovery interested him the most.</p> + +<p>"'But I say she had paint on her face,' he repeated.</p> + +<p>"'How could you tell?' I asked innocently.</p> + +<p>"'It was streaky. I saw it.'</p> + +<p>"'Possibly. But it isn't polite to notice such things.'</p> + +<p>"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.'</p> + +<p>"So you see, Pope, he's looking up. Marcia <i>is</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"It would be a pity if she made a fool of him," I ventured.</p> + +<p>He only smiled.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you called?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"He would," I growled. "The hussy!"</p> + +<p>Ballard shook with laughter.</p> + +<p>"Oh, that's rather rough, Pope. She's merely the product of a highly +sensitized <i>milieu</i>. 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."</p> + +<p>"What happened?" I put in shortly.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'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. <i>Do</i> change your mind. There! I knew +you would,'</p> + +<p>"Jerry fingered the thing and lighted it as though it might have been +the match of a blunderbuss.</p> + +<p>"'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?'</p> + +<p>"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 <i>you</i>!</p> + +<p>"She laughed, showing a row of rather small but even teeth.</p> + +<p>"'They say you don't like girls. Tell me it isn't so, Mr. +Ballard'—she appealed to me.</p> + +<p>"I saw the way the wind was blowing but I chose to humor her.</p> + +<p>"'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.'</p> + +<p>"She smiled slowly. 'You <i>can</i> say nice things, can't you, Mr. +Ballard? But that doesn't quite exculpate Mr. Benham.'</p> + +<p>"'I'm sure,' said Jerry very gravely, 'that you're the most beautiful +creature I've ever seen!'</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'That is the greatest compliment I've ever received in my life,' she +said evenly. 'I hope you mean it, Mr. Benham.'</p> + +<p>"'I shouldn't have said it if I didn't think so,' said Jerry quickly.</p> + +<p>"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.'</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'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.'</p> + +<p>"That rather took her aback, but she didn't turn a hair.</p> + +<p>"'You think all this—superfluous?'</p> + +<p>"'Not superfluous, perhaps. Merely artificial.'</p> + +<p>"'Am I artificial?'</p> + +<p>"'Yes,' bluntly! 'I don't understand it at all. But it's singularly +effective. It's like night with only one star visible—'</p> + +<p>"'The more visible,' I put in, 'for being Venus.'</p> + +<p>"She looked at me slantways. 'I'm sorry you said that, Mr. Ballard. +Venus is not my goddess. Diana—'</p> + +<p>"'The Huntress,' I broke in again.</p> + +<p>"'Pallas Athene, the guardian and guide of heroes,' she countered +neatly.</p> + +<p>"'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 +<i>was</i> the right sort, no sentimental rot for her.'</p> + +<p>"'Of course. Sentiment <i>is</i> rot and so sloppy.'</p> + +<p>"Jerry laughed ingenuously. 'That's a good word,' he said. 'Imagine +Diana being sloppy.'</p> + +<p>"'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?'</p> + +<p>"'Of course,' said Jerry. 'But they don't, do they?'</p> + +<p>"'<i>I</i> do. It's one of my gospels to be self-sufficient. Don't you +believe me?'</p> + +<p>"'I'd like to, you're so lovely to look at. I'd like to think you were +perfect in everything.'</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Ballard paused a moment to light a fresh cigarette.</p> + +<p>"Bah!" I muttered contemptuously.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"But this girl is dangerous," I remarked.</p> + +<p>"I imagine she is," he said calmly. "At any rate, she's going to prove +or disprove your precious hypothesis."</p> + +<p>"I'm not afraid for Jerry," I growled. "No chameleon will change <i>his</i> +color. What else did she say?"</p> + +<p>"She was very much pleased at Jerry's compliment.</p> + +<p>"'Someone has taught you to be very polite,' she said with a smile.</p> + +<p>"'Polite?' asked Jerry. 'Merely because I was hoping you weren't +flabby?'</p> + +<p>"'Well, I'm not flabby,' she smiled indulgently. 'I hate flabby +people.'</p> + +<p>"'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.'</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But she's trivial, a smatterer, a decadent—"</p> + +<p>"And handsome," laughed Ballard. "Don't forget that."</p> + +<p>"Mere looks will never ensnare Jerry."</p> + +<p>"I hope not, but she'll teach him a thing or two before she's through +with him."</p> + +<p>I was silent for some moments, and then: "What else do you know of +this girl?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"She <i>is</i> dangerous," I said.</p> + +<p>"I've warned Jerry. He laughed at me."</p> + +<p>"When was this call?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"The day before yesterday."</p> + +<p>"And where is Jerry today?"</p> + +<p>"I have a notion that he is spending the afternoon with Miss Marcia +Van Wyck," he said with a smile.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>FOOT-WORK</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>It was good to see him. He seemed to bring the whole of outdoors in +with him.</p> + +<p>I took him by the shoulders and held him off from me, laughing in pure +happiness.</p> + +<p>"Well. What are you looking at? Expect to see my spots all changed?"</p> + +<p>"I think you've actually grown."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 +<i>great</i>. I've been sparring with 'em—some pretty good ones, too."</p> + +<p>"How did you manage?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You had a good go of it?" I asked.</p> + +<p>He nodded.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"I heard someone make a remark and then Sagorski's voice sneering. +Flynn dropped his hands and turned.</p> + +<p>"'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.'</p> + +<p>"Sagorski was up in a moment, smiling rather disdainfully. 'Yer on,' +he growled.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'Wot's this, sonny?' he sneered at last, 'a foot race?'</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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.'</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He paused for breath. "I didn't want to, you know, Roger, but Flynn +was so insistent—and, of course, having started—"</p> + +<p>"'You bored in, that th' opposed might beware of thee,'" I +paraphrased.</p> + +<p>He laughed.</p> + +<p>"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?</p> + +<p>"'Aw, you go to hell!' Impolite beggar, wasn't he?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"That truck-driver didn't think so," I said.</p> + +<p>"That was my first week. I know a lot more now. I've felt sorry about +him."</p> + +<p>"You needn't," I laughed.</p> + +<p>And after a pause:</p> + +<p>"And down town, Jerry," I inquired. "How are things going there?"</p> + +<p>His expression grew grave at once.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"That's too bad," I said slowly. "You must get on, old man."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You don't want to stop it, do you?"</p> + +<p>"But if it was only doing some good—When I see the misery all +about—"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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 <i>won't!"</i></p> + +<p>He snapped his jaws together and strode with long steps the length of +the room.</p> + +<p>"I <i>won't</i>, Roger," he repeated. "And I've told 'em so."</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>"You're sure that you're right?" I asked quietly.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>Jerry hesitated, repeated the word and then paced the floor silently +for a moment. I thought it wise to remain silent.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"You haven't wasted a great deal of time," I remarked when he paused.</p> + +<p>He smiled. "Well, you know, I couldn't sit in a club window and watch +the buses go by."</p> + +<p>"Have you declared these revolutionary sentiments to your executors?" +I asked after awhile.</p> + +<p>He threw himself in an armchair and sighed.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'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.'</p> + +<p>"'But other people would benefit, wouldn't they?' I asked.</p> + +<p>"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!'</p> + +<p>"I'm just what he made me,' I said coolly.</p> + +<p>"He stared at me again as though he hadn't heard what I had said.</p> + +<p>"'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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'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.'</p> + +<p>"'And what,' he asked slowly when I stopped, 'what do you propose to +do with all this money we've kept together for you?'</p> + +<p>"His voice was low, but his face was purple and he snapped his words +off short as if their utterance hurt him.</p> + +<p>"'With your permission, sir,' I said quietly, 'I expect to give a +great deal of it away.'</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>was</i> square. For all +his sophistries, Jack Ballard was no mean judge of human nature.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>MARCIA</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"The linen, <i>allegro</i>, the cravat, <i>adagio con amore</i>, the +suit—there's too much of the <i>scherzo</i> in the suit, my boy."</p> + +<p>"<i>Con amore?</i>" he asked, looking up from his oatmeal.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I said calmly, for not until this moment had I guessed the +truth. "<i>Con amore</i>," 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."</p> + +<p>It was a random shot, but it struck home, for he reddened ever so +slightly.</p> + +<p>"How did you know? Who—who told you?" he stammered awkwardly.</p> + +<p>"I think it must have been the cravat," I laughed.</p> + +<p>"It <i>was</i> a good guess," he said rather sheepishly (I suppose because +he hadn't said anything to me about her).</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I shall be delighted," I remarked.</p> + +<p>"She knows all about you. Oh, she's clever. You'll like her. Reads +pretty deep sort of stuff and can talk about anything."</p> + +<p>"An intellectual attraction!" I commented. "Very interesting, and of +course rare."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that doesn't matter. Very informal, you know."</p> + +<p>The motor was already buzzing in the driveway and he wasted little +time over his eggs.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Shall you be back to luncheon?" I inquired.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"'Even the worthy Homer sometimes nods,'" he was quoting gayly. "Wake +up, Roger. Visitors!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I hope it will not disappoint you," I said urbanely.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>("Jerry!" They were progressing.)</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"'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."</p> + +<p>"I'm not," I replied, "but I can't deny their existence."</p> + +<p>"You can. Here at Horsham Manor."</p> + +<p>"<i>Could</i>, Miss Gore," I corrected. "The Golden Age has passed."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, thanks," I replied. "It doesn't matter."</p> + +<p>She had turned her back on me and walked to the window.</p> + +<p>"Would you like to see the English Garden?" I asked, suddenly aware of +my inhospitality.</p> + +<p>"Yes, if you'll permit me to visit it alone."</p> + +<p>That wasn't to be thought of. After all she was only obeying orders. I +followed her out of doors, hastening to join her.</p> + +<p>"I owe you an apology. I'm not much used to the society of women. They +annoy me exceedingly."</p> + +<p>She looked around at me quizzically, very much amused.</p> + +<p>"You consider that an apology?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"I intended it to be one," I replied. "I have been rude. I hope you'll +forgive me."</p> + +<p>"You <i>are</i> a philosopher, I see," she said with a smile. "I am sorry +to annoy you."</p> + +<p>"Y—you don't, I think. You seem to be a sensible sort of a person."</p> + +<p>She smiled again most cheerfully.</p> + +<p>"Don't bother, Mr. Canby. We're well met. I'm not fond of meaningless +personalities—or the authors of them."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Why not?" I asked quickly. "Knowledge of evil isn't impurity."</p> + +<p>"It will permeate him."</p> + +<p>"No. He will repel it."</p> + +<p>She smiled knowingly.</p> + +<p>"Impossible. Society is rotten. It will tolerate him, then resent him, +and finally," she made a wide gesture, "engulf!"</p> + +<p>"I'm not afraid," I said staunchly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"What's a pity?"</p> + +<p>"That all your teaching must end in failure."</p> + +<p>"H-m! You haven't a very high opinion of your fellows."</p> + +<p>"No, men are weak."</p> + +<p>"Jerry isn't weak."</p> + +<p>"He's human—too human."</p> + +<p>"One can be human and still be a philosopher—"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"But he knows the good from the bad."</p> + +<p>"Oh, does he? And if the bad is masquerading? It is always. You think +he would recognize it?"</p> + +<p>She was speaking in riddles, and yet it seemed to me with a purpose.</p> + +<p>"What do you mean, Miss Gore?"</p> + +<p>"Merely that such innocence as his is dangerous."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You seem to know a great deal about Jerry," I said at last. "Who has +told you?"</p> + +<p>"My eyes are tolerably good, Mr. Canby, my ears excellent."</p> + +<p>I would have questioned further, but Jerry and the Van Wyck girl at +this moment came out on the terrace. Jerry was laughing.</p> + +<p>"Caught in the act," he cried, as they came down to join us. "There's +hope for you yet, Roger."</p> + +<p>Marcia came and thrust her arm through Miss Gore's. "Isn't it +wonderful to be the first woman in the Garden of Paradise?"</p> + +<p>Miss Gore nodded carelessly.</p> + +<p>The girl was so radiant in her air of possession that I couldn't help +speaking.</p> + +<p>"But you're not," I said.</p> + +<p>Marcia's narrow eyes regarded me coolly and then looked at Jerry +inquiringly, and when she spoke her voice was almost too sweet.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>I can't imagine why Jerry hadn't told her that. She seemed to know +about everything else. "Yes, one."</p> + +<p>"Jerry!" reproachfully. "And you said I was the first girl you'd ever +really known!"</p> + +<p>He smiled, though he was quite pink around the ears.</p> + +<p>"You are really. Er—she didn't count."</p> + +<p>"I shall die of chagrin. Her name, Mr. Canby," she appealed.</p> + +<p>I hesitated. But Jerry, still red, blurted out:</p> + +<p>"Una Smith. But Roger says that couldn't have been her name."</p> + +<p>"But why shouldn't it be her name? She had nothing to be ashamed +about, had she?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I think so."</p> + +<p>It was Jerry's turn to be surprised.</p> + +<p>"She was brown-haired, smallish, with blue eyes? Quite pretty?"</p> + +<p>Jerry nodded.</p> + +<p>"Wore leather gaiters and carried a butterfly net?"</p> + +<p>"You know her, Marcia?" he broke in.</p> + +<p>"Of course. Jerry, I'm really surprised—also a trifle +disillusioned—"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Beside me I heard the deep voice of Miss Gore.</p> + +<p>"You see? He's already madly infatuated with her."</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," I replied, still watching them. "And she?"</p> + +<p>Miss Gore shrugged her thin shoulders.</p> + +<p>"I don't know. She won't marry him. I doubt if she will ever marry."</p> + +<p>"Thank God for that," I said feelingly. She looked up at me quickly.</p> + +<p>"You don't like Marcia?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"No." I realized that I had gone too far, but I stood firm to my guns.</p> + +<p>I was surprised that she didn't resent my frankness. Instead of being +angry she merely smiled.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Rubbish!" I broke in. "Has he no face, no body?"</p> + +<p>She smiled at my impetuousness. Strangely enough, we were both too +interested to resent mere forms of intercourse.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>I bowed my head in appreciation of her confidence. This woman improved +upon acquaintance.</p> + +<p>"You care for her," I said soberly. "I should have been more guarded."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Strange, unnatural, horrible!"</p> + +<p>She smiled at my sober tone.</p> + +<p>"And yet she is acting within her rights. She asks nothing that is not +freely given."</p> + +<p>"Women are curiously tolerant of moral imperfections in those they +care for. Your Marcia is dangerous. I shall warn Jerry."</p> + +<p>But she shook her dark head sagely.</p> + +<p>"It will do no good. You will fail."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>As we neared the terrace, a thought came to me and I paused.</p> + +<p>"You know who the girl Una is?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes," she nodded, "but her name isn't Smith."</p> + +<p>"I was aware of that. Would you mind telling me who and what she is?"</p> + +<p>She remained thoughtful a moment, fingering the stem of a plant.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>I smiled.</p> + +<p>"She may have another idea of social opportunity," I said.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Miss Van Wyck knows her?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Thanks," I said. "I hope you've forgiven me for my churlishness. I +should like to know you better if you'll let me."</p> + +<p>She turned her head toward me with a motherly smile.</p> + +<p>"I don't care for the society of men," she said amusedly. "They annoy +me exceedingly."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>THE SIREN</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What made you talk of Una to Marcia, Roger?" he asked quietly.</p> + +<p>"I didn't," I said coolly. "<i>You</i> did, Jerry. And if I had, I can't +see what it matters."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"If you'll remember, Jerry, I mentioned no names."</p> + +<p>"But why mention the incident at all?"</p> + +<p>"Because to tell the truth," I said frankly, "I thought Miss Marcia +Van Wyck entirely too self-satisfied."</p> + +<p>He opened his eyes wide and stared at me. "Oh!" he said.</p> + +<p>And then after the pause:</p> + +<p>"You don't like Marcia?"</p> + +<p>"No," I replied flatly, "I don't."</p> + +<p>He paced the length of the room, while I sat by a lamp and +ostentatiously opened the evening paper.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Is she?" I asked quietly.</p> + +<p>"Yes—I'm very fond of her."</p> + +<p>"Are you?" still quietly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>It was as bad as that? I dropped pretense and the newspaper, folding +my arms and regarding him steadily.</p> + +<p>"Isn't this decision—er—rather sudden?" I asked evenly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry that I've grown to be so critical, Jerry. You forget that +I've never much cared for the sex."</p> + +<p>It seemed that this was just the reply to restore him to partial +sanity, for his face broke in a smile.</p> + +<p>"I forgot, old Dry-as-dust. You don't like 'em—don't like any of 'em. +That's different. But you <i>will</i> like Marcia. You <i>shall</i>. Why, Roger, +she's an angel. You couldn't help liking her."</p> + +<p>I smiled feebly. My acquaintance with decadent angels had been +limited. I turned the subject adroitly.</p> + +<p>"Have you discovered who Una is?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"No. Marcia wouldn't tell me. She only laughed at me, but I really +wanted to know. She <i>was</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"Nor I," I said shortly. "She doesn't <i>own</i> you, does she?"</p> + +<p>He looked up at me with a blank expression.</p> + +<p>"No, I suppose not," he said slowly.</p> + +<p>I followed up my advantage swiftly.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but—"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"You've forgotten the impression made by Una herself; what reason have +you for believing that you won't forget the ideals also?"</p> + +<p>"There's no danger of that. She merely opened my eyes. Anyone else +could have done the same thing."</p> + +<p>"Ah! Has Miss Van Wyck done so?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"By the way, Roger, we'll be five instead of four for dinner +tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"Who now?"</p> + +<p>"A friend of Marcia's, Channing Lloyd, a chap from town. He came up +today."</p> + +<p>That admission cost Jerry something, and it explained many things, for +I had heard of Channing Lloyd.</p> + +<p>"Ah, very well," I said carelessly and shook out my paper.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, Roger."</p> + +<p>"Good-night, Jerry."</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"What does it mean to you?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"I understand," I broke in with a smile, which seemed to come in spite +of me. "There's no medicine for that."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Daylight, yes. You found it startling?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Her frankness disarmed me.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>"I have merely taught Jerry to be honest, Miss Van Wyck," I replied. +"I ask no credit of him or of you."</p> + +<p>"But if it pleases me to give it to you," she said softly, "you surely +can't object."</p> + +<p>"No, but I don't ask laurels I don't deserve. Jerry is—merely +himself."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I straightened and looked out through the open window, steeling myself +against her.</p> + +<p>"I am glad you think him fine," I said dryly. "No doubt he compares +very favorably with other young men of your acquaintance."</p> + +<p>"You mean Mr. Lloyd, of course," she said quickly.</p> + +<p>I was silent, avoiding her gaze and her perfume.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I should like to be, of course, but—"</p> + +<p>I paused. This woman, against my will, was making me lie to her.</p> + +<p>"But what—? Am I so—so unpleasant to you? What have I done to earn +your displeasure?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing," I stammered. "Nothing."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>She was a little puzzled—and interested.</p> + +<p>"I hope I do; but I wish you would explain."</p> + +<p>I turned toward her quickly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>She fingered the leaves of a rose, but her eyes under their lids were +looking elsewhere.</p> + +<p>"How should I deceive him, Mr. Canby?" she asked, her voice still +unchanging.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"That's the kind of man that Jerry is—harmless, docile and most +agreeable, but let him be aroused—"</p> + +<p>I paused, letting the paralipsis finish my suggestion.</p> + +<p>She was silent a moment, finally turning to me with a laugh that rang +a little discordantly against the softness of her speech.</p> + +<p>"Jerry wouldn't beat <i>me</i>, would he, Mr. Canby?"</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I haven't the least means of knowing," I replied.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>She snipped a bud and put it to her lips as though to conceal a smile, +and then passed me slowly.</p> + +<p>"Come, Mr. Canby," she said. "I think it's time we joined the others."</p> + +<p>It was. The night was cool, but I was perspiring profusely.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>INTRODUCING JIM ROBINSON</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>A few days after that Jerry left me and I knew that Briar Hills was +closed again.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Well what <i>has</i> he done?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Not much—merely engaged to become one of the principals in a prize +fight in Madison Square Garden."</p> + +<p>"Jerry! I can't believe you."</p> + +<p>"It's quite true. Sit down, my boy. Have you break-fasted yet?"</p> + +<p>"Hours ago at the Manor."</p> + +<p>"Just reproach! But the early worm gets caught by the bird, you know. +I never get up—"</p> + +<p>"Tell me," I broke in impatiently, "where you heard this extravagant +tomfoolery?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Preposterous! It hasn't come out, the newspapers—"</p> + +<p>"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.'"</p> + +<p>"But your father—the public—! It will ruin Jerry—ruin him—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Exactly," said Ballard coolly over his coffee cup. "But how?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I think not. If I understand Jerry correctly, he urged Flynn to make +the match. He's quite keen about it."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I can't imagine how such an ambition could have got into his head," I +muttered.</p> + +<p>Ballard struck a match for his cigarette and smiled.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>I took a turn or two up and down the room.</p> + +<p>"Your father—the executors—know nothing of this?"</p> + +<p>"Phew! I should say not!"</p> + +<p>"They could stop it, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"I'm not so sure," he said quietly. "If the boy has made up his mind."</p> + +<p>I sank in a chair, trying to think.</p> + +<p>"The executors mustn't know. Jack. We'll keep the thing quiet. We've +got to appeal to Jerry."</p> + +<p>"That's precisely the conclusion I've reached myself. I've asked him +to come this morning. He may be in at any moment."</p> + +<p>I looked out of the window thoughtfully toward the distant Jersey +shore.</p> + +<p>"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—?"</p> + +<p>"He thinks he's dodging that. Nobody knows him in New York except a +few fellows at the clubs, he says."</p> + +<p>"But has he no consideration for <i>us</i>—for <i>me</i>?" I cried.</p> + +<p>"Apparently his friends haven't entered into his calculations."</p> + +<p>"I repeat, it isn't like him, Jack. Somebody has put this idea into +his head."</p> + +<p>I stopped so abruptly that Ballard regarded me curiously.</p> + +<p>"Somebody—who?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Somebody—somebody at Flynn's," I muttered.</p> + +<p>He regarded me curiously.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Stubborn, yes, but—"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I've just been telling Roger," Jack began gravely, "about your fight +with Clancy, Jerry."</p> + +<p>I saw the boy's jaw muscles clamp, but he replied very quietly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Uncle Jack. He objects, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Jerry followed a pattern in the rug with the point of his stick.</p> + +<p>"I wish you hadn't put it just that way, Roger."</p> + +<p>"I don't know how else to put it. That's the fact, isn't it, Jerry?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You can't keep people from knowing, Jerry," I said. "Your picture +will be on every sporting page in the United States."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The boy was getting a new code of morals as well as a new vocabulary.</p> + +<p>"You can't hide a lie, Jerry."</p> + +<p>"I'm not harming anybody," he muttered.</p> + +<p>"Nobody but yourself," I said sternly.</p> + +<p>"I don't see that," he growled, clasping his great fists over his +knees.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Jack Ballard was so incensed at this obstinacy that he swore at the +boy, flung out of the room and disappeared.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"An athlete—but a gentleman. There are some things a gentleman +doesn't do."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Yourself," I persisted sternly.</p> + +<p>He laughed up at the ceiling.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>I rose, shrugging my shoulders, and walked past him.</p> + +<p>"I'll say no more except that I hope you know I think you're a fool."</p> + +<p>"I do, Roger," he laughed. "You've indicated it clearly."</p> + +<p>At the fireplace I turned, laying my trap for him skillfully.</p> + +<p>"You've told Marcia?" I asked carelessly.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Jerry. Marcia—?" I encouraged innocently.</p> + +<p>For a fraction of a minute he paused and then went on, blurting the +whole thing in his old boyish way.</p> + +<p>"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—<i>her</i> philosophy and +<i>mine</i>!) "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."</p> + +<p>"What tests?" I asked interestedly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And what did she say to that?" I asked trying to keep countenance.</p> + +<p>"Oh, she laughed and said that she wasn't thinking of having any +children just yet."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Go on, Jerry," I said in a moment. "She wants you to typify the new +race—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I see," I said thoughtfully. "Then it <i>was</i> Marcia's idea, wasn't +it?"</p> + +<p>He hesitated a moment before replying.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"The superbeast versus the superman," I commented. "Your mind is made +up then—irrevocably?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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—"</p> + +<p>"Ah—Marcia goes—?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps," I said helplessly, looking out of the window.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>UNA</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>And this was the world into which my sinless man had been liberated!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Una!" he said. "Don't you know me?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Jerry. Of course, but it seems so strange to see you—here—" +She paused. "To see you down here—in the Bowery."</p> + +<p>"It is, isn't it?" he stammered. "But I—I'll explain in a minute—if +you'll let me walk with you."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Of course, I can have no objection," she said coolly.</p> + +<p>Jerry threw the cigarette away.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you think it's very curious to see me down here at +Finnegan's," Jerry repeated.</p> + +<p>No reply.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>are</i> you?" Still, I think, the cool, indifferent tone.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>It must have pleased her that Jerry should have remembered her phrase.</p> + +<p>"Really!" her tone melting a little. "It's pleasant to +be—remembered."</p> + +<p>She turned and again searched him slowly with her gaze, smiling a +little.</p> + +<p>"How long have you been in New York?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, ages—almost two months."</p> + +<p>"And in that time," she said quizzically, "the Faun has learned the +habit of saloons and cigarettes. You've progressed, haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And <i>are</i> your wind and heart good?" she asked with her puzzling +smile.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I remember," she replied.</p> + +<p>He eyed her sober little profile curiously. She seemed strangely +demure.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>She turned toward him and their eyes met. When her gaze turned away +from him she was smiling.</p> + +<p>"Yes. I'd like a cup of tea," she said after a moment of deliberation.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Am I?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"No—no butterflies." She paused a moment. "Only moths with singed +wings."</p> + +<p>She examined him furtively, but he was frankly puzzled.</p> + +<p>"Moths—! I don't think I understand."</p> + +<p>"Yes—moths—I—I spend a good deal of my time at the Blank Street +Mission."</p> + +<p>"And what is that?"</p> + +<p>She gazed for a moment at him wide-eyed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"It's great of you, Una."</p> + +<p>"And what do you do with <i>your</i> time?" she broke in quickly. "Whom +have you met? Is the riddle of existence easier for you in New York +than at Horsham Manor?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>The suddenness of the question took her aback, but in a second she +was smiling in spite of herself.</p> + +<p>"No, I don't, Jerry. But lots of girls do. It's the fashion."</p> + +<p>"I know, but do you approve of it?"</p> + +<p>"It's very effective if not overdone," she evaded.</p> + +<p>"But do you approve of it?" he insisted.</p> + +<p>"There's no harm in it, is there? I'd wear it if I wanted to."</p> + +<p>"But you don't want to."</p> + +<p>"No. Why do you want to know?"</p> + +<p>But he didn't seem to hear her question.</p> + +<p>"Do you drink cocktails? Or smoke cigarettes?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He didn't laugh.</p> + +<p>"But surely you smoke cigarettes!"</p> + +<p>"No, I don't smoke. I don't like cigarettes."</p> + +<p>"But if you liked them, <i>would</i> you smoke?" he questioned eagerly.</p> + +<p>"What a funny boy you are! What difference does it make what I do or +don't do?"</p> + +<p>"Would you smoke, if you liked to?" he still insisted.</p> + +<p>She was very much amused.</p> + +<p>"How can I tell what I'd do if I liked to when I don't like to?"</p> + +<p>"Do you approve of them then—for women, I mean?"</p> + +<p>"Why do you want to know?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Why do you think I'm sane?" she asked amusedly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You're seeing me now, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. But I can't talk about them all—at once."</p> + +<p>"You've made a pretty good start, I should say."</p> + +<p>Jerry laughed. "I have, haven't I? That's the way I always do when I'm +with you."</p> + +<p>"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 <i>most</i> informally?"</p> + +<p>"I feel as if I'd known you always."</p> + +<p>"But you haven't. And I'm beginning to think I don't know you at all."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, weren't you?"</p> + +<p>"No," he said hastily. And then to cover a possible misconception of +his meaning, "But of course I <i>would</i> 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."</p> + +<p>She regarded him for a moment in silence and then,</p> + +<p>"You do belong to some of the clubs, then?"</p> + +<p>"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"—</p> + +<p>"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 <i>am</i> 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."</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Possibly not," she said calmly. "I hope you'll forgive my +impertinence."</p> + +<p>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?"</p> + +<p>She laughed at his serious demeanor.</p> + +<p>"You know I <i>am</i> a curious creature, unduly so about this. But you +<i>do</i> 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?"</p> + +<p>He gazed at her in perplexity and then laughed. "You're just as real +as ever, aren't you?"</p> + +<p>"Real! I should hope so. But <i>you</i> 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."</p> + +<p>He felt the light sting of irony, but her humor disarmed him.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Do you really mean that?" she asked incredulously when he paused.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>She started back in her chair and gazed at him in an expression of +mingled incredulity and dismay.</p> + +<p>"Five thou—!"</p> + +<p>"And five thousand a month," Jerry repeated firmly.</p> + +<p>"You can't mean—"</p> + +<p>"I do. See here. I'll show you."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll send it to you tomorrow. You'll see if I don't."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But if it's wisely given—" he put in peevishly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, wisely! That's just the point."</p> + +<p>"It ought not to be so difficult."</p> + +<p>She smiled at him soberly.</p> + +<p>"Charity isn't merely giving money, Jerry," she said. "Money sometimes +does more harm than good."</p> + +<p>"I can't see that."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Then you won't let me help you?" he asked quite meekly, for Jerry.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Yes," eagerly. "Whatever you need—"</p> + +<p>"But five thousand—"</p> + +<p>"Couldn't you use it?" eagerly.</p> + +<p>She paused and then smiled brightly across the table at him.</p> + +<p>"I'll try to, Jerry."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"We might add a day nursery—" she murmured thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He reached across the table, upsetting a teacup, and seized her hands +in both of his. "Oh, you will, Una, won't you?"</p> + +<p>She withdrew her hands gently and looked at him, on her lips a queer +little crooked smile.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"Then you agree?" he cried.</p> + +<p>"I'll try," she said quietly.</p> + +<p>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—"</p> + +<p>"That's very right and proper—of course," she said, gathering up her +gloves.</p> + +<p>He noted the motion.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't go yet, Una. There are a lot of things I'd like to ask +you."</p> + +<p>"I think I will have to go."</p> + +<p>"But you'll let me see you and talk to you about things, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, I'll have to make an accounting of your money—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes—the check. You'll get it tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"But, Jerry—"</p> + +<p>"Your address, please," he insisted with a stern and business-like +air.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>JERRY GOES INTO TRAINING</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>sui +generis</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The notice of this home-coming reached me in the form of a wire.</p> + +<p>"Will arrive with party tomorrow. Have six bedrooms prepared for +guests. Will explain when I see you."</p> + +<p>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—!</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<div class="center"><a name="illus3" id="illus3"></a> +<img src="images/illus3.jpg" width="378" height="605" alt=""This then was Jerry's house-party—!"" title="" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"This then was Jerry's house-party—!"</span> +</div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing can ever upset me again," I said with dignity. "It's your +house. I can move out."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>I smiled ironically. "And you think you've chosen a way to avoid publicity +by bringing these"—I restrained myself with difficulty—"these +<i>gentlemen</i> here? Don't you know that every paper in New York +will have a man here writing the thing up?"</p> + +<p>"No, they won't. They can't get in. I stopped at the Lodge as I came +by and gave my orders."</p> + +<p>"But they'll know that Jim Robinson and Jerry Benham are the same."</p> + +<p>Jerry winked an eye and laid a finger along his nose.</p> + +<p>"No, they won't, old Dry-as-dust, for the very simple reason that he +isn't."</p> + +<p>"I don't understand."</p> + +<p>"Well, you see, I'm Jim Robinson and <i>you</i> are Jerry Benham."</p> + +<p>"I!" I gasped.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Preposterous! These—these bruisers" (I let go now) "think I'm +<i>you</i>?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"I see. A bit irritable—so am I—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Quite true," I remarked with desperate calmness. "And who, if I may +ask, is the colored gentleman in the yellow sweater?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I hope you have their criminal records—also a private detective to +watch the silver," I murmured weakly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>I was indeed, crawling, groveling. I strove upward, but remained +prostrate.</p> + +<p>"How could you do such a thing, Jerry?" I remonstrated feebly.</p> + +<p>He patted me on the back—much, I think, as he would have patted +Skookums in encouragement.</p> + +<p>"Oh, be a good sport, Roger. You <i>can</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"What do you—want me to do?" I stammered at last.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>are</i> interested, Roger."</p> + +<p>"I'm not."</p> + +<p>"You don't want to see me licked, do you?"</p> + +<p>I sighed. The affair was out of my hands.</p> + +<p>"What shall you want to eat?" I asked meekly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Nor will I," I said. Jerry only laughed. D—n the boy. It was rank +tyranny.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"A stroll in the Park, byes, now. And then—the feathers," said Flynn, +passing the chewing gum.</p> + +<p>"A fine lot, ain't they, Mr. Benham?" said Jerry to me as they filed +out.</p> + +<p>"Extraordinary," I replied, with a fictitious smile, "most +extraordinary."</p> + +<p>He grinned at me and followed them.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>He looked at me quizzically for a moment and then grinned.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He looked me in the eye and I knew that he told the truth.</p> + +<p>"What chance has Jerry of winning, Flynn?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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'."</p> + +<p>"Waste nothing?"</p> + +<p>"He's got to land, sor—every time and waste no whiffs on nothin'."</p> + +<p>"I see."</p> + +<p>Flynn was eyeing the door impatiently. He was a busy man and had no +time to answer foolish questions.</p> + +<p>"There's no chance of getting out of it?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>I opened the door and he lost no time in getting to the gymnasium.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What round?" she asked masticating leisurely.</p> + +<p>"Third," said Flynn with his gaze on his watch, "Time!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You—approve of this?" she whispered, then to me.</p> + +<p>"No. I'm helpless," I returned.</p> + +<p>"You know?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. It's madness. She made him do—"</p> + +<p>"Sh—" she warned, for the round had ended, and Marcia turned toward +her. But I knew that she understood.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>I nodded uncomfortably.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I'll be glad to send you back," I said quickly enough.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>She was very much amused at the awkwardness of the situation.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Canby," she said softly. "Your dream-castle totters."</p> + +<p>I glanced up at her quickly, but she still smiled.</p> + +<p>"It has fallen," I groaned.</p> + +<p>"No—not yet," still cheerfully. She paused a moment, and, leaning her +elbows on the balustrade, looked out down the valley.</p> + +<p>"All will be well," she said at last slowly.</p> + +<p>Our glances met. "I have that presentiment," she added.</p> + +<p>"Based on what?" I said bitterly. "A man who can inspire such a +passion as this is no more than a beast—"</p> + +<p>"Or no less than a man," she muttered quickly. "You forget that Jerry +is what you've made him—"</p> + +<p>"Not this—the body the servant—not the mind—"</p> + +<p>"The mind will survive," she put in evenly. "It must. The whole thing +is hypnotic. He will pass out of it soon."</p> + +<p>"And she—?"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Ah—!"</p> + +<p>"But he won't. He treats her as though she were a flower, caresses her +with his eyes, touches her petals timidly—"</p> + +<p>"Bah! I could crush her—"</p> + +<p>She smiled indulgently.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"It is morbid, unhealthy."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps, but like other diseases, will pass."</p> + +<p>"Leaving Jerry sick?"</p> + +<p>"He will recover."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>THE UNKNOWN UNMASKED</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">PUGILIST SOCIETY MAN</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">JIM ROBINSON, THE HEAVY WEIGHT, A</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">MASQUERADER.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>I read the type below hurriedly:</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>I showed the thing to Ballard, who read it through eagerly, his lips +emitting a thin whistle.</p> + +<p>"Ph-ew! They're getting 'warm,' Pope. Somebody's leaked."</p> + +<p>"But who—?"</p> + +<p>"May be the management—to draw the crowd." And then, looking at the +front page, "That's only the twelve o'clock edition. Perhaps—"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It would be the deuce if they followed that up."</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 5.5em;">JEREMIAH BENHAM—PRIZE FIGHTER.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">MULTI-MILLIONAIRE SEEKS LAURELS IN RING.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">FLYNN'S MYSTERIOUS UNKNOWN REVEALED</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">IN PERSON OF MILLIONAIRE SPORTSMAN.</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Jack Ballard swore softly, but I read on over his shoulder, +breathlessly:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>The latest mystery of the prize ring has been revealed by a + reporter of the <i>Despatch</i>, 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.</p> + +<p> 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.</p></div> + +<p>"Slender—rather crusty!" muttered Ballard. "You! D—n the fellow!"</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>In order to verify the suspicion [I read on], the <i>Despatch</i> + 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.</p> + +<p> 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 <i>Despatch</i> could + not keep the matter secret, but the <i>Despatch</i> 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.</p></div> + +<p>The murder was out. We searched the other papers. Nothing.</p> + +<p>"A beat!" muttered Jack. "I'd like to show the fellow what a beating +is."</p> + +<p>Jack Ballard was merely angry. I was bewildered into a state of +helplessness. What should we do? What <i>could</i> 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 <i>Despatch</i> in his hand.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen this?" he snapped.</p> + +<p>"We have," said Jack with an assumption of calmness.</p> + +<p>"It's a lie?"</p> + +<p>"No. It's the truth."</p> + +<p>The old man raged the length of the room and turned.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that you've let this thing go on without trying to stop +it—without letting me know—"</p> + +<p>"We did try to stop it. There was no use in letting you know. Jerry's +mind was made up."</p> + +<p>"Jerry! The fool is ruining himself—and us. The thing must be +stopped—at once."</p> + +<p>Jack smiled coolly. "I don't see how you're going to do that."</p> + +<p>The father stamped the length of the room again. "I'll show you. Where +is Clancy?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know. You'll find him at Madison Square Garden about ten."</p> + +<p>"But where is he now?" he snapped.</p> + +<p>Jack shrugged. "I don't know."</p> + +<p>"Well, you must come with me. I've got to find him."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do?"</p> + +<p>"Buy him off. This match can't take place."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that?" asked Jack with a smile.</p> + +<p>"Did you ever know me to waste words?—Come!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Yours, Pope. I'll see you later."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>Despatch</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What's this goldfish their feedin' to the sea lion? Say, that story +ain't straight about young Benham bein' Robinson?"</p> + +<p>"Sure thing. Clancy will eat him alive—<i>eat him alive</i>," the man +repeated, slowly and with unction.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Some dame, that," said one of them admiringly. "Know her, Charlie?"</p> + +<p>"Naw," replied the stout man. "Swells, I reckon, friends of the +goldfish."</p> + +<p>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 <i>was</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What happened?" I questioned in a whisper.</p> + +<p>"They're going to fight," he returned.</p> + +<p>"Your father—?"</p> + +<p>He smiled a little. "Mad as a hornet. Jerry blocked the game."</p> + +<p>"How—?"</p> + +<p>"Dad offered Clancy five thousand and his share of the gate money to +quit."</p> + +<p>"Clancy refused?"</p> + +<p>"He was very white about it. He sent the message over to Jerry."</p> + +<p>"And Jerry?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Fifteen thousand! Clancy will work for it."</p> + +<p>Jack smiled grimly. "I think Jerry wants him to."</p> + +<p>The boy was mad—clean mad.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>THE FIGHT</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Big rascal, ain't he?" the sportsman in the adjoining box commented.</p> + +<p>"Yep," grunted the stolid one. "But too leggy. Clancy'll eat him +alive—<i>eat him alive</i>," he repeated with more unction than before.</p> + +<p>"Maybe," said the other, "but I want to be shown. There was another +leggy feller—the freckled one."</p> + +<p>"Fitz—but Fitz was a <i>fighter</i>."</p> + +<p>"Well, I like his looks—good-lookin' feller, ain't he?"</p> + +<p>"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—<i>eat him +alive</i>!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>But I had already turned my back on the fellow.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"He's got the science," said the optimist next door, "a pretty piece +o' work—very pretty."</p> + +<p>"Just you wait, Petey," said the stout man, while behind us an +Irishman shouted, "Get them green tights workin', Clancy."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The crowd were on their feet, silent. They thought that the end had +come, for at the call of <i>three</i> 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 <i>six</i> Clancy was on one elbow, <i>eight</i> +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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>The crowd sank back into their seats gasping. It was a long while +since New York had seen a fight such as this.</p> + +<p>"What d' I tell you, Charlie?" whispered the optimist next to me +hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"By—, he's good an' no mistake," confessed the fat man.</p> + +<p>"He's got the Sailor goin'."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Luck," one said, "mere luck."</p> + +<p>"It's all in the game. But Benham's the better man."</p> + +<p>"Lucky for Clancy that Jerry mixed it. Could 'a cut the Sailor to +pieces."</p> + +<p>"Some fight—what?"</p> + +<p>"The best in years. The boy's a wonder."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"He's coming around all right," said the sergeant. "Now move along +there, gents. No admittance here."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Well, Roger," he muttered dully, "I'm licked."</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I thought—I could stand—what he could," grunted Jerry.</p> + +<p>"Not the lucky blow. He had it. If you'd stood him off—"</p> + +<p>"I came here to fight—" said Jerry sinking back on his mattress +wearily.</p> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"Marcia—was there?"</p> + +<p>I nodded.</p> + +<p>"She stayed—saw—?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>He made no sound, and submitted silently to the ministrations of his +trainers.</p> + +<p>Flynn was philosophical.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"He beat me fairly," said Jerry sitting up.</p> + +<p>"Who? Clancy? I'll match you agin him tomorrow, Masther Jerry," and he +grinned cheerfully, "if ye'll but take advice."</p> + +<p>"Advice!" sighed Jerry. "You were right Flynn—I—I was wrong."</p> + +<p>"I wudden't mind if it wasn't for thinkin' of that fifteen thousand."</p> + +<p>"I think he earned it," laughed Jack.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You lost something, Flynn?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"A trifle, sor."</p> + +<p>"And the Kid and Tim?"</p> + +<p>"<i>And</i> Rozy and Dan—all of us a bit, sor. But it don't matther."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>MARCIA RECANTS</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Nice of those chaps, very, considering the way I've treated 'em, but +it's no go. I've finished."</p> + +<p>Jack had ventured out to brave the storm and I sat quietly, scarcely +daring to hope that I had heard correctly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Does it hurt?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"You're in earnest, then," I asked, "about not fighting again?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I'm through—for good." And then boyishly, "But I didn't quit, +Roger, did I?"</p> + +<p>"I think any unprejudiced observer will admit that you didn't quit," I +said. "Clancy, I'm sure, knows better than anybody."</p> + +<p>"Good old Clancy. He <i>was</i> 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 <i>was</i> a wallop! Oh well," he sighed, +"the better man won. I'm satisfied."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, it doesn't matter—Beastly nuisance, those reporters—" He looked +over at me and grinned sheepishly. "Nice morning reading for Ballard, +Senior! It <i>was</i> 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."</p> + +<p>When he got up from the breakfast table he caught a glimpse of his +face in a mirror. "I <i>am</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"You're going visiting?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Marcia and I are going up to the country together. You'll have +to go along."</p> + +<p>"Thanks," I said, "but I've some matters to attend to here."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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—<i>Eheu!</i> 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 <i>had</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Brandy was made for old dotards and young idiots. I'm neither."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You're talking nonsense," I said sternly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Ah! You're happy?"</p> + +<p>"'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."</p> + +<p>He reached for the brandy bottle again, but I whisked it away and +rose.</p> + +<p>"You're a d——d jackass," I said, storming down at where he sat from +my indignant five feet eight.</p> + +<p>His brow lowered and his jaw shot forward unpleasantly. "A jackass," I +repeated firmly, still holding the neck of the brandy bottle.</p> + +<p>He glared at me a moment longer, then he slowly sank back into his +chair, his features relaxing, and burst into a laugh.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You <i>are</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"But why drink at all?" I asked quietly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He puffed on his pipe a moment in silence, eyeing the table leg.</p> + +<p>"I <i>am</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He had gotten up and now paced the room with long strides.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>I knew what he was thinking about and whom, but he would not speak.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I supposed," he said, thoughtfully, "it might have been something +like that. Women <i>are</i> queer. You think you know them, and then—" He +paused, confession hovering on his lips, but some delicacy restrained +him.</p> + +<p>"Women, Jerry, are the flavoring of society; I regret that I have a +poor digestion for sauces. I hope yours will be better."</p> + +<p>He laughed. "Poor Roger; was she <i>very</i> pretty?"</p> + +<p>"I can't remember. Probably. Calf love seldom considers anything +else—prettiness! Yes she was pretty."</p> + +<p>"How old were you?"</p> + +<p>"Older than you Jerry—and wiser."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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—</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You're very fond of Master Jerry, Christopher?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sir, Mr. Canby."</p> + +<p>"So am I, Christopher. I think you know that, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, sir. You've been a father to 'im, sir. Nobody knows that +better than me, sir."</p> + +<p>"We'd both go through fire and water for him, wouldn't we, +Christopher?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, sir; an' if you please, sir, what with these prize fighters +at the Manor an' all, I rather think we 'ave, sir."</p> + +<p>I smiled.</p> + +<p>"A bad business, but over for good, I think, Christopher. But there +are other things, worse in a way—"</p> + +<p>I paused, scrutinizing the man's homely, impassive face.</p> + +<p>"Did Master Jerry do much drinking before he went into training, +Christopher?"</p> + +<p>"A little, what any gentleman would, out in the world, sir."</p> + +<p>"You've noticed it since the fight?"</p> + +<p>He hesitated. Loyalty was bred in his bone.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"You know, Christopher, that I've spent my life trying to make Jerry a +fine man?"</p> + +<p>"You 'ave, sir. It's a pity—the—the drink. But it can't 'ave much +of a 'old on 'im yet, sir."</p> + +<p>"Then you <i>have</i> noticed?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"When did he begin?"</p> + +<p>He paused a moment.</p> + +<p>"I think it was the day after the fight, that very night, to be +hexact, sir."</p> + +<p>"I see. The night after the fight. He spent the evening out and when +he came home, was he intoxicated?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Had he been with some other gentlemen during the evening?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. 'E 'ad been callin' on a lady, but stopped at 'is club on +the way around—"</p> + +<p>"What lady?"</p> + +<p>"I—I—"</p> + +<p>"You may speak freely, Christopher. Miss Van Wyck?"</p> + +<p>"I—I think so, sir. They 'ad an appointment."</p> + +<p>"I see. And did he drink again that night?"</p> + +<p>"A few brandies—yes, sir. Ye see, sir, it got to him +quick-like—breakin' training so suddent."</p> + +<p>"I understand. And you put him to bed."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir, in a manner o' speakin' I did, sir."</p> + +<p>"When did you notice his drinking again?"</p> + +<p>"Not for some days, sir."</p> + +<p>"And what then?"</p> + +<p>"The same thing happened again, sir."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>He paused a moment scratching his head in perplexity, and then blurted +forth without reserve.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Master Jerry will not know."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Ah, she came to the house?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Nor I, Christopher. You heard what she said?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"No. I'm glad you've spoken. You've said nothing of this—to anyone?"</p> + +<p>"I'd cut my tongue out first, sir," he muttered, wagging his head.</p> + +<p>I led the way to the door and opened it.</p> + +<p>"I like her no better than you, Christopher. Something must be +done—something—It's too bad—"</p> + +<p>"Good night, sir," he said.</p> + +<p>"Good night, Christopher."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>TWO EMBASSIES</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It was wonderful of you to come, Mr. Canby," she purred. "So kind, so +neighborly."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>She flashed a quick glance at me, wholly humorous.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Thanks," I muttered, smelling the blossom with some ostentation.</p> + +<p>"Then we're going to be friends?" she queried archly.</p> + +<p>"I'm not aware that we were ever anything else," I replied easily.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Jealous! I? Of you, Miss Van Wyck?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not aware—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>I was silent.</p> + +<p>"Didn't I, Mr. Canby?" she persisted, in her gentlest tone.</p> + +<p>"Jerry is out of my hands, Miss Van Wyck," I managed coolly.</p> + +<p>"And in mine?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, in yours," after a pause.</p> + +<p>She laughed softly.</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose I'm going to do with him?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>D—- the vixen. She was making game of me. But I struggled to hold my +temper, taking her literally.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>She flashed a narrow glance at me. "<i>Touchée.</i> I like the thrust from +cover, but I can parry. Suppose that I said that I would relinquish +Jerry."</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure that you can," I replied coolly.</p> + +<p>Our glances met again. She knew that I read her.</p> + +<p>"Nothing is impossible to intelligence. I could send him away +tomorrow, today—"</p> + +<p>"But he would come back."</p> + +<p>"You frighten me," she said, shuddering prettily.</p> + +<p>"That is precisely what I wish to do," I went on stolidly.</p> + +<p>"Threats!"</p> + +<p>I shrugged. "You underestimate him, that's all."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps. You know, Mr. Canby, that you improve vastly on +acquaintance. If you were younger—" She paused and looked at me +slantwise.</p> + +<p>"Ingenuous, handsome, a fighting god—!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Jerry told you that!" she said in tones half-suppressed.</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"He did."</p> + +<p>"No. But I know. I haven't watched for a month for nothing. I'm not a +child, Miss Van Wyck."</p> + +<p>"What are you?" she taunted.</p> + +<p>"A prophet. Jerry is no woman's plaything. Let him be. You don't know +him as I do. I warn you."</p> + +<p>She suddenly went into a fit of laughter, meant to ruffle my dignity.</p> + +<p>"Off with my head! If you knew how much you remind me of the <i>Queen</i> +in 'Alice in Wonderland'!"</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry you won't take me seriously."</p> + +<p>"I can't," she laughed again. "You're too absurd to be tragic."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps we had better be going toward the house," I remarked.</p> + +<p>She moved slowly along, her back eloquent of disdain. But she paused +for a moment to let me join her.</p> + +<p>"You see? I've tried. You won't be friendly."</p> + +<p>"My advice is friendly—"</p> + +<p>"I never follow advice. We're enemies. It is written."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Well," she said cheerfully as I sank into a chair, "you are friends +again?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"It's really too bad. I think you take life too seriously, Mr. Canby."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps." I remained silent. She worked at her embroidery frame for a +moment as though to attune herself to my mood and then:</p> + +<p>"Briar Hills can't hope for a visit which hasn't an ulterior purpose. +What is it?"</p> + +<p>As usual she wasted no words and smiled benignly, a comfortable +motherly smile at once quizzical and forgiving.</p> + +<p>"I <i>did</i> want to see you," I put in awkwardly. "It has been a long +time—"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>I could only stare at her in wonder at her intuitions, and made some +remark which she chose to disregard.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I guessed as much. But why?"</p> + +<p>She shrugged her shoulders expressively, but having gone so far I was +not there to waste words.</p> + +<p>"I know. Her idol fell in Madison Square Garden, a bone-and-muscle +idol, Miss Gore."</p> + +<p>She remained silent, examining her embroidery with a critical eye.</p> + +<p>"You know that that is true," I asserted.</p> + +<p>"Idols are as easily made as shattered for Marcia. She may adore him +again next week."</p> + +<p>"I hope not. It would be a pity."</p> + +<p>"I agree with you," she said quietly. "It would be a pity."</p> + +<p>I said nothing for a moment, watching her slim fingers weaving to and +fro.</p> + +<p>"I have just warned her," I said.</p> + +<p>The fingers moved slowly, then stopped and lowered the embroidery +frame to her lap. Her wide gaze was full upon me.</p> + +<p>"You—what?"</p> + +<p>"I warned her."</p> + +<p>"Against what?"</p> + +<p>"Against Jerry."</p> + +<p>She straightened and a sound came from her throat.</p> + +<p>"You—"</p> + +<p>She gave a short laugh. "You'll pardon me, Mr. Canby, but I was on the +point of calling you a fool."</p> + +<p>"I warned her," I muttered. "Jerry isn't like other men. She's playing +with fire."</p> + +<p>"And don't you know that that is the very worst thing you could have +done, for Jerry—for her?"</p> + +<p>"I hadn't meant to do exactly that. She angered me."</p> + +<p>"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 <i>see</i>?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>Una! I had forgotten her. But I shook my head.</p> + +<p>"I meddle no more, Miss Gore. I've learned a lesson. Jerry must work +out his own salvation."</p> + +<p>"It's merely a suggestion. Think it over."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Canby," she said politely, indicating a chair, "won't you sit +down?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Benham sent you to me?" she asked at last very coolly.</p> + +<p>"Er—not exactly," I stammered. "Mr. Benham did not send me, but +I—I'm here in his interest."</p> + +<p>"Yes?"</p> + +<p>The rising inflection on the monosyllable could hardly have been +called encouraging.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Her neck stiffened ever so slightly.</p> + +<p>"You surely did not come here," she said icily, "merely to discuss the +circumstances of our first meeting."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"If you will please come as quickly as possible to the object of your +visit—"</p> + +<p>"I—I will. If you'll be a little patient with me."</p> + +<p>She averted her head, but said nothing.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"I fail to see, Mr. Canby—"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Without temptations," she put in quickly, the first encouraging sign +of her interest.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"You—you have seen the papers—the accounts of—?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"My only hope is that you haven't misjudged him in that affair. All +his life he has cared for boxing—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I am sorry to hear you say that. I thought perhaps that as a +friend—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I was counting on your interest, for he values your good opinion more +I think than that of anyone in the world."</p> + +<p>Her foot ceased tapping and she bent forward, one elbow on her knee, +her head lowered thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"What do you want, Mr. Canby?" she asked abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Your help."</p> + +<p>"Mine!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, your help. Jerry needs it—"</p> + +<p>"He did not ask—?"</p> + +<p>"No. I haven't consulted Jerry—"</p> + +<p>"Then I—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>My appeal had reached her, for I think she realized how seldom such a +person as I could be moved to emotion.</p> + +<p>"But I—how can I help?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>She smiled at me gently.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I had hoped you cared enough—"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Who is this—this woman?" she blurted out at last.</p> + +<p>I hesitated.</p> + +<p>"A lady. You—you put me at a disadvantage."</p> + +<p>"What is her name?" she insisted.</p> + +<p>"Marcia Van Wyck," I muttered.</p> + +<p>"Marcia! Surely—" She stopped. A look of bewilderment came over her +face, ending with a frown of perplexity.</p> + +<p>"No," she murmured. "He wouldn't understand Marcia. I—" And then with +a gasp, "And you want <i>me</i> to interfere? Mr. Canby, I—"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>The words died on my lips as she rose, her slim figure straight in its +sudden dignity, and I knew that I had failed.</p> + +<p>"Your proposal is preposterous, Mr. Canby," she said coolly, moving +toward the door.</p> + +<p>"You refuse?"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"And you won't reconsider? Let me come to see you tomorrow, the next +day. Is it so much that I ask?"</p> + +<p>"Good night, Mr. Canby."</p> + +<p>"You do not care enough?"</p> + +<p>"Good night."</p> + +<p>I bowed over her fingers silently.</p> + +<p>Then I took up my hat. There was nothing left to do.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>THE PATH IN THE WOOD</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 +<i>you</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"If it <i>were</i> 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!"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"No," I said.</p> + +<p>"Um! Knowledge will come like a thunderclap to Jerry. Then—look out!"</p> + +<p>I agreed with him.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Frisco or not, I meddle no more."</p> + +<p>"Frankenstein!" he laughed again. "The monster is getting away from +you."</p> + +<p>"If you're going to be facetious—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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 <i>débâcle</i>.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Not now, Roger," he demurred. "I've got to stay here now. Just stick +around with me for awhile, won't you, old chap?"</p> + +<p>"Will you stop drinking?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Brandy?"</p> + +<p>"Everything."</p> + +<p>"H—m. You're the devil of a martinet."</p> + +<p>"Will you?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he said. "Old Dry-as-dust, I will."</p> + +<p>"A promise? You've never broken one, Jerry."</p> + +<p>"A promise, Roger. I—I think I'm getting a little glimmering of +sense. A promise. I'll keep it."</p> + +<p>"Thank God, for that," I said, in so fervent a tone that the boy +smiled at me.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>He turned into the room after awhile with an air of gayety.</p> + +<p>"We're going to have a party, Roger."</p> + +<p>"Ah, when?"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You're a nice one," she was saying. "Here I am a trespasser through +the grille and not a soul to greet me."</p> + +<p>"You came," I muttered inanely.</p> + +<p>"Obviously; since here I am. It's Saturday, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. But—" I paused.</p> + +<p>"But what?"</p> + +<p>"You said you wouldn't come."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>I was—delighted. Joy was one of the things that made me dumb.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>The possible effect on Una of Jerry's guests, who also might be along +in a minute, was just beginning to bewilder me.</p> + +<p>"He's fishing?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"You're not to leave me, Mr. Canby, or I'll go."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"A chance meeting would have been different. This is premeditation. +Don't leave me. Do you hear!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Hello, Roger," he shouted and then paused, setting the basket down.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know—"</p> + +<p>"A surprise, Jerry!"</p> + +<p>"Why, it's Una!" he cried. "Una! What on earth—?"</p> + +<p>"I was butterflying, and wandered through." She laughed. "I told you +to have that railing mended."</p> + +<p>"The necessity for that is past," he laughed gayly. "Oh, it's jolly +good to see you."</p> + +<p>He took her by both hands and held her off from him examining her +delightedly.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Naturally. Do you think I'm a millionaire?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"I don't see how that's the slightest concern of yours," she said +demurely.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Jerry <i>is</i> busy," I put in mischievously, as I sat down beside them. +"He worked Tuesday and Wednesday this week."</p> + +<p>"Aren't you afraid of injuring your health, Jerry?" she asked sweetly. +"I hope you're not working <i>too</i> hard."</p> + +<p>He frowned and then burst into laughter.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"How splendid! I'm sure it needs it. Railroads are the most +disorganized and disorganizing—"</p> + +<p>"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 <i>me</i>. What are—"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say, Una," he cried, flushing a dark red. "It's not fair to—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"It's not kind of you—"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Stop it, Una," he cried painfully. "I forbid you—"</p> + +<p>"Do you mean," she asked innocently, "that you don't like to +discuss—"</p> + +<p>"I—I'd rather talk of something else," he stammered. "I've stopped +boxing."</p> + +<p>"Why?" wide-eyed. "The newspapers were wild about you. It <i>was</i> a +fluke, wasn't it—Clancy 'getting' you in the ninth?"</p> + +<p>"No," he muttered sullenly, "he whipped me fairly."</p> + +<p>"Really. I'm awfully sorry. When one sets one's heart upon a thing—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" she said in a subdued tone, her gaze upon a distant tree-trunk. +"It's too bad."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I haven't said anything," she remarked urbanely. "And of course it's +none of my affair."</p> + +<p>"But it <i>is</i>," he was insisting.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, here you are," Marcia's soft voice was saying. "It seemed ages +getting here."</p> + +<p>Jerry took charge of the situation with a discretion that did the +situation credit.</p> + +<p>"Marcia, you know Miss Habberton—Miss Van Wyck."</p> + +<p>"Of course," they both echoed coolly. Marcia examining Una +impertinently, Una cheerfully indifferent.</p> + +<p>"Miss Habberton and I were after butterflies," said Jerry, "but she +has promised to stop for tea."</p> + +<p>"I really ought to be going, Jerry," said Una.</p> + +<p>"But you can't, you know, after promising," said Jerry with a smile.</p> + +<p>The introductions made, the party moved on toward the cabin, Miss +Habberton and I bringing up the rear.</p> + +<p>"I could kill you for this," she whispered to me and the glance she +gave me half-accomplished her wish.</p> + +<p>"It isn't my fault," I protested. "I didn't know they were coming +until yesterday—and you know you said—"</p> + +<p>"Well, you ought to have warned me. I've no patience with you—none."</p> + +<p>"But, my dear child—"</p> + +<p>"I feel like a fool—and it's your fault."</p> + +<p>"But how could I—?"</p> + +<p>"You <i>ought</i> to have known."</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>REVOLT</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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 <i>impasse</i>, she +rose, leaving the tea-table to Christopher's ministrations and +advanced valiantly to the attack.</p> + +<p>Una promptly made room for her on the window sill, a wise bit of +generalship which forced the enemy at once into polite subterfuge.</p> + +<p>"It's <i>so</i> nice to see you, Una dear. How did you manage to escape +from all your tiresome work at the Mission?"</p> + +<p>"I could do it very nicely this week-end," said Una cheerfully. "Why +haven't you been to any of the committee meetings?"</p> + +<p>"It has been <i>so</i> warm. And of course while <i>you</i> are in charge we all +know that everything <i>must</i> be going right."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Yes, of course," said Marcia, not turning a hair.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Jerry is very generous," she said sweetly. "Do tell me about it."</p> + +<p>Here Jerry blundered in rather sheepishly. "Oh, I say, Una, that's a +secret, you know."</p> + +<p>"Oh, is it?" said Una innocently. "I can't see why. Marcia knows. +Everybody ought to. It was such a splendid thing to do."</p> + +<p>"Jerry is so modest," said Marcia.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"N—no—of course," said Jerry, shifting his feet.</p> + +<p>"And the ward for nursing babies—we <i>did</i> put those windows in the +west wall. You know we were a little uncertain about that."</p> + +<p>"So we were," echoed Jerry dismally.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It's simply <i>dear</i> 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 <i>oldest friend</i> to help him must relieve +him of a tremendous burden of responsibility."</p> + +<p>The outposts withdrew to the main line of skirmirshers and there +opened fire again, from cover.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But you see," Marcia countered coolly, "I haven't known Jerry +<i>nearly</i> so long as you have."</p> + +<p>"Haven't you?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think so. Have I, Jerry?"</p> + +<p>Jerry evaded the issue with some skill.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Marcia merely smiled, saying nothing, and when she joined the talk of +another group I saw Una's gaze following her curiously.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't I? And you told me all about the plague spots?"</p> + +<p>"Yes." She gazed out of the window. "You were interesting that day, +Jerry."</p> + +<p>"Was! I like that."</p> + +<p>"So elephantine in your seriousness—"</p> + +<p>"Elephantine! Oh, I say—"</p> + +<p>"But you <i>were</i> 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."</p> + +<p>He shook his head soberly.</p> + +<p>"I haven't made good, Una."</p> + +<p>"Oh, there's still time. The jungle is still there, but it's an +awfully big jungle, Jerry, bigger than you thought."</p> + +<p>"Yes—bigger and swampier," he said slowly.</p> + +<p>"I think if I could see more of you, Una, I might be better."</p> + +<p>"I don't know that I've ever denied you the house," she laughed.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps it would be time enough for me to answer that question when +mother does. I—I <i>am</i> busy, you know."</p> + +<p>"Please! And we can have one of our good old chats."</p> + +<p>"Yes," and then mischievously, "but you'd better ask Marcia first, +don't you think?"</p> + +<p>His gaze fell and he reddened.</p> + +<p>"I—I don't quite see what Marcia's got to do with it," he muttered.</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>don't</i> you?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>She smiled and then with a really serious air:</p> + +<p>"Well, I do. I'm sorry I intruded, Jerry. I wouldn't have come for the +world if I had known—"</p> + +<p>"What nonsense you do talk. Promise me you'll come, Una."</p> + +<p>"Ask Marcia first."</p> + +<p>He laughed uneasily. "What a tease you are!"</p> + +<p>"You ought to be very much flattered."</p> + +<p>"How?"</p> + +<p>"To be worth teasing."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you renounce 'em then, Marcia?" roared Lloyd, amid +laughter.</p> + +<p>"I know at least one that I could renounce,' said Marcia, smiling as +she lighted a cigarette.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Do be quiet, Chan. You're idiotic. I'm quite serious."</p> + +<p>"You're always serious, but you never mean what you say."</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't I?"</p> + +<p>"No," he grunted over his glass.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Una dear. You're going?"</p> + +<p>"I must," with a glance at her wrist watch. "It's getting late."</p> + +<p>"What a pity. I wanted to talk to you—about the Mission."</p> + +<p>"I'd like to, but—"</p> + +<p>"We've just been discussing a theme that I know you're really vitally +interested in."</p> + +<p>"I?" I could see by the sudden lift of her brows that Una was now on +her guard.</p> + +<p>"Yes. You believe in women working, in woman's independence, in the +New-Thought idea of unconventional morality, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure what you mean."</p> + +<p>"Simply that women are or should be perfectly capable of looking out +for themselves, as much so as men?"</p> + +<p>"That depends a great deal upon the woman, I should say," replied Una, +smiling tolerantly.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Her address, please," muttered Lloyd quickly.</p> + +<p>"Do be quiet, Chan—" Marcia went on. "Venturesome, modern, moral—"</p> + +<p>"It can't be done," muttered the brute again.</p> + +<p>"Chan, do be serious. Curiosity overwhelms the girl. Nobody is about. +So, putting her fears behind her, she climbs the wall and enters."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"You interrupt, Jerry—"</p> + +<p>"Neither Una nor I are interested in what you're saying," he cried +hoarsely, while the rest of the company stared at him.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</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."</p> + +<p>Marcia laughed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>Una was silent for a moment and then her words came slowly, rather +wistfully.</p> + +<p>"Was she a friend of yours?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, a friend."</p> + +<p>"And did you know her for any length of time to be honorable, +upright, decent?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, quite so."</p> + +<p>Una paused another moment and when she spoke her voice was +crystal-clear.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>Marcia leaned back in her chair holding her breath for a moment and +then broke into a peal of laughter.</p> + +<p>"There! You see. I knew you would agree with me."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>Here a chorus of protest went up, from the treble of the Da Costa girl +to Laidlaw's deep bass.</p> + +<p>"Una—you silly child—of course no one thinks—"</p> + +<p>"As for my friends," she repeated, her voice slightly raised, "I will +choose them by this token."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Of course, Una, I didn't mean—"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"I'm going with you, Una," I heard him say.</p> + +<p>"It isn't necessary. I can find the way. Good-by, everybody. No, +thanks, Phil."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I—I—" I stammered.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"No, Jerry. The surest proof of it is that I'm not angry with +you—with either of you. But I must be going."</p> + +<p>"I'm going with you," said Jerry quickly.</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Let him, Miss Habberton," I put in.</p> + +<p>"I had better go alone."</p> + +<p>"I forbid it," said Jerry. "The machine is at the upper gate. I'll +drive you. Come."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Very well," she said at last, "to the station, then."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>She hesitated again and I think she felt the need of companionship at +that moment.</p> + +<p>"But your guests—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I'll be here," I said. "They'll be going soon. Jerry can be back +in time for the party."</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to that party," Jerry muttered savagely.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>JERRY ASKS QUESTIONS</h3> + + +<p>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?</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jerry, is it home you're driving me to, or just a funeral?"</p> + +<p>He gasped in relief at her sudden change of mood. "I was just +waiting," he said quietly. "I didn't want to intrude, Una."</p> + +<p>"But you <i>do</i> look <i>so</i> like the undertaker's assistant," she smiled. +"You have no right to be glum. I have. I'm the corpse. A corpse +<i>might</i> laugh in sheer relief when the lid was screwed down and +everything comfortable."</p> + +<p>"Una! I don't see anything so funny—"</p> + +<p>"My reputation! A trifling thing," she said coolly, "still, I value +it."</p> + +<p>"<i>Your</i> reputation! That's absurd—nothing could hurt <i>you</i>. I don't +understand."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"No," protested Jerry uncomfortably. "It was last summer—"</p> + +<p>"But I had no name to you then—I was merely Una—"</p> + +<p>"And I blurted it out, Una, the only name I knew, never thinking that +you and Marcia were acquaintances."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see," and she smiled a little. "If my name had been plain Jane +or even Mary, my reputation would have been safe."</p> + +<p>"What rubbish, Una! Can't a fellow and a girl have a chat without—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, but the girl mustn't get through eight-foot walls."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but you didn't know about it being a monastery," he said +seriously.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>everything</i> you know?"</p> + +<p>"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 +<i>were</i> in there, whose affair is it but yours and mine?"</p> + +<p>"Everybody's," she shrugged. "Everybody's business! That ought to be +inscribed on the tombstone of every dead reputation. <i>Hic jacet</i> Una +Habberton. Nice girl, but she <i>would</i> visit monasteries."</p> + +<p>But nothing was humorous to Jerry's mood just then.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Let the world go hang. Have you anything to be ashamed of, Una?"</p> + +<p>"No."</p> + +<p>"Nor I. Very well."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>Una turned toward him soberly.</p> + +<p>"What would you do to him, Jerry?"</p> + +<p>He smiled grimly. "I think I'd kill him," he said softly.</p> + +<p>I think Jerry's tone must have comforted her, for he said that after +that Una grew quieter.</p> + +<p>"The world is very intolerant of idyls, Jerry."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because they're a reproach."</p> + +<p>"Friendship is no idyl, Una, with us. It's more like reality, isn't +it?"</p> + +<p>"I hope so."</p> + +<p>"Don't you believe it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I think I do."</p> + +<p>He smiled at her gayly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you needn't worry. I'm quite strong."</p> + +<p>"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 <i>me</i> as the first patient. It does seem to straighten +me out somehow, just being with you—keeps me from thinking crooked."</p> + +<p>"<i>Do</i> you think crooked, Jerry?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, often. Things bother me. Then I'm like a child. You've no idea +of the vast abyss of my ignorance."</p> + +<p>"But you <i>mustn't</i> think crooked. I won't have it."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"People <i>do</i> change, don't they?"</p> + +<p>"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 <i>have</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you're right," he muttered.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Una!"</p> + +<p>"I must. Everything, almost everything you've been and done I like +except—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't Una—"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"I was a fool—"</p> + +<p>"Say rather, merely an animated biped, an instinct on legs. Is <i>that</i> +a thing to be proud of—for a man who knows what real ideals are?"</p> + +<p>"Don't—"</p> + +<p>"Did you discuss Shakespeare and the musical glasses with 'Kid' +Spatola?"</p> + +<p>"Please!"</p> + +<p>"Or the incorporeal nature of the soul with Battling Sagorski?"</p> + +<p>"Una!" Her irony was biting him like acid.</p> + +<p>"Or did Sagorski make you an accessory before the fact of his next +housebreaking expedition?"</p> + +<p>"Una, that isn't fair. Sagorski is—"</p> + +<p>"He's a second-story man, Jerry, with a beautiful record. Shall I give +it to you?"</p> + +<p>"Er—no, thanks," gasped Jerry breathlessly. "I can't believe—"</p> + +<p>"You missed nothing at the house?"</p> + +<p>She waited for his reply.</p> + +<p>"I'm not sure <i>who</i> took them—"</p> + +<p>"But you <i>did</i> miss—?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, spoons, forks and things—" He broke off exasperated. "Oh, Una, +it's cruel of you?"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>It was Una's turn to pause in sudden solemnity.</p> + +<p>"A woman. His wife?" asked Jerry.</p> + +<p>"No, just a woman."</p> + +<p>"He had treated her badly?"</p> + +<p>"Her soul," she replied slowly, "is dead. Her body doesn't matter."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>A little later, I think, personalities began again.</p> + +<p>"You're always helping people, Una, always helping," he said slowly. +"Does it make you happy?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, if I <i>can</i> help."</p> + +<p>"And you want to help me? I wonder if I'm worth it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I wouldn't bother if you weren't."</p> + +<p>"And how do you know I'm worth it?"</p> + +<p>"It's my business to know," she said.</p> + +<p>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,</p> + +<p>"You know, Una," he laughed, "you do take charge of a fellow, don't +you?"</p> + +<p>"You need 'mothering'," she smiled.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>She laughed and then with sudden seriousness:</p> + +<p>"But people ought to stand on their feet. All the 'sistering' in the +world won't help a lame man to walk."</p> + +<p>"I'm not so awfully lame, am I?"</p> + +<p>"No. Just limpy. But don't try to run yet, Jerry."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say—"</p> + +<p>"Just keep your eyes open. You'll see." And then quietly, "You know +Phil Laidlaw, don't you?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, fine chap."</p> + +<p>"I think it wouldn't harm you to know Phil better. He isn't brilliant, +but he's steady, sure, reliable. And he <i>stands on his feet</i>, Jerry, +on both of them."</p> + +<p>Jerry's comment to me in telling this part of the conversation was +amusing. "Phil Laidlaw <i>is</i> 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!"</p> + +<p>My own comment may be interesting.</p> + +<p>"I don't wonder that she cares for him," I said. "A good match, I +should say."</p> + +<p>"H—m," replied Jerry. "I can't seem to think of Una married to +anybody. She's so much occupied—"</p> + +<p>"But she <i>will</i> be married some day, my boy. Charity begins at home."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"As Marcia suggested," I replied, "they're sure that matters are in +good hands."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Had you never called there before?" I asked when he paused to light +his pipe.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>I knew what he meant, for I had seen her in it, but of course was +silent.</p> + +<p>"She's doing a tremendous work down town. She <i>is</i> 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—"</p> + +<p>"And Marcia," I put in suggestively.</p> + +<p>He ignored my remark.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>them</i>. 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?"</p> + +<p>As I remained resolutely silent, Jerry got up and paced with long +strides up and down before me.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Bah!" I muttered. "The spleen of a jealous woman; it stops +nowhere—at nothing!"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You did well, Jerry. You had to speak—to defend her—"</p> + +<p>"Against what?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Conventional! Perhaps not. But where does the question of morality +come in?" he went on boring straight at the mark.</p> + +<p>"It doesn't," I remarked calmly. "It seems to me that Una's reply was +quite clear upon that point."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"She had to defend herself," I muttered. "That's the privilege of the +poorest beast of the woods."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"And Marcia—"</p> + +<p>He walked up and down again muttering.</p> + +<p>"She has gone too far, Roger—too far." He paused before me.</p> + +<p>"But you haven't answered my questions," he said flatly.</p> + +<p>"You've hardly given me time," I said with a smile.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You haven't answered my questions, Roger," he insisted.</p> + +<p>I was unjointing Jerry's rod with scrupulous care.</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to," I said quietly.</p> + +<p>"You—?" He examined me with a curious expression. "Who else should I +go to if not to you?"</p> + +<p>I paused a long moment, during which he scraped at the moss with the +toe of his boot.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He reddened and took a turn up and down.</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that?"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"You like Una."</p> + +<p>"Yes, unqualifiedly. She is one in a million."</p> + +<p>"Well, we're agreed on that at least," he said smiling.</p> + +<p>There was another silence in which Jerry puffed on his unlighted pipe.</p> + +<p>"You know I've invited Una and her mother up here this week and what's +better still, they're coming."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I'm delighted," I said briefly.</p> + +<p>"So am I," he returned thoughtfully. He scraped his pipe, filled it +slowly and when it was lighted again, settled down comfortably.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"It was <i>cattish</i>."</p> + +<p>"I don't like your saying that," he put in quickly.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry. Can you imagine Una doing a similar thing?"</p> + +<p>"No," he admitted, "but Una has been brought up differently."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Do you think you're quite fair with me, Roger? I give you my +confidences and you refuse—"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>I paused, throwing out my hands in a helpless gesture.</p> + +<p>"What more do you want?" he asked.</p> + +<p>I took the bull by the horns. I had wanted to for weeks.</p> + +<p>"Freely, unreservedly, the nature of your relations with Marcia Van +Wyck—"</p> + +<p>He rose suddenly, his face flushing darkly and took up his rod and +creel.</p> + +<p>"If you don't mind my saying so," he muttered, "that is none of your +affair."</p> + +<p>I rose, though his reproach stung me bitterly.</p> + +<p>"Confidences and advice are inseparable," I said coldly.</p> + +<p>"You hate Marcia," he mumbled.</p> + +<p>"I do."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because she's unsound, unsafe, im—"</p> + +<p>"Be careful!" he cried.</p> + +<p>I shrugged but was silent, I think, from the fear of Jerry's fists +which were clenching his rod and creel ominously.</p> + +<p>"She's the woman I love," he declared with pathetic drama.</p> + +<p>I braved the fists and laughed.</p> + +<p>"Tush!" I said.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>THE CHIPMUNK</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Marcia!" said Jerry, it seemed a trifle harshly. "What are you doing +here?"</p> + +<p>With my vision obstructed, the soft tones of her voice seemed to take +an added significance.</p> + +<p>"I came," she purred, "because, Jerry, I couldn't stay away."</p> + +<p>And then, after a pause, her voice even more silken, "You don't seem +very glad to see me."</p> + +<p>"I—I—your appearance surprised me."</p> + +<p>"But now that the surprise is over—<i>are</i> you glad to see me?" she +asked.</p> + +<p>A pause and then I heard him mutter.</p> + +<p>"I didn't suppose that—after yesterday <i>you</i> would want to see <i>me</i>."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Is Channing Lloyd still there?" he broke in harshly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Jerry, he is. But doesn't it mean anything to you that I left +him, to come to you?"</p> + +<p>"You broke your promise—to give him up—"</p> + +<p>"Why, Jerry, I <i>had</i> to invite him to my dance. It would have been a +slight."</p> + +<p>"But you promised. He's a—"</p> + +<p>"But I've known him for ages, Jerry. I can't be impolite."</p> + +<p>"He's not polite to you, to me, or anybody. I told you I wanted you to +give him up."</p> + +<p>"You're fearfully exacting," she said, modulating her voice softly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Of course, he—he means nothing by it," she said soothingly. "It's +only his way."</p> + +<p>"But I don't like his way and I don't like him. I've told you so a +good many times."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"It's a pity I came, then. You've got to choose between us. I've told +you that before."</p> + +<p>"Why, Jerry, I <i>have</i> chosen," she said, her voice softening +suspiciously. "How could I ever think of anybody else now that I have +you? It's so <i>absurd</i> 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 +<i>nearly</i> so terrible a person as you think he is." She sighed. "But if +you insist, I suppose I shall have to give him up."</p> + +<p>"Is it painful to you?" he muttered.</p> + +<p>She laughed. "You silly boy, of course not. I <i>will</i> give him up. +There! Does that settle that matter?"</p> + +<p>"I thought it was settled before."</p> + +<p>"It was—but—" She paused.</p> + +<p>"I don't see how you could want to be with a man I don't like—"</p> + +<p>"I don't care for him, Jerry, really I don't. Won't you believe me?"</p> + +<p>"I'll believe you when you give him up."</p> + +<p>She sighed again, her voice breaking effectively.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dear! Do you want me to give up <i>all</i> my friends? And is it +quite fair?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't asked you to give up any of your friends, but Lloyd—"</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Are you, Marcia?" His voice had softened suddenly and from the +shuffling of his feet I think he took a pace toward her.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Jerry dear, contrite. I simply couldn't let another hour pass +without coming to ask your forgiveness."</p> + +<p>He was weakening. Perhaps his arm was around her. I don't know, but +his silence was ominous.</p> + +<p>"I have been <i>so</i> miserable," she murmured. "My conscience has +troubled me <i>terribly</i>. 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"It didn't matter about me, but a visitor, a guest at Horsham Manor, +Marcia, a friend—!"</p> + +<p>"A friend, yes. Oh, I've been so unhappy about it all—so <i>miserably</i> +wretched."</p> + +<p>Her voice broke and she seemed upon the point of tears.</p> + +<p>"Why did you, Marcia? Why did you?" he repeated.</p> + +<p>"I—I—" She appeared to break down and weep and Jerry's voice took on +a tone of distress.</p> + +<p>"Don't, Marcia, please!"</p> + +<p>"I—I'm trying not to—but—" and she wept anew.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Stand what?"</p> + +<p>A pause and then in muffled tones.</p> + +<p>"Don't you know? Don't you really understand?"</p> + +<p>"No. I—"</p> + +<p>"I was mad," she whispered, "mad with jealousy of Una. She was your +first love, your first—"</p> + +<p>"Marcia! You mustn't. It's absurd."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But this was foolish of you. Una, a friend. Surely there was no harm +in my seeing her here?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You don't know Una if you say that," said Jerry loyally.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Horrible! How? Why?"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"It is, of course. I do forgive you," he murmured</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jerry, if you knew how I had longed to hear you say that—if you +knew!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I do forgive you," he repeated, "but I don't just know what your +insinuations meant, Marcia."</p> + +<p>"Insinuations! Oh, Jerry!"</p> + +<p>"Well, what were they? You didn't accuse Una of anything, or me. But +you meant something—something unpleasant. Una was very much +disturbed—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, she was?" No self-control could have concealed the tiny note of +exultation.</p> + +<p>"Yes, disturbed and angry. What did you mean, Marcia?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Poor, dear Jerry!" she sighed. "You're so innocent. I sometimes +wonder whether you're really as innocent as you seem."</p> + +<p>"I'm innocent of wronging Una," he said with some spirit.</p> + +<p>She couldn't restrain a short laugh at the ingenuousness of the remark +and its tone.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>say</i> that there was anything wrong, but you'll +admit that Una's hunting you out the way she did was <i>most</i> +imprudent."</p> + +<p>"No, I don't admit it," said Jerry. "If Una was imprudent, so are you, +<i>here</i>, today."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>Jerry apparently stood his ground, for the image of Una must have +still been fresh in his memory.</p> + +<p>"What is the difference, Marcia?" he asked calmly. "Will you tell me? +Do you think I could hurt <i>you</i>?"</p> + +<p>She sank upon the rock again, her tone almost too plaintive.</p> + +<p>"You're hurting me now, Jerry—terribly."</p> + +<p>"I can't see—"</p> + +<p>"That you can't see any difference, between my being here—and Una's."</p> + +<p>His voice fell a little.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>that</i> way. You're the girl I—I love."</p> + +<p>"Jerry!" she whispered.</p> + +<p>I was miserable. It was nauseating. Fate was surely unkind to me.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jerry; I'm sure you kissed her."</p> + +<p>"No. Why should I?"</p> + +<p>"Because, I thought she might have asked you to."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>He was very close to her now and I think his arms encircled her, for I +heard her whisper "Kiss me, Jerry! Kiss me!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"What was that?" whispered the girl.</p> + +<p>"Oh," said Jerry, "merely a squirrel or—or a chipmunk." And then more +convincingly, "Yes, I think it was a chipmunk."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>such</i> a +light one, Jerry—"</p> + +<p>He kissed her again. There was a long silence—long. She had won.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Jerry," she sighed at last, "it is <i>so</i> sweet. You have never +kissed me like that before. Why, what is the matter?"</p> + +<p>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—"</p> + +<p>"Terrible, Jerry?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But I am yours, Jerry, yours, do you understand? And if I like you to +kiss me—"</p> + +<p>"I mustn't, Marcia, not here."</p> + +<p>He was very much disturbed. "Marcia!" he said in a suppressed tone as +he came quickly to her again. "Was <i>that</i> what you meant—was <i>that</i> +why you asked me if I'd kissed Una?"</p> + +<p>"I merely wanted—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And you don't want to?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I'm not afraid," I heard her whisper. "Kiss me again, Jerry."</p> + +<p>But he didn't. Apparently he still stood before her at a distance, +fearsome of he knew not what.</p> + +<p>"Jerry!" she murmured again, in a little tone of petulance.</p> + +<p>"Marcia, we—we should be going on," he muttered.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Marcia!" he gasped. And then another silence.</p> + +<p>"I mustn't."</p> + +<p>"I love you, Jerry."</p> + +<p>"Will you marry me? Tomorrow!"</p> + +<p>"Marriage, Jerry? Yes, some day—"</p> + +<p>"Tomorrow—!"</p> + +<p>"Aren't you satisfied—with this? The wonder of it."</p> + +<p>"But I have no right. I can't explain. It's desecration!"</p> + +<p>"A sacrament!" she said.</p> + +<p>"A sacrament!"</p> + +<p>"You said so."</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"I love you—when you talk like that. Strangle me if you like, kill +me, I'm yours—"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Jerry," I heard her call again softly, "I am not afraid."</p> + +<p>That was it. I understood now. What she loved was fear. But Jerry +would not come back. I heard his voice faintly.</p> + +<p>"We must go, Marcia."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"I have learned; we have no right here—alone, you and I. It's +what—what you accused Una of."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You will marry me, soon?"</p> + +<p>"Not if you're going to be so—so—er—inhospitable."</p> + +<p>He came forward quickly.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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 <i>are</i> you?"</p> + +<p>"Marcia!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>THE ENEMY'S COUNTRY</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Pope—a chipmunk! He might at least have allowed you the dignity +of a bear or a mountain lion!"</p> + +<p>"There are no mountain lions in these parts," I said with some +dignity.</p> + +<p>"Or a duck-billed platypus. Oh, I say, Pope, it's too rich. I can't +help picturing it. Did they coo? Oh, Lord!"</p> + +<p>"It was nauseating!" I retorted in accents so genuine that he laughed +again.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>And bit by bit, while his expression grew interested, I told him all +that I had heard.</p> + +<p>"It's animal, purely animal," I concluded. "And he doesn't know it."</p> + +<p>"By George! He's awakening, you think?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"What will be the end of the matter?" he asked.</p> + +<p>I shrugged.</p> + +<p>"She'll throw him over when she debases him."</p> + +<p>"Debase—!"</p> + +<p>"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—<i>her</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"Bless him! He does." And then, "What can I do, Pope?"</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"You're going to tell him?"</p> + +<p>"No, he'll discover it. She's quite brazen."</p> + +<p>He was silent for a while.</p> + +<p>"Pope, you surprise me," he muttered at last. "The modern girls, I +give them up. There's a name for this sort, perverted coquettes, +'<i>teasers.'</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"And when he does?"</p> + +<p>"H—m!"</p> + +<p>His manner added no encouragement.</p> + +<p>"It would serve her jolly well right," he muttered cryptically in a +moment.</p> + +<p>"What?" I asked.</p> + +<p>I think he understood Jerry now as well as I did.</p> + +<p>"Violence," he blurted out.</p> + +<p>"Ah! Then I'm not a fool. You agree with me."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad I'm not in Lloyd's shoes, that's all."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>I owed Una this. Whatever I thought of her feelings toward Jerry, even +Jack had no right to be aware of them.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"Wondering what—?"</p> + +<p>"How many Blank Street families I could clean in it without even +changing the water."</p> + +<p>He laughed. "Build one. I'll pay for it."</p> + +<p>"It would be <i>great</i> for the boys and men, wouldn't it? But, then—" +she sighed. "We haven't got our club yet."</p> + +<p>He laughed again.</p> + +<p>"But you're going to have it, you know, when the day nursery is done."</p> + +<p>"Oh, are we?"</p> + +<p>"Of course, that's settled."</p> + +<p>We had reached the gymnasium.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>We couldn't help smiling. In spite of herself, she was thinking in +terms of her beloved Blank Street.</p> + +<p>"You'll have to forgive me, Jerry, if I'm covetous. That's my +besetting sin. But it <i>is</i> a fine place—so spacious. And it <i>would</i> +make such an adorable laundry!"</p> + +<p>"You shall have one," said Jerry.</p> + +<p>The girl laughed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But I do want many things."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Well," I asked of Jack. "What do you think of her?"</p> + +<p>"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 +<i>embonpoint</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"Do you really think so?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I do. And he's not worth bothering about. He ought to be shot, +offhand."</p> + +<p>"I entirely agree with you," I smiled.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"How terrible!" said Una.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Or <i>in</i>," I suggested.</p> + +<p>"Scotty is naturally polite. He never <i>could</i> abide a tail that +wouldn't wag."</p> + +<p>"Nor can I," said Una with a laugh. "Dogs' tails <i>must</i> 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."</p> + +<p>"Some of 'em have," said Jack. "Hoofs too—and horns."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe that," she laughed.</p> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Oh doux printemps d'autrefois"—<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span>"Oh doux printemps d'autrefois, vertes saisons ou<br /></span> +<span>Vous avez fui pour toujours<br /></span> +<span>Je ne vois plus le ciel bleu<br /></span> +<span>Je n'entends plus les chants joyeux des oiseaux<br /></span> +<span>En emportant mon bonheur,<br /></span> +<span>O bien aimé tu t'en es allé<br /></span> +<span>Et c'est en vain que revient le printemps."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I didn't know you could sing like that," he said. "It's wonderful, +but so—so hopeless."</p> + +<p>"Something more cheerful, dear, 'Der Schmetterling,'" put in her +mother.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"That's your song. It must have been written for you," he cried. "You +<i>are</i> the butterfly girl when you sing like that."</p> + +<p>"<i>Bis!</i>" cried Jack, clapping his hands.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>When she got up from the piano he rose.</p> + +<p>"I wonder why I can find so few evenings like this," he sighed.</p> + +<p>"It's so fearfully old-fashioned, Victorian, to be simple nowadays," +she laughed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I do," she laughed, "and I love it."</p> + +<p>"Youth!" Jack sighed and relapsed into silence.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Shall we fish?"</p> + +<p>"That will be fine."</p> + +<p>"Just you and I?"</p> + +<p>"If you think," and she laughed with careless gayety, "if you think +Marcia won't object."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say—" But his jaw fell and he frowned a little.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, Jerry, dear," she flung at him from the curve of the +landing.</p> + +<p>"Good-night, Una," he called.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I couldn't," I heard him say, "I had guests to dinner."</p> + +<p>Fortunately neither Una nor her mother was down.</p> + +<p>"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—?"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it wonderful just to live on a day like this?" And then with a +laugh, "Jerry, you simply <i>must</i> give us Horsham Manor as a fresh air +farm."</p> + +<p>He smiled slowly.</p> + +<p>"It would do nicely, wouldn't it?"</p> + +<p>"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 <i>might</i> spoil the landscape, but it +would be so—er—so satisfying."</p> + +<p>"And you'd want <i>me</i> to pay the bills," he laughed.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. Of course. What are bills <i>for</i> unless to be paid?"</p> + +<p>"Help yourself," he smiled. "Will you have the deeds made out today or +wait until next week?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose I <i>might</i> wait until tomorrow."</p> + +<p>"Oh, thanks. And, for the present, we'll go fishing."</p> + +<p>"I'll be ready in a moment." And she went upstairs for her hat and +gloves.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Acts like a sleepwalker," said Jack to me. "It's hypnotic, sheer +moon-madness!"</p> + +<p>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 <i>she</i> knew that she +had failed. Jerry was possessed of a devil, a she-devil, that none of +the familiar friendly gods could cast out.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h3>FEET OF CLAY</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>A worried look came into Jack's face, but he shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Let him. It's time. We can't do anything."</p> + +<p>"We might try."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"Go there before damage is done, bring him home."</p> + +<p>"And make ourselves ridiculous."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that—! I don't care."</p> + +<p>"Well, <i>I</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."</p> + +<p>"But violence—!"</p> + +<p>"Let it come. Better a violence which may cure than this quiet madness +that is eating his soul away."</p> + +<p>"But Lloyd! Jerry's strength! He might kill the brute."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid."</p> + +<p>"You needn't be. This is the turning point of his affair."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps. But in which way will it turn?"</p> + +<p>"Wait."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i>, Roger?"</p> + +<p>"What has happened. Jerry?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing. Don't ask."</p> + +<p>"But Jack and I have been sitting up for you. We've been worried."</p> + +<p>"I know. But it couldn't be helped. Just don't ask me anything, +Roger."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He remained silent for a long moment.</p> + +<p>"I'm not going to the house, Roger. I'm going—"</p> + +<p>He paused again.</p> + +<p>"Going! Where?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I don't know just yet. Away from here, from New York—at once."</p> + +<p>"But I can't let you go without—"</p> + +<p>He held up his hand and I paused.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But I couldn't."</p> + +<p>"Please!" he said quietly, and then went on.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"But I can't let you go like this."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But Una! What shall I say?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He caught me by the hand with a crushing grip while he pushed me +toward the door.</p> + +<p>"You will not—?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>In a moment I was in the garage with Jerry.</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>you</i>—!" he frowned.</p> + +<p>"Let me go with you at least as far as town," I pleaded.</p> + +<p>"No," gruffly. "No one." He threw the bag into the car and clambered +quickly in.</p> + +<p>"Here, your cap," I said, handing it to him. Our fingers met. He +grasped mine until they pained me.</p> + +<p>"Forgive me, Roger. I don't mean to be unkind. You're too good to me."</p> + +<p>"Jerry, you fool!" I cried, my eyes wet.</p> + +<p>He had started the machine and when I opened the door he moved slowly +out.</p> + +<p>"Good-by, old Dry-as-dust," he called with a wave of the hand and a +rather sinister smile.</p> + +<p>"For God's sake no drink, Jerry!" I whispered tensely.</p> + +<p>"I promise," he said solemnly. "Good-by!"</p> + +<p>And while I watched, he swept noiselessly around the drive and was +soon lost in the blur of the trees below.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h3>THE MYSTERY DEEPENS</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You—you're sure you're not mistaken?" he asked, still bewildered.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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—?"</p> + +<p>The terrible words would not come. The mere thought of mentioning them +frightened him as they had done me.</p> + +<p>"How can I tell?" I said irritably.</p> + +<p>"God knows," he muttered miserably. "Violence—but not—not that."</p> + +<p>"Hurry," I muttered. "Hurry."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Wait," I said, "listen."</p> + +<p>Somewhere within I thought I made out the sound of footsteps. "At +least someone is about. Where's the bell? We'll ring."</p> + +<p>I found it and though the hour was late a maid answered. She came to +the door timidly, uncertainly, as though a little frightened.</p> + +<p>"This is Mr. Canby," I explained. "I would like to see Miss Gore, +please."</p> + +<p>"I don't know, sir," she paused and then: "Wait a moment. I'll see—" +and went upstairs.</p> + +<p>We had been prepared for a wait but Miss Gore appeared almost +immediately. She came down calmly, and asked us into the drawing-room.</p> + +<p>"I was expecting you," she said with great deliberateness, "and +wondered if you'd come."</p> + +<p>"Then something—something <i>has</i> happened," I broke in hurriedly.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what, exactly," she said. "I can't understand. I've +thought several things—"</p> + +<p>"Is Channing Lloyd here?" I asked excitedly.</p> + +<p>"No. He was here to luncheon and went out with Marcia, but he didn't +come back—to the house, I mean."</p> + +<p>"But you know that he has been seen—since?"</p> + +<p>I asked the question in terror and trembling.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," she said. "One of the gardeners saw him and—"</p> + +<p>"And Marcia?" I questioned again.</p> + +<p>She pointed upward, where we were conscious again of the steadily +moving footsteps.</p> + +<p>"She's upstairs in her room."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"But what was he bending over for?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"I can't imagine. When Dominick spoke to him, he merely cursed the man +and went on."</p> + +<p>"Curious," said Jack thoughtfully.</p> + +<p>"Isn't it? I can't make it out at all."</p> + +<p>"And Marcia?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"Yes," I put in. "You're right, Jerry—was here. Something has +happened."</p> + +<p>"But what?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"He saw them together in the red motor."</p> + +<p>"Kissing," put in Jack rather brutally.</p> + +<p>"Ah," she said composedly. And then, "Ah, yes, I see, but why Lloyd's +curious behavior and Jerry's flight?"</p> + +<p>"It's very mysterious."</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>It seemed as though she were trying to deceive herself or us, but we +made no comment, presently taking our departure.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>But Jerry and I were to have new moments of <i>rapprochement</i>. 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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes," he said slowly, "I know. They're even reported engaged. +Perhaps they are."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"She wasn't worthy of you. Jerry," I remarked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"She tempted you purposely. It was a game. I saw it. But you, poor +blind Jerry—"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"I couldn't then, Jerry," I said softly. "It would have been too late. +You wouldn't have believed—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He rose and paced the length of the room with great strides.</p> + +<p>"I mustn't, Roger. I can't say more. It's impossible."</p> + +<p>I was silent. A reaction had come.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + +<h3>DRYAD AND SATYR</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Marcia, <i>his</i> goddess. And Chan Lloyd! <i>Would</i> 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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Why, Jerry!" she cried. "How you startled me!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Jerry!" she cried again. "What does this mean? Your clothes are torn; +your face scratched. Has—has something happened to you?"</p> + +<p>The question was unfortunate, for it loosened Jerry's thick tongue.</p> + +<p>"Yes. Something's happened," he muttered, moving a hand across his +brows as though to clear his thoughts. And then:</p> + +<p>"I've waked up, that's all," he growled.</p> + +<p>"Waked! I don't understand," her voice still gentle, appealing, +incredulous.</p> + +<p>"Yes, awake. You're false as hell."</p> + +<p>"Oh," she started back at that and the venturesome Lloyd took a pace +forward.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"You're mad. You insult me." She rose, pale and trembling, but facing +him hardily.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm not mad. Nothing that I can say can insult you."</p> + +<p>"Chan!" She appealed.</p> + +<p>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 <i>is</i> 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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Jerry," she cried. "It is horrible. You're a brute—beast—"</p> + +<p>Jerry only pointed at the prostrate figure slowly struggling to its +knees.</p> + +<p>"Go and kiss him," he cried. "Go. Kiss him now. He's on his knees to +you, waiting for you."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Jerry laughed. It couldn't have been very pretty laughter, for the +girl covered her face with her hands and shrank away from him.</p> + +<p>"How <i>could</i> you?" she stammered. "How <i>could</i> you?"</p> + +<p>"You were mine. He wanted you."</p> + +<p>"Jerry—I—. It's all a mistake. You thought you saw us. I haven't +kissed—"</p> + +<p>"You lie," he came a pace toward her. "I saw you. I'm not a fool—not +any longer."</p> + +<p>Her gaze met his and fell. There was something in his expression, +something of the primitive that tore away all subterfuge.</p> + +<p>But she was not without courage.</p> + +<p>"And if I did kiss him—what then?" she asked defiantly. "I'll kiss as +I please."</p> + +<p>"<i>Will</i> you?" He caught at her wrist but she eluded him.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"You'll not," he cried.</p> + +<p>"I will. What right have you to question me? You can amuse yourself +with Una."</p> + +<p>"Stop!" he thundered.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"I will not stop," she cried. "You and Una. What right have you to +criticize me for what you yourself—"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Let me go, Jerry. You're hurting me. Please let me go."</p> + +<p>She felt the first touch of his imperviousness when he refused to +release her and chose to change her tone.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>In his eyes she read the new judgment.</p> + +<p>"Then you're worse than I supposed," he muttered.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Let me go," she cried, struggling anew.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're hurting me so, Jerry—so terribly."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Jerry!" she screamed. "Don't look at me like that. Your eyes burn +me."</p> + +<p>"Into your soul—I will burn it—blot it out."</p> + +<p>"Jerry, forgive me," she sobbed. "I love you."</p> + +<p>"You lie."</p> + +<p>"I love you. Forgive me!"</p> + +<p>"No. You lie!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>Suddenly she felt herself released, thrust from him. His fingers +bruised the tender flesh of her shoulders but his eyes bruised her +more.</p> + +<p>"Jerry!"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Have pity, Jerry," she whimpered.</p> + +<div class="center"><a name="illus4" id="illus4"></a> +<img src="images/illus4.jpg" width="376" height="604" alt=""'Have pity, Jerry,' she whimpered."" title="" /> +<br /> +<span class="caption">"'Have pity, Jerry,' she whimpered."</span> +</div> + +<p>"Pity, yes," he laughed wildly. "Kiss me. You want to be kissed. I'll +kill you with kissing. Death like this—such a death—!"</p> + +<p>She struggled more furiously, struck, kissed and struck again. But +Jerry's madness triumphed—her own.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>At this point Jerry hid his face in his hands, trembling violently.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'Marriage!' she said, 'My God!' It was almost as though I had uttered +a sacrilege.</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"'Marriage!' she repeated. '<i>You!</i>'</p> + +<p>"'Marry me tomorrow, Marcia—'</p> + +<p>"She thrust her naked arms in front of her, their tatters flying, the +rags of her honor.</p> + +<p>"'Oh, God! How I loathe you!'</p> + +<p>"'Marcia!'</p> + +<p>"'Go away from me. Go!'</p> + +<p>"She put her arm before her eyes as though to shut out the sight of +me.</p> + +<p>"'For God's sake, go,' she repeated, with words that cut like knives. +'Leave me alone, alone.'</p> + +<p>"'I must see you—tomorrow.'</p> + +<p>"She turned on me furiously.</p> + +<p>"'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!'</p> + +<p>"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—</p> + +<p>"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. +<i>She</i> might be one of them and I—I would have brought her there."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"Going, Jerry? Where?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>I think he was really a little proud of that admission.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure, Jerry," I asked after awhile, "that you care nothing +for Marcia?"</p> + +<p>He took a turn up and down the room before he replied. And then, quite +calmly:</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<h3>REVELATIONS</h3> + + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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!</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"Roger! By George!"</p> + +<p>He clapped his arms around me at once and gave me a bear hug.</p> + +<p>"Good old Dry-as-dust!" he cried, "I was wondering how soon you'd find +me out."</p> + +<p>"You're not angry?"</p> + +<p>"Bless your heart! I've been thinking of writing you about everything, +but I wanted to wait until things were a little further along."</p> + +<p>"But Jerry—"</p> + +<p>"Mum's the word," he whispered. "That's not my name down here."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know," I smiled. "I've seen it in the papers."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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?"</p> + +<p>"But how on earth," I asked, "have you managed to preserve your +anonymity?"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"<i>Ours?</i>" I queried with a smile. He colored ever so slightly but went +on unperturbed.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And you're happy?" I asked.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"And Una?"</p> + +<p>"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 <i>would</i> 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.</p> + +<p>"You care for her?" I ventured softly at last.</p> + +<p>He did not speak at once. His gaze was afar.</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>"Too late, boy?" I said with a smile. "Life for you, for you both, is +just beginning."</p> + +<p>"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 <i>that</i>. I'm a beast—unclean."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"You owe her nothing. She has refused you. She doesn't care. Her whole +life avows it. She has forgotten. Why shouldn't you?"</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>"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."</p> + +<p>He turned quickly, caught me by the shoulders and peered closely into +my face. "You think so, Roger? Do you?" he said.</p> + +<p>"I'm sure of it; from the very first."</p> + +<p>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."</p> + +<p>"You might at least give her that opportunity," I suggested dryly.</p> + +<p>"No," he said softly. "I wouldn't dare. It would make a terrible +difference between us. I couldn't."</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>"It was my fault; mine is the blame," I muttered hoarsely.</p> + +<p>"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!"</p> + +<p>Her eyes sparkled softly and my spirits rose.</p> + +<p>"You care for him, Una? You can forgive him?"</p> + +<p>"I—I care for him," she murmured. "You know I have, always."</p> + +<p>"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.</p> + +<p>"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—"</p> + +<p>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.</p> + +<p>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....</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Paradise Garden, by George Gibbs + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PARADISE GARDEN *** + +***** This file should be named 15570-h.htm or 15570-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/5/5/7/15570/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland and the Online Distributed Proofreading +Team. + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +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 + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/15570-h/images/illus1.jpg b/15570-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2931a6a --- /dev/null +++ b/15570-h/images/illus1.jpg diff --git a/15570-h/images/illus2.jpg b/15570-h/images/illus2.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8c95c91 --- /dev/null +++ b/15570-h/images/illus2.jpg diff --git a/15570-h/images/illus3.jpg b/15570-h/images/illus3.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c116b42 --- /dev/null +++ b/15570-h/images/illus3.jpg diff --git a/15570-h/images/illus4.jpg b/15570-h/images/illus4.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce92235 --- /dev/null +++ b/15570-h/images/illus4.jpg |
